The Apple Watch isn't launching until the end of next month, but the company already has a plan in place for how it's going to sell it.
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Here's how Apple is preparing for the Apple Watch rush next month
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A prominent dissident was just charged in the US with plotting to overthrow one of Africa's most oppressive governments
In late December, a group of Gambian immigrants to the US were involved in a failed attempt to overthrow Yahya Jammeh, the brutal dictator who's ruled over their native country since 1996.
The conspirators were from different parts of the US and several may never have even met in person. A few had lived in the US for decades; a coup participant who was later killed in an attempted raid on the seat of government in the capital of Banjul on Dec. 30, 2014 had served in Iraq as a platoon leader with the Kentucky National Guard.
Two of the conspirators who had actually traveled to Gambia for the coup attempt were charged in US court in the wake of the coup attempt's failure: Cherno Njie, and Papa Faal, who are accused with funding the expedition and funneling guns to West Africa and forming a government-in-waiting. A third individual, Alagie Barrow, was charged in on Jan. 30.
And yesterday, Banka Manneh, the chairman of the Civil Society Associations, Gambia and someone who did not travel to Gambia during the coup plot, was indicted in US federal court in Minnesota, a week after the FBI raided his house in Georgia (the Gambia coup falls under the Minnesota federal prosecutor's jurisdiction since that's where two of the accused conspirators lived at the time the plot was being hatched).
The FBI confiscated Manneh's computers, phone equipment, and mobile phones, along with various documents found at his house. His mother, wife, and mother-in-law were in the house during the raid, as were his two young children.
According to a superseding federal indictment, Manneh "participated in conference calls and exchanged planning documents with the other members of the conspiracy," and "purchased two pistols and one rifle to equip co-conspirators participating in the coup."
Manneh and the other co-defendants are accused of violating the Neutrality Act, which prohibits individuals in the US from conspiring to overthrow governments with which the US is not at war. The law isn't used very often, and there hasn't been a successful Neutrality Act prosecution since 1981.
But the Justice Department has energetically pursued its cases against the accused Gambia plotters, whose supporters contend that they were driven to act by Jammeh's absolute grip on power and the lack political space in Gambia needed to peaceably contest his rule.
They also find it curious that the US would be so willing to punish people for trying (and failing) to overthrow a government whose actions are so apparently at odds with US interests and values. Jammeh's regime has persecuted the country's LGBT community and in late 2014 Jammeh's abhorrent human rights record cost Gambia its eligibility to receive benefits under the US's African Growth and Opportunity Act.
In August of 2014, during the African Leaders Summit in Washington, Jammeh's Gambian security detail attacked protesters outside of his Washington, DC hotel and sent several to the hospital. At that same summit, Barack and Michele Obama posed for a photo with Jammeh and his wife. No one from Jammeh's security detail was charged or otherwise punished for the attacks on protesters.
Some Gambians in the US see the prosecution of Manneh — one of the most prominent pro-democracy activists based in the US — as part of a pattern of the Obama administration siding with Jammeh's government and against his US-based opponents.
"Gambian communities across the US and Europe are outraged that the FBI and the United States authorities would continue to spend resources and waste time in cracking down on innocent Gambians who are out to defend their rights as citizens to participate in their nation’s political discourse," Demba Baldeh wrote on March 18, after Manneh surrendered to the FBI.
Sidi Sanneh, a former Gambian diplomat turned anti-Jammeh dissident who currently lives in the US, told Business Insider that many Gambians are both puzzled and disappointed by US policy towards their country, with Manneh's indictment only heightening their sense of frustration.
"The Gambian community feels they are being let down by the Obama administration," says Sanneh. "Some of them feel that they are being targeted."
It might be a stretch to say that Gambians are being specifically targeted. The Gambia coup is a dilemma for the US, after all: failing to prosecute the plotters would convey a sense that the US considers Jammeh's regime to be something less than a full sovereign government and communicate a weak US's commitment to the regional state system. But prosecuting them gives the appearance of the US shielding one of the most oppressive governments in Africa.
In another sense, the coup didn't present any dilemma at all. Gambia is too small to warrant any special attention from American diplomacy: As Sanneh notes, the country is territorially insignificant and has few natural resources. It's easy to ignore, which means its easy for US policy to lapse into an inertia in which any drive towards a moral, prudent, and creative policy are gradually dulled.
For Sanneh, the public and the US government's collective shrug after the beating of protesters during the African Leaders Summit was the signal example of US indifference to the place. "Could you imagine this thing happening to British activists with David Cameron at the White House?," Sanneh wondered. "It would have been something else."
Ironically, Gambia's size and a relative lack of US interest also may have something to do with why the government has taken such a keen interest in the December coup plot. Gambia has a population of only 1.8 million and occupies about as peripheral a place as possible in both US foreign policy and in the general political psyche. There's no fateful or complicated entanglement of US equities and interests in Gambia, as there is in Syria or Iraq, for instance.
