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HOMEPOD: STUNNING CONNECTED SOUND EXPERIENCE
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TESLA PROPOSES BIG PAYOUT IF MUSK MEETS LOFTY GOALS
FIFA: VIDEO TECH ‘DEFINITELY’ AT WORLD CUP, FINDING SPONSOR
44 AI CAN READ! TECH FIRMS RACE TO SMARTEN UP THINKING MACHINES
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APPLE WILL GIVE USERS CONTROL OVER SLOWDOWN OF OLDER iPHONES 08 EU FINES QUALCOMM FOR PAYING APPLE TO USE ITS MICROCHIPS 14 NETFLIX’S SUCCESS TURNS NET NEUTRALITY INTO AN AFTERTHOUGHT 28 MONTANA MANDATES ‘NET NEUTRALITY’ FOR STATE CONTRACTS 36 GET YOUR STUFF AND GO: AMAZON OPENS STORE WITH NO CASHIERS 50 FACEBOOK TO EMPHASIZE ‘TRUSTWORTHY’ NEWS VIA USER SURVEYS 74 MAYBE NEXT TIME: CITIES SEE FAILED AMAZON BIDS AS TRIAL RUNS 80 COMMERCIAL ROCKET FROM NEW ZEALAND DEPLOYS SMALL SATELLITES 88 COMCAST HOPES FOR A TV WINDFALL FROM SUPER BOWL, OLYMPICS 92 WILD RIDE: ‘JUMANJI’ HOLDS ON TO TOP SPOT AT BOX OFFICE 120 ‘HOBBIT’ DIRECTOR PETER JACKSON MAKING WWI DOCUMENTARY 130 SPACEWALKING ASTRONAUTS GIVE NEW HAND TO ROBOT ARM 142 CHRISTA MCAULIFFE’S LOST LESSONS FINALLY TAUGHT IN SPACE 146 BETTER THAN HOLOGRAMS: A NEW 3-D PROJECTION INTO THIN AIR 154 SOLAR INDUSTRY ON EDGE AS TRUMP WEIGHS TARIFFS ON PANELS 168 UK REGULATOR SAYS FOX TAKEOVER OF SKY NOT IN PUBLIC INTEREST 176
TOP 10 APPS 100 iTUNES REVIEW 104 TOP 10 SONGS 158 TOP 10 ALBUMS 160 TOP 10 MUSIC VIDEOS 162 TOP 10 TV SHOWS 164 TOP 10 BOOKS 166
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APPLE WILL GIVE USERS CONTROL OVER SLOWDOWN OF OLDER iPHONES
Apple’s next major update of its mobile software will include an option that will enable owners of older iPhones to turn off a feature that slows the device to prevent aging batteries from shutting down. The free upgrade announced Wednesday will be released this spring. The additional controls are meant to appease iPhone owners outraged since Apple acknowledged last month that its recent software updates had been secretly slowing down older iPhones when their batteries weakened. 9
Many people believed Apple was purposefully undermining the performance of older iPhones to drive sales of its newer and more expensive devices. Apple insisted it was simply trying to extend the lives of older iPhones, but issued an apology last month and promised to replace batteries in affected devices at a discounted price of $50. Despite Apple’s contrition, the company is still facing an investigation by French authorities, a series of questions from U.S. Senate and a spate of consumer lawsuits alleging misconduct. Besides giving people more control over the operation of older iPhones, the upcoming update dubbed iOS 11.3 will also show how well the device’s battery is holding up. Apple had promised to add a battery gauge when it apologized to consumers last month. Other features coming in the next update will include the ability to look at personal medical histories in Apple’s health app, more tricks in its augmented reality toolkit and more animated emojis that work with the facial recognition technology in the iPhone X.
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EU FINES QUALCOMM FOR PAYING APPLE TO USE ITS MICROCHIPS
The European Union slapped a $1.23 billion fine on U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm for abusing its market dominance in the lucrative sector of components in smartphones and tablets for half a decade. EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that San Diego-based Qualcomm “illegally shut out rivals from the market” for more than five years by paying key customer Apple to not use chips made by Qualcomm’s rivals. Vestager said Qualcomm paid “billions of dollars” to Apple and in the process helped establish itself as the dominant force. She said the payments were made in part by reducing prices for Apple to buy Qualcomm components on condition that Apple iPhones and iPads would exclusively use Qualcomm chips. The EU said that the abuse happened between 2011 and 2016 and centered on baseband chipsets that allow smartphones and tablets 15
to connect to cellular networks. Over most of that period, Qualcomm accounted for over 90 percent of the market. Apple was a dominant player with its iPad and iPhones and the two companies twice entered an agreement that cut out rivals. Vestager said there were no regulatory repercussions for Apple despite accepting the system for the best part of six years. She said she had internal documents showing Apple considered switching some of its work to Intel but could not do so financially until the end of the agreement. Only when the deal was about to expire did Apple start to diversify. “Competition in this market is now on the up,” Vestager said. Qualcomm issued a statement saying it “strongly disagrees with the decision and will immediately appeal.” It said that the EU move did not affect its ongoing operations. In a warning to others, Vestager said “don’t go there” and the fine of 997 million euros is meant to be a deterrent. She said it amounted to almost five percent of annual turnover. “It is reflecting the fact that it is very illegal behavior. It went on for quite some time.” She said Qualcomm used the system to establish the company as the industry’s chipmaker of choice. She said that if smaller companies see a big firm like Apple using Qualcomm chips, they would be more likely to do so as well. “In particular it has made a difference because we are talking about the one of the biggest and most important customers in this market,” Vestager said. 16
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TESLA PROPOSES BIG PAYOUT IF MUSK MEETS LOFTY GOALS
Elon Musk is known for his bold predictions on electric and self-driving cars. Now his pay could depend on whether those predictions come true. Under a new all-or-nothing pay package, Musk would remain at Tesla Inc. for the next decade and see his compensation tied to ambitious growth targets. The proposal, revealed this week in a regulatory filing, requires that Tesla grow in $50 billion leaps, to a staggering $650 billion market capitalization. The electric car maker, based in Palo Alto, California, is worth less than $60 billion today. Tesla must hit a series of escalating revenue and adjusted profit targets, only after which Musk would vest stock options worth 1 percent of company shares. He would get no other guaranteed compensation. 19
The pay package, developed over the last six months by Tesla’s board, still needs the approval of Tesla shareholders, who will vote on it at a special meeting in late March. Musk and his brother Kimbal, who is a Tesla board member, will recuse themselves from the vote. If the goals are reached, Tesla would be one of the biggest companies in America. The $650 billion benchmark would make Tesla the fourthmost valuable U.S. company, behind only Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc., and Amazon.com Inc. based on current valuations. It would be larger than Microsoft Corp., and would exceed the current combined valuation of the world’s top eight publicly-traded auto companies. The pay scheme would also catapult Musk into the ranks of the world’s richest people. Musk’s stock options could be worth up to $55.8 billion if he meets the company’s goals. He also would own a 28 percent stake in Tesla, which would be worth $182 billion. Forbes’ current richest billionaire, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, is worth $86 billion. Musk has long had ambitious plans for Tesla. In a 2015 earnings call with analysts and media, he predicted Tesla could match Apple in total value by 2025. Musk’s growth plans were laid out in a 2016 blog post he titled “Master Plan, Part Deux.” Tesla plans to expand from electric cars and SUVs to trucks — including a semi due out in 2019 — and buses. It will continue to work on autonomous vehicle technology and plans to enter the car-sharing business, letting Tesla owners share their cars when they’re not using them and running Tesla-owned fleets in cities. 20
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The company, which bought solar panel maker SolarCity Corp. in 2016, also plans to expand its solar panel and energy storage businesses. Tesla is making solar panels and roof tiles at its factory in Buffalo, New York, which will help the company blunt any impact from President Donald Trump’s recent 30-percent tariff on imported solar panels and cell modules. The plans are ambitious, but that’s nothing new for Tesla. Under a 2012 agreement, Musk’s stock options vested only if the Tesla’s market cap continued to rise in $4 billion increments. The company also had to hit matching operational milestones, including vehicle production targets and developmental milestones tied to the Model X and Model 3 programs. Tesla wound up reaching all of the market cap milestones and nine of the 10 operational milestones, falling short only of its goal to have four consecutive quarters with 30-percent gross margins. When that pay package was created, the company was worth just $3.2 billion. Its market cap at the end of last year was 17 times that amount. That’s why the new goals may not be that far-fetched, says Michael Ramsey, an analyst with Gartner who follows Tesla. “To this point, it has been dangerous to predict failure for Tesla or Elon,” he said. Adam Jonas, an analyst with Morgan Stanley who follows Tesla, thinks plan is partly a marketing tool as the competition for electric and autonomous vehicle talent heats up. Jonas added that Musk — who owns 21.9 percent of Tesla shares — is already “all-in” on the company, so he sees the incentive package as more for investor confidence than for Musk’s personal benefit. 23
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In order to vest shares when milestones are reached, Musk must stay on as CEO or serve as both executive chairman and chief product officer. That would give Tesla the option of hiring a different CEO. Tesla said while it doesn’t currently intend for Musk to step away from the CEO role, the terms allow him to potentially focus his attention on key products and strategy. The amount of time Musk divides between Tesla and other ventures has been a concern for investors. Musk is also the founder and CEO of rocket maker SpaceX and the co-founder and chairman of OpenAI, a nonprofit that researches artificial intelligence. He also recently started The Boring Co., which hopes to build tunnels beneath Los Angeles and other major cities for high-speed transit.
