Silicon Valley bro sues Yahoo for reverse discrimination
This week hasn’t been particularly kind to beleaguered internet company Yahoo. CEO Marissa Mayer, former chief marketing officer Kathy Savitt and editor-in-chief of Yahoo News Megan Liberman have been accused of engaging in gender discrimination. According to The Mercury News, a lawsuit has been filed by former editorial director Scott Ard on the grounds that “Mayer encouraged and fostered the use of (an employee performance-rating system) to accommodate management’s subjective biases and personal opinions, to the detriment of Yahoo’s male employees.”
Ard’s suit also claims that within a year and a half, CMO Savitt had increased the number of “top female managers” from 20 percent to 80 percent.
“Savitt has publicly expressed support for increasing the number of women in media and has intentionally hired and promoted women because of their gender, while terminating, demoting or laying off male employees because of their gender,” the suit states.
“Of the approximately 16 senior-level editorial employees hired or promoted by Savitt in approximately an 18-month period, 14 of them, or 87 percent, were female.”
Ard, former Yahoo editorial director and current editor-in-chief of the Silicon Valley Business Journal, says that the performance review system was put in place to side-step California’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) act. WARN requires early warning of mass layoffs. He says that in 2014, his job was given to a recent female hire. Ard claims during his subsequent January 2015 review call he was told that because he wasn’t performing up to standards, he was being fired.
That’s after being rewarded with positive performance reviews and stock options for “fully satisfactory” work prior.
For its part, Yahoo says that the performance review process wasn’t guided by misandry, but fairness.
“Our performance-review process was developed to allow employees at all levels of the company to receive meaningful, regular and actionable feedback from others,” according to spokesperson Carolyn Clark in a statement to the Mercury News. “We believe this process allows our team to develop and do their best work. Our performance-review process also allows for high performers to engage in increasingly larger opportunities at our company, as well as for low performers to be transitioned out.”
Yahoo diversity reports indicate that women in leadership positions grew a whopping one percent from 2014 to 2015 (PDF). Those numbers don’t exactly support Ard’s claims, and this seems more like a pushback against diversity initiatives at tech companies than it is rooted in facts. Now, investigations surrounding how the company covered up a massive data breach and claims of it aiding the US government’s surveillance efforts are another matter entirely.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Mercury News
It’s not easy being Yahoo
Remember when Yahoo was great? Yeah, I’m having a hard time, too. Especially in light of the past few weeks, during which the company’s house of cards collapsed — and afterward those cards were set on fire and then pooped on by a passing flock of seagulls who’d had some bad curry.
After Yahoo copped to a monumental breach they’d kept secret, revelations about mass email spying catapulted the company into a whirlwind of abysmal press. These events were crowned by a report claiming Verizon asked for a $1 billion discount on its acquisition.
Most everything being reported about Yahoo is coming via anonymous sources. But one glaring fact rings true through the swirling rumors: If other companies are bad at protecting their users, Yahoo may very well be the worst.
It started on September 22nd when, just after Yahoo’s fire sale to Verizon, the flailing company admitted it was massively hacked in 2014. Its statement said that “a state-sponsored actor” had stolen at least 500 million user accounts’ “names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords… and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.”
The Yahoo hack is currently considered the biggest breach in history. Everyone wants to know why it waited so long to tell anyone, but the company has remained mum.
One could say that CEO Marissa Mayer simply fiddled while Yahoo burned. Several lawsuits were filed within days of the statement, six senators told Mayer they wanted a timeline of the hack, and another senator kindly asked the SEC to investigate. This would turn the company and this incident into a test case for the SEC’s data breach disclosure rules.
Before anyone could say “Titanic,” press went wild as unnamed sources came out of the woodwork to have their say. One told the New York Times that Yahoo’s then-security chief Alex Stamos and his team had really tried super hard to make improvements, but mean old Marissa stood in their way. And because Stamos left Yahoo suddenly and without explanation, infosec pundits opined the real reason Stamos parachuted to Facebook was because he fought for the users (and certainly not the money).
