Meta now has a more firm timeframe for a full return to the office, but it's also giving workers a chance to stay at home for a while longer. In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, the Facebook parent company said US offices would fully reopen at the end of January 2022, but that an "office deferral program" will let staff in the US and Canada delay that return for three to five months. They can return as late as June if they aren't yet comfortable with in-person work, but don't want to commit to a long-term remote position.
Human resources VP Janelle Gale said Meta would still "prioritize health and safety" at offices for the employees who come back in January. However, the social media firm also accepted that others "aren't quite ready" to appear.
The move came just days after Google further delayed its return-to-office plans, and at the same time as Lyft said it would no longer require a return in February. An increase in COVID-19 cases and uncertainty about the Omicron variant has cast doubt on the safety of requiring every in-office worker to return, even if there are strict mask and vaccination requirements. Simply put, it might be a long while before companies can demand office work without facing significant resistance.
YouTube TV is finally back on Roku streaming devices following a dispute between the two parties that has dragged on since April of this year. Both parties agreed to a deal for YouTube TV and the main YouTube app, which could have also disappeared if the feud wasn't settled.
"Roku and Google have agreed to a multi-year extension for both YouTube and YouTube TV," a Roku spokesperson said in a statement. "This agreement represents a positive development for our shared customers, making both YouTube and YouTube TV available for all streamers on the Roku platform."
Roku originally pulled YouTube TV because it said that Google made anti-competitive demands, like more prominent placements for the apps and requiring Roku to use certain chips. Google retorted that Roku's claims were "baseless" and that it was focused on "ensuring a high quality and consistent experience for viewers."
Both Roku and Google said recently that the main YouTube app could also disappear from Roku devices if a deal wasn't reached by December 9th — a loss that would have been felt far more acutely by Roku owners. That generated some negative press that may have brought extra clarity to the negotiations. There are no details on how the contract was resolved, but the YouTube app is now safe and you should see the YouTube TV app back on your Roku device soon.
Facebook has launched a new professional mode for profiles that will let eligible creators earn money without the need to create a separate Page. The feature is part of Facebook parent Meta's $1 billion investment in creators that includes bonuses for Instagram influencers and an expansion to the Stars program announced yesterday by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The biggest feature of professional mode profiles is the addition of the Reels Play bonus program that allows creators to earn up to $35,000 a month based on views of qualifying reels (videos). Previously, that program was only open to users with Pages. It'll be invitation-only for professional profiles to start with, with more information about how to create reels here.
As part of Reels, Facebook is planning to add the ability to create longer, 60 second reels, save drafts mid-creation and create compositions from multiple clips. Those features are coming "soon" and it's planning to expand Reels to more countries next year, too. Professional Mode also lets profiles see the same kind of post and audience analytics data that Page users get, including shares, reactions and comments. You can also see your follower growth over time.
There's a caveat that, not surprisingly, involves privacy. Once you turn on professional mode, "anyone can follow you and see your public content in their feed," Facebook said. However, you'll still be able to limit specific posts or updates to friends only.
Facebook is playing catchup to rival platforms with the creator community, particularly TikTok, which recently passed 3 billion downloads and is ahead of Facebook in user engagement. On top of the new profiles, it recently introduced the Stars store website that lets creators earn cash from followers without paying app store commissions. Professional mode is testing with a limited number of profiles today in the US, but will be expanded to more people in the US "soon" and more countries in the coming months.
8Bitdo controllers have been some of our favorites thanks to their charming designs and affordable prices. We called one of the latest, the SN30 Pro+, a near-perfect Nintendo Switch controller and now you can get that accessory at its best price yet. The SN30 Pro+ is down to $40 today as a Lightning Deal on Amazon, which means you have roughly six hours from the time of writing this to grab it before the price goes back up to $50. This is the same deal we saw on Black Friday, so if you missed it then, you have another opportunity to get it today.
The SN30 Pro+ will look familiar to those who loved the SNES. It has a similar design to that console's controller with a D-pad, circular A, B, X and Y buttons and start and select buttons in the middle. But it also has handles for better ergonomics, along with analog sticks and two more buttons. It's well-built and lightweight, making it easy to throw into a bag and take with you when you want to play with your Switch on the go. While plenty of people will want to use it with Nintendo's console, the SN30 Pro+ is also compatible with PC, macOS, Android, Steam and Raspberry Pi.
Not only did we find the SN30 Pro+ to be even more comfortable than Nintendo's own Switch Pro Controller, it also has the added benefit of a removable battery pack. It'll last about 20 hours on a single charge, but in a pinch, you can take out that pack and replace it with AA batteries instead. That'll come in handy on long flights, camping trips and other situations in which you can't charge up for a while. We also appreciate that the 8BitDo Ultimate Software lets you personalize the controller a bit further by remapping buttons and creating custom profiles.
