New product! Raspberry Pi Zero W joins the family - Raspberry Pi

Available now for $10

"To recap, here’s the full feature list for Zero W:

• 1GHz, single-core CPU 
• 512MB RAM 
• Mini-HDMI port 
• Micro-USB On-The-Go port 
• Micro-USB power 
• HAT-compatible 40-pin header 
• Composite video and reset headers 
• CSI camera connector 
• 802.11n wireless LAN
• Bluetooth 4.0"

New product! Raspberry Pi Zero W joins the family - Raspberry Pi

The Messy Path to 5G | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

Check the full post for a 5G market dynamics reality check

"5G is critically important for several reasons. Not only will it offer major speed increases (up to multiple gigabits/second versus current averages of around 15-20 mbits/second), it will also reduce the delays, or latency, in network traffic, and it will dramatically increase the density and reliability of wireless networks.
The problem is, the messages being shared regarding this important new technology are quite different; in some cases, diametrically so. Not only the basic concepts, but the time lines, the capabilities, and the overall relevance. The result is a lot of confusion with regard to what exactly is coming, and when and what it all means."

The Messy Path to 5G | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

Business Giants to Announce Creation of a Computing System Based on Ethereum - The New York Times

The battle of the business blockchains

"IBM has made a particularly big push into the blockchain business, and it has been leading a separate collaborative project, known as the Hyperledger Foundation.

The new Ethereum alliance has been described by some of its backers as a way to ensure that the IBM-led blockchain effort is not the only option for businesses looking to use the technology. Other companies like R3 and Chain have also been developing alternative blockchains."

Business Giants to Announce Creation of a Computing System Based on Ethereum - The New York Times

SpaceX Plans to Send 2 Tourists Around Moon in 2018 - The New York Times

Extreme tourism

"SpaceX, the ambitious rocket company headed by Elon Musk, wants to send a couple of tourists around the moon and back to Earth before the end of next year. If they manage that feat, the passengers would be the first humans to venture that far into space in more than 40 years.

Mr. Musk made the announcement on Monday in a telephone news conference. He said two private individuals approached the company to see if SpaceX would be willing to send them on a weeklong cruise, which would fly past the surface of the moon — but not land — and continue outward before gravity turned the spacecraft around and brought it back to Earth for a landing."

SpaceX Plans to Send 2 Tourists Around Moon in 2018 - The New York Times

Editorial: The future of Steve Jobs' iPad vision for Post-PC computing, part 2 (AppleInsider)

From an extensive iPad market reality check; also see part 1

"Most remarkable about Apple's iPad sales is that they are augmentative to growing Mac sales. Rather than trading its high end conventional PC sales for lower end tablets (as many PC makers have inadvertently done), Apple has effectively tripled its total computer sales by selling iPads to new users or for use in new roles, while also cultivating Mac sales among users who prefer its more complex, powerful and flexible environment.

While commonly praised as an inevitable and desirable outcome, the hybrid "two in one" convergence products that Microsoft and many of its licensees are trying to sell actually compromise in the wrong areas, resulting in products that are heavier and more complex than an ideal tablet but also can't command the same premium as a performance-oriented PC."

Editorial: The future of Steve Jobs' iPad vision for Post-PC computing, part 2

Buffett's bite of Apple even bigger than was thought - seattlepi.com

Also see Time To Sell Apple? Warren Buffett Says 'No,' But Al Gore Thinks So (Forbes)

"The billionaire investor said on CNBC Monday that Berkshire Hathaway now holds about 133 million shares of Apple after buying yet more of the company's stock this year. That's more than double stake that Berkshire revealed earlier this month.
Buffett's aggressive buying spree at Apple caught many off guard because he has historically steered clear of technology companies. But Buffett says when he looks at Apple he sees a maker of consumer products, not technology.
While Buffett says Apple's iPhones are great, he still carries a basic flip phone."

Buffett's bite of Apple even bigger than was thought - seattlepi.com

Jimmy Kimmel tweets at Trump while presenting Oscars - CNET

Sign of the Twitter times; also see Twitter, Live, and Luck (Stratechery)

"Kimmel decided to keep it short and saccharine. In a modern way. "Hey @realDonaldTrump u up?"

He added a second message: "@realDonaldTrump #Merylsayshi." This was a reference to Trump's (no longer) favorite actress Meryl Streep, who had strafed him at the Golden Globes. 

The world waited to see if the president might offer one of his charming replies complete, perhaps, with at least one exclamation point."

Jimmy Kimmel tweets at Trump while presenting Oscars - CNET

Samsung Launch the Galaxy Book 10.6-inch and 12-inch: Windows Tablets with Kaby Lake (AnandTech)

Also see Samsung's new tablets are out to destroy the iPad Pro and Surface Pro 4 (Mashable)

"The announcements this year from Samsung are notably muted without the launch of a new Galaxy smartphone, but despite this being a mobile-focused conference in Barcelona this week, there were a few new Samsung devices to whet the appetite. The first is actually more of a PC, in a Windows-10 based tablet called the Galaxy Book, available in either 10.6-inch LCD or 12-inch Super AMOLED display, firing in the line of the Microsoft Surface range. Samsung is primarily aiming these new devices with a nod towards the professional market, but are keen to say that they’re suitable for consumers as well."

Samsung Launch the Galaxy Book 10.6-inch and 12-inch: Windows Tablets with Kaby Lake

The Google Assistant is coming to more Android phones (The Keyword)

Tbd if Samsung will try to keep its smartphone customers focused on Viv instead

"Everyone needs a helping hand sometimes. Enter the Google Assistant, which is conversational, personal and helps you get things done—from telling you about your day to taking a selfie. The Assistant is already available on Pixel, Google Home, Google Allo and Android Wear. Now we're bringing it to even more people. Starting this week, the Google Assistant is coming to smartphones running Android 7.0 Nougat and Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Whether you need to know how to say “nice to meet you” in Korean or just a simple reminder to do laundry when you get home, your Assistant can help. With the Google Assistant on Android phones, you have your own personal, helpful Google right in your pocket."

The Google Assistant is coming to more Android phones

Stowe Boyd — Google bails on the ill-fated Spaces

Adding to the long list of communication/collaboration apps/services Google has terminated

"Spaces was a place to share and discuss images, links, and posts. I never understood who it was supposed to be for. It’s not full-fledged blogging, not really a bookmarking repository, and not really Pinterest. And not integrated in any way with Keep.

Meanwhile, Google is not really investing in serious innovation around the tools people actually use everyday, like Gmail, Docs, Calendar, and so on."

Stowe Boyd — Google bails on the ill-fated Spaces

Microsoft hasn't turned a phone into a PC just yet - The Verge

Final sentence of the review: "Until Microsoft brings a full version of Windows 10 to this type of device, if it even can, it’s still little more than a technology demo and an unfulfilled dream."

"When Microsoft first revealed its plans to turn Windows phones into a PC it really felt like the future. Others, like Motorola and Asus, have tried and failed to market phones that attach to laptops and turn into a PC, and it seemed like Microsoft had a good grasp of what was required to make this a reality.

Nearly two years after that announcement, I’ve had the chance to try the latest version of Windows 10’s Continuum extensively with a HP Elite x3 smartphone. It’s arguably the best Windows phones available right now (which is admittedly a low bar to hit among such a small field), and HP is really pushing Microsoft’s Continuum feature with a separate Lapdock accessory that lets you connect the phone to what looks like an ultrabook and use apps just like you would on a Windows 10 laptop. As much as this all sounds like the future, it’s a future that isn’t ready and has frustrated me much more than a regular laptop would."

Microsoft hasn't turned a phone into a PC just yet - The Verge

Cloudflare bug causes customers' websites to leak sensitive data, no sign of hackers - Business Insider

Also see Serious Cloudflare bug exposed a potpourri of secret customer data (Ars Technica)

"A major software bug means that passwords from the world's biggest sites, including Fitbit, OKCupid, and Uber have been leaking for months.

Security researchers revealed the flaw in internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare's software on Thursday night.

Cloudflare said on Friday there was no sign yet the leak had been exploited by hackers, but security experts have said there is no way the company could know this.

Cloudflare hosts 6 million websites, spreading them across the internet to put them closer to customers while at the same time reducing their exposure to the so-called Distributed Denial of Service attacks that might knock them offline."

