Title 2 Round 2

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Title 2 Round 2
Number 2403
Broadcast Date JANUARY 8, 2015
Episode Length 34:44
Hosts Tom Merritt
Guests Justin Robert Young

A listener asks the question if Google won CES without even being there. Declining search marketshare in the US says Google isn’t winning everything. Is the search giant the new Microsoft? Justin Young and Tom Merritt discuss.

Guest

Headlines

Bloomberg reports StatCounter reports Google’s US search marketshare dropped to 75.2% in December that’s down from 79.3% a year ago, and Google’s lowest search marketshare since 2009. Yahoo’s share rose to 10.4%. The likely culprit is Firefox’s switch to Yahoo as its default search engine which started December 1st.
Reuters reports Sony will delay the scheduled January 11th release of the PlayStation 4 in China, due to “various factors.” Sources from Sony in China told Reuters negotiations with Chinese authorities were part of the reason for the delay. A ban on game console sales was partially lifted in China last year but strict rules about what kind of games can be sold still exist.
Apple posted today that it has created 1,03 million in the US and revenues generated through the app store rose 50% in 2014. The price of iOS apps is about to rise too but the developers won’t see a cut of that. TNW notes Apple sent a reminder to devs in Canada, Europe, and Norway that prices will rise in those app stores due to an increase in VAT in the EU and exchange rate changes. Apple also said prices would “change” in Russia though not which direction, and prices in Iceland will drop.
Gigaom reports that during Audi’s connected car demo at CES yesterday, a smart watch was used to call a self-driving car to the stage. Here’s where it got interesting. Some members of the media noticed that the watch looked different than anything they’d seen before. Turns out it was a prototype for an LG Smartwatch running WebOS. Both Android Central and The Verge have good videos where you can watch the interface.The watch could be ready by early 2016.
The Verge reports that the Line messaging app is launching a taxi service in Tokyo, and thus going head to head with Uber. From the Line app users can call a cab from Nihon Kotsu, one of Japan’s largest cab companies, and use Line Pay for the transaction. Uber fully launched in Tokyo in March and British app Hailo operates in Tokyo and Osaka.
French music streaming service Deezer acquired Muve Music from AT&T’s Cricket. Futhermore, Deezer will partner with AT&T to sell Deezer music services to Cricket subscribers. Deezer gets Muve user data including playlists and songs, and the 2 million Muve customers get 45 free days of Deezer after which they would have to pay $6 a month.
We already told you Netflix denied changing how they treat VPNs, but CNET has a quote from Netflix’s chief product officer Neil Hunt that may shed a little light on the subject. Hunt said “On the Android app we added a fail-safe, so that if DNS times out we fall back to Google DNS.” That could explain users reporting being forced to use Google DNS on Android.
The game is heads-up limit Texas hold’em. Fixed number of bets all a fixed value. The question? How can you create set of strategies for your computer to ensure Nash equilibrium is reached. We’re talking game theory here pardner, and Neil Burch, a Ph.D. student in computer science at the University of Alberta in Canada and his co-authors have the answer in a paper published in the Jan.8 journal of Science. The algorithm, named CFR+ by its creators, uses an improved version of a technique called counterfactual regret minimization. It also uses 262 TB of storage space. So it may be hard to sneak into the casino under your bolo tie.
Torrentfreak reports that an organization called Takedown Piracy acting on behalf of Wicked Pictures, sent Google a search result takedown notice for thousands of URLs. This in and of itself would not be newsworthy but among the URls it targeted were open source GitHub projects from Facebook, Netflix and Yahoo. Facebook’s Rebound java library for spring physics suffered because Wicked has a movie called Rebound starring Stormy Daniels. Netflix’s workflow visualization tool Lipstick conflicted with a movie that uses that word. And Yahoo’s responsive CSS modules called Pure conflicted with the movie Impure Hunger. All three projects and many more at GitHub were delisted from Google because of the request.

News From You

Ars Technica gives us a little more about what Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the US FCC had to say at CES yesterday. We told you he set a date of Feb. 26 for a vote on open Internet guidelines. He said a LOT more than just that, talking extensively about Title II and how it could be used to achieve no blocking, no throttling and no paid prioritization without imposing rate regulation or discouraging investment. Wheeler urged listeners to look at the wireless industry to see how the FCC might enforce Title II for ISPs.
Submitted by TVSEgon
Variety reports that famed astrophysicist Neal deGrasse Tyson will host National Geographic channel’s first ever late night show. The show will be called “Star Talk” and will premiere in April. Tyson is almost definitely the first astrophysicists to host a late night talk show.
Submitted by spsheridan
ZDnet reports about touch-sensitive and transparent carbon nanobud— or CNB— films from Finnish nanotechnology company Canatu. Unlike metallic nanowires and metal meshes, Canatu claims CNBs are 100% stretchable and perform better in sunlight. The material can be used to add a touch-sensitive display to almost any surface although the screen size is limited to 15 inches or less. The first wearable devices using CNB films for touch sensors are scheduled to be released next spring.
Submitted by starfuryzeta

Discussion

Pick of the Day

My pick is sarahlane.com, thurrott.com, and the twitter handles of the same names. On Wednesday, both of these technology reporter favorites made (unrelated) announcements regarding big changes in their professional lives.

Submitted by technosquid

YouTube

Links



Preceded by:
"Bill Gates Wastes Nothing" 		Title 2 Round 2
 Followed by:
"The Slings and Razers of CES"
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