Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Sprint has partnered with the startup Tenor to create a series of gif ads tied to its Super Bowl commercial. The wireless company is hoping both Eagles and Patriot fans share images from its campaign to communicate with friends while watching the game Sunday night. Tenor is also planning to create gifs for all of the Super Bowl ads as well as key plays during the game.

Sprint wants to help you share your feelings during this year's Super Bowl.

The wireless company has partnered with the gif ad startup Tenor to roll out a series of gifs tied to its upcoming Super Bowl ad, which features a human-mocking fictional robot name Evelyn who likes to take selfies.

Tenor and Sprint have created unique gif ads tailored toward fans of both of this year's Super Bowl teams. The campaign started on Wednesday, as people started spotting Sprint gifs when searching for terms such as "selfie," "football," "Hungry" and "Smile" when they use Tenor's gif keyboard – which is integrated on Facebook, What's App, Twitter and iMessage.

 

Go Philadelphia

Go New England

That's phase one. The plan is to ramp up the gif ad effort during the game, as people are expected to share lots of gifs with friends while watching.

To be clear, these Sprint gifs aren't targeted to show up when people search for "Sprint" or "Super Bowl ads."  That's not really how gifs work, Tenor's head of US sales Mike Saperstein said. Unlike traditional information-driven web searches, people use gifs to express how they're feeling.

So Tenor and Sprint will show people gifs as they are looking to capture moments from the game or express specific emotions by searching for gifs that communicate phrases such as "touchdown," "lol," or "amazing."

"Now, when someone is talking to their buddy during the Super Bowl, a brand can be a part of that conversation," Saperstein told Business Insider. 

Tenor claims it has over 300 million monthly active users across the globe, and processes over 10 billion monthly searches. Plus, it has examined what kind of gif searches people conducted during last year's Super Bowl and during football games in general. 

So it's got pretty good viewpoint into gif usage and what's trending. 

And since kicking off its advertising business last year, Tenor has already run campaigns for advertisers such as Nissan, Wendy's, AT&T and  Dunkin Donuts. Advertisers only pay Tenor when people actually share their gifs.

The Sprint campaign marks perhaps the company's biggest opportunity to tie gif ads to a massive live event.

"This weekend is basically one of the most popular culture events of the year," he said. "It's the first time we’re really tying a brand to it this way, so it's significant."

Besides Sprint, Tenor is planning to create gifs tied to every single ad running during this year's game (it doesn't have paid deals with other Super Bowl advertisers), as well as gifs pulled from game action during the broadcast.

"This all ties back to emotion, and b rands really being part of those everyday conversations," Saperstein said. "And w e've never met an advertiser who wouldn’t love free promotion." 

Original author: Mike Shields

Your daily pill could one day be replaced by a once-a-week version. PavelKant/Shutterstock

Eventually, we might be able to consider daily pills a thing of the past. That's the vision of Lyndra, a company developing technology that transforms daily pills into weekly treatments. The hope is by taking a pill only once a week, you're less likely to forget a dose, something that's critical when treating conditions like HIV. 

One day, a daily prescription will feel as outdated as not having an answering machine.

That's the vision of Amy Schulman, CEO of the startup Lyndra. Lyndra's developing pills that can be taken on a weekly basis instead of once a day. 

"I imagine a world where my children's children will say to me, 'I don't understand — you took a pill every day?' And it will be as inconceivable to them that I took a pill every day as it is to my children that I had to argue with their grandparents over getting an answering machine," Schulman said. 

An estimated $100 billion of avoidable medical costs are attributed to people not taking their medications as prescribed. And for many daily treatments, skipping a pill can be a major issue that leads to the drug not being as effective in the long run or even developing resistance to the medications in the case of HIV. 

Lyndra CEO Amy Schulman Courtesy Lyndra

Lyndra was founded in 2015 after the Gates Foundation provided a grant to Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Bob Langer to develop a long-acting malaria prevention treatment. In 2017, the company raised $23 million in funding to get into human clinical trials.

While the pill technology could be used for any number of daily medications, to start Lyndra's focusing in on a few areas. Those include neurologic conditions like Alzheimer's disease in partnership with Allergan, behavioral conditions, and one day potentially developing longer-acting treatments for diabetes or cardiovascular disease. 

And in January, the company showed that in animals it could deliver commonly-used HIV medication on a weekly basis, rather than needing to take it every day.

The weeklong pill might look like any other vitamin or pill you take that comes in a capsule. What's different is what's inside.

