Axios reports that Meta is eliminating its biggest DEI efforts, effective immediately, including ones that focused on hiring a diverse workforce, training, and sourcing supplies from diverse-owned companies. Its DEI department will also be eliminated. In a memo leaked to the outlet, Meta said it was making these changes because the “legal and policy landscape […]
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Automattic, the company that runs WordPress.com, is scaling back its contributions to the WordPress open-source project, according to an announcement on Thursday. The company says it’s decreasing contributions to “match” the amount of time companies like WP Engine spend on the ecosystem, further escalating the tension between Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and the community.
Now, instead of spending 3,988 hours per week developing the WordPress project, Automattic says it will now contribute around 45 hours as part of Five for the Future — a program that encourages companies to give back five percent of their resources to WordPress.org. “These hours will likely go towards security and critical updates,” Automattic says.
Mullenweg, who also co-founded WordPress, criticized the third-party host WP Engine for contributing 40 hours a week to the ecosystem and called it a “cancer” to the community. On the Five for the Future page that tracks contributions, the number of hours contributed by Automattic is already dwindling.
Automattic blames the cutback on the “significant time and money” related to the ongoing legal battle with WP Engine. It also points to the “intense criticism” it has faced “from members of the ‘community’ who want Matt and others to step away” from the WordPress project:
We’ve made the decision to reallocate resources due to the lawsuits from WP Engine. This legal action diverts significant time and energy that could otherwise be directed toward supporting WordPress’s growth and health. We remain hopeful that WP Engine will reconsider this legal attack, allowing us to refocus our efforts on contributions that benefit the broader WordPress ecosystem.
WP Engine sued Automattic and Mullenweg last year after the co-founder waged a public campaign against the company and took over its ACF plugin. A judge later granted a preliminary injunction in favor of WP Engine, saying Mullenweg’s “conduct is designed to induce breach or disruption.”
A number of employees also left Automattic last year after the company offered to buy out staff who didn’t agree with its fight against WP Engine. The company also shuttered its sustainability team this week, with a screenshotted Slack message from Mullenweg saying, “it’s probably a good time to officially dissolve the team entirely,” adding that “it doesn’t seem like creating a team around this was able to further any of its goals.” The move has sparked criticism from the community, including journalist Kara Swisher.
One of the big perks of the Fitbit app is access to a huge collection of workout plans that include videos, but recent app updates have removed the ability to cast those videos to TVs.
more…TikTok’s US saga is almost at an end, and its last major source of hope—a Supreme Court intervention—now looks unlikely to pan out. Thus, a January 19 ban in the US is looking more realistic than ever. Here’s the latest.
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A British judge ruled against a man who wants to excavate a landfill where he says a hard drive with access to thousands of bitcoins was mistakenly dumped over 11 years ago.
Since 2013, James Howells has been hoping to recover a laptop hard drive that he says contains the private key for cryptocurrency which he says he mined in 2009. We wrote about it at the time, noting that the value of a bitcoin had just passed $1,000, making 7,500 bitcoins worth $7.5 million.
The alleged number of bitcoins has changed a bit, with Howells now saying he lost 8,000 bitcoins. The bitcoin price exceeded $100,000 last month and was worth over $95,636 as of this writing, or $765 million for 8,000 bitcoins.
© Getty Images | Matthew Horwood
Over the last 24 hours or so, the major organizations that keep track of global temperatures have released figures for 2024, and all of them agree: 2024 was the warmest year yet recorded, joining 2023 as an unusual outlier in terms of how rapidly things heated up. At least two of the organizations, the European Union's Copernicus and Berkeley Earth, place the year at about 1.6° C above pre-industrial temperatures, marking the first time that the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5° has been exceeded.
NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration both place the mark at slightly below 1.5° C over pre-industrial temperatures (as defined by the 1850–1900 average). However, that difference largely reflects the uncertainties in measuring temperatures during that period rather than disagreement over 2024.
2023 had set a temperature record largely due to a switch to El Niño conditions midway through the year, which made the second half of the year exceptionally hot. It takes some time for that heat to make its way from the ocean into the atmosphere, so the streak of warm months continued into 2024, even as the Pacific switched into its cooler La Niña mode.
© Copernicus
Home renovation projects can be a logistical nightmare for homeowners and contractors, often bogged down by outdated tools or a complete lack of software. While modern solutions exist, the industry remains scattered, with many companies relying on inefficient systems—or skipping […]
The post Beams raises $9M in Series A funding to simplify home renovations for UK homeowners and contractors first appeared on Tech Startups.
