Wednesday’s top tech news: layoffs come for Microsoft – The Verge

Ted Lasso’s third season kicks off this spring

2023-01-18T17:55:37-05:00

Nick Mohammed and Jason Sudeikis in season 3 of Ted Lasso. | Image: Apple

Apple announced that one of its biggest streaming series will return later this year. While we don't have a specific date just yet, Apple says that season 3 of Ted Lasso will premiere on Apple TV Plus in the spring of 2023.

We don't know much about the new season yet, but Apple did release a new image that shows Jason Sudeikis' Lasso and Nick Mohammed's Nate facing off, now as rival coaches. Given the way season 2 ended, that relationship looks to be a big part of the new storyline. Previously, writer, star, and real human being Brett Goldstein suggested that the third season could be the last for the sports sitcom.

Ted Lasso first kicked …

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Elon Musk’s tweets take center stage in opening day of his securities fraud trial

2023-01-18T17:54:52-05:00

Elon Musk tweets, and "regular people" watch their fortunes evaporate.

That was the argument put before a jury by lawyers representing a class of Tesla investors in opening arguments in Musk's securities fraud trial, which kicked off today in a courtroom in San Francisco. The plaintiffs are arguing that Musk's 2018 tweets about taking Tesla private, in which he said he had "funding secured," led them to lose millions of dollars.

"His lies caused regular people, like Glen Littleton, to lose millions and millions of dollars," attorney Nicholas Porritt said Wednesday, referring to the lead plaintiff in the class-action case. In order for mark …

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Apple is reportedly working on an iPad-like smart display

2023-01-18T17:51:40-05:00

Apple is working on a brand-new slew of smart home devices, at least according to a report by Bloomberg.

In addition to the very similar but Matter-equipped relaunch of the original HomePod, Apple appears to be pushing deeper into the home space with a smaller display akin to a Google Nest Hub or Amazon's Echo Show. According to sources close to the discussions, the device would be similar to an iPad but less expensive, oriented toward home use, and would include a magnet for mounting. The device would appear to be more limited in scope than an iPad and would mainly be used for FaceTime chats, as well as controlling other smart home devices …

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Apple’s retrofuturistic series Hello Tomorrow wants to fly you to the Moon in first trailer

2023-01-18T14:40:51-05:00

Apple has slowly been building an interesting library of sci-fi on its streaming service, from gigantic epics to near-future horror stories. But the upcoming series Hello Tomorrow goes in a different direction. The retrofuturistic vision of the future is about a team of salespeople, led by a character played by Billy Crudup, hocking timeshares on the Moon.

Here's the official logline:

Crudup stars as Jack, a salesman of great talent and ambition, whose unshakeable faith in a brighter tomorrow inspires his coworkers, revitalizes his desperate customers, but threatens to leave him dangerously lost in the very dream that sustains him.

The 10 …

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Apple is turning on the HomePod Mini’s secret temperature and humidity sensor

2023-01-18T12:32:03-05:00

The HomePod Mini has been hiding a secret sensor that can detect the temperature and humidity at home. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Apple debuted an updated HomePod speaker today, and one of the new features is its ability to track temperature and humidity with a built-in sensor. As it turns out, those are things that the smaller, cheaper HomePod Mini can do, too - even the ones that may already be in your home.

The company quietly added a feature overview to its website, indicating that Apple plans to switch on a latent temperature and humidity sensor that has been in the devices since launch but couldn't previously be used. Having this sensor means you won't need to buy a separate gadget to measure temperature or humidity and run Apple Home automations to, say, turn o …

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Shell is acquiring EV charging network Volta for $169 million

2023-01-18T11:53:26-05:00

Shell USA, best known for its gasoline fill-up stations, is acquiring electric vehicle charging network Volta through a full cash purchase of all its common stock. The transaction, worth $169 million, is set to close in the first half of 2023.

Volta is the second US EV charging company to come under the Shell brand since Greenlots was acquired by Royal Dutch Shell in 2019. Volta currently operates 3,050 destination chargers across 31 states and Europe. According to the press release, the company is already planning to install another 3,400 stalls over an undisclosed period of time.

Volta operates 3,050 EV chargers in the US and Europe and h …

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How the new MacBook Pros compare to the rest of Apple’s MacBook lineup

2023-01-18T10:55:48-05:00

Both the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro will be configurable with either Apple’s M2 Pro or M2 Max chip. | Image: Apple

Apple recently announced some new additions to its Mac lineup - specifically a new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro as well as a revamped Mac Mini. The new Mac laptops can be configured with either an M2 Pro or M2 Max CPU, which Apple says should provide significant performance gains when stacked against the standard M2 processors employed by the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

Both models are already available for preorder online, with units shipping on January 24th. The latest 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999, with configurations of the 16-inch version capable of reaching up to $3,499. However, this price range is a far cry fro …

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on GPT-4: ‘people are begging to be disappointed and they will be’

2023-01-18T09:55:08-05:00

OpenAI is the creator of AI chatbot ChatGPT. | Image: OpenAI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has addressed rumors regarding GPT-4 - the company's as yet unreleased language model and latest in the GPT-series that forms the foundation of AI chatbot ChatGPT - saying that "people are begging to be disappointed and they will be."

During an interview with StrictlyVC, Altman was asked if GPT-4 will come out in the first quarter or half of the year, as many expect. He responded by offering no certain timeframe. "It'll come out at some point, when we are confident we can do it safely and responsibly," he said.

GPT-3 came out in 2020, and an improved version, GPT 3.5, was used to create ChatGPT. The launch of GPT-4 is …

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Microsoft set to lay off thousands of employees

2023-01-18T09:45:04-05:00

Update January 18th, 9:45AM ET: In a memo issued Wednesday morning, Microsoft confirmed plans to fire over 10,000 employees by the end of March. The original story continues below.

Microsoft is preparing to announce job cuts tomorrow. Sky News reports that thousands of roles will be cut, with the software giant said to be looking at cutting around 5 percent of its workforce. With more than 220,000 employees at Microsoft, that could mean more than 10,000 layoffs.

While Sky News doesn't name an exact date for the expected cuts, a source familiar with Microsoft's plans tells The Verge that the company will likely announce layoffs on Wednesday …

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Coffee makers and statues: Twitter starts auctioning off assets from its San Francisco headquarters

2023-01-18T09:42:17-05:00

This tasteful neon sign could be yours if you outbid the current $22,000 offer. | Image: Heritage Global Partners

If you've been looking to kit out a startup, then here's a chance to grab some deals - along with some recognizably bird-themed memorabilia. Twitter has placed hundreds of items from its San Francisco headquarters for sale via an online auction, with listings including various artwork of the Twitter bird logo, designer office furniture, and a full range of expensive kitchen equipment.

The sale follows Twitter CEO Elon Musk's attempts to cut back on company expenses amid numerous financial difficulties and after firing nearly two-thirds of the company's 7,500-person workforce in 2022. In December, The New York Times also reported that Twitte …

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