As NAACP kicks off boycott, Facebook says content moderation, infrastructure changes are coming in 2019

Facebook’s ongoing efforts to repair its image as a greedy, neglectful accessory to the spread of misinformation and other nefarious practices has taken a turn to civil rights and specifically how it serves non-white users, which proportionately account for the social network’s most active members.

Today — the first day of #LogOutFacebook, a week-long boycott of the service led by the NAACP — Facebook published an update to its ongoing civil rights audit, where it laid out some goals for the year ahead. In 2019, it said it plans to address censorship and discrimination in its content moderation; and it’s also working on a “Civil Rights Accountability Infrastructure,” in which civil rights are put front and center in the development of new products and policies.

“We take this incredibly seriously, as demonstrated by the investments we’ve made in safety and security,” noted COO Sheryl Sandberg in a blog post introducing the update to the audit. “We know we need to do more.”

But as has been the case with Facebook on a number of occasions in recent times, its contrition appears too little too late.

The NAACP — which has called on like-minded groups and individuals to join it in its campaign — has built up a strong list of grievances against the social network, which now has around 2 billion users. They range from ongoing issues around a lack of diversity in its workforce and the fact that the company has not taken strong-enough measures to safeguard users’ privacy in breaches, through to more recent developments. Just yesterday, two reports commissioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee found that Russia-backed organizations specifically targeted African Americans on the Facebook platform in their misinformation campaigns.

“Facebook’s engagement with partisan firms, its targeting of political opponents, the spread of misinformation and the utilization of Facebook for propaganda promoting disingenuous portrayals of the African American community is reprehensible,” said Derrick Johnson, NAACP president and CEO, in a statement.

As part of the announcement of the boycott, the NAACP also said that it had returned a donation Facebook had made to its organization.

Facebook itself didn’t make specific reference to the NAACP statements, nor to the boycott, in its audit update. Led by Laura Murphy, who had previously worked for the ACLU, the audit — which kicked off in May of this year — provides a summary of the work she and her team have been doing for the last six months. It has included taking a bird’s-eye view of the state of the company today, and engagement with outside stakeholders and Facebook itself to assemble a list of priorities that need to be addressed.

There is, she writes, “no question that Facebook faces a number of serious civil rights challenges… To be clear, the civil right groups that are raising these concerns are pro-technology but firmly anti-bias; moreover, they are concerned about the impact of the platform on public discourse and the institutions that are the foundation of American democracy.”

The list of areas that have been identified to address is long and a reminder of how many shortcomings there are on the platform. As Murphy lays it out, these include voter suppression tactics; accountability infrastructure; content moderation; advertising targeting; diversity and inclusion among employees; taking out bias from AI and algorithms; privacy and transparency. 

As we’ve seen over the last several months, the company has already started to take some steps ahead in areas like AI, transparency, advertising and trying to improve practices around elections and inclusion in its own ranks. But as you can see from recent reports, and this week’s boycott, there is still a long way for the social network to go.

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Google still claimed to be blocking search rivals on Android, despite Europe’s antitrust action

Mobile licensing changes made by Google this fall, when it tweaked terms for OEMs wanting to license its Android smartphone platform on devices destined for the European market, don’t appear to be offering succour to search rivals — despite being triggered by an antitrust ruling intended to reset the competitive playing field.

The European Commission found the search giant guilty of anti-competitive practices related to its Android platform this summer, slapping the company with a $5BN fine.

The decision required Google cease practices judged to be illegally skewing the market and do so within 90 days.

It was the second such major EC antitrust finding against Google, after last year’s Google Shopping ruling, when the company was warned that having been found dominant in search it had a “special responsibility” to avoid breaching antitrust rules in any market it plays in.

Google disputes the Commission’s findings of competitive abuse in both cases, and has lodged legal appeals.

But the nature of competition law demands action in the meanwhile, given the threat of punitive penalties for any continued breach. So in October Google responded to the Commission’s Android ruling by updating its regional compatibility agreement to provide a route for OEMs to unbundle key services from the Android OS — rather than requiring its suite of Google apps be pre-loaded for devices to get the Play Store.

However it also incorporated licensing fees for some unbundled configurations (e.g. Android + Play Store). At the same time it said it would not charge any fee to include search or Chrome. And it said it was offering incentives for OEMs to place its eponymous, market dominating search engine (and/or browser) prominently on their devices — despite one of the behaviors the Commission judged illegal being payments Google had made to certain large manufacturers and mobile carriers to exclusively pre-install Google Search.

The Commission did not prescribe specific remedies for the anticompetitive behaviours it pegged to Android — saying it’s “Google’s sole responsibility to make sure that it changes its conduct in a way that brings the infringements to an effective end”.

Though it warned it would closely monitor the company’s conduct, noting that any finding of continued non-compliance would risk fresh fines — of up to 5% of the average daily turnover of Alphabet for each day of non-compliance.

The key word there is “effective” — in terms of what the Commission is watching for.

Meanwhile Google’s dominant position in search naturally makes it the smartphone consumer’s go-to choice — which in turn means there’s a natural incentive for device makers not to ditch Google as the search default. At least for mainstream devices.

But Google’s new European licensing terms for Android appear to be piling additional pressure on OEMs not to switch even for more experimental and/or regional device launches, according to privacy-focused search engine Qwant.

Pay to install

Its experience suggests Google’s initial ‘remedy’ — far from delivering an “effective end” to the competitive infringements the Commission found — is actively steering OEMs away from search alternatives and rival companies.

Qwant, a French startup, launched its non-tracking search offering back in 2013, and has been on a growth tear on its home turf in recent months — winning over high profile users in the public sector as concern has risen about Silicon Valley’s intrusive grip on user data.

The French National Assembly and the French Ministry of the Armed Forces Minister announced this fall they’d switch to Qwant instead of Google as their default.

Of course the startup is still a minnow compared to Google. But it’s growing: Qwant tracks queries rather than users (given it doesn’t track people), and it says it generated 2.6BN queries in 2016; which grew to 9BN last year; and is now on track to end this year with around 18BN queries.

“So if we think about it that means that last year we were three days of Google; this year six days of Google — not so bad!” says co-founder Eric Leandri.

“In France we have now more than 6% of the market,” he continues. “In Germany something like 2%. And we are still growing. We do growth of 20% by month for the last four months. The growth in our revenue is two digit too, by month.”

Earlier this year it had been hoping to make additional regional marketshare gains by securing a deal to be pre-loaded on Android smartphones destined for European markets. A spokesman tells us it has a framework agreement with Huawei. (The Chinese Android OEM is second only to Samsung in global marketshare terms, according to analysts.)

The Commission’s antitrust ruling opened the door to this possibility, given it banned Google from prohibiting OEMs from launching non-Google approved Android forks. So after the ruling things were looking good for Qwant, with the startup on the cusp of securing a device deal for a few European countries, as Leandri tells it. 

He blames Google’s licensing changes for putting the kibosh on a launch they’d been expecting to be able to announce in November. Early that month the startup pinged us to trail forthcoming news — of “a major partnership that will allow us to accelerate in the smartphone market” — only to go silent.

A few weeks later it got in touch again to say it had had to postpone the announcement.

“We are very near to one or two deals to be by default or in the list of search engines in some Android cell phone made by a very large Asian manufacturer… Just for Europe, and just for some countries in Europe but we are talking about 10 million or 20 million of cell phones,” says Leandri now.

“And when we have won the bid against Google in October then Google start to say that in Europe you have to pay $40 for Android. So now if you install Qwant you have to pay $40 and if you install Google they give you some cash.”

“Before it was impossible to bid against Google because Google was blocking everything. Now you can — but now the solution of Google is you have to pay $40 if you don’t install Google by default with Chrome just on the bar. You know the bar that is fixed on Android. And this is again an abuse of their dominant position,” he adds.

