Meg Whitman Slams Chris Christie Over Donald Trump Endorsement | Re/code

More evidence of Trump's skills as a "uniter" -- of people against Trump; also see Donald Trump promises 'such trouble' for Jeff Bezos and Amazon (The Register)

"Meg Whitman, the CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and an early backer of Chris Christie’s presidential campaign, just publicly blasted the New Jersey governor for endorsing Republican frontrunner Donald Trump via an email sent to reporters.

Calling Trump a “dishonest demagogue who plays to our worst fears,” she called Christie’s bombshell endorsement Friday “an astonishing display of political opportunism” and called on Christie’s supporters and donors not to follow him into the Trump camp."

Meg Whitman Slams Chris Christie Over Donald Trump Endorsement | Re/code

Apple’s Cook Picks Up Where Snowden Left Off in Privacy Debate - Bloomberg Business

Advocate different; also see We asked a First Amendment lawyer if Apple’s ‘code is speech’ argument holds water. Here’s what he said (Washington Post)

"Edward Snowden stoked the debate over mass government surveillance. Tim Cook may be the one to rein it in.
By revealing the scope of U.S. monitoring of personal information, the former CIA employee forced Americans to confront the intrusion into their privacy, and also created an opening for the public to question the government’s activities. Apple Inc.’s chief executive officer is taking the next step by saying ‘no’ to a court order that would force the company to create special software needed by the FBI to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers."

Apple’s Cook Picks Up Where Snowden Left Off in Privacy Debate - Bloomberg Business

Mark Zuckerberg interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner - Business Insider

Excerpt from a wide-ranging interview

"Then there is the 10 year horizon — really far-out stuff.  And for that we are investing in three big areas. One is connectivity — making sure that everyone in the world has access to the internet.  This is a big deal because today only 3 of 7 billion people have access to the internet.  If you live in an area where there is not a good school, the internet may be the best way to get access to a lot of education material.  The same is true if there is not a good doctor — the internet may be the best way to get access to health. 

The second area is AI. We expect a lot of progress that will lead to really great things in society: reduction in car accidents from self-driving cars, better diagnoses for diseases. Better ability to precisely treat diseases will lead to greater safety and health and many other things.   And the third area is this next computing platform which we believe is VR and augmented reality. So these are things I think we are going to be working on for a decade or more."

Mark Zuckerberg interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner - Business Insider

See That Billboard? It May See You, Too - The New York Times

A beacon of hope for billboard advertising

"Clear Channel Outdoor Americas, which has tens of thousands of billboards across the United States, will announce on Monday that it has partnered with several companies, including AT&T, to track people’s travel patterns and behaviors through their mobile phones.

By aggregating the trove of data from these companies, Clear Channel Outdoor hopes to provide advertisers with detailed information about the people who pass its billboards to help them plan more effective, targeted campaigns. With the data and analytics, Clear Channel Outdoor could determine the average age and gender of the people who are seeing a particular billboard in, say, Boston at a certain time and whether they subsequently visit a store."

See That Billboard? It May See You, Too - The New York Times

The Promise of Artificial Intelligence Unfolds in Small Steps - The New York Times

From a big-picture AI reality check; also see Start-Up Lessons From the Once-Again Hot Field of A.I. (NYT)

"IBM’s early struggles with Watson point to the sobering fact that commercializing new technology, however promising, typically comes in short steps rather than giant leaps.

Despite IBM’s own challenges, Watson’s TV victory — five years ago this month — has helped fuel interest in A.I. from the public and the rest of the tech industry. Venture capital investors have poured money into A.I. start-ups, and large corporations like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple have been buying fledgling A.I. companies. That investment reached $8.5 billion last year, more than three and a half times the level in 2010, according to Quid, a data analysis firm."

The Promise of Artificial Intelligence Unfolds in Small Steps - The New York Times

Dustin Moskovitz on why Slack isn't a threat to Asana - Business Insider

From a wide-ranging interview:

"BI: In the last couple of years, there have been a lot of enterprise companies that have taken off like wildfire, like Slack. How do you view your relationship with Slack or the other challengers? What’s Asana’s niche in the space?

DM: We really don't see Slack as a challenger, we're actually mutual customers. So we use Slack services, Slack uses Asana, and we really see them as complimentary [sic] which is why the integration exists. We look at the broader collaboration space, [and] we think of it in terms of these three major buckets. One is sort of files and file sharing and document collaboration, so that's everybody from Dropbox to Box and like Google Apps. And then messaging and communications that's really where Slack fits in, but also products like Skype and VoIP services. And then this third category of work tracking is really the market that we're trying to develop."

Dustin Moskovitz on why Slack isn't a threat to Asana - Business Insider

Watch Tim Cook's full 30-minute interview on Apple's fight with the FBI | The Verge

Extensive excerpts and full video (Flash Player annoyingly required...) in the source

"Tonight, ABC World News aired an interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook, with the conversation focused on the ongoing encryption battle between the iPhone manufacturer and federal authorities. But it turns out what viewers saw on TV was only a small portion; the full-length interview runs just short of a half hour. It's rare to see Cook in this sort of lengthy, uninterrupted exchange."

Watch Tim Cook's full 30-minute interview on Apple's fight with the FBI | The Verge

Apple to launch 9.7-inch iPad Pro, not Air 3; Smart Keyboard & Apple Pencil support likely | 9to5Mac

Check the full post for more details, e.g., on Smart Connector, keyboard, and speakers

"The new 9.7-inch iPad Pro will debut at Apple’s Tuesday, March 15th event and begin shipping as soon as March 18th, we previously reported. The smaller iPad Pro will have nearly identical features and specifications as the bigger model, bringing along the A9X processor and RAM upgrades from the 12.9-inch model. It will also include the 12.9-inch model’s updated display technology to support the Apple Pencil."

Apple to launch 9.7-inch iPad Pro, not Air 3; Smart Keyboard & Apple Pencil support likely | 9to5Mac

Microsoft: Use Xamarin to port Android apps to Windows | InfoWorld

Connecting the dots

"Astoria was intended to convert Android apps by using an interoperability library to integrate Microsoft services. (The Windows Bridge for iOS, known as Project Islandwood, has already been released as an open source project, in August.)

With Xamarin's cross-platform tools now in the Microsoft fold, however, Windows Universal Platform development could be extended to Android, iOS, and other platforms. Xamarin's tools help Windows developers build cross-platform apps providing native experiences on Android and iOS. "With Xamarin, they can now use a large percentage of their C# code to deliver a fully native mobile app experience for iOS and Android," Gallo said."

Microsoft: Use Xamarin to port Android apps to Windows | InfoWorld

Obama Administration Set to Expand Sharing of Data That N.S.A. Intercepts - The New York Times

A disconcerting data lake

"Until now, National Security Agency analysts have filtered the surveillance information for the rest of the government. They search and evaluate the information and pass only the portions of phone calls or email that they decide is pertinent on to colleagues at the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies. And before doing so, the N.S.A. takes steps to mask the names and any irrelevant information about innocent Americans.

The new system would permit analysts at other intelligence agencies to obtain direct access to raw information from the N.S.A.’s surveillance to evaluate for themselves. If they pull out phone calls or email to use for their own agency’s work, they would apply the privacy protections masking innocent Americans’ information — a process known as “minimization” — at that stage, Mr. Litt said."

Obama Administration Set to Expand Sharing of Data That N.S.A. Intercepts - The New York Times

Apple Goes to Court, and F.B.I. Presses Congress to Settle iPhone Privacy Fight - The New York Times

Glad to see this clarity and consensus; tangentially, see Apple Hires Developer Behind Signal, Edward Snowden’s Favorite Secure Chat App (TechCrunch)

"The legal wrangling over a federal court order requiring Apple to help law enforcement break into an iPhone intensified Thursday, with the company filing its formal response and asking the court to drop its demand.

Other technology companies — Microsoft, Google, Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo — also moved to throw their weight behind Apple in court. The companies said they planned to file one or more briefs backing Apple next week in federal court in California."

Apple Goes to Court, and F.B.I. Presses Congress to Settle iPhone Privacy Fight - The New York Times

Quip - Introducing the Living Document

The Quip/Slack competitive landscape just got a lot wider

"A living document is alive. It communicates with you and your team. It stays up-to-date. A living document tells you when your colleague updates the sales figures; it buzzes your phone when a task is assigned to you; it’s constantly bubbling with your team’s feedback; it’s always updated with the data you need. Living documents are not file attachments: they speed up your workflow and enable you to work less dumb. That’s the power of Quip.

