Microsoft will give out $1,500 bonuses to many of its employees after more than a year of impact from the coronavirus. The gesture is part of an effort by technology companies to keep employees happy during the pandemic and make sure they stick around while many are still away from offices. Such care could help reduce impact from a feared trend dubbed the Great Resignation as companies reopen facilities; and workers consider job changes. The bonuses will cost Microsoft about $200 million and are a gesture to show appreciation for efforts that employees made with customers and partners in the…
Author: Abiodun A.
Ubisoft has officially confirmed the existence of a new Assassin’s Creed game codenamed “Infinity,” after a report from Bloomberg detailed the new online service-based game. While Ubisoft’s announcement doesn’t shed much light on what form the new game will take; Bloomberg reports that it will be an evolving online game similar to the likes of Fortnite or GTA Online. Infinity marks what is likely to be the biggest change in the franchise’s history since its debut in 2007. Until now, Ubisoft has tended to release a new standalone Assassin’s Creed game once every one or two years; each focused…
Thirty-seven US state and district attorneys general sued Alphabet’s Google on Wednesday; alleging that the search and advertising giant violates antitrust law in running its app store for Android phones. The lawsuit, one of a series that has been filed against Google in the United States, follows complaints from app developers about the management of its Play Store. Google did not have an immediate comment on the new litigation. Google requires that some apps use the company’s payment tools and give it as much as 30% of digital goods sales. “To collect and maintain this extravagant commission; Google has…
YouTube is possibly one of the first widely used platforms that offered dark mode. As it explains it, “Dark theme allows you to tone down your screen’s glare and experience YouTube with a dark background.” Dark mode or dark theme is also known to help in reducing power consumption on smartphones. At present, almost all popular apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter offer dark mode. On YouTube, dark mode is available for the desktop app, Android devices, iPhone and iPad. YouTube’s dark mode feature works similar to other apps. You have the option to switch between dark and light…
Former President Donald Trump sued Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and their chief executives, raising the stakes in his battle against social media giants who have blocked him. Billing the effort during a Wednesday press conference as a move to defend First Amendment rights; Trump filed three separate class-action lawsuits in federal court in Florida against the tech giants and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Google’s Sundar Pichai. The lawsuits seek court orders to restore his social-media accounts, along with punitive damages; to ensure other users can’t be banned or flagged by the tech giants. The…
Chinese tech giant Tencent’s WeChat social media platform has deleted dozens of LGBT accounts run by university students; saying some had broken rules on information on the internet, sparking fear of a crackdown on gay content online. Members of several LGBT groups told Reuters that access to their accounts was blocked late on Tuesday and they later discovered that all of their content had been deleted. “Many of us suffered at the same time;” said the account manager of one group who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue. “They censored us without any warning. All…
OnePlus has confirmed that it deliberately reduces performance in “many of the most popular apps”; in order to improve battery life on its latest OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro phones. The issue arose following testing by Anandtech’s Andrei Frumusanu; who called the situation “rather baffling” after discovering slowdown in a wide range of prominent apps from Google’s Play Store. Anandtech’s conclusion is that OnePlus is “blacklisting popular applications away from its fastest cores; causing slowdown in typical workloads such as web browsing.” The site tested Chrome and Twitter performance extensively; but concluded that the slowdown “applies to pretty much everything…
OnePlus recently announced that it would merge its software team with Oppo’s in a bid to improve its resource sharing. Now it has just revealed that OxygenOS and ColorOS will move closer together; bringing a wider commitment to support OnePlus devices with three years or more of Android updates. Following the announcement that OnePlus and Oppo’s teams would combine; it was almost inevitable that OxygenOS and ColorOS would become more entwined. The good news is that a closer-knit relationship between OnePlus and Oppo should hopefully start to be a real boon to smartphone users after the announcement of new updates…
After a dramatic decline in traveling this past year, people are moving again. Yet, despite offering cash incentives, rideshare giants Uber and Lyft are still struggling to bring drivers back to full speed; leading to longer wait times for customers and soaring prices. Uber and Lyft have put millions into these efforts, but some former drivers aren’t even looking at these stimulus packages or trying to get in on surge pricing. A large percentage who are still holding out. “Drivers are in a low-key strike,” Nicole Moore, a volunteer organizer with Rideshare Drivers United, told CNBC. “Right now it’s a…
Hackers were on Monday demanding $70 million in bitcoin in exchange for data stolen during a “gargantuan” attack on a US IT company that has shuttered hundreds of Swedish supermarkets. Researchers believe more than 1,000 companies could have been affected by the attack on Miami-based firm Kaseya, which provides IT services to some 40,000 businesses around the world. The FBI warned Sunday that the scale of the “ransomware” attack — a form of digital hostage-taking where hackers encrypt victims’ data and then demand money for restored access — is so large that it may be “unable to respond to each…