“Because if I want, for example, 10 million smartphones, the guy has to pay $400M to Google. Do you really think they will pay $400M to Google just to install Qwant?”

Google’s rebuttal of the Commission’s antitrust finding for Android has focused on claims that its approach of free licensing combined with a bundle of Google services has generally enabled competition to thrive in the mobile app ecosystem, as well as claiming lower prices are a “classic hallmark… of robust competition”.

Yet Qwant’s experience offers a clear counterpoint, underlining how challenging it remains to try to compete with Google’s core search business when the same company also dominates the smartphone market and can just throw the levers of Android’s licensing terms to configure how much ‘appetite’ OEMs have for investing in alternative search defaults (given tiny hardware profit margins in the Android space).

After Qwant won over Huawei to building a device with its search engine in prime position, Leandri says it was Google’s changes to the licensing terms for Android that threw a spanner in the works.

“After that pressure then the manufacturer doesn’t know how to react now,” he says, confirming he believes there’s currently no chance for the device to be launched. Not without further changes to how Android operates in the market — i.e. further regulatory intervention.

“So we will work a lot with the European Commission to stop that,” he adds. “But again, again my question is why Google goes that way?”

We reached out to Google to ask about the fees it would charge an OEM wanting to launch an Android device with Google Play but without Google search as the default in Europe.

We also asked how charging a fee for Android if OEMs don’t also bundle Google services can help increase competition, per the Commission’s intention.

At the time of writing Google had not responded to our questions.

We also reached out to Huawei for comment and will update this story with any response.

Even if Qwant and Huawei get their way, and European buyers in a handful of countries are able to choose to buy an Android device with a little search localization as its differentiating out-of-the-box twist, Leandri isn’t under any illusions that a majority of consumers will still switch back to Google of their own accord — given its dominance of search.

He reckons those who’d stick with a non-Google search choice might be as low as a third or 40%. 

But his point is that, as it stands, Qwant doesn’t even have the chance to try competing against the Google Goliath on its own terms. And he argues that’s simply not fair. 

“Google has billions to make advertisement to ask people to switch, right. And they can even do advertisement on the Play Store for zero because they control the Play Store. Why they don’t come back to a normal market where we are all on the same line and they just compete with advertisement, with pushing their products, with a better proposition of value. It’s crazy, it’s crazy!” he says.

“They have 95% of the market, and on that market they expect that if they don’t have the search by default there then they don’t do money with the Play Store. This is bullshit. They do billions of euros with the app on the Play Store each year. With the 30% that they take on the apps. So this is not true. This is not true, sorry.

“So right now this is our goal and my main work actually is just to obtain the right to have a fair competition — a simple, fair competition.”

“I don’t want to dismantle Google. I don’t want Google to be fined 10BN. I don’t care. The only thing I want is to have the right to have a fair competition,” he adds.

We asked the European Commission to respond to Qwant’s experience, and for an update on its monitoring of Google’s compliance with the Android antitrust ruling.

A spokeswoman declined to comment on an individual case but we understand the Commission has been sending questionnaires to market players as part of its compliance monitoring.

It’s clear the regulator’s intention with the Android decision was to expand consumer choice by creating opportunities for competition that didn’t exist before — including for rival search and browser providers to be able to compete on the merits with Google when it comes to pre-loading their products on Android devices.

So if the Commission’s monitoring efforts confirm instances where competition is being blocked, as appears the case here with Qwant, further interventions will surely follow.

Leandri also points out that Google made much the same arguments vis-a-vis ‘fair competition’ more than a decade ago — when it called for the then computing incumbent, Microsoft, not to stand in the way of Internet upstarts by bundling MSN search into its Internet Explorer web browser. 

“The market favors open choice for search, and companies should compete for users based on the quality of their search services,” said Marissa Mayer in 2006, then Google’s vice president for search products. “We don’t think it’s right for Microsoft to just set the default to MSN. We believe users should choose.”

“I totally agree with what they say in 2006! Just exchange Microsoft for Google and that’s it!” he says now, adding: “We have to fight because there is not a lot of other way. But I stop fighting tomorrow as soon as I have a fair competition.

“I’m not waiting for the Commission to make the competition. Right now the percentage of growth that I have in France it’s not based on the Commission who has won or not. It’s based on our value proposition.”

Leandri is also president of the Open Internet Project, a European organization whose members lobby for regulatory action to rein in what they view as Google’s abusive dominance of digital markets, and which was also involved in the Google Shopping complaints — though he points out that in the Android case three of the five complainants are American. 

“We are the only European. So the problem is not only for a small startup in Europe. Who, y’know, complained because ‘Google is so cool’. And we are so dumb. And so ridiculous. But the problem is for Oracle, it’s for the Fair Search. It’s not for kids.”

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Google still claimed to be blocking search rivals on Android, despite Europe’s antitrust action

Mobile licensing changes made by Google this fall, when it tweaked terms for OEMs wanting to license its Android smartphone platform on devices destined for the European market, don’t appear to be offering succour to search rivals — despite being triggered by an antitrust ruling intended to reset the competitive playing field.

The European Commission found the search giant guilty of anti-competitive practices related to its Android platform this summer, slapping the company with a $5BN fine.

The decision required Google cease practices judged to be illegally skewing the market and do so within 90 days.

It was the second such major EC antitrust finding against Google, after last year’s Google Shopping ruling, when the company was warned that having been found dominant in search it had a “special responsibility” to avoid breaching antitrust rules in any market it plays in.

Google disputes the Commission’s findings of competitive abuse in both cases, and has lodged legal appeals.

But the nature of competition law demands action in the meanwhile, given the threat of punitive penalties for any continued breach. So in October Google responded to the Commission’s Android ruling by updating its regional compatibility agreement to provide a route for OEMs to unbundle key services from the Android OS — rather than requiring its suite of Google apps be pre-loaded for devices to get the Play Store.

However it also incorporated licensing fees for some unbundled configurations (e.g. Android + Play Store). At the same time it said it would not charge any fee to include search or Chrome. And it said it was offering incentives for OEMs to place its eponymous, market dominating search engine (and/or browser) prominently on their devices — despite one of the behaviors the Commission judged illegal being payments Google had made to certain large manufacturers and mobile carriers to exclusively pre-install Google Search.

The Commission did not prescribe specific remedies for the anticompetitive behaviours it pegged to Android — saying it’s “Google’s sole responsibility to make sure that it changes its conduct in a way that brings the infringements to an effective end”.

Though it warned it would closely monitor the company’s conduct, noting that any finding of continued non-compliance would risk fresh fines — of up to 5% of the average daily turnover of Alphabet for each day of non-compliance.

The key word there is “effective” — in terms of what the Commission is watching for.

Meanwhile Google’s dominant position in search naturally makes it the smartphone consumer’s go-to choice — which in turn means there’s a natural incentive for device makers not to ditch Google as the search default. At least for mainstream devices.

But Google’s new European licensing terms for Android appear to be piling additional pressure on OEMs not to switch even for more experimental and/or regional device launches, according to privacy-focused search engine Qwant.

Pay to install

Its experience suggests Google’s initial ‘remedy’ — far from delivering an “effective end” to the competitive infringements the Commission found — is actively steering OEMs away from search alternatives and rival companies.

Qwant, a French startup, launched its non-tracking search offering back in 2013, and has been on a growth tear on its home turf in recent months — winning over high profile users in the public sector as concern has risen about Silicon Valley’s intrusive grip on user data.

The French National Assembly and the French Ministry of the Armed Forces Minister announced this fall they’d switch to Qwant instead of Google as their default.

