The US Army is working with industry partners, namely Microsoft, to develop a mixed reality heads-up display, one that can give soldiers and squads access to tools that will let them train for battle like never before.

It was former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis who said that US troops need to fight "25 bloodless battles" before their first fight. Augmented reality is how the Army is getting after that.

The Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), a multi-purpose HUD, is a signature system project for the Soldier Lethality (SL) team at Army Futures Command, but the Synthetic Training Environment (STE) team is currently also exploring ways to use the technology to help soldiers train and rehearse for battle.

Microsoft received a $480 million contract last fall to develop the IVAS headset, and "the funding supported the Army's ability to kick-start the development of the initial IVAS capability sets and the test bed to evaluate the critical capabilities and integration into the overarching Synthetic Training Environment," an STE team spokeswoman told Business Insider.

At a recent IVAS soldier touch point event at Fort Pickett in Virginia, Business Insider experienced firsthand how IVAS will be used as a training tool for soldiers.

During the event, a soldier-centered exercise intended to inform technology development, a squad consisting of this reporter, another journalist, Gen. John Murray, head of Army Futures Command, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Joseph Martin, and James McPherson, who is the under secretary of the Army, raided a completely empty building.

For those of us with the experimental IVAS headsets, HUDs based on Microsoft's HoloLens, the building was far from empty.

There were enemy combatants programmed to fire on our position and take cover when fired upon, civilians that would respond to voice commands, and even animals, in our case, dogs and goats.

Armed with weapons modified with special trackers, we could fire bullets and throw grenades in digital space. After no more than about five minutes of instruction, we were in the fight, with the generals leading the charge and shouts of "frag out" and "got him" echoing through the halls.

You could see your muzzle flashes and the explosions of grenades. You could see bullet holes in the wall where a shot missed. You could hear the cries of fallen enemies.

While the simulated warfare was fascinating, much more interesting was the after-action review, which began just a few minutes after we finished the raid.

We gathered around an empty table, but for those of us still wearing the IVAS headsets, it wasn't empty at all. There was a 3D augmented reality version of the building we just stormed. Inside were little people representing the members of our squad.

Able to play, pause, fast forward and rewind like a home movie, we watched our team work its way through the building. We could see which way we were facing when we turned a corner and whether or not our rifles were pointing the same way.

"If you are a squad leader, you can really understand how your squad is maneuvering through this space," an Army official explained.

In that same digital space, there was also an augmented reality leaderboard where we could see how each squad member performed (how many enemies killed, how many civilians killed, whether or not they were hit, etc). You can also see how an enemy was killed, specifically who took the shot and where the bullet hit.

Virtual reality trainers have been around for years, but the current experimental setup is like nothing seen before. The Army has been chasing this capability for over a decade, but the technology just wasn't available until now.

"It is feedback like they haven't had before," Maj. Gen. Maria Gervais, director of the STE cross-functional team, said. "[Soldiers] see this as a viable training methodology for training close combat. The [after-action review] piece of this, they would take this right now the way it is."

As the Army works to further develop this technology, it intends to expand it to the company level, as well as push for increased realism, such as a materials mod so that thin plywood barriers will not serve as adequate protection from a grenade.

"This is cutting-edge technology," Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville told lawmakers earlier this year, explaining that IVAS and augmented reality training environments are "going to transform the way we train soldiers and the way soldiers operate in combat."

"What it's going to allow our Soldiers to do is to go into [augmented] reality and train on a mission they're about ready to accomplish," the general added. "We're excited about it."

What's the price of getting a tech worker to leave the Bay Area? A new startup thinks it's $10,000. 

MainStreet, which is based in San Jose and launched this week, was founded by three ex-Google employees. Frustrated by how crowded the area has become, they came up with a simple idea: Why not pay people a stipend to live where they want, in cities they could afford?

"Silicon Valley has become extraordinarily expensive for many families," one of the co-founders, Douglas Ludlow, told local news station KGO. "You're competing with billionaires and millionaires."

