Windows 10's inquiring minds: How Hello and Cortana get to know you very, very well | PCWorld

I'm guessing the "Scroogled" campaign won't resume anytime soon

"Keep in mind, however, that whatever data you give Cortana, stays with Cortana. And Cortana wants everything: “your device location, data from your calendar, the apps you use, data from your emails and text messages, who you call, your contacts and how often you interact with them on your device,” according to Microsoft. “Cortana also learns about you by collecting data about how you use your device and other Microsoft services, such as your music, alarm settings, whether the lock screen is on, what you view and purchase, your browse and Bing search history, and more.”

Microsoft portrays all this data-gathering as beneficial. For example, any favorite teams you specify in the MSN Sports app will be showcased in the Cortana summary screen. Some benefits are less obvious: Choosing to sign into Facebook within Cortana allows Microsoft to access certain Facebook information so that Cortana and Bing can give you more personalized recommendations, according to Microsoft."

Windows 10's inquiring minds: How Hello and Cortana get to know you very, very well | PCWorld

Honda Accord 2016 first to have Apple CarPlay - Fortune

For bigger-picture analysis of Apple's car strategy, see Understanding Apple’s Car Strategy (Tech.pinions); also see Get an early look at VW's new Android Auto, Apple CarPlay-ready dashboard (CNet) as, tangentially, VW overtakes Toyota as world's biggest carmaker (Reuters)

"Many other cars, like Chevrolet, Ford and Nissan will offer Apple CarPlay, but Accord is first of the mass-market vehicles (after Ferrari) to come market to it.

The new software from Apple projects certain popular apps from Apple iPhones on the dashboard’s seven-inch display, via cable, allowing a driver to text, call, send email, navigate or fiddle with tunes while keeping hands on the wheel and eyes on the road."

Honda Accord 2016 first to have Apple CarPlay - Fortune

In a giant’s shadow: LinkedIn and Twitter 2015-07-31 | Espresso

Check the full post for recent Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn revenue and monthly active user data; Facebook casts a very big shadow; also see Why Investors Dumped LinkedIn Shares After It Beat Estimates (Forbes)

"What can the also-rans do? Twitter’s founder and interim boss, Jack Dorsey, apparently pitching for the permanent job, stresses reinventing the product rather than chasing revenue. LinkedIn is diversifying: it has bought Lynda.com, an online learning service. Having previously made efforts to imitate Facebook, both are now trying to get out of its shadow."

In a giant’s shadow: LinkedIn and Twitter 2015-07-31 | Espresso

Google Street View Soon to Picture Local Pollution, Too - Scientific American

A different kind of street view

"The San Francisco Bay Area will soon see Google Street View vehicles that not only take snapshots of its streets but also capture snapshots of the air quality in neighborhoods they pass. Google and Aclima, a San Francisco-based air sensor technology developer, announced Tuesday that they are partnering to introduce air quality sensor-enabled Street View cars in the Bay Area, and in the future in other cities.

“We want to understand how cities live and breathe in an entirely new way,” said Davida Herzl, co-founder and CEO of Aclima. This endeavor to bring air quality monitoring closer to the people using a mobile platform has generated interest among both scientists and regulators."

Google Street View Soon to Picture Local Pollution, Too - Scientific American

Get Ready For A New Apple TV In September - BuzzFeed News

Watch this space

"Sources familiar with Apple’s plans tell BuzzFeed News that the company intends to announce its next-generation Apple TV in September, at the same event at which it typically unveils its new iPhones. The device itself is pretty much as we described it to you in March, sources say, but “more polished” after some additional tweaks. Expect a refreshed and slimmer chassis and new innards; Apple’s A8 system on chip; a new remote that sources say has been “drastically improved” by a touch-pad input; an increase in on-board storage; and an improved operating system that will support Siri voice control. Crucially, the new Apple TV will debut alongside a long-awaited App Store and the software development kit developers need to populate it."

Get Ready For A New Apple TV In September - BuzzFeed News

Virtual Reality Metaverses Look Past Second Life to VR-Driven Future | Re/code

From an extensive VR reality check

"A perfect metaverse, then, is more than just a video game or an application. Like a Web browser, or an operating system, it would offer users a means to do many things, and likely pay for them in many ways. That’s the Big Idea — that VR would be as transformative to the Internet as the World Wide Web — and it’s why so many companies are testing the waters. If one or more of them can crack it, they would unlock a great deal of virtual reality’s long-term potential.

Emphasis on long-term. Let’s meet the companies and see what they’re up to now."

Virtual Reality Metaverses Look Past Second Life to VR-Driven Future | Re/code

Report: New version of Google Glass being “quietly distributed” to workplaces | Ars Technica

Glass at Work updates; a consumer version is reportedly still planned for the future

"The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google Glass is back! Google is "quietly distributing" a new version of the wearable eyepieces "exclusively" to businesses, where the company hopes it will be received better than it was in the consumer market. The report says that Google "doesn’t plan to officially launch the new version" but hopes to have businesses using it by fall this year.

The new version reportedly has quite a few upgrades over the consumer version. For starters, the unit is finally hinged, allowing it to be folded up just like a real pair of glasses. It's got a new Intel processor, a larger, thinner display prism, improved wireless connectivity, and vertical prism adjustment, as well as horizontal. It also has an external battery back now, for all-day business use."

Report: New version of Google Glass being “quietly distributed” to workplaces | Ars Technica

A Facebook Project to Beam Data From Drones Is a Step Closer to Flight - The New York Times

Tangentially, see Google Loon To Cover Entire Country Of Sri Lanka With Internet (TechCrunch)

"Facebook has moved several steps closer to fulfilling its grand ambition of building an Internet network in the sky, announcing on Thursday that it has built its first unmanned drone and found a way to vastly increase the capacity of the lasers that will eventually beam data between the drone network and the ground."

A Facebook Project to Beam Data From Drones Is a Step Closer to Flight - The New York Times

Windows 10 tested: How performance on the new operating system compares to Windows 8 - CNET

Final paragraphs of yet another better living through lowered expectations Windows 10 review

"The upshot is that computer owners upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 8 (and presumably Windows 7) should expect to get the same level of performance out of their machines that they do now, and should also expect to make the transition smoothly, without losing access to data, files, applications or otherwise crippling their PCs.

In previous Windows OS cycles, this was not always the case, and our recommendation in the past has been to wait until you buy a new computer to get the newest version of Windows. For Windows 10, based on our testing to date, that caveat is no longer required."

Windows 10 tested: How performance on the new operating system compares to Windows 8 - CNET

Turing Award-Winner Stonebraker On The Future Of Taming Big Data - Forbes

Excerpt from an extensive Michael Stonebraker interview/profile

"Is there a future beyond the future defined by the three startups Stonebraker is currently involved with? “Right now I’m not interested in starting any more companies,” Stonebraker says flatly. But then he adds: “If I had more bandwidth, it would be what I’m working on at MIT right now, what we call Polystores.”

Again, this is an age-old problem, tackled before with the not-too-successful concept of “federated” databases. Today, it’s an extension and expansion (in my opinion) of the Big Variety problem, what happens after the data has been “curated” (cleaned and integrated). Following his strong convictions about the advantages of special-purpose databases and given the proliferation of not just sources of data but also data types, Stonebraker suggests that “it makes sense to load the curated data into multiple DBMSs. For example, the structured data into an RDBMS, the real-time data into a stream processing engine, the historical archive into an array engine, the text into Lucene, and the semi-structured data into a JSON system.”"

Turing Award-Winner Stonebraker On The Future Of Taming Big Data - Forbes

Research Blog: How Google Translate squeezes deep learning onto a phone

Check the full post for details; available for Android and iOS

"Today we announced that the Google Translate app now does real-time visual translation of 20 more languages. So the next time you’re in Prague and can’t read a menu, we’ve got your back. But how are we able to recognize these new languages?

In short: deep neural nets. When the Word Lens team joined Google, we were excited for the opportunity to work with some of the leading researchers in deep learning. Neural nets have gotten a lot of attention in the last few years because they’ve set all kinds of records in image recognition. Five years ago, if you gave a computer an image of a cat or a dog, it had trouble telling which was which. Thanks to convolutional neural networks, not only can computers tell the difference between cats and dogs, they can even recognize different breeds of dogs. Yes, they’re good for more than just trippy art—if you're translating a foreign menu or sign with the latest version of Google's Translate app, you're now using a deep neural net. And the amazing part is it can all work on your phone, without an Internet connection. Here’s how."

