It’s Like Eating Sugar
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| It’s Like Eating Sugar | |
| Number | 3461 |
| Broadcast Date | FEBRUARY 4, 2019 |
| Episode Length | 29:13 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang |
Danny Crichton from TechCrunch questions why people don’t quit Google or Facebook and that current reasoning to explain that behavior is incorrect.
Quick Hits
- Slack announced it confidentially filed an S-1 with the SEC to take the company public. According to prior sources from the Wall Street Journal, the company will pursue a direct listing rather than a traditional IPO.
- Google is allowing its instant tethering feature for ChromeOS to work with more devices. For a limited number of Google-made devices the feature let you set up tethering once and then have it automatically work anytime WiFi wasn't available. Instant Tethering is now available on 15 Chromebooks from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung and more than 30 phones from HTC, Huawei, LG, Motorola, OnePlus and Samsung.
- On Tuesday, February 5, Smugmug-owned Flickr will delete photos and videos beyond the 1,000-item limit unless you pay for a $50/year premium account. Users can download photos to prevent them from being lost.
- Pay-as-you-go solar company Azuri has introduced a 32-inch satellite TV system for off-the-grid customers in Africa. The system also comes with 4 high brightness LED lights, mobile phone charging, a rechargeable flashlight and radio. The 32-inch AzuriTV system will launch in Kenya for 129 Kenyan Shillings per day or about US$1.30.
- Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX is unable to access around $145 million worth of its holdings after the unexpected death of its CEO, Gerry Cotten, from Crohn's disease in Jaipur, India. Cotten was the only one with knowledge of the passwords for the company's cold wallets. The company has filed for bankruptcy protection.
Top Stories
- Windows Central noticed that according to the description of a session at the upcoming game developers conference, Microsoft will release a cross-platform Xbox Live SDK. This would use Microsoft's existing PlayFab backend tools and let developers allow cross-platform play as well as share gaming achievement history, friends lists, and clubs across games on Android, iOS, AND the Nintendo Switch. The GDC session called "Xbox Live: Growing & Engaging Your Gaming Community Across iOS, Android, Switch, Xbox, and PC" will take place on March 18th.
- Periscope, which is owned by Twitter, will now let users add three guests to a stream. People can also request to join a stream, and can join or drop out at any point. But guests will only be able to join in with audio, not video, for now. Twitter also plans to bring this feature to its own live video option.
- Google announced two Android features to assist people with hearing impairments. Live Transcribe is a limited beta that can recognize speech in near real time to facilitate conversations. It has a round circle to show noise levels in case you want to move it closer and vibrates after silence to let you know someone has started speaking again. You can toggle between 70 languages though it can recognize switches of language without toggling. It doesn't store transcriptions on your phone or its servers and user conversations are not used to improve the machine learning. Sound Amplifier for Android 9 Pie, was announced in May at Google I/O and lets you adjust sound settings to improve your ability to hear. Both will come preinstalled on the Pixel 3 and Sound Amplifier is in the Google Play Store today.
- J.P. Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee told investors Monday that Apple should acquire a company in the entertainment market and “Netflix is the best strategic fit.” Chatterjee estimates Apple would have to pay $189 billion. Apple has $250 billion in cash. Chatterjee also suggested Activision Blizzard and Sonos would be other good acquisitions for Apple.
- The Samsung rumors are coming in hot in advance of the February 20 Samsung Unpacked announcement at Mobile World Congress. Samsung has officially announced it will be called, as expected, the Galaxy S10 and it will use the Snapdragon 855 chipset. There may be a version that can connect to 5G and have a cutout rather than a notch for cameras. And in the more fanciful rumors may have an ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint sensor, a take on Face ID, and up to 1 TB of storage. We also may see a foldable.
Discussion
- Why no one really quits Google or Facebook
- Most Facebook users still in the dark about its creepy ad practices, Pew finds
Mailbag
- Sarah, on yesterday’s episode you talked about the use or lack of usefulness of a 3D / AR camera. I work in the engineering/architecture industry. When we renovate buildings we typically do field work to document existing conditions. There are tools for snapping “3D” pictures that translate to CAD software. It would be great to pull out my phone for the same use. Maybe not a tool for everyone, but would be helpful in our industry.
- Sent by Adam from cold Cleveland Ohio
YouTube
Links
| Preceded by: "These Boots Were Made for Tracking" |
It’s Like Eating Sugar |
Followed by: "A Fortnite to Remember!" |