Workers at LDJ5, an Amazon warehouse facility on New York's Staten Island, have filed a petition to unionize with the National Labor Relations Board. It's the second facility Staten Island to make an attempt at forming a union after JFK8, and it's also seeking to be represented by the Amazon Labor Union, an independent group comprised of current and former company employees. According to CNBC, the ALU filed the petition on Wednesday. 

The ALU originally filed to form a union last year for JFK8 and three other nearby facilities, but it had to withdraw its petition after it failed to gather enough votes to proceed. It refiled its application in December, however, and focused only on JFK8. Former Amazon employee and ALU leader Christian Smalls said back then that the group was "taking a different approach" and hoping that it has "more than enough" support from employees in the facility. Smalls led a walkout at JFK8 over the e-commerce giant's handling of COVID safety at the warehouse. Amazon said he was fired after "multiple warnings for violating social distancing guidelines."

In late January, the ALU collected enough signatures to proceed with a union election vote at JFK8, a feat the e-commerce giant doubts. Reaching the threshold means the ALU was able to secure the support of 30 percent of the warehouse's workforce. Amazon told Engadget in a statement when the news broke that it's "skeptical that there are a sufficient number of legitimate signatures" and that it's "seeking to understand how these signatures were verified." An election has been set for JFK8 on February 16th. As for LDJ5, the ALU still will have to collect enough signatures from its 1,500 workers for an election to be able to proceed.

Google thinks it has a way to break the lock rivals like Microsoft have on the office landscape: let employees take (some) matters into their own hands. The company has introduced a free Workspace Essentials Starter Edition you can use just by signing up with your work email. You won't get Gmail services, but you will get access to Chat, Docs, Drive, Meet, Sheets and Slides.

There's no subtlety involved in Google's rationale. It's betting Workplace Essentials Starter will help teams improve collaboration, even if their employers use "legacy productivity tools" that weren't designed for remote and hybrid offices. To put it another way, Google is hoping you'll skip your company's old Microsoft Office suite in favor of Workspace the next time you start a project.

This might not be very persuasive if your company already relies on a cloud-based service like Microsoft 365. It's also safe to say this won't fly if your employer has strict policies on the tools you're allowed to use — your boss might not appreciate you going rogue to finish a quarterly report. Google clearly hopes at least some workers will be tempted, though, and it wouldn't be surprising if the Starter Edition leads to some companies supplementing or even replacing existing tools following demand from rank-and-file staff.

While we’re all waiting for the Galaxy S22 to break cover, Samsung’s latest Fan Edition smartphone seems a little late to the party. The Galaxy S21 FE lands a full year after the original S21, with similar looks and specs — if a reduced price of entry. The camera isn’t quite as capable as the S21, but the FE has a bright 120Hz screen and decent battery life. You win some, you lose some.

Engadget

The big issue remains that Samsung is so close to revealing its next flagship. Even if you're a huge fan of these Fan Editions, a true fan would wait to see what the S22 has to offer. Check out our full review of the S21 FE right here.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

• Palmer Luckey's startup bought an underwater drone company

• A new competitor to AppleCare offers cheaper insurance for smartphones

• 'Ghostwire: Tokyo' will arrive on March 25th

• The best Valentine's Day gifts for gamers

• Nintendo Switch sales have surpassed the Wii

• Snapchat is hosting a virtual concert starring Jennifer Lopez

Mark Zuckerberg’s bet on the metaverse is off to an expensive start

Meta’s Reality labs division lost $10 billion in 2021.

The company formally known as Facebook lost just over $10 billion on its Reality Labs division in 2021, according to its Q4 earnings report. “This fully realized vision is still a ways off,” Zuckerberg said of Meta’s metaverse investments. It’s the first time the company has shared the financial performance of the AR and VR division central to its metaverse ambitions (Facebook acquired Oculus in 2014).

Combined with flat user growth and continued hits to its advertising business, the company’s Q4 results sent Meta's stock into a nosedive yesterday.

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SpaceX launches premium satellite internet ​​with speeds up to 500 Mbps

You’ll pay for the privilege, however.

SpaceX

SpaceX has revealed a new tier for its Starlink satellite internet service, with higher performance but costing $500 a month compared to $99 per month for the standard plan. You'll also pay $2,500 for the antenna and other hardware, compared to $499 for base plan. Starlink Premium will offer speeds between 150 and 500 Mbps with 20 to 40 milliseconds of latency, up from 50 to 250 Mbps with the same latency.

