ToTok Chat App Is Spyware; Top 2020 Smartphones Getting Longer Optical Zoom; Secret Apple Team Pursues Internet Satellites; Ludicrous Mode & Better Battery for Tesla Model 3; EV Startup Rivian Snags $1.3 Billion More Funding

There are lots of chat apps available, and some people like to check the latest. Most of the big name secure encrypted apps are pretty safe: iMessage, WhatsApp, Telegram, Skype, Signal, etc. If you have downloaded ToTok, though…delete it immediately! According to bgr.com, the app is named to sound a lot like the popular TikTok social network…but…the app is spyware….it tracks, ‘every conversation, movement, relationship, appointment, sound and image of those who install it on their phones.’ The NY Times first broke the story, and now the app has been removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The app appears to have been developed by a front company for DarkMatter, and Abu Dhabi based cyber intelligence and hacking firm that’s staffed by former NSA, military intelligence, and Emirati intelligence agents. Again– DELETE ToTalk now if you have it!

A note from well-respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says a number of top end smartphones in 2020 will feature 10x OPTICAL zoom. Optical zoom is far better than the electronic zoom most have, which smears and gives fuzzier shots, the more you zoom it. Macrumors.com reports that Kuo specifically mentions the Huawei P40 Pro phone. He doesn’t mention Apple or Samsung by name, but he does say the zoom feature will appear in more high end start phones in 2020. Personally, I use zoom much more than the ultra wide angle lenses that Apple and others have added lately, as do a number of pro photographers. Note that you see lots of giant telephoto lenses at sporting events and the like, in order to frame the action. The ultra wide lenses are great for the Grand Canyon or large buildings, but a lot of times you want to focus on specific people or action, so a 10X optical zoom will be very welcome, and perhaps a ‘killer feature’ when it gets here.

Who, besides the CEOs and stock holders would cry if it was possible to get completely around cellular providers and their service issues and high prices? Now, bloomberg.com says Apple has a small, secret team working on developing internet satellites and related wireless tech to allow users (and of course, Apple…which would reap more monthly fees) to get around cell providers entirely. They hope to deploy results within 5 years. Apple is not alone…Amazon plans to deploy some 3,000 satellites in the future.

Sometimes, we get the coolest heads up on future features and products from folks digging through existing lines of code. Mashable.com notes that a Twitter user was combing through Tesla code, and found a couple gems. The user, who goes by Green, spotted an inclusion of Ludicrous Mode for the Model 3. Ludicrous mode could give the 3 a head-snapping zero to 60 time of 2.5 seconds…up from the already crazy fast 3.2 seconds for the Performance model. Even more enticing was spotting an option for the 100kWh battery, a nice jump from the presently offered 75kWh battery in the Model 3. With software reveals, you never know when features might actually get here, but Green also noted other changes in the software that could point toward new options for Model 3 buyers. There could be new tire pressure sensors, new rim options, new options for glass roofs, and improved airflow.

Tesla is far from the only firm with EVs or working on same, although they are the most widely known right now, and have a huge fleet on the roads. EV startup Rivian has picked up another $1.3 billion in new funding for its EVs…which initially will focus on a pickup truck and an SUV. According to TechCrunch.com, the new cash is on top of $700 million from Amazon, $500 million from Ford, and $350 million from Cox Automotive. Amazon is in the mix because Rivian is working with them on all electric delivery vans, which should be a great way for Amazon to go considering all the short haul trip those delivery vehicles take during the average day. Rivian has a 2.6 million square foot manufacturing plant in Normal, Ill, and R&D facilities in several spots worldwide.

