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Aujourd’hui — 17 mai 2024Flux principal

Le nickel, élément clé des voitures électriques et smartphones qui attise les tensions en Nouvelle-Calédonie

✇Numerama.com - Magazine
Par : Aurore Gayte
17 mai 2024 à 11:40

Le nickel est un élément crucial pour la production de smartphones et de batteries électriques pour voiture. Malgré une demande en hausse, les prix chutent, attisant la situation déjà très complexe en Nouvelle-Calédonie. Cela, alors que le territoire compte de très importantes réserves.

Entre 16 et 32 Go de mémoire à bord des Intel Lunar Lake

✇MiniMachines.net
Par : Pierre Lecourt
17 mai 2024 à 10:55

Minimachines.net en partenariat avec TopAchat.com

Avec les puces Lunar Lake, Intel va intégrer la mémoire vive directement sur ses processeurs. Un changement technologique important qui rejoint la stratégie d’Apple et de ses puces M.

L’objectif d’Intel est assez simple, en ajoutant directement la mémoire vive à ses processeurs Lunar Lake, les performances de bande passante seront simplement décuplées avec la mémoire vive. Ce qui permet d’augmenter la vitesse de traitement des données. Un choix qui a particulièrement bien réussi à Apple et on peut imaginer que l’impact sera également très positif pour les performances des puces Intel.

Un SoC Apple M2 Max avec sa mémoire intégrée

Le problème est que cette stratégie heurte le monde PC. Elle enlève en effet une possibilité rassurante pour l’utilisateur, celle de pouvoir ajouter lui même de la mémoire vive à sa machine. C’est un des élément majeur de la philosophie des ordinateurs « compatibles » que de pouvoir garder la main sur certains composants afin de les faire évoluer. Même si c’est de moins en moins vrai sur les portables et en particulier ceux visés par la gamme Lunar Lake qui sont les plus fins et légers du marché. Cette possibilité reste ancrée chez beaucoup d’utilisateurs comme une condition indispensable à tout investissement. Pourvoir changer la mémoire vive, pouvoir faire évoluer son stockage et éventuellement un autre périphérique comme une carte réseau sur un port amovible, sont des gages de pérennité.

2 slots de DDR5 sur un portable

Cette manière de penser est parfaitement logique, elle tient au fait que les constructeurs de portables ont toujours eu tendance a survendre la mémoire vive et le stockage par rapport au prix du marché. On trouve encore beaucoup de machines livrées avec 8 Go de mémoire vive aujourd’hui et un prix pour passer à 16 Go en usine qui correspond à 150% du prix du composant en boutique. Certains constructeurs ayant une passion pour la micro visserie, ce passage à la caisse pour avoir la quantité de mémoire dont on a besoin est même devenu quasi indispensable. A moins de se faire peur au dessus d’un portable neuf pour acceder à ses entrailles et changer soit même la mémoire, on préfère passer à la caisse.

Un portable Lenovo avec de la mémoire vive LPDDR5 soudée.

Lunar Lake est destiné aux machines ultraportables

Lunar Lake ne sera pas intégré dans les PC de bureaux ou les station de travail mobiles, pas plus que dans les portables à destination des joueurs. Cela restera une puce destinée aux machines les plus compactes et légères du marché. Une cible qui, si on analyse les sorties de ces dernières années, fait la part de plus en plus belle aux composants soudés et inaccessibles.

De la mémoire LPDDR5 soudée sur une carte mère

Les ultraportables ressemblent de plus en plus à des coffres forts, les constructeurs ont tendance a utiliser de plus en plus de la LPDDR implantée directement sur les cartes mère. Et les grandes marques vont souvent faire sauter leurs garanties si vous tentez d’acceder aux composants. Si cela reste évidemment un plus de pouvoir mettre à jour son PC, c’est devenu un luxe de plus en plus rare sur les solutions ultramobiles. Certains tentent l’aventure de mettre à jour leurs puces en les dessoudant pour en ressouder d’autres, mais c’est évidemment une pratique qui ne correspondra pas aux possibilités de monsieur tout le monde.

