Broadcom's mega $61 billion VMware acquisition has closed following considerable scrutiny by regulators, the company announced in a press release. With China recently granting approval for the acquisition with added restrictions, the network chip manufacturer had secured all the required approvals.
"Broadcom has received legal merger clearance in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, Israel, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and foreign investment control clearance in all necessary jurisdictions," the company said. "We are excited to welcome VMware to Broadcom and bring together our engineering-first, innovation-centric teams."
The Broadcom/VMware deal lacked the glamour of tech's other mega acquisition involving Microsoft and Activision. However, San Jose-based Broadcom's products form the structure of much of the internet, as they're widely used for data centers, cloud providers and network infrastructure. VMware, meanwhile, makes virtualization and cloud computing software that allows corporations to safely link local networks with public cloud access.
That made VMware a logical target for Broadcom, but it also placed the acquisition in the crosshairs of regulators in multiple regions. The European Commission, for one, was concerned that Broadcom could harm competition by limiting interoperability between rival hardware and VMware's server virtualization software. It also worried the company could either prevent or degrade access to VMware's software, or bundle VMware with its own hardware products.
Broadcom gained EU approval for the deal in the summer though, mainly by providing IP access and source code for key network fiber optic components to its main rival, Marvell. The EU also concluded that fears of VMware bundling were unfounded and that Broadcom would still face competition in the storage adapter and NIC markets.
There were also concerns that tensions between China and the US could scuttle the deal, after the Biden administration announced new rules in October making it harder to export high-end chips to China. However, approval in that market was announced yesterday, with conditions imposed by China on how Broadcom sells products locally. Namely, it had to ensure that VMware's server software was interoperable with rival hardware, China's regulator said in a statement.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/broadcom-closes-its-61-billion-megadeal-with-vmware-083915996.html?src=rss
OpenAI introduced voice chats with ChatGPT on Android and iOS back in September, giving users the option to have actual back-and-forth conversations with the chatbot if they want to. The company only made the feature available to Plus and Enterprise subscribers back then, though, with the promise that it will eventually release it to other groups of users. Now, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman has announced on X that voice conversations on ChatGPT have started rolling out to all free users on mobile.
ChatGPT Voice rolled out for all free users. Give it a try — totally changes the ChatGPT experience: https://t.co/DgzqLlDNYF
When the company first introduced voice chats, it admitted that the capability to create "realistic synthetic voices from just a few seconds of real speech" presents new risks. It could, for instance, allow bad actors to impersonate public figures or anybody they want. As a result, it decided that ChatGPT's voice feature will focus on conversations. It's powered by a text-to-speech model that can generate "human-like audio from just text and a few seconds of sample speech." OpenAI worked with voice actors to create the capability and offers five different voices to choose from.
We checked our ChatGPT app on Android and have yet to gain access to voice conversations, which indicates that the feature could take sometime before reaching everybody's accounts. It's not quite clear if users have to opt in to be able to access it, but paid subscribers had to enable it by going to Settings and then to New Features when voice chats rolled out.
Brockman announced the capability's wide release after he had already left his seat as President of OpenAI. He quit of his own accord after the company's board fired Sam Altman as CEO, causing mayhem with senior staff members resigning in protest and the rest of the employees threatening to quit unless he's reinstated. Shortly after he made the announcement, OpenAI announced that Altman and Brockman had been reinstated and will be returning to their posts.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/chatgpts-voice-chat-feature-is-rolling-out-to-free-users-085549323.html?src=rss
Good news for hardcore Neon Genesis Evangelion fans who spent $700 (or more) on ASUS' special edition motherboard! The PC maker announced that it will be offering a free fix for the embarrassing typo — "EVANGENLION" instead of "EVANGELION" — on the ROG Maximus Z790 Hero EVA-02 Edition. This will come in the form of a replacement part printed with the correct spelling, so users can directly swap out the original decorative piece. To show that the company understands "the significance of this matter," it's also extending the warranty by one year, even though "the misprint is purely aesthetic and does not affect any functionality or performance."
Meanwhile, the offending typo has already disappeared from ASUS' website, but you can still spot the extra "n" in the original product shots on Amazon and Micro Center.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/asus-offers-free-fix-for-evangelion-typo-on-motherboard-020129844.html?src=rss
The Steam Deck OLED aren't the only new handheld gaming variants you can snap up this week. The Analogue Pocket will soon be available in eight fresh colorways. Analogue says they're color matched and manufactured in eight classic Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Advance colors: blue, green, indigo, spice orange, pink, red, silver and yellow. They all look just lovely.
