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Ubisoft Montreal just laid off 98 people as part of a corporate restructuring and reorganization effort, as reported by Kotaku. The cuts primarily impact workers in business administration services and IT. Ubisoft says it will support “all affected Canadian employees” with severance packages and “career assistance to help them navigate their transition.” 

The Montreal office is widely considered to be the most reputable subsidiary of Ubisoft and its largest in-house development team, employing around 4,000 people. Ubisoft Montreal is responsible for many of the company’s big-wig franchises, from Assassin’s Creed to Far Cry and Rainbow Six Siege.

Ubisoft wrote in a statement provided to Kotaku that it feels the “utmost gratitude and respect” for the impacted employees and noted that these cuts do not extend to the various production teams, likely to assuage consumers worried about game delays. In addition to the 98 that have already been let go, Ubisoft Montreal anticipates about two dozen more layoffs in the near future.

Ubisoft has been on a firing spree this past year, laying off over 1,000 people from its various global branches. This has led to some game cancellations, like the arena battler Project Q, among others. Despite these layoffs, the company still employs over 19,000 people worldwide.

This is, of course, part of a larger trend that finds multiple game studios laying off people as a cost cutting measure. Epic Games slashed its workforce by 16 percent earlier this year and CD Projekt Red, the company behind Cyberpunk 2077, laid off 100 employees back in July. The same thing has been happening across the entire tech space, as Google, Microsoft, Meta, IBM and many more companies turned 2023 into a bonanza of pink slips.

Another Meta whistleblower has testified before Congress regarding safety issues on the company's platforms. On the same day that Frances Haugen told Congress in 2021 how Meta could fix some of its safety problems, Arturo Béjar, a former director of engineering for Protect and Care at Facebook, sent CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other executives an email regarding the harms that young people may face while using the company's products.

Two years later, Béjar was the sole witness in a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing titled "Social Media and the Teen Mental Health Crisis." In his testimony, Béjar claimed he was subpoenaed earlier this year to testify regarding emails he sent Meta higher-ups. He said he realized that since he sent them, nothing had changed at the company.

"Meta continues to publicly misrepresent the level and frequency of harm that users, especially children, experience on the platform," Béjar told the Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law in prepared remarks. "And they have yet to establish a goal for actually reducing those harms and protecting children. It’s time that the public and parents understand the true level of harm posed by these 'products' and it’s time that young users have the tools to report and suppress online abuse."

Béjar was an engineering director at Meta between 2009 and 2015, during which time he was responsible for protecting Facebook users. He supported a team that worked on "bullying tools for teens, suicide prevention, child safety and other difficult moments that people go through," according to his LinkedIn profile.

He testified that he initially left Meta feeling "good that we had built numerous systems that made using our products easier and safer." However, he said that, since they were 14, his daughter and her friends "repeatedly faced unwanted sexual advances, misogyny and harassment" on Instagram. According to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on Béjar's claims, he stated that Meta's systems typically ignored reports they made or responded to say that the harassment they faced didn't break the rules.

Those issues prompted him to return to Meta in 2019, where he worked with Instagram’s well-being team. "It was not a good experience. Almost all of the work that I and my colleagues had done during my earlier stint at Facebook through 2015 was gone," Béjar said in his testimony. "The tools we had built for teenagers to get support when they were getting bullied or harassed were no longer available to them. People at the company had little or no memory of the lessons we had learned earlier."

Béjar claimed that Instagram and internal research teams gathered data showing that younger teens dealt with "great distress and abuse." However, "senior management was externally reporting different data that grossly understated the frequency of harm experienced by users," he told senators.

In a 2021 email to Zuckerberg and other executives laying out some of his concerns, Béjar wrote that his then-16-year-old daughter uploaded a car-related post to Instagram only for a commenter to tell her to "get back to the kitchen." Béjar said his daughter found this upsetting. “At the same time the comment is far from being policy violating, and our tools of blocking or deleting mean that this person will go to other profiles and continue to spread misogyny," Béjar wrote. "I don’t think policy/reporting or having more content review are the solutions.”

