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Bumble, the makers of the Bumble Dating App and Bumble For Friends, announced Wednesday that the company will be laying off 30 percent of its workforce, or roughly 240 employees. This comes as dating app companies struggle to perform in recent years. Bumble was once a company worth almost $8 billion, but finds itself worth about 90 percent less today.

Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd had briefly stepped down as CEO in early 2024 before returning as CEO this year. The company has posted declining revenues this year as it struggles to attract and maintain paying members. In a statement to CNBC, a Bumble spokesperson said, "Our focus now is on moving forward in a way that strengthens our core business, continues to serve our members effectively, and positions us for future growth."

Bumble added new safety and verification tools back in March that allow users to upload an image of their government-issued ID and receive a verification badge on their profiles. Users searching through profiles could then filter their search to show only verified users. Trust and safety issues are of paramount concern on dating apps where you meet up with strangers. New features like Share Date on Bumble and double dating on Tinder aim to ease the anxiety of what are normally solo meetups.

The securities filing for the layoffs said that employees were notified today but did not include any details on whether the affected employees were mostly in Bumble's Austin, TX, headquarters or global in scope. The company has also not shared which teams have been affected.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/bumble-is-laying-off-30-percent-of-its-workforce-165350687.html?src=rss

Prime Video’s new Australian World War Two romantic drama has critics raving, but it seems audiences are still continuing to discover the epic show.While the show was released on one of the best streaming services way back on April 18, The Narrow Road to the Deep North has struggled to gain viewership, with the show yet to top the charts in any of the countries it’s available in (it's not currently available to stream in the UK).That’s no mark on its quality though, with viewers who have seen it praising the series, and critics hailing it as one of the best Prime Video shows around at the moment, crowning the drama with a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.Co-created and directed by Assassin’s Creed helmer Justin Kyrzel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North follows WW2 soldier Dorrigo Evans across three time periods: before his deployment, during his time as a prisoner of war and as an older man in the 1980s, with Jacob Elordi portraying the younger version and Ciarán Hinds playing the older Dorrigo.Both beautiful and brutal, the series charts Dorrigo's love affair with his Uncle’s wife Amy (Odessa Young) pre-war and how that love both sustains and haunts him during his uncompromising time in a Burmese PoW camp. Later in life, Dorrigo is a revered surgeon and war hero struggling with ghosts of his past and the guilt he feels both over the affair and as a survivor of one of the most brutal theatres of the Second World War.Based on Richard Flanagan’s novel of the same name, the show unfolds over five gripping episodes, jumping between the three timelines to tell an intricately woven story anchored by outstanding performances from Elordi and Hinds, which, at times, makes love seem as brutally painful as war.What are the critics saying about The Narrow Road to the Deep North?(Image credit: Amazon Prime)With a perfect score over on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s no surprise the critical response has been glowing. The Guardian called the show “elegant and poetic” while praising the two lead actors’ complementary portrayals of Dorrigo, saying both “really feel like different reflections of the same person.”The New York Times, meanwhile, called Elordi’s performance “terrific,” while stating the series overall masterfully “combines a sweetly doomed romance, a layered domestic drama and a harrowing World War Two tale.” The BBC also praised the young lead, saying the drama was a “stunning showcase for Jacob Elordi.”What do the subscribers think?(Image credit: Prime Video)Rotten Tomatoes' Audience Score is perhaps not as strong, but still sits at a respectable 70%. Over on Reddit however, viewers are loving the show, with one post saying “that was perfect [...] worth every minute of my time.”Another fan posted: “That was powerful [...] solid work,” while a third stated “I’m in awe at the story telling, the cinematography and the music.”Comment from r/AmazonPrimeVideoWith the show available now on Prime Video in the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, and due to land on BBC iPlayer in the UK later in the year, this criminally underseen show needs to be added to your watchlist immediately.Bleak, hopeful, brutal and uplifting, The Narrow Road to the Deep North is an emotionally charged must-watch.You might also likeHere's our ultimate guide on everything you need to know about Gen V season 2Or get the lowdown on The Rings of Power season 3Alternatively, learn more about Invincible season 4p

Last August, Anthropic released Artifacts. The feature allows Claude users to create small, AI-programmed apps for their own use. Today, Anthropic is making it easier to share Artifacts. At the same time, it's making the apps you can make with the feature more powerful.

