Category Archives: Google

From time to time, Ill grab a random device out of the Verge reviews closet and spend a week or two with it. Its mostly out of random curiosity and for the sake of comparing old products against the latest and greatest. Most recently, I was drawn to Googles Pixel 5. So I gave it a factory reset, updated the phone to Android 12, and have been using it as my daily driver for the past several days.

The experience has been fantastic. Ive got very large hands an iPhone 13 Pro Max doesnt look out of place in them and I prefer large screens, so I dont think I could fully switch over to the Pixel 5. But its such a good small phone (by 2022 standards) that Ive certainly been tempted. The Pixel 5 makes it easy to do anything I need one-handed. Its midrange processor performs better than ever on Android 12, and this phone still looks unique next to the competition.

Above all else, Ive come away disappointed that Google gave up on the Pixel 5s style and size after just one year. The smallest phone in the companys lineup is currently the Pixel 5a, which has a 6.3-inch display. To its credit, Google is shrinking things down slightly with the upcoming 6A. But with the A-series models, youre giving up niceties like the 90Hz display and wireless charging. In those ways, the Pixel 5 might be the last of its kind in Googles lineup. So much for the even bezels, too.

I now find myself wishing that Google would keep the 5 around as an iPhone SE-style product that gets brought up to speed with hardware upgrades every couple years without losing what makes it good. Lets cover some of the Pixel 5s strengths.

Design and materials: The Pixel 5s 6-inch OLED display is surrounded by thin, symmetrical bezels that go a long way in making the phone comfortable and usable in one hand. And the textured bio resin coating on the 5s body results in a unique feel and reassuring grip when youre holding it throughout the day. The volume rocker shares this texture, while the power button is glossy metal making it easy to distinguish between the two by touch. Owing to its feel and palm-able size, the Pixel 5 is one of those phones that can go caseless without causing much consternation.

Before Google went all in on the common glass sandwich design with the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, previous models in the series often used distinctive materials and textures that helped the phones stand out. With the Pixel 2, it was the almost-coarse rear shell of the black model. The Pixel 4 had grippy side rails. But after the 5s bio resin Im still a big fan of the Sorta Sage green colorway with this finish Google opted for a more basic in-hand feel with last years flagships.

A better screen: The Pixel 6s OLED panel might seem perfectly fine based on first impressions. But in all honesty, its mediocre. There are plenty of threads on Reddit complaining about uniformity issues, an unsightly green tint at lower brightness levels, and other imperfections. The Pixel 6 Pros gorgeous LPTO panel exhibits none of these problems, so its clear that Google settled for less as part of reaching the 6s $599 price.

Even the Pixel 5s screen seems of a slightly higher quality to me than the 6 that replaced it. Theyre both 90Hz displays, but the 5s white point, uniformity, and overall image are just a bit nicer to my eyes. This can sometimes come down to variance between individual units, but I hope to see better from the Pixel 7.

Pixel Imprint rear fingerprint sensor: Im still let down that phone makers decided in unison to relocate the fingerprint reader from the back of the phone, where your index finger often naturally rests while holding it, to underneath the display. Googles Pixel Imprint scanners were perhaps the fastest and most consistent in the entire Android ecosystem, and, well, lets just say the in-screen sensor on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro has never matched it even after Google improved the performance through software updates.

Consistent camera performance: Google spent several years optimizing its computational photography for the 12-megapixel main camera shared by the Pixel 5 and its predecessors. And while it lacks the dynamic range of the Pixel 6 / 6 Pro and doesnt offer features like Real Tone or Magic Eraser, the Pixel 5 is a consistent shooter. You know what youre going to get, which cant always be said of the Pixel 6 line. I dont love the unpleasant-looking background blur you sometimes get from the 6s larger sensor, but this is something Google will no doubt improve.

Although Im mostly satisfied with the smooth performance and general responsiveness of the Pixel 5 on Android 12, there are still occasions where the midrange Snapdragon 765G processor hits a wall and gets bogged down. Snap a photo, and the frustrating delay while the phone processes the shot remains present. The 5 can also get hung up if you get overly ambitious with multitasking.

While Im sold on the Pixel 5s look and feel, Googles hardware quality assurance isnt always the best. Many units have a slight gap between the display and body. After the phones release, the company said the gap wasnt anything to worry about but its exactly the sort of minor detail that I find annoying.

And then theres that dreadful under-screen speaker, which still sounds tinny in most cases even after Google tried to improve it with an adaptive sound setting. Those symmetrical bezels didnt come without tradeoffs.

But even with those downsides factored in, theres still something special about this phone. Ive come close to buying one from Woot, which is selling new, unopened Pixel 5s for $450. Apparently Google mustve stumbled across some extra inventory in a warehouse somewhere. With Apples mini iPhone rumored to be cut from the upcoming iPhone 14 lineup, it seems small phones are on the way out (again). That makes this a tempting moment to buy. The only asterisk to consider in Googles case is that software support for the Pixel 5 will end in October 2023.

