Massive Amazon cloud service outage disrupts sites

SAN FRANCISCO — It didn't quite break the Internet, but a 4-hour outage at Amazon's AWS cloud computing division caused headaches for hundreds of thousands of websites across the United States.Little known to consumers familiar with Amazon's online shopping site, Amazon Web Services is a giant provider of the back-end of the Internet. For sites like Netflix, Spotify, Pinterest and Buzzfeed, as well as tens of thousands of smaller sites, it provides cloud-based storage and web services for companies so they don’t have to build their own server farms, allowing them to rapidly deploy computing power without having to invest in infrastructure.For example, a business might store its videos, images or databases on an AWS server and access it via the Internet.

While not all AWS clients were affected by the outage at one of AWS's main storage systems, some experienced slowdowns, after a big portion of its S3 system went offline Tuesday afternooAmazon wasn't able to update its own service health dashboard for the first two hours of the outage because the dashboard itself was hosted on AWS.

"This is a pretty big outage," said Dave Bartoletti, a cloud analyst with Forrester. "AWS had not had a lot of outages and when they happen, they're famous. People still talk about the one in September of 2015 that lasted five hours," he said.

The S3 system is used by 148,213 sites according to market research firm SimilarTech. It has "north of three to four trillion pieces of data stored in it," Bartoletti said.The outage appeared to have begun around 12:35 pm ET, according to Catchpoint Systems, a digital experience monitoring company. Operations were fully recovered by 4:49 pm ET, Amazon said. The Seattle-based company did not comment on the cause of the outage.

That was exactly the problem faced by Lewis Bamboo, a small, family-owned bamboo nursery in Oakman, Alabama.

“As our business is in bamboo plants, pictures are a very important part of selling our product online. We use Amazon S3 to store and distribute our website images. When Amazon’s servers went down, so did the majority of our website,” said the company's chief technology officer Daniel Mullaly.

“Thankfully we also store the images locally and I was able to serve the images directly from our server instead,” he said.

The effects of the outage  varied depending on the site and how it used AWS. Modern websites usually pull data from multiple databases in the cloud that can be stored all over the world, so a photo might come from one place, a price list from another and a customer database from a third

For that reason, entire websites rarely go down but various part of them may take a long time to load or not load at all, leaving broken links or images.

Companies have been steadily moving storage to the cloud because it is cheaper, easily accessible and more resilient. But the downside is that when there are problems, there's a cascade effect.

It's possible to contract with multiple companies to avoid potential problems, but that strategy is pricey, so many companies make peace with the knowledge that on rare occasions they're going to have a very bad day.

"Only the most paranoid, and very large companies, distribute their files across not just AWS but also Microsoft and Google, and replicate them geographically across regions  —  but that's very, very expensive," Gartner's Leong said.

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Uber exec out over sex charge at former employer Google

Uber executives were made aware of the allegation this week by tech news outlet Recode, which said an investigation at Google had found the charges "credible."

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick asked Singhal to resign Monday because Singhal did not disclose the investigation, a person familiar with the details of Singhal's departure told USA TODAY. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about it.

In a statement provided to USA TODAY, Singhal denied the allegation of sexual harassment.

“Harassment is unacceptable in any setting. I certainly want everyone to know that I do not condone and have not committed such behavior,” Singhal said in a statement provided by a public relations firm. “In my 20-year career, I’ve never been accused of anything like this before and the decision to leave Google was my own

Uber declined to comment. Google also declined to comment.

The departure comes as Uber wrestles with charges of discriminatory and sexist behavior at the ride-hailing company

Singhal, a highly respected engineer in Silicon Valley, announced he had joined Uber in January.

Employee no. 176, Singhal worked for 15 years at Google where he was the Internet giant's head search honcho. He left Google last year. At Uber, he was tapped to lead the maps and marketplace departments as well as advise Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and vice president of engineering and Otto co-founder Anthony Levandowski on self-driving technology.

Uber slams Waymo suit as 'baseless'

Singhal's departure is unrelated to a lawsuit filed last week by Google parent company Alphabet's self-driving car company Waymo against Uber.

In that case, Waymo leveled explosive charges against Uber-owned Otto, a self-driving truck company started a year ago by former Google car veteran Levandowski. The suit claims that Levandowski stole critical technology related to Waymo's LiDAR sensors shortly before leaving the company in order to start Otto. Last August, Uber bought Otto for $670 million. Uber has called the charges "baseless."

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BlackBerry, Nokia among past names trying to recapture glory

Everyone loves an underdog. And underdogs were pretty much writing the script as the Mobile World Congress trade show began this weekend in Barcelona.

Apple never exhibits at MWC, while Samsung chose to wait until March 29 before launching the Galaxy S8 smartphone that for once and for all is meant to put its ill-fated Note 7 phablet in the rear-view mirror. It teased the phone in a brief video during a press conference Sunday.The absence of it in Barcelona, however, meant the understudies of mobile — including Huawei, BlackBerry, Motorola and Nokia — got to assume starring roles.

