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This Day in Legal History: Howe Sewing Machine PatentedOn this day in legal history, September 10, 1846, Elias Howe was granted U.S. Patent No. 3640 for his revolutionary sewing machine. Howe's invention was a significant breakthrough, speeding up the process of garment production and forever changing the textile industry. However, Howe's legal battles soon followed, as other inventors, including Isaac Singer, began producing sewing machines that closely resembled Howe's patented design.In 1854, Howe sued Singer, accusing him of patent infringement. The court ruled in Howe's favor, affirming that Singer's machine did indeed infringe upon Howe's patent. This victory not only solidified Howe's place as the rightful inventor of the sewing machine but also secured him substantial royalties from Singer's machines, which were gaining widespread popularity.The case marked an important moment in patent law, demonstrating the power of legal protections for inventors during the Industrial Revolution. By enforcing his patent rights, Howe reaped financial benefits and ensured that his invention would be recognized for its originality.In a significant victory for the European Union's regulatory efforts, Apple and Google both lost high-stakes court battles related to antitrust and tax issues. The EU's Court of Justice upheld a €13 billion ($14.4 billion) tax ruling against Apple, finding that Ireland's favorable tax treatment of the company amounted to illegal state aid. Apple had previously condemned the 2016 decision, but the court's ruling now forces Ireland to determine how to handle the recovered taxes.In a separate case, Google lost its challenge against a €2.4 billion fine for leveraging its dominance in search to prioritize its own shopping services over competitors, a ruling that reinforces the EU's efforts to regulate Big Tech. These decisions mark a major success for Margrethe Vestager, the EU's antitrust chief, as she prepares to leave her position after spearheading years of regulatory scrutiny on tech giants, including Amazon and Fiat.Both Apple and Google expressed disappointment with the rulings, but the decisions signal a continued regulatory clampdown on Big Tech in Europe, bolstered by new legislation such as the Digital Markets Act, which aims to prevent companies from favoring their own services over rivals. The rulings set a global precedent, as other regulators around the world increasingly scrutinize Silicon Valley's market dominance.Apple Loses EU Top Court Fight Over €13 Billion Irish Tax BillIn the start of the Google antitrust trial, the U.S. Department of Justice argued that Google used its size and power to dominate the online advertising market, accusing the company of monopolistic practices. During the opening of the trial in Alexandria, Virginia, prosecutors claimed that Google controlled both sides of the ad tech ecosystem by eliminating competition, acquiring rivals, and locking in customers. Google's actions allegedly stifled competition in a market handling over 150,000 ad sales every second. Google's attorney, Karen Dunn, dismissed the case as outdated, comparing it to relics like BlackBerrys and iPods. She argued that Google's tools now work alongside competitors and that the digital ad market has shifted, with major players like Amazon and Comcast providing significant competition. Google's defense echoes its arguments in a recent search monopoly case, which it won.The Justice Department seeks a ruling that could force Google to divest key ad tech products like Google Ad Manager. The trial will continue for several weeks before a ruling is issued by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema. This case is one of several recent efforts to challenge Big Tech monopolies, with similar cases against Meta, Amazon, and Apple also underway.Google aimed to control web ad tech, US prosecutor says as trial begins | ReutersIn a piece I wrote for Forbes—and with apologies for the double dose of me today—I delve into the tax loophole used by the ultra-wealthy known as the "buy/borrow/die" strategy. This tactic allows the wealthy to use highly appreciated assets as collateral for loans, giving them access to large sums of money without triggering taxable events. While some propose taxing loans at disbursement, I argue that a better approach would be a "repayment realization" rule, where taxes are applied when these loans are repaid, aligning more closely with traditional tax principles.Taxing at disbursement could open the door to various tax avoidance strategies, such as using offshore lending or taking out smaller loans to stay under tax thresholds. Additionally, taxing loans at the time of issuance could complicate valuations of illiquid or hard-to-value assets, making enforcement difficult. A repayment realization rule, on the other hand, would ensure that taxes are triggered when wealth is actually monetized to repay the loan, addressing these loopholes.This approach would also reduce the risk of manipulation through rolling over loans or making small repayments, as each repayment would be taxed proportionally. While there are challenges, like preventing double taxation, this proposal offers a more effective solution to ensure the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share of taxes when they access their wealth.Closing The Loan-Tax Loophole: Considering “Repayment Realization”In my column this week for Bloomberg, I propose the creation of an IRS-managed "encyclopedia of tax fraud" to help taxpayers spot scams early. While some fraudulent schemes are so obvious they're easy to recognize, others are packaged cleverly as legitimate tax strategies, making it difficult for the average person to tell the difference. Although the IRS publishes resources like the "Dirty Dozen" list of frauds, these are often too technical or hard to locate, limiting their usefulness. I suggest a Wikipedia-style online database, maintained by the IRS, that offers clear, plain-language explanations of fraud schemes, real-life examples, and the warning signs people should look for when receiving tax advice. This would allow taxpayers to identify potential scams before becoming victims or unwittingly participating in fraud. It would also explain the consequences of engaging in fraudulent activity, serving as a deterrent. By compiling this information in one place, the IRS could better protect taxpayers and safeguard vital tax revenue, making the job of scam artists much more difficult. My aim is to create a first line of defense for taxpayers as fraud schemes become increasingly sophisticated.‘Encyclopedia of Fraud' Would Help Taxpayers Spot Scams Early This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe
Both Apple and Microsoft are in talks with OpenAI to help the generative artificial intelligence company raise additional funds, which could make the company valued at over $100 billion. Will the extra cash mean that the company can improve its large language models to make genAI more useful? Brandon Mahne, guest co-host and CTO at Glasshouse, joins the show to discuss this and other technology news from the week, including whether we think sunlight “on demand” is brilliant or foolhardy.
Both Apple and Google were forced to take down commercials after blowback. The Apple one was Dave's pick of the week last week! The stock market has had some issues this week, especially Intel. Google got some bad news about their monopoly status. We cover that and there's other tech news to help you get caught up on and plenty more. Enjoy! Watch on YouTube! INTRO (00:00) TWiT Spatial Episode (03:55) MAIN TOPIC: (08:45) Apple pulls The Underdogs: Out of Office short film ad after Thai backlash and calls for boycott Apple apologizes for iPad ‘Crush' ad that ‘missed the mark' Google pulls Olympics ad that showed AI writing a little girl's letter for her DAVE'S PRO-TIP OF THE WEEK: Drag Apps From Spotlight to Home Screen (15:20) JUST THE HEADLINES: (21:00) Grown-ups surpass preschoolers as the biggest toy consumers Logitech has an idea for a “forever mouse” that requires a subscription $5,000 Exoskeleton Pants Promise to Make You a Better Hiker Taco Bell is bringing AI to hundreds of drive-thrus nationwide Fully-automatic robot dentist performs world's first human procedure NFL to roll out facial authentication software league-wide TAKES: Google illegally maintains monopoly over internet search, judge rules (22:50) Google is no longer making Chromecasts and will let inventory run out (25:10) Intel to shed at least 15% of staff, will outsource more to TSMC, slash $10B in costs - Intel plunges 30%, most since 1982, after announcing layoffs and weak guidance (27:20) Apple's SuperDrive for reading disks seemingly discontinued with no inventory online (32:40) BONUS ODD TAKE: Steve Jobs Auction Features Apple-1, Bomber Jacket, Sealed Original iPhone, and More (36:05) PICKS OF THE WEEK: Nate: OWC 14-Port Thunderbolt Dock, 85W charging, (2) Thunderbolt 40 Gb/s (USB-C), (5) USB 3.2 Type-A, USB 3.2 (10Gb/s) Type-C, Mini DisplayPort, GbE, Audio, Single 5K or Dual 4K Displays, cable, For Mac/PC (43:00) Dave: 2016 Nissan Leaf (47:35) RAMAZON PURCHASE - Giveaway! (54:40) Find us elsewhere: https://notpicks.com - Find links to previous picks of the week https://www.notnerd.com - All things Notnerd
Both Apple and Microsoft have patched a lot of security vulnerabilities in updates to their operating systems. A new scam uses AI to put the squeeze on victims. Info from a years-old AT&T data breach has been made public and data from 10s of millions of users has been exposed. And Apple has said that the RCS messaging protocol is coming to its operating systems later this year. Just how many messaging protocols is too many? Show Notes: From the Department of Spending Tim Cook's Money: Online Photo Storage Is Surely Expensive to Offer, but Apple Should Offer More Behind the scenes at Scary Fast: Apple's keynote event shot on iPhone and edited on Mac Microsoft's biggest Patch Tuesday in history: 147 vulnerabilities, 2 actively exploited A ‘Law Firm' of AI Generated Lawyers Is Sending Fake Threats as an SEO Scam Google Chrome Adds V8 Sandbox - A New Defense Against Browser Attacks AT&T data breach exposes 70 million records; here's how to protect yourself Sunbird, the security nightmare that tried to bring iMessage to Android, is returning Beeper was just acquired by Automattic, which has big plans for the future of messaging Beeper & Texts - Matt Mullenweg's blog Intego Mac Premium Bundle X9 is the ultimate protection and utility suite for your Mac. Download a free trial now at intego.com, and use this link for a special discount when you're ready to buy.
On this day in legal history, August 10, 1993, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, becoming the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Her work has had a lasting impact on U.S. law, particularly in the areas of gender equality and civil rights. Ruth Bader Ginsburg's tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court was marked by significant decisions that shaped American law. In "United States v. Virginia" (1996), she authored the majority opinion that struck down the Virginia Military Institute's male-only admissions policy, emphasizing that gender equality is a constitutional right. In "Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services" (2000), she wrote the opinion upholding citizens' rights to sue for environmental infractions, even when the illegal conduct had ceased. Ginsburg also wrote the dissenting opinion in "Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co." (2007), arguing for a broader interpretation of the statute of limitations for pay discrimination claims. Her dissent inspired the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, signed into law in 2009. Her work consistently displayed a commitment to civil rights, gender equality, and access to justice.Also on this day in legal history, my co-host Gina was born. Like Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she is a jurist of note and, as of Fall 2023, a professor of law. She will positively hate this, but she's the coolest and the center of everyone around her's world. Love you G! A revived legal dispute concerning a Christian music teacher, John Kluge, who refused to use students' preferred pronouns, will test the US Supreme Court's new standard for religious accommodations in the workplace. Kluge lost his initial case under a precedent allowing employers to deny religious requests posing minimal hardship. However, the Supreme Court recently altered how religious accommodations should be analyzed, making them harder to reject. Kluge's case is returning to an Indiana federal court for reassessment under the Supreme Court's unanimous Groff v. Dejoy decision. Legal experts note that there is a lack of clear guidance on when a religious accommodation constitutes a "substantial" burden on an employer. This issue is becoming increasingly critical as courts grapple with religious requests and LGBT anti-discrimination protections. The school district will likely argue that Kluge's accommodation disrupted the academic environment, while Kluge must prove that his religious beliefs are sincere and that a reasonable accommodation exists. The new Groff standard is expected to complicate employment cases across the nation and impact the number of religious accommodation cases going forward.Religious Objections Over Pronouns Test High Court's New StanceSouthwest Airlines plans to appeal a Texas federal court order that requires three of the company's lawyers to undergo religious liberty training from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a prominent conservative Christian group. The order was handed down by Judge Brantley Starr after Southwest failed to comply with a court order related to a lawsuit by a flight attendant who was fired over anti-abortion social media posts. The company will also appeal a $5.1 million jury verdict for the ex-employee in her religious discrimination suit. Starr ordered the training after Southwest "inverted" a required notice regarding religious practices and beliefs of flight attendants. The selection of ADF for the training has attracted attention due to the group's advocacy in major legal battles over abortion and LGBTQ rights. Legal experts have described the order as unusual and unprecedented, though within the court's power. ADF's chief legal counsel expressed readiness to help Southwest with the training, emphasizing the importance of respecting religious liberty and diverse viewpoints in the workplace.Southwest to Fight ‘Unusual' Lawyer Religious Training Order (2)The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed Apple to maintain its App Store payment rules for now, denying a request by Epic Games that would have allowed developers to direct iPhone users to alternative purchasing options. Justice Elena Kagan, in charge of emergency matters for the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit, rejected Epic's request without explanation. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals previously found that Apple violated California's Unfair Competition Law by limiting developers' ability to communicate about other payment systems. However, Kagan's decision grants Apple a temporary reprieve from the ruling, with the appeals court having put its decision on hold for a potential Supreme Court appeal by Apple. If the justices refuse to hear the case, the ruling will take effect. The dispute could have significant financial implications for Apple, as the ruling may allow developers to bypass the 30% commission Apple charges for digital sales through its App Store. Both Apple and Epic declined immediate comment.Apple Can Keep App Store Rules for Now as Court Rejects Epic (2)The U.S. special counsel investigating former President Donald Trump obtained a search warrant for Trump's Twitter account in relation to the investigation of the events of January 6, 2021. Twitter, now known as X, delayed compliance with the warrant and raised First Amendment concerns regarding a nondisclosure order over the warrant. The company wanted to notify Trump about the warrant, leading to legal complications. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed a federal trial judge's decision to hold Twitter in contempt and fine it $350,000. Trump responded to the situation on his social media site Truth Social, claiming that the Justice Department "secretly attacked" his Twitter account. While Trump's tweets are publicly viewable, the warrant likely seeks access to non-public information like direct messages and drafts. The opinion did not identify which judge held Twitter in contempt, and spokespeople for the Special Counsel and X have not immediately commented.US obtained search warrant for Trump's Twitter account in Jan. 6 probe Get full access to Minimum Competence - Daily Legal News Podcast at www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe
Carl Quintanilla, Jim Cramer and David Faber explored what investors should make of Friday's market rally after four days of selling. Both Apple's earnings and the government's April jobs report beat expectations, easing concerns about the possibility of a recession. Regional banks were in rebound mode, recouping some of this week's steep losses that were sparked by renewed worries about the group. Also in focus: Warner Bros. Discovery's quarterly loss and streaming profit, Lyft tumbles, Icahn vs. Hindenburg, plus reaction to travel earnings fromExpedia and Booking Holdings. Squawk on the Street Disclaimer
8 Steps To Take After Your Phone Gets Lost or Stolen 1. Call Your Phone It's possible that you simply misplaced your phone. Call your number and send a text. If the phone is within reach, you will hear it. Or if you misplaced it, someone may answer. 2. Log On To Find My Phone on iPhone or Find My Device on Google For an Android phone, use Google's Find My Device. For an iPhone, go to Find My iPhone. Use those services to send a sound to the phone, display a message on the lock screen or erase the data on your phone. 3. Notify Your Service Provider You want to inform your carrier of the loss. It can suspend your service until you locate your phone or buy a new one. Your carrier can also prevent the phone from being used on its network and mark the phone as unusable, even with a new SIM card. 4. File a Report With the Police Why? In case the phone is used for illegal activity or if you incur fraudulent charges or identity theft. 6. Change Your Passwords If a thief has your phone, that person can potentially gain access to all of your personal information, including your passwords and security questions for the websites you visit. Change all of your passwords and security questions. 7. Contact Your Bank, Credit Card Companies and Other Financial Institutions Notify all major financial and other important agencies of the loss so that they are aware your accounts are in danger. You can ask the bank and credit card companies to issue new cards. 8. Think About Insurance If you have coverage for your phone, contact the insurance company. Contact your cell provider and see if it covers any of the replacement costs. If you use a credit card to pay your monthly phone bill, contact the issuer. Some offer replacement coverage at no cost to you. https://clark.com/credit-cards/credit-cards-free-cell-phone-protection/ 35 companies. Usually there is a $50 deductible then they cover between $500 to $800 for a new phone. 4 Steps To Take Before Your Phone Gets Lost or Stolen 1. Make a List of Important Information For a cell phone, log the place and date of purchase, the amount of the purchase, the make and model of the phone, the serial number and the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) or MEID (Mobile Equipment Identifier) number. 2. Set Strong Security Settings Using a password plus biometric authentication is best. Biometric authentication is when you use your fingerprint, facial or voice recognition to log in to your phone. Also, use a strong password. If your phone allows it, skip the 4-digit PIN and instead choose a password that is at least eight characters long and contains a combination of letters, numbers and symbols. Both Apple and Android phones will lock you out after so many failed login attempts. An iPhone will disable for 1 minute after six failed passcode attempts in a row. The seventh incorrect passcode attempt will lock you out for 5 minutes, the eighth attempt for 15, and the tenth for an hour. 3. Enable Find My Phone When this setting is enabled, you can use a computer or other device to locate your phone if it turns up missing. For it to work, the phone must be turned on and connected to Wi-Fi or cellular. It can also report the last known location that was logged as long as you have location tracking turned on.You can also choose to share your location with friends and family and locate your device even when it is offline. 4. Backup Your Phone When you set up a new phone, you will be prompted to enable backup. Apple uses iCloud and Android uses Google Drive. Follow the prompts to enable the backup feature. The idea for this show came from a Great Clark Howard article. Many thanks to him . https://clark.com/cell-phones/phone-is-lost-or-stolen/?utm_source=Clark.com&utm_campaign=d558eb8ef4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_03_28_05_53&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-d558eb8ef4-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D
Revenue Generator Podcast: Sales + Marketing + Product + Customer Success = Revenue Growth
Chief Commercial Officer at AUDIENCEX, Brian Ko discusses what Apple's new data-restrictive policies mean for the future of marketing and advertising. Both Apple and Android are taking measures to protect consumer privacy by leaving more control in the consumers' hands. In today's conversation, Brian Ko discusses how marketers can create a positive spin on this loss of key data. Show NotesConnect With: Brian Ko: Website // LinkedInThe Rev Gen Podcast: Email // LinkedIn // TwitterI Hear Everything: IHearEverything.com // LinkedIn // TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In this episode, we discover the practice of rest as part of our Bible study, The Journey Back To Your Heart. Listen in as we learn together that rest is not found in a destination, but in a Person. Scriptures in this episode (all scriptures quoted from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted): -John 14:27, Matthew 11:28-30, Romans 12:2 (The Message), Psalm 23, Matthew 6:24-27, 2 Cor. 10:3-5, Colossians 3:1-2 (NIV) Show Notes & Links: -Rest is not found in a destination or a set of calming daily tasks—rest is an internal state of being that begins and ends in a personal connection with God. -Jesus call everyone to His rest (Mt. 11:28)--no one is excluded! -Jesus is our shepherd. His job is to care for us. Our job is to let Him. (Ps. 23) -Keeping our heart and mind set on things above (Col. 3) is like a truth filter for everything that comes into our lives. -We hear from God when we are connected to Him. Tips for keeping your mind open to God's voice. -Don't let the culture squeeze you into its mold (Rom. 12:2) -What are the "rest-busters" that are keeping you from experiencing rest with God? Links (click 'em, they're live) -Do you have the Kindle Reader app so you can download a free copy of The Mary Answer (in case you don't have a Kindle). The app allows you to download and read books from Amazon on any computer or device--phone, iPad, whatever. Download it now so you can get your free book Dec. 21-25. Both Apple and Android versions available here: https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=16571048011 -Listen to episode 172--the introduction to Remain: https://womenfinishingwell.com/episode172/ -Click here to check out Linda Troyer's Bible study, Rest Revealed. -Sign up for my email list here and don't miss a podcast or a blog post. You'll find lots of other goodies in these short, snappy emails! -Check out our Women Finishing Well Facebook community here: https://www.facebook.com/womenfinishingwell/ Don't miss the blog post this week on Practicing A Sabbath Rest! Find it on the Facebook page or my blog: https://womenfinishingwell.com/blog/
Both Apple and Google have tools to deal with those distractions in photos taken with your iPhone or Pixel phone.
