Apple fixes its gender pay gap, makes small diversity gains
Gender and ethnic diversity remain one of the tech industry’s biggest problems, but this year more big companies are actually shaping up. In its latest Diversity Report, Apple announced today that it’s fully erased the gender pay gap among men and women in the U.S. “for similar roles and performance.” While a noteworthy accomplishment, Apple’s previous wage difference wasn’t very large, with women making 99.6 cents for every dollar a man makes, Business Insider reports. Both Microsoft and Facebook also announced earlier this year that they’ve erased any pay differences among genders.
“We’re now analyzing the salaries, bonuses, and annual stock grants of all our employees worldwide,” Apple wrote. “If a gap exists, we’ll address it. And we’ll continue our work to make sure we maintain pay equity.”
Apple’s overall workforce is now 68 percent male and 32 percent female, a minor shift from last year when it was 69 percent male and 31 percent female. Women account for 37 percent of its new hires, compared to 35 percent last year and 31 percent in 2014. Under-represented minorities, meanwhile, make up 27 percent of new hires (24 percent last year and 21 percent in 2016).
Overall, 54 percent of Apple’s new hires are minorities (which includes Asians, who are more highly represented in the tech world). The below chart shows how Apple’s new hires compare to its existing employees.
Despite its slow and steady progress in overall diversity, Apple’s leadership teams haven’t improved. In fact, the amount of white executives has actually increased to 67 percent from 54 percent a year ago. Among Apple’s retail leadership team, white members now account for 76 percent, compared to 69 percent last year.The gender status of leadership roles, meanwhile, has remained stagnant at 72 percent male and 28 percent female.
Back in January, we also noted that Apple was making very slow gains in diversity. Last year, it also committed $50 million towards getting more minorities hired in the tech world
Source: Apple
Siri cheat sheet shows how you can talk to your iPhone
Sure, iOS will give you a quick hint as to what you can ask Siri, but there’s a lot more the voice control system will recognize. How do you know whether or not your command will work? You don’t have to guess. Sandro Roth’s recently launched Hey-Siri.io outlines a whopping 489 Siri actions for both iOS and the Mac, all of it neatly divided into categories with practical examples. If you want to know how to talk to your smart home devices or create a grocery list, the answer is likely just a few taps away. This probably won’t cover absolutely every command (certainly not those for third-party apps), but it could save you a lot of guesswork… not to mention embarrassment.
Source: Hey Siri
The best tech for students studying abroad
There’s nothing quite as exciting or daunting as packing up your stuff and heading overseas for a semester. You’ll have an opportunity to immerse yourself in a new culture, a foreign language and a whole ocean of unique tech challenges. But don’t worry, we’re here to help you navigate those obstacles.
In our guide you’ll find top notch cameras to capture all those transformational memories, luggage that is basically impossible to lose, a backpack that hides a spare battery for charging your phone and, of course, some noise-cancelling headphones for those long flights filled with screaming children. But you’ll also need a lightweight laptop with solid battery life (like the HP Spectre 13.3) and a phone with a couple of SIM slots for doing a little border hopping. Check out the gallery below for all our recommendations for students studying abroad. And make sure to check out our full Back-to-School Guide right here.
Source: Engadget’s Back-to-School Guide
Apple won’t have to pay a patent troll $625 million after all
Patent troll VirnetX has won multiple patent lawsuits against Apple, including a recent $625 million judgement over FaceTime and VPN tech. However, it appears it overplayed its past success during that trial. After Apple appealed, federal Judge Robert Schroeder threw out the judgement and demanded a retrial. The reason? VirnetX inappropriately mentioned the previous verdict, possibly prejudicing the jury against Apple.
VirnetX did have the right to bring up the November, 2012 case in an effort to prove that Apple willfully infringed its patents. However, the judge said the company brought it up when it shouldn’t have. He cited one example: “At [the November 2012] trial Apple said those same remarks about not using the patent. And you know, the jury didn’t believe them and agreed with us,” VirnetX’s lawyer said. That comment, the judge felt, may have been prejudicial. “Under the circumstances here, the repeated references to the prior jury verdict in the consolidated case resulted in an unfair trial.”
Under the circumstances here, the repeated references to the prior jury verdict in the consolidated case resulted in an unfair trial.
Schroeder also felt that that combining two lawsuits (one over FaceTime and the other over VPN technology) into one trial created the “potential for juror confusion.” As a result, he threw out the judgement and ordered two new trials, with the first starting on September 26th, 2016.
VirnetX fits the definition of a patent troll, as it uses its patent portfolio to sue successful firms and rarely develops its own products. Following the judgement, the company’s shares fell 44.6 percent. “We are disappointed by the court’s decision to vacate its prior ruling on consolidation and ordering the parties to retry the cases as two separate matters,” said VirnetX CEO and President Kendall Larsen.