But maybe by then, Google will reintroduce a small Pixel that doesnt skimp on hardware features and doesnt so blandly take after its larger siblings.

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Google's Pixel 5 was the last of its kind - The Verge

Bloomington, Ind.Mayor John Hamilton announced today that the City of Bloomington will receive pro bono support from a team of Google.org Fellows to deploy CiviForm, a tool to simplify and centralize online applications for government assistance programs. CiviForm is an open-source tool developed originally by the City of Seattle with support from Google.org to make applying for government programs easier and faster.

A team of 12 Google employees will work full-time with the City of Bloomington for six months as part of a Google.org Fellowship, providing pro bono technical expertise to nonprofits and civic entities. The City of Bloomington ITS Department (Information & Technology Services) will lead this initiative in partnership with Parks & Recreation.

The CiviForm pilot program will focus on improving the application processes for public benefits programs like the Parks Foundation Youth Scholarship program and the ITS Surplus Computer Request process. After the Fellowship ends, City staff can continue using CiviForm further to improve online access to other City services.

This partnership can help our residents access and apply for City programs. It can help City departments review applicants in an equitable and consistent manner. Thats a win-win, said Mayor Hamilton, and good local democracy into action.

Google and the City of Bloomington share a commitment to creating opportunity for everyone, said Rob Biederman, Director of External Affairs for Google. By bringing together the best of Googles tech expertise with the Citys knowledge of the communitys needs, we hope to simplify the benefits application process for Bloomington residents.

During a project coordinating site visit last week, at the direction of the City, Google researchers conducted user interviews with residents to gain a better understanding of customer needs and experiences related to program access and online applications. This input will help the City improve its online experience for customers.

PROJECT SUMMARY

The City of Bloomington views CiviForm (initially built through a Google.org Fellowship with the City of Seattle) as a means of supporting the Citys goal of providing sustainable, resilient, and equitable economic opportunity for all City residents by enabling residents to apply for City services.

Many Bloomington residents have limited awareness of City programs and must navigate complicated enrollment steps to apply -- some of which are still offline. Google.org Fellows will collaborate across City Departments to deploy CiviForm to enable low-income residents to enter their information once to apply to many programs securely and efficiently.

The City of Bloomingtons goals using CiviForm:

ABOUT GOOGLE.ORG FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

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City of Bloomington Partners with Google.org to Improve Access to Government Services - City of Bloomington

Google is telling users of the Android Auto for Phone Screens app that itll no longer work soon via an in-app pop-up message (via 9to5Google). The app enables a simplified in-car interface of Android that is safer to use while mounting the phone on a car dashboard, a great feature for those who dont own newer cars with the version of Android Auto that runs on the infotainment screen.

This is actually not Googles first warning that it was putting Android Auto for Phone Screens in exile. It was already deprecated last year when the company disabled Android Auto for Phone Screens on newer Android 12 devices. People with older devices could still access the app, but Google didnt give a timeline on how long it would last, stating it has no further details to share at this time. Google regurgitated a similar message to 9to5Google this week, again omitting a timeline on when the app will cease to work.

This whole debacle is happening because of Googles confusing plans in 2019; it wanted users to transition from an on-phone Android Auto experience to the then-upcoming Google Assistant driving mode. But the feature got delayed and wouldnt see a release until 2020. During that delay, the Android Auto for Phone Screens app became the stop-gap solution for using your Android while driving if you didnt have a newer supported car.

The Android Auto for Phone Screens app is an accessible solution that anyone can use in any car and get all of the benefits of Android Auto. Now, users will have to either get a costly new head unit installed that supports Android Auto or buy a newer car if they want the Android Auto experience.

Google Assistant driving mode is not a one-to-one replacement solution either; its a linear solution with prompts that could get distracting compared to the Android Auto interface. It could also lead users to fumble with a hand-held phone while driving if Google Assistant gets a voice request wrong.

Google has ambitious plans for the automotive industry though, and Android Auto for Phone Screens probably dilutes it. It has a full car operating system called Android Automotive thats in cars like the Polestar 2, and it will make its way into Ford vehicles as well. Google also upgraded the connected Android Auto experience this year, focusing on responsiveness and making better use of different car infotainment screen sizes.

More here:

The Android Auto for Phone Screens app is getting shut down soon on all devices - The Verge

Applying academic research to help accelerate low-carbon innovation, Princetons ZERO lab has created a new coalition, bringing together corporations and researchers focused on scalable clean energy technologies. The consortium, aligned with the corporate membership program Princeton E-ffiliates Partnership, includes founding members Google, GE and ClearPath.

