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Joe “just conversations” Rogan defends misinformation like a classic grifter

A buff guy in a tee-shirt is bathed in purple lighting.

Enlarge / Joe Rogan on July 9, 2021, in Las Vegas, NV. (credit: Getty | Icon Sportswire)

Long before the pandemic took the lives of more than 5.6 million people and created a lucrative market for COVID grifts, misinformation, and snake oil, there was Goop.

The aspirational lifestyle brand and its lustrous “contextual commerce” products are helmed by actor Gwyneth Paltrow, who has used her fame, wealth, and enviable genetics to peddle all manner of wellness pseudoscience and quackery. With the manipulative mantra of “empowering” women to seize control of their health and destinies, Paltrow’s Goop has touted extremely questionable—if not downright dangerous—products. Perhaps the most notorious is the jade egg, a $66 egg-shaped rock Goop advised women to shove up their vaginas while claiming it could treat medical conditions, “detox” lady bits, and invigorate mystical life forces (of course).

But let’s not forget the $135 “Implant O’Rama” enema device intended to squirt scalding coffee into your colon, the $90 luxury vitamins that almost certainly do nothing, or the $85 “medicine bag” of small, polished rocks that Goop suggests have magical wellness properties. Then there was the bee-sting therapy—no, not therapy for bee stings but therapy imparted from bee stings. Paltrow personally endorsed the practice, which was blamed for the death of a 55-year-old Spanish woman in 2018.

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EA’s calendar Q4 bookings grow 7% to $2.577B

Battlefield: Portal

Electronic Arts met expected earnings today for the third fiscal quarter ended December 31, as the game publisher saw big engagement with its existing games. But it lowered its annual adjusted sales forecast for the fiscal year that ends March 31. Net bookings for the quarter were $2.577 billion, compared to $2.4 billion a year ago. The Redwood Cit…Read More

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Sonos acquires company focused on Bluetooth LE Audio tech for headphones

A white speaker sits on a wooden coffeetable.

Enlarge / The Sonos One. (credit: Jeff Dunn)

Sonos has acquired Bluetooth audio startup T2 Software, according to a new report in Protocol.

The acquisition signals that Sonos is preparing to introduce new technologies and new products in the wireless audio space, potentially including its first pair of wireless headphones. Prior reports in Bloomberg and elsewhere say that Sonos is working on an entirely new product category, which is likely a reference to headphones.

In a comment to Protocol, a Sonos spokesperson simply said, “Occasionally, we will acquire teams, talent, and/or technology that augment our existing and future product roadmap.”

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Senate Republicans: Don’t let states choose where to spend broadband money

A US map with lines representing communications networks.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | metamorworks)

Senate Republicans are crying foul over a Biden administration plan to fund broadband deployment in regions that are already served with 25Mbps download and 3Mbps upload speeds.

The US Treasury Department’s recently issued final rule for distributing American Rescue Plan money eliminated an interim requirement that blocked broadband funds in areas that already have wired networks with speeds of at least 25Mbps/3Mbps. That speed threshold would leave out any area that’s already served by at least one cable provider, even if there’s no competition and no fiber-to-the-home availability.

The Treasury Department’s reversal was praised by community broadband advocates who said that keeping the original 25Mbps/3Mbps threshold could prevent deployment to large portions of the US containing more than 90 percent of Americans. The nation’s current broadband maps are also unreliable, raising the possibility that even homes without 25Mbps/3Mbps broadband access could be excluded.

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Long Distance, Low-Power WAN Drives IoT Connections

The Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) spectrum does not require providers to have a telecommunications license. Being able to operate without a license significantly lowers the financial and logistical barrier to entry. It also opens the door to different approaches to provide Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity.

In their report, “Gigaom Radar for Global LPWAN Network Providers,” Logan Andrew Green and Chris Grundemann identify four types of IoT connectivity providers operating within the realm of unlicensed LPWAN network providers:

  • Network Operators: These operate much like the classic mobile network operators. A Verizon or an AT&T installs, manages, and owns the core infrastructure and provides new gateways to expand coverage.
  • Satellite-Based Connectivity: More providers are offering ubiquitous connectivity through satellite relays. These connect devices with satellites either directly or indirectly through lightweight, portable gateways. You can expect more of these types of providers in the future.
  • Open, Community-Based Network: In this model, a central provider manages the network servers and third parties run the gateways providing the coverage. Building IoT solutions on these community-based networks are low or no cost and highly flexible.
  • Decentralized, Blockchain-Based Network: Much like the Open Network model, a central provider maintains the infrastructure while third parties operate the gateways. By operating on a blockchain network, there are tamper-resistant shared transaction records, so enterprises can share and access IoT data without any centralized regulation.

One of the report’s authors Chris Grundemann says this type of low-power spectrum IoT communications technology is well-suited for small data transfers over long distances with minimal power consumption. It can connect organizations with numerous geographically diverse locations but only with low data capacity.