Pre-orders will open up on November 17 at 11AM ET on Analogue's website. The company will start shipping these models on November 20. So, if you want to gift one of these versions to a (very special) someone this holiday season, it should arrive with plenty of time to spare.
However, you'll surely need to act fast if you want one of these Classic Limited Editions. As with other special-edition Pockets, these will probably all be snapped up quickly. The Glow in the Dark model sold out in just two minutes. Even so, the limited-edition models may be your best chance of getting an Analogue Pocket anytime soon. The standard version is rarely in stock, and even when it is, it often takes quite some time to ship.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-analogue-pocket-will-soon-come-in-eight-game-boy-pocketadvance-colors-160009109.html?src=rss
Researchers at the Zurich-based ETH public university, along with a US-based startup affiliated with MIT, have done the impossible. They’ve printed a robot hand complete with bones, ligaments and tendons for the very first time, representing a major leap forward in 3D printing technology. It’s worth noting that the various parts of the hand were printed simultaneously, and not cobbled together after the fact.
Each of the robotic hand’s various parts were made from different polymers of varying softness and rigidity, using a new laser-scanning technique that lets 3D printers create “special plastics with elastic qualities” all in one go. This obviously opens up new possibilities in the fast-moving field of prosthetics, but also in any field that requires the production of soft robotic structures.
Basically, the researchers developed a method to 3D print slow-curing plastics, whereas the technology was previously reserved for fast-curing plastics. This hybrid printing method presents all kinds of advantages when compared to standard fast-cure projects, such as increased durability and enhanced elastic properties. The tech also allows us to mimic nature more accurately, as seen in the aforementioned robotic hand.
“Robots made of soft materials, such as the hand we developed, have advantages over conventional robots made of metal. Because they’re soft, there is less risk of injury when they work with humans, and they are better suited to handling fragile goods,” ETH Zurich robotics professor Robert Katzschmann writes in the study.
ETH Zurich/Thomas Buchner
This advancement still prints layer-by-layer, but an integrated scanner constantly checks the surface for irregularities before telling the system to move onto the next material type. Additionally, the extruder and scraper have been updated to allow for the use of slow-curing polymers. The stiffness can be fine-tuned for creating unique objects that suit various industries. Making human-like appendages is one use case scenario, but so is manufacturing objects that soak up noise and vibrations.
MIT-affiliated startup Inkbit helped develop this technology and has already begun thinking about how to make money off of it. The company will soon start to sell these newly-made printers to manufacturers but will also sell complex 3D-printed objects that make use of the technology to smaller entities.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/researchers-printed-a-robotic-hand-with-bones-ligaments-and-tendons-for-the-first-time-160005103.html?src=rss
In the US, Apple’s iMessage is so popular that the fact it shows texts from non-iOS handsets in a different color is a big deal. This status anxiety is so great, the Android world has begged regulators to force Apple to… change the color of a text bubble. Now, Nothing is taking matters into its own hands, partnering with unified messaging platform Sunbird to hide that shame. Sunbird uses your Apple ID to route comms between your Nothing phone and your friends’ iPhones through a server farm of Mac Minis. If it works as well as promised, it means your friends won’t know you own an Android handset… until the next time you see them in person.
Of course, none of this is happening with Apple’s blessing, so it needs a workaround. You need to hand over your credentials to a third party and risk the fallout should Apple decide to intervene. Nothing CEO Carl Pei believes Apple can’t risk the bad PR if it shuts Sunbird down, but that’s not a bet I’d like to take. It’s worth saying this is almost unique to the US — most of the world just uses third-party platforms like WhatsApp. Not to mention if your friends give you grief because of the phone you own, they aren’t your friends.
— Dan Cooper
You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!
Opal makes ultra-premium webcams in surprisingly small bodies. Its latest, the Tadpole, is absolutely for laptop users. James Trew put the dinky device through its paces, and he thinks it might be a winner. Picture quality is pretty good, but the directional audio helps screen out enough unwanted audio that it deserved extra praise.
It’s to prevent drivers being blamed for things out of their control.