Jesse Jenkins, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment and principal investigator of the ZERO lab, helped design and launch the new consortium with the goal of helping organizations transform their businesses and, in turn, make key energy technologies more commercially viable and quicker to be deployed.

We want to provide practical insights and roadmaps that can support decision-making, guide investment and accelerate innovation, Jenkins said.

The consortium creates an opportunity for big players grappling with a clean energy future to connect.

The consortium aims to help leaders from diverse parts of the energy sector accelerate novel clean energy technologies. Jenkins provided a rationale for why he recruited these first members.

Google was the first global corporation to pledge to match the energy demand from its data centers and officesaround the world with local carbon-free power on an hour-by-hour basis, referred to as 24/7 carbon-free electricity procurement. The company also has a longstanding track record of investing in clean technology startups and using its purchasing power to transform markets for clean electricity.

GE is an equipment manufacturer with a broad portfolio of energy technologies, including on and offshore wind turbines, gas turbines and advanced nuclear power. Through this technology, the company helps generate one-third of the world's electricity. The company is also developing new technologies, such as hydrogen-fueled gas turbines, carbon capture solutions, offshore wind superconducting generators and advanced nuclear with small modular reactors.

ClearPath develops and advocates for clean energy policy, with a focus on breakthrough innovations in the energy and industrial sectors.

Jenkins said the consortium will support two research areas in his group developing models and methods to help inform decision-making and evaluating technologies for economic, environmental and other impacts. As part of its technology evaluation pillar, ZERO Lab researchers are conducting ongoing research on long-duration energy storage, flexible geothermal energy systems, carbon capture and sequestration, and commercial fusion power plants.

One of the consortiums goals, Jenkins said, is to pool funding and maximize the research that can be done in this area when supported by organizations with similar interests. The structure of the program and the flexible funding allow researchers to quickly pivot to tackle the most important and interesting research questions, without having to wait for specific funding cycles or proposal calls from grant-making agencies. It also creates an opportunity for big players grappling with a clean energy future to connect, he said. Jenkins hopes to recruit other members to round out the group, such as a private venture capital group focused on clean energy or the investment arm of a utility.

GE, Google and ClearPath also join thePrinceton E-ffiliates Partnership, the corporate membership program administered by the Andlinger Center. This will allow the organizations to build collaborations with faculty members across a range of topics, including optimizing power architecture in data centers, securing the power grid and transforming waste streams into carbon-rich resources.

The consortium provides an exemplar of the value of collaboration between our E-ffiliates members to maximize the impact of Andlinger Center research. The different perspectives that these consortium members offer improves the quality of the research and enhances the impact of the research for their individual organizations and for the broader national decarbonization effort, said Chris Greig, acting associate director for external partnerships at the Andlinger Center. This has been a key objective of the Andlinger Center and E-ffiliates since their founding, said Greig, who is also the Theodora D. '78 & William H. Walton III '74 Senior Research Scientist at the Andlinger Center.

The collaboration builds on work Jenkins has done with Google, which quantified the electricity systembenefits of 24/7 carbon-free electricity procurement. The research found that using carbon-free, local power can prevent significantly more carbon pollution than purchasing enough renewable energy to meet annual needs, though it comes at a cost premium. The strategy also accelerates deployment of advanced energy technologies, providing a critical niche market to scale up and drive down their cost over time, which encourages full-scale transformation of electric grids.

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Google, GE, ClearPath have joined a new Princeton research consortium focusing on low-carbon technology - Princeton University

Jonathan Pruiett, a geospatial analyst with Cognizant, is part of a team that updates Google maps. They pushed back against a policy that would have required them to be in the office full-time and won a 90-day reprieve. Jonathan Pruiett hide caption

Jonathan Pruiett, a geospatial analyst with Cognizant, is part of a team that updates Google maps. They pushed back against a policy that would have required them to be in the office full-time and won a 90-day reprieve.

To Jonathan Pruiett, it just didn't make sense.

A geospatial analyst who updates Google maps for a living, Pruiett had been called back to his company's offices in Bothell, Washington, five days a week, starting June 6.

Like many on his team, Pruiett had only worked remotely, having started the job in the pandemic. He'd adapted well to it, finding efficiencies such as multitasking during virtual meetings, using the time to process data.

And yet, now he was being told to report to office. Anyone who failed to report within three days of the return date would be processed as having abandoned their job.

"Nothing will change other than having a couple snacks in our office and having an in-person meeting," Pruiett said. "We're kind of starting to think that this job isn't worth it."

More than two years into a pandemic that has no clear end, the debate over remote work has only intensified. Working from home isn't possible in many jobs. But for those who have the option, it's now evident that it is feasible, even beneficial.

But how beneficial is a point of contention between workers and their bosses. Some bosses are deciding too much is lost when people aren't in the office and it's time to come back.