Of course the startup is still a minnow compared to Google. But it’s growing: Qwant tracks queries rather than users (given it doesn’t track people), and it says it generated 2.6BN queries in 2016; which grew to 9BN last year; and is now on track to end this year with around 18BN queries.

“So if we think about it that means that last year we were three days of Google; this year six days of Google — not so bad!” says co-founder Eric Leandri.

“In France we have now more than 6% of the market,” he continues. “In Germany something like 2%. And we are still growing. We do growth of 20% by month for the last four months. The growth in our revenue is two digit too, by month.”

Earlier this year it had been hoping to make additional regional marketshare gains by securing a deal to be pre-loaded on Android smartphones destined for European markets. A spokesman tells us it has a framework agreement with Huawei. (The Chinese Android OEM is second only to Samsung in global marketshare terms, according to analysts.)

The Commission’s antitrust ruling opened the door to this possibility, given it banned Google from prohibiting OEMs from launching non-Google approved Android forks. So after the ruling things were looking good for Qwant, with the startup on the cusp of securing a device deal for a few European countries, as Leandri tells it. 

He blames Google’s licensing changes for putting the kibosh on a launch they’d been expecting to be able to announce in November. Early that month the startup pinged us to trail forthcoming news — of “a major partnership that will allow us to accelerate in the smartphone market” — only to go silent.

A few weeks later it got in touch again to say it had had to postpone the announcement.

“We are very near to one or two deals to be by default or in the list of search engines in some Android cell phone made by a very large Asian manufacturer… Just for Europe, and just for some countries in Europe but we are talking about 10 million or 20 million of cell phones,” says Leandri now.

“And when we have won the bid against Google in October then Google start to say that in Europe you have to pay $40 for Android. So now if you install Qwant you have to pay $40 and if you install Google they give you some cash.”

“Before it was impossible to bid against Google because Google was blocking everything. Now you can — but now the solution of Google is you have to pay $40 if you don’t install Google by default with Chrome just on the bar. You know the bar that is fixed on Android. And this is again an abuse of their dominant position,” he adds.

“Because if I want, for example, 10 million smartphones, the guy has to pay $400M to Google. Do you really think they will pay $400M to Google just to install Qwant?”

Google’s rebuttal of the Commission’s antitrust finding for Android has focused on claims that its approach of free licensing combined with a bundle of Google services has generally enabled competition to thrive in the mobile app ecosystem, as well as claiming lower prices are a “classic hallmark… of robust competition”.

Yet Qwant’s experience offers a clear counterpoint, underlining how challenging it remains to try to compete with Google’s core search business when the same company also dominates the smartphone market and can just throw the levers of Android’s licensing terms to configure how much ‘appetite’ OEMs have for investing in alternative search defaults (given tiny hardware profit margins in the Android space).

After Qwant won over Huawei to building a device with its search engine in prime position, Leandri says it was Google’s changes to the licensing terms for Android that threw a spanner in the works.

“After that pressure then the manufacturer doesn’t know how to react now,” he says, confirming he believes there’s currently no chance for the device to be launched. Not without further changes to how Android operates in the market — i.e. further regulatory intervention.

“So we will work a lot with the European Commission to stop that,” he adds. “But again, again my question is why Google goes that way?”

We reached out to Google to ask about the fees it would charge an OEM wanting to launch an Android device with Google Play but without Google search as the default in Europe.

We also asked how charging a fee for Android if OEMs don’t also bundle Google services can help increase competition, per the Commission’s intention.

At the time of writing Google had not responded to our questions.

We also reached out to Huawei for comment and will update this story with any response.

Even if Qwant and Huawei get their way, and European buyers in a handful of countries are able to choose to buy an Android device with a little search localization as its differentiating out-of-the-box twist, Leandri isn’t under any illusions that a majority of consumers will still switch back to Google of their own accord — given its dominance of search.

He reckons those who’d stick with a non-Google search choice might be as low as a third or 40%. 

But his point is that, as it stands, Qwant doesn’t even have the chance to try competing against the Google Goliath on its own terms. And he argues that’s simply not fair. 

“Google has billions to make advertisement to ask people to switch, right. And they can even do advertisement on the Play Store for zero because they control the Play Store. Why they don’t come back to a normal market where we are all on the same line and they just compete with advertisement, with pushing their products, with a better proposition of value. It’s crazy, it’s crazy!” he says.

“They have 95% of the market, and on that market they expect that if they don’t have the search by default there then they don’t do money with the Play Store. This is bullshit. They do billions of euros with the app on the Play Store each year. With the 30% that they take on the apps. So this is not true. This is not true, sorry.

“So right now this is our goal and my main work actually is just to obtain the right to have a fair competition — a simple, fair competition.”

“I don’t want to dismantle Google. I don’t want Google to be fined 10BN. I don’t care. The only thing I want is to have the right to have a fair competition,” he adds.

We asked the European Commission to respond to Qwant’s experience, and for an update on its monitoring of Google’s compliance with the Android antitrust ruling.

A spokeswoman declined to comment on an individual case but we understand the Commission has been sending questionnaires to market players as part of its compliance monitoring.

It’s clear the regulator’s intention with the Android decision was to expand consumer choice by creating opportunities for competition that didn’t exist before — including for rival search and browser providers to be able to compete on the merits with Google when it comes to pre-loading their products on Android devices.

So if the Commission’s monitoring efforts confirm instances where competition is being blocked, as appears the case here with Qwant, further interventions will surely follow.

Leandri also points out that Google made much the same arguments vis-a-vis ‘fair competition’ more than a decade ago — when it called for the then computing incumbent, Microsoft, not to stand in the way of Internet upstarts by bundling MSN search into its Internet Explorer web browser. 

“The market favors open choice for search, and companies should compete for users based on the quality of their search services,” said Marissa Mayer in 2006, then Google’s vice president for search products. “We don’t think it’s right for Microsoft to just set the default to MSN. We believe users should choose.”

“I totally agree with what they say in 2006! Just exchange Microsoft for Google and that’s it!” he says now, adding: “We have to fight because there is not a lot of other way. But I stop fighting tomorrow as soon as I have a fair competition.

“I’m not waiting for the Commission to make the competition. Right now the percentage of growth that I have in France it’s not based on the Commission who has won or not. It’s based on our value proposition.”

Leandri is also president of the Open Internet Project, a European organization whose members lobby for regulatory action to rein in what they view as Google’s abusive dominance of digital markets, and which was also involved in the Google Shopping complaints — though he points out that in the Android case three of the five complainants are American. 

“We are the only European. So the problem is not only for a small startup in Europe. Who, y’know, complained because ‘Google is so cool’. And we are so dumb. And so ridiculous. But the problem is for Oracle, it’s for the Fair Search. It’s not for kids.”

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The 5G wars have entered the petty stage

If you’re reading this the year it was written, you’re almost certainly not getting it over 5G. If you’re reading this in the future, congrats, you made it. And hey, remember polar bears?

5G is the latest buzzword to send the mobile industry into a tizzy. This one’s got a particular weight to it, too, given that smartphone sales have started flagging for the first time ever. The fact is that 5G has the power to be a truly transformational technology for smartphones and beyond — assuming we’re not all sick of talking about it by the time it gets here.

The first buds have finally begun to show. This morning, AT&T announced that it’s flipping the 5G switch this Friday. And you can take advantage of it if you live in parts of Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Louisville, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Raleigh, San Antonio or Waco. And if you pick up the compatible mobile hotspot.

That’s already a lot of very important caveats, but Verizon was quick to “clarify” things. The carrier (which, for the record, owns TechCrunch), sent me the following unsolicited statement from Verizon spokesperson Kevin King, upon reading our story. “Welcome to the 5G party, begun by Verizon on October 1, 2018.”

Hey, cool, dude.

