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An upcoming update to Google's Android software finally has a delectable name. The next version will be known as Oreo, extending Google's tradition of naming each version after a sweet treat.

Google anointed the software Monday after spending the past few months referring to it as "Android O."

Oreo boasts several new features, including the ability to respond to notifications directly on a phone's home screen and the ability to access apps without installing them on a device.

The free software is scheduled to be released this fall, most likely after making its debut on a new Pixel phone that Google is expected to begin selling in October.

The nicknames for earlier Android versions have included Nougat, Marshmallow, and Lollipop.

Google and Oreo's maker, Mondelez, referred to their deal as a partnership, rather than a sponsorship, as no money was exchanged.

Google has named Android after a brand before: The 2013 version was known as Kit Kat. Financial terms weren't disclosed for that.

Android is the world's most widely used mobile operating system.

Apple doesn't use names for its iOS system for iPhones, though the software for Mac computers is named after big cats and geographic locations in California.

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Google to serve next version of Android as 'Oreo" - ABC News

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Technavio analysts forecast the global interior design software market to grow at a CAGR of more than 9% during the forecast period, according to their latest report.

The research study covers the present scenario and growth prospects of the global interior design software market for 2017-2021. The market is segmented based on application (non-residential sector and residential sector) and geography (the Americas, EMEA, and APAC).

Increased government initiatives for promoting construction and real-estate worldwide contributed to the growth of the global interior design software market. Increasing urbanization and population growth in major cities in the world such as Beijing, China; New York, US; Tokyo, Japan; London, UK; and Mumbai, India have led to an increased growth of residential apartments. Space constraints have become a huge issue in these locations, and the customers and real-estate developers rely on interior designers to make small rooms look more attractive and spacious by the judicious allocation of space. Interior designing software, with the help of advanced graphics and rendering, provides an accurate view of the interiors. This helps architects and designers to design the room and present it to the customers. The growth of smartphones and tablets such as iPad has led to an increasing demand for interior design apps for mobile OS such as iOS and Android.

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Technavio ICT research analysts highlight the following three factors that are contributing to the growth of the global interior design software market:

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Better interior design and decoration

Interior design software allows architects to check the quality of interior settings at an early stage of the designing process. It allows architects to monitor, access, and identify any disparity between the proposed design and the real building. With this software, architects can take preventive measures, thus reducing the need for rebuilding and remodeling.

Ishmeet Kaur, a lead enterprise application research analyst at Technavio, says, Most of the interior design software includes a comprehensive list of furnitures such as doors, windows, and beds and tables of distinctive designs. This helps the designer to get an accurate model of the room. For user's convenience, many vendors offer both free and paid software. For instance, SketchUp by Trimble is available in two versions, namely SketchUp Make and SketchUp Pro.

Increasing need for higher productivity

Interior design software helps interior design consultants, designers, and architects to improve their productivity by reducing the dependency on paperwork and documentation. It speeds up the process of designing, provides well-organized worksites and well-developed designs, and helps organizations reduce their overall cost related to interior design by providing improved budgeting tools.

The software improves the efficiency of designing works by providing accurate and cost-effective analysis. It plays a vital role in reducing the energy consumption of buildings, infrastructure, and materials. Interior design software plays a vital role in designing the ventilation and power sources in a building, adds Ishmeet.

Increased use of interior design software in MEA

There is a growing demand for interior design software from the construction and real-estate industries in countries such as Oman, Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. In addition, many construction companies in the Middle East are investing heavily in residential buildings and commercial buildings, which is also expected to drive the global interior design software market.

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Interior Design Software Market - Drivers and Forecasts by Technavio - Business Wire (press release)

As part of a long-term agreement, Perceptive Devices and Tobii Dynavox have created Smyle Mouse software for a new generation of hands-free and voice-free devices for those living with physical limitations, like cerebral palsy (CP).

Tobii Dynavox designs specially adapted computers that can be controlled by eye movement or touch screens. The partnership gives users of Tobiis products a new option to control their devices using only eye gaze and gentle smiles, without havingto use hands, voice, a mouse, keyboard, or adaptive switches.

Smyle Mouse tracks users head movements and facial expressions (filmed with a common webcam) and translates them into mouse commands. A patient may use Smyle Mouse to control augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) software and devices, for example by replacing a click, a scroll, or a drag by a smile.

Our technology can be very useful to millions of people around the world who experience difficulties in using their hands due to disabilities such as spinal cord injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, ALS, cerebral palsy, and carpal tunnel syndrome, Uday Parshionikar, founder and CEO of Perceptive Devices, said in a press release.

Pairing our facial expressions based head mouse control with Tobiis gold standard eye tracking technology is a match made in heaven for users looking for a simple yet powerful hands-free and voice-free control solution, Parshionikar added.

In April 2017, Tobii launched its new device called Indi anintegrated speech tablet designed especially for non-verbal consumers with alternative communication needs, such as people with CP, autism, Down syndrome, and intellectual disabilities.

An Indi device comes with Windows 10 and Tobiis new Snap symbol-based communication software (a word vocabulary delivery technology). The vocabulary is designed to help nonverbal or verbally limited Snap users work on their communication skills, and the program evolves with them as they grow.

Tobii will include a full version of Smyle Mouse on all of its Indie Series products this year. A trial version of the software will be featured by default in all Indi products, as well as bundled with its eye-tracking peripherals.

