Month: May 2019

Smart appliances use AI: LG develops AI chip for appliances

LG has developed an AI chip to make appliances smart enough to recognize faces, sounds, other objects. ZDNet

dis-rup-shun: LG has succeeded at creating some impressive premium consumer electronic products. Its AI appliance chipset is a departure from industry trends of counting on 5G and the cloud to make products smarter remotely. By packing the smarts into smart products, LG will not have to pay cloud vendors, which will help offset the higher costs of more advanced chipsets.

China’s lunar mission determines composition of the moon

China’s Chang’e 4 lunar lander and rover, which touched down on the moon on January 3rd and the Yutu 2 rover has been traveling on the surface, taking samples and delivering data to Earch ever since. The mission has provided insight into the composition of the core of the moon. Gizmodo

dis-rup-shun: The Chang’e 4 mission is a great showcase of Chinese technical prowess. Between China’s conquest of the moon, Russia’s dominant participation in the International Space Station, and Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos’ private launches of satellites, a conflict for space domination is brewing. Does space regulation fall under the authority of NATO?

Trump makes buying Chinese telecom equipment illegal

Wednesday the President passed an executive order banning U.S. companies from purchasing telecommunications gear from “foreign adversaries.” The ban is targeted at Huawei and fellow Chinese vendor ZTE. Huawei is an early leader in the sales of 5G network equipment, on pace to lead the global upgrade to 5G. ZDNet

dis-rup-shun: While the executive order makes purchasing from Huawei illegal in the U.S., it will not ban other countries from choosing the most economical tools to run the 5G technology race. Huawei may be hobbled, but will use all powers and customary discount pricing to win as many global contracts as possible, struggling to overturn accusations that the company is a spy agent through which the Chinese government could take over communications in the event of conflicts.

SpaceX to launch 60 satellites to build Internet in space

Elon Musk’s very active SpaceX company will begin a multi-year series of launches this week to boost 60 small communications satellites into low orbit. The project, called the Starlink Constellation, is one of several competitors, including OneWeb and Bezos’ Kuiper Systems, that seeks to build a network of satellites to offer high speed broadband service all across the Earth, without regard for proximity to network facilities (wires). TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: The rate of the space race is accelerating, with rockets launching every couple of weeks. As billions of private capital flow into building the space infrastructure, one must ask if space will be divided, regulated and policed. Increasing numbers of devices are circling the planet, likely leading to expensive collisions, “turf” battles and conflicts. The politicization of space will be a major issue in the coming decade.

Amazon Alexa now integrated with 60,000 smart home devices

Amazon announced that Alexa’s lead is even larger than competitors, connecting with 60,000 other devices. This figure represents 200% growth in the last 6 months alone. TechRadar

dis-rup-shun: In the wake of Google eliminating Nest’s “Works with Nest” program, it appears that Amazon and Google are taking separate paths regarding smart home devices. Google is seeking to more carefully curate its ecosystem, making it more difficult for vendors to include Nest devices in theirs, whereas Amazon’s “include everyone” approach will solidify Alexa as the defacto standard in voice assistants. Google is not doing its Nest line any favors.

AT&T pulling content from Netflix

AT&T announces that it will pull WarnerMedia content from other streaming services, such as Netflix, to bolster its own soon to be launched streaming service. The biggest title to be pulled is Friends. Gizmodo

dis-rup-shun: During the protracted Justice Department battle against AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, arguments were made that consolidation limits competition and competition is good for the consumer. It is yet to be seen how AT&T’s limiting the number of services that can display certain content benefits the consumer. 

AT&T expects to pay 75% of its Time Warner acquisition debt by year end

AT&T stunned the market over three years ago by announcing its plans to acquire Time Warner for $40 billion. The company, over the next few years, made a number of other strategic changes to better service its large debt burden. ZDNet

dis-rup-shun: The ability for acquisitions at the scale of $40 billiion to be ‘history’ in a matter of less than three years will encourage other mega-mergers. AT&T’s cash flow strength is impressive and, at its current pace, the company will be ready for an equally large acquisition by 2020. Perhaps the company will seek to check Amazon’s global domination by expanding into unlikely businesses such as hardware devices or delivery and global logistics. 