If the accounts about her decision-making skills are true, the Times’ scathing hot take on Mayer’s governance of her security team is totally accurate. Except Stamos’ team did so much innovative and experimental security stuff in the realm of improvements, it makes this angle look like horseshit.
This is probably a good time to remind everyone that the New York Times has a sweet little financial relationship with Facebook, where the Wal-Mart of social networks recently gave the Times $3.3 million for content.
The anonymous source sideshow wasn’t over, and the next one at the microphone wasn’t playing nice. Business Insider was told by a former Yahoo executive in contact with investigators that the number of victims is at least double the 500 million the company claimed. The source believes the hack is much “bigger than what’s being reported.” They continued, estimating the number of accounts affected to be anywhere between one and three billion, saying “How they [Yahoo] came up with 500 is a mystery.”
Yahoo’s attempt to blame state hackers (usually it’s China or Russia) fell apart when a not-anonymous source talked to CSO Online. Security firm InfoArmor said it uncovered that hackers-for-hire did it. They found some of the stolen data during a three-year investigation into an Eastern European hacking gang. Andrew Komarov, InfoArmor’s chief intelligence officer told CSO, “According to our information, most of the group’s clientele are spammers.” Komarov claimed the gang had sold the stolen Yahoo database in three private deals, including one worth at least $300,000.
Just when things were looking really bad for Yahoo… it got worse. On Tuesday, Reuters dropped a bombshell from yet another unnamed source with an axe to grind against the purple menace. According to “three former employees and a fourth person apprised of the events,” Yahoo “last year secretly built a custom software program to search all of its customers’ incoming emails for specific information provided by U.S. intelligence officials.”
The article offered an alternative to the narrative in the New York Times about why Yahoo’s head of security ran to Zuckerberg’s warm embrace.
It said:
“According to two of the former employees, Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer’s decision to obey the directive roiled some senior executives and led to the June 2015 departure of Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos, who now holds the top security job at Facebook Inc.”
At this point, it was clear that every reporter sucking the teat of a source had forgotten to ask what Stamos and his team were doing, exactly, during the biggest hack in history. And why no one said a damn thing while millions (possibly billions) of innocent people had their sensitive info sold and re-sold on various black markets for years.
Yahoo called the report “misleading.” But, as everyone noticed, there was no denial. Those who didn’t have a big bowl of popcorn by this point were out of luck, because right after the “misleading” report, the New York Times fired back with even more anonymous source-ry. The Times’ new article directly rejected Reuters’ report that Yahoo built surveillance tools so the government could spy on Mail users.
The Times said, “A system intended to scan emails for child pornography and spam helped Yahoo satisfy a secret court order requiring it to search for messages containing a computer ‘signature’ tied to the communications of a state-sponsored terrorist organization.” The alleged sources allegedly said that the alleged program had allegedly been terminated anyway. As for Stamos, yet another anonymously sourced Reuters article claims the program had been shut off by the time he left.
Furthermore, the New York Times sources said the scanning came out of a FISA court order and not “a classified U.S. government demand… at the behest of the National Security Agency or FBI” as Reuters had reported.
Talk about awkward.
Who knows what revelations the next few days will bring. But, with Reuters and the New York Times competing for headline dominance, it’s easy to forget about all those Yahoo hack victims — and I don’t just mean the ones we found out about two weeks ago.
The Yahoo hack story got pushed out of the spotlight before it had a chance to really sing. It turns out, getting hacked, exposing untold users to harm, and downplaying it is a performance the company has been repeating for years.
The 2014 hack we just learned about exposed at least 500 million accounts. Yahoo was also hacked in January that year, and the company would not disclose how many accounts were affected. Before that, in March 2013, Yahoo Mail users were crying for help about their accounts getting hacked into for months while the company remained silent. To the surprise of no one, later that year Yahoo user passwords were spotted in a collection of two million credentials found on a botnet server. And prior to that, in 2012, Yahoo was hacked and 450,000 passwords were posted online.
As I write this, I wonder if people on the security team at Yahoo who are caught in the crossfire, or who tried to fix things and got shut down by decision makers, are insulted by this portrait of negligence.
But I don’t wonder how Yahoo’s decision-makers feel. Because to be insulted, you first have to give a damn.
