Daily Tech Headlines – September 5, 2016
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| Daily Tech Headlines – September 5, 2016 | |
| Number | 63 |
| Broadcast Date | SEPTEMBER 5, 2016 |
| Episode Length | 7:58 |
| Hosts | Rich Stroffolino |
Microsoft’s lawsuit gets some help, Space Communications Ltd had a bad weekend, and the beginning of the end for OpenOffice?
Headlines
- On Friday, varied companies filed briefs in support of Microsoft's lawsuit against the Department of Justice in U.S. District Court. The lawsuit centers around so-called sneak-and-peek searches of e-mails without ever notifying customers that the government is seeking data. Eleven technology firms, including Amazon, Apple and Google argued that the searches go far beyond necessary limits and infringe on users' rights. The government has previously responded that Microsoft does not have the authority to sue over their users' constitutional protections. Delta Air Lines Inc, BP America Inc, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Eli Lilly & Co, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, and Twitter Inc. also asked to join the suit in support of Microsoft. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have also filed amicus briefs in support of Microsoft, while Fox News Network LLC, the Associated Press and 27 other news organizations filed a separate briefing to join the case, citing restraint of disclosing warrants violates free speech.
- Samsung announced that they will offer customers effected by the Galaxy Note 7 recall a $25 gift card or bill credit if they decide to get a similar Samsung phone. The credit applies to users to replace their recalled Note 7 with either a direct replacement, a Galaxy S7, or S7 Edge. Samsung will also refund any difference in price. US carriers have also announced how they will address the Note 7 recall. T-Mobile will offer customers who’ve purchased a Galaxy Note 7 from carrier a full refund including any accessories purchased with it. Verizon has offered a similar offer stating it would be “waiving the restocking fee” for those who return or exchange the phone. Sprint will offer an exchange for a similar device and will offer a ""loaner" phone for the interim while AT&T said it was “determining the exchange process.”
- According to a reliable source Google will hold a hardware event Oct 4th to unveil its Pixel-branded smartphones the Pixel and Pixel XL, a 4K Chromecast, new Google Home details, and the its in-house Daydream VR viewer device. Android Police also reports that the 4K Chromecast will do 4K video and be called Chromecast Plus or Chromecast Ultra and that Daydream hardware might be called Daydream View.
- After the loss of its AMOS-6 communication satellite in the explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket, Space Communication Ltd stated in may seek compensation from SpaceX, either $50 million or a free flight on a future launch. Spacecom has been significantly impacted by the explosion, stating it expects its equity to be decreased anywhere from $30 to $123 million after the loss of the satellite. The company further saw its shares suspended on the open market early Sunday morning, only to see them plunge 34% when trading resumed. Beijing Xinwei Technology Group had agreed to acquire Spacecom for $285 million last month, but the deal was contingent on the successful launch of the AMOS-6 satellite, and it is unknown if or how the merger will proceed. In a statement to Reuters, SpaceX advised it does not disclose contract or insurance terms.
- Google released an update to their analytics app to add Google Now-like automated insights. A new menu option called "Assistant" will show cards with the automatically generated reports, users can then click through for more detailed information, as well as options to share, pin the card to the top of the menu, as well as give feedback on the insights directly to Google. Automated insights are currently only available in English, with further languages, and a desktop version of the feature in progress.
- Ars Technica reports that the Vice President of Apache OpenOffice Dennis Hamilton circulated an email contemplating the potential shutdown of the venerable open source productivity suite. Hamilton's email states the project does not have the developer support needed to continue releases and patches, and that the Apache board wanted to know what commitments would be needed prior to a shutdown. Apache OpenOffice last stable release was 4.1.2 in October 2015, with only 2 releases in all of 2014. Jon Brodkin at Ars notes that the forked project LibreOffice received 14 updates alone.
- Reuters reports that according to people familiar with the matter, Google has suspended its modular phone ambitions, known as Project Ara. One of Reuters sources say the company may still work with partners to bring the backing technology to market, but strictly as a licensing deal, not through Google directly. The company had previously announced at Google IO that a developer version of Project Ara would be available in the fall.
- HDMI Licensing announced is it releasing a specification to allow video out directly from a USB-C connection to an HDMI display. The capability would have to be enable by device manufacturers, but would allow direct video support over USB-C, with the proper cable. The specification is called HDMI Alt mode, and would be limited to the HDMI 1.4b standard, which lacks support for HDR video, but would include 4K and 3D. Other Alt Modes supported by USB-C include DisplayPort, MHL, and Thunderbolt.
- A South Florida computer programmer was arrested last week for allegedly hacking into the Linux Kernel Organization and the Linux Foundation in 2011. Donald Ryan Austin received 4 charges of “intentional transmission causing damage to a protected computer”, according to a statement by the Department of Justice. The indictment states Austin accessed several servers for the two organizations and installed the “Phalanx” rootkit to allow backdoor access, as well as a trojan to collect login credentials. It is unclear if source code for the Linux kernal or other repositories were tampered with in the hack. Austin has been released on bond, and has his next scheduled court appearance on September 21st in San Francisco.
- A new report from comScore shows that smartphone apps account for 50% of time users spend online as of July, up from 41% as of July 2014. The report also shows that tablet apps add an additional 9% of online activity. The top apps used were dominated by big players like Facebook and Google, but comScore noted that Pokemon Go was the 13th most popular app in the US in terms of unique visits, and #4 in total time spent in the app, behind only Facebook, Pandora and YouTube.
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| Preceded by: "Daily Tech Headlines – September 2, 2016" |
Daily Tech Headlines – September 5, 2016 |
Followed by: "Daily Tech Headlines – September 6, 2016" |