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Magic: The Gathering Arena developers at Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast are set to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the union announced . The CWA says it has secured a "supermajority" among workers in favor of unionization for the chapter, called United Wizards of the Coast (UWOTC-CWA). The CWA has filed for a formal election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), but that will be withdrawn if Hasbro voluntarily recognizes the union by May 1st. "At Wizards, we’re organizing for a say in layoffs, accountability that runs up and down the chain, and a living wage that actually lets people build a life," said UWOTC-CWA member and senior software engineer Damien Wilson. "I’m hopeful about what we can build here and being clear-eyed about why it’s necessary." Workers have outlined several areas of concern including protections over layoffs and remote work, generative AI guardrails and mandatory crunch time, along with "increased transparency and equity" in the workplace. "This isn’t just something that affects Wizards of the Coast; it’s how most American workplaces are set up," Wilson added. "Unions are the missing counterweight to protect our craft." The push to unionize was triggered back in 2023 following mass Hasbro layoffs that affected nearly 2,000 workers, software engineers told Kotaku . Developers were also concerned about issues like remote work, saying that Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast decisions "have not aligned with the values of their employees." The CWA has been involved in recent unionization drives across the games industry, with workers from Blizzard and ID Software , along with indie devs from publishers including Heart Machine recently joining. Over 4,000 workers have organized across the industry as part of CWA's CODE (Campaign to Organize Digital Employees), according to the union. "Every worker deserves job security, fair compensation, and a seat at the table," said CWA District 7 VP Susie McAllister. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/magic-the-gathering-arena-developers-intend-to-form-a-union-with-the-cwa-104438341.html?src=rss
Amazon has today announced a software update for both the Kindle Colorsoft and Kindle Scribe Colorsoft which will bring dark mode to both e-readers. Even better, users will be able to toggle the settings for specific menus on both devices, so if they want their library dark and their notebook light, they can. Given the option is available on plenty of other Kindle devices, its omission here always felt like something Amazon was just getting around to addressing. In addition, the update brings Smart Shapes to notebooks, enabling users to add pre-drawn lines, arrows, circles, triangles and rectangles from the toolbar. In addition, a hold-to-snap tool lets you draw a shape freehand, after which point it’ll pull itself into a nice tidy design. Both should help folks who want to add some graphical zing to their note taking who can’t do all those fancy journal designs on their own. The update is rolling out across the ecosystem across the next few days, further empowering would-be journal scribes using these tablets. For tablets like the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft , it’s clear Amazon needs to build out the Scribe half of the equation, which looks like a poor relative compared to its competition. As Cherlynn Low wrote in her review, it’s a fine e-reader, but one that’s sorely lacking in many areas. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/amazon-brings-dark-mode-to-kindle-colorsoft-and-scribe-colorsoft-130054573.html?src=rss
Google is determined to impose AI search onto as many of its products as possible, and the latest, er, victim is YouTube. A new feature called "Ask YouTube" will let you pose complex questions and receive "comprehensive results that include video and text, then ask follow ups to dive deeper," Google explained on its YouTube Labs page . The experimental feature is available starting today until June 8 for Premium US subscribers 18 and older. To use it, first, enable the feature in your account. Then, click on the new "Ask YouTube" button in the search bar and you'll see prompt suggestions, or you can enter your own, like "plan a 3-day road trip between San Francisco and Santa Barbara." After getting the results, you can try follow-up questions or choose from suggested prompts to explore in more detail. As shown in The Verge 's quick test , the prompt "short history of Apollo 11 moon landing" brought up a summary of the mission, along with videos and time stamps for relevant information. Follow-up questions yielded similar results, but some queries just showed a list of videos like you'd see in a classic YouTube search. As happens with AI, one of the searches (around a Steam Controller) yielded factually inaccurate information, according to The Verge 's Jay Peters. Tech companies love AI a lot more than the public, and YouTube users are particularly passionate about hating AI-generated slop. YouTube's AI search function may fare better with subscribers, but only if it helps them find quality content more quickly. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/youtube-is-testing-an-ai-search-mode-that-feels-more-like-a-conversation-075057461.html?src=rss
The impact of the ruling was not immediately clear, but it could send a chilling signal to Chinese tech founders seeking to team up with foreign companies.
