'TacoBot' Is Taco Bell's Newest Way to Order - Fortune

I suppose this was inevitable... Also see What does it mean to build bots ethically? (The Wordyard Project) and Facebook is starting to suggest businesses you should chat with on Messenger (Business Insider)

"Taco Bell is getting in on the artificial intelligence game.

The Yum! Brands-owned fast food chain teamed up with Slack to introduce its new “TacoBot,” a service that allows customers to place pickup orders through the messaging app for select menu items. According to a press release, TacoBot employs artificial intelligence, giving it the ability to recommend menu items, answer questions, organize group orders, and facilitate transactions “fully equipped with the sharp and witty personality you’d expect from Taco Bell.”"

'TacoBot' Is Taco Bell's Newest Way to Order - Fortune

From Encrypted Drives To Amazon's Cloud -- The Amazing Flight Of The Panama Papers - Forbes

An interesting case study in large-scale content-based collaboration

"To make all the information accessible to more than 400 journalists, Cabra said the files were uploaded to Amazon, a lengthy process, but not as time-consuming as sorting data into searchable formats.

All the software used was open source, tweaked to suit the reporters’ needs. The search tool, allowing reporters to hunt for names like Putin or places like the British Virgin Isles, was based on Apache Solr, used by a large number of search-heavy organizations, including DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused tool. Solr was combined with Apache’s Tika, an indexing software that can parse different file types, be they PDFs or emails as in the Panama Papers, drawing out the text from the non-essential data. Layered on top was the shiny interface, built using Blacklight, another open source development.

[...]

To understand what they were looking at, the reporters could use integrated data visualization, using a mix of graph database tech Neo4j with Linkurious to make the job of making connections between files easier."

From Encrypted Drives To Amazon's Cloud -- The Amazing Flight Of The Panama Papers - Forbes

After 10 Years, Amazon’s AWS Is a $10 Billion Business | Re/code

Quoting from Amazon's latest 8-K letter to shareholders

"Amazon Web Services “is bigger than Amazon.com was at 10 years old, growing at a faster rate, and — most noteworthy in my view — the pace of innovation continues to accelerate,” Bezos wrote, adding that the unit added 722 new features in 2015, which amounted to a 40 percent increase over the prior year.

Last month AWS observed its 10th year of operations, and was the bright spot in an otherwise disappointing fourth-quarter report in January. The unit clocked $7.9 billion in revenue in 2015, amounting to more than 7 percent of Amazon’s overall sales, with an operating margin of 24 percent."

After 10 Years, Amazon’s AWS Is a $10 Billion Business | Re/code

BlackBerry Cuts Price of Android Device Amid Slow Phone Sales | Re/code

Tangentially, see Microsoft insists it still supports Windows Phone (Network World)

"The Priv will now sell for $649 without a contract, a $50 cut from its standard price. That’s still a hefty sum, but puts it just below some other large-screen flagship devices from Samsung and others.

However, it may be too little, too late for the Waterloo, Ontario-based company. BlackBerry CEO John Chen has said the company will consider abandoning the hardware effort if it can’t make money by this year.

BlackBerry reported lower-than-expected sales of 600,000 devices as part of last week’s earnings, adding to questions over whether it will remain in the phone business beyond this year."

BlackBerry Cuts Price of Android Device Amid Slow Phone Sales | Re/code

Google Taps IBM, Rackspace to Dent Intel's Hold on Server Chips - Bloomberg

In search of lower data center costs

"The moves show how keen Google is to use chip suppliers other than Intel, or to raise the threat of switching to bargain for lower prices from the world’s largest chipmaker. As one of the world’s biggest operators of computer servers, Google’s hardware decisions are watched closely by companies across the industry. Rackspace shares jumped 6.6% to close at $23.65 on Wednesday, their biggest one-day gain since March 11.
Google is also working with Qualcomm Inc. to evaluate ARM-designed chips for its data centers. Intel has more than 99 percent of the market for processors that run data center servers. That division at the chipmaker provides half of its profit and is its chief source of revenue growth."

Google Taps IBM, Rackspace to Dent Intel's Hold on Server Chips - Bloomberg

Slacking with Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield - Bloomberg Businessweek Design 2016

Excerpt from a wide-ranging interview

"Flickr was in fact something we came up with that we could build taking advantage of the technical infrastructure we had already created, but which we could finish (and bring to market) sooner.
And Slack was just a built-from-scratch version of the jury-rigger and hacked-together system for internal communication we built while working on Glitch.
So, the common thing in both cases was a desperate attempt to find something to salvage from a bunch of wasted work :wink:"

Slacking with Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield - Bloomberg Businessweek Design 2016

Yahoo Sale ‘Book’ Reveals Financial Meltdown | Re/code

Heading into Yahoo's final chapter as an independent company

"While some are scared by the numbers, everyone I spoke to plans to make a bid of some sort, largely because even as financially precarious as it has become, Yahoo remains one of the biggest properties on the Web and it is hard to be able to buy that kind scale easily.

“It’s like a dilapidated house in Silicon Valley — you walk in and are overwhelmed by the work that needs to be done and how bad it has gotten,” said one potential buyer. “But then it’s in a good neighborhood, the market is nuts and there’s not many like it anymore, so you have to hope you can fix it.”"

Yahoo Sale ‘Book’ Reveals Financial Meltdown | Re/code

Facebook Unleashes a Raft of Live-Video Updates - Digits - WSJ

Likely to be useful in a wide range of domains; e.g., see Facebook Groups Act as Weapons Bazaars for Militias (NYT)

"The company is attacking live video on several fronts, introducing new tools for users while working with media companies and celebrities to generate videos. In some cases Facebook is paying outsiders to post videos on the network. Recode earlier reported Facebook was willing to pay for content.

Facebook is using the Groups and Events pieces of its software to get more people to create and share video. Among the changes: users can now stream live video to select people such as family, instead of all followers, and live video can be folded into events. This will allow a parent to stream video from a dance recital to a small group, for example, while a celebrity can talk to followers from a concert stage."

Facebook Unleashes a Raft of Live-Video Updates - Digits - WSJ

WhatsApp Encryption Now Covers All Messages - The New York Times

Tangentially, F.B.I. Lawyer Won’t Say if Data From Unlocked iPhone Is Useful (NYT)

"End-to-end encryption for WhatsApp is of particular concern to the F.B.I., considering the service’s huge subscriber base and large international footprint. With increasing amounts of communications now sent across messaging services, encrypted texts, video, photos and the like may end up being more problematic for law enforcement than locked devices. The encryption on WhatsApp will be turned on by default, so users will not be required to enable it themselves.

WhatsApp has previously clashed with law enforcement over its digital data. Last month, the federal police in Brazil arrested a Facebook executive for not turning over information from a WhatsApp account in a drug trafficking case. The executive was released."

WhatsApp Encryption Now Covers All Messages - The New York Times

Wind and Solar Are Crushing Fossil Fuels - Bloomberg

Check the full article for details on several encouraging trends

"The reason solar-power generation will increasingly dominate: It’s a technology, not a fuel. As such, efficiency increases and prices fall as time goes on. What's more, the price of batteries to store solar power when the sun isn't shining is falling in a similarly stunning arc. 
Just since 2000, the amount of global electricity produced by solar power has doubled seven times over. Even wind power, which was already established, doubled four times over the same period. For the first time, the two forms of renewable energy are beginning to compete head-to-head on price and annual investment."

Wind and Solar Are Crushing Fossil Fuels - Bloomberg

Twitter Gets NFL Thursday Night Games for a Bargain Price - Bloomberg

Also see Why the NFL on Facebook wasn’t going to work (The Washington Post)

"At around $1 million per game, Twitter is paying a small fraction of what would seem to be the market rate. Yahoo paid $17 million to stream a single game from London, which was played at 9:30 a.m. New York time and also broadcast on network TV in the teams’ home markets. In the most recent broadcast deal, CBS Corp. and Comcast Corp.’s NBC each paid about $45 million a game for five Thursday night contests each during the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
“We did not take the highest bidder on the table,” said Brian Rolapp, the NFL’s executive vice president of media, of the Twitter deal. “The platform is built around live events already. We want to see how they use the unique platform, and syndicated tweets all over the Internet is going to be interesting.”"

Twitter Gets NFL Thursday Night Games for a Bargain Price - Bloomberg

HTC Vive Review: Oculus Rift’s Rival Makes VR Bigger - WSJ

Virtualized reality; also see Virtual Reality Check: Rating the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift (NYT) and The Vive virtual reality headset is clunky, pricey and completely amazing (The Washington Post)

"Step 1 of the Vive’s setup ought to read, “Buy a bigger house.”

You’re going to a want an unobstructed 15-by-15-foot patch. Coffee tables and ottomans will have to go. Pets, too. Think of this $799 gadget less like buying a new TV, and more like installing a swimming pool.

