Marketplace Tech

A lot of tech companies have pledged that their operations are — or will — become carbon neutral. But this week, Microsoft announced plans to become carbon negative in the next 10 years. That means it will invest $1 billion in technologies to remove carbon from the atmosphere in addition to using more renewable energy or offsetting the emissions it creates. In fact, Microsoft announced that by 2050, it wants to remove the equivalent of all the carbon that the company has ever emitted in its 44-years. Ikea is the only other major company that’s made a similar promise, which, let’s be honest, sounds expensive.

When it comes to rolling out 5G, there are a lot of moving parts. At the heart of the 5G story sits Qualcomm, the company that makes wireless chips for your phone and develops and licenses other technology in the wireless industry. Qualcomm has been pushing 5G hard, but there are aspects of the 5G rollout it can’t control. The company is also the subject of a Federal Trade Commission investigation over whether it abused its monopoly position in 4G technology. Host Molly Wood spoke with Cristiano Amon, the president of Qualcomm, about all this at CES in Las Vegas last week.

This year at CES, the big electronics and tech show in Las Vegas held every January, the kickoff keynote presentation for the first time was by an airline CEO, Delta Air Lines’ Ed Bastian. He talked about how tech should help take the stress out of flying and, of course, make you want to pay more to fly Delta. The airline announced a few new features, like updates to its app to include other parts of the trip, like ride-share and hotel. Also, artificial intelligence to improve scheduling, investment in updating airports, including something called “parallel reality” and high-tech displays in airports that can show personalized flight information to lots of different people at the same time.

These days, we’ve all got a Las Vegas buffet of subscription streaming services to pick from. One new one called Quibi — short for quick bites — will launch in April and is only for your phone. Quibi was founded by former Disney executive and producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Meg Whitman is CEO. They gave a big presentation about the service last week at CES in Las Vegas. They’ve raised more than $1 billion and signed up a lot of big-name talent to create all new shows and movies. But no video will be longer than 10 minutes at a time.

California’s home solar mandate, which says that newly constructed homes must have panels on the roofs, is now in effect. In a state known for its sunshine, that seems like a sensible idea, but it’s been a contentious path putting this law into place. Builders say that at $8,000 to $10,000 per house, solar energy will drive up prices, potentially making the housing affordability crisis even worse. Advocates say the expense will be offset by lower bills, and then there are the environmental benefits. But some are already looking for loopholes, including an option in the law to build so-called community solar projects, piping in energy from remote solar installations.

Your regular host, Molly Wood, has been in Las Vegas this week — at CES, to be more precise. So we’re going to check in with her and her big takeaways from the show this year. She called into our Marketplace studios from the CES show floor between interviews and panels. First, we started by talking about the big theme this year, 5G — the super-fast mobile broadband tech that’s supposed to revolutionize our online lives — and why we still don’t have it. The following is an edited transcript of our conversation.

In the not-too-distant future, you could have your own Mystery Science Theater 3000-style experience — watch films with your friends and make all the sarcastic comments you want. But do it remotely. That’s the latest promise of virtual reality. Paramount Pictures recently signed a deal with Bigscreen to allow you to go to the movies with your friends — from home — just by slipping on your clunky goggles. Imagine geeking out over “Star Trek Beyond” with a fellow trekkie on the other side of the world.

Intelligence and security experts say there is a real risk of cyberattacks on American businesses as retaliation after a U.S. airstrike killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. It’s not exactly clear how this new front in warfare could play out. It could, however, be a big, bold attack on symbolic targets, like government websites or the power grid, which Iran openly claims responsibility for. The attacks could even be much more subtle, damaging but not immediately apparent.

This season’s online holiday sales were worth some $138 billion to e-retailers, and nearly a third of that stuff is expected to be returned, according to new research from CBRE, a real estate research group. That’s actually typical for 30% of online shopping to be returned, whereas 8% of other stuff bought in shops is returned. All of those returns come with a cost, even if they’re free to us, the shoppers. There’s the emissions from the trucks and planes, the waste from packaging and discarded products, the cost of finding space for it all, or even just chucking it out.

It is the start of a new year, and here in the land of tech and business, that means CES –– the massive consumer electronics show that dominates the tech industry for the week that it hits Las Vegas in early January each year. I’ll be there this week covering the event, and so will a lot of other tech journalists, including WIRED editor-in-chief Nicholas Thompson. Historically, CES has been a fizzy and fun celebration of gadgets, TVs, drones and phones, but in the last couple of years, the sentiment toward tech has turned a bit. I asked Thompson whether a new focus on privacy and the “techlash” would be felt at the show this year.