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AMAZON'S DATA-DRIVEN , : ALPHABET:
APPROACH BECOMING MORE Ys Z THE NEW GOOGLE
COMMON ‘ 5j
2 JUMBO PHONES FROM
SAMSUNG AHEAD OF
EXPECTED NEW iPHONE
‘INFINITY’ CREATORS HAVE FAITH II
‘NEXT GEN STATS’ OFFER NEW INSIGHTS FOR NFL FANS
APPLE SAID TO SHOW INTEREST IN AUTOMOTIVE TESTING FACILITY 60 iTUNES REVIEW &
ALOOK AT SAMSUNG PAY, OTHER MOBILE PAYMENTS 74 TOP 10SONGS 7
HIGH-TECH CARS BRING DETROIT, SILICON VALLEY FACE TO FACE 102
SCIENCE: OCEANIC JUNK RANGES FROM LEGOS TO SUSPECTED JET WRECKAGE 112 TOP 10 MUSIC VIDEOS
GOOGLE HEADS DOWN NEW PATH WITH ‘ONHUB’ WIRELESS ROUTER 134
FCC SAYS DISH CAN'T USE $3.3B IN CREDITS IN AIRWAVES AUCTION 140
INFINITY’ CREATORS FAVE FAITH
IN ‘FORCE AVVAKENS' EDITION
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INF iT
3.0 EDITION
It probably would have been easier to break into
the Death Star.
For the video game makers working on “Star
Wars: The Force Awakens” content in the
forthcoming installment of the “Disney Infinity”
toys-to-life franchise, getting their hands on
the top-secret script involved high-security
protocols rivaling the Galactic Empire.
“We had to go through biometric scanning,
and there were codenames for everything,’ said
John Vignocchi, vice president of production at
Disney Interactive Studios and emperor of the
“Infinity” franchise. “It was without a doubt the
most complicated thing we've ever worked on in
the five years I’ve been here.’
That's probably not hyperbole considering
the ambitious “Infinity” has featured a wide
variety of characters from across Disney's
alliance of intellectual properties. Everyone
from Iron Man of Marvel's “The Avengers”
to Elsa of Disney Animation’s “Frozen” has
appeared as playable characters that can
uncharacteristically play together.
Similar to Activision's “Skylanders” series, “Infinity”
requires users to place a physical toy figure on
a reader to virtually portray that character on
screen, either in franchise-specific “playsets” or in
the open-ended “toy box” mode, which allows
users to design their own levels with an array of
Disney characters, vehicles and props.
The brand-busting introduction of “Infinity” in
2013 helped push Disney's interactive division
to become profitable for the first time in six
years, though Disney reported in its Aug. 4
earnings call that “Infinity” sales have recently
slipped. They are expected to strike back Aug.
30 when a“Star Wars”-centric third installment
is unleashed.
“Disney Infinity 3.0” will feature a collection of
characters from across George Lucas’ sprawling
sci-fi universe, such as Luke Skywalker and Darth
Vader from the original trilogy, Yoda and Anakin
Skywalker from the prequels and “Clone Wars”
animated series, as well as all-new recruits from
filmmaker J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens.”
During a presentation at the fan-filled D23
Expo on Sunday, actors John Boyega and
Daisy Ridley were to unveil the figures of their
“Force Awakens” protagonists, soldier Finn and
scavenger Rey. The pair will be featured in a
playset that will serve as the only way for fans
to interactively experience the plot from the
hugely anticipated new film.
“It's been a lot of work,’ said Vignocchi earlier this
week during a break from the Toy Box Summit,
an annual gathering of top “Infinity” players. “It's
an honor but also a huge responsibility because
Image: Jesse Grant
we're the only game in town with ‘Episode VII’
content on consoles. We have to deliver a video
game experience that’s just as great as the film.”
When “Infinity” launched in 2013, Disney
dubbed it a platform - not just a game - and
promised it would be a new way to give
consumers interactive content based on films
and TV shows, instead of typical stand-alone
titles. That’s never been more apparent than in
the company’s decision not to release a separate
“Force Awakens” game.
John Blackburn, general manager at lead
“Infinity” developer Avalanche Software, said
creating “Episode VII" content for “Infinity”
proved challenging since the team secretly
working on it had to be kept small and testing
the game before “Force Awakens” footage was
released meant employing codenames for
characters and locations.
“We don't want to show too much because you
need to first see the film,’ said Blackburn. “The
first time you see these characters should not be
in our game. That's just a baseline belief because
we're taking it and putting it through a different
lens. The palette we had to choose from was
basically of things that people had already seen.’
It's uncharted territory for “Infinity.” Unlike
most well-known Disney, Marvel and Lucasfilm
characters, these “Force Awakens” newbies
aren't arriving with fan clubs or backstories.
Heck, Finn and Rey’s last names are still a
mystery. (Blackburn, however, knows them.
Despite the clandestineness, he read the film
script over a year ago.)
“There is an awareness challenge because people
aren't as familiar with these characters, but there
11
are other characters from the ‘Star Wars’ universe
that are in the film and other playsets,’ said
Matt Fillbrandt, executive producer of franchise
management at Lucasfilm. “There's connective
tissue that | think will pique fans’ interest.’
Regardless of the rise of “Star Wars” in “Infinity,”
it won't totally choke the toy-game series.
Disney Interactive announced at D23
that caveboy Spot from Pixar's “The Good
12
Dinosaur,’ as well as rabbit police officer
Judy Hopps and popsicle-wielding fox Nick
Wilde from Disney Animation’s “Zootopia”
are also coming to “Infinity,’ while the Marvel
superheroes will receive a rock-‘em-sock-
‘em four-player multiplayer expansion called
“Battlegrounds.”
“We have a plan for what's next, and it's not
predicated on a huge franchise release,’ said
Blackburn. “Opportunistically, are we going to
use those things? Yeah, definitely, but we're hard
at work on the next content. When you look at it
as a whole, we've launched everything, and now
it’s like we're going into sustainment mode.’
Online: http://infinity.disney.com
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NFL FANS AND
COACHES
As Richard Sherman sprints side-by-side with
Calvin Johnson, who is running faster? When
Luke Kuechly collides with DeMarco Murray,
who has more momentum? And which NFL
players run slower in the fourth quarter than
they did at the start of the game?
Thanks to nickel-sized transmitters on each
players’ uniform and high-tech tracking systems
at all NFL stadiums, fans will have a vast new set
of statistics to study this season.
It’s all part of the league's “Next Gen Stats”
23:02:22 ‘ venture, which could eventually change the way
To kickoff: 00:27:15 : teams scout opponents and design game plans.
“How fast does a running back get to the
hole? How fast did he get through the hole?”
said Nick Stamm, director of marketing and
communications for Sportradar, the NFL's data
distributor. “There's going to be really a lot of
analysis that comes out of this.”
Speed in the NFL is generally measured in 40-
yard dash times. Now, fans will see who has
“game speed” and who uses it every play.
15
The signals from the Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) chips each player wears
are sent to small receivers positioned around
the stadium.
Zebra Technologies Corporation is in charge
of gathering all this information for the NFL,
and Sportradar works to distribute it. Last
season, over half the stadiums in the league
were equipped for this type of tracking, and
broadcasters occasionally mentioned these new
stats. Now the data will be available on every
play in every game.
“This season is about rapid expansion to all
the stadiums as well as the availability of more
information from a consumer standpoint,’ said
Eric Petrosinelli, Zebra's general manager for
sports solutions. “This whole area of player
tracking, we're in the infancy stages.”
Similar “heat-mapping” technology has been
used for years in soccer, providing stats on
how far players run, how their speed changes
throughout the game what areas of the field
they spend the most time in.
Petrosinelli and Stamm spent Thursday night's
exhibition game between the Detroit Lions
and New York Jets in a box high above the field,
watching a computer screen that tracked player
movements even during pregame warmups.
The system can measure speed, distance
covered and how much space between players
at a given moment.