Last week, rival Oculus Rift debuted the first immersive VR system targeting gamers who stand or sit alone, hooked to a long cable, in front of a pricey PC while wearing video goggles. With the Vive, which began shipping Tuesday, you’ve still got the PC tethered to the goggles, but now you’re wandering around and swinging your arms in the air, too."

HTC Vive Review: Oculus Rift’s Rival Makes VR Bigger - WSJ

Hacker-for-Hire Market is Booming, Says New Report - Digits - WSJ

On a related note, see Panama Papers: “It was an email server attack” (Naked Security)

"Among the findings: Hackers are offering to steal personal emails from Gmail or Yahoo accounts for $129. The report, which didn’t detail the extent to which the online hackers delivered on their promises, said one illicit service boasted that emails could be snatched without the victim noticing any suspicious activity.

Offers to hack into corporate email accounts cost more: $500 per mailbox, the security firm said.

The findings come amid growing concerns among law-enforcement officials about the burgeoning hacker-for-hire market, which allows anyone with Internet access and a bit of money to potentially wreak havoc on computer networks. Hacking has become a way to facilitate all sorts of crimes, from illegal gambling to insider trading."

Hacker-for-Hire Market is Booming, Says New Report - Digits - WSJ

Salesforce.com Acquires Deep Learning Startup MetaMind | Re/code

Tangentially, see Million-dollar babies (The Economist)

"Cloud business software company Salesforce.com has acquired MetaMind, a startup focused on artificial learning that had been funded by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and venture capital firm Khosla Ventures.

Terms were not disclosed, but it has all the markings of an “acqhire” sort of deal. Founder and CTO Richard Socher announced the deal in a post on the MetaMind website. Socher says on his personal website that his new title is Chief Scientist at Salesforce."

Salesforce.com Acquires Deep Learning Startup MetaMind | Re/code

Website Seeks to Make Government Data Easier to Sift Through - The New York Times

Leading by example

"A project coming out of the M.I.T. Media Lab on Monday seeks to ease that challenge and to make the value of government data available to a wider audience. The project, called Data USA, bills itself as “the most comprehensive visualization of U.S. public data.” It is free, and its software code is open source, meaning that developers can build custom applications by adding other data.

Cesar A. Hidalgo, an assistant professor of media arts and sciences at the M.I.T. Media Lab who led the development of Data USA, said the website was devised to “transform data into stories.” Those stories are typically presented as graphics, charts and written summaries."

Website Seeks to Make Government Data Easier to Sift Through - The New York Times

Microsoft Strikes Partnership With Banks on Blockchain Tech - Bloomberg

A blockchain gang

"Microsoft Inc. has pulled ahead of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, International Business Machines Corp., and Amazon.com Inc. in the race for supremacy in operating other companies’ blockchains.
Microsoft and R3, a consortium of 43 financial institutions, have formed a strategic partnership to accelerate the use of the blockchain technologies. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella announced the deal at the company’s Envision conference Monday.
Blockchains -- basically online ledgers for recording transactions -- first gained popularity with the digital currency bitcoin. But now financial institutions are experimenting with them as well to run their businesses more efficiently."

Microsoft Strikes Partnership With Banks on Blockchain Tech - Bloomberg

Tesla's Model 3 Intrigue Deepens With Musk's Twitter Barrage - Bloomberg

Reading between the tweets; see the full article for details; also see Tesla Deliveries Miss Forecast as `Hubris' Hurts SUV Supply (Bloomberg)

"Tesla Motors Inc. doesn't really do traditional press releases. Instead, when Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has something to say, he often relies on Twitter for a few 140-character revelations.
Following the unveiling last week of his new Model 3 electric car—which attracted almost 300,000 deposits from customers around the world—Musk tweeted 68 times, talking about features ranging from the car's instrument panel to its hubcap design and plans for high-speed supercharger networks in Europe and Asia. 
We already knew a lot about the $35,000 Model 3, but here's what we learned from Musk this weekend:"

Tesla's Model 3 Intrigue Deepens With Musk's Twitter Barrage - Bloomberg

Apple’s Underappreciated Services Business Could Be Growth Engine — Credit Suisse - Digits - WSJ

Profit different

"In Apple’s latest quarterly report, services accounted for just 8% of total revenues at roughly $6.1 billion. But the segment has been expanding, with sales from services up 26% from the same time a year ago.

Services, as defined by Apple, include Internet services, AppleCare, Apple Pay and licensing, among other offerings.

Gross profits from Apple’s services could more than double by 2020, wrote Mr. Garcha. He estimates that gross profits, or sales minus the cost of goods sold, could rise to $33.7 billion that year, representing 29% of gross income. Already gross profits from services have grown to $14.5 billion a year today from $3.2 billion in 2010, he said."

Apple’s Underappreciated Services Business Could Be Growth Engine — Credit Suisse - Digits - WSJ

Microsoft’s DocumentDB gets into bed with MongoDB | SiliconANGLE

Perhaps "obviates" would be a bit more accurate than "gets into bed with"

"If you’re fluent in MongoDB you might be interested to know that Microsoft’s recently launched take on the NoSQL database, DocumentDB, now supports drivers for the latter. Which means that if you have existing tools and libraries for MongoDB, you can now use them with DocumentDB, which resides entirely inside Microsoft’s Azure cloud.
One of the biggest advantages of this is that it’s now possible to build hybrid infrastructure using DocumentDB, together with a second database service that’s compatible with MongoDB."

Microsoft’s DocumentDB gets into bed with MongoDB | SiliconANGLE

Lifelogging is dead (for now) | Computerworld

There's an app for that

"But Bell's foray into the kind of all-encompassing lifelogging he attempted was too early. In the future, he said, we could see the price of memory come way down, as well as breakthroughs in battery technology and artificial intelligence (A.I.). But for now, it's not possible to automatically record everything using a mobile device. And it's hard to manage and use the terabytes of data generated.

Meanwhile, Bell said, we do have a version of Bush's Memex: "It's the smartphone."

The combination of the sensors in the phone, the connected smartwatches and fitness wearables, the location tracking, the apps that harvest data and, above all, the social media oversharing, together constitutes a lifelog. It's just that we don't look at it that way."

Lifelogging is dead (for now) | Computerworld

FBI v. Apple: “Unduly Burdensome” | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

Final paragraphs from an extensive and insightful review

"The FBI is attempting to compel Apple to reengineer a product design solely to defeat the product’s purpose. Asking Apple to create that which does not already exist and which Apple does not want to create and which will harm the company now, and going forward, is the very definition of burdensome.
What the government is demanding of Apple is simply above and beyond what can be, and should be, demanded of a good citizen."

FBI v. Apple: “Unduly Burdensome” | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

​Tesla vs Boeing: Who wins in the ultimate drag race? - CNET

Don't try this at home

"The race played out Avalon Airport, just outside Melbourne, Australia, over the weekend as part of the launch of a new partnership between Tesla and Australia's national airline, Qantas. Just like air traffic control, we can see a PR stunt coming a mile off. But still, we can't complain if it means watching a 168-person passenger jet race down a 900-metre stretch of runway next to an electric car that can go from 0 to 100 kph (62 mph) in 3 seconds."

​Tesla vs Boeing: Who wins in the ultimate drag race? - CNET

Tesla says Model 3 orders top $10 billion in first 36 hours | Reuters

276K by the end of Saturday, per @elonmusk

"Tesla Motors Inc said orders for its new Model 3 electric sedan topped 253,000 in the first 36 hours -- a fast start for the company's first mass-market vehicle, which may not begin to reach customers for another 18 months or more.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted on Friday that the Model 3, which is slated to go into production in late 2017, will sell at an average price of $42,000, including the price of options and additional features, which would give the initial flurry of orders an estimated retail value of $10.6 billion."

Tesla says Model 3 orders top $10 billion in first 36 hours | Reuters

Outshone by Smaller Screens, PCs Aim to Be Seen as Cool Again - The New York Times

From a PC market reality check

"Yet as people increasingly gravitate to smartphones and tablets for their computing needs, shifting into what has been called the “post-PC era,” the investment into design and new innovations by PC makers may come to naught. Last year, 289 million PCs were sold worldwide, an 8 percent drop from 2014, according to Gartner, a research firm.

The sales decline was just the latest in several years when the PC market faced an onslaught of smartphones and tablets as cooler alternatives. The falloff is expected to level off this year, with PC sales even expected to begin growing slowly in 2017. But that still leaves the question of whether PCs can seem cool again."

Outshone by Smaller Screens, PCs Aim to Be Seen as Cool Again - The New York Times

The Panama Papers: how the world’s rich and famous hide their money offshore | News | The Guardian

A 2.6 terabyte leak; also see Panama Papers Q&A: How assets are hidden and taxes dodged (BBC)

"The hidden wealth of some of the world’s most prominent leaders, politicians and celebrities has been revealed by an unprecedented leak of millions of documents that show the myriad ways in which the rich can exploit secretive offshore tax regimes.

