Monthly Archives: September 2021

The committees jurisdiction includes some of the top issues embroiling Facebook in Congress including privacy, alleged political bias and the liability shield known as Section 230.

Branscome, a longtime expert on telecommunications policy, will focus on executive branch engagement. As recently as six months ago, NASA administrator and former Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) was pushing for Biden to nominate Branscome for a post on the FCC an agency that has faced its own pressures to rein in social media giants.

The hire is a stroke of brilliance by Facebook, said one Democrat who has worked closely with Branscome for years. Youd be hard-pressed to get somebody more respected than John Branscome in that position.

The move by Facebook makes sense, said Jeff Hauser, founder of the nonprofit Revolving Door Project, noting that the threats to big tech are greater from Democrats right now, especially with Democrats controlling the executive branch. Still, Hauser said the toxicity around Facebook imposes a price on people in Washington who join the companys ranks.

I think youre crossing a Rubicon when you go to Facebook, Hauser said. Youre foreclosing certain options for you in terms of returning to public service.

Attempts to reach Branscome for comment were unsuccessful.

Branscome is the chief counsel and top Democratic staffer on Senate Commerces telecommunications subcommittee, and before that served as the chief counsel of its internet subcommittee. He will bring a hefty rolodex to Facebook's network in Washington his former colleagues on the committee have taken jobs across the Biden administration, including in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Commerce Department.

His job change surprised many of his former colleagues, who traded bemused texts and emails throughout the day Thursday.

Branscome has served in various positions on the Senate Commerce Committee since 2010, overseeing efforts to regulate and rein in the power of Facebook and other tech giants. CEOs of the leading tech companies, including Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg, testified before the committee last year.

Cantwell has accused Facebook of contributing to the destruction of local news outlets and participated in years of negotiations around a potential federal privacy law. But she wished her departing aide well Thursday.

"I want to thank John for his service to the Communications Subcommittee and the Committee writ large for the past 11 years," Cantwell said in a statement. "His over 20 years of Federal service with the FCC, and then supporting Chairman [Jay] Rockefeller, Ranking Member Nelson, and myself evidences his devotion to public service and his contributions to national communications policy. I wish him all the best in his future endeavors."

Even as it builds ties to Democrats, Facebook maintains close ties to Republicans, who could regain power in one or both chambers as soon as next year.

GOP operative Joel Kaplan who infuriated Democrats three years ago with his public support for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaughs nomination remains at the helm of Facebooks policy shop. Last year, the company hired an aide to Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, one of the Houses most outspoken Republican advocates for tougher antitrust laws aimed at big tech companies like Facebook.

John Hendel contributed to this report.

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Facebook lures top Democrat to its D.C. lobbying ranks - POLITICO

As reliably as Canadian winters bring snow, elections bring promises. And with the Canadian federal election now but a couple of weeks away, the promises are coming fast and furious.

This is ostensibly what democracy is supposed to look like: parties vying for office put forth a set of proposed policies and voters go to the polls and pick both what they want and what they think is best.

Democracy, however, has more to it that just governments and voters. There are other parts to it: the judiciary for one, and also the press. And that latter group has long been waiting for something tucked within the Liberal partys newly released platform. Now called the Australian Model, the Grits policy would require digital platforms that generate revenues from the publication of news content to share a portion of their revenues with Canadian news outlets.

It is, in short, a financial lifeline to an industry that has been decimated over the past two and a half decades since the arrival of the internet. And in that sense, the Liberal proposal should, if nothing else, elicit cries of relief; finally, someone is doing something about the sorry state of the news business. In a democratic society, saving news can only be a good thing.

Of course, there are always those who argue that when it comes to privately-run business like a news site, no one but the company in question should do anything at all; leave it to the free market and let God sort things out.

There is a certain sort of logic to that perspective. The news business is, after all, not blameless in its current situation. After being slow to react to the web, and even slower to shift to more sustainable business models like paywalls, its initially antagonistic relationship with the newness of the web has had catastrophic effects.

