• This is a preview of The Smart Speaker research report from Business Insider Intelligence.
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The smart speaker has been a runaway success in the handful of years since it hit the market, catapulting from obscurity to the peak of sales lists and cementing itself in the public consciousness.

According to primary survey data from Business Insider Intelligence, as many as half of US respondents reported living in a home with a voice-enabled AI device.

The prevalence of smart speakers is changing how companies in a range of spaces — media, e-commerce, smart home, banking, and more — interact with consumers.

For companies looking to sell these speakers and brands looking to engage with their customers through the now-critical medium, it's important to understand how the voice ecosystem works in practice and how it's being used. 

To learn more about adoption and habits, we surveyed 2,000 US consumers regarding factors like smart speaker ownership, what brands consumers use, and what they use the devices to do. Our survey data offers critical insights for key stakeholders at companies aiming to promote and use the smart speaker to reach customers.

In TheSmart Speaker Report, Business Insider Intelligence examines the fast-evolving smart speaker market. First, we provide a glimpse into smart speaker adoption in the US, both overall and by particular demographics. Then, we look at the characteristics of device owners, including how many speakers they own, which types, how often they use them, and what they use them to do. We also break down the top smart speaker use cases and the reasons why they are or aren't resonating with consumers, and advise brands looking to reach their users via this medium how best to do so.

The companies mentioned in this report are: Amazon, American Express, Apple, Deezer, Google, Nest, Pandora, Samsung, Spotify, and TuneIn.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• 5 years since the first device in its category launched, the smart speaker may be demonstrating one of the fastest rates of consumer adoption of any technology device in history, outpacing even the smartphone, per our data.
• More than half of US respondents who said that they live in households with a smart speaker reported having multiple speakers in their household, and nearly all living in households with speakers use them at least once a week.
• Media playback, general information, and communication are among the most commonly used features of smart speakers for device users.

In full, the report:

• Provides a snapshot of the current state of smart speaker adoption.
• Highlights the most important ways that consumers are using the devices and looks at what will come next in key segments.
• Identifies key trends in smart speaker and voice assistant design and usage and offers guidance for companies and brands looking to use the platform moving forward.

Interested in getting the full report? Here's how to get access:

1. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now
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3. Current subscribers can read the report here.

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• NASA is pushing to commercialize space travel to lower the cost of getting astronauts to and from orbit.
• The US space agency is also opening up private access to the International Space Station and, to that end, announced a partnership with Virgin Galactic for training private astronauts.
• NASA on Tuesday also announced that it's standing up a new Suborbital Crew or "SubC" office to fly astronauts, scientists, and other agency employees on suborbital flights to the edge of space.
• Although the agency is seeking information from the industry, leading contenders include Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, which are close to launching paying passengers on suborbital flights.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Astronauts, stand aside: NASA is booting up a program to fly other types of employees, primarily scientists, in vehicles that can touch the edge of space.

The US agency on Tuesday announced the creation of Suborbital Crew, or SubC, as the new office is called. It's an offshoot of NASA's existing Commercial Crew Program— the effort that, in May, launched astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX's new Crew Dragon spaceship.

Though SubC is in a nascent phase with no concrete timeline, it's a significant new effort by NASA to expand its push to commercialize space travel and be "one of many customers," as NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine often says, in order to increase options, lower cost, and foster private industry in orbit.

Practically, that means private astronauts will be flying alongside bonafide NASA astronauts to the ISS, and aboard commercially owned and operated spaceships. To that end, NASA on Monday announced a public-private partnership with Virgin Galactic to help book, supply, and train private astronauts headed to low-Earth orbit some 250 miles above the planet.

But NASA's new announcement seeks to take advantage of lower-flying capabilities created by companies like Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos. Both outfits aim to rocket passengers to suborbital space — unofficially, about 62 miles in altitude— and back to a safe landing. Such flights would provide several minutes of weightlessness and stunning views of Earth and the stars.

In NASA's view, they'd also provide an opportunity to fly experiments that need a person to tend to them, as well as opportunities to acclimate astronauts to the rigors of spaceflight.

"For the first time in the agency's history, NASA has initiated a new effort to enable NASA personnel to fly on future commercial suborbital spaceflights," the agency said in a release that announced SubC on Tuesday.

NASA has tapped Scott Colloredo, the now-former deputy director of the agency's engineering directorate at Kennedy Space Center, to head the new office. In a call with reporters on Tuesday, Colloredo said SubC's creation was sparked by the progress with Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin — and a fertile opportunity to influence their operation.

"I would say those are the the main ones that have ... driven us to say that we could be close to a viable capability here," he said. "They're actually flying. It's a big difference between what we used to call a 'PowerPoint program.' ... These are real providers that are maturing."

NASA is currently seeking information through August 7 from companies that might participate in the program and seek approval from NASA to fly its people and payloads on suborbital missions.

"We've seen how industry can develop innovative crew transportation systems that meet NASA's safety requirements and standards," Kathy Lueders, the new chief of NASA's Human Spaceflight Office, said in the release. "Now we'll be looking at a new way of enabling NASA personnel to fly on commercial suborbital space systems by considering factors such as flight experience and flight history."

The program may also help set the NASA-level bar for how spaceflight companies approach their missions: One of SubC's early goals is to work with the Federal Aviation Administration "to define the approach for system qualification for NASA personnel, as well as identify the specific performance capabilities NASA desires."

'Opening space for good'

George Whitesides, the CEO of Virgin Galactic — an obvious candidate to provide NASA seats or entire chartered flights to suborbital space — applauded the formation of SubC.

"We are excited to see NASA advancing their plans to fly agency astronauts and researchers on commercial suborbital spacecraft. Across a range of programs and destinations, NASA is catalyzing innovation and leading the way toward a positive future in space," Whitesides said in a statement emailed to Business Insider. "This comes on the heels of our Space Act agreement with NASA this week about training private astronauts for ISS missions."

He added: "Public-private partnerships are a key to opening space for good, and we're inspired for the future of human space exploration."

Blue Origin is another leading choice, since the company is working toward its first crewed suborbital flights with a reusable rocket-and-capsule system called New Shepard.

"We applaud NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine's leadership to advance public-private partnerships in space," Clay Mowry, Blue Origin's vice president of global sales, said in a statement emailed to Business Insider. "We're looking forward to offering suborbital crewed space transportation services to NASA with New Shepard."

However, Colloredo said NASA is open to being influenced by more outside-the-box ideas that companies have, including missions that aren't on suborbital rocket ships.

When asked about Space Perspective, for example — a newly formed company that aims to balloon a capsule called Spaceship Neptune about 20 miles into the stratosphere, where space-like conditions are present — Colloredo said NASA has been monitoring the founders' progress and wants to hear from them.

"We are focused more on suborbital, [which is] beyond that capability. But I think we're also very interested in redrawing that box," Colloredo said. "We really want to hear what industry has to tell us."

Jane Poynter, a co-founder and co-CEO of Space Perspective, said the company plans to provide input.

"This is a big step for NASA to enable its astronauts and researchers to fly on commercial suborbital vehicles," she told Business Insider in an email. "We look forward to working with NASA and the FAA on the process for qualifying Spaceship Neptune for NASA personnel."

This story has been updated with new information.

SEE ALSO: A new spaceship-on-a-balloon startup wants to float you high enough to see Earth's curvature and the darkness of space for roughly $125,000 per ticket

DON'T MISS: Virgin Galactic is building and testing spaceships during the coronavirus pandemic. The company's CEO explains how its high-tech workers are staying safe.

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NOW WATCH: Why NASA waited nearly a decade to send astronauts into space from the US

• Microsoft rolled out new enterprise security protection for Android phones on Tuesday, entering a $10 billion mobile security market — and taking its cybersecurity push beyond Windows.
• The company says this simplifies security for companies seeking to protect remote workers on multiple work devices. 
• Analysts say Microsoft's comprehensive "zero trust" security makes sense for companies trying to address complicated security vulnerabilities. 
• These moves, like other recent growth, were planned for years but greatly speeded up by COVID-19's impact on innovation in cloud computing. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Microsoft continued to expand its cybersecurity coverage Tuesday, launching enterprise protection for Android phones, and announcing iPhone security protection for companies by year's end. 

