You may not believe it, but I actually took some time off last weekend! I have an all day release planning meeting and the rest of the weekend should be coasting down hill. I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s news: El Salvador is the first country to tenderly spend BitCoin, the FAA grounds Virgin Galactic, and Elizabeth Holmes v US heats up. 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.

EL SALVADOR FIRST TO ACCEPT BITCOIN AS LEGAL TENDER

Yup. That’s right. Yesterday, El Salvador became the first country to accept BitCoin as legal tender. Which means businesses will be obliged to accept BitCoin as a form of payment for goods and services. El Salvadorean consumers will can submit BTC and US dollars for payments hence forward. El Salvadoreans are further encouraged to spend BTC thanks to the government’s new app which promises to give each citizen $30 in BitCoin after they’ve activated the digital wallet. BitCoin is highly volatile shifting between $20,000, $63,000, and $30,000 per BTC in the last year. Some consumers are excited, others are highly concerned about how secure their earnings will be.

THERANOS TRIAL STARTS, HOLMES PAINTS HERSELF AS VICTIM

I. Am a startup founder. *gasps* I get it. Startup founders are often high energy, high merchant, and the future is so bright individuals. Startup founders often overstate, it’s a problem, and that’s the defense Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes is using in her and Theranos wire fraud trial. US prosecution is trying to paint Elizabeth Holmes as defrauding investors out of almost $700 million in funding, versus inventing a product that wasn’t right or ready and flaming out like many startups do. Honestly, it’s hard to say if Holmes lied about the super fast and easy blood testing kits it was promising, or if she didn’t know what she was talking about. In the end, Holmes wasn’t the genius the press and investors made her out to be. But, investors aren’t the smartest people in the room anyway.

VIRGIN GALACTIC GROUNDED UNTIL FAA COMPLETES INVESTIGATION

After flying so high, it sucks to be pulled back to the ground. The FAA has grounded Virgin Galactic after its SpaceShipTwo aircraft veered off of its intended flight plan during its reentry. SpaceShipTwo is the craft Richard Branson was onboard during his flight into lower Earth orbit. Flight paths are critical for maintaining safe skies and SpaceShipTwo’s course deviated from the filed flight plan. Virgin Galactic says that the deviation was a minor, but purposeful course correction and that their flights are safe. Virgin Galactic will be able to resume flights as soon as the FAA completes an investigation into the flight and certifies VG is ready to blast off.

A big Apple event is scheduled for September 14th. I’ll be here and on-the-air next Thursday to report on what we believe will be the new iPhone 13 and possibly a new Apple Watch. Mark it on your calendar.

Hey, did you know I have a new book coming out. Subscribe to my mailing list at lessonsoncomputing.com to stay in the know.

It’s the unofficial start of the Labor Day weekend. For real, you’ve earned it. Take some time off. I will. I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s news: Chinese gamer kids are limited to 3 hours of play, NASA x Joby test flying cars in Big Sur, and Arizona and Georgia get iPhone drivers licenses first. 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.

CHINESE GOVERNMENT DOES WHAT PARENTS CAN’T: TAKE GAMES AWAY

In a bid to keep Chinese kids at the top of the class, or as the State puts it; reduce gaming addiction among teens-the Chinese government has introduced a law restricting teens 18 years and older to 3 hours of video game play per week! Not only that, kids can only play games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights between 8pm and 9pm. Oh! They’ll also be allowed to play on holidays. The law forces companies like Tencent to enforce realtime game usage. China’s President, Xi Jinping, called gaming addiction a teenage social problem, and obviously the government cured that. I get it. I have to kick my oldest kid off video games. It’s one of the reasons I sent them to camp. But, having the government impose this type of control on media is a bit too far. It’s not like they are keeping kids away from unsafe material, they’re just cutting them off from everything.

NASA AND JOBY AVIATION TEST FLY AIR TAXIS

NASA is raising the profile of flying cars by testing Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing vehicles (eVTOL). NASA is conducting test flights of eVTOL cars with newly IPO’d Joby Aviation. The test flights started this past Monday and will continue through to September 10th in Big Sur. The flights are part of NASA’s National Advanced Air Mobility campaign. NASA will be collecting performance analytics and noise data to measure the impact of the flying cars. The idea is that these vehicles will perform well and be quieter in highly populated urban areas.

APPLE SIGNS UP ARIZONA AND GEORGIA FOR DIGITAL DRIVERS LICENSES

Yesterday, the Fruit Company, announced that Arizona and Georgia will be the first states to support digital drivers licenses via the iPhone and Apple Watch’s Wallet app. Users will be able to add the licenses to Apple Wallet the same credits cards are added today. DL issuing states will provide verification of a valid license after the user enters the information. The really clutch move is that TSA will also support drivers licenses stored using Apple Wallet at select airports. Flyers can now tap their phone at a TSA identity reader to ID verification. Apple and States are saying users will have full privacy. States WILL NOT KNOW when and where users showed their ID, DL data is fully encrypted by Touch ID and Face ID, and DL storage is based upon ISO standards. No dates on when licenses go digital yet. I like the idea. I really do. But…anything and everything electronically shared can be snooped. There…I SAID IT.

Yesterday was my birthday, and I won’t be celebrating until tomorrow. I’m also back from my vacation working in Florida. I saw the Saturn V at Kennedy Space Center and I’ve come back inspired. I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s news: everyone has finally caught wind of Pegasus, and Taco Bell wants you to run for the touchless border. 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.

NEW IPHONE EXPLOIT HAS PEOPLE SHOOK

When Mark Starling sends me a news story on my birthday about millions of iPhone users being exposed to an exploit, I click the link. TechCrunch has done an extensive story about how NSO Group, an Israeli security company, has released software that can be used to exploit users iPhones. The software is called Pegasus, and is a zero-click exploit, meaning that the user doesn’t have to click on content in order to start the attack. Zero-click attacks work because the Apple iPhone attempts to load and display hyperlinks in its iMessage app. iPhone users intuitively know this by being preview webpages, Instagram, and Facebook pages shared in iMessage. Pegasus is an actual application purchased and used by nation states to spy on activists, human rights supporters, and enemies of the state. The software has also been known to have enabled the kidnapping of one Dubai princess. The software has also evaded privacy protections Apple has written in their software. Let’s not get it twisted, this software isn’t useful technology even if it’s been bought for spying on enemies of the state. It’s just another attack vector to exploit people.

Key Tips

Don’t click on weird or foreign links. There are a number of AT&T and Verizon scams going around right now saying that you’ve over paid on your last bill. The links look weird AF. Don’t click them.

If you’re really nervous, you can turn off iMessage previews by going to Settings > Notifications > Notification Style > Messages and switch off ‘Show Previews’.

TOUCHLESS TACO BELL DEFIES HUNGER

Running for the border in Summer 2022, Minneapolis/St. Paul will get the first, touchless Taco Bell Defy. Taco Bell Defy is Taco Bell, but without face-to-face human contact. The restaurant features a drive thru layout that’s more akin to a bank branch than the traditional drive thru lane. Food will be delivered to drivers via proprietary lift system from an elevated kitchen, and mobile pick up orders can be retrieved by having a QR code scanned. You won’t see a human being, but you can talk them in realtime via a two way radio if you need to. We all know, there will be bots working in there. It’s only a matter of time.