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A bipartisan group of senators is calling out the auto industry for its “hypocritical, profit-driven” opposition to national right-to-repair legislation, while also selling customer data to insurance companies and other third-party interests.
In a letter sent to the CEOs of the top automakers, the trio of legislators — Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Josh Hawley (R-MO) — urge them to better protect customer privacy, while also dropping their opposition to state and national right-to-repair efforts.
“Right-to-repair laws support consumer choice and prevent automakers from using restrictive repair laws to their financial advantage,” the senators write. “It is clear that the motivation behind automotive companies’ avoidance of complying with right-to-repair laws is not due to a concern for consumer security or privacy, but instead a hypocritical, profit-driven reaction.”
“Right-to-repair laws support consumer choice and prevent automakers from using restrictive repair laws to their financial advantage.”
For years, the right-to-repair movement has largely focused on consumer electronics, like phones and laptops. But lately, the idea that you should get to decide how and where to repair your own products has grown to include cars, especially as more vehicles on the road have essentially become giant computers on wheels.
Along with that, automakers have taken to collecting vast amounts of data on their millions of customers, including driving habits, that they then turn around and sell to third-party data brokers. Earlier this year, The New York Times published an investigation into General Motors’ practice of providing microdetails about its customers’ driving habits, including acceleration, braking, and trip length, to insurance companies — without their consent.

Several states have passed right-to-repair laws in recent years, aiming to protect consumers from high prices and unscrupulous practices. In 2020, Massachusetts voters approved a ballot measure to give car owners and independent repair shops greater access to vehicle repair data. But automakers sued to block the law, and four years later, the law remains dormant.

2024.12.19 Letter to Automakers Re Right-To-Repair and Data Sharing (Combined) by ahawkins8223 on Scribd

The auto industry claims to support right to repair. And some facts bear this out. For decades, small, independent auto body and repair shops flourished thanks to the idea that car maintenance is universal — that anyone with a socket wrench and some grease can repair or modify their own vehicle.
But as cars have become more connected, a lot of that work now relies on data and access to the digital information needed to diagnose and repair vehicles. And right-to-repair advocates, along with independent repair shops, are worried that major automakers are trying to kill their businesses by funneling all the work to their franchised dealerships, which typically cost more than the smaller garages.
In the letter, Warren, Merkley, and Hawley demand that automakers drop their “fierce opposition” to these right-to-repair laws, calling it “hypocritical” and monopolistic.
As the gatekeepers of vehicle parts, equipment, and data, automobile manufacturers have the power to place restrictions on the necessary tools and information for repairs, particularly as cars increasingly incorporate electronic components. This often leaves car owners with no other option than to have their vehicles serviced by official dealerships, entrenching auto manufacturers’ dominance and eliminating competition from independent repair shops.
Automakers have raised cybersecurity concerns, including the specter of some bad actor remote hacking your car while driving it, as an excuse for fighting right-to-repair laws. But these concerns are “based on speculative future risks rather than facts,” the senators note. They cite a Federal Trade Commission study that found “no empirical evidence” backing up the auto industry’s claims that independent shops would be more or less likely to compromise customer data than authorized ones.
It’s more likely that auto companies want to limit access to vehicle data for profit-driven reasons, the senators say. And that despite loudly proclaiming to care about cybersecurity, few companies actually comply with basic security standards when collecting, sharing, or selling consumer data.
While carmakers have been fighting tooth and nail against right-to-repair laws that would require them to share vehicle data with consumers and independent repairers, they have simultaneously been sharing large amounts of sensitive consumer data with insurance companies and other third parties for profit — often without clear consumer consent. In fact, some car companies use the threat of increased insurance costs to push consumers to opt into safe driving features, and then use those features to collect and sell the user data.
The senators conclude by urging the auto CEOs to abandon their hypocritical opposition to right-to-repair laws, while also pressing them to answer a list of questions about their data-gathering practices.
“We’re pushing these automakers to stop ripping Americans off,” Warren said in a statement to The Verge. “Americans deserve the right to repair their cars wherever they choose, and independent repair shops deserve a chance to compete with these giants.”

Image: Getty

A bipartisan group of senators is calling out the auto industry for its “hypocritical, profit-driven” opposition to national right-to-repair legislation, while also selling customer data to insurance companies and other third-party interests.