Amazon’s size is becoming a burden to manage

The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon’s sheer size and penetration into ever more markets is becoming difficult to manage. The article references controversy surrounding facial recognition software, confidentiality of speach to its children’s version of Echo, treatment of employees, prices at Whole Foods and user privacy of Ring doorbell cameras. Wall Street Journal

dis-rup-shun: Amazon has become so large that controversy, like that aimed at Facebook and Walmart, of recent years, is inevitable. What the article does not mention is the growing conflict between companies that compete directly with the giant company in retail channels and delivery.  Many retailers, large and small, are conflicted with using Amazon’s cloud services or online marketplace as the company controls is margins, shipping costs, and return policies – yet find the company’s marketplace critical to maintaining volume in Internet sales.

Next iPhone rumored to feature 3rd camera for wide angle

According to rumors from a usually accurate iPhone source, the next iPhones will feature a wide angle lens (third lens) that will help restore portions of photos that are inadvertantly cut off, and will improve zoom features. Gizmodo

dis-rup-shun: It appears that Apple is digging deep to find new, exciting, differentiating features for the next iPhone. Both Samsung and Huawei have taken the lead with some impressive camera enhancements which have leapfrogged iPhone’s photo capabilities. The smartphone market is mature and Apple will be hard-pressed to hold onto its share of premium buyers.

Russian propaganda machine warns of the evils of 5G

In a disinoformation campaign in the race to dominate 5G deployment, Russian network RT Television suggests that 5G technology causes “brain cancer, infertility, autism, heart tumors and Alzheimer’s disease.” In the meantime, in Russia, Putin is pushing network operators to get 5G deployed faster. New York Times

dis-rup-shun: To further underscore the political impact of 5G, the Russians are again hoping to sway American opinion through fake news. Russia lacks technology companies capable of playing in the 5G network arms race, but recognizes the economic value of winning those races, so finds sport in stoking the race between China and the U.S.

Drone sighting shuts down Germany’s busiest airport

A drone sighting at Frankfurt’s international airport at 7:27 am last Thursday shut down the airport for about an hour until officials determined that any risk to air traffic was averted. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: Quick, do the math. If roughly 10,650 passengers take off at Frankfurt each hour, what is the cost of one hour of delay for this number of people — then add ground personnel, gate agents, etc. The value of one person’s truth or dare drone joy ride is easily in the millions. The point is, the value of technology checks and balances to enforce no fly zones is high. These limitations will be better than denying ordinary citizens the pleasure of owning and flying their own craft.

 

Steepest ever fall in smart phone shipments 

Q1 2019 smartphone shipments were way down, according to research from Canalys, with North American market share leader, Apple, off almost 20%. Samsung, North America’s #2 player with a little over half of Apple’s market share, grew by 3%. Overall shipments of all smartphones were down 18% over the same period last year. ZDnet

dis-rup-shun:  Higher prices, market saturation, and less new features are slowing adoption of new handsets. When the carriers eliminated large handset subsidies a couple of years ago, they changed the way consumer buy and keep phones. To fight for new share, Apple and Samsung have engaged in an arms race for new and better features. The device makers are struggling to find many really exciting new features and consumers are more aware than before of the true cost of a new handset. 5G support, when 5G networks are widespread, will provide some incentive to upgrade. A mature market puts extreme pressure on Apple and the crew in Cupertino to invent new blockbuster products. It is hard to see what Apple’s next big growth driver will be.

Don’t upgrade your phone for 5G yet

The New York Times points out that it will take at least two years for 5G to be deployed in most areas, and that phones now supporting 5G will be larger, power hungry and essentially not worth it, yet.

dis-rup-shun: 5G will be a game changer, and will accelerate the rollout of IoT in two ways. First, wireless connections to the cloud will be so fast that many devices will be able to instantaneously access content in most places, and second, most mainstream devices will move to 5G networks from 3G and LTE, creating excess bandwidth, and making it cheaper for non-mainstream devices to connect to LTE. When carriers can demonstrate lighting fact internet access on smartphones, then it will be time to upgrade.

