Over 700 people at Apple have recently lost their jobs, according to the latest WARN report posted by the Employment Development Department of California (EDD). Most of the people who were laid off worked at Apple's offices in Santa Clara, with 371 of them coming from the company location that primarily dealt with the company's now-defunct electric vehicle project. Under California law, companies are required to file a report with the EDD for each location affected by layoffs under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) program.
Eight Apple locations in Santa Clara were hit by layoffs, including the main car office, though one of them worked on its in-house MicroLED display project that was reportedly scrapped in March due to costs and technical difficulties. The company was hoping to produce its own screens for iPhones, Macs and its smartwatches, but that clearly isn't happening anytime soon.
Apple's original car ambitions were to build a fully autonomous vehicle without pedals and a steering wheel, until it decided to develop an electric vehicle instead. A previous Bloomberg report said Apple canceled the initiative internally called "Project Titan" after investing billions of dollars and a decade into it. The employees who were developing the vehicle were given the chance to transfer to Apple's other divisions, including its teams that are reportedly working on artificial intelligence and home robotics. But based on Apple's WARN report, it wasn't able to re-integrate everyone into the company.
Apple is believed to be in the very early stages of developing personal robotics for people's homes. One of the machines that's currently a work-in-progress is a robot that follows people around, while the other is a table-top device that uses a robot to move a display around, according to another Bloomberg report. The company's work on personal robotics is part of its efforts, which also include the Vision Pro, to find new sources of revenue. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-cuts-over-700-jobs-following-its-car-and-display-project-closures-061524777.html?src=rss
Crypt of the Necrodancer just wont die and thats a good thing. The nearly decade-old roguelike rhythm game received new content on Thursday, bringing virtual pop star Hatsune Miku into the fold as a playable character.
Developer Brace Yourself Games says Hatsune Miku is one of the more challenging characters in the game. She can move in all eight directions and takes out foes by boogying her way through groups of enemies. The developers press release explains, She doesnt have a shovel like most characters, so she must use her dance-like dash attack to break through walls instead. Hell yeah.
She has a Sing! ability entirely new to the game that charms nearby enemies. When one of these charmed foes strikes Miku, she heals instead of losing her health. Brace Yourself Games says it even reskinned all of the games armors as official Miku outfits, so you can put on new threads as you shimmy and groove your way through legions of ghosts and skeletons.
Photo by Mat Smith / Engadget
If you arent familiar, Hatsune Miku is one of the worlds biggest virtual pop stars. Shes a perpetual 16-year-old because shes the personification of a Vocaloid, software that synthesizes pre-recorded vocals to simulate human singing. The avatar has sold out 14,000-seat arenas, collaborated with Pharrell Williams and opened for Lady Gaga. She wasnt the first digital celebrity, but she may be the most famous.
The Hatsune Miku DLC for Crypt of the Necrodancer is available now for $1.99 on the PlayStation Store and PC via Steam. The content arrives a little later on Switch on April 13. Check out her moves in the trailer below.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hatsune-miku-in-crypt-of-the-necrodancer-feels-like-the-perfect-crossover-203138973.html?src=rss
Disney just pulled a fast one. Star Wars movies and shows are typically announced years before being released, but the company just revealed a new TV program that premieres next month. Tales of the Empire is an animated show produced by Dave Filoni, the man who cut his teeth on cartoons like Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels before moving onto live action stuff like Ahsoka.
As the name suggests, this is something of a companion piece to 2022s Tales of the Jedi. Its an anthology series that spotlights different characters within the empire as they, uh, heroically try to defeat the nefarious rebels and bring order to the galaxy. You can expect appearances by many of your dark side faves, including Grand Admiral Thrawn, General Grievous and the Grand Inquisitor.
Just like how Tales of the Jedi put the spotlight on two characters, Ahsoka and Count Dooku, this new series will have its own duo to follow. Theres Morgan Elsbeth, a primary antagonist in Ahsoka and one episode of The Mandalorian, with the trailer indicating that Tales of the Empire will reveal how Thrawn and Elsbeth became besties. The show will also focus on Barriss Offee, a former Jedi Knight who fell to the dark side during the Clone Wars.
