Month: January 2017

(credit: Gage Skidmore)

In a statement issued less than a half hour after being briefed by the heads of US intelligence agencies, President-elect Donald Trump thanked them for their work. “I had a constructive meeting and conversation with the leaders of the Intelligence Community this afternoon,” he said in the published statement. “I have tremendous respect for the work and service done by the men and women of this community to our great nation.”

But in his next breath, Trump in essence dismissed the substance of their findings. “While Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses, and organizations, including the Democratic National Committee,” Trump said, “there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election including the fact that there was no tampering whatsoever with voting machines.” Trump added that there “were attempts to hack the Republican National Committee, but the RNC had strong hacking defenses and the hackers were unsuccessful.”

In a congressional hearing yesterday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said that there was no evidence that election results were tampered with through tapping. But he had also said there was no way to measure what sort of impact information operations alleged to have been carried out at the direction of the Russian government had on how US citizens voted. Clapper described a “multifaceted” campaign that included the use of state-owned media, as well as “disinformation and fake news.”

A Friday Twitter post from Wikileaks' official "task force" declared intent to build a publicly searchable database revolving around a particular group of people: verified Twitter accounts.

"We are thinking of making an online database with all 'verified' Twitter accounts & their family/job/financial/housing relationships," the Friday tweet reads. A follow-up post sought suggestions from the public and said the group was "looking for clear discrete (father/shareholding/party membership) variables that can be put into our AI software."

The task force neither clarified where this information would come from, nor did it clarify its reasons for mulling such a project.

Enlarge / AT&T will own a bunch of new media properties if it is allowed to buy Time Warner. (credit: Aurich Lawson)

AT&T and Time Warner say they have a plan to avoid a Federal Communications Commission review of their pending merger.

An FCC review would be necessary if Time Warner transfers any FCC licenses to AT&T, but Time Warner might get rid of any such licenses before the deal is finished. "Time Warner has conducted a review of all licenses that it holds that are granted by the FCC," AT&T said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. "While subject to change, it is currently anticipated that Time Warner will not need to transfer any of its FCC licenses to AT&T in order to continue to conduct its business operations after the closing of the transaction."

AT&T did not elaborate on how the licenses would be disposed of.

Enlarge / SpaceX successfully launched the THAICOM 6 satellite in January 2014, aboard its Falcon 9 rocket. (credit: SpaceX)

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a launch license to SpaceX on Friday. The company's Falcon 9 rocket will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Southern California. This license formally grants SpaceX permission to return to flight after a September 1 accident that led to a total loss of the rocket and its satellite payload. SpaceX founder Elon Musk has already said the rocket is ready, having completed its static firing test on Thursday. The FAA has also licensed six additional flights for SpaceX out of Vandenberg.

SpaceX will be launching 10 Iridium NEXT satellites for its return-to-flight mission. According to Virginia-based Iridium Communications, SpaceX will attempt a launch on Monday, January 9, if weather permits. Monday's proposed flight would complete a remarkably short turnaround from September's accident, in which one of three composite overwrapped pressure vessels inside the rocket's second stage liquid oxygen tank failed.

The FAA license notes that SpaceX will fly the newest, Version 1.2 configuration of its Falcon 9 rocket. This upgraded variant of the booster includes the updated Merlin-1D rocket engine and uses chilled, densified propellant. Combined, the rocket and propellant add about 30 percent to the overall lift performance of the Falcon 9. SpaceX hopes to recover the rocket on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean.

Enlarge / Apple's executive pay for 2016. (credit: Apple)

Apple raked in $215.6 billion in sales in 2016, but it wasn't enough to keep the company from reporting its first year-over-year sales decline since 2001. According to the company's definitive proxy statement filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company's sales declined from $233.7 billion in 2015, and its operating income likewise fell from $71.2 billion in 2015 to $60.0 billion in 2016. The decline in these two metrics was enough to significantly cut incentive-based pay for Tim Cook and a number of other high-level Apple executives.

