The service will be available to homes within about six miles of the supported stores. Residents in those areas can order things like quick meals, groceries, essentials and over-the-counter medicines. The drones can fly up to 65 mph, and Wing says you’ll get your items in under 30 minutes. They use a retractable tether to “gently deliver even delicate items” — including challenging products like eggs and frozen treats.

Wing’s drones are largely automated and monitored remotely. “Wing’s technology allows operators to oversee the system from a remote location, which means pilots won’t need to be stationed at stores or customer homes,” Alphabet’s company wrote in an announcement blog post. “The aircraft essentially fly themselves, so each operator is approved to safely oversee many drones at the same time.”

Wing has already partnered with Walgreens for drone deliveries in the DFW region. Meanwhile, Walmart said in 2022 that its own DroneUp delivery service had covered around four million households in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Utah and Virginia. However, the retailer reportedly laid off 418 DroneUp employees earlier this year.

If you live in the DFW metroplex, you can check eligibility by installing the Wing Drone Delivery app from the App Store or Google Play. You’ll need to create an account and enter your address to view the results. A “coming soon” message means you’ll be covered as soon as deliveries begin. If the app tells you you’re not eligible, Wing says it will add new DFW neighborhoods soon.

This article contains affiliate links; if you click such a link and make a purchase, we may earn a commission.

The post Wing and Walmart will offer six-mile drone deliveries over Dallas appeared first on Best News.

One of the many issues with generative art — apart from the ethical implications of training on artists’ work — is the potential for creating deepfakes. For example, the pope’s hot new hip-hop attire (an AI image created with MidJourney) going viral on social media was an early example of what could become more commonplace as generative tools evolve. It doesn’t take much imagination to see how something like political ads using AI-generated art could do much more damage than a funny image circulating on Twitter. “Watermarking audio and visual content to help make it clear that content is AI-generated” was one of the voluntary commitments that seven AI companies agreed to develop after a July meeting at the White House. Google is the first of the companies to launch such a system.

Google doesn’t go too far into the weeds about SynthID’s technical implementation (likely to prevent workarounds), but it says the watermark can’t be easily removed through simple editing techniques. “Finding the right balance between imperceptibility and robustness to image manipulations is difficult,” the company wrote in a DeepMind blog post published today. “We designed SynthID so it doesn’t compromise image quality, and allows the watermark to remain detectable, even after modifications like adding filters, changing colours, and saving with various lossy compression schemes — most commonly used for JPEGs,” DeepMind’s SynthID project leaders Sven Gowal and Pushmeet Kohli wrote.

The identification part of SynthID rates the image based on three digital watermark confidence levels: detected, not detected and possibly detected. Since the tool is embedded into the image’s pixels, Google says its system can work alongside metadata-based approaches, like the one Adobe uses with its Photoshop generative features, currently available in an open beta.

SynthID includes a pair of deep learning models: one for watermarking and the other for identifying. Google says the two trained on diverse images, culminating in a combined ML model. “The combined model is optimised on a range of objectives, including correctly identifying watermarked content and improving imperceptibility by visually aligning the watermark to the original content,” Gowal and Kohli wrote.

Google acknowledged that it isn’t a perfect solution, adding that it “isn’t foolproof against extreme image manipulations.” But it describes the watermark as “a promising technical approach for empowering people and organisations to work with AI-generated content responsibly.” The company says the tool could expand to other AI models, including those tasked with generating text (like ChatGPT), video and audio.

Although watermarks could help with deepfakes, it’s easy to imagine digital watermarking turning into an arms race with hackers, with services that adopt SynthID requiring continual updating. In addition, the open-source nature of Stable Diffusion, one of the leading generative tools, could make industry-wide adoption of SynthID or any similar solution a tall order: It already has countless custom builds that can run on local PCs out in the wild. Regardless, Google hopes to make SynthID available to third parties “in the near future” to at least improve AI transparency industry-wide.

The post Google wants an invisible digital watermark to bring transparency to AI art appeared first on Best News.

The service will be available to homes within about six miles of the supported stores. Residents in those areas can order things like quick meals, groceries, essentials and over-the-counter medicines. The drones can fly up to 65 mph, and Wing says you’ll get your items in under 30 minutes. They use a retractable tether to “gently deliver even delicate items” — including challenging products like eggs and frozen treats.

Wing’s drones are largely automated and monitored remotely. “Wing’s technology allows operators to oversee the system from a remote location, which means pilots won’t need to be stationed at stores or customer homes,” Alphabet’s company wrote in an announcement blog post. “The aircraft essentially fly themselves, so each operator is approved to safely oversee many drones at the same time.”

Wing has already partnered with Walgreens for drone deliveries in the DFW region. Meanwhile, Walmart said in 2022 that its own DroneUp delivery service had covered around four million households in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Utah and Virginia. However, the retailer reportedly laid off 418 DroneUp employees earlier this year.

