What we’re reading (6/10)
“Apple Is Bringing One Of iPhone Owners’ ‘Most Requested’ Features To Text Messages” (Business Insider). “Apple’s iOS 18 update will come with the ability to schedule text messages to be sent at a later time, it announced Monday at its annual WWDC event. It’s among the ‘most requested’ features and can come in handy for things like sending a reminder or remembering to wish a friend happy birthday, Ronak Shah, Apple’s director of internet-technologies product marketing, said.”
“Gen Z Plumbers And Construction Workers Are Making #BlueCollar Cool” (Wall Street Journal). “Skepticism about the cost and value of four-year degrees is growing, and enrollment in vocational programs has risen as young people pursue well-paying jobs that don’t require desks or so much debt, and come with the potential to be your own boss. The number of students enrolled in vocational-focused community colleges rose 16% last year to its highest level since the National Student Clearinghouse began tracking such data in 2018.”
“A New Measure Shows C.E.O. Pay At Even More Astronomical Levels” (New York Times). “Twelve years after the enactment of Dodd-Frank, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved additional rules for assessing C.E.O. pay. Virtually all publicly traded companies have been subject to these ‘compensation actually paid’ rules this year. The new approach is supposed to help shareholders determine whether an executive’s compensation is aligned with their company’s stock market return. It emphasizes the annual changes in value of an executive’s current and potential stock holdings, in contrast with the traditional approach, which provides a snapshot of the estimated value of a pay package when it is granted.”
“OpenAI Hires New CFO And Product Chief, Announces Apple Deal To Integrate ChatGPT” (CNBC). “OpenAI on Monday hired two top executives and announced a partnership with Apple that includes a ChatGPT-Siri integration, the company announced in two blog posts. The company said Sarah Friar, previously CEO of Nextdoor and finance chief at Square, is joining as chief financial officer. Friar co-chairs the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. ‘She will lead a finance team that supports our mission by providing continued investment in our core research capabilities, and ensuring that we can scale to meet the needs of our growing customer base and the complex and global environment in which we are operating,’ OpenAI wrote in a blog post. OpenAI also hired Kevin Weil, an ex-president at Planet Labs, as its new chief product officer, according to the blog post.”
“Walmart Store Closures Are A Warning Sign Of Retail Apocalypse With Other Chains Also Facing Threat, Expert Says” (The U.S. Sun). “Walmart, which operates 5,000 stores in the US, is also reportedly laying off hundreds of corporate employees as the company urges remote workers to come into work. Retail analyst Neil Saunders told Yahoo that Walmart's closures in 2016, captured by retail photographer Nicholas Eckhart, were the beginning of a pattern in store cuts. ‘The blunt truth is that while stores remain a vital part of the retail mix, they are not quite as relevant as they used to be,’ the expert told the outlet.”
