Ars Technica’s technology reporter Jim Salter tested Walmart’s 11.6-inch EVOO laptop, which sells for $139 and ships with just 2GiB of RAM and a 32GB SSD, which he worries “simply is not enough room for Windows itself, let alone any applications.”
The first thing I noticed while looking through the Windows install is that our “internal” Wi-Fi is actually a cheap USB…
Tag: walmart
A Small US Town is Now Printing Its Own Currency
Tenino, Washington (population: 1,884) has launched its own local currency, reports the Hustle:
Mayor Wayne Fournier decided that Tenino would set aside $10k to give out to low-income residents hurt by the pandemic. But instead of using federal dollars, he’d print the money on thin sheets of wood designed exclusively for use in Tenino. His mint? A 130-year-old newspaper printer from a…
Facebook Pitched New Tool Allowing Employers To Suppress Words Like ‘Unionize’ in Workplace Chat Product
During an internal presentation at Facebook on Wednesday, the company debuted features for Facebook Workplace, an intranet-style chat and office collaboration product similar to Slack. From a report: On Facebook Workplace, employees see a stream of content similar to a news feed, with automatically generated trending topics based on what people are posting about. One of the new tools debuted by…
The Pandemic Brings a New Surge in Popularity For Electric Bikes
Battery-powered bikes “have become a compelling alternative for commuters who are being discouraged from taking public transportation and Ubers,” according to the New York Times’ lead consumer tech writer. In March, sales of e-bikes jumped 85% from a year earlier, according to the NPD Group, a research firm. Amazon, Walmart and Specialized are sold out of most models. Even smaller brands…
Walmart Employees Complain Its Anti-Shoplifting AI Is Buggy, Inaccurate, and Dangerous
Walmart uses “Everseen” AI technology in thousands of its stores “to prevent shoplifting at registers and self-checkout kiosks,” reports Wired. But some Walmart workers claim that instead it’s often failed to stop actual instances of stealing, misidentified innocuous behavior as theft — and made it harder for them to social distance: The workers said they had been upset about Walmart’s use…
Walmart To Discontinue Jet, Which it Acquired for $3 Billion in 2016
phalse phace shares a report: So much for Walmart’s big and expensive effort to take on Amazon with a digitally-native brand. Amid the coronavirus crisis and its impact on the retail industry, today the retail giant quietly announced in its quarterly report that it would be discontinuing Jet.com, the online-only marketplace that it acquired when it was just over one year…
Walmart Is Piloting a Pricier 2-Hour ‘Express’ Grocery Delivery Service
Walmart confirmed today it’s launching a new Walmart Grocery service called “Express,” which promises orders in two hours or less for an upcharge of $10 on top of the usual delivery fee. TechCrunch reports: The service has been in pilot testing across 100 Walmart stores in the U.S. since mid-April. Walmart says it plans to expand the service to nearly 1,000…
Will the Pandemic Inspire Silicon Valley to Do Good?
The global pandemic “has stirred up a missionary zeal throughout Silicon Valley,” writes Bloomberg:
Apple and Google put aside a decadelong rivalry to form an alliance to track the spread of infections. Facebook and Salesforce.com are procuring millions of masks for health care workers. Jeff Bezos is donating $100 million and Jack Dorsey $1 billion. In other corners of the Valley, people…
India’s Yes Bank Breakdown Disrupts Walmart’s PhonePe Among Dozen Other Services
Tens of millions of merchants and users in India are struggling to make online transactions and use several popular services after the nation’s central bank seized control of Yes Bank, the fourth largest lender in the country. From a report: The emergency takeover of the private sector bank has taken off several financial startups that rely on it for facilitating services…
Apple Has Blocked Clearview AI’s iPhone App for Violating Its Rules
An iPhone app built by controversial facial recognition startup Clearview AI has been blocked by Apple, effectively banning the app from use. From a report: Apple confirmed to TechCrunch that the startup “violated” the terms of its enterprise program. The app allows its users — which the company claims it serves only law enforcement officers — to use their phone camera…