A court in the Netherlands has ruled that a US company violated a Dutch worker's human rights by forcing him to keep his webcam on during work hours, TechCrunch has reported. Hired by Florida telemarketing firm Chetu, the employee was terminated for refusing to be monitored "for nine hours per day" by a program that streamed his webcam and shared his screens.
The company said it fired the worker for "refusal to work" and "insubordination." However, the employee stated that he "didn't feel comfortable" being monitored all day. "This is an invasion of my privacy and makes me feel really uncomfortable. That is the reason why my camera is not on," he's quoted as saying in the court documents. (Chetu failed to show up for the court hearing.)
"Tracking via camera for eight hours per day is disproportionate and not permitted in the Netherlands," the verdict states, adding that it also violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court found that Chetu dismissed the employee unfairly and must pay a $50,000 fine, along with the worker's back wages, court costs, and unused vacation days. It was also required to remove a non-compete clause.
As Florida is an at-will state, employees can be fired for any reason as long as it's not illegal. In the Netherlands and other EU countries, however, you must have a valid motive for firing someone (refusal to perform work, culpable conduct, etc.) — otherwise, the employee has grounds to dispute it.
Apple's latest Watch Series 8 just came out last month, but you can already grab a deal on it. The 41mm model is selling at Amazon in Midnight or Red for $349, for a savings of $50 (13 percent), and the 44mm model is on sale at $379, or $50 off the regular price. That'll get you all of Apple's latest Watch features, including a skin temperature sensor, low power mode and more. Be aware, though, that stock appears to be limited so you may have to move quickly.
The Series 8 is more of an incremental update over the Series 7, but it does have some useful new features. The first is a new temperature sensor that Apple has tied to women's health, giving female users an estimate on when they may be ovulating. It's meant to be used overnight, sampling your wrist temperature every five seconds so you can see shifts from your baseline temperature.
The other key feature is Crash Detection. Much as current watches can detect a fall, the Series 8 can detect car crashes via a pair of new accelerometers. It works in concert with the other sensors already included in the Apple Watch to detect four different types of crashes, including rollovers, front impact, back impact and side impact.
While battery life is the same as before at 18 hours, there's a new power mode that keeps it going for up to 36 hours on a full charge. It also uses a newer S8 system-in-package processor, that should allow for improved performance. With those updates, we found the Series 8 to be the "new best smartwatch," letting Apple keep its, er, crown in that department. As mentioned, if you're looking to get one, act quickly.
After announcing it at I/O 2019, teasing it in 2020 and finally launching it officially last year, Google is shutting down the Assistant Driving Mode dashboard, 9to5Google reported. The feature gives users an Android Auto-lite experience on their smartphone while driving, and was effectively a replacement for the Android Auto smartphone app, which itself was killed last year.
Assistant Driving Mode shows a home screen-style page with Google Assistant up top, a music player and volume controls below that, and buttons to make a call or send a message. It can be accessed from the Assistant by saying "Hey Google, launch Driving Mode," or pinned to your home screen.
Steve Dent/Engadget
If you're confusing the Assistant Driving Mode with the Google Maps feature also called Driving Mode (above), that's understandable. Rather than launching from Assistant or the home screen, though, the Google Maps version launches from a four-dot menu at bottom right when you start navigation. Once open, it shows a row of large icons for calls, messages, and media apps that are easy to see and access while driving. Weirdly, when you first launch that mode within Maps, it offers to pin the other Driving Mode to your home screen.
Google is shutting down Assistant Driving Mode because it noticed that most people were just using the Maps version, it told 9to5Google. However, folks may not have even known the Assistant version existed because of the naming confusion and similarity between the apps. Google should maybe clarify the situation around navigation and entertainment for folks who don't have Android Auto built into their vehicles, because it's pretty darn confusing.
Cinewhoop drones are all the rage right now, as they can dive and twist and speed through unreachable places to produce spectacular footage. DJI has jumped on that trend with the Avata, an FPV drone that’s far removed from the company’s speedy DJI model actually called the FPV. Instead, the Avata is more about agility and has propeller guards that make it safe to fly around people.
It’s available with the new Goggles 2 that are smaller and lighter than the Goggles V2 that come with the DJI FPV drone. You can also get it with an updated Motion Controller that lets you steer the Avata by moving your wrists.