The company says this expansion represents another step in its comprehensive vision of "zero trust" — a security philosophy of protecting employees' data no matter which device they're using. Analysts say it is further ambitious expansion that a cluttered cybersecurity marketplace may embrace. 

The company announced the new rollouts in a blog post announcing the public preview of Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection for Android, with plans to expand to Apple iOS later this year. Employees whose companies use Microsoft antivirus on desktop and laptop computers can turn on the mobile defense features now.

The moves represent the company planting its flag in the ground in a $10.4 billion mobile security market– where employee use of mobile phones has grown more precarious during remote work.

While Microsoft has long offered a variety of antivirus and network security tools for its own Windows, the company's ambitions for offering a mobile operating system of its own ended with the demise of Windows 10 Mobile. Meanwhile, people are using Android and iOS in both their work and personal lives.

That presents a cybersecurity risk that IT departments can't ignore. Remote workers' encounters with "phishing" emails – which try to lure readers to click on links to malicious websites – have surged 37% in the first quarter, according to research from the cybersecurity firm Lookout. Other recent research found 24,000 data-stealing Android apps, and new spyware that would allow cybercriminals to capture company information from the phone.  

Microsoft says its new products would address all of those issues, giving the IT department the same level of control over and visibility into workers' mobile phones as they already enjoy on PCs.

That will be welcome news to companies, analysts say. "This is Microsoft being able to say 'we can extend what you already use and where you might be most susceptible during COVID-19," said Nicholas McQuire, head of enterprise research at CCS Insight. "And enterprise for Android has always been susceptible for malware attacks."  

Rob Lefferts, the Microsoft Security vice president who wrote the blog post and led the project, told Business Insider that the expanded security protection represents a shift in philosophy by Microsoft over time – and greatly accelerated by the shift to remote work.

"For a long time there's been a meme we make security products for Microsoft. We now want to make sure it's security from Microsoft – for everything that the customer cares about. And so we actually released on Mac last year, recently for Linux, and now you see the preview for Android, with iOS coming. We want to protect customers and all the things that are part of their environment," Lefferts said.

To that point, in yet another area of expansion, the company also wrote that it is "thrilled to share" the news that Microsoft's security now also protects users of Linux, the open-source computer operating system that the tech titan once saw as a threat to the dominance of Windows in the PC market. 

Like many advances from Microsoft Security recently, Lefferts said the project was in the works, but expedited by the shift to remote work driven by COVID-19. "We were in some ways ready for where we were headed, but it definitely pushed us faster and further," he said. 

Microsoft's new security efforts "show its continued ambition in the security space," says Daniel Newman, principal analyst of Futurum Research. "Bringing greater security to Android is something that I expect the market will respond to positively."

Faith in zero trust

Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, said the software giant saw "two years' worth of digital transformation in two months" last spring, and the company's security teams have raced to address some pandemic-related needs.   

Much of that innovation has been tied to the company's faith in zero trust, the cybersecurity trend that asks all enterprise users to verify their identities, and limits access to company networks to only what is needed. That system works better when all the devices employees use for work are part of that identity-verification loop, and are protected by Microsoft's security tools, Lefferts says. "Customers have come to us asking for an integrated solution," he said. "It's a shame when integration of security products becomes a problem left over to the customer."

Liz Miller, principal analyst at Constellation Research, said there is a big picture here, and urged "taking a step back to look at the recent moves Microsoft has made across their entire security suite. These moves make clear that Microsoft is intentionally enhancing and improving their capabilities across the entire" enterprise. 

A big question then, is what's next for Microsoft Security? "We're thinking more and more about how we keep adding more depth," Lefferts said, but did not specify in what area. 

Frank Gillett, a principal analyst at Forrester, says "Microsoft and other providers of endpoint security are going to be trying to figure out how to protect stuff beyond just the devices you use but that are attached on the network. So the Internet of Things, and smart home devices." If it's attached to the WiFi you use for work, it's attached to the enterprise, he said. 

Microsoft seemed to signal expansion into employees' lives in its blog post on Tuesday. "As more business is getting done on mobile devices, the lines blur between work and personal life." 

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Tuscan Highlands, a resort-like apartment complex in Las Vegas, is opening an esports gaming lounge.
• The lounge is set up to open in July with VR, arcade games, and plans for holding tournaments.
• The developer says this esports lounge and arena is the first of its kind in a US apartment complex.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Most sports are on COVID-19 related hiatuses, but esports are seeing a jump in interest as other entertainment options aren't available.

Tuscan Highlands, a new apartment complex designed to replicate the resort experience, might be able to take advantage of this newfound interest in esports when its 4,500 square foot esports lounge opens later this summer.

Developer Bob Schulman told Business Insider that over the course of developing this property, he went from not know what esports were to "there'll be no place equal to us," noting that Tuscan Highlands will have the first esports arena on this scale in a US apartment complex. 

A game for everyone

Milo Ocampo, an esports expert who consulted on the lounge, told Business Insider that it's designed to appeal both to professional and casual gamers. The lounge has 12 computer stations with seven-foot by 11-foot HD LED displays, a virtual reality sports simulator with a 15-foot by 9-foot display for golf, soccer, and hockey, plus individual gaming stations equipped with Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One devices.

For more old-fashioned gamers, there is also a collection of traditional arcade games. A YouTube and podcasting studio is attached, too. There are even special gaming chairs with adjustable height and reclining levels and a built-in headrest. Shulman told Business Insider that when it comes to esports, every aspect matters because games can come down to "split-second timing."

The lounge is scheduled to open in July, with plans to hold esports tournaments with rewards and educational events. "The esports lounge will feature events held by pro players, run education panels, and let residents interact with influencers and future influencers," Ocampo said. 

Shulman said he asked himself, "How can I create an amenity that will drive people to be together for extended periods of time?" This question eventually resulted in a 10,000 square foot multiform space, consisting of an esports lounge, bar and restaurant, and wine garden. 

He brought in Ocampo, who has his own esports startup and gave him a list of things he needed to know to create the lounge, including demographics and analytics on esports. This first meeting was in July 2019, and the whole project has taken about a year to come to fruition. 

Despite his predictions for the success of the lounge, Shulman doesn't think this will become a trend in other real estate developments.

"More likely, we'll see people want to do bars and restaurants and add esports," he said. "It's very difficult to do."

He sees esports as a growing industry, but creating a lounge of this scale in an apartment community is out of reach for most developments. "People won't know how to do it," he told Business Insider. 

An esports lounge in the COVID era

 COVID-19 and social distancing guidelines haven't derailed plans for the esports lounge, according to Shulman. "We're lucky because we created this very large space that's not open to the public," he told Business Insider.

He explained that tables and chairs in the lounge were built to accommodate social distancing, with only minor changes. Gaming stations are separated by acrylic partitions, that have UV self-cleaning abilities. "Even when COVID is gone, we won't need to add furniture," Shulman said.  

Esports is poised for huge growth

Though not exactly mainstream yet, esports have made huge leaps in the past few years. Groups of professional gamers compete in live tournaments on games like "Fortnite" and "FIFA." Esports had 454 million global viewers in 2019, and the industry is on track to double viewership over six years, according to a December report by Business Insider Intelligence. 

The industry has also attracted growing investments from venture capital, jumping from just under $500 million in 2017 to $4.5 billion in 2018, an increase of 837%. Experts credit much of this growth to the "pop-culturization of esports," including the social aspect of streaming platforms like Twitch, which allow fans to feel connected to gamers.

Some esports organizations have also moved into selling merchandise and expanded beyond a niche fanbase. "It's essential to think of the esports opportunity in this way — one inclusive of gaming, media, pop culture, and commerce — as it shines a light on opportunities beyond gaming events alone" Rick Yang, a partner at a venture capital firm that invests in esports, told Business Insider Intelligence.

For Ocampo, the coronavirus has pushed esports into the spotlight. As he sees it, the lounge will likely initially attract gamers and influencers between 18 and 32 years old, but the audience is growing.

"People who gave esports a chance during the pandemic aren't going to go away when it's over," he said.

However, even virtual sports have been impacted by the coronavirus. Cancellations and postponed tournaments will hurt the industry's earnings this year, which were once predicted to top $1 billion dollars in 2020. 