Both Apple and Google have tools to deal with those distractions in photos taken with your iPhone or Pixel phone.
Revenue Generator Podcast: Sales + Marketing + Product + Customer Success = Revenue Growth
Chief Commercial Officer at AUDIENCEX, Brian Ko discusses what Apple's new data-restrictive policies mean for the future of marketing and advertising. Both Apple and Android are taking measures to protect consumer privacy by leaving more control in the consumers' hands. In today's conversation, Brian Ko discusses how marketers can create a positive spin on this loss of key data. Show NotesConnect With: Brian Ko: Website // LinkedInThe Rev Gen Podcast: Email // LinkedIn // TwitterI Hear Everything: IHearEverything.com // LinkedIn // TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
This week began a whole slew of end of the year lists, commemorating the beginning of the end of 2021, and podcasts lists were no different. Both Apple and Spotify revealed their most popular shows for listeners for the year of 2021. Infinite Dial released their findings on podcasting and media consumption, based in the UK. Students, don't miss out on NPR's annual podcast challenge and then tune into your childhood roots with the Bugs Bunny and Daffy podcast. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Podcast Insider. Looking to be a guest on the show? Let us know. Live Facebook recording. News Apple Podcasts released their Best of 2021 Spotify Wrapped dropped yesterday and it includes podcasts Chris Cuomo, co-host of the podcast The Hand Off, suspended by CNN for a breach of journalistic ethics LiveOne expanding for connected vehicle listening Podcasting has changed since the early days NPR's College Podcast Challenge is back with a chance to win $5k! Infinite Dial UK findings are available today Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck do a podcast! Best Practice File names Artwork file names Media file names Best practice No spaces. Letters, numbers and dashes only. Only numbers or letters at the end of the file name. No periods in the file name OTHER than the .mp3 or .jpg. Media File Example: PCI-2021-12-2.mp3 or pci271.mp3 Artwork file example: PCI1400.png or pci3000.jpg Blubrry News Blog: Livestream Your Show by Tara Jean O'Brien Blog: How to Choose a Co-Host by David Day Internal Affairs released their second episode recently. Blubrry Pro Tip Are You Taking Full Advantage of Your Podcast Asset Question(s) of the Week Question: How long should I spend on my podcast episodes? Answer: As long as you want. However long you feel is necessary to put out the level of quality you have in mind. I have heard 4:1. If you do a 1 hour long show, you could spend up to 4 hours working on it (prep, recording, editing and promotion, etc.). ______________ Got a question you'd like us to answer on the show? Drop an email to mike@blubrry.com (audio, text, video) and we may use it. The best place for support with any Blubrry products/services is our ticket system (https://blubrry.com/support/). Tickets give the whole team access rather than direct emails or calls. ______________ Coming to you this week from the New Media Studio in southern Michigan and Mike Dell's World Studio in northern Michigan. Produced by the Blubrry Pro-Production team. Schedule a one-on-one with Todd (hosting customers only). Email todd@blubrry.com Schedule a tech checkup with Mike (hosting customers only). Email mike@blubrry.com Send us your podcast sticker and a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) and we will send you a Blubrry care package. Our mailing address is: Blubrry – MacKenzie 150 E. Campus View Blvd. #180 Columbus, Ohio 43235
This week began a whole slew of end of the year lists, commemorating the beginning of the end of 2021, and podcasts lists were no different. Both Apple and Spotify revealed their most popular shows for listeners for the year of 2021. Infinite Dial released their findings on podcasting and media consumption, based in the UK. Students, don't miss out on NPR's annual podcast challenge and then tune into your childhood roots with the Bugs Bunny and Daffy podcast. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Podcast Insider. Looking to be a guest on the show? Let us know. Live Facebook recording. News Apple Podcasts released their Best of 2021 Spotify Wrapped dropped yesterday and it includes podcasts Chris Cuomo, co-host of the podcast The Hand Off, suspended by CNN for a breach of journalistic ethics LiveOne expanding for connected vehicle listening Podcasting has changed since the early days NPR's College Podcast Challenge is back with a chance to win $5k! Infinite Dial UK findings are available today Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck do a podcast! Best Practice File names Artwork file names Media file names Best practice No spaces. Letters, numbers and dashes only. Only numbers or letters at the end of the file name. No periods in the file name OTHER than the .mp3 or .jpg. Media File Example: PCI-2021-12-2.mp3 or pci271.mp3 Artwork file example: PCI1400.png or pci3000.jpg Blubrry News Blog: Livestream Your Show by Tara Jean O'Brien Blog: How to Choose a Co-Host by David Day Internal Affairs released their second episode recently. Blubrry Pro Tip Are You Taking Full Advantage of Your Podcast Asset Question(s) of the Week Question: How long should I spend on my podcast episodes? Answer: As long as you want. However long you feel is necessary to put out the level of quality you have in mind. I have heard 4:1. If you do a 1 hour long show, you could spend up to 4 hours working on it (prep, recording, editing and promotion, etc.). ______________ Got a question you'd like us to answer on the show? Drop an email to mike@blubrry.com (audio, text, video) and we may use it. The best place for support with any Blubrry products/services is our ticket system (https://blubrry.com/support/). Tickets give the whole team access rather than direct emails or calls. ______________ Coming to you this week from the New Media Studio in southern Michigan and Mike Dell's World Studio in northern Michigan. Produced by the Blubrry Pro-Production team. Schedule a one-on-one with Todd (hosting customers only). Email todd@blubrry.com Schedule a tech checkup with Mike (hosting customers only). Email mike@blubrry.com Send us your podcast sticker and a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) and we will send you a Blubrry care package. Our mailing address is: Blubrry – MacKenzie 150 E. Campus View Blvd. #180 Columbus, Ohio 43235
Both Apple and Google are grappling with mounting antitrust concerns over the way they manage their app stores. In a stunning development, Google has agreed to slash its Play Store commission fee from 30 percent to 15 percent — ending the set-in-stone cut that has become synonymous with doing business with app stores. Meanwhile, Apple is hoping to reach a settlement with small developers, in what is shaping up as a do-or-die struggle for the Big Tech company as it attempts to retain unfettered control of its App Store. Also on today's podcast: the monster penalty imposed on Credit Suisse over financial-crime failings. The “tuna bonds” affair isn't so much about the eye-watering $475 million fine as it is about how far the long arm of US justice can reach.
Both Apple and Google are being sued over how they run their app stores. Clark explains the toll and the workaround. / Free college sounds great, especially with the outrageous price of higher education and the student loan burden so many carry. But is it a good idea? Clark points out where this has been successful, and why it can be good for citizen, state and country when it's skills based, for the marketplace. Ask Clark topics include: How Much to Tip During the Coronavirus Pandemic / Can a Patient Advocate Help With Your Medical Bills? / How to Find and Claim Missing Money in Your Name / Authorized User vs. Joint Account Holder: Understanding the Difference for Credit Cards / 401(k) Guide: What Is a 401(k) Plan and How Does It Work? Want more money advice? Sign up for Clark's free daily newsletter! Free Advice: Clark's Consumer Action Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Magic Mike, male Viera announced for FFXIV, Marcus and Anne are mad at BOTH Apple and eBay… It’s going to be a rowdy one! Marcus has also been busy with new Collector’s Cabinet and Checking the Score pieces, plus he checks out early access for that hot new Konami game, GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon! Note that… Read More The post Pixel x Pixel Episode 63 appeared first on Chic Pixel.
The Podcast subscription wars have arrived! Both Apple and Spotify want you to create a subscription for your listeners. But should you? Become a Supporter! https://my.captivate.fm/Patreon.com/NightShiftRadio (Patreon.com/NightShiftRadio) Join our Mailing List! NSRad.io/mailinglist Follow me! https://my.captivate.fm/Twitter.com/TheMichaelFight (Twitter.com/TheMichaelFight) https://my.captivate.fm/Instagram.com/MichaelFight (Instagram.com/MichaelFight) Watch On YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcmYeuICY69-EDrzynDQSRQ (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcmYeuICY69-EDrzynDQSRQ) Check Out Our Other Shows! http://NightShiftRadio.com (NightShiftRadio.com) Support this podcast
Both Apple and Google are rolling out new updates that will make it harder for companies to track you online. But it will also make it harder for companies to target ads. For more, KCBS Radio news anchor Rebecca Corral spoke with Bloomberg News reporter Nico Grant. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today's headlines: Both Apple and Samsung announce launch events for April, the first major PS5 update will roll out starting today and Microsoft's new 'Modern' accessories include its first webcam in years. Get in touch: Email us at tma@engadget.com!.
Today’s headlines: Both Apple and Samsung announce launch events for April, the first major PS5 update will roll out starting today and Microsoft's new 'Modern' accessories include its first webcam in years. Get in touch: Email us at tma@engadget.com!.
The Aussie market is set to open higher, around 0.8%, which defies the losses that were seen over on Wall Street. Major tech shares were in the red after the 10-year Treasury yield reached its highest level since January 2020. Both Apple and Microsoft led the losses. They both fell about 1%. What to watch today:Building permits for February are out today at 11:30am. The Oil price dipped 1.6% to US$60.55. This comes as the Suez Canal reopened to traffic and the dollar rallied. Focus in the market now shifts to a meeting between oil-producing nations where its expected that the supply curbs will be extended given dim demand prospects. The Gold price slipped nearly 2%. The firmer dollar, higher Treasury yields and hopes for a faster US economic recovery has dampened demand in the safe-haven asset. As for the most traded stocks yesterday from our active trader desk, Bell Direct Advantage they were: Byrah Resources (ASX:BYH), 88 Energy (ASX:88E), and Digital Wine Ventures (ASX:DW8).Shares going ex-dividend today: Eagers Automotive (ASX:APE) and Harvey Norman (ASX:HVN). Trading ideas:Bell Potter maintains its Buy rating on Flight Centre (ASX:FLT) and price target for the stock at $21.50. Given the recovery profile of global travel remains in its early stages, and the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccinations programs is accelerating, Bell Potter believes FLT is highly leveraged to this step change and remains their key pick in the sector. Bell Potter also has a Buy rating on AMA Group (ASX:AMA) however they have reduced its price target by about 11% to $0.85. This comes as the number of AMA job vacancy ads over the past weeks on sites such as Seek appear to be higher than usual, which suggest the company may be having some trouble sourcing qualified people. Despite this, Bell Potter sees good value in the current share price and the catalysts being a return to more normal operating conditions in FY22. Noxopharm (ASX:NOX), Kina Securities (ASX:KSL) & Element 25 (ASX:E25) are all giving off bullish charting signals according to Trading Central.
If companies of the twentieth century looked to Ford, General Electric and IBM as the gold standard for organizational performance, companies today model themselves in the image of Apple or Facebook - innovative, nimble and incredibly successful. Both Apple and Facebook share an origin story of small beginnings: of a few young men gathering in a garage or a dorm room to create The Next Big Thing. While the unicorns (tech firms valued over $1 billion) earn the most attention and headlines, the majority of tech start-ups are still in the “small and growing” stage. In this episode we dive into our own work experiences. Join us to hear our take on the drawbacks and benefits of life inside a tech start-up.
Welcome! This week I am spending a bit of time discussing Bitcoin and other crypto-currency and their tie to Ransomware and a couple of things the Feds are doing from the IRS to DOJ. Then we go into the Gig Economy and thru the ramifications of CA Prop 22 and More so listen in. For more tech tips, news, and updates, visit - CraigPeterson.com. --- Tech Articles Craig Thinks You Should Read: The feds just seized Silk Road’s $1 billion Stash of bitcoin Uber and Lyft in driving seat to remake US labor laws The One Critical Element to Hardening Your Employees' Mobile Security Ransom Payment No Guarantee Against Doxxing Connected cars must be open to third parties, say Massachusetts voters Tracking Down the Web Trackers Apple develops an alternative to Google search San Diego’s spying streetlights stuck switched “on,” despite a directive Paying ransomware demands could land you in hot water with the feds Windows 10 machines running on ARM will be able to emulate x64 apps soon 'It Won't Happen to Me': Employee Apathy Prevails Despite Greater Cybersecurity Awareness Rise in Remote MacOS Workers Driving Cybersecurity 'Rethink' A Guide to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework --- Automated Machine-Generated Transcript: Craig Peterson: [00:00:00] The silk road is back in the news as a billion dollars was just taken from their account. We're going to talk about mobile security, ransom payments, and doxing. And of course, a whole lot more as you listen right now. Hi, everybody, of course, Craig Peterson here. Thanks for spending a little time with me today. We have a bunch to get to. I think one of the most interesting articles, what kind of start with this week because this is a very big deal. We're talking about something called cryptocurrency, and I'm going to go into that a little bit. So for those of you who already know, just maybe there's something you'll learn from this little part of the discussion and then we'll get into Bitcoin more specifically. Then the secret service, what they have been doing to track down some of these illegal operators and also how this is really affecting ransomware. Those two, by the way, are just tied tightly together, Bitcoin and ransomware. So I'll explain why that is as well. Cryptocurrency has been around for quite a while now. There's a concept behind cryptocurrency and it's the most important concept of all, frankly, when it comes to cryptocurrency and that is you have to use advanced to mathematics in order to prove that you have found a Bitcoin. Time was you'd go out and go gold mining. Heck people are still doing it today. all over New England. It isn't just the Yukon or Alaska or Australia, et cetera. They're doing it right here. And they have proof that they found something that's very hard to find because they have a little piece of gold or maybe a nugget or maybe something that's like a huge nugget man. I saw a picture of one out of Australia that was absolutely incredible. Takes a few people to carry this thing. That is proof, isn't it? You can take that to the bank, ultimately. You sell it to a gold dealer who gives you cash. That you can then take to a bank. Then the bank account information is used to prove that you can buy something. You give someone a credit card, it runs a little check. Hey, are we going to let this guy buy it? Or a debit card? Hey, does he have enough money in the bank? So along with that pathway, you have something that is real. That's hard and that's the gold that was mined out of the ground. Then it very quickly becomes something that's frankly, unreal. Time was our currency was backed by gold and then it was backed by silver. Now it's backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government. not quite the same thing, is it? So we're dealing with money that isn't all that real, the United States agreed to not manipulate its currency. We became what's called the petrodollar. All petroleum products, particularly crude oil are sold on international exchanges using the US dollar. China is trying to change that. Russia's tried to change that. They're actually both going to change it by using a cryptocurrency. At least that's their plan. The idea behind cryptocurrency is that your money, isn't real either, right? You sure you've got a piece of paper, but it's not backed by anything other than the acceptance of it by somebody else. If you walk into Starbucks and you drop down a quarter for your coffee. Yeah, I know it's not a quarter used to be a dime. I remember it was a dime for a cup of coffee, not at Starbucks, but you dropped down your money. Okay. Your $10 bill for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, they'll take it because they know they can take that $10 and they can use it to pay an employee and that employee will accept it and then they can use that to buy whatever it is that they need. It's how it works. With Bitcoin, they're saying what's the difference? You have a Bitcoin. It's not real. Ultimately represents something that is real, but how is there a difference between accepting a Bitcoin and accepting a $5 bill? What is the difference between those two or that $10 bill that you put down at Starbucks? In both cases, we're talking about something that represents the ability to trade. That's really what it boils down to. Our currencies represent the ability to trade. Remember way back when, before I was born that a standard wage was considered a dollar a day. So people would be making money at a rate of a dollar a day. I remember that song, old country song. I sold my soul to the company's store and they made enough money just basically yet buy in to pay the company for the room and board and everything else they had. Interesting times, not fun, that's for sure for many people caught up in it. When you dig down behind Bitcoin, once you ultimately find at the root, was a computer that spent a lot of time and money to solve this massive mathematical equation. That's the basics of how that works. That's what Bitcoin mining is. Right now, it costs more to mine a Bitcoin. In most areas, then it costs for the electricity to run it and the hardware to buy it. There are computers that are purpose made. Just to create these Bitcoins, just to find them just to mine them. If you're sitting at home thinking, wow, I should get into a cryptocurrency and I'll just go ahead and mine it on my computer, that's really fun. It's a fun thing to think about. But in reality, you are not going to be able to justify it. You'd be better off to go and buy some gold or another precious metal. So that's how cryptocurrency has, how Bitcoin, that's how all of these really begin is just with the computer, trying to solve an incredibly complex math problem that can take weeks or months for it to solve. For those of you that want to dig a little bit more, basically, it's using prime numbers. You might remember messing with those in school. I remember, I wrote a program to determine prime numbers a long time ago. 45 plus years ago, I guess it was, and it was fun because I learned a lot about prime numbers back then. But we're dealing with multi-thousand digit numbers in some of these cases, just huge numbers, far too hard for you or I to deal with and that's why I take so incredibly long. Now we know how the value was started and that was with somebody running a computer finding that Bitcoin and putting it on the market. Now, normally when you're looking at market and market volatility, markets are supply and demand based except for government interference. We certainly have a lot of that in the United States. We do not have a completely free market system, not even close. The free market says I had to dig this hole and in order to dig that hole, I had to have a big backhoe. Before that, I had to have a bucket or maybe some other heavy equipment to move all of the earth out of the way, the bulldozers, et cetera. Then I had to run that through some sort of a wash plant and all of these things cost me money. So basically it costs me whatever it might be, a hundred bucks, in order to find this piece of gold, and then that hundred bucks now that it costs him to do it is the basis for the value of that piece of gold. Obviously, I'm not using real numbers, but just simple numbers to give you an idea of how cryptocurrency works. So it's a hundred bucks for me to get that piece of gold out of the ground. Then that piece of gold is taken and goes to some form of a distributor. So I'm going to sell that piece of gold to somebody that's going to melt it down. They're going to assay it and say, yeah, this is a hundred percent pure gold, and then they'll sell it to someone and then they'll sell it to someone and then they'll sell it to a jeweler who then takes it and makes jewelry. Every time along there they're adding stuff onto it. But the basic value of gold is based on how hard it is to get and how many people want to get their hands on it. The law of supply and demand. You've seen that over the years, it's been true forever. Really? That's how human trade works. Capitalism, in reality, is just the ability of strangers to trade with each other is just an incredible concept. What we're talking about here with the cryptocurrency is much the same thing. The value of cryptocurrency goes up and down a lot. Right now, one Bitcoin is worth about 15,000, almost $16,000 per bitcoin. We'll talk about that. What is Bitcoin? How can I even buy it? Pizza for the silly things were 16 grand, right? It's like taking a bar of gold to buy a pizza. How do you do that? How do you deal with that? So we'll get into that, and then we'll get into how the tie between cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, and the criminal underground. That tie is extremely tight and what that means to you. It is tied directly into the value of Bitcoin. Right now the basis is it costs me 16 grand to mine, a Bitcoin. Therefore that's where I'm going to sell it for, of course, there are profit and everything else that you put into that $16,000 number. We've got a lot more to get to today. We're going to talk about this billion dollars, which is, that's a real piece of money here that the feds just seized. Right now talking about Bitcoin. What's the value of it? How is it tied into criminal enterprises and what's going on with the FBI seizure this week? Bitcoin's value has been going up and down. I just pulled up during the break, a chart showing me the value of Bitcoin over the last 12 months. It has been just crazy. going back years it was worth a dollar. I think the Bitcoin purchase was for a pizza, which is really interesting when you get right down to it. The guy says, Oh yeah, what the heck, take some Bitcoin for it. Okay. here we go. May 22nd, 2010 Lasso Lowe made the first real-world transaction by buying two pizzas in Jacksonville, Florida for 10,000 Bitcoin. 