Electric vehicle maker Rivian is planning a "major" cost-cutting drive and will be "as thoughtful as possible as we consider any reductions," CEO RJ Scaringe wrote in a memo to employees. Scaringe sent the note in response to reports that Rivian is planning up to 700 or so layoffs, primarily among non-engineering teams.

“This is not how we intended for you to hear about this,” he wrote. "We had hoped these very sensitive and complex conversations would have stayed within Rivian until we could address them more comprehensively." Scaringe will share more information during an all-hands meeting scheduled for this Friday.

Rivian is pausing certain non-manufacturing hires, Scaringe wrote, while the company is "adopting major cost down efforts" to reduce its outlay on materials and operating expenses. "We will always be focused on growth, however, Rivian is not immune to the current economic circumstances and we need to make sure we can grow sustainably,” Scaringe told employees in the memo, which was first reported by Bloomberg. He added that the company is "financially well positioned and our outlook remains strong"

Scaringe added that Rivian will prioritize some programs and halt some others as it restructures certain aspects of the business. Earlier this year, Rivian said it would focus on a few areas for the time being. For one thing, the company is focused on increasing production of its R1T, R1S and electric delivery van, as TechCrunch notes. Other priorities include building out EV charging and service infrastructure, speeding up development of the next-generation R2 platform and finding more efficiencies for costs and operating expenses.

The company has nearly doubled its headcount over the last year to more than 14,000 employees, but it has been beset by problems, such as the supply chain crisis and the state of the economy. It has also delayed deliveries of the R1S SUV several times.

While Rivian expects to eventually build around 600,000 vehicles a year between its existing factory in Normal, Illinois and a plant that's expected to open in Georgia in 2024, the company forecasts that it will build 25,000 EVs this year. As of earlier this month, Rivian had a backlog of 71,000 EV orders. It also has a contract to build 100,000 delivery vehicles for Amazon by the end of the decade. Right now, though, the company seemingly isn't able to keep up with demand.

A Rivian spokesperson shared the full memo with Engadget:

Hi Team,

I’d like to address the news reports that are circulating about restructuring at Rivian. The reports speculate broadly on many intricate internal discussions about our business so I wanted to offer more clarity.

As discussed in recent all hands meetings, we’ve been working to focus our business in order to stay ahead of the changing economic landscape. We are financially well positioned and our outlook remains strong, but to fully realize our objectives it is critical that our strategy supports our sustainable growth as we ramp towards profitability. Earlier this year, we outlined our core strategic priorities for the next 18 months:

1) Ramping and enhancing R1 and EDV

2) Accelerating R2 development

3) Continuing to ramp our go-to-market capabilities, including our charging and service infrastructure

4) Optimizing costs and operating expenses across the business

As a result, we’ve implemented changes across Rivian, including prioritizing certain programs (and stopping some), halting certain non-manufacturing hiring and adopting major cost down efforts to reduce material spend and operating expenses. We also began the process of aligning the organization as a whole to ensure we are as focused, nimble and efficient as possible to achieve our priorities and objectives.

The hardest part of this process has been working through our organization to assess the size and structure of our teams and how well this aligns with our strategic plan. Our team is the core of Rivian and we are working to be as thoughtful as possible as we consider any reductions. We will always be focused on growth, however, Rivian is not immune to the current economic circumstances and we need to make sure we can grow sustainably. Every decision about our team is being assessed through the lens of our strategic priorities, not as a mechanism to simply reduce costs. Our team will continue to grow in support of our production ramp and product roadmap.

This is not how we intended for you to hear about this. We had hoped these very sensitive and complex conversations would have stayed within Rivian until we could address them more comprehensively. However, because information is coming out unofficially, I wanted to personally address it. I’ll be sharing more this Friday at our scheduled All-Hands meeting.

Thank you everyone.

RJ

Doom is playable on just about anything, from a DJ controller and Canon printer to an ATM and Minecraft. YouTuber kgsws took the Inception route, though. They put a playable version of Doom inside Doom II.

They used an exploit in the DOS version of Doom II, as Gizmodo notes. The modder, who explains the process in a 15-minute YouTube video, was able to get a modern port of Doom (Chocolate Doom, which uses the original source code) running inside Doom II as an animated texture. The original game is projected on a virtual display in a custom Doom II map that kgsws created.

They built more maps that showcase the pioneering first-person shooter, including having the same instance of Doom running on four walls surrounding the player and a cinema screen that's projecting the game. Additionally, kgsws showed off Heretic running inside of Doom.

You can try the hack for yourself, as kgsws shared the code on GitHub. You can snap up a DOS version of Doom II from Steam. You might need a reasonably beefy gaming PC to run Doom inside Doom II, though. "Both games are running independently of each other," kgsws explains. "That means you need double the memory. I would recommend you to get at least 16MB of RAM."

