Twitter may cut more of its shrinking workforce as early as Monday. According to Bloomberg, Elon Musk is considering new layoffs that would target the company’s sales and partnerships teams. The scale of the potential cuts is unclear but come after a large number of employees rejected Musk’s Twitter 2.0 ultimatum. On Friday, Musk reportedly asked Robin Wheeler, Twitter’s head of ad sales, and Maggie Suniewick, the firm’s partnerships chief, to fire more employees. Both were terminated after pushing back.

Twitter did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. The company no longer has a communications team. If Twitter moves forward with the cuts, they would come after Musk already laid off 50 percent of the company’s previously 7,500-person strong workforce. With most of the website’s contract staff gone and “at least 1,200” employees departing in the wake of Musk’s ultimatum, there are concerns that the attrition will leave parts of Twitter inoperable.

There are signs that’s already happening. On Saturday, some users noticed the platform’s automated copyright strike system wasn’t working. In one thread spotted by The Verge, someone posted the entirety of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift across nearly 50 tweets. The thread was up for about a whole day and widely shared before Twitter suspended the account responsible for posting the movie.

Following two weeks of negotiations that felt doomed to go nowhere, the COP27 climate conference delivered a breakthrough deal to help developing nations cope with the often catastrophic effects of climate change. The Washington Post reports dignitaries agreed to create a “loss and damage fund” in the early hours of Sunday morning after two extra days of negotiations. The Alliance of Small Island States, an organization that includes countries whose very existence is threatened by climate change, called the agreement “historic.” However, as with the Glasgow Climate Pact that came out of last year’s COP26 conference, the consensus is that COP27 failed to deliver the action that is desperately needed to meet the demands of the current moment.

For one, the conference failed to see nations agree to new and stronger commitments to reduce their carbon emissions. According to The Post, China and Saudi Arabia were strongly against language calling for a phaseout of all fossil fuels, as were many African nations. Alok Sharma, the chair of COP26, said (via Phys.org) a clause on energy was "weakened, in the final minutes.”

The conference also left many of the most important details related to the loss and damage fund to be sorted out by a committee that will need to answer some difficult questions in the coming months. Among the issues that need to be decided on is how much the United States, historically the greatest emitter of greenhouse emissions globally, should pay out to vulnerable countries. The conference also ended without a clear commitment from China to pay into the fund.

The committee now has a year to draft recommendations for next year’s climate meeting in Dubai. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said governments took “an important step towards justice,” but fell short in pushing for the commitments that would ultimately protect the world’s most vulnerable people from the worst effects of climate change. "Our planet is still in the emergency room," Guterres said. "We need to drastically reduce emissions now and this is an issue this COP did not address."

Secure messaging platform Wickr is shutting down its consumer-facing app. In a blog post spotted by The Verge, the Amazon-owned company announced it would stop accepting new Wickr Me registrations by the end of the year before ultimately discounting the service altogether on December 31st, 2023. The shutdown won’t affect the AWS and Enterprise versions of Wickr.

“After careful consideration, we will be concentrating Wickr’s focus on securing our business and public sector customers’ data and communications with AWS Wickr and Wickr Enterprise, and have decided to discontinue our consumer product, Wickr Me,” the company said, adding that it was working on developing the capability for Wickr customers to securely communicate with individuals outside of their organization.

The announcement comes following reports that Amazon had been doing little to combat the problem of people using Wickr Me to exchange child sexual abuse material. In June, NBC News, citing court documents and information from law enforcement and activists, said the platform had become a “go-to destination” for those trafficking in that type of content.

Before next year's shutdown, Wickr said it would share information with users on how to save their data. Thankfully, alternatives aren't hard to find, with apps like Signal providing robust secure messaging.  

The days of the leap second creating headaches for software engineers are coming to an end. On Friday, government representatives at the General Conference on Weights and Measures in Paris, France voted nearly unanimously to retire the practice of occasionally adding one second to official clocks (via The New York Times).

Introduced in 1972 as a way to adjust Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to reconcile discrepancies that can come up between atomic time and observed solar time, the leap second has been the bane of tech companies for decades. In 2012, for instance, Reddit was down for about 40 minutes when the addition of a leap second that year confused the company’s servers. More recently, Cloudflare saw part of its DNS services affected due to a time change in 2016.

Companies like Facebook parent Meta employ a technique called “smearing” to avoid outages whenever the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service adjusts UTC to add a leap second. Earlier this year, the social media giant published a blog post calling for an end to the practice. “Every leap second is a major source of pain for people who manage hardware infrastructures,” Meta said at the time. Part of the push to eliminate the leap second has come as a way to preserve UTC as the world’s official international time.

