ADD = Amazon Dedicated Device
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| ADD = Amazon Dedicated Device | |
| Number | 2735 |
| Broadcast Date | APRIL 13, 2016 |
| Episode Length | 40:07 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt |
| Guests | Scott Johnson |
Why Amazon bucks declining e-reader and ebook sales to put out its most expensive Kindle in years. Who even uses a single-purpose e-reader anymore? Scott Johnson does. And he’ll explain to Tom Merritt why.
Guest
Headlines
- The Washington Post reports people familiar with the matter tell it that professional hackers sold a zero-day flaw to the FBI in order to unlock the iPhone 5C in the San Bernardino case. The FBI created hardware that took advantage of the flaw. The services of Cellebrite were not used according to the sources. The FBI has not said if it will disclose the flaw to Apple.
- Submitted by spsheridan
- At the same time, Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein issued a formal draft of their bill that would require tech companies to have a way to decrypt any product they provide encryption for. The Senators are seeking feedback on this first draft. This new draft narrows applications to crimes that causes serious injuries, drug offenses, child victims or foreign intelligence.
- The Kindle Oasis is now official. As the accidentally published Tmall page said, it has a 300ppi screen and a battery cover that attaches magnetically. It’s 30% thinner than previous Kindles and 20% lighter without its battery cover. You turn pages by tapping the screen not the side. It’s available in red, brown and black covers for $289 today shipping April 27th.
- Google Calendar has added an option called “Goal” to the Add menu. You choose how often you want to do the goal and the best time slots. If you miss one, the calendar will defer it to another day. It will automatically reschedule if another event is scheduled at the same time. It will learn what the best times are the more you use it. It’s rolling out slowly worldwide to iOS and Android.
- Submitted by PhilipShane
- GoPro has hired Daniel Coster as its vice president of design and head of the hardware team. Coster previously worked on Apple's design team and received credit in patents for the iPhone 4 and iPad wireless keyboard among 500 total design patents.
- Google launched preview 2 of Android N Wednesday, at developer.android.com/preview. It adds the Vulkan 3D rendering API for low overhead GPU control. Launcher shortcuts that go to a specific point within an app. And emoji Unicode 9 support.
- Snapchat now lets users attach emoji stickers to faces or objects in video. Stuck emojis will rotate, scale and move automatically with the object’s position in the video. To access the feature, tap the sticker button, position the sticker and then long press to stick it to a person or thing. The update rolls out today for Android with the iOS version coming soon.
- Facebook’s Connectivity Lab announced some technologies it has been developing to improve connectivity. Terragraph is a 60 GHz, multi-node wireless array focused on bringing high-speed internet connectivity to dense urban areas using WiGig, the 60GHz spectrum and data center processing for 100% street-level coverage of gigabit WiFi. A pilot project will come to San Jose later this year. Project ARIES (Antenna Radio Integration for Efficiency in Spectrum) is built for energy and spectral efficiency for wireless connections over long distances. Facebook calls it Massive MIMO. Facebook also hired Regina Dugan away from Google's Advanced Technology and Projects group to work on hardware with Facebook's new R&D effort called Building 8.
- Mobile Syrup reports Logitech has acquired fitness wearables and bluetooth audio company, Jaybird, for $50 million in cash with the potential for an additional pay-out of $45 million if it meets “achievement of growth targets over the next two years.” Jaybird was founded by Judd Armstrong in 2006 who plans to stay with company for the immediate future. Jaybird makes the popular BlueBuds X headphones.
- Freebooting is the practice of using someone else’s videos without permission on Facebook. Tuesday Facebook launched Rights Manager, its own version of YouTube’s Content ID. Facebook Pages admins can upload video they wish to claim as their own. If a video matches, a notification can be sent to the offender it can be automatically reported as a violation. Whitelists can be made for pages allowed to republish. For now, content owners must apply through Facebook to get access to the dashboard and API.
- Google is releasing a version of its open source machine learning software, TensorFlow, that can run across multiple machines, up to several hundred at a time.
