Disney’s laying off 7,000 as streaming boom comes to an end
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Disney is planning to lay off 7,000 workers to cut costs across the company. CEO Bob Iger announced the news in an earnings call on Wednesday, stating that the move is “necessary to address the challenges we’re facing today.”
Like many other companies across the country, Disney’s making the changes as part of its efforts to reduce costs in a “challenging economic environment.” Iger says he’s “targeting $5.5 billion of cost savings across the company” and that the layoffs will “help achieve this.” Iger didn’t say which departments the layoffs will affect.
Iger still has his sights set on streaming despite a slowdown in subscriber growth. Disney Plus added just 200,000 subscribers in the US and Canada for a total of 46.6 million, while its international offering (excluding HotStar) saw the addition of 1.2 million members. Hulu and ESPN Plus had similarly slow growth, with each adding 800,000 and 600,000, respectively.
Disney’s direct-to-consumer division, which includes its streaming services, saw a 13 percent increase in revenue to $5.3 billion. But it still had an operating loss of around $1.1 billion, which the company attributed to higher costs at Disney Plus and Hulu. The company’s streaming business lost around $1.5 billion last quarter.
“Our priority is the enduring growth and profitability of our streaming business,” Iger says. “Our current forecasts indicate Disney Plus will hit profitability by the end of fiscal 2024, and achieving that remains our goal.”
Since the results span the last three months of 2022, it’s still too early to tell how much of an effect the $7.99 per month ad-supported tier will have on Disney Plus’ subscriber numbers. This is something Disney chief financial officer Christine McCarthy reflected on during the call, noting the company doesn’t “expect the launch of the Disney Plus ad tier to provide a meaningful financial impact until later this fiscal year.”
Ex-Twitter exec details ‘homophobic and antisemitic’ abuse over handling of Hunter Biden story
Yoel Roth testifies before congressional committee that Elon Musk’s release of company’s internal records led to harassment
A former Twitter executive testified on Wednesday that he was forced to leave and sell his home following a campaign of “homophobic and antisemitic” harassment over the company’s handling of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden.
Yoel Roth, the former head of safety at Twitter, made the comments while speaking to a committee in the newly Republican-controlled House of Representatives, at a hearing convened to scrutinize the social network’s handling of a 2020 report on Joe Biden’s son.
Ex-Twitter execs to testify in Congress on handling of Hunter Biden laptop reporting
Company temporarily restricted New York Post article in 2020 about contents of the abandoned computer of Joe Biden’s son
Former senior staff at Twitter will testify on Wednesday before the House oversight committee about the social media platform’s handling of reporting on Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
The hearing has set the stage for the agenda of a newly Republican-controlled House, underscoring its intention to home in on longstanding and unsubstantiated allegations that big tech has an anti-conservative bias.
Here are the best iPad deals right now
Select iPad models go on sale quite regularly. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
While the best iPad deals come around during major sales events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Amazon Prime Day, you can still find plenty of great discounts at all times of the year if you know where to look. Whether you’re after the high-end iPad Pro or the most affordable entry-level iPad, there’s likely a sale going on somewhere you may be interested in.
Of course, it’s difficult to know exactly where you can find the most notable deals unless you’re scouring the major retailers on a daily basis. But that’s often what our deal hunters at The Verge are doing each and every day, so let us help you out. Below, we’ve listed the best deals you can get on each iPad model that is currently available, including the latest ones equipped with Apple’s powerful M1 and M2 chips.
Announced alongside the iPhone 13, the 2021 iPad is Apple’s entry-level tablet that replaced the eighth-gen model from 2020. The ninth-generation iPad starts at $329, just like its predecessor, though the entry-level model has 64GB of storage instead of 32GB. The base configuration with Wi-Fi is currently available at Best Buy and Target for the lowest price of $249.99 (about $80 off) or a somewhat close second at Walmart for $269 ($60 off).
As for the next bump up in storage, 256GB, it normally costs $479, but Walmart and Best Buy have that configuration with Wi-Fi for $399 and $399.99, respectively. This is a very good deal, especially as it normally only drops to only $429. If you prefer your iPad to include cellular connectivity, the 64GB model normally runs $479 (though Best Buy has it for about $80 off), and the 256GB variant is $609 (though Best Buy and Walmart are selling it for $529.99).
The 2021 model iPad uses an A13 Bionic processor and a 12MP wide-angle camera with Center Stage, a feature designed for keeping you framed up and centered while on video calls. Many other features carried over from its predecessor, such as the 10.2-inch display, a Touch ID fingerprint sensor built into the home button, and a Smart Connector for connecting a Smart Keyboard.
Although the newer, 10th-gen iPad came out in October of 2022, the last-gen model is still worth considering. The latest iPad modernizes the design with a switch to USB-C, uniform bezels with no home button, a side power button with a fingerprint sensor, and a larger display, but it excises the headphone jack and costs a much steeper $449. That’s not much of an entry-level price, so hopefully, the ninth-gen sticks around and continues to see moderate discounts.
However, if you do find the updates of 10th-gen iPad appealing, you can at least get the base 64GB configuration with Wi-Fi on sale for $399 ($50 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. That $50 discount is also present on the 256GB model — selling for $549 at Best Buy and Target — though once you climb that high, it may be worth considering an iPad Air (see below). But hey, if you just love the color yellow, I won’t stop you.