Quand Intel annonce que Lunar Lake sera pourvu de sa propre mémoire vive, le premier reflexe reste donc logiquement de voir le verre à moitié vide. Se dire qu’on va perdre la possibilité de monter la mémoire que l’on veut sur son ultraportable. En pratique cela change surtout l’endroit où est soudée la mémoire dans la machine. Savoir qu’elle passe d’une implantation directe sur la carte mère à une implantation directe sur le processeur n’est pas une nouvelle ébouriffante pour l’utilisateur final.

Source

16Go de mémoire pour le Core Ultra 5 234V
32Go de mémoire pour le Core Ultra 5 238V

Le verre à moitié plein c’est de se dire que si Intel intègre 16 Go au minimum et jusqu’à 32 Go de cette mémoire ultra rapide, cela veut dire qu’il ne sera plus possible d’avoir un modèle en 8 Go comme aujourd’hui. Les constructeurs ne pourront plus proposer 8 Go par défaut et facturer 150% du prix d’un passage à 16 Go. Ces 16 Go seront le strict minimum et cela correspondra bien aux besoin du public que les propositions d’aujourd’hui. Surtout avec un Windows 11 livré par défaut. 

Le prix des composants mémoire varie en temps réel sur DRAMeXchange

Je vois deux vraies questions a se poser autour de ce changement. La première et la plus évidente sera surtout de savoir à quel tarif sera implanté cette mémoire vive chez Intel. Sur la facture finale on ne verra pas grande différence. La fabricant ne détaille pas le prix des composants quand il vous vend un ultraportable et vous aurez donc un prix englobant l’ensemble. Difficile de savoir donc si ces 16 à 32 Go de mémoire intégrés seront vendus plus ou moins cher que lorsqu’ils sont soudés à la carte mère. Le fait que le constructeur n’ait plus le choix entre diverses marques de mémoire aura sans doute un impact en terme de prix. Détail qui sera dur a mesurer mais qu’il faudra relativiser par rapport aux gains de vitesse obtenus. Une chose est sûre, avec Lunar Lake, Intel sortira la mémoire vive du marché de la mémoire classique. Quand un constructeur peut faire jouer la concurrence pour obtenir des composants moins chers en choisissant une marque plutôt qu’une autre. Il ne sera plus possible de le faire avec ce type de puces.

La seconde question est concurrentielle. Quand l’info d’une mémoire soudée au processeur est apparue sur Lunar Lake, la levée de boucliers a été immédiate. Beaucoup d’utilisateurs ont commencé par dire qu’ils n’achèteraient jamais de machine ainsi équipée. Préférant garder cette possibilité de passer eux-mêmes à 16 ou 32 Go de mémoire vive. Les ultraportables proposant rarement la possibilité d’aller plus haut en capacité.
Mais si les performances de Lunar Lake liées à cet échange de mémoire ultra rapide se soldent par une évolution très importante des performances obtenues, la réflexion autour de cette vraie-fausse possibilité d’évolution sur un marché désormais dominé par de la LPDDR5 soudée à la carte mère tiendra t-elle encore la route ?

Si Lunar Lake passe largement devant l’offre d’AMD sur ce segment, on peut se douter d’un mouvement similaire chez le concurrent historique d’Intel. L’apparition d’un Ryzen avec de la mémoire intégrée sur son SoC a destination des ultraportables serait alors possible, voire très probable, pour ne pas perdre ce marché.

Entre 16 et 32 Go de mémoire à bord des Intel Lunar Lake © MiniMachines.net. 2024.

Hier — 16 mai 2024Flux principal

Palo Alto Networks Is Buying Security Assets From IBM

✇Slashdot
Par : BeauHD
16 mai 2024 à 20:40
Palo Alto Networks is acquiring IBM's QRadar cloud software and migrating customers to its Cortex Xsiam platform as part of a broader partnership aimed at expanding its consulting capabilities and customer base. The sum of the deal was not disclosed. CNBC reports: The move normally takes one to three months, Nikesh Arora, Palo Alto's CEO, told CNBC. Also, IBM will train more than 1,000 of its consulting employees on Palo Alto's products. [...] For IBM, a more robust lineup of contemporary security tools for consulting might help the company deliver on its stated goal of revenue growth in the mid-single digits for 2024. In the first quarter, revenue increased 3%, with a 2% bump in the consulting segment. Palo Alto is growing much faster than IBM. In the January quarter, revenue jumped 19%. The company will report results for the latest quarter on Monday. Palo Alto more than doubled in value last year and its stock is up 6% year to date, lifting the company's market cap past $100 billion. The stock rose more than 1% in extended trading. IBM is up close to 5% this year and is now valued at $154 billion. The companies said the transaction should close by the end of September, subject to regulatory approval and other conditions. [...] IBM will continue to sell its QRadar software for use in on-premises data centers. At the same time, IBM will suggest that clients using it consider switching to Palo Alto's Cortex Xsiam.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Toshiba To Cut 4,000 Jobs in Restructuring Drive