Housing costs in Silicon Valley — whose largest city is San Jose — rank among the highest in the US. On average, residents there spend more than $2,300 per month on housing. In San Francisco, residents spend around $2,000 per month. So offering competitive salaries that allow employees to live comfortably can be a struggle for companies that aren't behemoths like Google or Facebook.

MainStreet's mission is to help small to medium-sized companies afford local talent. Firms can hire MainStreet to recruit and hire workers in Silicon Valley, then MainStreet offers those employees a one-time stipend of $10,000 to relocate and start working remotely at one of MainStreet's own coworking spaces outside the Bay Area. 

MainStreet also trains workers about how to communicate with their new employer through video conferencing. 

MainStreet intends to offer multiple brick-and-mortar offices for remote employees throughout the US, but its first one is scheduled to open in Sacramento early next year. Around 24,000 Bay Area residents moved to Sacramento in 2017, followed by 27,000 the year after. 

There are two big caveats to the $10,000 stipend, though: One is that workers don't get the money until a year after they were hired. If they're fired before that mark, MainStreet offers healthcare benefits for their entire family and a $5,000 monthly stipend for up to three months. It also says it will help them find a new gig. 

The second caveat is that the $10,000 offer ends starting in December. Over the next two weeks, MainStreet will use the stipend to gauge how many Bay Area tech workers are actually interested in moving. After that, they'll continue to help companies hire workers who want to relocate to less crowded areas. Ultimately, they hope to scout for tech workers who already live outside the Bay Area.

So far, programs that pay people to work remotely have had mixed results. In March 2017, a Silicon Valley tech company called Zapier offered to pay $10,000 in moving expenses to new employees who volunteered to leave the Bay Area. By June of that year, however, the CEO told Business Insider that no one had taken him up on the offer. Since then, four people have accepted the offer and relocated.

City governments have had greater success with programs that offer money to remote workers who are willing to move. Last year, the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma offered $10,000 to remote workers who wanted to live there for a year. In addition to cash, workers received a discount on a fully furnished apartment and access to a coworking space. The program received more than 10,000 applications, but was only able to select around 100 people. This year, it's expanding to allow 250 participants. 

But MainStreet isn't trying to breathe new life into any particular city. Instead, it aims to level the playing field for Bay Area tech firms. A worker earning $130,000 in San Francisco, for instance, would only need to be paid $100,000 to afford the same lifestyle in Seattle or Boston.

If the Bay Area becomes more equitable, Ludlow said, then workers wouldn't have to consider moving all.  

"Long-term, we'd hope you'd never have to leave home to get a good job," he told the Mercury News. "I think it's doable." 

Throughout this campaign cycle, some democratic candidates have turned the conversation to the issue of tech monopolies.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been running on a platform of breaking up Facebook, Amazon, and Google, which she compares to big oil, and she recently pledged to stop taking donations from tech executives. Sen. Bernie Sanders has his own plan that would remove concentrated power from tech companies, but he largely agrees with Warren.

Most of the other candidates agree that these companies held too much power and that it is a problem, but they have stopped short of proposing specific plans or calling out individual companies and executives. So far, only Sanders, Warren, and Yang have specific plans detailing how they will handle big tech — the most common position among candidates is support for regulation and antitrust enforcement, but not necessarily using executive power to break up tech companies.

Here's where each candidate stands on breaking up big tech.

A coalition of 50 state attorneys general investigating Google over potential antitrust violations are expanding their probe to look at its search and Android businesses, according to a report from CNBC.

The investigation, which includes 48 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico and is being led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, had originally focused solely on Google's digital advertising business.

At a recent meeting of several attorneys general involved in the probe, however, Paxton indicated his support for examining potential anticompetitive practices within Google's search engine results and its Android mobile operating system, sources told CNBC.

That would put the states' investigation in line with a series of antitrust probes in the European Union that have collectively resulted in $9.4 billion in fines for Google. It would also add to growing scrutiny of Google by US regulators, which includes requests for documents by the US Department of Justice as well as a federal probe into its partnership with the hospital system Ascension to collect individuals' health records.

