It’s a Kentucky Fried Miracle! Cryptocurrencies are still down, meat-less chicken is up. I’m back in the chair with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s top tech stories: KFC is selling fake-chicken chicken, GM gets in the used car business, and Kim Kardashian gets sued. 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 by tuning into WWNC on the iHeartRadio app.

GM ENTERS HOT TO TROT USED CAR MARKET

Thanks to the microchip shortage, inflation, and other factors, the used car market is hot right now. Seeing the opportunity, GM has setup CarBravo to compete market leaders Carvana, CarMax, and Vroom. GM is trying to tap into the direct-to-consumer market and has begun recruiting dealerships to build up its inventory. CarBravo is going to offer consumers more than dealer inventory however, CarBravo shoppers will also be able to buy non-GM cars through its site. They think this will help it compete against the likes of Carvana by allowing cross-brand shopping. You’ll be able to hop on CarBravo this spring.

KIM KARDASHIAN AND OTHER SUPERSTARS SUED IN CRYPTO SCHEME

Yesterday, EthereumMax (which has no connection to Ethereum) investors sued Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather Jr., basketball player Paul Pierce, and EthereumMax creators for scamming them in a pump and dump scheme. EthereumMax is a cryptocurrency. That’s kind of it about it. The suit alleges Paul Pierce and the other celebrities marketed and trumpeted the cryptocurrency driving up demand. Would-be investors snapped up the currency and as the value rose EthereumMax’s creators, Kim K., and others then sold making lots of money. The crypto rose to 1300% of its value after Kardashian posted about it, then sinking to an all time low a month later. Cryptos have had a tough year. I saw my holdings lose 20% of their value, and I was hoping Bitcoin would drop to $37k, but it rebounded.

KENTUCKY FRIED MIRACLE: KFC SELLING NON-CHICKEN MEAT CHICKEN

To be filed in the food innovation column, the restaurant chain formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken, affectionately known as KFC, debuted its Beyond Meat chicken nuggets this past Monday. KFC has been working with Beyond Meat on the fake-chicken nuggets for the last 3 years debuting the nuggets in Atlanta. KFC is noting that the nuggets, which don’t contain meat, are not vegan or vegetarian. This means the nuggets are being fried alongside their clucking brethren. The nuggets come in 6- and 12-piece sizes and are available now at KFC. If you happen to get these please let me know how they taste and if you like them. You can read a full review by Amy McCarthy at eater.com.

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Happy New Year! It’s the first Thursday of the year, and I’m starting things anew. It’s the first week of the New Year, CES is up, and cryptocurrencies are down. I’m back in the chair with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s top tech stories: Elizabeth Holmes found guilty on four counts, a Swedish drone says a Swedish man from a heart attack, and John Deere releases an auto-driving tractor. 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 by tuning into WWNC on the iHeartRadio app.

ELIZABETH HOLMES FOUND GUILT ON 4 COUNTS

The big tech news for the week is the Elizabeth Holmes guilty verdict. Elizabeth Holmes is the former founder and CEO of the blood testing startup company, Theranos. A college dropout, Holmes premise, and the pitch she gave investors, was that Theranos technology could perform medical tests faster, more accurately, and using fewer amounts of blood than other equipment on the market. She made all of these promises without proof or pedigree luring so-called sophisticated investors into a lucrative investment that turned out to be less than vaporware, but outright lies. Holmes tempted investors with lies about Theranos tech being used by the military in Afganistan, and its devices accuracy. Theranos often outsourced its lab testing because its machines proved faulty, and required more volume of blood than was prescribed. She was charged on four counts of defrauding investors. The sentence could carry 20 years in prison plus $250,000 per count in fines. I doubt her sentence will be that severe. At least one person toasted the verdict with champagne. And yes, I’m bitter.

DRONE SAVES LIFE IN FIRST EVER DEFIBRILLATOR DELIVERY

Previously, on First News 570, we reported on the first ever organ transplant delivery by drone. In 2019, University of Maryland Medical Center used a drone to deliver a kidney for surgery. Yesterday; in Sweden, a 71-year old man was suffering a heart attack while shoveling snow. He was saved by a nearby doctor after a drone delivered a life-saving defibrillator. The doctor was passing by on his way to work, and saw the man. He called in for help and the Everdrone Emergency Medical Aerial Delivery service (EMADE) was called in and delivered the defibrillator in 3 minutes. The drone was developed in collaboration with the Center for Resuscitation Science at Karolinska Institutet, SOS Alarm, and Region Västra Götaland in Sweden.

JOHN DEERE UNVEILS SELF-DRIVING TRACTOR

If it’s the first week of the New Year, that means it’s time for the Consumer Electronics Show. We’ll spend next week’s segment going over all of the oohs and aahs gadget makers unveiled at this year’s show, but…one particular announcement caught my eye. Being a country boy, and spending lots of time on a tractor, John Deere’s announcement of a self-driving tractor is notable. It’s John Deere’s first automated tractor and can work the field on its own. It can be activated by smartphone, and comes as a kit to be used on existing equipment. Farm accidents are often caused by heavy equipment and JD says they’ve tested the system for more than 3 years. They’re starting off with low-volume sales, and haven’t figured out if it would be sold via subscription or per kit. I see large agribusinesses hopping onto this before the singular farmer, but I bet it would be a welcome add.

The Nog is made! It’s aging in my refrigerator right now. It’s Thursday, and I’m back in the chair with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s top tech stories: ape NFT sells for a fraction of the price, small software component leads to big headache, and Apple releases an Android app to stop stalkers. 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 by tuning into WWNC on the iHeartRadio app.