Heardle, a music trivia game that popped up following the massive success of Wordle, has a new owner. Spotify has announced it's buying the game. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. As The Verge notes, Heardle is Spotify's first game acquisition.

Heardle is a straightforward game of name that tune. Players are given six attempts to guess a popular song. They hear one second of the intro at first. Heardle lets them hear a little more after each incorrect guess (they can also skip turns). There's only one song each day for everyone to guess.

Whether or not you correctly identify the song, you can click through to hear the full track after finishing a round. That caught the attention of Spotify, which is pegging Heardle as a music discovery tool. Until now, the game has been using music hosted on Soundcloud.

“We are always looking for innovative and playful ways to enhance music discovery and help artists reach new fans,” Spotify's global head of music Jeremy Erlich said. “Heardle has proven to be a really fun way to connect millions of fans with songs they know and love and with new songs... and a way to compete with their friends as to who has the best musical knowledge. Since its debut, the game has quickly built a loyal following, and it aligns with our plans to deepen interactivity across the Spotify ecosystem.”

As The New York Times did with Wordle after it bought that game, Spotify says it will keep Heardle free to play for everyone and retain the existing look and feel. The font Heardle uses has been updated to align with Spotify's branding, however.

The integration between Heardle and Spotify has already started in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Players in those countries can listen to each day's song on Spotify instead of Soundcloud. The game is now hosted on Spotify's website too. Players who want to keep their stats will need to visit the old site to transfer them over.

Spotify says players in other countries will soon be able to play Heardle in other languages. It plans to eventually "integrate Heardle and other interactive experiences more fully into Spotify to allow music lovers to connect more deeply with artists and challenge friends."

However, the transition doesn't seem to be going entirely smoothly. Some players have claimed they can't accessHeardle in their location. Conversely, some say they can now play for the first time as Soundcloud isn't available where they are.

NASA has unveiled the first batch of full-color images that the James Webb Space Telescope has sent back to Earth. NASA, the European Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute determined the initial targets to show off the JWST's capabilities. They include the Carina Nebula, Southern Ring, SMACS 0723, WASP-96b and Stephan’s Quintet. 

The first image revealed today was of the Southern Ring nebula, which was captured by JWST's NIRCam and MIRI instruments. NASA says the telescope was able to observe gas and dust from a dying star in "unprecedented detail" — far more than what Hubble was able to capture in 1998.

Along with the images, NASA revealed spectroscopic data that JWST captured from WASP-96b to show the atmospheric composition of the gas exoplanet, which is around 1,150 light years away. NASA says it's the most detailed exoplanet spectrum captured to date and that Webb detected "the unambiguous signature of water," well as indications of haze and clouds, which were previously not believed to exist on WASP-96b.

The very first full-color image from JWST, which was revealed by the White House on Monday, showed a cluster of galaxies, SMACS 0723, as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The astonishingly vivid image of thousands of galaxies was just an appetizer.

This is a big moment in advancing our understanding of the universe, as it marks the official beginning of the JWST's general science operations. The images indicate the JWST is working as intended, which should mean we'll gain much more insight into the cosmos in the coming years. JWST is expected to be in operation for at least five years, though NASA believes the observatory has enough propellant to support scientific work for over a decade.

Developing...

If you've been looking to join the legions of air fryer owners, this might be the deal for you. This Prime Day, you can snag a Ninja Foodi Dual-Zone air fryer for $160 on Amazon. That's $70 off the regular price and a record low for the larger 10-quart model (there's an eight-quart option as well).

This might be the best dual-zone air fryer you can buy right now. The device has dual baskets, which means it can cook two foods simultaneously with different cooking methods. It can handle your protein and vegetables at the same time, for instance. Each zone has its own basket, cyclonic fan and rapid heater. Ninja Foodi Dual-Zone can adjust the cooking times so that the food in each drawer is ready to eat at the same time. 

If you only want to cook one thing, there is the option to heat a single compartment. You can also double the quantity of an item across the two baskets and cook them with the same settings, thanks to the Match Cook function.

There are six cooking methods: air fry, air broil, roast, bake, reheat and dehydrate. There's almost no preheating time required. In some cases, you won't have to wait at all for it to reach the right temperature. Ninja Foodi Dual-Zone may be a healthier cooking option as well — Ninja says the food it cooks has up to 75 percent less fat than traditional air frying methods.