I cannot begin to explain how important 5G is going to be for this country, so I have to say congrats to Verizon on delivering its 5G* Home Service today. It doesn’t use global industry standards or cover whole blocks and will never scale… but hey, it is first, right?!

— John Legere (@JohnLegere) October 1, 2018

Now Verizon’s sweet party guy announcement brings to mind this tweet from foul-mouthed T-Mobile CEO John Legere, “I cannot begin to explain how important 5G is going to be for this country, so I have to say congrats to Verizon on delivering its 5G* Home Service today. It doesn’t use global industry standards or cover whole blocks and will never scale… but hey, it is first, right?!”

The fact is that standards can be a tricky thing. Verizon launched something called 5G TF, not to be confused with 5G NR, more commonly accepted as the industry’s 5G standard. That’s led many to label VZW’s as something other than “true 5G.” AT&T, meanwhile, is using NR, but an early version of the spec, which will eventually be upgraded via firmware. Verizon, meanwhile, has been transitioning toward the standard.

Being first accounts for a lot in this industry, especially with the backdrop of slowing device sales. But the reality for most consumers is that ubiquitous 5G is still a ways off here in the States. And while hardware makers like OnePlus, LG and Samsung have been falling all over themselves to announce a 5G smartphone or two, many consumers who shell out that extra premium are going to be spending a fair amount of time on LTE.

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Levandowski’s Pronto.ai plans to ship automated driving systems for trucks in 2019

Anthony Levandowski, the former Google engineer and serial entrepreneur who was at the center of a trade secrets lawsuit between Uber and Waymo, has taken his newest autonomous vehicle technology company out of stealth mode with a product aimed at the commercial trucking industry.

Technically, Levandowski involvement in a self-driving trucking company was first revealed by TechCrunch in July. Levandowski, nor anyone else attached to the company, would talk on record, leaving TechCrunch to rely on a paper trail instead.

Now, Levandowski is talking publicly about his company, including details on its mission and product as well as a bold new claim of a cross country autonomous drive. The Guardian was the first to report on details of the company and its cross country autonomous drive, which was conducted in a modified Toyota Prius using only cameras, computers and basic digital maps. Levandowski says the autonomous car drove by itself the entire 3,100-mile trip without any human intervention.

Here’s the time-lapsed video of the journey. (Note the speed at which the vehicle is traveling at different spots like the Golden Gate Bridge).

Back in July, TechCrunch reported that his company was called Kache.ai, according to paperwork registering it as a corporation filed with the California Secretary of State. That name has apparently changed to Pronto.ai, according to Levandowski who posted a blog Tuesday on Medium. Pronto was co-founded by Ognen Stojanovski, a corporate attorney and research scholar at Stanford University who recently joined the company, TechCrunch has learned. Stojanovski headed up government relations and policy at Otto, the autonomous vehicle trucking company co-founded by Levandowski and several others that was subsequently bought by Uber.

Levandowski contends that this “race” to deploy autonomous vehicles has yet to start in earnest largely due to shortcomings from “crutch technologies,” a descriptor he uses for hardware like LiDar and HD maps. His position is that while these provide sensing and localization for the vehicle in the present moment, they have serious compromises and don’t produce the level of predictive ability required to commercial deploy autonomous vehicles. (Btw, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has also described LiDAR as a “crutch.”)

“We now find ourselves in a position where regulators, investors, and the public are waking up to the reality that nobody is ahead in the race to deliver autonomous vehicles because the real race is a marathon that has not yet begun,” Levandowski wrote. “The last 15 years we’ve mostly idled at the starting line.”

His company is focused on advanced driver assistance features built for Class 8 vehicles — those heavy duty trucks that crisscross the U.S. carrying freight. (Trucks carried more than 70% of all U.S. freight and generated $719 billion in revenue in 2017, according to the American Trucking Associations.)

Pronto’s ADAS for trucks product is called CoPilot, a level 2 system designed to increase operational and occupational safety as well as increase efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint of commercial trucking companies. Pronto’s approach is in some ways similar to Comma.ai, a company founded by George Hotz that aims to bring automated driving systems designed for highways to everyday drivers.

Pronto combines the hardware such as cameras (no LiDAR here) atop neural networks for improved prediction. And that’s the big selling point, at least from Levandowski’s view.

The company plans to partner with carriers and deliver to them aftermarket solutions that are platform agnostic, according to the company. Pronto will announce its first customers in the first half of 2019. The company is offering this at a ‘special introductory pricing” of $4,999 per truck, a figure that includes bolt-on installation of its camera-based system, driver training and more. Pronto’s website says customers can pre-order for $299.

“It will be the first stand-alone real product for a real market that the self-driving industry has delivered, and we are excited to be blazing the trail to the reality of how autonomous vehicles will ultimately come to fruition,” he wrote.

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Here’s Google’s new Street View Trekker backpack

Years ago, Google’s Street View program expanded from streets to virtually everywhere, thanks to Google’s Trekker program that put 360-degree Street View cameras into a single backpack. Today, Google announced its upgraded Trekker backpack, which is significantly smaller and lighter than before. The old one weighed in at about 44 pounds.

It’s not just a new design, though, Google also notes that the new Trekker features improved hardware that will allow it to capture better and sharper imagery, thanks to higher-resolution sensors and an increased aperture.

“Like previous Trekker generations, the new version can be put on cars, boats or even ziplines,” the company explains. “This helps when capturing hard-to-access places, or when building maps for developing countries and cities with complex structures.”

While you probably can’t just get a Trekker to map out your garden, Google notes that it continues to run its Trekker loan program. This program is open to organizations like tourism boards, non-profits, government agencies, universities and research groups.

Chances are, you’ll see some improved Street View imagery from hard to reach places on Google Maps soon. Until then, you can go ahead and take a virtual stroll through Petra or across the beaches of Christmas Island.

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Bumble now lets you filter potential matches on Bumble Date, Bizz and BFF

Bumble has come up with a new way for its dating app and related businesses to generate revenue. The company this week launched filters – a way to sift through potential matches by a set of specific criteria. For example, Bumble Date users can now filter matches by astrological sign or relationship type, among other things, while those on Bumble BFF or Bumble Bizz, could filter matches by interests or industry, respectively.

The new feature is meant to save users time by limiting their selection of potential matches to those who are more relevant to their own interests.

A dating app user may want to filter out those who are only looking for casual situations, while a business user may want to filter matches based on whether they’re looking for a job, mentor, or collaborator, Bumble explains. And on Bumble’s friend-finding platform, Bumble BFF, people may want to filter for people who enjoy the same things they do – like fitness or photography.

“We’ve been working internally and with our users to create just the right mix of filters that allow for deeper, more meaningful connections and we’re very pleased with what we’ve developed,” said Alexandra Williamson, Bumble Chief of Brand, in a statement about the launch. “Whether you’re looking for a new job in media, a new mom friend or a date with a Sagittarius who loves live music, Bumble Filters enable you to tailor your experience in a way that ultimately gives you more control of the kinds of relationships you’re looking to build,” she said.

Filtering matches by specific criteria isn’t anything new to dating apps. Other more traditional dating sites, like Match and OKCupid, have offered ways to filter matches, too. But Bumble’s more direct rival Tinder has focused less on filtering and more on speed of moving through matches. It doesn’t let users specify preferences beyond some basics – like location, distance, gender and age.

Whether or not filtering actually helps in delivering a good match, however, is less clear. But it’s certainly something people want.

Today, many women on dating apps ask men for their height, for instance – so often, in fact, that men began volunteering this information on their profiles, even if the profile doesn’t have a field for height. Often, sober people don’t want to match with people who say they drink regularly. Non-smokers generally want to date the same. And so on. But over-filtering could lead to users missing out – after all, how important is the star sign, really, or whether they have pets? (Allergies notwithstanding, of course.)