Béjar said that along with his daughter's experiences with the app, he cited data from a research team indicating that 13 percent of users aged between 13 and 15 reported that they received unwanted sexual advances on Instagram within the previous seven days. While former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg offered sympathy toward his daughter for her negative experiences and Instagram head Adam Mosseri asked to set up a meeting, according to Béjar, Zuckerberg never responded to the email.

"That was unusual," Béjar said in his testimony. "It might have happened, but I don’t recall Mark ever not responding to me previously in numerous communications, either by email or by asking for an in-person meeting."

Béjar told the Associated Press that Meta has to change its approach to moderating its platforms. This, according to Béjar, would require the company to place a greater onus on tackling harassment, unwanted sexual advances and other issues that don't necessarily break the company's existing rules.

He noted, for instance, that teens should be able to tell Instagram that they don't want to receive crude sexual messages, even if those don't violate the app's current policies. Béjar claims it would be easy for Meta to implement a feature through which teens could flag sexual advances that were made to them. "I believe that the reason that they're not doing this is because there's no transparency about the harms that teenagers are experiencing on Instagram," he told the BBC.

Béjar laid out several other steps that Meta could take to reduce harm users face on its platform that "do not require significant investments by the platforms in people to review content or in technical infrastructure." He added that he believes adopting such measures (which primarily focus on improving safety tools and getting more feedback from users who have experienced harm) would not severely impact the revenues of Meta or other companies that adopt them. "These reforms are not designed to punish companies, but to help teenagers," he told the subcommittee. "And over time, they will create a safer environment."

"My experience, after sending that email and seeing what happened afterwards, is that they knew, there were things they could do about it, they chose not to do them and we cannot trust them with our children," Béjar said during the hearing. "It's time for Congress to act. The evidence, I believe, is overwhelming."

“Countless people inside and outside of Meta are working on how to help keep young people safe online," Meta spokesman Andy Stone told The Washington Post on Tuesday. "Working with parents and experts, we have also introduced over 30 tools to support teens and their families in having safe, positive experiences online. All of this work continues.”

Béjar hopes his testimony will help spur Congress to “pass the legislation that they've been working on” regarding the online safety of younger users. Two years ago, Haugen disclosed internal Facebook research indicating that Instagram was "harmful for a sizable percentage of teens." Growing scrutiny led Meta to halt work on a version of Instagram for kids.

Since Haugen's testimony, Congress has made some efforts to tackle online safety issues for kids, but those have stuttered. The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) twice advanced from a Senate committee (in the previous Congress and earlier this year), but it hasn't reached a floor vote and there's no companion bill in the House. Among other things, the bill seeks to give kids aged under 16 the ability to switch off "addictive features and algorithm-based recommendations, as well as having more protections for their data. Similar bills have stalled in Congress.

Last month, attorneys general from 41 states and the District of Columbia sued Meta over alleged harms it caused to young users. “Meta designed and deployed harmful and psychologically manipulative product features to induce young users’ compulsive and extended Platform use, while falsely assuring the public that its features were safe and suitable for young users," according to the lawsuit. Béjar said he consulted with the attorneys general and provided them with documents to help their case.

"I'm very hopeful that your testimony, added to the lawsuit that's been brought by state attorneys general across the country ... added to the interest that I think is evidenced by the turnout of our subcommitee today, will enable us to get the Kids Online Safety Act across the finish line," subcommittee chair Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told Béjar. Blumenthal, one of KOSA's original sponsors, expressed hope that other legislation "that can finally break the straitjacket that Big Tech has imposed on us" will be enacted into law.

Over the last few years and amid the rise of TikTok, Meta has once again been focusing on bringing younger users into its ecosystem, with Zuckerberg stating in 2021 (just a couple of weeks after Haugen's testimony) that the company would refocus its “teams to make serving young adults their North Star rather than optimizing for the larger number of older people.” Recently, the company lowered the minimum age for using its Meta Quest VR headsets to 10 through the use of parent-controlled accounts.