Once the pill hits the stomach, the capsul dissolves and the pill opens up with six biodegradable arms that fold out in the shape of a starfish and emit the drug. 

"Like most great solutions, once you figure it out it's really simple," Schulman said. 

Lyndra isn't the only company trying to figure out how to make people more adherent to their medications. That includes coming out with injectable versions that only require you to take it once or twice a month, and implanted devices. But those pose their own challenges, since they can be more invasive or require more medical attention than a simple prescription. 

Especially when it comes to treating HIV, access to a clinic where you might be able to get an injection could be limited, Schulman said. 

"People would by and large prefer to take a pill," Schulman said. 

Original author: Lydia Ramsey

Have we hit peak smartphone?Ben Margot/AP

Smartphone sales declined slightly in 2017, reversing a trend of rapid growth over the past decade.Meanwhile, PC sales grew in the fourth quarter of 2017. It's a sign the PC's decline has finally bottomed out.2018 could be a challenging year for smartphone manufacturers as they run out of room to grow.

If you've been paying attention to the PC industry over the last decade or so, you're used to the same story: Traditional PC sales continue to decline as smartphone sales grow.

As personal computing finishes its transition to mobile devices, consumers are hanging onto their PCs longer and opting to upgrade their smartphones every couple of years instead. Smartphone sales growth has been off the charts since the modern smartphone era kicked off in 2007.

But 2017 was different. Strangely, those two trends reversed themselves.

According to research firm IDC, PC sales were actually up slightly (0.7%) in the fourth quarter of 2017. Smartphone sales were down for the quarter by 6.3%. And for the first time in recent memory, smartphone sales were down slightly (0.7%) for all the full year, according to IDC.

So what caused this phenomenon?

Apple may have played a part in the smartphone decline. The company reported its fourth-quarter earnings Thursday and said it sold 77 million iPhones during the holiday period, a 1.3% decline from the year before. Wall Street was expecting Apple to sell around 80 million iPhones, but it seems like the high-priced iPhone X spooked some would-be upgraders.

Samsung also had an off quarter: Shipments of its smartphones declined 4.4% year-over-years and Samsung lost its traditional spot as the world's No.1 smartphone vendor to Apple, according to IDC.

"Even though we have seen new full-screen displays, advanced biometrics, and improved artificial intelligence, the new and higher price points could be outweighing the benefits of having the latest and greatest device in hand," analyst Anthony Scarsella said in IDC's smartphone report Thursday.

Both Apple and Samsung released expensive new smartphones last fall with high-end specs and large, edge-to-edge screens. Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 sold for about $930. The iPhone X started at $999. Apple also raised the prices of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus by $50. Despite the positive reviews, it seems like the high price tags kept enough people from upgrading.

As for the surprise rebound in PC shipments, IDC pointed to a variety of factors including businesses upgrading PCs for their staff as well as strong demand in parts of Asia and South America.

The research firm also mentioned "pockets" of the consumer market buying PCs for "emerging use cases that require more compute power." While that sounds a little like bitcoin mining, those rigs are typically built on special racks loaded with GPUs rather than arrays of full-fledged PCs. 

According to data from Statista, annual PC shipments have declined every years since 2011. So it's also possible that the PC industry has finally bottomed out after years of decline, and that 1% or 2% fluctuations of sales in either direction are now the norm. 

Was it just a fluke?

It's hard to determine this early if 2017 was just a fluke, or if it was a sign of darker times for the smartphone market. The stakes are pretty high though. Apple still generates about two-thirds of its revenue from the iPhone, Google plans to continue ramping up its own hardware business, and Samsung will have to prove it can catch up to the iPhone X with its upcoming Galaxy S9.

Meanwhile, Chinese smartphone manufacturers like ZTE and Huawei are struggling to grow outside of Asia as US carriers refuse to sell those devices.

After ten years of booming smartphone sales that have put the gadgets in the hands of so many consumers throughout the world, it's very possible we're seeing the beginning of the end of the smartphone industry's insane growth.

Original author: Steve Kovach

Apple sold fewer iPhones in the holiday quarter than it did a year earlier, a fact that in the past would have spooked investors and worried the company's fans. But not this time around. That's because even though it sold fewer phones, it made a lot more money off them.

Boosted by sales of the company's new flagship, the iPhone X, which starts at $1,000, the average price consumers paid for Apple's smartphones jumped through the roof in the period. As seen in this chart from Statista, which is based on Apple's data, the average price consumers are paying for iPhones has been on a steady incline — as has Apple's smartphone revenue.