Via: Ars Technica
Source: Court Order (via Ars Technica), VirnetX
Apple TV’s new iPhone remote control app talks to Siri
As promised, you no longer need to use the new Apple TV’s standard remote control to take advantage of all the media hub’s features. Apple has released a brand new Apple TV Remote app that drags its iOS interface into the modern era. You can not only use the same touch-based control as on the hardware remote, but talk to Siri — handy if you lost the physical controller between the couch cushions. It also supports motion controls for games, and there’s even a Game Mode that strips things down.
The new Remote app works with every Apple TV from the second-generation model onward, and you should only miss Siri and other hardware-specific features on those previous devices. It’s just as well, too. While the old app is still hanging around (at least for now), this is an entirely separate download. Apple appears to be making a clean break with this release, and you’ll only really want the original Remote if you use it to control iTunes on your computer.
Via: Bloomberg
Source: App Store
Frank Ocean’s long-awaited album is an Apple Music exclusive
Fans of Frank Ocean have been waiting for the singer’s followup album for years, and according to the New York Times, it is finally coming this week — if you have Apple Music. Following the likes of Drake and Future, the release will be a timed exclusive that releases on Friday, before coming to other outlets after a couple of weeks. Anticipation for the Boys Don’t Cry album has grown over the months and years with rumors and cryptic posts causing fans to think it would arrive on one date or another, including a website with an Apple logo. Now it’s confirmed, and a weapon in Apple’s battle with the likes of Tidal and Spotify over exclusives to attract subscribers.
Source: New York Times, Boy’s Don’t Cry
Apple drops the gun emoji for a friendlier water pistol
The news is awash in the shootings of police officers and unarmed black men, and individuals opening fire in nightclubs and public party events. In an effort to stop promoting gun violence, Apple is replacing its gun emoji with a friendlier-looking water pistol. In place of the old black and silver revolver is a bright green and orange water gun that looks very distinctly like a harmless toy.
Apple also led the decision to remove a rifle from a list of potential additions to the emoji library on all platforms, including Android. Unicode, the organization that handles the character standard, listened to the company’s request, and Microsoft agreed with this decision as well.
Apple has an additional one hundred new and redesigned emoji that will be available to iPhone and iPad users this Fall with iOS 10. These new emoji show women playing more sports and performing jobs that, before this update, only had male options. A few examples are a woman riding a mountain bike, lifting weights, and playing basketball. There will also be redesigns of popular emoji, a new rainbow flag, and more family options.
This is in an effort to bring more gender and race options to existing characters, and Google’s leading the charge. Apple, Unicode, Google, and other companies have the power to promote change, and making important tweaks to a popular way people communicate on their phones is one way to do it.
Source: Apple
Introducing Engadget’s 2016 back-to-school guide!
Oh yes, it’s already that time of year. Temperature are still sitting in the triple digits in some places, but many of you are just four weeks away from a new school year, heralding the end of summer. Once again, Engadget has put together a back-to-school gear guide, but this time, we did something a little different.
This year’s guide was curated with college students in mind (sorry, high schoolers), with sections for five broad archetypes: party kids, academics, jocks, freshmen and study abroad students. (What’s that you say? You’re a scholar-athlete and you’re spending the semester in Madrid? Have we got picks for you!) As always too, we endeavored to recommend things across different price points, with a few free options, some more aspirational objects and lots of stuff in between. Check out the whole guide here, and stay tuned throughout the month as we spotlight different picks for different students.
Source: Engadget’s 2016 Back-to-School Guide
Kanye West wants Apple and Tidal to stop fighting over exclusives
Kanye West may be best known on Twitter for starting feuds, but now he’s trying to end one… and it’s even a rivalry he helped create. In a flurry of four tweets, the rapper griped that the competition between Apple and Tidal over streaming music exclusives is nothing but a “dick swinging contest” that’s “fucking up the music game.” Yes, that’s right — the man who released his latest album as a Tidal exclusive (if only temporarily) now wants peace. He’s even suggesting a meeting with Jay-Z, Tim Cook and other bigwigs to make it happen, and wishes that Apple would just buy Tidal to end the fighting once and for all.
It’s just talk at the moment, and there’s certainly no guarantee that Apple or Tidal will pull a Taylor Swift and bend over backwards to listen to what Kanye has to say. However, this still represents a big-name artist rebelling against the all-too-common trend of releasing albums through just one service, however briefly. It’s not hard to see why he’s changing his tune. Kanye’s own The Life of Pablo saw a huge surge in demand the moment he ditched his Tidal exclusive, making it clear that fans wouldn’t automatically follow him anywhere he went. He and other musicians may have little choice but to bite the bullet and go where the listeners are.
This Tidal Apple beef is fucking up the music game.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) July 30, 2016
I need Tim Cook Jay Z Dez Jimmy Larry me and Drake Scooter on the phone or in a room this week!!!