Cloudflare bug causes customers' websites to leak sensitive data, no sign of hackers - Business Insider

Google's Adoption of RCS Will Save Messaging on Android | WIRED

Google Messenger => Android Messages; also see Google wants businesses to text with its Android Messages service (Recode) and Android Messages will be the new default texting app Google wants you to use (The Verge)

"Google sees it differently. For the company with seemingly thousands of messaging platforms, each one with different features and different audiences, RCS presents an opportunity. It could help Android compete with WhatsApp and Facebook, as well as with Apple’s iMessage. iMessage is so appealing because it’s so simple: you just send a message, the same way and in the same app for everyone. It either sends with stickers and balloons to another iPhone user, or gracefully reverts to a simple text message for everyone else. The only difference is the bubble color. iMessage is one of the best (and hardest to leave) features of iOS, a reason lots of people pick iPhone in the first place. Google can’t simply build the same thing and force its success: if it goes to carriers and demand they use Allo, they’ll just say no. Since manufacturers can customize Android to their liking, Google has too woo them one by one as well.

Fortunately, Android’s marketshare is so large, particularly in developing countries, that anything supported across all Android devices would effectively be universal. If Google can convince everyone to play along, RCS offers all the new-fangled features users want, with a fallback to SMS for those who can’t use it. It could be effortless and foolproof. Just like iMessage. Just like texting."

Google's Adoption of RCS Will Save Messaging on Android | WIRED

HPE's Whitman Struggles in Shift to Smaller Size, Cloud Pressure - Bloomberg

Perhaps HPE should diversify by merging with a company that's doing better amid current market dynamics, e.g., HP Inc. (HPQ) Earnings & Revenues Surpass Estimates in Q1 (Zacks)

"Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.’s Meg Whitman, who has been working to transform the company into a more efficient corporate-technology provider, is being thwarted by rising supply costs and aggressive cloud rivals.

Whitman on Thursday cut the company’s adjusted profit forecast for the current fiscal year, missing analysts’ estimates. At the same time, Hewlett Packard Enterprise reported sales that missed projections for the third consecutive quarter. Though citing some challenges beyond her control, Whitman said she pushed some executives too hard while the information technology provider frees itself of underperforming businesses and finds new growth opportunities."

HPE's Whitman Struggles in Shift to Smaller Size, Cloud Pressure - Bloomberg

When computers learn to swear: Using machine learning for better online conversations (The Keyword)

Also see Google just made its troll-detecting software available to developers (The Verge)

"Perspective reviews comments and scores them based on how similar they are to comments people said were “toxic” or likely to make someone leave a conversation. To learn how to spot potentially toxic language, Perspective examined hundreds of thousands of comments that had been labeled by human reviewers. Each time Perspective finds new examples of potentially toxic comments, or is provided with corrections from users, it can get better at scoring future comments.

Publishers can choose what they want to do with the information they get from Perspective. For example, a publisher could flag comments for its own moderators to review and decide whether to include them in a conversation. Or a publisher could provide tools to help their community understand the impact of what they are writing—by, for example, letting the commenter see the potential toxicity of their comment as they write it. Publishers could even just allow readers to sort comments by toxicity themselves, making it easier to find great discussions hidden under toxic ones."

When computers learn to swear: Using machine learning for better online conversations

Google Self-Driving Car Unit Accuses Uber of Using Stolen Technology - The New York Times

Another busy week for Uber's PR and legal departments; tangentially, see Early Uber investors Mitch Kapor and Freada Kapor Klein say the company needs to change its ‘toxic’ culture patterns (Recode)

"In a federal court filing in San Francisco, Waymo said Anthony Levandowski, who runs Uber’s autonomous car division, downloaded 14,000 files from Google a month before leaving to start his own self-driving car company, Otto. Uber acquired Otto in August for $680 million, about seven months after Mr. Levandowski left Google.

“Otto and Uber have taken Waymo’s intellectual property so that they could avoid incurring the risk, time, and expense of independently developing their own technology,” the company said in the filing. “Ultimately, this calculated theft reportedly netted Otto employees over half a billion dollars and allowed Uber to revive a stalled program, all at Waymo’s expense.”"

Google Self-Driving Car Unit Accuses Uber of Using Stolen Technology - The New York Times

How Pinterest’s visual search went from a moonlight project to a real-world search engine | TechCrunch

For more details, see Engineering Shop the Look on Pinterest (Pinterest Engineering blog)

"“From a computer vision perspective we have a lot of images where visual search makes sense,” Zhai said. There’s this product/data-set fit. Users that come to Pinterest, they’re often in this visual discovery experience mode. We were in the right place at the right time where the technology was in the middle of a revolution, and we had our data set, and we’re very focused on iterating as quickly as we can and get user feedback as fast as we can.”

The end result was Lens, a product Pinterest launched earlier this month that allows users to basically point at an object in the real world with their camera and return search results for Pinterest. While a semi-beta was launched last year, Lens was the result of years of scrapped prototypes and product experimentation that eventually produced something that would hopefully turn the world collectively into a bunch of pins that were searchable through your camera, creative lead Albert Pereta said."

How Pinterest’s visual search went from a moonlight project to a real-world search engine | TechCrunch

Google's ride-sharing platform is expanding beyond the Bay Area (Engadget)

In other Uber news, see Inside Uber’s Aggressive, Unrestrained Workplace Culture (NYT)

"After successful tests of its casual carpool service in the Bay Area and Tel Aviv, Alphabet's combination navigation app and ride-sharing platform Waze is ready to expand beyond its first two test markets. According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, the Waze Rider companion app will launch new service in "several US cities" as well as Latin America over the next few months.

While Waze's carpool service is likely to take a chunk of Uber's business (which Alphabet is also invested in through it's venture capital arm Google Ventures), the Waze approach to ride-sharing is a little more casual. As Waze CEO Noam Bardin told the Wall Street Journal, "can we get the average person on his way to work to pick someone up and drop them off once in a while? That's the biggest challenge.""

Google's ride-sharing platform is expanding beyond the Bay Area

Tesla Keeping Model 3 Steady Overshadows CFO Exit, Cash Need - Bloomberg

Financially recharged; on a related "close to the edge" note, see SolarCity’s Ties to Foreclosure Cases Raise Questions on Vetting Policies (NYT)

"Elon Musk gave Tesla Inc. shareholders the welcome news he still plans to deliver his mass-market electric sedan in July, overwhelming any concern with disclosures the company’s chief financial officer is exiting and its finances would run “close to the edge” without another cash infusion.

The Model 3 electric sedan remains on schedule and will reach production of about 5,000 units per week by the end of the year, Tesla said Wednesday. Reassurances from Musk on the car’s timing should relieve fretting over whether the company can overcome its long history of product delays, as well as the impending departure of CFO Jason Wheeler, who joined the company 15 months ago from Google Inc."

Tesla Keeping Model 3 Steady Overshadows CFO Exit, Cash Need - Bloomberg

Google to sunset Google Site Search by end of 2017 (Search Engine Land)

Also see Google Plans To Discontinue Yet Another Product (Fortune)

"Google has confirmed with Search Engine Land that they are discontinuing support for Google Site Search product. Google Site Search is a paid product that lets you power your internal web site’s search engine based on the Google search technology. Google charges based on monthly query volume for the product.

Google said they are directing those consumers to either the ad-powered product named free custom search engine or the new cloud search product.

Google will stop fully supporting the Google Site Search product by the fourth-quarter of 2017."

Google to sunset Google Site Search by end of 2017

Manifestos and Monopolies – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

Excerpt from a timely Facebook reality check:

"In this brave new world, power comes not from production, not from distribution, but from controlling consumption: all markets will be demand-driven; the extent to which they already are is a function of how digitized they have become.

This is why most Facebook-fail-fundamentalists so badly miss the point: that the company pays nothing for its content is not a weakness, it is a reflection of the fundamental reality that the supply of content (and increasingly goods) is infinite, and thus worthless; that the company is not essential to the distribution of products is not a measure of its economic importance, or lack thereof, but a reflection that distribution is no longer a differentiator. And last of all, the fact that communication is possible on other platforms is to ignore the fact that communication will always be easiest on Facebook, because they own the social graph. Combine that with the fact that controlling consumption is about controlling billions of individual consumers, all of whom will, all things being equal, choose the easy option, and you start to appreciate just how dominant Facebook is.

Given this reality, why would Zuckerberg want to be President? He is not only the CEO of Facebook, he is the dominant shareholder as well, answerable to no one. His power and ability to influence is greater than any President subject to political reality and check-and-balances, and besides, as Zuckerberg made clear last week, his concern is not a mere country but rather the entire world."

Manifestos and Monopolies – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

Facebook's Clones Attack Snapchat (Bloomberg)

Check the full post for an embrace-and-extend timeline; also see Snap bets on hardware as Facebook threat looms (VentureBeat)

"Facebook Inc.’s attitude toward younger competitor Snap Inc. seems to be: we can’t have you, so we'll create our own versions of you. Ever since Snap turned down a $3 billion Facebook acquisition offer in 2013, the social media giant has churned out copycat features and full clones of Snapchat.

Not all have worked. Poke, Facebook’s first attempt at creating an app with the same features as Snapchat, was unpopular and, after a few months, was removed from the app store.