Uber IPO is less than stellar

Uber debuted on the NYSE on Friday, in a tumultuous week in which markets were battered by new China tariffs. The company, which has been losing large amounts of money to accompany its fast global growth, faced a 7.6% decline in stock price on its first day of trading. The loss, while tiny in percentage compared to many other first day losses, in aggregate, is $6 billion –making it the largest first day loser in history by market valuation. Axios

dis-rup-shun:  Uber has disrupted the transportation-for-hire space so quickly and so drastically that it may stay ahead of profitability as it continues to morph into new markets. Uber is completely upending the food delivery business and is clearly focused on leading the driverless ride business. In some ways it is evolving like Amazon, though more quickly and with perhaps less caution. The company’s stock price will indicate, in the next six months, if the market sees the company as a leader in innovation or a unicorn that has lost its way.

What is Microsoft’s direction amid a shifting technology landscape?

Microsoft’s Build 2019 developer conference has just concluded and company direction can be summarized as follows:

Microsoft Azure (the cloud) is a very strong, high growth business unit. Microsoft’s twist on the cloud is optimizing its computing architecture to provide faster processing in the cloud. In other words, Microsoft is competing for cloud share by offering a faster, better cloud for AI and IoT applications.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) modules, or optimizations, running both in the Azure cloud as well as in developer’s apps, makes the company an attractive solution for new application developers.

Windows, the dominant operating environment since the mid-90s, is receiving plenty of enhancements to keep it in the lead for the foreseeable future. ZDNet

dis-rup-shun: The Redmond tech giant has completed its re-invention under Satya Nadella who appears to be doing a great job at building on the strength of Windows and Office 365. Nadella is reinvigorating the company’s cash cow products (Office and Windows) by making them hybrids: cloud and device based, while rapidly scaling its Azure cloud business and offering some features and plans that, to some companies, are more appealing than Amazon Web Services.

Uber driver strike bears fruit — $150 million settlement completed

Uber drivers staged a strike on Wednesday to protest lack of benefits and lack of consideration as employees, as opposed to contractors. Today, Friday, Uber is expected to open one of the largest IPOs since Facebook and the company chose to settle claims by some 60,000 drivers before the offering. CNN

dis-rup-shun: Uber chose to take the high road here and act, well, un-Uberishly. On the eve of an IPO expected to value the company at $100 billion, its CEO decided that a settlement in the $150 million ballpark, mere pocket change, would be an important gesture to appease important stakeholders — drivers — and to continue to improve the company’s public image. Hail to the chief for making a prudent decision and acting less corporate than corporations far larger than Uber.

Do you know where your home electricity went?

Sense offers a home energy monitoring device which enables homeowners to see exactly how much power each of their devices and appliances consumes. The data collected from 4,000 households revealed that ‘always on’ devices use almost 25% of a home’s energy. By understanding which devices are using the most, and applying a smart switch, plug or circuit, significant lifetime savings can be achieved. UtilityDive

dis-rup-shun: Energy management has traditionally been more important to energy providers than consumers. Asking consumers to spend more than $30 a year to save energy has not been a successful business proposition for device companies or utilties. According to Crescent Electric, smart thermostats can save as much as 24% in annual expenses. As we know from many aspects of life, the first step of behavior modification is awareness. Sense and other energy disaggregation devices help consumers understand which devices are using the most energy and consider if they can be shut off during parts of the day.