So it's less politically hazardous for the government to use the Gambia plotters to send a blunt message to dissidents in other US-based diaspora communities: Don't try anything like this. The Gambia coup indictments prove that the US is willing to invoke the Neutrality Act even against people who are only accused of participating in conference calls and online discussions, or of obtaining firearms in a state with incredibly lax gun laws.
And conveniently, the test-case is a country too distant from the foreign policy conversation to provoke much of a public or diplomatic backlash.
According to Sanneh, Manneh's indictment hasn't had a chilling effect on Gambia activists in the US. "If anything, it has energized them," he says.
But if he's convicted, Manneh's case could go down as particularly bitter evidence of the US's diffident attitude towards the Jammeh regime's abuses.
SEE ALSO: The story of a US veteran who died trying to topple an African dictatorship
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This World Bank director wants to sue Microsoft because his teenage son spent $4,500 on video game characters (MSFT)
A director at the World Bank says he's considering suing Microsoft after his 13-year-old son was able to spend $4,500 on characters in soccer video game FIFA over several months without him realising.
Writing on Medium, Jeremy Hillman says that when checking his credit card bill recently, he noticed four unexplained charges of $109 from Microsoft. "After a meltdown of sobbing and tears," his son revealed that he had used Hillman's credit card details saved on the Xbox to buy optional add-on player packs for FIFA. And after calling Microsoft in an attempt to get a refund, he discovered there were "more than $4,5000 of charges for virtual FIFA players going back several months."
Hillman, who works as director of corporate communications at the World Bank, says that Microsoft refused to refund him the money his son spent on the game.
Here's the message an "escalation analyst" from Microsoft sent Hillman:
Our policy states that all purchases are final and non-refundable. A purchase confirmation email was sent to email: XXXX.XXXX@hotmail.com [Hillman's son] each time a purchase was made because that is the email that was designated as a contact email on the billing profile …….. you are responsible for any material that a user of your Services account accesses or is denied access to (including as a result of your use or non-use of Parental Controls). You acknowledge that use of our settings is not a substitute for your personal supervision of minors that use your Services account.
"Losing $4,5000 for many families would be a life-changing disaster," Hillman writes. "For us it is very upsetting and means we'll have to tighten our belts and forgo some luxuries but we will recover relatively quickly."
Nonetheless, he's still angry with Microsoft, questioning why there were no automatic checks on how much could be spent in the game, or why there was no option to have it request the card details be re-entered for each purchase (Hillman entered them himself initially to pay for the game). He also says the "treatment we have had at the hands of Microsoft has been appalling," keeping them waiting for more than a week despite earlier assurances.
The issue of parental controls on payments has been a hot topic in recent years. Apple has previously been criticised after media reports of children spending hundreds— or even thousands — on their parents' cards. It's possible to lock down iOS devices so card details need to be reentered if it's 15 minutes after the last purchase, however.
"If Microsoft wanted to spare thousands of parents from the frustration, anger and sometimes, serious financial consequences then it could find hundred ways to do it," Hillman concluded. "If there's a lawyer out there that wants to start a class-action against Microsoft and force them into compensation and adopting a better policy I'll happily sign up."
A Microsoft spokesperson told Business Insider that the company is "aware and [is] investigating the case internally." When asked whether Microsoft's controls on in-game purchases are adequate, the spokesperson responded with the following statement:
We continually evaluate feedback from parents and the Xbox Live community, and acknowledge and investigate concerns around alleged unapproved purchases made with their parents’ or caregivers’ payment accounts. This is why we provide parents with tools in parental controls to block premium content purchasing on the accounts of their children and teens. However, purchases made using a parent’s payment account are legitimate transactions under the Xbox Live Terms of Use. We encourage parents to use the many platform and service features we make available to prevent unapproved charges.
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NOW WATCH: Here's Why Microsoft Is Ready To Shell Out Billions For A Simple Video Game
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You won't believe Floyd Mayweather's $6 million exotic car collection
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Oscar-winning director Errol Morris reveals what his Netflix series will be about
Netflix is currently working with Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris (“The Fog of War”) on a six-part docu-series.
Though details on the project have been kept mum, in a conversation with Morris about the Blu-ray release of his seminal documentary “The Thin Blue Line” out next Tuesday, he gave a little insight to Business Insider exclusively on what the series will be about.
"[It] has an element of true crime in it," he told BI over the phone from Los Angeles.
Morris brought the true-crime film genre to prominence with the release of “The Thin Blue Line” in 1988, which looked at the wrongful conviction of Randall Dale Adams. The findings in the film helped eventually get Adams released.
The 67-year-old filmmaker says true crime is a subject he's still very interested in.
"I wrote a book about true crime, 'A Wilderness of Error,' it sold and will be made into a feature film," he said. "'Tabloid' is true crime. A number of projects I'm working on as we speak are true crime."
When asked if the current six-part Netflix series he's making was one of them he replied, "That, yes, has an element of true crime in it. Yes indeed it does."
He would not go into detail about the series, only to say that an announcement was forthcoming.
