Category: UNCATEGORIZED

Uber has laid off 435 employees across its product and engineering teams, the company announced today. Combined, the layoffs represent about 8% of the organizations, with 170 people leaving the product team and 265 people leaving the engineering team.

The layoffs had no effect on Eats, which is one of Uber’s top-performing products, and Freight, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Meanwhile, the company is lifting the hiring freeze on the product and engineering teams that has been in effect since early August, according to the source.

“Our hope with these changes is to reset and improve how we work day to day—ruthlessly prioritizing, and always holding ourselves accountable to a high bar of performance and agility,” an Uber spokesperson told TechCrunch. “While certainly painful in the moment, especially for those directly affected, we believe that this will result in a much stronger technical organization, which going forward will continue to hire some of the very best talent around the world.”

Of those laid off, more than 85% are based in the U.S., 10% in the Asia-Pacific and 5% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to the source.

The layoffs came after Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi asked every member of his executive leadership team if they were to start from scratch, would their respective organizations would look like the way they do today.

“After careful consideration, our Engineering and Product leaders concluded the answer to this question in many respects was no,” the spokesperson said.

Those leaders are Chief Product Officer Manik Gupta and CTO Thuan Pham. They looked at team size, identified duplicate roles and overlapping work, as well as individual performance to determine who would be laid off, the source said. That’s how they landed on focusing more on the design and research teams from the product side.

“Previously, to meet the demands of a hyper-growth startup, we hired rapidly and in a decentralized way,” the spokesperson said. “While this worked for Uber in the past, now that we have over 27,000 full-time employees in cities around the world, we need to shift how we design our organizations: lean, exceptionally high-performing teams, with clear mandates and the ability to execute faster than our competitors.”

These layoffs come shortly after Uber laid off 400 people from its marketing team. In Q2 2019, Uber lost more than $5 billion — its biggest quarterly revenue loss to date — though a chunk of its losses were a result of stock-based compensation expenses for employees following the company’s IPO in May. While it may seem these layoffs are in response to those quarterly losses, Uber says the conversations have been ongoing.

As Uber layoffs its W-2 employees, it’s simultaneously investing in ensuring its 1099 independent contractors remain classified in that way. In light of gig worker protection bill AB-5 advancing through the California legislature, Uber, along with Lyft and DoorDash, put $30 million toward a 2020 ballot initiative that would enable them to keep their drivers as independent contractors. If AB-5 passes, Uber would see a significant uptick in costs.

Uber is currently trading at $33.14 per share, well below its IPO pricing of $45.

Here’s Uber’s full statement:

Our CEO has asked everyone on our management team a simple but important question: if we started from scratch, would we design our organizations as they stand today? After careful consideration, our Engineering and Product leaders concluded the answer to this question in many respects was no. Previously, to meet the demands of a hyper-growth startup, we hired rapidly and in a decentralized way.

While this worked for Uber in the past, now that we have over 27,000 full-time employees in cities around the world, we need to shift how we design our organizations: lean, exceptionally high-performing teams, with clear mandates and the ability to execute faster than our competitors.

Today, we’re making some changes to get us back on track, which include reducing the size of some teams to ensure we are staffed appropriately against our top priorities. These were incredibly difficult calls as it means some of our employees no longer have a role, specifically around 170 people in our Product group and 265 people in Engineering, which is roughly 8 percent of those two orgs.

Our hope with these changes is to reset and improve how we work day to day—ruthlessly prioritizing, and always holding ourselves accountable to a high bar of performance and agility. While certainly painful in the moment, especially for those directly affected, we believe that this will result in a much stronger technical organization, which going forward will continue to hire some of the very best talent around the world.

We just closed our $11 million Series A financing, and within 15 minutes of the news hitting the wire, the weirdness began. It turns out that once you announce to the world that you have money, everyone wants a piece. Some want to earn your business, some actually want your business, some want you to move your business, and others just want to straight-up steal your business.

