Another week, and we’ve doubled the downloads for The Cloud. Thank you for sharing our new podcast.

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. This week’s top tech stories: a Google engineer gives an overhyped AI story to the media, Celsius halts customer withdrawals citing crypto market turmoil, and Amazon finally gets around to drone delivery. 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.

GOOGLE ENGINEER RILES UP PRESS ABOUT NON-SENTIENT AI

I’m just glad I wasn’t the only technologist who called BS on Blake Lemoine’s reveal about Google shipping a sentient AI. Blake Lemoine was speaking with a new Google Chatbot AI, LaMDA, which is designed to engage humans on a more conversational level. He reported that he felt the AI had gained sentience. He then went to the press after his Google bosses disagreed with him. Professionally, the evidence Lemoine supplied was dubious. State-of-the-art AIs are trained using millions of lines of text, and billions of parameters. Yours truly trained AI models using the New York Times corpus for AIs to write news summaries. LaMDA isn’t sentient and it was an overhyped story.

CELSIUS HALTS CUSTOMER WITHDRAWALS AMIDST CRYPTO SLIDE

This past Monday, the crypto lending platform, Celsius, halted customer withdrawals propelling a slide in cryptocurrency values across the marketplace. Celsius has 1.7 million customers and manages $11.7 billion in assets. The platform halted customer withdrawals citing marketplace volatility. CAN YOU IMAGINE THIS HAPPENING AT YOUR REGULAR BANK??? Celsius halts withdrawals soon after news of Terra’s crash wiped out hundreds of millions of value. What’s crazy, is that someone took to Twitter and asked out loud if retail lenders like Celsius would be able to withstand Terra’s crash. Celsius’ CEO, Alex Mashinsky responded via Twitter to talk about how badass Celsius was, hours before announcing his company would be holding people’s real and virtual money. He should have talked to his CFO first.

Mike do you know even one person who has a problem withdrawing from Celsius?,

why spread FUD and misinformation.

If you are paid for this then let everyone know you are picking sides otherwise our job is to fight Tradfi together…

— Alex Mashinsky (@Mashinsky) June 11, 2022

Meanwhile, a new revelation came about this week. DogeCoin has lost 90% of its value since Elon Musk appeared on Saturday Night Live.

AMAZON FINALLY GETS AROUND TO DRONE DELIVERY

After a decade of talking trash about drone delivery, Amazon finally gets around to delivery packages via drone…in one California town. Amazon announced customers in Lockeford, CA will be the first Amazonians to receive Prime Air delivery. Prime Air service will be limited to delivering packages that weigh less than 5 pounds and within a 15 mile radius from Amazon’s distribution center. Customers will get their packages within an hour. The FAA is allowing Prime Air to operate in one town. No word yet, on when the service will expand.

We got all kinds of media for y’all. Don’t forget to signup for my weekly newsletter and you’ll get the Top Tech Stories of the Week on Wednesday before everyone else. And don’t forget to subscribe to The Cloud. Digital Technology. Decoded.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! The Cloud has been out for a week now, and we’ve had consistent downloads. Thanks for listening.

It’s still Thursday, and I’m on with  Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s top tech stories: Apple brings back the Magic at this year’s WWDC, and Elon Musk looks to Mars and not Twitter in latest beefs. 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.

MUSK THREATENS TO WALK AWAY FROM TWITTER DEAL…AGAIN

Let’s be honest, Elon Musk has been reaching for a reason to walk away from the Twitter deal. He hasn’t acted a would-be investor and buyer in a company he’s planning to take over at value. His behavior has been nothing less than erratic since announcing plans to buy Twitter for $44 billion, with a ‘B’. For those watching, he’s personally on the hook to pay $33.5 billion and is seeking $2 billion to $3 billion in financing from outside sources. He’s threatening to leave the deal because he doesn’t believe Twitter bots (non-human users) makeup only 5% of Twitter’s user base. He doesn’t believe Twitter’s math and modeling, despite Twitter disclaiming their user counts and reporting the figures to the SEC. If he welches on the deal, he owes Twitter $1 billion.

In the Latest Elon Musk Gossip

While he’s fighting this battle, he’s also beefing with Doge Coin’s creator, Jackson Palmer. Palmer called out Elon Musk saying, “he didn’t understand coding as well he purports himself to.” Musk as usual got upset and claimed Palmer didn’t right any Doge Coin code. Real talk, the allegation Musk isn’t that great of a programmer was made to me once.

