Happy Thursday! Last Friday, as me and my friends were basking in the glow of Blerdcon, someone looking down at their phone blurted out, “yo! Elon Musk is backing out of the Twitter deal. Like everyone didn’t see that coming.” It’s true. Either way, it’s Thursday and I’m on with  Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s top tech stories: Elon, Elon, Elon, the head of Tesla’s AI is out, and the James Webb Space Telescope delivers its first pictures. You can listen to me and Mark Starling point and laugh at all things tech every Thursday at 643 am ET live on the radio or the iHeartRadio app.

MUSK BACKS OUT OF TWITTER DEAL, SURPRISES NO ONE

We’ve covered Elon Musk’s shenanigans a lot on First News 570 and this week’s top tech news is par for the course. Last Friday, Elon Musk announced he’s backing out of his alleged purchase of Twitter. The $44 billion deal collapsed with Musk saying he wasn’t satisfied with Twitter’s method for reporting bots and him complaining management hasn’t kept running the company at an optimum level. Twitter shares closed at $36 per share yesterday, down from the $54 per share take over price. Elon Musk was teasing the idea of him backing out of the Twitter deal shortly after announcing his takeover plans. He took the same product he was going to purchase and complained about how crappy management was, their lack of feature innovation, and proving how many bots operate the platform. My friends in the room all agreed it was simply a, “d*ck move by Elon, to show how big his b*lls are.” And here we are.

TESLA HEAD OF AI LEAVING

One of the key developers of Tesla’s Autopilot feature is leaving the company. Andrej Karpathy has decided to leave the company after taking a sabbatical this Spring. He was set to come back to Tesla this month, and is instead heading out. This news happens just after Tesla laid off 200 employees working on the Autopilot project. He wants to move on to new horizons combining AI and education.

JWST DELIVERS STUNNING PICTURES OF THE COSMOS

After 10 years of development and delays, the James Webb Space Telescope delivered its first set of images this past Monday. The JWST is the world’s largest orbiting observatory and sports a light focusing mirror that’s 3 times the size of the Hubble Space Telescope. The first image from the JWST featured an updated image of the same cluster of galaxy first shot by the Hubble Space Telescope. The image blows your mind away, and makes you question, “what is all of this for?” The marquee shot features an innumerable count of galaxies in the distance. The JWST uses upgraded infrared sensors that allows the telescope to see further in the past than ever before. Amazing.

Hi guys! It’s another unofficial start of the weekend and I want to thank you for being a part of this journey. I’ve been Mark Starling’s Thursday technology analyst since 2015 and it’s been fun. Since then, First News 570 listeners and others have been steady readers of this Thursday post, and have warmly consumed the other content. I’m grateful for your readership and listenership. I’m looking forward to continuing this ride as long as you have me.

Take care of yourself, and watch your health. Live your life now, and be around those people who are important to you and who find you important.

Have a great weekend.

It’s Blerdcon Thursday, y’all. It’s time for the Top Tech News of the Week! I’m on with  Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew. It’s another week, without Elon dominating the headlines. This week’s top tech stories: the US government announces new post-Quantum encryption, Rivian finally delivers its trucks, and Meta open sources bold language translation AI. You can listen to me and Mark Starling point and laugh at all things tech every Thursday at 643 am ET live on the radio or the iHeartRadio app.

RIVIAN FINALLY DELIVERS

The electric truck company, Rivian, has finally started delivering its highly anticipated trucks and SUVs. The company was known for delivering Amazon’s electric delivery vehicles and finally deliver 4,401 vehicles last quarter. That number pales in comparison to the 254 thousand Teslas, or the sales leader, GM’s, 578 thousand cars last quarter. But it is something considering they are niche electric vehicle maker. GM only sold 7,700 plug-in electric cars last quarter, so Rivian is competing in that segment. Rivian will need to deliver more than 18,000 vehicles this year to meet its annual goal.

META OPEN SOURCES AI TRANSLATION TECHNOLOGY

Yesterday, Meta open sourced a language translator that’s capable of translating over 200 languages. The software, NLLB-200, is an AI service trained on more than 50 billion parameters. Meta is boasting translations for many languages not well supported by other services like Google’s. They claim NLLB-200 translates over 50 African languages not normally supported elsewhere. NLLB-200 is more than 44% accurate compared with other tools. The company is providing up to $200,000 in grants to help non-profits adopt the technology. They’ve teamed up with Wikimedia to translate Wikipedia using NLLB-200. Facebook’s head of AI says that, “No Language [will be] Left Behind.”

US GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES NEW ENCRYPTION STANDARDS

Quantum computing has cryptologists and governments scared. Quantum computing uses weird aspects of how subatomic particles behave in space and time to make increasingly complex predictions. Many theorists predict Quantum will make today’s encryption look like Little Orphan Annie Decoder Rings. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced four new encryption standards that should thwart quantum hackers. The new post-quantum-computing algorithms have cool names: CRYSTALS-Kyber, CRYSTALS-Dilithium, FALCON, and SPHINCS+. Current encryption uses mathematical properties of multiplying large, prime numbers to generate unique keys for encrypting values. In 2019, a team broke a 795-bit key (a very, very large number) and it has people concerned.

I don’t usually get into entertainment news, but I think it’s a remarkable achievement. Stranger Things Season 4 is Netflix’s second show to get over 1 billion watch hours. I think Sabrina and I are the ones who actually put them over since we started the season 1 day before the billionth hour was watched. As of yesterday, 1.15 billion hours of human mental space was dedicated to watching Stranger Things 4. The most popular show is Squid Game, which I have never seen. Not even a minute.

