I Used to Work for Google. I Am a Conscientious Objector

American companies continue to build surveillance tools that are used to violate human rights. Workers who refuse to comply deserve protections. By Jack Poulson.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/opinion/google-privacy-china.html?source=Snapzu

No Sweat Tech: Buying from Amazon: 3 Steps to Find What You Need and Avoid Fake Reviews | The Saturday Evening Post

Amazon can be an amazing place to shop, if you beware of counterfeit products and learn how to weed out fake reviews. Tara Calishain shows you how.
Read more: https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2019/04/no-sweat-tech-buying-from-amazon-3-steps-to-find-what-you-need-and-avoid-fake-reviews/?source=Snapzu

Google admits trouble selling expensive Pixels, but it’s got a cheaper one coming soon

Google has a simple, yet subtle, reason for its anticipated push into the midrange smartphone market: there’s too much competition in the high-end one. Next month, on the first day of its I/O developer conference, Google is expected to show off its new, cheaper Pixel 3a and 3a XL. And on an earnings call with reporters today, Ruth Porat, the chief financial officer of Google parent company Alphabet, said that industry-wide pressure on high-end phones led to fewer Pixel sales last quarter compared to this time a year ago.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/29/18523162/google-pixel-3a-sales-lead-up-announcement-smartphone-competition?source=Snapzu

Spotify now has 100M paid subscribers, double Apple Music’s last reported number

Spotify paid subscribers have now reached 100M, double the last number Apple Music reported back in January. Spotify announced the number in its latest earnings report, for the first quarter of the year … Almost half of the company’s users are now paid subscribers.
Read more: https://9to5mac.com/2019/04/29/spotify-paid-subscribers-2/?source=Snapzu

It's Time For Companies To Fire Their Human Resource Departments

In an experiment that involved sending out more than 2,500 resumes either with or without photos of the applicant, economics researchers Bradley Ruffle at Ben-Gurion University and Ze'ev Shtudiner at Ariel University Centre sought to answer the question of whether being good looking could help you find a job. The answer surprised them: Not if you’re a woman. Pretty women faced an uphill struggle to get a chance at a job.
Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kylesmith/2013/04/04/its-time-for-companies-to-fire-their-human-resource-departments/#68b121232070?source=Snapzu

Microsoft is now a $1 trillion company

Strong earnings push Microsoft toward a new milestone.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/25/18515623/microsoft-worth-1-trillion-dollars-stock-price-value?source=Snapzu

Ford Is Under Criminal Investigation for Emissions-Testing Program

The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into concerns about Ford’s emissions certification process. The automaker announced that the investigation involves anomalies in Ford’s emissions testing process that the company disclosed earlier this year. “Our investigation continues into how Ford estimates road load as part of the U.S. fuel economy and emissions certification process,” Kim Pittel, Ford group vice president for sustainability, environment, and safety engineering, said in a statement in response to written questions from CR submitted by email Friday morning.
Read more: https://www.consumerreports.org/fuel-economy-efficiency/ford-emissions-under-criminal-investigation/?EXTKEY=AFLIP?source=Snapzu

Epic Removed A Popular Fortnite Mechanic Because It Made People Play Less

Epic has finally addressed Fortnite’s controversial 8.20 patch, which removed a popular mechanic from the main game by which players would get health and shields when they eliminated opponents. According to Epic, the mechanic, called “siphoning,” made players avoid the main battle royale mode.
Read more: https://kotaku.com/epic-removed-a-popular-fortnite-mechanic-because-it-mad-1834343157?source=Snapzu

The gig economy is distorting U.S. data on inflation, wages and job growth

Online shopping and the gig economy haven't just disrupted traditional brick-and-mortar business, they're disrupting the way U.S. job growth, wage data and inflation are tracked, asserts a new paper from the Dallas Federal Reserve. What it means: There has been an increase in the number of workers in the gig economy who are either working as contractors or are self-employed, but report themselves as employed. These workers often have less bargaining power and lower wages than full-time employees.
Read more: https://www.axios.com/gig-economy-employment-economic-data-effect-d8ef97ff-1774-4223-9fd8-d50510fb3c9f.html?source=Snapzu