The sixth-generation iPad Mini has a larger screen than its predecessor, along with a top-of-the-line processor, support for USB-C, and options for 5G. It has forfeited its 3.5mm headphone jack and dedicated home button in the process, but overall, it’s a solid device that brings a fully refreshed design to Apple’s small tablet form factor.
The changes and refinements to the new iPad Mini come at a heftier price, however, and the new 64GB Wi-Fi model now starts at $499. Electing for 256GB of storage brings the price up to $649, while the 5G cellular models are $649 for 64GB and $799 for 256GB. These are some big numbers for a small iPad, and the larger iPad Air might be worth considering if you prefer your dollar to go further with more screen real estate. But if you want the latest and greatest from Apple in a smaller format, this is where the action is.
There have been some sizable discounts on the sixth-gen Mini at times, and right now, Best Buy, Target, and Amazon have the 64GB base model for $399.99 ($100 off). If you’re in need of additional storage, Amazon has the 256GB Wi-Fi model for $539.99 (about $109 off) after an additional $10 discount at checkout, and Best Buy has it for a close second of $549.99.
As for the 5G-equipped variant, the 64GB model is $100 off, dropping to $549.99 at Best Buy, Target, and Amazon. The 256GB version, however, is $109 off at Amazon after an additional $10 off at checkout, making it $689.99. The cellular models normally sell for $649 and $799, respectively.
The latest iPad Air usually costs $599, but we’ve seen it dip as low as $499.99 (around $100 off) on occasion, and that’s where it is at right now from both Amazon and Target. That’s an excellent value for the 10.9-inch tablet that borrowed its M1 processor from the pricier iPad Pros of its generation. For those who crave more storage, the 256GB configuration is available for $649.99 at Target (also around $100 off). Like the base model, that’s about as good as it gets for non-cellular iPad Air prices.
If you find yourself needing a 5G connection for your iPad, the cellular model with 64GB is $689 ($60 off) at B&H Photo and $699 at Amazon.
The 2022 iteration of Apple’s lightweight tablet is similar in terms of its capabilities when measured against the previous-gen model but still offers a handful of iterative upgrades. The most pronounced improvement is the M1 processor, which offers better performance, and the front-facing 12MP camera comes equipped with Apple’s Center Stage feature that helps to keep a moving subject centered when recording video or during video calls.
The latest generation of iPad Pros looks a whole lot like the prior model from 2021, as the changes are primarily on the inside. The new Pros still come in 11-inch and 12.9-inch sizes, with the better-looking Mini LED panel once again reserved for the larger model, though both now pack Apple’s newer M2 CPU for even better processing power.
Striking resemblance to the prior generation aside, there are a few reasons to opt for a Pro over something like an Air, such as Face ID unlocking and additional base storage. If display quality is the most important factor in your purchasing decision, the 12.9-inch version is the way to go, as its Mini LED display achieves deeper blacks and better contrast, much like an OLED panel.
Aside from that, as well as a nifty new hover feature that shows where your second-gen Apple Pencil’s tip will land before you touch the screen, they’re very similar to the older models from 2021. The 128GB base models even start at the same price — the 11-inch and 12.9-inch models retail for $799 and $1,099, respectively, and go up from there. As for 5G cellular versions, the 11-inch starts at $999, and the 12.9-inch starts at $1,299.
While some steep discounts and closeout sales on the 2021 iPad Pros have led to them selling out pretty much everywhere, there are some small deals starting to appear on Apple’s newer, high-end tablets of 2022.
Right now, for instance, you can get the 11-inch M2 iPad Pro with 128GB of storage for $769 ($30 off) at Amazon or B&H Photo. The 512GB model is where you start to see a steeper discount of about $49 off, dropping it to $1,049.99 at Amazon. And as for cellular models, the only deal is the 128GB 5G version for $939 ($60 off) at Amazon.
If you prefer the larger 12.9-inch model with its lovely Mini LED display, B&H Photo is selling the M2 tablet for $1,049 ($50 off). Stepping up to the 256GB model gets you a $70 discount from B&H Photo, where it’s currently $1,129, or you can get the beefy 512GB storage model for $1,319 ($80 off) from the same retailer.
That’s as good as it gets for now, though we did once see the 12.9-inch get a sweet $100 discount for a very brief window of time. Perhaps now that we’re in the new year, we’ll see more substantial discounts across both models.
TechScape: Why Twitter ending free access to its APIs should be a ‘wake-up call’
In this week’s newsletter: The social media network is putting its APIs – the under-praised tool that keeps the internet as we know it going – behind a paywall. And the ramifications are huge
APIs may not seem like the sexiest thing to write about in a tech newsletter, but bear with me. Because APIs – or application programming interfaces – are important. They’re the synapses of our digital world: without them, our current ways of living wouldn’t work.
For example, when you visit a website that requires you to log in, and you choose to connect with a Google or Facebook account, you’re utilising an API. That click of a button that links your existing account on one platform with a new account on another is enabled by an API. They spring into action whenever one type of work interacts with another, working to bridge that gap. APIs are the overlooked and under-praised army that keeps the internet as we know it going.
Meta, Long an AI Leader, Tries Not to Be Left Out of the Boom It has long had technology to rival chatbots like ChatGPT, but can’t afford to back artificial intelligence that can spread misinformation and toxic content.