BI Graphics/Samantha Lee

Original author: Zoë Bernard

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Apple CEO Tim Cook AP

Apple said it will offer free repairs, and reimburse past repair bills, for iPhone 7s that suffer from an Airplane Mode glitch. The glitch was reported in September 2016 and caused phones that had been in Airplane Mode to have trouble re-connecting to cellular service. Apple said the problem was due to failed component on the device's main logic board.

iPhone users suffering from a curious "Airplane Mode" glitch that surfaced more than a year ago received a measure of vindication on Friday after Apple acknowledged the problem and to repair the problem for free. 

The issue dates back to September 2016, when some iPhone 7 owners reported that their phones were unable to reconnect to cellular service after coming out of Airplane Mode.  Apple recommended rebooting the phone or re-inserting the SIM card as a solution at the time, according to reports.

But the company now says the "No Service" problem actually calls for the phone to be repaired.

"Apple has determined that a small percentage of iPhone 7 devices may show 'No Service' in the status bar (even if cellular coverage is available), due to a component that has failed on the main logic board," writes Apple in a support entry.

The news comes shortly after Apple has been in the spotlight for another technical issue affecting iPhones, with the company acknowledging in December that its software has been purposefully throttling the performance of devices with older batteries.

In addition to offering free repairs for iPhone 7s with the Airplane Mode problem, Apple said on Friday that it will reimburse any iPhone 7 owner who already paid to have this problem fixed. 

If you believe your iPhone 7 is affected by the program, you can make an appointment at the Apple Store, find an authorized Apple repair center, or else talk to Apple customer support.

Original author: Matt Weinberger

This composite image made from a series of Jan. 23, 2018 photos shows a self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on Vera Rubin Ridge. The rover's arm which held the camera was positioned out of each of the dozens of shots which make up the mosaic. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via AP

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover recently sent back a series of photos showing the view of planet's Gale Crater from Vera Rubin Ridge. The rover also sent back a selfie with Mount Sharp in the background. In the past five and a half years, the rover has gone about 1,100 feet up and covered approximately 11 miles from its landing site.

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover is still on the move.

The latest Rover selfie, seen above, is stitched together from a series of shots taken on the red planet's Vera Rubin Ridge inside Gale Crater. In the photo, the rover is on the base of Mount Sharp, which you can see peeking up behind the rover.

This is indeed a selfie — really, a series of them — but the arm holding the self-focusing camera was removed when the photos were all combined.

The Curiosity Rover has sent other fascinating images from the ridge, where it's been for the past few months. A new panorama shows the region, including the approximately 11-mile route the rover has covered in Gale Crater over the past five and a half years.

Climbing "Vera Rubin Ridge" provided NASA's Curiosity Mars rover this sweeping vista of the interior and rim of Gale Crater, including much of the rover's route during its first five-and-a-half years on Mars and features up to about 50 miles (85 kilometers) away. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

In the segment from the photo below, you can see the rover's exact route away from Bradbury Landing site.

At Yellowknife Bay in 2013, the mission found evidence of an ancient freshwater-lake environment that offered all of the basic chemical ingredients for microbial life. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The rover has climbed a little over 1,100 feet since it landed in 2012. Plans are for the rover to continue exploring the lower parts of Mount Sharp for the rest of its time on Mars. Next, it'll explore what appears to be a clay-rich slope, while continuing to send back data, photos, and the occasional selfie.

Check out a NASA video showing Curiosity's view from the ridge below.

Original author: Kevin Loria

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket booster floating in the ocean after launching GovSat-1. Elon Musk/SpaceX; Twitter

SpaceX launched a European communications satellite on Wednesday. The mission launched on a Falcon 9 rocket with a refurbished, older-style booster. The company expected its used booster to explode after an experimental landing in the ocean, but it was found floating intact. SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the company planned to tow it to shore. The splashdown may mean SpaceX has found a way to significantly improve its reusable rockets.

SpaceX pulled off a routine launch of a European communications satellite, called GovSat-1, atop one of its Falcon 9 rockets on Wednesday.

But SpaceX achieved a feat with the mission that surprised even its founder Elon Musk: the recovery of a rocket booster that was doomed to explode.

The company typically tries to land the reusable boosters of its 230-foot-tall Falcon 9 rockets on a barge at sea or a pad on the coast. Each recovery can save millions of dollars because the booster makes up about 70% of the entire rocket's cost. The 134-foot-tall booster also does most of the work of accelerating a payload toward orbit.

