Movie Draft Update, Silicon Valley (Season 2), Game of Thrones (505), Daredevil (113), The Shield (509)
00:51 – Movie Draft Update
05:21 – Silicon Valley (Season 2)
09:25 – Game of Thrones (505)
19:02 – Daredevil (113)
26:43 – The Shield (509)
Become our bosses! Pledge at
In 1884 – A group of people interested in the new field of electricity met in New York to start the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
In 1939 – Franklin Doolittle put experimental station W1XPW on the air, making it the first commercial FM radio station in the United States. The station later became WDRC-FM in Bloomfield, Connecticut.
In 1958 – The trademark “Velcro” was registered, protecting the name of the multi-purpose material that manages cables everywhere.
In 1976 – Atari released the video game “Breakout,” making the paddle controller useful for something besides “Pong.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Patrick Beja joins the show to discuss the ad tech Verizon is buying with AOL and what it plans to do with its content publications.
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Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
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A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guests: Patrick Beja
Headlines:
Verizon announced today it has signed an agreement to buy AOL for $50 a share an estimated value of $4.4 billion AOL will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Verizon. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said AOL’s “advertising platform provides a key tool for us to develop future revenue streams.” AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, who will stay on as the subsidiary’s leader, said the combination “creates a unique and scaled mobile and OTT media platform for creators, consumers and advertisers.” The deal is expected to be completed this summer.
The Verge reports that Skype Translator is now available for anyone with a Windows 8 or Windows 10 PC to try. The software can translate English, Spanish, Italian, and Mandarin in real time, converting the original language into either text or audio.
The Verge reports on a new drone called Lily that you can throw into the air and ignore as it films whatever you’re doing. You have to strap a small GPS tracker to your wrist and then Lily uses computer vision technology to recognize its owner. The tracking device also records audio that syncs to the video, shot in 1080p at 60 frames per second. It can also shoot 12-megapixel stills. Oh and its waterproof to IP67. What it doesn’t have is avoidance detection, so you should only use it in wide open spaces. The device goes on sale today for pre-order at $499, a discount from the planned $999 retail price.
ReCode reports Google’s Android One program for affordable smartphones added Turkey as its seventh country. General Mobile will produce the devices starting around US$260. Android One devices are normally supposed to sell for around $100 but electronics in Turkey generally have higher prices.
Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company MediaTek is prepping the launch of a 10-core chip called Helio X20 according to Engadget. The chip is a 20nm “tri-cluster” design consisting of two 2.5GHz Cortex-A72 cores, four 2GHz Cortex-A53 cores and four 1.4GHz Cortex-A53 cores. While all ten cores can run simultaneously MediaTek General Manger of International Corporate Sales, Finbarr Moynihan said the chip’s software will pick the ideal cluster to use depending on power and processing needs. The first commercial device using the chip will arrive in consumer devices by the end of the year at the earliest.
ZDNet reports that Samsung has unveiled a new line of chips for Internet of Things devices, called the Artik. Artik One is the size of a ladybug with a 9-axis motion sensor, Bluetooth Low Energy support.
Artik Five is the size of a 25-cent coin with a video decoder and encoder. And Artik 10 comes with an HD encoder and decoder, 5.1 audio meant for home servers and personal clouds. Samsung also has established an open source-based developer platform and starter kit, which will become available immediately.
TechCrunch reports Aliyun, Alibaba’s cloud computing unit announced a joint-venture with Dubai’s Meraas, to create apps, cloud architecture and big data tools for clients. The venture will be located in Dubai and serve the wider region. According to IDC, spending on ICT products and services in the Middle East and Africa will exceed $270 billion in 2015.
News From You:
Spsheridan sent us this story from 9 to 5 Google that following a Reddit AMA on government surveillance, Google admitted that while Hangouts conversations are encrypted, it does not use end-to-end encryption. That means Google can tap into sessions when it receives a government court order to do so. Google’s Transparency Report reveals it has received 26 US government wiretap requests from the beginning of 2013 to the middle of last year. The company did not identify how many of these, if any, were for Hangouts.
Drtolbert submitted the Engadget story that Warner Music Group announced today it made more money in Q2 from streaming licenses than it did from digital downloads. Streaming revenue rose 33% while digital sales rose 7%.
