Daily Tech Headlines – March 23, 2018
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| Daily Tech Headlines – March 23, 2018 | |
| Number | 465 |
| Broadcast Date | MARCH 23, 2018 |
| Episode Length | 4:04 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt |
Craigslist removes its personals section, Dropbox IPOs and researchers extract water from the air in a desert.
Headlines
- Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says sources say Apple will introduce low cost iPads at its announcement in Chicago Tuesday. The sources say Apple will also show new software for the classroom. Data from Futuresource Consulting shows Apple in third place behind Google and Microsoft in devices shipping to US schools.
- The US Congress passed a bill Wednesday that removes safe harbor protections from websites that "promote or facilitate the prostitution of another person." Out of concern over broad interpretations of the law, Craigslist has removed its Personals section entirely, and Reddit has removed some subreddits. The bill is expected to be signed by the President.
- Dropbox priced its initial public offering at $21, above the expected $18-$20 range. Dropbox sold 36 million shares and now trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol DBX.
- Instagram announced an algorithm update to ensure newer posts will be more likely to appear first in your feed. Instagram is also testing a “New Posts” button that will let users choose when they’d like to refresh the feed. And a new feature is in testing for Instagram Stories that would let you embed another post with a see post link to the original.
- The Daily Beast says it has learned that US special counsel Robert Mueller has taken over the investigation of the hacker known as Guccifer 2.0 who took credit for providing WikiLeaks with emails taken from the Democratic National Committee. A source said that one of Guccifer's posts on social media did not go through VPN and revealed a Moscow-based IP that investigators believe may belong to Russian intelligence.
- Scientists at MIT and UC Berkeley have developed a device that can extract water from air even in desert climates. The device is passive requiring no energy input and can work in humidity as low as 10%. A metal-organic framework is made with hydrophilic material that absorbs water at night and uses sunlight to release it where it can be caught by a condenser. Tests in Tempe, Arizona yielded around a quarter of a liter per kilogram of material. It can also be used to store natural gas or capture carbon dioxide.
- US music revenue rose 16.5% in 2017, hitting the highest mark since 2008. Streaming music revenue grew 43%, generating 65% of all recorded-music revenue for the year. Free ad-supported streaming grew 34.6%. Physical units like CDs made up 17.1% of revenue ahead of digital downloads which made up 15.3 percent. Downloads and CD sales fell but vinyl sales rose 1 million units.
- Unregistered businesses in Nigeria who are verified with spam blocker Truecaller can now use that verification to accept payments through Paystack. Unregistered businesses will only need their mobile number to accept payments. Paystack's risk assessment combines with Truecaller's verification to insure security.
- The Files Go app on Android with peer-to-peer file transfer is adding on-device search and integration with Google Photos. Files Go is meant to work with the Android Go OS for low-powered phones but has become popular with multiple users.
- Starting March 30, the South Korean government is powering down all computers at 8 PM Fridays in Seoul in order to force employees to stop working overtime. South Korea has some of the longest working hours in the world. South Korea recently passed a law to cut down the maximum work week from 68 hours to to 52.
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| Preceded by: "Daily Tech Headlines – March 22, 2018" |
Daily Tech Headlines – March 23, 2018 |
Followed by: "Daily Tech Headlines – March 26, 2018" |