UK lawsuit may force Uber to treat drivers as employees
Should Uber drivers be classified as employees or independent contractors? The ride-hailing company has always leaned towards the latter, because it means it can avoid paying potentially expensive staff benefits, insurance and expenses. However, a California Labor commission ruled last month that an Uber driver was, in fact, a company employee — and now a union is pushing for a similar decision in the UK. GMB, which represents professional drivers, argues that Uber is breaching its legal duty to provide drivers with basic rights concerning their pay, holiday, health and ability to file complaints. It’s now instructed the law firm Leigh Day to take legal action on behalf of Uber drivers.
In particular, the union wants Uber to conform with UK employment law that ensures drivers are paid the minimum wage, receive paid holiday and can take rest breaks during their working week. “It owes the same responsibilities towards its drivers as any other employer does to its workers,” Nigel Mackay, a Leigh Day lawyer said. The pressure appears to be mounting — Uber is appealing the California ruling, but at some point it might have to accept that it’s fleet of drivers are staff, not partners. Doing so would raise its running costs considerably, and perhaps put a dent in its relentless global expansion plans.
“One of the main reasons drivers use Uber is because they love being their own boss,” a spokesperson for Uber said. “As employees, drivers would drive set shifts, earn a fixed hourly wage, and lose the ability to drive elsewhere. The reality is that drivers use Uber on their own terms: they control their use of the app”.
Filed under: Transportation
Source: GMB
LG announces its financial results, mobile sales increase only 1% year-on-year
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LG has today announced its financial results for Q2 2015 and the results are, well, meh. As a whole company, LG Electronics made a decent profit of 226.4 billion won, or about $206.38 million USD, in what it called an “extremely challenging environment”, however the results of the mobile division speak of a different story.
Despite increasing sales overall by 1% year-on-year, LG saw a decline of 3% in overall device shipments to 14.1 million. LG largely attributed this to a decline in demand for premium smartphones in its home country of Korea, however noted that US revenue had grown 36% year-on-year thanks to mid-range devices. LG intends to rectify this by marketing both its premium range and mid-range better in hopes that will increase its profits.
It’s kind of disappointing to hear that even LG is doing poorly in this current climate, especially given that its LG G4 is definitely the best smartphone it has every put out. But these are the times we live in, and LG has to find a way to get its profits back up on the back of its devices – LG G Pro 3 anybody?
What do you think about LG’s financial results? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
The post LG announces its financial results, mobile sales increase only 1% year-on-year appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Microsoft now rolling out free Windows 10 upgrades
Today’s the day! Windows 10 is now available in 190 countries as a free upgrade to Windows 7 or 8.1 owners. Replacing an OS is no one’s idea of fun, but we’re actually looking forward to this one. First off, we’ll be leaving behind the most hated version of Windows ever (sorry, Vista). In return, we’ll get one Microsoft was so confident in that they skipped version 9 altogether because hey, Windows 10 sounds better. So how to get it? We’ve got a handy guide, and Microsoft has info here, but if you already reserved your free upgrade, hang in there, as Microsoft says it’s rolling out in waves.
Organizations will start to see the new version on August 1st. The computer you have should work just fine, as the minimum requirements haven’t changed much from Windows 7 and 8: A 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM (2GB for the 64-bit version) and 20GB of free space. The whole thing will take 30-45 minutes, according to Microsoft, not counting the 4-5GB download. Speaking of which, you’ll likely need to be patient, as the roll-out may actually break internet traffic records.
As for what’s in it for you, the answer is plenty: you’ll get a much improved interface that takes the best of Windows 7 and 8.1, the new Edge browser, Cortana and better modern apps. You can read more about it in our Windows 10 review, but to cut to the chase, we gave it a stellar 91 rating.
Filed under: Software, Microsoft
Source: Microsoft
Japanese scientists fire the world’s most powerful laser
A team of researchers from Osaka University recently fired the most powerful laser on the planet: a 2 petawatt pulse, that’s 2 quadrillion watts, albeit for just one trillionth of a second. It’s called the LFEX (Laser for Fast Ignition Experiments) and it measures more than 300 feet in length. Interestingly, while the LFEX boasts immense power, it doesn’t actually require that much energy to operate.
If you remember your high school physics class, power (aka watts) is energy over time. And since the Osaka team is dealing with a picosecond time span, the device doesn’t need much energy to generate a massive amount of wattage. In fact, for this experiment, the LFEX only consumed a couple hundred joules, about as much energy as your microwave does over the course of two seconds. It’s able to generate so much power so quickly thanks to a series of glass “lamps” that amplified the laser as it passed through them.
“With heated competition in the world to improve the performance of lasers, our goal now is to increase our output to 10 petawatts,” Junji Kawanaka, an associate professor of electrical engineering at Osaka University, said in a statement. Sure this is an impressive feat of scientific engineering but what good is the LFEX if it can’t shoot down a missile like the US Navy’s does?
[Image Credit: top – Getty Images/iStockphoto, inline – Osaka University]
Filed under: Science
Via: Popular Science
Source: Osaka University
This Netherlands bank lets use your voice as your password
Online banking is usually an exercise in remembering complicated pin numbers or passwords — but what if there was an easier way? In the Netherlands, there is: banking customers who use the ING Netherlands app can now long into their bank account, check balances and make transfers using just their voice.
The technology is called voice biometrics, and it’s actually powered by Nuance’s Nina. When it was shown off a few years back, it offered a pretty compelling alternative to remembering a pin-code — a video for the feature showed a host of people simply saying “my voice is my password” to check their bank balance and buy concert tickets. Not only is it more convenient, Nuance claims, but it’s actually more secure: voice recognition isn’t susceptible to brute force attacks and a failed attempt to fool the system can be recorded, stored and used to improve security.
