• Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has run an ultra-secretive summit in Montana for a handful of executives, politicians, and celebrities since at least 2012, Tech Transparency Project reported Monday.
• The event has been hosted every summer at the Yellowstone Club and has included guests such as Lady Gaga, Sen. Cory Booker, and journalist Ronan Farrow, according to TTP.
• While private retreats aren't uncommon, the under-the-radar nature of the Yellowstone event raises questions about whether it has been used to quietly curry favor for Google or Schmidt's own projects.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Every summer since at least 2012, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has invited a handful of executives, politicians, celebrities, and at least one journalist to a secretive summit in rural Montana, the Tech Transparency Project reported Monday.

The event is hosted at the Yellowstone Club — a swanky, private club where members, like Schmidt, pay north of $40,000 per year in membership dues— and has included high-profile guests such as Lady Gaga, Senator Cory Booker, and journalist Ronan Farrow, according to TTP.

An analysis of flight records, media accounts, and social media posts by TTP showed that Google's private jets have flown attendees including Google staff to the event, where they engaged in recreational activities as well as discussions on a variety of topics around technology.

It isn't uncommon for the ultra-wealthy to host similar "ideas summits" — investment bank Allen & Co. holds a famous one in Sun Valley, Idaho, and Sen. Mitt Romney hosts one in Park City, Utah.

However, TTP reported that Schmidt's event has kept an extremely low profile, with attendees being told not to disclose details. That secrecy and the likely attendee list raise questions about what influence the event and conversations held there might have had over their relationships with Schmidt or Google — especially for those in positions of power.

TTP reported that recent invitees included Austria's chancellor, who was pushing for a new tax on tech companies and eventually abandoned it; Ronan Farrow, who wrote a story following his attendance event that TTP viewed as being too soft on Google; and the founder of a think tank that had been critical of Google's approach to combating extremist content.

Since stepping down as Google CEO in 2011, Schmidt has played an active role in trying to grow the tech industry's influence with government. ProPublica reported last year that he has gained unprecedented access within the Pentagon despite whistleblower concerns that he could use it to steer business toward Google (in which he still owns a substantial amount of stock). Earlier this year, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tapped Schmidt as a tech advisor for the state's post-pandemic reopening.

Schmidt, Lady Gaga, Booker, and Farrow did not immediately respond to requests for comment on this story.

SEE ALSO: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says ride-hailing will make up only 50% of the company's business moving forward as food delivery growth surges

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• President Donald Trump's Twitch account was temporarily suspended for two weeks, but it was reinstated on Monday.
• Twitch had suspended the channel, saying Trump's words violated the company's hateful-conduct rules. It gave two prime examples from Trump campaign rallies: one in 2015, and another in late June in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• Twitch is the latest social platform to struggle with moderating the US president's speech.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump's Twitch account was reinstated on Monday after a two-week suspension.

The account violated the company's hateful-conduct rules, a Twitch representative said on June 29.

"Hateful conduct is not allowed on Twitch," the statement said. "In line with our policies, President Trump's channel has been issued a temporary suspension from Twitch for comments made on stream, and the offending content has been removed."

Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, gave two examples of "offending conduct" from Trump's campaign speeches. The first came from a rally in 2015.

"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," he said in a speech announcing his campaign in 2015. "They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

In the other example, from a recent Trump's campaign event on June 20 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the offending content was a fictional anecdote he offered.

"It's 1 o'clock in the morning, and a very tough — I've used the word, on occasion, 'hombre' — a very tough hombre is breaking into the window of a young woman whose husband is away as a traveling salesman or whatever he may do," Trump said. "And you call 911, and they say, 'I'm sorry, this number's no longer working.'"

A review of Trump's Twitch channel on Monday afternoon found no campaign rallies available to watch.

Though Twitch declined to offer an additional comment on what may happen if Trump's reinstated channel violates the same rules in the future, a representative emphasized a previously issued statement: "Like anyone else, politicians on Twitch must adhere to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. We do not make exceptions for political or newsworthy content, and will take action on content that violates our rules."

Other major tech companies and social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, have struggled with how and when to moderate the president's speech. Though Trump has repeatedly tested the limits of Facebook's moderation policies, the company has more or less declined to moderate him.

In a recent example, Trump posted the same message on both Facebook and Twitter in late May.

"When the looting starts, the shooting starts," Trump said, quoting a notoriously harsh Miami police chief who invoked the phrase against Black Americans during the protests for equality in the late 1960s.

Twitter flagged the post for "glorifying violence." To see the tweet, you must click through a warning.

Twitter said the message violated its policies "regarding the glorification of violence based on the historical context of the last line, its connection to violence, and the risk it could inspire similar actions today."

An identical message posted on Trump's Facebook page went untouched; Facebook said it did not violate its community standards. CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly called Trump about the post, and other Facebook executives asked him to tone it down, apparently to no avail. Since that decision, many Facebook employees have spoken out in defiance of the company's inaction.

Reddit recently announced it had banned more than 2,000 subreddits— including r/The_Donald, a pro-Trump forum — that regularly broke its rules about harassment, hate speech, and targeting.

"All communities on Reddit must abide by our content policy in good faith. We banned r/The_Donald because it has not done so, despite every opportunity," CEO Steve Huffman wrote in a post. "The community has consistently hosted and upvoted more rule-breaking content than average ... and its mods have refused to meet our most basic expectations."

Got a tip? Contact Business Insider senior correspondent Ben Gilbert via email (bgilbert@businessinsider.com), or Twitter DM (@realbengilbert). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by email only, please.

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• SoftBank is considering selling chip design company Arm Holdings or taking it public, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday citing unnamed sources.
• Arm Holdings, which Softbank acquired four years ago for $32 billion, became a dominant player in the chip market with a power-efficient architecture embraced by many mobile device manufacturers.
• The British company recently scored a big win after Apple announced that it will transition away from Intel chips for its Mac computers and will instead use Arm-based architecture.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories

SoftBank Group is looking to sell Arm Holdings or taking the trailblazing British chip design company public, a report said Monday.

SoftBank is considering different options for the semiconductor design firm which it acquired four years ago for $32 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported citing unnamed sources. The news comes as SoftBank continues to shore up its shaky finances, as it reels from the fallout from WeWork's infamous aborted IPO plans. The company also recently sold off some of its stake in wireless carrier T-Mobile.

The Japanese conglomerate has hired Goldman Sachs helping SoftBank review its options for Arm, the report said.

Arm emerged as a technology powerhouse by introducing a power-efficient chip architecture that became widely used in the mobile market, outpacing semiconductor giant Intel. 

Arm scored a big win last month when Apple announced that it will transition away from Intel chips for its Mac computers and will instead start using Arm-based architecture. 

Got a tip about Arm Holdings or another tech company? Contact this reporter via email at bpimentel@businessinsider.com, message him on Twitter @benpimentelor send him a secure message through Signal at (510) 731-8429. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

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SEE ALSO: The CTO of $6.8 billion AI startup Automation Anywhere explains why the hot startup is hiring despite the pandemic, including jobs that pay more than $200,000 a year

SEE ALSO: The 10 hottest startups attracting 'hidden investors' who are buying vested stock options from employees during the COVID-19 crisis

SEE ALSO: 16 top tech leaders who came to the US from around the world explain their forceful opposition to Trump's freeze on immigrant work visas: 'It's only going to make America less competitive'

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NOW WATCH: What makes 'Parasite' so shocking is the twist that happens in a 10-minute sequence

• A secretive research lab called Mitre Corporation has existed in the US since the late 1950s and is receiving nearly $2 billion a year in funding, per a Forbes report published Monday.
• Among its projects are developing systems for infiltrating connected devices at the border to hinder illegal crossings, studying human body odor as a means to detect deceit in interrogations, and designing software capable of gleaning human fingerprints from social media photos.
• Per the report, Mitre's primary objective has been to protect national security from its inception, but its contribution to advanced surveillance technology has drawn the attention of privacy advocates.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A non-profit contractor was spun out of MIT in 1958 to oversee enemy aircraft detection systems during the Cold War. Since then, Mitre Corporation has been involved in various aspects of government operations pertaining to national security, according to a report from Thomas Brewster in Forbes.

Forbes obtained hundreds of documents through FOIA requests and interviews with ex-Mitre executives and government officials. The result is a compilation of the many projects Mitre has taken on, from software designed to identify people by their fingerprints in social media photos to coordinating emergency response during the COVID-19 global health crisis.

Mitre's main objective is to protect national security, per the outlet. But as Forbes reports, the increased capabilities to surveil criminals and illegal crossings into the US has caught the attention of privacy advocates. A staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union told Forbes that the social media fingerprinting project poses some "serious privacy concerns."

One former Mitre employee told the outlet that the lab has already been lending its insight to the Customs and Border Protection to aid in their search of electronics at the border. The tool would allow agents to hack into smartwatches, fitness teachers, and other connected devices merely by being in range. 

A $500,000 project kicked off in 2015 with the FBI that has Mitre researchers attempting to collect fingerprints from photos posted on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to build a database of biometric files. The initiative was funded by an organization called TRIAD.

Per Forbes, Mitre has also played a hand in helping the FBI with facial recognition in their operations, aiding the agency in fleshing out "the world's largest and most efficient electronic repository of biometric and criminal history information." Former FBI science lead Chris Piehota told Forbes that all local and federal law enforcement agencies are able to access the database to find the identity and background of a criminal.

The organization is also researching a way to use human body odor as an "indicator for deception" during interrogations.

Mitre was awarded a $16.3 million contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help construct an efficient gameplan for the country during the health crisis. In mid-March, Mitre was also recruited by the Department of Homeland Security's Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office to spearhead coordination with the nation's mayors and governors in response to the pandemic.

Per the Forbes report, Mitre is a nonprofit and isn't bound by a need to turn a profit, so technology only lands in the hands of the government, private companies, or academic institutions.

Read the full report on Forbes here.

