This week, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) unveiled the Endless Frontier Act (EFA).

This newsletter doesn’t usually cover new legislation, much less proposed bills. But EFA is an exception since it seeks to turbocharge American “discovery, creation, and commercialization of critical tech.” By that, the lawmakers mean every technology you read about in this newsletter. 

EFA’s core proposals. There are three principal parts to the proposed bill:

• Restructure the National Science Foundation into the National Science and Technology Foundation (NSTF)
• In the NSTF, stand up a Technology Directorate that receives $100 billion over five years and operates like DARPA
• Hand the Commerce Department $10 billion to invest across 10-15 regional tech hubs over five years

This is great news for U.S. universities and businesses because EFA would pad R&D budgets, establish new scholarships, and create cutting-edge labs and fabrication plants. 

What’s driving the frontier mindset? The private sector overtook Washington in R&D investment four decades ago. EFA’s sponsors want to expand the pool of capital so that all of Washington’s tech priorities are advanced in the U.S.

The other reason for EFA, which its sponsors explicitly call out: China. While Beijing’s bid for tech supremacy is better described as a “slow burn” rather than a “Sputnik moment,” the country’s tech industrial base is now a genuine contender with the U.S. There’s more to come: 

• China plans to invest $1.4 trillion in emerging tech over the next six years. 
• Chinese chipmaker SMIC recently announced a $2 billion investment from state-backed funds. 
• Tencent will spend $70 billion on tech infrastructure over the next five years. 
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“The U.S. needs to pursue with all-of-the-above strategy and intensify efforts,” a person familiar with the legislation said in a recent interview.

As Bill of Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill” could tell you, EFA may never see the light of day. But adding $$$ to tech R&D and accelerating the U.S.-China tech decoupling are bipartisan priorities.

Smartphone manufacturers have been launching “folding” devices with great fanfare, though, with high price tags and low demand, these units have not become market hits.

As an alternative, a smart start-up, castAway, has now announced a new device to add a second screen to your existing smartphone!

The castAway case enables you to open multiple apps at once, copy/paste, and access files and photos from either screen with ease.

The team responsible for creating the castAway screen smartphone case have added new perks for people to enjoy via Indiegogo, enabling backers to now order customizable mods that will be interchangeable with their castAway case, including a Qi wireless charging battery, a wallet w/ Qi wireless charging battery, and a Universal Case that will allow people to use all of castAways mods with ANY phone case they choose.

A quote from the company said, “We heard you loud and clear. After listening to your feedback, we’re excited to announce that we have expanded castAway into a full platform. We’re still delivering a second-screen experience — but now you can customize your case with a variety of accessories as well to meet the demands of your daily life. “

“A second monitor used to be a luxury, and now it’s a necessity. Juggling between apps and screens is how things go today. Adding a second screen to a PC is easy, but what about a second one for your smartphone? It’s not like you leave the need for multitasking behind when you are away from your desktop, out in the world doing things.”

The castAway case adds a second, ultra-slim screen to your existing iPhone or Android smartphone. The second screen is a powerful Chromium-based tablet that lets you multitask while on the go.”

Features of castAway include:

• castAway case connects with any iOS or Android phone and continues to work even when detached from your smartphone.  
• Features a dual boot option that lets you quickly turn it into a larger keyboard, trackpad, or game controller for your phone.  
• It is fully-equipped with a hi-res capacitive touch screen, WiFi, Bluetooth, front and back-facing cameras, & audio jack.  
• Integrated SD slot allows you to expand storage and offload photos from your phone  
• The built-in battery can do double duty and be used to boost your smartphone.

When the tablet is detached from your smartphone, your phone will look and feel like it would in any other high-end protective case. The hinge design also simplifies the task of supporting the myriad of smartphones. The smartphone side of the case is a custom fit for each major model type. That said, there are many unique (lower volume) phones for which we are developing a universal case back that works with the hinge. The castAway case will be available in 3 model sizes. Currently, the castAway is priced at $249, with delivery promised in October 2020.

Attackers can steal data from Thunderbolt-equipped PCs or Linux computers, even if the computer is locked and the data encrypted, according to security researcher Björn Ruytenberg (via Wired). Using a relatively simple technique called “Thunderspy,” someone with physical access to your machine could nab your data in just a few minutes with a screwdriver and “easily portable hardware,” he wrote.

Thunderbolt offers breakneck transfer speeds by giving devices direct access to your PC’s memory, which also creates several vulnerabilities. Researchers previously thought those weaknesses (dubbed Thunderclap), could be mitigated by disallowing access to untrusted devices or disabling Thunderbolt altogether but allowing DisplayPort and USB-C access.

