Soon after the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in March 2020, Uber started a person-to-person package delivery service. Now, the company has expanded Uber Connect to more than 6,000 towns and cities (including all major metropolises) across the US and added a couple of extra features.

As with Uber Eats, couriers can now drop off or pick up the package from the customer's door. Previously, Uber Connect only officially had a curbside meeting option. Customers will be able to add delivery notes or instructions for their driver before pickup or delivery — it's probably worth letting them know about a fragile package, for instance.

New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego are among the cities in which Uber Connect is available. Uber initially tested Connect in 25 cities in the US, Australia and Mexico. 

Other companies have offered similar services for years, such as TaskRabbit. Still, Uber Connect's expansion suggests the service has proven popular enough to make it part of the company's offerings on a much broader basis, helping families and friends in thousands of towns and cities to quickly send each other items. 

You or your kids might now have a good reason to try Apple's SharePlay feature. Disney+ has released an update that adds SharePlay group viewing to its iPhone, iPad and Apple TV apps, letting up to 32 people watch and chat together. This will help you discover the latest plot twists in Boba Fett or Hawkeye, of course, but it could also be helpful for young ones who want rewatch Frozen with their distant friends.

Before you ask: everyone in the call needs Disney+ to stream, and this only works if a given title is available to everyone in your virtual gathering. You can still choose audio and subtitles separately from everyone else — the group only shares the image and playback controls. Apple TV users can also watch on the big screen while using their iPhone or iPad to stay in touch.

The launch conveniently dovetails with a flurry of Disney+ show and movie releases. It's still a welcome addition, though, and it might be particularly useful during a holiday season when the pandemic still poses challenges for some in-person family gatherings.

Mobile voting hasn't had much traction in the US, but that apparently isn't for a lack of trying. The US Postal Service has confirmed to The Washington Post that it secretly developed and tested a blockchain-based mobile voting system ahead of the 2020 election. The project was purely "exploratory" and was abandoned in 2019 after University of Colorado researchers discovered security flaws, including the risks of impersonation, denial of service attacks and "techniques" that compromised privacy.

However, it might be the lack of transparency that raises the most concern. The USPS didn't coordinate with other federal agencies, and it asked the university to sign a non-disclosure deal that prevented them from naming the institution involved. Election security officials just learning of the blockchain voting project were worried it might erode trust in the democratic system already hurt by unsupported claims of significant fraud during the 2020 vote.

The Postal Service has considered electronic voting before, but centered its attention on those who can't easily vote, such as soldiers and people with disabilities. This was a practical exercise that could have applied to a large swath of voters, not just a small group that can't realistically use mail or in-person balloting.

The end result was the same with or without the test: the 2020 election continued to rely on paper ballots, and federal agencies focused more on establishing a paper trail to reduce the chances of Russia and other actors from tampering with the vote. The revelation shows there wasn't a completely united front, though, and suggests vote-by-smartphone efforts aren't about to take off any time soon.

MGM Resorts is letting applicants try out casino and hotel jobs in virtual reality (VR) before signing on, Business Insider has reported. It's part of a new effort to reduce employee attrition during the "great resignation" that has caused labor shortages in the US and elsewhere during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The casino and resort group is using headsets from a VR company called Strivr that specializes in virtual training for industry health and safety, customer service and more. The idea is to let employees experience typical job activities so that they know what to expect. "It can be very difficult just to verbally explain the types of positions or show a video," MGM Resorts' chief HR officer Laura Lee told BI. Using VR, by contrast, lets applicants "throw a headset on and really experience the job."

MGM plans to use the headsets at its offices and possibly career fairs, starting in January. The idea is to let potential customer service employees experience key aspects of the job, both positive and negative. For instance, the MGM Resorts VR module would include interactions with difficult guests, something that has reportedly become more common with COVID.

The negative interactions could discourage some candidates, but MGM expects that it would also allow for better hiring decisions. The use of the tech "might've resolved some turnover we experienced when people accepted positions and then realized it wasn't quite what they thought it would be," said Lee.

MGM plans to use the tech for its proposed $9.1 billion hotel, resort and casino in Osaka, Japan. It would be the first casino in the nation, so potential employees may not be familiar with typical jobs. As such, the VR option could be offered to candidates (it won't be required) to show them customer-oriented functions like hotel check-ins and gaming operations.

VR might not be the hit everyone expected in the consumer space, but it's certainly caught on with enterprises, particularly for training. MGM also uses Strivr's tech for customer-interaction training with new employees, saying it allows them to fail without consequences while learning a role. "Virtual Reality gives employees the opportunity to think and correct themselves without getting stressed or worried that they did something wrong," Lee said in a Strivr webinar. 

Before Amazon's Alexa became known as the e-commerce giant's voice assistant, it was the name of the company's web ranking site. It was established in 1996 and became famous sometime ago for analyzing web traffic and listing the most popular websites around the world. The service also offers paid subscriptions for those who want detailed SEO analytics and insights. Now, Amazon has announced that it's retiring Alexa.com on May 1st, 2022, just a month after it celebrates its 26th anniversary. 

In its announcement, the company said:

"Twenty-five years ago, we founded Alexa Internet. After two decades of helping you find, reach, and convert your digital audience, we’ve made the difficult decision to retire Alexa.com on May 1, 2022. Thank you for making us your go-to resource for content research, competitive analysis, keyword research, and so much more."

While Amazon didn't explicitly say why it's shutting down the service, Alexa Internet's traffic has been on the decline over the past decade based on data from Semrush, as Bleeping Computer notes. It's also been a while since anybody's been concerned about their Alexa ranking, so Amazon may have decided it was time to bid it farewell.

