Hello all! Welcome back to Week in Review, the newsletter where we summarize some of the top stories TechCrunch has been through over the past 7 days. If you want it in your inbox every Saturday, sign up here†
The most read story this week was about, get this: a DeLorean† Like in the Back to the Future car. Yes. The short version: The recently revived brand has released images of the Alpha 5, an electric vehicle built in tribute to the DeLorean of yesteryear, complete with those signature gull-wing doors. Details like price/availability are still a secret, but for the curious, the company says it will do zero to 60 in 2.99 seconds – and maybe more importantzero to 88 in 4.35 seconds.
other things
What else happened this week? Here are some of the things people read about the most:
WWDC rumbles: Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference kicks off Monday, June 6, and rumors of what might be announced are quickly spreading. Brian Heater has a roundup cover what he expects to see at the eventand Sarah Perez took a dive deep into what’s likely to change in iOS.
Sheryl Sandberg resigns from Meta: After 14 years in the position, Sheryl Sandberg will no longer be the COO of the company formerly known as Facebook. Meta chief growth officer Javier Olivan shifts to COO position; Sandberg will remain a member of Meta’s board of directors.
Amazon is killing the Cloud Cam: In 2017, Amazon launched a small smart home camera called the Cloud Cam. Then it bought two savvy camera makers – Blink and Ring, almost immediately. Half a decade later, Amazon is dropping Cloud Cam in favor of the latter two. Cloud Cams will stop operating at the end of this year; existing Cloud Cam users get a free Blink Mini camera as a replacement, along with a free year of the Blink Plus subscription. If you’re using a Cloud Cam, make sure to back up your saved videos before they disappear in December.
Amazon is experimenting with “invitation-based” orders to fight scalpers: If you’re a normal person just trying to buy something like a PlayStation 5 or an Xbox Series X on Amazon, you’ve probably felt the disappointment of getting beaten by a billion bots. Amazon announced this week that it will be rolling out “invitation-based” orders for select in-demand items; you’ll “request an invite” and then Amazon checks things like the purchase history/account creation date to determine who gets the first dibs.
More layoffs: It was still another brutal week of tech layoffs — 8% of Carbon Health† 14% of Loom† 10% of the Winklevoss twins crypto platform Gemini† 25% of social app IRL† 10% of TomTom and more.
And Tesla too: First came the word that Elon Musk will demand that “everyone at Tesla” be in the office (rather than remotely) for a “minimum 40 hours” a week. Then came news of a company-wide hiring freeze and plans to cut up to 10% of Tesla’s salaried workforce.
audio stuff
You love TechCrunch in front of your eyes – how about TechCrunch for your ears† We have a ton of great podcasts, the latest being Matt Burns summarized here†
Example A: the TechCrunch Live podcast, where Burnsy spoke this week with the CEO and principal investor of Olive – a Columbus, Ohio company that turned 27 and is now worth billions.
added stuff
We have a paywall section of our site called TechCrunch+. It only costs a few dollars a month and it is full of really good stuff! For example, starting this week:
VCs on the state of crypto: Virtually all major cryptocurrencies have spent the past 6 months in a downward spiral. What do investors think about space in general? Jacquelyn Melinek checked in with a handful of VCs for their thoughts.
How Biden Administrator Can Start Solar/Wind Projects“There’s an idea floating in the air (or at least my ether) that there’s enough sunny federal land in Nevada to power the entire United States with solar power,” writes Tim De Chant. “So why don’t we have more sun and wind on public lands?”
Even Stripe is not immune to a changing market: Fintech companies hit hard by the recession; Alex Wilhelm looks at how/why “even the largest and best-known private fintech companies suffer from embarrassing revaluations.”
#Gas #dont #gas