Tech companies are showing their support for Black History Month in a variety of ways, including new shopping-related features.

On Monday, Google revealed that its extending the Black-owned attribute in its Shopping tab to make it easier for consumers to find and patronize local businesses. Business owners can immediately add the attribute through the Google Merchant Help Center, and the feature will become available to all U.S. Google Merchants in the coming months.

Google sees the move as a natural extension of a similar feature rolled out last summer across search and maps. Now, with the retail angle, the company figures it could help bolster direct commerce for relevant establishments.

According to Attica Jaques, director of brand marketing for consumer apps at Google, search interest in Black-owned businesses soared 600 percent over the past 12 months, based on Google Trends data.

Across the country, people have been looking for Black-owned restaurants, Black-owned bookstores, Black-owned beauty supply and more, which speaks to the diversity within the Black business community, Jaques wrote in a Google blog post. We want to make it easier for people to support and spend dollars with the Black businesses they love.

The change fits into Googles stated goal with shopping. Its mission of democratizing online retail for merchants of all sizes, as a spokeswoman told WWD, spurred major updates to Google Shopping over the past year. Merchants were allowed to offer products for free and with no commission fees for online check-out via Buy on Google. The company also released changes designed to help consumers find new stores and compare prices.

Googles Black-owned business attribute in the Shopping tab.Courtesy image

The massive uptick in interest for supporting Black-owned businesses wasnt limited to Google. Yelp saw an even greater surge amounting to unprecedented numbers, it said. Searches for Black-owned businesses on the site shot up 2,400 percent in 2020, compared to 2019, and review mentions were up 232 percent over the same period.

Naturally, the online directory and review site for local businessesis celebrating Black History Month as well. To mark the occasion, Yelp is curating a list of Black-Owned Businesses to Watch in 2021 a roster that comprises highly rated and popular Black-owned businesses across the beauty, home, and food and restaurants categories.

Facebook and Instagram will double down on the parent companys #BuyBlack Friday campaign, which pulled in more than 15 million views last fall. This time, they aim to boost visibility for Black entrepreneurs with a #BuyBlack initiative across Facebook and Instagram Shops. Instagram will also promote Black-owned brands through its @Shop account.

Apple is marking the month with retail, too, though in a different way. On Monday, the tech giant said its releasing a Black Unity Collection for its Apple Watch that was designed to celebrate and acknowledge Black history and Black culture, a spokesperson said.

Apples Black Unity Collection offers a limited-edition Apple Watch Series 6, watch face and strap in honor of Black History Month.Courtesy image

The line includes a limited-edition Apple Watch Series 6 with a Black Unity Sport Band and a new Unity watch face. Apple Watch Series 6 Black Unity starts at $399, and the Black Unity Sport Band retails for $49.

According to the company, the effort will support six groups: Black Lives Matter Support Fund via the Tides Foundation; European Network Against Racism, International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights; Leadership Conference Education Fund; NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc., and Souls Grown Deep. How much of the proceeds will be directed to these organizations was unclear.

These projects are just a sliver of broader equity efforts and Black History Month initiatives. But the spotlight on shopping and social awareness could offer concrete, measurable support that can make a difference for Black-owned businesses, especially during the critical COVID-19 retail recovery period. And that means, hopefully, the support will continue on beyond just this month.

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Tech, Shopping and Black History Month - WWD

In building his Amazon empire from scratch, Jeff Bezos, the soon-to-be former chief executive officer, deserves to rank alongside other business titans, such as John D. Rockefeller and Bill Gates.

Like Rockefellers Standard Oil and Gatess Microsoft MSFT, +1.46%, companies which changed the U.S. economy in huge wayswhile creating fabulous wealth for themselves and their shareholdersBezoss Amazon AMZN, -2.00% forever altered the way we shop, read, consume and more.

Opinion:The key lesson for Amazon investors as Andy Jassy takes over from Jeff Bezos

But like Rockefeller and Gates, he also ran afoul of the U.S. government. Citing monopolistic concerns, the government broke up Standard Oil in the early 20th century, sought to break up Microsoft in the early 21st, and now talks about breaking up Amazon, along with other tech giants like Apple AAPL, -0.78%, Facebook FB, -0.16% and Alphabet GOOGL, +7.28%, the parent company of Google.

Being an alleged monopoly is but one issue. There are also growing concerns about privacy, and the huge amount of data that Amazon vacuums up each day from its customers, suppliers and rivals.

ICYMI: 5 things to know about new Amazon CEO Andy Jassy

These are about to become Andy Jassys problems. The incoming CEO, whose cloud-computing divisionAmazon Web Servicesis the companys real profit engine, will now have to fend off regulators, mostly Democrats, who are displeased with what some call Amazons monopolistic business practices, and suggest that perhaps it should be broken up.

One of those regulators is Washington Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, whose Seattle district includes Amazons headquarters.

Jayapaljust elected to her third term in Congress with 83% of the voteprobably represents more Amazon employees than anyone else, and says in a statement that the retail giant must be held to account for unacceptable treatment of workers including delivery drivers and warehouse employees; decisions to cut hazard pay and paid sick leave during a raging pandemic even as the top management and wealthiest shareholders get richer.

One chart: With Jeff Bezos at helm, Amazons stock performance has made the S&P 500 look like a flat line

Even more worrisome to Amazon than that salvo is the fact that Jayapal just happens to siton the antitrust subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee. She says Amazon (and other dominant tech platforms) engages in anticompetitive behavior and monopolistic practices, that should be reined in.

Jeff Bezos built Amazon into a monolithbut did it hurt American workers?

Amazon has thrown money at these problems, dropping $18.7 million on an army of 118 lobbyists in 2020 alone, according to public records.

But it seems unlikely that this will be enough to fend off lawmakers, who think Amazon and other tech giants have gotten too big and are stifling competition.

Therese Poletti: Amazon doesnt need Jeff Bezos as CEO to be Amazon

Whats interestingand problematic for companies such as Amazonis that this is actually a rare issue on which you can find agreement among Democrats and Republicans, albeit for different reasons.

The beef that Republicans have with big tech largely concerns alleged muzzling of conservative voices. In Amazons case, its recent move to stop providing cloud services to Parlera conservative-oriented social networkhas raised hackles in conservative circles, while Apple removed itfrom its App Store. Both Apple and Amazon said Parler hasnt done enough to address threats of violence from its users. The moves were announced days after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Democrats find themselves in a more contradictory position. Theyre supportive of big techs moves against alleged online threats, but have a beef with the above-mentioned anticompetitive practices, privacy and data issues.

Whats interesting here is the timing of Bezoss departure. Hes stepping aside just as all these issues are coming to a head. On Nov, 5, 1999, a federal judge, Thomas Penfield Jackson, declared that Microsoft was a monopoly that used its vast power to crush would-be-rivals. On Jan. 13, 2000just 61 days later, Gates said he was stepping down as CEO, to be replaced by Steve Ballmer. Even Rockefeller retired from day-to-day business operations at Standard Oil in the mid-1890s, not too long after Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, and after the OhioSupreme Court dissolved the Standard Oil Trust (the company would not be fully broken up until 1911).

Perhaps the timing of Rockefeller and Gatess departures then were coincidences, and perhaps Bezos deciding to leave later this year is too.

But it seems to me that the real fun in being a wildly successful entrepreneur is the chase: Starting something from scratch, working your rear end off, and seeing your idea soarand turning into buckets of money. It certainly isnt dealing for years on end with lawyers and often clueless politicians who think youve gotten too big for your britches and want to take you down a notch.

So perhaps Bezos, just 57 and with plenty of things on his plate, like Blue Origin, a spaceflight company, is getting out when the getting is good. A monopoly? An abuser of data and trampler on the privacy of others? A silencer of conservative voices?

These are subjective matters which will play out for months and years to come. Amazons market cap, as of Wednesdays close, was $1.65 trillion. Hes leaving on top.