The system could help drone users get into the world of FPV and cinewhoop, but it isn’t cheap at $1,388 with the Goggles 2 and Motion Controller. To find out how it compares to the FPV and other drones, I enlisted my drone pilot friend Samuel to test it in a number of challenging scenarios.
Body
The Avata doesn’t look like any of DJI’s other consumer drones. To fly indoors, around people or in tight spaces, it has prop guards and a small, 7-inch square by 3.1-inch high body. At 410 grams it’s much lighter than the FPV, but a bit heavier than the 249-gram Mini 3 Pro. As such, it requires registration or a license in Europe, the US and many other countries.
The batteries use a flexible connector designed to limit crash damage. DJI claims up to 18 minutes of flight time, but we generally got around 10-12 minutes, or even less if we flew it extremely fast. That’s still good for an FPV drone (most are under 10 minutes), but DJI should be a bit more realistic in its marketing.
The Avata’s battery charges in about 45 minutes, and you can get two extra batteries and a charger with the $279 Fly-More kit. Samuel indicated that if he bought one for his photography business, he’d get six batteries at a minimum.
Steve Dent/Engadget
I’d also buy the largest microSD cards possible, because the slot tucked underneath is extremely awkward to access – particularly when removing a card. The USB-C port for transfers and charging is equally hard to get to. DJI normally excels with these types of features, but these are honestly serious design flaws. On the plus side, the Avata has 20GB of internal storage that can serve in a pinch.
Underneath are two time-of-flight sensors that can detect and map ground obstacles. However, the Avata doesn’t have any forward-facing sensors, so its main protection is the prop guards and rugged design.
The Avata Pro View Combo ships with the DJI Motion Controller as the only way to fly the drone. You can also use the FPV Remote Controller 2, but it’s sold separately for $200.
Also included in that bundle are the new Goggles 2 – not to be confused with the Goggles V2. They’re smaller and lighter than the latter, and use micro-LED instead of OLED panels, with 1080p resolution for each eye compared to 810p on Goggles V2. You can use the V2 with the Avata and FPV, but the Goggles 2 only work with the Avata.
The extra sharpness and small size are nice, but you can’t wear glasses underneath the Goggles 2. Instead, they have built in diopters to correct your eyesight. If you have astigmatism, DJI includes lens mountings that you can send back to have your prescription made.
Samuel wasn’t crazy about the diopter. While they gave him a clear view, he often had to remove the headset to see the drone, which meant he needed to put his glasses back on. He found the Goggles V2 easier as he can wear his glasses underneath.
The Goggles 2 let you fly the Avata with no mobile phone, as they have a mini-version of the DJI Fly app built-in. If you want to let others have a view, you can connect a smartphone via USB-C port on the side, though. The Goggles 2 control the Avata via DJI’s Ocusync O3, providing a 50Mbps video feed from up to 6.2 miles away. However, we noticed that the Goggles V2 provide a stronger feed over a longer distance, probably because of the larger antennas.
Performance
Steve Dent/Engadget
The Avata is a blast to fly, but it’s not as fast as some FPV drones. It tops out at 60 MPH in manual mode, well under the 87 MPH of DJI’s FPV. And that’s in manual mode – sport and normal modes are considerably slower at 31 MPH and 18 MPH, respectively.
It has awesome maneuverability though, letting you fly in places you’d never take another drone. We took it around handball players during a practice, between our legs, through the small gap in a sign, around a castle rooftop and indoors with people and fragile things around. It’s also tough. We had a number of crashes that would have killed an open-prop drone. It can also bounce off a person without doing them any harm.
Considering that the Avata might be the first FPV drone for many people, selling it with the Motion Controller is a good idea – but not as the only option. DJI should also sell a bundle with the FPV Controller 2, which offers more precise control for advanced users. As it stands now, you have to pay an extra $199 to get it.
The Motion Controller is easy to use – you simply point it where you want to fly and pull the trigger to speed up. To climb, tilt the controller upward and apply power, and reverse that for descents. A large button on top brings it to a hover, and the red button lets you take off and land.
Steve Dent/Engadget
It has some limitations, though. You can’t transition vertically or fly backwards with the Motion Controller, so you have to use a button to land. It also lacks precision, especially indoors. In fact, we found that without a GPS lock inside, the Avata was sometimes unflyable with the Motion Controller.
