Motorola is trying its hand once more at this flagship smartphone thing after attempting to straddle the line between mid-range and premium. This time, it’s bringing a stylus to the knife fight. The new Motorola Edge+ has an improved camera system, a dazzling display, and a stowable stylus. But before you think the…
Google delayed its employees’ return to office a few times over the past year, but it looks like the tech giant is truly gearing up to welcome workers back this time. According to CNBC, the company is easing some of its COVID-related mandates as part of those efforts, including relaxing its vaccine requirements for employees.
CNBCreported back in December that Google will place employees who don’t comply with its vaccine mandate by January 18th on leave unless they secure a valid medical or religious exemption. The report also said that those employees will eventually be fired if they continue refusing to be inoculated against the virus. Google spokesperson Lora Lee Erickson told the news organization that the company dropped the requirement last month, though they refused to discuss the reason behind the decision.
Based on an email from Google Real Estate and Workplace Services VP David Radcliffe that CNBC has obtained, the company is also dropping its testing requirements that also applied to vaccinated employees. It’s lifting its mask and social distancing requirements for vaccinated employees, with the exception of its offices in Santa Clara County where its Mountain View headquarters are located, as well. That said, unvaccinated employees must still be approved to work in offices, and they’ll still have to wear masks and get regularly tested if they’re coming in.
On top of easing up its COVID mandates, Google is also reopening its amenities for employees, including its fitness centers with massages, full shuttle service, more places to eat, as well as lounges and music rooms. Erickson told CNBC:
“We’re giving employees who welcome the chance to come into the office the option to do that wherever we safely can, while allowing those who aren’t ready to keep working from home. Based on current conditions in the Bay Area, we’re pleased that our employees who choose to come in now have the ability to access more onsite spaces and services to work and connect with colleagues.”
Google still doesn’t have an exact date for its return to office, but Radcliffe’s note reportedly said that the company will begin its 30-day transition to its hybrid work week plan if conditions continue to improve. Under the plan, employees will be required to physically come into the company’s offices at least thrice a week.
Reddit’s app now has another feed to endlessly scroll. The company introduced a new “Discover” section that will surface a personalized stream of photos, GIFs and videos.
The feed, the first time a new section has been added to the Reddit app in more than two years, is meant to help drive Redditors to corners of the site they might not encounter on the front page or in r/popular, according to Jason Costa, the director of product for content and communities a Reddit.
“Discover is more meant to solve the breadth problem and really help people traverse the wide corpus of Reddit,” Costa tells Engadget. He notes that early testing of the feature shows that one out of five users have joined “at least one subreddit as a result of Discover.”
Discover also gives Reddit the chance to showcase the vast catalog of memes and GIFs and videos that are shared every day, but aren’t always front and center in the app. While much of Reddit remains a “text-based experience,” the new Discover feed could help draw in people who would rather aimlessly scroll rather than read.
The feed itself is meant to be personalized to each user much the way Instagram’s Explore section would be. New users or people who aren’t logged in will see popular content that may be trending on the service or getting a lot of engagement. While existing users will see recommendations based on subreddits they follow and the types of content they spend the most time viewing.
For now, the Discover fee is limited just to Instagram’s mobile apps, but Costa says that if Redditors like the feature it could influence more aspects of the service. “ I could absolutely see it impacting other surface areas and maybe impacting the design language of Reddit,” he said.
World leaders, apart from China, pledge tough sanctions against Russia in efforts to avoid a major war in Europe.
Russia has officially invaded Ukraine, starting a needless war that has the potential to cause extreme human suffering and create millions of refugees. But don’t believe everything you see on the internet right now, especially if you’re checking social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.
