Tech Nuggets with the Technology

Monday, July 15, 2019

Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus Unveiled, Coming in Asus ROG Phone 2

Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 855 Plus, a slightly upgraded version of Snapdragon 855 to offer better gaming, AR, and VR experience. https://ift.tt/2NXB66u

Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio Cameo in Spider-Man: Far From Home Revealed

Jake Gyllenhaal has confirmed that Mysterio has an Easter egg-type cameo in Spider-Man: Far From Home, just before Peter Parker steps into a Venice jewellery shop. https://ift.tt/2Sm6EkT

Symantec Said to Have Ended Talks to Sell to Broadcom Over Price

Symantec has walked away from negotiations to sell itself to chipmaker Broadcom Inc over price disagreements, people familiar with the matter said on Monday. https://ift.tt/2JNnRQB

Amazon Rivals Ride on Prime Day Marketing in the US as Protests Unfold

Amazon's Prime Day is now a major marketing opportunity and shopping event in the annual calendar for other US retail companies, rivalling the Thanksgiving holiday's Black Friday as a driver of... https://ift.tt/2JAs1MQ

Facebook Says It Won't Launch Libra Until Regulators Are Happy

Facebook said on Monday it would not proceed with the launch of its Libra cryptocurrency until regulatory concerns are addressed. https://ift.tt/30Bharr

Meredith Whittaker, AI researcher and an organizer of last year’s Google walkout, is leaving the company

Meredith Whittaker, founder of Google’s Open Research Group and one of the leaders of last year’s employee walkouts, is leaving the company. Google confirmed her departure, which was first disclosed on Twitter by a Google engineer and reported by Bloomberg, but had no additional comment. TechCrunch has also contacted Whittaker for comment.

Whittaker and another one of the walkout’s organizers, Claire Stapleton, said they had faced retaliation from Google after the protest. Other employees also claimed that they had experienced fallout as a result of their participation, which Google denied.

Thousands of employees around the world took part in the massive walkout last November to protest how Google handles sexual harassment and misconduct allegations. They asked the company to implement several measures against harassment and discrimination, including an end to forced arbitration, a publicly disclosed sexual harassment transparency report and a safe and anonymous process to report sexual misconduct.

The walkout came after a New York Times report that despite credible allegations of sexual misconduct against Android co-creator Andy Rubin, he had left Google with a $90 million payout package.

Over the past year, Google employees have also protested Project Dragonfly, the company’s censored search engine for China, and its contract with the Pentagon for the use of its AI tech to analyze drone videos. Google announced in June it would not renew the contract.

Whittaker, who is co-director of AI Now, an ethics committee affiliated with New York University, tweeted at the time that she was “incredibly happy about this decision, and have a deep respect for the many people who worked and risked to make it happen. Google should not be in the business of war.”