Tech News Today 200

Tech News Today Episode 200

Tech News Today 200: Poof I'm An Analyst

Apple stocks tumble, IE 9 Firefox and White House all agree on privacy, but etsy not so much, a Zune Lover, and more.

Hosts

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

Top Stories

• Netflix going up against cable with original series deal
  • Netflix has allegedly outbid a number of major cable networks for a new drama series produced by and starring Kevin Spacey called House of Cards, and may be about to close a deal at more than $100 million, according to a report on Deadline.com. The rumour also says the deal is for two seasons

• Google Docs plugs into email, turns 'comments' into 'discussions'
• Google Turns Word Comments, A Necessary Office Evil, Into Discussions
  • Comments have been converted into what Google is calling Discussions. And these discussions are comparable to the streams in so many social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, complete with the Twitter-like convention of “@ mentions” (A sample comment is pictured) but they’re also linked to email, so you can participate in the discussion without having sign into Google Docs. You can also tell who made a comment and when, as it includes timestamps, profile pictures and email notifications make it easy to keep track of the feedback process.

• Apple Downgraded for First Time Since October; Shares Decline
• Attempt to link Foxconn's slowed growth to Apple viewed as questionable
• Alex Guana, analyst at JMP securities lowered Apple share rating from "market outperform" to "market perform" Cited slower sales growth at Foxconn. Apple shares fell the most in almost two months.
  • Analyst Yair Reiner with Oppenheimer & Co. issued a note on Wednesday in reaction. "Apple's contribution to Han Hai (which uses the trade name Foxconn) is limited," Reiner wrote. "The correlation between Apple and Hon Hai's revenue therefore appears to be a product of coincidence more than causality."

Discussion Stories

• Etsy reacts to user outrage, makes changes to feedback system
• Etsy's management takes steps to undo personal info disclosures
  • Etsy flipped a switch on a people search tool last week. If you had entered your full name into your profile, it was now public and could allow you to see past purchases, because of the feedback system used in the past on buyers (similar to ebay). As of today, buyer and seller feedback no longer link directly to purchased items.

• White House to Push Privacy Bill
• IE9 follows Firefox 4's lead on 'Do Not Track'
  • Lawrence E. Strickling, an assistant secretary of commerce, is expected to call for a privacy bill of rights. Microsoft quietly added Do Not Track User Preference -- Mozilla calls it "Do Not Track HTTP Header" -- to IE9 between the browser's February's release candidate build and Monday's final edition.

• Range anxiety gets real: Nissan Leaf drivers run out of juice on the road
• Read this! My Nissan Leaf Discussion Forum
• Google Maps Now Features EV Charging Stations
  • Range calculation left two drivers stranded in the Nissan Leafs.

• Overheating, radiation troubles mount at Japan reactors
  • IAEA chief: Japan's nuclear situation is 'very serious'

• What are the health concerns in Japan's nuclear crisis? (FAQ)
• How does radiation travel, and what kinds of damage can it do?

News Fuse

• The Tokyo Hackerspace is calling for help. They are planning to build 150 solar powered LED lanterns and are calling on hackerspace members from around the world to lend a hand, soon. Head over to tokyohackerspace.org to find out more info if you're a maker willing to help.

• Thank Firesheep! Another website increasing security. Twitter announced it has added the option for users to force HTTPS connections by default when accessing Twitter.com. To turn on HTTPS, go to your settings and check the box next to “Always use HTTPS,” which is at the bottom of the page.

• On February 15, several industries submitted an annual report to the US government, alleging that piracy is now, in many countries, a product of organized crime and that pirated DVDs are worth more than cocaine. a major new report, funded by Canada and by the Ford Foundation and buttressed by fieldwork around the globe, suggests that neither assertion is true. Instead commercial piracy is under pressure from the same force pressing on legal distribution: free Internet file-sharing.

