2020-11-14 Techlife News

ONLINE SHOPPING SURGE COULD LEAD TO HOLIDAY DELIVERY DELAYS 06
TIKTOK ASKS COURT TO INTERVENE AS TRUMP ORDER LOOMS 16

NEW DEVICE PUTS MUSIC IN YOUR HEAD — NO HEADPHONES REQUIRED 22
NEW BMW HAS CLASSIC GRILLE - BUT FOR SENSORS, NOT AIRFLOW 32
CENTRAL FLORIDA LANDS HUB FOR JETSONS-LIKE ‘FLYING CARS’ 38
CALIFORNIA VOTERS REJECT REVAMP TO PROPERTY TAX SYSTEM 44

US NUCLEAR LAB PARTNERING WITH UTILITY TO PRODUCE HYDROGEN 56
AIRLINE ALLIANCES URGE TESTING OVER QUARANTINES 64

UBER’S FOOD DELIVERY BUSINESS OUTSHINES CORE RIDES SERVICE 70
LYFT’S RESULTS SHOW PAIN BUT ALSO HOPE AS SOME RIDERS RETURN 76

MACBOOKS: M1 PROCESSOR TAKES MAC FAMILY INTO A NEW ERA 82
WALMART TEAMS WITH GM TO TEST AUTONOMOUS DELIVERIES 102
COLDER MONTHS CAN BE PERFECT TIME TO PHOTOGRAPH GARDENS 106
APART BUT TOGETHER: TIPS FOR A COZIER ZOOM THANKSGIVING 116
FTC SAYS ZOOM MISLED USERS ON ITS SECURITY FOR MEETINGS 126
MISSISSIPPI PROGRAM TO USE DOOR CAMERAS TO FIGHT CRIME 132

‘MANK’ IS A GRAND CONTRIBUTION TO HOLLYWOOD HISTORY 136
REVIEW: ‘JUNGLELAND’ TREADS OLD PATHS BUT STILL HITS HARD 146
ROLES AREN’T FOR KEEPS ON ‘CROWN,’ EVEN NEWCOMER PRINCESS DI 156
CONVENTION CENTERS, MUSEUMS BECOME CLASSROOMS AMID PANDEMIC 168
REPORT: NASA NEEDS MORE TIME, MONEY TO BRING BACK MARS ROCKS 178
ASTRONAUTS ARRIVE AT LAUNCH SITE FOR 2ND SPACEX CREW FLIGHT 182
FUTURE OF BUSINESS TRAVEL UNCLEAR AS VIRUS UPENDS WORK LIFE 192
EU FILES ANTITRUST CHARGES AGAINST AMAZON OVER USE OF DATA 202
RIGHTS ACTIVISTS SLAM EU PLAN FOR ACCESS TO ENCRYPTED CHATS 208
TAIWAN PROCESSOR CHIP MAKER TO SET UP $3.5 BILLION U.S. ARM 214
JAPAN’S SOFTBANK BACK IN THE BLACK AS INVESTMENTS IMPROVE 218

6

ONLINE SHOPPING
SURGE COULD

LEAD TO HOLIDAY
DELIVERY DELAYS

Retailers and carriers are preparing for an online
holiday shopping surge that could tax shipping
networks and lead to delivery delays.
FedEx and UPS are ramping up their holiday
hiring while expanding their weekend
operations and asking retailers to use their
shipping network when there is more slack. And
stores are pushing shoppers to buy early and
are expanding services like curbside pickup to
minimize the need for delivery.
For the last few years, many retailers had been
using their own physical stores, in addition to
their distribution centers, to fulfill online orders.

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But now they are designating some of those
stores to handle even higher volumes. Best Buy,
for example, converted space in 250 of its 1,000
stores this fall to manage online orders.

The moves come as most of the carriers have
been at full shipping capacity for months as
shoppers shifted their buying online during
the pandemic.

“We are warmed up for what we’re calling the
ship-a-thon,” said Brie Carere, chief marketing
and communications officer at FedEx. “Like
everything else in 2020, this is going to be an
unprecedented peak season. We’ve actually seen
three years of growth in e-commerce pulled
forward. So we are expecting a ton of volume.”

Carole B. Tome, CEO of UPS, told analysts last
month she expects “a pretty peaky peak.”

Amazon, which has been growing its own
delivery network so it doesn’t have to rely as
much on UPS and the U.S. Postal Service, is
nonetheless warning shoppers not to wait until
the last minute to buy gifts. While the world’s
largest online retailer delivers more than half of
its packages itself, it still relies on other carriers
to get orders to shoppers.

“It’s going to be tight for everyone and we will
all be stretched,” said Brian Olsavsky, Amazon’s
chief financial officer. “And it’s advantageous to
the customer, and probably the companies, for
people to order early this year.”

