Apple Pairs With Veterans
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| Apple Pairs With Veterans | |
| Number | 3466 |
| Broadcast Date | FEBRUARY 11, 2019 |
| Episode Length | 30:04 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt, Roger Chang |
Tencent invests in China, Smartphone sales dip in China but Huawei manages to claw its way to the top and Microsoft teases a press event at Mobile World Congress.
Quick Hits
- RSA's Data Privacy and Security Survey for 2019 found that while people enjoy personalized services, respondents did not want them at the expense of privacy. 17 percent of respondents viewed "tailored" advertisements as ethical, and 24 percent said personalization to create tailored newsfeeds is ethical.
- Samsung released a teaser for its February 20 Unpacked event. The video showed words being folded and the phrase, "The future unfolds." Who knows what it could mean?
- India's parliamentary committee on information technology issued a summons to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for February 25 after the CEO did not appear for a meeting with the committee on February 11th. The meeting was meant to discuss protecting citizens’ rights on social media and online news platforms ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections, and was attended by executives from Twitter's India office. Failure to appear on the 25th would be seen as a breach of parliamentary privilege according to the committee's chairman.
- OnePlus says it will show off a prototype of a 5G phone at the Qualcomm booth during Mobile World Congress, starting February 25. Attendees will be able to try a demo of 5G gaming on the prototype.
Top Stories
- Reddit confirmed a $300 million series D round of funding that valued the company at $3 billion. $150 million of the new round came from Chinese company Tencent. Reddit, which is majority owned by Conde-Nast has now raised $550 million in funding. TechCrunch reported the Tencent investment over the weekend before it was confirmed causing some Reddit users to post protests including images they thought would upset Chinese censors. Reddit is blocked in China. Tencent is also an investor in Tesla and Snapchat.
- US President Donald Trump is signing the American AI Initiative to promote development of AI in the US. The plan asks federal agencies to prioritize AI in their budgets though it does not add funding. It orders data and processing power to be made available for AI researchers, orders the creation of ethical standards and encourages cooperation with other countries. It also asks agencies to create fellowships and apprenticeships to prepare workers for changes to the job market caused by AI.
- IDC's numbers for shipments of smartphones in China continue to show the change in the market there. As in other analyst's reports previously, Apple's shipments declined 19.9 percent in China in Q4, but it rose in the rankings to number 4. Xiaomi's shipments fell 34.9 percent. Overall smartphone shipments in China fell 9.7 percent. Huawei rose 23.3 percent and Oppo and Vivo rose 1.5 and 3.1 percent respectively. Canalys estimates which came out January 28 were very similar though Canalys showed a 14 percent decline overall and a slight decline for Oppo.
- Microsoft published a 42-second video teaser for its press event at Mobile World Congress February 24. It shows a lot of amorphous blobs and fibers some of which could be wires or processors or who knows what. The whole VR-y nature of it has everyone assuming it will have to do with Hololens 2 but who knows. More indicative is the previously known fact that among the speakers at the event is Microsoft Technical Fellow Alex Kipman who is involved in Hololens.
- Apple announced that Health Records on iPhone will soon allow veterans receiving care through the US Veterans Health Administration to view medical records in the app. This is the first consumer record-sharing platform used by the VA, which currently provides service to nine million veterans in the country. Fitbit is also working with UnitedHealth to sell to seniors through private Medicare plans in 27 US states. Apple recently introduced an app for Apple Watch and iOS called Attain meant for Aetna members.
- Fitbit added two new fitness trackers to its website, the Fitbit Inspire and Inspire HR. These are described as devices for corporate, wellness, health plan, and health systems partners rather than consumer-focused. Pricing will vary by employer and provider. The Inspire features basic activity and sleep tracking, supports call and text alerts, offers a monochrome touchscreen, water resistance to 50 meters, and a 5 day battery life. The Inspire HR adds 24/7 real time heart rate monitoring and comes with a silicon band included. CEO James Park told CNBC that 6.8 million patients, employee and health plan members incorporate Fitbits into wellness programs, and company revenue is increasingly tied to business customers.
Thing of the Day
- Nate Lanxon is back with a preview of what's happening on the latest Tech's Message. UK's test of 8GB/sec fiber optic lines, british telco accused of violating net neutrality and more.
Mailbag
- An interesting aside to the conversation around fortnite from this week. Scott has mentioned it was where kids now gather to talk. I experienced this recently with my daughter(who is now 8 and in the second grade). she and her friends love roblox (its somewhere between minecraft and fortnite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roblox). I found out that she has been coming home from school and she and her friends hop on roblox, go to the same location in the game, and all help each other do their homework! when they are done they then plan the mini games or other adventures in the game for awhile before saying goodbye. she'd been doing this for a few weeks before i caught on that this is what was happening. Funny aside to the story, or confirmation that these games are the chat rooms kids use for their daily lives.
- Sent by Andy Beach in Slack
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| Preceded by: "Bezos Delivers His Package" |
Apple Pairs With Veterans |
Followed by: "I’m Old and Slow and Everyone Kills Me" |