Tuesday’s top tech news: a new era for Microsoft’s Bing
Image: The Verge
Plus two new Eras for Sonos
Perennial search engine also-ran Bing looks set to get a massive shot in the arm amid reports that operator Microsoft is preparing to announce some kind of ChatGPT integration for the service later today. News of the event seemed to have spooked Google, with the search giant making the surprise announcement on Monday that it’s working on its own “experimental conversational AI service.” The Verge will be in attendance at Microsoft’s event, so stay tuned for all the details as they’re announced.
And speaking of new Eras, my colleague Chris Welch has a scoop on Sonos’ upcoming speaker lineup set to debut in the coming months. We now know that they’re set to be branded as “Era,” with specific models including the Era 300 and Era 100. The former will apparently focus on spatial audio, and support playback of Dolby Atmos content.
The Last of Us recap episode four – ambush in Kansas!
Ellie gets to grips with a gun, Joel has a rude awakening – and here’s Melanie Lynskey as the revolutionary Kathleen. But don’t be fooled by her dulcet tones … she’s as twisted as they come
This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us TV series. Do not read unless you have seen episodes one to four …
After the heartbreaking spectacle of Bill and Frank’s two-hander, here we saw Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) return to centre stage as they embarked on an epic road trip and adjusted to life post-Tess.
The latest set of changes to Twitter will likely spell the end of some of your favourite accounts, tools and features, as the platform’s owner, Elon Musk, continues to look for ways to increase revenue.
In a post on Thursday morning, Twitter’s developer account announced free access to its application program interface (API) would be cut off and replaced with a paid version from 9 February.
Microsoft Authenticator drops support for Apple Watch
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Microsoft Authenticator is ending support for the Apple Watch. Unfortunately, this means you’ll no longer be able to conveniently log in to your connected accounts using just the wearable, as reported earlier by MacRumors.
While the app’s 6.7.3 iOS update states that it “removes Microsoft Authenticator from Apple Watch,” it also notes that you can still mirror any Microsoft Authenticator notifications you receive on your iPhone to your Apple Watch.
Microsoft first introduced Authenticator for the Apple Watch in 2018, and it’s proven useful for anyone looking to streamline their multi-factor authentication (MFA) sign-ins. Instead of having to open the Microsoft Authenticator app on your phone to verify your identity, you could instead approve the log-in through a notification that appears on your watch.
We first heard about the shutdown in December, after Microsoft quietly updated its FAQ page to note that you won’t be able to install or use Authenticator on Apple Watch. It’s unclear why Microsoft’s choosing to drop support for the Apple Watch now and vaguely states that watchOS is “incompatible with Authenticator security features.”
Over the course of several years, watchOS has lost a number of noteworthy apps, including Pokémon Go, Uber, Instagram, and more, proving that not every service out there needs a presence on your wrist. But out of all these apps, the Microsoft Authenticator companion app is perhaps the most practical, and it’s a bummer that it’s going away.
Rivian is working on an e-bike
Would you buy a Rivian e-bike? | Photo by Nilay Patel / The Verge
Electric automaker Rivian is developing an electric bike, according to sources speaking to Bloomberg. CEO RJ Scaringe apparently told staff about the e-bike effort during a company meeting on Friday, noting that a small team is currently working on it.
Bloomberg says it’s unclear if Scaringe was talking about a battery-assisted bicycle (aka an e-bike) or an electric motorcycle. However, Scaringe has teased an entry into micromobility in the past and the company has patents for e-bike designs and components.
Last week, Rivian laid off about six percent of its workforce for the second time in less than a year as part of broad cost-cutting efforts. Rivian has struggled to hit manufacturing targets amidst supply chain problems and a looming EV price war.
Despite the revenue opportunity presented by the new category, car makers have yet to find any notable success with their e-bikes despite brands like Porsche, Mercedes, Jeep, GM, Hummer, and others all giving it a go. Even e-bike darlings like Rad Power and VanMoof have struggled recently after finding success during the covid lockdowns. Would you buy a Rivian e-bike?
‘Get something that’s fun to play, then think about the story’: how Nintendo keeps levelling up
With 100m sales of its Switch console, a new Mario movie and even a California theme park, the Japanese tech giant is riding high again. What’s its secret?
Every Nintendo fan remembers the game that converted them. Perhaps it was running and jumping around as Mario in an abstract, toylike playspace, thrilling at the lightness and precision of his movement. It could have been becoming hypnotised by falling Tetris blocks on the Game Boy’s tiny monochrome screen, or choosing a first Pokémon, marvelling at how the little collection of fat pixels representing your chosen critter instantly assumed an imagined personality. Millions of people had their first Nintendo moment during 2020’s lockdowns, moving to a virtual deserted island full of quirky neighbours in Animal Crossing.
For more than 40 years, this Japanese giant of entertainment has been making video games that have shaped the tastes of the people who played them as children; there is surely no game developer working today who is untouched by its influence. Its latest console, meanwhile – the Nintendo Switch, released in 2017 – recently became the fastest ever to reach 100m sales, and stands a good chance of becoming the bestselling console ever. Barring an extremely unlikely sales slump over Christmas, the Switch will leapfrog to No 3 on the bestselling list when Nintendo announces its quarterly results this week. Only the DS and Sony’s PlayStation 2 are ahead of it.
