Google wins fight with Labor Department over pay gap data

Google appears to have emerged mostly triumphant in its fight with the Department of Labor over supplying pay gap data. An administrative law judge has ruled that the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs overstepped its boundaries by asking for as much data as it did when trying to address reported pay disparities between men and women. According to the decision, the OFCCP’s requests were “intrusive on employee privacy, unduly burdensome and insufficiently focused.” To put it succinctly, the Office couldn’t justify why it needed as much info as it wanted.

The Department had been asking for job data up to 15 years old, and wanted far-ranging personal data that included addresses and contact info for over 25,000 employees. In theory, sharing that material could have exposed staff to identity theft in the event of a government data breach, which the judge saw as a realistic possibility.

Officials aren’t coming away completely empty-handed. Provided the decision is finalized, Google says it’ll honor the rest of the order and provide the “much more limited” data the judge said was acceptable. That includes the contacts for a relatively small sample of 8,000 workers. Still, this definitely isn’t what the Labor Department wanted — and it’ll likely have to be more cautious the next time it’s investigating pay problems with its tech contractors.

Source: Google

Stop sniffing your pits and let the Kukun Body tell you if you smell

Why it matters to you

Embarrassing BO is everyone’s worst nightmare, but luckily, there’s now a device that can help you avoid all that.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not, in fact, the responsibility of your significant other to sniff your pits to tell you if you smell. Sure, he or she may do it for you, but that’s just one of the downsides of love. Luckily, there is another someone, or rather, something that can sniff your pits. It’s called the Kukun Body, and it’s a tiny little device  that connects to your smartphone and will tell you if you reek.

Finding its place among the sometimes outlandish yet wonderful ideas to come out of Japan, the Kukun Body will scan four odor-producing body parts — the feet, the area behind the ear, the head, and the pits. The device scans for three different smells, namely sweat, middle-fat odors, and what the Japanese call karesihu, or “old age smell.” Once the device is done doing its thing, the companion app will tell you what you need to hear, even if it’s unpleasant.

If you really need to deal with your B.O., the app will tell you, “Immediately care is needed.” Other times, the news might not be quite so … upsetting.

Developed by Daisuke Koda, the device is actually a couple years in the making. Koda is the incubation lead at Konica Minolta, Japan’s business innovation center, and told the Guardian that he was inspired to create such a device after a conversation about smelly summer days with some colleagues.

“We looked for a device to measure body smell, only to find that there was no device at all to tell the different types of smells,” Koda said. “That prompted us to think it might be an opportunity for a new business and we continued our research further deeper.”

Apparently, in Japan, body odor is the primary etiquette concern in the workplace. But of course, telling someone they smell bad is an even bigger etiquette no-no. “We see challenges that these people are aware of but nobody has a solution for,” Kida noted.

For the time being, the Kukun Body is only available to folks in Japan, and is set to launch later in the year for about $265. You can actually help support the Kukun Body by donating to its crowdfunding page, though that still won’t get you a device of your own.

Alphabet’s Verily is about to release 20 million mosquitos in Fresno

Why it matters to you

Controlling the mosquito population of the world is becoming an increasingly salient issue as diseases like Zika continue to spread. Luckily, Verily thinks it may have a solution.

It may sound counterintuitive, but Alphabet’s life sciences unit Verily is releasing about 20 million mosquitos in Fresno, California in order to fight Zika, the mosquito-borne illness. It’s part of Verily’s Debug Project, an initiative announced last October with the mission of reducing “the devastating global health impact that disease-carrying mosquitoes inflict on people around the world.” And now, Verily is launching Debug Fresno, the company’s first field study in the U.S. that will test a mosquito control method that involves sterile insect technique.

In essence, the 20 million mosquitos Verily is releasing are all sterile males that have been treated with Wolbachia, a naturally occurring bacterium. The test is said to be the largest release of sterile male mosquitos in the U.S. thus far. Over the next 20 weeks, these bugs will be released in two neighborhoods around 300 acres large. The hope is that when these sterile males mate with wild females, which can carry and transmit a number of diseases including Zika, dengue, and chikungunya, the resulting eggs will not hatch. Verily will determine the success of its test by comparing the adult population density and egg hatching of this particular kind of mosquito in the targeted neighborhoods to two control neighborhoods.