SEE ALSO: A tech exec is funding a network of hundreds of security cameras in San Francisco, turning community groups into crime watchdogs with support from the city's DA

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• Caffeine, a Redwood City-based social broadcasting startup that has partnered with Drake and the Ultimate Rap League (URL), raised $113 million in Series D funding earlier this month.
• The ad-free livestreaming platform hosts free events that are attended by tens of thousands of viewers, who are encouraged to make comments in real time and purchase virtual props, like popcorn, and the profits are split between Caffeine and the livestreamer. 
• VCs at Andreessen Horowitz think that Caffeine can tap into new revenue streams that have monetization models that are superior to those that depend on ads, subscriptions, donations, and partnerships.
• Last weekend, Business Insider attended NOME X, the most important battle rap event of the year, to see what it's like to get the inside scoop on Caffeine's platform.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The 2002 film 8 Mile, which was loosely based on rapper Eminem's life, made millions of people familiar with battle rap, a form of rapping where rappers level insults at their competition and boast about their own successes. Eminem, who started his multimillion-dollar career as a battle rapper, placed second in the 1997 Rap Olympics, which is how rapper Dr. Dre and Interscope Records CEO Jimmy Iovine discovered his now famous EP, Slim Shady.

Now, Silicon Valley is taking a shot at making battle rap mainstream, using livestreaming technology to push the bellicose bars directly onto people's phone and computer screens.

And with much of the world stuck at home waiting out the coronavirus, VCs are betting the time for dueling MCs has never been better. 

Caffeine, a Redwood City-based social broadcasting startup that has scored a collaboration with Canadian rapper Drake and the Ultimate Rap League (URL), raised $113 million in Series D funding this month to help give battle rap an audience of more than 2 million viewers.

While Caffeine offers programming in entertainment, gaming, and sports, including ESPN and college sports, the platform's "anchor content is rap," Ben Keighran, a former Apple employee who cofounded the startup in 2016, recently told Bloomberg. 

Caffeine, which officially launched in September 2019, was first backed by Silicon Valley VC firms Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock Partners, who also participated in the startup's latest funding round. Andreessen Horowitz was also an early backer of Genius (first launched as Rap Genius), the Hip-Hop-focused startup that saw the resignation of its disgraced co-founder Mahbod Moghadam in 2014, after he published and annotated excerpts from a mass murderer's 141-page manifesto on the startup's website.

On the heels of its partnership with Drake and the URL, which became official in February 2020, Caffeine received another influx of cash in June from big players in the media industry, Fox Corp and Cox Enterprises, Inc., as well as Sanabil investments, a Saudi Arabia-based investment firm. 

The coronavirus pandemic, which has led to the cancellation of live music events, including high profile music festivals like Coachella, has only increased the demand for live streamed entertainment, and it seems that investors have noticed. 

Live streaming, which saw its origins with professional and amateur gamers, has also become a way for musicians, athletes, and lifestyle influencers to make money. Platforms like Twitch, YouTube live, Instagram, and Caffeine have allowed a new generation of personalities—from make-up artists to battle rappers—to find a fresh audience, all while making some cash. 

Now more than ever, it seems that VCs are also thinking about the different strategies that startups can use to generate profits from live streams. 

The lag time is less than 190 milliseconds

Jonathan Lai and Andrew Chen, both Andreessen Horowitz partners, said in a blog post that platforms like Caffeine, which host live entertainment and programs that are in-tune with the moment's pop culture, are "the future of live video entertainment."

What makes Caffeine so special is that the platform can "drive both rabid engagement and instant monetization," Lai and Chen said. Unlike most live streaming platforms, which can lag for up to 1 minute or more, Caffeine's live streams are much faster, streaming at an unprecedented speed of "sub-190-milliseconds"—think quicker than FaceTime, but with the potential to host an event for hundreds of thousands of viewers, who are free to make comments and purchase digital props in real time. Caffeine's live streams are much faster than Twitch's, which can lag for up to 30 seconds.

To get an inside look at why Caffeine has attracted the attention of so many investors, Business Insider attended NOME X, URL's biggest battle rap event of the year, which was hosted on the livestreaming platform this weekend.

In the first round of the day, battle rappers Jey the Nitewing and Fonz took the virtual live streaming stage and rapped about topics that resonated with our current moment: social distancing, Game of Thrones Season 8, and Lebron James leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Audience members, identifiable by their usernames and photographs, can be seen commenting on the battle and purchasing virtual props such as popcorn, which viewers can give to their favorite rapper in real time to show their support.

Currently, Caffeine makes money when viewers purchase virtual props, which resemble emojis. Performers receive a cut of the sale as well, though the specific portion of sales rapper receive is unclear. Caffeine viewers spend, on average, $78 on digital props every 3 months.  

By allowing users to make comments and purchase props in real time, "Caffeine connects entertainers with world-class technology so that they can create content that is authentic and connects culture and community," said Caffeine CEO Ben Keighran, per Reuters. And every week, tens of thousands of viewers are tuning in to live battles.  

American Idol popularized the idea of calling in to vote for your favorite contestant in real time on broadcast television, which helped lead the show to its unprecedented success. Now, Caffeine allows audience members to see others' reactions even before the winner is declared, creating a sense of virtual camaraderie among live stream attendees.

And as soon as Fonz was declared the winner of the battle last weekend, viewers were able to react to the news as well as see what others had to say about the decision, including jokes about how much of the $25,000 prize Fonz will take home after taxes. 

Like many venture-backed startups, Caffeine is not profitable, but revenues are on the rise, according to Bloomberg.  There are not currently any ads on Caffeine, and the content is free to watch for viewers.

VCs are betting that Caffeine will keep finding innovative ways to monetize viewer engagement as people stuck at home during lockdowns look for new forms of real-time, online entertainment.

Twitch's Just Chatting category, which, like Caffeine, includes live streams where streamers are able to talk to their viewers, "has grown nearly four times as quickly as Twitch overall," according to Lai and Chen, per their blog post. And with growth comes new opportunities for generating revenue.  Caffeine does not disclose its number of active users, but it says that 2 million new users registered to use the service in the past year. 

In general, professional live streamers become popular because of their personalities and their ability to engage with an audience, including loyal fans, and battle rappers especially benefit from boasting about themselves and airing out their competitions' dirty laundry. 

"Lifestyle streamers are often intimately acquainted with their followers," Lai and Chen said in their blog post, "so much so, that many greet returning fans by name and take suggestions for their daily agenda."

The question now is whether the cult of the live streaming personality will be powerful enough to generate profits from viewers' direct engagement. 

And whether Caffeine, just like Eminem, might soon find its way from battle rap to millions in profit. 

SEE ALSO: The big winner of Uber's $2.65 billion Postmates acquisition is Spark Capital, a small VC firm that's enjoying a streak of hits in a gloomy 2020.

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• Google has pledged to not use Fitbit user data for ad-targeting purposes, Google has confirmed to Business Insider.
• Google had already said as much when its plans to acquire Fitbit were announced, but this more formal proposal to regulators makes it more likely the merger will be approved.
• European regulators must decide by July 20 whether the deal is allowed to pass.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Google has pledged to not use Fitbit user data for ad-targeting purposes, the company has told Business Insider, as European regulators decide whether to pass the deal.

"This deal is about devices, not data. The wearables space is crowded, and we believe the combination of Google and Fitbit's hardware efforts will increase competition in the sector, benefiting consumers and making the next generation of devices better and more affordable," a Google spokesperson told Business Insider.

"We appreciate the opportunity to work with the European Commission on an approach that safeguards consumers' expectations that Fitbit device data won't be used for advertising."

The news was first reported by Reuters.

Google had already tried to allay fears that it would use the data for ads, but this formal pledge to regulators means the Fitbit merger has a higher chance of being approved. European regulators have set a July 20 deadline to decide if the deal will pass. If they don't, it will trigger a four-month deeper investigation into the merger.

The deal has come under intense scrutiny in the US, Europe, and Australia. Business Insider previously reported that Google would likely have to offer concessions to appease antitrust regulators. In the US, the deal is being looked at by the Department of Justice.

Earlier this month, a team of consumer advocacy groups sent a letter to antitrust regulators asking them to closely scrutinize the deal.

But the Fitbit deal is just one regulatory headache that Google is facing right now. The company is the subject of multiple antitrust investigations, including a recent one launched by its home state of California.

Are you a Google or Fitbit insider with insight to share? You can contact this reporter securely using encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 628-228-1836) or encrypted email (hslangley@protonmail.com).

SEE ALSO: ou can impress Google's internship recruiters by showcasing these 4 specific traits, according to the company's chief talent scout

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• Microsoft is reportedly making more cuts to its MSN editorial team, according to GeekWire.
• The company previously laid off dozens of contractors working on MSN, people close to the situation told Business Insider in June.
• Microsoft has yet to confirm the MSN layoffs. GeekWire said Microsoft "isn't commenting publicly," and Microsoft has yet to respond to an earlier request from Business Insider.
• Staffing changes are relatively common within Microsoft around the time its new fiscal year rolls around on July 1.
• Are you a Microsoft employee? Contact this reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email (astewart@businessinsider.com).
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Microsoft is making more cuts to the MSN editorial team, GeekWire reported Monday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation.

The company in June cut dozens of editorial contractors in favor of an artificial intelligence-driven system of picking news for MSN.com, one of the world's most popular news destinations. People close to the situation told Business Insider in June that the layoffs impacted all of its around 50 contractors in the US.

Now, GeekWire reports, the company is laying off an unspecified number of full-time employees in the same MSN unit, including some senior leaders.

Microsoft has yet to confirm the MSN layoffs. GeekWire said Microsoft "isn't commenting publicly," and Microsoft has yet to respond to an earlier request from Business Insider.

Microsoft typically makes changes to its headcount around the time it begins a new fiscal year on July 1. Perhaps the most significant of these changes came in 2017 when the company reorganized its entire sales organization to focus on cloud computing, and laid off thousands of employees.

This year, prior to the end of Microsoft's fiscal year on June 30, Microsoft announced plans to close all of its physical retail locations and shut down its video game streaming service Mixer. 

Got a tip? Contact Ashley Stewart via email at astewart@businessinsider.com, message her on Twitter @ashannstew, or send her a secure message through Signal at 425-344-8242

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• Ford revealed the all-new Bronco SUV on Monday.
• The much-anticipated SUV was unveiled on multiple Disney-affiliated networks, as well as Ford's own broadcast and social channels.
• The new Bronco is both a family of vehicles and a dedicated off-roading brand.
• Ford revealed a two-door, a four-door, and a Sport version of the Bronco; all three SUVs have robust four-wheel-drive capability, and there are several engine and transmission options.
• Ford concentrated on "human-centric" design with the new Bronco, reinventing the development process to focus on the actual needs and desires of users. 
• The Bronco nameplate dates to 1965, but the vehicle was discontinued in 1996.
• The new Bronco is going up against Jeep and, to a degree, the upscale offerings from Land Rover.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Few vehicles have been as hotly anticipated as the new Bronco — and Ford just reveled the SUV in all its reimagined glory via three Disney-affiliated networks and the carmaker's own online and social channels.