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Like Rockefeller and Gates, Bezos rides off into the sunset just as the lawyers take away the fun - MarketWatch

The Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba said on Tuesday that it was conducting internal reviews of its business in response to an antitrust investigation by the Chinese government, which in recent months has begun scrutinizing the countrys big internet companies like never before.

For many years, the growth of giants like Alibaba was celebrated in China as the fruit of a thriving private sector. Now, regulators in Beijing are more concerned about how the companies size and influence are affecting the interests of their customers and competitors, echoing the scrutiny that Western tech giants like Google face in the United States and Europe.

We approach this antimonopoly investigation with a cooperative, receptive and open mind set, Alibabas chief executive, Daniel Zhang, said on a conference call announcing the companys latest financial results. We have a deep appreciation of the significant social and public responsibilities of operating our platform. Beyond complying with regulatory requirements, we will continue to do our best to fulfill our responsibilities to society.

Mr. Zhang said Alibaba would say more when the investigation was complete. He gave no indication when that might be.

Chinas market watchdog announced the inquiry in late December, amid a series of actions by the authorities to rein in tech giants. The month before, officials had abruptly halted plans by Ant Group, Alibabas financial-technology affiliate, to go public in Shanghai and Hong Kong, citing the need for new supervision of internet finance. Regulators later ordered Ant to revamp its business, a process that Mr. Zhang said was still ongoing.

Ants business prospects and fund-raising plans remain subject to substantial uncertainties, Mr. Zhang said.

Like other tech giants such as Amazon, Alibaba has enjoyed strong growth during the pandemic, as lockdowns lead people to depend more on digital services.

Chinas resilient economy helped drive a 37 percent increase in Alibabas sales in the latest quarter, the company also said on Tuesday. Profits for the quarter were $12.2 billion and revenue was $33.9 billion, beating analysts forecasts. Cloud computing revenue grew 50 percent from a year ago, to $2.5 billion. Alibaba said that part of its business was profitable for the first time in the December quarter.

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Alibaba said it is examining its business in response to an antitrust investigation. - The New York Times

As it has grown in recent years, Slack has become an essential workplace tool, with many users in media organizations and companies that have shifted to working from home because of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 750,000 companies use the service, according to Slack, which became an independent, publicly traded company in mid-2019.

Salesforce, a company that sells marketing and sales software, announced in December that it would buy Slack for $27.7 billion in cash and stock, the latest in a series of major deals showing the demand for tools that allow people to work remotely. Adobe said in November that it planned to acquire the management software company Workfront for $1.5 billion, and Atlassian, which sells tools for developers, said it would buy the enterprise services business Mindville for an undisclosed amount.

The high-profile deals indicated intense competition in the market for workplace software. Other companies with such products, including Airtable, Dropbox and Smartsheet, may be among the potential targets for acquisitions by powerful tech companies. Executives at Slack, which was founded in 2010, had rejected such offers in the past.

Slack has also faced increasing competition, especially from Microsoft, which offers a collaboration product called Teams. In July, Slack filed a complaint with the European Commission that claimed that Microsoft had unfairly bundled Teams with its Microsoft Office work products, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Though outages were once fairly common for internet companies, especially start-ups that grew quickly, they have become more rare as several tech giants, like Google and Facebook, have built networks of interconnected data centers.

But major firms have experienced widespread problems in recent months, highlighting how reliant many companies, schools and governments have become on those networks.

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Slack Is Restored - The New York Times

The CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google are facing a grilling by GOP senators making unfounded allegations that the tech giants show anti-conservative bias. Their focus includes Section 230, a law relating to unfettered internet speech. (Oct. 28) AP Domestic

In 1996, Congress passed the Communications Decency Act, which fueled the rise of the modern internet and technology giants Facebook, Google and Twitter. And thatlaw contains a provision that has emerged as one of the nation's most hotly contested issues.

Section 230 allowed these companies to largely regulate themselves, shielding them from liability for much of the content their users post on their platforms, and granting companies legal immunity for good faith efforts to remove content that violates their policies.

The key part of the provisionsometimes called the "twenty-six words that created the internet" reads: No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.

What that boils down to: Individual users canbe sued for content they post but generally the platformscannot, at least not successfully.

From COVID-19 to voter fraud:Trump is nation's single largest spreader of disinformation, studies say

'Who the hell elected you?'Tech CEOs accused of bias against Trump and conservatives days before election

There are exceptions such as federal crimes and intellectual property claims. Also, lawmakers in 2018 chipped away at Section 230 protections by passing a law that makes it easier to sue internet platforms that knowingly aid sex trafficking.

But broadly speaking, internet companies have wide latitude to decide what can stay on their platforms and what must come down. Internet platforms say they could not exist in their current form without these protections.

We have to get rid of Section 230, President Donald Trump said at a rally in Georgia on Monday night, referring to the horrendous tech giants. Or youre not going to have a country very long.

Democrats and Republicans agree that the nation's leading tech companies have becometoo powerfuland need tougher regulation. Both partiesare threatening to narrow or repeal Section 230.

Bottom line, they say, social media platforms should be held more accountable for how they police content. But their reasons are very different.

Democrats including president-elect Joe Biden have urged Congress to revise Section 230 to force tech companies to remove hate speech and extremism, election interference and falsehoods.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called Section 230 a giftto Big Tech. "It is not out of the question that that could be removed," she said in 2019.

Trump and many Republicans, on the other hand, accuse tech companies of censoring conservativesand limiting their reach on social media.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appears on a monitor behind a stenographer as he testifies remotely during the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing "Does Section 230's Sweeping Immunity Enable Big Tech Bad Behavior?" on Oct. 28.(Photo: Pool, Getty Images)

A number of bills to hold Facebook, Google and Twitter legally accountable for how they moderate content are circulating in Congress, includingthe EARN IT Actand the PACT Act.

However, Jeff Kosseff, an assistant professor of cybersecurity law in the United States Naval Academys Cyber Science Department, saysit would be challengingfor Congress to reach consensus on how to alter Section 230.

You have two competing views as to what platforms should be doing, Kosseff, author of The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet, told USA TODAY last year. Its hard to imagine what would satisfy everyone who is upset with the tech companies.

If Section 230 were repealed, he says we would see the platforms conduct more moderation, not less, because of the increased risk of their liability for content users' post.

Twitters Jack Dorsey and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg say their platforms strike a balance between promoting free expression and removing harmful content. They acknowledge making some enforcement errors but say their policies are applied fairly to everyone.

Both tech leaders say they're open to revising Section 230. Zuckerberg told lawmakers in November: "We would benefit from clearer guidance from elected officials."

Censorship or conspiracy theory?Trump supporters say Facebook and Twitter censor them but conservatives still rule socialmedia

Dorsey said the platforms should be more open with users about how content moderation decisions are made and should offer a straightforward way to appeal moderation decisions. Hed also like to see users be able to opt out of algorithms that determine what content they see on the platform.

Trumps attacks on Section 230 intensified in the final weeks of his re-election campaign as social media companies labeled or removed posts they deemed false or misleading or that could cause harm or incite violence.

Former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump are on opposite sides of the vote-by-mail issue.(Photo: AP)

If anything, the attacks intensified after the election as social media companies flagged the presidents allegations of election rigging and voter fraud. Trump also tried to repeal Section 230 through the National Defense Authorization Act.

Charges of anti-conservative bias raged before the presidential election when Facebook and Twitter limited the spread of a New York Post article about Bidens son Hunter, which cited unverified emails reportedly uncovered by allies of Trump.

Zuckerberg said Facebook throttled the story while it was being fact-checked after warnings from the FBI to be on "heightened alert" about "hack and leak operations" in the final days before the 2020 election.

Twitter initially blocked links to the article, saying the links included peoples personal information and relied on hacked materials, both violations of its policies, but then reversed itself.

Conservatives have complained for years that social media companies silence the political speech of right-leaning users.