And don’t worry — male mosquitos do not bite, so even though you might be seeing more of these critters around, you won’t be itching as a result.

Linus Upson, a senior engineer at Verily, told the MIT Technology Review that this could ultimately become a cost effective way to control mosquito populations, and get rid of diseases (though he didn’t say how much exactly this experiment actually costs). “If we really want to be able to help people globally, we need to be able to produce a lot of mosquitoes, distribute them to where they need to be, and measure the populations at very, very low costs,” he said. “We want to show this can work in different kinds of environments,” he told the magazine.

So look out, Fresno. You may hear a lot more buzzing in the coming weeks, but rest assured, it’s all for good purpose.

Porsche installs its first high-speed electric car chargers

Porsche knows that electric vehicles are the future, and it just took a big step to prepare for that future. The performance car brand just opened a new office in Berlin, and the new facility includes the company’s first two ultra-fast 800-volt chargers (one is pictured below). They can ‘only’ charge existing EVs at up to a 150kW charge rate (which is still faster than a 120kW Tesla Supercharger), but they can handle up to 350kW for future cars. For Porsche’s upcoming Mission E, that would mean an 80 percent charge in 15 minutes. That’s longer than a typical stop at the gas station, but short enough that you don’t have to plan your EV trips around charging station visits.

It won’t stop there, of course. Another high-speed station is under construction at Porsche’s American headquarters in Atlanta, and the firm expects to ramp up installations by the time the Mission E arrives in 2019. In other words, early adopters will have at least some options for topping up quickly.

Porsche won’t be alone for long. It’s partnering with other car companies on installing 350kW-capable charging stations across Europe, and Tesla vows to compete with even faster chargers. Still, it’s a start — it’s laying the groundwork for a time when you’ll rarely have to think about where and when to charge an EV.

Bottom image credit: KFZ-Betrieb

Via: Electrek

Source: KFZ-Betrieb (translated)

Flat microscope for the brain could help restore lost eyesight

You’d probably prefer that doctors restore lost sight or hearing by directly repairing your eyes and ears, but Rice University is one step closer to the next best thing: transmitting info directly to your brain. It’s developing a flat microscope (the creatively titled FlatScope) that sits on your brain to both monitor and trigger neurons modified to be fluorescent when active. It should not only capture much more detail than existing brain probes (the team is hoping to see “a million” neurons), but reach levels deep enough that it should shed light on how the mind processes sensory input. And that, in turn, opens the door to controlling sensory input.

FlatScope is part of a broader DARPA initiative that aims to create a high-resolution neural interface. If technologies like the microscope lead to a way to quickly interpret neuron activity, it should be possible to craft sensors that send audiovisual data to the brain and effectively take over for any missing senses. Any breakthrough on that level is a long way off (at best) when even FlatScope exists as just a prototype, but there is some hope that blindness and deafness will eventually become things of the past.

Source: Rice University

HTC’s phone keyboard is pestering users with ads

It’s one thing to voluntarily put up with ads on your phone in return for a lower price or free apps, but it’s another to have ads delivered without warning… and unfortunately, HTC owners are dealing with that right now. An updated TouchPal keyboard (which HTC uses as its default on some devices) has started serving banner ads to unsuspecting users of phones like the HTC 10. You’re not stuck with the keyboard, of course, but most people would rather not have to switch keyboards just to avoid crass commercialism (and, for that matter, reclaim screen real estate).

We’ve asked HTC for comment and will let you know what it says. At first glance, though, it looks like HTC was just as surprised as anyone else. It’s asking users to uninstall TouchPal’s updates, and TouchPal itself has claimed that a server issue led to the unwanted promos. Whatever the exact cause, it looks like a mistake — TouchPal flipped the wrong virtual switch and started sending ads to customers who were never supposed to see them.

