Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

What to expect from WWDC 2019: new Mac Pro, iOS 13 with Dark Mode and updates to core apps, macOS 10.15 with Marzipan apps, and 31.6-inch 6K pro display  —  Apple’s big Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote is happening on Monday, June 3rd, and this year looks to be more consequential than most.

Tony Romm / Washington Post:

Sources: DOJ began work on a possible Google antitrust investigation after brokering a deal with FTC, which considered and opted not to pursue the case in 2013  —  A possible probe could open a new chapter in the tech giant’s troubles with regulators around the world who contend that the company is too large

The Justice Department has taken early steps toward opening a federal antitrust investigation into Google, according to three people familiar with the matter. The Justice Department is preparing a potential antitrust investigation of Google
Source: Washington Post Tech

You feel that you’re unpopular and no one likes you. The bad news is that if that’s the case in the real world there’s no easy way to fix it. The good news is there’s a great substitute — your popularity on Instagram. With this vending machine you can replace your personality with followers on Instagram. It’s just a shame we have to wait a year until Coachella.

This project is an interactive installation from [Dries Depoorter] that makes it possible to buy followers and likes in just a few seconds. It’s not limited to Instagram — you can get followers on FaceBook, YouTube, and Twitter, too. The hardware consists of a Raspberry Pi 3B+, an Arduino, coin acceptor, a few character LCDs running over I2C, and somewhat surprising for a one-off ‘art installation’, a lot of DIN rails mounted to a real industrial enclosure. Someone here knows what they’re doing;  there’s something resembling cable management inside this box and this vending machine is built to last.

Using this vending machine is as easy as sticking a few Euro coins in the slot and selecting the number of followers or likes you’d like. In a few minutes afterward, hundreds of notifications pop up on your phone. There’s no mention of the software in this vending machine aside from it being written in Python, which makes us wonder where these Instagram bots are based. Check out the video below.

The Automated Solution To Your Unpopularity
Source: HackADay

Google’s search and other businesses will be investigated by the DOJ, says The Wall Street Journal. Department of Justice reportedly preparing Google antitrust investigation – CNET
Source: CNet

US 5G networks could be a case of the tortoise and the hare, depending on how carriers play their cards. Verizon 5G vs. Sprint: We put real-world download speeds to the test – CNET
Source: CNet

Alex Kantrowitz / Tech Giant Update:

Camera app VSCO, which has an ad-free social feed and makes its money on subscriptions, says 2M+ people paid $20 in 2018 for its premium service  —  The camera app VSCO is unlike its social counterparts.  Though it has a feed similar to Facebook’s News Feed and Twitter’s Timeline …

Panasonic’s Lumix mirrorless cameras are widely regarded as the best choice for anyone looking to create beautiful video within a mortal’s budget. The company is today pushing that reputation up into a higher price, quality, and resolution bracket with the announcement of $4,000 the Lumix S1H, a full-frame shooter capable of recording 6K video at 24fps. It’s a fresh iteration of the Lumix S1, which made its debut at Photokina last year and which I’ve recently tried and been delighted by.

The upcoming Lumix S1H, scheduled to launch in the fall, comes with the claim of being the world’s first full-frame camera to do 6K/24p at a 3:2 aspect ratio or 5.9K/30p at 16:9. Aside from being cool in its own right, this bump in resolution capability…

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Panasonic’s Lumix S1H can shoot 6K video with a full-frame sensor
Source: New feed

DJI is the leading name in drones, and we’ve liked their prosumer Phantom and Mavic lines quite a bit — but it looks like the company has also quietly built a professional cinematography drone that’s so high-end, it’s not even for sale. You’ll hire DJI to send out a fancy van with a dedicated team of professionals, presumably to fly the drone for you.

As DroneDJ notes, the DJI Storm was quietly revealed in a YouTube video that seems to have flown under the radar (so to speak), and we’ve confirmed it exists on DJI’s Chinese site as well. It sure sounds like a beast: an eight-rotor aircraft that can carry up to an 18.5kg (40.8lb) payload. That’s enough to carry an sizeable filmmaker’s rig like an Arri Alexa LF camera, complete with lens,…

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DJI’s most advanced drone yet comes with its own van and film crew
Source: New feed

A stolen N.S.A. hacking tool was a component in a cyberattack on the city, people involved in the investigation have told The Times. N.S.A. Denies Its Cyberweapon Was Used in Baltimore Attack, Congressman Says
Source: NY Times Tech

The probe is likely to examine Google’s search and advertising businesses, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because such inquiries are confidential. The U.S. government previously investigated Google on antitrust grounds, but it opted against requiring major changes to its business practices when it closed the matter […] Justice Dept. is preparing an antitrust investigation of Google, people familiar with the matter say
Source: Washington Post Tech

Google may soon face an antitrust investigation from the US Department of Justice pertaining to its search business and potentially other aspects of the company’s sprawling software and services empire, according to a late Friday evening report from The Wall Street Journal. The DOJ is said to have spent the past few weeks preparing for the probe. Following publication of the WSJ’s story, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Bloomberg are confirming an imminent antitrust probe as well.

Citing anonymous sources, the WSJ says the Federal Trade Commission, which works alongside the DOJ to bring federal antitrust cases, will defer to the Justice Department in this case. Prior to this, the FTC brought a case against the company in…

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US Justice Department is imminently preparing a Google antitrust investigation
Source: New feed

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: DOJ is preparing an antitrust investigation into Google’s practices related to search and other businesses  —  The Justice Department is preparing an antitrust investigation into Google’s practices related to search and other business, sources say.

