Geekly Update - 01 September 2016

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Pittsburgh ride-sharers are the lucky guinea pigs who will first experience autonomous Uber cars. Custom Volvo XC90 SUVs that drive themselves have been added to Pittsburgh’s fleet, and riders will be assigned to them at random. A human will occupy the driver’s seat just in case. On the bright side, rides in Uber’s experimental vehicles will be free.

Malware infected the point-of-sale systems at all 350+ Eddie Bauer stores in the U. S. and Canada, potentially compromising all of the credit cards used at EB during the first six months of 2016. The company took six weeks to respond to an alert issued by security guru Brian Krebs.

Acer's new gaming laptop, the Predator 21X, will boast a 21-inch curved display, and weighs in at 17 pounds. The massively powerful laptop also has a hefty price tag. When it hits the street in early 2017, it will cost in excess of $5000.

Apple is removing the word “Store” from its stores in a preposterous effort to emphasize the “experience” of paying too much for stale, boring technology. “Apple Union Station” is now the name of the place where you can buy Apple goods while awaiting a New York train. Apple is also adding fanciful features like “The Forum” and “The Plaza” to its brick-and-mortar experience.

File this under Mixed Metaphors: Disney has filed a patent application for a real-world light sabre, a prop that will be used in its Star Wars exhibits. "It's just a flesh wound."

A recent update to the Windows 10 Anniversary Update is causing webcams to freeze up after about one minute of use, according to numerous reports. Microsoft says users should not hold their collective breath waiting for a fix.

An Auckland computer repair shop apparently hacked into customers’ email accounts and used them to write five-star reviews for the company. CER Computers customer Catherine Xu grew suspicious when she received a note from Google Plus thanking her for her review of the company, which she never wrote.

Apps downloaded from the Google Chrome Web Store will no longer work on Mac, Windows, and Linux machines in 2018, says the company. Only Chromebooks and other devices running Google’s Chrome OS will be able to run new apps starting in 2017. If you didn’t know about these apps, you are not alone. Google is discontinuing them on non-Chrome platforms because hardly anyone was using them.

The Guinness Book of Records may soon have a new category: “World’s Largest Blue Screen Of Death.” Check out the five-story fail, and read about other very big BSODs.

You’d think Barbara Streisand, of all people, would know better than to draw attention to the fact that Apple’s Siri mispronounces her name. After all, “The Streisand Effect” in which unwanted attention is only increased dramatically by complaining about it was named after her.

“Moldy battery” sounds disgusting but could actually be a good thing. A cocktail of genetically-modified fungi and molds has been developed to extract precious metals from depleted batteries, saving money and environmental damage.

Facebook’s mobile app is experimenting with autoplaying audio and video, even though 80% of users react very negatively to autoplaying anything.

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