Apple Commits to Carbon Neutrality, Microsoft Makes Eye Contact, Investors Try to Appease White House

TikTok, TikTok, TikTok

It’s another Thursday which means another week of big tech news talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. In this week’s roundup, the Apple commits to being carbon neutral, Microsoft wants to make eye contact with its customers, and US investors try to move on TikTok before the US Senate bans the app. 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.

APPLE COMMITS TO BE CARBON NEUTRAL BY 2030

Earlier this week, Apple announced that they and their suppliers are committing to be carbon neutral by 2030. This means that their devices will have zero carbon impact at the point of sale. Apple’s pledge must also be met by their suppliers in which they must be 100% renewable for Apple production. Apple is going one step further by saying they will reclaim all of their greenhouse emissions by 2050. Apple isn’t the only one going greener, Microsoft is planning to be carbon negative by 2040 with other technology giants Amazon and Google following suit.

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Batterygate Ends, Celebs Get Got in Bitcoin Scam, and the Senate Wants TikTok Banned

It’s another Thursday, and Mark Starling is back! That means it’s time to talk tech with the First News 570 crew. In this week’s roundup, the Batterygate saga ends with an Apple settlement, a bunch of celebrity Twitter accounts are implicated in a Bitcoin scam, and the US Senate bans TikTok. 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.

A quick break from the silly world of technology news.

For real, for real people. We can fault leadership for not taking swift and definitive action while COVID-19 was just beginning to make its impact felt on all of us. Now, we have to take our health and safety into our own hands. This week, I’ve read reports of summer camps experiencing C19 outbreaks, cities and towns are re-entering shelter-in-place phases, and schools are pressing the issue of sending kids back to closed in spaces. I know it can sound elitist to talk about working from home, and I fully know that people need to work, but with 1% of our nation’s population having been infected, and 130k people died because of this, we have to operate on our own volition.

For Real, C19 Infection Rates Should Be Trending Downward

Personally, there have been two deaths in our family (they were older) due to covid, one of my software developers and his fiancee’ had contracted and it was touch and go, and I have friends who went on a water park trip, contracted covid, and now have ruined friendships over their behavior.

Wear a mask. Not only for your safety, but for the safety of your neighbors. Avoid large gatherings, get takeout from your favorite restaurants if you want to keep them in business (and tip well). If you want go out, practice social distancing so you decrease the chance of spread to your friends and family. And try to limit your time out and about.

This shit is real.

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New High Def Video for Slow Streamers, El Goog Cancels Great Firewall of China, IT Guys Get Busted for Weed Payments

Mark Starling is out on vacation, but I’m going to keep the tech news going. Tune in next week for the next time I’m live with the First News 570 crew. This week, we’re talking about Google’s acquisition of wearable computing company, North, how corporate America is boycotting Facebook, and a quick round up of this year’s World Wide Developer Conference. 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.

Image Courtesy of Alex Castro from The Verge

8K TV FOR 4K BANDWIDTH

We still don’t have a lot of content for 4K connections, and now 8K connections are coming right around the corner. After three years of negotiations, the major tech players and TV manufactures have agreed on a new format, H.266 Versatile Video Coding, to stream content using half the bandwidth we currently use. The new codec will allow people with slow connections to stream HD, 4K, and higher content depth. Like everything else, let’s see what the pr0n industry implements.

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Google Heads North, Apple Shops Lots of Stuff, and Corporate America Boycotts Facebook

It’s the unofficial start of the Fourth of July weekend! Yes, it’s Thursday, which means it’s time for tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. This week, we’re talking about Google’s acquisition of wearable computing company, North, how corporate America is boycotting Facebook, and a quick round up of this year’s World Wide Developer Conference. 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.

North’s AR Glasses – Image Courtesy of Arc Technica

BIG BRANDS BOYCOTT FACEBOOK AD BUYS

Just in time for Facebook to roll out their new user experience, major corporations aren’t buying ads on the platform. A consistently growing list of companies are joining an ad buying protest on the platform, because Facebook doesn’t do enough to halt the spread of hate and racist speech on the platform. This isn’t the first time we’ve reported on Facebook not being able to stop all hate speech and whether or not it does enough. After employing tens of thousands of human moderators to halt hate, speech more than enough content still goes through. List of companies boycotting Facebook is a Who’s Who of American business spanning across all industries. The boycott is expected to last through July or when Facebook changes its policies.

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NBA Uses Bling for C19 Diagnoses, Olympus Quits Cameras, and Internet Dividends

Courtesy of Oura, Linked from Engadget.com

If it’s Thursday, that means it’s time for tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. This week, we’re talking about Data Dividends, how the NBA is using tech for player C19 diagnoses, and Olympus exiting the camera business. 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.

NBA USES BLING TO DIAGNOSES COVID-19

The NBA is planning to restart its regular season on July 30th. In addition to self-isolating the players to Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando, the league is adding a new C19 diagnosis device to helping contain the spread of coronavirus. The NBA is planning to use Oura smart rings to predict a COVID-19 diagnosis. West Virginia University conducted a study in which the biometric data obtained from the Oura can predict the onset of COVID-19 symptoms in 3 days by a rate of 90%. The league is using social distancing, and restricting player access up until the start of the season and it looks like technology will be used to keep players playing on the court.

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