Dutch media groups join forces to battle Netflix and YouTube

DutchNews, August 30, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The biggest media groups in the Netherlands, including public broadcasting system NPO, commercial broadcasters RTL and Talpa and the Persgroep newspaper group, are joining forces to set up their own audio and viewing platform, the AD said on Friday. 

The aim, sources told the paper, is to take on the might of Netflix and YouTube, which are eating into the Dutch companies’ traditional audiences. The talks have been ongoing in secrecy for a year and the groups expect to brief media minister Arie Slob next week. 

Dutch media companies have been grappling with declining circulation, audiences and advertising revenue and Slob had earlier suggested they form some sort of alliance. 

The details of the scheme still have to be worked out and as yet it is unclear if the platform will be free and advertising funded, or if viewers will be asked to take out a subscription, the AD said.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings gives a keynote address, January 6, 2016 at the

Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada (AFP Photo/Robyn Beck)

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"Wild Cards" (3) - Nov 19 - 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

"... Then there was Steve Jobs. He was a wild card. What he did had little to do with technology, for that would have happened anyway soon enough. Instead, it had to do with the paradigm of the business of music on Earth. He freed it, and the paradigm of how music is obtained and heard will never be the same. However, Steve Jobs did basically one thing for all of you, and then he died. Do you see any kind of connecting of the dots to some of the inventors who come and give you the one thing, then leave? If he had lived, would there be more? Yes, but you’re not ready for it. Consciousness has to support what happens. ..."

Russia sends its first humanoid robot Fedor into space

Yahoo – AFP, Maria ANTONOVA, 22 August 2019

Named Fedor, the robot is the first ever sent up by Russia

Russia on Thursday launched an unmanned rocket carrying a life-size humanoid robot that will spend 10 days learning to assist astronauts on the International Space Station.

Named Fedor, short for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research, the robot is the first ever sent up by Russia.

Fedor blasted off in a Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft at 6:38 am Moscow time (0338 GMT) from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz is set to dock with the space station on Saturday and stay till September 7.

Soyuz ships are normally manned on such trips, but on Thursday no humans are travelling in order to test a new emergency rescue system.

Instead of cosmonauts, Fedor, also known as Skybot F850, was strapped into a specially adapted pilot's seat, with a small Russian flag in hand.

"Let's go. Let's go," the robot was heard saying during launch, repeating the famous phrase used by first man in space Yuri Gagarin.

The silvery anthropomorphic robot stands 1.80 metres (5 foot 11 inches) tall and weighs 160 kilogrammes (353 pounds).

Fedor has Instagram and Twitter accounts with posts saying it is learning new skills such as opening a bottle of water. In the station, it will trial those manual skills in very low gravity.

"That's connecting and disconnecting electric cables (and) using standard items, from a screwdriver and a spanner to a fire extinguisher," the Russian space agency's director for prospective programmes and science, Alexander Bloshenko, said in televised comments ahead of the launch.

"The first stage of in-flight experiments went according to the flight plan," the robot tweeted after reaching orbit.

Fedor copies human movements, a key skill that allows it to remotely help astronauts or even people on Earth to carry out tasks while the humans are strapped into an exoskeleton.

Fedor has Instagram and Twitter accounts

Such robots will eventually carry out dangerous operations such as space walks, Bloshenko told the state news agency RIA Novosti.

On the website of one of the state backers of the project, the Foundation of Advanced Research Projects, Fedor is described as potentially useful on Earth for working in high radiation environments, demining and tricky rescue missions.

Though initially developed for the emergencies ministry, Fedor can also be seen shooting at targets from two handguns in a video posted by Russian space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin.

On board, the robot will perform tasks supervised by Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, who joined the ISS in July and will wear an exoskeleton and augmented reality glasses in a series of experiments later this month.

Since Fedor is not trained to grab space station handles to move about in microgravity conditions, its legs will be immobilised on the space station, Bloshenko said.

Fedor not the first

Space agency chief Rogozin showed pictures of the robot to President Vladimir Putin this month, saying it will be "an assistant to the crew".

