Tag: Apple

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Supplier Report: 9/14/2018

The Source: Lobe will set you free

Microsoft acquired Lobe, a company to help advance their AI strategy and make it accessible to the masses.  Making AI easier is critical as there are reports that companies need to start investing in AI now to just keep up with competition in the next 5-10 years.

Companies also need to invest in software developers as CNBC reports that developers are more valuable to corporations than money…

Acquisitions

  • Microsoft acquires Lobe, a drag-and-drop AI tool

    Microsoft today announced that is has acquired Lobe, a startup that lets you build machine learning models with the help of a simple drag-and-drop interface. Microsoft plans to use Lobe, which only launched into beta earlier this year, to build upon its own efforts to make building AI models easier, though, for the time being, Lobe will operate as before.

    “As part of Microsoft, Lobe will be able to leverage world-class AI research, global infrastructure, and decades of experience building developer tools,” the team writes. “We plan to continue developing Lobe as a standalone service, supporting open source standards and multiple platforms.”

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/13/microsoft-acquires-lobe-a-drag-and-drop-ai-tool/

  • Intel acquires NetSpeed Systems to boost its system-on-a-chip business

    The company has acquired NetSpeed Systems, a startup that makes system-on-chip (SoC) design tools and interconnect fabric intellectual property (IP). The company will be joining Intel’s Silicon Engineering Group, and its co-founder and CEO, Sundari Mitra, herself an Intel vet, will be coming on as a VP at Intel where she will continue to lead her team.

    Terms of the deal are not being disclosed, but for some context, during NetSpeed’s last fundraise in 2016 (a $10 million Series C) it had a post-money valuation of $60 million, according to data from PitchBook.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/10/intel-acquires-netspeed-systems-to-beef-up-its-system-on-a-chip-business/

Artificial Intelligence

  • The devilishly quiet age of AI

    The era’s winners will be those who are not fooled by the absence of visible change from AI over the next 5-7 years. By the time the fruits of AI investment become clear — after 2025 — it will be extremely difficult to compete with the leading players, says Jacques Bughin and Jeongmin Seong, two co-authors of the report.

    AI adoption will add $13 trillion a year to global production, the report said, and an average of 1.2% to global GDP growth per year.

    https://www.axios.com/quiet-artificial-intelligence-revolution-3ade583f-ca2d-4b10-bdf9-d9c75fb8418f.html

  • Google Cloud’s new AI chief is on a task force for AI military uses and believes we could monitor ‘pretty much the whole world’ with drones

    Google’s decision to hire Moore was greeted with displeasure by at least one former Googler who objected to Project Maven.

    “It’s worrisome to note after the widespread internal dissent against Maven that Google would hire Andrew Moore,” said one former Google employee. “Googlers want less alignment with the military-industrial complex, not more. This hire is like a punch in the face to the over 4,000 Googlers who signed the Cancel Maven letter.”

    A Google spokesman declined to comment.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/google-cloud-new-ai-chief-history-military-security-task-force-2018-9

Cloud

  • Oracle’s Kurian Is Said to Be at Odds With Ellison on Cloud

    The growing strife between Kurian, president of product development, and Executive Chairman Ellison culminated in Kurian’s announcement on Sept. 5 that he’s taking a break, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a private matter. Kurian wants Oracle to make more of its software available to run on public clouds from chief rivals Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. as a way to diversify from its own struggling infrastructure, a view opposed by Ellison, one of the people said.

    https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/oracle/oracles-kurian-said-be-odds-ellison-cloud

Security

  • A year later, Equifax lost your data but faced little fallout

    “There was a failure of the company, but also of lawmakers,” said Mark Warner, a Democratic senator, in a call with TechCrunch. Warner, who serves Virginia, was one of the first lawmakers to file new legislation after the breach. Alongside his Democratic colleague, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the two senators said their bill, if passed, would hold credit agencies accountable for data breaches.

    “The message sent to the market is ‘if you can endure some media blowback, you can get through this without serious long-term ramifications’, and that’s totally unacceptable,” he said.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/08/equifax-one-year-later-unscathed/

Software/SaaS

  • Software developers are now more valuable to companies than money: Survey

    And yet, despite being many corporations’ most precious resource, developer talents are all too often squandered. Collectively, companies today lose upward of $300 billion a year paying down “technical debt,” as developers pour time into maintaining legacy systems or dealing with the ramifications of bad software.

    This is especially worrisome, given the outsized impact developers have on companies’ chances of success. Software developers don’t have a monopoly on good ideas, but their skill set makes them a uniquely deep source of innovation, productivity and new economic connections. When deployed correctly, developers can be economic multipliers — coefficients that dramatically ratchet up the output of the teams and companies of which they’re a part.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/06/companies-worry-more-about-access-to-software-developers-than-capital.html

  • What you need to know ahead of the EU copyright vote

    European lawmakers want to extend digital copyright to also cover the ledes of news stories which aggregators such as Google News typically ingest and display — because, again, the likes of Alphabet is profiting off of bits of others’ professional work without paying them to do so. And, on the flip side, media firms have seen their profits hammered by the Internet serving up free content.

