Update: The Galaxy Z Flip 3 in India is also getting the same One UI 5.0 treatment. The Android 13-based update for the Z Flip 3 carries firmware version F711BXXU3DVK3. The official firmware files are now available for download from our website for users who want to skip the wait and install the updates manually.
Original story follows
The Galaxy Z Flip 4 and the Galaxy Z Fold 4 started getting the stable Android 13 update yesterday in South Korea. After releasing the fifth One UI 5.0 beta update to the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and the Galaxy Z Fold 3 last week, Samsung has released the stable Android 13 update to the Galaxy Z Fold 3, but the update is currently limited to One UI 5.0 beta testers.
The stable Android 13 update for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 comes with firmware version F926BXXU2DVK3. This update has been released in India, and more countries could get the update within the next few days. While One UI 5.0 beta testers are getting a 307.56MB update, other Galaxy Z Fold 3 users will get an update that’s as big as 2GB in download size. The new update also brings the November 2022 security patch to the foldable phone.
If you are a Galaxy Z Fold 3 user in India who registered their foldable device to beta-test One UI 5.0, you can now download the stable update by navigating to Settings » Software update and tapping Download and install. We expect the stable update to be released to all Galaxy Z Fold 3 users starting next week.
Samsung claimed a few weeks ago that it will release the stable Android 13 update to all its high-end smartphones and most newer mid-range devices by the end of 2022. The Galaxy A33 5G, Galaxy A52, Galaxy A53 5G, Galaxy A73 5G, Galaxy M32 5G, Galaxy M52 5G, Galaxy S20, Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, Galaxy Tab S8, Galaxy XCover 6 Pro, Galaxy Z Flip 4, and the Galaxy Z Fold 4 have received the update in a few countries already.
Meyers has started taking deposits for its upcoming electric dune buggy, the Meyers Manx 2.0, which is slated to ship in 2024. The company is also taking interest in a 2023 “beta program” for 50 early buyers who will help provide feedback before full production.
The original Meyers Manx, the first “dune buggy,” was a kit car, built on a modified VW Beetle chassis with a fiberglass body kit. It was popular in desert racing in the 60s, though the company folded in 1971. Bruce Meyers, the founder, brought the company back in 1999 and showed off an electric prototype in 2014. The company was sold to venture capital firm Trousdale in 2020.
It’s now back with an electric version, which was first unveiled last week at a private event in Malibu.
While we don’t know pricing yet, Meyers started taking deposits today, at $500 a pop. Deposits are fully refundable.
The company is also searching for interest in its “beta program,” where 50 early owners will agree to drive their car for a minimum amount of mileage in various conditions over a 12-month period. “Beta pioneers” will share feedback on a regular basis with Meyers to help improve the product, which is capable of over-the-air updates.
Meyers released some new photos today, including studio photos of the car. Check ’em out:
We also got a better sense of the car’s storage options. As you can see in the photos above, under the hood there is a storage area – but it only holds a spare tire and tools.
Behind the seats there’s a rear storage area, which is covered by the tiltable roof but is not lockable. You can get a sense of how it works in these shots from the Malibu reveal:
Meyers hasn’t finalized specs yet, but it has shared some estimates. The Manx 2.0 will be available with 20kWh and 40kWh battery options, with the 40kWh battery capable of 0-60 in 4.5 seconds. These will have estimated ranges of 150 and 300 miles respectively, quite a lot for these smallish batteries – but the car itself is tiny after all, only 1,500 or 1,650 lbs, depending on battery size.
Electrek’s Take
It may sound a little silly that early buyers of a product will essentially be signed up for a “job” of driving around and helping the company with testing, but this is not actually unheard of in the EV space.
While Meyers calls this program a “first-of-its-kind,” there was a similar program with the original BMW Mini E back in 2009. Applicants answered a series of questions, and BMW invited around 500 people to lease these early EVs and provide feedback. This led to BMW’s ActiveE program and later to the BMW i3, which incorporated some feedback from early “Pioneers” and “Electronauts.”
