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Uber drivers in British Columbia, Canada have joined a union and are now seeking the first collective deal for ride-share drivers in the country, according to Bloomberg. Drivers from Greater Victoria, in particular, have joined UFCW 1518, the province's largest private sector union, which currently represents over 28,000 workers across multiple sectors. "The organizing victory represents a new chapter for app-based workers, demonstrating that all workers deserve a voice in their working conditions, regardless of how technology shapes their workplace," UFCW 1518 said in a statement.

The company told Bloomberg that the bargaining unit was certified after enough drivers in Victoria signed union cards. It was made possible by a change of labor laws in the province last year that allowed app workers to unionize. Drivers in the city have been organizing for months to influence their working conditions and have a say in future changes to the ride-sharing platform. Specifically, they're seeking greater transparency around trip rates and earnings, improved health and safety protections, as well as fair processes when it comes to account deactivations. Uber told Bloomberg that it will now meet with the union to hash out the terms of the collective agreement.

In 2024, a group in Quebec formed the first union for Amazon warehouse workers in Canada. That group of workers accused Amazon of blocking its organizing efforts, though it eventually succeeded in getting the company to come to the negotiation table. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/uber-drivers-in-british-columbia-canada-have-unionized-122434476.html?src=rss

Ring's indoor camera that has a motorized base to give you a 360-degree view is cheaper than ever in a Prime Day deal. The Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam normally goes for $80, but it's dropped to just $40 for the Amazon savings event. That's even lower than the previous all-time low price of $50 that we've seen during other sales. The Pan-Tilt camera comes in five colors: Black, Blush, Charcoal, Starlight and White.

Ring introduced the Pan-Tilt Indoor Cam in 2024. It can spin a full 360 degrees on its base, and tilts up and down with a tilt range of 169 degrees. That makes it especially helpful for keeping tabs on pets and other goings-on in the home. It offers live views in addition to 24/7 recording, and supports two-way talk for when you want to check-in with a family member. The Pan-Tilt Cam also offers HD color video day and night.

The camera has a physical shutter as well, for when you want to be sure it's not watching. Sliding this will cover the camera, and Ring says it'll also disable the audio and video feeds. Setup should be easy with the Ring app, but if you aren't already in the Ring ecosystem, you'll need a subscription to use this camera. Ring offers three subscription options at $4.99, $9.99 and $19.99 per month.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-ring-pan-tilt-indoor-cam-drops-to-40-for-prime-day-123513479.html?src=rss

Microsoft reportedly set for another round of job cutsNext move could see 6,000 cut from the company's Gaming divisionThe cuts make up less than 4% of Microsoft's global headcountMicrosoft is cutting 9,000 jobs with most of those facing the ax being employed in the Gaming division.“We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a Microsoft spokesperson said (via CNBC).The job cuts seek to reduce the layers of managers standing between individual contributors and top executives, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC.Microsoft reveals another round of cutsCutting jobs seems to be the growing trend for many large companies, with Microsoft cutting just under 1% of its workforce in January 2025.Another 6,000 workers, mostly programmers, were cut in May and a further 300 jobs cut in June.Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s CEO of gaming, wrote in a Wednesday memo, “To position Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness.”Amazon has also gone through several waves of layoffs this year, with CEO Andy Jassy repeatedly saying that AI could replace some of its workers.For Microsoft though, the layoffs are more to do with improving business performance and reducing internal friction.Intel has also lined up a significant wave of layoffs, with the company looking to cut 15-20% of its factory workforce.Intel already laid off 15,000 people in August 2024. But while Intel has been struggling with declining revenues and market performance, Microsoft reported nearly $26 billion in net income on $70 billion in revenue for the March quarter.You might also likeMicrosoft reportedly set to cut thousands of jobs, with sales roles particularly at riskOn the job hunt? We've rounded up the best job sitesUp to 7,000 Microsoft workers could be made redundant in the biggest drop in two years

