technology – Page 20

Bezos Steps Down from Amazon, Comcastic Data Caps Delayed, and Gearbox Snapped Up

February 3, 2021 by William Mapp Leave a Comment

This segment, brought to you by Uncle Nearest. I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve had a challenging work week. It’s the unofficial start of the weekend and I’m glad to be back on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week, Bezos steps down and has a Jassy replacement, the Pennsylvania AG delays data caps, and Gearbox has been acquired. 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 STEPS DOWN, JASSY RISES

This week’s big news is that Jeff Bezos will be stepping down as Amazon’s CEO. Andy Jassy, the President and co-founder for Amazon Web Services, AWS, will move in to become the new CEO. AWS powers a third of the Internet’s cloud infrastructure and is responsible for half of Amazon’s income, so the move is a no-brainer and Amazon investors thought the same. AWS is the virtual computing service Amazon sells to other companies. My company uses it, and I personally use AWS. Bezos said he’ll still be around but he wants to spend more time running his non-profit and nurturing the Washington Post. He won’t be hurtin’.

PENNSYLVANIA AG DELAYS COMCASTIC DATA CAPS

When Net Neutrality fell we all knew it was coming. Comcast had announced data caps for residential customers and will be charging $10 overage fees for every 50GB consumed over 1.2TB (terabytes). Which, I may say, my household burns up easily. Comcast’s announcement drew the ire of the Pennsylvania attorney general who raised objections that Comcast was implementing data caps in the middle of a pandemic. So instead of having customers pay more in March, the data caps will be delayed until July. Comcast will also waive early cancellation fees if you want to switch, but many people live in regions with one ISP. Of course, Comcast will be more than happy to sell you an unlimited plan. If you live in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, as well as parts of North Carolina and Ohio be prepared to watch your bill. I switched to Verizon FIOS.

LAST INDY GAME MAKER SNAPPED UP

The Swedes have picked up Gearbox. If you’re a Borderlands fan the Swedish company, Embracer has purchased Gearbox for $363 million in cash and stock, which could balloon to $1.2 billion if Gearbox meets revenue projections. The company’s employees in Texas and Quebec will become shareholders in Embracer. Embracer claims that Gearbox will operate independently. Gearbox represents the last of the major independent studios. Microsoft bought the storied Bethesda Softworks in a Zenimax acquisition last year and Codemasters was recently bought by EA. Gearbox is famously known as the license holder for Duke Nukem. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll now get a real treatment for Duke Nukem Forever.

Injury Ends Pro-Gamer’s Career, Google Investigates Another AI Ethicist, and Amazon Wants in on COVID-19 Vax Distribution

January 20, 2021 by William Mapp Leave a Comment

It’s a new week with a new President and I’m glad to be back on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week, a Call of Duty gamer has to retire early, Google investigates another AI ethicist, and Bezos and Co want to deliver your COVID-19 vaccine with a smile. 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.

INJURY DERAILS PRO GAMER’S CAREER

Yesterday, professional video gamer, Thomas ‘ZooMaa’ Papparatto announced his retirement from the New York Subliners because of a thumb injury. The 25 year old Call of Duty gaming professional says that, “it breaks my heart to step away from a game I put my heart and soul into, every day for eight years.” ZooMaa had struggled through his thumb injury, and tried to play hurt, but needed surgery for his injury. ZooMaa is weighing his options and admitted he can’t simply walk away from the game.

EL GOOG LOCKS OUT ANOTHER AI ETHICIST

Yesterday, Axios reported that Google is investigating one of the co-leads of its Ethical AI team, Margaret Mitchell. This follows the firing of another one of its AI ethicists, Timnit Gebru. Google locked Margaret Mitchell’s corporate account because they detected that several files containing company IP were exfiltrated from Google through her credentials. Margaret Mitchell had tweeted about doing her own investigation of Timnit Gebru’s firing. Google has had a rocky time with its employees since working on Project Maven, an AI project designed to assist military drone strikes. Employees had threatened to unionize in protest of Project Maven. Firing AI ethicists don’t give confidence.

