Author: JD
These Teens Designed An App To Help Track And Prevent Police Brutality
Inspired by the death of Michael Brown and other similar incidents, three Georgia siblings created Five-O to help keep local police accountable. Meet Ima, Caleb, and Asha Christian. They’re siblings and high school students from Decatur, Georgia. And they’ve come up with what they hope is a possible solution to police brutality and abuse: an app that lets citizens rate their interactions with local law enforcement. facebook.com “We had been hearing a lot about the scary and negative issues occurring in the media,” Ima (pronounced Ee-may) told BuzzFeed. “Most recently, the Michael Brown case, and we talk to our parents often about these issues and they really try to put everything into context for us. One of the things they really stress is that we focus on finding solutions.” With the help of some mentors, they came up with Five-O, an iPhone and Android app (currently in beta) that aims to empower citizens by providing a metric to hold local law enforcement accountable for their actions. youtube.com When the app launches, users will be able to document and rate their interactions with individual officers and departments. Community boards will track patterns of abuse, and provide a potential forum for problem-solving among the residents, the media, and the police bureaus themselves. But the app isn’t just about documenting the bad things; the siblings also think the positive interactions can serve as evidence for commendation. youtube.com youtube.com “We definitely want there to be a balance,” Ima said. “If someone has a positive interaction with the police… for example, an officer saved your cat, or was very courteous and professional, we want people to be able to document that too. We hope that law enforcement agencies with positive reviews can help by functioning as role models.” Five-O is the third app from the siblings’ company Pine Tart, inc. pinetartinc.com At 14, 15, and 16 years old, the siblings have been dabbling in computer science and coding for several years through school programs like MIT’s Scratch, CodeAcademy, and app development classes at nearby Georgia Tech and Emory University. Though the app has been in development for several months, Five-O has been getting recent attention and support from the tech and design communities — due to incidents like the one in Ferguson. pinetartinc.com “The main function of Five-O,” Ima said, “Is to give a voice to the community which hopefully results in a better functioning law enforcement system.” Five-O is currently in beta testing and will be released soon on iTunes and Google. For updates, follow Pine Tart on Twitter and Facebook.
Former KKK Leader Threatens To Expose Other Politicians With White Supremacist Ties
© Richard Ellis via Getty Images Former Klansman and congressional candidate David Duke discusses his bid for the seat opened by Rep. Bob Livingston during NBC’s ”Meet the Press” March 28, 1999 in Washington, DC. (photo by Richard Ellis) Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke issued a warning to Republicans who have criticized House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) for speaking to a white nationalist group in 2002, saying they “better be looking over their shoulders.” In an interview with Fusion, Duke said he has ties to politicians on both sides of the aisle, and he is ready to release names if criticism of Scalise continues: Overall, Duke was rather flabbergasted by the new focus on Scalise. He said he has hosted both Democratic and Republican legislators at everything from conferences to his children’s birthday parties. He said he has met with Democratic legislators at least 50 times in his political life.And he delivered a warning to both Republicans and Democrats: Treat Scalise fairly, and don’t try to make political hay out of the situation. Or he said he would be inclined to release a list of names of all the politicians — both Republicans and Democrats — with whom he has ties. “If Scalise is going to be crucified — if Republicans want to throw Steve Scalise to the woods, then a lot of them better be looking over their shoulders,” Duke said. Scalise has struggled to distance himself from Duke since a Louisiana blogger revealedearlier this week that the GOP leader had associated with the former KKK Grand Wizard and had spoken to a group Duke founded, the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, in 2002. “I didn’t know who all of these groups were, and I detest any kind of hate group,” Scalise said on Monday. Peter Wehner, a former adviser to President George W. Bush, said the news about Scalise’s 2002 speech is “acidic for the Republican Party.” But GOP leaders — including House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — are standing by Scalise amid the controversy.
