Tuesday, July 15, 2025

On Our "Virtual Route 66" : A Possible Vision of the Possible In Our World

 


We present the following #RandomThoughts on a "Vision of the Possible" in Our World with thoughts Courtesy the National of the UAE and the Information:

Incorrect GPS locations have plagued many throughout the Middle East
Incorrect GPS locations have plagued many throughout the Middle East

In brief | Amid the tension between Israel and Iran, some smartphone users in the Middle East have noted their GPS-dependent apps showing incorrect locations and time-zone settings automatically changing, sometimes to Iran's.

That's because of something often referred to as Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) jamming or spoofing.

It's often used by various actors to gain a strategic military advantage but it's very difficult to prove who is causing it.

Regardless, those affected can run the gamut, from people placing orders for food deliveries to major shipping companies trying to transport oil.

The jamming can cost shipping companies a lot of time and money, and it's also potentially dangerous.

That's why so many are looking to find an alternative to existing navigation technology standards.

Why it matters | The recent focus on GPS discrepancies has brought concerns about an overlooked and underdeveloped technology to the surface.

Since Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone in 2007 and showed off the GPS features intertwined with Google Maps, we've become incredibly dependent on navigation services to enrich our lives.

Yet that was 18 years ago and it's time for those who make the tech tools we use every day to bring about a more secure navigation standard for both consumers and major shipping companies.

Quoted | "We all depend on reliable transport, either for ourselves travelling and/or for cargo to come in, and inherently we're all dependent on a strong navigation system to make that happen"

- Jack Hidary, chief executive of SandboxAQ


Future in focus

Employees work on the semiconductor chip production line in Huaian, Jiangsu province, China. Reuters
Employees work on the semiconductor chip production line in Huaian, Jiangsu province, China. Reuters

Quietly surging ahead | China's AI and semiconductor sector showing strong growth despite US export controls

Digital legacy | When you die, who's going to tell the internet?

Rare earths and real risk | Why the global supply chain needs a rethink

Age of AI | How technology is set to transform government and business in UAE and world


Predicting the future: Signal or noise?

China-owned ByteDance has not approved any sale of the TikTok platform to the US. Reuters
China-owned ByteDance has not approved any sale of the TikTok platform to the US. Reuters

US President Donald Trump this week said his administration had identified buyers for the China-owned social media platform TikTok, although he declined to name any and acknowledged he still needed approval from Beijing. He said he would have more details to reveal "in two weeks".

This is noise: We've been down this road before, in more ways than one. On numerous occasions Mr Trump has promised that progress had been made to keep TikTok operating by having US entrepreneurs and billionaires interested in buying it, only to be met with radio silence from government officials in Beijing, who ultimately have to agree to sell TikTok in the first place. It's also worth noting that in recent months, Mr Trump has often used the "two weeks" unit of measurement to tease certain announcements that often don't materialise, or instead occur in completely different ways than promised.


In case you missed it

A Joby Aviation air taxi lands in Dubai after a test flight. Reuters
A Joby Aviation air taxi lands in Dubai after a test flight. Reuters

Dubai closer to daily air taxi flights after successful test run

Sign of the times as Scottish former steelworks to become AI data centre

James Webb Space Telescope's first 'alien world' discovery unlocks new era of planet-hunting

AI-generated band Velvet Sundown are a Spotify hit, but is the music any good?

Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge review: Does the slim phone pack the punch?

The post–Tim Cook era at Apple got a bit less fuzzy today. The company announced that Jeff Williams, its chief operating officer, will retire at the end of the year and pass the COO baton to Sabih Khan, Apple’s senior vice president of operations. Apple portrayed the change as an orderly changing of the guard, describing it as “part of a long-planned succession.”

But the change also offered further hints about who might eventually take over for Cook as CEO. As our Apple reporter Aaron Tilley pointed out in his brief on today’s news, Williams was for some time widely considered a possible successor to Cook. The two men earned their bona fides turning Apple’s supply chain operations into the envy of the tech industry, so it would have been logical for Cook to hand the leadership of the company to someone in his mold.

But Williams is only two years younger than Tim Cook, who is now 64. Setting up Williams as a successor may not have been the best message to send to Apple employees and shareholders, as Apple’s product line is looking a little long in the tooth, and the rise of artificial intelligence creates possible new threats for the company. 

That may be why in recent years, there’s been growing buzz about John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, who is 50, as a possible Cook successor. With Williams leaving the scene, Ternus’ status as heir apparent becomes, well, even more apparent.

SpaceX Rises as Tesla Falls

Apparently, not all of Elon Musk’s investors are worried that he’ll take his eye off the ball again. SpaceX, his rocket company, is considering a plan to raise funds and allow insider share sales, in a deal that would value the company at $400 billion, Bloomberg reported today. That figure would represent a 14% increase from SpaceX’s $350 billion valuation in December during a secondary offering of insider shares. It’s a good time to be a SpaceX investor!

The vibes among shareholders in Musk’s other big company, Tesla, are not nearly so good. The electric vehicle maker’s shares are down 26% over the same period that saw SpaceX’s valuation leap. As we noted in yesterday’s briefing, Tesla’s shareholders were particularly rattled on Monday when Musk said he planned to form his own political party, the America Party, to challenge the Democrat-Republican duopoly in American politics. That sent the company’s shares down nearly 7% as investors worried about politics and the prospect of a continued feud with President Donald Trump distracting Musk from the task at hand. 

There are a number of reasons for the split in shareholder sentiment. SpaceX’s defensive moat around its main businesses—rocket launches and satellite internet service—is deep, and it could take rivals years to challenge its business with real competition. Musk also has a clear No. 2 at SpaceX, Gwynne Shotwell, who has shown she can run the company without him around. SpaceX is a private company, unlike Tesla, and many of its shareholders have deep, long-term connections to Musk and his companies. That may make its valuation less sensitive to the kinds of issues that would rattle retail investors in a public company.

Tesla, in contrast, is facing serious near-term competition in the EV market, particularly in China. Musk is betting the house on speculative new businesses—robotaxis and humanoid robots—with huge technical hurdles. And at times, he seems openly disdainful of the hassles of running Tesla as a public company, which probably doesn’t endear him to some shareholders. In the latest example, Musk on Tuesday told one prominent financial analyst, Daniel Ives, to “shut up” after Ives advised Tesla’s board of directors to make a series of Musk-related changes. For now, SpaceX investors don’t have to endure that kind of abuse, at least not in public.

In Other News

• Meta acquired just under a 3% stake in EssilorLuxottica, the maker of Ray-Bans and other eye glasses, Bloomberg reported. The company is considering further investments that could raise its stake to around 5%.

• Shein filed confidentially for an IPO in Hong Kong, the Financial Times reported

• Hundreds of entrepreneurs signed an open letter to Sequoia Capital asking the firm to distance itself from remarks by one of its partners, Shaun Maguire. Maguire had accused New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani of advancing an “Islamist agenda.”

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