Dataset Viewer
article
stringlengths 143
4.27k
| summary
stringlengths 24
860
|
|---|---|
summarize: Surely you’ve seen them: People who think they can get the house warmed up faster if they set the temp beyond the comfort point.
In other words, you like 68 degrees in winter, but you come downstairs to a 64-degree room — so you set the thermostat to 85 to make it heat up faster.
In fact, you’ll only waste power and money that way. Heating is either on or off, like a light switch. The room warms up at the same rate, whether you set the thermostat to 68, 100, or 5,000 degrees.
So set it to 68 and be patient.
All of this applies equally to air-conditioning, too. And the same principle applies in your car: Don’t waste money through not knowing the facts.
More from Pogue:
David Pogue’s CES roundup: All you have to remember is one word
Your FREE 15-Minute David Pogue Tour of CES
Pogue’s Basics: Money – The Amazon card
iOS 10 Hidden Feature: Do Not Disturb Emergency Bypass
iOS 10 Hidden Feature: Bedtime-consistency management
Pogue’s Basics: Money – Extended warranties
Pogue’s cheap, unexpected tech gifts #2: ThinOptics glasses
A dozen iOS 10 feature gems that Apple forgot to mention
GoPro’s most exciting mount yet: a drone
Professional-looking blurry backgrounds come to the iPhone 7 Plus
Pogue’s Basics: Turn off Samsung’s Smart Guide
Pogue Basics: Touch and hold Google Maps
The Apple Watch 2 is faster, waterproof—and more overloaded than ever
We sent a balloon into space — and an epic scavenger hunt ensued
Now I get it: Snapchat
The new Fitbits are smarter, better-looking, and more well-rounded | Surely you’ve seen them: People who think they can get the house warmed up faster if they set the temp beyond the comfort point. |
summarize: Job search firm Paysa used data from IBM's supercomputer Watson to perform an analysis of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, as well as other tech leaders, to try to get inside their heads and understand what makes them so successful.
What are Musk's top five traits? According to the study:
Intellect
Immoderation
Cautiousness
Emotionality
Altruism
This is Musk's personality mapped out by Paysa:
Other traits Musk apparently possesses include orderliness, self-discipline, self-efficacy and being cooperative.
Paysa performed a similar analysis of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's personality and found that his top trait is also intellect. As with Musk, emotionality and immoderation appear in Zuckerberg's top five. That suggests that these characteristics may help a leader succeed in Silicon Valley.
To arrive at these results, Paysa "gathered speeches, essays, books, the transcripts of interviews and other forms of communication produced by those highlighted above." It put over 2,500 words "through the Watson Personality Insights API."
"Personality Insights extracts personality characteristics based on how a person writes," according to IBM Watson's website. "You can use the service to match individuals to other individuals, opportunities, and products, or tailor their experience with personalized messaging and recommendations."
It makes sense that Musk, an avid reader known for his ability to come up with otherworldly ideas and then pursue them with vigor, earned high marks for his intellect, emotionality and self-discipline.
Musk has also expressed that he wants his work to help the world prepare for a brighter tomorrow, a key marker of his altruism. "I'm just trying to think about the future," says Musk in a recent TED Talk, "and not be sad."
Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook.
See also: Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella and Bill Gates share this crucial personality trait for achieving success
More From CNBC | IBM's supercomputer Watson has crunched the data and come to fascinating conclusions about Tesla CEO Elon Musk. |
summarize: WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump is honoring the Stanley Cup winning Pittsburgh Penguins, calling them "true champions and incredible patriots."
Trump welcomed the Penguins into the Oval Office on Tuesday. He celebrated their second consecutive championship in the East Room of the White House and singled out the achievements of playoff MVP Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and American Phil Kessel, among others.
Trump has grabbed a number of sports headlines in recent weeks, including his criticism of NFL players for kneeling during the national anthem and his decision to disinvite the NBA champion Golden State Warriors to the White House.
He joked that Penguins co-owner Ron Burkle should help him renegotiate NAFTA but avoided any talk about other sports. The Penguins are the fourth championship team and third pro team to visit Trump at the White House after the NFL's New England Patriots, Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs and college football's Clemson Tigers.
Crosby, coach Mike Sullivan and other members of the Penguins said the visit had nothing to do with politics. The team said it respected the tradition of visiting the White House.
Sullivan said after the ceremony that he wouldn't mind if one of his players took a knee during the national anthem.
Tampa Bay Lightning forward J.T. Brown, one of 18 black players in the NHL, became the first hockey player to engage in an anthem protest when he raised his fist while standing on the bench before a game Saturday night.
Trump has called on NFL owners to fire players who don't stand for the anthem and urged fans to boycott games in a series of tweets. He tweeted that he instructed Vice President Mike Pence to leave a game between the San Francisco 49ers and Indianapolis Colts on Sunday if there were any anthem protests, which Pence did. Hours before the Penguins visit, Trump tweeted that tax law should be changed to punish the NFL over the anthem protests.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told The Associated Press recently that said he respects players' views on political and social issues and "people are going to have to decide what makes them comfortable." Bettman said social issues "are a matter of individual belief and individual choice."
___
Follow Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/SWhyno
___
For more AP NHL coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/NHLhockey | President Donald Trump is honoring the Stanley Cup winning Pittsburgh Penguins, calling them "true champions and incredible patriots." Trump welcomed the Penguins into the Oval Office on Tuesday. ... |
summarize: PITTSBURGH (AP) -- A Pittsburgh-area volunteer fire chief has lost his post after using a racial slur to describe Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.
Paul Smith of the Muse fire company in Cecil Township wrote on Facebook that he added Tomlin to a list of "no-good" people he describes with the slur. Smith says he was upset that Tomlin had instructed his team to stay in a stadium tunnel instead of standing on the field for the national anthem ahead of Sunday's game against the Chicago Bears.
The Cecil Township Board of Supervisors says on its website Tuesday that Smith "is no longer the volunteer fire chief."
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/2hujHlO ) Smith resigned. He tells the newspaper he's "not the racist the media portrays me as."
He adds he "posted in anger." | A Pittsburgh-area volunteer fire chief has lost his post after using a racial slur to describe Steelers coach Mike Tomlin. Paul Smith of the Muse fire company in Cecil Township wrote on Facebook that he ... |
summarize: This Lego-like toy uses sensors and actuators that bring kids’ creations to life.
After children build shapes and models using the pieces, the sculptures can be wirelessly connected to a computer, where kids can use basic coding to make the blocks move around and light up.
The toy is called Koov and was created by Sony’s education arm, Sony Global Education.
The blocks just started selling in Japan for 37,000 yen, which converts to $340 in the U.S. Koov is expected to come to the U.S., but there is no official date yet.
Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/sony-joins-the-coding-for-kids-party-with-the-koov/
More:
Robot teaches kids as young as 3 to code
This food recycler will turn your food scraps into fertilizer
Industrial robot technology may soon be in your home
Wristband monitors your blood alcohol content while you drink
Breast-pumping moms can now go wireless
The world’s first 3-screen gaming laptop is mind-blowing
Netflix has just helped improve your commute
Apple’s plan to beat Google in the maps game
Your next food delivery order could come from a robot
You can now add cooking to the list of things Alexa can help you do
This anti-drone gun looks like it can do some serious damage
You could soon be using your smartphone to get cash from the ATM
Instagram offers disappearing photos and live broadcasting
You may soon be able to use a drone to catch fish
Amazon offers special deals through Alexa
WhatsApp video calling is finally here
Sold-out Snapchat sunglasses already on eBay
You can now cast Harry Potter spells from your phone
Apple reveals new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
This smart crib will help your baby sleep safely through the night
New hybrid console takes Nintendo on the go | This Lego-like toy uses sensors and actuators that bring kids’ creations to life. |
summarize: Google is launching a free app that will let kids draw, animate and narrate 3D cartoons. It’s called Toontastic 3D, and kids as young as 6 can create their own stories. Children choose things like “idea lab” in the app to get inspired or “science report” to help with a project for school.
Google compares the app to a digital puppet theater with interactive 3D worlds.
The sweet spot for the typical user is between 8 and 10 years old, but there’s no age limit on creativity, so adult kids can join in the fun as well.
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/
More Trending Tech:
Industrial robot technology may soon be in your home
Wristband monitors your blood alcohol content while you drink
Breast-pumping moms can now go wireless
The world’s first 3-screen gaming laptop is mind-blowing
Netflix has just helped improve your commute
Apple’s plan to beat Google in the maps game
Your next food delivery order could come from a robot
You can now add cooking to the list of things Alexa can help you do
This anti-drone gun looks like it can do some serious damage
You could soon be using your smartphone to get cash from the ATM
You may soon be able to use a drone to catch fish
Amazon offers special deals through Alexa
WhatsApp video calling is finally here
You can now cast Harry Potter spells from your phone
Apple reveals new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
This smart crib will help your baby sleep safely through the night
New hybrid console takes Nintendo on the go | Google is launching a free app that will let kids draw, animate and narrate 3D cartoons. It’s called Toontastic 3D, and kids as young as 6 can create their own stories. Children choose things like “idea lab” in the app to get inspired or “science report” to help with a project for school. |
summarize: Sometimes, the mighty fall. In the case of Amazon (AMZN), they simply grow even bigger and more formidable.
With a current market cap of $390 billion, the Seattle-based retail giant is now worth more than the top eight traditional brick-and-mortar retailers combined, as Credit Suisse analysts led by Eugene Klerk mentioned in a recent note.
For the record, that roster includes Best Buy (BBY), Macy’s (M), Target (TGT), JCPenney (JCP), Nordstrom (JWN), Walmart (WMT), Kohl’s (KSS) and Sears (SHLD).
That’s an impressive, even astonishing feat, no doubt, given Amazon was founded in chief executive Jeff Bezos’s garage in 1994. But it’s not exactly shocking, given the rapid transition over the last 20 years away from shopping in physical retail stores in lieu of online shopping, where retailers like Amazon can offer lower pricing on products and services because they don’t have to offset the costs of also paying for physical stores. It also helps that Amazon has invested heavily in building out new warehouses to reduce delivery time of items from weeks and days to hours, in some cases.
In the last 10 years, especially, it’s even less surprising given Amazon’s bold bets in areas like cloud computing with Amazon Web Services — disparate-seeming areas and verticals Bezos has neatly tied together to create an elaborate digital empire.
It’s no wonder the company’s stock price is up 36% in the past 12 months. If the company has a growth ceiling, it hasn’t come anywhere closet to hitting it — yet.
—
JP Mangalindan is a senior correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
More from JP:
How Silicon Valley reacted to Trump’s inauguration
AMD CEO: Why it’s good to be the smaller guy
Threesome app CEO: ‘Swiping is dead’
Nick Jonas explains why you should buy his new headphones
5 ways Apple can get back in the game in 2017 | Sometimes, the mighty fall. In the case of Amazon (AMZN), they simply grow even bigger and more formidable. |
summarize: ROME (AP) -- The End. The Apocalypse. A national shame.
Local newspapers spared no words Tuesday in describing four-time champion Italy's failure to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in six decades.
The Gazzetta dello Sport headline read "FINE" — "The End" — in big, block letters, while Turin daily La Stampa wrote "Apocalypse Azzurra."
Rome daily Il Messaggero called it "A national shame," and Rome sports daily Corriere dello Sport said "Everyone out."
After a scoreless draw with Sweden on Monday, Italy lost its World Cup qualifying playoff on 1-0 aggregate.
Italy had participated in every World Cup since failing to qualify for the 1958 tournament, which coincidentally was held in Sweden.
The previous major competitions Italy missed were the 1984 and 1992 European Championships.
"It's one of the darkest pages of our sporting history," Gazzetta editor Andrea Monti wrote in a front-page editorial. "A brutal slap beyond the incalculable harm for a country that lives and breathes soccer."
Widely criticized for his tactics, the Gazzetta gave Italy coach Gian Piero Ventura a lowly three out of 10 in its famous report card for the game.
"He will go down as one of the worst national team coaches of all time, if not the worst," the report card read.
When Italy won the World Cup in 2006, the Gazzetta used the headline "Tutto Vero" — "It's all true." On Tuesday, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter copied that headline and amended it for its own use.
"Tutto vero. It is true. Sweden is at the World Cup," Dagens Nyheter wrote.
Former Italian soccer federation and Italian Olympic Committee president Franco Carraro estimated that the failed qualification will cost the country between 500 million and 600 million euros (up to $700 million).
"If you add the indirect impact, it will definitely exceed a billion," Carraro said.
Italian daily La Repubblica noted that purchases of televisions in Italy increased 4 percent when Italy competed in last year's European Championship.
If Italy had qualified, the cost of domestic TV rights for the World Cup were estimated at 175 million euros ($200 million). Now they could be worth half that.
The national team's contract with shirt supplier Puma, worth 18.7 million euros ($22 million) per season, will also likely be revised.
And there could be ramifications for Italy's betting industry, where soccer wagers generate 140 million euros (more than $160 million) per year, according to Repubblica.
___
Associated Press writer Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen contributed to this report.
___
Find more World Cup coverage at https://apnews.com/tag/WorldCup
___
Andrew Dampf on Twitter: www.twitter.com/asdampf | The End. The Apocalypse. A national shame. Local newspapers spared no words Tuesday in describing four-time champion Italy's failure to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in six decades. The ... |
summarize: You look at your phone too much. It's too distracting, you'd rather be able to be present and in the world, but you still need to be connected. That’s what makes the initial theory behind the Apple Watch so compelling: It’s a device on your wrist that can do everything in a pinch, but mostly exists to look nice and only alert you when you really need to be alerted. It's the gadget everyone could use.
Over the past couple of years, though, fitness emerged as the most resonant feature of the Watch. And Apple leaned into it: It made a big partnership with Nike, started working on connecting your Watch to your gym equipment, and improved the way it tracks workouts. Apple's also working on more health-focused features such as sleep tracking and glucose monitoring.
Today, Apple announced the third version of the Apple Watch hardware, called Series 3, which comes with a handful of upgrades but only one that matters: The Watch can now connect to LTE. That has huge fitness implications for runners who hate armbands but need to make phone calls, or people who go a little too hard and need an Uber home. It also goes a long way toward helping the Apple Watch achieve its ultimate and truest goal: to free you from your phone. It starts at $329 without cellular coverage or $399 with, and it's coming September 22.
The Watch looks the same as always, so this is your moment to be sad it's not round. It's even nearly the same size—Apple's Jeff Williams called it "two pieces of paper thicker"—and packs the same battery life. The only difference you'll really notice is a red dot on the Watch's crown, which used to signify that you were wearing one of the super-expensive Edition models but now stands for LTE. On the screen you'll see a four-dot status bar for service on your watch face and an icon in Settings for turning LTE on and off. Mostly you'll just notice that you can, you know, do stuff when you're not near your phone.
Read More
iPhone X
Meet the iPhone X, Apple's New High-End Handset
Apple announced three new iPhones today: iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and the new iPhone X. | The Apple Watch can now connect to LTE, which goes a long way toward freeing you from your phone. |
summarize: This robot arm is a fraction of the price of similar robots you might see in factories.
It’s called CTRL and was developed by Robotics Evolved to be an affordable robot arm.
Unveiled at CES 2017, this desktop-sized robot arm aims to make robotics more accessible to the masses.
The device is open-source and can be run on the programming language of the user’s choosing.
For those unfamiliar with code, CTRL can also learn to replicate movements when manipulated by hand.
CTRL is currently equipped with a gripping tool but the company plans to expand attachment offerings to include options like spray nozzles and engraving tools.
Robotics Evolved is currently seeking funding through a Kickstarter campaign and you can reserve your very own CTRL robot arm for just over $500.
Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/336056728/ctrl-the-robot-a-modern-industrial-robot-for-the-d?ref=category_featured
More:
Netflix has just helped improve your commute
Apple’s plan to beat Google in the maps game
Your next food delivery order could come from a robot
You can now add cooking to the list of things Alexa can help you do
This anti-drone gun looks like it can do some serious damage
You could soon be using your smartphone to get cash from the ATM
Instagram offers disappearing photos and live broadcasting
You may soon be able to use a drone to catch fish
Amazon offers special deals through Alexa
WhatsApp video calling is finally here
Sold-out Snapchat sunglasses already on eBay
You can now cast Harry Potter spells from your phone
Apple reveals new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
This smart crib will help your baby sleep safely through the night
New hybrid console takes Nintendo on the go | This robot arm is a fraction of the price of similar robots you might see in factories. |
summarize: Apple’s (AAPL) iPhones have been at the forefront of smartphone photography since the beginning. And with the 10th anniversary iPhone coming in just a few short weeks, Apple is gearing up to prove it’s got the best camera tech around.
While we don’t yet know the specifics of the iPhone 8’s camera — how many megapixels it captures, what kind of optical zoom it will offer — we do know the kind of software updates Apple is bringing to iOS 11 to improve how you shoot and edit your photos.
Here’s how Apple is putting photography front and center in iOS 11.
Portrait of an iPhone
Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus sports two distinct camera lenses: a wide-angle lens and a telephoto lens with a 2x zoom. By combining the two, the company is able to create a bokeh effect, in which the subject in the foreground is in focus and the background is blurred.
The feature, which Apple calls Portrait mode, since it makes for some great portrait shots, is currently in beta, but will get a full release with iOS 11. The final version of Portrait mode will see significant improvements including the ability to capture images using the camera’s flash and HDR features, as well as its image stabilization capabilities.
That means those fancy photos you take of your cat sitting on your couch like a little gentleman will look even better with iOS 11.
Live photos will be worthwhile
I’ve never been the biggest fan of Apple’s Live Photos feature. That’s because the tiny video clips take up more space than individual photos, shrinking the amount of pictures you can natively save to your phone. But I’m willing to give them another shot with iOS 11.
Apple managed to pique my interest with Live Photos thanks to the upcoming addition of three new settings for the feature: Bounce, Loop and Long Exposure. Bounce lets you play your video forward then backwards, creating cool physics-breaking effects like jumping out of a pool cannonball-style, while Loop repeats a clip over and over. Neither of those is particularly unique, though, as social media sites like Instagram (FB) and Snapchat (SNAP) already let you create similar effects.
But Long Exposure — the effect that holds a camera’s shutter open longer than normal and is responsible for those slick photos of highways with car headlights that look like long streaks — looks genuinely fun. It’ll also likely make for some interesting shots from Apple’s army of users.
Editing gets real
Apple’s Photos desktop app has plenty of solid built-in editing features. The problem is they’re all hidden by default. And for the average consumer that’s pretty much the same as them not existing at all. I’m a tech writer who uses a Mac every day, and I didn’t realize the app had such robust editing tools until my friend showed them too me. | Apple's upcoming iPhone 8 and iOS 11 should take your iPhone photography to the next level with these new features. |
summarize: Facebook (FB) on Monday took another step towards curbing the distribution of so-called “fake news.”
Effective immediately, the company will stop business pages, which the social network refers to as Pages, from advertising on Facebook for an unspecified period of time if they repeatedly shared stories ultimately deemed as “fake news.”
“False news damages the trust of people who are on Facebook,” Facebook product director Rob Leathern told Yahoo Finance. “We don’t want pages that post [false] news to build out audiences and get more distribution on Facebook. So, we’ve decided to add this to the list of things to help that informed community.”