    The reforms would seek to compensate publishers for their investment in journalism by letting them charge for use of these text snippets — instead of only being ‘paid’ in traffic (i.e. by becoming yet more eyeball fodder in Alphabet’s aggregators).

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/08/what-you-need-to-know-ahead-of-the-eu-copyright-vote/

  • Burger King selects SAP solutions to support growth

    The chain will use Cloud-based procurement applications and a business network from SAP Ariba and SAP S/4HANA from SAP to expand its presence and increase revenue.These solutions will assist the restaurant chain to create a digital process to fuel savings, efficiencies and business growth.

    Leveraging both solutions, the company will gain insights from the data stored in its supply chains and use them to grow further.

    https://www.verdictfoodservice.com/news/burger-king-sap-solutions-growth/

Datacenter/Hardware

  • Apple raised the price of its best phone by $330, and no one cares

    Two years ago, a brand-new flagship Apple smartphone started at $650. Now, the a compromised version of Apple’s vision will set you back $750. Even though the Xr will likely be more than enough iPhone for most customers, the iPhone X proved that there are loads of people out there willing to pay $999 and up for a truly premium device.

    And this year, those with lots of money have even more opportunity to spend: the iPhone Xs Max starts at $1,099 and goes up to an insane $1,449 with 512GB of storage. In 2016, the top-of-the-line iPhone 7 Plus with 256GB of storage cost $929. Not only has Apple raised the cost of a flagship device, it expanded the pricing window for its highest-end phones by more than $500.

    https://www.engadget.com/2018/09/13/apple-iphone-xs-xr-price-increases/

Other

  • Trump renews call for Apple to make its products in the US

    But while moving its manufacturing operations to the US would allow it to skip the tariffs, Apple’s products likely wouldn’t be any cheaper. China is an attractive to tech manufacturing because its workforce is cheaper and the plants that produce individual components are in close proximity to one another. Moving that manufacturing infrastructure would be costly. On Twitter, Trade lawyer Scott Lincicome pointed out that an iPhone would be more expensive to manufacture here in the US, citing a Marketplace report from 2014 that suggested that the component cost of an iPhone in China was around $190 per phone. In the US, that price jumps up to around $600, pushing the device — at the time — to a predicted price of $2000, far more than what would be seen under the tariffs.

    https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/8/17835158/trump-twitter-apple-manufacturing-tariffs

  • Tough Days for China’s Tech Giants

    For Tencent, which makes over 90% of its revenue in China, more government scrutiny has become a reality. Beijing has been holding up approvals for new games and sales of in-game items like virtual weapons—Tencent makes around half its annual revenue from the latter. The freeze caused the company’s first year-over-year profit decline since the last quarter in 2005.

    This doesn’t seem like a hiccup. Beijing last week said it will continue limiting videogame releases and set restrictions on young people’s playing time, while state media has been repeatedly lambasting game companies for creating social problems. Nasdaq-listed Baidu, too, has been reprimanded for hosting content that threatens China’s “social order.”

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/tough-days-for-chinas-tech-giants-1536312601?ns=prod/accounts-wsj

  • Tim Armstrong to depart as CEO of Verizon’s Oath

    Verizon’s head of media and advertising Tim Armstrong will leave at the end of the year, the company announced Wednesday. CNBC reported Armstrong was in talks to leave as of Sept. 7.

    Armstrong came to Verizon in 2015 as part of the acquisition of AOL, where he was CEO. The company later bought Yahoo and combined the two divisions into a digital advertising unit called Oath but those efforts have yet to produce significant growth. Verizon has decided to integrate Oath more fully with the rest of the company’s operations, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report, despite recent discussions about spinning off Oath into a separate business.

    Oath president and COO K. Guru Gowrappan will “assume all management responsibilities” as chief executive effective Oct. 1, the company said in a release.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/12/tim-armstrong-out-at-verizons-oath.html

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

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Supplier Report: 9/1/2018

The Source: Corporate Values and the open road

The fight between Oracle and Google isn’t over… according to Google. The company vows to fight the most recent software ruling (in favor of Oracle) all the way to the Supreme Court.

Apple bought a company focused on AR lenses. Will the company release “Apple Glass” and pretend they were first and everyone wearing AR glasses looks cool?

Microsoft is requiring suppliers in their supply chain to give employees paid family leave. This is another example (after Apple) of how a large company can promote benefits and well being outside of their organization.

