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Apple has been reluctant to cut jobs in the face of the economic downturn like Microsoft, Tesla and other major tech companies, but it apparently isn’t immune to the pressure. Bloomberg sources claim Apple has laid off roughly 100 contract recruiters to reflect changes in the company’s “current business needs.” It’s maintaining full-time recruiting positions and some contractors, but the layoffs covered locations ranging from Texas to Singapore.

The company declined to comment. During a call for its latest latest earnings, CEO Tim Cook said Apple would continue to hire people but would be “more deliberate” given difficult conditions. It fired hundreds of Irish contract workers in 2019 in response to Siri recording privacy concerns, and dropped Apple Park development contractors in 2015.

The move isn’t surprising when Apple had a mixed quarter this spring. Although iPhone revenue grew, Apple Watch and smart home sales took a hit due to a rough economy. iPad and Mac sales were hampered by supply limitations, too. While Apple isn’t exactly in financial trouble (it still posted a $19.4 billion profit), it’s not enjoying the relentless growth of previous years. If the layoff report is accurate, the firm is adapting to a reality where ever-increasing sales aren’t guaranteed.

Winamp’s plans to regain relevance include much more than finally updating its audio software. The company has opened invitations to a creator service that gives musicians tools to distribute, promote and (of course) profit from their work. While most details won’t emerge in earnest until features begin unlocking in September, this is slated to include fan subscription support debuting in November. Your favorite artist could offer special content at different tiers — it appears to be a Patreon-style platform for music.

The invitations are limited to 25,000 people. They’ll receive a year of free access to tools as well as a Creator Pass that promises “exclusive perks,” including digital tokens of Winamp’s well-known llama.

Don’t worry that Winamp might ignore its signature player software. The company maintains that it will parallel the service rollouts with improvements to the client. The aim is to create the “music superapp” listeners want, Winamp said.

The creator service and restored software could help Winamp adapt to an era where streaming and subscriptions have largely replaced downloads. With that said, there are challenges. Many listeners are tied to first-party streaming apps like Apple Music and Spotify. They aren’t guaranteed to turn to outside software and services, even if they might miss out on rewards.

Motional’s driverless is entering service earlier than expected. On Tuesday, the company and Lyft announced that the vehicle is ready to begin offering rides to the public, starting with residents and visitors to Las Vegas. With today’s announcement, the Ioniq 5 is the first fully electric autonomous vehicle to join Lyft’s network.

In Las Vegas, Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, had been testing autonomous vehicles without safety drivers since. With its public launch, the Ioniq 5 is fully integrated into Lyft’s software. When the car arrives to pick you up, you can unlock the doors through the Lyft app. Inside, you’ll also find a dedicated passenger display and you can contact a remote agent at any time – you know, in case the car ever needs to be rescued from a.

“Launching Motional’s all-electric Ioniq 5 on Lyft’s network in Las Vegas represents tremendous progress in our vision to make an electric, autonomous, and shared future a reality for people everywhere,” said Lyft CEO Logan Green. “Building an experience that Lyft riders love is core to advancing this technology, and today’s launch provides riders access to Motional’s autonomous technology in a way that will feel seamless, familiar, and personalized, all on a network they already trust.”

Lyft plans to bring fully driverless cars to multiple US cities in 2023 and beyond. However, it’s unclear where the company will deploy the vehicles next. Lyft and Motional will need approval from local regulators before they can start offering rides to the public.

If you’ve been in the market for a large smart display, it might be worth taking a look at Amazon’s Echo Show 15, which is currently on sale. You can , which is $60 off the regular price of $250. That’s a discount of 24 percent.

Buy Echo Show at Amazon – $190

Amazon released the device last year and we gave it a score of 78 . We admired the large, bright screen and the picture frame design. We found the widgets (which include ones for headlines, weather, calendar, sticky notes, recipe suggestions and package delivery tracking) to be handy. However, the camera and audio quality were lacking. Though the Echo Show 15 is designed to be wall mounted, Amazon’s decision to sell desktop stands separately rather than bundling one in as standard is also disappointing.

Since this is an Amazon smart display, you can of course use it to control compatible smart home devices. Echo Show 15 supports a variety of video and audio streaming services, and it can link to compatible Echo speakers for richer audio. You might also use the display to show pictures from Amazon Photos or Facebook.

Meanwhile, family members can have their own profiles. They can use voice ID and the visual ID face-recognition system to access personalized content such as reminders, appointments and music they listened to recently.

Elsewhere, the Echo Show 5 is also on sale. It is currently , which is $45 off the standard price. As the name suggests, this is a model with a much smaller screen than the Echo Show 15 (5.5 inches, compared with 15.6 inches), which perhaps makes it a good fit for a nightstand. To that end, it supports an Alexa routine that can gradually turn on connected smart lights and play music or the news to help you get your day started.

Buy Echo Show 5 at Amazon – $40

You might not have to brave crowded stores to get your child’s back-to-school gear. Uber Eats now offers deliveries of office and school supplies from roughly 900 Office Depot and OfficeMax stores across the US. If you need a flurry of binders and pencils for your little one’s classes, you can have them delivered during your lunch break.

Not surprisingly, you’ll avoid the delivery fee and receive a 5 percent discount if you’re an Uber One subscriber who spends at least $15 on a purchase. Uber didn’t say if other office supply shops would be available, but did note this was the “first.”

It may seem odd to order school material through the same app that handles your takeout meals. However, Uber has gradually expanded its deliveries to cover goods ranging from groceries to pharmaceuticals — like DoorDash, Eats is becoming more of a general delivery service. In theory, you’ll pick Uber Eats over rivals like Amazon Prime Now whenever you need something shipped in minutes, not hours or days.

We may be only a few months away from the launch of Google’s Pixel 7, but those who can’t wait for a new smartphone can save a bunch on the Pixel 6 Pro right now. Amazon has the current flagship for $649, which is $250 off its usual rate and the best price we’ve seen — even cheaper than it was on Prime Day last month. That’s what you’ll pay for the base, 128GB models, but the 256GB versions are also $250 off, so you can pick one up for as low as $749. The standard Pixel 6 is also on sale for $499.

Buy Pixel 6 Pro (128GB) at Amazon – $649 Buy Pixel 6 Pro (256GB) at Amazon – $749 Buy Pixel 6 at Amazon – $499

We like the entire Pixel 6 series, but the Pixel 6 Pro earned a score of 91 from us and earned a spot on our list of best smartphones you can get right now. It’s an attractive handset with a striking camera bar on its back, along with a 6.7-inch 120Hz OLED display. It’s powered by Google’s Tensor Processing Unit, which provides excellent performance while also being efficient — we were able to eke roughly 17 hours of battery life out of this smartphone, so it should easily last all day for most people.

But the Pixel 6 Pro really shines when taking photos. It has a triple rear camera array with a 50-megapixel main sensor, a 12MP wide-angle lens and a 48MP telephoto shooter, and those are in addition to the 11MP, 4K front-facing camera. We consider it to be the best smartphone for photography right now, as it handles all kinds of photos well including large group shots, wide landscapes, close ups, and more. Google’s Night Sight also does a fantastic job of producing solid images in low light, and its computational photography features enable things like Magic Eraser, Face Unblur and Long Exposure.

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