Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 87

Amazon dominates online shopping but retail shopping, not so much -- and with the COVID-19 pandemic and its 24/7 fear being reigned down on us, I don't see a return to norm anytime soon.

And by norm, I mean walking around the shops pushing a shopping cart around in the United States -- but hey, Amazon thought it would be the perfect time to unveil the Dash Cart.

What the hell is the Dash Cart? It's Amazon's new shopping cart that has a bunch of cameras, sensors, and a built-in scale that works out what is in your cart, totals it, and then charges the cart you've got attached to your Amazon account.

A new report has come out that the Trump administration has notified both Congress and the United Nations about withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO).

CNN has reported that sources close to them have said that the Trump administration is currently moving towards formally withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization. This decision has come right as coronavirus cases are spiking across the United States, but Trump, and surrounding administration officials have still continued to criticize the efforts put in by the WHO in regards to the coronavirus outbreak.

The withdrawal is planned to go into effect on July 6th, and the decision has predictably drawn division among medical associations, advocacy organizations, and lawmakers. A state department official also confirmed to CNN that "the United States' notice of withdrawal, effective July 6, 2021, has been submitted to the UN Secretary-General, who is the depository for the WHO." A spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he has received the notice and "is in the process of verifying with the World Health Organization whether all the conditions for such withdrawal are met."

Some unfortunate news for the PC industry today, with MSI president and CEO Sheng-Chang "Charles" Chiang falling from a building to his death.

We don't know what happened exactly, other than he fell to his death. An MSI spokesperson reached out to Tom's Hardware, explaining: "Earlier today, MSI GM and CEO Charles Chiang passed away. Having been a part of the company for more than 20 years, he made outstanding contributions and was admired by his colleagues. Mr. Chiang was a respected leader in the MSI family, and helped pave the way for the brand's success. We are all deeply saddened by the news, and are mourning the loss of Mr. Chiang. He will be deeply missed by the entire team".

I never personally met Charles, but I have dealt with MSI professionally (and personally) for 10 years with TweakTown. They are one of our strongest partners in the industry, and our hearts go out Chiang's family, and to the entire team at MSI.

You might not have heard about Basemark, but you've surely experienced some of its founders effects on the gaming and tech industry. Tero Sarkkinen, founder and chairman of Basemark, used to run the Futuremark sales and marketing -- Futuremark, you know the gigantic benchmark company.

Well, Sarkkinen has been hard at work with his new journey in Basemark, with the startup raising $7.9 million in funding to continue its advancements in graphics software for autonomous vehicles. ETF Partners was the sole partner in the funding round, with $7.9 million raised.

The legend himself, Tero Sarkkinen -- Basemark founder and chairman, explains: "We are thrilled to have ETF Partners on board. Over the years we have worked hard on building a category-defining product and establishing strong international relationships across the automotive industry. This new capital injection will enable us to hit the gas and take us to the next level".

It's official: Kanye West has said that he is "running for president of the United States" in the upcoming 2020 election. Not just that, but he has the "full support" of Tesla Motors and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

The announcement of his run for president comes less than 72 hours after he tweeted a picture with Musk, tweeting "When you go to your boys house and you're both wearing orange". Orange Man Bad? It's not funny anymore, try different jokes, I guess.

Yeezy doesn't just have support from Musk, but also billionaire Mark Cuban who seemed to think Yeezy was a good choice. Cuban said: "If you think Biden is a joke compared to Trump you aren't paying attention. It's time to step away from all the memes and look at reality. The Pandemic Response could not be botched any worse and he refuses to take any responsibility or try to improve it. That's disqualifying".

President Trump has been "temporarily suspended" from Twitch, with the Amazon-owned streaming giant saying that his broadcast of his Tulsa rally recently -- on top of a recent re-airing of one of his 2016 campaign stops.

Twitch claims that these two broadcasts violated their hateful conduct and harassment policies, with Twitch bringing down the ban hammer for President Trump's "negative comments about Mexican migrants".

What got President Trump temporarily suspended from Twitch? This: "Hey, it's 1:00 o'clock in the morning and a very tough, I've used the word on occasion, hombre, a very tough hombre is breaking into the window of a young woman whose husband is away as a traveling salesman or whatever he may do".

One significant update to the 2020 iPad Pro was the inclusion of Apple's A12Z chipset for LiDAR. The LiDAR data the iPad Pro is gathering has been reported in the past by analyst Jon Prosser to not be all about the iPad itself. The data being collected is rumored to be used in the Apple Glass product for enhanced AR.

According to a recent leak, Apple intends to make a big push in the AR segment with its Apple Glass. The AR glasses are said to make use of data from its own integrated LiDAR sensor. It remains unclear if the iPad Pro is sending any AR data back to Apple to be used in the Apple Glass product in the future.

Apple is rumored to launch the Apple Glass AR device in 2021, meaning we are a ways out from real information on Glass. Apple has promoted the LiDAR scanner inside the iPad Pro for AR applications in the past. That capability allows users to overlay virtual objects with physical objects in their environment.

Well, things just got serious with the Coca-Cola Company pulling the plug -- at least temporarily -- on all digital advertising across all social media platforms globally for at least 30 days.

The global soda giant announced the news late Friday night, saying it would pause digital advertising on social platforms for 30 days beginning July 1, 2020. What's the reason? A boycott of Facebook and Instagram that has been organized by the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, and other organizations that have morphed into the "Stop Hate for Profit" campaign.

The Coca-Cola Company only talked about removing advertising on Facebook and Instagram, but we should see the boycotts affecting Twitter, YouTube, and other social media platforms.

Apple wants to continue the design trend of thinner laptops in the coming years. The challenge is as hardware gains performance, it also starts to make more heat requiring more robust cooling systems. The desire for comfortable typing also requires better keyboards. The result is the need for thicker machines.

Apple has a new method that it is reportedly working on that will make future MacBooks thinner. It's not a new cooling system; it's said to be a new retractable keyboard. The retractable keyboard is an attempt by Apple to balance the customer's need for something they can type on with the need for thinness.

The keyboard will reportedly retract into the MacBook Pro enclosure. The tip of the retractable keyboard comes from a patent for "Retractable Keyboards" that was filed by Apple. Apple isn't first in looking to build retractable keyboards. IBM had a retractable keyboard in the past that would expand out of the sides of the laptop when the lid was opened.

Apart of the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic was to inject $1,200 checks into American's pockets that were eligible. Another aspect of the response by the government was to increase unemployment assistance.

All of this response by the government came under the CARES Act that Congress pushed through in March. Apart of the CARES Act was the increase in unemployment benefits, which saw a $600/week boost in unemployment insurance. At the end of next month (July 31) this benefit is set to expire, but by then, we can expect a second stimulus check to be rolled out, find out more on that here.

In the meantime, it should be noted that if you haven't claimed the $600-per-week unemployment benefit for the weeks between March 28 and July 31, you might be able to do so as back pay. According to The Penny Hoarder, "Individuals that qualify for the (Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation) $600 payment for weeks they are eligible ... can be paid, even if not approved prior to the (July 31) deadline".