DAPULSE BUSINESS

With child separations emerging as a growing crisis at the US border, government contracting has become more controversial than ever. All week, Microsoft has struggled with questions about its contracts with ICE, particularly a January agreement that CEO Satya Nadella defended as a standard IT support contract. On Tuesday, more than 100 employees signed a letter calling on Microsoft to cancel the contract, writing simply “we refuse to be complicit.”

Although Microsoft has captured the public’s attention, it’s far from the only big tech company currently working with ICE. Public records show tens of millions of dollars in contracts with branches of Dell, Motorola and HP, providing crucial hardware and other infrastructure for the agency. Those contracts have largely escaped the Microsoft backlash, in part because of their lower profile and in part because they were routed through dedicated government contracting divisions. Still, they show that if Microsoft does move to separate itself from federal immigration agencies, there will be plenty of tech companies waiting to take its place.

Many of the current contracts are simple IT services. Dell’s federal systems branch has over $22 million in active contracts with ICE, many of them software licenses and support for Microsoft products. The company did not respond to questions about its contracting policies.

Motorola is also a significant ICE contractor, primarily through its Motorola Solutions division. The company has more than $15 million in active contracts with the agency, primarily for radios and other tactical communications equipment. Motorola Solutions also makes body cameras for police agencies, and was listed earlier this month as a client of Amazon’s controversial facial recognition system, although there’s no indication that Amazon’s system was used in connection with ICE. Motorola did not respond to questions about its contracting policies.

ICE SIGNED A $76 MILLION DATA CENTER AGREEMENT WITH HP ENTERPRISE SERVICES IN 2015

The largest tech-adjacent contract is a $76 million data center agreement made with HP Enterprise Services in June 2015, more than $42 million of which has already been awarded. The contract is currently being serviced by Perspecta, a company separated from a subsequent HPE spinoff earlier this month, but has been handled by various HP offshoots since the contract was signed.

“As a company, HPE is opposed to any policy that separates children from their families,” the company told The Verge, “and we urge the administration to change its policy in order to keep families together.”

HP’s consumer branch also emphasized the independence of both Perspecta and its HP Enterprise Services spinoff, as well as the company’s opposition to family separation policies. “HP does not support measures that discriminate against any group,” the company said in a statement. “We condemn the current practice of separating families at the border and call on the US government to stop the practice and reunite the families.” Perspecta did not respond to a request for comment.

CEOs from across the industry have called for the White House to stop the separations, including leaders from Apple, Google, Uber, and even Microsoft itself. Neither Motorola nor Dell has commented publicly on the practice. It remains to be seen whether either company will face any internal mobilization to curtail ICE-related contracts.

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‘DAPULSE’ in talks to merge or acquire Internet information collection and storage company, ‘Web + Analytica’

The merger could happen in the next few weeks and has been in talks for the past month. ‘Web + Analytica’ focuses on the study of online user actions throughout its extensive portfolio of client platforms.

The merger would help DAPULSE tap into a larger broader audience and gain insights into specific user online platforms for campaign creations and management.

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Usually, when you’re a big company and you’re planning to announce a competition in which you give away a $50,000+ prize or in this case a car… you plan ahead of the competition day to make sure everything is working fine prior to announcing it. In this case, it should have been prior to starting the actual game.

Unfortunately, Mercedes-Benz USA just received some bad reputation, as many people who signed up for the competition flooded their social media accounts because of a huge error which kicked people out of the game before it even started.

Some didn’t even get a chance to begin as they were shown an error screen. Mercedes-Benz USA decided to suspend the game and restart it one hour after the previously announced time which many people did not take well.

The entire point or ultimate goal of the game is to follow a car on your phone screen with your finger, but the catch is you cannot lift your finger at all. The last person that is left with their finger still on the car (screen) would ultimately win the car… Sound’s easy right? well, not really since the game could go on indefinitely until only one person remains.

Since the prize is a car… we doubt many people will give up easily. If you want to sign up before the second retake of the game click here

Twitter

Hey #LastFanStanding players, we’re still on. Stay tuned for an update soon.

— Mercedes-Benz USAㅤ (@MBUSA) February 4, 2018

Instagram

A post shared by Mercedes-Benz USA (@mbusa) on Feb 4, 2018 at 1:10pm PST

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Samsung has already confirmed what is arguably the Galaxy S9’s most significant upgrade, but now following display leaks, battery information and detailed specifications, two further slips by Samsung have confirmed a third Galaxy S9 variant and what is set to be the Galaxy S9’s biggest secret feature…

Let’s break them down…

1. Intelligent Scan Vs Face ID

Credit here goes to SamCentral which dug through Samsung’s latest Android Oreo beta and found a hidden feature which looks like the company’s answer to Face ID on the iPhone X. It is called ‘Intelligent Scan’, it is a combination of both iris and facial recognition.

Accompanying text in the beta states the two technologies work “together for better results even in low or very bright light” and for “better accuracy and security”. There is also an animation hidden within the source code (SecSettings

es

awsem_intelligentscan_help.mp4) which has been extracted below:

For those who want to dig around in the Oreo beta themselves, the Settings APK has been uploaded here.

Will Intelligent Scan be a rival to Face ID? I’m not convinced, but it may be the best alternative we’ve seen. Certainly iris recognition is extremely secure (more so than facial recognition used in Face ID) and combining the two is an interesting metric, but without a 3D mapping dot projector as used in Face ID it may be more easily fooled by 2D images. Time will tell.

Time will also tell if Samsung brings Intelligent Scan to existing Galaxy smartphones. The Galaxy S and Galaxy Note ranges have had both iris and facial recognition scanners for a while now, so theoretically Samsung should be able to bring this feature to them as well.

2. Samsung Confirms Dual Sim Galaxy S9 Plus

Spotted by MSPowerUser, dual sim variants of previous Galaxy smartphones have long been popular so this isn’t entirely unexpected news. But the interesting thing is these models have usually been reserved for Asian markets yet the model (SM-G960F/DS – aka ‘Dual Sim’) is listed on a holding page for Samsung’s German website indicating the model will come to Europe for the first time.

Whether this also suggests a US launch for Galaxy dual sim models is on the cards remains to be seen, but such a move would be a boon to smartphone owners with two network contracts or separate home and work phones.

Couple this new information with the fact I exclusively revealed the (somewhat disappointing) Galaxy S9’s final design last month and there’s little left for Samsung to show when it launches the smartphone in February (despite some impressive internals). In fact, for my money, the most exciting thing about the Galaxy S9 is likely to be the popular legacy features Samsung has kept when so many rivals are discarding them…

Original Article Forbes

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At least one Facebook employee has been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into potential Russian interference with the 2016 election, reports Wired. But don’t put on your conspiracy hats just yet.

Wired’s source indicated that the Facebook staffer was associated with the Trump campaign, which could mean just about anything. For a major spender on social media, which that campaign certainly was, it is common for Facebook, Google, Twitter, and other properties selling ads to have a liaison with the client.

Since Facebook is also up to its eyes on Russia-related inquiries, it makes perfect sense that someone acting as go-between or advisor for the company and the campaign would be interviewed as a matter of course. Certainly no wrongdoing is implied.

The Facebook staffer would be the primary source for any information relating to Trump campaign spending, including whether or not there was any knowledge of or involvement in the Russian side of things — again, not to imply anything, just to say if there’s anything to know, that person would know it.

As Facebook was more strongly targeted by Russian bots and trolls during the election than its rivals, it makes sense that it would be pulled in like this, but don’t be surprised if others have a chance to chat with the special counsel’s team as well. I’ve asked Facebook for comment.

Original Article TechCrunch

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