However, Ruytenberg’s attack method could get around even those settings by changing the firmware that controls the Thunderbolt port, allowing any device to access it. What’s more, the hack leaves no trace, so the user would never know their PC was altered.

If you intend to use Thunderbolt connectivity, it is strongly recommended that you Connect only your Thunderbolt peripherals; never lend them to anybody; avoid leaving your system unattended while powered on, even when screen-locked; avoid leaving your Thunderbolt peripherals unattended; ensure appropriate physical security when storing your system and any Thunderbolt devices, including Thunderbolt-powered displays; consider using hibernation (Suspend-to-Disk) or powering off the system completely. Specifically, avoid using sleep mode (Suspend-to-RAM).

He developed something called an “evil maid attack,” referring to an attacker who gets physical access to a PC in a hotel room, for instance. “All the evil maid needs to do is unscrew the backplate, attach a device momentarily, reprogram the firmware, reattach the backplate, and the evil maid gets full access to the laptop,” Ruytenberg told Wired. “All of this can be done in under five minutes.”

The attack only requires about $400 worth of gear, including an SPI programmer and $200 Thunderbolt peripheral. The whole thing could be built into a single small device. “Three-letter agencies would have no problem miniaturizing this,” Ruytenberg said.

Intel recently created a Thunderbolt security system called Kernel Direct Memory Access (DMA) Protection that would stop Ruytenberg’s Thunderspy attack. However, that protection is only available on computers made in 2019 and later, so it’s lacking in any models manufactured before that. Also, many PCs manufactured in 2019 and later from Dell, HP, and Lenovo aren’t protected, either. This vulnerability might explain why Microsoft didn’t include Thunderbolt in its Surface laptops.

Intel just released a blog post giving its perspective on the issue.

Apple computers running macOS are unaffected by the vulnerability unless you’re running Boot Camp, according to Ruytenberg.
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The researchers disclosed the vulnerabilities to Intel on February 10th, 2020, and Apple on April 17th. To find out if you’re vulnerable, there is a verification tool called Spycheck. To protect yourself, you should “avoid leaving your system unattended while powered on, even if screen-locked,” Ruytenberg wrote, avoid using sleep mode and ensure the physical security of your Thunderbolt peripherals.

In a triumph for the nascent industry of “satellite servicing,” an aging communications satellite has returned to service in geostationary orbit.

Northrop Grumman announced recently that its Mission Extension Vehicle-1, or MEV-1, has restored the Intelsat 901 satellite and relocated it into a position to resume operations.

“We see increased demand for our connectivity services around the world, and preserving our customers’ experience using innovative technology such as MEV-1 is helping us meet that need,” Intelsat Chief Services Officer Mike DeMarco said in a news release.

After launching on a Proton rocket last October, Northrop Grumman’s servicing vehicle used its mechanical docking system to latch onto Intelsat 901, at an altitude of 36,000km above Earth. Before this, no two commercial spacecraft had ever docked in orbit before.

Since it docked, the MEV-1 servicer has assumed navigation of the combined spacecraft stack, reducing the satellite’s inclination by 1.6 degrees and relocating it to a new orbital location, at 332.5° east. Intelsat then transitioned about 30 of its commercial and government customers to the satellite two weeks ago. The transition of service took approximately six hours and was successful.

Based on the agreement between Northrop and Intelsat, MEV-1 will provide five years of life extension services to the satellite before moving it into a graveyard orbit. MEV-1 will then be available to provide additional mission extension services, Northrop said, including orbit raising, inclination corrections, and inspections. Northrop is already building a second MEV to service another Intelsat satellite, 1002, later this year.

This satellite servicing milestone comes as both low-Earth orbit as well as geostationary space – where large, expensive communications satellites are often placed high above the planet to hold their position over the ground – are becoming more crowded. The availability of a service such as that offered by MEV-1 offers satellite providers both the ability to extend the lifetime of aging assets, but also to potentially remove those they have lost control of from the ground.
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These kinds of services are generally seen in the space community as vital to keeping orbital space as decluttered as possible in the coming decades, so it is good that this demonstration case worked out well.

During the Federal Communications Commission’s monthly meeting last week, it ratified unlicensed use of the 6GHz radio frequency spectrum in the USA. This decision opens the way for the proposed Wi-Fi 6E standard to move forward.

Industry giants Intel and Broadcom began planning for this move two years ago. Broadcom released its first Wi-Fi 6E chipset in February, targeted at mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Intel hasn’t released any actual products using it yet, but an Intel rep has now confirmed that they’re on the way.

