Apple tax: Downing Street says tech giant 'welcome' to come to UK after EU orders Ireland to claw back £11bn (The Telegraph)

The plot thickens; also see Apple and the EU (Beyond Devices) for a related reality check

"Britain could cut corporation tax to attract major international companies under plans being considered by Theresa May after Apple was hit with a record tax bill by Brussels.

Downing Street said it would "welcome" Apple to the UK after the European Commission took the extraordinary step of hitting the company with an £11billion fine.

In a damning report published on Tuesday, the commission found that a deal with Ireland meant the technology giant paid as little as 0.005 per cent tax on its European profits for more than a decade."

Apple tax: Downing Street says tech giant 'welcome' to come to UK after EU orders Ireland to claw back £11bn 

How Facebook’s trending news feature went from messy to disastrous. (Slate)

Later in the article: "In this case, it seems, Facebook cared more about keeping its nose clean than about serving its users. And it was willing to ship an inferior product to prove it." Also see Facebook should hire fact-checkers. Here’s what they would do (Poynter)

"The results were not pretty. “They were running these tests with subsets of users, and the feedback they got internally was overwhelmingly negative. People would say, ‘I don’t understand why I’m looking at this. I don’t see the context anymore.’ There were spelling mistakes in the headlines. And the number of people talking about a topic would just be wildly off.” The negative feedback came from both Facebook employees participating in internal tests and external Facebook users randomly selected for small public tests.

The contractor assumed Facebook’s engineers and product managers would go back to the drawing board. Instead, on Friday, the company dumped the journalists and released the new, poorly reviewed version of trending news to the public."

How Facebook’s trending news feature went from messy to disastrous.

Dropbox employee’s password reuse led to theft of 60M+ user credentials | TechCrunch

Probably an opportune time for Dropbox users to enable two-factor authentication

"Dropbox disclosed earlier this week that a large chunk of its users’ credentials obtained in 2012 was floating around on the dark web. But that number may have been much higher than we originally thought.

Credentials for more than 60 million accounts were taken, as first reported by Motherboard and confirmed by TechCrunch sources. The revelation of a password breach at Dropbox is an evolution of the company’s stance on the 2012 incident — the company initially said that user emails were the only data stolen."

Dropbox employee’s password reuse led to theft of 60M+ user credentials | TechCrunch

Google DeepMind wants to use machine learning to help treat certain cancers | The Verge

DeepMind goes deep brain; on a related note, see Computers trounce pathologists in predicting lung cancer type, severity (Stanford Medicine News Center)

"Google DeepMind is launching a project to reduce the time it takes doctors to prepare treatment for head and neck cancers. Alphabet’s London-based artificial intelligence division has partnered with the UK’s National Health Service and will be conducting the research in coordination with the University College London Hospital.

Head and neck cancers are hard to plan treatment for because of their close proximity to important parts of the body. Before any kind of radiation treatment, clinicians will prepare a detailed map of where radiation will be administered on a patient in order to avoid damaging surrounding tissue. DeepMind says planning can take doctors up to four hours for head and neck cancers, and it hopes that by applying machine learning it will be able to automate parts of the process and reduce that planning time down to an hour."

Google DeepMind wants to use machine learning to help treat certain cancers | The Verge

Google to expand Waze carpooling service in San Francisco - The Boston Globe

New Waze to (selectively) compete with Uber; also see Google is getting into the ride-share business — but it isn't a threat to Uber just yet (Recode)

"The program allows anyone using the Waze app to offer a ride to a limited pool of people trying to get to work or home.

Now, only people working at six companies, including Google, Wal-Mart Stores, and Adobe Systems, can request rides. The tests have worked well enough to encourage Waze to move into the next phase and allow anyone in the Bay Area with its app to request a ride by the end of this year, spokeswoman Julie Mossler said.

Inviting more people to hitch rides could undercut Uber, which allows people to request drivers who provide a taxi service using their own cars."

Google to expand Waze carpooling service in San Francisco - The Boston Globe

How Driverless Cars May Interact With People - The New York Times

Also see Drive.ai uses deep learning to teach self-driving cars – and to give them a voice (TechCrunch)

"The self-driving cars of the future will need to be transparent about what their intentions are, how they make decisions and what they see, said Ms. Reiley, who is a roboticist with a background in designing underwater robotics and medical systems. They will need to communicate clearly both with the world around them as well as with their passengers.