With this week’s vote, dignitaries from the US, Canada and France called for the practice to end before 2035. Russia voted against the proposal. In the past, the country has sought to delay the demise of the leap second because GLONASS, its global positioning system, incorporates the adjustment – the Global Position System (GPS) operated by the US does not. Felicitas Arias, the former director of the Time Department at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures told Nature the decision may force Russia to launch new satellites.

There’s still another organization that needs to weigh in on the matter before software engineers can breathe a sigh of relief. The International Telecommunications Union, the group responsible for transmitting universal time, will vote on the issue next year. If it moves forward with “Resolution D,” metrologists and astronomers will have until at least 2135 to figure out how to reconcile the atomic and astronomical time scales.

The Orion crew vehicle is exceeding expectations on its way to the Moon. NASA provided an update on Artemis 1 following the mission’s successful launch early Wednesday morning. "Orion has been performing great so far," Vehicle Integration Manager Jim Geffre said during a press briefing NASA held on Friday. “All of the systems are exceeding expectations from a performance standpoint.”

Artemis 1 seeks to confirm the crew vehicle can safely carry human astronauts to Earth’s natural satellite. The journey marks Orion's first trip beyond our planet's orbit. In 2014, the spacecraft completed a two-orbit test flight around Earth. A successful flight would pave the way for a manned mission to the Moon and eventually NASA’s first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.

The agency expects Artemis 1 to reach the Moon on November 21st. At that point, the spacecraft will perform the first of four main engine burns NASA has planned for the mission. At times, Orion will fly little more than 81 miles (130 kilometers) above the lunar surface. "We will be passing over some of the Apollo landing sites," Flight Director Jeff Radigan said. Four days later, NASA plans to conduct a second burn to put Orion in a distant orbit around the Moon before finally setting the spacecraft on a return trajectory toward the Earth. If all goes according to plan, Orion will land in the Pacific Ocean on December 11th.

Orion’s early successes are a welcome development after the troubles NASA encountered with its Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket. The space agency was forced to delay the launch of Artemis 1 multiple times due to engine problems, hydrogen fuel leaks and hurricane-force winds. Early Wednesday morning, it appeared that the agency would be forced to delay the mission again after the SLS ground team discovered a leak in one of the fuel lines on the rocket’s launch tower. However, after NASA personnel tightened some bolts, the SLS lifted off, creating a dazzling nighttime display.

Google paid Activision Blizzard approximately $360 million to prevent the troubled publisher from competing directly against the Play Store. The deal was one among at least 24 agreements the search giant signed as part of its Project Hug initiative, according to court documents seen by Reuters.

The financial details of Project Hug – later known as the Apps and Games Velocity Program – are at the center of the ongoing antitrust lawsuit between Epic Games and Google. In 2021, the studio alleged Google had spent millions of dollars in incentives to keep big app developers on the Play Store. This week, a newly unredacted version of Epic’s complaint was made public, providing previously unknown details about the scope of the Apps and Games Velocity Program.

According to the court documents, Google also signed deals with Nintendo, Ubisoft and Riot Games. In the case of Riot, Google paid about $30 million to “stop” the League of Legends studio from pushing forward with its own “in-house ‘app store’ efforts,” Epic alleges. Riot Games did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment.

The lawsuit alleges Google knew signing with Activision would prompt the publisher to “abandon its plans to launch a competing app store," a claim Activision disputes. “Google never asked us, pressured us, or made us agree not to compete with Google Play,” an Activision spokesperson told Reuters. “Epic’s allegations are nonsense.”

Google did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. The company previously said it was “looking forward to setting the record straight” on Epic’s “inaccurate” claims.

“The program on which Epic and Match base their claims simply provides incentives for developers to give benefits and early access to Google Play users when they release new or updated content; it does not prevent developers from creating competing app stores, as they allege,” Google told Engadget in October after Epic and Match filed a motion to bring additional charges against the company. “In fact, the program is proof that Google Play competes fairly with numerous rivals for developers, who have a number of choices for operating systems and app stores.”

Google is introducing a host of new features across its services. Starting with Maps, the company said on Thursday that it would begin rolling out its long-awaited Search with Live View functionality. As the name suggests, the feature adds a search bar to the app’s augmented reality layer, making it easier to find and make your way to places like ATMs, restrooms and restaurants. Starting next week, the feature will begin rolling out in London, LA, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo.

Google

At the same time, Google is adding a new wheelchair icon to Maps to identify places with accessible entrances. Lastly, Maps now includes new filters designed to help you find EV charging stations with fast-charging plugs and ones with plugs that are compatible with your car. As of today, both features are available globally.

