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Amazon will hire 100,000 workers to keep up with the surge in demand
To keep up with a "significant increase in demand" due to the coronavirus outbreak, Amazon is hiring an additional 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers in the US. As more people turn to online shopping in an attempt to stay home (and because grocery stores are struggling to keep shelves stocked), Amazon says its labor needs are unprecedented for this time of year.
Amazon staff will strike during Prime Day over working conditions
While Amazon is busy hyping up this year's Prime Day extravaganza, its workers will be drawing attention to more serious issues than price cuts. Staff at a warehouse in Shakopee, Minnesota will hold six hours of strikes on July 15th (the start of Prime Day) to demand less stringent quotas and the conversion of more temporary workers into permanent employees. The quotas make the work dangerous and unreliable, according to the workers, and permanent work will help create a "livable future." Workers in the US have protested before (including a December protest in Minnesota over support for East African workers), but not during crucial sales days -- you've only really seen that practice in Europe until now.
Amazon made social mini-games to make warehouse work less bland
Amazon has turned to video games to make warehouse work a bit less tedious while boosting worker productivity in the process, according to The Washington Post. The e-commerce giant has "gamified" warehouse workers' tasks by reflecting their progress in a video game format displayed on small screens at their stations. If they need to pick up a particular item to put into a bin, for instance, the object could light up on the screen, depending on what the game is. The approach is merely an experiment at the moment, but it has already rolled out to five warehouses in the US and the UK.
Amazon is building dedicated warehouses for hazardous goods
Amazon is building dedicated warehouses to store hazardous goods, with the first one it constructed from scratch set to open this summer. It follows an incident at the tail end of last year, in which an exploding can of bear repellent led to 24 workers being hospitalized.
Amazon might start using robots to box your orders
A few weeks ago, Amazon said it will be at least 10 years before the company is running fully-automated warehouses. But partial automation is already underway. According to Reuters, Amazon is considering installing two machines at dozens of warehouses that have the potential to replace at least 24 jobs at each location. If Amazon were to roll the machines out across its 55 US fulfillment centers for standard-sized inventory, that could lead to more than 1,300 job cuts.
Amazon's warehouse robots won't replace humans for at least a decade
Are you worried your job is going to be taken by a robot? You needn't be if you work for Amazon, which has dismissed the idea of fully-automated warehouses becoming a reality any time soon. According to Amazon's director of robotics fulfilment, Scott Anderson, such technology in its current form is "very limited."
Boston Dynamics' new Handle robot heads to the warehouse
When we first met Handle the wheeled robot was hopping and jumping to show off its agility, but a new demo video from Boston Dynamics is much more practical. In this one, larger Handle units work autonomously to move boxes around inside a a warehouse environment. According to the company, the boxes weigh about 11 pounds each, but the robots can handle up to 33 pounds. Whether or not they're truly suited to this work is hard to tell, even with computer vision and all the slick counterbalancing shown, operating in a real-world environment with potential obstacles could be more complicated. Still, just like the first video, the quick sure movement is a reminder that the robot apocalypse is rapidly approaching.
Amazon warehouse collapse in Baltimore leaves two dead
Amazon is grappling with tragedy at one of its warehouses this weekend. A 50-foot wall at the company's southeast Baltimore fulfillment center collapsed on the night of November 2nd in the midst of a large storm, killing two people. They worked for an external company, an Amazon official told the Baltimore Sun. The online retailer's senior operations VP, Dave Clark, was thankful for emergency response teams and said the company's "thoughts and prayers" went out to those affected.
Amazon patent details hand-tracking wristbands for warehouse workers
Companies are all about making sure you're working, and they're using increasingly high-tech solutions to do so. One firm in London uses AI to analyze your daily behavior, while the FreshTeam messaging app can track employee locations. Now, Amazon was just awarded a patent for a wristband that tracks warehouse workers' hand movements.
Amazon's warehouse workers strike in Germany and Italy
As exciting as it may be go on an online shopping spree for Black Friday, there is a human price to be paid: thousands of warehouse workers often have to commit many exhausting hours to making sure your orders arrive on time. And some Amazon warehouse workers have had enough. Staffers at Amazon distribution centers across Germany and Italy have gone on strike over pay issues and conditions they believe "endanger the health" of employees. Complaints about a lack of bonus pay are central to the walkout, but there are also extensive concerns about what Amazon expects from its floor staff.
MIT researchers use drone fleets to track warehouse inventory
Imagine a warehouse buzzing with tiny drones that automatically track and monitor inventory from afar, leaving workers free to manage and move material. That's the new system developed by MIT researchers, which could prevent mismatches and help employees find particular items faster on top of looking really cool with a bunch of worker drones zipping around.
Lowe's exoskeletons help workers carry what you can't
Exoskeletons aren't just for shipyard workers or people with limited mobility. If Lowe's has its way, they'll help store staff fetch your giant bucket of paint. The home improvement retailer has partnered with Virginia Tech to test prototype passive exoskeletons that make it easier to haul heavy objects. Carbon fiber in the suits' back and legs serves as a "taut bow" that stores energy when you bend down -- that energy comes back the moment you stand back up, making it much easier to lift that heavy bag of concrete. The material's flexible nature should also help the suits feel relatively comfortable... a rather important consideration for warehouse workers who may need to wear it for an entire shift.