To start, Artifacts now have their own dedicated space you can access from the Claude app sidebar. Here you'll find a curated selection of projects made by other people to get you started on your own programs. Every Artifact you create will be organized in this space, making them easy to find later.

Once you have an idea of what you'd like to make, creating an Artifact simply involves typing a prompt. "Just tell Claude an idea to instantly create shareable interactive apps, tools, and games with Claude's intelligence directly embedded, making them independently smart and responsive," says Anthropic.

When using the feature, the company recommends thinking big. That's because you can embed Claude's AI abilities into your creations. For instance, if you're a student studying for a language exam, instead of asking Claude to create a set of flashcards, prompt it to make a flashcard app. "One request gets you static study materials. The other creates a shareable tool that generates cards for any topic," says Anthropic.

Notably, Anthropic is making the updated Artifacts experience available to all users, including those with free accounts. Additionally, everyone can share their projects with others for free, with no associated API cost for doing so. All you need to access someone else's Artifact is a Claude account, free or otherwise.

The new Artifacts experience is available on both mobile and desktop. To access every feature, you'll need to use your computer. On Android and iOS, you can create, view, interact with and customize Artifacts.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/anthropic-makes-it-easier-to-create-and-share-claudes-bite-sized-artifact-apps-170022293.html?src=rss

NASA’S James Webb Space Telescope has captured direct images of a planet outside of our solar system, which is the first time it has accomplished such a feat. This is a very big deal because exoplanets don't put out much light, so researchers typically discover new planets through indirect methods like keeping track of shadows as they pass across a host star.

Webb, however, didn't have to do all that. It has directly captured images of a planet called TWA 7 b. Scientists believe the planet is around the mass of Saturn and is located 100 light years away from Earth.

A never-before-seen planet! 🪐This is Webb’s first discovery of a planet using direct imaging. With a mass similar to Saturn, it’s also the lightest exoplanet yet seen using this technique! https://t.co/ptWcXlFfmW pic.twitter.com/XTGwIqgH8n— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) June 25, 2025

The planet is much further away from its star than Earth, so it has a wider orbital period that lasts several hundred years. The planetary system is thought to be around 6 million years old, so we are really getting a snapshot into the early stages of its development. Our sun is considered to be middle-aged and is around 4.6 billion years old.

TWA 7 b is ten times smaller than any previous exoplanet to be directly observed with a telescope, according to The Guardian. Typically, planets of this size can't be seen by telescopes, as the light from the host star masks direct observation.

The research team, led by Dr. Anne-Marie Lagrange, got around this by making a telescopic attachment that mimicked the results of a solar eclipse. This reduced much of the light emanating from the star to make it easier to observe surrounding objects.

The process allowed the team to spot the planet, which appears as a bright source of light with a narrow ring of debris. Lagrange and her team do note that there's still a "very small chance" the images show a background galaxy, but the evidence "strongly points" to the source being a previously undiscovered planet.

The first exoplanet was first discovered in 1992. Since that time, nearly 6,000 more have been spotted. Again, the vast majority of these have not been captured with direct imaging.

This is just the latest stunning discovery by our good friend James Webb. It recently captured a cosmic phenomenon called an "Einstein Ring," which is when light from one galaxy is bent around the mass of another. Last year, the telescope found the most distant galaxy ever observed.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/nasas-james-webb-space-telescope-has-captured-its-first-direct-image-of-an-exoplanet-172346802.html?src=rss

