Coinbase reportedly pauses hiring amid plummeting crypto market

In the wake of the cryptocurrency market crashing, Coinbase said this week it was joining a number of tech companies by slowing down its hiring plans for this year. More details have emerged about Coinbase’s efforts to cut costs after The Information obtained emails that were sent to employees.

The company is said to have frozen hiring for two weeks (though it will honor offers that have already been sent) and put new projects on hold. It is also reportedly trying to reduce how much it spends on hosting services.

Along with not hiring as many people as it previously expected to this year, Coinbase is looking to minimize employee attrition. According to the report, the company is giving workers more shares. Coinbase’s stock has dropped by over 75 percent in the last six months.

Coinbase is said to have paused some projects, such as a business banking initiative, while it focuses on increasing revenue from core products, including retail and institutional trading. It’s reportedly planning to offer retail customers more cryptocurrencies and to expand operations outside of the US.

When asked for comment, a Coinbase spokesperson directed Engadget to a tweet thread from chief product officer Surojit Chatterjee. While the company is renewing focus on its “high-impact products” and trying to “improve efficiencies by seeking improvements in developer productivity,” Chatterjee noted that Coinbase doesn’t plan to stop investing in strategic and venture projects. “We believe the down market is a great time to build for the longer term,” Chatterjee wrote.

The company revealed in its first-quarter earnings report last week that, at $1.16 billion, net revenue fell by 27 percent year-over-year and by over half from the previous quarter. Trading volume also dropped. Amid a hiring spree (it’s said to have brought in more than 1,200 new employees this year), operating expenses increased by nine percent from the previous quarter to $1.7 billion. Coinbase had a net loss of $430 million in Q1. All of that was before the cryptocurrency market nosedived earlier this month.

Stablecoin TerraUSD (which is supposed to be pegged to the value of the US dollar) and sister token Luna effectively collapsed, causing a ripple effect to other cryptocurrency prices. Though it has since rebounded a bit, the price of bitcoin also dipped below $26,000 for the first time in 16 months last week amid a sell off that saw over $200 billion wiped from the crypto market in one day.

Coinbase’s shift in hiring strategy reflects a broader trend among prominent tech companies. Meta and Uber are among the major businesses that are cutting costs and slowing down recruitment plans. Meanwhile, Netflix laid off around 150 staff in the US this week and canceled some animated projects. The company’s stock plummeted after it reported its first-ever quarterly drop in subscriber numbers last month.

Senate bill would break up Google’s ad business

A bill that would break up Google’s advertising business if it becomes law has been introduced in the Senate. The Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act, which has support on both sides of the aisle, would prevent companies that process more than $20 billion in annual digital ad transactions “from participating in more than one part of the digital advertising ecosystem,” as The Wall Street Journal reports.

Google easily falls under that distinction. It generated $54.7 billion in ad revenue last quarter alone. While other companies meet the dollar-figure threshold of the proposed rules, Google has a hand in many aspects of the advertising process. It runs an exchange where ad networks bid on inventory. It also offers tools to help companies buy and sell ads.

A House of Representatives version of the legislation is also expected to be introduced imminently. If the bill becomes law, Google would have to exit some of those businesses. It would have a year to comply with the rules after the law is enacted. Meta may also be impacted by the legislation.

“When you have Google simultaneously serving as a seller and a buyer and running an exchange, that gives them an unfair, undue advantage in the marketplace, one that doesn’t necessarily reflect the value they are providing,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) told the Journal. “When a company can wear all these hats simultaneously, it can engage in conduct that harms everyone.”

Lee is the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights. Committee chair Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) is a cosponsor of the bill, as are Sens.Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Richard Blumenthal (D- Connecticut).

“Advertising tools from Google and many competitors help American websites and apps fund their content, help businesses grow and help protect users from privacy risks and misleading ads,” a Google spokesperson told Engadget. “Breaking those tools would hurt publishers and advertisers, lower ad quality and create new privacy risks. And, at a time of heightened inflation, it would handicap small businesses looking for easy and effective ways to grow online. The real issue is low-quality data brokers who threaten Americans’ privacy and flood them with spammy ads. In short, this is the wrong bill, at the wrong time, aimed at the wrong target.”

Other provisions of the bill include rules for companies that process at least $5 billion of ad transactions per year. They’d be required to provide transparent pricing and act in their customers’ best interest. Customers would have the option to sue over breaches of those.

