For women in tech, it's been a so-so year
The tech industry knows it needs to do a better job attracting and keeping women. In honor of International Women's Day, we give you a quick look at some of the results so far.
The push toward gender equality in the tech world is, at best, a mixed bag.
And the industry knows it. Many of its biggest companies, including Apple and Facebook, admit they need to do more to attract women to their workforce. A few, such as Salesforce.com and Intel, now make sure women and men doing the same work are paid the same. On the flip side, the gaming industry still displays more than its share of harassment, and some white men still debate what a software engineer actually looks like.
To mark this year's International Women's Day on March 8, CNET took a look back at the last 12 months to note both the good and bad as the tech industry figures out how to become more inclusive.
The good:
Bridging the tech education gap: The push to teach more kids -- especially girls and minorities -- computer science got a boost in January, when President Barack Obama included a $4 billion Computer Science for All initiative as part of this year's proposed federal budget.
The three-year plan, which still needs congressional approval, would give states money to build up their computer science programs in grades from kindergarten through high school, helping them train teachers and develop new classroom materials.
In addition, the 100Kin10 group -- a coalition of universities, nonprofits and government agencies that aims to train and keep 100,000 new STEM teachers by 2021 -- just added nearly 50 new partners, including Girls Who Code, Harvard and the Smithsonian Science Education Center.
Intel's $300 million diversity project: The world's biggest chipmaker last month released its latest diversity report, saying 43 percent of all new hires last year were women or underrepresented minorities. As a result, the percentage of women employed by Intel in the US rose to 24.8 percent from 23.5 percent a year earlier. That small rise illustrates that change takes a long time.
Apple, which also stressed workplace diversity, published its diversity stats in January that showed women comprised 30 percent of its US workforce last year, compared with 27.7 percent in 2014. Even so, the Cupertino, California-based tech giant remains largely white and male.
Expanded parental leave: Few would claim that US companies offer enough paid time off for new mothers, but many tech companies are working to change that. Netflix in August said it would start offering "unlimited" parental leave for employees during their first years as parents. Microsoft, Amazon and PayPal last year also increased the length of their parental leave programs.
Supporting global initiatives: Silicon Valley is also throwing its weight behind global campaigns aimed at solving the root problems of gender equality. On Monday, several tech industry heavy hitters, including Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, YouTube's Susan Wojcicki, Salesforce's Marc Benioff and others, teamed up with advocacy group ONE and signed a letter to world leaders declaring "poverty is sexist."
The bad:
Stereotypes still rule: Last summer, OneLogin ran ads around San Francisco looking to recruit more people to the company, which focuses on cloud-based security. Such advertising wouldn't normally generate much attention, but one of OneLogin's ads did, because it included a young female engineer named Isis Anchalee. Anchalee found herself the topic of posts and messages, some positive and some negative, about her role in a male-dominated industry.
The sudden flurry of public discussion sparked Anchalee to create a campaign called #ILookLikeAnEngineer, which aimed to dispel the notion that engineers are only white and male.
Even more Gamergate woes: Gamergate was an ugly controversy in 2014 that involved some in the gaming industry bullying and making death threats against women who spoke out against female stereotypes in games. The issue reared its ugly head again late last year after organizers for the South by Southwest tech and media festival in Austin, Texas, canceled two panels on gaming-related harassment after receiving threats of violence. SXSW's leaders reversed that decision after women's rights advocates and media organizations complained.
Update, 4:33 p.m. PT:Adds information about the ONE campaign.
Featured Video
VR has a 'hoverboard' problem
No, virtual-reality headsets aren't bursting into flames. But just as hoverboards don't actually hover, everything people are calling VR isn't necessarily "VR." Here's how to tell the difference.
Oculus
Blame the media. Blame Google search. Blame lazy marketing. But just like hoverboards that don't actually hover, everything you view in Google Cardboard or Samsung Gear VR or any number of other VR headsets is not necessarily "virtual reality."
But, it's too late to go back now. VR is the catch-all name for all manner of things experienced with goggles on -- from first-person video games that envelope you in a completely computer-generated 3D world to viewing your friend's 360-degree vacation video on YouTube to CNET's immersive CES 2016 coverage.
Of course, there is no real harm done by calling all of the stuff you view in a headset VR. But VR isn't necessarily synonymous with "360 video" -- those "you are there" travelogues that you can access on Google Cardboard and YouTube -- which isn't the same as augmented reality (AR). Meanwhile: Smart glasses and Google Glass? They're something a bit different still. And all of that may or may not have something to do with telepresence (or just "presence"). So for clarity's sake, here's a rundown of everything you need to know about what's what in the world of virtual reality.
What VR is
With the explosion of new devices and content, it might feel like virtual reality is something very new. (A similar thing happened with 3D a few years back.) However, VR, at least in its modern made-for-consumers state, has been around since the '90s. It's just that now the technology has finally caught up with the goal: to transport you into another world that can be experienced and interacted with through the use of sensory devices.
Now, these virtual realities could look and feel like the real world, such as a flight simulator, or be completely artificial like an imagined distant planet, but in any case they're computer generated. Right now, for you and me at least, these other worlds are all about gaming, driven by the likes of the Oculus Rift, Sony PlayStation VR, Samsung Gear VR and HTC Vive (demonstrated in the GIF above).
