William Mapp – Page 24

5 Last Minute Gadget Gifts You Can Get Before Christmas

December 16, 2020 by William Mapp Leave a Comment

It’s one week out from Christmas Eve! THIS is the last week I’ll be on with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. I was tasked with one mission this week, find five gadget gifts you can recommend to First News 570 listeners that can be bought before Christmas. I used these parameters: less than $100, must be received before Christmas, and must have some practicality. You can buy all of these gifts from Amazon and the person who receives them won’t think you’ve copped out on them. All of these items and more are on the 2020 Annual Gift Guide. 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.

LAST MINUTE – Now, more than ever, have we paid more attention to cleanliness. With everyone wearing masks and using hand sanitizer we forget about those moments when we are touching things or holding phones up to our ear. Keep your phone clean with the PhoneSoap 3. A UV sanitizer for your smartphone. This little device has proven effective and is backed by the Discovery Channel.

Honestly, the bots will have more important things to think about other than the conquering of humans. We’re irrational enough to take our ownselves out. But we love robots, and this year the 98k is on the list. This bot is best with boys and girls 3 years and up and can be easily had in time for Christmas. ‘Tis true. I got a robot for Christmas one year, and I’ve been enamored ever since.

If you’re reading this in the US, you probably haven’t flown anywhere in a while. If you’re one of the few who have flown, hopefully you flew private. If you can’t make it in the wild blue yonder, how about a spin around the house. This mini-drone by SNAPTAIN is a great beginner device with its own handheld controller. It’s easy to learn how to fly and inexpensive so you can fly it into a wall and not be too upset.

What if…you could give a gift that was both practical and stylish. I think you could win with the TOZO W1 wireless charger. At $20 you’d be doing yourself a disservice for not getting this stocking stuffer for your gal or guy. The TOZO comes in all sorts of colors, and it’s shiny. Make sure you grab an AC adapter you’ll need it to supply, uh, the actual power.

A good set of earcans always makes a great gift. The Cowin E7 active noise canceling headphones will perfectly drown out the sound your kids make when they discover Santa didn’t buy batteries. Amazon’s Best Selling headphone are ideal for your loved one on the go because they are wireless and are inexpensive to boot. For just $60 you’re in primo sound territory.

The 2020 Annual Gift Guide, and Hackers Try to Freeze Out Coronavirus Deliveries

December 9, 2020 by William Mapp Leave a Comment

I’ve had an interesting 7 days. If you weren’t around last week, I was getting my McRib on and was satiated in its good ole sweet, tangy, and meaty juiciness. This is the last week I’ll be on with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. This week, we’re only going to talk about the hackers who are trying to hack da Rona vaccine, and share some insight into the perfect gifts you can get your loved ones. 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.

HACKERS ARE TRYING TO DISRUPT COVID-19 SUPPLY CHAIN

After many months spent indoors, the world is anticipating relief. Pfizer, BioNTech, and the world’s leading biotechnology companies have reached a point in proving a reliable vaccine. While pharmaceutical researchers and scientists have been busy working on a cure, hackers have been busy trying to disrupt the cure from reaching those who need it. Global phishing campaigns have been in effect since September in a bid to try and fool vaccine supplier officials into installing ransomware, spyware, and other malicious code on their computers. IBM security researchers have stated the attacks are aimed at executives and officials at the companies responsible for delivering the vaccine on the cold chain. Pfizer’s vaccine needs to rest at a chill -70 degrees Celsius and hackers have been targeted companies that deliver cold vaccines. This plainly sucks. There will always be people who want to tear things down and can’t make anything of their own. I know this first hand.

IT’S HERE! THE ANNUAL GIFT GUIDE

The annual tradition is back. The 2020 Annual Gift Guide (Pandemic Edition) is up on Pinterest. There is something for everyone on this year’s gift guide but here are some highlights:

This is the first time a waffle iron has been added to the gift guide. William Sonoma’s TRNR waffle maker is not only a heavy duty head turner, but it’s also a snazzy waffle iron. You won’t go hungry as long as you have eggs, milk, baking soda, flour, vanilla, and patience.

The Apple Watch has made a consistent appearance on the gift guide, but we have to put the 6 on here. This watch is the best of its breed. It always stays on, has better battery life, better talk capability, and color. You won’t go wrong with it.

My name is Shaaday, not Sadie! Get it right! Who knows when Sade will next perform live, but you can bet the tickets will sell out within minutes. This boxset is a perfect gift for those who enjoy smooth grooves.

Sometimes I have to wonder what we’re really doing around here. This year’s gift guide features a fire pit, and a personal fireplace. Baby, I know it’s cold outside, but do you have to place your fireplace on my side of the bed?