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) July 30, 2016
Fuck all this dick swinging contest. We all gon be dead in 100 Years. Let the kids have the music.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) July 30, 2016
Apple give Jay his check for Tidal now and stop trying to act like you Steve.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) July 30, 2016
Via: Pitchfork
Source: Kanye West (Twitter 1), (2), (3), (4)
SMS two-factor authentication isn’t being banned
Another week gone by, and the place is in cybersecurity shambles again. A years’ old hacking issue, unencrypted wireless keyboards, being featured in an upcoming Defcon talk mystifyingly became a hot new Internet of Things threat. Obama gave us a colorful “threat level” cyber-thermometer that no one’s really sure what to do with. Ransomware is hitting hospitals like there’s a fire sale on money. And the DNC-Wikileaks email debacle exploded, splattering blame all over Russia.
Just when I thought I’d picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue, a U.S. National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) report came out that included recommendations about the inherent risks in two-factor authentication, upon which the tech press basically lost their minds and told everyone to assume crash positions because the password sky was falling. Again.
What actually happened was, the NIST released the newest draft version of its Digital Authentication Guidelines. In its public preview, the agency included language that hinted at the depreciation of SMS-based Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) because, basically, phone numbers can be hijacked, and SMS can be intercepted — making the NIST impetus sensible for government employees or those dealing with sensitive medical information or state-level secrets.
But for normal people, 2FA is still going to limit the ability of an attacker to intercept or alter both your password and your SMS code. (Which is, incidentally, the point.)
Using a text message-based code is what would have prevented what happened to tech journalist and editor Mat Honan. In August 2012, a malicious hacker logged into just one of his online accounts and reset the password.
Then the attacker went to town resetting and taking over the rest of Honan’s accounts, remotely erasing (forever) everything on his iPhone, iPad and MacBook, including photos of deceased in-laws and the first year of his daughter’s life. That attacker also deleted Honan’s Google account and took over his Twitter account to post a bunch of racist and homophobic tweets under his name.
With two-factor activated, Honan would’ve gotten an SMS alerting him that someone was logging into his account. In fact, the only reason he realized something was wrong was because his iPhone prompted him for a reset code.
But neither the practical use cases for 2FA nor the emphasis on a draft recommending depreciation were what came out in this week’s mainstream news. Hardly anyone seemed to mention that NIST’s guidelines aren’t legally binding (we did!), though government agencies often follow them.
Defense Daily pointed out the obvious thing that everyone missed — this is a work in progress, directed at government. It said, “This new NIST draft was released as a public preview wherein it is considered a stable draft illustrating what the agency has learned through public comment periods, public workshops, and industry collaborations.” However, it is “neither complete nor perfect-and it’s not intended to be.” They added, “This is the point where the agency is articulating the direction it is going but seeks comments from stakeholders on what is right, wrong, and entirely missed in the guidelines.”
Headlines cried out that the freewheeling halcyon days of 2FA were soon to be forbidden fruit. CNET claimed, “SMS-based two-factor authentication will soon be banned.” Dabbing away tears, we were told, the age of 2FA is over and we should “Say Goodbye to SMS Two-Factor Authentication.”
Suddenly, news outlets and tech blogs were telling us, bizarrely, that Apple was under attack by NIST. Apple wasn’t actually targeted in the NIST document, but headlines proclaimed “U.S. to ban Apple and others from SMS two-step authentication.” Here at Engadget we came this close to making a video, our mascara running as we sobbed into the camera begging NIST to leave Apple alone!
Ultimately, the anti-2FA mob mentality out-crazied our craziness. We were simply outdone when people started telling the public that SMS authentication was now deemed “no longer safe.”
The punchline? No, I think we’ve been punched enough, thanks.
Still, there’s always room for a little insult added to injury. While CNET was telling readers that 2FA was decreed dangerous and about to be banned, government publications bothered with the details and got to the truth.
The coming two-factor apocalypse was only really coming for government agencies, and the recommendation to depreciate SMS would be for new implementations on the road ahead. “The SP-800-63 document set provides technical and procedural guidelines to agencies,” Defense Daily wrote. “The recommendation includes remote authentication of users (employees, contractors, or private individuals) interacting with government information technology (IT) systems over open networks.”
The public may be none the wiser after this week. If they’re reading Apple Insider or Sci Tech as gospel, the logical next step would appear to be quitting two-factor altogether. Or, just setting fire to your laptop and throwing it out the window.
Either way, it’s a bad message to send. As many people as possible should be adding this second step to logging in because they are not edge cases, and 2FA is actually making the general public safer.
The real problem here is, as usual, people freaking out about security issues that require more than a “hot take.” It’s a phase in our collective infosec adolescence I worry we’ll never grow out of.
AIVAnet 