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BARCELONA, Spain -- The Spanish Grand Prix hit the reset button on Formula One's 2022 championship. After six rounds, just six points separate Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc at the top of the championship and there is next to no margin between the performance of the Red Bull and Ferrari on track. Meanwhile, Mercedes has finally started to unlock the potential of its car, introducing the prospect of three teams fighting for wins in the coming races.

The reliability issues that cost Verstappen 36 points earlier in the season were partly cancelled out by Leclerc losing 25 points to his own issues on Sunday. Ferrari, which has enjoyed strong reliability up until this point of the season, finally showed some mechanical weakness, although it should be noted that Verstappen's Red Bull remains a temperamental beast, with the Drag Reduction System (DRS) on the rear wing refusing to obey his commands while fighting for position with George Russell's Mercedes.

Leclerc's shortened race leaves unanswered questions hanging over the true performance difference between Ferrari and Red Bull, but up until lap 27 he looked like he had the race firmly in control as Verstappen had to battle back from an uncharacteristic mistake. The upshot is a championship that is incredibly difficult to call between the top two, combined with the added spice of Russell and teammate Lewis Hamilton entering the battle.

Verstappen's victory in Spain means he has won every race he's finished this season. The two times he hasn't secured victory -- in Bahrain and Australia -- his car's reliability let him down, making it easy to draw the assumption that he's verging on being unbeatable this year.

But as impressive as Verstappen's win record in 2022 is, it only tells a fraction of the story. At the two events where Verstappen retired, he did so from second place after being outperformed by Leclerc. What's more, his most recent win in Barcelona was anything but easy and would have been a second place finish had Leclerc's car not failed him on lap 27.

After lagging behind Red Bull in Imola and Miami, Ferrari brought a significant upgrade to its car in Barcelona. The new package, which is based around an upgraded floor design, was Ferrari's first major attempt at extracting more performance from the car since the start of preseason testing.

Rivals Red Bull have been adding new parts since the start of the season, but Ferrari have taken a more staggered approach to upgrades hoping to extract a big step in performance from each one. In Friday practice it looked as though Ferrari may have not made have found the performance it had hoped for, with both drivers struggling with excessive tyre degradation, but by Saturday the team had honed its car setup to the new parts and unlocked a small but significant edge over Red Bull.

Reflecting on the race on Sunday evening, Leclerc was convinced he would have won the race had he not encountered reliability issues.

"With the laps I have done, honestly everything was going really, really well," he said. "I think it would have been difficult for them to catch back up because there would have been quite a bit of a gap and we had very good degradation on the soft tyres and we could do quite a few more laps compared to them. So, overall, I think we had this race under control."

However, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner believes it may have been closer had the race played out, owing to the tyre degradation experienced on Carlos Sainz's Ferrari towards the end of the race and the fact Leclerc looked committed to a two-stop strategy whereas Verstappen found an advantage over teammate Sergio Perez from his three-stop approach.

"I think if you look at the degradation that Carlos has in the second half of the race, I think we actually faired very well," Horner said. "I think it's a shame we didn't get to see that race between Charles and Max today, because I think it would have been very close.

"And maybe the three-stop would have worked better versus the two that they adopted. I think the cars are still very closely matched."

But that ignores the fact that Sainz was struggling with car damage after his mistake earlier in the race, which will not have helped his tyre management or his performance. It also ignores the more significant fact that Verstappen was struggling to overtake rival cars due to a problem with his DRS, which kept him bottled behind Russell's Mercedes for 18 laps and meant Red Bull had to ask teammate Perez to let him by to win the race.

Despite the obvious disappointment of going home without any points after securing pole position and leading the first 27 laps of the race, Leclerc was upbeat about the overall progress Ferrari made in Spain.

"Let's say that I feel better after this weekend than after the last two weekends," he said. "Of course there is this issue on the car and I am very disappointed, but on the other hand I think there are plenty of positive signs throughout the whole weekend. "Our qualifying pace, the new package worked as expected, which is not always a given, and everything was working well with our race pace and tyre management. On tyre management at the last two races we have been struggling quite a bit compared to Red Bull and today it was strong.

