Daily Tech Headlines – July 26, 2016
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| Daily Tech Headlines – July 26, 2016 | |
| Number | 34 |
| Broadcast Date | JULY 26, 2016 |
| Episode Length | 8:49 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt |
Leaks on the Nintendo NX, Office gets some AI, and BlackBerry has a secure Android phone.
Headlines
- Eurogamer reports sources tell it the Nintendo NX will be a “high-powered” portable device running on a successor to Nvidia’s Tegra X1 mobile chip, with its own built-in display and two detachable controller sections. A dock will allow it to be used with a TV and it will supposedly use cartridges for games to supplement downloads.
- Microsoft announced several updates to Office incorporating the cloud and AI. Word users can access Bing's knowledge graph to find info to cite and take advantage of Editor which uses Machine Learning to suggest edits beyond just spelling and grammar. Outlook's focused inbox is coming to desktop and Web apps. Power Point presentations no longer need to be linear, working more like a website, with a home slide for instance. The updates are coming this month.
- BlackBerry announced its second Android phone, the 5.2-inch DTEK50, which shares the hardware specs of Alcatel's Idol 4. The DTEK50 comes with BlackBerry's DTEK malware protection and other modifications to Android that BlackBerry says increases security. You can preorder today from BlackBerry for $300 for shipping August 8th.
- Amazon announced Monday that it is partnering with the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to expand their drone testing. Amazon will test beyond-line-of-sight operations outside of urban environments, having one operator monitoring multiple autonomous drones, and avoidance systems. All of these tests will be conducted below 400 feet, with full CAA involvement. Amazon's current drones are less than 55 pounds, travel over 50mph, and can operate beyond line-of-sight.
- Google rolled out an update to Nexus and AndroidOne devices to help block spam calls. For devices with caller ID enabled (otherwise know as everyone), suspicious calls will come up marked in red with the label "suspected spam caller." From there, users can confirm that the number should be blocked, or report it to a white list if Google tagged it improperly. User can also go back into their call log to designate spam numbers. Steve Dent at Engadget notes that the Samsung Galaxy S7 has had a similar feature since launch, in partnership with Whitepages.
- Google has also begun updating Android with Emergency Location Service. It uses WiFi, cellular, and GPS to share location when on a 999 emergency call. EE, BT, Three, Vodafone and O2 are all on board at launch. It's available in the UK and Estonia at launch with Google working with more countries and operators for future expansion.
- In the wake of reports that Cyanaogen Inc. planned to move away from its operating system development, co-founder, Steve Kondik, said in a blog post that the company isn't "pivoting to apps". Cyanogen Inc. will continue sponsoring CyanogenMod's development. The company is in the midst of layoffs which Kondik did not comment on.
- The US National Institute of Standards and Technology's next special publications are available for public preview on GitHub and suggest changed recommendations on two-factor authentication. SMS messages for one-time codes will only be allowed on verified phone numbers, not VOIP or other software-based numbers and the practice is deprecated and will not be allowed at all in future releases.
- Facebook's algorithm blocked links to Wikileaks files containing internal US Democratic National Committee emails. Facebook told Gizmodo it's anti-spam systems flagged the links and the error was corrected Saturday evening.
- Indian Amazon users can now sign up for a 60-day free trial of Amazon Prime, and with an introductory price of 499 rupees for a one-year subscription. After the promotion, the price will go up to 999 rupees. Subscribers will receive free one and two-day shipping in twenty cities across India, early access to discounts, and deals exclusive to Prime members. Amazon Video and Music will not be available at launch, although Amazon stated they were in the pipeline. Amazon did not announce plans to offer the Kindle Owners' Lending Library or unlimited photo storage as part of Amazon Prime in India.
- In a blog post, Google announced a new open-source project to provide spatially aware audio for web based VR applications. Called Omnitone, the project provides a framework for creating spherical surround sound audio that responds to head tracking. The source code is available on GitHub, and has full cross browser support.
- In an upcoming update to their Service Agreement, Microsoft will begin regular purges of inactive Xbox Gamertags. Under the new agreement, any Xbox account that has not been logged into for more than 5 years, will be assumed to be inactive, and Microsoft will close the account. Microsoft previously freed up over 1 million gamertags in May, from accounts that never migrated over from the original Xbox, most unused for over a decade. The change in the Service Agreement goes into effect September 15th.
- Two Xbox One S bundles are up for preorder shipping August 23. The Madden NFL 17 option has 1TB of storage, seven Madden Ultimate Team Pro Packs and one month of EA Access for $349 in the US and Canada. The Halo Collection bundle comes in 500GB or 1TB models including five games including Halo 5: Guardians and Halo: The Master Chief Collection in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand for $299 and $349. The unbundled Xbox One S comes August 2 for $399.
- Verizon reported adjusted earnings of 94 cents a share on operating revenue of 30.5 billion, down 5 percent year over year. Analysts expected 92 cents a share, and revenue closer to $31 billion. It added 86,000 phone customers in the quarter with higher turnover among tablet customers. Overall, the company said it added 615,000 postpaid wireless customers, while losing 30,000 prepaid ones. As the phone market flattens, CEO Lowell McAdam said, “By acquiring Yahoo’s operating business, we are scaling up to be a major competitor in mobile media." ---- Apple and Twitter release their earnings later on Tuesday.
- Hailo has sold 60% of its company to Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler, and will merge and rebrand with MyTaxi which is owned by Daimler subsidiary Moovel. Put another way. Mercedes-Benz bought most of Hailo which will get swallowed up by MyTaxi. Hailo CEO Andrew Pinnington will become the CEO of MyTaxi, while Niclaus Mewes, the co-founder of MyTaxi parent Intelligent Apps, will become a Managing Director at Daimler. MyTaxi becomes one of the largest ride-hailing services in Europe.
- The GSMA published a study Tuesday showing more than 557 million people in Africa were subscribed to mobile services at the end of 2015, 46% of the continent's population. Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa account for a third of the total subscriber base. The GSMA Mobile 260 event is being held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
- The Solar Impulse 2 landed in Abu Dhabi late Monday, a year and two days after taking off on a journey to circumnavigate the globe on solar power. The craft was in the air for 505 hours total during the journey, with layovers for the pilots to rest as well as some weather delays. The solar power itself did not need to stop. It's longest uninterrupted flight was 4 days 21 hours and 5 minutes from Nagoya, Japan to Honolulu, Hawaii.
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| Preceded by: "Daily Tech Headlines – July 25, 2016" |
Daily Tech Headlines – July 26, 2016 |
Followed by: "Daily Tech Headlines – July 27, 2016" |