- The Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) called a strike of 36,000 workers against Verizon Wednesday morning, after 10 months of negotiations. Verizon will use nonunion workers to perform repairs, network maintenance, and customer service. The dispute is over movement of jobs out of the country and to contractors, closing of call centers and long assignments away from home. Verizon wants a federal mediator but the unions do not. It’s the largest strike in the US since 45,000 Verizon workers walked out in 2011.
- The USB Implementers Forum announced a new protocol to protect device from faulty USB-C cables. Host devices can now verify if a charger, device, cable or power source is certified by the USB-IF. 128-bit encrypted information is transmitted before data or power connections are established. Devices will need to add support through software updates and cables made before the protocol was introduced will need to be replaced.
- Submitted by anotherjmartin
Discussion
- Amazon’s $289 crazy thin Kindle Oasis has a battery cover that adds months of charge
- The Plot Twist: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far From Dead
- The State of the e-Reader Industry in 2015
- Unit sales of E-Readers worldwide from 2010 to 2015 (in millions)
- Facebook swipes the head of Google's ATAP lab to lead a new hardware division
- Tablet sales are still shrinking—except for tablets that mimic PCs
- Revenue from e-book sales in the United States from 2008 to 2018 (in billion U.S. dollars)
- February 2016 Author Earnings Report: Amazon’s Ebook, Print, and Audio Sales
- Declining E-book Sales Hit Home
Pick of the Day
- This is a listener pick particularly for Scott. In episode 2729, Scott was asking about some of the details of the undersea cable-laying process. The AT&T Tech Channel on YouTube has both modern videos, and also clips from the old Bell System archives. One of those videos is a short documentary on the CS Long Lines, a cable-laying ship. The cable being laid has advanced, from coax then to fiber today, but the basics are still the same!
- Submitted by A. Karl Kornel
Messages
- Hi Tom et al,
I really enjoyed yesterday's show about non-gaming related uses for VR/AR. In addition to the ones you guys brought up, I've been thinking of one that might seem boring but I think would be amazing.
I believe one to the most long-term focused uses for VR is in the area of archiving. Can you imagine what it would have been like if we could have had the technology when the Beatles played at Shea stadium or Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Washington Mall? I know we can't recapture them now, but VR/AR could revolutionize recorded history going forward. The implications of such an advancement span the entire gamut of categories. It would enhance educational resources by an order of magnitude. We could preserve the world's wonders, both natural and man-made. My children could visit Stonehenge, Petra, or the Taj Mahal in their history class. In my mind, the possibilities continue to stretch the more I think about them.
Thanks for all you and the crew do for us. Have an amazing day!
Sincerely, - Sent by Wes in Nome, TX
- Hi Tom et al,
- Hi Tom,
After listening to the conversation(2/25) on DTNS, I thought you might find this article interesting. Obviously, it’s not about kids learning to code, but likely is also very very valuable. At least IMO. :-) - Sent by Lynda
- Hi Tom,
- You mentioned having played around with accessibility on iOS but not Android. Android is definitely still far behind, BUT because of the open nature of Android, the tools being built by 3rd parties are really getting interesting.
At the CSUN Person's with Disabilities Expo 2 weeks ago, we saw some cool stuff. One was an overlay for Android from Sesame that let me, in less than 5 minutes, learn how to operate the phone by only moving my head, and for very small distances. Another was a phone, out of the Czech Replublic, for the visually impaired (and elderly) that showed them ONLY words in really big type. So you'd swipe between major functions like phone vs. calendar without all those little icons to understand.
Here's a link to our video interview with Sesame showing me learning to use the phone with my head movements:
https://www.podfeet.com/blog/2016/04/csun-2016-sesame-phone-for-motor-impaired/
Anyway, thought that stuff was pretty cool. - Sent by Allison Sheridan
- You mentioned having played around with accessibility on iOS but not Android. Android is definitely still far behind, BUT because of the open nature of Android, the tools being built by 3rd parties are really getting interesting.
YouTube
Links
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ADD = Amazon Dedicated Device |
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