Quip is a unique marriage of content and communication in a single, simple experience. Collaboration happens in many ways within a team, but when our customers create a Quip, real work gets done, faster, smarter."

Quip - Introducing the Living Document

Advertisers Don’t Like Facebook’s Reactions. They Love Them | WIRED

Feeling a bit ambivalent about this aspect of Facebook's new reactions

"Advertisers have long had a pretty precise idea of who you are when they’re targeting you on Facebook—perhaps most importantly who your friends are and what you like. But Reactions offers a wider palate of emotions to put on public displayed. Facebook won’t say just yet how these Reactions will affect the ads you see in your News Feed. But just seeing how you react (React?) to their ads offers greater insight to brands that they can use to inform future campaigns. And it’s easy to imagine a future in which advertisers may very well be able to recalibrate their ad campaigns automatically based on how you’ve reacted to their ads in the past.

“It’s a breath of fresh air, it’s the right evolution,” says Chris Tuff, the executive vice president and director of business development and partnerships for ad agency 22squared. “To delegate all interactions to a thumb’s-up icon is a little ludicrous.”"

Advertisers Don’t Like Facebook’s Reactions. They Love Them | WIRED

Obama’s poised to make a black woman one of the most powerful people in tech - The Washington Post

Beyond the books

"If confirmed as librarian of Congress, Hayden would have a position with very real power, as it's responsible for settling some of the weightiest policy questions in tech. The institution has handled questions such as whether it's legal for you to unlock your own cellphone so you can take your device to another carrier, or whether it's legal for security researchers or your local mechanic to access the software powering your car.

You see, every three years, the Library of Congress can bless certain technological practices by granting them exemptions from a law that would otherwise make them illegal. This is a function of America's copyright system, which is governed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."

Obama’s poised to make a black woman one of the most powerful people in tech - The Washington Post

Apple’s Tim Cook calls FBI request to crack terrorist’s iPhone ‘bad for America’ - The Washington Post

Check the source article for interview video excerpts

"Cook said Apple tried to help the FBI with other technological solutions, "significant advice" on how the iPhone might be cracked. But Apple does not want to go as far as the FBI says it now needs -- writing software to get around the phone's security measures. Cook called it "the software equivalent of cancer."

"What is at stake here is can the government compel Apple to write software that we believe would make hundreds of millions of customers vulnerable around the world, including the U.S., and also trample civil liberties that are the basic foundation of what this country are made of ," Cook said."

Apple’s Tim Cook calls FBI request to crack terrorist’s iPhone ‘bad for America’ - The Washington Post

Google Gives Publishers What Facebook, Apple Haven't: A Paywall - Bloomberg Business

Also see Google Joins Race to Speed Up Mobile Delivery of News Articles (NYT)

"The New York Times has moved guardedly with Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc., posting just 30 articles a day on new platforms controlled by those companies.
Starting Wednesday, the Times will be posting more than double that number of stories on a new alternative newsreader promoted by Google Inc. The reason? The Times asks readers to buy digital subscriptions after getting 10 free articles a month. Google readers count toward that limit. Facebook and Apple readers don’t.
Publishers have been tentative about fully embracing new digital platforms for their articles because they want to protect revenue from online ads and subscribers as their print business has waned. Google, by pushing readers toward paid subscriptions, is giving media companies a tool they’ve craved and may put pressure on Facebook and Apple to follow suit."

Google Gives Publishers What Facebook, Apple Haven't: A Paywall - Bloomberg Business

Google's DeepMind Forms Health Unit to Build Medical Software - Bloomberg Business

Dr. Watson, meet DeepMind Health

"The London-based subsidiary has teamed up with the Imperial College London and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust through an endeavor called DeepMind Health, it said Wednesday. The new division of about 15 people will grow “substantially,” said Mustafa Suleyman, who co-founded DeepMind. The company has also hired two physicians to work within its organization to help guide research and development.
One of those doctors is Dominic King, co-creator of the technology behind Hark, a U.K. health-care startup that is being bought by DeepMind as part of its push into medical technology. Hark has created a task-management smartphone application for clinicians."

Google's DeepMind Forms Health Unit to Build Medical Software - Bloomberg Business

What Microsoft’s Xamarin Purchase Says About the Cloud Computing Fight - The New York Times

A "mobile-first, cloud-first" Microsoft milestone

"Scott Guthrie, the vice president for cloud and enterprise at Microsoft, said Xamarin would continue to offer development tools to write for Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android mobile operating systems. Xamarin says it has 15,000 customers in 120 countries.

Developers “can choose any cloud” in which to manage and deploy their mobile applications, he said, but added “you’ll see a deep integration with Azure,” including features that won’t be available in competing clouds.

In other words, the idea is to treat everything equally, some more than others."

What Microsoft’s Xamarin Purchase Says About the Cloud Computing Fight - The New York Times

Apple Is Said to Be Trying to Make It Harder to Hack iPhones - The New York Times

So... the implicit headline is: Apple remains sincere about a commitment it has been openly explaining for years. See The Apple Case Will Grope Its Way Into Your Future (NYT) for more on what's at stake.

"The company first raised the prospect of a security update last week in a phone call with reporters, who asked why the company would allow firmware — the software at the heart of the iPhone — to be modified without requiring a user password.

One senior executive, speaking on the condition of anonymity, replied that it was safe to bet that security would continue to improve. Separately, a person close to the company, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed this week that Apple engineers had begun work on a solution even before the San Bernardino attack. A company spokeswoman declined to comment on what she called rumors and speculation."

Apple Is Said to Be Trying to Make It Harder to Hack iPhones - The New York Times

Boston Dynamics’ newest humanoid can stomp through snowdrifts | BetaBoston

With new capabilities and a less Terminator-ish sound...

"Google-owned Waltham-based robot maker Boston Dynamics pulled the covers off its newest robot Tuesday night to reveal a better balancing, more athletic model of its two-legged Atlas robot.

As is customary for Boston Dynamics, it posted a video on YouTube that demonstrated Atlas’s newest abilities, and suggested that warehouses could be the first place that the human-shaped robots could be put to work."

Boston Dynamics’ newest humanoid can stomp through snowdrifts | BetaBoston

Spotify is moving its data to Google's servers | The Verge

Perhaps a different type of customer acquisition model for Google's cloud business; see Announcing Spotify Infrastructure’s Googley Future (Spotify News) for more details

""That’s [data analytics capabilities] where Google has the edge and that’s where we think they will continue to have the edge," Nicholas Harteau, Spotify’s vice president of engineering and infrastructure, tells The Wall Street Journal.

The move has also fueled speculation that Google may eventually acquire Spotify to gain a stronger foothold in the streaming market. Spotify has more than 20 million subscribers and 75 million active users, while Apple Music reportedly reached the 10 million subscriber mark last month. Google was reportedly interested in acquiring Spotify in 2014, but talks broke down over price negotiations."

Spotify is moving its data to Google's servers | The Verge

Mossberg: Eero Makes Wi-Fi Simpler and Stronger | Re/code

Also see Review: The End of Bad Home Wi-Fi (WSJ)

"If I had to pass judgement on Eero today, I’d recommend it with two caveats. First, even 10 days is too short a time to fully evaluate a home Wi-Fi infrastructure. But I ran it through the wringer in the time I had, and it performed like a champ.

Second, Eero is far costlier than popular routers you can scoop up on Amazon. Those butt-ugly units with a zillion antennas and flashing lights can be bought for well under $100. But Eero costs $199 for a single unit, and $499 for a pack of three, which is what the company recommends. But my Apple routers are also $199 and, with the number and type I used, the total cost was actually higher.

The product goes on sale today at 9 am ET, at eero.com. The company also expects it to be available from Amazon this week."

Mossberg: Eero Makes Wi-Fi Simpler and Stronger | Re/code

Security Experts Criticize RCS, Google’s Android Messaging Partner | Re/code

Actual encryption results may vary...

"Yet the RCS security system looks to be softer than Google’s ideal — the full encryption found on a select few Android devices, which, Google claims, keeps users’ information even from Google. (Hangouts, Google’s current chat product, is encrypted like Gmail; it passes through Google’s servers and the company can, theoretically, hand it over.) Still, the issue underscores the company’s nagging issue with Android: Unlike Apple, Google has to rely on a dizzying array of carrier and hardware partners for the devices and their security.

The new messaging initiative is the fruit of Google’s acquisition of the mobile startup Jibe in September. It falls under the search giant’s muddled Communications division, which is also trying to reinvigorate Hangouts. Google is not saying if the RCS capability will be integrated into Hangouts, its native Android messaging app or an altogether new one."

