Tech Digest daily roundup: Amazon unveils Prime Air delivery drone
Amazon has unveiled its newest delivery drone that will soon be dropping packages from 12 feet in the air in two U.S. cities. The retail giant has long wanted to solve the last leg of package delivery, especially since it launched Amazon Prime’s Two-Day delivery offering in 2005. Jeff Bezos first announced drone delivery in 2013, but the service only made a single delivery three years after that. The drone, dubbed MK27-2, will start making deliveries in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas, by the end of 2022. The autonomous craft is about five-and-a-half feet in diameter, weighs 80 pounds and can only carry packages that weight less than five pounds. Any deliveries must fit inside one box that’s about the size of a shoe box. Daily Mail
The head of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange has told global leaders new regulations are needed. Binance chief Changpeng Zhao was speaking at a conference in Bali, Indonesia, attended by heads of the G20 group of nations. The company has also announced plans for a recovery fund to help struggling crypto businesses. It follows the bankruptcy of the FTX exchange, which shook the industry and wiped billions off the crypto market. The failure of the rival exchange, founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, has left many small investors worried they face big losses. BBC
Amazon is to let go of approximately 10,000 employees as early this week, it has been reported. The jobs are to be lost in the corporate and technology parts of the company, according to The New York Times. Cuts are being made in the devices section of the company which makes the Alexa voice-assist tool; human resources and the retail division. It’s estimated that 10,000 staff are to be let go worldwide, although the company has not announced the number. That figure would represent approximately 3% of Amazon‘s corporate employees, or 1% of the 1.5m total workforce. Sky News
While many Android fans may have already upgraded to the recently released Pixel 7 series of smartphones (from US$596 on Amazon), tech enthusiasts who are looking for a brand-new and fresh form factor have probably set their sights on the long-rumored Google Pixel Fold, which has now shown up in the latest leak that provides many crucial details regarding the price, release date and overall design of Google’s very first foldable smartphone, which has been developed under the self-explanatory codename “Passport”. Notebook Check
Elon Musk has scrapped free lunches at Twitter to save $13m (£11m) a year, after claiming more people are preparing the meals than eating them. Announcing the decision on the social media site, Mr Musk said: “Twitter spends $13m [per] year on food service for SF [San Francisco] HQ. Badge records show peak occupancy was 25pc, average occupancy below 10pc. “There are more people preparing breakfast than eating breakfast. They don’t even bother serving dinner because there is no one in the building.” He earlier claimed Twitter had spent $400 per lunch served over the last 12 months. Telegraph
