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Twitter Cuts More Engineering, and Product Jobs to Curb Costs

Twitter Corporation fired more employees late Saturday in a new round of cost-cutting measures at the social media corporation presently controlled by Elon Musk.

As per individuals acquainted with the matter, the layoffs affected staff members across the corporation, such as engineering as well as the product. Some employees were informed of their dismissal via email late Saturday, according to the sources, while others learned of their dismissal when they were unable to enter the internal network.

It’s uncertain how many staff members were affected, but dozens, according to sources. The Information priorly stated that more than 50 people had been laid off.

Outside of normal working hours, Twitter did not reply to a request for comment from Bloomberg News.

Esther Crawford who was one of the chief executive officers of Twitter Blue, the app’s subscription plan, was one of the employees let go, Platformer’s Zoe Schiffer disclosed in a tweet on Sunday.

In the days that followed Musk’s acquisition of Twitter last year, she famously posted on Twitter a famous post that staff members will often have to #SleepWhereYouWork to stay on schedule and fulfill deadlines.

Crawford wasn’t quick to react to a comment request which was sent out after normal business hours.

A few young entrepreneurs who entered Twitter through takeovers in recent years, along with the founders of the newsletter enterprise Revue as well as the design company Ueno, wrote on Twitter on Sunday that they, too, had been fired.

Originally, Twitter avoided laying off founders to avoid having to accelerate the disbursement of greater stock grants, according to people who are acquainted with the business.

According to three persons acquainted with the compensation packages, several pioneers got additional compensation packages as a result of the purchase of their businesses, presumably raising the cost to fire them off because their stock and incentives are compensated out.

Saturday’s other round of job cuts was the biggest as Mr. Elon Musk informed staff members in late November at a meeting held internally that there were no further intentions for job cuts.

The layoffs accompanied a widespread layoff at the start of November when Mr. Elon Musk fired roughly half of Twitter’s working population just a week after taking over the corporation.

Elon Musk cut over 3,700 job positions at Twitter the previous year, which represents fifty percent of the firm’s workforce, in an attempt at cost reduction succeeding his $44 billion takeover.

Suhani Jain

I am a student pursuing my bachelor’s in information technology. I have a interest in writing so, I am working a freelance content writer because I enjoy writing. I also write poetries. I believe in the quote by anne frank “paper has more patience than person

Uber’s Redesigned App Puts The Focus On Personalization

Uber has unveiled an upgraded version of its application that focuses on simplifying and customizing the user experience.
The updated app has a simpler home screen, which eliminates the resistance of a few additional clicks when making reservations for a ride or placing orders for delivery.

It also simplifies the way consumers can view saved venues, as well as some iPhone users can monitor the advancement of a trip on their lock screen.

Also Read: Google tests blocking news content for some Canadians

With the redesign, Uber wants to make the user experience so effortless and intuitive that more customers see Uber as the “one-stop shop for going anywhere and getting anything,” according to Jen You, head of product for rides at Uber.

“The redesigned Uber app has increased awareness and consideration to a wider array of products, which has driven growth to several lines of business,” You told TechCrunch. “This redesign leans into our platform strategy by expanding the breadth and relevance of products that Uber customers can engage with every time they open the app, especially Uber One members who use more of our products more often and will now have easier access to all the offerings in their city.”

Reference is taken from: https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/22/uber-redesigns-app-for-simpler-more-personalized-experience/
As per Uber, the update will be distributed to “tens of millions” of consumers in 1,200 cities worldwide on Wednesday. Customers must ensure that their devices and the Uber application have been upgraded to access the new app.

A simpler Home Screen
Several Users have had a glimpse of the updated home screen for several weeks now. The latest home screen incorporates carousels that prompt users with “More ways of using Uber,” “Ways to prepare with Uber,” or “Ways to save with Uber,” which would offer choices for facilities such as introducing a stop across a route, linking with public transportation, riding a Lime e-scooter, or selecting an even smoother riding experience.

At the screen bottom, the latest “Services” tab lists all of the trips and delivery resources obtainable in that city, such as e-scooters, supper choices, rental cars, delivering packages, and bus charter facilities. A new “Activity” button at the bottom of the screen lets customers keep a record of past and forthcoming trips and Eats bookings.

Getting to know you better
“Saved Places” will show up as a recommendation of locations and travel types predicated on a user’s preferences, previous trips, and also most probable locations whenever a user presses “Where to?” on the latest app. The app will keep gathering information about the user to provide more personalized suggestions in the future.

Also Read: Amazon Web Services pairs with Hugging Face to target AI developers

Updates to live tracking
iPhone owners running iOS 16 or subsequent can monitor their trips without manually opening the Uber app by using a “dynamic island,” which is essentially a little sphere that shows content that’s operating in the background. Users now receive alerts on their lock screen whenever a driver seems to be on their way or near to pick-up.