If you have some experience, the FPV Controller 2 is a better option. It allows you to engage manual mode to cruise faster, fly low to the ground and zag between trees or rooftops. Inside, you can fly precisely between rooms, objects and people, just like you may have seen in some of those cool cinewhoop FPV videos.
Manual mode also opens up flips, dives, climbs, hairpin turns, rolls and other tricks. Just bear in mind that there are no sensor safeguards. While Avata drone is tough, it’s not unbreakable and could really hurt someone at 60 MPH. It’s also more unstable, so flying it requires serious skill. It is a ton of fun, though, with the speed and lack of safeguards providing a real adrenaline rush that you don’t get from other drones.
Video quality
Most so-called Cinewhoop FPV drones use external cameras like the GoPro Hero Bones (or just regular stripped-down GoPros), but the Avata has one built in. It uses the same size 1/1.7-inch sensor as the new Action 3 camera, with 64 percent more area than the FPV.
Like the Action 3, it has normal, wide and ultra-wide options with up to a 155 degree field of view. And on top of the built-in gimbal and RockSteady smoothing, it has the HorizonView option to keep things level, even if the drone is tilting heavily.
The gimbal and RockSteady stabilization keep video smooth despite wind or abrupt maneuvers. And the HorizonView option worked as advertised, keeping things level for even when we were slaloming between trees.
It supports 4K video at up to 60 fps or 1080p and 2.7K at 120 fps with the Goggles V2, but only 100 fps with the Goggles 2. It’s not ideal that it has slower speeds than the headset it’s sold with, but it’s apparently due to the higher resolution. The sensor has 48 megapixels for shooting photos, if you ever want to do that.
Considering the camera’s small size, image quality is solid. Video is sharp and colors are accurate, though they can be a bit oversaturated. If you need a bit more dynamic range, it has DJI’s D-Cinelike mode.
It’s not bad in low light for shooting cityscapes or well-lit interiors, with an ISO range up to 12800 in expanded mode. You still need a decent amount of light, though, or video will get blocky and grainy in a hurry. If it gets too bad, it’s unfixable in post, so make sure to have enough light if shooting indoors.
Overall, it’s a very solid camera, though not up to, say, GoPro’s standards. The camera is part of a holistic package though – combined with the Avata’s small size and maneuverability, it gets shots no other off-the-shelf drones can.
Wrap-up
Steve Dent/Engadget
In sum, the Avata is a fun, rugged and maneuverable little drone that produces great footage, but it does have some weird flaws and limitations. The Goggles 2 limit the slow-motion and aren’t ideal if you wear glasses. Plus the Motion Controller isn’t ideal for precise FPV flying, and the microSD slot and USB-C port are poorly positioned.
It’s also fairly costly. Though the base drone is $629, it’s $1,388 with the Goggles 2 and Motion Controller, plus another $279 with the Fly-More kit. If you add the FPV Remote Controller 2, that’s another $199. By comparison, the FPV bundled with the Goggles V2 and older Motion Controller costs $1,300.
Still, there aren’t many other ready-to-fly drones that can do what it does. If you want a highly maneuverable and relatively safe Cinewhoop-style drone without building one yourself, it’s really in a class by itself.
Meta has sued companies doing business as "HeyMods," "Highlight Mobi" and "HeyWhatsApp" for stealing over a million accounts using unofficial WhatsApp Android apps, Bleeping Computer has reported. The malware-infested apps were available on several APK sites and even the Google Play Store, according to the complaint.
"After victims installed the Malicious Applications, they were prompted to enter their WhatsApp user credentials," according to the suit filed in the US District Court in San Francisco. "The Defendants programmed the Malicious Applications to communicate the user's credentials to WhatsApp's computers and obtain the users' account keys and authentication information."
We’ll of course continue our efforts to detect and block these kinds of apps going forward. We're also taking enforcement action against HeyMods to stop future harm, and will further explore legal options to hold HeyMods and others like them accountable.
The apps in question are called "Theme Store for Zap" and "AppUpdater for WhatsPlus 2021 GB Yo FM HeyMods" among others. The latter app was installed more than a million times for the Google Play Store, according to Bleeping Computer.
WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart warned users not to download the fake apps, saying they "were just a scam to steal personal information stored on people's phones." He added that Meta's findings were shared with Google, and in July, Google Play Protect was updated to detect and disable the fake apps. "We're also taking enforcement action against HeyMods... and will explore legal options to hold HeyMods and others like them accountable," he said.
Meta said the developers effectively breached their agreements, though jurisdiction isn't clear as the complaint indicates that the companies are organized under the laws of three different regions (Hong Kong, Beijing and Taiwan). In any case, Cathcart gave some advice that applies universally to any app: "If you see friends or family using a different form of WhatsApp please encourage them to only use WhatsApp from a trusted app store or our official website directly at http://WhatsApp.com/dl."
In 2020, Apple was hit with a record €1.1 billion fine ($1.2 billion at the time) in France over antitrust practices with two wholesalers. Now, the Paris court of appeals has reduced the penalty by two thirds to just €371.6 million ($364.6 million today), Reuters has reported. The court ruled that the original fine was "disproportionate," and reduced it to an amount "sufficient to guarantee that the penalties are repressive and dissuasive."
According to the original complaint, Apple and its distribution partners Ingram Micro and Tech Data agreed not to compete with one another, "thereby sterilizing the wholesale market for Apple products." This forced other premium distributors to keep prices high to match those of integrated distributors. Apple immediately announced plans to appeal the decision, calling it "disheartening" and saying it discarded 30 years of legal precedent in France.
Apple still isn't satisfied, telling Bloomberg it plans to file another appeal at France's top court to eliminate the fine altogether. France's antitrust agency (l'Autorité de la concurrence) is also considering an appeal. "We would like to reaffirm our desire to guarantee the dissuasive nature of our penalties, especially when it concerns market players of the caliber of [big tech companies]," said l'Autorité communications director Virginie Guin.
The reduction is part of an ongoing battle between France and the EU and Silicon Valley tech firms. Last year, Google was fined €500 million over its news dominance in France, and recently lost an appeal in a €4.34 billion EU antitrust case over its Android system dominance, though the fine was reduced to €4.12 billion ($4.04 billion).
With a solid blend of power and portability Apple's 2021 iPad Mini tablet is a popular choice — but it's not exactly an impulse buy at $500. If you've been eyeing one, the 64GB model is now on sale at Amazon for $400 (20 percent off) in three colors, matching the lowest price we've seen.
With its fresh and modern design, solid performance and improved cameras, the iPad mini 2021 earned a solid 89 Engadget review score. It has similar specs to the iPhone 13, with the same speedy A15 Bionic chip that delivers a big jump in performance over the fifth-gen model. It comes with a larger 8.3-inch display with higher 2,266 x 1,488 resolution than the previous models, and eliminates the physical home button, moving the Touch ID sensor to the power button. The volume buttons, meanwhile, are at the top to make room for Apple Pencil 2 that can be attached to the side magnetically.
Other features include USB-C charging and upgraded cameras with support from Apple's Center Stage feature, keeping you in the center of the frame during video calls. The main downsides are the lack of a headphone jack, limited 64GB of storage on the base model and fairly high price compared to tablets with comparable specs. Amazon has certainly taken the edge off the price, but it's best to act soon before the deal ends.
Google just launched its Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro smartphones, and as expected, the cameras haven't changed much from the previous model, hardware-wise. As usual though, Google has introduced a bunch of new and useful AI software camera tricks powered by the new Tensor G2 chip, including updates to Real Tone, along with the new Super Res Zoom, Photo Unblur and Cinematic Blur features. It also unveiled the very cool "Guide Frame" feature that helps visually impaired people take selfies.
One that's bound to be popular (and maybe overused) is Cinematic Blur. This gives you the same portrait-like blurred backgrounds for video that you get in photos, helping the subject stand out better. It's apparently made possible by the high speed and low latency of the Tensor G2 chip, delivering a "beautifully shallow depth of field," Google said.
Google
Also new is Photo Unblur, essentially a version of the Pixel 6's Face Unblur feature that works on any type of photo — and will only be available on Pixel 7 devices for now. With just a few taps, you can remove blur and other issues from older photos, potentially giving them a new life.
Next up is an update to Real Tone, first introduced last year, that improves skin tones on a diverse range of people. Google has added thousands of new sample images to its dataset to improve the feature for a wider range of skin tones. And now, it works with Google's low-light Night Sight mode and Portrait mode as well.