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Musk has never made a salary at Tesla, which is unusual but not unheard of for a CEO. Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford didn’t take a salary or bonus for five years starting in 2005 when the company’s fortunes were sagging. Oracle Corp.’s Larry Ellison has a $1 salary but takes home millions in stock awards. And Steve Jobs took home $1 per year when he was Apple’s CEO from 1997 to 2011. Tesla — which turns 15 this year — has never earned a full-year profit. It has reported only two profitable quarters since it went public in 2010. Each of the four vehicles it has made has faced significant delays and production problems. Its newest vehicle, the lower-cost Model 3 sedan, is no exception. Musk initially said Tesla would be making 20,000 Model 3s per month by the end of 2017, but he recently pushed that goal to the end of the second quarter. That hasn’t dimmed investors’ appetite for Tesla’s stock. Tesla shares were up less than 1 percent to $352 in afternoon trading. They’ve risen around 40 percent over the last year.
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NETFLIX’S SUCCESS TURNS NET NEUTRALITY INTO AN AFTERTHOUGHT
Netflix once fought fiercely for net neutrality, fearing that its online video service would suffer if internet providers were free to discriminate against it. But now that it boasts one of television’s largest audiences, Netflix isn’t spending much time worrying about the demise of the government rules that once protected it. With millions of subscribers still flocking to its service, Netflix figures internet providers are unlikely to do anything that might alienate large numbers of their own customers who also turn to Netflix for trendy shows such as “Stranger Things,”“The Crown and “Black Mirror.” 29
“Netflix’s fortress is so strong now that net neutrality has become background noise for them,” says GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives.
BIG AND GETTING BIGGER The Trump-era Federal Communications Commission repealed net-neutrality rules in mid-December. Those regulations barred internet providers like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon from slowing or blocking customer access to apps and sites, or from setting up paid “fast lanes” for favored companies. The rules have been a big deal for smaller startups, as Netflix once was. But now Netflix has more than 117 million subscribers worldwide, including nearly 55 million in the U.S., according to the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report, released Monday. The service picked up 8.3 million of those worldwide subscribers — a quarterly record — in the October-December period last year. That included a gain of 2 million in the U.S. The performance blew past the projections of Netflix’s own management and stock market analysts. It was especially striking given a 10 percent price increase on the company’s most popular subscription plan in the U.S. Investors apparently aren’t fretting about the end of net neutrality, either. The company’s stock soared 9 percent to $248.24 in Monday’s extended trading. That positions Netflix’s market value to surpass $100 billion for the first time in Tuesday’s regular trading session. Emboldened by its success, Netflix now plans to spend up to $8 billion on its programming lineup this year, up from $6 billion last year. 30
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“Our goal is to entertain people,” Netflix wrote in its earnings commentary . “We are thrilled to be able to do that at great scale.” Last year, Netflix’s average viewership rose 9 percent, although the company refuses to disclose how many subscribers are watching at any given time. CBS was the most watched traditional TV network in the U.S. during the season ending in last May, with an average viewership of nearly 10 million people.
NETFLIX NEUTRALITY When it was smaller, Netflix worried that internet providers might throw obstacles in its way to protect the cable businesses many of them owned. Those pay-TV bundles have been losing subscribers for years, thanks in part to consumers opting for Netflix and other streaming services. In early 2014, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings wrote an essay advocating strong net-neutrality rules to keep cable and phone companies from imposing tolls on services like Netflix. That was shortly after Netflix reluctantly agreed to pay Comcast, one of the biggest internet providers in the country, for a more reliable connection that would ensure its videos weren’t disrupted in mid-stream. At the time, though, Netflix had half as many subscribers worldwide as it does now, including 20 million fewer in the U.S. And it had only recently launched an expansion into original programming that turned it into an entertainment powerhouse. Netflix is now such a household staple that even Comcast, the owner of NBC and other 32
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TV networks, has incorporated the video service into its set-top boxes. That makes Netflix as easy to watch as any other cable channel. Other cable providers have since followed suit. That’s one of the reasons that Hastings softened his tone on net neutrality. By last May, he told a technology conference during an onstage interview that net neutrality is “not our primary battle at this point.” In a show of solidarity, Netflix is still joining the legal fight to restore the net neutrality regulations, but only as part of the Internet Association, a trade group. Netflix earned $186 million, or 41 cents per share, on revenue of $3.3 billion to hit analyst targets. But the company also absorbed a fourth-quarter charge of $39 million to account for programming that it decided to abandon. The company didn’t identify the shows.
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MONTANA MANDATES ‘NET NEUTRALITY’ FOR STATE CONTRACTS
Montana became the first state to bar telecommunications companies from receiving state contracts if they interfere with internet traffic or favor higher-paying sites or apps, under an order from Gov. Steve Bullock intended to protect so-called net neutrality. The Democratic governor’s order comes after the Federal Communications Commission last month repealed rules enacted in 2015 that had more tightly regulated companies such as AT&T and Verizon. 37
Commission members said the repeal was needed to ensure the government maintains a “light touch” in its oversight of the internet. But critics such as Bullock contend change will hurt consumers and make it harder for startup companies to enter the market. “There has been a lot of talk around the country about how to respond to the recent decision,” Bullock said in announcing his order before a group of computer science students in Helena. “It’s time to actually do something about it.” Attorneys from more than 20 states and the District of Columbia have sued to block the repeal. State legislatures in New York, California and elsewhere have introduced bills promoting net neutrality, but Bullock is the first governor to taken action, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures. His order applies to any company seeking a new state contract for telecommunications services after July 1. At that time, in order to receive a state contract companies must not “unreasonably interfere” with Montana internet users’ ability to access the content of their choice. That includes giving preference to websites that pay more to internet providers. Terms of existing telecommunications contracts with the state — worth about $50 million annually — would not be changed, Bullock spokeswoman Marissa Perry said. Among those are contracts with CenturyLink, Verizon, AT&T and Comcast, she said. It was unclear from the order what would happen to companies with existing contracts. Bullock told the state Department of Administration to craft policies and guidance 38
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by March 1 to put the order into effect, and he invited governors and lawmakers across the United States to duplicate his action. If other states follow suit, it could have a significant impact — both on large telecommunications companies with state contracts and smaller companies trying to get into the market, said Christopher Mitchell with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which supports net neutrality. “States spend a lot of money on telecommunications contracts,” Mitchell said. “We’re seeing a number of states interested in doing something like this.” The National Cable and Telecommunications Association and USTelecom, which represent the broadband industry, said Congress and not individual states should step forward to craft permanent rules. “We simply cannot have 50 different regulations governing our internet,” said Sally Aman, US Telecom’s senior vice president for public affairs. It was not immediately clear if Bullock’s order could face a legal challenge for being out of step with the FCC plan. The FCC repeal — expected to go into effect this spring — pre-empted states and cities from imposing rules that contradict its own plan. Perry said Bullock had latitude on the issue because his order applies only to state contracts and the terms by which Montana, as a consumer, wants to buy internet services Aman said it was too soon to say if the broadband association would file a lawsuit over Bullock’s order. 40
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NY DECREES NET NEUTRALITY FOR WEB FIRMS WITH STATE CONTRACTS Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo enacted the policy through executive order, following a similar move by Montana Gov. Steve Bullock. Several states are considering how to respond after the Federal Communications Commission last month repealed its net neutrality policy. New York state legislators had pushed for the new policy as a way to protect consumers by using the state’s lucrative information technology contracts as leverage over internet companies. Attorneys general for 21 states and the District of Columbia have sued to block the repeal of the federal policy, which had banned companies from interfering with web traffic or speeds to favor certain sites or apps.
