way to shortcut

Ask any 25-year old engineer what Labor Day means to him or her, and you might get an answer like: it’s the surprise three-day weekend after a summer of vacationing. Or it’s the day everyone barbecues at Dolores Park. Or it’s the annual Tahoe trip where everyone gets to relive college. Or simply, it’s the day we get off because we all work so hard. And while founders and employees in startup land certainly work hard, wearing their 80-hour workweeks as a badge of honor, closing deals on conference calls in an air-conditioned WeWork is a far cry from the backbreaking working conditions of the 1880s, the era when Labor Day was born. For everyone here in Silicon Valley, we should not be celebrating this holiday triumphantly over beers and hot dogs, complacent in the belief that our gravest labor issues are behind us, but instead use this holiday as a moment to reflect on how much further we have to go in making our workplaces and companies more equitable, diverse, inclusive and ethicall

By CECILIA KANG from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2N8Mw5A

Apple’s secretive self-driving vehicle program has disclosed its first accident, according to a report filed with the California Department of Motor Vehicles. The low speed accident, which occurred August 24, is a milestone of sorts for the company, albeit not one that is being celebrated. These days, as more companies head out onto public streets to test their autonomous vehicle systems, accidents have become more common. The vast majority are minor, low-speed incidents. There was just one accident involving a self-driving vehicle (that one was owned by Delphi) reported to the DMV in 2014. So far this year, there have been more than 40 accidents involving self-driving cars reported to CA DMV. The first fatal autonomous vehicle accident , which involved an Uber self-driving vehicle striking a pedestrian, occurred in March in Arizona. The Apple test car was attempting to merge onto an expressway near its headquarters in Cupertino, California, and traveling about 1 mile per hour, wh

BBC Chris Foxx takes Segway's new self-balancing e-skates out for a test run. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2MKoj6w

By VINDU GOEL from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2orsqpf

Rappi , the Colombian on-demand delivery startup, has brought in a new round of funding at a valuation north of $1 billion, as first reported by Axios and confirmed to TechCrunch by a source close to the company. DST Global has led the more than $200 million financing, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia — all of which were existing investors in the company. Rappi kicked off its business delivering beverages and has since expanded into meals, groceries and even tech and medicine. You can, for example, have a pair of AirPods delivered to you using Rappi’s app. The company also has a popular cash withdrawal feature that allows users to pay with credit cards and then receive cash from one of Rappi’s delivery agents. Rappi charges $1 per delivery. To help keep costs efficient, the company’s fleet of couriers use only motorcycles and bikes. Simón Borrero, Sebastian Mejia and Felipe Villamarin launched the company in 2015, graduating from Y Combinator the following ye

By CLAIRE BALLENTINE from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2wxkirN

Twitter suspends account that threatened Meghan McCain with sick memorial service image Twitter has suspended an account that posted a sick image threatening Meghan McCain during ongoing memorial services for her late father Sen. John McCain.

The cryptocurrency wallet, backed by John McAfee, had already caused controversy. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2wzaRr8

Google's secret deal with Mastercard tracks offline spending, report says Google is an advertising company first and foremost.

Beach or door? Viral meme stumps the internet Internet users are getting flashbacks of the Laurel vs. Yanny and #TheDress debates as another viral meme makes the rounds online.

Abusive tweets about MPs rose from 10,000 to 25,000 between 2015 and 2017, research suggests. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2Pokctl

The ticket reselling site has repeatedly failed to make changes demanded, the competition regulator says. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2PTQtd1

iOS 12 beta testers have been plagued with a frustrating bug that continually pops up messages alerting them that a new iOS update is available when, in fact, it’s not. Apple has now fixed this bug, which is patched in the latest iOS 12 betas rolling out now, we understand. The bug had first made headlines on Thursday, when a number of iOS 12 beta testers – including developers and those on the public beta program – began to complain on social media about the problem. All users were seeing a pop-up message that read, “A new iOS version is now available. Please update from the iOS 12 beta.”   Users could close this window with a tap, but the same pop-up would reappear at regular intervals. There was nothing to be done about it, because the message itself was wrong – there was no new beta available for download at the time. A new iOS update is now available. Please update from the iOS 12 beta. A new iOS update is now available. Please update from the iOS 12 beta. A new iOS updat