Facebook declined to specify exactly how many times a Page has to share false news stories before it triggers the temporary advertising ban. The social network also declined to specify exactly how long bans will last.
“We don’t want to share that,” added Leathern. “We don’t want Pages to game the system.”
Monday’s announcement is the latest in a string of moves Facebook has made in an effort to combat false news and hoaxes throughout the past year. In May, the social network updated its News Feed so users see fewer posts and ads that link to “low-quality” web sites that potentially feature false news. Earlier this month, Facebook started using advanced machine learning techniques to detect potential hoaxes and send them to fact-checkers. The tech giant also began showing fact-checking results under stories.
Monday’s announcement comes nine months after last year’s controversial U.S. presidential election, after which Facebook was heavily criticized for playing a role in distributing misleading news coverage. The issue again come to a head this May when French voters encountered a slew of false news stories ahead of that country’s presidential election.
In June, the German parliament approved a bill enforcing fines on social media companies that fail to remove postings containing hate speech within 24 hours of receiving a complaint — a move ostensibly done to avoid similar problems before the country’s national election in September.
More from JP:
Meet Uber’s pick for its next CEO
The Essential Phone is a beautiful alternative to Apple’s iPhone
Amazon’s new Instant Pickup could help it dominate another industry
‘An affront to America:’ Tech leaders condemn Charlottesville violence
Facebook diversity chief: ‘We are not in the business of giving away jobs’ | Facebook is taking its crackdown on fake news even further. |
summarize: This might sound a little odd, but my favorite gadget of this young year is a laptop power adapter.
See, it’s no secret that I’m rabid USB-C nut.
Imagine: You’ll soon have one power cord for every device (laptop, desktop, phone, tablet) from every manufacturer. A genuine universal power cord.
There’s no upside-down way to insert a USB-C connector, and there’s no wrong end on the cord. The wattage auto-adjusts to whatever you’re charging. And the same cable carries not just power, but also video, audio, and data! It’s just crazy brilliant. (Here’s my interview with the guy who spent three years with 600 electronics companies designing it.)
USB-C is already on laptops from Apple (AAPL), HP (HPQ), Razer, Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), Dell, Asus, Lenovo and others. And it’s already the charging jack on phones from Microsoft, Motorola (MSI), Samsung, LG, Huawei, OnePlus, LeEco, and many others. Rumor is that the iPhone 8 and Galaxy 8 phones will both use USB-C as well.
As I’ve written, the switch to USB-C currently involves adapters and replacement cables. But in the long term, it means we’ll no longer have drawers like these:
It also means that we can carry just one charger for all our stuff. Since I’ve been learning to love the new 13-inch MacBook Pro, this is a big deal: Finding a smaller, nicer charger to replace the big white plastic 3-prong Apple one would make a huge difference to my bag’s travel weight.
And so I found this:
The Dart-C, billed as the world’s smallest laptop charger. And it really is tiny.
Yet somehow, it provides 65 watts—plenty for laptops like the 12- and 13-inch MacBooks, the Lenovo ThinkPad 13, ASUS ZenBook 3, Dell XPS 13, and so on. Really honking laptops, like the 15-inch MacBook Pro, expect more wattage (85). This charger will work on those machines—just not as fast.
How do I love this thing? Let us count the ways.
It has a standard USB jack embedded in the cable. That means that you can simultaneously charge your phone, tablet, camera, or whatever—with no slowdown in charging your primary gadget.
It has an indicator light that lets you know if you’re plugged into a working outlet. (Apple’s chargers no longer have a status light.)
It comes in a choice of cool metallic colors.
It has a six-foot cord.
It has a two-prong plug, not three, so it fits into older outlets like the ones at my parents’ house.
I keep one laptop charger my laptop bag, and one plugged in by the couch. So I’ve been through the mill, trying to find just the right charging cord to be my spare.
Since USB-C means that I’m no longer locked into Apple’s proprietary chargers, I’ve experimented with a Dell ($27, 30 watts) and a Udoli ($35, 45 watts), shown below. I knew both would take longer to charge than my MacBook Pro’s original charger (61 watts), but that didn’t really matter for hotel-room purposes; they’d have overnight to charge. | This might sound a little odd, but my favorite gadget of this young year is a laptop power adapter. |
summarize: BERLIN—The slew of new laptops shown off at the IFA trade show here are headed in the right direction—with one exception.
Windows laptops, whether conventional screen-and-keyboard models or hybrid designs that can be folded up to use as a tablet, have gotten thinner and lighter even as their battery lives have increased.
But one upgrade to these machines could prove more problematic than it’s worth.
Thin or light
Acer opened IFA with a Wednesday-morning introduction of its newest laptops, one improbably thin and the other unusually light.
Its Swift 5, available in December for $999 and up, weighs 2.1 pounds — light enough to feel like an old-school laptop without its removable battery, and lighter than almost every laptop with a fixed keyboard. Despite that, the Swift 5 offers one USB-C port, two standard USB ports, a USB-C port that can charge the laptop, an HDMI output to connect a TV and a headphone jack. Apple’s (AAPL) lighter Macbook 12-inch, meanwhile, offers just a USB-C port and headphone jack.
Acer estimates its battery life at “only” eight hours, which has become subpar over the last few years.
That Taiwanese firm’s Swift 7 was already among the thinnest laptops around, but the revised Swift 7 the company showed off is even thinner at just .35 inches thick. Getting its computer that slim, though, required Acer to make some compromises: The 13.3-inch isn’t touch-sensitive, there’s no Windows Hello face- or fingerprint-recognizing login and you only get two USB-C ports and a headphone jack.
Acer didn’t announce a price or availability for the 7.
Recharge tomorrow?
Lenovo’s thicker, heavier Yoga 920 hybrid laptop offered a different way to cut down on your daily computing payload: A 15.5-hour battery life.
(Dell’s just-updated XPS 13 laptop, starting at $800 and going on sale Sept. 12, touts the same 22 hours of battery life as the current model but can’t be folded into a tablet.)
The $1,330 Yoga 920, which features a 13.9-inch screen and weighs 3 pounds, offers both USB and USB-C ports, so you won’t have to fish out a dongle to plug in older hardware. It also recharges via USB-C, which means you can use its charger to revive many new Android phones or replace it with a smaller, lighter third-party charger if you want.
If only the same were true of the other refreshed models Lenovo had on display: The cheaper Yoga 720 hybrid laptop and the Miix 520 tablet both have proprietary power ports, even though they include USB-C ports to connect things besides their own chargers.
Dear PC vendors: Unless you can design a power connector that safely falls free if tugged hard — like Apple’s now-abandoned MagSafe or the one on the Microsoft (MSFT) Surface Pro — please accept the limits of your creativity and stick to USB-C.
Screen sickness
The Yoga 920 and the XPS 13, however, offer optional screens that cost battery life. On the 920, your step-up from the standard 1080p panel to an Ultra High Definition screen (3840 x 2160 pixels) slashes battery life by about a third, to 10.8 hours.
The XPS 13, meanwhile, offers a “Quad HD+” screen, with 3200 x 1800 pixels, that cuts your time away from an outlet from 22 hours to 13. | More laptop makers are pushing the limits of design and performance, but high-resolution panels are hurting their batteries. |
summarize: Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook didn’t mince words when asked why his company isn’t paying the makers of the modem chips found in iPhones on Tuesday.
“You can’t pay something when there is a dispute about the amount,” Cook said during Apple’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday.
Apple has an ongoing legal dispute with Qualcomm (QCOM) that heated up last week. That’s when reports emerged that Apple had decided to withhold royalty payments to contract manufacturers that, in turn, pay money to Qualcomm. The move spurred Qualcomm to slash its profit and revenue forecasts.
In a lawsuit filed in January, Apple contends that Qualcomm won’t license its technology to competing manufacturers, which would then be able to make similar chips and sell them at lower prices. Apple says Qualcomm owes it $1 billion in rebates.
Apple filed its lawsuit days after the FTC accused Qualcomm of similar anticompetitive behavior.
“They think we owe some amount, we think we owe a different amount, and there hasn’t been a meeting of the minds there,” Cook said. “And at this point we need to courts to decide that unless over time we settle between us on some amount.”
During Tuesday’s call, Cook said Qualcomm is essentially trying to take a piece of every iPhone sold when a lot more goes into the handset than a modem chip.
“They do some really great work around standard essential patents, but it’s one small part of what the iPhone is,” Cooks said.
“We don’t think that’s right and so we are taking a principled stand on it and we strongly believe that we are in the right, and I’m sure they believe that they are, so that’s what courts are for.”
Apple says Qualcomm also forced the company to pay an additional royalty fee on top of the money it pays for chips — essentially “double-dipping.”
Qualcomm denied the allegations during its Jan. 25 Q1 2017 earnings call, with president Derek Aberle saying Apple was driving “regulatory attacks” against his company.
In a statement released last week, Qualcomm’s general counsel Don Rosenberg said Apple is trying to change the chip manufacturing contracts it agreed to years ago.
“Apple has now unilaterally declared the contract terms unacceptable; the same terms that have applied to iPhones and cellular-enabled iPads for a decade,” Rosenberg said.
“Apple’s continued interference with Qualcomm’s agreements to which Apple is not a party is wrongful and the latest step in Apple’s global attack on Qualcomm.”
More from Dan:
Microsoft Surface Laptop hands-on: Taking on Apple
Here’s why Apple’s Q2 earnings almost won’t matter
Acer’s $9,000, 21-inch curved Predator 21X laptop is overkill brought to life
Google’s updated Earth app will destroy your free time
How to cash in on your old tech gadgets | Apple CEO Tim Cook explains why his company isn't going to pay up for modem chips found in its phone quite yet. |
summarize: You know about “Hey Siri” and “OK Google,” right? On recent phone models, you can trigger your voice assistant without even having to touch the phone.
You can even make calls this way, which is handy when your hands are full—but then, of course, how are you going to hear the other person? You’d need the speakerphone on!
In fact, you can do exactly that! Say, “Hey Siri. Call Stacy on the speakerphone.” It works!
Same thing on many Android phones. “OK Google. Call mom on speakerphone.”
Hands free, and hassle free. | You know about “Hey Siri” and “OK Google,” right? On recent phone models, you can trigger your voice assistant without even having to touch the phone. |
summarize: For a service nobody asked for, Amazon Prime sure is doing well.
That’s the gist of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s letter to shareholders, released Wednesday, in which he explained his now-famous “customer-centric” approach.
“There are many advantages to a customer-centric approach, but here’s the big one: customers are always beautifully, wonderfully dissatisfied, even when they report being happy and business is great,” Bezos wrote. “Even when they don’t yet know it, customers want something better, and your desire to delight customers will drive you to invent on their behalf. No customer ever asked Amazon to create the Prime membership program, but it sure turns out they wanted it, and I could give you many such examples.”
Indeed, Amazon Prime has become a big hit with consumers since it launched in February 2005. The subscription membership, which has at least 66 million users by some third-party estimates, has transformed shoppers’ expectations around delivery. In turn, Prime has spearheaded an all-out arms race for faster shipping — an area other companies such as Google (GOOG, GOOGL), eBay (EBAY) and even Uber itself want a piece of.
Prime, meanwhile, has successfully evolved far beyond its simple roots into an all-inclusive package that also includes streaming entertainment, e-book lending and serves as a tool for acquiring and retaining customers. Prime’s original content has been well-received, with shows such as “Transparent” nabbing awards.
“In our opinion, Amazon continues to define consumer expectations for online shopping,” wrote Neil Doshi, managing director of Americas research for Mizuho Securities, in a recent research report obtained by Yahoo Finance.
But while Amazon Prime has reshaped customers’ expectations, the service has cost Amazon (AMZN) billions of dollars. For Amazon, it means relying upon and constantly expanding the company’s vast infrastructure of fulfillment centers to get items from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible. More recent initiatives like Prime Now, which promise two-hour delivery timeframes to Prime members in over 45 US cities for free, also place added pressure on the company’s growing warehouse infrastructure.
Given Bezos’s penchant for emphasizing long-term “customer-centric” gain over short-term profits, don’t expect Prime to become a moneymaker anytime soon.
—
JP Mangalindan is a senior correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
More from JP:
The 20 highest paying tech companies in America
Fitbit’s new smartwatch has been plagued by production mishaps
Facebook Messenger now analyzes your chats to give you recommendations
Gay tech workers earn less than their straight counterparts
How BlackBerry stays relevant in the age of the iPhone
Why Snap may be more like Twitter than Facebook
How ‘video understanding’ could transform Facebook
Why ‘experience can hurt tech workers in Silicon Valley
Why AI could be Silicon Valley’s latest ‘micro bubble’ | In his recent letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wrote that the company has become skilled at predicting customers' desires. "No customer ever asked Amazon to create the Prime membership program," he wrote. |
summarize: Amazon’s (AMZN) work culture is well-known for several qualities — tough, hard-working, innovative, even bruising. But it’s not necessarily known as being one of the largest dog-friendly tech companies.
According to the Seattle-based e-commerce giant, Amazon has 4,000 registered canines — 500 of which on average come to the offices everyday with their employee owners. Indeed, Amazon caters heavily to employee-owned dogs with dog-oriented activities, beyond simply offering dog treats at the reception desk.
In July 2016, for instance, the company held a screening for the film “The Secret Life of Pets,” in which dogs that attended also received customizable dog tags. And last October, Amazon hosted a Halloween dog costume contest, in partnership with the Downtown Dog Lounge, a Seattle-based business. The winner? A 5-year-old greater Swiss mountain dog named Charlie, dressed as one of Santa’s reindeer, pulling a two-wheeled cart designed to look like Santa’s sleigh.
Amazon also built facilities aimed at keeping employees’ dogs entertained. This April, the company opened a 1,000 square-foot dog park at the intersection of Lenora Street and Sixth Avenue in Seattle as part of the company’s larger $4 billion effort to build and expand its urban campus.
Located next to Amazon’s dome-like glass Spheres, which will house an array of tended greenery and foliage when they officially open in early 2018, the so-called “Spheres dog park” is within walking distance to many of the company’s offices. Some of dog park’s features include rocks and platforms to play on, as well as a drinking fountain.
Dogs have played an integral part of Amazon’s company culture since the very beginning, an Amazon spokesperson told Yahoo Finance. The practice stems from two former Amazon employees — a husband and wife team — who brought their corgi Rufus to work. | Amazon has 4,000 registered canines — 500 of which on average come to the offices everyday with their employee owners. |
summarize: FARGO, N.D. (AP) -- Drone technology is helping some farmers in North Dakota keep tabs on their livelihood like never before by giving them an aerial perspective on field conditions and crops.
Jeremy Wilson has been planting corn, soybeans and wheat in the Fargo area for nearly two decades and has seen his share of advancements in technology.
"Neat seeing things that work and how it works. And some things that don't work that well but was a valiant effort," said Wilson. The drones have provided a new vantage point for farmers, saving them time and money.
"Pretty cheap, simple and fast," Wilson told WDAY-TV (http://bit.ly/2rz8Vue ).
Agricultural companies, including Peterson Farms Seed, are also exploring the ways drones can be used in crop development.
Rather than walking into a field or taking a look from a pickup truck, drones provide a whole new perspective on field conditions, said Peterson spokesman Nolan Berg.
"(They're) really opening some farmers' eyes to things they normally couldn't see,' Berg said. "You can see stand issues, whether there are wet spots in your field or fertility issues."
Berg said it's another tool for farmers in their collection of agricultural resources.
"It's not an end-all situation. But it does help us get better at what we're already doing within the field," said Berg.
___
Information from: WDAY-TV, http://wday.com | Drone technology is helping some farmers in North Dakota keep tabs on their livelihood like never before by giving them an aerial perspective on field conditions and crops. Jeremy Wilson has been planting ... |
summarize: Windows 10’s Start button harbors a secret: It can sprout a tiny utility menu.
To see it, right-click the Start button in the lower-left corner of the screen, or (on a touchscreen) hold your finger down on it. Or press Windows+X.
There, in all its majesty, is the Start menu’s secret utility menu. It’s bursting with shortcuts to important toys for the technically inclined.
Some are especially useful to have at your mousetip, like System (opens a window that provides every possible detail about your machine) and Task Manager (lets you quit a frozen app and get on with your life).
This secret utility menu also offered a link to the Control Panel — at least until Microsoft, in its wisdom, removed that option in the Windows 10 Creators Update.
Adapted from “Pogue’s Basics: Tech” (Flatiron Press), by David Pogue.
More from David Pogue:
Is through-the-air charging a hoax?
Electrify your existing bike in 2 minutes with these ingenious wheels
Marty Cooper, inventor of the cellphone: The next step is implantables
The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update
Now I get it: Bitcoin
David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app
The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers
David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s @pogue. On email, he’s [email protected]. You can read all his articles here, or you can sign up to get his columns by email. | Windows 10’s Start button harbors a secret: It can sprout a tiny utility menu. To see it, right-click the Start button in the lower-left corner of the screen, or (on a touchscreen) hold your finger down on it. There, in all its majesty, is the Start menu’s secret utility menu. |
summarize: Vinod Khosla once proclaimed that machines will replace 80 percent of doctors, which prompted waves of backlash from the medical community.
Never one to shy away from controversy, the venture capitalist went a step further when I interviewed him last month for a podcast hosted by Silicon Valley biotechnology startup Color Genomics. "The role of the radiologist will be obsolete in five years," he said.
In Khosla's view, sophisticated algorithms are better than specialists at spotting potential problems in medical images, like x-rays and CT scans. "There's no reason a human should be doing it," he says, adding that computers can rapidly shift through thousands of scans to evaluate possible diagnoses and potential treatments, as well as ingest the latest medical research.
The podcast will go live on Monday.
A report from PwC found that about 4 in 10 U.S. jobs are susceptible being taken over by machines in the next 15 years. But doctors don't typically make the list of the occupations most under threat, given the importance of bedside manner, among other factors.
Khosla's comments come at a time when many of the leading technology companies are building new tools for the medical sector.
Technology companies, including Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL), have efforts underway to train machines to spot potential problems in medical scans. Verily, Alphabet's health and life sciences arm, recently teamed up with Nikon (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 7731.T-JP) to develop machine learning tools to screen for diabetic retinopathy and macular edema, both causes of blindness in people with diabetes.
In 2015, Kaggle (later acquired by Google), hosted a competition for data scientists to develop a similar algorithm, with the winner having an "agreement rate" about 10 percent higher than a human specialist. What that means is that the algorithm and human were more likely to agree on a diagnosis than two human experts. IBM (NYSE: IBM) Watson is also developing tools to help physicians solve medical mysteries by shifting through millions of research papers in minutes.
Still, many of these efforts aim to augment doctors, and not replace them.
The goal for Kaggle's algorithm, for instance, was to help radiologists triage, so they can prioritize certain patients over others in giant piles of scans.
Radiologists say their jobs will only become more important in the coming years.
The specialty is a prime target for tech companies, as radiologists have used computer-assisted tools for years. "Our field is the Silicon Valley of medicine," says Garry Choy, a San Francisco-based radiologist, adding that computers would free up time for radiologists to "do what humans do best," rather than take their jobs. That includes more time with patients, and "higher order complex thinking," he added.
Others, like Simon Rascovsky, a radiologist and director of medical informatics at medical software startup Nucleus Health, have heard statements like this before, given all the hype around artificial intelligence. But he said that the radiology field still doesn't have "clinically proven deep learning based applications outside of pilots and marketing hype."