Acquisitions

  • Apple buys startup focused on lenses for AR glasses

    Apple confirmed it acquired Longmont, Colorado-based Akonia Holographics. “Apple buys smaller companies from time to time, and we generally don’t discuss our purpose or plans,” the iPhone maker said in a statement.

    Akonia could not immediately be reached for comment. The company was founded in 2012 by a group of holography scientists and had originally focused on holographic data storage before shifting its efforts to creating displays for augmented reality glasses, according to its website.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-tech/apple-buys-startup-focused-on-lenses-for-ar-glasses-idUSKCN1LE2VS

  • Cognizant to Acquire SaaSfocus to Expand Salesforce Cloud Consulting Capabilities

    Cognizant (Nasdaq : CTSH ) today announced it has agreed to acquire SaaSfocus, a privately-held consulting firm specializing in digital transformation, leveraging the Salesforce Platform. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2018, subject to certain closing conditions. Financial details were not disclosed.

    SaaSfocus is one of the largest independent Salesforce Platinum consulting partners in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region with operations across Australia and India. The acquisition will expand Cognizant’s end-to-end digital transformation services and Salesforce cloud capabilities in these growing markets.

    https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cognizant-to-acquire-saasfocus-to-expand-salesforce-cloud-consulting-capabilities-300701228.html

  • Trump says Amazon, Facebook, and Google represent a ‘very antitrust situation’

    “I won’t comment on the breaking up, of whether it’s that or Amazon or Facebook,” Trump said, replying to a question on whether tech companies like Facebook and Google should be regulated and potentially broken up by the US government. “As you know, many people think it is a very antitrust situation, the three of them. But I just, I won’t comment on that.” Trump reiterated his claim that “conservatives have been treated very unfairly” by Google. “I tell you there are some moments where we say, ’Wow that really is bad, what they’re doing,’” he added.

    It is not clear why Amazon is included in this latest round of criticism, as it does not operate a communications platform, but it’s likely because Trump personally dislikes Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post, which Bezos owns, and has criticized Amazon frequently in the past over apparent tax issues.

    https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/30/17802566/president-donald-trump-amazon-facebook-google-antitrust-silicon-valley-liberal-bias

Cloud

  • Thailand is becoming a critical country for blockchain

    To understand how a small country like Thailand can move so quickly in the blockchain space, it’s crucial to understand the strategy of regulators and local companies. Unlike their U.S. peers, most Asian blockchain companies and exchanges work with local regulators right from the beginning, even as they are first building their products and growing their communities. These teams use formal and informal relationships to get buy-in from their respective local governments in order to bolster their credibility. This pattern is particularly true for Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/31/thailand-blockchain/

Security

  • Yahoo, Bucking Industry, Scans Emails for Data to Sell Advertisers

    Yahoo’s owner, the Oath unit of Verizon Communications Inc has been pitching a service to advertisers that analyzes more than 200 million Yahoo Mail inboxes and the rich user data they contain, searching for clues about what products those users might buy, said people who have attended Oath’s presentations as well as current and former employees of the company.

    Oath said the practice extends to AOL Mail, which it also owns. Together, they constitute the only major U.S. email provider that scans user inboxes for marketing purposes.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/yahoo-bucking-industry-scans-emails-for-data-to-sell-advertisers-1535466959

Software/SaaS

  • Oracle v. Google ain’t over yet — Google vows it’ll appeal to Supreme Court

    The search giant said Tuesday that it’ll appeal the case to the Supreme Court, after a federal appeals court declined to rehear the case in which it determined the company’s use of Java software from Oracle went beyond the bounds of fair use. Oracle had previously asked for $8.8 billion in damages.

    “We are disappointed that the Federal Circuit overturned the jury finding that Java is open and free for everyone,” a Google spokeswoman said in a statement. “We will appeal to the Supreme Court to defend this principle against companies like Oracle, whose restrictive practices threaten to stifle the work of new generations of tech developers.”

    https://www.cnet.com/news/oracle-v-google-aint-over-yet-google-vows-itll-appeal-to-supreme-court/

Other

  • Amazon Is Beefing With Bernie Sanders Over Its Treatment of Employees

    Even Amazon’s attempt to quell concerns about its employees using the SNAP program fell flat. It starts by giving Sanders grief for referring to the program as food stamps, and then states that those numbers “include people who only worked for Amazon for a short period of time and/or chose to work part-time,” implying that part-time employees needing to rely on food stamps is reasonable.

