Intel and WiTricity Working on Wireless Charging Tech

As reported by GigaOM: Hoping to rid the world of power cords, WiTricity announced a new technology licensing agreement with Intel on Tuesday. Both the wireless charging company and the chip-maker are board members of the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) which has adopted WiTricity’s Rezence magnetic resonance charging technology.

I recently saw WiTricity’s wireless charging solution in action; earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show the company provided me this demo showing how devices can be recharged without even touching a charging pad.

With the new agreement, WiTricity will be working with Intel to integrate the Rezence technology into Intel-powered devices. That could mean future computers, tablets, phones and even wearable devices with Intel inside could be recharged simply by putting them on or near a wireless charging pad.

Aside from the fact that both companies are on the same wireless standards body board, there’s another connection. Intel Capital is one of the main investors in WiTricity, which was originally spun out from an MIT project.

Uber's Sign-Ups Jump 850% After European Taxi Driver Strike Snarls Traffic

As reported by CBS News: Taxi-hailing app Uber saw sign-ups jump to record levels on Wednesday, following a rush of publicity as cab drivers across Europe went on strike to protest against the company.

Marketing experts described the strike as an "own goal", after Uber said there had been an 850 percent increase in sign-ups compared to last Wednesday.

Uber accused London taxi union, the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, of being stuck in the "dark ages" and called on the union to cancel the "irresponsible" strike.

Andre Spicer, professor of organisational behavior at Cass Business School, described the strike as "PR gold" for Uber.

"It's an own goal. Uber is top of everyone's minds. Lots of people who have never heard of the app before now know what Uber is," he told CNBC.

He said a company like Uber, which is bringing new technology to the market, faces two main difficulties: visibility and explaining how their technology works.

"Journalists - and even the leaders of the protest - are now talking about the app on the news, and explaining how it works. It gives it 1,000 percent more credibility than if the company did it themselves," he said. 

In an attempt to placate London's protesting taxi drivers, Uber has announced plans to open its app based service up to black cabs, adding that it is a "shame to bring London to a standstill".

Getty Images

London taxis line up on The Mall during a protest against a new smart phone app, 'Uber' on June 11, 2014 in London, England.

As well as Uber services, customers will now be able to hail a black cab from the app, which Uber claims is "good for riders, good for London cabbies, and good for the local economy".

Gridlock across Europe

Taxi drivers in London begun their protest Wednesday afternoon, creating gridlock around central tourist hotspots Trafalgar Square, Whitehall and Parliament Square over claims Uber is in breach of taxi meters regulation.

Taxi drivers insist that because the Uber system calculates its fare according to distance and time, it is the same as a meter, which only black cabs are regulated to use. London's transport regulator, Transport for London (TfL), has asked the High Court to give a final decision on whether Uber is breaking the law or not.

Black cab driver and representative of trade union Unite, Peter Rose, who is helping to lead protests in London, said Uber's inclusion black cabs was clearly a "deflection" and doubted there would be any real take-up of the offer.

"There is no history of cab drivers using private hire firms. It isn't about Uber, this is about TfL. TfL should be acting like a proper regulator," he said.

Jo Bertram, general manager at Uber U.K. and Ireland, told CNBC: "In our view, the Uber app on a drivers' smart phone is not a taxi meter, the private hire laws were written in 1998 before smart phones were even invented. TfL have also shared their view its not a taxi meter."

Protests are also underway across Europe, and in Milan, Uber is offering a 20 percent discount on passengers journeys in response to the strikes.

Minister of Transport Maurizio Lupi has questioned the legality of the taxi app as only drivers with a license can operate in the country and two Uber cars have already been confiscated by the police this year.

But Benedetta Arese Lucini, managing director of Uber Italy, said she was not concerned about the outlawing of Uber in Italy, adding: "We are suggesting a new way forward, that is what the market is asking for."

Protests backfire

Professor Spicer added that there was a long precedent of protests encouraging the opposite behavior. For example, in the 1980s and 1990s there was moral opposition to rap groups including N.W.A. and Public Enemy because of the strong language used on their records.

"But this moral crusading gave the bands a certain aura - people thought they sounded cool and wanted to try them out. A similar thing is happening now with Uber. This protest is making it look interesting," he added.

Ad Shock: VW Shows Moviegoers What It's Like to Text and Drive

As reported by The Verge: 

It's well documented that texting while driving has become an increasing problem over the years. Advertising agency Ogilvy Beijing recently demonstrated exactly what can happen if you take your eyes off the road to look at your phone. Patrons at a movie theater in Hong Kong were shown a VW commercial as part of the pre-show trailer reel, depicting a car driving on a quiet road. Using a local broadcasting system, the agency sent out a mass text to everyone in the room during the commercial, causing those with mobiles to check their phones. While they glanced down, the on-screen car then careened off the road into the tree, before the ad hammered home its message, pointing out that "mobile use is now the leading cause of death behind the wheel."