Nvidia is pushing SSD makers toward 100 million IOPS storage targetBut Silicon Motion CEO says industry lacks memory tech to meet AI demandsNew memory may be needed to unlock ultra-fast AI storageAs GPUs grow faster and memory bandwidth scales into the terabytes per second, storage has become the next major bottleneck in AI computing.Nvidia is looking to push storage to match the demands of AI models by hitting an ambitious target for small-block random reads."Right now, they are aiming for 100 million IOPS - which is huge," Wallace C. Kuo, CEO of Silicon Motion, told Tom's Hardware.Looking for a media changeToday’s fastest PCIe 5.0 SSDs top out at around 14.5GB/s and 2 to 3 million IOPS in workloads involving 4K and 512-byte reads.While larger blocks favor bandwidth, AI inference typically pulls small, scattered bits of data. That makes 512B random reads more relevant, and much harder to accelerate.Kioxia is already preparing an “AI SSD” based on XL-Flash, that is expected to exceed 10 million IOPS. It could launch alongside Nvidia’s upcoming Vera Rubin platform next year. But scaling beyond that could require more than just faster controllers or NAND tweaks.“I believe they are looking for a media change,” Kuo said. “Optane was supposed to be the ideal solution, but it is gone now. Kioxia is trying to bring XL-NAND and improve its performance. SanDisk is trying to introduce High Bandwidth Flash, but honestly, I don't really believe in it.”Power, cost, and latency all pose challenges. “The industry really needs something fundamentally new,” Kuo added. “Otherwise, it will be very hard to achieve 100 million IOPS and still be cost-effective.”Micron, SanDisk, and others are racing to invent new forms of non-volatile memory.Whether any of them will arrive in time for Nvidia’s next wave of hardware is the big unknown.You might also likeTake a look at our picks for the fastest SSDs aroundCheck out our choice for the largest HDDs and SSDsSamsung rival plans monstrously fast SSD that can reach 10 million IOPS

