Category: Technology

Apple violated federal law by holding mandatory “captive audience” meetings and making coercive statements with anti-union messaging, the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) Atlanta regional director has concluded. The workers at Apple’s Cumberland Mall store filed for a union election with the NLRB earlier this year in a bid to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA). In May, however, they withdrew their petition, and the CWA submitted an Unfair Labor Practice complaint on their behalf. 

The CWA said in its complaint at the time that Apple had “conducted mandatory ‘captive audience’ meetings with bargaining unit employees regarding the upcoming election.” In a newer statement sent to Bloomberg, the organization said that holding meetings like that is “not only union-busting, but an example of psychological warfare.” As the news organization notes, the NLRB had previously allowed companies to require employees to attend mandatory meetings prior to union elections. But Jennifer Abruzzo, the labor board’s current general counsel, sees them as coercive and in violation of the law. 

The NLRB said that it will issue a complaint if the tech giant doesn’t settle. While the labor board’s regional director has sided with the workers and with CWA, it’s still up in the air whether Apple will be required to change its policies or suffer any sort of punishment. Complaints issued by regional directors will have to go through the board’s judges, and companies could approach the NLRB’s board members in Washington to appeal rulings they hand down. The case could go to federal court after that. 

Apple is facing another complaint by the NLRB, which found enough merit in a report also filed by the CWA on behalf of the company’s World Trade Center workers in NYC. For that particular case, Apple was accused of surveilling staff, limiting their access to pro-union fliers and forcing them to listen to anti-union speeches. If Apple doesn’t settle, a judge will hear the case on December 13th. 

 

The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Inspector General is reportedly investigating Neuralink over potential animal welfare violations related to research testing. According to Reuters, internal documents show that staff members have been raising concerns that the company has been rushing animal testing and causing needless suffering and death. 

The news organization said the company has killed 1,500 animals, including more than 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys, since 2018. Those numbers don’t automatically mean Neuralink is violating the law, and the company has passed all USDA inspections of its facilities. Former and current employees told Reuters, however, that pressure from Neuralink founder Elon Musk to accelerate development has led to faulty experiments and, hence, death rates higher than they need to be. 

Musk has reportedly been telling employees since the company was launched in 2016 to imagine that they had a bomb strapped to their heads in an effort to make them move faster. He also reportedly told staff that he would trigger a “market failure” unless they made progress, which some employees interpreted as a warning that he would shut down the company. Earlier this year, Musk also sent staff members an email with an article about Swiss researchers who created an implant that helped a paralyzed person walk again, Reuters said. “In general, we are simply not moving fast enough. It is driving me nuts!” he reportedly wrote in a follow-up email.

Upon reviewing internal testing documentation, Reuters said it found four experiments involving 86 pigs and two monkeys with results that were rendered questionable by human errors. Neuralink had to repeat those experiments, leading to more deaths. A message written by an angry employee talked about how rushed animal surgeries had led to under-prepared and overstressed employees who ended up making mistakes. A couple of examples Reuters found in the documents detailed how Neuralink staff implanted the company’s brain-machine interface device on the wrong vertebra of two different pigs — something that could’ve been easily prevented by counting the animals’ vertebrae — forcing the team to kill them to end their suffering. 

Earlier this year, the animal rights group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine accused the company botching surgeries that killed monkeys. Neuralink admitted that it had killed six monkeys in its joint study with the University of California, Davis due to issues caused by their experiments. However, they defended their research and said that it didn’t break any laws. 

Neuralink recently held an event announcing that it could start human trials within the next six months. During the program, company founder Elon Musk directly responded to the Phyisicians Committee accusations: “Before we would even think of putting a device in an animal, we do everything possible we with rigorous benchtop testing, We’re not cavalier about putting these devices into animals. We’re extremely careful and we always want the device, whenever we do the implant — whether into a sheep, pig or monkey — to be confirmatory, not exploratory,” he said. 