Satish Jindel, the president of ShipMatrix, which
analyzes shipping package data, predicts 7
million packages a day could face delays from
Thanksgiving to Christmas. That’s because he’s
expecting a total shipping capacity for the
industry to be 79.1 million parcels a day during

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the 34-day period, with 86.3 million packages
looking for space. Last year, total capacity was
65.3 million packages with demand at 67.9
million packages a day.

Right now, Jindel is predicting delivery delays of
one or two days for parcels.

U.S. online holiday sales are expected to shatter
previous records. Adobe Analytics, which
measures sales at 80 of the top 100 U.S. online
retailers, predicts a total of $189 billion in
online holiday sales, a 33% increase compared
to last year. That’s equal to two years worth of
holiday e-commerce sales growth shoved into
one season.

But even with the online surge, overall holiday
sales are expected to see only modest gains
compared to recent years. Consulting firm
Deloitte expects total sales, including online, to
rise between 1% and 1.5% during the November
through January period. That’s compared with
a 4.1% increase last year for the November and
December period, according to an analysis by
the National Retail Federation. The trade group
says it won’t be coming out with a forecast until
this month given so much uncertainty.

Retailers can’t afford to upset shoppers with
delayed deliveries or gifts that come after
Christmas so they’re stepping up their game.

Kohl’s says it has tens of thousands of items on
its website available for curbside pickup. The
retailer doubled the number of drive-up parking
spaces at its store locations to support increased
demand. Likewise, Target has also doubled
the number of parking spaces for its drive up
services, to 8,000.

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Meanwhile, carriers have added holiday
surcharges to certain packages, a blow to
retailers already struggling with higher costs
during COVID. Jindel says the U.S. Postal Service
might be a good alternative for retailers now
that it has gotten through the deluge of mail-in
ballots during the elections. He estimates that
the Postal Service’s temporary surcharges mostly
range from 25 cents to 40 cents per package is
considerably lower than $1 to $5 per package at
major carriers.

“Our network is designed to handle temporary
and seasonal increases in volume and we have
the ability to deliver those additional holiday
packages in a timely manner,” said Kimberly
Frum, a spokeswoman at the U.S. Postal Service.

For the holidays, FedEx is hiring 70,000 workers,
while UPS is in the throes of hiring more than
100,000 temporary employees.

Lee Spratt is the Americas CEO for DHL
eCommerce Solutions, a division that specializes
in processing small packages for mid- to large-
size shippers. He predicts online shopping to be
up to 50% higher this holiday season compared
to the year-ago period. The division has already
been grappling with a 40% surge in online
orders since the pandemic began.

It’s hiring 900 more permanent workers to its
current labor force of 3,000. It also will hire 1,400
temporary workers, about the same as last
year because the company is investing in more
permanent workers instead.

In September and October, it also upgraded and
some cases added new sorting machines in six
key cities including Baltimore and Atlanta, in
order to process more parcels.

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13





16

TIKTOK ASKS
COURT TO

INTERVENE AS
TRUMP ORDER

LOOMS

The popular video-sharing app TikTok, its future
in limbo since President Donald Trump tried to
shut it down earlier this fall, is asking a federal
court to intervene.
TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, has until
Thursday to sell off its U.S. operations under an
executive order that Trump signed in August.
Trump in September gave his tentative blessing
to a ByteDance proposal meant to resolve U.S.
national security concerns by placing TikTok
under the oversight of American companies

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Image: Alex Brandon Oracle and Walmart, each of which would also
have a financial stake in the company. But TikTok
said this week it’s received “no clarity” from the
U.S. government about whether its proposals
have been accepted.

The deal has been under a national-security
review by the interagency Committee on
Foreign Investment in the United States, or
CFIUS, which is led by the Treasury Department.
The department “remains focused” on resolving
the alleged national security risks posed by
TikTok, a Treasury spokeswoman said in a
statement Wednesday evening.

“With the November 12 CFIUS deadline
imminent and without an extension in hand,
we have no choice but to file a petition in court
to defend our rights and those of our more
than 1,500 employees in the US,”TikTok said in a
written statement Tuesday.

Trump has cited concerns that the Chinese
government could spy on TikTok users if the
app remains under Chinese ownership. TikTok
has denied it’s a security threat but said it’s still
trying to work with the administration to resolve
its concerns.

The legal challenge is “a protection to
ensure these discussions can take place,” the
company said.

The Trump administration had earlier sought to
ban the app from smartphone app stores and
deprive it of vital technical services, but federal
judges have so far blocked those actions.

TikTok is now looking to the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
to review Trump’s divestment order and the
government’s national-security review.