Google declined to comment on this story.

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang released his comprehensive plan to regulate the tech industry in a blog post Thursday.

His top priority: establishing "data as a property right," which would give people more control over their data and potentially enable them to make money when companies use it to power their products and services.

That would be a major shift from how things work currently, where companies typically own any data generated by users, limiting their ability to restrict access to that data or earn any money off it.

Yang made his case for data as a property right, a proposal he initially rolled out in October, by pointing to the massive amount of data people create everyday and how companies have been able to monetize it, saying "our data is now worth more than oil."

"By implementing measures to increase transparency in the data collection and monetization process, individuals can begin to reclaim ownership of what's theirs," Yang said in the plan.

According to a report Yang cited, gathering and using Americans' personal data has become a $198 billion industry, and he argued that users haven't gotten enough in return.

During a Democratic debate in October, Yang made a similar point, asking the audience: "How many of you remember getting your data check in the mail? It got lost. It went to Facebook, Amazon, Google."

Yang also proposed:

Yang explained more about his views at a fundraiser in San Francisco this week, noting that tech executives like Elon Musk agree that the tech industry needs more regulation. 

Regulating the tech industry has become a popular talking point among Democrats in the 2020 primary race, with candidates like Elizabeth Warren proposing breaking up tech giants.

You can read Yang's full policy here.

Unlike the iPhone, which makes setting up a custom ringtone a fairly arduous task, the ability to customize ringtones on Android phones like the Galaxy S10 is built into the operating system. 

You can even turn your favorite songs into ringtones, or set a custom ringtone for specific callers.

Here's how to do it. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Samsung Galaxy S10 (From $899.99 at Best Buy)

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Best Buy)

How to set a custom ringtone on your Samsung Galaxy S10

1. Start the Settings app.

2. Tap "Sound and vibration."

3. Tap "Ringtone."

4. To change the ringtone to one of the built-in sounds, tap any entry in the list and then tap the back button. 

5. To select a song stored on your phone, tap the plus sign at the top right of the screen. 

6. On the "Sound picker" screen, tap a song you want to use as a ringtone. The song will start playing so you can preview it. You can browse songs by track, album, artist, or folder using the tabs at the bottom of the screen, or search for a song using the Search button at the top of the screen.

7. If you want the song to start at the beginning when a call starts, turn "Highlights only" off by swiping the button to the left. If on, Highlights Only starts playing the song somewhere in the middle when a call comes in. 

8. When you're satisfied with your ringtone selection, tap "Done."

How to set a custom ringtone for specific callers

If you want to associate a specific ringtone with certain callers, you can do that as well. 

1. Start the Contacts app and select a contact you want to set a ringtone for. 

2. At the bottom of the screen, tap "Edit."

3. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and tap "View more."

4. Tap "Ringtone" and select a sound or song. 

There are two ways to play Stadia when it launches in November 19: You can pay $10/month for Stadia Pro, or you can pay $130 for the "Founder's Edition" (now known as the "Premiere Edition"). The latter package comes with Google's Stadia controller and a Chromecast Ultra — the necessary hardware for playing Google Stadia on a television.

By next year, Google also plans to offer a free version as well with a slightly lower resolution than the 4K/HDR visuals offered in the "Pro" tier.

But for now, when the service launches on November 19, some of the people who dropped $130 on the Founder's Edition won't actually get what they ordered.

Two of Google Stadia's product leads, Andrey Doronichev and Beri Lee, addressed the issue during a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) on Wednesday.

"You can check your estimated delivery date by logging into [the Google Store] and checking your Order History," Lee said. "You'll get your activation email soon after your order ships. Stadia goes live at 9am PST on Nov 19, and your activation code will work immediately once you receive it. For reference, I ordered my Stadia Founder's Edition in June and my delivery date says November 20-21."

Despite Google's long history of operating a digital storefront that ships physical hardware to customers, the tech giant is unable to fulfill pre-orders for Stadia's "Founder's Edition" on launch day.