Security Experts Criticize RCS, Google’s Android Messaging Partner | Re/code

The real reason half of America supports the FBI over Apple - The Washington Post

Final paragraphs from an assessment of Apple/FBI Pew Research poll results (see More Support for Justice Department Than for Apple in Dispute Over Unlocking iPhone for details); also see Solid support for Apple in iPhone encryption fight: poll (Reuters); on a related note, see Apple Is Facing U.S. Demand to Unlock 9 More iPhones (NYT)

"Greater familiarity with technology, and what it can and can't be used for, can lend a different perspective on a range of issues. On this one in particular, even basic exposure to smartphones can be enough to sway some Americans into viewing the FBI's position more skeptically. By a 41-33 margin, smartphone owners were far more likely to support Apple's position than non-smartphone owners in the Pew study this week.

It took seven months for public opinion to shift on the NSA. Apple may be hoping for a similar outcome on this issue, but the pace at which this saga is playing out suggests the company may not have that kind of time."

The real reason half of America supports the FBI over Apple - The Washington Post

Facebook Tries (Again) to Take On Google and Twitter With Search - Bloomberg Business

A snapshot from the Facebook/Google competitive landscape

"Most people are using the new search algorithm without even realizing it, and in the process they're helping to make it better. When you click on a post and share an article, Facebook now uses the search tool to provide a link that shows how many people are talking about it, and suggests related stories that are also being shared on the site. When you use Facebook to "check in" to a restaurant or other location, Facebook search finds other people who have been there and offers up their posts about it. Search will become more of a habit for Facebook’s users the more invisible it feels, says said Nicolas Dessaigne, the CEO of Algolia.com, a search tool for businesses to use internally.
But using the main search bar is a different story, and people may not want to change the way they use Facebook, said Mark Mahaney, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. "They think of Facebook as the place they communicate and share with their friends,'' he said. Even though Facebook offers something different than Google—the wisdom of friends—the company "would have to come up with a better search experience to get people to consider using their search functionality instead of Google's. The odds are very slim.""

Facebook Tries (Again) to Take On Google and Twitter With Search - Bloomberg Business

Bill Gates says he was 'disappointed' by reports he backs FBI in Apple fight | The Verge

Glad to see this clarification; also see Bill Gates calls for terror data debate (BBC); for a wide-ranging interview, also see Bill Gates, the ‘Impatient Optimist,’ Lays Out his Clean-Energy Innovation Agenda (NYT)

"In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Bill Gates says he was "disappointed" by reports that he supported the FBI in its legal battle with Apple, saying "that doesn't state my view on this." 

Still, Gates took a more moderate stance than some of his counterparts in the tech industry, not fully backing either the FBI or Apple but calling for a broader "discussion" on the issues. "I do believe that with the right safeguards, there are cases where the government, on our behalf — like stopping terrorism, which could get worse in the future — that that is valuable." But he called for "striking [a] balance" between safeguards against government power and security.

When asked specifically what his stance was on this case, he said "the courts are going to decide this [case]" and "these issues will be decided in Congress.""

Bill Gates says he was 'disappointed' by reports he backs FBI in Apple fight | The Verge

The Devices Formerly Known as Smartphones | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

I agree the X3 may be a leading indicator of future mainstream mobile device usage patterns (just as the Motorola Atrix perhaps was, albeit way ahead of its time), but probably not of smartphone market success for HP. In other think-different mobile device news, see The CAT S60 is a smartphone that sees in the dark and swims with the fishes (PC World) -- that would be CAT as in Caterpillar

"That’s why I’m intrigued by HP’s new Elite X3. At first glance, the 6″, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820-powered device looks to be just another smartphone—a Windows 10 Mobile-based one, at that. But, in conjunction with some of the hardware accessories the company specifically developed to be used alongside it, along with the capabilities of Windows 10 Mobile’s Continuum features, the X3 can morph into a full-on, big-screen computing device.
Now, cynics will argue we’ve seen this before. Anyone remember the Motorola Atrix? Or how about Microsoft’s own Lumia 950 from last fall? Both notable but ultimately failed efforts to develop a smartphone form factor computer. The difference with the X3, however, is the focus and detailed vision. On the Atrix and Lumia 950, the computing features were add-ons to an existing smartphone. The X3 seems to be positioned and designed primarily as a computer, with the smartphone capabilities essentially built in."

The Devices Formerly Known as Smartphones | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

Ex-NSA chief backs Apple on iPhone ‘back doors’ (USA Today)

From an interview with author and former NSA director Michael Hayden

""Look, I used to run the NSA, OK?" Hayden told USA TODAY's weekly video newsmaker series. "Back doors are good. Please, please, Lord, put back doors in, because I and a whole bunch of other talented security services around the world — even though that back door was not intended for me — that back door will make it easier for me to do what I want to do, which is to penetrate. ...

"But when you step back and look at the whole question of American security and safety writ large, we are a safer, more secure nation without back doors," he says. With them, "a lot of other people would take advantage of it.""

Ex-NSA chief backs Apple on iPhone ‘back doors’

Oracle buys cloud software startup Ravello Systems for $500 million, source says | VentureBeat | Cloud | by Jordan Novet

In other cloud market dynamics, see IBM Inks VMware, GitHub, Bitly Deals, Expands Apple Swift Use As It Doubles Down On The Cloud (TechCrunch)

"Oracle today disclosed that it has acquired Ravello Systems, a company with tools for running enterprise workloads in public cloud environments. Oracle didn’t disclose terms of the deal, but a source familiar with the matter said Oracle is paying $500 million to do the deal.

Oracle is rapidly trying to accelerate its cloud business and take on the likes of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Today’s acquisition could be strategically important as Oracle rushes to stand up its cloud infrastructure for compute, storage, and networking workloads."

Oracle buys cloud software startup Ravello Systems for $500 million, source says | VentureBeat | Cloud | by Jordan Novet

Yahoo’s Decision to Explore a Sale Exposes a Weak Board - The New York Times

Final paragraphs from a stark Yahoo reality check

"This does not mean that an agreement of the Yahoo board to sell the company is the end of the Yahoo story. Some hedge funds like SpringOwl are likely to oppose a sale as insufficient. Other funds like Starboard are salivating for a sale. Indeed, Starboard is likely to try to unseat the Yahoo board in a proxy contest, if only to make sure the board does not again change its mind and decide not to sell.

So the next fight to come at Yahoo will be whether the company is selling too cheaply.

It all brings to mind a truism on Wall Street, that once you are at the mercy of financial engineers and schemes, it is over. Say good night, Yahoo."

Yahoo’s Decision to Explore a Sale Exposes a Weak Board - The New York Times

Apple calls on Congress to form committee for privacy issues - The Boston Globe

Bottom line: "The case could eventually reach the Supreme Court." Also see Mark Zuckerberg Backs Apple in Its Refusal to Unlock iPhone (NYT) and Bill Gates Sides With Government in Apple Clash, FT Says (Bloomberg Business); the latter notes "His opinion appeared to diverge from his own company, part of an industry coalition that backed Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook’s warning that building backdoors into mobile software sets a dangerous precedent."

"Apple Inc. said the government should withdraw its court order requiring the company to help unlock a terrorist’s iPhone, and instead asked that US lawmakers form an expert commission to discuss the implications for privacy, freedom, and national security.

The company would “gladly participate” in such an effort, which has been suggested by some in Congress, Apple said on its website Monday."

Apple calls on Congress to form committee for privacy issues - The Boston Globe

Google To Shut Down Google Compare Products In US And UK On March 23 (Search Engine Land)

Also see Google to Shut Down Its Comparison-Shopping Website (NYT)

"The company only recently began rebuilding the Compare product from the ashes of the Advisor program in the US. The single piece left standing from that initial effort was the credit card offering — savings accounts, CDs and mortgages had all discontinued. Compare for Auto Insurance launched just last March, starting in California. Then Google relaunched Compare for Mortgage quotes in November with Zillow and Lending Tree among the launch partners. Both of those relaunches had limited roll outs. In the UK, Google Compare has been running since 2012 for car insurance, mortgage rates, credit cards and travel insurance.

A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land that while searches on these queries remained high, the product didn’t get the traction it hoped for and revenue was minimal. That’s in part due to the limited availability of the products in both the US and the UK."

Google To Shut Down Google Compare Products In US And UK On March 23

Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Big Bet That Facebook Can Make VR Social | WIRED

Also see Facebook CEO Gets Cozy With Samsung At Galaxy Launch Event (WSJ) and New Steps Toward the Future of Virtual Reality (Facebook Newsroom)

"Indeed it is, at least in a small way. The big question that remains is how social VR will dovetail with the rest of Facebook. The company is already adding 360-degree videos into the Facebook News Feed, and Zuckerberg sees this as a step towards virtual reality. Indeed, you can watch them with the Gear VR. But these videos don’t require a headset that wraps around your eyes. Virtual reality does. It shuts you off from the rest of the world, and that doesn’t necessarily jibe with Facebook, which is really something you use on a phone, while you’re doing other stuff—while you’re riding on a train to work or waiting for someone to meet you for dinner.