SEE ALSO: This 3D-printed smart home has an air-purifying system that claims to eliminate 99.9% of bacteria and viruses — see inside

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• Goldman Sachs raised its price target on Microsoft's stock and maintained its buy rating on Tuesday as the company continues to look like a beneficiary of the changes in IT spending caused by the pandemic.
• Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs advised investors last week to sell stock in Slack, citing competition from Microsoft, among other risks. 
• Goldman Sachs' rating underscores Wall Street's belief that Microsoft will emerge as a big winner from the workplace changes caused by the pandemic.
• Are you a current or former Microsoft employee? Contact this reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email (astewart@businessinsider.com).
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Goldman Sachs raised its price target on Microsoft's stock as the company continues to look like a rare beneficiary of the coronavirus pandemic.

Analyst Heather Bellini on Tuesday raised Microsoft's 12-month price target to $215 from $198 (it was trading around $197 per share on Wednesday) and maintained the stock's buy rating.

The price boost follows Goldman's downgrade of Slack's stock on Friday, when it issued a sell rating instead of its previous neutral position.

Bellini wrote in a note to investors that she expected the competition between Slack and Microsoft's Teams rival workplace-communications app to be an "enduring battle" over market share. While both Teams and Slack have benefited from the coronavirus-related remote-work boom with a surge of new users, Bellini wrote that "the data suggests stronger adoption of MSFT Teams relative to Slack," based on app downloads. 

"While we continue to view Slack as a best-in-class team messaging offering that is favored by the technical community, we expect MSFT Teams to continue to try and leverage its packaging within Office 365 to drive increased adoption, thus creating the potential for a more competitive environment," she wrote. Goldman also said that Slack has significant churn risk as its customers suffer from the economic downturn. 

Goldman isn't the only Wall Street bank that sees Microsoft emerging as a winner from the workplace changes caused by the pandemic.

Morgan Stanley last week laid out the 12 technology trends it expected to result from the coronavirus crisis, and Microsoft was mentioned as a beneficiary in more categories than any other company. 

During the pandemic, Microsoft beat Wall Street expectations in its most recent quarter, and Teams grew from 44 million to 75 million daily active users in less than two months. Business Insider recently explored how Microsoft has navigated the crisis so far by relying on CEO Satya Nadella's effort to make Microsoft more empathetic company.

Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at astewart@businessinsider.com, message her on Twitter @ashannstew, or send her a secure message through Signal at 425-344-8242.

SEE ALSO: Morgan Stanley laid out its predictions for a post-pandemic world — and it expects Microsoft to win big

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• You can download content on HBO Max onto your smartphone or tablet to watch later or when you're offline.
• To download a show or movie from HBO Max, tap "Download" on the show or movie's details page.
• You can find content you've downloaded in the HBO Max app by tapping the "Profile" icon and then going to the "Downloads" tab.  
• Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

If you subscribe to the latest iteration of HBO's streaming service, HBO Max, you have access to everything in HBO's usual catalog of programming, along with a wealth of shows and movies.

And luckily, if you know you're going to be somewhere without internet service later, you can download these shows and movies to your smartphone or tablet to watch offline. 

One thing to keep in mind: You don't get to keep downloaded content permanently. You have 30 days after you download, or 48 hours after you start watching the show or movie before it's deleted from your device. Also, you can only have a total of up to 30 downloads on an account at a time. 

Here's how to download content from HBO Max, using your iPhone, iPad, or Android device.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Apple)

iPad (From $329.99 at Apple)

Samsung Galaxy S10 (From $699.99 at Walmart)

How to download shows and movies on HBO Max

Firstly, make sure your device is connected to Wi-Fi — HBO Max won't download over cellular data connections.

1. In the HBO Max app, tap the show you want to download to see its details page with the show description.

2. Tap "Download" and the download will begin.

How to watch shows and movies you've downloaded from HBO Max

1. When you want to watch the downloaded show or movie, tap the "Profile" icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen. 

2. Tap "Downloads." You'll see a list of all your downloaded shows and movies, along with how much time is remaining to watch them before they expire. 

If you want to remove a downloaded show from your device before it automatically expires, tap "Edit" in the Downloads section, and then tap the "X" next to any videos you're no longer interested in keeping. 

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

• 'What is HBO Max?': Here's what you need to know about HBO's streaming service answer to Netflix and Hulu

• How many people can watch HBO Now at once on a single streaming account

• How to cancel your HBO Now subscription in 6 simple steps

• 'Can you get HBO without cable?': How to watch HBO shows and movies without a TV provider

• 'Can you download HBO Go shows?': How to watch shows and movies offline on the HBO Go app

SEE ALSO: The best iPhone accessories from cases to lightning cables

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• This is a preview of the Business Insider Intelligence Internet of Medical Things premium research report. Purchase this report here.
• Business Insider Intelligence offers even more technology coverage with our Connectivity & Tech Briefing. Subscribe today to receive industry-changing connectivity news and analysis to your inbox.

Healthcare providers have been turning to the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) to facilitate their digital transformation since before the coronavirus hit the US — but the pandemic has caused a sea change in providers' willingness to implement IoT solutions that augment efforts in preparing for, containing, and diagnosing the virus. 

As the backbone that powers the IoMT, connectivity and technology providers have a mounting opportunity to capture a larger slice of the market as it evolves alongside the coronavirus pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, healthcare providers were forecast to adopt IoT devices at one of the fastest rates of any industry segment, with the installed base of IoT endpoints expected to grow 29% year-over-year in 2020.

And pre-pandemic, healthcare was among the top three industries expected to see the fastest growth rates (15.4%) in IoT investment in terms of spending over the 2017-2022 forecast period. But the coronavirus is fundamentally changing how healthcare can be accessed and delivered in the US, and we expect to see even faster growth throughout 2020 — and that this upward momentum will outlast the pandemic.

In TheInternet of Medical Things, Business Insider Intelligence assesses the North American IoMT market and explores how the IoMT opportunity for connectivity providers is evolving alongside the coronavirus pandemic, and how these players are carving out their place in the growing segment. We first unpack the opportunities for connectivity and technology providers in the IoMT market and outline how the coronavirus pandemic will impact demand for various IoT solutions in healthcare. We then detail how emerging techonlogies are propelling the healthcare IoT space forward. Finally, we explore how connectivity and technology players can expand within the IoMT ecosystem.

The companies mentioned in this report include: AT&T, Augmedics, AVIA, Choice IoT, DarioHealth, Eko, GE Healthcare, Intel, Medtronic, Packet, Phillips, PlushCare, PTC, Smardii, Sprint, Telit, Vuzix, XENEX, Zebra. 

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report: 

• Healthcare providers are prioritizing IoT investment in solutions that enhance virtual care delivery, augment emergency services and triage, and automate or streamline tasks. 
• The IoMT opportunities for connectivity and technology providers will only be amplified as the IoT intersects with other emerging technologies. 
• We interviewed executive decision-makers in the connectivity and technology space to gather their insights on how they determine which IoMT opportunities to prioritize, the best go-to-market strategy for these new opportunities, and what goes into the decision process when selecting a partner to expand within the IoMT. 
• The report also highlights the opinions of executive decision-makers in the connectivity and technology space on topics that include: telemedicine, preventative care, administrative operations, 5G, edge computing, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality. 

In full, the report: 

• Sizes the North American IoMT market through 2022 and explains how it compares with pre-coronavirus estimates. 
• Identifies the three biggest IoMT opportunities for connectivity and technology providers based on conversations with companies entrenched in the IoMT ecosystem, and on our analysis of their impact, scalability, early evidence of value creation, and increased utility amid the coronavirus pandemic.
• Provides recommendations for connectivity and technology providers on how to carve out and expand their footprint in ways that unlock the most value. 

Interested in getting the full report? Here's how to get access:

1. Business Insider Intelligence analyzes the tech industry and provides in-depth analyst reports, proprietary forecasts, customizable charts, and more. >> Check if your company has BII Enterprise membership access to the full report
2. Sign up for the  Connectivity & Tech Briefing, Business Insider Intelligence's expert email newsletter keeping you up-to-date on the people, technologies, trends, and companies shaping the future of healthcare, delivered to your inbox 6x a week. >>Get Started
3. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now

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• Apple recently unveiled its plan to create its own custom chips for Mac computers moving forward, a move that will give it greater control over the performance and features of future Macs.
• The switch will make it possible for iPhone and iPad apps to run natively on the Mac, and Apple is launching tools for developers to help them port over their existing Mac apps.
• But there are still a lot of unanswered questions around how the performance on these new machines will hold up compared to Intel-powered laptops, and whether app compatibility will run as smoothly as expected.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Apple announced its biggest change to the Mac in years on Monday with the introduction of Apple silicon, its own custom family of chips for the Mac.

