Facebook's fundamental flaws, SpaceX does more recycling and WWDC is about to kick off. That and more in The Daily Crunch for June 5, 2017. 1. Facebook is borked So says Jon, and I'm inclined to agree; this column explores how Facebook has some fundamental structural problems that make it bad. Basically, he points out that it's now a feedback loop that not only narrows your perspective, but influences it and makes you more of whatever you are to begin with, deepening biases. And this is something that's wrong with the network at a very basic level, meaning it'll take a lot to change it. 2. SpaceX makes history reusing a Dragon capsule Cargo containers and transport trucks can be reused many, many times – so why can't space-faring cargo ships, too? That's what SpaceX set out to answer, and they've now done so with the first reuse of a Dragon capsule, the supply-toting spacecraft that rides atop the company's Falcon 9 rockets to deliver supplies to the ISS. Today, the used Dragon craft successfully docked with the ISS, too. 3. WWDC predictions (just an hour to go) It's Apple's big WWDC keynote day, and we'll find out whether these rumors, reports and general wishes come true in just under an hour at the event, which starts in San Jose at 1 PM PT. Tune in here to follow along live with our folks on the ground. 4. End of 32-bit iOS apps Apple switched to supported 64-bit apps quite a while ago, now, and there are signs it will drop 32-bit apps from Search after today's WWDC event, which will basically mean a huge pruning of the catalog, removing apps that haven't been updated in ages. Good; the App Store used to brag about the number of apps it contained, but it could definitely do with a bit of paring down at this stage. 5. UK confirms it wants to limit end-to-end encryption This probably isn't something you can realistically even do, but the UK would still be stupid to try to legislate limits on end-to-end encryption. Governments have done stupid things before, of course. 6. File manager finally coming to iOS? Apple could be readying a Files app for iOS, which would presumably be like a mobile Finder. This is interesting because it would mean admitting that one of the key paradigms of iOS is wrong – making the filesystem invisible. Still, could make iOS graduate to the professional big leagues, maybe even setting up its eventual replacement of OS X entirely. 7. IBM reveals world's first 5nm chip Moore's Law can continue, thanks to work done by IBM Research. This uses a couple pioneering tech to potentially get chip fab all the way down to 3nm, which is very, very small. Cool. |