Hi-Fi Rush review – a brawler set to the beat of a drum
TK; Xbox This music-centred adventure, an unexpected release, pits a teenage boy against robotic assassins in a colourful title for gamers of all talents
The video game industry’s hype cycles are typically measured in months and years, not minutes and seconds. So the simultaneous announcement and release in late January of Hi-Fi Rush – the kind of “go and buy it right now” revelation Apple is known for – feels breezily countercultural. So too does its bright, cartoonish styling: this game is as brazenly colourful as a Jet Set Radio fever dream, and even as plastic Guitar Hero instruments clog up the nation’s cupboards, it’s refreshing to play a game that is so unashamedly music-centred.
This is a brawler set to the beat of a drum. You play as Chai, an ebullient teenage boy who enrols in a biological augmentation program with a shady pharmaceutical company. The operation goes wrong when an old iPod-style music player is fitted to Chai’s chest. Marked for extermination, you must guide Chai to safety, then help him to take down his oppressor. As you move through these Shibuya-inspired streets, the world and everything in it pulses to the rhythm of the game’s soundtrack (a blend of originals and licensed tracks from bands such as the Black Keys and Nine Inch Nails).
Do You Work in the Auto Industry? We Want to Hear From You. Sales of electric vehicles are growing fast, and automakers are investing billions of dollars in new technology and factories. We want to know how jobs are changing.
Monday’s top tech news: an ultra year for tech?
Last year’s iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Apple is reportedly thinking about introducing a higher tier iPhone this year
Just a few short days after Samsung announced not one but two “Ultra”-branded devices comes a report that Apple might be about to slap that same label on an upcoming iPhone. Over the weekend, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple’s 2022 flagship iPhone lineup could include its first Ultra model. Apparently there’s a chance it could offer a higher performance camera system, faster chip, and / or a larger display than the Pro Max.
Second, if you have even a passing interest in Mario Kart, The Last of Us, or Pedro Pascal, then I implore you to check out Pascal’s appearance on Saturday Night Live. I won’t spoil it, but it’s-a good stuff.
Finally, I want to highlight a couple of interesting reviews that went up over the weekend. Announced last week alongside the Samsung Galaxy S23 lineup, the SmartThings Station is not only a hub to control your smart home, but it’s also a controller button and a wireless charging pad — both functions that provide a great excuse to have it easily accessible at all times. There’s also this fantastically overkill gadget from Nix which aims to help athletes keep hydrated while exercising.
At This School, Computer Science Class Now Includes Critiquing Chatbots Move over, coding. Some schools are asking student programmers to think critically about rapid advances in artificial intelligence.
Blueprints for a dream: the new age of virtual architecture
Aspiring architects are using using social media, AI and digital technology to showcase their fantastical creations to the full
“Something big is happening,” says Hamza Shaikh. “Architecture is entering a new age.” The ways in which buildings are imagined and communicated are, he argues, being transformed by a combination of social media and the ever-evolving techniques of digital drawing, to which artificial intelligence is adding new capabilities. And indeed, if it is not yet clear how blocks of flats or schools or shopping centres near you might be changed by this revolution, the energy and invention behind it are undeniable.
There is also, as Shaikh justifiably claims, a social transformation. If, in the past, aspiring architects had to claw their way up a profession that favoured those with connections and money, now anyone from anywhere can make a name for themselves, if they have the talent, determination and access to technology. They do this not by realising completed buildings, but through compelling images of imaginary architecture. They don’t all use the most advanced techniques all the time – some work by hand, some (Shaikh included) with hybrids of manual and digital – but all use the internet to spread their work and exchange ideas.
That pain has now been compounded by the recent discovery that Archie was bullied online in the months before the catastrophic brain injury on 7 April last year, she told the Guardian.
‘They filmed me without my consent’: the ugly side of #kindness videos
Some social media users are building a following through ‘feelgood’ videos, in which, for instance, they give flowers to a stranger. The stranger then becomes their clickbait. Is there anything we can do to stop this?
Maree only wanted to buy some shoes. A pair that she liked the look of had gone on sale, so she made a trip into the city to try them on. It was late in the day in June, mid-winter in Melbourne, and the shopping centre was quiet. After making her purchase, Maree stopped for a coffee. “And that’s when it happened,” she says.
A young man approached her holding a posy of flowers. He asked Maree to hold them for him as he put on his jacket. “I wish I’d trusted my instincts and said no,” she says. “It was all so quick.” Maree took the flowers – then the man walked away, wishing her “a lovely day”. She held them out after him, bemused.
TikTok: how the west has turned on gen Z’s favourite app
US and European fears about China exploiting TikTok’s data harvest and promoting Beijing’s worldview look set to inspire an urgent overhaul in data privacy laws
The FBI has called it a national security threat. The US government has passed a law forcing officials to delete it from their phones. Texas senator Ted Cruz has denounced it as “a Trojan horse the Chinese Communist party can use to influence what Americans see, hear, and ultimately think”. And in March its CEO will defend its existence before the US Congress. For those unaware of the debate broiling on the other side of the Atlantic, the target of this strong rhetoric might prove surprising: an app best known for viral dances, launching generation Z media stars, and sucking teens down an hours-long content abyss.
But the rancorous debate over TikTok that began under the Trump administration has rolled on under President Biden. In addition to a ban of the app on all federal government devices, at least 27 states have blocked TikTok on devices they’ve issued, affecting a number of state schools and universities, too. A bipartisan bill, introduced in Congress last December, stipulates banning the app’s use by everyone in the United States.