For its GovSat-1 mission, though, SpaceX chose to ditch the booster in the Atlantic Ocean, even though it had plenty of fuel to land. According to NASASpaceFlight.com, that's because the booster was an older "model year," called block 3, which is not as advanced as SpaceX's current block 4 design. The booster will be even more behind the company's soon-to-launch block 5 design (its sturdiest and most powerful model yet).

SpaceX decided to experiment with the booster as it plummeted, however.

It should have plunged into the water, fallen over, and exploded. But to the surprise of Musk and others, the booster was found floating intact on its side. Musk tweeted a photo of the scene (above) after the launch.

"This rocket was meant to test very high retrothrust landing in water so it didn't hurt the droneship, but amazingly it has survived," Musk said. "We will try to tow it back to shore."

Business Insider contacted SpaceX for more details about its testing of the booster, but the company declined to provide new information.

There are a number of reasons why the feat could be significant, though.

The main parts of SpaceX's partly reusable Falcon 9 rocket system. SpaceX/Flickr; Business Insider

The booster of a Falcon 9 rocket soars dozens of miles high before it detaches from the upper-stage portion and falls back to Earth. At this point, several components work together to help it land.

The booster reignites with leftover fuel, helping it target a barge or landing pad below. Devices called grid fins then pop out to help it steer toward its destination. Finally, four legs extend to give the booster a platform to land on.

The experimental splashdown may have been a test for SpaceX's upcoming block 5 rocket design. A booster typically fires one of its nine engines during landing, using quite a bit of fuel in the process. Wednesday's test apparently fired three engines for a much shorter time — a trick that may consume less fuel.

A gentle splashdown in the ocean is a good sign. It might mean SpaceX is working on a new way to recover boosters, perhaps even if there is no boat to land them on or they miss their target.

Musk has said in recent months that he's hoping to slim down the recovery design on SpaceX's rocket boosters, and maybe forgo the landing legs entirely.

"We believe the precision at this point is good enough for propulsive landing that we do not need legs for the next version," Musk said in October.

"It will land with so much precision that it will land back on its launch mounts," he added — meaning right back at a launch pad or in a cradle with mounts designed to capture it.

A photo that shows the scale of a Falcon 9 rocket's self-landing booster. SpaceX/Elon Musk via Twitter; Business Insider

It's possible this test could be part of the company's attempt to ditch the landing legs, as some Reddit users have speculated in a discussion about the GovSat-1 mission.

Eliminating even some of the legs' weight would create new possibilities for Falcon 9 rockets.

All four legs together "weigh less than a [Tesla] Model S," Musk has said, though presumably the weights are similar: about two tons. The booster could instead pack in that much more fuel, which would improve its odds of successfully rocketing payloads to orbit or launching heavier payloads — while giving the booster more control for landing.

The change could also free up enough weight for a system to recover the expensive second stage of the rocket, which currently gets discarded. Musk has previously said he'd like to recover that as well.

Wednesday's experiment might aid the development of Musk's "Big F***ing Rocket," a fully reusable 348-foot-tall launcher being designed to help send people to Mars (which Musk wants to land back at its launch pad for rapid refueling).

In any case, SpaceX seemed to be trying to improve its booster-landing technique with the latest test. The company wound up with an unexpected 134-foot-tall, multi-million-dollar memento to commemorate the experiment.

Original author: Dave Mosher

Reuters

Stocks got slammed, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing down more than 600 points.Tech stocks reported mostly disappointing earnings.Job numbers were good, but maybe too good for some economists.Oil prices slid.Watch the price of the Dow move in real time here.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 666 points in its biggest point decline since October 2008, when the Troubled Asset Relief Program didn't pass, according to Bespoke Investment Group. Its 2.56% decline was the biggest percentage slide since Brexit.

The big drop came after some of the largest companies in the world reported disappointing earnings for the holiday quarter. Of the mega-cap tech stocks that reported this week, only Amazon had a solid quarter, as Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft all had blemishes in their reports.

The Labor Department reported strong numbers on Friday, as the US economy added 200,000 jobs when economists were predicting 180,000. Average hourly earnings rose 2.9% year-over-year, the largest since the recession. That led some economists to wonder if the labor market is overheating.

The strong wages and job growth numbers ran the 10-year yield up to 2.85%, its highest in four years. It also caused Wall Street economists to strengthen their predictions of three rate hikes from the Federal Reserve this year. The hikes would be one way for the Fed to try and pour cold water on a red-hot market.

