Daily Archives: July 2, 2021

Faith in Action: July 4, 2021 End The War On Drugs – All Saints Church, Pasadena –

Posted: July 2, 2021 at 8:29 pm

Every week at All Saints Church we put our faith into action. This week we are urging President Biden to begin ending the War on Drugs by commuting the sentences of people incarcerated for federal drug offenses.

The War on Drugs has now lasted 50 years so lets be clear on a few facts that bear repeating.

First, since President Nixon started the War on Drugs in 1971, the government has pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into law enforcement agencies, which has never-the-less failed to reduce drug abuse or overdose rates.

Second, the War on Drugs is a racist war that has led to the over-surveillance and incarceration of millions of people, who are disproportionately Black, Latinx, and Indigenous. Today, Black people are 3.64 times likelier to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people, despite similar usage rates.

Finally, the War on Drugs has not solved any problems associated with drug use and the majority of Americans are ready for a new approach based on public health 83% of voters across an otherwise divided political spectrum believe the War on Drugs has failed.

50 years of failed policy is 50 years too many. Tell President Biden to take action and begin to end the War on Drugs now.

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Cannabis reform? It’s the right time for full federal legalization to help economy and people – USA TODAY

Posted: at 8:29 pm

Politicians are finally realizing what the public has known for years: Legalizing cannabis can positively support our economy, communities, and people

Nick Kovacevich| Opinion Contributor

The future of marijuana legalization

Heres what you need to know about the future of marijuana legalization in the United States, from its racist beginnings to today.

Just the FAQs, USA TODAY

With the Democrats in full control of Congress and the White House, the odds for real cannabis reform, such as full federal legalization, have never been higher. For years, cannabis has delivered a strong track record of creating jobs,tax revenue,and restorative justicein communities disproportionately affected by the War on Drugs. Its also been hugely popular with the American people, where more than 91% of adults are in favor of legalizing cannabis for either medical or adult recreational use.

And yet, despite all this, there has hardly been any momentum at the federal level to legalize cannabis until now, that is.

President Joe Biden has openly stated that he supports decriminalization and the legalization of medical cannabis.

He reaffirmed the former at a town hall earlier this year where he stated that no one should go to jail for the use of a drug, especially as it relates to addressing racial disparities in the enforcement of drugs. And hes not the only one.

In the lower chamber of Congress, U.S. House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler recently reintroduced a social justice-focused cannabis legalization bill, known as the MORE Act.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has voiced his support for major cannabis reform, including decriminalizing possession, expunging criminal records, and reinvesting in the communities hardest hit by the failed War on Drugs.

He has been working closely with Democrat Sens. Cory Booker and Ron Wyden to introduce a more comprehensive cannabis reform bill that would end cannabis prohibition and promote social justice, similar to the MORE Act.

USA TODAY'S Opinion newsletter:Get the day's best insights in your inbox.

Im a big fighter for racial justice, and the marijuana laws have been one of the biggest examples of racial injustice, and so to change them makes sense, said Schumer. And that fits in with all of the movement now to bring equality in the policing, in economics and in everything else. Our bill is, in a certain sense, at the nexus of racial justice, individual freedom, and states rights.

When you look at the numbers and the people affected by this failed War on Drugs, its hard not to argue why cannabis should be legalized.

Alexander Soros: Nixon's war on drugs has failed for half a century. Its time to end it

According to the Last Prisoner Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to cannabis criminal justice reform:

New Jersey police, for example, have filed more than 6,000 charges for minor cannabis possession in the three months since nearly 3 million voters approved the legalization of cannabis on November 3, 2020.Thats right after voters have legalized it and despite the fact that lawmakers and Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, have been working hard to create and implement a framework for a legal industry.

The state spends, on average, $143 million annually to enforce cannabis prohibition, and its not only a poor use of resources, but it also exacerbates the negative impacts this war has already caused.

Not only are we wrongly imprisoning tens of thousands of people a year who are convicted of an activity that is no longer a crime but we are also spending billions of dollars trying to enforce an antiquated movement that has disproportionately affected communities of color, and no longer represents the views of the overwhelming majority of American people.

I have been working in the legal cannabis industry for more than a decadeand my company,KushCo Holdings, stands to benefit from legalization.However, despite whatever financial benefit that may exist, our greatest goal is justice for those impacted by this failed War on Drugs, which has mostly disenfranchised people of color.

