Grab a seat and be on time with new transit updates on Google Maps | Google Keyword Blog

For details, see Predicting Bus Delays with Machine Learning | Google AI Blog

"When you have an important meeting, a date with a friend, or a doctor’s appointment, often the first thing you’ll do is check the transit schedule to make sure you can make it on time. Unfortunately, transit schedules don’t always reflect real-time traffic conditions that impact your ride, which can cause a lot of unnecessary stress when you end up arriving later than you thought you would.

To solve for this, Google Maps is launching live traffic delays for buses in places where we don’t already have real-time information direct from local transit agencies. You’ll now be able to see if your bus will be late, how long the delay will be, and more accurate travel times based on live traffic conditions along your route. You’ll also see exactly where the delays are on the map so you know what to expect before you even hop on your bus."

Grab a seat and be on time with new transit updates on Google Maps | Google Keyword Blog

Jony Ive on Leaving Apple, in His Own Words | FT (via Medium)

Exit different

"“While I will not be an employee, I will still be very involved — I hope for many, many years to come. This just seems like a natural and gentle time to make this change.
I am so close to the design team . . . The last 30 years have seen a range of significant products, but I think the creation of an approach to creativity, to culture and the building of a team together has been a real labour of love. I really am extremely happy — this really I see as an evolution of our working relationship.
[...]
If you are doing something that is going to be truly innovative, it’s difficult, it’s hard and it takes time. It often requires enabling technology that takes years to develop . . . There are products that we’ve been working on for a number of years — I’m beyond excited that I get to continue working on those. And there are some new projects as well that I’ll get to develop and contribute to.”"

Jony Ive on Leaving Apple, in His Own Words | FT (via Medium)

Twitter adds labels for tweets that break its rules — a move with potentially stark implications for Trump’s account | Washington Post

Later in the article: "The White House declined to comment. But the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. tweeted later Thursday, “If they can do it to the Leader of the Free World imagine what they are doing to you and your voice!”"

"Twitter on Thursday said it would begin labeling tweets from national political figures, including President Trump, that the company could otherwise have taken down for breaking its rules, a move that could appease some longtime critics at the cost of opening a new political rift with the White House.

The new policy applies to political candidates and government officials who have more than 100,000 followers, Twitter said, and will be used in rare occasions. Before users can view tweets that the company has flagged as a violation of its guidelines, they will need to click on a screen that says: “The Twitter Rules about abusive behavior apply to this Tweet. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain available.”

Twitter said it would also de-prioritize the labeled tweets in the company’s algorithms and search bar so that they would circulate to fewer people. The company has set up a special team tasked with enforcing the new policy and they will determine whether to use the label based on a number of its existing rules."

Twitter adds labels for tweets that break its rules — a move with potentially stark implications for Trump’s account | Washington Post

Bitcoin's Price Takes a Wild Roundtrip Ride | Fortune

Also see I don’t care how high the price for bitcoin gets, it’s still too risky for the average investor | Washington Post

"Bitcoin’s rise was meteoric this week—and its decline has been just as swift.

It’s easy come, easy go in the crypto world, where a frenzy over Bitcoin pushed its price to nearly $14,000 on Wednesday, its highest level since January 2018. The largest digital asset then reversed course in a matter of minutes after a prominent cryptocurrency exchange reported an outage. The retreat accelerated Thursday and put the coin’s price back to nearly the same level as just five days ago.

The jump in prices brought back memories of the crypto bubble that burst at the end of 2017, when Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies—beset by regulatory setbacks and fraud-related issues—fell from grace. Bitcoin’s price, for instance, languished around $3,600 just six months ago, down from almost $20,500 in December 2017."

Bitcoin's Price Takes a Wild Roundtrip Ride | Fortune

Jony Ive Is Leaving Apple | Daring Fireball

Final paragraphs:

"But Apple doesn’t need a chief architect. They’re only going to build one Apple Park and it’s already been done.

It makes me queasy to see that Apple’s chief designers are now reporting to operations. This makes no more sense to me than having them report to the LLVM compiler team in the Xcode group. Again, nothing against Jeff Williams, nothing against the LLVM team, but someone needs to be in charge of design for Apple to be Apple and I can’t see how that comes from operations. I don’t think that “chief design officer” should have been a one-off title created just for Jony Ive. Not just for Apple, but especially at Apple, it should be a permanent C-level title. I don’t think Ive ever should have been put in control of software design, but at least he is a designer.

I don’t worry that Apple is in trouble because Jony Ive is leaving; I worry that Apple is in trouble because he’s not being replaced."

