Employees at an Apple Store in Oklahoma City’s Penn Square Mall have voted to ratify their first collectively-bargained contract. The store’s workers are part of the Communications Workers of America, operating as Apple Retail Union-CWA Local 6016. The employees’ three-year agreement with Apple includes the following, according to a press release from CWA:

• “Wage increases of up to 11.5% over the next three years.”

• “Worker involvement in scheduling and guaranteed paid time off to vote.”

• “A safer and more democratic workplace with a grievance and arbitration process and the establishment of joint Safety and Health and Working Relations committees.”

• “Job protection in the event of a store closure or relocation and severance pay.”

• “Guaranteed paid time off, health and other benefits.”

Today’s news caps off years of to unionize and secure a contract for the Penn Square Mall Apple Store, which began organizing in early 2022. The parties reached a in early September after a unanimous strike authorization vote in August and a store picket.

The Oklahoma City employees are the second group of Apple retail workers to reach a contract through their union. An Apple Store in Maryland was the first of the tech company’s retail stores to unionize, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in June 2022.

When is raising $14 billion not enough? When you’re a battery startup.

Northvolt, Europe’s attempt at building a competitor to Asia’s battery manufacturing powerhouses, announced on Monday that it had halted work on a factory expansion and laid off 1,600 employees, or about 20% of the workforce.

The company was planning to expand its Ett factory in northern Sweden to scale production to 30 gigawatt-hours annually. The expansion would have supplied cathode active material (CAM), a key component required to make completed cells. On September 9, the company also axed another CAM production site in Sweden. Without those factories, Northvolt will almost certainly have to buy it elsewhere, likely from overseas.

The cost cutting is the result of lower-than-expected demand growth, Northvolt said, as automakers trim their forecasts for electric vehicle production. Execution problems are probably also to blame. In June, the company was unable to fulfill an order for BMW on time, leading the German automaker to cancel the €2 billion contract. Northvolt did not immediately reply to TechCrunch’s request for comment, though it’s hard to see how that didn’t influence the company’s cost-cutting measures.

Ultimately, Northvolt faces two challenges. 

For one, all battery startups face significant execution risk. Though batteries appear simple from the outside, the chemistry inside is fiendishly complex. It isn’t easy to develop materials that can store energy safely at high densities, that can be recharged at increasingly higher rates, and that can survive for more than a decade inside an automobile. Producing them at a massive scale only compounds the challenge. Just ask GM and LG what happens when you don’t get it right.

Northvolt has additional hurdles to surmount. It’s essentially building a copy of what Asian countries like China and South Korea already possess: a mature, scaled battery-manufacturing sector. Both China and South Korea have been working on it for decades, with consistent government support along the way. By comparison, Northvolt is only eight years old, and it only recently received substantial assistance from the EU and other governments.

The U.S. tried something similar nearly 20 years ago with A123 Systems. The startup pioneered production of lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, which stored less energy than other chemistries but were more durable and safer to charge. It started by selling to power tool manufacturers and then began courting automakers, who even in the late 2000s were projected to buy the sort of volumes that would support large-scale domestic manufacturing.

A123 was in the running to make battery packs for the Chevrolet Volt, but after losing out to LG, its only customer ended up being the first iteration of Fisker, which was also making a plug-in hybrid. After one of those cars caught fire during Consumer Reports’ testing, A123’s fate was all but sealed.

What those high-profile stumbles don’t reveal were the other obstacles A123 faced, most of which revolved around standing up a battery supply chain where there was none. Northvolt has been a bit more successful, in part because there is some political appetite to make it happen. But the Swedish company’s announcements about curtailing CAM production show it’s still not easy to accomplish.

The second challenge that Northvolt faces is that automakers, its key partners, haven’t been able to decide where they stand on EVs. After years spent talking up the transition to all-EV lineups, they’ve since backed off the most aggressive targets. Most automakers’ early forecasts proved overly optimistic, and they appear to have underestimated the amount they’d need to invest to produce successful products. In the face of weaker-than-expected tailwinds, they have plunged into developing hybrids and plug-in hybrids, which require far fewer batteries. 

To succeed in early markets requires all players to have conviction. Automakers, parts manufacturers, and investors all need to have bought into an EV future. If any one of them blinks, they all suffer. Northvolt is feeling that pain today.

Does it spell the end of battery manufacturing in Europe or North America, where Northvolt has plans to expand? Hardly. Demand for EVs is still strong and growing. And because batteries are heavy and expensive to ship, it makes sense to produce them near EV factories. Strong incentives courtesy of the Inflation Reduction Act and the European Green Deal help tip the scales further. That doesn’t mean Northvolt can be complacent — it still has to prove it can execute. But by the time that gets sorted, it’s likely the market will be ready for it.

