Tech News Today for June 6, 2017
Tech News for Tuesday June 6, 2017
On Monday, online magazine the Intercept posted a scoop about a cyberattack by Russian Military Intelligence on VR Systems, makers of electronic voting services and equipment whose products are used in eight states. The report was based on a highly classified intelligence report that an anonymous source sent to the Intercept. However, the Intercept inadvertently outed its source. Patrick Tucker, technology editor for Defense One will be joining Megan Morrone and Jason Howell on Tech News Today to talk about it. Read more at theintercept.com.
Apple announced something during yesterday’s WWDC keynote that caught my attention and could be the predecessor for Apple branded AR or VR goggles somewhere in the future. AR-Kit is a new tool for developers that enables what Apple calls “world-tracing” that uses the iPhone’s camera and motion sensors to map a user’s environment, and can use that map to pin objects to points within it. For example, an upcoming Ikea app will use the platform to allow users to virtually place Ikea objects in their room prior to purchase. Read more at theverge.com.
If you hail a Lyft in Boston, be aware that it might be driverless. Instead of developing its own in-house autonomous car system, Lyft has partnered with nuTonomy, a company that has had a fleet of self-driving cars on the road in Singapore since last Fall. For its part, Singapore regulators are encouraging self-driving cars to reduce congestion on the roads. nuTomony grew out of MIT and now has locations in Singapore and Boston. According to ReCode, the deal between the two companies includes no financial exchange right now, just research for both in how customers manage the self-driving taxi experience. In a press call, the Lyft's CEO says he believes that in just a few decades over 80 percent of all automobile miles traveled will be done so in a self-driving car. The autonomous Lyft's will be electric Renault's. Read more at recode.net.
Back in 2014, IBM announced a $3billion dollar five year investment in chip R&D and we’re starting to see some of the fruits of that labor and investment. Stephen Shankland from CNET discusses this effort on Tech News Today 1783. Read more at cnet.com.
Earlier this week, news broke that Harvard had rescinded the acceptances of 10 students after it was discovered that they had been posting racially-charged memes in a secret Facebook chat. The chat had spun off from a Harvard sponsored group that was intended to encourage new students to meet one another. According to The Harvard Crimson, in order to join the chat you had to post an offensive meme. Matt Curtis from This Week in Law joins Megan Morrone and Jason Howell to talk about it on today's show. Read more at thecrimson.com.
Tech News Today with Megan Morrone and Jason Howell streams live weekdays at 4PM Pacific, 7PM Eastern at twit.tv/live. You can subscribe to the show and get it on-demand at twit.tv/tnt.