Which step is slow

Microsoft Corp. will slow hiring in its Windows and Office divisions as well as the Teams chat and conferencing software groups, the executive vice president who runs those products said in an email to employees Thursday. All new hires must be approved by executive vice president Rajesh Jha and his leadership team, Jha said in the email, according to a Microsoft spokesperson. Those groups have expanded recently and the company wants to make sure it’s making the right hires in the right places, the spokesperson said. The step is not companywide and overall the software maker will continue to hire. “As Microsoft gets ready for the new fiscal year, it is making sure the right resources are aligned to the right opportunity,” the company said in a statement. “Microsoft will continue to grow headcount in the year ahead and it will add additional focus to where those resources go.” The company’s new fiscal year starts July 1. Follow Gadgets Now on Facebook … [Read more...] about Microsoft hiring: Microsoft to slow hiring in Windows, Office, Teams Chat groups

A report from Bloomberg details the obstacles hampering Amazon’s efforts to get its delivery drone program off the ground, citing a high employee turnover rate and potential safety risks. According to Bloomberg , there were five crashes over the course of a four-month period at the company’s testing site in Pendleton, Oregon. A crash in May took place after a drone lost its propeller, but Bloomberg says Amazon cleaned up the wreckage before the Federal Aviation Administration could investigate. Amazon spokesperson Av Zammit disputed this, saying that Amazon followed orders it received from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to document the event and move the drone. The following month, a drone’s motor shut off as it switched from an upward flight path to flying straight ahead. Two safety features — one that’s supposed to land the drone in this type of situation and another that stabilizes the drone — both failed. As a result, the drone flipped upside down and … [Read more...] about Amazon is still struggling to make drone deliveries work

Rumor mill: Sony seems to have little reason to slow down its recent push into PC releases. After God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Days Gone—with Uncharted still to come—another PlayStation hit appears headed to Steam. Recently, a listing appeared on SteamDB sounding suspiciously similar to Sony and Housmarque's award-winning roguelike shooter Returnal. Titled Oregon, the listing's tags accurately describe the game with terms like "third-person shooter," "bullet hell," "rouge-lite," and "female protagonist." Its history section mentions a Tower of Sisyphus—an extra mode in Returnal. Released last year, Returnal was one of the PlayStation 5's first AAA exclusives. It won two awards at the DICE Summit in February and the top prize at the BAFTAs. It appears Returnal is headed to Steam https://t.co/wuFqDwLV7o pic.twitter.com/jrvZf70s1K — Nibel (@Nibellion) May 26, 2022 The game's eventual appearance on PC would come as no surprise. This week, Sony optimistically … [Read more...] about SteamDB listing indicates PlayStation 5 exclusive Returnal might see a PC release

Monarch butterflies might be tougher than we give them credit for. The orange beauties made a surprising comeback in Mexico this winter, environmental organizations and Mexico’s commission for natural protected areas announced this week. To avoid frigid temperatures further north, the butterflies flutter thousands of miles south from Canada and the US to spend the winter months in Mexico. This December, authorities there recorded a 35 percent rise in the monarch butterfly’s presence in Mexican forests. It’s a show of resilience for a species whose numbers have dwindled to worrying lows in the region over the past decade. They face serious threats from habitat destruction and climate change , so much so that the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity launched a lawsuit last year to urge the US to protect them under the Endangered Species Act. The butterflies drape themselves across the forest, at times thick enough to change the color of the landscape from green … [Read more...] about Monarch butterflies saw a resurgence in Mexico

Audio player loading… The electrifying official trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder has landed online – and, as is customary around these parts, we're here to break the film's latest teaser down for you. With Thor: Love and Thunder set to arrive in theaters on July 8, it's high time we received another glimpse at the upcoming MCU movie . It's nice of Marvel Studios to have obliged, then, with the latest Thor 4 trailer giving us our first look at Christian Bale's Gorr the God Butcher among many other things. There's a lot going on in the official Thor 4 trailer, so much so that we suspect you'll have missed some pretty important moments, locations, and Easter eggs within its two-minute runtime. This is a Marvel Phase 4 project, after all, so there are plenty of MCU and comic book references that Marvel Studios could pack into the teaser and the final cut of the film. It goes without saying, but you'll want to watch the Thor: Love and Thunder trailer before … [Read more...] about Thor: Love and Thunder trailer breakdown: 8 things you may have missed