Facebook’s latest, more effective strategy involves integrating Snapchat’s disappearing photo-sharing tools into its already popular apps. The Instagram version of Snapchat stories, which lets people broadcast photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours, already has 150 million daily users. WhatsApp is trying the same with an update to its “Status” feature this week."

Facebook's Clones Attack Snapchat

Watch Roborace’s self-driving racecars duel for the first time ever - The Verge

Race different

"The world’s first self-driving robot racing series took a big step toward reality this weekend. For the first time ever, both of Roborace’s prototype autonomous racecars ran against each other on a track. Roborace — a self-driving racing series supported by Formula E that was announced in 2015 — plans to release a full video documenting the attempt on Friday. But we’ve got some exclusive footage of Saturday’s feat, which you can see above.

The two Roborace prototypes — which the company refers to as DevBots — “battled” each other around the same Puerto Madero street circuit in Buenos Aires that hosted the third race of Formula E’s third season. The cars’ Nvidia-powered brains handled 20 autonomous laps across the race weekend, according to Roborace, and topped out at about 115 miles per hour. That’s a pretty impressive accomplishment considering this was only the second time Roborace attempted a run on a Formula E street circuit. Formula E’s cars have a top speed of around 150 miles per hour."

Watch Roborace’s self-driving racecars duel for the first time ever - The Verge

Microsoft's Satya Nadella is counting on culture shock to drive growth (USA Today)

From a snapshot of Microsoft in transition

"A seismic cultural shift is rocking Microsoft under Nadella, part of a broad transformation that is moving the company away from an atrophying, software license-based past and towards a thriving, cloud-based future.

In the process, Nadella has managed to get investors and employees alike re-energized about a once dominant brand whose luster had faded. And while part of his strategy involves buying new companies and beefing up existing teams in order to tackle cutting-edge tech trends, ultimately he feels success comes down to reinvigorating Microsoft's in-house mojo.

"What I realize more than ever now is that my job is curation of our culture," says Nadella, who will explore this topic and others in a book due out this fall called Hit Refresh. "If you don't focus on creating a culture that allows people to do their best work, then you’ve created nothing.”"

Microsoft's Satya Nadella is counting on culture shock to drive growth

Rethinking Wearable Computing | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

On a related note, see Robert Scoble's speculation that Apple may introduce a "very lightweight" pair of AR glasses in 2017

"Despite these issues, it may be that we’ve given up on wearables a bit too soon. The problem is that we’re thinking much too narrowly about what the concept, and implementation, of wearable computing really is. To be clear, I don’t see a big future for the individual products that we currently count as wearables, but I think the idea of several linked components that work together as a wearable computing system could have legs.
Imagine, for example, a combination of something you wear on your wrist, something you wear on your face, perhaps a foldable screen you carry in your pocket, along with a set of intelligent earbuds (which might be integrated into the glasses you wear on your face), all of which work together seamlessly.
The devices would each incorporate sensors and/or cameras that would enable real-world contextual information. They would all incorporate high-speed wireless connections, and the entire system would be reliably voice-controlled with an AI-powered digital assistant. Critically, I think a solution like this would need to be sold together as a system—though a componentized system might work as well."

Rethinking Wearable Computing | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

Samsung’s reputation nosedives in the US after Galaxy Note 7 snafu - The Verge

Samsung is just ahead of the United States Postal Service in the list

"Samsung’s reputation among US consumers took a major hit last year, an annual survey has found, as the Korean manufacturer struggled with the fallout over its Galaxy Note 7 recall. As The Korea Herald reports, Samsung came in 49th in this year’s Reputation Quotient Ratings from Harris Poll, which ranks the 100 most visible companies in the US according to public reputation. In last year’s ratings, Samsung ranked seventh, and it ranked third in 2015, ahead of Apple and Google.

Amazon topped Harris Poll’s list for the second consecutive year, followed by Wegmans and Publix Super Markets. Other companies in the top ten include Apple, Google, and Tesla Motors, which was not included in last year’s rankings. Netflix and Microsoft each ranked in the top 20 (18th and 20th, respectively), while Facebook ranked 66th."

Samsung’s reputation nosedives in the US after Galaxy Note 7 snafu - The Verge

Microsoft Accelerates HoloLens V3 Development, Sidesteps V2 - Thurrott.com

A virtual "3.0" release?...

"Why are they doing this? In the two years since the device was first announced, companies like Magic Leap have made big promises about their technology and how it will transform the world.  Today, you cannot buy a device made by Magic Leap nor have we even seen a retail device from any other company in this space. In short, Microsoft has a large lead in the AR space and isn’t feeling pressure to release a product that is only an incremental update.

By skipping what was version two on their roadmap, the company can accelerate version three which will be closer to a generational leap and help keep Microsoft ahead of the competition. My sources are telling me that this version of Hololens will not arrive until 2019."

Microsoft Accelerates HoloLens V3 Development, Sidesteps V2 - Thurrott.com

Mark Zuckerberg’s theory of human history - Vox

From an insightful assessment of the recent Facebook "manifesto"

"The beginning of Zuckerberg’s letter is less an argument about Facebook than it is an argument about the organizing principles of human progress. “History is the story of how we've learned to come together in ever greater numbers,” he writes. The theory reads as heavily informed by the book Sapiens, which Zuckerberg has recommended on, well, Facebook.

Sapiens, which is written by the Israeli historian Yuval Harari, is a mind-bending look at why and how homo sapiens took over the earth. It begins by establishing our species’ lowly beginnings. “The most important thing to know about prehistoric humans is that they were insignificant animals with no more impact on their environment than gorillas, fireflies or jellyfish,” Harari writes.

So what changed? Humans learned how to cooperate, and nothing else did."

Mark Zuckerberg’s theory of human history - Vox

Self-driving cars are an ‘existential crisis’ for Uber, ‘Upstarts’ author Brad Stone says - Recode

Driven to succeed

"“It’s amazing what you can do when it’s an existential crisis, when it’s your future and your whole business,” Stone said. “It’s not Google’s business, it’s not Apple’s business. It’s the car companies’ business, but we can be privately pessimistic about the chances that they’ll become real technology companies.”

“So, in that respect, I think Uber has a tremendous advantage: They’re well-capitalized, they’ve got an amazing business that can fund the research, and everything is hinging on it,” he added. “In some ways, I think they’re the company to beat. At the same time, Google had a 10-year head start, but there’s not a good track record there of maintaining talent. They’ve got Waymo problems.”"

Self-driving cars are an ‘existential crisis’ for Uber, ‘Upstarts’ author Brad Stone says - Recode

With New Invention, Virtual Reality’s Potential for Magic Gets Real - The New York Times

New opportunities for closed movie theaters and empty malls

"The Void’s potential may have as much to do with the solutions it offers to other businesses as it does with entertainment.

Take at-home virtual reality gear. Sales have been lethargic, held back by high costs ($400 to $800, just for the headsets) and a shortage of must-have content. Virtual reality also has a bad reputation for making users feel woozy. And the V.R. experiences offered so far can be unpleasantly isolating; you are alone in those goggles.

But the Void could be the equivalent of a gateway drug.

There is no investment necessary; just show up and buy a ticket. It’s social; groups of up to four can participate at once and see avatars of one another in the V.R. realm. And roaming through a large set — it’s all wireless, so participants are not tethered to a cord, as with most other V.R. experiences — seems to solve the nausea problem."

With New Invention, Virtual Reality’s Potential for Magic Gets Real - The New York Times

Dear #MongoDB users, we welcome you in #Azure #DocumentDB | Blog | Microsoft Azure

Embrace and extend, cloud document database service domain

"Moving to DocumentDB doesn’t require you to rewrite your apps or throw away your existing tools. DocumentDB supports protocol for MongoDB, which means DocumentDB databases can now be used as the data store for apps written for MongoDB. This also means that by using existing drivers for MongoDB databases, your applications written for MongoDB can now communicate with DocumentDB and use DocumentDB databases instead of MongoDB databases. In many cases, you can switch from using MongoDB to DocumentDB by simply changing a connection string. Using this functionality, you can easily build and run MongoDB database applications in the Azure cloud - leveraging DocumentDB's fully managed and scalable NoSQL databases, while continuing to use familiar skills and tools for MongoDB. Furthermore, we only support SSL for Mongo (not http) for the benefit of all users."

Dear #MongoDB users, we welcome you in #Azure #DocumentDB | Blog | Microsoft Azure

A breakthrough in Alphabet’s balloon-based internet project means it might actually work - Recode

Skynet, Loon edition; also see Machine Learning Invades the Real World on Internet Balloons (Wired)

"Now, the team says they’ve found a way to keep the balloons in a much more concentrated location, thanks to their improved altitude control and navigation system. Loon says that balloons will now make small loops over a land mass, instead of circumnavigating the whole planet.