✇Slashdot
Par : msmash
16 mai 2024 à 16:00
Japan's Toshiba said on Thursday it will cut up to 4,000 jobs domestically as the industrial conglomerate accelerates restructuring under new ownership. From a report: Toshiba delisted in December due to a $13 billion takeover by a consortium led by private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners, capping a decade of scandal and upheaval. The consortium's efforts to engineer a turnaround at Toshiba are seen as a test for private equity in Japan, which used to be seen as "hagetaka" or vultures due to its rapacious reputation. The restructuring amounts to up to 6% of Toshiba's domestic workforce. The company also said it would relocate office functions from central Tokyo to Kawasaki, west of the capital, and target an operating profit margin of 10% in three years.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ces questions que l’on n’ose jamais poser à son banquier... et qui vont vous faire gagner de l'argent

✇Le Figaro - Actualité en direct et informations en continu
16 mai 2024 à 05:16
Combien rapporte vraiment un placement à 7% ? Faut-il investir dans l'immobilier ?... Voici 5 questions que beaucoup se posent tout bas, et leurs pistes de réponse, qui devraient vous aider à mieux comprendre comment booster vos revenus.

© Fabienne Legrand / Fabienne Legrand

Certaines questions ne doivent pas rester sans réponse...
À partir d’avant-hierFlux principal

Walmart's Reign as America's Biggest Retailer Is Under Threat

✇Slashdot
Par : msmash
15 mai 2024 à 20:00
With Amazon on its heels, the nation's biggest company by revenue is hunting for ways to continue growing. From a report: For a decade, Walmart has reigned as the nation's biggest company by revenue. Its sales last year added up to $648 billion -- more than $1.2 million a minute. That status comes with benefits. It gives Walmart power in negotiations with product manufacturers and in dealing with government officials over policy issues. It's also a point of pride: Job postings often tout working at the "Fortune 1" company as a perk. Its reign is looking shaky lately [non-paywalled link]. If current sales trends persist, Amazon is likely to overtake Walmart soon. Amazon reported $575 billion in total revenue last year, up 12% from the previous year, compared with Walmart's revenue growth of 6%. Walmart's behemoth size means that to meet its own sales target of around 4% growth each year, the company has to find an additional $26 billion in sales this year. That's no easy task. About 90% of Americans already shop at the retailer. The pandemic and rising inflation boosted Walmart's revenue by $100 billion since 2019. It faces continued uncertainty in consumer confidence and while it's spending in some areas, it's pulling back in others. Earlier this week, Walmart told workers it would cut hundreds of corporate jobs and ask most remote workers to move to offices. While Amazon's and Walmart's businesses compete head on, there are big differences. Amazon earns much of its profit from non-retail operations such as cloud computing and advertising, while grabbing retail market share with fast shipping. Walmart gets the bulk of its sales and profits from U.S. stores, while growing side businesses like advertising and digital sales. Walmart executives are most wary of Amazon's ability to keep increasing profits through its non-retail business, while eating more of the retail landscape with ever-faster shipping and a bigger product selection, people familiar with the company said. Internally some executives are highlighting Walmart's role as a good corporate citizen and emphasizing that it's important to be the best at serving customers and workers, not just the biggest, say some of those people. Its scale can also have downsides, say some, like outsize attention on every misstep.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Flood of Fake Science Forces Multiple Journal Closures