"So in those situations I think it is good to also look at the positives and there are plenty today."

In theory, Ferrari should also hold an advantage at the next round in Monaco. Ever since the first test, the Italian team has held an edge over its rivals in slow-speed corners and the lack of long straights, on which Verstappen has often benefitted from the lower-drag aero package of his Red Bull, means Ferrari should stretch its advantage over its rivals.

Complicating the battle between Ferrari and Red Bull is a resurgent Mercedes. From the start of the season the world champions were confident they had a car with the potential to fight for victories, but the W13's tendency to bounce on its suspension when the floor of the car was forced into the track surface - a phenomenon dubbed 'porpoising' as it made cars replicate the motion of a porpoise moving through water -- at high speed meant that potential remained locked away.

In order to stop the bouncing, which in extreme cases was damaging the car and in any case was making it incredibly difficult to drive, Mercedes had to lift the ride height at the rear. In doing so it traded off downforce and performance, and for the first five races the potential the team had seen in its simulations back at the factory remained unobtainable.

In Spain, updates to the floor were introduced to help ease the bouncing and Mercedes was able to hit upon a setup that allowed it to tap into the true performance of the car. Russell qualified 0.6 off Charles Leclerc on Saturday, but Mercedes' engineers believe there is just a 0.3s deficit per lap in race performance.

Hamilton's performance was particularly impressive as he fought back from 19th after an early puncture to fifth place (having briefly held fourth before a water leak and concerns about overheating forced him to back off). At times, Hamilton was the fastest driver on track as Mercedes adapted his strategy to allow him to return to the track after each pit stop with a clear road in front of him. If you minus the 40 seconds he lost on the opening lap from his race time, he would have been in the running for second place alongside Perez and ahead of teammate Russell.

After the race Toto Wolff said the car looked like a championship winner, but took the opportunity to clarify those remarks when he spoke to the media later in the evening.

"What I meant to say is that I've seen a race car today that reminded me of the race cars of previous seasons, where you're 30 plus seconds behind the whole field, and you come all the way to the front and near the podium," Wolff said. "And that is very encouraging and shows that we've made another step.

"Can we fight for a world championship? Well, we bet we can. But we just need to have a car that is able to finish first and second. And I think we have reasons to believe that we can get there, but also if you look at the odds they are against us.

"Motor racing is a different ballgame. We've seen today that Ferrari didn't score a lot of points although they should have. We are absolutely pushing flat out in order to bring us back into the game."

Now that the bouncing issues are better understood, Mercedes hopes it can focus on adding performance. Finding 0.3s in the wind tunnel is a very achievable objective according to sources within the team, but the tricky thing will be transferring that to the track without triggering the bouncing again.

"I think we are literally learning as we go along," Wolff said. "These regulations have caught us off guard in a way, and step by step we are understanding what we need to do in order to bring the performance back into the car.

"We've seen another big step this weekend, probably we have halved the disadvantage to the front runners. But still there is there is a long way to go in order to be right up there in the fight.

"With Lewis we had probably the fastest race car today. He was 50 seconds behind at the end, and he caught all the way up, and at stages in the race he was the quickest, and that shows the potential that the car has."

Having a situation where Russell and Hamilton are both in the fight for victories will force both Leclerc and Verstappen to up their games significantly. What's more, Russell's gap of 36 points to Verstappen will start to look much smaller if the reliability issues on the Red Bull and Ferrari persist and Russell can challenge for wins.

At 64 points, Hamilton's gap looks much harder to close than his teammates, but spread across 16 races it only equates to four points per race. The 2022 championship is only just getting started.

Read more here:
How the Spanish Grand Prix reset the F1 title fight - ESPN

From left: Vice Media CEO Nancy Dubuc, Rudins CEO and co-chairman Bill Rudin, and Dock 72 (Getty Images, S9 Architecture, Rudin Management, iStock)

Vice Media will remain in its 77,000-square-foot Williamsburg office digs and not move to Rudin Managements Dock 72 as had been expected.

Vice has renewed its lease with WEB Holdings LLC, the owner of 289 Kent Avenue, where it has been headquartered since 2014. The renewal is for only four years, providing time for Vice to figure out its future needs.

