MacRumors is reporting that Apple is rolling out an onsite iPhone repair service in select cities.
While Apple has provided onsite repair for enterprise customers for some time, there has not been such a service for consumers. The service is being provided through Apple Authorized Service Provider Go Tech Services and is currently being offered in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.
All scheduling is done via Apple’s website. In fact, going to Go Tech’s site will redirect back to Apple, a good indication the company is working exclusively with the iPhone maker. This will hopefully result in the same quality of repairs currently available in-store.
MacRumors says it is still unclear what repairs can and cannot be completed, but it seems that cracked screen replacements can be performed, while battery replacements cannot. Hopefully the service will prove successful enough to eventually see wider deployment, offering customers a more convenient option than traveling to a Genius Bar.
“The market narrative is always it’s a zero-sum game,” says Imran Khan, co-founder and CEO of Verishop, a new Amazon competitor launching soon. “You are coming in and it’s Verishop versus Amazon or Snap versus Facebook. Those are great stories, but ultimately I fundamentally believe that all of us are on the right side of the history in a sense. Not one company will take everything. It’s just impossible for one company to solve every problem.”
Imran Khan, co-founder and CEO of Verishop, discusses how the Verishop shopping platform can compete and win market share from Amazon and others in an interview on Bloomberg Technology:
There’s a Lot of Opportunity to Innovate in Ecommerce
Ecommerce is now only 9 percent of the overall retail market. I believe that over the next decade 30-40 percent of all retail will be online. There are actually not that many consumer choices when you look for buying branded products, having a better experience, or having a better way to discover products. We think there’s a lot of opportunity to innovate. In markets like China, for example, where 25 percent of the market is ecommerce there are many more players in China compared to the US. So I think that’s a better way to bring joy in the consumer mind when they’re trying to buy things.
In my time at Snap I noticed that millennials like to do more research before they buy something. They also care about responsibility in terms of shopping. They care about economy and sustainability. If you as a consumer, for example, want to buy sustainable products where do you really go? So we have a lot of different ways of discovering products. On our platform, we’ll have around 200 different attributes that consumers can use to find products. I’m really excited to bring in a new way of shopping to consumers. The market is very large and I think it can accommodate a lot of players.
As Ecommerce Grows Not One Company Can Solve Everything
I really admire Amazon and I’m a shareholder of Amazon personally through my fund. However, I think as ecommerce goes from 10 percent to 40 percent, not one company can solve everything. Amazon is also a juggernaut. They do software, they do a lot of different things. Again, I really admire the company but there are a lot of parts of ecommerce that are not being addressed by existing players. I think we can bring that. For example, discovery, we know that because ecommerce is still very much intent based I think we can give consumers a lot of different ways to discover new products.
The key thing to keep in mind is the time spent on mobile device is only going to grow. The market narrative is always it’s a zero-sum game. You are coming in and it’s Verishop versus Amazon or Snap versus Facebook. Those are great stories, but ultimately I fundamentally believe that all of us are on the right side of the history in a sense. People are spending more and more time digitally and as people spend more time digitally there will be a lot more new businesses. Not one company will take everything. It’s just impossible for one company to solve every problem. Facebook does a great job with Instagram and Snap has done a great job with camera. I think one will be bigger and the other smaller, but only time will tell. But I think both can co-exist very well.
Verishop to Focus on Trust
We are going to launch in late June or early July. You will see our commitment in four areas. Number one is trust. Most of the ecommerce players are marketplaces. When you’re in a marketplace where anybody can go list something or anybody can post something the platform is prone to counterfeit and fraud. We saw that with eBay we saw that with Facebook with the Russians and we saw that with Talbot in China. What we’re doing is we’re acquiring all the product directly from the brands by guaranteeing that everything you’re buying is real.
Trust is going to become an important topic on the internet. Over the last 25 years, the internet was built on the premise of an open platform and we saw that when everything is open and there are no rules it brings chaos. We solve that at Verishop by sourcing all of the products that we are sourcing directly from the brands to ensure that they are real.
