Tesla, another enterprise under the leadership of Elon Musk, has played a monumental role in the introduction of electric cars to the world. From their most famous Tesla model X, to the more recent Tesla Model 3. But the company now faces some problems. Elon musk is notorious for making big promises that seem far to impossible to keep. The most popular of which is that in two years Tesla will be able to produce fully autonomous cars or cars that are capable of driving themselves. Unfortunately this has timeline was set last year and nothing but “hell” has broken less since then.
This year alone, Tesla was forced to issued a voluntary recall of 123,000 Tesla model S due bugs that were found in its semi-autonomous program. Musk told CBS This Morning that since then, working in the factory has been a “production hell” claiming to sleep in the factory because he has not time to go home or shower. This all stems from Tesla's new endeavours in the market to create an affordable, mass produced, midsize sedan more commonly known as the Tesla Model. Not to mention, this new car comes equipped with their newly updated autonomous driving feature. Tesla's suffering does not stop there. The Better Business Bureau, an organization focused on advancing marketplace trust has just given Tesla an F for its annual review. Of the reportedly 65 customer complaints, only 23 were resolved and 10 were simply put on hold.Grievances have ranged from warranty issues to customer-perceived defective floor mats. While this may not look bad for the company merely a minor scratch compared to the production issues it is facing and this news is not going to result in anything greater than an annoyed customer or two.
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Four years ago on October 7th, 2008 Spotify was launched. The idea behind the newly announced technology company was to provide free podcast and music streaming services for everyone. Only the occasional advertisement was the cost of using Spotify or a 99 cent monthly for those who wish to avoid the ads. Fortunately their idea worked. Within the first year of launching, Spotify had earned 12 million in net revenue and have been growing ever since.
On Tuesday, April 3rd the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced spotifi’s annual valuation to be 30 billion dollars. This is the largest flotation for a technology company in history. Many were skeptic before the news dropped believing that Spotify's valuation wouldn't surpass 18 billion. In response to the news Spotify has made a over 54 million of their shares available for selling, valued at around 165 dollars per share. But along with this good news comes a more concerning matter. Their IPO states that for every 5 billion acquired 1.5 billion is lost. This is be concerning primarily because of why the loss is occuring. More and more people are finding ways of surpass the fee accompanying an “ad free” spotify. As a result, spotify is losing a number of customers. Although this is dangerous, a newly negotiated license with Warner has the potential to squander the losses faced by Spotify by ever increasing profit margin. Spotify is still on the rise and may become to official “youtube of music” putting it in competition with mega corporations such as Amazon and Apple. The process of identifying bacterial infections in the lungs is usually a time consuming process. First a sample must be taken from the patient then sent to pathology for examination. After the infection has been identified, it takes 2 to 3 days to notify the patient of their ailment. This process is also flagged as often unreliable.
Fortunately this might change. On February 15,2018 a group of scientist and doctors from Edinburgh, Bath and Heriot-Watt Universities in the UK developed a device system that is able to send a probe safely through a patient's lungs. The device is called the Proteus and is inspired by the 1960s film, Fantastic Voyage. Not only does this method allows the doctor to directy find and identify an infection within minutes, it is also much more precise and a prescription could be written on the spot. Dr. Anya Bruce told BBC "The real advantage is that we are actually imaging and detecting where the disease is in the patient's lungs and we are giving a diagnosis and a decision-making power within minutes or seconds. That's a big difference." In current cases when a patient presents with a severe respiratory distress a broad spectrum antibiotic is administered in order to eliminate *several assumed infections. But the problem with this is that the use of antibiotics increases the risk of antibiotic-resistant strains of DNA developing. Dr. Bruce believes that there is a huge over usage of antibiotics and because clinicians do not have the answers in front of them, they are sometimes forced to assume resulting in more antibiotics being administered. The Proteus is able to identify the precise strain of bacteria present, eliminating the need for more than one anti-bacterial medicine. This new technology marks the beginning of a more efficient and safe way of practicing medicine. Amazon, JP Morgan Chase, and Berkshire Hathaway are three very successful companies. Almost anything they do inevitably catches the attention of people around the world, and Tuesday January 30th was no exception. At a recent investment convention the CEOs of all those companies (Jeff Bezos, Jamie Dimon, Warren Buffett) announced that they will attempt to partner up in order to cut healthcare costs. To do this they will start by targeting technology solutions to simplify the health care system. "The ballooning costs of healthcare act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy," Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett said to NBC. He also stated that this partnership will not have all the answers but they do not accept the current situation as inevitable.
