Daily Tech Headlines – August 31, 2016
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Daily Tech Headlines – August 31, 2016 | |
| Number | 60 |
| Broadcast Date | AUGUST 31, 2016 |
| Episode Length | 7:24 |
| Hosts | Rich Stroffolino |
Alphabet carpools with Waze, Twitter opens up ad revenue, and Amazon Dashes to Europe.
Headlines
- Jack Nicas at the Wall Street Journal reports that according to sources, Alphabet subsidiary Google will begin allowing Waze users in San Francisco to connect for ride sharing, starting this fall. Google has operated a pilot project in the city since May, but it was limited to several thousand employees of designated firms, including Google, Wal-Mart and Adobe. The project goal is to create a commuter service, and the company has so far capped rates at $0.54 per mile to discourage the service being used for ride hailing. Google previously tested using Waze for carpooling in Israel last year.
- Fortune reports that Alphabet subsidiary Nest Labs is undergoing further restructuring, according to sources familiar with the matter. The entire platform team will be subsumed into Google to develop a complete Internet of Things platform. The division will be led by Hiroshi Lockheimer, the current senior vice president of Android. It is unclear how much of Nest's personnel will be effected by the restructuring.
- Twitter announced yesterday that it will share ad revenue with content creators, starting initially in the US. Previously this had been limited to media partners in the company's Amplify Publisher Program. 70% of ad revenue will go to content creators, and Twitter will not require any content exclusives. The revenue split will not be immediately extended to Vine or Periscope creators.
- Sonos announced new partnerships with Spotify and Amazon on Tuesday. The Spotify partnership will allow users to control Sonos speakers directly within the Spotify mobile app. The feature will rollout in October. The Amazon partnership will allow Sonos speakers to work with Alexa devices. This will arrive some time in 2017.
- Snapchat rolled out an update to simplify creating Geofilters. The updated On-Demand Geofilters lets you create and edit custom designed or stock template Geofilters directly through Snapchats website. Users can then create a geofence and purchase the filter immediately. Snapchat also released an update to its mobile app, adding highlighting, bolding, italicizing and underlining to text captions, along with the ability to animate large text captions.
- Online retailer Amazon brought its Dash Buttons to the first markets outside the US. The Wi-Fi connected product ordering buttons will be available to Amazon Prime subscribers in Germany and Austria for 4.99 euros, and in the UK for 4.99 pounds. Amazon will also bring its Dash Replacement service to the same 3 countries, which allows appliance manufacturers to integrate automated ordering of supplies into their devices.
- Apple launched a new tier for its iCloud file storage service, now offering 2TB for $19.99 a month. Jeff Benjamin at 9to5Mac speculates that the new tier might be in anticipation of a new feature in the upcoming macOS Sierra, which allows Desktop and Document folders to sync with iCloud.
- Google announced several updates to its Google+ platform on Tuesday. Users will not be able to insert both still images and animated GIFs into post comments. Community moderators will be getting new tools to combat spam, with an "approved posting" option being available soon. Google will also be switching users over to the new Google+ UI by default, although the old UI will still be available as an option for a limited time. Finally, Google+ will be made a core service for Google Apps, in an attempt to increase business adoption for Communities and Collections. The updates will roll out over the coming weeks.
- A Los Angeles Superior Court judge dismissed Monster's lawsuit against Apple subsidiary Beats electronics, which alleged the company fraudulently ended their business relationship. Judge William Fahey found that Monster agreed that Beats had the right to terminate their relationship upon a change in the controlling interest of Beats, which occurred when HTC took a controlling stake in 2011. Beats is now countersuing for attorney's fees and court costs, claiming that the termination agreement between the companies should have indemnified them from any legal action.
- Corning introduced a new glass designed for wearables, Gorilla Glass SR+. Corning claims the new glass features the toughness of its smartphone class Gorilla Glass, but emphasized the new design is particularly scratch resistant as well, touting it as 70% more damage resistant and 25% better surface reflection than compeiting products. Gorilla Glass SR+ is available to manufacturers now, and Corning expects it will be in consumer products by the end of the year.
- At IFA in Berlin, Acer announced the Predator 21 X laptop, the first laptop to feature a curved 21-inch IPS display, sporting a 2560x1080 resolution. The rest of the device is no less ambitious, with dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs, Intel's new Kaby Lake processors, integrated Tobii eye-tracking for in-game controls, and a back-lit full-size Cherry MX mechanical keyboard. Acer plans for a release by the end of Q1 2017. No word on price or weight of the device, but "a lot" is probably a safe bet for both.
- Cisco announced plans to acquire ContainerX, which specializes in virtual container technology for data centers. This marks Cisco's first acquisition into the burgeoning container market, putting it in potential competition with Docker, Amazon, and Microsoft. Once the acquisition is completed, the ContainerX team will merge into Cisco's cloud platform and services group headed by Kip Compton.
- Google has discontinued the Chromebook Pixel 2. VentureBeat reports the Chrome OS laptop is no longer available in the Google Store or Best Buy. Introduced Feb 2015 the Pixel 2 came in $1299 and $999 versions. The Pixel C android tablet with optional keyboard is still available.
- Security Researchers at We Live Security discovered Mac OS malware in a recompiled version of the Transmission BitTorrent client being distributed through the client's website. The effected version 2.92 added ransomware to the main function of the app, and used a legitimate code signing key different to get past Apple's Gatekeeper system. The researchers notified the Transmission team on August 29th, and the malicious version was taken down in a matter of minutes.
Links
| Preceded by: "Daily Tech Headlines – August 30, 2016" |
Daily Tech Headlines – August 31, 2016 |
Followed by: "Daily Tech Headlines – September 1, 2016" |