Research Blog: How Google Translate squeezes deep learning onto a phone

Office Mobile apps for Windows 10 are here! - Office Blogs

"Windows 10 tablets and small screen devices" catch up to Office for Android and iOS, with the latest native Office apps ("small" means <= 10.1 inches)

"The Office Mobile apps—Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote—are built from the ground up for touch, offer the familiar experience that Office customers expect, and deliver the capabilities people need for on-the-go productivity on Windows 10 tablets and small screen devices. Across each of the apps, customers will appreciate full fidelity viewing of their Office documents, knowing edits and changes made on any device will render perfectly across all their devices. Tightly integrated with OneDrive, the Office Mobile apps are fully cloud connected, making it easy to access your documents from anywhere, pick up where you last left off, and co-author with others on documents and projects. Your docs are now automatically saved for you, ensuring you won’t lose a change and that others can see your edits as you work together. And there are new intelligent features, like Tell Me, that make it easier for you to do what you want in fewer steps."

Office Mobile apps for Windows 10 are here! - Office Blogs

Can the Insurance Industry Survive Driverless Cars? - Bloomberg Business

Another business domain poised for disruption via automation

"The auto insurance industry is having its Napster moment. Like record companies at the dawn of online music file sharing, Allstate, Geico, State Farm, and others are grappling with innovations that could put a huge dent in their revenue. As carmakers automate more aspects of driving, accidents will likely plunge and car owners will need less coverage. Premiums consumers pay could drop as much as 60 percent in 15 years as self-driving cars hit the roads, says Donald Light, head of the North America property and casualty practice for Celent, a research firm. His message for insurers: “You have to be prepared to see that part of your business shrink, probably considerably.”"

Can the Insurance Industry Survive Driverless Cars? - Bloomberg Business

Facebook Revenue Beats Forecast as User Growth Is Steady - The New York Times

More Facebook friends on Wall Street; also see Zuckerberg to Wall Street: Be Patient, Big Things Take Time (BloombergBusiness)

"Drama may be exciting, but consistency makes for better performance in the stock market.

Facebook reported second-quarter revenue and profits on Wednesday that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations. More important, the company has maintained steady growth in both revenue and users — a feat that has eluded smaller social networking companies like Twitter and Yelp, which both warned of dim outlooks this week and had their stock prices plunge."

Facebook Revenue Beats Forecast as User Growth Is Steady - The New York Times

With Windows 10, Microsoft has the right stuff | BetaBoston

More tepid praise for Windows not-8

"There are a bunch more welcome additions, along with a few glitches. Some Windows 10 apps seem primitive and buggy, and Cortana has a bad habit of randomly activating itself at odd moments. But there’s not a deal-killer in sight, and nothing brown oozing from the tap. With Windows 10, Microsoft’s in the clear."

With Windows 10, Microsoft has the right stuff | BetaBoston

HubSpot fires marketing chief, sanctions CEO over incident involving book about the company | BetaBoston

Not yet available for preorder, but apparently a must-read book, at least for HubSpot employees...

"HubSpot, one of the area’s hottest tech firms, fired its top marketing executive for attempting to obtain a draft of a forthcoming book about the company apparently written by a former employee and billed as his “Misadventure in the Startup Bubble.”
[...]
The book is likely thought to be the work of Dan Lyons, a former journalist who worked in a marketing position at HubSpot until December. In addition to writing screenplays scripts for “Silicon Valley,” an the HBO series that spoofed spoofing the tech-startup culture, Lyons previously penned the wildly popular blog, Fake Steve Jobs, which parodied the co-founder of the Apple cofounder Steve Jobs before his illness and death as a vulgar, self-righteous, and power-hungry executive impatient with others’ stupidity."

HubSpot fires marketing chief, sanctions CEO over incident involving book about the company | BetaBoston

Windows 10 review: Hold off if you use Windows 7 | InfoWorld

Looks like it's going to be a long summer for the Windows PR team; also see Windows 10 Launches Today. But We're Still Waiting For the Important Stuff (Wired)

"But the question is not whether Windows 10 is a good upgrade for Windows 8 users -- obviously, it is. The real question is whether Windows 10 deserves to supplant Windows 7. Despite substantial new functionality in Windows 10, Windows 7 users should wait until the upgrade train brings more improvements.

Many of the new features of Windows 10 do not seem ready for prime time, including the greatly modified Start menu with live tiles, the new Edge browser, Cortana, and the Continuum method of switching between mouse and touchscreen control. They all work well enough, yet they all lack key capabilities. The lesser tile-based Windows apps vary in quality from good (Mail, Calendar) to passable (Photos, Phone Companion) to barely breathing placeholders (People, Groove Music, Movies & TV)."

Windows 10 review: Hold off if you use Windows 7 | InfoWorld

Google Search Now Shows You When Local Businesses Are Busiest | TechCrunch

tbd if/when Google will suggest alternatives for busy places, a la Waze driving routes

"After performing a search for a business on Google, then clicking the title to see details like its address, phone number and open hours, for example, Google will also now show you “popular times” for the business in question. This data, meant to highlight when the business is at its busiest, is accompanied by a bar chart that you can scroll through day by day.

The company explains that this sort of information can be especially useful for those who are trying to avoid long lines – like when you’re heading out to grab a coffee, doing some grocery shopping, or wanting to hit the gym. The idea is that you can better plan your time by avoiding businesses during their “rush hours” whenever possible."

Google Search Now Shows You When Local Businesses Are Busiest | TechCrunch

Walt Mossberg Reviews Microsoft Windows 10 | Re/code

Also see Microsoft Plays Catch-Up With Its New Web Browser, Edge (Re/code)

"However, it’s just okay, not disruptive. It’s perhaps what Windows 8 might have looked like if it had been evolutionary, not revolutionary. I doubt it will convert many Mac owners, spur a shopping spree in new PCs, bring in droves of new developers, or save the Windows Phone.

And I advise would-be upgraders who aren’t enthusiasts to wait to upgrade at least for a few months, until the product is more stable and reliable.

Microsoft says that Windows will now be treated as a “service,” with frequent small updates to quash bugs and add features. So this may be the last release of Windows with a formal new name."

Walt Mossberg Reviews Microsoft Windows 10 | Re/code

China-Tied Hackers That Hit U.S. Said to Breach United Airlines - Bloomberg Business

Tangentially, see How Many Times Has Your Personal Information Been Exposed to Hackers? (NYT)

"It’s increasingly clear, security experts say, that China’s intelligence apparatus is amassing a vast database. Files stolen from the federal personnel office by this one China-based group could allow the hackers to identify Americans who work in defense and intelligence, including those on the payrolls of contractors. U.S. officials believe the group has links to the Chinese government, people familiar with the matter have said.
That data could be cross-referenced with stolen medical and financial records, revealing possible avenues for blackmailing or recruiting people who have security clearances. In all, the China-backed team has hacked at least 10 companies and organizations, which include other travel providers and health insurers, says security firm FireEye Inc."

China-Tied Hackers That Hit U.S. Said to Breach United Airlines - Bloomberg Business

Twitter Revenue Up 61%, but User Growth Lags - The New York Times

Back to the drawing board -- perhaps another "frat party" would help; also see After Killing Twitter Stock Gain, Dorsey Wins Praise (BloombergBusiness)

"Twitter’s stock fell as much as 11 percent in after-hours trading, as Mr. Dorsey and Anthony Noto, Twitter’s chief financial officer, laid out the challenges still facing the company.

“What shocked the stock after hours is that despite all of the product improvements, people were less active now than they were seven months ago,” said Richard Greenfield, an analyst with BTIG Research. “Engagement is falling despite all of the changes they made.”"

Twitter Revenue Up 61%, but User Growth Lags - The New York Times

Windows 10 Review: A Welcome Upgrade, Perhaps Too Late - WSJ

From an extensive review of Windows not-8

"Windows is actually useful again—assuming you still rely on a PC. These days we’re spending more of our time on smartphones and Web browsers, and it’s Microsoft’s burden to keep evolving Windows to stay relevant to that reality.

Alas, Windows 10 also misses opportunities to tip things in its favor. Its idea of Internet savvy is shoehorning in lots of new ways to get you to use Bing, Microsoft’s unpopular search engine.

But at least this time, Microsoft doesn’t let its existential crisis get in the way of important improvements. Three months of testing Windows 10 determined that this familiar yet fresh overhaul far outweighs any problems."

Windows 10 Review: A Welcome Upgrade, Perhaps Too Late - WSJ

Meet Windows 10, a Throwback With Upgrades in Software and Security - The New York Times

No Windows 10 for me, despite today being the big launch day; I'm blocked by a Parallels driver incompatibility on my Mac, and my last remaining Windows PC, running Windows 8.1 with all updates, is inexplicably unable to "reserve" Windows 10

"Combine the early bugs with the spottiness of Cortana and the fact that third-party app developers are still updating their Windows apps for Windows 10, and the operating system still has a little ways to go before it becomes a solid all-around upgrade. But the improvements to security, along with the familiar user interface, should be reasons to grab this upgrade sooner than later (especially if you’re on Windows 7 and lacking up-to-date security tools). The upgrade will be free for up to a year — after that, Microsoft may begin charging for it."

