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Google is still answering for its DoubleClick data merger

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Pichai confirmed to Demings that as CEO he signed off on the decision to merge the data, saying he reviews all major decisions.

DoubleClick’s records of customers browsing the web were combined with Google’s personal information “effectively destroying anonymity on the internet,” said Demings. The difference between Google in 2007 and 2016, Demings said, was that in those nine years the company accrued huge market power and therefore cared less about user privacy. Effectively, Demings said, the more user data Google has, the more money it makes — which Pichai denied.

“I am concerned that Google’s bait and switch with DoubleClick is part of a broader pattern where Google buys up companies for the purposes of surveilling Americans,” she said. “And because of Google’s dominance, users have no choice but to surrender.”

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Snap’s first diversity report shows an overwhelmingly white workforce

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According to the report released today, Snap is overwhelmingly staffed by white men. Women made up 32.9 percent of Snap’s global workforce in 2019, less than a single point increase from the year before with women making up less than a quarter of Director level employees and only 30 percent of VP-level positions. Despite constituting more than 16 percent of tech team employees, barely six percent of those teams were actually led by women.

People of color got an even shorter end of the stick. “Black/African American and Hispanic/Latinx remain underrepresented in Snap’s US workforce: 4.1 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively,” the report claims. “In 2019 overall Black/African American representation at Snap increased 0.6 percent, and Hispanic/Latinx representation increased 0.5 percent.” Native Americans make up less than one percent of the entire company’s workforce.

In leadership roles, forget about it. More than 70 percent of Director-level jobs were held by white people with 16.5 percent held by Asians, 2.6 percent held by Black/African American employees, and just 2.6 percent held by Hispanic/Latinx workers.

91 percent of employees in tech roles were either white or Asian. Ninety one percent.

In response to this imbalance, Snap took the obvious corrective path. They hired Oona King, a British Labor Party politician and former chief diversity officer of Channel 4, for their newly-invented VP of DEI role.

“We also collected a more inclusive DEI data set: Our first DEI Self-ID Survey enabled US-based employees to self-identify as LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, veterans, or first generation in their family to attend college. The Self-ID data collection is voluntary, and 60 percent of our US team completed the survey. Later this year, we will begin a global rollout of this expanded data collection,” the company reported.

“We will first continue to improve within Snap, and then work to open-source the future of DEI,” Snap continued. “We want to collaborate on solutions that work and share them with our peers as well as tomorrow’s startups, including our growing network of developer partners.” Which basically means that they’ll continue to do the absolute bare minimum to avoid being called to the carpet so long as we continue buying their ridiculous sunglasses.

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What to expect from Samsung’s Unpacked event next week

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Galaxy Buds Live

Let’s start with the most straightforward of the bunch: Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Live. Samsung is no stranger to true-wireless earbuds, but these are a little different from the company’s earlier attempts. For one, they’re the first Galaxy-branded buds to pack active noise cancelation, which was conspicuously absent from the Galaxy Buds+. They also, uh, look like beans. 

These sleek, legume-like earbuds have touch-sensitive bodies so you can easily toggle through tracks, and WinFuture’s Roland Quandt reported earlier this year that they’ll also include a trio of onboard microphones that can be set to listen for your Bixby voice commands. Battery life is estimated to fall between 4.5 and 7.5 hours on a single charge — exactly how long these things will last depends on whether you’re using ANC and whether you’ve set those microphones to constantly listen for voice requests. (Noted leaker Ishan Agarwal has already started digging into the companion app, and it seems like turning those mics off just takes a few taps.) 

The Galaxy Buds Live are shaping up to be worthy AirPods competitors, especially when you consider their rumored cost. At $170 with noise cancelation, they’re priced to move compared to Apple’s $250 AirPods Pro. 

Galaxy Watch 3

Samsung has been getting a lot of mileage out of its fitness-focused Galaxy Watch Active 2, but it’s time the classic Galaxy Watch got a proper sequel. (Seriously, it’s been nearly two years.) Enter the Galaxy Watch 3, a device that some retailers around the world have already started selling, official announcements be damned. 