The SEC report lists the earnings of six "named executives," including CEO Tim Cook, CFO Luca Maestri, Retail SVP Angela Ahrendts, Internet Software and Services SVP Eddy Cue, Hardware Engineering SVP Dan Riccio, and General Counsel Bruce Sewell. Cook's base salary is set at $3 million, while the other executives' base pay is $1 million. Each executive has the opportunity to earn up to four times his or her base salary if the company meets net sales and operating income goals.

Last year, all of the executives maxed out their potential cash bonuses—Cook received an $8 million cash bonus based on his then-$2 million base salary, and the other named executives earned $4 million based on their $1 million base salaries. This year, Cook earned $5.3 million and other executives earned about $1.8 million, a little less than twice each executive's base salary. Each of the executives aside from Cook received $20 million in stock, $8 million of which is incentive-based (though the way these incentives are awarded depends on Apple's stock performance relative to other companies rather than its revenue).

Enlarge / US Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) delivers a speech at the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. (credit: Getty Images | Alex Wong)

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who has tried to overturn net neutrality rules and help states impose limits on municipal broadband, will be the new chairperson of a Congressional telecommunications subcommittee.

Blackburn will chair the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, committee leadership announced yesterday. She'll take over from Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), another frequent critic of the Federal Communications Commission who was recently selected by fellow Republicans to become chair of the full Energy and Commerce Committee.

Blackburn has consistently tried to unravel FCC attempts to regulate broadband providers. In 2015, she filed legislation titled the "Internet Freedom Act" to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's then-new network neutrality rules that prohibit blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization. The net neutrality rules still remain in effect, but Republicans are expected to attack the rules again under President-elect Donald Trump. Blackburn has claimed that the FCC's net neutrality order is an attempt to "set all the rates" that broadband providers charge for Internet service, even though the FCC hasn't tried to do that and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said he had no intention of doing so.

Happy New Year, Arsians! Courtesy of our partners at TechBargains, the Dealmaster is here with a big batch of deals for the first week of 2017. The top item today is a Samsung 55-inch 4K HDR TV for $549.99—that's 45 percent off the original $999.99 MSRP. We also have deals on laptops, headphones, and, since it's a new year, don't forget about tax software.

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Enlarge / Julian Assange's Wikileaks is shocked—shocked—that someone would leak secrets for political reasons. (credit: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)

On Thursday, NBC News broadcast a report claiming to have exclusive details from the top-secret version of the intelligence community report on Russian hacking and information warfare activities delivered to President Barack Obama—a report scheduled to be delivered by intelligence officials to President-elect Donald Trump today. The NBC report followed a Washington Post report based on information from anonymous “US officials” about intercepted communications between Russian leaders celebrating Donald Trump’s election as a victory.

The NBC report drew an instant rebuke via Twitter from Trump. WikiLeaks, which has previously published leaked highly classified US intelligence data, cried foul over the leaks.

How did NBC get "an exclusive look into the top secret report he (Obama) was presented?" Who gave them this report and why? Politics!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017

The Obama admin/CIA is illegally funneling TOP SECRET//COMINT information to NBC for political reasons before PEOTUS even gets to read it.

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 6, 2017

The parade of leaks regarding the US intelligence assessment about Russian hacking is notable given the Obama administration’s past crackdown on leaks, which has included a record number of prosecutions against those leaking information to journalists. The leaks are likely motivated by Trump’s frequent dismissal of official intelligence community statements regarding the alleged involvement of the Russian government in the hacking and dissemination of information from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaigns.

Toyota

Appearing like a large dimpled egg, the Concept-i autonomous car was unveiled by Toyota at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as a true design concept; a canvas stitched with ideas for a warmer, more engaging, connected autonomous car of the future. Its hypothetical on-sale date is 2030, although Toyota freely admits that it has virtually no plans to put the Concept-i into production.

The most problematic trend in autonomous cars, Toyota says, is that they simply do not appeal to the touchy-feely sentiment we humans have when it comes to our emotional connection with cars. Fully autonomous concepts have thus far been cold, distant, and purgatorial, Toyota posits. No more. Toyota's future eggmobile puts a cheeky face on the future of driving and is even fitted with Yui, a synthetic AI car butler/pal/servant who will learn your likes and dislikes behind the wheel. Just as importantly, though, the Concept-i is also drivable by humans, so you need not feel like luggage all the time.