Amazon Ends Drone Program In California

April 22, 2024amazonamazonJenThorpe

Amazon is shuttering its drone delivery operations in Lockeford, California, one of the earliest U.S. test sites for the decade-long project, CNBC reported.

The program, called Prime Air, has struggled to get off the ground since Amazon founder Jeff Bezos first detailed his vision in 2013 of autonomous drones delivering packages weighing less than 5 pounds in 30 minutes or less.

Amazon says it’s now conducting test flights to demonstrate the reliability of its new delivery drone, the MK30, which the company unveiled at an event last year. The drone is intended to be smaller and quieter than prior models, and can fly through light and rain.

Amazon posted “Amazon drone delivery is coming to Arizona” From the post:

Later this year, Amazon customers in the West Valley Phoenix Metro Area can receive Prime Air drone deliveries from our Tolleson, AZ Same-Day Delivery site.

Since starting drone delivery in College Station, Texas, and Lockeford, California in 2022, we’ve delivered thousands of items to customers in less than an hour. Last year we also began delivering prescription medications in partnership with Amazon Pharmacy to customers in College Station. We’ve received great feedback from customers and communities as we’ve rolled out the service.

We’re now adding a new location and entering the next stage of the program’s evolution. Later this year, drone deliveries are coming to the West Valley of the Phoenix Metro Area in Arizona.

With this new location, we’ll be fully integrated into Amazon’s delivery network, meaning, for the first time, drones will deploy from facilities next to our Same-Day Delivery site in Tolleson. These smaller sites are hybrid — part fulfillment center, pat delivery station. They allow us to fulfill, sort, and deliver products all from one site so we can get packages out to our customers even quicker.

Our Same-Day Delivery sites are situated close to the large metro areas they serve, which means customers get their orders faster. And with connections to the larger Amazon fulfillment centers nearby, we are able to offer Same-Day Delivery on millions of items…

TechCrunch reported Amazon it is ending Prime Air drone delivery operations in Lockeford, California. The Central California town of 3,500 was the company’s second U.S. drone delivery site, after College Station, Texas. Operations were announced in June 2022.

The retail giant is not offering details around the setback, only noting, “We’ll offer all current employees opportunities at other sites, and continue serve customers in Lockeford with other delivery methods. We want to thank the community for all their support and feedback over the past few years.”

College Station deliveries will continue, along with a forthcoming site in Tolleson, Arizona, set to kick off deliveries later this year. Tolleson, a city of just over 7,000, is located in Maricopa County, in the western portion of the Phoenix metropolitan area.

In my opinion, it appears that Amazon intends to move its newest drone to different parts of the United States. It is also really good that current workers will be offered work at some of Amazon’s other sites.

Discord CEO Jason Citron on Shaping a More Intimate Internet #1739

April 22, 2024PodcastKirk

Jason Citron, CEO of Discord, explores the platform’s unique position in the online world. Unlike traditional social networks, Discord offers a private space for communities centered around shared interests like gaming, AI, and fandoms. Citron discusses Discord’s shift from voice chat to a comprehensive social hub, emphasizing a future focused on intimate, community-driven experiences. He also addresses challenges such as content moderation and the decision against selling to Microsoft, highlighting the platform’s ongoing adaptation and focus on gaming and user-generated content. He thinks the Internet will get narrower as younger generations spend most of their time on the platform.

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Why Dolphin Isn’t Coming To The App Store

April 21, 2024GamingApple, Dolphin, DolphiniOSJenThorpe

Two weeks ago, Apple modified their App Store guidelines to allow retro game emulators in the App Store. This week, Delta, a multi-system emulator that was previously available via the AltStore, was released on the App Store, OatmealDome reported.

Since these events happened, we’ve been asked many times if we will submit DolphiniOS (our fork of Dolphin) to the App Store. Unfortunately, no.

Apple still does not allow us to use a vital technology that is necessary for Dolphin to run with good performance: JIT.

What is JIT?

The GameCube and Wii have a PowerPC-based CPU inside them. All modern Apple devices use an ARM-based CPU. It isn’t possible to directly run PowerPC code on an ARM CPU, and vice versa. Therefore, if we want to run a GameCube or Wii game on an iPhone, it is necessary to translate the game’s Power PC code to ARM so that the CPU can understand it.

Dolphin uses something called a Just-In-Time (JIT) decompiler to achieve this. Whenever the emulated console wants to run the game code, Dolphin will use its JIT to translate the PowerPC code to ARM, and then execute the results.

JIT on iOS

Unfortunately, Apple generally does not allow apps to use JIT recompilers on iOS. The only exceptions are Safari and alternate web browsers in Europe.

We submitted a DMA interoperability request to Apple for JIT support, but Apple denied the request a few weeks ago.