Audio player loading… Obi-Wan Kenobi's showrunner has suggested that she would be open to helming a second season of the Star Wars TV series. Speaking exclusively to TechRadar, Deborah Chow – who also directed the upcoming Obi-Wan series after her fantastic work on The Mandalorian – teased the possibility of returning for another outing if a second season is given the green light. However, Chow tempered expectations by confirming that Obi-Wan Kenobi season 2 wasn't on the cards yet. Additionally, the Star Wars show's lead creator maintained that her sole focus was on ensuring the Disney Plus series ' first season was as good as it can be, with her attention only turning to other projects – or Obi-Wan season 2 – once the miniseries' six episodes had been released. "I think at this point, I'm still trying to finish this one," Chow said. "I've kind of got to get through this one and then I think I need a vacation! So I don't know, but I do love this character. … [Read more...] about Obi-Wan showrunner opens up on those season 2 rumors

Audio player loading… Microsoft has announced that Windows 11 is ready for “broad deployment”, meaning it should be rolled out to more devices across the world. Revealed in an update to its Windows dashboard (opens in new tab) , the news comes as Windows 11 is seeing relatively slow adoption in comparison to previous iterations. Its CPU requirements have proved difficult for many business computers and business laptops to meet, with the result that recent research found there are actually more PCs running Windows XP than systems which have adopted Windows 11. What’s next for Windows 11? Microsoft has decided not to go ahead with a planned Windows 11 update that would have sacrificed some existing taskbar functionality in favour of a cleaner look for those using tablet devices, as Microsoft does not offer a separate standalone operating system for tablets. It hasn’t just been users that have struggled with Windows 11 system requirements … [Read more...] about There may soon officially be no escape from Windows 11 on your PC

Audio player loading… It's no secret the vacuum innovator Dyson is into robotics, but it's more serious about it than anyone knew. Six years ago, the company introduced its Dyson 360 Eye robotic vacuum, which managed to be a perfect blend of forward-leaning automation and slightly out-of-step innovation (it lacked the latest Wi-Fi connectivity channel, and Dyson locked in the camera as a navigation system almost a decade before delivering the first product). These days, you can't even buy a Dyson 360 Eye in the US (opens in new tab) , but that doesn't mean the company's robotic ambitions are done. Far from it. This week and without much fanfare, Dyson posted a video (opens in new tab) offering a peek at the company's "top secret" robotics work. Hosted by Jake Dyson, the son of founder and CEO James Dyson, the video offers a rare glimpse of Dyson's ongoing efforts to crack the home robotics nut. Standing before a pair of large hangers at the … [Read more...] about Dyson is building super-secret robots, including a ‘robot brain’ – which isn’t scary at all

Audio player loading… Young people are increasingly favouring mobile payment apps over traditional payment methods, according to research from card issuing platform Marqeta. The company surveyed 4,000 consumers across three continents, including 1,000 UK respondent, and found  the majority (61%) feel confident enough with contactless payments to leave their wallet at home and just take their phone, a figure that rises to over three quarters for UK Gen Z respondents. Almost all (96%) UK consumers surveyed have used contactless in the last year, according to Marqeta’s research. What's more, 42% of UK respondents say it’s been so long since they used anything except contactless, they can’t even remember their PIN anymore - a figure that rises to 54% for those aged under 24. Changing attitudes The Marqeta research also highlighted the death of in-person banking among younger generations. Almost half of UK consumers surveyed said they can count on their … [Read more...] about The kids are ditching their physical wallets in favor of mobile payments

Audio player loading… Microsoft has announced it is working on a miniature Arm-powered PC that runs Windows 11 . Unveiled during CEO Satya Nadella's keynote at Microsoft Build 2022, Project Volterra (opens in new tab) is the company's first Windows on Arm devkit, and effectively its first true desktop device designed for developers. Although there is no news on exact hardware specifications just yet, Microsoft did reveal that Project Volterra will use an as-yet-unknown Snapdragon processor alongside a built-in neural processing unit (NPU) with "best-in-class AI computing capacity". Project Volterra: What we know The device wasn't shown in-person during Nadella's talk, but an accompanying video appeared to show that Project Volterra would be around the size of a typical mini PC such as the Mac Mini . Designed in a striking granite-black build made of recycled ocean plastic, the device is stackable, meaning developers could stack multiple … [Read more...] about Project Volterra is Microsoft’s new Snapdragon-powered Windows 11 mini PC