layoffs – Latest Apple News

Google lays off hundreds in Pixel, AR, Nest, Voice Assistant, Fitbit, and other teams

tigaman webdesign — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 13:57:01 +0000

Alphabet subsidiary Google said on Wednesday it is laying off hundreds of employees across multiple teams, with Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman also leaving the company, as the monopoly-abusing advertising company masquerading as a search engine continues to cut costs.

Reuters:
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Google said it will lay off hundreds at its Voice Assistant unit, while a few hundred roles are being eliminated in the hardware team responsible for Pixel, Nest and Fitbit, with the majority of people in the augmented reality (AR) team being let go. Hundreds of roles in the search giant’s central engineering team are also being impacted, the company said.

The spokesperson did not specify the number of roles being impacted. It is not immediately clear how many people are part of the Google Assistant software and other teams.

In January 2023, Alphabet announced plans to cut 12,000 jobs, equivalent to 6% of its global workforce.

As of September 2023, Alphabet had 182,381 employees globally.

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MacDailyNews Take: They’ve destroyed Fitbit by enticing some users to move their accounts into a Google ghetto with no way to return, and with no advanced warning that would be the case, unable to see their friends’ and family members’ steps for years or longer. Pixel has always been a flop, with a tiny subset of deluded users intent on handicapping themselves instead of getting real iPhones. Google still had an AR team? lol. So, all of this is no surprise.
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Spotify is booting legacy subscribers still paying via Apple’s App Store

tigaman webdesign — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 11:54:50 +0000

Affected Spotify Premium subscribers can re-subscribe after their account has been moved to the free membership tier. | Nick Barclay / The Verge

It’s been over seven years since Spotify stopped allowing new customers to subscribe to its Premium tier membership through Apple’s in-app purchase system, and now the streaming giant is dropping support for the payment method entirely. As reported by Variety, Spotify has recently emailed legacy Premium subscribers who are still paying through the Apple App Store to notify them that they will need to resubscribe to the service using an alternative payment system, like PayPal or a credit card, at the end of their final billing period.

“We’re contacting you because when you joined Spotify Premium you used Apple’s billing service to subscribe. Unfortunately, we no longer accept that billing method as a form of payment,” Spotify said in the email, informing affected customers that their account will be automatically switched to the platform’s free, ad-supported service after the final payment has been taken. “If you wish to keep your Premium subscription, you will need to re-subscribe after your last billing period has ended and your account has been moved on to the Free account.”

In a statement to Variety, a Spotify spokesperson confirmed that the company has started notifying “a small number of users that a legacy payment method, that their Premium account is attached to, is being deprecated.” According to the spokesperson, these actions will “help ensure that [it] can continue to provide a consistent best-in-class subscription experience for all our users.”

Spotify stopped accepting Premium subscriptions via the App Store in 2016 to avoid paying up to a 30 percent commission to Apple for in-app purchases, just under two years after the audio streaming company had introduced the payment system to its platform. Customers who subscribed via the App Store were charged an additional $3 per-month to prevent Apple’s fee from cutting into Spotify’s revenue.

Spotify later filed an antitrust complaint against Apple with the European Union in 2019, arguing that the iPhone maker’s App Store policies were harming competition. The streamer had also taken issue with a similar fee for Google’s Play Store, but last year Spotify and Google announced a pilot program that would give Spotify customers the choice of paying using either Spotify’s or Google’s payment system in select markets. Google is still charging a fee for these purchases, but has said it’s reduced by 4 percent versus the standard rate.

The update to App Store payments is unlikely to affect many of Spotify’s existing customers. In 2019, Variety notes that Apple published a regulatory filing revealing it had collected subscription payment fees for 680,000 Spotify subscribers — less than one percent of Spotify’s 100 million Premium subs at that time. As of Spotify’s Q4 earnings report for 2022, the service has since surpassed 200 million paid subscribers.

Despite praise for Apple Vision Pro, ‘Pokemon Go’ dev evolves into smaller company

tigaman webdesign — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 19:59:47 +0000

Niantic, the game developer behind the popular augmented reality title ‘Pokemon Go’, is moving ahead with major layoffs even as the company co-founder and CEO calls out Apple Vision Pro for laying the groundwork for an even more robust AR future.