The Blue Oval dropped the Bronco nameplate in 1996, and ever since then, fans of the legendary machine, introduced in 1965, have been forced to content themselves with the used and collectibles market, with the latter commanding hefty prices.

Ford had originally planned to unveile the Bronco at the equally all-new Detroit auto show in June (the event had been relocated from its traditional wintry position in January), but the coronavirus pandemic quashed that idea. So, as Ford did with the F-150 reveal, a virtual showcase was created.

The new Bronco isn't just one SUV — it's a family of three vehicles, plus a new, standalone off-roading Bronco brand. The carmaker, led by CEO Jim Hackett, followed principles of human-centric design in developing the Bronco, leading to a completely reinvented process for the two-door, four-door, and Sport trim levels of the four-by-four.

Take a closer look at the all-new Broncos:

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The all-new, 2021 Bronco has arrived! And it's a family of three different vehicles, as well as a standalone brand.

The Bronco was created in 1965, at the same time as the iconic Mustang. But the nameplate was discontinued in 1996.

The core of the new brand is the duo of hard-rock, off-roading Broncos: a two-door and a four-door, both body-on-frame designs.

A Bronco Sport trim level is a smaller vehicle, built on a unibody platform.

The original Bronco also came in multiple configurations, including a small pickup!

Ford teased the trio in silhouette.

The tagline for the new Bronco brand is "Built Wild," an extension of the "Built Ford Tough" slogan that the automaker has long used.

The entire brand is pure 4x4 — there's no domesticated, all-wheel-drive drivetrain on offer. The two-door and four-door have front and rear locking differentials, and the Sport has its own system. The suspension is also optimized for off-roading, and Ford said crawl ratios and ground clearance are best-in-class.

The four-door is a Bronco first. And all four doors can be removed!

The door also come off the two-door ...

... and so does the roof ..

... creating an open-air, close-to-nature vibe that Ford learned its prospective customers would demand.

The four-door Bronco also has a removable roof.

Ford is aiming directly at Jeep with such features; Jeep's most rugged models can be taken apart.

Ford's design process for the Bronco was extensive and drew on extensive exploration of what the icon meant to customers. Early ideas were actually deemed too envelope-pushing and updated, so designers pulled back.

Designers used low-cost prototypes to experiment with "human-centric" design.

Designers even revamped the old Bronco badge ...

... making the new badge more streamlined.

But there's no Blue Oval Ford badge on the Bronco — just this bold lettering on the grille.

The headlights look simple, but the bisected designs is high-tech.

Bronco is rolling out with 200 accessories (100 for Bronco Sport), including cut-out doors (the door, by the way, are frameless, to make the lightweight and stowable).

Designers combined the Bronco's history of dramatic colors with mellow, earthy tones for exteriors and interiors. There are 11 exterior color choices.

If it's a Ford, it has to tow! The Sport tops out at 2,200 lbs., while the two-door and four-doors can handle 3,500 lbs.

Bronco has been designed for outdoor lifestyles.

The back ends of the SUVs have been configured so that they can be camping command centers.

Designers also thought deeply about various pain points. For example, the Bronco Sport can safely accommodate two regular-size mountain bikes.

Depending on trim level, the Bronco can drive into ...

... And drive out of up to 33.5-inches of water.

The SUVs have been engineered to handle rocks, mud, sand, ice, and snow. 35-inch tires are available.

Owners could start with a base Bronco, moving up through Big Ben, Black Diamond, and Outer Banks setups. Wildtrak and Badlands are for serious off-roaders. "A limited-production First Edition will be offered at launch," Ford said. Bronco Sport comes in Big Bend, Outer Banks, Badlands and First Edition series.

There's also a "Sasquatch" mode, named for the furtive, full-time, off-the-grid inhabitant of legend, that can bring even more capability to the Bronco. Such as beefier tires, stouter diffs, and additional ground clearance.

That's right, you can hose the dirt out of your Bronco!

The Bronco is a body-on-frame design, while the Sport is unibody. The Bronco two-door and four-doors will be made in the US, while the Sport will be assembled in Mexico.

Bronco arrives with three engine options: a 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6, making 310 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque; a 2.3-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder, making 270 hp and 310 lb-ft. of torque; and for the Bronco Sport, a 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder making 245 hp with 275 lb-ft. of torque and a 1.5-liter three-cylinder making 181 hp with 190 lb-ft. of torque.

Broncos are launching with a 10-speed automatic ...

... And an available seven-speed manual transmission.

The Bronco Sport has up-to seven "G.O.A.T." ("goes over any type of terrain) modes, Ford said.

A range of interiors will be in offer.

Surfaces and buttons have been designed for ease of use, particularly in demanding outdoor realms and in variable climates.

Infotainment and connectivity comes via Ford's latest SYNC4 system; each Bronco is also equipped with Ford's Co-Pilot 360 advanced driver-assist features. Plus, the navigation system includes trail maps.

But Bronco also has interior features that enable owners to use their own devices.

Ford said customers could reserve a new Bronco for $100. The two-door SUV starts at $29,995. Ford didn't release pricing for the four-door or the Bronco Sport. The lineup goes in sale in early 2021.

• Airbnb rolled out a new tool that encourages guests to send "kindness cards" and cash donations to their former hosts "impacted by COVID-19."
• The COVID-19 pandemic has tanked Airbnb's revenue, and the property owners who operate short-term rentals through the service have seen rent payments evaporate as people stop traveling.
• But critics lashed out at Airbnb's push for donations, questioning why renters should have to help shore up landlords' shaky financials.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

After the COVID-19 pandemic obliterated Airbnb revenues across the globe, the short-term-rental platform has begun asking guests to chip in by sending "kindness cards" that include cash donations to their former hosts — who have seen billions of dollars in revenue vanish in recent months as travel has ground to a halt because of the pandemic.

The new tool appears to be another effort to assuage hosts' financial concerns, this time by soliciting contributions from former guests. An Airbnb spokesperson told Business Insider that 100% of the proceeds from the kindness cards would go to the hosts.

"In the spirit of rekindling connections, we developed a new feature that allows guests to send virtual cards with messages of support and encouragement to hosts who provided excellent hospitality. If they wish, guests have the option to add a voluntary financial contribution," the spokesperson said.

But the tool has been met with swift backlash from people on Twitter who say they're similarly struggling to save money amid the pandemic and question why it should be their responsibility to support hosts.

"Airbnb has lost its f---ing head," one person tweeted.

Hosts have directed their anger at Airbnb, saying the company implemented cancellation policies at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that cost them even more money. Airbnb said in March that it would spend $250 million to reimburse hosts for guests' cancellations that stemmed from coronavirus shutdowns.

The financial situation is especially dire for megahosts, some of whom bought up dozens of properties and built short-term-rental empires that made up their main source of income (about one-third of Airbnb hosts have more than 25 properties, according to the analytics site AirDNA).

New York Times tech reporter Mike Isaac said the program was "like the mortgage-backed securities of the sharing economy."

"I'm not sure I will be contributing to the mortgage for anyone's second house at this time," another Twitter user wrote.

An Airbnb spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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NOW WATCH: Why YETI coolers are so expensive

• A new website lets you escape your quarantine by gazing out strangers' windows from across the globe.
• The site, called WindowSwap, lets people submit 10-minute videos with audio showing the view out their window. Visitors can cycle between windows as the please.
• It was made by husband and wife couple Sonali Ranjit and Vaishnav Balasubramaniam, two Singapore-based creatives, according to The Stable.
• The site went viral on Twitter Tuesday, where people said they were entranced by the views from other people's windows.
• Check out WindowSwap here.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

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NOW WATCH: Why YETI coolers are so expensive

• Two former workers and one current staffer in Mark Zuckerberg's private family office accused his former personal security chief of racist and sexist conduct, including using the n-word, calling an employee a "ghetto hoodrat," and calling Black Lives Matter a "terrorist organization."
• The accusations come from previously undisclosed sworn declarations made last year, in which the workers pledged to repeat their claims under oath if necessary.
• In 2019, after two other former staffers raised almost identical complaints about Booth and threatened litigation, Zuckerberg hired an outside law firm to investigate the claims. 
• At the time, Zuckerberg's spokesperson said the investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing and that the charges "could not be substantiated." Booth voluntarily left his job and the family office said in a statement that it was "grateful for his service."
• Zuckerberg's spokesperson said that current employee has recanted her sworn declaration and that it contains inaccuracies. The law firm that drew it up responded that "current employees can sometimes be pressured to change their affidavits."

Mark Zuckerberg's former head of personal security was accused by colleagues of using the n-word, calling a Black employee a "ghetto hoodrat," and denigrating the Black Lives Matter movement, according to sworn declarations obtained by Business Insider.

The declarations, signed under penalty of perjury by two former workers in Zuckerberg's secretive family office and by one still employed there, offer shocking new details of allegations against Zuckerberg's former security chief Liam Booth and cast doubt on the Chan-Zuckerberg family's claims that an investigation found no evidence of racism or abuse during his tenure.

Booth was first accused of misconduct by two different former colleagues in 2019, including sexual harassment, racism, and homophobia. At the time, Zuckerberg's personal spokesperson Ben LaBolt said the family office had investigated the claims and found no wrongdoing by Booth, who departed his job after Business Insider first reported on the accusations. 

The new allegations contained in the declarations corroborate some of those earlier claims about Booth's conduct. All three begin with pledges that "the following facts are within my personal knowledge and if called as a witness, I could and would competently testify thereto, under oath."

In response to a Business Insider investigation into Zuckerberg's family office published in February 2020, LaBolt dismissed allegations of sexism, racism, and bullying within the Chan-Zuckerberg household as "a collection of unfounded rumors, exaggerations, and half-truths ... advanced by a small group of disgruntled former employees who are attempting to defame the family office."

But one of the workers who gave a statement that she "witnessed Mr. Booth engage in behavior I considered to be sexist, homophobic, and sexually harassing" remains a current employee of the family office, Business Insider has learned.

The family office continues to deny all allegations of misconduct. 

