Apple Launches ‘Global Volunteer Program’ to Encourage Employees to Volunteer in Local Communities
Apple today notified its employees about a new volunteer program that it’s launching, which is designed to encourage Apple employees in select locations to volunteer in their local communities.
Under the new Apple Global Volunteer Program, Apple is offering employees a way to receive training and tools to help them create and publicize local volunteer events to better their communities. The program, currently available in the United States, Sydney, and Cork, also aims to help employees find activities to volunteer for.
Since its launch in 2011, the Apple Matching Gifts Program has been an astounding success, with a combined total of over $78 million donated to charities and non-profits around the world. Now employees in the U.S. have a new way to make an even bigger impact on the causes they care about where they live: the Apple Global Volunteer Program. The program empowers employees to become Volunteer Champions and receive training and tools to help organize and publicize volunteer events in their communities. It also makes it easy for employees to find activities where they can volunteer their time and quality for Matching Gifts. Right now we’re piloting the program in the US, Sydney, and Cork with the goal of expanding it worldwide in the future.
The launch of the Apple Global Volunteer Program comes just months after Apple made efforts to expand employee benefit packages under the direction Denise Young Smith, who took over as head of human resources at Apple early last year. Improved benefits included more maternity/paternity leave for parents, educational reimbursements, and an expansion of Apple’s long-running donation matching program.
Apple’s Matching Gifts Program [PDF] has existed since 2011, seeing the company match the money its employees contribute to charities (up to $10,000 per employee per year), but with the expansion, Apple also began matching time volunteered. As of October 2014, Apple donates $25 per hour to any non-profit where an employee volunteers.
As stated in the memo sent to employees, Apple’s charitable efforts have thus far raised a combined total of $78 million for charities and non-profit organizations around the world.
Apple’s trade-in program will reportedly offer gift cards for rival smartphones
In the past, Apple has done its part to attract Android users over to its own mobile platform, but a new report suggests that the company will begin increasing its efforts soon. In an attempt to boost iPhone sales, Apple will reportedly soon offer gift cards towards new iPhones when users trade in rival devices. According to 9to5Mac’s unnamed sources, the new trade-in program will be similar to Apple’s current system, which lets Apple retail store employees determine trade-in values for devices based on cosmetic and functional damage. While calling out Android devices specifically, the report mentions that non-Apple smartphones will be elidgible for trade-in as well. We’re assuming that means Windows Phone and BlackBerry devices are included in the program, though the report doesn’t specifically mention either.
The new program will purportedly begin in the coming weeks, following “extensive training programs” for employees that are slated to begin by the end of this week. Also, the report states that Apple store employees will only be able to transfer address book contacts, and users will have to transfer any additional data by themselves.
For right now, there’s no telling how much you’ll receive from the company if you want to trade-in your old Galaxy Nexus for some extra credit. Odds are you won’t receive much, but the offer may be there in the coming weeks if you’re interested. What do you think? Will Apple’s ploy to offer money to competitors tempt Android users? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Leaked Windows 10 10036 build won’t be coming to Windows Insiders
The very patient group of Windows Insiders who have been waiting to download a new build of Windows 10 won’t be getting the 10036 build that found its way to the Internet this past weekend.
New boot animation shown off for Cyanogen OS
The team over at Cyanogen has been hard at work creating an alternate Android, and they have just shown off the new boot animation that will come along with Cyanogen OS going forward.
Along with baking in a new email client in Cyanogen OS 12 the team has created an all new boot animation. The new animation goes for a clean and simple approach instead of a flashy one like we have seen in the past.
Apple’s new program encourages employees to volunteer in their communities
Apple has started a new volunteer program to encourage employees to give back to their communities.
The Apple Global Volunteer Program is meant to help employees organize and spread the word about volunteer events. The program will also extend Apple’s charitable matching initiative, and employees will be able to volunteer their time for matching gifts from Apple. The program was announced today in a memo to employees, obtained by 9to5Mac:
Now employees in the U.S. have a new way to make an even bigger impact on the causes they care about where they live: the Apple Global Volunteer Program. The program empowers employees to become Volunteer Champions and receive training and tools to help organize and publicize volunteer events in their communities. It also makes it easy for employees to find activities where they can volunteer their time and quality for Matching Gifts.
The Global Volunteer Program is beginning today in the U.S., Sydney, Australia, and Cork, Ireland, with Apple hoping to expand it globally in the near future.
Source: 9to5Mac
The Pentagon wants unhackable drone helicopters by 2018
Losing a UAV or two to enemy forces has become an unavoidable cost of modern warfare. But there’s still a big difference between having a Scan Eagle turn up missing and, say, the Pentagon’s autonomous MH-6 Little Bird — namely because only one of those is armed to the talons with chainguns, Hydra rockets and Hellfire missiles. That’s why DARPA engineers are working to harden the Little Bird’s electronic defenses against external hacking and keep the pint-sized killing machine from going AWOL.
According to a report from NextGov, engineers are re-coding the Little Bird’s communications computer to prevent anyone other than the designated DoD operator from seizing control of the vehicle, its weapons or its surveillance gear. Reportedly, DARPA is integrating the same unbreakable encryption scheme that it installed on a commercial quadcopter last May.