The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil was in decline on Friday as well, pulling back toward the $65 mark it crossed in January. The 0.5% decline in the price of oil followed a rare earnings miss from Exxon, which fell 6.66%. The oil company missed on earnings and revenue expectations, which has happened only three other times in the last four years.

Markets Insider

Original author: Seth Archer

Original author: Dominic Umbro

Original author: Tanya Dua

Tesla has posted some crazy fast 0-60 numbers for its Model S, raising comparisons with supercars.But there's more to supercars that straight-line speed.Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne helpfully pointed this out.

The Tesla Model S P100D, with "Ludicrous Mode" acceleration, can go from 0-60 mph in a mind-boggling 2.3 seconds. This has led to declarations that this all-electric four-door, a family sedan for the future, is secretly a supercar.

That 0-60 speed might be faster than what some of the world's proper supercars can achieve, but the CEO of one of those supercar brands isn't having any of it.

After Ferrari reported solid full-year 2017 earnings Thursday, Sergio Marchionne spoke with analysts on a conference call and took questions about a rumored all-electric supercar. At the Detroit auto show in January, Marchionne said, "If there is an electric supercar to be built, then Ferrari will be the first," and his impromptu remarks at the unveiling of the Jeep Cherokee implied that the prancing horse was aiming to take on Tesla.

On Thursday, it became clear that Marchionne doesn't think Tesla has created a real supercar (even though Tesla did unveil a new Roadster last November that, when built, will be the fastest thing on the road, with a predicted 0-60 time of 1.9 seconds and styling that's anything but stodgy). 

He reiterated his "Ferrari will be first" comment, in the process taking a shot at the handling characteristic of electric vehicles. They aren't great. The P100D is stunning in a straight line, but that makes it more of an electric muscle car than a flashy European go-around-corners demon, like, say, a Ferrari 488 GTB.

A real supercar.Hollis Johnson

He also took a shot at Tesla, citing an earlier 0-60 time.

"I have read some interesting analyst reports that suggest that that now that Tesla has done a car that does 0-60 mph in 2.7 seconds and there is no room for supercars," he said.

"Well, I would challenge anybody who's driven an electric car to try and drive at the same way we drive a Ferrari and you’d recognize immediately that the handling characteristics of the car are totally different. So whenever Ferrari will express itself in a fully electric vehicle, it will do so by making sure that both sound and handling are reflective of Ferrari's heritage."

The Tesla Model S.Tesla

Marchionne has a point. I've driven the Model S in Ludicrous Mode, and while it is certainly fast, I've also driven the Ferrari 488, and there's no reasonable comparison. You can take a stock 488, rig it up for racing, and run it in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. You can take a Model S to the drag strip. Apple, meet orange.

Zero-to-60 performance makes headlines because it's a neat way to deliver the "fast" message, but those in the know about performance cars understand that acceleration is but one piece of the puzzle. A useful piece, but simply a piece nonetheless. For example, the huge electric batteries that EVs have to lug around present a bigger challenge for handling than the internal-combustion components of a Ferrari, which can be moved around the vehicle's frame to optimize balance.

Ultimately, Tesla and other EV brands might produce "their" Ferraris. But for now, Ferrari thinks they have some work to do — and is convinced that its electric supercars, should they ever exist, will still be not just Ferrari-good, but Ferrari-better.

Get the latest Tesla stock price here.

Original author: Matthew DeBord

Original author: Fionna Agomuoh

Original author: Prachi Bhardwaj

Original author: Jacob Sonenshine

Chris Lattner, a former Apple developer, spent nearly six months leading Tesla's Autopilot software team in 2017. He left the company last June. On Friday, Lattner criticized the software's current state on Twitter.He said he was "sad" at the lack of progress he has perceived since he left the company.The Autopilot feature gives Tesla vehicles semi-autonomous capabilities in some situations.

Tesla's Autopilot feature has become the subject of controversy again after a Model S that was possibly using the feature crashed into a fire truck on January 22. The feature gives Tesla vehicles semi-autonomous capabilities but is not meant to replace a human driver.

Now, Chris Lattner, the former Apple legend who spent nearly six months leading Tesla's Autopilot software team in 2017, has expressed his disappointment at the software's current state.

In a post on Twitter, Lattner shared a short review of the Model 3, Tesla's first mass-market electric car.

"The hardware is truly great (a big step up from my Model S) but the software is unfinished and buggy," he wrote. "I'm also sad how little progress HW2 Autopilot has made since I last drove it in June..."

Chris Lattner/Twitter

After working for Apple for 11 years and drawing praise for developing Swift, the company's popular programming language, Lattner became Tesla's vice president of Autopilot software in January 2017. He spent almost six months in the position before leaving the company after having a reportedly strained relationship with CEO Elon Musk.

