Daily Tech Headlines – June 27, 2016
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| Daily Tech Headlines – June 27, 2016 | |
| Number | 13 |
| Broadcast Date | JUNE 27, 2016 |
| Episode Length | 7:36 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt |
Twitter ads stickers, YouTube and Facebook fight extremist video and Anki brings a Wall-E/Eve mashup to your home.
Headlines
- Twitter launched stickers for photos posted through Twitter’s app. You can add emojis, props, accessories to your photos. When viewers tap on the stickers they’ll be taken to a page of other photos that use the same sticker. The feature is coming over the next few weeks to Android and iOS.
- Sources tell Reuters that YouTube and Facebook have an automated system to remove videos considered extreme. The system looks for violent propaganda particularly from terrorist groups. The system uses the same technology that stops copyrighted video from being posted, so it works against reposts but not new videos.
- The Financial Times reports Intel is considering selling off Intel Security including McAfee which it bought in 2010 for $7.7 billion. Private investors have been buying security companies in anticipation of profits as cyberattacks rise. Earlier this month, Bain Capital sold Blue Coat Security to Symantec for almost twice what it paid for it the year before. Intel is trying to refocus its business on building chips for cloud computing.
- The Telegraph UK reports its sources say that Google is in discussions with carriers to release a Google-designed smartphone by the end of 2016. In an interview last month at the Code Conference, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated the company was "investing more effort" into phones, but that Google would still continue to work with OEMs as well.
- Amazon officially announced the beta of Amazon Inspire, on online education resource platform offering free K-12 learning materials to teachers int he US. Users can sort by relevance, popularity, level, skill and more. Content is uploaded by other educators as well organizations like the Folger Shakespeare Library and Newseum in Washington DC. The platform is free to use. amazon hopes to make money off providing services and supplies to schools like ebook management and AWS access for schools.
- The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon will add dozens of new brands for its Dash button devices. Amazon will drop its $200,000 buy in fees for companies to produce Dash buttons, and instead will charge $15 per button sold, plus 15% of the sale. Slice Analytics estimates that less than half the consumers that ordered a Dash Buttons have actually used it to place an order.
- Toy race car maker Anki has a new car called Cozmo with a body similar to the Pixar character Wall-E, face like Eve and a mechanical arm that can move things around. Anki worked with Pixar to design the robot. The toy has built-in computer vision software to help recognize people and get better at games. An AI SDK will come at launch for developers to create more activities. Cozmo launches in October for $179.
- Monday, Google announced Project Bloks, an open hardware platform designed for educators and developers to teach children to code. The platform was developed by Google's Creative Team in collaboration with design firm IDEO and the Transformative Learning Technologies Lab at Stanford University. The design works with a Raspberry Pi based "Brain Board", which connects to "pucks" that provide instruction, and "baseboards", which read the instructions and transmit them to the Brain Board. Google has no plans to create their own retail version, but hopes the standard will lower the barrier of entry for educators to create their own.
- On Sunday night, the Quora account of Google CEO Sundar Pichai was hacked and began posting messages advising that they were testing security, and telling Pichai go to their website to "upgrade" his security. At this time, it is unclear how the hackers gained access to the account, but the posts were deleted within a few hours. It is believed to be the same group that hacked Mark Zuckerberg's old accounts.
- A Wisconsin man challenged his sentencing based on Compas assessment, a secret algorithm used in Wisconsin to calculate the risk of someone committing another crime. Arguments for the case were heard in April, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court is expected to make a ruling soon.
- The $4 Freedom 251 smartphone from Ringing Bell, the is set to start shipping in India June 30th. If you recall the dual SIM phone has a 4-inch screen 8MP camera 1800mAh battery 1GB of RAM, 1.3GHz quad-core processor and 8GB of storage. The phone sells for approximately RS251 and Ringing Bell says it will lose RS151 on each device.
- Xiaomi told Fortune it plans to open 50-60 retail stores this year with a goal of eventually running 200-300. Xiaomi will target smaller cities in China to begin with. Xiaomi already partners with Chinese retailer Suning and operates 25 Mi Home outlets which could be transformed into full stores.
- Uber drivers in Australia, New Zealand and the US will get free Pandora subscriptions until December 28th. Uber says riders will eventually be offered the ability to control the playlist through Pandora like they can now with Spotify.
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| Preceded by: "Daily Tech Headlines – June 24, 2016" |
Daily Tech Headlines – June 27, 2016 |
Followed by: "Daily Tech Headlines – June 28, 2016" |