Intel has confirmed that it plans to shut down the New Devices Group (NDG) and cease development on the Vaunt smart glasses project [showcased] earlier this year.

I’m really sad to see this come to an end. Intel had created a prototype that unlike other AR glasses looked “normal”. With no commercial partner to bring the product to mass market both the Vaunt and the entire “New Devices Group” are being shutdown likely to result in significant layoffs.

Intel, now under intense pressure with companies like Apple looking to move away from the chip giant, is battening down the hatches as a means to sure up its bottom line. Doing so may mean they cut off the limb that could potentially feed them in the future.

Source: Intel is giving up on its smart glasses – The Verge

The HAY Sonos One Limited Edition Collection, a set of speakers that reimagines the Sonos One in a new range of colors—red, yellow and green—taken from HAY’s 2018 palette.

HAY is a Danish interiors company that I’ve never heard of but I’m sure a lot of people love and adore everything they make. They’re clearly a big deal because they apparently have their own, very particular, colour palette that Sonos have partnered with them to use for their Sonos One range.

The voice activated Sonos speaker will have it’s new red, yellow and green colours available from September however it’s unclear at this stage if the product will be making its way to the Australian online store.

The new colours come with added cost too. Normally US$199 the HAY coloured Sonos Ones will retail for US$229. That’s a US$30 hit for the privilege of pastel colour.

Source: The HAY Sonos One Explores Color And Sound Through A Unique Collaboration | Sonos Blog

Bunch calls themselves the “Google Analytics for company culture”. It’s an interesting concept and not something we normally touch on here at Reckoner but with so many of us attached to a Slack group these days I thought it might be interesting.

The company uses natural language processing to analyse your company’s chat to see who’s engaged, if they fit your company culture and how well they gel with their team. They claim their autonomous method of chat analysis is ahead of any psychometric surveys available today, which to me makes a lot of sense having completed a bunch of those in corporate roles over the years as quickly as possible.

The product if free for a 14 day trial and while intended for corporations to implement I’m quite interested to try it out on some of my social Slacks & see how big of an assholes some of my friends are!

Source: Product | Bunch

Mark Zuckerberg made his first senate hearing appearance today to answer for what has rapidly become a maelstrom of privacy issues in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. There was plenty to digest but if watching senate hearings aren’t your bag then here’s a quick list of the big hits.

• Facebook *doesn’t* tap your phone and listen to everything your phone’s microphone can pick up. Zuck was pretty emphatic about this one.
• Palmer Lucky wasn’t fired for the pro-Trump media funding scandal however no details about *why* he was fired were offered in return to the questioning. Zuckerberg saying it was a “personal” issue not for that forum but essentially confirming he was fired.
• When questioned about Facebook being a monopoly Zuckerberg named every big name in the tech sphere but failed to rule out the fact the company has a firm grip on the market, pointing out it has elements that overlap the likes of Apple, Google, et al.
• We could get a paid version of Facebook in the future. When asked about a previous statement made by Zuckerberg that Facebook would always be “free”, he today said there would always be a free version however there is a possibility of a subscription variation.

A new bill was introduced almost immediately after the hearing was complete aimed squarely at restricting data collection and methods for authorising them to be enforced in the US by the FCC. Call the CONSENT Act (Customer Online Notification for Stopping Edge-provider Network Transgressions), the bill outlines the requirement of explicit opt-in consent from users before their data can be shared or sold to anyone.