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Sony drops PlayStation 5 sales forecast again due to chip shortage

It's well behind where the PS4 was at the same stage.

Sony is still struggling to make enough PlayStation 5 consoles to keep up with demand. During its key holiday fiscal quarter, it shipped 3.9 million units for a total of 17.3 million since launch, the company said in its earnings report. That's considerably behind the 20.2 million units the PS4 had managed at the same point in its life cycle.

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Spotify CEO admits content policy should've been public before now

"While Joe has a massive audience, he also has to abide by those policies."

Engadget

Spotify reported its Q4 2021 earnings today, and while the numbers showed a strong close to last year, the issue at the front of everyone's mind is Joe Rogan. CEO Daniel Ek began his prepared remarks by broadly addressing the company's "few notable days." Ek explained Spotify is working to combat misinformation and that there's still work to be done.

During the Q&A portion of the earnings call, he was directly asked about The Joe Rogan Experience. "We're trying to balance creative expression with the safety of our users," Ek said. He also admitted that Spotify was late in publishing its content policy and took sole responsibility for not doing so sooner: "We should've done it earlier and that's on me.”

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The pandemic is bringing out the worst in Yelp reviewers

The site has shared new stats on 'review bombing.'

Yelp is sharing new stats on the backlash some businesses have faced due to pandemic safety measures, like mask requirements. The company says it took down more than 15,500 reviews for violating the company’s COVID-19 guidelines in 2021. That’s a 161 percent increase compared with the same period in 2020, when the company first implemented new policies regarding COVID-19 related content.

Yelp has had to navigate a big spike in “review bombing” due to pandemic-related restrictions. Nearly 25 percent of all “unusual activity alerts” — when a business’ page sees a sudden influx of reviews that "appear motivated by a recent news event rather than actual consumer experiences" — were related to the pandemic.

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Twitter increased its character limit over the years from 140 to 280 to give users more leeway with what they want to say. That's not always enough, though, which is why the term "tweetstorm" to indicate a series of interconnected tweets was coined. People also sometimes post images of lengthy statements instead. Based on a new discovery by Jane Manchun Wong, though, Twitter is working on a new feature that would cater to the needs of those who want to share their thoughts on the website in one lengthy article. 

Manchun Wong, known for finding experimental features within apps, discovered the existence of a "Twitter Articles" tab. The name itself signifies a long-form format for the social network that has long only allowed people to post bite-sized text messages, but its exact nature is a mystery for now. It's also unclear whether it will be available to everyone, if it does make it to wide release, or if it will be exclusive to Twitter Blue subscribers. 

Not everyone's keen on the idea either. Someone pointed out that it might reduce engagement on Twitter, since a thread of tweets often get multiple reactions and responses from the same users. A Twitter spokesperson told CNET that the company is "always looking into new ways to help people start and engage in conversations" and that it will share more soon. 

A website called HitPiece that has been selling music-related NFTs has temporarily closed after artists accused it of appropriating their work without permission, Rolling Stone has reported. Outraged social media posts were issued recently from artists including Jack Antonoff, Eve 6, and Sadie Dupuis. "Any [Bleachers] NFTs are fake," Tweeted Jack Antonoff. "I do not believe in NFTs so anything you see associated with me isn't real."

The HitPiece website is apparently built on top of Spotify's API. Before shutting down, it appeared to be offering NFTs of songs and albums from the likes of John Lennon and BTS, including photos and album artwork, according to the Internet Archive. 

Like many other NFT business models, however, it's not clear what HitPiece was selling, exactly. "This particular grift doesn’t really affect artists in that HitPiece wasn’t even selling files of the songs — just the receipt of purchase to the general idea of them," Infant Island guitarist and grad student Alex Rudenshiold told Rolling Stone. "It's still copyright infringement. It's re-commodifying the metadata (art, song and album titles, etc.) to make money without permission." 

HitPiece, founded by former indie label owner Rory Felton, issued a statement. "Clearly we have struck a nerve and are very eager to created the ideal experience for music fans," it said on Twitter. "To be clear artists get paid when digital goods are sold on Hitpiece. "We are continuing to listen to all user feedback and are committed to evolving the product to fit the needs of the artists, labels and fans alike." 