The announcement has seemingly been long overdue, considering Macs are the only Apple products that don't run on the company's own processors. Apple demonstrated the types of workloads its chips will be designed to handle and shared its strategy for making the switch from Intel, saying that doing so will enable better performance and specific features tailored to Apple's hardware.

"When we look ahead, we envision some amazing new products," Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the presentation. "And transitioning to our own custom silicon is what will enable us to bring them to life."

But there are still many unanswered questions about the transition, especially around the first devices that will come with the new chips and how their performance will compare to Intel-powered computers.

What's immediately apparent, however, is that the switch will make Apple's Mac computers feel a lot more like the iPhone and iPad.

Switching to its own chips means all of Apple's products will run on a common architecture, so iPhone and iPad apps will be able to run on the Mac. Apple's latest version of macOS also comes with a redesigned look that feels a lot more like the iPhone and iPad's software, complete with iPhone user interface elements like the Control Center.

The move will also help Apple build specific features tailored for its hardware into future products, just as it's done for the iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad.

Here's a closer look at what we know so far about Apple's big switch to its own chips.

SEE ALSO: Apple is fixing one of AirPods' biggest annoyances in its next major software update

Apple silicon will launch this year.

The first Mac computer to run on Apple silicon will be launching by the end of the year, Apple said.

The company did not share any additional details about future Macs, but Apple is rumored to be working on a 14-inch MacBook Pro and a redesigned iMac, among other products.

The full transition from Intel to Apple's own chips is expected to take two years.

Apple will still support Intel-based Macs.

Apple isn't completely moving away from Intel just yet. The company said it will continue to support Intel-powered Mac computers for "years to come" and still has Macs running on Intel chips in its pipeline. 

We still don't know much about what the chips' performance will be like on Macs.

Based on what we know about Apple silicon, it's difficult to say exactly how the company's chips will perform compared to an Intel-based machine.

Apple's Johny Srouji said during the company's presentation that Apple's chips will provide a "whole new level of performance" for the Mac, and that the company's goal is to deliver high performance with low power consumption.

But all we currently know about silicon's performance is what the company has shown us so far. To demonstrate, Apple showed how a computer running on Apple's chips could handle tasks like editing a multi-layer 5GB file in Adobe Photoshop and running three simultaneous streams of full resolution 4K video in Final Cut Pro.

"Apple didn't really mention anything about benchmarks and performance, so we don't know how good it will be," Mika Kitagawa, research director at Gartner, said in an interview with Business Insider.

The chips that power Apple's iPhones and iPads are based on ARM technology, and by moving the Mac to ARM-based processors, all of Apple's major products will run on the same architecture, making it much easier for the company to create a consistent experience across its phones, tablets, and laptops.

But there have been concerns around performance and app compatibility when it comes to ARM-based laptops. For example, Microsoft's Surface Pro X runs on an ARM-based processor instead of Intel's. The Verge reported the proprietary chips had erratic performance and blocked some crucial desktop apps like Dropbox from installing or working correctly.

But Apple's upcoming Macs may not face performance issues since the company has been laying the groundwork for this move for a while.

Apple has developed 10 generations of ARM-based chips for the iPhone over the last decade and six generations of iPad-specific chips. As such, Apple has a lot of experience creating its own custom processors across its product line, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch.

Plus, Apple has already been preparing developers by requiring that they all move their apps to 64-bit architecture instead of 32-bit since iOS 11 launched in back in 2017. Apple also launched Catalyst last year, a program for helping developers port their iPad apps to the Mac. 

"Partly just historical and structural, Apple is better prepared for this than Microsoft and Windows are," Frank Gillett, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, said to Business Insider.

So what does this mean for app compatibility? Apple is providing tools for developers that it hopes will make the switch as simple as possible.

Apple also outlined how it's going to ensure that existing apps run smoothly on Apple silicon-powered machines. It's starting to ship developer kits to app creators that consist of a Mac mini enclosure running on Apple's A12Z processor starting this week to get them ready for the transition.  

• iPhone and iPad apps— Apps that are already available on the iPhone or iPad will be able to run natively on Apple silicon-powered Macs. That means Mac owners will have a much larger library of apps at their disposal when computers running on Apple silicon launch.
• Making existing Mac apps compatible with Apple silicon Macs— Apple has already been working with companies behind crucial desktop software, like Microsoft and Adobe, to get their popular programs like Office and Photoshop compatible with Apple silicon. For developers that want to convert their existing Mac app so that it works on Apple silicon machines, Apple says the new version of Xcode will enable app makers to recompile their code and get their programs running in a matter of days.
• Developing apps for Intel Macs and Apple silicon Macs— Apple's Universal 2 tool will help developers ship apps that work on both Intel-powered Macs and Apple silicon-powered Macs.
• Running apps that are only optimized for Intel-based Macs– Apple is also shipping an emulator program called Rosetta 2, which translates existing apps so that they can run on Apple silicon-powered Macs. Rosetta 2 will be able to examine the code as soon as you install an app so that it launches and performs smoothly as well as doing so in real time as needed. Apple showed how this works by running the animation and modeling software Autodesk Maya in Rosetta 2 on a Apple silicon-based Mac. 

It's too early to know exactly what this means for future Macs from a customer's perspective. But we'll probably see more Apple-specific features and an experience that's more consistent with that of the iPhone and iPad moving forward.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions around whether these new Macs will live up to Apple's claims when it comes to performance and app compatibility. With such limited information, it's impossible to know whether a first-generation Apple silicon-based Mac would be a better purchasing decision than an Intel-powered Mac.

But Gillett predicts that even early Apple silicon Macs will probably be fine for those who just need a general purpose laptop and don't regularly use specialized software for work-related tasks. 

Similarly, Tom Hackenberg, senior principal analyst and associate director for processors at Omdia, says that more obscure software may be more prone to compatibility issues. Emulators also tend to run software more slowly than native applications.

"There may be more compatibility issues than the average consumer can tolerate," Hackenberg said. "Emulators tend to run the software slower." 

In a broader sense, the switch to Apple's own chips will likely mean more Apple-specific features for the Mac. Much like Apple has added its own features and technologies to the iPhone and iPad that make them different from other smartphones, breaking away from Intel will allow Apple to put its own stamp on future laptops and desktops.

• J.D. Power just published its 2020 Initial Quality Study, which it releases annually.
• Tesla scored the lowest among the 32 car brands included in the study.
• The low score comes mostly from build quality issues, such as paint defects, squeaks, and rattles.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Results of the 2020 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study are in and it's not great news for Tesla.

In total, J.D. Power ranked 32 car brands for its study, which included Buick, Volkswagen, Lexus, Cadillac, BMW, Toyota, Acura, Subaru, and Jaguar. Of them all, Tesla scored the lowest among the bunch in terms of new vehicle quality and problems experienced by owners. 

The study is based on responses from 87,282 buyers and lessees of new, 2020 model-year cars during their first 90 days of ownership. Initial Quality is decided based on the number of problems experienced per 100 vehicles (abbreviated as PP100). The lower the score, the higher the quality. 

Tesla scored a 250 PP100, which is behind Land Rover's 228 PP100, Audi's 225 PP100, and Volvo's 210 PP100. Dodge and Kia ranked the highest, both tying for first place with scores of 136 PP100.

There is a bit of a caveat, however: J.D. Power notes that this is the first time the agency has profiled Tesla and that Tesla isn't officially ranked among the other brands because it "doesn't meet ranking criteria." 

"Unlike other manufacturers, Tesla doesn't grant us permission to survey its owners in 15 states where it is required," said Doug Betts, president of the automotive division at J.D. Power. "However, we were able to collect a large enough sample of surveys from owners in the other 35 states, and, from that base, we calculated Tesla's score."

