It’s Thursday and I’m heading to New York! It’s been a while since I’ve gone away and I’m looking forward to some R&R at a B&B. I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. The big news this week is Bezos blasting off on the 52nd anniversary of Apollo 11. After that, Zoom is going to be offering an in-Zoom marketplace, and the microchip shortage is going to doom auto sales into 2022. 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.

BEZOS BLASTS OFF HIGHER THAN BRANSON BUT RETURNS WITH CRITICISM

On Tuesday, Jeff Bezos blasted off on a fully automated spaceflight. His Blue Origin spacecraft reached an altitude of 66 miles above the Earth’s surface besting Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic flight by about 10 miles. The flight happened on the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing lasted about 10 minutes with Bezos’ crew spending another 11 minutes on the ground. After setting foot back on Earth, Bezos went on to thank Amazon’s employees and customers for giving him the wealth to pay for the flight. His remarks were promptly met with criticism however since he and Amazon effectively pay no taxes. Which means, his flight was subsidized by American taxpayers. It’s still no mean feat to get into space. I ain’t knocking that. I could have worn my cosplay for this flight.

Jeff Bezos forgot to thank all the hardworking Americans who actually paid taxes to keep this country running while he and Amazon paid nothing. https://t.co/tjOeCWbUA8

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) July 20, 2021

ZOOM OFFERS TEAM BUILDING APP MARKETPLACE, WORKERS GROAN

Yesterday, the remote worker’s best friend, Zoom, announced it will be integrating third party apps in its online conferencing platform. As things open up, and employers are planning to return employees back to offices this fall Zoom is looking for a way to maintain its edge with its 300 million daily conference users. Zoom has a marketplace of 1500 apps but each one needs to be download individually. Zoom’s new marketplace will offer in-Zoom app downloads. At launch there will be 50 apps available. Zoom’s product lead for apps, Ross Mayfield, envisions a future where meeting participants can play games as team building exercises. Given how popular Zoom happy hours were during the pandemic, this sounds like a good idea. However, as outside opens back up, some people may want to go to a real happy hour.

MICROCHIP SHORTAGE TO DAMPER AUTO SALES INTO 2022

Yesterday, Carlos Tavares, CEO of the world’s 4th largest automaker, Stellantis, said that the global microchip shortage will affect automaker’s ability to produce cars into 2022. But…it won’t be as bad as it is now. The problem is that the semiconductor factories and foundries that produce microchips for today’s vehicles are lagging way behind in production. Car sales have spiked since things have opened back up, but there aren’t enough chips to go around to build the radio, accessories, and ignition timers needed for modern vehicles. Some automakers are dropping features on some vehicles while others are building their cars and parking them until chips become available. Either way, consumers are going to be paying for it.

It’s the unofficial start of the weekend! If you want to see me, I’ll be at Blerdcon this weekend, partying with the geek contingent. I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. The big news this week includes Virgin Galactic’s launch, a Super Mario 64 cart sold for 1.5 million, and Microsoft’s new PC streaming service.. 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.

RICHARD BRANSON BLASTS OFF INTO LOW EARTH ORBIT

The big news over the weekend is Sir Richard Branson blasting off into the upper atmosphere. Thanks to Virgin Galactic’s launch last Saturday, the Space Tourism industry has kicked off. Virgin Galactic blasted off from its New Mexico space port and reached an altitude of 53.5 miles above Earth’s surface. The ship was piloted by two experience space fliers, and once Virgin Unity reached altitude, Branson and his passengers unstrapped themselves for a brief experience of weightlessness. Virgin Galactic took off before Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launch scheduled for July 20th. Branson has had a lot of critics, I’m one of them. It’s not exactly fair that billionaires are blasting themselves off on tax credits and taxpayer funded space infrastructure, but…previous generations have had their climbers of Everest, sailors and pilots around the world, and travelers to the lowest depths. A big part of me takes my hat off to Richard Branson because he is one of the world’s pioneers. A civilian (a rich civilian) having blasted off into space. Hats off, Noah!