Home automation favorite, Control4 purchased for $680 million

The all cash transaction by aquiring firm SnapAV, whose majority owner is private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, will pair two leaders in the home systems integrator market. Control4 has long succeed in offering a well designed home automation system that costs less than AMX and Crestron. Alexa fans may recall that Control4 recently hired Charlie Kindle, one of the Alexa team’s leader, away from Amazon. CEPro

dis-rup-shun: Hellman & Friedman purchased a majority of do-it-yourself home security company, SimpliSafe, last year. Private equity firms like the home automation space. Some other big deals include ADT’s purchase by Apollo for $6.9 billion three years ago, Vivint Security is held by Blackstone group, which purchased the home security company for $2 billion about seven years ago. The attaction is undoubtedly the fact that consumers are willing to pay RMR, recurring monthly revenues, for home security. Control4 and SnapAV, however, do not generate recurring revenues unless some sort of integration of SimpliSafe is in the works.

VW receives 100,000 orders for new electric car in first 24 hours

The ID.3 will sell for about $34,000 and is the size of its popular Golf model. The vehicle will deliver in mid 2020 and will officially debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. The vehicles batteries will carry a 100,000 mile warranty. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: Volkswagen seems to be recovering from its auto emissions cheating scandal, and will regain its place as a trusted provider of German engineering for the mass market. Order volume suggests that there is pent up demand for electric cars, as VW follows Tesla, Ford, GM, Volvo, Audi, Mercedes and a handful of others into the EV market.

 

Smartphone app reads blood glucose level by looking into your eyes

EasyGlucose is a concept startup that has won Microsoft’s Imagine Cup innovation competition for students. The company uses an inexpensive lens, attached to a smartphone camera, to scan a person’s iris. The texture of a person’s iris, it turns out, reveals information about that person’s blood glucose level. EasyGlucose’s solution is accurate within 7% of finger prick methods, making it sufficiently accurate for diabetics to manage their insulin levels. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: While EasyGlucose has to get FDA approval to go to market, the pace of brilliant innovations in connected care is highly encouraging given that 17.9% of the U.S. GDP is spent on health care (2017). Using the smartphone to quickly and inexpensively read blood glucose enables the data to be quickly transmitted to the cloud for further analysis, storage and additional diagnosis.

Uber drivers strike to demand higher pay in front of giant IPO

In the UK, Australia and the Americas, Uber drivers scheduled a strike on Wednesday to bring attention to low driver pay in advance of Uber’s $10 billion initial public offering, expected to open on Friday. Drivers are stating that they should receive benefits and higher pay for their time behind the wheel. CNN

dis-rup-shun: Profit is the space that exists when the demand curve exceeds the supply curve, and the more drivers that enter the Uber force, the less demand exceeds supply: economics 101. Given the almost perfect information that ride sharing companies have about demand and supply (both sides are logged into their apps), they have the ability to set prices at just the right point at just the right time, to minimize costs and maximize profits. As usual, the technology is on the side of management — workers are price takers — and have little chance of controlling long term pricing.

Tales of a technology cleanse: life without Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft nearly impossible

Kashmir Hill went on a cleanse — 6 weeks without using any products from the big 5 tech giants. She found that it was extremely difficult to use any technology that wasn’t provided by the big boys. Hill encounters a small but determined population of digital vegans who celebrate a lifestyle mostly independent of technology and especially of technologies that monetize personal information. At the end of the experiment, Hill returns to mainstream technology but uses it with much more deliberation, and more discipline than before the cleanse. Gizmodo

dis-rup-shun: Hill’s journey reveals how very deeply we are connected to these big tech companies and how even the most private web citizens have given away most of their identity long ago. Amazon may have the biggest hold on our lives, with its consumer-to-cloud product line. Government regulations, such as Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy standards, look mild when we understand the depth of our connection with tech providers.

Nest ends its “Works with” Program

On Tuesday, Google informed both Nest device owners and developers that it was folding the brands together and that the “Works with Nest” program, as it is known today, will be discontinued. The company stated that the program will be replaced by “Works with Google Assistant.” The Ambient

dis-rup-shun: The details are still fuzzy, but this change will cause a lot of work for smart home platform providers who currently support integration with Nest, as they will have to wait for new APIs, will have to learn new rules and will have to submit for approval new links or skills to Google Home. This will result in device and software companies continuing to postpone Google Home support well behind Alexa integration, and, if Google’s data sharing requirements are onerous, may discourage incorporation of Google Nest products in favor or comparable alternatives. Now that the sizzle of Nest products has simmered, supporting Nest may not be so important.

