Meta, the company that at the beginning of this pandemic was called Facebook, has updated its return-to-office guidance, moving its target date from the end of this month to March 28, CNBC reports. With the shifting timetables for reopening and inconsistent guidance, one can only imagine how whiplashed the company's employees must feel. 

To wit: Back in December of 2020, CEO Mark Zuckerberg first told employees they would not be required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in order to return to work. At that time, the company projected remote work could continue until at least July of 2021, though it later pushed to open offices in May. By June, Zuckerberg had passed a new edict: either seek permission from a manager to work from home, or be expected to come to the office for at least half the week. 

A month later the Delta variant came along, Zuckerberg changed his stance on vaccine requirements for employees, and the company set a new target of October for a full reopening. By August of last year, it had pushed its the return-to-office to January of 2022. As Omicron spread rapidly this winter, Meta held fast to its January 31 goal, but gave some employees the option to delay in-person work by three to five months via an "office deferral program." Incidentally, this new March 28 date includes a new requirement that employees receive the vaccine booster as well. 

In the face of so much uncertainty, several of Meta's tech peers, like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Uber and Docusign, have chosen to postpone reopening indefinitely. Facebook moderators embedded at the company's Mountain View headquarters were scheduled to report for in-office work on January 24 — one week ahead of full-time employees and with no option for different. Their contractor, Accenture, reversed that decision after widespread internal protests from workers. 

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Tesla's "full self-driving" (FSD) feature has had something of a rocky history, to put things generously. It's been implicated in multiple crashes, seemingly persistent software bugs and a cavalcade of scrutiny from a panoply of regulatorybodies. Also, it's about to cost more money. 

The bump represents an additional $2,000 being tacked onto the not insubstantial price tag: a new grand total of $12,000, or most of the way to a Honda Civil. Nor is it the first time FSD has gotten more expensive. In 2020, Musk (again, on Twitter) announced a roughly $2,000 price increase. This most recent hike, Musk clarified, will only apply in the US; he added that the feature's "price will rise as we get closer to FSD production code release." 

Whether that means there are plans for even further price increases is anyone's guess — Tesla famously dissolved its corporate communications department around the same time FSD gained it's $10,000 price tag.

Notably, purchasing the "full self-driving" feature doesn't actually result in a car that drives itself. This largely is why Senators Markey and Blumenthal have called on the FTC to investigate Tesla and Musk for, among other things, "overstatements of their vehicle’s capabilities." According to one survey, only around 11 percent of Tesla owners drop the money required to enable FSD, and it's difficult to imagine how increasing the financial burden on buyers could reverse that trend.

Amazon, the second-largest employer in the US, announced today that it would be slashing its paid leave policies for workers forced to quarantine in half. The policy, instituted in March of 2020, previously provided for up to 14 days of paid leave; the new policy covers one week, or up to 40 hours.

"Throughout the past two years we have consistently based our response to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the advice of our own medical experts," the notice to workers reads. It goes on to state that the 40-hour or one week paid leave policy goes into effect "immediately" and "applies to all employees in the United States, regardless of vaccination status." 

The shift mirrors the CDC's updated — and broadly unpopular — isolation guidance, which it published on December 27, as well as the decision by Walmart, the largest US employer, to reduce its own paid pandemic sick leave policies this past Wednesday. It stands to reason that other companies are likely to follow suit.

Amazon recently reinstated its mask policy for on-site workers. That requirement, along with mandatory temperature checks, were put in place around the same time as the original two-week leave policy last year, and was subsequently rolled back for fully vaccinated workers in May.

While Amazon has often been criticized for its uniquely poor treatment of its staff, in this case it's merely following federal guidance and looking out for its own financial interests above all other priorities. Instead, what the erosion of the paid leave policies for the country's two largest employers represents is the rolling back of the benefits and protections many of us have come to rely on to persevere through this ongoing pandemic. 