AMAZON WANTS TO LEND A HAND WITH VACCINE DISTRIBUTION

It’s no secret that COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the United States hasn’t gone well. Since a large number of Amazon’s 800,000 employees are considered essential workers, the company with the smile on the box has offered to help the Biden administration’s efforts in distributing the vaccine. They have gone as far to say that Amazon will aid the government with operational support, infrastructure, and IT support in order to meet Biden’s goal of 100 million vaccines in 100 days. I say they should take Bezos up on his offer.

Christmas Hack Done by Russians, SONY Releases Mandalorian Movie Tech, and TicketMaster Pays Uncharge to Avoid Fed Charge

January 7, 2021 by William Mapp Leave a Comment

Happy New Year!!! 2021 has gotten off to a wild start! I’m glad to be back on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week, US intelligence agencies say the Russians hacked US agencies and companies, SONY announces new movie grade displays for digital sets, and TicketMaster pays a fine for hacking. 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.

US INTELLIGENCE SAYS CHRISTMAS HACK PERPETUATED BY RUSSIANS

In late December, computer networks hosted at US government agencies and many high profile corporations were exploited and hacked into by the Russians according to US intelligence agencies. The hack targeted a specific firmware release for a SolarWinds product called Orion. Orion is a network monitoring tool used by organizations to ironically determine if their networks are compromised and enforce security compliance. SolarWinds has advised its customers to stop using the product until patches can be validated. Microsoft has said hackers have accessed their source code as part of the hack.

EXPECT MORE MANDALORIAN LIKE VISUALS THANKS TO SONY

SONY has announced plans to sell its super bright modular displays to create digital movie sets. The displays are similar to the modular display technology built by Industrial Light and Magic and EPIC Games for The Mandalorian series. The displays are bright enough to simulate bright sunlight for many scenes and make the Mandalorian’s baskar armor shine true. The displays are designed for movie production so it’ll be a while before you install one in your living room.

TICKETMASTER ADMITS TO HACKING COMPETITOR BEFORE CLOSING ACT

It’s not enough to have a near monopoly, but you must have it all and charge consumers a 100% uncharge. TicketMaster has been ordered to pay a $10 million dollar criminal fine to defer federal prosecution for using stolen usernames and passwords to hack into competing Bay Area ticket seller, Song Kick, before they went out of business. In 2017, Song Kick filed a lawsuit alleging TicketMaster hacked their databases and months later Song Kick went out of business.

5 Last Minute Gadget Gifts You Can Get Before Christmas

December 16, 2020 by William Mapp Leave a Comment

It’s one week out from Christmas Eve! THIS is the last week I’ll be on with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. I was tasked with one mission this week, find five gadget gifts you can recommend to First News 570 listeners that can be bought before Christmas. I used these parameters: less than $100, must be received before Christmas, and must have some practicality. You can buy all of these gifts from Amazon and the person who receives them won’t think you’ve copped out on them. All of these items and more are on the 2020 Annual Gift Guide. 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.

LAST MINUTE – Now, more than ever, have we paid more attention to cleanliness. With everyone wearing masks and using hand sanitizer we forget about those moments when we are touching things or holding phones up to our ear. Keep your phone clean with the PhoneSoap 3. A UV sanitizer for your smartphone. This little device has proven effective and is backed by the Discovery Channel.

Honestly, the bots will have more important things to think about other than the conquering of humans. We’re irrational enough to take our ownselves out. But we love robots, and this year the 98k is on the list. This bot is best with boys and girls 3 years and up and can be easily had in time for Christmas. ‘Tis true. I got a robot for Christmas one year, and I’ve been enamored ever since.

If you’re reading this in the US, you probably haven’t flown anywhere in a while. If you’re one of the few who have flown, hopefully you flew private. If you can’t make it in the wild blue yonder, how about a spin around the house. This mini-drone by SNAPTAIN is a great beginner device with its own handheld controller. It’s easy to learn how to fly and inexpensive so you can fly it into a wall and not be too upset.

What if…you could give a gift that was both practical and stylish. I think you could win with the TOZO W1 wireless charger. At $20 you’d be doing yourself a disservice for not getting this stocking stuffer for your gal or guy. The TOZO comes in all sorts of colors, and it’s shiny. Make sure you grab an AC adapter you’ll need it to supply, uh, the actual power.

A good set of earcans always makes a great gift. The Cowin E7 active noise canceling headphones will perfectly drown out the sound your kids make when they discover Santa didn’t buy batteries. Amazon’s Best Selling headphone are ideal for your loved one on the go because they are wireless and are inexpensive to boot. For just $60 you’re in primo sound territory.