For pure racial and social justice alone, cannabis should be federally legalized and soon. Republicans had a crucial chance to make things right under the Trump administration, but chose not to promote justice, despite Republican congressmen David Joyce and Don Young introducing a bill that would legalize cannabis federally in a manner similar to alcohol. While the effort was seen by some cannabis policy experts as an encouraging step forward, it woefully lacks any meaningful social justice provision.

Brittany Barnett: Release people incarcerated under draconian marijuana laws

This leaves PresidentBiden and the new Democrat-controlled Congress to clean up decades worth of bad policy and serious injustice.

But legalizing cannabis isnt all about ending injustice.

Given the devastating economic damage COVID-19 has caused and is continuing to cause state and federal budgets have been decimated, unemployment remains high,and our economy is in need of a massive catalyst to accelerate the road to recovery. Even obstinate opponents of cannabis cannot deny the industrys profoundly positive impact on the U.S. economy, having employed 321,000 Americans in 2021,and generating more than $3 billion in tax revenue in 2020 alone.

States and localities are clearly benefiting on all social and economic fronts, and its time we move forward with cannabis.

Overall, there has never been a more critical time to legalize cannabis federally, as we recover from a damaging pandemic, while proactively addressing some of the social unrest that has afflicted our nation in recent months. The numbers speak for themselves, but more importantly, its just the right thing to do. Fortunately, more politicians are finally coming around to realizing and accepting what virtually the entire American public has known for years now: Legalizing cannabis can positively support our economy, communities, and people.

Nick Kovacevich is co-founder, chairman, and CEO of KushCo HoldingsInc. Follow him on Twitter:@nickkovacevich

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Here’s how SF plans to tackle ‘unacceptable’ drug crisis in the Tenderloin – San Francisco Chronicle

Posted: at 8:29 pm

A task force of police, prosecutors, public defenders and Tenderloin community members pulled together by the city to figure out how to stem the tide of drug-dealing released its recommendations this week after a year and a half of work.

Create a new city-run body to coordinate efforts by dozens of Tenderloin organizations, police and the District Attorneys office to increase safety.

Allocate more funds for community safety and train community workers on de-escalation techniques and how to care for people who have trauma.

Offer treatment to people who deal drugs to feed their addiction. Enforce harsher consequences on repeat offenders who deal drugs but have no substance abuse problems - not longer sentences, but other measures such as possibly automatically revoking probation.

Create a 24/7 treatment center in the Tenderloin that takes away some of the existing barriers of wait lists and documentation, reach out to the community to make them aware of the options and offer therapy, as many people seeking drug treatment also struggle with mental illness.

Prioritize housing for people during and after drug treatment.

Create multiple safe drug-use sites where individuals can consume drugs in the presence of staff who monitor for overdoses, provide cleaning materials and refer to treatment. Such sites exist around the world but arent yet sanctioned in the U.S.

The task force is driven by a sense of urgency as the citys drug crisis has risen to a frightening new level, its report said. Overdose drug deaths multiplied from 259 in 2018, to 441 in 2019, to 712 in 2020. Fatalities this year are on pace to surpass last years, largely because of the potent opioid fentanyl. Most of the deaths occurred in District 6, which encompasses the Tenderloin, Civic Center, Mid-Market, and South of Market neighborhoods.

The insanely easy access to highly addictive and deadly drugs in San Franciscos Tenderloin district right now is shameful, said Max Young, a task force member and father who said the situation hurts families in the neighborhood.

Young closed his bar Mr. Smiths on 7th Street in 2019 because of rampant street drug dealing and said the same drug dealers remain outside his still-closed bar.

As long as we allow these guys to sell with impunity anywhere in the Tenderloin and not have any consequences, its never going to get better, he said.

Before the pandemic, there were about 24,500 injection drug users in the city, with an estimated 4,000 homeless, addicted and mentally ill.

The Task Force was created in late 2019 by legislation from Supervisor Matt Haney amid concerns that there wasnt a plan to deal with street drug dealing, he said. It included representatives from the District Attorneys Office, Police Department and Public Defenders Office as well as nine community members and the Department of Public Health.

A majority of the task force backed six recommendations, but not everyone agreed with all of them.

The failed War on Drugs has taught us that we cannot incarcerate our way out of this problem, and we need to continue to focus on new approaches, including comprehensive public health innovations, said Rachel Marshall with the District Attorneys office.

Stanford University Professor of Psychiatry Keith Humphreys, who focuses on addiction medicine public policy, said he was struck and impressed that a group in service-focused San Francisco urged stopping drug dealing as a law enforcement responsibility.

