Apple’s App Store- Record 2019; Facebook & eBay Step Up Fake Review Policing; Ford Getting 2 Leg Robot for Package Delivery; BMW Shows Future AR Windshield

Apple says its App Store brought in a record $1.42 billion for developers during the Christmas Eve to New Year’s Eve period…a 16% jump over last year. The amount included app sales and sales of in-app items. Cnet.com reports that on New Year’s Evey Day, Apple hit a single-day record of $386 million, a 20% boost over last year! Which apps did the best?

Top Free iPhone Apps
1 YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream
2 Instagram
3 Snapchat
4 TikTok – Make Your Day
5 Messenger
6 Gmail – Email by Google
7 Netflix
8 Facebook
9 Google Maps – Transit & Food
10 Amazon – Shopping made easy
Top Paid iPhone Apps
1 Facetune
2 HotSchedules
3 Dark Sky Weather
4 The Wonder Weeks
5 AutoSleep Tracker for Watch
6 TouchRetouch
7 Procreate Pocket
8 Sky Guide
9 Toca Hair Salon 3
10 Scanner Pro: PDF Scanner App

Under pressure from the UK, Facebook and eBay have promised to do more to clean up fake reviews. According to techcrunch.com, a British consumer rights group says Facebook has removed 188 groups and 24 user accounts so far. eBay has permanently banned 140 users after the watchdog and UK’s Competition and Markets Authority pressed them. Both companies have pledged to ‘better identify, investigate and respond to’ the trade in fake reviews, and keep them off their platforms moving forward.

Ford has announced the purchase of some new two-legged robots built by Agility Robotics. Zdnet.com says the robot, named Digit, is a 5 foot tall robot with humanoid form factor. Ford plans to mate them up with self-driving delivery vehicles to handle the pesky ‘last 50 feet’ of delivery that has been a knotty problem for delivery services. Some are working on drones…like Amazon, but those have limited carrying capacity and range. Ford would like to have autonomous vehicles for commercial operation by next year. Unlike a small drone, the robot could unfold out of the back of the vehicle, pick up a package of up to 40 lbs, and put it on a doorstep. Since Digit has legs as opposed to wheels like other concept delivery robots, stairs aren’t a problem. Ford plans for the robots to be able to top of and recharge while riding from place to place in the vehicle. Lidar will spot potential obstacles for the robot, and it can radio back to the car, which can connect to a bigger computer that will send a solution. It’s doubtful this will all happen by 2021 as Ford might like, but it’s definitely on the way.

In other cool auto tech, BMW showed off a mind blowing concept…an AR windshield for the 2021 iNext. According to engadget.com, the windshield has an overlaid transparent display, that lets data be overlaid onto the road ahead. You might get descriptions and contextual info about nearby objects, buildings, and signs. It has eye tracking sensors that let the car follow your gaze, and display more data about something that has caught your attention. If you want to go deeper, you will be able to gesture towards the screen, and more info will appear. To be able to make all this happen, it will require the speed of 5G, and BMW says the 2021 iNext will be the first car to feature 5G standard.

Facebook Bans Deepfakes-But Not Other Fake Videos; Galaxy Chromebook Bows; Lenovo ThinkBook Plus; Waymo-20 Million Public Road Miles

The good news: Facebook has banned deepfakes. The bad news…they won’t ban other fake videos, NOT made with the AI used to make deepfakes. 9to5mac.com reports that the platform will at least spare us seeing the super realistic fake videos that can analyze how peoples’ faces move when they talk and mimic the movement needed for any word. Deepfakes can create fake videos from chopped up sound clips of an actual person or utilize an impressionist to create videos that are hard to tell from actual video made of the person. The tech has existed at least since 2017, when University of Washington used to to create a fake Obama speech. Because only the Deepfake AI tech videos are banned, we will still be bombarded with videos and pictures made with normal editing tools…like the fake video doctored to make Speaker Pelosi appear to slur her words that appeared earlier. Maybe more than politicians…deepfakes really freak out actors and actresses…which can be made to appear in fake porn videos doing things they would never do…at least in front of a camera.

Samsung rolled out a Galaxy Chromebook at CES. It’s a great looking machine, but at $999 starting price, pretty sky high for a Chromebook. It does come with a 13.3 inch AMOLED display, and a 10th gen Intel Core i5 processor. According to theverge.com, there’s a fingerprint sensor for unlocking, a pair of USB-C ports, and expandable storage via micro-USB. The screen rotates 360 degrees, and an S-Pen is included, which has a handy storage slot. At least for the almost thousand bucks, it’s aluminum, and not plastic. Besides the price point, this box won’t be for everyone….it comes in a bright red orange!