“Samsung not coming (adds an) interesting dimension because it’s given all of the other brands a window of opportunity to make a splash. Take LG for example. Last year they had four hours of glory and then the Samsung (Galaxy S7) product was announced,” says Ben Wood, the chief of research at CCS Insight in the UK.

LG Electronics isn’t exactly a bit player globally, but its phone business pales next to Samsung and Apple.

As expected, LG unveiled its water-resistant G6 flagship at MWC, but it remains to be seen if one of its chief selling points — the fact that it has a novel 18:9 "aspect ratio" 5.7-inch display compared to the more conventional 16:9 screen — will resonate with consumers.

One potentially interesting use of the unusual screen is a Square Camera feature which divides the 18:9 ratio display into two identical squares. That lets you take perfectly square photos for Instagram, Snapchat and other social media apps, or you might take pictures in ratio in one window, while checking, editing and uploading pictures in another window.

The G6 also incorporates the Google Assistant, which Google is spreading across numerous devices.

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BlackBerry hits comeback trail with KeyOne

 TCL launched the smartphone that it is counting on to revitalize the diminished BlackBerry brand. It’s called the BlackBerry KeyOne, and is being marketed as the most secure Android phone in the world.KeyOne goes on sale in the U.S. in April for $549.

Speaking at a Mobile World Congress press event  here, TCL Communication CEO Nicolas Zibell said the phone represents the “beginning of a new story” for BlackBerry.

The old story is well known of course. How the once-powerhouse Canadian based-smartphone maker fell on hard times after the iPhone came along.  BlackBerry’s market share dwindled down to practically nothing.

Under a recent licensing agreement, Hong Kong-based TCL is now responsible for the hardware branded under BlackBerry Mobile. BlackBerry in Canada still supplies the security and software smar

The KeyOne is the first BlackBerry handset to come out under TCL’s watch.

The new phone certainly looks like a traditional BlackBerry, what with a Qwerty keyboard that reminds you of the popular BlackBerry keyboards of yesteryear. But this is a modernized version, with programmable keys that can provide up to 52 shortcuts. For example, you can press the “I” key for quick access to your inbox, or the “m” key for a maps shortcut.

The gesture-responsive keyboard also doubles as a trackpad.

Staple BlackBerry features on the device include the BlackBerry Hub repository for all your various communications, and DTEK security software.

Indeed, the KeyOne remains an enterprise play, but one BlackBerry hopes it will eventually appeal to consumers.

The KeyOne is supposed to have an all-day battery with fast charging. It runs off a Qualcomm 625 processor and has a modern USB-C connector. It runs the Nougat 7.1 version of Androd

Other specs: the phone has a 4.5-inch display (resolution 1620 x 1080), with a 12-megapixel rear camera and 8mp front camera. It comes with 32GB of internal storage, which can be expanded via microSD.

It also has a fingerprint sensor but is not water resistant like other premium devices.

Ken Haier, the director of emerging device strategies at Strategy Analytics’ global wireless practice, believes that TCL’s ambition this year to stabilize the brand’s share is doable, especially given BlackBerry’s tiny volumes. The more difficult challenge for TCL, he says, will be to return BlackBerry to growth.

Ken Haier, the director of emerging device strategies at Strategy Analytics’ global wireless practice, believes that TCL’s ambition this year to stabilize the brand’s share is doable, especially given BlackBerry’s tiny volumes. The more difficult challenge for TCL, he says, will be to return BlackBerry to growth.

“They intend to do that as part of an integrated portfolio strategy in which they go to operators with a range of devices for all customers," Haier says. "There’s some merit to the strategy, but ultimately it will come down to features and price, as the BlackBerry brand doesn’t retain a strong following anymore, even in the enterprise.”

Consumer tech analyst Carolina Milanese of Creative Strategies thinks the price is a bit high, though she added in a tweet that TCL “should not go so low and devalue (the) BlackBerry brand.”

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Uber's Kalanick faces crisis over 'baller' culture

CEO Travis Kalanick's controversial history of flouting regulations and aggressively fighting the competition has in a mere eight years pushed the company to a $70 billion valuation, about $15 billion more than General Motors.

But now he is facing what may be his biggest crisis yet: Accusations of sexism that compound years of indications that an unchecked, hyper-alpha culture made Uber an uncomfortable place for many women to work.

On the heels of the #DeleteUber customer backlash for its initial cooperation with the Trump administration and response to the immigration ban, the startup that aims to remake transportation is taking fire from investors and the public over explosive allegations of sexist and discriminatory behavior.

Among the charges leveled in a detailed February 19 blog post by former engineer Susan Fowler: That Uber's human resources department refused to discipline Fowler's manager after he made sexual advances, even though he had harassed other women, and that Fowler was told to expect a poor performance review if she stayed on the team

Fowler left Uber in December to join digital payments company Stripe. But her troubles may not be over. On Friday, Fowler asked her Twitter followers not to disclose any personal information about her if contacted, saying a smear campaign appeared to be underway.