“The reason this is so exciting is we can now run an experiment and try to give services in particular places of the world with 10 or 20 or 30 balloons, not with 200 or 300 or 400 balloons,” said the head of X, Astro Teller, at a press event at X’s headquarters in Mountain View today.

The Loon balloons now also adjust how they fly as needed using artificial intelligence software, instead of a set navigation plan.

“We’ve actually made so much progress that we think our timeline for when we can provide useful internet service to people is much, much sooner,” said Sal Candido, an engineer on the Loon project."

A breakthrough in Alphabet’s balloon-based internet project means it might actually work - Recode

Elon Musk Is Really Boring - Bloomberg

An excerpt from this week's Bloomberg Businessweek cover story:

"Musk chose the SpaceX parking lot as the site of his first dig, mostly because it was convenient and he could legally do so without city permits. The plan is to expand the current hole into a ramp designed for a large tunnel boring machine and then start digging horizontally once the machine is 50 feet or so below ground, which would make it low enough to clear gas and sewer lines and to be undetectable at the surface. The company, such as it is, is working on securing permits and hopes to have them by the time the tunnel hits the property line. At the moment, Musk won’t say exactly where this “demo tunnel,” as he calls it, will lead—only that it will accommodate cars and be the very beginning of a vast underground transportation network.

As crazy as tunneling sounds, Musk points out that it’s arguably less crazy than Silicon Valley’s go-to traffic solution: flying cars. Google’s Larry Page has funded two personal-aircraft startups, Zee.Aero and Kitty Hawk, and companies such as Uber and Airbus have skunk works. But Musk thinks flying cars are a dumb idea, at least for city travel. “Obviously, I like flying things,” he says. “But it’s difficult to imagine the flying car becoming a scalable solution.” As long as the laws of physics hold, he explains, any flying car will need to generate a lot of downward force to stop it from falling out of the sky, which means wind and noise for those on the ground, not to mention debris from midair fender-benders. “If somebody doesn’t maintain their flying car, it could drop a hubcap and guillotine you,” he says. “Your anxiety level will not decrease as a result of things that weigh a lot buzzing around your head.”"

Elon Musk Is Really Boring - Bloomberg

Snap Aims for Valuation of More Than $20 Billion in I.P.O. - The New York Times

Current market cap snapshots (from Google Finance): TWTR $11.84B, FB $385.61B

"Even at the top of that range, Snap would end up with a valuation on the lower end of the $20 billion to $25 billion mark that it had anticipated months ago. Either way, it is still up from the approximately $16.5 billion the company valued itself late last year.

The final pricing of the new shares — and the company’s valuation — could still change. The share price will be not be set until after Snap embarks on a nearly two-week tour of investors that will take its executives across the country. The company is expected to begin trading around March 2 on the New York Stock Exchange, under the ticker symbol SNAP.

Even if the value were to drop, it would still be one of the biggest technology offerings of the decade. At this stage of the offering process, Twitter was valued at more than $12 billion, including options and restricted stock units, in October 2013. A year earlier, Facebook was valued at $86 billion at a similar stage."

Snap Aims for Valuation of More Than $20 Billion in I.P.O. - The New York Times

Behind the Scenes of Mark Zuckerberg’s Manifesto (Backchannel)

Steven Levy on Mark Zuckerberg's Building Global Community "manifesto;" also see Kara Swisher's I talked to Mark Zuckerberg about his manifesto on the future of Facebook (and the rest of us) (Recode)

"Because this message unrolls more like a State of the Union address than your typical Facebook post, it will undoubtedly fuel speculation that young Zuckerberg may be positioning himself to run for public office. (By the way, he turns 35 — the minimum age for the US president — in 2019.) But why accept what might well be a demotion? It’s true that one could dismiss Facebook as a global power with Stalin’s line to Churchill: “How many divisions does the Pope have?” But Facebook has a foreign policy —in the last year alone Zuckerberg has met with dozens of world leaders, including the Pope. And Facebook’s algorithms determine what information we see and who gets to share our news with us, and the majority of its 1.8 billion users show their support for it — in essence, they vote for it — by using the service every day.
Nonetheless, you might consider Zuckerberg’s post a counterpoint to the dark inauguration speech we recently witnessed. Unlike the one in D.C., Zuckerberg’s has specifics—it outlines a collaborative effort, with Facebook taking the initiative, to build a global set of meaningful communities with five purposes: support, safety, trusted and open information, civic engagement, and inclusion."

Behind the Scenes of Mark Zuckerberg’s Manifesto

Gartner Analyst Defends 'Java EE Is Obsolete' Report -- ADTmag

Check the full article for a timely Java EE reality check

"Thomas wrote the report ("Market Guide for Application Platforms") with contributing analyst Aashish Gupta. In it the authors asserted, among other things, that Java EE has not kept pace with architectural trends and digital business initiatives, that Java developers are demonstrating a clear preference for lightweight frameworks over Java EE, and that Java EE is not an appropriate framework for building cloud-native applications. They also advised those responsible for modernizing an enterprise's application infrastructure to "develop a strategy to deal with the obsolescence of Java EE and other three-tier application frameworks."

Java EE community leaders called the Gartner analysts irresponsible and out of touch with the platform, and many blasted the report in blog posts and social media (and my inbox). I interviewed several of those critics for my January post, which includes links to some of the blogs.

Thomas was a bit surprised at the level of outrage over her and Gupta's observations on what she believes are obvious facts about Java EE and the evolving demands on enterprise developers."

Gartner Analyst Defends 'Java EE Is Obsolete' Report -- ADTmag

Google's myriad messaging apps: Which are best for you? | Computerworld

From an extensive Google communication/collaboration app reality check

"Google offers 12 communications apps and services. Alphabetically, these are: Allo, Chat, Gmail, Google+, Groups, Hangouts, Inbox, Messenger, Duo, Project Fi, Spaces and Voice. If you look at the various communication actions you might want to take -- voice calls, video calls, email, text messaging and social posting -- Google has at least two offerings for each.

The company is unrepentant about its bewildering lineup. A Google spokesperson told me: "We've designed specific products for distinct use cases, so we don't intend to have one app that does everything for everyone. We think we can better serve our users by creating products that function really well, and users can choose the product that best suits their needs." In other words, choice serves users better than clarity does.

At the same time, the company has a longstanding habit of ditching old products and services that have seen limited success, including Google Wave, Google Reader, Picasa and many more. According to my informal survey of nearly 3,000 Google+ users, a majority (55% as of this writing) said they hesitate to use some Google products because they're afraid Google might kill them off."

Google's myriad messaging apps: Which are best for you? | Computerworld

This 'Star Trek'-like headset helps the legally blind see again - CNET

Also see Smart glasses bring vision to legally blind (Mashable)

"Yvonne Felix is walking toward me wearing a device that could be straight out of "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

Like Geordi La Forge in the science fiction series, Felix is legally blind. In the show, La Forge, played by LeVar Burton, wore a headset called VISOR that helped him see again. Felix is wearing its real-world equivalent, the eSight 3.

The eSight 3 has a camera that works with high-resolution displays and optical prisms in the headset to restore sight to those with low vision. The video image is presented to the user in a way that can overcome the cause of their vision loss."

This 'Star Trek'-like headset helps the legally blind see again - CNET

Mossberg: Android apps on Chrome OS arrive, disappoint - The Verge

On a related note, see Google’s not-so-secret new OS (Tech Specs)

"I’m happy to report that the first Chromebook designed from the ground up to run Android apps out of the box has arrived, albeit a little past the end of 2016. It goes on sale this week for $450. It’s called the Samsung Chromebook Plus, and it runs on an ARM processor, the same type of processor that powers the vast majority of smartphones and tablets. It was designed in close cooperation with Google.

Alas, in my tests of the Plus over the last few days, I found the Android execution frustrating.

The Android app feature is still in beta, not all apps work, and too many of those that do run seem like awkwardly blown-up phone apps, not software that’s tailored for the Chromebook's 12-inch screen. And there are other issues."

Mossberg: Android apps on Chrome OS arrive, disappoint - The Verge

Facebook is rolling out job postings and applications - Recode

Coincidentally, LinkedIn, a Microsoft company since December 2016, is expanding its social networking overlap with Facebook.  Also see Facebook’s new job opening posts poach business from LinkedIn (TechCrunch)

"Businesses were already posting jobs to their Pages, according to Andrew Bosworth, Facebook's VP of ads and its business platform. The hope is that now it'll be easier to find those postings and apply for them.

The news is not so great for existing job platforms like LinkedIn, which charges recruiters to post and promote jobs on its platform. Facebook isn't necessarily the first place you think of when looking for a new job, but it could certainly offer some competition to LinkedIn and has a much larger user base.