Apple, Google, Amazon, & Zigbee Partner- Smart Home Standards; Facebook Rules Decade With Top 4 Apps; Facebook Adding PT Fact Checkers; Virtual Buttons Could Make Next Smartphones More Waterproof

The truth of the matter is that the connected home is a mess. There are too many non-compatible systems in use, making it really hard on consumers to try to jump wholeheartedly into this area. Now, cnbc.com reports that Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance have partnered on Project Connected Home over IP, with the goal of making it easier to pull that fragmented ecosystem of connected home products together. Amazon, Google, and Apple are all hotly competing to get into your homes with more and more IOT (Internet of Things) gadgets and devices, to say nothing of the light bulbs, appliances, and all the rest. As IDC says the world market for home devices is expected to grow 23.5% year over year in 2019, the tech firms see big dollar signs if they can make everything work together, so consumers can buy devices and have them actually be ‘plug and play,’ and not have to wade through complicated setups…or worse, find out they bought a gadget that is not compatible with what they already have! If the firms can build on the Zigbee Alliance and make Amazon’s devices work with Apple HomeKit, and Google Google home, it’s a win all the way around. It should be noted that Samsung Smart Things, Philips Hue, IKEA, and others already work under the Zigbee system. the Alliance hopes to have preliminary open source materials out late next year.

Like ‘em or not, and apparently scandals or not, the decade belonged to Facebook as far as apps. According to mashable.com, App Annie has revealed the top 10 most downloaded mobile apps of the decade, and the top 4 spots belong to Facebook. they are: 1) Facebook, 2) Facebook Messenger, 3) WhatsApp, and 4) Instagram. Rounding out the top 10 apps are: 5) Snapchat, 6) Skype, 7) TikTok, 8) UC Browser, 9) YouTube, and 10) Twitter. It should be noted that Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, so they basically bought out a couple of top competitors. Still, owning the top 10 downloaded apps on Android and iOS for the decade is a pretty major accomplishment…again, particularly considering the issues with peoples’ data that have tarred the company.

In more Facebook news, the company says they will be adding part-time fact checkers to help root out misinformation. Axios notes that Facebook is starting a pilot program in the US that will leverage contracted ‘community reviewers’ to expedite its fact checking program. The fact checking partners have to be approved by Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network. The reviewers are hired through a third party contractor called Appen…which already sources, vets, selects, and qualify community reviewers. Facebook is also partnering with YouGov, the global public opinion and data company, to ensure that the pool of community reviewers represents the diversity of people on Facebook.

Next year, some phones will replace buttons with ultrasonic sensors that will act as virtual buttons. According to cnet.com, phones will benefit from better waterproofing and durability. The virtual buttons will be showed off at CES next month by UltraSense. Right now, a number of handset makers have shown interest, but it’s not clear if the virtual buttons will bow on top line phones, or show up first on lower line models, where makers won’t take as much heat if they bomb. The chip that powers the ultrasonic buttons is truly tiny…about twice the size of Lincoln’s beard on an US penny! The sensors, which UltraSense calls TouchPoint, could eventually make it into numerous other uses like fridges, medical instruments, and replacing all the buttons on car steering wheels, since they can be placed under smooth, easy to clean surfaces.

New Instagram Tools to Battle Fake News; Congress Considers EV Tax Credit Revamp; Samsung-No Million Galaxy Folds Sold; Another Google Employee Canned for Labor Activism

Instagram is starting to roll out new tools to fight fake news and hate speech worldwide. According to 9to5mac.com, the Facebook owned subsidiary will get similar tools to the parent’s set for addressing fake news and hate posts. When a photo or video reported as fake news appears on the feed, Instagram will show a warning above it. Users can still choose to view the content regardless of the warnings.
It will also be possible to see the comments of the fact-checking agencies about that post, and the app will ask if the user really wants to share the post anyway. The company says it uses artificial intelligence technology so that any content already reported as misinformation will be recognized even when it is reposted by another account.

It’s only in the draft state, but the House is looking to update the tax credit for electric vehicles. Electrek.co reports that the present rules were set up so that when a car maker sells 200,000 EVs, the credit phases out of the next 4 quarters. Tesla hit that wall in Q3 of 2018, and GM did in Q4 the same year. This means Tesla buyers lose the credit the end of this month, and GM buyers after March 30th, 2020. The new bill raises the cap per manufacturer to 600,000 EVs. On the down side, the tax credit drops from $7500 to $7000. Importantly, it includes a federal tax credit of up to $2500 on USED EVs…although there are quite a few caveats for those. Also in the bill, a 10% investment tax credit (ITC) for manufacturers of heavy EVs…14,000 pound gross weight or more. This would cover big rigs, motor homes, etc. Getting the bill through the Senate if it passes the House (even with bipartisan support) will be a tough hill to climb, but if it does, it could be a game changer for EVs.