The second key thing (that distinguishes) the Verishop platform is discovering new products. Again, ecommerce is very much intent-based, so we are giving consumers more choices to discover products through a lot of different ways that you will see. Our third focus is we’re going to continue to make a big commitment on convenience. I know Amazon and other companies do this it but we’re going to continue to do so by offering free shipping, free return, all those kind of things. We’re excited and it’s just the beginning. It takes a long time to build a business and hopefully we’ll continue to bring new products and new innovation to the platform.
Verishop CEO Imran Khan On Competing With Amazon: “It’s Not a Zero Sum Game”
“Over 50% of everything that gets sold on Amazon actually comes from small and medium-sized businesses.,” says Amazon’s VP of Small Business, Nick Denissen. “Their success is our success so we’re definitely focused on doubling down on that. We have over 1.9 million small and medium-sized businesses in the US who work together with Amazon to conduct their business. Those include our sellers, authors, and skilled developers. They’re just a very important part of the customer experience we serve up.”
Nick Denissen, vice president of small business at Amazon, discusses the huge impact that small businesses have on Amazon sales in an interview on CNBC:
Over 50% of Everything Sold On Amazon Is From Small Businesses
Over 50% of everything that gets sold on Amazon actually comes from small and medium-sized businesses. Their success is our success so we’re definitely focused on doubling down on that. We have over 1.9 million small and medium-sized businesses in the US who work together with Amazon to conduct their business. Those include our sellers, authors, and skilled developers. They’re just a very important part of the customer experience we serve up.
The 58 percent I just culled out they are actually the part of the business that is growing faster than our first-party business. We definitely have our interests aligned with small businesses on all fronts. As I pointed out, 58 percent of everything that gets bought is from small and medium-sized businesses. Many customers don’t realize that.
Amazon Storefronts Shed a Little Bit More Light On Small Businesses
Last year, we launched Amazon Storefronts to shed a little bit more of a light on small businesses. Amazon Storefronts is essentially a curated shopping experience where customers can dedicatedly shop from local small businesses. They’re all US-based small businesses. When we opened that Storefront last year a little bit over a year ago we had 20,000 sellers. To date, we’re excited to announce that we actually have 30,000 sellers.
We’ve also developed special technology for them to share more content. They can actually share their story. Those sellers have reached 70 million customers in the last year and sold over 250 million products. I think those numbers speak for themselves that we really are helping and that small businesses can get discovered on Amazon.
Amazon Announces Small Business Spotlight Awards
Today, we’re super excited to announce our Small Business Spotlight Awards. We’re continuing to shine a spotlight on many of these exciting small businesses where they can share their stories. We’re announcing 18 finalists across three categories. There’s Small Business Woman of the Year Award, Entrepreneur Under 30, and Small Business of the Year Award. When we asked our sellers to nominate themselves for this process we actually had over 1300 nominations. Since it’s the first time we did it we really didn’t know what to expect.
Starting today our customers can vote until November 8th for their favorite small business in this category. One thing that we’ve learned is that customers do like to learn more about these small businesses, about their stories, and also other small businesses get a lot of inspiration from small businesses. We’re pretty excited to have these sellers on this journey with us.
Small Business Winner Will Get $80,000
We’re also conducting two live seller events in the US today where we’re enabling small businesses to meet customers and to actually conduct a sale. I just want to call out that one of the nominees, one of the finalists in the Small Business of the Year award, is Damhorst Toys and Puzzles. They are a multi-generational company. They’ve been in business for 48 years. They hand manufacture their wooden toys in Missouri and now they found their way online with Amazon. They’re growing and it’s great to see those types of companies.
The winner will get an $80,000 award so we’re pretty excited to have them continue to grow and prosper on Amazon. One of the things we hear from small businesses is it’s not easy to find the skill sets to help them drive an online business, in particular businesses who have started offline. That’s one of the areas we’re also looking at. How can we help small businesses on that front? So stay tuned on that.