Blue Apron's meal kit service has had worker safety problems
Popular internet companies have a tendency to devote relatively little attention to their warehouse workers, lavishing the most attention on their software engineers. It's their code that makes it all possible, right? However, internet meal kit giant Blue Apron is getting a harsh lesson in the importance of taking care of all its employees. BuzzFeed has learned that Blue Apron's Richmond, California fulfillment center has had numerous crime and safety incidents, including employee violence and OSHA violations. There have been instances of staff brandishing knives, for example, and workers suffering accidents using equipment they're not certified to use.
Amazon hosts a robot competition to automate its warehouses
Amazon leans heavily on warehouse robots to assist workers and fulfill your orders on time, but these machines still can't pack items quickly enough to replace humans. However, the internet giant is determined to make these mechanical helpers more useful. It's holding a competition at a conference this May to see who's best at producing an autonomous robot that grabs products off shelves and stuffs them into boxes. This may sound like a relatively straightforward challenge, but it isn't -- the bots have to grab a variety of objects while breaking as little as possible, including fragile things like food.
Amazon promises 7,000 new jobs ahead of Obama visit
Amazon has just announced that it will add 5,000 jobs at 17 fulfillment centers across the US, along with 2,000 customer service positions. The news comes just ahead of a visit tomorrow by President Obama to the retail giant's Chattanooga, Tennessee fulfillment center, where he's set to outline new job-creation policies. Amazon says such jobs typically pay 30 percent more than in retail stores, and all are full-time and include retirement, health care and stock benefits. The company has tripled its workforce over the past three years, and currently employs over 20,000 employees in its US warehouses, and 97,000 worldwide -- neck and neck with Microsoft. Such expansion resulted in a small loss $7 million last quarter, despite growing sales, but Amazon evidently plans to carry on regardless.
PayPal mobile payments hit the UK, filling your closet just went wireless (video)
PayPal's mobile payments have been on a whirlwind American tour this year, but they haven't had a chance to cross the border so far. Someone must have finally stamped the company's passport, since it's now an option for UK residents to pay using the InStore app for Android or iOS. A trio of fashion outlets -- Coast, Oasis and Warehouse -- can soon scan an on-screen barcode to take payment for that posh new shirt instead of requiring ye olde wallet. As it is in the US, there's no need for any NFC magic or even an Internet connection to clinch the deal, and there's still the same access to discounts and refunds as for paper- and plastic-wielding buyers. A total of 230 shops will take your PayPal credit starting May 31st, although they won't stop your potential fashion mistakes.
The same as it ever was: Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD screens and partial level list
Look, we're not going to sit here and pretend the Pro Skater series wasn't as much of a staple of our adolescence as everyone else's. We loved poppin' sweet kicks in 1999 and we expect to love it just as much 13 years later with Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD; especially after looking at these spot-on reproductions of the Warehouse and School 2.Besides the Warehouse and School 2, the Mall, Phoenix, Hangar, Marseilles and Venice have also been confirmed for the remake. But honestly, we'd rather Robomodo focus on getting this soundtrack situation sorted out before they move on to paltry trivialities like "levels" or "characters" or "physics" or "skateboards."%Gallery-145293%
Motorola unveils rugged ET1 Android tablet for enterprise types (video)
Well, here it is. After months of beta tests, Motorola's ET1 tablet was finally unveiled today, bringing a taste of Android 2.3 to the enterprise market. Powered by a 1GHz dual-core CPU, this rugged slate packs 8GB of internal storage, along with a 32GB microSD card slot, and features a seven-inch, Gorilla Glass capacitive touchscreen with 1024 x 600 resolution. Weighing in at 1.4 pounds, the ET1 also boasts an eight megapixel rear camera, a front-facing shooter designed for videoconferencing and 720p video capabilities. Plus, retailers can choose to outfit the tablet with a host of accessories, including a barcode reader, magnetic stripe reader, handstrap and holster. At this point, the ET1 boasts only WiFi connectivity, though Motorola Solutions' Sheldon Safir says a Wide Area Network version is in the works. The manufacturer didn't offer a specific price, but Safir tells Computer World that bulk purchases should cost less than $1,000 by the time the slab hits the market, later this year. Head past the break for a full platter of PR, along with a demo video.
Internet Archive founder wants to collect every book ever published
Not depressed enough yet about the impending death of print? This might help: Brewster Kahle, the fellow behind the Internet Archive, is in the process of gathering together every book ever published for safe storage against a future where the prevalence of digital media has utterly devalued physical texts -- it's a perhaps unreachable goal, he admits, but Kahle's warehouse is currently at 500,000 books and growing fast. The Associated Press describes the undertaking as something more akin to The Svalbard Global Seed Vault than the Library of Congress -- these books aren't being saved for lending, they're being stored for the future. If you're reading this Brewster, we recommend signing up for an Amazon Prime account. Those shipping fees can really add up fast.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Death to the warehouse map!
If you've played City of Heroes from levels 1 to anything, you already know the map I'm talking about. The more levels you've been through, the more you've seen it. Heck, you probably knew exactly what map I was talking about just from the subject line, because... well, it's the warehouse map. As I was thinking about this week's column, I was trying to figure out why it is that City of Heroes gets criticized as often as it does for being "repetitive." I'd gladly concede the point, but the follow-up question becomes, well, what's so inherently different between the gameplay here as opposed to World of Warcraft, or EverQuest II, or Lord of the Rings Online, or even Dungeons and Dragons Online? How is killing X of critter Y for questgiver Z in any way less repetitive than punching the Fifth Column around for the hundredth time? But with the recent addition of Melissa "War Witch" Bianco as lead designer, with her promises of "more content," I formed at least part of an idea of why that pointless accusation will not go away. And I believe the blame can be laid squarely at the feet of that stupid warehouse map.