Zuckerberg doesn’t quite know how these two paradigms will meld. Or if he does, he’s not letting on. But the end game, he says, is a pair of super-lightweight eye glasses that can instantly shift you from the virtual world to the real world—and back again. These could immerse you in virtual reality or they could add digital stuff to what you see in the real world, augmented reality-style. Using these glasses, you could play virtual chess with someone on the other side of the world, he says. Or you could look still photos someone just sent you on Facebook."

Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Big Bet That Facebook Can Make VR Social | WIRED

The Ad Blocking Wars - The New York Times

From an ad-blocking reality check

"But he said the number of ad blockers is creeping back up, so Ars Technica plans to start a program similar to ones that have been used on a trial basis on other sites like Wired, The Washington Post, Slate and The Atlantic. The goal is to detect people who are blocking and inform them of ways to support the site. They can selectively unblock the site, subscribe, buy temporary access or just keep reading knowing it’s depriving the site of needed revenue. A possible gauge of the effectiveness of guilt is listener-supported NPR, which has a 36 percent donation rate.

“The temptation is to block these people who honestly aren’t going to respond to ads anyway,” Mr. Fisher said. “I think what everybody should focus on is the educational aspect and give people the option to pay for an ad-free experience.”

Google recently began offering that option with its Contributor program. And Sprint’s Boost Mobile is testing a program where it actually pays users to look at ads."

The Ad Blocking Wars - The New York Times

Huawei Launches The $699 MateBook Windows 10 Tablet With Keyboard Case And Stylus | TechCrunch

(Priced) Below the Surface

"Huawei is getting into the productivity game. The company, which recently made a splash in the U.S. with the launch of the Nexus 6p, announced a Surface Pro-like 12-inch Windows 10 tablet with a keyboard cover and an optional pressure-sensitive stylus and dock during its MWC keynote today.

Pricing for the MateBook, which will be available with both Window 10 Home and Professional, will start at $699/€799 for the most basic configuration with an m3 processor, 4 GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD. The keyboard will click in at $129 and then stylus and dock at $69 and $99 respectively."

Huawei Launches The $699 MateBook Windows 10 Tablet With Keyboard Case And Stylus | TechCrunch

Inside the New Microsoft, Where Lie Detection Is a Killer App - Bloomberg Business

From a snapshot of Microsoft's machine learning strategy

"Though Microsoft has been working on machine learning for at least 20 years, divisions like Office and Windows once harnessed its predictive qualities only sparingly. "The reaction of many people there was 'We know how to do things, why are you questioning my views with your data,'" says Pedro Domingos, a University of Washington computer science professor who wrote a book on machine learning called The Master Algorithm.
Microsoft truly embraced the technology when it started Bing in an attempt to catch up with Google. Satya Nadella ran engineering and technical strategy for the search division before becoming chief executive officer two years ago and has been sprinkling machine learning like fairy dust on everything his company touches. "Microsoft is now in this place where they have machine learning very deeply embedded," Domingos says. "They’re investing a lot in making machine learning less Wild West.""

Inside the New Microsoft, Where Lie Detection Is a Killer App - Bloomberg Business

5G Is a New Frontier for Mobile Carriers and Tech Companies - The New York Times

Also see Facebook Open Sources Wireless Gear (NYT)

"A global standard for 5G wireless technology will not be finished before 2019, at the earliest. Companies worldwide must agree on how their networks talk to each other, so users’ mobile connections do not become patchy when traveling overseas. That involves lengthy negotiations over what type of radio waves the new technology should use, among other complicated global agreements, which can take years.

As a result, carriers, telecom equipment makers and tech companies are lobbying global-standard bodies and national lawmakers to promote their own technologies over rivals’, according to industry executives and telecom analysts. Because of this jockeying, a widespread rollout of 5G networks is not expected until well into the next decade."

5G Is a New Frontier for Mobile Carriers and Tech Companies - The New York Times

It’s a Phone, It’s a PC, It’s HP’s New Elite X3 Phablet - Digits - WSJ

Betting on Windows 10 and Continuum to leapfrog smartphone competitors -- expected to ship "toward the end of summer;" pricing to be announced. File under "Future collectors' item..." Also see HP hopes to shed history of misses with another try at a phone (CNet)

"Why is HP suddenly interested in the phone business? Building a device like the Elite X3 wasn’t possible even a year ago, said Ron Coughlin, HP’s president of personal systems. Now that it is, Mr. Coughlin said the company sees a future in a family of such devices.

“Multiple devices and multiple OSes are a huge pain points for consumers,” he said. “IT having to secure consumer devices is a huge pain point for the enterprise. For the first time technology is coordinating to solve those problems.”

As a phone, it’s respectable, with a 5.9-inch, 2,560×1,440 AMOLED display, a dual SIM slot that’s good for international travelers, and dual front-facing speakers created in collaboration with Bang & Olufsen. On front, there’s an 8-megapixel camera; on the rear, there’s a 16-megapixel camera."

It’s a Phone, It’s a PC, It’s HP’s New Elite X3 Phablet - Digits - WSJ

With Elite x3, HP Takes Windows Phone to the Enterprise - Thurrott.com

Better never than late?...

"So we’ll see. We’ll see whether the Elite x3 is the start of a new direction for Windows phone, and whether Microsoft’s erstwhile mobile efforts can finally find success outside of the smartphone norm. But regardless of what does happen with the platform, HP has shown that it’s possible for a company other than Microsoft/Nokia to make a truly kick-ass Windows phone. And I’m curious how or if the rumored Surface phone could even match what HP has accomplished here. Indeed, the x3 makes the very notion of a Surface phone a whole lot murkier."

With Elite x3, HP Takes Windows Phone to the Enterprise - Thurrott.com

Privacy: The DOJ is Playing With Fire | Monday Note

Check the full post from Jean-Louis Gassée for more details

"Authoritarian dreamers have to let go of their dangerous fixations on imaginary solutions. Backdoors For Good Guys Only is pliable material for chest-thumping politicians, but legitimate leaders must have the courage to tell the plain truth: It won’t work, it’ll only hurt good people."

Privacy: The DOJ is Playing With Fire | Monday Note

How Technology Could Identify and Stop Fraud in the Future - The Atlantic

Check the full article for details on additional things we may soon delegate to machine learning systems

"Humans are startlingly bad at detecting fraud. Even when we’re on the lookout for signs of deception, studies show, our accuracy is hardly better than chance.

Technology has opened the door to new and more pervasive forms of fraud: Americans lose an estimated $50 billion a year to con artists around the world, according to the Financial Fraud Research Center at Stanford University. But because computers aren’t subject to the foibles of emotion and what we like to call “intuition,” they can also help protect us. Here’s how leading fraud researchers, neuroscientists, psychiatrists, and computer scientists think technology can be put to work to fight fraud however it occurs—in person, online, or over the phone."

How Technology Could Identify and Stop Fraud in the Future - The Atlantic

Windows Phone sales have almost ground to a halt (Engadget)

Check the full post for more Gartner smartphone market dynamics

"Gartner has released its smartphone stats for Q4 2015 and the news is especially bad for Microsoft. In Q4 2014, the software giant owned 2.8 percent of the smartphone market -- not great, but still good enough for around 10 million units sold. In the same quarter of 2015, however, Windows Phone sales fell to 4.4 million, giving the OS a mere 1.1 percent of the total market. That means that it's basically in a death spiral, as consumers and app developers alike lose interest. Microsoft's rumored Surface Phone now looks like its last hope to rescue the division."

Windows Phone sales have almost ground to a halt

Burned by Kinect’s Fizzle, Microsoft Is Taking Its Time With HoloLens | Re/code

World-readiness criteria tbd

"After seeing Kinect fail to connect with consumers despite strong early sales, Alex Kipman refuses to put a time frame on when Microsoft will start selling its augmented reality device, HoloLens, to consumers.

“When I feel the world is ready, then we will allow normal people to buy it,” Kipman said Thursday, speaking to reporters at the TED conference in Vancouver. “It could be as soon as we say ‘yes,’ and it could be as long as a ‘very long time.'”"