Through the use of VR headsets loaded with sensors that track your head and eye movements, you're able to interact with and navigate through different environments as if you were actually in them. This is the main thing that separates VR from immersive multimedia content where you're more of a spectator than a participant.
What VR isn't really
360-degree video
The New York Times' NYT VR videos for viewing with Google Cardboard are really cool, but they're not VR. Looking at photos on Flickr VR is really cool; also not VR. GoPro's Surf, Moto and Ski VR videos: same thing.
These are 360-degree videos and photos that capture the entire scene around the camera -- whether it's shot on professional equipment or a $350 point-and-shoot camera. When played back in a VR headset, it can feel immersive -- but what you see is real footage, not a simulation. You can look around and even feel like you're exploring the scenery, but you can't interact with it much and you can't travel within it. You're limited to what cameras can record. It's a new form of photography and filmmaking, but you can watch most of these videos and photos on a regular flat 2D screen, too. 360 degree video is not the same thing as VR.
But the thing is, for most of us, 360-degree spherical content will be the first immersive "VR" experience we have. There is plenty of it already available, and the amount grows daily on YouTube and Facebook. I bet most people who have experienced "VR" on a phone so far are talking about a 360-degree video they've seen, not a game. The amount of 360 video will continue to grow exponentially, too, made by professionals with high-end rigs as well as one of the many cameras coming this year for consumers. It also doesn't require a new computer to enjoy.
To be clear, 360 video can be cool, and even transformative. And it can be transmitted live: we've already experienced presidential debates, pro basketball games, press conferences and boxing matches in VR -- some more successful than others.
Augmented/mixed reality
Virtual reality and 360 video both have a common factor: Like a good movie, both of them totally transport you to someplace else, be it computer generated or a real-life remote location. Augmented reality, on the other hand, blends your real-world environment with virtual objects that are perfectly inserted into your field of view.
The best example of this right now is Microsoft's HoloLens system. The headset includes a camera, so you see the room around you -- but inside the goggles, you're also seeing giant spiders crashing through the wall. Or it could be something a lot more mundane, but more useful. For example, CNET Senior Editor Sean Hollister experienced what could be the future of car buying as he sat in a showroom and a virtual Volvo S90 materialized in front of him to explore inside and out.
Microsoft isn't the only company working on AR. Another big contender is Magic Leap. While the company's hardware has yet to be seen in public, the stealthy Google-backed startup has released a few snippets of what it says is real-time demos, which little computer-generated robots peeking behind real-world office desks, and solar system models suspended in the middle of a room.
Whether it's Microsoft, Magic Leap or as-yet-unknown developers, though, it's this combination of the real world around you and computer-generated objects that sets AR apart from VR. Basically, it's the difference between creating your own 3D Minecraft world on your dining room table or transporting yourself into that Minecraft world.
Telepresence
OK, so far we have VR that transports you into a computer-generated world and AR that keeps you grounded in your current, real environment. Telepresence sort of twists both together by transporting you into an alternate, real-world environment. Think of it as a video conference call where you can continue the conversation as you walk -- or roll -- down the hall after the meeting ends.
As creepy as it may be talking to an iPad on a stick with two wheels, telepresence robots like the Double, pictured above, allow someone to actually be in an office while working remotely. The Web-connected robots are controlled via a mobile or browser app so you can be in an important meeting even if you're on the other side of the world from where it's physically taking place and actually turn to look at people as if your physical self were present.
Smartglasses and mobile head-up displays
So what the hell is Google Glass, anyway? You might remember Google's 2013 eyewear experiment, and think, "Oh, right. More augmented reality." But that's not quite it. Glass was, instead, just a snap-on head-up display (HUD). It's basically a shrunken down version of what you'd see in fighter jets and some cars, with data and mapping info projected onto the windshield or transparent display. But in the case of Glass, it's a tiny display above the right eye.
The confusion comes in because of the many demo videos Google (and others) released which purported to show first-person views of the Glass experience. In fact, the product did not produce an AR-style overlay to the real world -- it just allowed quick transitions between your viewpoint and your screen. In reality, Google Glass was more like taping an Apple Watch to the side of your glasses.
If that doesn't sound super-exciting for your everyday life, that's probably why Glass never really became a commercial product. But if it sounds useful in niche environments -- grabbing snippets of info without having to take your eyes off the issue at hand -- that's also why Glass is said to be living on with industrial applications. Think surgery, construction, aviation, and the like.
Google Glass seemingly kicked off a whole crop of smart glasses such as the Carl Zeiss Smart Opticsabove, but as CNET Senior Editor Scott Stein points out, there still isn't a killer app for them yet for consumers and there isn't a good-looking pair to be found.
Personal viewers and virtual screens
Products like the Avegant Glyph may look like a VR headset, but they are more or less a high-tech way to watch movies or other video content. The category isn't new, either: Devices such as the Sony HMZ-T1 Personal 3D Viewer and Zeiss Cinemizer OLED date back to 2012.
The Glyph can be plugged into any thing with an HDMI output, either directly or via an adapter (such as Lightning connector to HDMI). It can handle 3D playback of side-by-side video content, and it does have head-mounted tracking for 360-degree videos, games, and controlling things like DJI drones. But, for now, the available content to take advantage of its full functionality is limited.
As VR and AR mature and real-world spherical video is able to blend more into virtual worlds, we're likely to see splintering into even more categories and uses. But, yeah, except for nerds fighting it out in the comments sections of the Internet, chances are we'll still be calling it all "virtual reality."
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