The interest in true crime is at its peak at the moment, most recently with the arrest of real estate heir Robert Durst coinciding with the finale of the popular HBO documentary “The Jinx,” which examines the three murders Durst is suspected of carrying out and then presumably admitted to committing in the final episode of the series.
The documentary follows the success of the podcast series “Serial” and the fictitious true crime series on HBO, “True Detective.”
Most recently, Morris directed six short films for ESPN titled, "It's Not Crazy, It's Sports."
Along with the Netflix series he's also prepping his first narrative feature in 24 years, “Holland, Michigan,” which he says will begin shooting in the fall.
"'Holland, Michigan' is not true crime," he pointed out with a chuckle.
SEE ALSO: HBO filmmakers cancel all press; could be key witness against alleged murderer Robert Durst
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NOW WATCH: Netflix's new 'Daredevil' show looks way better than Ben Affleck's version of the superhero
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India is poised to take over as the next high-growth smartphone market
The Indian smartphone market has reached the same point that the Chinese smartphone market was at by the end of 2013.
Growth is explosive, and competition among vendors is gaining steam as top global players lose out to a host of homegrown vendors.
In the fourth quarter of 2014, smartphone shipments in India reached roughly 23 million units, up more than fourfold compared to two years prior, according to data from IDC.
China remains dominant in terms of raw shipment numbers, but India is where growth is now concentrated and that trend is likely to continue for the next few years.
In a new report from BI Intelligence, we take a look at how the platform and vendor wars are shaking up in India, and discuss the opportunity for even more shake-ups and future growth based on current and future performance. We also break down India's place in the global smartphone market.
Access The Full Report And Data By Signing Up For A Trial Today >>
Here are a few key points about how vendors and platforms are performing in India:
- Competition among vendors is heating up in this growing market.The top five vendors in terms of shipments market share in India over the course of 2014 shifted between eight different brands.
- Home-grown vendor Micromax has firmly held onto second place, and is close to overtaking Samsung.Micromax claimed 18% of the market in the fourth quarter.
- Other, smaller Indian vendors like Lava, Intex, and Karbonn have all made inroads to grab market share.They have pushed out old global smartphone industry stalwarts like Motorola and Nokia in the process.
- Chinese vendor Xiaomi's recent expansion into India is already paying off.It grabbed 4% of the market in the fourth quarter to step into the top five spot in the country.
- Like China, the presence of a mix of generic vendors is growing.In 2014, the Others category increased from 30% in the first quarter to 41% of the market in the fourth quarter.
The report is full of charts and data that can be downloaded and put to use.
In full, the report:
- Gives an updated look at smartphone penetration in 2014 and an estimate for 2015 across eight major mobile markets.
- Discusses the US and its fast-track to saturation and what it means for platforms and vendors.
- Surveys the smartphone landscape in Europe's five largest markets.
- Quantifies China's effect on the global smartphone market, breaks down its slowing momentum, and looks at the fragmented vendor landscape in the country.
- Examines India's growing role in the global smartphone market's future growth.
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The 20 most important cities in global finance this year
There is fierce competition every year for a space on Z/Yen's Global Financial Cities Index, and 2015 is no different.
The ranks give cities a combined score based on five main factors:
- Business environment
- Financial sector development
- Infrastructure
- Human capital
- Reputational and general factors.
There was a huge reaction when New York dethroned London as the world's top financial hub last year — but has London managed to take the crown back? And how are Asia's growing megacities doing as China's rapid growth cools?
20.) DOHA just makes it into the top 20, climbing from 22nd place last year, the capital of Qatar is the middle east's second most important financial hub.
19.) FRANKFURT is down three places on the list, despite the opening of the European Central Bank's massive new headquarters there.
18.) MONTREAL sneaks into the top 20, making it Canada's third highest-ranking financial centre.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Here's whom Ted Cruz is really running against in 2016
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is framing his presidential campaign as part of a conservative crusade against the "mushy middle" of Republican politics.
However, his more immediate foes are also on the right.
While former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) has increasingly been dubbed the frontrunner in the race, he's not Cruz's main concern in the GOP primary. While Bush and another top GOP contender, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, are clearly appealing to relatively moderate Republicans, Cruz is hoping to grab staunchly conservative voters who may be inclined to back a hardline candidate as an alternative.
However, Cruz isn't the only top-tier candidate aiming at becoming the Bush alternative to this segment of the electorate in the Republican primary.
Another likely hopeful, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R), is also moving to run to the right of Bush and New Jersey Gov Chris Christie (R). However, Rubio's voting record is still to the left of some of the candidates who will really be fighting for the most conservative voters in the primary, including Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R).
With Cruz likely in most direct competition with Paul and Walker, some have even interpreted the timing of his presidential campaign announcement as a shot across Paul's bow. The Daily Beast argued that Cruz was trying to upstage Paul, who is expected to launch his bid in April.