Its grappling with the reality that yes, there are people who deal drugs who are low-level addicted people and I feel really bad for them and I want to help them, Humphreys said. And there are a lot of people who are comfortable making money off doing something that kills people.

Haney said he supported all the recommendations.

The status quo is entirely unacceptable and is having devastating impacts on these neighborhoods, he said. We have to have the resolve to change it.

Public Defender Mano Raju took issue with the reports recommendations to focus on policing and prosecution as part of a broader strategy.

He said overcriminalizing and overpolicing Black, brown, poor and immigrant community members who are often victims of trafficking, duress, or acting out of dire conditions of poverty or illness, plays an outsized factor in the alarming level of desperation on our streets.

This reports recommendations to divert even more public resources to policing and prosecuting communities who so desperately need housing, employment opportunities, and public health care should be rigorously interrogated on its logic and motivations, he added.

Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter@mallorymoench

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Googles latest diversity report shows jump in departures among women of color – The Verge

Posted: at 8:27 pm

Googles latest diversity report shows that despite some gains in the number of Black employees, the company is lagging in its goal to double the number of Black workers by 2025. And the search giant is having particular difficulty retaining women of color, the report released Thursday (pdf) shows.

Google uses a scale it calls an attrition index, with the number 100 used as a benchmark. The attrition figure for Black women on that index rose from 110 in 2020 to 146 in 2021, the report shows. Among Native American women the attrition index was up to 148 in 2021, compared to 123 in 2020. The 2021 attrition figures also were higher for Asian men and women and for Latinx men, the report showed.

We recognize the platform that we have and the brand position that we have and we know that there are other companies that are watching us and looking at us, Google chief diversity officer Melonie Parker said in a video that accompanied the report. And we want to make sure that we dont just show our successes, but that we show the areas that we need to get better as well.

The company made some progress in its representation and diversity goals, doubling the number of Black employees hired to its US leadership team to 7.1 percent from 3.6 percent the year prior, and the number of women in Google leadership around the world rose from 26.7 percent to 28.1 percent. Still, Googles US workforce is 68 percent male and 32 percent female, the report shows. Fifty percent of Googles US workforce is white, compared to 42 percent Asian, 6.4 percent Latinx, 4.4 percent Black, and 0.8 percent Native American.

And Google faced a slew of criticism late last year and earlier this year, for how it handled the firing of Black AI ethics researcher Timnit Gebru after she wrote a paper that questioned the dangers of large language models. Gebru accused Google of racism and retaliation, and faced online harassment for months afterward.

In October, CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a blog post that the company planned to double the number of Black employees by 2025 and increase the number of underrepresented workers in senior positions by 30 percent. Well hold ourselves accountable for creating an inclusive workplace, Pichai wrote.

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Google update will allow digital COVID-19 vaccination cards and test results to be stored on Android devices – TechCrunch

Posted: at 8:27 pm

Google is making it possible to store digital versions of either COVID-19 test results or vaccination cards on users Android devices. The company on Wednesday announced its updating its Passes API, which will give developers at healthcare organizations, government agencies, and other organizations authorized by public health authorities the ability to create digital versions of tests and vaccination cards that can then be saved directly to the users device. The Passes API is typically used to store things like boarding passes, loyalty cards, gift cards, tickets and more to users Google Pay wallet. However, the Google Pay app in this case will not be required, Google says.

Instead, users without the Google Pay app will have the option to store the digital version of the COVID Card directly to their device, where its accessible from a home screen shortcut. Because Google is not retaining a copy of the card, anyone who needs to store the COVID Card on multiple devices will need to download it individually on each one from the healthcare provider or other organizations app.

The cards themselves show the healthcare provider or organizations logo and branding at the top, followed by the persons name, date of birth and other relevant information, like the vaccine manufacturer or date of shot or test. According to a support document, healthcare providers or organizations could alert users to the ability to download their card via email, text, or through a mobile website or app.

In an example photo, Google showed the COVID-19 Vaccination Card from Healthvana, a company that serves L.A. County, However, it didnt provide any other information about which healthcare providers are interested in or planning to adopt the new technology. Reached for comment, Google says there are some other big partners and states in the pipeline, but it doesnt have permission to share those names at this time. Over the next few weeks, some of these names will be released, we understand.

