First, I want to thank you guys for registering for the Top Tech Stories Newsletter! When I came up with the idea I didn’t think it will be so enthusiastically received. Thank you! It’s Thursday, and that means I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week’s top tech stories: FAA stalls 5G rollout in the US, Crypto.com hit in the latest exchange hack, and Microsoft announces mega deal hooking console, PC, and mobile gamers. You can listen to Mark and I point and laugh while talking about the wild and crazy technology world every Thursday morning, LIVE at 6:43am Eastern by tuning into WWNC on the iHeartRadio app.
MICROSOFT BUYS ACTIVISION IN MEGA DEAL
It didn’t take long for the tech world to announce big news this week. Microsoft announced a deal to purchase the embattled gaming company, Activision in a whopping $68.7 billion deal. Activision has been going through some issues in the sexual harassment department these past two years and this is definitely a change in news. Slaus Caldwell of The Geeky Fam Network says, “taking away games from Sony or making it so that they come out months after Xbox players have them will infuriate Sony gamers but will cause folks to still buy an Xbox console so that they can play the games.” It makes sense. Microsoft couldn’t compete with the PS4, and are being out sold by the PS5 (even though no one has one). This move gives them a huge slice of the gaming market.
5G ROLLOUT STALLED BY FAA SCRUBBED LANDINGS
It’s almost like we can’t get things done anymore. The United States’ 5G rollout was stalled this past week because the FAA and FCC hadn’t come to an agreement on the wireless technologies used by altimeters and others devices on airliners. The issues lies in the fact that the frequency used for 5G wireless is very close to the frequencies airliner altimeters used to communicate how high they are off the ground. The altimeter technology is especially useful when landing in rain, night, and heavy fog. The fear is the 5G technology could interfere with an airliner’s instruments resulting in catastrophe. The FAA has taken a hyper cautious approach especially since the 757MAX crashes a couple of years ago. Telecom companies and the FCC are working with the FAA to come to a resolution. 300 flights were canceled between Monday and Wednesday. The planes would need to be upgraded, but there are a lot of plans in the sky and airlines are reluctant to simply upgrade. For good reason. The story is hot of the digital presses and updates are frequent.
CRYPTO.COM HIT IN LATEST CRYPTO HACK
You see…that’s thing about regulated financial systems; consumers have recourse when a firm gets hacked or money is stolen. It’s taken them time to cop to it, but Crypto.com has finally admitted 400 user accounts were compromised in its latest hack with some funds being stolen from them. Crypto.com is taking the hit costumer losses with some estimating it to be $15 million of Ether. Since the hack, Crypto.com has rehardened its systems and has sent $15 million of Ether to a cryptocurrency washer called Tornado Cash. A cryptocurrency washer accepts cryptocurrency and mixes it so that the destination account is hard to trace. A digital money laundering if you will. I don’t know about you, but these people are not for consumers or the public good.
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