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KEYNOTE WWDC: OS INNOVATION AT THE NEXT LEVEL

PATENT WAR: HOW APPLE & THE INDUSTRY HAVE HANDLED IT

MAKER OF FEARSOME ANIMAL ROBOTS SLOWLY EMERGES FROM STEALTH

72 TESLA SHAREHOLDERS REJECT BID TO STRIP MUSK OF CHAIRMAN ROLE

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FACEBOOK KILLS ‘TRENDING’ TOPICS, TESTS BREAKING NEWS LABEL 26 NEW FACEBOOK PRIVACY FUROR: WHAT’S AT STAKE? 34 WISCONSIN SENIORS INTRODUCED TO VIRTUAL REALITY TECHNOLOGY 64 NEW BUSINESS DEALS BRING AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES A STEP CLOSER 88 TRUMP TECH ADVISER DEFENDS COMMITMENT TO TECH RESEARCH 96 BOX OFFICE TOP 20: ‘SOLO’ DROPS TO $29.4 MILLION IN WEEK 2 118 MICROSOFT EMBRACES COLLABORATION IN $7.5B DEAL FOR GITHUB 134 AFTER 4 YEARS, INDIANA EMBRACES TEXT-TO-911 IN EMERGENCIES 140 SKYPING THE DOCTOR? POLL SHOWS IT’S NOT JUST FOR THE YOUNG 144 BALL STATE AND TV NETWORK OFFER FREE ONLINE MUSICAL CLASS 152 BOULDER-SIZE ASTEROID DISINTEGRATED HARMLESSLY OVER AFRICA 154 CONNECTICUT VENTURE CAPITAL FIRM FUNDS FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS 158 SOLAR ENERGY FARMS GAINING TRACTION IN NEBRASKA 166 DISCOVERY AND PGA SIGN $2 BILLION INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS DEAL 184 VISA SAYS DISRUPTION CAUSED BY HARDWARE PROBLEM, NOT ATTACK 192 CHINA’S HUAWEI SAYS IT HASN’T COLLECTED FACEBOOK USER DATA 194

TOP 10 APPS 98 iTUNES REVIEW 102 TOP 10 SONGS 174 TOP 10 ALBUMS 176 TOP 10 MUSIC VIDEOS 178 TOP 10 TV SHOWS 180 TOP 10 BOOKS 182

Image: Nikolay Tarashchenko

Apple is more than familiar with the unique challenges posed by patents. The purpose of a patent is to protect an individual or organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s right to exclusively make, use or sell an invention. That sounds simple; however, in practice, patents have brought various headaches for tech titans, not least Apple. This likely helps explain why Apple is moving even more responsibilities for iPhone production in-house, as the following instances of patent pain further demonstrate.

SAMSUNG FOR YOUR SUPPER When observers of the tech world follow Apple, they seemingly never have to wait long for another story about patent struggles for the Cupertino irm. Perhaps the most high-proile example in recent weeks has been that of Appleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recent hard-won victory over Samsung in the long-running legal ight between the two major rivals. In late May, a jury at the San Jose-based US District Court decided that Samsung owed Apple $539 million for infringing patents of the latter. Samsung had previously been found guilty of infringing these patents, but this particular trial was intended to pin down precisely what the South Korean company owed in damages. Most of the damages settled upon - $533,316,606 were for violation of three design patents held by Apple. With the other $5,325,050, two utility patents were involved - and the heavy slant towards design patent damages strengthens the courtroom power of tech design, despite its highly cosmetic nature. CNET has suggested that the verdict could bode well for Silicon Valleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s designers.

Indeed, the commercial success of such products as the iPhone and MacBook has drawn more attention to the importance of design’s role in technology. Nonetheless, we could see something of a mixed blessing, as the news organization also hints that, despite the damages falling signiicantly short of the $1.07 billion that Apple was seeking, bigger businesses could soon have more power in patent battles.

SAMSUNG STEALS APPLE’S “SECRET SAUCE” Apple clearly thought that it had a strong case against Samsung. In 2010, Apple’s designers couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw the irst Galaxy S smartphone launched by Samsung. Features from the iPhone - like “pinch to zoom”, where users can change image size by pinching their thumb and foreinger on the display - were present. However, these included features that Apple had patented - like “rubberbanding”, which makes a screen image bounce when a user tries scrolling past it. As far as Apple’s then-CEO, Steve Jobs, was concerned, Samsung had simply stolen many elements of a breakthrough product over which the Cupertino company had spent years toiling. However, the ensuing legal tussle with Samsung has been largely to Apple’s detriment. Vanity Fair has put forward the argument that “Apple might win the battles but still lose the war.” Furthermore, over the years, Samsung has soared ahead of Apple by gobbling up a larger share of the smartphone market. Image: SHTTEFAN

Really, the “secret sauce” upon which Samsung regularly fed as the legal battle continued waging in the background has been largely shed of its secrecy. Quite simply, Samsung had incorporated much of what made the iPhone revolutionary but ofered it at a lower price. It was a formula that worked to stunning efect, iring Samsung into the global stars of big business. However, it was also a formula that the company had already used on many previous occasions. To not only take legal action against Samsung but also continue waging the battle over many years has been a determined strategy on Apple’s part. As Pepperstone market analyst Darren Sinden has noted in a video report for Reuters, Apple and Samsung have a strange relationship given that the latter is also a key supplier to the former.

TWO CONTRASTING VIEWS ON THE SAME PATENT BATTLE Even now, the implications of Apple’s latest triumph against Samsung look diicult to untangle. After the jury delivered its verdict, Apple declared: “It is important that we continue to protect the hard work and innovation of so many people at Apple.” However, Samsung insisted that the decision “lies in the face of an unanimous Supreme Court ruling in favor of Samsung on the scope of design patent damages”. At stake, it hinted, were “creativity and fair competition for all companies”. The main sore point appeared to be whether Samsung had infringed a component or a whole phone. Apple believed that Samsung’s Image: eleven x

Image: Youssef Sarhan

â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is important that we continue to protect the hard work and innovation of so many people at Apple.â&#x20AC;?

approach could let an automaker produce what is essentially a Volkswagen Beetle clone but pay damages simply for copying the outside shell. However, Samsung countered that Apple’s stance could necessitate a irm that infringed a car’s cup holder design to pay out as though it had instead shamelessly replicated the whole vehicle.

THE PECULIAR CASE OF THE “PATENT TROLL” Of course, Apple has also had to bat of accusations from other companies that it is a patent-infringing party itself. Perhaps the most notorious cases have included those of “patent trolls”. The “patent troll” term has often been used to describe companies that do not produce useful technology themselves, but instead purchase patents from other companies and then chase giants like Apple with accusations of infringement. One interesting case has been that of VirnetX... The “patent troll” tag has indeed been unceremoniously attached to VirnetX, but the company did manage to land a meaningful blow on Apple in April. That’s when a Texas jury ruled that Apple’s FaceTime, iMessage and VPN on Demand features incorporated the improper use of VirnetX-owned intellectual property. The latter company’s chief executive, Kendall Larsen, deemed the damages “fair”, citing the sales of over 400 million Apple devices on which he said those damages were based. Apple was asked to shell out $502 million in damages to VirnetX. This is signiicantly higher than the $368 million in damages which the company had won from Apple in a previous Image: Guilherme Stecanella

Apple Ordered To Pay Patent Troll $625M Crunch Report

case; that particular haul was later cancelled out by an appeals court. As Sky News reported, VirnetX held several patents associated with VPN technology upon which Apple had allegedly infringed.

QUALCOMM QUARRELS IN THREE COUNTRIES Meanwhile, it was Apple that recently removed its gloves for a separate spat with chipmaker Qualcomm. During an earnings conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook explained Apple’s stance in words quoted by BGR. He argued that “Qualcomm’s trying to charge Apple a percentage of the total iPhone value. And they do some really great work around standards essential patents, but it’s one small part of what an iPhone is.” Apple has iled lawsuits against Qualcomm in the US, UK and China. Digital Trends has remarked that the two companies “are engaged in what will likely be a long and epic battle.” Meanwhile, it has been rumored that Apple might leave Qualcomm modems out of future iPhone models and instead resort to using Intel and MediaTek as sources for LTE modems destined for these models. Qualcomm’s work for iPhones, Cook has insisted, “has nothing to do with the display or the Touch ID or a gazillion other innovations that Apple has done.”

FROM CHIP DESIGNING TOWARDS CHIP MANUFACTURING When Cook’s words are taken into account, it’s easier to see Apple’s rationale for dipping more of its toes into the manufacturing

Image: Wesson Wang

waters - assuming, of course, that rumors of this proposed move are to be believed. Apple already designs its own A-series of iPhone and iPad processors - and has done so since the A4 chip, which debuted in the irst-generation iPad in 2010. That approach enables Apple to trim component costs, bring out features before the competition, and better conceal secrets. However, as observed by Bloomberg, Apple already has chip-building facilities in and near its hometown of Cupertino in California and the city of Herzliya in Israel. Furthermore, Apple has recently been poaching Qualcomm modem engineers. When you also consider that Intel processors have stagnated in performance growth while Apple’s own chips have skyrocketed, this adds credibility to the rumor reported by The Verge that Apple will soon drop Intel chips from Macs. By continuing to loosen its ties with companies like Intel, Qualcomm and Samsung that have handled manufacturing responsibilities on Apple’s behalf, the Cupertino irm could unleash a myriad of exciting beneits. What beneits exactly? We will investigate that subject in next week’s issue.

by Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan

FACEBOOK KILLS ‘TRENDING’ TOPICS, TESTS BREAKING NEWS LABEL

Facebook is shutting down its ill-fated “trending” news section after four years. The company claims the tool is outdated and wasn’t popular. But the trending section also proved problematic in ways that would presage Facebook’s later problems with fake news, political balance and the limitations of artiicial intelligence in managing the messy human world. When Facebook launched “trending” in 2014 as a list of headlines to the side of the main news feed, it was a straightforward move to steal users from Twitter by giving them a quick look at the most popular news of the moment. It it nicely into CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s pledge just a year earlier to make Facebook its users’ “personal newspaper.” But that was then. “Fake news” wasn’t yet a popular term, and no foreign country had been accused of trying to inluence the U.S. elections through social media, as Russia later would be. Trending news that year included the death of Robin Williams, Ebola and the World Cup. 26

