Davemichels

I always think that when I’m on a cruise I’ll be able to catch up on all the writing projects that I‘m behind on. But somehow that never happens.

Every ship is full of distractions and unusual forms of entertainment designed to keep the crowds coming back. And so far it has been working very well on me.

With 27.2 million passengers projected for 2018 and only 20% of US citizens having ever taken a cruise, there is an enormous untapped market left to conquer. The industry has seen 2100% growth since the 1970s, but that’s still only the tip of the iceberg.

A record 27 new ships are set to debut in 2018. Along with new ships comes a fierce competition to “out design,” “out tech,” and “out class” the competition.

But being out on the ocean creates its own set of challenges when it comes to accessing technology, which has put cruise ships behind land-based attractions in terms of digital attractions. Recently, however, cruise lines have dedicated more resources to increasing the connectedness of their vessels.

As connectedness improves, suddenly the sky is the limit for competing with inland resorts.

Key Industry Trends

Here are a few near term trends that will set the stage for longer-range ideas to take root.

• Pushing the Envelope Experiences. Island hopping is so yesterday. Next generation cruisers will be looking for that unique one-of-a-kind experience to tell their friends about. Whether its underwater caving, or playing with swarmbots, or eating dinner made from glowing energy balls, or sleeping on touchless airbeds, future tech is where our next-gen cruisers live.
• Multigenerational cruising is projected to increase in popularity in 2018 and beyond – but with a twist. More grandparents and grandchildren will travel together, but without the parents.
• Health and wellness cruises are on the rise. Travelers are seeking health and wellness experiences for the mind and body. Today’s cruise travelers can participate in on-board health wellness seminars led by popular health experts, custom fitness programs, stress management and spa services.
• From ‘Braincations’ to Working Vacations. Future cruises will span the spectrum from super connected to the super unconnected with some going so far as to billing themselves as “interventionist retreats” with 12 step programs to help cure those suffering from severe online addiction.
• No longer warm weather only cruises as colder climate destinations like the Baltics, Canada, Alaska, and Antarctica are becoming more appealing. With unusual excursions ranging from penguin watching to ice fishing, these regions are drawing both new and repeat cruise travelers.
• A cruise for any budget. Even though the average age of today’s cruise passenger is over 50 years old with a median household income of $109,000, a recent survey showed 33% of those who took a cruise within the past 3 years have a household income of under $80,000.
• Ocean cruises add more capacity than river cruises. As the industry grows, cruise lines will invest more heavily in ocean-going vessels which attract younger generations. In the next nine years, investment into riverboats is expected to fall to nearly zero.
• Increase in Smart Travel Technology – The coming year will see a rise in traveller-friendly on-board technologies. Several cruise lines are introducing wearable technology for cruise guests that will provide a personalized and seamless experience on board.

Six things that will disappear on ships in the future

As new things get added to ship, many older features will disappear.

1.    Cruise cards – Will be replaced by Bluetooth bands, smartphone scans, and facial recognition

2.    Using cash – Already nearly gone

3.    Gambling – With the rise of artificial intelligence, gambling, in it’s current form, will not survive.

4.    Massage showerheads – Next generation showerheads will be far cooler

5.    Paper receipts – Enormous waste of time and materials

6.    Human bartenders – The robots are coming

59 things you’ll be able to do on future cruise ships that you can’t do today

Increased use of Biometrics – Facial Recognition

1.    Biometric check-in process

2.    Biometric door locks – that recognize your face

3.    Biometric purchases – digital identity

4.    Biometric health scans

Expanding use of Drones

5.    Onboard drone airport – For drones ranging from supply delivery, to passenger delivery, to entertainment drones

6.    Drone boarding – For elite guests, passengers will skip the boarding process entirely and be flown directly onto the ship. Eventually this will happen even when ships are at sea

7.    Drone docks on balconies – For food deliveries, laundry, flower delivery

8.    Drone ambulances

9.    Drone taxis with multiple landing pads

10. Drone firework launches

11. Laser drone skeet shooting

12. Video/photo drone rentals to capture excursion experiences

Mixed Reality

Over time, terms like virtual reality and augmented reality will disappear. Mixed reality is the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time.

13. Mixed Reality behind-the-scenes tours of the galley, bridge, and engine room

14. Mixed Reality movies

15. Mixed Reality video games

16. Mixed Reality 3D art training

17. Mixed Reality classes

18. Mixed Reality therapy

19. Mixed Reality speed dating

20. Mixed Reality preview of future cruises

Internet of Things

21. Sensor-laced interactive clothing

22. Smart swimsuits – To let you know if you’re getting too much sun

23. Smart beds – Creating perfect rhythms to sleep by

24. Immersive sleep capsules

Artificial Intelligence

25. AI menu-chef coordination at restaurants

26. AI sleep-optimizers will control all of the environmental factors – heat, light, sound, oxygen levels, smells, positioning, vibration levels, and more.