Nine in 10 Republicans and independents who lean toward the Republican Party say its at least somewhat likely that social media platforms censor political viewpoints they find objectionable, up slightly from 85% in 2018, according to an August report from the Pew Research Center.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law on Online Platforms and Market Power in the Rayburn House office Building, July 29, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.(Photo: Pool, Getty Images)

Researchers have found no evidence to support GOP grievances that conservative voices are squelched. Rather, they say social media algorithms dont have a political affiliation or party but instead favor content that elicits strong reactions from users. What's more, studies consistently show that conservative voices and viewpoints dominate the conversation on these platforms.

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Donald Trump and Joe Biden vs. Facebook and Twitter: Why Section 230 could get repealed in 2021 - USA TODAY

LG This story is part of CES, where our editors will bring you the latest news and the hottest gadgets of the entirely virtual CES 2021.

CES 2021 is coming up fast, but LG just couldn't wait to introduce the TV world's latest four-letter word. The manufacturer, best known for excellent OLED TVs like the CX series, is coming out with a new line of televisions called QNED. Based on the more common LCD TV technology instead ofOLED, QNED combines the benefits of its NanoCell technology with quantum dots for improved color, contrast and brightness, according to LG.

QNED TVs will occupy the upper end of LG's 2021 LCD TV lineup, but company representatives were careful to say they won't deliver the same level of picture quality as its OLED TVs. LG has not announced any new 2021 OLED TVs, but is expected to do so closer to CES.

QNED is just one letter away from QLED, a technology touted by Samsung and TCL with largely similar underpinnings (LED LCD backlights and quantum dots), so confusion is inevitable. LG says its QNED TVs will use Mini-LED backlight technology, much like TCL's 6-Series and 8-Series QLED TVs, which again improve brightness and contrast compared to traditional LED backlights. Samsung has not announced any Mini-LED TVs yet, but it does market wall-sized, exceedingly high-end televisions that use MicroLED tech.

Read more: Mini-LED LCD TV tech: Tiny lights lead to better picture quality

LG has yet to provide much additional information on its QNED sets. It did not say exactly how NanoCell and quantum dots would work together (both technologies traditionally focus on improving color) or provide more specifications -- aside from saying the TVs would have "up to" 30,000 Mini-LEDs and 2,500 local dimming zones, presumably in the largest sizes. It also did not announce exactly which models will use QNED or what screen sizes and resolutions (4K and/or 8K) they'll have. Company representatives promised more details closer to CES; LG has a press conference scheduled for Jan. 11.

In the meantime TV shoppers are faced with yet another confusing, similar-sounding brand name. At CNET we'll do our best to unravel it once we get more information. How QNED compares with QLED and other high-end LCD TVs, or with OLED TVs, is the biggest question however, and ultimately that answer will have to wait for reviews. Stay tuned.

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Sensor and imaging technology company FLIR Systems will sell to Teledyne Technologies for approximately $8 billion in cash and stock. The deal represents a 40% premium for FLIR stockholders.

Founded more than four decades ago in the Portland, Ore. region, FLIR went public in 1993. The company sells thermal imaging, night vision, and related products to customers in industries such as military, industrial, and public safety. It moved its executive team to a second HQ in Virginia last year, The Oregonian noted, and has about 350 employees in Wilsonville, Ore. FLIR employs more than 4,000 worldwide.

Publicly-traded giant Teledyne, based in California, sells similar products but the deal will complement its existing offerings, according to executives.

At the core of both our companies is proprietary sensor technologies. Our business models are also similar: we each provide sensors, cameras and sensor systems to our customers, Teledyne Chairman Robert Mehrabian said in a statement. However, our technologies and products are uniquely complementary with minimal overlap, having imaging sensors based on different semiconductor technologies for different wavelengths.

Teledyne said today it expects $800 million in fourth quarter sales, down slightly from the year-ago period. The companys stock fell more than 7% Monday after the acquisition news. Shares fell in March but have bounced back.

FLIR reported full-year revenue of $1.9 billion in 2019 and expects 2020 revenue between $1.8 billion and $1.9 billion. The companys stock also nosedived in March, came back in April and May, fell slightly through the summer, and increased toward the end of 2019.

The pandemic has brought new business to FLIR. Amid the economic downturn, the company in August reported high demand for its thermal imaging cameras used to detect elevated body temperature. Its thermal imaging tech was also used to help assess wildfires this summer.

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Teledyne to acquire thermal imaging company FLIR Systems for $8 billion in cash and stock - GeekWire

TipRanks

Weve turned a new page on the calendar, Old Man 20 is out the door, and theres a feeling 21 is gonna be a good year and so far, so good. The markets closed out 2020 with modest session gains to cap off larger annual gains. The S&P 500 rose 16% during the corona crisis year, while the NASDAQ, with its heavy tech representation, showed an impressive annual gain of nearly 43%. The advent of two viable COVID vaccines is fueling a surge in general optimism.Wall Streets top analysts have been casting their eye at the equity markets, finding those gems that investors should give serious consideration in this new year. These are analysts with 5-star ratings from TipRanks database, and they are pointing out the stocks with Strong Buy ratings in short, this is where investors can expect to find share growth over the next 12 months. We are talking returns of at least 70% over the next 12 months, according to the analysts. ElectraMeccanica Vehicles (SOLO)Electric vehicles, EVs, are growing more popular as consumers look for alternatives to the traditional internal combustion gasoline engine. While EVs simply move the source of combustion from under the hood to the electric power plant, they do offer real advantages for drivers: they offer greater acceleration, more torque, and they are more energy efficient, converting up to 60% of their battery energy into forward motion. These advantages, as EV technology improves, are starting to outweigh the drawbacks of shorter range and expensive battery packs.ElectraMeccanica, a small-cap manufacturer from British Columbia, is the designer and marketer of the Solo, a single-seat, three-wheel EV built for the urban commuter market. Technically, the Solo is classed as an electric motorcycle but it is fully enclosed, with a door on either side, features a trunk, air conditioning, and a Bluetooth connection, and travels up to 100 miles on a single charge at speeds up to 80 miles per hour. The recharging time is low, less than 3 hours, and the vehicle is priced at less than $20,000.Starting in Q3 2020, the company delivered its first shipment of vehicles to the US, and expanded into six additional US urban markets, including San Diego, CA and Scottsdale and Glendale, AZ. ElectraMeccanica also opened four new storefronts in the US 2 in Los Angeles, one in Scottsdale, and one in Portland, OR. In addition, the company has begun design and marketing work a fleet version of the Solo, to target the commercial fleet and car rental markets starting in the first half of this year.Craig Irwin, 5-star analyst with Roth Capital, is impressed by SOLOs possible applications to the fleet market. He writes of this opening, We believe the pandemic is a tailwind for fast food chains exploring better delivery options. Chains look to avoid third party delivery costs and balance brand identity implications of operator- vs. company-owned vehicles. The SOLO's 100-mile range, low operating cost, and std telematics make the vehicle a good fit, in our view, particularly when location data can be integrated into a chain's kitchen software. We would not be surprised if SOLO made a couple announcements with major chains after customers validate plans.Irwin puts a Buy rating on SOLO, supported by his $12.25 price target which implies a 98% upside potential for the stock in 2021. (To watch Irwins track record, click here)Speculative tech is popular on Wall Street, and ElectraMeccanica fits that bill nicely. The company has 3 recent reviews, and all are Buys, making the analyst consensus a unanimous Strong Buy. Shares are priced at $6.19 and have an average target of $9.58, making the one-year upside 55%. (See SOLO stock analysis on TipRanks)Nautilus Group (NLS)Based in Washington State, this fitness equipment manufacturer has seen a massive stock gain in 2020, as its shares rocketed by more than 900% over the course of the year, even accounting for recent dips in the stock value. Nautilus gained as the social lockdown policies took hold and gyms were shuttered in the name of stopping or slowing the spread of COVID-19. The company, which owns major home fitness brands like Bowflex, Schwinn, and the eponymous Nautilus, offered home-bound fitness buffs the equipment needed to stay in shape.The share appreciation accelerated in 2H20, after the companys revenues showed a recovery from Q1 losses due to the corona recession. In the second quarter, the top line hit $114 million, up 22% sequentially; in Q3, revenues reached $155, for a 35% sequential gain and a massive 151% year-over-year gain. Earnings were just as strong, with the Q3 $1.04 EPS profit beating coming in far above the year-ago quarters 30-cent loss.Watching this stock for Lake Street Capital is 5-star analyst Mark Smith, who is bullish on this stock. Smith is especially cognizant of the recent dip in share price, noting that the stock is now off its peak which makes it attractive to investors. Nautilus reported blowout results for 3Q:20 with strength across its portfolio We think the company has orders and backlog to drive high sales and earnings for the next several quarters and think we have seen a fundamental shift in consumers' exercise-at-home behavior. We would view the recent pull back as a buying opportunity, Smith opined.Smiths $40 price target supports his Buy rating, and indicates a robust 120% one-year upside potential. (To watch Smiths track record, click here)The unanimous Strong Buy consensus rating shows that Wall Street agrees with Smith on Nautilus potential. The stock has 4 recent reviews, and all are to Buy. Shares closed out 2020 with a price of $18.14, and the average target of $30.25 suggests the stock has room for ~67% upside growth in 2021. (See NLS stock analysis on TipRanks)KAR Auction Services (KAR)Last but not least is KAR Auction Services, a car auctioning company, which operates online and physical marketplaces to connect buyers and sellers. KAR sells to both business buyers and individual consumers, offering vehicles for a variety of uses: commercial fleets, private travel, even the second-had parts market. In 2019, the last year for which full-year numbers are available, KAR sold 3.7 million vehicles for $2.8 billion in total auction revenue.The ongoing corona crisis, with its social lockdown policies, put a damper on car travel and reduced demand for used vehicles across market segments. KAR shares slipped 13% in 2020, in a year of volatile trading. In the recent 3Q20 report, the company showed revenue of $593.6 million, down over 15% year-over-year. Third quarter earnings, however, at 23 cents per share profit, were down less, 11% yoy, and showed a strong sequential recovery from the Q2 EPS loss of 25 cents.As the new vaccines promise an end to the COVID pandemic later this year, and the lifting of lockdown and local travel restrictions, the mid- to long-term prospects for the second-hand car market and for KAR Auctions are brightening, according to Truist analyst Stephanie Benjamin.The 5-star analyst noted, Our estimates now assume that the volume recovery occurs in 2021 vs. 4Q20 under our previous estimates Overall, we believe the 3Q results reflect that KAR is well executing on the initiatives within its control, specifically improving its cost structure and transforming to a pure digital auction model.Looking further ahead, she adds, delinquencies and defaults for auto loans and leases have increased and we believe will serve as a meaningful volume tailwind in 2021 as repo activity resumes. Additionally, repo vehicles generally require ancillary services which should yield higher RPU. This supply influx should also help moderate the used pricing environment and drive dealers to fill up their lots, which remain at three-year lows from an inventory standpoint.In line with these comments, Benjamin sets a $32 price target, implying a high 71% one-year upside potential to the stock, and rates KAR as a Buy. (To watch Benjamins track record, click here)Wall Street generally is willing to speculate on KARs future, as indicated by the recent reviews, which split 5 to 1 Buy to Hold, and make the analyst consensus view a Strong Buy. KAR is selling for $18.61, and its $24.60 average price target suggests it has room to grow 32% from that level. (See KAR stock analysis on TipRanks)To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights.Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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Byron Wien Says S&P 500 Will Tumble Before Rallying to 4,500 - Yahoo Finance