After reports that Samsun had sold a million Galaxy Folds, the company has denied that they have moved that many units. Zdnet.com says someone misquoted an earlier estimate. The company still hopes to sell 500,000 of the $2000 folding smartphones by year’s end, but won’t confirm a hard number of units sold right now. Samsung is working on two more folders….a cheaper clamshell type phone, and an updated Galaxy Fold that will have a bigger 8 inch screen and S-Pen support.

Google has canned yet another employee for labor activism. theverge.com reports that Kathryn Spiers, who worked as a security engineer, was offed after 2 years. Part of her duties included sending internal web browser notifications. Apparently, after news broke that Google was using an anti-union law firm, and the web giant fired 4 other employees for internal union activism, Spiers set up a new notification for employees. When Googlers visited the law firm’s website or Google’s internal worker guidelines, they were sent a new message through a browser pop-up: “Googlers have the right to participate in protected concerted activities.” The message included a link to a labor rights notice Google was mandated to post. The employee was put on administrative leave only hours after releasing the message, and fired last Friday. The company spokesperson said the content of the message wasn’t at issue and that management would have taken similar action if the tool had been used to send any message not related to security. “We dismissed an employee who abused privileged access to modify an internal security tool,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “This was a serious violation.”

Xbox Series X; Amazon Delivering Nearly Half Own Packages; Mercedes Delays US EV SUV a Year; Intel Buys AI Chipmaker

Microsoft previewed it’s next generation Xbox at the Game Awards. It will be named Xbox Series X, and should be ready for your waiting hands and eyes by the holidays next year. According to venturebeat.com, it looks more like a PC tower than previous models. A large fan in the top handles airflow, while keeping noise to a minimum. The controller looks almost like the current one, except has a share button in the middle. Microsoft is claiming that ‘Xbox Series X will deliver a level of fidelity and immersion unlike anything that’s been achieved in previous console generations.’

Apparently Amazon is now delivering almost half its packages. CNBC.com reports that amazon Logistics (the arm of the company that handles deliveries) will attain a volume of 6.5 billion packages per year by 2022. This blows past an estimate from Morgan Stanley of the Amazon packages shipped by UPS at 5 billion and FedEx at 3.4 billion packages for that year.

Mercedes-Benz will delay the US release of its EV SUV, called the EQC from Q1 of 2020 until 2021. Businessinsider.com says Mercedes is making the move to try to support growing customer demand for the EQC in Europe. Mercedes still plans to release 10 EVs by 2022. EV sales in the luxury segment have been a bit soft this year, but European demand has been trending stronger.

Intel is picking up Israeli AI chipmaker Habana Labs for around $2 billion. According to techcrunch.com, last summer Habana had announced a chip that would outpace GPU based systems by four times. Apparently, Intel has had its eye on the startup for a while now. Intel has said they will keep the present team in place, and let them operate as an independent unit.

No Major iPhone Price Hike for 2020; 2 Chinese Firms Making Domestic OS; Google Interpreter Goes Live On Mobile; Facebook Gets Your Retail Data-But You Can Minimize

Here’s a nice rumor about next year’s iPhones. Noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says the 4 5G iPhones won’t have much of a price boost…ranging from $30 to $100, depending on the model. Macrumors.com reports that, in spite of the new 5G tech being more expensive, Apple will pull this off by cutting non-recurring engineering payments to suppliers. These have been used in the past to help out suppliers in the ‘dark side’ of the year, when no iPhones come out, and sales drop off. Now, it appears Apple will be releasing the smaller, lower cost so-called SE-2 model in the spring, and the other phones in September…and plans to continue releasing iPhones on a biannual basis moving forward.