Nevertheless, the incident highlights the risks of outsourcing system software. If a manufacturer doesn’t write their own code (or trust it to an OS developer like Google), it’s harder for them to avoid surprises like this. The mess also hurts HTC’s image, however briefly — and the company really doesn’t need that black eye when it’s still losing cash.

Source: Reddit, HTC (Twitter)

A library at your fingertips: The best free Kindle books

It’s often tough to fathom that Amazon’s Kindle, the predominant ebook reader of the decade thus far, has been around for nearly a decade. Even though Amazon has since made proper tablets, such as Amazon Fire HD 7 Kids Edition the Amazon Fire HD 8, the Kindle remains overwhelmingly popular. The ebook marketplace is more than just robust, however, and there is a myriad of titles available via Amazon, Google Play, and an array of other sources. To help you sort through the masses, we’ve rounded up some of the best free Kindle books, including public domain works and self-published titles. Never before has it been so easy to become a master of literature without trekking to the library.

Are you a book-loving, literature aficionado? If so, take a glance at the best sites for downloading free audiobooks.

A note before you begin…

Google Play does not offer books using Kindle’s proprietary format in the way Amazon and Project Gutenberg do. Instead of AZW and KF8 files, users are going to want to directly download Google Play books as PDF files, thus rendering the books compatible with Kindle. To do so, navigate to your Google Play Book library, click the three squares in the upper-right corner of any title and select “Download PDF” from the resulting drop-down list. Afterward, select your desired save location and drag and drop the resulting file from your computer to your device once finished downloading.

Children’s Books

Peter Pan and Wendy by J.M. Barrie

Inspired by Barrie’s friendship with Llewelyn Davies family, Peter Pan Wendy is essentially the classic tale of Peter Pan, a boy who can fly and whisks a group of young children away to Neverland. All the usual suspects make their debut (Tiger Lily, Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, Captain Hook, etc.), but it might not seem as blatantly offensive to Native Americans as the 1953 Disney film.

Download now from:

Amazon Google

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

There are very few people who are oblivious to Dorothy’s cyclone-fueled romps in Oz with Wicked Witch of the West, yet revisiting the Kansas native’s harrowing quest for the Emerald City is always somehow reassuring. The Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow all add to Baum’s descriptive and vivid world. Victor Fleming’s music doesn’t quite do the novel the justice it deserves.

Download now from:

Amazon Google

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A touchstone in the realm of children’s literature, Burnett’s classic has been adapted time and time again for both the stage and the big screen. It revolves around heroine Mary Lenno, an orphan who’s shipped off from her colonial India to live on a dingy county estate in Yorkshire. There she learns the healing power of friendship through plant cultivation in her, ahem, secret garden. So heartwarming, yet insightful.

Download now from:

Amazon Google

Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm

The brothers Grimm wrote fairy tales that were aptly, rather grim, but many of the beloved tales have undergone edits and numerous alterations to the point where they’ve become suitable for children rather than the grotesque, violence-laden stories they once were. You know the tales — Rapunzel, Cinderella, Hansel, and Gretel — but there are also plenty of great standouts that weren’t made into animated films.

Download now from:

Amazon Google

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

Swift’s classic tale is both a satire on human nature and simply one man’s fantastical voyages to uncharted lands. Among the many journeys along the way, Lemuel Gulliver meets a race of horses, an island inhabited by 6-inch people and the Emperor of Japan. It’s teeming with political undercurrents, albeit fictional, and has never gone out of print since making its initial debut in 1726. Talk about enduring.

Download now from:

Amazon Google

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling

It should go without saying, kids love animals. Kipling’s tale, culled as a standalone story from The Jungle Book, follows a valiant mongoose who works to defend his adopted family of British colonials from a menacing pair of cobras upon their arrival in India. Sure, you may need to explain some of the subtle Victorianisms to younger audiences, but the harrowing story exhibits some of the most vibrant and sharp personification of any novel in existence.

