Apple just announced a $1 billion fund to create U.S. manufacturing jobs

Why it matters to you

We still have to see the details, but any major investment like this in U.S. manufacturing has to be good for American workers.

Apple boss Tim Cook announced the company is launching a $1 billion fund to help create advanced manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

In an interview broadcast by CNBC on Wednesday, Cook said the fund would help the tech giant to be “the ripple in the pond, because if we can create many manufacturing jobs around, those manufacturing jobs create more jobs around them because you have a service industry that builds up around them.”

The move follows repeated calls by President Trump for American firms to return manufacturing jobs to home soil from locations overseas, though Cook gave no indication that his company would be setting up a large manufacturing operation in the U.S. to produce Apple products. At the present time the Cupertino-based company makes only the Mac Pro in its own back yard, while the vast majority of its products continue to be produced in China at facilities with far cheaper operating costs than in the U.S.

But Apple’s $1 billion fund may be seen as part of a strategy to help it get on the right side of the Trump administration, giving it more power to call for concessions to help its business operations. Issues currently of concern to Apple and other corporations include, for example, the government’s recent decision to suspend the expedited processing of H-1B visas that allow for the speedy recruitment of highly skilled  workers from overseas, while the Trump administration could also offer more favorable conditions to encourage U.S. firms to bring home large amounts of revenue currently held foreign banks. Of Apple’s $256.8 billion cash pile, 93 percent is held overseas.

More initiatives

In Wednesday’s interview, the Apple chief also commented on related matters, saying his company is looking “deeply” at how it can grow its employee, developer, and manufacturing base. It’s also developing initiatives to get more Americans coding and creating software, details of which will be announced over the summer.

Cook said he’s often asked if he believes it’s a company’s job to create jobs. “My response is a company should have values because a company is a collection of people. And people should have values, so by extension, a company should. And one of the things you do is give back,” he told CNBC, adding, “So how do you give back? We give back through our work in the environment, in running the company on renewable energy. We give back in job creation.”

Cook said Apple’s plan for its $1 billion fund is already in place and promised to reveal full details later this month.

The Cupertino-based company isn’t the only tech player to recently invest in helping create jobs at home. Amazon, for example, has promised to create 100,000 new full-time positions by summer 2018 and Intel is putting $7 billion into an Arizona chip plant.

Apple just announced a $1 billion fund to create U.S. manufacturing jobs

Why it matters to you

We still have to see the details, but any major investment like this in U.S. manufacturing has to be good for American workers.

Apple boss Tim Cook announced the company is launching a $1 billion fund to help create advanced manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

In an interview broadcast by CNBC on Wednesday, Cook said the fund would help the tech giant to be “the ripple in the pond, because if we can create many manufacturing jobs around, those manufacturing jobs create more jobs around them because you have a service industry that builds up around them.”

The move follows repeated calls by President Trump for American firms to return manufacturing jobs to home soil from locations overseas, though Cook gave no indication that his company would be setting up a large manufacturing operation in the U.S. to produce Apple products. At the present time the Cupertino-based company makes only the Mac Pro in its own back yard, while the vast majority of its products continue to be produced in China at facilities with far cheaper operating costs than in the U.S.

But Apple’s $1 billion fund may be seen as part of a strategy to help it get on the right side of the Trump administration, giving it more power to call for concessions to help its business operations. Issues currently of concern to Apple and other corporations include, for example, the government’s recent decision to suspend the expedited processing of H-1B visas that allow for the speedy recruitment of highly skilled  workers from overseas, while the Trump administration could also offer more favorable conditions to encourage U.S. firms to bring home large amounts of revenue currently held foreign banks. Of Apple’s $256.8 billion cash pile, 93 percent is held overseas.

More initiatives

In Wednesday’s interview, the Apple chief also commented on related matters, saying his company is looking “deeply” at how it can grow its employee, developer, and manufacturing base. It’s also developing initiatives to get more Americans coding and creating software, details of which will be announced over the summer.

Cook said he’s often asked if he believes it’s a company’s job to create jobs. “My response is a company should have values because a company is a collection of people. And people should have values, so by extension, a company should. And one of the things you do is give back,” he told CNBC, adding, “So how do you give back? We give back through our work in the environment, in running the company on renewable energy. We give back in job creation.”

Cook said Apple’s plan for its $1 billion fund is already in place and promised to reveal full details later this month.