19





NEW DEVICE
PUTS MUSIC
IN YOUR HEAD —
NO HEADPHONES
REQUIRED

Imagine a world where you move around in your
own personal sound bubble. You listen to your
favorite tunes, play loud computer games, watch
a movie or get navigation directions in your car
— all without disturbing those around you.
That’s the possibility presented by “sound
beaming,” a new futuristic audio technology
from Noveto Systems, an Israeli company. On
Friday it will debut a desktop device that beams
sound directly to a listener without the need
for headphones.
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New device puts music in your head -
no headphones required

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The company provided the press with an
exclusive demo of the desktop prototype of its
SoundBeamer 1.0 before its launch Friday.
The listening sensation is straight out of a sci-fi
movie. The 3-D sound is so close it feels like it’s
inside your ears while also in front, above and
behind them.
Noveto expects the device will have plenty of
practical uses, from allowing office workers
to listen to music or conference calls without
interrupting colleagues to letting someone play
a game, movie or music without disturbing their
significant others.
The lack of headphones means it’s possible to
hear other sounds in the room clearly.
The technology uses a 3-D sensing module and
locates and tracks the ear position sending audio
via ultrasonic waves to create sound pockets by
the user’s ears. Sound can be heard in stereo or a

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spatial 3-D mode that creates 360 degree sound
around the listener, the company said.
The demo includes nature video clips of swans
on a lake, bees buzzing and a babbling brook,
where the listener feels completely transported
into the scene.
But even CEO Christophe Ramstein finds it
hard to put the concept into words. “The brain
doesn’t understand what it doesn’t know,”
he said.
In a Noveto demonstration conducted via Zoom
from Tel Aviv, SoundBeamer Product Manager
Ayana Wallwater was unable to hear the sound
of gunshots on a gaming demo.
That’s the point. But she does get to enjoy the
reactions of people trying the software for the
first time.

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“Most people just say, ‘Wow, I really don’t believe
it,’” she said.

“You don’t believe it because it sounds like
a speaker, but no one else can hear it…it’s
supporting you and you’re in the middle of
everything. It’s happening around you.”

By changing a setting, the sound can follow a
listener around when they move their head.
It’s also possible to move out of the beam’s
path and hear nothing at all, which creates a
surreal experience.

“You don’t need to tell the device where you
are. It’s not streaming to one exact place,”
Wallwater said.

“It follows you wherever you go. So it’s
personally for you — follows you, plays what
you want inside your head.”

“This is what we dream of,” she adds. “A world
where we get the sound you want. You don’t
need to disturb others and others don’t get
disturbed by your sound. But you can still
interact with them.”

After his first listening experience Ramstein
asked himself how it was different from other
audio devices.

“I was thinking, ‘Yeah, but is it the same
with headphones?’ No, because I have the
freedom and it’s like I have the freedom of
doing what I want to do. And I have these
sounds playing in my head as there would
be something happening here, which is
difficult to explain because we have no
reference for that.”

While the concept of sound beaming is not new,
Noveto was the first to launch the technology

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and their SoundBeamer 1.0 desktop device will
be the first branded consumer product.
Ramstein said a “smaller, sexier” version of the
prototype will be ready for consumer release in
time for Christmas 2021.
“You know, I was trying to think how we
compare sound beaming with any other
inventions in history. And I think the only one
that came to mind is… the first time I tried
the iPod I was like, ‘Oh, my God. What’s that?’
I think sound beaming is something that is as
disruptive as that. There’s something to be said
about it doesn’t exist before. There’s the freedom
of using it. And it’s really amazing.”

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NEW BMW HAS
CLASSIC GRILLE -
BUT FOR SENSORS,
NOT AIRFLOW

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German luxury automaker BMW on Wednesday
gave an early look at a new battery-driven SUV
that illustrates the company’s future plans for
electric-powered driving.

The iX, previously shown as a concept car
under the name iNext, is the company’s
first vehicle on a new modular toolkit, or
technological and mechanical basis that can
be used for different vehicles. The toolkit
brings with it increased computing capacity to
process data from vehicle sensors.

The iX is a long, sleek vehicle a large twin
kidney-shaped grille typical of BMW vehicles,
and a minimalist interior that uses a curved
touchscreen. BMW calls it an SAV, sports-activity
vehicle, instead of a sport-utility vehicle.

Since the car is battery-driven and needs only
minimal air for cooling, the front grille is solid
and houses cameras and sensors behind a
transparent surface.

The company says the iX will get 600 kilometers
on a full charge under the European standard
and more than 300 miles under the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency’s FTP-75
standard, although the company cautions that
the ranges are predicted values based on the
vehicle’s current stage of development.

The vehicle’s design is more restrained than
an earlier concept version and the car could
still undergo changes as it “is still in its series
production development phase,” BMW AG said
in a news release.

The iX will be produced at the company’s plant
in Dingolfing, Germany, from the middle of next
year and reach customers at the end of 2021.

