You can now group games on your Nintendo Switch home screen

Nintendo’s latest software update includes a feature you may have been waiting for: The ability to group games on your home screen. It’s been over five years since the console was released, and there are now thousands of games available for the system. Unlike the PlayStation, which gives you a way to sort titles into folders, the Switch only shows your most recently played ones in a single horizontal lineup you can scroll. This update changes that.

The first time you create a group, an information card will pop up telling you about the new feature and with the suggestion to sort games into themes, such as genres or developers, to make them easier to find. You only need to check all the titles you want to add, re-arrange them in the order you want them to be displayed and then type in a name for the group. To create another group, just press the + Button.

You can create up to 100 groups containing up to 200 titles each, so you can sort everything into however you want even if you’ve accumulated quite the collection over the years. While you can group large numbers of titles together, take note that the button to proceed to the “All Software” screen will show up if there are 13 or more titles displayed.

In addition to groups, the latest software update will also allow you to adjust a Bluetooth device’s volume on the device itself, so long as it supports AVRCP profiles. Also, Nintendo has increased the max volume for some Bluetooth devices.

US Justice Department says Google misuses attorney-client privilege to hide documents

The US Department of Justice has accused Google of training its employees on how to shield business communications from discovery in cases of legal disputes “by using false requests for legal advice.” As Axios reports, the DOJ has told the judge overseeing its antitrust case against the tech giant that Google instructs employees to add in-house lawyers to written communication, apply attorney-client privilege labels to them and make a request for legal advice even when it’s not needed. The department is now asking the judge to sanction the company “for its extensive and intentional efforts to misuse the attorney-client privilege to hide business documents relevant” to the case.

In the brief (PDF) its lawyers wrote for the judge, the DOJ said Google refers to the practice as “Communicate with Care” and that it first started no later than 2015. New employees are reportedly directed to follow the practice without discussion on whether it should only be used when legal advice is truly needed. In addition, Google allegedly provided the same training to teams handling search-distribution for the department’s (and other authorities’) antitrust cases. 

Google specifically told those teams to follow the practice for any written communication containing revenue-sharing agreements and mobile application distribution agreements, based on the presentation slides the DOJ included in its brief. Those agreements are central to the case. If you’ll recall, the DOJ accused Google of having an unfair monopoly over search and search-related advertising in its 2020 antitrust lawsuit. It also questioned its terms for Android device manufacturers that force them to pre-load Google apps and set Google as the default search engine. 

According to the DOJ, statements such as “adding legal” or “adding [attorney] for legal advice” appear in thousands of Google documents. These emails apparently lacked any specific request for advice and attorneys rarely respond to them. In the brief, the department said the practice “pervades the entire company” and is being used even by Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.

The DOJ is now asking the court to hold Google’s conduct as sanctionable and to order it to immediately produce “all withheld or redacted emails where no attorney responded to the purported request for legal advice.”

Google spokesperson Julie Tarallo McAlister defended the company in a statement sent to Axios, however, calling the allegations “flatly wrong.” McAlister said:

“Our teams have conscientiously worked for years to respond to inquiries and litigation, and suggestions to the contrary are flatly wrong. Just like other American companies, we educate our employees about legal privilege and when to seek legal advice. And we have produced over four million documents to the DOJ in this case alone — including many that employees had considered potentially privileged.”

GM to buy out SoftBank’s stake in Cruise self-driving unit

General Motors is acquiring SoftBank’s stake in Cruise and pouring even more money into the self-driving unit it purchased in 2016. The auto giant has announced that it’s buying out SoftBank Vision Fund 1’s equity ownership into the company that’s worth $2.1 billion. In addition, it has committed to investing an extra $1.35 billion in Cruise to replace the funding SoftBank promised in February after the self-driving car company started offering robotaxi rides in San Francisco. 

The automaker didn’t say why it’s buying SoftBank’s equity ownership, but GM chief executive Mary Barra said:

“Our increased investment position not only simplifies Cruise’s shareholder structure, but also provides GM and Cruise maximum flexibility to pursue the most value-accretive path to commercializing and unlocking the full potential of AV technology.”

