Archive for July 13, 2022

Fisker Appoints Manufacturing Head And Releases New Image Of The Fisker Ocean

Posted in Commentary on July 13, 2022 by itnerd

Fisker, Inc. has named Alpay Uguz as Senior Vice President of Global Manufacturing, reporting to CEO Henrik Fisker, effective immediately.  

In his role at Fisker, Alpay will oversee the company’s global manufacturing as Fisker grows towards its goal of producing one million vehicles annually in 2027. Alpay will focus on lean manufacturing and innovative techniques to reduce parts starting from the earliest development phase.

Before joining Fisker, Alpay worked at BMW’s production facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina as the general manager of the brand’s SUVs. 

On top of that news, the latest official image of the Fisker Ocean is out:

The Ocean is on track, on time, for start of production in Graz, Austria in November of this year.

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The CEO Of Rogers Puts Out Another Statement… I’m Not Impressed

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 13, 2022 by itnerd

You get the sense that Rogers knows that it is in deep trouble because of Friday’s catastrophic outage. Thus they are trying find any way possible to make this go away. Which is why it doesn’t surprise me that a second message from Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri has been released:

Our network outage last Friday was unacceptable. Simply put, we failed on our promise to be Canada’s most reliable network.

This outage caused real pain and significant frustration for everyone. Canadians were not able to reach their families. Businesses were unable to complete transactions. And critically, emergency and essential calls could not be completed.

No one – not our customers, our governments, and not us – is anywhere close to finding what happened acceptable. 

Now we have to make things right.

Our network is fully operational to the standards you have come to expect. Our customer service representatives are working around the clock and have caught up on the backlog of issues. We have also increased the credit on all our customers’ bills, as some of you experienced longer delays in resuming services.

In speaking to many of you, it is clear that what matters most is that we ensure this doesn’t happen again.

You have my personal commitment that Rogers will make every change and investment needed to help ensure that it will not happen again.

As well, working with governments and our industry, we will implement what is needed to ensure that 911 and essential services can continue, no matter what outage may occur.

I understand that it is only through our actions, and with time, that we can restore your confidence in us. We can and will do better.

So he’s mentioned the five day credit that Rogers is now offering, which I don’t think is enough but I won’t go there today. And there’s a vague reference to the fact that they have 60 days to come up with a plan with Canada’s other telcos to ensure this doesn’t happen again. I also question if the network is fully operational as I am still hearing reports of Rogers customers being down.

Now while there is contrition in this message, and the understanding that actions speak louder than words. I for one don’t see action items that Rogers could be held accountable for. And I still don’t see any root cause that they are putting on the table. I point that out because it would help their cause if they are transparent with Canadians. And this message gives me the feeling of they’ve only being as transparent as they feel is required. Maybe it has something do with the CRTC investigation or the lawsuit that was just filed. Either way. I’m not impressed by this statement. It doesn’t go far enough, and it doesn’t give the incentive for anyone to ever trust this telco again.

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Telstra Appoints Steve Mundt To Head Enterprise And Technology Sales For The Americas

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 13, 2022 by itnerd

Telstra has named Steve Mundt as Vice President of Enterprise and Technology for the Americas, responsible for direct sales and new business development across the region.

Mundt takes on his new role during a time when Telstra is investing heavily to grow its network infrastructure and expand its connectivity solutions portfolio in the Americas and in key regions worldwide. 

He brings more than a decade of experience in telecommunications and global network services, most recently as Global Account Director for Media and Technology at Telstra. In that role Mundt focused on business development and key account management, designing, coordinating, and implementing large-scale global network infrastructure projects.

The Silicon Valley native will draw on his diverse background spanning content delivery, gaming, global transport backbone design, global IP transit network development and design, and latency-sensitive network optimization. 

Prior to joining Telstra in 2017, Mundt held sales and business development roles at global technology and telecommunications companies supporting enterprise, cloud and hybrid infrastructure initiatives.

Mundt studied at Sonoma State University and California State University East Bay, and currently serves as an advisor and mentor to students of the CSU East Bay Transformative Leadership program. In his free time, he is passionate about family, home improvement and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

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Public Mobile Introduces New 4G Speed Plans Alongside Best-In-Class Online Experience

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 13, 2022 by itnerd

New 4G speed plans are now available on Public Mobile in addition to its current 3G speed plans, giving subscribers even more choice and flexibility when selecting a speed plan that suits them best. With Public Mobile’s new 4G speed plans, subscribers can take advantage of 30x faster speeds enabling them to seamlessly stream HD videos, scroll through their favourite social platforms and share life’s best moments without buffering. No matter what plan they choose, they’ll always enjoy coast-to-coast coverage for great value with Public Mobile on TELUS’ award-winning network.

The new addition of 4G speed plans is the latest addition to the new and improved Public Mobile experience, including:

A best-in-class online experience: Public Mobile goes digital

Starting today, Public Mobile is now 100% digital bringing true flexibility to subscribers with a best-in-class online experience going forward. New subscribers can join Public Mobile on-the-go, from anywhere, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with all new activations, along with purchases of SIM cards and devices, taking place exclusively online.

My Account: A modernized self-serve portal experience

Redesigned from the ground up, Public Mobile’s refreshed My Account self-serve portal provides subscribers with easy account-management at their fingertips without the need for in-person support. Plus, it features an all new intuitive mobile-friendly design to make account management a breeze. 

Along with these newly introduced features, Public Mobile redesigned its Community Forum earlier this year to give subscribers the ability to find answers to their questions faster, with 24/7 access to online support. The brand also launched its new rewards program Public Points where subscribers can earn and redeem rewards with ultimate flexibility. To celebrate these incredible milestones, for a limited time only, Public Mobile will be giving new subscribers 3x the Points-back for their first 12 months on eligible purchases.

There are many more exciting enhancements to come as Public Mobile continues on its journey of putting the power of mobility in the hands of Canadians.

For more information on these new changes, please visit Public Mobile’s website.

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 Hackers Abuse Quickbooks to Send Phone Scam Emails: INKY

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 13, 2022 by itnerd

INKY researchers have disclosed the firm’s findings on the latest variant of the tried-and-true phone scam, a low-tech phone scam where hackers extract personal information by sending out spoofed emails from what appears to be a legitimate source, with no suspicious links or malware attachments, just a pitch and a phone number. 

This time around, hackers impersonate reputable retail brands such as Amazon, Apple, and Paypal, to send out legitimate notifications from QuickBooks, an accounting software package used primarily by small business and midmarket customers who lack in-house expertise in finance and accounting. The notifications presented an invoice and a contact phone number to dispute the charge. Calling this number allowed hackers to extract financial information.

Seeing as this sort of scam can be dangerous as I’ve illustrated here, reading this report which can be found here is very important in my mind. The full report can be read here.

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