Just a few days into the new year, Samsung has announced that its going to unveil its next flagship possibly called the Galaxy S21 on January 14. This would be the earliest release for the S-series flagship considering its usually slotted for February or March.

The event date is not entirely surprising as tipster Jon Prosser had hinted at this last November.

Samsung will supposedly launch a trio of phones: the Galaxy S21, the Galaxy S21+, and the Galaxy S21 Ultra. The Ultra is rumored to lead the pack with a 108-megapixel main sensor and support for Samsungs S-Pen stylus, like the companys Galaxy Note series.

Credit: Android Police

However, if Samsung follows Apples steps, and removes the charging brick from the shipping boxesof these phones, that might take the headlines instead of the devices features.

Apart from phones, Samsung might release a couple of other gadgets at the event too. The Korean tech giant could launch the Galaxy Buds Pro wireless earphones with active noise cancellation, along with its Tile-like item tracker tag.

Samsungs event will be live-streamed on its site and YouTube channel on January 14 at 10AM ET/ 7AM PT/ 4PM CET/ 8.30 PM IST.

Well bring you all the coverage from the event on Plugged.

Did you know we have a newsletter all about consumer tech? Its called Plugged In and you can subscribe to it right here.

Published January 4, 2021 07:32 UTC

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Samsung is going to launch the Galaxy S21 on January 14 - The Next Web

Quill Intelligence LLC chief strategist and CEO Danielle Dimartino Booth and Agora Financial market strategist Alan Knuckman provide insight into todays markets and potential consequences of Tuesdays Georgia Senate elections.

Stockssold off sharply after opening higher on the first day of trading in 2021, despite the prospects for continued fiscal stimulus and coronavirus vaccine rollouts aiding investor optimism.

Instead, investors focused on the tight race in Georgia thatwill determine who controls the Senate. Additionally, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced even tougher lockdowns in the region.

All three of the major U.S. averages saw declines of over 1% with the Dow Jones Industrial dropping over 382 pointsbut managingto come back from a deficit of over 600 points. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.47% each.

Despite the drop,Teslashares continued their record run after the Elon Musk-led company said it delivered almost 500,000 cars in 2020, falling just shy of Musk's previously stated goal. Shares closed 3.4% higher.

In other tech news, a small group of Google employees has voted to unionize. While the group is considered more symbolic it could potentially spark a trend among other tech giants, say industry watchers.

Slack, which Salesforce announced its intention to acquire towardthe end of 2020, fell as the communications platform experienceda service outage on Monday, impacting millions of its users.

The company's official Twitter account noted that there were issues with connecting and channels loading. The service outage started just shortly after 10 a.m. EST. but hassince returned to operating normally.

There were scattered reports of other interruptions, including Microsoft's Teams and Zoom, per Downdetector,as well as H&R Block.

INVESTORS BULLISH ON STOCKS, HOPING FOR A BRIGHTER 202

Shares of Herbalife wereactive on Monday after The Wall Street Journal reported thatactivist investor Carl Icahn has sold more than half of his stake in the companywhile also relinquishing seats on its board of directors.

China's biggest telecom companies, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, are under pressure after the New York Stock Exchange said it would delist the three, citing an executive order.

In other China news, there are reports China's richest man, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, has not been seen in recent days. Still, FOX Business has learnedhe is keeping a low profile despite ongoing tensions between his businesses and the Chinese government.

WHERE'S ALIBABA'S JACK MA?

ECONOMIC NUMBERS

Spending on construction projects in the U.S. rose 0.9% in November, according to the Commerce Department. Economists surveyed by Refinitiv expected a gain of 1%. Construction spending in October was revised higher to 1.6%.

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In other asset classes, bitcoin fell nearly 10% to the $31,000 levelafter rallying in the final days of 2020 and the first couple of days of 2021, surpassing the $34,000 level.

West Texas Intermediate crude rosenearly 1.85% to $47.62per barrel, while gold jumped higher, gaining more than 2.7% to$1,944.70an ounce.

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Dow drops over 382 points with tight Georgia election ahead - Fox Business

A pandemic that ravaged the world and accelerated the digital transformation of, well, everything? Not even the best of futurists or Magic 8 ball-shaking psychics could have predicted the year that was 2020. And yet while we may have missed the biggest news, our predictions for what would occur in the tech world held up decently. (OK, fine, we didnt think Quibi would die that quickly.)

