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Weekly News: Apple’s Siri is the new Google

Apple's Siri is the new Google
Apple's Siri is the new Google

According to a report by the Financial Times, Apple Siri may be the new Google. In other words, Apple might be working on their own search engine in a move to make Siri a one-stop shop. 

The rumours emerged at a time when big tech is under growing scrutiny for its monopolistic practices. 

Besides trying to capitalise on the current media agenda to appear more pro-competition, Apple Siri intends to eliminate the need for its popular assistant to resort to Google searches whenever a query is made. 

Experts, however, believe the move might be a stepping stone towards a full-fledged search engine that eliminates the Google factor altogether.

TechCrunch

Will Apple Siri be the new Google? Edge computing in 2021

In addition, a new Forrester report points at 5 predictions about how technological transformation will impact edge computing in 2021. 

Spending on edge computing is expected to grow at the detriment of the public cloud. Orchestration and 5G will also keep on spreading.

Edge hosting is likely to become its own marketplace, with content delivery companies reaching out to colocation partners to build a widely distributed network of data centres that can host applications closer to where they are used.

AI will also move towards the edge, making machine learning happen closer to the source rather than within the data centre. 

TechRepublic

An update on cloud

Microsoft is celebrating a record quarter, fuelled by the growth in cloud adoption brought about by the epidemic. 

The company’s core cloud business grew 31% over the last quarter, with Azure’s revenue jumping up by 47%.

Enterprise software giant SAP had a few cloud updates as well this week. The firm announced a new roadmap to shift to a co-innovation, one-data model that prioritises cloud-based subscriptions over traditional upfront licensing.    

Financial Times / ZDNet

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Weekly News: Robot Farmers

Robot Farmers, Microsoft jobs, Ada Lovelace Day: discover our weekly news about IT & Tech.
Robot Farmers, Microsoft jobs, Ada Lovelace Day: discover our weekly news about IT & Tech.

Robot Farmers, Microsoft jobs, Ada Lovelace Day: discover our weekly news about IT & Tech.

Robot Farmers

Google‘s parent company, Alphabet, has presented a prototype for a new line of farming robots to help farmers monitor the health of crops and multiply crop yields.

Consequently, project Mineral consists of swarms of “robot buggies” that go up and down the fields inspecting every plant. They do so on upright pillars, coasting on top of the plants much like harbour container cranes do.

Meanwhile Alphabet’s goal is to accumulate large amounts of data about how crops grow to help the agricultural industry tackle the world’s increasing need for food and the sustainability of growing it.

BBC

Microsoft wants to create 1.5M jobs

In addition, Microsoft has made a pledge to create 1.5 million tech jobs in the UK over the next 5 years, with and additional 300,000 depending directly on them.

Called Get Go 2021, the campaign targets people currently in education, those looking into pursuing a career in tech, and those already in tech and wanting to change careers. The initiative is also meant to help those whose jobs have been affected by the Covid-19 crisis and bridge the IT talent gap. It will be based on education and training programs.

The company will also leverage LinkedIn data to anticipate the need for more than 3 million skilled IT workers. 

IT Pro Portal

To discover more about Microsoft: A Microsoft Technologies Careers Guide.

Ada Lovelace Day

Born in early 19th-century England, Ada Lovelace was a pioneering mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s “Analytical Engine,” a steam-powered calculating machine now regarded as the first fully-automatic mechanical computer.

Although she wrote the first-ever algorithm, Lovelace’s true genius lied in her ability to envision the computer’s potential beyond mere arithmetic calculations. She is hence considered to be the first computer programmer, a “prophet” of the computer age.

This week we celebrated Ada Lovelace Day, reflecting on women’s countless contributions to science, technology engineering and math (STEM) — something we should honestly do every day.

Let this day serve as a reminder of how much work is left to do to ensure equal representation of women in tech.

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Weekly News: Your Phone is an Earthquake Detector

Weekly News: Your Phone is an Earthquake Detector
If you are one of the 2.5 billion Android device users out there, you now have a new conversation topic. Yes, your phone is an Earthquake Detector soon...