Zuckerberg's family office faces multiple misconduct allegations

Zuckerberg and Chan employ a sprawling family office, called West Street, to manage their household affairs — from hiring nannies for their two children to maintaining their lavish resort in Hawaii. It's run through Iconiq, a secretive financial-services firm that provides investment management and family office functions for the ultrawealthy.

Over the past few years, West Street has been rocked by worker allegations of misconduct by senior managers. In addition to the accusations concerning Booth, Hawaii property manager Shawn Smith was accused by a former coworker of physical assault, and security staffer Laura McClain and medical staffer Jaeson Rosa were both accused of harassment. The family office has denied all the allegations. 

The two former staffers who first leveled accusations against Booth hired civil rights attorney Lisa Bloom to represent them. The Bloom Firm prepared demand letters laying out their allegations in March 2019, and Business Insider obtained them and first published details from them in May 2019. 

The newly obtained declarations were also drawn up by the Bloom Firm, seemingly to support the two staffers' claims. One is signed by a former senior manager of executive protection, one is from a female former security staffer, and the third is from a current female administrative staffer. Business Insider is withholding their identities because they may  face retaliation for reporting sexual harassment, and have not gone public with their allegations. All three declarations were signed in September 2019. The former senior manager of executive protection's was signed by hand, while the other bear electronic signatures.

Business Insider was able to directly reach two of the signatories. One confirmed their declaration's authenticity, the other declined to comment, saying, "I don't know anything about any document."

"As previously addressed, most of these allegations have been advanced by a small group of disgruntled former employees...who are attempting to defame the family office after the family office refused their demands for multi-million dollar payments following their separation of employment," LaBolt said.

"Our family office follows a strict code of conduct that requires appropriate behavior from all members of our teams.  It is our expectation that each of our employees adheres to this code of conduct. Any complaint made to our HR personnel is taken very seriously. We investigate each and every complaint, including, when appropriate, engaging outside counsel to conduct such investigations."

LaBolt said that the current administrative staffer now disputes some of the claims contained in the declaration bearing her name, and has signed a new sworn declaration that, he said, recants some of those statements —suggesting that the declaration prepared by the Bloom Firm doesn't accurately reflect her testimony. 

But LaBolt did not dispute that the staffer signed the Bloom Firm declaration, and refused to provide a copy of the new declaration without an agreement that it would be treated as off the record, which Business Insider declined. LaBolt would not make the staffer available for an interview.

In response, Lisa Bloom defended her firm's practices, and said that workers can be pressured to change their statements by employers.

"It is our practice in every case to keep careful records of all email communications leading up to sworn affidavits. All sworn affidavits, if any, were obtained after direct close consultation with witnesses, who then reviewed and signed them under oath," she said in a statement.

"It is our belief, after years of legal experience, that witnesses who are current employees can sometimes be pressured to change their affidavits."

'Black Lives Matter bullshit'

The declarations contain serious, previously unreported allegations against Booth, a former Secret Service agent whose since-deleted LinkedIn profile described him as serving on President Barack Obama's personal security detail.

The former senior manager of executive protection alleged that Booth told him Black Lives Matter movement was a "terrorist organisation," and described a female worker, who is African American, as a "ghetto bitch," a "hoodrat," and a "cunt."

The female security worker said that Booth "stated that he was 'tired of all the Black Lives Matter bullshit,'" and that he "often used the word 'n-----' to label African Americans."

Additionally, she alleged that Booth "once [called] Ms. Chan a bad driver while deliberately making his eyes narrower," and that he "balked against Priscilla Chan's goal that the workforce be more diverse and employ more people of color."

These statements line up with some of the allegations in the demand letters, which similarly alleged that Booth made racist remarks about Chan's driving ability, that he "bragged that he thwarted" her diversity hiring efforts, and that he called the Black Lives Matter movement "reverse racism."

All three of the workers claimed in the declarations to have heard Booth use homophobic language. The administrative staffer said Booth "made homophobic jokes" at the expense of a gay staffer, while the former senior manager of executive protection and the female security worker each said they heard him use the slur "fag."

The female administrative staffer's declaration also corroborates a claim made in one of the demand letters: That Booth slapped the crotch and groped the buttocks of a gay staffer at a July 2018 event.

The female administrative staffer said in her declaration she was present at the event, and that she "did observe Mr. Booth place his hands on [that staffer's] buttocks that night ... [He] told me that the nonconsensual touching made him uncomfortable." She also alleged that Booth sexually harassed her that evening, wrapping his arm around her waist and sexually propositioning her. 

She wrote that she complained to West Street's managing director Brian Mosteller and HR director Monica Moorhouse about Booth's behavior, but that to her knowledge no investigation was launched.

LaBolt said that she now denies seeing Booth harass the other worker. 

"The new allegations have been largely refuted by the individual in question. This individual has recently signed a sworn statement making clear that in drafting the previous declaration attributed to her, the Bloom Firm mischaracterized what she told them and included inaccurate statements and exaggerated claims drafted by their attorneys, including that she witnessed any inappropriate touching, which she expressly denies," he said in a statement.

Zuckerberg's spokesperson has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing

After the demand letters first became public, West Street flatly denied the allegations.

In July 2019, LaBolt said in a statement that Zuckerberg had engaged the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olsen to investigate the claims, and that they "could not be substantiated" after "numerous interviews with Mr. Booth's colleagues as well as a review of other relevant documents and information." The statement also said that the family office had conducted its own internal investigation, which likewise found no evidence of wrongdoing. Nonetheless, the statement said, Booth was leaving to minimise "distractions."

It added: "The family office is grateful for his service and wishes Mr. Booth the best in his future endeavors."

It's unclear if any of the three workers who signed the declarations were interviewed by the family office or MTO in the course of their investigations. The female administrative staffer's declaration claimed that she raised concerns about Booth to human resources.

The former senior manager of executive protection left in August 2019, meaning he was still employed by West Street when LaBolt said in July 2019 that its investigations found no evidence to support the first two staffers' claims. The female security staffer left in July 2018. 

LaBolt declined to comment on whether any of the three were interviewed as part of the investigations, or what they said if so, citing "employee confidentiality."

In response to the new documents, he stood by his claims that the investigations found no evidence of wrongdoing: "The family office has previously addressed the allegations against Liam Booth by the Bloom Firm. Over the course of several weeks, both the family office's HR personnel and Munger, Tolles & Olson conducted separate investigations into these allegations. These investigations included numerous interviews with Mr. Booth's colleagues, as well as a review of other relevant documents and information. Following these thorough investigations, the serious allegations made against Mr. Booth by the Bloom Firm could not be substantiated. As stated at the time, Mr. Booth, who is fully aware that minimizing distractions is a key component to executing his duties as head of security, chose to move on from the family office to pursue other professional opportunities in July 2019."  

Other staffers also face accusations of harassment

The female security worker, who was a contract worker with a third-party company used by the family office, also claimed in her declaration to have been sexually harassed by a family office medical staffer in January 2018, and that, to her knowledge, management took no action after she complained about her treatment. 

She said in her statement that on a trip to one of Zuckerberg's properties in Montana, medic Jaeson Rosa made "sexual overtures towards me and [demanded] that I allow him to enter my room to use the shower." She said she reported it to Booth and McClain, as well as an unnamed "personal assistant" to Zuckerberg, but that "nothing was done," adding: "No investigation occurred. Mr. Rosa's behavior was not corrected."

She also claimed that McClain, who is gay, asked her in April 2018 if she was "wearing a bra at work," at the direction of Booth, which left her "disturbed and outraged."

Business Insider first reported on the allegations against Rosa in February 2020. At the time, spokesperson LaBolt said that the family office had no record of any complaint from her and that Booth and McClain couldn't recall receiving one, which he reiterated in a new statement. "Our HR personnel have no record of receiving any complaint from her. We understand that she voluntarily resigned from her position with the third party in 2018," he said. 

One of the earlier two staffers also accused McClain of misconduct in their demand letter, alleging McClain texted her asking her to "bend over in a certain way so that Ms. McClain could see her buttocks."

Rosa and McClain are both still employed by the family office.

Mark Zuckerberg has not directly commented on the allegations

Mark Zuckerberg has not commented publicly on the allegations against his employees, and his spokesperson declined to make him available to discuss them. A Facebook spokesperson similarly declined to comment, while law firm MTO and family office management firm Iconiq did not respond to requests for comment. 

Iconiq has been outspoken about workplace matters in other areas. In response to the ongoing protests against racism across the United States, the firm recently updated its website to include a statement of support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

"We will increase our efforts to unlock the power of diversity in the workplace and engage underrepresented minorities in business," it pledged. "Through ICONIQ Impact, our platform for collaborative philanthropy, we will further harness our network to help those who are neglected, mistreated, and oppressed."

Do you work at West Street, Iconiq, or another private family office? Contact Business Insider reporter Rob Price via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 650-636-6268), encrypted email (robaeprice@protonmail.com), standard email (rprice@businessinsider.com), Telegram/Wickr/WeChat (robaeprice), or Twitter DM (@robaeprice). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by standard email only, please.

SEE ALSO: A drunken late-night assault allegation has roiled the secretive world of Mark Zuckerberg's private family office. Personal aides are speaking out about claims that household staff endured sexual harassment and racism from their colleagues.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why you don't see brilliantly blue fireworks

• A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is a useful tool for any music lover who wants to play digital audio files in high quality.
• This gadget refines the processing of digital to analog audio transformations to improve the sound produced by smartphones, computers, and other connected devices.
• The Chord Mojo is the ultimate DAC thanks to its studio quality sound, simple interface, and versatile connections.
• Read more: Everything you need to know about HD audio and how it can enhance your music-streaming experience

A digital-to-analog converter, or DAC, takes your digital audio content and transforms it into analog so that your sound system can amplify and play it. It's through this process that you're actually able to listen to audio stored in a digital file format, like MP3, WAV, or FLAC.  

Virtually all music played through a digital device, including the tracks you stream on music services like Spotify and Amazon Music, needs to be converted to analog in order to be heard through a pair of headphones or speakers. Different digital sound formats have different qualities and specs, but they all store music as bits of data. A DAC works as an interpreter that takes these digitally stored recordings and translates them back into an analog signal. This is what you ultimately hear from your output source.

It's actually a chip that conducts this whole process, and this chip can be found in almost every device that has the ability to play music. It's in your phone, your computer, and your TV. The question is, if a DAC chip is already included in all of your devices, why bother to buy a separate one? 

