Welcome to Bits, your daily tech news bulletin, for Wednesday, May 19, I'm Seamus Byrne.Google I/O kicked off overnight, the company's festival of new toys, and this year we see a very new look for Android ahead of the launch fo the version 12 update. They're calling it a "Material You" design, and the colours of the whole OS, including settings and menu areas, will change to follow your theme. Google also showed off new features for Google Workspace, including better video meetings layouts, and there are many upgrades to how Google Photos will work, including creating animations from still shots and creating a locked folder where you can keep photos that you don't want to see when you're scrolling through your library.https://events.google.com/io/?lng=enhttps://www.theverge.com/22439777/android-12-design-features-widgets-first-look-googlehttps://www.theverge.com/2021/5/18/22435419/google-io-2021-event-recap-biggest-announcements-pixel-android-12-wear-os-workspacehttps://techcrunch.com/2021/05/18/google-photos-update-adds-new-memories-and-a-locked-folder-previews-cinematic-moments/On the hardware side, Google announced it is unifying its WearOS with Samsung's Tizen platform along with more input from Fitbit to bring Android wearables back into a more cohesive platform experience. WearOS 3.0 is claiming to be 30% faster than the current version and will get features like an offline music mode for YouTube Music. Another big hardware concept revealed was Project Starline, that uses a booth full of cameras to create 3D models in real-time so you can feel like you're sitting across from a real person.https://www.cnet.com/news/google-and-samsung-are-combining-to-reboot-android-watches-with-a-dose-of-fitbit-too/https://www.wired.com/story/google-project-starline/Here at home, the Fair Work Commission has ruled that a Deliveroo rider should be classified as an employee in a landmark ruling against gig economy contractor arrangements. The rider brought an unfair dismissal case against the delivery company after they had been kicked off the platform in April last year. The case looked at the way the booking system gives preferential treatment to riders who operate in more employee like ways, contrary to the argument that these platforms are all about freedom and flexibility for workers. Deliveroo says it will appeal the decision. https://www.innovationaus.com/deliveroo-loses-test-case-as-rider-ruled-an-employee/Microsoft has officially given up on launching a dedicated lightweight version of Windows known as Windows 10X, instead opting to incorporate the ideas developed as part of the project into future updates to the core Windows 10 operating system. The original idea was to build a dual-screen optimised version of Windows, which then refocused on being a competitor to Google's Chrome OS that has been a big hit in education markets. Microsoft says some features from its development work on Windows 10X is already making its way to the core OS, including optimised on-screen keyboard designs and enhanced voice typing.https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-officially-acknowledges-windows-10x-isnt-happening/With all the attention on the energy usage of cryptocurrency transaction processing, the world's second biggest crypto by market cap, Ethereum, has announced plans to change the way it operates in order to reduce power consumption by 99.95%. The concept shifts the security process from a "Proof-of-Work" system to a "Proof-of-Stake", a technical shift that Ethereum claims testing shows will generate the massive reduction in power consumption – and that consumption will not rise when the value of Ethereum does, as has been the case in the past. In one comparison, they suggest that if Bitcoin power usage today was the equivalent of the height of the Burj Khalifa, then current Ethereum usage is the height of the Tower of Pisa, and the new power consumption for Ethereum after the changes would be the height of...

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