10,000 Bitcoin. So let me do a little bit of math here. Let me pull it up here. Today's price is about $15,750,000. So he bought it. Two pizzas for the value today, Bitcoin of $157 million. That's actually pretty simple math, $157 million. Okay, that was 10 years ago. The first Bitcoin purchase. So it has gone up pretty dramatically in price. I think the highest price for one Bitcoin was $17,900. It was almost $18,000 and then it's dropped down. It has gone up and it has gone down quite a bit over the years. It seems to have had a few really hard drop-offs when it hit about 14,000. Right now it is above that. So I'm not giving investment advice here, right? That's not what I do. We're talking about the technology that's behind some of this stuff, but one Bitcoin then. Is too much for a pizza, right? So he paid 10,000 Bitcoin for his first pizza. That's really cool, but, ah, today where it's another word, the Bitcoin was worth just a fraction of a cent each back then. Today you can't buy a pizza for one Bitcoin. So Bitcoin was designed to be chopped up so you can purchase and you can sell them at a fraction of a Bitcoin. That's how these transactions are happening. Now there's a lot of technology we won't get into that's behind all of this and how the transactions work and having a wallet, a Bitcoin wallet, and how the encryption works and how all of these logs work. The audits, basically the journals that are kept as accountants and how a majority of these have to vote and say that particular transaction was worthwhile. The fact that every Bitcoin transaction is not only stored but is stored on thousands of computers worldwide. Okay. There's a whole lot to that, but let's get into the practical side. If you are a bad guy. If you are a thief. If you're into extortion. If you're doing any of those things, how do you do it without the government noticing? In reality, it's impossible when you get right down to it. Nothing is completely anonymous and nothing ever will be most likely, completely anonymous. But they still do it anyway, because, in reality, they, the FBI or the secret service or whoever's investigating has to be interested enough in you and what you're doing in order to track you down. If they are interested enough, they will track you down. It really is that simple. Enter a convicted criminal by the name of Ross Ulbricht Ross was running something online, a website called the silk road. It was what's known as the dark web. If you've listened to the show long enough, the history of the dark web and that it was founded by the US government. In fact, the dark web is still maintained by the government. I'm pretty sure it's still the Navy that actually keeps the dark web online. The thinking was we have the dark web. It's difficult for people to track us here on the dark web and if we use something like Bitcoin, one of these cryptocurrencies for payment, then we are really going to be a lot safer. Then they added one more thing to the mix called a tumbler. And the idea with the tumbler is that if I'm buying something from you using Bitcoin, my wallet shows that I transferred the Bitcoin to you. All of these verification mechanisms that are in place around the world also know about our little transaction, everybody knows. The secrecy is based on the concept of a Swiss bank account. When with that Swiss bank account, you have a number and obviously you have a name, but it is kept rather anonymous. The same, thing's true with your wallet. You have a number, it's a big number to a hexadecimal number. It is a number that you can use and you can trade with. You've got a problem because, ultimately, someone looking at these logs who knows who you are or who I am or wants to figure out who either one of us is probably can. And once they know that they can now verify that you indeed are the person who made that purchase. So these tumblers will take that transaction instead of me transferring Bitcoin directly to you, the Bitcoin gets transferred to another wallet. Then from that wallet to another wallet and from that wallet to another wallet and from that wallet to a number of another wallet. Now is much more difficult to trace it because I did not have a transaction directly with you. Who is in the middle? That's where things start getting really difficult. But as Russ Ulbricht found out, it is not untraceable. He is behind bars with two life sentences plus 40 years. What they were doing on the silk road is buying and selling pretty much anything you can think of. You could get any hard drug that you wanted there, you could get fake IDs, anything, really, anything, even services that you might want to buy. There are thousands of dealers on the silk road. Over a hundred thousand buyers, according to the civil complaint that was filed on Thursday this week. Last week, actually, the document said that silk road generated a revenue of over 9.5 million Bitcoins and collected commissions from these sales of more than 600,000 Bitcoin. Absolutely amazing. Now you might wonder, okay. Maybe I can buy a pizza with Bitcoin or something elicit with Bitcoin, but how can I use it in the normal world while there are places that will allow you to convert Bitcoin into real dollars and vice versa? In fact, many businesses have bought Bitcoin for one reason and one reason in particular. That reason is insurance. They have bought Bitcoin in case they get ransomware. They just want it to sit in there, to use to pay ransoms. We'll talk more about that. We're turning into the Bitcoin hour, I guess today. we are talking a lot about it right now because it's one of the top questions I get asked. The IRS is saying that they may put a question on your tax return next year, about cryptocurrency specifically Bitcoin. So what's that all about? And by the way, the IRS had a hand in this conviction too. Your listening to Craig Peterson. We just mentioned, gentlemen, I don't know if he's a gentleman, by the name of Ross Ulbricht and he is behind bars for life. He was buying and selling on the. A website called the silk road. In fact, he was the guy running it, according to his conviction and two life terms, plus 40 years seems like a long time. In other words, he's not getting out. The internal revenue service had gotten involved with this as well because you are supposed to pay taxes on any money you earn. That is a very big deal when you're talking about potentially many millions of dollars. So let's figure this out. I'm going to say, some 9.5 million. So 9 million, 500,000. There we go, Bitcoin. What do we want to say? Let's say the average value of that Bitcoins over time, there was about $5,000 apiece. Okay. So let's see times 5,000, Oh wow. That's a big number. It comes back to 47 billion. There you go. $500 million dollars. Almost $50 billion. That's just really rough back of the envelope math. We have no idea. So that's a lot of money to be running through a website. Then the commission that he made on all of those sales is said to have been more than 600,000 Bitcoin. So again, 600,000 times let's say an average price of $5,000 per Bitcoin. So that's saying he probably made about $3 billion gross anyways, on these collected commissions. That is amazing. The IRS criminal investigation arm worked with the FBI to investigate what was happening here as well as, by the way, the secret service. I got a briefing on this from the secret service and these numbers are just staggering, but here's the problem. The guy was sentenced a few years ago. 2015 he was prosecuted successfully. where did all of his money go? His money was sitting there in Bitcoin, in an unencrypted wallet, because part of the idea behind your Bitcoin wallet is there are passcodes and nobody can get at that your wallet information unless they have the passcode. So they might know what your wallet number is, which they did. The secret service and the IRS knew his wallet number, but how can they get at that Bitcoin and the money it represents? They did. This is like something really from one of these, TV shows that I don't watch right there. What is it? NCU? The crime investigator unit CIU or whatever it is on TV. I can't watch those because there's so much stuff they get wrong technically, and I just start screaming at the TV. It's one of those things. What they found is that the wallet hadn't been used in five years. They found that just last week, people who've been watching his Bitcoin wallet number, found that they were about 70,000 Bitcoins transferred from the wallet. So people knew something was going on. Then we ended up having a confirmation. The feds had admitted that it was them. They had gone ahead and they had a hacker get into it. So here's a quote straight from the feds. That was an ARS Technica this week, according to the investigation, individual X was able to hack into silk road and gain unauthorized and illegal access and thereby steal the illicit cryptocurrency from silk road and move it into wallets and individual X controlled. According to the investigation, Ulbricht became aware of individual X's online identity and threatened individual X for the return of the cryptocurrency to Ulbricht. So Ulbricht had his cryptocurrency stolen, which by the way, is if you are dealing with Bitcoin, that is very common, not that it's stolen. It does get stolen and it's not uncommon. It's very common for the bad guys to try and hack into your Bitcoin wallet. That's part of the reason they install key loggers so they can see what the password is to your wallet. So apparently that unknown hacker did not return or spend the Bitcoin, but on Tuesday they signed consent and agreement to forfeiture with the US attorney's office in San Francisco and agreed to turn over the funds to the government. Very complex here. There are a lot of links that the Silkroad founder took to really obfuscate the transfer of the funds. There's tons of forensic expertise that was involved and they eventually unraveled the true origins of Bitcoin. It is absolutely amazing. Earlier this year they used a third-party Bitcoin attribution company to analyze the transactions that had gone through the silk road. They zeroed in on 54 trends and actions, the transferred 70,000 Bitcoins to two specific wallets. I said earlier, by the way, that it was hex, it isn't hex. It's mixed upper lower case. characters as well as numbers. And, so it's a base. What is it? 26, 40, 60 something. The Bitcoin is valued at about $354,000 at the time. I don't know about you. I find this stuff absolutely fascinating. There's a lot of details on how it was all done and they got the money back. So with a cryptocurrency, you're not completely anonymous. As the founder of the silk road finds out. You end up with criminal organizations trying to use it all the time. Just having and using Bitcoin can raise a red flag that you might be part of a criminal organization. So you got to watch that okay. In addition to that, The IRS is looking to find what it is you have made with your Bitcoin transactions because almost certainly those are taxable transactions. If you've made money off of Bitcoin. Now you'd have to talk to your accountant about writing off money that you lost when you sold Bitcoin after it had dropped. I do not own any Bitcoin. I don't. I played with this years ago and I created a wallet. I started doing some mining, trying to just get to know this, so I'm familiar with this. I've done it. I haven't played with it for a long time. If you have made money on Bitcoin and you sold those Bitcoin, or even if you transferred Bitcoin and the profits as Bitcoin, you all money to the IRS. Now the feds have their hands on almost a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin, just from this one guy. that's it for Bitcoin for today. We're going to talk about Uber and Lyft and how they're in the driver's seat right now to maybe remake labor laws in about two or three dozen States almost right away. Are you, or maybe somebody driving for Uber or Lyft, or maybe you've been thinking about it? There are a lot of problems nationwide when it comes to employee status. We're going to talk about the gig economy right now. Hey, thanks for joining me, everybody. You are listening to Craig Peterson. Hey, Uber and Lyft are two companies that I'm sure you've heard of. If you heard about the general category here, it's called the gig economy. The gig economy is where you have people doing small things for you or your business. That's a gig. So during this election season, for instance, I turned somebody on to a site called Fiverr, F I V E R R.com, which is a great site. I've used it many times. I turned them on saying that because they wanted a cartoon drawn there is no better place than to go to Fiverr. Find somebody who has a style you like, and then hire them. It used to be five bucks apiece, nowadays not so much, it could be 20, it could be a hundred, but it is inexpensive. When you hire somebody to do that as a contractor, there are rules and regulations to determine. If you are an employee versus an independent contractor, there are a lot of rules on all of this, including filing 1099s. But can you decide whether or not they are a contractor? So let's look at the rules here. I'm on the IRS website right now and they have some basic categories. So number one, behavioral control, workers, and employee, when the business has the right to direct and control the work performed by the worker. Even if that right is not exercised. Then they give some reasons for behavioral control, like the types of instructions given, when and where to work, the tools to use the degree of instruction. I think the big one is training to work on how to do the job, because frankly, even if you're hiring somebody to do something for you, that takes an hour. You have control over their behavior. But how about an Uber driver or Lyft driver? Are you telling them where to go? Duh, of course, you are. are you telling them, Hey, don't take that road because the Westside highway so busy this time of day, of course, you are? It looks like they might be employees but under behavioral control. Next step financial control. Does the business have a right to direct or control the financial and business aspects of the worker's job, such as significant investment in the equipment they're using unreimbursed expenses, independent contractors, and more likely to incur unreimbursed expenses than employees? there you go. Okay. So no that Uber Lyft driver, that person making the cartoon, I don't have any financial control over their equipment. Relationship. How do the worker and the business perceive their interaction with each other in written contracts? Or describe the relationship? Even if the worker has a contract that says they are a contractor does not mean that they aren't a contractor. By the way, if you're not withholding the taxes and paying them as an employee, and then they don't pay their taxes and the IRS comes coming after somebody they're coming after you as well for all of those that you did not pay taxes on. Then it goes into the consequences of misclassifying an employee goes on. So there are people who could maybe they're an employee, maybe their contractor, but with Uber and Lyft, California decided to put it on the ballot because both Uber and Lyft were saying, we're pulling out of California. California has a state income tax and they want to collect that income tax. Plus California, we're saying, Oh, we care about the drivers. Maybe they do. Maybe they don't. I'm a little jaded on that.I might say because I had a couple of companies out in California, way back in the day. So the California voters had it on the ballot just here. What a week ago? A little more than a week ago, maybe two almost now isn't it. They decided to let Uber and other gig economy companies continue to treat the workers as independent contractors. That is a very big deal. Because now what's happened because of this overwhelming approval of proposition 22, these companies are now exempt from a new employment law that was passed last year in California. So what goes out the window here the well minimum rate of pay, healthcare provisions, et cetera. And by the way, They still can get this minimum pay and healthcare provisions. Okay. They can still get it. It's still mandated out there, but it's absolutely just phenomenal. Apparently, the law that was passed last year was started because these gig people can really cut the cost of something and other people just weren't liking it. Frankly, gig companies also outspent the opposition by a ratio of $10 to $1, which is amazing. 10 to one on. Trying to get this proposition to pass. So it's a very big deal. And what it means is in California, these gig workers are independent contractors, but there's a couple of dozen states that are looking at this, including to our South, or maybe the state you're listening in. If you're listening down in mass right now, but South of where I am. In Massachusetts, the state attorney general has sued Uber and Lyft over worker classification. And this, of course, is going to have nothing to do with what happened in California right now. There are other States who are looking into this right now and you'll be just totally surprised. They're all left-wing States. I'm sure. I hope you were sitting down, New York, Oregon, Washington state, New Jersey, and Illinois. Okay. so we'll see what happens here. The companies have tried to make a good with the unions. Unions, pretty upset about this, good articles. So you might want to look it up online. Now I want to, before this hour is up, talk about ransom payments. I have mentioned before on the show that the department of justice now looks at people and businesses, paying ransomware as supporting terrorist operations. Did you realize that it's like sending money off to Osama Bin Laden, back in the day? Because if you do pay a ransom, the odds are very good that it is going to a terrorist organization. Oh, okay. It could be Iran. Are they terrorists? No, but they do support terrorism, according to the state department. Is Russia terrorist. no, but are they attacking us? Is this okay? Is there an attack of the United States, a terrorist attack? This is bringing up all kinds of really interesting points. One of them is based on arrests that were made about three weeks ago where some hackers were arrested on charges of terrorism. It is affecting insurance as well. I've mentioned before that we can pass on to our clients a million dollars worth of insurance underwritten by Lloyd's of London. Very big deal. But when you dig into all of these different types of insurance policies, we're finding that insurance companies are not paying out on cyber insurance claims, they'll go in and they'll say, you were supposed to do this, that, and the other thing. You didn't do it, so we're not paying. We've seen some massive lawsuits that have been brought by very big, very powerful companies that did not go anywhere, because again they were not following best practices in the industry. So this is now another arrow in the quiver, the insurance companies to say. Wait a minute, you arrested hackers who were trying to put ransomware on machines and did in many cases and charged a ransom. You charge them with terrorism. Therefore, the federal government has acknowledged that hacking is a form of terrorism. Isn't that kind of a big deal now. So it's an act of terrorism. Therefore we don't have to payout. It's just if your home gets bombed during a war, You don't get compensation from the insurance company, and ransomware victims now that pay these bad guys to keep the bad guys from releasing data that they stole from these ransomware victims are finding out that data that was stolen is being released anyways. So here's, what's going on. You get ransomware on your machine. Time was everything's encrypted and you get this nice big red and warning label and you pay your ransom. They give you a key and you have a 50% chance that they are in fact, going to get your data back for you. Nowadays, it has changed in a big way where they will gain control of your computer. They will poke around on your computer. Often an actual person poking around on your computer. They will see if it looks interesting. If it does, they will spread laterally within your company. We call that East-West spread and they'll find documents that are of interest and they will download them from your network, all without your knowledge and once they have them, they'll decide what they're going to charge you as a ransom. So many of these companies, the bad guys. Yeah. They have companies, will ransom your machines by encrypting everything, and the same pay the ransom, get your documents back. Then what'll happen is they will come back to you, maybe under the guise of a different, bad guy, hacker group. They'll come back to you and say, if you don't pay this other ransom, we're going to release all your documents, and you're going to lose your business. Yeah, how's that for change? So paying a ransom is no guarantee against them releasing your files. Hey, we've been talking about how computers are everywhere. What can we expect from our computerized cars? What can we expect from computers? Intel has had a monopoly with Microsoft called the Wintel monopoly. So if you missed part of today's show. Make sure you double-check and also make sure you are on my newsletter list. I'm surprised here how every week I get questions from people and it's great. That's it. I love to help. I was asked when I was about 19 to read this little book and to also to fill out a form that said what I wanted on my headstone. That's it heady question to ask somebody at 19 years of age, but I said that this was pretty short and sweet. I said, "he helped others." Just those three words, because that's what I always wanted to do. That's what I always enjoyed doing. You can probably tell that's why I'm doing what I'm doing right now is to help people stop the bad guys and to make their lives a little bit better in the process, right? That's the whole goal. That's the hope anyway. If you need a little help, all you have to do is reach out. Be glad to help you out. Just email me M E at Craig Peterson dot com. Or if you're on my email list, you'll get all of my weekly articles, everything I talked about here on the show, as well as my during the week little emails that I send out with videos that I've been doing. I've been putting more together. Didn't get any out this week I had planned to, but I probably will get them out next week. I was able to make a couple