Reuters, however, said it found Neuralink records with numerous references to “exploratory surgeries.” Autumn Sorrells, Neuralink’s Animal Care Program Director, also reportedly ordered employees in October to remove “exploration” from their study titles and to stop using the term going forward. 

 

Microsoft’s pledge to stay neutral in unionization efforts is about to be tested in a big way. On Monday, quality assurance staff at ZeniMax Media went public with the news that they’re working to form a union. The approximately 300 workers involved in the effort want to be represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). That’s the same union that recently helped QA staff at Raven Software and Blizzard Albany win their organization bids.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request. A company spokesperson told The New York Times Microsoft was “committed to providing employees with an opportunity to freely and fairly make choices about their workplace representation,” adding the campaign was “an example of our labor principles in action.”

ZeniMax Media is the parent company of some of Microsoft’s most prized first-party studios, including Arkane, Bethesda and id Software. Microsoft paid $7.5 billion in an all-cash deal to acquire the publisher in 2020. A successful unionization bid would affect all the studios under the ZeniMax umbrella.

According to The Times, QA staff at ZeniMax began voting on unionization on December 2nd, the same day testers at Blizzard Albany voted 14 to 0 to join the CWA. Staff at the Microsoft subsidiary can share their stance on the matter by signing a union authorization card or by voting through an electronic portal. A decision is expected before the end of the month.

In June, Microsoft announced it would respect all unionization efforts at Activision Blizzard following the close of its $68.7 billion deal to buy the publisher. At the time, the company signed a landmark neutrality agreement with the Communications Workers of America. Antitrust regulators in the UK and EU are currently conducting investigations of Microsoft’s bid to buy Activision Blizzard.

 

The Department of Homeland Security said Monday it’s again pushing back the enforcement of Real ID requirements for state driver’s licenses and ID cards. The latest delay moves states’ compliance deadline to May 7th, 2025.

Passed by Congress in 2005 as a response to the Sept. 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Real ID Act requires stricter documentation for boarding flights and entering federal or nuclear facilities. For example, to get a Real ID-compliant driver’s license or state ID card, you need to provide paperwork for your name, date of birth, address, Social Security card and birth certificate.

The DHS says the requirements increase state IDs’ reliability and accuracy. Officials can quickly see whether a card is Real ID-compliant by looking for the gold star in the upper right-hand corner.

When the bill passed, states initially had a 2008 compliance deadline. But after some states and US territories refused to play ball, the cutoff faced delay after delay. Despite the ever-shifting deadlines, 13 states rolled out support in 2012. The list grew in the following years as reluctant states faced the prospect of having their residents blocked from flights. But the COVID-19 pandemic led to even more kicking of the can, and today’s cutoff point pushes it back from May 2023 to May 2025.

“DHS continues to work closely with US states, the District of Columbia, and the US territories to meet Real ID requirements,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas in a news release today. “This extension will give states needed time to ensure their residents can obtain a Real ID-compliant license or identification card. DHS will also use this time to implement innovations to make the process more efficient and accessible. We will continue to ensure that the American public can travel safely.” 

 

Slack co-founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield is leaving the company in January. Lidiane Jones, currently an executive VP at parent company Salesforce, will succeed Butterfield as CEO.

The move comes just days after Salesforce announced that its CEO, Bret Taylor, will also leave in early 2023. However, Butterfield says the actions are unrelated. “FWIW: This has nothing to do with Bret’s departure. Planning has been in the works for several months! Just weird timing,” he wrote in an internal Slack channel today, viewed by Business Insider.

Slack launched in 2013 and quickly established itself as the predominant work-chat app. But today, it faces stiff competition from Microsoft Teams, which has nearly doubled its daily users in each of the past two years. In 2020, Slack filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission, claiming its bundling of Teams with the Office suite gave it an unfair advantage (echoing antitrust cases against Microsoft for bundling Internet Explorer with Windows). Later that year, Salesforce announced it was buying Slack for $27.7 billion, its biggest acquisition to date.

A Salesforce spokesperson told in a company statement to TechCrunch today, “Stewart is an incredible leader who created an amazing, beloved company in Slack. He has helped lead the successful integration of Slack into Salesforce and today Slack is woven into the Salesforce Customer 360 platform.”

