According to new job listings (first spotted by Android Police), it looks like Google may start building its own wearable devices. "A job listing posted two days ago on the Google Careers site calls for a Vice President of Hardware Engineering for Wearables," reports Android Police. The description reads, "As the VP of Hardware Engineering for Wearables, you'll work collaboratively with the Senior Leadership team for Google Hardware and will be responsible for the design, development, and shipment of all Google's Wearable products. You will lead and enable the effectiveness of a large engineering organization primarily based in Mountain View to develop multiple next-generation wearable products simultaneously." From the report: Google's only current wearable product is the Pixel Buds, which hasn't been a runaway success. It seems extremely unlikely that the company would want a Vice President dedicated to producing earbuds, so it's safe to assume Google has plans for other wearable products, like fitness trackers and/or smartwatches. Another listing is for a "Wearables Design Manager," but the description is more vague. "As the Design Manager of the Wearables design team within the award-winning Google Hardware Design organization, you will be a critical leader and contributor to guide the efforts in defining and evolving what it means to hold 'Google in your hand.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Apple will design its own modems in-house, according to sources that spoke with Reuters. In doing so, the company may hope to leave behind Intel modems in its mobile devices, which Apple has used since a recent falling out with Qualcomm. According to the sources, the team working on modem design now reports to Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of hardware technologies. Srouji joined Apple back in 2004 and led development of Apple's first in-house system-on-a-chip, the A4. He has overseen Apple silicon ever since, including the recent A12 and A12X in the new iPhone and iPad Pro models. Before this move, Apple's modem work ultimately fell under Dan Riccio, who ran engineering for iPhones, iPads, and Macs. As Reuters noted, that division was heavily focused on managing the supply chain and working with externally made components. The fact that the team is moving into the group focused on developing in-house components is a strong signal that Apple will not be looking outside its own walls for modems in the future. In recent years, Apple has been locked in a costly and complex series of legal battles with Qualcomm, the industry's foremost maker of mobile wireless chips. While Apple previously used Qualcomm's chips in its phones, the legal struggles led the tech giant to turn instead to Intel in recent iPhones.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

There was a point in the development of RSS, after a few VCs invested in startups, that the consensus among them (the founders and the investors) was that RSS was theirs, and they told me to my face they weren't going to listen, because I was the old way, and they were the new. (Famous last words.) Even some people who thought they were friends did this, perhaps not so bluntly. Okay now fast forward, all the startups are gone, they were so stupid they failed for many other reasons, not just their arrogance and closed minds. Stupid people. Here's a better rule. Listen by default. Tech is filled with idiotic arrogance. It's a kind of narcissism. I am the only one who can think. Bullshit. Look at all you're building on. The people who created that not only had an idea, but they were right. That's a very rare combination. And until you have built something like that, you are not smarter. And once you have, you know other people are smart, because that's what you learn.

Ratification to normalise ties between the two neighbours and anchor Macedonia within the western sphere of influence.

New header image -- a snowy driveway. Previous: MLK.

Chinampas, or man-made islands for crop farming, date back to Aztec times.

New York should just buy a team, coaches, players, owner -- the whole thing, and move it into the Garden. The other city can have Dolan and all the rookies and draft picks. New York is the greatest city in the US. It should have the greatest NBA team. We can afford it. Failing that, if Bloomberg doesn't run for president, could he just fucking buy the Knicks and manage it in an interesting way? I don't know if he's a basketball fan, but somehow I think he might do a better job than Dolan.

Nasa's InSight Mars lander has placed a domed shield over its seismometer, completing that instrument's deployment. From a report: The seismometer will look for evidence of ongoing seismic activity on the red planet to provide data about the deep interior of Mars. This will help scientists determine how the planet formed. The seismometer, called the seismic experiment for interior structure (Seis), is the lander's highest priority science instrument. It is needed to complete about three-quarters of the mission's scientific objectives. The spacecraft touched down on 26 November 2018. On 19 December, a robotic arm picked up the instrument from its storage position and placed it on the martian surface about 1.6 metres away from the spacecraft.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Alexandre Bissonnette sentenced to life for the 2017 shooting, but may be eligible for parole after serving 35 years.

Ten-year-old female Sumatran tiger Melati had been one of London Zoo's long-term residents.

European Union and Latin American nations have met to try to find a way out of Venezuela's crisis.

Cheri Baker writes about Spotify in Dear Podcasters…:

I fear we’ve seen this scenario before. A biggish company decides that they’ll aggregate an immense amount of creative work and monetize it. They’ll offer you tools to make “sharing” easy, and at first the terms of service will be reasonable. But once they’ve eaten a big enough chunk of content, they’ll lock the gates tighter, change the terms of service, and monetize the audience. By that point, customers would feel locked into Spotify, and podcasters would be afraid to leave.

Chief Justice Roberts joins court's four liberals to block Louisiana from enforcing law, pending full review of the case

The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to allow an Alabama Muslim inmate to be executed without an imam present in the room.

Family's lawyer says the officer 'emptied his gun' into 18-year-old D'ettrick Griffin during alleged car theft attempt.