Tesla boss Elon Musk is one of them. He recently emailed his employees with the subject line "Remote work is no longer acceptable." He reasoned that Tesla creates and makes "the most exciting and meaningful products of any company on Earth. This will not happen by phoning it in."

Musk told them anyone wishing to do remote work "must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*) of 40 hours per week."

Apple too wanted to bring people back to the office three days a week. But just last month the company decided to postpone its plan after more than 1,000 current and former employees signed an open letter called the plan inefficient, inflexible and a waste of time.

"Stop treating us like school kids who need to be told when to be where and what homework to do," they wrote.

It was yet more evidence of the shift in the balance of power between management and rank and file, as demand for workers has hit record highs in the past year. Companies are finding it hard to enforce unpopular policies and mandates when they fear their workers could just walk away.

The Google maps workers, who are employed by the tech company Cognizant, also decided to fight back. They connected with the Alphabet Workers Union and signed a petition citing COVID fears, the costs of commuting amid $5 gas, and the increase in productivity and morale that employees have experienced while working from home.

With just days to go before the June 6 return to office deadline, Pruiett said he wasn't sure whether he and others would show up in the office on June 6. Members of his team started preparing for a strike vote.

Hours later, Cognizant did what other companies have done in recent weeks: Granted a reprieve.

"Our first day back to the Bothell office full-time will now be September 6," the company said in a statement released on Thursday.

Pruiett called it a 90-day Band-Aid and vowed to continue the fight.

Even as some companies seek to bring back some semblance of office life, others are asking: What is the office for anyway?

At the management consulting firm Eagle Hill Consulting in Arlington, Virginia, the offices have been open since the fall of 2021, but on most days, there are just a smattering of employees on site mostly from IT and human resources.

No one has been ordered back full-time or even close to it. Desks and conference rooms, named after Washington, D.C., landmarks such as the Kennedy Center and Navy Yard, sit empty.

It's a dramatic contrast from pre-pandemic times, when every seat would be full despite the fact that flexible work was offered then, too.

"Could I have worked from home four days a week before the pandemic? I think I easily could have. It just wasn't the environment," says Jason Carrier, a senior associate who used to spend four days a week in the office and one day at a client site.

Although he lives just a few minutes' walk from the office, he now comes in just once a week, which is more than most of his coworkers, he says.

The workforce at Eagle Hill is young, mostly twenty- and thirty-somethings. Before the pandemic, people liked being in the office together. They liked the energy. They stayed late for office happy hours at the end of the day.

Now off-site happy hours are becoming a regular thing alongside virtual bingo nights, thanks in part to Carrier who leads the workplace fun team. So the idea of working from the office, all day, every day?

"Probably very close to a deal breaker at this point," he says.

Eagle Hill's chief marketing officer Susan Nealon says she'd like to see people in the office when it makes sense. She recently took advantage of an in-person event a photo shoot her team had organized to gather a few members of her team for their first face-to-face meeting in more than two years.

"I view the office changing," says Nealon. "It'll be less about the individual work getting done, and more about the group work getting done."

She believes workers may be happier and more productive doing their individual work in the quiet of their homes and only coming into the office for team meetings at optimal times. Instead of fighting rush-hour traffic to sit in the office from 9 to 5, you might just pop in from 11 to 1, she says.

It's an idea that would have been unthinkable just a couple years ago. But already, it's proving to be a selling point for new hires at Eagle Hill.

"It's hard to even fathom going into the office 100%," says Fara John-Williams, who started in human resources in May. "I don't think I could do it ever again."

Read more:

Bosses wanting a return to office face off with workers who want to stay home - NPR

Google announced today that its combining two of its video-calling apps, Duo and Meet, into a single platform. Pretty soon, there will be only Google Meet, and Googles hoping it can be the one calling app users need for just about everything in their lives.

By bringing them both together, Googles hoping it can solve some of what ails modern communication tools. Whats been really important is understanding how people make the choice as to what tool theyre going to use, for what purpose, in what circumstance, says Javier Soltero, the head of Google Workspace. Our digital lives are filled with a million different chat apps, each with its own rules and norms and contact list, some for work purposes and some for personal ones. Googles hoping it can use Gmail addresses and phone numbers to bring all that together. Its really important and powerful to be able to reach you that way, Soltero says, and allow you then to decide whether you want to be reached or not, as opposed to having to manage all of these different identities and deal with the consequences.

Soltero has been preaching this idea of reachability for most of his tenure at Google, and it has led Google to integrate Meet and Chat into so many of its other services. Its a good goal, but it comes at a cost: adding everything to everything has made some of Googles services cluttered and complicated. You can start a meeting from anywhere! But... do you actually want to? Streamlining your communication choices is a good idea, but haphazardly cramming everything together doesnt work.

Over the last couple of years in particular, Meet has become a powerful platform for meetings and group chats of all kinds, while Duo has stayed more of a messaging app. Google promises its bringing all of Duos features to Meet going forward and seems convinced it can offer the best of both worlds.