But the thing with news is that if there is a disaster in the industry, then there is much more than the news business that suffers. Just as governments form a core part of democracy, so too does the press. At its best it holds power to account, uncovers corruption and wrongdoing, and ideally, produces a better informed, more culturally literate populace.

But this week, as but one example, anti-vaxxer protests across the country actually blocked traffic to hospitals in some cities. The rise of those sort of flatly false conspiracy theories has happened because the information landscape has shifted in the era of the web, and the reduced capacity of the news business is one reason for it.

In short, tech giants, Facebook and Google in particular, now control about 90 per cent of the advertising business. They are also the conduits through which the publics attention is directed. That combination has shifted the locus of power from the media to tech, and far from a democratization of our public sphere, it has instead turned it into a cacophonic mess.

Hence the Australian model. What it, and the Liberal policy modelled on it, proposes is twofold: first, that the tech companies will have to pay news organizations to link to their content; and secondly, that news organizations can collectively bargain that price with the tech companies, with binding arbitration if necessary.

The proposal isnt perfect. By linking the financial future of news to Facebook and Google, the policy runs the risk of entrenching their power; it is harder to unseat large corporations once they have become the bedrock of certain parts of society. There is also some confusion about why the tech companies should pay; they do not publish news content but, rather, link to it though given that a significant portion of discussion online is based on media output, this seems more a question of clarification than a fatal flaw.

But as a solution to social ills, the proposal is a clear step in the right direction. Wherever we might lay the blame for the current state of media whether on a predatory and profit-obsessed tech sector, media itself, or a polarized and increasingly fractious political climate what is clear is that the news business is necessary.

During the pandemic, for example, the media has been a key component of informing the public of public health measures, where and why to get a vaccine, as well as being the site of vigorous debate over how to best balance political freedoms and epidemiology.

Yet that capacity of media to inform and create a culturally fluent audience is these days forever hamstrung by its massively reduced revenue. Reporters are harried, fact-checkers are expensive and increasingly rare, and new technological and business ventures become harder and harder to implement when companies are barely keeping their heads above water.

While it once seemed sure, polling suggests it is no longer certain that the Liberals will win. For the news business at least, that will be a shame, because the other two parties plans for the tech giants seem more diffuse. More importantly, for all of us, sustaining news is an idea that has been too long coming and regardless of who wins, if news isnt saved, we will all lose.

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Requiring tech giants to share revenues with Canadian news outlets could be a much-needed lifeline - Toronto Star

Tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Tesla and Google, among others, are now investing heavily in infrastructure to develop their own semiconductor chips. This move will not only fulfil their specific requirements but also end their dependence on other companies for chips.

The global chip shortage due to disruptions in the supply chains is one of the key factors that prompted several Big Tech giants to take things into their own hands.

It will be easier and more cost-effective to design their chips, experts believe.

The tech companies are finding it more lucrative to integrate their software with their tailor-made semiconductors rather than use the same generic chips that are being used by their competitors, a CNBC report added.

Why tech giants are going DIY

Custom-designed chips can perform better and work out cheaper for these companies, Russ Shaw, a former non-executive director at UK-based Dialog Semiconductor, told CNBC. These specifically designed chips can help to reduce energy consumption for devices and products from the specific tech company, whether it relates to smartphones or cloud services, Shaw explained.

The global chip shortage has slowed down production and these firms are iffy about relying on semiconductor makers anymore. The pandemic threw a big wrench in these supply chains, which accelerated efforts to do their own chipsMany already felt limited in their innovation pace being locked into chipmaker timelines, Glenn ODonnell, Research Director at analyst firm Forrester, was quoted as saying in the report.

One prime example of a large tech company producing its own chips is Apples M1 processors, which it launched recently for its latest generation of Macbooks and iPads, moving away from Intels x86 architecture-based processors.

Tesla also moved in that direction when it started producing cars with custom AI chips in 2019 that aid software in making quick-response decisions based on the movement on the roads. The company has recently announced its plans to make its own Dojo chips, reported CNBC.