Sony has just unveiled its latest pro-oriented mirrorless camera, and we now know why it took them four years to develop it The Alpha A9 III is the first full-frame camera on the market with a global stacked sensor, a sort of holy grail in the photographic world. It allows for some wild specs, like 120fps shooting speeds with no blackout, up to a 1/80,000th of a second shutter speed and zero rolling shutter — albeit with a 24.6 megapixel resolution that may disappoint some.

The new tech opens up a lot of new possibilities for photographers. Without the constraints of a physical shutter (no, there isn't one), it can shoot full-resolution, blackout-free 14-bit RAW bursts at up to 120fps with a 1.6 second buffer (around 180 shots). Sony also installed the latest Bionz XR image processor and "high-density focal plane phase detection AF" that allows for real-time autofocus (AF) tracking. 

Sony

"A designated AI processing unit uses real-time recognition AF to recognize a wide variety of subjects with high precision," Sony explains in the press release. "By combining high-speed performance of up to 120 fps with highly accurate subject recognition performance, it is possible to easily photograph scenes and moments that cannot be seen with the naked eye." 

Sony

The global shutter also allows for shutter speeds of 1/80,000th of a second (1/16,000th during continuous shooting), ten times faster than most cameras. It also means that compatible flashes can be synced all the way up to the maximum shutter speed, rather than being limited to much lower speeds in electronic shutter mode — normally around 1/250th to 1/500th of a second. It also allows the shutter speed to be finely adjusted to eliminate flicker in video. And Sony is offering a 1-second pre-burst feature that can capture scenes before the shutter button is pressed, reducing the possibility of a missed shot. 

Sony

The stacked global shutter provides large benefits for video, as well. It's Sony's first camera to support 4K 120p video with no cropping and does so with no rolling shutter distortion (skewing), along with 4K 60p with 6K oversampling. It also offers 10-bit recording with S-Log3 capture in all video modes (including 4K 120p), along with S-Cinetone borrowed from the company's high-end Venice lineup that "makes human skin tones and subjects stand out beautifully," Sony said. It should be one of Sony's best-focusing cameras for video, as all the photo subject tracking features work in that mode, too.

It's got a long list of other features you'd expect on a high-end Sony camera, most notably in-body stabilization with up to 8 stops of shake reduction. The electronic viewfinder is Sony's best with 9.44 million dots, and It resolves the rear display tilt vs. flip debate by doing both of those things. And to help clear the buffer as quickly as possible, it supports fast CFexpress Type A cards on top of SD UHS II, much like the Alpha A1.

Sony

Other specs show an ISO range of 250-25600 (expandable to ISO 125–51200) with a minimum ISO that's a bit on the high side. That shouldn't bother photographers on sunny days, given the extremely fast shutter speeds, but video shooters will need ND filters to block some light. 

What will be a key for this camera is the image quality and low-light sensitivity, given that this is an all-new sensor and there's not a lot of data on global shutters. Sony didn't release any sample photos yet from what I've seen, so upcoming reviews of this model will be key. The Alpha A9 III goes on pre-order tomorrow for $6,000, with a vertical grip available for $400 — but won't arrive until next spring. 

Samsung's Smart Monitor M80C is one of the more unique monitors on the market, as it blends a 4K display for your computer with the features of a small smart TV and smart home hub. We've seen this latest model in the Smart Monitor series go on sale a few times since it arrived in June, but right now the 32-inch M80C is down to $400 at Amazon with an on-page coupon. We could always see a better deal on Black Friday, but for now this is the lowest price we've seen and roughly $200 below the display's average street price in recent months. Other stores like Best Buy, B&H and Samsung.com have the monitor for $100 more (though you can also get it for $400 at Best Buy if you subscribe to the retailer's My Best Buy Plus service). This deal applies to the white colorway. 

You'd buy a Samsung Smart Monitor for its versatility first and foremost. The display comes with a remote and runs on Samsung's Tizen OS, the same as you'd find on the company's smart TVs, so you can access streaming apps like Netflix, YouTube, Hulu and others without having to turn on your computer. You can also stream cloud games using the Xbox app and Nvidia GeForce Now or beam content directly from an iPhone via AirPlay. The Bixby and Alexa voice assistants are both built in and, since the monitor also works as a SmartThings hub, you can use it to control compatible smart home devices. There's a detachable webcam and two built-in speakers as well; neither are great, but they should work in a pinch. The whole thing is a relatively minor upgrade over last year's M80B monitor, though it now has a full-size HDMI port instead of micro-HDMI, plus two USB-A ports and a 65W USB-C port. 