"In the future we plan that this machine will also help us conquer deep space," he added.

Russian media speculated that Fedor-like robots will be used in Russia's Moon programme.

Fedor is not the first robot to go into space.

In 2011, NASA sent up Robonaut 2, a humanoid robot developed with General Motors that had a similar aim of working in high-risk environments.

It was flown back to Earth in 2018 after experiencing technical problems.

In 2013, Japan sent up a small robot called Kirobo along with the ISS's first Japanese space commander. Developed with Toyota, it was able to hold conversations -- albeit only in Japanese.

Named Fedor, the robot is the first ever sent up by Russia

Fedor has Instagram and Twitter accounts.

#UPDATE An unmanned spacecraft carrying Russia's first humanoid robot to be sent into orbit successfully docks @Space_Station following a failed attempt over the weekend https://t.co/7Ygb8MwMuf pic.twitter.com/V8t8YFnWd2

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 27 augustus 2019

Fake sex dating site victims to share €9m compensation

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Apple debuts credit card as it readies TV+ launch

Yahoo – AFP, Glenn CHAPMAN, 20 August 2019

Apple is placing greater emphasis on offering digital content and services as the
once-sizzling smartphone market cools

Apple on Tuesday launched a smartphone-generation credit card in the US and moved closer to hitting the hot streaming television market with a new subscription service.

The moves come as Apple shifts to emphasize digital content and other services to offset a pullback in the once-sizzling smartphone market.

Arrival of an Apple Card tailored particularly for iPhone fans came with reports that the technology titan is keen to launch its TV+ streaming service before Disney goes live with a rival in November.

Apple TV+ will debut with a small selection of original content and a possible subscription price of $9.99, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The price would be more than that charged by powerhouse players Netflix and Amazon Prime as well as the announced subscription cost of a Disney+ service to launch on November 12.

California-based Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment about TV+.

Spending on shows

Apple has reportedly allocated more than $6 billion for TV+ original shows, a small number of which would be available when the service goes live.

Ads for "The Morning Show" starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carrell began appearing on Twitter.

The show was described as "a high-stakes drama that pulls back the curtain on the morning news" coming this fall to those with Apple TV+ subscriptions.

With Hollywood stars galore, Apple in March unveiled streaming video plans along with news and game subscription offerings as part of an effort to shift its focus to digital content and services to break free of its reliance on iPhone sales.

The Apple TV+ service, an on-demand, ad-free subscription service, will launch this year in 100 countries, the company said at the event.

"We feel we can contribute something important to our culture and to our society through great storytelling," Apple chief executive Tim Cook said when the service was announced.

Apple revealed only a few of the programs in the works but announced collaborations with celebrities on both sides of the camera including Octavia Spencer, J.J. Abrams, Jason Momoa and M. Night Shyamalan.

The new content will be available on an upgraded Apple TV app, which will be on smart television sets and third-party platforms including Roku and Amazon's Fire TV.

Apple will also allow consumers to subscribe to third-party services like HBO and Starz from the same application.

Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi expected Apple TV+ to be more of a channel at its streaming video service, similar to an HBO, than to be a "one-stop-shop" that would stand alone.

Games and Cards

Apple is aiming to leverage its position with some 900 million people worldwide who use at least one of its devices.

The company has announced plans to launch a new game subscription service called Apple Arcade internationally later this year.

"Apple Arcade will introduce an innovative way to access a collection of brand new games that will not be available on any other mobile platform or in any other subscription service," Apple said in a statement.

The Apple credit card that became available on Tuesday in a partnership with Goldman Sachs was integrated with Apple Pay.

Those signing up will get a physical card and one for a digital wallet, with the two companies pledging to refrain from sharing or selling data to third parties for marketing and advertising.

Apple Card features that could shake up the credit card industry include not charging fees, giving users cash back on purchases, and providing tools for people to better manage their debt.

"Apple Card delivers new experiences only possible with the power of iPhone," the company said in an online post.

The card uses machine learning and mapping capabilities to let users keep track of spending, and provides payment options showing interest costs of various options.