Intel’s spokesperson said that the company’s own working prototype devices were part of the presentations given initially to the FCC to facilitate the decision-making process and described Intel’s and Broadcom’s work on devices before the FCC’s decision as a risky but rewarding two-year investment on both companies’ parts.

The Rules So Far. Although the FCC was widely expected to ratify unlicensed use of the 6GHz spectrum in general unanimously, the associated usage rules were less certain. Until last week, the 6GHz spectrum was for licensed use only – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t already in use.

Licensed use of the 6GHz spectrum includes point-to-point microwave backhaul (used by commercial wireless providers), telephone and utility communication, and control links. It also includes Cable Television Relay Links – which are mobile links used by newscasters doing onsite live reporting – and radio astronomy.

The truly excellent news for Wi-Fi 6E backers – and future users – is that the FCC has ratified unlicensed use of the entire 1.2GHz spectrum for low-power indoor devices. Separating unlicensed outdoor and high-powered usage from indoor and low power allows for the maximum utility of spectrum in the most common (and most crowded) Wi-Fi environments while preserving the utility of incumbent licensed users.

FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly’s statement released last week discussed this in greater detail, making it clear that Automatic Frequency Control (AFC) – the type of technology that limits the use of 5GHz on DFS frequencies in modern Wi-Fi – will not be required for most devices on the 6GHz band:

All of these enormous benefits can only be realized by authorizing both standard-powered operations and Low-Power-Indoor ( LPI) devices, which, unlike the higher-power systems, do not need an AFC.

While there has been much debate about whether LPI use can cause interference to fixed networks, electronic news gathering, and other incumbent applications, the studies in the record and the analysis of the talented professionals in the Office of Engineering and Technology are quite clear: unlicensed use – with the technical rules set in this item – can be introduced without causing harmful interference.

Commissioner Geoffrey Starks points out that even those who aren’t early adopters of Wi-Fi 6E technology stand to benefit since those who do will compete less for available 5GHz spectrum:

Even for those who can’t afford the new equipment that will take advantage of the new spectrum and the latest iteration of Wi-Fi, speeds for their devices should increase as existing Wi-Fi traffic moves to the new spectrum. Wi-Fi channels within their homes [will] become less congested, and data flows more freely.

The FCC’s vote to ratify unlicensed 6GHz use was bi-partisan and unanimous, with supporting statements made by organizations including the Internet & Television Association, Charter, Comcast, Public Knowledge, and the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Still to Come. With the general use of 6GHz secured, the FCC expects to see great offloads of current mobile traffic to local Wi-Fi – Commissioner O’Rielly cited a Wi-Fi Forward assessment when claiming that 76% of all mobile traffic will be offloaded to Wi-Fi in the next two years.

Not all of O’Rielly’s suggestions were ratified at last week’s meeting. In particular, the commission is still deliberating extensions to allow Very Low Power (VLP) devices to operate outdoors without the use of automated frequency control. This would encourage the use of 6GHz for wearable devices, such as VR headsets and smartwatches, which would only need extremely short-range connections to linked devices.
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With usable rules for unlicensed 6GHz spectrum use defined, analysts expect to see Wi-Fi 6E devices beginning to become available to consumers in late 2020 or early 2021.

A dozen Ford Motor Co. workers are experimenting with wearable social-distancing devices that could be deployed more widely once the carmaker reopens idled manufacturing plants.

The small group of volunteers at a Ford factory in Plymouth, Michigan, are trying out watch-like wearables that vibrate when employees come within six feet of each other, said Kelli Felker, a company spokeswoman. The aim is to keep workers from breaching the distance that health experts recommend to avoid spreading the coronavirus.

The social-distancing device could be part of a broader array of new safety protocols Ford deploys as it resumes production as early as next month after at least a roughly six-week shutdown. The automaker is also expected to subject all workers entering a facility to a thermal-imaging scan to detect a fever. And it will provide staff with masks and, in some cases, plastic face shields, Felker said. The company is devising the measures along with the United Auto Workers union.

“Ford and the UAW are working closely to identify different ways to keep our people safe while they are at work,” Felker said.

The Samsung Electronics Co. smartwatches Ford is piloting use software from closely held technology firm Radiant RFID, according to a spokesman for the Austin, Texas-based company. The devices utilize Bluetooth short-wave and low-power technology to detect proximity and clustering of workers.

In near real-time, workers receive a vibration and a color-coded warning on the watch to let them know when they are closer than six feet to another person. Supervisors also receive alerts and reports that can be used to monitor social distancing and clustering in the workplace, according to Radiant.