“The challenge is to make sense of these data
points and put it into context,’ Stamm said. “There's
going to be a lot of ways to commercialize this
and get a different perspective of the game, and
eventually it all will get to the fans.’
17
Microsoft's NFL app will offer animated replays
during games, giving fans an instant high-tech
perspective on how plays unfolded.
“There's a lot going on with 22 players during
a play,’ said Jeff Tran, director of sports and
alliances at Microsoft.
As fans become more familiar with these Next
Gen Stats, the question is what teams might
be able to do with them. Fantasy players and
gamblers will undoubtedly analyze the stats to
try to get an edge.
Tech-savvy coaching staffs would also be eager
to get the data, and the league is still trying to
figure out how and when to allow teams
to access it.
Teams can already use player tracking services
during practice. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy
says there's no timeline yet for offering the game
data to teams.
“We will continue to evaluate its use in
conjunction with the competition committee,”
he said.
The New Orleans Saints have been using the
practice data.
“For us it is distance, workload, travel, all of those
things. Zebra has been great to work with. We
think it is helpful for us to monitor workload,”
Saints coach Sean Payton said. “You are able to
look for the exceptions when you are studying
numbers. You are able to study and see maybe
something that is unusual to stand out.”
As interesting as the information can be to
coaches and fans, it doesn’t always resonate
with players.
i)
“That's like video game stuff, and | stopped
playing Madden when they put me in the game,’
Lions running back Joique Bell said. “We don't
worry about those things. We're just football
players and we go out and play the game.”
As the technology evolves, it’s easy to
brainstorm other possible applications. Perhaps
a chip in the football could track its location,
rendering the first down chains obsolete. Or
how about a way of measuring the force of hits,
to help with research on concussions?
20
Even more basic metrics such as a player's speed
or distance traveled can provide significant
insights. If someone is coming back from an
injury, it would be useful to compare his speed
before and after getting hurt.
And these new stats can also help fans look at a
great player's talent from a different perspective
- such as when a running back turns a broken
play into positive yardage.
“We're here in Detroit. Barry Sanders. How many
times did Barry Sanders run 28 yards to gain 8?”
Stamm said. “Now that can be quickly captured”
AP NFL website: http://www.pro32.ap.org and
http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL
21
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AMAZON'S
DATA-DRIVEN
APPROACH
BECOMING MORE COMMON
Image: Scott Sady
Amazon isn't the only company that is using
data on employees to improve productivity.
A New York Times article over the weekend
portrayed Amazon’s work culture as “bruising”
and “Darwinian” in part because of the way
it uses data to manage its staff. The article
depicted a work culture where staffers are
under constant pressure to deliver strong
results on a wide variety of detailed metrics
the company monitors in real time - such as
what gets abandoned in peoples shopping
cards and what videos people stream - and
encouraged to report praise or criticism about
colleagues to management to add to more
data about workers performance. The story led
to an outcry on social media.
Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos said ina memo to
staff over the weekend that the article doesn't
accurately describe the company culture he
knows. But experts say the kind of data-driven
staff management Amazon uses is set to
become more common as technology continues
to transform the American workplace.
“Every company is somewhere in process
toward using data to get a better handle
on who their top performers are and to
understand where people stand,” said John
Challenger, CEO of outplacement consultancy
Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.
Companies, both large and small, have been
moving away from traditional human resources
reviews that rely on annual performance
evaluations. They're moving toward a more
data-driven approach with more frequent
feedback, check-ins, and other metrics.
27
Consulting firms Accenture and Deloitte
both said this year they would revamp their
performance review processes, for example,
adopting a more data driven approach that
includes more frequent ratings by managers
and other internal feedback and data that can
be aggregated and analyzed to provide a better
portrait of performance than a single rating.
In an essay in the Harvard Business Review,
Deloitte said the new approach uses “the
technology to go from a small data version of
our people to a big data version of them.”
Tech companies have been even speedier in
applying data analytics to staffing. Google, for
example, uses data to figure out how to put
together optimal-sized teams for projects and
figure out what makes effective leaders.
Paul Hamerman, a Forrester analyst who focuses
on human resources management and financial
applications, says the future may look more like
what Glint Inc., based in Redwood City, Calif.,
is offering clients. The company, with clients
including music-streaming site Pandora and
marketing automation company Marketo, sends
employees what it calls “pulses,” or short surveys
about how they are feeling and how they feel
about their job.
Glint CEO Jim Barnett said the surveys let
executives see how the health of their employees
and company are faring in real time, in the same
speed with which they might be able to check
sales results or marketing impressions. Since
the “pulses” to company employees recur more
frequently than traditional reviews. And their data
can be aggregated to give a clearer picture of
how employees are faring overall.
28
Image: Scott Sady
“The old mentality was once a year we would
check in with an annual survey, have an annual
review, set goals,’ said Barnett. “What we’ve
learned is the world today moves much faster
than that.’
One of Glint’s clients, Marketo, was able to
use the data gleaned from the Pulses to see
that women in one department were ranking
their work/life balance substantially lower
than expected. The company found a staffing
shortage in that area and increased staff.
“What they were able to do was to go in
and increase the staffing before they had
significant attrition,’ Barnett said. “The beauty of
systems like this is you're able to link actions to
outcomes.”
The downside to a data-driven approach is t can
seem “Big Brother-ish” to staffers. But Glint said
the surveys that the company sends out have an
80 to 85 percent response rate. “Employees tend
to be willing to share,’ Barnett said.
Another drawback: Relying strictly on
numbers can lead to the perception of a
cold-hearted workplace. “It’s easy to get so
hung up on statistics that you miss the value
of what that individual brings to the table in
terms of personality, connectivity and those
intangible pieces,’ said David Lewis, CEO of HR
outsourcing and consulting firm OperationsInc
in Norwalk, Conn.
That can lead to a dysfunctional workplace.
“\f everybody is miserable about what they
are doing at work that bleeds over,’ said Jay
Starkman, CEO of Engage PEO.
30
Image: Kevork Djansezian
32
But in general, performance tracking makes
sense, he said: “Companies and jobs should not
be family. You can't fire crazy Uncle Jim. Families
aren't gauged by performance.’
Michael Distefano, chief marketing officer at
executive recruitment firm Korn Ferry in Los
Angeles, likens the data-driven workplace
approach to how data has taken over fitness
training. Rather than having your fitness level
measured at a checkup or visit to the doctor, it’s
now available in real time to everyone with a
fitness tracker like FitBit or Apple Watch.
Image: Philippe Huguen
“| envision a world where we've all got
wearables on and you send a pulse survey to
a few hundred employees a day asking about
different levels of engagement: ‘Here are four
emoticons, which one best depicts how you feel
about your job?,”he said. “That gets transmitted
to a dashboard, and the first thing a CEO does
in the morning is grab his tablet, plug into the
dashboard, see how people are feeling and
make a few calls accordingly.’
33
34
2 JUMBO PHONES FROM SAMSUNG
AHEAD OF EXPECTED NEVV iPHONE
Samsung has unveiled two new Android
smartphones with jumbo screens as it seeks to
recapture some of the sales lost to Apple after
larger iPhones came out last year.
Samsung said Thursday that the new Galaxy
Note 5 and S6 Edge Plus will start shipping Aug.
21 in the U.S. and Canada. Usually, Note phones
don't come out until well after Apple’s new
iPhone models in September.
The timing reflects a shift in fortunes for a
company that pioneered jumbo phones with
the original Note in 2011. Now, Samsung needs
to beat Apple to the punch, or risk seeing its
products drowned out by all the attention on
the iPhone, IDC analyst Ramon Llamas said.
The new phones from Samsung have screens
measuring 5.7 inches diagonally, the same
as last year’s Note 4, yet both are lighter and
thinner. They are comparable to Apple’s 5.5-inch
iPhone 6 Plus, the larger of the two new iPhones.
35
36
Samsung's Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge phones,
which are closer in size to the regular iPhone 6,
came out in April.