Google too is reportedly nearer to fabricating its own CPUs for its Chromebook line of laptops, which use its custom-designed Chrome operating systems. Amazon, Facebook and Baidu are two other companies that are also working in this direction.

The report added that at this stage none of the tech giants is looking to do all the chip development themselves, since setting up an advanced chip factory costs billions of dollars and takes several years.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Sep 08, 2021, 08:13 AM IST

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Explained: Why tech giants are making customised chips - CNBCTV18

Reliance Jio was published in 2016.

Reliance Industry is celebrating the 5th anniversary of Reliance Jio, the companys telecommunications division in India. The company posted the development on a social media channel, admitting that Jio has brought a digital revolution to the country. In a post on Twitter, Jio thanked users for their support and several other major tech companies also congratulated the company for fueling. Indias Internet Revolution. Since its launch in 2016, Jio has gained an outstanding position in the Indian telco market and currently holds the largest market share in both mobile and broadband segments, according to TRAI data until June 2021. I am.

Jio also attached a video teaser to his Twitter post highlighting Indias digital revolution since 1995 and the companys contributions since its debut five years ago. Jio is known to have revolutionized Indian telephone companies by offering high-speed Internet at competitive prices. The company has also reiterated its vision of making India 2G-mukt (without 2G internet) and accelerating the countrys digital economy. As mentioned earlier, the tech giant also congratulated Reliance Jio on achieving the milestone. In the post, Google replied, OK Google, happy birthday, and enjoyed the Google Assistants voice commands. Xiaomi India thanked the company for promoting the Internet revolution in India, and PhonePe praised the telco for introducing endless possibilities. Other mobile brands such as Samsung India, Vivo India and Nokia Mobile India have sent congratulatory messages. Streaming giants such as Amazon Prime Video and Netflix India have claimed that this is just the beginning for the company. ..

Reliance has announced plans to soon introduce affordable 5G connectivity. The company also plans to partner with Google to introduce an affordable 4G-enabled smartphone called JioPhone Next. The phone comes with an Android version tuned for Indian users and features such as voice assistant, automatic screen text reading, language translation, and a smart camera with augmented reality filters.

Disclaimer:Network18 and TV18, which operate news18.com, are managed by Reliance Industries sole beneficiary, Independent Media Trust.

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Reliance Jio is 5 years old and Tech Giants thanks Telco for driving the Internet Revolution in India

Source link Reliance Jio is 5 years old and Tech Giants thanks Telco for driving the Internet Revolution in India

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Reliance Jio is 5 years old and Tech Giants thanks Telco for driving the Internet Revolution in India - Ohionewstime.com

Erin Forsythe, a nurse practitioner with Virginia Mason, administers a COVID-19 vaccine shot Sunday at the Amazon Meeting Center in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper)

Rep. Adam Schiff, in separate letters to bosses of tech giants Amazon and Facebook, criticized the efforts of both companies to curb the spread COVID-19 and related vaccination information.

The pair of letters, dated a day after Sen. Elizabeth Warrens missive also sharply rebuked Amazon for vaccine misinformation, accused both companies of directly profiting on the spread of false vaccine and virus information on their respective sites.

To Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Schiff wrote, As long as these materials remain on your site, Facebook is directly profiting from the sensationalism of antivaccine misinformation, while these conspiracy theories continue to directly contribute to COVID-19 deaths.

And to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Schiff pointed out that Amazons own algorithms can be gamed to push people toward false information. Further, Amazon algorithms and lists have been easily manipulated by bad actors through false reviews, targeted purchasing, miscategorization, or even intentional misspellings, he wrote.

As long as these materials remain on the site, Amazon is directly profiting from the sensationalism of antivaccine misinformation.

An Amazon spokesperson said when it comes to vaccines, the company leads by example. As a company, we continue to encourage our employees to get vaccinated, and we believe it is an important step for communities to stay healthy and recover from the pandemic.

A company spokesperson also confirmed the company will respond to Warrens questions.

The pointed criticism from the two powerful Democrats comes at a fraught time for the four tech giants Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple as Congress probes both the power and reach of a handful of the most valuable companies in the world.