Facebook is now testing new features, including a “breaking news” label that publishers can add to stories to distinguish them from other chatter. Facebook also wants to make local news more prominent. “It’s very good to get rid of ‘trending,’” said Frank Pasquale, a law professor at the University of Maryland and expert on algorithms and society. He said algorithms are good for very narrow, well-deined tasks. By contrast, he said, deciding what news stories should go in “trending” requires broad thinking, quick judgments about context and decisions about whether someone is trying to game the system. In an interview ahead of announcement, Facebook’s head of news products, Alex Hardiman, said the company is still committed to breaking and real-time news. But instead of having Facebook’s moderators, human or otherwise, make editorial decisions, there’s been a subtle shift to let news organizations do so. According to the Pew Research Center, 44 percent of U.S. adults get some or all of their news through Facebook. Troubles with the trending section began to emerge in 2016, when the company was accused of bias against conservatives, based on the words of an anonymous former contractor who said Facebook downplayed conservative issues in that feature and promoted liberal causes. Zuckerberg met with prominent rightwing leaders at the company’s headquarters in an attempt at damage control. Yet two years later, Facebook still hasn’t been able to shake the notion of bias. Image: Josh Edelson

In late 2016, Facebook ired the human editors who worked on the trending topics and replaced them with software that was supposed to be free of political bias. Instead, the software algorithm began to pick out posts that were getting the most attention, even if the information in them was bogus. In early 2017, Facebook made another attempt to ix the trending section, this time by including only topics covered by several news publishers. The thinking was that coverage by just one outlet could be a sign that the news is fake. The troubles underscore the diiculty of relying on computers, even artiicial intelligence, to make sense of the messy human world without committing obvious, sometimes embarrassing and occasionally disastrous errors. Ultimately, Facebook appears to conclude that trying to ix the headaches around trending wasn’t worth the meager beneit the company, users and news publishers saw in it. “There are other ways for us to better invest our resources,” Hardiman said. Pasquale said Facebook’s new eforts represent “very slow steps” toward an acknowledgement that the company is making editorial judgments when it decides what news should be shown to users — and that it needs to empower journalists and editors to do so. But what needs to happen now, he added, is a broad shift in the company’s corporate culture, recognizing the expertise involved in journalistic judgment. The changes and features Facebook is putting out, he said, are being treated as “bug ixes” — addressing single problems the way engineers do. 30

“What they are not doing is giving an overall account of their mission on how these ixes it together,” Pasquale said. The “breaking news” label that Facebook is testing with 80 news publishers around the world will let outlets such as The Washington Post add a red label to indicate that a story is breaking news, highlighting it for users who want accurate information as things are happening. “Breaking news has to look diferent than a recipe,” Hardiman said. Another feature, called “Today In,” shows people breaking news in their area from local publishers, oicials and organizations. It’s being tested out in 30 markets in the U.S. Hardiman says the goal is to help “elevate great local journalism.” The company is also funding news videos, created exclusively for Facebook by outside publishers it would not yet name. It plans to launch this feature in the next few months. Facebook says the trending section wasn’t a popular feature to begin with. It was available only in ive countries and accounted for less than 1.5 percent of clicks to the websites of news publishers, according to the company. While Facebook got outsized attention for the problems the trending section had — perhaps because it seemed popular with journalists and editors — neither its existence nor its removal makes much of a diference when it comes with Facebook’s broader problems with news. Hardiman said ending the trending section feels like letting a child go. But she said Facebook’s focus now is prioritizing trustworthy, informative news that people ind useful. Image: Sean Gallup

NEW FACEBOOK PRIVACY FUROR: WHAT’S AT STAKE?

Facebook is at the center of another privacy furor, this one over its sharing of user data with device makers such as Apple, Amazon, Samsung and others over the past decade The social network acknowledges the data sharing deals, which it says it’s — according to a New York Times report — it has struck with at least 60 device makers since 2007. But it says there’s nothing scandalous about them. The arrangements raise a number of questions, among them whether Facebook failed to get the explicit consent of users before sharing their data. If so, that could place it in violation of a 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission. Facebook denies it shared user data without consent. Image: Sean Gallup

These device-maker deals could raise concerns similar to those in Facebook’s recent Cambridge Analytica scandal. That’s where a Trumpconnected political consulting irm used data derived from as many as 87 million Facebook proiles in order to sway election results. In this case, however, it’s not clear how the device makers could have abused Facebook even if they wanted to. So far there’s no evidence that phone and tablet makers used Facebook data improperly, in sharp contrast to Cambridge Analytica consultants. Apple, for instance, said it has worked with Facebook for years to let its users share things on Facebook through iPhone and Mac apps. But the report taps into continuing anxiety about the information users give up — and to whom — when they use Facebook. The Times report says device makers received users’ own information, such as email addresses, phone numbers and relationship statuses, as well as data from their friends, sometimes without their explicit consent. A similar practice involving third-party apps on Facebook landed CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg before Congress during the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Facebook’s 2011 FTC agreement requires it to obtain “airmative express consent ” before making changes that override users’ privacy preferences. “Sure looks like Zuckerberg lied to Congress about whether users have ‘complete control’ over who sees our data on Facebook,” Rep. David Cicillene, a Rhode Island Democrat, wrote on Twitter . “This needs to be investigated and the people responsible need to be held accountable.” 37

Facebook said it granted smartphone access to this data well before mobile apps became popular, as a way of making its service work on a broad range of devices. Device makers could then build their own software that incorporated Facebook functions. User would log into their Facebook accounts, allowing the phone software to pull in data from Facebook itself. Apple said it used data pulled in from Facebook to let people post photos and other items on Facebook without opening the Facebook app. It ended that practice on the iPhone last September, although similar features persist on Mac computers. In a blog post Monday , Facebook VP Ime Archibong wrote that the company worked closely with device makers to ensure that they only used the data to “recreate Facebooklike experiences” on their phones. He denied that users’ information was shared without their consent. The company recently said it will end these datasharing agreements as part of a broader review of its privacy practices sparked by the Cambridge Analytica scandal. So far, it’s ended just 22. Facebook, however, hasn’t fully explained why these deals were still in place as of this year, 39

and it’s unclear whether they would have been wound down were it not for the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Zuckerberg has recently apologized for the fact that Facebook often didn’t always protect user privacy and didn’t consider how its service could be misused by malicious actors until it was too late. Archibong also said the data agreements allowed phone makers to ofer Facebook features on their phones before app stores were popular. Apple’s App Store launched in 2008, as did Google’s app store, then called Android Market.

With a Planet Earth-style introduction documenting the “great migration made by one of the world’s most mysterious species”, also known as software developers, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’d tuned into National Geographic rather than the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 4. But the goodhumored video raised early-morning spirits in the McEnery Convention Center and set Tim Cook up for another impressive keynote. For Apple enthusiasts, developers and critics, WWDC 2018 was always going to be a quieter state of afairs than previous events, following rumors Apple was scaling back features in its operating systems to work on performance and security enhancements. But that doesn’t mean to say that this year’s conference wasn’t as impressive or innovative as predecessors; in fact, 2018 is set to bring some of the biggest innovations to iOS and macOS since their inceptions. In this special edition of AppleMagazine, we present to you a timeline of WWDC 2018 and give you an insight into some of the biggest developments and changes you can expect this year.

iOS 12: BETTER PERFORMANCE AND HUGE APP DEVELOPMENTS Apple kicked of WWDC with a bang, jumping straight into iOS 12 and the features it would release later in the year. After a brief introduction from Tim, who revealed that iOS 11 had a 95% customer satisfaction rate, Craig Federighi took to the stage to tell developers that they had been working on “top to bottom improvements

Image: Elijah Nouvelage

that will make your device faster and more responsive”, and announcing iOS 12 would be available on all of the same devices as iOS 11. New performance features mean that apps will launch up to 40% faster on the iPhone 6 Plus, with the camera opening up to 70% faster than before. Following last year’s battery slowdown scandal, which Apple revealed was to boost performance on older devices, these improvements will no doubt be a welcome addition to users who haven’t upgraded to the latest model. Augmented reality is also set to be a key feature of iOS 12, with a new ile format called USDZ designed to make 3D object placement easier than ever. AR Quick Look, for example, will allow developers to deliver AR experiences across the entire iOS platform, as demonstrated by Apple’s new iOS app Measure, which will detect and measure real-world objects in seconds. ARKit 2 was also announced, bringing advancements to face tracking, realistic rendering, 3D object detection, and more, including common perspective on a shared virtual environment. This new feature was demonstrated with the new LEGO Photos app, set for launch later this year. The Photos app was next on Apple’s agenda, with Craig announcing improvements to search and scene recognition, and a new shared photo gallery option to “collect” photos taken by friends. Siri was also given some love, with a new feature known as Shortcuts designed to add new phrases and functions to your device, enabling incredible possibilities and making life that little bit easier. 46

Front-of-house improvements were also announced, with several iOS apps given a lick of paint, like Apple News, a rebuilt Stocks app with Apple News integration, a new Voice Memo app for iPhone and iPad with iCloud syncing, and a brand new iBooks, now renamed Apple Books. For CarPlay, iOS’ in-car companion, third-party navigation apps like Google Maps will inally be enabled. Apple then moved onto device management, announcing a “comprehensive set of built-in features to help you limit distraction, focus, and understand how you’re spending your time.” Do Not Disturb during bedtime disables notiications when you should be sleeping, while App Limits will let you set timers to control your time on ‘addictive’ smartphone apps like Instagram. Screen Time, a new app that gives you insight into your usage, will also come packaged with iOS 12. But two of the best-received features were saved til last. First, brand new Animoji, with tongue detection for the irst time, and Memoji, allowing you to create a custom emoji similar to the Snapchat Bitmoji craze. Finally, group FaceTime will inally be possible on iOS, with support for up to 32 friends or business contacts in the same call. With smart voice recognition putting the speaker front-and-center of your device, the feature will no doubt go down well with college students and business professionals, ofering a genuine Skype alternative.