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38

CENTRAL FLORIDA
LANDS HUB FOR
JETSONS-LIKE
‘FLYING CARS’

The nation’s first regional hub for “flying cars”
is being built in central Florida and once
completed in five years, the vehicles will be able
to take passengers from Orlando to Tampa in a
half hour, officials said Wednesday.
The Tavistock Development Corp. said it was
constructing a Jetsons-like aviation facility in
Orlando’s Lake Nona area, the mixed-use planned
community it built. Lake Nona already is home to
several medical and research facilities.
The aircraft will be supplied by Lilium, a Germany-
based aviation company that manufacturers the
industry’s only five-passenger“electric vertical
takeoff and landing”aircraft. At the moment, the
Lilium Jets can travel up to 185 miles (nearly 300
kilometers) on a one-hour charge.

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Passengers wanting a ride on the aircraft will be
able to book reservations via their phones in a
way similar to ride-share companies Uber and
Lyft, officials said.

The vehicles flying and landing out of the
Lake Nona Vertiport will accommodate four
passengers and a pilot. The cost will be similar
to a first-class fare, though the price will likely
go down as the service becomes more popular,
officials said.

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Unlike airplanes and helicopters, the vehicles
offer quick point-to-point personal travel, at
least in principle. They could do away with the
hassle of airports and traffic jams.
Battery sizes, air traffic control and other
infrastructure issues are among the many
potential challenges to commercializing them,
according to experts. Experts compare the buzz
over flying cars to the days when the aviation
industry got started with the Wright brothers
and the auto industry with the Ford Model T.
The Lake Nona Vertiport has applied for approval
from the Federal Aviation Administration and
Department of Transportation.

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Image: Ben Margot CALIFORNIA
VOTERS REJECT

REVAMP TO
PROPERTY TAX

SYSTEM

California voters rejected a proposal to partially
dismantle the state’s 42-year-old cap on
property taxes, a move that would have have
raised taxes for many businesses in a pandemic-
hobbled economy.
Following Tuesday’s update to the vote count,
Proposition 15 had only about 48% support and
was trailing by more than a half-million votes.
The loss is another blow to organized labor, which
also came out on the losing side of the most
expensive ballot question in state history. It would
have required Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other
app-based delivery services to treat their drivers as
employees rather than independent contractors.
Since 1978, California has limited tax increases
to 2% a year until a property is sold. With prices
climbing at a much higher rate, taxpayers who
have held homes and businesses for many

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Image: Ben Margot

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years pay far less than what the market value
would determine.

Proposition 15 would have allowed local
governments to reassess commercial and
industrial property every three years, while
residential property, including home-based
businesses, would remain under 1978 rules.
The change would have generated up to $12.5
billion in revenue.

Supporters argued a “split-roll” system
would help fix inequities that shield wealthy
corporations from paying a fair share and
deprive tax revenue for public schools and local
governments. Several polls released before or
during early voting showed the measure ahead,
though not by much.

The No on 15 campaign had a simple message:
“Stop Tax Hikes,”its red-and-white yard signs read.

Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business
Roundtable and co-chair of the No on Prop 15
campaign, said the outcome signals efforts to
dismantle the 1978 tax system will fail.

“From day one, we knew that if voters
understood the harm this deeply flawed tax hike
would impose on California’s economy and its
families, farmers and small businesses, voters
would reject this ill-advised effort,” he said.

The Yes on 15 campaign said Tuesday that it
took on “the third rail of California politics” and
achieved a level of support that many thought
could never be achieved.

“It represented a big step forward for a
more equitable and prosperous state, and it
provides a framework and base of power for
future work and reform to truly take on the

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biggest challenges of our times on behalf of all
Californians,” the campaign said.

As expected, the measure performed far better
in Democratic strongholds, including Los
Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. But it
still fell short in many areas that went solidly
for President-elect Joe Biden, who endorsed it
along with his running mate, U.S. Sen. Kamala
Harris of California.

In San Diego County, the state’s second most
populous, voters rejected Proposition 15 by
13 percentage points, while backing Biden
over President Donald Trump by 23 points. In
Sacramento County, No votes outnumbered
Yes votes by 7 percentage points, while Biden
won by 29 points.

The voter-backed 1978 Proposition 13 sparked
a nationwide tax revolt and held enduring
popularity. Jerry Brown, California’s governor
from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019, said several
years ago that Proposition 13, enshrined in the
state constitution, is “a sacred doctrine that
should never be questioned.”

But backers of Proposition 15 mounted
a formidable challenge by targeting only
commercial and industrial properties, with
exemptions aimed at small businesses.

The measure would have raised $8 billion to
$12.5 billion a year. After costs to counties to
reassess property and some tax cuts for business
equipment, local governments and schools
would net $6.5 billion to $11.5 billion a year in a
60-40 split.

Businesses would have been exempt if the
property owner had $3 million or less worth

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