Meet Windows 10, a Throwback With Upgrades in Software and Security - The New York Times

The Windows 10 Hardware Argument | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

Check the full post for a list of reasons to consider a new PC with Windows 10; also see New Windows Upgrade Will Bring Scant Relief to Ailing PC Market (BloombergBusiness)

"As a result, the PC industry is clamoring for something that will help reinvigorate it and drive new sales. In the past, a new Windows OS release was generally cause for celebration in the PC hardware and component business because it typically drove solid boosts in shipments—not always right away, but definitely within a year or so of it release.
This time around, however, things could be different. Microsoft has made it clear that Windows 10 will be completely free for one year after its release to anyone owning a PC running a legitimate copy of Windows 7 or Windows 8. Because of this, some industry watchers are presuming that instead of buying new PCs—as they’ve typically done with major OS transitions in the past—many people will simply upgrade their existing PCs."

The Windows 10 Hardware Argument | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

Now Available – Amazon Aurora | AWS Official Blog

A new chapter in cloud DBMS competition

"We announced Amazon Aurora last year at AWS re:Invent (see Amazon Aurora – New Cost-Effective MySQL-Compatible Database Engine for Amazon for more info).  With storage replicated both within and across three Availability Zones, along with an update model driven by quorum writes, Amazon Aurora is designed to deliver high performance and 99.99% availability while easily and efficiently scaling to up to 64 TB of storage.

In the nine months since that announcement, a host of AWS customers have been putting Amazon Aurora through its paces.  As they tested a wide variety of table configurations, access patterns, and queries on Amazon Aurora, they provided us with the feedback that we needed to have in order to fine-tune the service. Along the way, they verified that each Amazon Aurora instance is able to deliver on our performance target of up to 100,000 writes and 500,000 reads per second, along with a price to performance ratio that is 5 times better than previously available."

Now Available – Amazon Aurora | AWS Official Blog

Google Gives Up on Google+ as a Facebook Rival - Digits - WSJ

Another take on (Google+)--; must be about time for Google to acquire Twitter and/or Flipboard; tangentially, see Twitter Investors Brace for Crummy Q2 Earnings (Re/code)

"It’s been a slow death, but the mourning may now commence.

Google put the final nail in the coffin of its ambition to make Google+ a real competitor to Facebook, Twitter and other leading social networks.

Brad Horowitz, who took the reins of Google+ earlier this year , said Monday that users will no longer need a Google+ account to engage with others on Google products. Instead, any Google email or account will do."

Google Gives Up on Google+ as a Facebook Rival - Digits - WSJ

Musk, Hawking Warn of Artificial Intelligence Weapons - Digits - WSJ

See the full letter and signatory list here

"Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, Tesla Motors Inc. founder Elon Musk and Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak are among the signatories of a letter presented today calling for a ban on autonomous weapons. The missive, unveiled by the Future of Life Institute at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Argentina, labels autonomous weapons “the third revolution in warfare,” following gunpowder and nuclear arms.

“If any major military power pushes ahead with AI weapon development, a global arms race is virtually inevitable, and the endpoint of this technological trajectory is obvious: autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow,” says the letter, which includes Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn and prominent linguist Noam Chomsky as endorsers . “Unlike nuclear weapons, they require no costly or hard-to-obtain raw materials, so they will become ubiquitous and cheap for all significant military powers to mass-produce.”"

Musk, Hawking Warn of Artificial Intelligence Weapons - Digits - WSJ

The World Wide Web, the New Frontier in Fraud - The New York Times

Final paragraphs

"We have become accustomed to hearing about computer network attacks and identity theft involving a number of different companies. And the controversy about Bitcoin being involved for illegal transactions is nothing new.

Yet, unlike other types of white-collar crime such as insider trading, prosecutors are struggling to even identify suspects behind these attacks, let alone preventing them from being so profitable.

In the Old West, it was a matter of chasing down train robbers like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Today, it requires penetrating the layers of secrecy provided by the Internet and countries that encourage bank secrecy. It is easy to see that a crime has taken place, but getting the robbers is more difficult than ever."

The World Wide Web, the New Frontier in Fraud - The New York Times

Microsoft, Apple, Google, others pledge $140B toward Obama’s climate initiative - Puget Sound Business Journal

Check this White House fact sheet for more details

"Microsoft is joining Google, Apple and other large corporations in pledging to spend $140 billion to help address climate change as part of an initiative lead by President Barack Obama.
Microsoft and a dozen other companies, which also including Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy and Goldman Sachs, have signed Obama’s American Business Act on Climate, agreeing to invest billions of dollars to reduce their carbon footprints."

Microsoft, Apple, Google, others pledge $140B toward Obama’s climate initiative - Puget Sound Business Journal

Official Google Blog: Everything in its right place

Looks like the Google+ strategy tax has officially ended; check the link below and this post for more details, along with lively Google+ comment threads

"Google+ is quickly becoming a place where people engage around their shared interests, with the content and people who inspire them. In line with that focus, we’re continuing to add new features like Google+ Collections, where you can share and enjoy posts organized by the topics you care about. At the same time, we’ll also move some features that aren’t essential to an interest-based social experience out of Google+. For example, many elements of Google+ Photos have been moved into the new Google Photos app, and we’re well underway putting location sharing into Hangouts and other apps, where it really belongs. We think changes like these will lead to a more focused, more useful, more engaging Google+."

Official Google Blog: Everything in its right place

Hey Google, it's time for a real cloud strategy | InfoWorld

From a timely Google-in-the-enterprise reality check

"Yet where the heck is Google? The company doesn’t break out its cloud revenue at all. Microsoft and IBM aren't terribly transparent on this score, either, but according to last week's Q2 estimate from Synergy Research Group, each make more money from cloud infrastructure services than Google. After all, they have the leverage to push big existing enterprise customers to their clouds. By contrast, the vast majority of Google Cloud Platform customers appears to be cloud startups. The biggest success stories are SnapChat and Khan Academy, both built on the Google App Engine PaaS.

You can certainly argue that revenue doesn’t mean much yet because we’re still at an early stage in the cloud. What you should study now -- whether you’re a customer or simply handicapping this race -- is the viability of the strategy going forward. That’s where I wonder about Google even more."

Hey Google, it's time for a real cloud strategy | InfoWorld

New Windows Upgrade Will Bring Scant Relief to Ailing PC Market - Bloomberg Business

From a PC market dynamics reality check

"The PC market hasn’t expanded since peaking in 2011 at 363.8 million units, according to IDC. Last year, 308.2 million PCs were shipped, making the PC market less than a fifth the size of the smartphone market.
From Windows 10’s debut on July 29, the PC market will decline 2 percent in the following 12-month period, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence analysis of IDC projections. Compare that with Windows 7’s launch in 2009, when PC shipments rose 18 percent. Even 2007’s Windows Vista -- a troubled release that many customers avoided -- was followed by a year in which shipments rose 17 percent. More recently, they declined 10 percent in the year after Windows 8, whose radical design overhaul was panned by many users, went on sale in 2012."

New Windows Upgrade Will Bring Scant Relief to Ailing PC Market - Bloomberg Business

Google Student Blog: Q&A with Chris Urmson, Head of the Self-Driving Car Project

First topic in a wide-ranging Q&A

"Q: Why is Google working on self-driving cars?
A: Because we’ve always looked for ways that technology can change the world. More than a million people worldwide die each year in traffic accidents—94% of which are caused by human error. If we can solve this, it will prevent the majority of traffic-related deaths and injuries, and also help the millions of people who are unable to drive because of disabilities."

Google Student Blog: Q&A with Chris Urmson, Head of the Self-Driving Car Project

Tony Fadell: What will Google's $3.2bn guru do next? - BBC News

Excerpt from a wide-ranging interview summary

"But in January, it became clear that Google's chief executive, Larry Page, had wider uses for his hardware expertise, and the troubled Glass computer was added to his duties.
"It wasn't handed to me and said, 'Tony clean it up,'" Mr Fadell clarifies, "I offered."
"I remember what it was like when we did the iPod and the iPhone. I think this can be that important, but it's going to take time to get it right.""

Tony Fadell: What will Google's $3.2bn guru do next? - BBC News

For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills - The New York Times

Sign of the times, as is, tangentially, Winklevoss twins get closer to launching their bitcoin exchange (Engadget)

"In the old days, criminals liked their ransom payments in briefcases full of unmarked bills.

