Tech Bytes to Know this Week: 7.22.2016

July 22nd, 2016

Topics: AI & Machine Learning Apps Mobile Operations

Twitter Sets New Precedent in Combatting Digital Harassment – The internet can be an ugly place sometimes. We all know not to read the comments section of websites at this point due to the unfiltered vitriol spewed by readers toward authors, subjects of articles and even other commenters. However, the public harassment of actor Leslie Jones, star of the all-female Ghostbusters reboot, by a British journalist was a new low and forced Twitter to defend its users by banning the journalist from the platform. The move is a brave first step by Twitter to combat the runaway trolling that has become commonplace on the platform. Twitter has come under fire for allowing similar violations of its terms of service before, including postings from terrorist groups, but this time it took the appropriate action and removed the offender. Kudos to Twitter.

SoftBank Buys into Mobile Processing and the Internet of Things to the Tune of $31 Billion – We’ve heard how big the Internet of Things is going to be, with Cisco famously predicting it will include 50 million ‘things’ and be valued at over $14 trillion by 2020. So it should come as no surprise that ARM Holdings was acquired for a huge sum of money – ARM makes low-powered processors for companies like Apple, Samsung, and others. What SoftBank is predicting is that interoperability among devices and the need for these devices to get “smarter” will pay off in a big way over the next decade. And SoftBank now owns the lion’s share of intellectual property and talent needed to make the devices of the future.

Facebook Moves One Step Closer to Drone-powered Internet Access – Facebook’s mission proclaims that it’s designed “to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.” When Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of Internet.org in 2013 Facebook took another step to achieve its mission of connecting the world. The key barrier for Zuckerberg and the team at Facebook has always been infrastructure. When Facebook’s Head of Spectrum Policy and Connectivity Planning, Chris Weasler T’97 joined the center for a Britt Series panel discussion on Delivering the Digital Infrastructure in 2015, he outlined the importance of drone-powered access points as a component of global connectivity strategy for the company. This week, Facebook performed a successful 90 minute test flight of its drone design with a wingspan wider than a 737 jet.

Pokémon Go Continues to Take Grow – The rapid growth and reach of Pokémon Go has been astonishing, with over 20 million users of the game in the US alone. With that many users, it’s no surprise that we’re seeing stories of the massive amount of money being made off the game. Reports have estimated that Apple could make as much as $3 billion of in-app purchases by iPhone users (Apple makes a cut off purchases made through the App Store). Public transit app Moovit has already integrated gameplay into its app to enable users of public transit play while riding without missing their stop. And McDonalds now has signed on as a major corporate partner in a deal that will make the restaurant an important location in the game when it launches in Japan later this summer (the deal was specific to the Japanese market). Even the local lemonade stand is getting in on the act. Whether the game can keep up momentum is yet to be seen, but in the meantime a lot of companies are getting rich off the game.

Featured CXOTalk video of the week: Episode 174: Financial services and digital transformation with Ron van Kemenade, CIO, ING Bank
Financial service is undergoing major disruption and transformation. On this episode, we hear from Ron van Kemenade, CIO of ING Bank, who shares his strategy and explains the impact of digital transformation on banking.

Ron van Kemenade is a senior technology executive with over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, as well as telecommunications and internet.