“There’s the left brain in which a lot of discussion has taken place, what algorithms and what sensors, the logical side,” she said. “A lot of the discussion around self-driving cars has no human component, which is really weird because this is the first time a robotic system is going out in the world and interacting with people.”"

How Driverless Cars May Interact With People - The New York Times

Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook will not become a media company - NY Daily News

Also see Three days after removing human editors, Facebook is already trending fake news (The Washington Post) and Facebook's Trending News Is A Total Mess (Gizmodo)

"An increasing number of users are turning to social media networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, to find their news, but Zuckerberg said his firm had no ambitions to become a content provider.

"No, we are a tech company, not a media company," said Zuckerberg, after a young Italian asked him whether Facebook intended to become a news editor.

While acknowledging the role Facebook has in supplying users with news through their connections and stressing the advantages of obtaining information from different parts of the world, Zuckerberg said Facebook was "a technology company, we build the tools, we do not produce any content"."

Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook will not become a media company - NY Daily News

Alphabet’s Legal Chief Steps Down From Uber Board - Bloomberg

On a related note, see Google X's newest hire suggests it is trying to jump-start its self-driving car business (Recode)

"Drummond joined the board in 2013 when GV, the venture capital arm of Alphabet formerly known as Google Ventures, led a $258 million round of financing for Uber. It remains GV’s largest investment, and the two companies worked together on projects, including the ability to call a car through Google Maps.

However, relations between Alphabet’s Google unit and Uber have become strained in recent years. Bloomberg reported last year that Google had been working on a ride-hailing service using self-driving cars. Uber acquired Otto, an autonomous driving startup staffed by former Google employees, and is working with Volvo on driverless vehicles of its own, which the companies expect to begin rolling out in Pittsburgh this month. Uber has been developing its own mapping operation and is shooting street photography to create an alternative to Google’s map data."

Alphabet’s Legal Chief Steps Down From Uber Board - Bloomberg

Google and Amazon Vie for Big Inroad Into Wall Street Data Trove - Bloomberg

So cloud services are okay for, e.g., the CIA, but stock exchanges apparently have more stringent requirements

"Technology giants like Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. are jumping at the chance to help build the storage for the exchanges via their cloud services. That’s intensified resistance by Wall Street, since the new database, known as the Consolidated Audit Trail, or CAT, could include personal information such as names and addresses from more than 100 million customer accounts. Brokers and banks are worried about everything from data breaches to technology firms making one of their biggest inroads yet into the financial world.
“This is a huge opportunity for Amazon and Google," said Jo Ann Barefoot, a senior fellow at Harvard University who studies fintech and a former official at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. “Their involvement in this project I do think is a threat to the incumbents. If big tech firms can win more trust in Washington, that’s one of the biggest challenges facing banks.”"

Google and Amazon Vie for Big Inroad Into Wall Street Data Trove - Bloomberg

Apple Sends Invitations for September 7 Product Event - Bloomberg

For speculation about what may follow the anticipated 9/7 iPhone non-surprises, see Apple Is Working on iPad Upgrades and Refreshed Mac Lineup (Bloomberg)

"The spots of light on the invitation form the top portion of the Apple logo, with the message "See you on the 7th" below. The event will take place at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. The Cupertino, California-based company often hints about new products in its invitations. Monday’s invitation may refer to a larger version of the new iPhone that is expected to have a dual-lens camera system to improve photography.
“The real point to make is how little chance of a surprise there is,” said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners LP, adding that two white spots of light in the invitation were indicative of the dual lens, while the event’s date hints at the likely iPhone 7 name. “The company doesn’t seem to be able to generate surprises anymore.”"