Bank robbers heist $41 million

The Japanese cryptocurrency exchange company, Binance, reported on Tuesday that it was robbed of $41 million worth of crypto. The company said no individual depositers would be harmed as the losses would be covered by the exchange’s Secure Asset Fund for Users. ZDNet

dis-rup-shun: When was the last time a bank lost $41 million in a heist? When it was a crypto currencty exchange and some really smart hackers used a multitude of methods and a great deal of patience to blitz the exchange with a barrage of transactions. You have to be pretty smart to understand crypto, and really smart to figure out how to rob an exchange for $41 million. Even smarter were the operators of the exchange who had emulated the FDIC by creating SAFU, or Secure Asset Fund for Users. If the SAFU can cover $41 million in losses, there must be some impressive profits in the crypto exchange business.

Google Home Hub is now Nest Home

Google announced that its Google Home products will be rebranded Nest Hub. Along with the name change comes a price reduction bringing its cost to $129. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: A name change. Let’s think about why and what this means. Nest is a very strong brand among smart home enthusiasts, and Amazon Alexa is arguably more adept at home automation, so does this change make Google more respected for home automation applications? The techies that make up the home automation crowd likely favor Alexa. Is the Nest brand better known among the mass market than Google? Surely not. So what is accomplished? Perhaps an attempt to breathe new life into a brand for which Google grossly overpaid ($3.2 billion) and has yet to have a significant win since its first thermostat.

Other news from Google’s I/O conference

Pixel 3A and 3A Max phones offer feature rich smartphones for $399 and $479, making new smartphones available at half of current market price. Augmented reality is added to search, providing 3D images during searches. A host of enhancements to mobile features include highlighting favorite menu items when an Android phone is pointing to a menu, switching into a minimalist display while driving, and auto filling order forms when ordering products or making travel reservations. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: Google is providing great functionality and some great smartphones for half the cost of Apple and Samsung. By inreasing features and lowering prices, Google will quickly commoditize the smartphone business that Apple has so successfully continued to keep at a premium. iPhone will continue to lose market share as its big differences will increasingly become cache and brand loyalty, not features.

Medical device security becomes a priority

Although the federally mandated medical data privacy standard, HIPAA, has been in place since 1996, securing networked medical devices has only been required since 2017. MedCrypt, a company enabling better device security for networked medical devices, has raised $5.3 million in venture investment. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: The medical industries have always been technology laggards, the reason being important federal regulations managed by the FDA that are difficult to pass. While these approvals have been important to consumer protection from fraudsters such as Theranos, the ability to quickly evaluate and certify new connected products is critical to acceleration of effective connected health products and more affordable treatments. MedCrypt is a step in the right direction to assure more products are safe, secure, and readily available.

Bill and Melinda Gates named World’s Greatest Leaders

Fortune magazine just published its World’s Greatest Leaders list and the Gates are at the top of the list for their enormously effective foundation ($4.4 billion in 2017) that impacts large causes. The Gates have targeted, in particular, the plight of underdeveloped countries, addressing malaria, HIV, lack of sanitation, lack of contraception, and many other maladies. The list contains a number of surprises, including the #2 greatest leader, Jacinda Ardern, the fearless and elegant Prime Minister of New Zealand.

dis-rup-shun: The age of recognized leaders being older white males is long over, and the qualifications of Fortune’s leaders are impressive. The World’s 2nd richest man (couple) is very optimistic that by channeling vast resources in a highly intelligent manner, we can change the world. It appears that the Gates are moving the needle in many communities, and if they can set the pace for other highly creative multi-billionaires such as Bezos, Ma, and even Musk, our world will be a much better place in a only a generation or two.