Communications workflow company Mynewsdesk is acquiring French startup Mention for an undisclosed sum. Norwegian business media group NHST currently owns Mynewsdesk. Mention lets you monitor keywords around the web. It’s a good way to hear what customers are saying about your brand on their blog, on Twitter, on Facebook or anywhere that is public. You can also use Mention to generate reports, study competitors to see if people are talking about them and find influencers who use your products. It can be a useful tool for PR and marketing companies for instance. Mynewsdesk wants to be an all-in-one tool for PR agencies. It can also help you track media coverage, but it goes a bit further than that. You can organize your media contacts in the service and segment your distribution list, write and distribute press releases and measure your campaigns. It’s clear that Mention fits well with Mynewsdesk. Mention will stick around as a standalone product for now. But it feels like the mo

Grieving dad slammed Facebook after 'sick sadist' trolled him about his dead daughter A grief stricken British father lashed out at Facebook after a ‘sick sadist’ admitted that he posted derogatory material about his dead young daughter.

A machine that resembles a breathing pillow aims to provide a safer alternative to sedatives. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2NDTVHk

Social media fraud continues to fuel a plague of disinformation in the Arab world. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2PR41Wy

Apple is cracking down on apps that don’t communicate to users how their personal data is used, secured or shared. In an announcement posted to developers through the App Store Connect portal, Apple says that all apps, including those still in testing, will be required to have a privacy policy as of October 3, 2018. Allowing apps without privacy policies is something of an obvious hole that Apple should have already plugged, given its generally protective nature over user data. But the change is even more critical now that Europe’s GDPR regulations have gone into effect. Though the app makers themselves would be ultimately responsible for their customers’ data, Apple, as the platform where those apps are hosted, has some responsibility here, too. Platforms today are being held accountable for the behavior of their apps, and the data misuse that may occur as a result of their own policies around those apps. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, for example, was dragged before the U.S. Senat

Apple Watch Gay Pride face displaying rainbow flag disabled in Russia, developer alleges The Apple Watch Gay Pride face displaying the rainbow flag has purportedly been “hardcoded” by the tech giant not to show up in Russia, according to a software developer who has examined the code.

The malware that infected the world reinvents itself The RIG Exploit kit is back and it’s up to no good again.

By KATE CONGER from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2Nysq1H

Google is buying credit card data from Mastercard but the firms had not announced the deal. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2POvKqW

Google Pixel 3 rumor roundup: Everything we know so far Apple iPhone rumor season is in full swing, but the Android faithful also have a flagship handset to look forward to: there's suddenly a bumper crop of reports about Google's Pixel 3 and 3 XL.

New restrictions will try to tackle rising levels of near-sightedness among children. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2NAnadV

Apple to unveil new iPhones in coming weeks Apple will unveil a new batch of iPhones in less than two weeks.

By RAYMOND ZHONG from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2onQXLX

A "micro-fracture" from a possible collision with a rock fragment sets off alerts on the ISS. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2N6ClOU

BBC Click's LJ Rich looks at some of the week's best technology stories. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2wsVrFs

By FARHAD MANJOO from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2C2xYQI

A Canadian university has developed a tablet with a flexible screen that can rolled up. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2NyuA1l

Demand for sustainable coffee is growing, a boon for socially conscious coffee lovers — but many small growers are missing out because they lack the ability to verify that their coffee beans are grown using fair labor and eco-friendly practices. In fact, verification is often accessible only to large coffee estates or cooperatives. Enveritas wants to change that. The nonprofit, which recently completed Y Combinator’s accelerator program, uses geospatial analysis to make the process more efficient, enabling it to offer free verification to small farms. Enveritas’ goal is to end poverty in the coffee sector by 2030. Before founding Enveritas in 2016, CEO David Browning and head of operations Carl Cervone worked at TechnoServe, a nonprofit that serves businesses in developing economies. Browning led TechnoServe’s global coffee practice, while Cervone advised coffee growers in Africa, Asia and Latin America about sustainability trends. Browning tells TechCrunch that TechnoServe’s coffe

How internet-connected robots are helping combat the scourge of isolation and loneliness. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2MGfoCX

By ERIN GRIFFITH from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2oqdbx0

Clinc is expanding its focus on fintech into new verticals that could take advantage of its conversational artificial intelligence. The Ann Arbor-based company recently took the wraps off its new system that aims to provide quick service restaurants like McDonald’s and Taco Bell with a voice assistant in the drive-through window. I got a demo of the new system. For the most part, even in its early state, it works as advertised. Want a double cheeseburger without pickles and mayo with a side of fries and a Coke? With Clinc’s system, a person can order food as if they were talking to a human. Have questions or want to make changes to the order? Again, the person ordering the food does not have to modify their speech pattern or use a voice menu tree — just talk to the system normally. This is Clinc’s second implementation of it conversational AI system. This isn’t Siri or Alexa. This technology is from the next generation. The company started with a solution for fintech and currently

