Microsoft on Monday announced a pilot program to hire workers with autism.
The company is working with an organization called Specialisterne, which helps create and find jobs for autistic workers. Microsoft will focus on filling full-time positions at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The news comes just after World Autism Awareness Day, which was last Thursday.
Microsoft has been "committed to enabling people with disabilities to be successful for a long time," said Mary Ellen Smith, Microsoft's corporate vice president for operations. In a blog poston the company's site, Smith noted that her 19-year-old son Shawn was diagnosed with autism when he was 4 years old.
"Microsoft is stronger when we expand opportunity and we have a diverse workforce that represents our customers. People with autism bring strengths that we need at Microsoft," Smith wrote. "Each individual is different, some have amazing ability to retain information, think at a level of detail and depth or excel in math or code. It’s a talent pool that we want to continue to bring to Microsoft."
Smith did not specify how many workers would be hired under the program.
Other software companies have also recognized that people with autism can bring special skills to the workforce. SAPannounced a similar program in conjunction with Specialisterne in 2013.
In a recent study, Microsoft's workforce efforts earned it recognition for being among the top-ranked diverse companies.
Candidates interested in Microsoft's pilot program can email resumes to msautism@microsoft.com.
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Microsoft manager Satya Nadella presents his vision for the future of the software company at the developer conference 'Build' in San Francisco, USA, 02 April 2014.
Microsoft's biggest event of the year is about to begin.
The company's annual Build developer conference kicks off Wednesday with an opening keynote from CEO Satya Nadella and other top execs who will share the latest on Windows 10, HoloLens and more.
If you want to follow along with every second of the two and a half hour keynote, Microsoft will be streaming the entire event on Build's website beginning at 8:30 a.m PT Wednesday.
The company is expected to preview the latest updates to Windows 10, which will run across phones, tablets and PCs. We're also likely to hear more about the latest Office apps, HoloLens, Microsoft'snew browser and the company's Siri rival, Cortana.
Microsoft, which has been increasingly focused on cross-platform experiences since Nadella took over, may also reveal new ways developers can bring existing Android apps to its platform.
With so many updates in the works, it's sure to be a jam-packed keynote so stay tuned as Mashable will be reporting live from the event in San Francisco with all the latest news and analysis.
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What can I say about the iPad mini 3 that hasn’t already been said? No, seriously, what can I say? Apple’s latest mini is essentially the same product as the first iPad Mini With Retina display with exactly four upgrades, only three of which are significant.
Apple’s iPad Mini 3 is exactly the same size and shape as the last model: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.29 inches. It still features a 2,048 x 1,536 Retina resolution screen, but did not get new screen technology so it's not as thin as the iPad Air 2.
Its four new features are the Touch ID home button, secure element for Apple Pay, iOS 8.1 and a gold finish option.
The last one is only worth mentioning if you care about a gold finish — oh, wait,a lot of people do. Fine. Let’s get this over with. Even though it’s not real gold, the iPad Mini 3 in gold-covered aluminum looks sharp and expensive. You can also choose space gray or white.
Still so good
The reality is, the iPad Mini With Retina was already an excellent mid-size tablet, easily my favorite. So I’m not terribly disappointed to see that Apple did almost nothing to change it. Rather, I am surprised.
Consider the new iPad Air 2 — released concurrently with the iPad Mini 3. It's noticeably thinner and lighter than the last iPad. It also has more powerful components, including that fully laminated, extra-slim, and incredibly good-looking screen. It seems that, at least for now, Apple is officially anointing the 9.7-inch iPad Air 2 as its flagship tablet. I also suspect that Apple may be trying to push the concept of productivity a bit harder than before, and no Apple mobile device is better equipped to handle word processing or image and video editing than the iPad Air 2.
That said, you can get a heck of a lot done with the iPad Mini 3. It actually has the same resolution screen as the iPad Air 2, which makes everything look super sharp.
Under the hood you’ll still find the 64-bit A7 CPU and M7 motion coprocessor. They’re just as effective at a multitude of tasks as before. Due to its size, the Mini is especially good for book and magazine reading, but it handles videos and gaming equally well.
Also unchanged is the iSight camera. It’s still 5 megapixels, which now further pales in comparison to the iPad Air 2’s 8MP iSight camera and the iPhone 6’s more powerful (better image sensor and image processing) 8MP iSight camera. iOS 8 does add some cool camera features like timelapse, but unlike the iPad Air 2, there’s no slo-mo.
The front-facing FaceTime camera is still 1.2MP and capable of capturing 720p video, meaning it's unchanged from the last iPad Mini and matches the iPad Air 2.