That said, this is still a "jack of all trades, master of none" situation. The 4K resolution keeps it sharp, but it's limited to a basic 60Hz refresh rate and lacks local dimming. It's also a VA panel, which gives the monitor decent contrast but means the image will wash out when viewed from an angle. Other reviews suggest that the M80C can get decently bright, though you shouldn't expect an especially vibrant picture with HDR content. And while the monitor itself looks sharp and supports basic adjustments, this discounted model isn't VESA-mountable. 

All of this means the M80C is a bit of a niche device. If you don't care about the M80C's bonus features, you can find better values in our guides to the best monitors and gaming monitors. You can replicate many of those extra perks directly from a PC, after all. But if you want a monitor that doubles as a small TV for your home office, it should be a decent value at this price.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

The stream of new video games seemingly never ends but, for some of us, nothing beats the classics. If you don’t feel like hunting through eBay and local game shops for old cartridges to add to your loved one’s collection, we’ve got some other gift ideas for the nostalgic gamer in your life — from video upscalers for old consoles to retro-themed books and artwork.

Oregon Trail Card Game

Analogue Pocket

Miyoo Mini+

8BitDo Retro Receiver for PS

RetroTink 5X-Pro

The 100 Greatest Retro Videogames

SEGA Genesis Mini 2

Nintendo Switch Online

8Bitdo Nintendo mechanical keyboard

Grid Studio artwork

Launchbox Premium

FAQs

Why do people buy retro games?

Because they’re fun! Or because video game companies have generally had a spotty record of preserving their own history — and (legally) saving art, even in a minuscule way, is important. Or because, deep down, collectors just want to stave off the ceaseless march of time and hang onto any way to relive their youth before it dissipates for good. Or because they’re jaded with modern game design and crave shorter, more distinct or altogether different experiences that aren’t being served by today’s market. Or because they want to flip the games they collect for a quick buck on eBay. Or because… well, you get the idea. — J.D.

Why is retro gaming so expensive?

To put it simply: supply and demand. Companies aren’t making old games and consoles any more, yet a growing number of gaming enthusiasts want them. And as retro game collecting has grown more popular, sellers have become more acutely aware of how high they can price their goods. Not every retro game costs an arm and a leg, however: Popular games from relatively recent consoles are usually more affordable than lesser-selling titles for older hardware, and you can still find a good bargain every now and then by digging through local yard sales, individual eBay sellers and the like. — J.D.

Are retro games a good investment?

It depends on how you define “good.” Is it a good idea to buy a bunch of old games in the hopes that their value will skyrocket and make you a tidy profit? No, there’s little rhyme or reason to determining exactly which games will shoot up in value and by how much. There are much safer ways to invest if all you care about are financial returns. Is it a good idea to drop a bunch of cash on 40-year-old video games if you have pressing financial responsibilities? Probably not! But hey, it’s your life. If collecting retro games makes you happy, and you can budget for them within reason, that’s a good thing. Have fun. — J.D.

What qualifies as a retro game?

There’s no set definition for when a video game becomes “retro.” Personally, I think of it as any game that’s at least 10 years old and was originally released on a console that’s two or more generations old (or, for PC games, during that generation). But many others would stretch the timeline back farther, and the growing advent of “live service” games has complicated things. For instance, Grand Theft Auto V was released in 2013, while World of Warcraft arrived in 2004 — are those “retro games” when millions of people still play them today? Maybe not. With games from the ‘90s or earlier, though, the distinction is clearer. — J.D.

Master & Dynamic hasn't debuted new wireless earbuds since 2021 when the company revealed the MW08 and MW08 Sport within a few months of each other. Now M&D is back with a new model, the MW09, with a refined design, better battery life, redesigned acoustics and upgraded call quality. As is typically the case with the company's audio gear, the MW09 is made with premium materials, including aluminum, Kevlar and sapphire glass. Master & Dynamic is also introducing all of its updates without raising the price as the new model costs the same at the company's most recent true wireless option. 

