Daily Tech Headlines – September 23, 2016
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| Daily Tech Headlines – September 23, 2016 | |
| Number | 77 |
| Broadcast Date | SEPTEMBER 23, 2016 |
| Episode Length | 6:47 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt |
Twitter up for sale? Yahoo confirms breach, Facebook misreported video views.
Headlines
- CNBC reports Twitter is talking to Google and Salesforce among others about a sale. TechCrunch says Verizon and Microsoft are also interested. Twitter's revenue has been growing slower than analysts expect. Twitter’s head of TV Andrew Adashek, and its North American Moments curation team lead Marcus Mabry have both departed the company. Mabry is going to CNN.
- Yahoo confirmed Thursday that data on 500 million user accounts was accessed without authorization in 2014. Yahoo believes it was a state-sponsored actor. Yahoo says the data accessed may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, and hashed passwords but may not have included unprotected passwords, payment card data or bank account information. Yahoo began sending affected users an email starting at 11:30 AM Pacific this morning. It also will ask those who haven't updated passwords since 2014 to do so.
- Facebook admitted a month ago that a discrepancy existed in a video number it reported to advertisers called "Average Duration of Video Viewed." Facebook defined the metric as “total time spent watching a video divided by the total number of people who have played the video.” However it only counted people who had viewed the video for more than three seconds. That significantly raised the average. Facebook has renamed the metric "Average Watch Time" and apologized for the inconvenience.
- Bloomberg's sources tell it Apple is testing a prototype of a smart-home device with Siri built-in that would be similar to the Amazon Echo. The product is not finalized and could yet be scrapped or rolled into another product.
- The Daily Beast reports Oculus founder Palmer Luckey has funded an organization called Nimble America, a social welfare 501(c)4 organization that circulates political memes. Nimble America was founded by two moderators from Reddit's r/The_Donald.
- Thursday, Google released its VR SDK 1.0. The SDK supports integration with the Unreal Engine 4 and Unity game engines, including controller support for upcoming Daydream VR hardware. Google also opened applications for the Daydream Access Program, which gives early access to updated developer tools and the Google Play store.
- Huawei, that's spelled HUAWEI- announced Friday it will start making smartphones in India next month. India's Flextronics International will operate the plant in Chennai. Huawei applied for a license to set up the plant 19 months ago and received approval in July. Indian-made Huawei devices may hit the market as early as October. Huawei also plans to expand its service and retail operations.
- LinkedIn launched LinkedIn Learning with 9,000 courses, building on its acquisition of Lynda.com. The company hopes to expand from individual courses to employee training and higher education. The announcement comes along with previews of a redesigned website and bots for its messenger application.
- Techcrunch reports Apple has acquired the machine-learning startup Tuplejump Software. The Hyderabad, India-based startup's website is gone, but it was involved with FiloDB, an open-source project, which aimed to apply Machine learning analytics to large amounts of data as it was entered. Apple has acquired two other machine learning companies in the past 12-months, Perceptio in October and Turi in August.
- Amazon announced its expanding Handmade, its craft market place and Etsy competitor, into European markets. Handmade launched in the US last October, and is now available in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK.
- Daimler AG division Smart announced that starting in 2017, its entire vehicle lineup will be available with both conventional gas and electric drive variants. Electric drive Smart ForTwo, ForTwo Cabrio, and ForFour will feature a Mercedes-Benz and Renault-Nissan developed 80hp engine, powered by a 17.6kWh lithium-ion battery good for an estimated 99 mile range. The Smart ForTwo Electric drive will be available in spring 2017, with pricing available closer to the launch.
- Tesla filed suit Thursday against three Michigan's Secretary of State, Attorney General and Governor for preventing Tesla from selling cars directly instead of through a dealer. Michigan code prevents auto manufacturers from selling cars directly unless it is a nonprofit or government agency. Tesla claims the code violates "the Due Process, Equal Protection, and Commerce Clauses of the Constitution." The state of Michigan rejected Tesla's application for licenses to sell and repair cars in the state.
- Tencent founder Pony Ma Huateng said Friday that Tencent will donate two percent of its annual profit to charity. China passed new laws earlier this month providing a legal framework for Internet companies to raise and manage funds for charity.
- The Wall Street Journal passes along South Korean TV network YTN's reports that some owners of replacement Note 7 phones say the batteries have overheated and lost charge even while plugged in. Samsung says the reports are isolated cases related to mass production issues and "completely" unrelated to batteries.
- As expected AT&T has filed suit in US District Court in Nashville to block "One Touch Make Ready" rules passed there earlier this week. The rules would allow a company installing new lines on utility poles to move other companies equipment without having to wait for that companies employees to be called out to do it for them. AT&T believes the new rules violates FCC pole attachment regulations and violates a contract with the city of Nashville.
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| Preceded by: "Daily Tech Headlines – September 22, 2016" |
Daily Tech Headlines – September 23, 2016 |
Followed by: "Daily Tech Headlines – September 26, 2016" |