The Guardian, working with global partners, will set out details from the first tranche of what are being called “the Panama Papers”. Journalists from more than 80 countries have been reviewing 11.5m files leaked from the database of Mossack Fonseca, the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm."

The Panama Papers: how the world’s rich and famous hide their money offshore | News | The Guardian

How Google Plans to Solve Artificial Intelligence (Technology Review)

From an extensive Google DeepMind profile; also see Why firms are piling into artificial intelligence (The Economist)

"Success could raise some tough philosophical and ethical questions about what it means to be human and the acceptable use cases of artificial intelligence. Hassabis says he encourages discussion of the possible risks of the technology. (Although he also notes with satisfaction that physicist Stephen Hawking has stopped warning that artificial intelligence could wipe out humans since meeting with Hassabis; Tesla founder Elon Musk, who has likened artificial intelligence research to “summoning the demon,” has also received an anti-pep talk.) DeepMind has an internal ethics board of philosophers, lawyers, and businesspeople. Hassabis says their names will probably be disclosed “shortly,” and that he's also working to convene a similar, external, board shared across multiple computing companies.

DeepMind’s engineers don’t yet need ethics advice when planning new experiments, though, says Hassabis. “We're nowhere near anything we would be worried about,” he says. “It's more about getting everyone up to speed.” If everything works out as Hassabis hopes, his ethics board will eventually have real work to do."

How Google Plans to Solve Artificial Intelligence

Meet Tesla’s Model 3, Its Long-Awaited Car for the Masses | WIRED

Final paragraph from an extensive Model 3 reality check

"Ultimately, though, Tesla has earned the benefit of the doubt. Musk has consistently made big promises, then proved the doubters and naysayers wrong, first with the Roadster, then with the S and the X. Bringing zero-emission motoring to the proletariat and radically remaking how people get around is Tesla’s biggest promise, and Musk’s greatest challenge, yet. But together they’ve made it this far. Musk doesn’t always deliver on time or within budget, but he always delivers."

Meet Tesla’s Model 3, Its Long-Awaited Car for the Masses | WIRED

Xamarin CEO Nat Friedman on getting acquired by Microsoft | TechCrunch

Check here for an index of Xamarin sessions at Build 2016; also see Xamarin now free in Visual Studio (Ars Technica) and Interview: Xamarin co-founder Miguel de Icaza goes from outcast to insider at Microsoft (GeekWire)

"While Xamarin long stressed that it wasn’t really for sale, Friedman argued that what also attracted him in this deal was the ability to reach more developers. “We had a very healthy, exciting, stand-alone business that we loved running, but when you have the opportunity to make your code open source and free and available to hundreds of times as many developers, it’s hard to pass that up,” he said.

He also stressed that after having met Nadella, Liuson and other members of Microsoft’s executive team during an offsite meeting a few weeks ago, he felt even better about the acquisition. “I was really surprised, to be honest,” he said. “Even already having this optimistic viewpoint that lead me to doing the acquisition, I wasn’t expecting the level of talent, passion, optimism, cooperation, and enthusiasm that I saw among Satya’s and Scott’s top team.” He also noted that he doesn’t think “the public reputation of Microsoft, even though it has improved, has caught up to the reality of what’s going on inside Microsoft.”"

Xamarin CEO Nat Friedman on getting acquired by Microsoft | TechCrunch

Google 'Mic Drop' April Fool's Gag Goes Horribly Wrong - Fortune

Oops -- also see Google reverses Gmail April 1 prank after users mistakently [sic] put GIFs into important emails (TechCrunch)

"“Well, it looks like we pranked ourselves this year,” Google employee Crystal Cee wrote in one of the forum threads. “Due to a bug, the Mic Drop feature inadvertently caused more headaches than laughs. We’re truly sorry. The feature has been turned off. If you are still seeing it, please reload your Gmail page.”

There are a billion people out there who actively use Gmail (although many only use it on mobile, and this was a desktop affair). It probably wasn’t the best idea to just drop a potentially dangerous live feature on them like this — April Fool’s or not."

Google 'Mic Drop' April Fool's Gag Goes Horribly Wrong - Fortune

A $700 Juice Box for the Kitchen That Caught Silicon Valley’s Eye - The New York Times

Strange days indeed

"In recent years, venture capitalists have funded all manner of improbable ideas. An app that lets random people call and wake you up. A bathroom scale that posts your weight on Twitter.

And then there is Doug Evans’s brainchild. With no experience running tech companies and a bungled juice-bar chain under his belt, he has extracted a remarkable $120 million in investments from Silicon Valley titans, including Google Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and big companies like Campbell Soup.

His pitch: a $700 machine that makes an eight-ounce glass of juice."

A $700 Juice Box for the Kitchen That Caught Silicon Valley’s Eye - The New York Times

Elon Musk wows with newly unveiled Tesla Model 3, nets 133,000 pre-orders and counting - LA Times

Check this Tesla page for more details

"Pulling the covers off the fourth vehicle in the company's short history, Musk declared that more than 115,000 vehicles had been pre-ordered in the first 24 hours. A couple hours later, by 10 p.m. Pacific, that number had climbed to 133,000. 

The lower, sleeker Tesla -- at least 20% smaller in stature than its bigger brother, the Model S -- will be able to go from 0 to 60 in less than six seconds in its most affordable configuration. 

"The Model S and X made the Model 3 possible," Musk said. "So to all of you who bought an S or an X, thanks for paying for this."

He noted that with any new technology "it takes multiple iterations ... and economies of scale before you can make it affordable.""

Elon Musk wows with newly unveiled Tesla Model 3, nets 133,000 pre-orders and counting - LA Times

Microsoft’s Bot Vision is Expansive but Faces Challenges | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

From a Microsoft + bots reality check

"However, as I see it, Microsoft has several key challenges as it aims to implement this strategy:

• The need for context and rich data may be thwarted by Microsoft’s third party status on the vast majority of mobile devices
• Skype isn’t a leading messaging platform and getting users to see it this way will require a significant education effort
• With many others building similar conversational UIs, Microsoft may struggle to compete against those with much larger installed bases"

Microsoft’s Bot Vision is Expansive but Faces Challenges | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

Skype is getting Cortana and crazy bot messaging | The Verge

Also see Microsoft launches Bot Framework to let developers build their own chatbots (VentureBeat) and Skype Bots preview comes to consumers and developers (Skype blog)

"You'll soon be able to use Skype to books trips, shop, and plan your schedule, just by chatting with Cortana. During its Build conference, Microsoft demoed how Skype users will soon be able to start a chat with Cortana and get things done just by having a conversation.

"Cortana is brokering the conversation with a third-party bot," says Lilian Rincon, Skype's program manager. Essentially, Skype will know which company or service you want to talk to, bring a new bot into your chat to help out, and then get rid of the bot when you're done."

Skype is getting Cortana and crazy bot messaging | The Verge

HoloLens, A Year Later: A New Demo At Build 2016 (Tom's Hardware)

Now with improved demo choreography; also see Why Microsoft can't say when its incredible HoloLens will become a reality (CNET)

"A year ago at Build 2015, we got our first demo of Microsoft’s HoloLens. At this year’s event, we got a second crack at seeing the augmented reality device in action, and it was a completely different experience.

Or, we should say, Microsoft took a completely different approach. Last year was a highly secretive showing, with a complex offsite jaunt that required us to traverse numerous floors of a hotel and lock away anything resembling recording equipment. Pen and paper were our only tools, and we each were ushered into private rooms for intimate, quick demos.

This year, by contrast, Microsoft tricked out one of the huge ballrooms at Moscone West with dozens of HoloLens stations, comfy couches, work stations, monitors hung like an NBA scoreboard in the middle of the room, and a merry band of unbelievably chipper staff. It was a party atmosphere. “HoloGraphic Academy,” they called it."

HoloLens, A Year Later: A New Demo At Build 2016

Microsoft cozies up to Ubuntu as developers welcome cold day in hell | ZDNet

Also see Ubuntu (not Linux) on Windows: How it works (ZDNet), which notes "This is not a new idea. In fact, it's a downright ancient notion. It goes all the way back to the Windows NT POSIX subsystem. NT Posix was designed to run native Unix -- Linux hadn't been created yet -- binaries on Windows NT."

"Microsoft move to support Ubuntu and the Bash command line inside Windows 10 won't woo the masses, but feeds the company's developer base and courts more people to its platform. Microsoft's move also delivers good optics for CEO Satya Nadella's overall strategy.

The software giant outlined a lot of items at its Build conference opener--a new Windows 10 update on deck, a Cortana Intelligence Suite and bots designed to make Skype more productive--but the big item was building in Canonical's Ubuntu into Windows 10"

Microsoft cozies up to Ubuntu as developers welcome cold day in hell | ZDNet

Nest Revenue Around $340 Million Last Year, but Budget Troubles Ahead | Re/code

Also see Dropcam Founder: Selling to Nest and Google Was a ‘Mistake’ (Re/code)

"Nest generated about $340 million in sales last year, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. That’s an impressive figure for a company in the very nascent market of Internet-connected devices.