Ford has been piloting the new safety procedures at factories where it’s now producing ventilators and respirators to supply hospitals fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Those practices – which include requiring workers to complete a daily online survey on their health and those they’re in contact with – are expected to be rolled out to the company’s traditional auto factories as they reopen.
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The automaker hasn’t set a date for when it plans to resume production.

Given the level of concern many users have had with Zoom’s security and privacy, the company has been hard at work during the first two weeks of April to bring better control to its video conferencing software. The first changes transformed the safety profile of using its service, albeit with additional overhead for hosts and people joining meetings. On April 8, Zoom’s CEO, Eric Yuan, told NPR, “When it comes to a conflict between usability and privacy and security, privacy and security [are] more important–even at the cost of multiple clicks.”

Here is a synopsis of the recent changes.

Passwords required. All free-tier accounts, free upgraded education accounts, and single-host paid accounts now need a password. It’s generated automatically and may be changed but cannot be removed. This blocks access by those who obtain the meeting ID but not the password, and it prevents access through bots trying to join randomly generated meeting IDs in the reasonable hope of connecting to a password-free session.

Meeting ID hidden. The meeting ID no longer appears in the title bar of Zoom apps to prevent it from appearing in screen captures posted on social media or elsewhere.

Waiting Room enabled. By default, the Waiting Room feature is now enabled for all accounts, even those that previously had the option turned off. The Waiting Room puts participants who attempt to join the meeting into a holding position. The host must admit them. It’s fussy, and if it’s unnecessary in your environment, you can override the default on a per-meeting or per-host basis.

Meeting locks. With a click of the new Security button, hosts can lock a meeting at any point to prevent new participants from being added to the Waiting Room or joining directly. Another click unlocks the meeting.

Name change prevention. Hosts can prevent participants from changing the name that appears when they join or request to join a meeting. Some people—both unwanted visitors and students who thought it was funny—were changing their names to derogatory or abusive forms during meetings.

Domain contacts visibility. Zoom no longer treats every user with the same domain in their email address as belonging to the same organization. Previously, anyone with a given address could view account information or add everyone to their contacts who had the same domain, excluding some significant ISPs and mail hosts, like Gmail and iCloud. That feature is now disabled for free tier and paid single-host accounts, and must be enabled on higher-tier paid accounts.
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Traffic routed through China. The paths that data travels is a political, regulatory, and business question, not just a technical one. Citizen Lab’s report revealed that Zoom was routing some traffic that didn’t involve any participants in China through servers in that country. Zoom explained that it was an error in load balancing, which seemed plausible given the quick scaling of operations it needed to have. The company said it made permanent changes to prevent data passing through Chinese servers from outside the country. A new feature for paid users starts April 18, and those users will be able to select which of several regions data may pass through. Free users are locked to data centers in the region from which they subscribed. Apart from concerns about China, some people outside the United States don’t trust the National Security Agency or other US intelligence groups.

Dear Rick:

I wanted to reach out to tell you how much I appreciate your blog. I especially loved the open source resources you mention there.

One thing that I found out about was an article on open source on the Google blog page. The article on your blog page really provided some interesting insight.

Digging into it a bit more, I found this helpful guide to open source.  
It really helped me better understand open source software as a whole.
​
Thanks again for the great resource! 
All the best, 
Emma T.

Microsoft reorganized its Windows + Devices team last month, placing Surface chief Panos Panay in charge of both Windows and hardware. While it’s still early days for Panay, we’re starting to get an idea of how things might change with Windows. That begins with a new Windows Insider leader, Microsoft’s beta program that sees millions of people testing Windows 10.

“In my first 30 days as the Windows leader, as I’ve been spending time listening, learning, and working with the team to build a vision for the next era of Windows, I’ve been in awe of the Insiders group and the level of dedication and depth of knowledge they have,” explains Panay in a new blog post today. “To keep this momentum going and continue to grow and innovate in Windows, it’s clear we need the right person to lead this powerful community into the next era, which is why I’m excited to announce Amanda Langowski as the new lead for the Windows Insider Program.”

Langowski is a Microsoft and Windows veteran, having worked at the company for more than 20 years. Langowski previously worked on Windows beta programs, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, and the all-important flighting team that makes sure builds of Windows are available for engineers inside and outside of Microsoft.

Langowski will now take over as the face of Windows 10 testing and lead a critical feedback loop, a role that Dona Sarkar previously led for the past few years. Sarkar has taken a new position in the Microsoft Developer Relations team and remains at the company, at the same time, the previous Insider chief, Gabe Aul, left Microsoft last year for a virtual and augmented reality engineering role at Facebook.