More From CNBC | Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla thinks algorithms will replace radiologists. |
summarize: The annual CES convention in Las Vegas is known as the launch pad for a dizzying array of hardware products ranging from concept cars and super-thin TVs to laptops and tablets.
So it might seem odd that rather than introducing a new fitness-tracking device, Fitbit (FIT) rolled into the show with a number of software updates for its existing wearables including new social features, an update to the company’s Fitstar app and compatibility with non-Fitbit devices.
The move, though, is part of a strategic turn for the device maker as it seeks to decrease its dependence on hardware sales and increase the importance of its software business.
“I think part of it is that we are trying to shift the perception of Fitbit from being just a hardware company to a connected device company where software is equally, if not more so, important,” Fitbit CEO James Park told Yahoo Finance.
“I think a lot of those announcements that we made really reinforced that fact, whether it’s our community feed, which I think is really critical for maintaining engagement and retention of our users,” he said.
User retention is of the utmost importance for a company like Fitbit, too. According to a survey by market research firm Gartner, 30% of fitness tracker owners abandon their devices because they “get bored of them or they break.”
Fitbit sees social features like its new Community Feed as a means to encourage consumers to continue using their devices long after the initial honeymoon period of buying their trackers wears off.
The feature, which launches in March, allows users to connect directly with their friends and family through the Fitbit app where they can share their workout stats, something Park says people already do via Instagram and Facebook (FB).
Users will also have access to information from Fitbit fitness experts and be able to encourage and compete with friends via a weekly workout leaderboard. A Groups feature lets users join communities-related to topics including fitness, nutrition and weight loss.
“People always ask us about competition, either from larger companies or cheaper competitors, and really the sustainable competitive advantage that Fitbit has had over the years is the strength of its user community,” said Park. “People are more likely to buy a Fitbit, because their friends and family are already users and less likely to buy a competing device or leave.”
A Health insurance push
In addition to its social push, Fitbit and UnitedHealthcare (UNH) announced that the insurer will begin providing Fitbit’s Charge 2 tracker to eligible UnitedHealthcare Motion subscribers. The program allows users to earn up to $1,500 a year toward their medical expenses by hitting specific fitness goals.
UnitedHealthcare says it tracks what it calls a subscriber’s FIT rating, which stands for Frequency, Intensity and Tenacity. To reach your goals, you need to go on six brief walks a day of 300 steps in 5 minutes, walk an additional 3,000 steps in 30 minutes and reach a total of 10,000 steps per day.
Teaming with an insurer like UnitedHealthcare is a wise move for Fitbit, as doing so provides the company with opportunities to expand its sources of income.
“It’s definitely a significant revenue stream in the future,” Park said, adding that he couldn’t provide any specifics quite yet. | The annual CES convention in Las Vegas is known as the launch pad for a dizzying array of hardware products ranging from concept cars and super-thin TVs to laptops and tablets. |
summarize: Wednesday is the last day for Americans to submit comments to federal regulators about the idea of rolling back the government’s net neutrality rules.
Supporters claim the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) push to eliminate or weaken the rules would support renewed investment in America’s internet networks, while critics argue the move would empower big business and stifle consumer choice.
Net neutrality is the principle that all internet content be treated equally by internet service providers (ISPs) such as Comcast or Verizon.
Wednesday marks the end of the statutory period under which Americans can comment on agency initiatives, with 22 million having done so at the time of publication.
Under current rules, internet providers cannot arbitrarily block websites, reduce service speed or charge more for access to internet “fast lanes.” The current rules were approved by the FCC in 2015, under a Democratic administration.
The FCC's current chairman, Ajit Pai, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in January, opposes the rules, which reclassified internet service providers as if they were utilities.
Pai has said the rules are bad for jobs and investment, and amount to "the government controlling the internet."
Those wishing to submit comments on the initiative are required to visit the relevant docket, and click "+Express.”
You'll then be presented with a from to fill out, which you can review before filing.
The agency is obliged to consider all comments on the issue as it reaches its final order.
Related Articles | Defenders claim a rollback would boost internet investment, while critics say it would erase the internet's level playing field. |
summarize: Talk of mass job losses and the need to give humans a computer layer in their brain as a result of artificial intelligence (AI), an idea put forward by billionaire Elon Musk, are "alarmist" and distract from the good being done by the technology, a top start-up CEO told CNBC on Thursday.
Major warnings have been issued by technologists about the impact of AI on society in the next few years. For example, Alibaba founder Jack Ma said society could face decades of "pain" from the result of automation, while Musk has started a company called Neuralink to research the development of human-machine interfaces.
Babak Hodjat, the CEO of Sentient Technologies, one of the world's highest-funded AI start-ups, however, said that such developments were still in the realm of science fiction and in fact are distracting companies from developing world-changing solutions.
"We are nowhere near that on the technology side, and it's distracting to the fact that AI today can help the world in so many places, and the discourse is being taken over by folks that are alarmists, around something that might happen in 100 years, 150 years," Hodjat told CNBC during an interview at the Pioneers tech show in Vienna on Thursday.
"This can help us find the cure to cancer or solve world hunger, and I'm not joking. These are the types of projects that people are looking at and we are just making all this unnecessary and in my opinion, a lot comes from people who don't, have not been involved that deeply in AI in the past. Somehow they have seen the power of it and they are jumping to conclusions that's my sense."
Hodjat said that humans have been augmenting themselves for a while, by wearing clothes or using smartphones and computers. While a future in which the brain becomes augmented by a computer is possible, Hodjat said this is unlikely to come soon.
"I think that is science fiction more than something that is necessary today and it's way out there, there are many many technologies that have to be solved before we get there."
Sentient Technologies is a U.S.-based AI firm which is applying the technology to different sectors such as finance and e-commerce.
More From CNBC | Talk of mass job losses and the need to give humans a computer layer in their brain as a result of AI are "alarmist", a start-up CEO told CNBC Thursday. |
summarize: The big themes at CES 2017 might be VR, self-driving cars and smart home accessories, but laptops are still a huge part of the show. Case in point: Samsung announced a a new line of gaming notebooks and a partnership with Google (GOOG, GOOGL) to roll out two new Chromebooks that can run Android apps.
First up, Samsung’s new gaming laptops, the Notebook Odyssey 15 and the Notebook Odyssey 17. Both systems are meant to make gamers’ hearts sing with powerful Intel Core i7 desktop-class processors that’ll have players burning through their favorite titles.
The Odyssey 15 can get up to 32GB of RAM, while the 17 gets up to 64GB, which is just shy of aggressively unnecessary. In terms of storage, the 15 gets a 256GB solid-state drive and a 1TB hard-disk drive. The 17 gets a 512GB SSD and a 1TB HDD. That’s a whole lot of storage.
Samsung says it wants gamers to be able to upgrade their machines over time. To do that, the company has made it easy to access the Odyssey 15 and Odyssey 17’s RAM and storage drive so you can swap them out with ease.
As far as graphics go, the Odyssey 15 comes with an Nvidia (NVDA) GTX 1050 chip, while the 17’s chip is still to be determined — though it will likely be a bit more powerful than the 15’s.
The only place the Odyssey systems seem to lag behind some of their gaming laptop competitors is with their displays. Unlike systems from HP, which offer 4K resolution panels, the Odysseys come with 1080p screens. That’s not exactly a serious issue. In fact, when I played “Overwatch” on the Odyssey 15 it looked fantastic. But if you’re looking for a 4K monitor it’s an important to note you’re not getting one.
Naturally, Samsung’s Odyssey 15 and 17 also look like gaming laptops. That means they come with backlit logos on their display panels and backlit touchpads.
The Odyssey 15 also gets red backlighting on its keyboard, while the 17 gets multicolored backlighting for its keys.
Why is Samsung getting into the gaming PC market? Because as the rest of the PC market is falling, gaming PC sales are doing incredibly well. That’s because gamers always want the best machines, and so they upgrade their systems more frequently than your average consumer.
Chromebook Plus and Pro
The Chromebook Plus and Pro are completely different from the Odyssey systems. These are slim, lightweight machines that are designed for maximum portability.
Samsung worked closely with Google this time around to ensure that the Plus and Pro are the first Chromebooks that are capable of running the millions of Android apps in the Google Play store right out of the box. That means you’ll be able to do things like access Google Keep, play “Clash of Clans” and use Adobe apps just like you would on your smartphone or tablet.
Speaking of tablets, both the Pro and Plus are actually 2-in-1 devices, meaning you can use them as oversized Android slates. What’s more, the Chromebooks’ 12.3-inch 2400 x 1600 resolution displays look downright beautiful.
Samsung says it will also include a stylus with the Chromebooks so you can draw and write on their displays. | Case in point: Samsung announced a a new line of gaming notebooks and a partnership with Google (GOOG, GOOGL) to roll out two new Chromebooks that can run Android apps. The Odyssey 15 can get up to 32GB of RAM, while the 17 gets up to 64GB, which is just shy of aggressively unnecessary. |
summarize: By David Shepardson
(Reuters) - Electronics manufacturer Foxconn will announce plans to build a multi-billion dollar flat panel screen plant in Wisconsin at a White House event later on Wednesday, a source briefed on the matter said.
A White House official said President Donald Trump is hosting an event at 5 p.m. EDT with Foxconn "for a technology manufacturing initiative announcement that will bring jobs and billions of dollars in investments to our country."
Foxconn, which is formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd <2317.TW>, said last month it plans to invest more than $10 billion in a display-making factory in the United States. Seven U.S. states have competed for new investments from Foxconn.
The factory is expected initially to create 3,000 jobs and produce computer and TV screens.
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told a Wisconsin TV station that Trump was aboard Marine One over Kenosha, Wisconsin, in April and spotted the site of a former Chrysler plant.
When Foxconn executives met with Trump in the Oval Office, "the president said I know a good spot where you should go -- that place in Kenosha," Priebus recounted.
Trump has called for companies to build more products in the United States and open additional plants. He has made several announcements since his election in November about U.S. investments by both foreign and domestic manufacturers, building on his campaign focus on boosting American jobs. Some of those announcements sought to take credit for previously announced investments.
Not all Foxconn investments announced have resulted in new jobs.
In 2013, Foxconn said it would invest $30 million and hire 500 workers for a new factory in Pennsylvania. But that facility was never completed, according to local media reports. Foxconn has another small operation in Pennsylvania.
Tai Jeng-wu, CEO of Foxconn's Japanese unit Sharp Corp <6753.T>, said in June that six U.S. states were being evaluated for a possible location for a plant to make displays.
Foxconn's decision to build the plant in Wisconsin was reported earlier by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The company is also a major supplier to Apple Inc for its iPhones.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker touted a "major jobs announcement for Wisconsin" planned later at the White House.
In the 2016 presidential race, Trump narrowly prevailed over Democrat Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin, one of a few states in the Upper Midwest that helped carry him to victory. His message of keeping jobs in the United States resonated strongly with middle-class voters in rust belt states like Wisconsin.
The United States has added 70,000 manufacturing jobs since November, to nearly 12.4 million, but has not added any net factory jobs in the last two months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook has committed to build three big manufacturing plants in the United States. Apple did not comment.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, Vice President Mike Pence and Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou will attend Wednesday's event.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Dan Grebler and Chris Sanders) | Foxconn, which is formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd , said last month it plans to invest more than $10 billion in a display-making factory in the United States. Seven U.S. states have competed for new investments from Foxconn. |
summarize: In people's minds, Antarctica may appear as a bleak white landscape but scientists claim the continent is turning green because of a warming in the climate.
A team of British researchers have tested three separate sites and concluded that the quantity of moss and the pace the plant is growing at has increased rapidly in the last 50 years.
"Temperature increases over roughly the past half century on the Antarctic Peninsula have had a dramatic effect on moss banks growing in the region," said Matt Amesbury, a research fellow at the University of Exeter.
"If this continues, and with increasing amounts of ice-free land from continued glacier retreat, the Antarctic Peninsula will be a much greener place in the future," he said in a university press release on Thursday.
The scientists analyzed data for the last 150 years and found evidence of points in time in the last 50 years after which biological activity increased.
"The sensitivity of moss growth to past temperature rises suggests that ecosystems will alter rapidly under future warming, leading to major changes in the biology and landscape of this iconic region," said Professor Dan Charman, who led the research project.
Charman said the findings on Antarctica mirrored other studies of the Arctic Circle at the North Pole.
"In short, we could see Antarctic greening to parallel well-established observations in the Arctic.
"Although there was variability within our data, the consistency of what we found across different sites was striking," he added.
The same group of researchers published a study focusing on one site in 2013, and said this new research confirms that the "greening" trend can be applied to a much larger region.
The new paper, published in the journal Current Biology, is entitled: "Widespread biological response to rapid warming on the Antarctic Peninsula."
Plant life only exists on about 0.3 percent of Antarctica according to the scientific team who now plan to examine core records dating back over thousands of years to test how much climate change affected ecosystems before human activity became a factor.
More From CNBC | The image of the South Pole as a barren, white landscape looks set to change. |
summarize: It’s a fact of life: You have better cell service outside your house than inside it. Which is a shame, since it’d be awfully nice to have, and pay for, only one phone number (your cellphone’s) instead of two (your landline’s as well).
But most modern iPhones and Androids harbor a handy little secret: They can carry your calls by Wi-Fi. In other words, your home’s Wi-Fi hotspot acts as a big ol’ indoor cell tower just for you.
On the iPhone, you turn on this feature in Settings to Phone > Wi-Fi Calling.
On Android, of course, the steps (and the feature itself) depend on which phone model you have and which version of Android it has. But in general, you should find it in Settings > Wireless & network > More (or More Settings, or Advanced Settings).
On either kind of phone, you’re now looking at the Wi-Fi Calling switch. Turn it on.
And that’s it! Now, whenever your phone is home, it can make Verizon, AT&T, Sprint or T-Mobile calls with incredible clarity and perfect signal. When you leave the Wi-Fi, it seamlessly switches over to the cellular network.
You’re welcome!
More from Pogue:
iOS 10 Hidden Feature: Bedtime-consistency management
Pogue’s Basics: Money – The Amazon card
iOS 10 Hidden Feature: Do Not Disturb Emergency Bypass
Pogue’s Basics: Money – Extended warranties
Pogue’s cheap, unexpected tech gifts #2: ThinOptics glasses
A dozen iOS 10 feature gems that Apple forgot to mention
GoPro’s most exciting mount yet: a drone
Professional-looking blurry backgrounds come to the iPhone 7 Plus
Pogue’s Basics: Turn off Samsung’s Smart Guide
Pogue Basics: Touch and hold Google Maps
The Apple Watch 2 is faster, waterproof—and more overloaded than ever
We sent a balloon into space — and an epic scavenger hunt ensued
Now I get it: Snapchat
The new Fitbits are smarter, better-looking, and more well-rounded | It’s a fact of life: You have better cell service outside your house than inside it. Which is a shame, since it’d be awfully nice to have, and pay for, only one phone number (your cellphone’s) instead of two (your landline’s as well). |
summarize: Dell’s XPS 13 is one of the best laptops on the market. We like it so much, we even made it one of our top picks for both 2016 and 2015. This year, though, Dell is changing things up a bit with an all-new model: The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1.
Yes, Dell has turned the XPS 13 into a hybrid laptop-tablet thanks to a new 360-degree-hinged display. The PC maker also lopped off some of the XPS 13’s already slim chassis and added a new webcam to the mix.
The XPS 13 2-in-1 does have a few quirks, namely the odd placement of the aforementioned webcam and a slower processor than the standard XPS 13. But overall, the XPS 13 2-in-1 ($1,299 as tested) is a solid offering that’s nearly as good as its stablemate.
Cutting the fat
Dell’s original XPS 13 is an attractive, well-built machine. So it’s nice to see that the PC maker didn’t alter much of that system’s DNA when it came time to build the XPS 13 2-in-1. The laptop’s aluminum lid features an understated Dell logo, while its carbon fiber palm rest gives the system a unique look and feel that’s durable, but smooth to the touch. At 12 x 7.8 x 0.54 inches, the XPS 13 2-in-1 is slightly slimmer than the standard XPS 13, which measures 12 x 9.3 x 0.6 inches. Both laptops weigh 2.7 pounds.
The XPS 13 2-in-1 360-degree touchscreen folds smoothly, but is sturdy enough to prevent any unnecessary play when in laptop mode. Like its predecessor, XPS 13 2-in-1’s gorgeous InfinityEdge display sports ultra-thin bezels that makes it feel like you’re holding nothing more than a screen when using the system in tablet mode.
I use a MacBook Air 13-inch (starting at $999) as my daily driver and the size difference between it and the XPS 13 2-in-1 is quite noticeable. The XPS isn’t just shorter and slimmer than Apple’s (AAPL) offering; it weighs less, too. It’s not as if the Air weighs a ton, either. But every ounce counts when you’ve got a bag that’s already overflowing with pens, unopened bills and random deodorant sticks — don’t ask — like mine.
That said, the MacBook comes with a more powerful processor, so if you’re looking for a system with more oomph, you’ll probably go with the Air.
The closest competitor Apple offers to the XPS 13 2-in-1 is the standard 12-inch MacBook (starting at $1,299), which is narrower, thinner and lighter than the Dell. However, the XPS can also be used as a tablet, which is more useful than saving a few extra tenths of an inch.
A tablet with no edges
The XPS 2-in-1’s 13-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 display is absolutely gorgeous, though not as sharp as the optional 3,200 x 1,800 panel. Still, movies looked clear and colors were radiant. The notebook’s screen is also exceptionally bright, making it easy to view if you ever happen to use it out in the midday sun.
Using the XPS 13 2-in-1 as a tablet is a bit odd at first, though. The slate is pretty wide in portrait mode, which makes holding it feel a bit uncomfortable when you’re not resting it on your lap or a table. I did, however, like flipping the display over and using the keyboard as a stand to watch movies while making dinner. | Dell’s XPS 13 is one of the best laptops on the market. This year, though, Dell is changing things up a bit with an all-new model: The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1. Yes, Dell has turned the XPS 13 into a hybrid laptop-tablet thanks to a new 360-degree-hinged display. |
summarize: No your eyes are not playing tricks on you – your mobile Google Maps app did just turn into a Ms. Pac-Man game.
Google’s gag is just in time for April Fools’ Day.
The game plays on real-life streets from wherever you are.
You get the full Pac-Man experience, including the infamous sound effects.
Just open up your app and you can start playing.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/play-ms-pac-man-google-maps-april-fools-day-trick-2017-3
More:
This high-tech workout bag cleans itself
The car of the future debuts at SXSW
There’s now an indoor potty for small dogs
Get out of your next traffic jam with this flying car
A self-driving car that can do your errands for you
Robot teaches kids as young as 3 to code
This food recycler will turn your food scraps into fertilizer
Industrial robot technology may soon be in your home
Wristband monitors your blood alcohol content while you drink
Breast-pumping moms can now go wireless
The world’s first 3-screen gaming laptop is mind-blowing
Netflix has just helped improve your commute
Apple’s plan to beat Google in the maps game
Your next food delivery order could come from a robot
You can now add cooking to the list of things Alexa can help you do
This anti-drone gun looks like it can do some serious damage
You could soon be using your smartphone to get cash from the ATM
Instagram offers disappearing photos and live broadcasting
You may soon be able to use a drone to catch fish
Amazon offers special deals through Alexa
WhatsApp video calling is finally here
Sold-out Snapchat sunglasses already on eBay
You can now cast Harry Potter spells from your phone
Apple reveals new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
This smart crib will help your baby sleep safely through the night
New hybrid console takes Nintendo on the go | No your eyes are not playing tricks on you – your mobile Google Maps app did just turn into a Ms. Pac-Man game. Google’s gag is just in time for April Fools’ Day. The game plays on real-life streets from wherever you are. You get the full Pac-Man experience, including the infamous sound effects. |
summarize: After almost three years, the Dot smartwatch is ready to hit the market.