of this week and we'll queue them up for the coming week, but you'll get all of that. So just go to. Craig peterson.com/subscribe. You'll find everything there. As part of all of that of course, you will also be getting information about the training that I do. I do all kinds of free pieces of training and webinars, and I've got all kinds of reports. One of the most popular ones lately has been my self-audit kit. It's a little tool kit that you can use to audit, your business and see if you are compliant. It's just a PDF that you can take from the email that I send you. If you ask for it, all you have to do is ask for an audit kit, put that in the subject line, and email me@craigpeterson.com and we'll get you going. So I've had a few people who have this week said, Hey, can you help me out? What do I do? I help them out and It turns out when I'm helping them out, they're not even on my email list. So I'll start there. If you're wondering where to start, how to get up to speed a little bit, right? You don't have to know all of this stuff like the back of your hand, but you do have to have the basic understanding. Just go online. And a signup Craig peterson.com/subscribe would love to have you there. Even when we get into ice station zebra weather here coming up in not so long, unfortunately, in the Northeast. When you're thinking about your computer and what to buy. There are a lot of choices. Of course, the big ones nowadays are a little different than they were just a few years ago. Or a couple of years ago, you used to say, am I going to get a Windows computer, or am I going to get a Mac now? I think there's a third choice that's really useful for most people, depends on what you're doing. If what you do is some web browsing, some email, and also might do a couple of things with some video and pictures and organizing you really should look at the third option. Which is a tablet of some sort and that is your iPad. Of course, the number one in the market, these things last a long time. They retain their value. So their higher introductory price isn't really a bad thing. And they're also not that much more expensive when you get right down to it and consider the resale value of them. So have a look at the tablet, but that's really one of the three major choices also today when you're deciding that you might not be aware of it, but you are also deciding what kind of processor you're going to be using. There is a lot of work that's been done going on arm processors. What they are called A R M. I started working with this class of processor, also known as RISC, which is reduced instruction set processors, many years ago, back in the nineties. I think it was when I first started working with RISC machines. But the big difference here is that these are not Intel chips that are in the iPads that are in or our iPhones, they aren't Intel or AMD processors that are in your Android phones or Android tablet. They're all using something that's called ARM architecture. This used to be called advanced RISC machine acorn risk machine. They've been around a while, but ARM is a different type of processor entirely than Intel. the basic Intel design is to try and get as much done with one instruction as possible. So for instance, if you and I decided to meet up for Dunkin donuts, I might say, okay, so we're going to go to the Duncan's on Elm Street, but the one that's South of the main street, and I'll meet you there at about 11 o'clock. And then I gave you some of the directions on how to get to the town, et cetera. And so we meet at dunks and to have a good old time. That would be a RISC architecture, which has reduced instructions. So you can tell it, okay, you get to take a right turn here, take a left turn there. In the computing world, it would be, you have to add this and divide that and then add these and divide those and subtract this. Now to compare my little dunk story. What you end up doing with an Intel processor or what's called a CISC processor, which is a complex instruction set, is we've already been to dunks before that dunks in fact, so all I have to say is I'll meet you at dunks. Usual time. There's nothing else I have to say. So behind all of that is the process of getting into your car, driving down to dunks the right town, the right street, the right dunks, and maybe even ordering. So in a CISC processor, it would try and do all of those things with one instruction. The idea is, let's make it simple for the programmer. So all of the programmers have to do, if the programmer wants to multiply too, double-precision floating-point numbers, the programmer that if he's just dealing with machine-level only has to have one instruction. Now those instructions take up multiple cycles. We can. Get into all the details, but I think I've already got some people glazing over. But these new ARM processors are designed to be blindingly fast is what matters. We can teach a processor how to add, and if we spend our time figuring out how to get that processor to add faster. We end up with ultimately faster chip and that's the theory behind risk or reduced instruction set computers, and it has taken off like wildfire. So you have things like the iPad pro now with an arm chip that's in there designed by Apple. Now they took the basic license with the basic ARM architecture and they've advanced it quite a bit. In fact, but that Ipad processor now is faster than most laptop processors made by Intel or AMD. That is an impressive feat. So when we're looking a little bit forward, we're no longer looking at machines that are just running an Intel instruction set. We're not just going to see, in other words, the Intel and AMD inside stickers on the outside of the computer. Windows 10 machines running on ARM processors are out already. Apple has announced arm based laptops that will be available very soon. In fact, there is a scheduled press conference. I think it's next week by Apple, the 15th. Give or take. Don't hold me to that one, but they're going to have a, probably an announcement of the iPhone 12 and maybe some delivery dates for these new ARM-based laptops. So these laptops are expected to last all day. Really all day. 12 hours worth of working with them, using them. They're expected to be just as fast or faster in some cases as the Intel chips are. So ARM is where things are going. We already have the Microsoft updated surface pro X. That was just announced about two weeks ago, which is ARM-based. We've gotten macs now coming out their ARM base. In fact, I think they're going to have two of them before the end of the year. Both Apple and Microsoft are providing support for x86 apps. So what that means is the programs that you have bought that are designed to run on an Intel architecture will run on these ARM chips. Now, as a rule, it's only the 64-bit processes that are going to work. The 32-bit processes, if you haven't upgraded your software to 64 bits yet you're gonna have to upgrade it before you can do the ARM migration. We're going to see less expensive computers. Arm chips are much cheaper as a whole than Intel. Intel chips are insanely high priced. They are also going to be way more battery efficient. So if you're looking for a new computer. Visual studio code has been updated optimized for windows 10 on ARM. We're going to see more and more of the applications coming out. And it won't be long, a couple of years now, you will have a hard time finding some of the Intel-based software that's out there. "it won't happen to me." That's our next topic. We've got companies who are investing a lot of money to upgrade the technology, to develop security processes, boost it. Staff yet studies are showing that they're overlooking the biggest piece of the puzzle. What is the problem? Employee apathy has been a problem for many businesses for a very long time. Nowadays, employee apathy is causing problems on the cybersecurity front. As we've talked about so many times, cybersecurity is absolutely critical. For any business or businesses are being attacked sometimes hundreds of times, a minute, a second, even believe it or not. Some of these websites come under attack and if we're not paying close attention, we're in trouble. So a lot of companies have decided while they need to boost their it staff. They've got to get some spending in on some of the hardware that's going to make the life. Better. And I am cheering them on. I think both of those are great ideas, but the bottom line problem is there are million-plus open cyber security IT jobs. So as a business, odds are excellent that you won't be able to find the type of person that you need. Isn't that a shame? But I've got some good news for you here. You can upgrade the technology that's going to help. But if you upgrade the technology, make sure you're moving towards, what's called a single pane of glass. You don't want a whole bunch of point solutions. You want something that monitors everything. Pulls all of that knowledge together uses some machine learning and some artificial intelligence and from all of that automatically shuts down attacks, whether they're internal or external, that's what you're looking for. There are some vendors that have various things out there. If you sell to the federal government within three years, you're going to have to meet these new requirements, the CMMC requirements, level three, four, level five, which are substantial. You cannot do it yourself, you have to bring in a cybersecurity expert. Who's going to work with your team and help you develop a plan. I think that's really great, really important, but here's where the good news comes in. You spent an astronomical amount of money to upgrade this technology and get all of these processes in place and you brought in this consultant, who's going to help you out. You boosted your IT staff. But studies are starting to indicate that a lot of these businesses are overlooking the biggest piece of the puzzle, which is their employees. Most of these successful attacks nowadays are better than 60%, it depends on how you're scoring this, but most of the attacks these days come in through your employees. That means that you clicked on a link. One of your employees clicked on a link. If you are a home user, it's exactly the same thing. The bad guys are getting you because you did something that you should not have done. Just go have a look online. If you haven't already make sure you go to have I been poned.com. Poned is spelled PWNED Have a look at it there online and try and see if your email address and passwords that you've been using have already been compromised. Have already been stolen. I bet they have, almost everybody has. Do you know what to do about that? This is part of the audit kit that I'll send to you. If you ask for that. Kind of goes through this and a whole lot of other stuff. But checking to see if your data has been stolen, because now is they use that to trick people. So they know that you go to a particular website that you use a particular email address or password. They might've been able to get into one of these social networks and figure out who your friends are. They go and take that information. Now a computer can do this. They just mine it from a website like LinkedIn, find out who the managers in the company are. And then they send off some emails that look very convincing, and those convincing emails get them to click. That could be the end of it. Because you are going somewhere, you shouldn't go and they're going to trick you into doing something. Knowledge really is the best weapon when it comes to cybersecurity. A lot of companies have started raising awareness among employees. I have some training that we can provide as well. That is very good. It's all video training and it's all tracked. We buy these licenses in big bundles. If you are a small company contact me and I'll see if I can't just sneak you into one of these bundles. Just email me @craigpeterson.com in the subject line, put something like training, bundle, or something. You need to find training for your employees and their training programs need to explain the risk of phishing scams. Those they're the big ones. That's how most of the ransomware it gets into businesses is phishing scams. That's how ransomware gets down to your computers. You also need to have simulations that clarify the steps you need to take when faced with a suspicious email. Again, if you want, I can point you to a free site that Google has on some phishing training and it's really quite good. It walks you through and shows you what the emails might look like and if you want to click or not. But there's a lot of different types of training programs. You've got to make sure that everybody inside your organization or in your, family is educated about cybersecurity. What do you do when you get an email that you suspect might be a phishing email? They need to know that this needs to be forwarded to IT, or perhaps they just tell IT, Hey, it's in my mailbox, if IT has access to their mailbox, so IT can look at it and verify it. You need to have really good email filters, not the type that comes by default with a Microsoft Windows 365 subscription, but something that flags all of this looks for phishing scams, and blocks them. There's been a ton of studies now that are showing that there is a greater awareness of cybersecurity dangers, but the bottom-line problem is that employees are still showing a lax attitude when it comes to practicing even the most basic of cybersecurity prevention methods. TrendMicro, who is a cybersecurity company. We tend to not use their stuff because it's just not as good. But TrendMicro is reporting that despite 72% of employees claim to have gained better cybersecurity awareness during the pandemic 56% still admitted to using a non-work application on a company device. Now that can be extremely dangerous. 66% admitted uploading corporate data to that application. This includes by the way, things like using just regular versions of Dropbox. Do you share files from the office and home? Dropbox does have versions that are all that have all kinds of compliance considerations that do give you security. But by default, the stuff a home user does not get the security you need. They're doing all of this even knowing that their behavior represents a security risk. And I think it boils right down to, it's not going to happen to me. Just apathy and denial. So same thing I've seen, being a security guy for the last 30 years, I've seen over and over, apathy and denial. Don't let it happen to them. By the way, about 50% believe that they could be hacked no matter what protective measures are taken. 43% took the polar opposite. They didn't take the threat seriously at all. 43% didn't believe they could be hacked. We're going to talk about Mac OS is driving cybersecurity rethink. By the way to follow up on that last segment. So Millennials and Generation Z are terrible with security. They keep reusing passwords. They accept connections with strangers. Most of the time. If that's not believable, I don't know what it is. They've grown up in this world of share everything with everyone. What does it matter? Don't worry about it. Yeah. I guess that's the way it goes. Right? Kids these days. Which generation hasn't said that in the past? We were just talking about millennials, generation Z, and the whole, it won't happen to me, employee apathy and we've got to stop that. Even within ourselves, right? We're all employees in some way or another. What does that mean? It means we've got to pay attention. We've' got to pay a lot of attention and that isn't just true in the windows world. Remember we've got to pay attention to our network. You should be upgrading the firmware on your switches, definitely upgrading the software and firmware in your firewalls and in your routers, et cetera. Keep that all up to date. Even as a home user, you've got a switch or more than one. You've got a router. You've got a firewall in many cases that equipment is provided by your ISP internet service provider. If you've got a Comcast line or a FairPoint, whatever, it might be coming into your home, they're providing you with some of that equipment and you know what their top priority is not your security. I know. Shocker. Their top priority is something else. I don't know, but it sure isn't security. What I advise most people to do is basically remove their equipment or have them turn off what's called network address translation. Turn off the firewall and put your own firewall in place. I was on the phone with a lady that had been listening to me for years, and I was helping her out. In fact, we were doing a little security audit because she ran a small business there in her home. I think she was an accountant if I remember right. She had her computer hooked up directly to the internet. She kind of misunderstood what I was saying. I want to make clear what I'm saying here. People should still have a firewall. You still need a router, but you're almost always better off getting a semi-professional piece of hardware. The prosumer side, if you will, something like the Cisco GO hardware and put that in place instead of having the equipment that your ISP is giving you. We've got to keep all of this stuff up to date. Many of us think that Macs are invulnerable, Apple Macintoshes, or Apple iOS devices, like our iPhones and iPads. In many ways they are. They have not been hit as hard as the Windows devices out there. One of the main reasons is they're not as popular. That's what so many people that use Windows say you don't get hit because you're just not as popular. There is some truth to that. However, the main reason is that they are designed from the beginning with security in mind, unlike Windows, that security was an absolute afterthought for the whole thing Don't tell me that it's because of age. Okay. I can hear it right now. People say, well, Mac is much, much newer than Microsoft Windows. Microsoft didn't have to deal with all of this way back when. How I respond to that is, yeah. Microsoft didn't have to deal with it way back when because it wasn't connected to a network and your viruses were coming in via floppy desk. Right? They really were. In fact, the first one came in by researchers. The operating system that Apple uses is much, much, much older than windows and goes back to the late 1960s, early 1970s. So you can't give me that, it is just that they didn't care. They didn't care to consider security at all. Which is something that's still one of my soapbox subjects, if you will. Security matters. When we are talking about your Macs, you still have to consider security on a Mac. It's a little different on a Mac. You're probably want to turn on some things. Like the windows comes with the firewall turned on however it has all of its services wide open. They're all available for anybody to attach to. That's why we have our windows hardening course that goes through, what do you turn off? How do you turn it off? What should you have in the windows firewall? Now the Mac side, all of these services turned off by default, which is way more secure. If they're not there to attack, they're not going to be compromised. Right. They can't even be attacked the first place. So I like that strategy, but you might want to turn on your firewall on your Mac anyways. There are some really neat little features and functions in it. But the amount of malware that's attacking Apple Macintoshes, nowadays, is twice as much as it used to be. We've got these work from home people. We've got IT professionals within the companies, just scrambling to make it so that these people who are working from home can keep working from home. It's likely a permanent thing. It's going to be happening for a long time. But these incidents of malware on the Mac is pretty limited in reality. The malware on a Mac is unlikely to be any sort of ransomware or software that particularly steals things like your Excel files or your Word docs on a Mac, I should say it is much more likely to be outerwear. It's much more likely to be. Adware or some other unwanted programs and that's, what's rising pretty fast on Macs. Mac-based companies are being concerned here about cyber security issues. They are paying more attention to them. They're windows based counterparts have had to deal with a lot of this stuff for a long time because they were targets. So we've got to divide the Mac really into two pieces, just like any other computer. You've got the operating system with its control over things like the network, et cetera. Then you have the programs or applications, right? That is running on that device. So you want to keep both of them secure. The applications that are running on your device, Apple's done a much, much better job of sandboxing them. Making them so that they're less dangerous. The latest release, in fact, Catalina had a lot of security stuff built into that. Microsoft and Windows 10 added a lot more security. So that's all really, really good. Now, if you have to maintain a network of Macs, we like IBM software. They have some great software for managing Macs, but if you want something that's inexpensive and very usable to configure Macs and control the software on them. Have look at JAMF, J A M F. They just had their user's conference this last weekend. They were talking about how the landscape has changed over on the Mac side. All right. We've got one more segment left today and I'm going to talk about these cybersecurity frameworks. What should you be using? If you are a business or a home user, what are those checkboxes that you absolutely have to have to use? You might've heard about cybersecurity frameworks? Well, the one that's most in use right now is the NIST cybersecurity framework that helps guide you through the process of securing your business or even securing your home. That's our topic. It's a great time to be out on the road and kind of checking in. We've got security threats that have been growing quite literally. Exponentially. They are really making a lot of money by extorting it from us, stealing it from us. It's nothing but frustration to us. It's never been more important to put together an effective cybersecurity risk management policy. That's true if you're a home user and you've got yourself and your spouse and a kid or two in the home. Have a policy and put it together. That's where NIST comes in handy. NIST is the National Institute of standards and technology they've been around a long time. They've been involved in cryptography. These are the guys and gals that give us accurate clocks. In fact, we run two clocks here that we have for our clients, which are hyper-accurate. It's crazy it down to the millionth of a second. It's just amazing. That's who NIST is. They've put all these standards together for a very, very long time, but just before March, this year, It was reported that about 46 percent of businesses had suffered cyber attacks in 2019. That was up 10% from the year before. Of course, we've all been worried about the Wuhan virus, people getting COVID-19, it is a problem. The biggest part of the problem is everybody's