Tech News Today 166

Tech News Today Episode 166

Tech News Today 166: Netflix's Public Stink

Netflix fires a warning shot at ISPs, Facebook hacked but more secure, Android apps coming to Google TV, and more.

Hosts

• Tom Merritt (@acedtect)
  • TomMerritt.com
• Joanna Stern (@joannastern)
  • JoannaStern.com
• Jason Howell
  • JasonHowell.net
• Mark Turpin
  • hypotheticalhelp.com

Top Stories

• Facebook beefs up security with https and social captchas
  • Zuckerberg's Facebook page hacked
  • [Facebook blames bug for Zuckerberg page hack]
  • Facebook may be developing, testing VoIP calls straight through its website

• Egypt denies clampdown on Twitter and Facebook
  • Herdict's reports on Facebook uptime
  • Herdict's total report on Egypt

• Unhappy With Slow Growth Of Android App Purchases, Google Talks 2011 Roadmap
  • Google I/O includes Google TV app development session; software speedup in the works
  • Gartner group projects 117% increase in app downloads to 17.1 million generating $15 billion in revenue.

Discussion Stories

• Congressman wants to slap warning labels on violent games

• President Wants a Wireless Broadband Network for Everyone
  • President Makes Tech Innovation a National Priority

• Exclusive: Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (PlayStation Phone) preview

• Netflix Takes Aim At the Cable Guys, With a Promise To Start Firing Tomorrow
  • The company added 3 million subscribers in the last three months of 2010, and says that a third of its new customers are choosing its new streaming-only plan. Income for the quarter, which ended December 31, rose 52 percent and revenue grew 34 percent from the year-ago period.

News Fuse

• Net Neutrality is far from decided. To the two lawsuits against the FCC and proposed legislation to outlaw net neutrality rules, you can now add the Internet Freedom, Broadband Promotion, and Consumer Protection Act of 2011 or IFBPCPA, sponsored by Senators Maria Cantwell and Al Franken. The bill lays out some stark clarity on what is meant by Net Neutrality by outright banning ISPs from doing many things thought to violate neutrality.

• Through some creative accounting, market analysis firm Canalys just made Apple the number three computer manufacturer in the world behind number one HP and number two Acer. The huge jump came when Canalys decided to "accept new market realities" and include tablets in their PC numbers. Since Apple sold 82% of all tablets last year, it's no suprise that they leapfrogged onto the list.

• Apple's website on Wednesday temporarily listed details for new Verizon iPhone customers, with voice plans starting at $39.99 per month, unlimited data for $29.99 per month, and 2GB of data tethering for an additional $20. Tethering runs $20 per month, but only offers 2GB of data when using the new Personal Hotspot feature. The plan closely mirrors what AT&T offers, except for the unlimited data.

• The Ubiquisys Attocell is a femtocell designed to let you make calls while out of the country without paying roaming rates. The femtocell plugs into your computer by USB then figures out what country it's in and adpats it's transmission power to be legal. You can then lock onto it with your cell phone and it will route your call through the Internet, avoiding the roaming charge. Not great for touring about town, but could save bucks in a hotel room.

• The Kongregate gaming app that was kicked out of the Android marketplace is back with a few tweaks.. Version 1.1 no longer dumps Flash games that you download to SD storage; instead, the phone's browser cache is used just as for any other website you visit. This hopefully makes it seem less like a competing app store, which was the reason Google gave for giving it the boot.

• Ahead of tomorrow's earnings call, Microsoft released a few numbers about Windows Phone 7. Microsoft's research' says 93 percent of WP7 customers are 'satisfied' and 90 percent would recommend the platform to others. They've seen an average of 100 new apps in the Marketplace per day, and over 6,500 apps are available right now. And "over 2 million" licenses have been sold, though no word on how that translates into retail sales.

• The New York Times is considering options to create an in-house submission system that could make it easier for would-be leakers to provide large files to the paper. 'Executive editor Bill Keller told The Cutline that he couldn't go into details, "especially since nothing is nailed down." Keller said the paper has been looking at something along the lines of Al Jazeera's Transparency Unit.

• Boy Genius Report says RIM wants to add Java compatibility to the Playbook for legacy BlackBerry apps, and that it's considering using the Dalvik virtual machine found in Android to get there. This has BGR breathlessly speculating that Android apps could run on the Playbook. It would take more than Dalvik to do it, but Gleacher & Company analyst Mark McKechnie suggesting back in December that RIM was planning to offer Android compatibility, so who knows?

Kickers and Weird Science

• Israelis seize woman packing 44 iPhones

Calendar

• T-Mobile cuts price on Samsung Galaxy Tab to $249
• Kindle Singles available now on Amazon
• O2 launches free Wi-Fi service
• Android 3.0 Honeycomb SDK preview goes live
• Sony expected to announce PSP2 at Tokyo meeting tomorrow
• Two Facebook phones coming at MWC
• Skype Won't IPO Until Second Half This Year
• AT&T trying to cling on to iPhone customers by offering them unlimited data (again)

Voicemail

• Sherwin: NFC on the iPad

Email

"This is a weird story I saw while I was following Kevin Murphy on Twitter.

http://netflixstreaming.blogspot.com/2011/01/rifftrax-streaming-on-netflix.html

The story basically says that Rifftrax wants to put its DVDs and Shorts on Netflix, but Netflix won't put them on the streaming service because they are not popular enough.

It makes me wonder how streaming titles like ""Transmorphers"" are more popular than the crew from the old MST3K show?

-- Jason M"

Sponsors

Ford

• focuselectricpower.com
• CES-2
• ad times: :35-:48 and 14:59-16:14

Production Information

• Edited by: Jason
• Notes:

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