Tech News Today 207

Tech News Today Episode 207

Tech News Today 207: Only Been Pinged Once

Is Android closed now? Microsoft picks up some used IPV4 addresses, Color breaks itself to fix itself, and more.

Hosts

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

Topics

• Android openness withering as Google withholds Honeycomb code
• Here’s Why Google Is Holding Honeycomb Back
  • will delay publication of the Android 3.0 source code for the foreseeable future—possibly for months. According to Andy Rubin it doesn't want hardware vendors to adapt it to run on other form factors where it might not function properly.

• Spotify Still Hiring–But Not Launching Yet–In the U.S.
• Hired Steve Savoca, who ran digital at U.K. indie label Domino Records, to run its U.S. content business. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek would like you to know that the company is still looking for “rockstar engineers and product people”. Users of the ad-supported version of Spotify were hit by a malware-based attack on Thursday. Spotify pulled its ad feed on Friday
• Spotify Hiring Domino’s Savoca In U.S. Push
• Spotify splattered with malware-tainted ads

• Microsoft spends $7.5m on net addresses
  • Microsoft has offered to pay $7.5m (£4.7m) for net addresses from bankrupt telecoms firm Nortel. $11.25 per address. The 666,624 IP version 4 (IPv4) net addresses were put up for auction as part of the sell-off of Nortel's asset.

Discussion Stories

• Google Patent Shows Its Mobile-Payment Ambitions, but Raises Privacy Flags

• Mozilla Says It Erred On SSL Attack Disclosure

• ASUS launches Eee Pad Transformer Android tablet
  • ASUS has introduced the Eee Pad Transformer, a convertible Android tablet that runs Android 3.0 Honeycomb. The tablet is unique in that it comes with a full keyboard dock that the 10.1-inch tablet can sit in, providing a laptop-like experience. 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 pixel screen, 1GHz, dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM, and up to 32GB of storage. It also has a 5 megapixel autofocus camera in the rear and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera. ASUS has also included an HDMI-out port for displaying content on an HDTV.

• Fukushima scaremongers becoming increasingly desperate
• