Before a meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron today, Apple CEO Tim Cook made a surprise visit to a small company that’s providing crucial optical recognition technology for the iPhone X.
Eldim, based near the Normandy town of Caen, has been making various types of display technology for more than 30 years. More recently, this has evolved into making components that allow for “optical analysis of angular characteristics.” Apparently, a version of this technology is one of the critical components being used in the new Face ID system for the iPhone X.
Local reporters were invited to tag along for the visit, which they documented on Twitter and blog posts. A reporter for Ouest-France noted that executives said the two companies had actually been working together for almost a decade, mostly in an R&D capacity. It was only with the release of the iPhone X that the facial recognition system is being baked into a product, however.
Eldim CEO Thierry Leroux told reporters that working with Apple was “an incredible adventure,” but added that there have also been huge technical challenges over the years. “For us, it was a little like sending someone to the moon,” Leroux told reporters. Cook responded, “It’s great what you have done for us.”
The visit was no doubt a thrill for Eldim’s 42 employees. It was also likely a diplomatic move by Cook, who is scheduled to meet with Macron at 4:15 p.m. CET today. The official agenda for their meeting has not been disclosed, but it’s likely to cover the question of Apple’s tax payments in France, and in Europe in general.
While Macron has cultivated a pro-tech and pro-entrepreneur reputation, he also has been fiercely critical of American tech companies not paying sufficient taxes. Apple is facing a demand to pay $15 billion in taxes to Ireland following a European Union investigation that found the company’s tax structure there violated EU competition rules.
Macron is among the European leaders pressing the EU to develop a new taxation scheme for tech giants that would make it more difficult for them to duck taxes by creating elaborate systems of corporate shell companies.
Cook and other leaders have been eager to highlight the positive economic impact their companies provide in terms of job creation across Europe. The visit to Eldim serves as just one such example.
Cook got a little ribbing by the French on Twitter for this tweet.
It should read: “Bravo pour votre travail!” He deleted that one and posted a corrected version:
Thanks to my friends at Eldim, a team of talented engineers and craftspeople helping make iPhone possible. Bravo pour votre travail! http://pic.twitter.com/hEpxD3iBGf
An Israeli District Court recently ruled that Israeli banks are not obligated to provide financial services to companies whose primary business is trading in cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. The Court reasoned that banks should not have to assume the risks associated with providing a financial platform to these digital currency businesses when the leading Israeli authorities on the subject, namely the Central Bank, the Securities Authority, and the Anti-Money Laundering and Terror Financing Authority, themselves have been struggling to delineate clear measures to minimize them.
One of the primary risks Israeli authorities and other regulators around the globe noted is the pseudo-anonymous nature of cryptocurrency holdings. Regulators view the digital token transfer method as a “black box”, low in accountability and virtually impossible to subject to existing anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-terror financing regulations. However, built-in features of cryptocurrencies, specifically their underlying blockchain technology, have the potential to improve, not harm, AML efforts, even surpassing mechanisms already in place today.
The growing tension between the fast-growing cryptocurrency industry and AML guidelines is fueled by several factors, beyond Bitcoin’s somewhat misguided reputation as a favorite of hackers and criminals, the primary of which is its structure. The current AML system was originally tailored to address existing centralized financial services systems. By default, these guidelines cannot account for a finance system based on intrinsic anonymity. Rather, AML relies on the ability to monitor and exploit the Know Your Client (KYC) process, identifying information that every financial institution is required to account for by law.
The AML monitoring mechanisms currently in place attribute every transaction to a preidentified legal entity. Data tracked in a fiat money paper-trail includes: (a) the financial system entry point, i.e. opening bank account, and (b) any transaction within the system, for example, sending money from one bank account to another or use of swift platforms. The systems then monitor the financial activity, evaluate the AML risks associated with such transactions, and follow up with any relevant notifications and reports. Use of the financial proceeds of a crime, when identified, can be easily attributed to a particular person.
Critics of cryptocurrencies point to the lack of identifying information throughout digital transactions as a substantial obstacle to existing AML surveillance and enforcement capabilities. However, all of the essential regulatory and enforcement elements — identifying parties and information, a record of the transaction, and even enforcement — can exist in the cryptocurrency system. It’s all a matter of adjusting perspective.