The few gripes we had with the SN30 Pro+ were its somewhat tedious syncing process with the Switch (but thankfully you only have to do that once), its lack of a headphone jack and its lack of support for iOS, Xbox and PlayStation. However, if you're looking for a stocking stuffer for the gamer in your life, the SN30 Pro+ is hard to beat at this sale price.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
Apple was forced to cease iPhone and iPad production for several days when it was supposed to kick into high gear, according to a report from Nikkei Asia. It's no secret that Apple hasn't been immune to the global supply chain shortages despite its enormous purchasing power. The tech giant previously lowered its iPhone 13 production goals for the year and had to cut back on the iPad's production to allocate more parts for its mobile flagship devices. But this is reportedly the first time in a decade that the company had to cease operations at its factories during China's Golden Week.
Apple factories typically ramp up production during the Chinese holidays that take place at the beginning of October, running 24 hour shifts so that it can keep up with holiday shopping demands. This year, though, it reportedly gave its workers some time off instead. A supply chain manager told the publication that it made no sense to pay workers overtime for working during the holidays when there were very limited component and chips to work with. As a result, people who may be thinking of getting a new iPad or a new iPhone as a Christmas gift for loved ones or themselves may not get it in time for the season.
Nikkei Asia says that supply chain issues started way before the pandemic, when Chinese companies blacklisted by the United States hoarded inventories to survive crackdowns. That said, the COVID-19 lockdowns implemented in Malaysia and Vietnam due to the Delta variant heavily affected the production of numerous electrical components and chips.
In many cases, bottlenecks weren't caused by the lack of a device's most expensive components, but its cheaper peripheral parts. Component manufacturers that don't have as much purchasing power as tech giants fall to the back of the list when it comes to raw materials, after all. For the iPhone 13 Max, for instance, tiny peripherals that only cost a few cents each are what's causing the delay.
Apple chief Tim Cook previously said that the company lost $6 billion for the quarter ending in September due to supply chain constraints, and that he believes that it could lose more in the final quarter of the year. It still remains to be seen if Apple would still enjoy the same level of demand by the time it has the components to manufacture its devices. Nikkei Asia says Apple told suppliers that demand persists for the iPhone 13 and to reaccelerate their component production for November, December and January. According to a previous Bloomberg report, though, Apple warned suppliers that demand for its biggest revenue source has already weakened just before the holidays.
NASA's Hubble telescope has been in a month-long nap since going into system failure in late October. However, early yesterday, the agency announced it is waking Hubble up. NASA says the telescope is now functioning as normal, with all four active instruments collecting data.
On October 23rd, NASA first noticed Hubble's instruments weren't receiving messages from the telescope's control unit. NASA ended up putting the telescope into a sort of safe mode while it tried to figure out what happened. That safe mode takes a long time to come out of because of the sensitivity of Hubble's hardware. Rapid power or temperature changes aren't good for its lifespan. The telescope is now 31 years old — Hubble may be nearing the end of its useful life in space. NASA will use the telescope till the end, though, planning to use it in tandem with the Webb telescope, which is expected to finally launch on December 22nd.
The company is testing Premium Memberships with a small group of users.
Discord has started testing a feature called Premium Memberships. The tool allows community owners to gate access to part or all of their server behind a monthly subscription fee.
Before today, individuals looking to offer membership fees or paid access had to turn to third-party services like Patreon to monetize access to their servers.
The Premium Memberships tool creates a streamlined interface for that same purpose. A new tab under the Community heading in the app’s setting’s menu allows server owners to do things like set price tiers and view related analytics. The feature similarly streamlines the process of signing up for paid channels for users. If you want to financially support a community, you now don’t need to leave Discord to do so.
More than 3,100 people died in crashes involving distracted drivers in the US in 2019.
Many Tesla vehicles allow drivers to play a selection of games on the infotainment system while the car is in motion, according to a report by The New York Times. The company rolled out an update in the summer that reportedly lets drivers play Solitaire, jet-fighter game Sky Force Reloaded and strategy title The Battle of Polytopia while on the road.
The touchscreen is said to display a warning before a game of Solitaire starts. “Solitaire is a game for everyone, but playing while the car is in motion is only for passengers” the message reads, according to the Times. That indicates Tesla knows the game is playable while the car's moving. In August, the NHTSA said it was investigating Autopilot following a number of crashes with parked first responder vehicles. Those resulted in one death and 17 injuries.
BMW and esports brand LVL are trying something almost like Rocket League. They're teaming on Das Race Goal, a Rocket League-style esports platform that has remote-controlled cars play soccer for charity. Players worldwide will steer the vehicles in a real arena while grabbing virtual powerups and activating "special effects."
The first event takes place December 12th at 1 PM ET and will stream live on LVL's Twitch channel. This inaugural competition will have six three-player teams compete in Munich's BMW Welt stadium to raise awareness and funds for the United Nations Population Fund's Skills for Life programs.
Adam McKay and Jennifer Lawrence are teaming up again on 'Bad Blood.'
Apple will fund and distribute the long-in-the-works movie about embattled Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. Bad Blood will star Jennifer Lawrence as Holmes, while Adam McKay will write and direct. Both are producers on the project, which is a co-production between Apple Studios and Legendary.
The movie, which is based on the book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Start Up by former Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou, has been in development since at least 2016.
