After numerous complaints over the last two years and even an online petition by a customer, Apple has decided to offer free repairs or replacements for the butterfly keyboard on its MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops.

What Happened?

For quite some time now, some MacBook and MacBook Pro laptop users have been complaining about problems they have experienced with the ‘Butterfly keyboard’. These problems have included letters or characters repeating unexpectedly, letters or characters not appearing, and keys feeling “sticky” or not responding in a consistent manner.

Petition and Lawsuit

The problems have been so bad that one user set up a Change.org online petition asking Apple to recall every MacBook Pro released since late 2016, and two fed up Apple customers have filed a lawsuit against the company (both back in May) in a San Jose, California, federal court.

The petition, which attracted over 21,000 signatures, was set up by someone listed as Matthew Taylor, who claimed that every one of Apple’s current-generation MacBook Pro models, 13in and 15in, is sold with a keyboard that can become defective at any moment because of a design failure. Mr Taylor is reported as saying that he believes that the problems are widespread and consistent, and can be infuriating for users.

The lawsuit has been brought by Zixuan Rao, of San Diego, California, and Kyle Barbaro, of Melrose, Massachusetts, who allege that Apple’s model year 2015 or later MacBooks and model year 2016 or later MacBook Pros are defective.

Hands Up … Maybe

Apple has now held its hands up and acknowledged in a statement online, that the problems of characters repeating unexpectedly, letters or characters not appearing, and keys feeling “sticky” or not responding in a consistent manner “may” exist in a “small percentage” of its Butterfly keyboards.

Program

Apple has, therefore, launched a program which will mean that Apple or an Apple Authorised Service Provider will service eligible MacBook and MacBook Pro keyboards, free of charge. The type of service that Apple / the Apple Authorized Service Provider can offer will be determined after the keyboard has been examined, and Apple says that this may involve the replacement of one or more keys or the whole keyboard.

Eligible Models

Apple has released a list of models that are eligible for the repair / replacement program. These models are (courtesy of the Apple website):

• MacBook (Retina, 12 inch, Early 2015)
• MacBook (Retina, 12 inch, Early 2016)
• MacBook (Retina, 12 inch, 2017)
• MacBook Pro (13 inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
• MacBook Pro (13 inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
• MacBook Pro (13 inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
• MacBook Pro (13 inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
• MacBook Pro (15 inch, 2016)
• MacBook Pro (15 inch, 2017)

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

On the one hand it is good news that Apple is prepared to repair / replace keyboards free of charge. On the other hand, some would say that it’s a shame that it’s taken 2 years, thousands of complaints, a petition with tens of thousands of signatures, bad publicity, and even a lawsuit to bring Apple to the point of admitting that there “may” be a problem with the keyboards that warrants free repair / replacement program to be set up at some cost to Apple.

It is all-too-common in the technology industry for products (usually software) to be distributed before all the bugs have been discovered and ironed-out or patched. In this case, many Apple customers were clearly saying that their keyboards didn’t work as they should, and it is this kind of thing that can turn happy customers into very vocal critics of a company. For businesses that have been affected by the problem, the repair / replacement program is likely to be welcome … but long overdue.

If you / your business has been affected by the problem, the advice from Apple is to first back up your data, then find an Apple authorised service provider and make an appointment at an Apple Retail Store (or send your device by mail to the Apple Repair Centre). Apple says that your MacBook or MacBook Pro will be examined prior to any service to verify that it is eligible for this program, and examination will determine the type of service, or whether a replacement will be needed. It is estimated that the service could take a few days, and Apple says that the program covers eligible MacBook and MacBook Pro models for 4 years after the first retail sale of the unit.

Researchers from Indiana University, the Chinese Academy of Science, and the University of Virginia have discovered 2 new security vulnerabilities in voice-powered assistants, like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, that could lead to the theft of personal information.

