Technology

A controversial Google contract with the U.S. military will not be renewed next year after internal and public outcry against it, Gizmodo reports. The program itself was not particularly distasteful or lucrative, but served as a foot in the door for the company to pursue more government work that may very well have been both.

Project Maven, as the program was known, essentially had Google working with the military to perform image analysis on sensitive footage like that from drones flying over conflict areas.

A small but vocal group of employees has repeatedly called the company out for violating its familiar (but now deprecated) &Don&t be evil& motto by essentially taking a direct part in warfare. Thousands of employees signed a petition to end the work, and several even resigned in protest.

But more damaging than the loss of a few squeaky wheels has been the overall optics for Google. When it represented the contract as minor, and that it was essentially aiding in the administration of open-source software, the obvious question from the public was &so why not stop&

The obvious answer is that it isn&t minor, and that theremore to it than just a bit of innocuous support work. In fact, as reportage over the last few months has revealed, Maven seems to have been something like a pilot project intended to act as a wedge by which to gain access to other government contracts.

Part of the goal was getting the companysecurity clearance fast-tracked and thus gaining access to data by which it could improve its military-related offerings. And promises to Pentagon representatives detailed far more than facilitation of garden-variety AI work.

Gizmodosources say that Diane Greene, CEO of Google Cloud, told employees today at a meeting that the backlash was too much and that the companypriorities as regards military work have changed. They must have changed recently, since discussions have been ongoing right up until the end of 2017. I&ve asked Google for comment on the issue.

Whether the expiration of Project Maven will represent a larger change to Googlemilitary and government ambitions remains to be seen; some managers are surely saying to themselves right now that it would be a shame to have that security clearance go to waste.

Hinge, the dating app that promised a better set of prospects by suggesting matches who share Facebook friends, is about to radically change its course: itditching its requirement that users log in with Facebook. The change will go into effect on Monday, June 5th on Android, followed by a June 12th release on iOS.

While the option to use Facebook won&t be fully removed, users will instead be able to choose to authenticate using their phone number, the company says.

The decision was prompted by ongoing requests from users who have asked for a non-Facebook login option, Hinge founder and CEOJustin McLeod says. This is especially important to the company as people &move away from Facebook and onto other platforms,& he notes.

This may refer to younger users& preference for different social platforms, as reflected by a Pew Internet survey released this week, which found that teens are dumping Facebook proper for YouTube, Snapchat and (Facebook-owed) Instagram.

But Hinge isn&t the first dating app to go this route. Bumble also recently said it was removing the Facebook requirement, in response to user feedback.

In Hingecase, however, the decision changes the dating appfundamental value proposition, which was focused on matching singles with people they were already connected to by way of Facebook friends, up to three degrees away. The premise was that this would make online dating feel less creepy. And, because you shared mutual friends, you&d be less concerned that the person was a total nut.

This also helped Hinge stand out in a space thatdominated by Tinder, which could often seem random and filled with those not in search of &real relationships,& letsay.

Over the years, Hinge doubled down on this brand position with call-outs like &meet friends of friends, not randos& in its marketing materials.

Its user profiles, meanwhile, focus less on users& looks — unlike the Hot or Not-ish Tinder. Instead, users answer getting-to-know-you questions and share fun, personality-revealing facts on their profile, along with photos and videos. But the goal is to present not just the personface or body, but their goals, interests and way they view the world.

Hinge had also experimented with features that make online dating less frustrating, ranging from anti-ghosting reduction featuresto an app that allows your friends to take over for you. (This has since shut down.)

Itunclear how well these moves have paid off for Hinge in the long run, as the company won&t share user numbers. It will only say the active member base has doubled since the beginning of the year. However, Sensor Tower estimates Hinge has more than 3 million worldwide downloads across both iOS and Android, 94 percent of which are in the U.S.

The removal of the Facebook requirement, not at all coincidentally, comes at an interesting time for dating app businesses in general, which have just learned Facebook now aims to compete with them directly.

In May, Facebook announced a new dating feature that would allow people to meet non-friends. Hinge took notice, as did others.

&Facebook Dating Looks a Whole Lot Like Hinge,& wrote Wired, for example.

&Itinteresting to see a company facing so many privacy concerns enter one of the most intimate spaces in tech today,& McLeod says of Facebookdating plans. &We&re flattered they chose to copy our designs, but ultimately we&re not worried about them as a competitor & our members are increasingly moving away from Facebook as a platform.&

Burn.

The updated Hinge app will offer users three ways to use Hinge: 1) they can continue to log in with Facebook as usual, 2) they can log in with their phone number, or 3) they can log in with a phone number, but use an option in the app to import select bio information from Facebook, for convenience.

After filling in the profile, users can disconnect from Facebook without losing the imported information, Hinge notes.