The dynamic island would then consistently show information such as automobile details which includes the driver’s photo, license plate, model of vehicle, and image of the vehicle as well as the most recent ETA and ride status.

Suhani Jain

Google tests blocking news content for some Canadians

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Sandhya Gupta

Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., announced on Wednesday that it is implementing tests that may restrict access to news material for certain Canadian users as a potential countermeasure to the government’s internet news law.

The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau unveiled House of Commons Bill C-18, the “Online News Act,” in April. This legislation outlined regulations that would compel Google and Facebook to enter into business agreements and compensate news publishers for their material.

Image Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

In an email statement to Reuters, a Google spokesperson stated, “We’re briefly testing potential product responses to Bill C-18 that impact a very small percentage of Canadian users. We run thousands of tests each year to assess any potential changes to Search.”

Also Read: Amazon Web Services pairs with Hugging Face to target AI developers

As it considers potential responses to the bill, the company said on Wednesday that it is momentarily restricting access to news material for less than 4% of its Canadian users. The update affects both its widely used search engine and Android’s Discover tool, which offers news and sports content.

The test, which will last for approximately five weeks, has an impact on all forms of news content, the company said. The tech giant acknowledged that the time-limited tests “limit the visibility of Canadian and international news to varying degrees”.

Canadians won’t be frightened, according to a spokesperson for Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez, who also criticized Google for copying Meta’s strategy. She stated, “Canadians need to have access to quality, fact-based news at the local and national levels, and that’s why we introduced the Online News Act.

Tech giants need to be more transparent and accountable to Canadians.” Due to worries about laws that would require digital platforms to compensate news publishers, Facebook issued a warning last year that it might restrict the sharing of news material on its network in Canada.

A government report claimed that a similar law in Australia, which went into force in March 2021 after negotiations with major tech companies resulted in a brief suspension of Facebook news feeds there, has largely succeeded. The Canadian news media sector has fought Facebook and requested more control of tech firms from the government in order to make up for the financial losses the sector has endured as a result of Facebook and Google’s steady increase in market share of ads over the years. Since 2008, more than 450 Canadian news organizations have shut down, with 64 of those happening in the previous two years.

Also Read: Google Chrome rolls out long-awaited battery-saving features

Google voiced concerns about the proposed law to a House of Commons committee, saying that it would favor big publishers over smaller outlets, would not require publishers to follow fundamental journalistic standards, and could lead to the spread of “cheap, low quality, clickbait content” rather than public interest journalism.

The corporation has stated that it would prefer to contribute to a fund that would compensate news publishers indirectly, comparable to the Canada Media Fund. The bill was approved by the House of Commons in December and will soon be reviewed by the Senate.

Sandhya Gupta

I am a law graduate from NLU Lucknow. I have a flair for creative writing and hence in my free time work as a freelance content writer.

Amazon Web Services pairs with Hugging Face to target AI developers

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon corporation’s cloud computing wing, announced on Tuesday that it is cooperating with development company Hugging Face which is a software development center, to simplify the process to carry out ai technology (AI) work in Amazon’s cloud.

Whereas the latest generative AI solutions from Microsoft Corporation as well as Alphabet Corp’s Google have caught the public’s attention, technology companies including AWS are competing behind the sights to provide the services and tools that software engineers will require in order to incorporate nearly the same technology into their own goods.

Microsoft has well announced recently a multi-year collaboration with OpenAI to advance Abilities.

Google’s response to ChatGPT is an AI chatbot called Bard.

Also Read: Google Chrome rolls out long-awaited battery-saving features

At the moment, Bard has reached the final stages of testing and therefore is scheduled for release by the end of the month of February 2023.

AWS, the world’s largest cloud computing provider, already provides tools to assist programmers in developing AI-based applications, ranging from specialized computing chips for raining AI algorithms on enormous quantities of information at a cheaper price than competitors to facilities that decrease the time required to generate a chatbot or even other AI products.

AWS announced on Tuesday it was going to collaborate with Hugging Face which is a company based in New York that has grown into a central internet location for AI developers to exchange open-source code as well as models.

Hugging Face’s CEO, Clem Delangue, stated that although the agreement is not exclusive, the business is collaborating closely with AWS to make it simple for devs to take code from the site & operate it on the AWS cloud.

“For this product collaboration, we’re dedicating significant engineering resources to build our shared products,” Delangue told Reuters in an interview.
Source: dcfx.com

Clem Delangue also stated that the forthcoming generation of Bloom which is an open-source AI prototype that currently operates in terms of size as well as scope with the model used by Microsoft-powered OpenAI to develop ChatGPT will operate on Trainium, an AWS-developed specialized artificial intelligence chip.