Uber says it wants to make the platform better for riders and drivers alike and will now clamp down on users who give bad reviews just to score a refund. The company is targeting those negative nellies and will discard or downrank their complaints to protect the ratings of otherwise good drivers.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-imessage-comes-to-nothings-android-phones-for-now-121541024.html?src=rss
Android has long had an iMessage problem. In the US, Apple’s proprietary chat platform reigns supreme, particularly among teens. In fact, many Americans won’t switch for fear of the perceived social stigma that comes with the green chat bubbles iMessage assigns to messages from Android phones. Google has tried a few different things to convince Apple to open the platform, including turning to the European Commission for regulatory relief. For most Android users, that's meant there's been little they've been personally able to do about the situation. Until now.
Nothing today announced Nothing Chats, a messaging app that supports both RCS and iMessage. Nothing Chats builds on Sunbird, a unified messaging platform that has been available in closed beta since the end of last year. Sunbird allows users to access all of their chats, including iMessage, from a single interface. As of this past April, the app had a waitlist more than 100,000 entries long. Sunbird is one of a few apps that Android users can turn to chat with their iPhone-touting friends. The most well-known player in the space is Beeper, which is the brainchild of Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky.
Nothing
With Friday’s release of Chats, Nothing isn’t just promising to allow Phone 2 owners to “camouflage” themselves as iPhone users. Out of the box, Chats will ship with support for many of iMessage’s signature features, including typing indicators, high-resolution media sharing and proper group messaging. Read receipts and Tapback reactions will arrive at a later date. As mentioned above, Chats also supports RCS, meaning you can enjoy iMessage-like features when messaging your Android friends too.
“We understand that the blue bubble vs. green bubble dilemma, especially in North America — although seemingly ridiculous — is real. Nothing Chats allows for freedom of communication between anyone regardless of their brand of smartphone - which is how it should be,” said Nothing CEO Carl Pei. “We want to remind consumers that they do have a choice when it comes to device selection and that their daily behaviors should not be dictated by any one company.”
So, what’s the catch? “There’s no data saved on the platform, so users don’t have to worry about their privacy,” Pei told Inverse. But there are some concerns. Sunbird, like Beeper, employs a workaround that Apple doesn’t officially support, and that the company would almost certainly argue puts users at risk. Nothing told Inverse Sunbird’s “patented” process for bringing iMessage to Android involves server farms of Mac minis that route a user’s messages through to Apple.
Before someone can access iMessage on Nothing Chats, they must first sign into their Apple ID through Sunbird’s platform. Nothing told Inverse all iMessage content sent through Chats is encrypted, and that “at no point can Sunbird access your messages or Apple ID.” Additionally, Nothing notes the startup will delete a user’s Apple ID credentials after two weeks of inactivity. Still, if you decide to use Nothing Chats to access iMessage, you’re effectively handing over the keys to your Apple ID to a company that isn’t Apple.
Nothing
As for whether Nothing Chats is long for this world: Asked about the possibility of Apple taking legal action against Nothing and Sunbird, Pei told Marques Brownlee he thought the tech giant would “probably [do] nothing.”
In a separate interview with The Washington Post, Pei said Nothing has sold “about six figures’ worth” of Phone 2 devices in North America, Britain and Europe. In other words, it’s a small fish in a big pond. More importantly, Apple finds itself in a regulatory environment where attempting to shut down a platform that is opening up iMessage would draw the attention of regulators in the European Union and beyond.
Nothing Chats will be available to download from the Play Store starting on November 17. For the time being, a Nothing Phone 2 is required to access the platform, with regional availability limited to the US, Canada, UK, EU and other European countries, including Norway and Switzerland.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nothing-phone-2-is-getting-imessage-support-this-friday--with-some-catches-194655776.html?src=rss
Sony has apparently learned nothing from the success of the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck. Or from its own portable systems like the Vita and PSP, for that matter. The PlayStation Portal (yes, technically it's another PSP) is a $200 handheld system that can only stream games from your PlayStation 5. There aren't any built in apps, it can't play anything locally, and there's no connection to Sony's cloud game streaming service. It's purely a streaming window into your PS5, hence the name.
Consequently, it's also a device that lives and dies based on the quality of your internet connection. While it's mostly meant for in-home play, you could technically hop on any Wi-Fi connection to play remotely when you're traveling. But that's only possible if that connection and your home internet can keep up, and if your PS5 doesn't crash or get wonky. If anything along that chain fails, you're left with an ugly $200 doorstop.