Now, 2020 has become the lens through which all our 2021 predictions are glimpsed. As we continue to live in a pandemic-fighting world, innovators will aim tech solutions at our personal and professional lives, from at-home streaming movie debuts to an overdue evolutionary leap of the laptop. But we will also strive to reach a new normal, and youll see technology helping us there, too, from new hybrid work practices to high-tech masks. And accompanying each new product or service: yet another monthly subscription fee.

Now that weve rung in the new year, heres what to look for.

Masks, webcams and sanitizers for our bodies... and our gadgets. The pandemic sparked a reliance on things our 2019 selves couldnt ever have imagined. With marketers keen to capitalize on the new interest (and anxiety), 2021 will likely be full of new gizmos that boldly promise to improve it all.

One key area: better webcams for our constant video calling. Samsung has already announced that its forthcoming Galaxy smartphone, expected in early 2021, will improve video recording and calling. We anticipate laptop makers will do the same and finally ditch their crappy, low-resolution webcams.

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Tech That Will Change Your Life in 2021 - The Wall Street Journal

Today, Jamf has announced that it is now managing 20 million Apple devices for customers around the world. In the past five years, theyve added 16 million devices compared to just 4 million devices through its first 13 years.

Coming into 2015, Jamf was 13 years old and managing less than 4 million devices for approximately 5,000 customers. That year, as the enterprise saw a growing number of professionals demanding to use Apple at work, we set an aggressive goal to empower the new workforce by running on 20 million Apple devices by the end of 2020, said Dean Hager, CEO of Jamf. Through our mission to help organizations succeed with Apple, we are proud to have achieved this milestone, and more importantly to have enabled so many organizations to help their employees, doctors, nurses, teachers and students get the most out of their technology and be their best.

Jamf now has more than 47,000 customers, adding more than 4 million devices and 11,000 customers in 2020 alone. Its customers include 24 of Forbes 25 most valuable brands, all of the top 10 of Bankrates largest U.S. banks, all 10 of the global universities according to U.S. News & World Report, 16 of the top 20 best U.S. hospitals, according to U.S. News & World Report, and seven of the top 10 Fortune 500 tech companies.

Jamf sells three types of mobile device management systems for Apple products. Jamf Pro, formerly known as the Casper Suite, is the powerhouse product offering the largest feature set. Jamf School is a K-12 focused MDM solution aimed to make it easier to implement and manage products in education, and Jamf Now is a small-business focused MDM solution. Jamf also offers Jamf Connect to streamline Mac authentication and identity management as many organizations move away from Active Directory and Jamf Protect for Mac endpoint security.

Apple products are used by all members of the Fortune 500, so organizations that have typically relied on Windows-based products with Microsoft based management solutions are in need of macOS and iOS focused management solutions. With 2020 moving many companies and schools completely remote, Jamf continued innovating around zero-touch deployment for at-home employees, virtual education options for students, and remote patient care. With most of these trends continuing into 2021, its not surprising to see Jamf reach the 20 million device number, and itll likely continue to grow.

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Jamf is now managing 20 million devices around the world as Apples enterprise growth continues - 9to5Mac

A somewhat nebulous, but high-profile and potentially heavily moneyed joint venture is coming to an end: Haven, the JV created by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, is being disbanded according to CNBC, three years after its original formation. One of the main reasons is that each partner in the venture was apparently just pursuing their own very different strategic approach to their respective healthcare challenges, meaning there really wasnt much joint in the joint venture to begin with.

In a statement provided to CNBC, a Haven spokesperson highlighted some of the good results that came out of the partnership over the years, including improving access to primary care and making insurance benefits packages easier to grasp for employees. Meanwhile, Amazon has made lots of progress on its own with its Amazon Care program, which is its internal healthcare program for employees at its Washington facilities.

Amazon Care includes provision of both virtual and in-person primary care doctor visits and prescription delivery. The company is also reported to be considering expansion of this service to other businesses, which signals its intent to turn it into a real business with aims very much in line with what the Haven JV had originally taken as its guiding light.

To be honest, the original announcement about the JVs founding was light on details and seemed like one of those things that comes together when very rich people talk about their shared problems over a casual afternoon hang at the club with caviar and mineral water distilled from pristine arctic ice or whatever they enjoy during their repasts, so its not all that surprising it didnt materialize into anything more substantial.

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The Amazon-Berkshire Hathaway-JPMorgan healthcare joint venture is officially ending - TechCrunch

The Amazfit Bip U Pro is another very impressive smartwatch that's surprisingly affordable.

In case you're keeping score, Amazfit introduced about 37 new wearables last year. OK, not quite that many, but a bunch -- and I've had the opportunity to test-drive many of them.

What follows is a very preliminary first take on the Amazfit Bip U Pro, which is a pretty clunky name for a pretty impressive watch. I've been wearing it for only a day or so, but wanted to bring it to your attention in case you're, say, looking for ways to spend an Amazon gift card you got for Christmas.

Read more: Spend those gift cards! Here's the best stuff to buy, starting at $25

The Bip U Pro is, unsurprisingly, an upgraded version of the Bip U, which has been on the market for barely a month. There's zero point in buying the latter when the Pro is just $10 more and adds one crucial feature: built-in GPS. It also adds built-in Alexa, which isn't crucial but can be nice to have.

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Like the majority of Amazfit watches, this one packs in a wealth of features -- some implemented better than others, but overall a very solid roster. It sports a razor-sharp 1.43-inch color screen, heart-rate and blood-oxygen monitors, over 60 sport modes and a battery that's good for up to nine days.

What you don't get here is an always-on option. If that's an important feature, consider the Amazfit Bip S, which is also priced at $70 and has a lower-resolution transflective screen. However, it offers only about 10 sport modes and no Alexa.

None of the Bip models let you reply to or dictate text messages, and they don't automatically detect workouts. The clunky, sometimes confusing companion app -- annoyingly named Zepp -- remains a thorn in the entire Amazfit lineup, but it's far from a deal-breaker.

Indeed, based on what I've seen of the Bip U Pro thus far, it might just be the star of that lineup. The hardware is pretty superb, the fitness features capable, the price borderline unbelievable.

Your thoughts?

Tidal has exclusive music content and offers first dibs on concert tickets.

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That's not $4 a month, mind you, but $4 for all four months. After that, you're back to the regular rate of $20 unless you cancel.

The HiFi plan uses the FLAC format to stream lossless audio, meaning fully uncompressed. If you're the type of person who spends hundreds of dollars on headphones and insists on ultimate fidelity, this is the way to go.

CNET's Cheapskate scours the web for great deals on tech products and much more. For the latest deals and updates, follow himon FacebookandTwitter. You can also sign up for deal texts delivered right to your phone. Find more great buys on theCNET Deals pageand check out ourCNET Coupons pagefor the latestWalmart discount codes,eBay coupons,Samsung promo codesand even more fromhundreds of other online stores. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Answers live on our FAQ page.

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The Amazfit Bip U Pro smartwatch for $70 is pretty amazing - CNET

In recent news, tech giants such as Google, Intel and Dell, among others in the IT and cloud computing space, have joined hands to form a consortium. Named as the Modern Computing Alliance, this consortium will tackle problems related to security, remote working environments, and other enterprise issues.

Speaking of its participation in the alliance, Google Chrome Vice President John Solomon wrote in a blog post, Our collective mission is to drive silicon-to-cloud innovation for the benefit of enterprise customers, fueling a differentiated modern computing platform and providing additional choice for integrated business solutions.

As per the alliance, the initial focus areas will include performance, security and identity, remote work and productivity, and health care. The end goal would be to pool knowledge and resources to identify shared problems across enterprises and how cloud solutions can be leveraged to ease the whole new normal in working environments. The alliance also looks at establishing new standards and technologies from the partner companies that can be used by anyone.

Solomon also mentioned in the blog that the alliance would look at employing faster and more responsive enterprise progressive web applications (PWAs). It also aims at introducing cloud-first cultures and devices that will provide ease of management and insights on the fully integrated stack. Modern Computing Alliance is committed to developing an integrated roadmap that makes the best use of our collective experience, insights and expertise while giving us a clear path forward to improve customer choice and the enterprise computing market, he added.