Also Read: Meta Launches Subscription Service for Facebook and Instagram

Swami Sivasubramanian who is the AWS vice president of database, analytics, as well as machine learning, affirms Trainium could indeed assist devs to focus on saving money as AI consumes so much computing power, as well as AWS desires to make it easier for devs to embrace them.

“We want to make sure they have access to our silicon and networking innovations,” Sivasubramanian told Reuters.
Source: dcfx.com

Suhani Jain

Google Chrome rolls out long-awaited battery-saving features

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

Google Chrome is considered one of the top Android internet browsers, and it boasts feature equality with the desktop application.

Google Chrome has evolved into a resource hog in the time frame of 14 years ever since its release, consuming an increasing percentage of your system’s storage as well as battery life with evidently complete impunity.

When Chrome 108 was released in December, Google set out on a mission to rid the search engine of its notoriety for always being resource-hungry, introducing two additional utility services called Memory Saver & Energy Saver. Both of these features are now readily accessible on Chrome 110 for desktop pcs.

Chrome’s brand-new Memory Saver functionality helps to optimize resource consumption by focusing on improving active tabs as well as other apps, as announced in December.

Also Read: Meta Launches Subscription Service for Facebook and Instagram

Deactivated tabs are snoozed as well as demoted to the background and even though continue to appear within the tab strip; users can load up a non-active tab as well as verify the Omnibox alert to determine how much Computer Memory Saver has released for those other tasks.

Energy Saver is nearly identical, but it works to decrease Chrome’s battery usage on notebooks & Chromebooks. Users can set Energy Saver to begin immediately as their battery level falls below 20 percent. When activated, you’ll notice a leaf symbol next to the Omnibox as well as an absence of huge stunning visuals.

Google explains that it accomplishes these battery savings by deactivating seamless browsing and website visual effects, as well as lowering video frame rates.

The brand-new Memory Saver & Energy Saver functionalities are automatically enabled on Chromebooks, Windows, as well as Macs beginning with the stable channel update of Chrome 110. Furthermore, you could always disable or limit the functionality of these functions, which is as simple as removing online sites from Memory Saver so they do not snooze.

Also Read: Google Staff in Zurich Stage Walkout Over Job Cuts

To perform effectively, Chrome as well enables you to enable Energy Saver automatically when the charger is disconnected.

Memory Saver, as well as Energy Saver options, are obtainable in the Performance tab of Google Chrome. Energy Saver doesn’t appear to be present on desktop computers for understandable reasons. If you have upgraded to Chrome 110 and have yet to see the latest toggle button, you might need to allow the mentioned flags by entering them in the Omnibox afterward and setting them to “Enabled.”

chrome://flags/#battery-saver-mode-available

chrome://flags/#high-efficiency-mode-available

Suhani Jain

Meta Launches Subscription Service for Facebook and Instagram

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

Mark Zuckerberg made the Announcement on Instagram Sunday that Meta is planning to test a monthly subscription service that will enable Facebook and Instagram users to pay to become verified.

“Meta Verified” will start at $11.99 a month on the web or $14.99 a month on iOS, and the company will begin releasing it in Australia and New Zealand this week and “more countries soon.”
Source: cnn.com

Other benefits include extra protection against fake accounts and direct contact with customer support services.

Users who wish to obtain the blue badge would be required to submit a govt ID that resembles their profile name and photograph to prevent fraudulent identities. Consumers must also be over the age of eighteen to be qualified.

Also Read: Google Staff in Zurich Stage Walkout Over Job Cuts

“This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services,” Zuckerberg wrote in an Instagram broadcast channel.

In a statement, Meta clarified there will be no changes to accounts that are already verified. Verification was previously for users who are “authentic and notable.”

“We are evolving the meaning of the blue badge to focus on authenticity so we can expand verification access to more people,” a Meta spokesperson said. “We will display follower count in more places so people can distinguish which accounts are notable public figures among accounts that share the same name.”
Source: cnn.com

Meta also gets added to the list with other platforms with subscription-based systems, such as Discord, YouTube, and Reddit.

The firm recently disclosed that Fb’s daily active users had reached two billion; even so, with price level consuming into marketers’ budgets as well as intense competition from applications like TikTok, those users really aren’t helping to bring in nearly as many earnings as they used to.

Meta revealed in November that it planned for about 11,000 employees job cuts, or 13 % of its working population, the biggest layoff in the corporate history.

Also Read: Facebook Bug Allows 2FA Bypass Via Instagram

Because of service fees obtained by Apple on the iPhone as well as Google on mobile phones running its Android operating system, Meta Verified would be lower in price on the internet than on mobile apps.

The firm confirmed that it doesn’t anticipate the facility to generate passive income during the testing phase, but added that it is an aspect of its expansion activities.

Suhani Jain

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