watchOS: COMPETITIONS AND WALKIE-TALKIES watchOS was next on the agenda, with Tim Cook promising “even more ways to say active and connected”. Kevin Lynch came to the stage 49

Apple Watch gets Walkie-Talkie mode

to discuss the future of Apple Watch and gave us an introduction to the new features coming with watchOS 5. As always, health and itness was the key focus, with new workout options such as Yoga, which will rely on heart rate, and a new Competitions feature to help friends and family compete and interact with itness goals. On the Siri watch face, one of Apple Watch’s most distinguishing faces, Sports, Maps, and Heart Rate will be added, and a new Siri Shortcuts option will make it easier for users to manage their schedules and be more productive, leaving the hard work to artiicial intelligence. Communication is also set to be a key feature in watchOS 5, with a new walkie-talkie feature designed to connect friends and colleagues on the go, while a new Siri activation feature will negate the need to say ‘Hey Siri’ - the smart assistant will become active as soon as you raise your wrist and ask a question. Just how accurate this activation will be remains to be seen. Other functionality, such as the ability to stream Podcasts, will be added, and WebKit integration means web content from Mail and Messages can be read on the go. “While we think full browsing doesn’t make sense on your wrist”, Kevin said, some light browsing does make sense. Finally, Apple Watch will introduce a new Student ID cards feature, giving college students the ability to enter their dorms, pay for food in the dining hall, and much more. At launch, the feature will be available in select universities, including Duke and University of Alabama, with more to be added over time. And to celebrate Pride Month, a new Pride Edition watch band will be made available 53

online at Apple.com, with a complimentary watch face available for all users.

tvOS: DOLBY ATMOS While iOS and watchOS were jam-packed with new features, this year’s tvOS update is set to be a more relaxed state of afairs - but for power users and hardcore fans, the changes will no doubt make Apple TV an even more attractive ofering. As Tim Cook revealed on stage, Apple TV has been growing at an impressive 50% year on year, and the new enhancements coming to Apple TV 4K are set to send that igure even higher. For the irst time, 4K Apple TV devices will be adding support for Dolby Atmos, giving users a crisper and deeper sound experience. One of the biggest selling points of the new feature is that iTunes will upgrade all supported titles to Dolby Atmos for free, so you won’t need to go out and upgrade your box sets and movie collection to enjoy better sound quality. Other features include Zero Sign-On, meaning users who are accessing their Apple TV content on their provider’s broadband network will have all subscription apps securely unlocked without needing to log on or verify account details. Apple’s will also add stunning new aerial wallpapers.

macOS: HUGE NEWS FOR APP DEVELOPERS “We’re excited to take Mac a huge leap forward,” said Tim Cook before he invited Craig back to the stage for a macOS presentation. After a short speech on previous macOS releases, it 54

was announced that the next iteration of the operating system would be known as macOS Mojave, sticking to its free September rollout to users around the world. According to the developer, the name and stunning setting of Mojave inspired the Cupertino irm to create Dark Mode, a new dynamic user interface that subtly changes throughout the day, from morning to afternoon and into the evening, matching the outside brightness. The new interface is designed to give power users, developers, and photographers more options when working on their screens for long periods, but Craig admitted that â&#x20AC;&#x153;some of us are going to want to run Dark Mode just because... itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so coolâ&#x20AC;?. In fact, appeasing professional users became a key focus of the macOS Mojave announcement, with Craig announcing Desktop Stacks, which organizes content based on ile types,

such as video, screenshots, and documents, with stunning scrub and drag-and-drop functionality. Also announced was Quick Actions, allowing users to create PDFs of multiple iles, or watermark their images and documents in a matter of seconds from within the Finder menu, with customizable Automator actions giving developers more control over their operating systems.

Security and privacy was a big feature of the macOS talk, with new features designed to add greater protections over how apps can access personal user data. The operating system will add API level protections for locations, camera, calendar, contacts and more, while Safari will stop social networks and advertising giants from tracking your moves from website to website.

Other features include the new Gallery view in Finder, which showcases metadata and gives quick actions for rotating and editing photos, a new screenshot HUD, including the ability to add markup to images and capture screens in video, and Continuity Camera, which lets you take photographs and scan documents using your iPhone, with images sent straight back to the Mac.

On the Mac App Store, in-depth editorials and a stunning new redesign will make discovering new apps easier than ever, while partnerships with Microsoft and Adobe will bring Oice 365 and Lightroom CC to the Mac App Store for the irst time. And Apple also announced that it had ported over four iOS apps to the Mac, including

Apple News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home, before delving into news on machine learning tools that will give developers access to advanced performance features to power nextgeneration apps. But it was the inal set of slides that got developers truly excited. “Are you merging iOS and macOS?”. Craig quickly followed that up with a “No”, but added that Apple had begun work on a multi-year programme to bring more iOS apps to macOS, adapting them to speciic Mac behaviors, such as window resizing, trackpad and mouse input. The irst phase of the rollout will come with macOS Mojave in September, with developer access coming later in 2019.

KEEPING THE CRITICS HAPPY The initial reaction to the new operating systems has been positive, with the company’s new privacy features bringing in the biggest applause. Huington Post founder Arianna Huington cited that the new App Limits functionality was “going to dramatically accelerate a shift from a world that values constant connectivity at all costs to one that values unplugging”, while BBC News added that Safari’s new tracker-blocking tools mean that “Facebook might have a reason to worry”. iOS also received strong praise from journalists with TechCrunch calling ARKit 2 “impressive”, but the Cupertino irm’s new “memoji” tool wasn’t universally praised. YouTuber Marques Brownlee also jumped in, claiming the Mac had “by far the most signiicant updates of anything at WWDC”.

iOS 12, watchOS 5, tvOS 12 and macOS Mojave are all set to launch later this year, following a developer beta and public beta later in the summer. AppleMagazine will be bringing you all of the latest news, developments and hidden features on each of the systems over the coming weeks, so stay tuned to learn more about the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most advanced software. Image: Elijah Nouvelage

Hands-on with Appleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s impressive AR slingshot demo

WISCONSIN SENIORS INTRODUCED TO VIRTUAL REALITY TECHNOLOGY

As Kathy Helgerson slipped the pair of MINDVR goggles over Rita Strauss’ head, the reaction was instant. “It looks like Midnight!” Strauss, 87, said with glee. “My tomcat.” It’s moments like this that lead Helgerson, Strauss’ daughter and founder of “Simple Steps to Technology” to say she has “the best job in the world.” “It is so powerful, I can’t even tell you,” Helgerson said, tears welling in her eyes at the spark of recognition from her mom, who has Alzheimer’s. “It brings up those memories of the past. ... If you had asked my mom about (the cat) normally, she would have forgotten about it.” Image: Stephen M. Dowell

Image: Eversound

Two years ago, Helgerson made it her mission to infuse new energy and experiences into the lives of elderly individuals like her mother, connecting them with the excitement and technology of the modern world. Starting with Skype programs and smartphone tutorials, Helgerson has recently branched into virtual reality and wireless headphones, bringing top-of-the-line equipment into local assisted living facilities to enhance the residents’ listening and viewing experiences, the La Crosse Tribune reported. “This is a no-brainer,” Helgerson said, distributing Eversound headphones to a group of seven seniors at Brookdale Assisted Living. “We’d make sure we had this technology for the next generation — ours — right? We aren’t we doing this now? We need to be taking care of our seniors now.” While some residents have been reticent to accept the changes in technology, Helgerson has found most are open to giving the headphones and goggles a whirl, and some leave a session eager for her to return. The equipment, which Helgerson currently rents, is expensive, but she is hopeful senior facilities will access grants and donations to have the technology on site for continuous use. The Eversound headsets, which come with microphones and wireless transmitters, can be adjusted to each user’s preferred volume and boast an impressive range. The headphones can be worn over hearing aids, and the clear sound has gotten typically sedentary residents moving to the beat. Streaming a list of golden oldies from her cellphone, Helgerson outitted residents Bill, 91, 67

Image: Eversound

and Frances, 89, with headsets and witnessed the response. “Bum bum bum bum, Sandman...” Bill sang softly, tapping his foot. “I like the old-time music, oh yeah.” “This is the kind of music I like,” agreed Frances, humming along. “I like that I listen to the sound in my ears, not what’s going on in the room, ’cause it gets noisy in here.” Hearing the music in all its glory has even gotten some seniors up and shuling, with Helgerson having discovered one woman, a former ballroom dance teacher, swaying about in her room. “I joined her and she said, ’Kathy, you can’t dance!’” Helgerson recalled with a laugh. “To see someone who doesn’t (normally) walk get up and dance? That’s rec therapy right there.” In addition to encouraging physical activity, the headphones have led many of the quieter individuals to join in conversations, no longer nodding along as they struggle to hear. Helgerson calls it an awakening of sorts, and is also excited about CaptionCall, a system that transcribes a caller’s words in large text on a screen. “People become isolated because of hearing loss,” Helgerson said. “This helps them connect.” With many residents no longer able to travel, MINDVR has proven enthralling, allowing them to explore the streets of Paris, a rocket launch, and a tour of a World War I tank. Most popular, however, are the animal-centric visuals, with the drive-thru zoo and puppy playtime virtual realities bringing out big smiles. 69

Image: Stephen M. Dowell

“The residents love it,” Brookdale executive program director Kelly Voegele said of the technology. “They have a lot of fun with it.” Helgerson is motivated to reach as many individuals as she can through Simple Steps to Technology, and hopes to get the community on board. “We need advocates for our seniors,” Helgerson said. “Let’s do something for them.”