You could, of course, just download the Google Stadia app on your phone, activate your Pro account, and start playing before the Founder's Edition ever arrives. But, as Doronichev points out, "The best experience at launch is on TV (4K, HDR and all)." 

A week after Business Insider reported on forthcoming consolidation moves at the ad-holding-company giant WPP, some sources are confused and nervous about their jobs.

Multiple sources confirmed that Wunderman Thompson would absorb digital agencies Possible, iStrategyLabs, and Mirum in North America, though the latter may retain its name in certain locations, like its San Diego headquarters, to avoid disrupting a relationship with its largest client, Qualcomm.

Exactly when the brands will merge, and whether a global consolidation will follow, is unclear, and Wunderman Thompson leadership has not communicated plans to employees.

Sources told Business Insider that no large-scale staffing changes would accompany the consolidation. But at least some high-level staff members have recently been laid off, and others expressed jitters about their job security.

Wunderman Thompson declined to comment.

Some jobs were recently eliminated, and leaders were hired, as Wunderman Thompson's North American framework takes shape

An executive who was recently laid off said Wunderman Thompson's financial department has begun reviewing salaries in an effort to bring costs down.

Another person said leaders sent a message around their office about the Business Insider article before it went live and that a manager said layoffs could follow.

Describing the general mood as "confusion" and "anxiety-filled," this source said that at least three executives have left the office over the past four months and voiced frustration that WPP was not communicating more.

A second former executive said some recent cuts focused on back-office jobs and that multiple current employees have "reached out in mass confusion" over the past week.

To be sure, it's common for ad agencies — especially ones going through large-scale restructuring — to trim staff around the holidays to keep severance expenses on the current year's balance sheet.

Wunderman Thompson has also been hiring and promoting new leadership.

The network recently named a new North American chief creative officer and the president of its office in Minneapolis, which is home to its longtime client Best Buy. Over the summer, it also officially split into Eastern, Central, and Western divisions led, respectively, by the former Possible executive Joe Crump, Wunderman Chicago President Ian Sohn, and Liz Valentine, the CEO of the boutique agency Swift.

Some C-level roles were eliminated in the process.

A third executive who recently left WPP said Swift was excluded from the larger consolidation, at least in part because of a client conflict: The Portland, Oregon-based shop works with Google, while competitor Microsoft is one of Possible's largest clients.

The move comes as consulting firms are finally starting to win creative accounts away from holding companies 

The third former executive called the consolidation smart but argued that it should have happened two or three years ago as WPP is now "fighting from behind" to compete with consulting firms.

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Accenture Interactive had won lead creative duties for Kimberly-Clark's childcare portfolio in the US, Europe, Middle East, and Africa — work that WPP previously had. It was the firm's first major new-business victory since acquiring creative agency Droga5 in April.

Forrester chief analyst Jay Pattisall told Business Insider that Accenture won by selling its tech and strategy consulting acumen and Droga5's creative as a single package.

"Wunderman has a similar capacity on the digital and strategy side, and with the creative chops inside JWT, Possible and, to an extent, Mirum, I think [the consolidation] is a competitive play in that regard," he said.

The third former WPP executive said firms like Accenture and Deloitte don't need separate divisions to pitch clients because their appeal lies in being all things at once. He referred to the concept of branded specialty agencies as "a self-inflicted wound" that makes holding company offerings unnecessarily complicated.

According to Pattisall, the big question is whether these networks can simplify fast enough to stay competitive with the upstarts and the big consultancies.

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Greta Thunberg is hitching an impromptu boat ride back to Europe.

The 16-year-old Swedish climate activist refuses to fly, because airplane travel has such a heavy carbon footprint — a single round-trip flight between New York and California generates roughly 20% of the greenhouse gases your car emits in a year. In Europe, this means she typically travels by train. 

This summer, Thunberg sailed from Europe to New York in a zero-emissions sailboat. Upon arrival, she addressed international leaders with a powerful speech at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York. Since then, she's been traveling across North America with plans to make her way to Chile to attend this year's most important climate summit, the UN COP25.