"Uber is in no way involved. This behavior is wrong," the company said in a statement.

But the charge has echoes of comments made by high-ranking Uber executive, Emil Michael, who stirred outrage in 2014 when he suggested Uber

Beer to go? Amazon applies for liquor license at its secretive grocery store

Amazon has applied for a liquor license for its secretive drive-through grocery store in Seattle, one of the first official documents that links the almost-complete site to the online sales behemoth.

Plans for the 9,700 square-foot building describe it as “a new model of grocery shopping.” Customers place their orders online, then drive by during a specific 15-minute to two-hour window and have their groceries delivered to their cars.

this image from the documents of amazon 

The documents filed with the city's planning department never name the company building the proposed drive-through grocery facility. However, the liquor license application for the address in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, filed Feb. 7, lists Amazon as the proprietor.

After perusing the plans, retail food consultant Roger Davidson with the Oakton Advisory Group called the design "amazing." While there are many chains that offer drive thru and pickup service for groceries, with this building Amazon has one-upped them all, he said.

“They’ve designed this facility so that it’s super efficient, so they’re going to be more competitive on costs and labor. I bet you can put in an order and have it in 30 minutes the way it’s arranged,” he said.

Amazon has done an excellent job of getting consumers to buy all sorts of things they once wouldn’t have dreamed of buying online, said Rupesh Parikh, an analyst who covers food and grocery at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. “Now, grocery is the next category that people are going to feel comfortable with,” and Amazon wants their business, he said.

From the city planning documents, it appears there will be little or no shelves of food and other items to choose from. Instead, all ordering must be done online. The lion's share of the space is devoted to food storage.

Customers who walk in will order from provided electronic tablets and then wait in the "retail room" for their order to be brought to them, according to the documents.

The Seattle company is also rumored to be working on similar sites, one south of downtown Seattle and two in Silicon Valley. The Ballard store is the furthest along. Its temporary certificate of occupancy was issued on Jan. 12.

Amazon (AMZN) declined to comment on the site or its grocery ambitions.

Work at the site of this emporium began in 2016. It's situated in what was once the sleepy Scandinavian neighborhood of Ballard in Seattle’s north end, now a popular spot for tech workers to buy homes. Located on a busy arterial, it's a few blocks between an upscale Safeway and a Trader Joe’s and a near several microbreweries and coffee roasters.

The model is different from the Amazon Go convenience store that opened last fall near the company's headquarters. There, customers walk in, fill their baskets and then walk out, with everything being tallied up by computer and no checkout lines in sight.

For Amazon, moving deeper into groceries is in many ways low-hanging (if expensive to pull off) fruit. Half of online grocery shoppers also have an Amazon Prime membership, so Amazon knows that some of its best customers are going someplace else to do their shopping.

“So they’re trying to recapture them and keep them in their ecosystem,” said Darren Seifer, food consumption industry analyst with the NPD Group in Chicago.

An already shifting supermarket landscape

Amazon's move into grocery pickup isn’t by any means the death-knell of the supermarket — it’s just one more trend in a rapidly changing arena.

Buying groceries online doesn’t replace visits to the supermarket. About three-fourths of online grocery shoppers still go to brick and mortar stores, Seifer said.

But they may be less likely to enter the traditional 50,000 square foot supermarket.

Smaller stores on the European models of Aldi and Lidl are “hot, as is the larger 85,000 to 90,000 square foot store like Hy-Vee which has —  everything, clothing, dry cleaning, restaurant, beauty products,” said Phil Lempert, an analyst who studies grocery marketing and consumer trends.

Wal-Mart was first

Amazon is not the only one playing in this space.

Walmart (WMT) beat it to the punch by several years when it opened its first drive-thru grocery pickup site in Bentonville,  Ark. in 2014. Customers could order groceries and sundries online, then schedule a pickup time.

In the east, ShopRite offers a similar service, as does Hy-Vee in the midwest.

this image from amazone

Walmart's program is in place in 600 stores in more than 100 markets across the United States, with 500 more locations being added in the next year, said spokesman Scott Markley.

It uses personal shoppers who fill the online order then bring it out to the customer’s car in a designated part of the store’s parking lot. Orders placed before 10 am can be picked up by 4 pm.

Walmart's push into online sales was one reason the company saw profits rise in the fourth quarter and continues to see sales rise

Walmart's service isn’t available in the Seattle area, though. The closest are in Vancouver, Wash. across the Columbia river from Portland, Ore. and in Spokane in eastern Washington.

Grocery versus fresh

Online sales have been slowly picking away at the supermarket model. About 6% of Americans do at least some of their grocery shopping online, NPD Group found.

