As rumors surrounding Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet intensified, the reality star was seen rocking a ring on her left hand!
As rumors surrounding Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet intensified, the reality star was seen rocking a ring on her left hand!
‘Words cannot express how much you are missed,’ Priscilla wrote to Benjamin, the son of the late Lisa Marie Presley.
‘Words cannot express how much you are missed,’ Priscilla wrote to Benjamin, the son of the late Lisa Marie Presley.
Following some former Bachelor Nation stars revealing they no longer watch the show Tayshia Adams told HL if she planned to tune in to the new season of ‘The Bachelorette!’
Following some former Bachelor Nation stars revealing they no longer watch the show Tayshia Adams told HL if she planned to tune in to the new season of ‘The Bachelorette!’
Around 80 Google Help subcontractors who recently voted to unionize with the Alphabet Workers Union-Communications Workers of America (AWU-CWA) found out last week that they will be laid off. The group began a hearing this week with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regarding the complex issue of joint employment for contractors. “It really stinks of retaliation,” Casey Padron, a general writer on the team scheduled to lose her job in August, told Engadget today.
The group announced the unionization effort on Thursday, June 8th; around two-thirds of the workers were notified weeks later about the layoffs. The team includes writers and graphic designers who create internal and external content for the search giant, including Google Help support pages. They list Google and Accenture as joint employers “due to the direct role both companies play in shaping working conditions.” Because they were joint contractors employed by tech consultancy Accenture, they don’t appear to enjoy protections with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, legislation passed in 1988 that provides certain rights for laid-off workers. (California is currently considering expanding protections for contract workers.)
“Last week we received news that 80 of our nearly 120 recently unionized Google Help coworkers would be laid off,” said Julia Nagatsu Granstrom, Senior Writer and member of the Alphabet Workers Union- CWA. “We had exercised our right to organize as members of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA in order to bring both Google and Accenture, a Google subcontractor, to the bargaining table to negotiate on several key demands, including layoff protections.” Nagatsu Granstrom describes the layoffs as “absolutely unacceptable,” given the timing of an active union campaign “with overwhelming support from workers.”
The Google Help cuts follow a group of company contractors rating search results who were fired last month after announcing intentions to unionize with the same organization, the AWU-CWA. However, they were reinstated and promised backpay after filing Unfair Labor Practice charges with the NLRB.
Padron says the Google Help layoffs caught her off guard. “I was extremely surprised to hear about our team’s layoffs,” she told Engadget. “We are constantly told by Google and Accenture management how impressed they are with the quality of our work, so the timing of these layoffs looks suspiciously like retaliation for our union formation.” She says the employer’s proclaimed motive of budget tightening doesn’t add up. “They claimed that the cuts were a result of changes in budget allocation, but Accenture has also posted job listings that have our exact job description and project code.”
“These giant, wealthy corporations need to start living up to their own ‘core values’ and treating their workers with the dignity, respect, and humanity we deserve,” Padron added. “If these multi-billion dollar corporations can’t afford to provide humane working conditions to their employees, the business model needs radical change. Some of our operations managers and the Googlers we collaborate with have already expressed that Google’s help centers will suffer without our team. They will feel this loss, and they deserve to.”
Nagatsu Granstrom says the unionized workers will take “every recourse possible to support our impacted members and continue to organize workers at Google Help and beyond.” Padron echoes the upbeat, fighting tone. “If it’s Accenture and Google’s goal to demoralize us, they have failed,” she told Engadget. “We are more united than ever and will continue to fight for this job that so many of us love and rely on.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-lays-off-contractors-who-unionized-last-month-193020753.html?src=rss
If you’ve used Microsoft productivity suites this millennium, you’re in for a big change… visually, at least. After 15 years, Microsoft is replacing the default font in 365 and Office apps, Calibri, with something new: Aptos. It may look like a simple sans-serif font (and it is in default form), but Microsoft is betting that you’ll like it thanks to its sheer flexibility.
Aptos works with many languages. There are four different font weights, and serif variants if you need something less hypermodern. Creator Steve Matteson (who made Windows’ first TrueType fonts) waxes poetic about Aptos including a “little bit of humanity” and evoking the personalities of Carl Kasell and even Stephen Colbert, but the end result is a font that will theoretically be easy to read and eye-catching whether you’re writing a school essay or prepping a company presentation.
The font has already been available as Bierstadt as part of a feedback gathering effort, but is rolling out as the default font in Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word for hundreds of millions of people starting today. Everyone will see it within the next few months. It’ll still be available under its old name, as will the four fonts that didn’t make the cut (Grandview, Seaford, Skeena and Tenorite). Like Calibri, Aptos will be pinned to the top of the font picker but won’t be mandatory.
Yes, it’s just a font — like those redesigned Office icons from 2018, Aptos will have zero impact on your ability to get things done. As one of the most noticeable elements of any app, though, the new default font will change the look and feel of tools you might use every day. And like Apple’s San Francisco font, it reflects an evolving technological landscape where a typeface has to be le on a wide range of devices and screen sizes.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsofts-next-big-update-to-its-office-apps-a-new-font-193824683.html?src=rss
Kelley O’Hara made the World Cup roster for the fourth time and is looking for a three-peat championship. Meet her biggest fan and fiancee, Kameryn Stanhouse, here.
Kelley O’Hara made the World Cup roster for the fourth time and is looking for a three-peat championship. Meet her biggest fan and fiancee, Kameryn Stanhouse, here.
Nearly fifteen years after almost dying in a plane crash that killed six people, Travis Barker commemorated his 30th flight – and credited ‘my amazing wife’ for this amazing accomplishment.
Nearly fifteen years after almost dying in a plane crash that killed six people, Travis Barker commemorated his 30th flight – and credited ‘my amazing wife’ for this amazing accomplishment.
