Science and Technology

Snap, the parent of the Snapchat messaging app, said on Monday that it would lay off more than 500 employees, joining other tech companies in a wave of new cost-cutting measures.The layoffs amount to 10 percent of its global work force; the majority will occur in the first quarter of 2024. “We have made the difficult decision to restructure our team,” the company said in a securities filing, adding that it would take pretax charges of $55 million to $75 million, primarily for severance and related costs.Amazon, Google and Microsoft have announced layoffs this year, after tens of thousands across…

Product placement, one of the oldest tricks in advertisers’ toolbox, is getting an A.I. makeover.New technology has made it easier to insert digital, realistic-looking versions of soda cans and shampoo onto the tables and walls of videos on YouTube and TikTok. And a growing group of creators and advertisers is grabbing at the chance for an additional revenue stream.A recent TikTok from the dancer Melissa Becraft featured a poster for Bubly, the sparkling-water brand owned by PepsiCo, hanging on the wall of her apartment as she shimmied to a Shakira song. A duo known as HiveMind chatted about bands while…

Apple has had plenty of challenges to start the year. The Apple Watch has been altered by patent lawsuits, the App Store has come under fire from developers, and the iPhone has faced renewed competition in China.Topping it all off, the company was recently dethroned as the undisputed king of the stock market when Microsoft replaced it as the world’s most valuable public company.But on Thursday, the tech giant showed the versatility and strength of its business, reporting that sales rose 2 percent to $119.58 billion during the three months that ended in December. It was the first quarterly revenue…

As Twitter, the social media company struggled to find its influencer niche. While YouTube had pranksters and beauty gurus, and Instagram had fashionistas and travel bloggers, Twitter had grouchy journalists, political flame wars, and niche humor. Before Mr. Musk took over, the company dabbled in different ways to attract creators. It provided funding for aspiring podcasters to create shows on its audio discussion feature, Spaces, and made an appeal to digital artists during the 2022 NFT boom.“We are all in a war for people’s time,” Mr. Weitz said.Some of the creators who X hopes to woo have been skeptical about…