MS Integrates 365 Cloud PCs into Win 11; Starbucks Goes ‘NFT’; Amazon’s Employee Chat App Bans Words; Fox Viewers Paid to Watch CNN Revised Political Views
Posted: April 5, 2022 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentMicrosoft introduced cloud PCs last year, which let businesses access cloud PCs from anywhere via Windows 365 to stream a version of Win 10 or 11 inside a browser. Now, theverge.com reports that Microsoft will let Windows 11 PCs boot directly to Windows 365 Cloud PCs or easily switch between them using Windows 11’s virtual desktops feature. It’s part of a hybrid work push for Windows, allowing businesses to support a mix of working remotely on traditional devices or through virtual cloud-powered ones. Microsoft is working on three new Windows 365 features that will be deeply integrated into Windows 11. Microsoft is also working on a Windows 365 offline feature, which will allow you to work locally when you don’t have connectivity to access a Cloud PC.
Now, you will not only be able to get your fancy coffee fix and your bagel, but Starbucks will also offer NFTs. According to geekwire.com, the company will be into the NFT business by the end of the year. Taco Bell and Papa Johns have also announced intentions to get into non-fungible tokens that allow people to secure unique ownership of artwork, videos, photos, and other digital content on the blockchain. If you have always wanted to own an original digital copy of something that can be copied like mad (although not your precious ‘original’ copy), and have money to burn…hey, go for it. I’m sticking with the hot beverages and a bagel!
An Orwellian twist has been spotted in Amazon’s planned worker chat app. Engadget.com says the app applies the company’s anti-union stance to language that can be used in the app. Besides blocking profanity, which is understandable, the app bars a number of ‘pro-union key words.’ Included in the ban list are “union,” it would also block terms like “compensation,” “pay raise,” “ethics” and even “robots.” The program associated with the app will reportedly launch this month.
Researchers at University of California Berkeley and Yale paid a sample of Fox viewers to watch CNN for just 7 hours a week in September 2020. It was part of a 5 year study on the effect of partisan media on people’s political views. Yahoo.com notes that they got an interesting result…a percentage of the group that watched CNN changed their views on long COVID (5% more likely to believe), President Biden (opinion of him 10% better), and mail ballots (24% more supported.) The control group that continued to watch Fox didn’t change opinions. The researchers wrapped up the study with this statement: “Partisan media does not only present its side an electoral advantage—it may present a challenge for democratic accountability.”
Hertz Will Buy 65,000 EVs; Musk Takes Almost 10% Piece of Twitter; Alphabet’s Wing Launching Drone Deliveries in DFW; Apple’s Phone $ubscriptions
Posted: April 4, 2022 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentHertz has committed to buying 65,000 EVs from Polestar, the sub-brand from Volvo and its corporate parent Geely of China. Theverge.com reports that Hertz had earlier announced a purchase of 100,000 Teslas. The Polestar buy will run over 5 years. Hertz fields about 500,000 vehicles in its world wide fleet, so this will make about 20% of them EVs. The company has plans to electrify nearly all of its fleet.
According to an SEC filing, Elon Musk has snapped up 9.2% of Twitter. According to electric.co, the electric vehicle and space billionaire dropped nearly $3 billion in the buy…practically pocket change for him. Most other mega billionaires have a few billion in companies besides the one they founded and became wealthy from, like Jeff Bezos of Amazon or Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook (Meta.) Up to now, Musk has claimed he didn’t own any publicly traded stock besides Tesla. Since Musk recently complained about Twitter throttling free speech and threatened to launch his own social media platform, maybe this was an alternative way to push Twitter into more of his vision of free speech. With almost 10%, he could jockey for a board seat.
Wing, a division of Alphabet, will be starting drone deliveries in Dallas Fort Worth in a matter of days (April 7th.) Engadget.com notes that Wing’s primary customer at launch is Walgreens. They will deliver health and wellness products directly to people’s homes. In addition to Walgreens, Wing will deliver Blue Bell Ice Cream, Easyvet pet prescriptions, and first aid kits from Texas Health. The Wing drones can carry a payload of around 3.3 lbs and make a round trip for deliveries of about 6 miles…so really will only be able to reach a customer under 3 miles away from the launch site. They will initially be launched from a company parking lot.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman did some calculations after word of Apple’s planned iPhone subscription service came out. The service will not only be a way for Apple to get more people to trade up to new phones a year, but will make them more money (surprise!) Right now, most people trade about every 3 years, unless they have damage. The average iPhone price is about $825 according to Counterpoint Research…which means Apple picks up about $800 per customer every 3 years. With a subscription, they might be able to pump that up to $1000 and take the old phones back to sell on the secondary market. Gurman speculates that Apple could lease you an iPhone 13 for $35 a month, garnering Cupertino $1260 over 3 years instead of $799. With a 13 Pro, that might be more like $45 a month, which means $1620 instead of $999. For the Pro Max, a $50 per month subscription would bring in $1800 to Apple instead of $1099. AND, they take back the old phone and resell that! Keep in mind that this is like a lease instead of making car payments on a loan. Leases ALWAYS cost you more. Companies that lease don’t care, because they can write off the expense….but for the average buyer, you can’t do this. Weigh the option carefully if and when (and it looks like when) subscription iPhones become available.
clarkreid 
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