“Many things have computers inside and those computers are networked to talk to other things,” Kathleen Fischer, former program manager for DARPA’s HACMS (High-Assurance Cyber Military Systems) program explained to DefenseTech. “Whenever you have that situation, you have the possibility for remote vulnerabilities where somebody can use the network connection to take over and get the device to do what the attacker wants instead of what the owner wants.”
To combat this, the HACMS program helps to identify and eliminate potential security threats on a systemic level using a proprietary programming language fundamentally unlike the C++ normally employed in military computer systems.
“We’ve developed a new programming language that is provably free from those vulnerabilities,” Lee Pike, cyber-physical systems research lead for Galois, said in a statement. “The approach is to transition the programming language we’ve developed, called Ivory, to Boeing so that they can rewrite their systems.”
Should the Little Bird upgrades go according to plan, the HACMS program could find use in future UAV projects as a means of securing their communications systems on a system-wide level. HACMS program lead John Launchbury added, “The intent is to conduct an experiment to prove that these new coding techniques can create secure code at full scale.” Boeing reportedly expects to have roughly 70 percent of the code — nearly 100,000 lines of it — rewritten ahead of planned test flights later this summer and hopes to have fully encrypted Little Birds flying within three years.
Via: UAS Vision
Source: NextGov
Samsung Galaxy Tab A Plus with WiFi makes an appearance at the FCC
The amount of tablets released by Samsung over the last two years has been insane. Many thought that last year’s Galaxy Tab S would put an end to that because of its impressive specifications and price. That belief is clearly wrong as the company is moving forward with new tablets. The Galaxy Tab A Plus will start the next step for Samsung’s tablet strategy and it just slid through the FCC here in the United States with the model number SM-P350. The variant here is WiFi-only.
The following is a recap of the alleged specifications for the Samsung Galaxy Tab A Plus:
- 8-inch, 1024×600 display (4:3 aspect ratio)
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor with 2GB of RAM
- 16 GB internal storage
- 4200mAh battery
- 7.4mm thin
- Samsung S Pen
Come comment on this article: Samsung Galaxy Tab A Plus with WiFi makes an appearance at the FCC
LG G4 rumored to have a 5.6 inch screen
Samsung and HTC recently announced their latest flagships devices, the Galaxy S6 and M9 respectively, and LG is mustering its forces to do the same later this year. Until that time though, we are forced to go by the small leaks and rumors that circulate around the internet. One of those small bits of information is the rumor that the LG G4 will have a 5.6 inch screen. That would make the screen on the LG G4 bigger by only 0.1 inches. Now while that may seem like a very small amount, it does put the LG G4 on very fragile ground where size is concerned. The LG G3 was already a large device and making it successor bigger is a risky move.
The LG G3 was a great success last year though and LG is giving the people what they appear to want, larger devices. For now that is all the information that we have but stay tuned during the upcoming weeks, as I am sure more leaks are sure to arise.
Source: TalkAndroid
The post LG G4 rumored to have a 5.6 inch screen appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Lollipop update starts rolling out for the Sony Xperia Z3 line.
If you have a Sony Xperia Z3 or Z3 Compact then you should head over to the software update setting to see if there is an update waiting for you. Sony announced today that they will being to push the Android 5.0 update beginning with the Nordics and Balctics. They will then move on to further markets with the final regions seeing the updates within 2 weeks. So if you don’t see the update on your device right now, you wont have to wait to long before you see the notification.
Android 5.0 was released late last year and with it came a multitude of improvements. Here are the highlights of Sony’s Lollipop update.
- Fresh, streamlined looks – based on Google’s material design, but retaining our minimalistic approach to interface and application design
- New look notifications and lock screen – with fully customizable settings, so you only get the information you really need
- Multi user profiles and guest mode – making it easy for family and friends to use your device, or the creation of dual environments for work and play…
- Android for Work – not only are business-ready Xperia smartphones and tablets unique devices for work – with waterproof form factors, great battery life and productivity features – they will now also be part of the Android for Work ecosystem
- Better storage control and customisation – with the option to easily move applications from internal memory to SD card – giving you more control over your content, particularly useful for devices with slightly less space
For full details and further information, you can head over to the full press release using the links below.
Source: Sony Android 5.0 Update
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VPN featured found hidden in Android 5.1
Pocketables‘ John Frent discovered a new system application called “Google Connectivity Services” when he looked around Android 5.1 on his Google Nexus 6. The app appears to be a VPN service that is in the works.
To find it, go to Settings > Apps > All and scroll down to Google Connectivity Services. In order to start the app, the activity com.google.android.apps.gcs/com.google.android.apps.gcs.WifiAssistantOptInActivity must be launched. Frent was able to do this by using an app known as QuickShortcutMaker, which allowed him to create a shortcut to Google Connectivity Services on his home screen. When he launched the app, it read, “To help protect you on open Wi-Fi networks, your data will be transmitted securely through a Google VPN.”
The “Learn more” button takes you to a Google support page. “Got it” takes you to the VPN connection request screen.
Beyond this point, Frent was unable to get the service to work on an open WiFi network, a secured WiFi network, or LTE. He also states that he is unsure Google will launch this feature. After all, it has only just been discovered.
As he says, Google may be using it in its planned wireless service built with the help of T-Mobile and Sprint’s networks.
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