Despite being animated, the characters will be played by their live action actors. Lars Mikkelsen returns as Thrawn and Matthew Wood is once again portraying Grievous, the evil cyborg who is in dire need of some cough syrup. Diana Lee Inosanto is back as Elsbeth and Meredith Salenger is voicing Offee.
The show premieres on everyones favorite corporate-sponsored pseudo-holiday, May the Fourth, also known as May 4. All six episodes will be available to stream on Disney+ upon the release date. The live action Star Wars: Acolyte follows this with a premiere on June 4.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-new-series-of-star-wars-shorts-premieres-on-disney-next-month-190007395.html?src=rss
YouTube is hyping its exclusive Coachella streaming coverage, which starts next week. The headlining feature is the platforms multiview experience (already familiar to sports fans) for the two-weekend festival. Our question from this announcement is, who wants to watch several different artists sets at the same time when you can only listen to one?
The multiview experience will let you watch up to four stages simultaneously, letting you pick which one to hear: exactly how multiview works for March Madness, NFL games or any other sporting event. Heres how YouTube pitches the feature: Two of your favorite bands playing on different stages at the same time? No problem, multiview will have you and your friends covered to catch both sets at the same time via the YouTube app on TV at no additional cost.
Maybe Im of the wrong generation and have too long of an attention span, but who wants to watch an artists set without hearing it? Thats what will happen to the three stages you arent listening to. Wouldnt it be better to... watch the one youre hearing? And then catch up on the others on-demand when you can listen to them as well?
Sports multiview makes sense because there are scores to track and timeouts, halftimes and blowouts to divert your attention to another game. You dont need to hear an NBA game to keep an eye on the ball. (Depending on the commentators, you may prefer not to listen to it.) Its primarily a visual experience; the audio is secondary.
But music, even when played live with all the light shows, fog machines and dancing accompanying it, is still an auditory experience first and foremost. If multiple artists you like play at once, you still cant (and wouldnt want to) hear more than one simultaneously. In YouTubes multiview, you pick one stage to hear and the rest to watch them sing and dance on mute in a little box alongside three other muted performances. Yay?
It sounds like a solution looking for a problem YouTube applying its existing tech (which, to be fair, works very well with sports) to a music festival. Never mind that it doesnt make a lot of sense.
Perplexed rants aside, YouTube will have six livestream feeds to bounce between (but, again, only four at once in multiview). That includes Sonora for the first weekend and Yuma for the second. This years headliners include Lana Del Rey, Doja Cat, No Doubt and Tyler, the Creator.
Between sets, YouTube will stream special editorial content from the artists onsite. Each day after the nights final set, YouTubes Coachella channel will repeat that days sets until the livestream returns the next day. That sounds like a better way to catch up on the sets you didnt see live.
The event takes place in Indio, California, about 130 miles east of LA, from April 12 to 14 and April 19 to 21. You can tune in on YouTubes Coachella channel.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/who-exactly-is-youtubes-multicam-coachella-stream-for-183744741.html?src=rss
Its taken Razer a few extra months to get its latest 18-inch Blade laptop ready for primetime after we first saw it at CES. Those who have been waiting for the companys latest chonkster can now order the 2024 edition of the Razor Blade 18, which starts at $3,099.
The base system comes with an i9-14900HX processor, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, Wi-Fi 7, a triple-fan cooling system and a six-speaker array with THX spatial audio support. On the GPU side, you can equip the laptop with up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 (the base model has a 4070 graphics card). In what Razer claims is a first for a laptop, there's Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, but only if you opt for a 4080 or 4090 GPU.
Razer
The display is one of the big talking points for this laptop. It comes with a QHD+ 300Hz Mini-LED display as standard. If you want higher fidelity, you can opt for a 4K 200Hz screen. The company seems to have found an extra 35 hertz since CES, since it said at the time the Razer Blade 18 would have a 4K 165Hz display option. Razer claims that this display is a world first for a laptop and itll set you back an extra $1,700, far more than an equivalent standalone monitor would cost. You'll also need to wait until later this summer for a model with a 4K 200Hz panel to ship, whereas you can snag one with the QHD+ display now.
