The Pitched Battle Over Streaming Content

At Apple's annual new products and devices event earlier this week, CEO Tim Cook told the crowd gathered at its Cupertino headquarters that the new Apple TV+ streaming service will be available for $4.99 per month. Consumers who buy a new iPad, iPhone or Apple laptop will receive a year of the subscription-based streaming video service for free. It was a shot across the bow at Disney, which recently announced at its D23 event in Anaheim, California, that the Disney+ streaming service will be available for $6.99 per month.

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Calling BS on Clueless Predictions by Musk and Ma

There was an interesting dialog between Elon Musk and Jack Ma last week. Two of the most powerful men in the world, they both have invested heavily in artificial intelligence. Ma, who is the Alibaba Group cofounder and a huge advocate for the 12-hour a day six-day Chinese work week in tech, indicated that he believed AI would reduce the work week from 72 hours, where it now is in China, to 12 hours -- that is, three 4-hour workdays. Both he and Musk then spoke about how future workers will have training pumped into their brains.

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YouTube as Political Influencer Takes the Spotlight

YouTube, which operates as one of Google's subsidiaries, is under increased scrutiny after a report earlier this month highlighted the role it played in the recent presidential election in Brazil. Among concerns is YouTube's installation of a new AI system that can track user behavior to suggest additional videos to watch. The goal arguably is not much different from the way newspapers offer links to other stories to keep users on a site so they see more ads. The concern is that YouTube directed users to "paranoid far-right rants."

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Technology Could End Mass Shootings

I'm tired of being upset about mass shootings and the government's seeming lack of progress to end them. I'm particularly tired of the partisan bickering around talking points that have no basis in fact. The left wants this to be about guns. The right wants to blame mental illness and video games. What is needed is deep analysis to look at the causes, craft a fact-based solution, and then implement it. To do that, an organization like the CDC needs to do an in-depth analysis of the problem, which the right effectively has blocked.

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Big Data: The Key Focus of a Data Scientist

Big data -- a term used with increasing frequency -- refers to the rafts of data that businesses collect on a day-to-day basis, both advertently and inadvertently. The number of avenues that data can be gathered from is always growing and becoming easier to access. By 2025, more than 150 trillion gigabytes of data will need analysis. But it's not the volume that matters, it's how businesses process and use the data that's important. Enter data scientists.

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Amazon Debuts Echo Show 5: Smaller, Cheaper, More Private

Amazon has announced the Echo Show 5 and is taking preorders. This third-generation Echo Show is called the "5" because it has a 5.5-inch diagonal display. he Echo Show 5 is available in the line's standard Charcoal and Sandstone colors. It is priced at $90. New Alexa routines are available on the Echo Show 5, such as a nighttime routine that turns off the bedroom lamp and begins playing soothing sounds. Users can personalize the Echo Show 5's home screen with a variety of new clock faces or a photo.

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GitHub Opens New Door to Financial Support for Open Source Devs

GitHub has made it easier for open source developers to garner financial support as recipients of paid sponsorships. GitHub Sponsors, launched in beta last week, is a new funding mechanism that enables open source users to make recurring payments, much like crowdfunding services such as Patreon and managed open source subscription services backed by creators and maintainers, like Tidelift. GitHub also launched the GitHub Sponsors Matching Fund to boost community funding efforts.

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Apple's New iPod Gets in Touch With Gamers

Apple has refreshed its iPod touch line of media players with a faster processor, greater storage capacity and improved communications features. The new iPod is built on Apple's A10 Fusion chip, the same processor used in the iPhone 7. According to Apple, the power upgrade delivers two times faster performance than previous models and three times better graphics. As with the last generation of iPods, introduced in 2015, there are 32-GB and 128-GB models. However, a new 256-GB version has joined the new lineup.

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How to Set Up Your Computer to Auto-Restart After a Power Outage

Aside from malware and viruses, nothing has the potential to be more dangerous to your computer's health than power outages. Here is how to ensure your computer keeps it boot on when a power failure turns the lights off. With the approach of the turbulent summer season, it is important to know what kills the electrical lifeline, how to safeguard your digital gear from fatal reboot disease, and how to reach the desktop when the computer refuses to restart. This knowledge is vital whether you work in a business office or in your own home office.

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Qualcomm and Huawei: Now Things Are Just Getting Weird

OK, so last week Qualcomm lost its seemingly no-lose case against the FTC, largely because it looks like the judge was only physically in the room during the trial. The ruling makes it look like she and I observed very different trials. In addition, the U.S. apparently declared war against Huawei, which actually could benefit Huawei. The result of both efforts effectively could be to give the 5G market to China. It's kind of like watching everyone decide to run naked with some really big scissors.

