It’s another Thursday, and here’s another week of tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. This week, the year’s top math prize is won by a tea experiment, Valve announces a Digital Tabletop Festival, and Amazon is palms down on payments. 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.

MATH MAN WINS BIGGEST PRIZE FOR STIRRING TEA

Today’s leading story is near and dear to my heart, because my now 9-year old had the idea first. Mathematics genius, Martin Hairer, will be taking home a cool $3 million for receiving the top prize for the Fields Medal. The Fields Medal is the most prestigious award one can get in the math field, and his ideas and studies on the mathematics behind food beat the others in the field. My 9-year old came up with the idea of understanding how cream dissolves in milk when she was in fourth grade. Hairer’s work explaining how cream’s dissolution is predictable and can be calculated was where my then 6 year old lost out. Hairer’s experiments explaining how milk and cheese bake into soufflé also dazzled the judges.

AMAZON ANNOUNCES PALM SCANNER FOR SECURE PAYMENTS

Amazon already knows what kind of movies you like and you and your spouses pillow talk. Now they want to take a picture of your palm for secure payments. The company with the smile on the box has announced the Amazon One. A palm-based payment system, yes, the palm of your hand, that can be used at checkout systems as an Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, Visa Pay, Cash Pay alternative. The technology works by capturing images of vein patterns underneath your skin. Vein patters in the hand and fingertips are unique from person to person and provide a means of identifying someone and referencing their payment information. #Nope!

DND NERDS CHEERS AS STEAM ANNOUNCES TABLETOP GAME FESTIVAL

I’ve been playing Dungeons and Dragons since I was a teenager. My Level 4 Tiefling Rogue will actually be rolling with her homies to complete a campaign this Saturday night. From October 21st to October 26th, a Digital Tabletop Festival will be held on Valve’s Steam platform. The festival will feature the game designers of Plague Inc, Call of Cthulhu and others. Tabletop gaming saw a big move to digital as many players couldn’t congregate and don their elvish and paladin wears. Playing these games on Zoom has been extremely clunky and Valve producing a means for these gamers to play with better tools is a godsend.

We’re a month into virtual learning, and we’re still here. My 9 year old is struggling, but the 12 year old works too fast. It’s another Thursday, and here’s another week of tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. This week, Microsoft pulls the ultimate power move, Facebook shuts down 150 fake email accounts, and the sands of the hour glass continue to fall as time TikToks away. 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.

MICROSOFT SAYS NO TO TIK TOK, MOVES TO BETHESDA

In a stunning strategic move, Microsoft announced plans to purchase ZeniMax Media, the parent company of famed game developer, Bethesda Softworks. Why is this a power move? Bethesday publishes a few SONY PlayStation EXCLUSIVE games! That’s right, Microsoft is buying the company that publishes games that are PlayStation only or launch on PlayStation before moving to other platforms. The deal is valued at $7.5 billion with Microsoft making sweet publishing money off of popular titles like Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, and DOOM. Gamers were all up in, “oh snap!” Moods yesterday.

TIME TIK TOKS AS BAN POSTPONED

I have so many opinions on Tik Tok, one of which is government intervention in the ownership and operation of a commercial concern. I just didn’t think we did things like that in America, unless it concerns monopolies. In a non-sensical move, Oracle and Wal-Mart were somehow engineered into acquiring 20% of TikTok. The remaining 80% of the company is still held by ByteDance. Oracle and Wal-Mart’s machinations prompted President Trump to delay TikTok’s proposed ban until September 27th. This whole thing reeks of market manipulation, with ByteDance claiming that they WILL STILL retain control of 80% of the equity of a newly formed TikTok after it files an IPO. Which undermines the whole point of selling TikTok, and which would be a boon for ByteDance. WTF!

FACEBOOK SHUTS DOWN FAKE CHINESE ACCOUNTS BECAUSE OF ELECTION TAMPERING

Facebook has shut down 150 Chinese accounts that were primarily used to trumpet Chinese interests, but were also used to tamper with the US’ upcoming Presidential election. The fake network had 130,000 followers and have been in use since 2016. Most of the accounts originated outside the US promoted China’s interests in the South China Sea, and misinformation profiles on Democratic Presidential candidates including Joe Biden. AI techniques were used to identify the accounts with some accounts using AI themselves to create fake profile pictures based upon real accounts. This is all a part of Facebook’s strategy to limit misinformation and refusing to approve news relating to either candidate winning the election before election day.

Sweeps Weeks start and it’s school week three…I’m out of Uncle Nearest. We’ve resorted to putting up portable partitions behind the kids for their Zoom conferences, and have moved them into the kitchen. I still don’t know how the 9 year old’s school day ends at 1, but here we are. It’s another Thursday, and here’s another week of tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. This week, Apple held their fall hardware and software event, an AI will captain a boat recreating the Mayflower’s voyage, and the PS5 is phat! 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 CONDUCTS VIRTUAL FALL EVENT: THE FAITHFUL YAWNS

Apple held their Fall event earlier this week, and most of the world caught up the following day. Apple has gone gangbusters this year, and was the world’s most valuable company over the summer. The pandemic driving most tech announcements to virtual has tempered the timbre, and Apple is no exception. Apple announced Apple Watch 6 with a new O2 sensor that can be used to help track breathing rate in addition to heart rate, and an always on altimeter. The big boosts for Apple Watch 6 are increased battery life and a brighter display that is 2.5 times brighter than the W5. Apple also announced a new iPad Air which will have an edge-to-edge display that’s only available on the Pro, the regular iPad gets a performance increase of 40%. The biggest announcement in services with the announcement of Apple One. Apple One bundles iCloud, Apple Music, Arcade, News, and Fitness in various subscription services for $15, $20 for families, and a premier plan at $30 that bundles everything. Other digital services are already crying foul, and saying that Apple will hurt competition. I don’t think they’re wrong. New versions of iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS are available for download now.

The honest answer is that hardware is due for a new upgrade and paradigm shift. Our phones and computers have reached a level of maturity and saturation where upgrades are evolutionary. Consumers like to get their consumer electronics fix, they just aren’t as excited anymore.

THE PS5 IS THE BIGGEST GAME CONSOLE EVER MADE

The technology industry is always focused on making things more efficient and powerful. With increased power usually comes making things smaller and thinner. Except in the case of game consoles. The PS5 won’t be out until November, but SONY is already bragging about how bulky the PlayStation 5 would be. The system has been dubbed the biggest game console on market. Outsizing all of the Xboxes and even the PS4 which was dubbed the Phat. The PlayStation 5’s stats are pretty amazing and would make a great high performance computer.

AI WILL MAKE HISTORIC MAYFLOWER VOYAGE IN SIGN OF WHAT MAY COME

A crew-less robotic ship will recreate the historic voyage from Plymouth Harbor to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The Mayflower Autonomous Ship will traverse the sea piloted by an IBM trained AI. The ship will perform six months of sea trials before making the trip. The original Mayflower was 100ft in length and cruised at 3 knots taking two months to make the Atlantic voyage. The MAS is made of aluminum composite materials and cruises at a top speed of 10 knots and should make the trip in 2 weeks. Instead of wind, the MAS is propelled using solar-powered batteries and is manufactured by a non-profit corporation, ProMare. The MAS will take samples of aquatic life and plastics during its voyage. Instead of a 30 man crew, the MAS is packed with lidar, radar, cameras, GPS, and a million nautical images of training data.