Its not quite right to say that Duos being killed, though. The app, which Google originally launched in 2016 as an easy way to make one-to-one video calls, does a number of useful things that Meet doesnt. For one thing, you can call someone directly including with their phone number rather than relying on sending links or hitting that giant Meet button in your Google Calendar invite. Duo has always been more like FaceTime than Zoom in that sense. (Google also launched an iMessage competitor, Allo, at the same time as Duo. Allo didnt turn out so great.)

As the two services become one, Google is leaning on Duos mobile app as the default. Pretty soon, the Duo app will get an update that brings an onslaught of Meet features into the platform; later this year, the Duo app will be renamed Google Meet. The current Meet app will be called Meet Original, and eventually deprecated.

This sounds... confusing, but Google claims its the best way forward. The Duo mobile app had a lot of sophistication, especially under the hood, says Dave Citron, the director of product for Googles video products. Especially in emerging markets, where network connectivity was sparse or highly variable. On the web, its different; Meet is the much more developed web platform, so that forms the base of the new combined system. But in both cases, the idea is 100% of the functionality, Citron said, combined forces, and no users left behind.

This is yet another effort from Google to unify some of its previously disparate parts, making the Google suite of services make more coherent and cohesive sense. Soltero said that as Meet has grown during the pandemic, it became the obvious place for Google to concentrate its voice and video efforts going forward. And hes hopeful that over time, the Meet brand can come to mean more than just meeting.

Getting this right will be tricky for Google. If it wants to build a cross-platform, cross-purpose platform for audio and video calls, it has to get a lot of little things right. Should every single device and browser tab youre signed into ring every time you get a call? (Google says no, and that its getting better at recognizing which device youre actually using and sending calls and notifications to that one.) Should you be able to get calls on your personal and work device at the same time? (No good answer yet, but Soltero said hes leading the charge to figure it out.)

Meet is already baked into so many Google services that it could become a meaningful WhatsApp and FaceTime competitor practically overnight, but only if it can integrate without being annoying or complicated.

Originally posted here:

Google is combining Meet and Duo into a single app for voice and video calls - The Verge

Last April, Google launched Grow with Google Career Readiness for Reentry, a program created in partnership with nonprofits to offer job readiness and digital skills training for formerly incarcerated individuals. As a part of an expansion, Google today announced that itll invest just over $8 million in organizations helping justice-impacted individuals, including the formerly incarcerated, enter the workforce.

Continuing its work with nonprofits including The Last Mile, Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), Defy Ventures, Fortune Society and The Ladies of Hope Ministries, Google says that $4 million of the new roughly $8 million its investing will go toward Grow with Google Career Skills, aiming to help people impacted by the justice system develop career specializations. Nonprofits with which Google hasnt previously collaborated will be able to apply for up to $100,000 in grants to offer Googles reentry skills training to their community.

Meanwhile, Google.org, Googles charitable arm, will provide $4.25 million in grants to assist state governments in reducing barriers to employment with Code for Americas Clear My Record tool, which uses an open source algorithm to review records and produce clearance motions. Other grants from Google.org will focus on connecting justice-impacted people with jobs through the National Urban Leagues Urban Tech Jobs Program and Columbia Universitys Justice through Code.

In an email interview with TechCrunch, Maab Ibrahim, racial and criminal justice lead at Google.org, said that it was always Googles intention to bring the Career Readiness for Reentry program to scale. Theres a real urgency to this work more than 640,000 people are released from prison each year in this country, and nearly all of them could benefit from the digital skills and job readiness training were offering through our partners, she added. We co-created the program with five nonprofits who have a track record of successfully developing and delivering high-quality job training to returning citizens. After implementing the program in 2021 and getting partner feedback, we saw what works really well and how we can have more impact.

The formerly incarcerated community faces many challenges, including a lack of digital skills. Inmates can go well over a decade without access to technologies like smartphones and only limited familiarity with the internet. For example, U.S. Department of Education data from 2014 showed that 62% of correctional educational programs in the country didnt allow prisoners access to the internet.

Searching for jobs or making a resume using web tools is beyond the knowledge of some former inmates. According to a recent University of Kansas study, many women coming out of prison struggle with basic skills like protecting their online privacy. This lack of literacy, too, hinders ex-prisoners ability to take advantage of government services, which often require online applications.

Ibrahim asserts that programs like Career Readiness for Reentry can make a difference with a curriculum thats designed to be integrated into the programming of nonprofit partners. Given Googles technological expertise, one of our focus areas is helping people learn digital skills, she said. [W]e believe that companies, nonprofits and government working together can be a powerful force for good. Thats what were trying to facilitate here.

Studies have shown that digital literacy can reduce recidivism, or relapse into crime. But theres some reason for skepticism. When asked how many of the 10,000 formerly incarcerated people reached by Career Readiness for Reentry programming last year found a job, Ibrahim demurred.