"[T]here’s a sense of mischievousness to Cruz’s timing: Advisers close to Paul leaked a presidential campaign launch date in the first week of April. By announcing Monday, Cruz becomes the first Republican candidate formally running for his party’s presidential nomination—allowing him a couple weeks of peerless press and fundraising. It is hard to imagine this as an accident," The Daily Beast's Tim Mak wrote.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported Cruz's announcement was "particularly" aimed at taking public attention away from Walker (R), who has surged to become another leading White House contender in recent polling. Walker is popular among Republican activists, partially thanks to his high-profile battles against his state's public sector unions.
"In multiple meetings since January, Mr. Cruz's advisers discussed Mr. Walker’s effort to win support from both the center-right and more conservative wings of the party," The Times' Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman wrote. "Witnessing Mr. Walker’s early boomlet, along with some of the Wisconsin governor’s initial stumbles, prompted Mr. Cruz to announce early, ahead of the other hopefuls in both parties, the Republicans briefed on his strategy said."
Additionally, the venue of Cruz's announcement is a sign that the senator will be making a serious play for the religious right and socially conservative voters wary of Paul's libertarian positions. Cruz made his candidacy official at Liberty University, which bills itself as "the largest Christian university in the world" and was founded by the late evangelical pastor Jerry Fallwell. Evangelical Christian voters have an an outsize influence in Iowa and other states that play a crucial early role in the presidential primary race.
Cruz's speech at Liberty was heavy on references to religion. He began by detailing his family's history which how his parents did not have a "personal relationship with Jesus" and were "drinking far too much" and "living a fast life" in his early childhood. Cruz said this culminated in his father leaving him and his mother only to return after becoming a Christian.
"There are people who wonder if faith is real," he said at one point. "I can tell you, in my family there is not a second of doubt. Because were it not for the transformative love of Jesus Christ, I would have been … raised by a single mom without my father in the house."
Cruz went on to say he is focused on helping people experience the "promise of America."
"For so many Americans, the promise of America seems more and more distant," Cruz said. "What is the promise of America? The idea that — the revolutionary idea that this country was founded upon, which is that our rights they don't come from man. They come from god almighty."
Cruz then detailed a series of policies he said would help achieve this goal. They were all red meat for the conservative base and religious voters including repealing Obamacare, securing the borders, upholding "the sacrament of marriage," fighting gun control, fighting for "the sanctity of human life," and pushing to make "school choice the civil rights issue of the next generation."
He concluded by making it very clear he believes his support will come from staunch conservatives — whom he called "a grassroots army."
"I believe god isn't done with America yet," Cruz said, adding, "I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of America. And that is why today I am announcing that I am running for president of the United States."
SEE ALSO: Twitter mocked Ted Cruz's 'imagine' speech with John Lennon jokes
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NOW WATCH: Animated map of what Earth would look like if all the ice melted
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Microsoft teams up with Samsung to squeeze out Google (MSFT)
Microsoft on Monday announced a new and improved agreement with Samsung to pre-load Microsoft Office apps on Samsung's Android tablets.
Plus, Microsoft announced that it had lined up 11 other Android device makers to do the same, including close partner Dell. The apps include Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive, and Skype.
This follows the agreement Microsoft and Samsung announced last month where Samsung would load certain Microsoft cloud apps on Samsung’s next flagship Android phones, the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge.
This is an interesting way for Microsoft to attack its old nemesis, Google.
Google controls the Android operating system and gives Android away for free to device makers. It makes money on Android from things like integrating search into these devices, getting a percentage when people buy apps, and by encouraging people to use these phones with its other paid services, like Google Apps.
While Microsoft won't exactly be cutting off Google's ability to make money on Android, it's got a foot in the door with this Samsung deal.
That's because Samsung seems to be making good on its promise to let people delete unwanted apps from its Android devices.
A leak of the S6 edge on Android developer’s forum XDA on Saturday shows that the pre-loaded Microsoft apps can be removed. Those apps include OneNote (note-taking), OneDrive (storage), and Skype.
But so can the pre-loaded Google apps, including some services typically baked into Android like Gmail, Drive, even Google search.
XDA member Jeshter2000, who claimed to be in possession of an S6 Edge, posted a photo (see picture, right) showing the options to delete Google apps.
And that means, if you so wish, you can turn these next-generation Samsung phones into Microsoft friendly phones, and ditch Google.
SEE ALSO: Everyone is talking about how Microsoft Office 365 is suddenly beating Google Apps
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NOW WATCH: Animated map of what Earth would look like if all the ice melted
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POLICE: 'No evidence' to support UVA fraternity gang rape allegation in Rolling Stone feature
Charlottesville, Virginia police have been unable to confirm any facts in a controversial Rolling Stone magazine feature on a University of Virginia student's alleged gang rape, Charlottesville police chief Tim Longo announced Monday.
The Rolling Stone article has been questioned for months, after holes began appearing in the story of UVA student "Jackie," who was allegedly gang raped at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house during a party on September 28, 2012. Police said that there was no evidence to confirm that any party took place at the Phi Psi house that night.
Jackie did not cooperate with the police investigation, Longo said. The department has suspended the investigation, but will reopen if any new evidence comes forward.
"We certainly can't say something didn't happen to Jackie ... There's a difference between a false allegation and something that happened that may be different from what was reported in that article,"Longo said.