    Sanders used Amazon’s rebuttals to fuel his fire, tweeting on Wednesday that the company should “prove” its claims by “mak[ing] public the number of people you hire through temporary staffing agencies like Integrity Staffing Solutions and make public the hourly rate and benefits those workers earn.”

    https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ev8eqp/amazon-is-beefing-with-bernie-sanders-over-its-treatment-of-employees

  • Microsoft to Require Its Suppliers, Contractors to Give Paid Family Leave

    The policy applies to Microsoft vendors with more than 50 employees and covers workers given substantial assignments for Microsoft. For example, a staffing agency that provides information-technology professionals to Microsoft and other clients would only have to cover employees assigned to Microsoft. It will impact thousands of workers around the country, the company said.

    The paid leave benefit requirement will be capped at $1,000 a week in compensation, and Microsoft suppliers have 12 months to implement the change.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-to-require-its-suppliers-contractors-to-give-paid-family-leave-1535635800?ns=prod/accounts-wsj

Photo by Jack Antal on Unsplash

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Supplier Report: 8/17/2018

The Source: All about the chip: joey lombardi

CPUs are the main story this week. As companies like AMD develop better processors and better manufacturing methods, former CPU champ Intel is finding ways to divest. The company purchased another AI company to add to their Movidius unit.  Can Intel fend off AMD and companies like Foxconn (who are supporting China’s agenda of creating their own processors)?

Cisco’s strategy to focus on software seems to be paying off as the company saw growth of 6% over last year.

Acquisitions

  • Intel buys deep-learning startup Vertex.AI to join its Movidius unit

    Vertex says that Intel will continue to develop PlaidML as an open source project (see its Github page here), where it will continue to support a variety of hardware under an Apache 2.0 license with an Intel nGraph backend. “We are excited to advance flexible deep learning for edge computing as part of Intel,” the company said.

    Intel, once a pace-setter and leader in the computing industry on the strength of its processors, has lost some momentum amid a new wave of companies building processors for mobile and other next-generation devices.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/16/intel-buys-deep-learning-startup-vertex-ai-to-join-its-movidius-unit/

  • Amazon in Running to Acquire Landmark Movie Chain

    Pushing into movie theaters would follow Amazon’s expansion into myriad other forms of media, including a film and TV studio and music service. With Landmark, it gets a chain focused on independent and foreign films that was founded in 1974. The company has more than 50 theaters, including high-profile locations in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, with about 250 screens in 27 markets.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-16/amazon-is-said-to-be-in-running-to-acquire-landmark-movie-chain

Artificial Intelligence

  • IBM pushes back on negative Watson Health stories

    In response to the claims, Kelly noted a number of positives for the company, including a Mayo Clinic poster presentation showing improved enrollment in breast cancer trials following implementation of Watson for Clinical Trial Matching and training from Memorial Sloan Kettering on 13 different cancers, which he says represents 80% of the global cancer incidence and prevalence.

    Kelly also noted an extended contract with the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, research showing that its Watson for Genomics found new actionable mutations in 32% of patients and high rates of concordance in breast cancer at Manipal Hospital’s multidisciplinary tumor board.

    https://www.massdevice.com/ibm-pushes-back-on-negative-watson-health-stories/

Cloud

  • Google defends controversial China project in meeting with employees

    “Our stated mission is to organize the world’s information,” Pichai added. “China is one-fifth of the world’s population. I think if we were to do our mission well, I think we have to think seriously about how we do more in China. I genuinely do believe we have a positive impact when we engage around the world and I don’t see any reason why that would be different in China.”

    https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/16/17707324/google-china-search-engine-censorship-response-meeting

Security

  • Teen Allegedly Hacked Into Apple’s Network, Got Caught With ‘Hacky Hack Hack’ Folder

    It’s unclear whether the data he accessed was particularly sensitive. Apple caught the teen and alerted the FBI, which in turn worked with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to track down the hacker. Authorities seized two laptops, a phone, and a hard drive. They found a folder on one of his computers titled “Hacky Hack Hack,” according to reports.

    https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mb44nn/autralian-teen-hacked-apple-network

  • FBI Is Reportedly Warning Banks That Hackers Are Planning to Make A Global Run on ATMs

    “The FBI has obtained unspecified reporting indicating cyber criminals are planning to conduct a global Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cash-out scheme in the coming days, likely associated with an unknown card issuer breach and commonly referred to as an ‘unlimited operation,’” the FBI letter to banks reads.

    Unlimited operations use malware to gain access to the card information of bank customers and access to the banks’ networks.

    “The cyber criminals typically create fraudulent copies of legitimate cards by sending stolen card data to co-conspirators who imprint the data on reusable magnetic strip cards, such as gift cards purchased at retail stores,” the FBI letter said. “At a pre-determined time, the co-conspirators withdraw accounts funds from ATMs using these cards.”

    https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ywke7w/fbi-is-reportedly-warning-banks-that-hackers-are-planning-to-make-a-global-run-on-atms

Software/SaaS

  • Cisco Extends Growth Streak on Strong Software Sales

    Cisco’s streak—the company generated $12.84 billion in total revenue in its fiscal fourth quarter, up 6% from a year earlier—comes after two years of declines during which it faced increasing pressure from competitors while it relied heavily on slower-growth hardware sales.