Seattle Rep. Pramila Jayapals Amazon-busting legislation, the Ending Platform Monopolies Act would potentially force the companys dismantling, has both bipartisan and Biden administration support, the 7th District Democrat said in a recent interview with GeekWire.

Her legislation is part of a five-bill package that seek to create a frameworkto dismantle large tech companies into smaller ones (Amazon and Amazon Web Services, for example); to make mergers more expensive and difficult; to break up businesses that use their dominance in one area to get a stronghold in another; and to stop companies that create purportedly open marketplaces and only to game it to favor their own products.

Schiffs and Warrens comments dont appear to indicate any softening of the tone toward at least two of the companies. Schiff had contacted both companies about similar issues in 2019, at the pandemics outset.

And while he conceded that the pair were trying to curb COVID-19 misinformation, neither had gone far enough.

It is, of course, inevitable that malicious users will attempt to propagate harmful content, and I appreciate Facebooks efforts to provide accurate information on COVID-19 when possible, Schiff wrote in his letter to Zuckerberg.

Research has shown, however, that combatting anti-vaccine conspiracies by posing factual and counter-factual information as opposing, but equal viewpoints is ineffective at combatting misinformation and disinformation.

In a statement issued after he sent the letters, Schiff said the social media companies are helping to perpetuate the pandemic.

Vaccine hesitancy fueled by misinformation stands between us and truly ending the COVID-19 pandemic. And nowhere is that misinformation more apparent, potent, and transmissible than on social media and e-commerce sites, Schiff said. As the administration of vaccines around the country continues, misinformation is on the rise on major online platforms.

Schiff asked the companies to respond to a series questions including:

A spokesperson for Facebook could immediately be reached for comment.

Read both letters below.

Excerpt from:

Rep. Adam Schiff rips Amazon and Facebook for directly profiting on COVID-19 misinformation - GeekWire

An exchange-traded fund with holdings decided by artificial intelligence loaded up on shares of Amazon, Facebook, and Nvidia this month, as the robot trader turned bullish on technology and U.S. retailand doubted some Covid-19 pandemic trend stocks.

In a departure from recent months, the robot trader went all-in with its new picks, which now represent the five largest holdings in the fund. Amazon has a portfolio weighting of 7.98%, followed close behind by Facebook with 7.91%. Nvidia makes up 6.06% of the fund with Walmart and Home Depot at 4.83% and 4.24%, respectively.

The remaining stocks in the funds top 10, making up between 3.96% and 1.9% of AMOM, are software groups Adobe (ADBE) and Intuit (INTU), semiconductor companies Texas Instruments (TXM) and Lam Research (LRCX), and beauty products powerhouse Este Lauder (EL).

Facebook and Nvidias respective pushes into the metaverse make them attractive investments, said Francis Geeseok Oh, a managing director at Qraft and the head of its Asia-Pacific business.

The metaverse is a buzzword referring to virtual environments in which users can immerse themselveswhether that be to interact and work with others, consume content, or more. As Barrons wrote last month, its like being inside the internet, versus just connecting to it.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said the companys future is in the metaverseand it recently rolled out virtual workspaces in Facebook Workrooms. Nvidia, similarly, has developed what it calls the Omniversea real-time, 3-D computer simulation and collaboration platform with industrial applications such as simulating factories.

Also read:The Metaverse Goes Beyond Facebook. Watch These Stocks.

As for Amazon, AMOMs recent buy only brings the tech giant back into the fold after a hiatus. AMOM removed Amazon last month before it missed Q2 earnings expectations, Oh noted, saying that its addition in September represents the advantages of an active strategy.

Oh also said that the robot traders picksnamely, Walmart and Home Depotemphasize a retail boom in the U.S. The latest retail sales data, from July, showed that sales have slowed, but there remains a convincing case for investors to remain optimistic about American consumers.

