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Amazon cuts 9,000 more employees, adding to wave of tech layoffs: NPR

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Amazon CEO Andy Jassi said the company is cutting another 9,000 jobs, bringing the total number of cuts since November 2021 to 27,000.

Mark Lennihan/AP


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Mark Lennihan/AP

Amazon CEO Andy Jassi said the company is cutting another 9,000 jobs, bringing the total number of cuts since November 2021 to 27,000.

Mark Lennihan/AP

Amazon is cutting another 9,000 employees, adding to the massive layoffs taking place in a tech sector that is unsure of its economic future.

The layoffs will come “in the next few weeks,” according to CEO Andy Jassi, who announced the cuts in a memo shared with staff and uploaded to blog post on Monday.

“This was a difficult decision, but we believe it is best for the company in the long term,” Yassi wrote in a memo. He said the layoffs would mostly affect employees of the cloud platform, the human resources department that works with employees, advertising and the Twitch video service.

Earlier this year, Yassi announced that the company would lay off 18,000 employees. Last November he said there exceptions are coming and media coverage at a time when the expected number of layoffs is approaching 10,000.

Amazon CEO says company will lay off more than 18,000 employees

The company has also put construction on its Arlington, Virginia headquarters, where it is expected to create more than 25,000 jobs in the region.

Like other big tech companies, Amazon’s workforce has exploded during the pandemic, peaking at 1.6 million employees in 2021.

Amazon reports first losing year since 2014

Quick hiring “makes sense given what’s going on in our business and the broader economy,” Yassi said on Monday. “However, given the uncertainty of the economy we live in and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have decided to be more rational in our spending and headcount.”

Yassi said the company intends to make final decisions on the affected roles by “mid to late April.”

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Court rules Uber and Lyft can continue to treat California drivers as independent contractors

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March 21, 2023

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Sacramento, California. (AP) — App-based pickup and delivery companies like Uber and Lyft can continue to treat their California drivers as independent contractors, a state appeals court ruled Monday, allowing the tech giants to bypass other state laws requiring protection and benefits. for workers.

The ruling basically supports a voter-approved law called Proposition 22, which says drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft are independent contractors and are not eligible for benefits like paid sick leave and unemployment insurance. A 2021 lower court ruling declared Proposition 22 illegal, but Monday’s ruling reversed that ruling.

“Today’s decision is a victory for app workers and the millions of Californians who voted for Proposition 22,” said Tony West, Uber’s general counsel. “We are glad that the court respectfully treated the will of the people.”

The decision is a defeat for the unions and their allies in the state legislature, who in 2019 passed a law requiring companies like Uber and Lyft to treat their drivers like employees.

“Today, the Court of Appeals decided to side with powerful corporations, not workers, in allowing companies to buy off our state labor laws and undermine our state constitution,” said Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, leader of the California Federation of Labor and former state legislator. Author of the law in 2019. “Our system is broken. It would be an understatement to say that we are disappointed with this decision.”

The decision was not a complete defeat for the unions, as the court ruled that companies cannot prevent their drivers from joining a union and collectively bargaining for better working conditions, said Mike Robinson, one of the drivers who filed the lawsuit challenging the proposal. 22

“Our right to associate and bargain collectively opens a clear path for drivers and deliveries to hold giant corporations accountable,” he said. “But make no mistake, we continue to believe that Proposition 22 – as a whole – is an unconstitutional assault on our fundamental rights.”

In 2019, the California Legislature passed a law that changed the rules about who is an employee and who is an independent contractor. This is an important distinction for companies because employees are subject to a wide range of labor laws that guarantee them certain benefits, while independent contractors do not.

While the law has applied to many industries, it has had the biggest impact on app-based car ordering and delivery companies. Their business is based on contracting people to use their own cars for people transportation and delivery. Under the 2019 law, companies will be required to treat these drivers as employees and provide certain benefits that will significantly increase business costs.

In November 2020, voters agreed to exclude app-based car ordering and delivery companies from the 2019 law by endorsing the ballot proposal. The proposal included “alternative benefits” for drivers, including a guaranteed minimum wage and health insurance subsidies if they work an average of 25 hours a week. Companies like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash have spent $200 million on the campaign to make sure it gets through.

Three Drivers and the International Union of Employees in the South, arguing that the proposal to vote was illegal in part because it limited the power of the State Legislature to change the law or pass laws on workers’ compensation programs. In 2021, a state judge agreed with them and ruled that companies like Uber and Lyft are no exception.

On Monday, a state appeals court overturned that decision, allowing companies to continue treating their drivers as independent contractors.

The decision may not be final. Employees International Union still has the option to appeal the decision to the California Supreme Court, which may decide to hear the case.

“We will consider all of these options as we decide how to ensure that the fight for these workers continues,” said Tia Orr, chief executive of SEIU California.

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What is Apple doing to the volume and mute buttons on the iPhone 15 Pro?

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March 21, 2023

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We’ve seen plenty of rumors and supposedly leaked CAD designs that show Apple is going to change the left side of your iPhone. Well, if you buy an iPhone 15 Pro. On more expensive iPhones, the up and down buttons are being replaced with a single volume button, and the mute switch we had on iPhones from the beginning will now also be a button.

Obviously, these will be solid-state buttons that are not actually pressed. Just like the Touch ID modules on the iPhone SE, the trackpads on the MacBook, or the virtual buttons on the stems of the AirPods Pro, these buttons will actually be just touch areas connected to Taptic Engine haptic devices that mimic a touch screen. feel clicks when pressed, even if nothing is moving.

