FTC Suit vs Meta Moves Forward; PC Shipments Way Up in 2021; Sony to Keep Making PS4s; Maserati Will Race in Formula E

In case you missed, it, a federal judge yesterday ruled that the Federal Trade Commission can move forward with its antitrust suit against Meta (Facebook), after the suit was dismissed last year. According to theverge.com, the judge said the facts alleged by the FTC were ‘far more robust and detailed than before.’ He did note that the fed agency ‘may well face a tall task down the road in proving its allegations.’ The case revolves around Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp. “In stark contrast with its predecessor, this complaint provides reinforcing, specific allegations that all point toward the same conclusion: Facebook has maintained a dominant market share during the relevant time period,” the opinion says. If you accept the market definition and the reliability of the FTC’s data, “Facebook’s market share comfortably exceeds the levels that courts ordinarily find sufficient to establish monopoly power.”

With all the chip shortages last year, it would seem that PC deliveries would have dropped like a rock. Nope. Actually, they were up nicely. Techcrunch.com reports that an analysis by Canalys has PC shipments up 15% year over year in 2021, and they were up 27% over 2019! 2021 is the best year for PCs since 2012, with 341 million sold. The 3 top dogs were Lenovo, HP, and Dell…with Apple coming in 4th. Apple actually had the best growth year over year at 28.3%. Fifth place Acer had the 2nd highest growth at 21.8%. 

Previously, it had been reported that Sony would be slowing or closing down PS4 production in 2021 with the success of the PS5. Now…despite chip shortages and supply chain hassles, Sony appears poised to keep pumping out PS4s through the rest of 2022…to the tune of a million per year Androidcentral.com says that the majority of the 1st player games out for the PS5 are also playable on the PS4. This includes Horizon Forbidden West, which previously had been slated just for the 5. 

Another legendary brand is jumping into the electric vehicle racing series Formula E next year. Maserati will race in the EV series. Arstechnica.com notes that this is as several German makers have left in recent seasons…including the 2021 championship winning Mercedes-EQ team. Ferrari still hasn’t committed to running in the E series, but Maserati is a pretty big feather in the cap of electric vehicle racing. The last time the marque fielded a single seater racer was in 1957…with the amazing Juan Manuel Fangio driving in that year’s Formula 1 season. The Argentine driver is widely considered to be one of the best….if not the best of that generation of drivers. He later was the distributor for Mercedes-Benz (who he had also raced for) in his home country of Argentina. 

Facebook Contractors Threaten Stoppage-No Pay; Android 13 Getting Faster QR Shortcuts; Samsung Galaxy Unpacked Date; 2021 Sets Record for Cyber Attacks

This is a pretty big stubbing of the corporate toe for Facebook (Meta.) Moderators at an Accenture site in Austin have been in payroll hell since the first of the year…an error showed up tracking PTO, and then on January 6th, paychecks didn’t arrive. Theverge.com notes that there was a recent change in payroll providers at that site. A number of paychecks that did show up were zeroed out…no money! Workers at the site handle moderation, customer service, and other chores for Facebook and WhatsApp. Understandably, they are threatening in a letter to the CEOs of those divisions of Meta to stop work entirely until they get their money!

There were apparently several lump sum payments issued after the threatened work stoppage on January 7th, but not to everyone. A managing director at the Accenture site said he didn’t know when the issue would be resolved, but that the company would cover late fees and overdraft fees. Of course, that won’t pay the rent, mortgage payments, or buy food…but nice gesture. As of last night (Jan. 10th), at least 50 employees still hadn’t been paid or gotten a lump sum. Facebook put out a bland non-statement about the issue. “Accenture has notified its employees of this issue,” said Meta representative Kadia Koroma, “and is working to resolve it as soon as possible.”

QR codes are everywhere now, and Google is going to add better shortcuts for using them in Android 13. 9to5google.com reports that there will be a couple new shortcuts coming. One is in the Quick Settings menu…it allows for users to quickly launch a QR scanner from that menu. The other feature should be quite useful…Google is adding scanner access for QR codes form the Lock Screen.

