Tech News Roundup for July 31, 2020
There has been a lot of news over the past few days. To much to talk about it all, but here are the things I’ve chosen to highlight from the last couple days.
Shaw Launches New Wireless Carrier Brand: Shaw Mobile
On July 30 Shaw launched a new wireless carrier brand, Shaw Mobile, in BC and Alberta. This carrier uses the same infrastructure as the Shaw owned Freedom Mobile, and offers incentives for Shaw internet customers in those two provinces.
Customers with eligible Shaw internet plans can get a rate plan of $45/month for unlimited talk, text and 25GB of Shaw Network data paired with 2GB of data on the “Nationwide” network. If those data amounts are exceeded, there is no overage fees, data speeds are simply reduced. There is a $55/month plan which is the same as the $45 plan, but includes the ability to use your phone in the US and Mexico with unlimited talk, text, and 2GB of data.
Lastly, there is a $0/month plan with unlimited talk and text with pay as you go data that costs $10 for 1GB. That 1GB of data is good for up to 90 days. This is for people who do not need or use a lot of data, and can mean that on some months, there is no charge at all to use the phone.
These promotional plan prices are only available to customers of Shaw internet and the pricing is only good for two years, at which point the prices on the plans will increase to “market competitive” rates. Time will tell if Shaw continues to offer these kinds of discounts on customers. It would make sense to, as this serves as an interesting lock in service. Currently Shaw Mobile only really makes sense if you are a Shaw internet customer, but the allure of cheap phone prices could keep customers from switching to other internet providers.
I think Shaw Mobile makes very good sense for a certain type of customer and is a very compelling option for that customer. However, if Shaw does choose to discontinue the discounted rates it becomes nothing more than a rebrand of Freedom Mobile, and there would be no reason to choose it over any other wireless provider.
Police Arrest 17 Year Old in Connection To Twitter Attack
Federal Agents in Tampa Florida arrested 17 year old Graham Ivan Clark, accusing him of being the “mastermind” behind the Twitter Attack on July 15. Clark is facing 30 felony charges, mostly around communications fraud.
NASA Launches Next Mars Rover
On Thursday morning an Atlas V 541 rocket launched NASA’s next Mars rover, Perseverance, on a course that will take it to the red planet in February 2021. Perseverance is is the largest Mars rover to date, having 25% more mass than the last rover, the still operational Curiosity. The additional mass contains more and larger science experiments, but the most exciting thing is that inside the belly of Perseverance is a small helicopter, dubbed Ingenuity. This helicopter is specifically designed to attempt to gain lift on the Martian surface, and if it is successfully able to fly, would be the first aircraft ever on another planet.
Government of Canada Contact Tracing App Available to Download – But Limited Usefulness Outside of Ontario For Now
The Canadian Government’s national COVID-19 contact tracing app has officially launched for Android and iOS. The app uses the Apple and Google contact tracing API, which uses Bluetooth to log that two phones with the app have been in close proximity. If someone receives a positive COVID test, they can input that into the app, which will then send a notification to the app of other phones that have had close contact.
This application does not use location tracking, nor does it use personal information to match users together. It functions by assigning each person a unique identifying number, and logging which other unique identifying numbers it has been in contact with.
For example, if I have the app, it may assign me a number of 1234. If someone else has the app, their number might be 5678. If we come in contact, the API will log that 1234 and 5678 have been in contact in the database. If the person who is 5678 receives a positive test, in the app they can indicate that, an look at the database to see what numbers 5678 has had contact with, and send a notification to those phones.
While the contact tracing app is available to all, it appears that the actual function to notify of a positive test is not yet available Canada wide. I am not sure why this is, but hopefully it rolls out soon. Regardless, I will have the app insatalled on my phone, and I will encourage everyone to install it as one more tool to help contact tracing for COVID-19
Twitter Reveals Vector of Attack in Massive Hack
Late Thursday Twitter revealed exactly how its systems were compromised during the attack on July 15. The company says that a small number of employees were targeted by a phone spear phishing attack. This means that at least one employee fell victim to a fraudulent phone call from someone likely claiming to be someone who already had access to the Twitter admin panel, and successfully tricked the employee into giving valid login information to the admin panel.
This is a very high profile example of how easy it can be to fall for fraudulent phone calls or emails, and should be something everyone pays attention to, both at work and at home.
CEO’s of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google appear in front of a US House of Representatives Committee
I don’t have much to say here, because this was mostly political theatre from both US Democrats and Republicans, but there is a story here, we just haven’t hit it yet. The largest tech companies control a vast amount of the software, services, and hardware that a majority of people use every day, and there are questions on how healthy that is for consumers, business, and the economy as a whole. This is way above my pay grade, but it is something worth paying attention to. These investigations will take months, or years, and something we’ll be following for a long time.
Apple Confirms 2020 iPhone Delay
Apple has confirmed that this year’s iPhone lineup will be delayed by “a few weeks.” That should push the release of the new iPhones from the middle of September into October. This is due to multiple issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. So, anyone looking at buying a new iPhone for 2020 will have to wait a few more weeks than normal.