It’s the first assistive smartwatch to display braille messages on its screen.
The round, sleek face displays six cells of six balls each, and allows users to send back simple replies by using two side buttons.
The watch has been in development since 2014 but kept hitting delays.
The company is now ready to ship it to 100,000 backers, reportedly including Stevie Wonder.
Source: http://mashable.com/2017/02/22/dot-smartwatch-retails/#MsQtlXgDuaqM
More:
Robot teaches kids as young as 3 to code
This food recycler will turn your food scraps into fertilizer
Industrial robot technology may soon be in your home
Wristband monitors your blood alcohol content while you drink
Breast-pumping moms can now go wireless
The world’s first 3-screen gaming laptop is mind-blowing
Netflix has just helped improve your commute
Apple’s plan to beat Google in the maps game
Your next food delivery order could come from a robot
You can now add cooking to the list of things Alexa can help you do
This anti-drone gun looks like it can do some serious damage
You could soon be using your smartphone to get cash from the ATM
Instagram offers disappearing photos and live broadcasting
You may soon be able to use a drone to catch fish
Amazon offers special deals through Alexa
WhatsApp video calling is finally here
Sold-out Snapchat sunglasses already on eBay
You can now cast Harry Potter spells from your phone
Apple reveals new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
This smart crib will help your baby sleep safely through the night
New hybrid console takes Nintendo on the go | After almost three years, the Dot smartwatch is ready to hit the market. |
summarize: AeroMobil is calling this the next-generation vehicle.
The company unveiled their flying car in 2014 but it was not commercially available.
Now it’s ready and being presented at the Top Marques car show in Monaco.
The vehicle is fully functional as both a car and an aircraft, and its hybrid engine makes it environmentally friendly.
You will need more than just a driver’s license to operate the car of the future – a pilot’s license will be needed as well.
This isn’t the first flying-car concept – Airbus and Italdesign debuted the Pop.Up earlier this year.
As more flying-car concepts get revealed, we can’t help but wonder…aren’t these just small planes and helicopters with wheels?
Source: http://www.livescience.com/58663-aeromobil-flying-car-available-to-preorder.html
More:
This high-tech workout bag cleans itself
The car of the future debuts at SXSW
There’s now an indoor potty for small dogs
Get out of your next traffic jam with this flying car
A self-driving car that can do your errands for you
Robot teaches kids as young as 3 to code
This food recycler will turn your food scraps into fertilizer
Industrial robot technology may soon be in your home
Wristband monitors your blood alcohol content while you drink
Breast-pumping moms can now go wireless
The world’s first 3-screen gaming laptop is mind-blowing
Netflix has just helped improve your commute
Apple’s plan to beat Google in the maps game
Your next food delivery order could come from a robot
You can now add cooking to the list of things Alexa can help you do
This anti-drone gun looks like it can do some serious damage
You could soon be using your smartphone to get cash from the ATM
Instagram offers disappearing photos and live broadcasting
You may soon be able to use a drone to catch fish
Amazon offers special deals through Alexa
WhatsApp video calling is finally here
Sold-out Snapchat sunglasses already on eBay
You can now cast Harry Potter spells from your phone
Apple reveals new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
This smart crib will help your baby sleep safely through the night
New hybrid console takes Nintendo on the go | The company unveiled their flying car in 2014 but it was not commercially available. Now it’s ready and being presented at the Top Marques car show in Monaco. The vehicle is fully functional as both a car and an aircraft, and its hybrid engine makes it environmentally friendly. |
summarize: Elon Musk is on a roll.
On the weekend of June 23, his company SpaceX successfully completed two back-to-back rocket ship launches .
Then on Wednesday, Musk announced The Boring Company, the infrastructure business he founded in 2016, has completed the first leg of its dig to create a tunnel underneath Los Angeles.
He shared his glee through a series of tweets that proclaimed his love for tunnels and floors.
First he revealed the progress, referring to "Godot," the boring machine named after the Samuel Beckett character.
Then this:
According to Musk's tweets, "They will never let you down." And, "They are so under appreciated." Still:
"Just try one," Musk urges via Twitter. "It's way better than you think."
Then he gets romantic:
Musk has used social media to share various milestones during the tunnel-boring project, which he is undertaking in an effort to alleviate L.A. traffic. First, he plans to build a tunnel from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. to nearby Los Angeles International Airport.
Last month, Musk posted photos of "Godot." Before that he posted a YouTube video of what the completed tunnel system might look like.
Musk has also been posting about his SpaceX projects.
Friday, SpaceX launched and landed a reused rocket carrying the first telecommunications satellite for Bulgaria in a mission that originated at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Then on Sunday, SpaceX launched a rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California that landed on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean in eight minutes. The drone ship the rocket landed on was named "Just Read the Instructions."
Musk put a time-lapse video of the landing on his personal Instagram account.
The Sunday launch was part of a project SpaceX is doing for mobile voice and data satellite communications company Iridium. In total, SpaceX will put 75 satellites into orbit for the telecommunications company.
In addition to launching telecommunications satellites, Musk has grand plans for utilizing reusable rockets to make living on Mars feasible — he believes it could bring down the cost to less than buying a house in the U.S. He sees a future where people would save up for a move to Mars like they do a home.
"It gets to the point where almost anyone, if they saved up and this was their goal, could buy a ticket and move to Mars — and given that Mars would have a labor shortage for a long time, jobs would not be in short supply," he says.
On Musk's Instagram, he has also posted things like SpaceX parties and nights out with his new(ish) girlfriend Amber Heard.
There are more intimate shots, like hotel-room selfies, moments with his kids and this picture of him at 17.
Musk also recently revealed his morning routine .
See also:
The psychological trick that motivates Mark Cuban and Elon Musk to succeed
Elon Musk's 3 best pieces of advice for how to be a great leader
Ahead of Elon Musk, this self-made millionaire already launched a company to merge your brain with computers
This is an updated version of a previously published article .
More From CNBC | The Boring Company, the infrastructure business Musk founded, has completed the first leg of its dig to create a tunnel underneath Los Angeles. |
summarize: Disruption doesn't happen overnight. Instead, it's typically a process that moves along relatively quietly -- seemingly not making big changes at all. Then, at some point along the way, things are dramatically different than they were before. The disruption is apparent to everyone.
The reality is that disruption is going on nearly all the time, even if we don't realize it. That's especially true in healthcare. Five companies that are in the process of changing healthcare right now are CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP), Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT), Intellia Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NTLA), llumina (NASDAQ: ILMN), and IBM (NYSE: IBM). These companies are at different stages in the disruptive process, but healthcare will change dramatically because of what they're doing.
Image source: Getty Images.
Gene editing: CRISPR Therapeutics, Editas Medicine, Intellia Therapeutics
Gene editing involves the insertion, deletion, or replacement of DNA in a cell or organism. While there are several ways of editing genes, the most exciting technique right now is clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, or CRISPR, an approach that uses an enzyme found in bacteria to alter DNA.
Three small companies are at the forefront of using CRISPR: the appropriately named CRISPR Therapeutics, Editas Medicine, and Intellia Therapeutics. Each of these companies is using CRISPR gene editing to target multiple diseases. Some of those diseases are, as you might expect, caused by genetic mutations. For example, CRISPR Therapeutics and Editas are working on therapies for treating cystic fibrosis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. However, all three companies are also researching use of gene editing on the body's immune cells to fight cancer that isn't linked to genetic mutations.
The possibilities for CRISPR gene editing are tremendous. Some envision a day when many genetic diseases can be cured, or even prevented altogether. Others see the potential for even more effective cancer treatments using genetically altered cells. Regardless of whether these dreams come to pass, the work that CRISPR Therapeutics, Editas Medicine, and Intellia Therapeutics are doing today could greatly change how diseases are treated in the future.
Gene sequencing: Illumina
For gene editing to be successful, scientists must first know which genes are associated with which diseases. That's made possible by gene sequencing -- the process of determining the precise sequence of nucleotides within DNA. And the company leading the way in gene sequencing has been and still is Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN).
Not only has Illumina pioneered next-generation gene sequencing, a high-throughput method of mapping genes, it has also helped greatly reduce the costs, which in turn has paved the way for more research to be performed. Consider that in 2009, the average cost of sequencing a human genome, the complete set of DNA, was $200,000. Just five years later, the cost plunged to $1,000 -- thanks in large part to Illumina's technology. | Healthcare won't be the same in the future because of these pioneers in gene editing, gene sequencing, and artificial intelligence. |
summarize: For a service nobody asked for, Amazon Prime sure is doing well.
That’s the gist of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s letter to shareholders, released Wednesday, in which he explained his now-famous “customer-centric” approach.
“There are many advantages to a customer-centric approach, but here’s the big one: customers are always beautifully, wonderfully dissatisfied, even when they report being happy and business is great,” Bezos wrote. “Even when they don’t yet know it, customers want something better, and your desire to delight customers will drive you to invent on their behalf. No customer ever asked Amazon to create the Prime membership program, but it sure turns out they wanted it, and I could give you many such examples.”
Indeed, Amazon Prime has become a big hit with consumers since it launched in February 2005. The subscription membership, which has at least 66 million users by some third-party estimates, has transformed shoppers’ expectations around delivery. In turn, Prime has spearheaded an all-out arms race for faster shipping — an area other companies such as Google (GOOG, GOOGL), eBay (EBAY) and even Uber itself want a piece of.
Prime, meanwhile, has successfully evolved far beyond its simple roots into an all-inclusive package that also includes streaming entertainment, e-book lending and serves as a tool for acquiring and retaining customers. Prime’s original content has been well-received, with shows such as “Transparent” nabbing awards.
“In our opinion, Amazon continues to define consumer expectations for online shopping,” wrote Neil Doshi, managing director of Americas research for Mizuho Securities, in a recent research report obtained by Yahoo Finance.
But while Amazon Prime has reshaped customers’ expectations, the service has cost Amazon (AMZN) billions of dollars. For Amazon, it means relying upon and constantly expanding the company’s vast infrastructure of fulfillment centers to get items from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible. More recent initiatives like Prime Now, which promise two-hour delivery timeframes to Prime members in over 45 US cities for free, also place added pressure on the company’s growing warehouse infrastructure.
Given Bezos’s penchant for emphasizing long-term “customer-centric” gain over short-term profits, don’t expect Prime to become a moneymaker anytime soon.
—
JP Mangalindan is a senior correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
More from JP:
The 20 highest paying tech companies in America
Fitbit’s new smartwatch has been plagued by production mishaps
Facebook Messenger now analyzes your chats to give you recommendations
Gay tech workers earn less than their straight counterparts
How BlackBerry stays relevant in the age of the iPhone
Why Snap may be more like Twitter than Facebook
How ‘video understanding’ could transform Facebook
Why ‘experience can hurt tech workers in Silicon Valley
Why AI could be Silicon Valley’s latest ‘micro bubble’ | In his recent letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wrote that the company has become skilled at predicting customers' desires. "No customer ever asked Amazon to create the Prime membership program," he wrote. |
summarize: NEW YORK (AP) -- Baseball fans can like their team's games with a click starting Friday.
Major League Baseball announced Facebook will carry a live game nationally each Friday starting with Colorado at Cincinnati this week. The Facebook package of 20 games will use the broadcast feed of one of the involved teams.
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred made the announcement Thursday. He calls it "really important for us in terms of experimenting with a new partner in this area."
The Twitter feed of a game each Friday, which started April 7, will be moved to Tuesdays.
Dan Reed, Facebook's head of global sports partnerships, says in a statement "baseball games are uniquely engaging community experiences, as the chatter and rituals in the stands are often as meaningful to fans as the action on the diamond."
"By distributing a live game per week on Facebook, Major League Baseball can re-imagine this social experience on a national scale," he adds. | Baseball fans can like their team's games with a click starting Friday. Major League Baseball announced Facebook will carry a live game nationally each Friday starting with Colorado at Cincinnati this ... |
summarize: If you’re a longtime Pogue’s Basics fan, then you already know that you can jump 10 seconds ahead in playback of a YouTube video by pressing the L key. And jump 10 seconds back with the H key. And pause or unpause the video with the letter K.
You may also remember that the number keys on your keyboard, 1 through 0, represent 10-percent increments of the video. Hit 3 to jump 30% of the way in, for example.
Here’s one more: It’s often super helpful to watch a video on high speed, especially if it’s a slow talker. Usually you have to do a bunch of clicks to adjust the speed, starting with the gear icon at the lower right.
Fortunately there’s a keyboard shortcut: type >! That is, Shift-period. And less-than (<, or Shift-comma) to slow it down. Very cool!
David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes non-toxic comments in the Comments below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s @pogue. On email, he’s [email protected]. You can read all his articles here, or you can sign up to get his columns by email.
More Pogue:
Pogue’s Basics: Use YouTube’s built-in stabilizer
Pogue’s Basics: Bring back Photoshop’s New Document box
These 6 systems will get rid of Wi-Fi dead spots in your house
iOS 10 Hidden Feature: Bedtime-consistency management
Pogue’s Basics: Money – The Amazon card
iOS 10 Hidden Feature: Do Not Disturb Emergency Bypass
Pogue’s Basics: Money – Extended warranties
Pogue’s cheap, unexpected tech gifts #2: ThinOptics glasses
A dozen iOS 10 feature gems that Apple forgot to mention
GoPro’s most exciting mount yet: a drone
Professional-looking blurry backgrounds come to the iPhone 7 Plus
Pogue’s Basics: Turn off Samsung’s Smart Guide
Pogue Basics: Touch and hold Google Maps
The Apple Watch 2 is faster, waterproof—and more overloaded than ever
We sent a balloon into space — and an epic scavenger hunt ensued
Now I get it: Snapchat
The new Fitbits are smarter, better-looking, and more well-rounded | If you’re a longtime Pogue’s Basics fan, then you already know that you can jump 10 seconds ahead in playback of a YouTube video by pressing the L key. And jump 10 seconds back with the H key. And pause or unpause the video with the letter K. |
summarize: A few weeks back, I reviewed handheld stabilizers for your phone or your GoPro. They make a huge difference in the quality of your videos—because let’s face it: Jerky looks amateur.
But you may not need one of those expensive gadgets to stabilize your footage. Turns out YouTube can perform stabilization for you!
Find your video in your Video Manager. Hit Edit. Click the Enhancements tab, then Stabilize. Then go see a couple of movies; the analysis takes a really long time.
But when it’s over, the result is a thousand times more watchable. It’s not perfect—sometimes you get little moments of weirdness, where your hand jerked a lot—but hey, it’s free.
More Pogue:
These 6 systems will get rid of Wi-Fi dead spots in your house
Pogue’s Basics: Bring back Photoshop’s New Document box
iOS 10 Hidden Feature: Bedtime-consistency management
Pogue’s Basics: Money – The Amazon card
iOS 10 Hidden Feature: Do Not Disturb Emergency Bypass
Pogue’s Basics: Money – Extended warranties
Pogue’s cheap, unexpected tech gifts #2: ThinOptics glasses
A dozen iOS 10 feature gems that Apple forgot to mention
GoPro’s most exciting mount yet: a drone
Professional-looking blurry backgrounds come to the iPhone 7 Plus
Pogue’s Basics: Turn off Samsung’s Smart Guide
Pogue Basics: Touch and hold Google Maps
The Apple Watch 2 is faster, waterproof—and more overloaded than ever
We sent a balloon into space — and an epic scavenger hunt ensued
Now I get it: Snapchat
The new Fitbits are smarter, better-looking, and more well-rounded | A few weeks back, I reviewed handheld stabilizers for your phone or your GoPro. They make a huge difference in the quality of your videos—because let’s face it: Jerky looks amateur. |
summarize: YouTube TV is officially happening. Google (GOOG, GOOGL) on Wednesday announced that the world’s largest video sharing website is getting a live TV streaming service that will let you watch 40 channels at launch, including the five major broadcast stations, with more coming in the future.
The $35 per month service, which launches in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago and Philadelphia with other regions to follow, will let you stream ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and the CW. That’s a coup for Google, as competing services like Dish’s (DISH) Sling TV and Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation Vue either offer only some of or none of those broadcasters.
Outside of those channels, you’ll get Fox Sports and its FS1 and FS2 affiliates, ESPN and its various offshoots, CBS and NBC’s sports channels … you know what, let’s just say there are a bunch of sports networks. There’s also Syfy, Bravo, FX and FXX, E, Disney Channel, Fox News, MSNBC and CNBC and a slew of others.
Google says it’s also adding AMC, BBC America, IFC, Sundance, We tv and BBC World News in the near future. You’ll also have the option to add on Showtime and other channels for an added fee. You’ll get access to YouTube Red Originals as part of the standard package. Interestingly, Google doesn’t make any mention of adding HBO to the mix.
YouTube TV will include six user accounts, as well as a cloud-based DVR with unlimited storage. Which means you can save every episode of “Big Bang Theory” for when you have guests over and want a not-so-subtle way of chasing them out at the end of the night.
Beyond TV
Naturally, you’ll be able to stream YouTube TV through your browser on your desktop or laptop, as well as your smartphone or tablet. Google is also throwing in a free Chromecast after your first monthly payment, so you’ll be able to stream your shows to your big-screen TV when you want to relax on the couch and not have to hold your phone or laptop.
With its $35 price tag, Google immediately undercuts Sony’s PlayStation Vue, which starts at $39 per month. Sony’s offering, however, gets you more than 45 channels for that extra $4. Sling TV, meanwhile, starts at $20 per month for 30 channels, but gives you 45 if you jump to the $25 option.
Still, with its brand recognition and Google’s massive reach, YouTube TV could put a hurting on Vue and Sling TV.
Naturally, I’m taking it upon myself to test YouTube TV for you, dear reader, by locking myself in an office for the rest of the day and watching TV. The sacrifices I make for you people.
More from Dan:
The McAfee brand is back again after Intel finalizes spin-off
Windows 10 Creators Update: Microsoft’s best just got better
Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus: Giant screens, new voice controls and no fires
T-Mobile is making it harder for scammers to call you
Why Apple announced its new iPad with such little fanfare
The 8 features we want in the iPhone 8
How to avoid falling for email scams | Google's YouTube TV is officially here. The streaming TV service will get you 40 channels for $35 per month with more coming in the future. |
summarize: Check out any average commercial jetliner. If you look close enough, you'll noticed that it has a hole on the back of the tail.
It's called the auxiliary power unit, and it's the smallest engine on the plane. But that doesn't mean it serves a small purpose.
It provides the necessary power to start the plane's engines and lift off the ground. Without the APU, there's not enough energy to start the plane's main engines.
The main engines require so much energy that they need the APU to give them a little boost in the beginning.
