Amazon's automated HR systems led to at least one worker being pestered with messages while he was off sick with COVID-19, NBC reports. Illinois Amazon warehouse worker Drew Duzinskas told NBC he tested positive for COVID-19 over the holidays. He said he notified Amazon, but that for days afterwards he received automated texts from the company telling him his balance of paid time off was going down because he was missing shifts.

The metaverse, which requires a massive amount of computing power, is set to benefit global chipmakers— but other tech-related industries could also gain from it, analysts say. Widely seen as the next generation of the internet, the metaverse refers broadly to a virtual world where humans interact through three-dimensional avatars that can be controlled via virtual reality headsets like Oculus.

The last major update for Red Dead Online was released in July 2021. Since then, the game has received no major content updates. As 2022 starts, RDO fans have become fed up with the lack of content and communication from Rockstar and have collectively started the #SaveRedDeadOnline campaign to... well, save Red Dead Online.

Panasonic has announced plans to offer a four-day workweek to employees in Japan in an effort to improve productivity and attract better workers, according to a new report from Nikkei Asia. The move comes after the Japanese government made official recommendations to private employers in 2021 that included a shorter workweek.

Apple has an agreement with Google that it won't develop its own internet search engine so long as Google pays it to remain the default option in Safari, a new class action alleges. Filed in a California court earlier this week against Apple, Google, and their respective CEOs, the lawsuit alleges the two companies have a non-compete agreement in the internet search business that violates US antitrust laws.

The movie logged more than 152 million viewing hours in a week on the streaming service. The film had more than 152 million hours of viewership on Netflix Inc. in the week ended Jan. 2, , according to the streaming service. That is a record high for the most weekly hours viewed for a film on Netflix, a company spokeswoman said.

The CharaChorder is a new kind of typing peripheral that promises to let people type at superhuman speeds. It’s so fast that the website Monkeytype, which lets users participate in typing challenges and maintains its own leaderboard, automatically flagged CharaChorder’s CEO as a cheater when he attempted to post his 500 WPM score on the its leaderboards.

Starting Monday, November 29th 2021 thru Tuesday November 30th 2021, Voyager will offer new customers an additional $15 in Bitcoin on top of their regular $25 Bitcoin sign-up reward, giving $40 total in Bitcoin just for joining the popular and high-reward crypto exchange. This makes their sign-up incentive one of the largest in the industry, and does not even take the 12% interest that customers earn on their crypto into account.

A PERFECT STORM is ravaging the Arctic—literally. As the world warms, more lightning systems are igniting more peat fires. They burn through ancient buried plant material and release great plumes of greenhouse gases, which further warm the planet. At the same time, as plant species march north thanks to a more hospitable climate, the Arctic is greening.

Alexa will be the first voice assistant available beyond Earth. Amazon and Lockheed Martin have revealed NASA will carry Alexa to space aboard the Artemis I mission launching later in 2022. While that flight is uncrewed, the companies are planning a "virtual crew experience" at NASA's Johnson Space Center that will let people in Mission Control (including students and special guests) simulate conversations between the digital helper and astronauts.

This year saw the long-awaited return of music festivals, clubs, theatres and cinema, but the biggest entertainment story of the year was arguably one that took place on the small screen. Squid Game was the global media sensation of the year, a bonafide TV hit that smashed viewership records, and was the latest South Korean cultural artefact to set the world alight after BTS, Blackpink and Parasite.

Yet more proof that the internal combustion engine is on borrowed time.

IF ALL goes well, the first major space mission of 2022 will be the launch of the Space Launch System rocket in February. After many budget and schedule overruns, NASA’s colossal rocket is finally set for its first uncrewed flight, which will carry several small satellites into orbits either near or around the moon.

The Mistastin Lake Impact Crater, in northern Labrador, is considered to be one of the best places on Earth for astronauts to learn about the moon's geology. A pair of astronauts spent two weeks in September at the crater as part of a rigorous training program to prepare them for a potential trip to the lunar surface.

The show will go on ... it's something Betty White must have said many times during her life, so it's fitting the show dedicated to her life will go on, despite her passing. Betty's life will be featured in a movie which was supposed to celebrate her 100th birthday on January 17. The flick was scheduled to play in movie theaters for just that one night. It will proceed as planned -- so producers told the New York Post -- and it's a real good bet theaters will be packed to cap...

Anderson Cooper will host a new parenting show for CNN+, the upcoming subscription streaming service from CNN, while a current online series will move to the new platform. Parental Guidance with Anderson Cooper, to air weekly, will feature Cooper consulting with experts on navigating the challenges of life as a working father. Cooper’s son Wyatt was born in 2020.

If a big story erupted at a random hour not too long ago, executives at big TV-news outlets would typically try to break into regularly scheduled network programming with one of the oldest tools in the box, a “special report.” Now, thanks to a widening fight among TV companies to capture streaming audiences, they have many new options.

US prosecutors have dismissed charges against two prison guards who falsified records the night Jeffrey Epstein killed himself on their watch. Tova Noel and Michael Thomas admitted to fabricating log entries to show they had monitored Epstein properly. Prosecutors have asked a judge to dismiss their case, saying the pair have complied with a plea deal.

As we near 2022, there are some products Apple should definitely stop selling as they don't make sense in its lineup anymore.

By portraying predators as villains, we are influencing how our children perceive the natural world

A rapid uptake in technology has made living through a pandemic easier and safer. But regulators are starting to ask: at what cost? A new year is approaching and, thanks to the pandemic, brings with it the prospect of New Year's Eve celebrations built around the video calls and digital health passes that became a norm in 2021.