A J.D. Power spokesperson clarified to Business Insider in an emailed statement that in order for a brand to be included in the study and appear in the official study ranking, the agency has to be able to gather insight from the brand's owners in all 50 states. Tesla isn't included in the official study results because J.D. Power can't survey Tesla owners in all 50 states.

But, "it should be noted that about two-thirds of Tesla's sales occur in the 15 states in which we cannot collect owner insights," the spokesperson said. 

In any case, however, the surveyed Tesla owners apparently had the most problems with their vehicles' more traditional quality issues, like build quality.

Betts told USA Today that problems stemmed from paint defects, poorly fitting body panels, hoods and trunks that were hard to open and close, excessive wind noise entering the cabin, and squeaks and rattles. Bets said the issues were "primarily a result of factory quality."

Separately, Dave Sargent, vice president of automotive quality at J.D. Power clarified, "It's important to note that the primary reason for Tesla's score is not the EV-related aspects of the vehicle — they perform well here." 

Tesla did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

You can see the J.D. Power 2020 Initial Quality Study here. 

SEE ALSO: See a CGI rendering of the upcoming Tesla Roadster speed to 60 mph with use of 'rocket thrusters'

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NOW WATCH: Pathologists debunk 13 coronavirus myths

• A design group has crafted a mobile tiny-room concept that would allow people a private space to work in their homes.
• As remote work has become the norm, thousands are adjusting to working, living, parenting, schooling, and relaxing in their homes.
• With companies continuing to embrace work-from-home policies, we may have to get creative with how we carve out our work areas.
• The Hid-Den doesn't have a price yet, but the company told Business Insider in an email that its designers are exploring production options.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Thousands abandoned their offices and crafted makeshift work areas in their homes in March as the COVID-19 pandemic ushered office workers indoors to help stunt the spread of the virus.

But not everyone had a souped-up workstation in their home.

Sidegiggle's Hid-Den concept, created by designer Irene Yu, could address that problem. The mobile tiny room is designed to fit in the corner of your living room and serve as an enclosed mini-office pod, providing freedom from distraction of kids, pets, and other aspects of the home.

Here's how it would work.

SEE ALSO: These are the top 10 most popular US states for living in a tiny home

According to the Sidegiggle website, the company came up with the design concept as a way to compartmentalize the home into both a place for work but also "retreat and reset."

Source: Sidegiggle

Office workers have had to adapt to working from home during the pandemic as offices have shuttered and remote work becomes the way of the world.

But that doesn't mean that everyone had the proper setup for an adequate home office.

Sidegiggle's Hid-Den could help address a lack of adequate workspace in the home.

The design firm designs quirky products as solutions to problems created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Hid-Den modular system can take on different forms.

There's a bookcase mode, which uses three of its walls as bookcases and can flatten out when the pod isn't in use.

The door to the pod is mirrored.

Then there's the den mode. The bookcase walls fold together into a cube to form the mini-office.

The books provide acoustic insulation, according to the company.

The design plans also include a simple, freestanding 30-square-foot office pod.

It's slightly larger than a typical wardrobe.

The door would simply slide shut.

Shelves line the exterior of it for storing home items like linen or toilet paper, which provide insulation.

Another version would allow the owner to store clothing in the outer compartments, which would also help insulate the pod.

The concept is still in the planning phase and doesn't have a price tag yet, but the company told Business Insider in an email that due to a high volume of requests, it's exploring what production could look like.

• Amazon engineers have created an internal Wiki page that lists unconsciously biased terms and how to replace them in their everyday language.
• Although not officially enforced by the leadership team, Amazon's managers have been encouraging employees to review the page, which has been viewed roughly 30,000 times since its creation earlier this month.
• Words and phrases listed in the page include "brown bags," "cake walk," and "master/slave."
• It's the latest example of employee-driven change at Amazon aimed at creating a more diverse work environment.
• Are you a current or former Amazon employee? Contact this reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal or Telegram (+1-415-926-2066) or email (ekim@businessinsider.com).
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Amazon engineers are collaborating on an internal Wiki page that shows how to replace unconsciously racist and gender-biased terms with more inclusive language.

The Wiki page, seen by Business Insider, is titled "Alternative Phrasings to Unconscious Bias in Communication," and has been viewed roughly 30,000 times since its creation earlier this month.

Although it's not an official mandate by the leadership team, managers are encouraging employees to review the page, which is available companywide, according to people familiar with the effort. Amazon's internal Wiki forum is a crowd-sourced platform where employees share company-related information and work together on certain projects.

"Words and phrases that seem completely innocuous to one person trigger strong reactions in others. We encourage you to be mindful about historical impact and context behind these words and phrases," the page said.

The Wiki page lists dozens of words and phrases that may have negative connotations implied by the use of color, or that have a specific history that relates to racial discrimination. 

For example, it says "brown bags" should be replaced by "learning session" or "lunch and learn" because the term "Brown Paper Bag Test" was allegedly used in the past as a way to compare one's skin color to a brown paper bag to determine access to certain privileges. It also says "blacklist" has a racial stigma attached to it and should be replaced by "Blocklist" or "approved." 

The term "cake walk," which is used to describe something easy, should be banned because it comes from a dance developed on plantations by African American slaves, the page said. And the words "master/slave," commonly used among developers to describe a networking model, should instead be called "primary/secondary" or "active/passive," it said. Other words, such as "Oriental" and "grandfathered," are also discouraged for their racial undertones, it said.

In an email to Business Insider, Amazon's spokesperson confirmed the existence of the Wiki page, saying the company's leadership team is supportive of this movement and have encouraged teams to openly discuss how to tackle this industry-wide problem. 

Employee-driven change

The movement is the latest example of employee-driven change at Amazon aimed at fostering a more inclusive work environment.

In the weeks following last month's death of George Floyd, hundreds of employees have called for Amazon to add "inclusion" to its famous leadership principles, while sharing stories of racial and gender discrimination they've experienced at work. Meanwhile, Amazon's climate activist group has been encouraging employees to join racial protests as part of its effort to reduce Amazon's environmental impact in communities of color.

Amazon's leadership team hasn't responded to these individual requests yet, but has been a vocal supporter of the broader Black Lives Matter movement. 

CEO Jeff Bezos told Amazon employees to cancel their meetings last Friday to commemorate Juneteenth, a holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the US. He also shared a couple of racially insensitive customer emails to show his support for minorities. Other leaders across the company have also addressed the issue through internal emails.

The initiative to reduce the use of certain unconsciously biased words has been gaining steam across the tech community as well. Google, for example, is starting to ditch words like "blacklist" and "whitelist," according to the news site 9to5Google. GitHub is planning to replace the word "master" on its service with a more neutral word like "main." 

In Amazon's case, the Wiki page's creator wrote that the goal isn't to entirely eliminate the use of colors in their language. Instead, it's simply intended to encourage a more inclusive form of communication among employees.

"Our goal is to encourage our colleagues to consider the language we use every day, and how we might make our workplace more inclusive by using less biased language," it said. "When considering language that may reflect unconscious bias, think about whether the term will be perceived by others as having negative associations."

Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at ekim@businessinsider.com, or send him a secure message through Signal/Telegram at 415-926-2066.

SEE ALSO: In a leaked document, Amazon employees shared stories of racism and gender discrimination while calling for a new leadership principle on 'inclusion'

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NOW WATCH: Why thoroughbred horse semen is the world's most expensive liquid

• Adam Jackson has more than a decade's worth of experience building and running online marketplaces.
• He thinks traditional marketplaces that are owned by for-profit companies have two big, related problems — they charge outrageous fees to users and they concentrate wealth by transferring most of the value of the marketplace to the companies' owners.
• Jackson's got an idea of how to solve such problems — a marketplace that's owned by its users via a cryptocurrency token and run by a non-profit foundation.
• That marketplace, dubbed Braintrust, launched on Wednesday.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Adam Jackson knows a thing or two about online marketplaces — and what's wrong with many of them.

He's been working on marketplaces off an on for the last 16 years. During that time, he's founded four of them — in areas ranging from telemedicine to automobile parts and repair — and sold two to bigger companies. He's seen what works well and what doesn't.

"Having been a marketplace builder my whole life, I kind of had a front-row seat to two of the big problems that happen when you build big marketplaces," Jackson, a serial entrepreneur, told Business Insider in an interview this week.