worried about it. Nobody wants to go to work. They don't want to go out to a restaurant. They don't want to do any of these things. You as a business owner are worried about how do you keep your business doors open? How do you provide services to the customers you have when your employees won't come in or cooperate or were paid more to stay at home than they would be to come back to work. I get it right. I know I'm in the same boat. Well, because of that we just have not been paying attention to some of the things we should be doing. One of the main ways that business people can measure their preparedness and their progress in managing cyber security-related risks, is to use the cybersecurity framework that is developed by NIST. It is a great framework. It provides you with different levels. The higher-end, the framework that is used by military contractors. Nowadays, we've been helping businesses conform to what's called NIST 800-171 and 800-53 High, which are both important and cybersecurity standards. So if you really, really, really need to be secure, are those are the ones you're going to be going with. Right now, no matter how much security you need I really would recommend you checking it out. I can send you information on the NIST framework. I have a little flow chart. I can send you to help to figure out what part of the framework should you be complying with. It also helps you figure out if you by law need to be complying with parts of the framework. It will really help you. It's well thought out. It's going to make you way more efficient as you try and put together and execute your cyber risk management policy. Remember cyber risk, isn't just for the software that you're running, or the systems you're running. It's the people, it includes some physical security as well. Now President Trump has been very concerned about it. I'm sure you've heard about it in the news. As he's talked about problems with TicTok and with Huawei and some of these other manufacturers out there. Huawei is a huge problem. Just absolutely huge. One of these days I can give you the backstory on that, but how they completely destroyed one of the world leaders in telecommunications technology by stealing everything they had. Yeah. It's a very sad story company you may have heard of, founded over a hundred years ago. They're non-regulatory but they do publish guides that are used in regulations. So have a look at them, keep an eye on them. They have to help federal agencies as well. Meet the requirements is something called the federal information security management act called FISMA and that relates to the protection of government information and assets. So if you are a contractor to the federal government, pretty much any agency, you have physical requirements. So think about that. Who do you sell things to? When you're also dealing with the federal government they look at everything that you're doing and say, are you making something special for us? If you are, there are more and higher standards that you have to meet as well. It just goes on and on, but this framework was created by NIST ratified by Congress in 2014. It's used by over 30% of businesses in the US and will probably be used by 50% of businesses in the US this year. So if you're not using them you might want to have a look at them. It's big companies like JP Morgan, Chase, Microsoft, Boeing, and Intel who meet a much higher standard than most businesses need to meet. For a lot of businesses all you need to meet is what's called the CMMC one standard. You'll find that at NIST as well. And there are much higher levels than that up to level five, which is just, wow. All of the stuff that you have to keep secured looks like military level or better, frankly security. There are other overseas companies that are using it too, by the way in England, in Japan, Canada, many of them. I'm looking at the framework right now. The basic framework is to identify, protect, detect, respond, and recover. Those are the main parts of it. That's you have to do as a business in order to stay in business in this day and age, they get into it in a lot more detail. They also have different tiers for different tiers that you can get involved in. Then subcategories. I have all of this framework as part of our audit kit that I'll send out to anybody that asks for it that's a listener. All you have to do is send an email to me, M E @craigpeterson.com, and then the subject line, just say audit kit and I'll get back to you. I'll email that off to it's a big PDF. You can also go to NIST in the online world and find what they have for you. Just go to NIST, N I S T.gov, The National Institute of Standards and Technology, and you'll see right there, cybersecurity framework, it's got all of the stuff there. You can learn more here if you want. If you're new to the framework they've got online learning. They are really working hard to try and secure businesses and other organizations here in the U S and as I said used worldwide. It's hyper, hyper important. It's the same framework that we rely on in order to protect our information and protect our customer's information. So NIST, N I S T.gov, check it out. If you missed it today, you're going to want to check out the podcast. Now you can find the podcast on any of your favorite podcasting platforms. It is such a different world. Isn't it? We started out today talking about our cars. Our cars now are basically big mechanical devices ever so complex with computers, controlling them. But the cars of tomorrow that are being built by Tesla and other companies, those cars are absolutely amazing as well, but they're frankly, more computer than they are mechanical car. So what should we expect from these cars? I'm talking about longevity here. We expect a quarter-million miles from our cars today. Some of these electric vehicles may go half a million or even a million miles in the future. When they do that, can we expect that? Our computers get operating system updates and upgrades, for what five years give or take? If you have an Android phone, you're lucky if you get two years' worth of updates. Don't use Android, people. It's just not secure. How about our cars? How long should we expect updates for the firmware in our cars? So that's what we talked about first, today. Ring has a new security camera that is absolutely cool. It's called the always home cam. I talked about it earlier. It is a drone that flies around inside your house and ties into other Ring equipment. I think it's absolutely phenomenal and it's not quite out yet, but I'll let you know more about that. If you get ransomware and you pay the ransom, the feds are saying now that you are supporting terrorist organizations. You might want to be careful because they are starting to knock on doors, and there's jail time behind some of these things. So watch it when it comes ransomware and a whole lot more as well. So make sure you visit me online. Go to Craig peterson.com/subscribe. It's very important that you do that and do that now. So you'll get my weekly newsletter. I've got some special gifts, including security, reboot stuff that I'll send to you right away. Craig peterson.com/subscribe. --- More stories and tech updates at: www.craigpeterson.com Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating: www.craigpeterson.com/itunes Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553
Craig discusses the new firmware architecture being used in the newer computers and laptops and why this architecture is preferred. For more tech tips, news, and updates, visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Right To Repair Or A Fight For Survival? Ring’s latest security camera is a drone that flies around inside your house Malware Attacks Declined But Became More Evasive in Q2 Elon Musk reveals plans to slash electric battery costs, build $25,000 Tesla Paying ransomware demands could land you in hot water with the feds Windows 10 machines running on ARM will be able to emulate x64 apps soon 'It Won't Happen to Me': Employee Apathy Prevails Despite Greater Cybersecurity Awareness Rise in Remote MacOS Workers Driving Cybersecurity 'Rethink' A Guide to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework --- Automated Machine-Generated Transcript: Hey, we've been talking about how computers are everywhere. What can we expect from our computerized cars? What can we expect from computers? Intel has had a monopoly with Microsoft called the Wintel monopoly. Hi everybody. You're listening to Craig Peterson. So if you missed part of today's show. Make sure you double-check and also make sure you are on my newsletter list. I'm surprised here how every week I get questions from people and it's great. That's it. I love to help. I was asked when I was about 19 to read this little book and to also to fill out a form that said what I wanted on my headstone. That's it heady question to ask somebody at 19 years of age, but I said that this was pretty short and sweet. I said, "he helped others." Just those three words, because that's what I always wanted to do. That's what I always enjoyed doing. You can probably tell that's why I'm doing what I'm doing right now is to help people stop the bad guys and to make their lives a little bit better in the process, right? That's the whole goal. That's the hope anyway. If you need a little help, all you have to do is reach out. Be glad to help you out. Just email me M E at Craig Peterson dot com. Or if you're on my email list, you'll get all of my weekly articles, everything I talked about here on the show, as well as my during the week little emails that I send out with videos that I've been doing. I've been putting more together. Didn't get any out this week I had planned to, but I probably will get them out next week. I was able to make a couple of this week and we'll queue them up for the coming week, but you'll get all of that. So just go to. Craig peterson.com/subscribe. You'll find everything there. As part of all of that of course, you will also be getting information about the training that I do. I do all kinds of free training and webinars, and I've got all kinds of reports. One of the most popular ones lately has been my self-audit kit. It's a little tool kit that you can use to audit it, your business and see if you are compliant. It's just a PDF that you can take from the email that I send you. If you ask for it, all you have to do is ask for an audit kit, put that in the subject line, and email me@craigpeterson.com and we'll get you going. So I've had a few people who have this week said, Hey, can you help me out? What do I do? I help them out. It turns out when I'm helping them out, they're not even on my email list. So I'll start there. If you're wondering where to start, how to get up to speed a little bit, right? You don't have to know all of this stuff like the back of your hand, but you do have to have the basic understanding. Just go online. And a sign-up Craig peterson.com/subscribe would love to have you there. Even when we get into the ice station zebra weather here coming up in not so long, unfortunately, in the Northeast. When you're thinking about your computer and what to buy. There are a lot of choices. Of course, the big ones nowadays are a little different than they were just a few years ago. Or a couple of years ago, you used to say, am I going to get a Windows computer, or am I going to get a Mac now? I think there's a third choice that's really useful for most people, depends on what you're doing. If what you do is some web browsing, some email, and also might do a couple of things with some video and pictures and organizing you really should look at the third option. Which is a tablet of some sort and that is your iPad. Of course, the number one in the market, these things last a long time. They retain their value. So their higher introductory price isn't really a bad thing. And they're also not that much more expensive when you get right down to it and consider the resale value of them. So have a look at the tablet, but that's really one of the three major choices also today when you're deciding that you might not be aware of it, but you are also deciding what kind of processor you're going to be using. There is a lot of work that's been done going on arm processors. What they are called A R M. I started working with this class of processor, also known as RISC, which is reduced instruction set processors, many years ago, back in the nineties. I think it was when I first started working with RISC machines. But the big difference here is that these are not Intel chips that are in the iPads that are in or our iPhones, they aren't Intel or AMD processors that are in your Android phones or Android tablet. They're all using something that's called ARM architecture. This used to be called advanced risc machine acorn risk machine. They've been around a while, but ARM is a different type of processor entirely then Intel. the basic Intel design is to try and get as much done with one instruction as possible. So for instance, if you and I decided to meet up at a Dunkin donuts, I might say, okay, so we're going to go to the Duncan's on Elm Street, but the one that's South of Main Street, and I'll meet you there at about 11 o'clock. And then I gave you some of the directions on how to get to the town, et cetera. And so we meet at dunks and to have a good old time. That would be a RISC architecture, which has reduced instructions. So you can tell it, okay, you get to take a right turn here, take a left turn there. In the computing world, it would be, you have to add this and divide that and then add these and divide those and subtract this. Now to compare my little dunk story. What you end up doing with an Intel processor or what's called a CISC processor, which is a complex instruction set, is we've already been to dunks before that dunks in fact, so all I have to say is I'll meet you at dunks. Usual time. There's nothing else I have to say. So behind all of that is the process of getting into your car, driving down to dunks the right town, the right street, the right dunks, and maybe even ordering. So in a CISC processor, it would try and do all of those things with one instruction. The idea is, let's make it simple for the programmer. So all of the programmers have to do if the programmer wants to multiply two double-precision floating-point numbers, the programmer that if he's just dealing with machine-level only has to have one instruction. Now those instructions take up multiple cycles. We can. Get into all the details, but I think I've already got some people glazing over. But these new ARM processors are designed to be blindingly fast is what matters. We can teach a processor how to add, and if we spend our time figuring out how to get that processor to add faster. We end up with ultimately faster chip and that's the theory behind risk or reduced instruction set computers, and it has taken off like wildfire. So you have things like the iPad pro now with an arm chip that's in there designed by Apple. Now they took the basic license with the basic ARM architecture and they've advanced it quite a bit. In fact, but that Ipad processor now is faster than most laptop processors made by Intel or AMD. That is an impressive feat. So when we're looking a little bit forward, we're no longer looking at machines that are just running an Intel instruction set. We're not just going to see, in other words, the Intel and AMD inside stickers on the outside of the computer. Windows 10 machines running on ARM processors are out already. Apple has announced arm based laptops that will be available very soon. In fact, there is a scheduled press conference. I think it's next week by Apple, the 15th. Give or take. Don't hold me to that one, but they're going to have a, probably an announcement of the iPhone 12 and maybe some delivery dates for these new ARM-based laptops. So these laptops are expected to last all day. Really all day. 12 hours worth of working with them, using them. They're expected to be just as fast or faster in some cases as the Intel chips are. So ARM is where things are going. We already have the Microsoft updated surface pro X. That was just announced about two weeks ago, which is ARM-based. We've gotten macs now coming out with their ARM-based versions. In fact, I think they're going to have two of them before the end of the year. Both Apple and Microsoft are providing support for x86 apps. So what that means is the programs that you have bought that are designed to run on an Intel architecture will run on these ARM chips. Now, as a rule, it's only the 64-bit processes that are going to work. The 32-bit processes, if you haven't upgraded your software to 64 bits yet you're gonna have to upgrade it before you can do the ARM migration. We're going to see less expensive computers. Arm chips are much cheaper as a whole than Intel. Intel chips are insanely high priced. They are also going to be way more battery efficient. So if you're looking for a new computer. Visual studio code has been updated optimized for windows 10 on ARM. We're going to see more and more of the applications coming out. And it won't be long, a couple of years now, you will have a hard time finding some of the Intel-based software that's out there. Hey, you're listening to Craig Peterson. Stick around. Cause we'll be right back and "it won't happen to me." That's our next topic. --- More stories and tech updates at: www.craigpeterson.com Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating: www.craigpeterson.com/itunes Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553
Both Apple and Telsa split their stock this summer and made major waves in the investment world. Why would a company do a stock split and how did investors fare in each case? We're talking about the mathematics and psychographics of stock splits on today's episode of the Wise Money Show. Season 6 Episode 5 Have a question for the show? Call or text 574-222-2000 or leave a comment! Want to speak with a Certified Financial Planner™? Visit www.korhorn.com or call 574-247-5898. Find more information about the Wise Money Show™ at www.wisemoneyshow.com Be sure to stay up to date by following us! Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/WiseMoneyShow Twitter - https://twitter.com/WiseMoneyShow Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wisemoneyshow/ Want more Wise Money™? Read our blog! https://www.korhorn.com/wise-money-blog Watch the guys in the studio: https://youtu.be/t712607Mjuw Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/c/WiseMoneyShow
With so many games available in app stores, people can play them anytime and anywhere. Both Apple's iOS App Store and Google Play store from Google don't provide mobile games classification granule enough for developers to monetize their games efficiently. How can game developers better navigate the mobile game market to make more money? Today's guest is Amir Ghodrati, Director - Market Insights at App Annie, a mobile market data and analytics platform. Amir talks about game taxonomy analytics, problems game developers are facing with it today and what solution App Annie offers developers and brands. Today's Topics Include: ✔️ Data and People: Amir's interest in analysis and communication of successful solutions ✔️ What is taxonomy? A branch of science that studies classifications. ✔️ Mobile Game Landscape: Game categories and popularity challenging to navigate ✔️ $100 Billion: Mobile gaming is largest platform based on spend; 3X bigger than PC/Mac ✔️ Game Lifecycle: Shift habits and conditioning of casino, casual, and core game structure ✔️ Monetization Forms: Advertising, in-app purchases, and subscription models for games ✔️ Apples to Apples? Problems/solutions of multiple app stores, inconsistent classification ✔️ Game IQ: Bring order, hierarchy, and insights to granularly segment gaming industry ✔️ Mobile Game Misconceptions: Changes over time and making money ✔️ COVID-19 Impact: Share experiences and connect with friends and family through games. Links and Resources: Amir Ghodrati on LinkedIn App Annie Game IQ App Annie on Twitter Tweets/Quotes by Amir Ghodrati: “The mobile gaming industry has never been more lucrative, but also it's never been so competitive.” “It's really a platform that has democratized gaming because the mobile phone is the one device that people have with them.” “People are increasingly spending their time on mobile.” “Information is only going to be useful if it's accessible enough that people are willing to make decisions based off of it.” Follow the Business Of Apps podcast Linkedin | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube
With so many games available in app stores, people can play them anytime and anywhere. Both Apple’s iOS App Store and Google Play store from Google don’t provide mobile games classification granule enough for developers to monetize their games efficiently. How can game developers better navigate the mobile game market to make more money? Today’s guest is Amir Ghodrati, Director – Market Insights at App Annie, a mobile market data and analytics platform. Amir talks about game taxonomy analytics, problems game developers are facing with it today and what solution App Annie offers developers and brands. Today’s Topics Include: ✔️ Data and People: Amir’s interest in analysis and communication of successful solutions ✔️ What is taxonomy? A branch of science that studies classifications. ✔️ Mobile
Flobo is joined by James Lott Jr (@jameslottjr) as they chat about what's going on in the world: Rapper Post Malone Purchased an e-sports team? Both Apple and Tesla both split their stocks on Wall Street. There is a national dumbbell shortage. And More! Visit the Website: https://Flobito.com Buy some merch: https://Flobito.Threadless.com Enlist in the "Boycesterous Crew" on Patreon: https://patreon.com/floboboyce Wassup Flobo?: After Hours is powered by StreamYard. If you ever wanted to do live streaming, podcasts with guests or interactive presentations, StreamYard is the way to go. https://streamyard.com?pal=5274951410515968 Use my link and get $10 in credit to get started. https://Instagram.com/flobito https://Twitter.com/floboboyce --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wassup-flobo/support
Edge of the Web - An SEO Podcast for Today's Digital Marketer
Both Apple and Google are Mapping Social Distancing Performance Without a vaccine, the best weapon to battle the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 is social distancing. So how well are we doing? Google and Apple weigh in with mapping data. Need work? Amazon is Hiring Amazon is having a hard time keeping up with orders and has had to hit pause on new signups for its grocery service. And it wants to hire 75,000 more people, even amidst criticism from many that it’s not doing enough to protect workers. How the Pandemic is Affecting Search Behavior It’s fascinating to see Google dig into what people are searching for during the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic, as well as provide bits of advice for how to respond to these emerging trends.