Much of that has been for items typically found in the interior of a supermarket, canned and packaged goods, toilet paper, pet food, soda and the like. Now retailers want to convince customers to move to online for what they’d buy on the perimeter of the supermarket — the areas where fresh fruit, produce, meat and dairy are found.

“That’s harder to replicate online,” Oppenheimer's Parikh said. A can of Campbell's soup is still a can of soup, but if the beets are too big and woody, or the broccoli's starting to flower, customers are unhappy.

Careful training of the store personnel who do the picking is key. Walmart educates its personal shoppers on banana ripeness, for example, so that customers who want their bananas hard and gleaming yellow get just that while those who want a sweeter, brown-speckled banana get that.

In the end, while Amazon's model isn't that different from Walmart's, its customer base is.

"It's a totally different demographic. Young and hip are not the Walmart shoppers. Amazon is," said Lempert.

The only question is whether Amazon can pull it off, said Tom Enright, an analyst with Gartner.

"It means that they will need to be a retailer, something that they have very limited experience of to date."

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Uber sexism charges sound wake-up call for Silicon Valley

SAN FRANCISCO — Explosive charges at Uber are shining a bright light on what has for years been an unsettling reality in Silicon Valley: Women here say they routinely confront sexism and harassment on the job.

On Sunday, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler claimed her prospects at the company crumbled after she complained about her supervisor's sexual advances, sending shock waves through Silicon Valley and Uber, which at $68 billion, is the world's most richly valued private technology company.

Diversity consultant Joelle Emerson says the allegations sounded a wake-up call. For the last two days, she has been advising tech executives on "engaging in specific actions to make sure their companies can learn from what happened here."

"Companies that are committed to building an inclusive culture are not burying their heads in the sand on this. They're taking it very seriously," said Emerson, founder and CEO of Paradigm, a strategy firm that consults with tech companies on diversity and inclusion. "If you're a CEO in Silicon Valley, and you haven't yet emailed your whole company, or at least your leadership team, about this, you're behind."

Hours after Fowler published a blog post detailing her experiences, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick opened an investigation led by Liane Hornsey, the company’s recently hired chief of human resources, and former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder.

On Tuesday, Uber board member Arianna Huffington pledged to "hold the leadership team’s feet to the fire."

"Change doesn't usually happen without a catalyst. I hope that by taking the time to understand what's gone wrong and fixing it, we can not only make Uber better but also contribute to improvements for women across the industry," Huffington said in a statement.

Studies warn that tech's gender gap is only widening as women are being held back by stereotypes, biases and work environments that make them feel marginalized, unwelcome or even threatened.

Six out of 10 women working in Silicon Valley experience unwanted sexual advances, according to a survey, Elephant in the Valley, released last year. About two-thirds of these women said these advances were from a superior.

The only place women seem to be gaining representation is in the courts. In 2015, Ellen Pao lost her discrimination case against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Last week, Magic Leap was sued for sexual discrimination by an executive who was hired to help the augmented-reality company hire more women.

"What is happening at Uber is, unfortunately, widespread in the industry," said Elissa Shevinsky, a tech entrepreneur and investor and editor of Lean Out: The Struggle for Gender Equality in Tech and Start-up Culture.k

When I set out to publish Lean Out, I asked women in tech to send me their stories. I was looking for cheerful stories. I was enjoying being a start-up CEO. But almost universally, these stories were about misbehavior and exclusion," Shevinsky said. "That taught me a lot about the industry."

Arlan Hamilton, founder and managing partner of Backstage Capital, says "the major infractions" she has personally experienced and the stories she has heard from others are "out of this world."

Hamilton declined to discuss specific incidents.

Fowler, who's now working at San Francisco tech company Stripe, is one of the few women who have spoken out publicly. Many women feel they must stay quiet to keep their jobs or careers or because they have a collected a settlement that prevents that from discussing what happened. Women who do come forward often have their accounts of sexism or harassment discounted. But, says Hamilton, behind closed doors, women in tech talk to each other and they believe each other.

"There's definitely an unofficial 'Yelp' out there that can never be silenced," she said. "We're keeping the receipts."

And that's a major problem for the tech industry. Research shows diversity in the workforce — more women and more people of color — is crucial to shaping 21st century technology. It's also vital that women and minorities gain equal access to one of the nation's highest-paying careers in one of the economy's fastest-growing sectors.

Nothing short of a culture overhaul will root out sexism in tech's alpha-male culture and bring about real change, says Emerson.

"This is a cultural and systemic problem," she said. "The solutions must be structural and comprehensive."

Kate Losse was an early Facebook employee and author of The Boy Kings: A Journey Into the Heart of the Social Network.

"It's a shame that companies that do this don't realize they are losing great employees, sowing mistrust, and that no matter how much companies try to suppress these problems, employees know they are better off somewhere else," said Losse, who now writes about design and technology. "The pattern will just keep happening unless companies from the top down make serious, structural changes toward truly equitable treatment."

