Daily Tech Headlines – October 25, 2016
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| Daily Tech Headlines – October 25, 2016 | |
| Number | 100 |
| Broadcast Date | OCTOBER 25, 2016 |
| Episode Length | 8:58 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt |
Xiaomi’s new bezel-free phone, first self-driving truck delivers beer, 8Gbps WiFi gets certified.
Headlines
- Xiaomi unveiled new phones Tuesday. The 6.4-inch Mi Mix has an almost bezel-free screen - The front is 91.4 percent screen. - with ceramic buttons and backplate and an optional 18-karat gold accents. It uses ultrasound for proximity sensing, a piezoelectric speaker using the metal frame for sound, and the camera is on the bottom of the front face. It has the same Snapdragon 821 that's in the Google Pixel, 4GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage and dual SIM cards. It goes on sale November 4th in China for ¥3,499 ($516) or ¥3,999 ($590) for 6GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage.
- Xiaomi also announced the 5.7-inch Mi Note 2 with a curved screen similar to the one on the discontinued Note 7 from Samsung. The Mi Note 2 comes out November 1st in China in silver or black starting at 2,799 yuan ($413).
- Uber-owned Otto has completed it's first self-driving truck shipment. An 18-wheel Volvo semi carried a shipment of Budweiser beer 100 miles from a weigh station in Fort Collins, Colorado to Colorado Springs without human intervention. A human driver had taken it from the Anhueser-Busch plant in Loveland to the weigh station and remained on board during the autonomous leg of the journey. A Colorado state patrol vehicle followed the truck to monitor the journey.
- Google confirmed it has acquired virtual reality startup Eyefluence that lets you use your eyes as a tracking device like a mouse. Eyefluence not only tracks what you're looking at but tries to determine if you're interested or bored by what you see. It also aids in what is called foveated rendering which renders scenes selectively based on where you're looking.
- Bloomberg's sources say Twitter plans to cut around 8% of its workforce, which would amount to roughly 300 people, though the final number has not been decided. Twitter announces earnings Thursday so an announcement could come before then. The company made a similar amount of cuts last year when Jack Dorsey took over as CEO.
- IDC issued its report for Q3 2016 smartwatch shipments Monday. A total of 2.7 million units were shipped worldwide down 51.6% from last year. Android Wear watches have been largely delayed until 2017 when Android Wear 2.0 will be released. Apple's New Watch went on sale Sep. 16 two weeks before the end of the quarter. Apple led the way with 41.3% market share falling 71.6% in number of shipments. Garmin rose shipments 324.2% to take a 20.5% marketshare good for second place on the backs of its ConnectIQ and fenix Chronos hiking watch. Samsung, Lenovo and Pebble rounded out the Top 5.
- Link, which makes the public access WiFi kiosks in New York is bringing its kiosks to London in partnership with BT. LinkUK kiosks will offer gigabit WiFi, two USB charging ports, maps, local info and free calls to UK landlines and mobile phones. The London kiosks will not include a Web browser. The kiosks will replace existing phone booths starting with 100 in Camden in early 2017 with an additional 750 across London to follow.
- On Monday, the Wi-Fi Alliance launched the certification program for the 802.11ad standard known as WiGig. The standard certifies for interoperability with other WiGig devices as well as shift to standard WiFi. WiGig can transfer at up to 8 Gigabits per second, supplementing crowded 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands with the 60Ghz band, which cannot travel long distances or even penetrate walls, but provides directional, low latency connections.
- The Navdy aftermarket heads-up-display for cars has begun shipping. Navdy integrates with iOS and Android for music, contacts and communications. While it relies on Google Maps for route guidance it contains its own GPS chip and antenna for more accuracy than it would get using the smartphone's. It also plugs into the ODBII port and can use dead reckoning based on an accelerometer to supplement GPS. Maps are translucent and displayed in front of the driver without blocking the view of the road. It also shows speed and fuel consumption among other things. Preorders cost $299, but now the price is $799 at retail.
- The US Department of Homeland Security held a conference call with 18 major communication service providers to discuss strategic principles regarding Internet of Things devices, in the wake of the Mirai-based Denial of service attacks Friday. Surveillance camera part maker Xiongmai issued a partial recall of its devices Monday and Dahua Technology has also announced firmware upgrades and an exchange program for older cameras.
- IBM said Tuesday it will compensate the Australian government for a malicious cyberattack that shut down the national census. The census went offline August 9th after four denial of service attacks. IBM says Australian ISP Vocus Communications, a subcontractor of Nextgen Networks failed to shut down the attack which is believed to have launched through a router in Singapore. Nextgen said it followed IBM's instructions and IBM declined an offer for additional anti-DDoS measures. Vocus says it informed NextGen it did not provide geoblocking and was asked to disable DDoS protection.
- Sweden's Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden ruled that recording video from a UAV should be an act of operating a surveillance camera and therefore requires a permit unless operated by law enforcement. Private operators must apply for a special filming permit from local government to prove they're only monitoring their own property.
- Counterpoint Research estimates Oppo now owns the largest marketshare for smartphones in China at 16.6 percent. Vivo is hot on its heels at 16.2 percent. Huawei took third at 15 percent. Xiaomi, which once held the top spot, fell from 14.6 percent last year to 10.6 percent.
- Google announced partnerships with MasterCard and Visa to integrate MasterPass and Visa Checkout into Android Pay. Support will rollout in early 2017, and let Android users pay on sites that support either payment platform. Not to be left out, Samsung also announced that Samsung Pay will support MasterPass in early 2017 as well.
- Tuesday, Uber will offer free flu shots via its Uber for Health initiative in parts of the US. Between 11am and 3pm, a "Health" option will appear in the Uber app, and users can request a "Flu-fighting" care package be delivered, with up to 5 flu shots being included. The shots will be given by registered nurses arranged through partner Passport Health. Uber offered a similar service last year, but charged $10. 17 locations will have the Uber for Health flu shots available, including the entire states of Delaware, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, sorry Vermont.
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| Preceded by: "Daily Tech Headlines – October 24, 2016" |
Daily Tech Headlines – October 25, 2016 |
Followed by: "Daily Tech Headlines – October 26, 2016" |