Like the MW08 Sport, the MW09's outer panel is a combination of aluminum and sapphire glass, with a similar overall D shape to the two previous versions. Master & Dynamic says it gave this new model a more ergonomic shape on the other side and reduced the weight with an updated acoustic enclosure and construction. It explains that this should offer a better fit for a wider range of ear shapes while also increasing comfort. Another key design difference is that outer panel now has a circular section where the company's "M" branding is prominently displayed. It's not a touch panel though as the physical controls still reside on the top edge.

Inside, M&D gave the MW09 a new acoustic architecture with its 11mm beryllium drivers. The company promises its "most expansive sound profile ever" as a result of the improvements there. When it comes to active noise cancelation (ANC), Master & Dynamic explains that updated microphone and sensor placement alongside new adaptive noise-blocking algorithms combat more environmental noise. For calls, a new AI-powered "high-definition" speech setup should keep you sounding clear and natural even in loud settings, according to the company. What's more, there's improved battery life of up to 12 hours with ANC on (16 hours with it off). That's two hours longer than the MW08 Sport (four hours more with ANC off). 

Master & Dynamic is also making significant updates to its M&D Connect App for its earbuds and headphones. For the MW09, the app will provide a fully adjustable EQ, battery monitoring, an earbud fit test and sidetone, or the ability to hear your voice better during calls. The new model supports Bluetooth 5.4, Snapdragon Sound and Auracast in addition to multipoint connectivity for easier switching between devices. 

The MW09 will be available in black, white and gold options with an aluminum case for $349. That's the same price at the MW08 Sport, but it's $150 more than the MW08. If you prefer a Kevlar case, you can choose from green, blue or gunmetal hues and those cost an extra $50. All colors and case options will be available for purchase or preorder at the company's website on November 14.

Waze's latest feature focuses on safety and will give you the knowledge needed to make an informed choice about the route you're taking. The Google-owned navigation app has launched crash history alerts, which will send you a notification if you're driving along a crash-prone road. Waze will publish a prompt that says "history of crashes" in-app before you reach, say, a curve that's particularly tricky to navigate. That way, you can slow down or be on the lookout for anything that could derail your vehicle. 

Waze

The app decides whether to show you a notification based on reports from the Waze community and an AI analysis of your route, such as its traffic levels, its elevation and whether it's a highway or a smaller local road. It will not show you crash alerts for routes you usually take in order to minimize distractions, which suggests that its main purpose is to give you a heads up if you should drive with more caution than usual in places you're not familiar with. 

Waze has released several protective features intended to keep you safe on the route you're planning to take over the years. A few years ago, it started sending out real-time accident data so that you can take an alternate route if needed and first responders can get to accident sites sooner. In 2020, it also rolled out guidance prompts telling you to get in the right spot for an upcoming merge or exit before you get there. 

Apple’s MacBook problem was a confusing lineup of similar machines with different names, different chips, different hardware and the rest. But it may have finally solved the problem. The long-rumored 15-inch MacBook Air arrived months ago, and then Apple surprised us by delivering two MacBook Pro revisions — notably in less than 12 months — to showcase the company’s most powerful chips yet. These new M3-equipped MacBook Pro 14- and 16-inch are a clearer sign of Apple’s direction.

Engadget

The company has killed off the long-suffering 13-inch MacBook Pro, and in the same stroke, put an end to an aging design and the divisive, frustrating Touch Bar. These Pro machines — especially the M3 Max models — are great for professionals, and the MacBook Airs are for everyone else.

I think, for the first time in a long time, Apple’s laptop lineup finally makes sense.

— Mat Smith

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Organizer Yuga Labs is ‘aware of the eye-related issues.’

@CryptoJune777 / X

So you thought just the idea of attending an NFT event was torturous enough. At least 15 visitors at Yuga Labs’ ApeFest, a celebration of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs (which are still a thing), may have experienced serious eye injuries. Bloomberg reports that multiple people attending the event in Hong Kong last weekend experienced vision problems, which they suspect stem from the event’s stage lighting. Some claim doctors subsequently diagnosed them with welder’s eye, a condition caused by overexposure to ultraviolet rays. The company is apparently investigating the reports.

