Amazon is once again facing allegations of firing union organizers. The Washington Postreports employee group Amazonians United has filed National Labor Relations Board charges accusing Amazon of illegally firing two workers at a Maryland warehouse for labor organizing. The staff at the DMD9 delivery outpost in Upper Marlboro allegedly lost their jobs for both collecting petition signatures and promoting a large-scale walkout protest in March.
The petitions, created in August and December of 2021, pushed for improved working conditions that included healthier food, less restrictive bathroom breaks and pay raises that had been granted at other facilities. The August petition led to some changes, but Amazon's refusal to budge on the December petition prompted the March walkouts. One of the fired employees, Jackie Davis, said she was fired weeks later without a clear or justified reason.
Company spokeswoman Kelly Nantel denied any wrongdoing in a statement to The Post. Amazon fired Davis for "time theft" and not being at the facility after clocking in, the representative claimed. Nantel also maintained that worker support for a movement "doesn't factor" into terminating employment, and that the staffers simply didn't meet "basic expectations."
Whatever the reasons for these latest firings, it may be difficult for Amazon to avoid pressure to change. Amazonians United has secured some improvements by replacing conventional union strategies with grassroots relationship building and pressing for smaller material gains. This won't necessarily lead to more successful unionization efforts, but it won't be surprising if there are more reforms.
Slack is bringing more features to huddles, which debuted as an ad hoc voice call option last June. While huddles will start as audio-only chats by default, you'll be able to switch on video as well. Video huddles can be opened in a separate window and you'll have the option to blur your background.
The revamped huddles will support multi-person screen sharing. Several people will be able to share their screens at the same time, which could make it easier to work on documents and presentations together. You can also draw on shared screens and use a live cursor feature as a visual aid while you're discussing something specific.
Slack
Everything you share in the huddle (other than your voice and webcam feed) will be saved in the direct message thread or channel where it was started. That includes things like links and notes. Slack says these will be searchable. Folks who do not take part in a huddle will be able to catch up using these live messaging threads or keep an eye on the conversation as it's happening. Users can pin these threads to a channel or direct message. You can give the huddle a name too, so it's easier to find.
Since this is Slack, you'll of course be able to use emoji reactions in video huddles. There are new animated effects, such as confetti and clapping hands. With stickers, users can show everyone that, for instance, they want to speak next or they're going AFK for a minute. If you add a sticker, it will stay on the screen until you remove it.
Slack
Slack, which will continue to support live transcriptions in huddles, is taking a leaf out of Discord's playbook with the addition of video and screen sharing. It hopes to turn huddles into more of a virtual coworking space with these tools, where you and your colleagues can collaborate on the fly (akin to having a quick chat in a physical office). The features are coming to the app soon.
Meanwhile, the company says GovSlack, a version of the service designed for secure government use, will be available in July. Slack says it meets key government security standards, affords users access to their own encryption keys and allows folks to connect to other agencies that use GovSlack via Slack Connect. The company announced GovSlack in September.
Fitbit is delving further into sleep tracking with a new feature for Premium subscribers. Sleep Profile will examine 10 metrics, including new ones like time before sound sleep, disrupted sleep and bedtime consistency. Fitbit aims to provide a more in-depth look at a person's sleeping habits over time via monthly reports.
Users will receive advice on how to fall within the ideal range for each metric, based on their body type. The goal is to help people improve their sleep and overall health. Fitbit notes the feature isn't intended for medical use.
To use Sleep Profile, you'll need to wear a compatible Fitbit to bed for at least 14 nights in a calendar month. Fitbit says you'll receive a more accurate evaluation the more nights you wear it. Among the other metrics the feature tracks include sleep duration, REM sleep and restfulness.
Fitbit
The metrics will be shown on a monthly aggregate view for the first time, Fitbit says. Sleep Profile will compare a user's trends to what's typical for their age and gender to help them find areas for improvement. Fitbit says it will use animal characters to help users interpret their sleep data. Your animal may change from month to month, but Fitbit says there's no "ideal" creature to aim for.
The company, which says it has analyzed 22 billion hours of sleep data since 2009, notes that the feature will be available on Fitbit Sense, Versa 3, Versa 2, Charge 5, Luxe and Inspire 2 devices at the outset. Users will get their first report as soon as the week of July 4th, with subsequent profiles appearing on the first day of each month.
Other smartwatch makers are looking to improve sleep tracking. Apple's watchOS9 will introduce a sleep stage feature that tracks REM, core and deep sleep stages over time.
Twitter has teamed up with Shopify to give merchants in the US an easy way to use the social network to grow their business. Merchants can now add a Twitter sales channel app to their Shopify admin dashboard to access a manager where they can see the social network's shopping tools and features. That sales channel automatically and regularly syncs with Shopify merchants' catalogs, so users won't have to worry about updating product information on multiple platforms.