Phi Psi voluntarily suspended themselves after the Rolling Stone article first came out in November, but was reinstated by the university in early January.
"The reinstatement resulted after consultation with Charlottesville Police Department officials, who told the University that their investigation has not revealed any substantive basis to confirm that the allegations raised in the Rolling Stone article occurred at Phi Kappa Psi,"UVA said in a press release.
Police spoke with several Phi Psi members, and interviewed 70 people total for their investigation. Aside from no party appearing on the fraternity's social calender that night, Longo said that police discovered a timestamped photo of the house on September 28, almost completely empty.
Jackie's friends and roommates that were interviewed by the police also gave statements that contradicted what was reported in Rolling Stone's article, Longo said.
Much of what Jackie told Rolling Stone writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely for the article "A Rape on Campus"has been called into question, based on statements from the fraternity and investigative work primarily by The Washington Post. Next month, Rolling Stone plans to release the results of an external investigation conducted by Columbia Journalism School.
SEE ALSO: There's More Bizarre Evidence That UVA Student Jackie's Alleged Rapist Doesn't Exist
SEE ALSO: How The Aftermath Of An Explosive Rolling Stone Article Convinced A UVA Student To Rush A Frat
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NOW WATCH: 9 animated maps that will change the way you see the world
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Keurig has revealed a new recyclable K-Cup
Keurig has released a recyclable coffee pod after widespread criticism that its K-Cups are bad for the environment.
The company has released a travel-sized pod that works with the Keurig 2.0 system.
The "K-Mug" pods are "made from polypropylene plastic, and can be separated from the lid and filter for recycling," Keurig said in a release.
The company has faced backlash sparked by the K-Cups inventor saying he regrets ever inventing it.
Keurig currently manufactures some sustainable pods, and claims all versions will be recyclable by 2020.
The brand has had a rough few months.
The company's Keurig 2.0, which brews an entire cup of coffee, was supposed to be the next George Foreman grill.
But many customers were furious that the machine used different K-Cups from the original.
Customers who bought the Keurig 2.0 on Amazon complained they bought the machine only to realize they needed a new kind of coffee pod for it to work.
The machines are RFID-limited, meaning only items with a Keurig code work. This restricts consumers from buying coffee pods from other brands.
The older machines take coffee pods from many different brands, not just Keurig. They also have an option for using your own coffee beans, while the newer version does not.
SEE ALSO: Starbucks is trying to shed its basic b----- image
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Obama bemoans his NCAA bracket: 'It's over'
President Barack Obama has given up on March Madness.
"It's over, it's over," Obama said dryly on Monday, when a 14-year-old wished the president success on his NCAA bracket at the White House Science Fair.
Sahil Doshi, a high school freshman, told Obama "good luck on your bracket," as the teen exhibited a science project to Obama.
Obama's bracket was dealt a crushing blow this weekend when Villanova suffered a surprising loss to NC State.
The president had predicted Villanova would make it all the way to the final game but put the University of Kentucky as the winner of the NCAA championship title.
So far, Kentucky is still in the running.
Here's a look at the dismal state of Obama's bracket.
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NOW WATCH: Here's what it takes to be President Obama's right-hand man
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Facebook has a clever way to make sure its apps work on crummy Internet connections
Facebook has made it a major priority to make sure people in the developing world can get online, as Mark Zuckerberg told a bored crowd recently.
But from Facebook’s posh offices in Northern California, smack-dab in the center of Silicon Valley, it’s easy to forget that not everybody has access to their kinds of high-speed, high-availability Internet connections.
Which is why at one of its latest world-famous hackathons, Facebook engineers built a system called the Augmented Traffic Control (ATC), a tool to help them figure out how their apps will work under the worst of network conditions and make them better for everybody, everywhere, whether or not they have access to 4G LTE or WiFi.
"We specifically simulated the most common network connectivities in countries such as Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, and the Philippines," writes the Facebook team in a blog post.
In practice, it lets Facebook engineers see how the app performs in low-connection areas. For instance, if you've ever tried to send a Facebook message from a subway tunnel, you may have noticed how the app gives up on trying to deliver the message after a few tries.
Facebook engineers work hard to optimize exactly long the app tries before giving up — in some countries, a signal may not be reliable enough the first time. The same principle goes for other stuff, too, like the maximum size of a picture file and the precise speed at which a slow connection makes an app unusable.
It's just stuff that's good to know if you want your app to be used by a broad range of people.
The inspiration for the ATC, writes the Facebook engineering team, came from a hacker convention in 2013 where some enterprising attendees used outdated phone hardware to make a totally private cellular network that only existed for as long as the event lasted.
So inspired, Facebook engineers decided to make private networks for testing that could be sped up or slowed down to test in a variety of conditions — the ATC.
The first step was building a private 2G data network that would let users make voice calls and send text messages, but it was hard for the Facebook team to find phones that would work with the cobbled-together network they were building.
