Wednesday, 13 July 2016

Daily Pulse: A Massive Hack Attack, New York's $15 Minimum, Pushing the iPad Pro


Hack Attack: US prosecutors unveiled a 23-count indictment charging three men with a massive fraud-and-hacking enterprise that targeted 12 companies, including nine in financial services and The Wall Street Journal. The alleged crimes included "pumping up stock prices, online casinos, payment processing for criminals, an illegal bitcoin exchange, and at least 75 shell companies and accounts," write Jonathan Stempel and Nate Raymond of Reuters. The indictment includes the JP Morgan breach, the largest of a financial institution in US history.
#Stat: $5 billion: What Alibaba took in during the first 90 minutes of "Singles Day." That is the grand total Americans spent online on all-day on Black Friday and Cyber Monday last year, combined.
All the Way: The Obama administration will appeal to the Supreme Court lower court rulings that have prevented the enforcement an an executive order that might protect as many as five million undocumented immigrants from deportation. Twenty-five states sued to stop implementation, arguing that it would present an undue burden (for example, the cost of issuing driver's licenses). The Justice Department will argue, among other things, that states don't have standing to oppose border control policy, the exclusive province of the federal government.
Today in Self-Driving Cars: A bit of good news for Volkswagen — they poached "an expert in self-driving car technology from Apple," reports Jack Ewing for The New York TimesOfficially, Apple doesn't have a self-driving car program (called Project Titan), so no idea what Johann Jungwirth had been doing in Cupertino. At VW, he'll report directly to CEO Matthias Müller, and "lead a newly created Digitalization Strategy Department."
Empire Raise: New York is increasing the state minimum wage to $15. Gov. Andrew Cuomo's plan is to raise the minimum in New York City to $15 by the end 2018 and the rest of the state by the end of 2021.
As leaked a week or so ago, T-Mobile will allow customers to stream video from 24 services that won't count against usage caps. They're calling it #BingeOn, and it is still bad for net neutrality.
A Good Day for Android: Apple unveiled the Music app for the enemy  — no music videos yet. And Google Maps is now available for offline navigation and search — Android only, so far.
The Tablet of Tomorrow: Apple's iPad Pro goes on sale tomorrow, and Tim Cook is trying very hard to position it as a PC substitute for the enterprise — an insinuation that remains elusive for Microsoft's Pro hybrid even after three years. Part of the reason is the value prop: Most companies won't pay for a premium version of a good enough tool, like a laptop. Neither will you, probably. As Jon Fortt said on CNBC today, the world hasn't exactly been clambering for a "bigger, heavier and more expensive" iPad (0:40 in the video below).
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Cover Art: United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara points to a poster board as he speaks at a news conference where he announced charges against three individuals for offenses related to the computer hacking of numerous financial institutions, financial news publishers, and other companies on November 10, 2015 in New York City. The charges against Gery Shalon and others include the largest theft of customer data from a U.S. financial institution in history. Two of the charged individuals are in custody in Israel pending extradition while a third is still at large. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
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What you may have missed — and really should read:
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