Daily Tech Headlines – October 20, 2016
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| Daily Tech Headlines – October 20, 2016 | |
| Number | 97 |
| Broadcast Date | OCTOBER 20, 2016 |
| Episode Length | 9:01 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt |
Nintendo reveals the Nintendo Switch tablet/console hybrid. Tesla adds self-driving to all its cars, China’s LeEco announces all the things.
Headlines
- Nintendo revealed its new game console, previously referred to as the NX will officially be called the Nintendo Switch and arrive in March 2017. The console consists of a tablet that sits in a dock that connects to a TV for home playing. The sides can slide off the controller, Nintendo calls these "joy-cons" and connect to the tablet which when removed from the dock can be taken away for mobile game play. The joy-cons can also be used with the tablet when unattached. A standalone controller will also be made available. Multiplayer is supported in all scenarios. Games will be distributed on small SD-card like cartridges called GameCards. An Nvidia Tegra processor powers the graphics. Nintendo also announced a list of 48 3rd-party game devs and publishers developing titles for the Switch.
- In a blog post, Tesla announced that as of October 19th, all vehicles leaving their factories would have hardware installed to enable driverless operation, including the upcoming Model 3. However, Tesla will not enable the system until further testing is completed. The hardware includes 8 surround cameras for 360-degree visibility at up to 250 meters, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and a forward-facing radar, and a more powerful onboard computer.
- The Wall Street Journal reports that Google signed a deal with CBS to carry the network on an as yet unannounced YouTube TV service called Unplugged. Google is also reportedly nearing a similar deal with 21st Century Fox, and in advanced talks with NBCUniversal and Disney. The Unplugged service will supposedly offer bundles from $25 to $40. If talks advance, the service could launch in early 2017. One sticking point in negotiations, the right for YouTube to overlay data on top of network live feeds.
- China's LeEco held a press conference in San Francisco Wednesday to announce everything they could possibly think of. $399 5.5-inch Le Pro3 Android phone (Snapdragon 821 processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. 16 MP camera) grey or gold metal. $249 5.5-inch Le S3 phone with a Snapdragon 652 and 32GB of storage. It'll be available in grey, rose gold, gold and black. Four 4K TVs, 85-inch uMax 85 with Dolby Vision and HDR 10 and 64 GB of storage for $5K. Also X43 Pro, a X55, X65 have 4K. All have Harmon Kardon audio. Explore VR headset, works with Le Eco phone, USB C connector, gyrometer, accelerometer and magnetometer and a proximity sensor. Android-powered concept "super bike" hydraulic brakes, side laser system, alarm, fingerprint scanner, battery charged by bike's hub, 30 mph. Le See Pro concept autonomous car to be unveiled at CES in January. (The LeSee was in an accident on its way from LA and the LeSee Pro was delayed on its way back from London where it was being used by Michael Bay (Yeah, that Michael Bay) as part of the new Transformers movie.) EUI ecosystem for video including Sling, Lionsgate, MGM, Showtime, A&E and more. All of it launches on lemall.com November 2nd.
- In its earnings call Verizon CFO Fran Shammo reiterated previous comments from the company regarding Yahoo's recent security breaches, saying "we are still evaluating what it means for the transaction." Verizon reported $30.9 billion in revenue rather than $31.09 billion but reported non-GAAP earnings of $1.01 ahead of expectations of $0.99. Revenue was down 6.7% year over year. The company's wireless division reported a 2.6% increase in retail subscriptions over last year.
- Yahoo submitted a letter to the US Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, requesting transparency around national security orders. In the letter Yahoo’s general counsel Ron Bell argued that transparency “underpins the ability of any company in the information and communications technology sector to earn and preserve the trust of its customers."
- Samsung issued a DMCA takedown notice against a YouTube video that showed a mod for Grand Theft Auto V. The mod allowed players to use a Note 7 as a grenade. Other videos showing the mod have remained up.
- IBM released data Wednesday claiming it saves $265 to $535 over a four year period for each employee who uses a Mac instead of a PC. IBM is Apple’s largest corporate customer, with 90,000 Macs deployed. IBM claims PC users cause twice as many support calls. PC enthusiasts of the 1980s spent the rest of Wednesday looking for cats and dogs taking naps together.
- Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar announced Thursday that Japanese electrical equipment producer Yaskawa Electric will build a robot factory in Slovenia. Yaskawa specializes in robotics and motion control technologies.
- The NBA announced that it will stream one game a week in virtual reality throughout the 30 week season starting October 27th. The streams will be viewable on the NextVR app for the GearVR platform and available to people who pay for the NBA League Pass. The broadcasts will have multiple cameras and dedicated announcers.
- A consortium of 70 financial institutions led by R3 will open source code for a blockchain platform called Corda. The platform uses the open ledger system similar to BitCoin but restricts access to transaction data and can handle more complex transactions. Corda's code will be contributed on November 30th to the Linux Foundation's Hyperledger project.
- In a trademark infringement suit with Mobile Star LLC Apple claimed the majority of tested "genuine" Apple power accessories sold on Amazon are actually fake. Apple tested 100 "iPhone devices, Apple power products, and Lightning cables" labeled as genuine, and found that 90 were falsely labeled. When contacted specifically about counterfeit chargers from Mobile Star, Amazon turned over its entire purchased inventory.
- At a London event, Google announced Coldline, a new cold storage archival cloud service. Coldline will cost $0.007 per gigabyte stored per month, with retrieval costing $0.05 a gigabyte. Google has committed to keeping latency in line with its other cloud storage offerings, similar online cold storage options like Amazon Glacier can have latency measured in hours. Google is also offering a Switch and Save promotion to enterprise customers, offering up to 100 petabytes of free storage for several months as an incentive.
- LinkedIn announced updates to their endorsement feature. Endorsements will now be algorithmically sorted to surface skills more relevant to the person viewing a given profile. Also, when users ask others to verify a skill, LinkedIn will now send a recommendation to other connections more likely to verify it. The changes will roll out to the mobile version of the site first.
Links
| Preceded by: "Daily Tech Headlines – October 19, 2016" |
Daily Tech Headlines – October 20, 2016 |
Followed by: "Daily Tech Headlines – October 21, 2016" |