27. AI selection of movies and television shows based on moods, ratings, and personal preferences

28. AI music selection will be based on moods, ratings, and musical tastes

Cryptocurrency

29. Pay with cryptocurrencies

30. Cryptocurrency ATMs

31. Cryptocurrency Loans

32. Cryptocurrency Safes – Digital vaults for your digital money

Makerspaces

33. Prototyping classes

34. 3D modeling software classes

35. Make your own jewelry

36. Make your own pottery

37. Make your own purses

38. Make your own IoT devices

39. Create your own music/audio studios

40. Create your own video studios

3D Printing

41. Full body scans for 3D printing

42. 3D printed makeup for women. Just insert a person’s face and the machine will be programmed to apply the exact makeup pattern requested by the user

43. Hyper-personalized precision-based pharmaceuticals produced by 3D pill printers

44. Scan and 3D print your own custom designed clothing

45. Scan and 3D print your own custom designed shoes

46. Shapies – 3D printed sculptures of you and your family

47. Expectant mothers can 3D printed models of their unborn baby

48. Trash can be sorted, cleaned, and turned into material that can be 3D printed

Miscellaneous

49. Cellphone to cellphone communications

50. Robotic chef food preparation

51. Auto-swinging hammocks

52. Telepresence rooms

53. Beer yoga (yes it’s a thing… sort of)

54. AI scrapbooking to give you a personal record of your trip

55. Order products on Amazon and have them delivered to the ship

56. Cannabis cooking classes

57. Hatchet throwing competitions

58. Video game tournaments

59. Self-filling water bottles with built-in atmospheric water harvesters.

The coming floating island culture

One possible game changer for the cruise industry will be floating islands.

Started in 2008 as a libertarian approach to opting out of traditional governance, the Seasteading Institute is targeting 2020 as the launch date for a floating city off French Polynesia, where it hopes to use a “start-up” ethos to eventually create a climate-friendly, small-government alternative to land-based nations.

Working with the French Polynesian government, it will begin construction on the first of 15 floating platforms. The domed, greenery-filled platforms will each be roughly the size of a baseball diamond, and can be rearranged to connect to different points on the floating city’s framework.

The first “city” is expected to house approximately 300 people, but the ultimate goal is to bring in people from various countries to found new, ocean-based nations.

While the launching of island nations is on the other end of the spectrum of today’s luxury cruise industry, there will be an obvious meeting of the minds as floating city technology matures.

With plans to add a variety of resort features including underwater restaurants and aquarium bedrooms with glass wall, the traditional cruise industry will be paying close attention.

Final Thoughts

Modern cruising is a relatively new industry with most of the modern ship designs starting in the 1970s.

Look for cruise ports to become a country vs. country status symbol as economic development groups offer incentives for cruise lines to offer more routes that include their city.

As the average age of passengers drop and cruise lines attract more working executives, companies will view these ships as a fresh channel for introducing new products. Whether its food products, household gadgets, internet of things devices, software, hardware, or something else, people are continually fascinated by cutting edge products. This will open the doors for sponsorship arrangements with companies who otherwise have little connection to the cruise industry.

In addition to being a floating resort, next generation cruise ships will operate as a working laboratory for companies to research the ultimate cruise experience for every one of their passengers.

By Futurist Thomas Frey

Author of “Epiphany Z – 8 Radical Visions for Transforming Your Future”

Microsoft is releasing a big update to Windows 10 testers today, just before the new year begins. The software giant is rolling out Windows 10 build 17063 to Fast Ring testers, complete with the Timeline feature and the new window tabs the company revealed last month.

Timeline was originally supposed to ship with the Fall Creators Update, allowing Windows 10 machines to resume apps and activities across devices. Timeline will let you effectively pick up where you left off if you're switching between Windows 10 devices. Thanks to Cortana integration, this will even extend to some Microsoft apps on iOS and Android eventually. It's a quick way to move from one machine to another, much like Apple's continuity feature in iOS and macOS.

...

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 If you go to any company’s website these days, you’re probably starting to see some chat functionality more and more often — and for good reason, as it’s a quick way for those companies to get in touch with their potential customers. And SendBird, which launched in February this year out of Y Combinator, has tried to quietly begin eating up this space by giving… Read More

The internet we left behind

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Congress will vote on tax reform this week. Here's a cheat sheet for what it means for business technology, and more.

• Apple is seventh in profit per employee, Facebook is fourth, and Walmart is 99th.
• Fannie Mae, Gilead, and Freddie Mac earn the most profit for each employee of any company.
• Banks and pharmaceutical companies are all over the list, but those led by women CEOs are few and far between.

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Apple made over $45.5 billion in profits over its last fiscal year, leading Fortune's Global 500 list of profitable companies. With 116,000 employees, the tech giant profits nearly $400,000 per employee.

Using Fortune's list of 500 companies with the highest revenue, Expert Market calculated which 100 companies profit the most for every worker they employ.

To find these numbers, Expert Market simply divided the company's profit over the last financial year by the number of people it employs.

Apple did not in first; Tim Cook's company ended up in a respectable seventh on Expert Market's list. Facebook — 28th in profit but with about a tenth of the number of Apple's employees — is fourth.

Walmart — the 13th most profitable company — drops to 99th when ranked by profit per employee because of its large 2.3 million-person workforce.

Government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are first and third on the list, respectively. Fannie Mae — or more properly, the Federal National Mortgage Association — had a profit of $12.3 billion and a profit per employee of $1.76 million. Its brother organization, Freddie Mac, had a lower total profit and fewer employees but made $1.3 million for each employee.

Gilead Sciences — an American pharmaceutical company — falls in between the mortgage loaners. With $1.5 million in profits per employee, Gilead came in second on Expert Market's ranking. In total, 10 pharmaceutical companies made their way to the top 100.

Banks took up 30 spots on the list of the 1oo companies that were most profitable per employee, led by Goldman Sachs at 10th.

This year's Fortune 500 has a record 32 female CEOs, but by profit per employee, a woman-led company doesn't come in until the 55th spot, where Safra Catz is one of Oracle's two top executives. Catz is joined in the top 100 by Lockheed Martin's Marillyn Hewson, PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi, IBM's Ginni Rometty, and General Motor's Mary Barra.