The Cupertino-based company isn’t the only tech player to recently invest in helping create jobs at home. Amazon, for example, has promised to create 100,000 new full-time positions by summer 2018 and Intel is putting $7 billion into an Arizona chip plant.

Now the Android Gmail app keeps an eye out for phishing links

In a particularly timely upgrade, Google is rolling out new protection against phishing links on its Gmail app for Android. According to the notes, when a user clicks on a suspicious link, they’ll get a warning like the one shown above revealing that this could lead to a forged website (similar warnings came to web Gmail last year). Interestingly, this wouldn’t have done much to mitigate the fake Google Docs invite that went around earlier since that linked to Google’s own website. Still, we have more than enough evidence of what havoc can come about as a result of one fake email — it’s good to see Google doing more to protect users.

Source: G Suite Updates

Qualcomm study says sure, you can control a drone over LTE

Internet-connected drones will be necessary if you’re going to see fliers that can communicate when they’re delivering packages, livestreaming video or otherwise coordinating with the outside world. But how well can you control them over an LTE data connection when they’re soaring hundreds of feet above the ground? Quite well, if you ask Qualcomm. The chip maker has published the results of a trial run using LTE-linked drones, and it believes that they’re ready for prime time… mostly.

The dry run (which included over 1,000 flights) showed that existing cellular networks are up to the job. Drones will still get a strong LTE signal at altitudes as high as 400 feet, and they get “comparable” coverage. In fact, they have an advantage over the phone in your pocket — they don’t have to hand over connections as often as ground-based devices.

There are improvements Qualcomm would like to make. It wants to see steps to minimize interference (more common at altitude) and signal power tweaks to allow more LTE-enabled drones in the sky at once. Also, it would like software that’s better at picking the strongest cell tower signal. It’s more a question of when these optimizations happen than “if”,” though. Qualcomm is sharing its findings with other companies and the 3GPP wireless standards group, so you might soon see drones that are always online.

Source: Qualcomm

Nissan put a phone signal blocker in this car so you can’t text and drive

Nissan doesn’t want you texting while driving its Juke.

There are apps available that attempt to make your phone less of a distraction while you drive, but now, Nissan has taken the concept a step further with its own compartment that blocks mobile phone signals. Even though people can put on a Bluetooth headset or set up automatic replies to texts, drivers still love to play with their phones rather than keep their eyes fixed ahead of them on the road.

• Nissan Juke review (2014)
• Nissan Juke review (first generation)
• Whoa! Is Nissan about to add Microsoft Cortana to its cars?

Nissan knows this, obviously, as it has developed a Faraday cage. Nissan said the prototype, called Signal Shield, comes built into the arm rest of its Juke crossover vehicle, and it promises to eliminate distractions caused by calls, texts, and other notifications. Keep in mind the product is not entirely new, as Michael Faraday discovered in the 19th century that conductive materials block electromagnetic fields.

Nissan’s spin is essentially a place where you can rest your phone while you drive – and all cellular, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi signals will be blocked. If you want to access tunes on your device, you can always connect it to the Juke via USB or aux cable. You can see a demo of the Signal Shield in the promo video below.

Signal Shield is certainly an interesting way for Nissan to tackle distractions, but unfortunately, at the end of the day, we think people who use their phone while driving will continue do so, even if they have a fancy Faraday cage sitting inches away.

Guarantee your mobile will never distract you while driving. Introducing #Nissan Signal Shield pic.twitter.com/kiW5sKgFm4

— NissanUK (@NissanUK) May 3, 2017

Reactions everywhere: Now you can ‘sad’ or ‘wow’ on FB comments

Facebook just gave you another way to express yourself.

The platform already allows you to interact and engage in a number of ways, whether you want to go live or broadcast a story, and now you can “sad” or “wow” on not only posts and individual message chats but also comments. Facebook said it’s “heard from people” who would “like more ways to show their reaction in conversations on Facebook”. So, now, reactions are everywhere.

The move comes one month after Facebook added reactions to Messenger. The feature was originally introduced for comments, allowing you to “love”, “haha”, “wow”, “sad”, “angry”, and of course “like” interactions on posts. In other words, gone are the days when we used words to express a reaction. Long live emoji! To add a reaction, hover over the Like button, and you’ll see the default options of six.

• Facebook Personal Fundraisers: What are they?

The feature is rolling out now on the desktop version of Facebook. If you don’t see it yet, be patient. We don’t know yet when the feature will be available for mobile users, but in the meantime, check out our full-fledged guide on Facebook Reactions. Oh, yes. We’re serious.