    And the company expects the run to continue, providing guidance that calls for revenue growth of between 5% and 7% in the current quarter.

    Cisco has seen its financial fortunes improve, as it focused on software sales, particularly in the security arena. Revenue in its security segment revenue jumped 12% to $627 million.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/cisco-extends-growth-streak-on-strong-software-sales-1534377123

Datacenter/Hardware

  • AMD Set to Crack Intel’s Lock on Data Centers

    There is an opening for AMD because Intel has struggled to transition to a new chip-manufacturing process. One of the companies that makes AMD’s chips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing , or TSMC, has moved ahead of Intel and is producing the latest version of AMD’s Epyc server processor, which is expected to start shipping in volume next year. Intel doesn’t intend to launch a server chip based on its newest production process until sometime in 2020.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/amd-set-to-crack-intels-lock-on-data-centers-1534439566

  • Foxconn Posts Unexpected Drop in Profit

    Taiwan-based Foxconn said Monday that its net profit for the quarter ended June 30 was 17.5 billion New Taiwan dollars ($566.7 million). That compared with the NT$20.2 billion average estimate of analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ. Its net profit in the year-earlier quarter was NT$17.9 billion.

    Foxconn, known formally as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. 2317 0.12% , is the world’s largest contract electronics maker, and is best known for assembling Apple’s iPhones. Last year, Foxconn relied on Apple for about 54% of its revenue, according to Arthur Liao, an analyst at Fubon Research.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/foxconn-posts-unexpected-drop-in-profit-1534163275

  • Foxconn Pursues Chip Ambitions With Plans for China Plant

    Foxconn said it is developing plans within the partnership, which includes “other stakeholders” in the city. “We will be prepared to announce these plans when they have been finalized in the coming months,” the Taiwan-based company said.

    The initiative comes at a time when China is spending billions of dollars to nurture its own semiconductor industry and reduce its reliance on foreign technology, an effort that has grown more urgent as its attempts to acquire U.S. chip companies have met opposition from the U.S. over national-security concerns.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/foxconn-to-build-semiconductor-plant-in-chinas-pearl-river-delta-1534498173?ns=prod/accounts-wsj

Photo by Brian Kostiuk on Unsplash

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Supplier Report: 8/10/2018

Big mergers seems to be getting push back. The AT&T acquisition of Time-Warner is still under scrutiny (as is the Judge that approved it) and the Sinclair acquisition of Tribune was officially shut down. Elon Musk also might be over running a publicly traded company and is thinking about taking Telsa private.

In other news, IBM is still struggling with Watson and bots might pick your veggies in the near future.

Acquisitions

  • AT&T Not Out of the Legal Woods Yet

    In the original case, the government argued that AT&T would be able to dictate higher carriage fees to competing distributors by threatening to withhold its cable networks from rival pay-TV providers, leading to higher prices for consumers. Judge Leon concluded that the facts didn’t uphold that. Antitrust experts say the government is likely to argue that the judge defined the market too loosely, allowing AT&T’s argument that its competition includes tech firms like Netflix , Facebook and Amazon.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-t-not-out-of-the-legal-woods-yet-1533549600
    DOJ’s Behind-the-Scenes Struggles With Judge in AT&T Case

    Jeffrey Jacobovitz, an antitrust lawyer with Arnall Golden Gregory LLP who isn’t connected with the case, said judges have their own styles for administering trials, though sidebar conferences generally happen more in jury trials, so jurors won’t be influenced. There was no jury in the AT&T trial.

    “It’s unusual for a judge to have voluminous sidebars when it’s the judge resolving the ultimate issues,” Mr. Jacobovitz said.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/dojs-behind-the-scenes-struggles-with-judge-in-at-t-case-1533682305

  • Sinclair’s Bid to Monopolize Local TV News Is Officially Dead

    Said behavior included what critics say were “sham” divestment deals, where Sinclair attempted to offload some stations to companies it still controlled in a bid to pretend the deal would fall within media ownership limits. Currently, the law states no one broadcaster can reach more than 38% of households (Sinclair would have reached 72% had the deal been approved).