Continue reading.

Every car is a smart car, and it’s a privacy nightmare

Smart cars, dumb privacy policies, terms and conditions.

Mozilla recently reported that all 25 car brands it reviewed failed its privacy tests. While all, in Mozilla’s estimation, overreached in their data collection and use policies, some even included caveats about obtaining highly invasive information. Today’s cars can collect personal information, and the fine print of user agreements describes how manufacturers get you to consent every time.

Continue reading.

WeWork files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

The company has struggled.

Another twist in the WeWork saga this week as the office space rental company has filed for bankruptcy protection. Following reports last week that the company was expected to file for Chapter 11 protection, WeWork’s shares were halted on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday. According to The New York Times, it described its bankruptcy filing as a “comprehensive reorganization” of its business. WeWork has been toiling in a real estate market shaken by rising borrowing costs while also facing the pandemic-accelerated change of millions more people working remotely.

Continue reading.

The holiday season might be the most wonderful time of the year, but it's arguably also the most expensive. Ahead of the mad dash to find the best presents for the lowest prices, Google is attempting to undo some of that financial load with the launch of its new deals hub. Now, if you type in "shop deals" on Google, the search engine will bring you to a page filled with markdowns on categories like electronics and apparel. 

If you're looking for a specific type of item, you can Google something like "shop headphone deals" and see promotions for that product. Displayed items should come from a range of sources, including big box stores, luxury brands, and local shops. Google will also show items based on what you've browsed for in the past while signed into your account. Plus, if you've looked at a certain shirt or a watch, for instance, it might appear in your "resume browsing" card alongside any current promotions on it.

Google is also coming for extensions like Honey and Capital One Shopping, with a new discount tag icon right in the Chrome address bar. Click on the button, and, just like with the others, you'll get a list of coupon codes for the site you're currently shopping on. 

Plus, Google is providing more tracking information to monitor whether a price is above average — or has recently dropped. Participating sites will have a "shopping insights" label in the address bar that you can click on to view an item's 90-day price history. This chart could give you an idea of whether the item goes on sale frequently or if its sticker price has dropped recently. You can also click the bell icon on Search for mobile to receive push and email notifications when a product goes on sale. Bookmark the item instead if you're shopping on Chrome from your computer. 

Nintendo's digital game sales are helping the company continue to perform well as the Switch nears the end of its tenure as its flagship console. In its latest earnings report (PDF) from March to September 2023, Nintendo has revealed that it sold 19.5 million copies of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which was released in May. It also sold 2.61 million units of Pikmin 4 after it came out in July, while Mario Kart 8 Deluxe posted 3.22 million more in unit sales after The Super Mario Bros. Movie was shown in April. Nintendo has sold 57.01 million copies of the kart racing game so far.

The gaming company says other Switch titles also continued to grow steadily, including those from other publishers, and that there were 16 games that posted sales of millions of units for the aforementioned period alone. In all, the company's digital sales amounted to 217.5 billion Yen ($1.45 billion) from March to September, which is almost 16 percent higher than its digital sales for the same timespan last year. 

"As a result of these factors," Nintendo says, its unit sales for the entire Switch family rose by 2.4 percent year-on-year to 6.84 million units. The only model that sold well and brought the average up, however, was the Switch OLED console. Nintendo sold 32.8 percent more Switch OLEDs this period compared to last year, but it only moved 1.25 million units of the basic Switch model, representing a 44 percent decrease in sales year-on-year. The decrease in sales for the Switch Lite wasn't quite as dramatic, but Nintendo still sold 1.9 percent fewer units.

Going forward, Nintendo intends to release more games so as to entice people to keep playing on the Switch and to buy more than one console for their homes. For this holiday season, it has a few releases in pipeline, including WarioWare: Move It!, Super Mario RPG and add-on content for Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet. Nintendo is expected to release its new flagship console sometime next year and has reportedly started showing developers the upcoming device's ray-tracing capabilities and other more advanced technologies.