The Morning After: Meta lays off an additional 10,000 workers
And Zuckerberg calls it the ‘year of efficiency.’
Meta has announced another expansive round of layoffs to cut costs. CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the company is letting go of another 10,000 workers and closing "around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven’t yet hired." This follows layoffs of around 11,000 employees last year. The company is reducing the size of its recruiting team and will inform affected employees later today. It’ll then announce layoff and restructuring efforts of its tech departments in late April and business teams in late May. Zuckerberg, who will soon go on paternity leave for his third child, recently described 2023 as a "year of efficiency.” He added in his note: "I think we should prepare ourselves for the possibility that this new economic reality will continue for many years."
– Mat Smith
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Google is putting its chatbot AI smarts into Gmail, Docs, Sheets and more
The updates will begin for US users by the end of the month.
Google’s catch-up with ChatGPT continues, and the company is bringing its own take on next-gen chatbots and AI assistance to, well, all of its Workspace products. According to the company, you’ll be able to "draft, reply, summarize and prioritize" emails, "brainstorm, proofread, write and rewrite" text documents, autogenerate images and even video with Slides, have Sheets create formulas autonomously and automate transcription notes in Meet video calls.
Fitbit won't make you pay for your own weekly health data anymore
You'll no longer need to pay $10 a month to see information for the past 30 or 90 days.
One of our biggest complaints about Fitbit products is that $10 monthly fee to see your historical data. Until now, you could only see up to seven days' worth of your breathing rate, resting heart rate and heart rate variation, and just 90 days of everything else, without paying for a subscription. Today, Google announced it's making "more of the insightful data from Fitbit's Health Metrics Dashboard available without a subscription to all of its users." You can now check 30- and 90-day views of your data, without paying for it.
It took a TikToker barely 30 minutes to doxx me
Kristen Sotakoun found out way too much about me in a consensual test of my online security.
In 30 minutes or less, TikToker and Chicago-based server Kristen Sotakoun can find out your birthday. “My first thing is to be entertaining. My second thing is to show you cracks in your social media, which was the totally accidental thing that I became on TikTok.” Sotakoun, who goes by @notkahnjunior, calls it “consensual doxxing.” Engadget’s Katie Malone offered her social media profiles up to the test.
YouTube TV adds multiview streaming in time for March Madness
You'll be limited to sports during the early access phase.
YouTube TV is rolling out an early access multiview feature showing up to four sports streams simultaneously. Visit the Top Picks For You section and you can pick from pre-chosen multiview groups, such as NCAA March Madness games. There's a full-screen view for each match and you can switch the audio and captioning to the stream that captures your attention. The feature works on smart TVs and living room media players that run YouTube TV. You won't need a high-powered device as all the processing to YouTube's servers – your hardware only has to handle one feed.
Litter Robot 4 review: A great but imperfect self-cleaning litter box
Would you pay $699 to avoid scooping litter?
OK, I’ll say it: I would pay that much to avoid scooping up pet poop.