In a letter sent to the CEOs of the top automakers, the trio of legislators — Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Josh Hawley (R-MO) — urge them to better protect customer privacy, while also dropping their opposition to state and national right-to-repair efforts.

“Right-to-repair laws support consumer choice and prevent automakers from using restrictive repair laws to their financial advantage,” the senators write. “It is clear that the motivation behind automotive companies’ avoidance of complying with right-to-repair laws is not due to a concern for consumer security or privacy, but instead a hypocritical, profit-driven reaction.”

For years, the right-to-repair movement has largely focused on consumer electronics, like phones and laptops. But lately, the idea that you should get to decide how and where to repair your own products has grown to include cars, especially as more vehicles on the road have essentially become giant computers on wheels.

Along with that, automakers have taken to collecting vast amounts of data on their millions of customers, including driving habits, that they then turn around and sell to third-party data brokers. Earlier this year, The New York Times published an investigation into General Motors’ practice of providing microdetails about its customers’ driving habits, including acceleration, braking, and trip length, to insurance companies — without their consent.

Several states have passed right-to-repair laws in recent years, aiming to protect consumers from high prices and unscrupulous practices. In 2020, Massachusetts voters approved a ballot measure to give car owners and independent repair shops greater access to vehicle repair data. But automakers sued to block the law, and four years later, the law remains dormant.

The auto industry claims to support right to repair. And some facts bear this out. For decades, small, independent auto body and repair shops flourished thanks to the idea that car maintenance is universal — that anyone with a socket wrench and some grease can repair or modify their own vehicle.

But as cars have become more connected, a lot of that work now relies on data and access to the digital information needed to diagnose and repair vehicles. And right-to-repair advocates, along with independent repair shops, are worried that major automakers are trying to kill their businesses by funneling all the work to their franchised dealerships, which typically cost more than the smaller garages.

In the letter, Warren, Merkley, and Hawley demand that automakers drop their “fierce opposition” to these right-to-repair laws, calling it “hypocritical” and monopolistic.

As the gatekeepers of vehicle parts, equipment, and data, automobile manufacturers have the power to place restrictions on the necessary tools and information for repairs, particularly as cars increasingly incorporate electronic components. This often leaves car owners with no other option than to have their vehicles serviced by official dealerships, entrenching auto manufacturers’ dominance and eliminating competition from independent repair shops.

Automakers have raised cybersecurity concerns, including the specter of some bad actor remote hacking your car while driving it, as an excuse for fighting right-to-repair laws. But these concerns are “based on speculative future risks rather than facts,” the senators note. They cite a Federal Trade Commission study that found “no empirical evidence” backing up the auto industry’s claims that independent shops would be more or less likely to compromise customer data than authorized ones.

It’s more likely that auto companies want to limit access to vehicle data for profit-driven reasons, the senators say. And that despite loudly proclaiming to care about cybersecurity, few companies actually comply with basic security standards when collecting, sharing, or selling consumer data.

While carmakers have been fighting tooth and nail against right-to-repair laws that would require them to share vehicle data with consumers and independent repairers, they have simultaneously been sharing large amounts of sensitive consumer data with insurance companies and other third parties for profit — often without clear consumer consent. In fact, some car companies use the threat of increased insurance costs to push consumers to opt into safe driving features, and then use those features to collect and sell the user data.

The senators conclude by urging the auto CEOs to abandon their hypocritical opposition to right-to-repair laws, while also pressing them to answer a list of questions about their data-gathering practices.

“We’re pushing these automakers to stop ripping Americans off,” Warren said in a statement to The Verge. “Americans deserve the right to repair their cars wherever they choose, and independent repair shops deserve a chance to compete with these giants.”

Read More 

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

Bluesky now has a specific tab for mentions in your notifications as part of the app’s just-released 1.96 update. With the mentions tab, it’s much easier to see your replies or conversations you’ve been tagged in on the platform.
Speaking of replies, update 1.96 lets you easily access settings that let you control how replies on posts appear to you. Replies can be linear, meaning they show up one post after another, or threaded, which means they will appear in indented threads (kind of like how they appear on Reddit). You can also sort replies by newest, oldest, most-liked, “hot,” and “random” (which Bluesky also calls “Poster’s Roulette”).