Jony Ive Is Leaving Apple | Daring Fireball

For First Time, Renewables Surpass Coal in U.S. Power Mix | Bloomberg

Later in the article: "The onslaught of clean power is coming largely at the expense of coal, which only a decade ago supplied more electricity in the U.S. than anything else. The mining industry is collapsing even as President Donald Trump works to restore coal to its former glory by gutting environmental rules."

"For the clearest sign yet that renewable energy has gone mainstream, consider this: Clean-energy resources supplied more of America’s electricity than coal for the first time ever in April.

Hydroelectric dams, solar panels and wind turbines generated almost 68.5 million megawatt-hours of power in April, eclipsing the 60 million that coal produced that month, Energy Information Administration data released late Tuesday show. That’s the most clean power the U.S. has ever made -- and the least coal it has burned for power in years."

For First Time, Renewables Surpass Coal in U.S. Power Mix | Bloomberg

Apple hires key ARM chip designer as it plots transition from Intel for the Mac | 9to5Mac

Looking forward to my first post-x86 Mac...

"As Apple continues its efforts to move towards using its own ARM processors on the Mac, it has hired a key designer from ARM. In May, Apple hired Mike Filippo to join its chip architecture team based out of Texas. ARM has confirmed the departure.

Filippo worked at ARM for 10 years, serving as its Lead CPU Architect and Lead System Architect, according to his LinkedIn. Prior to joining ARM, Filippo spent time at both AMD and Intel. He joined Apple in May, according to his LinkedIn profile."

Apple hires key ARM chip designer as it plots transition from Intel for the Mac | 9to5Mac

Mark Zuckerberg: We can’t stop Russian election interference by ourselves, US government must help | CNBC

From his comment: "We’ve ramped up massively on the security side, but there’s very little that we can do on our own to change the incentives for nation states to act. That’s something that is a little bit above our pay grade." On a related note, see Our next election is dangerously vulnerable, a top Democrat warns. Does Trump care? | Washington Post

"Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday said the U.S.’s weak response to the 2016 Russian election interference has resulted in similar activity from more nation states like Iran.

“The signal that was sent to the world was that ‘O.K. We’re open for business,’” Zuckerberg said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. “Countries can try to do this stuff and our companies will try their best to try to limit it, but fundamentally, there isn’t going to be a major recourse from the American government.”"

Mark Zuckerberg: We can’t stop Russian election interference by ourselves, US government must help | CNBC

Trump signals U.S. government ‘should be suing Google and Facebook’ | Washington Post

It's "very hard" to find Trump on Twitter? Actually far more difficult to avoid him, which is one of the primary reasons Twitter is increasingly worse than useless.

"Trump did not detail the exact basis for such lawsuits, which he raised after assailing European regulators for their investigations into U.S. tech companies. But the president’s comments during an interview on Fox Business came just weeks after federal competition regulators at the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission divvied up scrutiny of Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google, a move that could suggest the government is in the early stages of an investigation into those tech giants.

In doing so, Trump also swiped at Google, claiming the search and advertising giant is “trying to rig the election.” He then claimed that Twitter has made it “very hard” for users to find and follow him. But Trump did not provide new evidence for his latest allegation that the companies exhibit bias against conservatives, which Google and Twitter long have vehemently denied."

Trump signals U.S. government ‘should be suing Google and Facebook’ | Washington Post

Apple News launches candidate guide ahead of 2020 Democratic debates | Apple Newsroom

Start here to explore in Apple News (link is likely to only work in Safari, BTW...)

"Apple today introduced a new candidate guide in Apple News, providing a timely, trusted and comprehensive look at the 20 individuals participating in the first Democratic debates hosted by NBC News, MSNBC and Telemundo in Miami, Florida, on June 26 and 27. The candidate guide offers readers one convenient place to find information on each candidate from a diverse set of news sources, including ABC News, Axios, CNN, Fox News, NBC News, Politico, The Hill, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, TIME, USA Today, Vox and others. Curated by the team of Apple News editors, the candidate guide is easily accessible within the News app on iPhone, iPad and Mac.

“The 2020 Democratic field is complex, and we want to offer Apple News readers a trusted place to learn more about candidates they’re familiar with and those they may be hearing about for the first time,” said Lauren Kern, editor-in-chief of Apple News. “The candidate guide in Apple News is a robust and reliable resource, connecting readers to valuable at-a-glance information and to great journalism from our partners.”"

Apple News launches candidate guide ahead of 2020 Democratic debates | Apple Newsroom

AT&T Shape Event Highlights 5G Promise and Perils | Tech.pinions

Bottom line: "There’s no question that 5G can and will make a large impact on many markets over time. But as these real-world experiences demonstrate, it’s a complicated story that’s going to take several years to really show off its full potential."

"The catch is, however, that the “right conditions” are rarely going to be available. At AT&T’s recent Shape Expo event on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank CA, I did actually see just over 1.8 Gbps on a speed test using Samsung’s brand new S10 5G phone when I stood 75 feet away from a tiny cell tower installed as part of a new 5G network on the lot and pointed the phone directly at it. Impressive, to be sure.