Instead, the team built a software simulator into a WiFi network so that any Facebook engineer on the company's campus could purposely throttle their connection to pretend that they're accessing the network from 2G, Edge, 3G, and LTE networks.
The other cool part is that Facebook has released the ATC under open source as of today, which means anybody can use and build on its tools for measuring app performance under worse network conditions. It's another arrow in the quiver for those trying to get the rest of the world online.
SEE ALSO: A bunch of people fell asleep at Mark Zuckerberg's keynote speech at MWC
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NOW WATCH: Zuckerberg: Why I Stayed Facebook CEO Even Though Many Thought I Should Quit
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Tim Cook still has Steve Jobs' number in his phone (AAPL)
Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli's new book, "Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader," is full of intimate personal anecdotes about Steve Jobs.
One such scene takes place toward the end of the book when John Lasseter, Pixar's chief creative officer and one of Jobs' closest friends, recalls a conversation he had with Apple CEO Tim Cook after Jobs' death.
Cook had just arrived at Laurene Powell Jobs' fiftieth birthday party, which took place in November 2013.
"I got there kinda early, and Tim came in," Lasseter said, according to the book. "He came over and we started talking, and I said, 'Do you miss him? I really miss Steve.' And I showed him this."
Lasseter pointed to the favorite contacts on his iPhone. He still has Jobs' phone number and photo there.
"I can't get rid of that," Lasseter said, according to Schlender and Tetzeli.
When he showed it to Cook at Jobs' wife's birthday party, Cook opened his phone and showed Lasseter that he still had Jobs' number saved in his phone too.
Lasseter was part of the inner circle of friends that remained close to Jobs up until the time of his death.
"It's funny, there's a little club, I guess is the best way to describe it," Lasseter says in Schlender and Tetzeli's book. "The people like Jony and Tim, myself, that were very close to Steve up until the very end. And no one gets it, how much we miss him."
SEE ALSO: How Steve Jobs reacted when a top Apple executive left for a competing company
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NOW WATCH: Steve Jobs' biographer reveals the childhood moment that defined the Apple founder
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20 reasons it's horrible to grow up 'gifted'
There are approximately 3 million to 5 million "gifted" students in the US, according to the National Association for Gifted Children.
Since these students are identified as exceptional learners from a young age, the label often becomes a part of their identity.
An accelerated education may set them on the path to a great college and career, but the expectations attached may also become a burden.
In the Reddit thread "Redditors who were labeled as 'gifted' children, do you think the label helped you, or harmed you?", the conversation became an outlet for examples of the latter.
We gathered the top reasons why it can be horrible to grow up gifted.
1. From an early age, you believe it's you against the world.
"You're suddenly looking around at the world and realizing that you're supposed to have some crazy work ethic at everything because YOU'RE gifted and THEY aren't. More is expected of YOU than THEM because of the big giant brain that YOU were given that THEY weren't.
"See a pattern there? There's this exclusivity complex there where it's an 'Us vs. Them' mentality." —RaptarIsTheSh**
2. You develop a superiority complex.
"When you've been told all your life that you're the smartest person in the room, you don't take orders from others very well, especially those who you don't find very bright (which, sadly, is most people)." —RaptarIsTheSh**
3. You become abrasive.
"Harmed me. Made me an arrogant self-righteous prick, because I was taught for years that my classmates and I were smarter than all the rest of the school. I'm still trying to undo all that." —McHaven
4. You develop inflated expectations.
"Being labeled as gifted caused my parents to have inflated expectations of me, which I will never meet. I am quite happy with an undergraduate degree and career in business. My parents think I should be curing cancer while working on my 4th PhD." —Inspector VII
5. You put too much pressure on yourself.
"School has always been the biggest trigger for my anxiety because I'm afraid of not doing well enough, and I never cut myself any slack. I also have other mental illness issues, and my preoccupation with marks expanded into believing my parents won't love me if I don't get the grades I think I should. The pressure comes entirely from within. They have always said as long as I try they will be proud, but I stress myself out anyway." —Goram Doctor
6. Your competitiveness harms friendships.
"Even my best friends in school were also my fiercest competitors. You had to put school completely aside if you wanted to hang out, because you'd end up hating each other otherwise." —indifferentwindmill
7. Your parents can be overbearing.
"My brother and sister were praised for mediocrity, getting extra allowance or other such gifts when they got Bs and Cs. If I brought back anything but top grades I didn't get such treatment. I always thought it was stupid and unfair." —shh_Im_a_Moose
8. Everyone expects more of you.
"I've had a genius-level IQ my whole life, and it's caused my parents (mother in particular) to believe that I should be able to go whole semesters without ever getting a single exam question wrong. Every time I try to explain that that isn't how intelligence works, I get told 'that's just an excuse, you're smart.' Genius does not equal perfection." —JBtheBadguy
9. You're always trying to get approval.
"I think the worst is the constant need for other people's approval, and basing my entire self-worth on what others think. It's led to tons of anxiety, because I can never fail at anything, or let other people down. It's led to a bunch of self-destructive behaviors, where I'll do things that I hate or that harm myself, just to please other people and gain their approval." —BCSteve