That's the main problem with the PlayStation Portal. Its downsides are so immediately apparent, it's unclear why anyone should get one. You could, for example, spend $100 for a Backbone controller to stream games from your phone. Or you could use any existing gamepad to access the PS Remote app on a phone, table, Mac or Windows PC. There are so many better ways to access games on the go, the PlayStation Portal already felt obsolete before it launched.
Even its design seems haphazard: It's as if Sony chopped up a DualSense controller and shoved a basic 8-inch tablet in the middle. In place of the DualSense's center touchpad, you can tap and swipe on the Portal's screen (a process that was never as smooth as I wanted). On the bright side, the Portal includes the DualSense's satisfying haptics, and its sci-fi-ish black and white case looks right at home alongside the PlayStation 5.
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
Holding the PlayStation Portal feels like holding an oversized DualSense controller. My hands and fingers were perfectly comfortable, but the 8-inch screen throws off the balance. I also couldn't help but notice how fragile the bottom corners of the screen were. It really does look like a tablet, with thick bezels and a relatively thin profile. But unlike the Switch, Steam Deck or even PlayStation Vita, there's nothing protecting the lower part of the Portal's screen from a hard drop, or from being crushed inside of a backpack. (Sony isn't selling a Portal case of its own, but you can find some from third-parties.)
I'm sure the controller arms would offer some protection for many falls, but I couldn't help treating the system with kid gloves during my testing. I didn't let my 5-year old daughter handle it during my review, even though I feel comfortable letting her hold a Switch. Perhaps this is just my paranoid dad brain speaking, but the Portal's screen is practically asking to be damaged — it's like getting your child an overly-expensive doll and just knowing it's going to lose a limb within a day.
Setting up the PlayStation Portal involves linking it to your PlayStation 5 from within the console, or the PlayStation app. For some reason, my phone (an iPhone 15 Pro Max) had a hard time making out the QR code on the Portal's screen, so I plugged in the pairing code manually. Once that was clear, I sat back and waited for the Portal to connect to my PS5. And I waited. And waited.
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
Thirty seconds later I received a message saying that I needed to turn on my PS5's Remote Play feature, something I could have sworn I did when reviewing the system. The only problem? I was snuggled in bed, hoping to get some portable Spider-Man 2 time in before I dozed off. Rather than trek down two flights of stairs to reach the PS5 in my basement, I decided to wait until morning. I’ll admit, this was mostly my fault, but it would have been nice to flip on Remote Play from the PlayStation app.
When I got up, I immediately flipped on the feature on my PS5 and proceeded to make breakfast. While my kids were chomping down on pancakes, I turned on the PS Portal and tried to connect to my PS5 — once again, I waited. About a minute later, I finally heard a successful chime from the system and was presented with my PlayStation 5's home screen. But when I tried to get a game of Thumper going, all I saw was a sea of video compression artifacts. The game's normally fluid controls felt like mud. I gave up after five minutes of frustration.
Here's where I need to reiterate that your experience with the PlayStation Portal comes down to your home's internet setup. Sony recommends having a connection of at least 5Mbps, and it suggests 15Mbps for better quality. But raw internet speed is just one factor: You also have to consider the age and networking technology in your router, as well as Wi-Fi reception throughout your home. For the best possible experience, you'll want a modern router (or even better, a mesh setup) that can bathe your home in full wireless bars, as well as a direct Ethernet connection for your PS5. (Sony isn't saying if the PS Portal supports Wi-Fi 6, but that's a technology worth investing in if you have an older router.)
What's confusing, though, is that I have pretty great internet throughout my home. I'm using AT&T's gigabit service with a modern Wi-Fi 6 gateway on my first floor, and there's a mesh extension for my office in the basement. I typically see full wireless reception on my main floor, with speeds between 600 and 800Mbps on most devices. So why was the PlayStation Portal having such a rough time? I have no clue. My PS5, which sits in the basement, isn’t connected via Ethernet. But I also see 500Mbps speeds down there, so it didn't seem necessary. During breakfast, I was sitting about 20 unobstructed feet from my router, so there wasn't much physical interference either.
When I moved to my living room later in the day, which is also where my router sits, the Portal was able to connect to my PS5 in around 15 seconds. I spun up Spider-Man 2 and crossed my fingers. For whatever reason, it loaded up just fine and I was able to play for an hour with my daughter curled up beside me. That was the first time I could actually see the potential of this thing. My daughter and I have been gaming together a lot, but only with portable systems we can use together in bed or on the couch. It would take a lot more effort to bring her into my basement home theater, and frankly, she'd probably be bored there.
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
So there we were, swinging through NYC streets as Peter Parker and Miles Morales, and it felt like magic. Spider-Man 2 appeared to be running at 60fps on the Portal in performance mode, and it was perfectly fine. Colors certainly didn't pop as they do on my Switch OLED, and it couldn't hold a candle to the Steam Deck's new 90Hz OLED HDR screen, but it was still decently immersive without many video artifacts. The controls felt just as responsive as the DualSense, and its haptic rumble felt powerful and nuanced (certainly more so than the Switch or Steam Deck).
Moving up to my bedroom later in the day (one floor above the router, two floors above the basement) we were able to clock another 30 minutes in Spider-Man 2 with only occasional hiccups. Thankfully, the game automatically paused in those instances, similar to what you'd see if your DualSense controller lost power during normal gameplay. Every time we disconnected, I couldn't help but look over at the Switch OLED and Steam Deck, handhelds that can actually play games offline without a sweat.
During a recent grocery run, I brought the Portal along just to test the limits of its remote connectivity. To my surprise, I was able to tether it to my phone (using Verizon's 5G ultra-wideband network) and launch Spider-Man 2 just fine. The game looked far less clear than when I was at home, naturally, but I could still make out enough to explore the city and take on a few side missions.
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
So sure, the Portal isn't entirely useless on the go, but you're risking a lot if it's your only portable gaming option. You still couldn't use it on a plane — even if the internet was fast enough, network latency would be abysmal — and hotel Wi-Fi is notoriously unreliable. Meanwhile, you could play Tears of the Kingdom on Switch or Baldur's Gate 3 on the Steam Deck without issue. (Power is a concern, but planes often have outlets and both systems can be charged with portable battery packs.)
When I got back home, my daughter was excited to see more of Mile's story in Spider-Man 2. But for whatever reason, the Portal refused to connect to my PS5 while we were sitting in bed, even though it worked just fine there the night before. We didn't have enough time to run downstairs and reset the PS5, so we resorted to playing Dave the Diver on the Steam Deck instead.
I can't abide hardware I can't trust, and the PlayStation Portal is among the most fickle devices I've encountered. Even if you have an excellent home networking setup, it’s hard to predict just how well it will perform. That’s a shame, since its battery life is among the best we’ve seen for a portable system, lasting between seven and eight hours of gameplay. (The one bright side to being a streaming only device? It’s basically just decoding incoming video.)
Photo by Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
There are other annoyances too, like the Portal’s complete lack of Bluetooth support. You can connect a pair of Sony's $200 Pulse Explore earbuds, but that's your only wireless option. Otherwise, you'll have to plug in wired headphones at the bottom of the Portal, or deal with the system’s anemic speakers. Sony likely wanted to keep the Portal's price down, but losing Bluetooth feels like the Sony of yore forcing people to buy their proprietary Memory Sticks, instead of using SD cards like everyone else.
Despite its many downsides, I'm sure some PlayStation fans will jump on the Portal. Engadget Executive Editor Aaron Souppouris was excited about the prospect of playing PS5 games in bed, while Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham was intrigued about playing on the couch when his TV was occupied. And based on my time with it, I can see the Portal's limited appeal — but not for $200.
As someone who genuinely loved the PlayStation Vita, it's disappointing to see Sony delivering a bare minimum portable system. I'm not expecting the Vita 2, but at least give us true cloud gaming.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/playstation-portal-review-a-baffling-handheld-for-no-one-but-sony-diehards-201558485.html?src=rss
Wearable startup Humane has officially unveiled its first device, the Ai Pin. For months, the company has drip fed information, only offering a glimpse of the device, wielded by Naomi Campbell, of all people, at Paris Fashion Week in October.
The Ai Pin is a pocket-worn wearable AI assistant that can reportedly perform the tasks our current phones and voice assistants do, but without a screen, instead operating primarily through voice commands and, occasionally, a virtual screen projected onto the user’s hand. It works independently of other devices, connected to its own phone network through T-Mobile, but on Humane’s own MVNO because that’s even more complicated.