Habichuelacondulce sent us the Gizmodo report that researchers at MIT have solved one of the great artistic condundrums of our time. Sort of. A group of scientists led by YiChang Shih have developed an algorithm that can extract and automatically remove reflections in an image, like when you take a shot of something through a window. The catch is that the window has to be double-paned or very thick. Gizmodo helpfully points out that in addition to Adobe Photoshop, the military might also benefit from the algorithm, to help robots look through windows and not get confused by their own reflection.
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the Day:
Devulu writes:
I wanted to share the following website with your listeners.
When creating a HTTPS secure website one sometimes needs to troubleshoot why Chrome or Firefox do not display the lock icon usually associated with HTTPS.
The usual culprits are external elements which are being loaded over HTTP, so https://www.whynopadlock.com/ helps you check for those elements and fix them.
Messages:
Alastair Mitchell from Edinburgh, Scotland:
Just wanted to contributed to the discussion on wearables from yesterday’s episode (2490).
The majority of wearables on the market just now are focussed on people losing weight but if you’re someone like myself who needs to gain weight they are quite unhelpful. Because my focus is to gaining weight I mostly do weight training at the gym rather than cardio which wearables right now can’t track well.
I played with a Fitbit for a month or two but that was purely for geek reasons and the information I got from it was interesting but not beneficial for myself.
A wearable which focuses on overall health rather than losing weight would be really interesting to me but I’m not sure how many others want such a device.
Great show, makes my bus to work much shorter.
Rich from Lovely Cleveland:
Your discussion on the issue of interpreting the info provided by wearables left out one player. Microsoft is making an interesting push to be the service that will work cross platform to cull and interpret all of your health data. They support their Health app and Band across all the major OSes, and seem more interested in people feeding the data in than forcing people to exclusively buy into their platform (although I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if you did). Their service is still nascent, so we’ll see if Microsoft lives up to their lofty goals, but I like what they are proposing better than the device lock-in that a lot of wearable makers seem to be forcing (although I guess by being cross-platform it makes it easier for MS to lock you into their service, but at least it feels like a bigger gilded cage).
Heather from Charleston, SC:
Your conversation with Veronica and Ron on Monday got me thinking about how I’ve benefited from fitness tracking. I recently started on a new medication, and one of the potential side effects is an increased resting heart rate. Since I have heart rate data for several months back, I was able to look at the new data, see a significant increase over average, and then have a conversation with my doctor on how to proceed. Without that trend, it would have been harder to determine if there was a meaningful change.
Russell writes:
On yesterday’s show you were discussing that 14% of Zappos staff took an exit package based on the new management approach. We look at statistics like that as a part of the analysis that we do for our work and wanted to offer some perspective on that number. According to Gallup’s ‘State of the American Workplace’ report from 2013 30% of the workforce is actively engaged and inspired at work, 52% are present but not fully engaged and 18% are actively disengaged and looking to make a change. The 14% at Zappos seen in this context might actually be a positive and given the factors associated with career path, etc. this number might actually be low. As always, there are many forces that impact things like this so this is just some conjecture based on some recent statistics.
Great to hear Veronica on her first ‘regular’ appearance last night.
Thanks for all that you do!
Bill Strait writes:
I just wanted to clarify a few points about the blockchain getting more buzz than bitcoin. The Bitcoin Blockchain is the world’s most secure public ledger. Why? Because it has the most hashing power of any distributed computer in the world. This hashing power isn’t coming from volunteers, it’s coming from bitcoin miners. Miners secure the network in exchange for bitcoin. If bitcoin becomes worthless, the miners go away. Without numerous geographically dispersed miners the blockchain is no longer secure. You cannot separate Bitcoin from it’s blockchain, but you can make other blockchains that compete with it for miners. If someone wants to put together a proposal for a Dollar Blockchain I’m all ears. For now, I’m going where the hash rate is.
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Wednesday’s guest: Scott Johnson
In 1936 – University of Washington education professor August Dvorak received a patent for his new more efficient keyboard layout. While widely recognised as superior to the QWERTY layout, the Dvorak keyboard is not widely used.
In 1941 – German engineer Konrad Zuse presented the Z3, the first program-controlled electromechanical digital computer. It succeeded the Z1 which was the first binary digital computer.
In 2005 – Elijah Wood revealed the Xbox 360 on the MTV Music Awards. Microsoft didn’t announce price or release dates, only saying it would arrive for sale by the end of the year.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Showtime’s ready for its own HBO Now, Broadcast networks become optional and what Apple should do to keep the Apple TV relevant?