Nothing, Forever is an endless, AI-generated version of the show that has been streaming on Twitch since mid-December. It tells the “story” – if you can call it that – of four characters, Larry, Fred, Yvonne and Kakler, who look like what would happen if Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer were sucked into a 1990s computer game. They spend their days discussing their lives and other trivial matters. And it never, ever stops: log on at any hour and there they are, talking about coffee quality or a difficult Monopoly game.
On Friday, the Treasury Department updated the way it classifies vehicles that qualify for its $7,500 EV tax credit as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The change should allow more vehicles — including the Model Y — to qualify for the credit, as it no longer puts certain SUV crossovers in the same category as sedans.
But now that the government uses the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Fuel Economy Labeling standard instead of the EPA’s corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard to classify vehicles, the Model Y and Cadillac Lyriq now fall under the SUV category. This gives Tesla more wiggle room when it comes to pricing, as vehicles in this category can be priced at up to $80,000 to qualify for the tax credit.
It’s still unclear how the Treasury Department’s list of qualified vehicles will change come March, though. That’s when the agency’s expected to release its guidance on how to apply the IRA’s strict rules surrounding the sourcing and manufacturing of the minerals and battery components used in EVs.
‘I’m not Snow White. I have to think like a criminal’: how I became a burglar for hire
Jenny Radcliffe is a professional ‘people hacker’ – someone who claims she can get past anyone and get in anywhere. No building is secure. How does she do it? Plus, an extract from her memoir
‘Do I look like someone to mess with?” says Jenny Radcliffe, folding her arms in a really-don’t-mess-with-me kind of way. Her tattoos seem to be making the point, too. On her left forearm is a Latin phrase – facta non verba, actions not words – with a pair of devil’s horns; on her right, a feather, from the wings of an angel. Which is she, I wonder. Her boots – DM-like, many eyelets – suggest no angel; but the T-shirt is emblazoned with “Trust Me”.
Radcliffe has an unusual job: she’s a social engineer. “Also known as a professional burglar, physical penetration tester … though it’s difficult to say that one to old ladies on trains,” she says. Yes, I can see that.
Artists must be protected from piracy in the new world of AI | Letter
We must recognise the critical importance of strong copyright law and fair remuneration, writes Christian Zimmermann
Artists, illustrators and photographers have often led the way in embracing new technology. The concerns that creators such as Harry Woodgate have about AI programs (‘It’s the opposite of art’: why illustrators are furious about AI, 23 January) that “rely entirely on the pirated intellectual property of countless working artists, photographers, illustrators and other rights holders” must be heeded.
Evidence published recently by the House of Lords, gathered from the first-hand experience of visual artists, galleries and experts, demonstrates that the government’s proposed copyright exception will have far-reaching, detrimental consequences.
Are You Switching to a Heat Pump? We Want to Hear From You. Some people in extremely cold areas of the U.S. are switching to heat pumps from oil or gas furnaces. But others are not convinced that these devices are right for them.
Advisory Firm Sues Elon Musk’s Twitter, Saying It Hasn’t Been Paid Innisfree M&A says Twitter, which Elon Musk bought last year, has not paid it $1.9 million for services it rendered for the deal.
Contractors who work on YouTube Music are striking
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Over 40 contractors for YouTube Music are going on strike — a first at Google, according to the Alphabet Workers Union (or AWU). The action is in response to an order to return to in-person work next week, something that many of the workers say they can’t do. They’re demanding a return-to-work policy that’s “fair, flexible, and does not threaten the safety and livelihoods of workers,” according to an AWU press release.
The workers are part of the YouTube Music Content Operations team via Cognizant, a subcontractor for Alphabet, Google and YouTube’s parent company. Their jobs are to “ensure music content is available and approved” for the platform, according to a prior press release from the AWU.
The objections to the return to office plan stem from pay and availability. According to the AWU, the contractors are paid as little as $19 an hour, making it difficult to afford the relocation, travel, or childcare costs that they didn’t have to pay when working remotely, instead of at an office in Austin, TX.
An unnamed spokesperson for Cognizant told Engadget that the return to office policy had been “communicated to [the workers] repeatedly since December 2021,” and that they had taken the positions “with the understanding that they were accepting in-office positions, and that the team would work together at a physical location based in Austin.” Google would not provide an on-the-record comment for this story, but the company has told the National Labor Relations board that it does not see the workers as its employees, according to Bloomberg.
The contractors are currently attempting to unionize with the AWU, which filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to represent the contractors in October. Last week, the AWU filed an unfair labor practice charge against Alphabet and Cognizant, claiming that the return to office was being used to “interfere with the fair voting conditions mandated by federal law,” as Sam Regan, one of the workers put it in a press release.
There have been previous organized labor actions at Google. In 2018, tens of thousands of workers walked out to protest how Google handled sexual harassment, spurred on by reports that it had paid Android co-founder Andy Rubin $90 million in severance after he was accused of sexual assault. And in 2022, a group of Cognizant contractors working on Google Maps were able to get their return-to-office pushed back after threatening to strike.