But it’s below the initial expectations Google had set for Nest when it bought the startup in 2014 for a whopping $3.2 billion. The company’s sales performance may face even deeper scrutiny inside Google’s new parent company, Alphabet, where Nest now sits, as the hardware maker faces its most critical year ever."

Nest Revenue Around $340 Million Last Year, but Budget Troubles Ahead | Re/code

Car-Pooling Helps Uber Go the Extra Mile - The New York Times

Learning to share

"Here’s another way to put it: UberPool may push us to re-evaluate how we think about Uber and its impact on the world.

The car service has long been polarizing. Though Uber is beloved by many riders, the way it has muscled into cities and the public consciousness, and the manner in which it has altered labor relations and urban planning, have rattled lawmakers, activists and even its drivers.

UberPool raises the stakes. Because it reduces price and increases volume, it suggests that if Uber ultimately succeeds, the company could have a much bigger impact on urban mobility, labor, the environment, local economies and the national transportation infrastructure than we’ve all supposed — and its effects could confound the expectations of its harshest critics."

Car-Pooling Helps Uber Go the Extra Mile - The New York Times

Mossberg: Apple pours the latest tech into familiar gadgets | Re/code

Also see Apple 9.7-Inch iPad Pro Review: Tablet vs. Laptop Showdown (WSJ)

"After testing this new iPad, I’ve decided to upgrade. Even if you just use it to consume media and do light productivity, the improvements are noticeable and helpful. The screen is sensational, and when I compared it to my iPad Air screen, the improvement was obvious. The new True Tone feature, which seemed unnoticeable at first, suddenly seemed indispensable when I tried turning it off and the display turned to a shade of bright white I’ve been staring at for years, but which now seems unnatural.

The sound is greatly improved, with four speakers, one in each corner. I may not adore Apple’s keyboard, but it’s okay, and other keyboard makers will soon have different models that use the new connector.

Battery life was terrific. Apple claims 10 hours, but I easily got just over 12 in my test, which is based on playing video while collecting email, texts, tweets and Facebook posts in the background."

Mossberg: Apple pours the latest tech into familiar gadgets | Re/code

Microsoft’s ambitions are huge and surprising, because they have to be | The Verge

Perhaps not the lead theme Microsoft had in mind for yesterday's Build 2016 keynote

"If they aren't already, mobile devices will soon be the most widely used and important portals through which we access the internet and do anything technological. Having until recently competed to own a share of that all-important platform battleground, Microsoft now has its gaze fixed firmly on the future. Today's presentation reiterated the demise of Windows Phone as the aspiring third mobile platform after Apple's iOS and Google's Android. That fight is over, Microsoft lost, and now the company is transitioning to being platform-agnostic."

Microsoft’s ambitions are huge and surprising, because they have to be | The Verge

Lessons from Apple vs. the F.B.I. - The New Yorker

Excerpt from a timely FBI/Apple reality check

"It now appears as though the F.B.I. seized on the San Bernardino case as an opportunity to pursue a policy agenda that it has had for years, and that it oversold its case. The agency said that it was unable to unlock the iPhone 5C without Apple’s assistance. But as Daniel Kahn Gillmor, a technology fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union, pointed out in a blog post published on March 7th, this claim didn’t ring entirely true. In his piece, which included pictures of an iPhone 5C’s circuit board, Gillmor described how investigators could work around the auto-erase feature by removing the device’s NAND flash memory and backing it up, then trying every conceivable four-digit passcode combination. “If the FBI doesn’t have the equipment or expertise to do this, they can hire any one of dozens of data recovery firms that specialize in information extraction from digital devices,” he wrote. It’s not known for certain if the F.B.I. used the method that Gillmor recommended to get into Farook’s phone. But the post suggested that the Bureau hadn’t exhausted all of the technological possibilities for accessing the data. This may damage its credibility if it gets into a similar legal dispute in the future."

Lessons from Apple vs. the F.B.I. - The New Yorker

Brain-zapping gadgets promise to make you a better you — smarter, stronger, even happier - The Washington Post

Interesting times

"There’s real, peer-reviewed science behind the theory driving these devices. It involves stimulating key regions of the brain — with currents or magnetic fields — to affect emotions and physical well-being. It isn’t too different from how electroshock therapy works to counter certain mental illnesses and how deep-brain stimulation smooths motion disorders such as  multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. Indeed, recent studies have looked at the technique as a possible treatment for stroke, autism and anorexia.

Lots of people and companies are making investments, too, from Silicon Valley venture capitalists to large pharmaceutical companies and even the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. And according to the start-ups selling the products, their technology appears to be safe and effective based on certain, very controlled tests."

Brain-zapping gadgets promise to make you a better you — smarter, stronger, even happier - The Washington Post

Waze - Official Blog: Avoid Tickets and Stay Informed with New Waze Speed Limits Feature

tbd when you'll have the option of sharing the data with your insurance company

"You probably know the feeling. You might be driving on a business trip or a road trip. Or you might be driving down a road you’ve driven at least a thousand times. Suddenly it happens. You look at your dashboard and think to yourself, “What’s the speed limit on this street?” No need to worry, we got this.  

[...] To see speed limits you don’t need to change a thing. If you’re driving over the limit, a visual alert will appear on the Waze speedometer. It will stay there until your speed drops below the limit."

Waze - Official Blog: Avoid Tickets and Stay Informed with New Waze Speed Limits Feature

Amazon Assembly, Installation Services Bolster Big-Product Sales - Bloomberg

See this Amazon page to explore services by category

"Amazon now sells more than 1 million items that give shoppers the option of requesting assembly, installation or other related services, which is boosting the sale of home-improvement products, said Erika Takeuchi, a spokeswoman for Amazon. The most popular services requested are mounting flat-screen televisions to walls and assembling treadmills, she said.
Amazon’s home services also include a wide range of offerings that don’t require purchases from the online store. Housecleaning is the third most popular job requested, according to Amazon. Other services include landscaping, gutter cleaning, pet grooming and yoga instruction. But most service requests are tied to a purchase."

Amazon Assembly, Installation Services Bolster Big-Product Sales - Bloomberg

No One Wants to Be ‘the Next Square’ Anymore - Bloomberg

Full circle

"But by November, being the “Square of” anywhere suddenly wasn’t such a hot title. That month, Square sold shares in an IPO that valued the company at about $2.9 billion, less than half its private valuation from a year earlier. In the runup to the IPO, analysts began questioning whether the card-reader maker should really be priced like a high-flying tech company. Its stock price is hovering around $13, right where it was after its first day of trading. Square declined to comment."

No One Wants to Be ‘the Next Square’ Anymore - Bloomberg

Spotify Expected to Sign $1 Billion Financing Deal - The New York Times

Streaming money

"Spotify is about to close on a $1 billion deal that would double the amount of financing the music-streaming company has raised since its founding a decade ago, people briefed on the matter said Tuesday.

The money comes in the form of convertible debt, which allows Spotify’s investors to change their securities into equity at a future date, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deal was not yet public."

Spotify Expected to Sign $1 Billion Financing Deal - The New York Times

FBI Breaks into iPhone. We Have Some Questions. | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Check the full post for more details; also see Apple Says the San Bernardino iPhone Case 'Should Never Have Been Brought' (Gizmodo)

"In addition, this new method of accessing the phone raises questions about the government’s apparent use of security vulnerabilities in iOS and whether it will inform Apple about these vulnerabilities. As a panel of experts hand-picked by the White House recognized, any decision to withhold a security vulnerability for intelligence or law enforcement purposes leaves ordinary users at risk from malicious third parties who also may use the vulnerability. Thanks to a lawsuit by EFF, the government has released its official policy for determining when to disclose security vulnerabilities, the Vulnerabilities Equities Process (VEP).

If the FBI used a vulnerability to get into the iPhone in the San Bernardino case, the VEP must apply, meaning that there should be a very strong bias in favor of informing Apple of the vulnerability. That would allow Apple to fix the flaw and protect the security of all its users. We look forward to seeing more transparency on this issue as well."

FBI Breaks into iPhone. We Have Some Questions. | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Oculus Rift Review: VR’s Rising Star Isn’t Ready for the Mainstream - WSJ

Also see Oculus Rift Review: A Clunky Portal to a Promising Virtual Reality (NYT)

"It will take some time for VR storytellers to figure out this craft. But the Rift itself, while an engineering marvel, still just isn’t that good at convincing you you’re in an alternate reality. After the novelty wears off, using the 1.5-pound headset is about as awkward as sleeping on an airplane. It’s hard to avoid feeling queasy when virtual scenes move without your actual body. I couldn’t even last one entire race in “Project Cars,” a racing simulator. (Oculus rates apps based on comfort: Our favorite zombie-hunting game, “Into the Dead,” all but forces you to stop and take breaks.)"