First, a cryptocurrency accounts for the identity of its users both at the beginning and end of transactions through digital wallets. Tokens are stored in electronic wallets instead of bank accounts. Only the wallet owner has access to his or her wallet. The owner can send and accept tokens from one wallet to another by providing the identification code of their wallet to the other side of the transaction. The code itself acts as a key, eliminating the need for names or other types of identification. So while the transaction itself is seemingly anonymous, in most countries today, you need to undergo the process of KYC in order to open a new digital wallet. (Just as one example, Coinbase’s legal disclaimer notes that it may check account information associated with your linked bank account among other possible background checks, and the 2017 Global CryptoCurrency Benchmarking Study asserts that all wallets converting national currency to crypotcurrency perform such checks.) So by virtue of owning a digital wallet, even without necessarily using it, your anonymity is compromised.
Nevertheless, in some places, you can still open a wallet without going through a proper identification process, which may allow “dirty money” into the system. “Dirty money” and other issues like coin-join and “smurfing”, make it difficult to attribute a financial transaction to a specific legal entity, presenting a problem still in need of a solution.
One possibility is the expansion of KYC as a worldwide prerequisite to issuing global e-wallets, thereby prohibiting token transfer to a wallet that does not meet that standard. Considering there is only one type of entry and exit point, unlike the multiple exchange platforms available in the fiat system, cryptocurrency could conceivably enhance identity tracking capability.
This kind of solution would require consensus by key players in the industry and complementary regulation. The recent upswing in new KYC requirements for new and existing wallet owners internationally suggests such standardization could be crucial for ensuring the proper functioning of the growing future cryptocurrency industry.
Additionally, thanks to blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies inherently have the potential to reduce AML risks when compared with fiat currencies. The blockchain is an online public ledger, where each transaction is supervised, validated, and recorded as a complete transaction history.
Public ledger viewers and crypto miners are immediately notified of any transfer from one holder to another. Furthermore, unlike counterfeit hard currency, which governments spend significant sums trying to combat, cryptocurrencies are almost impossible to forge, as they each carry their own unique characteristics, which are verified from end to end by miners (“miners” being the computers on which individuals and mining groups are running the blockchain). Without verification of all transaction phases, including the departure wallet, the destination wallet, and the currency type and amount, the transaction is blocked instantaneously without any human supervision. In this sense, the digital trail could better serve AML regulations than the existing fiat paper trail.
The structure of blockchain is not the only characteristic of the cryptocurrency system that benefits AML efforts. Crypto miners, which act as de facto enforcement, are integral to the system as well. Once a validation is announced to the network, miners “check the math,” and a block is added to the ledger only when the required number of miners has verified the transaction. Similarly, the blockchain protocol could be revised to limit transactions to KYC-verified wallets only. All transactions could be traced back to an identified e-wallet. Moreover, AML risk analysis and alert and report-generating mechanisms could be integrated within the crypto system instead of monitoring only the entry and exit points.
As cryptocurrencies gain mainstream public attention and more individuals put their skin in the game, addressing AML challenges has become crucial. At the core of the crypto system, blockchain technology’s inherent characteristics offer a platform to address, if not overcome, these challenges altogether. Evidently, there will be a price associated with such a move in the form of higher transaction costs and less anonymity. But it’s a price worth paying for the purpose of allowing cryptocurrencies to carry onward and change the face of money as we know it.
With the cost of global AML measures currently estimated at over $10 billion annually, the Israeli authorities as well as law and policymakers worldwide would be prudent to look before they leap, ensuring their good intentions to protect financial intuitions and citizens don’t end up blocking a technology that could provide a return on investment that far surpasses the price of transitional uncertainty.
In 2010, J.Ed Marston — then the vice president of marketing for the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce — was tasked with pitching new media outlets about one of the city’s latest high-tech offerings. The city’s utility provider, Electrical Power Board of Chattanooga, had created its own fiber optic network that was capable of delivering internet speeds of 1 gigabit per second to all residents.
The problem that Marston encountered wasn’t that media outlets weren’t interested — it was that not everyone believed that a city the size of Chattanooga (population 177,571) could have created their own fiber network with internet speeds that fast.
