As summer winds die down here's hoping one of the season's most ridiculous and unnecessary fads goes with them. Bird and Lime e-scooters are just the latest twist on the foot-powered Razor Scooters that took America by storm in 2000. Unlike Razor, which introduced electric-power models back in 2003, Bird and Lime utilize a subscription model instead of ownership. Bird, Lime and another competitor, Spin, have similar business strategies -- namely to provide simple, cheap transportation for the
"last mile."
Microsoft has torpedoed a pair of websites designed to steal credentials from visitors to two Republican Party think tanks. The malicious websites were among six the company took down last week. A group of hackers affiliated with the Russian military created the sites, according to Microsoft. The group apparently was the same group that stole a cache of email from the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 presidential campaign. A U.S. court order allowed Microsoft to disrupt and take control of the domain names for the websites.
Samsung has unveiled its much-anticipated Galaxy Note9. The company made several other announcements as well, as it presented its vision for a seamlessly connected world. "We are creating a galaxy of experiences that span not just devices and locations but platforms and brands," said DJ Koh, CEO of Samsung Electronics, at the event. These experiences are "built on a foundation of intelligence that learns, adopts and anticipates -- not to control your choices but to enhance human capabilities and expand human possibilities."
An empty chair reserved for Google became the focal point for harsh criticism Wednesday at the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee's hearing on Russian meddling in the 2016 elections. After thanking Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for agreeing to testify at the forum, Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., added, "I'm disappointed Google decided against sending the right senior level executive to participate in what I truly expect to be a productive discussion."
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"Mobile advertising and location-based marketing are getting more and more data-driven, both in targeting and analyzing results," said UberMedia CEO Gladys Kong. "Advertisers are trying to understand more about the consumer's journey. They want any insights they can get their hands on in order to understand the consumer. Location measurement is becoming a much more important part of advertising, so a lot of our focus at UberMedia is to make data actionable, in order to help businesses measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns."
Oracle has open-sourced GraphPipe to enhance machine learning applications. The project's goal is to improve deployment results for machine learning models, noted Project Leader Vish Abrams. That process includes creating an open standard. The company has a questionable relationship with open source developers, so its decision to open-source GraphPipe might not receive a flood of interest. Oracle hopes developers will rally behind the project to simplify and standardize the deployment of machine learning models.
Bias is a nasty beast. A market research class I took in graduate school focused on the identification and elimination of bias. My final paper was on an intentionally biased piece of research. It was far easier to introduce bias and then talk about the bias than it would have been to attempt to do unbiased work and defend it as unbiased. For that reason alone, the Trump administration's recent complaints that Google's search engine is biased are almost certainly true. The nature of the bias, however, has not been determined.
Leaders from Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic last week issued a dire warning that nations around the world haven't been doing enough to ban the development of autonomous weapons -- so-called "killer robots." The groups issued a joint report that calls for a complete ban on these systems before such weapons begin to make their way to military arsenals and it becomes too late to act. Other groups, including Amnesty International, joined in those urgent calls for a treaty to ban such weapons systems.
Google has announced several new online tools designed to help former members of the military find jobs or attract new customers to their businesses. One tool allows vets to type in the search term "jobs for veterans" followed by specific military job codes to see civilian jobs with skill requirements that match their service experience. The military job code feature also has been deployed to Google's Cloud Talent solution, which is used by FedEx Careers, Encompass Health Careers, Siemens Careers, CareerBuilder, Getting Hired and others.
Apple will release three new iPhones in September, according to a Monday report citing unnamed knowledgeable sources about the company's plans. Although all the phones will have edge-to-edge displays, like the iPhone X, only two reportedly will have OLED screens. Some Apple insiders have been referring to 2018 as an "S" year -- a reference to a year when most of the significant changes affect the inside rather than the outside of the iPhone. Instead of seeking to add users, Apple apparently plans to slowly increase average prices.
The call came in less than an hour before the 8 a.m. shift was scheduled to start: A family emergency meant the regular caregiver for an elderly client couldn't make her shift that day, so a replacement caregiver was needed ASAP. Homewatch CareGivers of San Juan Capistrano had to quickly send a substitute from its pool of licensed, trained and security-bonded caregivers. Once confirmed to cover the shift, the substitute caregiver tapped into the Homewatch CareGivers "Care+" mobile system to access the client's medical information.
If Tesla should go under, it would set back the electric car industry a decade or more. At the beginning of the last century, electric, steam and gas all competed for the automotive industry, resulting in far more advancements in gas cars than electric over the decades. Thankfully, no one has brought back steam. There are some recent breakthroughs with gas cars that actually could make them more efficient than many electrics, and they are already far more convenient to use. I have skin in this game because I have a Jaguar iPace on order.
There's a rumor in circulation that Amazon has been working on a DVR that would allow users to record live TV, and then stream that content to a smartphone and other mobile devices. Amazon aims to mount a direct challenge to DVR pioneer TiVo -- a company that was at the forefront of digital video recording 20 years ago -- according to reports. The Amazon DVR, codenamed "Frank,"
will work with Fire TV devices. Amazon's Lab 126 research and development center has been working on the DVR.
Facebook has removed more than 650 Facebook and Instagram pages, groups and accounts originating in Iran and Russia for "coordinated inauthentic behavior." The goal is to improve the trustworthiness of Facebook connections. Although it has been making progress in its efforts, the people responsible for the inauthentic activity are determined and well funded, Facebook said. "We identified an influence operation, not just on Facebook, but across several social media platforms," said Sandra Joyce, vice president for global intelligence at FireEye.
AI plays a big role in Android 9, the latest version of Google's mobile OS. Called "Android Pie," it is designed to learn from its users' behavior, and apply those lessons to simplify and customize their phone experiences. "From predicting your next task so you can jump right into the action you want to take, to prioritizing battery power for the apps you use most, to helping you disconnect from your phone at the end of the day, Android 9 adapts to your life and the ways you like to use your phone," noted Google VP Sameer Samat.