Coffee waste 'could replace palm oil'

Two Scottish entrepreneurs are aiming to go global with their hope to replace palm oil using coffee waste. Scott Kennedy and Fergus Moore said they came up with a unique way to extract oil from used coffee grounds which had a wide range of uses. Palm oil is found in many household products, but environmentalists say demand for it is devastating rainforests in Asia.
Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-48023412?fbclid=IwAR3TzqInamDvzmbP7bmYPxjtynhSWWd8XALKbQzfJADgu3EMtne1tnxieak?source=Snapzu

iPhone gaining US marketshare, slipping in China & Europe, say March-quarter numbers

U.S. iPhone share rose 6.5 percentage points year-over-year to 45.5 percent, Kantar said on Tuesday. European share fell 2 points to 20.1 percent, while China slipped 0.4 points to 21.7 percent. Apple's strong U.S. performance was credited to the iPhone XR, said to have accounted for over 1 in 10 of every smartphone sold in the country. It also propped up Apple's European sales, for instance topping all smartphones in Great Britain. In Europe as a whole the iPhone XR outsold the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max combined.
Read more: https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/04/16/iphone-gaining-us-marketshare-slipping-in-china-europe-say-march-quarter-numbers?source=Snapzu

New app tells you when your smart speaker is spying on you

The "Princeton IoT Inspector" tracks all the data your devices send out.
Read more: https://futurism.com/the-byte/app-smart-speaker-spying?source=Snapzu

Can Uber ever make money?

London cabbies enjoy a good moan. But few can match the satirical indignation of a former ferry operator, John Taylor, who used to carry passengers on the Thames. As well as being a “waterman”, Taylor was a poet, writing in the 1620s just when horse-drawn Hackney carriages were making their debut on the streets of the capital. In “An Arrant Thief”, published in 1622, he described the carnage from “upstart Hell-cart-coaches” robbing his brethren of their fares. “Against the ground, we stand and knock our heels/Whilst all our profit runs away on wheels.”
Read more: https://www.economist.com/business/2019/04/27/can-uber-ever-make-money?source=Snapzu

America’s 3 wealthiest families have more money than 4 million average families combined

Three families of dynastic wealth — that’s the Walton, Koch and Mars families — have seen their wealth increase close to 6,000% since 1982, according to the Billionaire Bonanza report by the progressive think tank Institute for Policy Studies. Their combined wealth – a staggering $348.7 billion as of October 2018 – is more than the combined wealth of 4 million American families of median wealth.
Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/their-combined-wealth-a-staggering-3487-billion-as-of-october-2018-is-more-than-the-combined-wealth-of-4-million-american-families-of-median-wealth-172012750.html?source=Snapzu

How Amazon automatically tracks and fires warehouse workers for ‘productivity’

Amazon’s fulfillment centers are the engine of the company — massive warehouses where workers track, pack, sort, and shuffle each order before sending it on its way to the buyer’s door. Critics say those fulfillment center workers face strenuous conditions: workers are pressed to “make rate,” with some packing hundreds of boxes per hour, and losing their job if they don’t move fast enough. “You’ve always got somebody right behind you who’s ready to take your job,” says Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and a prominent Amazon critic.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/25/18516004/amazon-warehouse-fulfillment-centers-productivity-firing-terminations?source=Snapzu

Malta AI & Blockchain Summit

Organizers are all geared up for the second edition of the Malta AI & Blockchain Summit (AIBC). Attendees can expect nothing short of a stellar show, in just less than a month from now, on 23rd to 24th May. It is expected to bring a whopping 5000 delegates, 700 investors, 300 exhibitors and 100 startups to convene for a grand show at the Hilton in St Julian’s, Malta.
Read more: http://ourmarket.news/malta-ai-blockchain-summit?source=Snapzu