These days, there’s a new preferred method for hostage takers: the virtual currency Bitcoin.

In a modern day version of a mob shakedown, hackers around the world have seized files on millions of computers, taken down public websites and even, in a few cases, threatened physical harm. The victims — who have ranged from ordinary computer users to financial firms and police departments — are told that their only way out is through a Bitcoin payment that is sometimes more than $20,000."

For Ransom, Bitcoin Replaces the Bag of Bills - The New York Times

Official Google Blog: Neon prescription... or rather, New transcription for Google Voice

Getting the message

"You may have been there before...open your voicemail transcriptions in Google Voice to find that at times they aren’t completely intelligible. Or, they are humorously intelligible. Either way, they might not have been the message the caller meant to leave you.

So, we asked users if they would kindly share some of their voicemails for research and system improvements. Thanks to those who participated, we are happy to announce an improved voicemail system in Google Voice and Project Fi that delivers more accurate transcriptions. Using a (deep breath) long short-term memory deep recurrent neural network (whew!), we cut our transcription errors by 49%."

Official Google Blog: Neon prescription... or rather, New transcription for Google Voice

Comcast has finally become an Internet-first company - The Washington Post

To Xfinity and beyond

"Comcast may have begun as a television provider that later tacked on an Internet business, but now those positions have finally reversed: The company now has more broadband customers than it does TV subscribers.

The margin is slim, about 22.5 million Internet subscribers to 22.3 million video customers. But the flip, which was reported in Comcast's latest earnings, provides further evidence that Internet access, not traditional television, represents the industry's future."

Comcast has finally become an Internet-first company - The Washington Post

Google Has Way to Unclog Drone-Filled Skies Like It Did the Web - Bloomberg Business

Name tbd; "Skynet" is already taken...

"Many will attend a NASA-sponsored conference next week on how it should work. The goal is to eventually create a fully automated robotic ballet in the sky, with computers instructing drones to move around obstructions and each other.
Whether the system will be privately or publicly run -- or even if it will be a single system -- hasn’t been decided.
To the winners will go a foothold in an emerging multibillion-dollar economy of unmanned flying machines. That’s helped attract venture capital firms like Accel Partners, Intel Corp.’s investment arm and Millennium Technology Value Partners."

Google Has Way to Unclog Drone-Filled Skies Like It Did the Web - Bloomberg Business

Now Coming to E-Sports: Random Drug Testing - Digits - WSJ

tbd how much this will impact Adderall sales; also see Drug Testing Is Coming to E-Gaming (NYT); tangentially, see The company behind the coffee with butter craze just raised $9 million to open up its first coffee shop (Business Insider)

"The Electronic Sports League, a company that organizes e-sports competitions world-wide, said Thursday it soon will start randomly testing players for use of performance-enhancing drugs at many of the hundreds of events it runs annually.

ESL said it will test for drugs prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency, including the active agent in Adderall, a substance that a former professional gamer recently claimed to have used in a tournament. ESL, which says it has always banned performance-enhancing drug use, doesn’t plan to investigate claims of past use but says it takes the matter seriously."

Now Coming to E-Sports: Random Drug Testing - Digits - WSJ

Amazon Reports Unexpected Profit, and Stock Soars - The New York Times

A multifaceted milestone quarter for Amazon

"The e-commerce company beloved by Wall Street for its fast-growing ways did something completely out of character in the second quarter: It made a profit.

It was only $92 million, practically a rounding error for Google or Apple. But it confirmed all the hopes and expectations of analysts and investors, who immediately pushed Amazon shares up 17 percent in after-hours trading Thursday to $566.

The surge added another $40 billion or so to Amazon’s market cap. That will almost assuredly propel it to be more valuable than Walmart for the first time when the stock market opens Friday, making this a deeply symbolic moment for e-commerce and the Internet. It is also a nice present for Amazon, which celebrated its 20th birthday last week."

Amazon Reports Unexpected Profit, and Stock Soars - The New York Times

Patent Reveals New Apple TV Remote with Touch ID Controller that Extends to Home Automation - Patently Apple

Check the full post for detailed analysis

"Today, more proof of Apple using Apple TV as an in-home automation hub came to light. The emphasis of Apple's latest invention is about a new Apple TV remote with integrated Touch ID. It will allow users to quickly enter a channel like Netflix without having to key in a password and allow only authorized family members to make purchases on iTunes. But more importantly, Apple describes the remote being able to be used to interact with home automation features and appliances."

Patent Reveals New Apple TV Remote with Touch ID Controller that Extends to Home Automation - Patently Apple

In Apple Watch Debut, Signs of a Familiar Path to Success - The New York Times

Final paragraph from another Apple Watch reality check

"What’s more, bit-by-bit improvements are part of Apple’s modus operandi. We saw it with the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. After creating something new, the company continually adds small new features over time. Over a few years, this turns an initial burst of interest about Apple’s newest thing into a long-term tech institution that just about everyone can use and enjoy. That’s happening with the watch, and the strategy just might work."

In Apple Watch Debut, Signs of a Familiar Path to Success - The New York Times

Microsoft Surfaces Tablet Gains - WSJ

Persistence pays, at least in terms of revenue (although, from later in the article, Surface is still less than 4% of Microsoft's total revenue for its latest fiscal year)

"Microsoft said sales of its Surface tablets totaled $888 million for the most recent quarter. That brings the company’s tablet line to about $3.6 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ended June 30.

That measures up with only about 15% of Apple’s iPad revenue for the same period, showing that Apple still dominates the tablet business. But there is another interesting point to note: Microsoft’s Surface revenue is up 64% for the fiscal year, while Apple’s iPad revenue fell 22% year over year for the comparable period."

Microsoft Surfaces Tablet Gains - WSJ

Google Lat Long: Your Timeline: Revisiting the world that you’ve explored (Google Lat Long Blog)

Temporal transportation transparency

"Have you ever wanted a way to easily remember all the places you’ve been -- whether it’s a museum you visited during your last vacation or that fun bar you stumbled upon a few months ago? Well, starting today, Google Maps can help. We’re gradually rolling out Your Timeline, a useful way to remember and view the places you’ve been on a given day, month or year. Your Timeline allows you to visualize your real-world routines, easily see the trips you’ve taken and get a glimpse of the places where you spend your time. And if you use Google Photos, we’ll show the photos you took when viewing a specific day, to help resurface your memories."

Google Lat Long: Your Timeline: Revisiting the world that you’ve explored

We are data: the future of machine intelligence - FT.com

From a machine intelligence reality check by Douglas Coupland, currently artist in residence at the Google Cultural Institute in Paris

"What we’re discussing here is the creation of data pools that, until recently, have been extraordinarily difficult and expensive to gather. However, sooner rather than later, we’ll all be drowning in this sort of data. It will be collected voluntarily in large doses (using the Wonkr, Tinder or Grindr model) — or involuntarily or in passing through other kinds of data: your visit to a Seattle pot store; your donation to the SPCA; the turnstile you went through at a football match. Almost anything can be converted into data — or metadata — which can then be processed by machine intelligence. Quite accurately, you could say, data + machine intelligence = Artificial Intuition.
Artificial Intuition happens when a computer and its software look at data and analyse it using computation that mimics human intuition at the deepest levels: language, hierarchical thinking — even spiritual and religious thinking. The machines doing the thinking are deliberately designed to replicate human neural networks, and connected together form even larger artificial neural networks. It sounds scary . . . and maybe it is (or maybe it isn’t). But it’s happening now. In fact, it is accelerating at an astonishing clip, and it’s the true and definite and undeniable human future."

We are data: the future of machine intelligence - FT.com

Apple Watch Sales: What We Know (And Don’t Know) - Digits - WSJ

Watching and waiting

"There were some concerns about the Watch based on data from Slice Intelligence, a research firm that has been tracking Apple Watch sales based on receipts that online shoppers received in their email. Earlier this month, Slice issued a report saying that Watch sales had fallen by 90% since its initial availability.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Cook said Slice’s data was “absolutely false” but didn’t provide the actual figures. He denied that there was a slowdown in sales, noting that Watch sales in June were greater than May or April. He said he wants to get the Watch in more stores. As of the end of June, it is available in 680 locations — less than 1% of 220,000 locations where the iPhone is available.

He says that it will ramp up locations before the holiday shopping season."

Apple Watch Sales: What We Know (And Don’t Know) - Digits - WSJ

A $7 Billion Charge at Microsoft Leads to Its Largest Loss Ever - The New York Times

Not bad results, except for the $8.4B Nokia-related write-off

"For the full year, Microsoft had a profit of $12.19 billion, or $1.48 a share, down from $22.07 billion, or $2.63 a share, the previous year. Revenue for the quarter fell 5 percent, to $22.18 billion. For the full year, revenue rose to $93.58 billion from $86.83 billion.