Amazon VP Nick Denissen Says 58% of Sales Come From Small Businesses
“We really took a strategic imperative about two and a half to three years ago to step up our enterprise game,” says SurveyMonkey CEO Zander Lurie. “This has been a company that has thrived in going direct to end-users. We’ve built up a user base, a paid customer base, today of almost 700,000 people. But over the last three years, we’ve elevated our game. Today, enterprise represents 20 percent of our business. It helped us deliver our best quarter in history. We’re now growing 20 percent year-over-year.”
Zander Lurie, CEO of SurveyMonkey, discusses how the company is driving its massive growth by focusing on enterprise solutions that are sold by the seat, in an interview on CNBC:
The Category For Experience Management Is Massive
The category for experience management is massive. Companies today are differentiating their products and services by their ability to be customer-centric. Everybody has access to off-the-shelf software and you can buy keywords on Google and you can target folks on Facebook but the ability to really be sensitive to what your customers care about and want is critical. Usabilla is the solution that we acquired earlier this year. They have a customer in KLM Dutch Airlines who was able to improve their app experience by a 2.8 to a 4.2 rating using our product. It really is about, can your managers and can your marketers listen to that feedback, understand the bugs, and then deliver and take action. That’s what survey software can do.
We don’t compete with Adobe and Salesforce at all. Frankly, there are hundreds of thousands of Salesforce customers who need to be buying enterprise survey software. We exist in the Salesforce ecosystem and really try and help Salesforce customers get better data and get sentiment data from what their customers really care about. Salesforce, Microsoft, Adobe, those are big systems of record. They provide you a lot of operational data. Where SurveyMonkey competes and thrives is delivering for customers that sentiment data. How am I really doing? What can we improve upon? That’s where we’re selling a solution into the Salesforce ecosystem and we partner with Salesforce in a really productive way. It’s part of the reason they bought into our IPO last year.
Selling To the Enterprise Has Been Wildly Successful
We really took a strategic imperative about two and a half to three years ago to step up our enterprise game. This has been a company that has thrived in going direct to end-users. We’ve built up a user base, a paid customer base, today of almost 700,000 people. But over the last three years, we’ve elevated our game. Today, enterprise represents 20 percent of our business. It helped us deliver our best quarter in history. We’re now growing 20 percent year-over-year.
We set about on our IPO last year and told investors our plan to make this business a lot more valuable. The two key driving factors first is to elevate our sales motion to sell directly to the enterprise. That has been wildly successful. We doubled year-over-year a hundred percent growth in revenue in the sales channel. We now have almost 5,000 customers, up 60 percent year over year. We now compete in that ecosystem and we have a really disruptive product. Consumers love our product. We’re now selling into the organization with a really talented sales team.
There’s Been So Much Account Sharing On SurveyMonkey
Our team’s product is the collaborative self-serve product. We have a unique opportunity here. There’s been so much account sharing on SurveyMonkey over the years and in the current security environment, we’re asking people to pay for their own seat. That has driven a really healthy paid user growth. We see continued growth in those two areas. As I said, growth for us we’ve accelerated growth now twenty percent year-over-year, but we do it a disciplined way. We’re still able to deliver over $13 million dollars of unleveraged free cash flow in the quarter. We’re just not a company that’s going to grow at all cost. We want to have both healthy growth and disciplined cash flow.
We use politics in a fun way to help get a beat on what’s going on out in the world. Just like we ask questions about if you are potentially interested in buying an electric car or what do you think of Impossible Burger or Beyond Meat, we also ask questions of the two and a half to three million people on our platform every day of who might you vote for and what issues are important to you. That really does give us a particular read on what American consumers are thinking.