The alliance, which also has companies such as Box, VMWare, Zoom, Slack, RingCentral, Citrix, Okta as its founding partners, has developed a roadmap to deal with the most pressing challenges in end-user computing. Some of the solutions suggested by the alliance include

The founding stones for this alliance were laid even before the coronavirus pandemic. In an interview, Solomon said that the initial discussion for forming such a consortium was conducted during the Consumer Electronics Show in 2019 at Las Vegas with limited partners. However, with the onset of the pandemic, the companies decided on expanding their scope further and include partners like Slack and Zoom, which has gained massive prominence in how corporates were operating now.

The group is also inviting as many IT professionals as it can to build a council of experts who would identify and resolve major problems. To further attract the best talent, the alliance has also listed benefits of joining the council. They include:

Cross company collaboration and alliance as this one is not rare. The earlier examples of similar collaborations include the 1991s Advanced Computing Environment consisting of Compaq, Microsoft, MIPS Computer Systems, Digital Equipment Corporation, and the Santa Cruz Operation, and the AIM Alliance consisting of Apple, IBM, and Motorola.

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The main product from Advanced Computing Environment was the introduction of the Advanced RISC Computing specification, just before the alliance finally dissolved due to infighting.

The AIM Alliance was slightly more successful, and it developed the PowerPC CPU family, the Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP) hardware platform standard, and also laid the foundation for Apples Power Macintosh computer line.

It seems that the new Modern Computer Alliance is led by Google as of now and it would be interesting to see what comes off this collaboration.

I am a journalist with a postgraduate degree in computer network engineering. When not reading or writing, one can find me doodling away to my hearts content.

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Tech Giants Form Alliance For IT Tools & Transformation. How Does That Matter? - Analytics India Magazine

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Between COVID-19, a contentious presidential election and any number of other world events, 2020 was a wild year. Despite the craziness, the smart home industry has continued to chug along, churning out dozens of interesting new devices, from spherical smart speakers to selfie-snapping bird feeders. Leading the way into the future of the home: Amazon, Google and more recently Apple.

Which of these tech giants won 2020 in the smart home, as much as that's possible? Has Amazon's aggressive development of Alexa finally closed the gap with the smarter Google Assistant? Will Apple's $99 Homepod Mini earn it a larger share of the Amazon- and Google-dominated smart speaker market?

We're David Priest and Molly Price, CNET's writers covering Amazon, Apple and Google in the smart home, and we're finishing 2020 with a critical conversation about what the exact state of play is among these Silicon Valley behemoths.

CNET Smart Home and Appliances

Get smart home reviews and ratings, video reviews, buying guides, prices and comparisons from CNET.

David: I want to start this conversation with Apple, because for years they've been kind of the tortoise to Google's and especially Amazon's hares. Until the end of 2020, the only smart speaker Apple sold was the expensive Homepod, which peaked at a 5% share of the total smart speaker market in the US. Meanwhile, Amazon launched half a dozen smart speakers and displays in 2019 alone, and Google followed not far behind, in large part thanks to its popular Nest Mini.

But now everything's changed, because Apple introduced a budget speaker to compete with well, it's unclear exactly what it competes with, because it's roughly the size of the Echo Dot and Nest Mini, but it's the price of the much stronger Echo and Nest Audio speakers. Quibbles aside, though, the Homepod Mini is really putting Apple into much closer competition with its rivals.

Apple's Homepod Mini is shaking up the Amazon- and Google-dominated smart speaker market.

Molly, you reviewed the Homepod Mini. Can you speak to how much it will or won't shake up the smart speaker race for our countertops?

Molly: Apple certainly jumped back into the game this year when it comes to smart speakers. The HomePod Mini debuted at $99. That's about as cheap as any standalone Apple product comes these days. It sounds great, looks Apple-y and does everything you'd expect it to do as a smart home starting point. The only thing it's missing is the broad selection of compatible third-party devices Amazon and Google offer. I was convinced Apple didn't care about the smart home anymore, but the HomePod Mini felt like more than just an afterthought.

D: Agreed. Meanwhile, Amazon and Google have continued to add steadily to their existing product lines. Amazon's new full-size Echo and Dot smart speakers are popular and are both selling at the time of this conversation for $70 and $30, respectively. Those prices are pretty crazy, especially considering the quality of the products -- in particular the full-size Echo.

Amazon's newest Echo is one of the best smart speakers we've ever tested.

The other thing to keep in mind for Amazon is that, although it's the one smart speaker developer without a suite of other phone-centric services to key into (Apple's speakers cooperate better with iOS and Google's speakers cooperate better with Android), it is owned by the world's largest online distributor. That means Amazon can work to sell its smart home devices more effectively than pretty much any competitor.

So who is winning the race for our countertops?

Winner: Amazon

Notable improvement: Apple

D: OK, market penetration is one conversation, but let's talk about the real quality of the devices -- that's the most important thing for potential customers anyway, right? While the full-size Echo smart speaker was one of my favorite smart home devices of the year -- between its reasonable price tag and its excellent sound quality -- I will admit I was a little disappointed that Amazon's new Echo Show 10 smart display, which follows you around the room with its screen and camera, won't launch this year. More than any year in recent memory, 2020 seems like it would've been a perfect opportunity for these companies to make a compelling case for smart displays -- and that opportunity went largely missed.

Of course, no one else launched a great smart display this year either, so I can't knock Amazon too much.

Molly, what's your read on the voice assistance race? Google Assistant has traditionally been CNET's favorite, but are Alexa and Siri catching up?

Google Assistant remains the most naturalistic voice assistant in 2020.

M: Alexa is catching up. Amazon recently announced live translation for Echo Show devices, predictive smart home actions for all Alexa devices and Amazon Sidewalk, a feature that slices off a small part of your Wi-Fi bandwidth to enable long-range transmissions with things outside the home, like smart lawn lights and Tile trackers. It's these seemingly smaller innovations that can add up to big advantages over other brands.

Siri? Not so much. As a voice assistant, Siri can accomplish the basics -- but it doesn't sound as naturalistic as Alexa or Google Assistant, and its answers to questions often miss the mark. There are definitely a few cool tricks up Apple's sleeve when it comes to HomePod and smart home integration (and I'm betting we'll see more thanks to their new U1 chip), but Siri otherwise stayed largely the same.

Google released a series of updates for smart displays this year with a focus on, you guessed it, staying connected and online learning (though it warrants a note that only the $230 Nest Hub Max display includes a camera for video chatting). All the incremental updates I saw this year still didn't add up to anything that felt significantly innovative. Honestly, it doesn't surprise me that smart assistants feel like they're plateauing five-ish years in.

D: Yeah, I totally agree here. At this point, aside from Siri's obvious lack of polish compared to its competitors, we kind of know what voice assistants can do, and that likely won't change much other than through slow iteration.

Google remains the most naturalistic voice assistant, but Amazon's ambitious innovations are putting Alexa and Alexa-driven devices in close contention with Google's counterparts. Meanwhile, despite the HomePod Mini, Apple fans are still left with a subpar voice assistant and smart speakers that don't earn their premium price tag. And, correct me if I'm wrong, Molly, but the same pattern sort of holds true with smart home platforms: Amazon and Google Assistant both boast thousands of partnerships, whereas Apple's HomeKit lags behind a bit, right?

A smart home isn't just about speakers and displays: There are dozens of other devices, from connected lights and cameras to flood and motion sensors.

M: Right. When it comes to smart home integration, consumers have so many more hardware options on Amazon and Google's platforms. For nearly every device category, you can find a cheap "works with Google/Alexa" version online. That isn't true for HomeKit. This could be the biggest thing holding Apple back from really taking over the smart home space the way it did with phones, watches and tablets.

Not every device compatible with Google or Alexa is a good one from a quality standpoint. That puts the onus on consumers to decide what's worthy of space in their home. Apple is certainly more selective and leans toward higher-end, better-established brands for the smart home.