In addition to a leak showing off photos of the new iPhone XS models, 9to5Mac also got a hold of a photo of the upcoming Apple Watch Series 4. The new Watch, which now sports an edge-to-edge display, is expected to be revealed on September 12, at the just-announced Apple press conference , along with the iPhone XS. The photos of the forthcoming Apple Watch (which 9to5Mac notes are “not a render”) show off a watch that’s clearly different from the existing editions. The display now stretches to the edge of the watch face, confirming earlier rumors that said Apple was planning to give the Apple Watch its first big redesign since its launch in 2015. Analysts have been  predicting  the new watch would sport a 15% larger display, offer extended battery life, and include upgraded health monitoring features. Image credit: 9to5Mac Apple is apparently taking advantage of the bigger screen area with a new watch face that packs in a lot more complications. In the image 9to5Mac published

Get ready for a leaked look at the new iPhone XS. 9to5Mac has gotten its hands on an image of Apple’s next generation of iPhone hardware and the future looks pretty swanky. The leaked image showcases the new sizing of Apple’s soon-to-be-unveiled flagship bezel-less devices which will likely have 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch screens respectively. The two sizes of phones which will be called the iPhone XS according to the report. The pictured devices represent the higher-end OLED screen models, not the cheaper rumored notch LCD iPhone. The device will feature a new gold color shell. The iPhone X is currently available in space gray and silver. Image credit: 9to5mac A picture is worth a thousand words but there are still a lot of details we’re waiting on here obviously.  Apple is expected to show off the new phone hardware as well as a new version of the Apple Watch at a hardware event on September 12. from Apple – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2MGfI4o

Mozilla today announced that its Firefox browser will soon automatically block all attempts at cross-site tracking by default. There’s three parts to this strategy. Starting with version 63, which is currently in testing in the browser’s nightly release channel, Firefox will block all slow-loading trackers (with ads being the biggest offender here). Those are trackers that take more than five seconds to load. Starting with Firefox 65, the browser will also strip all cookies and block all storage access from third-party trackers. In addition, Mozilla is also working on blocking cryptomining scripts and trackers that fingerprint users. As usual, the timeline could still change, depending on how these first tests work out. “In the physical world, users wouldn’t expect hundreds of vendors to follow them from store to store, spying on the products they look at or purchase,” Mozilla’s Nick Nguyen writes today. “Users have the same expectations of privacy on the web, and yet in reality, t

The world's two bestselling television-makers are showing off rival 8K screens at the Ifa tech show in Berlin. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2N54SVg

Down a two-lane road on the outskirts of Princeton, Ky., next to a cemetery and past the Light of Truth Church, is the Porter Road Butcher Meat Co. facility — a staging ground for what the Nashville-based startup Porter Road hopes will be a revolution in the American meatpacking industry. For the company’s co-founders, James Peisker and Chris Carter, the refashioning of the meat business in America is the next step in a nearly decade-long journey since the former chefs first met working in the restaurant of Nashville’s historic Hermitage Hotel.  The two men started their butcher business selling locally sourced meat from the East Nashville Farmer’s Market in 2010, and eventually moved to a storefront in the same neighborhood a year later. “W e ended up going around and raising funds and opened the brick and mortar shop in 2011,” Peisker said. “Chris worked a job at a friend of ours’ deli in the morning and I worked at a restaurant at night.” But from the beginning the two men had

Facebook 'sorry' after removing Holocaust picture of naked starving children posted by Anne Frank Center Facebook apologized after it removed a post from the Anne Frank Center that was seeking to raise awareness of the Holocaust and depicted children who had been stripped naked and starved by the Nazis.

Snapchat slammed as 'racist' for showing 'Jewtropolis' as a location Snapchat has apologized for a major gaffe that labelled New York City "Jewtropolis" on Snap Maps, leading users to blast it as "racist".