ING Netherlands is rolling the feature out to iOS and Android users now, noting that compatible devices will also be able to use fingerprint recognition, instead.
[Image Credit: PhotoAlto / Alamy]
Source: Nuance
Microsoft Visual Studio Emulator now supports Android Studio and Eclipse with ADT
Microsoft’s Visual Studio Emulator for Android was launched only last November. It was the tech company’s attempt at getting developers working on Android apps from their own platform, but it proved to be less successful than expected. The service was great, with fast performance and unique features, but it required downloading Visual Studio just for the emulator to work.
Developers wanted to continue using other developer tools for building applications, yet were compelled by the idea of using what Microsoft calls the “best emulator on the planet”. The Redmond giant has good news for Android developers around the world, as the Visual Studio Emulator for Android can now be downloaded as a standalone app, allowing you to use it with either Android Studio or Eclipse with ADT.
Here’s the way it works. The emulator will connect via ADB (Android Debug Bridge). The system would then recognize the emulator as a USB-connected device. You do have to dig around some settings before Visual Emulator for Android can work with either of these developer programs, but the steps are simple. Microsoft has posted instructions in their blog post, so refer to it for all the details.
Interested? Why don’t you give it a try? You can go ahead and download it straight from the Visual Studio official page. It’s free, so there is really nothing to lose here. And now that it doesn’t carry a burdensome load, you may want to start making your apps with it.
Nokia’s virtual reality camera is designed for filmmakers
Nokia has just revealed a new camera for filmmakers called OZO that can capture virtual reality videos. But unlike similar devices from GoPro and Samsung unveiled in the past months, it’s not a flattened circle with cameras but a spherical ball-like device with shutters all over it. It has eight shutter sensors in all to capture 360-degree videos and eight integrated microphones. What users might find advantageous is its capability to show them what it’s shooting in real time through a VR headset. It can also churn out a low-resolution version of the footage it shot within just a few minutes if filmmakers want to see it again or to show it to someone else. Videos captured through similar cameras usually have to be stitched together during processing before you can see them, and that takes a lot of time.
Of course, directors can always publish high-res versions later on for VR viewing devices, including HUDs like the Oculus Rift. One studio, Jaunt Inc., has already pledged to use and support the OZO despite having a more traditional VR camera of its own. Nokia hasn’t revealed the device’s full specs and pricing yet, but it’s slated to be shipped out by the fourth quarter of 2015.
Source: Nokia
This Arduino Basic Kit has everything a newbie maker could ask for
It’s easy to think about tinkering around with Arduino, but take more than 30 seconds to look at the platform, and suddenly it becomes daunting: not only do you need an Arduino itself, but to get started you need resisters, wires, LEDs, screens and a host of other components that are almost always sold separately. Have no fear, newbies: there’s a new Arduino Basic Kit in town, and it has all the spare parts a beginner could want.
There’s quite a lot in the starter package — from a mess of colorful LEDs, a wide assortment of buttons, sensors and potentiometers to motors, battery connectors and a ton of capacitors, diodes and resisters. The package even concludes a simple wooden case for your Arduino and a breadboard to test your projects out before you solder them together. Not sure what to build? You’re covered there, too: the set comes with instructions for 15 projects, including mood testers, lamps, clocks and more. Not bad for $84.
Technically, the extras in the Arduino Basic Kit aren’t anything a savvy consumer couldn’t order piecemeal, but there’s something nice about having everything ready for you in one place. If you’ve been thinking about tinkering with Arduino and don’t know where to start, take a look — the kit is available for order on Autodesk’s 123D Circuits shop.
Filed under: Misc
Source: 123D Circuits
AT&T Urges FCC to Drop $100 Million Fine, Says Data Throttling Doesn’t Harm Customers
Last month the United States Federal Communications Commission announced that it would fine AT&T $100 million for misleading customers about its unlimited data plans and not adequately warning customers about throttling their data speeds. AT&T has since responded, arguing that data throttling doesn’t harm customers, the company is being prejudged and that its First Amendment rights are being violated in a response first found by The Hill (via Ars Technica).
The Commission’s findings that consumers and competition were harmed are devoid of factual support and wholly implausible. Its “moderate” forfeiture penalty of $100 million is plucked out of thin air, and the injunctive sanctions it proposes are beyond the Commission’s authority. Both, moreover, reflect an unseemly effort to coerce settlement. And the NAL and the related press campaign confirm that the agency has already prejudged AT&T’s liability, abandoning any pretext that the Commission remains an impartial arbiter of the case.
AT&T, who wants the FCC to drop the fine, claims that it has made all the required disclosures to customers, pointing out that its Unlimited Data Plan customers were more likely to renew their contracts than non-Unlimited Data Plan customers. Additionally, the telecommunications company argued the FCC would be outside of its authority in both imposing the fine and making other requests because the statute of limitations on the case has passed.
Lastly, AT&T argued that the FCC has no authority to order the company to inform its customers that it violated the Transparency Rule in not telling them about speed changes when throttling data because the statement would both be untrue and a violation of AT&T’s First Amendment rights.
AT&T ceased selling Unlimited Data Plans years ago but continues to have customers grandfathered to its Unlimited Data Plans. Previously, the company throttled its Unlimited Data Plan customers once they exceeded 5 GB of LTE data, but in May the company changed its policy to only throttle customers when connected to a cell tower experiencing network congestion.
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