As Panay says, Microsoft is now getting ready to build a vision for where Windows goes next. The software maker has tried a variety of ways to entice creators to Windows over the past five years, but it has walked back some of those changes. The pace of Windows 10 updates has certainly slowed over the past 12 months, leaving testers and Windows fans wondering what’s coming next.

Microsoft is focused on Windows 10X for dual-screen devices right now, but there will be plenty of changes coming to the desktop version, too. Panay hasn’t finalized his vision for the direction of Windows, but you can expect to see a renewed focus on the OS at Microsoft. That will no doubt include some of the pumped energy Panay is famous for, but also a focus on simplifying the operating system and cleaning up some areas that haven’t been looked at for quite some time.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s bold goal was “we want to move from people needing Windows to choosing Windows, to loving Windows,” five years ago. It’s fair to say Windows 10 has undoubtedly improved over the past five years, but a fresh vision for where it needs to go and a face for Windows is very much needed.

I expect, and certainly hope, to see a more significant focus on Microsoft adapting the OS to the people who truly use it every day and rely on Windows. That’s not to say there won’t be some significant new features that the company will develop, but PowerToys for Windows 10 and the Windows Terminal have been some great additions.

We’re starting to see some of the simplifications for Windows show up, with new icons and even some tweaks to the Start menu. Panay celebrated a billion Windows 10 users with a teaser video last week, and it’s clear the Windows team is looking at cleaning up parts of the UI. 
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Microsoft is ready to listen again, with new leadership involved at the top of Windows, and how the company receives feedback. We’re now waiting to hear what the next era of Windows will bring. Some of those answers might not be too far away.

The outbreak of coronavirus is pushing Americans to buy their groceries online, a development that could have a lasting effect on the supermarket industry.

While shopping for books and electronics online and ordering dinner through delivery apps have become staples of American life, most customers still prefer to purchase their meat and vegetables at the store. Last year, just 4% of grocery sales in the United States came online, according to Nielsen.

However, with shoppers stuck in their homes in the wake of the virus, online grocery shopping is exploding. Downloads of Instacart, Walmart's grocery app, and Shipt increased 218%, 160%, and 124%, respectively, last Sunday compared with a year prior.

"We are seeing a larger percentage of customers over the age of 60 that are coming online," said JJ Fleeman, chief e-commerce officer for Ahold Delhaize in the United States, which owns brands like Stop & Shop, Food Lion and the online delivery service Peapod. "We're seeing a lot of new customers coming into the channel."

A third of consumers said Sunday that they had purchased groceries for online pick up or delivery in the past seven days, according to a survey by analysts at Gordon Haskett Research Advisors. Around 41% said they were buying groceries online for the first time.

"Consumer behaviors always shift in times of disaster," said Doug Baker, vice president of industry relations at FMI, a trade group for food retailers. "People are learning new skills and how to shop online as a result of what we're experiencing today."

Maria Alvarado in Phoenix usually shops in person for groceries at Walmart or Safeway. Still, she tried ordering online last week for the first time through Walmart's in-store pickup option. She plans to keep using the service.

"Once things go back to normal, I will probably use online again," she said. "It was really easy."

Big grocers like Walmart, Albertsons, Stop & Shop, Meijer, Hy-Vee, and others have been experimenting with new ways to fulfill online orders in recent years. They have increasingly looked to technology to reduce costs and keep aisles from jamming up with shoppers and workers picking customers' orders.

Grocers have been building automated mini-warehouses inside their stores and opening up "dark stores" – locations that look like supermarkets but are closed to customers – to make deliveries and prepare pickup orders.

Yet the crush of demand in the wake of coronavirus has overwhelmed grocers' delivery and pickup networks, causing long waits, cancellations, and outages in some parts of the country. 

"The surge in online grocery orders is causing operational difficulties," said Bill Bishop, CEO of grocery consulting firm Brick Meets Click. 

Grocers are scrambling to adjust and hiring workers to keep up. 

Fleeman from Ahold Delhaize said the company was adding "web servers to help us process the increased demand" and offering more windows for customers to pick up their orders or get delivery.

This shift online during the crisis may reshape the supermarket industry by helping large grocers consolidate their grip, experts predict.

"We see this unfortunate period accelerating structural changes in consumer shopping," possibly by five years, said Seth Sigman, an analyst at Credit Suisse, wrote in a report. "This is driving significant growth in new customers" to Walmart.

Coronavirus "may hasten the adoption" of online delivery and pickup, touching off long-term challenges for smaller chains earlier than expected, Kelly Bania, an analyst for BMO Capital Markets, said in a research report this week. These smaller chains don't have as much capital to invest in building out their delivery infrastructure. And delivery is less profitable for grocers than traditional purchases in stores.