Electrify America is increasing prices at its DC fast charging stations
Photo by Umar Shakir / The Verge
Remember how rising gas prices weren’t a concern to electric car owners? Electrify America is giving users of its DC fast charging network a reminder about one of the biggest frustrations of owning internal combustion engine cars again — by increasing electricity rates at its stations (via Ars Technica).
Starting on March 6th, Electrify America will be charging US customers a standard rate of $0.48 per kilowatt hour. The company, a subsidiary of Volkswagen Auto Group, was charging $0.43 per kWh, but now, it is emailing customers to share the price increase details.
Tara Geiger of Electrify America’s corporate communications emailed the company’s statement on the price changes to The Verge:
Electrify America has been able to maintain consistent and uniform pricing since September 2020; however, rising operational and energy costs have now made adjusting our pricing necessary. Our focus remains on meeting the needs of electric vehicle drivers of today and tomorrow by investing in our network expansion and enhancement to customer experience.
Customers paying for Electrify America’s $4 per month Pass Plus subscription will also be affected. The company had advertised that Pass Plus saves “about 25 percent on charging” with the monthly fee plus a reduced $0.31 per kilowatt hour rate. Now that rate is increasing to $0.36 per kilowatt hour. Geiger adds that Pass Plus subscribers “can still benefit from savings of about 25% on charging,” confirming that the announced price increases apply to Electrify America only and that they are not temporary.
Electrify America also is increasing per-minute charging rates in applicable states like Massachusetts and Texas, where companies aren’t allowed to directly bill customers by the kWh. Users in those states will now be paying $0.19 per minute for sessions with peak charging speeds up to 90kW, up from $0.16. For quicker charging cars, up to 350kW, the rate is increasing from $0.32 per minute to $0.36.
And Pass Plus subscribers in those states will see rates increase from $0.12 per minute to $0.15 for sessions peaking up to 90kW and $0.24 per minute to $0.29 for quicker charging cars.
Comparatively, Tesla owners using the Supercharger network pay variable rates that can range from around $0.25 per kWh to as much as $0.50 depending on the state and time of use. Tesla has been increasing Supercharger prices for years but has also recently decreased prices in some areas.
Personally, I’ve experienced an average rate of $0.38 per kWh at Superchargers while driving in the Mid-Atlantic region this past December. In one session, I’ve added 46kWh of electricity to my battery, which cost me about $17. If the rates matched that of Electrify America, it would have cost me about $20 at the old standard rate and $22 at the new one.
Electrify America, after Tesla, is the largest coast-to-coast fast charging network in the US. In addition to its 800-plus stations in North America, the company is working with Ikea and TravelCenters of America to increase its reach to EV drivers. There are even cool Electrify America Sky Club Lounge-like locations in the works, which might just make the whole price increase worth it — whenever it gets built.
Google is holding an event about search and AI on February 8th
Illustration: The Verge
Google is about to share more about its work in artificial intelligence. Next week, Google will be holding an event about how it’s “using the power of AI to reimagine how people search for, explore and interact with information, making it more natural and intuitive than ever before to find what you need,” according to an invite sent to The Verge. The 40-minute event will be streamed on YouTube on February 8th at 8:30AM ET.
The timing of the event is interesting given that Google CEO Sundar Pichai just announced that the company is planning on letting people “interact directly” with its “newest, most powerful language models as a companion to search” soon. Google, long the de facto way to find information on the internet, is likely facing some pressure from Microsoft, which is reportedly planning on integrating ChatGPT into Bing. That could allow Bing to offer more intelligent summaries and results, which is something that Google has struggled with.
Image: Google
An image from Google’s invite.
Of course, it’s very possible the presentation will be more about tools we’re already familiar with; the invitation contains references to Google Lens, Translate, Shopping, and Maps. It’d be hard to complain if the show is just about small improvements to those tools, as those can make a big difference for some of the millions of people who use them a day.
TikTok’s transparency theater
One of the displays inside TikTok’s Transparency and Accountability Center in Los Angeles. | Photo by Allison Zaucha for The Verge
What I observed during a recent visit to TikTok’s first transparency center.
TikTok is staring down the barrel of an outright ban in the US. It has already been prohibited on federal employee devices, blocked by dozens of universities across the country, and lawmakers are calling for its removal from US app stores.
It’s with that context that I and a handful of other journalists were invited to the company’s Los Angeles headquarters earlier this week for the first media tour of its “Transparency and Accountability Center.” It’s a space that, like the political discussion about TikTok these days, seems more about virtue signaling than anything else. Company officials say the center is designed for regulators, academics, and auditors to learn more about how the app works and its security practices. We were told that a politician-who-would-not-be-named had toured it the day before. TikTok eventually plans to open more centers in Washington, DC, Dublin, and Singapore.
Our tour was part of a multi-week press blitz by TikTok to push Project Texas, a novel proposal to the US government that would partition off American user data in lieu of a complete ban. The CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, was in DC last week giving a similar pitch to policymakers and think tanks. In March, he is expected to testify before Congress for the first time.
Photo by Allison Zaucha for The Verge
What you see when you first enter TikTok’s transparency center.
TikTok isn’t the first embattled tech company to lean on the spectacle of a physical space during a PR crisis. In 2018, Facebook invited journalists to tour its election “War Room,” which was really just a glorified conference room packed with employees staring at social media feeds and dashboards. Photos were taken, stories were written, and then the War Room was closed about a month later.