MICROSOFT ANNOUNCES TECH ALLOWING PCS TO STREAM ANYWHERE

In the, that-sounds-really-cool, category, Microsoft announced a new subscription service users can pay for and stream their PCs to any connected device. Under the covers, it sounds like a play on virtualization technology, but the idea that any old civilian doesn’t have to transport their computer and data to another location is cool. Businesses will get first crack at the service. Keep in mind however, that subscription services like this are often times more expensive than just buying a computer.

SMH! SUPER MARIO 64 SELLS FOR A MILLION

This is a family website and I can’t say what I really want to say, but in, “are you kidding me news,” a mint condition, sealed Super Mario 64 cartridge sold for $1.5 million. This price breaks the record making it the most expensive video game ever sold. Which just means there are some people in this world who have way too much money, and should be taxed heavier. The Nintendo 64 cartridge sold for two the amount of the second most expensive game, an original Legend of Zelda (the gold cartridge one) game sold for $870,000.

And by the way, REvil’s website is nowhere to be found on the Net. The front facing one, or the dark web.

Last night, I gave the first interview on a new project I’m working on. It’s something that’s been brewing since last year and if you want a hint, head over to Instagram. I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week was jam packed with tech news, but I could only pick three stories. REvil strikes again in largest hack-a-ransom, US states sue El Goog, and Audacity denies sending usage info to Russian firm. 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.

SECURITY SHOULD NOT BE OUTSOURCED AS LATEST HACK HITS THOUSANDS

As I was watching fireworks the Russian hacking group, REvil, launched an attack on remote monitoring software company, Kesaya. REvil exploited vulnerabilities in Kaseya’s systems and went on to compromise more than a thousand SMALL businesses worldwide. Small businesses. Read that. Instead of attacking large companies REvil has focused on spreading mayhem. A small COOP grocer was compromised. According to Kaseya CEO, Fred Viccolo, dental practices, architecture firms, plastic surgery centers, and libraries were amongst the organizations in the attack. Basically, companies who thought they were doing the right thing by implementing network management, but did it by outsourcing it. REvil is asking for a $70 million total ransom and analysts are reasoning that REvil themselves don’t want the spread to continue. A ransom this size and scope makes them a huge target. If the ransom is paid, REvil says they will publish a universal decryption key that can be used to restore systems. Others think this is simply a PR stunt.

OPEN SOURCE AUDIO SOFTWARE ACCUSED OF SENDING DATA TO RUSSIANS

I know a lot of composers, VO artists, and other creators who produce their own content. When news broke that the open source audio editing tool Audacity was being sold to Muse Group in April, fans of the free tool rejoiced because the company said that Audacity will be released more frequently. Instead, it’s become known that Audacity’s new terms and conditions was providing usage information to a Russian infrastructure company called WSM. Audacity had 100 million users at its height, that’s a lot of data to be feeding to the Russians. This deal was dirty from the start. Audacity’s founder, Dominic Mizzoni, had transferred the rights and trademark to Muse for a sum total of…$1.

STATES BRING LAWSUIT AGAINST EL GOOG

First Epic vs. Apple, now, 36 states and Washington, DC have filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging its abusive control over the Google Play Store. The lawsuit challenges Google on its required 30% commission payment developers must pay to Google on app purchases. And, having published apps for Google and Apple’s stores, Google doesn’t do a damn thing making that 30% commission worth it. Google is facing pressure on multiple fronts including a mounting DOJ probe about their ad search business. In response to public pressure Apple and Google have reduced their commissions to 15%. Grab the popcorn, between the FTC, DOJ, and Congress, Big Tech is going to have a doozy the rest of the year.

To close out this week’s top tech stories of the week. How about this? A leather case for your iPhone’s MagSafe charging puck. Yeah. If you’re a user of Apple products, you’re already a little ridiculous. But this thing takes the cake.