Lattner's departure was a mutual decision, Business Insider reported at the time. It made him the third Autopilot executive to leave Tesla in a period of seven months. Lattner was hired by Google in August 2017 to work on Google Brain, the company's major artificial intelligence project.

Tesla released the last major update for Autopilot in June 2017. The update gave Tesla vehicles the ability to park perpendicularly without driver assistance and removed the speed limit on the Autosteer feature, which allows a vehicle to steer itself in some conditions. 

Musk has said that Tesla vehicles have the necessary hardware for fully autonomous driving once the necessary software and regulatory conditions are introduced. The company is competing with tech companies and traditional automakers like Apple, Google's Waymo, Uber, Ford, and General Motors to develop and introduce autonomous vehicles to the general public. 

Despite a series of production delays, the Model 3 has begun to arrive at Tesla showrooms. Early reviews have been positive.

Get the latest Tesla stock price here.

Original author: Mark Matousek

A map of activity in Djibouti, which has drawn comment from security analysts. Strava

An interactive heatmap from Strava appears to have exposed sensitive sites. Hackers or state actors could use the information to find bases. Chinese, Taiwanese, and other nations' bases were exposed too, but as the US has the biggest global presence, it stands the most to lose.

Over the weekend a company called Strava, a social network for athletes, updated an online heatmap which mapped out the routes of 1 billion workouts in 2017.

But in doing so, it seems to have expose secret US military in Turkey, Syria, and Yemen.

Strava drew on data from fitness trackers, like fitbits or smartphones, to track their workouts. But fitness tracker users skew western, young, and active. In countries like Niger, the heatmap highlights the activity of US soldiers on military bases keeping fit.

The result is potentially damning for the US military's operational security.

A bright spot of activity in Agadez, Niger, where the US has a drone base. There is almost no Strava data on the rest of the country. Strava

Previously covert bases may have been exposed. More importantly, the useful parts of the base have been highlighted. The heatmap shows that military personnel commonly jog around the perimeter of bases, thereby printing an outline on the heatmap.

Additionally, some may have left the trackers on while going about normal business. Important supply routes and key daily routines have likely been picked up by the heatmap.

"In Syria, known coalition (ie US) bases light up the night,"  wrote military writer and analyst Tobias Schneider .

"Some light markers over known Russian positions, no notable colouring for Iranian bases … A lot of people are going to have to sit through lectures come Monday morning."

But the most dangerous element of the heatmap isn't the aggregated lines, it's the potential to determine which individual drew which line. Anyone who gains access to Strava's data, legally or otherwise, can then track that soldier's movement, Jeffrey Lewis points out at the Daily Beast. 

A user who visits one secret military base, say a missile base, and then visits another location, may indicate that there's another, previously secure, site of interest.

This data could inform both state and non-state actors as to where to attack in the case of war.

The US is not alone in being exposed — Chinese joggers in the South China Sea contributed data to the Strava map, as did workers on Taiwan's secret missile bases. But the US's larger presence around the globe means it had more to lose.

After the map came out, internet users in short order identified some of the most sensitive US military sites around the world.

Here Lewis believes a "highly secure office," possibly the director of national intelligence and the National Counterterrorism Center have been exposed.

Here he seems to think US troops are running around the US's nuclear weapons in Turkey.

Here a Twitter user cross-referencing other open-source analysis seems to think he's spotted a CIA "black site," or somewhere that unacknowledged covert work is taking place, in Djibouti.

But interestingly enough, the actual Pentagon, the headquarters of the Department of Defense, the biggest office building in the world, and the most well-known US military command center in the world, is dark.

The Pentagon goes dark somehow. Strava Heat Map

Original author: Alex Lockie

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REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Markus Mueller, Global Head of the Chief Investment Office at Deutsche Asset Management warns investors of "total loss" when buying bitcoin. "We do not recommend that. It’s only for investors who invest speculatively," he said in an interview. Mainstream investors and institutions remain split on cryptocurrencies, with some see it as the future of global markets, and others remaining highly sceptical.

Investors in bitcoin face a "realistic risk of total loss" and everyone but the most speculative should steer clear of cryptocurrencies, a senior staff member at the asset management arm of Deutsche Bank has warned.

"We do not recommend that. It’s only for investors who invest speculatively," Markus Mueller, Global Head of the Chief Investment Office at Deutsche Asset Management said in an interview with Bloomberg.