It’s an interesting new development, a curious little detail among the more interesting new features, but I can’t quite figure it out. Why Apple can do it. It doesn’t seem to solve any problems or provide any great new features or features that aren’t possible today. And it may even create some new problems.

Cost and durability

It’s tempting to think that the switch to solid-state buttons is meant to make the iPhone more durable. But the buttons are not the weak link that causes the iPhone to shatter, glass front and back.

Apple also doesn’t seem to have a problem making the iPhone as waterproof as it needs to be with the current button designs. Of course, the Lightning port (or USB-C on the iPhone 15 Pro) is a limiting factor, as evidenced by the Apple Watch’s excellent waterproofing, but still with buttons to press.

It doesn’t seem to be a cost-saving measure. In fact, adding a touch sensor and Taptic Engine to the iPhone will likely more than make up for the cost of today’s traditional buttons. And switching to solid-state buttons doesn’t seem to save interior space – the current button mechanism is smaller than even the smallest Taptic Engine would be.

It’s certainly possible that Apple has some clever engineering solution that makes solid-state construction cheaper, or smaller, or both, but it’s hard to imagine that this is the case. And if that were the case, you might think it wouldn’t just be for the Pro model. So why is Apple making this change?

This button won’t be a real button on the iPhone 15, but why?

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Advantages and disadvantages

When Apple switched to the Force Touch trackpad, it brought obvious benefits. It was hard to click on the trackpad near the top edge where the hinge was, and Force Touch fixed that. It also makes it easy to “click” in multiple places and apply different levels of force.

With things as simple as volume buttons and a mute switch, it’s hard to imagine scenarios that would be better with a Force Touch solution. One volume button could be swiped for quicker volume adjustments, but that sounds like a nightmare for those who use a case (which is most iPhone users). He could detect different levels of power, but to what end?

Perhaps Apple could do a quick tap, double tap, hard press, or something that triggers playback or access controls or the like. But it’s doable with today’s buttons – it’s a software problem. Also, this is a disturbing idea, as without a visual indication that the volume button is doing something else when pressed or tapped in a certain way, it will constantly be accidentally triggered by confused users (like 3D Touch was before Apple got rid of him).

It’s easier to understand why sound replacement switch with the dumb button may be desired. Yes, you lose the ability to just look at the side of the phone to visually see if it’s muted or not, but the tiny mute switch is often hard to manipulate. For those who use a case or have fine motor control issues, the button will be much easier to manipulate than the current tiny switch. And how many of us have accidentally turned up the volume on our phone when we took it out of our pocket? I’m still not convinced that it should be solid, but the mute button would be an improvement.

It’s all about the software

I keep thinking about why Apple made this hardware change. It’s not cheaper, it doesn’t save interior space, it doesn’t necessarily improve durability or waterproofing, and usability is kind of a “better in some ways worse in others” situation.

But then I remember Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro. Prior to its official introduction, we had credible leaks that Apple was going to have a punch-hole “pill” area for Face ID sensors and a “hole” next to it for the front camera. There were all sorts of mock-ups showing what it would look like.

It was the software that made it special. The “pill and hole” was hidden behind a completely new element that turned a hardware problem into an interface solution. Because the hardware requires a lot of parts suppliers and manufacturing partners, the physical aspects of the new iPhone are often leaked. Software tightly controlled within the walls of Apple is always surprising. Hence the influence of the Dynamic Island.

I hope a surprise like (if not as big as) Dynamic Island is exactly what Apple has in store for us with this new forced-touch solid-state tom and silent design. Because if it’s just a scrollable touch volume control, I have to wonder…Why?

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According to the forecasts of the presidents of Polygon and Immutable, in the next 2 years, Web3 games will attract up to 100 million gamers

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March 21, 2023

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According to the co-founder of Immutable, about 40% of web3 games being created will be launched in the next 12-18 months.

Jacqueline Melinek

24 hours

Two key players in the web3 gaming space are predicting exponential expansion over the next few years.

Robbie Ferguson, co-founder and president of web3 games company Immutable, and Ryan Wyatt, president of Polygon Labs’ Tier 2 network, told TechCrunch+ that web3 will add 10 million to 100 million gamers over the next year or two.

“We will see 40% of web3 games [ever] built will be launched within the next 12-18 months, which will be a huge number of attempts or shots on goal to have these 100 million players,” Ferguson added. If this prediction comes true, it will mean a massive wave of adoption that has not been seen before in the decentralized gaming industry.

On Monday, web gaming company Immutable united with the Polygon level 2 blockchain to help increase the scale and adoption of the sub-sector. The collaboration will focus on making Web3-enabled games faster, easier to use, and less risky for major game studios and independent developers.

“What we’re seeing right now is that these games are being built to launch because game development time is two to four years,” Ferguson said. “They require incredible infrastructure to create incredible customer experiences where players can use it.”

“Every year players spend over $100 billion on in-game items,” Ferguson said, implying that the web3 game market could be big. “This is not a boxed copy of Fortnite and is not an option to download the game. It’s literally [money spent on] skins, Candy Crush coins and costumes.

But these assets do not belong to the players or, at best, are part of the gray market, he added. “The opportunity here is to take a multi-$100 billion asset class and make it really accessible to players and make sure the rights and keys belong to them and not to a big third party company.”

Ferguson believes that the only way web games scale is through true ownership. “And if they have no idea how web3 works under the hood.”

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