China recently announced that in the next couple years, all government computers and affiliated organization computers there will have to be Chinese computers running their software. Now, according to zdnet.com, they are going a step further. The two biggest operating system makers in China have announced to unite and build a new ‘domestic operating system.’ China Standard Software and Tianjin Kylin Information both have ties to the Chinese government (of course.) It appears that China is following Moscow’s lead, trying to make sure they can keep out any unwanted foreign entities from their computing systems. Russia recently announced that all devices there must have certain Russian apps installed (spyware for the government…the same as the Chinese are working on, no doubt.) It is unlikely that the government there or anywhere will be able to keep young, bright hackers from cleaning up the Domestic OS to keep out prying eyes. That genie has been out of the bottle for decades now. Nothing is ‘hack proof.’

A feature Google has had on smart speakers and displays for months is now hitting mobile. Techcrunch.com says Interpreter, which works hand in hand with Assistant, will be available on both Android and iOS worldwide starting today. You can then tell it something like ‘Hey Google, help me speak French,’ or the like and you are offered real time translated transcripts and audio. It also works on a limited basis with some Smart Replies as in Gmail. 44 languages are available, which is an increase from the 29 that were offered on the smart speakers. I hope if Apple tries to join this party, they do some major work on Siri. Based on some of the texts and the like I get from some friends that dictate replies to Siri IN ENGLISH, it could be scary. Would you trust that to say what you intend in another language? Let’s hope that Google has their translator thoroughly tested out and pretty bulletproof!

As if Facebook doesn’t get enough of your data from your use of the platform, and their tracking you on the web via ‘partners,’ they have also been getting offline data through partners since August. According to businessinsider.com, any of their partners can ‘opt to send Facebook information about customers, including identifying information like an email, name, or phone number, and a record of what they bought. Facebook matches that information to user’s profiles, allowing the business to advertise to those people directly on its apps.’ Two known partners thus far are Macy*s and Dick’s Sporting Goods. If you have shopped at a store and suddenly note an uptick in ads on Facebook from them, that’s where it’s coming from. The practice extends to online sellers, too…but that has just been expanded….they have been tracking your online shopping for some time now. Like to minimize this? You can opt out of being served ads based on offline activities by going to settings, selecting ‘ads,’ and unchecking ‘ads based on data from partners.’

DOJ Looks at Antitrust in Google Pickup of Fitbit; Twitter Backs Research into Open Social Media Standard; Apple Updates iOS Parental Controls; Electric Seaplane from Harbour Air

The Department of Justice is apparently looking into the Google acquisition of Fitbit. Cnet.com reports that the agency is concerned about consumer data…especially health information…that Google could access via the 2.1 billion dollar deal. Most all Google mergers have been reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission, but this signals a broader probe. Google had previously gotten heat for its handling of medical data. As reported here and elsewhere, two years ago, Google partnered with University of Chicago in a deal that let the search giant use patient data and health records in a project to improve predictive analysis. A lawsuit was filed last summer when it came out that identifiable information had not been stripped out of the data of hundreds of thousands of patients.

Twitter is backing a small team of researchers who are working on building an “open and decentralized standard for social media,” with the goal of making Twitter a client for that standard. According to theverge.com, Project Bluesky aims to make ‘protocols, not platforms.’ A goal is to use blockchain technology as a way decentralized social networks could implement “open and durable hosting, governance, and even monetization.” Don’t expect any overnight breakthrough….the 5 person team is just getting under way.

Apple has upgraded parental controls in the latest version of iOS. Techcrunch.com says that now parents can limit who kids can call, text, and FaceTime, and WHEN. The time restriction feature allows setting Downtime not only late evening and at night, but during school hours, or whenever parents want…think ‘homework time.’ Google has also bulked up Android’s parental controls. As per before, these features work well on little kids, but tweens and teens quickly figure out ways around them or how to hack past them.