MAKER OF FEARSOME ANIMAL ROBOTS SLOWLY EMERGES FROM STEALTH

It’s never been clear whether robotics company Boston Dynamics is making killing machines, household helpers, or something else entirely. For nine years, the secretive irm — which got its start with U.S. military funding — has unnerved people around the world with YouTube videos of experimental robots resembling animal predators. In one, a life-size robotic wildcat sprints across a parking lot at almost 20 miles an hour. In another, a small wheeled rover nicknamed SandFlea abruptly lings itself onto rooftops — and back down again. A more recent efort features a slender dog-like robot that climbs stairs, holds its own in a tug-of-war with a human and opens a door to let another robot pass. 73

These glimpses into a possible future of fast, strong and sometimes intimidating robots raise several questions. How do these robots work? What does Boston Dynamics intend to do with them? And do these videos — some viewed almost 30 million times — fairly represent their capabilities? Boston Dynamics has demonstrated little interest in elaborating. For months, the company and its parent, SoftBank, rebufed numerous requests seeking information about its work. When a reporter visited company headquarters in the Boston suburb of Waltham, Massachusetts, he was turned away. But after The Associated Press spoke with 10 people who have worked with Boston Dynamics or its 68-year-old founder, Marc Raibert, the CEO agreed to a brief interview at a robotics conference in late May. Raibert had just demonstrated the machine that will be the company’s irst commercial robot in its 26-year history: the dog-like, door-opening SpotMini, which Boston Dynamics plans to sell to businesses as a camera-equipped security guard next year. The company hasn’t announced a price for the battery-powered robots, which weigh about the same as a Labrador retriever. Raibert said it plans to manufacture 1,000 SpotMinis annually. Speculation about Boston Dynamics’ intentions — weapons or servants? — spikes every time it releases a new video. The SpotMini straddles that divide, and Raibert told the AP that he doesn’t rule out future military applications.

A Boston Dynamics SpotMini robot walks through a conference room.

Image: Christian Science Monitor

Image: Charles Krupa

But he played down popular fears that his company’s robots could one day be used to kill. “We think about that, but that’s also true for cars, airplanes, computers, lasers,” Raibert said, wearing his omnipresent Hawaiian shirt as younger robotics engineers lined up to speak with him. “Every technology you can imagine has multiple ways of using it. If there’s a scary part, it’s just that people are scary. I don’t think the robots by themselves are scary.” The irm’s previous military projects included a four-legged robotic pack mule that could haul supplies across deserts or mountains — but which sounded like a lawnmower and was reportedly deemed too noisy by the U.S. Marines. The bigger question of just what Boston Dynamics hopes to accomplish remains murky — and that may be by design. Interviews with eight former Boston Dynamics employees and some of Raibert’s former academic collaborators suggest that that the company has long brushed aside commercial demands, not to mention outsiders’ moral or ethical concerns, in single-minded pursuit of machines that mimic animal locomotion. Former employees say the company has operated more as a well-funded research lab than a business. Raibert’s vision was kept alive for years through military contracts, especially from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA. A federal contracting database lists more than $150 million in defense funding to Boston Dynamics since 1994. Boston Dynamics said only it believes a quartercentury of work on robots will “unlock a very 79

high commercial value.” It did not answer when asked if it ever entertained proposals to weaponize them. Building robots that can jump, gallop or prowl like animals was a fringe ield of engineering when Raibert and his colleagues began studying kangaroo and ostrich videos in their Carnegie Mellon University research lab nearly 40 years ago. But agile robots aren’t so sci-i anymore, even if they can still seem that way. Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot, for instance, is a hulking humanoid machine that can be seen hiking across broken ground, jumping onto pedestals, and even performing an ungainly backlip. (The company’s robot videos have not been independently veriied.) In videos, the company’s robots wander through a variety of locales — in and around the company’s single-story headquarters, a New Hampshire ski lodge and across the secluded meadows and woodlands near Raibert’s home.

A Boston Dynamics SpotMini robot at a robotics summit in Boston.

In some videos, humans kick the robots or jab them with hockey sticks to test their balance. Michael Cheponis, who worked with Raibert at CMU’s pioneering robot laboratory in the 1980s, calls his former colleague an “American hero” for sticking with a vision that could prove useful to the world. “Marc doesn’t have the slightest Dr. Evil in him,” Cheponis said. The defense contracts began winding down in 2013 when Google bought Boston Dynamics and made clear it wanted no part in defense work. Andy Rubin, then Google’s chief robotics executive and architect of the acquisition, swept into the irm’s lunchroom to give a pep talk to employees shortly after the deal was announced in December 2013. Attendees later said they felt a sense of relief and cautious optimism. “He was talking about really ambitious goals,” said one former employee, who asked not to be identiied because of concerns it could hurt career opportunities in the small and tight-knit U.S. robotics community. “A robot that might be able to help the elderly and inirm. Robots that work in grocery stores. Robots that deliver packages.” But the Google honeymoon soon soured. Rubin left the company the following year and his replacements overseeing Boston Dynamics grew increasingly frustrated with Raibert’s approach, according to several people familiar with the transition. Among the concerns: Boston Dynamics’ lack of focus on building a sellable product. Google also grew concerned that “negative threads” on social media about the irm’s “terrifying” robot videos could hurt its image, 84

according to leaked emails from its public relations division obtained by Bloomberg in 2016. Inside the company, the idea that its robots could be turned into weapons occasionally inspired casual workplace chatter, chuckles or discomfort, several former employees said. But few took it seriously. “They’re deinitely aware that people are frightened by them,” said Andrew String, a former Boston Dynamics engineer. “The company regularly gets hate mail and other weird stuf.” But he said Raibert never felt a need to explain himself, and instead wanted the technology to speak for itself. By 2016, Google was looking to sell the irm — eventually inding an interested buyer in Japanese tech giant SoftBank, which already has a robotics portfolio that includes the cute humanoid Pepper. The deal closed earlier this year. SoftBank declined to say anything about its plans, but Boston Dynamics’ latest job postings reveal a heightened emphasis on inding something that sells. One posting seeks a “robot evangelist” to help ind “market-driven” applications for the machines in logistics, construction and commercial security. Raibert credited Google for pushing the irm forward to perform the “best work we ever did,” but said under SoftBank his team is acting as a “standalone company” again. “We have a very strong plan,” he said. “We’re all digging in and working hard on it.”

Image: Charles Krupa

NEW BUSINESS DEALS BRING AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES A STEP CLOSER

Two technology giants announced major new investments in self-driving vehicles, bringing the world a step closer to a time when autonomous cars are a part of everyday life — a reality that General Motors aims to achieve in some places as early as next year. The deals, and other ongoing negotiations, show that the technology is authentic and it’s accelerating. “It’s all starting to coalesce into something that’s more real,” said Navigant Research analyst Sam Abuelsamid, who closely follows autonomous vehicle developments. 89

Image: Jef Swensen

SoftBank, a giant Japanese tech investment irm, announced it would spend $2.25 billion for a 20 percent stake in GM’s autonomous vehicle business. Then Waymo, Google’s self-driving operation, said it would buy up to 62,000 more minivans from Fiat Chrysler to expand its soonto-start ride-hailing venture. Not to be outdone, Uber’s new CEO said at a last week conference that he’s in talks with Waymo about adding Waymo self-driving vehicles to the Uber network to carry passengers, although there was no indication that was imminent. “Everything in the autonomous world is moving very quickly,” said Rebecca Lindland, executive analyst for Kelley Blue Book. Also, as part of the Waymo-Fiat Chrysler announcement, the companies said they are discussing use of Waymo technology in FiatChrysler self-driving vehicles that would be sold to the public. That raises the possibility that personal car ownership won’t die if robotaxis become ubiquitous. Waymo, the current front-runner, already is testing self-driving Chrysler vans with no human backup behind the wheel in Arizona. The company plans to start an app-based autonomous ride-hailing service there later this year. At GM, widely viewed as being in second place, the SoftBank cash infusion will help the autonomous unit named GM Cruise to roll out a robotaxi service in at least one major city starting next year, CEO Mary Barra said. The deal, the largest yet between a technology investment irm and an old-line automaker, boosted General Motors Co. shares to their biggest one-day gain since the automaker 91

returned to the public markets in 2010 after a trip through bankruptcy protection. The stock closed last week up nearly 13 percent at 42.70. GM Cruise would remain a wholly owned subsidiary of GM with the automaker keeping roughly 80 percent of the business. SoftBank can trade its stake for shares in GM if Cruise isn’t spun of into a new company within seven years. The stock soared because investors are starting to realize that GM is a serious player in automated mobility, Abuelsamid said. But analysts were cautious about predicting a future of self-driving cars everywhere. Lindland said the recent Arizona crash in which a selfdriving Uber SUV struck and killed a pedestrian, as well as crashes involving Tesla Inc.’s semiautonomous “Autopilot” feature, have rattled public conidence in the technology. “Even as the industry is pushing forward and collaborating and getting billions of dollars in investment, we can’t leave the consumer behind,” Lindland said. The announcements keep the front-runners on pace to start carrying passengers within the next couple of years in small-scale operations in a few metro areas, Abuelsamid said. But he said it still will take until the middle of the next decade before self-driving taxis are ubiquitous worldwide. Although he views Waymo as having the lead in the autonomous vehicle race, Abuelsamid said GM’s alliance with SoftBank could boost the automaker’s standing. SoftBank owns big stakes in Uber as well as in India’s Ola ride service and Didi Chuxing, China’s top ride-hailing irm.

Michael Ronen, a managing partner for SoftBank, said the companies will make their own decisions, but Abuelsamid sees more alliances with GM coming. He foresees GM vehicles carrying passengers on the Uber, Didi or Ola networks. “Softbank can become a conduit for GM into all these diferent companies that GM doesn’t now have a relationship with,” Abuelsamid said. Even though Waymo and GM now lead in autonomous vehicles, competitors such as auto electronics supplier Aptiv, well as ride-hailing service Lyft, chip maker Intel, and Ford, Renault Nissan and Germany’s Diamler all have room to catch up in what could be a huge market, Abuelsamid said. Being able to produce the cars gives GM and other automakers a big advantage over tech irms that don’t have their own auto factories, he said. Even with all the corporate deals, no one really knows for sure how people will get around in 10 or 15 years, Lindland said. They could embrace autonomous vehicles and the potential to eliminate the human errors that cause most crashes. Or they could distrust and reject them, Lindland said. Also, after the Uber crash, there have been calls for more supervision of autonomous vehicle testing. Currently the federal government and most states allow testing with little or no regulation. “The last time our world was so disrupted could arguably be the internet,” Lindland said.