On the dating side of Bumble, the new filters include height, exercise, star sign, education, drinking, smoking, pets, relationship type, family plans, religion, and political leaning.

Bumble BFFs can filter for drinking, smoking, exercise and pets, too, as well as type of friendship, relationship status, whether they have kids, or if they’re new to the area.

And Bumble Bizz users can filter by industry, networking relationship type, education, and years of experience.

Bumble hopes filters will be an additional stream of revenue for its business, which it said in September was on track for a revenue run rate to $200 million per year. Bumble now claims 46 million users.

The company says all users will receive two free filters in Bumble Date, Bumble BFF, and Bumble Bizz, but additional filters will have to be purchased through Bumble Boost – the premium upgrade that also allow you to see who liked you, extend your matches, and rematch expired connections. (Boost’s pricing varies based on the time frame – a week, a month, etc. Its weekly plan is $8.99/week, currently).

Bumble’s filters are available on both iOS and Android.

 

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Bumble now lets you filter potential matches on Bumble Date, Bizz and BFF

Bumble has come up with a new way for its dating app and related businesses to generate revenue. The company this week launched filters – a way to sift through potential matches by a set of specific criteria. For example, Bumble Date users can now filter matches by astrological sign or relationship type, among other things, while those on Bumble BFF or Bumble Bizz, could filter matches by interests or industry, respectively.

The new feature is meant to save users time by limiting their selection of potential matches to those who are more relevant to their own interests.

A dating app user may want to filter out those who are only looking for casual situations, while a business user may want to filter matches based on whether they’re looking for a job, mentor, or collaborator, Bumble explains. And on Bumble’s friend-finding platform, Bumble BFF, people may want to filter for people who enjoy the same things they do – like fitness or photography.

“We’ve been working internally and with our users to create just the right mix of filters that allow for deeper, more meaningful connections and we’re very pleased with what we’ve developed,” said Alexandra Williamson, Bumble Chief of Brand, in a statement about the launch. “Whether you’re looking for a new job in media, a new mom friend or a date with a Sagittarius who loves live music, Bumble Filters enable you to tailor your experience in a way that ultimately gives you more control of the kinds of relationships you’re looking to build,” she said.

Filtering matches by specific criteria isn’t anything new to dating apps. Other more traditional dating sites, like Match and OKCupid, have offered ways to filter matches, too. But Bumble’s more direct rival Tinder has focused less on filtering and more on speed of moving through matches. It doesn’t let users specify preferences beyond some basics – like location, distance, gender and age.

Whether or not filtering actually helps in delivering a good match, however, is less clear. But it’s certainly something people want.

Today, many women on dating apps ask men for their height, for instance – so often, in fact, that men began volunteering this information on their profiles, even if the profile doesn’t have a field for height. Often, sober people don’t want to match with people who say they drink regularly. Non-smokers generally want to date the same. And so on. But over-filtering could lead to users missing out – after all, how important is the star sign, really, or whether they have pets? (Allergies notwithstanding, of course.)

On the dating side of Bumble, the new filters include height, exercise, star sign, education, drinking, smoking, pets, relationship type, family plans, religion, and political leaning.

Bumble BFFs can filter for drinking, smoking, exercise and pets, too, as well as type of friendship, relationship status, whether they have kids, or if they’re new to the area.

And Bumble Bizz users can filter by industry, networking relationship type, education, and years of experience.

Bumble hopes filters will be an additional stream of revenue for its business, which it said in September was on track for a revenue run rate to $200 million per year. Bumble now claims 46 million users.

The company says all users will receive two free filters in Bumble Date, Bumble BFF, and Bumble Bizz, but additional filters will have to be purchased through Bumble Boost – the premium upgrade that also allow you to see who liked you, extend your matches, and rematch expired connections. (Boost’s pricing varies based on the time frame – a week, a month, etc. Its weekly plan is $8.99/week, currently).

Bumble’s filters are available on both iOS and Android.

 

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Gift Guide: 6 rugged gifts for outdoorsy friends and family

Shopping for someone who prefers hiking and camping to the great indoors can be tricky. Not only are outdoor enthusiasts usually less impressed by traditional gifts (clothes, games, etc.) but their preferred realm of technical gear is vast and confusing. If you’d rather not go deep on the research yourself, we’ve got some solid touchpoints for expert outdoor gear gifting.

1. Party tent

Okay, hear me out. As a pack weight-conscious backpacker the idea of a light-up tent sounded ridiculous at first, but Big Agnes is onto something with their line of mtnGLO tents. I’ve been camping with the 2-person Big Agnes mtnGLO Copper Spur tent for more than a season now and these things are really cool. The company has embedded thin strips of LED lighting into the tent itself, illuminating the inside more evenly than you can pull of with a headlamp alone without overpowering your hard-earned nature vibes.

Photo via Big Agnes

A small detachable battery pack powers the lights and you can jettison that bit if you’re really looking to shed ounces. If not, enjoy tent-bound activities like reading and looking for your prescription medication with the newfound freedom of ample light. If your special giftee prefers car camping then even better: insta-party tent. Or you know, they can fish last night’s socks out of the bottom of their sleeping bag in record time.

If this is too gimmicky (I’m telling you, it’s not!) but you’re looking to gift a tent, check out REI’s in-house brand. They make super solid tents that are generally priced well below the competition and even offer a backpacking bundle and a camping bundle that make the perfect starter set of gear for someone new to losing themselves in the great outdoors.

2. Solar Charger

If you’re shopping for a car camper or a day hiker, battery life isn’t much of a concern, but if your special someone likes to get lost in the wilderness overnight, they’ve probably stressed about battery life. Many people rely on their smartphone as their primary camera in the outdoors, so keeping it charged deep into a hike, climb or backpack is key. In most of these circumstances, a traditional portable battery back would be too heavy and wouldn’t be rechargeable in the field, but solar chargers can solve those problems.

Some people swear by solar panels by Suntactics and the Suntactics sCharger-5 Solar Charger is a reasonably sized option. Goal Zero is another prominent brand in the solar gadget market and the Goal Zero Nomad 7 Plus Solar Panel could make a good personal panel option. For car camping, #vanlife or something else epic yet experienced by car, check out the Goal Zero Yeti 400 Lithium Portable Power Station, a compact beast of a charger that’s priced accordingly ($599.95).

Note: Of course, solar chargers don’t work where sunlight is limited, so if you’re in the Pacific Northwest maybe skip this section.

3. GPS watch

Why not an Apple Watch? Well, a lot of reasons. For anyone who does much extensive hiking, climbing and camping in the backcountry, Apple’s smartwatch is far too puny and fragile. Sure, it’s fine for running, but you need something with battery life worth writing home about and GPS features that help keep you safe — and on route — outdoors.

Garmin makes a lot of solid options here at different price points, including the Garmin Fenix 5 ($449.99) which happily comes in three sizes to accommodate small wrists. Garmin claims up to to 2 weeks of battery life in smartwatch mode on the Fenix 5, up to 24 hours in its GPS mode and up to 60 hours in battery saver mode. The Fenix 5 is configurable depending on your activity of choice, with profiles tuned to hiking, snowboarding and mountain biking.

Compass-maker Suunto also offers a few well-liked watches in the space, including the Suunto Ambit 3 Peak which boasts “route altitude profile navigation and extremely long battery life” i.e. the stuff you really need.

4. Compact camera gear

We covered camera gifting more extensively in out dedicated photography gift guide, but we’ll toss in a few ideas here just for fun. For anyone into the extreme outdoors (backcountry skiing, mountaineering, climbing etc.) a GoPro is a no-brainer. The company’s latest offering, the GoPro Hero7 Black, is top of the line for $399.99, but other GoPro models are available for significantly less.

