This week on Between the Bytes we’ll be talking about the giant internet cable going across the Atlantic, some updates from Apple, a smart jacket, and some local news from Silicon slopes stay tuned.
Facebook & Microsoft Finish Transatlantic Internet Cable
Welcome to Between the Bytes, where we’re not as smart as your average nerd. This week the first thing we want to talk about is a partnership between Facebook and Microsoft that has led to the largest transatlantic internet cable. They just announced that the project was finished and they laid this cable that went from Virginia to a little town in Spain. This is the backbone of the internet and they are looking to improve it so there are faster speeds across the continents. This cable is able to transfer 160 terabytes of data per second, that’s the equivalent of over 71 million HD videos streaming at the same time. It has Incredible speeds which just means that the Internet is getting better for the whole world and making the world a smaller place
Apple Search Powered by Google
Some news with Apple: As many of you are aware, Apple’s search for Siri has been powered by Bing since 2013. After a lot of research and basically just an internal discussion, they found that they wanted to find a more consistent experience for their users and they are moving things over to Google for Siri. Google is actually paying three billion dollars a year to be the primary search host for all iOS and Mac desktops. Three billion dollars a year, (hefty price tag), but it’s worth it with all the search traffic that’ll go through there.
Google and Levi Create a Smart Jacket
The next bit of news also comes from Google, they partnered with Levi’s, that’s right, the maker of Levi’s jeans denims to make a smart jacket. They announced this project over two years ago and started really developing it a year ago and it is now finally available for retail. The jacket has capacitive fibers built into the jacket so that you can just simply touch the jacket and control your smartphone. It was built ideally for bike commuters so that they wouldn’t have to check their phones while on their bikes. The jacket will activate and your phone will read out text messages to you, you can turn music on or off, all just touching a little wrist thing on your jacket. It’s also completely washable and it is going for three hundred and fifty dollars in the store community, (I’m gonna stick to my dumb jackets for now).
Silicon Slopes Partners with Utah Jazz
Next, to put the tech boom here in Utah on the forefront, the Utah Jazz have partnered with Silicon Slopes, making them one of the sole sponsors of what used to be the Executives Club at the Vivint Smart Home Arena. There are memberships available as well as ticketing opportunities to become a member of the Silicon Slopes Executive Club. It’s been really cool that this partnership is happening. We’re seeing a lot of partnerships with Silicon Slopes and our government now moving forward. It is apparent that this is the next big boom.
The Void & Star Wars
Our last bit of news is regarding a local company called The Void. You may have heard of this company, they became famous by releasing a virtual reality experience around the Ghostbusters movie. The Void is based in Lindon, Utah but their experience has been set up in places such as New York and Hollywood. It’s more than just virtual reality goggles. The Void allows you to walk around an arena experiencing it as if it were real while wearing the goggles. It’s on the go virtual reality and really cool stuff. They’ve just announced they have partnered with Disney to become an exclusive partner with Star Wars, so they’ll be creating a Star Wars experience that will be feature a cannon story and it will be near Disney parks. So just outside the Disneyland and Disney World parks, you’ll be able to go and act as an actual stormtrooper, (or whatever it may be). It’s coming in 2020 so we’ve got a little bit of time to wait until it comes out but that’s something we definitely are looking forward to. I can hear the excitement in Gary’s voice it’s gonna be great.
Frontline Cybersecurity News
Welcome to this week’s Frontline News on Between the Bytes where we give you the newest and biggest updates in cybercrime throughout the world. A recent study was released notifying us that cyber attacks have increased significantly over the last five years into the detriment of the attackee’s. It’s about eleven point seven million dollars in cybercrime per year. And we’ve got some more news. We’ve recently discovered about a report that the Mac Operating System is vulnerable to a certain type of password theft attack. The high sierra operating system, which came out on Monday, is vulnerable to this attack where an app will be downloaded to your desktop on the mac and that app will then be able to access all of your passwords which are stored on your Mac without a master password. In other words, be careful. Make sure that you are only installing applications on your Mac from verified sources and places that you trust and maybe hold off on the high sierra update for a little bit until they get some patches in. That’s it for this week’s Frontline.
Tech History
A new segment here on Between the Bytes is tech history. On this day 19 years ago, everyone’s favorite search engine Google was founded. It actually was founded on the 4th of September but Google itself and worldwide is celebrated on the 27th of September. It has come a far way. It was initially just that very non-robust search engine and now it is a tech powerhouse with all kinds of information that it gathers in segments. It has changed the marketing world as well as everything else. I’m sure there’ll be a doodle to celebrate. Stay tuned on Google for a doodle.
Thanks for watching this week’s Between the Bytes. Don’t forget to like and subscribe. Check out our insights page where you can see more cutting-edge insights and breaking news about cyber attacks on the Executive Blog. We’ll see you next week, have a good one.