The Passes API update doesnt mean Android users can immediately create digital versions of their COVID vaccination cards something people have been taking pictures of as a means of backup or, unfortunately in some cases, laminating it. (Thats not advised, however, as the card is meant to be used again for recording booster shots.)

Rather, the update is about giving developers the ability to begin building tools to export the data they have in their own systems about peoples COVID tests and vaccinations to a local digital card on Android devices. To what extent these digital cards will become broadly available to end users will depend on developer adoption.

For the feature to work, the Android device needs to run Android 5 or later and it will need to be Play Protect certified, which is a licensing program that ensures the device is running real Google apps. Users will also need to set a lock screen on their device for additional security.

Google says the update will initially roll out in the U.S., followed by other countries.

The U.S. is behind other markets in making digital versions of vaccination cards possible. Today, the EUs COVID certificate, which shows an individuals vaccination status, test results or recovery status from COVID-19, went live. The certificate (EUDCC) will be recognized by all EU members and will aid with cross-border travel. Israel released a vaccine passport earlier this year that allows vaccinated people to show their green pass at places that require vaccinations. Japan aims to have vaccination passports ready by the end of July for international travel.

In the U.S., only a few states have active vaccine certification apps. Many others have either outright banned vaccine passports which has become a politically loaded term or are considering doing so.

Given this context, Googles digital vaccination card is just that a digital copy of a paper card. Its not tied to any other government initiatives nor is it a vaccine passport.

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Google is moving away from APKs on the Play Store – The Verge

Posted: at 8:27 pm

Google has shared timing for a change for Google Play developers announced last summer during Google I/O: starting in August, Google will require that new Play apps will have to be published using the Android App Bundle format. Your phone will still download apps as APKs, but the app bundles will create APKs that are optimized for your device.

On a Google page about Android App Bundle, the company touts many potential improvements with the new format, such as smaller app downloads for users. But the format has a catch: Android App Bundles are a format that only Google Play uses, which could complicate app redistribution.

The timing of Googles announcement also comes just days after Microsoft announced Windows 11, which has the ability to let you sideload Android apps as APKs. Googles switch to App Bundles may mean that there will be fewer apps available to run on Microsofts new operating system, though youll also be able to get Android apps on Windows 11 from the Amazon Appstore.

The requirement to use Android App Bundles only applies to new apps, according to Google. Existing apps are currently exempt, as are private apps being published to managed Google Play users, the company says. And if youre a developer planning on releasing a new app, you only have a short time to make sure youre using the new format.

Update July 1st, 6:38PM ET: Clarified how long this change has been in the works and specified more detail about the Android App Bundle format.

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Google Play dumps APKs for the more Google-controlled Android App Bundle – Ars Technica

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The Android App Bundle logo.

App Bundles let Google Play servers customize an app for each user.

A midrange phone user gets the base APK, xhdpi image assets, the ARM v7 code, and the English language.

Here, a high-end phone gets the xxxhdpi asset bucket, ARM64, and a whopping three languages.

At Google I/O 2018, Google said APK config splits offered an average of 20 percent space savings, thanks to more targeted languages, image assets, and architectures.

For more specific app-size savings, Google showed off this chart.

Google I/O 2018

Config splits only work on Android 5.0 Lollipop and up. So for older devices, full APKs are generated.

Android's app file format, the APK (Android PacKage), has been with us since the 2008 launch of Android. It's portable, easy to create since it's just a structured .zip file, and widely supported by a variety of tools. Windows 11 is even going to support the format as part of its upcomingAndroid compatibility.Google, though, doesn't want APKs to be the way to publish an Android app anymore. Google's Android Developer Blog recaps how, starting in August, new apps being uploaded to the Play Store will need to use the new Android App Bundles (AAB) format to distribute apps. This sounds like just the beginning, and Google says that App Bundles"will replace the APK as the standard publishing format."

Android App Bundles were introduced to the Android ecosystem in 2018, and I wrote a big section about them in the Android 9 review. The basic sales pitch is that Android devices have plenty of different hardware and language combinations that apps have to support, and shipping all of that code to every individual device is a waste of space.Android supports over 150 languages, four different CPU architectures (ARMv7, ARMv8, x86, and x86_64), and several screen resolution buckets. It's common to pile all of this into a single APK (though sometimes they are split up by CPU architecture), but doing so means each device gets a lot of code and resources that are irrelevant for its specific combination of CPU, locale, and screen size. While this waste of storage space doesn't matter much on high-end phones with good Internet connections, it can be a big deal for cheaper, storage-limited devices and in places where speedy Internet is hard to come by.