Microsoft’s shares fell about 4 percent in after-hours trading, though some analysts sounded a relatively positive note about the company’s results. Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, called Microsoft’s results “great” compared with the results of other software companies in the corporate software market. Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets, graded it a “B” quarter."

A $7 Billion Charge at Microsoft Leads to Its Largest Loss Ever - The New York Times

Apple Profit Up 38%, but iPhone Sales Disappoint Wall Street - The New York Times

Expect different

"In total, Apple reported a 38 percent increase in profit, to $10.7 billion, from a year ago, with revenue surging 33 percent to $49.6 billion. Sales of the company’s biggest revenue and profit generator, the iPhone, soared 35 percent to 47.5 million units. 

“That’s mind-boggling” growth for a company that produces more than $200 billion in annual revenue and clocks in with a market capitalization of $753 billion, said Toni Sacconaghi, a financial analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein. “That said, everyone expected that and a little bit more.”"

Apple Profit Up 38%, but iPhone Sales Disappoint Wall Street - The New York Times

Security Researchers Find a Way to Hack Cars - The New York Times

The Internet of hackable things; also see Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway—With Me in It (Wired)

"It took another few months, but they found a way to crawl from the vulnerable wireless access chip to another chip within the same head unit that controlled the car’s electronics. Once they did that, they could control the car’s locks, windshield wipers, speedometer, lights, blinkers and even engage and disengage the brakes and steering, so long as the car was driving at sufficiently slow speeds (around six miles an hour or less ) — all from the Internet.

“I have done a lot of research, but this is the first time I’ve been truly freaked out,” Mr. Miller said in a phone interview. “When I could hack into a car in Nebraska driving down the freeway, I had that feeling, ‘I shouldn’t be able to do this.'”"

Security Researchers Find a Way to Hack Cars - The New York Times

Ad tech is killing the online experience | Felix Salmon | Media | The Guardian

Final paragraph from a stark advertising reality check

"Online ads have never got less annoying over time, and you can be sure that mobile ads are going to get more annoying as well, once Silicon Valley has worked out how to better identify who you are. The move to greater privacy protections might help slow the pace with which such technologies are adopted. But there’s no realistic hope that websites will actually improve from here. If you want to avoid the dreadful experience of the mobile web, you’ll only have one choice – which is to start reading your articles natively, in the Facebook or Apple News app. But it won’t be Facebook and Apple who killed the news brands. It’ll be ad tech."

Ad tech is killing the online experience | Felix Salmon | Media | The Guardian

IBM Drops After Revenue Declines for 13th Straight Quarter - Bloomberg Business

IBM's transformation continues; also see IBM Revenue Falls 13% Despite Big Gains in New Fields (NYT)

"As demand has tumbled for products across all of IBM’s major segments -- services, software and hardware -- Rometty has divested unprofitable businesses and invested in creating new units around cloud computing and the Watson data-analytics tool. Still, the new isn’t growing fast enough to offset the declines of the old.
“The falloff in IBM’s traditional businesses is dwarfing the company’s ability to capture new revenue opportunities as the market shifts,” Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. wrote in a note Monday before the results were announced."

IBM Drops After Revenue Declines for 13th Straight Quarter - Bloomberg Business

Evernote Crowns Former Google X Executive as CEO - Digits - WSJ

Perhaps some noteworthy changes ahead for Evernote

"Note-taking app maker Evernote is passing the CEO crown to an executive from Google after 10 years and $300 million in venture capital raised.

Chris O’Neill, a former executive at the Google X research facility, will join as chief executive of Evernote, the company said Monday. He takes over from Phil Libin, who co-founded the company and helped it grow into a global business with more than 150 million users. Libin will remain as Evernote’s executive chairman."

Also see Evernote Taps Former Google Glass Executive Chris O’Neill as New CEO (Re/code), which notes:

"In his new role, Libin said he will turn to working day-to-day on the product. One big priority, he said, will be to build new features — and even a new line of products — aimed at workplace collaboration. “If there is one thing I wish we would have done sooner is taking the collaborative uses case for Evernote much more seriously,” he said. “We’ve been working on it a lot recently but I wish we would have done it three years earlier.”"

Evernote Crowns Former Google X Executive as CEO - Digits - WSJ

Online Cheating Site AshleyMadison Hacked — Krebs on Security

A potentially tough start to the week for ~37M people

"Large caches of data stolen from online cheating site AshleyMadison.com have been posted online by an individual or group that claims to have completely compromised the company’s user databases, financial records and other proprietary information. The still-unfolding leak could be quite damaging to some 37 million users of the hookup service, whose slogan is “Life is short. Have an affair.”"

Online Cheating Site AshleyMadison Hacked — Krebs on Security

Adobe and Google Partner to Bolster Flash's Defence Against Zero-Day Attacks | NDTV Gadgets

Check this Project Zero post for details

"Adobe Flash, the veteran media player that has earned a name for itself due to its security vulnerabilities as much as its abilities, is back in the news - but this time, for a good reason. Adobe has revealed that it worked with Google's Project Zero to patch the vulnerabilities discovered in the aftermath of a security breach of the Hacking Team.
But this isn't a regular security patch, Adobe notes. The company says that with the help of Google's security research team, it has managed to make structural changes to the way its program interacts with an operating system. The changes, Adobe claims, will significantly reduce the number of attacks against Flash Player."

Adobe and Google Partner to Bolster Flash's Defence Against Zero-Day Attacks | NDTV Gadgets

PayPal’s Debut Market Value Tops EBay’s as Investors Seek Growth - Bloomberg Business

Not a bad ~13-year return for a ~$1.5B investment

"PayPal Holdings Inc. will make its stock debut with a market value almost 1.4 times that of EBay Inc. as investors bet on bigger returns from the digital payments business than its former parent company struggling with slow growth.
PayPal starts trading Monday with a market capitalization of about $46.6 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show. After the spinoff, EBay’s shrinks to roughly $34 billion. Investors are viewing PayPal as a new growth option, while EBay’s expansion decelerates amid increasing competition in e-commerce."

PayPal’s Debut Market Value Tops EBay’s as Investors Seek Growth - Bloomberg Business

Windows 10 Signifies Microsoft’s Shift in Strategy - The New York Times

Redoubled focus on enterprise + hardware ecosystem

"Most of that revenue was related to the corporate market, where Microsoft’s position is stronger than it is among consumers. About a quarter of Windows revenue was from volume licensing deals with big business customers, who typically pay for rights for Windows upgrades over several years, along with the ability to manage a multitude of users over corporate networks.

Most people pay for Windows, whether they realize it or not, when they buy a new PC with a copy already installed. Nearly half of Windows revenue came from PC makers who licensed the operating system to put on machines aimed at the professional market, while a little over a quarter, about $4 billion, was from consumer PC makers.

“The piece they’re giving away is the piece nobody is buying anyway, which is the upgrade to Windows,” said Steve Kleynhans, an analyst at Gartner."

Windows 10 Signifies Microsoft’s Shift in Strategy - The New York Times

Apple Waits as App Developers Study Who’s Buying Its Watch - The New York Times

Lots of attention on Apple and its quarterly results, to be announced tomorrow

"Just how well the watch is selling — and whether the absence of prominent apps is affecting sales — may be signaled on Tuesday when Apple reports earnings for its fiscal third quarter. The company has said it did not intend to give specific sales data on the watch and instead would wrap it into a category that it called “other.” Investors and tech followers are expected to scrutinize that category to try to calculate whether the watch has been a hit or miss.

Analysts estimated that Apple sold three million to five million watches for the quarter. At five million, sales of the watch would surpass those of iPhones and iPads in the first quarters that they became available."

Apple Waits as App Developers Study Who’s Buying Its Watch - The New York Times

SiliconBeat – TGIF: Google’s big rally

A nice end to the week in the Googleplex

"Google’s stock surged by a whopping 15 percent Friday, all thanks to a promising quarterly earnings report delivered Thursday by new CFO Ruth Porat.

Porat has only been on the job since just after Memorial Day, meaning that the bright financial results she revealed had been set in motion before her arrival, but her comments also signaled a new long-term focus on cost discipline that pleased Wall Street."

SiliconBeat – TGIF: Google’s big rally

Context is built into a story in The Washington Post’s experimental “Knowledge Map” » Nieman Journalism Lab

An encouraging hypertext news prototype; explore here

"For now, Knowledge Map is still a small-scale test, appearing only on this one story. But the Post eventually hopes to apply data mining to personalize the reading experience further for its readers.