Presumed Innocent season 2: key information - Renewed in July 2024- Rachel Brosnahan cast as lead star- Jake Gyllenhaal to return as executive producer- Release date currently unknown- Plot to follow Jo Murray's Dissection of a Murder- No official trailer yetPresumed Innocent season 2 is on the way, which is not surprising given the prodigious success of Apple TV+'s dark and twisting adaptation of the Scott Turow novel of the same name.And while viewers had yet to find out whether Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal) did or didn’t murder his mistress, it seems they never will. A new lead star has been cast with a whole new plot to follow. So, there's plenty to talk about that doesn't concern Rusty at all.It's one of the best Apple TV+ shows and as we look ahead to what season 2 has to offer for this gripping procedural drama before it returns to one of the best streaming services. Here's what we can expect from release date, plot details, confirmed cast, trailer speculation and more.Presumed Innocent season 2 release dateNew season. New case.Presumed Innocent has been renewed for season 2. pic.twitter.com/FeKFmAWueiJuly 12, 2024There's no Presumed Innocent season 2 release date just yet, but with the official renewal from Apple TV+ happening back in July 2024, it doesn't feel too far away.I'd predict we'll be seeing season 2 around early 2026, but I'll be sure to update here as soon as I hear any news.Presumed Innocent season 2 trailerNew season. New case.Presumed Innocent has been renewed for season 2. pic.twitter.com/FeKFmAWueiJuly 12, 2024Unfortunately, it's not going to take a district attorney to work out that a Presumed Innocent season 2 trailer won’t be expected until a few weeks before the show drops on Apple TV+. But, I'll post it here when it does.Presumed Innocent season 2 castA post shared by Apple TV (@appletv)A photo posted by on Full spoilers to follow for Presumed Innocent season 1.The only confirmed Presumed Innocent cast member so far is Rachel Brosnahan as Leila Reynolds. In June, it was officially revealed by Apple TV that she would be taking on the lead role for season 2.Despite Gyllenhaal playing the lead in this series, it seems very unlikely that he'll return as Rusty for season 2 given there will be an entirely new storyline (more on this below).But, he will be staying on as an executive producer alongside David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams and Scott Turrow.And while Peter Sarsgaard played Tommy Molto in season 1, he was very clear about his position on returning for season 2, as reported by IndieWire: “I’m not really that interested in sequels. I think I’ve only ever done one season of anything… I think I’m a one-season person.”That doesn't mean there can't be any crossover though, as Deadline revealed: "There had been an idea for a character or two from Season 1 to carry over for continuity in the vein of HBO's The White Lotus; it is unclear whether that is still a possibility". Though reps from Apple TV+ and WBTV declined to comment.Presumed Innocent season 2 plot details & rumorsA new season and a new courtroom (Image credit: Apple TV Plus)As discussed in the cast section, Presumed Innocent season 2 will be based on an entirely new source material. While Scott Turrow is on board as co-executive producer, it won't be another of his books that season 2 will follow.Instead, it has been confirmed that it will be based on the debut legal thriller Dissection of a Murder by Jo Murray. And that is, in part, due to the fact there was no clear path for season 2.As per the Pan Macmillan's official synopsis, we have a great insight into the plot: "When Leila Reynolds is handed her first murder case, she's shocked at how high-profile it is: the murder of a well-respected, well-known judge."This shouldn't be the kind of case she's leading; it's way beyond her expertise. But the defendant, Jack Millman, is clear. He wants her, and only her."To make things worse, he's refusing to talk. How is she supposed to prove herself on what appears to be an unwinnable case?"Oh, and Deadline also revealed that the prosecutor in Leila's case is also her husband. Adding: "Things are still in flux but Dissection of a Murder is expected to serve as inspiration for the second season of what is shaping up to be a true anthology series."Will there be more seasons of Presumed Innocent?Presumed Innocent season 2 paves the way for an anthology (Image credit: Apple TV+)There's no news of any future seasons of Presumed Innocent, but that shouldn't come as a shock since there's not even a season 2 release date yet.What we do know is that the popular Apple TV+ drama is shaping up to become an anthology series, which does create a much wider scope for any future seasons and their subsequent plots.As always, I imagine it'll depend on the success of season 2 before a decision is made around more. But, since season 2 was renewed two weeks before season 1 concluded, there's every hope that there'll be more to come.For more Apple TV+ coverage, read our guides on Severance season 3, Ted Lasso season 4, Silo season 3, and Slow Horses season 5.

EA's next Battlefield game is supposedly arriving sometime in spring 2026, but its development is reportedly fraught with issues, leading some of its developers to worry that certain parts of the game won't be well-received. According to a lengthy Ars Technica piece about the game's development troubles and problems facing AAA titles' development as a whole, EA had lofty goals for the next Battlefield (codenamed Glacier) to the point that team members working on the project think they're near unrealistic.

The publisher's executives apparently believed that Glacier could match the popularity of Call of Duty and Fortnite and set a 100 million player target over a certain period of time. An employee told Ars that the franchise has never achieved those numbers before, with Battlefield 2042 getting only up to 22 million players within that same period. The first Battlefield, which was the most successful in the franchise so far, only got to "maybe 30 million plus" within that timeframe.

One of the reasons why Fortnite has over 100 million active users is because it's free-to-play. In CoD's case, well, aside from having free-to-play titles, it's also the biggest gaming franchise and has a lengthy history, so it's no surprise that it already has a solid fanbase who would play its latest releases. Players had to pay for previous Battlefield games up front, but executives thought that if EA made Glacier free-to-play like its competitors, it could achieve the same numbers. And that is why the publisher promised a free-to-play Battle Royale mode with a six-hour single player campaign for the upcoming game.

Ridgeline, the external studio working on the single player mode, however, shuttered in 2024 after working on the project for two years. The studio reportedly found EA's objectives unachievable, since it was expected to reach milestones in the same rate as more established studios when it didn't have the same resources. Now, three other EA studios (Criterion, DICE and Motive) are working on the single-player mode. But since they had to start from scratch, single player is the only Glacier game mode remaining that has yet to reach alpha status.