However, artists are skeptical of HitPiece's claim that they will be paid. "They steal your music, auction NFTs of it on their site, and when they get caught they say don’t worry you 'get paid,'" the group Deerhoof tweeted. "I get that corporate types are simply greedy and cruel on principle but what kind of mind could even imagine that doubletalk like this could somehow make it OK?"

While Sony's holiday console sales were down due to parts shortages, Nintendo managed to have a strong quarter with the Switch. Thanks to what it called a "good start" by the OLED Switch, it sold 10.67 million units in Q3 (October to December), far surpassing the 3.9 million PS5 units sold by Sony. That takes total Switch sales to 103.54 million since it launched in 2017, allowing it to surpass the Wii's lifetime sales of 101.63 million. 

Not all was perfect, though. Switch sales were still down eight percent over last year, and Nintendo revised its yearly forecast down by a million units. It now believes it will sell 23 million units, down from the 24 million it forecast last quarter. Through the first nine months, its sales are 6 percent lower over last year to $11.52 billion. 

As for software, Nintendo said it saw the highest quarterly sell-through (consumer) sales since the launch of the Switch. Pokémon remasters Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are leading Nintendo's game sales with 13.97 million units total over the last nine months. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has sold 7.96 million units, Mario Party Superstars sold 5.43 million units and Animal Crossing: New Horizons 4.99 million.

Metroid Dread, introduced just last year, has managed 2.74 million units since it went on sale. Nintendo also has a couple of new titles that will count for its next quarter, including Pokémon Legends Arceus that arrived on January 28th. That title got off to a good start in the UK, surpassing Animal Crossing sales in its first week. Nintendo also has Kirby and the Forgotten Land coming on March 25th. 

The future of Microsoft's HoloLens is reportedly uncertain as the company struggles to put together a coherent mixed reality strategy. According to Business Insider, the tech giant has scrapped its plans for what would've been the HoloLens 3 in recent months. At least one of the publication's sources believes it's the end for the headset. In addition, the sources said Microsoft inked a deal to team up with Samsung to develop a brand new mixed reality device, which has caused an internal divide within the mixed reality division. 

Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw denied that the HoloLens is dead, however, calling it a "critical part of [the company's] plans for emerging categories like mixed reality and the metaverse." Shaw added: "We remain committed to HoloLens and future HoloLens development." The company declined to talk to Business Insider about the reported Samsung partnership.

The employees within the mixed reality unit that the publication talked to said different factions within the team are arguing about which area to focus on. Some believe the team should double down on its own hardware, while others think it's better to develop a software platform for the metaverse other companies can use, like the Windows OS. 

There are also people arguing whether Microsoft should continue focusing on creating products for enterprise customers or whether the tech giant should also create products for consumers. Some also argue that Microsoft's mixed reality team should fulfill military contracts. Rubén Caballero, the former Apple executive Microsoft hired to head up device engineering for the HoloLens and other projects back in 2020, reportedly wants to focus on consumers and the metaverse. There's apparently such a confusion on what the team's focus should be that Microsoft lost 25 mixed reality employees to Meta in 2021, including veterans who'd been with the company for over 20 years. 

One thing's clear, though: Microsoft has big plans for the metaverse. When it announced that it's purchasing Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, it said the acquisition will provide building blocks for the metaverse. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said: "Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms.

Google has two lost prominent members of its Ethical AI research group, reports Bloomberg. On Wednesday, researcher Alex Hanna and software engineer Dylan Baker left the company to join Timnit Gebru’s Distributed AI Research Institute. Gebru founded the nonprofit in December following her controversial exit from the tech giant in 2020.

Up until the end of that year, Gebru was one of the co-leads of Google’s Ethical AI research group. After publishing a paper the company said didn’t meet its bar for publication, Gebru claims Google fired her. The company, however, has maintained she resigned. In February 2021, several employees left the unit in protest of Google’s handling of the situation. Later that same month, the company fired Margaret Mitchell, the other co-lead of the Ethical AI research group. Hanna and Baker told Bloomberg the dismissals weighed heavily on them, and that they wanted to work with Gebru again.

