Tech News Today 126

Tech News Today Episode 126

Tech News Today 126: Microsoft Wants To Be Your Cable Company

Xbox 360 as your set top box, US seizes 83 websites, wikileaks causes a controversy, and more.

Hosts

• Tom Merritt (@acedtect)
  • TomMerritt.com
• Sarah Lane (@sarahlane)
  • sarahlane.com
• Jason Howell
  • JasonHowell.net

Top Stories

• Microsoft’s Supreme Court Case May Have Huge Benefits For Patent Defendants

• Microsoft in talks to start new TV service using the 360?

WikiLeaks hits the Internet:

• Compiling the WikiLeaks Fallout
• Exclusive: WikiLeaks Will Unveil Major Bank Scandal
• Obama 'Considering Legal Action' Against Wikileaks
• WikiLeaks: Chinese Politburo responsible for Google hacking
• Wikileaks: US sought DNA, passwords of world leaders
• U.S. Chases Foreign Leaders’ DNA, WikiLeaks Shows
• Has Wikileaks run out of secrets?
• Wikileaks removed from Aussie blacklist
• Congressman wants WikiLeaks listed as terrorist group
• Cyber Attack Against WikiLeaks Was Weak

Discussion Stories

• P2P settlement lawyers lied, committed fraud says new lawsuit

• Google buys Groupon for $2.5 billion?
• A Google deal to buy Groupon won't work...

• Could Cyber Monday Be Giving Way to Cyber Thursday?
• Cyber Monday is a hoax anyway
• Black Friday's online sales rise over last year

• Feds seize 82 domains accused of selling counterfeit goods
• US Government Seizes Torrent Search Engine Domain

News Fuse

• Iran's president Ahmadinejad said some of the centrifuges used in the country's uranium enrichment programme were sabotaged, raising suspicions that they were affected by the Stuxnet computer worm.Ahmadinejad said the problems had been created by enemies of Iran who succeeded in creating problems for a limited number of our centrifuges, but specialists had solved the problems.

• You may soon be Face chatting on Facebiook. While working on his Facebook application, Tal Ater of Green Any Site noticed a little object in the Facebook code called video chat. The object has several properties which refer to Skype, and clearly suggest being able to video chat with Skype users. Ater claims Facebook is bucket testing the functionality.

• The US Supreme Court refused to hear the case of a file-swapper who claimed she was an "innocent infringer." Whitney Harper thought P2P was like internet radio, and stopped infringing as soon as he learned otherwise. A lower court decision stands, that since CDs have copyright notices on them, Harper should have known better. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito dissented from the decision not to take the case, noting the law, written in 1988, is severely out of date.

• Ladies (and gentlemen), it's up to you to tell the diamonds from the zirconia now. The Supremes also declined to hear an appeal from Tiffany and Company who hoped to get the court to make eBay responsible for knock-offs sold on the auction site. A lower court ruling now stands which found that eBay responds adequately to notices of counterfeiting and further action is the responsibility of Tiffany.

• Comcast subscribers up and down the East Coast lost Internet access on Nov. 28 due to a malfunction in the ISP's DNS handling. While the company said access was restored, there were still a handful of users reporting issues as of Monday morning. During the outage some users discovered that using a third-party DNS provider liked OpenDNS restored Internet access.

• 2011 should be a bumper year for 3D TVs and tablets according to analysts. Gartner cut its forecast for global PC shipments in 2011, largely due to growing popularity of tablets. Meanwhile, Futuresource Consulting predicts sales of 4 million 3DTVs in 2010 and 8 million selling in 2011. They note that year-one adoption of 3DTV is running at a far quicker rate in than it did for high-definition.

• A Danish magazine about Android had their app rejected from the Apple app store. The publisher claims the subject matter was given as the reason for the rejection. If so, the magazine Android Magasinet, could become the first of a trend of controversies around publications subject matter as Apple pushes the iPad as a magazine and newspaper platform. No word from Apple why the app was rejected.

• iPhone dev team and Team Tweezers hackers, bushing and pie-tey, have launched a Kickstarter fundraiser to back OpenVizsla, a open/hackable hardware-based USB protocol analyzer. The work would continue to enable free/open drivers for everything USB (see Kinect, iPhone, ec..), and allow indie software developers to continue making tools that interact with our hardware

• Worried about whether the oft-rumoured, and sometimes obfuscted by Erik Schmidt Nexus S is ever going to come out? Worry less. The so-called GT-i9020T has now turned up yet again at the FCC, with a pair of new Bluetooth / WiFi and GPS antennas. Engadget points out that doesn't mean there won't be any more changes, but it does indicate that a GT-i9020T model will actually be released.

Kickers and Weird Science

• Two Kinects join forces to create better 3D video, blow our minds (video)

Calendar

• Patent Wars Begin as Apple, Nokia Square Off
• Sprint and Clearwire deliver WiMAX to Los Angeles, Ohio, Miami and Washington DC, promise SF on December 28th

• Be a part of TNT this holiday season!

Email

"I was watching the podcast the other day when you talked about the Acer tablet that has two touch screens. I haven’t heard any specs but I would assume that you would be able to connect a hardware keyboard and mouse via USB and/or Bluetooth. What would really be cool is if they created a keyboard that you could quickly ‘snap on’ over the lower touchscreen maybe by plugging into a USB port that was located on the side of the unit that would allow you to easily type lengthy documents. Just a thought. Love the show.

Chris Sellers Jonesboro, AR"

"Hi Tom et al.

A bit of twitter serendipity/15 minutes of fame:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/twitter-user-theashes-wonders-whats-a-wicket/story-e6frfro0-1225962697776

Best

Theo

And Qantas has offered her a free flight to Australia http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/world/qantas-offers-theashes-twitter-woman-a-free-flight-to-australian/story-e6freoox-1225962891981"

Sponsors

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Slingbox

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Production Information

• Edited by: Jason
• Notes:

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