Bits in Technology 🖥️ - Week 07: February 12, 2018 - February 18, 2018

Week 07: February 12, 2018 - February 18, 2018

Amazon managed to top Microsoft for the first time

Amazon managed to top Microsoft's market cap for the first time on Wednesday. Amazon closed at $702.46 billion while Microsoft closed at $700.56 billion. This also makes Jeff Bezos the founder and CEO of Amazon the richest person in the world with a fortune of $100+ billion.

Amazon also plans to build new headquarters costing up to $5 billion and offering 50.000 new jobs. Cities battle between each other offering incentives to Amazon to be the location that will be chosen for the new headquarters to be build.

Google’s Chrome enabled build-in adblocking

Google enabled the build-in adblocking on February 15. Sites will be warned before ads are blocked. If any ad doesn't pass the standards set by Coalition for Better Ads all ads on the site will be blocked (including Google ads). Site owners have 30 days after Google notifies them or all ads will be blocked on Chrome.

Facebook is promoting its VPN service

Facebook bought Onavo Protect in 2013. VPN services are usually promoted for better privacy and security and also having access to blocked websites and resources in certain countries. Facebook added a "Protect" button under settings prompting you to download their VPN service Onavo. Onavo Protect is a free VPN but that usually means that if it is free, the purpose of the app must be different. They honestly don't seem to hide the reasoning for being free. When you first open the open you are greeted by this message:

When you use our VPN, we collect all the info that is sent to, and received from, your mobile device. This includes info about: your device and its location, apps installed on your device and how often you use those apps, the websites you visit, and the amount of data you use.

This helps us improve and operate the Onavo service by analyzing your use of websites, apps and data. Because we’re part of Facebook, we also use this info to improve Facebook products and services, gain insights into the products and services people value, and build better experiences.

Onavo can gather data about when and how often you open certain apps, giving Facebook knowledge about the competition.

Atari to launch the Atari and the Pong Token

Atari plans to enter the crypto space with 2 new tokens. Not many details are available yet but it seems like the Pong token will be used in online casinos while the Atari token will be used in gaming platforms.

As any announcements having the word blockchain or crypto in it, it caused its stock to rise.

Telegram: Biggest ICO ever

Telegram managed to gather $850 million on the first stage of the TON ico. The original target for the pre-sale was $600 million but it seems like the demand was higher. It is said the public sale will go up to $1.15 billion making it (if successful) to a full $2 billion total. Even if it is not successful this makes it the biggest ico to date. Here is the list of the most popular ICO today:

Source: TokenData.io

Microsoft to develop using blockchain distributed-ledger technologies

Microsoft announced on their blog their plan to use blockchain distributed-ledger technologies to manage digital identities. Their first plans are to use these technologies to their Authenticator app which is used by millions of people every day. They call this "Decentralized Identity". Their efforts aiming at richer experiences and getting every person to own and control their Digital Identity.

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That is all for this week's Bits in Technology. Feel free to comment any of the news in the comments. See you all next week.

Have a great week! - Chris Myll @coolmyll