TRUMP TECH ADVISER DEFENDS COMMITMENT TO TECH RESEARCH

President Donald Trump’s technology adviser says the administration is committed to advancing U.S. leadership in artiicial intelligence. But Michael Kratsios dodged questions about what Trump himself thinks about AI. Trump’s lack of public emphasis on both the economic promise and potential dangers of automation has contrasted with other world leaders who have made a vocal push to get their countries ahead. Kratsios was grilled Tuesday about Trump’s commitment to technological research during MIT Technology Review’s EmTech conference about the future of work. He says a downsized White House Oice of Science and Technology gets it closer to its historic average after it was signiicantly expanded by President Barack Obama. The oice has fewer than 60 people, about half the number under Obama. Its top job remains unilled. 97

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A Wrinkle In Time After Megâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s father disappears, three mysterious beings send Meg, her brother and her friend to space to ind the scientist. In an epic adventure, they are transported to worlds beyond anything they could imagine.

FIVE FACTS: 1. The cast and crew ilmed in New Zealand for two weeks, where they were treated to a traditional Maori powhiri and karakia by the indigenous peoples. 2. The ilmmakers have compared the lim to fantasy stories District 9 (2009) and Bridge to Terabithia (2007). by Ava DuVernay Genre: Action & Adventure Released: 2018 Price: $14.99

3. In the book, identical twin brothers, Sandy and Dennys, belong to the Murry family, but they do not appear in the ilm. 4. A video leaked at the end of 2016, showing the team doing the mannequin challenge on set.

207 Ratings

5. This is the second collaboration between Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, AndrĂŠ Holland, and director Ava DuVernay. They all worked together in 2014 on Selma.

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“Mrs. Whatsit”

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The Hurricane Heist As a 600 mile per hour storm hits, thieves take the chance to attempt a massive heist against the US Treasury. They plan to steal $600 million, using the hurricane as their cover.

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by Rob Cohen Genre: Action & Adventure Released: 2018 Price: $14.99

5. Ben Cross (Harold Abrahams in Chariots of Fire) has a cameo as a grumpy police chief. 15 Ratings

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Shawn Mendes Shawn Mendes Shawn Mendes’ new album has been a long time coming, but it was deinitely worth the wait. He last album, ‘Illuminate’, was released back in September 2016 and his third album again brings the much loved sound we expect from the singer.

FIVE FACTS: Genre: Pop Released: May 25, 2018 14 Songs Price: $9.99

1,4k Ratings

1. The new album sold 182,000 total copies in the irst week of release. 2. To announce the oicial release date, Mendes hosted a 9 hour live video stream on YouTube! 3. Rumors sparked that Niall Horan would feature on the album, but this was not the case. Perhaps, we will see a collaboration between the two on Niall’s next solo album! 4. The album was recorded over 3-4 months in Malibu, California. 5. The album has already reached number 1.

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The Making Of Shawn Mendes: The Album - “Lost in Japan”

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Vibras J Balvin While J Balvin’s new album is created for the mainstream, its diversity is still present and he blurs a number of genres. The core of the album is still reggaeton, but the singer has also gone back to his roots and bring us a brand new, unique sound.

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BOX OFFICE TOP 20: ‘SOLO’ DROPS TO $29.4 MILLION IN WEEK 2

Box oice for “Solo: A Star Wars Story” tumbled to $29.4 million in its second weekend in theaters, bringing its North American grosses to $149 million. That’s still short of the $155 million opening weekend take for “Rogue One,” the other Star Wars spinof ilm. “Deadpool 2” took second place in its third weekend with $23.2 million. It was followed by the new opener “Adrift,” a survival at sea drama that’s based on a true story. “Adrift” took in $11.6 million. Fourth place went to “Avengers: Ininity War,” with $10.5 million. The superhero pic has now grossed $643 million from North American theaters — second in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ilms only to “Black Panther,” which is now at $699.1 million. “Book Club” rounded out the top ive with $7 million. 118

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The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by comScore:

“Solo: A Star Wars Story,” Disney, $29,396,882, 4,381 locations, $6,710 average, $148,989,574, 2 Weeks.

“Deadpool 2,” 20th Century Fox, $23,178,597, 4,161 locations, $5,570 average, $254,506,035, 3 Weeks

“Adrift,” STX Entertainment, $11,603,039, 3,015 locations, $3,848 average, $11,603,039, 1 Week.

“Avengers: Ininity War,” Disney, $10,507,279, 3,570 locations, $2,943 average, $643,006,211, 6 Weeks.

“Book Club,” Paramount, $7,039,033, 3,169 locations, $2,221 average, $47,555,781, 3 Weeks.

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“Upgrade,” OTL Releasing, $4,670,905, 1,457 locations, $3,206 average, $4,670,905, 1 Week.

“Life of the Party,” Warner Bros., $3,504,625, 2,511 locations, $1,396 average, $46,350,255, 4 Weeks.

“Breaking In,” Universal, $2,811,515, 1,682 locations, $1,672 average, $41,341,530, 4 Weeks.

“Action Point,” Paramount, $2,390,164, 2,032 locations, $1,176 average, $2,390,164, 1 Week.

10.

“Overboard,” Lionsgate, $1,949,527, 1,228 locations, $1,588 average, $45,497,721, 5 Weeks.

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11.

“A Quiet Place,” Paramount, $1,771,171, 1,156 locations, $1,532 average, $183,520,369, 9 Weeks.

12.

“Show Dogs,” Open Road, $1,527,370, 2,327 locations, $656 average, $14,602,851, 3 Weeks.

13.

“Veere Di Wedding,” Zee Studios International, $1,239,535, 118 locations, $10,505 average, $1,239,535, 1 Week.

14.

“RBG,” Magnolia Pictures, $1,060,087, 432 locations, $2,454 average, $7,835,946, 5 Weeks.

15.

“Rampage,” Warner Bros., $620,437, 502 locations, $1,236 average, $95,111,646, 8 Weeks.

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16.

“First Reformed,” A24, $421,447, 91 locations, $4,631 average, $1,023,243, 3 Weeks.

17.

“I Feel Pretty,” STX Entertainment, $297,566, 315 locations, $945 average, $48,324,313, 7 Weeks.

18.

“Super Troopers 2,” 20th Century Fox, $281,771, 138 locations, $2,042 average, $30,318,666, 7 Weeks.

19.

“Ready Player One,” Warner Bros., $250,873, 271 locations, $926 average, $136,060,031, 10 Weeks.

20.

“Black Panther,” Disney, $246,901, 284 locations, $869 average, $699,129,850, 16 Weeks.

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by 21st Century Fox; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

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Image: Valentin Flauraud

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TESLA SHAREHOLDERS REJECT BID TO STRIP MUSK OF CHAIRMAN ROLE

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has rebufed a shareholder attempt to overhaul the electric car maker’s board and strip him of his role as chairman, despite worries about the company’s shaky inances and inability to meet its production goals for its irst mass-market sedan. All three directors seeking to remain on Tesla’s nine-member board were re-elected during the company’s annual meeting held Tuesday in Mountain View, California. Directors Antonio Gracias, James Murdoch and Elon’s brother, Kimbal Musk, won by “a wide margin,” according to Tesla. CtW Investment Group, an activist irm that represents labor union pension funds, had spearheaded a rebellion seeking to oust the trio from the board on the grounds that they didn’t know about the auto industry at a critical time in Tesla’s existence. 129

The company said a “supermajority” of shareholders also rejected a proposal to force Musk to step down as Tesla’s chairman, a position he has held since 2004 — four years before he also assumed the CEO job. The precise voting totals will be disclosed within the next few days. Elon Musk holds a 22 percent stake in Tesla, increasing the degree of diiculty for shareholders trying to challenge his authority. After the results were announced, he sought to reassure shareholders attending the meeting and others watching on a webcast. After describing the past few months as among the most “hellish” in his life, Musk said he expected Tesla to post a quarterly proit during the July-September period. That’s something the Palo Alto, California, company has rarely pulled of in a 15-year history marked by steady losses while investing heavily in its technology and manufacturing plants. Tesla has been burning through so much cash — more than $1 billion during the irst three months of this year alone — that investors have been worrying it will have to sell more stock or add to its already hefty debt load to raise enough money to survive. After conceding that “staying alive” is diicult in the auto industry, Musk told shareholders that Tesla will be “cash low positive” during the second half of this year. If Musk is correct, the prediction will translate into Tesla bringing in more cash than it’s spending in both the third and fourth quarters. To do that, Tesla will probably have to meet Musk’s manufacturing goals for its Model 3, a 130

Image: Heiko Junge

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Image: Francois Mori

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sedan with a starting price tag of $35,000 that represents the company’s attempt to reach a mass market. Tesla still needs to more than double its recent production rate to reach Musk’s target of delivering 5,000 Model 3s per week. Musk reiterated previous predictions that that will happen during the second half of this year. Tesla’s stock gained about 1 percent to $294.35 in Tuesday’s extended trading. That’s about 24 percent below its all-time high set in September at $389.61.