The Watch 3 will come in two sizes: A 45mm version with a 1.4-inch screen for people who prefer hefty timepieces, and a more petite 41mm model with a 1.2-inch display. (The latter already got the full hands-on treatment on YouTube.) 

Both versions will come in several finishes, but all of them will use Samsung’s classic rotating bezel for navigating home screens and menus. Frankly, this is the best thing that could’ve happened to these wearables: These physical controls are among the most clever interface choices Samsung has ever made, and the Galaxy Watch Active series felt less satisfying to use without them. 



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Sony plans to test its prototype Vision-S electric car on public roads

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Sony said it created the prototype to showcase its technology to auto manufacturers. However, it seems the company is interested in actually doing something more with the car.

The Vision-S has dual 200kW engines, one in the front and the other in the rear. It can go from 0-62 MPH in 4.8 seconds and it has a top speed of 149 MPH. At the time Sony revealed the car, it had Level 2 autonomous driving capabilities, meaning it can handle steering, acceleration and breaking but a driver has to be in place to take control if needed. The company told Engadget at CES it was interested in reaching higher levels of autonomy, but that’s not necessarily a pressing issue.

The Vision-S is packed with 33 sensors to enable autonomous driving and other features, such as recognizing people and items both inside and outside. It can adjust the in-car settings to match the preferences of whoever is inside. And, because this is Sony, there’s a focus on in-car entertainment. The Vision-S has 360 Reality Audio, with speakers in each of the four seats’ headrests. It had a slick user interface too, including a panoramic touchscreen.

The Vision-S certainly caught our attention back in January, but now there’s a chance that maybe, someday, we’ll be able to drive the thing too.

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The latest MacBook Air is $100 off at Amazon and B&H Photo

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Buy MacBook Air at B&H – $899

The base laptop includes a Core i3 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. But an upgraded model, which runs on a Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, is also $100 off at both retailers. It’s a good sale to consider if you need a new laptop, prefer macOS to other operating systems and don’t want to spend too much (the MacBook Air is the most affordable option, even when not on sale). It also makes an excellent student laptop — and it’s even better now at this sale price.

The newest MacBook Air earned a score of 87 from us, mostly because Apple fixed some of the major problems with the previous model but didn’t mess with the good stuff. Key among the improvements is the new Magic Keyboard — gone are the polarizing butterfly keys of yesteryear, so now you’ll have a much easier and more comfortable time typing on this laptop. Apple also doubled the base amount of storage to 256GB but kept the $999 starting price, so you’ll get more value for your money when you purchase the new Air.

The laptop also has a lovely 13-inch Retina display and an excellent, smooth trackpad. The TouchID gives you an easy way to authenticate and log in using your fingerprint, and its under 3-pound weight means the new MacBook Air is just as portable as previous generations. Our biggest gripe with it is its skimpy port selection, which includes only a headphone jack and two Thunderbolt 3 ports. While it would be useful to have just one USB-A port on the machine, it’s a small price to pay for an otherwise solid ultraportable.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.



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Google is releasing a free phone backup tool for iOS

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It’ll be more useful for people who are paying for Google One — the base membership plan includes 100GB of storage for $2 per month, enough to make Drive, Photos and phone backups a lot more feasible. But regardless of whether you pay for Google One or not, it doesn’t hurt to have another option for backing up your phone. As before, paid Google One memberships include storage that you can share with up to five more family members, live customer support and various perks (right now you can get 10 percent back in store credit from the Google Store, for example).

The new Google One app for iOS will also include a storage manager, making it a lot easier to clean up the various data that might be eating up your storage. That’s already available on the web, but given how much we all rely on our phones these days, it’s a smart idea to have it available in the app as well. The new features for free users will be available on Android through the Play Store “in the coming days,” while the Google One iOS app will be “available soon.”