Image: Spencer Platt
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FIFA: VIDEO TECH ‘DEFINITELY’ AT WORLD CUP, FINDING SPONSOR
Video replays will be used at the World Cup for the first time and talks are underway with potential sponsor branding to appear when the technology is used, a FIFA executive said on Monday. Soccer’s rule-making panel met on Monday to assess recent trials ahead of video assistant referees (VAR) being officially approved by FIFA later this season for use in Russia in June and July. “Definitely, VAR will happen,” FIFA chief commercial officer Philippe Le Floc’h told The Associated Press. “It’s great to have technology in football because this is also a fair(ness) thing.” 45
Referees were assisted for the first time by hightech aids at a World Cup in 2014 when goalline technology was used. That system sees a message instantly flash on referees’ watches saying only whether the ball crossed the line. Video review is used when there is a “clear and obvious error” involving goals, penalty awards, red cards, and mistaken identity. Replays could lead to delays in games in Russia as different angles are reviewed, presenting an opportunity for FIFA to brand up the segment on the global broadcast feed. “We are talking to various technological companies who are very interested with what we are doing on the technology side of things,” Floc’h said on board the World Cup trophy tour plane during a stop at London Stansted Airport. The final decision on allowing replays to become part of the rules of the game falls to the International Football Association Board on March 3 when its annual meeting is held at FIFA. Video review has been expected at the World Cup because FIFA controls half the votes in IFAB’s decision. The other voters are the four British soccer federations. Monday’s meeting brought together IFAB technical experts, FIFA refereeing officials, and researchers from the University of Leuven in Belgium, who have studied use of video review in 804 games across more than 20 competitions. “The discussions we had today do not indicate that further experiments need to be conducted,” said Johannes Holzmueller, FIFA’s lead official for technological innovation. 46
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IFAB’s research showed one “clear and obvious error” in every three games for decisions involving goals, penalty awards, red cards, and mistaken identity. That rate equates to 21 errors in a 64-game World Cup in Russia. In the 804 competitive games, video review technology was decisive in 8 percent of them — the equivalent of five World Cup games. The research suggested referees’ accuracy in key decisions rose from 93 percent to 98.9 percent.
FRENCH LEAGUE TERMINATES GOALLINE TECHNOLOGY CONTRACT The French football league has terminated the contract with its goal-line technology provider after a series of glitches. The LFP had already suspended the use of GoalControl, the German system that was deployed at the 2014 World Cup. According to L’Equipe newspaper, the league will launch a tender in February to find a new provider of the technology that determines whether the ball crossed the line. In recent months, the French league had repeatedly expressed its discontent with Goal Control. Goal-line technology entered soccer after a goal was wrongly disallowed at the 2010 World Cup. FIFA is already focused on fast-tracking the next phase of technology — video assistant referees — for the World Cup in June. Goal-line technology and VAR were provided by Hawk-Eye at the Confederations Cup last year. 48
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Image: Elaine Thompson
GET YOUR STUFF AND GO: AMAZON OPENS STORE WITH NO CASHIERS
No cashiers, no registers and no cash — this is how Amazon sees the future of store shopping. The online retailer opened its Amazon Go concept to the public this week in Seattle, which lets shoppers take milk, potato chips or readyto-eat salads off its shelves and just walk out. Amazon’s technology charges customers after they leave. “It’s such a weird experience, because you feel like you’re stealing when you go out the door,” said Lisa Doyle, who visited the shop this week. 51
Amazon employees have been testing the store, at the bottom floor of the company’s Seattle headquarters, for about a year. Amazon.com Inc. said it uses computer vision, machine learning algorithms and sensors to figure out what people are grabbing off its store shelves. The store is yet another sign that Amazon is serious about expanding its physical presence. It has opened more than a dozen bookstores, taken over space in some Kohl’s department stores and bought Whole Foods last year, giving it 470 grocery stores. But Amazon Go is unlike its other stores. Shoppers enter by scanning the Amazon Go smartphone app at a turnstile, opening plastic doors. When an item is pulled of a shelf, it’s added to that shopper’s virtual cart. If the item is placed back on the shelf, it is removed from the virtual cart. Not everyone can shop at the store: People must have a smartphone and a debit or credit card they can link to be charged. Amazon said families can shop together with just one phone scanning everyone in. Anything they grab from the shelf will also be added to the tab of the person who signed them in. But don’t help out strangers: Amazon warns that grabbing an item from the shelf for someone else means you’ll be charged for it. There’s little sign of the technology visible to customers, except for black boxes, cameras and a few tiny flashing green lights in the darkened, open ceiling above. One shopper, Paul Fan, tested the technology by turning off his phone and taking items and 52
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Image: Bloomberg
putting them in incorrect spots. The app was still able to tally up his items correctly. “It’s really smart,” he said. At 1,800 square feet, Amazon Go resembles a convenience store, except for a kitchen visible from the street where sandwiches and readyto-cook meal kits are prepared. A small section features products from the Whole Foods 365 brand. There’s no hot coffee or hot food, but microwaves are available for customers who want to warm something up. Beer and wine is in a cornered-off section where a staffer checks ID before anyone enters. The store has other employees, too, who make food, stock shelves and help customers. This week, workers were on hand to help shoppers find and download the Amazon Go app and guide them through the exit. The company had announced the Amazon Go store in December 2016 and said it would open by early 2017, but it delayed the debut while it worked on the technology and company employees tested it out. By lunchtime on day one, Amazon’s no-lines hope was thwarted, at least outside the store: There were at least 50 people waiting to enter, in a line that stretched around the corner. Peter Gray, who said he typically shops online and avoids physical stores, stopped by Amazon Go after seeing it on Twitter. “Just being able to walk out and not interact with anyone was amazing,” he said.
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APPLE’S HOMEPOD IS ON THE HORIZON Apple’s $349 HomePod is now available to preorder and the wireless speaker will be in stores on February 9. The HomePod will be on sale in US, UK and Australia and will rollout to France and Germany in the spring. Apple will finally compete with the likes of Google Home and Amazon’s Echo as they bring out their own smart speaker. Apple is promoting it as a speaker primarily and an assistant second. This is a speaker that could transform how you listen to music at home as it claims to analyze the room to deliver exceptional quality. It will also allow you to make lists, write emails, send messages and ask the weather, but how will it compare with others on the market?
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Image: Justin Sullivan
APPLE’S HOMEPOD FINALLY HAS FCC APPROVAL Apple originally suggested the HomePod would be available in December 2017, but they failed to meet this promise. Apple then promised the device will be ready in “early 2018” and we have only just received confirmation that it will launch on February 9, a lot sooner than we thought. Apple has finally obtained FCC approval for their HomePod, meaning they are free to begin selling their device. They need this approval from the United States Federal Communications Commission because all communications technologies like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi need to be approved before they can be sold.
WWDC ‘17: Apple HomePod first look
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Apple received FCC approval for the iPhone X on October 4 and was able to release the phone on November 3, and the HomePod’s release has followed a similar pattern. We can finally get our hands on the speaker in early February. According to The Taipei Times, Apple supplier Inventec has began shipping the first million HomePods to Apple. Apple will finally be able to compete with the likes of Google Home and Amazon’s Echo. Some claim that Apple has joined the party too late, but their smart speaker does offer a lot of unique features that could set it apart from their competition.
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APPLE TO COMPETE WITH GOOGLE HOME AND AMAZON’S ECHO When the HomePod is released, the battle of the smart speakers will truly commence. Smart speakers were all the rage in 2017, and it is only now that Apple is finally catching up. All the leading smart speakers will tell you the news, how much traffic there is, and whether you will need an umbrella, but how do they differ and which gets you the most for your money? In terms of design, its down to personal preference and in reality, they don’t differ much. Amazon’s Echo has become a lot more inconspicuous, but Google Home will definitely blend into your home better. You even have the option of choosing different colors for the base. In comparison, Apple’s HomePod is perhaps a little bland, but many prefer this minimalistic look. Google Home has undoubtedly been deemed the best at voice recognition, and it can be paired with your Chromecast so you can stream
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directly to your TV. The Echo definitely beats Google Home when it comes to sound quality, however, while Apple’s HomePod hasn’t had much time to prove itself yet, it is already being voted as having the best sound quality of the three. Many have commented that Google Home is a little base heavy, while the Echo can be paired with any Apple or Android smartphone with Bluetooth casting, its sound quality does not come close to Apple’s product. Apple claims their speaker “senses the room and tunes the music”. They claim the smart speaker can analyse the acoustics of any room and will adjust the sound accordingly. We also have to also consider the price of the three leading smart speakers. Apple’s HomePod is the most expensive at $349, while the Echo originally launched at £150 and the new Echo 2 is sold for £90. Google Home is sold at £130, but they both also have smaller, and cheaper, versions that Apple does not offer. The Echo Dot and Google Home Mini both retail at £50. Therefore, Amazon’s smart speaker wins on price, but for many, Google Home wins on value for money.
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REVOLUTIONISING MUSIC Critics say the sound quality of Google’s HomePod easily beats Amazon’s Echo and Google Home, and this is only to be expected, given the price. How accurate Apple’s claim is that it can analyze the acoustics of any room and adjust the sound accordingly is still yet to be determined. However, their claim that the speaker can hear you over the music no matter how far away you are and how loud the music is has proved true.
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While Amazon and Google both focus on the smart side of their assistant, it is the sound quality that Apple is emphasizing. They are marketing it as a speaker first and foremost, choosing to reiterate the quality of the sound. The speaker, of course, works with Apple Music and users can not only ask it to play a specific song but can also ask a series of questions including when the song was recorded, who it is by and who the drummer was.