App Version 1.96 is rolling out now (1/6)

In this release: a notifications Mentions tab, reserving your default username when you verify your account with a domain, and other improvements!— Bluesky (@bsky.app) 2024-12-19T21:54:27.472Z

If you choose to set a custom domain as your username, with 1.96, Bluesky will also reserve your old .bsky.social name so that it can’t be picked up by someone else. I wish this feature had been available when I set my custom domain — when I did that, I made an alt account that’s parked on my old .bsky.social name so that it doesn’t get taken.

Bluesky saw a surge of new users in November, and although growth has slowed as of late, the platform surpassed 25 million total users last week. The company plans to launch a subscription service early next year and, at some point, its own payment platform.
And the platform has some big competition from Meta’s Threads, which seems to be doing everything it can to remind people that it can ship lots of features and that it’s much larger than Bluesky.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

Bluesky now has a specific tab for mentions in your notifications as part of the app’s just-released 1.96 update. With the mentions tab, it’s much easier to see your replies or conversations you’ve been tagged in on the platform.

Speaking of replies, update 1.96 lets you easily access settings that let you control how replies on posts appear to you. Replies can be linear, meaning they show up one post after another, or threaded, which means they will appear in indented threads (kind of like how they appear on Reddit). You can also sort replies by newest, oldest, most-liked, “hot,” and “random” (which Bluesky also calls “Poster’s Roulette”).

If you choose to set a custom domain as your username, with 1.96, Bluesky will also reserve your old .bsky.social name so that it can’t be picked up by someone else. I wish this feature had been available when I set my custom domain — when I did that, I made an alt account that’s parked on my old .bsky.social name so that it doesn’t get taken.

Bluesky saw a surge of new users in November, and although growth has slowed as of late, the platform surpassed 25 million total users last week. The company plans to launch a subscription service early next year and, at some point, its own payment platform.

And the platform has some big competition from Meta’s Threads, which seems to be doing everything it can to remind people that it can ship lots of features and that it’s much larger than Bluesky.

Read More 

The Verge

A Google Street View image played in role in solving a missing person investigation in Spain, according to reports from the BBC and The New York Times. The image, which can still be seen on Street View, shows what appears to be a person loading a large object into the trunk of a car, as Gizmodo points out. Another image showed someone “transporting a large white bundle in a wheelbarrow,” the BBC reports.
Spanish National Police:

Part of the human remains of the missing person have been found buried in a cemetery in a town in the province of Soria and advanced technical means had to be used to locate them.
One of the clues that investigators had to solve the crime, although it was not decisive, was some images that they detected during the investigations in a location search application.

Screenshot: Google
This is the Google Street View image allegedly linked to the crime.

Though the press release doesn’t explicitly name the location application it used, a spokesperson for the Spanish National Police confirmed to The New York Times that it was Google Maps while also saying, “The image was not the key to solving the case.”
Authorities were investigating the case of a 33-year-old man who disappeared last year while visiting a partner in Tajueco, Soria, according to the Spanish outlet El País. Police arrested a woman and her ex-partner in connection with the crime in November.
Google Maps has been credited with helping investigators in the past, with Italian authorities using Street View to trace the location of a mafia fugitive in 2022.

The Verge

A Google Street View image played in role in solving a missing person investigation in Spain, according to reports from the BBC and The New York Times. The image, which can still be seen on Street View, shows what appears to be a person loading a large object into the trunk of a car, as Gizmodo points out. Another image showed someone “transporting a large white bundle in a wheelbarrow,” the BBC reports.

Spanish National Police:

Part of the human remains of the missing person have been found buried in a cemetery in a town in the province of Soria and advanced technical means had to be used to locate them.

One of the clues that investigators had to solve the crime, although it was not decisive, was some images that they detected during the investigations in a location search application.

Screenshot: Google
This is the Google Street View image allegedly linked to the crime.

Though the press release doesn’t explicitly name the location application it used, a spokesperson for the Spanish National Police confirmed to The New York Times that it was Google Maps while also saying, “The image was not the key to solving the case.”

Authorities were investigating the case of a 33-year-old man who disappeared last year while visiting a partner in Tajueco, Soria, according to the Spanish outlet El País. Police arrested a woman and her ex-partner in connection with the crime in November.

