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| 1 | | LinkedIn announced in a memo that it will lay off 716 workers and phase out its China-specific jobs app, InCareer. The job cuts will affect approximately 3.5% of the company's 20,000-person global workforce. More: - LinkedIn introduced InCareer in December 2021, shortly after discontinuing its localized LinkedIn app in China.
- The app's shutdown was attributed to stiff competition and unfavorable macroeconomic conditions. InCareer will now delete all user data by August 9.
- LinkedIn will still operate its Learning, Marketing, and Talent businesses in China. It's changing its approach in China to help companies there recruit and train foreign workers.
- Despite the changes in its strategy, the company intends to start hiring for over 250 positions from next week, primarily in the operations, new business, and account management sectors.
- According to parent company Microsoft's earnings report, LinkedIn's revenue increased by 8% year over year to $3.7B in Q3 2023.
- Despite the uptick, LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky said the company will continue to “manage expenses” in the coming year.
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| 2 | | What happened: Amazon is expanding its retail presence beyond its vast online marketplace with the launch of a new immersive shopping experience. Details: Amazon Anywhere launched on Tuesday, allowing retail customer to purchase real-world items directly in mobile apps, video games, and virtual spaces in the metaverse. The service debuts within "Peridot," an augmented reality game by Niantic, the maker of "Pokémon Go," where players will be able to link their Amazon accounts and buy game-branded products, like T-shirts and stuffed animals, from its online store without exiting the experience. The bigger picture: Amazon is exploring games and the metaverse as a new avenue for customers to discover products on its site. Based on information provided by Statista, marketers familiar with the metaverse chose the retail sector as the second-best industry, after gaming, to actively engage customers within the metaverse. 
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| 3 | | Nintendo is forecasting a 17% drop in Switch sales for the financial year ending March 2024, marking a third straight year of decline. The company acknowledged slowing demand for the aging console, which was first released in March 2017. More: - In its latest earnings results, Nintendo reported a 5.5% year-over-year decrease in revenue, which was largely attributed to a drop in sales of its flagship Switch.
- The company sold 17.97 million units in the fiscal year ended March 2023, compared to over 23 million units sold the prior year. It plans to sell 15 million units in the current year.
- One of the worst sales quarters for the Switch to date was in the last quarter, with the company selling only 3.06 million units.
- To help shore up sales, Nintendo said it plans to focus on selling second and even third consoles to households that already own a Switch.
Zoom out: - Despite the slowdown, the Switch claims lifetime sales of 125.62 million units, which ranks it third-best of all time.
- Reports note that the market for the console has become saturated, and customers may be looking forward to Nintendo's next-generation console, which it has yet to announce.
- On Friday, Nintendo is set to release "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom," one of the most anticipated games of the year.
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| 4 | | Bluesky, a decentralized social network backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, is growing in popularity despite its status as an invite-only closed beta. The Twitter-like alternative has amassed more than 375,000 downloads on the Apple App Store since February. Invite codes for the service are now on sale for $200 or more on eBay. More: - The app rolled out to iOS users in late February and launched on Android on April 20. Since March, Bluesky has seen a significant uptick in visits from less than 300,000 to almost 1.5 million in April.
- Bluesky has similar features to Twitter, allowing users to post text and photos and share and reply to posts.
- Unlike Twitter, the platform plans to be a decentralized system with an "open protocol," allowing for more open sharing between social media platforms.
- Its in-house open-source framework, called AT Protocol, will allow those outside of Bluesky to see how it was built and how it's being developed.
- Twitter initially funded the platform as a parallel independent project before Elon Musk took over last year. Dorsey, Twitter's former CEO, currently sits on Bluesky’s board.
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| 5 | | Apple is bringing Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro to the iPad with enhancements specifically for the device. With the release, Apple is taking another step towards bridging the gap between its laptops and the most powerful iPad models. More: - Final Cut Pro, a video editing app, and Logic Pro, a music creation app, will launch via subscription models on the App Store on May 23.
- Apple aims to capture a new breed of creators who honed their skills on mobile devices.
- The iPadOS apps will offer redesigned touch-friendly interfaces and Pencil and Magic Keyboard support.
- New features include a jog wheel for Final Cut Pro and a Live Drawing feature for Apple Pencil.
- Logic Pro has touch-friendly features and a new sound browser with dynamic filtering, as well as a sound-shuffling plug-in called Beat Breaker.
- Projects can be moved between Mac and iPad. Each app is priced at $4.99 per month or $49 per year, and a one-month free trial is available.
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| 6 | | Google is expected to reveal updates to its AI tools at the I/O event on Wednesday, including the PaLM 2 large language model and AI features for Workspace apps. Reports suggest that Google may also announce new AI experiences for Search and Bard, its AI chatbot. More: - The PaLM 2 model can support over 100 languages and is capable of coding and math, in addition to writing.
- Google has already rolled out AI-enabled features for Workspace apps and is expected to showcase more at the event.
- It began testing AI-enabled writing features in Gmail and Google Docs earlier this year.
- On Wednesday, Google is expected to demo how AI can generate templates in Google Sheets and images in Slides and Meet.
- According to CNBC, Google has been working on updates for Bard, including a "Multi-Bard" version that can code and answer math problems.
- Google recently made its Bard chatbot available to users with Google Workspace accounts.
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- Microsoft Advertising unveiled an "Ads for Chat" API that enables online services, publishers, and apps to select and provide ads via personalized chat experiences.
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. She has written the Inside AI newsletter since 2019. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Eduardo Garcia | |
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