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Apple HomePod Special Event in 8 minutes
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A DEDICATED A8 CHIP You might be wondering what powers this speaker to give it such a powerful sound. It is the dedicated A8 chip that analyses and delivers outstanding sound quality. Apple claims this chip is the most powerful processor to ever be found in a speaker. It is the same chip that appeared in the iPhone 6 in 2014, and while this is not the latest Apple has released, it is undoubtedly the most powerful to ever have featured in a speaker. The HomePod is equipped with a 4in, upward-facing woofer and seven beam-forming tweeters. These each come with their own amplifier. Apple even claims it has automatic bass equalization and dynamic audio modeling. All of this is powered by the A8 chip. This chip even helps it determine if there is another HomePod in the room so the two can work together to
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deliver ultimate sound quality. However, this feature might not be available with initial launch and may require a future software update. Overall, Apple has done a good job creating a speaker that really does fill the room with sound.
IT’S MORE THAN JUST A SPEAKER While, Apple is pitching the HomePod as a speaker primarily, it does excel in other areas. HomePod is also a HomeKit hub, meaning you can control other accessories using it. You can run automations through it without an Apple TV or an iPad in the house. The smart speaker can also play Apple Podcasts, set reminders, provide weather updates and send messages. It’s still unclear if the HomePod will have multiuser features. It will also have multi-room audio playback using AirPlay 2 and two HomePods will be able to pair. It comes in both black and white and the top will be touch sensitive, allowing you to activate Siri manually. The HomePod is likely to be popular with anyone who already uses a variety of Apple products if they are willing to pay the price. It is also the best choice for anyone who rates sound quality highly. It remains to be seen whether the big price tag will harm its sales and prevent it competing on the same level as Google Home and Amazon’s Echo.
by Benjamin Kerry & Gavin Lenaghan
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FACEBOOK TO EMPHASIZE ‘TRUSTWORTHY’ NEWS VIA USER SURVEYS
Facebook is taking another step to try to make itself more socially beneficial, saying it will boost news sources that its users rate as trustworthy in surveys. In a blog post and a Facebook post from CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company said it is surveying users about their familiarity with and trust in news sources. That data will influence what others see in their news feeds. It’s the second major tweak to Facebook’s algorithm announced this month. The socialmedia giant, a major source of news for users, has struggled to deal with an uproar over fake news and Russian-linked posts, meant to influence the 2016 U.S. elections, on its platform. The company has slowly acknowledged its role in that foreign interference. 75
Zuckerberg has said his goal for this year is to fix Facebook , whether by protecting against foreign interference and abuse or by making users feel better about how they spend time on Facebook. Facebook announced last week that it would try to have users see fewer posts from publishers, businesses and celebrities, and more from friends and family. Zuckerberg said because of that, news posts will make up 4 percent of the news feed , down from 5 percent today. Facebook says it will start prioritizing news sources deemed trustworthy in the U.S. and then internationally. It says it has surveyed a “diverse and representative sample” of U.S. users and next week it will begin testing prioritizing the news sources deemed trustworthy. Publishers with lower scores may see a drop in their distribution across Facebook. “There’s too much sensationalism, misinformation and polarization in the world today. Social media enables people to spread information faster than ever before, and if we don’t specifically tackle these problems, then we end up amplifying them. That’s why it’s important that News Feed promotes high quality news that helps build a sense of common ground,” Zuckerberg wrote. Of course, there are worries that survey-takers will try to game the system, or that they just won’t be able to differentiate between highquality and low-quality news sources — an issue made evident by the spread of many fake-news items in the past few years. 76
Image: Konstantin
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Zuckerberg says that some news organizations “are only broadly trusted by their readers or watchers, and others are broadly trusted across society even by those who don’t follow them directly.” But this is complicated. In the U.S., there has been a growing partisan split in perceptions of the media . Roughly a third of Democrats in early 2017 said they trusted information from national news organizations a lot; only 11 percent of Republicans did, according to Pew Research Center; that gap had grown from early 2016. Facebook’s move is a positive one, but that it’s not clear how effective this system will be in identifying trustworthy news sources, David Chavern, CEO of the news media trade group News Media Alliance, said in a statement last Friday. Image: Stephen Lam
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MAYBE NEXT TIME: CITIES SEE FAILED AMAZON BIDS AS TRIAL RUNS
For some of the 200-plus cities knocked out of the running for Amazon’s second headquarters, the effort may turn out to be a trial run for other opportunities. But they’re advised to not make the same kind of promises to just anyone. Cities such as Detroit, Memphis, Tennessee; and Gary, Indiana, failed to make Amazon’s first cut as the online giant narrowed its list to 20 prospective sites for the $5 billion project that could employ up to 50,000 people. Looking on the bright side, several leaders whose proposals didn’t make it say the time spent putting together juicy tax incentives, massive chunks of land and infrastructure studies was not wasted. “We used this opportunity to showcase all the options in Delaware not just for Amazon, but for any business looking for a location to set down roots and grow,” the state’s governor, John Carney, said. 81
“This exercise showed us new ways to showcase our city that we are already using to attract other businesses,” Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said. Seattle-based Amazon made clear that tax breaks and grants would be a big factor in its decision. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan floated an incentive package of more than $5 billion to lure the second headquarters to Montgomery County. New Jersey’s pitch contains $7 billion in tax breaks and Boston’s offer includes $75 million for affordable housing for Amazon employees and others. Generous tax breaks and other incentives can erode a city’s tax base. Economists have said the Amazon headquarters is a rare case in which some enticements could repay a city over the long run. But the pursuit of Amazon could re-ignite an incentive war between cities, regions and states to lure companies and jobs, says Tim Bartik, a senior economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Just because they offered certain things to Amazon, doesn’t mean every company should get the same, Bartik said. “’Now that we’ve offered the store to Amazon, let’s offer the store to someone else,’” he added. “I’d be little concerned with that.” Amazon’s list includes New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, Washington, D.C., Denver, Miami, Atlanta and Chicago. Texas’ Austin and Dallas made the cut, as did Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. The others are Columbus, Ohio; Montgomery County, 82
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Maryland; Nashville, Tennessee; Newark, New Jersey; Northern Virginia; and Raleigh, North Carolina. Toronto also is on the list. Detroit’s absence from the list muted what many see as an exciting time in the city as it makes progress since its 2014 exit from bankruptcy. Businessman Dan Gilbert led the team that put together the Motor City’s proposal, which included a video showcasing the city and a more than 240-page, color, spiral-bound book. The cost of the proposal has not been revealed. “We are not deterred in any way, shape or form,” said Gilbert, founder of online mortgage lender Quicken Loans and Bedrock commercial real estate. “Detroit is the most exciting city in the country right now and the momentum continues to build every single day. There are numerous large and small deals you will continue to see develop into reality in the months and years ahead.” Some spent big on their pitches to Amazon. Worcester, Massachusetts, released invoices showing that it spent more than $10,500 on its proposal, most of it on a video. Connecticut shelled out $35,000 for renderings and drone footage. Virginia Beach, Virginia, reported spending at least $85,000. That included $3,000 to build a sand sculpture at the beach to promote its application. For areas considered longshots, going after Amazon was a bit of an experiment. “As much as this process helped identify our major assets, it also helped us to assess our gaps and where we can continue to improve,” said Birgit Klohs, chief executive of Grand Rapids, Michigan-based The Right Place, Inc. The 85
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economic development organization was part of the team making the pitch for Grand Rapids. Gov. Chris Sununu said New Hampshire’s proposal “was the most comprehensive business marketing plan” the state had produced. “We are excited that it is already serving as a template for other businesses that now have New Hampshire on their radar,” Sununu said. He did not name specific companies, and Democrats argued that if Sununu truly wanted to attract businesses, he would invest more in education, workforce development and increasing the minimum wage. 87
COMMERCIAL ROCKET FROM NEW ZEALAND DEPLOYS SMALL SATELLITES
A rocket launched from New Zealand on Sunday successfully reached orbit carrying small commercial satellites. California-based company Rocket Lab said its Electron rocket, which carries only a small payload of about 150 kilograms (331 pounds), successfully deployed an earth imaging and two other satellites for weather and ship tracking after blastoff from the Mahia Peninsula on North Island’s east coast. 88
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Company CEO and founder Peter Beck, a New Zealander, said the launch marks the beginning of a new era in commercial access to space. He said that deploying customer payloads on a second test flight “is almost unprecedented.” The company last May reached space with its first test launch, only to abort the mission due to a communication glitch. It has official approval to conduct three test launches and sees an emerging market in delivering small devices, some as big as a smartphone, into orbit. The satellites would be used for everything from monitoring crops to providing internet service.
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COMCAST HOPES FOR A TV WINDFALL FROM SUPER BOWL, OLYMPICS
Comcast’s NBC is airing both the Super Bowl and the Olympics in February, a double-whammy sports extravaganza that the company expects to yield $1.4 billion in ad sales, helping it justify the hefty price it’s paying for both events. NBC is banking heavily on these sports events since traditional TV ratings have slumped in recent years. Live sports are marquee TV events that draw most of the largest TV audiences, but even those ratings have declined. More Americans are dumping their cable packages — Comcast lost 33,000 video customers in the fourth quarter and 151,000 for all of 2017 — and advertisers are following consumers to their phones. Spending on U.S. TV ads is expected to grow an anemic 0.4 percent this year, according to eMarketer. In the October-December quarter, NBCUniversal’s broadcast TV ad revenue fell 6.5 percent, after a boost in 2016 from election 93
ads. As it adapts to a slowing TV market, NBC is continuing some digital efforts from Rio and expanding others to meet viewers wherever they are — whether in front of a TV or not.