Oculus Rift Review: VR’s Rising Star Isn’t Ready for the Mainstream - WSJ

U.S. Says It Has Unlocked iPhone Without Apple - The New York Times

I'm guessing this is not the final chapter in the Apple/FBI saga

"Yet law enforcement’s ability to now unlock an iPhone through an alternative method raises new uncertainties, including questions about the strength of security in Apple devices. The development also creates potential for new conflicts between the government and Apple about the method used to open the device and whether that technique will be disclosed. Lawyers for Apple have previously said the company would want to know the procedure used to crack open the smartphone, yet the government might classify the method.

“From a legal standpoint, what happened in the San Bernardino case doesn’t mean the fight is over,” said Esha Bhandari, a staff lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union. She notes that the government generally goes through a process whereby it decides whether to disclose information about certain vulnerabilities so that manufacturers can patch them."

U.S. Says It Has Unlocked iPhone Without Apple - The New York Times

Growing up | The Economist

From a review of Splinternet

"The open internet accounts for barely 20% of the entire web. The rest of it is hidden away in unsearchable “walled gardens” such as Facebook, whose algorithms are opaque, or on the “dark web”, a shady parallel world wide web. Data gathered from the activities of internet users are being concentrated in fewer hands (see article). And big hands they are too. BCG, a consultancy, reckons that the internet will account for 5.3% of GDP of the world’s 20 big economies this year, or $4.2 trillion.

How did this come to pass? The simple reply is that the free, open, democratic internet dreamed up by the optimists of Silicon Valley was never more than a brief interlude. The more nuanced answer is that the open internet never really existed."

Growing up | The Economist

Netflix’s Grand, Daring, Maybe Crazy Plan to Conquer the World | WIRED

Planetary-scale content distribution

"These so-called Open Connect appliances serve a simple purpose: To keep Netflix from clogging up the Internet. In North America alone, Netflix is singlehandedly responsible for 37 percent of downstream Internet traffic during peak hours. The service as a whole streams 125 million hours of content every single day. Without relieving as many pressure points as possible, things could get ugly, fast.

The total capacity of the Internet’s country-to-country backbone is 35TB per second, says Ken Florance, Netflix’s VP of content delivery. “Our peak traffic is more than that … . Our scale is actually larger than the international capacity of the Internet.” Netflix doesn’t literally break the Internet because the vast majority of its traffic is delivered locally, via Open Connect, rather than across the transoceanic cables that connect the Internet between continents."

Netflix’s Grand, Daring, Maybe Crazy Plan to Conquer the World | WIRED

Google and Apple: the High-Tech Hippies of Silicon Valley - The New York Times

A long-view perspective on the new Apple and Google campuses

"These images and experiments fueled the imagination of Silicon Valley, even as the young tech entrepreneurs began converting their ramshackle means to far different ends. It was, after all, an earth held in common that inspired the hippie Modernists to find new ways of designing and living. The new unearthly Silicon Valley campuses represent the triumph of privatized commons, of a verdant natural world sheltered for the few. Neither the Google nor Apple campus is open to the public, nor are their designs replicable on the scale that the ’60s utopians imagined for their designs. Well after the orchards of Northern California were overwhelmed by glass boxes and suburban tracts, the tech companies find themselves looking longingly at an Edenic, prelapsarian moment, when it seemed that — to adapt a more recent slogan — another world was possible. But what was originally borne from improvisation and a desire to live simply is now borne from unimaginable mountains of cash. The new Apple office will cost an estimated $5 billion, making it possibly the most expensive office building in history. We are dealing with a bubble of a different kind."

Google and Apple: the High-Tech Hippies of Silicon Valley - The New York Times

Silicon Valley Looks to Artificial Intelligence for the Next Big Thing - The New York Times

From a machine learning market momentum snapshot

"The A.I. resources Ms. Greene is opening up at Google are remarkable. Google’s autocomplete feature that most of us use when doing a search can instantaneously touch 500 computers in several locations as it guesses what we are looking for. Services like Maps and Photos have over a billion users, sorting places and faces by computer. Gmail sifts through 1.4 petabytes of data, or roughly two billion books’ worth of information, every day.

Handling all that, plus tasks like language translation and speech recognition, Google has amassed a wealth of analysis technology that it can offer to customers. Urs Hölzle, Ms. Greene’s chief of technical infrastructure, predicts that the business of renting out machines and software will eventually surpass Google advertising. In 2015, ad profits were $16.4 billion."

Silicon Valley Looks to Artificial Intelligence for the Next Big Thing - The New York Times

Learning from Tay’s introduction - The Official Microsoft Blog

Check the full post for more details and A Message from Phil Spencer (Xbox Wire) for last week's Microsoft public apology...

"As many of you know by now, on Wednesday we launched a chatbot called Tay. We are deeply sorry for the unintended offensive and hurtful tweets from Tay, which do not represent who we are or what we stand for, nor how we designed Tay. Tay is now offline and we’ll look to bring Tay back only when we are confident we can better anticipate malicious intent that conflicts with our principles and values.

I want to share what we learned and how we’re taking these lessons forward."

Learning from Tay’s introduction - The Official Microsoft Blog

How Jeff Bezos Became a Power Beyond Amazon - Fortune

Excerpt from an overview of the Jeff Bezos (#1 in the latest Fortune ranking of the "world's greatest leaders") business empire

"It’s unnerving to hear the current “it” editor of American journalism waxing eloquent about outdoing the Huffington Post, pooh-poohing the need for far-flung staff correspondents, and describing how the Post employs the work of other sites. Is he really okay with all this newfangled, journalistically questionable fare? Says Baron: “I have no interest in dying gracefully.”

For his part, Bezos professes his belief in the Post’s democracy-­sustaining mission—if not its potential to increase his wealth. “I would not have bought the Washington Post if it had been a financially upside-down salty-snack-food company,” he says. Bezos describes being 10 years old, sprawled on the floor of his grandfather’s house, watching the Watergate hearings. The Post, of course, achieved its maximum renown covering that political scandal. “We need institutions that have the resources and the training and the skill, expertise, to find things,” Bezos says. “It’s pretty important who we elect as President, all those things, and we need to examine those people, try to understand them better.” (Bezos emphasizes he’s not looking to buy any other publications, though he is regularly solicited.)"

How Jeff Bezos Became a Power Beyond Amazon - Fortune

Report: Google is building an Amazon Echo clone, Nest has a security system | Ars Technica

Nest is looking a lot like a not-for-profit market research vehicle for Apple

"Drama aside, the report also contains a list of upcoming Google and Nest products. The most interesting is a "Google Voice Recognition device" that "competes with Amazon Echo." The Echo is basically a Wi-Fi speaker with voice recognition technology—think "Siri in a box." Google has all of the voice tech nailed down from its efforts on Android and Google.com, so it's easy to imagine building the existing Google app capabilities into a standalone device. Nest originally wanted a hand in the project but was denied by Google. As for the timing of such a device, the report says it's "unclear when Google will release the device and there’s still a chance it won't be released at all." Previously, the well-sourced Artem Russakovskii of Android Police briefly mentioned an Amazon Echo competitor in development at Google, codenamed "Chirp."
The report has a big rundown of an "Internet-connected security system" from Nest, consisting of several parts. The first is a wireless hub codenamed "Flintstone." The device uses Nest's "Thread" low-power communication standard and has reportedly been in development for three years. The Information says Alphabet has put pressure on Nest to release the hub this fall, but Flintstone "has been killed or changed so many times that one former employee jokingly called it 'Tombstone.'""

Report: Google is building an Amazon Echo clone, Nest has a security system | Ars Technica

Microsoft Tells Possible Yahoo Buyers It Would Consider Backing Bids | Re/code

On a related note, see Entire Yahoo Board Would Be Ousted if Starboard Value Gets Its Way (NYT)

"Preserving its current status is important to Microsoft, said sources, which is why it has been mulling the financing of possible Yahoo buyers, who will have to come up with billions of dollars in cash to be competitive. “If Microsoft put in a billion, it would cost them almost nothing,” said one investor who had spoken to the company. “It’s a minor thing and it buys them a lot.”

Yahoo’s market cap is currently $32.5 billion, but that includes its stakes in its Asian assets. After the spin-off of its Alibaba Group assets and minus-ing out its shares of Yahoo Japan, most peg the price of its core business at $6 billion to $8 billion.

But sources close to Yahoo’s board said it wants $10 billion in a sale. (By way of comparison, I want a pretty pony from Microsoft comms head Frank Shaw and have a better chance of getting it.)"

Microsoft Tells Possible Yahoo Buyers It Would Consider Backing Bids | Re/code

Oracle’s New Service Turns Cloud Computing ‘Inside-Out’ - The CIO Report - WSJ

Partly cloudy

"The service, called Oracle Cloud at Customer, allows companies to place an Oracle cloud server within their own data center, essentially turning one of the basic concepts of cloud computing inside-out, according to Thomas Kurian, president of Oracle product development, who spoke to CIO Journal in an interview. The company is expected to formally announce the product later Thursday at Oracle CloudWorld, a customer event in Washington, D.C.

