Daily Tech Headlines – October 7, 2016

Daily Tech Headlines – October 7, 2016
Number	88
Broadcast Date	OCTOBER 7, 2016
Episode Length	8:25
Hosts	Tom Merritt

New Oculus products, Comcast adds caps, Verizon may want a new Yahoo deal.

Headlines

• Oculus lowers minimum Rift specs using “asynchronous spacewarp” tech

Oculus made several announcements at Oculus Connect Thursday. Oculus will sell earphones designed for VR for $49 shipping later this year. Oculus touch controllers available for preorder October 10 for $199 shipping December 6th bundled with an extra sensor and the games VR Sports Challenge and the Unspoken. Extra sensors will be available for $79 shipping December 6th, allowing room scale. Oculus also lowered the specs required for the Rift. Oculus has used a new software API called "asynchronous spacewarp" to let the Rift run on any machine with an Nvidia 960 or greater, and an intel i3-6100 (or AMD FX4350) or greater.

• Zuckerberg teases a prototype standalone Oculus VR headset

Oculus is developing a prototype of a standalone VR headset. Mark Zuckerberg called it "A standalone virtual reality product category that is high-quality and that is affordable and that you can bring with you out into the world." Oculus is also going to cover Unreal Engine license fees for any app sold through the Oculus Store for up to the first $5 million in gross revenue and Oculus developing ReactVR for developing VR websites and VR browser called Carmel. for Oculus.

• FCC's internet privacy proposal just got a little weaker

US FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has revised privacy policies being proposed for US internet providers. The previous proposal had imposed opt-in requirements for ISPs to collect information about customers. ISPs complained that Internet companies like Google and Facebook, which are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission had no such requirements. So the new FCC proposal is similar to the FTC's rules. That means ISPs will only have to get opt-in for sensitive data like location or financial info. The FCC includes browsing history under sensitive information. The FCC will vote on the new proposal October 27th.

• Samsung's Q3 profits grow despite Galaxy Note 7 calamity

Samsung announced it will beat profit estimates for Q3 despite the Galaxy Note 7 recall. Samsung expects an operating profit of 7.8 trillion won (around US$7 billion) an increase of just over 4 billion over last year. Sales were down from expectations but still project a year over year increase. Samsung's semiconductor business picked up the slack as prices rose in that market.

• US regulators open investigation into replacement Note 7 that caught fire

That's the end of the good news for Samsung. On the heels of a replacement Note 7 that overheated and began smoking on a Southwest Airlines flight earlier this week, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced it will "expeditiously investigate the incident," in cooperation with Samsung. Sprint announced it will let Note 7 replacement owners return their Note 7s for another model if they wish.

• U.S. court reinstates Apple $120 million patent win over Samsung

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. reinstated a $120 million jury award to Apple payable by Samsung. The full slate of judges overturned a decision by a three-judge panel to overturn the jury award in a patent case relating to three iPhone patents. Apple won the case in federal court in San Jose May 2014.

• Facebook is talking to the White House about giving you ‘free’ Internet. Here’s why that may be controversial.

The Washington Post reports Facebook has been talking to the US Government about bringing its Free Basics app to the United States. The app provides free Internet access to select outlets, like news, health and job listing sites, that partner with Facebook without costing the end user money or counting against data caps. The program is popular in some countries in Africa but was deemed a violation of net neutrality in India. Free Basics in the US would target low-income and rural users.

• Apple and Spotify start streaming unofficial mixes

Spotify and Apple have started streaming the first unofficial remixes from Dubset. Dubset's MixBANK system scans samples for copyright materials and pays the owners where appropriate. Dubset is one of Soundcloud's most popular services. The first mix went live on Spotify and more will follow eventually including multi-song DJ mixes.

• Verizon reportedly wants $1 billion discount on Yahoo

VentureBeat passes along a New York Post report that AOL chief Tim Armstrong, who runs the subsidiary that Yahoo would become a part of after an acquisition is upset about Yahoo's lack of disclosure and pushing for a price cut if not an end to the deal. According to the post, Yahoo is resisting any change. Verizon agreed to a $4.8 billion price but is reportedly pushing to cut that number by $1 billion.

• Google confirms that Verizon will handle system updates for Pixels it sells, but Google will still manage security updates

There has been some confusion over the Google Pixel being called a Verizon exclusive, since it is also available unlocked from Google and can be used with Google's Project Fi service. The bigger question has been how software updates will be handled. The unlocked phones will get updates as they are released direct from Google. However Google told 9to5Google.com that only security updates will be delivered directly to the Verizon model Pixel phones and that system updates would be managed by Verizon. The price and monthly finance options are the same for both phones.

• MadeByGoogle store to open in Lower Manhattan

Google will open a pop-up store to sell its hardware at 96 Spring street in lower Manhattan starting October 20th. Google did not say how long the store will remain open.

• Xiaomi opens its first store outside greater China

And Xiaomi opened its first store outside greater China (it has stores on the mainland as well as in Hong Kong and Taiwan). A new Mi Store has opened in the Suntec City mall in Singapore. This store only sells phones and accessories, not things like the Mi TV or Mi Rice Cooker, although Xiaomi says it hopes to bring more of its product line to the store eventually.

• Sony to return image sensors to full capacity on smartphone pickup

Sony says its camera sensor production will return to full capacity in the second half of its fiscal year which begins in October at its five image sensor plants. Stronger phone sales are the cause. Sony has about 40 percent of the market for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors. Sony's clients include Apple and Samsung.

• Comcast gets closer to nationwide data caps with expansion in 18 states

Starting November 1st Comcast is implementing data caps in its service areas in 18 US states. That doubles the number of markets where it previously imposed data caps. The caps are set at 1 TB with overage charges of $10 per 50GB. Customers can pay $50 a month to get unlimited service. Comcast will let customers exceed the caps without charge in two courtesy months each year. Comcast says that the caps are implemented on the principle of fairness that those that use more should pay more. Data is not a scarce commodity and using more does not deprive others nor raise costs in most cases. Caps are a business policy as a Comcast engineering vice president acknowledged last year.

• The FBI Wants To Crack Another Dead Terrorist’s Locked iPhone

The FBI announced Friday that it is seeking access to a locked iPhone owned by a dead man in Minnesota that is part of a terrorist murder investigation. FBI special agent Rich Thorton said, "We are in the process of assessing our legal and technical options to gain access to this device and the data it may contain.”

Links

• This episode on dailytechnewsshow.com
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Preceded by: "Daily Tech Headlines – October 6, 2016"

Daily Tech Headlines – October 7, 2016

Followed by: "Daily Tech Headlines – October 10, 2016"