This Week in Tech News | Page 6

Google Releases Details of Stadia Streaming Game Service

Episode 1600

Google has released details for their Stadia Streaming gaming service, and Leo says it's like renting a game console in the cloud for $10 a month. That's only the service though, as you still need to pay for each game separately. But it also provides high quality 60fps HDR and Dolby Stereo. But Leo says he really doesn't get the advantage here. Serious gamers have a gaming PC or game console. So who is this aimed at? But for those who are just getting into gaming and don't want to invest just yet in hardware, Stadia may be ideal.

FedEX Caters to Major Companies like WalMart

Episode 1599

FedEx delivers for Walmart. Amazon delivers to UPS. Are major companies taking sides? Amazon says that customers don't really want choice because there are too many choices out there. So they offer "Amazon's choice" to make it easier for shoppers to buy what they want. The technique is called Dark Patterns and it causes changes in the algorithm. Once you order Amazon's choice, you start getting more results like that.

Apple Announces Next Gen Cheesegrater Mac Pro Tower

Episode 1598

This week at WWDC, Apple announced the return of the Cheesegrater Mac. That's right, the Cheesegrater is back, and Leo says it's as functional as it is a work of art. Starting at $5,000, the new Cheesegrater comes with an Intel Xeon Processor, 32GB of RAM, and dual video cards. The starting price is $6,000. Apple also announced the XDR Pro 32" 6K monitor, at a price of $5,000. But that doesn't come with a stand, which is another $1,000. That's like buying a car without wheels. But a nicely equipped MacPro for professional performance is likely to cost you at least $25,000.

Investors want Zuckerberg out of Facebook

Episode 1598

68% of Facebook investors want CEO Mark Zuckerberg removed. But the problem is, that Zuckerberg controls 61% of Facebook stock. Zuckerberg is a class A investor, and as such, he controls ten times more votes than Class B investors. Really, what's the point of giving them a vote?

DOJ and FTC to Investigate Google and Amazon

Episode 1597

After Google was slapped with a $5 Billion fine from the EU, the US Department of Justice has said it will open an anti-trust investigation on Google. Meanwhile, the FTC may be signalling the same for Amazon. But Leo says that it could do more harm economically than good, and maybe the best thing would be to break up both companies into smaller concerns that can compete.

Google Goes Down in the North East

Episode 1597

Google is out on the Eastern Seaboard and the West Coast. NEST, Gmail and YouTube users are reporting that their devices are knocked out as well. Leo wonders what life would be like if Google didn't come back for a month or more.

Apple's Developer's Conference Comes This Week

Episode 1596

Ahead of Apple's annual World Wide Developer's Conference, Apple announced new MacBook Pros, and what may be the last iPod. The iPod is interesting because it hasn't been updated in 4 years. It uses the A10 processor and Leo says it's an iPhone minus the phone parts. But the iPod is rather a quaint anachronism now since parents can just give kids their old iPhones. So there really isn't much of a market for it anymore. There's also talk of a massive 6K video monitor, but we won't know for sure until Monday.

Ransome War developed by NSA cripples City of Baltimore

Episode 1595

Hackers somehow got ahold of a malware exploit that was developed by the NSA and used it to attack the city of Baltimore. The malware, a ransomeware exploit known as Eternal Blue, was taken home by an NSA contractor, and Leo says that Kaspersky antivirus quarantined the malware and then sent it to the home office in Russia.

First American Title Experiences Security Breach

Episode 1594

This week, home mortgage company First American Title experienced a security breach, according to Brian Krebs of Krebs on Security. Due to a design flaw in their online interface, hackers could easily have access to all 880 million customer files. The website has been shut down, but nobody knows just how much data was stolen if any.

Are Google Ad Algorithms racist?

Episode 1593

Talya O'Shea has done some research, and she's found that African Americans are more likely to see clickbait with the term "arrested" next to it than whites. And what the bias is from, is Google's Algorithm, which the advertising is based on. Leo says that O'Shea wrote a book about it, concluding that Google needs to improve that algorithm to be accurate, because it can cause a lot of harm to people's online reputation.