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Image: Roy Rochlin

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MICROSOFT EMBRACES COLLABORATION IN $7.5B DEAL FOR GITHUB

Microsoft is paying $7.5 billion for the popular coder hangout GitHub as the maker of Windows further embraces the types of open-source projects it used to shun. CEO Satya Nadella said the all-stock deal pairs Microsoft with the “world’s leading software development platform,” a destination where developers around the world go to share and review each other’s code. As Microsoft built its business on proprietary software such as the Windows operating system, it came to be seen as an antagonist to the opensource philosophy of free software written by a collaborative community of developers. The company has been working for years to shed that reputation, especially after Nadella took over in 2014. 135

“Developers will be at the center of solving the world’s most pressing challenges,” Nadella said in a blog post this week. “However, the real power comes when every developer can create together, collaborate, share code and build on each other’s work.” This is not the irst time Microsoft has bought into a community. Its biggest-ever deal was its $27 billion acquisition of LinkedIn in 2016. GitHub, a San Francisco startup, was founded in 2008 and has grown sharply since announcing its irst outside investment in 2012. It now counts about 28 million software developers around the world who use it to share code and build businesses. Microsoft said GitHub will retain its “developer-irst ethos,” operate independently and remain an open platform. The deal is expected to close this year. It’s free to use GitHub for open-source projects, but some developers and businesses pay a monthly fee to access private code repositories and other services. Nadella said developers can

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Image: Alex Wong

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still use whatever programming languages and operating systems they choose for their projects. GitHub’s co-founder and current CEO, Chris Wanstrath, will join Microsoft as a technical fellow to work on software initiatives. Wanstrath will be replaced as CEO by Nat Friedman, the former CEO of Xamarin, which Microsoft acquired in 2016. Wanstrath said in a blog post that he could never have imagined this deal a decade ago, when “Git was a powerful but niche tool, clouds were just things in the sky, and Microsoft was a very diferent company.” Now, he said, “Microsoft is the most active organization on GitHub in the world.” Moody’s analyst Richard Lane said the deal relects Microsoft’s “ongoing pivot to open source software, seeking to further broaden its large and growing development community.” It also relects the increasing importance of cloud computing software and the development of internet-connected devices, Lane said. The deal sparked some fears in the GitHub community that Microsoft’s corporate takeover could ruin the experience. Some developers say they are planning to look for alternatives. But Julie Lerman, a GitHub user who works as a Microsoft liaison with freelance developers, cautiously welcomed the partnership. “It’s a logical and rational step for Microsoft,” she said. “GitHub has been looking for leadership and help for a while now. Microsoft has already made a huge investment in GitHub with so much of their development platform and tooling and even their docs on GitHub. They are in a position to help GitHub.” 139

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AFTER 4 YEARS, INDIANA EMBRACES TEXT-TO-911 IN EMERGENCIES

Four years after Indiana’s dispatch centers began adopting text-to-911 technology, residents in all 92 of the state’s counties can now send texts during emergencies if they’re unable to speak to dispatchers. Indiana’s dispatch centers now receive an average of between 500 and 600 text-to-911 calls every day and the technology is exceeding expectations statewide, said Ed Reuter, the executive director of the Statewide 911 Board. “Indiana is the nation’s leader,” he told. While calling 911 remains the irst and best option, Reuter said texting is encouraged for deaf callers and those who are hearing- or speechimpaired; those who can’t speak due to medical conditions such as a stroke; or situations such as a home invasion where speaking would be unsafe. Indiana’s 911 centers received about 11 million calls last year, including some non-emergency calls. Those centers also received nearly 14,500 inbound texts. Reuter said Indiana is the only state where 911 operators can initiate texts after receiving a 141

disconnected or dropped 911 call. Most 911 calls come from cellphones, so when a county gets a disconnected or dropped 911 call, operators send an outbound text to that number to see whether there is an emergency. Most of those are simply accidental dials, but occasionally there is an ongoing domestic violence situation. In those cases, it’s easier “to sneak a quiet conversation in” if someone needs help, said Ron Rayl, interim director of the Consolidated Communication Partnership, which operates 911 in northeastern Indiana’s Allen County. The outbound texting capability was built irst to get operators used to the technology, said Mark Grady, president of INdigital, a Fort Wayne company that created the platform. “As texting increased and the demographic of those who text went up, we knew that was the way to go,” he said. “They took to it like a duck to water. It’s been a phenomenal tool.”

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SKYPING THE DOCTOR? POLL SHOWS IT’S NOT JUST FOR THE YOUNG

Every morning, 92-year-old Sidney Kramer wraps a blood pressure cuf around his arm and steps on a scale, and readings of his heart health beam to a team of nurses — and to his daughter’s smartphone — miles from his Maryland home. Red lags? A nurse immediately calls, a form of telemedicine that is helping Kramer live independently by keeping his congestive heart failure under tight control. “It’s reassuring both psychologically and physically. The way he’s put it to me, it’s like having a doctor appointment every morning,” said Miriam Dubin, Kramer’s daughter. The vast majority of older Americans and their caregivers are ready to give virtual health care a try: Nearly 9 in 10 adults ages 40 and over would be comfortable using at least one type of telemedicine for themselves or an aging loved one, says a new poll from The Associated PressNORC Center for Public Afairs Research. 145

But they want to make sure that an e-visit or other remote care is just as good as they’d get in person, and that their health information stays private, according to the survey released. Long considered an option mainly for improving access to health care in rural areas with few doctors, telemedicine is gaining ground with tech-savvy younger consumers — they text their physician with questions or Skype with a mild complaint. For seniors with chronic illnesses or mobility problems that make simply reaching a doctor’s oice an ordeal, telehealth could be more than a convenience. The graying population is raising serious questions about how the nation will provide enough quality long-term care. But while private insurance increasingly covers certain services such as a video visit, seniors have had a harder time because Medicare tightly restricts what it will pay for. That’s starting to change, with a law Congress passed last winter that expands Medicare coverage for such options as video visits to diagnose stroke symptoms or check on home dialysis patients. Also, Medicare Advantage programs used by a third of beneiciaries can start ofering additional telehealth options. “While the interest is huge, one of the big barriers remains reimbursement,” said Johns Hopkins University telemedicine chief Dr. Ingrid Zimmer-Galler, who has turned to grants to help fund such services as telepsychiatry for dementia patients. The new law “is really a huge step in the right direction. It certainly doesn’t cover everything.”

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Costs are a major issue for people who need ongoing living assistance. Less than a third of adults age 40 and over have set aside any money for their future long term care needs, the AP-NORC survey shows, and more than half mistakenly think they’ll be able to rely on Medicare to help cover nursing care or home health aides. Telemedicine will have to replace in-person care, not add to it, to help with those costs, cautioned Zimmer-Galler. As access for seniors promises to grow, the APNORC Center poll shows widespread interest in telehealth. More than half of adults of all ages would be comfortable with a video visit via Skype or FaceTime to discuss medications, for ongoing care of a chronic illness or even for an urgent health concern. In fact, adults 40 and older are just as open to at least some forms of telemedicine as those under 40, with one exception: The older crowd is slightly less comfortable discussing health care by text. Among caregivers, 87 percent say they’d be interested in using at least one form of telemedicine for that person’s medical needs. “I think the parents would be happier at home instead of being in the doctor’s oice waiting an hour to see a doctor for 15 minutes,” said Don Withey of Cortland, New York, who helps his 92-year-old father and 89-year-old mother get to their appointments. But, “we don’t know much more about it, other than the fact you can talk to a doctor over the computer or smartphone.” Just 12 percent of adults say they wouldn’t use any form of telemedicine.

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There are concerns. More than 30 percent of people worry about privacy or the security or health information. About half fear that telemedicine could lead to lower-quality care, the poll found. “It’s not about having a video screen or Skype in the home or even a blood pressure cuf in the home. It’s about the team that’s behind it and the clinicians who are supporting the care of that patient,” said Rachel DeSantis, chief of staf at Johns Hopkins Home Care Group, which provides the 92-year-old Kramer’s remote monitoring. The Hopkins program provides no-cost monitoring for a month or two to select high-risk patients after a hospitalization because research found it reduces their chances of readmission. When the monitor recorded Kramer’s weight creeping up one week, nurses immediately knew it was luid build-up, a heart failure symptom that needed quick treatment. The machine is programmed for some educational feedback, too. Dubin says her dad learned quickly when to cut back. “If he enjoys a pastrami sandwich one day, he can see his numbers may be higher the next day.” Dubin says the reassurance was worth privately paying, about $250 a month, to keep the monitoring once Kramer’s initial time in the program ended.

The survey was conducted March 13 to April 5 by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Afairs Research, with funding from the SCAN Foundation. It involved interviews in English and Spanish with 1,945 adults, including 1,522 adults age 40 and over, who are members of NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. Results from the full survey have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

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BALL STATE AND TV NETWORK OFFER FREE ONLINE MUSICAL CLASS

Ball State University is teaming up with Turner Classic Movies to ofer a free online class on the history of Hollywood musicals. The class Mad About Musicals runs through the month of June and will be taught by Professor Vanessa Ament. The university says she will also provide on-air introductions for dozens of musicals that will run on the network on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the month. The class focuses on the history of the musical genre and its evolution with culture and technology. Ament was a sound reproduction artists and voice actor in ilms including “Platoon,” “Predator” and “Die Hard.” More than 44,000 participants enrolled in Turner Classic Movies’ past three online courses.

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BOULDER-SIZE ASTEROID DISINTEGRATED HARMLESSLY OVER AFRICA

A boulder-size asteroid disintegrated harmlessly over Africa, just hours after its weekend discovery. It’s only the third time scientists have spotted an incoming asteroid on a direct collision course with Earth. The previous times were in 2008 and 2014. The asteroid, dubbed 2018 LA, was discovered out near the moon’s orbit early Saturday morning, aiming straight for Earth. NASA reported the latest episode Sunday night. Asteroid trackers at NASA and elsewhere quickly determined the rock — about 6 feet across (2 meters) — was too small to pose any danger. It burned up in the Saturday (02) evening sky over Botswana, eight hours after irst being noticed. Video posted on YouTube, from a farm just across the border in South Africa, showed a ireball swiftly descending and getting bigger, and then a blinding lash in the sky. It burst apart several miles up, according to NASA. Initial estimates had the impact zone stretching from southern Africa across the Indian Ocean into New Guinea. Tracking systems narrowed it down to southern Africa. 155