Traditional marketplaces are operated by for-profit companies that are owned by their founders and investors. That structure tends to create a disconnect between the interests of those owners and the interest of those who actually use the marketplaces to buy and sell goods and services, Jackson said.

The first big problem that arises from that structure is that the marketplace operators tend to charge high and sometimes outrageous fees to their users, he said. Essentially that allows them to skim off much of the value generated by the market. Jackson pointed to Amazon, which charges fees to sellers in its marketplaces that can add up to 50% or more of listing prices, as an "egregious example."

"The fees end up creating misaligned incentives," Jackson said.

Traditional marketplaces concentrate wealth

The second big problem with the traditional ownership structure is that it tends to concentrate wealth, he said. For Uber drivers, most of the value of the app comes from all of the riders that use it. Likewise, consumers use Uber because they know they can generally find a driver quickly and easily through it.

But when Uber went public, much of the value it realized from that event went to a handful of founders and investors in the company, Jackson said. Meanwhile, many Uber drivers are earning poverty wages and some have to sleep in their cars, because they're homeless, he said.

Investor-owned marketplaces engender "this crazy wealth concentration," Jackson said. "This is not a socialistic argument. I just think this stuff is bad for business."

Jackson has an answer to those problems. Instead of an investor owned marketplace, he's now created one that will be owned by its users via a cryptocurrency token and operated by a non-profit foundation. The new marketplace, a kind of job board for freelance tech workers dubbed Braintrust, officially launched out of stealth mode on Wednesday. He's hoping it will be just the first of many more to come.

Read more about Braintrust and why Jackson thinks it will demonstrate a way of fixing the shortcomings of traditional marketplaces here.

Got a tip about tech? Contact Troy Wolverton via email at twolverton@businessinsider.com, message him on Twitter @troywolv, or send him a secure message through Signal at 415.515.5594. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

SEE ALSO: This startup lets techies fleeing Silicon Valley work on remote engineering projects for big companies, and it's already being used by Nestle, TaskRabbit and NASA

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NOW WATCH: How waste is dealt with on the world's largest cruise ship

• All 23 seasons of "South Park" are now available on HBO Max, minus five episodes.
• All of the five absent episodes featured depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.
• The episodes "Super Best Friends," "200," and "201," had already been pulled from the show's previous streaming home Hulu and the South Park website.
• The two-part "Cartoon Wars" episode was then pulled by Comedy Central in its HBO Max deal.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

All 23 seasons of the Comedy Central animated adult comedy "South Park" debuted on WarnerMedia's new streaming service HBO Max — with five episodes missing.

The absent five episodes all featured depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. Season five's "Super Best Friends," and season 14's "200" and "201," had already been removed from the show's previous streaming home Hulu and from the official South Park website, where a notice appears when one tries playing the episodes that says, "We apologize that South Park Studios cannot stream" them.

"South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker received online threats in 2010 for mocking the Prophet Muhammad in the episode "200," which prompted Comedy Central to censor all voice and visual references to him in "201." Later, Comedy Central pulled "200," "201," and "Super Best Friends" from streaming.

For its new deal with HBO Max, Comedy Central also pulled season 10's "Cartoon Wars Part 1" and "Cartoon Wars Part 2." (The "Cartoon Wars" episodes are still available to watch at the South Park website.)

The "Cartoon Wars" episodes focus on Cartman's efforts to get another popular animated series, "Family Guy," canceled by exploiting an upcoming episode that will feature a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.

HBO Max bought the rights to "South Park" in October for between $500 million and $550 million, according to Variety.

In September, Comedy Central renewed the series for three more seasons. New episodes will be available on HBO Max 24 hours after they air on Comedy Central. 

SEE ALSO: Netflix leads its rivals in original TV shows by a wide margin in both quantity and quality, according to new data analysis

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NOW WATCH: Why Pikes Peak is the most dangerous racetrack in America

• President US Donald Trump suspended a variety of visa programs, one of which big banks use for hiring, particularly on tech teams.
• In 2019, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup were approved for over 5,000 H-1B visas.
• Sign up here for our Wall Street Insider newsletter.

Big banks have leaned on a visa that has now been suspended as part of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump this week. 

On Monday, Trump suspended a variety of visa programs for the remainder of the year, an extension of what was a 60-day freeze on work visas established back in April. The move elicited strong reactions from executives in the tech industry, where the "highly-skilled" H1-B visas are relied on to recruit talent. 

Tech companies, however, aren't the only ones likely to be impacted by the suspension of the program. Big banks, which have continued to put more resources toward their tech teams, have also granted thousands of H-1B visas. 

According to data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup accounted for over 5,000 new or renewed H-1B visas in 2019. In total, there are only 85,000 H-1B visa spots open in the US each year. 

To be sure, these numbers don't indicate the total number of employees on H-1B visas at the banks, only the ones that either received or renewed visas in 2019. 

JPMorgan, the second-largest of the six banks by headcount, had the highest total number H-1Bs approved in 2019, totalling 1,697 between new (433) and renewed (1,264) visas. A spokesperson for the bank declined to comment. 

Despite being the smallest bank of the six in terms of number of employees, there was a total of 1,036 H-1B visas approved in 2019 at some Goldman Sachs entities.

"We consider all qualified candidates for positions at Goldman Sachs regardless of whether they may need a visa for their work authorization," a Goldman Sachs spokesperson told Business Insider via email.  "The firm and our advisors are providing assistance and advice to any employees impacted by the latest Executive Order."

See also:Amazon criticizes Trump's temporary ban of immigrant working visas: 'We oppose the Administration's short-sighted action'

Citigroup and Bank of America had 748 and 733 approved H-1B visas in 2019, respectively. Spokespeople at both banks declined to comment.

Morgan Stanley had 619 approved H-1B visas in total in 2019. A spokesperson for the bank declined to comment. 

Wells Fargo, the largest of the five banks, had the lowest number of H-1B visas approved in 2019, totalling 217.

"Wells Fargo sponsors a limited number of employees with specialized skill sets on H-1B and L-1 visas," a spokesperson for the bank said via email. "Where applicable, we are working with those employees to help them understand and limit the impact of travel restrictions resulting from the executive order."

To be sure, Wall Street's use of the H-1B visa still pales in comparison to Silicon Valley. Google and Amazon were granted 9,078 and 8,937 H-1B visa applications in 2019, respectively. Microsoft, meanwhile, had 5,925 applications, while Facebook had 2,657. 

Read more:

SEE ALSO: Goldman Sachs' top tech exec explains how a fresh slew of senior hires are transforming the bank's approach to building products

SEE ALSO: Read the memo Goldman's new tech chief sent to 9,000-plus engineers explaining why they should ditch PowerPoint in favor of Amazon's famous narrative memos

SEE ALSO: Goldman Sachs' summer internship is going virtual, joining the likes of Bank of America and Morgan Stanley who are running remote programs

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NOW WATCH: Why thoroughbred horse semen is the world's most expensive liquid

• Members of Congress have opened an investigation into a data analytics company that sells people's phone location data to government agencies including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.
• The company, Venntel, aggregates location data from smartphone apps including games and weather forecast apps, and in turn sells that data to its clients.
• DHS used data from Venntel to track people unlawfully crossing the US-Mexico border, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year.
• Lawmakers are pressing Venntel to release more information about its clients and data sources.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has opened an investigation into a data firm that sells people's smartphone location data to government agencies.

The company, Venntel, is facing scrutiny for the Democratic-led committee for its business of buying location data from various smartphone apps and selling that data to agencies including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. DHS used location data from Venntel to track down people who crossed the border into the US illegally, the Wall Street Journal reported in February.

More recently, the FBI updated its contract with Venntel in May, The Intercept reported Wednesday, although the terms of that contract have not been made public.

Now, Reps. Caroline Maloney and Mark DeSaulnier have sent a letter to Venntel demanding more information about the company's full list of clients and its data sources. The letter was also signed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden.

"We seek information about your company's provision of consumer location data to federal government agencies for law enforcement purposes without a warrant and for any other purposes, including in connection with the response to the coronavirus crisis," wrote the letter's authors. "The vast majority of Americans carry cell phones with apps capable of collecting precise location information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This location-tracking raises serious privacy and security concerns."

