Coffee Briefings are timely deliveries of the latest ITWC headlines, interviews, and podcasts. These briefings drop on Tuesday mornings. Today’s Coffee Briefing is delivered by IT World Canada reporter Tom Li, with files from the rest of the editorial team. Missed last week’s Coffee Briefing? We got you covered.
ITWC Podcasts
Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Trending
IBM president steps down, TikTok will increase its video length limit, and Facebook is researching a warning system for extremist content.
Listen to the latest episode of Cyber Security Today
Today’s podcast reports on a test of ransomware preparedness organizations can take, a Windows Print Spooler warning, how to fight brute force attacks, and travel scams to avoid.
Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Tendances (Hosted by Direction Informatique)
If you live in Quebec or prefer to consume the latest technology news in French, our sister publication Direction Informatique has you covered. Follow them on Twitter as well.
In case you missed it
The recent tech news that we maybe didn’t get to yet, or it’s the news we’ve reported on and feel is worth resurfacing.
Qualcomm to drop Arm for its foray into the PC market
When you want something done right, you’ve gotta do it yourself. Qualcomm will be adopting that motto for its entry into the PC market.
Last week, Qualcomm chief executive officer Christiano Amon said that the company will bring laptop CPUs sometime around late 2022, that’s big news! But the bigger news is these chips will not be based on Arm like Qualcomm’s renowned mobile Snapdragon system-on-chips (SoC). Instead, these new chips will be made by Nuvia, a semiconductor design company Qualcomm acquired this year for $1.4 billion.
This isn’t Qualcomm’s first try at creating PC chips. Its Snapdragon 8cx platform has seen limited adoption in ultraportable laptop form factors. The company has also been working with Microsoft to help optimize Windows for the Arm platform. Their partnership spawned the Microsoft SQ1, a modified version of the Snapdragon 855 chip.
We’ll have to wait until their release to see how these chips perform, but in a statement to Thurrott, Amon said the new Nuvia processors will rival Apple’s M-series SoCs. While Qualcomm has always traditionally focused on mobile devices, the optimist in me is hoping for desktop designs, too.
FTC charges Broadcom with illegal monopolization
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has charged Broadcom, a massive telecommunication infrastructure company, with good ol’ illegal monopolization.
According to the FTC, Broadcom monopolized markets for semiconductor components in exclusive dealings and related conduits. Being as big as it is, Broadcom is one of the few suppliers who can meet massive orders of specialized hardware and technologies. Its diverse customer base span across the globe, big names include telcos like AT&T, Comcast, Dish and many others.
Due to its output and specialty, the FTC alleged Broadcom of illegally maintaining power in three markets by prohibiting its customers from purchasing equipment from Broadcom’s competitors. The agreement required the customers to only source technology from Qualcomm. All in all, the FTC alleged Broadcom of entering exclusivity and loyalty agreements with at least 10 customers.
Of course, the FTC isn’t pleased with the findings, but it did offer Broadcom a chance to settle via a proposed consent order. Under the order, Broadcom will be to settle provided that they stop the exclusive contracts.
Brace for more expensive cars
Canadians looking for a new car this year may be in for a bit of sticker shock. The global semiconductor shortage has reached Canada’s vehicles market and it’s driving up used car prices across the board.
According to Autorader.ca, the average price of a used vehicle in June was up 9.4 per cent–rising to $28,305–the highest average ever recorded for used vehicles.
The higher costs are caused by an array of factors. With the economy slowly reopening, demand for cars is expected to rise, but Canadian dealers are frequently outbid by U.S dealers, especially for used vehicles, a highly sought-after commodity. The combination of low inventory, high demand and constrained production sent car prices soaring in Canada, and there’s no sign that it will stop soon.
ICYMI – IT World Canada
Cyber attack on Kaseya VSA leaves IT administrators waiting for advice, looking for ransomware
Managed service providers and organizations using the cloud or on-premises version of Kaseya’s VSA remote monitoring and IT management tool are waiting for decisions from the company Monday on if and when they can resume using the tool following a hack that has led to ransomware attacks on customers.
Jim Whitehurst steps down as IBM president amid leadership reshuffle
In a surprise move, IBM announced today that Jim Whitehurst, who became IBM president 14 months ago after IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat, has stepped down. No successor was named.
Data of 700 million LinkedIn users is being sold on hacker forum
A dataset containing the information of 700 million LinkedIn users is being auctioned on a renowned hacker forum.
First reported by Privacy Sharks on June 27, the dataset contains information such as full names, gender, email addresses, phone numbers, and industry information. It was first shared on RaidForums by user TomLiner on June 22.
ICYMI – IT Business Canada
Making decisions in the MarTech space – CMO Talks with Mike Couch
As a deep dive into best practices for making procurement decisions on marketing technology, Couch joined ITWC President Fawn Annan for a July 2021 installment of CMO Talks, a podcast series designed to showcase strategies for gaining a competitive edge through the intersection of marketing and technology.
Shopify announces 0% revenue share model for developers, and more from Unite 2021
Developers who build for the Shopify App Store will now pay 0 per cent revenue share, down from the current 20 per cent cut, for the first $1M they earn annually on the platform starting on August 1, Shopify announced at Unite 2021 on June 29.
ICYMI – Channel Daily News
IBM spin-off Kyndryl announces global leadership
Kyndryl, the independent company emerging following the separation of IBM’s managed infrastructure services business, announced the global leadership that’s going to steer the spin-off company into the future.
Ontario’s eSentire is hiring more people to expand its operations in EMEA
Ontario-based managed detection and response (MDR) security provider eSentire is further expanding its operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), the company announced today while also introducing its regional leadership for EMEA.