The Note 5 will cost $696 to $740 without a
contract, depending on the carrier. The Edge
Plus will cost about $75 more. The iPhone 6 Plus
sells for about $750. T-Mobile is throwing in a
year of Netflix with both phones, while Sprint is
giving away a low-end Samsung tablet with a
two-year contract. Advance orders begin in the
U.S. on Thursday.
Samsung Electronics Co. also said its Samsung
Pay mobile payment service will debut in its
home country of South Korea on Aug. 20.
Testing in the U.S. will begin Aug. 25, with a
formal launch on Sept. 28.
Although there’s competition from Apple Pay
and Google’s upcoming Android Pay, Samsung
is hoping its payments system will catch on
with the inclusion of a technology that mimics
the old-school, magnetic signals from credit-
card swipes. That allows it to work with a wider
range of merchants, though it still won't work
everywhere cards are accepted.
Samsung also teased an upcoming smartwatch,
the Gear $2. It will have a round face, rather
than the rectangular design in Apple Watch
and previous Samsung watches. A video from
Samsung suggests snazzy graphics to rival
Apple Watch. More details will come at the IFA
tech show in Berlin next month.
As for the phones, Samsung is looking to play to
its strengths.
37
GALAXY NOTE 5
Though it appeals to a niche audience, the Note
is popular for including a stylus to take notes
and annotate images on the screen. The update
provides quicker access to apps and features
that use the stylus. A clicking mechanism makes
the stylus easier to pull out.
One new feature ends the need to print out
and rescan electronic forms to sign or fill out.
Just write on the PDF document directly before
saving and sending.
Screenshots can get annoying when you're just
snapping what's visible on the screen. An article
or list of directions you're trying to save might
take four or five shots. A new feature called
scroll capture combines all those shots into one
image, though you still need to snap them one
section at a time.
38
\*°
GALAXY S6 EDGE PLUS
The screens on Samsung's Edge phones are
curved on both sides. The feature proved
popular in this spring’s S6 Edge, which used one
of those sides for quick access to friends and
other frequent contacts. Now, you can use it for
quick access to favorite apps, too.
There won't be a stylus, though, as last year’s
Note Edge phone had.
41
COMMON TO BOTH PHONES
The new phones incorporate the improved
camera technology found in this spring's S6
phones. Added is live streaming of video you're
capturing, a practice made popular by Meerkat
and Twitter's Periscope apps. Samsung's video
will appear on YouTube. The front cameras take
sharper selfies, at 5 megapixels rather than 3.7.
The new phones also borrow design elements
from the S6. They sport aluminum frames and
glass backs rather than plastic. The back of the
Note 5 is slightly curved for a better grip, while
the Edge gets its curve on the front. Either way, it
doesn't feel as boxy as the regular S6.
Borrowing another page from Apple's playbook,
the phones are coming out just a week after
they are announced. It used to take Samsung a
month or longer.
42
THE LANDSCAPE
After the larger iPhones came out, Samsung
could no longer proclaim to have “The Next Big
Thing.’
The S6 phones this spring emphasized design
instead, but sales fell below expectations,
as Apple dominated the high-end market.
Meanwhile, rival Android phone makers have
been able to offer decent cameras, displays and
speeds for less money than Samsung phones.
Although it’s still the leading smartphone maker,
Samsung has reported five consecutive quarters
of profit decline.
“There's an urgency to show that Samsung can
still stand up to the challenge that is Apple and
everybody else out there,’ Llamas said. “For a
while, Samsung was the ‘be all and end all’ of
Android devices. Now, it's a different market.”
43
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Alphabet:
the new Google
Google forms ne\
holding company, Alphe
48
Monday, August 10 has gained a huge
significance in the long history of Google,
the world’s most successful, wealthy, and
simultaneously admired and criticized web
search company. That's because, on that day,
in what must have initially seemed a rather
inconspicuous blog post that was published
just after closure of the stock markets, Larry
Page, one of the company’s co-founders,
announced that Google will soon be no more.
A whole new company, called Alphabet, will be
taking its place.
Phrased in this rather straightforward manner,
the change sounds like a major upheaval for
Google. However, the above is really only a basic
and, it would be sensible to suggest, not entirely
accurate description of the change, while closer
inspection of both the rhetoric dispensed
by Larry Page - who, with Sergey Brin, set up
Google as a very modest Internet search page
nineteen years ago - and the more technical
details reveals that the true long term influence
of Alphabet could be difficult to assess.
IS IT REALLY THE END OF GOOGLE?
NOT QUITE...
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves,
however: what exactly has Page himself said
is going to happen to Google? Well, as we
described in the very first paragraph, Google
is indeed being replaced. However, that is
largely just on the stock markets. In many ways,
Google as we currently know it - as, for example,
a search company, the YouTube owner, the
Android maker, the app developer - is actually
remaining very much intact.
49
Basically, Alphabet is a new holding company
that will now have Google as its biggest wholly
owned subsidiary. Alphabet will have many
other subsidiaries, of course; however, entirely
fittingly given this structure, they will have
very different aims to Google, which will now
return closer to its 1990s roots as predominantly
a search company rather than a technology
corporation. On the front page of Alphabet’s
website, Page describes the new Google as “a
bit slimmed down’, but set to become “even
better through greater focus".
Given the manner in which Google has, over
many years, expanded into a high number of
different, previously unexplored markets in
an apparent bid to keep pace with formidable
tech rivals like Microsoft and especially Apple,
the restructuring under Alphabet certainly
seems rational. Various unorthodox ventures
previously embarked on under the Google
banner, including the broadband division
Fiber and investing operations like Capital,
will now be run separately - but still under the
watchful eye of Alphabet. Page has expressed
his company’s belief that “this allows us more
management scale”.
SHOULD INVESTORS REALLY
BE CHEERING?
So, that’s precisely how Google will be changing.
The stock market has certainly given its stamp
of approval, with a sharp 5% increase in
the value of Google shares in after hours
trading. Julian Birkinshaw, Professor of Strategy
and Entrepreneurship at London Business
School, has noted that it is “understandable”
for investors, eager for more detailed insight
50
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into the sources of Google's revenues and the
profitability of its different divisions, to applaud
the new structure.
However, Birkinshaw has been quick to
emphasize the “enormous problems” that
could await for these investors as this
greater transparency brought about by the
emergence of Alphabet begins to exert its
influence. The apparent theory behind this
new transparency is that, as investors become
happier, the company will perform better. This
contrasts with Birkinshaw’s insistence that, as
“investors are notoriously short-sighted” and
“rarely supportive of big risky bets’, projects
that necessitate short term risk but could
prove much more fruitful further down the line
could be shut down before they are even given
sufficient time to grow.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR
ATECH GIANT?
Such a situation could lead Alphabet to
dedicate more of its resources to those
initiatives that have already long proven
successful; think, most obviously, the search
offer, plus thriving YouTube and Android
projects, all of which will remain the
responsibility of Google. Ironically, this strategy
could severely handicap Alphabet in what Page
has described as one of the biggest objectives
with the new company: to make progress in
uncharted waters and break new ground.
As Page says himself on the Alphabet website,
“in the technology industry, where revolutionary
ideas drive the next big growth areas, you need
to be a bit uncomfortable to stay relevant.’
53
This leaves Page’s public pledge to make his
self-knowingly well-operating company “more
accountable” rather... worrying. Could Google
gradually fall behind Apple in the competition
to innovate? And could this, in turn, encourage
stagnation in the tech industry as a whole, as
one of its biggest standard-bearers slowly fades?
THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE
THINGS STAY THE SAME
However, Birkinshaw’s gloomy predictions
could be on the assumption of a much more
revolutionary restructuring for Google than
what is actually on the cards. The list of
staff changes, for example, reads like a kind
of musical chairs; Page and Brin will leave
Google, but only to take up the respective new
positions of CEO and President at Alphabet.
