Facebook has announced new tactics to reduce the spread of fake news. Its efforts will include combining technology with human reviewers to identify and remove fake accounts; partnering with fact-checkers; and promoting news literacy. Facebook will expand its fact-checking programs to new countries, scrutinize photos and videos more closely, and increase the impact of fact-checking through new techniques that could include identifying duplicates and using Claim Review. It will monitor repeat offenders more closely and take actions as necessary.
Amazon's latest gambit for taking over your living room is the Fire TV Cube. It works in much the same way as the Fire TV stick, but with the added impact this time around of stuffing in a smart speaker with the familiar tones of the Alexa voice assistant. You can use it to play whatever you want to see in up to 4K resolution from various streaming services. All the usual suspects are here, like Netflix and HBO Go, but sadly, there's no native YouTube app, thanks to a tiff between Amazon and Google.
Some logistics and mobility industry heavyweights have formed a group committed to improving the lives and opportunities of working Americans through adoption of autonomous vehicles. Its roster includes the American Trucking Associations, Daimler, FedEx, Ford, Lyft, Toyota Motor North America, Uber and Waymo. "Our autonomous vehicle future will bring many significant benefits for society, but we also must remember that it may change the way many of us work," said PTIO Executive Director Maureen Westphal.
The next version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 12, automatically will share location data for iPhones used to make emergency calls. The system will use an IP-based data pipeline developed by RapidSOS to share location data from iPhones with 911 centers. "Communities rely on 911 centers in an emergency, and we believe they should have the best available technology at their disposal," said Apple CEO Tim Cook. "When every moment counts, these tools will help first responders reach our customers when they most need assistance."
The next version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 12, will include a new feature that allows you to customize the way Siri works with applications on phones and tablets. The announcement was one of the highlights at the kickoff of Apple's WWDC on Monday. Called "Siri Shortcuts," the feature lets a user define a phrase that will trigger a set of actions by the apps on a device. For example, you could say, "Game Time" to get a team schedule from TeamSnap, or "Groceries" to fulfill a standing grocery order from a grocery app.
To say we live in troubled times would be an understatement. It often feels like the politicians and executives who surround us are interested only in who can tell the biggest whopper while lining their own pockets and leaving their constituents and customers to pay the bills. I recently read that the real reason Jon Stewart stepped down from The Daily Show was that he was incredibly angry all the time, which had an adverse impact not only on his ability to be funny but also on his ability to enjoy life. Much of that is because those of us in media tend to focus excessively on the bad.
The most popular show on ABC was canceled last week because the star of the show, Roseanne Barr -- known for saying and writing stuff that would get most of us fired -- did exactly what she was known for doing and got fired. ABC now looks like it is run by idiots because, really, who didn't see this coming? The network now has to explain to its licensees why they no longer will be able to get the ad revenue that otherwise would have been coming to them. This outcome is one that could have been prevented relatively easily.
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Apple plans to equip iOS 12 with USB Restricted Mode, a feature that requires users to unlock their iPhone with their passcode before USB accessories can connect if the phone last was unlocked more than an hour earlier. The company included this feature in the developer versions of iOS 11.4.1 and iOS 12. Apple will release USB Restricted Mode publicly in a future software update, it confirmed this week. USB Restricted Mode should work on iPads the same way as on iPhones because it's a software feature.
E3 had the usual hits and misses this year, and more drama than most of the games on the screens. With a strong lineup of first-party titles plus better third-party support, Nintendo is the comeback king. However, the battle for hardcore gamer dollars continues to be fought between Microsoft and Sony. With no new hardware news from the companies, this was another year about the games, but for every hit there were apparently a few misses -- and no doubt many of the games shown this year won't be released by the time next year's show kicks off.
Because both Qualcomm and Huawei are technology leaders in the wireless segment and have invested heavily in 5G, they often are pitted against one another in political, financial and even industry discussions. However, the truth is that the two companies complement one another and work together more than they compete against each another. Coming from different ends of the wireless ecosystem, they have been working on 5G from different perspectives -- Qualcomm primarily from the mobile device side, and Huawei from the infrastructure side.
Sony gave PlayStation fans a hefty sampling of what's coming to its gaming consoles this year at E3. It gave them a long look at a relatively few offerings. "Sony's E3 event was a break with tradition, an experiment to test the way it could present its first-party output to the media," said Piers Harding-Rolls, head of games at IHS Technology. "It aimed to underline the depth of Sony's IP, its highly skilled development teams, and its ability to craft engaging and immersive stories and characters."
I got a view of the future when I visited HP's Innovation Center in Barcelona, Spain, last week. The company has made some aggressive moves to blend its printing and imaging technologies to create products that will redefine our near-term future. HP also showcased capabilities that are something just short of magic. I mean, when you can transform what you can imagine into physical products, what else would you call it? One of Arthur C. Clarke's famous laws is that technology that is advanced enough will appear to be magic.
Dell's most forward-looking people spoke about the future at Dell World a few weeks ago. One of the sessions I attended dovetailed with something that appears to be glaringly obvious -- to me, anyway -- which is that is that robots likely will be the next big technology wave. I then wandered around to find out what Dell was doing in robotics, and I couldn't find anything. Dell is not alone, as I'm not aware of any of the current leading technology firms doing anything in robotics with one exception: Nvidia.
"By using gender-neutral terms, we might change people's minds about what jobs they're qualified for and have a chance of getting. Getting rid of gender-biased terms helps level the playing field," said Heather Reed, VP of business development for G2 Crowd. "There are different phrases that we use and don't even think about it," she said, "like 'right-hand man,' or 'manning up,' or 'chatty Kathy.' We need to be cognizant of the subtle implications those terms have."
Cisco has reduced the poaching of endangered rhinos in Africa by a whopping 96 percent. This success comes at a time when kids appear to be increasingly at risk from rogue school shooters and The United States government seems deadlocked on gun control. Guns kill rhinos as well, but the focus of Cisco's tech is on catching the poachers who kill around 1,000 endangered rhinos a year, rather than on taking away their weapons of choice. Where implemented, the solution has all but eliminated the problem.