THE SUPER BOWL The Super Bowl reaches more than 100 million people in the U.S., outstripping every other TV event. It’s the most expensive ad time on TV. This year’s Super Bowl is Feb. 4 and follows a two-year slump in regular-season NFL ratings, according to ESPN . But NBC has said it is not worried about a lack of interest. The game is an event that “transcends sport and even the game itself,” Dan Lovinger, an NBC Sports ad-sales executive, said in January, about three weeks before the game. NBC said then that it had nearly sold out Super Bowl ad spots and that on average, companies are paying more than $5 million for 30-second ads during the game. Kantar Media expects rates slightly higher than last year’s $5.05 million. Fox aired the Super Bowl in 2017, and said it had $500 million in ad revenues for the day. NBC has predicted about $500 million for the game and associated events this year. NBC also makes money from ads during events before and after the game and a special episode that day of its hit drama, “This is Us.” For the first time, it’s selling ads for the game that will only appear on its app or website.
ADS FROM PYEONGCHANG NBC is paying $963 million for the broadcast rights to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South 94
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Korea, which follow a Summer Olympics in Rio two years ago that disappointed in some ways. NBC ruled the airwaves during the Rio Games, besting other networks, and raked in $250 million in profit. But ratings for the prime-time broadcast declined compared to the London Olympics in 2012, so NBC had to give advertisers some extra ad slots to make up for it. This time around, NBC will sell ads for this Olympics based on total viewership, counting cable and digital viewers as well as those who tune into NBC proper. That gives them more leverage with advertisers, said Brian Wieser, an ad analyst for Pivotal Research Group. NBC expects to sell more than $900 million worth of ads for the Olympics, which it says would be the highest ever for a Winter Games. (Summer Games are more popular.) The company is offering more hours of programming this year, both on TV and online, than it did for the Sochi Games in 2014.
KEEPING FANS HAPPY Past Olympics have been criticized by fans for tape-delayed events. This year, NBC will air its nightly prime-time broadcast simultaneously across the country. That means the West Coast evening broadcast will start early, at 5 p.m. The company says it will be able to show many Olympics events live for the U.S. audience, including skiing, snowboarding and figure skating. (U.S. prime time starts at 10 a.m. Korean time.) But some popular events will be live at odd hours in the U.S. Speed skating will take place in the evening in Korea, for example — but morning in the U.S. 96
Image: Cameron Spencer
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NBC will stream the opening ceremony at 6 a.m. Eastern on Feb. 9, but only for cable customers. A delayed version will air on prime time. And it’s not yet clear whether exciting medal-round events will be shown at the best time for NBC’s ratings, said Kantar Media chief research officer Jon Swallen. NBC just says that all figure skating, alpine skiing and freestyle snowboard finals will be aired live in either prime time or what it calls “prime-time plus,” which stretches from 11:30 p.m. until 2 a.m. Eastern.
GOING DIGITAL As it did during the Rio Olympics, NBC has again partnered with BuzzFeed to make videos on Snapchat, a messaging app popular with millennials. These will include behind-thescenes videos posted by Snapchat users, clips of athletes and Olympics venues shot by BuzzFeed, and snippets of NBC’s own Olympics coverage. NBC’s revenue from its Snapchat deal is in the tens of millions, said an NBC Sports spokesman. The broadcaster is also teaming up with the online news site Vox to make a daily Olympics podcast for the 18 days of competition. NBC parent Comcast is showcasing both NBC’s Olympics broadcasts and streaming video for its home cable customers in a way that will be easily searchable on TV sets. In its fourth-quarter earnings report on Wednesday, Comcast said its net income soared to $15 billion, or $3.17 per share, from $2.3 billion, or 48 cents per share, because of a one-time impact from tax changes recently signed into law. Revenue climbed 4 percent to $21.92 billion. 99
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by Hany Abu-Assad Genre: Drama Released: 2017 Price: $9.99
144 Ratings
Trailer
Movies &
TV Shows
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Rotten Tomatoes
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%
The Mountain Between Us Kate Winslet and Idris Elba’s characters become stranded on a remote snowcovered mountain following a plane crash. From here on out this suspense drama is a battle for survival as the pair begin their perilous journey home. The strangers are forced to work together, and they discover their own inner strength as they fight for their lives.
FIVE FACTS: 1. Much of the film was shot in Canada, on the border of Alberta and British Columbia. 2. Both Michael Fassbender and Margot Robbie dropped out of the movie, followed by Charlie Hunnam and Rosamund Pike. Idris Elba and Kate Winslet were eventually cast in the leading roles. 3. Filming was delayed a few days so Kate Winslet could attend Alan Rickman’s funeral. 4. In an interview, the director said the high altitude caused the actors to faint due to lack of oxygen. 5. Kate Winslet wouldn’t let her stunt double fall through the ice for her, stating that when you sign up for a part, you have to play the whole part.
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“We Don’t Have A Choice”
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Happy Death Day This petrifying thriller features a college student who is forced to relive the day of her murder. She lives through the mundane details as well as her terrifying end. She is trapped in this seemingly unending torture until, finally, she unveils the identity of her killer.
FIVE FACTS: 1. In one scene, Tree walks across the campus quad completely naked. This had to be filmed quickly as they were filming on a real college campus and couldn’t risk students witnessing the scene and taking photos. 2. Originally, the film was going to be called Half to Death. 3. Christopher Landon thinks too many horror films take themselves too seriously and argues that fear and humor work well together. 4. The original mask for the killer, designed by Tony Gardner, was a pig but this had been used in the Saw movies. 5. While testing out the killer’s baby mask, director Christopher Landon scared a worker in his office while testing out the baby mask. Trailer
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by Christopher Landon Genre: Thriller Released: 2017 Price: $14.99
139 Ratings
Rotten Tomatoes
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Happy Death Day Movie Clip Tree Gets Attacked (2017)
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“From Now On” with Hugh Jackman
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The Greatest Showman Various Artists
Genre: Soundtrack Released: Dec 8, 2017 11 Songs Price: $9.99
1.7K Ratings
The soundtrack from the ultimate feel-good film will have you singing along and grinning from ear to ear throughout. The Greatest Showman is a celebration of the birth of show business, following the true story of a man who challenged social norms to bring the excluded and mocked out from the shadows. The film is a celebration of humanity, and so is the soundtrack that accompanies it.
FIVE FACTS: 1. Hugh Jackman’s favorite track is ‘This is Me’, which is all about celebrating our differences and accepting who we are. 2. While the film is set in the 1800s, the decision was taken to make the songs are far more contemporary, evoking pop and hiphop genres, rather than the more classical music style of the time. 3. Rebecca Ferguson’s voice was dubbed by Loren Allred. 4. All eleven songs are written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who also wrote the award-winning tracks that featured in La La Land (2016) 5. Zac Efron has starred in four other musicals, including the High School Musical trilogy and Hairspray.
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“Come Alive” Live Performance
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Hallelujah Nights LANCO Their new album encompasses everything LANCO are known for and showcases feelgood country anthems with an edge of classic rock and blues. This much-awaited album is likely to serve as a base to their successful career and could have them following in the footsteps of Imagine Dragons and Mumford & Sons. This album is upbeat and uplifting and is packed full of anthems that you can’t help but sing along to.
FIVE FACTS: 1. Their debut EP, Extended Play, was released in April 2016. 2. Pick You Up, Win You Over and Middle of the Night are all about the same night mentioned in Greatest Love Story, their breakthrough single. 3. Jay Joyce, who has worked with the likes of Little Big Town, Zac Brown Band, and Emmylou Harris, produced the album. 4. The band’s name is short for Lancaster and Company as the band consists of lead singer Brandon Lancaster, who started the band, and four other members. 5. Greatest Love Story became the theme for the Netflix series The Ranch, in 2017.
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Genre: Country Released: Jan 19, 2018 11 Songs Price: $7.99
56 Ratings
“Hallelujah Nights”
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“Trouble Maker”
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WILD RIDE: ‘JUMANJI’ HOLDS ON TO TOP SPOT AT BOX OFFICE
“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” notched its third straight weekend on top of the box office, besting a pair of new releases — “12 Strong” and “Den of Thieves” — both of which still managed to slightly outperform expectations. Sony’s “Jumanji” took in $19.5 million in ticket sales in its fifth weekend of releases, according to final box-office figures Monday. The reboot, starring Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, has shown surprisingly strong legs after spending its first two weeks of release in second behind “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” Its cumulative total through Sunday is $316.5 million. Warner Bros ‘s “12 Strong,” about U.S. special forces sent to Afghanistan in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, followed with $15.8 million in its debut. STX Entertainment’s crime thriller “Den of Thieves” debuted in third with $15.2 million. 121
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The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Monday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by comScore:
1.
“Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle,” Sony, $19,505,170, 3,704 locations, $5,266 average, $316,450,318, 5 weeks.
2.
“12 Strong,” Warner Bros., $15,815,025, 3,002 locations, $5,268 average, $15,815,025, 1 week.
3.
“Den Of Thieves,” STX Entertainment, $15,206,108, 2,432 locations, $6,253 average, $15,206,108, 1 week.
4.
“The Post,” 20th Century Fox, $11,716,960, 2,851 locations, $4,110 average, $44,758,362, 5 weeks.
5.
“The Greatest Showman,” 20th Century Fox, $10,644,824, 2,823 locations, $3,771 average, $113,125,431, 5 weeks.
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6.
“Paddington 2,” Warner Bros., $8,009,129, 3,702 locations, $2,163 average, $24,810,362, 2 weeks.
7.
“The Commuter,” Lionsgate, $6,603,842, 2,892 locations, $2,283 average, $25,627,371, 2 weeks.
8.
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” Disney, $6,555,435, 2,456 locations, $2,669 average, $604,273,911, 6 weeks.
9.
“Insidious: The Last Key,” Universal, $5,874,055, 2,546 locations, $2,307 average, $58,658,320, 3 weeks.
10.
“Forever My Girl,” Roadside Attractions, $4,245,490, 1,114 locations, $3,811 average, $4,245,490, 1 week.
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11.
“Proud Mary,” Sony, $3,568,996, 2,125 locations, $1,680 average, $16,850,600, 2 weeks.
12.
“Phantom Thread,” Focus Features, $3,246,720, 896 locations, $3,624 average, $6,059,449, 4 weeks.
13.
“Pitch Perfect 3,” Universal, $3,022,185, 1,772 locations, $1,706 average, $100,535,230, 5 weeks.
14.
“I, Tonya,” Neon Rated, $2,859,938, 799 locations, $3,579 average, $14,508,658, 7 weeks.
15.
“Darkest Hour,” Focus Features, $2,729,810, 1,341 locations, $2,036 average, $40,792,987, 9 weeks.
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16.
“The Shape Of Water,” Fox Searchlight, $2,186,311, 853 locations, $2,563 average, $30,195,358, 8 weeks.
17.
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri,” Fox Searchlight, $1,917,162, 954 locations, $2,010 average, $31,994,519, 11 weeks.
18.
“Coco,” Disney, $1,910,672, 878 locations, $2,176 average, $200,726,972, 9 weeks.
19.
“Ferdinand,” 20th Century Fox, $1,686,160, 1,212 locations, $1,391 average, $79,172,376, 6 Weeks.
20.
“Molly’s Game,” STX Entertainment, $1,622,177, 1,091 locations, $1,487 average, $24,280,686, 4 weeks.
Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by 21st Century Fox; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.
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‘HOBBIT’ DIRECTOR PETER JACKSON MAKING WWI DOCUMENTARY
“The Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson is going from Middle Earth to the Western Front, transforming grainy black-and-white footage of World War I into 3-D color for a new documentary film. Jackson’s movie, announced this week, is among dozens of artworks commissioned by British cultural bodies to commemorate 100 years since the final year of the 1914-18 war. The New Zealand-based director of “The Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings” series has restored film from the Imperial War Museum using cuttingedge digital technology and hand coloring, pairing it with archive audio recollections from veterans of the conflict. Image: Matt Sayles
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He said the aim is to close the 100-year time gap and show “what it was like to fight in the war.” “We all know what First World War footage looks like,” Jackson said in comments broadcast. “It’s sped-up, it’s fast, like Charlie Chaplin, grainy, jumpy, scratchy, and it immediately blocks you from actually connecting with the events on screen. “But the results we have got are absolutely unbelievable. They are way beyond what I expected. “This footage looks like it was shot in the last week or two, with high definition cameras.” The film will have its premiere during the London Film Festival in October before being broadcast on BBC television. Every school in the U.K. will also receive a copy. The film is part of the government-backed 14-18 Now project, which has presented works by more than 200 artists over four years to remember a conflict in which 20 million people died. Other works premiering this year include a large-scale performance piece by South African artist William Kentridge about African porters who served in the war; processions to mark the 100th anniversary of some British women winning the right to vote; and a performance celebrating wartime homing pigeons that includes birds fitted with LED lights. Slumdog Millionaire” director Danny Boyle — who helmed the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony — will create a massparticipation work to be performed on the anniversary of the Nov. 11, 1918, armistice that ended the war. 132
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AI CAN READ! TECH FIRMS RACE TO SMARTEN UP THINKING MACHINES
Seven years ago, a computer beat two human quizmasters on a “Jeopardy” challenge. Ever since, the tech industry has been training its machines even harder to make them better at amassing knowledge and answering questions. And it’s worked, at least up to a point. Just don’t expect artificial intelligence to spit out a literary analysis of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” any time soon. 134
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Research teams at Microsoft and Chinese tech company Alibaba reached what they described as a milestone earlier this month when their AI systems outperformed the estimated human score on a reading comprehension test. It was the latest demonstration of rapid advances that have improved search engines and voice assistants and that are finding broader applications in health care and other fields. The answers they got wrong — and the test itself — also highlight the limitations of computer intelligence and the difficulty of comparing it directly to human intelligence.
ERROR! ERROR! “We are still a long way from computers being able to read and comprehend general text in the same way that humans can,” said Kevin Scott, Microsoft’s chief technology officer, in a LinkedIn post that also commended the achievement by the company’s Beijing-based researchers. The test developed at Stanford University demonstrated that, in at least some circumstances, computers can beat humans at quickly “reading” hundreds of Wikipedia entries and coming up with accurate answers to questions about Genghis Khan’s reign or the Apollo space program. The computers, however, also made mistakes that many people wouldn’t have. Microsoft, for instance, fumbled an easy football question about which member of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers got the most interceptions in the 2015 season (the correct answer was Kurt Coleman, not Josh Norman). 136
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A person’s careful reading of the Wikipedia passage would have discovered the right answer, but the computer tripped up on the word “most” and didn’t understand that seven is bigger than four. “You need some very simple reasoning here, but the machine cannot get it,” said Jianfeng Gao, of Microsoft’s AI research division.
HUMAN VS. MACHINE It’s not uncommon for machine-learning competitions to pit the cognitive abilities of computers against humans. Machines first bested people in an image-recognition competition in 2015 and a speech recognition competition last year, although they’re still easily tricked. Computers have also vanquished humans at chess, Pac-Man and the strategy game Go. And since IBM’s “Jeopardy” victory in 2011, the tech industry has shifted its efforts to dataintensive methods that seek to not just find factoids, but better comprehend the meaning of multi-sentence passages. Like the other tests, the Stanford Question Answering Dataset, nicknamed Squad, attracted a rivalry among research institutions and tech firms — with Google, Facebook, Tencent, Samsung and Salesforce also giving it a try. “Academics love competitions,” said Pranav Rajpurkar, the Stanford doctoral student who helped develop the test. “All these companies and institutions are trying to establish themselves as the leader in AI.”
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Image: Jeff Chiu
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LIMITS OF UNDERSTANDING The tech industry’s collection and digitization of huge troves of data, combined with new sets of algorithms and more powerful computing, has helped inject new energy into a machinelearning field that’s been around for more than half a century. But computers are still “far off” from truly understanding what they’re reading, said Michael Littman, a Brown University computer science professor who has tasked computers to solve crossword puzzles.
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Computers are getting better at the statistical intuition that allows them to scan text and find what seems relevant, but they still struggle with the logical reasoning that comes naturally to people. (And they are often hopeless when it comes to deciphering the subtle wink-and-nod trickery of a clever puzzle.) Many of the common ways of measuring artificial intelligence are in some ways teaching to the test, Littman said. “It strikes me for the kind of problem that they’re solving that it’s not possible to do better than people, because people are defining what’s correct,” Littman said of the Stanford benchmark. “The impressive thing here is they met human performance, not that they’ve exceeded it.”
