We know that robots will take jobs from humans. (We will adapt.) But the one job that seemed safe has been religious leaders: ministers, priests, rabbis, etc. But wait. The Telegraph writes:
A 400-year-old temple in the deeply traditional Japanese city of Kyoto has unveiled a robotic deity to deliver Buddha’s teachings in a bid to reach younger generations of Japanese.
Looks like I was wrong. (Image credit: The Telegraph via Japan Times)
Facebook has made moves to remove anti-vaxxer content from its platform recently. However, it might not be the only place where such content is an issue. A report on Wired showed that anti-vaxxer films do very well on Amazon Prime too. Its “customers also watched” functionality means that once users have watched 1 anti-vax film, they can easily find more.
An Amazon Prime Video a search for “Vaccine” directs people to Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe – a pseudoscience documentary directed by Andrew Wakefield, a former doctor who, in 1998, released a fraudulent and widely-debunked paper asserting a link between the MMR vaccine and autism…Amazon’s “customers also watched” bar directs Vaxxed viewers to other pseudoscientific films with names such as Injecting Aluminum, Anthrax-Smallpox Vaccinations and the Mark of the Beast and Man Made Epidemic.
I’ll go on the record to say that, while I think foldable phones are interesting, I also think they are gimmicky and Apple doesn’t need to chase that trend. But in a new interview with Steve Wozniak, he says he wants a foldable iPhone.
“Apple has been a leader for quite a long time in a few areas such as touch ID, facial ID, and easy payment with the phone,” Wozniak said in a Bloomberg TV interview. “They’re not the leader in areas like the folding phone, and that worries me because I really want a folding phone.”
The promotion of Deirdre O’Brien to Senior Vice President of Retail and People following the announcement of Angela Ahrendts’ impending departure surprised a lot of people. Surely running Apple HR was a big enough job? How could anyone take on doing that and running retail too? A blog post from Dr. Drang from earlier in February, which has just come to my attention courtesy of Daring Fireball, explained it really well. Firstly, lots of people work in Apple retail, and secondly, SVPs at Apple have often had rather lose roles.
But if you look at Apple’s most recent Equal Employment Opportunity filing, you’ll see that Sales Workers make up 31% of Apple’s employee base. Only Professionals, a hair higher at 32%, beats it out, and no other employee category is even close. So a lot of Apple HR is already devoted to Retail. The duties of Apple’s top people have often been broad and seemingly unfocused.
Wall Street was surprised when Apple chose to partner with Goldman Sachs. According to a new article by WSJ, other financial institutions like Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase offered their services to Apple as well.
Goldman can’t do it on its own either. It is new to consumer banking, having spent most of its 150-year history catering to big companies and billionaires. Without branches, it needs other ways to find customers for its online savings and lending business. Apple, too, needs new engines of growth as iPhone sales slow.
Zac Hall reminds us that right before Apple announced the HomePod, Craig Federighi showed a slide of speakers that would support AirPlay 2. But where is the Beats AirPlay 2 speaker? It’s been two years and we haven’t seen it.
A Beats AirPlay 2 speaker would still need Wi-Fi though. Wi-Fi would be new to the current Beats lineup, but it wouldn’t be the first Bluetooth + Wi-Fi combo AirPlay 2 speaker. Libratone’s versatile Zipp speaker retroactively added AirPlay 2 support to its existing portable Wi-Fi + Bluetooth speakers last year.
1TB microSD cards are here, and it’s insane that the technology has reached this point. Western Digital, Samsung, and Micron have announced 1TB cards at Mobile World Congress.
The new SanDisk card can record with 90MB/S write speeds with up to 160MB/s read speeds. Western Digital says the card can transfer files with twice the speed of standard UHS-1 microSDs. That’s paired with 1TB of storage, designed to expand the memory of a smartphone or to manage large files in action cameras and drones. The card will also launch in a 512GB version.
14 members of Congress wrote to Apple CEO Tim Cook and his Google counterpart Sunder Pinchai, demanding their firms remove the Absher app. Insider published an investigation into the government-run app, reported on by TMO, earlier in February. It found that Absher has access to a database of women in the country. Men can use it to monitor the whereabouts of female relatives and even stop them leaving Saudi Arabia. The 14 representatives included Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Katherine Clark, and Jackie Speicer. Following the initial report, both Apple and Google said they would investigate Absher, but have since failed to comment.
In Thursday’s letter, the signatories said Google and Apple need to remove Absher as it “serves as [a] tracking device” used to “prevent the free movement of Saudi women.” They said: “Twenty-first-century innovations should not perpetuate sixteenth-century tyranny. “Keeping this application in your stores allows your companies and your American employees to be accomplices in the oppression of Saudi Arabian women and migrant workers,” the letter said.
