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US Chamber of Commerce suing Seattle over ridesharing unions
When Seattle approved Uber and Lyft drivers organizing in December, the city did it knowing that the practice was illegal. Independent contractors aren't allowed to do so under federal law because it basically amounts to price fixing. And now the inevitable has happened: The United States Chamber of Commerce is suing Seattle because the city allowed the on-demand workers to unionize, Reuters reports. It doesn't sound like Emerald City is going down without a fight, though. Councilman Mike O'Brien says that there are "millions of dollars" in place for what could be a lengthy legal battle.
UberEats is coming to 10 more towns
Uber announced on Wednesday that it is expanding the number of cities served by its beta UberEats program. The service enables users to order food from local restaurants and have it delivered by Uber drivers -- essentially the same service as Eat24 or Seamless but with Uber's existing driver infrastructure.
Seattle votes to let Lyft and Uber drivers unionize
The Seattle City Council's voted unanimously (9 - 0) that drivers for Lyft and Uber can form unions. The decision is much more complex than the drivers simply being able to organize and collectively bargain for better wages or benefits, though. The ruling is actually illegal, but it's up to a federal court to rule against it for the law to be reversed. The Seattle Times editorial board writes that the decision breaking national anti-trust laws was something that city officials knew about when voting during tonight's lame duck session, while The New York Times acknowledges that the decision is something that's likely to be challenged in court.
Someone crashed a drone into Seattle's Great Wheel
Tonight Seattle news stations are reporting that someone hit the Great Wheel ride with a drone (hopefully it's not one of Amazon's). There were no injuries or damage to the Ferris Wheel, while the drone apparently crashed onto the patio of a nearby restaurant. According to KIRO 7, the owner of the drone has not been located, something the Department of Transportation probably thinks that its plan for a national drone registry could help solve. On YouTube there are a number of videos from people safely flying drones around the massive ride, but incidents like this show how a few careless owners may ruin the hobby for those that operate their aircraft responsibly.
Seattle Police's hacker leaves the force
The hacker who helped the Seattle police department work on its transparency has left the force. Tim Clemans will no longer be developing auto-blurring software for dash-and-body cameras at the department due to what sounds like some politics between himself and leadership. It's something that Clemans actually predicted, according to The Stranger. The problems apparently started gestating as recently as August when one of the department's captains made a complaint that any and all changes to the 911 dispatch center needed his approval before being implemented. You see, Clemans developed an app that would highlight the most serious emergency calls automatically -- something the captain felt usurped his power despite it making dispatchers' jobs easier. Other staff members voiced their support saying Clemans had done "a tremendous job" with his work, lamenting his departure.
Amazon's grocery service now requires a $299 yearly membership
Amazon warned late last year that it would eventually require a $299 yearly membership just to use its AmazonFresh grocery delivery service. And like or not, the internet giant is making good on its word: shoppers in New York City, Philadelphia and Seattle (and possibly other cities) are finding out that they need that pricey Prime Fresh subscription before they can go food shopping. The outlay gives you free delivery on all orders over $50, on top of the benefits of a regular Amazon Prime membership, but it's now considerably more expensive if you only occasionally want groceries shipped to your door. So far, tests that would open the door to standard Prime members (who'd always pay delivery fees) haven't led to anything concrete.
Amazon Prime Now includes delivery from local restaurants in Seattle
Seattle may have received the invite to Prime Now's one-hour delivery service a bit late, but Amazon is offering customers there another feature: restaurant delivery. The service can bring you food from participating restaurants, so long as you're situated inside a part of the city where it's available. Via the Prime Now website, folks in Seattle can input their zip code to see if they'll be able to have food delivered in a hour or less. Through the Prime Now mobile app, hungry customers can also browse the list of available restaurants and peruse menus before placing an order. This isn't the first time Amazon has tackled restaurant delivery, though, as the retailer tested dropping off takeout through Amazon Local last year. If you're looking to give the new option a go, you'll be able to pay for meals using your data stored on Amazon and the company is waiving the delivery fees "for a limited time." [Image credit: Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images]
Amazon's one-hour delivery service arrives in Seattle (updated)
You'd think that Amazon would have been quick to offer its super-fast Prime Now delivery service in its home territory of Seattle, but nope -- it's just getting around to correcting that seeming oversight. The company has confirmed part of a recent scoop by launching Prime Now in both Seattle as well as nearby locales like Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond (hi, Microsoft!). As before, how much you spend depends on just how urgently you need your order. It's free (outside of your Prime subscription, of course) if you can afford to wait up to two hours, while one-hour shipping will cost you $8. The expansion still leaves much of the US without Prime Now, but this is still a big step toward covering America's larger urban hubs. Update: It's important to note that this also marks Amazon's return to delivering alcohol -- you can get wine and other tipsy drinks through Prime Now.