Meanwhile, Sundar Pichai - who, as made
clear in documents filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, has already held
many key positions at Google since joining
the company in 2014 - will take over the new,
subsidiary Google.
Furthermore, it could be suggested that, in a
similar vein to Apple, Google's first steps into
unfamiliar business sectors have typically been
tentative, with the company only ramping up
its sense of adventure in these projects once
they have shown genuine signs of promise. For
example, in 2006, Google acquired YouTube
for $1.65 billion; Morgan Stanley analyst Brian
Nowak reckons that the video sharing site
will bring in revenues of $11 billion next year.
Google's travel business has similarly much
developed after a small acquisition.
55
This helps to explain why, as MarketWatch’s Tim
Mullaney has observed, “when Google does
screw up, it tends to screw up small.” He has
even pointed out an example of the company
making money from what was, on the whole,
a failed deal: its $12 billion purchase of the
mobile phone manufacturer Motorola
Mobility. |t all suggests that Google’s most
established successes, which will all pass to
the subsidiary Google and are responsible for
90% of the company’s revenues, could long
remain the chief breadwinning projects even
for Alphabet.
PERHAPS THERE’S LESS THAN WHAT
MEETSTHE EYE...
The stronger investor influence could, therefore,
simply reinforce, rather than rein in, the strategy
that Google has already long followed. This
is hardly what Page has envisioned in his big,
headline-grabbing announcement about
Alphabet - but it does suggest that the new
company can look forward to a long period
of consistently healthy financial development
through continuing to work to Google's
traditional strengths.
The high approval rating recently handed by
Apple employees to CEO Tim Cook, largely
thought to be due to Cook’s tendency not to
overly deviate from the template set down by
the popular Steve Jobs, hints at the importance
of a conservative streak in helping a successful
company to maintain its position - even as it
continues to take occasional risks on unusual
projects. This rather begs the question: should
many people associated with Google - staffers,
investors and consumers included - really feel
anything more negative than indifference to the
arrival of Alphabet? ™
by Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan
59
APPLE SAIDTO
SHOVYV INTEREST
IN AUTOMOTIVE
TESTING FACILITY
Adding fuel to rumors that Apple is working on
designs for a car, local officials say engineers for
the giant tech company recently made inquiries
about a former navy base that’s been converted
into a testing ground for self-driving cars and
other cutting-edge vehicles.
Apple, which is best known for making iPhones
and Mac computers, hasn't said what kind of
testing it hoped to conduct at the GoMentum
Station automotive testing facility, which used
to be a naval station in the San Francisco Bay
Area city of Concord.
60
“We don't know. They haven't said what they
want to test. It could be an iPhone,’ joked Jack
Hall, program manager for connected vehicles
and autonomous vehicles at GGMentum
Station, which is operated by the Contra
Costa Transportation Authority. The agency is
promoting a portion of the former Concord
Naval Weapons Station as an ideal testing facility
for carmakers and tech companies working on
automotive technology.
“It’s got all the infrastructure of a city,’ Hall said
of the facility. “There are buildings, streets and
intersections, but no people.’
The 5,000-acre site has 20 miles of paved roads,
including overpasses, tunnels and railroad
crossings, according to the agency's website,
which calls it “the largest secure test facility in
the world” Another 7,600 acres of the former
navy base is now used as a shipping terminal by
the U.S. Army.
GoMentum Station already has an agreement
with Honda, which plans to test automated
vehicle systems there. Hall said his agency
hopes to partner with other companies for
testing self-driving cars and “connected
vehicles” - cars that use the Internet and local
networks to exchange a variety of information
with other devices and vehicles.
Apple has “shown interest” in the facility but
has not reached any agreement for testing
there, Hall said. Company representatives
have not actually visited yet, he said. An Apple
spokesman declined comment Friday.
The tech giant's interest in the facility was first
reported by the Guardian newspaper, which
cited email correspondence obtained under
62
64
a public-records request. The newspaper also
quoted another official at the transportation
authority who said Apple insisted on a non-
disclosure agreement which barred him from
saying any more.
A number of automakers and tech companies,
including Google, are working on new designs
for autonomous and electric-powered vehicles.
In February, The Wall Street Journal cited
unnamed sources who said Apple is working on
designs for an electric vehicle to be sold under
the Apple brand. Analysts say Apple has the
financial wherewithal and ambition to pursue
such a project, although some believe it's more
likely interested in developing software for use
in cars made by other companies.
Other evidence of Apple's interest in cars has
surfaced in recent months, including a lawsuit
in which a Massachusetts startup working on
electric car batteries accused Apple of poaching
some of its engineers. The lawsuit has since
been settled.
65
Apple More
Than Doubles
Hiring
of Women and
Minorities
67
8
ie)
Apple says it more than doubled the nu
of women, blacks and Hispanics hired in t
year, although that barely moved the needle
in terms of improving the diversity of its total
workforce.
Like other major tech companies, Apple has been
under public pressure to increase the number
of women and minorities in a workforce that is
overwhelmingly male and white or Asian. Civil
rights leader Jesse Jackson has been joined by
members of Congress and other critics calling for
Silicon Valley firms to make their employees more
representative of the population as a whole.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement
Thursday that he’s proud of his company’s
efforts, but acknowledged, We know there is a
lot more work to be done.
The maker if iPhones, iPads and Mac computers
issued a report Thursday that follows similar
reports from Google, Facebook, Intel and other
large tech companies. Most of those companies
only began disclosing their hiring numbers after
Jackson began pressing them to do so last year.
One exception is Intel, which has been releasing
diversity statistics for more than a decade.
Apple Inc. said 35 percent of its new hires
worldwide last year were women, while 24
percent of U.S. hires were black or Hispanic.
As aresult, Apple's global workforce of 110,000
is now 31 percent women, up from 30 percent
last year. Its U.S. workforce is 19 percent black
or Hispanic, up from 18 percent. That includes
employees in non-technical jobs, such as retail
positions in Apple stores. By comparison, about
26 percent of U.S. workers across all industries
are black or Hispanic.
69
Critics are especially concerned about low
diversity rates among technical workers, such
as computer software developers or hardware
engineers, which are usually the highest-paid
jobs at most Silicon Valley companies, outside
top management. The number of black and
Hispanic workers in Apple's U.S.-based technical
jobs increased from 13 percent last year to 15
percent this year.
The number of white and Asian technical
workers at Apple also increased from 77 percent
last year to 78 percent this year. The increases
appeared to be matched by slight declines in
the number of employees who identify as multi-
racial or didn't declare their ethnicity.
In another key category, Apple said the number
of whites in U.S.-based leadership positions
dropped to 63 percent from 64 percent, but the
numbers of Asians, Hispanics and blacks stayed
the same at 21 percent, 6 percent and 3 percent,
respectively.
Cook said in a statement that he’s committed
to hiring more women and minorities. He said
Apple is also contributing funds to historically
black colleges and programs that provide
technology and skills-training to students in
__ disadvantaged communities.
Diversity is critical to innovation and it is
essential to Apple's future, Cook said. We aspire
to do more than just make our company as
diverse as the talent available to hire.
In response, Jackson praised Apple for making
solid, measurable progress. In a statement, he
also applauded the company for releasing a
copy of the detailed workforce statistics that
major employers must report each year to the
federal government. Apple and other tech
companies have previously refused to make
those reports public.
But Jackson said he wants Apple and other tech
companies to go beyond the federal report and
provide more comprehensive data on hiring
as well as purchasing and contracting with
companies owned by women and minorities. He
said that would provide a much clearer picture
of what companies are actually doing.
While Silicon Valley companies have been reluctant
to disclose such information, they are publicly
embracing the notion of improving diversity. Intel
issued its own report this week, showing that
more than 43 percent of its U.S. hires this year were
women or minorities, slightly better than the 40
percent goal the company had set for itself.
ve
Jackson also cited Hewlett-Packard for taking
steps that address concerns about corporate
boards in Silicon Valley, which tend to have few
women and minority members. HP, which is
splitting into two companies, announced that
the board of each spinoff will include two black
directors and four women.
