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Trump s.ecurity team considers building U.S. 5G network to counter Chinese spying threats.
(Reuters) — President Donald Trump’s national security team is looking at options to counter the threat of China spying on U.S. phone calls that include the government building a super-fast 5G wireless network, a senior administration official said on Sunday.

The official, confirming the gist of a report from Axios.com, said the option was being debated at a low level in the administration and was six to eight months away from being considered by the president himself.

The 5G network concept is aimed at addressing what officials see as China’s threat to U.S. cyber security and economic security.

The Trump administration has taken a harder line on policies initiated by predecessor Barack Obama on issues ranging from Beijing’s role in restraining North Korea to Chinese efforts to acquire U.S. strategic industries.
Trump,s.ecurity,team,considers,building,U.S.,5G,network,to,counter,Chinese,spying,threats,Trump s.ecurity team considers building U.S. 5G network to counter Chinese spying threats

T-Mobile commits to 100 percent renewable energy by 2021.
Team Magenta is going green. The nation’s third largest wireless provider on Monday unveiled plans to move to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2021.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere said moving to renewable energy isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s also smart business. The company expects to cut energy costs by around $100 million in the next 15 years as a result of the move.

T-Mobile’s path to 100 percent renewable energy will largely be paved by wind. The carrier signed a major wind power deal with a farm in Oklahoma in April 2017 that went online this past December. Now, they’ve finalized a contract for 160 MWs from Infinity Renewables’ Solomon Forks Wind Project in Kansas that’s slated to spin up early next year.

Combined, the deals will generate 320 MWs for T-Mobile which is estimated to meet 60 percent of the carrier’s total nationwide energy needs. To reach the full 100 percent, T-Mobile says it will buy enough wind power to account for every unit of electricity it consumes.

Meltdown-Spectre amplifies call for new hardw.are-softw.are contract. The Meltdown and Spectre hardware vulnerabilities have highlighted more than just the absolute sh*t show of an embargo process that has led, among other things, to questions from the US Congress. There's a deeper problem, one that goes back more than two decades. Both Meltdown and Spectre are "timing-channel attacks". They subvert a computer's security mechanisms by analysing the time taken to perform various operations. Intel's statement of January 3 described these hardware flaws as "methods that, when used for malicious purposes, have the potential to improperly gather sensitive data from computing devices that are operating as designed". Gernot Heiser describes them another way.

5 things to expect from VR headsets in 2019.
At CES in Las Vegas we saw a collection of next-generation technologies. Wireless, super high resolutions and eye-tracking all showed potential to dramatically improve future VR headsets.

Each of these technologies, however, was shown in separate demos. What happens when a company like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Amazon or Apple starts to put all these things together? If they can lower the overall cost of a VR system while simultaneously improving the feeling of immersion, that’s a recipe for bringing tens of millions of new customers into VR.

In 2018, we’ll see wireless, eye-tracking and higher resolution headsets like the Vive Pro, but we aren’t seeing all these things offered together in a single relatively low cost package. We hope it happens this year, but more likely we’ll see it in 2019. This post is meant to show what a VR headset next year might look like.

Manufacturers, of course, have to grapple with a lot of trade-offs in designing hardware. As engineers dive into the specifics of wireless standards, eye-tracking solutions and the capabilities of ultra high resolution displays, they could encounter roadblocks that might make these technologies harder to implement together. Nonetheless, we know the world’s biggest tech companies are working to solve these problems and all the things I’m writing about are already up and running inside VR headsets. So here’s a look at what might happen come 2019.

The Trump administration is reportedly considering a government-backed 5G network.
The White House is clearly been focused on increasing security. A few weeks ago, cell phone use among staff and guests was controversially banned in the West Wing. Now, Trump's security team is looking into "building a super-fast 5G wireless network," according to Reuters.

The key difference between these two security measures is scale. While the former has only applied to White House staff and guests, a government-backed 5G network would be "the 21st century equivalent of the Eisenhower National Highway System," an internal White House memo indicates.

According to the report, the implementation of such a network is being discussed at a "low level" in the Trump administration. The goal of such a decision -- if successful -- would be to address "China's threat" to US cyber and economic security.

One of Reuters' sources, a "senior administration official," explained:

Micro Center reduces the price of its graphics cards for gamers.
Last week brought news that Nvidia was asking retailers to limit the maximum number of graphics cards it sells to two per person—an effort to combat the high prices caused by demand from cryptocurrency miners. While this is only a suggestion that Nvidia can’t enforce, it seems at least one computer store wants to help gamers, not miners, secure new GPUs—and at more reasonable prices than what we’re currently seeing.

Polygon reports that Micro Center sent out a note to customers informing them that when it comes to video cards, it does limit quantities “to ensure that as many of you as possible can purchase the component you need.”

But the better news for those more interested in frames-per-second than hashrates is that Micro Center will discount GPUs if they are being bought specifically for gaming.

The company added it would offer money-off for “in-store bundled components.” Like almost every other retailer, Micro Center currently sells many graphics cards for more double their recommended retail price. But buying them alongside other components—RAM, motherboard, CPU, and power supply—will see the cost drop to or near the MSRP, once approved by a manager.

Apple Orders New TV Series From 'La La Land' Creator Damien Chazelle.
Apple this week signed a straight-to-series order for a drama series from "La La Land" creator Damien Chazelle, according to reports from Variety and The New York Times.

Little is known about the series at this time, but Chazelle plans to write and direct each episode of the series, as well as executive produce. Apple did not divulge information about the subject of the series, where it will take place, or how many episodes Chazelle will make.


Chazelle is best known for writing and directing "La La Land," which starred Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. "La La Land" won six Academy Awards, including Best Director, and seven Golden Globe awards. In addition to "La La Land," Chazelle wrote and directed "Whiplash," an award winning film starring Miles Teller.

The original TV series for Apple will be Chazelle