Justin Robert Young on today to talk about the Sony attackers and whether games should be excused for shipping when broken.
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Show Notes
Today’s guest: Justin Robert Young, co-host of Night Attack, Weird Things podcasts
Headlines:
Sources tell Bloomberg Sony is developing a watch with an e-ink-like screen on the face on watchbands. It;s one of the products set to come out of Sony’s business creation division set up by CEO Kaz Harai this year to encourage innovation. The division also is developing something called MESH which uses small blocks with sensors, LEDs and buttons to allow rapid prototyping. The watch may come out next year according to Bloomberg’s sources.
CNET reports the US Mission to the European Union has made a statement regarding the possibility that the EU would explore breaking up Google under antitrust regulations. The Mission emailed the Wall Street Journal and noted concern with the proposal, saying, “It is important that the process of identifying competitive harms and potential remedies be based on objective and impartial findings and not be politicized.” Additionally Ars Technica reports US House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte wrote to European members objecting to the plans as did Senators Ron Wyden and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Reps. Dave Camp and Sander Levin. And a THIRD letter was signed by 12 members of US Congress led by Rep. Anna Eshoo.
But the EU isn’t leaving Google alone. BloombergBusinessWeek reports the EU’s Article 29 Working Party will publish guidelines this week recommending search engines like Google apply right to be forgotten requests to all versions of its search engine available in Europe, including the .com domain. The group also rebuked Google for notifying news outlets when story links were removed.
The guidelines aren’t legally binding, but national regulators can use them to exert pressure on Google to follow them.
Recode reports that Amazon has reduced the price of its Fire Phone to $199 unlocked, a $250 price cut off the already reduced phone. The original unlocked price was $649. Amazon is also including a year of free Amazon Prime which normally costs $99. An Amazon Fire phone on a two year contract? Still 99 cents.
TechCrunch reports the Global Web Index ranks Tumblr as the fastest growing social network with 120% growth in active users over the last six months. Pinterest is second at 11% and Instagram now third at 64%. Facebook is almost flat at 2%. Twitter grew 26%. The news for Facebook is better in growth of mobile app usage. Snapchat is tops at 56% followed by Facebook Messenger and again in third place, Instagram.
Still wondering if stickers is a good business model for messaging apps? Back in April, Japanese instant messaging app Line launched the Creators Market, where its users could make and sell their own stickers- large, sometimes animated emoji. Tech Crunch reports today that Line has sold more than $30 million in stickers from independent creators during the market’s first six months of business. Close to 36 million sticker packs have been bought from the market, from a total base of 270,000 creators.
The Next Web reports Google continues to expand its offering in Cuba. Adding to the previously launched Chrome browser there, Google is launching Google Play and Google Analytics in Cuba today. Both apps have to be free to avoid violating US restrictions on exports to Cuba. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt believes that empowering citizens with information tools is the best way to encourage the country to modernize.
CNET reports Huawei is partnering with South Korean mobile telecommunication companies — SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus — to establish 5G networks. Official standards for 5G havne’t been set yet but we’re talking speeds around 1000 times faster than LTE by 2020. Huawei is considering building an R&D center in South Korea.
The Verge reports that NASA astronauts aboard the International Space station became the first people to print a 3-D object in space. The printer was installed aboard the ISS last week by NASA commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore, and was used to produce a replacement plastic face-plate for the 3-D printer itself. Because if you’re an astronaut traveling to Mars, you might need to 3-D print another 3-D printer someday. The parts printed will be sent back to earth in 2015 to check difference between manufacturing in space versus earth.
News From You:
habichuelacondulce passes along a Gizmodo report that Google’s new Times Square billboard is very large. The billboard promotes the Android operating system and used 24 million LED megapixels, at a cost of $2.5 million for four weeks. The billboard is interactive. Passerbys can climb up on a platform and play games using a 20 foot Android avatar created by Google’s Androidify website or app.
MacBytes submitted Ben Gilbert’s Engadget post form a couple days ago bemoaning the launch problems that seem to come with every major video game these days, Halo Master Chief Collection’s online multiplayer fails, Assassin’s Creed Unity’s frame rate and gameplay bugs etc. Gilbert longs for the day when you could go rent the Bubsy the Bobcat cartridge and play it without issue. Gilbert worries that game manufacturers don’t care if games work right out of the box since they’ll fix the bugs with patches on day one and beyond.
Discussion Section: Sony hackers
http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/25/7281097/sony-pictures-hackers-say-they-want-equality-worked-with-staff-to-break-in
http://www.csoonline.com/article/2851649/physical-security/hackers-suggest-they-had-physical-access-during-attack-on-sony-pictures.html
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2383278/gop-hackers-brings-sony-pictures-to-its-knees-with-ransom-demand
http://www.reddit.com/r/hacking/comments/2n9zhv/i_used_to_work_for_sony_pictures_my_friend_still/
Pick of the Day: Shuttle via Scott Foster
Hey Tom,
Love the show! I am a web developer constantly connecting to different servers to update configuration files, read logs, or just make sure certain services are running. Also we have many different versions of our code (production, staging, testing) and keeping track of ip addresses and username/passwords can be tough, until I found shuttle ( http://fitztrev.github.io/shuttle/ ).
This is a Mac only program that sits in the menubar and allows you to group servers, name them, and have different parameters when connecting to them. It has made things so much easier. Also all the code is on github so you can see how it works and contribute to the code if you’d like.
Thanks Tom!
Plug of the day: If you were one of those people asking about a DTNS coffee mug you can get one now in the new DTNS store. And David Michael already started a sale from 12:01am on Friday until midnight Monday.
dtns.bigcartel.com
DTNSBF2014 – 10% off total order.
Future Shows: No show Thursday, because it’s Thanksgiving in the US.
Possibly a headlines only show Friday.
Monday’s guest: Rafe Needleman of Yahoo Tech
In 1777 – The Spanish founded California’s first civilian settlement called Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe. It would become the future state’s first capital and eventually the heart of Silicon Valley.