Hinge doesn&t believe the move away from Facebook as the underlying network will have an ill effect. Because of its robust profiles, which allow for the liking of individual pieces of content, it thinks its machine learning algorithms have advanced to the point where they can surpass &friends of friends& as a predictor of compatibility, the CEO says.

&Friends of friends is a symbol for what Hinge truly stands for: humanizing modern dating and fighting against the culture of shallow swiping,& says McLeod. &As the Hinge community continues to grow and evolve, we&re not relying on a single feature to best match our members; instead we&ll remain at the forefront of product development and double down on giving our members& the best offline experience,& he adds.

Itnot hard to get on board with Hingeoverall vision, but its app is still dwarfed by Tinder, which is now estimated to have more than 50 million users. Rival Bumble is growing as well, with some 22 million+ users. And because dating is ultimately a numbers game, Hinge needs the no-Facebook-needed policy to really boost its own.

According to the calendar, itsomehow already June. That means Apple annual Worldwide Developers Conference is just around the corner. As matter of fact, things kick off in San Jose on Monday morning at 10AM PT (1PM ET).

As ever, the main thrust of the show will be focused on developers — itright there in the name — but Apple also loves to use yearly spotlight as an opportunity to make some big announcements on the consumer side, as well. iOS and MacOS will no doubt be the focus of the show per usual, but ARKit, Home Kit, Watch OS and some hardware are likely to make strong showings at the event, as well.

Applecertainly surprised us before, but hereour best (educated) guesses at what the company will be showing off in the next week.

iOS

The company dropped the latest update to its mobile operating system just week. 11.4 provides some key insight into the state of the ecosystem and, perhaps, a glimpse into where Apple is going as it continues to build connections between its various software offerings. The home was the key this time out, as the company added AirPlay and improved HomePod functionality, among others.

A glimpse at iOS 12 could well be on the schedule for Monday morning. From the sound of leaks, rumors and the like, this latest major upgrade is more about increasing the overall stability of the operating system, rather than focusing on the latest flashy features — including bug fixes and helping improve the updates introduced in its predecessor.

That said, therelikely to be at least a few interesting new, consumer-facing additions to iOS this time out. NFC-based door unlocking is one of the more compelling rumors, this time around, bringing even more highly personal functionality to Applehandsets.

A bigger push into personal health seems like a no-brainer, given everything that Applebeen focusing on with its wearable. Just this morning, word of a new digital well being features made the rounds, bringing into sharp focus the amount of time users spend on their devices. If &Digital Health& does get added here, it will join the likes of Facebook and Google in a push to give users more insight into their hardware habits.

MacOS

Appledesktop operating seems poised to get a little less love that its mobile counterpart, this time out — but honestly, what else is new In fact, the biggest rumor on this front is the addition of so-called &Universal Apps,& which further blur the line between desktop and mobile. The system would essentially provide seamless syncing between apps on the two operating systems, allowing users to switch between devices, picking up where they left off.

WatchOS In spite of a recent rename, Wear OS got virtually no love at Google I/O the other week. But Appleown wearable initiative has been a much more consistent success story for the company. While the company seems unlikely to actually show off a newer version of the watch itself, we&ll probably get a glimpse at Watch OS 5. What, exactly the wearable OS will look like, however, is strictly conjecture at the moment, though the long-awaited addition of Spotify has been rumored, and fitness features, as ever, seem like a no-brainer.

ARKit

Speaking of no-brainers, Apple could use some news on the augmented reality front, after a full year of hype. ARKIT 2.0 has been rumored for the event, bringing the ability for multiple users to share the same AR environment, to facilitate IRL multi-person games and other activities.

Hardware

This being a developer conference, hardware is never the primary focus for the event, but it always seems to sneak its way in. After all, Applealready got the eyes of the tech world on it this week, so why announce some new gadgets

New MacBook Pros seem like a reasonable candidate for the event. New Intel processors under the hood are the likeliest addition on that front. And then therethe whole keyboard bit. The new switches have been a headache for the company since they were launched back in 2016, including reports of increased failure rates and the looming specter of class action suits. Now would be the perfect chance for the company to introduce a new-new version of the QWERTY.

Rumors have always been floating around with regard to a new MacBook Air — a product thatbeen MIA for some time now, particularly in the wake of the new standard MacBook. A cheaper version of the once revolutionary laptop is said to be coming at some point this year, and WWDC could be just the right launching pad.

iPhones seem pretty unlikely here, given the release schedule the company has adhered to, but much like the MacBook Air, the iPhone SE is due for a refresh. Perhaps the company will mix things up by tossing the four-inch iPhone into the mix.

AirPower is yet another wildcard. The company announced its all-device wireless charging pad in the fall, and we&ve not heard hide nor hair of it since, which is pretty unlike Apple. Maybe we&ll actually get a release timeframe this time out Also potentially on the list are a refreshed iPad Pro, which was missing at Applerecent education event and a cheaper HomePod. The latter seems the least likely of the bunch, but Applesmart speaker will likely get some love this time out.