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Often Imitated, Never Duplicated: The 2021 Annual Holiday Gift Guide

December 1, 2021 by William Mapp Leave a Comment

I’ve been busy. Trying to get a comic out and a book. I’ve started this year’s annual gift guide and a few cool items are up. It’s Thursday, and I’m back in the chair with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s top tech stories: un-real estate sells for millions, and the 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 by tuning into WWNC on the iHeartRadio app.

VIRTUAL REAL ESTATE SELLS FOR MILLIONS

That’s right. A patch, I don’t even know if you can call it a patch if it’s not attached to terra firma has sold for a record $2.4 million in crypto currency. The plot (can it be called a plot) of virtual land was purchased by Tokens.com in the Decentraland meta verse. People can visit property, chat, and walk around the decentralized world. Players can build houses, apartments, or plant trees on their virtual real estate to their heart’s content. You’ll have to purchase property in MANA cryptocurrency in order to play. So what do you do with virtual real estate? Anything you want. Remember though, virtual real estate DOES NOT fall under property law, it falls under intellectual property law. Virtual real estate is not a new idea, Second Life and other online meta verses have existed. VRE picked up lots of interest after Facebook changed its name to Meta however.

PRIVACY ADVOCATES CONCERNED ABOUT NEW QUALCOMM CAMERA

Yesterday, Qualcomm announced a new, always-on camera for Android phones. Qualcomm is pitching the new camera’s main feature to be used for automatic, facial unlock without picking up the phone to your face. Qualcomm says the feature can be used to automatically unlock a device while you’re laying down or not holding a phone. In reality, this tech could exploit user privacy since it is always recording images. Even when the phone is not in use. These images could be your face, your bathroom, or anything else that’s not explicitly your face. The tech isn’t particularly good or bad, but there is a possibility for it being exploited.

2021 ANNUAL HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

We’re premiering this year’s Gift Guide on First News 570.

This year we are featuring two intangible gifts.

NFT art and virtual real estate are featured on this year’s gift guide. NFTs are the new craze celebrities and others have hopped on to buy limited edition or one of a kind digital items. NFT art can be pictures or music that is digitally certified to be one of a kind. Virtual real estate is exactly what it sounds like. VRE could be digital plots of land in a ‘meta verse’ or online community or simulation. The idea isn’t new, but when combined with blockchain and NFTs the hip crowd hops on it.

Auto-lacing sneakers like the Nike Adapt Auto Max made this year’s list. Think Back to the Future 2 paired with an app. These shoes will lace themselves via a BlueTooth connection with your phone and provide you with a custom fit.

Other gifts on the gift guide include a smart canvas to showcase your NFT art, a cocktail bar that never mixes a bad drink, and many other awesome items.

You can check out the whole list and find more gifts on my Pinterest page here.

MIT Builds COVID Detection AI, Apps Spend Big and Win Big in Cali, and Chinese Regulators Squash an Ant

November 4, 2020 by William Mapp Leave a Comment

It’s a couple of days after Election Day, and the US electorate is still hanging in the balance. A plethora of memes have been floating around the Internet as the country awaits the outcome. Including one comparing the American public waiting for a definitive result to someone waiting for the results of an STD test.

Regardless of what happens, it’s Thursday. You’d have already gotten your fill of election coverage, so I’ve avoided covering the technological news relating to the election. Here’s another week of tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew.

This week, MIT builds COVID cough listening AI, apps win big in California’s local election, and Chinese banking regulators squash an Ant. 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.

ALGORITHM SPOTS COVID COUGH AS NUMBERS RISE

An algorithm published by MIT uses AI to listen to a person coughing and determine if they are infected by COVID-19. One of the researchers who devised the innovation, Brian Subirana said that the way people produce sound through their mouth changes when you have Covid, even if they’re asymptomatic. The MIT team used over 70,000 audio sounds with 2,500 of those sounds coming from people who were infected by the virus. This type of technology could be used for pre-screening people at work or at school.

APPS BEAT LABOR UNIONS IN CALIFORNIA ON PROP 22

Also on California’s ballot was Proposition 22. Prop 22 is a law that permanently classifies gig economy workers, like Uber and Lyft drivers, as independent contractors and NOT employees. This means tech companies aren’t required to pay regulated income taxes and fees like workers compensation. The law does require tech companies to provide some benefits like minimum hourly earnings, however. Up until this week’s election, the outcome for Prop 22 was uncertain, but Uber and Lyft spent a combined $200 million in advertising and updated their apps to prompt their customers to support the law. Labor unions were only able to raise a tenth of Uber and Lyft’s spend and it shows. Prop 22 is now law.

CHINA STOPS ALIBABA’S ANT GROUP FROM MARCHING UP HILL

Yesterday, Chinese financial regulators stopped the double listing of the Alibaba Group’s financial technology Services company, Ant Group, from IPO-ing on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The IPO would have been valued at a WHOPPING $37.1 billion, with a ‘B’, making it the world’s largest ever IPO. The company specialized in delivering payments and was heavily used in Chinese markets. Regulators pulled the company in, because traditional banks were leveraging Ant Group’s apps to underwrite traditional loans. They also wanted to have a chat with CEO Jack Ma for calling out Chinese banking regulators as being behind in the times and trying to squeeze Ant Group in as a tech company and not a bank. We’ll see.