Voice Squatting

The first vulnerability, outlined in a recent white paper by researchers has been dubbed ‘voice squatting’ i.e. a method which exploits the way a skill or action is invoked. This method takes advantage of the way that VPAs like smart speakers work. The services used in smart speakers operate using apps called “skills” (by Amazon) or “actions” (by Google). A skill or an action is what gives a VPA additional features, so that a user can interact with a smart assistant via a virtual user interface (VUI), and can run that skill or action using just their voice.

The ‘voice squatting’ method essentially involves tricking VPAs by using simple homophones – words that sound the same but have different meanings. Using an example from the white paper, if a user gives the command “Alexa, open Capital One” to run the Capital One skill / action a cyber criminal could create a malicious app with a similarly pronounced name e.g. “Capital Won”. This could mean that a voice command for Capital One skill is then hijacked to run the malicious Capital Won skill instead.

Voice Masquerading

The second vulnerability identified by the research has been dubbed ‘voice masquerading’. This method of exploiting how VPAs operate involves using a malicious skill / action to impersonate a legitimate skill / action, with the intended result of tricking a user into reading out personal information / account credentials, or to listen-in on private conversations.

For example, the researchers were able to register 5 new fake skills with Amazon, which passed Amazon’s vetting process, used similar invocation names, and were found to have been invoked by a high proportion of users.

Private Conversation Sent To Phone Contact

These latest revelations come hot on the heels of recent reports of how a recording the private conversation of a woman in Portland (US) was sent to one of her phone contacts without her authorisation after her Amazon Echo misinterpreted what she was saying.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

VPAs are popular but are still relatively new, and one positive aspect of this story is that at least these vulnerabilities have been identified now by researchers so that changes can (hopefully) be made to counter the threats. Amazon has said that it conducts security reviews as part of its skill certification process, and it is hoped that the researchers’ abilities to pass-off fake skills successfully may make Amazon, Alexa and others look more carefully at their vetting processes.

VPA’s are now destined for use in the workplace e.g. business-focused versions of popular models and bespoke versions. In this young market, there are however, genuine fears about the security of IoT devices, and businesses may be particularly nervous about VPAs being used by malicious players to listen-in on sensitive business information which could be used against them e.g. for fraud or extortion. The big producers of VPAs will need to reassure businesses that they have installed enough security features and safeguards in order for businesses to fully trust their use in sensitive areas of the workplace.

It has been reported that the England football team will be briefed before flying out to their World Cup base in St Petersburg about how they and UK fans can avoid falling victim to Russian hackers.

NCSC Advice

The briefing is being delivered by The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is part of GCHQ. The advice will focus upon cyber security e.g. for mobile devices and using Wi-Fi connections safely while in Russia.

The same advice has been included in an NCSC blog post that is aimed at anyone travelling to Russia to watch any of the World Cup game, and is entitled ‘Avoid scoring a cyber security own goal this summer”.

The NCSC suggests that is it should be read alongside other UK government online advice pages such as the “FCO Travel Advice” page relating to Russia (https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/russia), and the “Be on the Ball: World Cup 2018” pages (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/be-on-the-ball-world-cup-2018).

Why?

Many security experts and commentators have noted that sporting events have become a real target for cyber criminals in Russia in recent times. Russia-based security company, Kaspersky, reported seeing spikes in the number of phishing pages during match ticket sales for this year’s World Cup. Kaspersky reported that every time tickets went on sale, fraudsters mailed out spam and activated clones of official FIFA pages and sites offering fake giveaways, all claiming to be from partner companies.

Kaspersky says that criminals register domain names combining the words e.g. ‘world,’ ‘worldcup,’ ‘FIFA,’ ‘Russia,’ etc, and that if fans look closely they can see that the domains look unnatural and have a non-standard domain extension. The Security Company advises that fans should take a close look at the link in the email or the URL after opening the site to avoid falling victim to scammers.

