Author: daudgill01

Uber’s ride business has reportedly fallen by 80 percent from a year earlier. Enlarge / An Uber car in 2019. Uber will lay off 3,700 people from its customer support and recruiting teams, the company announced in a Wednesday regulatory filing. That figure represents 14 percent of Uber’s 26,900 employees, CNBC reports. Uber has already frozen hiring, and CEO Dara Khosrowshahi … Continue reading Uber lays off 3,700 people as its ride business craters Continue Reading →

Google I/O isn’t happening this year, but we’ll get all the normal info next month. Enlarge / Apparently, this is happening next month. The coronavirus pandemic has turned everyone’s daily life upside down, and Google is no exception. Today the company is finally reflecting that reality in the Android 11 release schedule and delaying the first beta of Android 11, … Continue reading Google delays Android 11 Beta, announces I/O replacement event for June 3 Continue Reading →

Peer review moves to Twitter, muddling public health information. A significant difference between COVID-19 and past pandemics—even the 2009 outbreak of H1N1—has been the speed with which information on the disease has spread. Partly, that’s down to social media, as platforms like Twitter have been embraced by scientists and doctors. But another major factor has … Continue reading The preprint problem: Unvetted science is fueling COVID-19 misinformation Continue Reading →

PoP: Redemption video has hid in plain sight since 2012, elicits former devs’ response. Enlarge / What could have been. The classic computer gaming series Prince of Persia has enjoyed a long, healthy life as a fan favorite—both in its ’80s side-scrolling form and its mid-’00s rebirth as a 3D series. But after 2010’s PoP: The Forgotten Sands, the series’ newer handlers at Ubisoft … Continue reading Prince of Persia concept video appears—and confirms why series has been dormant Continue Reading →

High-end lidar once cost $75,000. Luminar says its lidar costs less than $1,000. Enlarge / A Volvo roofline with integrated Luminar lidar sensor. Volvo will begin producing vehicles with powerful lidar sensors from startup Luminar, the Swedish company announced on Wednesday. It’s a significant milestone for the automotive industry as well as a major coup for Luminar. Volvo invested … Continue reading Volvo plans cars with lidar and “eyes off” highway driving by 2022 Continue Reading →

Arc brings a new design and feature set, while the Play:5 is now just the Five. Enlarge / The new Sonos Arc in white with the updated Sonos Sub. Sonos on Wednesday unveiled the Sonos Arc, its latest premium soundbar for the living room. The new device will replace the aging Playbar soundbar, which launched in 2013, … Continue reading The Sonos Arc is the long-awaited Playbar update with Dolby Atmos support Continue Reading →

“There will be no social distancing in place,” union rep wrote to city leaders. Enlarge / The city of San Luis Obispo in 2013. There’s a battle raging in California over the future of natural gas. Environmentalists want building codes to encourage new buildings to be electrically heated in order to reduce carbon emissions. Natural gas utilities … Continue reading Union rep apparently threatens coronavirus infections to stop clean energy rule Continue Reading →

Consumers are starting to see meat shortages after thousands of workers fall ill. Enlarge / Smithfield Foods pork plant in South Dakota is closed indefinitely in the wake of its coronavirus outbreak. Meat- and poultry-processing facilities have become hotspots for COVID-19 outbreaks, with cases spreading in over 100 plants across the country. Federal and state public health … Continue reading COVID-19 wallops meat plant workers; shortages hit shelves, fast food Continue Reading →