While that stat isn't true everywhere, distracted driving is an issue across the globe; US government statistics suggest approximately 660,000 drivers are "using cell phones or manipulating electronic devices while driving" at any given time.

Google to Buy Near Real-Time Satellite Imaging Company Skybox Imaging for $500M

As reported by Time: Google is buying near real-time satellite imaging company Skybox Imaging for $500 million in cash, it announced Tuesday.

Google says Skybox, which claims to have built the world’s smallest high-resolution imaging satellite, will help Google improve its Maps product. “Skybox’s satellites will help keep Google Maps accurate with up-to-date imagery,” Google said in a press release announcing the deal. “Over time, we also hope that Skybox’s team and technology will be able to help improve Internet access and disaster relief — areas Google has long been interested in.”

The demonstration video below shows what Skybox’s satellites are capable of doing:

Google has made significant investments in aerial projects over the last year, from buying the drone company Titan Aerospace to experimenting with balloons to deliver Internet access in remote areas — it’s also possible that Google could use Skybox’s satellite technology to expand global Internet access as well.  

In a blog post of its own, Skybox said it was “thrilled” to be bought out by Google and make hundreds of millions of dollars in the process. “We have built an incredible team and empowered them to push the state­-of­-the-­art in imaging to new heights. The time is right to join a company who can challenge us to think even bigger and bolder, and who can support us in accelerating our ambitious vision,” the company wrote.

The terms of the deal are subject to approval from federal regulators in the U.S.

FCC Workshop on GPS Receivers Causes Concern in GNSS Community

As reported by Inside GNSS:  Leading navigation experts are worried an upcoming workshop on GPS receivers being organized by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an attempt to initiate design mandates for user equipment that could potentially undermine the GNSS community.

“There is currently planned an FCC workshop that is going to, among other things, address certification and standards for receivers,” said Brad Parkinson, the acting chair of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board and a former chief of the NAVSTAR GPS Joint Program Office.

“I am aware that a number of manufacturers are quite panicked over this because of the possibility of some superposition of, in essence, how you design a receiver for GPS,” Parkinson added in comments at the advisory board’s meeting on Wednesday (June 4, 2014).

The “Workshop on GPS Protection and Receiver Performance” set for June 20 at FCC headquarters in Washington, D.C., will consider GNSS receiver performance capabilities in the presence of neighboring transmitters and “a comprehensive path forward to protect GPS operations from harmful interference, potentially including an industry-driven GPS device certification program and transition plan.”

The agency posted a notice of the GPS receiver workshop on June 2, less than three weeks before the event.

LightSquared Fallout?
The agency, which regulates the nongovernmental uses of radio frequencies, has raised the idea of receiver standards in the past, largely as a mechanism to squeeze more users into overcrowded radio spectrum. The FCC’s initial efforts regarding GPS receiver standards were revved up shortly after the agency was forced to withdraw its controversial conditional approval of a broadband network proposed by Virginia-based LightSquared.

Tests ordered by the agency after concerns from the GNSS industry over the likelihood of interference eventually proved that the LightSquared network would overload the RF front-ends of a vast range of GPS receiver types. The FCC-mandated the tests well after it had agreed to LightSquared’s requests for a more powerful terrestrial transmission network in confidential discussions with the firm and then attempted to move the proposal forward on what appeared to be an unusually tight schedule — damaging in the process its relationship with the GPS community.

The June meeting appears unlikely to narrow the rift.

“I was a little bit concerned with when I looked at the agenda for this workshop because NASA builds receivers for our specific mission requirements,” said Advisory Board Executive Director Jim Miller, who works for NASA, the board’s government sponsor. “FAA defines the criteria where the manufacturers build receivers for aviation-specific applications. And so I'm a little bit concerned that FCC would take it upon themselves to begin to dictate how receivers are built in the future when really, up to now, they have managed spectrum allocation and transmission.”


It remains unclear, however, that the FCC even has the power to impose standards, said GPS policy expert Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University.

“Government-set standards are generally not done except for reasons of national security or public safety. So, certainly we can set standards for military receivers and set standards for certification in the public safety community — such as the aviation and maritime people. But the FCC currently does not have the authority to do receiver standards and, I think the greater point, I don't think they should have it.”

