Hasta La Gadget!

On Wednesday, a group of contractors at YouTube Music voted to unionize with the Alphabet Workers Union-Communications Workers of America (AWU-CWA). Out of the 49 workers who were eligible to vote, 41 voted in favor of the action, with the remaining eight abstaining. As of last year, the workers were already paying AWU-CWA dues but were seeking bargaining rights. In March, the group won a landmark legal victory when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Google must bargain with them to ratify their union contract.

While Google vowed to challenge the ruling, the results of today’s vote could have significant implications for the company. Provided the NLRB’s decision stands, Google will need to collectively bargain with a group of its US employees for the first time in the company’s nearly 25-year history. That’s something that could prompt other groups within the tech giant to pursue unionization.

“After months of union-busting by Google and Cognizant, our YouTube Music members have just won their NLRB union election in a blowout victory and are ready to bring both of their employers to the table to win their fair share,” the Alphabet Workers Union tweeted.

Although Wednesday’s vote was months in the making, it comes after Google laid off 12,000 employees – or about six percent of its global workforce – in late January. This week, the company shared its Q1 earnings results, reporting a net income of $15 billion. It also announced a $70 billion stock buyback. In 2022, the year workers at YouTube Music Content Operations filed for union recognition with the NLRB, Google compensated CEO Sundar Pichai to the tune of $226 million.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/youtube-music-contractors-vote-overwhelmingly-to-unionize-in-landmark-election-213844906.html?src=rss

Virgin Galactic appears to be one step closer to resuming its space tourism services. The company announced today a successful suborbital test of the VSS Unity spaceplane and hopes to begin rocket-powered spaceflight tests in the coming months.

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Amazon is shutting down its Halo division. In an email the company sent to users on Wednesday, it said it would stop supporting all devices under the health brand, including the recently released Halo Rise sleep tracker, on July 31st, 2023. As part of the shutdown, Amazon is also laying off an unspecified number of employees. The company did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request.    

“We have made the difficult decision to wind down the Halo program, which will result in role reductions,” Melissa Cha, the company vice-president of smart home and health, told staffers in a memo obtained by The Verge. “More recently, Halo has faced significant headwinds, including an increasingly crowded segment and an uncertain economic environment. Although our customers love many aspects of Halo, we must prioritize resources and maximize benefits to customers and the long-term health of the business.”

In its email to Halo users, Amazon said it would fully refund all Halo device and accessory purchases made in the last 12 months. The company will also refund any unused prepaid Halo subscription fees. If you were paying month-to-month for service, you won’t be charged any additional subscription fees. Come August 1st, the Halo companion app will stop functioning, as will all Halo devices. If you wish to download or delete your data, you can do so from the software’s Settings menu. Amazon will erase all remaining data on August 1st. You can send your soon-to-be potatoes to the company for disposal through the Amazon Recycling Program. 

The demise of the Halo brand shouldn’t come as a surprise. Last month, Amazon announced it would lay off 9,000 employees. That’s in addition to the 18,000 jobs it cut at the start of the year. Amazon was also late to the health and fitness segment. It announced the first product in the family, the Halo Band, in mid-2020, and it arrived without much fanfare, in part due to the fact some of its features were controversial. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-will-shut-down-its-halo-health-service-on-july-31st-195652188.html?src=rss

Swiping and tapping on flat screens is something we’ve learned to deal with in smartphones, tablets and other touchscreen gizmos, but it doesn’t come close to the ease of typing on a hardware keyboard or playing a game with a physical controller. To that end, researchers Craig Shultz and Chris Harrison with the Future Interfaces Group (FIG) at Carnegie Mellon University have created a display that can protrude screen areas in different configurations. It’s a concept we’ve seen before, but this version is thinner, lighter and more versatile.

FIG’s “Flat Panel Haptics” tech can be stacked under an OLED panel to create the protrusions: imagine screen sections that can be inflated and deflated with fluid on demand. This could add a new tactile dimension for things like pop-up media controls, keyboards and virtual gamepads you can find without fumbling around on the screen. As Gizmodonotes, haptic feedback like Apple’s Taptic Engine produces natural-feeling vibrations but doesn’t help you find onscreen elements by touch alone. For activities like typing and playing games that require rapid-fire response time, a screen with pop-up elements could make things much less frustrating.

The Embedded Electroosmotic Pumps (EEOPs) are arrays of fluid pumps on a thin actuation layer built into a touchscreen device, like a smartphone or car display. When an onscreen element requires a pop-up button, fluid fills a section of the EEOP layer, and the OLED panel on top bends to take that shape. The result is a “button” that sticks out from the flat surface by as much as 1.5 mm, enough to feel the difference. When the software dismisses it, it recedes back into the flat display. The research team says filling each area takes about one second, and they feel solid to touch.

Future Interfaces Group at Carnegie Mellon

If the concept sounds familiar (and you’ve been following consumer tech long enough), this tech may remind you of Tactus’ rising touchscreen keyboard, which ultimately shipped as a bulky iPad mini case. FIG’s prototype can take on more dynamic shapes and sizes, and the research team says their version’s thinness sets it apart from similar attempts. “The main advantage of this approach is that the entire mechanical system exists in a compact and thin form factor,” FIG said in its narration for a demo video. “Our device stack-ups are under 5mm in thickness while still offering 5mm of displacement. Additionally, they are self-contained, powered only by a pair of electrical cables and control electronics. They’re also lightweight (under 40 grams for this device), and they are capable of enough force to withstand user interaction.”

The researchers see this as a tactile equivalent to the way pixels work on displays. “Much like LCD pixels, which modulate light from a common backlight, EEOPs draw from a common fluid reservoir and selectively modulate hydraulic pressure in and out of haptic cells.”

The pop-up buttons in their current form have a limited scope of shapes and sizes, reducing their versatility. But if they can eventually apply the same principle to a layer with more / smaller pop-up buttons (essentially “higher resolution” if we’re extending the “pixels” metaphor), it could open new doors for user interaction, including easier onscreen typing, gaming, in-car controls and even accessibility features like onscreen braille.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/this-oled-screen-can-fill-with-liquid-to-form-tactile-buttons-204829553.html?src=rss

A wayward rocket has caused a rift between two Scandinavian nations after accidentally falling on the wrong side of the border.

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