10. You're terrified of failure.
"The ease at which I excelled when I was younger made it hard when I DID struggle, as I was terrified of disappointing everyone. I still suffer from severe anxiety because, frankly, I never learned to fail. And I think that's an important lesson for people to learn." —Cheezit624
11. Others are jealous of you.
"I was always an overachiever, despite being told I was extra smarties, until I got to high school and I suddenly started caring what everyone else thought. In elementary school I got perfect grades. In high school, I stopped trying so damn hard, because everyone hated the kid with the perfect grades. I remember taking a bio test once, I think that was the swing point, where the closest grade to mine was a 78%, and I got a 96%, and everyone hated me." —Justice_Man
12. You may be bullied.
"Precocious + bullied, that was probably the formula that made people think I needed the label, really. Adults, rather than dealing with said bullies, just reassured me I was special and that they'd be 'bagging your groceries,' etc. Ironically I only stopped waiting tables and working in supermarkets about two years ago." —TM3Sb
13. It's hard to stay positive.
"I found the hardest part of the expectations was staying positive. Top of the line grades were expected. If you got the best grades, you were doing what you were supposed to do. If you got less than stellar grades, you obviously just weren't applying yourself. It's hard to be positive when the only reactions are neutral and negative." —Griddleman
14. It's easy to feel isolated.
"The idea that I was smarter than everybody meant that I only trusted myself, listened to no one and would only accept advice when it made sense to me. I mostly used my gifted brain to do as little work as possible and I developed bad habits. I believed that I did not need to do well in school ... because I could make up for it later." —-sasnak-
15. If you're not challenged, you become lazy.
"It would of been nice if they had separated us somehow so school was actually challenging, but once everyone in my life was telling me that I was brilliant rather than just my parents, I never did any work or paid attention in classes. ... If I had some work ethic in school I think my life would have turned out loads differently. But as it was, because they knew I was so bright, I never had to do anything." —kvellarcanum
16. There comes a point where you can't coast any longer.
"I excelled in grade school without having to put in any effort. I would show up to finals, asking which exam we were taking that day, and get top scores. I never learned how to do homework or maintain any sort of work ethic, but I became very skilled at coasting through courses and bulls---ting on essay questions (writing what I speculated the teacher wanted to hear, and not something with actual substance). Once I hit university I couldn't get away with not doing any work anymore, so I hit a wall that I'm still trying to overcome." —Gifos
17. You develop a false sense of security.
"I was always put in 'gifted' programs up until grade six. While I learned a lot in those sessions that I would not have had the privilege to otherwise learn, I feel now it lulled me into a false sense of security of my perceived capabilities, and began to coast in school. It eventually caught up to me, and I still kick myself over letting myself get complacent." —Coastty
18. Weaknesses become uncomfortably apparent.
"It put a lot of expectations on myself and made the things I was (and still am) weak at a huge deal. For example, I can't spell or punctuate correctly even now." —ByronicHero56
19. It's hard to ditch the label as you grow older.
"I often feel like a huge failure and I can't look at my transcript without crying. I still consider myself extremely intelligent and capable but I can't push myself to do the work required to make straight A's. Overall it's forced me to set an unreasonably high standard for myself. I have considered myself in a three-year slump (I'm a junior in high school now), but I'm starting to accept that I'm just a B student." —Blooopimafish
20. You aren't necessarily "better" than anyone else.
"It harmed me in the sense that it made me think I was special when I wasn't. I was considered 'gifted' in my small high school in my small hometown, but out in the rest of the world, I'm average at best." —jamiesugah
This is an update of an article originally written by Mariana Simoes and Aimee Groth.
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Why Apple employees learn design from Pablo Picasso
When Apple employees go to the tech company's super-secretive course on How Apple Does Things, they're treated to this famous series of drawings by Pablo Picasso:
The first drawing is a hooved, horned, and muscled life-like representation of a bull.
The last is just a few lines, though definitely a bull.
That's the Apple way.
"You go through more iterations until you can simply deliver your message in a very concise way, and that is true to the Apple brand and everything we do," an employee who took the course told the New York Times.
There's a word for the process: abstraction.
You can see it in Apple's 25-year pursuit of making the most simple — and functional — mouse possible.
The thing about abstraction is that it's ridiculously difficult, since it demands that you have a grasp of the underlying principles of what's going on.
In this way, scientific theories — such as those that have made Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking immortal — are abstractions.
It's helpful to consider abstraction as a tool for understanding, which authors Robert S. Root-Bernstein and Michele M. Root-Bernstein do in their awesome guide to critical thinking, "Sparks of Genius." Here's their rap on abstraction:
Abstracting, by simplifying, yields the common links, the nexuses, in the fabric of perception and nature...
Picasso began his well-known Bull series with a realistic image of a bull. Then he became interested in the planes defining the bull's form. But as he experimented with these planes, he realized that what defined them were their edges, which he then reduced to simple outlines. Finally, he eliminated most of these lines, leaving a pure outline that still conveys the essence of "bullness."