• What’s the point of Snapchat and how does it work?
• What is Facebook Live, how does it work, and which devices support it?

‘Intuitive’ prosthetic hand sees what it’s touching

Even as we begin to wire prosthetics directly into our peripheral nervous systems and wield Deus Ex appendages with only the power of our minds, many conventional prosthetic arms are still pretty clunky, their grips activated through myoelectric signals — electrical activity read from the surface of the stump. The “Intuitive” hand, developed by Dr Kianoush Nazarpour, a senior lecturer in biomedical engineering at Newcastle University, offers a third approach. It uses a camera and computer vision to recognize objects within reach and adjust its grasp accordingly.

“Responsiveness has been one of the main barriers to artificial limbs,” Dr. Nazarpour wrote in the study, which was published in the Journal of Neural Engineering. Even cutting-edge prosthetics like Dean Kamen’s Luke arm, move at a glacial pace compared to their biological counterpart. But by integrating computer vision and external processing, the Intuitive hand can respond within milliseconds. “The user can reach out and pick up a cup or a biscuit with nothing more than a quick glance in the right direction,” Dr. Nazarpour continued.

The team also leveraged neural networking to train the hand to recognize what’s in front of it and how it should change its grasp. Interestingly the team didn’t train the system on specific objects. “The computer isn’t just matching an image, it’s learning to recognise objects and group them according to the grasp type the hand has to perform to successfully pick it up,” Ghazal Ghazaei, a PhD candidate at Newcastle who helped develop the hand’s AI. “It is this which enables it to accurately assess and pick up an object which it has never seen before – a huge step forward in the development of bionic limbs.” In the end, the hand developed four unique grips: palm wrist neutral (holding a beer), palm wrist pronated (holding a remote), tripod (holding a bowling ball) and pinch (you know what pinching is).

But this system is only a stopgap solution. From here, the research team hopes to further develop the hand and integrate it directly into the nervous system, potentially via nerve endings in the arm. With that capability, the arm will be able to sense pressure and temperature and transmit that data directly into our brains.

Via: BBC News

Source: Newcastle University

Apple’s App Analytics Platform Now Includes Info on Where Customers Discover Apps

Apple today announced that its App Analytics platform in iTunes Connect now provides developers with insight into where customers discover apps, a welcome change that will give developers more information on where app referrals are coming from.

Developers will be able to see if customers are finding apps from App Store browsing and search, from within other apps, or from web referrals.

App Analytics in iTunes Connect now provides insight on where customers discover your app, including App Store browsing and search, within other apps, or on the web. With key metrics based on source types, you can see your top referring apps and websites, making it easier to optimize your marketing campaigns.

Apple first debuted its app analytics platform in May of 2015, giving developers a detailed look at app usage statistics to enable them to create more effective advertising campaigns.

Tags: App Store, App Analytics, Apple Developer Program
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Apple vs. Qualcomm: Everything you need to know

Why it matters to you

Qualcomm is king of the mobile processor industry, but back-to-back-to-back lawsuits by Apple may take a bite.

Apple and Qualcomm are engaged in what will likely be a yearslong and epic battle. Following news that Qualcomm had been charging heightened royalties for use of its tech, as well as reports indicating Qualcomm required Apple to pay a percentage of the iPhone’s revenue in return for the use of Qualcomm patents, Apple has sued the company in three countries.

In the United States, Apple is suing Qualcomm for a hefty $1 billion — but it has also filed a lawsuit in China for $145 million, as well as in the United Kingdom. Now, Qualcomm is following with its own countersuit (but losing quite a bit of money).

Here’s everything you need to know about the lawsuit battle so far.

Qualcomm reportedly seeking iPhone import ban

Qualcomm is back on the offensive after Apple decided to suspend royalty payments to the chip manufacturer. Bloomberg reports the company will soon make a request to the International Trade Commission to prevent the importation of iPhones into the U.S.

The American market comprises 40 percent of Apple’s total sales, Bloomberg notes, and the iPhone is responsible for 60 percent of its global revenue.

However, on a Tuesday conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook appeared confident that an injunction against Apple on the basis of iPhone imports wouldn’t stand because, as he put it, Qualcomm never issued fair terms to the iPhone maker that are required for patent licensing.

“Qualcomm has not made such an offer to Apple,” Cook said. “I don’t believe anyone’s going to decide to enjoin the iPhone based on that. There’s plenty of case law around that subject. But we shall see.”