If you are one of the 2.5 billion Android device users out there, you now have a brand new conversation topic. Soon your phone will be part of a worldwide earthquake detection network. Yes, your phone is an Earthquake Detector soon…

Also discover our article: Weekly News: Robot Butlers and Virtual Influencers

Your Phone is an Earthquake Detector

While using smartphone sensors to build an okay seismometer app is nothing new, Google has a better idea: integrating it into the phone’s operating system directly. 

All devices running Android 5.0 and up will get the new feature through a Google Play Services update, essentially becoming decentralised tremor-monitoring stations that one day will help detect earthquakes early on and warn users. 

For now, Google plans on collecting data for a while to fine-tune the system before rolling out proactive alerts. But don’t worry. You can opt-out of the service via your phone’s settings. Although most people won’t even know it is there.

Toshiba-bye

Thirty-five years after debuting its first laptop, the Japanese conglomerate Toshiba announced it is abandoning the portable PC market. 

The entire PC hardware market, in fact. In 2018, Toshiba had already sold most of its PC business to Sharp, the same buyer this time around. 

The decision comes as the company announced its first quarterly losses in 4 years and officially marks the end of an era in laptop history. 

Toshiba laptops reached their heyday in the 1990s, when they came to dominate the global market. They started losing ground in the late 2000s after an industry shift towards more attractive designs and more powerful machines   

A good reminder of how important it is to adapt and keep innovating.

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Businesses are Preparing the Return to Activity

IT News

Almost two months after the start of the global lockdown, some parts of the world are slowly starting to reopen. People walk the streets and are allowed in stores again, albeit under strict social distancing guidelines. 

Business is ready to get back on track, but companies now face the double challenge of ramping up activity and adapting to a new normal. Last week we discussed how investing in IT is crucial to enterprise survival and recovery – this week we saw some positive signs confirming this trend.

Many multinational companies are hiring for their Indian offshore IT centres, while the country’s demand for senior positions related to digital transformation remains strong.  

As yesterday’s Harvard Business Review article reminds us, the key to digital transformation is talent, not technology.

Microsoft is doing more than well

It was not that long ago that Microsoft seemed destined to take a more secondary role in the future of enterprise technology. But the company bounced back.

This week was packed with news from the Redmond, Virginia company — from a 59% quarterly increase in cloud revenue to an upcoming update to its VMware Azure integration.

More about Microsoft’s momentum in our latest industry snapshot. Spoiler alert: you could win up to $200K if you beat the company’s new hacking challenge.

More on contact tracing

This week we got more details on the upcoming contact tracing technology that Apple and Google are developing to help fight the spread of COVID-19. 

Addressing what has been one of the most contentious points of debate, the duo said their app will not permit the use of location tracking. The full system, which is expected to be released mid-May, will rely instead on Bluetooth to safeguard user privacy. 

Meanwhile, the UK’s National Health System, started testing an app that uses a similar approach. 

The solution leverages (the ironically named) Bluetooth Low Energy handshakes to tell whether a person might have been in contact or not with an infected individual.

News from the frontlines

One more week, the tech world keeps up the fight against the pandemic. This week…

Cybercrime has spiked amidst global chaos and the rise of remote work. Regrettably, healthcare institutions are among the hardest hit. 

A group of security companies and professionals calling themselves the Cyber Alliance to Defend our Healthcare have struck deals to protect a series of hospitals and national health organisations across Europe. The U.S. will be their next area of focus.

Meanwhile, Ciaran Martin, chief of the UK’s National Cybersecurity Centre, has pledged to redouble the body’s efforts to protect the country’s hospitals and health system.

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To trace or not to trace — and how

IT News

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the tech news story of the past few days has been the Apple-Google partnership against COVID-19. 

Announced last week, the unlikely union between the two giants will focus on developing an app to help determine if a person has been in close contact with an infected individual. 

The system will let users opt-in, providing anonymous and decentralised tracing. Much like a tool previously proposed by MIT researchers, the app will theoretically ensure privacy by leveraging Bluetooth connectivity.

The news, however, has sparked a global debate on the potential security and surveillance implications of implementing the technology. 

Is anonymity really guaranteed? Should this power be in the hands of private companies or controlled by public institutions?  

The two companies held a media call earlier this week to answer questions by reporters. Here’s TechCrunch’s account of what was discussed in that call.    

If you’d like to dive deeper into the specifics, here’s a look at how these tracing tools work.  

