A very, very buys news week winds down with some self promotion, COVID contact tracing, 5G, SpaceX, and more.
The Good And The Bad of The App Store
A bit of self promotion to kick off today. I wrote about the Apple App Store on iPhones and iPads, how it works, and how a few separate things all happening this week have really shown why the model needs to change.
COVID and Contact Tracing
There was a lot of news about contact tracing apps in the past couple of days that I found very interesting. The Government of Canada announced the development of a national contact tracing app that will go into testing in Ontario. This app will be available for both iPhones and Android phones, and will be built using the technology that Apple and Google co-developed and have built into iOS and Android. The app will be voluntary, but with a strong recommendation that as many Canadians as possible download and use it. How the technology works is probably worth further discussion, but it does not track an individuals movements with GPS, instead relying on Bluetooth on knowing if two phones are close to each other. So it can know if you came into close proximity of someone who tested positive, but not where or when. The technology approach is solid, and safe, and I echo the recommendation that as many people as possible should be using it.
It remains unclear what will happen to jurisdictions like Alberta that have built their own contact tracing app, like Alberta. Alberta’s app is also based on the Apple and Google technology, so in theory it could be folded into the national program.
In a related story, the UK released a contact tracing app some time ago that was based on proprietary technology, and it has been announced that the UK is going to change that app to instead use the Apple and Google technology, since it is built into the underlying systems. This comes as EU nations that are also using the Apple and Google technology are promising to share the data, helping with contact tracing as borders in that continent open to more travel.
Late Update: As I was writing this up, a story came across that indicates that the UK’s idea is to build a “hybrid” model of the app that uses both the UK’s in house solution as well as Apple and Google’s technology. The UK claims that on iOS the Bluetooth distance calculation isn’t accurate, and that their solution is better on Apple devices. Apple disputes this, and considering that almost every other contract tracing app is using the Apple and Google solution unmodified, I wonder what the UK thinks it knows that no one else does?
Telus Launches 5G Network
Not much to say here other than Telus has now followed Rogers and Bell in launching their first 5G markets. Like Bell, Telus has launched in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, and Montreal. This means that all 3 of the largest carriers in the country have begun the 5G rollout, even if very few people will see any benefit.
SpaceX Applies for Canadian Telecom License
SpaceX, known more for the Falcon rockets and recently becoming the first private company to ever launch humans into space, has a bit of a side business: internet. The company is in the process of launching a network of satellites into orbit that will allow access to the internet. SpaeX’s approach is different than traditional satellite internet. instead of a small number of very large satellites prone to issues such as high latency and environmental disruption Space X will eventually deploy thousands of small satellites that hope to mitigate those issues. One of the big goals of SpaceX’s plan is to bring high speed internet to rural areas that are often under served by internet providers. If SpaceX can make this satellite network work as advertised, this could be a huge improvement for connectivity in rural parts of the country.
GM’s Pivot From Cars to Face Shields And Ventilators
I don’t really have anything to add here, except to say this is a really interesting read about GM’s work to convert their assembly lines from vehicles to face shields and ventilators.
President Trump Has Another Tweet Flagged By Twitter
Thursday night President Trump tweeted a video that, according to several journalists, takes several unrelated clips and turns them into something that did not happen. Because this is clearly a fake video designed to mislead the public, Twitter marked it as manipulated media.
President Trump took it about as well as he normally does.
UPDATE: Facebook has removed the video after receiving a takedown request from the parents of one of the children in the video. A takedown request has also been sent to Twitter. So not only is this media manipulated and fake, it was used without permission.
I expect President Trump to take this well.
UPDATE 2: Twitter has taken down the video as well.