“I had to get EPB to write out a technical spec that I could provide to people…to prove that we actually had what we said we had,” Marston recalls.
Today, the city has become synonymous with its homegrown fiber network, earning the nickname “Gig City.” My GamesBeat colleague Stephanie Chan recently covered Chattanooga’s latest event — TenGig, an esports festival taking place October 6-8 — that leverages the city’s fiber optic network, which now can deliver speeds of up to 10 gigabites per second. But the TenGig festival represents just one of a number of ways that Chattanooga has sought to use the gig as a recruiting tool.
While Chattanooga has been praised for its quickly growing tech community, not all of the city’s residents are seeing equal benefits from the tech boom. However, what Chattanooga has succeeded at is taking one component of a tech ecosystem — fast, reliable internet — and used it as a building block for some of the pieces of a strong tech ecosystem that the city was previously lacking.
“Infrastructure is a starting point, but it’s really what you do with it that makes the ultimate difference,” says Marston, now the vice president of marketing for EPB.
In 2013, when Chattanooga’s current Mayor Andy Berke was first elected, he launched a series of task forces aimed at improving certain aspects of entertainment, business, and infrastructure in Chattanooga, including one focused on applications of the gig, tech, and entrepreneurship. Though the city’s gigabit internet had been the subject of profiles in The New York Times and Wired shortly after the fiber network was installed, the city wanted to find new ways to leverage the gig that would ensure the spotlight stayed on Chattanooga.
The task force found that the best way to capture the momentum the gig brought to the city was to unite the efforts of various private and public organizations in Chattanooga. So the Enterprise Center, an organization that’s existed in Chattanooga since 2002, but whose work mostly centered on cleaning up polluted sites and bringing ventures like a high-speed rail to town, retooled its mission to focus on exploring different applications of the city’s gigabit internet.
The Enterprise Center currently focuses on three strategic initiatives — building out the city’s Innovation District where many of its accelerators and tech startups are located, attracting researchers to utilize the city’s smart grid and gigabit internet in their work, and bridging the city’s digital divide, by making digital education courses, as well as reduced-price laptops and internet subscriptions, available to low-income residents.
Andrew Rogers, the director of research applications for the Enterprise Center, says that the center focuses on supporting research that demonstrates unique applications of the gig. For example, the Enterprise Center helped facilitate a partnership between the University of Southern California and a STEM magnet school in Chattanooga in 2015, where students could remotely control a microscope while discussing what they see in the images with a USC professor.
It’s an approach that other Chattanooga organizations like the Gigtank, a five-year old accelerator, have emulated. The Gigtank specifically looks for startups in industries that require a high bandwidth — and has zeroed in on healthcare, 3D printing, and SDN startups in particular. One of the accelerator’s most well-known alumni is Branch Technology, a 3D printing housing startup that moved from Alabama to Chattanooga.
One challenge that Chattanooga faces is that its fiber optic network isn’t as unique as when EPB first installed it in 2010. As of May 2017, more than 110 communities in the U.S. had a publicly owned network offering services of at least 1 gigabit. In order to maintain its reputation as a tech hub, Chattanooga will have to keep pace with other trends in the tech world. That may prove harder for Chattanooga than other cities given that it’s smaller and doesn’t have as close of access to the typical breeding grounds for new technology — large research institutions and Fortune 500 companies.
Ken Hays, the president of the Enterprise Center, believes that what the fiber network has brought to Chattanooga — beyond faster internet — is a sense of pride in being a “first mover.” Some of the most recent initiatives that have garnered attention in Chattanooga — a co-living space for tech entrepreneurs that opened in December 2016, and a pop-up tech-focused kitchen with a 3-D food printer have less to do with showcasing unique applications of Chattanooga’s fiber network, and more about establishing Chattanooga as a place to test out ideas.
“We want to bring in the next generation technologies that are just as disruptive as the gig when we deployed it seven years ago,” says Rogers.
Atchafalaya Arcade is a pixelated love song to Louisiana made for the Game Boy. It presents three “virtual instruments” for the player to tinker with, creating chiptune musical scales and staticky beats. It’s one of the nominees this year at IndieCade Festival, a gaming event that’s been showcasing independent games since 2005.
