Specializing in Computer Repair, Networking, Internet Solutions, Web Designing, Hybrid App Designing and Windows Operating systems.
Andrei Frumusanu / AnandTech:
Pixel 3 review: fastest Android device with impressive computational photography features, but the phone's build quality and gaming performance lag competition — The Pixel 3 is Google's third generation in-house design, meant to showcase the company's own view of what an Android device should be …
Khadeeja Safdar / Wall Street Journal:
How companies use customer lifetime value scores to differentiate prices, services offered; unlike FICO scores, CLVs aren't regulated or accessible to consumers — Retailers, wireless carriers and others crunch data to determine what shoppers are worth for the long term—and how well to treat them
Jack Morse / Mashable:
Interview with three renowned women in infosec on how they got started, some of their most memorable finds, and how to encourage more women to join their field — This post is part of Mashable's ongoing series The Women Fixing STEM, which highlights trailblazing women in science, tech …
Martha Pskowski / New York Magazine:
Profile of TIC, a community-run low-cost cellular service operating in underserved areas across Oaxaca in Mexico, as it gears up to launch in four more states — Talea de Castro is a four-hour drive through winding mountain roads from the capital of Oaxaca, Mexico.
James Vincent / The Verge:
New research from OpenAI shows how an AI agent with a sense of curiosity outperformed its predecessors playing the classic 1984 Atari game Montezuma's Revenge — This question is perhaps too broad to yield a single answer, but if you had to sum up why you accept that next quest …
Eric Newcomer / Bloomberg:
Inside Uber's deal with Saudi Arabia, from the first meetings between David Plouffe and PIF officials to the 10%+ stake that, sources say, the kingdom now owns — Even as Uber's lawyers finalized the details of the deal, they still couldn't quite believe it would really happen.
Here’s a match made in…I don’t know, somewhere on the blockchain, I guess. Pioneering space startup Planetary Resources was acquired by, of all things, a blockchain firm this week. ConsenSys, a Brooklyn based firm that specializes in all things Ethereum issued an announcement noting that it has snagged the asteroid mining company.
It’s not entirely clear how the two companies will work together, though ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin (who also helped author Ethereum) did manage to mention “decentralizing space endeavors,” which is certainly on-brand for the head of a blockchain company.
“I admire Planetary Resources for its world class talent, its record of innovation, and for inspiring people across our planet in support of its bold vision for the future,” Lubin said in a statement tied to the news. “Bringing deep space capabilities into the ConsenSys ecosystem reflects our belief in the potential for Ethereum to help humanity craft new societal rule systems through automated trust and guaranteed execution. And it reflects our belief in democratizing and decentralizing space endeavors to unite our species and unlock untapped human potential.”
Lubin also promised to offer up more information in the coming months. Meantime, Planetary Resources CEO Chris Lewicki (formerly of NASA JPL) and General Counsel Brian Israel will both be joining ConsenSys. Here’s what Lewicki had to say about the matter, “I am proud of our team’s extraordinary accomplishments, grateful to our visionary supporters, and delighted to join ConsenSys in building atop our work to expand humanity’s economic sphere of influence into the Solar System.”
Founded in 2010 as Arkyd Astronautics, Planetary Resources was considered a bright light in the world of privatized space companies, with X Prize founder Peter Diamandis on-board as director. Earlier this year, however, the company noted that it was rethinking its approach and making cutbacks after failing to secure its most recent funding round.
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Facebook reorganized AR and VR team from a divisional structure focused around products to a functional structure focused around technology areas of expertise — Lucas Matney , Josh Constine 7 hours — Facebook is again looking to whip Oculus into shape for its 10-year journey towards making virtual reality mainstream.
Facebook is again looking to whip Oculus into shape for its 10-year journey towards making virtual reality mainstream. According to two sources, Facebook reorganized its AR and VR team this week from a divisional structure focused around products to a functional structure focused around technology areas of expertise. While no one was laid off, the change could eliminate redundancies by uniting specialists so they can iterate towards long-term progress rather than being separated into groups dedicated to particular gadgets.
Facebook confirmed the reorg to TechCrunch, with a spokesperson providing this statement: “We made some changes to the AR/VR organization earlier this week. These were internal changes and won’t impact consumers or our partners in the developer community.” Oculus CTO John Carmack and Oculus co-founder/newly-promoted Head of PC VR Nate Mitchell will remain in their leadership positions within VP of AR/VR Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth’s hardware wing of the company.
