Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 97

A report has surfaced that claims Amazon tech workers are calling in sick in protest of the company's treatment of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the protesters are taking the social distancing and rules concerning how many people can gather once seriously, they are hosting a series of live-streamed speakers virtually rather than a physical rally, a sort of virtual walkout. The protest is reportedly a response to Amazon allegedly firing six workers in recent weeks who have called for improved safety precautions during the coronavirus pandemic.

Among those allegedly terminated for calling for improved safety precautions were two long-time user experience designers with the company. Both of the terminated workers are said to have been prominent members of the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice and had publicly voiced support for improved warehouse conditions. The two workers are called Maren Costa and Emily Cunningham.

Both of those women were allegedly fired shortly after a colleague sent an email inviting employees to an online event that featured warehouse workers speaking about their experience. Over 1500 Amazon employees had registered to attend the event, which is said to have been deleted from calendars along with the email. Costa says that she was fired for violating the company's non-solicitation policy during a short video call with an HR representative.

Tech titan Intel reports strong Q1 results thanks to growth in all segments from data center to PC gaming.

Today Intel announced its Q1'2020 results for the period ending March 31, 2020, and they're quite good. The chip-maker earned $19.8 billion in total net revenues across all segments, up 23% year-over-year, driven by strong adoption of its new Xeon processors in the Data Center Group segment. Operating income, or revenues generated from operations, was up a staggering 69% YoY to $7 billion, and total profits for the quarter jumped by a whopping 42% from last year to $5.7 billion. Earnings per share (EPS) was up a tremendous 51% to $1.31 in the quarter.

Intel's important segments rose quite a bit during Q1. The PC gaming Client Computing Group, which makes the lion's share of Intel's earnings, jumped by a healthy 14% to $9.8 billion thanks to hardware purchases and the release of Intel's latest 10th-gen H-series chips in newer gaming notebooks.

One of the things people forced to work from home don't like is having coworkers see their home in the background. Few are keen to be judged on their housekeeping capabilities or decor. One of the features that have made Zoom so popular is that it can add custom backgrounds to block out what's behind you.

Those who prefer Skype will be glad to hear that Skype has rolled out a new version of the app for Mac, Windows, Linux, and the web that add support for custom backgrounds. The support that was previously available to blur the background during a video call remains. Skype says in its description for the new feature that users can look like they're anywhere, including calling from the beach or space.

To customize the background for Skype while in a call, Microsoft says landscape images work best, and the image has to be locally saved on the computer. The first step is hovering over the video button or clicking the more menu during a call. Next up is clicking the choose background effect button. After that button is clicked, users can blur the room they're in, or choose an image previously added for the new custom image to change the background effect.

One of the services has been heavily used during the coronavirus outbreak as more people work from home, and schools teach remotely, is Google Meet. Google has announced an update to the service that allows Google Meet to see 16 participants at once using a tiled layout. Google says that being able to see more people at the same time can help improve the dynamics of larger group meetings and classes.

Being able to see 16 faces on the screen at once allows the user to see reactions to what's being discussed or more easily track multiple speakers, according to Google. The update can also help meetings conducted remotely feel more like in-person meetings and encourage participation. Google has designed the layout to adjust to show the active speaker.

For those participating in a meeting that has more than 16 people, an option to open the list of participants to see who else is in the meeting has been added. Google took the opportunity to remind that all G Suite customers can host meetings with up to 250 participants at no additional cost through September 30, 2020. That feature is currently only available on Meet on the web.

Facebook has announced that it has rolled out its Facebook Messenger Kids messaging service to 70 additional countries. The social network says that with schools closed and people physically distancing from each other, parents are turning to technology to help keep kids connected with friends and family. Messenger Kids is a video chat messaging app that helps kids connect with friends and family in a fun and parent-controlled space.

As of today, kids in more than 70 additional countries around the world can use Messenger Kids with more countries coming soon. The full list of supported countries is available here. The Messenger Kids app is available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and all Android devices. The app is available to download from the App Store, Amazon Appstore, and Google Play Store.