These are the weird things that no one tells you will happen after you close your round that I’m hoping you will find helpful, insightful and maybe spare you a headache or two.

While Apple’s big event today was largely focused on the iPhone 11 and other new devices, the company also offered updates on its soon-to-launch subscription services Apple Arcade and TV+ — and it released the first trailer for the TV+ series “See.”

As you can, uh, see in the trailer above (you try writing this article without accidental puns), the series features “Aquman” star Jason Momoa in a story about a world where humans have lost their sense of sight. It will be written by “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight and directed by Francis Lawrence (who helmed the last three “Hunger Games” movies).

This follows the release of trailers for the TV+ shows “The Morning Show,” “For All Mankind” and “Dickinson.”

“See” will launch on November 1 with Apple TV+, which will cost $4.99 per month. And you can get one year for free with the purchase of select Apple hardware.

Apple is announcing new iPhone models today. The iPhone 11 uses an Apple A13 Bionic system-on-a-chip. It is faster than the A12 Bionic in the iPhone XR, XS and XS Max.

But how much faster exactly? According to Apple, Apple is making the fastest GPU and CPU for a smartphone.

Worse, the company showed two charts with no X-axis. With this chart, CPU performance of the A13 Bionic could be 2% faster or 248% faster than CPU performance of the A12 Bionic. The same thing applies for GPU performance. I guess we’ll have to wait for benchmarks.

It reminds me of another technology company that is well-known for its charts with no numbers…

It’s one of the most anticipated days in the tech world. Today, Apple has unveiled the iPhone 11.

So without any further ado, let’s get into some of the details.

Design

The iPhone 11 sports an anondized aluminum and glass design, which Apple claims is the toughest ever smartphone glass. Surprisingly, it comes in a handful of colors: white, green, yellow, purple, black and red. This next-gen iPhone also has a 6.1-inch liquid Retina display, with the expected tap-to-wake functionality and haptic feedback.

Camera

Apple clearly put a lot of energy into the iPhone 11 camera, which has a dual-camera set up: one 12mp wide lens, 26mm f/1.8 and an ultra wide 12mp f/2.4 sensor. The wide-angle dual-camera set up actually lets users snap a pic and zoom out to see what’s beyond the frame, which should be helpful for those expansive landscape shots.

On the software side, Apple has introduced a new image pipeline that does over a trillion operations for every photo. The company has added ‘semantic rendering’, which adjusts the lighting on photos retroactively based on the subjects. This helps to isolate and enhance facial features so tone mapping can be applied more accurately in portraits. Plus, portrait mode effects can now be applied to subjects other than humans, like pets.

iPhone 11 also features a new Night Mode to compete with the likes of Samsung and Google, which uses image fusion and adaptive bracketing — shorter and longer exposures — melded together to reduce motion and blur make for better low light images.

Developing… Please refresh

Apple is launching a new Research app for Apple Watch owners that will allow people to opt to privately contribute to health research by sharing the data collected from the smartwatch and its many sensors, as well as the Apple Health app. The news of the app was announced today at Apple’s iPhone press event, alongside that of a trio of new health studies and the next-generation Apple Watch Series 5.

As an example of the sort of data users could contribute through the Apple Watch, the company detailed a few new studies with partners like the University of Michigan, the World Health Organization, Harvard School of Public Health, the NIH, the American Heart Association, and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The topics to be studied included the long-term effects of sounds on your hearing health; how menstrual cycles can inform the screenings for infertility and osteoporosis; and how activity and movement impacts overall health.

Before, people who wanted to opt into health studies through Apple’s partnerships would have installed a specialized app on their iOS device dedicated to that study alone. The new Research app will instead allow for a single portal for this sort of opt-in activity.

Apple also promised to respect users’ data privacy, saying that “you decide what data you want to share” with the studies, and that Apple cannot access any information that directly identifies you.

The Research app will launch in the U.S. later this year.

