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Meta is making another steep cut to its staff, this time to the tune of a 10 percent reduction in its workforce. About 8,000 people will be laid off and about 6,000 open jobs will also be eliminated, according to Bloomberg.

In an internal memo from Janelle Gale, Meta’s head of human resources, the latest cuts are “part of our continued effort to run the company more efficiently and to allow us to offset the other investments we’re making.” Those “other investments” are likely in artificial intelligence. Meta is building its own models and apparently training them on its own staff. Its smart glasses are also leveraging ever-more AI capabilities. 

Today’s layoffs likely don’t mark the end of Meta’s current contraction. A report from March suggested that Meta was planning to downsize by up to 20 percent, although no timeline was given. The company cut hundreds of jobs, primarily in its Reality Labs division, shortly after those claims circulated. It also kicked off 2026 by slashing its metaverse operations with the closure of three VR studios.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-is-downsizing-by-about-10-percent-192658099.html?src=rss 

Apple TV just dropped a real-deal trailer for Star City, after releasing a short teaser earlier this year. It’s a spinoff of For All Mankind, but this new show examines the alt-history space race from the Soviet perspective.

In other words, this is a trailer steeped in Cold War-era paranoia. Secret photos are snapped, phones are tapped and characters are disappeared, all set against the backdrop of space exploration. The vibe looks decidedly different from For All Mankind, despite the parent show occasionally dabbling in Russia-based espionage.

The vibe isn’t the only shift here. Star City isn’t doing time jumps, which is a hallmark of For All Mankind. The original show started in 1969 and season five is set in 2012. The spinoff “lives in the 1970s” and is “its own genre.” This is according to showrunners Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi.

For the uninitiated, For All Mankind begins with Russia beating us to the Moon in the 1960s. This creates a butterfly effect that changes history in ways both big and small. Star City looks like it’ll focus on how Russia managed to land astronauts on the Moon before America and what happened to the space program in the immediate aftermath. It stars Rhys Ifans, Anna Maxwell Martin, Agnes O’Casey and Alice Englert.

Star City premieres on May 29 with two episodes. That’s the same day season five of For All Mankind concludes. The original show was recently renewed for a sixth and final season.

Apple TV really has become the best streamer for sci-fi. This summer sees not just the premiere of Star City, but the second season of the multiverse-based thriller Dark Matter and season three of the dystopian adventure Silo. The platform is also home to shows like Pluribus, Severance and Foundation, among many others.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/apple-tvs-upcoming-for-all-mankind-spinoff-star-city-oozes-cold-war-era-paranoia-180429809.html?src=rss 

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol, a widely used international environmental standard for measuring and reporting emissions, is considering changes to how certain types of the emissions are reported. Advocates for the new guidance argue that the current rules make it too easy for businesses to overstate their commitments to environmentally friendly operations, such as being powered by renewable energy or making progress toward net-zero emissions. 

Today, some major tech companies joined a call pushing back against the new guidance, asking for the new reporting rules to be optional rather than required. The joint statement argued that the proposed policies would reduce investments in sustainability programs and increase electricity prices. Apple and Amazon are among the more than 60 companies that signed the letter, Bloomberg reported. 

The protocol’s three tiers of emissions present a clearer picture about companies’ environmental efforts and how impactful they are in reducing emissions. Scope 1 includes emissions from sources directly owned or controlled by a business, while Scope 2 covers “how corporations measure emissions from purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heat and cooling.” Scope 3 is the catch-all for any other emissions produced within a business’ value chain. New proposed changes to the scope 2 guidance would place tighter requirements on how companies use renewable energy certificates to offset their electricity emissions. Rather than purchase clean energy certificates at any point during the year, companies would have to source clean energy that is both geographically close and simultaneously available to their grid-derived power. Any changes adopted by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol could take effect as early as next year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-amazon-join-push-for-looser-greenhouse-emissions-reporting-182314690.html?src=rss 

If you’re a Switch 2 owner itching for something new to play and you happen to be partial to an Annapurna Interactive game, then boy is it your lucky day. The prolific indie publisher has announced that five of its titles are coming to Switch 2, three in the form of next-gen upgrades and two for the first time on Nintendo platforms.

The magnificent Sayonara Wild Hearts and Lorelei and the Laser Eyes are available starting today, complete with 120Hz and 4K upgrades for Nintendo’s latest console. First-time buyers can grab Sayonara Wild Hearts for $13, while 2024’s Lorelei and the Laser Eyes costs $25. The upgrades are free if you already own either game on Switch, and Sayonara Wild Hearts also adds the previously unavailable Remix Arcade mode for the first time. This speeds up gameplay and removes loading as you chase high scores.

Next month, May 28, cyberpunk cat adventure Stray is also getting the Switch 2 treatment, sporting improved 4K visuals, a frame rate boost and, fittingly given its feline focus, mouse controls. The Switch 2 port will be available to purchase digitally from the eShop for $30, but it’s not clear if this will also be a free upgrade for those who bought Stray on Switch.

Katamari creator Keita Takahashi’s charmingly weird puzzle-adventure To a T skipped Nintendo consoles when it launched last year, so it’s nice to see that one coming to Switch 2 on June 11 (digital-only, $20). A few weeks later on June 23, cozy narrative game Wanderstop arrives on both Switch and Switch 2. It’ll cost $25 on the eShop, with no word on a physical version.

Annapurna Interactive released a lot of its games on Switch, and that trend happily looks set to continue throughout the Switch 2 generation. The musical turn-based RPG People of Note came to Nintendo’s latest console at launch earlier this month, with stylish adventure game Mixtape also arriving on Switch 2 on May 7.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/five-annapurna-interactive-games-get-switch-2-releases-164950446.html?src=rss 

A hairdryer was allegedly used to rig Polymarket bets on the weather at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, according to a report by The Telegraph. French authorities note that the official temperature readings at the airport spiked twice in the past month, reaching levels much higher than expected. On both occasions, gamblers on Polymarket appear to have walked away with thousands upon thousands of dollars by betting on those temperature fluctuations.

The gambling site relies on readings from temperature sensors, and the one at Charles de Gaulle airport is on a public road. This makes it easy to access. The operating theory is that someone snuck in and used a battery-powered hairdryer to bring the recorded temperature up well beyond the actual heat outside.

Meanwhile, the Polymarket page indicated less than a one percent chance of the airport exceeding a particular temperature. Successful bets on these fluctuations netted an unknown user around $34,000.

“In view of physical findings on one of our instruments and the analysis of sensor data, Météo-France was indeed led to file a complaint for alteration of the operation of an automated data processing system with the Air Transport Gendarmerie Brigade of Roissy,” a spokesperson for France’s official weather agency said.

There is no indication that Polymarket forced anyone to return their winnings, but the temperature sensor has been moved to a new location. The site is still running bets on the daily temperature in and around Paris.

It sucks that someone potentially tricked a temperature sensor with a hairdryer to scam actual gamblers out of potential winnings. However, this sort of thing should be expected when betting money on real-world scenarios like this. If something can be rigged, and there’s money to be made, it’ll get rigged. Humans are gonna human.

This does, however, shine a light on the types of bets that should be allowed on sites like Polymarket and Kalshi. Polymarket, for instance, hosts numerous bets on the outcome of wars, whether or not countries will receive nuclear weapons and potential prison sentences, among many other sensitive topics. What happens when someone uses something much more dangerous than a hairdryer to change the outcome of something for financial gain?

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/someone-allegedly-used-a-hairdryer-to-rig-polymarket-weather-bets-155312411.html?src=rss