Amazon's latest service test has you picking up orders
Amazon has jumped through hoops trying to speed up deliveries, but wouldn't it sometimes make sense to eliminate the last-mile shipping altogether and pick up orders yourself? That might just happen. GeekWire has discovered that Amazon is trying out a new service, Flex, that has you collecting your package from a facility. It's much like a visit to a government office, or Amazon's Purdue pickup spot -- you take a ticket and wait for your turn. The company isn't commenting on Flex (even the test building in Seattle is still in rough shape), but it's safe to say that this would be limited to areas where Amazon can set up distribution centers.
Drone knocks woman unconscious at Seattle pride parade
A bungling pilot has just reminded us (again) why drones need at least some kind of regulation. During Seattle's gay pride parade, a 25-year-old woman was knocked unconscious after she was struck by a UAV, according to the SPD Blotter. The genius operator reportedly crashed the DJI-sized craft into a building, causing it to fall on her head. She was treated by firefighters at the scene, while one of her friends handed the drone and photographs of the alleged pilot to police.
Seattle PD pushes for transparency by hiring a coder/critic
Remember Tim Clemans, the formerly anonymous programmer who requested basically all of the Seattle Police Department's bodycam footage and emails? His data petitioning ultimately led to the launch of a YouTube channel that puts that on-the-go police video front and center, and now he's getting ready to actually start working for the fuzz. It's only on a trial basis for now -- think three months or so -- and he'll be helping the police automatically redact not just video footage, but documents and police reports in a bid to get them disclosed more readily.
Amazon Destinations handpicks hotels in LA, NY and Seattle
Amazon's rumored new travel site has appeared and it's well, exactly as rumored. While the company previously sold flash-sale hotel rooms as part of Amazon Local, alongside steep discounts, Destinations is more about curated hotels. The service currently focuses on areas around LA, New York and Seattle, with the aim of selling short-term getaways that are near to those aforementioned transport hubs. There's no news on whether it'd roll-out the new service to other US areas (let alone other countries), but it wouldn't be a shocker if it did. The site is already accepting user reviews, but expanding the service will likely depend on how many people are looking to pay typical list prices - if only because it's paired with the ubiquity of Amazon.
Microsoft technology gives Seattle 5,000 times faster public WiFi
Techie culture-vultures aren't likely to encounter Vine upload fails anymore at Seattle's home to arts, culture and the Space Needle thanks to Microsoft. The city's biggest patron has installed a new WiFi service at the Seattle Center that uses new technology to blow away the previous system's speed and capacity. The installation is a pilot program for Microsoft Research's white space tech that harnesses long-range, wall-penetrating TV signals. Along with quadruple the access points, the tech gives the Seattle Center public WiFi speeds up to 5,000 times faster, letting you Skype, Vine and Meerkat to your heart's content.
Starbucks delivery rolls out in US cities this year
Starbucks already has locations on nearly every street corner -- even ones directly across from each other -- but now on-demand delivery service Postmates will grab your coffee and bring it directly to your office, house or basically wherever your mouth is. Postmates plans to roll out its Starbucks delivery routes in the second half of 2015, starting in Seattle. The service wants users to order through the Starbucks mobile app and then tell Postmates to pick up that iced, grande, soy-milk caramel macchiato (with whipped cream) for them.