• Google has retooled its free iPhone app with a new name, a streamlined look and feel, and an easier way to narrow your search results, helping the mobile app work more like the Web site. The app once known as Google Mobile is now known as Google Search and features a new swipable sidebar for narrowing search. The new interface also gives quick access to other Google apps and services, like Gmail.

• Hot on the heels of taking you tot he movies, Facebook now wants to take you out to the ballgame. Facebook unveiled an experimental live-stream service that’ll broadcast select spring training games for the next two weeks, until Opening Day. There appear to be no plans to extend the service into the regular season... yet.

• LCD flat-screens might be in for a price hike. The supply of upstream materials for flat panel production is sufficient for a few months but may become uncertain after that as the Japanese government has started implementing power brownout controls, according to Wang Jyh-chau, president of Chimei Innolux. The whole flat panel supply chain counts on the rehabilitation process of panels in Japan.

• Petr Mitrichev, a Russian currently ranked number one in the world by TopCoder, has won the inaugural Facebook Hacker Cup. The finalists were asked to solve three algorithmic problem sets, and the only coder to successful solve all three was Mitrichev. Interesting thing about Mitrichev.... he works for Google in their Moscow R&D center. Bid them both up Petr!

• The bloom is barely off the Motorola Droid 2 rose and we're already seeing lots of leaks around the Droid 3. The latest is a picture from HowardForums that shows a keyboard that looks similar to the Droid 2 except it has five rows and sports half-height keys for the numeric row.

Kickers and Weird Science

• NBA ref sues sportswriter over tweet

Calendar

• Samsung launches 3D VOD service in Korea, tells US and Europe to get ready
• Samsung Series 9 laptop hits tomorrow for $1,649, 11-inch version coming in April
• Verizon offers unlimited LTE data plan for HTC Thunderbolt at launch tomorrow (Thursday)
  • ThunderBolt pre-sales break Wirefly online order record
• Mozilla to ship Firefox 4 on 22 March
• Motorola makes WiFi-only Xoom official: $599 on March 27th
• Samsung Galaxy Player 4 and 5 to arrive this spring in the US
• The Daily Set For Europe Availability by summer

Voicemail

• Dee from Glasgow Scotland: iPhone javascript

Email

"I love my Zune! If the Win7 phones were just like the Zune I'd have one. It's beautiful, it's simple and I can listen to you while sending you an email without turning on my desktop or paying for a data plan.

Granted I'm a freak... I don't have a data plan for my Android. $10/month on Virgin and wifi is usually enough for me.

I do wish more people could build Zune apps. They all work well but there just aren't so many of them.

Suzanne"

"Hello everyone, Regarding the discussion about piracy in countries like Russia and Mexico, I'd like to say that the situation is the same in the middle east, I've been living in Syria for a few years now, and the primary means for piracy here are physical discs. You can get any movie on DVD for as low as 25 cents, Video games are between USD1 and USD3 (that's right, single digits!!). So considering the average income of a high-school/college kid is between USD100 & USD200, is it really a choice? You can see that reflected on the sales of things like the PS3, where it sky-rocketed after a jailbreak was available.

p.s. Tom, after your constant ""encouragement"", I finally started watching The Wire, and I'm glad I did!

Wish a speedy recovery for Sarah, and thanks for a great show.

Al the Iraqi doctor. Damascus."

"Dear TNT Crew,

Gee has it really been #100 episodes since I wrote in last? Where has the time flown.

I was listening to TNT #199 and HP's decision to do it's own ""App Store"". Previously I scoffed at App Stores since I didn't really see the point of them. This was of course until I discovered the ""Google Web Store"". It has seduced me and chased away all my skepticism over App Stores. (The highlight for me is: Once I purchase an ""app"" I can use it on any computer running Chrome. No matter where in the world I am.)

So call me a convert because when I hear HP is creating an ""App Store"" I think of how this could benefit HP users.

Congrats on episode #200. Looking forward to the next #200 (Though I will write in again before then I am sure.)

Best of luck, Chris in Portland, Oregon"

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Production Information

• Edited by: Jason
• Notes:

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