A friend who lived right by the seaplane concession in Marin County, California would be jumping for joy right now if they still lived in the spot. Harbour Air out of Vancouver, B.C. has just successfully test flown it’s all-electric seaplane over the Fraser River. The electric model is worlds quieter than the de Havilland Beaver seaplane was with its gas engine. Harbour Air is running a MagniX 750 horsepower electric motor. The entire certification process is expected to take 2 years. All that you could hear from the ground is a quiet ‘buzz.’ Once certified, the initial commercial flights will be 30 minutes, due to battery limits at present…but the company expects to see improvement that will allow for longer tourist flights in the future.

Facebook- No Back Door for Government; 90% Tech Growth-Handful of Markets; Mercedes Self Drivers on San Jose Streets; Apple Has Huge Wearables Lead

Facebook gets a lot of criticism pretty continuously…almost all of it well-deserved…over their numerous privacy violations and refusal to do more to keep user data secure. That said, they are actually ‘doing the right thing’ in at least one case. Bgr.com reports that in response to an open letter from world leaders…including US Attorney General Bill Barr…demanding that the social net weaken its encryption protocols so that governments can more easily pry into what users are doing across the platform, Facebook has essentially said ‘absolutely not—we won’t do it.’ No back door for you, governments!

This is not the first time the US, UK, and Australia have demanded a backdoor into Facebook. “Preserving the prominence of American values online requires strong protections for privacy and security, including strong encryption,” reads the opening statement from Jay Sullivan, Messenger’s director of product management for privacy and integrity, who was to testify at a Senate hearing on Tuesday. They will continue to have end-to-end encryption in their messaging apps as well as slamming the door on the idea of a back door in the main Facebook app. Give it up for Facebook for, at least this time, doing the right thing.

According to a report from Brookings Institution, 90% of high-tech job growth has happened in just 5 metro areas: Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, San Jose, Seattle, and San Diego. Brookings measured what they term the ‘innovation sector’ jobs, which they define as ‘employment in the top science, technology, engineering, and math industries that include extensive research and development spending.’ Meanwhile, 343 metro areas lost a share of these jobs in that same period. Not to quibble, but I’m going to quibble. San Jose IS part of the San Francisco Bay Area, as measured by everyone…so it’s actually just FOUR metro areas. Even in the radio and TV ratings measurement businesses, San Jose is an ‘embedded market,’ and part of the greater San Francisco Bay Area metro counties.

At any rate, the locales draw educated people and investment money from other places. Some 40% of adults have Bachelor’s degrees in these metro areas, compared to only 26% in the bottom three quartiles. Brookings’ report notes that ‘being an innovation city does have costs: These include worsening traffic, ballooning housing prices, and wage growth so high that smaller firms can’t compete. In theory, these spiraling costs should send jobs to cheaper areas, but the report notes that the inflection point is very high, and that when a company does move, its jobs don’t necessarily stay within the US.’ The report points out that with traditional manufacturing and in natural resources development, location was dictated by geography…development took place along rivers, bays, highways, and in forests. This just doesn’t apply in the tech economy. Brookings doesn’t see any movement to other areas without intensive government investment…direct funding, tax preference, and workforce development. Things that, to date, haven’t happened.

A new self-driving taxi service is hitting the pavement in San Jose. Autonomous Mercedes-Benz S Class cars, tricked out by Mercedes and long time partner Bosch. (Mercedes and Bosch partnered on disc brakes decades ago for aircraft and cars.) Theverge.com says the S-Class Mercedes self drivers will carry people between West San Jose and the downtown area. They will run on a fixed route along San Carlos Street and Stevens Creek Boulevard. As is the case in all self driving cars in California that carry passengers, there will be a safety driver in the drivers seat, ready to take over. Way has been operating in a similar fashion in Phoenix, and Lyft in Las Vegas. There are now 65—65!— companies licensed in California to test self driving cars on public roads.