Once in the air, the APU is shut off and the main engines take over.
Video courtesy of Airbus.
Follow Tech Insider: On Facebook
More From Business Insider
The US military and Boeing just teamed up to build a revolutionary spaceplane that can 'launch on demand'
A Stanford neuroscientist reveals something 'puzzling' in people who are extremely successful
Doctors say they're running out of baking soda — and the shortage is putting life-saving operations on hold | Check out any average commercial jetliner. If you look close enough, you'll noticed that it has a... |
summarize: CES, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show, is the stage that saw the debut of new technologies like the DVD and HDTV. But it’s also often the Island of Misfit Toys.
Companies that put too much faith in marketing research, a CEO’s vision or assurances from stressed-out engineers and developers, use the Las Vegas spotlight to introduce products that should have stayed in the lab. Some meet meet their fate in the consumer marketplace; some don’t even get that far.
But on reflection, these misbegotten gadgets at the Consumer Technology Association’s annual convention also have some lessons for the electronics industry, and for the customers who keep it in business.
Microsoft-keynote debuts
The company that for years was the biggest name in computing had a lock on CES’s biggest stage: its opening-night keynote. But for many Microsoft (MSFT) concepts, that was not an auspicious launchpad.
In 1998, Microsoft launched its Auto PC platform but then failed to get any US-market vehicles rolling off assembly lines with Windows CE computers in their dashboards. In 2002, its Smart Displays — touchscreen devices you’d use to access your PC’s apps from around the home — proved to be an expensive, sluggish mess. And in 2003, clunky “SPOT” semi-smart watches that plucked updates off broadcasts on FM frequencies drew few takers, leading the company to wind down the project in 2008.
Microsoft’s 2010 keynote may have been the worst of all: It was delayed by a series of electrical problems, and the “Slate” touchscreen Windows 7 computers featured in this presentation never shipped and went unmentioned at the 2011 keynote.
The lesson of this at a time when we do wear computers on our wrists, carry tablets around the house and rely on apps for navigation and entertainment behind the wheel: Having the right ambitions and the right corporate backing won’t help if you’re years ahead of what technology allows.
3D TV
At CES 2010, the problem wasn’t that a single tech company took a misguided leap into the future. Almost the entire TV industry lined up behind 3D TV in the sure hope that people who had flocked to movie theaters to watch “Avatar” in 3D would pay extra to bring that experience home.
Set vendors treated CES attendees to clips from that sci-fi blockbuster as well as a variety of other highlight reels, but nobody brought more starpower to the 3D project than Sony (SNE) — it had Taylor Swift play a brief set at its press conference, which we could watch live in 3D on a screen behind the stage.
But the whole 3D idea was not so … swift. Sorry. The steep cost of the sets, the need to buy separate battery-powered glasses for every viewer, and a lack of 3D fare on cable and satellite doomed the venture. It’s not the first time the electronics industry has made the mistake of trying to take a videophile technology mainstream. And to be fair, often it succeeds, though mostly because the tech in question gets cheap enough to become a standard feature.
Come to think of it, that’s probably explains why my Blu-ray player can play 3D movies. | CES, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show, is the stage that saw the debut of new technologies like the DVD and HDTV. But it’s also often the Island of Misfit Toys. |
summarize: A new space age is emerging, and the so-called space economy will become a multitrillion-dollar industry within the next two decades, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is telling its clients.
More than 50 venture capital firms invested in space in 2015, driving more VC dollars into the sector in that year alone than in the prior 15 years combined, analyst Noah Poponak wrote in a Tuesday note to investors. Those firms included SoftBank (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 9984.T-JP), Fidelity, Bessemer and the VC arm of Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)'s Google, among others.
"While relatively small markets today, rapidly falling costs are lowering the barrier to participate in the space economy, making new industries like space tourism, asteroid mining and on-orbit manufacturing viable," Poponak said.
Since 2000, more than $13 billion has been poured into space-related start-ups and established companies, Goldman's research shows. Key players receiving funds are broken down into satellite manufacturers, like Boeing (NYSE: BA); launch providers, like Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT); and operators, such as AT&T (NYSE: T) or Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH).
Asteroids could be the new equities
But investors are starting to look past the well-established industries within space, such as development of satellites and launchers, and into less-established ventures like space mining and tourism, Goldman wrote.
"We believe space mining is still a long way from commercial viability, but it has the potential to further ease access to space and facilitate an in-space manufacturing economy," Poponak said.
He went on to say that: "Space mining could be more realistic than perceived ... a single asteroid the size of a football field could contain $25 billion to $50 billion worth of platinum."
It's important to note that former President Barack Obama signed the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, which essentially opened the door for U.S. companies to explore, extract and recover space resources. This is what prompted leading tech figures like Elon Musk — with SpaceX — and Jeff Bezos — with Blue Origin — to join the so-called race to space.
President Donald Trump and his administration are reportedly considering a plan for the U.S. space program that calls for a "rapid and affordable" return to the moon by 2020. Though many in space-related industries, including Musk, have voiced concerns over Trump's proposals.
Nonetheless, Goldman believes "profit pools" are being created in areas of the universe that have yet to be explored — literally. Space is becoming a new economy, "with substantial new opportunity, long term."
More From CNBC | Since 2000, more than $13 billion has been poured into space-related start-ups and established companies. |
summarize: GameStop’s (GME) shares plummeted more than 13% on Friday after it reported weak sales the day before, but Nintendo’s new Switch console may help the video game retailer turn things around.
In a research report out Friday, Mizuho Securities Director of Americas of Equity Research San Phan estimated that GameStop could boost its hardware sales growth by 15% — compared with the retailer’s guidance of flat to slight growth — if it sells just 2 million Nintendo Switch units during the retailer’s fiscal 2017.
“We believe this would have a positive ripple effect on sales across multiple categories for GME: new SW [software], pre-owned, and accessories,” Phan wrote in the report.
On Thursday, GameStop reported fourth-quarter profits that surpassed analysts’ expectations but sales that fell short of forecasts. Global sales in the fourth quarter declined 13.6% year-over-year while same-store sales (sales at stores open at least a year) fell 16.3%; the retailer attributed the sales miss to a decline in video game hardware and software sales.
The retailer also said it expects to shutter between 2% to 3% of its stores worldwide — an unsurprising revelation given the larger overall transition to e-commerce.
Nintendo, in contrast, appears to be seeing something of a rebound, thanks to impressive early sales of its latest gaming console, the Nintendo Switch. In fact, the video game giant reportedly plans on doubling the number of Switch units it produces during the fiscal year ending March 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported. Nintendo, which had originally planned to produce 8 million Switch units this year, will apparently increase manufacturing to 16 million units with expectations of selling over 10 million units during the same period.
Also on the horizon: Xbox Scorpio, Microsoft’s (MSFT) next big console, which is expected to be 4K-friendly. GameStop Chief Operating Officer Tony Bartel expressed enthusiasm for Scorpio on Thursday’s investor call, calling it a “gamer friendly powerful console” that would help drive the retailer’s revenues when it arrives later this year.
If Bartel and Phan are correct, GameStop’s weak sales may turn around by year’s end.
—
JP Mangalindan is a senior correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
More from JP:
LinkedIn is getting a Facebook-like feature
Silicon Valley’s favorite sneaker has a wear-and-tear problem
How ‘video understanding’ could transform Facebook
3 major problems with Trump’s protectionist attitude toward China
Fry’s Electronics: How this tech retailer has survived the fall of brick-and-mortar
Why ‘experience can hurt tech workers in Silicon Valley
Why AI could be Silicon Valley’s latest ‘micro bubble’ | GameStop’s saving grace this year may be Nintendo’s recently released Switch console. GameStop’s (GME) shares plummeted more than 13% on Friday after it reported weak sales the day before, but Nintendo’s new Switch console may help the video game retailer turn things around. |
summarize: Well, it took two years. But Amazon has finally added a super-useful feature to the Echo: You can now set named timers. Like, you can say, “Alexa—remind me to watch the new Game of Thrones at 9 p.m.” And then at 9 p.m., it’ll say:
She says “Reminder: Watch Game of Thrones.”
Don’t forget!
Adapted from “Pogue’s Basics: Tech” (Flatiron Press), by David Pogue.
More from David Pogue:
Ossia thinks it’s licked the problems with through-the-air charging
Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant is ambitious, powerful, and half-bakedIs through-the-air charging a hoax?
Pogue’s Basics: The secret Start menu in Windows 10
The pizza-making robots that want to change the world
Electrify your existing bike in 2 minutes with these ingenious wheels
Marty Cooper, inventor of the cellphone: The next step is implantables
The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update
How a one-of-a-kind business has kept 5,000 kitchens out of landfills
Google’s Nest Cam IQ recognizes burglars’ faces—for a steep price
The 4 people Steve Jobs handpicked to review the iPhone reflect 10 years later
Study: A smartwatch app can detect the heart condition hiding in millions of Americans
Now I get it: Bitcoin
David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app
The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers
David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s @pogue. On email, he’s [email protected]. You can read all his articles here, or you can sign up to get his columns by email. | Amazon has added the ability to add names to timers with Alexa. |
summarize: After two months of discussions, Uber has finally found its next chief executive in current Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
The 48-year-old Iranian businessman was the third choice on the short list of Uber’s board, alongside former GE CEO Jeff Immelt and Hewlett Packard Enterprises CEO Meg Whitman. According to a Recode report on Sunday evening, Uber’s board voted largely in favor of Khosrowshahi, although it’s unclear at this point whether he will accept the board’s offer.
Uber did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication, and Khosrowshahi has yet to formally accept the offer.
Khosrowshahi has served as CEO of Expedia since 2005 where he helped expand the company to more than 60 countries. Prior to Expedia, the Brown University graduate served as chief financial officer of IAC, which owns Match.com
An Iranian immigrant, Khosrowshahi was one of the first tech leaders to file a legal challenge to President Trump’s travel ban, citing the potential harm it could do the company’s employees and customers.
As Uber’s new potential CEO, Khosrowshahi inherits an embattled company rocked by months of scandal involving sexual harassment in the workplace and ongoing litigation with Waymo, a self-driving company spun out by Google (GOOG, GOOGL) in late 2016.
More from JP:
The Essential Phone is a beautiful alternative to Apple’s iPhone
Amazon’s new Instant Pickup could help it dominate another industry
‘An affront to America:’ Tech leaders condemn Charlottesville violence
Facebook diversity chief: ‘We are not in the business of giving away jobs’ | Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is expected to take on the role of Uber CEO. |
summarize: NORWALK, Calif. (AP) — A California utility has launched unique systems combining a hybrid battery and gas turbine to produce and store electricity for use during hot summer months and other times when power demand soars.
The new Hybrid Electric Gas Turbines are the first of their kind in the world, officials with Southern California Edison and manufacturer General Electric said during an event Monday near Los Angeles.
Edison President Ron Nichols said the twin systems that went online March 30 operate somewhat like a hybrid car — drawing first on the battery, then switching over to the gas turbine if power demands spike.
Energy output is combined between turbines and new 10-megawatt lithium-ion battery storage units. As a result, the systems do not burn fuel when they're on stand-by, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And they can be turned on immediately to push power into the grid to compensate for outages or increased demand.
"The battery is there at the flick of a switch," Nichols said.
The systems are running in Norwalk and Rancho Cucamonga at plants built to provide extra juice following an especially hot summer that strained the grid. The utility is exploring adding the hybrid systems to three other similar plants.
"You don't always get an opportunity to take an existing facility, add some new technology to it, and enhance the value and reduce the cost to customers," Nichols said, calling the new systems "win-win."
The systems will help balance energy supply and demand, especially during evening hours when solar power production drops as customers return home and turn on lights and appliances.
California has committed to derive 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. The installation of the hybrid systems is a major step toward that goal, according to Tom Doughty of the California Independent Systems Operator, which manages the state's grid.
Doughty said the hybrid technology introduces crucial flexibility into the state system.
"The variability of one technology, or one plant, can be mitigated or managed by others," he said, calling the new system "a thing of beauty." | NORWALK, Calif. (AP) — A California utility has launched unique systems combining a hybrid battery and gas turbine to produce and store electricity for use during hot summer months and other times when power demand soars. |
summarize: Apple’s (AAPL) next iPhone is going to be a huge product for the tech company. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to say the 10th-anniversary edition of the handset will be the most important device in the company’s history. In fact, anticipation for the handset may have helped drive the Silicon Valley titan’s stock to an all-time high last week.
In other words, Apple is going to have to overdeliver on its next-generation iPhone. The phone needs to bring new features, an updated look and, above all, offer even iPhone 7 owners a reason to upgrade to the new phone.
The new iPhone will likely launch this September, when Apple traditionally launches its new smartphones. But the iPhone rumor mill is already churning at full speed. And if even some of these rumors prove true, the next iPhone could be Apple’s most compelling handset yet.
What’s in a name?
Here’s how little we know about the next iPhone at this point: We still don’t know its name. The going theory is that Apple will stick to its normal naming convention and call this the iPhone 7s, just like the phone after the iPhone 6 was the iPhone 6s.
Other rumors, though, indicate this iPhone will differ so radically from the iPhone 7 that it will skip the whole “s” moniker and jump right to the iPhone 8. Still other rumblings indicate that Apple will jump on the whole 10th anniversary of the iPhone brouhaha and call the handset the iPhone 10 or iPhone X.
3 different models?
To make things even more confusing, Apple might, in fact, be building three different versions of the next iPhone. According to a 9to5Mac, KGI Securities, which has a track record of accurately predicting Apple’s moves, there will be a 4.7-inch iPhone 7s, a 5.5-inch iPhone 7s Plus and a 5.5-inch iPhone 8 that will offer premium features not available on the 7s or 7s Plus.
Fast Company, meanwhile, reports the iPhone 8 will pack a massive 5.8-inch display and cost $1,000. That’s a lot of cash for an iPhone, especially when you consider that Apple faces stiff competition from less expensive premium handsets in China.
According to the Nikkei Asian Review, the iPhone 8 will sport a curved, wraparound OLED display similar to Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge that could be 5.5 inches or larger. There seems to be some consensus among the various leaks and rumors that the iPhone 8 will be the only one to get an OLED screen, while the 7s and 7s Plus will get standard LED screens.
Both Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal backed up the curved OLED display rumor in their own reports.
Why all the fuss over the type of screen Apple uses for the next iPhone? Because OLED panels are known for their vibrant colors and inky blacks. They’re also more power efficient than more traditional LED screens, which means the OLED-equipped iPhone would offer improved battery life.
Leaving the Home button behind
One of the main themes in the iPhone 8 rumor mill is that Apple’s premium handset will lose not only the bezels on its left and right edges, but its top and bottom bezels, as well. Yes, the iPhone 8 could essentially be one large screen. | Apple’s (AAPL) next iPhone is going to be a huge product for the tech company. In other words, Apple is going to have to overdeliver on its next-generation iPhone. The phone needs to bring new features, an updated look and, above all, offer even iPhone 7 owners a reason to upgrade to the new phone. |
summarize: SYDNEY (AP) — Tesla announced on Friday it will build the world's largest lithium-ion battery in southern Australia, part of a bid to solve an energy crisis that has led to ongoing blackouts across the region.
Tesla will partner with French renewable energy company Neoen to build the 100-megawatt battery farm in South Australia state, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk promising to deliver the system within 100 days of signing the contract or it will be free. The billionaire entrepreneur originally made the 100-day pledge via Twitter in March, and he and South Australia's government confirmed on Friday that the deadline was part of their official agreement.
"The system will be three times more powerful than any system on earth," Musk told reporters in the state capital, Adelaide. "This is not like a minor foray into the frontier — this is like going three times further than anyone's gone before."
South Australia, which relies heavily on solar and wind-generated energy, has been scrambling to find a way to bolster its fragile power grid since the entire state suffered a blackout during a storm last year. Further blackouts plagued the state over the next few months.
The battery farm is part of a AU$550 million ($420 million) plan announced in March by South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill to make the state independent of the nation's power grid. The Australian Energy Market Operator, which manages the national grid, has warned of potential shortages of gas-fired electricity across southeast Australia by late next year. The shortage is looming as Australia is expected to soon overtake Qatar as the world's biggest exporter of liquid natural gas. Australia is also a major exporter of coal, which fires much of its electricity generation.
The South Australia battery will store energy from Neoen's Hornsdale Wind Farm near Jamestown, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) north of Adelaide. It will deliver energy during peak usage hours to help maintain the state's supply, and could power 30,000 homes, Tesla said.
"You can essentially charge up the battery packs when you have excess power and where the cost is very low, and it discharges when the cost of production is high — this lowers the average cost per hour to the customer," Musk said. "It's a fundamental efficiency improvement."
The installation of the battery is expected to be complete by December. The cost of the project has not been released. | SYDNEY (AP) — Tesla announced on Friday it will build the world's largest lithium-ion battery in southern Australia, part of a bid to solve an energy crisis that has led to ongoing blackouts across the region. |
summarize: Steve Jurvetson resigned from his venture capital firm DFJ and took a leave of absence from the boards of Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. after claims of misconduct against him. He denied the allegations.
Jurvetson, who’s known for backing Elon Musk’s companies, said he’s leaving his VC firm “to focus on personal matters, including taking legal action against those whose false statements have defamed me.”
More from Bloomberg.com: Bitcoin Crashes and Then Surges in Wild Weekend Action
DFJ said last month that it had hired a law firm to investigate Jurvetson after hearing indirect allegations about potential misconduct. On Monday, Jurvetson resigned from DFJ “by mutual agreement,” said Carol Wentworth, a spokeswoman for the firm. “DFJ’s culture has been, and will continue to be, built on the values of respect and integrity in all of our interactions,” she wrote in an email.
Besides Jurvetson’s close relationship with Musk, he made an early and successful bet on Hotmail before Microsoft Corp. acquired it. Jurvetson has maintained a high profile in recent weeks. In October, he hosted a fireside chat with Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and a fellow board member, on the campus of Stanford University. Last week, he spoke at a New Space Age conference at Seattle’s Museum of Flight. He’s continued to post photographs of his travels and speaking engagements on his Flickr page .
More from Bloomberg.com: The U.S. Yield Curve Is Flattening and Here's Why It Matters
Several other Silicon Valley venture capitalists and prominent business figures, such as Dave McClure from 500 Startups, Justin Caldbeck from Binary Capital and Mike Cagney from SoFi, have resigned in recent months after being accused of sexual harassment and other abusive behavior in the workplace. McClure and Caldbeck apologized; Cagney denied allegations.
Last month, a Los Angeles-based entrepreneur, Keri Kukral, wrote in a Facebook post: “Women approached by founding partners of Draper Fisher Jurvetson should be careful. Predatory behavior is rampant.”
More from Bloomberg.com: Here’s Where the GOP Tax Plan Stands Right Now
The uncertainty on Tesla’s board comes at a critical time for the automaker. The company is struggling with early production of the Model 3, a more affordable and hotly anticipated electric sedan. After a couple delays, Tesla plans to unveil a fully electric big rig at a late-night event Thursday in Hawthorne, California. Meanwhile, the closely held SpaceX has its 17th launch of the year slated for Wednesday from Florida.
In addition to Musk’s companies, Jurvetson sits on the boards of D-Wave Systems Inc., Memphis Meats, Mythic, Planet Labs Inc. and Synthetic Genomics Inc.