Right now, it’s unclear if that will just be a button on the Lock Screen to toggle to the scanner, or the ability to show the scanner itself from the Lock Screen. The latter would be very handy…and I would add, showing QR codes from the Lock Screen would be great, too. After traveling out of the country last summer, there were a number of times I had to show a QR code…not just for boarding planes, but also to confirm vaccination status. Having them displayed on the Lock Screens of phones would vastly speed up lines. 

Samsung’s next Galaxy Unpacked event will be held on February 8th. Engadget.com says the date was confirmed by Digital Daily out of South Korea. Pre-orders will go live on February 9th, and new models will begin shipping on February 24th. It is expected that Samsung will unveil 3 new phones…the Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, and S22 Ultra. The latter will reportedly feature a camera that Samsung claims will have a ‘Super Clear Lens.’ The new phones are also likely to be shown off at Mobile World Conference 2022 in Barcelona. 

According to a report form Check Point Research picked up by zdnet.com, 2021 was a record year for the number of cyber attacks on corporate networks. It wasn’t even close…according to their research, 2021 had 50% more cyberattacks per week than 2020…many due to the Log4j vulnerability…which resulted in a huge uptick near the end of the year. 

Education, government, and healthcare got into the top 5 most attacked industries worldwide. the highest volume of attacks occurred in Africa (1582 per week), followed by Latin America with 1118. Europe had 670 weekly attacks, and North America notched 503. Check Point expects a continued uptick in 2022. They note that “Simple measures such as patching, segmenting your networks and educating employees can go a long way in making the world safer.”

Apple-No Metaverse for Headsets; Take-Two Buys Zynga; Tesla ‘Full Self-Driving’ has Assertive Mode; Google Rants About iMessage ‘Blue Bubbles’

Sorry, Meta (Facebook), but it looks like Apple isn’t too interested in joining your vaporware party. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple has rejected the idea of an all-virtual world (metaverse) for their AR/VR goggles and glasses. Cupertino plans to focus on short bursts of communication, content viewing, and gaming instead. The Apple headset, as we have reported previously, should bow this year, and most estimate it will sell for a princely $3000! (Ming-Chi Kuo disagrees with this, saying instead of 2 8k screens and a less intense one for side views, the Apple goggles will use only 4k displays and 6 or 8 cameras…and will be less costly.) Apple does seem to be focusing more on the practical augmented reality use in the ‘real universe,’ as opposed to Meta’s emphasis on the virtual world they dub the metaverse. 

Take-Two Interactive has announced it is snapping up mobile gaming firm Zynga for $12.7 billion. According to appleinsider.com, the cash and stock deal will close Q1 of 2023, and it will make Take-Two Interactive one of the biggest publishers of mobile games. Take-Two is most famous for Grand Theft Auto, and also makes BioShock and Red Dead. Zynga is known for Words with Friends, Farm Heroes, and Zynga Poker, but first burst into gaming on Facebook with their signature game FarmVille. 

Here’s something we all (don’t) need: the latest beta of Tesla ‘Full Self-Driving’ mode has an ‘Assertive’ mode…which allows rolling stops (known everywhere in the country except California as ‘California stops!’ Engadget.com says the update originally hit in October as v. 10.3, but was pulled in 2 days due to a bug that affected traffic light left turns, unexpected stopping, and other issues. It had 3 modes…’Chill,’ ‘Average,’ and ‘Assertive.’ Well now it’s back. The notes indicate “in this profile, your Model X will have a smaller follow distance, perform more frequent speed lane changes, will not exit passing lanes and may perform rolling stops.” Apparently, the rolling stops also happens in ‘Average’ mode, too. What will it set you back to get this illegal feature? A couple grand more than last week. Elon Musk announced that Tesla is jacking up the price of ‘Full Self-Driving’ from $10,000 to $12,0000! As has been pointed out, neither this mode nor Tesla’s Autopilot is rally self-driving….Level 4. Both are still just Level 2 advanced driver assistance.