The shift obviously communicates that Facebook believes Oculus could be running more effectively. Organizing the company around areas of expertise rather than broader divisions is probably more appropriate for a moonshot effort that can’t afford redundancies, on the other hand, keeping expertise siloed could isolate new approaches and advancements from reaching other teams. As the company builds out its first full lineup of headsets, there seems to be significant overlap in the tech problems and products bring tackled by those working on mobile and PC products.
TechCrunch reported earlier this week that the company is planning to release a new Rift headset as early as 2019, possibly called the Rift S, which will featured upgraded displays and an inside-out tracking system. The company’s “Rift 2” project, codenamed Caspar, was left behind in the reorganization, a source tells us. We can’t confirm whether any other products or concepts have been shelved.
While an immersive virtual world that users can hang out and communicate in certainly seems to fit Facebook’s broader mission, the company has spent the better part of the past few years deciding how a costly, ambitious venture like Oculus fits into its corporate structure.
First, things went smoothly. The company and its empowered co-founders were building out a developer network and prepping for the launch of their Rift headset after creating a successful partnership with Samsung for the Gear VR. Then, the company’s good fortune turned as the Rift headset was racked by expensive delays and Oculus failed to ship the company’s Touch motion controllers at launch losing some initial ground to HTC.
By the end of 2016, it was announced that co-founder Brendan Iribe was out as CEO and that the company would be reorganizing around divisions focused on things like PC VR, mobile and content with Xiaomi exec Hugo Barra coming aboard as VP of VR to lead the new effort working directly beneath CEO Mark Zuckerberg. An additional layer of oversight has been built in since then, with Bosworth was put in charge of the company’s consumer hardware ambitions with Oculus as a central pillar. His title is now VP of AR/VR.
The absorption of Oculus deeper into Facebook’s corporate structure was a trend that soon replicated itself as the company looked to rein in the independent teams under a more cohesive vision. The culmination of this was a major executive reshuffle earlier this year that changed the landscape for how divisions within the company were managed.
Now, they’re changing things up even more.
Oculus Go
The new structure sounds like it could coordinate efforts around more general lines like hardware and software allowing insights to flow more intuitively across Facebook’s planned devices.
Given the slow adoption of VR and engineering challenges of AR headsets, which at TechCrunch’s LA conference last month Facebook’s head of AR Ficus Kirkpatrick confirmed it was building, this structure could help Oculus iterate its way to long-term success rather than just getting the next product out the door.
If Facebook is going to beat companies solely focused on AR like Magic Leap, and potential incumbent invaders like Apple if it so chooses, it needs to maximize efficiency. And if it’s going to get both developers and users excited about these next-generation computing platforms, it will have to produce products that make cutting-edge technologies feel unified and accessible. That’s a lot easier when everyone’s not stepping on each other’s virtual shoes.
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Current and former employees on Google's ongoing struggle balancing user privacy with business interests — OVER TWO DAYS during the summer of 2009, experts from inside and outside Google met to forge a roadmap for how the company would approach user privacy.
An unexpected declaration by whistleblower Edward Snowden filed in court this week adds a new twist in a long-running lawsuit against the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs.
The case, filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation a decade ago, seeks to challenge the government’s alleged illegal and unconstitutional surveillance of Americans, who are largely covered under the Fourth Amendment’s protections against warrantless searches and seizures.
It’s a big step forward for the case, which had stalled largely because the government refused to confirm that a leaked document was authentic or accurate.
News of the surveillance broke in 2006 when an AT&T technician Mark Klein revealed that the NSA was tapping into AT&T’s network backbone. He alleged that a secret, locked room — dubbed Room 641A — in an AT&T facility in San Francisco where he worked was one of many around the U.S. used by the government to monitor communications — domestic and overseas. President George W. Bush authorized the NSA to secretly wiretap Americans’ communications shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
Much of the EFF’s complaint relied on Klein’s testimony until 2013, when Snowden, a former NSA contractor, came forward with new revelations that described and detailed the vast scope of the U.S. government’s surveillance capabilities, which included participation from other phone giants — including Verizon (TechCrunch’s parent company).