Rather than abandon Android tablets as others have done, Samsung this year bolstered its efforts by adding a third member to its Galaxy Tab S8 series. With a huge 14.6-inch display, the new “Ultra” model has stolen the spotlight from the Galaxy Tab S8+, the successor to what was previously Samsung’s premiere slate.…
Not all games require huge teams of coders and many years of development to be a success. Smash-hit word puzzle game Wordle was put together by Josh Wardle for his partner Palak Shah in a relatively quick period of time, and despite its simplicity and lack of extras (like a phone app), its meteoric rise was enough to …
OnlyFans is facing a pair of lawsuits over claims it conspired with Facebook to disable adult entertainer accounts by placing their content on a terrorism database, the BBC has reported. One was launched earlier this week by a rival platform called FanCentro, and the other is a class action lawsuit made on behalf of three adult entertainers. Both Facebook and OnlyFans were named as defendants in the latter complaint.
The class action suit claims performers’ content was placed on the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) website despite not being terrorist in nature. That reportedly led to a decline in traffic to websites that compete with OnlyFans. Similar claims were made by FanCentro in its lawsuit. Both say that the problem is happening on Instagram more than any other platform.
OnlyFans told the BBC that the legal claim has “no merit,” while Facebook parent Meta said “these allegations are without merit and we will address them in the context of the litigation as needed.” A GIFCT spokesperson said: “We are not aware of any evidence to support the theories presented in this lawsuit between two parties with no connection to GIFCT.”
OnlyFans is best known for hosting pornography, but it was in the news last summer after saying it would ban “sexually explicit conduct.” It said the request was made by “banking partners and payout providers,” but it subsequently backtracked after receiving “secured assurances” required to support its adult creators.
However, the move shook the trust of some sex workers and other OnlyFans creators, since a potential ban threatened a key source of their income. Some likely decided to move to rival sites, only to now be allegedly facing a shadow-ban on social media.
Marvel’s first run of TV shows set in its cinematic universe, including Daredevil and Jessica Jones, have found a new home beyond Netflix – if you live north of the border. The shows, set to disappear from Netflix on March 1st, will appear on Disney Plus in Canada, starting March 16th.
There’s no official news of a similar revival in the US, at least not yet. However – without spoiling any surprises – some characters have managed to make notable reappearances in recent Marvel movies and shows. Hopefully, Disney can figure out exactly where to take these shows, and hey, give The Defenders the do-over it deserves. I won’t be taking any questions on this matter.
-Mat Smith
Trump’s free speech app Truth Social is censoring content and kicking off users
Facebook failed to spot climate misinformation from some of its worst denialist offenders
Spotify debuts its first ‘bookcast’ from Dolly Parton and James Patterson
During a Metaverse and AI livestream event on Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Meta’s research division is working on a universal speech translation system that could streamline users’ interactions with AI. Zuckerberg said: “Now, we have the chance to improve the internet and set a new standard where we can all communicate with one another, no matter what language we speak or where we come from. And if we get this right, this is just one example of how AI can help bring people together on a global scale.”
Apple’s latest anti-stalking features for AirTags, announced earlier this month, have started to appear in iOS 15.4 beta 4. The beta update includes a warning when users first set up an AirTag. “Using this item to track people without their consent is a crime in many regions around the world,” it reads. “This item is designed to be detected by victims and to enable law enforcement to request identifying information about the owner.”
Intel is finally ready to reveal more details of its new U and P-series CPUs for ultraportables. And, much like AMD’s upcoming Ryzen 6000 chips, it looks like Intel is aiming to deliver a huge performance boost while consuming less power than last year’s hardware. With the Core i7-1280P, Intel’s fastest 28-watt P-series CPU, the company claims you’ll see up to 70 percent faster multithreaded performance than last year’s i7-1195G7. Like the rest of its 12th-gen lineup, Intel’s U and P-series chips are a new hybrid design that combines Performance cores (P-cores) and Efficient cores (E-cores) on a single die.
The USPS is moving forward with plans to spend $11.3 billion on a fleet of next-generation mail trucks that mostly run on gas, despite requests from the EPA and Biden administration to electrify its new vehicles instead. “Our commitment to an electric fleet remains ambitious given the pressing vehicle and safety needs of our aging fleet as well as our fragile financial condition,” Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in a statement. He went on to say that the agency would try to buy more EVs as additional funding became available.
Democrats and some Republicans spoke out against Vladimir Putin as ex-President Trump hailed the Russian leader’s aggression as “smart.”
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