FDA clears Rune Labs to use the Apple Watch to monitor Parkinson’s

Turns out the Apple Watch’s motion sensors can be a useful tool for Parkinson’s patients and their physicians. The FDA has granted approval to Rune Labs to use their software paired with the Apple Watch to track symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, Reutersreported today. The San Francisco-based digital health startup has created software for watchOS that can detect common Parkinson’s symptoms such as tremors, involuntary or slow movement, rigidity and poor balance. Smartphone and other remote forms of monitoring Parkinson’s have been around for a while, but this is the first software designed for the Apple Watch that the FDA has cleared for motion disorders.

Since the Apple Watch Series 4 was first released in 2018, the wearable has been able to detect hard falls and offer advanced activity metrics. The company that same year added a Movement Disorder API to its open-source ResearchKit, opening the door for developers to create watchOS apps to track Parkinson’s and other diseases. As Rune Lab notes, the company is the first to make use of the API for commercial purposes.

The watchOS app by Rune Labs will give physicians access to patient movement data over time, which can further supplement the information they get from an in-person physical exam. Rune Labs also notes the Apple Watch’s tools aren’t capable of giving patients a complete picture of their disorder. “Of course, there are limitations to Apple’s Movement Disorder kit: tremor and dyskinesia are only two symptoms in Parkinson’s Disease, and the classifiers themselves are not yet perfect,” wrote Rune Labs founder Brian Pepin last year in a blog post.

Apple has focused a lot of time and money on expanding and updating the Watch’s health and fitness tracking capabilities, with many more to come in future updates. Earlier this month the FDA also cleared watchOS’s AFib History feature — which monitors irregular and extremely rapid heartbeat — and will be released in the upcoming watchOS 9 update. 

Webex’s seamless CarPlay support means you can never escape your meetings

Have you ever wished you could keep a work meeting going as you leave for home? No? Too bad, you’re getting that option regardless. Cisco has introduced seamless transition features that ‘help’ you continue Webex meetings on your iPhone and through CarPlay. Move to Mobile lets you move a call from the desktop to your iPhone by scanning a QR code, while CarPlay can now continue a meeting the moment you plug your iPhone into your ride.

An update due in August will give you the option to listen to historical Webex recordings. You can catch up on a meeting you missed while you’re stuck in traffic, in other words. No matter what meeting you’re listening to, you’ll see your schedule after the call is over. You can join a meeting directly from CarPlay if you’re running late.

There are practical advantages to these updates. If you’re a remote worker, you can run errands instead of being locked to your computer. And if you’re back to working in the office, you can still leave early when the team holds a last-minute chat. Still, it’s difficult to imagine many people getting excited about seamless Webex calls. After all, there’s a good chance you consider your car a refuge — you probably don’t want work following you on the road.

Google may let rival ad platforms run commercials on YouTube

Google will allow other advertising intermediaries to run ads on YouTube, according to Reuters. The company currently requires advertisers to use its Ad Manager to place ads on YouTube, which has caught the attention of European Union antitrust officials.

The European Commission opened a probe into Google’s ad tech in 2021 after two years of informal consultations. Competition officials also cited concerns about potential restrictions on how rival ad platforms can run YouTube ads and the fact advertisers need to use the Display & Video 360 and Google Ads services. The investigation centers around whether Google, a division of Alphabet, gave itself an unfair advantage in the digital advertising space by limiting the user data that advertisers and rival ad platforms can access.

Reuters reports that Google’s concession could help allow it to settle the case and avoid a fine of as much as 10 percent of its global turnover. Alphabet generated revenue of $257 billion in 2021. However, it’s believed that Google will need to address other concerns to resolve the investigation.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is also looking into the company’s ad tech practices. In the US, senators last month filed a bill with bipartisan support that would break up Google’s ad business were it to become law. 

“We have been engaging constructively with the European Commission. We don’t have anything further to share at this stage,” a Google spokesperson told Engadget. “As with the Privacy Sandbox initiative, we are committed to working with regulators and the wider industry to achieve the best possible outcomes.”

Update 6/13 10:52PM ET: Added Google’s statement.

Amazon’s Prime Air service will begin making drone deliveries in California this year

In 2013, former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the company was working on 30-minute drone deliveries. At the time, Bezos said the service wouldn’t launch until 2015 at the very earliest. Now, nearly a decade later after that first reveal, Amazon says …

Microsoft formally agrees to respect Activision Blizzard unionization efforts

Microsoft has formally agreed to respect the right of Activision Blizzard workers to unionize in a pact with the Communications Workers of America. The agreement will be applied 60 days after Microsoft closes its acquisition of the video game publisher. The $68.7 billion takeover requires approval from regulators in various markets and is expected to close by the end of June 2023.