When I played Atchafalaya Arcade, it was at first cryptic. Developer Tammy Duplantis handed me a Super Nintendo controller and told me to hold down “A.” As I did, sound burst from the game and stripes of color streaked across the screen. I used the d-pad to increase or decrease the speed and pitch of the sound. Moving onto another instrument evoked a crunchy chiptune rhythm instead of the sustained tones from before.
While I experimented, Duplantis grabbed a Game Boy and explained that the three instruments respectively represented rhythm, harmony, and melody. She offered to play rhythm while I played harmony. After a couple of minutes, Atchafalaya Arcade had been demystified for me and I began to have fun. Like most musical instruments, it’s about what you do with it.
Duplantis is a developer, electronic musician, and composer, and a lot of her previous work — which is available on the platform Itch.io — plays and experiments with music. Divine Jalopy, for instance, is a directed group experience where everyone is asked to make sounds and then gradually learn how to work together. And InstantChip is a virtual toy that procedurally generates chiptunes.
“I started making musical games as a member of the Laptop Orchestra of Louisiana before moving to Oakland, California to continue my studies at the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music,” said Duplantis.
Many of Duplantis’s previous titles are also designed to be played on Game Boy emulators, such as Downstream, which is described as “an art program and interactive musical work.”
“I chose to start making musical Game Boy games because, with the ever-growing popularity of chiptune, the device already has such a strong reputation as a musical instrument in its own right,” said Duplantis. “It also gives me some pretty strict limitations that push me to be creative about how I use it.”
Though music is a big part of Atchafalaya Arcade, it’s also very much about Louisiana. Interspersed throughout the game are short poetic verses, which appear line by line as though through remembrance. Duplantis was born in New Orleans, and she said a big part of her inspiration for the game was nostalgia.
“Growing up on the Gulf Coast, I have strong nostalgia for the Louisiana wetlands, and I worry about their rapid disappearance,” said Duplantis. “After moving away, I felt an extreme homesickness for this part of the world that may soon be lost to time. It felt right to work through this personal nostalgia using a medium that seemed like a long-lost relic of my childhood.”
The European Union’s member states signed a sweeping declaration today designed to transform the way governments across the continent deliver services by embracing e-government initiatives.
Chief among these plans are an agreement to move forward with developing a digital identification system that can be used by residents to access a wide range of new online public and private services. The agreement calls on the EU to create a framework for ensuring the implementation of electronic IDs while also ensuring protection of privacy and security of the data.
“All Europeans should be able to access online services in other Member States just as they do at home and electronic transactions have to become significantly easier in the internal market,” said Andrus Ansip, Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, in a statement after the accord was signed.
The push for greater e-government adoption is being led by the government of Estonia, which is currently the chair of the European Commission, a position that rotates among member states. Estonia has gained a reputation as a pioneer of e-government services by creating a digital identity card that allows residents to do things like pay taxes, vote, and request various government services online. In addition, lawyers, courts, and banks are also able to leverage the system to authenticate the identity of people for various transactions.
The agreement signed today in the capital of Estonia is officially called the “Tallinn Declaration on e-Government.” It calls on the EU to coordinate plans that would lead to the adoption of the electronic IDs and push for the reform of EU and member state laws and regulations would enable such a system.
The document is largely a philosophical statement. The EU still faces the challenge of defining standards, creating a timeline for implementation, and determining how the systems would be funded. In addition, it can expect some controversy as privacy remains paramount for many residents.
Still, the hope is that by allowing for more efficient delivery of services, the governments can better serve residents, but also boost development of their own digital sectors through the investment that will be required to put such systems in place.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the first episode of Telltale Games’s Batman: The Enemy Within, so I approached Episode Two, The Pact, with caution. Thankfully, it features a meatier story, more difficult choices, and the introduction of an element of intrigue that could possibly lead to an interesting payoff down the line. Episodes One and Two of Batman: The Enemy Within will be available on October 3 for PC, Mac, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, as well as on iOS and Android.
Episode One’s bright spot was its bone-breaking quicktime events and fast-paced, Batarang-flinging action. Episode Two surrenders all that for more dialogue and story, and it worked.
You’re Bruce Wayne for most of the game, which was a smart move as it forces the player into some gleefully cringe-inducing situations fraught with awkwardness. If you’re really quiet, you can almost hear the sound of Bruce’s reputation as an upstanding citizen crumbling into nothingness.