Search is receiving a number of improvements as well. To start, Google is making Lens more robust. If you see a photo of some food you want to try but don’t know what it’s called or where to find a restaurant that makes it in your local area, a new feature the company has dubbed “multisearch near me” will point you in the right direction. All you need to do is snap a photo of the dish you want to try (a screenshot works too if you find an image online) and type “near me” in the search field to find a place that sells it. You can also search for specific dishes at restaurants to find out more information about pricing and ingredients. With today’s launch, the two features are only available to English speakers in the US.

Google

Speaking of Lens, Google will upgrade the feature’s translate functionality later this year. Once the update arrives, Lens will use an AI algorithm to erase the original text of a sign and generate new pixels underneath before overlaying the translation on top. The feature should help with readability.

On the shopping front, Google is adding new augmented reality features. The first is a library of 150 models representing different skin tones, ages, genders, face shapes and skin types, an addition the company says will help users accurately test over 2,000 foundation shades from a variety of brands. The company is also adding a new AR experience for sneakers that allows you to view kicks from Saucony, Vans and Merrell. Both features will start rolling out in the US today.

A group of Apple Store employees in St. Louis, Missouri has filed for a union election. On Wednesday, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union that hopes to represent the workers, said it filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to hold a unionization vote. IAM says it hopes to represent about 82 employees in the effort.

The union previously filed a complaint with the NLRB accusing Apple of subjecting it workers to captive audience meetings where management presented anti-union talking points. In June, IAM helped employees at the company’s Towson Town Center location in Maryland become the first Apple Store union in the US to unionize.

Apple did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. The petition comes as more of the company’s retail workers look to organize their workplace. Earlier this month, Apple Store employees in Glasgow overwhelmingly voted in favor of joining the GMB Union. In doing so, Apple Glasgow is now on track to form the first unionized Apple Store in the United Kingdom. Stateside, the company has so far seen two retail locations vote to unionize, with a handful more working to organize. Employees at those stores have accused the company of employing union-busting tactics, including limiting access to pro-union fliers. In the case of Towson Town Center, organizers say the company is also withholding new benefits from union members.

Notion, the company behind the popular note-taking app of the same name, has started testing a new feature called Notion AI that uses a generative AI to write notes and other content. The Verge got a chance to use the software before today’s announcement. The interface is straightforward. You first select the type of writing you want help with from a list that includes options like “blog post,” “marketing email” and “to-do list.” You then provide the software with a suitable prompt, hit the blue “Generate” button and then watch as it creates text in real-time.

Judging from some of the writing the tool produced for The Verge, it benefits, like other generative AIs, from the user being as specific as possible about what they want. For instance, when the outlet asked Notion AI to write a blog post about the state of the smartwatch industry, the resulting draft mentioned the Apple Watch 4, Samsung Galaxy Watch and Tizen. In other words, it wrote about the state of the market in 2018, not as it exists today.

Notion CEO Ivan Zhao was quick to acknowledge the feature is a work in progress. It’s currently labeled as an alpha, with no release date announced. To try Notion AI, you’ll need to sign up for a waitlist and wait for an invite from the company. As for who this is for, Zhao said he envisions the software solving the “cold start” problem a lot of people face when they sit down to write something. The idea isn’t so much for Notion AI to produce a piece that’s ready to publish right away, but it could give you a first draft you can revise and polish into something that you’re comfortable sharing with the world. Zhao suggests the software is also handy for brainstorming and translating text you’ve written.

“The truth is sometimes we all just get stuck. In those cases, Notion AI can help you write,” Notion says of its new tool in a one-minute promotional video the company shared. With today’s soft launch, Notion AI is free to use, but Notion notes it will likely cost extra in the future. The company also says it will open the feature to more testers as its AI gets better.

The wait is over. One of the best mobile gamepads you can buy is finally available to use with Android phones. Starting today, you can order the Backbone One for Android from the company’s website and select retailers. At $100, it’s in the same price range as options like the Razer Kishi, but the Backbone One has a few things going for it over some more affordable controllers.

To start, it features an intelligent design that incorporates a USB-C passthrough for charging and a 3.5mm audio connection. If you’ve used an Xbox controller in the past, you’ll feel at home with the Backbone One thanks to its asymmetrical stick layout and standard A, B, X and Y button layout. A PlayStation version of the controller for Android phones isn’t listed yet, but back when Backbone announced it was partnering with Sony, the company told Engadget it was working on a USB-C variant. The new Android variant still comes with the company’s excellent companion app. The software makes capturing and sharing screenshots and footage from your games easy. It also simplifies finding games that are compatible with the controller.

The Backbone One is compatible with “most” Android handsets. As with the iPhone version, you will probably need to remove your phone from its case to ensure a snug fit. If you pre-ordered the Backbone One for Android before November 1st, the company says it will fulfill your order before the end of the month. All purchases come with a one-month trial to Google Play Pass.