Bad Blood won’t be the only film and TV project about Theranos and Holmes. Hulu greenlit a mini-series in 2019 with Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon penciled in to play Holmes. She dropped out earlier this year and was replaced by Amanda Seyfried. An HBO documentary about the Theranos saga also premiered in 2019.
Nintendo has started selling docks for Switch OLED units separately in North America. According to Nintendo Life, the gaming giant revealed the dock would be sold as a standalone item when the OLED Switch was launched. And it has been available in European stores since the beginning of December, but now you can also get one in the US and Canada. While you can use the OLED model with the dock for the standard Switch, the one designed for it comes with a very important addition: An ethernet/LAN port.
In case your home internet isn't as fast as you'd like it to be, and you'd benefit greatly from a wired connection, the new dock may work better for your needs. You'd have to have or buy your own LAN/ethernet cable, though, since the dock doesn't come with one. It also doesn't include an AC Adapter and an HDMI cable, but it can receive software updates.
You can snap up a dock from Nintendo's store in the US or in Canada for $70. The unit will ship with a standard white panel, which we found flimsy and prone to being lost in our review. But you can get a back cover in black or get another white one as a replacement part from Nintendo's website for $6.
If you're interested in sneakers listed on eBay and want a better look, the platform has launched a new feature called eBay 3D True View. The new app, created in partnership with game engine developer Unity, lets you rotate around the image at all angles and zoom in. It looks like an improvement over rival StockX's 3D viewer, which lets you rotate shoes in 3D, but only on one plane.
Sellers can scan in sneakers with a mobile device by taking video from multiple angles. That data is then processed "using AI methodology" to create "photorealistic" 3D image of the item, eBay explains. Viewers can view the items from any angle, but only using eBay's mobile app on iOS and Android devices.
StockX has become a formidable eBay rival in the sneaker arena, thanks to its simplified, stock market-like buying and selling system, along with an authentication service. However, eBay has fought back with its own authentication system. StockX and eBay aren't the only resellers with 3D sneaker views, as GOAT offers AR sneaker previews, available before models even launch.
Only select sneaker sellers will get access to the new feature starting this month, but eBay plans to roll it out more widely in 2022 — if you're an interested seller, you can sign up to get on a waiting list.
Washington DC's city council has approved the use of digital driver's licenses and IDs, joining Arizona, Georgia and other states, The Washington Post has reported. That gives the district's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) the authority to issue digital credentials that can be stored on a smartphone or other mobile device. They could then be presented for entering government buildings, to purchase liquor or in case of police stops, for example.
Digital IDs and driver's licenses strongly entered the public conversation in September, when Apple announced that Wallet would hold driver's licenses and other IDs in iOS 15. The TSA was slated to be the first place iPhone owners could use their digital identity cards, and Apple subsequently announced that Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky and Oklahoma would be early adopters of the program. Last month, however, Apple said it would delay the release of digital ID cards until 2022, rather than the end of 2021 as scheduled.
Washington DC residents will have the option of using physical or digital credentials and will not be required to show a digital ID on a mobile device. The bill passage brings the city "a step closer to the reality of digital credentials," DC DMV director Gabriel Robinson told The Post. The DMV must now create a plan to to develop the credentials once the legislation is signed into law.
While people around the world still searched for information about the COVID-19 pandemic, other topics dominated Google's Year in Search for 2021 — like cricket and Squid Game. Matches for the T20 World Cup are at the top of this year's global searches, along with other sporting events, such as the UEFA Euro 2021 and the NBA, and the hit Netlix Korean series Squid Game. DMX, who passed away this year, was also one of the most popular searches.
Afghanistan, which was taken over by the Taliban, was the top trending news for the year. COVID remains a hot topic, as you'd expect, with COVID vaccines, stimulus checks and the virus itself joining Afghanistan in the top trending news list. It seems like more and more people are getting into cryptocurrency, as well — or at least getting curious about it — and showed special interest in Dogecoin and Ethereum prices. Current events, including Hurricane Ida and the Georgia Senate race, and meme stocks (AMC and GME) round up the list.
When it comes to the top trending people of the year, Alec Baldwin holds the top spot, followed by Kyle Rittenhouse. President Biden and athletes Tiger Woods and Simone Biles made waves this year, as well. Meanwhile, Pete Davison, Armie Hammer, Elliott Page and Dave Chappelle were some of the most searched celebrities. Marvel movies were as popular as ever, with Eternals holding the top spot for trending films, followed by Black Widow. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings are also in the list, along with other hits for the year, such as Dune and Red Notice.
Squid Game captured the attention of people everywhere, and it's joined by Bridgerton, WandaVision, Cobra Kai and Loki in the top trending TV shows list. Olivia Rodrigo's drivers license, Lil Nas X's Montero (Call Me by Your Name) and Industry Baby, as well as Walker Hayes' Fancy Like are some of the most popular songs this year. PopCat, FIFA 22, Battlefield 2042, Monster Hunter Rise, Resident Evil Village and Genshin Impact make up part of the top gaming list. Finally, people around the world apparently had cravings for Birria tacos, nasi goreng, feta pasta, shōgayaki and charcuterie boards this year.
You can check out the whole Year in Search results across various categories right here.