Apple continues to dominate the wearables market with Watch and Air Pods doing the heavy lifting for them. Global wearables shipments hit 84.5 million units in Q3 of this year, with Apple leading by a large margin, according to IDC, as cited in 9to5mac.com. Apple scooped up 29.5 million of those 84.5 million units, giving them a 35% market share…and they are up 200% over 3rd quarter of 2018. Xiaomi is in 2nd pale with 12.5 million units, then Samsung for third with 8.3 million.

Pixel 4- Auto Robocall Screening, More; 2020 iPhones-Bigger Batteries & Interest Free AppleCard Installments; Mac Pro Orders Imminent; Snapchat Essentially Getting Deep Fake Editing Ability

Pixel 4 is getting a software update with some cool features. Venturebeat.com reports that US Pixel 4’s will get a call screen feature that automatically declines calls from unknown parties and filters out suspected robocallers. The handsets will also have improved video calling on Duo, and an upgraded Google Assistant will hit more Pixel phones. Photos snapped on Pixels will now be convertible to a portrait by blurring the background after the fact. Google is calling the update and ones coming ‘Feature Drops,’ and promises bigger updates with ‘more helpful and fun features.’ They expect updates on mainly a monthly basis.

The iPhone models for 2020 will have a customized battery protection module that is smaller and thinner. According to macrumors.com, that means they will have slightly bigger batteries inside for more use time. Also, Apple has now confirmed something teased by Tim Cook in October….Apple Card will be adding the ability to take advantage of 0% financing for iPhone purchases. On top of that, you will still get the 3% cash back on the iPhone purchase! This will have no effect on your other Apple Card purchases, which, of course, will still get charged interest if you don’t pay them off monthly. So far, Apple hasn’t indicated whether the 0% installments will be extended to other Apple products like Macs, iPads, or accessories.

Apple has announced that orders will be open on the new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR starting tomorrow, December 10th. Be ready for your wallet to cry huge tears…the Pro starts at $5999, and the XDR display at $4999. This combination of muscular bad boys will set you back a minimum of $10,998! In other words, you had better be ready to be a pro user or be able to make real money with your new Mac Pro…or else have a nice trust fund of pile of cash from cashing out your successful startup!

Snapchat is about to launch a big (and potentially controversial) feature. Months ago, there was quite a flap about some software that could add a face (yours, a movie star, whatever) to a video, creating what was called a ‘deep fake.’ This was particularly upsetting to actresses, who found a quick proliferation of porn videos preporting to feature them. The software was quickly taken down most everywhere. Now, techcrunch.com says Snapchat is launching Cameos. They are basically an alternative to Apple’s Bitmoji…for quickly conveying reaction, emotions, etc. You can paste your face or others into a video you can share. While it only is live in a few countries in test mode, and Snap claims it’s only for GIFs, it could be fairly quickly corrupted back into deep fakes again…something that worries politicians (who fear fake ads) in addition to the above noted Hollywood actresses. Stay tuned…and look for yourself in a video doing something you’ve never done before soon…this horse may have really left the barn now.

iPhone 11 Pro Location Data Always ON; Qualcomm New In-Display Ultrasonic Fingerprint Reader; Facebook Liam Chatbot- Helps Employees Talk to Families; Formula E Becomes World Championship

Apple has made much about how they protect your data better than others. According to businessinsider.com, that claim has a newly discovered blemish. Security expert Brian Krebs has found that the iPhone 11 Pro periodically collects location data even when individual apps and services are told not to. Location services can still be totally killed by switching the button in your iPhone’s security settings. Nonetheless, with location services on, and the individual apps’ location services ON, there will still be some data collection on the iPhones.

Qualcomm has unveiled its gen 2 version of the ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor. Theverge.com reports that there is a new twist to increase security…the new version can detect 2 fingerprints at once for extra secure authentication. The so-called 3D Sonic Sensor has improved reliability and security over existing optical sensors. It also has a vastly larger area, which should make it a lot easier to use. It should even work through a screen protector. A rumor has Apple looking into adding the tech to the new iPhones next year.

