Alphabet robotics division Intrinsic hit with layoffs

It’s a new year, but the industry’s struggles are showing no signs of abating. Big firms are as susceptible — if not more so. This week, Alphabet joined the growing list of tech giants making staff cuts amid ongoing economic struggles. Following a wave of layoffs from the likes of Amazon, Meta and Salesforce, Alphabet … Read more

Electric air dusters rock

My tool. My friend. My electric air duster. | Photo by Christopher Person / The Verge I have always had a complicated relationship with canned compressed air. For a neat freak, it’s a vital tool. It keeps your keyboards clean, it blasts dust out of your gaming PC, and it gets gunk out of those … Read more

Marvel Snap PvP mode drops very soon

Image: Second Dinner After weeks of playtesting, theorycrafting, ladder-climbing, and a bunch of shit-talking, I am ready to face my friends in Marvel Snap’s PvP mode. In a new blog on the Unity developer tools website, Marvel Snap associate design director Kent-Erik Hagman wrote about what players can expect when Battle Mode is planned to … Read more

Greenlight, kids-focused fintech startup, lays off 104 employees to optimize expenses

Greenlight, a fintech startup offering debit cards to kids, has laid off 104 employees — or over 21% of its total headcount of 485 employees — to “better align with ongoing operating expenses” amid the economic slowdown. TechCrunch learned about the layoff that was announced to its employees earlier this week. The startup later confirmed … Read more

Medium embraces Twitter alternative Mastodon with launch of its own community

Online publishing platform Medium, originally created by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, announced today it’s embracing the open-source Mastodon platform by creating its own instance to support its authors and their publications. The company said it’s launching me.dm, a Mastodon community that will offer reliable infrastructure, moderation, and a short domain name to make it easier … Read more

Mercedes-Benz may drop its ‘EQ’ brand for electric cars after just a few years

Image: Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images Well, that was quick. After just a few years on the market, Mercedes-Benz’s “EQ” brand for electric vehicles — which currently includes the EQS, EQE, and a host of others coming soon — may be on the way out. The news was first reported by Germany’s Handelsblatt daily newspaper … Read more