Technology

Airbnb is laying off around a quarter of its employees today, or about 1,900 people. The company has been struggling over the last couple months as stay-home orders led to mass cancellations of bookings and as future bookings look likely to return very slowly as the United States and other countries carefully lift restrictions. Airbnb currently has 7,500 employees. The virus has led to a steep drop in revenue for Airbnb. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says 2020 revenue will be half of what the company brought in during 2019. “Airbnb’s business has been hit hard,” he writes in a note emailed to employees. The Information, which first reported the layoffs, says the cuts are supposed to save the company between $400 million to $500 million per year. An Airbnb spokesperson directed us to Chesky’s not...

Disney was at the top of the world at the end of 2019: a record-breaking year at the box office, the launch of Disney Plus, and a release of the biggest movie in history. Now, just five months into 2020, Disney is in for a bumpy ride. “While the COVID-19 pandemic has had an appreciable financial impact on a number of our businesses, we are confident in our ability to withstand this disruption and emerge from it in a strong position,” CEO Bob Chapek said in a press release. “Disney has repeatedly shown that it is exceptionally resilient, bolstered by the quality of our storytelling and the strong affinity consumers have for our brands, which is evident in the extraordinary response to Disney Plus since its launch last November.” Disney generated a higher revenue than expected, coming in at ...

WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann is suing investor SoftBank for scrapping a $3 billion stock buyout agreement. The New York Times reports that Neumann accused SoftBank of breaching its contract and “secretly taking actions to undermine” the agreement, which SoftBank abandoned last month. He’s looking to merge the case with a similar suit by WeWork’s board in April, but SoftBank has called those claims a “desperate and misguided attempt” to rewrite the deal’s history. SoftBank agreed to bail out The We Company last year while writing off billions of dollars on an investment due to WeWork’s unprofitable and ill-advised operations. The deal included a plan to buy $3 billion worth of stock from Neumann and other shareholders. But in April, SoftBank backed out, saying that WeWork hadn’t met the c...

Christian Reber, founder of the beloved productivity application Wunderlist, announced today that he’s got a new company called Superlist in the works. Its goal, as stated by its very pretty landing page, is to enable “supercharged productivity for teams of the future.” It’s not yet clear what Superlist will do — aside from being a productivity tool, per Reber’s thread on Twitter — but it makes sense that he’s returning to familiar ground for his next venture. Today’s Protocol newsletter had a bit more detail: some of Superlist’s team will come from Microsoft, and Reber is thinking of the app as “an investment into the next generation of Wunderlist.” Superlist will be more than just a todo app, but never as bloated as the project management software you loathe to use. Slick, fast, and hype...

Early this morning, China launched a pivotal new rocket, carrying a prototype deep-space spacecraft. China declared the launch a success, and it now paves the way for a slew of critical launches over the next year. This latest launch from the Wenchang launch site in southern China sent a new rocket called the Long March 5B into orbit. A variant of China’s Long March 5, it’s a massive vehicle with four strap-on boosters that provide extra thrust at liftoff. On top of the rocket was a special prototype: a new crewed spacecraft somewhat akin to the deep-space Orion capsule that NASA has been developing to take people to the Moon and beyond. No people were on this flight, but the capsule could be used to ferry people to low Earth orbit or maybe around the Moon in the future. “It is designed to...

ESPN will air live NBA 2K League matches on ESPN2 on three Tuesdays in May, the sports network announced today. It’s the first time that the NBA 2K League, which is operated by the NBA, will have matches aired live on TV in the US, according to ESPN. Some league matches will also be shown on the ESPN app and ESPN.com, depending on the day of the week and when in the season you’re watching. On Tuesdays at 7PM ET, starting today through May 19th, you can watch NBA 2K League matches on ESPN2. On Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 7PM ET, you can watch NBA 2K League games on the ESPN app and ESPN.com. ESPN has not yet announced the broadcast schedule for games that take place beginning May 26th. ESPN has aired more esports as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced traditional sports leagues to go...

