Tech Review: How to Build Your Own Smartphone for $70 (video)

Tech Review (TR 2017-06-17)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech news:

Features • 1) How to Build Your Own Smartphone for $70, 2) Norway’s Electric Car Success, 3) Amazon.com Inc. to Acquire Whole Foods, 4) Android O a/k/a Android 8.0, and Google's Pixel 2,  5) Apple App Store Scammers, 6) TheRealReal.com, 7) Android Studio on Chrome OS, 8) ICYMI.

1) How to Build Your Own Smartphone for $70

Video above published Jun 13, 2017 by WSJ.com: Andy Rubin's phone cost $700; the WSJ 1 cost $70 and helps explain why the smartphone market is so tough. Take a journey to see how, with the help of Shenzhen's ready to go supply chain.

2) Norway’s Electric Car Success

Video above published Jun 14, 2017, by FT.com: Norway has become a global leader in electric cars but rapid progress presents challenges such as when to withdraw subsidies. Richard Milne reports from the world’s largest charging station on a country that shows how an electric future might look.

3) Amazon.com Inc. to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7 Billion: a deal that sent shockwaves across online and brick-and-mortar competitors on Friday--Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kroger Co. shares both fell. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares closed up Friday. "Dominant players like Wal-Mart, Kroger, Costco, and Target now have to look over their shoulders at the Amazon train coming down the tracks," said Charlie O'Shea, lead retail analyst at Moody's Investors Service. "Amazon gets a network of stores where it can implement decades’ worth of experiments in how people pick, pay for and get groceries delivered. The Whole Foods deal is an acknowledgment that it can’t build its own physical footprint quickly enough alone. CEO Jeff Bezos will try to recast Whole Foods’ ailing business, likely starting with upgraded technology, in much the same he has upended book selling, retailing, newspapers and other industries."--Bloomberg.com

4)  Android O, the next version of Google's mobile operating system, will be Android 8.0, not 7.2, according to information in the third developer preview--forbes.com. See also: HMD Global confirms Android O for Nokia 3, 5 and 6 and Major leak shows that Google’s Pixel 2 will be just as exciting as the iPhone 8 |BGR.com and This Pixel 2 leak spills all the key secrets | SlashGear.com.

5) How to Make $80,000 Per Month on the Apple App Store | medium.com OR how scammers use deceptive security apps and abuse search ads in the Apple App Store to trick users into expensive subscriptions.

6) TheRealReal.com, a six-year-old, San Francisco-based company focused on authenticated, high-end resale items for women, men, and the home, landed $50 million in growth funding from the private equity firm GreatHillPartners,com. See also crunchbase.com profile.

7)  Thinking About Android Studio on Chrome OS | Thurrott.com: "Getting a full-blown development environment on Chrome OS (which also includes Android) is a huge step. A huge step." See also Tip: Print from Chrome OS and Android | Thurrott.com.

8) ICYMI Tech News Quick Takes:

• Netflix to join net neutrality 'day of action' July 12 | TheHill.com
• UK, France crack down on tech giants for terrorist content | Axios.com
• Chrome 59’s under-the-hood updates should speed up your surfing | digitaltrends.com
• Google Drive will soon back up your entire computer | TheVerge,com
• Supreme Court to rule on legality of patent review system | Reuters.com
• Confirmed: Verizon will cut ~15% of AOL-Yahoo staff after merger closes | TechCrunch.com
• FoxNext buys mobile game developer Aftershock | bizjournals.com
• Algolia raises $53 million for its search engine API | TechCrunch.com
• What would the web be like without Net Neutrality? | OpenMedia.org
• Taiwan's Foxconn, assembler of iPhones, considering Wisconsin plant | CBSnews.com
• Federal Reserve raises rates, plans to reduce balance sheet this year | FoxBusiness.com
• Verizon completes $4.48B Yahoo purchase; Marissa Mayer resigns | TheHill.com: Verizon will be combining its portions of the Yahoo business with its AOL subsidiary to create a new entity called Oath.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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DISCLAIMER

ALAC Call for Freeze on New gTLDs, Safeguards, Public Interest, All Disregarded by ICANN

More chaos, confusion and dysfunction at ICANN over new gTLDs (new generic top-level domains) and ICANN's disregard of the public interest and the public safety of the global internet community--