Burned by Kinect’s Fizzle, Microsoft Is Taking Its Time With HoloLens | Re/code

New York’s futuristic new pay phones don’t require any payment at all - The Washington Post

Bartering bandwidth for advertising access

"The name "pay phone" doesn't quite do it justice, of course. Yes, the city's LinkNYC terminals will allow you to make domestic phone calls. But they'll also let you surf the Web, pull up online maps and connect to city services like 311 and 911. And all of it will be free, thanks to built-in advertising.

Powering these features is a series of Android tablets that are built into each of the LinkNYC terminals that are now in use. More terminals will be switched on this summer across the city, making a total of 510 LinkNYC spots. Over the next eight years, as many as 7,500 stations will be built to replace New York's pay phone network."

New York’s futuristic new pay phones don’t require any payment at all - The Washington Post

Why Carriers Want to Delete WhatsApp - Bloomberg Business

Evolutionary externalities

"In the long run, say some industry analysts, WhatsApp and other alternatives shouldn’t be seen as a threat to the voice service of phone companies. The typically superior sound quality of the voice calls in the apps uses lots of data. “If carriers price their data offerings correctly, it could drive up revenues,” says John Delaney, an analyst at researcher IDC. And when people graduate to video apps like Skype, data consumption grows exponentially. Says Delaney, “What carriers resent is investing heavily and having others piggyback on their investments.”"

Why Carriers Want to Delete WhatsApp - Bloomberg Business

Cable companies: The FCC may force us to make your life more difficult - The Washington Post

Spin different; also see Competition for Your Set-Top Box? Here's Who Wins and Loses (Bloomberg Business)

"The gloomy forecasts are aimed at deflating efforts by the Federal Communications Commission to allow outside companies, such as those from the tech industry, to build their own competing cable boxes and apps. Industry officials are attempting to convince the FCC that its actions will create new costs for cable companies — costs they will not hesitate to pass along to the consumer.

“Consumers will end up paying,” executives from the industry told the agency in a filing last week. They added that “someone will need to develop and pay for new technologies and specifications” that meet the FCC’s requirements."

Cable companies: The FCC may force us to make your life more difficult - The Washington Post

Apple Admits Mistake for ‘Error 53’ iPhone Bricking, Offers Fix - Digits - WSJ

Check the full article for restoration and reimbursement links, if you encountered Error 53

"The Error 53 message started appearing on a number of iPhones after a new version of the iOS operating system landed on devices last month. If the update determined that the fingerprint sensor was installed outside of Apple, the Error 53 message appeared and locked the phone owners out of their devices.

The whole thing was a mistake, Apple said in a statement on Thursday. “We apologize for any inconvenience, this was designed to be a factory test and was not intended to affect customers,” Apple said.

Previously, Apple said that Error 53 “is necessary to protect your device and prevent a fraudulent Touch ID sensor from being used.”"

Apple Admits Mistake for ‘Error 53’ iPhone Bricking, Offers Fix - Digits - WSJ

IBM Buys Truven, Adding to Growing Trove of Patient Data at Watson Health - The New York Times

A $2.6B expansion for IBM's Watson Health initiative

"The Truven acquisition, Mr. Kelly added, rounds out the range of data assets and data management capabilities in health care that IBM had in mind when it established the Watson Health unit. Explorys and Phytel, he said, brought mostly data from patients’ electronic medical records. The $1 billion purchase of Merge Healthcare, a medical-imaging software company, added expertise in managing health image data, which is steadily growing in importance, Mr. Kelly said.

Truven, he said, contributes vital payment information on patients. And payment records include detailed coding on disease types, diagnosis, drugs prescribed and clues to outcomes if, say, a patient does not respond to one treatment and is given another.

“It’s a very key cog to give us one of the most complete data sets on patients and health care in the world,” Mr. Kelly said."

IBM Buys Truven, Adding to Growing Trove of Patient Data at Watson Health - The New York Times

Why Apple Is Right to Challenge an Order to Help the F.B.I. - The New York Times

Also see Apple’s Line in the Sand Was Over a Year in the Making (NYT) and How Tim Cook Became a Bulwark for Digital Privacy (NYT)

"Some officials have proposed that phone and computer makers be required to maintain access or a “back door” to encrypted data on electronic devices. In October, the Obama administration said it would not seek such legislation, but the next president could have a different position.

Congress would do great harm by requiring such back doors. Criminals and domestic and foreign intelligence agencies could exploit such features to conduct mass surveillance and steal national and trade secrets. There’s a very good chance that such a law, intended to ease the job of law enforcement, would make private citizens, businesses and the government itself far less secure."

Why Apple Is Right to Challenge an Order to Help the F.B.I. - The New York Times

Google Translate Blog: From Amharic to Xhosa, introducing Translate in 13 new languages -- now over 100 in total!

Check the full post for additional details

"In 2006, we started with machine learning-based translations between English and Arabic, Chinese and Russian. Almost 10 years later, with today’s update, we now offer 103 languages that cover 99% of the online population.
The 13 new languages — Amharic, Corsican, Frisian, Kyrgyz, Hawaiian, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Luxembourgish, Samoan, Scots Gaelic, Shona, Sindhi, Pashto and Xhosa — help bring a combined 120 million new people to the billions who can already communicate with Translate all over the world.
So what goes into adding a new language? Beyond the basic criteria that it must be a written language, we also need a significant amount of translations in the new language to be available on the web. From there, we use a combination of machine learning, licensed content and Translate Community."

Google Translate Blog: From Amharic to Xhosa, introducing Translate in 13 new languages -- now over 100 in total!

After computer hack, L.A. hospital pays $17,000 in bitcoin ransom to get back medical records - The Washington Post

A multifaceted sign of the times

"Stefanek also said that reports of the ransom payment were greatly exaggerated.

“The reports of the hospital paying 9000 Bitcoins or $3.4 million are false,” the statement said. “The amount of ransom requested was 40 Bitcoins, equivalent to approximately $17,000.”

For a 434-bed hospital with more than 500 doctors that’s generated as much as $209 million in yearly revenue, perhaps that wasn’t so much. But wasn’t any amount too much? Could anonymous computer wizards potentially compromise care and get away with it?

Yes."

After computer hack, L.A. hospital pays $17,000 in bitcoin ransom to get back medical records - The Washington Post

Facebook Will Open Up Instant Articles Platform to All Publishers | Re/code

Tangentially, see Yahoo Closes Online Magazines, a Costly Experiment by Marissa Mayer (NYT) and New Yorker Editor David Remnick Makes the Case for Magazines in a Facebook Era (Re/code)

"Here’s the one thing that interests me: Facebook says it is opening up Instant Articles to publishers of “all sizes.” And when I asked reps there if that included one-person operations — that is, someone typing their own stuff on a Tumblr page or Medium page or whatever — they said yes, with a tiny bit of hesitation.

Actually, every time I asked a Facebook rep about that theory they would take pains to point me to “Notes,” a little-known product that allows Facebook users to create posts that look like Medium posts. But Notes isn’t positioned as a place for professional publishers to distribute their stuff. It’s supposed to let you “recap your summer vacation or an important time in your life to update the people you care about.”"

Facebook Will Open Up Instant Articles Platform to All Publishers | Re/code

The Most Important Apple Executive You’ve Never Heard Of (BloombergBusiness)

From a profile of Apple's SVP for hardware technologies

"At the center of all this is Srouji, 51, an Israeli who joined Apple after jobs at Intel and IBM. He’s compact, he’s intense, and he speaks Arabic, Hebrew, and French. His English is lightly accented and, when the subject has anything to do with Apple, nonspecific bordering on koanlike. “Hard is good. Easy is a waste of time,” he says when asked about increasingly thin iPhone designs. “The chip architects at Apple are artists, the engineers are wizards,” he answers another question. He’ll elaborate a bit when the topic is general. “When designers say, ‘This is hard,’ ” he says, “my rule of thumb is if it’s not gated by physics, that means it’s hard but doable.”"

The Most Important Apple Executive You’ve Never Heard Of

Texting While Walking Isn’t Funny Anymore - WSJ

Later in the article: "“There is no cure for stupidity,” says Ms. Jain. But the same technology that created the problem could also play a role in its solution, she says, by suppressing distractions and alerting us to dangers."

"I crunched data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission and discovered that emergency room visits involving distracted pedestrians using cellphones were up 124% in 2014 from 2010—and up 10-fold from 2006. The increase was consistent with an analysis by Jack Nasar, a professor of city and regional planning at Ohio State University, who found a big uptick in cases between 2005 and 2010.

Some researchers now blame portable electronic gadgets for 10% of pedestrian injuries, and a half-dozen deaths a year. While distracted driving leads to more severe harm, incidents involving texting walkers are more common."