Selling To the Enterprise Has Been Wildly Successful, Says SurveyMonkey CEO Zander Lurie
“The mall is more or less dead except in 279 great cases where we’ve got fabulous malls out there,” says legendary retail analyst Jan Kniffen. “But the 1,100 malls they’re struggling. It’s the levered retailers and the mall-based retailers that are struggling. We’re going to have 26 retail bankruptcies this year. But in a downturn, we could see 100 and we’re going to see 12,000 stores closed this year. It will be the highest number that’s ever closed in history. But we could see 50,000 close in a downturn. It’s because we don’t really need those retailers and we don’t need those stores because the business is moving online at a fierce pace.”
We’ve had really good retail reports. Think about it. Walmart was fabulous. Target was fabulous. Home Depot was good. Lowe’s was good. Just run down through the group that has already reported and, in general, if you weren’t mall-based full price you did great. Off-mall did great, online did great, and discount did great. The retail market and the consumer couldn’t be better. Levered mall-based retailers are dead. The mall is more or less dead except in 279 great cases where we’ve got fabulous malls out there. But the 1,100 malls they’re struggling. They’re running down comps. The mall is not the place to hang out anymore. Now you hang out in front of your computer and then you go with your friends to do something like go to restaurants and you don’t care about hanging in the mall.
But the people hanging in the mall were never the people that bought the stuff in them. All the people who bought the stuff in the mall were all the women in America who went to work for the first time in the 1980s and blasted them all to the ceiling. We pulled everything out of the mall except for women’s apparel for all practical purposes and that has now settled into this nice slow roll. People don’t dress for work anymore and the malls not any fun and there’s plenty of other alternatives. Just 20 years ago when the mall was really booming we didn’t have a strong T.J. Maxx and Ross stores and Burlington stores. The stuff across the street from the mall was very boring in those days. Those are really good retailers today.
Business Is Moving Online At a Fierce Pace
The two best retailers in the world right now are Costco and Walmart. They are big, strong, have super supply chains, and can handle the tariffs no problem. They’ll gain market share under tariffs. They can even handle a downturn in the economy because they’re both super well-capitalized. Even people like Macy’s that have been struggling, they can handle a downturn in the economy because they’re not levered. They’ve got plenty of cash flow. They pay a 10 percent dividend and they buy back stock.
It’s the levered retailers and the mall-based retailers that are struggling. I keep saying we’re going to have 26 retail bankruptcies this year. We just got two more to talk about. But in a downturn, we could see a hundred and we’re going to see 12,000 stores closed this year. It will be the highest number that’s ever closed in history. But we could see 50,000 close in a downturn. It’s because we don’t really need those retailers and we don’t need those stores because the business is moving online at a fierce pace.
We Know That Everybody’s Getting Out of China
We know that everybody’s getting out of China. They were getting out of China before the tariffs started. Now they’re just getting out of China faster. Yeah, the shoe guys are still getting 60 percent of their stuff out of China but it used to be 90 percent. The apparel guys are still getting 15 percent of their stuff out of China but it used to be 50 percent. So that’s already happening.
The tariffs have not been that big a deal. Tier four, the new tariffs that are about to kick in, if they kick in, would be a big deal for my world. But maybe they’re not going to kick in, which is the other thing that’s going on. We’re not really sure it’s going to happen but it’s still causing everybody to move faster out of China. So Trump has accomplished what he wanted to accomplish. He’s getting American business out of China.
The Mall Is More or Less Dead, Says Legendary Retail Analyst Jan Kniffen
The Verge is reporting that Google is taking the drastic step of temporarily shutting down all of its China offices in the face of the coronavirus.
Google confirmed to The Verge Wednesday that it was shutting down all of its offices in mainland China, as well as its Hong Kong and Taiwan locations. The company has also placed temporary travel restrictions on flying to either China or Hong Kong.
The move comes as the Chinese government works to contain the outbreak. The government has been encouraging citizens to minimize travel and try to stay indoors as much as possible. Corporate offices were already closed during the extended Lunar Year Holiday, but Google is keep them closed longer in an effort to help protect employees.