In a similar way, TikTok’s transparency center is a lot of smoke and mirrors designed to give the impression that it reallycares. Large touchscreens explain how TikTok works at a high level, along with a broad overview of the kind of trust and safety efforts that have become table stakes for any large platform.
A key difference, however, is a room my tour group wasn’t allowed to enter. Behind a wall with Death Star-like mood lighting, TikTok officials said a server room houses the app’s source code for outside auditors to review. Anyone who enters is required to sign a non-disclosure agreement, go through metal detectors, and lock away their phone in a storage locker. (It wasn’t clear who exactly would be permitted to enter the room.)
Photo by Allison Zaucha for The Verge
A room where you can interact with a mock version of the moderation software TikTok uses.
The interactive part of the center I was allowed to experience included a room with iMacs running a mock version of the software TikTok says its moderators use to review content. There was another room with iMacs running “code simulators.” While that sounded intriguing, it was really just a basic explanation of TikTok’s algorithm that seemed designed for a typical member of Congress to grasp. Close-up photos of the computer screens weren’t allowed. And despite it being called a transparency center, TikTok’s PR department made everyone agree to not quote or directly attribute comments made by employees leading the tour.
At the moderator workstation, I was shown some potentially violating videos to review, along with basic information like the accounts that posted them and each video’s number of likes and reshares. When I pulled up one of a man talking into the camera with the caption of “the world bringing up 9/11 to justify Muslims as t3rrori$ts,” the moderator system asked me to select whether it violated one of three policies, including one on “threats and incitement to violence.”
At the code simulator iMac in the other room, I was hoping to learn more about how TikTok’s recommendations system actually works. This was, after all, a physical place you had to travel to. Surely there would be some kind of information I couldn’t find anywhere else?
What I got was this: TikTok starts by using a “coarse machine learning model” to select “a subset of a few thousand videos” from the billions hosted by the app. Then, a “medium machine learning model further narrows the recall pool to a smaller pool of videos” it thinks you’ll be interested in. Lastly, a “fine machine learning model” makes the final pass before serving up videos it thinks you will like in your For You page.
The information displayed was frustratingly vague. One slide read that TikTok “recommends content by ranking videos based on a combination of factors, including the interests that new users convey to TikTok the first time they interact with the app, as well as changing preferences over time.” That’s exactly how you would expect it to work.
Photo by Allison Zaucha for The Verge
Eric Han, head of USDS Trust and Safety at TikTok.
TikTok first tried to open this transparency center in 2020, when then-President Donald Trump was trying to ban the app and Kevin Mayer was its CEO for all of three months. But then the pandemic happened, delaying the center’s opening until now.
In the past three years, TikTok’s trust deficit in DC has only deepened, fueled by a growing anti-China sentiment that started on the right and has since become more bipartisan. The worst revelation was in late December, when the company confirmed that employees improperly accessed the location data of several US journalists as part of an internal leak investigation. That same month, FBI director Chris Wray warned that China could use TikTok to “manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations.”
TikTok’s answer to these concerns is Project Texas, a highly technical, unprecedented plan that would wall off most of TikTok’s US operations from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. To make Project Texas a reality, TikTok is relying on Oracle, whose billionaire founder Larry Ellison leveraged his connections as an influential Republican donor to personally secure Trump’s blessing in the early phase of negotiations. (No one from Oracle was present at the briefing I attended, and my request to speak with someone there for this story wasn’t answered.)
Photo by Allison Zaucha for The Verge
I was given a brief overview of Project Texas before the tour, though I was asked to not quote the employees who presented directly. One graphic I was shown featured a Supreme Court-like building with five pillars showing the issues Project Texas is meant to address: org design, data protection and access control, tech assurance, content assurance, and compliance and monitoring.
TikTok says it has already taken thousands of people and over $1.5 billion to create Project Texas. The effort involves TikTok creating a separate legal entity dubbed USDS with an independent board from ByteDance that reports directly to the US government. More than seven outside auditors, including Oracle, will review all data that flows in and out of the US version of TikTok. Only American user data will be available to train the algorithm in the US, and TikTok says there will be strict compliance requirements for any internal access to US data. If the proposal is approved by the government, it will cost TikTok an estimated $700 million to $1 billion per year to maintain.
Whether Project Texas satisfies the government or not, it certainly seems like it will make working at TikTok more difficult. The US version of TikTok will have to be fully deconstructed, rebuilt, and published by Oracle to US app stores. Oracle will also have to review every app update. Duplicate roles will be created for TikTok in the US, even if the same roles already exist for TikTok elsewhere. And app performance could suffer when Americans are interacting with users and content in other countries since American user data has to be managed inside the country.
Photo by Allison Zaucha for The Verge
One name that wasn’t uttered during the entire briefing: ByteDance. I got the impression that TikTok employees felt uncomfortable talking about their relationship with their parent company.
While ByteDance was directly unacknowledged, its ties to TikTok weren’t hidden, either. The Wi-Fi for the building I was in was named ByteDance and conference room screens in the transparency center displayed Lark, the in-house communications tool ByteDance developed for its employees around the world. At one point during the tour, I tried asking what would hypothetically happen if, once Project Texas is greenlit, a Bytedance employee in China makes an uncomfortable request to an employee in TikTok’s US entity. I was quickly told by a member of TikTok’s PR team that the question wasn’t appropriate for the tour.
