Apple Cuts HomePod Price
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Apple Cuts HomePod Price | |
| Number | 803 |
| Broadcast Date | APRIL 4, 2019 |
| Episode Length | 4:45 |
| Hosts | Sarah Lane |
New details on Amazon’s satellite internet plans emerge, previously “lost” MySpace songs recovered, Apache server vulnerability affects millions.
Headlines
- Apple cut prices of its HomePod speaker worldwide, from $349 to $299. Since debuting the HomePod, Apple added AirPlay 2 functionality for multi-room and stereo pairs, added support for setting multiple timers simultaneously with Siri, and added support to answer and make phone calls and set calendar items.
- MIT is suspending its ties to Chinese tech firms Huawei and ZTE, following a new review of international projects or partnerships that pose an "elevated risk." In a statement, the university said "MIT is not accepting new engagements or renewing existing ones with Huawei and ZTE or their respective subsidiaries due to federal investigations regarding violations of sanction restrictions." MIT also said it determined that working with certain countries — including China, Russia and Saudi Arabia — "merit additional faculty and administrative review beyond the usual evaluations." Existing projects involving funding from people or entities from these countries will also face further review.
- The Apache HTTP Server fixed a serious vulnerability that makes it possible for untrusted users or software to get control of the machine the software is running on. CVE-2019-0211 is a local privilege escalation that lets a person or software that has limited access to the Web server to get root privileges. The vulnerability affects Apache versions 2.4.17 to 2.4.38 when running on UNIX-like systems.
- Amazon announced a limited number of voice apps for the Alexa Skills Kit by health care companies such as Cigna and Boston Children’s Hospital that are in compliance with the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).Six new HIPAA-compliant Alexa skills are available at launch to help caregivers deliver team updates and check the status of home prescription deliveries. Developers who want to make their own health care skills must apply to an invite-only Alexa program to participate. Amazon previously added a number of conversational AI health care solutions like a smart speaker and assistant for doctors to pull up health records and record new information to patient records.
- The Australian parliament passed a new law on Thursday called The Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material, which creates new offences for content service providers and hosting services that fail to notify the Australian federal police about, or fail to swiftly remove videos depicting terrorist acts, murders, attempted murders, and so on. The Digital Industry Group, which represents Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and Verizon Media in Australia, argued that the bill was passed without enough consultation and threatens penalties against tech companies for content created by users.
- Google released the second Android Q developer preview for Pixel phones and, among other things, it includes a foldable screen emulator for developers. The emulator uses screen dimensions that match the Huawei Mate X and Samsung Galaxy Fold.
- Amazon wants to provide broadband internet access via thousands of satellites, 3,236 to be precise, in low Earth orbit. The effort is code-named Project Kuiper. Amazon made three sets of filings with the International Telecommunications Union last month by the Federal Communications Commission on behalf of Kuiper Systems LLC, which is based in Washington DC. The ITU oversees global telecom satellite operations and will have to sign off on the effort. Amazon confirmed to GeekWire the project existed, but didn’t provide a timeline for deployment or give details on pricing.
- The Internet Archive uncovered a catalogue of 490,000 MySpace songs uploaded to the service between 2008 and 2010, originally thought to be lost after a server migration error. The saved tracks were apparently collected by an “anonymous academic group” that was studying music networks during MySpace's popularity, downloading 1.3 terabytes of music from the service, who eventually contacted the Internet Archive with the files. The music can be played through an online interface designed to look like MySpace’s original music player. The Internet Archive says the database’s searcher, “Hobbit,” is still being optimized and will eventually be open-sourced.
Links
| Preceded by: "Verizon Beats Korea to the 5G Punch" |
Apple Cuts HomePod Price |
Followed by: "Amazon Developing Wireless Earbuds with Alexa" |