He further states that since LPWAN data transfers are somewhat limited in capacity, these types of communications work well for applications such as sensors and trackers. It would not be suitable for high bandwidth requirements like streaming video or guiding autonomous vehicles.

Table 1: Impact of Features on Metrics

 Flexibility and Use Cases Pricing & TCO Partner Ecosystem Ease of Use Reliability
Network Management 2 5 3 5 5
Reporting Portal and Device Visbility 3 3 3 5 3
Device Subscription, Provisioning and Onboarding 5 4 4 5 2
Device Management 5 4 4 5 2
App Connectivity 4 3 5 5 3
Hybrid IoT 5 4 4 4 1
Security 2 4 3 3 5
Source: GigaOm 2022

For now, Grundemann and his co-author Logan Andrew Green recommend evaluating these providers through the following lens for the following deployment scenarios:

  • For a simple proof-of-concept, take one of the community-based networks for a test drive. While somewhat limited in capacity, this would be a low-cost, low-risk way to validate the technology.
  • If your organization has the in-house expertise to do so, try blockchain-based networks. These networks work best for non-critical operations with low data transfers.
  • If you need full enterprise-grade connectivity, you should stick with the standard network operators that can ensure connectivity and technical support.
  • If you only need to connect a few devices, you could try the IoT satellite providers for coverage virtually anywhere.

In the future, Grundemann says we can look for LPWAN to support edge computing and infrastructure sharing. But for now, it’s best suited for long-distance, low-capacity applications.

Read more here: Key Criteria for Evaluating Global LPWAN Network Providers, and the Gigaom Radar for Global LPWAN Network Providers

The post Long Distance, Low-Power WAN Drives IoT Connections appeared first on Gigaom.

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British Lender Increases Efficiency with RPA

When the Skipton Building Society, headquartered in northern England, needed to expand its capacity without adding headcount, it conducted an analysis of where it might automate certain operations. As one of the largest building societies in the UK, it provides a range of financial services, such as savings, mortgages, and insurance.

Daryl Foster, leader of Process Improvement, Support & Automation at Skipton Building Society, spearheaded the operational analysis. He was looking for areas where he could increase efficiency and relieve as many as 2,000 staff members to focus more on customers and higher-value tasks, which would help the organization expand.

In his case study outlining Skipton Building Society’s journey into automation (entitled “Alfred Housing Bot”), GigaOm analyst Mark Chillingworth describes how Foster and his organization arrived at robotic process automation (RPA) as the answer to Skipton’s quest for increased efficiency. Chillingworth portrays how Skipton used RPA to keep staffing levels the same while relieving team members of the repetitive procedural work. RPA also greatly improved internal communications.

Foster and his team at Skipton examined several methods to improve operational efficiency, including RPA. He understood the first RPA deployment would not return a direct profit, so he looked at how RPA could improve the organization, the service it provides, and staff operations. “We asked our subject matter experts in the organization if they could do much more important work,” says Foster, as he tried to discover ways to make the organization more efficient.

“RPA allows us to grow. There were a lot of processes that were very repeatable and mundane. We are very much a human touch organization, so our colleagues can focus on that,” says Foster. He and his team at Skipton Building Society opted for Kofax RPA to automate and accelerate home price evaluation, one of the many repetitive financial tasks at the organization.

The statistics and benefits are impressive when looking at the numbers following Skipton’s RPA deployment:

  • 1,300 hours per year saved on a single process (Skipton expects to increase by a factor of 10 as it automates more processes.)
  • 89 percent data processing accuracy
  • Faster customer response times
  • Shorter mortgage lead times
  • Existing subject matter experts (SMEs) can now support more complex work and increase their own skills.

The post British Lender Increases Efficiency with RPA appeared first on Gigaom.

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Study: Few places will struggle to balance renewables and conservation

Solar power and habitat preservation are likely to conflict, but only in some areas.

Enlarge / Solar power and habitat preservation are likely to conflict, but only in some areas. (credit: Zhi Hao)

Compared to fossil fuel plants, renewable power facilities cover a lot of ground. That ground can be put to additional uses; many wind farms are also farms, and even solar plants can work well with agriculture. But these sorts of developments are definitely not compatible with conserving sensitive habitats for wildlife or plants. Even wind farms, which have a relatively small on-ground footprint, require access roads and regular servicing.

Early studies on the matter suggest this might be a serious problem, as they found that a number of renewable power facilities had been built on land that had been identified as a sensitive habitat. But new work from researchers at the University of Southampton indicates that the problem isn’t as severe as it seems. The actual footprint of existing wind and solar farms on sensitive habitats is small and should be able to be kept small in most countries.

Carbon-free footprints

To understand present problems, you must have an idea of what land has been developed and what needs to be conserved. The researchers used two different sources to identify the footprints of current renewable power facilities. For sensitive habitats, the team started with a database of all existing protected areas. It supplemented that with maps of the ranges of all land vertebrates listed as threatened on the “Red List,” as well as the World Wildlife Fund’s list of ecoregions. The protected areas were considered a starting point, and areas for potential expansion were identified based on their ability to protect the most threatened species.

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