Touch ID
The iPad Mini 3's new touch ID home button.
IMAGE: MASHABLE, CHRISTINA ASCANI
Aside from the gold skin, the iPad Mini 3’s only other visible difference is the Touch ID home button. I’ve loved this feature ever since Apple brought it to the iPhone 5S and am thrilled to find it here (and on the iPad Air 2). It’s a real pleasure to register fingers and then unlock the device with a press (to wake) and a touch to unlock and to use it to buy apps and make in-app purchases.
With iOS 8, Apple is extending the utility of Touch ID. Now third-party developers can access it, though few Touch ID-compatible apps were available for this review. Of course, there’s also Apple Pay.
Like the iPad Air 2, the iPad Mini 3 supports Apple Pay for in-app purchases. In the app for hotel booking site Hotel Tonight, you can use Apple Pay and Touch ID to book a room.
Understand, though, that Apple Pay would not work on either the iPad Mini 3 or the iPad Air 2 if they did not also include another new piece of hardware: the aforementioned secure element. It holds device-specific credit-card information and cannot be read by you or anyone else. The merchant gets the device-specific card number and passes it on to the credit card issuer, who connects it to your real credit card number. Thus, a transaction is completed.
A changing tablet landscape
The iPad Mini 3 ranges in price from $399 for the 16GB Wi-Fi-only model up to $729 for the Wi-Fi + LTE 128GB model. The previous generation iPad Mini Retina starts at $299 at 16GB and maxes out at $479 for a 32GB Wi-Fi + LTE model.
Interestingly, there is no 32GB model for the iPad Mini 3. The question you have to ask yourself is: How much is Touch ID worth? It’s really the only significant new feature. You'll get iOS 8.1 on last year’s model, the iPad Mini With Retina Display, which means you still get better email, messaging, photo management and Continuity with Yosemite Macs (start browsing a web page on the iPad, finish on the MacBook). You’ll also have the same performance and high-resolution Retina screen.
It is unfortunate that you can’t even get a 64GB iPad Mini Retina, but 32GB is just enough storage, and you do get some free iCloud space (5GB). And, no, Apple’s iPads do not offer upgradeable memory via microSD card like many Android tablets do.
Ultimately, the iPad Mini 3, like the iPad Mini before it, is an excellent mid-size tablet. I still prefer it for its design and mobile operating system over my second favorite mid-size product, the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX. But, there's no getting around the increasing value disparity. The 7-inch HDX offers a quad-core Snapdragon processor and starts at $179 for a 16GB model. Obviously, it lacks a rear camera (it has a front-facing one) and a fingerprint reader, but adds other consumer-friendly features like X-Ray to dive into the details of your content and May Day 24/7 tech support.
I just wish Apple had acknowledged that its new iPad Mini 3 is really still last year’s model and lowered the base price of the entire Mini line. It would certainly help it compete more effectively with products such as the Kindle Fire HDX. At $499 for the Mini 3, you're left wondering if you should just kick in another $100 and get the much more powerful and substantially larger iPad Air 2.
Apple has a great product here, but I don’t think it’s fair to charge a premium price for what clearly isn’t your premium tablet.
Apple iPad mini 3
The Good
Excellent screen and design •iOS 8/8.1 features, including time-lapse and Apple Pay •Touch ID fingerprint scanner adds convenience
The Bad
Minimal updates over last model, Relatively pricey
The Bottom Line
The iPad mini 3 is a great tablet, but so was the iPad mini With Retina Display. Can Apple really justify the premium price for last year’s (slightly updated) model?
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The LG G3 was one of the first phones to boast a Quad HD display. Up next: smartphones with 4K resolution.
I
If you think the ultra-sharp Quad HDdisplays on today's state-of-the-art smartphones are as good as it gets, think again. According to Qualcomm, who builds many of today's key technologies in mobile, 4K smartphones are just around the corner, and they'll take pixel counts to an — arguably absurd — new level.
When Apple debuted the iPhone 4 back in 2010, it introduced the idea of "Retina"displays, which loosely means a display with a resolution so sharp that the pixels disappear to the naked eye, at least at normal viewing distances. Since then, every smartphone manufacturer has responded with ultra-high-res screens on their flagship phones, sometimes going way beyond what was once considered excessive.
The standard in flagship phone displays hit 1080p (the same resolution as an HDTV) about a year ago, and the top phones rolling out of factories in Asia now sport Quad HD displays: screens with 2,560 x 1,440 — or 3.7 million pixels. Unless you're literally holding the phone right up to your face, you'll never be able to see a single one of them.