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. The second week of the year is usually a busy one for startup news, and 2025 is no exception. From CES product launches to M&As and funding […]
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The European Commission (EC) has given the greenlight for Synopsys to acquire Ansys, though the companies must sell-off various software products as part of the proposed remedies. Chip design software maker Synopsys revealed last January its plans to acquire Ansys, a simulation software developer that helps engineers model and analyze the physical behavior of products, such as chips, […]
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Businesses dependent on the physical supply chain — the network of facilities and transportation systems used to move materials from one location to another — face a number of challenges, from staff shortages to increasing customer expectations. The pressures aren’t easing up. According to a survey from Prologis, a real estate investment trust, two-thirds of […]
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When Elon Musk launched his own AI startup, xAI, he touted a key advantage over his competitors: access to the vast trove of data from his newly acquired social media platform Twitter. By implementing new API fees on the network he quickly renamed X, Musk locked out other AI companies, maintaining exclusive access for his own models. And he began using X’s millions of users to test the results.
Musk has been using this distribution channel since xAI launched its first version of the Grok large language model, adding features like trending story summaries and AI-generated questions on posts as well as releasing the Grok chatbot (initially) to X users exclusively. Now, a slew of new AI features is coming. Per the findings of reverse engineer Nima Owji, the platform appears to be developing AI-powered post enhancements, including a feature that lets Grok modify your tweets. The chatbot also appears to be adding location-based queries, letting users ask about things nearby, like grocery stores.
xAI’s takeover of the platform once known as Twitter is so unmistakable that even its branding has crept into X’s most visible real estate, with “xAI Grok” now commanding prominent placement...
Fortnite Festival, the game’s Rock Band-like music mode where you play along with real songs, is getting local multiplayer for up to four people on PlayStation and Xbox on January 14th.
Currently, you can only play Fortnite Festival multiplayer online, but with this change, you’ll be able to get your former Rock Band back together and jam out on the same TV screen — well, with a major asterisk. Fortnite Festival currently only supports certain Rock Band guitar controllers, so if you’re on vocals or drums, you’ll be relegated to playing on a controller.
Epic Games didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment about when drum kit or microphone support might be added to Fortnite Festival.
The new local multiplayer mode is being added as part of season 7 of Fortnite Festival. The featured artist for the season is rumored to be virtual pop star Hatsune Miku — and Epic Games is has already dropped a hint that she might be joining Fortnite soon.
The Galaxy 25 has a refined design compared to last year’s model, with the Galaxy S25 Ultra looking a bit cleaner. New high-quality official-looking renders have surfaced, showing off every detail.
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When it comes to smart home lighting, you have two main options: smart lightbulbs or smart outlet adapters paired with traditional lamps. Both have their place, but for me, smart bulbs offer more flexibility and control. Unlike outlet adapters, which toggle power on and off, smart bulbs give you control over brightness, color, and even dynamic scenes. If you want to take the next step in building your smart home in 2025, a set of Matter-compatible lightbulbs might be the perfect place to start. This week, I am looking at the .
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A new Apple Store is opening at Miami Worldcenter this month, and Apple has shared wallpaper downloads to celebrate the occasion. Here are the details.
more…After the significant releases of iOS 18.1 and iOS 18.2, Apple’s latest developer beta release – iOS 18.3 beta 2 – is shaping up to be significantly less eventful in terms of user-facing features and changes. However, there are things under the hood that may hint to what to expect from future iOS software and hardware. In this first episode of iOS Decoded, we take a deeper dive into iOS 18.3. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for future installments.
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The long-awaited streaming service Venu Sports is no longer happening, according to The Hollywood Reporter and others. The sports-focused streaming service was to be a joint offering by Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox. There was no concrete reason given, other than corporate-speak.
“In an ever-changing marketplace, we determined that it was best to meet the evolving demands of sports fans by focusing on existing products and distribution channels,” the companies wrote in a statement.
We assume this move will also involve some serious layoffs, as Venu has been percolating for a while. To that end, the companies said they are “proud of the work that has been done on Venu to date and grateful to the Venu staff, whom we will support through this transition period.” There are no details as to what this support will entail.
Venu Sports, the proposed virtual MVPD service from ESPN, FOX & Warner Bros. Discovery, will be discontinued
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) January 10, 2025
The collective decision by the three companies not to move forward with the contemplated joint venture is effective immediately
More: https://t.co/Cvwv2h601G pic.twitter.com/lylDeHDy9p
The real reason for the shutdown is likely due to ongoing legal woes. Just as one threat disappeared this week, with Fubo dropping an antitrust lawsuit and joining forces with Disney, another popped up in its place. Days after Disney announced a deal to merge Hulu + Live TV with Fubo, a pair of satellite TV companies argued against lifting a pre-existing injunction that delayed the launch of Venu.
DirecTV and EchoStar suggested that Fubo and Disney’s newfound friendship doesn’t resolve alleged antitrust issues surrounding Venu Sports. DirecTV wrote to a judge, saying that the joint venture “restores an anticompetitive runway” for the companies “to control the future of the live pay TV market.” EchoStar wrote a similar letter.
An unnamed source familiar with Venu Sports told The Hollywood Reporter that the move to cancel the streaming service was made in the past few days and that the aforementioned legal snafu played a role.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/rip-to-the-entirely-hypothetical-streaming-service-venu-sports-180532990.html?src=rss
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© Unsplash / Chris Chow