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Uber sexism charges sound wake-up call for Silicon Valley

Diversity consultant Joelle Emerson says the allegations sounded a wake-up call. For the last two days, she has been advising tech executives on "engaging in specific actions to make sure their companies can learn from what happened here."

this pic from me

Companies that are committed to building an inclusive culture are not burying their heads in the sand on this. They're taking it very seriously," said Emerson, founder and CEO of Paradigm, a strategy firm that consults with tech companies on diversity and inclusion. "If you're a CEO in Silicon Valley, and you haven't yet emailed your whole company, or at least your leadership team, about this, you're behind."

Hours after Fowler published a blog post detailing her experiences, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick opened an investigation led by Liane Hornsey, the company’s recently hired chief of human resources, and former Attorney General Eric Holder.

On Tuesday Uber board member Arianna Huffington pledged to "hold the leadership team’s feet to the fire."

"Change doesn't usually happen without a catalyst. I hope that by taking the time to understand what's gone wrong and fixing it, we can not only make Uber better but also contribute to improvements for women across the industry," Huffington said in a statement.

For all of its bravado about changing the world, the tech industry is very much a man's world, lagging behind other industries in its representation of and treatment of women.

Women use the latest apps and gadgets in equal, if not greater, numbers. They outnumber men at the top schools and in the workforce. But they are in short supply in Silicon Valley.

Seven out of 10 workers at major tech companies such as Google and Facebook are men. Women comprise 20% or less of technical staff. Few women reach the senior executive level or the boardroom. And they don't fare much better as entrepreneurs. A sliver of venture capital funding goes to women and a small percentage of venture capital investors are women.

Since 2014, major tech companies have taken a big step toward facing up to the gender gap by publicly disclosing the demographics of their workforce. Uber has repeatedly refused requests from USA TODAY to disclose the demographics of its workforce. Kalanick now says Uber will release diversity numbers in coming months.

Studies warn that tech's gender gap is only widening as women are being held back by stereotypes, biases and work environments that make them feel marginalized, unwelcome or even threatened.

Six out of 10 women working in Silicon Valley experience unwanted sexual advances, according to a survey, Elephant in the Valley, released last year. About two-thirds of these women said these advances were from a superior.

The only place women seem to be gaining representation is in the courts. In 2015, Ellen Pao lost her discrimination case against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Last week Magic Leap was sued for sexual discrimination by an executive who was hired to help the augmented reality company hire more women.

"What is happening at Uber is, unfortunately, widespread in the industry," said Elissa Shevinsky, a tech entrepreneur and investor and editor of Lean Out: The Struggle for Gender Equality in Tech and Start-up Culture.

When I set out to publish Lean Out, I asked women in tech to send me their stories. I was looking for cheerful stories. I was enjoying being a start-up CEO. But almost universally, these stories were about misbehavior and exclusion," Shevinsky said. "That taught me a lot about the industry."

Arlan Hamilton, founder and managing partner of Backstage Capital, says "the major infractions" she has personally experienced and the stories she has heard from others are "out of this world."

Hamilton declined to discuss specific incidents.

Fowler, who's now working at San Francisco tech company Stripe, is one of the few women who have spoken out publicly. Many women feel they must stay quiet to keep their jobs or careers or because they have a collected a settlement that prevents that from discussing what happened. Women who do come forward often have their accounts of sexism or harassment discounted. But, says Hamilton, behind closed doors, women in tech talk to each other and they believe each other.

"There's definitely an unofficial 'Yelp' out there that can never be silenced," she said. "We're keeping the receipts."

And that's a major problem for the tech industry. Research shows diversity in the workforce — more women and more people of color — is crucial to shaping 21st century technology. It's also vital that women and minorities gain equal access to one of the nation's highest-paying careers in one of the economy's fastest-growing sectors.

Nothing short of a culture overhaul will root out sexism in tech's alpha-male culture and bring about real change, says Emerson.

"This is a cultural and systemic problem," she said. "The solutions must be structural and comprehensive."

Kate Losse was an early Facebook employee and author of The Boy Kings: A Journey Into the Heart of the Social Network.

"It's a shame that companies that do this don't realize they are losing great employees, sowing mistrust, and that no matter how much companies try to suppress these problems, employees know they are better off somewhere else," said Losse, who now writes about design and technology. "The pattern will just keep happening unless companies from the top down make serious, structural changes toward truly equitable treatment."

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Uber hires ex-AG Eric Holder to probe sex harassment claims

Company CEO Travis Kalanick's call on Sunday for an internal investigation into a sexual harassment claim by a female engineer is the latest in a litany of controversies that have dogged the largest of unicorns, one with a market value of nearly $70 billion and climbing. Late Monday, Kalanick issued a memo to employees announcing that former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will help lead an independent review.

IMAGE FROM ME

Uber remains the dominant player in the U.S. market, with more than 80% of share, according to Bloomberg and other reports, but it threatens to undercut its lead with bad corporate behavior, say business and branding experts.