APE NFT SELLS FOR FRACTION OF THE PRICE

Max, who goes by maxnaut online, mistakenly sold one of his NFT art paintings for a tenth of its value on the Ethereum blockchain. The NFT in question was one of the works in The Bored Ape Yacht Club collection of virtual (digital?) artwork. Max listed his work for 0.75 eth, or Ether, the cryptocurrency on the Ethereurm blockchain. He meant to list the art for 75 eth, instead. As soon as he clicked the button; a bot, or automated program paid a heft amount in gas fees (8 eth or $4,029) to scoop up the artwork for $2,844, and then later sold it for $284, 495. Here’s why this really sucks. Some high money holder of Ethereum paid two times the value of the transaction (the cost of the artwork $2,844) to get ahead of anyone else on the blockchain and make the sale. Most regular people wouldn’t pay transaction fees higher than the value of the item. (Unless it’s Ticketmaster) I’m still not sure where I land on cryptocurrencies and NFTs, but they ARE NOT solving problems. They are inventing new ones and exacerbating inequality issues that are already out of balance in the world. I’m off my soapbox.

CLOUD AND SOFTWARE WORLD ROCKED BY SMALL PIECE OF SOFTWARE

The big news. The cloud computing and web software world was rocked to its foundation this past Monday. A small component used for writing event logs, or messages used for debugging, had a vulnerability that caused companies to scramble. The event logging component log4j is used in millions of software applications and devices around the world. Hackers figured out a way to exploit log4j to remotely execute programs on another server. We even went scrambling for a minute checking which services used log4j and where they were. The exploit possibly caused an outage on AWS which also affected Zoom users yesterday. If you’re an end user there’s nothing you can really do. Makers of your software will need to patch their systems. Two patches were released to fix the issue because…the developers didn’t completely fix the issue. Microsoft is reporting that state actors are trying to exploit the vulnerability to gain access to systems. There’s been a few high profile ransom attacks already reported. How big is this exploit? Over half of corporate networks, 100 million devices, and the US government is making agencies patch their systems by Christmas Eve.

GASP: APPLE RELEASES ANDROID APP TO PREVENT AIRTAG STALKING

Apple AirTags are little tracking devices that can be placed on items, in the car, or around the house to help people find things. The devices work because Apple device form a sort of mesh that creates a large area network used for tracking. Like many technologies, the technology was used for nefarious purposes by stalkers. Stalkers were using the tech to track women by dropping them in women’s coats or purses or affixing them to women’s cars. Apple made an update to their AirTag technology to alert users when an unknown AirTag is near their person. Apple…has releases an Android app that does the same thing.

I’ve been busy. Trying to get a comic out and a book. I’ve started this year’s annual gift guide and a few cool items are up. It’s Thursday, and I’m back in the chair with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s top tech stories: Jennifer Lawrence to play Elizabeth Holmes in Apple+ drama, Kickstarter turns to crypto for crowdfunding, and don’t play with yourself while driving. 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 by tuning into WWNC on the iHeartRadio app.

JENNIFER LAWRENCE TO PLAY HOLMES IN APPLE PRODUCED FILM

If you haven’t been keeping up with the nonsense that’s Holmes vs. US you are seriously missing out. Apple will be producing a movie starring The Hunger Games’ very own Jennifer Lawrence in an upcoming movie based upon Theranos. Elizabeth Holmes and her business partner are being sued for wire fraud by the US government. Holmes is being accused of defrauding investors out of billions of dollars for a blood testing technology that never worked. It’s one of the marquee technology trials going on right now, with faked voices, patriarchal control, and bilking billions out of so-called Masters of the Universe. It’s the trial that’s getting top billing since there’s a stay granted on the Epic vs Apple ruling.

WHAT? TESLA LETS DRIVERS PLAY GAMES WHILE DRIVING

In a story that should be filed in the Bad Idea column, Tesla released a new software update that allows drivers, drivers, to play their in-dash Tesla Arcade gaming system while the car is moving! I know there’s a classic scene of Will Smith going over case notes in the movie, iRobot, but even Homer Simpson would think this is ridiculous. (Note: I just fit a movie and TV show reference of characters doing unusual things while driving. End Note) Regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are reviewing the feature with Tesla and have expressed concern that the feature may run afoul of the Vehicle Safety Act which bars vehicle manufacturers from shipping cars with defects. It sounds like the typical retort from software developers, “that’s not a defect. It’s a feature!”

KICKSTARTER STARTS BLOCKCHAIN COMPANY FOR CRYPTO CROWD FUNDRAISING

This week was a big one for technology news. Even yours truly is getting involved with a company making an investment to support the cryptocurrency market. The crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter, has announced plans to move its funding initiatives to blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. The company has started Kickstarter PBC to build out its tech. The company hasn’t announced any timelines for when they will switch over, but the intention is that funders will be able to take advantage of core Kickstarter capabilities like contributing funds and partaking in benefits using crypto technology.

Speaking of crypto, there are some new goodies added to the gift guide. The Bobcat Mining rig was well recommended by one of my friends who’s heavily in crypto. The Nutsac bag is a durable, water resistant, and urban cool way to transport your laptop and gadgets. The (S)Nobsound Vacuum Tube headphone amplifier rounds out this week’s additions to the 2021 Annual Gift Guide.

Bonus. CNET has a great article helping you avoid common mistakes while buying gadgets for your friends and family this Christmas.