Microsoft will slash up to 18,000 jobs by the end of the year. That’s 14 percent of the company’s workforce, and it amounts to the largest round of layoffs in the nearly 40 year history of the software kingpin.
On Thursday morning, with an email euphemistically titled “Starting to Evolve Our Organization and Culture,” CEO Satya Nadella announced that the bulk of the cuts would affect employees working for Nokia, the mobile phone company Microsoft acquired last September. According to Nadella, these cuts would encourage “work simplification,” “integration synergies,” and “strategic alignment.” But even the heavy-handed business jargon couldn’t mask the simple fact that 18,000 jobs is a hell of a lot of jobs to lose. Read more...
2013 was a bust! Or so we’ve been told. Whether you follow that line of thinking or reflect on the last 363 days in a more optimistic light, it’s clear the year wasn’t all big breakthroughs and great triumphs. This was the year of government surveillance revelations, fallen giants and lackluster product releases. But it was also the year Netflix took on the studios, patent reform became a real priority in DC and two new game consoles hit the scene. No, we won’t be riding our hoverboards into the sunset at the close of 2013, but the stories that rocked the industry had a profound impact not only on technology, but also on society as a whole. So let’s raise those half-empty glasses and make a toast as we recap the year that was: Here’s to the glassholes! Read more...
Roku’s media streamers have carved out a notable niche for themselves, with what started out as a Netflix box, but quickly grew to include hundreds of other entertainment options. Whatever they’ve lacked in style, they’ve always made up for with an easy-to-navigate menu and remote, not to mention low prices. In fact, they’ve become our default recommendation in the media streamer category, and now the company is back with its third iteration. Read more...
Consolidation among the smaller U.S. wireless carriers might be inevitable, as larger telecoms look to bolster their spectrum amid insatiable demand for wireless data services, but some mergers just don’t make sense. And according to a number of analysts, a merger of Metro PCS and Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile is one of them.
While the rumored marriage of the two carriers would certainly result in a larger subscriber base, a more robust infrastructure, and a nice combined swath of spectrum, there are other considerations that make the combination a bit dubious. And though chatter about a potential deal may have cheered some investors, it’s turning the stomachs of others. Read more...
With each update, Facebook has gotten incrementally more cluttered, perplexing, and ornery—and I’m not even talking about all your annoying acquaintances flooding it with inane status updates. Yet, at the same time, it’s become a tool few of us can live without. If Facebook has you on your last nerve, here’s how to fix some of its biggest annoyances in a matter of minutes—and with only one new addition to your browser. Read more...
As we heard earlier today that AT&T and T-Mobile couldn’t find buyers for assets that could help make their merger a reality, but now there’s no need to worry about it: AT&T has just announced that the deal is officially dead.
In a recent release (reproduced in full below), AT&T points at the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice, and states that the actions of the two parties “do not change the realities of the U.S. wireles industry.” Read more...
While I love the convenience and features of Gmail, I hate that all my messages live on Google’s servers. Without a local copy, if I can’t get online, or if Gmail has an outage, my email’s inaccessible.
While it’s possible to download your Gmail with a POP client like Thunderbird, constantly running a program just to backup your email consumes CPU cycles and memory.
Instead, today we’ll set up a nightly automated Gmail backup using the command line program fetchmail, which will go out, grab your newest messages, save ’em to your hard drive and exit, all while you sleep soundly in the knowledge that you’ve got an offline copy of your important email. Read more...
Been using T-Mobile for close to a day now and I must say I am impressed. easily the best phone I have used ever. Curious as to why there is not advertising on this phone. they could do so many things with this. Picture this….., Someone opens Phone to see Music video of INXS’s song “The New Sensation.” Playing on phone in HD, Then explore some of the phones features. Just my two cents…
As we heard earlier today that AT&T and T-Mobile couldn’t find buyers for assets that could help make their merger a reality, but now there’s no need to worry about it: AT&T has just announced that the deal is officially dead.