There are other pieces of antitrust legislation in the works that target tech giants. Klobuchar’s American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which advanced out of committee in January, would ban companies from giving preference to their own products over those from rivals on their own platforms. For instance, Apple wouldn’t be able to position its own apps above competing ones in App Store search results.

Twitter says it won’t amplify false content during a crisis

Twitter is taking more steps to slow the spread of misinformation during times of crisis. The company will attempt to amplify credible and authoritative information while trying to avoid elevating falsehoods that can lead to severe harm. Under its new crisis misinformation policy, Twitter interprets crises as circumstances that pose a “widespread threat to life, physical safety, health or basic subsistence” in line with the United Nations’ definition of a humanitarian crisis.

For now, the policy will only apply to tweets regarding international armed conflict. It may eventually cover the likes of natural disasters and public health emergencies. 

The company plans to fact-check information with the help of “multiple credible, publicly available sources.” Those include humanitarian groups, open-source investigators, journalists and conflict monitoring organizations.

Twitter acknowledges that misinformation can spread quickly and it will take action “as soon as we have evidence that a claim may be misleading.” Tweets that violate the rules of this policy won’t appear in the Home timeline or the search or explore sections.

“Content moderation is more than just leaving up or taking down content, and we’ve expanded the range of actions we may take to ensure they’re proportionate to the severity of the potential harm,” Twitter’s head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth wrote in a blog post. “We’ve found that not amplifying or recommending certain content, adding context through labels, and in severe cases, disabling engagement with the Tweets, are effective ways to mitigate harm, while still preserving speech and records of critical global events.

The company will also make it a priority to put notices on highly visible rule-breaking tweets and those from high-profile accounts, such as ones operated by state-run media or governments. Users will need to click through the notice to read the tweet. Likes, retweets and shares will be disabled on these tweets as well.

“This tweet violated the Twitter Rules on sharing false or misleading info that might bring harm to crisis-affected populations,” the notice will read. “However, to preserve this content for accountability purposes, Twitter has determined this tweet should remain available.” In addition, the notice will include a link to more details about Twitter’s approach to crisis misinformation. The company says it will start adding the notice to highly visible misleading tweets related to the war in Ukraine.

The notice may appear on tweets that include falsehoods about on-the-ground conditions during an evolving conflict; misleading or incorrect allegations of war crimes or mass atrocities; or misinformation about the use of weapons or force. Twitter may also apply the label to tweets with “false information regarding international community response, sanctions, defensive actions or humanitarian operations.”

There are some exceptions to the rules. They won’t apply to personal anecdotes, first-person accounts, efforts to debunk or fact-check a claim or “strong commentary.”

However, a lot of the fine details about Elon Musk’s pending takeover of Twitter remain up in the air, and this policy could change if and when the deal closes. Musk has said Twitter should only suppress illegal speech (which is also a complex issue, since rules vary by jurisdiction). It remains to be seen exactly how he will handle content moderation.

The current-gen version of ‘The Witcher 3’ is now slated to arrive in late 2022

The long-awaited PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt once again has a release window. The new edition, which is also coming to PC, is expected to arrive in the last three months of the year, according to CD Projekt Red. It will be a free upgrade for those who own the respective last-gen version on PC, PS4 or Xbox One.

The news comes a month after CD Projekt Red delayed the current-gen version of the game indefinitely. Its in-house team took over development of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Complete Edition from Saber Interactive (which handled the Nintendo Switch port of the base game) around that time. Now, presumably after assessing how much work needs to be done, CDPR is confident it can get the upgraded version out this year.

The studio announced the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S edition in September 2020 and it initially planned to release it the following year. However, CDPR pushed back the launch window to the second quarter of 2022 before the most recent delay.

Developers should always get as much time as possible to polish a game and squish as many bugs as they can anyway, but after the disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red doesn’t have much room for error. It released the (very good) current-gen edition of Cyberpunk 2077 in February. Here’s hoping the upgrade for The Witcher 3 is worth the wait too.

Gatik is bringing its self-driving box trucks to Kansas

Autonomous vehicle startup Gatik says it will start using its self-driving box trucks in Kansas as it expands to more territories. Governor Laura Kelly last week signed a bill that makes it legal for self-driving vehicles to run on public roads under certain circumstances.