“This iteration sets us up to use data mining techniques to identify and surface contextual content for our readers,” the Post’s engineering director for data science Sam Han said in its announcement about Knowledge Map today. “Our ultimate goal is to mine big data to surface highly personalized and contextual data for both journalistic and native content.”"

Context is built into a story in The Washington Post’s experimental “Knowledge Map” » Nieman Journalism Lab

Google Cloud Platform Blog: Containers + Private Cloud. Google Sponsors OpenStack Foundation

A major OpenStack milestone

"As we look to the future of computing in the enterprise, we see two important trends emerging.

The first is a move towards the hybrid cloud.  Few enterprises can move their entire infrastructure to the public cloud. For most, hybrid deployments will be the norm and OpenStack is emerging as a standard for the on-premises component of these deployments.

The second trend is a move towards container-oriented computing. Google pioneered new patterns around containers, dynamic scheduling, and micro-service architectures.  We did this to solve hard problems building and operating applications at internet scale, but the model translates well to everyday applications and solves long standing problems in operations.  Recently, through the Kubernetes project, we have started bringing these patterns to the open source community.  

We believe that the intersection of these trends is important to businesses everywhere.  By joining forces with the OpenStack Foundation we hope to add container-native patterns to the toolbelt of enterprise developers, and improve interoperability between public and private clouds.  We will be working over the coming months with the community to integrate Kubernetes, as well as complementary container technologies, to create a stronger hybrid cloud."

Google Cloud Platform Blog: Containers + Private Cloud. Google Sponsors OpenStack Foundation

Beyond the Information Revolution - The Atlantic

Via The Atlantic on Facebook, with the comment "Amazon.com is now 20 years old. From our archives, here's how "e-commerce" was expected to revolutionize society in 1999," the lead paragraph from a 1999 Peter Drucker perspective

"The truly revolutionary impact of the Information Revolution is just beginning to be felt. But it is not "information" that fuels this impact. It is not "artificial intelligence." It is not the effect of computers and data processing on decision-making, policymaking, or strategy. It is something that practically no one foresaw or, indeed, even talked about ten or fifteen years ago: e-commerce—that is, the explosive emergence of the Internet as a major, perhaps eventually the major, worldwide distribution channel for goods, for services, and, surprisingly, for managerial and professional jobs. This is profoundly changing economies, markets, and industry structures; products and services and their flow; consumer segmentation, consumer values, and consumer behavior; jobs and labor markets. But the impact may be even greater on societies and politics and, above all, on the way we see the world and ourselves in it."

Beyond the Information Revolution - The Atlantic

The Next Wave | Edge.org

A long-view perspective from John Markoff

"These new platforms, they're increments, and they only come along every half-decade or decade. The smart phone happened in 2007 and a huge ecosystem was created in its wake. The entire population of the world walks around looking at their phones. This can't be the end of human evolution. We have to go someplace else. 

It's quite remarkable. It's moved people off of personal computers. Microsoft's business, while it's a huge monopoly, has stopped growing. There was a platform change. I'll be fascinated to see what the next platform is going to be. It's totally up in the air, and I think that some form of augmented reality is possible and real. Is it going to be a science-fiction utopia or a science-fiction nightmare? It's going to be a little bit of both."

The Next Wave | Edge.org

End of the line | The Economist

From a Windows 10 reality check

"The fear in Redmond is that hordes of Windows 7 users (there are some 900m of them) may simply refuse to upgrade. Why should they? They were long ago promised security patches and other updates until 2020. Many remain perfectly happy with Windows 7. Others have been put off by the horror stories surrounding subsequent versions. Microsoft experienced a similar nightmare when Windows Vista was launched in 2006 as a replacement for Windows XP. As late as 2012, XP retained a greater market share than Vista and its hurriedly released successor, Windows 7, combined. "

End of the line | The Economist

Google Revenues Up 11% as Earnings Surpass Forecast - The New York Times

A solid quarter for Google; also see 3 Things Marketers Should Note From Google’s Second Quarter Earnings Call (WSJ)

"The company reported that revenue rose 11 percent to $17.7 billion from a year earlier, with net revenue — a figure that excludes payments to advertising partners — increasing to $14.35 billion. That was above the $14.28 billion projected by analysts, according to Bloomberg. Google said that absent currency fluctuations, overall revenue would have risen 18 percent from a year ago. 

“Our strong Q2 results reflect continued growth across the breadth of our products, most notably core search, where mobile stood out, as well as YouTube and programmatic advertising,” Ms. Porat said."

Google Revenues Up 11% as Earnings Surpass Forecast - The New York Times

Neil Young Is Pulling His Music From Streaming Services - Speakeasy - WSJ

See Neil Young's Facebook announcement post for details and a lively discussion

"“It’s about sound quality,” the post said. “I don’t need my music to be devalued by the worst quality in the history of broadcasting or any other form of distribution. I don’t feel right allowing this to be sold to my fans. It’s bad for my music.”

A follow-up post was more blunt: “AM radio kicked streaming’s ass. Analog Cassettes and 8 tracks also kicked streaming’s ass, and absolutely rocked compared to streaming. Streaming sucks,” he wrote. “Copy my songs if you want to. That’s free. Your choice. All my music, my life’s work, is what I am preserving the way I want it to be.”"

Neil Young Is Pulling His Music From Streaming Services - Speakeasy - WSJ

Mossberg’s Take on the New Office for Mac | Re/code

Final paragraph of a Walt Mossberg review; no mention in the review of Office Mac 2016 OneNote, which remains functionally limited compared to Windows OneNote; given the lack of coverage on that topic, I'm starting to wonder if I'm part of a very small community of OneNote users who routinely use it for collaborative projects

"All in all, I’d say that — especially in Word, Excel and PowerPoint — the benefits of parity with Windows outweighs the loss of Mac distinctiveness. But unless you use Exchange, you might want to skip Outlook and use another email client, until Microsoft makes it friendly to people not employed at Goldman Sachs."

Mossberg’s Take on the New Office for Mac | Re/code

Authorities Shut Down Darkode, a Marketplace for Stolen Personal Data - The New York Times

On a related note, Data Breaches Boost Funding for Cybersecurity Startups (WSJ)

"A hacking forum used as a marketplace for stolen personal information and as a training ground for people intending to target more victims has been dismantled, federal authorities said on Wednesday. At least 70 members of the password-protected site, Darkode, were charged, arrested or searched in a crackdown that included law enforcement agencies in 20 nations, United States officials said.

The forum represented “one of the gravest threats to the integrity of data on computers in the United States and around the world,” David J. Hickton, the United States attorney for the District of Western Pennsylvania, said."

Authorities Shut Down Darkode, a Marketplace for Stolen Personal Data - The New York Times

Google’s ‘Mobilegeddon’ Was a Big Deal, After All - Digits - WSJ

Play well on mobile or pay more to be seen? Also see Digital Ad Report: Google Hitting Plateau on Search, Feeling Heat From Facebook (Re/code)

"“Mobilegeddon fears have come true,” said Tamara Gaffney, an Adobe analyst, said. The changes to Google’s search algorithm prompted many website operators to alter their sites, to assure that the sites remained visible in Google search results.

The changes also helped Google, in ways that may emerge when the search giant reports second-quarter financial results Thursday.

Sites that got less organic traffic responded by buying more mobile-search ads from Google, Adobe says. That contributed to a 16% increase in the price, or cost-per-click, Adobe clients paid for Google mobile-search ads in the second quarter, compared with a year earlier, according to Adobe.

In effect, Gaffney said, website operators who lost traffic paid the search giant to keep phone users visiting their sites."

Google’s ‘Mobilegeddon’ Was a Big Deal, After All - Digits - WSJ

Apple Updates iPod Touch - WSJ

Also see Apple just updated the iPod. Does anyone care? (The Washington Post)

"Starting at $199, Apple said the iPod Touch has 10-times faster graphics performance and improved fitness tracking. The company said the upgraded iPod also offers three-times faster Wi-Fi connectivity.

Apple also touted the iPod Touch’s new 8-megapixel iSight camera and an improved FaceTime HD camera, with features including slo-mo and burst mode, as well as improved face detection for higher quality selfies."

Apple Updates iPod Touch - WSJ

Is Comcast’s Stream too shallow? - Business - The Boston Globe

From an overview of a service Comcast evidently doesn't really want to sell, based on features and comparisons with traditional Internet + TV bundled services; tangentially, see Netflix Soars to 65.6 Million Subscribers as New Shows Shine (BloombergBusiness)

"But while Stream will let you watch recorded shows and movies using any broadband connection, it lets you watch live TV only when you’re connected to the Internet in your home. It’s mobile TV for people who don’t move.

