Oct 06
Google takes the iPhone 14 Pro Max to task with features and specs made to rule the Android market, and the rest of the smartphone market, too.
Oct 06
It always seemed like a matter of when, not if, Google would build its own smartwatch. The Pixel Watch is the inevitable result, but has it arrived too late?
Oct 06
Do you have a bunch of fuzzy images piled up in your Google Photos account? If so, Google aims to fix that with its AI-powered Photo Unblur feature.
Oct 06
Google has given Android fans a better look at its previously-teased Pixel Tablet, but it wasn’t as exciting as some had hoped. Here’s what we know so far.
Oct 06
Tom Cruise is a connoisseur of cars, aircraft, and motorcycles. We break down the top three motorcycles in his impressive collection for you.
Oct 06
Google didn’t waste the opportunity to take some potshots at Apple during its Pixel 7 event, though it stopped short of calling out the company by name.
Oct 06
When Hurricane Ian made landfall over Florida as a category 4 storm last week, it left behind a trail of destruction that killed dozens of people amid flash floods, severely damaged homes, and inundated cars and streets. The devastation has also triggered new environmental concerns: serious leaks of chemicals, sewage,…
Oct 06
Peloton is cutting another 500 jobs in its fourth round of layoffs this year
Posted in: Today's ChiliFor the fourth time this year, Peloton has announced a round of layoffs. The struggling fitness company is cutting another 500 jobs, CEO Barry McCarthy told CNBC. In a memo to employees, McCarthy wrote that the company needed to make the move as part of efforts to reach break-even cash flow by the end of Peloton’s 2023 fiscal year (i.e by the end of next June).
“I am acutely aware many of those impacted by these changes aren’t just colleagues but are also close friends,” McCarthy wrote in the memo, which Bloomberg obtained. “I know many of you will feel angry, frustrated and emotionally drained by today’s news, but please know this is a necessary step if we are going to save Peloton, and we are.”
The latest cuts make up around 12 percent of Peloton’s headcount. In February, just as McCarthy took on the job, the company eliminated around 2,800 positions. In July, Peloton laid off approximately 570 people as part of a move to outsource all manufacturing. Then in August, it cut another 784 jobs to reduce costs.
Given that the latest round of layoffs leaves Peloton with around 3,825 employees, that means the company has reduced its headcount by more than half this year. That said, McCarthy noted that, with these cuts, “the bulk of our restructuring work is complete.”
However, Peloton plans to close most of its retail stores in North America starting next year, which will likely lead to further cuts. McCarthy noted that Peloton lost north of $100 million on its retail operations last year, so changes were necessary.
Peloton saw a boom in business following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were looking for ways to work out at home. However, as the world has opened back up and people have returned to offices and gyms, Peloton was left with excess inventory and the business has taken a significant hit. It incurred an operating loss of $1.2 billion in the April-June quarter. As Bloomberg notes, McCarthy sees subscriptions to Peloton’s suite of fitness classes and services, partnerships and making content more broadly available on third-party devices as the keys to increasing revenue.
The company has started selling its connected fitness gear through Amazon, and products will soon be available at Dick’s Sporting Goods. Peloton has also started offering its Bike for rent and announced a smart rowing machine.
“A key aspect of Peloton’s transformation journey is optimizing efficiencies and implementing cost savings to simplify our business and achieve break-even cash flow by the end of our fiscal year. With that in mind, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by approximately 12 percent,” a Peloton spokesperson told Engadget in a statement. “This will result in the reduction of approximately 500 global team members. Decisions like this are incredibly difficult and Peloton is doing all we can to help our impacted colleagues. As we pivot to growth, today marks the completion of the vast majority of our restructuring plan we began in February 2022.”
Oct 06
Like clockwork, we’re entering one of the busiest parts of the year with an avalanche of cool new devices. The Google Pixel series is a landmark now, and we’re excited about today’s launch of the new Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro.