NASA oicials said the scramble among scientists and asteroid observers was a good training exercise. Their ability to zoom in on likely impact areas bodes well for the future, if and when a bigger object heads our way. “This was a much smaller object than we are tasked to detect and warn about,” NASA’s planetary defense oicer, Lindley Johnson, said in a statement. “However, this real-world event allows us to exercise our capabilities and gives some conidence our impact prediction models are adequate to respond to the potential impact of a larger object.” Paul Chodas, manager of the Center for NearEarth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said it’s only the second time the reentry location was predicted well in advance. The 2008 asteroid was spotted 19 hours in advance and measured 13 feet, or 4 meters. It came apart above Sudan, as predicted. The 2014 asteroid was discovered just a few hours before entering over the Atlantic, with little time for tracking. All three asteroids were discovered through the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona, which is run by the University of Arizona and funded by NASA. The same asteroid hunter, Richard Kowalski, made all three discoveries. “We search the night sky methodically nearly each clear night,” Kowalski said in an email Monday. “While it is good fortune that I happened on this object, it is what our program is designed to do.” Objects this small “are quite faint and hard to detect until they are very close, which is why we did not see it sooner,” he said. 156

Meteor / Asteroid hits earth (June 2018 / South Africa)

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CONNECTICUT VENTURE CAPITAL FIRM FUNDS FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS

A young venture capital irm based in Greenwich believes it has a big competitive advantage. Founded in 2016 and launched last year, 1843 Capital — led by Tracy Chadwell and Alison Andrews Reyes — specializes in technology startups, but it diferentiates itself primarily by looking to invest in companies with “diverse leadership teams that include at least one woman,” Chadwell said. A growing pile of recent studies indicate both women’s signiicance in helping startups succeed and the broad gap between the amount of venture capital dollars given to 159

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men versus women. Yet 1843 Capital is one of few irms taking advantage of that disparity, according to Matt McCooe, CEO of Connecticut Innovations, the state-backed venture fund. “There’s fairly compelling evidence that women make great CEOs and more diverse teams are more likely to have better outcomes,” McCooe said. “I’ve only heard of maybe three funds that are female-focused, and at the end of the day, those funds are emerging because they get better returns than they would otherwise. They’re capitalizing on a market opportunity. Tracy is set up to be successful.” Though 1843 is in its infancy, it’s already gaining recognition with founding partner Chadwell accepting the Women’s Business Advocate award last week at Moly Media’s annual Women in Business conference. Chadwell can frequently be found speaking at events discussing her work with 1843 and judging startup competitions. It was six years ago that Chadwell began taking advantage of the untapped opportunity to target women-led startups. She launched a precursor to 1843 called Coyote Capital in 2015. Over the next two years, she brought on business parters and changed the name to 1843, which was inspired by Ada Lovelace, a 19thcentury mathematician who’s been called the irst computer programmer. In 1843, Lovelace published a transcript that some have dubbed the irst computer program. The numerical name also pushes Chadwell’s irm to the top of alphabetized lists, she said. Chadwell likes to describe her business strategy as achieving a “double bottom line,” because of 161

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the proitable deals she makes while fostering “meaningful change.” “There was a conluence of data validating my decision,” she said in an interview. In speaking events, Chadwell opens her presentations with studies including those published by PitchBook and First Round Capital that found women-led companies received between 2 and 3 percent of venture capital dollars in 2017 while startups with at least one female founder perform 63 percent better than those with only men. “We’re going after female-founded tech companies because there’s a market ineiciency,” said Andrews Reyes, 1843’s general partner. “We have a preference for at least one female founder, because that’s a success indicator. Women need to be part of that founding team. We’re OK if people want to look at the data and still choose to look in the opposite direction. In the meantime, we’ll zig while they zag. We feel like we have a unique capability with our experience and networks.” Chadwell provides the venture capital experience while Andrews Reyes contributes a career spent in engineering as well as building businesses. In 2013, she sold a cybersecurity company she’d grown for seven years called Vigilant to Deloitte before founding Dezignable.com, which she’s now handed over to her partner while remaining on its leadership board. Together, the pair considers multiple business pitches every day, mostly in the realms of cybersecurity and what they call “silvertech,” 163

or technology for people 50 or older. Andrews Reyes’ deep background in cybersecurity and e-commerce give her an edge in evaluating the potential of startups, she said. “Cybercrime is in the news day in and day out, but to invest in the space, you have to understand the real value of tech companies and what they’re putting forth,” she said. “There’s so many companies out there, so there’s a lot of overlap in what they’re doing.” Even when they choose against investing in companies, which is most of the time, Chadwell said she tries to help founders by giving advice or pointing them toward another venture capital irm. Chadwell’s enthusiasm and consistent helpfulness played a role in why Wendi Burkhardt, the CEO of one of 1843’s investments, wanted to work with her, Burkhardt said. “Even two years ago, there wasn’t a lot of conversation about technology for the aging. I teamed up with Tracy because I was grateful that she understood the landscape and realized what a huge market this is.” In 2015, Burkhardt co-founded Silvernest, a roommate-matching platform for older people. The Denver-based startup closed a seed fundraising round in 2017 that totaled more than $1 million. Among its investors was 1843 Capital. “Fundraising is a sales process; you’re selling,” Burkhardt said. “What we need is more Tracys. We need more women in the ecosystem, because you buy from people who look like you. To date, she’s been one of our most meaningful investors.”

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SOLAR ENERGY FARMS GAINING TRACTION IN NEBRASKA

Solar energy is gaining traction in Nebraska as a growing number of cities adopt the technology, and state oicials are looking for ways to help the trend along. The technology has become so popular that some cities have had to expand their recently built solar farms or build new ones to keep pace with customer demand. Many of the cities are taking advantage of the Nebraska Public Power Districtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s SunWise Community Solar Program, approved in 2016 to help cities and villages adopt solar power in a central location for residents to use. The program has helped launch new solar farms in Scottsbluf, Venango and Kearney since 2017, and more than half a dozen other cities have expressed interest, said NPPD General Retail Manager Tim Arlt. 167

Separately, Fremont is moving forward with a second solar farm due to high demand on the irst array that went live earlier this year. Fremont City Administrator Brian Newton said the farm allows customers to buy their own solar panel or pay a one-time fee to use power generated in the farm. He said the irst farm sold out to 217 residents within seven weeks. Arlt said the challenges include inding available land that’s close enough to feed into NPPD’s grid and making sure the local grid can handle the additional power. “We want to say yes if a community wants it,” he said. Nebraska lawmakers may review some of the challenges as well. Sen. Rick Kolowski, of Omaha, has introduced a legislative study to explore ways to promote solar energy, noting its environmental beneits. Kolowski said he wants to see the state use renewable resources more efectively, and he hopes the study could lead to legislation that would provide incentives or tax breaks to encourage more solar energy. “This isn’t going away,” Kolowski said. “We have to do it not just for ourselves, but for the future of our state.” The NPPD arrays let residents buy into solar energy without having to install their own rooftop panels. Residents who want to use the energy shoulder the expense to keep the costs from shifting to those who don’t. Despite its rapid growth in Nebraska, solar energy has spread faster in some areas than others because of the state’s patchwork of local 168

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public utilities, said Clif Mesner, a Central City attorney, developer and solar energy advocate. Homeowners who don’t live in an area that ofers solar energy have few options other than to install solar panels on their property, Mesner said. That in turn can draw objections from neighborhood groups that don’t like the appearance of solar panels on rooftops or in yards. Also concerning is the looming threat of tarifs on aluminum and steel, with are used in solar arrays and could substantially raise costs, Mesner said. President Donald Trump recently signed a bill to extend a federal solar tax credit for homeowners, but it’s scheduled to expire in 2021. Mesner said solar energy has grown faster in states with higher electric rates than Nebraska’s because purchasing it made inancial sense. But as Nebraska’s rates rise, he said, solar will become more feasible. “I think it’s made some great strides in the last few years, but we are behind where other states have been,” Mesner said. “We’re doing some great things right now, but we’ve got a long, long ways to go.” Mesner said many homeowners have bought into solar because the costs are ixed for 20 to 25 years as electricity prices continue to rise. Many current solar customers are paying more now, but could end up saving money over the long term, he said. Kearney launched Nebraska’s largest community solar array last year on 53 acres of city-owned land near a technology park. The farm can meet

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about 5 percent of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s peak energy needs, enough to power 900 homes. City oicials partnered with NPPD to connect the system to the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grid and sold of shares of the electricity it produces. So far, city oicials have sold or reserved about 90 percent of the shares and will use some as a recruiting tool for new businesses that want to use green energy, said Kearney Mayor Stan Clouse. The University of Nebraska at Kearney bought about half of the total shares in an efort to use more renewable energy and hedge against long-term price increases.

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“It’s still in the infant stages, but I’m optimistic,” Clouse said. Clouse said his city approved the project to give residents more energy choices and potentially attract small and mid-sized technology companies with the promise of renewable energy. City oicials can’t install wind turbines in the area because it’s in the migratory light path of Nebraska’s Sandhill cranes, Clouse said. Clouse, an account manager for the Nebraska Public Power District, pointed to Facebook’s decision in 2013 to build a data center in Altoona, Iowa, instead of Kearney, citing nearby wind energy as one factor.