The general advice from Kaspersky is to give cheap tickets a wide berth, not to buy goods from spammers in the run-up to kickoff (because the goods may not even exist), not to fall for spam about lotteries and giveaways because they may be used for phishing, not to visit dubious sites offering cheap accommodations or plane tickets, and only to watch broadcasts on official FIFA partner websites.

Kaspersky also advises visitors to use a VPN to connect to the Internet, because, in the aftermath of the government’s attempt to block Telegram, popular sites in Russia are either unavailable or unstable.

England Team’s Briefing

England team Manager, Gareth Southgate, has noted that the England team players are young people who will look for things to occupy their time while in hotel rooms e.g. playing video games, and using multiple devices such as smartphones, tablets and gaming devices. The fact that technology will play a big part in the England team’s downtime throughout the tournament is the main reason why the FA is taking cyber security so seriously.

It is understood, therefore, that the NCSC will be advising the players on the rules to follow on e.g. which devices they can safely use and where. Also, the devices belonging to players and staff will be thoroughly screened to make sure they have the right security software installed.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Anyone travelling abroad for business or pleasure, particularly to countries where certain cyber security threat levels are known to be high should read the UK government’s advice pages relating to cyber security while travelling.

In the case of travelling to Russia for the World Cup, some of the measures people can take before travelling are to check which network you will be using and what the costs are, to make sure all software and apps are up to date and antivirus is turned on, to turn on the ability to wipe your phone should it be lost, and to make sure all devices are password protected and use other security features e.g. fingerprint recognition.

On arriving in Russia, the advice is to remember that public and hotel Wi-Fi connections may not be safe and to be very careful about what information you share over these connections e.g. banking. Also, don’t share phones, laptops or USBs with anyone and be cautious with any IT related gifts e.g. USB sticks, and to keep your devices with you at all times if possible rather than leave them unattended.

The full UK government advice can be found here https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/avoid-scoring-cyber-security-own-goal-summer.

Google, in partnership with energy supplier Eon, with help from German software firm Tetraeder, has released an online tool called ‘Project Sunroof’ that uses Google’s Earth and Maps apps to estimate how much money homeowners could by switching to solar power.

How?

Smart ‘machine learning’ is at the heart of the tool, and it is able to examine factors like its roof area and angle, and weather data, and sun positioning to help it arrive at an estimate of the ‘solar potential’ of a house, and the total amount of sunlight that falls on a particular rooftop every year.

7 Million Rooftops

The partnership with E.On covers seven million rooftops across Germany. It uses E.On’s solar power and battery product offerings to calculate how much a specific household could save by installing solar panels and a battery pack.

Renewable Energy

The idea is part of a move towards countries, including the UK, adopting more renewable energy ideas, and is clearly a way to help inform and convince homeowners to cut energy bills, and help the environment by installing solar panels on their roofs.
International Energy Agency figures show that, even back in 2016, renewable energy accounted for two-thirds of new power added to the world’s grids. Solar power was the fastest-growing source of new energy worldwide that year, and is still growing in popularity now.

In the EU, the Renewable Energy Directive set out for all member countries to reach a 20% renewables target before 2020. Google’s shared project, therefore, helps to feed into that goal.

In recent years, many UK homeowners have taken advantage of grants and tariffs e.g. the Feed-in Tariff and Generation Tariff schemes to install and get money back / save money on the green energy they help produce and feed / sell into the grid.

Fears

Some fears have been expressed that the spread of renewables such as solar and wind across the US (for example) could suffer if the US International Trade Commission imposes tariffs on imports of Chinese solar panels.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

There is wide agreement that sustainable, renewable, green energy sources are needed to meet world demand while minimising the impact on the environment, and not contributing to climate change. Many businesses, some of which are big polluters, are coming to accept the many benefits that renewables and involvement with green projects have to offer.