It’s hard to tell exactly why Apple is so hesitant to open up JIT support. It’s possible that they consider it to be a security risk.

9T05Mac reported Apple recently changed its policy to allow game emulators on the App Store. Delta, one of the essential emulation apps, skyrocketed to the top of the App Store overnight. Another popular emulator called DolphiniOS, however, is still facing a policy road block.

DolphiniOS explains in a blog post that Apple’s resistance to apps using JIT means the App Store is still out of reach for now.

Apple has already denied their request to use JIT, likely as a security precaution.

Tom’s Guide reported in the last week, the iOS world has shifted. Retro game emulators have started launching and actually sticking around thanks to an Apple policy change.

The launch and subsequent success of the Delta emulator have led people to wonder whether the beloved GameCube and Wii emulator DolphiniOS (a popular fork of Dolphin) could make its way to Apple’s mobile platform. Unfortunately, according to the app’s developer, it doesn’t look like it will happen.

Just-In-Time (JIT) is required to get around the PowerPC-based ARM-based CPU translation. Without it, it appears to be impossible to run DolphiniOS. Unless another developer can come up with a miraculous solution, it’s unlikely that we’ll see other GameCube or Wii emulators make their way to the app store.

In my opinion, it sounds like Apple is not interested in using JIT in its game emulators. That’s not good news for DolphiniOS and perhaps not good for other emulators using JIT.

The House Passes A TikTok Divesture Bill With A Longer Sale Deadline

April 20, 2024TikTokByteDance, tiktokJenThorpe

The House once again passed a bill that could ban TikTok from the US unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance divests it — but this time, it’s in a way that will be harder for the Senate to stall, The Verge reported.

The bill passed 360-58 as part of a larger bill related to sanctions on foreign adversaries like Russia. It’s part of a package of foreign aid bills that seek to provide military aid to Ukraine and Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Due to the urgency of the funds, packaging the TikTok bill with these measures means that the Senate will need to consider the proposal more swiftly than it would as a standalone bill. The earlier TikTok bill, which passed the House 353-65 just last month, has so far lingered in the Senate, with lawmakers there giving mixed messages about its future.

NBC News reported the House on Saturday passed a $95 billion package that includes two long-awaited bills with $60.8 billion of Ukraine aid and $26 billion in aid to Israel.

The Ukraine bill, which passed with 311 votes in favor, 112 votes against, and one present, will now head to the Senate alongside the Israel aid bill and two others — one for Taiwan and another that forces TikTok’s parent company to sell the platform.

The House also voted on Saturday to force TikTok’s parent company to sell it or be banned in the U.S. According to the bill, China-based ByteDance will have to sell TikTok within nine months — which the president could extend to a year — or face a nationwide ban. The policy, which lengthens the time frame for a sale from the earlier House bill, has Senate buy-in along with Biden’s support, putting TikTok closer than ever to a ban in the U.S.

Engadget reported the US House of Representatives passed a bill on Saturday that could either see TikTok banned in the country or force its sale. A revised version of the bill, which previously passed in the House in March but later stalled in the Senate, was roped in with a foreign aid package this time around, likely meaning it will now be treated as a higher priority item.

The bill paints TikTok as a national Security threat due to its ties to China. There are roughly 170 million US users on the app, at least according to TikTok, and ByteDance isn’t expected to let them go without a fight.

In a statement posted on X earlier this week, the TikTok Policy account said such a law would “trample the free speech rights” of these users, “devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy, annually.” Critics of the bill have also argued that banning TikTok would do little in the way of actually protecting Americans’ data.

In my opinion, one of two things needs to happen: ByteDance finds a American buyer for the app and sells it to that person. Or, the United States government officially bans TikTok.

Netflix Will Stop Reporting Subscriber Numbers Starting In 2025

April 18, 2024NetflixnetflixJenThorpe

Netflix will no longer report subscriber numbers — which has been a key metric for streaming services for years — beginning with the first quarter of 2025, Variety reported.

The company made the announcement releasing its first-quarter 2024 earnings Thursday. Netflix handily topped expectations for subscribers net adds, gaining 9.33 million in the period, to reach nearly 270 million globally. It also beat Wall Street expectations on the top and bottom lines.

Despite the Q1 earnings beat, Netflix shares dropped more than 4.5% in after-hours trading Thursday, possibly as investors reacted negatively to the news that the streamer will stop reporting quarterly sub totals.

In its Q1 letter to shareholders, Netflix said that engagement – time spent with the service — is its “best proxy for customer satisfaction.” As such, it will no longer report quarterly membership numbers or average revenue per member (which it dubs “ARM”), as of Q1 2025. Netflix said it will announce “major subscriber milestones as we cross them” but will cease disclosing quarterly subscriber numbers.

