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Google’s PIN-encrypted Android ‘Safe Folder’ protects crucial documents

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Google has introduced a new way for Android users to protect crucial files like ID documents, particularly in developing countries where devices are often shared. Called “Safe Folder” and located in the Files by Google app, it lets you protect documents, images, videos and audio files with a 4-digit PIN code, on top of your Android lock screen security. The folder is locked as soon as you switch away from the Files app, and requires a code each time you re-enter.

According to Google’s Next Billion Users product team, “sharing a personal device with spouses, siblings or children is often a cultural expectation, especially for women.” To that end, it created the feature for parents who share their phones with their kids for learning or play, or folks who need to securely store identity documents on their phones.

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Riot Games gives its employees a week off to recharge

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“As game developers, we’re all hyper aware of the effects of crunch and project-based deadlines. We owe it to ourselves and to you to prioritize our health as a team (well, many teams) so we can bring you new experiences long into the future.”

The company says it’s shifting some patch and release timelines, so it doesn’t end up dumping everything on players all at once. It also says some of its teams will be staggering their time off to make sure someone remains in charge.

The video game industry is known for subscribing to a “crunch culture” that expects developers to put in an ungodly amount of hours, especially before a title is launched. In addition to working on Valorant and its other games, Riot’s employees also had to deal with other issues within the company over the past few years. A 2018 Kotaku investigation described a work environment where women were routinely harassed and discriminated against. In 2019, a handful of employees sued the developer over gender discrimination and its sexist culture, and the lawsuits eventually gained class-action status. Riot agreed to settle in December 2019 and said it’s committed to becoming “an inclusive environment for the industry’s best talent.”

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Logitech’s G923 racing wheel makes you feel every curve of the road

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The entire experience, which is powered by Logitech’s TRUEFORCE force feedback, felt more like playing a racing game in a custom arcade cabinet where everything is finely tuned to recreate the sensation of high-speed driving. I’ll admit, I was sweating after a few races, as if I was actually behind the wheel of an expensive super-charged vehicle. Logitech says TRUEFORCE processes game engine physics and audio over 4,000 times a second to deliver that sense of realism. That’s not a spec I can easily test, but my accelerated heart rate spoke volumes. Clearly, my body thought I was going through some sort of thrilling encounter in the real world.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the G923 up and running on Forza Horizon 4, my current racing obsession, because it hasn’t been updated to support TRUEFORCE. Setting things up was also finicky in GRID 2.0, since the game didn’t automatically recognize all of the wheel’s controls. I’m hoping some game updates can iron out these kinks, but just be aware that your title of choice may not fully be compatible with the G923 at launch.

Once again, Logitech seems to have another hit on its hands for racing enthusiasts. Anyone who really cares about playing driving games with any sense of realism likely wouldn’t bat an eye at throwing down $400 for some immersive new force feedback. It’s less clear if current Logitech wheel owners feel TRUEFORCE is enough of a reason to shell out that much money once again.

While I can’t exactly compare the experience with Logitech’s older products, I can say this: After testing the G923, I’ll always know what I’m missing when I go back to playing Forza Horizon 4 with a gamepad.

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Ex-Waymo engineer Levandowski sentenced to 18 months in prison

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In mid—March this year, Levandowski agreed to plead guilty to one count of stealing materials from Google to make other criminal charges go away. He apologized to his former colleagues in a statement:

“The last three and a half years have forced me to come to terms with what I did. I want to take this time to apologize to my colleagues at Google for betraying their trust, and to my entire family for the price they have paid and will continue to pay for my actions.”

Meanwhile, Waymo told TechCrunch in a statement that Levandowki’s actions “erases the contributions of many” and that Alsup’s decision “represents a win for trade secret laws that promote cutting-edge technology development.” The rest of the statement reads:

“Anthony Levandowski’s theft of autonomous technology trade secrets has been enormously disruptive and harmful to Waymo, constituted a betrayal, and the effects would likely have been even more severe had it gone undetected.”

Although the former Google employee apologized to his colleagues, TechCrunch learned that he recently filed a lawsuit against Waymo and Uber that could make him a very rich man. He claimed that when the companies settled, one of the terms they agreed upon was that he could never work for Uber again. As a result, the ride-hailing giant reneged on its promises when it acquired Otto, his self-driving truck startup.

Apparently, one of things Uber promised him was an earnout plan that would give him “a percent interest of billions in profit for Uber’s new trucking business.” Further, the lawsuit claims that he may not have been the only Google employee to steal trade secrets from the company. Levandowski is now asking for at least $4.128 billion, which he believes he would’ve earned from the earnouts he was promised.

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SpaceX’s Starship prototype flies hundreds of feet for the first time

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Almost a year after we saw SpaceX’s ‘Starhopper’ test vehicle make a short trip into the air, the company has successfully flown and landed a full-size Starship prototype. The SN5 vehicle is missing its nose cone, so it’s a bit like a taller “flying water tower” just like the earlier test rig, but it went up and down from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, TX launch pad all the same.

You can watch the NASASpaceflight YouTube stream that captured the event (start at about 1:14), and see the single Raptor engine-powered hop, that took SN5 about 150 meters into the air. According to Elon Musk, the next steps include several more short hops before going “high altitude” with body flaps attached. That makes SpaceX two for two on the week, after safely returning two astronauts from the ISS aboard its Crew Dragon vehicle, and is a notable step forward for reusable spacecraft.