Images: REUTERS/Robert Galbraith (Yahoo / Marissa Mayer); REUTERS/Dado Ruvic (Yahoo Mail password)
Alexa can now lock your BMW and feed it directions
Remember when James Bond drove his BMW in a parking garage from the back seat by remote control? Yeah, the automaker’s latest Connected app won’t do that. But, it’ll at least make you feel like “007 lite” with Alexa, Apple Watch 2 and Android support. The Alexa integration is the most fun, letting you use voice commands with an Echo or Echo Dot to lock your vehicle’s doors, load up a scheduled trip and check battery and fuel levels.
BMW isn’t the first automaker with an Alexa skill. Hyundai already offers the service with its luxury Genesis brand, and Ford will support it by year’s end. Ford’s service will offer a few more features, letting you start your car with voice commands, communicate with your smart home and use the AppLink service to talk to Alexa while you’re in the car. It will only work on three of Ford’s models, however: the Focus Electric, Fusion Energi and C-Max Energi, according to Reuters.
With BMW’s latest iOS version, you can use your Apple Watch Series 2 to check driving times based on current traffic or see a navigation map without pulling out your smartphone. As with the Alexa, you can use the wearable to lock your doors and check vehicle parameters from the comfort of your couch.
Finally, the company finally launched an Android app with similar features to the iOS version. Those include walking directions to your car’s parking spot, departure notifications based on your appointments and traffic, and the ability to set points of interest. New features include EV charger searches filtered by the type of charging and payment method you prefer, and a smartphone battery-conserving mode. You can now download the iOS and Android apps via BMW’s site, or by enabling the Alexa skill and linking your BMW account.
Via: BMW Blog
Source: BMW
Part of Scotland will soon be powered by kites
Name a method of generating power that’s cheap, efficient, sustainable and sounds like something Mary Poppins dreamed up after downing 20 teaspoons of sugar. That’s right — kite power. One of the world’s first non-experimental, kite-driven power stations will be established offshore in Southern Scotland, at the Ministry of Defence’s West Freugh Range near Stranraer. UK company Kite Power Solutions plans to install a 500 kilowatt system that it expects will generate ‘several hundred megawatts’ of energy by 2025, Independent reports.
The project is backed by multinational oil company Royal Dutch Shell and the UK government, though Kite Power Solutions business development director David Ainsworth says the project will be “tariff-free.” For one, the cost of mooring the kites is far less than mooring wind turbines, since the kite system essentially floats. The kites fly up to 450 meters in a figure-eight pattern and pull a tether attached to a turbine to produce electricity. Two kites alternately rising and falling ensures continuous power.
A single 40-meter-wide kite generates two to three megawatts of electricity and a field of roughly 1,000 kites “would produce as much electricity as the planned Hinkley Point C nuclear power station if the wind blew constantly,” according to Independent.
The Stranraer region is inundated with wind and Kite Power Solutions expects just 10 days a year when the system won’t generate power. In these cases, the company will use a small fan to keep the kites afloat as they wait for more wind.
Kite Power Solutions already established a small kite-power system in England’s Essex county, and there’s a large research project in Italy that uses kites to generate energy.
Source: Independent
Four questions with the founder of Fnatic
Sam Mathews founded the European esports organization Fnatic in 2004, after selling his car to send a group of players to a competitive gaming event in Las Vegas. A dozen years ago, esports were barely a blip on the mainstream radar, but Mathews was an early adopter — and the industry grew quickly. His teams continued to expand and succeed in tournaments for a range of games, including Quake, Counter-Strike, Dota 2 and League of Legends.
Today, Fnatic is one of the world’s largest and most popular esports organizations, consistently competing for millions of dollars and selling swag across the globe. As one of the first entrepreneurs to believe in esports, Mathews has a unique perspective on the industry’s history and how it will continue to evolve going forward. Professional video game tournaments are already being aired live on television, after all.
Last week, Mathews took a break from the ESL One Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament in New York to answer four questions about esports and the pressures of leading one of its most legendary organizations. We’ve recorded his thoughts below.