Why Beyond Meat’s IPO is a big deal

Beyond Meat, the plant-based meat company, is going public next week. The company sells burgers that contain no meat, but taste like they do. Its stated goal is to fix our food system. Its initial public offering (IPO) is the latest sign that alt-meat is going mainstream — and that’s a big deal.
Read more: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/25/18514798/beyond-meat-ipo-vegan-sustainable-food?source=Snapzu

Former University of Texas coach admits to taking $100K bribe in college scam

Michael Center, 55, is the third coach to plead guilty in the nationwide scandal that has also ensnared wealthy parents.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-university-texas-tennis-coach-admits-taking-100k-bribe-college-n998336?source=Snapzu

You might not have heard of Fanatics yet—but it’s taking over sports apparel one league at a time

And it's pretty much Amazon-proof. For now.
Read more: https://qz.com/1600107/fanatics-has-found-a-way-to-make-itself-effectively-amazon-proof/?source=Snapzu

Disney is in talks with Comcast to buy all of Hulu, CNBC says

Walt Disney Co. is in talks to acquire the 30% stake in Hulu held by Comcast Corp., CNBC reported, a deal that would hand over complete control of the video-streaming service. Disney emerged as 60% owner of Hulu in March when it acquired the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox Inc. for $71 billion. The Burbank entertainment giant increased its stake last week when Hulu agreed to buy out minority investor AT&T Inc. That deal valued Comcast’s stake in the service at $4.5 billion or more.
Read more: https://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-hulu-disney-comcast-20190425-story.html?source=Snapzu

Epic Store will stop exclusives if Steam changes revenue split, CEO says

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has been making some bold claims on Twitter, which is always fun for spectators and perhaps terrifying for investors. Once again, the subject is the Epic Games Store's divisive exclusivity strategy, which has ruffled feathers while taking a fair number of prominent games off Steam. Sweeney claims all of that will end if Steam commits to an 88 percent revenue share for developers.
Read more: https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-store-will-stop-exclusives-if-steam-changes-revenue-split-ceo-says/?source=Snapzu

Here’s what happened inside The Markup

The Markup was one of the most highly anticipated media startups in recent memory. By Mathew Ingram.
Read more: https://www.cjr.org/analysis/the-markup.php?source=Snapzu

If I build it, what happens if they don't come

There is that wonderful scene in Field of Dreams where Kevin Costner is urged to “build it and they will come”. What if you do that, and they don't come?
Read more: https://gentlecreative.com/build-it-what-happens-dont-come/?source=Snapzu

Ford invests $500 million in electric car startup Rivian

On Wednesday morning, Ford announced that it will invest $500 million in the electric vehicle startup Rivian. Assuming regulatory approval, the two will form a strategic partnership, with Ford taking a minority stake in Rivian. Joe Hinrichs, Ford's president of automotive, will get a seat on Rivian's board, but more importantly, Ford will use Rivian's battery EV platform to build a new Blue Oval-badged BEV. "This strategic partnership marks another key milestone in our drive to accelerate the transition to sustainable mobility.
Read more: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/04/ford-invests-500-million-in-electric-car-startup-rivian/?source=Snapzu

Is Apple Customer Service Good? 2019 Rating

Long live the king of laptop tech support! Apple's got a history of agents answering issues accurately with a polite, friendly manner. While we'd love it if Apple would answer questions on Facebook (there's a lot of business communication tech in Messenger), the combination of Twitter, live online chats, its support app and phone calls provides a solid base for the company's support. Oh, and there's also the Genius Bar, which is widely available, thanks to its placement in every Apple Store.
Read more: https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/apple-tech-support?source=Snapzu

Disney heir calls on company to give 50% of exec bonuses to lowest-paid employees

Abigail Disney is doubling down on her criticism of executive pay at her family's company. Just days after calling the pay of Disney's top brass "insane," the granddaughter of company co-founder Roy Disney wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post, in which she acknowledged she "struck a nerve with a Twitter thread about wage inequality at the Walt Disney Co."
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/24/media/abigial-disney-executive-pay/index.html?source=Snapzu