Twitter has gotten worse in a number of ways since Elon Musk introduced paid verification. But one of the most consistently annoying has been the sharp uptick in DM spam. Now, Twitter says it’s making a change to cut down on the amount of spammy messages in users’ inboxes.
The company is adding a new setting that will route messages from verified accounts you’re not following to the “message requests” inbox, rather than the primary inbox. The new setting will be automatically enabled for anyone who previously had their DMs open to everyone, though they’ll be able to “switch back at any time,” according to Twitter.
That’s a notable reversal from a change Musk recently endorsed that allowed paid Twitter Blue subscribers to direct message any user regardless of following status. But while Musk suggested the change would cut down on “AI bots,” it resulted in more DM spam.
Starting as soon as July 14th, we’re adding a new messages setting that should help reduce the number of spam messages in DMs. With the new setting enabled, messages from users who you follow will arrive in your primary inbox, and messages from verified users who you don’t follow…
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 13, 2023
In a post announcing the latest change, Twitter’s support account seemed to acknowledge the prevalence of spammy DMs from verified accounts. “We’re adding a new messages setting that should help reduce the number of spam messages in DMs,” it wrote.
The updated setting is expected to start rolling out July 14th.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitter-is-trying-to-fix-the-verified-dm-spam-problem-it-created-175252276.html?src=rss
It’s the dawn of a new era for EA‘s flagship soccer series and the company has revealed when the first installment of the rebranded franchise will arrive. EA Sports FC 24 will hit PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC on September 29th. EA’s long-standing partnership with FIFA ended after FIFA 23, prompting the name change.
Rumors suggested the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions would cost $80, but those were not true. The game still costs $70 on those platforms. However, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players will need to pay that much as well. EA is selling it as a “dual entitlement” cross-generation title. EA Sports FC 24 also costs $70 on PC, while it’s $60 on Switch.
The $100 Ultimate Edition includes Ultimate Team perks, 4,600 FC points and up to seven days of early access. Notably, those who opt for the standard version won’t have access to an Ultimate Team Campaign mode, though they’ll still be able to play the regular version of Ultimate Team — EA won’t want to lock any players out of one of its biggest cash cows. Meanwhile, EA is adding women to Ultimate Team for the first time, meaning men and women will be playing with and against each other on the same virtual pitch.
The release date and pricing details emerged as EA showed off the game proper for the first time and announced some of the new features. The series formerly known as FIFA is gaining two new women’s leagues: Spain’s Liga F and Frauen-Bundesliga, the highest level of competition in Spain and Germany, respectively.
EA has been securing agreements with various leagues and organizations in the aim of keeping the series as true to life as possible. More than 19,000 authentic players, 30-plus leagues and more than 100 stadiums will be represented in EA Sports FC 24. The company has also secured exclusive deals with the English Premier League and UEFA to use their branding and to retain access to competitions like the Champions League.
The Frostbite engine is still in play this time around, though EA says it’s using an enhanced version. This is also the first installment of the series to use Frostbite on Switch, according to its eShop listing.
EA has upgraded its HyperMotion tech as well. HyperMotionV (which will be available on the PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC versions) taps into volumetric data from more than 180 high-level men’s and women’s professional games. “This unlocks authentic full-team movement as well as 1,200 signature run styles so fans can experience the unique ways that top players move,” EA says. It added that this tech can help it create new animations for EA Sports FC within just a few days.
Another new feature called PlayStyles taps into real-world data from Opta and other sources to make players more unique. EA says this will impact gameplay and give players distinct capabilities. In Ultimate Team, “PlayStyles+ enhance those signature abilities to world-class standard — think [Erling] Haaland’s Power Shot — reflecting elite players’ abilities to play at a level that few others can reach,” the company added.
Crossplay will be available between PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC, as well as between PS4 and Xbox One. The Clubs, Co-Op Season, Volta Football and Ultimate Team Co-Op modes will support crossplay for the first time. However, the Switch version of FC24 won’t include crossplay.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ea-sports-fc-24-will-hit-consoles-and-pc-on-september-29th-182429306.html?src=rss
The Associated Press (AP) and ChatGPT parent company OpenAI have reached a news-sharing agreement, but not for the reasons you may think. It doesn’t involve AI chatbots quickly churning out content, but rather a way for OpenAI to train its algorithmic models, as reported by Axios. The two-year deal gives OpenAI access to select news content and technology from the AP archives, dating back to 1985. All of this sweet, sweet data will be used to improve the efficacy of future iterations of ChatGPT and related tools.
This is one of the first high-profile partnerships between a major news organization and an artificial intelligence company. The two firms are still working out the details, but it looks like AP will receive access to OpenAI’s proprietary technology as part of the exchange. AP has long relied on automation technology when filing news reports, so it’ll likely use OpenAI’s tech to streamline and improve this process.
AP doesn’t use generative AI to write articles but does use similar technologies to automate corporate earnings reports and coverage of local sporting events, among other article types. Additionally, the organization uses these tools to translate weather alerts into Spanish. AP launched an AI tool earlier this year to enable clients, which are mostly other newsrooms, to search for relevant photos, videos and stories. This software allows clients to make queries using descriptive language instead of dry metadata. In other words, having access to OpenAI’s treasure trove of data should dramatically improve this experience.
As for OpenAI, they are obviously looking to expand into news in the future, and this partnership gives them plenty of legally-obtained data to work with. Artificial intelligence threatens to upend traditional news business models, but AP says it “supports a framework that will ensure intellectual property is protected and content creators are fairly compensated for their work.” The organization also says that newsrooms “must have a seat at the table” to ensure they aren’t taken advantage of.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ap-and-openai-enter-into-two-year-partnership-to-help-train-algorithmic-models-183007344.html?src=rss