 

One of the major (and controversial) changes Blizzard made in Overwatch 2 was gating new heroes behind a battle pass. However, it should be a little easier for players to unlock the latest character, Ramattra, in the game’s second season. Players who opt for the free track of the battle pass won’t need to grind through as many levels before they can use the new tank in all game modes. Making some weekly challenges less of a chore should mean players can level up more quickly too.

“After reviewing data for Season 1, we’re moving Ramattra into Tier 45 of the Battle Pass and making a few more weekly challenges easier to complete,” Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller wrote on Twitter. “Excited for you all to see everything new in Season 2 starting tomorrow!”

Although Blizzard could again move heroes to higher levels of the battle pass in future seasons, that seems unlikely given the backlash it received in season one. Once the launch issues abated and everyone was able to log in, new players had to reach level 55 of the free battle pass to unlock Kiriko, which took many folks quite a while. Alternatively, they could buy the premium pass, which costs around $10, to instantly add the support to their roster. Players coming over to Overwatch 2 from the original game gained access to Kiriko for free, as well as Junker Queen and Sojourn.

Those who buy the season two premium pass will get access to Ramattra right away as well. I’ve had a little bit of hands-on time with the new hero, who can shift into different forms and is all about closing the gap between his team and the enemy. Once he gets in close, he can deal devastating damage, especially since his ultimate ability can last indefinitely. Ramattra seems like a powerful (and fun!) addition to the roster, which could prompt more tank players to pay for the premium pass to unlock him as swiftly as possible. 

However, adding a new tank to the mix could make queue times longer for many folks. Not enough players are opting for support heroes, which has led to lengthy waits for tank and damage players to get into a match. Blizzard plans to make supports more fun and rewarding to play, but when rad new characters are introduced to other roles, players may be more likely to want to try them out instead.

Ramattra’s far from the only addition in season two. There’s a Greek mythology theme and the battle pass includes skins that pay homage to the likes of Zeus and Poseidon. There’s also a new map, balance changes for several heroes and a brand-new limited-time mode that will go live in January.

 

Three years after bringing Facebook Dating to the US, Meta is finally adding a way for users to verify their age. As it did when it began testing age verification on Instagram this past summer, Meta is once again turning to a company called Yoti for help. If Facebook’s automated systems suspect a minor is trying to use Facebook Dating, the website will prompt that individual to provide more information. Users can prove they’re old enough to use the service either by submitting a copy of a photo ID card or a video selfie. In the latter case, Meta will share a video still with Yoti “and nothing else.” Yoti’s machine learning algorithm estimates your age based on your facial features. Once the company shares its estimate with Meta, Yoti will delete the image.

Yoti’s technology is controversial for a few reasons. To start, like other neural networks, it’s something of a black box. Yoti has said it doesn’t know exactly which facial characteristics its software uses to make judgments. The AI is also more likely to incorrectly estimate someone’s age depending on their gender and skin tone. In general, it’s the least accurate when examining female faces with dark skin and the most accurate when looking at light-skinned males. However, Meta claims it has found a lot of success using Yoti’s software. On Instagram, for instance, it says that the technology has stopped 96 percent of teens from changing their birthdays to make it seem like they are over the age of 18. In the case of Facebook Dating, it’s also one of those instances where whatever concerns people have with the technology may be outweighed by the fact it’s being used to protect minors from online predators.

Facebook Dating age verification is currently only available in the US. Meta says it will bring the feature to more countries once it has had time to do more testing.

 

Astronomers are now closer to a major technological upgrade. Australia has started construction of its portion of the Square Kilometer Array, a system that should become the world’s largest radio telescope. The Australian portion, SKA-Low, will revolve around 131,072 antenna “trees” in the country’s western Wajarri country. As the name implies, the array will focus on low-frequency signals. The Guardiannotes it’s expected to be eight times more sensitive than existing telescopes, and map the cosmos about 135 times faster.

