TC Daily Newsletter 07/15/16

Trump gets Medium'd, Obama's wireless wishes and we can't escape Pokemon Go no matter how far we run – all that and more in the top tech stories of the day.

1. Tech vs. Trump

Silicon Valley generally seems not to love Donald Trump, and now an open letter (open Medium?) puts some hard proof to that generally accepted supposition. Katie Jacobs Stanton, CMO of Color Genomics and ex-Twitter VP, get the byline but it's co-signed by 145 prominent tech folks, and the list of names alone is a fascinating read. There's a big asterisk, though: these individuals might be anti-Trump, but co-signing the letter does not reflect the views of any of their companies.

2. Obama wants to give U.S. 5G as a parting gift

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Obama's presidency is winding down, but he's taking some ambitious parting shots by way of new initiatives. His administration just announced a new project to work on developing and rolling out next-gen wireless tech, which comes with $400 million in government funding over the next seven years. The goal is 100x faster mobile internet vs. what we've got now. The next global arms race might just be the mobile network.

3. The Pokewakening continues

Pokemon Go is now in Italy, Spain and Portugal on top of the markets where it had launched previously, and the plan is to get it out to 200 more countries very soon. A lot of players in countries where it's already available would rather Niantic fix its many, many bugs first, but you can't stop the Rollout (this is a joke based on a reference to a Rock-type Pokemon move, and it's hilarious).

4. Senate wants answers from Tesla on Autopilot

Generally speaking, you don't want a Senate Committee to call you out. Elon Musk and Tesla just had that happen, with senators looking for answers around what Autopilot is and what it isn't, and what the company is doing to communicate details about the tech to its users and the general public. Given Musk's tendency to be very direct and upfront in public channels, any response should be super interesting.

5. Latest Model X crash isn't Autopilot's fault

Speaking of Musk speaking, the Tesla CEO took to Twitter to tell people that the most recent Model X crash, which happened July 1 in Pennsylvania, definitely wasn't related to Autopilot, since car logs show it was shut off at the time of the accident. Musk went further still: he claims the accident would've been avoided with Autopilot engaged.

6. Ford looks to finally unite the human and robot populations

'Co-bots' sounds like a spin on 80s mecha cartoons that replaces fighting and explosions with getting along and expressions of love, but it's actually Ford's new model for assembly facilities. The idea is to use humans and robots working together in perfect harmony to guarantee a better end product. And yes, robots are already working alongside humans in factories everywhere, but what's unique about this project is that they're working hand-in-hand – or hand-in-appendage.

7. Microsoft scores a win for privacy vs. U.S. Gov.

The U.S. Government wanted to see someone's email, and Microsoft fought it. The surprising part is that they actually won. The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the software giant. The buck doesn't entirely stop there; The government could still take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Either way, the case has unified companies and privacy watchdog agencies behind a cause, and is also ensuring an ongoing public discussion about the issues, which is a win in itself.