If you’re looking for something more geared toward photography rather than video, Sony’s RX100 line offers a killer compact camera that won’t take up much space in your pack. The new Sony RX100 V ($899) and RX 100 VI ($1,199) offer a higher end tiny pro camera, but the still-excellent older models of the Sony RX 100 can be had for a fraction of the price.

5. Satellite messaging

This one might sound a little morbid, but if your loved one gets into a sticky situation miles from civilization they won’t be complaining. A handful of different devices can allow you to send an emergency signal when your phone can’t and many of them also allow for non-emergency satellite messaging — handy for coordinating meet-up points or checking in from the backcountry. Among these, the new Garmin InReach Mini ($349.99) is well regarded for its diminutive size and well-rounded feature set, though the Garmin inReach Explorer and Spot X are also solid options.

6. Small Stuff

Okay, so you need a gift for someone outdoorsy but you want to find something a little more low key. Maybe a stocking stuffer or a casual friend gift. We can do that. A lot of people have touchscreen-friendly gloves but do they have technical touchscreen-friendly gloves? Snag a pair of the North Face’s ETip gloves which are both cute and functional or pick up a set of Mountain Hardware’s Power Stretch Stimulus Gloves, which make a nice grippy glove liner.

And we’d be remiss if we didn’t recommend the Gaia GPS app, available for both iPhone and Android at $19.99. For navigating outdoors with topographical maps and even fairly complex routefinding, Gaia can’t be beat. Of course, we’d also be remiss if we didn’t remind you to bring a paper map — just in case.

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AT&T is turning on 5G access for its new mobile hotspot this week

A little taste of 5G is coming early, courtesy of AT&T’s new mobile hotspot. The carrier announced this morning that it will be firing up limited 5G service in a dozen cities across the U.S. this Friday, currently only accessible via the Netgear Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot.

Announced in October, the device actually hit the market prior to this week’s launch, offering what the carrier has somewhat confusingly referred to as “5G Evolution” — essentially faster access on existing 4G networks.

Branding, am I right?

Those who picked the router up will be able to access the new network speeds in Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Louisville, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Raligh, San Antonio and Waco. Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose are all coming early next year.

The first batch of 5G smartphones are also coming at some point next year, with Samsung notably having already announced two handsets for 2019. In the spring, the carrier will offer the router for a $499 up front fee, plus $70 a month for 15GB of data, with no long term commitment — a price, it notes, is around the same as the current 4G hot spots. Pricing for phone plans is still unannounced.

It’s all pretty limited, but in the current 5G land grab, every inch counts.

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Ada nets $19 million Series A to grow its customer service chatbot

Ada is on a mission to build chatbots powered by artificial intelligence. The company today is announcing a $19 million Series A that will go far in helping it reach that goal. The company sees the capital fueling international expansion and launching products into new verticals as well as doubling down on employees.

Chatbots were a buzzword several years back. After the initial buildup and bust, the remaining players in the space are building upon the expectations set early on. Users of chatbots expect services to take actions on their behalf and perform routine functions quickly and efficiently. Likewise, companies are seeking solutions that exceed customer expectations, while offering features that allow the company to scale and expand.

“While many enterprises are choosing to invest in AI and automation,” the company tells TechCrunch, “the recurring investment of time and resources to implement, manage and improve highly technical solutions is diminishing the ROI. In turn, businesses are seeking inclusive and accessible platforms that empower non-technical support teams to build, manage and track the automated customer experience. Even among our own clients, we’ve seen the formation of some of the world’s first automated automation customer experience service (ACX) departments–made up of customer service professionals, not programmers–dedicated to building an automated, AI-powered customer experience. Ada’s automation is changing how people are working and the role of customer service by creating completely new departments, titles, and roles.”

Ada sees the Series A capital to expand the features built-into its products, allowing for a deeper level of personalization and customization — items that will go far with its clients. Launched in 2016 the Toronto-based startup expects to double its staff in the coming months. Right now the company has 70 employees and hopes to be at 140 sometime in 2019.

“2018 was an exciting time for the customer service industry,” Ada said. “Reservations about chatbots and virtual assistants are dissipating, as consumers continue to realize the tremendous benefits of instant, automated, self-service support. Their rising expectations have resulted in an industry-wide shift, with businesses changing from an ‘agent-first’ to an ‘automation-first’ customer strategy.”

The Series A was round was led by FirstMark Capital with participation from Leaders Fund and Burst Capital, as well as returning investors Bessemer, Version One, and computer scientist, Barney Pell.

“Ada’s accessible and scalable platform lets non-technical customer service teams build and manage AI-powered chatbots to automate interactions. Ada has delivered transformational, measurable results to some of the world’s most innovative brands, helping them shift from a reactive, expensive support strategy to a proactive model that reduces customer effort,” said Matt Turck, Managing Director of FirstMark Capital, in a released statement “Ada has played an important role in driving automated customer experience, and we’re confident in the team and the platform to surpass their rapid projected growth.”

The company is based in Toronto. When asked why Toronto, the company points to several data points such as the city’s designation of the fastest growing tech market in North America and the recent announcements of significant new office complexes from Microsoft and Google.

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AirTaps True Wireless Earbuds Are Now Under $40

We can all admire the elegant design of Apple’s AirPods. But paying $159 for a pair of wireless earbuds is beyond most of us. However, wireless audio doesn’t have to be an expensive luxury. The AirTaps Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds look the part, and they deliver equally impressive sound. The difference? You can get them now for just $36.99 at MakeUseOf Deals.

Affordable Quality

Upon first inspection, you could easily think that AirTaps were made by Apple. These earbuds share the same sense of style, with clean white curves and a lightweight design.

The AirTaps connect to your phone via Bluetooth 4.2 to deliver crystal-clear wireless sound. You get three hours of music playback on a full charge, and the supplied charging case provides 10 full refills.

Aside from keeping you amused at work, these true wireless earbuds are perfect for workout playlists. The AirTaps are designed to stay put while you move around, and you have a range of 10 meters to play with. In addition, they are water-resistant.

Thanks to the built-in mic, you can even use the AirTaps to make handsfree calls and speak to Siri.

True Wireless Buds for $36.99

The AirTaps are normally priced at $99.90, but you can grab them now with the charging case for $36.99. They make a great gift for music lovers, and a nice upgrade for your new phone.

Want your products featured by MakeUseOf Deals? Learn more about how to sell your products online!

Read the full article: AirTaps True Wireless Earbuds Are Now Under $40

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5 Unique Travel Planning Apps to Find Your Next Trip

Can’t figure out where to go next? These apps will help you find your next destination based on unique filters, like weather, visa requirements, regions, and more.

When you’re going on vacation, it’s all about where you go. Even when you have a place in mind, there are different considerations you need to make. The budget to travel there, the kind of weather you can expect, whether you need a visa or not, and so on. Sometimes, you want to go to multiple places but can’t figure out how to make it work.

But there are always apps to make things a little easier.

JetSet Weather (Web): Find Destinations Based On Average Weather

They say the best apps are those that come from the maker fulfilling their own needs. JetSet Weather’s developer Emin Sinani built the app after not finding any way to filter destinations based on the kind of weather you can expect.

Travel is about change and a lot of the time, you desire that change in the form of weather. If you’re in a cold place, then you want a warm destination and vice versa. You can search for a destination, but the best feature is the Explore tab. Here, you can set filters for the type of temperature you’re looking for, which region you want to visit, when you’re visiting, as well as flight preferences. JetSet Weather will update the results according to what you choose.

The website also has a handy “Compare” feature. In this, you can add multiple cities that you’ve wanted to visit. In a calendar view, you will see their average temperature in each month, as well as average flight costs. It’s really cool and a great way to decide where to visit and when to visit.

