Tech Digest daily roundup: Premier League closing in on commercial deal with EA
The Premier League is closing in on a commercial deal with Electronic Arts (EA), the video-games maker, that would be worth close to £500m – one of the largest such agreements ever struck by English football’s top flight. Sky News has learnt that the 20 Premier League clubs were briefed at a meeting on Friday that a new six-year partnership with EA Sports worth about £488m is close to being finalised. One club executive said it would deliver more than £80m annually and would consist of EA remaining as the league’s lead partner. Sky News
Yahoo plans to lay off more than 20% of its total 8,600 workforce as part of a major restructuring. The veteran tech company is reorganising its advertising unit, which will lose more than half of the department by the end of the year. Nearly 1,000 employees will be affected by the cuts by the end of the week. Yahoo is the latest tech firm to announce job losses as firms struggle with a downturn in demand, high inflation and rising interest rates. BBC
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was right there at the beginning of the personal computer revolution alongside the late Steve Jobs. According to The Street, when Wozniak compares Jobs to Elon Musk, he sees some similarities. “I put them in the category of having the ability to communicate and want to be seen as the important person and being like the cult leader,” Wozniak said. “A lot of people will follow them no matter what they say,” Wozniak added. “And they get beyond the point of being judged. A lot of cults are like that.” Phone Arena
Despite persistent efforts to dethrone it, Google’s search engine has become one of the most profitable inventions in history. The billions of queries logged each day on the service brought in $163bn (£135bn) for Google’s parent company last year. However, alarm bells are now ringing at the company’s Mountain View headquarters after Microsoft’s Bing signed a landmark deal to integrate artificial intelligence engine ChatGPT. The announcement last week has triggered a “code red” at Google as its cash cow search engine comes under real threat. Telegraph
Thanks to new EU regulations coming into effect next year, Apple has no choice but to finally adopt the USB-C port for its iPhones. And yet, as it happens a lot of times with Apple, there’s apparently a twist. According to a new rumor out of China, the company is planning on using a custom integrated circuit (IC) interface for the port, which would allow it to authenticate the parts involved in the connection. That’s exactly what Apple’s been doing with its Lightning port which gives you those “This accessory is not supported” warnings if you use anything that isn’t made by Apple. GSM Arena
Sony is going to release a new camera in March – but it won’t be a model that anyone is expecting. While many (us included) were expecting a Sony A9 III, to succeed the former flagship Sony A9 II, it appears that Sony is readying the launch of an all-new full frame fixed lens compact camera – a niche but exciting format that is currently pretty much dominated by Leica, but that so far failed to take off with mainstream camera brands. That’s according to a report by Sony Alpha Rumors. Digital Camera World