Winner: Tie between Amazon/Google

Needs improvement: Apple

D: I've written a fair amount about privacy and security, and to my mind, this is where Apple has a clear edge over competitors. With security in particular, Apple has maintained high standards for partner devices -- and the company, aside from saving some Siri recordings (which Google and Amazon both do, too), has largely avoided privacy scandals.

Google's security seems to be a little tighter in 2020, thanks in part to 2019's (admittedly messy) shift from the Works with Nest ecosystem to the Works with Google Assistant one. Essentially, that change limited the control third-party devices could exert (and information they could extract) from core Google devices in your smart home network. Meanwhile, from a privacy standpoint, Google doesn't have a sterling record, but it didn't see problems at the scale of 2019's.

Privacy has as much to do with when you're being recorded as what companies are doing with those recordings.

Amazon, more than either of its competitors, has had an incredible year from a business perspective. The pandemic and ensuing quarantines boosted Amazon's sales by massive numbers, the new Amazon Echo is one of the best smart speakers we've tested and Alexa has seen serious growth as a voice assistant.

But Amazon routinely skirts the edge with its privacy policies. The tech giant recently automatically opted users into Amazon Sidewalk, whether they wanted to use the feature or not. Its home security subsidiary Ring continues to push privacy-defining boundaries in the name of progress. And it remains the sole voice assistant for which users need to opt out of voice recordings being shared with human listeners.

After all that, who do you think had the best 2020 in terms of being responsible with customer data, Molly?

M: This is the toughest and perhaps the most important question to answer when you think about bringing an assistant and an entire platform onto your home network. Apple certainly put forth the most public effort (at least in advertising) when it comes to hyping up how secure their stuff is.

That's not an empty boast, either. Apple sacrificed having a big bucket of compatible devices in order to have a smaller, more curated pool of devices that met tougher security standards. While that can make for a limiting smart home setup, it's an impressive show of restraint by Tim Cook & Co.

Apple HomeKit mostly works with higher-end, well-established brands, like home security developer Arlo.

If you keep up with your passwords and app updates, actively manage what data is collected by each app and opt out of whatever Amazon might be sending into the ether automatically, you'll probably be just fine. That's a lot to ask of a busy consumer who likely just wants to plug and play without worrying about what's on the other side of their device.

Apple wins here in my opinion as well. Add that to the HomePod Mini debut, and Apple suddenly has more points on the board than I expected.

D: Yep. If I remember correctly, last year's data responsibility section just ended with everyone losing, and I don't know that much has changed in that regard, particularly for Amazon and Google users. But Apple's approach to the smart home is heartening to me, not least because it prioritizes privacy and security in its messaging to consumers -- a trend that I hope catches on, to remind people that their privacy is in fact valuable, and we shouldn't be giving it away for momentary conveniences. In addition, the focus really puts Apple's reputation on the line, because after all their talk, privacy breaches could be much more damaging to their brand in the smart home than to that of their competitors.

Winner: Apple

Losers: Amazon and Google

Google has stayed surprisingly quiet this year, with its one major hardware offering -- the Nest Audio, a middle-tier smart speaker to compete with the fourth-gen Echo -- landing a tepid review from us. Google Assistant has stayed strong, but hasn't improved as much as Alexa. Overall, while we wouldn't go so far as to say Google has lost ground in 2020, it certainly hasn't gained any.

Apple, by contrast, entered the smart home race in earnest this year, thanks to the HomePod Mini. In addition, it's helping shift the smart home conversation toward privacy and security, while Amazon and Google seem content to do only what's necessary to keep users on their platforms. While Siri and HomeKit certainly have room to grow, the Cupertino kid is poised for great things in the coming years (if it doesn't take another multiple-year break from serious smart home investment).

But even Apple's impressive strides couldn't help it overtake Amazon, a commerce giant that continues to dominate the market, thanks to its aggressive development of Alexa, its consistent production of boundary-pushing devices and a perhaps slightly underdeveloped conscience.

Smart home winner of 2020: Amazon (for better or worse)

Runner-up: Apple

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Amazon, Apple and Google: Which tech giant won the smart home in 2020? - CNET

The worlds largest semiconductor companies face a growing competitive threat: their biggest customers making their own chips tailored to the supercharged areas of cloud-computing and artificial intelligence.

Chip making has long been ruled by big manufacturers and design houses such as Intel Corp. , Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and graphics-chip maker Nvidia Corp. Now Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Google are getting into the game in the hunt for improved performance and lower costs, shifting the balance of power in the industry and pushing traditional chip makers to respond by building more specialized chips for major customers.

Amazon this month unveiled a new chip that, it says, promises to speed up how algorithms that use artificial intelligence learn from data. The company has already designed other processors for its cloud-computing arm, called Amazon Web Services, including the brains of computers known as central processing units.

The pandemic has accelerated the rise of cloud-computing as companies broadly have embraced the kind of digital tools using those remote servers. Amazon, Microsoft, Google and others have enjoyed strong growth in the cloud during the remote-work period.

Business customers also are showing an increased appetite for analyzing the data they gather on their products and customers, fueling demand for artificial intelligence tools to make sense of all that information.

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Chip Giants Intel and Nvidia Face New Threats From Amazon to Google to Apple - The Wall Street Journal

The edtech market raked in more than $10 billion in venture capital investment globally in 2020, but for students, parents and teachers, the year was defined more by its scramble than its surge.

Nandini Talwar, a student and teachers assistant at Columbia University, wants to hold more efficient office hours so students dont have to wait on a Zoom call. TraLiza King, a director at PWC and single mother, needs a Zoom alternative for her 4-year-old, who is too young to understand how to mute and unmute. Brian Kinglsey, chief academic officer at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, is looking for ways to reengage remote students that dont require socially distant home visits.

Naturally, any company that shifts overnight from being a tool to a necessity will have growing pains, and edtech as a sector is no exception. Startups with the long-term ambitions of solving educations inequities had to come up with quick fixes that would serve millions of learners. A sector that was notoriously undercapitalized had to reach venture scale while adapting to the realities of a remote work landscape like never before. As schools seesawed between hybrid and remote, education technology companies had to be nimble as well. The ubiquity of remote learning surely brought a boom to new users, but may have in fact limited the sectors ability to innovate in lieu of fast, easy scale.

For edtech in 2020, flexible and scrappy was a survival tactic that led to profits, growth and most of all, aha moments that technology was needed in the way we learn. Now, as we enter the rest of the decade, the sector will have to shake off its short-term-fix mentality to evolve from tunnel vision to wide-pan ambition.

If nothing else is clear after a tumultuous remote learning experience, its that the world needs effective and accessible technology that allows education to scale with learning for all in mind. In fact, the comeback story and surges of massive open online course providers (MOOCS) shows how in-demand digital curricula truly are.

However, usage is not a replacement for effectiveness. In reality, most people dont have the drive, motivation or comprehension capabilities to learn from a one-hour lecture even if they technically show up.

The mad rush to track engagement is underway. In the past few months, Zovio launched Signalz, a tool that helps universities track student engagement and see who is most at risk for dropping out of courses. Piazza also launched a tool focused on college and high school student participation that allows instructors to send personalized messages and measure activity on their assignments. Theres also Rhithm, an app that allows educators to check in daily with students for emotional-learning insights, and Edsights, a chatbot for undergraduate students.

Still, instead of bringing the classroom experience online and trying to track the heck out of it, what if you completely upend it? The answer might begin with flashcards.

Quizlet, which started off as a flashcard app, has spent the past three years building out its artificial-intelligence-powered tutoring arm. CEO Matthew Glotzbach says the feature is now the most-used Quizlet offering, signaling how students want a more in-depth solution than flashcards.

The most recent example I saw of innovation was Sketchy, a startup that teaches medical concepts through illustrations. It allows students to skip notecards and textbooks and comprehend through animated videos; think of a countryside kingdom scene about coronavirus or a salmon dinner about salmonella.

