May 26
How Competing In Beauty Pageants Has Helped Me To Navigate My Asian Identity
Posted in: Today's Chili“Pageantry is an outlet for our voices to be heard, and to make space in a world that perceives us to be silent and small.”
May 26
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has launched a second investigation into Google’s ad tech practices. This probe, in particular, will look into the role Google plays in the “ad tech stack,” or the set of services that facilitate the sale of online advertising space between advertisers and sellers like online content providers. The organization explained that Google has strong positions at various levels of the ad tech stack and charges fees to both publishers and advertisers.
It’s examining three key parts of the stack in which Google plays key roles, since it owns the largest providers for each. CMA will examine Google’s practices for demand-side platforms, which give advertisers and media agencies a way to buy a publishers’ space for advertising from many sources. It will also look into the company’s practices relating to ad exchanges that can automate the sale of publishers’ inventory. Finally, the CMA will examine Google’s publisher ad servers that manage a publisher’s inventory to decide which ad to show at a given time based on the bids and direct deals for the space.
Google’s practices — if indeed questionable — could distort competition, the CMA said. It could contractually tie these various services together, for instance, so users won’t have a choice but to go with Google all the way, making it difficult for smaller rival services to compete.
According to Andrea Coscelli, the CMA’s Chief Executive:
“Weakening competition in this area could reduce the ad revenues of publishers, who may be forced to compromise the quality of their content to cut costs or put their content behind paywalls. It may also be raising costs for advertisers which are passed on through higher prices for advertised goods and services.”
The organization is also investigating whether Google and Meta colluded over ads. That probe is all about digging into the advertising agreement between the two companies codenamed “Jedi Blue” and figuring out if that deal hinders competition in online advertising.
May 26
The “Bowling for Columbine” filmmaker challenged TV networks to take up the cause after the Texas school shooting.
May 26
One of Sony’s top priorities going forward is to ramp up production for the PlayStation 5 to meet unprecedented demand for the console. In a briefing with investors (PDF), the company said that it expects to close the gap in PS4 and PS5 sales this year after the newer console lagged behind its older sibling in 2021. Sony blamed the lack of PS5 sales on its inability to build enough units due to ongoing supply chain shortages in its quarterly earnings report. There’s no lack of demand: Based on the data Sony presented, it takes only 82 minutes to to sell 80,000 PS5 units, whereas it takes nine days to sell the same number of PS4s.
The company now expects to be able to produce more units as supply chain shortages have eased up a bit, but the pandemic’s impact on parts availability still remains a concern. In addition, Sony is worried that the Russian invasion of Ukraine might also affect its logistics and potential parts inventory. To mitigate the impact of those issues, Sony plans to source from multiple suppliers “for greater agility in unstable market conditions.” It also has ongoing negotiations to maintain optimal delivery routes for the console.
With those solutions in place, the company believes PS5 sales can overtake the PS4’s again starting next year. Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan said during the briefing that after the initial ramp up, the company is “planning for heavy further increases in console production, taking [it] to production levels that [it has] never achieved before.”
Aside from discussing its PS5 production goals, Sony has also revealed that it’s expanding PlayStation Studios by acquiring more game studios, as well as increasing its investments in live services, PC and mobile offerings. It’s committing to launch 12 live services in the coming years that don’t include Destiny, which will be the company’s as part of its Bungie acquisition. And it intends to have half of its annual first party releases on PC and on mobile by 2025. “By expanding to PC and mobile, and it must be said… also to live services, we have the opportunity to move from a situation of being present in a very narrow segment of the overall gaming software market, to being present pretty much everywhere,” Ryan explained.
May 26
Gun control measures are likely going nowhere in Congress, and they have also become increasingly scarce in most states.
May 26
Apple is planning to raise its minimum wage for hourly workers in the U.S. to $22 per hour, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal. The raise is relatively modest for many cities, given that some Apple employees can make as little as $17 per hour in expensive urban areas like New York and San Francisco…
May 26
Misinformation and conspiracy theories about Tuesday’s deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, began to spread online only hours after the carnage.
May 26
“America is killing itself and the Republican Party is looking the other way,” Le Monde wrote in a scathing editorial.
May 26
Apple will start paying its corporate and retail employees more likely in hopes that they won’t leave the company to find better prospects. According to CNBC and The Financial Times, the company will also raise its starting wage for new employees to $22 an hour, up from $20. Further, it will start giving some annual increases in salary starting in July instead of in the autumn. The tech giant didn’t discuss specific details on how it will change its compensation structure, but it told the publications:
“Supporting and retaining the best team members in the world enables us to deliver the best, most innovative, products and services for our customers. This year as part of our annual performance review process, we’re increasing our overall compensation budget.”
A previous Bloomberg report said Apple is paying its sales staff, Genius Bar support personnel and senior hourly workers by as much as 10 percent more, though it’s unclear if this is the same pay hike. Retail employees in various Apple Store locations started planning to form unions earlier this year in their quest for better pay and benefits. Inflation in the US has reached 8.5% in March, forcing people to look for better compensation as the cost of goods in the country reach new heights.
At the same time, labor shortages caused by the pandemic have bolstered workers’ confidence in challenging their employers and solidified plans to unionize across industries. While the company is raising employee compensation, it has also been accused of union busting by retail workers. A leaked video even showed Deirdre O’Brien, its VP of people and retail, trying to dissuade the company’s employees from joining a union.
Apple isn’t the only tech giant trying to hold on to its workforce and to prevent them from unionizing by increasing their salaries. Amazon more than doubled its base pay cap for corporate and tech employees, Google revamped its annual review process so that it results in increased salaries and Microsoft promised its people that pay increases are on the way.
May 26
Stephen Colbert Rips Dumbest Possible GOP Talking Points Against Gun Control
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe “Late Show” host said voters support stronger gun control laws, but GOP leaders are using bizarre logic to oppose them.
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