Google Maps has been credited with helping investigators in the past, with Italian authorities using Street View to trace the location of a mafia fugitive in 2022.

Read More 

Image: HBO

The first season of Dune: Prophecy is about to wrap up — but there’s more on the way. Ahead of the finale on December 22nd, HBO has confirmed than the prequel series has been renewed for a second season.
The show premiered in November, and takes place 10,000 years before the events of the Dune movies from Denis Villeneuve. It stars Emily Watson and Olivia Williams as two Harkonnen sisters who form the galaxy-defining sect known as the Bene Gesserit.
“If you just know the Harkonnens from the movies, they’re these monstrous villains who are very clearly the bad guys,” showrunner Alison Schapker told The Verge about the series. “But that’s not where they started off, and this kind of story gave us a chance to complicate that understanding and dig into what made them that way.”
There’s no word on when to expect season 2, but it’s also not the only Dune project on the way: Dune 3 is in the works, as is a survival game set on Arrakkis.

Image: HBO

The first season of Dune: Prophecy is about to wrap up — but there’s more on the way. Ahead of the finale on December 22nd, HBO has confirmed than the prequel series has been renewed for a second season.

The show premiered in November, and takes place 10,000 years before the events of the Dune movies from Denis Villeneuve. It stars Emily Watson and Olivia Williams as two Harkonnen sisters who form the galaxy-defining sect known as the Bene Gesserit.

“If you just know the Harkonnens from the movies, they’re these monstrous villains who are very clearly the bad guys,” showrunner Alison Schapker told The Verge about the series. “But that’s not where they started off, and this kind of story gave us a chance to complicate that understanding and dig into what made them that way.”

There’s no word on when to expect season 2, but it’s also not the only Dune project on the way: Dune 3 is in the works, as is a survival game set on Arrakkis.

Read More 

Illustration: The Verge

Google Keep is being upgraded to a system app on Android 16 devices, joining the ranks of other Android apps that provide essential services like calling and messaging, reports Android Police.
Google’s free note-taking app appears as a system app on the latest Android 16 beta, Android 16 Developer Preview 2. Anyone upgrading to this OS version will no longer be able to uninstall the app unless they have root access.

Google integrated Keep with its Tasks feature in April after last year’s upgrades broke a trend of ignoring its note-taking app. Yet all of a sudden, it’s apparently considered a core feature vital to Android’s operating system, like Google’s Phone, Contacts, and Google Play Store apps.
Google has yet to explain the change, but this suggests the company could be planning on upgrading Google Keep with more powerful features so it’ll play a more central role in Android 16. It’s possible Google could be planning on integrating it with other core Android features, for example.

Illustration: The Verge

Google Keep is being upgraded to a system app on Android 16 devices, joining the ranks of other Android apps that provide essential services like calling and messaging, reports Android Police.

Google’s free note-taking app appears as a system app on the latest Android 16 beta, Android 16 Developer Preview 2. Anyone upgrading to this OS version will no longer be able to uninstall the app unless they have root access.

Google integrated Keep with its Tasks feature in April after last year’s upgrades broke a trend of ignoring its note-taking app. Yet all of a sudden, it’s apparently considered a core feature vital to Android’s operating system, like Google’s Phone, Contacts, and Google Play Store apps.

Google has yet to explain the change, but this suggests the company could be planning on upgrading Google Keep with more powerful features so it’ll play a more central role in Android 16. It’s possible Google could be planning on integrating it with other core Android features, for example.

Read More 

The Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition is the first hardware from the open-source smart home platform that’s designed for voice control. | Image: Nabu Casa

There’s a new voice assistant in town, and this one can work locally in your home without phoning home to its corporate overloads. This week, the popular hobbyist smart home platform Home Assistant officially launched its first voice assistant hardware — Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition.
Built for the open-source smart home platform, Voice PE costs $59 and brings a locally controlled, privacy-focused voice assistant to Home Assistant in a plug-and-play package. Once connected to Home Assistant, you can use voice to control any connected device, with commands such as “Turn on the living room lights,” “Lock all the doors,” “Create a timer for 5 minutes,” and many more.