Parkland shooting suspect’s lawyer asks off his case as client is set to inherit over $432,000

Nikolas Cruz is set to inherit the money through his deceased mother's life insurance policy. It's not clear whether he will actually receive it.
Read more: https://globalnews.ca/news/5201041/parkland-shooting-suspect-nikolas-cruz-inheritance/?source=Snapzu

Facebook anticipates an FTC privacy fine of up to $5 billion

The company set aside $3 billion in its quarterly earnings report Wednesday as a contingency against the possible penalty but noted that the "matter remains unresolved." The one-time charge slashed Facebook's first-quarter net income considerably, although revenue grew by 25% in the period. The FTC has been looking into whether Facebook broke its own 2011 agreement promising to protect user privacy.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/facebook-takes-3b-charge-ftc-investigation-1q-62608671?source=Snapzu

AT&T’s 5G E marketing ploy is turning out to be a disaster

AT&T may have just amicably settled a false advertising lawsuit with Sprint over its “5G Evolution” branding, but the company’s apparent marketing strategy here is proving to be a disaster. Rather than taking a victory lap for arriving at real 5G faster than its US competitors — AT&T’s actual 5G network currently supports more cities than Verizon’s — the company is still clinging to a meaningless, confusing logo it refuses to walk away from.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/22/18511741/att-5g-e-marketing-ploy-disaster-misleading-claims-lawsuit-confusion?source=Snapzu

Warren Buffett Sees Most Newspapers as ‘Toast’ After Ad Decline

Warren Buffett, the man behind a print-media empire that includes the Buffalo News and Omaha World-Herald, doesn’t think most newspapers can be saved. The decline of advertising gradually turned the newspaper industry “from monopoly to franchise to competitive,” the billionaire chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said in an interview with Yahoo Finance. And now most newspapers are “toast.”
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-23/warren-buffett-sees-most-newspapers-as-toast-after-ad-decline?source=Snapzu

Netflix, Hulu, Amazon will lead OTT access revenue to $22B in 2019, study says

Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and other top OTT video providers in the U.S. will drive significant growth in revenues this year. That’s according to Convergence Research Group’s new study, "The Battle for the American Couch Potato: OTT and TV." Based on 66 over-the-top (OTT) providers, led by Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, the firm estimates U.S. OTT access revenue grew 37% to $16.3 billion in 2018 and will grow even further to reach $22 billion for 2019.
Read more: https://www.fiercevideo.com/video/netflix-hulu-amazon-will-lead-ott-access-revenue-to-22b-2019-study-says?source=Snapzu

Foxconn wants to alter the Wisconsin deal

Even as Foxconn continues to promise Wisconsin that it will, in fact, bring jobs and an LCD plant to the state in exchange for an unprecedented $4 billion in tax breaks, it may be quietly attempting to renegotiate the deal. According to a letter from Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers (via Wisconsin Public Radio), Foxconn was actually the one to first propose changing the deal back in March, and the company is apparently planning to submit “the necessary documentation” to start that process in a mere matter of weeks.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/23/18513307/foxconn-wants-to-alter-the-wisconsin-deal?source=Snapzu

Laurence Doud III, drug company exec to face federal criminal charges as a drug dealer.

Laurence Doud III, the former CEO of the Rochester Drug Cooperative, is the first drug company executive to face federal criminal charges over the opioid crisis.
Read more: https://heavy.com/news/2019/04/laurence-doud/?source=Snapzu

Corporations and private investors are backing new ‘green’ deals as climate worries mount

In the nine years since private equity and venture capital investments into sustainable technologies last crossed the $6 billion threshold, the problems caused by global carbon emissions have only intensified. Now, as the world confronts the reality that there’s not much time left to reverse course on carbon emissions and the impact they will have on life on earth, both corporate and private investors are once again stepping up their commitments to startups in the space.
Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/22/corporations-and-private-investors-are-backing-new-green-deals-as-climate-worries-mount/?source=Snapzu

Amazon created the expectation of 2-day shipping. Now it needs to scale back.

