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- Bribery or Lobbying: Management Study Examines Fine Line
- Black, Hispanic and Asian populations saw greatest rise in cardiac deaths during pandemic
- Amazon again denies police use of facial recognition software Rekognition
- Starfish Space partners with Benchmark Space Systems to support orbital refueling
- Samsung just showed off new smartphone tech that’s blowing people’s minds
- Bloomberg report reveals when Apple’s next-gen M2 MacBook Pros will launch
- Rainway’s Andrew Sampson on powering xCloud, challenging Google, and reimagining desktop apps
- Google I/O 2021: Watch the keynote live stream right here
- Google just unveiled Android 12 – here are all the most exciting new features
- Rumor says Apple’s iPhone 13 will come in this exciting new color
| Bribery or Lobbying: Management Study Examines Fine Line Posted: 18 May 2021 05:09 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Daniel Webster  In the field of international business research, lobbying is considered a legitimate and legal political action conducted in a developed economy. Bribery, on the other hand, is seen as an outright corrupt practice in an emerging economy.Estimated reading time: 4 minutes  UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS  In a study published in the March issue of the journal Business & Society, a researcher from The University of Texas at Dallas examined the gray area between lobbying and bribery among multinational companies, especially in countries where lobbying is not regulated strongly or institutional development is insufficient. The analysis found that firms based in developed countries, as opposed to developing countries or transition economies, are more likely to influence the institutional environment of host countries through lobbying, even when bribery is expected to be a more prevalent way of doing business in many of these countries. “We wanted to address this and call for more attention to the issue of lobbying as an equally important issue as bribery in firm activities to influence the institutional environment in the international business context. For example, addressing institutional constraints overseas by shaping regulatory and policy environments in a more favorable way can increase performance benefits,” said study author Dr. Seung-Hyun Lee, professor of organizations, strategy and international management in the Naveen Jindal School of Management. “Moreover, while bribery has been largely seen as what firms from transition economies do, there has been little discussion of the lobbying attempts that firms from more developed economies are doing. We wanted to shed light on this, too.” In the study, Lee and co-author Dr. Jisun Yu of Concordia University in Montreal investigated what determines a multinational enterprise’s propensity to engage in lobbying and bribery in countries where the overall institutional development for market exchanges is insufficient and overall country governance is relatively weak. A transition economy is one that endeavors to change from a planned economy to a market economy. Examples include China and Vietnam. For the study, the researchers focused on the transition economies of central and eastern European countries and members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a regional organization of countries from the former Soviet Union. “While transition economies are full of uncertainty due to structural transitions and the uneven development of adequate institutions, these very characteristics are also a source of opportunities, such as low-cost production, highly educated labor forces and easy access to the European market,” Lee said. Using data from the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey conducted in transition economy countries by the World Bank, the researchers aimed to further discussions concerning the ethical and social implications of corporate activities conducted to influence institutions. Their analysis found that multinational enterprises based in a country with a strong governance system are less involved in bribery but have a higher tendency to lobby their hosts in transition-economy countries. The researchers found that this tendency holds true even when these enterprises rely on the host country’s local market for much of their sales. The study also found that firms from a home country with more developed governance also attempt to change the laws to a greater extent in host countries with weaker institutional development. “Multinational enterprises behave consistently in host countries and tend to stick to the way business was done in their domestic markets, even when dependence on local sales in host countries increases,” he said. “It is a good thing to find that multinational enterprises from countries with a stronger governance system are less likely to bribe in transition economies, compared to their counterparts with weaker governance.” Lee said it is important for policymakers to understand that home country governance can be an effective mechanism in controlling a multinational enterprise’s illegal political activities, even outside its home boundaries. “When it comes to host countries, governments there may want to make sure that lobbying is effectively governed and bribery is curbed to incentivize multinational enterprises hailing from stronger governance systems to invest in their countries,” he said. Policymakers might also consider strengthening their country’s governance system as a way of reducing their multinational enterprises’ unwanted involvement in corruption overseas, Lee said. The post Bribery or Lobbying: Management Study Examines Fine Line appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy |
| Black, Hispanic and Asian populations saw greatest rise in cardiac deaths during pandemic Posted: 18 May 2021 04:44 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Daniel Webster  Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
 BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER BOSTON – In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States experienced higher rates of heart disease and cerebrovascular disease deaths, relative to the corresponding months the previous year. While a large body of evidence has shown that Black and Hispanic communities have borne a disproportionately high burden of disease and death from COVID-19, little is known about whether the rise in cardiovascular deaths during the pandemic has been disproportionately concentrated among racial and ethnic minority populations. A new study led by clinician-researchers at the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) characterized heart disease and cerebrovascular deaths by race and ethnicity during the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic and evaluated whether the relative increases in deaths were more pronounced among racial and ethnic minority groups, compared with non-Hispanic white persons. The team found that the year-over-year increase in deaths due to heart disease and cerebrovascular disease was significantly more pronounced among Black, Hispanic and Asian populations in the United States than in the non-Hispanic white population. The study was published today in the journal Circulation. “Although the direct toll of COVID-19 on racial and ethnic minority groups has been substantial, our findings suggest that Black, Hispanic and Asian populations have also been disproportionately impacted by the indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said corresponding author Rishi K. Wadhera, MD, MPP, MPhil, a cardiologist in the Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology at BIDMC. “Disruptions in access to health care services during the pandemic may have had a larger impact on the health outcomes of Black and Hispanic individuals, as these populations have a higher burden of cardiovascular risk factors and disease, due in part to structural and systemic inequities. In addition, social determinants of health associated with cardiovascular risk, such as poverty and stress, have worsened in these communities as a result of the pandemic.” Wadhera and colleagues obtained monthly cause-of-death data from the National Center for Health Statistics from March 2020 — when many states began to experience a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases — through August 2020. Next, the team identified deaths caused by heart diseases and cerebrovascular diseases during this period as well as for the corresponding months in 2019.
The researchers suggest a number of factors may have played a role in the disproportionate rise in cardiac and cerebrovascular deaths among racial and ethnic minorities, including disruptions in healthcare delivery in minority communities especially hard-hit by COVID-19. Although the use of telemedicine increased during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic to bridge gaps in care, Black, Hispanic, and Asian patients have also experienced unequal access to video telemedicine. In addition, avoidance of health care systems may have also played a role. A recent survey by the American Heart Association found that Hispanics and Black Americans were most likely to stay home if experiencing a heart attack or a stroke, to avoid the risk of contracting COVID-19 at the hospital. Racial and ethnic minority groups also disproportionately experience poverty in the United States, a gap that only deepened after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a recent survey, 60 percent of Black and 72 percent of Hispanic households reported serious financial problems during the pandemic, compared with only 36 percent of white households. Public policies may have also contributed to worse cardiovascular outcomes during the pandemic. In early 2020, the Trump administration revised immigration rules, leaving some documented immigrants in poor health at risk of being denied permanent residency status. As a result, Hispanic and Asian immigrant families may have avoided seeking care for cardiovascular disease. “The extent to which disruptions in health care delivery, avoidance of care due to fear of contracting COVID-19 and/or immigration policy, and worsening inequities in social determinants of health have contributed to the increase in heart disease and cerebrovascular deaths remains an important area for future research,” said Wadhera. “These data highlight that public health and policy strategies are urgently needed to mitigate the short- and long-term adverse effects of the pandemic on the cardiovascular health of minority populations.” The post Black, Hispanic and Asian populations saw greatest rise in cardiac deaths during pandemic appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy |
| Amazon again denies police use of facial recognition software Rekognition Posted: 18 May 2021 04:39 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Mike Lewis  Amazon Spheres. May 2019. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser) Amazon, which one year ago barred police from using its facial recognition software, is extending that moratorium indefinitely. The extension of the ban on police use of Amazon's facial identification software called Rekognition, first reported by Reuters, comes after a year of growing public concern about privacy, government surveillance, and the extent of policing powers in the U.S. The online retail giant first withheld use of the software by law enforcement last year when waves of protests erupted in cities across the country in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd during an arrest. Amazon, which previously had partnered with law enforcement in the use of Rekognition technology, came under attack by civil rights advocates who said the software unfairly targeted the wrong people for arrest and amounts to an invasion of privacy. At the time, Amazon spokespeople said it would suspend law enforcement's use of the software for one year. Reuters reported that the company declined to comment on the moratorium extension. Rekognition is part of the company's web services division, AWS. But the law enforcement ban didn't extend to all users. At the time of the ban, Amazon reported that organizations searching for human trafficking victims still had access to the technology. Around the same time, Microsoft also imposed a similar ban on the sale of its facial recognition technology to police. Microsoft President Brad Smith said the company isn't selling or supplying facial recognition technology to any U.S. police department. "This is a moment in time that really calls on us to listen more, to learn more, and most importantly to do more," Smith said during a Washington Post virtual event last June. Amazon, which one year ago barred police from using its facial recognition software, is extending that moratorium indefinitely. The extension of the ban on police use of Amazon's facial identification software called Rekognition, first reported by Reuters, comes after a year of growing public concern about privacy, government surveillance, and the extent of policing powers in the U.S. The online retail giant first withheld use of the software by law enforcement last year when waves of protests erupted in cities across the country in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd during an arrest. Amazon, which previously had… Read MoreAmazon, Civic, Microsoft, Amazon Rekognition, Brad Smith, facial recognition The post Amazon again denies police use of facial recognition software Rekognition appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy |
| Starfish Space partners with Benchmark Space Systems to support orbital refueling Posted: 18 May 2021 04:39 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Alan Boyle  Artwork shows Orbit Fab's "Gas Stations in Space" tanker in orbit. (Orbit Fab / Benchmark Space Illustration) Starfish Space, a startup founded by veterans of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space venture, is teaming up with Vermont-based Benchmark Space Systems to work on a precision-guided orbital refueling system for satellites. The strategic collaboration calls for Starfish — which has its home base not far from Blue Origin's HQ in Kent, Wash. — to test its Cephalopod docking software with Benchmark's Halcyon thruster system. The Halcyon thrusters use non-toxic hydrogen peroxide as their propellant. The setup would get its first on-orbit demonstration during Orbit Fab's Tanker 1 mission, which is due for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket next month. "This Cephalopod mission is an exciting step for Starfish Space," Trevor Bennett, Starfish's co-founder, said today in a news release. "Our RPOD [rendezvous, proximity operations and docking] operations will validate our novel capabilities and set the stage for a new era of affordable and available satellite servicing." On-orbit servicing and refueling could extend the operating lifetimes of satellites, or allow for new spacecraft designs that wouldn't need to carry so much fuel into orbit for in-space maneuvering. San Francisco-based Orbit Fab has already tested its refueling technology on the International Space Station. The Tanker 1 spacecraft, built by Astro Digital, is designed to demonstrate on-orbit maneuverability. Orbit Fab CEO Daniel Faber said he was "thrilled to see the enthusiasm and expertise" that's driving collaborations like Starfish's partnership with Benchmark. "The more partnerships there are, pushing new ideas and innovations, the sooner the broader space industry will catch the wave of new in-space services like our Orbit Fab Gas Stations in Space tanker, set to launch RPOD maneuver demonstrations in a matter of days," Faber said. Orbit Fab and Starfish Space are also exploring further integration of Cephalopod and Orbit Fab's Spark RPOD hardware kit. Starfish plans to use Cephalopod aboard its own small space tug known as the Otter, which is designed to support satellite servicing missions such as life extension and orbital debris removal. Starfish Space, a startup founded by veterans of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space venture, is teaming up with Vermont-based Benchmark Space Systems to work on a precision-guided orbital refueling system for satellites. The strategic collaboration calls for Starfish — which has its home base not far from Blue Origin's HQ in Kent, Wash. — to test its Cephalopod docking software with Benchmark's Halcyon thruster system. The Halcyon thrusters use non-toxic hydrogen peroxide as their propellant. The setup would get its first on-orbit demonstration during Orbit Fab's Tanker 1 mission, which is due for launch on a SpaceX Falcon… Read MoreSpace, Benchmark Space Systems, Orbit Fab, Starfish Space The post Starfish Space partners with Benchmark Space Systems to support orbital refueling appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy |
| Samsung just showed off new smartphone tech that’s blowing people’s minds Posted: 18 May 2021 03:40 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Jacob Siegal  When Samsung’s first Galaxy Fold arrived in 2019, it felt more like a proof of concept for foldable smartphones than a viable product to compete with the iPhone. A year and a half later, Samsung has released two more flagship foldables — the Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy Z Fold 2 — and the progress is impossible to ignore. Foldable phones weren’t ready for primetime in 2019, but they are getting closer all the time, and Samsung is committed to being at the front of the line when they finally break through. It proved that once again at Display Week 2021. This Monday, Samsung showcased a number of next-generation OLED displays at the Display Week 2021 exhibition put on by the World Information Display Society (SID). These aren’t actual products (at least not yet), but they help to give consumers an idea of what the new displays will be capable of when they arrive. Today’s Top DealAirPods Pro are back in stock at Amazon’s lowest price of 2021!Price: $197.00 Today’s Top Deals The world's first self-cleaning robot mop is $100 off at Amazon – and I'm obsessed Trending Right Now: Your biggest stimulus payment ever is coming soon – and you might not even know about it The post Samsung just showed off new smartphone tech that's blowing people's minds appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy |
| Bloomberg report reveals when Apple’s next-gen M2 MacBook Pros will launch Posted: 18 May 2021 02:40 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Chris Smith  When Apple unveiled the first-generation custom M1 chip last November, buyers were surprised to realize that the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini were all powered by the same M1 processor. The M1 Air does also come in a version with a pared-down 7-core GPU aside from the main 8-core GPU version as the M1 Pro and Mac mini. Then a few weeks ago, Apple revealed it put the same M1 chip inside the 2021 iPad Pro versions and the 2021 iMac. And the iMac comes with 7-core and 8-core GPU variations too. This means all these devices will deliver essentially the same impressive power and performance. The main difference might be Macs with active cooling will offer users more extended peak performance than the MacBook Air, which lacks a cooling fan. The early wave of M1 MacBook Air and Pro reviews proved the System-on-Chip (SoC) that Apple created delivers remarkable performance and battery life, prompting a massive anti-M1 MacBook campaign from Intel. The US chipmaker knows that the M1 is only the beginning and that it's the kind of milestone that will convince others to follow suit. A new report from a well-known source of Apple scoops tells us that the next-gen M-series SoC that will power this year's 2021 MacBook Pro models, and "will greatly outpace the performance and capabilities of the current M1 chips." Today’s Top DealThis is the most popular iPhone case we’ve covered in 2021 – now it’s down to the lowest price ever!Today’s Top Deals The world's first self-cleaning robot mop is $100 off at Amazon – and I'm obsessed Trending Right Now: Your biggest stimulus payment ever is coming soon – and you might not even know about it The post Bloomberg report reveals when Apple's next-gen M2 MacBook Pros will launch appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy |
| Rainway’s Andrew Sampson on powering xCloud, challenging Google, and reimagining desktop apps Posted: 18 May 2021 01:40 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Daniel Webster Rainway CEO Andrew Sampson. (Andrew Sampson image) Last month, Seattle-based startup Rainway came out with some big news: the tech behind its web-based gaming platform powers the PC and iOS versions of Microsoft's Project xCloud. xCloud, currently in beta, is a gaming service that allows Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to play their games on compatible devices via Microsoft's cloud servers. While it's a bandwidth hog, users can play Game Pass titles like Gears 5 and Halo: The Master Chief Collection at high resolution on a phone, tablet, or web browser, with no need for a new TV or an Xbox. Rainway started in 2018 as a high-profile Seattle startup, founded by Andrew Sampson and Evan Banyash. Its initial product, now branded as Rainway Gaming, allows users to dial into their PCs or cloud-service provider with any remote device to play their personal gaming library. In the last couple of years, the team at Rainway has grown to 15 people with plans to scale further up in the near future. The company remains independent despite several acquisition offers. Back in October, Microsoft began pursuing alternative methods to bring xCloud to iOS, after Apple made it logistically impossible for it to be offered via Apple's App Store due to restrictions on cloud gaming apps. Rainway's technology was part of how Microsoft "cut the Gordian knot," as Sampson puts it, by making it possible to run xCloud as a web-based application. At the same time, Rainway is also pivoting away from video games, toward a virtualized app platform that will allow subscribers to run powerful applications remotely via a standard web browser. That puts Rainway up against Google (again), with its suite of web-based apps. When I was 14 and homeless I pulled together what little money I had to buy an Xbox 360 for my birthday. Now today on my 26th birthday the technology I invented is powering Xbox Cloud Gaming on Web and iOS. Read more about our work with xCloud ???? https://t.co/iUwjKqS4Ix — Andrew Sampson (@Andrewmd5) April 19, 2021
