Apple store workers in Australia go on strike, Starlink is bringing faster internet to the skies, and Ikea is testing driverless deliveries.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Thursday, October 20, and I’m your host, Tom Li.
Workers at Apple stores in Australia went on strike for an hour as they demanded better pay and working conditions. According to Insider the Retail and Fast Food Workers’ Union announced on Tuesday that workers had walked off the job. Staff also refused to install screen protectors, repair AirPods and handle deliveries. These strikes come as workers ask for better, liveable wages and work-life balance. The push for unionization is global as workers across the U.S. also ramp up their own efforts for collective action amid soaring inflation and low wages.
Source: Business Insider
Starlink is bringing faster internet connection to the skies with a new service for airplanes. Starlink Aviation promises to bring impressive speeds in flights, up to 350 megabytes-per-second, beginning next year. According to Insider, SpaceX says the service will improve passengers’ experiences in gaming, streaming, and video calls. Rather than using the same satellite dish as other Starlink customers, airplanes will be equipped with a special, low-profile terminal. It will cost between $12,500 to $25,000 monthly on top of an initial hardware fee of $150,000.
Source: Business Insider
Ikea and Kodiak Robotics are teaming up to test driverless deliveries from its warehouses. Kodiak Truck, a company that’s working on self-driving technology for long-haul trucking, has been delivering furniture from an Ikea distribution center near Houston to a retail store near Dallas daily. The truck does have a backup driver behind the wheel who’s in charge of picking up the loaded trailer\, but it runs autonomously over long stretches on the highway during its 300-mile journey. According to Engadget, the furniture brand is hoping to have a better grasp of how autonomous deliveries can make long trips safer and create better working conditions for drivers.
Source: Engadget
Social media profiles and entertainment accounts are getting more and more popular in dark web marketplaces. As of now, the majority of darknet markets sell stolen identities. According to data by Atlas VPN, extracted from the dark web by Whizcase, between January and September, social media profiles were the most available, and prices for hijacked accounts can start as low as $6. The most costly hijacker social profile was LinkedIn, selling for about $45 per account. In addition, purchasing social media engagement is pretty cheap. For just $25, one could purchase 1,000 Twitter retweets from what appear to be authentic accounts.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Tom Li.