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Peloton will no longer build its own connected fitness products, as it's moving entirely to third-party manufacturing. It said in a statement that it's "exiting all owned-manufacturing operations" to simplify its supply chain and cut costs. "We believe that this along with other initiatives will enable us to continue reducing the cash burden on the business and increase our flexibility," Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy said. "Partnering with market-leading third party suppliers, Peloton will be able to focus on what we do best — using technology and content to help our 7 million members become the best versions of themselves."

The company is expanding its long-existing partnership with Taiwanese manufacturer Rexon, which will be the primary builder of Bike and Tread devices. Peloton says it will suspend operations at Tonic Fitness for the rest of the year. It bought that company in 2019 to bring some manufacturing in house.

Things haven't exactly been going swimmingly over at Peloton. In January, then-CEO John Foley said the company was "resetting our production levels for sustainable growth" following reports it was putting all production on hold. It was suggested that Peloton had thousands of products sitting in warehouses and on cargo ships amid decreased demand. The following month, Peloton brought in McCarthy as CEO and laid off around 2,800 corporate employees, equivalent to 20 percent of the total workforce.

After the pandemic-driven boom, when many people were buying Peloton gear to help them work out at home, business took a significant hit. Peloton posted a net loss of $757.1 million for the first three months of 2022 on revenue of $964 million, compared with revenue of $1.262 billion and a loss of $8.6 million a year earlier. It attributed the diminishing returns to a significant increase in operating expenses (which represented 95.4 percent of total revenue for the quarter) and having to manage its stockpile of products, which it believed it would sell eventually.

In April, Peloton cut the prices of some products to lower the barrier to entry while announcing plans to increase subscription fees in the US and Canada for the first time. The company now has a rental program for the original Peloton Bike. It costs $89 per month and an All-Access Membership is included. There's a $150 delivery fee, though you can cancel at any time and there's free pick-up. Customers have the option to buy the device outright after 12 months. Meanwhile, in May, Peloton teased its first rowing machine.

Electric truck maker Rivian is reportedly planning to lay off hundreds of workers. While the company hasn't made a firm decision on mass job cuts, according to Bloomberg, it may shed around five percent of the workforce. With a headcount of more than 14,000, that equates to around 700 employees. Layoffs may be announced in the coming weeks, the report suggests. Rivian declined to comment to Engadget.

The job cuts would primarily be for non-manufacturing positions in areas where Rivian has expanded too quickly. Teams with duplicate functions are said to be among those the company has targeted. The total number of employees at Rivian has more or less doubled over the last year as the automaker increased production.

The automotive industry has been hit hard by supply chain issues and the economic climate, and it seems Rivian is no exception. The company still expects to build 25,000 EVs this year despite production difficulties. Rivian eventually aims to manufacture 600,000 vehicles per year between its existing plant in Normal, Illinois and a second planned factory in Georgia that's expected to open in 2024.

The company has a backlog of tens of thousands of EV orders. It will have to juggle those with the 100,000 delivery vehicles it will build for Amazon by the end of the decade. As such, bolstering production while streamlining operations elsewhere seems a logical move.

The news follows a recent report noting that Rivian hired dozens of former Tesla employees in recent months, according to LinkedIn data. It was reported in late June that Tesla cut around 200 people from its Autopilot team after CEO Elon Musk announced plans to reduce the company's salaried workforce by 10 percent. Musk told employees earlier that month he had a “super bad feeling” about the state of the economy and for them to expect layoffs.

We're a couple of months out from Apple officially rolling out the next major versions of its various operating systems. However, you can try out iOS 16, iPadOS 16, watchOS 9 and macOS Ventura right now. Apple has released a public beta, a few weeks after it offered up the first developer betas. To access them, you'll need to sign up for the Apple Beta Software Program and follow the directions.

Bear in mind that there may be some bugs that Apple hasn't detected and resolved. Be sure to back up your data before installing any beta (though backing up regularly is always a good practice). You'll have the option to remove your device from the public beta program and revert it to an older version of its OS.

You can get to grips with some of the new features in iOS 16. Among those are a revamped lock screen with more layout and customization options, such as dynamic wallpapers. Notifications and Focus Mode have been revamped too, while you’ll be able to keep on top of things like sports scores and transit rides with Live Activities. Face ID will finally work in landscape orientation and you'll no longer need an Apple Watch to use the Fitness app.

Apple

Also new are the option to edit missives after you send them in Messages, a way to report spam text messages, a Pay Later function in Wallet and an email scheduling option in the Mail app. There’s much more on the way too, including updates for Apple Maps, CarPlay and Family Sharing. Looking further ahead, an "extreme" security option for high-profile users will be available this fall.

As for iPadOS 16, improved multitasking options will grant you more control over how to resize apps with, for instance, overlapping windows. Some of the features are limited to M1-powered iPads, however. Elsewhere, there's support for external displays, Google Drive-style document collaboration and (later this year) SharePlay features in Game Center.