APPLE BRINGS BACK THE MAGIC AT WWDC 2022

Dear Apple, I still don’t have a press credential, but thanks for another WWDC. WWDC happened this past Monday and for the first time in a long time, I’m excited about some of the changes Apple is bringing to its latest iPhone and iPad operating system, iOS16.

Editable and Recallable Messages

iMessages is getting some remarkable enhancements. Users will now be able to recall an iMessage after it’s been sent. If you mistakenly sent a message, you can now delete it from the conversations stream at all endpoints. I think this is an awesome feature and one that many people already use on chat apps and social apps. The other killer feature for the, uses punctuation in text messages GenX crowd, is an editing feature. Users can now make edits to their outbound text messages and the edits will show up to all parties on the conversation.

Another killer application baked across the operating system is Apple’s Live Text. The operating system will allow users to select and lift text off of images and video. For instance, you can watch a how-to video that has text prominently rendered on the screen. Live Text will allow you to select the text in the video and copy in a real text document or elsewhere. This will be create for developers or people following how-tos, or people who need to translate text from an image or picture into their native language.

Customizable Home Screen

It’s not very important for me, but Apple has finally given users the ability to customize their iPhone’s home screen. Users can change the fonts, colors, and type faces of the clock and information labels on the home screen. Users can also add live widgets on the screen too.

Ecosystem Continuity

Apple has always touted continuity between devices. You can now use your iPhone as a web camera in the latest editions of iOS and macOS. The feature works wireless and includes real-time filtering capabilities for enhancing your face versus the background. Another magical feature is Deskview which uses the iPhone’s super wide angle lens to simultaneously show a person in a webcam view and their workspace directly in front of them. How useful is it? Uh, who knows.

Collaborating

New collaboration features between iOS and macOS were originally conceived in the mid-80’s in the NeXT operating system conceived by Steve Jobs. The latest Apple operating system provide app developers with tools to perform instant collaboration between multiple desktop, iPhone, and iPad users. Users can share their desktops, application screens, and application data in a number of ways. Apple claims anything that you can work with can brought into a shareable board.

A Lot More

There was a lot in this year’s WWDC. Apple is shipping updates to CarPlay with the ability to add stops using Siri in the Maps app. New watchOS updates feature more complications, enhanced battery life, and connectivity between devices. And we’ll see higher performing chips this fall in the latest MacBook Pro lines with an M2 chip that’s 40% higher performing than the M1.

The new MacBook Pro with M2 silicon will ship in July.

iOS 16 will ship in the fall, probably after the iPhone event in September.

The latest macOS Ventura, is available for Apple Developer Program members now, will ship with the latest machines in July.

Tune Into The Cloud

I want to extend a very warm and gracious thanks to everyone who has listened to The Cloud. We got a solid stream of downloads in our first week of release. If you have tuned in, our first episode asked, “what happened to smart cities?” We invited Nick Maynard, the CEO of US Ignite to talk about smart city projects and striking a balance between technology and community support.

Our next show will explore how bias in AI impacts communities. It’s going to be a treat.

You can listen to The Cloud on Spotify.

It’s Thursday, June 2nd, which means The Cloud has launched. I’m super excited about it. That also means, it’s time for the Top Tech News of the Week! I’m on with  Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s top tech stories: Chinese government hackers target Tibetan government reps, Musk tells Tesla employees to come to the office or else, and the Supreme Court halts Texas’ deplatforming law. 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.

TESLA EMPLOYEES MUST RETURN TO OFFICE OR FIND OTHER JOBS

Musk just likes staying in the news. Many US employers have taken a pragmatic approach to returning employees back to the office. Employers with a high number of office workers have embraced hybrid models where employees can work days in or out of the office on a schedule. Others have forsaken their offices and have allowed employees to work permanently from home. Earlier this week, Elon Musk demanded that any employee wishing to do remote work must work in the office a minimum of 40 hours per week. Well, that’s a full work week. Not really remote work. Musk is assuming if people don’t show up, then they’ve resigned.

SUPREME COURT HALTS TEXAS DEPLATFORMING LAW

In a shocking 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court blocks Texas’ deplatforming law to take affect. The law would have banned social media platforms with over 50 million users from banning accounts held by politicians and office holders. The decision was bi-partisan with Democratic and Republican party justices deciding against the law. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube all fell within the 50 million user count limits of the Texas law.

