🐤 Camera tricks

Markets: A week after Donald Trump’s election triggered a major rally on Wall Street, some of the wind left the market’s sails yesterday. Investors began to speculate that some of those recent gains were too abrupt, and Tuesday’s correction pushed all three major indexes down a fraction of a percent.

Desperate measures: If DNA-testing company 23andMe is going to stay in business after a massive security breach in 2023 impacted nearly 7 million users, it’s going to take some drastic changes … and some are already underway. About 200 employees, or about two-fifths of the company’s entire workforce, are reportedly being laid off as part of the restructuring plan, which is projected to trim $35 million in annual expenses. Additionally, its therapeutics division is being shuttered and the publicly traded company is pursuing a path to go private.

New England blaze: The combination of high winds and the impact of an ongoing drought added fuel to the Jennings Creek Wildfire that has already scorched more than 3,500 acres on both sides of the New Jersey-New York line. Officials have issued red flag advisories in those states as well as others across the Northeast — Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island — as fire conditions remain dangerous. Meanwhile, the Mountain Fire in Ventura County, California, has burned 20,000 acres and was less than 50% contained as of Tuesday.

Flight under fire: Two separate commercial jets were hit by bullets in Haiti as the island nation continues to suffer through a particularly violent period. One Spirit Airlines flight from Florida to Port-au-Prince was fired upon prior to landing, which forced the pilot to divert passengers and crew to an airport in the Dominican Republic. A flight attendant reportedly sustained minor injuries. A bullet also hit a JetBlue jet in an apparently unrelated incident. The U.S. Embassy warned against traveling to Haiti during this “unpredictable and dangerous” time.

German gridiron: The NFL has been courting opportunities for international games for a while, and it looks like Berlin will soon become the latest city in Germany to host professional American football games. Munich and Frankfurt are already in the NFL schedule rotation. Beginning in the 2025-26 season, the NFL reached a deal with Berlin to play games at the city’s Olympiastadion for at least the next five years. The German capital is also increasing access to flag football training among students ahead of that sport’s inclusion in the 2028 Olympics.

Amazon, once a small online bookstore, grew into a global behemoth, transforming industries along the way. Now, imagine yourself at the forefront of the next revolution: AI. In The Motley Fool's latest report, uncover the parallels between Amazon's early trajectory and the current AI revolution. Experts predict one of these AI companies could surpass Amazon's success with market caps nine times larger. Yep, you read that right. Don't let history repeat itself without you. Sign up for Motley Fool Stock Advisor to access the exclusive report.

Sign up today

It’s hardly unusual for Apple to allow an emerging segment of the tech industry to advance before unveiling its first product. Personal computers, MP3 players, and smartphones were already being sold when the Mac, iPod, and iPhone revolutionized each market.

Now, the Big Tech giant is reportedly poised to release its own smart home security camera.

What we know so far

Like other Apple products, insiders say the company plans for its camera to easily connect and communicate with iPhones, Apple TV, HomePods, and other devices. It will also reportedly include several artificial intelligence features, including a component that can identify individuals approaching a home’s front door.

Although the product is still in development, it’s expected to be ready for a full-scale debut by 2026 and the sales target is more than 10 million cameras per year.

It’s important to note that Apple is entering a market already dominated by two rivals — Amazon’s Ring and Google’s Nest. That means Apple will likely need a pretty impressive rollout to attract customers away from either one.

And what we don’t know

Most of the details about this project that have surfaced thus far haven’t come from Apple itself. So there’s no way to know what type of camera might be the first to go on sale.

The four main categories include:

• Indoor camera
• Indoor/outdoor camera
• Outdoor camera
• Video doorbell

Pricing is also unconfirmed, but the real money-maker for Apple might not be the device itself. The company offers HomeKit Secure Video service, which costs $11 per month for iCloud video storage.

Although some third-party cameras can be operated through the Apple Home platform, the release of its own device is being widely seen as a sign that the company is serious about making a splash in the lucrative smart home segment.

If you’ve ever turned on a light switch only to be temporarily blinded by a bright LED bulb, you know how a group of great white sharks felt during a scientific study near Mossel Bay in South Africa. As a result of that research, there’s a new strategy for deterring sharks from attacking surfers or kayakers.

At first sight

Essentially, researchers found that by affixing LED lights to the underside of surfboards and kayaks is enough to interrupt a shark’s hunting instincts.

Macquarie University researcher Dr. Laura Ryan chose Mossel Bay to conduct the study due to the high number of sharks. She used decoys shaped like seals and tested shark responses. Evidence showed that attacks were significantly less likely on the decoys equipped with LED lighting.

The reason bright lights are so effective on sharks is that these animals depend on their incredible vision to track and hunt prey. While constant, bright light appears to be the best way to disrupt that sense of sight, evidence shows that other lighting methods aren’t as effective.

Strobe lights, for example, didn’t prevent sharks from identifying prey even during the brief moments that the light flickers off.

Simply misunderstood

Although shark attacks are relatively rare, they receive a lot of media attention due to their often vicious nature. And while this has earned the species a reputation for being overtly aggressive toward humans, experts say that’s not the case.

In fact, most shark attacks appear to be a case of mistaken identity. As it turns out, the bottoms of surfboards and kayaks can look a lot like a seal or some other tasty snack from the shark’s perspective.

So before you head out into the ocean, make sure you pick up a few ultra-bright LED lights.

As companies, particularly in the tech industry, expand into new segments, it’s often advantageous to organize them under one or more larger platforms. And that’s what Microsoft has been doing recently with its Outlook app.

Mail and more

The company announced this week that a trio of popular Windows apps — Mail, Calendar, and People — will no longer receive Microsoft support as of the start of next year. All three are in the process of being merged with the Outlook app, which is the only way users will be able to access their services after the end of December.

In its statement on the matter, the company advised users that if they have not gravitated to the Outlook platform by the deadline, they “will no longer be able to send and receive email using Windows Mail and Calendar.”

A work in progress

The Outlook for Windows app has been a priority for Microsoft for some time, but this year its pursuit of the project shifted into overdrive. The app’s full-scale release came in August and the integration of the Mail, Calendar, and People apps is only the tip of the iceberg.

Developers say the web-based app is designed to take the place of Outlook’s desktop platform, though that shift doesn’t appear imminent and Microsoft says it will give its enterprise customers at least a year to prepare.

And the full extent of the app project won’t be realized for another five years or more. Existing licenses and subscriptions to the original Outlook suite will continue receiving support until 2029 or later.

But with a handful of Microsoft apps on the chopping block right now, it’s obvious that the company is serious about its intent to focus on developing one central app-based platform.