Siri-ous Changes at Apple
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| Siri-ous Changes at Apple | |
| Number | 3605 |
| Broadcast Date | AUGUST 28, 2019 |
| Episode Length | 31:09 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang |
| Guests | Scott Johnson |
Apple looks to address complaints around how it tests and improves the voice recognition abilities of Siri by letting users opt-in. Does this go far enough and is it something other companies will want to replicate?
Guest
Quick Hits
- Nikkei reports it has sources who say Google is planning to move some production of the Pixel from China to Vietnam. Reportedly a plant in Bac Ninh province that used to make products for Nokia is being converted to Pixel production. The report also claims Google aims to double production to 8-10 million smartphones by the end of 2019.
- Sources tell The Wall Street Journal that Team Telecom, multiagency panel led by the US Justice Department is objecting to the almost-complete 8,000-mile undersea Pacific Light Cable Network connecting Los Angeles to Hong Kong. Team Telecom reportedly cited fear over possible threats posed by China to US national security. The project is backed by Google, Facebook, and private Chinese company Dr. Peng Telecom & Media Group. Team Telecom is said to question Dr. Peng's ties to the Chinese government amidst ongoing protests in Hong Kong. The undersea cable's temporary permit for construction expires in September.
- Telltale Games, which shut down last year, is finding new life after its assets were purchased by LCG Entertainment. The new company will sell some of Telltale’s back catalog and work on new games and licenses based on Telltale properties such as The Wolf Among Us, Batman, and Puzzle Agent. Previous Telltale licenses including Borderlands, Game of Thrones, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Minecraft weren't announced, and Telltale’s previous plans to release a game based on Stranger Things are off now that Netflix owns the rights.
- ZTE is back in the US market with the Axon 10, starting at $550 (€600 in Europe) for a 6.47-inch 2340 x 1080 AMOLED screen, minimal bezels, in-screen fingerprint sensor, and triple rear cameras, and a pair of USB-C headphones and a USB-C to 3.5mm adapter to make up for no headphone jack. Axon 10 is designed to support GSM networks like AT&T and T-Mobile, not CDMA networks like Verizon and Sprint. Pre-orders start today direct from ZTE and third-party retailers like B&H, with shipments in mid-September.
Top Stories
- MIT Technology Review's Patrick Howell O'Neill posted a story yesterday titled, "The Middle East is already a cyberwar hotbed. Things just got worse." Security firms Dragos and Dell's Secureworks have both published reports on a group codenamed Hexane. The group has similarities to known Iranian groups and seems to align with Iran's political goals. Hexane emerged in 2018 and is using spearphishing against HR and IT departments to gain access with a medium-range potential for espionage. It's unknown if the attacks aim to get at operational technology. Disruptive attacks are rare though they do happen, as O'Neill notes in the case of the 2012 attack on Saudi Arabia's Aramco and Qatar's RasGas that used Shamoon malware to delete files and cripple tens of thousands of computers. O'Neill points out there are many groups of such attackers in and around the Persian gulf, attracted to the oil and gas industry. Earlier this year, a group called Magnallium was discovered targeting US government, financial and energy companies. And the US has called for attacks on Iranian weapons systems, as well as believed to be involved in the Stuxnet worm attacks on Iranian nuclear energy development.
- Back in May, Telegram cancelled its initial coin offering of a cryptocurrency called Gram. However, if Telegram does not launch Gram by October 31, it has to give up the $1.7 billion it raised in pre-sales of the coin. Now The New York Times reports Telegram plans to deliver the first batches of Gram coins in the next two months. Sources told the NY Times that Telegram will create a digital wallet for all Telegram users to store Gram coins.
- Fitbit's new Versa 2 smartwatch now includes an onboard microphone for Amazon Assistant support. At 1.4 inches, the successor is 0.05 inches bigger, although Fitbit upgraded the screen from an LCD to an AMOLED for deeper blacks and brighter colors and easier to read outside. The Versa 2 has a single physical button and now includes an always-on display so you can tell the time when the watch is asleep. Spotify integration, new sleep insights, 5+ days of battery life, and an upcoming "Smart Wake" function round out some nice specs. Versa 2 orders start September 15th starting at $200, with a Special Edition bundle including two watch bands and 90 days of free Fitbit Premium for $230.
- Facebook announced Wednesday that starting in mid-September, political advertisers will need to provide more information before their ads will run. Commercial businesses, nonprofits, and NGOs will have to provide their tax ID number. Government and military will have to have a domain name and email address that ends in .gov or .mil. And Political action committees and parties will have to give their Federal Election Commission identification numbers. Ads that run under this program will include an i button that can be clicked to verify who paid for the ad. Smaller ad buyers will have to submit name, address, email and phone number for their organization which Facebook will verify. Without this information ad buyers will not be able to use an organization's name. So you as a user should look to see if that button or a disclaimer with an organizational name exists when you see a political ad.
- A French team of cyber-gendarmes has destroyed a virus that infected more than 850,000 computers worldwide. Avast alerted France's C3N centre last spring of a possible private server sending a virus called Retadup to Windows machines in 100 countries mainly in central and South America. The virus created a botnet used to control computers without the owners awareness. The botnet mined cryptocurrency Monero, conducted ransomware operations and stole data from hospitals and patients in Israel. C3N chief Jean-Dominique Nollet told France Inter radio the team located the command server and made a replica server to render the virus inactive. The US FBI helped block traffic and redirect virus activity to the replica server. Microsoft and the FBI shut down Darkbot in December 2015 and the FBI and Spanish police cooperated to shut down a huge botnet in April 2017. And of course MalwareTech aka Marcus Hutchins led an effort to stop WannaCry in August 2017 by registering a domain name.
Discussion
Mailbag
- On Friday’s episode, you and Shannon were discussing DoorDash and some confusion over the practice of adding a tip before the service has been rendered. At a business conference this summer, I had the pleasure of spending a lot of time chatting with an international sales coach, who gave me some insights as to the origin of the word “tips.” The word actually started as an acronym, “T.I.P.S” – To Insure Proper Service, meaning it was an extra value given to the service provider before service was rendered, to incentivize them to provide service above and beyond what might be expected at the normal purchase price. To me, this still seems like a practice best used alongside a fair wage system, rather than the current method used in restaurants (for example) of forcing the server’s payroll off onto the customer. Either way, after hearing your conversation about it today (Still catching up on episodes!) I thought it an interesting anecdote worth sharing.
Cheers, - Sent by Ryan
- On Friday’s episode, you and Shannon were discussing DoorDash and some confusion over the practice of adding a tip before the service has been rendered. At a business conference this summer, I had the pleasure of spending a lot of time chatting with an international sales coach, who gave me some insights as to the origin of the word “tips.” The word actually started as an acronym, “T.I.P.S” – To Insure Proper Service, meaning it was an extra value given to the service provider before service was rendered, to incentivize them to provide service above and beyond what might be expected at the normal purchase price. To me, this still seems like a practice best used alongside a fair wage system, rather than the current method used in restaurants (for example) of forcing the server’s payroll off onto the customer. Either way, after hearing your conversation about it today (Still catching up on episodes!) I thought it an interesting anecdote worth sharing.
YouTube
Links
| Preceded by: "Self-Yelp" |
Siri-ous Changes at Apple |
Followed by: "Cranking Up The Retro" |