But Thunberg's unconventional travel methods posed a dilemma when the summit was moved to Madrid, as the Chilean capital, Santiago, erupted in riots and protests. The move left Thunberg stranded on the wrong side of the ocean.

On Tuesday, the activist said she'd found a last-minute ride with an Australian couple, their 11-month-old son, and a professional sailor.

"So happy to say I'll hopefully make it to COP25 in Madrid," Thunberg tweeted with a photo of the motley crew. "We sail for Europe tomorrow morning!"

The trip will take about three weeks, according to The New York Times. If all goes as planned, Thunberg will arrive just in time for COP25, which starts December 2.

Even with the time crunch, Thunberg did not want to take an airplane.

"I decided to sail to highlight the fact that you can't live sustainably in today's society," Thunberg told The New York Times on Tuesday. "You have to go to the extreme."

When Thunberg put out a call for help getting back to Europe, Riley Whitelum responded on Twitter.

"If you get in contact with me I'm sure we could organise something," he said on November 4.

Whitelum and his wife, Elayna Carausu, have been sailing the world and making YouTube videos of their adventures since 2014. 

Within a week, the Times reported, they had arranged Thunberg's voyage in their 48-foot catamaran, "La Vagabonde."

Nikki Henderson, a professional sailor from Britain, will join the team. The couple's son, Lenny, and Thunberg's father, Svante, will also be along for the ride.

Several Vizio TV owners hoping to check out Disney Plus are reporting on Twitter that their TVs aren't working with Disney's new streaming channel that was released on Tuesday. 

Vizio has acknowledged that Disney Plus doesn't work on its SmartCast TVs as a built-in app or via casting. The company hasn't offered much of an explanation.

 

Vizio said on its support page that it plans to have the Disney Plus app available in 2020, but it doesn't specify an exact date. It also says that Apple users could use AirPlay 2 to watch Disney Plus, but that leaves anyone who doesn't have an Apple device without access to the new service. 

In its support page, Vizio also provides a link to a Disney Plus page that lists compatible devices, which includes smart TVs from LG and Samsung.  

In a statement to Business Insider, Vizio said:

"While we don't have anything to announce at this time, VIZIO is constantly adding new apps to SmartCast Home. VIZIO is working diligently to implement the new version of Chromecast and will start rolling out the update to our SmartCast TVs as soon as possible. In the meantime, customers with VIZIO SmartCast TVs can use AirPlay to stream Disney+ directly from their Apple device to the TV. The iOS device only needs iOS 12.3 or later, or a Mac running 10.14.5 or later, and your device must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the TV."

Some users have suggested that the built-in Chromecast devices in Vizio smart TVs have an outdated firmware version — 1.34. Regular Chromecast users received an update to version 1.36, which is said to contain the compatibility for Disney Plus. 

Google has fired one employee and put another two on leave for allegedly violating company policies, according to a report from Bloomberg on Tuesday that a Google spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider.

The spokesperson told Business Insider that, following an investigation, Google fired an employee for leaking other employees' names and personal information to the media.

According to the spokesperson, a second employee has been placed on leave pending an investigation into whether they improperly accessed a wide range of documents unrelated to their job after receiving warnings not to do so.

The spokesperson also told Business Insider that a third employee is on leave while the company investigates their alleged tracking of individual calendars of employees on the communications, human resources, and community platforms teams, which Google said made those employees feel unsafe.

Google said that neither employee was placed on leave solely for accessing a single document and that the company has long had information access and sharing policies in place.

It was not clear with the employees placed on leave whether Google has evidence of which news publications were involved, or if the company simply suspected the individuals of leaking because of their internal actions. Google said those investigations are ongoing.

Employees familiar with the suspensions told Bloomberg that the documents related to an internal tool Google recently installed on employees' web browsers that tracks and reports efforts to organize large gatherings. Employees had raised concerns about the tool, which according to an internal memo, monitors staff calendars and reports employees who attempt to create events with more than 100 invitees or 10 rooms.

Google and parent company Alphabet have been roiled by employee protests during the past year, including a walkout over the company's handling of executives accused of sexual misconduct, as well as protests over Google's work with the US military.