SoftBank, meanwhile, has recently struggled with debt and the plummeting value of its properties. It may no longer be interested in an investment that won’t field returns anytime soon. In February, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said the company would sell “a good chunk of assets” after ARM’s multi-billion sale to NVIDIA fell through.

As TechCrunch notes, GM could have also bought out SoftBank as a step towards spinning out Cruise or taking it public. A GM spokesperson told the publication that the automaker will “consider all opportunities to create value for [its] shareholders” and that it “has not ruled out a future IPO of Cruise.”

The California Public Utilities Commission recently granted Cruise (and Waymo) permission to charge for robotaxi rides in the state, as long as there’s a human driver behind the wheel. Cruise already applied for a Driverless Deployment permit, but the agency is still reviewing its application. 

The ‘Overwatch 2’ PvP beta starts on April 26th

Blizzard Entertainment has finally announced a specific launch date for the Overwatch 2 PvP beta on PC: April 26th. The gaming company previously revealed that the beta for the sequel’s 5-on-5 PvP mode will go live in late April. Now, you can mark the 26th on your calendars and block out that weekend to play matches. In addition to 5-on-5 battles — the Overwatch PvP is 6-on-6 — the beta also comes with four fresh maps, the new Push mode and redesigned heroes. In fact, one of those heroes is getting more than just a stats/abilities upgrade or a model makeover.

A few days ago, Blizzard posted a screenshot of the game showing Doomfist as a tank. While the image has since been deleted, the company has eventually confirmed that the character is changing roles to tank from damage hero. 

Blizzard has been testing the role change for Doomfist since last year, hero lead designer Geoff Goodman revealed on Reddit in October. Back then, Goodman explained that the character’s kit is “full of crowd control effects and mobility” and that makes him difficult to tune and balance as a damage hero for Overwatch 2. He’ll be able to keep those properties as a tank, though he’ll obviously lose some damage and gain some defense points. In Overwatch 2, teams can only have one tank, so the player’s choice could be they key to their victory. 

Players can now sign up to get access to Overwatch 2’s PvP beta on the game’s official website.

Telegram has been banned in Brazil over disinformation issues

The Brazilian Supreme Court has banned Telegram in the country and has ordered Brazil’s telecoms regulator Anatel to implement the suspension within 24 hours. According to Reuters and The New York Times, Justice Alexandre de Moraes cited the messaging app’s failure to respond to previous judicial orders to freeze accounts spreading disinformation for his decision. 

In Brazil, Telegram has become the platform of choice for supporters of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro after social networks like Facebook and Twitter started implementing stricter measures against fake news. Moraes, who’s also currently overseeing a number of investigations into Bolsonaro and his allies for spreading disinformation, has ordered internet providers and phone carriers to block people’s access to Telegram in the country ahead of the presidential election in October. 

The Supreme Court justice has ordered Google and Apple to remove the messaging service from their app stores, as well. All the companies must comply within five days or face a fine of $20,000 per day. In addition, people caught using VPNs or other means to access Telegram after it’s already been blocked will also face a $20,000 fine. 

Bolsonaro called the decision “inadmissible” during an event. Anderson Torres, the Minister of Justice and Public Security appointed by Bolsonaro, criticized Moraes’ ruling and said the “monocratic decision” harms millions of Brazilians. 

Telegram Chief Executive Pavel Durov apologized and admitted that the company “definitely could have done a better job.” He also explained in a statement that missing emails were partly to blame:

“We complied with an earlier court decision in late February and responded with a suggestion to send future takedown requests to a dedicated email address. Unfortunately, our response must have been lost, because the Court used the old general-purpose email address in further attempts to reach us. As a result, we missed its decision in early March that contained a follow-up takedown request. Luckily, we have now found and processed it, delivering another report to the Court today.”

Durov is asking the court to delay its ruling and give Telegram the chance to “remedy the situation” by appointing a representative in Brazil and setting up a framework that will allow the company to reply to pressing issues in the country more quickly. It remains to be seen whether the court will grant Telegram’s request. 

Update 03/19/22 1:30PM ET: We added and referenced Durov’s statement in the piece.