VisaList (Web): Find Visa Requirements Based On Nationality

Some passports are stronger than others. But no matter which country you are from, there are some nations that require a visa to travel to. VisaList is the easy way to find everything you need to know.

Put in your home country and the app will generate a data map. You can immediately see which countries you can travel visa-free, visa on arrival, with an e-visa, or have to apply for a visa. Click on any country and you’ll get more details, like what you need to apply for the visa, how to apply for it, and any other essentials. It’s a simple one-stop destination to get all the information you need.

Like the best decision-making travel tools, VisaList can be used to filter destinations based on how much trouble you are willing to go through for a visa. If you want to travel quickly, the website can help find easy-to-go places.

Eightydays.Me (Web): Multi-Destination Europe Trips

Eightydays.Me might be a play on the classic novel, but it won’t take you around the world. Instead, it focuses only on Europe. But it nonetheless helps you plan a multi-destination trip across the continent.

There are different types of European trips you can choose from, like the mainland, Schengen only, Balkans, sunny destinations, and so on. What you need is your point of origin (and if it’s a round trip), as well as the travel dates.

After that, uncheck the “Anywhere” box ticked by default. Now you can add cities that you absolutely want to visit. Click the “Design Adventure” button to get recommendations from Eightydays.Me for a travel plan.

Plotted on a map, you can change the plan based on budget, or the number of cities you want to visit. Play around with the app and get different recommendations. You might discover places you didn’t know about, and find something interesting to do.

Great Escape (Web): Filters for Price, Visa, and Interests

Great Escape combines many of the things we like about the other apps and throws in a little more. While the end result has weather, price, visa requirements, and regional specifications, not all of it can be filtered or searched easily.

Set your home country or point of origin, and the site lets you adjust multiple filters such as the budget, how many stops in the flight, visa requirements, and the popularity of the destination. You can also set a country or a region that you want to visit, to get specific recommendations.

Your results are plotted on a map, showing the flight tracks to the destination. Click any destination and you’ll get more details, such as why Great Escape recommends going there. You’ll find information on what’s interesting there, the average temperature, a few pictures, and flight prices from Skyscanner. You can then use that to score cheaper tickets on Skyscanner.

MyTravelPersonality (Web, Android, iOS): Tinder-Like Trip Choices Based On AI

MyTravelPersonality uses a combination of artificial intelligence and Tinder-like design to create a profile of what you like and don’t like. Based on that, it will give you recommendations of where to travel.

Here’s how it works. Once you sign up, you will be shown a series of pictures, each with a caption describing the activity. Swipe right if it’s something you’d like to do or see, and swipe left if you don’t like it. The more you do this, the better MyTravelPersonality’s algorithm will build a profile of your travel tastes.

At any point, jump into the recommended destinations for you. You can add a bunch of filters to these, like weather, dates, flight costs, cost of living, type of activities, and so on. Destinations can be saved to a travel map for places you have visited or plan to go to.

Download: MyTravelPersonality for Android | iOS (Free)

How About a Random Destination?

With all of these travel planning apps, you should be able to find a place to visit based on your unique requirements. It’s also a good idea to use some of these together, such as finding a place through MyTravelPersonality, getting a plan from EightyDays that includes the city, and then checking visa requirements on VisaList.

But instead of all of this planning and filter, there is one other option. Let luck and serendipity guide you to your next adventure. Take a risk and pick a random destination to travel to.

Read the full article: 5 Unique Travel Planning Apps to Find Your Next Trip

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Ford comes up with a prototype noise-cancelling kennel to shelter dogs from fireworks

Dogs have a much wider range of hearing than humans do and noises that don’t bother us can give them a very ruff time. Fireworks are especially tough on many pups and also hard on owners who have to calm their panicking pets. To potentially help them, Ford has developed a noise-cancelling kennel prototype that it says was inspired by the noise control technology introduced used in its Edge SUV to soften engine and transmission noises.

When microphones inside the kennel detect the sound of fireworks, a built-in audio system sends out opposing frequencies that Ford claims significantly reduces or cancels the cacophony. The kennel is also built with high-density cork to further mute outside noises.

The noise-cancelling kennel is not currently for sale, but Ford says it “is the first in a series of initiatives—called interventions—that applies automotive know-how to help solve everyday problems.”

You might remember, especially if you have a small child, that last year Ford developed a cot called Max Motor Dreams to calm babies who only fall asleep in moving vehicles, a situation many exhausted parents (with high-mileage cars) are familiar with. The cot had small motors underneath that stimulated the feel of a moving vehicle, played actual road noise and even had built-in LED lighting to mimic the glow of streetlights.

At the time, Ford said the cot might be produced for sale if there was enough interest, but even though it went viral, Max Motor Dreams never did make it to the market. That’s not an encouraging sign for people who want to buy the noise-cancelling kennel, but in the meantime, here are some ways you can prepare your dogs for holiday fireworks. There is also a product called the ThunderShirt that is supposed to help alleviate anxiety in dogs, but of course results will vary from canine to canine.

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Google will make it easier for people without accounts to collaborate on G Suite documents

Soon it will be easier for people without Google accounts to collaborate on G Suite documents. Currently in beta, a new feature will enable G Suite users to invite people without G Suite subscriptions or Google accounts to work on files by sending them a pin code.

Using the pin code to gain access allows invitees to view, comment on, suggest edits to, or directly edit Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. The owners and admins of the G Suite files monitor usage through activity logs and can revoke access at any time. According to the feature’s support article, admins are able to set permissions by department or domain. They can also restrict sharing outside of white-listed G Suite domains or their own organization.

In order to sign up for the beta program, companies need to fill in this form and select a non-G Suite domain they plan to collaborate with frequently.

According to a Reuters article published in February, since intensifying their focus on enterprise customers, Google has doubled the number of organizations with a G Suite subscription to more than 4 million. But despite Google’s efforts to build its enterprise user base, G Suite hasn’t come close to supplanting Office 365 as the cloud-based productivity software of choice for companies.

Office 365 made $13.8 billion in sales in 2016, versus just $1.3 billion for G Suite, according to Gartner. Google has added features to G Suite, however, to make the two competing software suites more interoperable, including an update that enables Google Drive users to comment on Office files, PDFs, and images in the Drive preview panel without needing to convert them to Google Docs, Sheets or Slide files first, even if they don’t have Microsoft Office or Acrobat Reader. Before that, Google also released a Drive plugin for Outlook.

This may not convince Microsoft customers to switch, especially if they have been using its software for decades, but at least it will get more workers comfortable with Google’s alternatives, and may convince some companies to subscribe to G Suite for at least some employees or departments.

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This fake package covers porch thieves in glitter and fart spray

Having a package stolen off your front porch sucks. No matter what’s inside the box, it just feels… violating. Someone came into your space and took your stuff just because they could probably get away with it. And even if you go to the cops with license plates and high-res face photos, they’ll often respond with a big, apathetic shrug (particularly around Christmas when package thefts skyrocket).

After having one of his own packages nabbed, engineer/YouTuber Mark Rober decided to take things into his own hands. He built a box that… well, it’ll make any would-be thieves think twice before hitting his house again. And probably make them have to go buy a really good vacuum.

Here’s the video:

In what might be the most wonderfully over-engineered act of lighthearted retaliation to ever exist, this thing is just layer upon layer of ingenuity.

It starts with a GPS tracker that lets Mark know when the box has been moved.

As soon as it’s opened, a custom-built spinning tub flings ridiculously fine glitter in every direction, covering whoever opened it from head to toe (or, in many of the filmed cases, from car door to car door). Look for the slo-mo glittersplosion at around the four-minute mark — that alone is a work of art.