The Kent Avenue offices are a combination of two buildings on three floors where the employees can enjoy a 30,000-square-foot landscaped roof deck overlooking Domino Park and the East River.

Erik Schmall and Allyson Bowen of Savills represented Vice Media while a Lee & Associates team including Alan Friedman and Garry Steinberg represented the landlord. No other terms of the lease were made available.

In a statement, Friedman pointed to the lively location and state-of-the-art amenities at 289 Kent Avenue as todays tenants are prioritizing quality over everything.

In August, sources told The Real Deal that Vice was still exploring options but focused on leasing four or five floors at Dock 72, the 16-story, 675,000-square-foot office building in the Brooklyn Navy Yard developed by Rudin Management and Boston Properties in cooperation with WeWork.

At the time, a Vice Media Group spokesperson confirmed the companys lease expires in 2022 and said in a statement it does not have an agreement with any party at this time.

Like all companies with an expiring lease, Vice is exploring all options for new office space while maintaining the best cost profile for our company, the spokesperson said.

Vices short-term renewal on Kent Avenue is a blow for Dock 72, which finally landed cooking and home brand Food52 as its second tenant last fall. WeWork is the anchor tenant and will provide programming and amenities for the other tenants.

Last fall, Lee & Associates started marketing Vices space on the Brooklyn waterfront as available starting July 1, 2022, putting pressure on Vice to make a choice before its renewal option expired.

The three-story, 21,000-square-foot former Domino Sugar warehouse at 49 South 2nd Street and the two-story, 44,000-plus square-foot former theater, recording studio and restaurant at 289 Kent Avenue were brought up to code and completely redesigned by the Switzer Group into a sleek, minimalist space for Vice. It features exposed wood beams, columns, structural steel and concrete.

A former garage was made into a cheery entrance lobby and reception area leading to a caf bar, lounges, collaborative office space, conference rooms and executive offices. Bay doors open to an outdoor living room deck and green roof garden. It also has a working professional kitchen for filming as well as 125 high-tech editing suites.

Vice, Boston Properties and Rudin did not return requests for comment.

Contact The Real Deal

See the original post here:
Vice scraps move to Rudins Dock 72 - The Real Deal

Its Upfronts week and here we are again. After a successful NewFronts its time for the other biggest media companies to talk content and advertising innovation. On a parallel track, the price conversations between the buyers and sellers have also started. The upfront dance has begunit hasnt been killed off. In fact, far from it. This way of doing business is still quite useful for all sides of the ecosystem. It seems that everyone wants in on it.

The industry is keenly watching as consumers continue to cut cords and increasingly adopt connected TV (CTV) and OTT as their preferred viewing options, making the task of reaching prospects even harder to do now as there is more fragmentation and exceedingly more complexity.

This quickly evolving video ecosystem leaves the marketplace looking very different heading into the 2022/2023 Upfronts. How will advertisers navigate it? Do they have the necessary technology to manage this complexity?

The entire landscape has changed. Where you used to have a playing field dotted with the giant boulders of linear TV networks and scattered with CTV and OTT options among the dunes, you now have an oasis of traditional linear TV alongside digital streaming video and social media. Taking the metaphor a step further, you have new hybrid programming fitting easily between connected devices and mobile screens, creating redundancies and potential waste for buyers.

How do you locate and engage audiences now? How do you understand where they will go and how to reach them?

Todays planning tools were built for a different era and are ill-equipped to solve our present needs.

Is anyone truly equipped to operate effectively in this brave new world?

This more complex environment means you cant get around without technology to help navigate through it. Technology that helps forecast consumer viewing patterns across an entire video landscape, as well as taking into account heavy TV viewers, light TV viewers, cord-cutters, cord-nevers, etc. to better control media spend. And, of course, technology that reaches advertisers desired audience segments, in the proportion that they want.

Todays planning tools were built for a different era and are ill-equipped to solve our present needs. Too much has changed. The future does not fit into the containers of the past.

