The Amazon Fire Phone is out tomorrow and Anthony Carboni is on the show to help us ask the question on everyone’s mind: why? Also a workers paradise is coming to Helsinki and robots may take over the Olympics.
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Show Notes
Today’s guest: Anthony Carboni, of wehaveconcerns.com
Headlines
PC Mag among the folks reminding us that Apple’s public beta of OS X Yosemite begins tomorrow. The first 1 million people who signed up at applessed.apple.com will get a link to download the beta and be asked to submit feedback if/when they run into problems. Yosemite has been available to developers and will be finished and available to all later this autumn.
ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley points out a passing comment Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made in the company’s earnings call yesterday regarding the mythical ‘One Windows’ strategy. Nadella said MS will, “streamline the next version of Windows from three operating systems into one single converged operating system for screens of all sizes.” Later int he call he clarified this meant one team developing all variants built off the NT core with a unified store and developer platform. It does not mean you can install the same copy of Windows on your phone as on your dekstop.
Anthony! Anthony! Anthony! Did you hear! Foursquare has a new logo that looks kind of like a superhereo and is a rosy shade of pinky russet. And the typeface! Its a darker blue! And there’s a new navigation bar at the bottom! And there’s mor ephotos. and recommendations. And it’s really confusing if you still want to check in because that button is hidden and only shows up if you have Swarm installed. And it’s coming in a couple weeks to android and iOS! Are you excited?
The Next Web reports Microsoft announced the Lumia 530 arriving at the beginning of August in Europe for €85 BEFORE tax and subsidies. The low-end Lumia has a 4-inch 854×480 screen and runs Windows Phone 8.1 on a 1.2GHz Snapdragon. You can also select from one of many brightly colored interchangeable shells! Well three of the colors are bright if you conisder white to be bright. They’re bright orange, bright green, grey or white. The 530 wil also be available in single and dual SIM versions.
VentureBeat reports Google has purchased Helsinki’s own 3D graphics startup DrawElements for an unofficial $10 million according to Arcticstartup. DRawElements tech lets developers test various GPUs across mobile devices. That should be handy for Android devs at Google one might think. Also it will be party time in Finland as the management team will move to Mountain View while the rest of the team will be left to create a worker’s paradise in Helsinki.
Messaging app LINE announced a new ‘Hidden Chats’ feature for Android and iOS users that lets users send messages with a time limit attached for more ephemeral private conversations. Time limits can be set from 2 seconds up to 1 week. Bloggers are now working furiously to post how-tos describing ways to subvert the feature and keep the ephemeral messages anyway.
TechCrunch reports Facebook beat earnings projections with 2.91 Billion in revenue and earnings per share of 42 cents. Analysts expected revenue of 2.81 billion and earnings per share of .32 cents. Facebook reported 1.07 billion monthly MOBILE users and 654 million DAILY mobile users. 62% of its ad revenue came from mobile. Facebook now has 1.32 billion monthly users and 829 million daily users. Facebook’s total user count is up 3.125% from Q1.
Reuters reports that AT&T announced that its quarterly revenue rose, but slightly less than Wall Street forecasts. AT&T earned $3.6 billion, or 68 cents per share, in the second quarter, compared with $3.8 billion, or 71 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose to $32.6 billion from $32.1 billion in the year-ago quarter.
News From You
metalfreak posted the Wired article calling attention to the fact that Marvel is selling one month of access to its online comics archive for 99 cents. That gives you access to more than 15,000 digital comics from the golden age to the halcyon days of 6 months ago. The service is usually $10 a month or $69 for a year. The 99 cent offer ends in one week.
eean submitted the Ars Technica story that Verizon has been opposing net neutrality rules partly under the argument that so-called fast lanes could be used to make more accessible services fro blind, deaf and disabled users. Several groups who lobby for accessibility filed comments asking the FCC not to let Verizon speak for them, writing “In no case should accessibility considerations form a basis for permitting paid prioritization more broadly, and the Commission should reject any overture to the contrary,” wrote the Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc.; the National Association of the Deaf; the Hearing Loss Association of America; Deaf and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network; and Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Telecommunications Access. The American Association of People with Disabilities also wrote to oppose allowing paid prioritization.
exfig pointed out the Verge posting that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said “In 2020 I would like to gather all of the world’s robots and aim to hold an Olympics where they compete in technical skill.” Tokyo will be hosting the allegedly unenhanced human Olympics that same year. Switzerland plans to host games for athletes with robotic prosthetics in 2016.
spsheridan posted the Scientific American article on China’s planned supercollider. Scientists at the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) in Beijing, working with international collaborators, want to build a 52-kilometer electron-positron collider by 2028. It would be used as a ‘Higgs factory’ allowing the Higgs boson to be studied with greater precision than can be achieved at the smaller Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Discussion Section: Amazon Fire
http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/22/amazon-fire-phone-review/
http://recode.net/2014/07/22/can-the-amazon-fire-smartphone-take-on-iphone-and-samsung/
Picks of the Day: Scottevest via Russell Manthy
A couple of weeks ago Scottevest was mentioned in passing on DTNS and thought it might be a good pick of the day. Scottevest was founded by Scott Jordan in 2000. He had noticed a problem early on that people were carrying more and more gear, gadgets, chargers, etc. and that the only vests on the market with pockets enough were designed for fishing or photography. Scottevest sells ‘technology enabled clothing’ which has pockets which are tailored especially for your gear. Some pockets have translucent touch sensitive lining so that you can operate your smart phone while not taking it out, others are RFID shielded. In addition to smaller pockets there are also bigger pouches for tablets and cameras. Wire ways are also provided for lacing wires for headphones from a device in a pocket to the collar. The vests and jackets are engineered to balance the load so that the clothes do not hang on you oddly. From the outside you would think they were normal vests or jackets but on the inside they are really great for keeping all your gear organized and concealed. I have been using one through fall and winter for the last few years and it is great; I actually miss it in the summer!
Tomorrow’s guest: Tim Stevens of cnet.com