Letter dated December 9, 2014, from the ICANN Business Constituency to Fadi Chehadé, CEO, ICANN, Dr. Stephen Crocker, Chair, ICANN Board of Directors (pdf):

"The Business Constituency (BC) supports the ALAC’s call for a freeze on contracting and
delegation of any new gTLD in highly-regulated sectors that have failed to implement GAC safeguards... The strings at issue here include:

Health and Fitness: .pharmacy .surgery .dentist .dds .hospital .medical .doctor
Financial: .bank .banque .creditunion .creditcard .insurance .ira .lifeinsurance .mutualfunds .mutuelle .vermogensberater .vesicherung .autoinsurance .carinsurance
Gambling: .bet .bingo .lotto .poker .spreadbetting .casino
Charity: .charity (and IDN Chinese equivalent)
Education: university 
....
In May-2014, the BC expressed concern that the safeguards adopted to date for strings associated with regulated industries and professions was falling short, and that such strings remain susceptible to fraud and abuse by potential registrants who wish enrich themselves at the expense of the general public. GAC and NTIA had raised concerns regarding NGPC’s proposed implementation of Category 1 safeguards. It was therefore unclear how PICs could provide effective safeguards, given a registry’s ability to amend or revoke its PICs [Public Interest Commitments] and the lengthy, expensive, and adversarial process required to enforce PICs by the limited class of parties able to bring enforcement actions.

Nevertheless, during 2014 ICANN has continued to sign registry contracts with applicants for 

Category 1 strings, without requiring safeguards in registry PICs. That led the ALAC to request a freeze at the ICANN51 Public Forum. The ALAC resolution calls for freezing the 28 highly-sensitive, regulated Category 1 strings until a joint ALAC-GAC working group can determine that appropriate safeguards are indeed in place to protect the public interest. In response, the ICANN Board New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) voted on 7-Nov-2014 to disregard the ALAC Statement on Public Interest Commitments, including the ALAC request for a freeze....

The BC remains concerned that safeguards adopted for strings associated with regulated
industries and professions may fall short and that such strings remain susceptible to fraud and
abuse by potential registrants who wish enrich themselves at the expense of the general public.

Unless ICANN’s board and management respond appropriately, the continued delegation of new
gTLDs serving highly-regulated sectors will demonstrate ICANN’s lack of accountability to
consumers and to consumer protection authorities around the globe. Lack of action by ICANN’s board on this matter will likely be cited as evidence to justify new independent review mechanisms to allow the Internet community to challenge decisions of ICANN board and management. The BC would be among those citing this case as justification for stronger accountability mechanisms for ICANN...." (emphasis added, read full letter at link above)

Also see: Letter dated December 9, 2014, from Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) to Dr. Stephen Crocker, Chair, ICANN Board Of Directors (pdf)--excerpt:

".... We also remain concerned with the NGPC’s elimination of the requirement to consult with
relevant authorities (regulatory and quasi-regulatory bodies where applicable) in case of doubt
about the authenticity of credentials, and the requirement to conduct periodic post-registration
checks to ensure that Registrants’ continue to possess valid credentials and generally conduct
their activities in the interests of the consumers they serve. The GAC advised these procedures
to protect the public from falling prey to scammers and other criminals...." (emphasis added)

And the Obama Administration wants to surrender the US Department of Commerce (NTIA) contract and all oversight of ICANN--the scammers and other cybercriminals must be smiling! Of course when it comes to the new gTLDs program, ICANN was never interested in the public interest--it's all about the money--that's why we now have over 1000 new gTLDs being irresponsibly flooded into the domain name system (DNS).

see also: ICANN Seeking Panel Members for New gTLD Public Interest Commitment Dispute Resolution

UPDATE: Preliminary Report | Meeting of the New gTLD Program Committee 11 Dec 2014: "... After discussion, the sense of the Committee was that it was not supportive of halting the contracting and delegating process for the strings identified in the ALAC Statement, but the Committee decided to engage as soon as possible with the ALAC to better understand their concerns about the PICs, and to discuss a path forward. The Committee decided to prepare a response to the ALAC to provide the rationale for its decision, and to take steps to begin a dialogue with the ALAC. Also, the Committee agreed to take steps to initiate a dialogue with the GAC to discuss its concerns with the PICs...."

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