Ubisoft Barcelona workers have begun a series of strikes running Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from June 30 to July 17, protesting proposed layoffs that could affect 51 employees. Organized by the Spanish union Confederación General del Trabajo, the striking staff demands binding negotiations to retain all 51 workers, a five-year protection against collective dismissals, compliance with previously agreed internal promotions, a salary improvement plan review, and a return to 60% remote work. The layoffs are part of Ubisoft's broader restructuring that has also shuttered its Winnipeg and Belgrade studios and cut hundreds of jobs across Toronto, Red Storm, and San Francisco, amid a 54% year-on-year drop in net bookings.
Nguồn: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/ubisoft-barcelona-to-go-on-strike-over-proposed-layoffs. 8sync News chỉ tóm tắt và dẫn link; bản quyền nội dung thuộc tác giả và nguồn gốc.
Smart plug (Zigbee) giá rẻ (~$15) thay thế smart appliance nhờ ưu điểm tiết kiệm chi phí, tránh lệ thuộc cloud, kéo dài tuổi thọ thiết bị và giảm rác thải điện tử. Chúng theo dõi dòng điện, kích hoạt tự động hóa (Home Assistant) như thông báo kết thúc chu trình, tính toán chi phí năng lượng hay ngắt an toàn mà không cần internet.
Lập trình viên nên đọc bài này để hiểu cách xây dựng hệ thống nhà thông minh tự động hóa hiệu quả bằng cách kết hợp các thiết bị cơ bản với các công cụ mở nguồn như Home Assistant, giảm chi phí và tránh phụ thuộc vào dịch vụ đám mây đắt tiền.
Sony announced it will stop producing physical game discs for all new PlayStation titles starting January 2028. Every new release after that date will be sold exclusively through digital storefronts. The move reflects that digital downloads already account for 85% of full-game software sales on PS4 and PS5. Sony also announced the upcoming closure of the PlayStation Store on PS3 and PlayStation Vita in select markets later this year, with global closures to follow next year.
A home lab enthusiast built a fully local, cloud-free smart home setup by running quantized LLMs (Gemma-4-26B and GPT-OSS-20B) on a Proxmox LXC with a decade-old gaming GPU via llama.cpp. Home Assistant is connected to the LLMs through the Home Agent HACS integration, with Whisper for speech-to-text and Piper for text-to-speech. An old Android tablet acts as a voice satellite for wake word detection. The setup achieves ~15-second response times and extends to other self-hosted services like Nextcloud and TrueNAS via MCP servers, eliminating reliance on any cloud AI service.
Superhuman (the company formed after Grammarly acquired email client Superhuman and rebranded) has acquired GPTZero, the AI detection startup founded by Princeton grad Edward Tian. GPTZero had grown to 19 million registered users and $30 million ARR on just $13.5 million in total funding. Superhuman already had its own AI detection tool; it justifies the acquisition by arguing two detectors are better than one. Deal terms were not disclosed.
Flipper Devices, the team behind the Flipper Zero, has announced the Busy Bar — a desktop productivity gadget with an open-source firmware and open API. It displays status messages, acts as a Pomodoro timer, and features a 'busy mode' that can be triggered manually, by joining a call, or opening a specific app. When activated, it mutes notifications, blocks distracting apps, and can trigger smart home automations. Compatible with iOS, Android, macOS, and watchOS (Windows support coming later). Priced at $249, with an early-bird price of $199 for the first 3,000 orders when it goes on sale July 14.
A DIY Zigbee touch keypad project designed for Home Assistant integration offers a cloud-free, wireless alternative to commercial smart home keypads. About the size of a Pez dispenser, it runs six months on a single charge, mounts screwlessly on any wall, and looks sleek. All design files, bill of materials, and build instructions are available on GitHub, making it fully reproducible for DIY enthusiasts.
Staff at Ubisoft's Barcelona studio are striking over proposed layoffs affecting 51 workers, organized by Spanish union La Confederación General del Trabajo. Strikes are scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from June 30 to July 17. Workers are demanding retention of the 51 staff through binding negotiations, a five-year job protection clause, previously agreed promotions, 60% remote work allowance, and a formal salary review. The Barcelona layoffs were announced alongside the closure of Ubisoft's Winnipeg and Belgrade studios, with the Barcelona studio being refocused on the Rainbow Six franchise. This follows years of deep cuts at Ubisoft, which recently announced a 'final' cost-cutting round targeting €200 million in savings.
Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced that physical disc production for new PlayStation games will end in January 2028. After that date, all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will only be available digitally via the PlayStation Store or digital retail formats. The decision affects all new titles, not just first-party games. Sony cited shifting consumer preferences toward digital media as the reason. Separately, the PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita will begin closing in select markets starting August 2026, with full closure in remaining countries by July 2027. The announcement raises concerns among collectors, preservationists, and consumer rights advocates, particularly in the context of the Stop Killing Games movement and ongoing hardware component shortages.