World-renowned investor Warren Buffet said Monday that he is holding his Apple stake. However, the Berkshire Hathway founder told CNBC’s SquawkBox that his firm is not increasing its holding at the moment. He has previously said that his company “would love to see Apple go down” so it could buy the shares for a bargain price.
“If it were cheaper, we’d be buying it. We aren’t buying it here,” Buffett said in an interview with CNBC “Squawk Box” co-host Becky Quick. “I don’t see myself selling – the lower it goes, the better. I like it, obviously.” Buffett has made Apple a keystone of his expansive holdings and highlighted his own use of the company’s products. Buffett has made Apple a keystone of his expansive holdings and highlighted his own use of the company’s products. He said at his annual shareholders’ meeting in Omaha last May that “we would love to see Apple go down in price,” so he could buy more at a bargain.
Hot takes abound in the wake of a report from DigiDay about how publishers are frustrated with Apple News. One of the cited issues is a lack of user targeting, which is great for users. One problem I see with Apple News is that the rumored News subscription might reward clickbait. But privacy is a big reason why I use Apple News. I can put up with ads, but the less time I spend on publishers’ websites infested with trackers, popups and autoplaying videos, the better. I have my favorite sites I subscribe to, but I do it through Apple News so the companies can’t sell my credit card information.
And while publishers remain frustrated with Apple News as a source of revenue, some said they appreciate where Apple is coming from. “I respect Apple and that they believe in privacy,” one source said. “It just makes it incredibly challenging to sell there.”
Digital Trends writes: “Apple is on the cusp of launching a major new product: A TV viewing experience that is dizzying in scope, and unlike anything on the market. Much more than just a streaming service, Apple’s new vision hopes to encompass both live TV and on-demand video, and be accessible on virtually any screen.”
This article is the most comprehensive exploration of Apple’s new TV service yet published and rumored to be launched on March 25. It’s a must-read.
Meghan Moravcik Walbert writes how she introduced her son to podcasts and audiobooks with a streaming service called Pinna.
I’ve been wanting to introduce him to podcasts for some time. He’s the sort of kid who plays while he watches TV, so he tends to listen to a show more than fully watch the show. Plus, he loves to read and create his own comic books, so storytelling in general is something that he, like most kids, is very much into.
You can now get a limited edition rainbow Venmo card until supplies last. It will be available starting March 4.
We launched the Limited Edition rainbow card based on the positive response we received from our customers when we launched the initial set of six colorful cards. We know our users love to pick a card color that best suits their own personality and style, so the card design is inspired by many of our existing card colors and gives our users an even more vibrant option for their wallets and at checkout.
The card looks great and if I used Venmo I would totally get one.
Apple is set to ask the federal court to reconsider a case that resulted in it being told to pay VirnetX $439 million. A court in the Eastern District of Texas found Apple had infringed the internet software firm’s patents. Apple wants that case reconsidered. The legal battle between the two firms has been running since 2010. AppleInsider provided an update on the latest developments.
In a continuation of a long and costly legal battle between Apple and VirnetX, following its failure to convince the U.S. Court of Appeals that it should not have to pay a high cost for patent infringement, Apple is taking a new tactic in attempting to change the result. Rather than going to a higher court, Apple is asking for a reconsideration. According to Law360, Apple petitioned the entire Federal Circuit on Thursday to rehear a panel discussion that upheld the $439 million Eastern District of Texas jury verdict.
Netflix film Roma is hotly tipped in the best picture category Oscar at Sunday night’s Academy Awards. Were it to win, it would mark a significant moment for digital media in general, and Netflix in particular. Lucas Shaw wrote on Bloomberg News that it would be proof that the company has gone from being a techy outsider to Hollywood royalty. With increased investment in original content, it looks like a tech company will be winning an Oscar in the very near future.
“Roma” is the first nominee for best picture that was essentially a digital release — though it had a limited theatrical run — and Netflix would be the first technology company to clinch Hollywood’s top prize. Whether or not Netflix wins, an online movie will certainly be crowned best picture sooner or later, said Rich Greenfield, an analyst with BTIG LLC. Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. are both spending billions of dollars on programming, and even Walt Disney Co. plans to release digital movies that won’t appear in theaters.
An opinion piece by Farhad Manjoo caught my eye. He writes how, instead of Netflix exporting American culture, it shares international culture with everyone.
Despite a supposed surge in nationalism across the globe, many people like to watch movies and TV shows from other countries. “What we’re learning is that people have very diverse and eclectic tastes, and if you provide them with the world’s stories, they will be really adventurous, and they will find something unexpected,” Cindy Holland, Netflix’s vice president for original content, told me.