Apple Sends Invitations for September 7 Product Event - Bloomberg

Explosion of Gig Economy Means There’s an App for Juggling Jobs - Bloomberg

From a gig economy reality check

"Snagajob is one of a slew of apps that have sprung up in recent years to serve the so-called gig economy. This year alone human-resources startups have attracted $1.2 billion in venture capital, with much of the funding going to companies designed to profit from the fluid nature of temporary or contract work, according to research firm CB Insights. In an election year dominated by concerns over economic inequality, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are pledging to generate more full-time jobs. But Silicon Valley is betting the gig economy is here to stay.
“Two or three years ago, it was pretty rare to have more than one job” says Snagajob.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Peter Harrison. “Now it’s really very common. What we are really building our business on is the blurring of the line between snagging a job and snagging a shift.”"

Explosion of Gig Economy Means There’s an App for Juggling Jobs - Bloomberg

VMware New Cloud Plan: Sell Stuff for Rival Clouds - Bloomberg

In other "hyper-converged infrastructure" news, see Nutanix Snarfs Up Two Companies To Bolster Data Center Hardware Story (Fortune)

"On Monday, the company will announce Cloud Foundation, which combines software for storage, networking and virtualization into one package, as well as the ability to use that product as a service hosted in IBM's cloud.  The company will also preview new Cross-Cloud subscription services that let customers manage and protect applications hosted in clouds from International Business Machines Corp., as well as market leader Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. 
VMware is shifting its cloud strategy after little traction and executive departures. It is focusing more on selling products that work with existing leaders, rather than trying to establish itself as an alternative to the Amazons of the world. As more companies run applications on rented servers over the internet, rather than their own data centers, providing services that link the different technologies customers use is a growing opportunity for VMware."

VMware New Cloud Plan: Sell Stuff for Rival Clouds - Bloomberg

Twitch Could Be a $20 Billion Dollar Company Inside Amazon – Backchannel

Check the full post for a game streaming market snapshot

"Since the 2014 acquisition, Twitch has come close to doubling its monthly visitors and has greatly expanded its base of streamers. It currently has more than 100 million visitors watching more than 1.7 million streamers each month.
Twitch’s live streams still have a much smaller viewership than YouTube’s videos, according to Newzoo. But Twitch’s viewers stick around longer — seven hours per month on average versus less than five for YouTube — and they are more active, posting chat messages and questions for their favorite streamers, buying animated “cheer” emotes to display in Twitch chat, and even donating money to Twitch personalities as a way to thank them during their live streams."

Twitch Could Be a $20 Billion Dollar Company Inside Amazon – Backchannel

Here’s one place in the world you can already hail a driverless taxi - The Washington Post

A major mobility milestone; also see The world’s first network of fully self-driving taxis is up and running (Recode)

"Although Uber may soon be the first company to launch a self-driving car service in the United States, it won't be the first in the world. That honor went Thursday to nuTonomy, a Massachusetts-based company that has now officially rolled out what many analysts say will transform the future of transportation and the economy.

NuTonomy's six self-driving cars are being tested in Singapore's one-north business district, a roughly 500-acre hub the city-state built for science and technology companies. Using nuTonomy's app, members of the public will be able to request a free ride in a specially modified electric vehicle manufactured by Renault or Mitsubishi."

Here’s one place in the world you can already hail a driverless taxi - The Washington Post

Facebook Takes First Step Toward Making Money From WhatsApp Deal - Bloomberg

See Looking ahead for WhatsApp (WhatsApp blog) for the big-picture perspective; also see You can stop WhatsApp from sharing your phone number with Facebook (The Verge)

"WhatsApp announced the change to its terms of service policy today. It allows businesses to communicate with users, including appointment reminders, delivery and shipping notifications and marketing pitches. In a corresponding blog post, WhatsApp said it will be testing the features over the coming months.
The policy shift may help WhatsApp generate revenue, but also could irk users drawn to its strong stance on privacy. After it agreed to be purchased by Facebook in 2014, co-founder Jan Koum pledged the deal wouldn’t change how the company handles user data. Now WhatsApp says it will begin sharing more information about its customers with the "Facebook family." The data, including a person’s phone number, could be used to better target ads when browsing Facebook or Instagram, WhatsApp said."