The new feature will start to roll out beginning Wednesday, but only in the U.S. and Canada."

Facebook is rolling out job postings and applications - Recode

Apple Vowed To Revolutionize Television. An Inside Look at Why It Hasn’t - Bloomberg

Tangentially, see Apple Struggles to Make Big Deals, Hampering Strategy Shifts (Bloomberg); also see Acquisitions in Tech have a Checkered History (Tech.pinions)

"Early on, the Apple TV was going to replace the clunky set-top boxes from the cable companies and stream live television. It never happened. The team debated bundling a gaming controller with the current model to better compete with Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation. That didn't happen either. Originally, viewers were going to be able to shout commands from the couch to the Apple TV. Instead they must talk to the remote control.

Apple has essentially settled for turning the television set into a giant iPhone: a cluster of apps with a store. "That's not what I signed up for," says one of the people, who requested anonymity to talk freely about internal company matters. "I signed up for revolutionary. We got evolutionary." Gene Munster, who covered Apple for more than a decade as a Piper Jaffray analyst and now runs Loup Ventures, echoes the criticism. "Apple TV begs the question: Why does Apple do hobbies?" he says. "Either do it right or don't do it at all.""

Apple Vowed To Revolutionize Television. An Inside Look at Why It Hasn’t - Bloomberg

Google launches Cloud Spanner, its new globally distributed relational database service | TechCrunch

See Introducing Cloud Spanner: a global database service for mission-critical applications  and Inside Cloud Spanner and the CAP Theorem (Google Cloud Platform Blog) for details

"Google today announced the beta launch of Cloud Spanner, a new globally distributed database service for mission-critical applications. Cloud Spanner joins Google’s other cloud-based database services, like Bigtable, Cloud SQL and the Cloud Datastore, but with the crucial difference of offering developers the best of both traditional relational databases and NoSQL databases — that is, transactional consistency with easy scalability. Maybe the easiest way to think about Cloud Spanner is as an alternative for developers who are hitting the limits of traditional relational databases like MySQL or PostgreSQL.

If the name Cloud Spanner sounds familiar, that’s probably because Google has long used a version of this database internally, and published a paper about it in 2012. As Google’s Deepti Srivastava told me, Google started working on Spanner in 2007 because it was looking for an alternative to MySQL, which previously ran many of the company’s products. Today, products like Google Photos and many of Google’s mission-critical applications run on Spanner. With Cloud Spanner, Google is making this same database service available to outside developers, as well."

Google launches Cloud Spanner, its new globally distributed relational database service | TechCrunch

Facebook is launching an app for Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV - Recode

Check this Facebook newsroom post for more details

"The social network on Tuesday announced a new app for set-top boxes, including Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and the Samsung Smart TV. The app will let you watch the same kinds of video you can already find on Facebook, but (presumably) on a much larger screen.

Dan Rose, Facebook’s VP of Partnerships, announced the new app at the Code Media conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, Calif.

“A lot of people when they’re watching video on News Feed during the day will save it for later because they don’t have time to watch that three-minute video,” Rose said. “Now it’s easy to go on your TV if you want to do that at night."

The new app, which will launch in the next few weeks, gives Facebook yet another way to reach consumers interested in videos and, most likely, another platform to sell video ads."

Facebook is launching an app for Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV - Recode

Google’s chief business officer: 'We have to take the fake news problem very, very seriously’ - Recode

Check the full post for a brief interview excerpt

"“We have to take the fake news problem very, very seriously and think about what we can do there,” he said at the Code Media conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, Calif.

The proliferation of misinformation online is a tricky problem to solve, he said, but the company has made efforts by cutting fake news publishers off from one of its advertising platforms. Google has also added labels when certain stories in Google News have been fact-checked.

“Fake news means a lot of different things to different people, and it’s often very hard to draw the line, obviously, between fake news and bad journalism,” he said, adding that concerns about censorship also arise."

Google’s chief business officer: 'We have to take the fake news problem very, very seriously’ - Recode

Your complete guide to choosing an unlimited data plan - The Washington Post

Check the full article for some timely "unlimited" wireless data plan considerations

"With all the unlimited mobile data plans out there these days, it's easy to feel a little lost. Between the varying offers and the fine print, choosing a data plan in 2017 may seem like an exercise in frustration.

The good news is, you're not alone. Today, we're going to flesh out the details of each plan to help you make a better decision. If you're wondering whether these newfangled plans are a good deal, read on for everything we know."

Your complete guide to choosing an unlimited data plan - The Washington Post

Intel Drops Its Sponsorship of Science Fairs, Prompting an Identity Crisis - The New York Times

A busy couple weeks for Intel's PR department; also see Intel gives Trump credit for $7bn US factory it announced under Obama (The Guardian)

"The Intel decision provoked a sharp difference of opinion between Brian Krzanich, Intel’s current chief executive, and Craig R. Barrett, a former Intel chairman and chief executive.

Mr. Krzanich has told colleagues privately that the science fairs were the fairs of the past and had become tilted to life sciences and biotechnology, not primary fields for Intel, according to two people who are not authorized to speak publicly for the company.

Mr. Barrett disagreed. In an email, he said, “you might instead conclude that Intel is a company of the past, just like Westinghouse when they dropped” sponsorship of the national science fair in 1998."

Intel Drops Its Sponsorship of Science Fairs, Prompting an Identity Crisis - The New York Times

The need for a Digital Geneva Convention - Microsoft on the Issues

From an extensive post by Brad Smith, Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer

"Just as the Fourth Geneva Convention has long protected civilians in times of war, we now need a Digital Geneva Convention that will commit governments to protecting civilians from nation-state attacks in times of peace.  And just as the Fourth Geneva Convention recognized that the protection of civilians required the active involvement of the Red Cross, protection against nation-state cyberattacks requires the active assistance of technology companies.  The tech sector plays a unique role as the internet’s first responders, and we therefore should commit ourselves to collective action that will make the internet a safer place, affirming a role as a neutral Digital Switzerland that assists customers everywhere and retains the world’s trust."

The need for a Digital Geneva Convention - Microsoft on the Issues

Elon Musk says humans need to merge with machines or risk becoming irrelevant in the AI age (IBT)

In a Tesla tangent, see Tesla’s shares hit an all-time high (VentureBeat)

"Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says humans will need to merge with machines or risk becoming irrelevant in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Musk said the speed at which our brains operate and communicate is much slower than computers.

"Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence," Musk said, CNBC reports. "It's mostly about bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output.""

Elon Musk says humans need to merge with machines or risk becoming irrelevant in the AI age

Modern Workplaces Still More Vision Than Reality | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

Room for communication/collaboration improvement

"The key takeaway is that both technologies and habits rooted in the 20th century are keeping the 21st century vision of the modern workplace from becoming reality. For example, despite the appearance of modern communications and collaboration tools, it’s the “old school” methods of emails, phone calls and texts that make up 75% of all communications with co-workers. There are certainly some differences based on the age of the employee, but even for workers under 45, the number is 71% (emails and voice calls make up 58% for that age group).
From a device perspective, the most common tool by far is not a smartphone, but a company-owned desktop PC, which is used for just under half (48%) of all device-related work. (For the record, personally owned smartphones are only used for 7.5% of total work on average.) Partially as a result, some version of Windows is used for rougly 2/3 (65%) of all work, with Android at 11%, iOS at 10%, and the rest split among cloud-based platforms, Macs, Linux and other alternative options. Arguably, that is a drop from the days when Windows owned 90%+, but it still shows how dominant Microsoft is in the workplace."

Modern Workplaces Still More Vision Than Reality | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

Apple Shares Hit Record Close on Optimism for Next iPhone - Bloomberg

For a refresher on recent conventional wisdom, see Apple Is 'Doomed' 2016 Edition (Forbes, 11/30/2016)

"Apple Inc. shares hit a record on optimism the next iPhone will drive a resurgence in sales and help the company’s services businesses grow.

The stock climbed less than 1 percent to $133.29 at the close Monday in New York, the highest on record. The increase valued Apple at about $699 billion, making it the world’s most highly capitalized company. Google parent Alphabet Inc. is next at $573 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg."

Apple Shares Hit Record Close on Optimism for Next iPhone - Bloomberg

Amazon launches Chime, a video conferencing and communications service for business | TechCrunch

See this Amazon page for more details

"Amazon has taken the wraps off of its own Skype competitor. Chime is a new video conferencing and communications from AWS that’s focused on business users.

Beyond VoIP calling and video messaging, Chime includes virtual meetings, allowing users to host or join a remote meeting through the service. Pricing starts at $2.50 per user per month on the lowest end, with a higher tier plan of $15 per user which includes video and screen-sharing among other features. There is a basic option available for free but that is limited to video calls and chat rooms between two users.