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Apple sponsors a three-year UCLA study on depression and anxiety

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The university says it designed the study so that it could conduct it entirely remotely. Privacy was another major consideration. UCLA and Apple say they plan to anonymize any data they collect during the study.   

The hope is that the study will lead to a breakthrough that will give healthcare workers a better way to spot the symptoms of depression and prevent potential depressive episodes. As the university notes, how the medical field goes about detecting depression hasn’t changed significantly for more than a century. Much as they’ve done in the past, doctors currently observe patients and ask them how they feel. 

“Current approaches to treating depression rely almost entirely on the subjective recollections of depression sufferers. This is an important step for obtaining objective and precise measurements that guide both diagnosis and treatment,” said Dr. Nelson Freimer, director of the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge.

Health has been an area of focus for Apple for the last couple of years, so it’s not a surprise to see an initiative like this from the company. In 2014, the company announced HealthKit, a service that tracks, records and analyzes your fitness level, as part of iOS 8. More recently, the company detailed how the latest features that are coming to watchOS 7, one of which is sleep tracking.

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Activision Blizzard reports a record quarter amid growing wage dispute

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Activision Blizzard is facing growing pressure from employees and stockholders to address wage disparities at the company. CEO Bobby Kotick pulled in $40 million in compensation last year, while Blizzard employees such as testers and customer service representatives report struggling to meet basic needs, according to Bloomberg.

In the company’s Q2 2020 financial report, CEO Bobby Kotick said, “Our record engagement resulted in greater revenue and earnings per share than previously forecast.”

Executives have used the word “record” to describe other positive periods in the company’s financial operations. Like in February 2019, when Kotick called the previous year “the best in our history,” even as Activision Blizzard was laying off 800 employees, mainly in non-development and non-senior roles. In the wake of these layoffs, remaining employees did not receive additional pay for the extra work that fell to them, Bloomberg reported.

An internal Blizzard survey in 2019 found that more than 50 percent of employees were unhappy with their pay. On Friday, Blizzard employees circulated a spreadsheet to anonymously track and compare salaries and recent pay bumps, Bloomberg reported.

Kotick’s annual payout is tied to the company’s stock performance, a feature that has allowed him to earn significant amounts of money even when Activision Blizzard was enacting mass layoffs. At the company’s annual shareholder meeting, 43.2 percent of investors voted against its CEO pay policy, VentureBeat reported. A handful of shareholder activists have filed letters objecting to Kotick’s pay structure. In June, a pro-labor investment group urged shareholders to oppose Kotick’s pay package as well. 

In Activision Blizzard’s quarterly investor call today, Kotick and other executives repeated phrases of support for their employees, calling out their adaptability amid a global pandemic that has shifted personal priorities and business models alike. The pandemic has led to a significant period of growth for the video game industry, including Activision Blizzard. The company raised its net-revenue outlook for the year to $7.28 billion.

“The full extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, operations, and financial results will depend on numerous evolving factors that we are not able to fully predict at this time, and we remain mindful of risks and uncertainties related to global economic weakness, rising unemployment, pressures on the retail channel, pricing and other potential factors,” the company’s financial report read.

Executives didn’t address any wage-disparity issues on today’s investor call, and shareholders didn’t ask about them.

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‘Mulan’ will premiere on Disney+ September 4th for $30

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With theaters closed, Disney has decided to try a “premiere access” release strategy for its live-action Mulan movie. While it still plans to attempt a theatrical release in some parts of the world, on September 4th viewers will be able to buy it at home for $30 via Disney+. Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced the decision on his company’s earnings call, where it also announced it’s topped more than 100 million streaming subscribers across all of its services.

The $200 million-budgeted blockbuster was originally supposed to premiere in theaters on March 21st, but the coronavirus pandemic changed all of that. Since then, Disney pushed the opening back to July and then August, and has apparently concluded that in many parts of the world, theaters won’t be open at normal capacity any time soon.

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Disney now has over 100 million streaming video subscribers

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The company also announced today that it will be releasing its live action Mulan adaptation on Disney+ for $29.99 on September 4th. That’s surprising, as the company has never discussed premium offerings on top of its streaming service before.

“We’re looking at Mulan as a one off, as opposed to trying to say there’s a new business windowing model we’re looking at,” Disney CEO Bob Chapek said during an earnings call today. “That said, we find it very interesting to be able to take a new offering, our premiere access offering, to consumers at that $29.99 price and learn from it…” Specifically, he says the company will be looking at transaction figures, as well as subscriber uptick.

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The NSA tells military personnel to avoid using location services

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The NSA also warns against using fitness trackers, smartwatches and IoT devices, among other gadgets. When it comes to recommendations, the agency has many the same suggestions you might see online if you search for ways to protect your privacy. It says staff should turn off location services on their mobile devices and grant apps as few permissions possible. The agency also recommends personnel disable features that allow users to find missing or misplaced devices. 

While location information is mostly used by advertisers to target specific consumers, governments have also taken advantage of it. Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that it has been buying commercially available location data since at least 2017. According to a Wall Street Journal report, law enforcement agencies such as US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have used the data to source leads on illegal immigrants and border crossings. The fear is that other governments are likely doing the same.  

This isn’t the first time the US government has raised concerns about how modern devices and apps could be inadvertently providing intel to hostile powers. In 2018, the Pentagon banned soldiers and other personnel from using location services on their devices while stationed at sensitive bases and warzones. The move came after fitness app Strava exposed the position of US bases, patrol routes and supply lines in Afghanistan.         

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