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:

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.

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.

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!”

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.