A LOOK AT
SAMSUNG PAY,
OTHER MOBILE
PAYMENTS
Samsung is hoping its new mobile-payment
service will let you leave your wallet at home.
It’s a claim Samsung Pay’s rivals - Apple Pay
and Google's Android Pay - aren't able to make
because they work with fewer merchants. Those
rival services require merchants to have newer
payment equipment with wireless technology
known as near-field communication, or NFC.
Samsung Pay can mimic the old-school,
magnetic signals produced by card swipes.
That means it should work with most existing
equipment.
Nonetheless, most people won't leave their
wallets home anytime soon. Plastic credit and
debit cards aren't difficult to carry around and
hand over, so there isn’t an urgency to sign up
for any of these services. And while Samsung
Pay works with more merchants, acceptance
isn't universal because of technical and
behavioral constraints.
75
Samsung Pay will debut in South Korea on Aug.
20. It will start in the U.S. on Sept. 28, with a
test period beginning Aug. 25. Samsung plans
to expand to the U.K., Spain and China as well.
Android Pay will come out later this year in the
U.S., while Apple Pay launched in the U.S. last
October and expanded to the U.K. last month.
Here's a closer look at Samsung Pay and how it
compares with Apple Pay and Android Pay.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OVER
PLASTIC?
Although taking out plastic isn’t difficult, using
the phone is more convenient if you already
have it out - say, to check Facebook while
waiting in line. It’s also great in cabs: When you
pull out your wallet late at night, your keys
might accidentally slip out.
The bigger advantage is security. With all three
services, you're assigned a substitute card
number unique to the phone. The store gets this
number, so if its system gets hacked, your main
card number isn’t compromised. To work, the
substitute number must be paired with a one-
time code generated by that device. Hackers
getting that number will also need physical
possession of your phone.
WHAT ARE THE DISADVANTAGES?
Because Apple Pay and Android Pay require
NFC payment equipment, there’s a good
chance it won't work where you're trying to buy
something. Samsung Pay’s magnetic technology
serves as a backup. You don’t need to worry
about what your merchant has. The phone
figures it out automatically.
76
Image: Seth Wenig
Despite promises of wide acceptance with the
magnetic technology, Samsung Pay won't be
universal. You're not likely to give the waiter your
phone - let alone your passcode - to pay the
check at a restaurant. The technology also won't
work where you need to insert your card into a
machine, such as gas pumps and ticket kiosks.
WHY IS SAMSUNG DOING THIS?
The company says it won't get any direct revenue
from transactions. However, it is hoping the
service will be compelling enough for people to
choose a Samsung phone over a rival's.
HOW WILL SAMSUNG PAY WORK?
When your'e ready to pay, just swipe up from
the bottom to see a list of your cards. The card
you used most recently is there by default,
though you can swipe left or right to choose
another card. You hold the phone near the store's
payment terminal and place your finger over the
home button to authorize the transaction with
your fingerprint.
This can be done whether you're on the lock
screen or the home screen, or if the screen is off
(but the phone is on). If you're in an app such as
Facebook, you need to get to the home screen
first. That's one big difference with Apple Pay,
which works from any app and doesn't require the
initial swipe up. Android Pay will work like Apple
Pay, except it won't work with the screen off.
WHAT WILL YOU NEED?
The service will initially work with just four
Samsung phones - the Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge from
this spring and the upcoming Note 5 or S6 Edge
78
ak
SWIPE CARD
DUE: $5.95
79
Plus. Android Pay will work with a broader range
of Android devices - those with an NFC chip and at
least the KitKat version of Android, which came out
in 2013. That includes these four Samsung phones.
Your card also needs to be from a bank that has
signed on. A full list isn’t available yet, but it will
include cards from Bank of America, Chase, Citi
and U.S. Bank, along with scores of store-branded
cards, including Sleepy’s and PC Richard.
IF THESE PHONES CAN USE EITHER, WHY
CHOOSE ONE OVER ANOTHER?
Samsung Pay will work with a broader range of
merchants. On the other hand, it’s for in-store
use only.
Android Pay can be used within selected apps
for online transactions, so you don't have to
re-enter card numbers and shipping addresses.
You also have security from sharing just the
substitute number. Apple Pay has in-app
support, too, but Samsung Pay does not.
Samsung Pay will also take a few more steps
to use. With NFC, the phone can detect when
it's near a payment terminal and automatically
launch the payment service. Because Samsung
Pay has a magnetic component, which is a one-
way technology, you need to activate it first by
swiping from the bottom.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR APPLE PAY?
Apple Pay has a head start and will still be the
only service to work on iPhones and the Apple
Watch. More competition might promote greater
acceptance of mobile payment in general, as it’s
aconcept not familiar yet to most consumers and
merchants.
81
i
v.
oO
#01 — Facebook Messenger
By Facebook, Inc.
Category: Social Networking
Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
This app is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus.
#02 - Facebook
By Facebook, Inc.
Category: Social Networking
Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
This app is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus.
#03 - Instagram
By Instagram, Inc.
Category: Photo & Video
Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
This app is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus.
#04 - YouTube
By Google, Inc.
Category: Photo & Video
Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
#05 - Snapchat
By Snapchat, Inc.
Category: Photo & Video
lires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
or later. Compatible with iPho
imized for iPhone 5,
— Pandora Radio
By Pandora Media, Inc.
Category: Music
Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
This app is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus.
#10 - Tap Sports Football
By Glu Games Inc
Category: Games
Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
This app is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus.
#01 - OS X Yosemite
By Apple
Category: Utilities
Dr SX 10.6.8 or later
— Bitdefender Virus Scanner
By Bitdefender SRL
Category: Utilities
Compatibility: OS X 10,7 or later, 64-bit processor
Be
#01 — Minecraft - Pocket Edition
By Mojang
Category: Games / Price: $6.99
Requires iOS 5.1.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
#02 - Five Nights at Freddys 4
By Warner Bros.
Category: Games / Price: $0.99
Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
#03 - Heads Up!
By Warner Bros.
Category: Games / Price: $0.99
Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
#04 - Akinator the Genie
By Elokence
Category: Entertainment / Price: $1.99
Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
#05 - Bloons TD 5
By Ninja Kiwi
Category: Games / Price: $0.99
Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
mic Creations
Games / Price: $I
By 505 Games (US), Inc.
Category: Games / Price: $1.99
Requires i0S 7.0 or later. Compatible with i
This app is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6, an
#08 - THE GAME OF LIFE Classic Editio!
By Electronic Arts
Category: Games / Price: $0.99
Requires iOS 5.1.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
#09 - Geometry Dash
By RobTop Games AB
Category: Games / Price: $1.99
Requires iOS 5.1.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
#10 - Sky Guide: View Stars Night or Day
By Fifth Star Labs LLC
Category: Reference / Price: $0.99
Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
This app is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus.
#05 — Disk Doctor
By FIPLAB Ltd
Category: Utilities / Price: $2.99
Compatibility: OS X 10.7.3 or later, 64-bit processor
#06 - Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro
By Systweak Software
Category: Photography / Price: $0.99
Compatibility: OS X 10.7 or later
- Logic Pro X
#08 - Document |
By xiong feng
Category: Business / Price: $9.99
Compatibility: OS X 10.7 or later
#09 — Notability
By Ginger Labs ay
Category: Productivity / Price: $5.99
Compatibility: OS X 10.9 or later, 64-bit processor 5 ee AN ‘ ug ds
#10 — FaceTime
By Apple
Category: Social Networking / Price: $0.99
Compatibility: OS X 10.6.6 or later
ifunes
Review
oN
IV Shows a
pir
Robe
fa
SrOne
coals
wundatt
wast
by Cameron Crowe
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2015
Price: $14.99
Trailer
See more in
iTunes
I Bradley Cooper & Emma Stone Interview
88 \
Cop Car
Two mischievous ten-year-old boys, Travis
(James Freedson-Jackson) and Harrison (Hays
Wellford) find what seems to be an abandoned
cop car in a secluded location and decide to go
joyriding with it. Unsurprisingly, however, their
misbehavior soon brings them into trouble
with the county’s Sheriff Kretzner (Kevin
Bacon), and the situation begins to develop
into something rather more brutal.