Several of the “Pioneers” from that program still keep in touch and have gone on to get positions in the EV industry – such as the author whose words you’re reading right now. The Mini E is where I started my EV journey, and it’s been quite a ride.
Even for other “non-beta” cars, early EV owners have often felt somewhat like informal beta testers anyway – even the Tesla Model 3, a third-generation vehicle, went through a lot of changes in the early days based on early owner feedback. Tesla drivers are also currently acting as beta testers for Tesla’s FSD software, years after paying thousands of dollars for software they’re still waiting for.
So, given this is Meyers’ first EV, this isn’t really unexpected.
As for takes on the car itself – I learned from driving the Mini E that I love small electric two seaters without a lot of cargo space, so it seems like this one is right up my alley. So, if you want to get in line with a Meyers Manx 2.0 deposit, you’ll be standing behind me.
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Activision Blizzard has just announced that all temporary and contingent QA workers of its Activision Publishing and Blizzard divisions are being converted to full-time employees — meaning nearly 1,100 temp game testers are getting full-time jobs with benefits. They’ll be making higher wages, too, with a new minimum hourly rate of $20.
Here is a full statement from Jessica Taylor, Activision Blizzard’s vice president of corporate communications:
Across Activision Blizzard, we are bringing more content to players across our franchises than ever before. As a result, we are refining how our teams work together to develop our games and deliver the best possible experiences for our players. We have ambitious plans for the future and our Quality Assurance (QA) team members are a critical part of our development efforts.
Therefore, today we announced the conversion of all US-based temporary and contingent QA team members at Activision Publishing (AP) and Blizzard – nearly 1,100 people in total – to permanent full-time employees starting July 1. Additionally, we are increasing the minimum hourly rate for these team members to $20/hr or more effective April 17. These employees also will be eligible to participate in the company’s bonus plan and will have access to full company benefits.
This change follows a process that began last year across AP and Blizzard of converting temporary and contingent employees, including 500 at AP’s studios, to permanent full-time employees.
The change follows significant worker activism after Raven Software, an Activision studio known for its work on the Call of Duty series, announced in December that it was going to lay off QA contractors. Some workers went on strike in protest, and some have since created a union, the Game Workers Alliance. We’ve reached out to the Game Workers Alliance for their response to Activision Blizzard’s move. Epic Games announced a similar decision to convert testers into full-time employees earlier this year.
Activision has also been under significant pressure following the state of California’s July lawsuit alleging the company fostered a culture of “constant sexual harassment.” The Wall Street Journal reported in November that CEO Bobby Kotick has been aware of sexual misconduct allegations at the company for years. California’s lawsuit is ongoing, though a judge recently approved an $18 million settlement struck with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding its separate lawsuit.
The changes also happen under the shadow of Microsoft’s impending $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard.
Activision provided two emails about the changes to The Verge that Activision Publishing and Blizzard execs sent to their teams this week to alert them of the changes. We have included them below:
Email to Activision Publishing US employees from Josh Taub, Activision Publishing’s chief operating officer
From: Josh Taub
Subject Line: Update to QA
Team,
During the last two years, Call of Duty has expanded and evolved. Our development cycles have gone from an annual release to an “always on” model. In response to greater engagement, we’ve increased our live services business across all platforms. Our offerings now encompass season passes, operators, and the awesome content available in our stores. We’ve also grown our workforce and support across our studios, along with exciting new plans on mobile.
In light of these changes, and as we look to our ambitious plans for the future, we are further refining how our development teams work together. QA is, and continues to be, critical to our development success. We have amazing QA teams in place that work hard to ensure our players have the best possible gaming experiences – thank you!
I’m pleased to announce that we are converting all US-based temporary and contingent QA workers to full time employees (FTEs). We are increasing their hourly rate to a minimum of $20/hr and providing access to full company benefits, and they will be eligible to participate in the company’s bonus program.