While Home Assistant users have been able to control their smart homes with voice using either Home Assistant’s Assist on less capable third-party hardware or through the cloud by connecting to third-party services like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, this is the first dedicated Home Assistant voice hardware product.
Voice PE is the culmination of Home Assistant’s Year of the Voice, an effort from Nabu Casa, the organization behind Home Assistant, to let users control their homes locally, privately, and in their own language. It currently supports over 50 languages, compared to eight for Alexa and 20 for Google Assistant.

Image: Nabu Casa
The Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition.

The Voice PE is a small white box, about the size of your palm, with dual microphones and an audio processor. An internal speaker lets you hear the assistant, but you can also connect a speaker to it via a 3.5 mm headphone jack for better-quality media playback.
Out of the box, you can talk to Assist with the wake words “Okay Nabu,” “Hey Jarvis,” or “Hey Mycroft.”
A colored LED ring on top of the Voice PE indicates when the assistant is listening. It surrounds a rotary dial and a physical button, which is used for setup and to talk to the voice assistant without using the wake word. The button can also be customized to do whatever you want (because this is Home Assistant). A physical mute switch is on the side, and the device is powered by USB-C (charger and cable not included). There’s also a Grove port where you can add sensors and other accessories.
Speaking of wake words, out of the box, you can talk to Assist with the wake words “Okay Nabu,” “Hey Jarvis,” or “Hey Mycroft.” If you want to get fancy, you can program a custom wake word.
The assistant can run locally in your home without an internet connection on Home Assistant hardware (such as the Home Assistant Green hub), or it can use the Home Assistant cloud. According to Nabu Casa, the latter is faster and supports more languages. The company says your data is not stored on the cloud nor used for training.

For those who don’t like the idea of always-listening microphones in their home from companies such as Amazon and Google, but who still want the convenience of controlling their home with their voice, the potential here is huge. But it may be a while until Voice PE is ready to replace your Echo or Nest smart speaker.
The Verge’s Callie Wright, a Home Assistant superuser, has been testing the Voice PE for a few weeks. While they are impressed with its capabilities (although it had some trouble understanding them when there was background noise), they aren’t quite ready to kick Alexa to the curb. “I think Amazon’s Alexa is still worth the privacy tradeoffs for me just because there are key things for me that Voice PE can’t pull off,” they say. “But the progress Home Assistant has made in its Year of the Voice has been incredible, and I’m more hopeful than ever that that future is coming.”
While the intention is to surpass “Big Tech voice assistants,” Paulus Schoutsen, founder of Home Assistant, recognizes it’s not there yet. Hence, Voice is launching as a Preview Edition. “For some, the current capabilities of our voice assistant will be all they need, especially those who just want to set timers, manage their shopping list, and control their most used devices,” says Schoutsen. “For others, we understand they want to ask their voice assistant to make whale sounds or to tell them how tall Taylor Swift is — our voice assistant doesn’t do those things… yet.”
In the meantime, if you want more features, Voice PE can connect to supported AI models, such as ChatGPT or Gemini, to fully replace Assist or use it as a fallback for commands it doesn’t understand. But for many smart home users, there will be plenty of value in a simple, inexpensive device that lets you turn your lights on and off, start a timer, and execute other useful commands with your voice without relying on an internet connection.

The Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition is the first hardware from the open-source smart home platform that’s designed for voice control. | Image: Nabu Casa

There’s a new voice assistant in town, and this one can work locally in your home without phoning home to its corporate overloads. This week, the popular hobbyist smart home platform Home Assistant officially launched its first voice assistant hardware — Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition.

Built for the open-source smart home platform, Voice PE costs $59 and brings a locally controlled, privacy-focused voice assistant to Home Assistant in a plug-and-play package. Once connected to Home Assistant, you can use voice to control any connected device, with commands such as “Turn on the living room lights,” “Lock all the doors,” “Create a timer for 5 minutes,” and many more.

While Home Assistant users have been able to control their smart homes with voice using either Home Assistant’s Assist on less capable third-party hardware or through the cloud by connecting to third-party services like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, this is the first dedicated Home Assistant voice hardware product.

Voice PE is the culmination of Home Assistant’s Year of the Voice, an effort from Nabu Casa, the organization behind Home Assistant, to let users control their homes locally, privately, and in their own language. It currently supports over 50 languages, compared to eight for Alexa and 20 for Google Assistant.

Image: Nabu Casa
The Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition.