Google’s involvement with this scheme is consistent with its recent, public commitment to green energy, and having the Google brand name involved in the project is a positive association that could help to convince customers to adopt solar. For example, back in December 2016, Google announced that all of its data centres and the offices for its 60,000 staff would be powered entirely by renewable energy from 2017, a formidable target that it now claims to have met. Even when the announcement was made, Google was already the world’s biggest corporate buyer of renewable electricity.

Google’s image and brand can only benefit from its public commitment to renewable energy, as it will from ‘Project Sunroof’, although Google’s commitment is also based on reducing costs in the longer term, and being seen to pave the way for other corporations.

Tests are being completed of ‘robot’ fruit-picking machines that can pick strawberries as carefully and quickly as humans, and can help growers solve the labour shortage challenge next growing season.

Belgian Prototype Very Promising

European strawberry growers in Spain, Belgium and the UK are welcoming tests of robotic prototypes that can harvest soft fruit mechanically.

One example that has enjoyed some publicity is the ‘Octinion’ robotic arm on a self-driving trolley. Produced by a Belgian start-up, it is claimed that the Octinion can compete with a human in terms of price and speed as it is able to pick one strawberry every four seconds, collect between 70% and 100% of the ripe fruit, and leave the berry with only the calyx (and not the stalk), which is the way European consumers are used to buying their berries.

The success of this robot, which can grip and turns the fruit by 90 degrees to snap it off its stalk just like a human, means that it is now completing final tests in partnership with real-world growers in the UK and continental Europe, and looks like being a realistic option for next season.

Dogtooth From Cambridge

Another soft fruit-picking robot prototype that looks like being a serious competitor is the ‘Dogtooth’ which has been produced by a Cambridge-based start-up, has recently been tested in Australia, and is also made up of a robot arm mounted on a self-driving trolley.

The Dogtooth has been designed to be able to pick strawberries the way UK retailers prefer, by leaving around a centimetre of stem still attached, because it has been found to extend shelf life.

Unlike the Octinion’s machine which has been built to work on fruit grown on raised platforms in polytunnels, Dogtooth’s machine has been designed to be able to pick traditional British varieties in the field.

Genuine Labour Shortage

Some commentators have suggested that the motivation for producing the robots is simply to replace migrant labour with a cheaper, more efficient alternative, but strawberry producers across Europe and the US have insisted that they face a genuine shortage of workers to pick their fruit.

In the UK for example, the value of sterling following the Brexit vote has made it difficult to recruit overseas workers, and UK-based workers don’t appear to find seasonal picking work attractive or practical.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This is an example of how a range of technologies have been combined to produce a tool that can meet very real agricultural challenges, and could revolutionize a whole industry across the world. Although these machines may be expensive to buy, they can pay for themselves over time because, unlike humans, they don’t require wages, can work any number of hours, and they don’t take holidays, get sick or leave. They also mean that growers can plan their production with more certainty and don’t have to expend time, effort, and money on recruitment.

Automation, aided by huge technological advances, is a growing trend across most industry sectors. For example, a report by PwC from March 2017 claimed that over 30% of UK jobs could be lost to automation by the year 2030. According to the report, 44% jobs in manufacturing (where there are already many robots e.g. car manufacturing), especially those involving manual work, look likely to go to AI led software or robots. Transportation jobs are also in the high-risk category for robot replacements, and according to the report, 56% of jobs could be lost to autonomous vehicles. Jobs in the UK’s largest sectors, wholesale retail jobs, also look vulnerable to automation into the future.

AI and robotics will alter what jobs look like in the future, but it is also important to remember that, as with the strawberry-picking robots, they could provide huge advantages and opportunities for businesses.

Workers can only really try to insulate themselves from the worst effects of automation by seeking more education / lifelong learning, and by trying to remain positive towards and adapting to changes. How much automation and what kind of automation individual businesses adopt will, of course, depend upon a cost / benefit analysis compared to human workers, and whether automation is appropriate and is acceptable to their customers.