It’s still unclear the level of impact the virus will have on industry and finance, but Google is just the latest company to take defensive measures in response to the outbreak.
Google is apparently walking back a recent search redesign that made it difficult to distinguish ads from organic results, according to TechCrunch.
Google was in the news recently for blurring the line between organic search results and ads, making it difficult to distinguish between the two. The move was important because Google only makes money when users click on ads, as opposed to organic results. Therefore, it’s in the company’s interest for users to click on as many ads, or sponsored links, as possible.
The move did not sit well with anyone, however, with consumers, journalists and politicians alike slamming the search giant. As TechCrunch points out, Senator Mark Warner told the Washington Post:
“We’ve seen multiple instances over the last few years where Google has made paid advertisements ever more indistinguishable from organic search results. This is yet another example of a platform exploiting its bottleneck power for commercial gain, to the detriment of both consumers and also small businesses.”
The company has now acknowledged, via Twitter, that it needs to go back to the drawing boards to deliver an update that addresses user concern.
“Here’s our full statement on why we’re going to experiment further. Our early tests of the design for desktop were positive. But we appreciate the feedback, the trust people place in Google, and we’re dedicating to improving the experience.”
Digital Trends is reporting that Intel has reaffirmed its “maniacal” efforts to fix its processor supply shortage.
Intel has been struggling for some time to keep up with demand, specifically for its 10nm processors. The ongoing shortage has prompted Dell—historically one of Intel’s staunchest allies—to start looking at AMD to make up for Intel’s shortfall. Dell opened the door to the possibility following a 6% decline in consumer PC shipments, largely as a result of Intel’s supply issues.
In fact, the problem became so bad that Intel penned an open letter to customers, apologizing for their manufacturing issues and promising to address them as soon as possible.
According to Digital Trends, during Intel’s fourth quarter earnings call on Thursday, “CEO Bob Swann and George Davis, chief financial officer, were on the call and insisted that they hope to ramp up yields on 10nm products throughout 2020. The ‘supply remains tight,’ Swann added. By the end of year, the executives promised to be out of the constraint entirely by adding 25% higher wafer capacity to normalize the inventory levels.”
Intel also acknowledged it was facing “a more competitive environment” in 2020. AMD has been making significant inroads in the processor market. After it’s wildly successful desktop-class Ryzen 3000 series, the company launched the Ryzen 4000 mobile processor series, challenging what has been Intel’s strongest bastion.
Intel has a window of opportunity to deliver on its promises. If it fails, it will likely see more partners defect to AMD.
There have been many things that have slowed 5G adoption: competing types of 5G, available spectrum, security concerns over Chinese vendors and more. One of the biggest issues, however, may be surprise to some. Evidently, there is a serious shortage of “tower climbers” available, according to VentureBeat.
Tower climbers are the term for individuals who climb cell phone towers to install new equipment or maintain existing components. The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation heard testimony from various witnesses “that there aren’t enough workers to actually build the 5G infrastructure U.S. citizens are expecting over the next decade.”
FCC commissioner Brandan Carr said the industry needs “20,000 additional tower climbers and telecom techs to complete the U.S. 5G buildout.” The agency is planning to address the shortage by offering 12-week training programs that will be available at technical schools and community colleges. Earnings potential—for a job that does not require a four-year degree—is more than $70,000 a year.
With that kind of opportunity, it’s a safe bet the FCC will have no trouble coming up with 20,000 climbers.
In an effort to comply with a new California law that would make “gig-economy” workers employees, Uber is experimenting with letting drivers raise prices, according to The Wall Street Journal.
California’s gig-economy law, Assembly Bill 5 (AB5), went into effect on January 1 and has had profound impacts on Uber, Postmates, Lyft and others. Workers who were previously classified as contractors are now considered employees, requiring companies to provide them with benefits.
The pricing change is just the latest Uber is making in an effort to comply with AB5 and keeps its workers classified as employees. For a worker to be an independent contractor, they need a measure of independence, including the freedom to set their own prices rather than have them dictated by the company they work for.