Eight of the top 10 and 12 of the top 20 companies for profit per employee are American organizations. Of the remaining eight companies, three are Chinese, two are Australian, and there's one company each from Japan, Taiwan, and the UK.

SEE ALSO: 15 Fortune 500 CEOs who got their start in the military

Don't Miss: RANKED: These are the most popular tech companies in the Fortune 500, according to employees

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• Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport suffered a catastrophic power outage on Sunday.
• The outage is believed to have been caused by a fire at an underground Georgia Power facility.
• Power is expected to be restored by midnight local time.
• More than 700 flights have been canceled as a result of the outage. 

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Flight operations at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport have grounded to a halt after a suffering a massive power outage around 1 pm local time on Sunday. 

The bustling airport that handles an average of more than 280,000 travelers a day has been plunged into pitch black darkness.

Footage captured by WSB-TV in Atlanta show airport officials making their way through darkened terminal buildings with only flashlights to guide them.

Georgia Power, the airport's utility provider, is on the scene and working to restore power by midnight tonight, the company said in a statement.

The company believes the outage was the result of a fire that caused extensive damage to one of its underground electrical facilities. No employees or passengers were in danger at any time, Georgia Power said.

Consequently, the Federal Aviation Administration has issued a ground stop for all aircraft bound for Atlanta. This means that planes headed for the airport will be held at their point of origination. While the control tower in Atlanta is operational, departing flights are delayed due to the power outage in the terminal, the FAA said in a statement.

Flights already en route to Atlanta have been diverted to alternate airports.

Delta Air Lines has, thus far, canceled more than 900 flights on Sunday as a result of the outage and is working to deplane those stuck on board its aircraft at the airport. The airline expects to cancel another 300 flights on Monday. Atlanta is Delta's home base from which it operates more than 1,000 departures a day to more than 200 destinations.

In a statement, the airline said:

"Delta customers scheduled to traverse Atlanta Monday are encouraged to check their flight status as approximately 300 flights will be canceled due to Sunday’s power outage at the Atlanta airport affecting all airlines there. Delta also canceled approximately 900 mainline and Delta Connection flights Sunday and diverted 48 flights to alternate airports due to the nationwide groundstop for Atlanta-bound flights. The airline is working to reaccommodate impacted customers on alternate flights. Cancellations are designed, in part, to allow the operation to best reset Monday.

Delta leaders have been working to support customers by coordinating with Atlanta airport officials and leaders at the City of Atlanta and Georgia Power.

Delta customers are encouraged to check the status of their flight via the Fly Delta mobile app or delta.com before heading to the airport. Customers flying to, from or through Atlanta can make a one-time change to their travel plans. Details are available at delta.com.

Delta has temporarily embargoed unaccompanied minors from traveling Monday due to the power outage. Unaccompanied minors who already began their travel Sunday may continue.   

The Atlanta Airport, along with Atlanta Police Department, is restricting the vehicles allowed to the terminal drop-off and pick-up area due to congestion.The Atlanta Airport is providing updates at http://www.atl.com/media-center/"

Southwest, Atlanta's second largest tenant, has canceled all of its remaining flights into and out of the airport on Sunday. American, United, and JetBlue have also canceled all inbound and outbound Atlanta flights, WSB-TV reported.

For passengers affected by the power outage, Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, and United are offering travel waivers that will allow you to rebook on a later flight.

Here's what it looks like at the airport:

 

SEE ALSO: Delta's CEO explains why airline computers fail and how tech will change flying

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Google said today that it’ll be shutting down Project Tango next year, on March 1st. Project Tango was an early effort from Google to bring augmented reality to phones, but it never really panned out. The system was introduced in 2014 and made it into developer kits and even a couple consumer devices as recently as last year.

But those devices required special sensors. And in the meantime, Google (and competitors, like Apple) figured out ways to bring AR features to phones with just the hardware that’s already on board. Google introduced a new augmented reality system, known as ARCore, in late August. It just brought that system to the Pixel and Pixel 2 in the form of some augmented reality stickers — immediately opening AR features to...

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AOL shut down AOL Instant Messenger, aka AIM, today after 20 years of existence. AOL announced the news in October, saying the service was no longer needed because people have new ways to communicate, and AIM isn't part of our messaging diet.

“AIM tapped into new digital technologies and ignited a cultural shift, but the way in which we communicate with each other has profoundly changed,” wrote Michael Albers, communications products VP at Oath (the Verizon behemoth that consumed AOL).

The shutdown was coming for awhile, especially after AOL...

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This is just the beginning

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Following the Federal Communications Commission’s approval Thursday to repeal the open-internet rules known as net neutrality, the future of the internet is very certain for some but not for others.

Opponents to the rule change are already threatening to sue to bring back the rules the agency adopted two years ago. But those in favor, including FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who made the proposal last month, don’t expect a big change in how businesses or consumers stream movies, shop online or use the internet.

For those outside of the commission, the reality of what this could mean for business was already sinking in.

“We are a small ecommerce company that competes, and in some cases, sells goods similar to far larger players,” said Lee Meyer, CEO of interior design site Havenly.com, which is based in Denver. “The risk, economically, to us, is that ISPs begin to charge high fees for the fastest connections to consumers — fees that a company of our size can’t reasonably bear. In the consumer world, speed has a direct impact on conversion. This decision could potentially have serious impacts on what made small internet based business possible in the first place — a free and fair internet.”

Nothing will change immediately. The Office of Management and Budget must first approve the rule.

The case will probably end up court, said Blake E. Reid, a University of Colorado Boulder law professor who specializes in technology policy and telecom law. While there is a movement by some Democrats to reverse the order, it would need bipartisan support, a veto-proof majority and a presidential signature.