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Valorant’s twelfth agent is Killjoy, a German robotics genius

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Killjoy concept art

Riot Games

Finally, Killjoy’s Ultimate is a tactical Lockdown that, after a certain period, ‘detains’ enemies caught in its area of effect. Riot confirmed that the Lockdown device can be destroyed by the opposing team, though.

Killjoy’s addition to Valorant could be divisive. Riot has always insisted that the game is built around gunplay, rather than match-altering powers similar to Overwatch. Every agent has head-turning abilities, however the ones offered at launch were mostly tactical, reducing the opposition’s visibility or pressuring them to move into your weapon’s sight lines. Killjoy’s feature set, meanwhile, feels like a slight deviation from this promise. The fanbase’s reaction will undoubtedly decide if Riot continues down this route or veers back toward a straight-shooter experience like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.



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iRobot’s Root rt0 is a $129 coding bot for kids and curious adults

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Roomba maker iRobot made a serious push into education last year when it acquired Root Robotics, the company behind the Root rt1, an innovative $199 coding bot. Now that device is getting a cheaper sibling, the $129 Root rt0. Like many coding toys, it’s a fun way to get a handle on the basics of programming. And its timing couldn’t be any better, now that families are stuck at home and schools remain closed.

iRobot rt0 coding robot

iRobot

The two-wheeled rt0 features 20 sensors, allowing it to draw, detect physical touches and drive around flat surfaces. The iRobot Coding App, which is available on computers and phones, lets you program the bot in a variety of ways, from graphical blocks to full-text coding. That makes the rt0 ideal for everyone from kids to teens and adults who want to hone their programming skills. You’re not starting from scratch either, since iRobot offers a slew of activities, projects and games for the coding bot on its Education site.

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MIT algorithm finds subtle connections between art pieces

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“Anthropoides paradisea” and “Seth Slaying a Serpent, Temple of Amun at Hibis” demonstrate a shared artistic form in color and theme.

MIT

A particularly difficult aspect of developing MosAIc was creating an algorithm that could find not only similarities in color or style, but also in meaning and theme, Hamilton said. Researchers examined a deep network of “activations,” or features, for each image in the open access collections of both museums. The distance between the “activations” of the deep network was how researchers judged similarity.

Researchers also used a new image search data structure called a “KNN Tree,” which groups images together in a tree-like structure. To find one image’s closest match, the algorithm starts at the “trunk” of the grouping, then follows the most promising “branch” until it’s found the closest image. The data structure improves on itself by allowing the tree to “prune” itself based on characteristics of the image.

Hamilton said he hopes the work started on MosAIc can be expanded upon to other fields, like humanities, social sciences and medicine. “These fields are rich with information that has never been processed with these techniques and can be a source for great inspiration for both computer scientists and domain experts,” he said.

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Cove neckband massages behind your ears to reduce stress

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The hardware is, naturally, paired with a smartphone app for iOS and Android that can be used to track your progress. In the future, you’ll also be able to develop “stress measurements” to better identify how stressed you are, or can be, and look for ways of moderating it. In the materials the company supplied, it looks as if you don’t need to be sat quietly in a dark room while your Cove is running. Instead, you can hang out at work, on a video call or doing exercise while the device works its apparent magic on your mastoid. 

If you’re the sort who spends their days with an eye on the fashion world, then the name of Feelmore’s founder may be familiar. Francois Kress has previously been CEO at brands like Carolina Herrera, Stuart Weitzman, Prada and Bulgari as well as LVMH. He’s joined in this venture by a coterie of neuroscientists who believe that there is plenty of positives to this sort of neural stimulation for better mental health. 

Naturally, as with any piece of technology like this, we can’t be certain of its effectiveness until there’s been a lot more research done. And, of course, we haven’t touched or used the gear ourselves, so it’s hard to say yet if it’s in any way effective. We’ll hopefully learn more when Cove hits store shelves this fall, for an as-yet undisclosed price. 

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