Daily Tech Headlines – June 20, 2016
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| Daily Tech Headlines – June 20, 2016 | |
| Number | 9 |
| Broadcast Date | JUNE 20, 2016 |
| Episode Length | 9:45 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt |
Twitter purchases a Magic Pony, Algeria’s students ruin it for everyone, and Apple gets to open stores in India.
Headlines
- Twitter announced it has purchased London-baed Magic Pony Technology, and its 11 PhD-holding employees, to become the “European homebase of for Twitter’s machine learning efforts.” The Verge notes that earlier this year Magic Pony showed how its algorithms can improve the resolution of low-res images using ordinary graphics cards. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey posted that Magic Pony will help make “ Twitter the first and best place to see what's happening in the world.”
- Algeria has temporarily blocked Twitter and Facebook, and 3G service after baccelaureate exam papers were leaked on social media. 555,177 students must retake the exams. The block went into effect Sunday, and presumably will be lifted after the exams complete on June 22.
- Microsoft began publicizing its own lab tests of the effects of browser use on battery life in Windows 10. Not surprisingly Microsoft’s Edge browser gets 36%-53% more battery life when compared to Chrome, Opera and Firefox. It did 17%- 70% better than Chrome and Firefox in streaming video tests. Microsoft promised even more battery improvements coming in the Windows 10 Anniversary update due next month. Microsoft’s tests showed Chrome used less power than Opera in power-saving mode.
- At the International Supercomputing Conference held in Frankfurt Germany, The Sunway TaihuLight was named the new top supercomuter. TaihuLight produced a Linpack score of 93 petaflops, three times faster than the current number 2, Tianhe-2. The machine uses a Chinese developed processor called ShenWei with custom designed interconnects. Previous supercomputers utilized various forms of x86 architecture. The Sunway TaihuLight used over 10 million compute cores and 1.3 petabytes of RAM to set the new record. The computer will use its impressive abilities in the fields of manufacturing, life science, and earth system modeling. No word yet on if HTC Vive support is forthcoming.
- Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke that the city’s Gigabit Internet is a major factor in the city’s economic success, attracting startups, lowering unemployment and improving the city’s reputation. A recent Consumer Reports survey showed Chattanooga’s ISP and Google fiber were the only one of 30 ISPs with a positive consumer satisfaction rating. A state law prohibits Chattanooga from expanding its service and the FCC is challenging that law. Tennessee as a whole is one of the least connected states int he US.
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting Monday approving 100% foreign direct investment in several sectors including, defence, broadcasting and, good news for Apple, single brand retail. Previously Apple would have had to source 30% of goods sold locally. The new rules waive the local requirement for three years, and additional five years for stores offering state of the art and cutting edge tech. Ecommerce is restricted for business to consumer but relaxed for business to business. And marketplace sellers like FlipKart and Amazon still have to deal with complicated rules requiring them to being just a platform for transactions.
- Researchers at the University of California at Davis have designed a microchip with 1,000 processors that can each run independently. The KiloCore can do 1.78 trillion instructions per second while powered by a single AA battery. IBM Manufactured the chip using a 32nm CMOS process. It could be used for better video processing, cryptography or crunching massive datasets.
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting Monday approving 100% foreign direct investment in several sectors including, defence, broadcasting and, good news for Apple, single brand retail. Previously Apple would have had to source 30% of goods sold locally. The new rules waive the local requirement for three years, and additional five years for stores offering state of the art and cutting edge tech. Ecommerce is restricted for business to consumer but relaxed for business to business. And marketplace sellers like FlipKart and Amazon still have to deal with complicated rules requiring them to being just a platform for transactions.
- Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo issued a press release Sunday asking Amazon to guarantee that its new one-hour Prime Now delivery service will not threaten the diversity of Paris’s economy or add to pollution. Amazon launched one-hour delivery for more than 18,000 items in Paris last week. The company charges €5.90 for one-hour delivery or free two-hour delivery on orders more than €20. In 2014 France banned Amazon and others from offering free shipping on discounted books. The Verge notes Amazon now offers €0.01 shipping on discounted titles in France.
- The Huawei Matebook, a Microsoft Surface like Windows laptop/tablet hybrid is available for preorder today and coming to retail shops in he US July 11th. You’ll be able to get it with Core M3, M5 and M7 processors, 4GB or 8 GB of RAM and 128GB or 512GB solid state drives. It also has a fingerprint sensor that can be used with Windows Hello. It will come with Windows Signature edition meaning no non-Microsoft apps pre-installed starting at $699. A keyboard costs an additional $129, Stylus is $59 and a dock with two USB 3.0 ports, ethernet, HDMI and VGA costs $89.
- BitTorrent’s Robert Delamar, with Jeremy Johnson announced the BitTorrent Sync and BitTorrent’s enterprise efforts will plait out into a new company called Resilio, led by BitTorrent’s now former CEO Eric Klinker. Delaware and Johnson will run BtTorrent Inc. which will focus solely on building its consumer media platform.
- Francisco Partners and Elliott Management Corporation acquired the Dell Software Group for an undisclosed sum. Francisco Partners CEO Dipanjan Deb cited the acquisition of Quest Software and SonicWALL as key components of the deal. Dell had previous acquired both companies in seperate acquisitions in 2012. Dell is divesting assets to help fund its help pay for its $67 billion EMC acquisition.
- The Wall Street Journal reports that Wal-mart has begun discussions to sell Yihaodian, its e-commerce platform in China, to JD.com. The proposed sale would allow JD.com to expand its grocery sale business, which is currently Yihaodian's niche, as well as better coordinate with physical Wal-Mart locations. JD.com sits behind Alibaba as the #2 online retailer in China.
- Waze just launched a new feature starting in LA that automatically bypasses complicated junctions that have no traffic light, a constant flow of cars, or limited visibility. By default, the app will calculate the best itinerary for an efficient ETA with as few difficult intersections as possible. Waze worked with the city of LA to identify troublesome spots like that one out of Beverly Hills at Olympic. I mean come on Waze that’s 66 lanes to turn left on?!? Users can also suggest problematic areas in the app. Waze intends to expand the feature to New Orleans soon.
- The Infernal Times reports on a troubling cold front settling in over all the circles of Hell. It seems that events in Cleveland are causing record lows, reportedly below freezing for the first time in all of recorded eternity. No word on if the denizens of Hell will seek legal recource with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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| Preceded by: "Daily Tech Headlines – June 17, 2016" |
Daily Tech Headlines – June 20, 2016 |
Followed by: "Daily Tech Headlines – June 22, 2016" |