Chime is available for Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android devices."

Amazon launches Chime, a video conferencing and communications service for business | TechCrunch

Snapchat Spectacles and Making Memories | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

On a related note, see Tim Cook says augmented reality is ‘a big idea like the smartphone’ (The Verge)

"What has gotten better over the years, as GoPro has evolved and even more with Spectacles + Snapchat, is the ease to go straight from memory capture to sharing/saving. I’d argue the experience with Spectacles + Snapchat is the most seamless I’ve used yet with a device that isn’t a smartphone. With a GoPro, it could take me several minutes to get a video I just took, add some slight editing, and share it, With Spectacles, it takes seconds since the video is quickly synced with your smartphone and available in the app to edit and share. The great thing about Spectacles is they truly function like an extension of your smartphone camera that seamlessly integrates back into the software. This is an area where I feel there is a broader opportunity for companies, Apple and Facebook in particular, and perhaps Google to continue to explore.
While the smartphone will remain a primary capture device for some time, capture accessories that become extensions of our smartphone camera, like a GoPro or Spectacles, make a great deal of sense when done right. Particularly with things like virtual and augmented reality experiences in the future where we can relive memories in virtual reality or simulate being present at a sports game or event in another town without having to be physically present. In most cases, these capture devices will not be your smartphone and will most likely come from companies perfecting the optics, silicon/sensors, design, and software today. Which is a key reason, Snap Inc., in making their key mission to be a camera company, is so interesting."

Snapchat Spectacles and Making Memories | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

Fake news is killing people's minds, says Apple boss Tim Cook (The Telegraph)

Inform different

"Tim Cook, the boss of Apple, is calling for governments to launch a public information campaign to fight the scourge of fake news, which is “killing people’s minds”.

In an impassioned plea, Mr Cook, boss of the world’s largest company, says that the epidemic of false reports “is a big problem in a lot of the world” and necessitates a crackdown by the authorities and technology firms.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, he calls for a campaign similar to those that changed attitudes on the environment to educate the public on the threat posed by fabricated online stories."

Fake news is killing people's minds, says Apple boss Tim Cook

Amazon cloud leader Andy Jassy sizes up the competition in rare public remarks about rivals - GeekWire

Excerpt from a wide-ranging interview

"“There’s so many things in our business that have been surprises to us. Probably the biggest of which is that it just took so long for the other large technology companies to offer something in this space, but I don’t think in our wildest dreams we ever thought we’d have a six- to seven-year head start, especially because we’re across the lake from another big technology company in that space, and we all know so many people at each other’s companies. And so, there have been so many surprises, but if you read the document, the stated mental model was that an individual in his or her dorm room or garage would have access to the same cost structure and scalability of infrastructure as the largest companies of the world. To give you an idea back then, we were talking about those largest companies being like, Peoplesoft. We wanted to be part of enabling a thousand flowers to bloom.”"

Amazon cloud leader Andy Jassy sizes up the competition in rare public remarks about rivals - GeekWire

Twitter hopes machine learning can save it from oblivion | VentureBeat | AI | by Chris O'Brien

Check the full post for speculation about how Twitter may try to leverage machine learning to "provide more magical experiences"

"Twitter’s latest earnings were an unmitigated disaster. There was a huge revenue miss, coupled with a weak outlook that freaked out investors, who drove the stock down more than 12 percent.

But part-time CEO Jack Dorsey insists that all is not lost. And to rally the troops and convince investors to give him more time, he tried his best yesterday to highlight the ways he believes the company’s investments in machine learning offer reasons for optimism."

Twitter hopes machine learning can save it from oblivion | VentureBeat | AI | by Chris O'Brien

Twitch launches Communities to help gamers organize around their shared interests | TechCrunch

Perhaps making product managers at YouTube and Facebook a bit twitchy

"The launch follows a number of changes to the Amazon-owned streaming site over the last year or so, which have put an emphasis on catering to the gaming audience in new ways, while also attracting new users. In fall 2015, the company debuted a new channel called Twitch Creative, which allowed gamers to show off their artistic endeavours – that is, their game-inspired paintings, drawing, songs, costumes and more.

It also dipped its toe into TV streaming, by offering classic programs like those from Bob Ross and Julia Child, as well as Amazon’s new TV show pilots. It even launched a “social eating” category to cater to its South Korean users, then more broadly opened up to vloggers through a new category called “IRL.”"

Twitch launches Communities to help gamers organize around their shared interests | TechCrunch

Intel gives Trump credit for $7bn US factory it announced under Obama | Technology | The Guardian

Intel inside ... Trump's bogus job claims

"Trump was happy to take credit, thanking Krzanich and calling the Fab 42 plant – which will make state-of-the-art computer chips – a great investment in jobs and innovation.

However, the semiconductor company had already announced the same factory back in 2011 when Barack Obama was in power. In 2012, Obama made a speech in front of the building, describing it – to a cheering crowd – as an “example of an America that attracts the next generation of good manufacturing jobs”.

The construction of Fab 42 was halted in 2014, following a slump in PC sales, but analysts don’t believe Trump is the reason it’s been restarted. Instead, the decision to complete work on the factory is likely to be based on industry pressure to move to more advanced types of chips as demand for smart devices surges."

Intel gives Trump credit for $7bn US factory it announced under Obama | Technology | The Guardian

After Trump Fallout, Uber Can’t Shake Its Elon Musk Envy - Bloomberg

From a timely business + politics reality check

"Each company is shaped by the outsize reputation of its founding leader. Whereas Kalanick is seen as a pugnacious Ayn Rand fanboy who champions free markets, Musk is a whiz bringing rocket ships, electric cars, traffic-busting tunnels, solar energy and other futuristic goodies to humanity. “Elon Musk absolutely has created the Tesla brand very much based on his personal brand,” said Daniel Binns, managing director at Omnicom Group Inc.-owned consulting firm Interbrand. “There’s a huge amount of positive goodwill for the brand, and therefore, if there was any sense of negativity, they’d be able to deal with it.”

The Tesla brand—and by extension, Musk’s—represents “a noble ambition: The vision is to make the world more sustainable by providing renewable energy sources, cars and battery sources,” Binns said. “Uber doesn’t have that. It’s not known for being a mission-driven organization.”"

After Trump Fallout, Uber Can’t Shake Its Elon Musk Envy - Bloomberg

Big blues: IBM's remote-worker crackdown is company-wide, including its engineers • The Register

Apparently IBM, from an employee perspective, again means "I've Been Moved," after many years of "I'm By Myself" (working remotely)

"IBM is forcing more than just its US marketing staff to move to a handful of regional hubs. The crackdown on remote workers and smaller offices also hits engineers and other staffers in America and Europe.

Following The Register's exclusive report that Big Blue was demanding marketers to work at one of six "strategic" US locations – locations chosen for them by IBM – sources say the "move or leave" program has been and will continue to be applied throughout the tech giant, with at least one other department already implementing the new rules.

IBM still will not comment on the matter."

Big blues: IBM's remote-worker crackdown is company-wide, including its engineers • The Register

Wikipedia bans Daily Mail as 'unreliable' source | Technology | The Guardian

Improving Wikipedia's signal-to-noise ratio

"Wikipedia editors have voted to ban the Daily Mail as a source for the website in all but exceptional circumstances after deeming the news group “generally unreliable”.

The move is highly unusual for the online encyclopaedia, which rarely puts in place a blanket ban on publications and which still allows links to sources such as Kremlin backed news organisation Russia Today, and Fox News, both of which have raised concern among editors. 

The editors described the arguments for a ban as “centred on the Daily Mail’s reputation for poor fact checking, sensationalism and flat-out fabrication”."

Wikipedia bans Daily Mail as 'unreliable' source | Technology | The Guardian

NeXT: Steve Jobs’ dot.com IPO that Never Happened | Computer History Museum

Check the full post for details on the WebObjects pivot that was not to be

"February 7, 2017: Today is the 20th anniversary of the formal completion of Apple Computer’s acquisition of NeXT Software, Inc. Had Steve Jobs’ first company not bought his second, history likely would have been very different. Apple might not exist today. No iPhone. But what could have happened to NeXT? Former NeXT software leader and then-Apple Senior VP of Software Avie Tevanian has donated to the Computer History Museum a historic document that hints at this alternate history: a draft of a November 1996 S-1 SEC statement, never completed or submitted, declaring that NeXT was planning to issue an initial public offering of 5 million shares of common stock."

NeXT: Steve Jobs’ dot.com IPO that Never Happened | Computer History Museum

Twitter's ad business is slumping and it missed Wall Street's earnings estimates - Recode

More tumultuous times for Twitter

"Twitter’s didn’t finish 2016 as well as investors hoped it would.