And they keep burning 5G towers…

Last week we touched on an ongoing phenomenon that sounds surreal even in these strange times.

Some people in the UK are attacking 5G cell towers, believing them to be linked to COVID-19. 

Well — it looks like events keep escalating, fueled by ludicrous conspiracy theories and social media claims that 5G is behind the spread of the disease. 

According to industry body Mobile UK, the country’s network received more than 20 attacks over the weekend. 

It turns out that one of the attacks was directed at — wait for it — a 5G tower servicing a nearby hospital. 

Genius. 

Like the virus itself, this wave of disinformation seems to be spreading like wildfire, with incidents now being reported in the Netherlands.

Cybersecurity 

Now more than ever, ensuring your network and data security is critical for business success. 

Remote work has multiplied the number of potential points of entry for attackers, while phishing attacks are easier to carry out thanks to greater use of social media and email tools.

Just in the US, a cybersecurity consultancy firm claims to have experienced a 500% increase in attacks directly related to work-from-home individuals. 

Now is the time to strengthen your IT security team, if you haven’t done so yet. 

But hurry up. The skills shortage is getting worse.

News from the frontlines…

One more week equals one more look at the new tech initiatives being launched to help fight the novel pandemic. 

Speaking of cybersecurity, Microsoft announced that its AccountGuard security service is now available for free for healthcare staff, as well as for human rights and humanitarian organisations. 

The company has also released a new security patch addressing 113 bugs. Make sure to update your system.

Cloud provider DigitalOcean has created a hub where developers can share their projects aimed at tackling the crisis. The various initiatives go from hackathons to remote learning and quarantine support platforms.  

A start-up called Thoughtful Human has partnered with BetterHelp to offer a free month of emotional support with licensed therapists.

Working on Mars — from home

Nothing better to remind you that you’re not alone working from home.

NASA’s Curiosity team keeps operating the Mars rover from the comfort of their households. Inspiring to say the least.

If they can coordinate across time zones and different computing setups to drive a robot that’s millions of miles away, we can all weather this storm. 

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Weekly News Digest #6

News Digest

Join us as we bid farewell to one of the fathers of UI. Larry Tesler, the innovator behind “cut”, “copy” and “paste” passed away earlier this week. He was instrumental in making computers accessible to the general public, and we owe him much for that.

Tesler’s CV included Stanford, Xerox and Apple. His chief invention, cut and paste, is said to be based on the old editing technique of cutting portions of text and gluing them elsewhere. The feature debuted in Apple’s 1983 Lisa computer.

A week in retrospect…

Let’s start with AI.

Researchers from the ESPCI Paris and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology recently published a study which might explain why single-celled organism like viruses are so successful. The research shows that, under the right ecological conditions, groups of these organisms start behaving like a single one.

The computational models used to recreate said conditions can have a tremendous impact on AI research. By emulating the natural selection process, we could build rich neural networks that one day could rival even that of the human brain.

The Internet of (Wild) Things.

Both climate change and IoT are in everyone’s mouths these days. Not often in the same sentence, though.

We can’t recommend enough Charles McLellan’s piece on how IoT is helping organisations fight biodiversity loss and climate change. From camera-based anti-poaching systems, to listening networks that monitor for the sound of chainsaws, NGOs and charities are doing impressive things all over the world.

A truly refreshing perspective on the applications of emerging tech.

In mergers and acquisitions…

Google has acquired the Dutch company Cornerstone, which specializes in helping companies transition from on-premises to the public cloud. The move signals the push of big tech companies to deliver all-in-one cloud solutions and achieve market dominance.

Meanwhile, Dell is selling the cybersecurity leader RSA to a consortium of equity firms. The company said in a statement that the $2-billion deal will help simplify its business and product portfolio.

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Weekly News Digest #4

Weekly News Digest
Weekly News Digest

Good morning! So… Thursday. Quite the week, right?

The UK is officially no longer part of the EU. The Wuhan coronavirus is spreading almost as quickly as the xenophobia it has sparked. Oh, and Trump finally managed to turn the State of the Union address into a full-blown reality TV show.

We have prepared a whole new batch of resources and interesting reads for you to explore this week. But, first things first. Let’s see what the tech world has been up to.

A week in retrospect…

In case the Iowa caucuses weren’t complicated enough, the app designed to collect and share the vote results for the US Democratic Party went absolutely bonkers. It wasn’t hackers, though.

