Daily Tech Headlines – May 1, 2018
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| Daily Tech Headlines – May 1, 2018 | |
| Number | 492 |
| Broadcast Date | MAY 1, 2018 |
| Episode Length | 3:49 |
| Hosts | Sarah Lane |
Jan Koum reportedly set to leave Facebook, Twitter says video makes up over half its ad revenue, Microsoft adds new features to Outlook.com.
Headlines
- WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum plans to leave Facebook over encryption disputes, sources tell the Washington Post. Koum sold WhatsApp to Facebook for more than $19 billion in 2014, and reportedly plans to step down from Facebook’s board of directors as well. It “is time for me to move on,” Koum wrote in a Facebook post after The Washington Post article went live.
- Amazon launches Prime Book Box, a $23 kids’ book selection, in its first physical Prime book service
- Amazon Prime has a new perk:- physical books. Prime Book Box is a subscription service for children’s hardback books... invite only for now, and scheduled to ship later this year, starting in the U.S. for $22.99 per box. Books are divided up by age groups of baby-two years, three-five years, six-eight years and nine-12 years, Amazon Prime already has a reading service called Prime Reading, but it is focused around Kindle e-books, along with selected digital magazines and travel guides.
- The UK parliament has issued a warning to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg - give evidence voluntarily, or get a formal summons to appear in court the next time you visit the UK. This is in response to reports Zuckerberg will visit the European Parliament this month. Thus far, Facebook has sent various Facebook spokespeople, but not Zuckerberg himself to the UK to answer questions related to its enquiry into online disinformation and the role of social media in politics and democracy.
- Twitter announced over 30 content deals including NBCUniversal, Disney/ESPN, Viacom, Vice Media and Will Packer Media. Partnerships include exclusive content, such as ESPN's planned launch of five shows and programming initiatives for Twitter. The company says video views have almost doubled in the past year but didn't give specific numbers... although last week Twitter did say video now makes up over half its ad revenue and was again the fastest-growing ad format in the first quarter of 2018.
- Comcast increased speeds for customers in Houston and the Oregon/SW Washington areas, but there's a catch - it's available only to customers that pay for both Internet and tv service. Customers with 60Mbps download speeds are being upped to 150Mbps; 150Mbps subscribers are going to 250Mbps; and 250Mbps subscribers are getting a raise to 400Mbps or 1Gbps. Last week in its quarterly earnings report, Comcast said it lost 96,000 video customers and saw video revenue decrease 0.8 percent due to a decline in the number of residential customers.
- Microsoft is adding new features to Outlook.com users, such as the option of bill-pay reminders, suggested event locations and meeting rooms. Outlook for iOS users can now also see the details of an organization's directory as part of their Outlook contact information, and Microsoft says the ability to draft a message in Outlook on one device and finish it on another is coming soon.
- The Movie DB app, or for those in the know: Netflix for pirates, made its way into Apple's App Store. This is notable not only because of the obvious pirating issue, but also because Apple is famously stringent about what it allows developers to submit, or at least what it gives the green light. The Movie DB app has been available since April 5th and has received three updates since then, casting some questions around Apple's submission process these days.
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| Preceded by: "Daily Tech Headlines – April 30, 2018" |
Daily Tech Headlines – May 1, 2018 |
Followed by: "Daily Tech Headlines – May 2, 2018" |