“I am quitting because I’m tired,” Hanna wrote on Medium after announcing her departure from the company. The post is in many ways a call to action. “In a word, tech has a whiteness problem. Google is not just a tech organization. Google is a white tech organization,” Hanna writes. “More specifically, tech organizations are committed to defending whiteness through the ‘interrelated practices, processes, actions and meanings,’ the techniques of reproducing the organization. In this case, that means defending their policies of recruitment, hierarchization, and monetization.”

The post also touches on the paper at the center of Gebru’s dismissal from the company. Hanna says the claim Jeff Dean, the head of Google’s AI division, made about the robustness of the company’s publishing process was “laughable.” She points to analysis the group Google Walkout for Real Change published in 2020. “Google management remained silent when an article on the Google Walkout page pointed out that there were many counterexamples, like how nearly half of papers in the system were approved within a day or less of the deadline,” Hanna said.

Hanna and Baker told Bloomberg they also believe Google has become less willing to listen to employees in recent years. They specifically pointed to the company’s pursuit of potential contracts from the Pentagon over the past and the very public objections of its workers.

“We appreciate Alex and Dylan’s contributions — our research on responsible AI is incredibly important, and we’re continuing to expand our work in this area in keeping with our AI Principles," A Google spokesperson told Engadget. "We’re also committed to building a company where people of different views, backgrounds and experiences can do their best work and show up for one another.”

Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse pivot is off to slow start. The company now known as Meta lost just over $10 billion on its Reality Labs division in 2021, according to its fourth-quarter earnings report.

“This fully realized vision is still a ways off,” Zuckerberg said of Meta’s metaverse investments. “And although the direction is clear, our path ahead is not yet perfectly defined.” Zuckerberg said the company planned to launch a new "high-end" VR headset as well as a mobile version of its Horizon VR experience.

It’s the first time the company has shared the financial performance of the AR and VR division that’s central to its metaverse ambitions. That the metaverse isn’t yet turning a profit isn’t a surprise. The company said last quarter that its AR and VR investments would result in a $10 billion loss for the company. But combined with flat user growth and continued hits to its advertising business, the company’s fourth-quarter results sent Meta's stock into a nosedive.

Meta

Facebook’s daily active users (DAUs) declined from 1.93 billion last quarter to 1.29 billion, a change that Zuckerberg attributes in part to increased competition from TikTok. “We're in the middle of a transition on our own services towards short form video like Reels,” Zuckerberg said. “Reels is now our fastest growing content format by far.” But he added that Reels doesn’t yet monetize as well as Stories or feeds.

Though Facebook’s ad business is still incredibly profitable — it made $32.6 billion in the last quarter — the company warned that Apple’s iOS 14 privacy changes will have a significant impact in the next quarter. “The accuracy of our ads targeting decreased which increased the cost of driving outcomes,” COO Sheryl Sandberg said on the call. Zuckerberg said improving the company’s ads despite Apple’s changes was one of Facebook’s top priorities, and that it was “rebuilding a lot of our ads infrastructure.”

Developing...

Spotify reported its Q4 2021 earnings today, and while the numbers showed a strong close to last year, the issue at the front of everyone's mind is Joe Rogan. CEO Daniel Ek began his prepared remarks by broadly addressing the company's "notable few days." Ek explained that Spotify is working to combat misinformation and that there's still work to be done. During the Q&A portion of the earnings call, he was directly asked about The Joe Rogan Experience.

"We're trying to balance creative expression with the safety of our users," Ek said. He continued by saying the company doesn't bend its content rules to fit individual creators. "While Joe has a massive audience, he also has to abide by those policies." 

Previously, Spotify has said it reviewed all episodes of JRE and none of them met the criteria for removal, despite several discussions of controversial topics — most notably COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. Until this weekend, those policies weren't posted publicly as the company provided details while announcing it would add a "content advisory" to any podcast episodes that discuss COVID-19. When Neil Young pulled his music from the service last week, Spotify said it had pulled "over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic."

Ek admitted that Spotify should've posted its content guidelines before this past weekend and took sole responsibility for not doing so sooner. He also said he doesn't expect any "churn" or loss of customers due to the current podcast predicament. He was clear it's too early to tell, but that "controversies" usually play out in "months instead of days." 

Rogan has issued an apology, pledging to include a wider array of opinions on future episodes. "I will do my best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people’s perspectives so we can maybe find a better point of view," he said.