Stymying efforts was the pandemic, which forced several of Googles partner organizations including The Last Mile and Defy Ventures to shift from in-person to remote instruction. AGoogle spokesperson later told TechCrunch that, out of a survey of 400 Career Readiness for Reentry participants, 75% reported they had a job or were enrolled as a student somewhere by the end of the program.

Ibrahim argues the expanded program has the potential to make a lasting impact via a new embedded team of Google.org fellows who will work with nonprofits or civic organizations to build tech solutions. One of their first projects is an end-to-end automatic record clearance service built on top of the existing Clear My Record that theyll work with Code for America to design, pilot and implement.

Googles lofty goal is to help 100,000 formerly incarcerated people build career skills by 2025. To achieve this, the tech giant will have to facilitate a massive expansion of access to digital literacy programs across federal and state penitentiaries. Underlining the challenge, New York State offered three programs with some degree of digital literacy training that capped out at 1,400 seats combined as of March 2020. There are over 77,000 people incarcerated in New York across the state and New York City correctional systems.

Criminal records for many can be a life sentence to poverty, creating barriers to jobs, housing, education and more, Ibrahim said. There are so many great organizations out there doing work in this space, but we know that no one organization will reach everyone in need As we continue to refine and evaluate this work, we hope that we will be able to scale it further in the coming years.

Read more:

Google expands program to help train the formerly incarcerated - TechCrunch

An Android phone without Google. No Google apps, no Google Play Services, no peppy Google Assistant. No Google surveillance and data snooping, no incessant ad targeting, no feeling like privacy is a pointless exercise. Some companies, like Huawei, have been forced to figure out how to build this kind of device. A few others have tried for the sake of maintaining your privacy and as a way to fight back against the tyranny of Big Tech. None of it has ever really worked.

The team at Murena has been working on de-Googling Android phones for the last few years, starting back in 2017 when Gael Duval created an operating system he originally called Eelo. Like millions others, IVE BECOME A PRODUCT OF GOOGLE, Duval wrote in 2017. He said he wanted to build something just as good as other Android software, minus all the surveillance. I need something I could even recommend to my parents or my children, he wrote. Something appealing, with guarantees for more privacy. Something that we could build in a reasonable amount of time, something that will get better and better over time.

The operating system, now called /e/OS, has been available on a few devices for a while, but now the product is supposedly ready for prime time: Murena is releasing what it calls /e/OS V1, along with the companys first-ever smartphone, the $369 Murena One.

As a first hardware effort, its reasonably impressive: a slick slab of glass with a 6.5-inch display, an eight-core MediaTek processor, a fingerprint reader on the side, and three cameras in a small hump on the back. The photography specs are impressive, too, including a 48-megapixel main sensor on the back and a 25-megapixel pinhole camera on the front for selfies. The camera was the one place Murena seems to have splurged here, which COO Alexis Noetinger says was by necessity. People are ready to make quite a lot of tradeoffs when they move to an environment that is more oriented toward privacy, he said, but weve seen that the camera is the most likely thing people can be very picky about.

Well have to test them both more before we can deliver a full verdict, but in my limited testing, they both seem to be decent cameras but a far cry from whatd youd expect on a recent Google, Apple or Samsung phone.

In order to rid its device of every possible remnant of Google, Murena had to build an incredible amount of stuff. The /e/OS software comes with: a custom-made messaging app, so you dont need Google Messages; a browser to replace Chrome; a maps app that uses OpenStreetMap data instead of Googles; an email client, a calendar, a file-storage system, a contacts app, and practically everything else youd get in the Google Workspace suite; apps for notes and tasks and music and even voice recordings. Murena is even planning its own virtual assistant, named Elivia, so you wont miss Google Assistant.

Murena built cloud back ends for many of those services, too, so you can check your email in the /e/OS email app but also use your /e/ email address instead of one ending in gmail.com. All your online services live in Murena Cloud instead of on Google or Microsoft services. To some extent, all youre really doing here is swapping one centralized provider for another, but Murena says all its products are designed with the same anti-surveillance privacy principles as its smartphones.

Its an admirable effort, but even Murena can only go so far in ditching Google. Every company that has ever tried this, from Huaweis Harmony OS to ill-fated projects like Ubuntu Touch and Firefox OS, eventually discovered the same thing: without the Android app ecosystem, your phone is dead on arrival. So Murena tried to have its cake and eat it too: the company swapped Googles Play Store for the App Lounge, which lets you install all major Android apps including, yes, those made by Google but has no sign of Google branding.

In order to use the App Lounge, though, you have to accept its Terms of Service, which says right up at the top that you have two options log in with your Google account or browse the Lounge anonymously but either way, your app-downloading relationship is mostly with Google. Youre just downloading Play apps in a different-looking store. The Lounge fetches its information directly from the Play Store (without telling Google who you are, Murena says) and uses Google for all forms of payment.