This announcement caused quite a ripple through the rest of the market. Express Scripts and Aetna were among the many whose shares dropped by 3 percent after the announcement. In response to this Jeff bezozs stated to CNBC that, "Hard as it might be, reducing healthcare's burden on the economy while improving outcomes for employees and their families would be worth the effort." With this attitude Healthcare is bound to improve. This effort by Bezos, Dimon, and Buffet will take time but might not be that impossible. All three companies are renowned for their ability to make life easier through technology - Amazon being the most prevalent in that field. Berkshire Hathaway owns Geico, an expert in direct consumer communication, and JP Morgan Chase is renowned for their consumer finance efficiency, whether it by home mortgages or simple banking. With these three juggernauts and their expertise, one wouldn't be too far off to expect something innovative and efficient when it comes to their new healthcare. Today, YouTube has become the main source of income for many. By posting videos and gaining views, users have been able to receive ad revenue for their videos. As easy as it sounds, YouTube has imposed new sanctions defining what is allowed and restricting things previously allowed. This is all due to the recent loss in advertising in YouTube. Companies such as McDonalds and L’Oreal Paris are removing their advertisements from YouTube because of what videos they are representing.
Hank Green, a renown YouTuber and creator of the Crash Course series has coined the term “adpocalypse” describing the matter. He says that a few weeks ago, several inflammatory articles were posted concerning major brands being advertised on “very vile” videos. These articles caused several brands to back out of YouTube for fear of backlash targeted towards them. According to him, this has put several YouTubers in a corner. While they may be making quality content, what they are doing might strike YouTube as controversial. This would result in YouTube flagging these YouTuber's channels, making them remarkably unattractive to the advertisers, which in turn ruins a YouTuber's career. To make it up to the companies, YouTube has agreed to give advertisers more control over where their ads are being posted and who they are sponsoring. In addition to this the VP of product management at Google Ariel Bardin has also stated that Youtube will take a tougher stance on contentment that promotes discrimination, inappropriate use of family characters, and incendiary or demeaning content. It is safe to assume that any video fitting under this category will receive no ad revenue. On September 12, 2017 Apple made an announcement concerning their latest invention. The iPhone X. This phone is equipped with an array of new features that to many, places it above all the other phones. Among these features are the new security measures. Apple has implemented a brand new facial recognition software known as the A11 Bionic Chip. This allows for the phone to detect and recognize your face to unlock. This feature even functions when there is no light present. Apple claims that now there is a 1 and a million chance that someone could unlock your phone.
This new 3D facial recognition software comes with a catch, the price - $999 . This is the base price for the phones disregarding tax and all the other most commonly purchased amendies. Is it worth it? Iphone X owner Cole Dyer (Junior) thinks so: “It's the best.” Dyer notes that because of its glass frame it may be susceptible to cracking but all phones are. Just in case you happen to drop your iphone, Dyer stressed the importance of protection. “Make sure you get applecare,” apple's version of iphone insurance. This iPhone does seem a bit excessive, in addition to the price tag, there are so many options and new quirks, enough that just exiting a screen takes some brain power. While the facial recognition software is quiet cool, it’s a luxury that no one really needs. The wireless charging is another characteristic that at face value, is ultimately a hassle. To charge the iphone X, you have to place it on a pad this is connected to a power source rendering the use of the phone while charging, impossible. Its rival the Samsung galaxy Note 8 supersedes the iPhone X in almost every aspect. It performs at a higher speed with 2 times as much gigs of ram. It also features a 6.3-inch AMOLED (2960 x 1440) resolution which is slightly more powerful than the iPhone X. This arguably better phone is also a little bit cheaper than the iphone X starting out at $950. At the end of the day, it is up to the buyer to decide what he believes is the smarter purchase, but as far as I’m concerned, the iPhone X is not worth the $1000 plus price tag. You would be far better off keeping your current phone or upgrading to the iPhone 8. Because today’s society is centered around the use of technology it is almost impossible to run into to someone who is unfamiliar with a phone. Almost everything can be accessed via electronics and Apple is the most prevalent contender in the world of tech. But with this prevalence comes of over-usage of apple products. Parents everywhere worry about the addiction their children seem to have developed to their phones, computers...etc. It's because of these worries, major investors in Apple have began to speak.