The Voice PE is a small white box, about the size of your palm, with dual microphones and an audio processor. An internal speaker lets you hear the assistant, but you can also connect a speaker to it via a 3.5 mm headphone jack for better-quality media playback.

A colored LED ring on top of the Voice PE indicates when the assistant is listening. It surrounds a rotary dial and a physical button, which is used for setup and to talk to the voice assistant without using the wake word. The button can also be customized to do whatever you want (because this is Home Assistant). A physical mute switch is on the side, and the device is powered by USB-C (charger and cable not included). There’s also a Grove port where you can add sensors and other accessories.

Speaking of wake words, out of the box, you can talk to Assist with the wake words “Okay Nabu,” “Hey Jarvis,” or “Hey Mycroft.” If you want to get fancy, you can program a custom wake word.

The assistant can run locally in your home without an internet connection on Home Assistant hardware (such as the Home Assistant Green hub), or it can use the Home Assistant cloud. According to Nabu Casa, the latter is faster and supports more languages. The company says your data is not stored on the cloud nor used for training.

For those who don’t like the idea of always-listening microphones in their home from companies such as Amazon and Google, but who still want the convenience of controlling their home with their voice, the potential here is huge. But it may be a while until Voice PE is ready to replace your Echo or Nest smart speaker.

The Verge’s Callie Wright, a Home Assistant superuser, has been testing the Voice PE for a few weeks. While they are impressed with its capabilities (although it had some trouble understanding them when there was background noise), they aren’t quite ready to kick Alexa to the curb. “I think Amazon’s Alexa is still worth the privacy tradeoffs for me just because there are key things for me that Voice PE can’t pull off,” they say. “But the progress Home Assistant has made in its Year of the Voice has been incredible, and I’m more hopeful than ever that that future is coming.”

While the intention is to surpass “Big Tech voice assistants,” Paulus Schoutsen, founder of Home Assistant, recognizes it’s not there yet. Hence, Voice is launching as a Preview Edition. “For some, the current capabilities of our voice assistant will be all they need, especially those who just want to set timers, manage their shopping list, and control their most used devices,” says Schoutsen. “For others, we understand they want to ask their voice assistant to make whale sounds or to tell them how tall Taylor Swift is — our voice assistant doesn’t do those things… yet.”

In the meantime, if you want more features, Voice PE can connect to supported AI models, such as ChatGPT or Gemini, to fully replace Assist or use it as a fallback for commands it doesn’t understand. But for many smart home users, there will be plenty of value in a simple, inexpensive device that lets you turn your lights on and off, start a timer, and execute other useful commands with your voice without relying on an internet connection.

Read More 

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

Thousands of delivery drivers who work for Amazon third-party contractors are now on strike, The New York Times reports. The workers are striking after “Amazon’s repeated refusal to follow the law and bargain with the thousands of Amazon workers who organized with the Teamsters,” according to a Teamsters press release.
Workers are picketing at Amazon warehouses from Atlanta, New York City, San Francisco, Southern California, and Skokie, Ill., with other Amazon Teamsters “prepared to join them,” the Teamsters say. “Teamsters local unions are also putting up primary picket lines at hundreds of Amazon Fulfillment Centers nationwide.”
The National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against Amazon earlier this year, saying that Amazon and one of its third-party contractors are joint employers of delivery drivers and that it has “a legal duty to recognize and bargain with the Teamsters Union,” per another Teamsters press release.
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel shared the following statement with New York City’s WPIX and with The Verge:
For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative. The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.
Amazon employees who have organized with the Teamsters voted last week to authorize a strike.
Update, December 19th: Added that Amazon sent us a statement.

Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

Thousands of delivery drivers who work for Amazon third-party contractors are now on strike, The New York Times reports. The workers are striking after “Amazon’s repeated refusal to follow the law and bargain with the thousands of Amazon workers who organized with the Teamsters,” according to a Teamsters press release.

Workers are picketing at Amazon warehouses from Atlanta, New York City, San Francisco, Southern California, and Skokie, Ill., with other Amazon Teamsters “prepared to join them,” the Teamsters say. “Teamsters local unions are also putting up primary picket lines at hundreds of Amazon Fulfillment Centers nationwide.”