Though the courts dismissed some of the EFF’s complaint, a key claim that the surveillance violates the Fourth Amendment continues.
Snowden’s signed declaration, filed on October 31, confirms that one of the documents he leaked, which the EFF relied heavily on for its case, is an authentic draft document written by the then-NSA inspector general in 2009, which exposed concerns about the legality of the Bush’s warrantless surveillance program — Stellar Wind — particularly the collection of bulk email records on Americans.
The draft top-secret document was never published, and the NSA had refused to confirm or deny the authenticity of the 2009 inspector general report, ST-09-0002 — despite that it’s been public for many years.
Snowden, as one of the few former NSA staffers who can speak more freely than former government employees about the agency’s surveillance, confirmed that the document is “authentic.”
“I read its contents carefully during my employment,” he said in his declaration. “I have a specific and strong recollection of this document because it indicated to me that the government had been conducting illegal surveillance.”
Snowden left his home in Hawaii for Hong Kong in 2013 when he gave tens of thousand of documents to reporters. His passport was cancelled as he travelled to Moscow to take another onward flight. He later claimed political asylum in Russia, where he currently lives with his partner.
U.S. prosecutors charged Snowden with espionage.
EFF executive director Cindy Cohn said that the NSA’s refusal to authenticate the leaked documents “is just another step in its practice of falling back on weak technicalities to prevent the public courts from ruling on whether our Constitution allows this kind of mass surveillance of hundreds of millions of nonsuspect people.”
The EFF said in another filing that the draft report “further confirms” the participation of phone companies in the government’s surveillance programs.
The case continues — though, a court hearing has not been set.
CNBC:
Sources: Amazon close to making a decision on HQ2, with Crystal City, Northern Virginia or Austin, Texas as frontrunners, but new HQ may be split between them — - Amazon is in the advanced stages of placing its second headquarters in Northern Virginia, The Washington Post reported on Saturday
These sorts of major decision no doubt take some time. And, of course, Amazon is clearly milking the decision making process for all it’s worth as cities across the States roll out the red carpet. According to a new report from The Washington Post, however, the big news surrounding where the company opens its second headquarters may come sooner than later.
The Bezos-owned paper is reporting that the retail giant is in “advanced talks” with Crystal City, a neighborhood in North Virginia that lies just south of the Washington D.C. Those conversations are reportedly further along and “more detailed” than any of the other Amazon has had with fellow top contenders. Nearby metro stops and proximity to a major airport are all requirements that are fulfilled by Crystal City.
Among the topics broached during the talks are questions around building capacity and how quickly the company can start moving in. In fact, a local top real estate developer has apparently unlisted some of its buildings in the past month, in anticipation of an announcement. Buildings for the initial move of hundreds of employees could be occupied by Amazon employees within nine months.
No specifics on when exactly the announcement would arrive, though the paper notes that it’s being held until after the midterm elections, meaning it could potentially occur as soon as Wednesday.
Washington Post:
Sources: Amazon held advanced talks about opening HQ2 in Crystal City, Northern Virginia and some officials discussed how to make announcement after midterms — Amazon.com has held advanced discussions about the possibility of opening its highly sought-after second headquarters in Crystal City …
The first 5G phones are set to start arriving next year. Motorola plans to bring next-gen connectivity via a Mod for the Z3, and companies like LG and OnePlus have promised to deliver the tech baked into handsets at some point in 2019. iPhone users, on the other hand, may have to wait a bit longer.
The technology is, of course, an inevitability for Apple (along with everyone else, really), so it’s just a question of when. A new report from Fast Company (via the Verge) puts the timing around a year and half out.
The “source with knowledge of Apple’s plans” put the 5G iPhone’s arrival at some point in 2020, with Intel supplying the tech this time out. Apparently Apple and Intel are going through a bit of a rough patch of late, courtesy of heat/battery issues with the 8060 5G modem. Of course, things aren’t rough enough for the company to hit up Qualcomm again.
Given the on-going battle between the two companies, that’s probably a bridge too far. Instead, Apple’s holding out for Intel’s 8161 chip. 5G presents a solid opportunity for Intel to regain some of the substantial ground it ceded to Qualcomm in the mobile market the last time out.