Apple introduced some new Apple Watch models at a press conference. The Apple Watch Series 5 has an always-on display. It seems to look just like the Apple Watch Series 4.

“Apple Watch puts groundbreaking health, fitness and communication capabilities on the wrist of millions and millions of people,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said. He then introduced a video segment showing how Apple Watch users are healthier.

The Apple Watch automatically adjusts the brightness of the new always-on display. When you lower your wrist, the brightness goes down. It features an LTPO display with an adaptive refresh rate. It can go down to 1Hz, or one screen refresh per second. That’s how Apple can reach 18 hours of battery life with a display that stays on.

The new Apple Watch also features a built-in compass. There’s a new app that tells you your latitude, longitude and direction. It could be particularly useful when you’re hiking.

When it comes to emergency calling, Apple is extending emergency calling to 150 countries. When you press and hold down the side button, it automatically calls local emergency services.

Aluminum models come in silver, gold and space gray. Those cases are now made from recycled aluminum. Stainless steel models come in gold, space black and and polished.

And finally, there are two new titanium models (brushed and brushed space black) and a ceramic model. Apple is refreshing special editions of the Apple Watch with Nike and Hermès as well.

Apple Watch Series 5 with a GPS starts at $399 (for the aluminum model). For $499, you also get a cellular modem. Pre-orders start today and they will be available on September 20. The Apple Watch Series 3 first introduced in 2017 now starts at $199.

Apple also announced three new health research studies with health facilities. Apple is starting a hearing study with the World Health Organization and the University of Michigan, a women’s health study with NIH and Harvard thanks to the new cycle tracking feature, and a heart and movement study with the American Heart Association and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Today, was supposed to be all about the iPhones but Apple took some time to offer a hardware refresh to the entry-level iPad. Things are largely the same, but the updates aren’t driving the entry-level device’s price any higher.

The 7th generation tablet now sports a 10.2″ display, upgraded from the previous 9.7″ variety. The updated iPad also supports the first-generation Apple Pencil and the company’s Smart Keyboard. The device will continue to start at $329.

The device notably still has a home button and some healthy bezels, so it’s not a major design revamp just an extra half-inch of display for users.

Keeping the entry-level price is notable, especially as Apple’s most expensive iPads are more costly than they’ve ever been. The more low-powered entry-level iPad will still be running the same OS as the higher-end iPad Pros.

The device is available for pre-order today and ships September 30.

The Volkswagen ID.3 that debuted ahead of the IAA International Motor Show in Frankfurt looks like a compact hatchback. And it is.

But inside customers might feel like they’re sitting in a bigger car, thanks to how engineers and designers took advantage of the electric architecture. Without having to contend with an internal combustion engine, there was more room to play around with. A high-voltage flat battery is in the underbody to save space, as well as auxiliary units, such as air conditioning compressor or steering rack, that have been integrated into the vehicle front end.

The ID.3 is as long as a VW Golf, but because it has shorter overhangs, the wheelbase is larger.

Here’s an up close look at the interior. 

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As a quick recap, the five-seater ID.3 will go into production this year. The all-electric vehicle, which is not coming to the U.S., will start landing in customers’ hands in spring 2020.

The first vehicle to go into production is a special edition called the ID.3 1ST. The special edition will come with a 58 kWh-battery pack with a range of up to 420 kilometers, or about 260 miles, and be offered in three equipment variants. The ID.3 1ST will start under 40,000 euros ($44,200).

Apple today formally announced its launch plans for its new TV streaming service, Apple TV+, which will be available starting on November 1st, 2019 and will cost just $4.99 per month for the whole family. The service will be available across Apple’s platforms in over 100 countries through the Apple TV app.

As an unexpected surprise, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that when buy an Apple device — including an iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple TV — you’ll get a year of Apple TV+ for free.

According to Cook, only some of the shows will be available at launch. Others will be added every month.