"There is a realistic risk of total loss." 

Mueller went on to say that for bitcoin to considered a real, tradeable asset that Deutsche AM may include in its portfolio, huge strides are needed on "regulation, security and transparency," in the crypto world.

"Important issues such as liability and documentation are unclear," he said. "We are still at the very beginning."

"When security and trust are created, crypto-currencies can be assessed like established asset classes. It is possible that the governance required will exist in five to ten years from now," Mueller added.

Mainstream investors and institutions remain split on cryptocurrencies. Most see at least some scope for the blockchain technology underlying bitcoin to have real world applications, but many institutions see bitcoin itself (as well as other cryptocurrencies) as worthless exercises in speculation, not worth the distributed ledger they're printed on.

Late in 2017, for example, Paul Donovan,  the global chief economist at UBS's wealth management arm, tore into the argument that cryptocurrencies could eventually replace fiat currencies like the pound and the dollar.

"The problem that cryptocurrencies face is that they fail the two key metrics of what makes a currency a currency," Donovan said. "A currency has to be a widely used medium of exchange. Cryptocurrencies are never going to achieve that. Period."

Mueller's assertion that Deutsche AM will steer of the crypto space for the foreseeable future comes after analysts at boutique research house Bernstein said similar.

"Cryptocurrencies and underlying blockchains seem set to grow and become a disruptive force. Thus they will have significant implications for investors. But, for now at least, they do not have a direct role in asset allocation," a note from a Bernstein team led by Inigo Fraser-Jenkins circulated last week said.

Original author: Will Martin

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Tether's website. Screenshot/Tether

Tether, hit by $31 million hack in November, has built a cryptocurrency pegged to the dollar. Critics are suspicious of whether it has dollar reserves it claims, but Tether calls scepticism "uninformed and baseless." The company has now parted ways with its auditor, which was reviewing its holdings, blaming auditor's "the excruciatingly detailed procedures."

LONDON — Under-fire cryptocurrency company Tether has parted company with its auditors, according to CoinDesk.

CoinDesk reports that Tether said in a statement on Saturday night that its relationship with Friedman LLP "is dissolved."

"Given the excruciatingly detailed procedures Friedman was undertaking for the relatively simple balance sheet of Tether, it became clear that an audit would be unattainable in a reasonable time frame," Tether said in the statement.

The ending of the audit is likely to fuel critics of the cryptocurrency, who are suspicious of its backing.

Tether created a cryptocurrency called USDT that is pegged to — and supposedly backed by — the dollar. It is meant to function as a "stablecoin" — a cryptocurrency that allows you to avoid the volatility of bitcoin but still have the operability of a cryptocurrency (i.e. being able to send to digital wallets and exchanges.)

The cryptocurrency was hit by a $31 million heist in November. The attack led to online rumours that Tether, which is closely linked to cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, is facing deeper issues around its solvency. The press has also raised questions about Tether's handling of its cryptocurrency.

The New York Times wrote shortly after the hack: "One persistent online critic, going by the screen name Bitfinex’ed, has written several very detailed essays on Medium arguing that Bitfinex appears to be creating Tether coins out of thin air and then using them to buy Bitcoin and push the price up."

Bloomberg wrote earlier this month: "Among the many mysteries at the heart of the cryptocurrency market are these: Does $814 million of a digital token known as tether really exist?" The article highlighted suspicions that the company may not hold the dollar reserves to back Tether that it claims to.

Tether has called this criticism "uninformed and baseless" and promised in a statement in December that Friedman's audit of its books would vindicate the company.

"We understand that the public is anxiously awaiting the completion of this process, but it cannot be rushed and we are not Friedman’s only customer," the company said in December. "Moreover, the amount of due diligence that is being performed by Friedman is substantial."

Tether said in its Saturday statement to CoinDesk: "As Tether is the first company in the space to undergo this process and pursue this level of transparency, there is no precedent set to guide the process nor any benchmark against which to measure its success."

Business Insider contacted Tether for clarification of when it parted ways with Friedman LLP and whether it has hired a new auditor. The company did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

Original author: Oscar Williams-Grut

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US President Donald Trump. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Good morning! Here is the tech news you need to start your week.

1. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Intel warned Chinese companies like Lenovo and Alibaba before the US government about Spectre and Meltdown. This raised concerns as the Chinese government might have come across the information before the US.

2. Twitter announced that Russian bots retweeted Donald Trump's account 469,537 times in the period leading up to the US election in 2016. Hillary Clinton's tweets, by comparison, got 47,846 retweets.

