Technology

The wave of layoffs seems to continue unabated. Redmond-based tech giant Microsoft has reportedly laid off about 40 of its Washington-based employees. The fresh round of layoffs comes at a time when Microsoft has been investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI). Although fewer in number, the latest cuts were across the company, the company said. … Read more

Skywatchers will be treated to a visual feast this weekend. The Perseid meteor shower, one of the most well-known celestial events, occurs annually around this time. It will be visible on August 12 and 13, best viewed around dawn on August 13. This year, however, there will be one significant exception: moonlight. Last year, there … Read more

At a time when digital scams are on the rise, WhatsApp has launched a new safety tool designed to help users avoid being roped into suspicious or unfamiliar groups. The feature called “Safety Overview,” will now appear when a person not in your contacts list adds you to a group – a tactic often used … Read more

When Rachel Grey started working at Google as a software engineer in 2007, it was a good time to be a Noogler, or what the search giant called new employees. At a two-week orientation at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, Grey discovered a utopia of perks. The company’s cafeterias served steak and shrimp, kitchens … Read more

OpenAI said on Tuesday it has released two open-weight language models that excel in advanced reasoning and are optimized to run on laptops with performance levels similar to its smaller proprietary reasoning models. An open-weight language model’s trained parameters or weights are publicly accessible, which can be used by developers to analyze and fine-tune the … Read more

My first experience with a Nespresso machine was funny in many ways. I still don’t know where that pod ended up in my hotel room in Barcelona. That was almost 15 years back, and I was a novice when it came to any form of coffee other than my daily black coffee with its chicory … Read more

Apple, the pioneering company behind the iPhone and Mac, has missed the bus on the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but it now seems to be trying to catch up by developing a ChatGPT-like product internally, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported on Monday, August 4. Dubbed as an “Answer Engine,” the AI chatbot can respond to questions … Read more

Amazon.com is restructuring the Wondery podcast studio by shifting its award-winning narrative podcasts such as “Business Wars” to Audible and consolidating creator-led shows into a new unit, according to a memo seen by Reuters. About 110 employees will be laid off as part of the process, while many Wondery employees will transition to other parts … Read more

Spotify said on Monday it would increase monthly price of its premium individual subscription in select markets from September, as the Swedish streaming giant looks to improve margins. The company’s shares jumped nearly 8%. They have gained about 40% so far this year. The subscription price will rise to 11.99 euros ($13.86) per month from … Read more

After months of wait, GPT-5 may have made its first public appearance. On Sunday, August 3, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted a screenshot on X showing an interaction with the highly anticipated large language model (LLM).   The post showed Altman asking GPT-5, ‘What is the most thought-provoking show about AI?’ to which the model responded … Read more