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SPACEWALKING ASTRONAUTS GIVE NEW HAND TO ROBOT ARM
Spacewalking astronauts gave a hand to the International Space Station’s big robot arm. As the federal government geared back up 250 miles below, NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Scott Tingle successfully installed the new mechanical gripper. Because of the lingering effects of the government shutdown, the spacewalk got started in the morning without coverage on NASA TV. An on-air message simply stated: “We regret the inconvenience.” Nearly an hour into the spacewalk, however, NASA TV came alive and began broadcasting the event with typical blow-by-blow commentary. Space station operations were largely unaffected by the three-day shutdown. Considered essential personnel, Mission Control kept watch as usual at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Vande Hei performed a similar spacewalk last October, when he replaced the first of two original hands on the Canadian-built arm. This 143
second new hand will go on the opposite end of the 58-foot arm, able to move like an inchworm by grabbing hold of special fixtures. The bulky bundle of latches — more than 3 feet, or a meter, long and weighing more than 440 pounds, or 200 kilograms — needed to be replaced because of wear and tear. It’s been in orbit, grabbing cargo capsules and performing other chores, since 2001. Tingle had to use extra muscle to release a stubborn bolt securing the spare mechanical arm. “Nice work,” Vande Hei said. “And the crowd goes wild,” chimed in Mission Control. Next, the spacewalkers wrested the old, degraded hand from the robot arm. Once the new hand was in place, a software issue cropped up briefly. Six hours into the spacewalk, NASA declared victory. The spacewalk lasted 7 1/2 hours. It was the first spacewalk for Tingle, who arrived last month, and the third for Vande Hei. “Make us proud out there,” astronaut Joe Acaba told the spacewalkers from inside. “We’ll have hot chow for you when you get back.” Vande Hei will go back out Monday with another astronaut to finish the job. Then the two Russians on board will conduct a spacewalk Feb. 2 to install a new antenna on their country’s side of the outpost. The space station is home to three Americans, two Russians and one Japanese.
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CHRISTA MCAULIFFE’S LOST LESSONS FINALLY TAUGHT IN SPACE
Christa McAuliffe’s lost lessons are finally getting taught in space. Thirty-two years after the Challenger disaster, a pair of teachers turned astronauts will pay tribute to McAuliffe by carrying out her science classes on the International Space Station. As NASA’s first designated teacher in space, McAuliffe was going to experiment with fluids and demonstrate Newton’s laws of motion for schoolchildren. She never made it to orbit: She and six crewmates were killed during liftoff of space shuttle Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986. 147
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Image: Victor Zelentsov
Astronauts Joe Acaba and Ricky Arnold will perform some of McAuliffe’s lessons over the next several months. Acaba shared the news during a TV linkup last week with students at her alma mater, Framingham State University near Boston. “I can’t think of a better time or a better place to make this announcement,” Acaba said. He and Arnold “look forward to helping to inspire the next generation of explorers and educators.” Four lessons — on effervescence or bubbles, chromatography, liquids and Newton’s laws — will be filmed by Acaba and Arnold, then posted online by the Challenger Center, a not-for-profit organization supporting science, technology, engineering and math education. The center’s president, Lance Bush, said he’s thrilled “to bring Christa’s lessons to life.” “We are honored to have the opportunity to complete Christa’s lessons and share them with students and teachers around the world,” Bush said in a statement. On Friday, he thanked Acaba, who along with two station crewmates fielded questions from Framingham State students about life in space. NASA’s associate administrator for education, Mike Kincaid, said the lessons are “an incredible way to honor and remember” McAuliffe as well as the entire Challenger crew. Four of the six lessons that McAuliffe planned to videotape during her space flight will be done. A few will be altered to take advantage of what’s available aboard the space station. The lessons should be available online beginning this spring. 149
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Image: Kolenovsky
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Acaba returns to Earth at the end of February. Arnold flies up in March. NASA is billing their back-to-back missions as “A Year of Education on Station.” The two were teaching middle school math and science on opposite sides of the world — Acaba in Florida and Arnold in Romania — when NASA picked them as educatorastronauts in 2004. McAuliffe was teaching history, law and economics at Concord High School in New Hampshire when she was selected as the primary candidate for NASA’s teacher in space project in 1985. Her backup, Barbara Morgan, is on the Challenger Center’s board of directors. Morgan was NASA’s first educator-astronaut, flying on shuttle Endeavour in 2007 and helping to build the space station. McAuliffe planned to keep a journal during her space shuttle mission, and one college student asked if the astronauts were doing the same. Acaba said he’s been making entries in a leather-bound journal during his 14 years as an astronaut. He writes in it every night before he goes to sleep on the space station. “When I’m sitting on my porch sometime in the future, I’ll look back on all these great times,” Acaba said.
Online: NASA: tinyurl.com/yearofeducation Challenger Center: www.challenger.org 152
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BETTER THAN HOLOGRAMS: A NEW 3-D PROJECTION INTO THIN AIR
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One of the enduring sci-fi moments of the big screen — R2-D2 beaming a 3-D image of Princess Leia into thin air in “Star Wars” — is closer to reality thanks to the smallest of screens: dust-like particles. Scientists have figured out how to manipulate nearly unseen specks in the air and use them to create 3-D images that are more realistic and clearer than holograms, according to a study in Wednesday’s journal Nature. The study’s lead author, Daniel Smalley, said the new technology is “printing something in space, just erasing it very quickly.” In this case, scientists created a small butterfly appearing to dance above a finger and an image of a graduate student imitating Leia in the Star Wars scene. Even with all sorts of holograms already in use, this new technique is the closest to replicating that Star Wars scene. “The way they do it is really cool,” said Curtis Broadbent, of the University of Rochester, who wasn’t part of the study but works on a competing technology. “You can have a circle of people stand around it and each person would be able to see it from their own perspective. And that’s not possible with a hologram.” The tiny specks are controlled with laser light, like the fictional tractor beam from “Star Trek,” said Smalley, an electrical engineering professor at Brigham Young University. Yet it was a 155
different science fiction movie that gave him the idea: The scene in the movie “Iron Man” when the Tony Stark character dons a holographic glove. That couldn’t happen in real life because Stark’s arm would disrupt the image. Going from holograms to this type of technology — technically called volumetric display — is like shifting from a two-dimensional printer to a three-dimensional printer, Smalley said. Holograms appear to the eye to be threedimensional, but “all of the magic is happening on a 2-D surface,” Smalley said. The key is trapping and moving the particles around potential disruptions — like Tony Stark’s arm — so the “arm is no longer in the way,” Smalley said. Initially, Smalley thought gravity would make the particles fall and make it impossible to sustain an image, but the laser light energy changes air pressure in a way to keep them aloft, he said. Other versions of volumetric display use larger “screens” and “you can’t poke your finger into it because your fingers would get chopped off,” said Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor V. Michael Bove, who wasn’t part of the study team but was Smalley’s mentor. The device Smalley uses is about one-and-a-half times the size of a children’s lunchbox, he said. So far the projections have been tiny, but with more work and multiple beams, Smalley hopes to have bigger projections. This method could one day be used to help guide medical procedures — as well as for entertainment, Smalley said. It’s still years away from daily use. 156
Pictures in the air: 3D printing with light
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GOD’S PLA N
Drake
PERFECT
eD Sheeran
MEANT TO BE (FEAT. FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE)
BeBe rexha
HAVANA (FEAT. YOUNG THUG)
Camila CaBello
NO NAME
nF
FINESSE (REMIX) [FEAT. CARDI B] - SINGLE
Bruno marS
THUNDER
imagine DragonS
PARALLEL LINE
keith urBan
FILTHY
JuStin timBerlake
ROCKSTAR (FEAT. 21 SAVAGE)
PoSt malone
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THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK)
VariouS artiStS
MANIA
Fall out Boy
POET L ARTIST
Jonghyun
HALLELUJAH NIGHTS
lanCo
÷ (DELUXE)
eD Sheeran
HYSTERIA
DeF lePParD
KIDZ BOP 37
kiDZ BoP kiDS
CAMILA
Camila CaBello
PYROMANIA
DeF lePParD
REPUTATION
taylor SwiFt
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PERFECT SYMPHONY (WITH ANDREA BOCELLI)
eD Sheeran
FINESSE (REMIX) [FEAT. CARDI B]
Bruno marS
FLIP MY HAIR
JeSSie JameS DeCker
HAVANA (FEAT. YOUNG THUG)
Camila CaBello
PERFECT
eD Sheeran
END GAME (FEAT. ED SHEERAN & FUTURE)
taylor SwiFt
MIC DROP (STEVE AOKI REMIX)
BtS
DESPACITO (FEAT. DADDY YANKEE)
luiS FonSi
NO LIMIT REMIX (FEAT. A$AP ROCKY, CARDI B, FRENCH MONTANA, JUICY J & BELLY) [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
g-eaZy
YONCÉ
BeyonCé
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IT’S NOT ABOUT THE PASTA
VanDerPumP ruleS, SeaSon 6
DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER
keePing uP with the karDaShianS, SeaSon 14
2204
the BaChelor, SeaSon 22
SEVEN REASONS
the gooD DoCtor, SeaSon 1
ONE OCEAN
Blue Planet ii
THE BOY ON THE BRIDGE
the alieniSt, SeaSon 1
STORMING OUT
the real houSewiVeS oF atlanta, SeaSon 10
1-800-799-7233
grey’S anatomy, SeaSon 14
PASSING THE TORCH
Summer houSe, SeaSon 2
CLOSE TO HOME, PT. 1
the BraVe, SeaSon 1
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THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW
a. J. Finn
FALL FROM GRACE
Danielle Steel
HERE COMES THE SUN
marie ForCe
JUDGMENT ROAD
ChriStine Feehan
THE WIFE BETWEEN US
greer henDriCkS & Sarah Pekkanen
FOREVER MY GIRL
heiDi mClaughlin
FIRE AND FURY
miChael wolFF
XO, ZACH
kenDall ryan
12 RULES FOR LIFE
JorDan B. PeterSon
ALL-AMERICAN MURDER
JameS PatterSon anD otherS
