I’m tired. I’m an Olympics junkie, and I’ve been staying up late every night yelling and cheering on Team USA. I haven’t gotten sleep for two straight weeks. I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s big news is little: SONY sells 10 million PlayStation 5s, I do a 3 meter dive into Olympics tech, and El Goog starts paying out Google+ damages. 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.

SONY SELLS 10 MILLION PS5 CONSOLES, BUT TO WHOM

Last week, SONY announced they have sold more than 10 million PlayStation 5 consoles. That’s 2 million more sold since April. According to sales, the PS5 has reached more households than the PlayStation 5. But, but, but…who owns one?! I know of no gamers who own a PS5. Where are all of the unboxing videos of PS5s? SONY was reporting that supply shortages may limit PS5 sales, but now the company has reported they’ll be able to sell over 22 million PlayStations. By comparison, the XBOX S and X consoles have sold 6.5 million units leading up to July.

TOKYO 2020 MAY NOT HAVE MANY SPECTATORS, BUT LOTS OF TECH

Every four years, you can count on a huge boost in technology. Why? Because of the Olympics. From time measurement to sensor technologies we’re guaranteed to see new innovations used when getting it right counts most. Delayed a year, Tokyo 2020 has plenty of new tech to geek out about. This year’s tech included new sensor technologies used to measure heart rate, breathing rate, and other biometric analytics during the archery events. Archers may seem to stand completely still, but they’re slightly moving. These sensors give viewers an indication of how much concentration and control is involved in the event. Viewers watching the Olympic Broadcasting Service will see new 3D and AI powered overlays indicating when sprinters reach their top speed. There will be robots deployed in this year’s Olympics to pick up javelins, hammers, and shot puts for the throwing events. These robots mean there are fewer people needed to maintain the events this year. Ralph Lauren is the official outfitter for Team USA this year, and to combat the excruciating heat in Tokyo Team USA will be wearing air conditioned clothing. Ralph Lauren says their clothing will incorporate tech that similar to computer server cooling systems giving athletes a cool sensation when temperatures run high.

EL GOOG BEGINS PAYING OUT AFTER PRIVACY LEAK

Google+, yeah that right, Google+ was leaking private profile data like a sieve between 2015 and 2018. Google admitted that they new about the data leaks and did nothing about it. In the lawsuit, they agreed to pay $7.5 million. Only 1.7 million signed on for the lawsuit before the October 2020, and after administrative and legal fees were paid, the payout amounted to a grand total of $2.15 per member of the class. G+ was phased out in 2014 in a bid to break up the service into separate products, but it stuck around and leaked profile information until 2018. The service was eventually halted in April 2019.

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.