Updates with background starting in fifth paragraph.
More from Bloomberg.com
GE Investors Aren't Impressed by the New CEO's Sweeping Revamp
Trump ‘Can Be Played,’ Ex-Intelligence Chiefs Say
Euro Economy Is Heading Towards a Golden Period | Steve Jurvetson resigned from his venture capital firm DFJ and took a leave of absence from the boards of Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. after claims of misconduct against him. He ... |
summarize: BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) -- Kelly Bryant ran around and away from No. 12 Virginia Tech and led No. 2 Clemson to a 31-10 victory Saturday night, the Tigers' third in three games against teams in the Top 25.
Making just his fifth start, the junior ran for 94 yards, hit Tavien Feaster with a pass the speedy running back took 60 yards for a score and avoided mistakes. He also kept alive a late scoring drive after scrambling right on a play that started at the 5, dodging three Hokies, shaking free from an ankle tackle and eventually turning back upfield at the 23. He zig-zagged all the way back to the 4.
The defending national champion Tigers (5-0, 3-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) have also beaten No. 13 Auburn 14-6 and No. 17 Louisville 47-21. This triumph was their 12th in a row on the road, and fifth in a row against Virginia Tech, including the 2016 ACC championship.
Virginia Tech (4-1, 0-1) never mustered much offense and got its only touchdown after Isaiah Simmons made an ankle tackle on Greg Stroman's 43-yard punt return to the Tigers 2. Sean Savoy ran it on the next play, but the Hokies had just 234 yards through three quarters.
Feaster and C.J. Fuller also scored on 1-yard runs for the Tigers, and Dorian O'Daniel returned an interception 22 yards for a TD.
Virginia Tech's Josh Jackson threw two interceptions after throwing 11 touchdown passes and just one interception through four games. He accounted for the final score with a 30-yard pass to Savoy with 1:32 remaining.
THE TAKEAWAY
Clemson: The Tigers' defensive front was as stellar as Hokies coach Justin Fuente said it would be, giving Jackson little time to throw and seeming to close running lanes easily. Despite some nicks in the secondary, the Clemson defensive backfield also ran step-for-step on long passing attempts by Jackson, while Kelly, who came in with three interceptions and two touchdown passes, showed no inclination to be rattled in the rare moments when Virginia Tech applied pressure.
Virginia Tech: Despite playing the Tigers close in last year's ACC championship, the Hokies didn't appear quite ready for an opponent this good and seasoned after two straight appearances in the national championship game. Their offensive line got very little push and the Tigers didn't allow the Hokies' to get much productivity from their favored short passing game.
UP NEXT
Clemson is at home against Wake Forest.
Virginia Teach heads out on the road against Boston College.
___
More AP college football: http://www.collegefootball.ap.org and https://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25
___
Follow Hank on Twitter: www.twitter.com/hankkurzjr | Kelly Bryant ran around and away from No. 12 Virginia Tech and led No. 2 Clemson to a 31-10 victory Saturday night, the Tigers' third in three games against teams in the Top 25. Making just his fifth start, ... |
summarize: By Olivia Oran
(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc plans to begin using a "personality test" as part of the hiring process for positions in its banking, trading and finance and risk divisions, a senior Goldman executive said on Wednesday.
The bank will begin using the test on candidates for U.S. summer internships in 2018, Matt Jahansouz, Goldman's global head of recruiting, said in an interview.
He said future job candidates would be given the test before their second round of interviews at the bank. Their answers will be compared with those of current Goldman employees, who have already been identified as exhibiting traits that mark high performance such as teamwork, analytical thinking and judgment, Jahansouz said.
Candidates' results on the test will be just one factor in the final hiring decision, which also includes in-person interviews, Jahansouz added.
It was not immediately clear how the test would be administered or the types of questions that would be asked.
Banks like Goldman are turning to non-traditional ways of evaluating new hires at a time when they are under pressure to lure and retain top talent. Wall Street has been struggling for years to compete for the best employees with Silicon Valley, hedge funds and private equity funds which often have better hours and workplace perks.
"We're shifting from a world where you just used to look at a GPA and resume and walk out with a feeling about an individual that you might want to hire," Jahansouz said. "We can now capture characteristics and data that might not be as obvious to make smarter hiring decisions."
Goldman last year also made other moves to help it identify strong candidates who may not attend Ivy League schools by scrapping first round interviews on college campuses in favor of a video platform.
The bank began reviewing its hiring process in the summer of 2015.
(This version of the story fixes garble in paragraph two and clarifies testing to begin on candidates for 2018 summer intern positions)
(Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Tom Brown) | (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc plans to begin using a "personality test" as part of the hiring process for positions in its banking, trading and finance and risk divisions, a senior Goldman executive said on Wednesday. |
summarize: MOUNT LAUREL, NJ / ACCESSWIRE / May 29, 2017 / An experiment using eggplant seeds is taking flight all the way into space aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The winning students designed the experiment, titled "Galaxy Eggplants," which is currently scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on August 1, 2017. The experiment was chosen from over 50 proposals submitted as part of The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education's Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP).
The program was brought to Jay Eitner's attention from a science teacher who takes great pride in space exploration. "Once we saw that sending one of our projects to space was possible, we immediately got to work," Eitner stated. "We immediately began to seek creative ways in order to fund the project. Everything from shoe collection to dessert fundraisers were established to help pay." The project also had over $10,000 in grants secured in local, state, and federal grants and partnerships.
SSEP provides students with the most realistic scientific work experience. This competition mimics the process of scientists responding to a "call for proposals" and provides two very unique educational opportunities. The students must first pose an interesting scientific question regarding the nature of the physical, chemical, or biological system. Then, through collaboration, they must engineer an experiment that can answer that question within the stated experiment specifications and operational constraints. SSEP helps students develop the skills necessary to become leaders in the next generation workforce.
The project, "Galaxy Eggplants," tests the results of microgravity on eggplant seeds while in space. Astronauts aboard the ISS will test the seeds in low Earth orbit. The students will also perform a control experiment on Earth in order to observe the differences between both experiments. Students feel the results of the test could be significant in furthering the understanding of plant growth in space, which could be a step toward sustaining human life in space. Students from Superintendent Jay Eitner's former district will be presenting their experiments this summer at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C. "I couldn't be more proud," Jay Eitner stated. "Kids first, always. It's why we are here."
The SSEP is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S. and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education internationally. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with DreamUp PBC and NanoRacks LLC, which are working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory. SSEP is the first pre-college STEM education program that is both a U.S. national initiative and implemented as an on-orbit commercial space venture.
Jay Eitner - Nationally Recognized Pioneer in the Field of Education: http://jayeitnernews.com
Jay Eitner - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jason.eitner
Eitner Education: Jay Eitner: http://www.eitnereducation.com/about-eitneredu
Contact Information:
JayEitnerNews.com
http://jayeitnernews.com
[email protected] | MOUNT LAUREL, NJ / ACCESSWIRE / May 29, 2017 / An experiment using eggplant seeds is taking flight all the way into space aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The winning students designed the ... |
summarize: Humans need to colonize another planet within 100 years or face the threat of extinction, high-profile physicist Stephen Hawking has warned.
In a new BBC documentary called "Stephen Hawking: Expedition New Earth" set to air later this year, the professor will "present his predictions that the human race only has 100 years before we need to colonize another planet," a press release from earlier this week said.
"With climate change, overdue asteroid strikes, epidemics and population growth, our own planet is increasingly precarious."
Previously, Hawking theorized that humanity probably has around 1,000 years left before it becomes extinct. His timeline appears now to have shortened. The famous physicist has issued a number of warnings about the future over the past few years.
At the start of 2016, Hawking warned about the dangers from nuclear war, global warming, genetically-engineered viruses and artificial intelligence (AI).
"Although the chance of a disaster to planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, and becomes a near certainty in the next thousand or ten thousand years," Hawking told the BBC in an interview at the time.
"By that time we should have spread out into space, and to other stars, so a disaster on Earth would not mean the end of the human race," he added. "However, we will not establish self-sustaining colonies in space for at least the next hundred years, so we have to be very careful in this period."
Hawking is not the only major figure in the technology and science world that has warned about the threat to human existence. Earlier this year, billionaire Elon Musk said humans must somehow merge with machines or risk becoming irrelevant in the age of AI. The Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) and SpaceX founder is working on a company called Neuralink to do just that.
Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) founder Jack Ma, meanwhile, also recently warned that society could face decades of "pain" because of the disruption caused by new technology and the internet.
More From CNBC | Stephen Hawking warns Earth is becoming "increasingly precarious" because of threats from epidemics and asteroids. |
summarize: You can now turn your smartphone into a selfie drone.
This autonomous flying camera is the thinnest of its kind at only 9 mm thick, it can fit in your back pocket.
It’s called Selfly, and it snaps right into a phone case.
When you’re ready to film, the camera quickly snaps off the case and flies right into the air.
The picture quality is pretty impressive, with 8-megapixel stills and 1080p video at 30 frames per second.
Not bad for a gadget that you can pick up on its Kickstarter page for just $99.
More Trending Tech:
Robot teaches kids as young as 3 to code
This food recycler will turn your food scraps into fertilizer
Industrial robot technology may soon be in your home
Wristband monitors your blood alcohol content while you drink
Breast-pumping moms can now go wireless
The world’s first 3-screen gaming laptop is mind-blowing
Netflix has just helped improve your commute
Apple’s plan to beat Google in the maps game
Your next food delivery order could come from a robot
You can now add cooking to the list of things Alexa can help you do
This anti-drone gun looks like it can do some serious damage
You could soon be using your smartphone to get cash from the ATM
Instagram offers disappearing photos and live broadcasting
You may soon be able to use a drone to catch fish
Amazon offers special deals through Alexa
WhatsApp video calling is finally hereSold-out Snapchat sunglasses already on eBay
You can now cast Harry Potter spells from your phone
Apple reveals new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
This smart crib will help your baby sleep safely through the night
New hybrid console takes Nintendo on the go | You can now turn your smartphone into a selfie drone. |
summarize: HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) -- A private spaceflight company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to build a powerful new rocket engine in Alabama for space flight, the company and state officials announced Monday.
Blue Origin President Robert Meyerson said his company is seeking a production contract with United Launch Alliance, a private company that provides satellite launches for the U.S. government and others. He said the company will locate a production factory for the BE-4 rocket engine in Huntsville upon a contract being signed. According to the company's website, the powerful BE-4 engine is designed to end dependence on Russian-built engines for launching payloads into space.
"Alabama is a proven leader in aerospace manufacturing with the highest-skilled workforce, business climate and leadership that we need to produce low-cost rocket engines that we need to protect the nation, (and) explore the universe," Meyerson said at a news conference in Huntsville.
Blue Origin is considered a leading contender for the contract after it and ULA entered into a partnership last year with the U.S. Air Force to develop a new rocket propulsion system to power Vulcan, ULA's new rocket designed to carry heavy payloads into space.
A spokeswoman for ULA declined by email to discuss the status of the project, saying it is an ongoing procurement.
In making the announcement, Blue Origin said it would invest $200 million in the Huntsville facility and expects to employ up to 350 people producing as many as 30 engines a year.
"Blue Origin, welcome to Alabama," Gov. Kay Ivey said in an announcement Monday. "We thank you for investing in our people."
The Alabama Development office said in a release that the state offered an incentive package of more than $50 million, including a $30 million tax credit for investment and up to $10 million in reimbursements for eligible capital costs.
Ivey said the project would build on the historic role that Huntsville and Alabama have played in the development of the American space program.
The BE-4 is fueled by liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas to produce 550,000 pounds (250,000 kilograms) of thrust and is intended to be used in both government and commercial missions. The engine is designed for both the Vulcan rocket being developed by ULA and Blue Origin's New Glenn orbital rocket and capsule, which is under development.
One political leader praised the project as a way to give space flight in the U.S. independence from Russian-made rocket engines.
"You are going to do well here, and we're going to replace that Russian engine," Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama told Blue Origin officials at the event in Huntsville. | A private spaceflight company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to build a powerful new rocket engine in Alabama for space flight, the company and state officials announced Monday. Blue Origin President ... |
summarize: Silicon Valley’s stratospheric tech salaries are higher than ever — if you can believe it.
That’s according to a Glassdoor report out Wednesday called the “25 Highest Paying Companies in America for 2017,” which features 20 tech-related companies.
The high-paying tech companies are led by the virtualized computing company VMWare, big data enterprise software business Splunk, and software and engineering services company Cadence Design Systems. Every tech company on the list pays the average employee between $2,000 and $15,000 more in total compensation than they did in 2016.
Taken together, those salaries far surpass pay in many other industries in the US. The lowest-paying tech company on Glassdoor’s list, the content delivery service Akamai, pays the average employee $121,000 in annual base compensation — more than twice the average American employee’s salary of $49,000 a year.
Here are the 20 tech companies that made Glassdoor’s list ranked in descending order:
VMware (VMW)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 3
Median Total Compensation: $167,050
Median Base Compensation: $136,750
Splunk (SPLK)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 4
Median Total Compensation: $161,010
Median Base Compensation: $132,500
Cadence Design Systems (CDNS)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 5
Median Total Compensation: $156,702
Median Base Compensation: $141,202
Google (GOOG, GOOGL)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 6
Median Total Compensation: $155,250
Median Base Compensation: $120,000
Facebook (FB)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 7
Median Total Compensation: $155,000
Median Base Compensation: $130,000
NVIDIA (NVDA)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 8
Median Total Compensation: $154,000
Median Base Compensation: $150,000
Amazon Lab126 (AMZN)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 10
Median Total Compensation: $152,800
Median Base Compensation: $130,400
Juniper Networks (JNPR)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 11
Median Total Compensation: $150,000
Median Base Compensation: $138,500
LinkedIn
Rank on Glassdoor list: 12
Median Total Compensation: $150,000
Median Base Compensation: $127,000
Salesforce (CRM)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 13
Median Total Compensation: $150,000
Median Base Compensation: $120,000
Dimension Data
Rank on Glassdoor list: 14
Median Total Compensation: $150,000
Median Base Compensation: $110,000
Synopsys (SNPS)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 15
Median Total Compensation: $148,000
Median Base Compensation: $130,000
Informatica
Rank on Glassdoor list: 16
Median Total Compensation: $147,400
Median Base Compensation: $125,000
Broadcom
Rank on Glassdoor list: 18
Median Total Compensation: $145,025
Median Base Compensation: $130,000
Microsoft (MSFT)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 19
Median Total Compensation: $144,000
Median Base Compensation: $127,000
Walmart eCommerce (WMT)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 20
Median Total Compensation: $143,500
Median Base Compensation: $124,900
Twitter (TWTR)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 22
Median Total Compensation: $142,000
Median Base Compensation: $125,000
F5 Networks (FFIV)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 23
Median Total Compensation: $140,555
Median Base Compensation: $125,000
Palo Alto Networks (PANW)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 24
Median Total Compensation: $140,020
Median Base Compensation: $124,700
Akamai (AKAM)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 25
Median Total Compensation: $140,000
Median Base Compensation: $121,000
—
JP Mangalindan is a senior correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
More from JP:
Fitbit’s new smartwatch has been plagued by production mishaps
Facebook Messenger now analyzes your chats to give you recommendations
Gay tech workers earn less than their straight counterparts
How BlackBerry stays relevant in the age of the iPhone
Why Snap may be more like Twitter than Facebook
How ‘video understanding’ could transform Facebook
Why ‘experience can hurt tech workers in Silicon Valley
Why AI could be Silicon Valley’s latest ‘micro bubble’ | A new Glassdoor report called the “25 Highest Paying Companies in America for 2017” features 20 tech-related companies. |
summarize: Following a competition that attracted 2,600 entries, U.S.-based Hyperloop One has selected 11 teams to compete, along with 24 previously selected groups, for three partner positions in the engineering and business development of transportation hyperloop projects.
The technology, according to Hyperloop One, involves loading passengers and cargo into a pod and accelerating the pod gradually via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube. The pod quickly lifts above the track using magnetic levitation and glides at airline speeds for long distances due to ultra-low aerodynamic drag.
Hyperloop transportation is another idea from Tesla founder Elon Musk, who has his own startup, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, also working on a hyperloop system. The idea also has attracted the attention of President Donald Trump. In a meeting with executives last month, the president specifically asked for more information about the Hyperloop. Musk is a member of the president's business advisory group.
ALSO READ: Merrill Lynch Has Top 10 Stock Ideas for Q2
In addition to the 11 projects selected for further scrutiny, Hyperloop One also announced the completion of its 1,640-foot full-scale testing facility in the desert near Las Vegas. The facility will be used to test and evaluate levitation, propulsion, vehicle control and vacuum pressurization technologies before a commercial project is launched.
The 11 route proposals being considered for further development are shown in the following table from Hyperloop.
Hyperloop One's executive chairman, Shervin Pishevar, said:
The U.S. has always been a global innovation vanguard – driving advancements in computing, communication and media to rail, automobiles and aeronautics. Now, with Hyperloop One, we are on the brink of the first great breakthrough in transportation technology of the 21st century, eliminating the barriers of time and distance and unlocking vast economic opportunities.
ALSO READ: Merrill Lynch Makes Huge Tech Stock Addition to US 1 Portfolio
Although Hyperloop One did not announce a timetable for selecting the winners, the company did say that it expects to have 500 engineers, fabricators, scientists and other employees on board by the end of the year.
Related Articles | Hyperloop One has announced the selection of 11 projects as possible partners in the development of hyperloop transportation. The company has also completed construction of a test track. |
summarize: My son Kell came home from his Tufts winter break bearing a gift: an introduction to Geoguessr.com. This free internet game has actually been around since 2013, but it was new to me—and maybe even to you.
You’ve heard of Google (GOOG, GOOGL) Street View, right? Google’s vans have spent the last 16 years driving the world’s streets, capturing 360-degree pictures of the world’s roads. So when you use Street View, you’re clicking along a photographic tour of every American or European road. It’s fantastic for checking out a neighborhood before you visit, seeing how ritzy someone’s neighborhood is, or practicing a trip you’ll have to make.
Well, GeoGuessr, which was written by a Swedish IT consultant named Anton Wallén, is built on top of Street View. When you start the game, it plunks you down—somewhere in the world. Your job is simple: Figure out where you are!
You’re looking for clues as you move along the road, turn around to look, or zoom in and out, using the arrow keys or the mouse.
Sometimes, you’re plopped down in the proverbial middle of nowhere. An unpaved road through barren fields, empty for many, many miles. How on earth are you supposed to figure out where you are?
Other times, you’ll have some clues right away. Maybe the white lines on the sides of the road are dashed instead of solid, telling you that you’re not in Kansas anymore (or even the United States). Maybe the cars sharing your road have really wide, skinny license plates—clearly a non-North American thing.
Maybe a certain kind of trees, bushes, or crops give you a hint. Sometimes, it’s the architecture of the buildings or the design of the cars that give away the region you’re in.
And occasionally, you strike gold: you spot a navigational sign that identifies the town you’re in, or a nearby one, or at least lets you know what language they speak here.
Now, you can play GeoGuessr however you like. But in our family, you’re allowed to Google your clues. You can translate a sign, for example, or even look up a phone number or a local political candidate you spot on a poster.