FIVE FACTS:
1. This road thriller’s premiere took place at
the Sundance Film Festival on January 24.
2. The theater release was on August 7, just a
week before the iTunes release on August 14.
3. Cop Car has attracted generally favorable
reviews. The critical consensus on Rotten
Tomatoes says that the movie “boasts a terrific
premise and a grimly gripping opening act
-- and for some viewers, that will be enough
to compensate for the movie's uneven
denouement.’
4. The piano-playing in the score was that of
the composer Phil Mossman’s 13-year-old
son, Lucas.
5. Since 2012, Bacon has regularly appeared
in UK-broadcast commercials for the
telecoms firm EE, which is one of the main
mobile broadband carriers for iPhones and
iPads in Britain.
90
KEVIN BAC ON
AUGUST 7
[Tunes Preview |
8) | f)|
|
by Jon Watts
Genre: Thriller
Released: 2015
Price: $14.99
Kk Kk
117 Ratings
Interview with Kevin Bacon and Director Jon Watts
iTunes
GRACE POTTER
{Tu nes Preview |
Sify)
4 | Genre: Rock
Released: Aug 14, 2015
| 12 Songs
Price: $9.99
}
KKK
244 Ratings
a
Midnight
Grace Potter
Hailing from Vermont, the rock band Grace
Potter and the Nocturnals has been enthralling
fans with many different types of rock,
cluding blues, folk, hard and alternative,
ince forming in 2002. However, their lead
Ager, Grace Potter, has left the Nocturnals
behind for this solo album, on which she has
plenty of opportunities to show off her Janis
Joplin-like vocals.
FIVE FACTS:
1. This is Potter's first solo album since
Original Soul in 2004.
2. Midnight is, however, Potter's first solo
album released through Hollywood
Records.
3. Her touring schedule for September and
October includes dates in California, New York
City and Nashville.
4. In June, Potter performed “Gimme
Shelter” with the Rolling Stones at a show
in Minneapolis.
5. She has expressed a desire to work with
Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant.
sg
Empty Heart
All For You
Emily West
Whether they have followed Emily West since
her debut single “Rocks in Your Shoes” reached
the top 40 of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs
chart in 2008 or only got to know her with
her successful stint in America’s Got Talent
last year, fans of this country music singer
are bound to delight that her first full-length
album, All For You, is now out on iTunes.
FIVE FACTS:
1. West's birth name is Emily Marie
Nemmers.
2. She has duetted with fellow country
singer Keith Urban on the song “Blue Sky”.
3. Songs that West performed on America’s
Got Talent and also appear on this aloum
include “Chandelier’, “Nights in White Satin’,
“Sea of Love” and “You Got It”.
4. West has described herself as a hybrid of
alluring cartoon character Jessica Rabbit
and growly-voiced singer-songwriter Tom
Waits.
5. She has also described this album’s first
single, “Bitter”, as “empowering” and “my first
attempt to write a roll-your-windows-down
kind of song”.
98
[Tu nes Preview |
£ \ f
try t
Genre: Pop
Released: Aug 14, 2015
10 Songs
Price: $9.99
Ok kk
62 Ratings
Bitter
ao ars
est Interview
101
HIGH-TECH CARS
BRING DETROIT,
SILICON VALLEY
FACE TO FACE
The office has all the trappings of a high-tech
startup. There's a giant beanbag in the foyer and
erasable, white board walls for brainstorming.
Someone's pet dog lounges happily on the
sunny balcony.
Welcome to the Palo Alto home of the Ford Motor
Co., six miles from the headquarters of Google.
Meanwhile, in a squat, industrial building in
suburban Detroit, a short drive from Ford's
headquarters, workers are busy building a small
fleet of driverless cars.
The company behind them Google.
The convergence of cars and computers is
blurring the traditional geographical boundaries
of both industries. Silicon Valley is dotted with
research labs opened by automakers and
suppliers, who are racing to develop high-tech
infotainment systems and autonomous cars.
103
Tech companies - looking to grow and sensing
an industry that's ripe for disruption - are heading
to Detroit to better understand the auto industry
and get their software embedded into cars.
The result is both heated competition and
unprecedented cooperation between two
industries that rarely spoke to each other five
years ago.
It’s a cross-pollination. We're educating both sides,
says Niall Berkerey, who runs the Detroit office of
Telenav, a Sunnyvale, California-based firm that
makes navigation software.
There's also plenty of employee poaching. Apple
recently hired Fiat Chrysler's former quality chief.
Ride-sharing service Uber snagged 40 researchers
and scientists from Carnegie Mellon's Pittsburgh
robotics lab. Tesla’s head of vehicle development
used to work at Apple.
For years the fast-paced tech industry showed
little respect for the plodding car industry. Google
and Palo Alto-based Tesla, with its high-tech
electric sedans, helped change that.
People think it’s shiny Silicon Valley versus grungy
Detroit, but that’s garbage, says Chris Urmson,
who leads Google's self-driving car program. If
you look at the complexity of a vehicle, it’s an
engineering marvel.
Dragos Maciuca, a former Apple engineer who's
now the technical director of Ford's Palo Alto
research lab, says he’s seeing a new excitement
about the auto industry in Silicon Valley. For
one thing, cars provide a palpable sense of
accomplishment for software engineers.
If you work at Google or Yahoo, it's hard to point
out, ‘Well, | wrote that piece of code’ It’s really
104
iE
97,7 Documentary
| 98.1 Classical
v 98.5 Lounge FM
102.9 RnB k
hard to be excited about it or show your kids,
Maciuca he says. In the auto industry, you can
go, See that button The stuff that’s behind it, |
worked on that
But cocky tech companies have had to adapt to
the tough standards of the auto industry, which
requires technology to work perfectly, for years, in
all kinds of conditions. Maciuca spends much of
his time educating software and app developers
about the industry's needs.
Silicon Valley goes toward this model of a
minimum viable product. It's easy to throw things
out there and try them and see if they work,
Maciuca says. We can't do that.
Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia was best
known for making chips for computer games
before it got into the car business. Now, it makes
the computer processors that power Tesla’s
17-inch touchscreen dashboard and Audi's
experimental self-driving cars, among other
products. It had to develop new manufacturing
techniques and higher levels of certification for
the auto business, such as tests to make sure
its computer chips would still work in subzero
temperatures, says Danny Shapiro, Nvidia's senior
director of automotive.
For their part, the automakers are learning that
rolling out cars that remain static for years until
the next model comes out is no longer practical.
At the insistence of tech companies such as
Telenav and Nvidia, they're learning to make cars
with navigation, infotainment and other features
that can be constantly updated. Mercedes-Benz,
Tesla, Toyota, BMW, and others can now update
vehicle software wirelessly to fix problems or add
more capability.
107
Shapiro says the cost-conscious auto industry has
had to learn to spend a little more - maybe $10 to
$20 per car - on computer hardware. Automakers
would often go with the cheapest option but
then spend even more fixing bugs, or be forced
to replace processors that didn’t have enough
power to add updates.
Nvidia now has eight permanent engineers at
various automakers in Michigan.
We've helped them adopt more of a computer
industry mindset, which is not to reinvent what
they’re doing every five to seven years, Shapiro
says.
Even with that new spirit of collaboration,
automakers and tech companies also use their
local labs to do a little spying.
Frankie James, a former NASA researcher who
now runs General Motors’ Palo Alto office, says
spotting trends and potential threats is one of
the most important parts of her job. Her team
alerted GM to the car-sharing trend, for example,
and the automaker invested $3 million in Relay
Rides in 2011.