✇Slashdot
Par : msmash
15 mai 2024 à 14:48
schwit1 shares a report: Fake studies have flooded the publishers of top scientific journals, leading to thousands of retractions and millions of dollars in lost revenue. The biggest hit has come to Wiley, a 217-year-old publisher based in Hoboken, N.J., which Tuesday announced that it was closing 19 journals, some of which were infected by large-scale research fraud. In the past two years, Wiley has retracted more than 11,300 papers that appeared compromised, according to a spokesperson, and closed four journals. It isn't alone: At least two other publishers have retracted hundreds of suspect papers each. Several others have pulled smaller clusters of bad papers. Although this large-scale fraud represents a small percentage of submissions to journals, it threatens the legitimacy of the nearly $30 billion academic publishing industry and the credibility of science as a whole. The discovery of nearly 900 fraudulent papers in 2022 at IOP Publishing, a physical sciences publisher, was a turning point for the nonprofit. "That really crystallized for us, everybody internally, everybody involved with the business," said Kim Eggleton, head of peer review and research integrity at the publisher. "This is a real threat." The sources of the fake science are "paper mills" -- businesses or individuals that, for a price, will list a scientist as an author of a wholly or partially fabricated paper. The mill then submits the work, generally avoiding the most prestigious journals in favor of publications such as one-off special editions that might not undergo as thorough a review and where they have a better chance of getting bogus work published.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

OpenAI's Chief Scientist and Co-Founder Is Leaving the Company

✇Slashdot
Par : BeauHD
14 mai 2024 à 23:30
OpenAI's co-founder and Chief Scientist, Ilya Sutskever, is leaving the company to work on "something personally meaningful," wrote CEO Sam Altman in a post on X. "This is very sad to me; Ilya is easily one of the greatest minds of our generation, a guiding light of our field, and a dear friend. [...] I am forever grateful for what he did here and committed to finishing the mission we started together." He will be replaced by OpenAI researcher Jakub Pachocki. Here's Altman's full X post announcing the departure: Ilya and OpenAI are going to part ways. This is very sad to me; Ilya is easily one of the greatest minds of our generation, a guiding light of our field, and a dear friend. His brilliance and vision are well known; his warmth and compassion are less well known but no less important. OpenAI would not be what it is without him. Although he has something personally meaningful he is going to go work on, I am forever grateful for what he did here and committed to finishing the mission we started together. I am happy that for so long I got to be close to such genuinely remarkable genius, and someone so focused on getting to the best future for humanity. Jakub is going to be our new Chief Scientist. Jakub is also easily one of the greatest minds of our generation; I am thrilled he is taking the baton here. He has run many of our most important projects, and I am very confident he will lead us to make rapid and safe progress towards our mission of ensuring that AGI benefits everyone. The New York Times notes that Ilya joined three other board members to force out Altman in a chaotic weekend last November. Ultimately, Altman returned as CEO five days later. Ilya said he regretted the move.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Ordered Back To the Office, Top Tech Talent Left Instead, Study Finds

✇Slashdot
Par : BeauHD
14 mai 2024 à 13:00
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Washington Post: Return-to-office mandates at some of the most powerful tech companies -- Apple, Microsoft and SpaceX -- were followed by a spike in departures among the most senior, tough-to-replace talent, according to a case study published last week by researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan. Researchers drew on resume data from People Data Labs to understand the impact that forced returns to offices had on employee tenure and the movement of workers between companies. What they found was a strong correlation between the departures of senior-level employees and the implementation of a mandate, suggesting that these policies "had a negative effect on the tenure and seniority of their respective workforce." High-ranking employees stayed several months less than they might have without the mandate, the research suggests -- and in many cases, they went to work for direct competitors. At Microsoft, the share of senior employees as a portion of the company's overall workforce declined more than five percentage points after the return-to-office mandate took effect, the researchers found. At Apple, the decline was four percentage points, while at SpaceX -- the only company of the three to require workers to be fully in-person -- the share of senior employees dropped 15 percentage points. "We find experienced employees impacted by these policies at major tech companies seek work elsewhere, taking some of the most valuable human capital investments and tools of productivity with them," said Austin Wright, an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Chicago and one of the study's authors. "Business leaders should weigh carefully employee preferences and market opportunities when deciding when, or if, they mandate a return to office." While the corporate culture and return-to-office policies differ "markedly" between the three companies, the similar effects of the RTO mandates suggest that "the effects are driven by common underlying dynamics," wrote the authors of the study. "Our findings suggest that RTO mandates cost the company more than previously thought," said David Van Dijcke, a researcher at the University of Michigan who worked on the study. "These attrition rates aren't just something that can be managed away." Robert Ployhart, a professor of business administration and management at the University of South Carolina, said executives haven't provided much evidence that RTO mandates actually benefit their workforces. "The people sitting at the apex may not like the way they feel the organization is being run, but if they're not bringing data to that point of view, it's really hard to argue why people should be coming back to the workplace more frequently," Ployhart said. Senior employees, he said, are "the caretakers of a company's culture," and having to replace them can have negative effects on team morale and productivity. "By driving those employees away, they've actually enhanced and sped up the very thing they were trying to stop," Ployhart said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Biden Admin Shells Out $120 Million To Return Chip Startup To US Ownership

