Mobile & Wireless

According to Wedbush, “This Tuesday at its HQ in Cupertino Apple is set to unveil its trifecta of iPhone 11s which represent the next step in the company’s ability to put a fence around its unparalleled consumer installed base. With roughly 1/3 of the company’s 900 million active iPhones globally currently in a ‘window of […]

The FTC and New York State reported that Google has agreed to pay a record $170 million penalty to settle accusations that YouTube broke the law when it knowingly tracked and sold ads targeted to children.  In agreeing to pay this fine, Google is essentially admitting that YouTube collected user info from kids in violation […]

It has been just a week since my essay, Deepfakes 2.0: The Sequel Is Even Scarier. Now, Bloomberg is reporting about Zao, a next-generation deepfake facial replacement tool (a la FaceApp) that is taking China by storm (details below). When you see the results of this “anyone can do it at the tap of a […]

On Thursday, Google Project Zero posted a notice: "Earlier this year Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) discovered a small collection of hacked websites. The hacked sites were being used in indiscriminate watering hole attacks against their visitors, using iPhone 0-day." Wired reports the issue was identified on February 1, 2019 and supposedly fixed by Apple on February 7, 2019 with the iOS 12.1.14 patch. This is interesting for a couple reasons: 1) there is a popular belief that Apple products are not vulnerable to viruses or hackers, and 2) most people believe that it is expensive to hack an iPhone -- even the FBI needed to hire outside consultants -- so victims must be high-value and carefully selected. As it turns out, neither of these popular assumptions are correct.

CNBC is reporting, “Best Buy shares fell 6.5% after its second-quarter revenue and same-store sales growth missed analysts’ expectations and upcoming tariffs on the company’s core products weigh on the stock.” Let’s do a poll. Who has purchased anything at Best Buy (or any other brick & mortar electronics store) in the past 12 months? You got your smartphone from the carrier or DTC from the manufacturer. You bought any accessories you needed online. Unless you were in dire need of printer ink or a charging cable or needed a gift that minute, you had no reason to walk into a store. But enough about me… what about you?

A new report from Bloomberg hints at what Apple is likely to unveil at its upcoming event. In addition to the launch of Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade, the report says Apple will announce iPhones with bigger screens and better cameras, a new Apple Watch, and maybe even new AirPods... all of which sounds very similar to a hardware announcement I've heard recently... hmm, when was it... oh, right, the past three years of Apple events. Moderate hardware improvements and an accessories refresh? You don't say!

One of my very favorite Facebook executives is famous for saying, "Likes are not a business outcome." This is absolutely true. But likes are more addictive than oatmeal raisin cookies or soft pretzels or peanut butter toffee ice cream or, well... you get it. Likes are addictive. So, what would happen if Instagram made them go away? Wait. What? Yes, Instagram is experimenting with the idea. IMHO, this would shift the balance of social media power in a very positive way.

Samsung just announced the Galaxy Note10 and Note10+, available for pre-order at 12:01amET on August 8 and in stores on August 23. I got my hands on them earlier this week, and they are… awesome!! Here’s everything you need to know about Samsung’s newest phones.

At a dinner party the other night, a very accomplished business person told a story about how he and his wife were certain that their devices were listening to their conversations. “I was talking to my wife about a pair of designer shoes that she wanted to purchase, and not 10 minutes later while she was doing some online research for work, she saw an ad for that exact pair of shoes. She hadn’t searched for the shoes; the ad just appeared. Clearly, our computers or our phones are listening.” Some people nodded in agreement, and others began to chime in.

If Libra and Calibra are successful, Facebook will have control of information (Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram), weaponized information (a virtual military), and currency (Libra). I’m pretty sure that makes Facebook the largest government on earth.