Last year’s Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro represented a turn for the better with many improvements over the Pixel 5, with notably a significant escalation of the camera hardware in the Pixel 6 Pro as spotted by our CAMERA HW score. Google came back into the race, competing at the highest levels.
The new Google Pixel 7 series is an upgrade, refinement, and optimization of the Pixel 6 series as Google capitalizes on last year’s herculean effort.
The industrial design is seeing changes but sticks to the overall design language that was well received last year. The changes make the new phones look more modern, and the manufacturing quality has increased.
The new polished aluminum camera bar of the Pixel 7 Pro gives it an extra “premium” look, while the Pixel 7 (non-pro) gets a matte version. It’s excellent positioning using design as an instrument.
Google is known for its “pure Android” experience and long commitment to software updates, and nothing has changed on that front. Design aside, there are aspects of these new Pixel 7 phones we want to attract your attention to, namely the Camera and Computing.
The camera is the most exciting aspect for the majority, so let’s get to it. The Pixel 7 Pro’s camera is configured as follows:
- 50 MP primary (OIS, 1.2μm pixels, ƒ/1.85, 1/1.31” sensor)
- 12 MP ultra-wide (1.25μm pixels, ƒ/2.2)
- 48 MP telephoto (OIS, 0.7μm pixels, ƒ/3.5, 5X optical)
- 8MP selfie (1.22μm pixels, ƒ/2.2, fixed-focus)
This configuration is well-balanced (for the price) and should cover all everyday use cases very well. We’ll compute the CAMERA HW score in our full review, but this looks quite good.
Google is using its telephoto in two ways. It shoots natively at 5X optical zoom in 48MP. Alternatively, it can zoom even further using a sensor-cropping technique, like what Samsung has in some of its Galaxy phones.
Sensor-cropping uses only a fraction of the sensing surface without merging pixels to preserve details. That is like having a smaller sensor with a lens that zooms further. Sensor cropping is typically not as good as having an optical equivalent, but it is much better than software upscaling.
The Pixel 7’s camera is very similar but forgoes the telephoto – a choice is often found between different tiers of phones. It makes a lot of sense because ultrawide is objectively a more common use case than zoom – that’s why OEMs make this tradeoff for more affordable phones.
- 50 MP primary (OIS, 1.2μm pixels, ƒ/1.85, 1/1.31” sensor)
- 12 MP ultra-wide (1.25μm pixels, ƒ/2.2 – different lens)
- 8MP selfie (1.22μm pixels, ƒ/2.2, fixed-focus)
You get almost all of the photographic benefits of the Pixel 7 Pro, except when the subject is far away. In the $599 range, this is very exciting.
Regarding computing, Google uses its Tensor G2 processor to provide excellent support for all imagery activities that rely heavily on stream computing and AI.
Google has demonstrated some long-exposure shots, which were nearly 4X faster, going from 5.25s down to 1.25s. That should also affect near-instant photographs or video recording, which we’re much more interested in.
That said, the competition (Qualcomm, MediaTek) is also capable of doing such things, and there’s no cross-platform benchmark to compare them apples-to-apples.
The Pixel 7 Pro has 12GB of RAM, so that’s the one heavy app users should consider, as the 8GB of RAM in the Pixel 7 should suffice for everyone with more basic needs.
Storage options are 128/256GB for both, but only the Pixel 7 Pro gets a 512GB version if you need that much.
Both phones are available for pre-order today for $599 and $899 on the official Google store, but also from carriers such as AT&T (pre-order here), which also says that in-store units will arrive on Oct 13. As usual, if you sign-up on a new AT&T plan, you could get the Pixel 7 for free, and the carrier says it offers “up to” $800-off on the Pixel 7 Pro
Google Launches Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro
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Oct 06
Make Good Choices And Let Jamie Lee Curtis Make Another ‘Freaky Friday’ Movie
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe actor said she would “absolutely” reunite with Lindsay Lohan for a follow-up to their 2003 body-swapping comedy.
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