IGN reported that Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters explained on a call following the reports publication:

“As we noted in the letter, we’ve evolved and we’re going to continue to evolve our revenue model and adding things like advertising and our extra member feature. Things that aren’t directly connected to a number of members. We’ve also evolved our pricing and plans with multiple tiers, different price points across different countries. I think those price points are going to become increasingly different.

So, each incremental member has a different business impact and all of that means is that historical simple math that we all did — you know, number of members times the monthly price – is increasingly less accurate in capturing the state of the business. So this change is really motivated by wanting to focus on what we see are the key metrics that we think matter most to the business. So we’re gonna report on and guide on revenue, on OI, OI margin, net income, EPS, free cash flow.

We’ll add a new annual guidance on a revenue range to give you a bit more of a longterm view. We’re not gonna be silent on members as well We’ll periodically update when we grow and we announce certain major milestones, it’s just not going to be part of our regular reporting. And we want to do all of this thoughtfully and give everyone time to transition, so we’re gonna report subscribers until Q1 of next year, which links into our new annual revenue guidance.”

Deadline reported the new approach by Netflix will remove one element of transparency from its reporting, but in some ways it will bring it a bit more in line with some of its rivals. In the nearly five years since the launch of Apple TV+, the tech giant has never reported any subscriber data. Amazon, similarly, does not break out Prime Video subscribers or viewers as a discrete population, given the company’s broad portfolio of customer offerings.

In my opinion, it seems like Netflix is changing the way they report subscriber numbers because of the trend that other streaming services have gone. Hopefully, this change will benefit Netflix’s customers.

Meta Unveils Llama 3 AI: Let the AI Race Begin #1738

April 18, 2024PodcastKirk

Meta has launched a significant update to its AI platform, Meta AI, now powered by the open-source Llama 3 large language model. This upgrade introduces broader functionality and integration across Meta’s products, including Instagram, Messenger, Facebook feeds, and WhatsApp, along with a new dedicated web portal.

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Billions Of Public Discord Messages May Be Sold Through A Scraping Service

April 17, 2024DiscordDiscordJenThorpe

It’s easy to get the impression that Discord chat messages are ephemeral, especially across different public servers, where lines fly upward at near-unreadable pace. But someone claims to be catching and compiling that data and is offering packages that can track more than 600 million users across more than 14,000 servers, ArsTechnica reported.

Joseph Cox at 404 Media confirmed that Spy Pet, a service that sells access to a database of purportedly 3 billion Discord messages, offers data “credits” to customers who pay in bitcoin, ethereum, or other cryptocurrency.

Searching individual users will reveal the servers that Spy Pet can track them across, a raw and exportable table of their messages, and connected accounts, such as GitHub. Ominously, Spy Pet lists more than 86,000 other servers in which it has “no bots,” but “we know it exists.”

As Cox notes, Discord doesn’t make messages inside server channels, like blog posts or unlocked social media feeds, easy to publicly access and search But many Discord users may not expect their messages, server memberships, bans, or other data to be grabbed by a bot, compiled, and sold to anybody wishing to pin them all on a particular user.

404 Media confirmed the service’s function with multiple user examples. Private messages are not mentioned by Spy Pet and are presumably still secure.

PCMag compared to other messaging apps like Instagram or Snapchat, Discord has historically allows bots and third-party tools to proliferate on its platform. But one surveillance tool, SpyPet, is tracking Discord users across the servers they’ve joined and provides details logs of all messages sent on servers for a starting price of about $5 worth of crypto.

Regardless of SpyPet’s scope, its platform and others like it still pose obvious user privacy and safety concerns. It also goes against Discord’s Terms of Service, which states that no one can scrape Discord’s data without the company’s written permission. Unfortunately, tools like SpyPet could be used to spy on Discord friends and help stalkers, bullies, or bad actors harm existing Discord users.

“Discord is committed to protecting the privacy and data of our user,” a Discord spokesperson tells PCMag. “We are currently investigating this matter. If we determine that violations of our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines have occurred, we will take appropriate steps to enforce our policies. We cannot provide further comments as this is an ongoing investigation.”

Engadget reported for as little as $5 in cryptocurrency, Spy Pet lets you access data about specific users, such as which servers they participate in, what messages they’ve sent and when they joined or left voice channels. It claims to have information on an alleged 600 million users across 14,00 Discord servers and three billion messages.

As for what inspired SpyPet, its creator suggested its a classic case of doing what one enjoys and pushing personal boundaries. “I like scraping, archiving, and challenging myself,” the creator told 404 Media. “Discord is basically the holy grail of scraping, since Discord is trying absolutely everything to combat scraping.”

In my opinion, those of you who run a Discord server might want to take the time to lock it down for now, at least until Discord figures out who the scraper is and kicks them out forever.