Facebook says that it has brought in advisors to ensure that Messenger Kids is a service that balances parental control with features that allow kids to learn how to connect with others responsibly online. One complaint Facebook says it's heard from parents and kids that it's hard to find friends and connect with them in the app. To help make finding friends easier, there are new options to help parents connect kids with their friends.

It couldn't come at a worse time, but the CDC, Gates Foundation, NIH, WHO, and the World Bank have been hacked and close to 25,000 email addresses and passwords were leaked online.

I saw this get leaked onto Twitter by "conspiracy theorists" and didn't look twice, but now it is hitting the media and seems a little more serious. Unknown hackers -- and from some of what I've read, Anonymous -- have leaked out nearly 25,000 email addresses and passwords from the likes of CDC, Gates Foundation, NIH, WHO, and the World Bank.

The SITE Intelligence Group monitors online extremism and terrorist organizations said that on Sunday, the email logins were shared -- and 24 hours later they were used in hacking and harassment attempts by "far-right extremists".

Google has a new feature coming that anyone with multiple Google Assistant devices in their home will appreciate. The new feature will allow users to adjust the sensitivity of the "Hey Google" word that wakes the device up so it can hear what you want to tell it to do. The ability to adjust the hotword sensitivity was first seen in the Google Assistant software earlier this year.

The reason Google is rolling out the ability to adjust hotword sensitivity has to do with reducing the number of accidental awakenings of the device. Screenshots posted of the software in a tweet by Mishaal Rahman show that there will be a slider that allows users to adjust the front speaker sensitivity from default to least sensitive or most sensitive.

That will allow users to make the hotword sensitivity either less sensitive than the Google Assistant device comes from the factory, or more sensitive depending on their needs. Speculation suggests that for users with multiple devices in the home, each can have its own sensitivity level even if they are networked together. This change will be welcomed by users who frequently have a problem with waking their Google Assistant by mistake.

Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns has written an open letter to fans of the company, and it's all-electric Endurance pickup. The Endurance pickup was supposed to be unveiled officially at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in June. That event has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. With the official reveal canceled, Lordstown Motors is talking about its revised plans for unveiling the pickup.

Burns says that the company still intends to introduce the first production-intent Endurance pickup sometime in early summer. Most likely, the event will be a virtual reveal hosted at their headquarters in Lordstown. Burns notes that the company hopes to solidify the plans of the next "month or so." As for production plans, the letter states that the company intends to hand the keys to the first production versions of the Endurance in January 2021.

Burns wrote in the letter that most of the staff has been working from home and carrying out as much of their work as possible. Essential maintenance at the plant is still being conducted, and design engineers are continuing to test and fine-tune the technology that will power the truck. For those unfamiliar with the Endurance electric pickup, it will have an in-wheel motor at all four corners giving the truck all-wheel drive.

Admit it: you either use, or know someone who has been binging TV shows and movies on Netflix while on stay-at-home lockdowns and quarantines over COVID-19 coronavirus.

Netflix has now announced its Q1 2020 results, where the streaming giant revealed it experienced its biggest quarter ever. The company reeled in another 15.77 million subscribers in the last 3 months, blowing away analyst expectations of 8.22 million -- nearly double that amount.

This time last year Netflix added 9.6 million global subscriptions all the way back in Q1 2019 when no one uttered the words "quarantine", "lockdown", "novel", "COVID-19" or "coronavirus". Netflix reported that it earned $709 million in Q1 2020, versus shared earnings of $344 million in Q1 2019.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has explained in a letter to all staff that there will be no job losses at any level of the company during the COVID-19 outbreak, and instead will be getting raises to staff faster than before.

There are 13,775 employees that work for NVIDIA, so there would be a lot of happy people and families in Team Green now -- especially in the wake of millions of job losses and the further fear of industry-wide job losses in the near future. NVIDIA is doing some great work here for its staff.

In the letter, Huang writes: "Immediately I received questions about whether we are also planning a layoff. NO - precisely the opposite. We are accelerating your raise to put some extra money in your hands. We can put tens of millions of more dollars in the hands of our families in the coming months".