✇Slashdot
Par : BeauHD
14 mai 2024 à 00:47
Brandon Vigliarolo reports via The Register: Not everything in the semiconductor industry is about shearing off every last nanometer, which is why the Biden administration is splashing out CHIPS Act funding to those pursuing less cutting edge processor production. Case in point, today's announcement that Bloomington, Minnesota-based Polar Semiconductor could be getting up to $120 million in CHIPS funds to double production capacity over the next two years, along with a possible buyout to return the business to U.S. hands. Polar, which manufactures semiconductors used primarily for the energy industry and electric vehicles, will use the funds to double its production capacity of sensor and power chips and upgrade its manufacturing kit, as well as adding 160 jobs to boot. Along with expanding production, the U.S. Department of Commerce said the funding would trigger additional private capital investment to "transform Polar from a majority foreign-owned in-house manufacturer to a majority U.S.-owned commercial foundry, expanding opportunities for U.S. chip designers to innovate and produce technologies domestically." In other words - sure it'll expand the output, but the real win is another majority U.S.-owned foundry for the White House to tout. According to its website, Polar is currently owned by Korean conglomerate SK Group and serves as the primary fab and engineering center for Japanese firm Sanken Electric. Not exactly companies in countries with poor U.S. relations - but overseas owners, nonetheless. "This proposed investment in Polar will crowd in private capital, which will help make Polar a U.S.-based, independent foundry," said U.S. Commerce secretary Gina Raimondo. "They will be able to expand their customer base and create a stable domestic supply of critical chips, made in America's heartland."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Squarespace To Go Private in $6.9 Billion Deal With Permira

✇Slashdot
Par : msmash
13 mai 2024 à 11:22
Squarespace said on Monday it has agreed to be taken private by private equity firm Permira in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $6.9 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Squarespace stockholders will receive $44.00 per share in cash, representing a premium of about 29% over the company's 90-day volume weighted average trading price. Upon completion of the transaction, Squarespace will become a privately held company. Founder and CEO Anthony Casalena will continue to lead the business and be one of the largest shareholders following the deal. "Squarespace has been at the forefront of providing services to businesses looking to establish themselves online for more than two decades. We are excited to continue building on that foundation, and expanding our offerings, for years to come," said Casalena in a statement. "We are thrilled to be partnering with Permira on this new leg of our journey, alongside our existing long-term investors General Atlantic and Accel, who strongly believe in the future of Squarespace," he added.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

«Je prends toutes les portes possibles dans la figure» : plongée dans le club ultrafermé des femmes agents d'athlètes

✇Le Figaro - Actualité en direct et informations en continu
6 mai 2024 à 08:56
Dans le club ultra-fermé des agents d'athlètes, seules quelques femmes se sont imposées. Comment s'en sortent-elles dans un milieu toujours très sexiste ? Entre échecs et réussites, elles livrent le match.

© Carlos Spottorno/PANOS-REA

Dans le club ultra-fermé des agents d'athlètes, seules quelques femmes se sont imposées (ci-dessus, l’agent sportif Sonia Souid.)

