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Amazon's HR Chief - the Most Influential Person in Tech You've Never Heard of

Charlotte Henry ·

Beth Galetti is not one of the most famous names in tech. But she’s one of the most influential. Fast Company‘s Harry McCraken spoke to Amazon’s HR chief, the only woman in Amazon’s Senior Team, on her role and the firm’s massive recruitment drive.

Like most–okay, all–HR executives, the 46-year-old Galetti isn’t exactly famous. But in her nearly six years at Amazon, three as a division leader, she has quietly become one of its most influential figures. Galetti is the highest-ranking woman at the company, and the only woman on the 18-person “S-Team” (short for “Senior Team”) that reports directly to founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. And she has presided over a hiring spree of historic proportions.

Cool Stuff Found

This Concept Video Reimagines the macOS Desktop

Andrew Orr ·

German video editor Thomas Weinreich created a concept video that gets rid of the desktop metaphor on macOS. Replacing it is a user interface similar to what we get with the iPad. Windowed apps are replaced by full screen apps that can be displayed into multi-window Split Views. Like Ben Lovejoy said,  it seems like maybe it could be similar to what Apple is thinking of. However, I personally don’t believe the rumors of a macOS/iOS hybrid. Additionally, this concept paradigm doesn’t make sense on Macs that don’t have touchscreens. The macOS desktop metaphor might be aged, but I think it makes sense for devices that use a mouse or trackpad. What do you think?

Camera+ 2 Gets a 2.0 Update With a New Design
Cool Stuff Found

Camera+ 2 Gets a 2.0 Update With a New Design

Andrew Orr ·

Camera+ 2 has been recently updated to 2.0. The main focus is the camera itself. In the new design, the app is divided into three categories: Presets, Shutter modes, and Settings. Presets give you instant access to specific shooting modes, like Action Mode, Slow Shutter, and Macro. Shutter modes define how you want to shoot, with a timer, stabilizer, and Smile. Settings give you preferences like showing the grid and horizon level. Besides the new updates, Camera+ 2 offers RAW capture and editing, manual controls, depth capture and editing, and integration with your photo library. You can read more about it on the company’s blog. App Store: US$2.99

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AirPods 2 Get a Zero out of Ten for Repairability

Andrew Orr ·

iFixit is back, this time doing a teardown of the AirPods 2. They remain “disappointingly disposable” and get a 0/10 for repairability.

That said, the construction isn’t entirely unimproved—this set might survive an extra trip through the washing machine. It’s just, we know Apple can do better.

Not really a surprise here.

TMO Deals

MacX DVD Ripper Pro Lifetime License: $14.99

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on MacX DVD Ripper Pro, software that can convert your DVDs into digital video files for your media library. It supports batch converting for multiple videos at once, can extract audio, and more. The deal listing has more information, and a lifetime license for MacX DVD Ripper Pro is $14.99 through our deal.

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Ready? Google Planning Ads in Maps - Think $$

John Martellaro ·

Bloomberg’s Gerrit De Vynck writes:

Service was mostly ad-free for years. That’s changing now.

Company looks beyond ‘utility’ navigation for new ad revenue.

He concludes:

Suddenly charging for something free — or slipping ads into formerly uncluttered services — are rare and risky steps for Google. But parent Alphabet Inc. has shareholders to please and revenue growth targets to hit. Maps is the next, big service the company is leaning on to achieve those goals.

Thank goodness for Apple Maps.