The App Lounge does include some non-Play Store apps, and you can dig into settings and choose to only see open-source apps and progressive web apps, but that pretty seriously limits the number of apps available to you.

Connecting to Google flies pretty directly in the face of Murenas promises and has made a lot of Murenas early testers mad, but I dont think Murena had another choice but to handle it this way. A smartphone without Googles surveillance is a compelling idea to many users, but a smartphone without any of the apps you want is a dealbreaker for just about everybody. Noetinger says that sure, Murena could have built a Linux phone that fulfilled everyones privacy dreams, but it wouldnt have run any apps. And nobody would have wanted it. We need people to find apps, he says, otherwise were going to connect to a small amount of people, who will find the project great, but it will end there. Murena is trying to walk a fine line here, but the truth is that line just doesnt exist. You just cant have the full Android experience without inviting Google into the equation.

Instead, when you log into Google or use its services, Murena tries to mitigate the data Google can collect. It leans on a project called MicroG thats essentially a more private clone of some of the libraries that Google requires to run its apps, so you can use apps that require Google Play Services without actually using Google Play Services.It mostly works, though it took a lot of digging around in Settings to actually log in to my Google account on the Murena One. I cant imagine many people are buying /e/OS devices and then rushing to install Google Maps and Chrome, but its still a frustrating bug.

Murenas overall approach to privacy seems to focus less on stopping data collection altogether and more on security by obscurity. If you turn on Advanced Privacy in /e/OS, it uses a VPN to mask your location either by picking a random plausible location somewhere in the world or letting you choose where you want to be and even hides your IP address from the sites you visit. It also tries to block trackers in every app you download and seems to do so pretty successfully.

Advanced Privacy comes with its own tradeoffs, though. For one thing, its tough to use weather or maps apps when your phone thinks youre in Singapore, as mine did when I first booted it up from my house in Virginia. Lots of apps are also geofenced in one way or another, so I wound up having to turn off all the protection for apps like Netflix and YouTube TV. (Oh yeah, and I downloaded YouTube and YouTube TV because Murena cant replace those, so Google got me there anyway.) Murena is trying hard to create set-it-and-forget-it privacy software, but it ended up requiring more fiddling than I wanted.

All of /e/OS is still based on Android, of course. The device Im using is running a forked version of Android 10 based on Lineage OS, an Android spinoff based on the old CyanogenMod project. (Its a fork of a fork! And LineageOS is all the way up to Android 12, though, so its a bummer to see /e/OS lag behind.) And for all of Murenas work, it still looks like Android. The organization has said that it plans to rethink the way notifications work, for instance, and make other changes to how Android works, but right now, its just a simple iPhone-style launcher on top of an otherwise familiar version of Android.

The Murena One is an ambitious device, and /e/OS is an even more ambitious operating system. But so far, theyve mostly shown me just how ingrained Google is in our digital lives and how much more control the company has taken over its supposedly open-source operating system. The only way to get Android free of Google, it seems, is to make everything about Android a little worse. And the only way to eventually make it better is to rebuild it from the ground up. Thats going to be tough for anyone to pull off, no matter how fervently they believe in the mission.

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The Murena One shows exactly how hard it is to de-Google your smartphone - The Verge

New rules on mobile app stores could trigger a wave of creative, cheaper apps with more privacy options for users. Every budding developer dreams of creating an app that goes viral and makes lots of money overnight. The Angry Birds game became a worldwide phenomenon within weeks when it launched in 2009 and made US$10 million (8 million) in its first year.

But, overall, the numbers make it clear that mobile apps dont guarantee wealth. A 2021 study showed just 0.5% of consumer apps succeed commercially . Developers have to jostle for attention among the almost 3 million apps and games on Google Play and 4.5 million apps and games on the Apple store.

On Apples iPhone and iPad platforms, the App Store is the only way to distribute apps. Until recently, Apple and Googles stores charged a 30% commission fee. But both halved it for most independent app developers and small businesses after lawsuits such as in 2020 when video games company Epic Games claimed Apple has an illegal monopoly of the market.

Epic Games lost but Apple was subject to App stores changes that are on hold. Both Epic Games and Apple are appealing. Epic Games has filed a similar case against Google, which is set to go to trial in 2023. App stores set the rules on privacy, security and even what types of apps can be made.

Third-party stores could set different rules which might be more relaxed and allow developers to keep more of the money from apps they sell.

Independent developers say they are sometimes being Sherlocked by Google and Apple. They develop an app, and not long afterwards the platforms embeds the apps features in the operating system itself, killing the developers product.

FlickType was developed as a third-party keyboard for iPhones and Apple Watches in 2019. Shortly afterwards Apple apparently told the developer that keyboards for the Apple Watch were not allowed, they announced the feature themselves.

