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For the second time in less than two years, Dropbox is laying off a substantial portion of its workforce. In a blog post penned by CEO Drew Houston, the company said it would cut its global headcount by 20 percent or 528 employees. Dropbox will provide impacted workers with up to 16 weeks of pay, with tenured employees eligible for one additional week of pay for each complete year they worked at the company. All impacted employees will also receive their year end equity vest, and the company will provide dedicated support to immigrant workers with one-on-one consultation and extra transition time. Per a filing with the SEC, Dropbox anticipates this latest round of layoffs will cost it up to $68 million in cash expenditures. At the same time, the company expects it will recognize between $47 million and $52 million in incremental expenses related to all the severance and benefit payouts it now needs to make before the end of year and into the first half of 2025. As CEO, I take full responsibility for this decision and the circumstances that led to it, and Im truly sorry to those impacted by this change, Houston wrote. We continue to see softening demand and macro headwinds in our core business. But external factors are only part of the story. Weve heard from many of you that our organizational structure has become overly complex, with excess layers of management slowing us down. Partway through last year, Dropbox laid off 500 employees, or about 16 percent of its workforce at the time. Comparing the memo Houston shared then with the one he posted today, theres a common theme: slowing growth. First, while our business is profitable, our growth has been slowing. Part of this is due to the natural maturation of our existing businesses, but more recently, headwinds from the economic downturn have put pressure on our customers and, in turn, on our business, Houston wrote in 2023. As a result, some investments that used to deliver positive returns are no longer sustainable. Unfortunately for Dropbox, things havent improved on that front. As TechCrunch notes, the company only added 63,000 users during its most recent fiscal quarter (PDF link). Year-over-year revenue growth also stalled at 1.8 percent, the lowest in the companys history. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/dropbox-is-laying-off-20-percent-of-its-workforce-151023877.html?src=rss
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Apple is continuing its week of announcements by revealing the latest MacBook Pro lineup, as well as its new top-of-the-line chip. The M4 Max has a 40-core GPU double the number of cores found in the M4 Pro that the company revealed this week. It has a 16-core GPU with 12 performance and four efficiency cores and a 16-core neural engine that's said to be three times faster than the one on the M1 chip. The M4 Max supports up to 128GB of RAM with what Apple claims is 30 percent more memory bandwidth than the M3 Max offers. The GPU is said to have faster cores and a ray-tracing engine that's twice as fast as the M3 chips. Apple claims the neural engine is up to twice as fast as the one on the previous-generation chipsets as well. In addition, Apple says the CPU is up to 2.2 times faster than the one in the M1 Max. As with the M4 and M4 Pro, the M4 Max is built on second-gen 3nm tech to bolster power efficiency and performance. Like the M4 Pro (which can be used to power the new Mac mini), the M4 Max supports Thunderbolt 5, which should make it faster to move files around as it has a data transfer capacity of up to 120GB per second. And, as with all of Apple's other M-series Macs, devices running on the M4 Max will support Apple Intelligence features.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/apple-unveils-its-top-of-the-line-m4-max-chip-150241987.html?src=rss
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Not that it's a huge surprise after Apple's week of M4 upgrades first with the 24-inch iMac, then the adorable new Mac mini but today the company is also bringing its M4 chips to the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro. And, in addition to the base M4 chip and the M4 Pro, they can also be configured with the newly announced M4 Max. Apple isn't sneaking in any major tweaks this time around, aside from bringing over the Space Black color option to the 14-inch MacBook Pro. Still, the internal upgrades should be compelling for anyone with an M1 MacBook Pro or an older Intel model. Just like with the M4 iMac and Mac mini, Apple is also making 16GB of RAM the default for the $1,599 14-inch MacBook Pro (fixing one of our biggest issues with that model). You can thank Apple Intelligence for that memory bump, even if you don't give a lick about AI. Apple Apple isn't saying much about the M4 Max chip yet, but we know it'll feature up to a 16-core CPU (12 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores), and a 40-core GPU. In comparison, the M4 Pro sports a 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU, while the plain M4 chip comes with either 8 or 10 cores alongside a 10-core graphics chip. The M4 Max chip also supports up to 128GB of RAM with 30 percent more memory bandwidth than the M3 Max. As for other upgrades, the M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBook Pros will also include three Thunderbolt 5 USB-C ports, just like the M4 Pro-equipped Mac mini. If you're constantly moving enormous files around, that alone could be a reason to step up, since Thunderbolt 5 can support up to 80 Gbps speeds (it can also reach up to 120 Gbps with its Bandwidth Boost feature). That's a huge step up from 40 Gbps limit of Thunderbolt 3 and 4, and it also opens the door for better external GPU support, as well as powerful AI accelerators. Apple The new MacBook Pros have slightly brighter screens which can reach up to 1,000 nits of SDR brightness (compared to 600 nits before), and there's also a nano-texture display option. That feature is mainly meant for people working in very bright environments or direct sunlight, as it drastically reduces glare. Both machines are also getting 12MP Center Stage webcams, a huge upgrade over the previous 1080p cameras. The 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro still starts at $1,599 ($1,499 for education customers), while the M4 Pro model starts at $1,999 ($1,849 for education). The 16-inch MacBook Pro, meanwhile, still starts at $2,499 ($2,299 for education customers). You can pre-order both laptops today, and they'll be in stores on November 8. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/apples-macbook-pros-get-an-m4-upgrade-including-the-new-m4-max-chip-150055208.html?src=rss
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