According to the WSJ, “starting Tuesday morning, drivers who ferry passengers from airports in Santa Barbara, Palm Springs and Sacramento can charge up to five times the fare Uber sets on a ride.”
The move is not without challenges, however, as it could lead to price extremes. On the one hand, drivers may raise prices too high and hurt business. On the other hand, with freedom to change prices, drivers may engage in price wars with each other, driving the price down to the point that no one profits.
Whatever the outcome, Uber will no doubt do whatever is necessary to keep its drivers as contractors. Otherwise, especially if other states follow suit with similar laws, it could forever change the ride-sharing business.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has created a prototype oxygen plant to create oxygen from moon dust, according to a post on the agency’s site.
Space exploration is once again front and center on the agendas of governments and corporations alike. The U.S. recently created Space Force as a sixth branch of the military, Amazon established new headquarters for its space-based initiative and a myriad of other companies are working to cash in on the new space age. Unfortunately, long-term colonization still poses a number of significant hurdles, not the least of which is oxygen.
The ESA may be on to a solution, however, at least in the context of a future lunar base. According to their post, “samples returned from the lunar surface confirm that lunar regolith is made up of 40–45% percent oxygen by weight, its single most abundant element. But this oxygen is bound up chemically as oxides in the form of minerals or glass, so is unavailable for immediate use.”
The method used to separate the oxygen out, salt electrolysis, was originally developed for commercial alloy and metal production. As a side benefit, the process of harvesting the oxygen “also converts the regolith into usable metal alloys.”
The potential benefits go far beyond just having a way to produce breathable air, important though that is. The oxygen can also be used to create fuel on a lunar base, while the alloy byproducts may have a use in manufacturing, spacecraft repair and other applications.
The current prototype has been set up in the Netherlands, and the ESA is shooting for the mid-2020s for the first technology demonstration.
CNN is reporting that investors are growing increasingly restless with IBM’s cloud strategy and are anxious to see results.
IBM may be one of the most trusted names in the tech industry, with a history going back decades, but that hasn’t prevented it from losing investors’ confidence. Recent years have seen it fall behind in the move to the cloud, surpassed by Amazon, Microsoft and Google.
According to CNN, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty cut her price target on IBM and commented: “Despite significant investments, IBM remains challenged as workloads shift to cloud.” She also said that “views of IBM’s positioning in cloud haven’t improved materially and in some cases deteriorated over the past year.”
Some analysts believe a change at the top could help, along with a major cloud strategy announcement. Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst is considered a prime candidate. Whitehurst was brought into the company when IBM acquired Red Hat in 2018. Several years prior, in 2014, he announced Red Hat’s own shift to a cloud-based strategy, and his leadership could be a valuable asset in the top role at IBM.
There has even been talk of activist investors buying a stake in the company in an effort to force a shakeup of the status quo. With Microsoft, Amazon and Google getting the lion’s share of the cloud market and news, IBM will need to do something to keep investors happy.
Ars Technica is reporting that Charter—also known as Spectrum—is shutting down its home-security service, leaving customers with useless hardware.
According to the report, Charter is shutting down its security service February 5. Some users have spent hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars purchasing Charter’s cameras and sensors. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be a good way to migrate to other services or platforms.
In theory, since Charter devices “rely on the Zigbee specification that allows multi-vendor interoperability for smart-home products,” they should be able to be used with another vendor. According to the Zigbee Alliance, however, there’s no guarantee devices will work with other vendors, even if they are factory-reset.
When Ars reached out to Charter, the company says its “lifestyle devices,” the term it uses for thermostats and lighting devices, “will work on hubs that support those devices and can be defaulted and re-paired with that hub.” Security devices, on the other hand, are a different matter. While lifestyle devices can be integrated into other systems, “that isn’t the case with the security devices such as window and door alarms, which account for the majority of Spectrum Home Security devices,” Charter told Ars. “Other home security providers have their own security/alarm devices, software and certifications and those systems wont accept a security device that they haven’t tested or certified.”