Shifting the Burden of Proof
Pace said the push for receiver standards is part of a larger effort to shift the responsibility for demonstrating non-interference to other RF systems from those transmitting to those receiving the signals in order to accommodate the demand for other communications in the band.

Certifications that will constrain innovation and standards that will shift interference burdens to receivers are not being considered in order to benefit GPS users or the community, said Pace. These changes are being weighed “in order to make room for other services, including mobile [communications].”


The statement of work at the FCC workshop alludes very heavily to economic benefit, said Parkinson, something that has long been difficult for the GPS industry to quantify — in part because GPS use is not easily tracked and in part because the fragmented GPS community does not have the resources for extensive research The Department of Commerce is only now planning to study the economic impact of embedding GPS into consumer devices.

Parkinson told the June 4 meeting of the board that he hopes GPS manufacturers will make their presence known at the meeting and in the debate over the issue.

“The concern is always that we start putting on constraints and then somehow damage ourselves,” Parkinson told the group. “For example, export controls — I think the greatest thing we did for the rubidium clock industry in Europe was not allowing them to buy any of ours. So, they had to go out and do their own. There are some elements of that in the constraints that one might put on a receiver in order to meet some brand-new bureaucratic idea of what ought to be. I hope manufacturers get involved, get heavily involved, and express their opinion.”

This is “something that could vastly affect the whole substance of what we are if carried to the point that someone dictates how you design a receiver,” he said. “I think that's kind of dangerous.”

Tesla May Share Its Supercharger Patents

As reported by Business Insider: Elon Musk has said repeatedly he wants to “do something controversial” with Tesla's collection of electric car patents, but he finally offered specifics at the UK launch of his Tesla Model S on Sunday.  

The Tesla Motors CEO said he would like to open up the designs for his Supercharger systems — the free fast-charging stations designed to quickly refuel Tesla’s electric cars — to create a standard for other car makers to use.

Musk has previously said he didn't want Superchargers to become a “walled garden.” The only way to guarantee that from happening is to help electric car makers integrate their own designs with Tesla’s proven configuration.

We’ve reached out to Tesla Motors for comment. We’ll update this story as soon as we learn more.

If Musk indeed shares the blueprints for his Superchargers with the greater community, it wouldn’t be the first time the PayPal founder has given away an idea to spur interest and development of a new technology.

Last August, Musk shared his proposal for the “Hyperloop,” a high-speed form of solar-powered air travel that would allow commuters to travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 30 minutes, or between New York and Los Angeles in under an hour.

Like the Hyperloop proposal, it’s possible Musk wants to involve third parties so they can help subsidize costs related to the manufacturing and maintenance of the Supercharger infrastructure. Tesla has been had at work to expand the Supercharger network in the U.S., but the company is still expanding to other countries.

Tesla’s rivals may not be as successful, but all electric car makers would benefit from a universal charging standard — and, should that happen, more charging stations.

Tesla’s all-electric Model S sedan, which was released in mid-2012, has received numerous awards, including Motor Trend’s 2013 “Car Of The Year.” It was also the only car to ever receive a 99 out of 10 from Consumer Reports, which called the Model S a “technological tour de force … brimming with innovation.”

The Model S starts at $63,570 and ranges up to $115,770 for the works. Tesla said it sold 22,500 vehicles last year and is on track to sell about 35,000 in 2014.

iOS 8 Obfuscates Data Related to WiFi Location Tracking

As reported by The Verge: It wasn't touted onstage, but a new iOS 8 feature is set to cause havoc for location trackers, and score a major win for privacy. As spotted by Frederic Jacobs, the changes have to do with the MAC address used to identify devices within networks. When iOS 8 devices look for a connection, they randomize that address, effectively disguising any trace of the real device until it decides to connect to a network.

Why are iPhones checking out Wi-Fi networks in disguise? Because there's an entire industry devoted to tracking customers through that signal. As The New York Times reported last summer, shops from Nordstrom's to JC Penney have tried out the system. (London even tried out a system using public trash cans.) The system automatically logs any phone within Wi-Fi range, giving stores a complete record of who walked into the shop and when. But any phone using iOS 8 will be invisible to the process, potentially calling the whole system into question.



Combined with inventory and in-store video, the records are immensely valuable to stores as marketing data, and companies like Euclid Analytics and Path Intelligence have made an industry out of providing them. But now that Apple has embraced MAC spoofing, the practice of Wi-Fi sniffing may stop working entirely. With more than one in three US smartphones running iOS, and a notoriously fast adoption cycle for new operating systems, any data collected is likely to leave out a huge sector of the population.

The result is a privacy win for Apple users and a major blow against data marketing — and all it took was an automatic update.