Geekly Update - 29 July 2020

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, isn’t content to sell you a car or a ride to the moon. The goal of his Neuralink project is to merge humans with AI. Musk hopes that his Neuralink chips will treat neurological disorders, and recently tweeted that it could also stream music directly into brains. Ummm, just music?

Microsoft hopes that connected cows will become part of their customer base. The software giant is partnering with butter maker Land O’Lakes to equip cows with Fitbit-like sensors to monitor health and improve yields.

This just in from the “Yes, But Why?” Department: Now you can emulate a Macintosh Quadra with the 1997 release of Mac OS 8.1 on your Windows or Linux computer. Comes complete with a version of Netscape so old that “you wouldn’t be able to open even Google.”

Mellow, an expensive “smart” kitchen gadget is suddenly demanding a monthly fee to operate, or it will stay in “dumb mode”. The company claims that the subscription fee ransom demand is necessary to continue operating their servers, or to attract investors, or something.

Dumb and Dumber: Smart glasses company North has told customers that their $600 Focals glasses will stop working in a few days' time. This is what happens when the “smart” part of your technology, which relies on a cloud-based server, goes poof.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/28/21344757/microsoft-family-safety-app-ios-android-download-features
Microsoft's new Family Safety app for iOS and Android will have content filters, location sharing, and other features to help parents manage screentime and block certain apps. The tool syncs across Windows, Xbox, and Android, so kids can't switch devices to get extra time.

Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 5 standard promises to fully charge a smartphone in under 15 minutes. But now yet, and not on your current phone. New devices that support the standard are expected to start shipping in the Fall of 2020.

Here’s an example of one scam that did a pretty good job of imitating a CEO’s voice. The employee in this case was not fooled, but deepfake audio tools are getting better and more accessible.

Eighteen months ago, I went swimming with a brand-new smartphone, and no amount of digital sorcery could revive it. But Ben Schofield had better luck. The British sailor accidentally dropped his iPhone X into 50 feet of ocean water, and it was submerged for 6 days. The iPhone X is rated for water exposure up to one meter for 30 minutes, but when he finally retrieved it, the phone was still working.

The editors at Popular Mechanics have a list of 11 Apps You Should Delete from Your Phone Right Now. The article details how TikTok, GasBuddy, Facebook, and even a popular Bible app are hoovering up tons of data, sometimes without disclosing that fact, or how the data will be used.

Your thoughts on these topics are welcome! Post your comment or question below...