That will make it easier for merchants to showcase their products through Twitter's Shop Spotlight, which is a dedicated space at the top of a profile that can display up to five items. Visitors to a merchant's account will be able to scroll through those carousel of products to purchase them without having to leave Twitter. Merchants can also choose to highlight a bigger collection of goods through Twitter's in-app shops, which can list up to 50 handpicked items. Both features used to be on beta testing, but they're now available to all merchants in the US. Those who want to see what the Shopify integration looks like on Twitter may want to check out Trixie Cosmetics, which is one of the first users to take advantage of Twitter sales channel app on Shopify.
Amir Kabbara, Director of Product at Shopify, said:
"Reaching potential customers where they are is critical to the success of Shopify merchants. Twitter is where conversations happen, and the connection between conversations and commerce is vital. Our partnership with Twitter, and the launch of the Twitter sales channel, will let merchants seamlessly bring commerce to the conversations they’re already having on the platform.” – Amir Kabbara, Director of Product at Shopify."
In addition to its team-up with Twitter, Shopify has announced other new features and products at its first semi-annual showcase called Editions. One of its upcoming offerings is the ability to accept customer payments right from an iPhone using Shopify's Point of Sale. The company has built PoS hardware merchants can attach to their iPhone, and merchants in the US will even have access to the new Tap to Pay on iPhone feature.
Say hello to Apple's most baffling laptop, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with an M2 chip. It was already a confusing computer when we reviewed the M1 model in 2020 andit was out-shined by the fan-less MacBook Air. But now that there's a new MacBook Air with a bigger screen and a more modern design, the 13-inch Pro seems a bit like a relic from another era. It’s from a time when Apple had to build machines around Intel's hotter and less efficient chips, instead of taking full advantage of its own hardware.
To be fair, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is still a very nice computer, and the M2 chip gives it a decent performance boost. But it's also something I can't really recommend, not when the new Air offers so much more, and the 14-inch MacBook Pro has a far better screen, plus ports professionals actually need. Apple claims the 13-inch MacBook Pro continues to be one of its most popular models, and that's not too surprising since it's the cheapest "Pro" notebook in its lineup. Still, it's 2022, and this MacBook Pro design has been around for years. Popularity is no excuse for being lazy.
Now, I suppose it makes sense that Apple would coast a bit. The MacBook Pro's unibody aluminum case still outshines the vast majority of PCs on the market. And, given the many design and supply chain constraints we're facing amid the ongoing pandemic and chip crunch, it was probably smarter for Apple to focus on the new Air, as well as the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros. It's just a shame that those priorities left the 13-inch model with the same chunky-bezeled display and anemic port selection we've seen for years.
And no, the Touch Bar doesn't help the situation at all. Just when we thought we'd rid ourselves of Apple's second screen misfire, it's back to torture us again with disappearing function keys and constantly shifting app shortcuts. It's almost as if Apple had some leftover Touch Bar stock it just had to unload, and we’re paying the price. Developers aren’t doing much more to take advantage of it, so in several years it'll just be a useless appendage, like the last protohuman with a tail.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
Now that I've gotten my frustrations out, we can talk about what's good: Apple's new M2 chip. It offers 8 CPU cores and up to 10 GPU cores, which Apple claims will deliver 18 percent faster multithreaded performance, and up to 35 percent faster graphics speeds. The real upgrade for Pros, though, is that it now supports up to 24GB of RAM (instead of being limited to 16GB), and also has double the memory bandwidth. Together with support for ProRes encoding and decoding, the M2 should make the MacBook Pro a far better option for video editors who don't want to make the leap to the pricier 14-inch model.
Our review unit, which featured the M2 chip (10 GPU cores) with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, was noticeably faster in just about every benchmark. It scored almost 9,000 points in Geekbench 5's multi-core test, whereas the M1 MacBook Pro was closer to 7,000 points. The M2 chip also blew away the M1 in Geekbench's Compute benchmark, as well as Cinebench R23, where it scored 1,300 points higher than the M1 machine. The performance bump isn't enough to dump the M1 MacBook Pro if you've already bought one, but it's still nice to see Apple make some decent gains with its sequel chip.
None
Geekbench 5 CPU
Geekbench 5 Compute
Cinebench R23
Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch, (Apple M2, 2022)
1,938/8,984
27,304
1,583/8,719
Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (Apple M1 Pro)
1,767/11,777
38,359
1,515/12,118
Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (Apple M1 Max, 2021)
1,783/12,693
60,167
1,524/12,281
Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (Apple M1, 2020)
1,696/7,174
18,556
1,492/7,467
Dell XPS 15 (Intel i7-12700H, RTX 3050 Ti, 2022)
1,680/11,412
60,205
1,724/13,100
Here's the thing: we haven't benchmarked the new MacBook Air yet, and based on my experience with the last model, I expect it to score about the same as the MacBook Pro. Once again, Apple's big selling point for this computer is that it has a fan and more elaborate cooling system, allowing it to handle sustained workloads like video encoding or 3D rendering. The MacBook Air is still fan-less, so it will likely throttle performance significantly as it gets warmer.