"It's starting to add up after the fourth or fifth faux pas," says Gerard Francis Corbett, a branding instructor at University of California-Berkeley Extension. "Management and investors turned a blind eye, and they need to take the latest charges seriously. If they don't, they risk losing business, credibility and reputation.

In a lengthy blog post Sunday, former Uber employee Susan Fowler recounted systematic sexual harassment at Uber in which she and other female co-workers were openly propositioned for sex and other “inappropriate behavior” by a supervisor. The manager wasn’t punished, she said, because superiors rated him a “high performer" and insisted it was his "first offense."

She described a "game-of-thrones political war raging within the ranks of upper management in the infrastructure engineering organization."

Kalanick quickly fired off a statement Sunday, vowing to resolve the issue. "What (Fowler) describes is abhorrent and against everything Uber stands for and believes in," he said. "It's the first time this has come to my attention so I have instructed Liane Hornsey our new Chief Human Resources Officer to conduct an urgent investigation into these allegations. We seek to make Uber a just workplace FOR EVERYONE and there can be absolutely no place for this kind of behavior at Uber — and anyone who behaves this way or thinks this is OK will be fired."

For Kalanick, it was his second act of damage control in recent weeks. He abruptly quit President Trump's economic advisory council this month after Uber's alleged violation of a taxi drivers' strike during an immigration ban protest at JFK International Airport led to the #DeleteUber campaign. The hashtag prompted

That consumer revolt underscored what Uber and other businesses face in a "polarizing time," when people are sensitive to the "political leanings" of companies' actions and are willing to boycott their products and services, says Evan Rawley, an associate business professor at Columbia Business School.

The imbroglio has further sharpened the notion that Uber plays by its own rules, analysts say.

"(Its) MO is to destroy competitors and legacy businesses, which is also many tech start-ups' attitudes," says Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. "But Uber hasn't managed to control the recoil of that approach. 

Adding to its headaches, Uber is being pressured by civil rights leader Jesse Jackson to report its diversity data after resisting calls to do so. Apple, Google, Facebook, Airbnb and Pinterest, among others, have made employee demographics available to the public.

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How to use Instagram, Snapchat on a PC or Mac

You’re typing away on your computer most of the day — perhaps while at the office or school – and you want to check in on your favorite social network. If it’s a mobile-focused platform like Instagram or Snapchat, however, you’re out of luck.
Or maybe not. There are, in fact, a couple of ways you can access these smartphone-centric social media sites on your Windows PC or Mac.

nstagram

With Instagram, you can go to the Instagram website (instagram.com), sign in with your Instagram ID, and view photos of your feed. But be forewarned this is a half-baked experience as you can’t post photos or videos. It’s merely an Instagram viewer.

Similarly, PC users can download the official Instagram app for free from the Windows Store, but posting and editing photos is only available for tablets and PCs with touchscreens and backward-facing cameras. Sigh.

Instead, to give you the mobile Instagram experience you know and love – while sitting at a computer during the 9-to-5 grind — download the free BlueStacks, an Android emulator for PC and Mac, which lets you run Instagram and other Google Play apps on your laptop or desktop.  In fact, the Android operating system doesn’t even know it’s being run on a computer.  After you download and install the 300MB BlueStacks (bluestacks.com), sign in with your Google ID and then click on the Google Play store icon to search for and download Instagram.

Now sign into the Instagram app with the same ID and password as your mobile phone, and you can take a photo or shoot a video – via your webcam – and post it to your feed. You can also add filters, share multiple photos and videos to your story (and jazz them up with text and drawing tools), see what your friends are sharing, post comments, send disappearing media and words to others (through Instagram Direct), and more.

Unlike Instagram, there is no Snapchat.com viewer that lets you see your feeds, nor is there a Windows 10 app for Snapchat like there is for Instagram (as limited as it is). Mac users are also out of luck.

Therefore, you’re limited to using an Android emulator like the above mentioned BlueStacks, which is free and easy to use, or consider another free emulator like AndyOS (andyroid.net), which also works on both Windows and Mac.

After you’ve downloaded and installed an emulator, sign into your Google account, and then click or tap to go to the Google Play store. Search for and download Snapchat, and then sign into your Snapchat account, as you would on an iOS or Android device. You only need to do this once. You’ll be up and running in seconds.

Now that you’re in Snapchat, you can view your friend’s Snaps or send one if you have an internal or external webcam (required) on your Windows PC or Mac. Add fun filters to your photos before sharing, send messages to friends (with fun emojis), click or tap Discover to explore hand-crafted Stories from top publishers in the world, or view Memories, a personal collection of your favorite Snaps and Stories.

If you don’t have a webcam and simply want to see your friend’s Snaps or Stories, click the Cancel button when a pop-up notifies you to connect a camera.

Is a T-Mobile-Sprint merger about to be revived?