    Sinclair’s efforts were so brazen, they forced even the historically mega-industry-friendly FCC chief Ajit Pai to shovel the deal off to an administrative law judge, a move traditionally seen as a death knell for such megadeals.

    https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8xbk5p/sinclairs-bid-to-monopolize-local-tv-news-is-officially-dead

  • Elon Musk is seriously considering taking Tesla private

    “The reason for doing this is all about creating the environment for Tesla to operate best,” Musk began. Being a public company means being subjected to wild swings in stock prices (it even spiked earlier today after his tweet talking about taking the company private), and such volatility can be a “major distraction” for both Tesla’s workforce and shareholders. It’s the latter Musk seems to want to mute by going private, as he lamented the pressure that putting out quarterly reports (which are mandated by law for public companies) puts on the company to make decisions that will look better in the short term but not serve Tesla best in the long run. He also noted that going private would avoid stock shorting attempts to harm the company.

    https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/07/elon-musk-admits-want-take-tesla-private/

Artificial Intelligence

  • Employees at Google, Amazon and Microsoft Have Threatened to Walk Off the Job Over the Use of AI

    There is certainly a lot to worry about. Widespread use of facial-recognition technology by law enforcement can spell the end of speech, association and privacy rights (just think about the ability to identify, catalog and store thousands of facial images from a boisterous political rally). As O’Neill reminds us in her book, the algorithms employed in large chain store hiring processes and credit worthiness decision are opaque and lack self-correction mechanisms. They give off an air of objectivity and authority while encoding the prejudices of the people who programmed them. Weapons systems combining face recognition and social-media access can pick off opponents more efficiently than the most ruthless assassin. The images of swarm-drone warfare in Slaughterbots are the stuff of nightmares.

    https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/employees-google-amazon-and-microsoft-have-threatened-walk-job-over-use-ai-27962

  • Your vegetables are going to be picked by robots sooner than you think

    Root AI is focused on the 2.3 million square feet of indoor farms that currently exist in the world and is hoping to expand as the number of farms cultivating crops indoors increases. Some estimates from analysis firms like Agrilyst put the planned expansions in indoor farming at around 22 million square feet (much of that in the U.S.).

    While that only amounts to roughly 505 acres of land — a fraction of the 900 million acres of farmland that’s currently cultivated in the U.S. — those indoor farms offer huge yield advantages over traditional farms with a much lower footprint in terms of resources used. The average yield per acre in indoor farms for vine crops like tomatoes, and leafy greens, is over ten times higher than outdoor farms.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/08/your-vegetables-are-going-to-be-picked-by-robots-sooner-than-you-think/

  • IBM Has a Watson Dilemma

    Recommending personal medical treatment is a taller order. The software needs to be trained with data on what has worked in the past, including details on patients’ medical histories and treatment outcomes. That information is often recorded in different formats and owned by different companies, and isn’t always complete or consistent.

    Moreover, human doctors still have a lot to learn about the science of disease, including cancer.

    Oncology won’t be “a great space for making [AI] products” until there’s better data about patients, spanning genetic, environmental, lifestyle and health information, said Bob Kocher, a medical doctor and partner at venture-capital firm Venrock in Palo Alto, Calif. In the near term, most of the benefits from AI in the health-care field will come in administrative tasks such as billing, he added.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/ibm-bet-billions-that-watson-could-improve-cancer-treatment-it-hasnt-worked-1533961147

Cloud

  • AWS error exposed GoDaddy business secrets

    The information involved in the security breach appeared to describe GoDaddy’s architecture, as well as “high-level configuration information for tens of thousands of systems and pricing options for running those systems in Amazon AWS, including the discounts offered under different scenarios,” according to UpGuard.

    Configuration files for hostnames, operating systems, workloads, AWS regions, memory, CPU specifications, and more were included in the exposed cache, which described at least 24,000 systems.

    “Essentially, this data mapped a very large scale AWS cloud infrastructure deployment, with 41 different columns on individual systems, as well as summarized and modeled data on totals, averages, and other calculated fields,” the cybersecurity firm said.

    https://www.zdnet.com/article/aws-error-exposed-godaddy-server-secrets/

  • DXC Technology and AWS join forces for new integration practice

    DXC Technology and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are joining forces to build a new integrated practice focused on delivering IT migration, application transformation and industry-specific cloud services.

    The multibillion-dollar DXC – AWS Integrated Practice is part of a multi-year, global agreement that also encompasses joint development, marketing, sales, and delivery of AWS solutions. Specifically, these services include managed security and compliance services for AWS; dedicated VMware Cloud on AWS migration solutions and analytics and application services on AWS.

    https://sg.channelasia.tech/article/644922/dxc-technology-aws-join-forces-new-integration-practice/?fp=2&fpid=1

Security

  • iPhone supplier TSMC shut down factories after virus attack

    TSMC is the largest semiconductor manufacturer in the world, and supplies components for companies like ADM, Apple, Nvidia, and Qualcomm. The company told Bloomberg that the virus infected a “number of its fabrication tools,” but that the “degree of infection varies” from factory to factory. Several have resumed their operations, but others won’t come back online until tomorrow. The company indicated that its factories weren’t infected by a hacker.