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T-Mobile-Sprint Merger Teeters Between FCC Approval, DoJ Rejection

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai this week gave the green light to a merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, currently the third- and fourth-largest mobile carriers respectively. The nation's top telecom regulator agreed to the $26 billion merger, but with some conditions -- the most notable being that Sprint would sell off its Boost Mobile prepaid cellphone brand. In addition, the combined firm would commit to deploying 5G network coverage to 97 percent of the country within three years, and to 99 percent of the country within six years.

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US Post Office to Test-Drive Autonomous Trucks

The U.S. Postal Service has announced a pilot project using self-driving trucks. It will conduct the two-week experiment in collaboration with TuSimple, an autonomous driving technology company based in San Diego. TuSimple's contract with the postal service calls for one of the company's self-driving trucks to make five round trips hauling USPS trailers between Dallas and Phoenix. Although the truck's operation will be automated, humans won't be left out of the picture entirely. A safety engineer and driver will be aboard.

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5G Could Mess With Accuracy of Weather Forecasts

Next-generation 5G mobile communications technology could have a harmful impact on weather forecasting in the United States, based on expert testimony presented before a U.S. House committee during a hearing on the future of weather forecasting. Interference from 5G wireless phones could reduce the accuracy of weather forecasts by 30 percent, said Neil Jacobs, Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere at NOAA. Jacobs made the remarks to members of the Environment Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

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The Rebirth of the Personal Computer

I went to Lenovo Accelerate last week and feasted my eyes on one of the most innovative PCs I've ever seen. However, as I absorbed the rest of Lenovo's announcements, I realized I was looking at just the tip of what could be a significant coming change in personal computers -- one that could eclipse every change we have seen so far. It is interesting that Lenovo is doing the old Jobs "one more thing" better than Apple is at the moment. Lenovo's "one more thing" is a coming foldable screen laptop.

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Budgeting Software Options to Keep Linux Users From Seeing Red

Budgeting apps come in all sizes and shapes. Budget apps for Linux are part of a software category that has been all but abandoned. But take heart. A number of Web-based solutions will more than meet your budget-tracking needs. If you still insist on finding a pure Linux-based application, do not mix the concept of open source with free. If you want an actual free budget program that works well with your flavor of Linux OS, a Web-based offering may your only option. A few of these non-Linux solutions are proprietary products.

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How Artificial Intelligence Is Reshaping the Workforce

Shoppers soon might see a lot more robots in Walmart stores -- but not toy robots or even human assistant gadgets that are available for purchase. Walmart's new robots will be taking over repeatable, predictable and manual tasks that up to now have been carried out by human employees. At Walmart stores, robots will scan shelf inventory and track boxes as part of the retail chain's inventory management. Walmart is hardly alone in deploying robots or artificial intelligence to handle these mundane tasks, however.

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Digging for Bitcoin Is a Labor of Love

It would have been reasonable for those attending Josh Bressers' session at CypherCon -- myself included -- to expect a presentation by a cryptocurrency expert. It was billed as a talk about plumbing the depths of the bitcoin blockchain. When Bressers admitted that his material grew out of a hobby, I was surprised. Still, the talk was far from disappointing. Instead, "Spelunking the Bitcoin Blockchain" offered a glimpse of the impact that "amateurs," in the best sense of the word, ultimately have on the development of cryptocurrencies.

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Zombieload, Fallout, and 2 Other CPU Flaws Have Intel on the Hop

The high-tech industry once again is in a tizzy over flaws discovered in Intel CPUs -- four new microarchitectural data sampling vulnerabilities. MDS is a sub-class of previously disclosed vulnerabilities that sample data leaked from small structures within the CPU using a locally executed speculative execution side channel. The four newly identified flaws: Zombieload, Fallout, CVE-2018-12127 and CVE-2018-11091. Zombieload, Fallout and CVE-2018-12127 have a medium severity rating, while CVE-2018-11091 is considered low severity.

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Software Bug Gives Spyware Free Rein With a Single WhatsApp Call

Many users of Facebook's WhatsApp messaging software are scrambling to patch the program in response to news of a flaw that allowed spyware to be installed on mobile phones running Android and iOS. "This new type of attack is deeply worrying and shows how even the most trusted mobile apps and platforms can be vulnerable," said Mike Campin, vice president of engineering at Wandera, a mobile security provider based in San Francisco. WhatsApp is used by 1.5 billion people worldwide, both on personal devices and corporate-issued devices.

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SCOTUS Greenlights Apple App Store Antitrust Lawsuit

The U.S. Supreme Court has given thumbs up for a class action antitrust lawsuit to proceed against Apple for alleged monopolistic practices at its App Store. In the case, Apple Inc. v. Pepper et al., the consumer plaintiffs maintain the company has monopolized the retail market for the sale of apps, and that it used its position to charge higher-than-competitive prices for the software it sells in its App Store. Apple tried to keep the case from advancing in the courts by arguing that it doesn't set the prices at the App Store.

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