Google gets hit with a new lawsuit over ‘deceptive’ location tracking | TechCrunch

January 25, 2022January 24, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Washington DC, Texas, Washington state and Indiana announced the latest lawsuit against Big Tech Monday, alleging that Google deceived users by collecting their location data even when they believed that kind of tracking was disabled.

“Google falsely led consumers to believe that changing their account and device settings would allow customers to protect their privacy and control what personal data the company could access,” DC Attorney General Karl Racine said. “The truth is that contrary to Google’s representations it continues to systematically surveil customers and profit from customer data.”

A film station may be launching in space by 2024 | Mashable

January 21, 2022January 20, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Space may soon house a full-fledged TV and film studio, thanks to Space Entertainment Enterprise (S.E.E.).

According to The Hollywood Reporter (THR), the company that is co-producing Tom Cruise’s upcoming space movie (which is set to be filmed in space), is intending to launch the studio by 2024, in addition to a streaming studio and sports arena.

The microgravity production broadcast module, named SEE-1, will be fitted to the Axiom Station, a commercial space station being made by Axiom Space and that will be attached to the International Space station prior to orbit.

Amazon bets you’re tired of just buying clothes off Amazon | CNN

January 20, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Amazon has a new venture outside of e-commerce, cloud computing, content streaming, smart devices, Whole Foods, cashier-less technology or anything else you’ve come to associate with one of the most successful companies in American history.

It’s a physical clothing store. Like, you know, a real brick-and-mortar space where you go try on stuff, buy it and then bring it home. An IRL store. Google it if you’ve never been to one.

Starbucks scraps vaccine requirement following Supreme Court decision | CNN

January 20, 2022January 20, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Starbucks is no longer requiring employees to get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing, following the US Supreme Court’s rejection last week of President Joe Biden’s vaccine and testing requirement for large businesses.

In a letter published on January 4, the coffee company recommended that its workers get vaccinated by February 9, in accordance with guidance from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Those who remained unvaccinated past that deadline would have had to submit to weekly testing, according to that early January note.

Hourly Wages at Small Businesses Hit Record Level in December | Small Business Trends

January 14, 2022January 13, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

As 2021 drew to a close, the average hourly wage at small businesses locked in at $30, according to the Paychex IHS Markit Small Business Employment Watch.

The December data shows hourly earnings growth improving to 4.27%, which is the highest level since Paychex began reporting 10 years ago.

Hiring at small businesses also closed 2021 on an optimistic stat, improving 7.31% from the prior year, according to the same report.

Hourly Wages at Small Businesses Hit Record Level in December

Paychex CEO Martin Mucci summed the stats.

“Employers are responding to the pressure of the tight labor market by raising wages, and workers are benefitting,” Mucci said.

iPhone 14 Pro design leak shows bizarre hole and pill cutout | Digital Trends

January 13, 2022January 12, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Is that a circular hole punch? Or a pill-shaped cutout? Wait, it’s both. As per a fresh leak, the iPhone 14 Pro and its Max sibling will ditch the notch in favor of a weird arrangement that includes both a circular and a pill-shaped cutout arranged neatly in a line. Whether it looks appealing is debatable, but it definitely hasn’t been attempted before by a smartphone maker.

Display supply chain expert Ross Young, who has a fairly accurate track record with display-related Apple predictions, tweeted what appears to be an engineering template for an iPhone 14 Pro model. There are two separate cutouts, a design that we are yet to see on a phone so far. Samsung offers a bucket load of phones with a single circular cutout, Motorola has a phone with two separate camera dots, and Huawei has been loyal to the pill-shaped design for the past few years. But never have the two elements been blended together like this.

Three ethical issues around pig heart transplants | BBC News

January 12, 2022January 11, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A US man has become the world’s first person to get a heart transplant from a genetically modified pig.

57-year-old David Bennett, who doctors say was too ill to qualify for a human heart, is doing well three days after the experimental seven-hour treatment.

The surgery is being hailed by many as a medical breakthrough that could shorten transplant waiting times and change the lives of patients around the world. But some are questioning if the procedure can be ethically justified.

They have pointed to potential moral trouble spots over patient safety, animal rights and religious concerns.

So how controversial are transplants from pigs?

There’s No Slowing the Great Resignation | Inc.com

January 12, 2022January 11, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

November fueled another record month for the Great Resignation, as 4.5 million workers either left or switched jobs, according to data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The November milestone usurps the previous record of approximately 4.4 million workers who ditched their jobs in September.

The so-called quits rate, which examines the amount of voluntary departures as a percentage of total employment, increased in both smaller businesses employing one to nine workers as well as larger shops with 1,000 to 4,999 workers.

Apple paid out around $60 billion to App Store developers in 2021 | TechCrunch

January 11, 2022January 10, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Despite facing numerous antitrust lawsuits and tighter regulations in certain markets, Apple today reported new figures indicating record App Store growth in 2021. The company in a press release said it has now paid out more than $260 billion to app developers since the App Store first launched in 2008, a number that’s up from the $200 billion Apple reported at the end of 2020 — meaning, in 2021 alone, Apple paid developers a total of at least $60 billion.

That number is a lot larger than the payouts reported in previous years.

For comparison, Apple by the end of 2019 had paid developers a total of $155 billion since the App Store’s debut. The year prior, it had said that figure was around $120 billion. Reading between the lines, that means payouts to developers jumped by $35 million from 2018 to 2019, then grew by another $45 billion from 2019 to 2020.

Goldman Sachs predicts bitcoin could hit $100,000 | CNN

January 6, 2022January 5, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Bitcoin prices have pulled back lately — but Goldman Sachs still sees strong gains ahead in the coming years.

The world’s most valuable cryptocurrency has fallen to about $46,000 after surging to a record high near $69,000 in November. Yet Goldman Sachs (GS) said in a report this week that bitcoin (XBT) could more than double, to a little over $100,000 per coin, within the next five years.

“We think that bitcoin’s market share will most likely rise over time as a byproduct of broader adoption of digital assets,” Zach Pandl, the co-head of global foreign exchange, rates and emerging market strategy for Goldman Sachs, said in the report.