That's a lot of pixels, but just you wait. Qualcomm says phones with 4K resolution — the same as today's most advanced televisions — are coming in 2015.
The dawn of 4K in phones isn't just about how many pixels are on the screen. To Qualcomm in particular, it's more about supporting a world where 4K is the new standard for video, which involves everything from the chip to the compression technologies used to transmit the files.
"Where 4K will really take off is when you think of it being enabled by an ecosystem," says Qualcomm Technologies Co-President Murthy Renduchintala. "Concepts are going to drive it. It's not going to be the phone screen that's going to be the promoting factor in 4K. It's going to be what you want to do with data that's captured on your phone in 4K, and what you want to do with distributing data."
That ecosystem is already forming now that phones like the Sony Xperia Z3 andSamsung Galaxy Note 4 able to capture 4K video. While the footage gives users something to watch on their 4K TVs other than House of Cards, it exacerbates issues with bandwidth and storage. Many phones still have just 16GB (or even 8GB) of storage — perilously little when the resolution is 3,840 x 2,160 for every frame.
"A large part of the content you want in 4K, you can literally store at the 'edge' of your network, in a cached state, without having to reach back for those large file sizes in real time," explains Renduchintala. "You don't have to [accept] latency. You can — opportunistically — download bucketloads of content and have it sitting on a storage network that's independent. Then the problem becomes, 'How do I distribute that data around my network, which may be my house."
4K support on phones will also help mobile gaming keep up with consoles. As games begin to embrace 4K, the phones will be able to keep up, with (presumably) less need to "dumb down" functionality or gameplay on a mobile device — even if the actual screen being used is an external one.
"If you get an Android or iOS game in 4K, it'll give you the same immersive experience as a console game, but it [may] cost $1.99," says Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm Technologies' other co-president. "It could be a device that interacts with your TV; mobile is like your own remote control — you generate content, you transmit content, you have content streamed to you. But then you need to deal with 4K data processing on the mobile phone, and that's the problem we're solving."
As for the phone itself, the one most direct application of 4K resolution is virtual reality. Some VR products, including the Samsung Gear VR, use a smartphone display as the main screen. In that very specific (and currently tiny) use case, the pixels are just an inch from your eye, and the more resolution, the better.
VR aside, there probably isn't much justification from a user-experience standpoint for 4K displays on phones. Having tested several phones, I've found the improvement in resolution that Quad HD has over full HD to be discernible, but only barely, and for extremely remote situations (such as the incredibly precise handwriting experience on the Galaxy Note 4).
Still, it's hard to argue with the crux of Qualcomm's vision: that 4K video will soon be the standard in high-quality video, and phones — which are rapidly becoming the main gateway to our digital lives — will need to support it. You might call it overkill, but to the future, it's just Tuesday.
BONUS: 4K and 1080p compared
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Think that brand-new smartphone in your pocket is pretty cool? In just a few short months it’ll be officially obsolete. In early 2015, the first phones with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chip will arrive on store shelves, and they’re going to power all kinds of new experiences in the next generation of mobile devices.
Qualcomm Snapdragon processors power virtually all of today’s top-tier phones that aren’t iPhones. Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry — if it’s a flagship device (or close), chances are it packs a Snapdragon (although Nvidia’s Tegra line and Samsung’s home-grown chips make rare but notable appearances here and there).
A smartphone or tablet’s processor is the backbone of the entire experience. Every app, every push notification, every pixel is controlled by the CPU (although graphics are sometimes handled by a separate GPU). Greater computational power means enhanced abilities, and the company’s best chip on the market today — the Snapdragon 805 — enables experiences like the virtual reality environment on the Samsung Gear VR(created by a Qualcomm-poweredGalaxy Note 4).
The Snapdragon 810 will level-up things even further. In a briefing with reporters, Qualcomm demonstrated some of the practical new abilities its new processor will enable in next year’s smartphones.
Here are five things next year's smartphones, powered by the 810, will be able to do that this year's can't:
1. Juggle 4K video
This display has 4K resolution, but the device is also capable of wirelessly streaming 4K video to a display.
IMAGE: MASHABLE, CHRISTINA ASCANI
Yes, smartphones such as the LG G3already have Quad HD (2,560 x 1,440) displays, which more pixels than you’ll ever need, but the new phones will be more about moving 4K video around than actually displaying it. A phone with a Snapdragon 810 will be able to wirelessly stream a 4K video (4,096 x 2,160) to a TV with just a few taps. Of course, you’ll need a TV or dongle capable of receiving it, but that’s in the works, too.