The e-commerce giant has already stopped accepting new subscriptions for Alexa's paid tier, but current subscribers will be able to access their account until May 1st, 2022. They'll lose access after that date, but they'll be able to export their data from the service's various tools if they wish. 

The changes Verizon has made to its Selects program also changed at least some subscribers' privacy settings. Verizon (Engadget's former parent company) collected users' location, web browsing and mobile application usage data to send them marketing messages or offers under Selects, though subscribers could opt out if they wanted to. As Ars Technica notes, the carrier recently replaced its Selects program with the Verizon Custom Experience Plus and Custom Experience programs. And that's all well and good, except users have been receiving emails to tell them that they'd been automatically enrolled.

In the email, Verizon stated that they will be included in the programs, which means their data will be collected, even if they previously opted out of participating in Selects. Custom Experience only collects browsing and app usage history, while the Plus version also collects location information and data about the numbers that users call and call them. 

In its FAQ page, Verizon said it doesn't sell user information, but it shares them with the service providers that work with them. "These service providers are required to use the information only for the purposes Verizon defines and not for their own or others' marketing or advertising purposes," the company wrote. The carrier also wrote that it keeps browsing information for no more than 6 months. It keeps location and phone number information for approximately one year. 

To remove themselves from the program, users will have to opt out again. While we're sure a lot of subscribers wouldn't appreciate being enrolled into marketing programs they previously chose not to participate in, it's at least easy to unsubscribe. They can go to their Verizon account's privacy preferences page or "My Verizon" in their mobile app and head to "Manage Settings" or "Manage Privacy Settings" to toggle off both programs. 

Users are reporting a widespread outage at Amazon Web Services, bringing down websites and backend services for organizations including the Associated Press, Disney+ and Vice. Details about the outage are scarce.

The AWS status page reported increased error rates for its Management Console on Tuesday morning. 

"We are experiencing API and console issues in the US-EAST-1 Region," the page said. "We have identified root cause and we are actively working towards recovery. This issue is affecting the global console landing page, which is also hosted in US-EAST-1."

AWS went down in June, taking out sites like Twitch, Reddit, Twitter, Hulu, HBO Max, Shopify and Amazon itself. That outage was resolved the same day. AWS has suffered outages prior to this year, too.

You can now use Alexa Together to help take care of aging family members. Amazon has launched the $20 per month ($199 per year) service, with a six-month free trial available for a "limited time." Care Hub users get a full free year from now until December 7th, 2022. Your loved one will need an Alexa-capable device, but after that it's relatively hands-off — they ideally get more independence while you get some peace of mind.

The elderly relative can reach an emergency helpline if they ask Alexa to "call for help," but Together is mainly useful for notifications. You'll get alerts if your family member calls that line, or simply for their first Alexa interaction of the day. Use a fall detection sensor from ATS or Vayyar (more device support is coming) and you'll also get word if there's an incident.

Amazon stressed that seniors would still have their privacy. They have to grant permission for you to remotely assist them by adding contacts, reminders and services. Any Alexa interaction alerts are also generic. You'll know your loved one made an entertainment request, for instance, but you won't know what was playing.

The service is still relatively limited. Amazon doesn't expect to support multiple caregivers until early 2022, for instance, so this won't help if your siblings also want to pitch in. It might still be useful if you want that safety net, though. If nothing else, it's clear between this and Halo services that Amazon wants to be a part of your daily wellness checks — whether they're your own or someone else's.

DoorDash is piloting an ultra-fast grocery delivery service in Manhattan, with the goal of delivering items to customers in less than 15 minutes. The service will initially be available at a new DashMart outlet in Chelsea, and DoorDash plans to expand ultra-fast deliveries to more locations and partners over the coming months.

The company opened its first DashMarts last year to provide a central location for shoppers to find fresh and frozen groceries, household items and goods from local merchants. The company says DashMart offers more than 2,000 items. The Chelsea location will be open between 7AM and 2AM for orders within a small radius, and excess produce will be donated to a local food bank.

In addition, DoorDash notes that the ultra-fast service will require a different operating model than its typical approach of using gig workers to fulfill orders. A team of full-time employees will handle those deliveries. The company says the workers will be on regular schedules, have wages starting at $15/hour plus tips and receive benefits. 

The company says 90 percent of its couriers (or Dashers) in the US want to stay as contractors and have greater flexibility over their schedule. DoorDash has been at odds with the city and other jurisdictions, including California, on worker classification and other fronts. NYC lawmakers passed a series of bills in September that, among other things, set minimum pay for gig economy and food delivery workers. In addition, DoorDash, along with Uber Eats and Grubhub, recently sued New York City over limits on the delivery fees they're allowed to charge restaurants.

DoorDash will be competing against other companies that offer ultra-fast deliveries in the city, including Gorillas, Buyk, Gopuff and Jokr. However, it's a well-known brand that could potentially carve out a significant slice of the market.

While there are still many unknowns about Steam Deck’s library of games, you can add four titles to the list that will work on day one. On Friday, Valve saidArma 3, DayZ, Unturned and Planetside 2 now all feature working BattlEye anti-cheat support when playing them through Proton. They join Ark: Survival Evolved and Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord for a total of six Windows titles that Linux users can play through the compatibility layer without the anti-cheat software causing issues. 

No matter how you frame it, only four new titles joining the compatibility list is a modest addition, particularly when you consider Valve said in November BattlEye integration on Proton had progressed to the point where all a developer had to do was contact the company to enable the feature within their game. The current list also doesn’t cover some of the most popular online multiplayer games on Steam, including the likes of Rainbow Six Siege and PUBG. We still don’t have a full picture of all the games that will work with Steam Deck’s Linux-based operating system, but that’s something Valve promised to clear up through a new verification program before the handheld launches in early 2022.