Lenovo showed off a number of new laptops at CES, but one was a bit of a surprise. Engadget.com notes that it’s the ThinkBook Plus. It comes with a 13.3 inch matte full HD IPS display, a single USB-C Gen 2 port, a couple standard USB ports, and and HDMI out. the rig can be spec-ed out with up to a 10th ten Core i7 processor, up to 16 gigs of RAM, and 512 gigs of storage. That’s all cool, but on top of it, there’s a 10.8 inch touch sensitive E-Ink display on the back of the screen! If you want to check an email or your calendar, you can do it without opening up your device at all (although you can’t edit the calendar or reply to email.) You can use the 2nd display to jot down notes with a stylus in OneNote. You can also talk to Alexa over the E-Ink screen. The demo version had to be touched to activate it…Lenovo says on release, you will be able to talk to Alexa as you normally would. No pricing was given at CES.

Google self-driving car division Waymo has announced that its cars have now driven over 20 million miles over public highways, and been run through tens of billions of miles in computer simulations. According to venturebeat.com, the roadway driving has mainly taken place in Novi, Michigan, Kirkland, Washington, and San Francisco. The public miles is double what Waymo had racked up just a year ago! For comparison, Yandex and Baidu both claim to have driven about a million miles each, and GM’s Cruise division says it’s on the verge of hitting a million miles a month with their autonomous test cars. Not everyone is impressed…Uber claims miles driven doesn’t mean much without context like location…a sentiment shared by the Department of Transportation. Way did pass 1500 monthly active riders in December, and has now hauled over 100,000 since launching its programs in 2017.

Samsung Unpacked Date & Rumors; Apple- 9 of Top 10 Christmastime Activations; CES Insults Own Cannabis Award Winner; Illinois Bans AI Graded Hire Videos

Samsung Unpacked will be February 11th in San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts. Rumors have had the handsets named Galaxy S20, but until it’s known for sure, we’ll say 11 here. There are expected to be 3 S11 phones, and a foldable one with the form factor of Motorola’s Razr, not the size and shape of the Galaxy Fold. Cnet.com notes that Samsung has rolled out its phones before at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which is coming up February 24th, but this gives them a head start on rivals. The new generation Galaxy phones are rumored to have 5G, a 108!! megapixel camera, 5,000 may battery, and a new form factor that resembles the Galaxy Note 10.

Apple made nearly a clean sweep of device activations for the holiday period of December 25th-31st. According to Flurry Analytics, Cupertino took 9 of the top ten spots, led by the iPhone 11. Older models…the XR, iPhone 7, and iPhone 8…took the next 3 slots, with the 11 Pro Max coming in 5th. The only non-Apple phone in the top 10 was the Xiaomi Mi 4 LTE at #10. Over the holiday period, Apple bagged 42.8% of all mobile device activations when you include iPads. Samsung held 23.5% of the market through the holidays, leaving everyone else scrapping over the remaining 33.8%

Shades of last year…CES this year awarded Keep Labs, giving them Innovation Award Honoree, but won’t let them say or display the word ‘cannabis’ on the CES show floor! Keep Labs has decided to pass on exhibiting due to having their marquee product basically banned. It is still listed on the CES website. According to techcrunch.com, last year, CES banned Honoree Innovation Award winner Lora DiCarlo, which makes sex toys. CES also withdrew the award, but after quite an uproar, restored the award and apologized. Lora DiCarlo successfully lobbied, arguing that the CES was discriminating against a product for women…and this year they will be on the show floor with 2 new products that use micro-robotics tech to mimic human touch. One gadget, Onda, is G-spot specific, and the other named Baci is designed to target the clitoris. The original Ose claims to produce a ‘blended orgasm.’ NO, you can’t try before you buy on the show floor!

As computer tech becomes more and more pervasive in hiring…software has screened resumes for a couple decades now…Illinois has moved to block a type of AI in hiring use… due to possible bias and inaccuracy. Vox.com says the type of software used by HireVue uses algorithm based analysis of recorded video interviews. The algorithm analyzes how you answered AND your facial expressions to make predictions about your fit for a position. The Illinois lawmakers considered that most facial recognition software is only 85-95% accurate, and restricted the AI. The law requires firms to explain how the AI works, and wheat ‘general types of characteristics’ it considers when evaluating candidates. The law also limits who can view the recorded video interview to those ‘who’s expertise or technology is necessary’ and requires that companies delete any video an applicant submits within a month of their request. It’s not exactly a heavy handed law, but does give applicants at least some rights when computers are involved in trying to get a job and make a living. Welcome to the future, and all hail our computer and robotic overlords….