Now, she’s watching companies that could
potentially disrupt the auto business, such as
Google and Apple. Google has promised a self-
driving car within five years, and Apple has hired
people from Tesla, Ford and other car companies
for its own top-secret project.
We need to say, ‘OK, if we think Apple is going to
build something like this because they've got this
vision of the future; if we take that same vision of
the future, what can we do How can we continue
to play James says.
The tech industry is also watching its back.
108
109
Telenav is making a new navigation system
for the 2016 Tacoma pickup and other Toyota
vehicles, but Apple and Google are also vying
for the car's dashboard with their CarPlay and
Android Auto systems, which give drivers access
to certain smartphone apps.
Telenav’s Berkery says automotive accounts for
70 percent of its business, up from just 10 percent
when its 10-person Detroit office opened four
years ago. Its success in Detroit led to new offices
in Berlin, Shanghai and Tokyo.
A huge amount of disruption is going to take
place in this landscape, and new players will
come in, Berkery says. There's no reason why
traditional players will succeed.
110
111
eee ENCE a
OCEANIC JUNK
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For years along the Cornish coast of Britain,
Atlantic Ocean currents have carried thousands
of Lego pieces onto the beaches. In Kenya,
cheap flip-flop sandals are churned relentlessly
in the Indian Ocean surf, until finally being spit
out onto the sand. In Bangladesh, fishermen
are haunted by floating corpses that the Bay of
Bengal sometimes puts in their path.
And now, perhaps, the oceans have revealed
something else parts of Malaysia Airlines Flight
370, the jetliner that vanished 17 months ago
with 239 people on board.
Experts believe it crashed into the vast
emptiness of the Indian Ocean, somewhere
between Africa and Australia. While some
wreckage presumably sank, some is also
thought to have joined the millions of tons of
oceanic debris - from Legos accidentally spilled
from cargo ships to abandoned fishing nets to
industrial trash - that can spend years being
carried by the Earth’s currents, sometimes
turning up thousands of miles away from where
they entered the water.
So there was little surprise among
oceanographers when part of a jet’s wing,
suspected wreckage from the vanished Boeing
777, was found two weeks ago along the shores
of Reunion, a French island off the African coast.
The ocean is not a bathtub. It's in constant
motion, said Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer
with the Grantham Institute at Imperial College
London who has spent years studying how
currents carry debris. At the surface it’s this
giant, churning machine that moves things from
A to B, he said. And it’s connecting all the areas
of the globe.
115
Often, that giant churning machine also moves
in fairly predictable ways, with currents and
winds moving in predictable directions and
speeds.
Malaysian investigators were also dispatched
this week to the Maldives, a South Asian
archipelago nation, to examine debris that had
recently washed ashore there. But on Friday the
country expressed pessimism that it was related
to the plane.
Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said most of
the Maldives items examined are not related to
MH370 and they are not plane material. He did
not say whether every piece of debris had been
ruled out.
Charitha Pattiaratchi, an oceanographer at the
University of Western Australia, used computer
modeling last year to predict that debris
from Flight 370 might end up somewhere
near Reunion, or nearby Madagascar, about
now. But he said that if the wing part found
on Reunion turns out to be from Flight 370
- French investigators are still examining
it, though Malaysian officials have said it
definitively came from the disappeared
jet - then he doubts the debris found in the
Maldives is also from the jetliner.
Because the Maldives lie north of the equator
and Reunion Island is to the south, finding
wreckage in both spots is highly unlikely,
he said. Ocean currents and winds make it
extremely difficult for flotsam to cross the
equator.
Plus, Pattiaratchi adds, it would be exceedingly
difficult for any Flight 370 debris to have ended
up in the Maldives at all by now. To reach there,
116
the wreckage would have had to float west
from the current search area off Australia and
toward Africa, then turn north and travel along
the African coast past Somalia and into the
Arabian Sea, before turning south and east
toward the Maldives. That would be a massive
journey to make in just 17 months; debris found
on Reunion, in contrast, could have traveled in a
relatively simple counterclockwise arc.
If it is from MH370, then that’s a very hard thing
to explain. Not entirely impossible, because
we're talking about nature, he said.
Flight 370 disappeared March 8, 2014, on its way
from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. While officials
believe it crashed in the Indian Ocean, killing all
aboard, the wreckage and cause remain elusive
despite a vast ongoing search led by Australia.
Finding anything specific amid the oceanic junk
piles requires immense effort.
Just how much debris is out there No one
knows, though certainly the scale is enormous.
According to a 2015 study, the world dumps 8.8
million tons of plastic into the world’s oceans
every year. The study, led by University of Georgia
environmental engineering professor Jenna
Jambeck, warned that in a decade the plastic
trash in the oceans could total 170 million tons.
Sometimes it clusters together. Scientists have
identified five garbage patches, gargantuan
corrals of debris formed by circular ocean
currents. One, the so-called Great Pacific
Garbage Patch, could be as large as Texas.
But do not, van Sebille warns, picture masses
of garbage floating on the surface of the water.
These are not islands of trash. There are no
119
big pieces that you can stand on, even in the
garbage patches, he said. Instead, those millions
of tons of plastic quickly disappear from view,
reduced to a near-invisible cloud that floats just
beneath the surface.
After a few months, the sea and sun have
completely broken down the plastic into
a confetti of tiny, tiny pieces, he said. The
small size, he notes, doesn’t make them
environmentally friendly. The minuscule
particles can be even more dangerous, he
said, because they can easily enter the food
chain after being eaten by small fish, and are
extremely difficult to clean up.
In Kenya, Julie Church has found a use for some
flotsam. The marine conservationist, inspired
by village children who turn beach debris into
toys, created a company that transforms castoff
sandals into bright sculptures and playthings.
Today, Ocean Sole recycles an average of 1,000
kilograms (2,200 pounds) of flip-flops each
week. Judging by the trash they find around the
sandals, Church thinks some footwear floated to
Kenya from as far as Indonesia and Malaysia.
But that’s a rare happy ending amid so much
debris. More often, it’s a litany of the prosaic and
the strange.
There are the wealth of goods dumped into
the water when hundreds - and sometimes
thousands - of shipping containers are lost at
sea every year. Those Legos on the Cornish
coast come compliments of a container thrown
overboard by a rogue wave in 1997.
There are the thousands of buoys that have
littered beaches in Alaska, along with building
insulation, property stakes and crates used by
121
| 122
adrift after Japan’s 2011 tsunami and sunk by
the U.S. Coast Guard in the Gulf of Alaska in 2012
before it could reach shore.
There are the corpses that Mohammed Nasir
sees as he fishes in the Bay of Bengal.
| have seen many such bodies in my life, said
the 53-year-old Bangladeshi. | often think how
unlucky they are. They have left their families
behind.
But mostly Mostly it’s garbage. Thousands and
thousands of tons of garbage.
Chris Pallister, president of Gulf of Alaska Keeper,
a beach cleanup organization, said by email that
nearly everything his crews find is trash.
Sometimes, though, even that has emotional
impact.
Such as shoes, particularly in my case, infant
shoes, he said. When you contemplate where
they come from, it can be quite disturbing.
