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Amazon Planning $800 Million Data Centre in Argentina

Charlotte Henry ·

Amazon is planning a new cloud data center in Argentina, according to a Bloomberg News report. It will invest $800 million in the project over 10 years.

The Seattle-based company is preparing to invest about $800 million in the project … will reap considerable tax benefits by locating the data center in the Bahia Blanca-Coronel Rosales districts of the province of Buenos Aires, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly. Amazon’s decision to put part of its cloud infrastructure in South America’s second-largest economy is a big win for the Argentine government, which is keen to diversify the economy into digital services, nanotechnology, aerospace and more. Earlier this year, the national congress unanimously passed a law creating incentives for tech companies to set up shop there.

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Uber Helicopters Available to All Users From JFK

Charlotte Henry ·

Uber made its helicopters available from JFK Airport to all users. Users within the geofence will be able to book the flights via the app, Reuters reported.

The company announced its Uber Copter offer on Thursday, saying flights to and from Lower Manhattan will become available to all Uber users on Oct. 3. Uber made the feature available to its premium members in June. The roughly eight-minute flight will cost between $200 and $225 per person and include ground transportation on either side of the trip. Passengers can bring along a small suitcase and have to watch a safety video before takeoff, similar to that on an airplane. The flights are operated by HeliFlite Shares, a licensed company, and Uber’s prices roughly compare to those of competitors offering helicopter rides to JFK… JFK is one of the countTry’s largest airports and car trips from congested Manhattan can take anywhere from one to two hours, while public transit takes between 50 and 75 minutes.

Cool Stuff Found

32BitAppCheck Helps You Transition to macOS Catalina

Andrew Orr ·

32BitAppCheck is an app that scans for 32-bit apps on your Mac. It can help you prepare for macOS Catalina because this release will end support for 32-bit apps. It takes about 30 seconds to scan your computer (longer if you have hard drives plugged in). Once it’s finished it will present a list of all the 32-bit apps it found, which you can save as an .RTF file.

Information then collected in the app’s window begins with a list of 32-bit applications, followed by 32-bit preference panes found in System preferences. Then, you will see 32-bit system extensions, and 32-bit system frameworks. These software will include both Apple and 3rd-party software. You can then edit the information, changing fonts, and adding notes. Click Save to save the information in an RTF file. The most recent information with you edits is also saved within the app.

You can download the app here. As this is an app outside of the Mac App Store, I scanned it for malware using VirusTotal, and it appears to be clean. For an additional resource I’ve also written about Go64, which does the same thing and the UI is a bit more friendly.

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DuckDuckGo Survey Shows People Taking Action on Privacy

Andrew Orr ·

A recent survey (n=1,114) by DuckDuckGo found that 79.2% of U.S. adults had taken privacy measures in the past year, like adjusting privacy settings on social media or just using social media less.

43.1% (± 2.9) removed personal information or posts that they didn’t want the network or others to see.

35.0% (± 2.8)made their profile completely private.

34.8% (± 2.8) stopped adding location tags to their posts.

38.2% (± 2.8) changed which data they allow the network to collect and share about them.

I think it’s great to see more people paying attention to their privacy. For most people, privacy is something that you don’t notice often until you start losing it.

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How Motorola Helps Enable Government Surveillance

Andrew Orr ·

Since 2017 Motorola Solutions has invested US$1.7 billion to support or buy companies that build police body cameras, train the cameras with facial recognition, find suspects in videos, and track vehicle movement via license plates.

The company provided a statement that described its plan to add artificial intelligence products, including object detection and “unusual motion detection,” to a package it sells to public safety agencies. The systems can help flag a potential trespasser or the appearance of smoke, the company said. The company emphasized that the new tools are not meant to make automatic policing decisions but to help officers decide how to act.

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Apple Files Amicus Brief in Support of DACA

Andrew Orr ·

Apple has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court to support the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration policy.

Apple has filed many briefs before the Court, but this is the first time that Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and Vice President of Retail and People Deirdre O’Brien are named too.

In its brief, Apple notes that it employs 443 Dreamers who come from more than 25 different countries spanning four continents. Dreamers at Apple run the gamut of roles within the company, including hardware engineering, software engineering, retail, customer support, and operations across 36 states.