EL Goog Gives Up on GP Music, Zuckerberg and Friends Testify AGAIN, CoinBase Offers Plastic

October 28, 2020 by William Mapp Leave a Comment

No Real Reason I’m Using This as the Cover Image Other Than I Really Want to Get One of These

It’s another Thursday, which means there are four complete days until the 2020 Presidential Election. A lot of talk is made about this being the most important election of our generation, but this time there appears to a lot of anxiety in both camps. Foreign elements have been working around the clock to tamper with the electorate and sow social discord by spreading fake news and fake information. If a few powerful nations are that concerned with the outcome of our presidential election and are investing all of this time and effort to affect the outcome; shouldn’t that make us appreciate our position more and possibly band together even while voting for different people.

I’m a pollyanna.

Anyway, here’s another week of tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. This week, the big social media CEOs testify before Congress again, CoinBase gets in the crypto payments game, and Google Play Music gives up the ghost. 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.

SOCIAL MEDIA HONCHOS TESTIFY BEFORE CONGRESS, AGAIN

You’d think Zuckerberg and the CEOs of Twitter and Google love going before Congress and ducking questions. Yesterday, the CEOs appeared before Congress to discuss a portion of the telecommunications law, Section 230. Section 230 allows social media companies to operate unimpinged when their users post anything on their platforms. Democrats and Republicans are both upset with the networks. Democrats are upset because they feel social networks allow users to post outright lies. Republicans are upset with them because they think the networks censor conservative speech. Facebook, Google, and Twitter should tread carefully however, as the proverb goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

CRYPTOBANK COINBASE OFFERS US ACCOUNT HOLDERS VISA DEBIT OPTION

We’re approaching a time where the line between virtual money and real money is blurring. After being available in Europe, CoinBase is giving US customers the ability to pay for products using cryptocurrency. The CoinBase VISA debit card can be linked with one or more cryptocurrencies in an account. Like PayPal’s upcoming service, CoinBase will conduct the transaction using dollars with the merchant, and clear the converted amount of crypto. I’m still buying BitCoin.

EL GOOG END GOOGLE PLAY MUSIC AFTER 10 YEARS

The music industry is still one of the hard to crack industries. EVERYONE loves music, yet no one likes to buy it. It’s hard to license, artists don’t make much money, and the labels make it rain. This week, Google is decommissioning Google Play Music and is asking users to turn their sights to YouTube Music, during the same week GitHub removes the YouTube ripping app, youtube-dl, from its servers. When it comes to music, it seems the only non-label companies making money are Apple and Amazon which are still selling individual albums and singles via MP3s. Subscription services like Spotify have yet to turn a profit, and other service, GP Music bytes the dust.

Volunteers Launch Counter-Hacking Campaign, US Students Struggle with Slow Internet, Oracle and Google Continue Their Battle

October 7, 2020 by William Mapp Leave a Comment

It’s another Thursday, and here’s another week of tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. This week, Oracle and Google continue their fight over APIs, the Election Cyber Surge fights hackers, and US students suffer at the hands of broadband. 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.

VOLUNTEERS HACK AGAINST HACKERS THREATEN US ELECTION

Everyone is pulling out all the stops for 2020 Presidential Election. Volunteer counter-hacking group, Election Cyber Surge, has signed on 200 volunteers to check voting machine security, protect against leaked voter registration lists, and combat misinformation campaigns. The organization is led by the University of Chicago’s Cyber Policy Institute. The leaders of the Election Cyber Surge are aware there are multiple threats to the election, but are working behind the scenes to de-escalate situations and notify the powers that be.

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India Bans Chinese Made Apps, El Goog and FB Ban Australian News, and the FBI Bans Hackers

September 2, 2020 by William Mapp Leave a Comment

The kids started school this week, and I’m already feeling oppressed. The local network is clogged, kids are kicking us out of rooms for their class room Zooms, and there’s just way too much noise. But, alas, it’s Thursday! Here’s another week of tech talk with Mark Starling and the First News 570 crew. This week, India bans a bunch of Chinese apps, Facebook and El Goog will be banning Australian media, and the FBI is trying to ban hackers before they strike! Lot’s of banning this week. 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.

INDIA BANS POPULAR CHINESE APPS

While the US has banned the TikTok from government phones, India has banned over 118 apps from being sold in its country. These titles include PlayerUnknown’s Battleground, WeChat work, and Marvel Super War (I know, right). The Indian government is citing that the apps are serving in the disinterest of India. The Indian government is claiming the apps are stealing consumer information and surreptitiously sending data back to Chinese servers. The ban is happening against the backdrop of Chinese and Indian troops clashing in disputed territories including a dispute on the Himalayan border.

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