Both T-Mobile and Sprint’s stock prices rallied Friday afternoon following a Reuters report that Japan's SoftBank Group is considering ceding control of Sprint to Deutsche Telekom, bolstering the possibility of a long speculated merger between the third and fourth largest U.S. wireless carriers.SoftBank hasn’t approached Deutsche Telekom, the majority owner of T-Mobile, yet, the report says. That's because the Federal Communications Commission had banned discussions among rivals during an ongoing wireless spectrum auction. But Reuters, which pinned the report on people familiar with the matter, said merger discussions could begin in April.

T-Mobile’s stock closed up around 5.5%; Sprint's stock climbed 3.3%.Back in August 2014, the two rivals called off merger talks, because it was believed that the U.S. regulatory hurdles were too steep. But in December, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son met at Trump Tower with then-President-elect Donald Trump, rekindling speculation that a merger could indeed take place.

SoftBank would have to part with a lot of cash, but it has the assets" to get the deal done, Sharma says.

According to Reuters, Softbank would be willing to give up its control of Sprint and retain a minority stake in a merged telecom company.

In an interview earlier this week, T-Mobile's chief operating officer Mike Sievert told USA TODAY, "We're very strong on a standalone basis. And that being said, we're also opportunistic and our stance on that has been consistent for years. And if the right opportunities came along to turbo-charge our strategy, our brand, our set of assets, we'd be open to it."In an interview earlier this week, T-Mobile's chief operating officer Mike Sievert told USA TODAY, "We're very strong on a standalone basis. And that being said, we're also opportunistic and our stance on that has been consistent for years. And if the right opportunities came along to turbo-charge our strategy, our brand, our set of assets, we'd be open to it."

Equally uncertain is how willing Deutsch Telekom CEO Tim Hoettges is in reviving merger talks. Speaking at an investors' conference in November, Hoettges indicated that he was "not in the mood" to sell T-Mobile, Reuters reported.

Deutsch Telekom owns about a 65% stake in T-Mobile, whereas SoftBank owns about 83% of Sprint

THIS REPORT BY ME  ( SURAJ)

Snap could snap tech IPO market out of doldrums

The blockbuster initial public offering is expected to kick off a revitalized market this year, encouraging IPO debuts by other unicorns, the privately held start-ups whose hefty venture capital funds have allowed them to avoid Wall Street and the legal requirements of a public offering.

Snap, the Venice, Calif.-based parent of youth oriented Snapchat messaging app, planes  OFFER to$ 200 million$14 to $16 apiece, giving it a value of $19.5 billion to $22.2 billion, according to a filing Thursday.

Even though that's lighter than private estimates of its worth — some company executives had eyed $20 billion to $40 billion — Snap's market entrance would still be huge. It's in the running to be the third-largest tech IPO in the last decade, dwarfed only by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. ($25 billion share sale) and Facebook ($16 billion.)

"Snap will be a jolt to the tech IPO market," says Angelo Zino, an analyst at CFRA Research.

Macroeconomic and geopolitical turmoil that roiled markets last year are expected to yield to an exuberant market trading at record highs and a stream of high-profile companies in the IPO pipeline in 2017.  Among the possible candidates: Hootsuite, Dropbox and Spotify. Applications-management company AppDynamics was acquired by Cisco Systems for $3.7 billion days before its scheduled IPO in late January.

Snap or no Snap, the tech IPO market is poised for a comeback in 2017 after a desultory 2016 — the worst worldwide this decade. Last year, only 53 tech companies raised $8.7 billion in initial public offerings, down 42% and 68%, respectively, from 2015, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"The big question is: Will Snap have Facebook-like growth trajectory after its IPO or Twitter-like growth?" says Minal Hasan, general partner and founder of K2 Global, a venture-capital firm in Silicon Valley. "In fact, Facebook continues to be a thorn in Snapchat's side."

And there are nagging financial doubts about Snap for potential investors, based on information from its S-1 filing to go public.

Snap generated $404.5 million in revenue last year, compared with $58.7 million in 2015. It is on pace to clear $1 billion in 2017. But it lost $514.6 million last year and $372.9 million in 2015. Meanwhile, its count of daily active users, at 158 million, is relatively flat from the previous two quarters.

"Snap is a unicorn IPO and a unicorn company," says Chamath Palihapitiya, founder and CEO of Social Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that backs companies in areas such as healthcare and education. "It's ramping engagement but not necessarily ramping a foreseeable growth pattern on top of a vanilla IPO."

Despite potential downsides, Snap will shine a bright light on tech IPOs, especially prospects for unicorns, says Kevin Spain, general partner at Emergence Capital. "Public markets have a real appetite, especially enterprise companies" like Hootsuite and Dropbox, he says. "Hopefully, this is a harbinger of good things to come."

The telling sign, says one tech exec who just went public, is long-term financial viability.

"No matter when you list, what matters is whether you have high growth," says Axel Hefer, chief financial officer at Trivago, a hotel-booking website that debuted in December 2016 at $11.20 per share. It rose 2%, at $13.57, in trading Thursday.