“Several public interest groups have announced plans to sue the FCC over the order. That challenge will be reviewed by a 3-judge panel at the DC Circuit and may ultimately be reviewed by the full court. It could also go up to the Supreme Court. The courts will consider whether the FCC’s reasoning in repealing the rules was arbitrary and capricious,” he said.

Simultaneously, a separate proposal to create a new net neutrality law could happen. That, he said, “would likely require amending the Communications Act. How that might unfold is a lot harder to predict.”

Cameron Williams, founder and Chief Technology Officer of Denver security company OverwatchID, had hoped the vote would go the other way. As the owner of a small business that uses the internet to distribute its ID security software, Williams fears his much larger competition, or competitors that get snapped up by an AT&T or another large ISP that could favor its own services over Overwatch’s.

“It’s very disconcerting for sure,” Williams said. “If our competition can afford to pay a premium (to speed up internet service) that we don’t have the budget to pay for, that puts us at a significant disadvantage.”

With a staff of 30 employees, Overwatch would probably have to hire someone to monitor whether company data is getting to clients as consistently fast as his competition.

“I hope this goes to the Supreme Court and gets overturned,” Williams said.

Ting Internet, which is working with the city of Centennial to offer gigabit internet to residents, has long voiced its support for net neutrality. After the vote, Ting officials said they don’t plan to change their business. Officials with NextLight, a community-owned internet utility service in Longmont, also said there will be no changes.

But the state’s leading internet providers have opposed net neutrality from the start. Comcast created an uproar this year when it removed some wording online that detailed its net neutrality protections — including deleting that it won’t “create paid fast lanes.” The company responded saying it has no plans to block or throttle data, or discriminate against lawful content.

CenturyLink has said it was pleased that the FCC moved forward on the issue, but on Thursday, the company said it wasn’t ready to comment.

“We look forward to working with the FCC to ensure that the internet experience for consumers and businesses, as well as the exchange of internet traffic between providers, remains positive and beneficial to all. However, we are going to wait and review the entire text of the FCC net neutrality order before commenting further to make sure we understand how the order may affect our operations and our customers,” the company said.

Related Articles

• FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is canceling his CES trip, purportedly over security concerns
• Net neutrality vote emboldens advocates for public broadband in Colorado
• Gifford: Good riddance to net neutrality
• After net neutrality: Brace for internet “fast lanes”

Boulder-based Zayo Group, which provides internet to office buildings around the globe, said the vote to overturn net neutrality won’t impact its services as an internet backbone provider.

“We believe our role at Zayo is aligned with our mission to provide enormous high-quality bandwidth and communications infrastructure to support our customers no matter what regulatory changes may take place,” the company said in a statement.

Deloitte projects 25% of passenger journeys on planes — or 1 billion trips — will feature in-flight connectivity. 

• The FCC voted to repeal net neutrality on Thursday morning and tech companies and executives spoke out in disappointment, and expressed desires to appeal the decision in court.
• The tech community has been pro-net neutrality since the plan to repeal was announced.

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Tech execs from Sheryl Sandberg to Microsoft's Brad Smith spoke out on Thursday to decry the FCC's controversial vote killing net neutrality. 

The move by the FCC eliminates rules that stop broadband providers like Comcast and Verizon from charging customers more for access to certain sites, blocking or slowing down competitors content, and charging for internet "fast lanes."

Pro-net neutrality groups argue that the rules are necessary to ensure a level internet playing field. And many of the big internet companies wasted no time in speaking out against the FCC move. 

Here's how some of the top tech companies and industry executives reacted to Thursday's controversial vote:

Netflix

Internet Association 

Michael Beckerman, President and CEO of The Internet Association, an industry organization whose members include Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce issued a statement on the IA's website with plans to fight back.

“The internet industry opposes Chairman Pai’s repeal of the 2015 Open Internet Order. Today’s vote represents a departure from more than a decade of broad, bipartisan consensus on the rules governing the internet. Relying on ISPs to live up to their own ‘promises’ is not net neutrality and is bad for consumers.

“Let’s remember why we have these rules in the first place. There is little competition in the broadband service market – more than half of all Americans have no choice in their provider – so consumers will be forced to accept ISP interference in their online experience. This is in stark contrast to the websites and apps that make up Internet Association, where competition is a click away and switching costs are low.

“The fight isn’t over. Internet Association is currently weighing our legal options in a lawsuit against today’s Order, and remains open to Congress enshrining strong, enforceable net neutrality protections into law.”

Google

Reddit 

Reddit's user community has been incredibly active in speaking out against the repeal of net neutrality, and the company itself is also pro-net neutrality.

On Reddit, CEO Steve Huffman issued a statement from him and founder Alexis Ohanian thanking users for their activism and expressing disappointment and the desire to fight back.

"Nevertheless, today’s vote is the beginning, not the end. While the fight to preserve net neutrality is going to be longer than we had hoped, this is far from over.

Many of you have asked what comes next. We don’t exactly know yet, but it seems likely that the FCC’s decision will be challenged in court soon, and we would be supportive of that challenge. It’s also possible that Congress can decide to take up the cause and create strong, enforceable net neutrality rules that aren’t subject to the political winds at the FCC. Nevertheless, this will be a complex process that takes time.

What is certain is that Reddit will continue to be involved in this issue in the way that we know best: seeking out every opportunity to amplify your voices and share them with those who have the power to make a difference." 

Read the full comment here.

Twilio

Business Insider received a statement from Twilio, written by Twilio general counsel Karyn Smith.