The invites have dropped, and the big show’s official. After months of speculation, Apple just let slip that its next event will be going down September 12, at the company’s shiny new headquarters in Cupertino. The invite bears the words “Gather round,” along with a large gold circle, which appears to be a reference to its big, circular new digs.  This year has been a fairly quiet one for the company on the hardware front. Apple showed off some new iPads at an event in Chicago, back in March and updated the MacBook Pro line more recently. Otherwise, however, we haven’t heard a lot out of the company, including a WWDC that was entirely devoid of new hardware. All of that’s about to change, however. And if the rumors are to be believed, Apple’s going to make up for all of that in a big way the second week of September. At least one new iPhone is almost certainly on the schedule for the event. The company’s done a pretty solid job keeping things under wraps this time, unlike Google and

Cosmic zombies: Black holes can reanimate dead stars Close encounters with medium-size black holes can reanimate dead stars, if only momentarily, a new study suggests.

Lots of email scams are surprisingly simple but effective, report says Many email scams are effective because they’re so straightforward, a new report says.

By NELLIE BOWLES from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2wpD58y

Trump quietly unblocks more critics on Twitter President Donald Trump has been quietly unblocking more of his critics on Twitter following a court ruling that declared the act unconstitutional.

Google refutes Trump's accusation that it snubbed State of the Union Google has refuted President Donald Trump’s accusation that the tech giant snubbed his State of the Union address after years of promoting President Obama’s addresses.

InVision today announced a newly expanded integration and strategic partnership with Atlassian that will let users of Confluence, Trello and Jira see and share InVision prototypes from within those programs. Atlassian’s product suite is built around making product teams faster and more efficient. These tools streamline and organize communication so developers and designers can focus on getting the job done. Meanwhile, InVision’s collaboration platform has caught on to the idea that design is now a team sport, letting designers, engineers, executives and other shareholders be involved in the design process right from the get-go. Specifically, the expanded integration allows designers to share InVision Studio designs and prototypes right within Jira, Trello and Confluence . InVision Studio was unveiled late last year , offering designers an alternative to Sketch and Adobe. Given the way design and development teams use both product suites, it only makes sense to let these product s

Hollywood star Jennifer Lawrence was targeted in the hack, for which three others have already been jailed. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2C1QRTR

Snapchat's mapping software appears to have been hacked in what it calls an act of vandalism. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2N9GiCN

Toward the end of 2017, Instacart penned a partnership with one of the country’s biggest grocery retailers, Kroger. At the time, it was a smaller deal with one of Kroger’s chains called Ralphs. But today Instacart is expanding its partnership with Kroger, bringing Instacart delivery to 75 additional Kroger markets, growing Instacart’s Kroger footprint by 50 percent nationwide. The expansion will be completed by late October, bringing Instacart delivery to more than 1,600 Kroger stores. This builds on Instacart’s momentum, following partnership deals with chains like Albertsons, Aldi, Sam’s Club, and Loblaw. In all, Instacart is now available to 70 percent of all households across the country. Last year, the company announced its goal to reach 80 percent of U.S. households by the end of 2018, and its most recent funding round seems to be propelling the startup to achieve that goal. In February, Instacart raised $200 million led by Coatue Management, as well as Glade Brook Capit

Army arms Bradleys with new weapons to attack enemy helicopters The Army is arming Bradley Fighting Vehicles with heat-seeking Stinger air defense missiles to give the infantry carriers an improved ability to track and destroy enemy air threats such as drones, helicopters and low-flying aircraft.

Claims Google did not promote President Trump's State of the Union address are denied by the search giant. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2PNKMxc

Kunlun Group, the Chinese owner of Grindr, plans to sell shares in the dating app. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2LzbxCh

Plans are unveiled for a 10-mile test track in Wiltshire to test the electric vehicle being developed by Dyson. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2N0RvFC

Wider access to wi-fi on trains and the use of mobile phones has extended the working day, a study says. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2NuuXtD

Apple has acquired Akonia Holographics , a Denver-based startup that manufactures augmented reality waveguide lenses. The acquisition was confirmed by Apple to  Reuters  who first reported the news. An Apple spokesperson gave TechCrunch the company’s standard statement , “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally don’t discuss our purpose or plans.” This acquisition offers the clearest confirmation yet from Apple that it is investing resources into technologies that support the development of a lightweight augmented reality headset. There have been a number of reports over the years that Apple is planning to release consumer AR glasses within the next few years. Apple said to be working on AR headset aimed for potential 2020 ship date In late 2017, we reported that Apple had acquired Vrvana, a mixed-reality headset company with a device that offered users pass-through augmented reality experiences on a conventional opaque display. This lates

By J. D. BIERSDORFER from NYT Technology https://ift.tt/2BYmn57