You’ve been in the eSports world for over a decade — what’s the largest or most surprising change to hit the industry over that time?
Apart from the small things, like moving from CRT to LCD, or the scale of the crowds, it’s really about speed at which things are moving. I didn’t expect real sport teams to get involved so quickly, especially how much it’s been progressing in the last 18 months. I always had a good inclination of how big this could be and would be, and still believe that it is probably bigger than most people expect, but the adoption by physical sports stakeholders is exciting, to say the least.
Have esports entered the mainstream or are they still a fringe activity?
I think if you look at the sheer scale in terms of number of participants, esports is technically mainstream. But in terms of perception and the amount of awareness in the public, I think it’s definitely still in the underground. I do think that this is quickly growing and changing and it’s only a matter of a year or two before it’s widely known and accepted globally. I liken it to the previous youth culture movements, such as skateboarding, which took hold in the eighties and nineties and created a subculture. The same could be said about surfing and even snowboarding, all of which started as amateur underground sports which have become legitimate multi-billion-dollar industries.
How do you handle the pressure of leading one of the world’s top esports organizations?
I think with anything that you put a lot of your heart into, sometimes emotions can get the better of you, but that’s why you have to keep them in check and understand what they are. This is especially the case when you own a sports team. You have a lot of highs and lows — and grey hair. However, I believe our fan base is aware of how much we try and strive to be the best, and trust we’re doing all in our power to keep our reputation and results. The beauty of esports, however, is that we have more than one game to keep us stable. So whilst we may be struggling in some games, we still have others that keep things balanced by being on the up.
Does any part of you wish pro gaming would stay small, or are you excited for it to continue growing?
This is funny because I do think that it’s been exciting seeing the growth. But, on the other hand, when it’s small it was nice, because you knew everyone in the scene and there’s less competition. However, I’m super excited about espots being a global phenomenon. We’ve started something special and I honestly believe that it will be one of the biggest entertainment verticals out there in the next five years. The possibilities keep me up at night.
The Best Chromebox
Chromeboxes are safe, easy to use, and up to just about any task you can throw at it. Here are the ones you should be looking at.
Best overall
ASUS Chromebox M004U
See at Amazon
Don’t let the name fool you. The ASUS Chromebox M004U (generally known as the ASUS Chromebox though there are others from ASUS being sold) is dead simple to set up and use. Attach a monitor or television, a keyboard, and a mouse then turn it on. You’ll be on the internet in just a few minutes.
The Haswell Intel Celeron 2955U CPU offers remarkable performance for the price, is energy efficient, and an industry staple in countless computers. Paired with a fast 16GB storage drive and 4GB of memory, you’ll be able to enjoy everything Chrome has to offer, whether that means Facebook or a spreadsheet.
You also have the option to upgrade the ASUS Chromebox. Adding a larger storage drive or more memory is simple and well-documented. The ASUS Chromebox also makes an excellent HTPC as-is and can be an all-in-one media server with software like Plex.
Bottom line: The ASUS Chromebox M004U is powerful and capable. Chrome and everything you do present no challenges. If you want to explore other software options, upgrades are easy and inexpensive.
Why the ASUS Chromebox is the best
The ASUS Chromebox is the total package.
Chrome is a very lightweight and efficient, yet powerful, computing platform. On a computer like the ASUS Chromebox, you’ll be able to experience everything there is to offer with nary a stutter once paired with good broadband internet service. Put the ASUS Chromebox under your TV for watching YouTube or Netflix, or use it at your desk to communicate or work from home. You can have confidence that this Chromebox can do it all.
If you’re looking for more, you can upgrade the storage drive and RAM on the ASUS Chromebox using affordable and widely available off-the-shelf components without any complicated disassembly. If you are looking to install software like Kodi to build your own network streaming server, the ASUS Chromebox is widely recognized as the best value and is fully supported.
A package deal
Acer Chromebox CX12-4GKM
See at Amazon
If you’re looking for a complete setup and aren’t interested in upgrading anything or installing any alternative software, the Acer Chromebox is a solid choice.
It offers a Broadwell 1.5GHz Intel Celeron CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a 16GB solid state drive in a vertical standing enclosure that’s not going to need a lot of real estate. The Acer Chromebox also comes with its own mouse and keyboard.
