Tech Bytes to Know this Week: 6.22.2016

June 22nd, 2016

Topics: Apps Big Data / Analytics Platforms

The Drones are Coming, Just Not with Your Amazon Delivery – The FAA released its long-awaited rules regarding commercial use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems or more commonly, drones. The main determination was that operators do NOT need a pilot’s license to fly drones. That’s great news for prime customers, including scientists, farmers, real estate developers and filmmakers. Other highlights of the rule include a weight limit (55 lbs.) and a line-of-sight requirement for operators. The biggest loser in the new rule is Amazon, due to both the weight restrictions and the line of sight requirement. That means the ecommerce giant won’t be able to autonomously or even remotely deliver packages using drones.

5G is Closer to a Reality, But has Drawbacks – The FCC Chairman, Tom Wheeler, made many in the wireless industry very happy when he revealed his proposal to open up more spectrum that would enable 5G wireless signals. While no current standards and guidelines are in place for developing 5G signals, many companies ranging from Google to AT&T are already working on their own programs for the new spectrum in anticipation that it would open up. The two key points to know about 5G are: 1) it’s not great at penetrating physical barriers, like walls and trees and 2) it’s estimated to be 10-100x faster than current 4G signals at transmitting data. So while huge investments would need to be made to install (many) more towers or transmission devices, the payoff could be a wireless sector that is vastly superior to the rest of the world (in areas where it’s deployed).

Global Audiences Grow Instagram to 500M Users – Without pesky language translations to slow down development, Instagram has seen huge growth in the last two years, reaching 300M daily users and 500M users – 80% of which are outside the US. Instagram reports that over 95M photos are seen each day by its user base. While still on the small side for Facebook when compared to WhatsApp and Messenger (not to mention Facebook), 300 million daily users is a huge number that dwarfs that of rival Snapchat and should give advertisers something to think about when deciding where to spend their dollars on visual content.

Anonymous Launches Gay Pride Attacks on ISIS Following Orlando Terrorist Attack – Following the mass shooting in Orlando last week, members of the secretive hacker collective Anonymous took control of several ISIS-managed Twitter and social media properties and turned them into a celebration of gay pride, complete with rainbow flags and statements in support of gay rights. The hacks caused Twitter to suspend the ISIS accounts because it forbids terrorist-linked accounts, but that begs the question: how hard does Twitter look for such accounts to begin with and why is it that Anonymous is so much better at identifying ISIS accounts than Twitter?

Featured CXOTalk video of the week: Episode 109: Connected Vehicles: Automobiles as Technology Platform with Don Butler, Ford