The setup is a hybrid cloud structure that allows a company to run whatever workloads it chooses on premises or in the Oracle cloud, with a common set of tools, APIs, and experiences. The workloads can shift between the environments. Oracle says it would be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the server, just as it would be for customers of more standard, public cloud services."

Oracle’s New Service Turns Cloud Computing ‘Inside-Out’ - The CIO Report - WSJ

Microsoft Created a Twitter Bot to Learn From Users. It Quickly Became a Racist Jerk. - The New York Times

The only surprise is that the Microsoft Tay team apparently didn't anticipate this outcome; also see Why Microsoft’s racist Twitter bot should make us fear human nature, not A.I. (Washington Post) and Microsoft’s Tay is an Example of Bad Design (Medium)

"Microsoft set out to learn about “conversational understanding” by creating a bot designed to have automated discussions with Twitter users, mimicking the language they use.

What could go wrong?

If you guessed, “It will probably become really racist,” you’ve clearly spent time on the Internet. Less than 24 hours after the bot, @TayandYou, went online Wednesday, Microsoft halted posting from the account and deleted several of its most obscene statements."

Microsoft Created a Twitter Bot to Learn From Users. It Quickly Became a Racist Jerk. - The New York Times

Apple is selling Microsoft Office 365 as an accessory for the iPad Pro | The Verge

Also see Smaller iPad Pro can use Microsoft Office for free, while larger iPad can't (Macworld)

"Apple wants the iPad Pro to replace Windows, and to convince customers it's bringing in a familiar face or two: Microsoft's Office suite. As part of the ordering process for the new iPad Pro, buyers are given the option of adding a subscription for Office 365 — the only non-Apple accessory to appear in the order form. Office 365 bundles in the mobile apps and full Mac versions of a number of old standbys, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. (You can also choose between the Home, Personal, and University tiers, each of which offers different features.)"

Apple is selling Microsoft Office 365 as an accessory for the iPad Pro | The Verge

Google Cloud Platform Blog: Introducing Google Stackdriver: unified monitoring and logging for GCP and AWS

Embrace and extend, c2016?

"We’re excited to introduce Google Stackdriver, a unified monitoring, logging and diagnostics service that makes ops easier, whether you’re running applications on Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), or a combination of the two.
Stackdriver is the first service to include rich dashboards, uptime monitoring, alerting, log analysis, tracing, error reporting and production debugging, across GCP and AWS, in a single, unified offering. This combination significantly reduces the time that teams spend finding and fixing issues in production."

Google Cloud Platform Blog: Introducing Google Stackdriver: unified monitoring and logging for GCP and AWS

Thank You for Hacking iPhone, Now Tell Apple How You Did It - Bloomberg Business

Getting a bit deeply nested

"The FBI’s new tactic may be subject to a relatively new and little-known rule that would require the government to tell Apple about any vulnerability potentially affecting millions of iPhones unless it can show a group of administration officials that there’s a substantial national security need to keep the flaw secret. This process, known as an equities review, was created by the Obama administration to determine if new security flaws should be kept secret or disclosed, and gives the government a specific time frame for alerting companies to the flaws.
“I do think it should be subjected to an equities review,” said Chris Inglis, former National Security Agency deputy director. “The government cannot choose sides in the tension between individual and collective security so the equities process should be run to put both on a level playing field.”"

Thank You for Hacking iPhone, Now Tell Apple How You Did It - Bloomberg Business

Google’s Scalability Day – Platformonomics

Excerpt from a Charles Fitzgerald Google-in-the-enterprise reality check

"Google has many intangibles to overcome if it wants to be a serious enterprise player. They still seem to believe every potential customer wants to be like Google. The vast majority of companies aren’t Google, can’t ever be Google and don’t even want to be Google. SnapChat and Spotify are not exactly emblematic enterprises. Culturally, Google starts with even less experience with enterprise customers than Microsoft had at the time of Scalability Day and arguably an even more engineering-driven culture with even less appreciation for the cognitive foibles of the median human. Unlike a Microsoft that had building an enterprise business as its top priority, Google the advertising company and Alphabet the technology conglomerate have many other (and frankly way cooler) priorities. It isn’t clear that a mundane investment in say 5,000 enterprise sales and support people will get the nod over the moonshot de jour (Drones! Robots! Life Extension! Board Game Championships! Squirrel! Space Elevators!)."

Google’s Scalability Day – Platformonomics

iPhone SE Review: Smaller Gets Smarter With Better Battery Life to Boot - WSJ

For another perspective, see Mossberg: the iPhone 7 had better be spectacular (The Verge)

"On most important functions, the iPhone SE doesn’t disappoint. Its A9 processor, exactly the same one that’s in the iPhone 6s, zips through apps and the most graphically challenging mobile games. (By a test called GeekBench, it’s about 70% faster than the 5s.)

The 12-megapixel rear camera is capable of Apple’s Live Photos video trick, and performs admirably in most settings—though, like the iPhone 6s, it’s now bested in low-light shooting by Samsung’s new Galaxy S7. The iPhone SE even includes Apple Pay, so you can leave your wallet at home at least some of the time.

The standout news is battery life. Unlike many other recent Apple products, the iPhone SE’s is a significant improvement over its predecessors’."

iPhone SE Review: Smaller Gets Smarter With Better Battery Life to Boot - WSJ

The Tech Exec Who Wants the Cloud to Be Google’s Moneymaker | WIRED

Check the full Diane Greene interview for some DEC Western Research Lab => Google | VMware migration history; tangentially, see Google Is Sharing Its Powerful AI With Everyone in Its Cloud (Wired)

"BeBop was in stealth mode when you joined the Google cloud group and Google acquired the startup. Can you now say what BeBop aims to do and how it plays into Google’s ambitions?

Our hand was kind of forced by the acquisition. I hadn’t planned to talk about BeBop for a while. It’s a pretty ambitious project. But basically, we’re developing ways of quickly building very rich enterprise applications, which is what you want to do in the cloud. We’ve invested very heavily in design—human-centered design, how humans look at this. Eventually, we were able to build a real center for design excellence at BeBop, which I found really exciting. You have to recognize how important it is—and how powerful it is—to a have a good user experience."

The Tech Exec Who Wants the Cloud to Be Google’s Moneymaker | WIRED

F.B.I. Clash With Apple Loosed a Torrent of Possible Ways to Hack an iPhone - The New York Times

The FBI's plausible deniability reservoir in this context is looking a bit low

"Apple said it declined to speculate on the F.B.I.’s methods and actions. The Silicon Valley company has previously expressed doubts that the government could find no way to break into its iPhone, even as it constantly updates its security protocols.

“Given the past exploits that have bypassed the lock screen and the present-day reality of innumerable security firms, malicious actors, cybercriminals and potential adversaries of the United States constantly seeking vulnerabilities,” it seems improbable for the government to conclude that the only way into the phone was for Apple to write new code and weaken its security, Erik Neuenschwander, the company’s manager of user privacy said in a recent court filing."

F.B.I. Clash With Apple Loosed a Torrent of Possible Ways to Hack an iPhone - The New York Times

Evernote founder Phil Libin creating incubator for bots - Business Insider

You could have also seen the bot potential if you looked at, e.g., Internet Relay Chat bots or General Magic...

"But Libin thinks that chat apps like Facebook M, its virtual assistant, are just the beginning.

"It really feels like apps felt to me in '08. Back when we started Evernote, all the apps were like fart apps and flashlights and kind of stupid crap like that, but you could see the potential if you squinted," Libin said. "I think it's like that right now. It's super early days, but the world is going to get rewritten based on bots and conversational UIs soon."

Libin also told us he's already invested in one bot maker — he wouldn't spill the name as they're still "under the radar," and he's building a lab within General Catalyst, the venture capital firm where he's now a partner, to explore the idea."

Evernote founder Phil Libin creating incubator for bots - Business Insider

What Everyone Gets Wrong About Enterprise Communication — Medium

Excerpt from a timely enterprise communication reality check

"Finally, what everyone gets wrong about enterprise communication is that you will have one product, one vendor, or that that would even be desirable. Nothing is killing email any time soon, because synchronous tools don’t fit the user need, there’s no competing asynchronous protocol, and IT purchasing today stands in the way of consumer-like winner-take-all network effects. Nor is email enough with the proliferation of real-time tools in the hands of teams that have needed them for a long time."

