Apple Reportedly Revamps Smart Home Division
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| Apple Reportedly Revamps Smart Home Division | |
| Number | 980 |
| Broadcast Date | OCTOBER 28, 2019 |
| Episode Length | 5:51 |
| Hosts | Rich Stroffolino |
Apple is reportedly hiring to revamp its smart home efforts, Microsoft awarded the Pentagon’s JEDI contract, and Nvidia releases two new Shield TV devices.
Headlines
- Bloomberg's Marc Gurman reports that Apple is ramping up hiring for new smart home software and devices, according to sources. Apple reportedly wants to spur 3rd party accessory and device makers to connect with iOS devices, and is exploring building new home devices beyond the HomePod. The effort is headed by Andreas Gal, the former Mozilla CTO who joined Apple when it acquired Silk Labs in late 2018.
- The U.S. Defense Department announced that Microsoft beat out Amazon for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contact, which will see Microsoft work with the Pentagon to modernize infrastructure with cloud services. It's estimated the contract will be worth $10 billion over the next decade.
- Thursday, two US Senators wrote a letter to the US Director of National Intelligence asking for an investigation into TikTok for possible security threats. TikTok posted a response on its blog saying: "Let us be very clear: TikTok does not remove content based on sensitivities related to China. We have never been asked by the Chinese government to remove any content and we would not do so if asked," adding, "TikTok does not operate in China, nor do we have any intention of doing so in the future." TikTok's parent company, ByteDance operates a similar app called Douyin in mainland China. TikTok also clarified that US user data is stored in the US with a backup in Singapore.
- Adobe announced it received permission from the US government to continue offering Creative Cloud services in Venezuela. The company had previously announced that it would block Creative Cloud and delete all user accounts in the country by October 28, in order to comply with an Executive Order barring doing business in Venezuela. Adobe further stated that any users who lost access to premium services in the country would have them restored within a week.
- Facebook removed an ad placed by the Political Action Committee, The Really Online Lefty League that falsely claimed US Senator Lindsey Graham supported the Green New Deal. Facebook spokesman Tom Channick told Reuters that since the ad came from a PAC rather than a politician, it was eligible for review by third party fact checkers. Facebook previously said it would not fact-check ads run by politicians, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg said would stifle political speech.
- ARM's legal team has ruled that it's v8 and v9 chip designs are of UK origin and therefore does not need to be restricted from use by Huawei as a result of US trade restrictions. Huawei builds its Kirin chips using ARM designs.
- Amazon reported sales grew 24% in Q3, but profits fell about 25%. The decline is partly attributed to higher costs for one-day shipping which rose 46% over last year. Amazon says costs for delivering to Prime members will double in the holiday quarter to $1.5 billion. Amazon also forecast $80 to $86.5 billion in sales in the holiday quarter short of the expected forecast of $87.4 billion. AWS revenue grew 35% on the year which is down from last year's 46% growth and notably below Microsoft Azure's 36% growth.
- Nvidia announced two new streaming devices, the Shield TV and Shield TV Pro. Both devices offer a new Tegra X1+ processor, support Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos, and offer AI-powered 3K up-conversion for HD content. The Shield TV comes in a cylindrical tube design, offers 2GB of RAM, 8GB of storage and starts at $149. The Shield TV Pro offers 3GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, can transcode 1080p streams as a Plex Media Server, server as a SmartThings smart home hub, includes Android Gaming support, and has 2 USB 3.0 ports, costing $199.
- Microsoft updated the Xbox All Access Plan in the US, UK, and Australia to include an upgrade path for its next generation hardware. The service starts at $19.99 per month in the US, and includes an Xbox One S All-Digital Edition bundle, membership to Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass. There are also tiers to receive an Xbox One S console for $22.99 a month and Xbox One X for $30.99 a month. Customers can also trade in the included Xbox for the next generation Project Scarlett console, available to the top tier after 12 months and the others after 18 months. The revised plans will be available on Oct. 29 in Australia at Telstra; Nov. 5 in the U.K. at GAME and Smyths Toys; and Nov. 18 in the U.S. from Amazon.
- Instagram announced it is banning drawings, cartoons, and memes that promote self-harm. This extends rules implemented in February, which banned graphic images of self-harm. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri told BBC news that the new rules will "take time to fully implement... but it's not going to be the last step we take." Instagram said it removed 834,000 pieces of self-harm content from April to June this year, double the amount since Q1.
- According to a report from the China International Electronic Commerce Centre, rural China added 3 million internet users in the first half of 2019. This brings internet users in rural China up to an estimated 225 million, and now accounts for 26.3% of internet users in the country. This user growth mirrored growing e-commerce in rural China, now up 21% in the first half, compared to overall national growth of 3.2%.
Links
| Preceded by: "Week in Review for the Week of 10/21/19" |
Apple Reportedly Revamps Smart Home Division |
Followed by: "EA returns to Steam" |