    https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/4/17651448/iphone-supplier-taiwan-semiconductor-manufacturing-co-tsmc-virus-shut-down

Software/SaaS

  • Oracle introduces autonomous transaction processing database – pounds on AWS

    We’re the easiest database in the world to use. There’s nothing to learn, there’s nothing to do. It’s much much less labor involved so it’s much, much lower in cost. It’s truly elastic because you only pay for the infrastructure that you use. So when the application is not running then Oracle deactivates servers – it’s called a serverless system. And if you’re at a busy time then it will automatically add servers while the system is is still running.

    https://diginomica.com/2018/08/07/oracle-introduces-autonomous-transaction-processing-database-pounds-on-aws/

  • SAP Ariba Named a Leader in Gartner 2018 Magic Quadrant for Strategic

    SAP Ariba today announced it has been positioned in the Leaders quadrant of the Gartner 2018 Magic Quadrant for Strategic Sourcing Application Suites. (Gartner, Inc. Magic Quadrant for Strategic Sourcing Application Suites, Magnus Bergfors, Patrick M. Connaughton, et al., August 1, 2018). In May, SAP Ariba was also recognized in the Gartner 2018 Magic Quadrant for Procure-to-Pay Suites alongside SAP Fieldglass.

    https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180806005442/en/SAP-Ariba-Named-Leader-Gartner-2018-Magic

  • Salesforce Promotes Keith Block to Co-CEO

    Mr. Block, a former Oracle Corp. executive who joined Salesforce in 2013 as vice chairman and president, now will report directly to Salesforce’s board of directors. Mr. Benioff, who will go from being sole CEO to co-CEO, will continue leading the company’s “vision and innovation in areas including technology, marketing, stakeholder engagement and culture,” while Mr. Block will run the company’s “growth strategy, execution and operations,” Salesforce said.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/salesforce-promotes-keith-block-to-co-ceo-1533704207

Datacenter/Hardware

  • Samsung is still trying to make DeX happen

    The idea of a pocketable laptop-like machine has its merits, and in theory, DeX is promising. It’s the combination of a small accessory for the Galaxy S8, Note 8 and S9 with a software mode (like on the Tab S4) that provides a faux desktop system. To minimize the number of loose accessories you have to carry around, Samsung introduced HDMI compatibility on the Note 9, so you can plug it into any supported display with an HDMI to USB-C converter and use the DeX software to immediately get to work. You can leave the converter cable on your desk or attached to the screen, so all you need to bring is your phone. Neat.

    https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/10/samsung-dex-success-outside-mainstream/
    I am all about this type of technology. It needs to happen and corporations should get behind it.

Other

  • The greedy ways Apple got to $1 trillion

    We still turn to Apple because it makes the best core products. But the edges of the customer experience have frayed like the wires of a Lightning cable. The key to Apple’s fortune is obviously selling high margin iPhones, not these ways it nickels and dimes us. But the company has an opportunity to raise its standards after this milestone, and win back the faith that could push it to a $2 trillion market cap.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/04/the-greedy-ways-apple-got-to-1-trillion/

Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash

Posted on

Supplier Report: 8/3/2018

Joey Lombardi: Apple hits a trillion

Apple crossed over the line to become a TRILLION dollar company. Will they stay at level or dip down? When will Microsoft or Amazon join them in the Trillion Dollar Club?

Google is rumored to be creating a censored search engine for China. Upon the news being released, several Google employees expressed their disdain for the project.

With Jan Koum gone, Facebook is finally monetizing WhatsApp. Will the platform continue to thrive under Facebook or fail due to competition from Signal and other messaging clients?

Acquisitions

  • GE Puts Digital Assets on the Block

    The Boston-based company has hired an investment bank to run an auction for the operations, which produced $500 million or more in revenue last year and lost money, according to people familiar with the matter.

    Though proceeds of a sale aren’t expected to mean much for a company with a market value of more than $100 billion, the move to unload the operations is symbolic of a dramatic reversal of fortune at GE, which has stumbled badly after a series of missteps.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/ge-puts-digital-assets-on-the-block-1532972822?ns=prod/accounts-wsj

  • Cisco is buying Duo Security for $2.35B in cash

    Duo Security was founded in 2010 by Dug Song and Jonathan Oberheide and went on to raise $121.M through several rounds of funding. The company has 700 employees with offices throughout the United States and in London, though the company has remained headquartered in Ann Arbor.

    Co-founder and CEO Dug Song will continue leading Duo as its General Manager and will join Cisco’s Networking and Security business led by EVP and GM David Goeckeler. Cisco in a statement said they value Michigan’s “resources, rich talent pool, and infrastructure,” and remain committed to Duo’s investment and presence in the Great Lakes State.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/02/cisco-is-buying-duo-security-for-2-35b-in-cash/

  • Logitech is buying Blue Microphones

    Logitech today announced its intention to acquire Blue Microphones, the hardware company behind popular podcasting microphones like the Yeti and Snowball. It’s a pretty logical acquisition, as far as these things go — Logitech already operates in the audio space, with speakers and gaming headsets.