Google's solution is the Android App Bundle, which turns Android app distribution from a monolithic, universal APKinto a collection of "split APKs" that can be specifically doled out by the Google Play Store for each individual device. As the name suggests, these "Split APKs" aren't entire apps. They're parts of an app, each targeting a specific area of change, that combine to form the final app. With App Bundles, if you have a high-resolution, ARMv8 device with a locale set to English with App Bundles, the Play Store will spit out a set of Split APKs that supports only that device type. If your friend has a low-resolution ARM v7 phone set for English and Hindi, they'll get another set of APK that supports exactly that. Google Play can generate bespoke APKs for every user, giving them only the code they need and nothing more. Google says the result is apps that are 15 percent smaller than a universal APK.

Developers using App Bundles can even modularize features of anapp. This allows the features to only be delivered to devices that support them, or they're just not included in the initial download and are only available to users as an on-demand download. The same on-demand feature kicks in if a user changes the locale settings.

While the App Bundle system would prefer to send out the fancy, new split APKs, it doesn't have to. Since it can format apps however it wants, a backward-compatible, monolithic APK can still be generated. That makes theapproach universally compatible with all Android phones, no matter how neglected your current device is.

Like many new Android features, the change from APKs to Android App Bundles results in a more complex, sophisticated feature set for rolling out apps. But it also gives Google a lot more control over the Android ecosystem. Android App Bundlesneed to be processed by an app store's cloud computer in order to be useful. While App Bundles are an open source format, and Google has an open source "bundletool" app that can compile them, some other company would need to build its own infrastructure, pay the server costs to host it in the cloud, and handle the scary app signing requirements (more on that later).

The open source nature of App Bundles allows development tools to more easily support them. But an alternative app store would have to take on so much work and responsibility that it's doubtful the format will become anything other than the Google Play App Package.

One major security component of APKs is app signing. This is a digital certificate owned by the app developer that certifies it made the app. The app signature is not really relevant on the first install, but for every point after that, the signatures need to match. That means only the owner of the certificatethe original app developeris able to update that app. No random third party can make an APK called "Google-Pay.apk" that overwrites the real Google Pay app and steal all your bank information.

Google's control over the Play Store means it already owned the street and the driveway, but now it has even more control over your app. If Google Play's roving bands of automated terminator bots target your developer account for some perceived infraction, you'll have even less recourse.

Android App Bundles place an enormous amount of power and responsibility in the hands of the app-store owner. If the app-store infrastructure gets compromised, a third party could get access to the developer keys and start pushing out malicious updates. If you dont trust the app store owner, too bad. It owns the signing key now and can change your app without your knowledge, if it wanted to. A government could compel the app store owner to change your app, too. In the case of Google, the company is probably doing a better job of storage security than most app developers. But again,it's hard to imagine any non-Google stores adopting this.

Google has made some concessions to alleviate concerns about this. Developers can keep a local copy of the signing key they upload to Google, allowing them to generate valid updates that can be installed over Google Play versions. Developers can also download signed "Distribution APKs" from the Google Play Developer Console, which are old-school universal APKs that can be uploaded to other app stores. If you're concerned about Google changing your app without your consent, Google says an optional new "code transparency" feature will let developers verify that the hashes on downloaded app code match what they uploaded.

As of August, App Bundles will be mandatory for new apps.Google says that, for now, "Existing apps are currently exempt" from the app-bundling requirement. We're going to take the presence of the word "currently" as a big indicator of future plans.

For Google, Android App Bundles are a big deal. At Google I/O 2018, the company said that if every app switched to bundles, Google would save 10petabytes of bandwidthper day, which is an incredible number, indicating the scale the Play Store operates at. For those of us who don't care about Google's bandwidth bills, though, is a potential 15 percent space savings really worth upending the entire APK ecosystem and transferring even more power to the Play Store and Google's servers?

Listing image by Google

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Opinion | From Google, on Its Advertising Tech Business – The New York Times

Posted: at 8:27 pm

To the Editor:

Google Dominates a Hidden Market With No Rules, by Dina Srinivasan (Opinion guest essay, June 25), makes claims about our advertising technology business that we strongly disagree with.

Independent reports show that the fees we charge our partners are lower than the industry average. In fact, the 100 largest news publishers many of which have in-house sales teams that perform many of the functions provided by Googles ad sales, exchange and brokerage operations using our tools keep more than 95 percent of the revenue that their ad space earns, a far cry from the 50 percent Ms. Srinivasan cites.