Well, the answer comes down to quality. DACs vary in performance, and in most cases, the ones you find integrated in phones, computers, and TVs are not of the best quality. If you really want to enhance the way you experience music, having an external DAC is an imperative, as a high-end DAC will make your music sound as close to its original analog recording as possible. If you own good headphones or speakers and feel that you're not getting the sound you hoped to get, a DAC is your best bet for unlocking the full potential of your device. 

There are DACs designed for various needs in several sizes, with some models geared primarily toward headphones and others suited for larger hi-fi setups. As someone who has a background working for an AV/IT installation company, there are several primary factors I take into account when selecting a DAC, including audio quality, compatibility, and user experience. For more detailed information about all of the features you should look out for when purchasing a DAC, be sure to read our additional buying advice. 

After deciding what type of DAC is best for your needs, there are plenty of models to choose from. To help narrow the field, we've picked the best DACs you can buy for a variety of audio needs and budgets.  

Here are our top picks for the best DACs:

• Best DAC overall: Chord Electronics Mojo
• Best desktop DAC: Cambridge Audio DacMagic Plus
• Best portable Bluetooth DAC: iFi xDSD 
• Best USB DAC: AudioQuest Dragonfly Cobalt
• Best budget DAC: FiiO K3 

Updated on 7/14/2020 by Steven Cohen: We replaced the FiiO E10K with the FiiO K3 as our pick for best budget DAC and explained why. Added links to related articles. 

The best DAC overall

With its straightforward interface, practical design, and amazing sound quality, the Chord Electronics Mojo offers everything you could want from a DAC.

When it comes to making DACs, Chord Electronics is one of the frontrunners of the industry. Among the company's many exceptional products is the Mojo, which stands out thanks to the convenience it offers. What makes this item so brilliant is its user-friendly interface and the overall sound experience it delivers. This is also probably the best DAC you can still realistically carry around.

First off, for a portable DAC, this device provides its users with an exceptional sound. You will not only notice the difference this DAC makes when you're not using it, but also when you compare the sound to that of another DAC in this same price range. Its high-end performance lives up to the standards promised by Chord products. Alongside being a DAC, the Mojo also packs an amplifier that can boost audio output for louder playback.

Another quality that separates this DAC is its overall convenience. While some DACs may be too complicated for people who are not experienced around audio equipment, the Mojo is very straightforward. It's a plug and play device that is compatible with all operating systems and outputs. When turned off, it remembers all your last saved settings, and it can play almost any audio file (up to DSD 256) as it has a wide sample rate range (32kHz to 768kHz).

When you look at the Mojo, the first thing that catches the eye are the three huge buttons attached to the matte black body of the device. These buttons stand for power and volume control and also have LED lights inside that change color depending on the file's audio resolution. 

Moreover, the device has a micro USB, Coaxial, and Optical input, along with two 3.5mm analog outputs, which means that you can plug two headphones in at the same time. However, the Mojo doesn't support wireless connectivity. The Mojo works on battery power and the life of the battery is rated for around eight hours. It can be fully recharged in four hours using a micro USB cable. 

The Chord Mojo is great whether you want to use it on the go with your smartphone or want to plug it in to your home computer. It's easy to use and delivers studio quality audio. It's without a doubt the best sounding DAC for its price and size, which makes it a popular product among audiophiles.

Pros: Amazing sound quality, combined DAC and amp, easy-to-use interface, extensive compatibility, two headphone inputs that can work simultaneously, up to 768kHz sample rate

Cons: Doesn't work while charging, doesn't support wireless input, is portable but not small enough to carry in your pocket, gets warm when charging

The best desktop DAC

If you need a DAC for your speaker system, the DacMagic Plus is probably the best device for you with its wide selection of connectivity options.

Cambridge Audio is another leading brand in the audio world, and the DacMagic Plus lives up to the quality the company is known for. Though this product may have an old-school appearance with a square shape and bulky design, there is nothing archaic about the functions and capabilities of this DAC. It even has a wireless connectivity feature which allows your phone or tablet to connect through Bluetooth for high quality music streaming. 

Unlike the more compact DAC models on our list, which are primarily geared toward headphones, the DacMagic Plus is an excellent DAC to incorporate in a hi-fi stereo audio system. It offers a generous selection of connection options both in the input and output side. It has several digital inputs: an asynchronous low-jitter USB port, two digital coax ports, and two optical inputs. As for the output options, alongside the standard ports, it provides you with a balanced XLR and a single ended RCA. It's a versatile device that will be able to connect with virtually any speaker system without any compatibility issues or add-on adapters. The DAC is also able to support digital music of virtually any format and can upsample sources to 24-bit/384kHz.

As one would expect from a dedicated desktop DAC, the DacMagic Plus is one of the largest DAC models on our list. Despite how it looks, though, it's actually pretty light and can be easily lifted. The bigger size also helps to enable strong performance, as this device is able to significantly improve the quality of any audio file. As for the interface, it's easy to use with one big volume knob and three buttons. On the downside, the DAC doesn't have a volume display on it and it doesn't come with a remote control.

At this price range, the DacMagic Plus is the best high quality desktop DAC you can buy. With a variety of connection options and the ability to work with all major music formats, the DacMagic Plus is a reliable and accommodating device to have in your audio setup. 

Pros: Competitive price for a desktop DAC, a lot of connectivity options, Bluetooth support, able to accommodate a lot of devices

Cons: Large size, no volume display, no remote control

The best portable Bluetooth DAC

If you want to buy a portable DAC with Bluetooth support, the iFi xDSD is one of the most cutting-edge products you can find.

The iFi xDSD is an amazing pocket-size portable DAC that offers both quality and functionality. Don't let the small size of this device fool you, because this DAC is packed with a variety of special features, including a built-in amplifier, a high quality Bluetooth streaming receiver, a bass correction system, and iFi's 3D+ immersive soundstage system. The sound it produces is detailed and clear which makes it a solid choice for enjoying high resolution audio.

This device also provides you with more variety in sound compared to other portable DACs because it enables you to have control over a selection of modes that can be used to fine-tune your music. Most of the other portable DACs offer only one default setting, without much customization. This quality makes the DAC a very enjoyable device in the hands of a person who knows his way around audio equipment. The opposite can be said for people who are not very well-versed with audio specs, however, so some buyers might find this model to be too complicated.

The iFi xDSD also stands out from the batch with its stylish design. The body of the device has an elegant, curvy metal frame, and there's a huge analog volume control wheel located on the top center of the unit. The DAC also comes equipped with all the standard inputs and outputs for a model of this type. It's a perfect device for portable use with headphones as it's compact and ergonomic. It even comes with a Velcro strap to attach to the back of your phone. It runs off its own internal lithium battery that lasts up to 10 hours and can be recharged using a micro USB charger. The device can support up to 32-Bit/768kHz via USB with DSD512 support.

The iFi xDSD is one of the most advanced portable DACs you can get. It provides you with many additional features that you don't see in other DACs, it delivers high resolution audio over wired connections, and it offers aptX-enabled streaming music through Bluetooth. Compared to other similar models, it offers more control over your audio settings which makes it unique.

Pros: A lot of advanced modes to fine-tune your audio, high quality Bluetooth streaming, stylish design and small size for convenient portability

Cons: Can be too complicated for some users, it takes time to get used to its controls

The best USB DAC

Audiophile gear can be big, bulky, and complex, but luckily, the Dragonfly Cobalt is none of that — it's small and straight to the point with exceptional sound quality.

AudioQuest's Dragonfly series is quite popular. These devices are known for delivering high quality audio despite only being the size of a USB stick. The Dragonfly Cobalt, which came out last year, is their latest model. It has a new and improved DAC chip, a quieter power supply, and an updated micro controller. The Cobalt not only sounds significantly better than older models, but it's also slightly smaller in size. 

You can use it with any device that has a USB input, or connect it to your phone using an adapter (a USB-C to USB-A adapter is included). It offers seamless compatibility with Apple and Android devices.

It can handle virtually all file formats from MP3 to high resolution (up to 24-bit/96kHz), and it even has a very competent MQA renderer for decoding music from Tidal. It can also support high-end headphones without any problem. The only apparent thing that's missing is Bluetooth connectivity. That's not really an issue, however, as wireless connectivity doesn't really align with the overall purpose of the Dragonfly series.

Thanks to its compact and simplified design, the Cobalt makes the process of using a DAC as simple as it gets. It actually has no buttons or any kind of control on it. Instead, the volume is controlled through your device. There is only one USB input and an auxiliary port. You just plug your input and output to the Dragonfly Cobalt and you're good to go. It's very nimble and will feel like an extension of your headphone cable, making it seem as if you're not carrying an external DAC. Another huge plus of this device is that it has no battery that needs to be charged, so that's one less thing you need to worry about.

The Cobal is the perfect device to have if you want to get high resolution music out of your phone. You can just plug in the Dragonfly and forget it's there while enjoying high quality audio through headphones. Though it offers a lot less control over your sound, the Cobalt is the most impeccably minimalist DAC you can buy.

Pros: Small and nimble, minimalist design and straightforward use, you don't need to charge a battery

Cons: You don't get as much control over the sound as other DACs, you need an adapter to connect with your phone, has just one input and one output port

The best budget DAC

If you want something that's cheap but works wonders, the FiiO K3 is a solid DAC that outperforms many models with a higher price.

FiiO has a wide selection of DACs under its name with varying features and prices. The company's most popular products are usually its cheaper ones, as FiiO somehow manages to make quality DACs for very affordable prices. The FiiO K3 is the successor to our previous pick in this category, the E10K. Though the K3 is a little more expensive than the E10K, it offers some key improvements, including an optical port and DSD support, while maintaining a very affordable price.

The K3 is a DAC with a built-in amplifier that performs all the essential functions of a DAC with satisfactory performance and support for up to 384kHz/32bit. What's special about this device is that it offers both a bass boost and low-pass filter option. This gives you some ability to customize the sound according to your preferences. However, the overall quality of the sound produced by this device is not on the same level as the rest of DACs on this list.  Nevertheless, it's definitely one of the best products you can get for the price, and using it will still make a considerable improvement in sound quality.

In terms of design, the K3 is a small square shaped device that can easily fit in your pocket. It features rounded edges that provide a smoother look than the older E10K model. On its front-side it has a volume control wheel (which also functions as the on/off button), a switch for the bass boost option, and a 2.5mm balanced and 3.5mm single-ended connection for your headphones. On its back-side there is a coaxial and line output, a USB Type-C port, and an optical digital output.