Texting While Walking Isn’t Funny Anymore - WSJ

Free Tools to Keep Those Creepy Online Ads From Watching You - The New York Times

From a high-level review of four leading "tracker busters"

"“More than just being creepy, it’s a huge violation of privacy,” said Cooper Quintin, a privacy advocate for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights nonprofit that also offers the anti-tracking tool Privacy Badger. “People need to be able to read things and do things and talk about things without having to worry that they’re being watched or recorded somewhere.” 

We took a close look at four free privacy tools: Ghostery, Disconnect, RedMorph and Privacy Badger. We tested them with the Google Chrome browser on the top 20 news websites, including Yahoo News, CNN, The Huffington Post and The New York Times."

Free Tools to Keep Those Creepy Online Ads From Watching You - The New York Times

Why Apple’s Tim Cook shouldn’t crack the iPhone for the FBI - The Boston Globe

Also see Google CEO Pichai Lends Apple Support on Encryption (WSJ), Apple’s Principled Stand (Tech.pinions), and Apple’s Stance Highlights a More Confrontational Tech Industry (NYT), which notes "But if the confrontation has crystallized in this latest battle, it may already be heading toward a predictable conclusion: In the long run, the tech companies are destined to emerge victorious."

"If Pym’s order stands, every US tech company is one court order away from sacrificing its customers’ privacy. American firms could lose billions in sales as consumers worldwide seek out alternative products from companies that US courts can’t touch. The popular secret-message program Telegram, for example, comes from Germany; the file encryption software maker Silent Circle is based in Switzerland. Good luck with those subpoenas.

The files on Farook’s phone may or may not contain valuable evidence. But the phone has already told investigators who Farook called and when, as well as the Internet sites he visited. That data, which could identify other terrorists, is on file, unencrypted, at the phone company, available to any police officer with a court order."

Why Apple’s Tim Cook shouldn’t crack the iPhone for the FBI - The Boston Globe

Alphabet Rebrands Google Ideas as Jigsaw | Re/code

Check this Eric Schmidt (Medium) post for details

"Google Ideas, one of the pet projects of former Google CEO and current Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt, will now be called Jigsaw, becoming the tenth unit inside of Google’s holding company, Alphabet. Jared Cohen, the guy who ran Google Ideas, will serve as president of Jigsaw.

Jigsaw is where Google thinks up ways to solve the world’s biggest problems, like privacy or Web security or even money laundering. Among the other challenges Jigsaw is trying to solve: Organized crime, police brutality, human trafficking and terrorism."

Alphabet Rebrands Google Ideas as Jigsaw | Re/code

If you hate telemarketers, you’ll love this robot designed to waste their time - The Washington Post

The battle of the telemarketing bots

"Anyone frustrated with telemarketers may have a new best friend. A Los Angeles man with an unusual passion for phone systems created a new robotic answering service that wastes telemarketers’ time.

Roger Anderson started the Jolly Roger Telephone, which lets users start a three-way call with the service so they can listen gleefully as the bot rambles on. It’s designed to provide entertainment and empowerment for everyone who has grown weary of the phone calls. Its first question of the telemarketers is often, “Is this a real person?”"

If you hate telemarketers, you’ll love this robot designed to waste their time - The Washington Post

Cloud Computing May Be Hampering Tech Spending: Analyst Report - Digits - WSJ

Perhaps more "redirecting" than "hampering" spending

"Mr. Keirstead noted in the report that Microsoft Corp.’s Azure has evolved into the clear No. 2 public-cloud platform behind Amazon.com’s Amazon Web Services. Microsoft’s cloud offering is good enough to appeal to a large portion of existing customers of the company’s on-premises software, he wrote, even though it has “70%-75% of the service breadth and functionality of AWS.”

“Not everybody needs every feature,” Gartner analyst David Smith agreed.

The competing Google Cloud Platform has slipped to a “distant” No. 3 in the market, Mr. Keirstead wrote, in part because customers and vendors said it was only good at niche services such as transmitting video content and processing big data."

Cloud Computing May Be Hampering Tech Spending: Analyst Report - Digits - WSJ

Virtual Reality Companies Look to Science Fiction for Their Next Play - The New York Times

Interesting times

"Magic Leap, based in Dania Beach, Fla., and which counts Google as one of its big investors, has gone even further than most companies by hiring three science fiction and fantasy writers on staff. Its most famous sci-fi recruit is Neal Stephenson, who depicted the virtual world of the Metaverse in his seminal 1992 novel “Snow Crash.”

In an interview, Mr. Stephenson — whose title is chief futurist — declined to say what he was working on at Magic Leap, describing it as one of several “content projects” underway at the company.

More broadly, Mr. Stephenson said science fiction books and movies are often useful within tech companies for rallying employees around a shared vision."

Virtual Reality Companies Look to Science Fiction for Their Next Play - The New York Times

Apple Chief Calls Court Order to Unlock iPhone ‘Unprecedented Step’ - The New York Times

Check the customer letter for more details

"Timothy D. Cook, the chief executive of Apple, has released a statement in which he says that a court order that directs the company to help the F.B.I. unlock an iPhone could threaten the privacy of its customers.

Mr. Cook’s statement, a letter to Apple customers, was posted on the company’s website on Tuesday night, several hours after a judge in California ordered Apple to unlock an iPhone used by one of the gunmen in the December attack in San Bernardino, Calif, that killed 14 people.

In his statement, Mr. Cook called the court order an “unprecedented step” on the part of the United States government and he said that Apple would not comply."

Apple Chief Calls Court Order to Unlock iPhone ‘Unprecedented Step’ - The New York Times

An old-school reply to an advertiser’s retro threat - FT.com

The head of marketing and communications at Hewlett Packard Enterprise gets a public reminder about the purpose of journalism

"You say the FT management should think about “unacceptable biases” and its relationship with its advertisers. My piece was not biased and I fear you misunderstand our business model. It is my editors’ steadfast refusal to consider the impact of stories on advertisers that makes us the decent newspaper we are. It is why I want to go on working here. It is why the FT goes on paying me.
Secondly, you seem to think your boss must be right because she runs a big company and knows about restructuring. In my experience people in big jobs occasionally say things that are a bit off. Then not only is it my job as a columnist to point it out, but yours too, as a member of her top team."

An old-school reply to an advertiser’s retro threat - FT.com

Amazon shows its artsy side with 'The New Yorker Presents' series (Q&A) - CNET

Check the full article for an interview with two of the show's creators

""The New Yorker Presents" marks the first time Amazon has created a news magazine show for its burgeoning streaming service. The Seattle-based company is fighting, along with rival Netflix, to grab more viewers by pushing into higher-quality original programming. Amazon has so far made a mark with "Transparent" and "Mozart in the Jungle," both Golden Globe winners. The company is hoping this new series is another success.

Debuting Tuesday, "The New Yorker Presents" is intended to be as eclectic as the iconic publication on which it's based. There are cartoons, investigative documentaries and a lot of the periodical's dry wit."

Amazon shows its artsy side with 'The New Yorker Presents' series (Q&A) - CNET

The VR View-Master 2.0 Will Be the Best Google Cardboard You Can Buy (Gizmodo)

In other Mattel news, see Mattel’s $300 3D printer lets you design and create your own toys (The Verge)

"Last year Mattel completely re-invented the View-Master by turning it into what eventually became one of the better Google Cardboard solutions on the market. For $30 it was cheap, comfortable, and held almost any smartphone available. And this year Mattel will be introducing a new model that fixes all the original’s minor problems."

The VR View-Master 2.0 Will Be the Best Google Cardboard You Can Buy

Microsoft Services are available on more devices than ever before through Agreements with Device Partners - The Official Microsoft Blog

Embrace and extend, c2016

"Last spring, we made access to Microsoft apps and services on mobile devices easier for customers through strategic agreements with 31 global and local OEMs and top original device manufacturer partners to pre-install Microsoft Office, OneDrive and Skype on Android tablets. Today I’m excited to announce that there are now 74 hardware partners in 25 countries who are making Microsoft productivity applications and services available on their Android tablets and phones. These partners offer or will soon offer Android devices pre-installed with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype. Office and Microsoft services are available on a wide variety of Android devices today, such as the LG G Pad 2, Samsung Galaxy S6, Sony Xperia Z4 and many other tablets and phones offered by our partners. Specific offerings may vary by device."

Microsoft Services are available on more devices than ever before through Agreements with Device Partners - The Official Microsoft Blog

Elon Musk admits the Tesla Model X was overly ambitious — but still ‘the best car ever’ - The Washington Post

Check the full article for a case study in successfully managing expectations

""In retrospect, it would've been a better decision to do fewer things with the first version of Model X and roll out" new features more slowly over time, Musk told investors on a conference call. "I think there was some hubris there with the X."