CordKillers: Ep. Talk Good Like Shwood
Recorded: May 11, 2015
Guest: Justin Robert Young
Intro Video
Primary Target
Signal Intelligence
Gear Up
Front Lines
Under Surveillance
Dispatches from the Front
Just finished up a big survey of cord cutters and the habits of password sharing, thought you guys might enjoy the data:
http://exstreamist.com/the-younger-you-are-the-more-likely-it-is-youll-share-your-netflix-password/
The 10 cent version:
Younger age equals a higher likelihood of sharing passwords. Older age results in a healthy fear that these services are going to put an end to all this freeloading sooner rather than later. HBO Go the largest % of “borrowed” streaming services. Let me know if you’ve got any questions / need any more info about the data, hope you enjoy!
Best,
–Rob
I’ve listened to every episode of cordkillers. In spite of Brian, I enjoy the show very much. I understand spoilers are going to occur. What I have issue with, is when people enjoy spoiling things when it’s unnecessary. Episode 67, Tom was describing the Star Wars trailer without naming Han and Chewy when Brian interrupted, mocking Tom for doing so and more than happy to provide the spoiler.
Recently, Brian thought it would be funny to watch Game of Thrones on HBO GO, skip to the end and then tweet the ending. DOUCHEBAG.
I get that Brian doesn’t understand my point of view. What I don’t understand, is why would you knowingly piss off a segment of your listeners.
–Erik
Hi guys,
In regards to the TiVo OTA story, last fall we purchased an OTA for my snowbird parents to use as a second DVR so they wouldn’t have to lug their existing TiVo across the country twice a year. Ok it was also so I could avoid the yearly, “how do I hook this thing up” call. Unfortunately, I didn’t do my research and was surprised to find that, unlike every other TiVo I’ve purchased over the last ten years; I couldn’t get a lifetime plan for it.
Not only did I have to pay monthly, I had to commit to 12 months. Not the best option for a device that will be unplugged 6 months of the year. After much back and forth with TiVo, they refused to budge and the cheapest option they would “give” me was to pay monthly for 18 months, cancel for 6 months and repeat.
I had finally caved and was about to sign the contract and hook up the OTA on Saturday when this deal came out of nowhere. So I reached out to TiVo one last time. Of course no such luck for me, I have to buy another OTA that has lifetime I can’t put lifetime on the unactivated OTA I already bought! Crazy but it was still a lot cheaper than what I would have done. Luckily I was able to get the deal even though it did come and go for me as well.
Anyway, long story longer, does anyone want a new unused OTA sans lifetime service?
Your penny pinching boss,
–Dan in Rochester
I have been an avid user of Windows media center DVR to record with Cablecard for years. With the software not being part of Windows 10, I was very disappointed. I have yet to find anything and then today I found this on kickstarter. . This is going to be a game changer for me. I already use HDHomeRun prime. This should be amazing. I thought this is something you should share with your audience.
–Dave
Hi Brian, Tom, and guest,
A huge potential problem exists for those who rely on WMC for their DVR on some cable providers. WMC is currently the only software approved by CableLabs to play Copy-Once content (which is DRM’d video that can only be played on the device that recorded it or a WMC extender like the Xbox 360). All other software currently available (various Kodi backends, NextPVR, etc.) is only able to play/record Copy Freely material. Generally this isn’t a major problem as Comcast and Verizon flag most content as Copy Freely and only tag HBO/Starz/Showtime and the other premium cable channels as Copy Once. Nevertheless, some providers tag everything as Copy Once and therefore some users of WMC will eventually be forced to move away from an HTPC as an option to receive cable TV on their computer.
Not sure if it was mentioned on the show either but SiliconDust has started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to develop their own DVR software. It appears that it will be a subscription-based program for $30/year, but the UI looks promising and it states that it should be able to play copy-once material.
–Geoff in Maryland
Hey guys, last week Brian and Justin declared the summer blockbuster dead because Avengers 2 only had the 2nd biggest opening weekend in movie history. I really don’t understand this idea. As I write this, Avengers 2 has already made 3 times its budget. Furious 7 has profited well over a BILLION dollars, more than the budgets of all the movies in the series combined.
My point is, they can afford an an occasional flop (like Avengers 2) and still profit billions of dollars every summer. When you look at the worldwide grosses, its hard to find a high budget movie that didn’t make back its budget. In 2014, Robocop and Hercules over doubled their money. 300 Rise of an Empire tripled. Godzilla and Ninja Turtles nearly quadrupled. None of these movies were considered huge box office hits, but all were very financially successful. The ONLY high budget summer movie in the past 3 years I could find that didn’t make its money back was RIPD. It lost 52 million. Good thing Universal profited about 600 million off of Fast & Furious 6 that same summer! I think they’ll keep cranking out the summer blockbusters for some time to come.