Advised by Dr. Michael Rich and professor Jean M. Twenge, JANA Partners LLC and Corporate Governance for The California State Teachers' Retirement System called for Apple to put in place more stringent parental controls on the their iPhones. “We have reviewed the evidence and we believe there is a clear need for Apple to offer parents more choices and tools to help them ensure that young consumers are using your products in an optimal manner. By doing so, we believe Apple would once again be playing a pioneering role, this time by setting an example about the obligations of technology companies to their youngest customers.” (Rich, Twenge) In addition to this they also explained why more severe parental restrictions should be enacted; children lacking the adequate amount attention in class, and the overuse of electronics leading to chronic depression due to exposure to social media were among those reasons. This call to action by the investors has both a good and bad outcome. To start, the good. It is true that today almost every teenager wakes up and goes to bed with their phone. Washington Post states that 73% of the 31% of teens who attempt or commit suicide used or had access to smartphones. Apple, being the most prominent smartphone among teens, has the power to lower those stats. If harsher restrictions are enacted via apple these numbers would plummet. While this is a good thing, there will be backlash hence the negative outcome. In their letter to apple, the investors included infighting between families as one of the reasons Apple should upgrade their restrictions. This infighting would only occur more often if parents gain more power over their child's usage of the phone. With good and bad outcomes, this leaves apple in a stand still. In my opinion, the problem is not with the electronics, it's with the parents. They should expose their children to phones when they are older, preferably when they start to drive. And prior to exposing them to phones, there should be a contract or an agreement put in place lay out all the restrictions and guidelines to look out for. In the agreement the consequences for not obeying the contract should be specified. This would limit the amount of time teens spend on their phones. By the end of the first day back from break, students and teachers at Worthington Kilbourne were well aware of a strange occurrence. The school’s wifi filtering system had been altered. This alteration was not just a tweak here and there blocking a few unnecessary sites. The school had virtually blocked almost all the websites used on a daily basis. Sites such as ebay, Youtube, and most news sites were among the blocked. Naturally, students were outraged by this assuming almost immediately that the school was attempting to take control.
This caused an array of problems for other students as well. Junior Mitchell Delma stated that “teachers weren't able to visit class sites and because of that, class was less productive.” When asked why he thought the mass website ban was occurring, mitchel referred to “budget cuts” as being the main reason. He thought that Kilborne had to downgrade their internet serves rendering the need for more websites illegitimate. Fortunately, behind the scenes, things were not as they appeared. This ban was “completely unintentional” said Joe Norris, Informational Technology Leader or Worthington school district. As it turns out a series of events lead to this mishap. Throughout the year, it was noticed by many that the internet was not operating as fast as it should. Initially, it was assumed that this was due to students using their phones and computers, overwhelming the wifi capacity. This was not the case. According to Norris, the filtering system used at the time was outdated and not able to keep up with the traffic it was receiving. Because of this, over break the school was forced to install a new filtering system in order to maintain a fast internet. Here is where things got scrambled. Norris explained that the new filtering system, known as Securely had an import list of all the websites blocked from the previous filter. Unfortunately, the list did not contain specific specific urls; instead the websites were listed by category. For instance, with the previous filter, websites listed under a category like Adult, and the specific urls were not identified. When the list was transferred over to Securely, it was done only by category and not by specific urls. The program interpreted the Adult category as a general categorization. As a result, Securely not only blocked the intended sites such as pornagraphic materil, but the also any other site assumed to be used by adults, such as news ones. Some students remain skeptical after finding out what happend. Senior Zaid Abusalha, was one of them. “Why did no one tell us about this? There was no announcement or email sent about it either.” Fortunately, according to Norris, this problem can be fixed. Sites that are blocked can be removed by an administrator from the white list, a compilation of restricted sites by the school, and then be viewed by students and staff over the network. Over time all the websites that are commonly used will be removed from the list and back to normal. |
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