In a new rant about one of Apple’s ‘walled garden’ with regard to iMessage. 9to5google.com reports that Google Senior VP of Platforms and Ecosystems Hiroshi Lockheimer has blasted the lock in Apple builds into iMessage. As Apple users know, when you get a message from another Apple user, it appears in a blue bubble. Anything from Android or other systems gets a green bubble. Lockheimer complains that Apple’s non-support of Rich Communications Services locks teens and ‘tweens into the Apple system. It’s a status thing for them to have the ‘blue bubble’ in their texts. If Apple supported the RCS, it would modernize SMS/MMS with iMessage type features, too…like typing indicators with read receipts, higher-quality photos, ability to send over Wi-Fi/mobile data, and Business Messaging. Google accuses Apple of bullying in the messaging world. It seems unlikely that Apple will give up their advantage to ‘poor, little Google’ anytime soon!

John Deere Self-Driving Tractor; Apple’s AR/VR Headset; Ford to Build 150,000 F-150 Lightenings; Google Plays Catch-Up With Apple on Ecosystem

So much attention has been on self-driving cars, delivery vans, and even semi-trucks the last few years…and not much to the AG community. Now, according to techcrunch.com, John Deere has announced at CES that they will be making their 8R self-driving tractor available for purchase by this Fall. Some farmers have been testing the rig out since 2019, and Deere apparently thinks its ready for prime time. The system sports six pairs of stereo cameras, powered by a pair of Nvidia Jetson modules, offering a full view of its surrounding. Its GPS guidance system, coupled with geofencing, keep the system on track for initial tasks, such as tilling. That’s controlled remotely by the John Deere Operations Center Mobile, which offers access to images, live video and data from the job. One presumes it will have a fairly eye-watering price, but think about it…your Deere could be tilling a field while you are elsewhere on your spread tending to livestock…or maybe going into town for supplies!

An interesting wrinkle has emerged in the upcoming Apple AR/VR headset. Macrumors.com cites a report form display analyst Ross Young that says the new Apple headset will feature 3 displays. Two will be Micro OLED displays from Sony…which will be the main displays, and there will also be a third display….an AMOLED panel. The analyst hasn’t cracked the code on what the third display will do, but speculation is that it will apply to peripheral vision. This is because AMOLED displays have too low a pixel density for headsets…but would be fine for reduced resolution peripheral vision. Based on a Sony panel showed recently, Apple (if they use those ones) will have a 4000×4000 pixel display for each eye…and those little screens will be 1.4 inches diagonally. All this tech plus the computing power, battery tech, and the rest…you can assume the Apple headset will come in at about $3000 when it rolls out later this year. 

After announcing before Christmas that they were going to build far more Mustang Mach-e EVs to keep up with demand, now Ford has said they will build 150,000 F-150 Lightening EV pickups a year…also due to demand. Arstechnica.com says Ford already has 200,000 reservations in their order books for the new EV pickup. The entry level F-150 Lightening…which is aimed at the commercial market, will start at $39,974. A better equipped model will sticker for $52,974. Ford says that 3/4 of the orders come from conquest customers…people buying a Ford truck for the first time. 

Google has announced some 13 new software features at CES, mainly aimed at bulking up their ecosystem to try to retain users like Apple does. According to theverge.com, one includes a quick switching ability like Apple’s AirPods have, and another will allow mirroring of your texts from your Android device to your ChromeBook. Google will also allow Wear OS3 watches to unlock your paired Android phone or ChromeBook…again, like Apple Watch can do with iPhones and MacBooks. HP, Acer, and Intel are partnering with Google to support some of its Better Together features on their laptops. Users will be able to use Fast Pair, sync text messages, and use Android’s Nearby Share feature to share files to their upcoming Windows PCs. The updates will roll out anywhere from ‘within weeks’ to ‘later this year.’ 

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!

AT&T & Verizon 5G a Go-Despite FAA; Samsung Rolling Cloud Gaming into TVs; Microsoft Emergency Exchange Fix; iPhone 14 Will Have Hole Punch Cam

If you got a new phone in the last couple of years, it probably has 5G capability. Good luck finding 5G service…so far, it has been pretty limited. The past week, a delay in rolling it out further came from FAA chief Steve Dickson and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Now, ZDNet reports that both AT&T and Verizon intend to continue with their January 5th deployment of their C-Band 5G systems. The FCC has reaffirmed that it gave its blessing, and that 5G should be perfectly safe, and cause no interference with aircraft systems. 