“Today’s vote to roll back net neutrality protections is a clear indication the FCC is moving away from its role to protect consumers. An open internet is vital to maintain competition and foster innovation – and for that we need basic ground rules and a transparent process to enforce them. We look forward to working with Congress to enact basic ground rules and a transparent process to enforce them.  They should also direct the FCC to use its authority to ensure that consumers have access to the communications they want to receive.” 

Microsoft CEO Brad Smith spoke out on Twitter:

Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg spoke out on her personal Facebook page. 

 

SEE ALSO: 'We are disappointed': Tech firms are speaking up against the FCC's plan to kill net neutrality

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It’s a red letter day for the media industry. Disney just took control of 21st Century Fox’s media empire, and the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal net neutrality regulations that prevent internet providers from discriminatory behavior. These two industry-shaking events will set media companies on a dramatic collision course with ISPs. It is the conflict that threatens the internet.

This week you might have seen lots of talk about fast and slow lanes, blocked websites, and the end of the internet. But the death of net neutrality is not going to look like a sudden apocalypse. It’s going to look more like things we’ve already seen: data caps, “free” data for...

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So by now we've pointed out how 200 engineers, internet legends, nearly 1000 startups, countless internet companies, 30 small ISPs, and millions of American consumers have told the FCC its plan to repeal net neutrality is extreme and will harm competition, innovation, and the health of the internet. But we've also pointed out repeatedly how this makes absolutely no difference at Trump's FCC, which appears mindlessly dedicated toward one singular purpose: pleasing entrenched telecom duopolies like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon.

You can add the FCC's own CTO to the long list of folks who think the FCC's net neutrality repeal is neither in the public interest, nor good for the health of the internet. In a leaked e-mail this week, FCC CTO Eric Burger (hired by Ajit Pai last October) warned that once the rules are repealed, there's really nothing in place to stop these entrenched duopolies from throttling or hamstringing services or websites they compete with:

"In an internal email to all of the FCC commissioner offices, CTO Eric Burger, who was appointed by Pai in October, said the No. 1 issue with the repeal is concern that internet service providers will block or throttle specific websites, according to FCC sources who viewed the message.

"Unfortunately, I realize we do not address that at all," Burger said in the email. "If the ISP is transparent about blocking legal content, there is nothing the [Federal Trade Commission] can do about it unless the FTC determines it was done for anti-competitive reasons. Allowing such blocking is not in the public interest."

So if you buy the FCC/big ISP argument here, the net neutrality repeal and the gutting of FCC authority over giant ISPs isn't a big deal -- because the FTC will rush in and protect consumers. But we've already noted in great detail how that's simply not going to be happening. The FTC's currently losing a lawsuit against AT&T that could obliterate that ability almost entirely. Even if they win that case, we've explored in detail how the FTC's existing authority is so limited, clever ISPs like Comcast will be able to simply tap dance around enforcement.

Another source at the FCC told Politico that Burger's concerns were just part of the everyday back and forth chatter that occurs at the FCC, and that his concerns had somehow been addressed by an update to the NPRM:

"An FCC official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations, said Burger's concerns have been addressed since his message Wednesday morning. The discussion, the official said, is part of the normal back-and-forth process of editing an FCC order.

The official said that some clarifying language was added to the order and that Burger replied Wednesday afternoon to say his concerns were "fully addressed." The official also noted that the CTO was focused on one section of the order and not the part that dealt with the rules.

The problem is that there's no way that this issue was "fully addressed," because it's the entire foundation for Pai's order. Gutting FCC authority, then throwing any piddly remaining oversight of ISPs to an FTC ill-equipped to handle it is the entire plan. The fact that enforcement will fall through the cracks at the FTC is the whole damn point and is precisely why ISPs are lobbying for this. The FTC can't make new rules, can't act until after offenses have occurred, and even then -- only if it can be clearly proven that the ISP was being "unfair" or "deceptive" --something that's easy to dodge just by using TOS mouse print.

In the world of net neutrality violations, where ISPs often hide anti-competitive behavior under faux technical nonsense or breathless claims they were only trying to protect the network -- ISP lawyers will run circles around the FTC. And again, this is only if the FTC wins its court case against AT&T. If it loses, there's really nothing stopping giant ISPs from being as large of an anti-competitive ass as they can imagine. And should any states get the funny idea to step in and protect consumers or competitors, Pai's FCC incumbent ISPs want to hamstring those efforts as well.

Experts have been pointing out this fatal flaw in Ajit Pai's plan for much of the last year. That includes the two-time former FCC CTO, who has repeatedly pointed out how easy large ISPs will be able to abuse a lack of competition under this new paradigm. And while it's nice to see the FCC's current CTO recognize the problem as well, these concerns will likely only join the now-towering pile of discarded feedback that didn't quite line up with Comcast, Verizon and AT&T's vision of the internet.

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Well, it happened.

Republican Ajit Pai’s FCC voted 3-2 along party lines today to repeal virtually every open internet and net neutrality rule on the books, reclassify broadband service in a way that prevents further rules from being implemented, and hands consumer protection to another government agency that’s never dealt with these issues before.

Pai did this regardless of the millions of Americans who flooded the government asking for these protections to remain; regardless of the tens of thousands of fake comments that overwhelmed the FCC’s systems and prompted 12 states attorneys general across the country to demand further investigation; and regardless for the thousands of online businesses telling the FCC that their very survival...

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When something goes wrong with the appliances in your home, what do you do to fix them? Probably, you Google the problem. Then you dig out a manual or look one up online. If none of that helps, you might call the company who made the thing, and then spend an age on the phone trying to explain what’s gone wrong.