You might think that that kind of research kills the mystery, but it’s not quite that easy. OK, so you find a phone number on a billboard. You find out that it belongs to a plumbing company in an obscure town in Argentina. Well, great. But in GeoGuessr, once you think you know where you are (or you give up), you open a map of the world, zoom in, and click where you think GeoGuessr has dumped you.
But even if you’ve Googled up the name of the little town, how are you supposed to find that town on the map?
Once you guess, a results screen instantly shows you how close you were. You get 5,000 points if you’re on the nose, 0 points if you’re on the exact opposite side of the world, and anything between, depending on your proximity. | Google’s vans have spent the last 16 years driving the world’s streets, capturing 360-degree pictures of the world’s roads. Well, GeoGuessr, which was written by a Swedish IT consultant named Anton Wallén, is built on top of Street View. |
summarize: The Pentagon's research and development shop is moving one step closer toward building a hypersonic space plane that could shuttle satellites or people into space in record time.
In an announcement on Wednesday, DARPA said that Boeing, which was selected for phase one of the project, would keep working on its advanced design for the Experimental Space plane (XS-1) program with additional funding for phases two and three.
While Phase One of XS-1 was more of a drawing board/concept phase, phases two and three are all about actually building a space plane and conducting flight tests, demonstrations, and hopefully, delivery of a satellite into orbit.
Here's how DARPA describes what it hopes XS-1 may one day pull off:
The XS-1 program envisions a fully reusable unmanned vehicle, roughly the size of a business jet, which would take off vertically like a rocket and fly to hypersonic speeds. The vehicle would be launched with no external boosters, powered solely by self-contained cryogenic propellants. Upon reaching a high suborbital altitude, the booster would release an expendable upper stage able to deploy a 3,000-pound satellite to polar orbit. The reusable first stage would then bank and return to Earth, landing horizontally like an aircraft, and be prepared for the next flight, potentially within hours.
Since it's DARPA, the project is focused on national security, and there's no doubt the Pentagon could save plenty of money and time by launching satellites via a low-cost space plane. But the agency also notes in its announcement that another goal is to "encourage the broader commercial launch sector," and it will release testing data out to companies who are interested during phases two and three.
So it looks like the military won't be the only ones having fun flying planes into space, Mr. Skywalker.
DARPA has been behind a number of huge technological advances that have made their way to the private sector, like the Internet, a ton of the components of modern-day computing, and GPS, just to name a few.
“We’re delighted to see this truly futuristic capability coming closer to reality,” said Brad Tousley, director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office (TTO), which oversees XS-1. “Demonstration of aircraft-like, on-demand, and routine access to space is important for meeting critical Defense Department needs and could help open the door to a range of next-generation commercial opportunities.”
Check out the demo video below:
NOW WATCH: The Marine Corps of the future wants to invade enemy beaches with drones and robots that are armed to the teeth
More From Business Insider | The Pentagon's research and development shop is moving one step closer toward building a... |
summarize: Silicon Valley’s stratospheric tech salaries are higher than ever — if you can believe it.
That’s according to a Glassdoor report out Wednesday called the “25 Highest Paying Companies in America for 2017,” which features 20 tech-related companies.
The high-paying tech companies are led by the virtualized computing company VMWare, big data enterprise software business Splunk, and software and engineering services company Cadence Design Systems. Every tech company on the list pays the average employee between $2,000 and $15,000 more in total compensation than they did in 2016.
Taken together, those salaries far surpass pay in many other industries in the US. The lowest-paying tech company on Glassdoor’s list, the content delivery service Akamai, pays the average employee $121,000 in annual base compensation — more than twice the average American employee’s salary of $49,000 a year.
Here are the 20 tech companies that made Glassdoor’s list ranked in descending order:
VMware (VMW)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 3
Median Total Compensation: $167,050
Median Base Compensation: $136,750
Splunk (SPLK)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 4
Median Total Compensation: $161,010
Median Base Compensation: $132,500
Cadence Design Systems (CDNS)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 5
Median Total Compensation: $156,702
Median Base Compensation: $141,202
Google (GOOG, GOOGL)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 6
Median Total Compensation: $155,250
Median Base Compensation: $120,000
Facebook (FB)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 7
Median Total Compensation: $155,000
Median Base Compensation: $130,000
NVIDIA (NVDA)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 8
Median Total Compensation: $154,000
Median Base Compensation: $150,000
Amazon Lab126 (AMZN)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 10
Median Total Compensation: $152,800
Median Base Compensation: $130,400
Juniper Networks (JNPR)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 11
Median Total Compensation: $150,000
Median Base Compensation: $138,500
LinkedIn
Rank on Glassdoor list: 12
Median Total Compensation: $150,000
Median Base Compensation: $127,000
Salesforce (CRM)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 13
Median Total Compensation: $150,000
Median Base Compensation: $120,000
Dimension Data
Rank on Glassdoor list: 14
Median Total Compensation: $150,000
Median Base Compensation: $110,000
Synopsys (SNPS)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 15
Median Total Compensation: $148,000
Median Base Compensation: $130,000
Informatica
Rank on Glassdoor list: 16
Median Total Compensation: $147,400
Median Base Compensation: $125,000
Broadcom
Rank on Glassdoor list: 18
Median Total Compensation: $145,025
Median Base Compensation: $130,000
Microsoft (MSFT)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 19
Median Total Compensation: $144,000
Median Base Compensation: $127,000
Walmart eCommerce (WMT)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 20
Median Total Compensation: $143,500
Median Base Compensation: $124,900
Twitter (TWTR)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 22
Median Total Compensation: $142,000
Median Base Compensation: $125,000
F5 Networks (FFIV)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 23
Median Total Compensation: $140,555
Median Base Compensation: $125,000
Palo Alto Networks (PANW)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 24
Median Total Compensation: $140,020
Median Base Compensation: $124,700
Akamai (AKAM)
Rank on Glassdoor list: 25
Median Total Compensation: $140,000
Median Base Compensation: $121,000
—
JP Mangalindan is a senior correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
More from JP:
Fitbit’s new smartwatch has been plagued by production mishaps
Facebook Messenger now analyzes your chats to give you recommendations
Gay tech workers earn less than their straight counterparts
How BlackBerry stays relevant in the age of the iPhone
Why Snap may be more like Twitter than Facebook
How ‘video understanding’ could transform Facebook
Why ‘experience can hurt tech workers in Silicon Valley
Why AI could be Silicon Valley’s latest ‘micro bubble’ | A new Glassdoor report called the “25 Highest Paying Companies in America for 2017” features 20 tech-related companies. |
summarize: Circuit Cubes are promising to bring your kid’s toys to life. They are electronic building blocks that can add sound, motion, light and sensors to any creation.
The cubes magnetically snap together and are transparent so kids can see the electronic components in action.
The smart blocks are compatible with Legos and anything else your child chooses to create with, like ordinary toys or household items like milk cartons.
The co-founders are longtime educators whose goal is to get kids to learn as they are having fun.
Circuit Cubes are available now for preorder at tenkalabs.com/reserve-your-kit/.
More Trending Tech
Robot teaches kids as young as 3 to code
This food recycler will turn your food scraps into fertilizer
Industrial robot technology may soon be in your home
Wristband monitors your blood alcohol content while you drink
Breast-pumping moms can now go wireless
The world’s first 3-screen gaming laptop is mind-blowing
Netflix has just helped improve your commute
Apple’s plan to beat Google in the maps game
Your next food delivery order could come from a robot
You can now add cooking to the list of things Alexa can help you do
This anti-drone gun looks like it can do some serious damage
You could soon be using your smartphone to get cash from the ATM
Instagram offers disappearing photos and live broadcasting
You may soon be able to use a drone to catch fish
Amazon offers special deals through Alexa
WhatsApp video calling is finally here
Sold-out Snapchat sunglasses already on eBay
You can now cast Harry Potter spells from your phone
Apple reveals new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
This smart crib will help your baby sleep safely through the night
New hybrid console takes Nintendo on the go | Circuit Cubes are promising to bring your kid’s toys to life. They are electronic building blocks that can add sound, motion, light and sensors to any creation. |
summarize: NEW YORK (AP) -- Sports radio host Craig Carton was arrested Wednesday on fraud charges alleging he operated a Ponzi scheme and engaged in a ticket-selling scam that raised over $5 million, partly to repay millions of dollars in gambling debts.
Conspiracy, securities and wire fraud charges were unsealed in Manhattan federal court against the host of WFAN's "Boomer and Carton" show. He was arrested at his Manhattan home before dawn, before he was scheduled to go on air, authorities said.
In a related civil case, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Carton in mid-2016 solicited investments in ticket reselling enterprises after he accrued millions of dollars' worth of gambling-related debts to casinos and other third parties.
The SEC said he provided fabricated and forged documents to investors, claiming access to large quantities of face-value tickets to upcoming concerts by artists including Adele, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Roger Waters, Metallica, and Barbra Streisand.
"In reality, no such agreements with the concert promoter or venue existed, and the signatures for the concert promoter or venue were forged," the SEC said.
Carton has hosted the sports-themed radio program broadcast on WFAN since 2007 with former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason. The show also is simulcast on CBS Sports Network TV.
FBI agents arrested Carton at his Manhattan home early Wednesday before he was due at a show that starts at 6 a.m. There was no immediate response to a message seeking comment from his attorney.
"I'm taken aback and surprised by it, just like I'm sure everyone else is," Esiason told WFAN listeners. "I thought he had called in sick this morning. But unfortunately, my partner was arrested."
Federal prosecutors said Carton, 48, teamed up with Michael Wright, 41, of Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, to carry out a fraud on investors by posing as power brokers in the concert ticket business. There was no immediate response to a message left with Wright's lawyer.
Manhattan Acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim said in a release that Carton and Wright deceived investors, raising millions of dollars "through misrepresentation and outright lies." The SEC said Carton and others misappropriated at least $5.6 million from two investors.
Kim said the men falsely claimed to have contracts with two companies to buy blocks of concert tickets.
"Behind all the talk, the Wright and Carton show was just a sham, designed to fleece investors out of millions ultimately to be spent on payments to casinos and to pay off other personal debt," Kim said.
William F. Sweeney Jr., head of New York's FBI office, said Wright and Carton tried to pay off their debts with other people's money.
"We see this time and time again, the rise and fall of a Ponzi scheme destined for failure. The truth is, the time will come when your luck runs out," he said.
A criminal complaint described how an unidentified hedge fund executed a revolving loan agreement that would provide Carton with up to $10 million to buy tickets with the understanding that the hedge fund would share in profits. According to the complaint, Carton forwarded hundreds of thousands of dollars of the investment money to casinos.
CBS owns WFAN and says it is cooperating with authorities. | Sports radio host Craig Carton was arrested Wednesday on fraud charges alleging he operated a Ponzi scheme and engaged in a ticket-selling scam that raised over $5 million, partly to repay millions of ... |
summarize: To call last week a “doozy” for Uber would be an understatement, with CEO Travis Kalanick announcing a leave of absence from the ride-hailing business following a slew of scandals in recent months and the death of his mother in a boating accident.
Now that the dust has settled somewhat, the question remains: Who can steer Uber into a new chapter?
The onus could fall on a chief operating officer, which the company has actively searched for since March, following allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace from a former Uber engineer. The Wall Street Journal reported in April that Uber interviewed candidates including former Walt Disney Co. COO Thomas Staggs, former Wal-Mart CIO Karenann Terrell, and Helena Foulkes, executive vice president of CVS Health Corp (CVS).
Two sources familiar with the matter said Staggs remains a favorite, due to a proven 16-year-track record at Disney (DIS). In the 12 years spent as CFO, Staggs reportedly worked on deals including the $7.4 billion acquisition of Pixar in 2006 and the $4 billion purchase of Marvel in 2009, the latter of which yielded a slew of blockbuster films, including “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “The Avengers.” Staggs also more than doubled overall theme park operating profits to $2.66 billion as chairman of Disney Parks and Resorts.
Uber may also be facing pressure for its COO to be a woman or minority, sources suggested, again, driven in part by recent scandals in its workplace, as well as controversies that include drivers sexually assaulting female passengers.
While several members of the 14-person committee currently running Uber were hailed by sources familiar with the matter as “smart”, “strategic” and “well-respected” inside Uber’s offices and halls, none of them have the obvious C-Suite experience necessary to essentially run the company.
One committee member, Rachel Holt, joined Uber in 2011 after a stint as Associate Marketing Manager at Clorox (CLX), quickly ascended the ranks, from running operations in Washington, D.C. to running operations for all of North America. But that rapid ascent also means she may lack the experience necessary to run a business with an estimated $68 billion market cap and sprawling global footprint.
“Rachel is absolutely brilliant, but the reality is that she probably is not ready,” one source said.
Dean Crutchfield, a New York-based branding specialist, suggested Uber recruit an experienced, respected female executive such as Pamela Nicholson, president and chief executive of Enterprise Holdings, which includes Enterprise and National car rentals. Otherwise, someone like Instagram COO Marne Levine, who helped evolve the popular photo-sharing app into a bonafide business, could also prove an excellent fit — if Uber could enlist her.
“It would rapidly change the perception of Uber from a media, investor and consumer point of view and send a message that times are changing,” Crutchfield contended. “Plus you typically get a clearer sense of integrity from women execs, because women discriminate less. They generally set up more robust marketing teams, higher levels of publicity and a greater online presence, all things Uber needs for more desirable outcomes.” | Uber's looking for a chief operating officer to revamp the company. Here's a look at some of the contenders. |
summarize: Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, New York Times writer, former Google data scientist, and author of "Everybody Lies" reveals how employers could use online data in their hiring practices. Following is a transcript of the video.
Everything you do correlates with something else you might do. That’s just the way the world works. If you wear blue shirts, you’re more likely to do something than people who wear red shirts. It may be a small difference, it may be a huge difference, but in general everything you do has some predictive power for something else you’ll do.
Historically, companies have only known five or six things about you. They knew maybe your race, your religious background, what school you attended, your income, your previous employment history, and then lawyers or politicians could determine what are companies allowed to use. If they know six things, well they can’t use these two things.
But now we’re entering a world where employers know a million things about you. They know everything on your social media, they know a lot of your purchase history, they know maybe things you’ve done on computers in various places. Many of these things are going to correlate with your likelihood of being a productive employee. There are random correlations people have found that if you like curly fries on Facebook, you’re more likely to be intelligent. Why? No clue, just everything correlates with everything. It’s some weird correlation. but you could imagine a world where employers would be wise to give you a downgrade if you don’t like curly fries, if you like straight fries instead of curly fries. I think the legal and ethical framework is not prepared for big data.
More From Business Insider | Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, New York Times writer, former Google data scientist, and author of... |
summarize: Amazon (AMZN) is one of the most powerful companies on Earth, and its CEO Jeff Bezos is among the richest people alive. On their way to top, the company and its leader have had to negotiate a number of internal disagreements.
But it’s how they have resolved those disagreements that ensures Amazon, and Bezos, continue to dominate the tech world.
In a letter to shareholders Wednesday, Bezos said one of the major disputes within Amazon’s walls was whether the company should invite third-party sellers to directly compete with the online retailer through its product detail pages.
“Many smart, well-intentioned Amazonians were simply not at all aligned with the direction,” Bezos explained.
Displaying items from third-party party sellers is incredibly common now. However, some “Amazonians” may have questioned how the move would impact not only Amazon’s profits, but the overall user experience, as well.
The arguments could have resulted in a back-and-forth that dragged out for far too long. But instead, the discussion was escalated and quickly resolved.
“‘You’ve worn me down’ is an awful decision-making process,” Bezos said. “It’s slow and de-energizing. Go for quick escalation instead – it’s better.”
In his letter to shareholders Wednesday, Bezos said Amazon has streamlined decision-making processes by immediately escalating issues between intransigent teams to senior-level leaders.
It seems like a pretty simple idea, but as Bezos points out, many disputes within organizations like Amazon can lead to one side of an argument simply wearing down the other until the opposition gives in.
“Sometimes teams have different objectives and fundamentally different views,” Bezos explained in his letter. “They are not aligned. No amount of discussion, no number of meetings will resolve that deep misalignment.
“Without escalation, the default dispute resolution mechanism for this scenario is exhaustion. Whoever has more stamina carries the decision.”
In other words, don’t bother fighting in circles over something you’ll never agree on. Instead, move the decision process up the ladder and continue pushing forward rather than stagnating with one issue.
More from Dan:
The best ways to stream live TV without cable
I drove the electric Chevy Bolt all weekend and only freaked out once
Windows 10 Creators Update: Microsoft’s best just got better
The 8 features we want in the iPhone 8
How to avoid falling for email scams | Amazon is one of the world's most powerful companies, and to keep it that way CEO Jeff Bezos ensures employees make important decisions as fast as possible. |
summarize: Scientists in France say they have developed a method for predicting volcanic eruptions using satellite data.
If their work progresses, they say, scientists will be able to forecast eruptions just as meteorologists forecast the weather today. This could be especially useful for creating early warning systems and evacuation plans for towns and cities near volcanoes.
Researchers from the University of Savoy, Mont Blanc in France studied satellite radar data of volcanoes for clues they were about to erupt, and used the data to build a model for forecasting similar to those meteorologists use to forecast weather.
They published the results of their work Wednesday in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science.
Active volcanoes have pools of molten rock inside of them called magma chambers. Magma and gases can build up in this magma chamber until they reach a state of "overpressure." If that pressure exceeds a certain point, the volcano erupts.
"Imagine it is like a balloon that is continuously filled by air," said lead researcher Grace Bato, of the University of Savoy's Institute of Earth Sciences (ISTerre). As magma builds up beneath a volcano, it causes the ground above to swell and change shape.
Scientists can measure this movement of the ground using GPS and radar satellite data, Bato said.
"Based on this we can infer how much excess pressure there is beneath the volcano," she said. "At some point, there is a critical threshold — an overpressure value — and if this is reached we can say there is a probability that the volcano may erupt soon."
Bato said that while the data assimilation methods her team used are popular with meteorologists, they have been tougher to apply to volcanoes. There is far less data on volcanoes, and there are different types of volcanoes.
At first, the team used computer simulations to build their model, but Bato said they are now testing the model on the Grímsvötn volcano in Iceland and the Okmok volcano in Alaska.
"In our community, we are just at the beginning of establishing more realistic models," she said.
More From CNBC | If their work progresses, they say, scientists will be able to forecast eruptions just as meteorologists forecast the weather today. |
summarize: Silicon Valley is an industry whose foundation was built, byte by byte, with youthful innovation.
Look no further than some of tech’s greatest minds for proof. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were 21 and 25 when they co-founded Apple (AAPL). Sergey Brin and Larry Page were twenty-something Stanford University graduate students when they built the search engine that became Google (GOOG, GOOGL) in the garage of a home in Menlo Park, Calif.
And Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard University to pursue and develop Facebook (FB) — a move Peter Thiel likely appreciates, given the billionaire tech investor offers the Thiel Fellowship, a two-year program that rewards select fellows who are 22 or younger with cash to drop out of (or take a leave of absence from) college to pursue and develop tech ideas.
While tech often reveres youth, the opposite can be true. Movies like “The Intern” and “The Internship” mock the notion of ageism in tech, but for some people in the real world, being over 40 (or even 30) can be a real liability. That’s may be because of a fast-paced work environment that can shift on a dime, or because older people are frequently associated with being familiar with older technologies. And while it’s illegal to discriminate against workers over 40, such cases can ultimately be difficult to prove.