We caught up with Sampson to find out more about Rainway's next moves, its partnership with Microsoft, and its plans to fix the "broken" state of desktop applications. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. GeekWire: Thanks for taking the time, Andrew. Tell us about how your Rainway tech is involved with the xCloud PC client. Sampson: As part of our partnership with Microsoft, they are utilizing our Rainway SDK to power Xbox cloud gaming on web browsers and iOS. GeekWire: That's a surprise. I would've thought they would have kept that in-house. Sampson: When you have to get to market quickly, why reinvent the wheel? We had already perfected our streaming technology for web browsers, and we also had a way to bypass the App Store after Apple's shenanigans. They happened to come by us just by chance. One of their engineers was doing a demo of Azure infrastructure in Africa and wanted to show off game streaming, but they didn't have any Xbox blade servers there, so they used Rainway to do it. That worked its way up the food chain until I ended up having a meeting with Catherine [Gluckstein, head of product & strategy for Project xCloud] and Phil [Spencer, head of Xbox] to discuss how we might be able to work together. GeekWire: I'm surprised that's not better publicized. I'm in the xCloud for PC beta and I didn't see Rainway's name anywhere on there. Sampson: We asked, "Hey, we're not focusing on consumer gaming anymore. We don't really see a need for us to take up a prominent footnote, and it'll already be a pretty large announcement." Microsoft just helped us get our own press release into the hands of journalists and gave us their support of the day of the announcement, which was good for us. It creates the sort of traction that we were looking for. We didn't want an army of Xbox gamers coming to our website to sign up for our email list. We wanted business executives, venture capitalists, other folks that will take an interest in this new business that we're doing. We got a lot more than we were expecting, with the right kind of people reaching out. The Rainway SDK quietly powers Microsoft's Project xCloud. (Microsoft image) GeekWire: It was better for you behind the scenes than I thought. Sampson: It ended up being pretty favorable. There'll be some more exciting news here in the next couple of weeks, hopefully. GeekWire: Ah, the "just you wait" interview. Sampson: There's going to be quite a few of those over the next few months. This was just the first of many announcements that we expect to make that are going to surprise people. GeekWire: I was going to ask, where's left to go, really? It seems like you're on every platform where I'd want something like Rainway. Sampson: Where's left to go? The edge, to use the buzzword. We have transitioned away from seeing the gaming vertical as our core focus, to realizing that we have a technology that allows us to change the way desktop applications are built, distributed, and tested. We are building Rainway App Services and a product called Instant Apps that allows you to take your desktop applications — video games, 3D architecture software, whatever sort of traditional desktop app can be used — and push them to our data center infrastructure and start using them immediately inside of your web browser. This means that we can unlock a new way to do desktop computing, because someone can take a $300 Chromebook and use it to access a suite of software that traditionally requires a very beefy rig. This is going to be something that we target toward organizations of all sizes, be it schools, public sector, private sector, folks working in architecture, gaming, etc. One of the use cases I'm most excited about that's relevant to gaming: we were in a clubhouse with Geoff Keighley #GoPongo Videos by Daniel Webster dWeb Internet CowboyNow, with Instant Apps, you can have a whole QA team that can get secure access to a preview build of your game for testing, all from inside a browser. You don't even need to invest in a rig for them. We're really looking at ways that we can augment the way that people work, build and distribute desktop software through what we're creating. GeekWire: I don't know, man. The idea of doing remote game testing through a cloud server… Sampson: Yeah. The cloud's too far. When we think about a cloud data server for AWS [Amazon Web Services] or Azure … Amazon's US West 2 server is in Oregon, so if you're in Seattle, that's a couple of hundred miles of network you have to go through. We're building data centers inside of cities so they are really right next to you, so that you have the lowest possible network roundtrip when you connect to that virtualized application. Then you can get latency as low as 16 to 20 milliseconds. At that point, it's a frame of delay. You don't even notice. GeekWire: You can't not pick big fights, can you. Sampson: Why do a startup if it was going to be easy? GeekWire: I guess so. You showed up to the party on cloud gaming right in time to be obliquely competing with Google, and now everything you're saying here is, "Remember all that Google Apps stuff that everybody likes to use? Well…" Sampson: We just think