Twitter may soon let you add pronouns to your profile

When Twitter reopened its form for verification requests last year, it also teased upcoming changes to its website. Those changes include a space for pronouns in the profile section, along with your other information. It’s been almost a year since we first heard about the project, but now reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi has found proof that the company is indeed developing the feature and may have started testing it. Paluzzi has discovered a yet-to-be rolled out section when you edit your profile that lets you add whatever pronoun you want to use.

It’s high time for Twitter to give its users the ability to do so. The social network is late to the party, after all: Facebook users have been able to choose their pronouns for years, though their options are limited to three. Instagram started allowing people to display up to four pronouns next to their name in their profile last year. LinkedIn also introduced a dedicated space for pronouns in profiles in 2021. And, after work-from-home arrangements took off due to the pandemic, Zoom and Slack followed suit. The video conferencing apps gives users the option to show their pronouns next to their names in meetings, while the business messaging platform made the space for pronouns a default feature last year. Previously, companies have had to add the option as a customized field for their workers.

That said, Twitter has yet to announce a launch date for the pronoun field.

The ESA suspends its ExoMars joint mission with Russia

The ExoMars mission has been suspended. Its future is uncertain at this point in time, as the European Space Agency looks for a way to proceed without the involvement of Russian space agency Roscosmos. The ESA previously announced that it’s fully implementing sanctions imposed on Russia by its member states following the country’s invasion of Ukraine and that a 2022 launch for the ExoMars rover was looking unlikely. Now, the mission has officially been put on ice after the ESA’s ruling council met in Paris to assess the situation.

The ESA said in a statement:

“As an intergovernmental organisation mandated to develop and implement space programmes in full respect with European values, we deeply deplore the human casualties and tragic consequences of the aggression towards Ukraine. While recognising the impact on scientific exploration of space, ESA is fully aligned with the sanctions imposed on Russia by its Member States.”

The council has determined that it’s impossible to keep cooperating with Roscosmos and has ordered the ESA Director General to take steps to suspend the operation. In addition, the council authorized the Director General to conduct and fast track an industrial study to find options on how the agency can move forward with ExoMars.

ExoMars is a two part mission, and the agencies sent its first spacecraft — the Trace Gas Orbiter — to Martian orbit back in 2016. They were supposed to launch a rover named after scientist Rosalind Franklin this year for the second part of the program after delays causes in part by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ESA was in charge of developing the rover, which was going to use a Russian launch vehicle and lander. 

This is just one of the space programs affected by the war in Ukraine. Roscosmos previously pulled out of the Guiana Space Center in retaliation for EU’s sanctions and also refused to launch OneWeb internet satellites that were supposed to head to orbit on Soyuz rockets. Dmitry Rogozin, the Director General of Roscosmos, also claimed that the sanctions against Russia could interrupt the operations of the country’s spacecraft that’s steering the ISS and could cause the station to “fall down into the sea or onto land. Russia stopped supplying the US with rocket engines, as well. At the time, Rogozin said “Let them fly on something else, their broomsticks.”

‘SNL’ star Pete Davidson won’t be joining Blue Origin’s next spaceflight after all

Blue Origin’s three previous crewed flights had taken familiar faces and people known in their fields to space. Those include William Shatner, aviation pioneer Wally Funk, Good Morning America host Michael Strahan and even company founder Jeff Bezos For its fourth mission with humans on board — and its 20th overall — one of the passengers was supposed to be Pete Davidson, SNL star and, well, the person who’s recently been on the receiving end of Kanye West’s ire. Turns out that won’t be happening.

On Twitter, the aerospace company has announced that Davidson will no longer join the mission as a crew member. Blue Origin didn’t reveal the reason why he’s no longer flying with the rest of the crew to the edge of space and only said that the mission will launch on March 29th instead of on March 23rd as planned. Davidson was recently seen shooting scenes for horror movie The Home, but it’s unclear if conflict of schedule was the reason why Blue Origin changed its lineup. It’s also unknown at this point if Davidson will join another Blue Origin flight later on. 