The additions in September came as the artificial intelligence behind AMOM removed chip maker AMD (AMD), social media group Snap (SNAP), video communications company Zoom (ZM), digital scanning and orthodontics specialist Align (ALGN), and connected television maker Roku (ROKU). AMD, Snap, Zoom, and Align previously made up AMOMs top-four holdings.

Oh noted that the AIs decision to remove AMD was likely a profit-taking trade. The stock is up almost 17% so far this year.

But its a different story for Zoom and Roku, Oh said, highlighting that the robot trader turned its back on two stocks that represent the pandemic tradebusinesses that have benefited from trends accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This may be a response to the Delta [coronavirus] variant and the increasing belief amongst many analysts that it has reached its peak, Oh said.

Plus:Jeff Bezos Isnt the Worlds Richest Person Anymore. Meet the Man Who Beat Him.

AMOM has been listed in New York since May 2019, and has delivered total returns of 15.5% so far in 2021 and 32% in the past yearoutpacing its benchmark, the S&P 500 Momentum index, which has climbed a comparable 30% in the past year.

AMOM is an actively managed portfolio driven by artificial intelligence, tracking 50 large-cap U.S. stocks and reweighting its holdings each month. It is based on a momentum strategy, with the AI behind its stock picks capitalizing on the movements of existing market trends to inform the decision to add, remove, or reweight holdings. The artificial intelligence scans the market and uses its predictive power to analyze a wide set of patterns that show stock-market momentum.

The fund is a product of Qraft, a Seoul, South Korea-based fintech group leveraging AI across its investment products, which include three other AI-picked versions of major indexes: a U.S. large cap index ( QRFT ); a U.S. large cap dividend index ( HDIV ); and a U.S. value index ( NVQ ).

The entrance of AI-run funds onto Wall Street promised a new high-tech future for investing, though it hasnt quite lived up to the hype yet. Theoretically, researchers have shown that AI investing strategies can beat the market by up to 40% on an annualized basis, when tested against historical data.

But Vasant Dhar, a professor at New York Universitys Stern School of Business and the founder of machine-learning-based hedge fund SCT Capital Management, argued on MarketWatch in June 2020 that AI-run funds wont crack the code of the stock market.

Advocating caution, Dhar said that it was difficult for funds underpinned by machine learning to maintain a sustainable edge over markets, which have a nonstationary and adversarial nature. He advised investors considering an AI system to ask tough questions, including how likely it is that the AIs edge will persist into the future, and what the inherent uncertainties and range of performance outcomes for the fund are.

Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@dowjones.com

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This Robot Trader Turned Bullish on Amazon, Facebook, and Nvidia. What It Sold. - Barron's

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, one of the top Republicans focused on holding Big Tech companies accountable, is working with Democrats on an antitrust bill that would significantly boost supporters of bipartisan antitrust legislation in Congress.

Grassley, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is in talks to co-sponsor antitrust legislation with Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the chairwoman of the committee in charge of regulating tech giants such as Facebook and Google.

The legislation would complement similar bipartisan anti-Big Tech legislation, which is expected to be brought to the House floor in the coming months.

The House legislation, which passed the House Judiciary Committee in June, included six sweeping antitrust bills aimed at reining in tech companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook. It marked Washingtons most significant and serious attempt to reshape the technology industry.

APPLE APPS, GOOGLE SEARCH, AND AMAZON BASICS FACE DRASTIC CHANGES FROM BIPARTISAN HOUSE ANTITRUST BILL

"Senator Grassley has been engaged with Senator Klobuchar on a possible companion bill to one of the House bills," George Hartmann, a spokesman for Grassley, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. "Senator Grassley is only working on one of the bills and has not agreed to cosponsor a bill at this point."

Grassley and Klobuchar have worked together on relevant antitrust legislation in the past, including a bill that passed the Senate in June providing antitrust enforcers, such as the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department, additional resources when it comes to evaluating mergers.

Hartmann said strengthening antitrust laws and reducing anti-competitive practices in the business world, particularly among tech companies, has long been a priority for Grassley.

Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas is also interested in working on such legislation and is involved in talks with Klobuchar and Grassley, a spokesman for Cotton said. Other Republican senators are also said to be in negotiations to support a Senate antitrust bill, including Josh Hawley of Missouri, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Susan Collins of Maine, Politico reported.

Story continues

Similar to the House antitrust bills, bipartisan Senate legislation could receive opposition from members of both parties due to concerns it could harm innovation and result in unintended consequences to consumers.

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On the House side, many Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Judiciary Committee ranking member Jim Jordan of Ohio, oppose the antitrust package in their chamber, arguing they fail to address censorship of conservatives online.

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Tags: News, Policy, Economy, Big Tech, Chuck Grassley, Amy Klobuchar, Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats, Senate Judiciary Committee, Antitrust

Original Author: Nihal Krishan

Original Location: Top Republican senator in talks with Democrats on anti-Big Tech antitrust bill

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Top Republican senator in talks with Democrats on anti-Big Tech antitrust bill - Yahoo News

Colin Angle, the CEO and founder of iRobot, believes that tech giants have botched the smart home.

Systems like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit, and Samsung SmartThings all boast thousands of device integrations, but getting those disparate parts to work well in concert can be a tremendous pain. Instead of trying to connect with everything, Angle believes the way forward is to start over and think smaller.

Unlike the Googles, Amazons, and SmartThings of the world, I believe in a walled garden, Angle says. I believe the experience trumps universality.

iRobot, best known for its Roomba robot vacuums, is now in the middle of trying to fulfill that vision. The companys iRobot Genius software has just added a bunch of new features to help its vacuums better understand whats happening in the home, and its releasing a new high-end Roomba that can steer around power cords and pet waste.

Object-Detection Cords Alert [Photo: iRobot]While those features exist primarily to clean your floors right now, Angle says iRobots eventual goal is hook the companys home awareness into other smart home products, including ones that arent strictly related to vacuuming or mopping. To do that, iRobot will look to build close partnerships with other device makers instead of inviting everyone into its ecosystem. This walled-off approach may be by necessityiRobot is a relatively small company after allbut its ability to map out homes and send robots into every corner could give it an advantage that other smaller smart home brands might lack.

I think we need to have closer partnerships, tighter integrations, and more automation in how your home is managed, configured, and maintained to create an overall experience that the average user can take full advantage of, he says.

iRobots bigger smart home plans started taking shape about a year ago, when it released the first version of its Genius software as a free upgrade for its existing iRobot app. That update allowed Roombas to identify areas that need more frequent cleaning, recommend cleaning schedules based on user behavior, and flag obstacles that users might want to permanently avoid in the future.

Clean While Im Away [Photo: iRobot]The new iRobot Genius software extends those ideas a bit further. New users will see suggested room names after their robot comes up with a floor plan, so they can more easily ask nearby Alexa or Google Assistant speakers to start cleaning specific rooms. iRobot is also adding estimated cleaning times, a geofence feature to help Roombas clean when no ones home, and the ability to move quietly between parts of the house for spot cleaning.

The Roomba j7+ vacuum, meanwhile, can automatically avoid pet wasteiRobot says itll replace any vacuum that fails to do soand can send pictures back to the user for any obstacles it might want to permanently avoid in the future.

Personalized Suggestions, Pet Shedding Season [Photo: iRobot]In the near term, this is all part of iRobots plan to differentiate through software as robot vacuum hardware becomes increasingly commoditized. (Competitors such as Neato, Eufy, and Ecovacs all offer robots with advanced features such as room mapping, waste disposal, and basic obstacle detection.)

The robot intelligence system you choose starts to feel a lot like the personal computer operating system that you choose, Angle says, alluding to how you might pick between Mac or Windows before figuring out which laptop to buy.

The bigger picture is still murky, but Angle says a lot of what iRobot is doing now will ultimately have applications beyond just cleaning floors. Angle floats of the idea of having a Roomba double as a roving security camera, and suggests that it could work in tandem with air purifiers to clean more or less often based on environmental conditions. It might even be able to adjust room lighting when it knows that no ones around. Angle wont give a timeline for these kinds of features, but says iRobot will start testing them in beta before rolling them out more broadly.