While the technology itself isnt from Mars, Sketchys strategy does what many edtech solutions dont: learning theory. The company uses the memory-palace technique to help students replace textbooks with videos and actually retain information. Plus, after seven years as a bootstrapped company, Sketchy just raised $30 million dollars in venture capital. The round was led by TCG with involvement from Reach Capital.

Zach Sims, the founder of Codecademy, told me that the startups that will win the next wave are the ones that are using interactivity and technology to create an educational experience you just couldnt have in the classroom.

To retain recent gains, edtech companies need to replicate Sketchys strategy: Replace outdated systems and methods with new, tech-powered solutions. No more of the endless bundling and unbundling of the school experience. As we evolve into a world of life-long learning and cohort-based learning platforms, founders will need to be especially innovative with the way they deliver content. Dont simply put engaging content on a screen, but innovate on what that screen looks like, tracks and offers. Is it rooted in true learning principles, or is it just a repacked lecture?

In other words, if 2020 showed us how hard Zoom school really is, then 2021 should not be about creating more versions of Zoom schools. It should be about playing an entirely different universe.

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

The biggest elephant in the room for edtech is the one that every human in the world cant wait for: the end of the coronavirus pandemic. And with promising vaccine news, the light at the end of the tunnel certainly feels within reach for those who dare to dream.

When the world recovers, startups that have based their entire business around remote learning and remote work will likely see a drop in usage. The surge will slow, and everyone in edtech is wondering how to extract post-pandemic value.

This in mind, Ashley Bittner, co-founding partner of Firework Ventures, a new future of work fund, thinks that the next generation of edtech founders should continue to make moonshot bets, but be realistic about what will work for the decades ahead.

Anyone can pitch an idea about how we should do math curriculum, she said. But theres a reason behind why we teach kids to do it this way. I dont think theres enough respect for the experience learning science behind products.

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To win post-pandemic, edtech needs to start thinking big - TechCrunch

OUR willingness to give away private info online has given tech giants free reign to profile billions of users which will soon have "scary consequences, experts warn.

Obsession with social media is allowing major companies to figure out what we want before we know ourselves.

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Election fraud, online scams, and a plummeting sense of self-worth is all part of the vicious cycle weve signed up to.

Stephen Burke, from Dublin-based Cyber Risk Aware, told the Irish Sun: When we sign up to a social media account, we either want to share what we are doing, or to see what others are doing.

We knowingly make a decision to sacrifice our privacy.

It cant come as a big surprise when companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Whats-App or Instagram share this information with others in order to analyse people, their behaviours, thoughts, interests, likes and dislikes and monetize it. People have become the product.

The flip side, however, is we are being profiled and the data is then shared with other third parties whom we know nothing about and that is where the problems begin. Cambridge Analytica brought this to light spectacularly in the 2016 US Presidential election.

Elections being manipulated, leading to people running countries which can impact the world, owing to people being influenced by content presented to them whilst online.

This is not a science fiction movie. I call it social engineering. People being engineered to do things they otherwise would not do.

More than 3.6billion people worldwide use social media, with major companies making vast fortunes with our data.

Data sharing expert Magnus Boyd a partner at law firm Schillings, explained: What are we giving away? The simple answer is everything.

Its not just the data the big tech companies are sharing with each other, but the businesses looking to trade via Facebook share their customers activities with Facebook.

Thats how Facebook learn what items I searched for, how long I spent on a page, what went into my shopping cart, whether I made a charitable donation somewhere.

There are some very powerful facts you can draw out about a person that they are not aware of. You could gauge someones aspirations, history, health, socioeconomic class.

The question of the age is, Does it matter? Some say the more of this you can provide, the richer your online experience.

It matters when people start to form judgments about you based on this info you have no control over. It doesnt matter if theyre working out I like jazz, but what if theyre forming other judgments? Increasingly, companies are aggregating data, like your Uber rating.

Theres an inherent judgment in that, if Im having a bad day and am annoyed and slam the Uber car door my rating goes down.

That on its own means nothing, but if all of that starts to get aggregated its a form of profiling. Suddenly youre a trouble maker!

Were seeing it in China, everybody has a digital passport, there are judgments in that and an ability to be marked down.

If you get too many bad credit ratings or customer service ratings, suddenly youre being denied things without any ability to know why or for redress. Thats pretty scary.

Paul Bischoff, privacy advocate at Comparitech.com, explains how sharing data results in bubbles where we only get fed our own viewpoints.

He said: In the case of Facebook, you give up your browsing history. When you visit the social networks site or app, a cookie is placed on your device.

That cookie is then used to track you on external sites that have a Facebook element, such as a Like button or comments section. Usually this information, after it is collected, is de-identified and used for content recommendations and sold to third-party advertisers.

But often the non-identifying information in your profile can be so specific that it could only belong to a single person.

Gardai warned of a rise in online scams during the Covid-19 pandemic, with well organised gangs using fraudulent means to trick people into sharing personal details.

Mr Burke said: My advice is think before we post messages, sharing personal information about ourselves that you wouldnt want strangers to know. You wouldnt stop and speak to a complete stranger in the shops and tell them intimate details of your life, yet people do this online.

Chris Hauk, consumer privacy champion at Pixel Privacy, explains why passwords are often so easy to guess for hackers.

He said: When you sign up for a social network, you begin sharing your location, information about your activities, photos, information about you and your friends and family, and so much more.

Facebook is especially intrusive. In addition to your Facebook activities, Facebook also tracks your browsing activity on the rest of the internet. Facebook uses this info for advertising purposes.

The information you post and share on social networks is also exposed to other users.

"Malicious users could use this info, including the answers to What is your favourite pets name? quizzes, to use social engineering to hack your accounts.

According to a survey by the EUs official statistical office, Eurostat, almost 90 per cent of Europeans aged between 16 and 24 are on social media.

The average teenager in Ireland now checks in at least 60 times a day, which has effects on the developing adolescent brain.

Unsah Malik, social media and influence expert, says we join because we want to feel connected in real life, and to feel good.

She explained: Social interaction is a basic human need and social media has essentially capitalised on that.

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Psychologically, when we engage in a conversation with strangers or post content and see a pool of people responding to us, dopamine signals in our brain increases for a little happy high.

She warned how this can become an addiction, adding: The damage social media addiction has on a person ranges from low self-esteem to anxiety, lack of performance and efforts in real life relationships and activities, and a distorted view on what the real world looks like.

"Its alarming, hence why its up to us as adults - or parents and teachers to children - to monitor our activity levels.

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Experts warn willingness to give away private info gives tech giants free reign to profile billions of users - The Irish Sun

BEIJING -- Chinese officials proposed tougher antitrust restrictions at a key economic planning meeting on Friday, as President Xi Jinping's government targets the growing power of the country's technology groups.

Efforts will be made to intensify anti-monopoly supervision and prevent disorderly capital expansion next year, according to a statement released following the Central Economic Work Conference held from Wednesday to Friday.

The statement appears aimed at online service providers that have extended their reach during the coronavirus pandemic.

China supports tech platform companies' innovation and international competitiveness, but antitrust and fair-competition rules "are the inherent requirements for improving the socialist market economic system," according to the statement.

Laws and regulations will be "optimized" to identify platform monopolies, Xinhua reports.

The work conference is held each December to chart China's economic direction for the following year. With the Chinese economy expected to roar back to life in 2021, Xi looks to protect small businesses and households while preventing overheating in the real estate market and other sectors.

Alibaba Group Holding and its peers use aggressive discounts to expand their customer bases, which Beijing believes is placing excessive pressure on manufacturers and mom-and-pop shops.

China's planners are drafting new legislation on data use and consumer protections as well.

Financial technology also appears likely for greater scrutiny. China has seen an influx of newcomers into the financial sector from other industries, notably Alibaba's digital payments unit Ant Group.

"Financial innovation must be advanced under prudent supervision," the statement said.

Read more:

China party meeting vows to block monopolies, with eye on tech giants - Nikkei Asia