What Everyone Gets Wrong About Enterprise Communication — Medium

The Uber Model, It Turns Out, Doesn’t Translate - The New York Times

Uneven on-demand demand

"But Uber’s success was in many ways unique. For one thing, it was attacking a vulnerable market. In many cities, the taxi business was a customer-unfriendly protectionist racket that artificially inflated prices and cared little about customer service. The opportunity for Uber to become a regular part of people’s lives was huge. People take cars every day, so hook them once and you have repeat customers. Finally, cars are the second-most-expensive things people buy, and the most frequent thing we do with them is park. That monumental inefficiency left Uber ample room to extract a profit even after undercutting what we now pay for cars.

But how many other markets are there like that? Not many. Some services were used frequently by consumers, but weren’t that valuable — things related to food, for instance, offered low margins. Other businesses funded in low-frequency and low-value areas “were a trap,” Mr. Walk said."

The Uber Model, It Turns Out, Doesn’t Translate - The New York Times

How Tesla Model 3 Can Complete Its Take Over of the U.S. Luxury Market - Bloomberg Business

The Model 3, the latest Tesla bad news for Mercedes, BMW, and other luxury brands, will be unveiled next week

"What happens when the price of electric cars falls lower than the gasoline-powered competition? That's the question Tesla Motors Inc. wants to answer with its Model 3, which will carry a $35,000 price tag at its unveiling on March 31. But we don't need to wait until the Model 3 goes on sale, because Tesla already has an inexpensive electric vehicle to learn from: the Model S. 

Sure, you might not think of a $70,000 sedan as cheap. The sticker price doesn't even even include the thousands in add-ons purchased by most Tesla shoppers. But within the class of competitors—premium, large-sized luxury vehicles—the Model S is a bargain. It's faster, safer, and by many measures more convenient than its fancy, gas-chugging peers. In less than four years it has become the top-selling large-luxury vehicle in the U.S., already outselling high-end options from Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi."

How Tesla Model 3 Can Complete Its Take Over of the U.S. Luxury Market - Bloomberg Business

Apple's ITunes Overtaken by Streaming Music Services in Sales - Bloomberg Business

Apple iTunes store surpassed by ... Apple Music

"Streaming generated $2.4 billion in U.S. music sales last year, surpassing digital downloads as the recording industry’s single biggest source of revenue and propelling the business to its first year of growth since 2011.
The listening format contributed 34.3 percent of sales, edging past digital downloads, which contributed 34 percent, according to a report by the Recording Industry Association of America released Tuesday. Overall sales climbed 0.9 percent to $7 billion."

Apple's ITunes Overtaken by Streaming Music Services in Sales - Bloomberg Business

Medium spins off Matter into new company owned by Ev Williams | POLITICO

See Meet Matter Studios (Medium) for more details

"The self-publishing service and social network Medium is spinning off a prominent web publication that it has owned and hosted for the past three years.

Matter, which publishes long-form, magazine-style articles, announced Monday that it is leaving Medium to become a standalone company called Matter Studios that will be wholly owned and funded by Ev Williams, the web entrepreneur who created Medium in 2012 following his success as a co-founder of Twitter.

As Matter Studios, the brand will produce content that can be distributed across a variety of platforms, like websites (Medium, for instance), magazines, digital video channels and podcasts."

Medium spins off Matter into new company owned by Ev Williams | POLITICO

Apple 'privacy czars' grapple with internal conflicts over user data | Reuters

Check the full article for more details

"Inside Apple, the trio of experts known among employees as the privacy czars are both admired and feared.

Jane Horvath, a lawyer who previously served as global privacy counsel at Google, is the group's legal and policy wonk, often channeling the views of Apple's board and citing regulatory requirements, said former employees who have worked with her.

She was hired to formalize privacy practices after the 2011 "locationgate" scandal, in which iPhones were found to be gathering information about users' whereabouts.

Horvath works alongside Guy "Bud" Tribble, a member of the original Macintosh team who is venerated by employees as one of the few who "had been to the mountain with Moses," as one former employee put it, referring to Tribble's ties to the late Steve Jobs."

Apple 'privacy czars' grapple with internal conflicts over user data | Reuters

The Future of Twitter: Q&A with Jack Dorsey (Bloomberg Businessweek)

Tracking Twitter at ten; also see Twitter at 10: a people’s history  (The Verge)

"[...] But Dorsey has a clearer message about what he wants to change and how he wants to change it. As investors speculate about who will buy Twitter and when, Dorsey has allowed himself to think years down the road. In a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, he hints at that future. Will Twitter, currently tasked with showing you what's happening right now, be able to predict for you what's going to happen next? Is it the killer app for augmented reality?

Dorsey says Twitter's role in the world still centers around bringing people together to watch live events in the place where information comes the fastest. A decade after Twitter's founding, he has faith in the crowd and its ability to bring forth a range of opinions—balancing Donald Trump's inaccuracies, for instance—but he also talks about the importance of making Twitter a safer place to speak without fear of being attacked or harassed. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of the conversation."

The Future of Twitter: Q&A with Jack Dorsey

Apple delivers a 'significant' update with iOS 9.3 | Computerworld

In other Apple *OS news, see tvOS 9.2 now available for Apple TV with features like folders, voice improvements & more (AppleInsider) and Apple releases finished OS X 10.11.4 with Live Photos, Notes & iBooks improvements (AppleInsider)

"iOS 9, the mobile OS that powers Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, got a significant update Monday (when Apple also unveiled a new 4-in. iPhone and a 9.7-in. iPad Pro) with the arrival of iOS 9.3. The updated OS introduces several new features, including new 3D Touch shortcuts for existing system apps, Wi-Fi call support for Verizon customers, the ability to encrypt individual Notes, and -- most prominently -- a new Night Shift mode that automatically shifts the white balance on newer iPads and iPhones to a warmer color spectrum to help reduce eye strain and improve sleep. iOS 9.3 also brings updates to CarPlay, as well as enhancements to make the iPad a better tool for educational use."

Apple delivers a 'significant' update with iOS 9.3 | Computerworld

Google's Greene Hastens Cloud Expansion in Race With Amazon - Bloomberg Business

Google searches for a better way to connect with enterprise customers

"Greene is also changing the way Google sells and markets. She’s hiring across the board and demanding staff work more closely together and talk to customers more often. That includes creating a team that meets with enterprise customers to ensure Google is building what they need. That’s normal for traditional enterprise companies like Salesforce.com Inc. and Oracle Corp., but new territory for Google which specializes in self-service Web offerings. The West coast cloud sales team doubled to almost 50 people over the last few months, while the Google Apps team that works with independent IT vendors like startup Avere has grown substantially, say people familiar with the company.
Google is also spending more on marketing to compete against enterprise-focused rivals like Microsoft. Google’s pioneering, Web-based suite of work apps now trails Microsoft Office365 in revenue, Forrester Research estimates. "We have, like, the best office productivity suite, but people don’t know it," said Greene, who is hiring a chief marketing officer. Google is splashing out on billboards around San Francisco ahead of a conference this week for cloud customers."

Google's Greene Hastens Cloud Expansion in Race With Amazon - Bloomberg Business

CrowdSignals Aims to Create a Marketplace for Smartphone Sensor Data - The New York Times

Tangentially, see Apple Advances Health Apps with CareKit (Apple Press Info) and Apple’s CareKit Is the Best Argument Yet for Strong Encryption (Wired)

"Data from a personal device — a smartphone or smartwatch — is also sensitive, raising issues of data use and privacy, which complicates the collection of sensor data.

The development of software models using mobile sensor data has been hindered, said Deborah Estrin, a professor of computer science at Cornell Tech, because of “the absence of labeled data sets. And the reason for that is the lack of a community effort to do that in an ethical, efficient way.”

Ms. Estrin is one of several computer scientists from universities around the world who are advisers to CrowdSignals, as are researchers at companies like Microsoft and Intel."

CrowdSignals Aims to Create a Marketplace for Smartphone Sensor Data - The New York Times

Apple stuns world with Donald Trump iPhone • The Register

Maybe he'll end his hypocritical Apple boycott now...

"Shy and modest Apple today unveiled a pair of small iPhones and iPads for people with itty-bitty hands.

The Cupertino slinger of iStuffs summoned hacks to a brief hour-long conference in California to unveil the four-inch iPhone SE handset as well as a 9.7-inch iPad Pro slab. Both are powered by the now-available iOS 9.3 firmware."

Apple stuns world with Donald Trump iPhone • The Register

The FBI Now Says It May Crack That iPhone Without Apple’s Help | WIRED

More perspectives on the FBI's last-minute undo attempt

"Shortly after the government’s filing, the court approved the motion, canceling tomorrow’s hearing. Instead, the Justice Department has asked for two more weeks to determine whether the method developed by that unnamed “outside party” is truly capable of unlocking Farook’s locked phone without altering its internal data. But the government’s move is already being interpreted as a decision to retreat from using the San Bernardino iPhone as the test case for whether tech companies can in fact be forced to help crack their own security measures.

If the Justice Department were to continue to press for Apple’s cooperation after filing this motion, “they’ll have lost a ton of credibility with the court,” says Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Nate Cardozo. “I think this is a good indication that this San Bernardino fight is over…Chalk this one up as a win for Apple.”"

