Think twice when you rent your next rental car. My weeks aren’t getting any easier. But, it’s Thursday, and I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week, Bill and Melinda announce a divorce, buyer beware, your car may be spying on you, and Epic and Apple go to court. 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.
BILL AND MELINDA GATES ANNOUNCE DIVORCE
I tried to come up with something witty, but I don’t like making fun of people breaking up. The biggest tech news of the week is Bill and Melinda Gates announcing their divorce. After 27-years, they’ve decided that they can no longer grow together and are going their separate ways. With over $146 billion in wealth, the couple had said that they planned to give away most of their wealth. They’ll both be continuing their work at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which has over $51 billion in assets. In some circles, JLo may have been the cause of the rift, but I honestly think Bill wanted to read his books, learn more stuff, and keep saving the planet, while Melinda wanted to grow. I wager a dollar on it. In related news, millions of women have been, shooting their shot, by invading Bill Gates’ DMs.
IS YOUR CAR PARKED OUTSIDE? IT COULD BE SPYING ON YOU
We all sort of knew our cars were up to no good, right? If you’re an owner (or renter) of a vehicle with CarPlay or Android Audio there’s a really good chance your car is collecting personal data you didn’t intend it to. The US Customs and Border Protection Agency has purchased technology that will allow it to extract driving data as well as address books, text messages, and other data. USCBP bought technology from a Swedish company that extracts data from cars with CarPlay. When you sync your phone with a CarPlay or similar system, CarPlay acts like a miniature version of your phone downloading your Address Book, call history, locations visited, and text messages. CBP wants to use this data follow suspects and persons of interest. The implications are even deeper because of the CBP has this data, other law enforcement agencies are close on their heels.
EPIC, APPLE SQUARE OFF IN ANTI-TRUST TRIAL, WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT MICROSOFT
On Monday, an epic battle in court began with the anti-trust suit Epic Games has brought against Apple. The main question is whether or not Apple’s App Store constitutes a monopoly and that the iPhone should support other App Stores. During the trial, however, a philosophical question came up. Is the iPhone more like a PC or an Xbox? Why does the answer matter? Because, if the iPhone is like a console like the Xbox, and Apple is found guilty in this trial, then every other console or platform that governs its own app store will be treated as a monopoly. My opinion? Apple should be able to dictate how its App Store operates and charge the fees they are charging. It is a risk, Apple may one day want to charge fees of 50%, but it is their device and platform. The government shouldn’t dictate how a platform delivers its products and controls its ecosystem. My opinion. No one would care about that fee unless the numbers were in the billions of potential revenues. The Google Play Store is known to have viruses being delivered on its platform. Is that something we really want? The other alternative is that there will be no App Stores and people can download apps directly from the developer. That would be the PC model.