Speaking of watch hours…thanks for listening to The Cloud. Our second episode about AI and its impact on communities of color has gotten some great feedback. Our next episode will explore crypto and if it’s the future of money. Please listen, subscribe, and leave feedback for The Cloud on your local podcast listening station. It helps.

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If you come to this weekend’s Blerdcon, please stop by and say hi.

It’s Thursday, y’all. It’s time for the Top Tech News of the Week! I’m on with  Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew. It’s another week, without Elon dominating the headlines. This week’s top tech stories: a shirtless Canadian hacker pleads guilty in Florida, a new Atari collection is released in time for its 50th anniversary, and AirBnb bans party houses forever. You can listen to me and Mark Starling point and laugh at all things tech every Thursday at 643 am ET live on the radio or the iHeartRadio app.

SHIRTLESS CANADIAN NABBED IN RUSSIAN CYBER TAKEDOWN

Yesterday, Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins plead guilty in Florida court for being an affiliate hacker with the Russian cyber gang, NetWalker. Desjardins is an ex-IT employee who was a hacker for the group from April to December, 2020. NetWalker had extorted $40 million from Canadian, US, and other global companies during 2020 including $1.14 million from a US university working on a COVID-19 vaccine. Desjardins was arrested in Canada and extradited to the United States after US cyber authorities broke up the gang and lifted details of affiliates from the gang’s files. Desjardins was found holding $27 million in BitCoin across various accounts. There have been high profile hacks made in the last 3 years, but there have also been some high profile arrests and takedowns made by the US government. For bad guys seeking to hide cash in BTC or the blockchain anonymously that’s becoming increasingly difficult to do. Yes, Desjardins is pretty fit, and…cut.

GAME CONSOLES GET ATARI CLASSICS ON 50TH ANNIVERARY

How old am I? My first video game console was an Atari something that played Pong and a three other titles using a switch. No cartridges. Atari is working with retro game archivists, Digital Eclipse, to release Atari 50, a 90 title gaming collection for the Switch, PlayStation, XBOX, PC, and Atari VCS. The collection will span games from the 2600, Jaguar, and Lynx. The Atari 7200 was noticeably absent from the list. You can expect Atari 50 this November just in time for Christmas.

AIRBNB BANS PARTY HOUSES PERMANENTLY

AirBnb announced it will be banning so-called party houses permanently. The company prevented AirBnb guests from renting a house to host a disruptive event or party in 2020 to halt COVID-19’s spread. AirBnb hosts have applauded the move saying party houses were an issue with their neighbors and maintenance. AirBnb suspended 6,600 users last year after violating the party ban. No more open-invites or event styled gatherings are allowed in AirBnbs anymore, even though mega mansion home owners can list properties that can sleep move than 16 people.

Tomorrow’s episode of The Cloud features AI and its impact on communities. We chat with Morgan State University’s founding member of the Center for Equitable AI and Machine Learning, Dr. Kofi Nyarko and Progressive Heuristics CEO, Gabriella Waters. You can subscribe to The Cloud on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and El Goog’s Podcasts. iHeartRadio will be coming soon.

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It’s Thursday, y’all. It’s time for the Top Tech News of the Week! I’m on with  Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew. There was so much Elon Musk news this week, it was hard to find some real stories. It seems like we’ve been reporting on, will he or won’t he, his child disowning him, and Elon’s love life for the last two month. How about a break?

This week’s top tech stories: Meta/Facebook wants you to carry around all of your digital assets in their wallet, NASA and Rocket Lab go to the Moon on the cheap, and Apple gets sued again for messing around with iPhone performance. 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. Listen now.

META ANNOUNCES NON-CRYPTO, CRYPTO-LIKE WALLET

If you’ve been on of the tens of millions of people who’ve lots money in crypto…like me, you know a little about the wallet technology used to hold your dwindling crypto-funds. Facebook slash Meta announced plans to create an interoperable wallet which would allow you to carry all of your digital items, identities, and cash around the metaverse, and use it anywhere. This news hot on the announcement of Facebook and Microsoft teaming up to create metaverse standards. *Shivers* Real talk…the met averse is the last I want. The idea of online life being better than real life is antithetical to me.

TINY ROCKET LAUNCH PREPARES FOR SETTLING ON THE MOON

Commercial rocket company, Rocket Lab, and NASA announced plans to launch a cheaply provisioned mission to the Moon. The $13.7 million launch will place a cubesat, a small satellite into lunar orbit. The mission is designed to support the Artemis mission, the first manned Lunar mission since the Apollo days. This mission is designed to calculate a Lunar orbit that can be used as a way station between the Earth and the Moon. A Lunar way station can be used to relay signals to a Lunar habitat, manage growing space traffic, and provide materials for crafts on their way to the Moon. No word yet on when the launch will happen, but it will be blasting off in New Zealand.

APPLE SUED AGAIN FOR BATTERYGATE

Justin Guttmann, of the UK, has filed a 768MM pound lawsuit against Apple accusing the company of slowing down the performance of older iPhone users forcing them to upgrade their devices. Apple paid out $113MM and $500MM in settlements across the US for batterygate in 2020. If Guttmann wins this latest suit, or if it settles close to the asking amount, tack on another $941MM because of Apple tinkering with people’s performance. Thing is, these settlements are just a drop in the well for Apple. Apple’s first quarter 2022 revenues stand at a record setting $97.8 BILLION with a ‘B’. That’s only their first quarter revenue. From this year. The first three months of…this year. $97.8 billion.

Hey guys! Thanks for another week tuning into Top Tech Stories of the week. Please subscribe to our weekly newsletter and checkout our latest podcast, The Cloud. Next Friday, we’ll be premiering our next episode, AI and It’s Impact on Communities of Color. Thanks for listening!