The Concept AMG XX will take the brand into its next chapterThree axial flux motors can propel the slippery shape to 224mphAn LED light panel at the rear is one of many futuristic features Mercedes-Benz has lifted the lid on the future of its revered tuning arm with the all-electric AMG GT XX concept, which eschews thundering V8 petrol engines for an all-electric powertrain.Where customers once flocked to the hand-built, naturally aspirated monsters that lurked under the hood, Mercedes-AMG has been trapped between a rock and a hard place of late, dabbling with smaller capacity turbocharged engines and hybrid powertrains that have failed to hit the mark with Affalterbach aficionados.“The heart of an AMG was always the motor, we’re delivering a revolutionary new drive that is unparalleled in terms of power density, weight and packaging,” says Mercedes-AMG CEO Michael Schiebe.The new motor that Schiebe hopes will once again stir emotions is actually three axial flux electric motors that are around two-thirds lighter and 67% smaller than traditional radial flux motors that appear on most of today’s EVs.(Image credit: Future)Often referred to as 'pancake motors', axial flux drive units are made up of components that look like slim discs and, when stacked, can almost fit inside a pizza box, meaning they can be placed nearer the wheels for improved packaging.Innovative rectangular copper wiring is then packed into tight coils, allowing for more copper per slot in the stator, creating an energy density that is almost three-times that of conventional, sausage roll-shaped radial motors, yet they take up just one third of the space.To continue the food analogy, Mercedes-AMG likens the use of rectangular wiring to the Italian’s use of tagliatelle, rather than spaghetti, when cooking up a hearty Ragu, because “its flatter, broader surface carries more of the sauce”.The Concept AMG GT XX uses three of these motors packed into two High Performance Electric Drive Units, one at the front that uses a single axial motor and a unit in the rear that features two.(Image credit: Future)Combined with all-new, cylindrical Nickel Cobalt Manganese Aluminum (NCMA) battery cells, the powertrain delivers staggering performance figures: 1,360hp, a top speed of 224mph and a top-up time of under five minutes thanks to 850kW charging capabilities.Mercedes teamed up with charging experts Alpitronic to produce a prototype charging station that is capable of transmitting such a high current via a standard CCS connector.It says it hopes to roll out its own 10,000-strong super-fast charging network using the technology by the next decade, although it wouldn’t say how many of those would be able to reach the 850kW output.Aero everywhere(Image credit: Mercedes-AMG)Taking inspiration from the ultra-slippery Vision One-Eleven concept car, the AMG GT XX has a drag coefficient of 0.198 – about the same as a soaring eagle or a dolphin at full speed, according to AMG engineers.Specially-designed contours under the body help channel airflow, while active cooling flaps open and close in the front bumper to either reduce drag or funnel cold air to the battery packs and electric drivetrain.In another world-first, the all-wheel-drive AMG GT XX also features active aero in the wheels, which feature electronically actuated blades that open when the brakes require cooling but then close again to reduce drag.Cleverly, the wheels act as giant dynamos that charge the system so it doesn't rely on the EV's batteries. However, Mercedes wouldn't go into detail about how much each wheel might cost if you accidentally curb it.The overall fastback design is low and wide, the window steeply raked to help channel air over the car, with motorsport-inspired air outlets in the bonnet helping to dissipate warm air that is then funneled into the cooling system.At the rear, there’s a monster diffuser that is finished in naked carbon fibre and a 3D pixel light panel that can display a variety of messages and graphics. During presentations, it gaudily flashed an animated AMG logo, the vehicle’s charge status or a series of naff messages.I might not the be the target audience for this vehicle, but to me, it doesn’t feel very AMG. But that’s the point, right? This is the new AMG for the kids.The concept vehicle is also finished in what Mercedes calls its “Fluid Light Paint”. This new-fangled pigment sees painted sections emit light in response to an electric current.The result is an exterior light array, which runs along the flanks of the concept and visibility glows at nighttime.It can even 'communicate' its battery level status when hooked up to a charging outlet, like a robotic vacuum cleaner or any other rechargeable electrical appliance, for that matter.LEDs and loudspeakers(Image credit: Mercedes-AMG)The headlights don’t escape innovation either, as these house a loud speaker that will emit driving sounds and audible signals for pedestrian protection. Passive membrane technology embedded into the soundbar can emit more powerful bass notes, for more realistic, guttural AMG noises.Inside, Mercedes has replaced the traditional steering wheel with a yoke, which alludes to the fact that the production version of the AMG GT XX Concept could be among the first to sport the German marque’s steer-by-wire system.The interior features plenty of exposed elements that make it feel like a GT racer, with 3D-printed seat pads that can be tailored to fit the driver and swapped out with ease.(Image credit: Mercedes-AMG)These are clad in a Labfiber Biotech leather alternative material that is made from recycled GT3 racing tires, vegetable proteins and biopolymers.It is an incredibly complex and scientific undertaking that results in a very hardy, leather-like substance, but there's no information on how energy intense the process is compared to, say, raising a cow.Twin LED displays make up the infotainment package, with a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster and a 14-inch multimedia touchscreen integrated into the dash and angled towards the driver for that race car ambience.Mercedes says its MB.UX operating system will underpin the entire digital offering, bringing the latest infotainment features, despite the racy ambience.Head designer Gordon Wagener said the entire design process was much shorter than a typical car (around a year, compared with three) and CTO Markus Schäfer claims that much of the technology revealed today is production-ready.In fact, there is a tentative release date for the road-going car of sometime in 2026, despite the fact we are yet to glean information on total power output, battery range and, perhaps more importantly, price.Schäfer says that "hardcore AMG V8 fans" have already driven the car and were very positive about the performance. Similarly, he says the sheer weight of technology on the car will help protect residual values.Whether or not combustion engine fans will be convinced by pixel panels and fake engine noises is yet to be seen, while poor resale values continue to blight high-performance, luxury EVs.Mercedes only has to look at its recent electrified G-Wagon for proof that its current customer base perhaps isn't quite ready for the future.You might also likeI’ve tried the new Mercedes-Benz Superscreen – and its Google Gemini-powered smarts push EV infotainment to the next levelMercedes' new PixelPaint tech is like an inkjet printer for cars – and could take car customization up a gearMercedes' new steer-by-wire tech is the next big EV trend – and I'll begrudgingly accept that it's the future