Seattle PD has a YouTube channel for its body camera footage
Seattle's officer-worn camera footage is making its way online, but if you were hoping for anything Cops-like you're likely to be disappointed. In accordance with privacy measures, faces aren't the only parts of a shot that are blurred out -- most of the time it's the entire frame, and audio's been scrubbed as well. Seattle's police department's using methods recommended by volunteer hacker Tim Clemans, and according to SPD Blotter, the redacting process only took half-a-day to process four hours of raw video. Comparatively, the force's old methods would take upwards of a 60 minutes to obfuscate a single minute of footage.
Seattle police get help publishing body camera videos online
The police aren't often fond of publishing body camera and dashcam footage online, but not necessarily for nefarious reasons -- the volume of privacy-focused video editing they require can prove overwhelming. In Seattle, for example, a flood of public disclosure requests from an anonymous programmer (known by his "policevideorequests" handle) risked scuttling a body cam trial run before it got off the ground. However, that one-time antagonist is now coming to the city's rescue. The man has agreed to help Seattle's police department publish video by showing them how to quickly redact clips and get them online. As the unnamed person explains, it should mostly involve ready-made tools; the police will strip audio from clips using free software and lean on YouTube's automatic face blurring to protect identities.
Apple to open highly caffeinated office in Seattle
Apple and California go together like wine and... well, California too, I guess, but the company is apparently looking to spread its wings a little bit, though it won't shake itself free of the west coast entirely. According to The Seattle Times, the company will be opening an engineering office in Seattle and will be sourcing local software gurus to fill its seats. The core of the Seattle team will be formed by former employees of Union Bay Networks -- a cloud computing startup so new it doesn't even have a real website yet. The Seattle group will be hammering away at various Apple software products including iCloud and iTunes, according to a LinkedIn post that has since been axed.
Joystiq Weekly: Vib-ribbon launches, Driveclub Review, RE: Revelations 2 preview and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. "Better eight years late than never," PlayStation Network users probably said during this week's return of Vib-ribbon. Sure, we're not exactly in drought season, but what's stopping you from impulsively bailing on 2014's release calendar to revisit a 1999 cult classic? Beyond money and life's responsibilities, anyway. If Vib-ribbon is fair game for a 2014 appearance, can we go ahead and get our hopes for comparably-unlikely surprises? Sure, StarCraft: Ghost's indefinitely-on-hold status is probably irreversible at this point, but if Blizzard felt like continuing development in secret for years and launching it without warning, we wouldn't be upset. Valve, you're more than welcome to do the same with fresh installments in the Half Life or Left 4 Dead series. There was more to this week than feeble wishes though, including resolution news for Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Assassin's Creed: Unity, reviews for Driveclub and Neverending Nightmares, and previews for AC: Unity and Resident Evil: Revelations 2. All those and more are tidied up for you after the break!
'Siren' dating app wants to keep women safe from creeps
While Tinder solves a few of the problems women face with online dating -- like being smothered with lascivious messages from anyone and everyone -- there's still an issue of privacy that it fails to address. That risk of not being nearly as anonymous while looking for a mate as one would hope is what inspired Seattle's Susie Lee to create Siren. What sets it apart from every other dating app is that it keeps a woman's picture private until she deems it appropriate to share with a possible suitor. As Seattle Times notes, a lady can peruse the profiles of men at their leisure and if, say, she's into a guy's answer to questions like what their three magic-lamp wishes are, she can then show him her picture. The idea is to give ladies the control here and base matches on real-world personality, not a dry series of surveys akin to eHarmony.
Bike of the future removes the need to shift gears, pedal up hills or pack a lock
Biking in Seattle can be less than mellow with all the hills, traffic and especially that rain. But those things are exactly what inspired the Teague team of bicycle designers to build the Denny bike for the Oregon Manifest bike design project. The model (built by fabricator Taylor Sizemore) sports a minimalist frame, which belies all the tech packed inside. There's an electric motor on the front hub (with a removable battery) to boost your hill-climbing, for starters. That's married with a computer controlled automatic shifter that automatically adjusts to ride conditions for a "hassle-free riding experience." To combat the constant showers, meanwhile, it uses a simple device with rubber bristles to break up the water, rather than a fender.
