The week that was (TWTW) takes a look back at the week’s most prominent tech stories from around the world.
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In the week that was July 29th to August 4th, 2018:
- Google to re-enter Chinese market
- Reddit hacked
- Apple hits US$1 trillion
- Apple’s App Store affiliate program is discontinued
- Foodora calls it quits in Oz
- Report suggests drones be registered in Australia
Intro
Hello everyone, my name’s Raj Deut and it’s time to take a look back at the tech news in the week that was:
July 29th to August 4th, 2018.
Stories
It’s been revealed this week that Google is planning on bringing a censored version of its search engine into China.
The project, codenamed “Dragonfly” has been in development since Spring of last year but was accelerated after a meeting between Google CEO Sundar Pichai and a Chinese government offical in late December.
The revised version of Google’s most known and widely used product is said to blacklist websites and search terms about human right, democracy, religion and peaceful protest. A stark contrast to the company’s former mission statement of “Do no evil”.
Reddit went public over a security breach in which attackers managed to infiltrate corporate servers and download a complete copy of the website’s database from 2007.
Also stolen were a large number of email addresses that had signed up to Reddit’s digest email service and stored separately to the stolen database.
The servers were accessed despite being protected by two-factor authentication with the hackers obtaining the required PIN by intercepting their delivery via SMS.
Apple became the first US company to be worth US$1 trillion this week. The company’s stock rose after their Q2 financial report delivered a better than expected rise in earnings.
Taking in a crazy US$55.3b in revenue for the quarter the company eclipsed it’s respective prior quarter the year before by 17% and with the holiday season ahead looks to go into the new year with even greater return.
In other Apple news, and a reason why their profits will only continue to grow higher, the company announced its popular App Store affiliate program will be discontinued.
The program which offers a 2.5% commission on referrals to both iOS and macOS app purchases has been a source of revenue for many Apple orientated publications, some of which such as TouchArcade, are now fearful of closing.
Previously Apple reduced the commission percentage, bringing it down from its original 7% last year but has stopped the program entirely citing its own editorial staff as being a better purveyor of available apps.
An affiliate program remains in place for Apple Music & Movies.
Foodora has announced that it will be ceasing operation in Australia. The gig-economy staffed food delivery service said only that it’s winding down
“in response to a shift in focus towards other markets where the company currently sees a higher potential for growth.”
The bicycle only service is said to have struggled against larger players that provide delivery via any vehicle type and been unsuccessful in market penetration in Australia’s more sparsely planned cities.
And lastly, continuing on the local front. A new government report has recommended that mandatory drone registration and competence testing be introduced.
Similar to the drone use in the US & UK registration would be applicable to anyone flying a drone weighing more than 250g.
The tests proposed would be tiered and allow you to operate the drone at higher speeds and distances based on your level of competency. Again, similar to systems already in place in other countries.
Outro
And that’s it for another week!
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On the website this week is our full review of the incredible NVIDIA Shield TV. Inside that you’ll also find our new hands-on video show called “Unedited” where we take a raw unedited look at a product ahead of its final review. Normally available exclusively to Patreons everyone’s getting a sneak peak with the Shield so don’t miss out!
Have a great week and bye for now.