The firing and employee suspensions have been the subject of intense discussion within the company in recent weeks, as employees worry that Google — which has traditionally been known for its open and transparent culture — is attempting to crack down on dissent by punishing those who openly disagree with management.

Multiple employees have left Google in the past several months in frustration after trying to organize workers in protest of various company policies, business decisions and partnerships, evidence of a growing divide between management and rank-and-file employees as Google continues to limit employees' ability to communicate and organize across the company.

The stereotype goes that moms are tech-illiterate, but as tech goes more and more mainstream, that's not the case anymore. Any mom, tech-savvy or no, can appreciate a good gadget that makes her life easier and happier.

Whether the mom in your life is a bookworm who loves to read, a fitness fanatic who enjoys a good workout, or a new mom who wants the best for her baby, we have a tech gift for her.

The 5 best tech gifts for moms:

Check out all 21 tech gifts for Mom:

Dell will let businesses pay for computing power based on what they use, instead of buying the tech gear and software for private data centers. CEO and founder Michael Dell said the new product will give businesses access to hardware and software products based on a pay-per-use model, instead of having them buy entire systems. 

"Essentially it is a consumption model that allows customers to flex their usage of the technology and pay for what they use," he told Business Insider. 

In other words: If you want Dell hardware and software in your server room or data center, you no longer have to buy it outright — under this program, you can pay based only on your consumption of Dell's products. It's a bit like leasing a car, but only paying based on how much you drive.

"In a sense, we've been doing this for quite some time, and we are now enhancing it by putting metering and monitoring into the product so we can offer them on a consumption basis. Many customers want that. We're well positioned to do it. We have a lot of great assets and capabilities there," Dell said.

The offering, called Dell Technologies on Demand, underscores the cloud-era trend of giving businesses more flexibility in the way to set up their computer networks, especially when it comes to costs.

The cloud changes the equation 

The cloud allowed businesses to set up their networks on web-based platforms run by major providers like Amazon, Microsoft and Google. This enabled them to scale down or even abandon private data centers, leading to huge cost savings. 

This trend has been challenging for many traditional enterprise tech companies, such as Dell, which historically make their money from selling expensive gear and software to companies. Dell had embraced the pay-per-use model a few years ago by introducing PCs-as-a-service, which allowed businesses to pay for PCs based on how much computing power they use — similarly to Tuesday's announcement.

But Dell and other traditional tech giants, including Dell rivals Hewlett Packard Enterprise and IBM, are eyeing new trends in the cloud. 

One is the hybrid cloud, in which businesses move their networks to the cloud, while maintaining a big chunk of their data and applications in private data centers. The other big push is multi-cloud, in which businesses set up and manage networks across different cloud platforms and maybe even their own data center.

Customers want value

Businesses, including big corporations, are now focused on the concrete benefits they get from their technology investments, and are looking for vendors than can address their needs at a reasonable price, said analyst Christian Renaud of 451 Research, a tech research organization.

He said companies like Dell are in a better position to address this need given advances in technology, including more powerful computing, higher bandwidth connections, and technologies that make it possible to install computing systems and sensors on a wide range of devices, a trend called the Internet of Things.

"You don't go to a restaurant and ask for a knife and a match to get your outcome — you want a steak," he told Business Insider. The Dell move is a positive sign, he said. "The fact that they're announcing this means they're not behind."

In fact, Dell rival Hewlett Packard Enterprise unveiled its own pay-per-use model called Greenlake. 

"While Dell is not the first with this model , it's important for Dell to support these kinds of models," IDC President Crawford Del Prete told Business Insider. "Dell has a very broad and strong product portfolio, and customers increasingly are interested in subscription models to things that were previously bought in the traditional way - so this is an important move."

Taking a page from Amazon

In a way, Dell is taking a page from the playbook of the dominant player in cloud computing, Amazon Web Services, said analyst Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies Associates.