The National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against Amazon earlier this year, saying that Amazon and one of its third-party contractors are joint employers of delivery drivers and that it has “a legal duty to recognize and bargain with the Teamsters Union,” per another Teamsters press release.

Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel shared the following statement with New York City’s WPIX and with The Verge:

For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative. The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.

Amazon employees who have organized with the Teamsters voted last week to authorize a strike.

Update, December 19th: Added that Amazon sent us a statement.

Read More 

Image: The Verge

In what seems to be a battle between Threads and Bluesky for the hearts and minds of ex-Twitterers, Threads has been adding some interesting new features. The latest is the ability to share photos and videos without including the original post — in other words, without quote posting. (There’s a similar feature in X for videos.)
There has been some initial pushback on it. A photographer on Threads complained that “there will be a small watermark-like credit on the photo, but there won’t be a link back to your account.”

Curious, I tried out the new feature, went to see if there was indeed no link back to the original post, and followed bryanhansel’s instructions for turning it off. Here’s what happened, and how you can use and adjust Threads’ new feature. (All of these instructions have been followed using the mobile app.)
To share images alone

Long-press on the image you want to share. A menu will pop up at the bottom of the screen.
To share just the image, tap on Use media.
The image will appear as a new thread, with space above it to add your own comment. Select Post when you’re ready.

The new post will indeed have the image with only your comment and without the previous…
Read the full story at The Verge.

Image: The Verge

In what seems to be a battle between Threads and Bluesky for the hearts and minds of ex-Twitterers, Threads has been adding some interesting new features. The latest is the ability to share photos and videos without including the original post — in other words, without quote posting. (There’s a similar feature in X for videos.)

There has been some initial pushback on it. A photographer on Threads complained that “there will be a small watermark-like credit on the photo, but there won’t be a link back to your account.”

Curious, I tried out the new feature, went to see if there was indeed no link back to the original post, and followed bryanhansel’s instructions for turning it off. Here’s what happened, and how you can use and adjust Threads’ new feature. (All of these instructions have been followed using the mobile app.)

To share images alone

Long-press on the image you want to share. A menu will pop up at the bottom of the screen.
To share just the image, tap on Use media.
The image will appear as a new thread, with space above it to add your own comment. Select Post when you’re ready.

The new post will indeed have the image with only your comment and without the previous…

Read the full story at The Verge.

Read More 

Illustration: The Verge

Google has introduced a new AI “reasoning” model capable of answering complex questions while also providing a rundown of its “thoughts,” as reported earlier by TechCrunch. The model, called Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking, is still experimental and will likely compete with OpenAI’s o1 reasoning model.
In a post on X, Google DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean says the model is “trained to use thoughts to strengthen its reasoning,” and also benefits from the speed that comes along with the faster Gemini Flash 2.0 model. The demo shared by Dean shows how Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking goes about answering a physics problem by “thinking” through a series of steps before offering a solution.

Want to see Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking in action? Check out this demo where the model solves a physics problem and explains its reasoning. pic.twitter.com/Nl0hYj7ZFS— Jeff Dean (@JeffDean) December 19, 2024

This isn’t necessarily “reasoning” in the way humans perform it, but it means the machine breaks down instructions into smaller tasks that can produce stronger outcomes.
Another example, posted by Google product lead Logan Kilpatrick, shows the model reasoning its way through a problem that involves both visual and textual elements. “This is just the first step in our reasoning journey,” Kilpatrick says. You can try out Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking on Google’s AI Studio.
There have been quite a few notable updates in the AI space as of late, with Google revealing its upgraded Gemini 2.0 model earlier this month as part of the company’s push into “agentic” AI. Meanwhile, OpenAI made the full version of its o1 reasoning model available to ChatGPT subscribers.

Illustration: The Verge

Google has introduced a new AI “reasoning” model capable of answering complex questions while also providing a rundown of its “thoughts,” as reported earlier by TechCrunch. The model, called Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking, is still experimental and will likely compete with OpenAI’s o1 reasoning model.

In a post on X, Google DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean says the model is “trained to use thoughts to strengthen its reasoning,” and also benefits from the speed that comes along with the faster Gemini Flash 2.0 model. The demo shared by Dean shows how Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking goes about answering a physics problem by “thinking” through a series of steps before offering a solution.

