Netflix’s Tudum lays off staff months after launch

Netflix assembled an impressive roster of writers and editors for its fan site project, Tudum, which launched in early December of 2021. Today, a significant portion of those new hires have been sent packing for reasons unknown. 

A swath of the site’s formerstaffannounced their departures today on Twitter, with former Vice culture writer Josh Terry claiming “laid off my team,” suggesting the cuts may be drastic. Netflix claims there are no plans to mothball the site. It declined to comment on the number of workers who were impacted but confirmed that some amount of staff and contractors had been let go; The Hollywood Report placed its estimate at least 10 people. 

All a Netflix spokesperson would tell Engadget on the record was that “our fan website Tudum is an important priority for the company.” 

Tudum was billed by Netflix on launch as “a backstage pass that lets you dig deeper into the Netflix films, series, and stars you love” — essentially an attempt to prop up a media business on the strength of the streaming platform’s original content. It’s not clear at this time what kind of change in staffing or strategy prompted this round of layoffs, who remains at the site or if the newly-separated writers and editors were given any advance notice. 

The job cuts come not long after Netflix announced during its quarterly earnings that it had lost subscribers (approximately 200,000 of them) for the first time in a decade. What followed was a swift and brutal backlash from the market that saw the streaming service’s share price drop by 25 percent. So far it’s plans to turn the ship around have been limited to trying to stop customers from sharing login information, and mulling the idea of a cheaper ad-supported subscription tier. 

Were you recently let go from Tudum? I’d like to hear from you. Download Signal messenger for iOS or Android and text me confidentially at 646 983 9846. 

Lizzo will perform in the first metaverse music awards show

Like it or not, the metaverse is becoming an increasingly popular music venue — including, apparently, for ceremonies. As Hollywood Reporterexplains, Logitech has revealed what it says is the first music awards show in the metaverse. The second annual Song Breaker Awards will take place in Roblox on April 30th at 1PM Eastern, with pop star Lizzo making her virtual performance debut. Social media star Bretman Rock will host.

The awards show will honor ten creators who either started or “amplified” internet trends, including musician Gayle (who has thrived on Billboard‘s Song Breaker Chart) and Grammy nominee Walker Hayes. Personalities like Jaden Smith, Roblox veteran MeganPlays and Twitch streamer Shroud will also make appearances. 

Logitech Song Breaker Awards show space in Roblox metaverse
Logitech

You can already access a pre-event “experience” and virtual Logitech store in Roblox. If you miss the main show, you can still watch two additional performances on the 30th (4PM and 5PM ET) and one on May 1st (12PM ET).

Yes, Logitech is capitalizing on Lizzo and overall metaverse buzz to draw attention to its gig. However, it’s really an extension of past efforts to bring music performances into digital spaces. Virtual concerts have been happening for years, and some of them have been hugely popular. The Song Breaker Awards just move that entertainment from a specific game to a full-fledged platform, and it won’t be surprising if there are similar awards presentations before long.

Apple had a huge quarter, but revenue growth is slowing

All eyes are on Apple today, after a tumultuous series of earnings reports dropped this week. Google parent company Alphabet missed revenue expectations, while Meta (formerly Facebook) recorded a higher profit than expected this quarter. Apple just released its results and the company has performed respectably in its second quarter of the fiscal year 2022. This was its best March quarter yet, with revenues of $97.3 billion — a 9 percent jump from the same period last year. On today’s earnings call, CEO Tim Cook said the results were “better than we anticipated.” That said, it’s still a drop from its results last quarter, where it broke all-time records with revenues of $123.9 billion. 

Apple also hit a new all-time high on its revenue from Services, which includes things like subscriptions to TV+, Music and Fitness+. With its strong showing on the awards circuit recently, it’s hardly a surprise that TV+ is drawing in subscribers. Apple doesn’t break down how much it makes specifically from each individual service, so it’s hard to say just how much impact shows like Coda or Ted Lasso have had. Notably, Coda‘s winning of Best Picture at the Academy Awards makes Apple TV the first streaming service to win in that category.

