Apple just released a public beta version of iOS 12, the next version of the iPhone operating system due out this fall.
Why it matters: Apple’s software update provides a strong sense of where the iPhone is going. While you can’t buy a new iPhone until the fall, you can make yours new with a free software update.
The Red Hen, a popular D.C. restaurant, has learned the hard way that sharing a name with a restaurant at the center of a viral story can be “truly insane.”
The big picture: The restaurant was mistaken for the Red Hen in Lexington, Va., which asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders to leave on Friday. In a testament to the power of social media and how quickly misinformation can spread, owner and chef Michael Friedman's restaurant has fielded a barrage of threats and attacks.
The Supreme Court upheld Monday a lower court ruling that American Express didn't violate federal antitrust laws when it told retailers that took Amex that they couldn't encourage customers to use cards, like Discover, that charge merchants lower fees.
Why it matters: Today's decision may give the tech giants more ammunition to argue against the growing number of critics who believe their power is an competitive concern. Amazon, Facebook, Google and Uber — like American Express — run two-sided markets. The court said, effectively, that antitrust cases against two-sided market companies should sometimes have to consider both sides.
VSCO, a mobile app for editing and sharing photos, has made a couple key hires as it looks to capitalize on its growing popularity among teens.
The bottom line: Despite being much smaller than some other photo-sharing apps — Instagram now has one billion monthly users —VSCO thinks it has a chance at building a sustainable business. It recently revealed that its one-year-old subscription product, VSCO X, now has more than one million paying users. Plus, with only 20% of its users being in the U.S., it believes there’s a large global market where it can grow.
Privacy and government affairs officers from a number of the largest tech companies plan to convene in San Francisco on Wednesday to discuss how to tackle growing questions and concerns about consumer privacy online.
Why it matters: It's been a tough year for the industry on the privacy front, driven largely by Europe's new privacy regime and the media frenzy around Facebook's Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
On Monday, hearings will begin at London's Westminster Magistrates’ Court for Uber's appeal of a September decision by the city's transportation authority not to renew its operating license, according to Reuters.
Why it matters: Though Uber will be allowed to continue operating throughout the legal fight, which could span years, this will be one of the biggest tests of CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's efforts since taking over to improve the ride-hailing giant's image and relationship with authorities.
Two U.S. Supreme Court decisions last week, about online sales taxes and law enforcement access to cellphone location data, landed like thunderbolts in two key tech-industry domains — e-commerce and privacy law.
Why it matters: While Silicon Valley has been preoccupied with Congressional hearings and regulators both at home and abroad, these decisions were a reminder that the Supreme Court's refittings of constitutional principles to new technological realities will have a strong hand in shaping the digital future.
Atul Gawande, the newly minted CEO of the new health care project from Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase shared some initial thoughts about the venture at the Aspen Ideas Festival this weekend.
His priorities: "Better outcomes, better satisfaction with care, and better cost efficiency, with new models that can be incubated for all."
In 1950, Alan Turing, whose 106th birthday would have been yesterday, laid out a test that is known in popular culture today as the gold standard for evaluating AI.
What's happening now: As AI researchers notch successes in processing language, playing games, and recognizing images, some of the field's heavyweights are calling for a wider approach to creating intelligent machines and expanding how it is tested.