Don’t blame Comcast; they’re bound by the TV networks, which are in no hurry about bringing their live shows to the Internet. For instance, ABC and NBC currently stream their shows live in several cities, including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, but not Boston. CBS’s new All Access service delivers that network’s live shows, but charges $6 a month to view them.

A Comcast executive told me they’re in talks with the networks and hope that, by year’s end, Stream subscribers will be able to view network TV shows wherever they like."

Is Comcast’s Stream too shallow? - Business - The Boston Globe

Office, messaging and verbs — Benedict Evans

Excerpt from an insightful productivity perspective, highlighting Slack and Quip as potential leading indicators

"Ironically, Lotus Notes, one of the earliest corporate messaging programs, was intended to be much more than email, calendaring and so on - there was a vision of a unified development environment, database and messaging system - 'groupware'. It didn't quite work out like that, and actually using Lotus Notes as I had to 15 years ago was rather like using an email client built with Microsoft Access - theoretically possible but not a very good idea. OLE in the 1990s was another concept that didn't quite work, embedding pieces of one program's document inside another. But today, Facebook's platform on the desktop is pretty much Ray Ozzie's vision built all over again but for consumers instead of enterprise and for cat pictures instead of sales forecasts - a combination of messaging with embedded applications and many different data types and views for different tasks. Hence, one could propose one future model as 'Facebook for the enterprise', but with the platform, not the social, being the point of the analogy. "

Office, messaging and verbs — Benedict Evans

Exclusive: CEO Nadella talks Microsoft's mobile ambitions, Windows 10 strategy, HoloLens and more | ZDNet

From an extensive Mary Jo Foley interview with Satya Nadella

"NADELLA: Correct. There's a little bit of a distinction because, in some sense, in the world of PCs, we are trying to create new categories like Surface did. Now every OEM has a two-in-one, which I celebrate, which is great. Surface Hub -- I'm sure next year there will be many OEMs with Surface Hub like devices. We will do HoloLens, and then, since the holographic computing platform is right there in Windows, there will be people who will build holographic computers beyond HoloLens. So I want all of that to happen.

If no OEM stands up to build Windows devices we'll build them. There will be Lumia devices. So I'm not afraid of saying, okay, it's all about the OEMs, or it's all about the ecosystem. It's about Windows. It is about the overall health of Windows and being grounded in any given day's reality, but having ambition of where the market is going versus being bound by current definitions."

Exclusive: CEO Nadella talks Microsoft's mobile ambitions, Windows 10 strategy, HoloLens and more | ZDNet

Meet Google’s “Eddystone”—a flexible, open source iBeacon fighter | Ars Technica

Article subtitle: "Google's cross-platform standard combines the best of iBeacon and The Physical Web."

"At this point some of you are likely saying, "This already exists! It's called iBeacon!" Apple's two-year-old iBeacon standard has a number of problems though, the main one being that it's a proprietary standard that only works with iDevices. This mean it's cutting out half of the US smartphone market and 80 percent of the worldwide smartphone market. When you're hoping to recruit companies to use this to advertise to their customers, immediately missing 50-80 percent of the possible customer base is a tough sell.

Eddystone is cross-platform—support is built into Google Play Services' Nearby API on Android, and it can be used via a library on iOS. Eddystone is also open source and is available on GitHub under the Apache v2.0 license (we'll update with links later once this all goes live)."

Meet Google’s “Eddystone”—a flexible, open source iBeacon fighter | Ars Technica

Apple Watch, Not Dead Yet | Re/code

Leads paragraphs from a timely Apple Watch sales momentum reality check; also see Selling Watch Sales Data (Asymco)

"In the absence of any real information, a slew of talking heads have emerged to fill the silence surrounding the fate of Apple’s first new product category in five years, the Apple Watch.

Last week, one research firm that seemingly burst onto the tech scene just to track the Apple Watch reported that online sales had plunged 90 percent since the device’s introduction in April. The report, by Slice Intelligence, was widely credited by the technology and mainstream press as the definitive sign that the Apple Watch is a dud.

A closer look at the data and a few phone calls tell a different story."

Apple Watch, Not Dead Yet | Re/code

Google, Mozilla Disable Flash Over Security Concerns - Digits - WSJ

Cancel red alert ... for now

"This left browser makers with an uncomfortable choice: Don’t let some users watch online videos, or expose them to hackers.

Google and Mozilla chose the latter.

Adobe released a patch Tuesday morning. If Flash is updated, both Firefox and Chrome will allow it to run, the companies said. Both companies said their browsers should automatically update to the new version of Flash."

Google, Mozilla Disable Flash Over Security Concerns - Digits - WSJ

Twitter Shares Jump After Faked Bloomberg Report - The New York Times

Tangentially, see New Pew data: More Americans are getting news on Facebook and Twitter (NiemanLab)

"Still, the company has said that while it will consider acquisition bids it deems interesting, it plans to remain independent.

When asked about the false report at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference Tuesday in Aspen, Colo., Evan Williams, Twitter’s co-founder and a board member, said: “There’s probably all kinds of legal things I have to know in order to answer that question properly, so I’m just going to say that, as I said before, there is incredible potential in Twitter and blah blah blah ... the board will do what it’s supposed to do.”"

Twitter Shares Jump After Faked Bloomberg Report - The New York Times

Linux creator Linus Torvalds pooh-poohs the Technological Singularity | Naked Security

Tangentially, see The Real Threat Posed by Powerful Computers (NYT) on "artificial stupidity"

"The famously blunt Finn declared to readers of Slashdot that everything's going to be fine - we'll always be smarter than our dishwashers:

'We'll get AI, and it will almost certainly be through something very much like recurrent neural networks...

So I'd expect just more of (and much fancier) rather targeted AI, rather than anything human-like at all. Language recognition, pattern recognition, things like that. I just don't see the situation where you suddenly have some existential crisis because your dishwasher is starting to discuss Sartre with you.

The whole "Singularity" kind of event? Yeah, it's science fiction, and not very good SciFi at that, in my opinion. Unending exponential growth? What drugs are those people on? I mean, really.'"

Linux creator Linus Torvalds pooh-poohs the Technological Singularity | Naked Security

Microsoft's New GigJam Collaboration App Deconstructs Tasks Into "Molecules Of Work" | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

See Project GigJam: Unleashing the human process (Project GigJam blog) for more details

"GigJam, which was code-named "Magic Glass" during development, is a genuinely new idea. It's a set of apps for PCs, tablets, and phones which let you call up business information—from your own emails to figures from corporate databases—using a built-in version of Microsoft's Cortana voice assistant. The apps format the info on cards. Then you can circle items you'd like to share—crossing out any which must remain confidential—and route them to one or more coworkers. You can choose to make the views you send them read-only or editable, and can annotate them with audio comments and on-screen notes."

Microsoft's New GigJam Collaboration App Deconstructs Tasks Into "Molecules Of Work" | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

Mozilla blocks Flash as Facebook security chief calls for its death | The Verge

Difficult days for Adobe's PR department

"After yesterday's news that Facebook's new chief security officer wants to set a date to kill Flash once and for all, the latest version Mozilla's Firefox browser now blocks Adobe's vulnerability-riddled software as standard. Mark Schmidt, the head of the Firefox support team at Mozilla, tweeted that all versions of Flash Player are blocked in the browser as of its latest update, accompanying the news with an image showing a raised fist and the phrase "Occupy Flash.""

Mozilla blocks Flash as Facebook security chief calls for its death | The Verge

Facebook Close Sets Speed Record for $250 Billion Market Cap - Bloomberg Business

Another Facebook milestone

"The social network company’s 2.4 percent climb to a record close on Monday, just over three years after its IPO, made it the first company in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to breach that market cap so quickly. The previous record holder was Google Inc., which took about eight years.
Facebook’s rapid ascent may indicate investor confidence that the company will continue to increase mobile-advertising sales on its application and others. To some degree, the gain also reflects froth in tech stocks; the Nasdaq Internet Index has almost doubled since Facebook went public."

Facebook Close Sets Speed Record for $250 Billion Market Cap - Bloomberg Business

Microsoft and Rackspace Form Cloud Alliance - WSJ

A cloudy transition for Rackspace

"The alliance also is a big step for Rackspace, which has been forced to revamp its business strategy to avoid competing directly with cloud services offered by deep-pocketed tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon.

Mr. Rhodes said the partnership with Microsoft is the first between his company and a major “public” cloud provider, referring to companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft that offer access to shared computing facilities rather than operating private facilities on their customers’ behalf. Mr. Rhodes said Rackspace is open to striking similar arrangements with other public-cloud firms."