A 14-day free trial of Smyle Mouse can be accessed here. A demo video showing how to play video games like Angry Birds using Smyle Mouse is available on this YouTube video link.

Read more:
Smyle Mouse Allows CP Patients Control of Hands and Voice-free ... - Cerebral Palsy News Today

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said in an interview aired Tuesday that judges make poor politicians, that he misses late Justice Antonin Scalia, and that the Second Amendment doesn't apply to a citizen keeping a gun next to their bed.

In a wide-ranging interview with PBS' Charlie Rose, Breyer said he thought Chief Justice Roger Taney, who wrote the 1857Dred Scott v. Sandford decision that found blacks could not be American citizens, "tried to be a politician."

"And he thought that -- perhaps he thought, that by reaching a decision saying a black person was not a person, that's roughly what he held, unbelievable. But, he thought he would help prevent the Civil War...if anything, he helped bring about the Civil War because Benjamin Curtis wrote a great dissent showing, I think, at the time, his decision was wrong. It's not using hindsight, but really wrong. Abraham Lincoln picked it up, read Taney's decision and said this is a shocker, then used the dissent in his speech at Cooper Union," Breyer noted.

"Which was the speech that propelled him to the head of the Republican Party, and helped get him the nomination and then all followed. He was really an abolitionist at heart. They knew that in the South and then, the Civil War followed," he added. "So, if that was Taney's idea, he was wrong. Judges are not good politicians. They may have some exposure to politics, but that's what I mean when I say junior league."

Breyer recalled Scalia being a masterful writer. "The job of a judge in an appellate court is, in an opinion, to explain the reasons why he or she reached this opinion," he said. "Now, I don't think that that calls for or requires what you might be able to do in terms of great phrasing but if you can do that, it can be an advantage. But what I meant because people -- when Nino and I use -- I miss him, I do."

Breyer stressed that "it's a big country" with 320 million people who "think a lot of different things," thus "it is not such a terrible thing, if on the Supreme Court, there are people who have different, somewhat different jurisprudential outlooks."

"You know, Scalia probably likes rules more than I do. He tends to find clarity in trying to get a clear rule. I have probably more of a view that life is a mess," the justice said, adding that it comes down to "basic outlook about the Constitution, how it applies today to people who must live under it."

"Those are where the differences come up. It's not politics."

Breyer said people shouldn't look at the High Court as a political arbiter. "It is not the Supreme Court that tells people what to do. [The Constitution] sets boundaries. We are, in a sense, the boundary commission," he said. "...But don't make the mistake of confusing a tough question at the boundary with the fact about what the document is like, because the document leaves vast space in between the boundaries for people themselves through the ballot box to decide what cities, towns, states, what kind of a nation they want. That's what this foresees, and if you do not participate, it won't work."

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Breyer: Second Amendment Not About 'the Right of an Individual to Keep a Gun Next to His Bed' - PJ Media

The LA Times published an editorial Wednesday titled Dont restrict free speech. Restrict the right to carry guns at potentially explosive public events. The argument is that free speech is too important to restrict but, for safetys sake, police should be willing to tell people no guns allowed at outdoor rallies. And as the Times points out, its not just right-wing gun owners bringing weapons to these rallies.

Virginia is a preemption state that also allows open carry, and the nation saw the results at Charlottesville, where paramilitary militias men heavily armed with military-style weapons and in some cases battle gear appeared as part of the Unite the Right rally. But far-left groups, including the so-calledRedneck Revolt, a liberal pro-gun group, have alsoparaded aroundwith their firearms at various demonstrations.

That last link is a reference to armed members of Redneck Revolt who showed up in Phoenix last night, but the same group was also present in Charlottesville. The groups own report on the situation says they had 20 members on the street, most carrying rifles:

Today, with hundreds more white supremacists expected to converge on Charlottesville, our Redneck Revolt branches worked together with local organizers to create and secure a staging area at Justice Park, within a short distance of the planned Unite the Right rally location, Emancipation Park (formerly Lee Park). Approximately 20 Redneck Revolt members created a securityperimeter around the park, most of them open-carrying tactical rifles.

Im not sure why the Times failed to point out that there were armed, left-wing militia members in Charlottesville except perhaps that it tends to support what Trump said about there being violence (or the potential for it) on many sides. In any case, the Times suggests this is too dangerous to allow it to continue:

This is a problem that the nation must resolve. A group of self-organized, trained and heavily armed men (and these groups are predominantly male) is a paramilitary organization, and giving it megaphones and parade banners doesnt magically transform it into something peaceful. Adding open carry to a contentious event can put public safety at risk, and thepresence of visible firearmscreates unique problems for the police

Its not the right to speech and assembly that should be restricted; its the right to carry guns in certain potentially explosive situations. Gun advocates like to argue they have the right to bear arms as a bulwark against tyrannical government, but government has a responsibility here as well: to keep people safe.

I suspect the editorial writers for the LA Times are not gun owners and, maybe, dont know any gun owners. But its worth noting that despite having two ostensibly opposing groups of armed people in Charlottesville, no shots were fired. It wasnt the gun owners who got violent, it was the kids with flagpoles and onenutwith a muscle car.

Im not a lawyer so maybe there is some sort of time and place exception that could be used by local police when doling out permits. But it seems to me that, ultimately, the state cant dole out one constitutional right to be exercisedat a time. We dont get to have the First Amendment only if we agree togive up the Second, at least I hope not.

The rest is here:
LA Times: Restrict the Second Amendment at First Amendment rallies - Hot Air