Rivian will receive up to $1.5 billion in state incentives to build Georgia production facility

Georgia will provide Rivian with up to $1.5 billion in local incentives and tax credits in support of the automaker’s plan to build a new manufacturing plant outside of Atlanta. When Rivian announced late last year it would build its second production …

Blizzard gives sneak peek of new mobile game ‘Warcraft Arclight Rumble’

Warcraft fans can look forward to a new mobile game in 2022. Blizzard today released the trailer for Warcraft Arclight Rumble, a free-to-play, single-player strategy game that is due later this year. The game features collectible Warcraft Minis th…

Apple Store workers in Atlanta will hold union vote in June

Workers at the first US Apple Store to file for a union election will decide whether to unionize next month. According to an agreement obtained by The Verge, employees at Apple’s Cumberland Mall retail location in Atlanta will begin voting on June 2nd, with the ballot box open until June 4th. All approximately 100 regular full- and part-time staff at the store will be able to participate in the election.

Citing “a source familiar with the situation,” The Verge reports Apple wanted the vote held in July. That was a move the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the union that seeks to represent the employees at the Cumberland Mall location, reportedly opposed on account the later date would have afforded Apple more time to attempt to dissuade workers from unionizing. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment.

Apple hasn’t explicitly come out against its frontline workers organizing, but those involved in the union drive at the company’s Grand Central Terminal location in New York have accused Apple of employing “union-busting” tactics, including messaging that has tried to convince employees that unionization isn’t in their best interests.

“We are fortunate to have incredible retail team members and we deeply value everything they bring to Apple,” the company said when news of the Grand Central Terminal drive first broke. “We are pleased to offer very strong compensation and benefits for full time and part time employees, including health care, tuition reimbursement, new parental leave, paid family leave, annual stock grants and many other benefits.”

Among other concessions, workers at the Cumberland Mall location hope to push Apple to compensate them better, offer more opportunities for career advancement and build a safer workplace. “One of the biggest things that we’re fighting for is going to be for fair pay and a livable wage, because with Atlanta being such a huge city, it’s just getting more and more expensive to live here,” Elli Daniels, an employee at the store, told Engadget. “Everybody deserves the opportunity to be able to not worry about whether they can afford food or pay their bills. Everybody deserves to be able to afford to live in the city that they work in.”

Like the recent vote at Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, the Cumberland Mall election could have historic ramifications. If workers vote in favor of organizing with the CWA, it would become the first unionized Apple Store in the US. That’s an outcome that could inspire Apple workers at other retail locations. 

Twitter ‘Circle’ test limits tweets to close friends

You might not have to tweet to all your followers (or the public) in the future. Twitter is testing a “Circle” feature that lets you limit tweets to a group of as many as 150 people. It’s a not-so-subtle parallel to Instagram’s Close Friends — you can ask for advice or share a personal event without unwelcome commentary.

The company told Engadget Circle is already available to a “small group” of Android, iOS and web users worldwide. It’s not yet clear if or when Twitter might expand the test to a wider audience, although that will likely hinge on feedback.

Circle joins a number of features meant to control the reach of Twitter posts, including an option to restrict who can reply. It could help Twitter compete with Instagram and other services that let you be more selective about content sharing, and might help you protect your privacy without resorting to direct messages or a small follower list.

At the same time, there is a concern Circle might exacerbate echo chambers. If you frequently limit discussions to a small clique, you might be less inclined to tweet to a larger crowd or see what your more distant connections are saying. Even so, more granularity might be appreciated at a time when it’s all too easy to be overwhelmed.

Apple reportedly hired a longtime Ford executive for its car project

Apple has hired a longtime Ford engineer and executive to work on its long-gestating car project, according to Bloomberg. Desi Ujkashevic had been with the automaker since 1991. Before leaving the company in March, Ujkashevic was Ford’s global director of automotive safety engineering.

She previously oversaw the global body engineering team, safety engineering for Ford of Europe and the global design technical operations division. In her early years at Ford, according to her LinkedIn profile, Ujkashevic held roles in vehicle engineering, testing and durability. She has also worked on Ford’s electric vehicle efforts and regulatory issues. In other words, she seems like exactly the kind of person you’d want to hire for an EV project.

Apple is said to have started work on an autonomous vehicle in 2015. However, those efforts have suffered several setbacks over the years, partly as a result of strategy and staffing changes. Doug Field, who was said to have led Project Titan, left Apple to rejoin Ford last September. However, the reported hire of Ujkashevic is another indication that Apple is still trying to build its own EV.

For what it’s worth, in a recent LinkedIn post, Ujkashevic said she was “excited to start my next adventure and I hope to continue to contribute to society and advancing technology with a purpose […] ultimately making a better world!”

Ubisoft Montreal takes over work on ‘Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake’

Work on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake evidently hasn’t gone as smoothly as Ubisoft hoped. The company has now put its Montreal studio in charge of the project. Ubisoft Pune and Ubisoft Mumbai had been working on the game.

Ubisoft Montreal was “the very birthplace of the epic Sands of Time trilogy,” the developers wrote in a message to fans. The original game was released in 2003. The dev team “will now take the time they need to regroup on the scope of the game to deliver you the best experience for this remake of an all-time classic, when it’s ready.”

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake was delayed from January 2021 to March last year, before it was put on hold indefinitely. As of last June, Ubisoft was targeting a 2022 release window. That seems less likely given the latest update. Engadget has contacted Ubisoft for comment.

This is far from the only Ubisoft game to suffer from a protected development cycle. Skull and Bones has been in the works since 2013 and, until alpha test footage leaked last week, Ubisoft hadn’t shown much from the often-delayed title since E3 2018. As for Beyond Good and Evil 2, that was first teased in 2008 and officially announced in 2017. That game still does not have a release window.

Razer’s Blade 15 will be the first laptop with a 240Hz OLED screen

You normally have to choose between fast refresh rates or OLED’s vivid imagery when buying a laptop, but Razer claims it can offer both at once. The company plans to update the Blade 15 with an option for what it says is the first 240Hz OLED laptop display. You’ll get the high responsiveness that can provide an edge in multiplayer games, but you’ll still have a color-accurate 1440p panel (100 percent of the DCI-P3 space) with deep contrast. If the machine lives up to its billing, you could dominate the latest online shooter in one breath and edit video the next.

There will be a few compromises. The 240Hz panel isn’t particularly bright at 400 nits. You won’t want to work in bright sunlight, then. And while the risk of burn-in that comes with OLED isn’t as high as it used to be, this might not be your best choice if you regularly work with static content like photos.

And if you thought a 240Hz OLED had to be expensive… you guessed correctly. The Blade 15 with this panel will arrive in the fourth quarter of the year at $3,500. You’ll get 32GB of RAM, a 12th-gen Core i9-12900H processor, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti graphics and a 1TB SSD as part of the package, but it’s clear Razer is aiming this spec at well-heeled gamers who want a do-it-all screen.

Update 5/3/22 11:33PM ET: The processor model was previously listed as i9-12800H. This has since been corrected.