If I’m missing something, please explain. Maybe there’s something I’m not seeing or maybe I totally misunderstood what you guys meant. Either way, would love to hear.
Thanks guys, I love the show and am proud to be supporting it!
–Andy in Taylor, Tx
P.S. Brian: standing invitation for Louie Mueller BBQ in Taylor any day this summer!
re: Prisoner 42
THANK YOU!!!
–Kirk
2015 Winter Movie Draft
draft.diamondclub.tv
Links
Veronica Belmont and +Ron Richards are on to talk about the benefits and risks of tracking everything you do. Can all that data really be useful?
Using a Screen Reader? click here
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guests: Ron Richards and Veronica Belmont
Headlines:
Engadget reports Google has stopped accepting public contributions to their Map Maker service following a prank. Map Maker relies on “Google reviewers” and trusted users to moderate contributions. Since the prank, Google switched temporarily to manual checks from in-house teams but that led to a backlog of user submitted edits forcing Goggle to suspend new submissions entirely as of May 12th. Google says its temporary situation until it comes up with an improved moderation system,
The curated iOS app called NYT Now has dropped its $8 a month subscription fee and gone ad-supported. The app is targeted at younger readers and features selected stories from the New York Times as well as other sources around the Web. The newspaper’s main apps still carry a fee of $15-$35 a month.
TechCrunch reports Microsoft announced investments in three undersea cable projects. The New Cross Pacific Cable Network will connect China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan with the US via Hillsboro, OR. A deal with Hibernia will offer faster connectivity between Canada, Ireland and the UK. The Hibernia Express Cable, launchign in September is the first new transatlantic cable in 12 years and will handle up to 10 Tbps per cable pair. And Microsoft is the first customer of AcquaComms upcoming AEConnect cable between Shirly, NY and the west coast of Ireland.
The Wall Street Journal notes that Nasdaq OMX Group is starting a pilot project to use a blockchain to verify transactions in its Nasdaq Private Market. The blockchain is the public ledger system used to verify Bitcoin transactions. Trading among pre-IPO companies in the private market currently, is often done by hand.
Next Thing Co. based in Oakland CA, is planning to build a $9 computer called Chip according to Fortune. The machine is built around a 1GHz ARM processor from Allwinner Technology in China, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. It comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity to be save costs integrated video is a composite video port. However a VGA or HDMI adapter add-on is available for $10 and $15. The Chip is available from Next Thing’s Kickstarter which has raised close to a million dollars in 5 days. Well past its $50,000 goal.
CNET reports on a virtual reality theme park called The Void being built in Pleasant Grove, Utah, north of Provo. Starting sometime in 2016 visitors in groups of up to 10 can enter one of seven 60×60 foot rooms, put on VR headsets, and wander around a world that lets them feel real bark and metal under their fingertips, and interact with other players in realtime. Creator Ken Bretschneider designed the park and the headsets and hopes to work with outside gaming studios to create new experiences every three months.
TechCrunch reports IDC’s numbers show China’s smartphone market fell 4% year over year in Q1. It;s the first time smartphone shipments decreased in the country since 2006. IDC suggests excessive inventory might have been the cause. IDC still tracked 98.8 million shipments in China. Apple led the way with 14.7% market share followed by Xiaomi Huawei, Samsung and Lenovo in that order.
Ars Technica reports former Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi launched a Kickstarter Monday for a game called Bloodstained Ritual of the Night. Igarashi was the longest-running producer on the Castlevania series but left Konami last year. The game will be available as a digital download for backers who give $28 or more.
The Verge reports that the Orange Klif, a 3G phone running Firefox OS, is on sale this week for customers of the Orange network in Senegal and Madagascar. The phone costs around $40 US. This follows on the heels of Firefox OS phones shipping in South Africa earlier this year.