So sure, if you're a professional, the MacBook Pro is still a better bet. But if you need a computer for serious work, one that'll deliver far better performance today and last you a lot longer, it may make more sense to save up and invest in the 14-inch MacBook Pro. I realize for many consumers, that's not an easy choice to make. The 13-inch model starts at $1,299, while the cheapest 14-inch offering is $1,999.
But move beyond their base specs (the 13-inch starts with an anemic 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage), and the cost difference is less stark. Bumping both systems up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage raises the prices to $1,899 and $2,199, respectively. At that point, you might as well spend $300 more for the vastly more powerful 14-inch MacBook Pro with the better display.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
After all, every other "Pro" Apple device has a ProMotion screen, which delivers high refresh rates for silky smooth scrolling. Why should the 13-inch MacBook Pro be left out? Its Retina Display still looks fine, but my eyes have been spoiled by Apple's modern screens. Omitting ProMotion is even more glaring now that Microsoft squeezed fast refresh rates into the Surface Laptop Studio. And we've seen plenty of gaming laptops, like the ASUS Zephyrus G14 and Acer Predator Triton 500 SE, that can easily double as productivity machines with fast screens.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
Those computers also have far more ports that professionals would actually use. I was disappointed to see Apple reduce the 13-inch MacBook Pro to 2 USB-C ports back in 2020. Today, it just doesn't make sense for a "Pro" product. You'll lose one port whenever you're charging, and basically demands that you invest in a USB-C mini-hub. Anyone working with photos or video will need one of those accessories anyway, since there's no SD-card reader. (At this point, I'm grateful Apple is still including a headphone jack.)
There are elements of the 13-inch MacBook Pro I still like. Apple's build quality remains impressive, the keyboard and trackpad are fantastic, and the MacBook's speakers sound good enough to fill a small room. The battery life is also solid, lasting more than 17 hours in our benchmark. If you didn't know what you were missing from the other MacBooks on the market, then I'm sure you'd be happy with the M2 MacBook Pro.
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget
Personally, though, I just want better for potential MacBook buyers. Why should they be stuck with the chunkiest screen bezels in Apple's laptop lineup? Why don't they deserve a high refresh rate screen? Shouldn't Apple devote more attention to one of its best-selling machines? The 13-inch MacBook Pro is fine, like I said. But it should have been so much more.
IKEA already lets you preview furniture in your home via AR, but its latest AI-powered iOS app offers a big leap in capability. Called IKEA Kreativ, it can scan your rooms using LiDAR and build a complete 3D replica of them, then let you delete your existing furniture. From there, you can try out new IKEA couches, tables, etc. and get a much better idea of how they'll look in your home.
The scanning is done via something IKEA calls the Kreativ Scene Scanner, which uses LiDAR if it's available on your iPhone. It also works on iPhones or iPads without LiDAR, though having it allows the app to "pull in additional spatial detail," IKEA told Engadget.
IKEA
To use it on the web or a mobile device without LiDAR, you simply have to input a series of photographs of a room. Those are then "automatically processed and assembled into a wide-angle, interactive replica of the space, with accurate dimensions and perspective," IKEA said in a press release. From there, you can erase existing furniture and position new IKEA pieces, quickly try alternatives and fully design the room. All of our ideas can be saved for later or shared with others. Naturally, the app also lets you add preferred pieces to your shopping cart.
If you're looking for further inspiration, IKEA also unveiled 50 new 3D showrooms. Those let you browse the IKEA catalogue virtually and try out products in 3D settings, "quickly swapping, moving, rotating, stacking and hanging IKEA products," the company said.
The app is the latest high-tech move by IKEA, which has launched a raft of connected speakers, smart home hubs, connected lights, charging pads and more over the last few years. On top of that, IKEA joined a new group created by Microsoft, Meta and others to create metaverse standards — so, you might be able to at least find furniture in virtual reality.
Nothing's debut Phone 1 smartphone won't be coming to the US, the company confirmed to PCMag. "While we’d love to bring Phone 1 to the entire community around the world, we're focusing on home markets, including the UK and Europe," the company said in a statement. However, it added that "a limited number of our private community investors" could get one in the US through a closed beta program.
Nothing showed off the device for the first time last week on Twitter following a tease by founder Carl Pei. The most noticeable feature is a transparent back, revealing a wireless charging coil and a mysterious pattern that lights up. The company has also promised "an open and diverse product ecosystem" and the pure Android Nothing OS.
