Don’t expect the worldwide chip shortage to end any time soon. Bloomberg and The Washington Post note the US Commerce Department has published a semiconductor supply chain report estimating that the global shortage will last until at least the second half of 2022. “We aren’t even close to being out of the woods” with supply problems, Department Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

Many companies are particularly sensitive to problems, too. The median chip inventory for a client company plunged from 40 days in 2019 to under five days in 2021. Even a relatively short (weeks-long) disruption overseas could shut down an American factory, the Department said.

The shortage is particularly damaging to broadband companies, car makers and medical device producers, according to the report. Despite early claims, there wasn’t evidence hoarding contributed to the shortfalls. Demand was higher, too, with median interest about 17 percent higher in 2021 than it was two years earlier. The Commerce Department’s study was comprehensive, obtaining supply chain data from almost all major semiconductor firms and companies across a range of industries.

Officials concluded the government couldn’t directly end the shortage. Private companies were “best positioned” to overcome challenges by increasing production, optimizing their designs and limiting the impact on their supply chains. However, Raimondo used this as an opportunity to plug President Biden’s proposed $52 billion subsidy through the US Innovation and Competition Act (USICA). The investment could help “rebuild American manufacturing” and boost domestic supply chains for “years ahead,” she said.

Factories resulting from USICA money wouldn’t be ready for years, however, and the bill itself has been delayed. While it passed a crucial Senate vote, the House bill is only expected to surface by this week at the earliest. It could take longer to both clear the House and evolve into a final form Biden can sign into law. For now, the tech industry largely has to solve this dilemma on its own.

Source: Engadget – US warns global chip shortage will likely last through 2022

Back in September, a slate of landmark bills successfully passed through the City Council of New York granting a variety of common sense provisions to the many delivery workers of the five boroughs. Well, the first tranche of new laws came into effect this week and crucially, they now guarantee couriers the right to use the bathrooms of restaurants. 

The lack of access to toilets has been a major point of contention for this class of workers (no doubt you’ve seen reports of Amazon drivers urinating in in bottles — something the company is reportedly well aware of.) The situation has been no different gig workers in NYC, and so bathroom access became a rallying cry for Los Deliveristas Unidos, a group of couriers who have been pushing for change. What was a long uphill battle resulted in a legislative win backed by progressive lawmakers in the states, and Local Law 117 — sponsored by District 2 Councilwoman Carlina Rivera — guarantees that:

“food delivery applications include a provision in contracts with restaurants requiring them to make their toilet facilities available for delivery workers’ use, as long as the delivery worker seeks to access the facilities while picking up a food or beverage order for delivery”

Why this was not already the case is a total mystery. Keep in mind that, while the pandemic has certainly put a spotlight on the working conditions of couriers, Seamless launched in New York City in 1999, and has been leveraging its own fleet of gig workers since around 2014. A law addressing the discrepancy between “working everywhere” and “being allowed to use a toilet almost nowhere” took this long to address.

Free use of restrooms isn’t the only quality of life change for gig workers. Two other laws which became enforceable yesterday provide greater pay transparency. The first requires informing delivery persons of the amount each customer has tipped them on an order, while the second mandates the information related to the previous day’s total pay and total tips for be shared with the courier. These also might seem like small, perhaps even obvious features one might expect to already be available in these apps. But once again, this has been a long-running issue for gig workers; both Amazon Flex and DoorDash have been forced to pay hefty settlements for using tip money to subsidize contractor wages. 

Additional provisions for couriers will go into effect near the end of April that will require companies to provide insulated bags, routing directions for accepting an order and to pay workers at least once a week. Another law will also allow delivery workers to set the maximum distance they wish to travel, and give them the freedom to avoid going over bridges or through tunnels which can sometimes be dangerous. Finally, this coming January 1st, apps will be required to pay an as-yet-to-be-determined minimum rate to couriers, similar to how the city enacted a pay floor for rideshare drivers in 2018. 

Source: Engadget – NYC’s app-based delivery workers can finally use restaurant bathrooms

Stadia Pro members will be able to claim a couple of notable games at no additional cost next week. Following a delay, Square Enix’s Life is Strange Remastered and Life is Strange: Before the Storm Remastered will hit various platforms (but not Switch) on February 1st, and subscribers can snag them on the same day. 

The most recent game in the well-regarded, narrative-heavy series, Life is Strange: True Colors, landed on Stadia and elsewhere on September 10th.

Five other games will join the Stadia Pro lineup on February 1st: Cosmic Star Heroine, Nanotale, Merek’s Market, Phogs and One Hand Clapping. Subscribers can add those titles to their library and play them for as long as their Stadia Pro membership remains active.

It emerged earlier this month that Stadia users will soon have another way to access the platform. Samsung’s 2022 TVs will allow players to access some cloud gaming services, like Stadia, without the need for dedicated hardware, such as a Chromecast dongle. You’ll just need a compatible controller. Other TVs, including some LG models, offer direct access to Stadia as well.

Source: Engadget – Life is Strange remasters will join the Stadia Pro lineup on February 1st

Blizzard, the studio behind Overwatch, Diablo and World of Warcraft, is getting into a new genre with the announcement that it’s working on a survival game. It seems the project is in the early stages of development, so don’t expect a finished product (or even a splashy trailer) any time soon, but it’s notable that the publisher is playing around with fresh mechanics and new worlds.

Blizzard’s job post about the survival game says it will be “a place full of heroes we have yet to meet, stories yet to be told, and adventures yet to be lived. A vast realm of possibility, waiting to be explored.” So, yeah, they’re keeping things vague for now.

The studio has confirmed one detail about the project: It’ll be available on “PC and console.” It’s hard to say if the use of the singular “console” is prophetic — after all, Microsoft just announced plans to purchase Activision Blizzard, and the cross-platform future of its games is uncertain. Operating as a subsidiary of Microsoft, it’s possible that Blizzard would build a game just for Xbox consoles, leaving PlayStation and Switch players in the lurch.

It’ll likely be at least a year before we hear platform details and concrete information about the game, but Blizzard is looking to hire a handful of people in art, design and engineering to fill out the team. 

Activision Blizzard is currently facing a lawsuit and several investigations into allegations of systemic gender discrimination and sexual harassment at the studio, where CEO Bobby Kotick has been in charge for the past 30 years. One Blizzard employee went public with her experience, saying she was “subjected to rude comments about [her] body, unwanted sexual advances, inappropriately touched, subjected to alcohol-infused team events and cube crawls, invited to have casual sex with [her] supervisors, and surrounded by a frat-boy culture that’s detrimental to women.” 

Blizzard head Mike Ybarra last week promised to rebuild trust in the studio and establish “a safe, inclusive and creative work environment” as it transitions to Microsoft’s roster.

Source: Engadget – Blizzard is diving into the survival game genre