This change follows the conversion of nearly 500 temporary and contingent workers to permanent full-time employees at Activision Publishing’s studios, and other ongoing conversions that have taken place in the past few months.
As Call of Duty evolves, we anticipate periods where the workload will fluctuate and exceed our expanded team’s bandwidth. With this in mind, we’re adding extra support for our team from external partners. This is a long-standing studio and industry practice that will give us more flexibility and capacity to support the business needs and enable our internal teams to focus on the results that most impact our business.
Together, we will change the game and take Call of Duty to the next level.
-Josh
Email to Blizzard employees from Mike Ybarra, the head of Blizzard
From: Mike Ybarra
Subject: Delivering Blizzard Quality: QA Full Time Conversions
Hi Blizzard,
We’ve shared with many of you the exciting experiences we’re bringing to players in 2022 and beyond. There’s so much happening across our teams – and this is just the beginning of our renewed focus in putting our teams and players at the forefront of everything we do.
Our ability to deliver great games at the “Blizzard quality” level our players expect is vital to ensuring we exceed player expectations. Over the last 6 months, I’ve had the opportunity to listen and engage with members of our QA team and we’ve had several meetings where I outlined my philosophy about contract/full-time roles. I want to thank everyone who helped educate me and expressed their views on how we can make Blizzard the best player-focused game studio. We all know QA is integral to our success in ensuring the best possible gameplay experiences.
Some time ago QA leadership started shifting their approach to staffing the team, converting more temporary and contract workers (TEAs) to full-time employees (FTEs), and using partners to support short-term spikes in workload. Today, this shift in approach is culminating in a conversion of all of the remaining U.S.-based TEAs/contractors in QA – more than 90 people across Irvine, Austin and Albany – to FTEs. We’re also increasing the minimum hourly rate for QA to $20/hour, and they will be eligible for our bonus program and increased benefits.
We have amazing QA talent, and I’m very happy to make this change so that we can focus and deliver for players around the globe. If you have any questions, please reach out to me, your HR partner or Wladia Summers.
Thank you for your feedback and helping us make this change.
Thank you,
Mike
Disclosure: Casey Wasserman is on the board of directors for Activision Blizzard as well as the board of directors of Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.
Epic Games is hiring its US-based contingent workers full-time and with benefits, Epic confirmed to The Verge. The Fortnite developer is extending the offer to quality assurance (QA) testers, as well as other “eligible” contract-based employees.
The news first surfaced in an employee-facing memo obtained by The Verge. In the memo, the company writes it will “offer full-time at-will employment to eligible US-based contingent workers,” and that “many of those offers will be effective April 4th, 2022.” But it also notes that some workers won’t receive the offer, citing “there are a few exceptions in which it makes sense for both the worker and Epic to maintain contingent worker status.”
Epic spokesperson Elka Looks told The Verge that the game developer will hire “a few hundred” of its contractors, and that “most but not all” are quality assurance (QA) testers. Looks confirmed that all the workers will be eligible for the company’s US employee benefits plans, and will also be directly employed by Epic Games. The studio currently contracts out QA testers and other workers through temp agencies, including Eastridge, Hays, and Nextaff.
Looks also said the company will still hire contingent workers for “short-term needs,” however. She didn’t have any additional information to share about the other types of contingent workers (outside of QA testers) Epic will be hiring, and didn’t specify which workers are excluded from the offer.
Epic’s move to make its contract-based workers full-time employees comes at a time when tensions between workers and major game development studios are high; not to mention that it’s a huge step towards improving working conditions for QA testers and other workers. In December, Activision’s Raven Software laid off a dozen QA testers, prompting a walkout, and later the organization of the Game Workers Alliance union.
The game industry has become known for subjecting workers to incredibly long hours during (sometimes unpaid) periods called “crunch,” and Epic is no exception. In 2019, Epic was met with criticism after its workers revealed the long workdays that go into keeping the wildly-popular battle royale, Fortnite on track with fans’ expectations. Epic Games later closed its studios for two weeks in response to employees’ concerns.