Customers who reached out to Charter to ask for a refund, or for a credit toward they service bills, were denied. Given the number of people being left out in the cold over Charter’s decision, it’s safe to say the company may have a hard time convincing customers to trust it if/when it decides to branch into other businesses.
Comcast and a coalition of cable companies scored a win in Maine, with a judge granting an injunction against a law that would require cable companies to offer à la carte services.
According to Ars Technica, Maine passed the first law of its type in the nation, requiring cable TV companies to offer à la carte options. Comcast and a host of companies challenged the law in court, while also trying to get an injunction until the case could be decided.
In ruling on the injunction, District Judge Nancy Torresen said she would only grant the injunction if the plaintiffs had a reasonable chance of winning their argument on the legal merits. She concluded it was unlikely they would win based on two of their arguments, but the third stood a chance.
Specifically, one of the First Amendment arguments related to cable companies’ rights to bundle channels was deemed viable. “In short, they made the case that the Maine law violated their rights because it applied narrowly, to traditional cable carriers (MVPDs) but not to alternative, Internet-based platforms—such as Dish, Sling, Sony Vue, or YouTube TV—that also provide bundled content.”
With the cable industry recently suffering a legal blow limiting their ability to levy hidden fees and up-charges, this case shows the industry still has plenty of legal teeth—and doesn’t always use them for the benefit of their customers.
Google has undergone a number of major changes over the years, not the least of which is the two founders stepping down from their roles. Many of those changes have caused the company to be virtually “unrecognizable” to many Google veterans, according to CNBC.
For many workers who spoke with CNBC, 2018 was a pivotal year that showed how much things had changed. Project Dragonfly became public knowledge, exposing Google’s attempt to build a censored search engine for China. In a company that had long treasured a reputation for open communication with its employees, the project had been kept on a need-to-know basis.
Despite ending the project when employees expressed concern about the ethics of it, for many the damage had already been done.
“There’s no way a few years before, they would have had a secret project with these kinds of ethical concerns,” Raph Levien, a former level 6 engineer who left Google after 11 years, told CNBC. “It crossed the line and felt misleading. It definitely felt like this was Google changing.”
Another factor that has hurt the company’s reputation internally is how it has handled sexual abuse allegations, paying executives millions in severance packages despite allegations. The size of the company has also played a role, as it is much harder for a company of “more than 100,000 workers, many of whom are contractors instead of full-time employees,” to maintain the culture it started with.
One thing is clear, based on CNBC’s report: For a company that is already in the spotlight for privacy issues and antitrust concerns, an internal breakdown of the very culture that made Google what it is, is the last thing the company needs.
Reuters is reporting that Uber and Postmates have filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block a California law that would have severe ramifications for both companies.
California’s Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law that makes it more difficult for companies to classify gig workers as independent contractors. Keeping workers classified as contractors saves companies money in both taxes and benefits. Labor groups, however, have argued the law was necessary to properly protect workers’ rights.
Uber and Postmates’ lawsuit alleges that the law “compromises the flexibility prized by their workforce, and that fewer workers would be hired were they considered employees.” They also argue that the law violates the equal protection guaranteed by the U.S. and California constitutions, by singling out app-based workers.
“It irreparably harms network companies and app-based independent service providers by denying their constitutional rights to be treated the same as others to whom they are similarly situated,” the lawsuit alleges.
Given the size of California’s economy, other states with similar concerns will be closely watching to see if the law holds up or is ultimately overturned.
Dominos Pizza, Amazon and Workhorse are just a few of the companies looking to use drones for deliveries. A new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rule is about to pave the way for much wider adoption of drone technology.
