Facebook parent company Meta has scaled back two of its AR/VR projects amid slowing business growth. The company will no longer produce consumer versions of its Portal video calling and smart displays. It's also canceling a commercial release of its first AR glasses but will provide them to developers as demonstration products. More: - A source confirmed that Meta will pivot to making Portal products for business use only, ending its consumer line.
- Portal device sales grew during the pandemic but never took off.
- Meta shipped an estimated 800,000 Portals last year, which is only 1% of the worldwide smart speaker and display market.
- Meanwhile, Meta has called off a broader commercial release of its first AR glasses, originally planned for 2024.
- Instead, it will distribute the glasses to developers to build software experiences for the device.
- Version two of the AR glasses, codenamed Artemis, is still expected to see a commercial release sometime later.
Related: - Meta has also canceled its rumored Milan smartwatch with two cameras and a detachable display.
- It hasn't said if two other versions of the watch, codenamed Kyoto and Paris, have also been shelved.
- In April, Mark Zuckerberg said Meta will “slow the pace of some of our investments," including on software and hardware for the metaverse, due to its slowing growth levels.
THE INFORMATION 
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Tesla has canceled three job fairs in China planned for this month after Elon Musk said the company needs to pause all hiring and cut its workforce by 10%. The company called off online recruitment events in China for sales, R&D, and supply chain positions, but didn't specify a reason. More: - Tesla is "overstaffed" in areas and will reduce its salaried headcount by 10%, Musk told employees in an email last Friday.
- The cutbacks will not apply to workers building its vehicles, battery packs, or installing solar panels, he noted.
- Musk hasn't provided an update on Tesla's China operation, where production at its Shanghai plant has been impacted by ongoing COVID lockdowns.
- The company still has 1,000+ job openings posted in China.
- Earlier this month, Musk said the company needs to pause all hiring and cut its workforce by 10%, citing a “super bad feeling” about the economy. As of late 2021, Tesla employed 99,290 people.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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The U.K.'s competition regulator plans to investigate the market dominance of Google and Apple's mobile browsers after finding that the two hold an "effective duopoly" over mobile ecosystems. Separately, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it will take enforcement action against Google for its app store payment practices. More: - The CMA announced the moves after concluding a year-long study of Google and Apple's mobile ecosystems.
- The report says the companies have a duopoly and assert a stranglehold over mobile markets, including through their app stores, operating systems, and web browsers.
- Without intervention, the tech giants will likely maintain and possibly strengthen their dominance, which could further restrict competition and limit innovation, the CMA said.
- The agency is now "consulting on" the launch of a market investigation into their mobile browsers, along with Apple's restrictions on cloud gaming through its app store.
- In parallel, the CMA has opened a competition law probe into Google’s rules regarding Play Store access and in-app payments, which could lead to fines.
- The probe is similar to the CMA's current investigation over Apple’s App Store terms and conditions, which it launched last year.
Response: - In a statement, Apple said it "respectfully disagree[s]" with the report's conclusions, which discount the firm's investments in "innovation, privacy, and user performance."
- Google intends to review the report "and continue to engage with the CMA," a spokesperson said. The company noted its app store has helped to launch millions of apps.
THE GUARDIAN
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Apple plans to release a giant iPad and larger Macbook Air laptop in 2023, according to two trusted analysts. The company is reportedly building a 14.1-inch iPad Pro and a 15-inch MacBook Air, for possible releases early next year. More: - The giant iPad is expected to have Mini LED backlighting and Apple's ProMotion display, according to analyst Ross Young.
- Young, CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants, confirmed the device "is being developed with our supply chain sources."
- An early 2023 release is likely, he stated.
- Previous reports said the 14.1-inch iPad Pro would contain an M2 chipset, 512 GB of storage, and 16 GB of base memory.
- Separately, Apple may release its largest MacBook Air yet — a 15-inch version — as early as spring 2023, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
- On Monday, Apple revealed a 13.6-inch MacBook Air with M2 chip that goes on sale in July.
- Gurman expects a 15-inch version next year. He also predicts the release of updated 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros with M2 Max chips in late 2022 or early 2023.
- Finally, Apple could release a separate 12-inch laptop by early 2024, he said.
TECHCRUNCH
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The developer behind the free text-to-image app, DALL-E Mini, could face a cease-and-desist order over the popular AI art generator, says The Verge's Casey Newton. DALL-E Mini is based on OpenAI's original DALL-E image generator. The spin-off app has gone viral but could be shut down as it "has no relation to OpenAI or DALL-E," according to Newton. More: - OpenAI's DALL-E, announced back in Jan. 2021, generates photorealistic images based on a simple text prompt.
- However, the tool has not been made generally available to the public, remaining in a private research beta.
- Dall-E Mini is developer Boris Dayma's attempt to reproduce the art generator for anyone to use through his own open-source model.
- According to Dayma, the model is still training and improving over time. Its creations have been shared thousands of times on Twitter and TikTok as users show off their own AI-generated art.
- Newton's conclusion: "I imagine the developer will get hit with a cease-and-desist letter shortly."
THE VERGE
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Ikea says it will release a record player this fall that will work with its Eneby Bluetooth speaker over a wired connection. The turntable is part of an upcoming Ikea collection created in partnership with the electronic music group Swedish House Mafia. More: - The minimalist design is similar to other consumer electronics made by Ikea such as its Bluetooth and wi-fi speakers.
- While there are a lot of "slim" record players on the market, Ikea wanted something bold that is "a very physical manifestation of music," designer Friso Wiersma said.
- Ikea didn't say if the player is limited to wired output or if it has built-in speakers.
- Unveiled at 2022 Milan Design Week, the Obegränsad ("unlimited") turntable will release in September along with a desk for music production and an armchair.
- Ikea last released a record player in 1973.
NEW ATLAS
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- The European Parliament on Wednesday voted to ban the sale of new internal combustion engine cars by 2035.
- HTC will launch a new smartphone at an event on June 28. The device is expected to offer an AR/VR experience through HTC’s Viveverse metaverse platform.
- Alibaba rejected a Bloomberg report that said the e-commerce giant would resume its plans to take its fintech unit Ant Group public.
- Felix Capital raised $600M to invest in commerce-driven startups, including cryptocurrency and Web3 projects
- Polyarc's "Moss: Book II," a follow-up to the popular VR game, will release for Meta's Quest 2 headset on July 21.
- 64% of companies used this channel to generate nearly half of their revenue – and it's not paid ads or content.*
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 |  | Beth is a writer and analyst at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily tech news. Since starting work at Inside, she has covered various topics including virtual reality, drones, and e-commerce. Prior to that she was a public policy and investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic, where she won a Pulitzer Prize nomination and First Amendment Award for reporting on the rising costs of pensions. Reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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