Despite all that, Musk quickly added that all the Model X's features add up to "the best car ever" — an extremely ambitious vehicle that no other automaker would dare attempt.

"I'm not sure Tesla would make a car like this again," he joked."

Elon Musk admits the Tesla Model X was overly ambitious — but still ‘the best car ever’ - The Washington Post

Peach Is a Great New App You Definitely Don’t Need - Bloomberg Business

A stark messaging startup reality check

"Before cratering, each of these apps boasted a new mode of digital interaction that might have been better than current favorites, if only they’d been given more of a chance. But there’s no air for alternatives to breathe—not with Facebook to keep tabs on friends (and frenemies), Twitter for news (and self-promotion), and Instagram for sharing photos (and humble brags). Then there’s LinkedIn for professional development, WhatsApp for messaging, and Snapchat for anything else we wouldn’t want published to posterity. We’ve settled into a world where we’re good with the apps we have, thank you very much. Which is too bad: Just because an app can’t take away market share from Facebook—a suicide mission from the start—doesn’t mean it can’t add value. “I always love seeing new experiments,” says famed investor Marc Andreessen, who won’t say if he has money in Peach."

Peach Is a Great New App You Definitely Don’t Need - Bloomberg Business

Twitter, to Save Itself, Must Scale Back World-Swallowing Ambitions - The New York Times

Tweet different; also see Twitter User Growth Stalls, and the Chief Pledges to Make Fixes (NYT)

"Instead of aiming for something like Facebook, Twitter could mold itself on some other template for success. It could become a venture like Wikipedia, run by a nonprofit that depends on donations, or a business like The New York Times Company, a publicly traded enterprise controlled by a family that has a preference for journalistic ambition.

In other words, Twitter should make clear that there are limits to the scope of its business ambitions, and that it is guided by a philosophical bias for the health of the service over an ambition to grow at any cost."

Twitter, to Save Itself, Must Scale Back World-Swallowing Ambitions - The New York Times

Marc Andreessen Compares Free Basics in India to Colonialism | Re/code

Check the full article for a case study in how not to use Twitter; see this tweet series for some constructive context-setting

"Venture capitalist and well-known Twitter philosopher Marc Andreessen made a few enemies Tuesday night. Okay, a lot of enemies.

That’s because Andreessen, a Facebook board member, took to Twitter to defend the company’s Free Basics service, which offers users some free Internet services. It was recently banned by Indian regulators for violating the concept of net neutrality.

The discussion started off with Andreessen calling the ban “morally wrong.”"

Marc Andreessen Compares Free Basics in India to Colonialism | Re/code

Twitter Will Offer Selected Tweets to Keep Users Coming Back - The New York Times

Hopefully a Twitter signal-to-noise ratio improvement; tbd how the #RIPTwitter community will respond; also see Twitter Tweaks the Timeline, but It’s Not the End (WSJ)

"The company, based in San Francisco, announced on Wednesday that it would start showing a selection of tweets that a user who has been away from the service might want to see.

“There are lots of people on Twitter who follow hundreds or even thousands of accounts,” Jeff Seibert, Twitter’s senior director of product, said in an interview. “When they come back to Twitter, there’s actually too much for them to catch up on.”

Tweets in this update can come from any time, from minutes to hours ago. The idea is to put important tweets up top so the user does not have to wade through less interesting information."

Twitter Will Offer Selected Tweets to Keep Users Coming Back - The New York Times

Tech Stocks Have Fallen Faster and Further Than Broader Market - The New York Times

A big day ahead for Twitter; also see Twitter isn’t Facebook, but Wall Street expects it to be. That’s a problem. (The Washington Post)

"The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is down 9.4 percent this year. The index’s technology components are down about 12 percent, and the closely watched so-called FANG stocks — Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google — are down even further, falling 17 percent on average this year after an 83 percent rise in 2015.

“They go faster on the way up, they go faster on the way down. That’s about as simple as I can make it,” said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners.

Shares of Twitter, the popular social media service, for example, are down about 40 percent so far this year. And some analysts worry it could tumble even more after the company announces quarterly results Wednesday afternoon."

Tech Stocks Have Fallen Faster and Further Than Broader Market - The New York Times

Official Google Blog: Building a safer web, for everyone

Check the full post for an overview of five focus areas

"Today is Safer Internet Day, a moment for technology companies, nonprofit organizations, security firms, and people around the world to focus on online safety, together. To mark the occasion, we’re rolling out new tools, and some useful reminders, to help protect you from online dangers of all stripes—phishing, malware, and other threats to your personal information."

Official Google Blog: Building a safer web, for everyone

Apple's Notes for Mac to support Evernote file imports in OS X 10.11.4

Noteworthy

"The new Evernote compatibility comes as part of Apple's Notes buildout, a project that most recently resulted in substantial feature upgrades on iOS 9 and OS X last year. Adding to a rich in-app note-taking toolset, .enex file support means enhanced flexibility for those invested in Evernote's platform. Alternatively, the additional support might also be a play to grow Notes adoption, as a recent AppleInsider reader poll revealed Evernote as the most popular third-party note-taking solution."

Apple's Notes for Mac to support Evernote file imports in OS X 10.11.4

Andy Rubin Unleashed Android on the World. Now Watch Him Do the Same With AI | WIRED

Also see If Artificial Intelligence Kills Us All, I'm Blaming Android Founder Andy Rubin (Gizmodo)

"Playground’s ambitions extend far beyond building individual gadgets or even individual companies. Rubin wants Playground to become the factory that creates the standard building blocks—the basic quartermaster’s inventory of components—for the AI-infused future. And he wants to open up this platform of hardware and software tools so that anyone, not just the companies he works with directly, can create an intelligent device. If he’s successful, Playground stands to have the same kind of impact on smart machines that Android had on smartphones, providing the technological infrastructure for thousands of products and giving a generation of entrepreneurs the ability to build a smart drone. Or a house’s worth of intelligent appliances. Or, hell, a full-fledged robot."

Andy Rubin Unleashed Android on the World. Now Watch Him Do the Same With AI | WIRED

Donate Your Old USB Drives to Fight North Korean Brainwashing | WIRED

Interesting times

"Late last week, the New York-based Human Rights Foundation and the Silicon Valley nonprofit Forum 280 launched Flash Drives for Freedom, an initiative to collect USB flash drive donations from Americans and then ship those slices of silicon to North Korean defector groups. The Korean activist organizations, starting with the Seoul-based non-profit North Korean Strategy Center, will then fill the drives with Western and South Korean films and TV shows and smuggle them across the border into North Korea, where their contraband contents can break Kim Jong-un’s ban on all foreign media. The glimpse of the outside world that those TV shows and films provide is meant to dispel the ideology and illusions the Kim regime depends on to control its populace: that the outside world is poor, dangerous, hostile, and inferior to North Korea."

Donate Your Old USB Drives to Fight North Korean Brainwashing | WIRED

Wired Is Launching an Ad-Free Website to Appease Ad Blockers - Bloomberg Business

Likely a trendsetter

"More than 1 in 5 people who visit Wired Magazine’s website use ad-blocking software. Starting in the next few weeks, the magazine will give those readers a choice: stop blocking ads, pay to look at a version of the site that is unsullied by advertisements, or go away. It’s the kind of move that was widely predicted last fall after Apple allowed ad-blocking in the new version of its mobile software, but most publishers have shied away from it so far."

Wired Is Launching an Ad-Free Website to Appease Ad Blockers - Bloomberg Business

Facebook's Sports Stadium Is No Threat Yet To Twitter's Live Event Dominance (Marketing Land)

Also see Facebook's Sports Stadium Is Having a Rough Super Bowl And users are airing frustrations on Twitter (Adweek)

"The company’s Sports Stadium product struggled for much of Sunday’s game. So-called “live” updates often lagged several minutes behind the actual game action and, at one point in the first half, the live updates stopped altogether for an extended period of time.

Sports Stadium is the live experience that Facebook launched last month as a real-time hub to let users connect while talking about live events on Facebook. In the big picture, though, its purpose is to show the world — consumers, brands, celebrities and more — that real-time conversation happens on Facebook and doesn’t belong solely to Twitter.

Here’s how Facebook tried to capture the Super Bowl conversation in real-time on Sunday."