Apparently, someone was so excited to implement new voting technologies that they went ahead with an untested app developed by the aptly named company Shadow. No training for volunteers either. Because, you know — why. They spent the rest of the week manually counting the results. Oh, blessed be paper backup.

Meanwhile, somewhere over the rainbow…

The Cloud Wars wrapped up this fiscal year’s offensive as the big players announced Q4 earnings.

AWS retains its leadership, with Microsoft on second place and narrowing the gap. In third place, Google Cloud, which released its first official cloud earnings report earlier this week.

The FY2019 revenue table for the top 3 cloud divisions stands as follows:

  1. Amazon — $35 billion (37% more than in 2018)
  2. Microsoft — $16.4 billion (39% yearly increase)
  3. Google — $8.9 billion (53% spike from last year)

Also —IBM recently changed CEOs, promoting its head of cloud to the top position in an effort to catch up with the competition.

Let the 2020 race begin.

Big news for the SAP community this week — The company is extending free ECC support throughout 2027, with optional maintenance until 2030.

Looks like SAP has finally accepted an extension as inevitable if it wants more of its customers to migrate to S/4HANA. The ERP vendor has vowed to support the new iteration until 2040.

Finally, human trials of the first AI-designed drug will soon start in Japan.

Targeted at patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the new compound represents a major technological and medical achievement. While the average drug development takes about 5 years to get to trials, AI did it in just 12 months.

Let’s hope it actually works. That would mean better, faster, and cheaper medicine for all.

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Weekly News Digest #1

Weekly News Digest #1
Weekly News Digest #1

A week in retrospect…

Surprise, surprise! It has been another busy week in the world of tech. Elon Musk seems to have put his flamethrowing days behind and is now set on making his Teslas talk to nearby pedestrians. He didn’t go into much detail about what they’ll actually say, though he did confirm they will be able to fart in people’s general direction.

Classic billionaire joke.

On a more serious note — and in what effectively proposes a major shift in how we approach AI — U.S. researchers announced this week that they have successfully created the first biological robot. The Xenobot is made from frog stem cells and powered by evolutionary algorithms. It can also heal itself. Potential applications are certainly sci-fi worthy: micro-plastic cleaning bots, highly targeted drug delivery…

However, the researchers are hoping to use these robots to understand the interaction and communication between cells. After all, the human body as a whole is one of the most developed and effective forms of collective intelligence known to us.

Just imagine what could be achieved by uncovering its secrets and applying them to the advancement of robotics and AI.

RIP Windows 7….

Nothing new here — As of Tuesday, Microsoft is finally discontinuing support for what some consider the company’s best OS to date. Beyond such considerations, the phase-out leaves a good chunk of Windows users vulnerable to security breaches and other nasty hassles. Aware that some business-critical applications only run on Windows 7, Microsoft is offering to continue support for the old OS iteration until 2023. At a cost, of course.

Ironically, this happened the same week we discovered that the NSA alerted Microsoft of a security bug involving CryptoAPI that affects millions of Windows 10 computers.

We’d be curious to hear what you cybersecurity experts think could be the worst potential complications following the Windows 7 service cut. What are your thoughts?

Well, guess who’s not going to be happy with Google’s decision to end third-party cookies by 2022. Here’s a hint: our blue, furry friend above is not alone in this one.

As Google wrestles with Chrome user demands for greater privacy, it risks compromising the advertising-based revenue model that has served as the foundation of its empire. Folks at the Internet giant are already rushing to calm down advertisers while proposing they all work together to build an alternative that meets both privacy and profitability concerns.

What do you think could substitute third-party cookies and increase user privacy at the same time?

Last but not least — New developments coming straight from the front lines of the cloud wars.

Microsoft unveiled new ad tools for retailers at New York’s NRF, one of which Home Depot has already been using for the past year. The result of Microsoft’s acquisition last August of NY-based PromoteIQ, the new Microsoft PromoteIQ will allow retailers to promote products by combining intent-based data with audience insights.

The immediate goal is clear: to help MS customers increase sales at scale. The main goal? To grab some of Amazon’s cloud market share by pushing services to retailers who’d rather not deal with Mr. Bezos and his e-commerce monopoly.