Picasso said much the same in his own words:
To arrive at abstraction, it is always necessary to begin with concrete reality … You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality. There's no danger then, anyway, because the idea of the object will have left an indelible mark.
That drive toward simplicity animates Apple. The company's attitude toward simplicity is part of what has allowed it to make technology attractive to people.
After Steve Jobs died, Guardian tech writer Jonathan Jones wrote that the "exquisite luxury" of the iPad grew "out of a tradition of Apple design that has repeatedly reshaped modern culture" and that "the aesthetic originality of Apple that has reshaped the way we live in the modern world."
This aesthetic is what made Apple "revolutionary," Jones said, and that stems from simplicity-seeking abstraction.
Jobs said as much in his own words:
That's been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.
And that's no bull.
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Here's how Ted Cruz's 2016 announcement canceled a speech by Virginia's governor
Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) big presidential campaign announcement on Monday had an unintended effect on Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe'(D).
McAuliffe had also been scheduled to speak at Liberty University on Monday, but the Christian school decided to let Cruz speak at the same time. Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Jr. told students before Cruz's speech that he offered to let McAuliffe share the stage with Cruz but the governor declined.
"I was thrilled and honored than Sen. Cruz held Liberty in such high esteem. We immediately called the office of the governor of Virginia, who had been scheduled to speak, and informed them that Sen. Cruz would be sharing the stage with the governor this morning," Falwell, the son of the late conservative pastor Jerry Falwell, said. "The governor's office graciously explained that Gov. McCauliffe had an important message that he wanted to deliver to you, the students of Liberty University, and that he preferred to do it on another day without these distractions."
In a statement to Business Insider, however, McAuliffe's office told the story a bit differently. McAuliffe's communication's director, Brian Coy, said Liberty University representatives initially cited the weather — not Cruz — when they asked if the governor could speak another day.
"Governor McAuliffe accepted an invitation to speak and was looking forward to it, but the school asked to reschedule – their original statement was that their request was due to scheduling complications because of the weather," Coy said. "We pushed back and asked if there was a way to keep the date as it was very short notice and we’d built a whole day in the region. We subsequently heard that their request was actually due to a presidential candidate who wanted to speak in the region."
Coy said McAuliffe was "disappointed" with the decision.
"The governor was excited to do it and disappointed that Liberty changed the plan so close to the day we’d agree to speak," he added.
For his part, Falwell said the university doesn't endorse candidates, but he nevertheless heaped praise upon Cruz for honoring Liberty University with his "historic" announcement.
"We are looking forward to the governor's visit and are working to reschedule it as soon as possible," Falwell said.
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Here's how much it costs to eat at 22 chain restaurants
You might want to consider taking your next date to Red Robin.
With an average check of $12.17 per person, Red Robin was the cheapest chain restaurant on a list compiled by Morgan Stanley.
The chain is known for its burgers, shakes, and bottomless fries.
The most pricey chain on the list was seafood and steak restaurant Eddie V's, with an average transaction of $88.
Chains including Red Lobster and Outback fell in the middle, costing about $20 per person.
Here's the full chart.
Olive Garden recently said that customers are increasingly willing to spend on desserts and drinks, which is great news for the economy.
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Business Insider is hiring a full-time personal finance reporter for its Your Money section
Do you love talking — and writing — about money?
Are you excited to explore the psychology of wealth, the challenges of saving, and the way successful people look at money?
Are you fascinated by people who pay off crushing debt and budget their money to retire early?
Business Insider is hiring a full-time reporter for its Your Money vertical, one of the fastest-growing sections of the world's No. 1 digital business publication.
Candidates should be comfortable writing quick, aggregated stories that highlight the most interesting angles of the day's news, while simultaneously working on reported medium-length and long-form features.
Ideal candidates will have:
- Insatiable curiosity
- A strong voice and the ability to write with authority
- Interest in digital media and how readers consume news on the web
- Previous writing experience, preferably business
- At least a Bachelor's degree
- Journalism degree and/or background preferred
- Copy-editing skills, light HTML and Photoshop experience, and knowledge of social media are also useful
APPLY HERE with a resume and cover letter if interested, and specify why you're interested in working on Your Money.
Please note that this position requires that you work in our Manhattan office. Business Insider offers competitive compensation packages complete with benefits.
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Ted Cruz's wife is taking an unpaid leave of absence as a managing director at Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs managing director Heidi Cruz, the wife of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), has taken an unpaid leave of absence from the bank, Bloomberg News' Michael Moore reports.
On Monday, Ted Cruz officially announced his candidacy for president during an event at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Heidi Cruz worked Goldman's private wealth management division in Houston, Texas.
Ted Cruz, who has been a big critic of Obamacare, had been on his wife's Goldman health insurance plan, according to a profile in the New York Times from 2013.
Heidi Cruz, a graduate of Harvard Business School, started at Goldman in October 2005. She was promoted to managing director in November 2012. She previously did a stint at Merrill Lynch. Before that, she worked in the George W. Bush Administration.
She met Ted in 2000. They have two daughters, Caroline and Catherine.
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