3. Google Clips, the company's screen-less camera that started selling online last Friday, sold out in about 24 hours. Google didn't say when or if it will replenish the stock, and customers of the first batch will also have to wait until March for Clips cameras to ship.

4. A new Copyright Royalty Board ruling in the US will require streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music to give 15.1% of revenue to songwriters and music publishers over next five years. The number was previously 10.5%.

5. YouTube reportedly served ads containing Coinhive's cryptocurrency-mining and CPU-draining JavaScript, likely using Google's DoubleClick. Google has said that the ads have now been blocked.

6. Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck says it will repay all 260,000 users who lost money in a theft on Friday. The company said that about $400 million (£283 million) worth of NEM coins were stolen.

7. Billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has been released after having been arrested last November amid a corruption crackdown. He is an investor in companies like Twitter and Lyft.

8. Russian Mail.ru has acquired ESforce, a Russian e-sports firm, for a reported $100 million (£71 million). ESforce has 116 million active users.

9. Fitness-tracking app Strava has published a heat map that was analysed to track military bases and soldier jogging routes around the world. The map was first shared by the company in November 2017.

10. Google explained that it used a user experience-driven approach to build the machine learning algorithms of its Clips camera. The company hired professional photographers, and "taught" the algorithms to understand which moments would most likely be worth capturing.

Original author: Edoardo Maggio

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Adam Afriyie MP. Parliament.uk

Fintech community has warned: "Brexit has the potential to slow down the growth of UK fintech." Tory MP Adam Afriyie heads the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fintech. Afriyie told BI: "Brexit, I think, is actually more of an opportunity than a threat." He says funding is still going strong and talent will be protected.

LONDON — The head of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fintech says Brexit will present "opportunities" for the sector, despite reservations in the industry.

Leading British fintech businesses last year set up the Fintech Delivery Panel (FDP) to "produce an ambitious post-Brexit vision for the UK's fintech sector." Deputy chair Eamon Jubbawy said at the time: "There is a wide-ranging consensus in the tech sector that Brexit has the potential to slow down the growth of UK fintech."

But Conservative MP Adam Afriyie told Business Insider: "I think we’re poised to continue to take the world by storm on fintech... Brexit, I think, is actually more of an opportunity than a threat."

Afriyie, who supported Brexit, chairs Parliament's cross-party fintech group and regularly meets with fintech businesses doing everything from peer-to-peer lending to back-office banking processes. Afriyie set up his own IT business prior to going into politics.

He told BI: "Where there’s change, where there’s complexity, that is where businesses more than any others, they’ll find the gaps where there’s money to be made.

"Do I have some question marks about the politicians' ability to resolve uncertainty in a sensible way? Yes I do. Do I have any doubt that our businesses and entrepreneurs will be able to take advantage, find the opportunities, in any changes that are upcoming? I think they’ll find those opportunities quicker than anybody else in society because it’s in their interest to do so."

He added: "People do worry about Brexit but the data shouldn’t worry people at all. I’m absolutely stunned by the rise in foreign direct investment into fintech in the UK and also by the rise in investment into tech generally in the UK over the last year."

More than $1 billion was invested into UK fintech during the first three quarters of 2017 despite the vote to leave the European Union in June 2016.

Afriyie told Business Insider: "Even myself as a Brexiter, I thought, oh well we’re going to have a bit of a fall-off in investment. Actually, the opposite has happened. That’s a sign that our fintech industry is very strong but also that our fundamentals are pretty strong too."

Many in the fintech industry also fear that it will be difficult to attract top international talent to the UK post-Brexit.

Afriyie countered: "People didn’t particularly notice but last November we actually doubled the number of what’s called exceptional talent visas."

The government announced last November that the number of "Tier 1" visas for skilled immigrants would be increased from 1,000 to 2,000 per year.

"I can quite safely predict that that will increase enormously at the point at which we leave the EU, because we recognise — the government recognises, we recognise as a nation — that fintech and those very highly talented people, the international people in the fintech sector, need to feel welcomed — and they will be," Afriyie told BI.

"Obviously, there are challenges, as we work out what the nature of the deal is. But quite frankly there’s a big willingness around the world to back Britain, to back British fintech and to continue to invest here, to continue to develop here, and to continue to assimilate the standards and regulatory environments that we are developing here."

Despite his optimism, Afriyie stressed in the same interview with Business Insider that the government and financial regulators must continue to take the same "light touch" approach to fintech in order for continued success.

Original author: Oscar Williams-Grut