Mr. Manjoo also mentions the difference between Netflix and other tech companies. Netflix sells subscriptions, not advertising. I think this is an important difference, in case foreigners get a negative impression from our typically garish ads.
Facebook is shutting down its Onavo spyware VPN and associated “research” app. That is, if you believe anything Facebook says.
To preempt any more scandals around Onavo and the Facebook Research app and avoid Google stepping in to forcibly block the apps, Facebook is now taking Onavo off the Play Store and stopping recruitment of Research testers. That’s a surprising voluntary move that perhaps shows Facebook is finally getting in tune with the public perception of its shady actions.
Eh, I wouldn’t go that far. Not with Facebook blaming users when it screws them over.
Some mobile phone carriers just can’t help themselves. They’re constantly fiddling with nomenclature to influence customers and gain a competitive edge. Wired writes:
AT&T is engaging in a marketing ploy—one it has used in the past. The 5GE symbol really means a phone is using advanced LTE technology, which is available on other carriers and is slower than the 10-gigabyte speeds 5G promises. When the company introduces actual 5G tech, it plans to call it 5G+ instead. Sprint is suing AT&T over the nomenclature, alleging it constitutes deceptive advertising.
LONDON – The tech community in the UK have raised a number of concerns about what will happen when the country leaves the EU. They have fears around being able to hire talent and data storage laws. However, Wired summed reported that London could still remain the VC Capital of Europe, even after Brexit.
London will remain the VC capital of Europe. According to KPMG, more than twice as much venture capital was deployed in the UK as in Germany in the third quarter of 2018. London remains the obvious location for international funds seeking a European HQ, as SoftBank’s presence in the UK testifies. Since the referendum, top Silicon Valley funds have led large investments in globally ambitious UK companies, from Sequoia’s $50m funding of Graphcore to Greylock’s investment in my own firm, Entrepreneur First. The British Business Bank – Britain’s state-owned bank tasked with providing credit for small and medium businesses – is flush with new cash, and has picked up much of the slack left by the European Investment Fund.
Although 5G is barely out the door when it comes to adoption, President Trump isn’t satisfied. He tweeted that he wants 6G.
I want 5G, and even 6G, technology in the United States as soon as possible. It is far more powerful, faster, and smarter than the current standard. American companies must step up their efforts, or get left behind. There is no reason that we should be lagging behind on………
Isabella Kwai has “disturbingly agile millennial thumbs” because she prefers to use Apple Notes instead of pen and paper. Ms. Kwai is a New York Times reporter and writes about her technology.
I still keep a notebook on hand that I’ll occasionally use. But to be honest, I have atrocious handwriting, and deciphering it is arduous. Instead, I use the Notes app. I find it easier to write up thoughts and notes that way — though once, it did freak out a source, who asked me how I was able to type and look her in the eye. (Disturbingly agile millennial thumbs is how.)
I love reading about the tech other people use in their work and personal lives. I’m a big user of Apple Notes with close to 1,000 notes, although my thumbs aren’t very agile.
The much-discussed Apple car could actually turn out to be an electric van. That is according to a report in German publication Manager Magazin, picked up by Reuters. Apple engineers are reportedly working on an interior for the vehicle. Apple itself refused to comment on the speculation. The revelation about a potential electric van came Thursday, a day after Apple released a White Paper for drivers testing its automated vehicles.
Manager Magazin, citing multiple unnamed sources, said that prototypes painted in black and silver had been seen. The report, which did not provide further details, said that engineers at Apple’s Cupertino, California-headquarters were now working on the interior.
Israel is preparing to launch its first mission to the moon. The privately funded Beresheet robot will launch from Cape Canaveral on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The aim is that the rocket will land and then hop across the moon’s surface, remaining operating for around 2 days, according to a BBC News report.
The 1.5m-high, 585kg Beresheet will begin its mission with a ride to Earth orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Once ejected from this vehicle, the robot will then use its British-built engine to propel itself to the Moon. The journey will take over two months to complete. SpaceIL, the non-profit behind the project, hopes Beresheet (“In the beginning” in Hebrew) will prove an inspiration to all those who follow its progress.
By using Apple Pay you can save US$5 off two Fandango tickets just in time to watch the Oscars.
During the checkout process, enter the code APPLEGOLD and use Apple Pay to complete your order. This will take $5 off your movie tickets, and you have until February 24 to use the promo code.
You’ll have to buy two or more tickets in a single transaction in the Fandango app or on its website in order to get the discount.