However, when I turned away and walked another 50 feet from the tower and held the phone in my hand as you normally would (and not in direct sight of the special 5G antenna that was part of the network), the speed dropped to just under 150 Mbps because the connection switched over to LTE. Now, that’s still nothing to shake a stick at, but it’s more than 10x slower than the fastest connection. This succinctly highlights some of the challenges that 5G early adopters will likely face."

AT&T Shape Event Highlights 5G Promise and Perils | Tech.pinions

Apple’s Xbox and PS4 controller support turns an iPad into a portable game console | The Verge

For a broader gaming dynamics update, see Subscriptions Are About to Swallow Gaming | Wired

"Apple has also been aggressively improving its iPad and iPhone chips to better support games, and we’re at a turning point where we could start to see some interesting titles beyond popular games like Fortnite and PUBG emerge on Apple’s devices. Apple isn’t betting on game streaming itself just yet, but it is tempting game makers into its own Apple Arcade subscription that will offer up exclusive titles for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.

We’re heading toward a future where you can just bring your phone or tablet with you to play AAA games on the go, whether those are streamed to the device or running natively. Performance is always going to be better in front of your TV with a real console or PC powering your games. But if you’re heading on vacation and don’t want to have to drag an Xbox or PS4 with you, the iPad is shaping up to be a good alternative."

Apple’s Xbox and PS4 controller support turns an iPad into a portable game console | The Verge

Regulators Have Doubts About Facebook Cryptocurrency. So Do Its Partners. | NYT

Hedge different

"One of the biggest selling points of Facebook’s ambitious plans for its new cryptocurrency, Libra, was that the social media company had 27 partners, including prominent outfits like Visa, Mastercard and Uber, helping out on the project.

But some of those partners are approaching Libra warily. They signed nonbinding agreements to join the effort partly because they knew they weren’t obliged to use or promote the digital token and could easily back out if they didn’t like where it was going, said executives at seven of those companies, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

The doubts among Facebook’s partners add to a growing list of challenges for Libra, a new digital token that Facebook executives hope will one day become the foundation for a new kind of online financial industry."

Regulators Have Doubts About Facebook Cryptocurrency. So Do Its Partners. | NYT

Stephen Moore, after failed bid for Federal Reserve, looks to cryptocurrency | Washington Post

Later in the article: "Moore also has argued for the elimination of child labor laws, joked about AIDS and said women should be allowed to referee sports only if they are attractive."

"Moore may sign up with Decentral, a start-up that bills itself as a crypto central bank. It would regulate digital currency much as the Fed controls the U.S. monetary system, even as lawmakers are pushing for answers on how cryptocurrencies could affect global markets.

A crypto gig would be a significant pivot from Moore’s recent Fed aspirations, given that some economists contend cryptocurrencies undercut the Fed’s authority. But as a “pretty limited-government guy,” Moore told The Washington Post, he can get behind a private currency capable of competing with government-issued ones.

“I feel like cryptocurrency is like new Internet in terms of challenging the way we do business in America, and how we get information and how we do trades,” Moore said."

Stephen Moore, after failed bid for Federal Reserve, looks to cryptocurrency | Washington Post

The Mueller report hits the stage with star-studded Broadway cast | NBC News

Freely available for streaming here; on a related note, Mueller to testify to Congress in open session about his investigation | Washington Post

"“The Investigation: A Search For The Truth in Ten Acts” adapted and condensed portions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and President Donald Trump for the New York stage.

Annette Bening narrated, and John Lithgow and Kevin Kline took center stage as Trump and Mueller, respectively. The cast of 18 also included Jason Alexander, Kyra Sedgwick, Zachary Quinto, Piper Perabo and Joel Grey.

In 10 parts, the piece wove together passages inspired by Mueller’s report, excerpts from political news conferences and tweets from President Trump. It culminated with the cast reciting parts of the U.S. Constitution describing Impeachment."

The Mueller report hits the stage with star-studded Broadway cast | NBC News

The Trouble Starts If Facebook’s New Currency Succeeds | The Atlantic

Final paragraphs of a Libra perspective by Eric Posner

"But how the Libra Association will use its power is anyone’s guess. The white paper is long on happy talk and short on details. The point is that, along a plausible future path, it will gain immense power, and it’s not beholden to the public, unlike the central banks that manage national currencies. For all the glitzy futurism of cryptocurrencies, Libra is a step backwards in social and political terms, the way bitcoin tried to throw us back into the age of the gold standard. Until central banks were created in the 19th and early-20th centuries, dead-tree versions of the Libra Association were plentiful. They included family dynasties such as the Medicis and the Rothschilds, and massive private banks. Driven by profit and able to operate across national borders, they accumulated massive political power without feeling loyalty to any particular nation—until governments finally reined them in.