India Unable To Impose Caps on Mobile Payments Market Share, Four Years On

✇Slashdot
Par : msmash
10 mai 2024 à 20:40
Eight years ago, a coalition of retail banks in India built a mobile payments system called the UPI. The system is interoperable, allowing users to make instant peer-to-peer transactions between them -- across all participating banks -- and to merchants at zero cost. Today, it processes more than 12 billion transactions each month -- more than all card payments combined in India -- and has become the most popular way Indians transact online. Many U.S. giants have cited UPI as an example that other countries should also explore developing. We have also covered UPI several times over the years. NPCI, a quasi-regulator founded by India's central bank, oversees UPI. Four years ago, it announced plans to enforce a market share cap on each participating player. The quasi-regulator didn't want few players to become too powerful and any single participant to process more than 30% of all UPI transactions in a month. It later postponed the deadline to January 1, 2025. Walmart-owned PhonePe and Google Pay command more than 86% of the UPI market. Now, the NPCI is reportedly planning to extend the deadline again by up to two years. The reason? TechCrunch reports: The NPCI had initially planned to enforce the market share cap in January 2021, but postponed the deadline to January 1, 2025. TechCrunch had previously reported that the regulator was moving towards extending the deadline further after concluding that there is no practical solution to address the issue. One can argue that the NPCI shouldn't be interfering with free market forces and let people decide which apps they wish to use. TechCrunch adds: However, several UPI providers admit that an incentive plan that unfairly differentiates [one of the proposed solutions by some industry players] against PhonePe and Google Pay will be a bad look for the ecosystem and could send wrong signals to the investor community. U.S.-based investors, including Accel, Lightspeed, Tiger Global, Insight Partners, Invesco, Vanguard, BlackRock and Fidelity, are among some of the most prolific investors in Indian public firms and startups. Some of the choices made by the RBI [India's central bank] and other regulators have already spooked many investors.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nearly 50% of People Are Considering Leaving Their Jobs In 2024

✇Slashdot
Par : BeauHD
9 mai 2024 à 21:20
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: In 2022, at the height of the "great resignation," a record 4.5 million workers each month -- about 3% of the U.S. workforce -- were quitting their jobs. While some economists have said this pandemic-era trend is over, new research from Microsoft and LinkedIn forecasts that even more people plan to leave their jobs in 2024. Nearly half (46%) of professionals say they're considering quitting in the year ahead -- higher than the 40% who said the same ahead of 2021s great resignation, according to new research from Microsoft and LinkedIn, which surveyed more than 30,000 people in 31 countries between February and March 2024. In the U.S., LinkedIn has seen a 14% increase in job applications per opening since last fall, with 85% of workers saying they plan to look for a new role in 2024, a survey of 1,013 U.S. professionals conducted between November and December 2023 found. And Americans' confidence in their job-hunting prospects has reached its highest point in two years, a February 2024 ZipRecruiter survey of more than 2,000 jobseekers shows. This renewed sense of optimism is aided by the fact that the U.S. economy avoided the recession forecast for 2023, ZipRecruiter chief economist Julia Pollak tells CNBC Make It. [...] It's not just better labor market conditions driving more U.S. workers to consider a career change in 2024. Inflation is still squeezing Americans' budgets; nearly half (45%) of workers planning to switch jobs this year say they need a higher income, according to Monster's 2024 Work Watch Report. Job switchers tend to increase their salaries more quickly than those who stay put, per data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Changing jobs is coming with greater pay gains: New data from ADP shows the median year-over-year pay increase for job switchers was 10% in March, up from 2.9% six months prior. With salaries finally keeping up with inflation, Pollak adds, the return on investment of switching jobs feels "much higher" than it did six months ago.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Les licenciements de la semaine 19 avec PB, notre mascotte rigolote

✇NoFrag
Par : Estyaah
9 mai 2024 à 10:48

Arkane Lyon perd son petit frère

Mardi dernier, nous avons été choqués d’apprendre qu’Arkane Austin avait été fermé par Microsoft. En effet, jamais on n’aurait parié sur une aussi longue longévité après la sortie du catastrophique Redfall. D’autre part, on peut saluer l’humanité du service RH, pour avoir attendu que l’équipe fête le premier anniversaire du jeu avant d’envoyer le mail de licenciement. Quel dommage, le « Hero Pass » inclus dans la version à 100 balles ne verra jamais le jour… Bon, les malheureux qui avaient craqué pour cette version seront remboursés, comme l’indique une communication officielle d’Arkane Studios, maintenant situé uniquement à Lyon. D’ailleurs, le studio français n’est, a priori, pas impacté – hormis moralement –, et il continue d’embaucher pour leur projet de TPS sur Blade, le héro Marvel.