The 2020 Annual Gift Guide, and Hackers Try to Freeze Out Coronavirus Deliveries

December 9, 2020 by William Mapp Leave a Comment

I’ve had an interesting 7 days. If you weren’t around last week, I was getting my McRib on and was satiated in its good ole sweet, tangy, and meaty juiciness. This is the last week I’ll be on with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. This week, we’re only going to talk about the hackers who are trying to hack da Rona vaccine, and share some insight into the perfect gifts you can get your loved ones. 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.

HACKERS ARE TRYING TO DISRUPT COVID-19 SUPPLY CHAIN

After many months spent indoors, the world is anticipating relief. Pfizer, BioNTech, and the world’s leading biotechnology companies have reached a point in proving a reliable vaccine. While pharmaceutical researchers and scientists have been busy working on a cure, hackers have been busy trying to disrupt the cure from reaching those who need it. Global phishing campaigns have been in effect since September in a bid to try and fool vaccine supplier officials into installing ransomware, spyware, and other malicious code on their computers. IBM security researchers have stated the attacks are aimed at executives and officials at the companies responsible for delivering the vaccine on the cold chain. Pfizer’s vaccine needs to rest at a chill -70 degrees Celsius and hackers have been targeted companies that deliver cold vaccines. This plainly sucks. There will always be people who want to tear things down and can’t make anything of their own. I know this first hand.

IT’S HERE! THE ANNUAL GIFT GUIDE

The annual tradition is back. The 2020 Annual Gift Guide (Pandemic Edition) is up on Pinterest. There is something for everyone on this year’s gift guide but here are some highlights:

This is the first time a waffle iron has been added to the gift guide. William Sonoma’s TRNR waffle maker is not only a heavy duty head turner, but it’s also a snazzy waffle iron. You won’t go hungry as long as you have eggs, milk, baking soda, flour, vanilla, and patience.

The Apple Watch has made a consistent appearance on the gift guide, but we have to put the 6 on here. This watch is the best of its breed. It always stays on, has better battery life, better talk capability, and color. You won’t go wrong with it.

My name is Shaaday, not Sadie! Get it right! Who knows when Sade will next perform live, but you can bet the tickets will sell out within minutes. This boxset is a perfect gift for those who enjoy smooth grooves.

Sometimes I have to wonder what we’re really doing around here. This year’s gift guide features a fire pit, and a personal fireplace. Baby, I know it’s cold outside, but do you have to place your fireplace on my side of the bed?

The Gift Guide’s curators love coffee, but I swear they love coffee makers even more. The Instant Pod is one of this year’s entrants. You can spoil yourself by making the perfect instant espresso. Cheers.

Is it an adult Etch-a-Sketch, or is it an eco-friendly notebook? I’m a lover of paper, but I can also do my part to help the planet. The wipe-away stylings of the Rocketbook made this year’s gift guide. This notebook + app combo provides a reusable pen and ‘paper’ that allows you to sync your notes to the cloud. There is power in writing, and digitizing.

To answer your question, “YES!” The Apple MacBook Air has made this year’s gift guide. Apple’s latest MacBook Air costs $1,000 and may be the most powerful notebook computer in its class in the world. It’s all thanks to Apple’s M1 chip which packs a lot of power and 16 billion transistors on die. I’m tempted to get one for myself. And to answer your second question, “no.” The MacBook Pro won’t be making this year’s list. 16GB of RAM is respectable, and based upon all numbers, any more is unnecessary at this time, but the Pro machine should support higher memory counts.

No one other than First News 570’s morning jock, Mark Starling has recommended the Apple Home Pods for this year’s gift guide. Fashionably late to the party, the Fruit Company’s HomePod may snatch Alexa’s wig and force El Goog to search for its cables. Apple may not be first, but they always executes and with tight integration between machine, phone, watch, and TV it’ll be an interesting fight for the home.

You can find more gift ideas at the 2020 Annual Gift Guide’s Pinterest page. The curators are still adding gadgets and gear you can gift to your girl or guy. Stay tuned and make sure you follow the page.

LET's GET STARTED AND

MAKE TECHNOLOGY WORK FOR YOU