The FBI Now Says It May Crack That iPhone Without Apple’s Help | WIRED

U.S. Says It May Not Need Apple’s Help to Unlock iPhone - The New York Times

An "an outside party" demonstrated a possible method for unlocking -- perhaps the NSA got the memo after all...

"The Justice Department moved to cancel a Tuesday hearing over whether Apple should be forced to help investigators break into an iPhone used by a gunman in last year’s San Bernardino, Calif., mass shooting. 

In a new filing on Monday, the Justice Department said it might no longer need Apple’s assistance to extract data from the phone used in the attack."

U.S. Says It May Not Need Apple’s Help to Unlock iPhone - The New York Times

Facebook wants to be everywhere, except BlackBerry - CNET

Going full circle -- unitasking with email...

"After heady days as the phone of choice for the likes of Hillary Clinton, BlackBerry has faced a decline in recent years. While Android and Apple account for 58 percent and 39 percent of smartphone sales in the US (based on recent figures from Kantar Worldpanel) BlackBerry falls under the unfortunate "other" category, which accounts for 0.1 percent of sales.

With sales growth at rock bottom, one of the few things going for BlackBerry is its existing user base of faithful customers. But now that support for the world's most popular social media and messaging apps is gone (like WhatsApp, Facebook also has the over-the-top messaging app, Messenger), there are fewer reasons for rusted-on users to stay."

Facebook wants to be everywhere, except BlackBerry - CNET

Geoffrey Hinton, the 'godfather' of deep learning, on AlphaGo (Macleans)

Excerpt from a wide-ranging interview

"Q: Beyond games, then—what might come next for AI?
A: It depends who you talk to. My belief is that we’re not going to get human-level abilities until we have systems that have the same number of parameters in them as the brain. So in the brain, you have connections between the neurons called synapses, and they can change. All your knowledge is stored in those synapses. You have about 1,000-trillion synapses—10 to the 15, it’s a very big number. So that’s quite unlike the neural networks we have right now. They’re far, far smaller, the biggest ones we have right now have about a billion synapses. That’s about a million times smaller than the brain.

Q: Do you dare predict a timeline for that?
A: More than five years. I refuse to say anything beyond five years because I don’t think we can see much beyond five years. And you look at these past predictions like there’s only a market in the world for five computers [as allegedly said by IBM founder Thomas Watson] and you realize it’s not a good idea to predict too far into the future."

(p.s. there's an argument that Watson Sr. was right, if he actually did make the "... world market for maybe five computers" assertion in 1943; the five computers are today known as Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and the NSA...)

Geoffrey Hinton, the 'godfather' of deep learning, on AlphaGo

One year later, Apple's 12-inch MacBook has become my favorite laptop - CNET

One topic that's unlikely to figure prominently on the agenda at Apple's event later today -- we probably won't see updated Macs until >= June

"That's why, despite testing and using nearly every new laptop or 2-in-1 hybrid released over the past year, I find myself returning again and again to the 12-inch MacBook. It's become my default go-to for those times when I need a laptop that's quick and easy to pick up and use. The MacBook has that same magic quality as the iPad did, which is that it makes for a perfect living room couch device, as it's lightweight, springs to life the moment I lift the lid, and is small enough that it doesn't get in the way.

Those same qualities also make it the first system I reach for when running out for a coffee shop writing session, where I can easily tap out thousands of words per week. The highest compliment I can pay the MacBook is that I usually forget any of the hardware limitations once I get into the writing zone, where the system does what every productivity machine should do, fade into the background."

One year later, Apple's 12-inch MacBook has become my favorite laptop - CNET

The Behind-the-Scenes Fight Between Apple and the FBI - Bloomberg Business

Final paragraphs of a recap on the privacy path to the Supreme Court

"A battle that had been simmering beneath the surface for almost two years was now very public.

The fight shows no signs of ending soon. Obama, a former constitutional law professor, has come out in support of the FBI, calling Apple's view "absolutist." Meanwhile, technology companies including Apple are taking steps to make it even harder to penetrate digital communication. According to Edgar, the former White House official, there isn't much common ground between those points of view.

"Lawyers think privacy is you can't listen to my conversation without a warrant; technologists think privacy is you can't listen to my conversation, period," Edgar said. "It's hard to reconcile those two points of view.""

The Behind-the-Scenes Fight Between Apple and the FBI - Bloomberg Business

Barack Obama’s Careful Encryption Stance | Monday Note

Final paragraphs from a Jean-Louis Gassée assessment of President Obama's South by Southwest talk

"I believe our President understands all of this, that he believes unbreakable cryptography is the lesser of two bad choices…but he must weigh what he says. Can we really expect him to say that the FBI is wrong? Instead, he lets the FBI push hard, absorbs some of the reflected Law and Order sunshine, and allows the San Bernardino case to take the long, arduous road to the Supreme Court. And Backdoor legislation will be introduced, discussed and discussed, with the Tech Industry up in arms – and dollars – against it.
By then, Barack Obama will be a former President, Free At Last to say what he really thinks. I can’t wait."

Barack Obama’s Careful Encryption Stance | Monday Note

Apple’s Engineers, if Defiant, Would be in Sync With Ethics Code - The New York Times

Check this page for more about the ACM, which was founded in 1947

"If Apple employees refused to perform the software engineering tasks that would be necessary to provide the F.B.I. with access to the contents of an iPhone used by one of the shooters in the December mass killing in San Bernardino, Calif., their decision would be explicitly supported by the code of ethics of a professional organization called the Association for Computing Machinery.

The group urges computer professionals to obey existing laws unless they raise ethical issues that come into play around privacy and technological systems that have the ability to harm the public."

Apple’s Engineers, if Defiant, Would be in Sync With Ethics Code - The New York Times

Here’s the Full Transcript of TIME’s Interview With Apple CEO Tim Cook | TIME

Excerpt from an extensive interview

"And you know, it wasn’t very long ago that all this stuff was being debated. It’s not like it hasn’t been discussed. So this seemed like a back door of the back door. You know, trying to force someone to put a back door in, making people more vulnerable. Clearly trampling on civil liberties. I mean, I think it’s hard to debate these things. I think these things are unequivocally what is going on.

And if they are to go on, they should go on out in the open, in the Congress, and the Congress should pass a law. Because those are the people that we vote on to represent us. You know we don’t elect people in government in appointed positions, and for the most part we don’t elect judges, and so forth.

And courts can have different views, and I think they would. We know that. It’s our system, and it’s the great thing about our system. But in something so fundamental, this should be talked about."

Here’s the Full Transcript of TIME’s Interview With Apple CEO Tim Cook | TIME

A Government Error Just Revealed Snowden Was the Target in the Lavabit Case | WIRED

A big week for inadvertent transparency

"Ladar Levison, owner of the now defunct email service, has been forbidden since then, under threat of contempt and possibly jail time, from identifying who the government was investigating. In court documents from the case unsealed in late 2013, all information that could identify the customer was redacted.

But federal authorities recently screwed up and revealed the secret themselves when they published a cache of case documents but failed to redact one identifying piece of information about the target: his email address, Ed_Snowden@lavabit.com. With that, the very authorities holding the threat of jail time over Levison’s head if he said anything have confirmed what everyone had long ago presumed: that the target account was Snowden’s."

A Government Error Just Revealed Snowden Was the Target in the Lavabit Case | WIRED

“The Zuck-up.” Who is Facebook boss trying to impress by running in Beijing’s poisoned air? - The Washington Post

A political exercise?

"It is an open secret that Mark Zuckerberg is pretty keen to get Facebook unblocked in China. But is he taking things just a tiny bit too far?

On Thursday, the Facebook boss posted a picture of himself running through Tiananmen Square and telling his followers how much he enjoyed being back in the Chinese capital.
What he failed to mention was the air was a poisonous shade of grey, officially hazardous to human health. And he wasn’t wearing a mask."

“The Zuck-up.” Who is Facebook boss trying to impress by running in Beijing’s poisoned air? - The Washington Post

Cities to Untangle Traffic Snarls, With Help From Alphabet Unit - The New York Times

Perhaps a future problem domain for AlphaGo...

"“We’re taking everything from anonymized smartphone data from billions of miles of trips, sensor data, and bringing that into a platform that will give both the public and private parties and government the capacity to actually understand the data in ways they haven’t before,” said Daniel L. Doctoroff, Sidewalk’s chief executive, who is a former deputy mayor of New York City and former chief executive of Bloomberg.

Sidewalk was hatched out of Google last June as an independent company that will use technology to solve urban problems — yet another example of how the Internet giant has strayed far and wide from its initial mission in online search. The company is based in New York and was conceived by Mr. Doctoroff, along with a team of Google employees led by Larry Page, one of Google’s founders and now Alphabet’s chief executive."

Cities to Untangle Traffic Snarls, With Help From Alphabet Unit - The New York Times