To achieve success, you will need a total video strategy that is different and is purpose-built to solve the next generation of challenges. One that has the ability to optimize and analyze media holistically with an eye toward the future. The strategy also needs to be able to score linear TV KPIs with those of CTV, digital video and mobile in order to give buyers a birds-eye, 360-degree topographical map of the media landscape. Its an approach that swaps siloed planning and buying with true incrementalism, delivering a more effective use of clients budgets and reclaims control from the sell-side alone (as they look only within their portfolio) and allows buyers to make holistic decisions across their entire video portfolio.

Look at it this way: Linear and mobile are parts of an ecosystem with interactive micro-environments that can expand advertisers reach. Total video planning and investment can eliminate the redundancy and waste advertisers experience when these environments overlap.

Implementing total video planning technologywhich incorporates a smart approach to data that effectively forecasts viewership across TV, CTV, digital and social media, unifying it on one platform and driving incrementalityis a true cross-screen planning solution.

Ironically, 2020-2021 proved to be a time of fast and positive development in the video world; people cut cords in record numbers and turned from cable boxes to streaming.

Meanwhile, the networks technical teams were busy developing platforms to capture viewing data even as it moved toward hard-to-capture media. But this is still siloed information. Its good for networks to understand their own footprint, viewership, incrementality and overlap within their own world, but it does not enable advertisers to fully understand these same things to guide their overall investment strategy. Data in silos is still siloed investment and siloed decisioning.

This year, it is more important than ever that media buyers have access to multi-network, cross-screen, granular data unified on a single platform. Using technology to transform siloed data into holistic data will empower advertisers to take control of their overall investments. It will also allow them to reduce waste and drive the outcomes most important to themacross the entire ecosystemas they approach the upcoming Newfronts and Upfronts. Data was a great first step, but without technology, it does not solve for siloed investment.

After negotiating the Newfronts and Upfronts, your media portfolio should not resemble a series of desert snapshots with boulders and sand dunes marked out in separate frames. You do not need to end up with a static photo book of your individual media investments. You should have a full 360, high-def picture of the entire video landscape; one that allows for a dynamic visualization of your plan and evolves as your plan unfolds throughout the year.

Excerpt from:
The Role Total Video Planning Plays in Upfronts - Adweek

May 17, 2022

PRESS RELEASE

Apple previews innovative accessibility features combining the power of hardware, software, and machine learning

Software features coming later this year offer users with disabilities new tools for navigation, health, communication, and more

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIAApple today previewed innovative software features that introduce new ways for users with disabilities to navigate, connect, and get the most out of Apple products. These powerful updates combine the companys latest technologies to deliver unique and customizable tools for users, and build on Apples long-standing commitment to making products that work for everyone.

Using advancements across hardware, software, and machine learning, people who are blind or low vision can use their iPhone and iPad to navigate the last few feet to their destination with Door Detection; users with physical and motor disabilities who may rely on assistive features like Voice Control and Switch Control can fully control Apple Watch from their iPhone with Apple Watch Mirroring; and the Deaf and hard of hearing community can follow Live Captions on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple is also expanding support for its industry-leading screen reader VoiceOver with over 20 new languages and locales. These features will be available later this year with software updates across Apple platforms.

Apple embeds accessibility into every aspect of our work, and we are committed to designing the best products and services for everyone, said Sarah Herrlinger, Apples senior director of Accessibility Policy and Initiatives. Were excited to introduce these new features, which combine innovation and creativity from teams across Apple to give users more options to use our products in ways that best suit their needs and lives.

Door Detection for Users Who Are Blind or Low Vision

Apple is introducing Door Detection, a cutting-edge navigation feature for users who are blind or low vision. Door Detection can help users locate a door upon arriving at a new destination, understand how far they are from it, and describe door attributes including if it is open or closed, and when its closed, whether it can be opened by pushing, turning a knob, or pulling a handle. Door Detection can also read signs and symbols around the door, like the room number at an office, or the presence of an accessible entrance symbol. This new feature combines the power of LiDAR, camera, and on-device machine learning, and will be available on iPhone and iPad models with the LiDAR Scanner.1

Door Detection will be available in a new Detection Mode within Magnifier, Apples built-in app supporting blind and low vision users. Door Detection, along with People Detection and Image Descriptions, can each be used alone or simultaneously in Detection Mode, offering users with vision disabilities a go-to place with customizable tools to help navigate and access rich descriptions of their surroundings. In addition to navigation tools within Magnifier, Apple Maps will offer sound and haptics feedback for VoiceOver users to identify the starting point for walking directions.

