Spark up the Internet

Spark up the Internet
Number	2273
Broadcast Date	JULY 8, 2014
Episode Length	45:46
Hosts	Tom Merritt
Guests	Shannon Morse

Shannon Morse is on the show to discuss whether the Internet of Things can be saved from chaos by open source platforms, hardware and standards. We need to have some standards people!

Guest

• Shannon Morse

Headlines

• Q2 sales were approximately 52 trillion Korean won ($51.4 billion) and operating profit was about 7.2 trillion won ($7.1 billion).

Both numbers are down from last quarter and a year ago. Samsung blamed sluggish demand for tablets, a slowdown in smartphone sales and strong Korean currency for the declines. The company predicted stronger smartphone sales with the coming release of its new smartphone lineup.

• Marques Brownlee who got ahold of an alleged iPhone 6 screen made of sapphire crystal.

Brownlee attempts to scratch the screen with keys and a knife and tries to bend it and break it to no avail. The part is a 4.7-inch screen and certainly looks like an iPhone. It’s possible that gorilla glass might hold up to some of the same abuse, but Brownlee claims his sources are reliable.

• Samsung, Broadcom, Atmel and Wind River (an Intel company itself) are teaming up on yet another Internet of Things standards alliance

Much like All Seen Alliance, Industrial Internet Consortium MQTT and XMP. This new one has the name Open Interconnect Consortium and will see all the companies collaborate on code set to come out in Q3. The goal is create a peer-to-peer protocol that handles discoverability and authentication better. Qualcomm has worked on a similar standard called AllJoyn which it open sourced through the AllSeen Alliance.

• Chinese businessman Zhan Baosheng is taking Tesla Motors to court over the use of the name Tesla for sales and marketing of Tesla cars in China

Tesla said in January that the trademark dispute was resolved, and began delivering Model S sedans to Chinese customers in April. The Beijing Third Intermediate Court will hear the case on Aug. 5.

• Uber has agreed with the State of New York not to raise prices during “emergencies and natural disasters.”

Uber will adopt a similar policy nationwide. Uber did not specify what counts as a disaster, but you can bet New Year’s Eve is not considered one and surge pricing will still rear its costly head from time to time.

News From You

• Google letting users enable the “OK Google” hotword to be said from any screen on the phone, not just the home screen, to prompt a voice search

To turn it on in Google Now, scroll to the bottom and tap Menu>Settings>Voice>”Ok Google” Detection and turn on the options you want. This also adds Audio History which learns the sound of your voice and how you pronounce words.

Submitted By: devham

• Microsoft has ended updates for MapPoint and Streets & Trips

Both services will be retired in favor of Bing Maps. The fate of the two services has been noted on both their websites.

Submitted By: Draconos

• New Zealand ISP Slingshot offering a Global Mode VPN feature that allows customers to access normally georestricted Internet content

Marketing for the feature originally mentioned making visitors from other countries feel more at a home but then Slingshot General Manager Taryn Hamilton confirmed to the New Zealand Herald that “No beating around the bush. This is to watch Netflix.” Refreshingly candid.

Submitted By: tm204

• Blackberry stock is 50% on the year and is one of the best performing stocks in its sector.

Yes. BlackBerry. By comparison Apple is up 20% and Google just 5. So far revenue has not improved but the company has cut costs which investors like. Blackberry has also not made any bold moves this year other than the square Passport phone meaning you can’t accuse the company of doing much wrong.

Submitted By: magoojc

Discussion

• Spark Labs raises $4.9M to make an OS for the internet of things
• Spark Core brings open hardware plus a cloud service to the internet of things
• Electric Imp aims to make the Internet of Things devilishly simple
• Intel, Samsung and others create new Qualcomm-free internet of things consortium

Pick of the Day

• Simple TV

Amazon is still selling a basic Simple TV with LIFETIME service for $120. Yes, I had to buy a hard drive, but once it was set up, I get live or recorded TV streamed (slung?) to my Roku, my computer, my tablet or whatever anywhere I am. Avoiding monthly or annual fees was important to me in getting this set up, so good to know there is a cheap option for this. Thanks for everything you do!

Steve

(One of your bosses. We are LEGION.)

Links

• This episode on dailytechnewsshow.com
• Support DTNS on Patreon
• DTNS subreddit

Preceded by: "Self-Inflicted DVR"

Spark up the Internet

Followed by: "404 Bulb Not Found"