Both Apple and Disney announced new streaming video services this year and they couldn’t have been more different. Apple promised a few old favorites, like Peanuts and Oprah, but mostly all-new originals with huge names like Jennifer Aniston and Jason Mamoa attached, budgets the would take us into the future and, through alternate timelines, the moon again, and with some astronomical, aspirations attached, because there was absolutely no catalog content to fall back on. Disney was all about the franchises, including new Star Wars and Marvel shows, and returns to High School musicals, but also less-expected originals like Imagineers and Jeff Goldblum, and with a back catalog that conservatively includes, when you add in Disney proper, Pixar, Muppets, Fox, and National Geographic, about 85% of all of our childhoods. Now, both of them have launched and are just finishing up the first 8-episode seasons of their first originals and, no spoilers, but it’s enough to figure out where they are and where they’re likely going. SPONSOR: Go to Dashlane to get a FREE 30-day trial of Dashlane Premium and use code “vector” to save 10%! MORE: Merch: https://standard.tv/vector Gear: https://kit.com/reneritchie Podcast: http://applepodcasts.com/vector Twitter: https://twitter.com/reneritchie Instagram: https://instagram.com/reneritchie Mobile Nations Affiliate Link Policy SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts Overcast Pocket Casts Castro RSS YouTube
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In this episode of the Leaks! Podcast, I talk about the 7-inch form factor of tablets that was very popular back in the days. Like the Nexus 7 for example. That form factor is back now, but this time as smartphones. Both Apple and Samsung is rumored to release 6.5-inch mobile phones this year. Apple will release the iPhone X Plus, and Samsung will release the Galaxy Note 9. Listen to my thoughts about this. Visit https://leaks.svartling.net/p/subscribe.html to subscribe to this podcast.Episode links:My Youtube videoMore info about the old Nexus 7More info about Apple iPhone X PlusMore info about Samsung Galaxy Note 9Subscribe to podcast Feed (works great for all podcast apps and services)Subscribe on iTunes (especially great for Apple users that has iPhones or Macs, but the feed works in most podcast apps)Subscribe on Google Podcasts (great for those who use the new app from Google)Or just search for the podcast in any podcast app. You can search for "Leaks!", or "Svartling" to find all my podcasts.
Today in iOS - The Unofficial iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch Podcast
Tii 0454 - iOS 11.2.5 and iOS 11.3 beta 1 Give us a call - 1-206-666-6364 Send us an email - todayinios@gmail.com Links Mentioned in this Episode: Today's Sponsor - Butcherbox.com/tii - Promo Code = tii Today's Sponsor - Casper.com/tii - Promo Code = tii iOS 11.2.5 beta 6 iOS 11.2.5 Beta 7 Apple Releases iOS 11.2.5 Fifth Beta of watchOS 4.2.2 Apple Releases watchOS 4.2.2 Apple Releases tvOS 11.2.5 Everything New in iOS 11.3 Apple Seeds First Beta of tvOS 11.3 Tim Cook: 'Maybe we should have been clearer' Target Discounts Apple Watch HomePod HomePod will be available to order from Friday Apple shares new HomePod details HomePod Works Abroad in English Only Siri is now actively used on over half a billion devices FBI security expert: Apple are “jerks” A newly discovered strain of Android malware Both Apple and Samsung Now Under Investigation HyperDrive USB-C Hub - Kickstarter Apps Mentioned in this Episode: Tii Over Intervales Tablo
EP094 - News http://jasonandscot.com Amazon News Will regulators look at Amazon Whole Foods Acquisition? Scott Galloway says yes, Jason & Scot say no. Real reason Nike began selling on Amazon Amazon launches Spark visual discovery platform Jeff Wilke, Amazon CEO Worldwide Consumer gave rare public comments at Fortune Brainstorm Tech Conference Amazon Meal Kits Rumor of Amazon "Anytime" messaging App Amazon launches home installation service Amazon launches New Brand Pages Alibaba Launches new physical Hema Supermarket concept in China Other Brandless raises $50M to launch new CPG "Brand" ApplePay & SamsungPay on PayPal Everlane to open permanent physical store in San Francisco Newstore raises $50m for new E-Commerce Platform Walmart opens 2.2m ft sq Fullfillment center in Florida Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 94 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Wednesday July 19, 2017. Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. A weekly podcast with the latest e-commerce news and events. Episode 94 is a recap of the weeks news. New beta feature - Google Automated Transcription of the show Transcript Jason: [0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this is episode 94 being recorded on Wednesday July 19th 2017 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:39] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason and Scott show listeners Jason I'm sitting here in 99 degree sunny North Carolina whereabouts in the world are you. Jason: [0:50] I am in a relatively cool 94° New York City. Scot: [0:55] Nice nothing like the odors of New York in Late July with 94 degree weather it's a nice city for them. Jason: [1:05] Jack me I find that it really brings out the New York bouquet in the in the air. Scot: [1:10] The city's usually pretty dead cuz her once in the Hamptons only have this cursed. Jason: [1:14] Exactly Scott I feel like this has been a super exciting week for you I have been living vicariously through you through some exciting news going on this week. Scot: [1:25] Yeah for the fellow nerd / Geeks or whatever you like to call yourselves out there this is it's a big kind of two week 10 day. So you had last weekend e23 which is Star Wars going to insiders conference and they had a lot of good start that's a Disney conference, in Star Wars is owned by Disney so they had a lot of interesting news there also around Marvel if you're into the superhero side of things and then coming up soon if not. Eminent is a Comic Con I've never been to it as a San Diego and and kind of quite a trip from you never try to go like. Four times it never works out so I kind of gave up but they'll be a lot of things now it's there and, so there was the sizzle reel for Last Jedi which is exciting that's the movie coming out this December, and then I think I'm most excited about is their doing Star Wars land which is going to be called the edge of the Galaxy and they're going to do a Resort in Orlando resort so. Destiny exciting you'll you'll kind of go check in and be assigned kind of a you know. Personna if you will and I'm sure people will cause play I'm not a big cosplayer but I think. You and I haven't discussed it but I think we should talk about having the Jason and Scott show there at lunch in. [2:38] 2019 lizards that excited we can do a Big Lick meet up there or and we'll have kind of a rebel versus if kind of thing on the podcast and it'll be great at least five of us will really enjoy that podcast. Jason: [2:50] I'm totally in I'm putting it in my calendar right now. Scot: [2:54] Yeah well we have been doing a lot of deep Dives interviews lately and we thought it would be a good time to get back to just news there's a lot going on in the world of e-commerce even though it's summer and you would expect, e-commerce to be slow there's a ton of news and of course it wouldn't be a Jason Scott show without Amazon so let's start with some Amazon news. Amazon news your margin is their opportunity. Jason: [3:28] Yes Scott we've obviously did a whole show on the announcement that Amazon was acquiring Whole Foods, but there's been some foul on conversation their number people that are speculating including Scott Galloway did a video this week or last week speculating that, did the potentially the the acquisition won't be allowed to go through and that the government will try to break it up. Scot: [3:59] Yeah you know I think that's an interesting perspective but you know I think. Amazon really smart and the the two Tech Titans of kind of tripped over this or IBM and Microsoft and, what ends up getting you with these Monopoly things first of all what ends up getting with the government is being Monopoly and. You know the definition of monopoly from the government's perspective is you just have this obscenely large market share and they argue that this is bad for consumers or businesses because they don't have toys prices go up in those kinds of things, and I think I think Amazon has kind of just because they're scale and what they do they've been oculate themselves from the Sprewell so freeze ample. You know a grocery let's say there there is no argument that says this will give Amazon a monopoly and grocery because you have yo. Walmart so far ahead and then Kroger and there's literally and I think we talked about this make some number six or seven in the Market at. Kind of like 8 or 9% when you add up Whole Foods plus Amazon so it's so it's hard to make a case there and then, it's also hard to make a case of this is going to hurt consumers because we all know prices are going to go down so I think Amazon by picking these huge addressable Market areas that they're in and getting a small piece of them then also relentlessly driving prices down. I think they're pretty inoculated from kind of a government. Kind of rule even even when you look at e-commerce you know you could say Well they're like 30% and 25% of e-commerce 30 to 33% if you count DMV. [5:40] That's Monopoly but then the pricing thing doesn't really come in there and I think what Amazon would argue is, well you know you can't really look at e-commerce because it's all Commerce and you know when you look at all Commerce then Amazon has 4% of all Commerce so certainly doesn't feel like a monopoly, from a market share perspective and also it doesn't have a pricing thing so I would actually disagree on based on what we know today that Amazon will get split up because I think they're they're pretty safe from those two, kind of pretty simple test that the government uses to look for monopolies. Jason: [6:15] Yeah I totally agree I think based on sort of the conventional wisdom it would be highly unlikely because the first thing that happens is they have to define the market and then the market. The relevant Market here is likely going to be grocery so it's not going to be, online or offline and it's not going to be all of retail is it's going to be Grocery and Whole Foods has less than 1% market share and Grocery and Amazon has no market share and groceries so you know from that standpoint. It's going to be real hard to make a monopoly argument and your point in the US, antitrust like there has to be tangible damage to Consumers would usually as lack of choice surprise and nobody's going to be able to make the argument that. Amazon buy Whole Foods is going to drive prices up if we were talking about your up or something it might be a different case cuz they're they can make all these arguments that that. The merger could impede Innovation which is bad for the consumers in the long run but but the US definition is much more narrow so I just I don't think it applies at all I think the only chance that, did you know we might see some saber-rattling cuz I do think there's some politicians that are going to you don't want to want to make some hay by talking about it but if the end of the day, it would require like a new antitrust theory in and dramatically new PAW enforcement policies to really see them take action against this this acquisition. Scot: [7:45] You're the one thing Scott did bring up that I I do think Center esting is. Yeah will Amazon be a trillion dollar company not to give you a more interesting is what is the first trillion-dollar company going to be and I think the three candidates are, Amazon Apple and Google and so just kind of like size that up for listeners to so the way you think about this is every stock has a market cap which essentially the number of outstanding shares times its current price. And right now apple is ahead with 787 billion dollar market cap, their stocks it about 151 so did get to a trillion they need to go up with CT. 50% so that would put their stock at like 2:25. And then number two right now you have Google also known as alphabet now and they are at 670 billion and their their stock is kind of somewhere to Amazon's right now it's at about $1,000 so they effectively have to get up towards $2,000 in their stock. Assuming there's no splits between now and that that mythical point when they hit a trillion. Amazon's actually the laggard so you know in amongst these three so fruit number one is Apple at 787 number to is Google at 678 and then number 3 and quite a distant number three is Amazon at about 5. 500 billion dollars so half of the way to a trillion dollar market cap so they're stuck what have to go to mm so you know. A lot of people would lead Apple we'll get there because we got this kind of iPhone supercycle happening with the often leaked not not verified iPhone 8. [9:22] I'm starting to see some negativity around that because a lot of the components as these Wall Street guys dig into the supply chain, looks like it's going to be hard to get the components so a lot of people are saying a is going to be very expensive phone and it be it's going to push to next year, the supply so you know maybe this iPhone 8 Super Cycle doesn't happen or it's delayed but anyway it it's going to be you know I think a lot of things have to go. Amazon's way to beat Apple there who knows Google you know what let's see how they do they got a lot of. Great things are doing you know some of these things in Google lab probably need to hit for them to kind of get to that trillion dollars cuz it feels like search is kind of running out of gas a little bit. Jason: [10:03] Yeah I mean that's. The one thing at Amazon has going for them versus the other two is they have much smaller market share in a lot of their businesses so there's a lot more Headroom than it feels like. There there is for apple and Google's mature businesses to your point is. If Google hits a homerun with a ton of his vehicles or something like that that that could certainly be the thing to do at 2. Scot: [10:27] Yeah that's like so we'll be watching it really close here at the Jason's gotcha. Jason: [10:33] Other Amazon news this actually happened a couple weeks ago when we were doing other shows, but I've heard some more recent conversation about it is well and that was Nikes decision to start selling on the Amazon platform. And, that was kind of a deal because Nike had been sort of a vocal opponent of selling through Amazon and so it was it was really seen in the marketplace as he some of the last brand holdouts Nike and honest company which had both kind of over it we said they wouldn't. They didn't think Amazon was right for the brand are now both. Selling in in in case of Nike that announcement had a head of favorable impact on Nike stock at had a negative impact on all the other Sporting Good stocks like Dick's Sporting Goods. And so you know people were kind of saying like hey this is another another Amazon Milestone is they're getting all these hold out Brands to sell in the plant form. But the more recent conversation has been like it doesn't appear that Nikes necessarily. Embracing the platform and putting their whole product line on it and sort of like using it as a primary point of distribution. You know when you work at like what Nike had on the platform for Prime day versus a lot of their competitors you know it was only a smattering of product and a lot of people have taken a theory that. That Nike is in her the business relationship with Amazon so that Nike will have more leverage and get more support from Amazon and protecting their brand and you know in for saying. [12:15] You know fake products on the platform and the, really it's it's more of that level of a relationship then then it is you know Nike selling all their goods direct through Amazon. Scot: [12:27] Yeah and um I wouldn't have certainly there's some counterfeit stuff in Amazon sexy pretty good it even before the way shapath pulled Leasing. Anything that seems counterfeit, but a lot of it is really more around third party and controlling the third party and so-so as sweet we had an inkling this was coming because a lot of third parties that sell Nike items, I were alerted that you have come July they would no longer be able to sell on the platform so so now I keep definitely leverage their power to control the third-party Marketplace as a question for Amazon is is the you know are they driving enough sales and selection to Nike to replace and even be. Automatically ahead of that was was that deal a good deal for Amazon so it'll be interesting to watch that because Amazon has no qualms of kind of, terminating deals if they're not making sense for consumers so this could be interesting to see how that plays out in there is nothing argument that Nike actually flexed its muscles and, will Amazon one of them badly enough on the site that they they did this kind of very rare brand gating where they now Gates this brand from third parties and I can probably count on one hand the number of brands of succeeded in doing that. Jason: [13:39] Yeah yeah it's going to be fascinating to see how that that all plays out and regardless it does get Nike on the platform and once they get a taste you know it remains to be seen what they'll do like you know they can easily expand the assortment overtime. [13:55] Another interesting piece of news that made me think of you is Amazon the launched a new platform this week which is called Amazon Spark. [14:06] And this is the latest in a series of new new tools and Amazon has offered that are really about helping consumers with Discover it. So you know you think of Amazon is being great destination when you know what you want and you use the search engine you go right to your PDP and you buy the products. But what spark is really about is browsing visual content and having shoppable photos so the photos can have hot spots in the hot spots are linked to. Amazon Asians and you you can sort of a reveal and add to cart button and put stuff in your car. [14:43] Straight from these these photos so this gives a tool to influencers and Affiliates to start. Publishing their own pinterest-style visual content on the Amazon platform and Shoppers can curate that content based on their personal interests and when they you know. See a picture of a toddler playing with some blocks that you think would be fun for your child you can. You can click on the blocks and Adam to your cart so in interesting new shopping model for. For Amazon and it made me think of you because a couple weeks ago you publish this very cool Amazon scape sort of listening all of the. The different tools in the Amazon Echo System and is willing to put together the outline for Tonight Show I couldn't help but thinking that you're your three-week-old Amazon scape is is wildly out of date already. Scot: [15:35] Yeah yeah that thing is a blessing and a curse like some of these kind of projects I seem to bite off at theirs. [15:44] Is it good like 6 things I need to add on to their already which is just pretty amazing considering it is 3 weeks and then we don't we don't really talk about a lot of the cloud-based stuff on the show but there's already been several Cloud things I need to add on there. And it's this kind of is a good kind of. [16:02] Switch off Segway into Jeff Wilkie I think that's how you say his name Wilke I've always heard people d'amazon climb lucky I guess you could argue that the es Island and its will, he's pre senior guy at Amazon and I have never seen him speak and he was actually Fortune had one of these kind of frou-frou Aspen the things called the brainstorm Tech Conference, you and I are too busy to accept our invitations to Keynote so maybe next year will be there but Jeff Wilkie was he was over the only had a lot of free time and popped on over there he runs the he's effectively he's got like a CEO title which is really unusual a lot of people behind the scenes say that he is the likely success successor, to Jeff Bezos holder that's all all this person, NADA it has not been designated that anyway I've never seen this guy talk and he was really excellent in so we'll put a show note up there's like a 30 minute video from a talk he gave, allies Amazon guys at comedy shows they don't like talk about Amazon in a meeting way and, but what I like to do is pick up Tim bits of culture in and you're the one question having build some businesses is. How do you do so much and obviously they have like 300,000 people and you can do a lot but you know I've been in. Visit large companies like that and it just get so wrapped up and caught up and PowerPoint gnosis and meetings and in that kind of thing. And this interview is really good cuz he spends a fair amount of time talking about that and it's funny he says you know his is the short answer is they create separable single-threaded teams so. [17:39] It's almost like a developed it approach they've taken with cloud computing is like their cultural approach so it's almost like every team and. Amazon is its own little service and gets to focus on that service and if it needs to work externally that's fine it'll it'll kind of create a little mechanism for doing that but then. That team spends 99% of time. Focusing on it an interview and had no idea what he meant by that and so so he went out and bought a couple examples and he kind of said you know what will do is will we in the early days of Alexa we hard one person and all they did was think about Alexis and we didn't. We didn't tie them up with anything it didn't have to. Time with the rest of the system or anything like that we talk to people that like Microsoft and Sony's other companies that's what starts to really hamstring them is the funny story like the early Xbox almost died because they wanted to have Internet Explorer, the main window on it like the IAT wanted it to have that so they actually. Creepy little teams in Amazon create leaders they go build teams and nothing gets in their way and, this is pretty amazing at the scale Amazon is that you know there's not a legal team at Brand team when you get in these larger companies I'm sure you interact with them daily. The it becomes a culture of know and somehow Amazon has created this kind of, primordial soup that still continues that allows many ideas to flourish and die and and and, yeah it seems like they're going to with that culture they'll be innovating and out innovating a lot of companies for a long time so if you're interested in that topic will put it in the show notes there's a 30 minute video that's very much worth your time. Jason: [19:16] Yeah I mean to me the interesting thing you know talking about, software development is sort of a metaphor for organizational design he even talked about the way the teams interacting with each other being sort of like an API where you. Add Define inputs and outputs and that's all you worried about and you you know other than that you know weeders in one business weren't getting involved or getting in the in the shorts of, leaders of the other businesses which which you know as you were saying it made a lot of sense. Scot: [19:47] Yeah I've been an Amazon meetings where an Amazon is a very buttoned-up company. [19:53] But because they're so singularly focused you'll go and so like the one Pea in the 3p teams don't really know each other how their systems work. And it's kind of funny like we'll have to explain to that will be like well. [20:07] Did you guys know you have the Seller Central thing over here and it's got this that in like really who runs that in your like. [20:15] Your