Facebook has been working behind the scenes to equip employees with a way to answer questions from family and friends about the social network’s various scandals over the holidays. Enter Liam….a chatbot. Mashable.com says that the bot will give employees a way to answer tough questions while keeping things in line with company policies. PR isn’t the only thing the bot can help with…it has also been designed to help handle basic tech support questions that Facebook employees might get over the holidays from family and friends (sound familiar? I just helped one get an edited document from the desktop to a thumb drive yesterday. Go ahead and laugh…there are perfectly smart people out there who just don’t have the tech gene. The hapless user has an advanced degree!)

This is a true sea change from the days that have existed since long before I hit the pavement…the days of gasoline alley. According to engadget.com, the FIA has elevated Formula E, the electric race car league, to World Championship status starting in the 2020-21 season. Up to now, E-racers have played second fiddle to Formula 1. From now on, the overall Formula E winner will be able to claim to be a World Champion. This has been moved forward lately with the participation of legendary racing marques Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. While Formula E may not eclipse the popularity of Formula 1, it will now compete at a whole new level.

Class Action Over MacBook Keys Continues; AWS Launches Quantum Computing ‘Bracket; Netflix Tests New Menu, Shuffle Button; FBI Confirms- FaceApp Counterintelligence Risk

Apple just came out with its ‘new’ keyboard tech (pretty well a rehash of the previous setup) on the new MacBook Pro 16 inch model. It replaced the infamous ‘butterfly keyboard,’ which has given some people fits, and spawned a class action lawsuit. (For the record, I am typing this on a butterfly keyboard, and my prior laptop also had it….and I haven’t had issues…hope this doesn’t jinx me!) According to engadget.com, Federal Judge Edward Davila has thrown out Apple’s attempt to dismiss the suit underpinning the class action. The suit accuses the company of not only hiding the fragility of MacBook butterfly keyboards, but of failing to provide an ‘effective fix’ or full compensation for customers who paid for repairs. The suit further alleges that Apple violated multiple states’ consumer protection laws. The butterfly keyboard rolled out with the original 12 inch MacBook in 2015 and is on MacBook Pros from 2016 on. For their part, Apple has launched repair programs, which may mitigate their exposure. It will likely take several years before we have an outcome as this winds through the court system.

Amazon has announced ‘Braket,’ its quantum computing service. Techcrunch.com reports that Google, Microsoft, and IBM have been in the news with quantum computing for a while now, nothing had been heard out of AWS…until yesterday. Amazon will not be building its own quantum computer, however. It is partnering with D-Wave, IonQ, and Rigetti, and making the system available through its cloud. Amazon also announced launch of its AWS Center for Quantum Computing and AWS Quantum Solutions Lab. Quantum computing may make your brain hurt….trying to understand it does mine…but it could revolutionize the world in ways we haven’t even imagined yet, so give the wizards some time to play in the cloud with it, and we’ll see what comes out.

Netflix is testing out a new menu that finally includes a shuffle button for TV shows. 9to5google.com says Android Police first uncovered the new layout. It features a 3 button menu for each piece of content on the home screen. The buttons replace the current information button. Tapping brings up options for play, info/episodes, sharing, rating, and seeing similar content. There is also a ‘remove from row’ option so you can delete sites from Netflix’s ‘Continue Watching’ row. A lot of people have asked for the shuffle button….it will allow you to select random episodes of your favorite TV series. No word on when the feature will go live to everyone yet.

Last summer, a lot of people were playing with ‘FaceApp, a Russian app that let you see yourself as older, with glasses, and other effects. At the time, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer thought it a security risk, and asked the FBI. Now, according to 9to5mac.com, the Bureau has responded, and said yes, they think it and other Russian developed apps are ‘potential counterintelligence threats.’ The FaceApp people claimed that no user data was transferred to Russia, where their R&D team was. This, of course, could be true…the data could have been uploaded to servers located elsewhere and accessed from Russia. The FBI went on to say intelligence services in Russia “maintain robust cyber-exploitation capabilities.” The Russian Federal Security Service can also “access all communications and servers on Russian networks without making a request to ISPs.” They, as well as Minority Leader Schumer, warn people to stay away from Russian made apps.