If you live in the DFW metroplex, you can check eligibility by installing the Wing Drone Delivery app from the App Store or Google Play. You’ll need to create an account and enter your address to view the results. A “coming soon” message means you’ll be covered as soon as deliveries begin. If the app tells you you’re not eligible, Wing says it will add new DFW neighborhoods soon.

This article contains affiliate links; if you click such a link and make a purchase, we may earn a commission.

The post Wing and Walmart will offer six-mile drone deliveries over Dallas appeared first on Best News.

Not everyone is pleased about the latest deal, with Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney tweeting Epic isn’t included in the settlement. The games developer sued Google in 2020, alleging the latter had made deals with other big games publisher to box out rival app stores. Sweeney is also, as usual, grumbling about other stores asking a cut of each transaction to pay for the running costs of those stores.

Epic's trial against Google is set for November 6th, but Sweeney tweeted: "If Google is ending its payments monopoly without imposing a Google Tax on third party transactions, we'll settle and be Google's friend in their new era. But if the settlement merely pays off the other plaintiffs while leaving the Google Tax in place, we'll fight on. Consumers only benefit if antitrust enforcement not only opens up markets, but also restores price competition." The exact amount Google must pay and any necessary changes required have yet to be disclosed, but could be made public at an October 12th hearing.

The post Google tenatively settles with US antitrust probe into Play Store dominance appeared first on Best News.

The EC stipulates that digital platforms can be designated as gatekeepers “if they provide an important gateway between businesses and consumers in relation to core platform services.” The gatekeepers now have until March 2024 to make sure their applicable services comply with the DMA regulations. Between the six companies, the EC has designated 22 core platform services that the law applies to:

Alphabet: Google ads, Google Search, Android, YouTube, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Play and Google Shopping

Amazon: Amazon Marketplace and Amazon ads

Apple: iOS, App Store and Safari

ByteDance: TikTok

Meta: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Meta Marketplace and Meta ads

Microsoft: LinkedIn and Windows

The DMA stipulates that gatekeepers can’t favor their own services over rivals’ offerings and can’t keep users locked into their own ecosystems. They have to let third-party entities interoperate with their services in certain situations too.

Microsoft and Apple have argued that, despite meeting the thresholds the EC laid out, Bing, Edge, Microsoft Advertising and iMessage don’t qualify as gateways and shouldn’t have to comply with the DMA. The EC has opened a market investigation in each case to review the companies’ claims.

Meanwhile, the EC notes that iPadOS doesn’t meet the thresholds, but it has opened a market investigation to determine whether it should be designated as a core platform service. Gmail, Outlook.com and Samsung Internet Browser did meet the thresholds, but their respective owners (Alphabet, Microsoft and Samsung) successfully convinced the EC that none of these services qualify as gateways for core platform services.

The rules are likely to have a major impact on Apple in particular. The company has tried to keep a firewall around the iOS ecosystem despite jailbreakers’ efforts to sideload apps onto iPhones over the years. Reports previously indicated that Apple is set to allow third-party app stores and sideloading in iOS 17 — we could find out more about that next week when the company holds its fall iPhone event. Microsoft (specifically Xbox) and Epic Games are among the companies that are preparing their own mobile app stores for when the wall around the iOS garden crumbles.

Apple has also so far rebuffed Google’s (slightly embarrassing) efforts to convince it to support the RCS messaging standard. The former very much understands the value of iMessage and blue text bubbles. However, if the EC designates iMessage as a gateway, Apple could be forced to play nicely with RCS and other messaging services.

To that end, Apple told Reutersthat it’s concerned about the privacy and security risks that may emerge as a result of DMA compliance. “Our focus will be on how we mitigate these impacts and continue to deliver the very best products and services to our European customers,” the company said.

If a gatekeeper fails to abide by the DMA rules, there may be serious consequences. The EC can fine an infringing gatekeeper as much as 10 percent of its global turnover. That can rise to 20 percent if the gatekeeper continues to break the rules. The EC has also given itself the power to force a gatekeeper to sell a business and to block it from buying related services in cases of systematic DMA violations.

The post EU confirms the six tech giants subject to its strict new competition laws appeared first on Best News.

Investing in what is, essentially, its competitor allows Intel to expand beyond its x86 chips — which are not nearly as efficient as those Arm is currently manufacturing. Stuart Pann, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel Foundry Services, confirmed the investment during the Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference Call. "80 percent of TSMC's wafers have an ARM processor in them," Pann said. "The fact that our organization, the IFS organization, is embracing ARM at this level, investing in ARM, doing partnerships with ARM, should give you a signpost that we're absolutely serious about playing in this business because if you're not working with ARM, you can't be a foundries provider." As an “anchor investor,” Intel should have better access to Arm’s future chip design IP which it can then produce via its burgeoning contract factory plans.