The device will cost $700, and another $24 per month for unlimited talk, text and data, and will ship in early 2024.
We’re still waiting for deeper hands-on impressions and demonstrations of the technology. I’m skeptical, and not just because it’s been just over ten years since Google Glass tried to be a thing.
Have a great weekend, and make sure you check out our new TMA series on YouTube, where I try to make more work for our wonderful video team, every Saturday.
— Mat Smith
You can get these reports delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!
The $550 Steam Deck OLED is not the Steam Deck 2. This is a mid-cycle refresh from Valve, similar to the Switch OLED upgrade, but there’s a lot more going on internally here. Its screen is better, its battery life is better and its chip and thermals are better — but it’s still a big ole handheld. The updated display is the device’s highlight, while things like faster charging, improved antennas and smoother controls are welcome bonuses.
The TP-7 and CM15 balance out the company’s pocket-sized studio gear.
Making even the most specced-out Steam Deck OLED look reasonably priced, Teenage Engineering has completed its Field series of studio gear, and the whole kit will set you back $5,900. Now, for the TE faithful who are still reading, its more playful design and solid hardware can be creativity inducing, according to Engadget’s James Trew.
Some people used it to ‘commit unspeakably heinous crimes,’ its founder admits.
Omegle, a chat service that pairs users with a random person so they can talk via text or video, is shutting down. Leif K-Brooks, who launched the service when he was 18 years old, announced its closure and talked about its humble beginnings. He admitted “some people misused [the service], including to commit unspeakably heinous crimes.” Critics have raised concerns about the website’s safety over the past years, with some even calling it a “magnet for pedophiles.”
Bundles include Spider-Man 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III.
Following the news that Sony has now sold over 46.6 million PS5 consoles, its refreshed hardware is bubbling up in stores. A standard model with a copy of Marvel’s 'Spider-Man 2 at no extra cost has hit Dell and Walmart, but the $500 bundle is going in and out of stock. The PS5 Slim (which isn’t the official name) will likely be available at other retailers soon.
Listings for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III bundles have appeared at Walmart too, but they cost $609 and come with your choice of accessory. Sony initially suggested the PS5 Slim would only be available in the US initially, but standard models have popped up in Canada.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-humanes-ai-pin-wearable-costs-699-and-ships-in-early-2024-121529700.html?src=rss
Tumblr, a flailing social media site from a bygone era, may be run by a skeleton crew from now on. An alleged internal memo from parent company Automattic has made the rounds on social platforms (including Threads), stating it has “not gotten the expected results from our effort.” The decision appears to mark a sharp U-turn from a separate leak this summer, claiming Automattic was building a TikTok-like algorithmic feed into the aging site.
Although this doesn’t quite appear to be the end of the road for Tumblr, the note doesn’t sound promising for the platform’s future. It says “the majority of the 139 people” will switch to other Automattic projects, leaving a barebones gang of Trust & Safety and support workers to oversee Tumblr’s smoldering embers. Given how many brutal layoffs we’ve seen this year, handling the transition in a way that avoids job losses could be a silver lining.
Automattic, the company behind the blogging tool WordPress, acquired Tumblr in 2019 from Verizon, which landed the platform through its purchase of Yahoo! (Engadget’s parent company) in 2017. It likely didn’t help that its ownership turned into a game of musical chairs, and none of them seemed to find the right formula to get the microblogging network back on its feet. (Its controversial ban on adult content likely had something to do with that.)
“We are at the point where after 600+ person-years of effort put into Tumblr since the acquisition in 2019, we have not gotten the expected results from our effort, which was to have its revenue and usage above its previous peaks,” the alleged memo reads. After throwing in cliches about climbing mountains and being better to try and fail than not to try at all, the note claims the team’s next step is to “reflect and decide where else we should concentrate our energy together.”
Engadget reached out to Automattic for comment and confirmation but didn’t immediately receive a response. We’ll update this article if we hear back.
In addition to WordPress, Automattic’s other brands include the journaling app Day One, the e-commerce plugin WooCommerce, Gravatar and the note-taking app SimpleNote.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tumblrs-staff-is-reportedly-reduced-to-a-skeleton-crew-215853169.html?src=rss