Advancing Physical and Motor Accessibility for Apple Watch

Apple Watch becomes more accessible than ever for people with physical and motor disabilities with Apple Watch Mirroring, which helps users control Apple Watch remotely from their paired iPhone. With Apple Watch Mirroring, users can control Apple Watch using iPhonesassistive features like Voice Control and Switch Control, and use inputs including voice commands, sound actions, head tracking, or external Made for iPhone switches as alternatives to tapping the Apple Watch display. Apple Watch Mirroring uses hardware and software integration, including advances built on AirPlay, to help ensure users who rely on these mobility features can benefit from unique Apple Watch apps like Blood Oxygen, Heart Rate, Mindfulness, and more.2

Plus, users can do even more with simple hand gestures to control Apple Watch. With new Quick Actions on Apple Watch, a double-pinch gesture can answer or end a phone call, dismiss a notification, take a photo, play or pause media in the Now Playing app, and start, pause, or resume a workout. This builds on the innovative technology used in AssistiveTouch on Apple Watch, which gives users with upper body limb differences the option to control Apple Watch with gestures like a pinch or a clench without having to tap the display.

Live Captions Come to iPhone, iPad, and Mac for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Users

For the Deaf and hard of hearing community, Apple is introducing Live Captions on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.3 Users can follow along more easily with any audio content whether they are on a phone or FaceTime call, using a video conferencing or social media app, streaming media content, or having a conversation with someone next to them. Users can also adjust font size for ease of reading. Live Captions in FaceTime attribute auto-transcribed dialogue to call participants, so group video calls become even more convenient for users with hearing disabilities. When Live Captions are used for calls on Mac, users have the option to type a response and have it spoken aloud in real time to others who are part of the conversation. And because Live Captions are generated on device, user information stays private and secure.

VoiceOver Adds New Languagesand More

VoiceOver, Apples industry-leading screen reader for blind and low vision users, is adding support for more than 20 additional locales and languages, including Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.4 Users can also select from dozens of new voices that are optimized for assistive features across languages. These new languages, locales, and voices will also be available for Speak Selection and Speak Screen accessibility features. Additionally, VoiceOver users on Mac can use the new Text Checker tool to discover common formatting issues such as duplicative spaces or misplaced capital letters, which makes proofreading documents or emails even easier.

Additional Features

Celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day

This week, Apple is celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day with special sessions, curated collections, and more:

About Apple

Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Apples five software platforms iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and iCloud. Apples more than 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Press Contacts

Chloe Sweet

Apple

chloe_sweet@apple.com

Apple Media Helpline

media.help@apple.com

(408) 974-2042

View post:
Apple previews innovative accessibility features - Apple

How risky is being indoors with our 10-year-old granddaughter without masks? We have plans to have birthday tea together. Are we safe?

That question, from a woman named Debby in California, is just one of hundreds Ive received from concerned people who are worried about COVID-19. Im an epidemiologist and one of the women behind Dear Pandemic, a science communication project that has delivered practical pandemic advice on social media since the beginning of the pandemic.

How risky is swim team? How risky is it to go to my orthodontist appointment? How risky is going to the grocery store with a mask on if no one else is wearing one and my father is an organ transplant recipient? How risky is it to have a wedding with 200 people, indoors, and the reception hall has a vaulted ceiling? And on and on.

These questions are hard to answer, and even when we try, the answers are unsatisfying.

So in early April 2022, when Anthony Fauci, the presidents chief medical advisor, told Americans that from here on out, each of us is going to have to do our own personal risk assessment, I put my head down on my desk.

Individualized risk assessment is not a reasonable ask, even for someone who does risk assessment for a living, let alone for the rest of us. Its impossible to evaluate our own risk for any given situation, and the impossibility of the task can make us feel like giving up entirely. So instead of doing that, I suggest focusing on risk reduction. Reframing in this way brings us back to the realm of what we can control and to the tried and true evidence-based strategies: wearing masks, getting vaccinated and boosted, avoiding indoor crowds and improving ventilation.