Yesterday morning, the Supreme Court heard its first remote oral argument and streamed the event live online for the first time. The case was Patent & Trademark Office v. Booking.com, an intellectual property dispute that’s potentially important but not very flashy. But it was one of a handful of cases rescheduled for May after being indefinitely postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and it was a largely successful trial-run for a (relatively) high-tech experiment. Justice Sonia Sotomayor may have briefly forgotten to unmute her phone at one point during the hearing. Justice Stephen Breyer’s connection seemingly faltered for a few seconds, turning part of one question into a garbled mess. For most of an hour-plus debate over trademark law, though, the court made a successful first...

Since the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has overtaken the climate crisis as the most pressing existential threat for much of the world’s population. As we adapt to isolation, the warming planet has taken an understandable back seat in the news coverage, although scientists have noted the spread of the novel coronavirus instigating a fall in carbon emissions. But there’s a potential dark side to the virus-related reduction as China and countries across the globe seek to make up lost ground. Far from halting the climate crisis, coronavirus might just temporarily pause our emissions, albeit at different times and rates across the world. Once we get through this (whatever that ultimately looks like), its most alarming facts will still ring true: we only have 10 years to prevent cata...

Today’s best deals include all sorts of tech at different price ranges, including noise-canceling headphones, e-readers, gaming laptops, and even a 4K TV with Mini-LED backlighting. Starting with headphones, we’re seeing a big price drop on the Bang & Olufsen H9i wireless over-ear headphones with active noise cancellation. Normally retailing on Amazon at $500 (or around $300 if you buy from a third-party seller), they’re currently sitting at $200 — the single biggest price cut yet. This model debuted in early 2018 and features USB-C charging, a long battery life, and, according to a post from former Verge editor Vlad Savov, they’re very comfortable. Another perk you don’t usually see with headphones like these is a removable battery. If you aren’t near a power outlet to recharge it, yo...

If you’ve already streamed your favorite series for the third time, and you’ve hit a wall with your latest game, what should you do while you’re sheltering at home? Well, maybe pick up a new skill or hobby by taking a class. There is a huge number of courses available online, from coding to history to languages, and a lot of different resources to choose from. Below, we’ve listed some of the major sites where you can find online classes, some you can attend in real time and others you can pop into at your leisure. While many of these websites charge fees for memberships or specific classes, we’ve indicated which ones also offer free courses. Code Academy offers courses on computer science, data science, and web development. You can sign up for the free plan, which gives you access to 25 co...

<div data-filter_4=" Kaweco Classic Sport Fountain Pen Nothing makes writing feel better than using a fancy pen, and Kaweco’s fountain pen is the perfect way to add some old-school charm to your note-taking, lease signing, or doodling without breaking the bank. Price: ~$19 Amazon Hario V60 Gooseneck Kettle There are many cheaper vessels for hot water, but Hario’s V60 Gooseneck kettle heats quickly, and rarely needs to be cleaned. What’s best, though, is that it delivers a perfect, measured pour so you don’t get carried away with a delicate drink.Price: ~$45 Amazon Dagne Dover Dakota Backpack If you’re going to carry your backpack all day, from home to the gym to work to dinner and home again, you’re going to want something that’s well-desig...

Crucible, a new free-to-play PC game from Amazon’s original game development arm, is launching later this month, the e-commerce giant announced on Tuesday. It’s Amazon Game Studios’ first big-budget original game, as the studio has focused mostly on tablet games released through its Android app store since the division’s launch back in 2012. The game is a sci-fi third-person shooter that mixes together a bunch of popular game designs including components of team shooters like Blizzard’s Overwatch, battle arena games like Valve’s Dota 2, and battle royale hits like Epic’s Fortnite and Respawn’s Apex Legends. The result sounds like it a combination of the game industry’s most dominant competitive titles of the last five years, which could position Crucible at the forefront of the Twitch and ...