According to the Federal Register, the FAA put forward a rule Thursday that would allow it to identify and track most drones in operation. According to the document, the rule will “require the remote identification of unmanned aircraft systems. The remote identification of unmanned aircraft systems in the airspace of the United States would address safety, national security, and law enforcement concerns regarding the further integration of these aircraft into the airspace of the United States while also enabling greater operational capabilities.”
The rule would apply to the vast majority of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) with very few exceptions. Some of those exceptions would be amateur-built UAS, unmanned aircraft weighing less than 0.55 pounds and UAS operated by the U.S. government.
While some UAS operators may balk at more regulation, the rule should help spur drone adoption by “creating situational awareness of all UAS flying in the airspace of the United States, which would allow additional and more complex UAS operations to take place.”
In another case of “what were they thinking,” Spotify sent journalists USB drives with a note saying: “Play me.”
The journalists at TechCrunch were brave enough to plug in the drive and open it—after taking the necessary precautions, of course. The drive was plugged into a spare computer running a disposable version of Linux on a live CD.
As it turns out, the drive was harmless, containing a single audio file promoting one of Spotify’s new podcasts. The file simply said: “This is Alex Goldman, and you’ve just been hacked.”
Despite the harmless nature of this drive, security experts have been warning companies and individuals for years of the dangers of plugging random USB drives into computers. These devices can contain executable files, viruses and other malware, making them a popular attack vector for cyber criminals.
For a company of Spotify’s stature to resort to such a tactic in the interest of self-publicity was irresponsible and obtuse, and will no doubt cost the company a great deal of good will with journalists.
While it may be tempting to watch the latest Star Wars installment from the comfort of home, the International Business Times (IBT) is warning that doing so could be dangerous.
According to the IBT report, security firm Kaspersky Labs has found some 30 fraudulent websites claiming to stream the new film. In reality, the goal of the sites is to capture unsuspecting users credit card information.
The security firm also found 65 malicious files disguised as downloadable copies of the film. The files are actually malware designed to infect the devices they are downloaded on.
According to a Kaspersky researcher: “It is typical for fraudsters and cybercriminals to try to capitalize on popular topics, and ‘Star Wars’ is a good example of such a theme this month.”
As with most things related to cybersecurity, better safe than sorry when it comes to the new film: watch it in theaters or wait for it to be released on DVD or Disney+.
With the T-Mobile/Sprint merger trial continuing, the government has come out in support of the deal, even as documents have come to light indicating T-Mobile has also considered a Comcast merger.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a 400 page brief in support of the merger, according to Ars Technica.
“Both the Antitrust Division and the FCC have significant experience and expertise in analyzing these types of transactions and do so from a nationwide perspective,” the brief reads. “Thus, their conclusions that the merger as remedied is in the public interest deserve appropriate weight in this remedy inquiry by this honorable court.”
Meanwhile, The Verge is reporting that T-Mobile has also considered another merger. Board member Thorsten Langheim requested a report in 2015 to “give an overview of the company’s market position in advance of a workshop among senior members of leadership.”
The report also details a proposed subsequent merger with Comcast, with the goal being for the broadband company to purchase T-Mobile. Such a deal was expected to receive little regulatory opposition, as opposed to the Sprint merger, and provide significant benefits to both companies.
Should T-Mobile lose the merger trial, it will be interesting to see if the wireless company doubles down in its pursuit of a Comcast merger.
Slack has not had a good week. On the heels of a CNBC report that Microsoft Teams is maintaining its lead over the messaging service, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is reporting that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has opened an investigation into Slack, among others.
According to the WSJ, “the SEC is probing IPOs over the past several years of other so-called unicorns, companies known for achieving high valuations while private.”
The SEC’s staff evidently sent letters to Citadel Securities LLC to inquire about “how it opened Slack’s stock for trading on June 20 in the workplace-messaging app’s so-called direct listing.”
As the WSJ points out, there is no indication what type of wrongdoing the SEC is looking for, or who may be the specific target of the investigation. Nonetheless, an SEC investigation is the last thing any company wants.