The other passengers for the NS-20 mission are SpaceKids Global founder Sharon Hagle and husband Marc Hagle, University of North Carolina professor Jim Kitchen, President of Commercial Space Technologies Dr. George C. Nield and Marty Allen, a former CEO of Party America. Blue Origin said it will announce Davidson’s replacement in the coming days.

US labor board sues Amazon to reinstate fired Staten Island worker

Amazon is facing a lawsuit filed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which is seeking the reinstatement of an employee it believes was filed in retaliation. Gerald Bryson, who worked at the e-commerce giant’s JFK8 facility on Staten Island, was fired in the early days of the pandemic after he helped lead protests over safety concerns involving the company’s COVID-19 protocols. 

Bryson fired an unfair labor practice suit back in 2020, but the case has been stuck in the agency’s administrative court process. Now, according to The New York Times, the NLRB is asking a federal judge to make immediate changes before the facility holds a union election by the end of March and considering Bryson’s involvement in organizing. 

Amazon denied that Bryson’s firing was retaliatory back in 2020, explaining that he was fired for violating its policy against vulgar and harassing language. The company said Bryson bullied and intimidated a female associate “in a racially and sexually charged way” in a confrontation during the protest. However, a video recording cited by the NLRB in a recent filing (PDF) shows that while Bryson did indeed use foul language during the confrontation, the female employee also used foul language and a racial slur against him. Bryson, a Black man who helped lead the protest, was fired, while the white female employee who told him to stop protesting and go home, got a first warning.

The NLRB has accused Amazon of applying its policies against him in retaliation for the role he played in the protest. It argued that if the judge doesn’t reinstate Bryson, workers “will inevitably conclude that the board cannot effectively protect their rights.” NLRB director Kathy Drew King said in a statement:

“No matter how large the employer, it is important for workers to know their rights — particularly during a union election — and that the N.L.R.B. will vociferously defend them.”

The JFK8 facility will hold a union vote in person between March 25th and March 30th. It’s been a long journey just to get there, with the Amazon Labor Union failing to gather enough signatures to proceed with an election the first time around. The group reached union vote threshold in its second attempt, and although Amazon was skeptical that there were a “sufficient number of legitimate signatures,” the election will take place as the NLRB had decided.

In addition to seeking Bryson’s reinstatement, the NLRB also wants Amazon to post notices of workers’ rights at the facility and to read those rights out loud at mandatory employee meetings.

Roomba robot vacuums gain Siri voice support as part of big update

iRobot’s latest software update gives its Roomba robot vacuums and Braava jet robot mops the ability to respond to Siri voice commands. The Genius 4.0 Home Intelligence update adds Siri Shortcut Integration to the iRobot Home app, allowing iOS users to connect their devices to Apple’s voice assistant. Similar to Google Assistant and Alexa users, they can set up their custom phrases or simply say “Hey Siri, ask Roomba to clean everywhere” to start the vacuum. 

Genius 4.0 also gives users the capability to create customizable smart maps for the Roomba i3 and i3+ models, which they can access if they want their devices to clean specific rooms in the house. They can also create custom cleaning routines based on their schedules, automatons and the rooms they want to send the vacuum to. These particular features are now available in the Americas and will make their way to customers in Europe, Middle East and Africa by the end of the third quarter.

Users who own a Roomba s9/s9+, Roomba j7/j7+, Roomba i7/i7+ and Braava jet m6 — all Imprint Smart Mapping-capable robots — will have more control over how their robots clean, as well. They can program their machines to thoroughly clean a high traffic area, for instance, and give rooms that aren’t always occupied a quick pass.

To prevent accidental starts, owners will be able to activate a Child & Pet Lock option in the iRobot Home app. When switched on, it deactivates the physical clean button on WiFi-enabled vacuums and mops, which can then only be activated through the application. In addition, a new Do Not Disturb feature ensures the machines won’t switch on at times the user specifies, such as when they’re sleeping or expected to be on video calls for work or for school. Finally, the update gives the Roomba j7 and j7+ the ability to avoid clothing and towels on the floor, in addition to the other objects (including poop!) they can already recognize. 

While Do Not Disturb is already available globally, the other features might take some time to reach all users. The software update has already started making its way to customers worldwide, but the rollout won’t be finished until the end of June.