Daily Tech Headlines – October 19, 2016
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| Daily Tech Headlines – October 19, 2016 | |
| Number | 96 |
| Broadcast Date | OCTOBER 19, 2016 |
| Episode Length | 7:21 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt |
Facebook offers more reason not to ever leave Facebook, Apple may have a Mac announcement date, and why an NFL coach is done with tablets.
Headlines
- Facebook is testing new features for US users starting Wednesday. Facebook Pages will now let you order food from Delivery.com or Slice.com, set an appointment using MyTime, get professional services quote, and buy tickets through Ticketmaster and EventBrite, all without leaving Facebook. Another new feature called Recommendations will post a card to your friends timeline asking for recommendations on things to do in a city you're visiting. And the Events button in the Facebook app will now show a page with Event recommendations and friends RSVPs. If the features do well in the US they may roll out worldwide.
- The Microsoft Research Team announced its speech recognition technology has reached a word error rate of 5.9% putting it on par with human transcribers, an important milestone in speech recognition. In tests humans and algorithm had trouble with most of the same words. Humans were only significantly better at distinguishing "uh" from "uh-huh." The algorithm was better at catching all instances of the word "i" in two-way conversations. Microsoft used 2,000 hours of training data with its neural networks for the test.
- ReCode's Ina Fried says her sources say Apple plans to introduce new Macs at an event on Thursday October 27th. Apple has an earnings announcement on the Tuesday before. The Mac event is expected to take place in Cupertino where Apple's campus is located.
- A law firm in the US filed suit October 16th in federal court in Newark, New Jersey on behalf of three Note 7 customers. The complaint states that the consumers continued to incur monthly device and plan charges for phones they could not use for weeks because of the Note 7 recall. They are seeking class action status.
- Instagram is adding its Snapchat-like Stories postings into the main Explore Tab. While stories will remain above a users feed, opening the Explore tab will now show a strip of Suggested Stories at the top.
- The Information reports that Amazon is looking into offering home internet service in Europe. Amazon would purchase wholesale access from existing providers. This could be offered with a Prime bundle that would include internet and video service. Ars Technica's Jon Brodkin surmises the service would probably not be offered in the US, as there are not requirements for Internet providers to offer wholesale access, unlike in the UK or Germany.
- Intel announced it earned $0.69 per share in Q3 on revenue of $15.8 billion. Analysts had expected earnings per share of $0.67 and revenue of $15.6 billion. Revenue hit a record for the quarter and is up 9% on the year. Intel's data center business earned $4.5 billion in revenue, up 10% on the year. Its PC and mobile business, had revenue of $8.9 billion, up 5% year-over-year. This is the first earnings report for new CFO Bob Swan, who was hired last month to replace Stacy Smith.
- Yahoo announced it earned $0.20 per share in Q3 with revenue of $1.31 billion. Analysts had expected earnings per share of $0.14 and totally nailed revenue at $1.31 billion. Revenue grew 6.5% year over year, bouyed by a 38% growth in search advertising. Yahoo posted charts showing page views, search and Mail messages sent and received did not see declines in September and October despite issues with security breaches and allegations of surveillance. Yahoo did not conduct an earnings call as it is in the process of being acquired by Verizon.
- India's online travel site MakeMyTrip has agreed to by Ibibo Group's travel business. If approved the combination would make for the largest travel business in India. Naspers and TenCent will hold a 40% stake in the merged entity. Ibibo's Goibibo, redBus, Ryde and Rightstay will fall under MakeMyTrip. And MakeMyTrip's founder Deep Kalra will stay on as group chief executive and executive chairman with co-founder Rajesh Magow as CEO. Ibibo's co-founder Ashish Kashyap will become president.
- NFL coach Bill Belichick told reporters he is "done with tablets" and will go back to paper pictures after suffering one too many technical problems with his Microsoft Surface. Belichick says it's a personal decision, saying, "there just isn’t enough consistency in the performance of the tablets. I just can’t take it anymore." He added, "Sometimes something happens and it has to be fixed. And first of all, you have to find out what the problem is. It could be one of 15 different things." Does this sound familiar to users of any piece of technology? Microsoft told Business Insider the Surface still has a positive reception from members of the NFL.
- Microsoft has sent out invites for an event on November 2nd in New York City, just one week after an anticipated Surface Event on October 26th. This new November 2nd Event will focus on Microsoft Office.
- Earlier we told you that Julian Assange claimed his Internet had been cut off in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he has been living for several years while seeking asylum. Tuesday the government of Ecuador issued a statement clarifying that it has restricted "access to some of its private communications network within its Embassy in the United Kingdom." Ecuador cites the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states, particularly the electoral process, as a reason for the change. Ecuador called the situation temporary. One could assume Assange will get the new WiFi password after the US election is over.
- Counterpoint Research estimates smartphone shipments in India hit a record 35 million units in September up 25% over last year. Samsung and Micromax held on to the top two spots but both saw marketshare drop 4 percent. Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo all gained share to move up rankings and make top 10.
- Vudu launched a free ad-supported video on demand service in the US, called Vudu Movies on Us. The service will not focus on new movies or original content, but rather build a back catalogue which will increase over the next several months. The site will be marketed by Vudu's parent company Walmart, both in stores and online. Movies will stream at 1080p with pre-roll and some mid-roll ads. The company is also working with Nielsen to track mobile and connected TV viewing.
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| Preceded by: "Daily Tech Headlines – October 18, 2016" |
Daily Tech Headlines – October 19, 2016 |
Followed by: "Daily Tech Headlines – October 20, 2016" |