Industry News - Week of Jul. 29, 2019

IN THIS ISSUE: Berkeley Labs Develops Magnetic Liquid; DOJ Starts Social Media Probe; Facebook Anti-Fake News API Called 'Inadequate'; Wi-Fi 6 Could Effect PoE; Apollo Mission Turns 50; Google's Leaked Recordings; AG Seeks Help from Big Tech

Berkeley Labs Develops Magnetic Liquid
Researchers at the DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a magnetic liquid that doesn't rely on external forces, as ferrofluids do. The development could lead to artificial cells and shape-shifting robots a la Terminator 2.  

U.S. Department of Justice Probes Social Media
The United States Department of Justice has opened an investigation into whether social media companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Google have hampered innovation, impeded competition or otherwise harmed consumers. 

Mozilla Calls Facebook Political-ad API 'Inadequate'
Privacy advocates at Mozilla, makers of the Firefox open-source browser, criticized Facebook's political-ad API as "inadequate" as a tool for identifying "fake news." When released last year, the API was touted as a tool for identifying patterns that manipulate political opinion by spreading misinformation and sowing discord.    

'Wi-Fi 6' Could Harm Power over Ethernet
The emerging 802.11 ax specification could require a revision of the Power over Ethernet spec, which provides a maximum of 30 watts of power to connected devices. Known widely as Wi-Fi 6, the spec offers higher data rates and increased capacity, but its access points consume more power than can be provided by PoE.

The Computer that Brought Men to the Moon
As the world remembers the Apollo mission and the 50th anniversary of the first manned moon landing, the technology that brought humans for the first time to an un-Earthly celestial body contrasts sharply with that of today. 

Google Looks into Leaked Recordings 
Google is investigating leaked recordings made by the "smart speakers" of its Google Home product, which reportedly came from one of the human reviewers who help refine the artificial intelligence system's linguistics capabilities.  

AG Calls for Cyber Security Help from Big Tech
U. S. Attorney General William Barr this week called for help from the country's leading technology firms, concerned that their products provide consumers with encrypted services that threaten national security. The call came in his keynote address at the International Conference on Cyber Security in New York City on last week.