The Department of Justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa, alleging that the financial services firm has an illegal monopoly over debit network markets and has attempted to unlawfully crush competitors, including fintech companies like PayPal and Square. The lawsuit, which was first rumored by Bloomberg, follows a multiyear investigation of Visa which the company disclosed in 2021.

“We allege that Visa has unlawfully amassed the power to extract fees that far exceed what it could charge in a competitive market,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “Merchants and banks pass along those costs to consumers, either by raising prices or reducing quality or service. As a result, Visa’s unlawful conduct affects not just the price of one thing — but the price of nearly everything.”

Visa makes more than $7 billion a year in payment processing fees alone, and more than 60 percent of debit transactions in the United States run on Visa’s network, the complaint claims. The government alleges that Visa’s market dominance is partly due to the “web of exclusionary agreements” it imposes on businesses and banks. Visa has also attempted to “smother” competitors — including smaller debit networks and newer fintech companies — the complaint alleges. Visa executives allegedly feel particularly threatened by Apple, which the company has described as an “existential threat,” the DOJ claims.

According to the complaint, Visa entered into paid agreements with potential competitors as part of an effort to fend off competition from newer entrants into the payment processing industry. These practices have allowed Visa to build an “enormous moat” around its business, the complaint alleges.

Regulators have had their eyes on Visa for a while. In 2020, the DOJ filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to stop Visa’s $5.3 billion acquisition of Plaid, a fintech company, arguing that Visa was attempting to snuff out a “payments platform that would challenge Visa’s monopoly.” Acquiring Plaid, the DOJ’s complaint claimed, was Visa’s “insurance policy” to protect against a “threat to our important US debit business.” Visa and Plaid scrapped their plans for a merger in 2021 as a result of the DOJ’s lawsuit. 

Payment processors are a ubiquitous part of Americans’ lives, and they’re increasingly powerful internet gatekeepers. In 2020, Visa and Mastercard stopped processing payments on Pornhub after reports of illegal content on the site. The following year, OnlyFans announced (before ultimately abandoning) a ban on “explicit sexual content,” citing payment processors’ reticence to work with the website because of its reputation as a porn platform. But the DOJ argues that Visa didn’t come by this dominance fairly — and it’s taking steps to stop it.

New research involving 26,000 participants has revealed the vital importance of movement for office workers, confirming that continuous desk work can have a drastic impact on your mental health. 

A new study commissioned by ASICS, dubbed ‘State of Mind,’ has revealed “a strong connection between sedentary behavior and mental well-being with State of Mind scores declining the longer individuals remain inactive.” 

Negative news stories about social media platforms appear to be highly effective at pressuring companies into changing their policies.

Christian Katzenbach at the University of Bremen, Germany, and his colleagues analysed policy changes across Facebook, Twitter (now X) and YouTube between 2005 and 2021, and how media coverage from 26 major English-language publications affected their policies. (New Scientist was not among the publications picked by the researchers.)

“There are really significantly more changes in…

If you own an Arlo device, subscribing to Arlo Secure is all but a necessity. Membership unlocks heaps of additional features (such as 30-day video history and smart activity zones), and signing up has just grown more enticing with the reveal of Arlo Secure 5. The updated platform now incorporates new Arlo Intelligence (AI) to bring added functionality to your smart security system.

With the arrival of Arlo Secure 5, members will now benefit from Person Recognition, Vehicle Recognition, and Custom Detection. The first two allow you to name previously detected faces and vehicles, so when one is scanned by your cameras, you’ll get a personalized alert about who is on your property.

Custom Detection is currently offered as a beta program, but it lets you create your own detection program for various movements on your property. For example, you can train your camera to detect when the garage door is left open or if lights are left on in a certain room.

It seems like a powerful feature with tons of customization options — and it’ll be interesting to see how users implement Custom Detection in their homes.

“Arlo continues to lead the industry with our advanced AI and Computer Vision capabilities, including custom detections, vehicle recognition, and person recognition, that deliver even more peace of mind to Arlo users,” said Matthew McRae, chief executive officer at Arlo. “Our relentless focus on smart home security backed by our commitment to also protect our customers’ data and privacy will continue to drive more industry-first innovations that customers can trust to safeguard their loved ones.”

To unlock the new Arlo Intelligence features, you’ll need to sign up for Arlo Secure Plus or Premium. Arlo Secure Plus costs $15 per month, while Premium costs $21 per month. Most users will find Secure Plus to be the best option, though if you’re seeking an affordable home security system with professional monitoring, stepping up to Premium isn’t a bad idea.

For more choices, be sure to check out our roundup of the best DIY home security systems.