“This agreement provides a pathway for Activision Blizzard workers to exercise their democratic rights to organize and collectively bargain after the close of the Microsoft acquisition and establishes a high road framework for employers in the games industry,” CWA president Chris Shelton said in a statement. “Microsoft’s binding commitments will give employees a seat at the table and ensure that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard benefits the company’s workers and the broader video game labor market. The agreement addresses CWA’s previous concerns regarding the acquisition, and, as a result, we support its approval and look forward to working collaboratively with Microsoft after this deal closes.”

The agreement follows Microsoft announcing a set of “principles for employee organizing” earlier this month that did not contain much in the way of actual substance. The CWA pact is legally binding and centers around five core provisions. Microsoft laid those out as follows:

  • First, Microsoft will take a neutral approach when employees covered by the agreement express interest in joining a union.

  • Second, covered employees will be able to easily exercise their right to communicate with other employees and union representatives about union membership in a way that encourages information sharing and avoids business disruptions.

  • Third, employees will have access to an innovative technology-supported and streamlined process for choosing whether to join a union.

  • Fourth, employees can maintain confidentiality and privacy of that choice if they wish.

  • Fifth, if a disagreement arises between the CWA and Microsoft under the agreement, the two organizations will work together promptly to reach an agreement and will turn to an expedited arbitration process if they cannot.

“Earlier this month, we announced a set of principles that will guide our approach to labor organizations, and the Activision Blizzard acquisition is our first opportunity to put these principles into practice,” Microsoft president and vice chair Brad Smith said. “We appreciate CWA’s collaboration in reaching this agreement, and we see today’s partnership as an avenue to innovate and grow together.”

Microsoft and the CWA also agreed to explore other forms of collaboration. Among those are “joint opportunities for the US workforce to benefit from new technology and skill building programs that will enhance the country’s competitiveness.”

The arrangement formalizes much of Microsoft’s rhetoric about Activision Blizzard workers’ attempts to organize. Microsoft Gaming CEO and Xbox chief Phil Spencer reportedly said in an all-hands meeting in late May that “we would absolutely support [an] employees’ organization that’s in place.” Microsoft corporate vice president Lisa Tanzi previously said the company “respects Activision Blizzard employees’ right to choose whether to be represented by a labor organization and we will honor those decisions.”

The pact may also help Microsoft placate the Federal Trade Commission and antitrust regulators in other key markets as it tries to secure approval for its Activision Blizzard takeover. The publisher’s shareholders approved the proposed buyout almost unanimously in April.

Last month, quality assurance workers at Activision studio Raven Software voted to form the first union at a major video games company in North America. Activision Blizzard did not formally challenge the result of the election with the National Labor Relations Board. The company affirmed last week it would enter negotiations with the CWA, which is representing the workers.

Activision Blizzard is bound to conduct good faith negotiations over a collective bargaining agreement, though CEO Bobby Kotick warned that “may take some time to complete.” The company, which the CWA hasaccused of union busting, said in April it would hire 1,100 QA workers as permanent employees with higher minimum pay and benefits. However, it did not extend the same offer to the Raven workers who have organized as the Game Workers Alliance.

Microsoft Teams is using AI to prevent awkward interruptions in video calls

Microsoft might soon mitigate some of the worst nuisances in video chats. The Vergenotes Microsoft is rolling out AI-based voice quality upgrades that should help every call participant hear each other clearly. New machine learning models can not only cancel echoes, but even reduce the chances of awkward interruptions by eliminating echo-related overlaps. This won’t stop rude people from hijacking the conversation, but it might help you raise an important point without completely disrupting someone else’s train of thought.

The machine learning technology counters echoes by using a combination of roughly 100,000 simulated rooms and training from 30,000 hours of speech. Microsoft also paid regular Teams users to record their voices to help recognize thousands of different devices. And crucially, the processing happens on your device. This helps Microsoft cut costs, of course, but also makes sure the echo reduction happens quickly and across a wider range of users.

The feature is live now following months of testing. It comes in tandem with a few other upgrades, including AI improvements for bandwidth-limited video calls and optimizations for displaying text. This by itself probably won’t make you choose Teams over rivals like Zoom or Google Meet, but it might tip the balance if virtual meetings are commonplace at your workplace.