desktop applications are broken. A couple of months ago, every application on my Mac stopped working because there was a certificate issue on Apple's side. I had meetings. I needed to get into Zoom. Chrome wouldn't open, Excel wouldn't open. All of it was incredibly frustrating. I have had times where the software I click on has to update at the worst possible moment, with no prompt. This open "Wild West" ecosystem of desktop apps means there is no consistent experience. Say what you want about Apple on the App Store, but you get a consistent experience because they enforce one, right? Desktop apps are not at all the same. At a certain point, we want desktop applications that become synonymous with Instant Apps. We're going to start creating APIs that are going to help standardize the way that things are done, like software updates, like code signing for your applications, and the actual distribution as well. Because we want desktop apps to be better, end to end. So yeah, we'll start with some of this app virtualization, app streaming. At the end of the day when you go to update Slack on your computer, or whatever desktop app you have, it'll use our technology behind the scenes to do that. So that we can ensure that you're having a pleasant experience as a consumer. The interface for Rainway Gaming. (Rainway Image) GeekWire: It's funny you should say that. I'm talking to you through my laptop, which wants to update very badly, but I need to talk to you. Sampson: The problems just keep coming. We don't want people to have to invest every year in $2,000 laptops just to get marginally better performance, because all the desktop applications they have downloaded have slowed them down to a point where it's actually impacting their productivity. Just move it into the browser. Make it a link you can access. Progressive web apps are a thing; you can even install the little app link onto your desktop. You're using our service to virtualize Photoshop. You can install Photoshop to your desktop and it opens a progressive web app when you actually click it. We're even making that better. Anyone can throw a desktop app on a virtual machine. Streaming it's the hard part. …We can make desktop applications feel like they were actually native. That's just gonna make the entire user experience better. It's about the thousand little things that we do right, to make it a really holistic experience. GeekWire: And you're still focusing on Rainway as a go-between, where you're dialing into your system to make things more convenient for you, whatever you happen to be doing at the time? Sampson: Yeah. It's no longer about, "Hi, we're going to be middleware. It's your own hardware." We are now going to be the full thing that you use to get your solution. …We want a web browser to be able to give you access to all the software you need and a traditional desktop-like experience without needing to invest in the actual hardware to do it. The ideal sort of case I think about is someone working on the next Avengers movie. All they have for their rig is a tiny Chromebook hooked up to two 4K displays, and their actual software is all running at an edge location that we're powering, on top-of-the-line hardware, so that they can pick up and do their work from wherever they want to at that point. GeekWire: How are you going to address the issue, particularly in America, of having the internet infrastructure that would be required for something like that? That's something I've noticed with the xCloud beta in particular, is that it feels like it's made for someplace with much higher-speed residential Internet. Sampson: For xCloud, Microsoft is still using a lot of their own stuff on the back end, so our software layer is handling all of that transport. For Rainway App Services, we control a lot more of the pipeline. We're able to compress data a lot more efficiently, and because we're doing it at edge locations, we have to transport data over less distance. Intel did benchmarks of our technology vs. a lot of other technologies, and Rainway was number one in every category: lowest possible latency, lowest bandwidth use, lowest resource usage. We spent the last four, now going on five, years creating a video compression technology that's just unmatched. Video compression is really only 30% of that puzzle too, because our network stack, our message formats, the way that we slice and dice packets — everything is built to be really efficient. We've reimagined the way that we can do real-time computing, whereas a lot of folks are either repurposing or shuffling around pieces of tech they already have. There are too many companies that are worried about getting to market quickly and not doing it right. We came in at the exact moment where all we had to do was worry about doing it right, and now we're already in the market. Our competitive advantage right now is the fact that our technology really is that good. Rainway CEO Andrew Sampson at Techstars Seattle Demo Day. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper) GeekWire: Are you still monetizing this the way that you did with Rainway Gaming? Sampson: Rainway App Services is a paid developer platform. It's $30 a month per user from your organization, and then it's pay for what you use. If you want to virtualize 3,000 minutes of applications, you just pay for that upfront, and then you can go to town. GeekWire: Where does the name "Rainway" come from, anyway? Sampson: …when you find out, could you let me know? [laughter] Before Rainway, we had a company called Ulterius, which was sort of like a Latin word. The company I founded before that, Aurous, was also a Latin word. When we decided to pivot from Ulterius, I looked at my co-founder Evan and said, "Hey, you pick this one. I'm really not good at picking names for companies." He goes away, and a couple of hours later, he comes back and says, "Here's the name. Rainway? It's like the Swahili word for 'stream' with two letters changed." I said, "That's beautiful." I registered that, the company, the domain. I do all the legwork. Then I say, "Hey, by the way, can you send me the link to the definition? I just want to check it." He says, "Oh, I have absolutely no idea where I got that from." So it ended up being a name that just so happened to be fitting with the fact that we would move to Seattle a couple of months after that. Last month, Seattle-based startup Rainway came out with some big news: the tech behind its web-based gaming platform powers the PC and iOS versions of Microsoft's Project xCloud. xCloud, currently in beta, is a gaming service that allows Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to play their games on compatible devices via Microsoft's cloud servers. While it's a bandwidth hog, users can play Game Pass titles like Gears 5 and Halo: The Master Chief Collection at high resolution on a phone, tablet, or web browser, with no need for a new TV or an Xbox. Rainway started in 2018 as a high-profile… Read MoreCloud Tech, Games, Microsoft, Project xCloud, rainway, Xbox The post All Tech Needs to Make Money for Everyone in 2021 #GoPongo by Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy |
| Google I/O 2021: Watch the keynote live stream right here Posted: 18 May 2021 01:40 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Jacob Siegal  Google chose to cancel its annual developer conference last year due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, but twelve months later, Google I/O is back as a virtual event. In addition to being online, Google I/O 2021 is free to attend, and you can watch the opening keynote live in the video embedded below starting at 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET. Here is Google’s official description for the keynote: “Tune in to find out about how we’re furthering our mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Today’s Top DealThis automatic jar opener went mega-viral on TikTok – now everyone’s flooding Amazon to get one on sale!Price: $19.99 Today’s Top Deals The world's first self-cleaning robot mop is $100 off at Amazon – and I'm obsessed Trending Right Now: New $3,000+ stimulus payments are coming – here's when you'll start getting yours The post Google I/O 2021: Watch the keynote live stream right here appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy |
| Google just unveiled Android 12 – here are all the most exciting new features Posted: 18 May 2021 01:40 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Chris Smith  Google skipped the I/O annual developers conference last year, as the novel coronavirus pandemic forced all tech companies to rethink their big announcements. Google can't yet host the highly anticipated conference in person, as it did in previous years, but I/O is back in 2021 as a virtual keynote. One of the show’s main attractions is Android 12, the next major Android update that will hit Pixel phones and other devices later this summer. The main Android 12 features were disclosed already, thanks to various leaks that we saw in the past few months. And, after all, developers have been using a developer preview beta mode for a few months now, well ahead of the public beta release that will soon be available to qualifying devices. At I/O 2021, Google unveiled Android 12 in full, complete with a massive design overhaul and several exciting new features. Today’s Top DealAmazon has real diamond stud earrings for under $60 – and the reviews are off the charts!Today’s Top Deals The world's first self-cleaning robot mop is $100 off at Amazon – and I'm obsessed Trending Right Now: New $3,000+ stimulus payments are coming – here's when you'll start getting yours The post Google just unveiled Android 12 – here are all the most exciting new features appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy |
| Rumor says Apple’s iPhone 13 will come in this exciting new color Posted: 18 May 2021 12:40 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Yoni Heisler  Apple’s iPhone 13 lineup may include a brand new Rose Pink color option, according to a brand new rumor making the rounds on Twitter. Originally posted by the Peng Store Twitter account earlier this month, the rumor claims that Apple will unveil introduce a pink iPhone model in December of 2021. The timing of the rumored release date is interesting to the extent that it’s two months after Apple is expected to release its full iPhone 13 lineup. While the iPhone 12 release was staggered across October and November due to the coronavirus pandemic, credible sources have indicated that all of Apple’s new iPhone 13 models will arrive in stores by September. Today’s Top DealAmazon has real diamond stud earrings for under $60 – and the reviews are off the charts!Today’s Top Deals The world's first self-cleaning robot mop is $100 off at Amazon – and I'm obsessed Trending Right Now: New $3,000+ stimulus payments are coming – here's when you'll start getting yours The post Rumor says Apple's iPhone 13 will come in this exciting new color appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy |
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