What happened: Sony shipped 6.3 million PlayStation 5 units in the first three months of the year, a record high for any gaming console sold during the January-to-March quarter. The sales, the console's second-best quarter ever, were 4.3 million higher than last year as Sony was able to meet demand after a lengthy period of supply chain disruptions. What the numbers say: The company overcame supply disruptions to ship a total of 19.1 million PS5 during fiscal 2022, more than its 18 million target, and well above the 11.5 million units it sold in fiscal 2021. Quotable: "We can now deliver PlayStation 5 to almost anywhere in the world without keeping our customers waiting," Sony Group President Hiroki Totoki said at a news briefing to discuss the results. What's next: Sony is now forecasting record sales for the current fiscal year. It expects to ship 25 million PS5 consoles through March 31, 2024, which would set a new record for PlayStation sales. The company is also developing new IP and ramping up its live-service game development. 
GAMESINDUSTRY.BIZ 
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North America's largest transportation network, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in NYC, has stopped posting service alerts and updates on Twitter, citing reliability issues. The MTA offers a subway system, buses, commuter railroads, and more to 15.3 million people across a 5,000 square-mile area in and around New York City, Long Island, New York State, and Connecticut. More: - Bloomberg reports that the MTA made the move because Twitter asked it to pay $50,000 per month to access the platform's application programming interface or API.
- While Twitter's former API was free, the company has shifted to a paid-tiered system, with can cost tens of thousands of dollars for enterprise customers.
- As well, the MTA said its access to Twitter through its API was involuntarily interrupted twice in the past two weeks.
Zoom Out: - The agency will no longer push out real-time service updates on @NYCTSubway, @NYCTBus, and other accounts, though users can still tweet at those handles if they have questions and requests.
- The @MTA app will still remain active for other types of messaging.
- Instead of Twitter, the MTA is now directing users to its official website, MYmta and TrainTime apps, as well as email and text for service alerts.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
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Amazon reported a profit of $3.2B in Q1 2023, a notable improvement from its $3.8B net loss a year before. The company has undergone a period of cost-cutting that includes large-scale layoffs and canceled or postponed projects. More: - Despite the economic uncertainty, Amazon posted a 9% increase in revenue from the prior year.
- Its advertising business reported sales of $9.5B, up 21% year-over-year.
- Amazon Web Services, one of its major profit engines, saw sales rise 16% to $21.4B, which was still a slowdown from the priors quarter's 20% growth.
Zoom Out: - The results come as Amazon is laying off roughly 9,000 corporate employees by the end of this month. It previously cut the jobs of 18,000 workers, reducing its global headcount by 10% from Q4 through Q1.
- On Wednesday, Amazon said its health-oriented and fitness tracker division, Halo, will be phased out over the coming weeks.
- In March, the company revealed that it had halted the second phase of development of HQ2, its second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The first phase is still on track to open in June.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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Microsoft says the current version of Windows 10 will be the operating system's final version, with no further feature updates. However, monthly security updates will continue until the end of support on Oct. 14, 2025. More: - While Windows 10 will still be operational after that date, PCs using the OS after the end of support will become more vulnerable to security risks.
- Meanwhile, Microsoft is encouraging users to switch to Windows 11, which was launched in October 2021 and rolled out to eligible devices in May 2022.
- Windows 10 was first launched in 2015. A Valve survey in March 2023 and StatCounter's Windows market share data revealed that over 73% of Windows computers are currently running Windows 10.
- Microsoft has not officially announced the launch of a potential "Windows 12." Some reports target a release sometime in 2024.
PC MAG
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Intel reported a 36% decline in revenue for Q1 2023, translating to its worst-ever quarterly loss of $2.8B. However, the results still beat analysts' revenue estimates for the quarter. Intel expects the market to stabilize later this year as PC makers exhaust their inventories and ramp up orders. More: - Intel on Thursday posted revenue of $11.7B for Q1, a 36% decline from the year-ago period, and its fifth straight quarter of falling sales.
- The slump was attributed to declining PC sales, with shipments down 29% YoY, according to IDC.
- Intel's PC chip division experienced a 38% drop in revenue.
- CEO Pat Gelsinger said the results were still "solid" and showed "steady progress" in Intel's ongoing turnaround campaign as it works to recapture market share from AMD and others.
- In March 2021, Intel announced IDM 2.0, its strategy to transform its manufacturing operations and expand its internal network of chip fabs.
TOM'S HARDWARE
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A report by the Information describes how Apple's Siri efforts have been impacted by "organizational dysfunction and a lack of ambition," causing Apple to fall behind Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. The findings were based on interviews with over three dozen former Apple employees in AI and machine learning. More: - According to the interviews, Apple's Siri team has been derided by employees who are concerned about Apple's ability to build new AI products based on generative AI.
- They specifically cited issues in improving Siri and its backend technology. Retention has been a problem, with some Siri engineers leaving for Google to work on large language models.
- Additionally, the report describes how an Apple team developing its Reality Pro headset was disappointed with demos showing the AI assistant controlling the mixed-reality device.
- Because of Siri's limitations, that team once weighed alternative methods for controlling the headset but ultimately rejected that idea.
Zoom out: - A previous report by The NYT says Apple engineers, including those from the Siri unit, have been testing out language-generating AI methods.
- The report details how Apple, Amazon, and Google have fallen behind in the AI race as their voice assistant technologies trail more popular chatbot tools like ChatGPT.
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- Walmart is now using a Pactum AI chatbot to help the retailer negotiate with equipment vendors. Walmart said every three out of four suppliers preferred interacting with the bot more than a human negotiator.
- Sony says its PlayStation VR2 headset will be available at retailers soon, without providing an exact date. The $550 headset requires a PS5 to work.
- The head of the SEC, Gary Gensler, has released a video calling for investors to be aware of digital asset businesses breaking securities laws.
- EU lawmakers have agreed upon an early draft of its AI Act, which includes a requirement for generative AI companies to disclose any copyrighted material used to build their systems.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. She has written the Inside AI newsletter since 2019. You can 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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