Following a similar effort in Arkansas, Gatik says it and its partner Walmart worked with legislators and stakeholders to “develop and propose legislation that prioritizes the safe and structured introduction of autonomous vehicles in the state.” Before Gatik’s trucks hit Kansas roads, the company says it will provide training to first responders and law enforcement.

Gatik claims that, since it started commercial operations three years ago, it has maintained a clean safety record in Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and Ontario, Canada. It still has a safety driver at the wheel in some jurisdictions. Last August, Walmart started making fully driverless deliveries with Gatik trucks in Arkansas, albeit on a fixed loop.

Sony details ‘God of War: Ragnarok’ accessibility features

Sony has been putting a bigger emphasis on accessibility in its first-party PlayStation games over the last few years with the inclusion of extensive options in the likes of The Last of Us: Part II, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and Horizon Forbidden West. When it eventually arrives, God of War: Ragnarok will be no exception. To mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Sony has detailed some of the options.

“Not only have we redesigned our UI to allow for more flexibility and readability, but we have also rebuilt controller remapping from the ground up and added more customization to our combat and interaction systems,” Santa Monica Studio lead UX designer Mila Pavlin wrote in a PlayStation Blog post. “We have retained all our accessibility features from 2018’s God of War and expanded upon them to include more than 60 ways to adjust gameplay to best suit your style and needs.”

Among the settings is a customizable high-contrast mode. Players will be able to add a color layer to characters, targets, enemies and various items to make them stand out from the background. You’ll be able to adjust the individual colors for each category and desaturate the background to help make the objects more visible. Pavlin notes that the visibility of traversal paint (perhaps referring to the environmental markers that show players where to go) and special effects can be enhanced in this mode too.

Some of the accessibility options added to the PC version of God of War will be included in the sequel. Those include auto sprint, an always-on reticle (which can reduce motion sickness by providing a persistent focal point) and a way to toggle aiming and blocking.

Subtitles and captions are being upgraded with more size and color display options and a way to blur the background behind the text box. There will be expanded captions for sound effects and directional indicators for critical gameplay information, including for puzzles that have sound cues.

The features also include settings for other UI text elements and icon sizes, in-depth controller remapping (including the ability to set shortcuts for more complex moves on the touchpad) and traversal assistance. A new feature for the God of War series, and one that’s been included in games elsewhere, is a way to reorient Kratos toward the next story objective while not in combat with the press of a button.

These are just some of the accessibility settings that will be included in the game. “We can’t wait to tell you details about our other categories of accessibility features like combat/aim assists, puzzle/minigame assists, HUD adjustments, camera tuning, auto pick up and much more,” Pavlin wrote.

To underline how important the accessibility features are, Sony has revealed them before even announcing the God of War: Raganrok release date. It’s expected to arrive on PS4 and PS5 this year. Showing the accessibility options now suggests those are at least close to being finished. Hopefully, that means Sony won’t have to delay the game again.

In the meantime, Sony has released an audio description version of the God of War: Raganrok reveal trailer from last year’s PlayStation Showcase. If you’re interested, you’ll need to go to YouTube to watch it due to the age restriction settings.

‘Fortnite’ is now available to all GeForce Now users

All GeForce Now users can play Fortnite via NVIDIA’s cloud gaming service, including those with iOS and Android devices. The company started testing the game on the platform in January. It says more than 500,000 people tried it out across “hundreds of mobile device types.” The full launch of Fortnite on GeForce Now means that there’s no longer a waitlist and anyone can drop into a match. 

Feedback from beta testers helped NVIDIA optimize the touch controls and menu system. To thank them, it’s giving everyone who signed up for the beta a three-day trial for GeForce Now’s Priority plan. That offers longer game sessions than those who use the free version, along with improved visuals and access to premium servers. A three-day trial isn’t exactly the most generous perk, but it’s better than nothing.

For the time being, the only way to access Fortnite on iOS (at least without playing a console or PC remotely) is through cloud streaming. The game is also available for free through Xbox Cloud Gaming. You won’t need an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription if you go with that option.

Apple and Google pulled Fortnite from their mobile app storefronts in August 2020 amid a dispute with Epic Games. While Android users have still been able to sideload it, iOS players were effectively iced out until the cloud gaming options came into play.

