Report: Amazon’s hardware group may lose $10B in 2022, as many Echo devices are sold at cost and plans to monetize Alexa have failed (Ron Amadeo/Ars Technica)

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Report: Amazon’s hardware group may lose $10B in 2022, as many Echo devices are sold at cost and plans to monetize Alexa have failed  —  Layoffs reportedly hit the Alexa team hard as the company’s biggest money loser.  —  Amazon is going through the biggest layoffs in the company’s history right now …

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Amazon will roll out Matter over WiFi smart home standard to 17 Echo devices in December, initially for Android, supporting smart plugs, bulbs, and switches (Jennifer Pattison Tuohy/The Verge)

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Amazon will roll out Matter over WiFi smart home standard to 17 Echo devices in December, initially for Android, supporting smart plugs, bulbs, and switches  —  Amazon will start its Matter journey slowly, bringing support for the new smart home standard to 17 Echo devices in December.

iFixit’s Google Pixel Watch teardown: the backplate can be replaced as can the display, but with more difficulty; the buttons and crown appear irreplaceable (Ron Amadeo/Ars Technica)

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
iFixit’s Google Pixel Watch teardown: the backplate can be replaced as can the display, but with more difficulty; the buttons and crown appear irreplaceable  —  iFixit shows exactly how difficult it’ll be to fix those cracked displays.  —  What secrets does the inside of the Pixel Watch hold? …

macOS Ventura review: Stage Manager has some good ideas and runs much better on the Mac than on the iPad, the new System Settings app is inconsistent, and more (Andrew Cunningham/Ars Technica)

Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
macOS Ventura review: Stage Manager has some good ideas and runs much better on the Mac than on the iPad, the new System Settings app is inconsistent, and more  —  A pleasantly surprising new multitasking UI and app redesigns define macOS 13.  —  If you asked me to tell you all the most exciting things …

Amazon Alexa gains smart home features like a multi-camera view; Amazon says Alexa triggers 30%+ of users’ smart home interactions without users saying anything (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon Alexa gains smart home features like a multi-camera view; Amazon says Alexa triggers 30%+ of users’ smart home interactions without users saying anything  —  Amazon today announced a number of new smart features designed to allow Alexa device owners to better control their smart home …

May 2022 survey of non-professional creators in nine regions: 48% monetize content, including 53% in the US; 77% of those who monetize started in the past year (Todd Spangler/Variety)

Todd Spangler / Variety:
May 2022 survey of non-professional creators in nine regions: 48% monetize content, including 53% in the US; 77% of those who monetize started in the past year  —  A study funded by Adobe sheds new light on the creator economy, indicating that not only are a large number of people earning money …

A look at Backstage, Spotify’s open-source developer platform used at Netflix, LinkedIn, Epic, Roku, Box, and 200+ others, which the company seeks to monetize (Paul Sawers/TechCrunch)

Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
A look at Backstage, Spotify’s open-source developer platform used at Netflix, LinkedIn, Epic, Roku, Box, and 200+ others, which the company seeks to monetize  —  Backstage is used by developers at Netflix, American Airlines and hundreds of other companies  —  With nearly a third …