The Acer is a powerful package that won’t crowd your desk or TV stand and is an excellent choice if you’re OK with spending a little more and not tearing apart the case.
Bottom line: The Broadwell CPU is futureproofed and plenty powerful for everything you want your Chromebox to do, and many will find the included mouse and keyboard a useful addition
The best value
Lenovo ThinkCentre Chromebox
See at Amazon
The lowest priced Chromebox on our list is also a great combo package.
The Lenovo ThinkCentre Chromebox is another Broadwell 15 watt Celeron CPU offering, and it too comes with 4GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. The bundled mouse and keyboard will help you get up and running faster, and the ThinkCentre can be positioned either horizontally or vertically.
As the newest entry on our list, the ThinkCentre hasn’t yet been proven to become our top pick, but the initial response looks great.
Bottom line: Great specifications, a bundled mouse and keyboard, and an attractive price makes the Lenovo ThinkCentre a compelling choice. If it stands the test of time, it has the potential to be our favorite.
Conclusion
Any of your choices for the best Chromebox are good ones. We had to consider what was the differentiator between and think long and hard about saying one was better than the others. In the end, the tried-and-true ASUS Chromebox won us over with its excellent support for advanced users and easy upgradeability. While all these Chromeboxes are worth considering, the ASUS is the best all around from features versus price point of view.
Best overall
ASUS Chromebox M004U
See at Amazon
Don’t let the name fool you. The ASUS Chromebox M004U (generally known as the ASUS Chromebox though there are others from ASUS being sold) is dead simple to set up and use. Attach a monitor or television, a keyboard, and a mouse then turn it on. You’ll be on the internet in just a few minutes.
The Haswell Intel Celeron 2955U CPU offers remarkable performance for the price, is energy efficient, and an industry staple in countless computers. Paired with a fast 16GB storage drive and 4GB of memory, you’ll be able to enjoy everything Chrome has to offer, whether that means Facebook or a spreadsheet.
You also have the option to upgrade the ASUS Chromebox. Adding a larger storage drive or more memory is simple and well-documented. The ASUS Chromebox also makes an excellent HTPC as-is and can be an all-in-one media server with software like Plex.
Bottom line: The ASUS Chromebox M004U is powerful and capable. Chrome and everything you do present no challenges. If you want to explore other software options, upgrades are easy and inexpensive.
Save $100 on an unlocked HTC Desire 826 right now!
If you are looking for a backup phone or something for the kids, this deal on the HTC Desire 826 may be a perfect option. Right now you can pick one up for just $150, a $100 savings from its regular price. The 5.5-inch phone has 32GB of onboard storage, 2GB of RAM and a 13MP camera on the rear. This isn’t a high-end device but packs some great specs, especially at the lower price point.
At $150, this makes for a great backup phone to have around or something for the kids as their first phone. This deal won’t last long, so if you are interested in grabbing one you will want to act quickly.
See at Daily Steals
MacRumors Giveaway: Win a SanDisk iXpand for iPhone Backups and File Transfers
For this week’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with SanDisk to give MacRumors readers a chance to win a Lightning-equipped 128GB SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive, which has enough capacity to double the storage space on most iPhones and iPads.
The pocket-sized iXpand can be used to offload photos, videos, music, and other files plus it can transfer content between an iOS device and a Mac or PC using USB 3.0 transfer speeds. Available in 16, 32, 64, and 128GB capacities, the iXpand can back up a full photo library and has storage for everything else you might need.
With the accompanying iXpand app, you can view all of your media content right on the iXpand drive without needing to transfer it back to your iPhone. It supports a wide range of file types, so you can watch videos, listen to music, and view all of your photos.
We reviewed the SanDisk iXpand earlier this year and were impressed with its small, portable design and its ability to support a wide range of file types, but we thought the app could use improvement. Since that time, SanDisk has updated the app and fixed many of the issues, making the usage experience much better. It’s now optimized for the iPad, no longer crashes, and has better playback support and controls.
