Verizon & AT&T Temporarily Flip-Flop on 5G; Facebook Surge of Post Election Misinformation; Startup Sells Your Clutter Online; Moen’s Touchless Tap

Verizon and AT&T have agreed to put off launching their 5G expansions by a couple weeks at the request of the FAA. Cnet.com notes that the FAA, Department of Transportation, and aviation industry believe that there could be interference from 5G to some flight navigation equipment. The FCC and the carriers have concluded there is no safety issue. Having been through something similar between the FAA and FCC myself, I put my trust in the engineers at the FCC. The carriers proposed extra safety measures in November to ensure cell towers don’t interfere with aircraft signals, including lowering tower power levels nationwide with even stricter limits around airports and helipads. Prior to agreeing to the delay, the carriers offered to create special exclusion zones around airports where it wouldn’t deploy C-Band 5G for six months.

An investigation by Pro Public and the Washington Post has determined that there were at least 650,000 posts on Facebook in various groups attacking the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s election day victory last year. Rawstory.com reports that it was at the rate of some 10,000 posts a day! This is probably way less than the actual number, as the investigation only looked at posts in public groups…not private groups or on individual Facebook accounts. They not only pushed baseless claims of widespread fraud, but also called for the use of force to block the peaceful transfer of power in an effort to keep loser Donald Trump in office. Besides Biden, posts also attacked Vice President Pence and Attorney General Bill Barr as traitors. Facebook’s Meta…through a spokesman name dDrew Pusateri, said the company was not responsible for the violence on January 6th of last year. 

We have all seen (plenty of) ads for 800-got-junk. Now, there’s a startup doing something of an online version. Sella, which for now primarily operates in the Portland area, will unload your crap…excuse me…sell your unwanted items, for you online for a $5.99 flat rate per item plus 20 cents a day. Geekwire.com says this applies to most smaller items. Large items and those they have to sell on eBay will cost you more. The startup claims there are untapped billions in garages, closets, attics, and basements all over the country. (And if you have a few storage units full of stuff…good grief, you need these guys!) If they are able to scale up this new business, they will lend creedence to the old saw about one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. 

Moen has introduced something every home should have at the CES show….a smart faucet. Ok, maybe not everyone needs this, but it has a certain WOW factor to it. Theverge.com reports that the Moen Smart Faucet with Motion Control can be controlled with hand gestures as far as amount of water and temperature. You can even set default temperatures. It also allows for voice activation with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. It runs $675, and will be out in April. I’m intrigued, but concerned my tux cat might learn to turn it on to get a drink by himself. You know cats…he won’t turn it off when he’s done, either!