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SOLAR INDUSTRY ON EDGE AS TRUMP WEIGHS TARIFFS ON PANELS
Solar energy is booming in the United States, but companies riding the wave fear that President Donald Trump could undercut them this week if he decides to impose new tariffs on imported solar panels. Businesses that install solar-power systems are benefiting from a glut of cheaper panels made overseas, mostly in Asia. That has made solar power more competitive with electricity generated from coal and natural gas. A green-technology research firm estimates that tariffs could cost up to 88,000 U.S. jobs related to installing solar-power systems. On the other side are two U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies that argue the domestic manufacturing of solar cells and modules has been decimated by a flood of imports, mostly from Chinese companies with operations throughout Asia. Imports of silicon photovoltaic cells, the building blocks of solar panels, soared nearly 500 percent Image: Freiburg im Breisgau
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between 2012 and 2016, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. The four members of the commission — two Republicans and two Democrats — unanimously ruled in October that import are hurting American manufacturers, although they differed on exactly how the U.S. should respond. Trump has until this Friday to act on the agency’s recommendations for tariffs of up to 35 percent. Trump has wide leeway — he can reject the recommendations, accept them, or go beyond them and impose tougher tariffs. Congress has no authority to review or veto his action. Countries harmed by his decision could appeal to the World Trade Organization. The trade case grew out of a complaint by Suniva Inc., a Georgia-based subsidiary of a Chinese company, which declared bankruptcy last April. Suniva was joined by SolarWorld Americas, the U.S. subsidiary of a German company. Suniva wants higher tariffs than those recommended by the trade commission. The U.S. Commerce Department imposed stiff anti-dumping duties on imported panels made from Chinese solar cells in 2012 and 2015. Tim Brightbill, SolarWorld Americas’ lawyer, said Chinese companies have gotten around those sanctions by assembling panels from cells produced in other Asian countries such as Malaysia and Vietnam. That makes the current trade case even more important, he said. “It is a global case. It addresses the global import surge,” Brightbill said. “We need the strongest possible remedies from President Trump to maintain solar manufacturing here in the United States.” 170
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A consultant for SolarWorld said tariffs on imports could create up to 45,000 U.S. jobs, assuming that domestic capacity grows, and installation jobs would also increase. But U.S. manufacturing of solar cells employed only about 1,300 people at its recent peak in 2012, according to the trade commission. While U.S. solar-cell manufacturing has shriveled, installations — from home rooftops to utility-scale operations — have boomed. Installations have soared more than tenfold since 2010, with the biggest jump coming in 2016, after prices for solar panels collapsed. In 2016, solar was the largest source of new U.S. electricity-generating capacity. The Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group for U.S. installers, says tariffs would drive up the cost of installing solar-power systems, leading to a drop in demand. “We are selling energy that can be created by wind, by natural gas, by hydro, by coal, by nukes. When you raise the price of what we are selling, we can’t compete,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, the group’s president. Jim Petersen, CEO of PetersenDean, a California company that installs solar rooftop panels mostly for residential customers, once favored tariffs on imported panels, which he found to be of inferior quality. He has changed his mind. Petersen said tariffs could stunt his business by raising the cost of a job, which ranges from $6,000 to $60,000 or more. He said he might be forced to lay off up to 25 percent of his 3,200 installers. “This is bad for American jobs, bad for the consumer,” he said. 172
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In the New Mexico desert, Albuquerquebased Affordable Solar is working on a $45 million solar farm to help power a massive new data center for Facebook. The company’s president, Kevin Bassalleck, said tariffs would hurt homegrown companies that make racks, tracking systems and electronics that are part of a power system. He said jobs at those companies are hard to outsource. “If you ever set foot in a solar module assembly factory, most of what you see are robots. There are very few people,” he said. “But if go out on to any one of our project sites like the Facebook project, you would see a small army of people working and installing things.” U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat and advocate for renewable energy, said tariffs won’t revive U.S. solar manufacturing. “The jobs that have been lost because of cheaper solar cells have already been lost,” Heinrich said in an interview. “These tariffs are then going to take the very rapidly growing, successful, good jobs that we have built in manufacturing of the other equipment, in installing, and reduce those jobs to a fraction of what they should be.” Many people on both sides of the debate expect Trump to impose sanctions. Brightbill, the lawyer for SolarWorld Americas, sounded confident. “This administration’s focus is on U.S. manufacturing and U.S. jobs and getting tough on China for the trade deficit,” he said, “so we think the administration’s goals are very wellaligned with saving U.S. solar manufacturing.” 175
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UK REGULATOR SAYS FOX TAKEOVER OF SKY NOT IN PUBLIC INTEREST
British regulators said this week that 21st Century Fox’s takeover of London-based pay TV company Sky is not in the public interest because it would give Rupert Murdoch too much control over the country’s news media. But they offered remedies that may pave the way for the deal go ahead. The regulator’s preliminary finding is the latest hurdle for Fox’s effort to buy the 61 percent of Sky PLC it doesn’t already own for 11.7 billion pounds ($16.3 billion). A previous takeover attempt six years ago was derailed by the phone-hacking scandal at Murdoch’s British newspapers. 177
The findings of the Competition and Markets Authority will be finalized by May 1, when the regulator will send its report to the government, which will make a final ruling on the Sky deal. That decision may ultimately be a moot point because the Walt Disney Co.’s $52.4 billion bid for most of Fox would give Disney — not Murdoch — full ownership of Sky. Regulators said the Sky takeover raises concerns about Murdoch’s power over British media because his family trust already controls News Corp., which owns newspapers such as the Times and the Sun, and the deal would increase its control of the influential Sky News channel. Even before the Sky bid, liberal politicians claimed Murdoch had too much influence over public debate, with his papers often supporting conservative causes. “The (Murdoch family trust’s) news outlets are watched, read or heard by nearly a third of the U.K.’s population, and have a combined share of the public’s news consumption that is significantly greater than all other news providers, except the BBC and ITN,” the regulator said in a statement. “Due to its control of News Corp., the Murdoch family already has significant influence over public opinion, and full ownership of Sky by Fox would strengthen this even further.” But the regulators also offered ways for Fox to remove their objections, including a spin-off of Sky News or “behavioral remedies” that would reduce the Murdoch family’s ability to direct the channel’s news coverage. Fox said it was “disappointed” by the ruling on media plurality, while Sky took note of the suggested remedies. 178
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The authority recognized that the completion of Disney’s bid for Fox would weaken concerns about media plurality, because Disney would own Sky. But the authority said there was no way to guarantee when or if Disney’s takeover of Fox will be completed so the British government’s review of the Sky merger must go forward. “We cannot be sufficiently confident at this stage whether, when, or how the Disney/Fox transaction will complete,” the regulator said. Former British Culture Secretary Karen Bradley asked the authority to evaluate the takeover in September, directing it to look at Fox’s commitment to broadcasting standards and the deal’s impact on media plurality in the U.K. In its decision, the regulator dismissed concerns about broadcasting standards, saying that Fox and Sky had a good record in this area. As part of its investigation, the authority considered allegations of sexual harassment at Fox News in the U.S. “While these are serious, the CMA has provisionally found that these are not directly related to the attainment of broadcasting standards and do not call into question Fox’s or the (Murdoch family trust’s) commitment to broadcasting standards in the U.K,” the authority said. Campaign group Avaaz did not bother to hide its disappointment that the authority did not hold the Murdoch empire to account for alleged sexual harassment in the workplace and other issues. They promised to fight on. “The watchdog has let the Murdochs squirrel out of any responsibility for the hacking, 181
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harassment and hush money at his companies,” Alex Wilks, Campaign Director, Avaaz. “In the coming weeks they’ll hear from citizens, victims and whistleblowers to show them they got this wrong.” Analysts said the ruling may actually be good news for the takeover because the spinoff of Sky News is workable — while it would have a less clear path for the companies to mitigate concerns about broadcasting standards. Shares of Sky plc rose 2.3 percent in London. “It has a path to conclusion,” said media analyst Alice Enders of the decision. “That’s why the markets are so jolly.” Fox is seeking to consolidate its control over Sky as media companies try to combine content creation and distribution channels amid pressure from competitors such as Netflix, Google and Amazon. Sky’s European pay TV operation has 22.5 million customers, attracted by offerings such as English Premier League soccer and “Game of Thrones.” A previous bid for the whole of Sky foundered amid the 2011 phone-hacking scandal, in which journalists working for Murdoch newspapers were accused of gaining illegal access to the voicemail messages of celebrities, members of the royal family and crime victims. Murdoch’s News Corp. withdrew its bid for Sky in 2012. Labour Party Deputy Leader Tom Watson, a long-time opponent of the Murdochs, tweeted that the regulator was “right to say that the Fox takeover of Sky would give the Murdoch family too much power.” “This is the right decision for the U.K.,” he said. 183
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