From rising chatter about layoffs to the Apple iPhone’s stringent product placement to the new Xbox specs, this week had something for pretty much everyone. Let’s jump in!
Layoffs Looming?
Dozens of startups are laying off thousands of workers,according to a new analysis by The NewYork Times. At the same time, startups are struggling to raise money—anotable contrast to a few years ago, when banks and venture-capital firmsseemed only too happy to pour millions of dollars into tiny and unproven firms.
Fortnite mobile is trash because it doesn’t even support my device (iPad Air). Pubg is 17+ and I have age restrictions. Rules of survival is also 17+. Sooooooo, what do I play. I’ll play knives out. I start playing the game. Holy sheep it’s so good. Now that this interesting detail has been revealed, it's unclear if Apple will maintain this policy, which could have ramifications on Johnson's upcoming Knives Out sequel.
According to the Times calculations, some 30 startups have cut 8,000 jobs over the past four months. Some of these layoffs have been high profile: In November, for example, a beleaguered WeWork began winding down a significant portion of its workforce in the wake of a failed IPO attempt. In January, e-scooter rental firm Lime slammed the brakes on a few years of explosive growth, laying off 14 percent of its workforce and pulling out of 12 markets—and it wasn’t the only scooter company to retreat.
The big question, of course, is whether this burst oflayoffs is restricted to startups that grew too big too fast, or if there’s abroader rot within the tech industry. Certainly there have been layoffs atlarger and mature firms—for example, Google Cloud recently laid off a “small”number of employees, and VMware willreportedly dismiss a selection. But bigger companies semi-routinely“adjust” their workforces, so reports of relatively small-scale employeedepartures aren’t necessarily an indicator that we’re on the verge of a massiveimplosion.
Throw something like the coronavirus into the mix—with its potentially catastrophic effects on the economy and available funding—and there’s a chance that other tech companies could decide to tighten the belt in coming months. We’ll have to wait and see.
Apple Cinemas Knives Out
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X Marks the (Xbox)Spot
If you’re interested in video games (either playing them,developing them, or both), you’re no doubt aware that Microsoft has a new Xboxin the works. This next-generation device, the Xbox Series X (go ahead, saythat five times fast), features some big firepower for rendering games,including a custom-designed processor that leverages AMD’s Zen 2 and RDNA 2architectures.
“Deliveringfour times the processing power of an Xbox One and enabling developers toleverage 12 TFLOPS of GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) performance—twice that ofan Xbox One X and more than eight times the original Xbox One” is how the Xboxcorporate team’s recent blog post summed up that processing power.
There are also reported upgrades to everything from SSDstorage to support for 120 fps. For game-players, there’s supposedly a gooddeal of backward compatibility with older Xbox platforms. For developers, itwill be interesting to see how Microsoft approaches the tools and portals forbuilding and distributing Xbox games; with Sony poised to unleash a newPlayStation, and Nintendo’s Switch still going strong, a healthy game anddeveloper ecosystem will be a necessary precondition for any kind of marketvictory.
Apple Tv + Knives Out
Apple Has Its Knives Out
Hollywood has a long, proud tradition of allowing product placement in films and television shows—sometimes it’s E.T. eating Reese’s Pieces, and every so often, you get something like 2013’s “The Internship,” which was essentially a two-hour advertisement for Google (and a very serious contender for the un-funniest “comedy” of the decade).
What’s interesting is when companies don’t want their products featured in certain contexts. Accordingto Rian Johnson, director of the mystery film “Knives Out” (as well as “TheLast Jedi,” arguably the best “Star Wars” film), Apple really doesn’t wantcinematic villains using an iPhone. Ever.
Apple Knives Out Trailer
“Apple, they let you use iPhones in movies, but—and this isvery pivotal if you’re ever watching a mystery movie—bad guys cannot haveiPhones on camera,” Johnson told VanityFair (hat tip to ArsTechnica for the link). He added: “Every single filmmaker that has abad guy in their movie that’s supposed to be a secret wants to murder me rightnow.”
If Apple gives filmmakers free iPhones as product placement, the company can almost certainly dictate how those phones are used. But if the filmmakers buy the devices on their own, it’s hard to see how Apple could determine their use. In any case, who’s shocked that Apple might potentially be super, ah, prickly detail-oriented about product placement? Not us!
Have a great weekend, everyone!