The Gift Guide’s curators love coffee, but I swear they love coffee makers even more. The Instant Pod is one of this year’s entrants. You can spoil yourself by making the perfect instant espresso. Cheers.

Is it an adult Etch-a-Sketch, or is it an eco-friendly notebook? I’m a lover of paper, but I can also do my part to help the planet. The wipe-away stylings of the Rocketbook made this year’s gift guide. This notebook + app combo provides a reusable pen and ‘paper’ that allows you to sync your notes to the cloud. There is power in writing, and digitizing.

To answer your question, “YES!” The Apple MacBook Air has made this year’s gift guide. Apple’s latest MacBook Air costs $1,000 and may be the most powerful notebook computer in its class in the world. It’s all thanks to Apple’s M1 chip which packs a lot of power and 16 billion transistors on die. I’m tempted to get one for myself. And to answer your second question, “no.” The MacBook Pro won’t be making this year’s list. 16GB of RAM is respectable, and based upon all numbers, any more is unnecessary at this time, but the Pro machine should support higher memory counts.

No one other than First News 570’s morning jock, Mark Starling has recommended the Apple Home Pods for this year’s gift guide. Fashionably late to the party, the Fruit Company’s HomePod may snatch Alexa’s wig and force El Goog to search for its cables. Apple may not be first, but they always executes and with tight integration between machine, phone, watch, and TV it’ll be an interesting fight for the home.

You can find more gift ideas at the 2020 Annual Gift Guide’s Pinterest page. The curators are still adding gadgets and gear you can gift to your girl or guy. Stay tuned and make sure you follow the page.

McRib is Back, Mariah Wants to Share Her Cookies, and I Guess Tech News

December 2, 2020 by William Mapp Leave a Comment

I’m Planning on Using This Coupon, and No I Didn’t Get My Free McRib

I don’t know if there has been a more exciting week, since the week of August 21st, 1977! In one week, McDonald’s has reissued the McRib, and Mariah Carey has released a chocolate chip cookie line. It’s too much! Someone save me from myself.

Yeeaahhhh, My Wife Asked If I Wanted to Try Mariah’s Cookies

Lots of suits this week in the tech world. Here’s another week of tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. This week, New York and a bunch of states want to sue Facebook, Amazon announces a new device to enforce employee compliance, and El Goog is sued for spying on employees then firing them. 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.

AMAZON ANNOUNCES CORONA CORPORATE COMPLIANCE TATTLER

This week, Amazon announced Panorama, an electronic appliance that plugs into a company’s existing closed circuit TV system that enforces employee compliance. The system uses off-the-shelf AI technology to determine if employees are wearing face masks. Amazon is advertising that the system could be used to perform automated inspection tasks such as searching for product defects in manufacturing. Fender Guitar says it uses Panorama to track the amount of time it takes an employee to assemble a guitar. Potentially, there can be negative impacts to employee morale when monitoring tools are abused. My suggestion? Hire the right people. Meanwhile, Amazon IS paying its employees $500MM in bonuses.

EL GOOG ILLEGALLY FIRES WORKERS AFTER SPYING ON THEM

The National Labor Relations Board has filed two complaints against Google after learning they fired the employees after spying on their behaviors. The two employees, Laurence Berland and Kathryn Spiers, were fired after engaging in employee organizing and activism. Google, the former ‘Do No Evil’ corporation, have had employee relations issues these past two years. Employees have staged walkouts for Google’s work with DoD and allegations of sexual harassment. My wife has contracted for Google, and one of my colleagues told me she’d never work at the Googleplex again. Go figure.

PREVIEW: GROUP OF US STATES PLAN TO SUE FACEBOOK

Talk about telegraphing your intentions. A group of states, led by New York, are planning to sue Facebook on the grounds of antitrust violations. No one knows what is going to be listed in the suit, but it will be the second suit governments have brought against a large tech company for antitrust violations with Google being the first this year. The US Federal Trade Commission has had its sites on Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google since 2019 and Congress has interviewed the tech CEOs several times this year. Somewhere in a grove of trees in Washington state, Bill Gates is looking up from his book and thinking, “ha!”

Apple Pays Up Big for Another Batterygate Settlement, Google Gets in the Banking Biz, Cats Can Now Talk

November 18, 2020 by William Mapp Leave a Comment

I Still Don’t Know Why the Cat is Eating a Salad

It’s Thursday! Chris Krebs is gone after securing an effective election. So, it’s been another wild week. Here’s another week of tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. This week, Apple pays up again for batterygate, a new app translates meows into English, and Google wants to be in your wallet. 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.