While one section of Ms. Srinivasans essay refers to ad intermediaries in general, our advertising tools do not result in publishers selling for up to 50 percent less than what it otherwise would, as Ms. Srinivasan suggests. In fact, our research shows that publishers revenue increases when they use our tools thats why they choose to use them!

Ms. Srinivasan has ignored the inconvenient reality that this industry is highly competitive with rivalry among household names like Adobe, Amazon, AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, Oracle, Twitter and News Corp, a company for which Ms. Srinivasan has consulted. We also face competition from a legion of lesser-known but fast-growing competitors like The Trade Desk and Magnite. Many of these rivals also offer ad platforms and tools similar to ours that cater to both advertisers and publishers.

While it may be an inconvenient truth for the lawsuits she is championing, its clear that competition in online advertising technology has reduced ad tech fees and expanded options for publishers and advertisers.

Adam CohenLondonThe writer is director of economic policy at Google.

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Pharos Is Currently Available in the iOS App and Google Play Store – Johnson City Press (subscription)

Posted: at 8:27 pm

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., July 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --At last, Pharos is here. Joshua Parry teamed up with The Appineersa leading mobile app design and development agency, established in 2017 and located in Atlanta, Georgiato create Pharos.

Joshua's vision for Pharos came about after wanting to create a platform that shines a spotlight on the world of mobile businesses in your area. From food trucks to traveling hair salons users can easily find their new local spot using this app!

Introducing Pharos - a platform that lets users explore local mobile businesses in their area.

The app appeals include the following user-friendly features:

Visit pharosmobileapp.com for further information about the app including screenshots, features, and a video.

Contact: Mobile U, LLC

Phone:719-657-1307

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pharosmobileapp

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pharosmobileapp

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/pharosmobileapp

Download the app from App Store (iOS):

https://www.google.com/urlq=https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pharos/id1542969475&sa=D&source

=hangouts&ust=1624388309745000&usg=AFQjCNHi3kvb93NoG2CzgqRaThevEHGf4Q

Download the app from Google Play Store (Android):

https://www.google.com/urlq=https://play.google.com/store/apps/detailsid3Dcom.app.pharos&sa

=D&source=hangouts&ust=1624388309745000&usg=AFQjCNFIlhRqmrVvEu5sT-tQFHc-lXc87A

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pharos-is-currently-available-in-the-ios-app-and-google-play-store-301324426.html

SOURCE The Appineers

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Googles Wing launches free app to help drone pilots obey US regulations – The Verge

Posted: at 8:27 pm

Wing, the drone delivery arm of Googles parent company Alphabet, has launched a free app in the US to help pilots fly their drones legally. OpenSky has been available in Australia since 2019 but is now available for both commercial and recreational pilots in the US to use for anything from conducting commercial surveys to filming and photography. Its available now on both iOS and Android.

OpenSky is based on Google Maps, Wing tells DroneLife, and its color-coded to show areas where pilots can and cant fly. Green areas are a-okay, but pilots need to exercise caution in yellow areas, and shouldnt fly at all in red areas. Perhaps its most useful feature is that it lets pilots submit requests to fly in controlled airspace and receive near real-time authorizations. The approval process works in airspace that supports Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC), which includes hundreds of air traffic facilities and airports according to an FAQ on Wings website.

As well as checking where its legal to fly and request authorization, OpenSky also lets pilots log and plan their flights. The app needs an internet connection to operate, Wing notes, so youre advised to take a screenshot of a flight approval if youre going to need it in an area with poor reception.

The launch of OpenSky comes as drones are receiving increased amounts of regulation in the US and around the world, as lawmakers catch up with the relatively new technology. Pilots in the US currently have to register to fly any drones weighing over 0.55 pounds, and from 2023 drones will have to broadcast their location during flight.

Wings argument is that an app like OpenSky makes it easier for pilots to obey the rules and fly the nearly 2 million drones that have been registered in the US. Compliance will ultimately expand the uses and benefits of dronesamong them emergency response, commercial inspections and contactless deliveryto more people, Wing said in a blog post.

Its that last point, contactless delivery, thats perhaps most important for Wing, which is best known as a drone delivery business. As well as Finland and Australia, Wing has been making deliveries in Christiansburg, Virginia. Speaking to DroneLife, Wings Lia Reich said the company has plans to expand its drone delivery service in the US later this year.

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