Twitter’s election-night policies are put to the test

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It's Wednesday, November 04, 2020.

The ballots aren’t all counted yet, but predictably, the president’s social media posts have already managed to cross a line with Twitter when it comes to including “potentially misleading” information. Facebook and Instagram are including a label about the facts on each candidate’s posts but aren’t restricting sharing or hiding them behind a sticker.

In California, Uber and Lyft spent hundreds of millions to push Proposition 22, which would exempt them from treating drivers as employees, and it appears the measure has passed. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, voters pushed back against the auto industry, approving Question 1, an expansion of their Right to Repair law, which ensures car owners and independent mechanics can access performance data collected by a car’s sensors.

-Richard Lawler

NASA contacts Voyager 2 probe for the first time since March

Long-distance call.

NASA revealed it sent commands to the probe on October 29th, using the recently upgraded Deep Space Station 43 dish in Canberra, Australia. The instructions were part of a test for new hardware, including a radio transmitter that hadn’t been replaced in 47 years — before Voyager 2 even launched.

The craft is so far away (11.6 billion miles) that Northern Hemisphere antennas can’t get in touch, and DSS43 is the only Southern Hemisphere dish powerful enough to send commands.
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Pixel 5 'Battery Share' makes reverse wireless charging automatic

One-plug charging for your accessories[IMG]

Reverse wireless charging is a nice on-the-go option for charging compatible earbuds or a smartwatch directly from your phone without carrying a second charger. With the Pixel 5, it’s even easier to do because the phone can automatically switch the feature on as soon as you plug in a USB-C charger. If it doesn’t detect a Wireless Qi device within 30 seconds, it simply turns off.
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Amazon is randomly shipping products in Mario-themed boxes

They're limited-edition boxes, and even buying Nintendo gear won't guarantee you one.

You may get your next Amazon order in a Super Mario-themed box, even if the item inside isn’t even remotely connected to Nintendo — or gaming in general. Nintendo has teamed up with the retailer as part of Mario’s ongoing 35th-anniversary celebration, and one of the things they cooked up is sending out random orders in Super Mario Bros.-branded boxes throughout November. Nintendo says the Mario boxes are in “limited quantity” and “will be used randomly, while supplies last.”
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Walmart abandons plan to have robots check store inventories

Huh, humans were just as good.

Walmart has decided to scrap plans to use robots for automated inventory tracking after finding that people could do just as good a job, according to the WSJ.

Back in 2017, Walmart started testing the fully autonomous bots made by Bossa Nova Robotics in around 50 stores. They can scan multiple items at a time, and much like self-driving cars, use 3D imaging to dodge obstacles while keeping track of areas that need to be revisited. The idea was that they’d check stock levels, pricing and misplaced items, relieving the load on human staff and reducing labor costs.

But as COVID-19 lockdowns shifted sales online, Walmart found that workers collecting online deliveries from shelves could also gather inventory data. Now, Walmart plans to use those folks to monitor levels and locations, essentially making the robots redundant.
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