Allison Sheridan is on the show and we’ll talk about Google Glass moving out of the lab. Is it dead? Or just beginning?
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Show Notes
Today’s guest: Allison Sheridan, host of the NosillaCast on podfeet.com
Headlines
The Google Glass team announced on Google Plus today that the “open beta’ that has been the $1500 a pair Google Glass Explorer program will end Monday Jan. 19. Additionally Ivy Ross and her team will move out of X labs and under the supervision of Nest CEO Tony Fadell, though not as a part of Nest. The post only said “you’ll likely see future versions of Glass when they’re ready” but rumors have indicated Intel would power the next version of glass and a consumer version might be announced at Google I/O this year.
Elon Musk took to Twitter today to announce the building of a Hyperloop test track for companies and students, “most likely in Texas.” He also mentioned holding “an annual student Hyperloop pod racer competition.” The Verge reminds us a California project is building models for possible Hyperloop pods already, but Musk has been silent himself on the project for awhile.
Engadget reports on Xiaomi’s new line of device announced by CEO Lei Jun. The 5.7-inch 1080p dual-SIM Mi Note comes January 27th for CN¥2,299 (US$370) at 16 Gb or CN¥2,799 (US$450) for 64 GB. At 6.95mm thick and 161 grams it’s a touch slimmer and lighter than an iPhone 6 Plus. The Mi Note Pro will have a 2560 x 1440 display for $530 in March.
Yesterday, Reuters published an exclusive report that claimed Samsung had offered to buy Blackberry for as much as 7.5 billion dollars. Today, BlackBerry issued a press release to state plainly that they have not “engaged in discussions with Samsung with respect to any possible offer.” Also they don’t comment on rumors, and won’t comment any further on this one. So there.
CNET reports that Marriott has removed a ban on personal Wi-Fi networks in their hotels. The decision comes just three months after Marriott was fined $600,000 by the Federal Communications Commission for using the containment features of a Wi-Fi monitoring system at the Gaylord Opryland and then charging consumers, small businesses and exhibitors as much as $1,000 per device to access Marriott’s Wi-Fi network. The company claimed that it had banned personal hotspots to protect its visitors from rogue hot spots. A group of hotel chains has issued a request to the FCC for permission to block personal hotspots in order to protect its guests.
TechCrunch reports that Rdio has launched in India becoming the first International streaming service to do so. It’s not unexpected as Rdio purchased Indian streaming service Dhingana in early 2014. The premium Rdio service will be priced at 120 Rupees per month (about US$1.99) and the company will offer a free internet radio player for mobile as well.
Reuters reports China is setting up a 40 billion yuan ($6.5 billion) to support start-ups in emerging industries. The fund is expected to be established within a few weeks. China hopes to expand its small venture capital market with the fund.
Bloomberg reports Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a plan for a free Internet.org app in Colombia. Customers of mobile service Tigo will have free data access when using the Internet.org app, including a group of global and local websites with information on health, education, finance, employment and weather.
Intel reports its 4th quarter earnings today.
Analysts expect a profit of 66 cents on revenue of 14.7 billion. Strong server sales are part of the reason for Intel’s results. The focus is on whether Intel is making any headway selling chips for smartphones and tablets. Intel lost $4 billion on its wireless business in 2014 and is not expected to break even before 2016.
News From You:
spsheridan sent us the Business Insider report that the founder of the super successful website Ship Your Enemies Glitter has asked people to stop using his service. Matthew Carpenter wrote “HI guys I’m the founder of this website. Please stop buying this horrible glitter product – I’m sick of dealing with it.” Wrote one commenter “You have made your glitter-coated bed and I’m afraid you will have to lie in it.” Carpenter has suspended orders for the moment writing on the site “You guys have a sick fascination with shipping people glitter. We’ve received all orders & working through them. There was a tonne so be patient.
motang tipped us off to the WSJ report that people still use MySpace. In fact 50.6 million unique users in November, up 575% year over year. MySpace also racked up 300 million video views that month, good enough for 16th on ComScore’s Video Metrix ranking. MySpace gets a lot of visits from the 17-25 year old demographic and sees a spike on Thursday when people come to look for old pictures to use for Throwback Thursday.
Discussion Section Links: Google Glass
https://plus.google.com/+GoogleGlass/posts/9uiwXY42tvc
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30831128
http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/15/google-glass-exits-x-labs-as-explorer-program-shuts-down-team-now-reports-to-tony-fadell/
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/01/google-glass-graduates-from-google-x-will-be-a-stand-alone-division/
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/01/google-glass-graduates-from-google-x-will-be-a-stand-alone-division/
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/12/google-glass-isnt-dead-intel-powered-update-reportedly-due-in-2015/
Pick of the Day: My Data manager via Jamie in Beautiful BC
My data Manager is a solid app to track your data usage for your iphone/ipad/iPod Touch in real time. It tracks both your wifi and cellular data, and you are able to set your billing cycle and data cap as well. You can see a graph of your usage to see where you use the most data and get notifications when you’re getting close to your limit. Best of all it’s 100% free!
My Data Manager: http://www.mydatamanagerapp.com/
Cheers! Jamie in Beautiful BC
Tomorrow’s guests: Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta
In 1902 – Nikola Tesla filed a patent application for wireless energy transmission. The patent was granted 12 years later. We’re still waiting for the kinks to get worked out.