A nice quality about this device is that it doesn't have a battery that needs to be charged. Instead, the DAC gets its power from the device it connects to. With that said, the unit is not recommended for use with mobile devices, and is instead designed to be paired with a computer or laptop. 

The FiiO K3 isn't a high-end DAC, but it's still a solid budget model with accurate sound that can significantly improve the quality of the music you listen to. It's a great device to have as a part of your computer setup with headphones, and it's easily one of the best performers you can buy in this price range.                                

Pros: Very affordable, bass boost and low-pass filter option, straightforward interface, small size, doesn't work on a battery that needs to be charged

Cons: Sound quality isn't on par with more expensive models on our list, not recommended for use with mobile devices

What you should look for in a DAC

Compatibility: When buying a DAC it's important to ensure that the model you choose features connections compatible with your specific input and output devices. Some DACs may not be compatible with a macOS or may underperform when connected to a phone. The same applies to the outputs that you connect to, as some DACs are specifically designed for headphones and don't perform well with speakers. Conversely, more powerful DACs may only work with hi-fi sound systems. 

When it comes to compatibility, you'll also want to consider the bit depth and sample rate capabilities of a DAC. These specifications should correspond to the music file types you plan to play. For instance, if you want to listen to high resolution tracks mastered at high bit depths and sample rates, you'll want a DAC that can at least match the specifications of the format you're playing. Many DACs support 24bit/96kHz, while others can get as high as 32bit/768kHz. Some DACs are also optimized to support special high-end audio formats, including DSD and MQA, so you'll want to make sure the DAC you buy can work with those file types if you plan to play them.

Sound quality: The whole reason you buy a DAC is to improve the way your music sounds. The general idea is that the more you pay for a DAC, the better the sound will be. This is true in many cases, but when the prices are similar between two DACs, there are more nuanced factors to consider. The general consensus is that people want to get a DAC that makes their digital music sound more like live music, but people have different views about what qualities provide livelier sound. This is subjective to an extent, and depends on your preferences. With that said, there are some objective factors to consider, including a DAC's ability to eliminate hissing sounds and minimize timing errors in order to reduce jitter.

Sound adjustments: Everybody has a different expectation from the DAC they buy. Some people want a straightforward device that you just plug and play, while others may want something that offers more personalization and allows you to fine-tune your sound. Most portable DACs offer a convenient plug and play system that doesn't require any actual setup. However, most of the time this means that you'll only be able to listen to your audio in the one-size-fits-all default setting of the DAC, with no further control over the sound except for the volume. If you want a DAC with more personalization, there are models that allow more extensive sound customization. Though these DACs offer more fine-tuning capabilities, their added settings make them more complicated for people who are not well-versed with audio equipment.

Size and portability: In this context, DACs are categorized as either portable or desktop devices. Desktop devices, as their name implies, are usually big and bulky DACs that are designed to be used with a home audio setup. On the other hand, portable DACs tend to be small and usable without direct access to a power outlet. They either work by using the energy in their internal rechargeable battery, or they receive power from the input device they're plugged into. The smallest DACs are about the size of a compact USB flash drive. Ultimately, size doesn't totally define the quality of a DAC. The most important factor for deciding what size DAC to choose really comes down to whether you want something for your computer at home or to connect to your phone on the go.

Check out our headphone buying guides

If you're looking for a good pair of headphones to use with a DAC, be sure to read our various headphone buying guides. For even more headphone recommendations, you can also check out our continually updated roundup of the best headphone deals. 

The best over-ear headphones

Over-ear headphones typically offer the best audio performance of any headphone type. From audiophile-friendly open-back models to wireless and noise-cancelling models, these are the best over-ear headphones you can buy.

• An Egyptian mechanical engineer created a robot that can test patients for COVID-19.
• The robot is remote-controlled by a health professional, reducing the risk of transmission.
• Robots have been used in fighting the coronavirus around the world.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A robot that looks straight out of the uncanny valley is performing coronavirus tests in Egypt.

Twenty-six-year-old mechanical engineer Mahmoud El Komy created  remote-controlled robot is being used in Cairo, Egypt to collect samples for testing.

Measures like this robot could reduce the risk of transmission for medical providers, who have to get very close to people who potentially have infectious diseases.

Robots have increasingly been put to use since COVID-19 spread around the world. A team of doctors and researchers in Korea recently developed a remote-controlled robot that can take nasal swabs for COVID-19 tests.

In Boston, Spot robots were used to screen patients remotely, using iPads so doctors could talk to and visually assess them. In India and other countries, robots have been tasked with screening patients using thermal temperature guns, picking out people with fevers as potential COVID-19 patients.

SEE ALSO: Doctors in Korea invented a remote-controlled robot that enables contactless collection of COVID-19 test samples — here's how it works

26-year-old mechanical engineer Mahmoud El Komy spent more than a month developing this remote-controlled robot.

Source: Waya Media

The current prototype, El Komy's second, can take temperatures, collect mouth swabs for testing, and recognize when people aren't wearing masks.

The swab used by the robot is the same PCR diagnostic test used in nasal swabs, though the robot collects them from the throat, which is also acceptable.

Source: The Mayo Clinic

El Koby is working on his third prototype, which he hopes will also be able to collect nasal swabs.

The third prototype is also planned to mirror doctors' movements more closely.

The robot can also be used in malls, airports, and other indoor spaces to screen people's temperatures.

It moves via remote control on four wheels.

El Komy says that he hopes his invention can reduce the risk of transmission for hospital and clinic staff.

• Amazon is launching 20 healthcare clinics in five US cities as part of a pilot program for warehouse workers and their families.
• The first is now open in Dallas-Fort Worth, and the rest will roll out in Phoenix, Louisville, Detroit, and California's San Bernardino-Moreno Valley area in the few months, according to the company.
• The clinics were in the works before the pandemic and will not offer testing or care related to COVID-19, a company spokesperson told Business Insider.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Amazon is rolling out 20 healthcare clinics for the company's warehouse workers and their families in five US cities, according to a blog post published Tuesday.

As CNBC reports, the clinics' services will include preventive primary care, prescription medications, and vaccinations. They will be operated by Crossover Health, a startup that has run onsite clinics for the likes of Apple, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The company announced that the pilot program will launch its first clinic in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, where more than 20,000 Amazon employees reside. Of those, 11,000 are operation employees, according to the company. The rest of the pilot clinics will be established in Phoenix, Louisville, Detroit, and California's San Bernardino-Moreno Valley area in the next few months.

The program has been in the works since before the pandemic, a company spokesperson told Business Insider. The clinics will not offer testing or care related to the coronavirus disease.

If the clinics — which will be situated close to fulfillment centers and operations facilities — are successful, the company will look into a wider rollout in 2021.

The new program comes after the e-commerce giant last October launched a pilot program called Amazon Care, which included video and text visits with clinicians, as well as in-home care, for employees in Seattle. 

Employees have called Amazon's warehouses a "breeding ground" for the coronavirus disease as social distancing proves difficult in such environments, according to a Business Insider report in April. The employees also said that Amazon was not doing enough to help prevent COVID-19 from infecting them and the communities they serve.

In early June, CNBC reported the company was aiming to test the majority of its warehouse workers for the disease every other week. Amazon has said it expects to spend $1 billion in employee testing in 2020.

SEE ALSO: Amazon drops $2 coronavirus pay rise for warehouse workers as CEO Jeff Bezos' fortune nears $150 billion

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NOW WATCH: 7 secrets about Washington, DC landmarks you probably didn't know

• "PSYC 240: Designing for the 2 Billion Leading Innovation in Mental Health" and its follow-up course "PSYC 242: Mental Health Innovation Studio: Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Policy" are the first university courses on mental health innovation. 
• The courses, led by the Stanford Brainstorm Lab in the School of Medicine, were designed to empower students to tackle contemporary challenges related to the US mental health crisis with innovative solutions through curiosity, creativity, and strategy.
• Students and staff told Business Insider the course is a combination of studying the nuances of mental health, learning from innovators, CEOs, and practitioners in the space, and coming up with your own idea for a startup company or product.
• The classes have bred leaders like Ariela Safira — founder of women's mental health studio and digital platform Real, which raised $3.5 million in funding — and Max Savage, founder of Altas Mental Health, a wellness journaling app funded by Sequoia Capital Scouts and Kleiner Perkins.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Over 47 million adults in the United States reported having a mental illness between 2017 and 2018, and of that 47 million, about 11 million reported having serious mental disorders. 

In a recent survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly half (45%) of adults reported that their mental health has been negatively influenced by stress and worry around the coronavirus. 

There's no doubt that the pandemic is catalyzing a mental health crisis — and low clinician-to-patient ratios, varying levels of stigma, late diagnoses, increased costs, and more prevent traditional healthcare systems from tackling this issue effectively. 

That's why the Stanford Brainstorm Lab at Stanford's School of Medicine created "PSYC 240: Designing for the 2 Billion Leading Innovation in Mental Health" and "PSYC 242: Mental Health Innovation Studio: Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Policy" in 2017 and 2020 respectively. The sister courses are designed to equip the next generation of entrepreneurs with the skills and strategies to create companies, tools, and technologies to improve mental healthcare. 

These are the first ever university courses on mental health innovation, covering the fundamentals of patient challenges and needs, the healthcare system, and human-centered product design.

The course is spearheaded by faculty from Brainstorm: The Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation, the world's first academic laboratory dedicated to transforming mental health through innovation and entrepreneurship, and taught by four psychiatrists and experts of mental health technology and innovation: Dr. Nina Vasan, Dr. Gowri Aragam, Dr. Neha Chaudhary, and Dr. Steven Chan. 

In the course, faculty highlight that different communities need different levels of care, the diversity of biological, psychological, and social issues that people can face, and how to meet people where they are by personalizing treatment and delivery needs. At the end of the course, students have a final assessment where they have to pitch their company idea and business plan to a "Shark Tank"-style panel of industry leaders and course instructors.

"In speaking with students as well as startup CEOs, engineers, investors, and other stakeholders who were a part of early-stage ventures, we saw that there was a lot of passion to improve mental health, but most people did not have the exposure to mental healthcare to understand the nuances of the patient experience or the healthcare system. As a result, they were building products that were not addressing the right problem in the right way, and ultimately were not leading to changes in patient outcomes," Vasan, founder and executive director of Stanford Brainstorm, said.