Arkane Austin ferme

La raison invoquée pour la fermeture d’Arkane Austin n’a pas été divulguée, mais comme le rapporte Jason Schreier dans son dernier article, ce n’est pas à cause des piètres performances de Redfall. Et il enchaîne avec « avant sa fermeture, Arkane [Austin] cherchait à revenir à ses racines en proposant un nouvel immersive sim, tel qu’un nouvel opus de la série Dishonored, selon les personnes interrogées ». Un jeu de niche qui sortirait dans beaucoup trop longtemps et difficilement monétisable avec des season pass et des skins à gogo ? Pas compliqué d’imaginer que Microsoft ait préféré tailler dans le lard avant qu’il ne soit trop tard…

Dans tous les cas, ça nous fait un petit quelque chose de voir ce nom disparaître, car c’est tout de même le studio qui a réalisé l’un des meilleurs immersive sim de tous les temps : Prey (2017). Mais voyons les choses en face : les personnes qui ont travaillé sur ce chef d’œuvre ont, pour la plupart, quitté le navire avant le naufrage de l’année dernière. Espérons que les autres retrouvent rapidement du boulot et qu’ils puissent enfin travailler sur ce qui leur (et nous) tient à cœur : les immersive sim.

Outre notre petit chouchou, trois autres studios ont été rayés de la liste, dont Tango Gameworks. Il avait réalisé Ghostwire Tokyo, que l’on avait trouvé OK, mais sans plus, et plus récemment, HiFi Rush, un succès aussi bien critique que commercial, selon les propres dires de Matt Booty, le chef de Xbox Games Studios. Celui-ci ne donne pas plus de raisons pour la fermeture du studio japonais en particulier. La seule chose évoquée est assez vague, puisqu’elle pourrait aussi bien s’appliquer à beaucoup d’autres filiales : « Nous prenons ces décisions difficiles afin de créer la capacité d’augmenter les investissements dans d’autres parties de notre portefeuille et de nous concentrer sur nos jeux prioritaires ». Mais ce qui relie les studios d’Austin et de Tokyo, c’est la sortie de leur dernier jeu environ un an plus tôt, et qu’ils étaient en phase de recrutement pour présenter de nouveaux projets. Toujours d’après Jason Schreier, la direction aurait eu peur d’être submergée et trop dispersée pour correctement gérer autant de nouveaux jeux. Les pauvres petits.

Évidemment, cette nouvelle fait énormément réagir sur les réseaux et chacun y va de sa petite phrase. On vous fait part des réflexions de Dillon Rogers, l’un des développeurs de Gloomwood, qui a brièvement oublié le principe du capitalisme, et que le but d’une société est toujours de faire plus de profits, quelles qu’en soient les conséquences.

Dillon Rogers dreams

Si vous voulez plus de détails sur l’affaire, vous pouvez consulter l’article d’IGN (en anglais) qui présente, entre autres, le mail envoyé aux ex-employés, ainsi que l’article de Jason Schreier (aussi en anglais) qui a pu avoir des retours de la dernière réunion publique chez ZeniMax et qui annonce encore de futures coupes dans les effectifs.