Microsoft retiring original Kinect for Windows sensor in 2015
With Microsoft’s October release of the second version of its Kinect for Windows sensor, it is getting ready to put the original version out to pasture. In a blog post this morning, Microsoft said that it plans to retire the original sensor “in 2015.” It was not more specific, but said it would only sell existing stock from here on out. The Kinect is Microsoft’s $199 hands-free motion sensor system. It allows users to interact with many different kinds of apps — from games to productivity tools — with gestures or voice without touching a mouse, a joystick, or any other kind of physical controller. “The move to [version 2] marks the next stage in our journey toward more natural human computing,” Microsoft wrote in the post. “The new sensor provides a host of new and improved features, including enhanced body tracking, greater depth fidelity, full 1080p high-definition video, new active infrared capabilities, and an expanded field of view.” Above: The current version of the Kinect for Windows. Image Credit: Microsoft The second version of the Kinect for Windows software development kit also provided the ability for developers to build Kinect-enabled apps for the Windows Store. In addition, Microsoft also said in October that its Kinect Adapter for Windows would allow developers to design Kinect for Windows apps with an Xbox One version of the sensor. Still, even though Microsoft is sunsetting the original Windows version of the Kinect sensor, it’s hard to deny the product’s impact. It’s not entirely clear how many units Microsoft sold, but it had moved 24 million by February, 2013. “The original Kinect for Windows sensor was a milestone achievement in the world of natural human computing,” Microsoft boasted in its blog post today. “It allowed developers to create solutions that broke through the old barriers of mouse and keyboard interactions, opening up entirely new commercial experiences in multiple industries, including retail, education, healthcare, education, and manufacturing.” Of course, the Kinect isn’t the only hands-free controller on the market. Others include the Leap from Leap Motion. Another company in the industry, PrimeSense, was purchased in late 2013 by Apple. In the meantime, Microsoft said it will not manufacture any more of the first version of the Kinect for Windows sensor, and that it hopes “everyone will embrace the latest Kinect technology as soon as possible.” The company added that customers who still want the original version should get in touch as soon as possible, and it try to fulfill their orders. But once the current stock is sold out, that’s it.
New Orleans Is The Most Expensive US Destination To Ring In New Years
WOW!!! If you, like many revelers, are hoping to usher in 2015 in one of the most festive, carnivalesque cities in the US, be prepared to shell out some cash as NoLa has emerged the most expensive US destination for celebrating the New Years. After collecting the minimum room rates for hotels on December 31 across 30 major destinations across the US, TravelMag.com deduced that New Orleans is the priciest city for lodging, clocking in at $359 for the most affordable double room. That’s 300 percent higher than off-peak rates. Only hotels with at least three stars were considered for the ranking. Not far behind is Atlantic City, which recorded the biggest price jump — a whopping +586 percent — over the holidays, at $350 for New Year’s Eve. At the other end, Los Angeles emerged one of the most affordable destinations, with the minimum hotel rate of $209. Here are the most expensive destinations for overnight stays booked on December 31, according to TravelMag.com. The second number reflects the percentage difference for the least expensive rate for the following week. 1. New Orleans $359 (+ 302%) 2. Atlantic City $350 (+ 586%) 3. New York City $345 (+287%) 4. Miami Beach $313 (+ 144%) 5. Honolulu $284 (+ 162%) 6. Nashville $284 (+ 167%) 7. Denver $269 (+ 108%) 8. Las Vegas $249 (+ 117%) 9. Savannah $223 (+ 153%) 10. Los Angeles $209 (+ 36%)
Grocery delivery giant Instacart raises $220M at a rumored $2B valuation
Instacart, the grocery delivery startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz, has reportedly raised a massive $220 million funding round. The round, according to Recode, may value the company at a jaw-dropping $2 billion. Reached by VentureBeat, Instacart declined to comment on the rumored valuation. The company did, however, confirm a raise of at least $210 million in a public filing with the SEC today. This round will bolster Instacart’s war chest as it faces growing competition from heavyweights like Google and Amazon, as well as from startups like Postmates and Wunwun.
Life360 partners with Ford to head off texting while driving
If you’re attending CES next week (or plan on reading all the coverage the throngs of reporters will be churning out), family-centered, location-oriented social network Life360 will be showing off its upcoming integration with Ford SYNC AppLink. The new feature, called Drive Mode, will be available for Android phones sometime in 2015’s second quarter, with an iOS version following later in the year. Drive Mode is fairly simple and easy to use. When the driver gets in their car, the Life360 app immediately pairs with Ford SYNC through Bluetooth and pulls up the app on the phone and on the car’s dashboard. Drive Mode will then send a notification to the driver’s family members letting them know their loved one is now driving and shouldn’t be texting them, as well as notifying when they’ve stopped. “It sounds like a dull feature, but it’s a really helpful feature,” Life360 founder and chief executive Chris Hulls said in an interview with VentureBeat, underscoring how unsafe driving and texting can be. It also lets family members track the car on a map via the Life360 app — which has a bit of a creep factor, especially for teens with overbearing parents, but nevertheless is a useful feature. Life360, which launched in 2008, now has more than 48 million families using its app, the company told VentureBeat. Hulls hopes the 10 million Ford SYNC-enabled cars will be a good place to start hacking at the texting-on-the-road problem, which is really the core of the Drive Mode feature. Life360 has been integrating with other connected devices and products recently, including Nest and BMW. The BMW integration, however, only enables drivers to set their navigation system to take them to a family member’s location and doesn’t include the new Drive Mode feature. Life360 was founded in 2008 and is based in San Francisco, Calif. The company has raised $76.1 million in funding to date.