Microsoft cuts down 10,000 jobs in an attempt to scale back
The last couple of months has been about the top big companies scaling back and laying off their workers. However, for some reason, we all thought that Microsoft might be an exception to the rule.
Well, this week, Microsoft announced that it is joining other tech companies and cutting 10,000 jobs – about 5% of its total workforce, in an attempt to cut back on spending.
Microsoft said in a US regulatory filing that the layoffs were a response to “macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities.” Despite the fact that Microsoft is increasing its investment into the new promising area of generative artificial intelligence, the information has still been reported.
Following the outbreak of the pandemic, Microsoft’s staff size increased by approximately 36 percent in two fiscal years. This was from 163,000 employees at the end of June 2020 to 221,000 in June 2022.
Interestingly or not, there are also plans to cut jobs in a number of engineering divisions. The software giant’s announcement of layoffs occurred at the same time that Amazon also disclosed it would inform 18,000 of its personnel that they would be let go.
In other Microsoft news, if you intend to buy a Windows 10 license online, you might want to hurry up because the software giant will stop the sale of Windows 10 licenses by the end of January.
It seems like Microsoft is trying its best to get as many users as possible to use Windows 11. However, this doesn’t mean that you can no longer buy Windows 10 licenses anywhere else. Good luck!
Adobe insists that customer data is not being used to train AI
This year may not have kicked off for Adobe on a good note, as earlier in the month, they faced accusations of using customer images and videos to train multimedia generation AI models. Screenshots of Adobe’s terms of service were also used to fuel these claims.
However, the Chief Product Officer at Adobe, Scott Belsky, has come out in an interview with Bloomberg to refute this claim and say that the company has never trained its generative artificial intelligence services on customer projects.
He pointed out that there is a decade-old policy in place that allows products to be analyzed to improve features, not for image generation. He said, “If we ever allow people to opt-in for generative AI specifically, we need to call it out and explain how we’re using it.”
As it is currently in the dynamic AI imagery space, Adobe hopes to differentiate its generative tools by integrating them into existing creative software.
Google now working to develop location tags
It appears like Google is now catching up with an ongoing trend and setting up its own location tags.
According to a GSMArena report, Google has now included a “locator tag” as a feature for its incoming developer console. The gadget in question has an onboard speaker that comes with support for UWB technologies used for radio-based communication.
The tracker is allegedly codenamed ‘Grogu’ and may finally make use of the UWB support featured on the Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 7 Pro.
Google is also working with chipset manufacturers to enable Fast Pair support for Android products, allowing manufacturers to develop their own trackers.
There’s a high chance that a Google Grogu will be announced as early as Google I/O, which will most likely take place in May.
Metazoa announces 16 automated Org Management Solutions for Salesforce
The developers of the Salesforce ecosystem’s top software toolset for org management, Metazoa, have this week announced the launch of its new automated Salesforce org management tools.
The new tools are designed to help customers lower the cost and complexity of managing their Salesforce environments by automating complex tasks such as org splits, user cleanup, security optimization, and technical debt removal.
By automating the Salesforce org management process, Metazoa’s new tools save Salesforce customers time and money by eliminating the need for additional staff or expensive global system integrators (GSI). The new tools also fill the void left by industry-wide downsizing and staff reductions.
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Mailchimp suffers second breach in six months
Mailchimp has suffered yet another security incident that has exposed user data, the second such incident in six months.
Mailchimp suffered a breach in April 2022, one that exposed the data of more than 100 customers. The company has now revealed in a blog post that it has suffered another breach that has once again compromised the data of more than 100 customers.
It is unclear why Mailchimp keeps having these breaches, but one thing we are sure about is that it certainly does not instill much confidence in the company or its owner, Intuit.
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Want to compare the Mailchimp’s pricing package, then head to our Mailchip Pricing review.
One AI collaborates with AWS to provide language AI solution for developers
One AI, a platform that enables developers to add language AI to products and services, this week announced that it has entered into a collaboration with Amazon Web Services.
The relationship allows One AI to offer its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) language AI solutions in the AWS Marketplace, which makes it easy for customers to find, test, buy and deploy software on AWS.
One AI’s collaboration with AWS Data Exchange offers customers the opportunity to quickly add state-of-the-art NLP capabilities to their products, services, or workflows, quickly and easily. As a result of this strategic collaboration, customers can easily use One AI on AWS to build applications without needing AI research or IT experience.
GitHub introduces go-gh to simplify the creation of GitHub CLI extensions
Introduced in GitHub CLI 2.0, extensions allow developers to add new features by writing small Go programs. To make it easier to create extensions, GitHub is now releasing a new library, go-gh. Additionally, the latest version of GitHub CLI introduces two new commands to search and browse the catalog of available extensions.
One advantage of using go-gh-provided REST, HTTP, or GraphQL clients is they will transparently use the current GitHub CLI environment configuration, thus relieving the programmer from dealing with hostname, auth token, default headers, and other requirements of using those APIs.
GitHub is also providing a step-by-step tutorial describing how you can select a repository, accept an argument, talk to the API, format the output, and so on.
Singtel launches Zoom’s latest enterprise communication solutions
Finally this week, Singtel announced the release of the latest enterprise communication solutions from Zoom Video Communications to enhance customer service delivery, operational efficiency and support overall digital transformation.
These services will be progressively made available to enterprises, starting next month with Singtel’s Zoom Phone Connector where phone calls can be enabled from fixed lines to Zoom Meetings. Other solutions will enable a more immersive meeting experience amidst rising demand for hybrid working and team collaboration.
It is interesting to see that the adoption of Singtel’s suite of UC solutions has grown more than 25% year-on-year since they were launched in 2021.
See you next week!
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