The company missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates Thursday, reporting $717 million in revenue for the fourth quarter, just a 1 percent gain from the same quarter a year ago. It reported profits of 16 cents per share, which was higher than analysts expected.

Twitter also added 2 million new users in the quarter, and now claims 319 million monthly active users.

Wall Street analysts were looking for profits of 12 cents per share on revenue of $740 million. They also expected Twitter to report user growth of roughly 2 to 3 million new users last quarter. The shares plummeted 9 percent in pre-market trading."

Twitter's ad business is slumping and it missed Wall Street's earnings estimates - Recode

It’s not just Google — Snap has a $1 billion cloud services deal with Amazon, too - Recode

Later in the article: "While it said that its deal with Google “requires that we use their cloud services for substantially all of our hosting requirements,” it also mentioned that the arrangement “permits us to use other third-party service providers for a portion of our cloud services."" Tangentially, see Part 1 – The Evernote Service and our options to migrate to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) (first in a 5-post series on the Evernote Tech Blog).

"It turns out that Google isn’t the only company Snap is paying for cloud and infrastructure support.

Snap also has a $1 billion deal with Amazon to use its cloud computing services, according to an updated version of its S-1 IPO paperwork mad public Thursday morning.

The deal, originally signed last year then amended on Wednesday, is for “redundant infrastructure support of our business operations,” and Snap says it may also “invest in building our own infrastructure to better serve our customers.”"

It’s not just Google — Snap has a $1 billion cloud services deal with Amazon, too - Recode

Google Just Found the One Question It Can’t Yet Answer - Bloomberg

See Understanding Agent Cooperation (DeepMind blog) for more details

"When our robot overlords arrive, will they decide to kill us or cooperate with us?

New research from DeepMind, Alphabet Inc.’s London-based artificial intelligence unit could ultimately shed light on this fundamental question.

They have been investigating the conditions in which reward-optimizing beings, whether human or robot, would chose to cooperate, rather than compete. The answer could have implications for how computer intelligence may eventually be deployed to manage complex systems such as an economy, city traffic flows, or environmental policy."

Google Just Found the One Question It Can’t Yet Answer - Bloomberg

Mossberg: Flipboard redesigns itself around ‘smart’ digital magazines - The Verge

Now with "Passion Picker" publication profile precision; also see Flipboard's Quest To Save Online Publishing—And Itself (Fast Company)

"Mobile apps like Apple News, SmartNews, Google News, and others may be your favorite news aggregators. But I have always been partial to Flipboard, the beautiful and clever app which started off six years ago as a way to turn social media posts into handsome magazine-like articles on iPads.

Since then, Flipboard has grown to over 100 million monthly active users and spread to the iPhone, Android, and the web. Its sources now include almost anything online, through publisher partnerships and open feeds, and, since 2012, its users have been able to create their own manually curated magazines using simple tools.

Now, Flipboard is launching a major redesign, version 4.0, which is built around “smart,” magazines on topics you choose, tailored using highly granular choices of subjects or sources, and automatically updated as relevant new content is published online."

Mossberg: Flipboard redesigns itself around ‘smart’ digital magazines - The Verge

Salesforce launches Quip Connect app for Sales and Service Clouds | VentureBeat | Apps | by Ken Yeung

Also adding task management; see Meet the new Quip and Get your projects done with checklists and reminders (Quip blog) for more details

"Quip is releasing the next set of updates from its integration with parent company Salesforce, announcing a tighter data connection, as well as releasing new functionality around task management. All of this is being bundled into a major redesign intended to keep the word processing and collaboration app fresh, simple, and modern.

Quip Connect in the Salesforce AppExchange will be available on February 13, but Quip’s redesigned apps for the web, iOS and Android, and desktop and checklists are available today.
[...]
“Our vision is that any time you need collaboration or spreadsheet, it’s going to be available with Quip,” said company chief executive Bret Taylor. However, he shared that it was also a play to encourage users to abandon Office 365, Google Docs, and other similar tools. “We hope to be the best productivity tool for Salesforce…a good chunk of new customers will start using Quip because of Salesforce,” he said. “As you look at the landscape of productivity tools out there, it may be a competitive advantage for us.”"

Salesforce launches Quip Connect app for Sales and Service Clouds | VentureBeat | Apps | by Ken Yeung

Google debuts Cloud Search, a smart search engine for G Suite customers | TechCrunch

Check this Google post for more details

"Google today launched for its business customers a new tool called Google Cloud Search, which will allow users to search across G Suite products, including Drive, Gmail, Sites, Calendar, Docs, Contacts and more. The service was previously available in a limited preview, where it was known as Springboard, and described as something like a Google Now for enterprise workers.

Springboard, now Cloud Search, is designed for use in larger companies where different groups and individuals have access to different files. The search service respects file-sharing permissions, so users can only access what’s available to them, whether that’s company-wide resources like a policy manual, team projects or documents only they can see."

Google debuts Cloud Search, a smart search engine for G Suite customers | TechCrunch

Apple Hires Amazon’s Fire TV Head to Run Apple TV Business - Bloomberg

I'm guessing the probability of Amazon creating an Apple TV app for Amazon Prime Video is not going up

"Apple Inc. has hired Timothy D. Twerdahl, the former head of Amazon.com Inc.’s Fire TV unit, as a vice president in charge of Apple TV product marketing and shifted the executive who previously held the job to a spot negotiating media content deals.

The moves suggest a renewed focus on the Apple TV and on providing more content for the device, an effort that has been stalled in the past by failed negotiations."

Apple Hires Amazon’s Fire TV Head to Run Apple TV Business - Bloomberg

Anonymous Takes Down 10,000 Dark Web Sites | The Huffington Post

A world less dark

"The hacking was particularly notable because it affected about 20 percent of the dark web, and it successfully cracked a system which is generally thought of as being protected by relatively sophisticated barriers.

Users were stunned to find a message from the Anonymous crew announcing, “Hello Freedom Hosting II, you have been hacked,” the Telegraph reports.

“We are disappointed,” the message added. “This is an excerpt from your front page, ‘We have a zero tolerance policy for child pornography.’ All your files have been copied and your database has been dumped.”"

Anonymous Takes Down 10,000 Dark Web Sites | The Huffington Post

Chart of the month: Driven by Tesla, battery prices cut in half since 2014 (ThinkProgress)

Check the full post for more details and graphs

"Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) reports that lithium-ion battery prices have fallen “by almost half just since 2014” and “electric cars are largely responsible.” Last year, BNEF called this “the miracle of Musk,” referring to Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, which jump-started the stagnant EV business and whose gigafactory will keep putting downward pressure on battery costs.
In 2013, the International Energy Agency estimated EVs would achieve cost parity with gasoline vehicles when battery costs hit $300 per kiloWatt-hour of storage capacity, which the IEA said would happen by 2020. That price point was in fact crossed last year, which is why both GM and Tesla announced they could deliver affordable (well below $40,000), long-range (200-plus miles) EVs."

Chart of the month: Driven by Tesla, battery prices cut in half since 2014

Corporate Paranoia in the Snowden Era Leads to a Startup Boom - Bloomberg

A changing competitive landscape for Cisco

"One company that’s benefiting is SnapRoute Inc., which was founded by a former manager of Apple’s global data center network. The startup makes a cheaper, simpler network switch than the ones Cisco sells. And unlike most switches, it’s open-source, allowing customers to look for bugs, performance glitches or backdoors that might allow a government to peek inside.

SnapRoute plans to announce a $25 million round of funding Tuesday from AT&T Inc., Microsoft Corp., Lightspeed Venture Partners and Norwest Venture Partners. The startup counts Facebook among its customers.
[...]
Switches from SnapRoute are $30,000 to $40,000 cheaper than comparable brand-name models, Forrester said. And whereas switches from Cisco and other big suppliers can have tens of millions of lines of code, SnapRoute’s has just 22,000, he said. This means fewer features, so SnapRoute may not be an attractive option for some companies. But the simpler code makes it easier for customers to sift through in search of hidden spying devices."

Corporate Paranoia in the Snowden Era Leads to a Startup Boom - Bloomberg

The Super Bowl halftime show drones weren't flying live - The Verge

Intel outside; also see Intel drones form US flag for Lady Gaga's halftime show (Engadget)

"Drones were a big part of this year’s Super Bowl Half Time Show for the first time ever. Hundreds of the devices helped this year’s performer — Lady Gaga — kick her show off, presenting a colorful, swirling backdrop as she stood on the roof of Houston’s NRG Stadium. But as Gaga herself seemed to leap from the roof, dropping down to the stadium to start her show proper, her army of drones didn’t follow.