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FENDIMAN JACKSON WANG

LIKE THAT KRIS WU

IN MY BLOOD SHAWN MENDES

PRAY FOR THE WICKED PANIC! AT THE DISCO

THE MIDDLE ZEDD, MAREN MORRIS & GREY

WHATEVER IT TAKES IMAGINE DRAGONS

NO TEARS LEFT TO CRY ARIANA GRANDE

MEANT TO BE (FEAT. FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE) BEBE REXHA

HEAVEN KANE BROWN

DINERO (FEAT. DJ KHALED & CARDI B) JENNIFER LOPEZ

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SHAWN MENDES SHAWN MENDES

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) VARIOUS ARTISTS

LOVE IS DEAD CHVRCHES

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) JOHN WILLIAMS & JOHN POWELL

LOVE YOURSELF

‘TEAR’

BTS

REPUTATION TAYLOR SWIFT

VIBRAS J BALVIN

FROM THE FIRES GRETA VAN FLEET

EVOLVE IMAGINE DRAGONS

REARVIEW TOWN JASON ALDEAN

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FAKE LOVE BTS

DINERO (FEAT. DJ KHALED & CARDI B) JENNIFER LOPEZ

THIS IS AMERICA CHILDISH GAMBINO

FALL IN LINE (FEAT. DEMI LOVATO) CHRISTINA AGUILERA

LIKE THAT KRIS WU

DESIRE (ME TIENES LOQUITA) PAULINA RUBIO & NACHO

NO TEARS LEFT TO CRY ARIANA GRANDE

SWEET CHILD O’ MINE GUNS N’ ROSES

PERFECT SYMPHONY (WITH ANDREA BOCELLI) ED SHEERAN

MIC DROP (STEVE AOKI REMIX) BTS

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SOCIAL MEDIA KINGS INTO QUEENS RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE, SEASON 10 (UNCENSORED)

UMM, HELLO JERSEY SHORE: FAMILY VACATION, SEASON 1

WHAT DA FUSKIE SOUTHERN CHARM, SEASON 5

A FRITTERED FRIENDSHIP THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NEW YORK CITY, SEASON 10

NOW IT BEGINS... THE LOOMING TOWER, SEASON 1

SPY GAMES QUANTICO, SEASON 3

UNTUCKED: RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE SOCIAL MEDIA KINGS INTO QUEENS UNTUCKED: RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE, SEASON 10

INTO THE WILDERNESS THE MEN WHO BUILT AMERICA: FRONTIERSMEN

IT IS GAME TIME KIDS SURVIVOR, SEASON 36: GHOST ISLAND

SHIFTING SANDS THE 100, SEASON 5

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USE OF FORCE BRAD THOR

PRETTY GIRLS KARIN SLAUGHTER

FEAR NOTHING LISA GARDNER

THE SWANS OF FIFTH AVENUE MELANIE BENJAMIN

THE HOUSE GIRL TARA CONKLIN

NIGHTS IN RODANTHE NICHOLAS SPARKS

SACRED STONE CLIVE CUSSLER & CRAIG DIRGO

THE OUTSIDER STEPHEN KING

PRODIGAL SUMMER BARBARA KINGSOLVER

THE LOOKING GLASS WAR JOHN LE CARRÃ&#x2030;

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DISCOVERY AND PGA SIGN $2 BILLION INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS DEAL

The PGA Tour broadened its international reach this week in a $2 billion agreement with Discovery Inc., to deliver golf content directly to consumers in 220 markets outside the United States over the next 12 years. Nine months after the PGA Tour chose not to opt out early of its U.S. network deals, it formed an alliance to turn over its content outside of the U.S. to Discovery, a company that already is reaching audiences around the world through its Eurosport network and other channels. The tour had been exploring its own network. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Discovery is the largest international media company,â&#x20AC;? Commissioner Jay Monahan said from 185

the tour’s New York oice. “They have content experience, distribution experience, direct-toconsumer experience that, candidly, nobody else has. So they can do for the PGA Tour, and they can do for the game of golf, what no one else can do internationally. “This puts us in a place that we could never get to on our own,” he said. “And it allows us to accomplish some things that we think a decade from now will be exceptional.” Discovery has networks such as Animal Planet and Discovery, and through its acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive added the Food Network, HGTV and Travel Channel. Discovery’s Eurosport reaches 700 million people and holds Olympic rights through 2024. “There is no sport that’s more global than the PGA Tour,” said David Zaslav, the president and CEO of Discovery. “There’s no sport that’s more local than the PGA Tour, and there’s no sport that has a demographic that’s voraciously hungry to consume content.” The PGA Tour has 85 players from 25 countries who are full members, including two from China this year. Zaslav said the alliance allows Discovery to build a global platform, “an ecosystem around golf that will nourish and excite every golf fan everywhere in the world.” The requirement includes a PGA Tour-branded streaming service to reach fans around the world on every mobile screen and device. That includes some 2,000 hours of content from more than 40 PGA Tour events, along with events from ive other tours it runs. The PGA Tour has development circuits in China, Canada and Latin America. 186

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Zaslav said content created in the U.S. can be tailored to meet needs in Asia or other markets. “Local matters,” he said. “What we found with sport throughout Europe is local is everything. So the fact that 50 percent of the top players on the tour are form outside the U.S. is huge.” Sergio Garcia is one example. Facts about the former Masters champion don’t reveal much. He checks in at 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds. He turned pro in 1999. But what’s going on in his game and fun activities away from golf are rarely mentioned unless Garcia is near the lead. For so many players, there is a lack of personal information. That’s where Discovery comes in. “We want our players from those home countries to have a greater voice and to be able to tell their story,” Monahan said, “and for them to be able to share to their fans in their home country how they’re progressing through the year, and what they’re eating, how they’re training, the ups, the downs, the life cycle of a season, which has incredible highs and lows, but really to be able to follow that player more intimately than we currently can today.” The PGA Tour and Discovery are going to work together to see what works best for golf. They’re looking at live coverage and beyond. The platform they plan to develop could ultimately be somewhere fans shop, talk to each other, consume news content or watch instructional videos. “We’ll be looking at a very simple algorithm, which is we want to create something that every person wakes up in the morning, hits it, says, ‘I 188

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love this thing,’ and then asks ive or 10 friends, ’Do you have this things?’” Zaslav said. “If you love golf, you’ve got to have it.” A name for the platform has not been determined. The PGA Tour already plays tournaments in China, Malaysia, South Korea, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. It could expand that, though Monahan said that was not an immediate concern and might not work with the schedule. For now, the focus is to grow what the PGA Tour already has in place with the help of Discovery. The PGA Tour has U.S. network deals with NBC Sports and CBS Sports, and with Golf Channel. Those deals expire in 2021. The four majors have separate TV contracts, though Monahan says he already has heard from leaders of those organization intrigued by how this could change the video landscape in golf. This Discovery deal is meant to take the PGA Tour’s global coverage to the next level, thus allowing fans anywhere to follow their favorite players. “You’ve taken the core fan that follows that player, and you’ve made them even more rabid,” Monahan said. “For those who aren’t yet fans, they’re starting to be introduced to that player or that group of players, and they’re supporting them as national players. They’re getting more engaged in not only our content, but then they’re also understanding what makes this game the greatest game on the planet.”

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VISA SAYS DISRUPTION CAUSED BY HARDWARE PROBLEM, NOT ATTACK

Visa says a problem that left people across Europe unable to use their cards was caused by a hardware fault, not a cyberattack. The card payments company says services are back to normal and its systems are working at “full capacity” on Saturday (02). It says the problem was caused by “a hardware failure within one of our European systems” and wasn’t the result of “unauthorized access.” Consumers in Britain, Ireland and other European countries reported having credit and debit card payments declined on Friday (01), and many businesses said they couldn’t process Visa transactions. The bank HSBC said Friday that the “industrywide issue” afected Visa payments, though ATM machines were still working. Image: Isaac Brekken

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CHINA’S HUAWEI SAYS IT HASN’T COLLECTED FACEBOOK USER DATA

Chinese phone maker Huawei said Wednesday it has never collected or stored Facebook user data, after the social media giant acknowledged it shared such data with Huawei and other manufacturers. Huawei, a company lagged by U.S. intelligence oicials as a national security threat, was the latest device maker at the center of a fresh wave of allegations over Facebook’s handling of private data. Chinese irms Huawei, Lenovo, Oppo and TCL were among numerous handset makers that were given access to Facebook data in a “controlled” way approved by Facebook, according to a statement Tuesday from Francisco Varela, Facebook’s vice president of mobile partnerships. 194

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The development marked the latest privacy gafe for Facebook since allegations emerged in March that political consultant Cambridge Analytica had improperly harvested data from tens of millions of Facebook users in an efort to inluence elections. On Wednesday, the former CEO of the nowdefunct irm, Alexander Nix, clashed with British lawmakers as he denied his irm was unethical. Nix said he’s embarrassed at having been caught on camera boasting that he could entrap political igures by compromising them with bribes and Ukrainian women. But he insisted he was entrapped by unscrupulous, undercover journalists. Channel 4 News rejected Nix’s claim. As for Facebook’s partnerships with phone makers, The New York Times has detailed how Facebook has given device makers deep access to data, including work history, relationship status and likes on device users and their friends. In a follow-up report, the Times said the recipients of Facebook data included Huawei and other Chinese irms that have long been labeled a national security threat by Congress. Facebook said it would end its data partnership with Huawei by the end of this week. While Facebook is banned in China, the government could have had access to user proiles elsewhere, including those of Americans with Huawei phones. However, there’s no evidence that happened. Facebook said it helped design and approved Huawei’s app, so it knows the data remained on users’ phones and wasn’t transferred to Huawei. Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the news 196

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raises legitimate concerns and wanted to know how Facebook ensured data was not transferred to Chinese servers. Huawei spokesman Joe Kelly said in a text message Wednesday that the arrangement was about making Facebook services more convenient for users. Facebook said it granted smartphone access to usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; data before mobile apps became popular, as a way of making its service work on a broad range of devices. Device makers could then build their own software that incorporated Facebook functions, for things like messaging or posting photos. User would log into their Facebook accounts, allowing the phone software to pull in data from Facebook itself. The partnerships were used for older phones to make Facebook work or at least work better,

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Image: Sean Gallup

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according to the company. Newer phones are more powerful and don’t need such data sharing. Nonetheless, Facebook didn’t get around to reviewing these partnerships until after the Cambridge Analytica scandal developed. Apple said it has worked with Facebook for years to let users share things on Facebook through iPhone and Mac apps. Apple said it used data pulled in from Facebook to let people post photos and other items on Facebook without opening the Facebook app. It ended that practice on the iPhone last September, although similar features persist on Mac computers. Hua Chunying, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, declined to comment on the issue but said: “We hope the U.S. can provide a fair, transparent, open and friendly environment for Chinese companies’ operation and investment.” The company, founded by former Chinese military oicer Ren Zhengfei, has long denied that its products pose security risks even as it grew into the world’s largest telecom equipment provider and a leading phone manufacturer — behind only Apple and Samsung. Huawei and its Shenzhen-based rival ZTE have been the subject of security misgivings in the U.S. for years, but they have come under particular scrutiny since the start of the Trump administration amid rising U.S.-China tensions on a range of subjects. The Pentagon in May banned the sale of Huawei and ZTE phones on military bases, four months after AT&T dropped a deal to sell a new Huawei smartphone. 201