Due to the wider scope of the next title in the franchise and the issues it has faced, it has become the most expensive Battlefield to date. It had a budget of $400 million back in 2023, but the current projections are now apparently "well north" of that. Whether the next Battlefield launches on time remains to be seen. Ars' sources said that if it does ship as intended, they expect some features and content to be cut from the final product. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/eas-next-battlefield-game-may-be-in-trouble-and-over-budget-130046636.html?src=rss

AMD's RX 9070 XT is now considerably faster than it was at launchIt's 9% quicker, in fact, with the latest graphics driver compared to the initial releaseThat's based on benchmarking across a suite of games conducted by Hardware Unboxed, and those results are broadly reflected elsewhere, tooAMD's RX 9070 XT graphics card is considerably faster than it was when the GPU first launched thanks to improvements in Team Red's drivers, going by some new testing.This comes from Hardware Unboxed on YouTube (as highlighted by VideoCardz), which had seen reports of performance boosts and wanted to verify those claims.And they turned out to be correct, because based on benchmarks conducted across a suite of 16 games (at 1440p resolution) by Hardware Unboxed, the RX 9070 XT was 9% faster than with its launch graphics drivers (from back in March 2025).This game benchmarking used the latest AMD Adrenalin graphics driver (version 25.6.3), but also included Nvidia's RTX 5070 Ti not just for perspective, but also to ensure that these gains were achieved due to the drivers.This was to eliminate the possibility that the near-10% boost witnessed by the RX 9070 XT might have been the result of patches applied to the games. So, if the RTX 5070 Ti had shown similar gains, the conclusion would be that this was down to game, not driver, optimizations – but that isn't the case.Granted, with some games, the RTX 5070 Ti witnessed similar frame-rate gains to AMD's graphics card, which could indicate that those improvements were indeed down to an update for the game (or multiple updates over time). Or indeed that Nvidia's drivers have improved, too, by a similar amount, which is of course perfectly possible. There were some victories for the RTX 5070 Ti, as well, though they were more outliers, like a 36% gain in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (which was due to a bug fix).The broad thrust of Hardware Unboxed's findings, though, is that the RX 9070 XT does considerably better, with the mentioned 9% boost (going from 116 frames per second to 126 on average) compared to a gain of 2.5% (119 frames per second to 122) for Nvidia's upper-mid-range GPU. That include a 27% speed gain for the AMD graphics card in Spider-Man Remastered.Analysis: AMD's increasingly tempting value propositionOf course, there are a lot of moving parts here in terms of the games chosen to be tested and graphics settings applied (and the test PC configuration). There wasn't much difference at 4K resolution, it's worth noting, with a 4% gain for the 9070 XT versus 3% for the 5070 Ti.So, this is hardly a definitive result, and we should exercise some caution around it. Still, the difference at 1440p appears to be large enough to warrant some raised eyebrows, and these kinds of gains have been observed elsewhere, too, as noted.It appears, then, that AMD has made considerable progress in honing its Adrenalin graphics drivers – much more so than Nvidia – since the RDNA 4 range of graphics cards was launched. Or, to a certain extent, this could reflect Team Red smoothing out wonkiness with performance at lower resolutions (given that the boost at 4K is much less, and barely any different to what Nvidia has managed with the RTX 5070 Ti).This is great news for those who bought an RX 9070 XT already, of course, and effectively a substantial free speed boost, as it were. It's also evidence of the 'fine wine' effect that's commonly associated with AMD drivers, meaning they age very well as time goes on.What about the situation for those who are looking at buying either an RTX 5070 Ti or RX 9070 XT? For starters, they can check out our head-to-head comparison of those GPUs, but performance-wise in this Hardware Unboxed test, there's not much between them.At 1440p – the resolution these graphics cards will mostly be used at – AMD has pulled its socks up a good deal as noted, and the 9070 XT is now the faster board, but only by 3%. There are other arguments in favor of Nvidia, too, around the benefits of DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation, so it's a very close battle here.That means, then, that pricing is absolutely key – and of course regional price tags, too – and this is where AMD scores the win, certainly in the US, UK and Australia. At Newegg US currently, the Nvidia GPU is 20% more expensive (it's normally more, though), and in Australia the gulf is more like 30%. Wherever you live, the story is likely to be very similar, unless you can find a really good outlier of a deal on the RTX 5070 Ti (like this one in the UK currently).And given that, unless you're really hungry for DLSS 4, the RX 9070 XT is now looking very much the stronger of these GPUs in terms of that all-important overall price/performance ratio.You might also like...Where to buy AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070: the best retailers in the US and UK to check for stockAMD warns its RX 9070 GPUs are strictly ‘UEFI-only’ – but don't panic, here's why this probably doesn’t affect youI've reviewed three generations of 3D V-cache processors, and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is the best there is