News From You:
habichuelacondulce sent us this Verge story on the FCC’s dismissal of a petition to delay the implementation of the Open Internet order submitted by a group consisting of AT&T, CenturyLink, USTelecom, and CTIA. This was the top vote getter on the subreddit today. The FCC stated that its classification of broadband Internet as a telecommunications service falls within its authority and consistent with Supreme Court precedent.
starfuryzeta shared the Huffington Post writeup of the AP report that a source says four of the fifty self driving cars in use in the state of the California have gotten into accidents since September. Three of the accidents happened to a Google Lexus SUV and the other to a car operated by Delphi Automotive. Both companies say the accidents were minor and the self-driving cars were not at fault. Two accidents happened while the cars were in self-driving mode.
michsineath submitted the Slate story about Zappos’s experiment with a management style called Holacracy. The organizational theory replaces titles and managers with a system of tactical and governance meetings. The project began in 2013 but in March CEO Tony Hsieh announced the system would apply to all employees and anyone who was dissatisfied with the decision would be offered severance. 210 employees, about 14% of the company, took the payout.
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the Day:
Lisa Boban (Co-Executive Producer) – Whiting Indiana
I’ve been a subscriber to Rhapsody for over 10 years. I joined when they were literally the only legal game in town. My requirements were simple: a legal music service to keep my teenagers from stealing music.
But over the years their service has been an excellent resource for my musician husband who needs to be able to find specific tracks. Their back catalog is amazing, and the new stuff appears to be there. Their apps on both IOS and Android are great. And for $15 per month we can stream or download music for offline listening. Every time I look at another services, the available choices don’t come close to the functionality I get from Rhapsody.
I realize that Rhapsody has a bad reputation amongst the Technorati. But if you’re looking for a service, I think it deserves at least a look.
Messages:
Someone who works for a cable company wrote in and pointed out that when a cable company gives its customers a $20 credit for being late to an appointment, it often charges the $20 to the technician.
The worker writes:
They are listed as WorkForce Not Utilized.
Its been told to us that anytime we run late to a job the company takes the $20 hit from the cable company. Thus, the cable company has eliminated any profit loss.
The only way for the charge to not be passed on to us to make sure our dispatcher is notified and has contacted the customer and noted that account 30mins or more before the end of the scheduled timeframe.
It’s Alan from Moncton New Brunswick, where winter just ended
Long time listener (since the first TNT), first time writer and future boss (I’m in the tell everyone I know category ATM )
Regarding self driving trucks,I’d like to give a ‘four cast’
I think that future ‘truck operators’ will be ‘driving’ multiply trucks (three would be a good number.)
I see one operator in charge of these trucks in convoy. Having the ‘unmanned’ trucks following the ‘manned’ truck.
If they run into any mechanical issue the operator could deal with it (tire issues, etc), making decisions on route and maintenance (fueling, etc)
I’d also see the operator being able to switch to any unmanned trucks controls from his seat, that way he could take over to direct it to specific spot for fueling or parking.
Would be perfect for long haul highway routes from terminal to terminal. It would be like a ‘land train’ if we have self driving truck, doing ‘follow the leader’ should be child’s play
Would solve multiple issues about manpower in that industry and getting loads where needed.
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Tuesday’s guest: Patrick Beja
In 1951 – Jay Forrester filed a patent application for matrix core memory. Professor Forrester led a team at MIT that developed a three-dimensional magnetic structure code-named Project Whirlwind. It was the first random access memory that was practical, reliable and relatively high-speed.
In 1979 – Daniel Bricklin and Robert Frankston gave the first demonstration of VisiCalc, the program that made the Apple II popular with businesses.
In 1997 – Deep Blue won its final match against Chess master Garry Kasparov, becoming the first computer to defeat a chess champion in match play.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
In 1946 – The US launched its second V-2 rocket at White Sands Proving Ground, which became the first successful launch of a large rocket on US soil. The rocket climbed straight up then pitched to the north reaching an altitude of 71 miles and impacted about 35 miles uprange.
In 1960 – The nuclear-powered USS Triton submarine arrived in Groton, Connecticut, after completing the first completely submerged circumnavigation of Earth.
In 2011 – Google announced its Open Hardware Platform and the Google Music service which would eventually become Google Play Music.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
In 1893 – Thomas Alva Edison demonstrated the Kinetoscope for the first time at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.
In 1941 – British destroyers captured a German U-110 submarine south of Iceland and recovered a naval version of the highly secret cipher machine known as Enigma. The sub was sunk to hide its capture and the machine taken to Bletchley Park where Alan Turing and other cryptographers broke the naval code.
In 1989 – Apple previewed its new System 7 operating system at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose. It was announced users would need at least a Mac Plus to run it as well as 2 megs of RAM.
In 2006 – Nintendo announced that its next game console, previously referred to as the Nintendo Revolution, would be called the Nintendo Wii.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Justin Young joins the show to talk about the death of the free tier in streaming music services. Plus Len Peralta is in while his spaghetti cooks, to draw an awesome picture about the show.