"This is sort of the application level of AWS," he told Business Insider. "AWS provides capacity on demand for IT professionals who know what to do with it.  Dell is positioning itself one level closer to the customer, offering complete systems that actually do something. The ability to dial capacity up and down is increasingly important to customers in today's uncertain world."

Still, Dell faces a challenging road ahead as the size of the hybrid cloud market opportunity remains unclear. Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi said in a recent note that among traditional tech companies affected by the rise of the cloud, "hardware vendors have it worst."

"Hardware vendors like HPE, Dell, and IBM have pointed to rising customer interest in hybrid cloud as evidence that some 'legacy' spending will always exist to fill needs that AWS and [Microsoft] Azure cannot single-handedly satisfy," Sacconaghi wrote. "However, few have actually tried to quantify what percentage  of spending will remain on-premise in the long term."

Got a tip about Dell or another tech company? Contact this reporter via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., message him on Twitter @benpimentel or send him a secure message through Signal at (510) 731-8429. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Sometimes, the storage that's built into a device just doesn't cut it (and sometimes there is no built-in storage option) — that's where microSD cards come in to expand your device's storage.

Many Android smartphones, including the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and LG V50 ThinQ 5G, support microSD cards — a minuscule version of the larger SD format — as do all GoPro Hero action cameras and small cameras like it; consumer drones, like those from DJI; and mobile gaming devices, like the Nintendo Switch.

Before we get into our top picks, let's go over those aforementioned confusing numbers and letters so you know what they mean and why they're important for your device.

Card type and capacity

When it comes to the card type, the two main kinds you'll want to consider are SD HC (Secure Digital High Capacity) and SDXC (Secure Digital eXtended Capacity). The only real difference between the two is how much storage they offer. SDHC cards contain 4GB to 32GB, while SDXC starts with at least 64GB of capacity and extends up to 2TB (and beyond, in the near future). 

Although most newer devices accept the SDXC standard, some older gadgets, like the GoPro Hero4 and Nintendo 3DS, will only support lower-capacity SDHC microSD cards of 32GB or less. Consult your product's user manual to see what it recommends before purchasing any card.

In general, you should get as much capacity as your budget allows. And depending on what you plan to do with the card, you will also need to consider the speed class, which we'll explain below. The card speed and capacity will determine pricing.

Speed class

Speed class is where things get complicated. The chart from the SD Association below breaks it down visually, but we also will explain below.

Microsoft released a report on Tuesday announcing progress in hiring a more diverse workforce and highlighting achievements in pay equity — but some experts said the positive numbers don't tell the full story.

The software giant, in its first official "State of Diversity and Inclusion" report, revealed gains in hiring more women and underrepresented minorities, including in high-paying executive, director, managerial and technical roles. Microsoft also released a new metric for tracking inclusiveness.

In its so-called Inclusion Index, the company tracks employee responses to questions designed to measure inclusivity, such as "I can succeed in my work group while maintaining my own personality and style." Microsoft said that 88% of employees responded positively to those questions.

Like most big tech companies, including Google, Facebook and Apple, Microsoft has struggled to make its employee ranks reflect the diversity of people in society and among its customers. Microsoft's 144,000-employee global workforce is nearly three-quarters male and more than half of its employees are white. 

Microsoft said in its report that it hired 11.6% more women employees globally in the past year, and 17.3% more black employees in the US. 

Microsoft also announced seemingly impressive statistics in pay equity, with women and minorities actually earning more than male and white counterparts in similar jobs. 

Among Microsoft employees in the US, the company said underrepresented minorities earn $1.006 per every dollar a white "counterpart" earns at the same job title and level. Women in the US earn $1.001 per every dollar a man earn at the same job title and level. 

In its six largest markets by employees — the US, Canada, China, Germany, India and the UK — Microsoft said that women in the combined area earned 99 cents for every $1.00 a man earned.

But Wayne Sutton, a tech industry diversity expert, said the pay comparisons are not as informative as they might seem since white men still hold many more high-paying leadership positions than employees who are women or underrepresented minorities.