A counterpart with 197 conventional radio dishes, SKA-Mid, is coming to Meerkat National Park in South Africa’s dry, unpopulated Karoo region. That element will study mid-range frequencies. The Australian segment is a joint effort between the dedicated SKA Organization and the country’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).

The combined array, originally envisioned in 1991, is expected to transform radio astronomy. It will mainly be helpful for studying the early universe, and might provide new insights into the formation of the first stars during the reionization period. However, it should also help investigate dark energy and its potential effect on cosmic expansion. The extreme sensitivity may even be useful in the search for extraterrestrial life, although the resolution will limit the most detailed searches to relatively close stars. Director Dr. Sarah Pierce told The Guardian the telescopes could spot an airport radar on a planet “tens of light-years away.”

Work on the Square Kilometer Array isn’t expected to finish until 2028, and it will take some time after that for scientists to collect and decipher results. As with the James Webb Space Telescope, though, the lengthy wait is expected to pay dividends. This is a generational shift that could provide new insights into the universe, not just more detail — Pearce expects SKA to shape the “next fifty years” of radio astronomy.

 

Microsoft has confirmed it will increase the prices of some of its first-party Xbox games to $70 starting in 2023. Specifically, major games built for Xbox Series X/S will cost $10 more in the US, including Starfield, Redfall and Forza Motorsport. Regional price increases may vary.

“This price reflects the content, scale, and technical complexity of these titles,” a Microsoft spokesperson told IGN, which first reported the news. “As with all games developed by our teams at Xbox, they will also be available with Game Pass the same day they launch.”

Other major publishers, including Sony, EA and Take-Two Interactive, have been charging $70 for select current-gen games. Microsoft was able to hold off on increasing prices, likely because the company doesn’t rely on games as its primary revenue driver.

In August, Sony increased the price of the PlayStation 5 in most countries, but not the US. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in October his company wouldn’t raise Xbox prices ahead of the holiday season (the Xbox Series S actually went on sale in November), but noted that “I do think at some point we’ll have to raise the prices on certain things.” We’re starting to see that play out now.

One possible outcome of Xbox raising prices on first-party games is that more people may be willing to try out Game Pass. Starfield, Redfall and Forza Motorsport will all be available on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass on day one. That could make Game Pass more attractive and an even better value proposition — at least until Xbox inevitably raises the price of its subscription services too.

Furthermore, this seems to mark the beginning of a shift away from releasing major new games on previous-generation consoles. With the exception of Microsoft Flight Simulator, Microsoft has made native Xbox One versions of its Series X/S games.

 

Warner Bros. Discovery will soon combine HBO Max and Discovery+ into a single streaming service with a new name. Right now, it seems that the frontrunner for the merged platform’s moniker is “Max,” which would ditch the more instantly recognizable part of HBO Max’s branding.

Lawyers for the company are vetting several names, but Max is said to be the leading the pack. A Warner Bros. spokesperson told CNBC that the company was still discussing the name. They’ll need to make a decision fairly soon, though, as the merged streaming service is slated to arrive in the spring.

HBO has built up a certain level of prestige over the years. However, Warner Bros. Discovery leaders are said to see some value in positioning HBO as a sub-brand alongside the likes of Discovery and CNN. The company’s CEO David Zaslav slashedspending on HBO Max after WarnerMedia and Discovery merged earlier this year. The streaming service will have much more to offer than HBO content as well.

As CNBC notes, there has been some confusion surrounding the branding of HBO streaming apps — HBO Max was preceded by HBO Go and HBO Now. Having another one with HBO in the name could further muddy the waters. Moreover, executives are said to have expressed concern that the HBO Max name could weaken the value of HBO as a brand if consumers link it to less-prestigious content on the streaming service.

The new-look platform will reportedly have a similar to set up to Disney+, with hubs for content from HBO, Discovery, DC Comics, Warner Bros. and more (Disney+ has ones for Star Wars, Pixar, National Geographic and so on). It’s not yet clear how much subscriptions to Max, or whatever it ends up being called, will cost.