When people's smartphone location data is tracked, that data is tied to an anonymous identifier rather than to personally identifying information. But multiple studies have shown that it's easy to "de-anonymize" this data by connecting it with other data points — for example, seeing where a device stays overnight and connecting that with a person's home address — raising the possibility that location data could be used to keep tabs on individuals' movements.

Venntel is a subsidiary of Gravy Analytics Inc., a data firm that has touted its ability to track more than 150 million devices in the US monthly.

Lawmakers requested that Venntel provide answers to their questions by early July.

Venntel did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

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NOW WATCH: Pathologists debunk 13 coronavirus myths

• You can add profiles to HBO Max from the "Switch Profiles" screen that appears in the mobile app's "Profile" menu.
• HBO Max lets you create up to five profiles, each with its own preferences and show lists.
• You can also create "Kid" profiles, with parental controls locked behind a PIN.
• Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

You can think of your HBO Max subscription as a family plan. It allows you to create up to five profiles, with separate settings for adults and kids. 

Whenever you open the HBO Max app, you can choose which profile to use, and change profiles while you're using the app.

You can add and customize profiles using the HBO Max mobile app on an iPhone, iPad, or Android device.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Apple)

iPad (From $329.99 at Apple)

Samsung Galaxy S10 (From $699.99 at Walmart)

How to add a profile on HBO Max

1. Start the HBO Max app and tap the "Profile" icon at the bottom-right of the screen, and then tap "Switch Profiles."

2. To add a new adult profile, tap "Add Adult." 

3. Enter the person's name and choose a color ring for their profile — this won't affect anything other than what the profile looks like.

4. Tap "Save."

How to add an kid profile on HBO Max

1. Open the HBO Max app and tap "Profile" in the bottom-right corner, and then tap "Switch Profiles."

2. To add a new kid profile, tap "Add Kid." 

3. If this is the first time you're creating a child's profile, you'll need to enter a PIN. This pin is used to lock away mature content. You'll need to enter that PIN to change the profile to a standard adult one, so make it something your kid can't guess (but which you'll remember). Also, there's only one PIN shared across all kid profiles.

4. Enter the child's name, enter a month and year for their birthday, and choose a color ring. Tap "Next." 

5. On the next screen, set the parental controls. You can choose the rating for shows and movies that you want your child to have access to. Then tap "Save."

How to change the PIN for kid profiles on HBO Max

If you want to change the PIN that HBO Max uses for its kid profiles, you need to do that from the mobile app. 

1. Tap the Profile icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

2. Tap the Settings icon at the top-left — it's shaped like a gear.

3. Tap "Parental Controls."

4. Enter the current PIN, followed by the new PIN you want to use, and then tap "Change PIN." 

If you forget your PIN, you can tap "Forgot PIN?" and HBO Max will send you a PIN reset email with instructions to reset it.

Related coverage from Tech Reference:

• How to cancel HBO or any other premium channel subscription on your Amazon Prime account
  

• How to cancel an HBO Now subscription through your Roku account in 2 ways

• How to cancel your HBO Now subscription in 6 simple steps

• 'What is HBO Max?': Here's what you need to know about HBO's streaming service answer to Netflix and Hulu

• 'Can you download HBO Go shows?': How to watch shows and movies offline on the HBO Go app

SEE ALSO: The best all-in-one PCs you can buy

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NOW WATCH: Tax Day is now July 15 — this is what it's like to do your own taxes for the very first time

• Slack launched a new feature called Slack Connect that allows a company to create a shared channel with up to 20 other organizations.  
• It expands on Slack's previous feature that allowed two organizations to create a shared channel and furthers Slack's long term goal of replacing email-based communication.
• The new feature adds another dimension to Slack's ongoing competition with Microsoft. CEO Stewart Butterfield previously said Microsoft sees Slack as a threat because it reduces the use of email within a company which makes suites like Microsoft Office 365 less attractive.
• Slack's chief product officer, Tamar Yehoshua, said that shared Slack channels are actually more secure than email because IT teams have control over which outside organizations can be invited to a multi-org channel. 
•  Users can also access Slack's platform of tools that integrate with the app and create shared workflows. 
• Click here to read more BI Prime stories.

For its 122,000 customers, Slack aims to replace internal email communication with channel-based messaging. Now it's taking its mission to quash email a step further with a new tool that could help it replace it between different organizations, too. 

The feature, called Slack Connect, allows a company to create a shared channel with up to 20 other organizations, expanding on an earlier feature that allowed two organizations to create shared channel. 

The ultimate goal is to replace email communication by making it as easy to talk to anyone outside your own organization via Slack as it is to talk to a colleague internally, said Tamar Yehoshua, Slack's chief product officer. 

"We think it's going to be a huge advantage for how people work across organizations," Yehoshua told Business Insider. "It's really about getting more people off of email for this type of work and getting them onto Slack." 

For example, a company might create a shared Slack channel for a handful of partners, so that it can streamline announcements or connect those working with the same customer. Or a VC firm could create a shared channel where employees at its portfolio companies could connect. Beyond just channel-based chat, users are able to direct message anyone outside the company who is in a shared channel. Eventually, Slack wants to make it possible for people to message anyone in an organization that their company has marked as a partner. 

The launch of Slack Connect adds another layer to the company's ongoing competition with rival Microsoft. Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield previously told Business Insider that Microsoft is "unhealthily preoccupied" with "killing" Slack because the company threatens email. If Slack reduces email use in an office, then Microsoft Office 365 — which includes email service Outlook — may become less attractive to corporate buyers. While both Slack and Microsoft's chat app teams have seen increased usage during the remote work era for internal communication, Slack Connect directly tackles email use for external communication at companies.  

Beyond being faster and efficient, Yehoshua said that communicating via Slack is a more secure way of working with people outside your organization than email is. While corporate email inboxes are susceptible to spam and phishing attempts, corporate Slack channels are more protected: IT administrators at a company will have to give permission for an employee from a given company to connect, she explains. 

"We want Slack connect to be incredibly easy and simple to use for our users, and have the control needed for the administrators in the organization, so the organization feels like this is a really secure way to collaborate and the user feels like this is dead simple," Yehoshua said. 

Slack has been testing the product with a select group of customers and have seen them using it to chat with groups of suppliers, customers, or outside legal counsel. These multi-org channels can also connect to and use any other third-party application that people are need for work, and can use Slack's workflow builder tool to create processes and tasks with users outside their organization.  

Slack's also adding features that make those integrations more useful. One of the first steps is beefing up integrations with calendars apps. Slack is working on developing the ability to scan the calendars of everyone in a shared channel and suggest meeting times that work for everyone. That feature will eventually work across both Google Calendar and Outlook 

At the moment Slack Connect is only available to paid customers, but Yehoshua said the company is looking at ways to expand the features to all users as the feature continues to evolve, so that a paid customer could create a shared chat that included someone who uses Slack for free. As remote work becomes a more permanent part of how people do their jobs, she believes that organizations with channel-based messaging for external communication will have an easier time adapting. 

"That's where all the communication is happening," Yehoshua said, "So Slack Connect just enables you to do that even more when you're not having events, when you're not having in-person meetings."

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• California is seeking to force Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers as employees within weeks, according to a press release Wednesday from Attorney General Xavier Becerra.
• Becerra's office is planning to file an injunction against the companies that would require them to make the change while they await the outcome of a lawsuit over drivers' employment status.
• "It's time for Uber and Lyft to own up to their responsibilities and the people who make them successful: their workers," Becerra said.
• California and several city attorneys general sued Uber and Lyft in May, alleging that the companies miscategorized drivers under the states' new gig work law, AB-5.
• Uber and Lyft have aggressively defended their stance that drivers are contractors and argued that making them employees would hurt their business model, put many drivers out of work, and raise prices for consumers.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

California is planning to file court documents that could force Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers as employees within weeks, according to a press release Wednesday from Attorney General Xavier Becerra.

Beccera's office plans to seek a preliminary injunction against Uber and Lyft, which, if a court agrees, would require them to grant drivers employment status while they await the outcome of a pending lawsuit over the issue, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

"It's time for Uber and Lyft to own up to their responsibilities and the people who make them successful: their workers," Becerra said in the release.

"Misclassifying your workers as 'consultants' or 'independent contractors' simply means you want your workers or taxpayers to foot the bill for obligations you have as an employer — whether it's paying a legal wage or overtime, providing sick leave, or providing unemployment insurance," he added.