Facebook's Sports Stadium Is No Threat Yet To Twitter's Live Event Dominance

Roasting Toaster Fridges | Monday Note

Jean-Louis Gassée shares his Surface Pro 4 and iPad Pro impressions

"A longish exploration of two hybrid devices, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 and Apple’s iPad Pro.
The short version: The Microsoft product is a decent laptop but it’s better as a tablet. The iPad Pro is also not a laptop replacement, but it’s a substantial enhancement of the tablet genre, thanks to a better/bigger screen, a very good stylus, and plenty of processing power. This leads to a brief speculation on the future of OS X and iOS."

Roasting Toaster Fridges | Monday Note

I Want Amazon Bookstores - The Wayfinder - Hugh C. Howey

Check the full post for nine more Amazon points from author Hugh Howey

"Here are a few things that the anti-Amazon crowd don’t seem to get and why they are going to be surprised and completely wrong about all their prognosticating:
1) Online retail accounts for 8% of total retail. EIGHT PERCENT. Amazon might own half of this. That leaves another 92% to grab a slice of. Even if they only grab 4% of this massive chunk, that’s a doubling of their retail business! Amazon is not foolish to enter a segment where 92% of the action lies. Instead, look at them as the classic disruptor: Setting up a beachhead in the low-margin and low-startup cost end of a sector before moving upstream. That’s exactly what they would be doing by moving into physical retail. And guess what? They already have the hub-and-spoke distribution network in place to feed that retail system. Not going the last mile to customers will be an increase in efficiency, not a decrease."

I Want Amazon Bookstores - The Wayfinder - Hugh C. Howey

Twitter's Challenge: Updating a Product Users Love to Hate - Bloomberg Business

Tumultuous Twitter times

"The problem with the crowd: They seem to agree Twitter is flawed, but they don’t have a solution, and they don’t like change. Twitter can’t afford to listen only to its most vocal users. The company has a sweet spot among celebrities, politicians, journalists and other commentators; to scale beyond that, it needs to listen to the data that comes in from product testing. And fast."

Twitter's Challenge: Updating a Product Users Love to Hate - Bloomberg Business

Death To The Dumb Phone: Soon, Nearly 80% Of Mobile Phones In The US Will Be Smartphones [Marketing Land]

One of the smartphone market stats referenced in this summary: Facebook and Google together control 8 of the top 10 U.S. smartphone apps

"Facebook’s app is the most popular one for smartphones: it’s installed on more than 75 percent of them in the US. Facebook Messenger has risen to number two. Google has six of the top 15, including apps 3 through 7. YouTube is the most widely distributed Google app, according to comScore."

Death To The Dumb Phone: Soon, Nearly 80% Of Mobile Phones In The US Will Be Smartphones

Atlassian, the Last Good Tech IPO of 2015, Tops Analyst Estimates | Re/code

Check this Atlassian release for details

"The company estimates between $113 million and $115 million in revenue for the current quarter and between five and six cents of profit per share. Analysts were anticipating guidance of $107 million and three cents per share for the quarter. For the full fiscal year ending June 30, Atlassian projects revenue in the range of $443 million to $447 million, with earnings per share between 30 and 31 cents, beating analyst estimates of $425 million and 19 cents a share.

All in all, Atlassian’s numbers from this quarter show 45 percent growth from the same quarter last year."

Atlassian, the Last Good Tech IPO of 2015, Tops Analyst Estimates | Re/code

Six Degrees of Separation? Facebook Finds a Smaller Number - The New York Times

Check this Facebook post for the research project details

"The new statistic is as much a testament to the growing popularity of Facebook as it is to a steadily shrinking human social world. The calculation includes only connections between the network’s 1.59 billion users, ignoring the approximately 5.7 billion other humans who have yet to set up accounts. (In July, the United Nations estimated that the current world population to be 7.3 billion.)

If you are logged into Facebook, the blog post will tell you your average degree of separation “from everyone.” The number is an estimate derived from statistical algorithms and not, as it seems, an intrusive estimate of the reach of your friends and family. According to the post, Facebook users in the United States are connected by an average of 3.46 people."

Six Degrees of Separation? Facebook Finds a Smaller Number - The New York Times

LinkedIn Shares Plummet After Sales Outlook Trails Estimates - Bloomberg Business

Another case study in the importance of managing and meeting expectations

"LinkedIn Corp. shares lost almost a third of their value after the professional networking site forecast a year of slower revenue growth amid signs of weakness in sales of advertising and marketing tools.
Revenue will be about $820 million in the first quarter, and $3.6 billion to $3.65 billion for 2016, the company said in a statement Thursday. That missed analysts’ average estimate for $867.1 million and $3.9 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. LinkedIn had 414 million users in the fourth quarter, up from 396 million in the prior period."

LinkedIn Shares Plummet After Sales Outlook Trails Estimates - Bloomberg Business

Apple market cap passes Alphabet-Google - Business Insider

For a timely post on why this is ultimately not a very meaningful competitive context, see Valuations and Trajectories (Tech.pinions)

"Apple is once again the world's most valuable company.

The iPhone maker lost the title to Alphabet earlier this week after Google's parent company posted better-than-expected earnings on Monday.

But Alphabet is down over 3% on Wednesday morning, while Apple has stayed flat. The result: Alphabet currently has a market capitalization of just over $500 billion, while Apple's is up around $525 billion."

An excerpt from the Tech.pinions post:

"Ultimately, the stock market valuations of companies reflect analysts’ assumptions about the trajectories of those companies, their sustainability, and their predictability, rather than an objective measure of the current value of those companies. As such, comparing instantaneous valuations for two stocks and drawing broad conclusions from such comparisons is ridiculous on the face of it. And yet, we see so many overblown pieces about the significance of these transitions, all of which look a little silly the morning after, when the first- and second-place companies have switched places again. Yes, it’s worthwhile to have a conversation about why one company seems to be rising and another falling, but focusing too much on who’s in first place risks missing the point."

Apple market cap passes Alphabet-Google - Business Insider

Dataflow/Beam & Spark: A Programming Model Comparison - Cloud Dataflow — Google Cloud Platform

Beaming with pride; see the full post for a detailed programming model comparison

"There is no other system in existence which provides this degree of flexibility and power, period. Even better, because of the elegant and practical design of the model, that flexibility and power comes along with increased simplicity and clarity of code, all of which together translate into data parallel solutions that are much easier to build and maintain, cheaper to operate, and ultimately more effective at providing precisely the types of results increasingly demanded by modern business."

Dataflow/Beam & Spark: A Programming Model Comparison - Cloud Dataflow — Google Cloud Platform

Cisco to Pay $1.4 Billion for Internet-of-Things Company Jasper | Re/code

In search of more recurring revenue services

"Jasper had raised about $205 million in venture capital investments from Sequoia Capital and Benchmark and more recently from the private equity fund Temasek. Having reached a valuation north of $1 billion, it was considered a candidate for an IPO.

The company makes cloud-based control software that helps companies connect machinery and equipment ranging from vending machines to farming equipment on the Internet. Among its 3,500 customers are the GPS company Garmin, greeting card giant Hallmark and the jet engine manufacturing division of GE.

In a statement, Cisco said it intends to build upon Jasper’s efforts by adding industrial-grade Wi-Fi and improving its ability to analyze data gathered from devices."

Cisco to Pay $1.4 Billion for Internet-of-Things Company Jasper | Re/code

Mall Executive Backtracks From Statement on Amazon Retail Stores - The New York Times

So maybe not an Amazon store coming to a mall near you -- at least not a General Growth Properties mall -- real soon now; also see Meet the Guy Behind Amazon’s Secret Retail Store Plans (Re/code)

"While a reversal of sorts, Mr. Mathrani’s statement on Wednesday was not technically a retraction; he did not say his earlier comment was inaccurate.

In fact, it is true that Amazon intends to open more bookstores, according to a person briefed on the matter who asked for anonymity because the plans are confidential. But Mr. Mathrani dramatically overstated the number, this person said."

Mall Executive Backtracks From Statement on Amazon Retail Stores - The New York Times

Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but It Is Still in the Game - The New York Times

A Dropbox reality check

"So what’s really going on at Dropbox? Is it thriving or dying?

Neither one, yet. When you look inside the company, you find something that defies Silicon Valley’s typical straight-up or straight-down narrative: a complicated story of incremental and potentially accelerating success, but one clouded by outsize dreams of yesteryear.

It’s a fate that other Silicon Valley start-ups may be facing, especially with the dip in public and private markets for funding tech ventures. Dropbox’s problems have less to do with the strength of its current business than with a delay, so far, in realizing the towering expectations that once surrounded the company. The start-up is like the college basketball star who manages to turn pro but is still regarded with doubt because everyone has now realized he might never be the next LeBron James. What happens to a company once thought to be worth $10 billion when it turns out to be worth only $5 billion, or $2 billion?"

Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but It Is Still in the Game - The New York Times