Tech News Today 162

Tech News Today Episode 162

Tech News Today 162: Changing Page's Ranking

What Google's CEO change really means, HP cleans up its board, Verizon stabs FCC in the back, and more.

Hosts

• Tom Merritt (@acedtect)
  • TomMerritt.com
• Dr. Kiki (@drkiki)
  • DrKiki.tv
• Jason Howell
  • JasonHowell.net
• Don Reisenger (@donreisinger)
• Kevin Marks
  • tummelvision.tv

Top Stories

• A Big Quarter From Google, and Shake Up At The Top – Larry Page To Become CEO
  • he he
  • Google’s Founders & CEO Promised To Work Together Until 2024
  • Schmidt: Decision Made Over The Holidays, It’s About Execution, And Larry Is Ready To Lead
  • Google earnings: Net revenue of $6.4 billion and $8.75 a share -- The Street was looking for $6.06 billion and $8.09 a share.
  • Starting from April 4, Larry Page, Google Co-Founder, will take charge of Google’s day-to-day operations as Chief Executive Officer. Sergey Brin, Google Co-Founder, will devote his energy to strategic projects, in particular working on new products. Eric Schmidt will assume the role of Executive Chairman, focusing externally on deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership – all of which are increasingly important given Google’s global reach. Internally, he will continue to act as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.

• Meg Whitman, Patricia Russo Among Five Joining HP Board
  • HP proposes new probe into Hurd's departure
  • HP said today that it is replacing four board members and adding an additional member. Out are Joel Hyatt, John Joyce, Robert Ryan, and Lucille Salhany. In are newcomers Shumeet Banerji, chief executive officer of Booz & Company; Gary Reiner, former CIO at GE; Patricia Russo, former CEO of Alcatel-Lucent; Dominique Senequier, CEO of AXA Private Equity; and Meg Whitman, former president and CEO of eBay and recent California gubernatorial candidate.
  • -an investigation HP is ready to start into the circumstances surrounding former CEO Hurd's resignation from the company. HP wants this investigation to be ""independent"" and led by a committee of outside attorneys and board members who joined the Silicon Valley giant after Hurd's departure. As of last night, that meant only two board members qualified: CEO Leo Apotheker and Ray Lane.

• Verizon sues FCC, says "net neutrality lite" rules illegal

Discussion Stories

• One Down: Spotify Signs Sony to U.S. Deal
  • Key for Spotify in the U.S. is Universal Music
  • Digital Music’s Slowdown Draws Out Familiar Industry Worries
  • Global digital music revenue has grown 1,000 percent since 2004 - but only six percent through 2010, says the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s (IFPI) annual Digital Music Report 2011.

• Big content to ICANN: make it easier for us to challenge domain suffixes

• Apple "screwing" new iPhones out of simple DIY repair

• Is Apple starting a social network in iPhone 5?
  • Apple to fight Facebook with iOS 5 and Media Stream?

News Fuse

• Kongregate, the app that lets you play free games on Android, and is Gamestop's toe in the water of a digital storefront, has been yanked from the Android Marketplace. Google says that app stores are not allowed in the marketplace, but Kongregate says their service, whihc allows online games to be cached for online play, should be no different than say the Kindle app that lets you buy books. Google says games are apps books are not. You're outta here Kongregate.

• Google began testing number portability for Google Voice today although not every user will see the option and Google says it will only be there for a limited time. The settings link points to a page that checks whether the number you want to use is portable, and if it is, you can pay $20 through Google Checkout to get the process going.

• Amazon has agreed to buy online movie rental service Lovefilm. The American internet retailer, which already had a significant stake in the London company, said Lovefilm had a "productive and innovative" future. The move is largely seen as a defensive ploy against a planned international expansion by US video-streaming giant Netflix. Could Lovefilm go head to head with Netflix in the US too?

• Apple isn't as transparent as it could be when it comes to the effects its suppliers have on the environment and worker safety, according to a Chinese environmental group. The Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE) published a report (Chinese-language PDF) on Thursday ranking Apple and 28 other companies when it comes to taking responsibility for supplier conduct, with Apple coming in dead last on the list.

• Cyber criminals have fewer ways to attack Microsoft Windows, and sent less spam in 2010 than in 2009–a first-ever decline of spam from year to year. Those are among the findings in an annual report on the state of Internet security released today by networking giant Cisco Systems. The bad guys seem to be focusing more on attacking your mobile device these days.

• Motorola is not backing down in their war against you using the device you bought the way you want. They will continue to use eFuse, their attempt to disable Motorola CPU's if unauthorised software is detected. According to Motorola's own YouTube channel, 'If you want to do custom roms, then buy elsewhere, we'll continue with our strategy that is working thanks.'

• A team of security researchers has created a proof-of-concept Trojan for Android handsets that is capable of listening out for credit card numbers — typed or spoken — and relaying them back to the application's creator. Soundminder sits in the background and waits for a call to be placed. When triggered the app silently records the information, and turns relevant numbers from a sound recording into a number.

• T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm confirmed today that 4G HSPA+ versions of the T-Mobile Sidekick and the Samsung Galaxy S phones will be "coming soon," according to a slide presented at a press breakfast today. "We will launch as new the Samsung Galaxy S 4G ... and coming soon, will also be a Sidekick 4G. Everybody knows the Sidekick, and we're going to relaunch the Sidekick and bring it as a 4G device, Android based, into the market," Humm said.

Kickers and Weird Science

• Twitter Gets Sued For Letting Famous People Interact Online
  • Now, some company called VS Technologies is suing Twitter, alleging that it infringes on a patent of theirs, entitled “Method and system for creating an interactive virtual community of famous people”

Calendar

• Facebook app for feature phones launched
• Samsung Vibrant Froyo Upgrade Coming Jan. 21
• Big four carrier CEOs to share stage at CTIA 2011 keynote
• HTC to launch Flyer tablet PC in March
• BitTorrent Inventor Demos New P2P Live Streaming Protocol, hoping to launch later this year
• Star Wars Blu-ray discs to arrive September 27th according to Amazon

Voicemail

• Matt in Orlando: A way that Google can continue to support H.264

Sponsors

Ford

• focuselectricpower.com
• CES-2
• ad times: :35-:47 and 23:58-24:56

Production Information

• Edited by: Jason
• Notes:

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