Samsung will bake things into its TVs to allow you to play console games directly through your TV screen via Gaming Hub. According to Engadget.com, you will be able to access other streaming services than Samsung’s through the Hub, including NVIDIA’s GeForce Now, Stadia, and PC gaming platform Utomik. To keep up with fast graphics, the newest Sammy TVs in 4K and 8K will rock a 144 KHz refresh rate, too. 

Microsoft has released an emergency patch for Exchange to squash a 2022 bug. bleepingcomputer.com says the fix takes care of a problem where Exchange wouldn’t delver mail after 2022 struck on company servers…although it still worked from Microsoft’s cloud. The fix comes in the form of a PowerShell script named ‘Reset-ScanEngineVersion.ps1.’ When executed, the script will stop the Microsoft Filtering Management and Microsoft Exchange Transport services, delete older AV engine files, download the new AV engine, and start the services again. Redmond is working on an automated fix that will be pushed out soon.

This isn’t the first rumor about the iPhone 14 losing the dreaded ‘notch,’ but now Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says some iPhone models coming out in September will have a hole punch cam in the screen, replacing the notch. It is presumed it will be the high end phones that will get the feature first. According to Gurman, the Face ID system, which lives in the notch with the camera, would work from under the screen, effectively being invisible to your eyes, and not eating up screen space for your videos, apps, etc. Another big rumor from Gurman and Ming-Chi Kuo has Apple transitioning 100% to their own silicon and away from Intel by this summer’s World Wide Developer Conference. 

iPhone 14 Pro-48 MP Cam; Oracle Picks up Cerner; Microsoft Buys Xander from AT&T; EV Challenge- Building Enough Chargers

Apple is reportedly joining the high megapixel club with their iPhone cameras. Samsung has featured 48 and even over 100 MP cams for a few years now. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, cited in macrumors.com, looks for Apple to add a 48 MP lens to the top iPhone 14 Pro models this coming fall. That will be followed by a so-called periscope lens in 2023. the 48 MP lens will shoot at that output, except in low light conditions, when they will use ‘pixel binning’ to drop back to 12 MP to preserve quality. the periscope lens, which has been out several years on some competing phones like one from Huawei, utilizes folded camera optics to dramatically increase optical zoom…getting up to 10x. iPhone 13 models only have a 3x optical zoom. You can get to 10 with the electronic zoom, but the pics are not nearly as clear, and if you are shooting video, it tends to ‘smear.’ 

Oracle has picked up electronic health records company Cerner in a $28.3 billion deal. According to techcrunch.com, this will help Oracle to move into the healthcare vertical market in a major way, and should bulk up their cloud infrastructure business. The deal is being reported as the biggest acquisition in Oracle history. Microsoft had already dived into this area earlier this year, when it bought Nuance Communications. 

Microsoft is bulking up in the ad space area, snapping up Xandr ad marketplace from AT&T for an undisclosed price (which usually means someone is paying a bundle!) Zdnet.com says Xander is a ‘data-enabled technology platform powering a global marketplace for premium advertising.’ Expect Microsoft to continue to operate its own Microsoft Audience Network, PromoteIQ, and Microsoft Customer Experience platforms as they work to hoover up more and more ad dollars. In their 1st quarter earnings report, MS said ad revenue, minus acquisition costs, was up 40% over the prior year’s quarter.

We’ve reported on the uptake in sales of new EVs like the Hummer and the Mustang e. It appears that EVs are increasing fairly rapidly as a percentage of vehicle sales. Now comes the next challenge…enough charging stations to handle all of them. Theverge.com notes that there was a blast of cash in the Build Back Better bill that is now on hold to put in a substantial number of them. There are more and more stations along the interstates, but in towns, cities, and neighborhoods…not so much. As we reported yesterday, Waze is now showing charging stations on their mapping app….but a quick check of it shows precious few chargers in EV friendly San Francisco…so figure other less progressive cities and towns will really be short. Right now, there are 46,000 public charging stations in the country. Most analysts say we will need at least 100,000 by 2030!