Using a Screen Reader? click here
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guests: Justin Robert Young and Len Peralta
Headlines:
Nokia may or may not WANT to sell its HERE mapping division but plenty of folks are interested in buying it. Reuters reports its sources say Daimler, BMW and Audi formed a consortium to submit an indicative bid for the division. The New York Times sources say Uber submitted a bid worth $3 billion. Book value for the HERE mapping division is about €2 billion.
Does web surfing make you hungry? You’re in luck. According to The Verge Google has integrated a “Place and order” option when you search for nearby restaurants. The option lets you choose from various services and complete the order on the services website. The first 6 delivery providers in the US are Seamless, Grubhub, Eat24, Delivery.com, BeyondMenu and MyPizza.com. Google hopes to add more providers in the future.
Reuters has revealed that Alibaba is in talks to buy 20% of Indian smartphone maker Micromax Informatics. The deal would help Alibaba expand into the world’s 3rd largest smartphone market. Alibaba, like many companies would like to get a foothold in the INdian market.
9 to 5 Google reports that starting today, Friday, owners of Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge can order the Gear VR Innovator Edition online for $199 via the Samsung store or BestBuy.com. The headset won’t be in Best Buy retail outlets until May 15th.
Fast Company writes up the new app called Thred from SimCity creator Will Wright. It’s a slideshow app. Or a storytelling app. Or a social network. Depending on who you ask. Wright called it an app for making “multi-image creations for anything from web comics, to logging your tropical vacation, to useful how-tos,” BAsically you take up to 30 images and choose to use any filters, borders or overlays. You can follow people favorite their threds and leave comments. You can also add links and location markers. Thred is available today on iOS in the US.
Nintendo notes that its first smartphone title will come out later this year with four more promised by March 2017. So five apps in two years. Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata says that’s not a small number because they intend to make every app a hit. He said “If we did not aim to achieve a significant result, it would be meaningless for us to do it at all.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that Russia and China have signed an agreement not to conduct cyber-attacks against each other as well as jointly counteract technology that may “destabilize the internal political and socio-economic atmosphere,” ”disturb public order” or “interfere with the internal affairs of the state.” The deal includes information sharing between law enforcement, exchange technologies and ensure security of information infrastructure.
Biztechafrica reports MTN Nigeria had made all Nigerian apps free until May 31 for its customers. The APPtitude campaign requires users to text the word APP to 131. App developers who want their app featured in the MTN portal should visit cp.nexva.com/r/mtn
News From You:
MANAGEMIKE submitted the top subreddit post from Ars Technica. This one gioes out to the chip lovers in the audience. Yesterday, at the AMD Financial Analyst Day CEO Lisa Su said the company will shift from being a bargain chip maker to focusing on high-performance. Among the announcements, Zen will be AMD’s sole CPU microarchitecture, launching at the high end first with a new series of FX chips. Al desktop CPU’s will use the new AM4 socket which introduces DDR4 support. That ends Project Skybridge. ARM-based OPteron A1100 serve chips will finally ship. And a new flagship GPU with high bandwidth memory will launch later this quarter.
Habichuelacondulce pointed out the Wall Street Journal article on CBS earnings, which dropped 195. But CEO Les Moonves always has something interesting to say. This time he mentioned the company will roll out an Internet-delivered version of the Showtime premium TV channel “in the coming months.”
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the Day:
Rich from Lovely Cleveland:
The pick of Tubes reminded me of an excellent book I think your audience would enjoy. Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software by Scott Rosenberg is a fantastic book that gives a really approachable glance into the world of software development. It covers Mitch Kapor’s attempt to create a dynamic calendar app called Chandler in the mid-2000s. As someone with no background in development or coding, it gave me some great perspective on what needs to go into creating the software I take for granted. Its kind of a layman’s The Mythical Man Month.
Messages:
Alan writes:
Congestion-based data limits brings back the days of “free night time and weekend minutes” on cell phone service. Except the congestion time is probably the diametric opposite of phone service. And if more carriers start billing based on congestion in a big way, I think they will have to do something like time-based rates so that people can have some idea of whether or not their data use is counting against their cap. And like phone service, I expect it will be a temporary solution until more bandwidth is built out. My guess is that carriers were betting on living with the current system of caps during the wait, since it makes them more money, and the industry consensus seems to be that the time-based billing was confusing to customers.
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Monday’s guest: Ron Richards and Veronica Belmont