It's Wednesday and a short week for us here at SYDCON. Our office is closed Friday, so be on the lookout for IT Thing tomorrow! We had the big Apple event on Monday, the unexpected FBI pause in the Apple encryption case and some other tech news. So, I figured today would be a good day for a tech news roundup. Who's up for that? Let's see what I got.
1. Apple's March 21st announcement. Whelp, Apple in case you missed it announced a bunch of new toys. No longer are these events veiled in secrecy, lately, the leaks are taking the "shock and awe" effect away. So, what did they announce? You can find the full list here via Wired Magazine, but here are a few highlights. The iPhone SE, which did nothing for me as I like the size of my 6 Plus, a smaller iPad Pro, and updates to Apple TV. There was also the release of iOS 9.3 that unveils the Night Shift mode and also, there is a patch that helps patch a Message bug!
2. Samsung headgear to monitor concussions. Concussions in sports today are all too common. Samsung created a prototype to help monitor concussion in contact sports. The device is dubbed "The Brain Band".
3. Cars may warn you if you're getting drowsy. A Massachusetts-based startup, Affectiva has developed an emotion recognition technology that hopes to detect when someone is getting tired.
4. IBM's Watson analyzes the Harry Potter series. Ok, I thought this was just plain cool. IBM researcher Vinith Misra fed the computer the entire Harry Potter book AND movie series to see if the supercomputer would find the same similarities and difference as humans. The results were amazing and I can say I, as someone who read the series and saw all the movies agree with Watson on most things, and was pleasantly enlightened on others.
5. Apple vs. The FBI. Well, in an odd twist of events, the government requested to call off a hearing scheduled for Tuesday. Why? Well because an unnamed third party claims to be able to unlock the iPhone in question without Apple's assistance. Hmm. Apple and iPhone users everywhere should be concerned. Also, if this is indeed the case, isn't it the government's responsibility to share said "hacking ability" with Apple? Is this route any different than anything found on the dark web or those other countries may be using to weaken the cyber security of Apple, it's customers and technology in general? If the government exploits a vulnerability that Apple isn't aware of, are they not liable to inform Apple so a patch can be deployed?
In other random tech news, as I mentioned last Friday, I have been practicing what I preach and learning some code. Today, I have a course "challenge" to complete. In case you were wondering, I am dabbling in VERY basic HTML and CSS. Wish me luck! Happy Wednesday!