Last year, Epic Games ended its COVID-era policy that let workers take every other Friday off, upsetting employees who say the extra day off is beneficial. A number of independent developers have transitioned to the four-day workweek, including Young Horses, Crow Crow Crow, Die Gute Fabrik, and more.
Today, contract testers at the Call of Duty studio Raven Software were told that the studio would face layoffs on January 28th of next year, a Call of Duty community manager said on Twitter. A source familiar with the goings-on at the company confirmed to Kotaku that for the next few days in early December, the quality assurance team would be meeting one-on-one with management individually to learn if they were out of a job.
Acquired by Activision in 1997, Raven Software is now one of the major developers heading up Call of Duty titles. The Wisconsin-based company has worked on titles such as Call of Duty: Black Ops, Ghosts, Infinite Warfare and others in collaboration with major studios at Activision, like Infinity Ward. More recently, Raven Software became the more public face of free-to-play battle royale Warzone via patch notes and development comms. Raven is, in other words, an important part of the ever-expanding Call of Duty machine.
According to Austin O’Brien, a community manager for Call of Duty, the quality assurance team from Raven Software have promised raises for months by Activision. As it turns out, these raises had an asterisk attached to them. The plan, as our source tells it, is that Activision will absorb some contract testers from Raven Software, hire some testers permanently, but the vast majority of the developers at Raven would be out of work. The workers retaining jobs will indeed be promoted from $17 an hour to $18.50 an hour, alongside improved benefits and quarterly bonuses. Promises of raises and other benefits that never arrive are well-known tactics within the industry as a means of retaining contract workers hoping to transfer into more full-time positions.
So far, testers say that the studio has not been very communicative about these structural changes. Developers learned the news of the layoffs mostly from word of mouth, which added to the unease felt by QA staff. A source told Kotaku: “This wasn’t a normal end. They just decided to gut the studio. I’ve heard so far that they’ve lost 1/3 of their QA and it is still ongoing into next week.” Kotaku reached out to Activision, but they did not respond at the time of publication.
These layoffs came in spite of Activision Blizzard’s high third quarter profits, which were higher than they were in 2020. It isn’t the first time that Activision Blizzard has cut its workforce during a successful year. CEO Bobby Kotick collected record bonuses this March amidst an estimated 190 layoffs. Activision Blizzard also laid off 800 staff in 2019 despite “record results.” Kotick has a reputation for harsh cost-cutting measures, and prided in a “culture of thrift” at the company. Activision Blizzard is also currently under considerable public scrutiny for gender harassment and discrimination, alongside floundering attempts at managing their public image.
“Lots of amazing, highly competent testers getting laid off after YEARS of crunch after crunch after crunch,” wrote one QA tester on social media. “I’m as furious as I am shattered.”
Last updated: October 28th, 2021 at 02:05 UTC+02:00
The third One UI 4.0 beta update was released for the Galaxy S21 series in South Korea a week ago, but Samsung is no longer accepting beta testers. That’s a good sign, too, because it hints that Samsung is now getting ready to release the first polished build to the public.
The Android 12-based One UI 4.0 beta program was open to anyone who uses a Galaxy S21 in one of the participant countries. The sign-up process required the Samsung Members app, and countless Galaxy S21 owners joined the beta program to get a sneak preview of Android 12 and help steer One UI 4.0 in the right direction.
After three One UI 4.0 beta builds and a recent hotfix, Samsung closed the beta program to new participants. A Samsung Community manager confirmed today that the company is no longer accepting beta firmware recruits for One UI 4.0 on the Galaxy S21, which indicates that the beta program is nearing its end.
The beta program could soon reopen for Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Galaxy Z Fold 3 owners, but as far as the Galaxy S21 series is concerned, it looks like it might receive the first stable build soon. How soon? We can never be too sure, but Samsung hinted at a launch before the end of the year — possibly ahead of December.
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