SanDisk’s 128GB iXpand, the largest it makes, is normally priced at $129.99, but three MacRumors readers will win one for free. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.
Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.
a Rafflecopter giveawayThe contest will run from today (October 7) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on October 14. The winners will be chosen randomly on October 14 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen. Prizes will be shipped in mid to late October.
Tags: giveaway, SanDisk
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Best Google Pixel Cases (so far)
The phone is out, now get a case ready to protect it from Day 1.
Many of us are waiting for our Pixel or Pixel XL to arrive, and that means it’s time to get some accessories so we’re ready to go when it’s delivered. A case is the most basic accessory — some use one every day, and others keep one around for when they travel or expect to be a little rough on the phone.
It’s early days so the options are slim and duplicative when you look around the internet, but we have a few picks to consider. Here are the best cases, so far, for the Google Pixel and Pixel XL.
We’ll be updating this list as more cases are released from big name accessory companies like Otterbox, Lifeproof, Tech21, Spigen, and more!
Silicone Pixel Case by Google
If you’re willing to spend a little bit of money on a case, there’s no better place to go than the phone maker itself. Google’s own cases have never been inexpensive, but they’re also well made and designed to perfectly fit on the phone.
The silicone Pixel Case is somewhat thick like other full silicone cases, but for that reason offers plenty of protection all around for bumps and occasional small drops. It also gives you a small lip around the screen so you can put the phone face-down on a table without worry. Because of that thickness it may not be the best case for the already larger Pixel XL, though. It’s a nice fit on the standard Pixel.
With five solid colors available it may be a great choice to spice up the look of your Pixel or Pixel XL without having to buy the blue phone model itself. At $35 it’s on the high end for a case purchase for most, but it’s a nice one.
See at Google
Google Places Live Case
Google debuted its awesome Places Live Case for the Nexus 6P and 5X, and now offers it for the new Pixels. Search for anywhere in the world you want to put on the case, choose from six different map styles and a dozen different color combinations, and you can make an awesome case you won’t want to take off.
The case also gives you two extra perks. A unique Places live wallpaper is included, which shows you a stylized view of your current location — a neat trick that pulls the whole thing together. The case also has a customizable button on the back that you can do whatever you want with, helping justify the price a tad.
At $40 they’re spendy for sure, but you can know that nobody out there will have the exact same case you do — and you get to represent a specific part of the world wherever you travel at the same time! At the time of writing the cases aren’t yet in production, but you can already create and save your case design for when they are on sale.
See at Google
LK Ultra Scratch Resistant TPU case
Because it’s so early in the Pixel life cycle, case makers are still ramping up their offerings and most are pretty much identical. If you’re not interested in the expensive cases directly from Google (we wouldn’t blame you), it’s worth taking a shot with one of the cheaper simple offerings out there to tide you over.
LK has a simple transparent TPU case available in several colors. It’ll protect your new Pixel or Pixel XL while you make up your mind about a nicer case or a different style, and it’s just $8 — hard to beat that combo.
See at Amazon
Google Pixel + Pixel XL
- Google Pixel and Pixel XL hands-on preview
- In pictures: Google Pixel and Pixel XL
- Pixel + Pixel XL specs
- Understanding Android 7.1 Nougat
- Verizon is the exclusive U.S. carrier for the Google Pixels
- Join the discussion in the forums!
Google Store
Verizon
Don’t buy your Google Pixel from Verizon
There’s basically no reason to buy the Pixel from Verizon.
The Google Pixel and Pixel XL are really solid phones. You can say they’re a bit on the spendy side considering how much cheaper the past few Nexus phones have been, but Google is clearly swinging for the fences here.
Part of that plan is a multi-pronged retail approach that includes partnering with Verizon in the U.S. to get the new Pixels out in stores and in front of average consumers. But just because Google has struck a deal with Verizon to carry the phones doesn’t mean you need to go with that option — Google is also selling the phones directly through the Google Store, and through its own carrier Project Fi.
We’ve started to learn the details of how Verizon will handle the Pixel phones, and most of the news isn’t good for the savvy consumer who thinks about the intricacies of how they’ll experience their phone. Here’s why you should seriously consider bypassing Verizon if you make a Google Pixel purchase.