“This is not an area where anyone values past experiences much, and there is logic to that: things change too fast,” says Steve, a 43-year-old software engineer at a consumer-focused startup in San Francisco, who asked that we not use his real name out of concern for his privacy.
The numbers show that tech is an unusually young industry. The median age for the typical US worker is 42, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, but in tech, workers are frequently a decade younger (or more). To wit, data compiled from salary firm PayScale, which compared data in 2016 from 18 different tech employers, revealed the median age of workers at companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn and SpaceX is 29, with only three companies — IBM (IBM), Oracle (ORCL) and HP (HPQ) — reporting a median employee age over 33.
For “older” employees who do land tech gigs, youthful workplaces can provide social challenges. In an attempt to blend into his employer’s work culture, where many of his colleagues are in their 20s, Steve tries to look and dress younger, dying his hair to cover up gray and slathering on a slew of anti-aging skin products — “anything with retinol,” he explains — to look more youthful. He even stays on top of the latest trends in entertainment so he can chat about movies and music with his millennial colleagues over lunch or beers.
The data supports Steve’s concerns about fitting in. According to a tech salaries report released this month from Hired, a San Francisco-based tech worker recruiting firm, candidates seeking tech jobs between the ages of 25 and 30 receive the highest number of average job offers.
Once candidates pass the age of 45, the average tech worker salary and average number of job offers starts going downhill. Tech companies on average offer $132,000 to candidates between the ages of 50 and 60, comparable to what employers offer candidates at least 10 years junior, and who presumably, have at least 10 years less of work experience. | Silicon Valley is an industry whose foundation was built, byte by byte, with youthful innovation. |
summarize: Meet O-R3. It’s the world’s first robotic security car.
Singapore startup company Otsaw Robotics created the 176-pound miniature automated vehicle.
It has 3D LIDAR sensors and GPS, and once it detects an intruder…
it will send a drone after the interloper up to 328 feet away.
This can be especially useful if there are obstacles in the vehicle’s way…
since it provides an aerial view to help capture someone running away.
O-R3 fits perfectly with Singapore’s plan to become the world’s first smart city.
The RoboCop car will cost $10,000 a month to rent …
which is cheaper than what the country’s businesses are paying now for human security guards.
Source: https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/23/singapore-robocop-car-drone/
More:
This high-tech workout bag cleans itself
The car of the future debuts at SXSW
There’s now an indoor potty for small dogs
Get out of your next traffic jam with this flying car
A self-driving car that can do your errands for you
Robot teaches kids as young as 3 to code
This food recycler will turn your food scraps into fertilizer
Industrial robot technology may soon be in your home
Wristband monitors your blood alcohol content while you drink
Breast-pumping moms can now go wireless
The world’s first 3-screen gaming laptop is mind-blowing
Netflix has just helped improve your commute
Apple’s plan to beat Google in the maps game
Your next food delivery order could come from a robot
You can now add cooking to the list of things Alexa can help you do
This anti-drone gun looks like it can do some serious damage
You could soon be using your smartphone to get cash from the ATM
Instagram offers disappearing photos and live broadcasting
You may soon be able to use a drone to catch fish
Amazon offers special deals through Alexa
WhatsApp video calling is finally here
Sold-out Snapchat sunglasses already on eBay
You can now cast Harry Potter spells from your phone
Apple reveals new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
This smart crib will help your baby sleep safely through the night
New hybrid console takes Nintendo on the go | Meet O-R3. It’s the world’s first robotic security car. |
summarize: With a slew of controversies to ding its reputation, 2017 is turning out to be a tough year for Uber. But many users of the ride-hailing app who are millennials don’t seem to care.
That’s according to a new survey out this week from LendEDU, an online financial services marketplace, which found that 93% of millennials who have Uber will continue to use the ride-hailing app despite recent scandals. Those scandals include sexual harassment allegations, reports of a combative culture, and a dashcam video showing Uber CEO Travis Kalanick speaking harshly with a driver who complained about dropping fares.
LendEDU, which surveyed 1,531 millennials between March 3 to March 25, also discovered that female users were about twice as likely to quit the app as men, likely due to the allegations of sexual harassment reported by a former female engineer published online this February.
Still, the fact that just 7% of polled users plan on quitting Uber corroborates what my colleague Ethan Wolff-Mann reported earlier this month. Users can list many reasons to quit the popular ride-hailing app but simply won’t because they find competitors like Lyft are seemingly more expensive or offer a bumpier user experience.
Uber, nonetheless, is attempting to right the ship with efforts that include searching for a new chief operating officer who could “partner” with Kalanick, as well as bringing in Uber board member Arianna Huffington to help lead an internal investigation into the sexual harassment allegations.
Meanwhile, Uber’s board is supporting Kalanick, as are a number of his fellow tech CEOs. Five tech CEOs my colleague Dan Roberts spoke to rejected the idea that he should resign.
—
JP Mangalindan is a senior correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
More from JP:
Why Snap may be more like Twitter than Facebook
How GameStop could bounce back after its epic sales miss
LinkedIn is getting a Facebook-like feature
Silicon Valley’s favorite sneaker has a wear-and-tear problem
How ‘video understanding’ could transform Facebook
Fry’s Electronics: How this tech retailer has survived the fall of brick-and-mortar
Why ‘experience can hurt tech workers in Silicon Valley
Why AI could be Silicon Valley’s latest ‘micro bubble’ | A new survey out this week from LendEDU, an online financial services marketplace, found 93% of millennials who have Uber will continue to use the ride-hailing app despite recent scandals. |
summarize: Apple is expected to include wireless charging as a core feature in the iPhones it launches on Tuesday, but Apple's own wireless charger may not ship along the new iPhones.
A new report from Apple's Asian supply chain indicates that Apple still needs "technological breakthroughs" before it can start mass-producing its wireless charger.
"Apple's own-brand wireless charger is not expected to debut on Tuesday," KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote on Tuesday in a note to investors seen by Business Insider.
"Which we believe is primarily because Apple has higher requirements for wireless charger RF specifications, so there will be no definite mass production timetable prior to technological breakthroughs," he continued.
However, you may be able to charge up the next-generation iPhone X with third-party chargers, according to the report. Apple officially joined the Wireless Power Consortium earlier this year, which defines standards so that various wireless chargers can work with each other.
For example, Samsung's wireless chargers use WPC standards.
Kuo suggests some off-the-shelf wireless chargers may work with the new iPhones. "However, the new iPhone models supports the WPC standard, so we think users will be able to purchase and use non-Apple WPC-compliant wireless chargers with the new iPhone models," Kuo wrote.
Another detail from Tuesday's Apple Insight note: Foxconn and its parent company Hon Hai may end up being a big winner this cycle.
Since the high-end iPhone X with an edge-to-edge screen isn't really in full production yet — yesterday's report suggested factories were only making 10,000 per day — Apple supplier Hon Hai will make iPhone 8 Plus units until iPhone X production ramps up in the fourth quarter of 2017.
The increased orders are coming at Apple supplier Winston's expense, according to the report.
Apple will reveal lots of new products on Tuesday, including the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus — you can live stream the event here. Business Insider will cover all the news as it happens.
More From Business Insider | Apple is expected to include wireless charging as a core feature in the iPhones it launches on... |
summarize: The strongest bite force on Earth today belongs to the biggest reptile on the planet. The massive saltwater crocodile — which grows to 17 feet and can weigh more than ton — that lives on the coasts of southeast Asia and northern Australia chomps down with a bite measured at around 3,700 pounds of force.
Those crocs are remarkably similar to their prehistoric ancestors, which lived more than 85 million years ago. But if we go back into prehistory to the end of the Cretaceous period, we find a predator that could bite down with more than double that amount of crushing force: Tyrannosaurus rex.
In a study newly published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers report that T. rex was capable of biting down with almost 8,000 pounds of force, with parts of certain teeth delivering a shocking 431,000 pounds per square inch of pressure. That bite force gave T. rex its ability to practice what the researchers describe as "extreme osteophagy," or extreme bone eating.
The well-known dinosaurs "stand out for habitually biting deeply into bones, pulverizing and digesting them," the authors write in the study. The ability to eat bones allowed them to get the most nutrition possible out of bones, but it's a feat that's surprising to find in animals with a reptilian sort of mouth. Normally only mammals like grey wolves and hyenas can pulverize bone in that way, though they rely on elements of tooth structure instead of pure force.
"Having high bite force doesn't necessarily mean an animal can puncture hide or pulverize bone — tooth pressure is the biomechanically more relevant parameter," paleobiologist Gregory Erickson says in a press release emailed to Business Insider. "It is like assuming a 600 horsepower engine guarantees speed. In a Ferrari, sure, but not for a dump truck."
In the case of the T. rex, Erickson and lead study author Paul Gignac found that with the powerful bite force, tooth pressure, and repetitive bites to the same area (documented in fossil records), the dinosaurs could crush and shatter bones like mammals do now.
To figure that out, the researchers generated a model of the T. rex bite relying on the fossil records and their data from analyzing crocodilian bites and using elements of crocodilian and bird (modern dinosaur) physiology.
In a way, the results were a surprise, with the overall force estimates being lower than other researchers previously predicted, according to the study. Still, their model explained the dinosaurs' prodigious bone-eating capacity — there was enough force to get the job done. The dinosaurs also had a stomach pH of less than 1.5, allowing them to digest bones.
"It was this bone-crunching acumen that helped T. rex to more fully exploit the carcasses of large horned-dinosaurs and duck-billed hadrosaurids whose bones, rich in mineral salts and marrow, were unavailable to smaller, less equipped carnivorous dinosaurs," Gignac said in the emailed press release.
NOW WATCH: 4 terrible things that happen to your body when you run too much
More From Business Insider | The strongest bite force on Earth today belongs to the biggest reptile on the planet. The massive... |
summarize: Major tech companies are eyeing the healthcare world.
Amazon is seriously considering entering the pharmacy business, according to CNBC, while Apple reportedly has been working on a noninvasive glucose monitor.
That could be a good thing for the industry, according to Krishna Yeshwant, a general partner and head of the Life Sciences team at GV, formerly Google Ventures.
He told Business Insider that when tech companies try to enter the healthcare space, their approach to competition could put them at an advantage. One of his colleagues once compared the different levels of competition to growing up as a bacterium versus as a mammal.
Here's what that means: It's relatively easy to start a consumer tech company. There are platforms to use, and really, you need only a little bit of capital. So you'll frequently see a bunch of companies enter a particular space, and that intensifies the competitive pressure that much more. It's similar to how bacteria duke it out on surfaces.
Health startups, particularly in life sciences, are an entirely different organism — the mammals in this analogy.
"Competitive pressures for mammals are far less than the competitive pressures for bacteria," Yeshwant said.
For example, there are often only one or two companies in a particular space. Yeshwant pointed to Aspire Health, a company GV invested in that's in the palliative health space.
"There's not another company like that that I've ever come across," he said. That's because of all of the regulatory and health insurance hurdles that exist in healthcare but don't in tech.
How a tech mentality could transform healthcare
The entrance of more people with tech backgrounds into healthcare could have a dramatic impact on the industry — if they approach the business with the same level of competition as a tech company.
"Whenever that person is willing to apply that same sort of thinking to the healthcare space, where nobody's used to that intensity, we can often find really exciting things can happen," Yeshwant said.
Yeshwant pointed to Flatiron Health, another company GV has invested in. Its founders worked at Google before starting the cancer information-technology company. Coming from the advertising-technology world, they could carry that competitive energy into building the team that would start diving into cancer data.
"I don't know if they would have done that if they hadn't had the exposure" to the competitive pressures of advertising technology, Yeshwant said.
NOW WATCH: A cheese scientist tells us the cheese he would never eat
More From Business Insider | Major tech companies are eyeing the healthcare world. Amazon is seriously considering entering... |
summarize: The House was expected to vote Tuesday on a bill that would stop the Federal Communications Commission from enforcing rules that would stop your internet service provider from tracking your browsing behavior and selling that information to advertisers. The Republicans backing this measure would like you to think that it’s a pro-competition move that will only improve your internet experience.
But a closer look at this issue should leave you skeptical of that sales pitch.
Yes, your ISP might want to snoop on you
The text of S.J. 34, a resolution that passed the Senate by a 50-48 vote last week, is stunningly concise by legislative standards: “Congress disapproves the rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission relating to ‘Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunications Services’ (81 Fed. Reg. 87274 (December 2, 2016)), and such rule shall have no force or effect.”
The FCC passed those rules in the final weeks of President Obama’s term after establishing a legal footing for them with the net-neutrality rules that prevent internet providers from slowing or blocking legal sites or charging them for priority delivery of their data.
Those open-internet rules put internet access services in the same “common carriers” legal category as phone companies and therefore subject to the same longstanding privacy principles. That, in turn, led to the process of writing these rules—although they have not yet gone into effect.
Not hypothetical
It also followed two notable examples of ISPs selling data about their users. Verizon (VZ) attached a “supercookie” tracking bit to the unencrypted data of wireless subscribers, then took months to offer an opt-out. AT&T (T), in turn, required subscribers to its gigabit fiber-optic service to opt out of an “Internet preferences” tracking scheme — although that tracking at least yielded a big discount.
This is not a hypothetical threat, much as the net-neutrality rules followed years of bluster by Big Telecom to charge sites for the privilege of using their pipes.
Trade groups like the wireless association CTIA and the cable group NCTA say they will do no such thing, declaring their commitment to protecting customers’ personal information.
Those organizations and others released a list of privacy principles in January that include getting customer permission to use “sensitive data” (the Federal Trade Commission’s term for details you could use to steal somebody’s money or identity) and giving customers a chance to opt out of the marketing use of “non-sensitive” information.
The companies listed on it include AT&T, Charter (CHTR), Comcast (CMCSA), Optimum owner Altice USA, T-Mobile (TMUS) and Verizon — but not Frontier Communications (FTR), Sprint (S) and U.S. Cellular (USM), among others.
Google and Facebook aren’t the same as your ISP
Telecom companies like to complain that web companies don’t operate under the same regulations. That is true. Ad-driven firms like Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Facebook (FB) and Yahoo Finance’s corporate parent Yahoo (YHOO), benefit from a more lenient environment.
“The concern is really one of making sure that consumers have a consistent online framework,” said NCTA executive vice president James Assey on a conference call with reporters Tuesday.
But those web firms also occupy a different position relative to customers. You don’t have to use Facebook or Google, nor do you have to use them all the time. When most Americans are limited to the cable company for the fastest connection, leaving that firm is a lot harder. | The House was expected to vote Tuesday on a bill that would stop the Federal Communications Commission from enforcing rules that would stop your internet service provider from tracking your browsing behavior and selling that information to advertisers. |
summarize: At this moment, you’re paying about $10 a month to rent your cable modem, the gadget that brings high-speed Internet into your house. $10 a month, forever.
For no reason! Buy your own cable modem for $100, return the one you’ve been renting, and boom: $120 a year in savings.
Before you shop for your own modem, make sure you’ve found one that works with your cable company. Do a Google search for, for example, “Comcast compatible modems.”
Once you’ve ordered the modem, call up the cable company and let them know you’ve bought your own. It’s perfectly OK and increasingly common. They’ll walk you through setting it up. They’ll give you the address of a return center for shipping back the one you’ve been renting.
And then they’ll take that $10 fee off your monthly bill!
How cool is that?
More Pogue:
iOS 10 Hidden Feature: Bedtime-consistency management
Pogue’s Basics: Money – The Amazon card
iOS 10 Hidden Feature: Do Not Disturb Emergency Bypass
Pogue’s Basics: Money – Extended warranties
Pogue’s cheap, unexpected tech gifts #2: ThinOptics glasses
A dozen iOS 10 feature gems that Apple forgot to mention
GoPro’s most exciting mount yet: a drone
Professional-looking blurry backgrounds come to the iPhone 7 Plus
Pogue’s Basics: Turn off Samsung’s Smart Guide
Pogue Basics: Touch and hold Google Maps
The Apple Watch 2 is faster, waterproof—and more overloaded than ever
We sent a balloon into space — and an epic scavenger hunt ensued
Now I get it: Snapchat
The new Fitbits are smarter, better-looking, and more well-rounded | At this moment, you’re paying about $10 a month to rent your cable modem, the gadget that brings high-speed Internet into your house. $10 a month, forever. |
summarize: It started with rotting flesh.
Slicing into the green skin of a Hawaiian papaya ordinarily yields juicy, salmon-colored fruit that's almost custard-like in its consistency and sweetness. But in the early 1990s, one Hawaiian farmer instead found bits of whitish, dried-out flesh in his recently harvested fruit. On the skin were discolored spots resembling tiny rings.
It was a sign of trouble for hundreds of Hawaiian papaya farmers who, for the next several years, would lose field after field of their crop — altogether an $11-million dollar industry. The culprit was an incurable virus called Papaya Ring Spot Virus (PRSV).
In 1992, Dennis Gonsalves, a plant pathologist at Cornell University who grew up in the region most acutely affected by the virus, came up with a wild idea to stop it. He wanted to vaccinate the papaya crop from the virus using genetic engineering. To do it, Gonsalves and two other scientists (his wife Carol Gonsalves and David R. Lee) opened up the papaya genome and carefully inserted a gene from the ring spot virus into its genetic code.
After nearly a decade of work, Gonsalves and his team created a papaya plant that was genetically resistant to ring spot. The Gonsalves' crops blossomed across farms that had been decimated by the virus. Today, their fruit, which they named the Rainbow papaya, dominates Hawaii's papaya exports.
"We saved the papaya industry," Gonsalves says in a new film narrated by Neil de Grasse Tyson called "Food Evolution", which is set to premier on June 23. "That's it."
This wasn't the first time scientists tried to improve a fruit by tweaking its DNA — in 1994, the FDA approved the Flavr Savr brand of tomato, which scientists had genetically engineered to last longer by using a backwards copy of a ripening gene. But the Rainbow papaya represented the first time the technique was widely successful.
Yet instead of ending a storm, as the crop's name might suggest, the Rainbow papaya unleashed its own tempest.
"Food Evolution" dives into the controversy surrounding genetic modification, and opens with a 2013 scene of the Maui County Council floor. At the time, council member Margaret Wille was introducing a bill to ban GMOs from the Big Island.
Ground zero for genetically modified foods
"We are at a pivotal time in the history of this island," Wille told the Maui County Council in September 2013. "We have an opportunity to act, to do something. We would make history on this island. Let's make this island a model for the rest of the world."
Wille's proposed ban received more vocal support than any bill the council had previously considered — even more than its "perennially popular bids to decriminalize marijuana," according to a 2014 New York Times story by Amy Harmon.
Anti-GMO activists from around the world were video-conferenced in to the hearing to speak in support of the ban. Scientists, on the other hand, were not given as much time to speak.
Papaya farmers voiced staunch opposition to the bill, which forced Wille to amend it to "grandfather in" the fruit. Essentially, that meant the Rainbow papaya was exempted from the ban, so long as farmers registered with the county and paid a $100 yearly fee. | It started with rotting flesh. Slicing into the green skin of a Hawaiian papaya ordinarily... |
End of preview. Expand
in Data Studio
README.md exists but content is empty.
- Downloads last month
- 36