Earlier this week, the expiration of a White House deal with retailers mandating at-home COVID tests be sold for an affordable $14 led, predictably, to those same tests nearly doubling in price at Walmart and Kroger. Some policies, like pandemic unemployment benefits, have already ended, while key safeguards, like New York's eviction moratorium, are slated to expire soon. Meanwhile, the US is still experiencing record-setting numbers of positive cases. 

Amazon is correct that the CDC altered what it believes to be the necessary length of isolation for positive-testing individuals. But that elides the fact that Amazon and Walmart were, not long ago, offering hazard pay to workers for facing the exact same risks that currently exist in their workplaces. Incidentally, those policies were rolled back quickly as well.

A supermajority of customer service representatives for Google Fiber, operating out of a store in Kansas City, Missouri, have signed union cards in the hopes of bargaining their first contract with their bosses. They're organizing under the auspices of the Alphabet Workers Union, a year-old division of the Communication Workers of America which is seeking to represent employees and contractors at all level of Google's parent company. 

The 11 workers — 10 of whom have signed cards since the union drive began in October — are jointly employed by Google and a staffing agency called BDS Connected Solutions. That's not out of the ordinary, as staffing arrangements with Alphabet go: a 2019 story in the New York Times found temps and contractors made up the majority of the tech giant's workforce, while a Recodereport that same year indicated that this second class of laborers earned significantly less than Google's own full-time employees. According to two BDS workers who spoke to Engadget, customer representatives had been feeling left out of key conversations about staffing and safety protocols, and communication with management has deteriorated. 

"We started off by just asking, 'Hey, how do you feel about this idea? Do you feel like you have enough say, in the conditions that you work in?' We basically received a unanimous 'No, I don't feel like we do,'" Emrys Adair told Engadget. "It hasn't always been like this," Mike Knox, who has been a Google Fiber representative for several years, said "the general relationship between management and the workers. It used to be closer." Kansas City was the very first market Google Fiber launched in, nearly a decade ago.

What makes this push to form a bargaining unit somewhat unusual, however, has been the decision to skip straight to petitioning the National Labor Relations Board. Typically, this is the longer, more arduous option when an employer refuses to voluntarily recognize a union. But, according to Adair, Alphabet and BDS have neither attempted to quash the union drive, nor expressed a willingness to recognize it."There's been no acknowledgement, no pushback. no response at all yet," they said. Google and BDS have not responded to requests for comment from Engadget.

Like many workplaces in recent years, these service representatives have cycled through closures, reduced hours and the occasional need to isolate and work remotely when a colleague tests positive for COVID-19. While they weren't keen to give too many specifics as to what they'd hope to secure in a first contract, one of the benefits they're seeking to obtain is hazard pay. "As far as the actual COVID precautions go, they've done a pretty alright, job," Adair said. "Our main concern is just that we're still working in the store in person in a pandemic, which in and of itself, no matter how you do that is a risk."

It may be months or years before the NLRB makes a ruling on these workers' right to form a bargaining unit. In the meantime, Knox hopes it might spur action from others within Google Fiber. "We're really hoping that this inspires in that regard," he said. "We're hoping that's a flashpoint where other people can see that and decide to push for more input."

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After a give or take a decade in development hell, the film adaptation of the Uncharted series is slated to arrive in theaters next month. And during CES, Tom Holland introduced a small, action-heavy segment of the film in which he is flung from a plane, repeatedly shot at and then hit by a car. 

If it looks at all familiar, that's probably because this plane scene was heavily featured in the film's first trailer — an apparent nod to the third game in the series. For better or worse it certainly has all the trappings of a quicktime event. 

The release date for Uncharted has been pushed back a few times, but it's slated to hit theaters on February 18 now. 

Last July, Hideo Kojima's utterly bonkers animated philosophy movie and busywork simulator, Death Stranding, announced a director's cut edition with some additional goodies, which dropped for PlayStation 5 in September. PC gamers will now get to experience this version in the Spring of 2022, roughly two years after the base game was ported to Windows. 