Free two-day shipping attracts customers. It also costs Amazon a lot of money.
Read more: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/4/23/18508093/amazon-prime-two-day-shipping?source=Snapzu

After the Bust, Are Bitcoins More Like Tulip Mania or the Internet?

When you talk to tech industry insiders about where Bitcoin is heading, two vastly different comparisons are inevitable: the tulip bulb and the internet. Bitcoin’s critics say the digital tokens are like the tulip bulbs of 17th-century Holland. They generated a wild, speculative rush that quickly disappeared, leaving behind nothing but pretty flowers and wrecked bank accounts.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/technology/bitcoin-tulip-mania-internet.html?source=Snapzu

Do Americans Know How Much Trouble They’re In?

A President who invokes absolute authority to…pardon himself. An ambassador to Germany who declares he wants to…topple the German government. Senators — the most powerful people in democracy, save the President — knocking on the door of a “detainment center”, looking for kids separated from their parents, only to be denied by guards who…laugh at them contemptuously, call the police, and have them shooed away like nobodies.
Read more: https://eand.co/do-americans-know-how-much-trouble-theyre-in-78e8ef00d53c?fbclid=IwAR0MTyvySI9C8bz9DcpJxf7UQEiL-jHBWXmqX51pHl7Tcr-GoqUKeOjH5H0?source=Snapzu

Italy's 'perma-recession' could trigger a €2 trillion financial crisis that threatens the eurozone itself

Economists in Milan and London are debating whether Italy is carrying so much debt that it might collapse into a Greek-style financial crisis. Their fear is that because Italy is so much bigger than Greece — and because Italy is one of the Big Three economies underpinning the eurozone — that the scale of such a crisis might be more difficult to contain this time around.
Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/italy-perma-recession-systemic-crisis-threatens-eurozone-2019-4?source=Snapzu

This robot could make pesticides obsolete

Researchers may have found a way to protect Florida strawberries fields from mildew with ultraviolet light. The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences teamed up with the Norway-based startup, Saga Robotics, to test out the autonomous robot, Thorvald. For several months, one night a week, students test drive the robot and document how the ultraviolet light eliminates mildew from strawberry fields on the Wimauma, Fla. Campus.
Read more: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/nation-world/this-robot-could-make-pesticides-obsolete/67-b27bace9-e178-461a-9231-3063797f4176?source=Snapzu

How to hone your disruption-spotting skills

Listening to the whispers on the fringe of technology can lead companies to relevance and success in the years to come. Quantitative futurist Amy Webb explains how it works. @Enterprisenxt
Read more: https://www.hpe.com/us/en/insights/articles/how-to-hone-your-disruption-spotting-skills-1904.html?source=Snapzu

The private frontier: corporate space explorers stand by for a $1tn lift-off

President Donald Trump has struggled with some of his signature policy promises, but now he has set his sights higher: a return to the moon, five decades after humans last set foot there. The White House has spoken of landing the first woman on the moon within five years and Trump’s vice-president, Mike Pence, has made it clear that the private sector – much of it backed by a handful of billionaires – could play a big part in the plans.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/apr/20/space-explorers-trillion-dollar-lift-off-private-frontier?source=Snapzu

Amazon way of reducing frauds: Delivery drivers must take selfies from now on

In a bid to combat delivery-related fraud cases, e-commerce giant Amazon is making a section of its drivers take selfies before resuming their duties for the day in order to record and verify their identities using facial recognition from time to time. For now, the requirement applies specifically to "Flex drivers" — who work as independent contractors for Amazon's fastest "Prime" deliveries, deliver packages in their own cars and get paid $18 to $25 an hour, The Verge reported on Thursday.
Read more: https://www.livemint.com/companies/people/amazon-way-of-reducing-frauds-delivery-drivers-must-take-selfies-from-now-on-1555815182189.html?source=Snapzu