Download now from:

Amazon

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

As one of my favorite childhood books, it makes me all warm-and-fuzzy inside knowing Grahame’s classic is readily available free of charge. It’s about four anthropomorphised animals — Toad, Mole, Rat, and Badger — and their various escapades in the English countryside. It’s chalk-full of adventure, companionship, and moral reasoning, written by the former secretary of the Bank of England as bedtime stories for his son Alistair.

Download now from:

Google

The Ghost Files by Apryl Baker

Mattie Hathaway is a 16-year-old girl with a terrible secret. Ever since her mother tried to kill her when she was five, she’s been able to see dead people of the spectral variety. When the ghost of her foster sister turns up, Mattie enlists the help of a young policeman to investigate her disappearance, but they better tread carefully because there’s a serial killer at work. This is smart teen fiction with plenty of twists and turns.

Download now from:

Amazon

Sweetgreen’s app is the first to send calorie info straight to Apple Health

Why it matters to you

Keeping track of your calories consumed can be hard work, but Sweetgreen wants to make it easier with this new Apple Health integration.

If you’re counting calories these days (as so many of us are), chances are most of those calories are coming from salad. And if you’re eating a lot of salad, chances are you’re taking many a trip to Sweetgreen, the restaurant chain that has somehow managed to make vegetables go mainstream. And now, Sweetgreen’s app will let you track your intake more easily than ever by allowing you to apply calorie counts to your Apple Health data anytime you place an order through the app.

While a number of companies allow you to order via mobile (Starbucks lets you skip the line this way, too), it would appear that Sweetgreen’s connection to Apple Health is the first of its kind. The latest version of the Sweetgreen app comes with an “Add to Health” button in its interface. Once you’ve placed your order, you can decide whether or not to include some or all of the items in your cart to the Health app.

This could certainly be a useful function for calorie-conscious folks who would otherwise have to manually log this information in another app. But having Sweetgreen do it for you essentially cuts out any additional steps in between, making living a healthier lifestyle all the more convenient. This is also particularly useful for Health app users as Apple’s app still doesn’t have a central database of foods, which means that if you want to enter the number of calories consumed in a meal, you have to already know what that count is. You are unable (as of yet) to simply add that you ate a serving of lettuce and a quarter cup of tofu — Health won’t know what to do with that information.

 This is by no means the first time that Sweetgreen has shown itself to be quite forward-thinking. Last year, the restaurant chain announced that in 2017, it would be going cashless, becoming one of the few fast food chains to insist upon either credit cards or mobile payment options. So if you’re planning on salad for dinner tonight, make sure you’ve got some plastic in your wallet and are placing your order through the Sweetgreen app.

Is Amazon working on a new messaging app? Anytime could be a game changer

Why it matters to you

Messaging apps appear to be the most popular tools in our digital day and age, and now, Amazon is trying to get in on that game.

Could it be? A new messaging app from Amazon? According to new reports, the online retail giant (which has now expanded well beyond e-commerce), is working on a messaging app called Anytime. As initially reported by AFTV News, Amazon has started surveying customers about a brand new messaging tool to determine what features are most desirable and important. And as per one respondent, the content of the survey suggested that the app is nearly ready.

Anytime is described by AFTV News as an “all-in-one feature rich service that could even rival social networks.” While the primary purpose of the app would be messaging, either by way of text or calls (in both the voice and video varieties), Anytime might also allow users to share photos with @mentions, and even edit those photos with filters and “special effects and masks.” Moreover, Amazon’s new app is said to allow for group activities, too, like playing games, listening to music, and ordering food. So really, it’s like WhatsApp meets Instagram meets Spotify meets Seamless … or something like that.

And in these supremely safety-conscious times, Anytime purports to ensure the privacy of your chats, and can also let users “encrypt important messages like bank account details.” Why would you be messaging about your bank account details? Apparently because you can also use Anytime to chat with businesses, make restaurant reservations, and obviously, online shop.