Death Stranding Director's Cut on PC will make use of Intel's Xe Super Sampling to supposedly improve performance, graphical fidelity and frame rates. Ultra-wide monitors will also be supported, in case that's a concern of yours. And as Kojima mentioned above, the game will launch simultaneously on the Epic Game store and Steam. As with the PS5 version, Director's Cut will come with the same add-ons including new weapons, missions, boss battles and a racing mode. 

There's no exact date yet beyond the general "Spring 2022" window. If you're looking to scratch the itch of a bleak future where loneliness is only outweighed by tedium, perhaps watch Sion Sono's The Whispering Star while you wait. To my knowledge Kojima has never claimed the film was an influence on his game (which also revolves around a replaceable, emotionless protagonist essentially working as an Amazon Flex courier) but I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. 

What could have been a damaging breach in one of Sega's servers appears to have been closed, according to a report by security firm VPN Overview. The misconfigured Amazon Web Services S3 bucket contained sensitive information which allowed researchers to arbitrarily upload files to a huge swath of Sega-owned domains, as well credentials to abuse a 250,000-user email list.

The domains impacted included the official landing pages for major franchises, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Bayonetta and Total War, as well as the Sega.com site itself. VPNO was able to run executable scripts on these sites which, as you can imagine, would have been quite bad if this breach had been discovered by malicious actors instead of researchers. 

An improperly stored Mailchimp API key gave VPNO access to the aforementioned email list. The emails themselves were available in plaintext alongside associated IP addresses, and passwords that the researchers were able to un-hash. According to the report, "a malicious user could have distributed ransomware very effectively using SEGA’s compromised email and cloud services."

So far there's no indication that bad actors made use of this vulnerability before VPNO discovered and helped Sega to fix it. Sega Europe was not available for comment.

Misconfigured S3 buckets are, unfortunately, an extremely common problem in information security. Similar errors this year have impacted audio company Sennheiser, Senior Advisor, PeopleGIS, and the government of Ghana. Sega was the target of a major attack in 2011 which led to the exfiltration of personally identifiable information pertaining to 1.3 million users. Thankfully, this misconfigured European server didn't result in a similar incident.

In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Crisis Text Line can be reached by texting HOME to 741741 (US), 686868 (Canada), or 85258 (UK). Wikipedia maintains a list of crisis lines for people outside of those countries.

Amazon is hitting the tail end of peak – the term the company uses to refer to the winter holidays, as well as its own corporate holiday, Prime Day – when its workers are under the greatest strain, frequently required to clock mandatory overtime hours and are disallowed from scheduling any vacation days. It also coincides with the hiring of a deluge of temporary workers, with a projected 150,000 added this year, its largest holiday surge to date.

It's hectic during the best of times. But according to an internal email viewed by Engadget, and the testimonies of four current or former associates who were granted anonymity for fear of reprisal, it's also a time of year when Amazon expects some number of its workforce to take out their stress on their colleagues, or on themselves.

"Peak is a busy time for our entire team as everyone is dedicated to helping customers receive their holiday packages on time. It's easy to feel stressed and overwhelmed," the leaked email, dated November 23, reads. "And while most of us never pose a risk to others, some people can act out in a way that causes concern. This could be due to many factors in their lives, not just what they experience at work. Regardless of the cause, workplace violence is never the answer." [Emphasis theirs]

The worker who provided the email to Engadget could not recall similar messaging during previous peaks. "I've been with Amazon a little over four years now and they've never mentioned anything about our mental status until now," they wrote in an email. "Our leadership hasn't announced anything [other] than quota related issues."

The email goes on to draw a connection between the grueling workload of peak and the potential for self-harm. "Remember that your mental health matters," it reads. "If you experience stress, feelings of depression, anxiety, or thoughts of suicide, please talk with your manager, a human resources business partner, or a mental health professional." It directs workers to use the company's "free, confidential counselors and other resources."