The rest of the company’s products continued to do well too, with revenues from Mac, iPhone and “Wearables, Home and Accessories” all having increased year over year. On the call, Cook highlighted the new Mac Studio and Studio Display that were launched in March, as well as the iPhone SE and the M1-powered iPad Air. CFO Luca Maestri also said on the earnings call that the last seven quarters have been “the best seven quarters ever for Mac.” Interestingly, the one segment that faltered was iPad, raking in about $7.6 billion compared to around $7.8 billion the same time last year. That type of up-and-down performance is pretty typical for iPads, though. 

The wearables category was the most eye-catching, with Apple making $19.8 billion this quarter from sales of things like AirPods and watches, compared to $16.9 billion this time last year. That’s more than it made from Macs, which came in at $10.4 billion this quarter (up from $9.1 billion last year). Maestri said on the call that “our wearables business has doubled in three years and is nearly the size of a Fortune 100 business.” If you’re keeping track, that means the Services category made Apple almost twice as much money as Macs, which is the next closest category (aside from iPhones, which came in at about $50.5 billion).

Apple Studio Display
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Maestri attributed some of the Services earnings to a few things. The company’s “install base has continued to grow, reaching an all-time high across each geographic segment,” he said. Paid subscriptions also increased, with more than 825 million paying subscribers across the services on Apple now. Of that number, 165 million signed up in the last 12 months, Maestri added later in the call.

Global supply constraints were a big point of focus on the question-and-answer portion of the call, and when asked about the long lead time on Mac products, Cook cited COVID-related disruptions in China and the ongoing silicon shortage as contributing to the issue. “We’re not really forecasting when we can be out of the silicon shortage,” he said, adding “I think the COVID piece of it — I hope it is a transitory kind of issue and so I would hope that it would get better over time.”

Flavored e-cigarettes are exempt from the FDA’s proposed menthol ban

American regulators may not have made a decision on flavored e-cigarettes, but that isn’t stopping them from cracking down on the conventional variety. The New York Timesreports the US Food and Drug Administration has proposed a ban on menthol-flavored cigarettes as well as any non-tobacco cigar flavors. Menthol both makes cigarettes more appealing to young smokers and magnifies the addictive qualities of nicotine, officials said, and banning it could both prevent the “next generation of smokers” while helping adults quit.

The potential rules won’t punish individual possession of banned cigarettes and cigars. You’ll have a chance to comment on the proposal between May 4th and July 5th, with the FDA holding “public listening sessions” on June 13th and June 15th to obtain more feedback.

Notably, the possible ban doesn’t include menthol e-cigarettes. The FDA is in the midst of reviewing all e-cigarette products and still allows sales of some menthol-flavored offerings. E-cigs reached the market before the FDA had the power to regulate them.

It’s easy to see the menthol ban shaping e-cig policy, however. An alliance of 31 states and territories is pressuring the FDA to limit flavored offerings, including menthol. They’re concerned about teens taking up e-cigs in large numbers (nearly a fifth of high schoolers had used them recently as of 2020), and see flavor bans steering youth away.

Producers might not be quite as thrilled. While Juul stopped selling mint-flavored e-cigs in 2019, it continues to offer menthol despite studies showing its popularity among young smokers. If a successful ban on conventional menthol cigarettes extends to e-cigs, brands like Juul may lose a significant portion of its customers regardless of age. Still, the FDA isn’t likely to be swayed — companies might not want to count on selling menthol smoking products of any kind in the long run.

Amazon’s Fire TV Cube is the first set top box to stream directly to hearing aids

Watching TV with hearing aids is about to get a little easier for Amazon Fire TV Cube owners. The second generation of the Fire TV Cube will now support Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA) for compatible Bluetooth-enabled Starkey hearing aids. Whil…

NVIDIA adds native M1 Mac support to the GeForce Now app

The GeForce Now macOS app should run more smoothly for many Mac users after the addition of native support for Apple’s M1 chips. NVIDIA initially rolled out M1 support last year, albeit through Rosetta, a translation process that allows apps based on x86–64 architecture to run on Apple’s chips.

NVIDIA says the app will now consume less power, have faster startup times and offer an all-round improved experience on M1-based MacBooks, iMacs and Mac Minis. In addition, the latest version of the cloud gaming app includes a revamped overlay that displays server-side rendering framerates.

GeForce Now support for another batch of games was also announced (which is something NVIDIA typically does every Thursday). One of this week’s additions is Amazon’s hit free-to-play RPG Lost Ark. Given that the game doesn’t have native macOS support, Mac users who are interested in checking it out now have a way to do so. Other new titles that GeForce Now users can stream include Dune: Spice Wars, Sol Cresta and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt.