Facebook Gets Dubious Honor; New Apple Displays; GM Delivering Hummer EV PUs; Chip Could Extend Battery Life; Waze Adds EV Charge Stations

In something akin to getting a Razzy, Facebook (Meta) is worst company of the year, in a survey from Yahoo Finance. Yahoo.com reports that the best company title went to Microsoft for 2021. The survey was conducted for Yahoo Finance by Survey Monkey, and there were some 1541 participants. This all goes to show that when you have a lot of bad PR, even a name change doesn’t really fake people out these days. Facebook got 50% more thumbs down votes than the #2 bad company, Alibaba out of China.

It’s been years since Apple has marketed its own monitors…save for the five grand Pro Display EDR. Now, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says he ‘strongly believes’ Apple will launch a new line of monitors for its latest Macs. It appears that both 24 and 27 inch ones are in development right now (which will be made for Apple by LG.) LG currently has the only Apple-approved monitors in the UltraFine 4K and LG UltraFine 5K.

The first electric Hummers are on the roads and in the garages of the first buyers, according to General Motors. The 1,000 horsepower EVs that feature 329 miles of range are the ones you might have seen in videos that can ‘crab walk’ sideways a bit to avoid big rocks, and can raise the suspension 6 inches to clear objects in rough terrain. The first Hummer EV Edition 1 models cost an eye-watering $110,295, and have GM’s advanced Super Cruise. There will be a cheaper model (relatively…$79,995) by Spring of 2024. The Edition 1 is already sold out.

It’s not imminent, but IBM and Samsung are working on a new chip tech that could dramatically extend smartphone battery life. Bgr.com says the so-called VTFET chip stacks transistors vertically in increase the number of them in a chip. This not only increases performance, but cuts down on power use. IBM and Samsung say the chips could offer twice the performance of current designs and use 85% less energy. They would be based on 2 nanometer tech, a level no one has quite reached yet. Besides making its own smartphone chips, Samsung also produces chips for Google. Imagine only having to charge your smartphone once a week, and getting more blazing performance than ever from it! With this going on between IBM and Samsung, you can bet that Apple is not asleep at the switch with this type of tech. We could see it in actual phones in the next few years. 

Google’s Waze navigation app has now picked up a new feature…it will show EV charging stations. Mashable.com notes that as more EVs hit the road, this will eventually become as important as gas station locations. The move is in partnership with VW, which has a slew of EVs on the way, and now has the ID.4 on the highways. Putting the charging stations on the app does make one think that Google might be getting closer to rolling out commercially its long-tested self-driving cars as EVs sooner not later. 

Meta Expands Bug Bounties; Googlers Not Vaxxed-Borrowed Time; More Harassment Suits vs Tesla; Apple Pulls CSAM Mentions From Child Safety Page

Meta is beefing up its bug bounty program to reward researchers who report data scraping. Techcrunch.com reports that researchers will be able to report scraping activity as well as previously scraped data that has already appeared online. Meta believes its the first bug bounty program particularly targeted to scraping. Under the new bug bounty program, researchers will be rewarded for finding “unprotected or openly public databases containing at least 100,000 unique Facebook user records with PII [personally identifiable information] or sensitive data (e.g. email, phone number, physical address, religious or political affiliation).” Instead of its usual payouts though, Meta says it will donate to a charity chosen by the researcher in order not to incentivize the publishing of scraped data.For reports of bugs that can lead to data scraping, researchers can choose between a donation or a direct payout. Meta says each bug or dataset is eligible for at least a $500 award.

Google had previously given employees until December third to upload vaccination documentation or apply for a medical or religious exemption. Now, according to CNBC, employees who haven’t complied by January 18th will be placed on ‘paid administrative leave’ for 30 days, followed by ‘unpaid personal leave’ for up to 6 months. After that, they will be fired. Since the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, Google has tabled its January 10th return to work 3 days a week plan. Now, the return-to-office plan is on hold indefinitely. 

Tesla has been hit with more lawsuits that allege sexual harassment at the Fremont plant. CNET.com says 6 women are accusing the carmaker of creating an environment where it is normal for women to deal with sexual comments and inappropriate touching. Some of the things the women have complained about in the 6 separate suits include ongoing catcalling, inappropriate touching, sexual comments and other harassment by colleagues and supervisors. “Tesla has failed to take sexual harassment seriously, from the top of the company down,” said attorney David Lowe, a partner at Rudy Exelrod Zieff & Lowe who represents the women, in a release. “Elon Musk tweeting a lewd comment about women’s bodies or a taunt toward employees who report misconduct reflects an attitude at the top that enables the pattern of pervasive sexual harassment and retaliation at the heart of these cases.” Tesla foolishly still has not re-established a public relations department…so there is no comment from the car maker.