Google
The Super Res Zoom, meanwhile, doubles the optical resolution at a given zoom range, while letting you zoom up to 30x. It fixes potential noise by "remosaicing" the image to maximize sharpness. The result is a full 12.5-megapixel resolution photo at a 2x on the Pixel 7 and 10x on the Pixel 7 Pro. The aim is to provide the highest quality across the zoom range, rather than having only certain zoom levels (2x, 5x, etc.) looking good.
Zoom stabilization is another new feature that effectively upscales wide zoom photos while providing steadier shots than you'd get on. It also added 10-bit HDR capture, letting you capture brighter and more colorful photos and take best advantage of the HDR display. And finally, for the Pixel 7 Pro, Google introduced a new Macro focus that takes advantage of the wider field of view to allow for improved closeup shots.
Finally, Guided Frame is a new accessibility feature that tells visually impaired users exactly where to move their device to take a well-composed selfie. The voice coach will ask you to go up, down, or to the side, until its AI believes you're in the best place to shoot. Along with True Tone, it's one of the new features Google revealed to burnish its accessibility and inclusivity.
Apart from that, both the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro still come with 50-MP main and 12-MP wide cameras, with the Pixel 7 Pro using the same 48-MP telephoto camera as before. Both the pro and regular models have the same 10.8-MP front camera, compared to the 8-megapixel camera on the Pixel 6 Pro.
Uber has signed a 10-year agreement to use autonomous Ioniq 5 EVs from Hyundai's Motional for ride-hailing and deliveries, the companies announced. The vehicles will be "strategically deployed" in cities around the US and start offering passenger rides later this year.
"This agreement will be instrumental to the wide scale adoption of robotaxis," said Motional CEO Karl Iagnemma. "Motional now has unparalleled access to millions of riders and a roadmap to scale significantly over the next ten years."
The companies are already working together. Late last year, Uber announced that it would test autonomous food delivery with Motional (a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv) sometime in 2022. Motional is also working with Lyft, having started public tests in Las Vegas and Los Angeles back in August with the ride-hailing firm. (Uber used to have its own autonomous vehicle division called Advanced Technologies Group, but sold it to Aurora Innovation back in 2020.)
Uber will provide Motional with data to help it best allocate and position vehicles. In turn, Motional said its autonomous vehicles will allow for "reduced vehicle downtime and unnecessary miles traveled." It'll also supposedly lead to a better customer experience, with lower wait times and fares.
We've heard similar promises before, but so far, only Alphabet division Waymo and GM's Cruise are offering true driverless services at a reasonably large scale. The Waymo One service is operating in Phoenix and San Francisco, while Cruise rides are currently limited to San Francisco. Both operate only in specific areas of cities and some vehicles still use safety riders.
Motional got off to a later start than both those companies, but has completed more than 100,000 autonomous rides in Las Vegas using previous versions of its vehicles on the Lyft network, it said in August. However, the companies plan to ramp that up soon. "The scope of this partnership shows the important role that shared autonomous vehicles will play in the future of transportation, and in Uber’s strategy to be the global platform to help you go anywhere and get anything," said Uber's autonomous driving chief Noah Zych.
Nanoleaf, known for its modular wall lighting tiles, has teamed up with gaming company Corsair to make your setup more immersive and colorful. A new integration called Nanoleaf x CORSAIR lets you sync up Nanoleaf's smart lights to in-game explosions, actions and sounds.
The integration works with Corsair's portfolio of peripherals, including keyboards, gaming mice and headsets. Much as you can with your keyboard or PC peripheral lights, you'll be able to program lighting effects on your wall using the Nanoleaf or Corsair iCue apps on your desktop. To give a flavor, they have names like "Rainbow Wave" and "Rain," similar to what you may have seen for keyboard lighting effects.
Nanoleaf
To set it up, you install the iCUE software, then switch on the Nanoleaf integration and add Nanoleaf to iCUE lighting. At that point, everything will work together and provide "synchronized lighting across your whole setup," according to Nanoleaf.
Nanoleaf offers kits for gamers, and already offers integration with Razer (using Synapse 3) and MSI via Mystic Light — so working with Corsair's peripherals seems a natural extension of this. Aside from creating some extra vibes for game environments, they'll let you get even more creative with your lighting setup.