Workers Should Be in Charge

Every day, private equity companies snatch up firms and strip them dry. But there’s an alternative: allow workers to buy their workplace and run it themselves.
Read more: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/04/worker-ownership-private-equity-cooperatives?fbclid=IwAR1XFvCu5bqds3up50Uud3DQk210r8QOsdf206RJ1DjsTh-G5kaHQldMl6M?source=Snapzu

The Pirate Bay Lives On, A Decade After 'Guilty' Verdicts

Ten years ago this week, four men were found guilty and sentenced to prison for running The Pirate Bay. At the time, Peter Sunde said that the site would continue, no matter what. A decade on he has been proven absolutely right and that in itself is utterly remarkable.
Read more: https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-lives-on-a-decade-after-operators-were-found-guilty-190420/?source=Snapzu

The Mueller Report Can’t Be Copyrighted, Is Flagged by Copyright Bots Anyway

Did you know that anything created by federal government employees, under American law, can’t be copyrighted? They go right into the public domain. That means it’s impossible for there to be any copyright infringement on, say, a report by the Special Counsel on the investigation into the President and his presidential campaign. But the copyright-enforcement bots on Scribd have been busy taking down copies of the Mueller report all the same.
Read more: https://www.eff.org/takedowns/mueller-report-cant-be-copyrighted-flagged-copyright-bots-anyway?source=Snapzu

Apple said Qualcomm’s tech was no good. But in private communications, it was ‘the best.’ [Paywall]

During the roughly two years Apple was locked in a legal battle with one of its suppliers, Qualcomm, the iPhone maker publicly argued that the chip maker’s technology was worthless. But according to an internal Apple memo Qualcomm showed during the trial this week between the two tech companies, Apple’s hardware executives used words like “the best” to describe Qualcomm’s engineering. Another Apple memo described Qualcomm as having a “unique patent share” and “significant holdings.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/04/19/apple-said-qualcomms-tech-was-no-good-private-communications-it-was-best/?source=Snapzu

A Mars Colony Could Be Humanity's First Shot at a Ground-Up, Pure Economy

A city on Mars could provide the first-ever truly blank slate to organize a new kind of economy. While attempts to re-organize the means of production are as old as humankind itself, these experiments have always been limited to some extent by the economic systems that came before. People can only change so much so fast. Space exploration, and the establishment of new colonies, may be humanity’s first shot at creating an economy from the ground up.
Read more: https://www.inverse.com/article/55060-a-mars-colony-could-be-humanity-s-best-shot-at-a-purely-designed-economy?source=Snapzu

Airbnb's explosive growth jolts hotel industry's bottom line

Hospitality service Airbnb is fast becoming the 800-pound gorilla that’s shaking up the hotel industry and forever changing it. New research from Florida State University finds Airbnb’s exponential growth worldwide is devouring an increasing share of hotel revenues and also driving down room prices and occupancy rates.
Read more: https://news.fsu.edu/news/business-law-policy/2019/04/18/airbnbs-explosive-growth-jolts-hotel-industrys-bottom-line/?source=Snapzu

The start-ups launching in space

Peter Beck is a space entrepreneur with a rocket and launch pad in New Zealand that has permission for flights "every 72 hours for the next 30 years". The 25 satellites his firm Rocket Lab has launched include one from a US high school, which designed a spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of Jupiter. Mr Beck has no plans for human cargo and he does not want to go to space.
Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47885259?source=Snapzu

Toyota leads $1B investment in Uber’s self-driving tech

On Thursday, news broke that Toyota, Denso, and the SoftBank Vision Fund are investing heavily in Uber's autonomous driving operation. Together, the three companies will put $1 billion into Uber's Advanced Technologies Group: $667 million from Toyota and Denso, with an additional $333 million coming from SoftBank.
Read more: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/04/toyota-leads-1b-investment-in-ubers-self-driving-tech/?source=Snapzu