A few seconds later comes a blast of canned fart spray. Or, I should say, the first blast of canned fart spray… because it keeps coming (partly in hopes that the thief throws out the box, allowing Mark to use the GPS tracker to recover it).

Oh, and the whole thing is being filmed (and uploaded online!) from basically every angle, thanks to a very carefully aligned rig of four hidden cameras.

And there’s more! I don’t want to spoil it, but everything down to the tiny details of the box itself were planned out to make thieves feel a little bit more silly after the glitter settles.

Now, this probably isn’t something you should try at home. Building packages that use hidden switches and circuit boards to do unexpected things when you open them seems like something that can land you on a list. But holy wow, watching it is therapeutic.

Want to go deeper? His co-builder on this project, Sean Hodgins, has a tear down video about the engineering involved.

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5 Questions to Ask Before Getting a PayPal Credit Card

In Q3 2018, there were over 254 million active PayPal users in the world. It appears that people don’t realize—or simply don’t care—that there are several online payment processor alternatives to PayPal that are safer and better.

Sadly, convenience and availability tend to trump everything else.

And that’s true of the PayPal Credit Card as well. Despite its mixed reviews, a lot of people have and use a PayPal Credit Card. Should you start using one too? Here’s what you need to know to make an informed decision.

How the PayPal Credit Card Works

PayPal actually provides three different forms of credit:

• PayPal Credit (formerly called Bill Me Later)
• PayPal Extras MasterCard
• PayPal Smart Connect Card

As we learned in our overview of PayPal’s consumer services, PayPal Credit isn’t actually a credit card. It’s simply a credit line that’s part of your online account and comes with some benefits. The Smart Connect Card is similar, except you get a physical card.

When people talk about PayPal’s credit card, 99% of the time they’re referring to the PayPal Extras MasterCard, which is an actual credit card provided by Synchrony Bank. This is what we’ll be focusing on for the remainder of this article.

Here’s a quick rundown of what you get with a PayPal Extras MasterCard:

• There is no annual fee for this card.
• 3 points per $1 spent at gas stations and restaurants.
• 2 points per $1 spent at PayPal and eBay.
• 1 point per $1 spent anywhere else, online or offline.
• Redeem points for rewards. (More on that below.)
• MasterCard’s built-in protections against various inconveniences, including identity theft, fraudulent purchases, and price drops within 60 days.

How to Get a PayPal Credit Card

In order to get a PayPal credit card, you must voluntarily apply for one, be at least 18 years of age, and live within the United States. Application approval is subject to credit approval by Synchrony Bank.

Depending on your credit score and history, Synchrony Bank will determine whether you get the PayPal Extras MasterCard (21.99%, 25.99%, or 28.99% APR) or the Smart Connect Card (26.99% APR and no rewards program). Even if you apply specifically for the PayPal Extras MasterCard, there’s no guarantee you’ll get it.

However, after using the PayPal Smart Connect Card responsibly for a while, PayPal may decide to upgrade your account to an PayPal Extras MasterCard. This could take between 12 and 18 months, depending on your credit-worthiness.

Should You Get a PayPal Credit Card?

By now, the PayPal Extras MasterCard probably seems like an awesome deal. There aren’t any fees to using it, you get reward points no matter what you buy, and you get the same level of protection as you’d get from any other MasterCard credit card.

But should you apply for one? There are valid reasons to do so, of course, but there are just as many reasons why you shouldn’t. Depending on your answers to these five questions, you’ll know whether getting one is in your best interests or not.

1. Do You Already Have Consumer Debt?

If you’re already swimming in debt, grabbing another credit card is one of the last things you should do. Even if the debt you have is so-called “good debt”—such as a mortgage loan or student loans—you should be wary about taking on more debt.

It’s easy to tell yourself that you’ll be responsible with a new credit card, but the only way to know for sure is by being honest with yourself and your current credit situation. Are you responsible with your current finances? If not, you probably won’t be with any new debt.

In 2014, PayPal’s VP of Credit noted that “[consumer spending] goes up 30% after a customer adopts a PayPal credit vehicle,” citing previous studies at the company. That was true whether the credit vehicle was PayPal Credit or a PayPal credit card.

2. What Is Your Personal Credit Score?

As is true any time you apply for a new line of credit, Synchrony Bank will want to know your credit history before approving or rejecting your application. This means a hard credit inquiry, which will remain on your credit report for two years.

This means you shouldn’t apply unless you’re confident you’ll be approved. Getting a hard credit inquiry on your report and failing the approval process will leave you in a worse state than before.

Nobody knows the exact criteria, of course, but the general consensus seems to be a minimum credit score of 600 for the PayPal Extras MasterCard. Note that nothing is guaranteed and you may be rejected for other reasons unrelated to credit score.

3. Can You Get a Better Credit Card?

The rewards program for the PayPal Extras MasterCard is pretty good, but there are other credit cards with better rewards programs out there. If you qualify, you might as well shoot for them instead.

The Blue Cash Preferred Card by American Express is one of the most coveted cards for reward seekers. It has a $95 annual fee, but you get 6% cash back at supermarkets, 3% cash back at gas stations and department stores, and 1% everywhere else.

The Discover It Card by Discover is another good one, earning 5% cash back on select categories that change every three months, including gas stations, restaurants, Amazon, wholesale clubs, department stores, and others. It has no annual fee.

On the other hand, if you’re going to carry a balance from month to month (which you should NOT do if you can help it), then a low-interest option like the Barclaycard Ring MasterCard might be better, which has a 13.99% variable APR and no annual fee.

You may decide that the PayPal Extras MasterCard is still best for you. Just make sure you explore what else is out there first.

4. Are the Rewards Appealing to You?

The only reason to choose a PayPal Extras MasterCard over another credit card is if you prefer its rewards program, especially if you shop frequently with PayPal and/or eBay.

Indeed, a lot of people don’t realize that PayPal actually has its own shopping portal and directory where you can find a bunch of deals that you may not find elsewhere. On top of that, you get 2x reward points per $1 spent in the PayPal shopping portal (and on eBay).

Obviously, this only matters if you actually care about the stuff you can redeem using your PayPal reward points. Here are some of the more interesting things you can get:

• At 800 points, you can get gift cards for restaurants, gas stations, retail stores, and more.
• At 3,000 points, you can get direct merchandise of various kinds, including houseware, kitchenware, sports gear, electronics, gadgets, and more.
• At 6,000 points, you can get a direct cash back reward with money deposited straight into your PayPal balance.
• At 15,000 points, you can get travel vouchers for hotels, airfare, and car rentals.

5. Do You Support PayPal’s Business Practices?

Just because it’s popular and used by millions all over the world doesn’t mean that PayPal is doing things right—at least in terms of ethics and trust.

It’s no secret that thousands of people have been burned by PayPal in one way or another: frozen funds, lost transactions, closed accounts, and poor customer support. Maybe you’ve been okay so far, but you could be the next unsuspecting victim.

In a more abstract sense, you have to decide whether you’re willing to do business with PayPal while knowing that they aren’t treating their customers as well as they could be. Do you want your hard-earned money going to a company like that?

Maybe you don’t care, and that’s fine too. This is a personal decision and only you can make it, but for many it’s been bad enough to warrant boycotts against PayPal.

Is a PayPal Credit Card Worth It?

I have a PayPal Debit MasterCard that’s tied to my PayPal balance, but I haven’t used it in years. I’d personally never consider the PayPal Extras MasterCard—but only because I have better credit cards available to me within my credit score range.

When would I consider a PayPal credit vehicle? If the only cards available to me had annual fees (such as the Capital One QuicksilverOne Rewards) or those with weak or no rewards (such as most student-level credit cards).

And for what it’s worth, I’ve never had an issue with my PayPal accounts.

Read the full article: 5 Questions to Ask Before Getting a PayPal Credit Card

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