As part of this expansion, Pann added that the company would be focusing more on other low-power chipsets, including RISC-V, which he said is where the “volumes” are at in the new world of mobile-first computing. After all, the point of Intel opening up its factories to third parties in the first place was to admit that its own efforts in this space hadn’t been as successful as its much-smaller rival.

Intel's decision to invest in Arm comes at a time of tremendous growth in (and incentives to grow) the chip manufacturing industry. Earlier this year, the Biden administration released funding applications for companies to get a piece of $39 billion devoted to semiconductor manufacturing. More recently, Apple extended its licensing deal with Arm until 2040. The iPhone maker was a founding backer of the company, first using its technology in its (ultimately doomed) Newton and now, more recently, as the backbone of its entire lineup.

The post Intel joins Apple, Alphabet and Samsung as an Arm investor appeared first on Best News.

Previously, Google’s policy on updates to support its phones was five years (at least for the Pixel 6 and later), which in itself was nothing to scoff at. Not only will an extra two years potentially save consumers from shelling out for a brand new handset, but it may save some aging Pixels from ending up in a landfill quite as quickly. An estimated five billion phones were tossed in the trash in 2022 alone, potentially leading to toxic chemicals leeching into groundwater, among other associated hazards. It’s impossible to say how many consumers will take full advantage of the increased shelf life of their Pixels, either because they’re itching for a new-and-better model, or because (like most smartphones these days) repairability still leaves something to be desired.

Regardless, Google is obviously stepping in the right direction, and hopefully putting pressure on some of its competitors too. Apple has not made a hard commitment to lengthening its software support, but its phones typically see five to six years of updates. On the Android side of things, support can be significantly more grim: an exhaustive list of manufacturer update policies by Android Authority revealed that most brands only offer about two years of support, with many refusing to commit to any length of time, period. One of the few exceptions is Samsung, which in February of 2022 announced it would provide four generations of Android updates and five years of security patches to many of its models.

Follow all of the news live from Google’s 2023 Pixel event right here.

Correction, October 4, 2023, 3:09 PM ET: This post has been update to specify that while the prior phones retain the five-year support timeline, the new seven-year commitment is applicable only to the Pixel 8 series.

This article contains affiliate links; if you click such a link and make a purchase, we may earn a commission.

The post Google extends software support for Pixel 8 phones to a full seven years appeared first on Best News.

The European Commission is investigating whether iMessage’s current functioning violates the DMA. Apple argues that its “small scale relative to other messaging services” and the lack of required use (or cost to do so) makes it irrelevant to the law. However, a letter from executives at companies such as Google, Vodafone and Orange argues that it should qualify as “enriched” messaging is only available to Apple users.

Apple’s iMessage not so subtly rewards you for communicating with other Apple devices (and for being an Apple user). Chats on iMessage stay blue until you add an Android user into the mix, and, suddenly, everything is green. On the tech side, Android users also get lower-quality photos and videos when they’re sent through iMessage. Plus, iMessages can be sent over Wi-Fi, reducing the need for data when traveling or if you’re simply running low on gigabytes for the month.

In a statement aimed at keeping iMessage’s benefits exclusive to Apple users, the company said, “Consumers today have access to a wide variety of messaging apps, and often use many at once, which reflects how easy it is to switch between them. iMessage is designed and marketed for personal consumer communications, and we look forward to explaining to the commission why iMessage is outside the scope of the DMA.”

If the fight against Apple is successful, changes to iMessage would be the latest shift forced by the European Commission. Apple’s new iPhone 15 dropped the lightning charger following a law mandating all new mobile devices sold in the EU have a USB-C port by the end of 2024.

The post Google and major mobile carriers want Europe to regulate Apple's iMessage platform appeared first on Best News.

“We are Muslim, Palestinian, and Arab Google employees joined by anti-Zionist Jewish colleagues,” the letter opens. “We cannot remain silent in the face of the hate, abuse, and retaliation that we are being subjected to in the workplace in this moment.”

The letter cites specific examples of emotionally charged and inappropriate workplace behavior. These include unnamed Googlers accusing Palestinians of supporting terrorism, committing “slander against the Prophet Muhammad,” and publicly calling Palestinians “animals” on official Google work platforms. The group describes leadership as “standing idly by” in the latter two cases, and it says Google managers have called employees “sick” and “a lost cause” for expressing empathy toward Gaza residents.

The employees say Google managers have publicly asked Arab and Muslim people in the company if they support Hamas as a response to their concern for Palestinian families. “There are even coordinated efforts to stalk the public lives of workers sympathetic to Palestine and to report them both to Google and law enforcement for ‘supporting terrorism,’” the letter reads.