Facebook Takes First Step Toward Making Money From WhatsApp Deal - Bloomberg

Apple Weighs iPhone Video Editing App in Renewed Push on Social - Bloomberg

An increasingly social Apple

"The growth of Apple’s hardware business is slowing and Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is looking to the company’s services business, such as the App Store and iCloud storage, as a way to generate increased revenue. Apple has failed to successfully launch social-media services in the past, including an iTunes-focused social network called Ping in 2010. Now as Snapchat and Facebook’s Instagram and Messenger apps grow atop Apple’s iOS mobile operating system, Apple is seeking to create its own features to remain relevant, particularly for younger users.
Social media’s importance can be seen in the amount of time people spend with the apps. For example, Facebook’s mobile users are on its News Feed, Instagram and Messenger an average of 50 minutes a day, while Snapchat’s 150 million daily active users spend an average of 30 minutes per day with the photo- and video-sharing app. Of the top 10 free third-party iPhone apps in the App Store, Facebook owns three, while Snapchat owns two."

Apple Weighs iPhone Video Editing App in Renewed Push on Social - Bloomberg

IPhone Users Urged to Update Software After Security Flaws Are Found - The New York Times

Thanks to Citizen Lab and Lookout; also see This malware sold to governments could help them spy on iPhones, researchers say (The Washington Post)

"Investigators discovered that a company called the NSO Group, an Israeli outfit that sells software that invisibly tracks a target’s mobile phone, was responsible for the intrusions. The NSO Group’s software can read text messages and emails and track calls and contacts. It can even record sounds, collect passwords and trace the whereabouts of the phone user.

In response, Apple on Thursday released a patched version of its mobile software, iOS 9.3.5. Users can get the patch through a normal software update."

IPhone Users Urged to Update Software After Security Flaws Are Found - The New York Times

Future iPhones might collect fingerprints, photos of thieves (AppleInsider)

Check the full post for flowcharts and other details

"As published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Apple's invention covering "Biometric capture for unauthorized user identification" details the simple but brilliant — and legally fuzzy — idea of using an iPhone or iPad's Touch ID module, camera and other sensors to capture and store information about a potential thief.

In practice, the proactive security system works in much the same way as existing Touch ID verification processes."

Future iPhones might collect fingerprints, photos of thieves

Is China's Super-Bus a Scam? - Bloomberg View

Investors taken for a ride on the Transit Elevated Bus

"The bus bust has thus become a symbol of a different -- and far more damaging -- kind of Chinese ingenuity. The TEB's promoters promised investors 12 percent returns on their money, despite the fact that the prototype bus seemed likely to tip over, couldn't clear most urban bridges and wasn't tall enough to accommodate most vehicles underneath it. They could get away with it in part because those kinds of numbers are par for the course in China's P2P lending industry, which averaged returns of 13.3 percent in 2015.

Demand for such loans has exploded in recent years, growing in volume from $4.3 billion in 2013 to $71 billion in 2015. The appeal is twofold. First, China's big state-owned banks have traditionally focused their attention on other companies in the state sector, at the expense of consumers and small businesses. A budding entrepreneur, or a young couple looking to pay for a wedding, often had to rely on the goodwill and deeper pockets of friends and family, loan sharks and, more recently, unregulated "shadow" lenders that specialized in expensive, short-term loans."

Is China's Super-Bus a Scam? - Bloomberg View

Rights and the Evolution of Music Streaming | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis

On a related note, see Amazon’s rumored cheaper music service illustrates its smart-home ambitions (The Washington Post)

"One interesting thing about this market is there are two major sets of players – those who make their money solely from these music services and those who make the vast majority of their money elsewhere. Spotify and Pandora can’t afford to keep losing money in this business because it’s the only business they have. Amazon, Apple, Google, and others, however, can afford to subsidize these offerings or run them at low margins because they feed the other parts of their businesses and generate additional revenues indirectly. Apple may be in the strongest position of all here because it has a user base willing to pay for content and they can afford to run the music business at a relatively low margin, while Amazon’s customer base is highly driven by saving money and Google’s true customer base is its advertisers, not its users. Much has been made of Spotify’s lead over Apple in on-demand streaming, but Apple offers the flavor of streaming the labels like and has already signed up half as many paid subs as Spotify. That’s the key number to watch – the labels have a stake in Spotify but would arguably benefit much more in the long-term from an industry that takes a dramatic turn toward paid streaming, a goal which Apple seems a lot more likely to help them achieve."

Rights and the Evolution of Music Streaming | Tech.pinions - Perspective, Insight, Analysis