In May, Becerra and city attorneys general from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego sued Uber and Lyft, accusing the ride-hailing companies of miscategorizing their drivers as independent contractors under the state's gig work law, AB-5.

Earlier this month, the state regulator that oversees Uber and Lyft ruled that drivers are considered employees under the law. 

Both rideshare giants have aggressively defended their position and argued that requiring them to reclassify drivers would significantly impact their business models and force them to raise prices, while putting many drivers out of work.

"The vast majority of drivers want to work independently, and we've already made significant changes to our app to ensure that remains the case under California law. When over 3 million Californians are without a job, our elected leaders should be focused on creating work, not trying to shut down an entire industry," Uber spokesperson Matthew Wing told Business Insider in a statement.

"We believe the courts should let the voters decide. Trying to force drivers to give up their independence 100 days before the election threatens to put a million more people out of work at the worst possible time. It would be incredibly harmful to millions of people and the California economy to grant this motion 100 days before the voters decide, and we will oppose this motion," Lyft spokesperson Julie Wood told Business Insider in a statement.

In their statements, both Uber and Lyft referenced a ballot measure they have proposed that would exempt them from AB-5. Uber and Lyft have committed at least $60 million toward fighting for the exemption, including a combined $267,000 to a group called Protect App-Based Drivers, which has been working to generate public support for the measure.

Driver advocacy group Rideshare Drivers United told Business Insider in a statemtent that it "fully supports" the state's request for an injunction.

"Drivers and other app-based delivery workers have been deprived basic labor rights, with most of us making less than minimum wage after expenses," the group said, adding: "This is what we've been pushing for – enforcement of AB5 to hold Lyft and Uber accountable to the most basic labor laws. This is a huge step forward for all app-based workers who deserve the same essential labor rights as any other workers."

SEE ALSO: An Uber security contractor reportedly tackled a Black teen girl riding a Jump bike after the company hired the guards to recover stolen bikes

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• WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is facing a new grand jury indictment charging him with conspiring with "Anonymous" and "LulzSec"-affiliated hackers to access classified US government documents.
• The Department of Justice said in a press release Wednesday that a Virginia grand jury returned a second superseding indictment that doesn't add new charges but does "broaden the scope of the conspiracy" that Assange has been charged with orchestrating.
• The DOJ previously charged Assange with 18 criminal counts, including violating the Espionage Act.
• Assange currently remains in custody in the United Kingdom while the US continues to seek his extradition.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is facing a new federal indictment in the US that claims he conspired with hackers associated with groups including "Anonymous" and "LulzSec." 

A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, returned the second superseding indictment against Assange on Wednesday. It doesn't add new charges but the Department of Justice in a press release explained their case does "broaden the scope of the conspiracy" Assange was previously charged with orchestrating.

"Assange and others at WikiLeaks recruited and agreed with hackers to commit computer intrusions to benefit WikiLeaks," the press release said.

In the release, the DOJ said that in 2012 "Assange communicated directly with a leader of the hacking group LulzSec (who by then was cooperating with the FBI), and provided a list of targets for LulzSec to hack." It also said WikiLeaks obtained and published information retrieved as part of a hack into an "American intelligence consulting company by an 'Anonymous' and LulzSec-affiliated hacker."

Federal prosecutors previously indicted Assange for obtaining and disseminating sensitive national security information in 2010. In April and then with a superseding indictment in May 2019 the US government charged Assange with 18 total criminal counts, including violating the Espionage Act.

The 2019 indictment also alleged that Assange helped former US army analyst Chelsea Manning hack a password on a classified Pentagon computer.

In its release Wednesday, the DOJ called the leaks "one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States."

Assange currently remains in custody in the United Kingdom as the US seeks his extradition to Virginia, where he would eventually be put on trial.

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• Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang wrote Tuesday in the Los Angeles Times that social media companies should pay users for the use of their data.
• New research on Wednesday that polled 2,000 Americans on their views on privacy found that would cost Facebook 'a whopping $250 billion' — given that 31% of respondents would want $100 or more for a company to access their social media data.
• The survey from identity-protection company Okta also found that 71% of Americans don't trust the government with their data, the highest level of distrust among six nations surveyed.
• The survey also found 84% of Americans are worried that data collection for COVID-19 containment will sacrifice too much of their privacy.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

One day after former presidential candidate Andrew Yang floated a plan for consumers to sell their data to big social media companies, research that includes a survey of 2,000 Americans flatly finds that "consumers aren't buying it." 

On Tuesday, Yang wrote in an opinion piece in The Los Angeles Times that the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the state's recent privacy legislation, "makes it possible to create a union of consumers that can collectively set a price for the use of their data, negotiate with tech companies and ensure that compensation is passed on to consumers in a data dividend."

But a survey released Wednesday by the $24 billion identity-security company Okta shows 31% of Americans want $100 or more for a company to access their browsing history or social media data. "These price tags don't bode well for companies trying to make a policy like this work. Facebook, for example, has 2.5 billion users. Paying each of those users $100 comes out to a whopping $250 billion," the survey said. 

And that's not to mention that 37% said that they wouldn't sell their personal information at any price, with another 27% unsure about the prospect. And users are willing to draw lines in the sand: 76% of respondents said that there's at least one type of personal information they wouldn't sell. 41% of respondents wouldn't sell their social media data in particular at all. 

Yang floated the idea previously, and the survey zeroed in on the issue championed by the Democrat and former tech executive, noting "Yang proposed this type of system during his campaign, suggesting that consumers should 'receive a share of the economic value generated from [their] data.' Consumers aren't buying it." 

Yang did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

"At first glance, Andrew Yang's privacy policy seems like a great idea – companies get the data they need to innovate and consumers get paid for it," said Okta CEO Todd McKinnon in an interview. "But even when lured by compensation, many Americans are uncomfortable with sharing their data, and those who are comfortable with it aren't going to be convinced by a couple of bucks. I fully support passing a federal privacy law that gives consumers more control over their data while also empowering businesses to innovate, but Yang's model isn't the solution."

Touchy subjects

The survey also focused on other pressing social issues at what Okta says is a difficult time. "When you have stress and when you have a lot of uncertainty in the world, that affects people's views on privacy, and these are important issues," McKinnon said. "Contact-tracing of COVID-19 could be a life and death issue. Trust in the handling of voter information is fundamental to democracy. The issues don't get much bigger. But oftentimes people don't even know how their data is being collected, or what their rights are."

The survey– which polled 2,000 people each in the US, UK, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, and France –reflects Americans' distrust of government data-handling. Seventy-one percent of Americans don't trust the government with their data, the highest level of distrust among the US, UK, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, and France, the report found. Meanwhile 23% of Americans believe the government tracks their offline conversations, by far the highest level of mistrust among the six nations. And 84% of Americans are worried that data collection for COVID-19 containment will sacrifice too much of their privacy.

At the same time, the American public is largely unaware of what data is being collected about their lives. Nearly four out of five Americans polled (78%) don't think a consumer hardware provider such as Fitbit (in the process of being acquired by Google) is tracking their biometric data. Fitbit collects data to provide users with content and for other purposes that users can configure as described here. 75% of Americans don't believe streaming services are collecting information about their online media consumption. (Read the details of Netflix's viewing history controls here.)  

The combination of crucial privacy issues and contentious issues such as contact-tracing – using technology to track who has been in contact with the COVID-19 virus – and online voting makes dialogue and policy-making about privacy controls more difficult, McKinnon says. "In that environment it's even harder to get a balanced education and constructive dialogue about what to do with data," he said. "We can't even agree on wearing masks."

New York privacy attorney Jim Koenig of the firm Fenwick & West says Americans have a lot to consider related to handling of their data right now. "Recent events aren't so much introducing privacy as a major concern, but rather underscoring its criticality and accelerating the development and implementation of controls to protect it," he says. Americans are being asked to contribute to the fight against COVID-19 by releasing data on their health and location. "On the other side, there has been a call to limit the capturing and of sharing of individual information given the privacy and security protections that individuals want as we head into the upcoming election and consider changes in law enforcement techniques."

The Okta research report also touches on the handling of voter information. "The complications related to proving one's identity take their toll on democracy," the report says, finding that 14% of Americans say they don't vote because of complications with the registration process. 

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