CHINESE GOVERNMENT HACKERS LINKED TO MICROSOFT OFFICE EXPLOIT

A new exploit targeting exiled Central Tibetan Administration was reported on Monday. The exploit originated from a Chinese government hacker group known as TA413. The Chinese government has been targeting exiled Tibetan government representatives for years. The CTA is actually based in Dharamsala, India. The exploit uses an especially crafter Microsoft Word document that can launch a script file through Microsoft’s Support Diagnostic Tool. Microsoft hasn’t issued a patch for the exploit yet, but is telling users to disable a URL embedding feature in its Support Diagnostic Tool. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is urging organization to disable the feature. Microsoft products from Office 2013 to Office 365 are under threat. Yes, that’s a whole slew of products.

The Cloud is LIVE!

Hi Everyone, I’m proud to announce The Cloud podcast to you. Subscribers to this site and early adopters are the first to get links to the new podcast. The Cloud is like Hidden Brain for technology. Every episode will feature a big tech concept and we’ll explore if the technology is just hype or is really delivering on its promises.

We’ll be releasing new episodes each month. Please check out the first episode, What Happened to Smart Cities?

Subscribe to the cloud at thecloudpodcast.net. You’ll also be able to subscribe using your favorite podcast app. We’ll be on all of them.

Hey, TTN Readers and listeners. It’s another Thursday, and I’m taking the today and tomorrow off from corporate work. I’m on with  Mark Starling, John, and the First News 570 crew.

This week’s tragic shooting has affected me and my family in ways I hadn’t expected. These mass shootings are exhausting, and getting caught up in debates with friends and others leads to nowhere.

Each one of this week’s top tech stories will be a mood lightener. I hope you read each story and think about technology’s promise and how humanity can be improved or delighted by tech.

It was legitimately hard to find uplifting tech news this week. I’m hoping these stories can carry you into the Memorial Day weekend a little brighter.

This week’s top tech news: New York’s Old Fogey’s Get Robot Companions, Dyson Announces Plans for Housekeeping Robots, and an AI Artist Renders Human-like Disney Characters. 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.

NY’s ELDERLY POPULATION GETS ROBOT COMPANIONS

Over 14 million people over the age of 65 live alone. Believer it or not, loneliness is one of the world’s most pressing problems and a pandemic hasn’t helped. Studies have shown that loneliness can negatively impact health just as much as smoking. The New York State Office of the Aging is giving 800 elderly residents an ElliQ personal assistant to serve as companion. ElliQ can engage in small talk and remembers interactions with the individual. The robot can prompt users for memories, self-validation, and reminders to interact with friends and family. ElliQ is made by Israeli firm Intuition Robotics. The regular price to hire ElliQ is usually $250 and $30 per month.

DYSON IS WORKING ON PICK-UP-AFTER-YOUR-KIDS ROBOTS

Finally, a company is working on building a true ‘Rosie the Robot’ device. This week, vacuumer, Dyson, announced plans to build a new kind of robot that is designed for household chores. The company is undergoing a big hiring spree to build and release a Rosie in 10 years. Dyson has been working on this tech for the last 10 years and release a video of robotic hands picking up dishes and strewn about toys. I was at the AWS conference this week and saw a Boston Dynamics rover robot intimidating con goers, and even then I looked at the digit-less robotic pump and wondered, if they can build bomb sniffing bots, how come someone can’t come over and clean up after my kids. My wish may come true, but they’ll be gone in 10 years.

As promised, every news story is more upbeat.

ARTISTS USES AI TO CREATE ‘REAL LIFE’ DISNEY CHARACTERS

Digital artist, Hidreley Diao, shared images of realish looking renderings of Disney characters. He used a combination of tools to make the images, and admittedly they look really good. He used Photoshop, FaceApp, Gradiente, and Remini to generate human look-alike likes of popular characters. I was impressed with the results. It’s only a matter of time until we can get complete renderings of brand new characters starring in movies. Head over to Bored Panda to check out the complete set.

In less than 7 days you’ll be hearing a new exploration on technology and our relationship with it. Please check out my new podcast, The Cloud. Digital Technology. Decoded. Subscribe at thecloudpodcast.net.