Dell Makes Return-To-Office Push With VPN, Badge Tracking

✇Slashdot
Par : BeauHD
9 mai 2024 à 02:02
Dell is making sure its employees follow the company's updated return-to-office policy through a series of new tracking techniques. According to The Register, Dell will track employees' badge swipes and VPN connections and include a color-coded attendance grading system that summarizes employee presence. "In the latest Jeff Clarke return-to-grade-school initiative, HR will be keeping an attendance report card on employees, grading them at four levels based on how well they meet the goal of being in the office 39 days a quarter," a source familiar with Dell told The Register, referring to the IT giant's chief operating officer. "Employees who do not meet the attendance requirement will have their status escalated up the ladder to Jeff Clarke, who apparently believes that being a hall monitor trumps growing revenue." From the report: Starting next Monday, May 13, the enterprise hardware slinger plans to make weekly site visit data from its badge tracking available to employees through the corporation's human capital management software and to give them color-coded ratings that summarize their status. Those ratings are: Blue flag indicates "consistent onsite presence"; Green flag indicates "regular onsite presence"; Yellow flag indicates "some onsite presence"; Red flag indicates "limited onsite presence". A second Dell source explained managers aren't on the same page about the consequences of the color tiers, with some bosses suggesting employees want to remain Blue at all times and others indicating there's more leeway and they could put up with a few red flags. "It's a shit show here," we're told. [...] "Dell is tracking badge-ins and VPN connections to ensure employees are onsite when they claim they are (to deter 'coffee badging' or scanning your badge then going immediately home)," a third source told us. "This is likely in response to the official numbers about how many of our staff members chose to remain remote after the RTO mandate." [...] We're told that the goal of the worker tracking appears to be workforce attrition. "The problem is the market is soft right now for tech," our second source, pointing to recent AWS job cuts. "Everyone is laying off." This person anticipates further Dell layoffs over the summer, though no dates have been set. Our third source indicated that the onsite tracking policy seems unusually aggressive for Dell. "Even pre-pandemic, they never pushed or pressured folks to be in the office," this person said. "A common phrase used to be 'Work happens where you make it,' with the office often being a ghost town multiple times a week, or after lunch, or pre-holidays." Dell in February reported fiscal year 2024 revenue of $88.4 billion, down 14 percent from 2023, and profits of $3.2 billion.

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81% of Young People Say a 4-Day Workweek Would Boost Productivity, Survey Finds

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Par : BeauHD
9 mai 2024 à 00:45
A new national survey (PDF) from CNBC/Generation Lab of 1,033 people aged 18 to 34 found that an overwhelming 81% of respondents believe a four-day workweek would boost their company's productivity, while 19% said productivity would decline. CNBC reports: Those results from the "Youth & Money in the USA" survey come amid discussions around the potential benefits of switching from the standard five-day U.S. workweek to a four-day cadence without a pay cut. Some companies have begun testing the arrangement, and say it has mitigated employee burnout and strengthened business performance. Exos, a U.S. coaching company that trains top athletes and leads corporate wellness programs, recently reported results from the first six months of an ongoing four-day workweek experiment. The company said the shortened workweek increased efficiency along with revenue and retention. Although respondents to the CNBC/Generation Lab survey largely agreed on workweek length, they were less unified when asked about work setting. A 60% majority said they do their best work in the office, while the other 40% said they do so at home. Further reading: 32-Hour Workweek for America Proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders

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Smart Home Startup Brilliant Runs Out of Cash, Which Could Mean Lights Out For Its Light Switches

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Par : msmash
8 mai 2024 à 21:12
Smart home device maker Brilliant has laid off most of its staff and is seeking a buyer after failing to secure funding, CEO Aaron Emigh told The Verge. The company has shut down its support center and halted sales of its smart light switches and controllers, which integrate with various smart home platforms. Emigh said existing devices will continue to function, but their long-term functionality remains uncertain. Founded in 2016, Brilliant aimed to simplify smart home control but struggled with high prices, interoperability issues, and slower-than-expected market growth. The company raised $60 million in funding over eight years.

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Motional Delays Commercial Robotaxi Plans Amid Restructuring

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Par : msmash
7 mai 2024 à 18:03
Motional, the autonomous vehicle startup borne out of a $4 billion joint venture between Hyundai and automotive supplier Aptiv, will pause its commercial operations and delay plans to launch a driverless taxi service as it undergoes a restructuring, TechCrunch reported Tuesday. From a report: The aim is make progress on the core technology and the business model, while preserving capital, according to sources familiar with the changes. Motional has pushed its plan to launch a commercial driverless robotaxi service with its second-generation AV -- the Hyundai Ioniq 5 -- to 2026, two years later than planned. The company told employees Tuesday during an all-hands meeting that the changes will include layoffs, but did not provide a figure of how many people would be affected, according to sources who spoke to TechCrunch on condition of anonymity. Motional began notifying employees if they were laid off shortly after the meeting ended. The company employed more than 1,300 people prior to a 5% cut in workforce in March 2024. Motional will halt its commercial operations, which today includes taxi rides in autonomous Hyundai Ioniq 5 vehicles in Las Vegas via the Uber and Lyft network. The company will also end deliveries for Uber Eats customers in Santa Monica using its autonomous vehicles. A human safety operator is behind the wheel in all of its commercial operations.

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