123
CHARLIE PUTH
MARVIN GAYE
FEAT. MEGHAN TRAINOR
CAN'T FEEL MY FACE
THE WEEKND
CHEERLEADER
(FELIX JAEHN REMIX RADIO EDIT)
Omi
WATCH ME (WHIP/NAE NAE)
SWLENTO
LOCKED AWAY
(FEAT. ADAM LEVINE) - SINGLE
R. Ciry
FIGHT SONG
RACHEL PLATTEN
GOOD FOR YOU (FEAT. ASAP ROCKY)
SELENA GOMEZ
MARVIN GAYE (FEAT. MEGHAN TRAINOR)
CHARLIE PUTH
LEAN ON (FEAT. M@ & DJ SNAKE)
Mayor LAzER
FLY AWAY
5 SECONDS OF SUMMER
DRAG ME DOWN
One DIRECTION
>
7
oe
i
125
ALBUMS
SOUNDS GOOD FEELS GOOD (DELUXE)
5 SECONDS OF SUMMER
KILL THE LIGHTS
Luke Bryan
1989
TayLor SWIFT
DESCENDANTS
(ORIGINAL TV MOVIE SOUNDTRACK)
Various ArrisTs
X (DELUXE EDITION)
Eb SHEERAN
BLURRYFACE
TWENTY ONE PILOTS
MONTEVALLO
Sam Hunt
VENOM (DELUXE EDITION)
Butter For My VALENTINE
21 CLASSIC #1 HITS
Various ArrisTs
NOW THAT’S WHATI CALL MUSIC, VOL. 55
Various ArrisTs
127
128
MUSIC VIDEOS
WATCH ME (WHIP/NAE NAE)
SILENTO
SHE’S KINDA HOT
5 SECONDS OF SUMMER
BAD BLOOD (FEAT. KENDRICK LAMAR)
TayLor SWIFT
CHEERLEADER (FELIX JAEHN REMIX)
Om:
GOOD FOR YOU
SELENA GOMEZ
UPTOWN FUNK (FEAT. BRUNO MARS)
Mark Ronson
CAN'T FEEL MY FACE
THE WEEKND
FIGHT SONG
RACHEL PLATTEN
MARVIN GAYE (FEAT. MEGHAN TRAINOR)
CHARLIE PUTH
GIRL CRUSH
Lite Big TOWN
129
IVSHOWS
MEA CULPA
Suits, SEASON 5
ELIXIR OF LIFE
Heit On WuEELs, SEASON 5
GAME OVER, CHARLES
Prerry Lirtie Liars, SEASON 6
EPS1.7_WH1TEROSE.M4V
Mr. Rosor, SEASON 7
IT’S ALL IN THE CARDS
Provect Runway, SEASON 14
--eAND THE BEAST FROM THE SEA
HANNIBAL, SEASON 3
EPS7.0_HELLOFRIEND.MOV
Mr. Rosor, SEASON 7
HITTING HOME
Suits, SEASON 5
THE ROAD TRIP - PART 2
/Am Carr, SEAson 7
NEW BEGINNINGS, MY ASS
Tue Reat Housewives of New York Ciry, SEASON 7
— a 131
f .
THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB
Davip LAGERCRANTZ
THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
Pauta HAWKINS
GREY
EL James
WHO DO YOULOVE
JENNIFER WEINER
ROGUE LAWYER
JOHN GRISHAM
ALERT
James PATTERSON & Michael LEDWIDGE
LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE
JessICA KNOLL
THE BILLIONAIRE BARGAIN
Lita Monroe
THOUGHT I KNEW YOU
Kare Morerri
PAPER TOWNS
JOHN GREEN
133
GOOGIE
HEADS DOWN
NEW PATH
WITH 'ONFUB'
WIRELESS ROUTER
Google is making a Wi-Fi router as part of its
ambition to provide better Internet connections
that make it easier for people to access its digital
services and see more of its online advertising.
Pre-orders for the $199 wireless router, called
OnHub, can be made beginning Tuesday
at Google’s online store, Amazon.com and
Walmart.com. The device will go on sale in
stores in the U.S. and Canada in late August
or early September.
Google is touting the cylinder-shaped OnHub as
a leap ahead in a neglected part of technology.
The Mountain View, California, company is
promising its wireless router will be sleeker, more
reliable, more secure and easier to use than
other long-established alternatives made by the
Arris Group, Netgear, Apple and other hardware
specialists. Google teamed up with networking
device maker TP-Link to build OnHub.
134
%
OnHub also will adapt to the evolving needs of
its owners because its software will be regularly
updated to unlock new features, according to
Trond Wuellner, a Google Inc. product manager.
The concept is similar to the automatic software
upgrades the company makes to its Chrome
browser and personal computers running on its
Chrome operating system.
Wuellner expects most people will be able
to set up OnHub in three minutes or less. The
router is designed to be managed with a mobile
app called Google On that will work on Apple's
iPhone, as well as devices running on Google's
Android software.
Google's expansion into wireless routers may
conjure up memories of how the company
trespassed on the Wi-Fi networks in homes and
businesses around the world for more than two
years beginning in 2008.
136
In 2010, Google acknowledged that company
cars taking photos for its digital maps also had
been intercepting emails, passwords and other
sensitive information sent over unprotected
Wi-Fi networks. The intrusion became derisively
known as“Wi-Spy” among Google's critics.
Although Google insisted it hadn't broken
any laws, it paid $7 million in 2013 to settle
allegations of illegal eavesdropping in the U.S.
made by 38 states and the District of Columbia.
Google is pledging not to use OnHub to monitor
a user's Internet activity. The company will still
store personal information sent through an
Internet connection tied to OnHub when a user
visits Google's search engine or other services,
such as YouTube or Gmail, with the privacy
controls set to permit the data collection. This
is the same data collection Google does when
users of its services visit through any router.
The new router represents the latest phase in
Google's mission to make it easier for people to
be online.
137
Besides dispatching Internet-beaming balloons
and drones to parts of the world without much
online access, Google also has been trying to
lower the cost and accelerate the speeds of
the connections in more advanced countries
such as the U.S. The goal has already hatched
Google Fiber, an ultra-fast Internet service that
is already available in a few U.S. cities and is
coming to more than 20 others. Google is also
preparing to offer a wireless subscription plan
for smartphones running on the company’s
Android software.
Google has a financial incentive to make the
Internet more accessible and less frustrating to
use because it runs the world’s dominant search
engine, as well as the highly popular YouTube
and Gmail. The company believes people who
spend more time online are more likely to
interact with a Google service and click on one
of the ads that generate most of Google's profits.
138
Ensuring the reliability of Wi-Fi systems is
becoming more important to Google for
another reason. Like other tech companies,
Google is hoping to sell more home appliances
and other equipment that require wireless
connections to the Internet. Google's Nest
division already sells thermostats, smoke
detectors and video cameras that depend on Wi-
Fi to work properly.
Google's push into Internet access and other
far-flung fields ranging from driverless cars
to health care has frustrated investors who
believe the company is spending too much on
its technological mishmash. To address those
concerns, Google later this year is creating a
holding company called Alphabet that will
break things up into the main search advertising
business and various side projects.
It hasn't been decided yet whether OnHub will
remain in Google or spun into another part of
Alphabet.
139
FCC SAYS DISH
CAN'T USE
$3.3B IN CREDITS
IN AIRWAVES
AUCTION
The Federal Communications Commission said
Monday that Dish Network Corp. can’t apply
$3.3 billion in small-business credits toward the
purchase of airwaves it gained in a government
auction.
The government sells spectrum to carriers
like AT&T and Verizon so they can add more
capacity for wireless Internet. Dish is a satellite
TV company that has stocked up on airwaves
although it has no cellphone business.
Dish has reportedly been in talks to acquire
wireless carrier T-Mobile. But on an earnings
call earlier this month, Dish Chairman and CEO
Charlie Ergen said that the prospect of losing
the discount had caused difficulties in the
negotiations.
141
In the latest auction that ended in January, Dish
won $13.3 billion worth of spectrum through
two small companies it invested in. It paid $10
billion, with the small-business credit saving it
$3.3 billion.
The FCC said Monday the two companies
aren't eligible for credit. Dish owns 85 percent
of each company, which it has called a non-
controlling interest.
The FCC found that Dish, which is based in
Englewood, Colorado, does have a controlling
interest in the companies and denied them the
credit.
That means they are on the hook for the rest
of the money. They can also appeal, or not pay
the $3.3 billion and instead pay a penalty.
In a statement Monday, Dish General Counsel
R. Stanton Dodge said that the company is
“disappointed” and that it had followed FCC
precedent. The company said it will consider
its options.
142
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