A higher price point of $9.99 per month was previously reported by Bloomberg, which would have made Apple TV+ more expensive than rivals like the $6.99 per month Disney+, $5.99 per month Hulu (with ads), or the $8.99 per month single screen Netflix plan. It would have been less expensive than Netflix’s $12.99 per month standard plan.

The $4.99 per month price undercuts all. And bundling a free year with new Apple hardware should boost sales as well.

Apple’s entry into the TV streaming market has been public for some time thanks to leaks and reports from Hollywood media news sites and announcements of programs from Apple itself. The company then officially introduced Apple TV+ this March at a special event focused on the company’s services and subscriptions.

The event brought out a cavalcade of stars to discuss their involvement in the new streaming platform, including Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell, Reese Witherspoon, Jason Momoa, Alfre Woodard, Kumail Nanjiani, J.J. Abrams, Sara Bareilles, and even Big Bird.

Some of the more anticipated shows arriving include a morning show drama starring Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston; a Witherspoon-backed comedy based on Curtis Sittenfeld’s “You Think It, I’ll Say It;” a thriller called “Truth Be Told” starring Octavia Spencer; a revival of “Amazing Stories” exec-produced by Steven Spielberg; a new space drama “For All Mankind” from “Battlestar Galactica’s” creator Ronald D. Moore; a show from “La La Land” director Damien Chazelle; an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation;” original shows produced by Oprah Winfrey; a psychological thriller “Servant” produced by M. Night Shyamalan; an animated series called “Central Park” from “Bob’s Burgers” creator, and many others.

(Here’s a full list.)

Despite the numerous high-profile names attached, Apple’s service isn’t really a Netflix alternative. There’s not a big back catalog of licensed TV shows and movies, as you’d find elsewhere. Instead, the focus is on original content. If you want more, Apple TV Channels offers paid subscriptions to other premium services.

As Apple SVP Eddy Cue told attendees at SXSW 2018: “we’re not after quantity, we’re after quality.”

Services, like Apple Music, iCloud and AppleCare, have been a bigger focus for Apple in recent years, and may even become its most profitable sector, according to reports. As of its third-quarter earnings, Apple reported its services revenues, which include App Store fees, subscriptions, and other online services, had grown to $11.456 billion. At the same time, the iPhone made up less than half of Apple’s business.

The slowing iPhone sales have to do with the quality of the devices — even older models are still very good, and the improvements in new versions are not enough to prompt as frequent upgrades. To diversify, Apple has been focused on growing services revenues with launches like Apple News+, Apple Arcade, and now Apple TV+.

Apple is also clearly willing to spend in order to grow its media business further.

Last year, Apple had said it would spend around a billion dollars acquiring ten shows for the streaming TV service. But it later signed deals with Oprah, Steven Spielberg, and Sesame Workshop, which likely pushed that number much higher. A newer report from the Financial Times in August claimed the figure was now around $6 billion instead. 

What we don’t yet know is how well Apple’s investment will attract new subscribers in a market where there’s an increasing number of services offering premium, award-winning on-demand content, including Netflix, HBO, Hulu, and soon, Disney+.

The few trailers Apple has released so far have been fairly iffy — the first one of “The Morning Show” almost felt like a parody, while the latest, “Dickinson” seems to have turned the celebrated poet Emily Dickinson into a CW-style feminist punk rock hero.

Apple said the trailers had been watched over 100 million times.

At the event, it unveiled the trailer for the post-apocalyptic drama starring  Jason Momoa, “See,” which is Apple TV+’s take on Netflix’s “Bird Box,” apparently. It takes place in a world where all have gone blind.

As media critics finally get their hands on the shows for reviews, we’ll know more about whether Apple TV+ is worth the price.

“Our mission for Apple TV+ is to bring you the best original stories from the most creative minds in television and film,” said Cook, speaking to the audience at the iPhone press event today. “Stories that help you find inspiration that are grounded in emotion. Stories to believe in. Stories with purpose,” he said.