And just where will we get all the 4K video? Qualcomm believes that we’ll create it ourselves, and there’s good reason to think that. Most flagship smartphones can already shoot 4K video (it requires only an 8-megapixel camera), and the company estimates 500 million devices will be 4K-capable by 2018. An ecosystem needs to arise to deal with those big video files, and the 810 enables exactly that.
2. Simulate an optical zoom
The computational power of the Snapdragon 810 chip will let smartphone cameras like this one simulate the zoom power of a DSLR lens.
IMAGE: MASHABLE, CHRISTINA ASCANI
There’s a new kind of smartphone camera, made by Core Photonics, that’s actually two cameras: a normal wide-angle imager, and one with a fixed telephoto lens that magnifies the image about 3x. Using the serious computing power in the Qualcomm chip, the phone can combine the two images to create a picture that Core Photonics claims is better than what a DSLR can capture, at low zoom levels.
Checking out a live demo of the camera, I could read the text in a Peanuts cartoon that the camera was aimed at, even though the zoom was engaged at about 8x. The picture from a normal camera, displayed alongside the Photonics cam, was noticeably blurrier, and the text was illegible.
3. Record directional audio
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chip will enable directional audio recording while capturing video, letting the camera capture individual voices in a loud room.
IMAGE: MASHABLE, CHRISTINA ASCANI
One big issue with capturing video on cellphones is audio quality. With the new chip, the phone will be able to process sound in a way that captures it in specific directions. If you, say, just want to record audio from the person you’re filming, you’ll be able to tell your camera you just want his or her voice, and nothing else.
4. Serve as your home PC
This receiver enables a Snapdragon 810-powered tablet to become a home PC by connecting to a monitor, keyboard and mouse wirelessly.
With this much computing power in a phone or tablet, it can actually serve as a PC workstation, connecting wirelessly to a workstation with a monitor and keyboard. With a device not much bigger than a Chromecast, a Qualcomm-powered tablet can power a the workstation, connected via the next generation of Wi-Fi, called 802.11ad (akaWiGig).
The Snapdragon 810 will be the first Qualcomm chip to support 802.11ad, which is about 5x the speed of the current 802.11ac standard. That’s good enough for 4K and then some, although it’s going to require new hardware all around.
5. Game like a console
A Snapdragon 810-powered smartphone or tablet can do double duty as a game console, wirelessly streaming gameplay to a TV.
IMAGE: MASHABLE, CHRISTINA ASCANI
Finally, a phone or tablet powered by a Snapdragon 810 processor will be a pretty good substitute for a game console. While Android has had difficulty in becoming a fully fledged game platform, next year’s hardware will be superb for gaming, able to connect to an external monitor wirelessly with ease for gaming on a big screen.
All these new abilities are just demonstrations at this point — it’s up to manufacturers to implement them. But they certainly will, and tomorrow’s smartphones will surely play an even greater role in our digital lives than they do now… if that’s even possible.
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The HTC Re Grip is the company's first wearable: a smart band aimed at runners and gym-goers.
You can't throw a smartphone in a Best Buy without establishing a Bluetooth connection with some kind of fitness tracker, so when HTC decided to enter the wearables market, it wanted to be sure it stood out. The result: The HTC Re Grip, a smart band aimed at runners and gym-goers.
The band is one part fitness tracker, one part GPS band and one part smartwatch. It resembles a Nike+ FuelBand, with a similar low-res display built into the band. But the Grip is larger, more ruggedized and actually more comfortable.
I only wore the Re Grip for a few minutes, and not continuously as I exercised (as it's intended), but I preferred it to the FuelBand's more rigid exterior, and was able to type while wearing the HTC wearable with no problems.
The neon yellow color on the inside of the band is a dead giveaway that the the Grip is a sports tracker, and the device is equipped with sensors to measure your movements for various activities (running, cycling, etc.). Importantly, it has built-in GPS so it can track your location when your smartphone isn't close by — runners especially will find that feature useful.
Of course, any tracking wearable needs an accompanying app, and HTC decided not to start from scratch and instead partnered with Under Armour to take advantage of its platform, a partnershipannounced back in January. The UA Record app is on iOS, Android and the web, although it isn't integrated with Apple Health or Google Fit... at least not yet.
The HTC Re Grip works with the UA Record app, made by Under Armour, on iOS and Android.