I’m really am trying to keep on it on the level, and this week we have some interesting stories.. I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week, a real life flying car successfully concludes a test flight, Amazon has a beef with the new FTC chairperson, and FINRA fines Robinhood for record dollars. 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 JETSON REJOICE AS FLYING CAR COMPLETES TEST FLIGHT

My first question is…who in the heck is buying flying cars right now? You’ll read in a moment. Professor Stefan Klein, inventor and creator of the AirCar, has successfully flown a 35-minutes test flight of the world’s first flying car between Nitra and Bratislava, Slovakia. The AirCar is a prototype that seats two passengers and has a 1,000 kilometer range at 2,500 feet. The car has clocked 40 hours in the air, and automakers are saying that the AirCar is part of the future. The AirCar doesn’t take off and land vertically so it requires a runway. There are…40,000 orders for the AirCar in the US according to Klein. And he’s hoping to convert 5% of those orders. Who’s ordering AirCars? My wife will be happy, she’s been wanting to see AirCar’s for the last 21 years.

FINRA ROBS FROM ROBINHOOD BY SLAPPING IT WITH RECORD FINE

Yesterday, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, FINRA, issued a record setting fine against Robinhood, not the fictional character, but the trading app of GameStop fame. FINRA claims that Robinhood regularly mislead its app’s users of trading terms, used flakey algorithms to certify users were able to trade on margin, failed to update its product, trading outages during trading hours, and regularly listed incorrect balances for users accounts. FINRA even cited the possibility of the death of Alex Kearns, a Robinhood user that committed suicide after finding a negative $730,000 balance in his account due to unintentional margin trades. Robinhood has agreed to pay the fine.

AMAZON WANTS FTC CHAIR TO RECUSE HERSELF BECAUSE SHE’S MEAN

After a spectacular show of bipartisanship with the Senate confirming Lina Khan as FTC Chairperson, Amazon has launched an offensive saying that the FTC Chair should recuse herself from investigating Amazon for antitrust offenses. In a 25-page petition, Amazon says that they disagree with Chairperson Khan’s views about the company and technology companies in general. Khan’s view is that current antitrust laws are outdated and don’t limit the limitless power today’s technology companies wield. Remember, Chairperson Khan was confirmed in record time. Both Democrats and Republicans have chosen Big Tech as their whipping boy.

So, last Friday was a shit show in the least. I keep on pushing on following on my mission despite the odds. I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week, Sonic the Hedgehog turns 30, Chinese employees have to smile in order to work, and John McAfee was found dead in his prison cell. 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.

JOHN MCAFEE FOUND DEAD IN SPANISH PRISON CELL

Antivirus software pioneer, John McAfee, was found dead in his Spanish prison cell, yesterday. Local prison authorities say the cause of death was suicide. Hours early, Spain’s highest court had ruled in favor of a US extradition which would have sent him back to the United States under custody for tax evasion. McAfee lived a wild and crazy life. After making a fortune selling antivirus software, McAfee lived a life of foreign travel, guns on yachts, and underaged girls. He’s been charged in a handful of countries for complaints ranging from driving under the influence to murder. He was facing 30 years in US prison if were to be convicted of the charges he was facing stateside. His final quote is telling, but a good one, “My remaining assets are all seized. My friends evaporated through fear of association. I have nothing. Yet, I regret nothing.”

CANON WORKERS IN CHINESE MUST SMILE FIRST BEFORE ENTERING

We already know China is a police state which is building itself on social capital. The latest trend for Chinese companies is to force their employees to smile before entering. A Canon subsidiary, yes that Canon. Andre Agassi commercials Canon, has installed AI-powered cameras that will only let employees enter their offices and break rooms if they smile into the camera. Canon isn’t the only company using smile technology to goad its employees. The trend is catching on for other companies on Chinese soil. It’s one heck of a way to enforce morale. Until someone goes postal.

SONIC TURNS 30

Here’s a story that’ll make all of you GenXers smile. Sonic the Hedgehog turned 30 yesterday. That’s right, you are old. Sonic the Hedgehog of SEGA Genesis fame will be celebrated with a remixed former Wii title, Sonic Colors: Ultimate, two new cartoon series with one coming next year, a new game, and a new in 2022 movie featuring Tails. I don’t know who you are, but you can admit you saw that crappy movie Sonic the Hedgehog movie. It made $306 million. Don’t lie you saw it.