THE FRUIT COMPANY ENTERS $113 MILLION SETTLEMENT FOR BATTERYGATE

Yesterday, Apple agreed to a settlement with 34 states to the tune of $113 million for throttling performance on older iPhones that received iOS updates. The settlements comes as Apple agreed that it was purposefully making phones slower in a bid to preserve battery life as iPhones aged over time. Apple argued that the battery performance degraded and one way to preserve a user’s battery life was to slow the phone down. Well, the courts and lawyers disagreed, but Apple did come to terms with this payout. This settlement comes after a previous Batterygate settlement Apple made to the tune of $500 million. Personally, I hold off on upgrading iOS for as long as I can. I was forced into updating it for my Apple Watch and my phone has been acting wonky every since.

NEW APP TRANSLATES MEOWS, CATS YAWN AND TURN AWAY

Sometimes, I really think I’m working on things that are too complicated. Instead of trying to solve real problems, I should spend my time working on nonsensical stuff. Like what? Well, how about an app that translates a cat’s meow into English. Yup! A former Amazon Alexa engineer, a former Amazon Alexa engineer, is responsible for the app idea. According to Javier Sanchez, the group technical product manager at Akvelon, the software developer, the end goal is to make a smart collar that can be used to translate speech. Seems like a gimmick to me, but users on the website are pleased with the app, claiming that their cat now tells them, “I’m in love,” 90% of the time. The app uses advanced AI techniques to decipher cat meows. Cat experts say that cats don’t have a language like their human masters, but their masters don’t care.

EL GOOG GETS INTO FINANCIAL SERVICES WITH NEW PAY APP

This week, Google relaunched its Google Pay app in a bid to compete with Apple, Venmo, and other financial services technology companies. The app has moved beyond a simple tap-to-pay function and will now provide users with the ability to link bank accounts and credit cards with the app. Google is saying AI technology can provide advanced insights into spending habits and will replace the same functions users have at their banks. Google says their app will use your spending data to select the best accounts to use for making purchases. For instance, it may select a credit card for purchase if it provides the best cash back bonuses. Google is touting strict privacy rules for the app, but I’d imagine they are mining your spending data which will result in better ads.

MIT Builds COVID Detection AI, Apps Spend Big and Win Big in Cali, and Chinese Regulators Squash an Ant

November 4, 2020 by William Mapp Leave a Comment

It’s a couple of days after Election Day, and the US electorate is still hanging in the balance. A plethora of memes have been floating around the Internet as the country awaits the outcome. Including one comparing the American public waiting for a definitive result to someone waiting for the results of an STD test.

Regardless of what happens, it’s Thursday. You’d have already gotten your fill of election coverage, so I’ve avoided covering the technological news relating to the election. Here’s another week of tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew.

This week, MIT builds COVID cough listening AI, apps win big in California’s local election, and Chinese banking regulators squash an Ant. 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.

ALGORITHM SPOTS COVID COUGH AS NUMBERS RISE

An algorithm published by MIT uses AI to listen to a person coughing and determine if they are infected by COVID-19. One of the researchers who devised the innovation, Brian Subirana said that the way people produce sound through their mouth changes when you have Covid, even if they’re asymptomatic. The MIT team used over 70,000 audio sounds with 2,500 of those sounds coming from people who were infected by the virus. This type of technology could be used for pre-screening people at work or at school.

APPS BEAT LABOR UNIONS IN CALIFORNIA ON PROP 22

Also on California’s ballot was Proposition 22. Prop 22 is a law that permanently classifies gig economy workers, like Uber and Lyft drivers, as independent contractors and NOT employees. This means tech companies aren’t required to pay regulated income taxes and fees like workers compensation. The law does require tech companies to provide some benefits like minimum hourly earnings, however. Up until this week’s election, the outcome for Prop 22 was uncertain, but Uber and Lyft spent a combined $200 million in advertising and updated their apps to prompt their customers to support the law. Labor unions were only able to raise a tenth of Uber and Lyft’s spend and it shows. Prop 22 is now law.

CHINA STOPS ALIBABA’S ANT GROUP FROM MARCHING UP HILL

Yesterday, Chinese financial regulators stopped the double listing of the Alibaba Group’s financial technology Services company, Ant Group, from IPO-ing on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The IPO would have been valued at a WHOPPING $37.1 billion, with a ‘B’, making it the world’s largest ever IPO. The company specialized in delivering payments and was heavily used in Chinese markets. Regulators pulled the company in, because traditional banks were leveraging Ant Group’s apps to underwrite traditional loans. They also wanted to have a chat with CEO Jack Ma for calling out Chinese banking regulators as being behind in the times and trying to squeeze Ant Group in as a tech company and not a bank. We’ll see.

LET's GET STARTED AND

MAKE TECHNOLOGY WORK FOR YOU