The scope of Genius is far larger than simply making your Roomba work better, Angle says.

Roomba j7 with Google Assistant [Photo: iRobot]Angle argues that iRobot is better equipped to automate those tasks than other smart home ecosystems, simply because its robots are set up to map out your entire home and understand your schedule. In other words, it will understand context in ways that other ecosystems often dont.

What we can bring to the table is knowing where everything is, he says. Because youre living with us in a partnership, we probably have a pretty good idea about how you like your house to run.

These could easily turn out to be empty promises, but the underlying concept is refreshing compared to the alternative. For several years now, systems like Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Apple HomeKit have been connecting all kinds of devices with little regard for the quality of those integrations. The result has been a mishmash of competing standards and protocols, along with constant headaches when things fail to work as advertised.

Only now are the tech giants starting to embrace true interoperability, rallying the industry behind a common protocol for smart home devices. But whether any of that will elevate the smart home beyond the purview of geeks with time to kill remains uncertain. Perhaps Angle is right to insist on a reboot.

I would love an all for one and one for all smart home experience, except its so hard, he says. Id settle for a great experience first, then grow whos allowed in, as a radical new approach.

Link:

Move over, Alexa: A Roomba could soon be the brain behind your smart home - Fast Company

A scalding attack on Indian technology giant Infosys by a ruling dispensation-backed mouthpiece has not gone out well with the leading technology companies in the country with many fearing consequences if not being able to align with the Union government wishes.

Over the weekend, a magazine closely associated with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) launched an attack on Indian tech giant Infosys for failing to resolve glitches in the income tax website it manages.

The magazine went far to call Infosys anti-national for letting down the tax system. Just last month, the finance ministry summoned Infosys CEO over the tech issues and in an unusual step took to Twitter to announce the summoning, heightening a media frenzy around a company that has been the face of Indias ITs prowess.

Last month the commerce minister also publicly lashed out at the $106 billion Tata Group for criticizing proposed stringent rules for e-commerce and said local companies should not only think about profits. In India, safeguarding domestic businesses has been Modis priority as close nationalistic groups criticise foreign businesses like Amazon.

The latest events have raised concerns among business leaders about whether Modi is now taking a hardline approach towards domestic giants as well. RC Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki, while defending Infosys, said it had played a key role in building Indias software reputation globally.

It needs to explain the glitches, but it doesnt mean there is a conspiracy to damage the country, Bhargava said.

The latest Infosys controversy is related to the governments new income tax filing website launched on June 7. But there were many glitches that Infosys could not fix, despite assurances. When the Infosys CEO was summoned in August, the finance minister conveyed deep disappointment and concerns, giving the company until September 15 to fix things.

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Attack on Infosys worry top tech giants of consequences if not aligned with govt wishes - Tech Observer

Chinese mogul Jack Ma had the party set up.

Everything was in order so that the Ant Group (Alibabas financial arm) will begin in November 2020 its first sale of shares on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock markets for a value of US$34.400 millones, in what would be the largest IPO in history.

But at the last minute, Chinese financial regulators suspended the operation over competition concerns in the market.

That is, they cut off the power, turned off the music, and sent the guests home.

The result was that the authorities demanded a restructuring of Chinas largest digital commerce and finance conglomerate, and Jack Ma, which used to be the symbol of the countrys entrepreneurial success, was out of the public eye for several months.

The unexpected decision caused a great international impact. But what probably few imagined at the time is that it was only the beginning of a government offensive for mark the limits to the tech giants.

Recently the president Xi Jinping He defended his campaign to impose greater control over firms in the technology sector at a meeting of the Steering Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, according to the official press.

Its goal, argued the Chinese leader, is to prevent irrational capital expansion and tackle wild growth of technology companies.

He also issued a clear warning: he will redouble his scrutiny on these companies.

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What is the Chinese government looking for with the offensive against the countrys tech giants - Market Research Telecast