Google I/O love fest starts today

Google’s own industry event, taking place in MountainView, California, is expected to feature a number of innovations. Android Q is the code name for Google’s new mobile phone OS, which will feature some cosmetic enhancements and a lot of tools for developers. We will have to wait to see why this will impress. Stadia is Google’s on-line real time gaming platform that will bring high performance gaming to multiple devices. Pixel 3A and 3A XL are new phones — new additions to a lineup that has received good reviews for an alternative to the Samsung/iPhone hegemony. Nest branded Google Assistant with a display screen designed for countertop. Google Assistant and Chrome enhancements. ZDNet

dis-rup-shun: Google is walking an interesting line between software, services, and devices. Its Android phone line-up is getting good reviews but its Alexa-killer Google Assistants are in a distant second place. Branding them Nest will likely not change perceptions but may signal that Google is about to double down on a complete set of home automation products branded Nest. With Apple’s hardware dominance, Microsoft’s success with its Surface computer, Amazon’s success with Alexa and Kindle, Google must be in the device business to compete on multiple fronts. Of the FAAMG big boys (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google), only Facebook has failed to have at least one device hit.

Cyberattacks lead to missle attacks

For the first time ever, a government has retaliated against cyberattacks with airstrikes, showing that cyber warfare is damaging and is, well, warfare. Israel launced airstrikes on a Hamas cyber HQ building after a number of small projectiles were launched at Israeli targets by Gaza militant groups. Gizmodo

dis-rup-shun: Where does a nation draw the line between cyber bullying, cyber espionage, social media meddling, and acts of war? Given the value of information and the exponential growth of data, a nation’s assets are increasingly online. Damaging those assets is a big offense, and will evoke strong countermeasures. When does cyber interference become classified as an act of war? It is a 21st century problem.

Smart homes installed by professional installer/dealers

CEPro conducted a survey of professional installers to understand their role in the growing smart home marketplace. Installers, whose definition of a smart home is much more than an Amazon Echo connected to smart thermostat, listed the controller brands most frequently installed in pro jobs:

1. Control4
2. Lutron
3. Crestron
4. 2GIG
5. Alarm.com
6. Alula
7. DSC/Johnson Control
8. Elan/Nortek
9. AMX
10. Savant

The voice controller most frequently installed is… Alexa.

dis-rup-shun: The smart home market is being driven by multiple channels, including installer/dealers, retail, direct to consumer, cable/telco, energy utilities, home builders and insurance companies. While product choices installed by dealers will be less expensive and more prevalent, the mass market channels will drive the most notable change, evolving from the current state to smart homes by incremental purchases and installations of individual smart products, such as lighting, locks, thermostats and doorbell cameras. These one-off product installations will lead consumers to want more, which will also drive demand for professional installers, as consumers realize, after their first experiences, that the price is worth it.

 

Huawei creates a new standard for cameras in phones

The Huawei P30 redefines photography in a smart phone, using a tube within the phone’s body to enable 5X optical zoom that boasts a 50X magnification. The P30 redefines the image sensor to make low light pictures pop. The device’s 4,200 mAh battery provides 153 hours of use. Gizmodo

dis-rup-shun: What if a phone maker created a phone that was so radically better at photos and battery life that it set a new standard? What if photos from this camera were so remarkably better that the result stood out sharply on social media? What if that phone was made by a company in China that was essentially banned in the United States and other places because of security issues that are suspected of giving Chinese hackers a back door into your lives? I think that if rivals couldn’t catch it, the market would demand the product, and, that company, Huawei, would find itself returning to respectability.

Enough of Elizabeth Holmes — let’s laud female leaders that actually delivered

Elizabeth Holmes is the most celebrated fraudster since Bernie Madoff. TechCrunch offers five impressive female leaders that have made the world a better place — for real. They are: Judith Faulkner – Founder/CEO, Epic Systems that revolutionized electronic medical records; Lynda Weinman – Founder/CEO, Lynda.com that was purchased by LinkedIn for a cool $1.5 billion; Shira Goodman – CEO, Staples.com, that turned the office supply company into an online powerhouse; Helen Greiner – Co-founder, iRobot, famous for the Roomba vacuum; and Kelsey Wirth – Co-founder, Align Technologies whose Invisalign orthodontics upended traditional braces.

dis-rup-shun: Elizabeth Holmes is like Tiger Woods’ car wreck  — people can’t get enough. Is it her alluring looks and crystal blue eyes, or her audacity to swindle some of the most prominent old white men? Kudos to TechCrunch for suggesting the public be impressed with five impressive women who have quietly built and transformed respected companies — all the while without wearing black turtlenecks or speaking in fake husky voice.