Of course, Libra could fail, or become nothing more than a niche product like Venmo. And it could certainly do some good by reducing the cost of transferring money. But government regulators need to approach Libra with a great deal of skepticism, given Facebook’s track record of moving fast and breaking things.

The company has already shown that a successful tech platform can scale up quickly to a once-unimaginable size. An international banklike organization with potentially trillions of dollars in assets and, through its members, ties to billions of users around the world will have a massive influence over people’s economic affairs and far too much political power to be effectively regulated by governments—just like Facebook’s social network."

The Trouble Starts If Facebook’s New Currency Succeeds | The Atlantic

Facebook, Libra, and the Long Game | Stratechery

From an extensive Libra reality check; bottom line: "Certainly Facebook’s audacity and ambition should not be underestimated, and the company’s network is the biggest reason to believe Libra will work; Facebook’s brand is the biggest reason to believe it will not."

"Libra’s success, if it comes, will likely proceed in stages, with different challenges and competitors at each stage:

• Initially the most obvious use case for Facebook’s Calibra wallet application will be peer-to-peer payments, which means the competitor will be applications like PayPal’s Venmo. Here Facebook’s biggest advantage will be leveraging its network and messaging applications.
• The second use case will be using Libra to transact with merchants, who stand to benefit both from reduced fees relative to credit cards as well as larger addressable markets (i.e. potential users who don’t have credit cards). Note that none of Libra’s Founding Members are banks, which impose the largest percentage of credit card fees; Visa and Mastercard, on the other hand, are, like PayPal, happy to sit on top of Libra.
• The largest leap will come last: Libra as a genuine currency, not simply a medium for transaction. This will be function of volume in the previous two use cases, and is understandably concerning to governments all over the world. This, though, is another advantage of Facebook giving up direct control of Libra: while regulators will be able to limit wallets like Calibra (which will fully abide by Know-Your-Customer and Anti-Money-Laundering regulations), Libra — particularly if it achieves a fully permission-less-model — would be much more difficult to control."

Facebook, Libra, and the Long Game | Stratechery

Bitcoin rallies above $11,000 through the weekend, nearing a 15-month high | CNBC

A strong candidate for the all-time irrational exuberance record; also see Facebook’s Libra helps power bitcoin to 15-month high and new interest in cryptocurrency | Washington Post

"Analysts largely attributed bitcoin’s price bump to more awareness of the digital asset class following Facebook’s ambitious cryptocurrency project announced last week.

“It’s clearly a positive for bitcoin, ” Bart Smith, head of Susquehanna’s digital asset group, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box ” on Monday. “If 2 billion users are on Facebook, some percentage of them start to kind of look at Libra and try to understand how it is different and similar to bitcoin — that is a positive.”"

Bitcoin rallies above $11,000 through the weekend, nearing a 15-month high | CNBC

Customers report Verizon, Cloudflare disruptions | Washington Post

More succinctly, in a Cloudflare CEO tweet: "The teams at @verizon and @noction should be incredibly embarrassed at their failings this morning which impacted @Cloudflare and other large chunks of the Internet. It’s absurd BGP is so fragile. It’s more absurd Verizon would blindly accept routes without basic filters." For more details, see How Verizon and a BGP Optimizer Knocked Large Parts of the Internet Offline Today | Cloudflare Blog

"Cloudflare Chief Technology Officer John Graham-Cumming told the Washington Post that Verizon failed to intercept the issue from a fiber-optic network services provider. This caused a routing leak that led to the widespread system outage.

“Normally a large network would do some kind of filtering,” Graham-Cumming said. “But in this case, [Verizon] passed it on.”

Because of this, Verizon customers lost large chunks of internet access and passed on the faulty information to other networks like Cloudflare, Graham-Cumming said. This affected 10 percent of Cloudflare’s traffic."

Customers report Verizon, Cloudflare disruptions | Washington Post

How Artificial Intelligence Can Save Your Life | NYT

Context-setting, earlier in the article: "One area where A.I. can most immediately improve our lives may be in the area of mental health. Unlike many illnesses, there’s no simple physical test you can give someone to tell if he or she is suffering from depression."

"The upshot is that we are entering a world in which people we don’t know will be able to understand the most intimate details of our emotional life by observing the ways we communicate. You can imagine how problematic this could be if the information gets used by employers or the state.

But if it’s a matter of life and death, I suspect we’re going to go there. At some level we’re all strangers to ourselves. We’re all about to know ourselves a lot more deeply. You tell me if that’s good or bad."

How Artificial Intelligence Can Save Your Life | NYT