Wireless Wednesday for 8/19/15: Michigan and the Tech News of the Week

Rick is in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan this week. He's testing his golf game on three great courses in golf-rich Michigan. He's also staying at the Island Resort & Casino - a fantastic Indian-owned Casino in Harris, MI. He will also be visiting historic, Marquette, Michigan located way up on Lake Superior.

* Interesting that the UP Michigan is more like Wisconsin than the rest of the state of Michigan. There are Packers fans everywhere and that makes for great people...

Check out: www.puremichigan.com

 Have a listen to both parts:

1.   Samsung proposes a 4,600 micro-satellite space network for terrestrial backhaul

- Important solution as we get closer to running out of storage and cell bandwidth
Samsung Electronics has proposed a ‘space internet’ network consisting of 4600 micro-satellites that could act as backhaul for terrestrial cellular networks and bring low-cost internet to “everyone in the world”.
 

2.  Hackers Remotely Cut a Corvette's Brakes

This story should scare you

Security researchers presented work at the USENIX conference today showing an easy way to hack into a car's electronics using a small gadget that plugs into modern dashboards. The port they're taking advantage of is commonly used to monitor the location and speeds of these vehicles. Once the researchers' dongle is attached, they can use SMS messages to transmit commands to the car's internal network. They demonstrated this by remotely cutting a Corvette's brakes. "Though the researchers say their Corvette brake tricks only worked at low speeds due to limitations in the automated computer functions of the vehicle, they say they could have easily adapted their attack for practically any other modern vehicle and hijacked other critical components like locks, steering or transmission, too."
 

3.  Twitter lifts the 140 character limit on Direct Messages

(It's about time)
Twitter's push to make DMs a full on messaging service continues. Beginning Wednesday, the 140 character limit for Direct Messages has been lifted in the iOS, Android, Mac apps, Tweetdeck and on Twitter.com
 

4.  Cuba is opening up.... but will that mean improved wireless and cell phone service?

- Many people in Cuba still use pay phones

Cuba has a second generation cellular network and Internet access is limited to about 5% of the population via work and school accounts and (mostly dial up) access in a few homes, so it was big news when they rolled out 35 public WiFi hotspots. Can they expand this public WiFi and skip 3G and 4G cell infrastructure until 5G equipment is available in about five years?
 

5.  Dr Pepper Snapple Group Invests in Sports Drinks

-Called BODYARMOUR

 Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc., (DPS) is investing in emerging sports drink BODYARMOR. The company's $20 million investment gives DPS an 11.7 percent ownership position in BA Sports Nutrition, LLC, owner of BODYARMOR SuperDrink, a line of premium sports drinks.
DPS has carried BODYARMOR as an allied brand in much of its direct store delivery network since 2013 and plans to expand the product line further in its system over the next year.
 

App of the Week:

VPAR - the "everything" golf app

For iOS and Android
** Live scoring, GPS and Golf planner, Course Directory and Stat Keeper
- Free app to downlaod. Get 14 days of a free trial and only $8.99 to subscribe the rest of the year
Earlier this summer (around the U.S. Open), VPAR downloads climbed as high as 5th in the Apple App Store “Sports” category

·        Their award-winning app is now available across Android devices and downloads on the Google Play Store have shown great organic growth since launching in late July

·        VPAR partnered with Your Golf Travel – Europe’s largest golf travel agency – to launch a “live” amateur tournament across Europe. The “Your Golf Travel Championship Powered by VPAR” is ongoing and has utilized VPAR’s live scoring functionality to provide an enthralling competition for the continents best pairs teams

·        The Android version coincides with the release of VPAR 4.0 across both Android and Apple devices. Updated features include:

o   Simplified Round Creation – The setup process has been simplified to one page, providing users with an array of game formats based on the number of players and tee times.

o   New GPS Glance Tool – Front/Center/Back distances are automatically featured on the scoring page, allowing players to quickly decide on club selection at first glance.

o   Social Media Sharing – Easily share your round with friends on Facebook and Twitter

and the World's Biggest Trophy