The internet giants are trapped between the needs of users on the one hand, and on the other, governments realizing the benefits of having a reporting device in everyone’s pocket. The latter is not an appealing promise to make to consumers, and Silicon Valley is pushing back. Apple is introducing products (Apple Pay, ResearchKit) that have a fundamental promise in their DNA: “we can not see your data”. By not having access to the data, Apple can not be asked to give it to the security agencies. There are two business models emerging: one where users trade personal data for services (Facebook, Google), and another where users keep their data but pay for services with hard cash (Apple). Apple’s ResearchKit enlists an intermediary to safeguard privacy. There’s an interesting job for the future: data integrity/anonymity certifier.

« To ensure that the data they receive is anonymous, Stanford and Oxford University are working with Sage Bionetworks. Sage is the entity that receives the data gathered from users’ iPhones. When someone signs up for a study, Sage checks to see if any identifiable information is contained in the data that their phone sends out. If there’s anything that could tie a user back to where they live or who they are, it’s removed from that person’s data stream. »

A plugin called “nosey smurf” allowed spies to remotely and secretly activate a phone’s microphone. Another plugin, “dreamy smurf”, allowed intelligence agents to manage the power system on a phone and thus avoid detection. “Tracker smurf” allowed ultra-precise geolocation of individual phones.

“By their nature, seminal technologies ask hard questions of society, especially as people adapt to them. Smartphones are no different. If citizens aren’t protected from prying eyes, some will suffer and others turn their backs. Societies will have to develop new norms and companies learn how to balance privacy and profit. Governments will have to define what is acceptable.”

Woman sleeping on floor of her apartment awoken in pain by robotic vacuum cleaner attempting to suck up her hair

A Swedish company was fined $3,000 in 2009 for a 2007 incident when a robot attacked and seriously injured a factory worker.

Though it’s not possible to know which pathogens will afflict us in the future, we can explore the health issues that could emerge as a consequence of our inability to cope with technological advancements: Virtual Reality Addiction, Nature Deficit Disorder, Computerization of the Personality, Nanotech Poisoning, and my personal favorite: Life-Extension Ennui.

The prototype toilet, conveniently located near the University of the West of England’s student union bar, was successfully tested by students who found it produced enough electricity to power a light bulb.

Google will sell Android phones, Chromebook laptops, and Chromecast TV services through the store. Online players are making more and more inroads into the physical world, because the future is a blend of both, and the online/offline frontier will soon be obsolete.

The Toronto Star has announced that its paywall is going away. “We are making this move after extensive input from our readers and our advertisers”.

Last year online lenders accounted for a record 38% of the $1.2 trillion US mortgage origination market, up from 27% the year before. Goldman Sachs estimates that such non-bank lenders, which tend to enjoy lower overheads and lighter supervision than traditional banks, could siphon off over the next five years at least $11bn of annual profits from the banking system, or about 7% of the total.

An analysis that examines trends on how major banks across the globe are reacting to the FinTech phenomenon.

The global bank model is in trouble for three reasons. First, these giant firms have proved hard to manage; struggling to build common IT systems, let alone establish a common culture, making synergies elusive. Second, competition proved to be fiercer than expected. Third, the regulatory backlash after the crisis has been brutal.

After partnering last year with IBM to offer better enterprise solutions, Apple announced three apps, one for client advisors serving wealthy clients.

“People that have worn the Watch say that they take their phones out of their pockets far, far less than they used to. One user told me that they nearly ‘stopped’ using their phone during the day; they used to have it out and now they don’t, period. […] Does it kind of suck that we have to buy a $500 accessory to return to a normal life? Sure. But such is the deal.”

The Money Transfer app makes it possible to transfer between currencies and across borders with ‘five taps and three swipes" on an Android timepiece. End to end, the process can be completed in less than 60 seconds and, in most cases, payments will arrive just a few minutes later.

“Google’s search engine currently uses the number of incoming links to a web page as a proxy for quality, determining where it appears in search results. […] The downside is that websites full of misinformation can rise up the rankings, if enough people link to them. A Google research team is adapting that model to measure the trustworthiness of a page, rather than its reputation across the web. Instead of counting incoming links, the system – which is not yet live – counts the number of incorrect facts within a page.” Really makes me wonder how Google will deal with cultural bias on complex questions like Palestine, GMOs, etc. Who knows what the facts are on this kind of stories?

“Without a deep relationship with technology to draw on or a vision of their own, the Luxury establishment may well be tempted to jump on the Bay Area bandwagon — lending a precious seal of approval in exchange for a moment basking in the warm glow of the Tech’s ascendancy. This precarious strategy, however, risks handing over the reigns to an industry whose values (rapid prototype and release) are at serious odds with centuries of fine craft and connoisseurship. Just look at those Luxury endorsed wearables lost in a fog of utility, trying to solve problems. In today’s fast-moving world, industry leaders must remember that Luxury was never commanded by an overriding usefulness or functionality, and must not be lead astray by Tech world ideals. Luxury is the business of joy, desire and exquisitely crafted execution — it’s this heritage brands must remain true to as they lower the drawbridge to consumer electronics.”

Connect your company the way your people actually work: top-down, bottom-up, or cross-functional. View cascading progress and people relationships across multiple levels, and direct everyone to the work that matters.

It’s about time.

I knew the day would come, when notebooks would be “cloud-integrated” and “microwavable”…

See email conversations as chats like WhatsApp, without “Show quoted text” and other distracting stuff.

Off-grid? No problem. Power up to two mobile devices all while heating up a meal on your handy backpacking stove or campfire.

The advice from a recent study is to express warmth and affection to children in a way that raises their self esteem, without putting children on a pedestal or conveying to them they’re more special or more entitled than others.