It can take between three and nine months to develop one app and can cost between US$40,000 and US$300,000 to build a minimum viable product. Some apps take much longer than this to develop.

In 2021 a group of UK-based developers filed a 1.5 billion collective action suit against Apple over its store fees. The case will be heard in the UK.

The European Commission told Apple it had abused its position and distorted competition in the music streaming industry and its restrictions on app developers prevent them telling users about cheaper alternative apps.

For instance, when Apple builds a music app, rivals such as Spotify argue this is unfair. They have to pay 15% or 30% of their revenues to Apple, their rival, which operates the store platform. Until recently, Apple prevented Spotify from telling users about cheaper options (like by subscribing via the services website).

A report from the UKs Competition and Markets Authority highlighted concerns that the tech giants are creating barriers to innovation and competition. Their full market study is due to report back in June 2022. The UK government has pledged to introduce new laws when parliamentary time allows.

The EUs Digital Markets Act could be in force by Spring 2023. The legislation is designed to open up mobile platforms by allowing users to install apps from alternative stores, and ensure app store providers dont favour their own products or services over third-party developers offerings.

In February 2022 a US senate panel approved a bill that aims to rein in app stores.

It is possible to install apps from other niche stores on Android hardware - such as the F-Droid store for open source apps. But the Play Store is available on almost every Android phone by default, meaning the apps available on it can reach a much larger number of users.

Both Apple and Googles app review processes (which looks at developers apps before making them available) have been heavily criticised for their lack of transparency, consistency, and general inequality. Independent developers have no real leverage against international billion-dollar companies.

Google has been criticised for failing to provide meaningful clarification when it remove apps from its store.

Apple expressed security and privacy concerns about allowing apps from other stores on its devices.

App store review processes can try to ensure that apps follow their privacy policies. Most users dont read these however, and apps can already access and share a lot more data than users realise.

Third-party app stores are likely to create a trade-off between user freedom and user safety. Some users may prefer Apple and Googles approach to privacy. Others may prefer a more open experience, where they can install apps from smaller independent developers, who can develop their apps without having to jump through the large app stores hoops.

The fact is that its possible to give users this choice - evidence from lawsuits shows that Apple originally planned to support running apps from outside its app store. The Digital Markets Act might force Apple to reconsider.

The DMA wont deliver results for users and developers unless it is properly implemented. The European Commission itself looks set to become a dedicated regulator for the first time. This will take time though, and the commission will need to grow a team large enough to provide meaningful oversight and enforcement.

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Why the Apple and Google app store monopoly could soon be over - The Conversation

TEA-seq, one of the tools available on the Human Immune System Explorer. Cell types are in different colors, with each dot corresponding to a single cell. Clusters of cells have similar RNA profiles. (Allen Institute Image)

The Allen Institute for Immunology unveiled a new interactive platform on Wednesday to showcase the human immune system, the Human Immune System Explorer.

Built in partnership with Google, the explorer is a central place for researchers and the public to find analysis tools, resources and data. The platform adds to the growing toolkit of similar resources across the Allen Institute, such as the Allen Cell Explorer and the Allen Brain Map.

Its also the first time the Allen Institute has leveraged Googles cloud offerings like Vertex AI to build such a platform. Googles team meets weekly with institute researchers.Theyve just been deeply committed to working with people in the Allen Institute, said Paul Meijer, director of software development, database and pipelines at the immunology institute.

As the platform matures, Meijer anticipates it will be broadly used by immunology researchers worldwide, who will add their data to the platform. It will track different cell types, molecules and other aspects of immunity in healthy people and in people with conditions like COVID-19 and cancer. Here are some of the platforms current features:

The platform ultimately aims to help simplify the cataloging, visualization and analysis of the massive amounts of data being collected in human studies of the immune system. The institute aims to promote open, collaborative and multi-disciplinary science.

Allen Institute researchers, for instance, are involved in a study examining the immune system in patients with long COVID. Scientists are cataloging proteins present on the surface of patient immune cells over the course of the first infection and for weeks afterwards. They recently found sets of proteins associated with long COVID suggesting that some affected people have high levels of inflammation. That data was recently released in a preprint study and will soon be entered into the new platform.

In a tweet, Google cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said he was inspired by his teams work with the Allen Institute. The past few years have put a spotlight on the importance of collaborating to diagnose and treat diseases, he said.

A multidisciplinary team of lab scientists and 10 software developers built the new platform over about three years, said Meijer. The team science and team development effort has been the real power that we have at the Allen Institute for Immunology, he said.

The researchers are also committed to increasing the diversity of human subjects represented on the platform. Ultimately users may be able to filter datasets by peoples pre-existing conditions, social conditions, or other factors.

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Allen Institute and Google team up to build platform exploring the immune system - GeekWire