"An IPO is an entry, a starting point to telling your story," Hefer says. "We were not focused on timing, but getting it done."

Amazon wants to drop packages by parachute

Amazon may have a new option for how it plans to patent filed with U.S. Patent and Trademark Office gives some details on how drone-delivered packages could be dropped by parachute.

From the patent, which was made public Tuesday: "The package delivery system can apply the force onto the package in a number of different ways. For example, pneumatic actuators, electromagnets, spring coils, and parachutes can generate the force that establishes the vertical descent path of the package."

The drone would stay nearby to make sure it arrives in the right spot.

The patent also covers how devices could be used to alter the flight path of packages to avoid things like trees, carports, balconies, power lines, eaves, etc. The vertical decent could even be altered to slip the package onto the balcony of a high-rise building.

In December, Amazon successfully completed its first delivery by drone in a test in the United Kingdom.

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The company's drone delivery service, Amazon Prime Air, is designed to deliver packages five pounds or less via drone within 30 minutes.

Amazon's parachute is not the most out-of-the-box concept the company has considered for its delivery ambitions. In late December, a separate patent was uncovered detailing Amazon's desire to create a flying warehouse hosting drones and packages.

THIS REPORT BY ME  (SURAJ)

Microsoft calls for 'digital Geneva Convention'

Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith


SAN FRANCISCO – In a major policy speech aimed at rising nationalism,  Microsoft president Brad Smith said tech companies must declare themselves neutral when nations go up against nations in cyberspace.

Let’s face it, cyberspace is the new battlefield,” he told an overflow audience in the opening keynote at the RSA computer security conference.

Tech must be committed to “100% defense and zero percent offense,” Smith said.

Smith called for a “digital Geneva Convention,” like the one created in the aftermath of World War II which set ground rules for how conduct during wartime, defining basic rights for civilians caught up armed conflicts.

The speech was echoed in a blog post on Microsoft's site that went up Tuesday morning.

The world’s governments need to pledge that “they will not engage in cyberattacks that target civilian infrastructure, whether it’s the electric grid or the political system,” Smith sai

This digital Geneva Convention would establish protocols, norms and international processes for how tech companies would deal with cyber aggression and attacks of nations aimed at civilian targets, which appears to effectively mean anything but military servers.

While Europe and other nations are also experiencing a rise in nationalist feelings, it is no accident that Smith’s talk comes just three weeks after Donald Trump was inaugurated the 45th president of the United States. Trump’s  aggressive stance — warning Iran, for instance, that it's been put "on notice" — has caught the attention of the world and made tech companies uncomfortably aware that their realm — cyberspace — is also a likely battlefield when hostilities break out.

Smith listed a string of increasingly threatening cross-border cyber incidents, beginning with the North Korean attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2014 to thefts of intellectual property by China in 2015, ending with last year’s Russian involvement in the U.S. presidential election.

“We suddenly find ourselves living in a world where nothing seems off limits to nation-state attacks,” Smith said

Technology companies, not armies, are the first responders when cyber attacks occur, he noted. But they cannot and must not, respond in kind, or aid governments in going on the offensive, Smith said.

He called for the creation of an autonomous organization, something like the International Atomic Energy Agency that polices nuclear non-proliferation.

“Even in a world of growing nationalism, when it comes to cybersecurity the global tech sector needs to operate as a neutral Digital Switzerland,” Smith said.

“We will not aid in attacking customers anywhere. We need to retain the world’s trust."

What this appears to mean in the near term is that tech companies should refuse to aid governments, even the government of the country they are based in, in attacking other nations. That could mean not building backdoors into programs sold in other countries and not taking part in work to creat

Claudio Neiva, a network security research director with analyst firm Gartner, did note that it’s easier for Microsoft and other large companies to commit to taking no offensive cyber action because they have the money and staff to pursue legal action.

“They’re being offensive by using legal measures, so it’s just a different way of doing things,” he said

Microsoft, which does business in 190 countries, clearly sees itself as an international company responsible to its global customers.

“We need to make clear that there are certain principals for which we stand, that we will assist and protect customers everywhere. We will not aid in attacking customers anywhere, regardless of the government that may ask us to do so,” Smith said.

Smith’s speech is part of a general turn-around of the Seattle-area company, which a decade ago was hated by many in the tech world when it had a near-monopoly on computer operating systems.

Today, its corporate culture and ethos have changed under CEO Satya Nadella and it has fought for privacy and freedom from government intrusion for its users, if less vocally than companies like Apple and Google. Most notably it has waged a long-term legal battle to keep the U.S. government from accessing European customer data stored in Ireland, a battle Smith was instrumental in waging as Microsoft’s chief legal officer.

Smith’s speech lays a blueprint for an organization that hasn’t yet been created, but which may be called into being through his words. No meeting of tech companies has been called, but that would be a plausible next step.

THIS REPORT BY ME  (SURAJ)