Qualcomm cuts profit forecasts

As a result of Apple’s decision to stop paying all royalties as both companies wait to hear the outcomes of their respective lawsuits, Qualcomm has slashed its profit forecasts. On April 28, Reuters reported that Qualcomm would not receive any royalties from Apple’s contract manufacturers for sales that took place in the first quarter of 2017.

“Without an agreed-upon rate to determine how much is owed, we have suspended payments until the correct amount can be determined by the court,” an Apple spokesman said in an email on Friday.

Consequently, Qualcomm has adjusted its revenue estimates, and now is citing a revenue of $4.8 billion to $5.6 billion for its third fiscal quarter, a decrease from its originally anticipated $5.3 billion to $6.1 billion.

“(Apple’s) contract manufacturers may make some form of partial payment, but initial indications are that any payment would likely be insignificant,” Qualcomm said.

Qualcomm files countersuit against Apple

Qualcomm has followed Apple’s lawsuits with one of its own. You can read the full lawsuit here, but it is centered around five complaints against Apple. For example, Qualcomm suggests Apple deliberately didn’t take advantage of the full potential of Qualcomm’s chips in the iPhone 7 in an attempt to prevent them from outperforming Intel’s modems. The iPhone 7 marks the first time in several years that Qualcomm chips are not found in all iPhone variants.

According to Qualcomm, Apple “chose not to utilize certain high-performance features of the Qualcomm chipsets for the iPhone 7 (preventing consumers from enjoying the full extent of Qualcomm’s innovation).” On top of that, when iPhones with Qualcomm chips outperformed devices with Intel’s chips, Apple claimed there was “no discernible difference” between the two.

Another big part of Qualcomm’s suit revolves around Apple’s role in various regulatory suits, and that, according to Qualcomm, Apple has been “misrepresenting facts and making false statements.”

Apple files a third lawsuit against Qualcomm

Apple has filed yet another lawsuit against Qualcomm. The two companies were already at war in both the U.S. and in China and now they will be going head to head in the U.K. According to reports, the U.K. lawsuit was actually filed in January, but it’s only now being noticed after being refiled.

While we don’t yet know specifics about the new lawsuit, it does have something to do with patents and designs, according to a report from Bloomberg. It’s likely that it’s similar to the lawsuits Apple has filed in the U.S. and China.

Qualcomm is ready for a fight

Qualcomm had some fighting words against Apple during a call on its quarterly earnings report. The chipset manufacturer’s CEO, Steve Mollenkopf, said Apple just wants to grab as much money as possible from the lawsuits.

“Apple’s complaint contains a lot of assertions, but in the end, this is a commercial dispute over the price of intellectual property,” Mollenkopf said, according to CNET. “They want to pay less for the fair value that Qualcomm has established in the marketplace for our technology, even though Apple has generated billions in profits from using that technology.”

More: Report: Apple will join Google, Microsoft, and IBM in the Partnership on AI

He said Qualcomm’s patents have “tangibly and meaningfully increased over time,” but the company has never raised its royalty rates. Derek Aberle, president of Qualcomm, chimed in.

“If you peel apart all of the arguments Apple’s making, we believe firmly they’re all without merit,” Aberle said. “At the end of the day, they essentially want to pay less for the technology they’re using. It’s pretty simple.”

But the CEO said Qualcomm will keep supplying chips to the Cupertino company, even while the legal battle rages on.

Apple files patent lawsuit against Qualcomm in China for $145 million

Just a few days after Apple filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm in the U.S. for $1 billion, Apple announces it will also take Qualcomm to court in China — this time for “only” $145 million.

The motive behind the lawsuit is similar to the motive behind the U.S. lawsuit — Apple is basically accusing Qualcomm of not delivering on patent-related promises. Qualcomm isn’t being silent about the suit.

“These filings by Apple’s Chinese subsidiary are just part of Apple’s efforts to find ways to pay less for Qualcomm’s technology,” said Don Rosenberg, Qualcomm general counsel, in an interview with TechCrunch. “Apple was offered terms consistent with terms accepted by more than 100 other Chinese companies, and refused to even consider them. These terms were consistent with our NDRC Rectification plan.”

The U.S. lawsuit

Apple has followed in the Federal Trade Commission’s footsteps by suing Qualcomm for $1 billion for “royalties that they had nothing to do with,” according to a report from CNBC.