You spend a lot of time with pre-Joker John Doe, and each moment is loaded with meaningful decisions. Should you make promises that you know you can’t keep? How do you stay friends with a psychopath, and is that even something you want? Is it possible to thwart John’s descent into murderous madness, or is the birth of Joker an inevitability?
In the fleeting moments when you put on the Batsuit, you’re again forced to decide between your loyalty to Jim Gordon and the practicality of an alliance with The Agency’s Amanda Waller. This time, it feels a lot tougher because the playing field’s changed. Not only does Waller have leverage over Batman because she knows his true identity, but the situation you’re in is now much more tactical and perilous. You’re undercover as Bruce with the Joker’s group of maniacs, and you have to ask yourself if Gordon is really the right guy to pull you out if things go sideways.
The rogues gallery
Now I’m not a big fan of Bane. It’s not that he’s the you-know-what of my existence necessarily. It’s just that I find him a little boring. However, Telltale’s incarnation grabbed my attention, and not just because I could actually understand what he was saying. When you first see Bane, you feel a little kick of adrenaline. His appearance carries all the weight of Batman’s bloody history with him, and I found myself wondering where exactly this story was going. It added a sudden unexpected urgency to the combat.
It was smart for Telltale to lead with Bane’s appearance, because it set up a Chekhov’s gun of sorts. Knowing how things usually go between him and Batman makes you instantly wonder when the other Bat-boot is going to drop. And since you’re in the driver’s seat now, you wonder if you can prevent Bane from snapping Batman’s spine in half as per usual.
And then we get to meet the rest of the rogues gallery, and that sets up yet another thing: fun. Batman’s villains are easily some of the most entertaining things about his world, and though you don’t fight with them in Episode Two, the anticipation is there. They got some uneven treatment in this episode — for instance, I think they kind of phoned it in for Mr. Freeze — but hopefully further development will come down the line.
Aside from the Joker, you spend the most time with Harley Quinn. I’m cautiously optimistic about her; though it’s still hard for me to accept a grimdark version of her, we’re teased with just enough of her sordid past where it’s believable that she’s gone down this path. Unlike the homicidal mania we’ve seen in other versions of her, she’s painted as a sane person who’s been possibly forced to make insane choices for reasons we’re still not sure of. I’m interested in seeing where her character goes.
Things you won’t like
Little interaction
Though Episode Two cut down on the quicktime events in an enjoyable way, I was dismayed at the lack of general interaction. At times, it felt like I was just being ferried from location to location and talking to people, railroaded without any interaction with the environment. I didn’t encounter any puzzles, and I could not do any real investigation. In the few scenes where you do get a chance to examine your surroundings, it doesn’t really yield any useful information. In one, it just yanks on your heartstrings about Lucius Fox. In another, you’re told that you can’t investigate further because people might catch you snooping.
I would have liked Bruce to do more reconnaissance. The episode definitely depends on keeping you in the dark, ending on a cliffhanger that suggests you’ve embedded yourself in a situation far more convoluted than you previously suspected. However, sending Bruce on a mission to gather clues that could hint at horrors to come would have been a great, tense way to keep the players guessing and maybe plant a few red herrings.
Occasional strain on believability
From time to time, I found myself taken out of the story because it was hard to suspend my disbelief. For instance, why would Harley or any of the other villains welcome Bruce into their little evil fraternity based on Joker’s word? At this point, Joker’s not a threat and all of them seem to dismiss him as basically a space cadet. It’s not really clear at all, actually, why Joker’s even a part of the gang or how he contributes.
Character inconsistencies were also jarring. Harley makes a big deal out of how Bane is obsessed with loyalty, and then he turns around and abandons a comrade in battle. Maybe this could be explained away as Bane having a different definition of loyalty or as Harley sorely misunderstanding her strange bedfellows, but we’re also supposed to believe that underneath Harley’s face paint and murderous intent is a keen mind and sound logic.