To ensure quick user adoption, Amazon is apparently letting you “reach all your friends just using their name.” No email address, no phone number, nothing else is supposedly needed in order to use the app. While it’s still unclear as to how that would really work, chances are, Anytime integrates with existing social media and messaging platforms to make things easier. We don’t yet know when Anytime would launch, but it’s said to be able to work across both desktop and mobile, and will be available for both Android and iOS users.

So keep a weather eye out, friends. You could soon be chatting with your friends about what you guys want to eat for dinner and ordering said dinner all from one Amazon app.

Just when we thought it was ‘slow’ … we have a few strong months of Android ahead

Don’t be lulled into thinking the year is done — we have several big phone launches left in 2017.

On the media side of things, we usually refer to the time after the spring smartphone launches as a “slow” period. Samsung, LG, HTC, OnePlus, Sony and others all launched flagship phones across April, May and June — that gave us plenty to talk about, but we also had lots of time to talk about it as we waited for the next cycle of releases in the fall.

Well it’s just the middle of July, and the next few months are already looking rather interesting. Motorola, Samsung, LG and Google all have big time phones to release, and those are just the ones we know about. The second half of 2017 is shaping up to be almost as big as the first.

Motorola kicks off the second half of 2017 with its highest-end phone.

On July 25, Motorola is going to let the other shoe drop with the Moto Z2 Force after launching the Moto Z2 Play considerably early. The Moto Z2 Force is expected to pull double duty as the tough, shatterproof phone and the high-end mainstream flagship — that’s not easy. At the same time, we’re still waiting for more details on the mid-range resurrection of the Moto X brand with the Moto X4 — that could be at the same event, or it could require its own bespoke unveiling, we don’t know.

Samsung is gearing up to launch the much-anticipated Galaxy Note 8, presumably in the last week of August but at the latest the beginning of September. After about 10 months with the Note 5 as the latest Note model available following the final Note 7 recall, people are itching to get their hands on something new. Word of a Galaxy S8+-like experience with an even bigger display and dual cameras are good, but we can expect Samsung to show off something altogether new as well.

LG is going to try and make big splash at the IFA trade show with the LG V30. There’s a launch event scheduled for August 31, which of course could end up being just a week after the Note 8 is announced. The V30 leaks we have show a device that borrows a lot from the LG G6, including its tall screen, small bezels and more “traditional” design. That’s mildly disappointing to those who liked the quirks of the V10 and V20, but I think LG realizes it has to go a bit more mainstream if it wants any real number of people to buy a V-series phone.

Thought we were done there? Ha! Google still has to play its hand, and we expect it to do so in October once again. Details have started to leak about the new LG-made Pixel XL 2 (or whatever it will be branded), pointing to a really nice hardware upgrade. And that’s just half of it — we still need to learn about the successor to the smaller Pixel. It seems at this point that the third Google-branded device of the year, which was apparently being developed with HTC, has been shelved for now. Phew.

Google will be the last, but certainly not least, in 2017.

Then there are others still. We know Sony’s usually good for a phone launch (or three) at IFA as well, presumably further iterating on its low, mid and high-end phones from MWC earlier in the year. There’s a good shout that OnePlus could even do something else this year, considering it has released two phones in each of the past two years. Huawei is due another high-end Mate, presumably the Mate 10, by the end of the year also.

So yeah, how about that “slow” period? It’s going to be a pretty wild ride from the end of July through November in the world of Android. A few more thoughts on the week:

• Mixed bag of comments in my article about financing a phone somewhere other than a carrier. Yup, I know you can get a good deal from a carrier sometimes — but there’s value in giving your money directly to the manufacturer, too.
• Damn that Solar Red HTC U11 is beautiful.
• Everyone should be using two-factor authentication with their Google account. Yes, even you. And as a smart person who uses two-factor, you should take it upon yourself to get your friends and family on it as well.
• This week will mark three months since the Galaxy S8 and S8+ went on sale. I’ve hopped around to a lot of phones, but the GS8 is still really solid. I’ll be back on it tomorrow to wrap up some thoughts on how it’s aged since launch.
• RIP, Vertu. Very few people will miss you, really.

That’s it for now — have a great week, everyone!

-Andrew