Daily Tech Headlines – July 15, 2016
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Daily Tech Headlines – July 15, 2016 | |
| Number | 27 |
| Broadcast Date | JULY 15, 2016 |
| Episode Length | 9:21 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt |
BitTorrent Now launches on Apple, Ford makes better robots, and a robot for herding cattle.
Headlines
- BitTorrent launched its BitTorrent Now streaming app on iOS and Apple TV Friday. The app launched on Android in June. Any creators of music and video can upload to the service. It uses peer-to-peer to distribute the works. Creators can set any price, including free or by subscription, keeping the majority of the proceeds. The Onion, Super Deluxe, and IHEARTCOMIX, are among the creators using it at launch.
- Ford is among a group of investors in 3D mapping company Civil Maps. The company makes software that convert data gathered by cameras and Lidar sensors into maps that can be used for autonomous driving. AI processes incoming data to choose essential bits and transmit them by cellular in realtime. CEO Sravan Puttagunta says its process cane let "vehicles to drive like humans do—identifying on-road and off-road features even when they might be missing, deteriorated, or hidden from view."
- Ford also announced new assembly-line robots developed with KUKA Roboter GmbH. The three-foot tall machines are in use at a factory on Cologne to assist in the installation of shock absorbers on Ford Fiestas. The robots can sense where the worker is to provide better assistance and not cause injuries. Ford says the robots can be programmed to make coffee, as an example of the delicate tasks they can handle.
- Messaging App Line's dual IPO closed yesterday, with the company raising $1.3 billion, the largest tech IPO of the year. On the Toyko market, Line's shares jumped 48% to ¥4,900, and have set the companies valuation at about ¥1tn ($9.9bn). Line experienced a smaller, but still substantial, jump of 27% in share price on the New York Stock Exchange, to close at $41.58.
- SurveyMonkey reports Pokémon Go has retention rates double the industry average for casual games. 7 out of 10 new downloaders return the next day compared to an average of 3 out of 10 for most games. More people are using the maps in Pokémon Go than in Google Maps. And the average revenue per daily active user is 25 cents, twice the average of casual games for an estimated $1.6 million per day. Italy, Spain, and Portugal received the game Friday and Niantic hopes to roll out to 200 countries worldwide, relatively soon.
- Meanwhile T-Mobile CEO John Legere announced on Twitter that starting July 19th, the carrier will offer a promotion to not count Pokemon Go data against a customers data cap for a year. The offer will come in T-mobile's weekly promotion in their smartphone app, and goes through August 2017.
- The Obama administration announced the formation of a research group to help develop the next generation of mobile networking standards-- including 5G--, named the Advanced Wireless Research Initiative. The National Science Foundation will lead the research with $85 million in directly managed funding, with input from tech companies and carriers, and a committment of $400 million in total research funding over the next seven years. The AWRI hopes to use its initial funding to setup four "city-scale" testing platforms. Other specific goals include working with Intel labs to develop wireless edge networks, and funding for the Academy of Finland to research "frameworks, architectures, protocols, [and] methodologies" specifically focused on the Internet of Things.
- In response to a proposal made in May by Google, the Unicode Technical committee agreed to add 11 new Professional emojis, with options to select male or female versions, in a variety of skin tones. The UTC will also be adding gender choice to 33 existing emojis. Vendors can choose to implement these changes before the end of 2016, or wait until the rollout of Unicode V10.0 in June 2017.
- The UK government has confirmed that the Investigatory Powers Bill under consideration in the House of Lords could be used to require a company to remove encryption when "reasonably practicable"and in some circumstances force a service provider not to use end-to-end encryption. A clause in the bill refers to the ‘removal of electronic protection’ and the clarification came about during committee debate. Such actions would come with the issuance of a Technical Capability Notice which requires judicial authorization and approval by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner.
- World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee, Stanford law professor Barbara van Schewick, and Harvard law professor Larry Lessig posted an open letter on Webfoundation.org asking European regulators to close loopholes in net neutrality legislation approved last October. Among the policies considered loopholes are fast lanes for specialized services and zero-rating. Earlier this week a group of 20 major European telcos published a manifesto indicating they could only roll out faster 5G networks if net neutrality guidelines were softer. Public consultation on new guidelines ends 2PM CEST July 18th.
- Xiaomi will start selling tickets Monday to an event July 27th. Tickets cost 199 yuan, roughly US$30. Rumors say the company could announce a new Redmi phone and possibly a new Mi Note which hasn't been updated in a year.
- At BUILD 2015 Microsoft Windows and Devices chief Terry Myerson claimed Windows 10 adoption would hit 1 billion devices by mid-2018. Microsoft is easing back on the claim now. A Microsoft spokesperson told ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, "due to the focusing of our phone hardware business, it will take longer than FY18 for us to reach our goal of 1 billion monthly active devices."
- India's Mukesh Ambani is preparing to launch the nation's biggest 4G network Reliance Jio laster this year. The carrier holds a nationwide spectrum license and will offer only LTE service. Tech In Asia reports Samsung is offering a preview of Jio's network to select users with unlimited voice, video and data for three months from the day they activate a free Jio SIM card.
- The Australian Centre for Field Robotics at the University of Sydney has developed SwagBot for the sole purpose of herding cattle. It can navigate ditches and swamps and even pull trailers. Temperature and motion sensors are now being tested to see if the robot can identify sick animals.
- Graphics card designer Nvidia will launch a video game for the HTC Vive VR headset. The creatively titled VR Funhouse marks the game debut for the company, and will be free at launch. Nvidia developed the game to showcase precise physics to create a realistic experience for users. The game comes with seven minigames set at a carnival, and Nvidia has committed to releasing it as open source later this summer.
- The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Apple senior VP of software and services Eddy Cue about Apple's TV strategy. Cue sidestepped the question of offering a TV service saying, "Whether we're providing it or somebody else is, it really doesn't matter to us." He also said Apple is "not in the business of trying to create TV shows" and that Apple is not "actively trying to buy any studio." Cue says Apple is focused on the hardware and making it easy to get your shows with a simple voice command or no command at all.
- Facebook announced Thursday that Instant Articles will be integrated directly into their standalone Messenger app. Facebook touted 10 times faster load times, as well as lower data usage as benefits to their users. Links shared in Messenger will have a small lightning bolt in the upper right hand corner if the content provider supports instant articles. The update was made available to Android upon the announcement and will come to iOS next week.
Links
| Preceded by: "Daily Tech Headlines – July 14, 2016" |
Daily Tech Headlines – July 15, 2016 |
Followed by: "Daily Tech Headlines – July 18, 2016" |