The teachings of this course have driven student-led companies with over millions of dollars in funding, such as women's mental health studio and digital platform Real— which is funded by the Female Founders Fund — by Ariela Safira, class of 2017.

"As a clinician, Dr. Vasan validating me to start a mental healthcare company inspired me to think far bigger than an app or an Apple Watch feature," Safira told Business Insider. "I realized I could evolve mental healthcare by building in-person and virtual therapy clinics, hiring clinicians, and reinventing both training and therapy."

Who's eligible to take the course

Stanford students from all academic disciplines as well as entrepreneurs, engineers, and venture capitalists from the Bay Area are welcome to take this quarter-long course. Non-Stanford affiliates have to apply for a permit to attend and pay the Permit to Attend tuition fee, currently listed at $5,291 for this class.

During the course, student teams are assigned a challenge or problem to solve, such as "How might we improve access and engagement to mental healthcare in racial/ethnic minority populations?" "How might we increase adoption of innovative mental health tech in hospital systems and among doctors?" "How might we detect, prevent, and protect against suicide in veterans?" and "How might we help women get perinatal mental health treatment while integrating back into the workforce?" The teams are then paired with Stanford faculty members who served as mentors and advisors for their project, and each team is required to have members from different graduate programs or undergraduate majors to facilitate the interdisciplinary thinking and problem solving that's the foundation for the Stanford Brainstorm framework. 

PSYC 240 handles the nuances of the mental healthcare industry 

Studying mental health requires looking outside the bounds of the traditional healthcare system, Aragam, course director and Stanford Brainstorm's director of education, said. 

"Unlike other fields of medicine where you can rely on lab values or purely objective data to define your targets, you can't see and feel mental health in the same way," Chaudhary, an instructor and Stanford Brainstorm's chief research officer, added. "Many mental health startups end up failing because of this lack of a clear understanding of the problem in mental health."

Chaudhary emphasized the importance of learning from other innovator's mistakes as they designed this part of the course.

"Many innovators start by targeting the wrong customer," Chaudhary said. "Here, the end user is not always the customer. We've seen interventions for kids that may not be used or bought by healthcare providers or even parents, but that may be bought by schools or even health plans who are invested in early intervention to keep later costs down and improve outcomes."

After extensive internal market research and experience consulting for mental health startups, the Brainstorm team saw that mental health products created by actual clinicians themselves may be backed by scientific rigor, but lack understanding of effective product design and delivery and have unsustainable business models. Meanwhile, business and tech innovators that create mental health products generally have compelling designs that attract and engage consumers, but lack scientific rigor and an understanding of the problems that need to be solved.

"We wanted to make sure our students knew the nuts, bolts, and nuances of what it means to be mentally and emotionally healthy straight from the perspective of psychiatrists — before they started to build," Chaudhary said. "We walked them through what the mental health system looks like, who the stakeholders are, and what the illnesses and their solutions look like clinically. We then illustrated how this information could be applied beyond the healthcare system, especially using innovative tools."

Max Savage, class of 2017, took the course, which provided him a foundation for his mental health startup, Altas Mental Health, a wellness journaling app funded by Sequoia Capital Scouts, Kleiner Perkins, Reach Capital, UP2398, and a number of others. Since publicly launching the app this March, they've been able to support over 75 schools across the country for free through their Stand with Schools Initiative, as millions of teens are struggling to adjust to school closures and the uncertainty of COVID-19.

"At the time, mental health tech was like the Wild West, an open frontier that offered the chance to provide real social impact in a space of great need. To this day, it's still a tricky space," said Savage. He added, "PSYC 240 helped 21-year-old me see a lot of things that worked and a lot of things that didn't work, which helped us better position our company to play in a space that maximizes social impact and financial viability."

And combines that with tech innovation

PSYC 240 brings in industry experts so that students can learn about the successes of other initiatives while designing their product. Guest lecturers have included Tom Insel, founder and president of Mindstrong Health, Set Shakur, president of the Tupac Shakur Foundation, Antigone Davis, global head of user safety at Facebook, and Dennis Boyle, health lead at IDEO. 

Anika Sinha, a junior at Stanford University, said that Dennis Boyle was her favorite guest speaker and introduced her to the concept of design thinking. Boyle led the class through a five-minute brainstorming sessions where, in groups, they wrote ideas on a sticky note to solve a particular mental health issue and then shared what they came up with as a team.

Anika Sinha's group proposed to change the algorithm of the "explore" page on Instagram to not be so tailored to an individual's searches or hashtags. If these images promote poor body image, they can create a negative feedback loop for a user who may suffer from or be at risk of developing an eating disorder. 

So, her team suggested that there can be more body-positive posts promoted to counteract the harmful searches someone with an eating disorder might engage in. Her proposed product later entailed the The Healthy Student Body Initiative, a program that enhances students' access to scientifically-valid educational information on eating disorders and available resources and reduces the friction involved in accessing the appropriate level of care. 

"Design thinking helped us design our project because it pushed us to think of the missing links in eating disorder apps," she said. "We wanted to create something geared toward college students, given the much higher rates of eating disorders within adolescents and athletes."

Faculty of the course believe that technology has the potential to disrupt the current healthcare system and more effectively tackle the modern mental health crisis.

"If you look at the current mental health system, much of it was built in pieces based on a variety of things like the year's legislation, local preferences, and available humanpower," said Chan, a course instructor of PSYC 240 and faculty affiliate of Stanford Brainstorm.  "And a big criticism of the field of behavioral health is the difficulty in navigating this 'system.' Harnessing engineering talent and connected technologies would ease access and approachability issues for mental health."

SEE ALSO: The stress of reopening: How to reduce anxiety and support your team's mental health as you return to the office

READ MORE: Business owners share the routines they're following to manage their own stress during the pandemic as they keep their teams from panicking

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• TikTok has more than doubled its employee headcount in the first five months of 2020, according to data compiled by LinkedIn.
• While the short-form video app has recently faced increased scrutiny from politicians in the US and abroad, its user base continues to grow rapidly. 
• The company is staffing up its business development team this year, adding 483% more employees in business functions over the last 12 months, according to LinkedIn's analysis.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

TikTok has sparked controversy in recent weeks. The app was blocked in India and faces a potential ban in the US due to privacy and security concerns tied to its owner, China-based ByteDance.

But the app's primary user base doesn't seem to mind.

TikTok has continued to explode in popularity this year, setting a global downloads record in the first quarter. And based on data from a sample of Android users, the analytics firm SimilarWeb estimates the app's number of daily active users in the US is up 8.3% this month from June.

The company has also been accelerating its hiring — including poaching Disney's former head of streaming services Kevin Mayer — as it looks to make money off its fast-growing user base.

TikTok has more than doubled its global employee head count this year, according to data compiled on July 2 by LinkedIn. The company's headcount hit 4,413 employees in June 2020, up from 1,824 in December 2019. Its parent company ByteDance more than tripled its employee count in the US between June 2019 and June 2020, the company told Reuters.

One area that the company is focusing on when adding employees is its global business solutions team, which focuses on roles that TikTok needs to earn revenue — namely sales and marketing jobs. The number of employees at TikTok focused on business development has jumped 483% over the past year, according to LinkedIn's analysis. Marketing was the company's second fastest-growing employee category, with marketing hires rising 143% over the past year. 

"We're growing really quickly," Kate Barney, the head of HR for TikTok America's global business solutions team, told Business Insider last month. "There's a ton to do, and we're looking for people who are going to dive in headfirst like the rest of us have."

The company has hundreds of current job openings for roles in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Austin, where it recently opened a new office.

"The center of this global business team is in New York, but we also hire in Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Austin, Seattle, and Toronto," Barney said.

One of the first things TikTok's recruiting team screens for is whether applicants have actually carefully read through a job description.

"I think as a tip for candidates, it's really to do their homework," she said. "We post the roles that are open, so read that role that you're applying to, and see if you can find anybody else on LinkedIn or anywhere who's doing that role now, and ask them about their experience."

Read more tips on how to get a job at TikTok from Business Insider's interview with Barney here:

TikTok's hiring spree coincides with a jump in its user base this year

TikTok's month-over-month employee growth rate falls in line with a recent spike in downloads of its app, according to data from the app-analytics firm Sensor Tower. 

The company set a new quarterly downloads record after driving 315 million installs across Apple's App Store and Android's Google Play in the first three months of 2020. The company added 879 new hires over the same period, a 48% increase in its employee headcount, according to LinkedIn data.

In recent months, the app has benefited from a sharp increase in engagement on social media among consumers sheltering in place during the coronavirus pandemic.

"Obviously everyone's home and they have more time, so engagement is through the roof," Paul Marobella, chairman and CEO of Havas Creative North America, told Business Insider in April. "TikTok has surged at the moment and gone up in age because people are tuning out news sources. Everybody's looking for an outlet of joy and optimism."

For more coverage on TikTok, read these other recent stories on Business Insider: 

• Rising calls to ban TikTok in the US are great news for homegrown tech giants like Facebook that would prefer less competition and regulatory scrutiny: American tech giants looking to ward off unwanted regulation are using China as a bogeyman to scare Washington, DC. It's working.
• A veteran talent agent says TikTok is the next frontier for gamer houses and esports teams — and she's betting her career on it: Gaming and esports agent Amber Howard recently took the helm as TalentX Gaming's head of talent. Here's how she plans to grow the agency.
  
• TikTok influencers are getting paid thousands of dollars to promote songs, as the app becomes a major force in the music industry: TikTok creators, talent managers, and music marketers shared how much influencers earn by promoting songs in videos on the app.
• An inside look at the agents and managers competing to sign TikTok's biggest stars: TikTok has surged in popularity, and so have the platform's homegrown stars. Agents and managers are at war over who will sign its top creators.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why you don't see brilliantly blue fireworks

• You can turn a PowerPoint into a video by making a few stylistic choices, then clicking an export button.
• Turning your PowerPoint into a video will allow it to play automatically without having to click through each slide. 
• Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

PowerPoint is an incredibly useful tool for giving presentations. With the click of a button, you can control how fast or slow you want the slides to progress, and when other extras like music or animation come in. 

However, if it is not your intention to give your presentation live and in person, this fact can be more of a hindrance than a help. If you intended, for example, to email it to your coworkers, or to post it online, it might be more helpful to simply have your PowerPoint be a video that people can press play on and simply sit back and watch.