Taylor Lorenz / The Atlantic:

A look at the terms “creators” vs. “influencers” on YouTube, Instagram, and other platforms, and how recent digital history has shaped the terms  —  It’s not a gender thing.  —  It was 2011, and YouTube had a problem.  The company, which was then a hub …

A pair of scientists from prestigious Dartmouth University recently published research postulating why Godzilla has more than doubled in size since 1954. If you guessed a gym membership and a high-protein diet: you’re wrong. The King of the Monsters’ incredible evolution in fiction is, arguably, due to real-world global anxiety over increasing nationalism and the US military’s continued nuclear aggression. Yeah, that old chestnut. The research argues that Godzilla’s appearance changes, while surely attributable to the various film companies and personnel who’ve worked on the movies over the decades, are due to spikes in “humanity’s collective anxiety.” In other words: the worse…

This story continues at The Next Web

Why scientists believe Godzilla’s fictional growth is cause for real concern
Source: The Next Web

The space vehicle launch company was started up by late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Stratolaunch space company denies rumors it's closing down – CNET
Source: CNet

The apparel brand swapped images on Wikipedia with its own to promote its products in search. Wikipedia says The North Face 'manipulated' site to top Google results – CNET
Source: CNet

“The first 10 years were very tough,” says actor Navid Negahban, but adds that Amazon, YouTube and Netflix are changing Hollywood for the better. From Iran to Aladdin: The Sultan's long, hard Hollywood journey – CNET
Source: CNet

Disney’s huge Millennium Falcon is now open for anyone with a park ticket to visit. Here’s what it was like when we brought our camera and snapped away. See the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Millennium Falcon from every angle – CNET
Source: CNet

Like many of us, [Josef Adamčík] finds himself fascinated with so-called “freeform” electronic designs, where the three dimensional circuit makes up sections of the device’s structure. When well executed, such designs really blur the line between being a practical device and an artistic piece. In fact his latest design, an ESP8266 MQTT client, would seem to indicate there might not be much of a “line” at all.

The inspiration for this project actually comes from something [Josef] had worked on previously: an ESP8266-based environmental monitoring system. That device had sensors to pick up on things such as humidity and ambient light level, but it didn’t have a display of its own; it just pushed the data out onto the network using MQTT. So he thought a companion device which could receive this environmental data and present it to him in a unique and visually appealing way would be a natural extension of the idea.

As the display doesn’t need any local sensors of its own, it made the design and construction much easier. Which is not to say it was easy, of course. In this write-up, [Josef] takes the reader through the process of designing each “layer” of the circuit in 2D, printing it out onto paper, and then using that as a guide to assemble the real thing. Once he had the individual panels done, he used some pieces of cardboard to create a three dimensional jig which helped him get it all soldered together.

On the software side it’s pretty straightforward. It just pulls the interesting bits of information off of the network and displays it on the OLED. Right now it’s configured to show current temperature on the display, but of course that could be changed to pretty much anything you could imagine if you’re looking to add a similar device to your desktop. There’s also a red LED on the device which lights up to let [Josef] know when the batteries are getting low on the remote sensor unit; a particularly nice touch.

If you’d like to see more of these freeform circuits, we’d advise you to checkout the finalists for our recently concluded “Circuit Sculpture” contest. Some of the finalists are truly beyond belief.

Freeform ESP8266 Network Attached Data Display
Source: HackADay

Get ready to hug Totoro, fight battles with Princess Mononoke and feed everything to No-Face. Studio Ghibli theme park coming to Japan, reports say – CNET
Source: CNet

The tech cold war is heating up. U.S. companies that depend on the giant China market are preparing themselves for the fallout. As China Takes Aim, Silicon Valley Braces for Pain
Source: NY Times Tech

Apple is ready to pull the plug on iTunes, nearly two decades after launching the game-changing application. According to Bloomberg, the company plans to retire the product at next week’s WWDC event. Killing iTunes is long overdue. It’s been rumored for years now that Apple would shelve the product, as it does little to benefit customers who already made the switch to one of Apple’s standalone apps for movies, music, or podcasts. According to the Bloomberg report, users can expect the Music app to host many of iTunes’ audio features. The move to shutter iTunes, at this point, is largely…

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Apple plans to kill iTunes after WWDC next week
Source: The Next Web

Andrei Frumusanu / AnandTech:

MediaTek claims its 7nm chipset is the world’s first SoC with an integrated 5G modem, will ship in devices in 2020 using Arm’s Cortex-A77 CPU and Mali-G77 GPU  —  Today MedaTek is making quite an unusual announcement: The company is the first to announce a SoC with an integrated 5G modem.

Motorola this week announced the Moto Z4, the latest in its family of phones compatible with attachable accessories. Quite frankly, I’m kind of amazed that Motorola is still making modular phones three years later, but I’m all for it. The company is taking a more laid back approach this year though. The Z4 is no longer aiming at the flagship market, coming with a Snapdragon 675, 4GB of RAM, and 128 GB of storage. That should definitely offer good enough performance for most people – and Motorola claims the 3,600 mAh battery should last for two days – but it…

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Or just read more coverage about: Motorola

Motorola’s 0 Moto Z4 doesn’t give up on the mods
Source: The Next Web