Patrick Norton joins us to talk about Microsoft announcing Cortana for iOS and Android and Microsoft’s continuing cross-platform strategy. Crazy, genius or both?
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Show Notes
Today’s guests: Patrick Norton
Headlines:
Microsoft announced today that it will bring a Cortana app to Android in June and iOS later this year. The app will have most of the functions of Cortana but can’t work with settings or launch apps. Windows 10 is also getting a companion app for phones that helps you integrate whatever phone you have with your Windows 10 device. And the Xbox Music apps are getting an update in late June or July that will let them play music stored in One Drive without additional charge.
Twitter’s Periscope is now available for Android users according to CNET. The Android version of the popular broadcasting App will have comparable features to the iOS version including the ability to tweet links to their broadcasts and location sharing. Additionally Android users get specific control over notifications, including when a follower goes lives, shares a broadcast or is followed by someone else, and if a user leaves a broadcast to answer a text message, they will get a notification inviting them back to the broadcast they were watching.
9 to 5 Mac reports that Apple’s Jony Ive has been promoted to the newly created position of Chief Design Officer at Apple. Ive will still be in charge of the company’s hardware and software design teams overall, but day-to-day management of the Industrial Design department will go to Richard Howarth, and Alan Dye will manage User Interface Design on desktop and mobile devices. Ive will focus on the design of Apple’s retail stores and the new Apple campus.
9 to 5 Mac has sources that say Force Touch will come to the next version of the iPhone and be supported by iOS9. Force Touch is built into new MacBooks and MacBook Pros as well as the Apple Watch. On the phone it may replace some long press-and-hold interactions.
ZDNet reports EMC will buy Virtustream for $1.2 billion allowing the company to offer hybrid cloud managed service. The acquisition ads the as-a-service element to VMware, Enterprise Hybrid Cloud, converged infrastructure and such. If you’ve been following the chatter about hybrid cloud impress your friends and say “I think managed services marketing is going to supersede that.”
CNET reports that Android Police has revealed rumors from a reliable source that Google will release two new Nexus phones but no tablet this year. One phone produced by LG codenamed “Angler” will feature a 5.2” screen, possibly a Snapdragon 808 processor, and 2700mAh battery. The second phone will be a 5.7”, a Snapdragon 810 processor, and 3500mAh batter from Huawei codenamed “Bullhead”. Both phones should be out around Oct.
The Verge reports that Ford has expanded their test of a car-sharing service in London with a full service called GoDrive. The service is one way, with guaranteed parking at your destination. It will use a fleet of Fiestas and Focus Electrics and initially be open to 2,000 people who will have access to 50 cars spread across 20 locations around London. Realtime charges are displayed on GoDrive’s smartphone app, and the first five minutes are free so that you can figure out how to use the car’s controls.
Engadget reports Google announced Tuesday it is funding a $20 million grant to make the world more accessible. The Google Impact: Disabilities program wants to “create universal access for people with disabilities.” The gernal public is asked to submit What If questions and startups and inventors are asked to respond. The program is open for submissions until September 30, 2015 at 2:00 pm at http://get.google.com/disabilitiesimpactchallenge/
News From You:
Derekhuether shared a post from inhabitat.com with stills of Tesla’s gigafactory under construction in Nevada. The factory will span 10 million sq. ft. when completed. In a Tweet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, “This is not the full Gigafactory, it is just the pilot plant (1/4 size).” The finished factory will cover hundreds of acres and be among the largest factories in the world. Tesla’s Gigafactory will be run on renewable energy, using power from three sources: the flat roof will be covered in solar panels and the factory will be plugged into a nearby wind farm and a geothermal electricity plant. Emory Peterson, a Nevada local, shot the video using a DJI Phantom 3 Professional Quadcopter Drone from a mile away.
habichuelacondulce posted the BloomBergBusiness article that Charter Communications was near a deal to buy TWC and that deal is now confirmed. Charter will pay about $55 billion. Patrick Drahi’s Altice SA had also been pursuing TWC, driving up the price. .Bright House Networks will also be acquired by Charter and merged into the combined entity. The combined business will have about 17 million subscribers second in the US to Comcast’s 22 million. Comcast dropped their pursuit of TWC in April due to regulatory concerns. French billionaire The transaction is expected to be completed by the ned of 2015.
Metalfreak flagged the PC World report that Orange is moving Kenyan mobile subscribers off CDMA and launching five LTE networks in Africa this year. This is a growing trend in Africa. Telecom Namibia shut down al its CDMA sites March 31st and moved customers to HSPA+ and LTE. One factor for the moves besides speed and service is that CDMA handsets cost more than GSM.
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the Day:
Devulu recently wanted a self-hostable way to save articles and webpages like a personal Pocket. Devulu writes:
After some searching I found Wallabag which is free and open source and does the job quite well. While the interface may not be as intuitive as other partially free or paid services, the features make up for it.
It has Apps for Android iOS and Windows Phone, I have not used the apps myself but I hope they are good.
There are Firefox and Chrome extensions/addins plus a bookmarklet
You can also download all your saved links in ePub 3, Mobi or PDF format, it can import from similar services like Pocket Readability or Instapaper and export for moving to a new wallabag.
You can customize the theme, have multiple users and probably some more features I have left out.
Messages:
Allison Sheridan writes:
I asked Steve to post in the Reddit an article by Wired about changes at GoDaddy but I wanted to give a plug about it too. The new CEO seems to have made substantive changes about women. From hiring female CTO to hiring 40% women into technical and engineering internships this year, and finally getting rid of the sexy lady ads.
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/godaddy-isnt-company-think/?mbid=social_twitter
Marlon”theGuyFromTrinidad” writes:
I don’t know if you will be doing a Google I/O preview, well…because sorry to say your contributors Android Fu…isn’t that strong, but that’s ok cause Ron Amadeo is here to rescue you. Last week he published this epic 6000+ word article that breaks it all down. So now, you to, can look like an Android shaolin master. (apologies, I was listening to Wu Tang Clan when I wrote this)
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Wednesday’s guest: Scott Johnson