Microsoft and Rackspace Form Cloud Alliance - WSJ

Microsoft Delays Surface Hub, Cites Manufacturing Issues - Digits - WSJ

Awkward timing, after the Surface Hub played a key role in yesterday's WPC keynote; see this Microsoft blog post for more details

"The delayed Surface Hub release is unlikely to be financially significant for Microsoft. The Surface Hub was likely to be a niche corporate product in any case. But the misstep illustrates the risk to Microsoft of entering an unfamiliar product category. Microsoft dedicated a manufacturing facility in Oregon to make the Surface Hub, and executives have acknowledged the complexity of making a new product with a massive touchscreen and finely tuned components."

Microsoft Delays Surface Hub, Cites Manufacturing Issues - Digits - WSJ

Apple’s Share of Smartphone Industry’s Profits Soars to 92% - WSJ

Profit different

"Roughly 1,000 companies make smartphones. Just one reaps nearly all the profits.

Apple Inc. recorded 92% of the total operating income from the world’s eight top smartphone makers in the first quarter, up from 65% a year earlier, estimates Canaccord Genuity managing director Mike Walkley. Samsung Electronics Co. took 15%, Canaccord says.

Apple and Samsung account for more than 100% of industry profits because other makers broke even or lost money, in Canaccord’s calculations."

Apple’s Share of Smartphone Industry’s Profits Soars to 92% - WSJ

Comcast Offers Its Alternative to Cable TV, Using the Web - The New York Times

Missing from this article: predictions about what the next-gen Apple TV may mean to the traditional cable oligopoly; also see Comcast Sells Its Own Cord-Cutting Service — Which Requires Comcast’s Cord (Re/code)

"There are limitations, however, that could curb the new service’s appeal to potential subscribers. To start, Comcast’s streaming service will not include any cable networks beyond HBO. That excludes networks like the sports hub ESPN and AMC, home to the zombie-apocalypse hit “The Walking Dead.” The broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS — along with several other networks, are typically available free via high-definition antennas that cost about $25.

Subscribers to the Comcast app will not be able to stream the service to their television sets, an option for most other rival streaming services. (There is a workaround. Customers could use their account details to unlock access to network apps, like HBO Go, that are available for streaming to television sets.) Also, people who live in areas where Comcast is not the cable provider will not be able to subscribe to the service."

Comcast Offers Its Alternative to Cable TV, Using the Web - The New York Times

A ‘Star Trek’ Future Might Be Closer Than We Think - The New York Times

Make it so

"When everything is free, said Mr. Saadia, objects will no longer be status symbols. Success will be measured in achievements, not in money: “You need to build up your reputation, you need to be a fantastic person, you need to be the captain.” People will work hard to reach those goals, even though they don’t need a paycheck to live.

Felix Salmon, a senior editor at Fusion whose imprint at Inkshares will publish “Trekonomics,” says not everyone would strive for greatness in a post-money economy. In general, society might look more like present-day New Zealand, which he sees as less work-obsessed than the United States: “You work to live rather than the other way round.”"

A ‘Star Trek’ Future Might Be Closer Than We Think - The New York Times

The Secret Startup That Saved the Worst Website in America - The Atlantic

A timely reality check/case study on how robust Web sites are built

"Here is the tl;dr version of their story: Marketplace Lite, or “MPL” as they came to be known, devoted months to rewriting Healthcare.gov functions in full, working as a startup within the government and replacing contractor-made apps with ones costing one-fiftieth of the price. And when, nearly a year after the initial launch of Healthcare.gov, the website’s second open-enrollment proved much healthier than its first, it was the MPL team who celebrated.

The MPL team had three great technical accomplishments over its 16-month-long life. First, it served as a crack team which understood the infrastructure of the site and could resolve small issues as they arose. Second, it built an insurance application, called App2, which signed up new users in less than half the time of the original app. Finally, it replaced the website’s crashy login system with a functional (and much less expensive) one of its own design.


It did most of this while living together in an unremarkable McMansion in suburban Maryland."

The Secret Startup That Saved the Worst Website in America - The Atlantic

Hackers Stole U.S. Data on More Than 20 Million People - Bloomberg Business

Also see Hacking of Government Computers Exposed 21.5 Million People (NYT), which notes "The breaches constitute what is apparently the largest cyberattack into the systems of the United States government, providing a frightening glimpse of the technological vulnerabilities of federal agencies that handle sensitive information" and, predictably, on new calls for better controls, "But that effort comes after almost two decades of warnings from government auditors and other internal investigations into the vulnerabilities in federal agency networks."

"The new numbers vastly expand the publicly disclosed scope of the hack, which targeted federal government employees and contractors.
“If an individual underwent a background investigation through OPM in 2000 or afterwards,” OPM said in a release Thursday, “it is highly likely that the individual is impacted by this cyber breach.”
OPM said the types of information compromised includes “Social Security numbers; residency and educational history; employment history; information about immediate family and other personal and business acquaintances; health, criminal and financial history; and other details.”"

Hackers Stole U.S. Data on More Than 20 Million People - Bloomberg Business

PC Sales Continue to Fall - Digits - WSJ

Also see Mac sales up 16.1% in June quarter as overall PC market continues slump (Apple Insider)

"Worldwide PC shipments saw their sharpest decline in nearly two years in the second quarter of 2015, dealing continued damage to retailers and makers of computers, chips and PC software.

Shipments fell 9.5 percent, year on year, to 68.4 million units, according to the research firm Gartner. Rival researcher IDC, which doesn’t include tablets in its tally, tracked an 11.8 percent drop, year on year, to 66.1 million shipments during the quarter. Both firms released PC sales reports on Wednesday."

PC Sales Continue to Fall - Digits - WSJ

With CarPlay, Apple Looks to Upend Tradition - The New York Times

Driving ambition

"“Any user interface jump within a single display is a hard thing for people to reconcile,” said Parrish Hanna, Ford’s global director of human machine interface. Switching between different sets of controls, even between digital and physical control buttons, can be confusing and potentially distracting, he said.

So at its developers’ conference last month, Apple proposed that rather than following the traditional route of simply having technology companies create apps for cars, automakers should do a U-turn and write apps for the technology company’s software."

With CarPlay, Apple Looks to Upend Tradition - The New York Times

Updated Controls for News Feed | Facebook Newsroom

Some new options for News Feed curation (available now, for iOS users; "rolling out on Android and desktop over the coming weeks")

"News Feed is a personalized stream of stories that you build from the people and Pages you’ve connected to on Facebook. The goal of News Feed is to show you the stories that matter most to you. To do this, we use ranking to order stories based on how interesting we believe they are to you: specifically, whom you tend to interact with, and what kinds of content you tend to like and comment on.

We’re always working to improve and personalize your News Feed experience. We know that ultimately you’re the only one who truly knows what is most meaningful to you and that is why we want to give you more ways to control what you see. Last year we announced some new ways to control what you see in News Feed. Today we are announcing even better tools for you to actively shape and improve the experience. We’ve redesigned and expanded Facebook’s News Feed Preferences to give you more control."

Updated Controls for News Feed | Facebook Newsroom

Reinventing Google for a Mobile World - The New York Times

From an overview of Google's shifting search strategy

"Google is a mobile force in many different ways: In the United States and several other countries, search queries to Google on mobile devices now outrank search queries on desktop and laptop computers. It has the world’s largest mobile operating system, Android. It makes billions of dollars a year selling apps through the Google Play Store and owns many of the world’s most popular apps, such as YouTube.

But that has created competing priorities because apps have also diluted its position in search. Google claimed 68 percent of mobile search revenue in the United States last year, according to the research firm eMarketer. That lead, while still substantial, was down from 81 percent in 2012, a decline projected to continue as apps occupy more of people’s time."

Reinventing Google for a Mobile World - The New York Times

Microsoft makes Office 2016 for Mac available, first for Office 365 users | ZDNet

I am now officially annoyed about Microsoft keeping Mac OneNote functionally limited relative to Windows OneNote -- I installed the "final" Office 2016 for Mac suite today, and Mac OneNote is still missing important features such as the ability to have more than one window open at a time and showing new/unread activity indicators in shared notebooks. tbd if the other Mac Office apps will be less feature-rich than their Windows Office app counterparts; from a quick glance, one domain not addressed in Mac Word or PowerPoint 2016 -- unsurprisingly -- is OneNote (linked notes) integration, but perhaps that feature was so little used that it's going to be removed from Windows Office 2016 as well...

"On July 9, Microsoft is making the new version of its Office suite for Mac generally available, first for Office 365 subscribers.

Office 2016 for Mac -- which includes new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote -- is available in 139 countries and 16 languages starting today. The new suite, the successor to Office 2011 for Mac, has been in public preview since March 2015."

Microsoft makes Office 2016 for Mac available, first for Office 365 users | ZDNet