trip is just kind of really interesting, yeah it does create a little misalignment in some ways but I think what they've done is they done the calculus and said it you know focus and moving quick is better than alignment in some. Some ways maybe lime it's not the right word but like a little bit of duplication of effort happens so I think it went having built again I'll route to a large organization, you start to really worry Nashua duplicating effort here and you make sure these teams are talking and sharing stuff and it doesn't it seems like Amazon to just turn all that out it's just like go as fast as you need to you know. [20:50] Go fast and break stuff and it's easier said than done in a company the size so that does really interesting that talk so highly recommended. Jason: [20:58] For sure and in that that model probably explains. How they're able to maintain this incredible pace of innovation and you know. [21:09] Part of that Innovation is all these new product offerings that are launching that we're having to talk about on the show and it's it has the unintended consequence of the podcast sometimes feeling like an Amazon podcast because I missed this week and. Yeah sure know if they want antenna products we already talked about Spark, you know another big one this week is meal kits right and so they they've launched their own meal kits which you know. Cuz very negative reaction on the part of a blue apron and some of the traditional competitors there but they they just seem like they're able to. Innovate and get these these products in new categories and new services. Out incredibly quickly in and obviously part of the reason they do that is because they're. You know they're out there all independent and running in parallel as opposed to having dependencies on each other. Scot: [22:02] Yeah meal kits was interesting because it was almost kind of like. Accidental news because so a company in the UK saw that one of the Amazon entities created a trademark for from yokuts and I think the trademark is some it's like a more of a slogan and it says something like. We prepare it you cook it and that's kind of what then they pulled that thread and they found that they're working on meal kits what's funny because I had a friend. What I heard is it was going to be for fresh only so I had a friend look into this and Bill kids have actually been sold on fresh for like 90 days and it started with a couple and their Amazon meal kits and now they actually have about 20 meal kits and, you know what's cool about these is there's a good better best so the Amazon brand is a lot like amazonbasics it's a basic meal, it's usually a beef or chicken and pork in a vegetarian option and it's $19. [23:01] Didn't have third parties selling on there so there's another one and it's called Tyson and something, and it's more like $25 and it's all chicken because it's Tyson and you tell Dave come up with the recipes and everything and the food quality goes up a little bit and then there's a fancier one that's called Martha and something, and that one is like 35 and it's got you know skirt steak and, fancy sauces and all this kind of stuff so it's really interesting that you know of very. I would argue there are Dion Generation 4 where is a lot of these delivery subscription kits you know they're not a. Great customer experience in many ways you and I have talked about how we will try to unmanned lot of people terminate and you know the problem is you don't control when the food comes used on this Relentless treadmill of food, and if there's a meal you don't like you kind of feel obligated to you don't get to pick the meal and so Amazon by just kind of having these meal kits that. Seeing you know there's good better best soda number one there's three price points and number two, I get to pick it and when I want it and it just seems like a more natural way of doing this this kind of prepared meal Thing versus having it kind of like come on this kind of Relentless schedule where you fall behind and start to feel guilty you're not cooking all your meals. Jason: [24:15] Yeah I know I agree I think the order on demand component is that is a big win like you know I've been doing a lot of consumer research for some clients and. [24:25] Meal planning and healthy eating and Fresh Foods are all very high on the decision tree for consumers but at the same time they're super, times of compressed in they have very limited bandwidth and so meal gets really fit that Niche that they, they let families feel like they're making fresh healthy food and they say the family time into your point you know when you can order them onto me and you can. Pick the taste that you want you know on the date you want and not have the sort of Relentless pressure of a mandatory subscription coming to your house. [25:01] Another interesting thing about the mule kicks is that it seems like they're showing some real food Innovation so one of the things I read was, that they would be offering ground beef hamburger patties made from single cows and so you know. One of the health challenges with ground beef is you need to get, meat from a bunch of different animals in them any one of those animals have any diseases that in your potentially at risk and so that that forces everyone to make sure that the ground beef is is, cook sufficiently to, to all those viruses and so you don't get the super juicy flavorful meat so by offering single cow ground beef they they offer product that's safer to cook at a lower temperature and I liked it just never considered that before and you think about the the challenging Logistics of. [25:54] You know. Making that product in a meat processing plant and you know it seems like Amazon signing up for some pretty significant Innovation their versus just sort of Outsourcing these foods from the traditional suppliers. Scot: [26:09] Yeah and done just servants clear this is available to Amazon Prime fresh subscribers which is that full-on grocery deliver delivery subscription. But I think we've seen this program where they test things there but random up they get them too. You know 30 40 50 skews then would be very easy for them to move this across platforms the next platform I would expect to see it in would be. Prime now and then obviously like the the pickup in the go in Seattle but that's that's kind of a small footprint and then it. [26:41] My Prime now I would put it in a 40-45 markets that would be interesting and then, that point they could figure out how to make it part of just kind of the normal Amazon kind of infrastructure so this can be really interesting to watch them with these meal kits and we'll keep reporting what we see there another kind of tidbit for you, my friend is in the beta for the Amazon Prime pick up and he's tried it two or three times and. Every time he tries it he picks a he like literally lives 20 miles away from the pickup Center he's seats at 15 minute window and it's ready in 5 minutes he said it's like the best thing that they have ever tried for grocery it's just like. Dothan availability window seems high now that could be a part of the pilot program maybe they're not just putting a lot of people to their but the it is so far really under-promise and over-deliver it as far as the timing and. [27:34] He said the quality of the food is very good date they actually kind of prefer it to Fresh in some ways cuz it's kind of gives a little bit more control over when they get things and. So I thought that was interesting. Jason: [27:47] Yeah absolutely everywhere we've seen at testing of of buy online pickup in-store for grocery like you you see huge adoption so, that doesn't surprise me a funny antidote I saw a professional chef in Seattle rotor review of Amazon go where she she orders and ingredients and, similar experience she had she had great service there but she gave the the. Actual food products that she got sort of a mediocre results like somewhere apparently like very high-quality ingredients and some of them were pretty disappointing including like this this Marquis piece of fish that she bought, my guess was pretty disappointing and what was funny about it is she wrote this is a review that got published in the New Yorker and so it's this like, you know well written 2000 word. Weird review and she published a link to the New Yorker article on Twitter and cc'd Amazon help their customer service spot in the automated response from the the bot to this link with this long article was, you know where we're sorry you experienced a problem can you please give us a little more detail about what went wrong. Scot: [28:55] Bots going to ride and that's actually a good segue into there's a new this one's kind of in the rumor category so this is on, I'm not known if it's going to happen or not unverified I guess I should say but a lot of people got in surveys asking about an Amazon messaging app that appears to be called according to the survey anytime, this is kind of like one of those things we scratch on your like why would Amazon do messaging you know clearly all these messaging apps are out there and way ahead. But I do think Amazon has couple things going for them so, the popularity of Alexis so it'd be interesting to have a voice component to messaging you know so so right now none of these messaging systems really connect well into voice so that's kind of interesting with the new Amazon. Ecko show I believe I had a chance to play with yours yet. Jason: [29:47] I have them. Scot: [29:49] Yeah it's a little bit of a social network kind of a thing going with it so so I think they're kind of getting you know they may be seeing some early data there that says hey this is common air sting, maybe there's a chance we can build a little bit of a social network here so so if you on your phone if you give it access it slips in your contacts and now, you can call other people that have those devices so so it's almost that and then I think the third thing and probably most important they could bring to bear as if some of this cognitive an AI so we talked to Andrea frigg's ample and you know she talked about how you can chat with an Amazon vendor bought and, it will negotiate on Amazon's behalf you seen it with the help but so I think there's they've got this really kind of interesting a platform that's probably second to none that. Could be interesting to leverage in. Jason: [30:44] Anschutz got we just had a little audio glitch can you hear me. Scot: [30:51] Area. Jason: [30:52] Okay so it was my fault I open another tab I just can't do that like cuz. [31:00] I was trying to look up another product but let me just quit. [31:07] 550 parts to so you were it was the sentence when you're talking about you just started the the Andrea AI. Scot: [31:20] Tell me to say the third like start there. Jason: [31:24] Yeah that would be best. Scot: [31:30] The third piece Amazon brings to Bear is this kind of AI engine now we don't know all of their building in there you can see some hints of it through AWS, and if you remember we had to Andrea on the show and she was talking about this hands off the wheel initiative where. You know dude you're as a vendor you're singing or negotiating with to chat system and its actual robot on the other side and most owners only realize it's a robot so apparently have some really amazing internal AI technology maybe you've seen it on that help. You mentioned so it'll be you know interesting that's kind of one of the ways they could commercialize this, yeah and then you think how can Amazon use the messaging well imagine you could ask Amazon about any product. You know you could send messages between Alexis and all the devices so I don't I don't know it interesting to see if this one becomes real and what they're using it for. Jason: [32:18] Yeah I am a mixed feelings at you know always interesting to see, Innovative new products and it's way better than the current state of messaging apps like that that could be a peeling I sort of have a little bit of messenger for two you get the moment I feel like I have you know a. [32:36] Community of people that communicate via SMS or via. Apple iMessage or video Google voice chat and you know so part of me is worried about. Fragmenting this messaging even further with another app not feeling super appealing, I have to say that I have found the the drop-in feature on the Alexa more useful than I expected to so in my house it's it's actually getting used as a pretty useful intercom right like so you know my wife will be putting our son to bed and it'll be 10 to read a story and she you know she can just with her voice while she's holding our son you know drop in and the room I man and tell me that we're we're ready for story time and that kind of stuff super interest has been, will useful in our house unless fired up to be able to drop into family members house and use that versus all the other. Other messaging tools we have so so we'll have to see how that all plays out. Scot: [33:36] Yeah another angle and I forgot to mention this is there's a lot of rumors that slack is out there for sale and and it's a business productivity chat out really for lack of a better word so maybe what we're hearing is really going to be less concerned more kind of business productivity, and that would actually slide in well with kind of these private e apps that they've been putting out like chime and whatnot so we'll be there some see if what direction they go here. Jason: [34:00] Absolutely and let me just say. Slack message fragmentation is the bane of my existence cuz I'm a member of about 50 slack teams and it's it's pretty hard to monitor them all at once so hopefully Amazon does acquire them and fixes that, another service that came out was there home installation service in so a lot of people have kind of taken the colonist Amazon's version of Geek Squad, and I'm not sure this is completely confirmed but there were number of job listings that were sort of the precursor to the service, the made it seem like these were going to be W-2 employees than Amazon was actually hiring that would do home installation of things like, consumer electronics in so you know we haven't had the test yet but on Prime day I had my mother buy a new printer for her house that she needed and as she purchased that with home installation from Amazon sawall, I hope we in a future podcast Bill to talk about how well that goes. Scot: [35:01] Yeah maybe we can have your mom in it on as a guest how awesome would that be. Jason: [35:04] It would be totally awesome the downside would be that you know that would we lose our number one listener that week. Scot: [35:11] Yeah you're right she would price to listen to I think we should do it. Jason: [35:15] Gotcha well I will mention it to her when I when I get the the printer install recap, but it is interesting to me that they're adding services and you know in the old days if that like. [35:28] They were really trying to build a business that didn't require human interaction and you know there's all this talk about like if we have if you ever need to talk to a human that we did our job wrong and you know more recently. [35:40] A ton of the services are depending on humans and you know you're seeing Amazon hire a lot more people and in Creed jobs and you know I felt like you know despite the fact that this home insulation was a brand new service, was heavily promoted on Prime day and, you know it was it was it both had prominent space on the on the pdp's and and it was being offered it's an aggressive promotional prices as well. Scot: [36:03] Yeah and they have this is on my Amazon skate but they also have a home Marketplace called Amazon home services and. It doesn't have such there's kind of to entry points to where it's popular is in checkout upsell so if you're buying a big screen TV or. Printer and you want to buy insulation to get a pretty good attached right there where we're not seeing a lot of volume is when people kind of go through the top of the funnel and kind of say, oh I need to go to Amazon to get my house cleaned and it's just think I think people don't think that way and they try to boil the ocean there's like literally everything you could do in one place and it's, it's a little bit of water down by experience but you know I'm obviously you kind of deep into this on-demand Services world and I think Amazon you know. I'm interested in it for all the reasons Amazon is I suspect it's it's a very big huge dress will Market if you look at GDP. It's 80% Pro Services 20% products so, you know it's four times as big and Theory as products and the terrible customer experience you know think about when was the last time you had a great service at your home, yeah you have no power in the thing you get these delivery Windows the guy never shows up if he does he knocks and runs is just like a really terrible experience so so I think there's there's a really big adjustable Market there that it's probably pretty interesting to Amazon and what kind of see how serious they get about it. Jason: [37:35] Yeah that's going to be another Super interesting one now watch in in the last, new service I noticed is from the back of a service for brands for for number of yours Amazon has offered branded landing pages but they were pretty rudimentary answer the last month they they did a major refresh to the brand pages. And these new pages are pretty cool they're they're based on a much more modern framework they're based on a react framework but what school is. You can now have multiple pages of URLs for your for your brand page so you know if you're a brand that has multiple categories of products you can have your own navigation with links to a, to a category page within your brand page which is a pretty common need and something that they didn't support before some multi page. Brand landing pages is really powerful they've added the ability to support rich media which is huge. For a long time we've actually advised clients to put a lot of brand content. Yeah in What's called the A-Plus section of their pdp's and that's because you know maybe someone's just shopping for your brand but typically an Amazon. Eat when they search for you the brand that the results going to take him to a PDP and so the PDP had this sort of be the. The main page for each individual skew or a sin but it also had the kind of act as an ambassador for that category of product and so so you saw a lot of folks commonly put. [39:08] Rich media in their pdp's that was really meant to be at the category of brand level and so now they've they've enabled you to put all that content where it really belongs on its own. On brand Pages Nat super powerful and then you know equally helpful, they've added a real CMS in Vendor Central that let you can manage these Pages pretty easily you know even for a business use or not necessarily, a technical are creative user so this is pretty new future, that is if you are brand selling on Amazon you know you should have on your roadmap to be implementing these Pages as quickly as possible because if the moment it's definitely a competitive Advantage for the folks of adopted at and, I always like to appoint people to like the the happy belly brand page you know which is Amazon's own product to see what you know some of the best practices are. Scot: [39:59] Yeah and you know what's interesting is a lot of these e-commerce platforms especially that's in bees have pivoted because there's not a lot of small retailers that are doing this that well out there in the world so most of them riveted towards France and I saw this is a little bit of a shot across the bow of some of those guys essentially saying. You know. We have a lot of Leverage with Brands and this could actually be a pretty nice e-commerce site for Brands overtime Amazon had been in the web. Web store business that got out of that and I'm not saying they're going back into it but when I looked at this I kind of thought you know a brand what else do I need you know it's almost. [40:40] It feels very modern and kind of next-generation so the nurse and see what else they do with us. Jason: [40:46] Yeah and it definitely like just the the trend of adding better tools for Sailors is very welcome so hopefully they they do a lot more. Scot: [40:56] Yeah and while I was just just now poking around I noticed they've moved up to the homepage the treasure truck so, so the treasure truck I don't know the Genesis of this to you but it's kind of legendary in Seattle so every day there's this truck to drive around and it has like it all seems like something we would do but I don't think it's associated with his guys, but everyday there's like a great deal so people in Seattle that you get a text and it will say the treasure truck is by the museum and it has you know a backpack for half off or something like that and you rush down there and get it it's like. Supposed to be really fun and I was meaning to mention earlier because they. They put the meal kits on the treasure truck which is they put a lot of beta stuff on there so that was interesting but now I've noticed today they pushed a video out with kind of funny pirate and now they have on home page where the truck is going to be traveling around the country, let's go interesting new thing and good news it's already on the Amazon scape so I was I was that was when I knew about. Jason: [41:54] Nice I've actually run into the treasure truck at some events so they they send it for example to Las Vegas for CES and I actually asked the driver if if he considered it sort of on Wheels and he was actually a little offended. Scot: [42:10] Another couple of tidbits of news so. After the the frothy, Prime day there's some interesting analyst out on the Wall Street with some reports so first of all credit Swiss came out and they have a new analyst there and he picked up his coverage of Amazon what I thought was a refreshing is most guys if you and I've talked about this on the show a lot but, a lot of folks still don't understand that Amazon has effectively to businesses there's the retail business which we call one p. In that line of business everything they sell counts as Revenue so if they sell $100 widget a hundred dollars of Revenue. Pretty simple same as retail the one that trips are one up is the third party part which is the marketplace so if they sell $100 widget Amazon can only recognize the revenue from that widget which is their commission or their take rate. Across Amazon at on average is about 10%. C'est Cela widget $400 in Amazon gets recognized $10 of Revenue because of gaap accounting rules I always have argued for a long time and I was kind of like. The only guy out there saying this now most people have kind of come over the can't really think of Amazon that way because one Walmart will say that that. That hundred-dollar which it was a pair of Nike shoes and. And dicks lost out on $100 not $10 so when you actually unpack all that and we used to have to do this through a pretty arcane mechanism now Amazon gives you a lot of Clues to get there. [43:42] Ineffectively the punchline is you think of Amazon is about 130 billion dollar retailer with actually about 250 billion so credit Swiss was out and they had you know it was pretty nursing date that she kind of has a 2017 estimate of. 230, 38 billion it kind of see him getting pretty close to five hundred billion over the next couple years which is which is pretty amazing that would be kind of Walmart territory so I thought that was a good report, and then some of these things are surveys so you know you and I are not huge fans of surveys, but RBC had when I only put some of the more Salient things here it was kind of interesting so some of the RBC is Mark mahaney he's kind of a very kind of legendary. Analyst on Walmart I mean sorry on Amazon. And some