But what if you didn’t have to explain — what if you could just show someone the problem, and have it explained to you? That’s the proposition from Israeli company TechSee, which is building a customer support platform using two of 2017’s most overused buzzwords: augmented reality and artificial intelligence. But, unlike a lot of firms getting on the AR/AI bandwagon, TechSee’s proposal might actually be useful.

It works like...

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Apps like Wickr, Vaporstream and Telegram allow employees to have conversations that can be quickly and permanently destroyed, but data retention laws could limit the tools' use.

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman on Tuesday became the first Republican to urge regulators to delay a vote on net neutrality, which would repeal open internet rules adopted two years ago.

In a letter to Ajit V. Pai, the Federal Communications Commission chairman who proposed the rollback, Coffman said that altering the rules “may well have significant unanticipated negative consequences.” He asked Pai to let Congress hold hearings on the issue and pass open internet laws.

“As you stated in your dissent to the previous FCC’s open Internet proceeding, ‘A dispute this fundamental is not for us, five unelected individuals, to decide. Instead it should be resolved by the people’s elected representatives, those who choose the direction of government — and those whom the American people can hold accountable for that choice,’ ” the Aurora Republican wrote.

In his letter, Coffman did not come out for or against net neutrality. Fellow Colorado U.S. Reps Diana DeGette, Jared Polis and Ed Perlmutter — all Democrats — oppose rolling back the rules.  Republican Ken Buck of Windsor supports Pai.

“I support Chairman Pai’s efforts to free internet providers from burdensome regulations that stifle innovation and increase costs for Coloradans,” Buck said in an email.

Other Republicans, including Utah Congressman John Curtis and Sen. Susan Collins from Maine, have expressed concerns but have not asked to delay the vote.

Pai, who became FCC chairman in October and proposed his alternative last month, wants a return to pre-2015, when “the FCC treated high-speed Internet access as a lightly regulated ‘information service’ ” instead of a “heavily regulated ‘telecommunications service,’ ” he wrote.

But net neutrality advocates say a reversal could result in abuse by companies that provide internet service. Internet service providers, or ISPs, would no longer be forced to treat all data the same, which could lead to charging fees to content companies or letting a company such as Comcast prioritize how fast it streams its own TV shows over those from Netflix.

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“Removing net neutrality makes it possible for ISPs to charge websites to load for readers and subscribers. They can tell Yelp, ‘You need to pay this a month,’ ” because of Yelp’s bandwidth use, said Ryan Singel, a former Wired writer who covered the topic and is now a fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School. “It also lets ISPs create fast lanes and slow lanes. Speed matters (for startups). If you have to pay to keep up with Facebook, Google or whatever the incumbent competition is, startups can’t pay for that. But if you’re not fast, you can’t meet your customers’ needs.”

Jay Sudowski, co-founder of data center Handy Networks in Denver, said that without net neutrality, small businesses such as his are terrified about what could happen if a competitor merged with an ISP.

“The implications would be huge and not good if ISPs were allowed to preference traffic to their own cloud services, leaving independent data center operators like ourselves stuck in the digital slow lane,” Sudowski said in an email.

Daniel C. Bucheli, Coffman’s Deputy Chief of Staff/Communications Director, said Coffman wrote the letter after speaking to concerned constituents. He doesn’t know whether it will delay the FCC vote, expected Thursday.

“But he felt it essential that we keep an open internet,” Bucheli said. “Congress should be allowed to weigh in on this. He’d like the public to be able to comment.”

The FCC’s proposed rollback of net neutrality rules is expected to pass this week, but that doesn’t mean everyone on the commission is pleased with the idea. The two Democratic Commissioners, who helped pass net neutrality protections in 2015, have been vocally opposed to the plan, spearheaded by Republican Chairman Ajit Pai.

Ahead of Thursday’s vote, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who appeared at recent protests against the plan, today released an “alternative proposal” for the Commission to consider. The proposal is one simple page of “suggested edits”:

Everything has been excised from the proposal except one sentence: “After further review of the record, we affirm the 2015 Open Internet Order.”

Assuming the Commission...

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The team behind the Freewrite, a distraction-free, Wi-Fi-enabled typewriter, has come together again to launch a new product: the ClapBoss. It's essentially a New Age Clapper that works with IFTTT. It can handle up to six different actions, which you can trigger through a Morse Code-esque pattern of claps and pauses. So you could clap three times and have it turn on your TV, for instance. It launches on Kickstarter today and starts at $39; it'll eventually retail for $80.

ClapBoss' design is more interesting than its big concept of claps for interaction, which is an old idea. The gizmo looks like an animal or elf with its ears and 1.2-inch LCD face. The image displayed changes depending on the action. You might get a pizza if you order...

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• AAA found that modest improvements in horsepower and fuel economy weren't worth the extra cost of premium fuel.
• AAA and the Automobile Club of Southern California's Automotive Research Center subjected six different vehicles to extensive testing.
• It's ultimately up to owners to decide if premium fuel is worth it, but choosing regular won't harm engines.

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Last year, AAA undertook an extensive study of whether motorists can gain anything from using premium gasoline. The verdict was that Americans are wasting over $2 billion annually on 91 octane and above.

Following on what was a comprehensive, 41-page report, AAA joined with the Automobile Club of Southern California's Automotive Research Center to investigate whether car owners can gain anything from putting premium fuel in vehicles that recommend but don't require it.

You probably know where this is headed. The research revealed that while recommended premium might upgrade fuel economy and performance, the additional cost isn't worth it.

"There’s no question that higher-octane premium fuel has the potential to boost a vehicle's fuel economy and performance, however, engines have to be calibrated to require that fuel to see the full benefit," John Nielsen, AAA's Managing Director of Automotive Engineering and Repair, said in a statement.