Google’s Russian division is filing for bankruptcy

Google’s Russian division submitted a notice of intention to declare bankruptcy after officials seized its bank account. That “has made it untenable for our Russia office to function, including employing and paying Russia-based employees, paying suppliers and vendors, and meeting other financial obligations,” a Google spokesperson told Reuters.

Like many other companies, Google suspended most of its commercial activities in Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine in February. Despite that and the bankruptcy filing, it will continue to provide Russians with access to free services such as Search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps and Android for the time being.

In May last year, Russia fined Google around $82,000 for failing to delete thousands of pieces of content it deemed to be illegal. Authorities then fined the company approximately $98 million in December for similar reasons. That was estimated to be around 5.7 percent of Google’s 2021 turnover in Russia.

In recent months, telecoms regulator Roskomnadzor has been pressuring YouTube to lift restrictions on access to Russian media. A Russian TV channel reported last month that bailiffs seized around 1 billion rubles (approximately $15 million) from Google after it declined to restore the station’s access to its YouTube account.

While Russia has blocked many other platforms and services, including Google News, it doesn’t currently have plans to prevent users in the country from accessing YouTube. It said this week that residents would likely suffer as a result of such a move. Reutersreported that the streaming platform has around 90 million Russian users. 

Russia’s minister for digital development also said that, despite testing its own, closed-off version of the internet, the country plans to stay connected to the global network.

Apple faces AirPods lawsuit after an Amber Alert allegedly caused hearing damage

A lawsuit has been filed against Apple alleging that a boy suffered hearing damage when using his AirPods Pro. A couple from Texas filed the suit, NBC News reports. According to the suit, their then 12-year-old son (referred to as “B.G.”) was using AirPods to watch something on his iPhone at a low volume when he received an Amber Alert.

The alert “went off suddenly, and without warning, at a volume that tore apart B.G.’s ear drum, damaged his cochlea and caused significant injuries,” the suit said. The boy’s parents say he suffered from dizziness, vertigo, nausea and tinnitus following the incident in 2020 and that he’ll need to wear a hearing aid for the rest of his life.

They claim AirPods don’t “automatically reduce, control, limit or increment notification or alert volumes to a safe level that causes them to emit” and that Apple doesn’t provide instructions to limit the volume of alerts to prevent hearing damage. The couple argues that Apple hasn’t fixed the problem and if it wasn’t aware of the issue, it should have known.

Other Apple users have complained about AirPod volume spikes on the company’s support website. Engadget has contacted Apple for comment.

CNN is making a documentary about the fall of HQ Trivia

Which of these has greenlit a documentary about HQ Trivia?

  • Netflix

  • CNN

  • Quibi

If you read the headline and correctly chose CNN, congratulations! You’ve won some internet points, I guess.

An untitled documentary about the trivia app that everyone seemed to be playing a few years ago is scheduled for a 2023 release. As Deadline reports, CNN has lined up a director, Salima Koroma (Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street). 

HQ Trivia, which was built by the creators of Vine, debuted in August 2017 and it initially ran two live trivia games per day. The concept was pretty simple. Answer several questions correctly in a row and you’d split the prize pot. Along with the chance to win cash through a mobile app, charismatic main host Scott Rogowsky helped turn HQ Trivia into a phenomenon. At one point, more than 2.3 million people were playing the game simultaneously.

The good times didn’t last, however. Co-founder Colin Kroll died in 2018, while Rogowsky departed in 2019 to host a baseball show on DAZN. The app ran out of money in early 2020 and shut down, though it returned a month later thanks to the help of an anonymous investor.

HQ Trivia is still around, though it now runs just one game per week. The latest edition had a commendable 21,000 players. However, at $1,500, the prize was a far cry from the $300,000 the app offered at one point when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was a guest host.

The Ringer also told the story of the app in a podcast called Boom/Bust: The Rise and Fall of HQ Trivia. A CNN spokesperson told Engadget that the documentary is being developed independently.

It also emerged during Warner Bros. Discovery’s upfront presentation that Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico is moving to CNN. The docuseries was initially a CNN+ exclusive, but the high-profile streaming service was killed less than a month after its debut.

Update 5/18 3:07PM ET: Clarifying that the documentary is being developed independently and that it’s not based on The Ringer’s podcast.