Occasionally, characters would also suddenly turn on me when we were getting along just fine in a previous scene. When I prevented Mr. Freeze from murdering a foot soldier in cold blood, he got really upset with me and Bane told me to “watch my back.” This was right after ol’ Victor and I had spent some bonding time together. You know, we were just chillin’. I thought we were cool. But no, apparently I had to worry about him icing me. (I’m done now.) Aside from Mr. Freeze’s mercurial nature, it also makes no sense that he was so dead set on killing a random nobody. After all, everyone went out of their way to tell me that the only thing he cared about was his wife.
Bruce’s “test” that apparently wins Harley’s trust is also a little shaky, but I can mostly let that slide. What I can’t get over, though, is that the whole time he’s clearly wearing a fancy AirPod of some kind that lets him communicate with Alfred and Waller. And somehow nobody notices.
Conclusion
Episode Two was definitely an improvement on Episode One. Riddler’s unenviable task of being the sole villain is now spread over a whole cast of characters, and it will be interesting to see how Bruce can change the power dynamic.
Though the story and characters are more compelling in The Pact, it also sacrificed interactivity. Batman is all about cleverness, and so far, the game hasn’t allowed us very many instances to be clever. Fortunately, a strong cliffhanger and some interesting decisions has set up what might be interesting consequences. With each episode, John Doe edges ever closer to irredeemable insanity, and the question of whether or not you can save him remains an engaging one.
Score: 75/100
Batman: The Enemy Within Episode 2 comes out for PC, Mac, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, iOS, and Android on October 3. Telltale Games sent us a code for this review.
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For the dozens and dozens of investors who have pumped $8.8 billion into making Uber the most highly valued startup on the planet, the events of this weekend must have caused some severe clenching of sphincters.
As was widely predicted and widely feared, co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick has decided to not go gently into that goodnight. Instead, he and the board are headed toward a showdown on Tuesday that could either permanently sideline him, entrench him even more deeply, or simply tear the company apart while leaving it practically ungovernable.
The only surprising thing, really, is that this duel is happening so quickly.
Having been given the boot after months of controversy surrounding the company’s charged atmosphere of sexual harassment, not to mention years of generally over-aggressive attitudes toward competitors and regulators, getting rid of Kalanick was seen by the board as the best way for the company to most past its ogre-like reputation.
But the hiccup was that Kalanick still was a major stockholder and remained on the board. In searching for a replacement, this understandably spooked many otherwise capable candidates. And it eventually resulted in the compromise selection of Expedia’s Dara Khosrowshahi. Kalanick even tearfully introduced him at an Uber staff meeting in late August.
The hug-a-thon did not last.
Late last week, Kalanick announced he had appointed two new board members: Former Xerox Chief Executive Ursula Burns and former Merrill Lynch Chief Executive John Thain.
Ursula & John bring 50+ years of combined executive experience to @Uber's board – helping the company become stronger now & for the future http://pic.twitter.com/osyby4TI5r
In a statement, Kalanick said: “I am appointing these seats now in light of a recent board proposal to dramatically restructure the board and significantly alter the company’s voting rights. It is therefore essential that the full board be in place for proper deliberation to occur, especially with such experienced board members as Ursula and John.”
That proposal is reportedly an effort by Khosrowshahi to gain more control over the board, and thus, the company, by restructuring the board and approving a stock sale to SoftBank. Khosrowshahi and Uber issued a statement saying they were “disappointed” by Kalanick’s counter-move.
No doubt. Uber is now getting a taste of how countless regulatory agencies around the world have felt when confronting Kalanick’s “never-give-an-inch” mentality.
This sets up an awkward situation where the two new board members will theoretically be on hand tomorrow for the board meeting to vote on the new governance plan. Lurking in the background is investor Benchmark’s lawsuit that challenges the very power Kalanick just wielded.
No matter who is right and wrong in this situation, this sort of murkiness is poison. Khosrowshahi may have overplayed his hand by pressing for a board change. Kalanick may be at risk of alienating even more board members, executives and users. With Uber’s business model in question, its service getting banned in various places, and facing surging competitors on all sides, the top leadership is now instead focused on internal power games.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Khosrowshahi is already regretting his decision to become CEO, and maybe even rethinking it. No one could blame him for bailing rather than wasting time battling Kalanick.
Uber may survive. But it’s ability to inflect self-damage remains. And it some point, it surely has to be fatal.
http://pic.twitter.com/hEpxD3iBGf