Pokemon GO

The founder and CEO of the company, John Hanke, recently published an email he originally sent to Niantic employees detailing the major organizational changes coming to the company. Those will include layoffs from across the company, an entire studio shutting down, and games not called Pokemon Go getting cancelled altogether.

Pokémon GO maker says Apple Vision Pro validates their work as it closes studio and cancels games

tigaman webdesign — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 16:56:27 +0000

Speaking of tech industry layoffs, the makers of Pokémon GO are proving that they’re not immune to growing too fast either. Niantic announced today that it is closing its LA studio and cancelling new and upcoming AR game titles.

more…

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Plex hit with layoffs as ad-supported streaming service fails to deliver profits for media server company

tigaman webdesign — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 15:19:11 +0000

It’s been a tough week at Plex where the company has decided to let go of 20% of its workforce. Plex CEO Keith Valory blamed an unpredictable advertising market for the need to downsize.

more…

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Apple to replace closed Northlake Mall store with Birkdale Village store in North Carolina

tigaman webdesign — Fri, 23 Jun 2023 20:01:51 +0000

Apple in March permanently shut down its retail stores in Charlotte, North Carolina, after the mall where it’s located suffered at least three shootings in recent months. At the time, Apple’s website stated, “In preparation for a new store we plan to open in the Charlotte area early next year, we will be permanently closing Wednesday, March 1st at 4pm.”

Apple Northlake Mall

Tech giant Apple Inc. is bringing a retail store to Huntersville’s Birkdale Village.

The town’s planning department confirmed today that a permit for an Apple Store there has been filed and approved. The Birkdale Village location stands to replace the Apple Store that abruptly shuttered at Northlake Mall earlier this year.

Construction has kicked off on the project at 8805 Townley Road — formerly home to Girl Supply and Pier One Imports. Mecklenburg County permits show the project is valued at $8.6 million.

Birkdale Village owner North American Properties is listed as the owner on the permit, which describes only retail store improvements. Roughly 9,800 square feet is to be renovated, with landlord improvements to prepare the space for a new tenant layout and modification of the exterior. The tenant scope of work will include improvement of the existing leased space with non-structural partitions, ceilings, finishes, furniture and related infrastructure work.

MacDailyNews Take: At the time of the Charlotte-area closings, Apple told employees that there will be no layoffs and that staff at the Northlake Mall site would be transferred to the nearby SouthPark location in Charlotte or roles working at the company’s online store.

Bloomberg News‘ Mark Gurman reported in March that the company would be opening a new location in Charlotte in 2024 to replace the Northlake Mall store. Plans for that store were already in the works before the recent shootings, Gurman reported.

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Sonos slashes jobs and shrinks real estate presence in cost-cutting drive

tigaman webdesign — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 15:08:50 +0000

Sonos has revealed plans to lay off 7% of its workforce, and downsize its real estate presence, as the latest tech company to eliminate jobs.

Sonos announces layoffs

The company, which specializes in designing and manufacturing smart speakers and audio products, announced the layoffs in a filing with the SEC, according to Seeking Alpha. The process of eliminating positions must comply with specific legal obligations and consultation requirements in particular countries.

Sonos slashes jobs and shrinks real estate presence in cost-cutting drive

tigaman webdesign — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 15:08:50 +0000

Sonos has revealed plans to lay off 7% of its workforce, and downsize its real estate presence, as the latest tech company to eliminate jobs.

Sonos announces layoffs

Sonos slashes jobs and shrinks real estate presence in cost-cutting drive

tigaman webdesign — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 14:56:32 +0000

Sonos has revealed plans to lay off 7% of its workforce, and downsize its real estate presence, as the latest tech company to eliminate jobs.

Sonos announces layoffs

Sonos announces it needs to layoff 7% of employees and reduce real estate

tigaman webdesign — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 13:44:24 +0000

In a new filing with the SEC, Sonos has announced changes it’s making to cut costs. Unfortunately one of those is letting go of roughly 7% of its employees while another measure is slimming down its real estate footprint.

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