Posts Tagged: reporting
Instacart cuts 250 jobs after reporting increased revenue
Another day, another layoff occuring in the tech world. Instacart, the popular grocery delivery and pick-up service has announced the termination of 250 employees — about seven percent of its workforce. The layoffs are primarily individuals in management, as Instacart told Engadget that it was moving towards a flatter organization. The company also said that it was disbanding some teams working on smaller projects in favor of focusing on bigger bets like retail-powered media and off-platform ads. Most of the layoffs will go into effect by March 31 with Instacart estimating that the process will cost the company between $ 19 million and $ 24 million due to factors like severance pay and employee benefits.
Instacart released the news along with its fourth-quarter earnings. Despite choosing to layoff employees, the company reported a six percent increase in revenue, jumping from $ 803 million to $ 804 million, year-over-year. At the same time, Instacart is seeing the voluntary departure of three of its executives: the chief operating officer, chief technology officer and chief architect.
The layoffs follow only a short time after Instacart's September 2023 IPO. Unlike many companies that barely (or didn't) survive the COVID-19 pandemic, Instacart thrived. It allowed people to stay and still receive their groceries and other necessary items. Now, it exists in 5,500 cities and, like most companies of the past year, is focusing on building its AI capabilities. But, despite its increased revenue, the company's layoffs signal that not everything is going as planned over at Instacart.
Update, Feb 14 2024, 5:45PM ET: This story has been updated with additional details from Instacart about the parts of the organization affected, and to note that Instacart primarily isn't letting people go who are working on their ads products.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/instacart-cuts-250-jobs-after-reporting-increased-revenue-112503431.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Xbox’s reporting system for abusive-voice chat arrives this week
Microsoft is set to launch its abusive-voice reporting feature for Xbox consoles. Announced in July, it lets gamers submit inappropriate remarks heard while playing multiplayer titles. The system captures a 60-second clip saved to the console; you then have 24 hours to complete the report. The feature arrives this week in the September update for Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One. However, it’s initially limited to the “select English-language markets” of the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
Microsoft says it tailored voice reporting to balance ease of use with minimal gaming interference. “Our feature is designed so that only you, the player, can initiate the capture of the last 60 seconds of gameplay activity that occurred for content moderation purposes,” the company wrote. It works similarly to capturing standard gameplay clips, but content recorded for moderation review is only used for that purpose. “They will not appear in your recent captures, and clips cannot be downloaded, modified, or shared,” Microsoft wrote.
The company stressed that the console won’t save or upload any clips unless you start the reporting process. After capturing a clip of spoken chat that you believe breaks Xbox’s community standards, the sample will remain on your console for “24 online hours,” and you can choose to submit it immediately or wait for your gameplay session to end. In addition, your Xbox will alert you as a final reminder to send the report if the 24-hour period is about to expire. Finally, you’ll receive a notification later telling you whether the company took action against the perpetrator.
Also included in the Xbox September update is the ability to quickly stream Xbox gameplay to Discord. After updating your console, you can link your Discord account and join voice channels on the platform directly from the console. You’ll find the activation controls in the Xbox guide by navigating to Parties & Chats and choosing Discord.
The September update also lets users toggle the console’s variable refresh rate (VRR). You can now turn the feature off or back on by navigating to General > TV & display options > Video. You’ll see options to leave VRR “always on,” switch it to “gaming only” or disable it altogether.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/xboxs-reporting-system-for-abusive-voice-chat-arrives-this-week-175806184.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Twitch will launch an improved reporting and appeals process in 2022
Following a year that saw it struggle to shield its users from abuse and harassment, Twitch has published a retrospective of its 2021 safety efforts that includes a look forward to how the company plans to tackle the issue in 2022. Specifically, Angela Hession, Twitch’s vice president of global trust and safety, says the company will update its user reporting and appeals process.
It also plans to upgrade its Suspicious User Detection feature. The AI tool, which the company launched at the end of last year, automatically flags individuals it believes may be repeat ban dodgers. In 2022, Twitch has updates planned around how streamers can use information from that tool. As the company has indicated previously, it also plans to update its sexual content policy to clarify various aspects of it. Twitch simultaneously intends to share more and “better” educational content across its safety center and other areas.
Twitch spent much of the latter half of 2021 trying to stop automated "hate raid" harassment campaigns. The attacks saw malicious individuals use thousands of bots to spam channels with hateful language, and they frequently targeted streamers from marginalized communities. In September, the company sued CruzzControl and CreatineOverdose, two of the more prolific individuals involved in those campaigns.
"We’ll likely never be able to eliminate [hate raids] entirely," Hession said. However, she claims Twitch "significantly" cut down on the number of bots on its platform through some of its actions in 2021. In 2022, it looks to continue that work through the improvements it announced today.
If the company’s safety roadmap feels light on details, Hession says that’s out of necessity. “The honest and unfortunate reality is that we can't always be specific because bad actors can and have used that transparency to attempt to thwart our efforts,” she said.
At the same time, the executive acknowledged Twitch needs to do a better job of communicating what it’s doing to make people feel safe on its platform. It’s easy to see why the company would say that. When it felt like the hate raids that were occurring on Twitch couldn’t get any worse, many creators banded together to protest the lack of action they saw from the company.
Some users are reporting early deliveries, have you received your OnePlus 8 or 8 Pro yet?
The brand new OnePlus 8 Series only launched on April 14th with pre-orders opening the day after, but some Reddit users in the US are reporting that they’ve already received their orders. Others have said that they’ve had tracking numbers and shipping confirmations emailed to them. Have you received your OnePlus 8 or 8 Pro […]
Come comment on this article: Some users are reporting early deliveries, have you received your OnePlus 8 or 8 Pro yet?
Google’s search results will highlight original reporting
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Google Pixel 2 finally adopts Bluetooth battery level reporting
It’s not uncommon for device manufacturers to build out features that eventually make their way back to AOSP, which then get adopted on Google’s Nexus/Pixel line and then to pretty much all other Android phones. That’s happened again, but this time with Bluetooth battery level reporting. In case you didn’t know, battery level reporting is […]
Come comment on this article: Google Pixel 2 finally adopts Bluetooth battery level reporting
Twitter is toying with a ‘fake news’ reporting feature
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