    The acquisition of Blue would add an important dimension to that category and help the company take on a rapidly expanding space. Blue’s best known products aren’t high-end, exactly, but they’ve become the go-to choice for upstart podcasters looking to get in on the ground floor in the medium.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/30/logitech-is-buying-blue-microphones/

  • DocuSign acquires SpringCM for $220M to continue evolution beyond electronic signatures

    DocuSign says the acquisition will help its growth beyond its bread and butter work in electronic signatures to modernizing what it calls the System of Agreement. That includes everything from preparing, signing, executing, and managing agreements.

    “DocuSign pioneered the e-signature category, and has built a strong SaaS business around that capability. We’ve also started to offer solutions that connect and automate the entire agreement lifecycle,” DocuSign CEO Dan Springer said in a statement. “We’ve done this with Spring CM as a partner across hundreds of joint commercial and enterprise customers. And we have many more DocuSign customers asking us to provide these capabilities natively as part of our platform. That’s why we believe today’s announcement makes such great business sense.”

    https://www.geekwire.com/2018/docusign-acquires-springcm-220m-continue-evolution-beyond-electronic-signatures/

Artificial Intelligence

  • ‘The discourse is unhinged’: how the media gets AI alarmingly wrong

    According to Lipton, in recent years broader interest in topics like “machine learning” and “deep learning” has led to a deluge of this type of opportunistic journalism, which misrepresents research for the purpose of generating retweets and clicks – he calls it the “AI misinformation epidemic”. A growing number of researchers working in the field share Lipton’s frustration, and worry that the inaccurate and speculative stories about AI, like the Facebook story, will create unrealistic expectations for the field, which could ultimately threaten future progress and the responsible application of new technologies.

    Exaggerated claims in the press about the intelligence of computers is not unique to our time, and in fact goes back to the very origins of computing itself.

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/25/ai-artificial-intelligence-social-media-bots-wrong

Software/SaaS

  • Facebook is making its first serious move to monetize WhatsApp

    WhatsApp has rolled out three new ways for customers to connect quickly with businesses: a shortcut button to immediately start a conversation, the ability to have businesses send you information like a boarding pass on WhatsApp, and real-time support, the company said today.

    At the same time, Facebook will now display ads of businesses that link out to WhatsApp. That means that businesses can purchase ads that lead people directly to an already loaded chat with the business on WhatsApp, and they can start talking from there. Businesses can respond to customers for free if they answer within 24 hours but Facebook will charge them for any response after 24 hours. It looks to be another way for Facebook to cash in on its many apps.

    https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/1/17636418/facebook-whatsapp-ads-monetize

  • Amazon reportedly plans to end its reliance on Oracle — but Oracle says Amazon bought $60 million of its tech just a year ago

    “We don’t believe that Amazon Web Services has any database technology that comes close to the capabilities of the Oracle database. That’s why our biggest competitors like Salesforce.com, SAP, and Amazon continue to rely on the Oracle database to run their business,” she said.

    The conflict between Amazon and Oracle has intensified in recent years: Amazon Web Services, the largest player in the cloud market, is attacking Oracle’s core business with tools designed to steal customers away. Oracle, for its part, has made the cloud a big strategic focus for the company, as it works to get a leg up on Amazon.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-oracle-databases-reliance-2018-8

Other

  • Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal

    The project – code-named Dragonfly – has been underway since spring of last year, and accelerated following a December 2017 meeting between Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai and a top Chinese government official, according to internal Google documents and people familiar with the plans.

    Teams of programmers and engineers at Google have created a custom Android app, different versions of which have been named “Maotai” and “Longfei.” The app has already been demonstrated to the Chinese government; the finalized version could be launched in the next six to nine months, pending approval from Chinese officials.

    https://theintercept.com/2018/08/01/google-china-search-engine-censorship/

  • Apple is now a $1 trillion company

    Apple hit the $1 trillion mark early this morning when its stock crossed $207.05 per share at 11:48am ET (the stock has since dropped back down slightly). Given the volatile nature of the market, however, it’s possible Apple may not stay a $1 trillion company for very long, or it could bounce back and forth over the $1 trillion mark in the coming days. It technically also isn’t the first to hit $1 trillion, either — PetroChina briefly reached $1 trillion back in 2007, although the stock soon fell below that mark.

    https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/2/17638764/apple-worlds-first-1-trillion-company-market-cap-stock-price
    Joey Lombardi: Apple hits a trillion

Photo: Ronaldo De Oliveira