Apple has made multitasking a key focus for macOS Ventura as well. The Stage Manager tool can group windows on the side of your screen and organize them by app. There will be an undo send option in the Mail app, along with the option to share tab groups in Safari and a new security function called passkeys, which will use Face ID and Touch ID for authentication. You'll also be able to use an iPhone as a webcam for your Mac.

In watchOS 9, Apple is giving the fitness features a significant upgrade. You'll have access to distance and time intervals for workouts. There will also be a way to view which heart rate zones you're in during workouts and sleep. In addition, Apple is promising improved sleep tracking as well as medication reminders.

When it comes to tvOS 16, the updates are light compared with some of the other devices. One key update is the addition of full support for the Matter smart home standard. As seems to be the case on iOS 16, tvOS will support Nintendo's Joy-Con and Switch Pro controllers.

Apple is ending support for some older devices with this year's OS updates. To use iOS 16, for instance, you'll need an iPhone 8 or later.

Sony released its LinkBuds S less than two months ago, but you can already pick up the true wireless earbuds for a solid discount on Amazon. Just ahead of Prime Day, they're down to $157. That's a drop of 22 percent from the regular price of $200. It's the lowest price we've seen to date for LinkBuds S and the discount applies to both the white and black variants.

The LinkBuds S have a more regular closed design rather than the open wear format of the standard LinkBuds that Sony unleashed earlier this year. The company claims the more recent model is smaller and lighter than other earbuds that have active noise cancellation (though it admits the ANC isn't as sturdy as on its WF-1000XM4 model).

The earbuds have a passthrough/transparency mode too, so you can hear "natural" ambient sound. With the Adaptive Sound Control feature, Sony says the LinkBuds S can learn your preferences over time and automatically tweak the sound settings based on your location or activity.

They have 5mm drivers that provide what Sony claims are "powerful bass and stunningly clear vocals." With the Integrated Processor V1, which is also found on Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones, the company aims to bolster sound quality, mitigate distortion and boost ANC. There's support for high-resolution audio as well, powered by Sony's LDAC codec and DSEE Extreme upscaling.

In addition, LinkBuds S have Sony's Speak-to-Chat feature. The idea is that the earbuds will be able to automatically detect your voice. They will pause the audio and switch on the passthrough mode when you start talking. There's a feature called Auto Play as well. This allows LinkBuds S to play or resume audio based on your activity when you put them in or end a call. However, the functionality is somewhat limited for now — it currently works with Spotify and Endel.

Elsewhere, the earbuds have an IPX4 water resistance rating, so they should be able to withstand bad weather and workouts. There's built-in Alexa functionality too.

Sony says LinkBuds S have a battery life of six hours if ANC is switched on. You'll get another 14 hours of ANC listening time thanks to the charging case. Through a quick-charge function, you'll get up to an hour of extra use after five minutes of charging time.

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For those who desperately yearn to own a certificate of authenticity for a URL pointing to an ugly ape illustration or another popular non-fungible token, there’s a buy now, pay later (BNPL) service they can use to finance their purchases. The offering from Teller works with some of the more notable NFT collections, such as Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club and Adidas Originals: Into the Metaverse. It runs on the Polygon blockchain and has a fittingly terrible name: Ape Now, Pay Later.

“Buying NFTs is one of the core things Web3 consumers want to do right now,” Teller founder and CEO Ryan Berkun told Decrypt. “Buy now, pay later is a no-brainer.” No wisecrack is necessary at this juncture.

Like other BNPL services, Tether requires a down payment. When someone sees a compatible NFT they want on the OpenSea marketplace, they can use Teller's service to signal their intention to buy it. That person will need to fork over between 25 and 50 percent of the NFT's price at the outset. Teller's platform will then try to match them with a lender, who is another user.

If the lender accepts the proposal, they'll transfer the remaining cryptocurrency needed to buy the NFT from OpenSea. The NFT will then be held in an escrow wallet. If the buyer pays off what they borrowed on time, they'll receive the NFT. Otherwise, the lender can claim the NFT and sell it if they wish. Lenders can also set interest rates for the repayments.

Considering the volatility of the cryptocurrency market and the state of the global economy, buying an NFT through a BNPL service seems like a bad idea. Sure, cryptocurrency prices have cratered in recent months (which played a role in victims of the Axie Infinity hack losing significant sums), but there's a chance they could jump back up again. Suddenly, those BNPL payments could get a lot more expensive. Buyers only have 90 days to make the repayments too.

The NFT market has bottomed out too. Bloomberg notes that the base price for a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT was around 90 Ethereum (around $110,000 at the time of writing). That's down around 40 percent since May.