It’s another Thursday which means another week of big tech news talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. In this week’s roundup, the Apple commits to being carbon neutral, Microsoft wants to make eye contact with its customers, and US investors try to move on TikTok before the US Senate bans the app. 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.
APPLE COMMITS TO BE CARBON NEUTRAL BY 2030
Earlier this week, Apple announced that they and their suppliers are committing to be carbon neutral by 2030. This means that their devices will have zero carbon impact at the point of sale. Apple’s pledge must also be met by their suppliers in which they must be 100% renewable for Apple production. Apple is going one step further by saying they will reclaim all of their greenhouse emissions by 2050. Apple isn’t the only one going greener, Microsoft is planning to be carbon negative by 2040 with other technology giants Amazon and Google following suit.
MICROSOFT MAKES EYE CONTACT WITH USERS IN SURFACE PRO X
Microsoft is rolling out a new feature called ‘Eye Contact’ with its Surface Pro X version of tablets. The new feature will be rolled out in its latest Windows 10 preview build and uses its SQ1 processor with AI-capabilities. The technology automatically adjusts the tablet’s camera in a video call to make it appear that you are always making eye contact with the person you are talking to. Microsoft looks like it will beat Apple with this technology, as the fruit company has been working on a feature called FaceTime Attention Correction. I’m often seen looking away, yawing, and talking with my head in my hands during video calls, so this product won’t work for me any.
US INVESTORS TRY TO APPEASE WHITE HOUSE BY BUYING TIKTOK
In what could be the boneheaded play of the year, US investors are attempting to buy Chinese owned Bytedance, the maker of the wildly popular TikTok. As US-China relations have soured, TikTok has come under scrutiny by US regulators including being banned for use on US government distributed smartphones. Just last week, President Trump’s campaign placed Facebook ads saying TikTok was spying on US consumers. Talk about the ‘Book calling the ‘Tok blue. A group comprised of investment firms General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital are in the lead for buying the as-of-yet-profit-earning TikTok. The company is worth $75 billion according to its last raise.
