Peter Wells is on the show and we’ll discuss whether Stan can beat Netflix in Australia and who the $500 Apple watch is targeted at. Is it a chronograph or a fitness tracker?
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Show Notes
Today’s guest: Peter Wells of Reckoner, Australia
Headlines
MacRumors passes along that French website iGen has sources that say the stainless steel Apple Watch will sell for around $500 and the gold version will be somewhere from $4-5,000. Despite reports of an internal memo from Apple VP of retail Angela Ahrendts placing the watch launch after Chinese new year on Feb. 19, iGen’s sources say Feb. 14th is still the target date. Rumors? Yes. But iGen has been spot on with their sources before, including most recently with the size of the iPhone 6 and 6+.
Recode reports that Jawbone announced two new fitness trackers. Up Move is a small round ‘pod’ made of anodized aluminum. It tracks steps, sleep and calories burned, but doesn’t do idle alerts. Its LED display uses tiny lights to show you how active you’ve been. Expected battery life is six months. The clip on version is $50, with $15 more for the wrist strap. The Up3 is a $180 wristband tracker that has all the features of the most recent Up24, plus resting heart rate data. Battery life is about a week.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation published a scorecard yesterday afternoon ranking the security and privacy of messaging services. Ars Technica talked with EFF’s technology projects director, Peter Eckersley who said they were seeing unprecedented levels of commitment to secure messaging and set up the scorecard “so that everyone knows the rules to play by.” Only six applications passed all seven of the EFF’s criteria. ChatSecure, CryptoCat, the Signal app for Redphone, Silent Phone, Silent Text, and TextSecure. Eckersley says passing all seven criteria is just step one and more evaluation needs to be done.
Reuters reports German news publisher Axel Springer has stopped blocking Google from using small parts of its articles in search listings, after traffic to Axel Springer sites plunged. Traffic from search fell 40% and traffic from Google News fell 80%. Axel Springer wanted Google to pay licensing fees for its four top sites.
GigaOm reports Mozilla and the GSM association are developing non-English content for the Web as more non-English speakers begin using the Net. 56% of current Web content is in English although it is the first language of 5% of the world’s populace. 0.8% of Web content is Arabic and 0.1% Hindi, the 4th and 5th most common native languages behind English which is 3rd. Mozilla and the GSMA are conducting field tests in Kenya, Brazil, India and Bangladesh, that involve the creation of local content, digital literacy training and the use of low-cost (presumably Firefox OS) smartphones.
Hang on to your hat, fellow Australians, Netflix is coming to Australia in 2015. GigaOm passes along that according to a report from local media and marketing news website Mumbrella, Netflix has hired two marketing agencies to handle marketing and social media for the launch. To which New Zealand said: “Yoo-hoo! Right over here, bugalugs!”
In response to the imminent arrival of Netflix, Australian TV providers Nine and Fairfax have banded together to their own streaming video service named Stan which will run about $10 a month. But what can you watch? Stan promises first-run exclusives, award-winning TV shows, classic movies, blockbusters and kids content. They’ll have exclusive Australian rights to Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul episodes hours after the US airings. Stan will be available on iOS and Android devices with Apple AirPlay and Google Chrome cast support. An app for Apple TV streaming boxes is also expected. So will Stan, Netflix, Presto and Quickflix replace VPN and piracy, Peter?
News From You:
jpwarg submitted the good news from PhoneArena.com that Android 5.0 has come along with new APIs designed to allow easy access to SD cards in a secure way. Users will have to allow an app access once, but after that developers can fully access directories and files and create them and store media.
anotherjmartin submitted the Ars Technica report that according to information from US Energy Information Association LED lightbulbs are pulling ahead of compact fluorescents when it comes to efficiency. The typical efficiency of an LED lightbulb today is almost 100 lumens per watt, compared to CFL bulbs which range from 55-70 lumens per watt. Incandescents pull about 15 lumens per watt.
MikePkennedy pointed out an excellent piece by Ingrid Lunden that Spotify is generating more revenue in Europe for musicians than iTunes. Kobalt collects royalties for big name musicians like Maroon 5, Max Martin and Bob Dylan among many other. The company reports that for its customers, last quarter’s revenue from Spotify streams was 13% higher on average than revenue from iTunes. Streaming services account for 10% of all publishing income for its clients in Europe as well.
And KAPT_Kipper sent us The Verge article that the EFF is petitioning the US Library of Congress to allow owners of abandoned video games to circumvent copyright in order to keep them running after the creators shut down servers. The proposal is to allow minor code changes that involve reworking or circumventing often superficial server check-ins and simple multiplayer matchmaking services.
Discussion Section: Merry Wearables
http://www.macrumors.com/2014/11/04/apple-watch-steel-500/
http://www.igen.fr/apple-watch/2014/11/info-igen-500-pour-lapple-watch-le-14-fevrier-88380
Pick of the Day: Webstock via Peter Wells
Webstock – an amazing conference in New Zealand every year- but mentioning it for a video from Peter Sunde a few years ago, where he talked about the motivation behind the Pirate Bay. Well worth watching
Tomorrow’s guest: Lamarr Wilson!