"Based on AAA's testing, vehicles that only recommend premium gasoline can't take full advantage of higher octane fuel and, as a result, the benefit that comes from upgrading to premium gasoline may not offset its high cost."

Premium fuel is pricey — and it has been getting more expensive since 2009

AAA pointed out that premium fuel can cost $0.50 more than regular nationwide. The price difference has been on the rise since 2009.

The 68-page report that AAA generated this time around was just as exhaustive as the previous effort. 

"For testing, AAA used 87-octane (regular) and 93-octane (premium) gasoline in six vehicle models varying in body
style, size, type of fuel delivery system and air induction system," the organization explained in its report summary.

"Each vehicle was tested on a dynamometer, which measures horsepower, and emissions testing equipment to determine fuel economy and tailpipe emissions when using both fuel types in a variety of driving conditions."

Test vehicles included everything from a Mazda Miata two-seats sports car with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine to a Cadillac Escalade with a big 5,o-liter V8 motor. On balance, premium gas yielded modest improvements in fuel economy and performance — but not enough to warrant the additional expense, according to AAA.

The bottom line is that if your vehicle's manufacturer recommends but doesn't require premium fuel, and your engine isn't knocking when running in regular, you're fine to spend less on the cheaper fuel. The story could obviously be different in vehicles that require premium, but in many cases these are high-performance cars where owners are happy to pay up for a boost in horsepower.

SEE ALSO: Americans wasted $2.1 billion on premium gas during the last year

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NOW WATCH: A study finds that drivers are wasting $2.1 billion on premium gas a year

Republic Wireless has announced two new communication devices called the Relay and Anywhere HQ. The Relay is a screen-less, water-resistant device that works like a walkie-talkie, but has the added ability of being able to locate children with GPS, so you can check on them whenever you want.

To talk, you just push the button and hold the device close to your face and speak. It connects over 4G LTE and Wi-Fi networks, and also features music, games, and Google Assistant. Other hardware features include a 3.5mm headphone jack, NFC, an accelerometer, haptics, and a LED notification ring. There’s also a companion app for Android and iOS devices, and the battery lasts several days. The Relay will be released in early 2018 and sold in pairs...

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American Express has announced that it will no longer require signatures for credit card purchases beginning in April 2018, joining Discover and Mastercard, which have also announced similar changes.

According to Jaromir Divilek, an executive VP at American Express, the company is making the change because its “fraud capabilities have advanced so that signatures are no longer necessary to fight fraud.” The company also cites advances in contactless payments, the explosion of popularity in online shopping, and the buzzword-citing use of “advanced machine learning algorithms” to help prevent fraud more efficiently than comparing a signature.

Unlike other card companies, American...

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• A dormant keylogger was discovered in nearly 500 different HP laptop models.
• Keyloggers can record your keystrokes, which pose a security and privacy threat to users.
• Hackers would need physical access to your computer to activate the keylogger.
• HP has issued a list of affected models, as well as software updates to fix the issue. 

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A security researcher discovered a vulnerability in a common piece of software that comes pre-installed on several laptop brands and models.

This specific bug was discovered in the Synaptics software that controls keyboard and trackpad inputs on 460 different HP laptop models, including various versions of the HP Pavilion, the HP EliteBook and the HP ProBook.

The bug is referred to as a "keylogger," which can record your keystrokes. A keylogger can be dangerous in the hands of a hacker, as it can record and send your keystrokes to potentially reveal sensitive information, like your passwords. 

Thankfully, the keylogger in the Synaptics software on HP laptops is disabled by default, and a hacker would need a laptop's administrative rights to enable it. That means a hacker would need physical access to an affected HP laptop to enable the keylogger. 

Still, it's worth covering all your bases and taking action. HP has issued a list of the affected laptop models, as well as software updates to install and fix the bug. If you don't know your HP laptop's model, you can check for a sticker underneath the laptop that might contain the model number.

It was not immediately clear whether the bug was due to a flaw in Synaptics' software or in the way that the Synaptics technology was integrated into HP laptops.

HP's special support page about the situation mentions that the bug can affect "all Synaptics OEM partners," which suggests that any laptop brand that uses Synaptics for keyboard and trackpad control can be affected.

Synaptics shares were down 1.8% at $38.22 in regular trading on Monday, while HP shares were up nearly 1%.

Synaptics and HP did not immediately return requests for comment. 

SEE ALSO: I spent 2 hours with Samsung's insanely wide monitor — here's what it's like

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NOW WATCH: Here's the best way to clean your computer or laptop without damaging it

Vaultek is a company that manufactures Bluetooth-connected safes for valuables and firearms — things that you really want to make sure are secured. When we came across one of their products on Indiegogo last year, we noted that crowdsourced Internet of Things devices have a troubling history of being insecure. Recently, security firm Two Six Labs picked up one of Vaultek’s connected safes, and demonstrated that it can easily be cracked open.

The security company tested out a Vaultek VT20i safe, which owners can lock with a PIN and pair with an Android App. The app uses a pairing code that is the same as the PIN, and allows an unlimited number of attempts to get in. The lab was able to write a program to use brute force to guess the...

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• The FCC will vote to repeal its net neutrality rules on December 14. The outcome is a foregone conclusion.
  
• The repeal of the rules likely won't mean broadband providers will block your access to Google or slow Netflix so it's unwatchable. But the move likely will mean the providers will charge internet companies tolls to be able to send their content or services to you.
• Big companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Netflix will be able to afford those tolls. But smaller internet companies could be boxed out.
  