Other examples cited include “heartfelt appeals” to donate to a charity for Gaza citizens being “met with multiple comments dehumanizing Gazans as being ‘animals,’ disregarding their plight and calling upon Googlers to boycott relief work for civilians due to the fact that Palestinian schools and hospitals were being used for ‘terrorism.’” The letter also accuses Google managers of using their rank to “question, report, and attempt to get fired Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian Googlers who express sympathy with the plight of the besieged Palestinian people.” It describes one manager endorsing “surveillance of Google employees on social media,” and then openly harassing them on Google work platforms.

“You have to be very, very, very careful, because any sort of criticism toward the Israeli state can be easily taken as antisemitism,” Sarmad Gilani, a Google software engineer who tells Engadget he did not take part in the letter, said in an interview with The New York Times. “It feels like I have to condemn Hamas 10 times before saying one tiny, tiny thing criticizing Israel.”

In an emailed statement to Engadget, Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini wrote, “As we’ve shared, this is a highly sensitive time and topic in every company and workplace, and we have many employees who are personally affected. The overwhelming majority of those employees are not engaged in internal discussions or debate, and many have said they’ve appreciated our fast response and our focus on the safety of our employees.” The company said the situation involves a small number of Googlers whose views don’t represent the entire workforce. It encourages employees to voice concerns to HR, and it adds that it has taken action within the last month when conduct violates company policy.

The tensions inflamed in the last month by the Israel-Palestine war have resurfaced resentments about Google’s involvement in Project Nimbus. In 2021, Google and Amazon workers penned a similar open letter calling on their companies to pull out of the deal, which they said would enable surveillance of and unlawful data collection on Palestinians. Today’s letter echoes that sentiment. “We demand that Google stop providing material support to this genocide by canceling its Project Nimbus contract and immediately cease doing business with the Israeli apartheid government and military,” it reads.

In response to the Project Nimbus concerns, Google spokesperson Mencini wrote to Engadget, “This is part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely don’t work at Google. We have been very clear that the Nimbus contract is for workloads running on our commercial platform by Israeli government ministries such as finance, healthcare, transportation, and education. Our work is not directed at highly sensitive or classified military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.”

Update, November 8, 2023, 11:04 PM ET: This story has been updated to correct an error that interpreted the NYT interview with Sarmad Gilani as indicating he participated in the letter. However, he clarified to Engadget that he was not involved with the letter to Google management. We regret the error and apologize to Mr. Gilani.

The post Google workers publish letter criticizing company’s Israel-Palestine ‘double standard’ appeared first on Best News.

"We’re responsibly investing in our company’s biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead," a Google spokesman told the NYT in a statement. "Some teams are continuing to make these kinds of organizational changes, which include some role eliminations globally."

As part of the cuts, Google is said to be reorganizing its Pixel, Nest and Fitbit divisions, and Fitbit co-founders James Park, Eric Friedman and other leaders are leaving the company. The company will reportedly have one team responsible for hardware engineering across all three divisions.

"We’ve had to make some difficult decisions about ongoing employment of some Google employees and we regret to inform you that your position is being eliminated," the company told some employees in the core engineering division, according to a note seen by the NYT.

The company declined to respond to The Verge when asked if it reduced headcount in any other divisions — so the total number of layoffs isn't clear. Last year, Google made some of its largest job cuts ever, laying off around 12,000 people in January. As of late last year, the company employed 182,381 people, and counted 118,899 at the beginning of 2020, just ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That was part of a wider reduction in jobs across the industry in 2023, with over 220,000 layoffs during the year. Those came from larger companies like Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, Spotify and Amazon, along with numerous small, medium-sized and startup firms. Engadget has reached out to Google for comment about the layoffs and will update the story if required.

On Friday, the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA issued a statement in response to Wednesday's layoffs:

"On Wednesday night, over a thousand Google workers were shocked to learn via email that they were being laid off. These firings are coming less than a year after Alphabet laid off 12,000 of our coworkers in 2023, and the terms of severance have only gotten worse. These layoffs are unnecessary and counterproductive. Alphabet says it is doing layoffs in the interest of efficiency, but we know the truth, because we see the real impacts. The layoffs introduce chaos and instability into the workplace and force workers to make do with less. The real reason for them is simple: corporate greed. In the last year, the company earned tens of billions in profit, held over $100 billion in cash reserves, and raised its stock by 40 percent. Executive pay has gone untouched, all while thousands of our coworkers have had their lives turned upside down and those that remain on the job work in constant anxiety that they will be next.

The only way to keep these layoffs from happening every January is if we as Google workers act together and build the power to stop them.”

Update, January 12 2024, 3:35PM ET: This story has been updated to add a statement from the Alphabet Workers Union in response to the layoffs.

The post Google lays off hundreds of employees in its Assistant, hardware and other divisions appeared first on Best News.