Never sit there waiting for an Amazon package to be delivered, constantly updating the screen to see location updates by the minute? This is how it also works in an Amazon store. The only difference is that Amazon not only tracks packages, but also tracks the movements of its employees.
This week, Vici revealed internal documents from Amazon that describe the techniques the company uses to monitor its warehouse employees. The documents detail how complex Amazon is tracking workers, monitoring the activity of each worker’s portable package scanner to determine if that worker is spending “free time”. Amazon keeps track of each worker’s TOT to the minute. EVERYTHING can include chatting with other people, walking around, and sometimes even going to the bathroom. After accumulating more than 30 minutes of EVERYTHING in a day, the worker is sanctioned. Recidivists can be fired. Managers are also asked to interview workers with a high number of EVERYTHING and are asked to explain each case of EVERYTHING.
These controversial practices have been brought to light before, but this is the first time that formal details have been revealed to the public. Amazon deployed these tactics to its Staten Island, New York store, which in April also became the first Amazon store to unionize. This uncompromising push for productivity at any cost, combined with a wave of injuries in Amazon stores, has caused dissent in the ranks and caused a warehouse worker to take the issue directly to Amazon shareholders.
Here’s some more news from this week’s Gear desktop.
He wears the holograms
When you use your phone to take a picture in portrait mode, you are capturing tons of 3D data. Your phone uses this data to set the depth of the photo and give the background this bokeh effect, but the resulting image still looks 2D. The same can be said of any Pixar movie, which is composed of characters generated in 3D but displayed on 2D screens. Looking Glass, a company known for its holographic displays, is trying to take advantage of all this data with its new prototype image format called Blocks. This format turns any 3D media into a hologram that can be viewed on any device with just a simple web link. See an example here.
Click the link on your phone, computer screen, or virtual reality headset (no holographic screen required) and you’ll see a holographic-like image. They can actually exit the screen, and you can use your finger or mouse to move the image left and right to see the parallax effect in action. We’ve seen this kind of technology before, but the goal of Blocks is to make it simple and embeddable anywhere on the Internet, just as it’s very easy for anyone to create and share a GIF these days.
Looking Glass has a pilot program that creators can put together to turn their creations into shareable holographic blocks, and the hope is to start an open beta this summer.
New Surface Laptop, Go!
Microsoft has announced an update to the Surface Laptop Go, the company’s budget laptop that came out in 2020. The Surface Laptop Go 2 is a $ 600 clamshell that weighs just under £ 2.5. It’s a fairly simple Windows laptop with a 12.4-inch screen and an Intel i5 processor. The screen does not come out or rotate like a typical Surface laptop.
Some features of the new machine were created with the repair in mind. You can turn off the keyboard cover, SSD storage module, or battery and replace them. Microsoft’s announcement also shot at Apple’s famous laptop keyboards, saying the Go 2 has 30 percent more keyboard travel than a MacBook Air. Go 2 starts shipping on June 7th.
Google Dueet
If there’s one thing Google has done well, it’s combining things. The company’s latest act of merging apps is to combine its voice and video apps, Meet and Duo. The resulting merger will retain the Meet name, but it will be the Meet features that will be ported to the renamed Duo app later this year. Meet’s new capabilities include the ability to schedule meetings, customize virtual backgrounds, and organize video calls with up to 100 people (previous limit was 32). Additions will make the new Meet feel much more Zoom-y, though Google’s video messaging platform has a fraction of Zooming users.
WWDC begins Monday
Apple’s annual software developers’ conference returns next week, with a major conference on Monday, June 6, which will be full of product and software announcements. Here is our summary of what to expect at WWDC. (New iOS features! Maybe a new MacBook!) Be sure to check out WIRED again on June 6, where we’ll talk about all the important aspects of everything Apple is announcing.
Textual revolution
Hey, have you reviewed your texts recently? If this question caused some anxiety in your chest, you’re not alone. As Lauren Goode of WIRED points out, the messages are terrible in the modern age, when theoretically everyone is accessible at all times. But sometimes you don’t want to be connected or you just need a break. Unfortunately, the Absent message, one of the key features of AOL Instant Messenger that enforced healthy boundaries, has almost disappeared in the era of smartphones.
This week on the Gadget Lab podcast, Goode and co-presenter Michael Calore talk about what has become a hell of a text message and how you (and the companies that control these apps) can fix it.
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