Bits in Technology 🖥️ - Week 17: April 23, 2018 - April 29, 2018
Snap releases new glasses
Snap. Inc introduced a new version of their smart glasses named Spectacles. New features include taking photos (not only videos), more colors, water resistant and more. They cost $150 and they are on sale for US, UK, Canada and France with more counties following later.
Fearing privacy issues they still display a light when you are recording to prevent people not knowing when they are recorded.
Version 1 of the Spectacles didn't sell very well (220,000 units) but they claim that V1 was to get people accustomed (probably to rinse the shame of Google Glasses as a design of smart glasses).
Apple ordered to pay back taxes
Apple is ordered to pay $16 billion in back taxes. The European Commission has said that Apple received special treatment from Ireland that resulted in a cut of billions that should have been payed by Apple.
This works by recording all the profits in Ireland (which has 0.005% effective tax rate) and then transferring it to Apple headquarters for R&D and other purposes leaving it untaxed.
Same thing has happened to Amazon and other big companies in the US. European Commission is fighting to break the loopholes all big companies are using to evade tax laws in their own counties.
Genealogy websites used to catch rapist
Not entirely tech news but with the help of several genealogical databases, a 72 years old rapist and murderer was able to be tracked down.
Years ago his DNS from a crime scene was found and compared with several undisclosed genealogy databases. Distant relatives were found and after that, they eventually tracked him down.
He is accused of at least 51 rapes and 12 murders.
IBM help with blood diamonds
IBM and four other companies on the gold and diamond industry are cooperating on developing a solution based on blockchain technology to track diamonds. The products tracked will be available to customers by the end of the year.
The system will be able to prove that the diamond the customer gets is not a blood diamond, meaning it was mined ethically.
Younger customers are more informed and want to know the source of the diamonds. A proof-of-concept test is already made to track gold through its journey from the mine to the refinery and then the fabricator. The technology will not only help with blood diamonds but with money laundering through them.
Sony patent on Digital Rights
Sony is trying to marry digital rights with blockchain as it seems by the latest patent from Sony Japan.
The problem with earlier systems for audio and music rights was that there was a single point of failure. If a server that had the rights was down then you don't have the rights for example for your purchased music.
A blockchain system would fix this problem and provide many more capabilities such as devices the user has rights to, family sharing rights etc.
This is one more try to protect content and rights on the blockchain as we previously saw with Kodac coin and others. It feels weird combining blockchain which portray freedom with digital rights.
Sony's previous attempts were more aggressive with rootkit-like software to prevent CDs from being copied.
# Nasdaq exploring Bitcoin trading options
Nasdaq CEO said in an interview that Nasdaq will consider becoming a digital crypto exchange in the future. The same day they announced a technical cooperation plan with the crypto exchange Gemini. While they say they considering it they also say that the ICOs need to be regulated first before they explore the chance of supporting them.
Have a great week! - Chris Myll @coolmyll
Interesting info! It's cool to see blockchain being implemented in practical uses.