This isn’t necessarily “reasoning” in the way humans perform it, but it means the machine breaks down instructions into smaller tasks that can produce stronger outcomes.

Another example, posted by Google product lead Logan Kilpatrick, shows the model reasoning its way through a problem that involves both visual and textual elements. “This is just the first step in our reasoning journey,” Kilpatrick says. You can try out Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking on Google’s AI Studio.

There have been quite a few notable updates in the AI space as of late, with Google revealing its upgraded Gemini 2.0 model earlier this month as part of the company’s push into “agentic” AI. Meanwhile, OpenAI made the full version of its o1 reasoning model available to ChatGPT subscribers.

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8BitDo’s new Mini Wired Xbox controller is smaller and lighter than its Ultimate C gamepad. | Image: 8BitDo

8BitDo has announced an alternate version of its Ultimate C wired Xbox controller that’s 20 percent smaller and 10 percent lighter while still featuring full-sized triggers, joysticks, and buttons.
Although the new 8BitDo Ultimate Mini is designed for kids and teens, it will also appeal to any gamer with smaller hands who struggles with the size and weight of standard controllers. At 189.6 grams it’s lighter than the 287-gram Xbox Series S and X controllers (including batteries) and weighs less than half of “The Duke,” the 550-gram wired controllers the original Xbox shipped with. It’s available now in the US through Amazon for $34.99, as well as 8BitDo’s online store.

Image: 8BitDo
The joysticks and buttons on the Ultimate Mini are all closer to each other, but the same size as on a standard Xbox controller.

The Ultimate Mini features the same layout as larger Xbox controllers but with action buttons, the directional pad, and its drift-resistant magnetic Hall effect joysticks all positioned closer together. There are also Hall effect triggers on the back, along with a pair of slightly smaller shoulder buttons.

Image: 8BitDo
A ring of LEDs surrounding each joystick offers different interactive lighting modes.

It comes with a white, pink, or green translucent shell, which makes a ring of LEDs surrounding each joystick glow more prominently. Called the Fire Ring, there are different lighting modes that react to various button presses with flashes, cycle through different colors, or follow the direction each joystick is being pushed.
The 8BitDo Ultimate Mini is compatible with the Xbox One, Xbox Series S and X, and PCs running Windows 10 or 11. There’s no wireless connectivity which helps keep the controller lightweight without batteries inside. But parents with kids who are prone to rage-quitting games and throwing their controllers may want to think twice about a gamepad that’s physically tethered to a console with no breakaway connector.

8BitDo’s new Mini Wired Xbox controller is smaller and lighter than its Ultimate C gamepad. | Image: 8BitDo

8BitDo has announced an alternate version of its Ultimate C wired Xbox controller that’s 20 percent smaller and 10 percent lighter while still featuring full-sized triggers, joysticks, and buttons.

Although the new 8BitDo Ultimate Mini is designed for kids and teens, it will also appeal to any gamer with smaller hands who struggles with the size and weight of standard controllers. At 189.6 grams it’s lighter than the 287-gram Xbox Series S and X controllers (including batteries) and weighs less than half of “The Duke,” the 550-gram wired controllers the original Xbox shipped with. It’s available now in the US through Amazon for $34.99, as well as 8BitDo’s online store.

Image: 8BitDo
The joysticks and buttons on the Ultimate Mini are all closer to each other, but the same size as on a standard Xbox controller.

The Ultimate Mini features the same layout as larger Xbox controllers but with action buttons, the directional pad, and its drift-resistant magnetic Hall effect joysticks all positioned closer together. There are also Hall effect triggers on the back, along with a pair of slightly smaller shoulder buttons.

Image: 8BitDo
A ring of LEDs surrounding each joystick offers different interactive lighting modes.

It comes with a white, pink, or green translucent shell, which makes a ring of LEDs surrounding each joystick glow more prominently. Called the Fire Ring, there are different lighting modes that react to various button presses with flashes, cycle through different colors, or follow the direction each joystick is being pushed.

The 8BitDo Ultimate Mini is compatible with the Xbox One, Xbox Series S and X, and PCs running Windows 10 or 11. There’s no wireless connectivity which helps keep the controller lightweight without batteries inside. But parents with kids who are prone to rage-quitting games and throwing their controllers may want to think twice about a gamepad that’s physically tethered to a console with no breakaway connector.

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