Ultimately, I was left with the feeling that, like its powerful algorithm, TikTok built its transparency center to show people what it thinks they want to see. The company seems to have realized that it won’t save itself from a US ban on the technical merits of its Project Texas proposal. The debate is now purely a matter of politics and optics. Unlike the tour I went on, that’s something TikTok can’t control.
It sounds like Google’s getting ready to compete with ChatGPT
Illustration: The Verge
Google may be gearing up to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT by letting people “interact directly” with its “newest, most powerful language models as a companion to search,” according to CEO Sundar Pichai. It would be a big move for the company — as systems like ChatGPT and DALL-E have gone viral, Google — a company that’s been flexing its AI muscles for years and producing tons of research in the area — hasn’t had a public answer to those sorts of tools, some of which could threaten its core businesses.
During an earnings call today, Pichai talked about how the company plans to “unlock the incredible opportunities AI enables,” saying the tech is “reach[ing] an inflection point.” He also says that it was Google’s earlier AI research that helped spawn “the generative AI applications you’re starting to see today.”
As for its own applications, Pichai says the company was planning on doing a lot within the next few months, something it’s been preparing for since “early last year.” Google says the first model people will be able to engage directly with is LaMDA, the company’s conversational AI model, though it’s not exactly clear what form that will take.
With some people talking about how you could use ChatGPT to replace Google search (side note: that does not currently work very well for many reasons), I’m sure the company has been feeling the pressure to do something with all the AI tech it has. In fact, Google reportedly has employees testing its own AI-powered chatbot rivals to ChatGPT right now, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it was doing something similar with its currently internal tools for turning text into images or even video.
It seems like Google might still be taking it slow and won’t be giving people carte blanche access to do whatever they want. (No publically traded company wants to make another Tay.) Pichai says it’s perusing AI with a “deep sense of responsibility.” Later in the call, he said that Google would be the company would be “careful” and would be launching AI “more as labs features in certain cases, beta features in certain cases, and just slowly scaling up from there.”
Still, he says he believes the market is ready for these kinds of products. Whether society may be is an open question, but we’ve clearly seen that people want to play around with AI — and it seems like Google is ready to make its own version available.
Tech’s Biggest Companies Discover Austerity, to the Relief of Investors After years of expansion and billions in profits, Big Tech is pulling back from its famously lavish spending as a long boom finally ends.
Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro supply problems sank its holiday revenues
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Apple reported its Q1 2023 earnings this afternoon. During the holiday quarter, the company took in $117.2 billion of revenue, down 5 percent year over year, and earnings per share of $1.88. It was the first such YOY for Apple since before the covid pandemic. Most of the curiosity around this quarter’s numbers was tied to iPhone sales; in early November, Apple warned of “longer wait times” for its flagship iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. Both phones were hard to come by during the height of the holiday shopping season, though stock has since leveled out.
But the supply issues, combined with consumers being extra mindful of spending amid an uncertain economic outlook, led to an 8 percent drop in iPhone revenue. “As we all continue to navigate a challenging environment, we are proud to have our best lineup of products and services ever, and as always, we remain focused on the long term and are leading with our values in everything we do,” CEO Tim Cook said in Apple’s earnings press release.
The iPhone 14 Pro / Pro Max delays were related to strict restrictions affecting Foxconn, the China-based factory Apple uses to assemble iPhones. Workers clashed with police during protests in the weeks that followed, with employees angry over delayed payments and deteriorating working conditions that stemmed from covid containment measures.
Apple also predicted that Mac sales would “decline substantially” compared to the year-ago quarter. And they sure did, dropping by 29 percent. The company introduced completely redesigned MacBook Pros in October 2021 that drew rave reviews and created buzz throughout the laptop industry. This spurred excitement and sales well beyond the Mac’s typical performance. By comparison, the holiday 2022 lineup was already well established — and the M2 MacBook Air and Mac Studio had already been on the market for a few months.
Apple’s Q1 fiscal quarter did see the introduction of new iPad models, however. The revamped entry-level iPad now has a design that takes after the iPad Pro and iPad Air. The Pro tablets also got a spec bump up to the M2 chip and added a new “hover” feature for the Apple Pencil. iPad revenue was up by 30 percent, signaling that the new models were well received. Wearables (a segment that includes the Apple Watch and AirPods) fell by 8 percent, however.
“During the December quarter, we achieved a major milestone and are excited to report that we now have more than 2 billion active devices as part of our growing installed base,” Cook said. Revenue for Apple’s all-important services division also rose 6 percent. On the software side, Apple rolled out its Emergency SOS via satellite feature for the iPhone 14 lineup in November. And macOS Ventura was released in late October with some useful features like Continuity Camera — though the overhauled settings interface hasn’t gone over well with all users.
Apple is widely expected to introduce a virtual reality headset sometime this spring. The device, rumored to be called Reality Pro, will mark Apple’s debut in a new product category that has been dominated by Meta to this point. There’s a lot riding on the headset after years of development and frequent rumors. Looking further out, the iPhone 15 Pro line is expected to switch over to USB-C, and Apple could finally bow to regulatory pressure and permit third-party app stores on iOS beginning with iOS 17 this fall.
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Image: Google
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Photo by Allison Zaucha for The Verge
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Photo by Allison Zaucha for The Verge
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Photo by Allison Zaucha for The Verge
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Photo by Allison Zaucha for The Verge