Facebook does some housecleaning to adjust free speech

Facebook announced that it has banned some high profile and highly controversial members, incluing Louis Farrakhan, the incendiary black anti-semite, and Alex Jones, of Infowars, in its attempt to further clean up its tarnished platform. New York Times

dis-rup-shun: Social media, in just over a decade, has found itself in a difficult spot. After serving as a recreational activity for college students and teens, then becoming the mainstream source of information that almost stranglednewspapers to death, Facebook has found that free speech can be dangerously costly in settlements and public image. Much like newspaper editors and publishers have, for many years, decided what is real and fake news and who should be silenced, we now find Silicon Valley increasingly determining the moral high ground. As a frequent visitor to Silicon Valley, I can assure that it is far from mainstream.

Traffic bad? Hail a chopper

Blade, the helicopter taxi service, has started service in the Bay Area, linking SFO, Palo Alto and Oakland. Open the app and book a seat starting at $195. CBS

dis-rup-shun: Time is money and Blade claims their fares are comparable to the cost of a black car. The helicopters for now are manned by human pilots, and are company owned, rather than individual helicopter pilots using their private choppers to fill in the gaps between shifts. Hopefully they offer free bottled water and a smartphone charger.

Despite blazing growth of cloud services – no one dents Amazon’s share

Leading cloud service providers have been growing at astounding rates as computing migrates rapidly to the cloud. The leaders, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google, Tencent and Alibaba are growing at an aggregate rate of 42% over Q1 of 2019 and the market value equals $150 billion. Q1 market share of top players is estimated to be Microsoft at 16%, Google 8%, IBM 6%, and Alibaba at 5%. Amazon continues to hold 33% of the market.  Business Insider

dis-rup-shun: The money is in the cloud and will continue as 5G makes access to content blazingly fast from any device (mobile or fixed). Amazon formerly eschewed profits for bold growth initiatives, but is making so much on its Amazon Web Services that it will struggle to find investments large enough to dent its profits. Tencent and Alibaba show that the Chinese giants can lead the cloud as well — especially since Google and Amazon are adding transoceanic communications facilities in the form of undersea fiber and satellites, making Asia only milliseconds away.

RAZR is rumored to be back as a foldable

Pictures have been found which appear to reveal a new RAZR that is a foldable. Unlike Samsung’s Fold, this device opens like a Star Trek communicator, making a small square turn into a standard candy bar form factor smartphone. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: Who didn’t own or love the Motorola RAZR in the pre-smartphone days? This revival of a favorite classic could be the catalyst that causes the market to seriously consider a foldable phone.

Alaska gets Internet (high speed)

After years of relying on submarine cables to connect Alaskans to the lower 48, telco co-op MTA will lay fiber along the Alaskan highway all the way to Canada. Wired

dis-rup-shun: In the past two decades, telecommunications infrastructure has followed large populations, connecting Asia with North America and Europe. Will population gorwth now follow new infrastructure in desolate places such as Canada? One immediate windfall will be to locate large data centers in Alaska, taking advantage of no to low cooling costs as well as an under-utilized fiber backbone.

Chewbacca dies at 74

Actor Peter Mayhew, the man under the fur known as Chewbacca, died at age 74. Gizmodo

dis-rup-shun: With all the nerd buzz of Game of Thrones battle of Winterfell, trumped only by the Avengers, its easy not to pay our homage to the most lovable, short-tempered furry creature, Chewbacca, who made his debut alongside Harrison Ford in 1977, and made the movie more appealing to the non-science fiction set. It is said that Mayhew was even more lovable as a human.