Blizzard will reveal the first Warcraft mobile game on May 3rd

Nearly two decades after its launch and World of Warcraft is still going strong. The MMORPG saw its latest expansion drop in April and is actively working on ridable dragons for an update in the near future. But before that happens, Blizzard is taking the long-running game mobile.

The embattled game company announced via Twitter on Thursday that it will host a livestream premiere event Tuesday, May 3rd at 10 am Pacific on Reveal.Blizzard.com. This isn’t the first time that a console franchise has expanded into mobile — Call of Duty and Fortnite have already launched their own iterations for phones and tablets. There are precious few details as to what the game will entail (beyond being set in the Warcraft Universe) or what gameplay mechanics will be used so be sure to join us next Tuesday for more coverage of WoW’s newest foray into the realm of handhelds.

Valorant’s upcoming path-to-pro mode is designed for aspiring esports stars

Valorant‘s professional scene will look vastly different next year after Riot Games announced some significant changes to the game’s esports structure. Domestic and international leagues will be introduced in 2023. A new game mode designed to help aspiring esports stars turn pro is on the way too.

The upcoming mode will give players a chance to qualify for the domestic leagues, which will be integrated closely with the in-game tournament feature. Riot hopes the path-to-pro mode will help organizations scout upcoming talents as well.

There will be three international leagues which will respectively feature top-tier teams from the Americas; Europe, the Middle East and North Africa; and Asia and Oceania. The plan is to run competitive matches on a week-to-week basis. If health and safety protocols allow, Riot will bring teams together for in-person events with live audiences. These leagues will also serve as qualifiers for the existing elite global tournaments, Masters and Champions.

In addition, Riot will expand Valorant Game Changers, a program is designed for women and other marginalized genders in the competitive ecosystem. It will be available in more countries and regions next year. Meanwhile, third-party tournaments will take place during the off-season between official competitions.

Riot says it’s working on new fan experiences and partnerships with esports organizations. Teams who are part of that program won’t need to pay participation or entry fees and Riot will provide them with stipends “in return for their investment in growing the ecosystem.”

The publisher is using what it learned from the success of League of Legends esports to revamp the pro scene of Valorant, which now has 15 million monthly players. Riot is hoping to build on the first-person shooter’s popularity and “supercharge Valorant into the next great multigenerational esport,” the publisher’s head of esports John Needham told The Washington Post in a statement.

Google takes first steps in rolling out Android’s Privacy Sandbox

At the start of the year, Google announced the Privacy Sandbox on Android project, a new system designed to eventually replace today’s existing third-party cookie schemes and reinvent a more privacy-centered method for serving advertisements. After an initial round of alpha testing and feedback, Google announced on Thursday that the first developer’s preview of the sandbox is now available as part of Android 13 beta 1.

The Privacy Sandbox is a multi-year development effort that will “limit sharing of user data with third parties and operate without cross-app identifiers, including advertising ID,” Google wrote in a February announcement. “We’re also exploring technologies that reduce the potential for covert data collection, including safer ways for apps to integrate with advertising SDKs.” 

This preview provides developers with early looks at the sandbox’s SDK Runtime and Topics API so that they can better understand how they’ll fit into their apps and processes once it is officially released. We first saw Topics API back in January. It pulls data from the Chrome browser to identify the user’s top five interests for the week, based on their search and browsing history. Those topics are then compared against a database of topics from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Google’s own data. Partner publishers can then ping the Topics API, see what the user is currently into, and then serve the most appropriate ads without having to know every nitty-gritty detail about their potential customer.

Developers will also have access to an early version of the Fledge API. This allows sites to run “remarket” to existing users — ie, serving users ads to remind them that they left items in their shopping cart and should just check out already. The Sandbox comes with everything that developers will need to test it, including the Android SDK and 64-bit Android Emulator. The company intends to further refine the toolset over the coming months and welcomes feedback and questions from the developer community 

Android 13 beta hands-on: Just small tweaks for now

The public Android 13 beta is here, and it’s our first chance to look at what might be coming in Google’s OS update. We’ve already learned a bit about what the company will be focusing on improving for the next version, and a lot of it sounds like back…