Luckily, this is something that the Microsoft Office team has already thought of, and they make it just as easy to save your PowerPoint as a video as it is to save it regularly. 

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Microsoft Office (From $149.99 at Best Buy)

Microsoft Office 365 (From $69.99 at Best Buy)

How to save your PowerPoint as a video

1. First, save your presentation to be sure that all of your most recent work is reflected in the most current file for your presentation.

2. From the main menu, click "File," then click "Export" on the left hand side.

3. In the "Export" menu, select "Create a Video."

4. Choose the quality you want for your video — the descriptions beneath each option will describe what they're best optimized for.

5. Optional: If you want to use recorded narrations with timings, you can choose to use ones that already exist — if you have them — or choose to record them now, using the dropdown menu. Doing this will make whatever you record play over the video as it plays. If you don't want to use narrations, leave this setting and skip to step 6.

6. Choose how many seconds you want the video to spend on each slide. Make sure you account for the longest slide in the show, to make sure your audience has time to read everything.

7. Click "Create Video" to save the new PowerPoint video to your computer.

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

• How to embed a Youtube video into your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations using a Mac or PC
  

• How to convert a PowerPoint to Google Slides in two different ways

• How to convert Google Slides to a PowerPoint presentation in 4 easy steps 

• How to copy or duplicate a PowerPoint slide and put it anywhere in your slideshow

• 'Can you get Microsoft Word on an iPad?': Yes, you can — here's how to download and set it up

SEE ALSO: The best home projectors you can buy

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• The biotech Moderna developed a potential coronavirus vaccine in record time, zooming past Big Pharma competitors.
• Stephane Bancel, the company's CEO, sat down with Business Insider to discuss the technology platform that drove its speed and how the company hopes to pioneer a new way of developing vaccines. 
• "The speed is one dimension, but the piece that excites me the most about this technology is we can do vaccines that cannot be done using traditional technology," Bancel said in an interview.
• In July, researchers published results from testing Moderna's experimental vaccine in 45 people. The study showed the vaccine generates an immune response that could protect people from the coronavirus, but more research is needed.
• Now, Moderna is gearing up to test the vaccine in a 30,000-person study that's scheduled to start in July.
• Here's the inside story of how Moderna went from waiting for the virus to be sequenced to shipping a vaccine in 42 days, available exclusively to BI Prime subscribers.

NORWOOD, Massachusetts — Stephane Bancel was vacationing in the south of France with his family when he first read about the virus.

It was early January when the biotech executive saw a Wall Street Journal article describing a "mystery virus outbreak" in central China. He sent an email about the story to Dr. Barney Graham, the deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health. 

Graham said the agency didn't know what the virus was yet. A few days later it did: a novel coronavirus. Bancel asked the NIH leader to let him know when they had the virus' genetic sequence. His company, Moderna, was ready to get to work.

As the virus spread in January and February, about 100 employees at Moderna, about one-tenth of the company's workforce, worked around-the-clock to develop a coronavirus vaccine. The stakes couldn't be higher: the virus has proliferated around the globe, shuttering economies and killing 265,000 people. 

Moderna shipped the first batches of a vaccine to the NIH on February 24, just 42 days after it received the virus' genetic sequence. It will take at least 12 to 18 months to know if Moderna's vaccine — or any others — is safe and effective, though Moderna is working to compress that timeline as much as it can. The company has said the vaccine could be ready for emergency use by this fall.

In July, researchers published the first results from testing the vaccine in people. A small study of 45 healthy volunteers, focused on evaluating the safety of the vaccine, found that the vaccine generated an immune response in all of the participants. Now, Moderna is planning to start a 30,000-person trial to find out if the vaccine works to prevent the coronavirus.

The journey shows how, under the brightest possible spotlight, Moderna is challenging the lengthy and costly process of vaccine development. The company has never before brought a vaccine to market, and a victory would help establish its technology as a new medical innovation and save lives.

Click here to read the full inside story of how Moderna developed a potential coronavirus vaccine in record time. The article is available exclusively to BI Prime subscribers.

This article was published in March and has been updated. Lydia Ramsey contributed reporting.

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NOW WATCH: 7 secrets about Washington, DC landmarks you probably didn't know

• Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy laid out details about what the company looks for in the people it hires and what it expects from employees, during a speech at a recent conference. 
• The company, he said, hires "builders," or people who are hungry to find problems and fix them.
• Jassy also referred to Amazon's No. 1 leadership principle — customer obsession — and indicated that AWS employees start with trying to imagine what the customer wants and work backward.
• He also said AWS wants people who take chances and work on new initiatives and that the company needs to be able to "tolerate failure" to help those people thrive.
• Are you a current or former Amazon Web Services employee? Contact this reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email (astewart@businessinsider.com).
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon's multibillion-dollar cloud business, recently described the traits that make up an Amazon Web Services employees, including a hunger to find problems and fix them, a desire to take chances on new initiatives, and a focus on the customer.

While the coronavirus crisis has prompted cloud competitors such as Microsoft and Google to freeze hiring for certain parts of the business, AWS as recently as late April said it hadn't paused hiring for any roles — although the company hasn't provided an update since.

Speaking recently at an energy-industry conference called CERAWeek, which released a video of the talk on Tuesday, Jassy provided insight into what the company looks for in AWS employees. AWS has yet to respond to a request to provide more information.

Be a 'builder,' or someone who is hungry to find out what's wrong with the customer experience and fix it.

"If you hire people who are content moving slow and operating in an incumbent pace, you will move slow," Jassy said.

AWS wants to hire "builders," he said, explaining that AWS is looking for "those who like to invent, but also those who look at a customer experience and try to figure out what's wrong with it and then have this hunger to change that and to reinvent that."

Jassy has spoken about the idea of "builders" before. During the AWS Summit Online in May, Jassy described builders as people who realize the launch of a new product or services is just the beginning. "Nothing that we build that lasts forever — that's great — actually happens right at launch," he said in May.

Be prepared to think through a 'customer lens.'

Amazon is "unusually focused on customers," Jassy said. The company is well-known for its "customer obsession" mantra. It's No. 1 on the company's list of leadership principles, which it uses to make hiring decisions.

"Leaders start with the customer and work backwards," the principle says. "They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers."

As the leadership principle suggests, Jassy said AWS approaches everything it builds by starting with the customer and moving backward. 

"If you sat in our product development meetings you would see that it's almost like the customer sitting at the table," Jassy said. "It's always with a customer lens on it. It's easy to talk about being customer focused and a lot harder to actually execute on that."

Don't be afraid to work on new, risky projects.

Amazon wants employees who take chances and work on new initiatives, Jassy said. It's up to the company to create an environment for that to happen, which he said starts with being able to "tolerate" failure.

"None of us like failure at Amazon," Jassy said. "But if you don't allow people to take chances and have an opportunity, if it doesn't work out, to be able to move on to something great, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy: None of the good people work on the new things because it will be too risky."

Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at astewart@businessinsider.com, message her on Twitter @ashannstew, or send her a secure message through Signal at 425-344-8242.

SEE ALSO: Microsoft's chief diplomat to Silicon Valley is the new Magic Leap CEO. Here's why experts believe she could be the right person to turn the company around and make it 'a major force' in the industry.

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• Earlier this month, Palantir, the secretive data analytics startup confidentially filed for an IPO, which has surprised some outsiders.
• But Palantir employees are "really itching to go public," said one former employee who spoke on condition of anonymity because workers are sworn to secrecy about company operations when they sign the startup's stringent non-disclosure agreements.
• Here's why Palantir employees want the company to go public, and why the descent of the coronavirus pandemic might have helped accelerate the IPO time frame. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

For 17 years, Palantir brushed off talk of going public, avoiding Silicon Valley's standard script for buzzy tech startups. Now with the coronavirus pandemic roiling the global economy, the company has decided the moment is right for a stock listing.

The timing may seem like a bit of a head scratcher. But according to recently departed employees that Business Insider spoke to, the pressure to go public from inside Palantir has become increasingly difficult for management to ignore — and the changes brought about by the pandemic may have even pushed the situation to the brink.

In company town halls, conducted over Zoom calls after the pandemic began, questions about the status of a potential initial public offering grew louder and more frequent, and there was a palpable sense that employees were growing restless, the sources said.

Employees "would ask a lot of questions about the IPO," and in response, the company said that it was moving the IPO "up kind of considerably," one of the Palantir alums said.

Staffers "are really itching to go public," the same source told Business Insider.

Like other tech companies, Palantir competes for the limited supply of elite engineers who can be snapped up by tech giants like Google, Amazon and Microsoft, which have much greater resources. One of Palantir's longstanding lures, the former employees said, was extravagant office perks, including fully stocked kitchens, in-house chiropractors, and company happy hours.

Those perks no longer carry the same weight as the pandemic has forced employees to work from their own kitchens and bedrooms.

And Palantir's mystique of being a secretive company isn't as enticing a draw as it was in the company's early days, especially with the company facing protests for some of its work. 

"The whole secret-sexy-tech-company-in-the-shadows brand made people want to work for us for a long time," one of the former employees said. 

Cofounded by Peter Thiel in 2003, Palantir makes technology that crunches through huge and disparate pools of data to find patterns. The company's eager promotion of its data-mining services to government agencies like the Department of Defense and Immigration and Customs Enforcement has made it an outsider among its Silicon Valley peers who tout progressive values. 

Earlier this month Palantir said it confidentially filed preliminary paperwork for a stock listing, though it did not specify whether it planned to go public through a traditional initial public offering, or through a direct listing, in which insiders can sell their shares on the open market but the company itself does not raise any money.

While Palantir has for years allowed its employees to sell their shares in the company to private investors, the scope and ease of sales, and the pricing, come with restrictions that employees would not be subject to if the shares were traded openly on the public markets.

Employees have reportedly struggled to sell their shares on secondary markets, according to BuzzFeed. More recently, the company has paid some employee bonuses in restricted stock units (RSUs), as Business Insider's Becky Peterson has reported. Current and former employees can sell their RSUs only after the company exits by going public or getting acquired.

Palantir was valued at $20 billion in a 2015 venture funding round, but the price of shares have decreased since then in private market sales. Earlier this year, secondary shares of the company regularly sold at a valuation between $8 billion and $12 billion, two investors told Business Insider in February.

SEE ALSO: A former Apple TV designer built a livestreaming startup to challenge Twitch, and he's betting the key to winning will be live rap battles

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