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One of the promises of technology is that it is a great equalizer. But the truth was not so simple.

Infusion of technology into more sectors, ️️️️️️️️led to the division of the American workforce between promising jobs that pay well and low-paying jobs that are less likely to progress. My colleague Ben Casselman recently wrote about the pandemic causing more companies to use automationit can eliminate jobs and erode bargaining power, especially for low-paid service workers.

If remote work remains another legacy of the pandemic, it could widen the gap even further. Professionals with desk jobs may have the option to free themselves from a physical work position, at least part-time. But you can’t butcher cattle, take care of children, or repair a highway with Zoom.

Apple is planning a new pilot program that could show there could be a more democratic way to work remotely. Bloomberg News said the company will try to partially allow retail store employees to work outside of a store. reported last week. Even before the coronavirus, more customer service jobs were changing from call centers to remote control at least for part of the time.

It’s an intriguing sign that technology may offer the option to work remotely to more than professionals who are a minority of the American workforce. Just one in six US employees They were working remotely during the pandemic.

I will acknowledge that Apple can be an outlier and working in one of their retail stores is different from other types of in-person work. Apple store employees can provide technical advice or make online sales without being face-to-face with customers. This is not so easy for most other retail jobs or people working in healthcare, manufacturing, construction and restaurants.

But one thing we must take away from this pandemic is that it will most likely not be the last crisis disrupting normal life. It’s good that more people, businesses, governments, and technologists are now considering how to make it possible to do more activities temporarily online – not just as nice to have a select few, but as a necessity for everyone.

requiring Tackling America’s unequal and ineffective internet system and change the mindset of employers and employees about working away from a workplace. And it may require technologies to reimagine remote work for more types of workers. Schools were forced to go online in an emergency and it did not go well for many people. But if future pandemics are about climate change, we may have no choice. Forest fires or other emergencies interrupt school, work and life.

The good news is that technology has made such a leap before – from the pro classes to everyone. In the past, computers were limited to beige boxes that stood on office desks. Almost every business and employee now relies on technology in some way every day – for better and sometimes for worse.

To prepare for a future that may be overshadowed by more crises forcing us to separate, we must focus on technologies that make it possible for people to stay apart and still mix as much as we can online.

Tip of the Week

bad time to buy a new phone

Unless you accidentally broke your phone during the holiday weekend celebrations, it may not be a good idea to buy a new smartphone right now. Brian X ChenA consumer technology columnist for The New York Times explains why.

Now is the best time to wait to buy a shiny new phone. As with clothing, technological products also have seasonality. Companies often release major phone updates in the fall, ahead of the holiday shopping season.

That said, if you bought the current iPhone 12 or Pixel 5 model today, you might be disappointed in a few months when Apple and Google launched successors to these phones and lowered prices on previous models.

There are safer purchases at the moment. In general, anything released in the last six months probably won’t be renewed until next year. Apple typically releases new models of its tablets in the spring, so now is the perfect time to get a new iPad. But it might still be better to wait because retailers often lower prices on tablets during Black Friday.

My advice: keep your credit cards in your wallet. In the meantime, you can revisit my column. How to make your technology last longer by taking steps like installing a new battery, doing a deep clean, and organizing your data. You may end up completely changing your mind about buying something new.

Before you go …

• The Chinese government is the boss. Didi, the major on-demand ride company in China, withdrew from the country’s app stores after China’s internet regulator said it was concerned about how the company was handling customer data. My colleague Ray Zhong writes that there are orders affecting Didi and two other tech companies that have recently gone public in the United States. Show that the Chinese authorities made the decision in the business world.

• Where there is a will (and money), there is also a way: My Colleague Erin Woo reports It’s about start-ups that offer technologies to companies to make office work easier or more productive to go away. A start-up makes an owl-shaped speaker that “automatically zooms in on the person speaking”, replacing the remote worker during a meeting.

• Snapshots of texts on your phone are not a meaningless mess. “It’s memories that make us human, then our screenshots tell a story about who we are in the digital ageClio Chang writes for The New York Times Magazine.

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Great catch, son.! One Ten Tech reader—to Scott Lewis of Ellensburg, Wash.—for recommending this highlight from a recent baseball game in Pittsburgh. Here’s more about that talented fan, 11-year-old Christian Gale.

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