"There should always be an asterisk if the leadership doesn't reflect an equal representation of their employee or customer base," Sutton said. "You have may pay equity, but you may have one woman, one African American, one Latinx, one LGBT [person], one vet."

Microsoft has shared some diversity data since 2014, but this is the first time they've released the index and revealed data specific to roles including executives, directors, and managers. Microsoft's report goes beyond what many technology companies reveal about workforce diversity and reflects an emphasis on workplace culture as well as demographics.

Female Founders Alliance CEO Leslie Feinzaig, whose organization partners with Microsoft on a startup accelerator, credited the company for working to improve diversity but warned against placing too much emphasis on the numbers in the report.

Solving a problem as complex as a lack of diversity within the tech industry requires more than simply tracking percentages, she said. Companies need to pay attention not only to how many women and underrepresented minorities they hire, but how long those people stick around, how they are treated and whether they receive promotions.

"Percentages can mask a whole host of issues," Feinzaig said. "A lot of companies out there are making big, pronounced, expensive efforts to improve the recruitment of women and underrepresented employees but recruiting is not even half the battle if you can't retain people and grow new leadership. It's basically a vanity improvement that doesn't create a better culture and a better company."

Sutton stressed that improving diversity in the technology industry doesn't have a fast solution.

When the tech industry started to pay attention to its lack of diversity, many companies approached the issue  by offering a diversity training such as on unconscious biases. Now, he said, companies are beginning to understand that solutions are much more complex.

"I hope now companies are looking at how difficult it is to correct years of systematic inequalities in terms of hiring and promotion in tech," he said. "It's not just going to be one solution, one workshop, one training – it's going to take years to correct."

Microsoft declined to comment.

4K is becoming more and more common nowadays. So you'd be forgiven if you thought that Hulu offered 4K programming by default on all of its streaming apps.

However, this isn't the case — to watch in 4K on Hulu, you'll need to be using a specific streaming device, and watching one of a select set of shows and movies.

Here's what you should know.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Hulu Basic Subscription (From $5.99 per month at Hulu)

Apple TV (From $179.99 at Best Buy)

Chromecast Ultra (From $69.99 at Best Buy)

Amazon Fire TV Stick (From $49.99 at Best Buy)

LG 55" LED TV (From $399.99 at Best Buy)

Xbox One S (From $299.99 at Best Buy)

Which devices can display Hulu in 4K

Unlike some other streaming services, Hulu only supports 4K video on a narrow set of devices. These are the media players which can show Hulu in 4K:

If you don't have one of those devices — like if you're using a Roku media device, for example — the highest resolution you can watch in is HD. 

The content that Hulu broadcasts in 4K is limited

If you have a compatible device, the selection of 4K content is relatively slim. There's no official list of what content is available in 4K — Hulu says on its website that "at this time, [4K content is] limited to a select list of programming, including most Hulu Originals." 

Unfortunately, that's an optimistic spin on the current state of 4K on Hulu, which currently appears to be limited to the service's highest profile originals, like "The Handmaid's Tale." 

So while you can find 4K video if you look through Hulu's original programming, most content on the service is only available in HD. 

As winter storms roll through, folks who live in icy areas have to re-acquaint themselves with how to navigate a slick icy surface. For some, it comes naturally. For others, that tailbone is going to take a beating. When in doubt, just remember: Walk like the penguins. The following is a transcription of the video:

Don't let winter slip you up!

The secret to avoiding icy tumbles: Impersonate a penguin!

When we walk, we keep our center of gravity between our legs, so each leg supports half our weight. Because the leg is at an angle, we're more vulnerable to losing our balance.

But penguins don't walk this way. Their legs are too short, so they must waddle, keeping all their weight on one leg at a time. When on the ice, do as the penguins do.

Maintain your center of gravity over one leg at a time and take tiny steps, even if it looks funny. Keep your hands out of your pockets and if you do fall, try landing on your thigh, hip or shoulder. Falling onto your hands could injure your wrists.

Follow these steps, and you could be at home in the Antarctic.

You may need a tuxedo to fit in.

This video was originally published in February 2017.