IMAGE: UNDER ARMOUR
HTC opted not to include a heart-rate monitor on the Re Grip for a simple reason: The company doesn't think wrist monitors are very accurate. For the sports enthusiast, that accuracy is important, and HTC recommends third-party chest straps.
HTC emphasizes that the Grip is intended to be a powerful and durable tracker even when your phone is nowhere near it, boasting 2.5 days of battery life when GPS is turned off, and 5 hours when it's on. Even though the band doesn't need your smartphone, it's even more useful when it's close, displaying call and text notifications on the 1.8-inch PMOLED screen as they come in.
The HTC Re Grip comes in three sizes to accommodate all kinds of wrists.
IMAGE: MASHABLE, WILLIAM SANDS
Of course the band is waterproof with anIP57 rating, meaning it can be immersed in 3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes. It's available in three sizes to accommodate a variety of wrists.
The Re Grip is the second product to fall under the Re sub-brand, which is a key focus for the company as it looks to finally stop struggling and fully break out of its niche. HTC strongly hints that several more Re products are in the pipeline, and the Re Camera may get a rebrand at some point so its name is less functional.
As for the Re Grip, it looks and feels like a strong first step into the wearables market, although by picking the most conventional of products (a tracking band) it's still a baby step. We look forward to the ecosystem growing.
BONUS: HTC's new flagship smartphone, the HTC One M9
The HTC One M9 has a similar design to last year's HTC One M8, although there are slight differences in the contours and buttons. The biggest change, however, is the camera: HTC ditched its "ultrapixel" camera in the rear imager, replacing it with a more conventional 20-megapixel shooter.
The HTC Re Grip is the company's first wearable: a smart band aimed at runners and gym-goers.
You can't throw a smartphone in a Best Buy without establishing a Bluetooth connection with some kind of fitness tracker, so when HTC decided to enter the wearables market, it wanted to be sure it stood out. The result: The HTC Re Grip, a smart band aimed at runners and gym-goers.
The band is one part fitness tracker, one part GPS band and one part smartwatch. It resembles a Nike+ FuelBand, with a similar low-res display built into the band. But the Grip is larger, more ruggedized and actually more comfortable.
I only wore the Re Grip for a few minutes, and not continuously as I exercised (as it's intended), but I preferred it to the FuelBand's more rigid exterior, and was able to type while wearing the HTC wearable with no problems.
The neon yellow color on the inside of the band is a dead giveaway that the the Grip is a sports tracker, and the device is equipped with sensors to measure your movements for various activities (running, cycling, etc.). Importantly, it has built-in GPS so it can track your location when your smartphone isn't close by — runners especially will find that feature useful.
Of course, any tracking wearable needs an accompanying app, and HTC decided not to start from scratch and instead partnered with Under Armour to take advantage of its platform, a partnershipannounced back in January. The UA Record app is on iOS, Android and the web, although it isn't integrated with Apple Health or Google Fit... at least not yet.
The HTC Re Grip works with the UA Record app, made by Under Armour, on iOS and Android.
IMAGE: UNDER ARMOUR
HTC opted not to include a heart-rate monitor on the Re Grip for a simple reason: The company doesn't think wrist monitors are very accurate. For the sports enthusiast, that accuracy is important, and HTC recommends third-party chest straps.
HTC emphasizes that the Grip is intended to be a powerful and durable tracker even when your phone is nowhere near it, boasting 2.5 days of battery life when GPS is turned off, and 5 hours when it's on. Even though the band doesn't need your smartphone, it's even more useful when it's close, displaying call and text notifications on the 1.8-inch PMOLED screen as they come in.
The HTC Re Grip comes in three sizes to accommodate all kinds of wrists.
IMAGE: MASHABLE, WILLIAM SANDS
Of course the band is waterproof with anIP57 rating, meaning it can be immersed in 3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes. It's available in three sizes to accommodate a variety of wrists.
The Re Grip is the second product to fall under the Re sub-brand, which is a key focus for the company as it looks to finally stop struggling and fully break out of its niche. HTC strongly hints that several more Re products are in the pipeline, and the Re Camera may get a rebrand at some point so its name is less functional.
As for the Re Grip, it looks and feels like a strong first step into the wearables market, although by picking the most conventional of products (a tracking band) it's still a baby step. We look forward to the ecosystem growing.
BONUS: HTC's new flagship smartphone, the HTC One M9
The HTC One M9 has a similar design to last year's HTC One M8, although there are slight differences in the contours and buttons. The biggest change, however, is the camera: HTC ditched its "ultrapixel" camera in the rear imager, replacing it with a more conventional 20-megapixel shooter.