The company further explained that "it takes a lot to launch a smartphone... from ensuring the handset is supported by the country's cellular technologies to carrier partnerships and local regulation, and as we're still a young brand we need to be strategic about it." Even folks in the closed beta program are likely to have issues with coverage and a lack of support of features like voice over LTE, according to PCMag. A similar disclosure was given by Nothing when the first 100 phones went up for bid on StockX.
Still, Nothing does have North American ambitions. "We have big plans to launch a US supported smartphone in the future," the company wrote. The Nothing Phone 1 is set to debut in London on July 12th — you can catch it via a livestream if you RSVP in advance.
The Important Business Strategies for Top Semiconductor Companies to Tackle Impediments
Intel is is trying hard to and deploying important strategies to reduce or rather weaken the market space of TSMC’s important customers like AMD and Nvidia
One of the boons of cryptocurrency is meant to be that no particular company, central bank or government has control. Er, right?
That might not be true. Researchers for a report commissioned by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) found there can be "unintended centralities" in these supposed decentralized systems.
Cryptocurrency power is concentrated among people or organizations with a large chunk of the pie. Almost like any other capitalist system? Gasp.
"Unintended centralities" was the term used, defined as circumstances where an entity has sway over a so-called decentralized system. This could give them the opportunity to tamper with records of ownership. The report also notes three ISPs handle 60 percent of all bitcoin traffic.
The report said 21 percent of nodes are running an old, vulnerable version of the core bitcoin client. Attackers could target these nodes and take over the majority of a blockchain network. Theoretically, at least. But there have been plenty of cryptocurrency attacks in the last few years. Nothing wrong with some skepticism.
Real-life examples already exist: Read CNBC’s report on lending platform Solend. It’s had issues with one major account holder wielding influence over the entire platform.
It’s an imposing name for Amazon’s first autonomous warehouse robot, but it still looks like an industrial Roomba. Proteus can move around Amazon's facilities on its own while carrying carts full of packages. The company said the robot uses an "advanced safety, perception and navigation technology," so it can do its work without getting in the way of human employees.
The move comes as Microsoft pushes for more responsible uses of AI.
Microsoft will "retire" facial recognition technology it said could infer emotions as well as characteristics like age, gender and hair. The AI raised privacy questions, Microsoft said, and offering a framework created the potential for discrimination and other abuses. There was also no clear consensus on the definition of emotions.
Signify (the company responsible for Hue lighting) has introduced a bunch of new Philips Hue smart lighting products, including its first portable rechargeable lamp designed for both indoors and outdoors. The Philips Hue Go portable table lamp has a silicone grip so you can take it with you wherever you go. It can last for up to 48 hours on a single charge. The lamp will be available by the end of summer for $160 in the US and £130 in the UK. The company has new sunrise lighting effects, brighter downlights and even a new floor lamp. For all your smart lighting desires, read on.
Smart displays are the second-wave devices born out of the success of the Amazon Echo, Google Home and other smart speakers. Adding visual and tactile components to what were once devices you could only bark orders at makes them more functional and intriguing. Amazon and Google dominate the space, and we’ve just updated our guide to buying a smart display, and we have opinions!
It has fully fueled the Space Launch System for the first time.
NASA encountered a couple of issues while conducting the Artemis 1 wet dress rehearsal, but it still checked off a major milestone by the end of the test. The agency was able to fully fuel all the Space Launch System's propellant tanks for the first time and proceed to terminal launch countdown. Wet dress rehearsals are tests that simulate a rocket launch without the rocket actually lifting off.
A group of companies, including some of the biggest names in tech and the internet, have banded together to develop interoperability standards needed to achieve an open metaverse. The organization is called Metaverse Standards Forum, and its founding members include Meta, Microsoft, Huawei, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Epic Games, Unity and Adobe. As Reuters notes, one company that's conspicuously missing from the list is Apple. Multiple reports have come come out these past few years that Apple is releasing its own virtual or augmented reality headset, and it's expected to become a major player in the metaverse when the device becomes available.
Yet another big name that's missing from the list is Google, which is also reportedly working on an AR headset codenamed Project Iris. Niantic, the developer of Pokémon Go, and Roblox aren't in the list of members, as well. That said, membership is free and open to any organization, so more companies could join later on. As with any standard, one for the metaverse would only be considered a success if companies, especially the biggest players in the industry, adopt them. "Multiple industry leaders have stated that the potential of the metaverse will be best realized if it is built on a foundation of open standards," the forum wrote in its press release.
The group also said that it will focus on "pragmatic, action-based projects." Those include conducting hackathons and working on open-source tools designed to accelerate the testing and adoption of metaverse standards. And while companies can join anytime, members are expected to start forum meetings this July.