Two of the associates who spoke to Engadget recalled being shown a video, covering similar subject matter, during their training.

"It was stupid things like call the employee resource center, and talking about 'if you feel like you want to harm somebody you can tell your supervisor and you'll be allowed to leave work and go home.' It was just such bullshit," one recalled. The same associate stated that the employee resource center is "like a black hole of 'press one for this', I don't even know how to talk to a real person there."

"They have a number you call if you start feeling suicidal or depressed from working too much," another told Engadget. "They put a video on during training where they talked about how a lot of workers feel this way. And that was right after the reveal that we were not getting the schedules we wanted and we had to work 60 hours a week. After being told it would be 40."

A 2019 report in the Daily Beast publicized some of the 911 calls that had been made from inside several of Amazon's warehouses, including a pregnant worker who threatened to stab herself and her unborn child. Jace Crouch, a former employee quoted in the story, said that "people having breakdowns [are] a regular occurrence" within these facilities.

An Amazon spokesperson declined to answer specific questions sent by Engadget, including whether the company had seen any uptick in workplace violence. Instead the company provided the following statement: “We know it’s been a tough year and a half for everyone, and like most large companies, we work to support our teams in many different ways. This includes providing resources throughout the year for anyone who may be dealing with stress in their personal lives or at work, and making sure they feel seen and able to ask for help if they need it.”

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Workers in Amazon's considerable warehousing operations will be required to wear masks, again. The shift comes as US cases have spiked again due to the highly-transmissible Omicron variant, and will apply to all "operations facilities, FCs [fulfillment centers], sort centers, and delivery stations," effective today, according to an email shared with Engadget.

Amazon made temperature checks and masking a requirement in April of last year. It allowed individuals who were 14 or more days past their final dose of the vaccine to unmask in May. That decision was seen, at least by some workers, as premature.   

"You may choose to wear your own two-layered, reusable and/or disposable cloth face covering, as long as it complies with site safety requirements (e.g. no long scarves, bandanas, or gaiters)" the email reads, "If you do not have one, face coverings will be available for you to wear upon entering the building." The company wrote that it hopes the requirement will only last the winter.

While laudable that the company is attempting to reduce transmission of the virus during its busiest season, Amazon does not have the sunniest track record where COVID precautions are concerned. Workers at several locations raised concerns that they were not being informed when positive case were discovered at their facilities. In California, the company was fined $500,000 for "concealing" cases from workers. 

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Uber and autonomous vehicle company Motional announced a partnership today for "autonomous deliveries" through Uber Eats. As you might imagine, there are some caveats. 

The pilot is slated to launch at some point in "early 2022," though Motional (itself a partnership between Hyundai and Aptiv) would not provide further details on timing. The full array of food options normally available through Uber Eats also won't be available. Instead customers will pick from "a curated set of meal kits from select restaurants." 

Nor will this joint venture really be "driverless" per se. A Motional spokesperson told Engadget that "we will be launching the service with safety operators present in the vehicle." Not-quite-autonomous meal kit deliveries will be confined to Santa Monica, California, where a large portion of Motional's team works.

Other lingering questions, for instance the number of vehicles Motional plans to put on public roads, or what types of weather they'll be allowed to operate in, remain unanswered.

Under its original leadership, Uber initially planned to convert the semi-professionalized cab driver workforce into a contingent one, and then remove those overhead costs entirely by investing in self-driving vehicles. "The reason Uber could be expensive is you're paying for the other dude in the car," former CEO Travis Kalanick said in 2014, "When there is no other dude in the car, the cost of taking an Uber anywhere is cheaper." Six years later the company sold off its self-driving arm, known as the Advanced Technologies Group, to Aurora. 

Since then, Uber has pursued partnerships with outside self-driving firms, like Waymo. Motional has an ongoing partnership with Uber's chief rival, Lyft, to launch an autonomous fleet in 2023.