I’ve finally gotten a good night’s sleep. I’ve been going to bed at a humanly reasonable since closing ceremonies and people have noticed I’m less irritable. I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s big news: Samsung updates its foldable phone line, thieves steal $600 million worth of crypto, and Chinese tech companies try to self-regulate ahead of regulatory storm. You can listen to Mark and I point and laugh while talking about the wild and crazy technology world every Thursday morning, LIVE at 6:43am Eastern.
TRY, TRY, TRY AGAIN: SAMSUNGS UPDATES FOLDABLE PHONES
Samsung is in a bid to bring foldable phones to the mainstream. Earlier this week, Samsung announced the new Z Fold 3, and the foldable Flip 3. The Flip 3 folds in half and easily fits in a pocket, whereas the Z Fold 3 gives us Westworld, fold in to a mini-tablet vibes. The Z Fold 3 now supports stylus use and both devices are water resistant. I think folding devices are more gimmick than practical feature, but if the devices get thinner and more powerful, people may change their minds to be different.
HACKERS LIFT 600 MILLION DOLLARS IN CRYPTO FROM POLY NETWORK
Hot off the digital presses, and unfortunate, hackers have stolen more than $600 million worth of crypto currency from Poly Network. Poly Network is a cryptocurrency exchange service that helps people transfer funds from one crypto network to another. Meaning users can transfer Ether to BitCoin or other networks. All told, about $267MM Ether, $252MM Binance, and $85MM worth of USDC, a cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar has been stolen. The thieves were transferring some crypto bag in dollars, and then millions of dollars. The CEO of Binance told the thieves to return the money while telling users there are no guarantees of getting the money bag. There’s a certain word that starts with the letter F that should be directed at the operators of these exchanges, and it’s not Finance. Ladies and gentlemen, DO NOT sink your life savings into any speculative financial instrument. I am not a financial adviser.
We are aware of the https://t.co/IgGJ0598Q0 exploit that occurred today. While no one controls BSC (or ETH), we are coordinating with all our security partners to proactively help. There are no guarantees. We will do as much as we can. Stay #SAFU. 🙏 https://t.co/TG0dKPapQT
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) August 10, 2021
CHINESE TECH COMPANIES SELF-REGULATE BEFORE REGULATORS MOUNT UP
It may have been a clear black night, with a clear white moon when Chinese regulators began targeting China’s largest tech companies with new rules regarding time spent online and the products they sell. Chinese tech companies have taken a market pounding this year as regulators slapped Alibaba with a record $2.7 billion fine. Companies like Tencent are limiting the amount of time children spend online, social media companies are pulling celebrity ranking lists, and companies are pulling popular apps. We all have our beefs with tech behemoths, and the notion of them being too big and too powerful is a legit one, but halting innovation seems backwards.