Apple got a considerable blowback from a number of individuals and organizations when they announced a suite of new child safety features last summer. According to macrumors.com, most revolved about Apple’s planned on-device CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) detection…which a number of researchers objected to as relying on dangerous tech that bordered on surveillance, and which at any rate, was ineffective at identifying images of child sex abuse. The Communication Safety features for Messages was launched this week, but Apple has delayed the CSAM rollout. Now, all mentions of it have been dropped, with just a statement on the company’s Child Safety page saying “based on feedback from customers, advocacy groups, researchers and others… we have decided to take additional time over the coming months to collect input and make improvements before releasing these critically important child safety features.”  Reading between the lines, it looks like it has been either dropped entirely or pushed way out into the future…when better software or methods are available. 

Nike Buys Co That Makes NFT Sneakers; Labor Dept. Opens Apple Investigation; Amazon Will Expand Grocery Delivery; Google Working on ‘Augmented Reality OS’

Not to be satisfied with selling the world overpriced sneakers, now Nike can sell you overpriced sneakers that don’t even exist! The giant shoe maker has snapped up RTFKT Studios, which ‘makes’ NFT sneakers, and claims to be “a leading brand that leverages cutting edge innovation to deliver next generation collectibles that merge culture and gaming.” Back in February, the brand sold 600 pairs of NFTs in 6 minutes, and made $3.1 million, according to theverge.com. For those wondering what the hell NFTs are, NFTs allow you to buy and sell ownership of unique digital items and keep track of who owns them using the blockchain. NFT stands for “non-fungible token,” and it can technically contain anything digital, including drawings, animated GIFs, songs, or items in video games. An NFT can either be one-of-a-kind, like a real-life painting, or one copy of many, like trading cards, but the blockchain keeps track of who has ownership of the file. No price was disclosed by Nike for their acquisition of RTFKT.

The Labor Department has opened an investigation into Apple’s treatment of employees and workplace conduct. Cnet.com reports that the department didn’t say what prompted the inquiry, but former Apple engineering manager Ashley Gjovik had complained about a hostile working environment in August, and had told the NY Times she filed a complaint “to ensure Apple knows they cannot get away with retaliating against me for exercising my federally and state-protected rights.” The Labor Department hasn’t responded to requests for comments, and of course, neither has famously tight-lipped Apple.

Instacart had better be preparing to take on Goliath. Amazon may soon be directly competing with them in the grocery delivery game. Engadget.com says Amazon has been trialing Amazon Fresh Marketplace in the UK for about a year now. In a statement, Amazon said “Our focus is on providing Amazon customers the best possible experience when it comes to grocery delivery whether that is from Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, or one of our local stores like Bartell’s in Seattle, Morrison’s in London, or Monoprix in Paris. Partnerships with other grocers enable more customers to shop online and allow us to provide Amazon Prime members with more choice, value and convenience while our partners benefit from increased visibility for their selection and service.” 

After the bust and backlash of Google Glass (i.e. the wearers in public quickly being branded ‘Glassholes,’ Google has been pretty quiet about augmented reality lately…as plenty has leaked out or been released about Apple and Facebook AR future products. Now, 9to5google.com reports that Google is actively hiring to create an ‘Augmented Reality OS for an innovative AR device.’ They have already put into place Mark Lucovsky as heading up the Operating System team for Augmented Reality at Google. Lucovsky previously was General Manager for Operating Systems at Oculus VR (Facebook/Meta.) Before that, he had a 16 year stint at Microsoft, and was at Google previously….back from 2004 to 2009. One of the jobs listed gives a pretty big hint at what’s in store: ‘Our team is building the software components that control and manage the hardware on our Augmented Reality (AR) products. These are the software components that run on the AR devices and are the closest to the hardware. As Google adds products to the AR portfolio, the OS Foundations team is the very first software team to work with new hardware.’