Instagram begins letting users report misinformation

France24 –AFP, 15 August 2019

San Francisco (AFP) - Instagram on Thursday added a way for users to easily report deceptive posts at the photo and video-oriented social network owned by Facebook.

A new tool being rolled out out lets Instagram users tap a "report" option on-screen when they see a post they deem dubious, then tap a "false information" tag to prompt review by third-party fact-checkers, according to Facebook spokeswoman Stephanie Otway.

The option was expected to be available to all Instagram users by the end of this month.

Such prompts will be one of several "signals" used to determine whether content should be scrutinized by fact-checkers, who will determine their veracity.

"Starting today, people can let us know if they see posts on Instagram they believe may be false," Otway said.

"We're investing heavily in limiting the spread of misinformation across our apps, and we plan to share more updates in the coming months."

The world's biggest social network has been cracking down on fraudulent influence campaigns and bogus posts as pressure has mounted for online platforms to defend against efforts to manipulate online conversations.

User-reported Instagram posts found to be bogus but not in violation of the service's policies will not be deleted, but won't appear when users use "explore" or hashtag searches to discover content.

"Explore and hashtags allow people on Instagram to find content they haven?t already chosen to follow, and by filtering misinformation from these places, we can significantly limit its reach," Otway said.

Feedback from the new tool will be used to train artificial intelligence software to scan for, and rate, fake posts without waiting for them to be reported, according to Facebook.

Twitter reveals unauthorized data use

France24 – AFP, 7 August 2019

Twitter said the error had been corrected and that it was "taking steps to make
sure we don?t make a mistake like this again" AFP/File

Paris (AFP) - The social network Twitter said overnight that user's personal data had been used for advertising purposes, without their consent and despite dedicated settings to counteract such events.

A Twitter statement said the fault was corrected Monday and that an investigation was being conducted to determine how many people had been affected, while advising users to verify their data sharing settings.

The situation involved two cases, the first one arising if users clicked or viewed an advertisement for a mobile application and then interacted with it since May 2018.

"In that case, we may have shared certain data (e.g., country code, if you engaged with the ad and when, information about the ad, etc) with trusted measurement and advertising partners, even if you didn't give us permission to do so," the statement said.

The second case involved Twitter showing people ads "based on inferences we made about the devices you use, even if you did not give us permission to do so," it added.

In that case, data was not used outside the company and did not contain personal information such as passwords or e-mail accounts, according to Twitter.

Twitter apologised for not respecting users' choices, and insisted that it was "taking steps to make sure we don?t make a mistake like this again."

"What is there for you to do? Aside from checking your settings, we don't believe there is anything for you to do," the statement said.

It provided a link to a form that allows users to contact its office of data protection for more information.

The problems arose after Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) took effect in May 2018.

The GDPR binds social media platforms and websites to ensuring they have user's explicit consent to collect personal data for advertising purposes or on behalf of third-party enterprises.

It also obliges companies that have been a victim of personal data loss to alert competent authorities in the country where their European headquarters are located, in this case Ireland, within 48 hours of their discovery, and the people affected as soon as possible.

Deloitte fails to deliver government IT project, loses contract

DutchNews, August 6, 2019

Illustration: Depositphotos.com

The cabinet has cancelled a contract with Deloitte for failing to deliver on an IT project to facilitate the hiring of external staff, broadcaster NOS reports. 

Deloitte, which has already spent most of the €6m earmarked for the project, had been warned earlier for not making enough progress by the government monitoring agency BIT which keeps an eye on large ICT projects. 

At the time the agency cited insufficiently defined project costs and confusion over management and roles, and the lack of a clear approach to the implementation of the new system. DigInhuur, the agency said, would not be active at the end of 2019 as planned even if the problems could be solved at a stroke. 

Deloitte was given more time but was still found to be insufficiently on course. It is not clear if the infrastructure ministry will be claiming back the money, NOS said. 

The Deloitte project is far from the first government IT project to run into trouble. In 2014, a parliamentary commission concluded the state is wasting between €1bn and €5bn a year on failing IT projects.