The Cupertino, California, company claims in the U.S. suit that Qualcomm demanded onerous terms for the use of its patented technology and even sought to punish Apple for cooperating in a South Korean regulatory probe that dove into Qualcomm’s licensing practices — practices that are now under the microscope once again.

More: Federal Trade Commission hits Qualcomm with a lawsuit over its licensing practices

Apple’s documents also mentioned that Qualcomm required Apple pay a percentage of the selling price of the iPhone in return for the use of Qualcomm patents, and demanded that Apple use Qualcomm chips exclusively between 2011 and 2016. While Apple did get so-called “quarterly rebates” under the agreement, Qualcomm began withholding those rebates when Apple agreed to work with the Korean Fair Trade Commission. According to the suit, Qualcomm even told Apple that Apple had forfeited almost $1 billion in rebates by working with regulators.

“We are extremely disappointed in the way Qualcomm is conducting its business with us and, unfortunately, after years of disagreement over what constitutes a fair and reasonable royalty, we have no choice left but to turn to the courts,” Apple said in a statement.

Qualcomm responded to Apple’s lawsuit by calling its claims “baseless.”

“While we are still in the process of reviewing the complaint in detail, it is quite clear that Apple’s claims are baseless,” according to Rosenberg. “Apple has intentionally mischaracterized our agreements and negotiations, as well as the enormity and value of the technology we have invented, contributed. and shared with all mobile device makers through our licensing program.”

Rosenberg said Apple has been “encouraging regulatory attacks” on Qualcomm with meritless claims and by withholding information. The chipset manufacturer is referring to the Korean Fair Trade Commission, which placed a hefty $853 million fine on Qualcomm in December for its alleged anti-competitive practices. As with the FTC lawsuit, Qualcomm said it would fight the fine.

It’s possible this could be a long and brutal legal battle, like the one between Apple and Samsung. We’ll keep this article updated with more information as we find out more.

Article originally published in January 2017. Updated on 05-03-2017 by Adam Ismail: Added Bloomberg report that Qualcomm will seek import ban.

Google quickly disables phishing scheme, but vulnerability remains

Why it matters to you

The latest phishing scheme used Google’s own authentication system to trick people into allowing account access.

Internet security is a real pain. Even when you have done everything right and locked everything down tight, a new attack comes along that leverages legitimate sites and services in stealing your private and sensitive data.

That is just what happened Wednesday, as a phishing scheme exploded that used Google’s own OAuth authentication system to grant access to a nefarious web app. Unlike other phishing schemes that use a fake internet address to lure the unexpecting, this attack merely popped up a Google authorization request with a misleading app title.

It’s important to note that Google responded quickly and removed the offending app, thus shutting down this particular phishing scheme. However, the phishing method itself does not seem to have been rectified. Here’s Google’s statement:

“We have taken action to protect users against an email impersonating Google Docs and have disabled offending accounts. We’ve removed the fake pages, pushed updates through Safe Browsing, and our abuse team is working to prevent this kind of spoofing from happening again. We encourage users to report phishing emails in Gmail.”

The issue was originally highlighted on Reddit, where Redditor JakeSteam provided a step-by-step recreation of the attack. The attack has also been seen in the wild by Digital Trends’ own staff, and so we can confirm that these steps are accurately described.

The process was relatively simple. A potential victim received an email offering to share a Google Doc.

JakeSteam/Reddit

Clicking on the “Open in Docs” button popped up a legitimate Google account selection screen, which when clicked returned an equally legitimate Google authentication request to allow the app to access the user’s Gmail and Google contacts information.

JakeSteam/Reddit

It’s only by clicking on the Google Docs’ developer link that the typical user’s suspicion level might be raised. The problem here is that many people might trust an offer to share a Google Docs file and then it would make perfect sense that Google Docs might be the system requesting access.

If you’ve already fallen prey to this phishing scheme, then you will want to disallow that app from accessing your data. You can do that by visiting the Connected Apps and Sites section of Google’s security page and clicking “Manage Apps.” Then click on the Google Docs app in the list, and hit the “Remove” button. Now might be a good time to review all of your connected apps and remove any that aren’t legitimate.

The primarily lesson here is the same as it has been for a long time now: If you aren’t expecting a shared file, then don not click anything when one is offered. If you are not sure who the file is from, then look into the sender and make sure it’s someone you trust.

Google will likely be looking into this issue and hopefully figuring out a way to resolve it. This particular phishing attack was shut down, but the ability to use Google’s legitimate authentication system for attacks is worrisome.