Bloat apps
Verizon is known for its bloatware just as much as any other carrier. Both its own-branded Verizon apps and plenty of pay-to-play partner apps fill up phones you buy from Verizon. If you buy a Pixel or Pixel XL from Verizon it won’t have the full suite of garbage, but you’ll get three apps nonetheless: Verizon Messages, Go90 and My Verizon. They should be uninstallable, but just knowing that they’re pre-loaded is something you shouldn’t have to deal with.
Having just three apps installed is a step in the right direction for Verizon, and I recognize that, but it needs to go all the way and stop installing these apps. You can install them from Google Play if you want, and that’s how it should be handled.
Slower updates
Part of the appeal of a Pixel phone (and Nexuses before it) is that it’ll be update directly by Google on a regular cadence, guaranteed. This isn’t entirely the case for the Pixels purchased from Verizon, however. In a bit of a capitulation, Google is letting Verizon handle platform updates going forward on the Pixels it sells — and this should be expected, as Verizon wants to verify things like network performance before thousands of phones get new software.
For what it’s worth Google says that it is still handling monthly security updates itself, and Verizon has historically let those slide on through quickly with phones this year; just look at the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge’s track record. But future platform updates potentially lagging behind their arrival on unlocked Pixels doesn’t feel good — a couple days may be okay, but how long are you willing to wait? For an enthusiast owner, probably not very long.
Encrypted bootloader
This last point is one that probably has the smallest number of people who care but for those people has the biggest impact: Verizon will encrypt the Pixel’s bootloader so you can’t unlock it. Now this really shouldn’t be all that surprising considering this is Verizon’s policy for every phone it sells, but considering that the bootloader will be unlockable when you buy the phone SIM-unlocked, it’s a bit disappointing.
If you want to unlock your Pixel’s bootloader for future application of factory images, use of custom ROMs or other flashable customizations, don’t even consider buying from Verizon.
The Google Store has you covered
Even if you didn’t think the few extra apps, slower updates and an encrypted bootloader were a very big deal (though at least one of those should be), the biggest thing that should keep you from buying through Verizon is the availability of Google’s own shopping experience.
The Google Store will sell you a Pixel or Pixel XL for the same price, with free shipping, in whatever configuration you’d like. It also offers you 24-month interest-free financing, just like Verizon will. The Pixel or Pixel XL you buy from Google directly will also still work on Verizon just fine — just pop in your SIM card and you’ll be up and running in no time. The only restriction will be the lack of HD Voice and Wi-Fi calling (though I thought the Verizon network was so good you don’t need Wi-Fi calling? Hm.)
It’s important for Google to have Verizon as a partner. But that doesn’t mean you should buy from the carrier.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s important for Google to get its new Pixels out in the world, sitting in Verizon stores and on Verizon’s website, being sold to normal people who walk in and make their buying decision with a quick stop at their local carrier store on their way home from work. Those people don’t care about slightly slower platform updates or an encrypted bootloader, and they’ll enjoy using their Pixel or Pixel XL.
But that doesn’t mean that you, the savvy consumer who thinks about all the details, have to make that decision. Because there is another perfectly good way to buy a new Pixel or Pixel XL that happens to also let you bypass Verizon’s meddling in your phone: store.google.com.
When you add it all up, I struggle to see a reason why you’d buy the new Google Pixel from Verizon. Sure some people won’t know about the Google Store, or will prefer to buy directly from Verizon as they have for years and maybe trade in their old phone for whatever crazy promotion Verizon is currently running. But you don’t have to make that mistake. You can be ahead of the curve and buy from Google, knowing you’re getting a better overall experience and an unencumbered phone, while using any carrier you prefer — yes, even if that’s Verizon.
Google Pixel + Pixel XL
- Google Pixel and Pixel XL hands-on preview
- In pictures: Google Pixel and Pixel XL
- Pixel + Pixel XL specs
- Understanding Android 7.1 Nougat
- Verizon is the exclusive U.S. carrier for the Google Pixels
- Join the discussion in the forums!
Google Store
Verizon
AIVAnet 