history questions are interesting so you know you hear from a lot of people will no one wants. Same day or next hour delivery in a new survey yes I would like 60% of people said well of course I would love this and I would use it on a on a regular basis. You're some more they talked about some category questions so. Only 7% of those surveyed in this is a survey of quantity about 2,000 people and only 7% said they had tried grocery but 13% said they wanted to buy more grocery so yeah I'm kind of. Signals of a large intent of an interest there on the top categories that were purchased on Amazon according to the survey were apparel Electronics. [45:16] Home furnishings and of those are surprises but the fourth one I thought you'd be interested in a cpg so 31% of the folks had bought a cpg item on Amazon I don't think Dave. Dundas multiple years but I bet if we if they had cpg would be down there with grocery last year so something and if something's going on and people are buying more CPT at Amazon which I think, Dutch well for the grocery business. [45:43] 12% said they use same-day delivery so that's up from 2015 with 6% so doubling. And then yep Prime is best. And then this is pretty fascinating so they asked Which online retail site has the Lost prices Amazon 64% the next closest was Walmart in eBay at 11%, which has the best selection Amazon at 82%. EBay at 6% Walmart at 4% which is the most convenient Amazon 76% Walmart 8, eBay five so these charts are funny their bar charts and they're so tall dad is kind of change the perspective to even pull some of the retailers, into the chart so so if you think about if those this kind of classic Bezos thing that he said and is is 97 letter, we think people won't get tired of low prices great selection and convenience / free shipping and turns out I think he was right. And that's kind of the recipe for for how well they've been doing so will put a link to that up in the show notes for those that are kind of like going to get super geeky on this stuff but might take away was cpg is on the rise and Amazon, Prime is huge, in Amazon hisses pulled away so far from comping competitors they don't even really show up on the radar anymore which which you know they could be disheartening if I was out there competing with Amazon. Jason: [47:13] For sure but speaking of competitors they're not necessarily pulling away from. I did see a couple interesting pieces of non Amazon news and one of them is from our friends at Alibaba which which is certainly is holding their own obviously in different markets against Amazon. But I find it kind of funny you know you'd only Bob I invented this this holiday singles day and you no one could argue that the. That Prime day was coming knock off on on Singles day well I stumbled across a cool video which I'll post a link to, of a physical grocery store that was designed and open by Alibaba called Hema supermarket and so this is a fairly digital High service, grocery store in China I'm going to both had some kind of e-commerce Innovations there's a quick and collect and they're you know a ton of Shoppers are picking orders and they have like a good infrastructure for helping those, does that Shoppers pick their orders from the Shelf have a barcode on every skew and you can scan them with Alibaba app you can you know. Quickly check out using Ally pay and things like that and then they had some of the the usual cultural differences of of Asian supermarkets versus Western supermarkets, for example most of the seafood is alive and you actually. Pick your own crawfish or your own Lobster like you know out of a bin with tongs and you can actually hand it to a chef who will then prepare your your freshly selected Seafood for you too. [48:54] To consume right in the store so some interesting things there and it you know just occurred to me you know what what a coincidence that they would. You know be getting in grocery and you know with some Amazon Girish feeling. Teachers you don't feel like these these two Giants are heavily sort of borrowing or competing with each other at the moment. Scot: [49:16] Yeah I think we should do a Jason Scott show roadkill have to work with our sponsors to see if we can get a week at that shirt at store. Jason: [49:23] How much are either of us are in adventure enough eater to be like we might have to bring someone with us. Scot: [49:32] Another kind of interesting startup that launched that got a fair amount of fanfare I think it's cuz they raised capital is called brand lesson I was so curious about this so now I had to go in and order some stuff so it actually came today and first of all it's kind of. [49:48] It's super ironic because you get this very vanilla brown box and all it has is on like 80 lb a 80 Point font is brandless trademark, alright your brand is brandless and they care about their brand but then everything to talk about his being unbranded yet they're branded with the. Brandless it's kind of hard to everyone at work was like really confused by the whole thing and it at. I gave up trying to explain explain it but he's got to do is it's kind of like taking that private label unbranded new. Peanut butter or something and privatizing it and so their whole brand promises you don't play quote unquote the brand tax. And then everything is $3 so we'll see I ordered some K-Cups and have not tried those yet but you know the dollar. The the cost per K-Cup is about half of a branded one or a little bit less so that's pretty good deal if it ends up being good, some of the things that that people in the office were like this ad good snacks so they had. Quinoa crisp which were essentially healthy Cheetos so those were popular and then they had a wide selection of candies that we're brand was so they had you know the equivalent had gummy worms and gummy bears and this kind of thing, everyone felt like the quality of those was really good so Buena. It's interesting I'll keep you posted some of the other stuff we try but it was kind of a fun kind of again making it was. Yeah good enough that I gave it a shot and it works really well came quickly products seem to be pretty good. Jason: [51:23] The interesting they're getting a little buzz cuz they they're sort of the mash-up of all the popular Trends right now right so that you know they have, hundreds of products that are essentially a cpg company with like food and cleaning products and and you know all the other things you would think of a of a, a craft in a PNG you know kind of Assortment but they're also heavy on the on the organic. Quality transparent sourcing and so you know you know there's a lot of ingredients that aren't allowed in the products and they have have this like high quality Organics story. And then they're your point a good value so you know $3 for a premium product that the based on the name you would assume doesn't. Invest a bunch of money in advertising right like they're brainless and so it seems super interesting. I have to say I think there's a huge flaw in their current business model and so not to say you know that they won't pivot and discover a successful model but the problem I have is. You see them and you instantly think private label and so your go private labels been successful these guys should be successful but the. The shoes difference between brandless and private label is you don't have to do marketing for private label products right because you, you put the bleach on the Shelf in the supermarket right next to the Clorox bleach and and people walk to that shelf with buying intent and they see the private label is is cheaper than. The national brand and so some people will you know make that trade off. [52:54] Brandless isn't in on a shelf next to a another product right like there's there's no one walking by the only place to buy brandless is on Brandon and Brandon has no organic traffic, so guess what brandless is going to have to do in order to get people to discover them and come to their site and buy their stuff. [53:16] They're going have to spend a fortune on Advertising right and and said that the closest model we have are the guys that jet that we're spending you know originally $100 a consumer for acquisition costs and, you know maybe got it down to 50 bucks of consumer and so the irony here is you know they're calling themselves Brandis and trying to position themselves as a product that doesn't have to sync a bunch of money in advertising, but they're probably going to have to spend a fortune on Advertising to get people to go to their site and I would argue that even have a worse problem. You know they can't advertise $3 peanut butter and get someone to come to the site that just wants peanut butter because the other thing you know whether three Dar products, you have to buy 26 of them to get free shipping and is Jeff Bezos already proved nobody wants to buy anything without free shipping and so you have to find a consumer that's all in and willing to order. 26 products to get the free shipping and so that the ads you have to run the Google pieles you know probably can't even be at the product level they have to be at this like. [54:14] You know cpg level and I I just think that's that's going to be a really challenging story for them to. Digitally acquire consumers that want to buy that many products from them so I'm I'm sure we'll see them pivot on their shipping model they have a club at the moment with you, pay money to just reduce the shipping cost which I'm not confident in and you know. [54:35] Eventually like they'll either have to decide to distribute through places that are Eddie had buying intent like Amazon or traditional retailers or they're going have to spend an awful lot of money to get people to their site. Scot: [54:47] Yeah it's cuz the the two boxes came within days of each other but it reminded me of boxed so very much kind of similar box size model and and do you know fill the box to get it shipped to you, then. Jason: [55:02] Yep other little pieces of news this one's kind of interesting to me but in separate announcements over the last two weeks. Both Apple pay and Samsung pay have announced that they will allow you to use PayPal as a method of payment on there. Their digital wallets and, to me that's a pretty big piece of news for two reasons number one there are kinds of tender you can have them PayPal that you couldn't have an Apple pay for example so you can have your checking account you know when do electronic fund transfers linked to PayPal you can't do that in Apple pay but now you can link your checking account to PayPal put PayPal in your Apple pay digital wallet and now you can use those super you know seamless, Apple pay experience to pull money straight out of your checking account no credit card required and so that. That seems pretty interesting it seems like a big win for PayPal that both of these these digital wallets you know which are. In some ways competitive with PayPal have both decided to support PayPal and you know my my very superficial read is. If Apple pay and Samsung pay we're getting a ton of traction onboarding their own customers, they probably wouldn't want to accept Paypal in the fact that they are accepting PayPal is probably a nod to the fact that that, an awful lot more consumers of stored their payment information with PayPal then then either Apple or Samsung are getting organically and so they're they're having to go to where the payment cards are. Scot: [56:33] Yeah very interesting so I guess it's signals weakness right. Jason: [56:37] Potentially yeah that's really the way I read it. Scot: [56:40] Yeah it's kind of frustrating time of this thing so I was early adopter on Apple pay and then between like. [56:47] Updating my phones in my watches I have to read it like delete all my credit cards every time and every atom I have given up and you think I would be like the perfect person for this but literally that cycle of going in and out with my credit card so many times this may be just be like easier to use the stupid. [57:03] Monkey tip line. Jason: [57:04] I I would totally argue with you except that like none of my cards are in my Apple watch right now for that very reason. Scot: [57:10] Retailgeek call Jeff. Jason: [57:13] I'll fix it right after the show. Scot: [57:17] Cool one thing I saw that was interesting is we talked a lot about digital native vertical Brands we've had ModCloth on the show but no Bose also known as Walmart and, everland is one of the popular DMV bees and the big Trend with these guys is opening up pop-up stores or physical stores so everlane announce their opening a store, and I believe it's going to be there going to open up a store in the San Francisco Mission and then I can have some pop ups at their headquarters and then also in New York City. Jason: [57:50] Very cool I'll be looking forward to seeing what they do in the permanent store you know they had a lot of innovation on their website and you know do a lot of interesting things so hopefully they'll they'll have a fresh take on retail as well. Scot: [58:04] I think you should get up at like 6 a.m. tomorrow and go check it out. Jason: [58:08] Unfortunately I think the first that that for stores only going to be in the Mission District and I don't think they've even announce the date yet so that maybe a later show. Scot: [58:17] I think there's a pop-up in New York you can. Jason: [58:19] There is a pop-up but I have been to that. [58:23] And for the record I will be up at 6 a.m. tomorrow anyway so for my client that's expecting to see me I'll be there. Another one that I saw. [58:35] Is a new e-commerce platform so this is very cleverly named platform is called new store. And it's it's from a well-known character in the e-commerce platform space a guy and I'm not sure I'm pronouncing his last name right but I I call him Steve Shambhala. [58:54] And Steve is well known for having found at a company called intershop which is a. [59:01] A well-established e-commerce platform originated from Germany the kind of Frank Leah grew up with hybris hybris got sold for a large amount of money to to sap. An inner shop really didn't get as much traction but what what internship was most well known for is. It was the platform that GSI commerce was based on and so you could you can buy the platform yourself from inner shop or you could rent in adoration of GSI from. Of inner shop from from GSI so so Steven is back with a new e-commerce platform and it has in it a bunch of the things you would expect to see in. A brand new made from scratch, Commerce platform from somebody that knows the market well and so it's it's heavily mobile-centric it leverages a lot of the latest technology in Mobile so it leverages mobile accelerated pages from Google most exciting for me it natively supports Progressive web apps which is really exciting capability for for enhancing the mobile experience and having fast loading Rich pages, and you know it does have, sort of the full stack which is you know one of the common Trends we're seeing a new e-commerce platforms it's not just a storefront it has the the order management system it has some omni-channel feature so I can support you know an inventory model in your store and. [1:00:32] On your website and buy online pickup in-store and all those sorts of things so I know he raised the money I think it was like 50 million dollars was a series B and it'll be interesting to see if they get some Traction in the e-commerce platform space. Scot: [1:00:48] Yeah yeah I know Steven well and he has plenty of capital to go retire so it's interesting to see him going to stay in the space and continue to innovate after after kind of. Starting in the early days and then. Founder of demandware and now it kind of working on I think he calls it like Commerce 3.0 so so kudos to him from the unreal stamp point for for having the gustow to stay in there for so long. Jason: [1:01:10] It's it's an addictive cat. Scot: [1:01:11] Last it really is it's a lot of fun last one I saw was, and this one is kind of funny because we stop talking about Amazon opening fulfillment centers on the show cuz they open like to a month right now but Walmart actually had has announced the opening of a pretty massive e-commerce for phone at Center it harder to keep track of them cuz Walmart doesn't announce them like. Amazon does now but I'm pretty sure this is the 7th one so they're they're kind of in the high single digits in, I'm ninety-nine percent sure I'm right on that if it not number 7 but this one is truly pretty large so it's Amazon's largest fulfillment centers gift 1.2 million square feet, does puppy is 2.2 million square feet that spans two buildings it's in Florida it's got 1,500 jobs one of the low blurbs always read these things I'm kind of a. Logistics nerd is they said this next generation. Pickup module system so not exactly sure what that is I mean I know it pickup is but I don't know what the module system is sounds like some proprietary way of doing things it if effectively has 33 miles of shelves so I was thinking wow that's that's a lot of if you had to, if you unfortunately ended up on one end of that and you had to walk to the other end to get the widget that would be bad so hopefully their systems more optimized than that. Jason: [1:02:30] Yeah I think it's actually automated I think part of that pickup module system is that the that you know what's the automated shelving systems where you know the sort of shells are stored in 3D in it, it pulled the Shelf to the Picker instead of the Picker having a go to the Shelf. Scot: [1:02:47] So the Shelf could have to travel 33 months. Jason: [1:02:49] Yeah well probably only in a in a really bad sort would it have to go that far but yeah. Scot: [1:02:55] I want to see these 33 miles that's maybe it's like if you stack them they would go to the moon or something I don't know it didn't it didn't make sense to me so I thought I would. [1:03:07] Maybe I'm sure of the listener out there we have Folks at Walmart they can explain it to us. Jason: [1:03:11] That's the one thing I know for sure is if I ever need to hide the Ark of the Covenant I know where I'm going. Scot: [1:03:17] Yep we're going to put it in Florida in the Walmart fulfillment center. Jason: [1:03:21] Awesome, and Scott that's probably going to be a great place to wrap it up because it's happened again we've wasted a perfectly good hour of our listeners time as always we would encourage you to continue the dialogue on Facebook interview particularly like today show we would greatly appreciate a review on iTunes. Scot: [1:03:40] Thanks everyone and also we are looking to do another listener question show so I use that Facebook page to shoot us your questions or you can send them to retailgeek or Scot Scot just want Wingo Wingo on Twitter and we hope to get your questions so we can have a show just of listener questions. Jason: [1:03:58] That's going to be awesome and if any of our listeners are listening to this on the day it's published and you happen to be going to Comic Con in San Diego or in RF Tech in San Diego I will be there so, feel free to drop me a line on Twitter and it'd be great to meet up so until next time happy commercing.
Both Apple and Google named Prisma the best app of 2016. Why? Jefferson Graham explains, and runs down the complete top 10 choices from Apple on #TalkingTech.
As Walt Mossberg wrote in his column this week: “the thrill is gone.” PCs were once on top of the consumer tech market, but that was before the introductions of the modern smartphone and tablet. Both Apple and Microsoft have new computers coming out for this holiday season, but will there be that same excitement as when it was king? Walt and Nilay discuss on this week’s Ctrl-Walt-Delete. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week: the best ways to get your gadgets the AppleCare protection you want, but without the AppleCare prices you don’t. Plus: the iPhone 7 may have more storage than you expected; taking over Tidal could mean CD quality streaming is coming to Apple Music; hands on with the iOS 10 and macOS Sierra betas; “the fappening” hacker heads to the slammer; this year’s iPhone Photography Award winners prove your iPhone is all your need to create captivating images. This episode supported by Casper’s American-made mattresses have just the right amount of memory foam and latex, and people everywhere love them. Learn why and get $50 towards any mattress at Casper.com/cultcast. Let’s face it, CultCloth isn’t for everyone. But if you’re obsessive about keeping your iPhone, iPad, Mac, DSLR, glasses, and other gadgets in sparkling clean condition, you’ll love ‘em. Check them out now at CultCloth.co, and use code “CultCast” at checkout to score a free 8x8 CleanCloth! We also want to give Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com a thanks for the great music you hear on today's show. On the show this week @erfon / @bst3r / @lkahney / david@cultofmac.com Intro - iPhone camera changes the game https://youtu.be/N-C_jUUnZfQ?t=2m24s iOS 10 and macOS Sierra betas are now open to the public http://www.cultofmac.com/436909/ios-10-and-macos-sierra-betas-are-now-open-to-the-public/ Buster Apple is now letting members of its public beta program install the new software, which debuted last month at WWDC. If you haven’t already signed up to get in on the betas, you can still do so at the Apple Beta Software Program site. Once you’re in the program, you’ll get an email with a link to download the latest builds. Apple might buy struggling competitor Tidal http://www.cultofmac.com/436058/apple-might-buy-struggling-competitor-tidal/ Buster A new report claims that the iPhone-maker is in exploratory talks to acquire the music streaming service. “The talks are ongoing and may not result in a deal,” reports the Wall Street Journal, which says Apple is considering buying the company as a way to bolster its strategy to spend tons of cash on artist exclusives. Tidal was launched in 2014, purchased by Jay Z in 2015, and promised artists greater revenues than those offered by Spotify and Apple Music. Both Apple and Tidal are remaining silent about rumors of the talks. Terms of the possible deal haven’t been revealed iPhone 7 might kill measly 16GB storage option at last http://www.cultofmac.com/436652/iphone-7-base-model-may-come-with-32gb-of-storage/ Buster The cheapest model iPhone 7 units will come with 32GB of storage by default, reports the Wall Street Journal in a wide-ranging article that covers possible features Apple’s latest smartphone will have. The increase in storage has been rumored for a few months now, with other reports claiming Apple will also add a 256GB option for those who need even more storage. Other new features expected to be added include a simplified case design, new dual-lens camera, better waterproofing, no headphone jack and Lightning EarPods. ‘Celebgate’ hacker pleads guilty to cracking iCloud accounts http://www.cultofmac.com/436495/celebgate-hacker-pleads-guilty-to-cracking-300-icloud-accounts/#more-436495 A hacker who broke into more than 30 iCloud accounts has pleaded guilty for his role in the “Celebgate” leak of 2014. Edward Majerczyk faces up to five years in prison for illegally obtaining private celebrity photos. Majerczyk, 28, worked alongside Ryan Collins, who pleaded guilty to his role in the hack back in March, to create a phishing scam that tricked celebrities into entering login information into fake websites. They then used this information to obtain access to over 300 Gmail and iCloud accounts. Should you get Apple Care/Apple Care + https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/4rloui/what_exactly_is_applecare_why_do_you_recommend_it/ Behold the year’s best iPhone photographs http://www.cultofmac.com/436930/behold-the-years-best-iphone-photographs/