A cascade of unknowable variables

In my experience, nonscientists and epidemiologists use the word risk to mean different things. To most people, risk means a quality something like danger or vulnerability.

When epidemiologists and other scientists use the word risk, though, were talking about a math problem. Risk is the probability of a particular outcome, in a particular population at a particular time. To give a simple example, the chances that a coin flip will be heads is 1 in 2.

As public health researchers, we often offer risk information in this format: The probability that an unvaccinated person will die of COVID-19 if they catch it is about 1 in 200. As many as 1 in 8 people with COVID-19 will have symptoms persisting for weeks or months after recovering.

To embark on your personal risk assessment, as Fauci casually suggested, you first have to decide what outcome youre talking about. People often arent very specific when they consider risk in a qualitative sense; they tend to lump a lot of different risks together. But risk is not a general concept. Its always the risk of a specific outcome.

Lets think about Debby. First, theres the risk that she will be exposed to COVID-19 during tea; this depends on her granddaughter. Where does she live? How many kids at her school have COVID-19 this week? Will she take a rapid test before she comes over? These factors all influence the granddaughters risk of exposing Debby to COVID-19, but I dont know any of them and likely neither does Debby. Given the lack of systematic testing, I have no idea how many people in my own community have COVID-19 right now. At this point, our best guess at community rates is literally in the toilet monitoring sewage for the coronavirus.

If I assume that Debbys granddaughter does have COVID-19 on the appointed day, I can start thinking about Debbys downstream risks: whether shell get COVID-19 from her granddaughter; the chances that shell be hospitalized and that shell die; and the probability that shell have long COVID. I can also consider the risk that Debby will catch COVID-19 and then give it to others, perpetuating an outbreak. If she gets sick, the whole hierarchy of risks comes into play for everyone Debby sees after she is infected.

Finally, there are competing risks. If Debby decides to skip the party, there may be risks to her own or her granddaughters mental health or their relationship. Many skipped celebrations in many families could negatively affect the economy. People could lose business; they could lose their jobs.

Each of these probabilities is influenced by a cascade of fickle conditions. Some of the factors that shape risks are in your control. For example, I decided to get vaccinated and boosted. Therefore, Im less likely to end up in the hospital and to die if I get COVID-19. But some risks are not in your control age, other health conditions, gender, race and the behavior of the people all around you. And many, many of the risk factors are simply unknowns. Well never be able to accurately evaluate the whole volatile landscape of risk for a particular situation and come up with a number.

Taking charge of what you can

There will never be a situation where I can say to Debby: The risk is 1 in 20. And even if I could, Im not sure it would be helpful. Most people have a very hard time understanding probabilities they encounter every day, such as the chance that it will rain.

The statistical risk of a particular outcome doesnt address Debbys underlying question: Are we safe?

Nothing is entirely safe. If you want my professional opinion on whether its safe to walk down the sidewalk, I will have to say no. Bad things happen. I know someone who tore a tendon in her hand while putting a fitted sheet on a bed last week.

Its much more practical to ask: What can I do to reduce the risk?

Focusing on actions that reduce risk frees us from obsessing over unanswerable questions with useless answers so we can focus on what is within our control. I will never know precisely how risky Debbys tea is, but I do know how to make the risks smaller.

I suspect the question folks are really asking is: How can I manage the risks? I like this question better because it has an answer: You should do what you can. If its reasonable to wear a mask, wear one. Yes, even if it isnt required. If its reasonable to do an at-home antigen test before you see your vulnerable grandparents, do that. Get vaccinated and boosted. Tell your friends and family that you did, and why. Choose outdoor gatherings. Open a window.

Constantly assessing and reassessing risks has given many people decision fatigue. I feel that too. But you dont need to recalibrate risks of everything, every day, for every variant, because the strategies to reduce risk remain the same. Reducing risk even if its just a little bit is better than doing nothing.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read more:
It's Impossible to Determine Your Personal COVID-19 Risks and Frustrating to Try but You Can Still Take Action - GovExec.com