We felt that last year's model was very expensive for a fully kitted-out configuration and that's the case again this time around. Still, if you need a big-screen, high-end laptop that can run just about any program or game you can throw at it, the latest Razer Blade 18 can be all yours if you have the cash to spare.
Razer
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-latest-razer-blade-18-is-now-available-to-order-180330999.html?src=rss
Ford just announced some delays for electric vehicles, including the long-awaited three-row SUV. The car was supposed to come out next year but has now been delayed until 2027, with the company suggesting it will use the extra time to take advantage of emerging battery technology. Ford says itll be making moves to mitigate the impact the launch delay will have on the Canadian workforce.
The next-generation electric pickup, codenamed T3, is also being delayed from late 2025 to 2026. Its being built at the Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center assembly plant at the companys BlueOval City complex, though Ford says it's just now installing stamping equipment that will produce the sheet metal for the truck.
Alongside these announcements, the company has revealed a new push for hybrid vehicles. It has stated it plans on offering hybrid powertrains across the entire Ford Blue lineup by 2030. Despite the aforementioned delays and the pivot toward hybrid vehicles, Ford says it remains committed to EVs and that it's continuing construction of battery plants in Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky.
However, its no secret that the EV market is not quite as robust as companies once hoped it would be. Maybe its the high price of entry, the spotty charging infrastructure or the fact that some EVs do not qualify for the federal tax break. Heck, maybe consumers are simply turned off by a certain CEO who shall not be named.
In any event, the slowdown is real, though perhaps a bit overstated. Ford experienced a decline in EV sales of 11 percent in January, but the company says it bounced back and that sales have increased by 86 percent throughout the entire first quarter when compared to last year. However, the company's EV offerings lost $4.7 billion in 2023.
We are committed to scaling a profitable EV business", said Jim Farley, Ford president and CEO. To that end, the company announced last year that it would be delaying or canceling $12 billion in planned spending on electric vehicles. Its unclear how todays announcements will impact Ford's plans to ramp up production to 600,000 EVs per year. In any event, customers can now use Tesla Superchargers in the US and Canada, which should help assuage some of those infrastructure concerns.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ford-delays-some-electric-vehicles-renews-focus-on-hybrids-172007210.html?src=rss
Amazon is offering another decent batch of games to Prime members at no extra cost for the month of April. Leading the bunch is Fallout 76, a multiplayer take on the post-apocalyptic franchise. Theres also the hack and slash adventure Chivalry 2 and around a dozen more.
Fallout 76 is just the latest title in the series to hit Prime Gaming, likely to coincide with this months premiere of the Fallout TV show. It experienced mixed reviews upon release, with many complaining about an overall lack of purpose in the gameplay and a blandness in the design. Other people simply enjoyed wandering around a post-apocalyptic West Virginia with their buddies.
The games available for PC and, interestingly, Xbox consoles. People can download it from GOG for PC and Amazon will hand out a code to Prime members for an Xbox download. Fallout 76 will be available on April 11, the same exact day all eight episodes of the show drop.
Chivalry 2, on the other hand, is available right now. This is a modern take on the hack and slash genre, with a first-person POV, multiplayer matches with up to 64 players at once and a grimy medieval setting. Theres also crossplay for every available platform. Prime members can download it at the Epic Games Store.
Other titles coming this month include Black Desert, Demons Tilt, Rose Riddle: The Fairy Tale Detective Collectors Edition and many more. Click the link above for the full list. Additionally, Prime Members in the US, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK can access some new games on Luna at no extra charge. These include LEGO Fortnite, Earthworm Jim 2 and Trackmania, among others.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazons-prime-gaming-titles-for-april-include-fallout-76-and-chivalry-2-153731669.html?src=rss
This infographic looks at the most important insights to track in Google Analytics, and explores why each is helpful for marketers. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
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