That’s because the drone shows were actually filmed earlier this week, as Intel confirmed to The Verge. That includes Gaga’s intro sequence, which saw her dancing in front of an American flag, and a later 10-second spot that featured the drones as they changed from the Pepsi to Intel logos. Restrictions placed on the area by the Federal Aviation Administration forbid drones from flying within a 34.5 mile radius of the NRG Stadium, in addition to other rules that bar drones from hovering too high, or from doing acrobatic maneuvers directly above hundreds of thousands of people."

The Super Bowl halftime show drones weren't flying live - The Verge

Google's Home TV ad makes Google Home systems go crazy (USA Today)

Not okay, Google

"Google used the Super Bowl to plug its Google Home connectivity service, but the TV commercial apparently confused the systems in homes of those who already have it. For them, Google Home went whacko.

Those who already have Google Home took to Twitter to complain that it interfered with their units. Apparently, the home systems heard the TV broadcasts calling its name, and it became befuddled."

Google's Home TV ad makes Google Home systems go crazy

Uber Hires Veteran NASA Engineer to Develop Flying Cars - Bloomberg

Not entirely self-flying for the 1.0 release

"Uber’s vision is a seductive one, particularly for sci-fi fans. The company envisions people taking conventional Ubers from their homes to nearby “vertiports” that dot residential neighborhoods. Then they would zoom up into the air and across town to the vertiport closest to their offices. (“We don’t need stinking bridges!” says Moore.) These air taxis will only need ranges of between 50 to 100 miles, and Moore thinks that they can be at least partially recharged while passengers are boarding or exiting the aircraft. He also predicts we’ll see several well-engineered flying cars in the next one to three years and that there will be human pilots, at least managing the onboard computers, for the foreseeable future."

Uber Hires Veteran NASA Engineer to Develop Flying Cars - Bloomberg

Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and 94 other tech companies call travel ban ‘unlawful’ in rare coordinated legal action - The Washington Post

Trump the uniter

"Silicon Valley is stepping up its confrontation with the Trump administration.

On Sunday night, technology giants Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Twitter, Uber and many others filed a legal brief opposing the administration’s contentious entry ban, according to people familiar with the matter. The move represents a rare coordinated action across a broad swath of the industry — 97 companies in total— and demonstrates the depth of animosity toward the Trump ban."

Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and 94 other tech companies call travel ban ‘unlawful’ in rare coordinated legal action - The Washington Post

Outlook mobile turns 2 and now comes with your favorite apps - Office Blogs

Check the full post for some interesting integration scenarios

"Two years ago, we launched Outlook mobile with the goal of helping you accomplish more while on the go. More means an inbox that helps you focus on the emails that matter most. More means a calendar that can manage your entire day, not just show you your schedule. And today, we are excited to continue that mission by bringing apps to your inbox with add-ins for Outlook on iOS.

We’re thrilled to collaborate with Evernote, GIPHY, Nimble, Trello and Smartsheet and bring their add-ins to Outlook on iOS. We’re also making a few of our own add-ins available today with Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Translator, with many more to follow."

Later in the post:

"Once enabled, you can access add-ins from Outlook on iOS as well as from Outlook 2016 or 2013 for Windows, Outlook on the web and Outlook 2016 for Mac (currently in Insiders) for the same email account.

Add-ins for Outlook on iOS are currently only available when reading email. We’ll be adding more add-in actions when composing or replying to an email in the future."

Outlook mobile turns 2 and now comes with your favorite apps - Office Blogs

Elon Musk explains why he won't quit Donald Trump's advisory council - The Verge

Musk's missions will long outlast Trump's presidency

"Musk said he agreed to join the Presidential Advisory Forum “to provide feedback on issues that I think are important for our country and the world.” In the statement — which he also shared on Twitter — he said his goals “are to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy and to help make humanity a multi-planet civilization, a consequence of which will be the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs and a more inspiring future for all.”

Both Kalanick and Musk agreed to join the 19-member economic advisory council last December — a group that also includes Disney CEO Bob Iger, Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon, and PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi. Kalanick stepped down today after Uber’s reaction to the immigration executive order reportedly led to 200,000 people deleting their accounts. “Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda,” Kalanick said in an internal memo. “Unfortunately it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that.”"

Elon Musk explains why he won't quit Donald Trump's advisory council - The Verge

Amazon’s Holiday Quarter Doesn’t Match High Expectations - The New York Times

Expect different; also see Amazon Forecast Sparks Investor Concern on Big Spending (Bloomberg), a headline that could be recycled after every Amazon earnings announcement

"For the fourth quarter, which ended Dec. 31, Amazon said its net income was $749 million, or $1.54 a share, up from $482 million, or $1 a share, during the same period a year earlier. The company’s revenue rose to $43.7 billion from $35.7 billion a year earlier.

Amazon’s profit soared in the quarter in part because of the growth of Amazon Web Services, its cloud computing business, which runs many technology functions for customers through Amazon’s data centers. Web Services revenue jumped 47 percent to $3.54 billion, while operating income increased almost 60 percent to $926 million.

The company’s earnings were well ahead of the average earnings estimate compiled by Thomson Reuters of $1.35 a share. Revenue was a different story, falling short of the $44.68 billion average revenue estimate of analysts."

Amazon’s Holiday Quarter Doesn’t Match High Expectations - The New York Times

Snapchat files for $3 billion IPO as era of secrecy ends - The Boston Globe

New IPO math; also see Snap's IPO to Be Haunted by Twitter and GoPro (Bloomberg) and Snap commits $2 billion over 5 years for Google Cloud infrastructure (TechCrunch)

"Snap Inc., the maker of the disappearing photo app Snapchat, filed publicly for an initial offering, the first US social-media company to do so since Twitter Inc. more than three years ago.

The company filed with an initial size of $3 billion, a placeholder amount used to calculate fees that may change. Snap plans to raise as much as $4 billion in the IPO, people familiar with the matter have said, for a market value of as much as $25 billion.

The company’s net loss widened to $515 million in 2016, on revenue of $404 million, according to the prospectus filed Thursday. That compares with a loss of $382 million in 2015, on revenue of $59 million."

Snapchat files for $3 billion IPO as era of secrecy ends - The Boston Globe

Snap’s Chief Taps Into the ‘Right Now’ - The New York Times

From a Snap profile as it prepares to IPO; in other Snap news, see Snapchat’s next Lenses could identify and add to landscapes as well as faces (TechCrunch) and Ahead Of Its IPO, Snap Is Losing To Instagram On A Key Metric (BuzzFeed)

"At Stanford, also his father’s alma mater, Mr. Spiegel majored in product design and started a handful of companies with Mr. Murphy, a fellow Kappa Sigma fraternity brother. (Their early start-ups flopped.) There, Mr. Spiegel also met some of the men who would become his mentors, including Scott Cook, then the chief executive of Intuit, and Eric Schmidt, the Google chairman, who taught an M.B.A. class that he attended.

Mr. Spiegel “really is the next Gates or Zuckerberg,” Mr. Schmidt said in an interview, comparing the Snap chief to Microsoft’s co-founder, Bill Gates, and Facebook’s chief, Mark Zuckerberg. “He has superb manners, which he says he got from his mother. He credits his father’s long legal calls, which he overheard, to giving him perspective on business and structure as a very young man.”"

Snap’s Chief Taps Into the ‘Right Now’ - The New York Times

IBM Gives Watson a New Challenge: Your Tax Return - The New York Times

Deep and broad learning

"In its first steps toward commercialization, IBM’s Watson took on grand, science-laden challenges like helping doctors diagnose cancer. But that is changing as IBM strives to build its artificial intelligence technology into a multibillion-dollar business.

Today, companies including Geico, Staples and Macy’s are adding the Watson technology to answer customer questions or to improve mobile apps that guide shoppers through stores.

Now in its broadest deployment so far, Watson will be assisting H&R Block’s 70,000 tax professionals this filing season at 10,000 branch offices across the country, where 11 million people file taxes."

IBM Gives Watson a New Challenge: Your Tax Return - The New York Times

Facebook’s Loss in Court Doesn’t Dim Excitement Over Huge Growth - The New York Times

That's a lot of faces (and ads)

"Facebook’s fourth-quarter sales, announced Wednesday, handily beat Wall Street estimates. And even a $500 million jury verdict that went against the company earlier in the day did little to diminish enthusiasm about its finances.

Facebook said sales had totaled $8.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016, up 51 percent compared with a year ago, surpassing analysts’ expectations of $8.5 billion. Not surprisingly, user growth is at a peak.
[...]
The controversy over fake news seemed to have little effect on users’ appetite for the website. Total profit for the quarter was $3.6 billion, annual ad revenue was up roughly $10 billion compared with 2015, and more than half of the site’s 1.86 billion regular visitors used it daily."

Facebook’s Loss in Court Doesn’t Dim Excitement Over Huge Growth - The New York Times