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It's inevitable — this week, the Federal Communications Commission will drive a stake in net neutrality.

On December 14, the agency will vote to repeal the net neutrality rules it put in place in 2015. With Republicans commissioners who oppose the rules outnumbering Democrats who favor them three to two, the outcome of the vote isn't in any doubt. Your protests and #netneutrality tweets will do nothing — this is really happening.

Assuming the move isn't blocked by the courts or overturned by Congress, it could radically reshape the internet by giving an already powerful group of telecommunications companies a great deal of control over what you can see and do online. It will also likely leave you with higher prices and fewer choices.

That's all great news for the telecommunications giants – but not so good for the rest of us.

It's all about the tolls

Net neutrality is the principal that internet service providers should, in general, treat all data sent over the network the same, no matter whether it's an email, an emoji sent over a chat service, a phone call, a political rant live-streamed by a college student from her parents' basement, or the latest show on Netflix. In particular, the FCC's 2015 net neutrality rules bar ISPs from blocking, slowing, or providing preferential treatment to particular sites and services.

The battle over the FCC's rules comes amid a period of increasing consolidation among telecommunications and content companies. Comcast owns NBC Universal. AT&T is in a fight to buy Time Warner. Verizon owns AOL and Yahoo. Those companies already had immense power over how you connect to the internet. But they now also have a big stake in what you see and do online. 

The repeal of net neutrality will give these giant companies free rein to favor their own sites, services, and content, and discriminate against those of rivals. As long as they tell you what they're doing, the government won't stand in their way.

I don't think this discrimination will come in the form of blocking or throttling access to rival sites, as some net neutrality supporters fear. Instead, I think the telecommunications companies will basically start charging new fees and tolls.

If you're a Comcast customer, you may have to pay extra to be able to stream video from Netflix or Amazon, rather than from NBC or Hulu, which Comcast part-owns. If you're a Verizon customer, you may get charged extra to access Google's news or finance sites rather than Yahoo's.

The rule-free environment the FCC is creating will give such companies the latitude to squeeze as much money as they can from you. The sky's the limit. And you can bet the companies will get creative. There's a reason nearly all of them are cheering net neutrality's demise, and it's not because they plan to save you money.

As a result, the internet will no longer be an open network. Instead, it'll be fractured and split into chunks. What you can access and see on the network will depend on what you're willing to pay.

It's bad for most internet companies except the giants

But the loss of net neutrality is not only going to mean higher prices, it's likely to mean less choice.

That's because it will allow broadband providers to impose new fees not just on you and me, but also on the internet companies that want to send their movies and websites our way. If Netflix wants to be able to stream "Stranger Things" to a Comcast customer, it will have to pay a toll to Comcast. If Spotify wants to be able to stream the latest hits to a Verizon customer, it will have to pay a toll to Verizon.

Such tolls will be a costly headache for Netflix, Spotify, Google, and the other big internet companies — but they won't be business breakers. Those companies generally have enough money at their disposal that they'll be able to pay whatever prices the telecommunications companies demand to ensure their customers can continue to access their sites and services.

But tolls could mean real trouble for those companies hoping to be the next Netflix, Amazon, or Google. Those startups could be hobbled by the charges — assuming they can afford to pay them at all.

The loss of net neutrality will mean fewer voices on the internet

One group of companies could be particularly affected by the repeal of the net neutrality rules — those that offer niche content. Such firms likely won't be able to afford the broadband providers' tolls and won't have the clout to broker deals, Aneesh Rajaram, the CEO of Vewd, which runs one of the largest smart TV app stores, warned in a conversation I had with him at Business Insider's IGNITION conference last month.

A company Rajaram knows that streams nature documentaries in ultra-high 4K resolution video is worried it won't be able to reach its customers if and when ISPs start imposing their tolls. If such companies are priced out of the market, more and more of the content available on the internet will come from the telecommunications and internet giants and you'll have access to fewer and fewer independent voices.

That might be OK if we weren't already seeing problems related to the dominance of just a few companies in the internet space, ranging from poor customer service and high prices in some cases to the widespread distribution of propaganda in last year's election. You can expect such matters to only get worse in a post-net neutrality world.

If we want to have any hope of addressing those and related problems, the internet has to remain open to companies that can take on the big incumbents.

Maybe the courts or Congress will do the right thing and overturn the FCC's effort to kill net neutrality. But in the meantime, the future of the internet looks pretty bleak.

SEE ALSO: There's a big math problem with the FCC chairman's main argument for repealing net neutrality

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 GE is a great example of a traditional company that has recognized the need to transform into a digital organization, but by all measures 2017 has been a tough year for the industrial giant financially. The company stock price has tumbled, and last week it announced that it was laying off 12,000 employees in its power business worldwide. While you can’t attribute all of the… Read More

Ingrid Lunden, reporting for TechCrunch:

As Spotify continues to inch towards a public listing, Apple is making a move of its own to step up its game in music services. Sources tell us that the company is close to acquiring Shazam, the popular app that lets people identify any song, TV show, film or advert in seconds, by listening to an audio clip or (in the case of, say, an ad) a visual fragment, and then takes you to content relevant to that search.

We have heard that the deal is being signed this week, and will be announced on Monday, although that could always change.

One source describes the deal as in the nine figures; another puts it at around £300 million ($401 million). We are still asking around. Notably, though, both of the numbers we’ve heard are lower than the $1.02 billion (according to PitchBook) post-money valuation the company had in its last funding round, in 2015.

I wonder if they’ll keep it as a standalone app (and will they keep the Android version?), or if they’ll just roll it into Siri (which, I know, has had pretty good integration with Shazam since iOS 8).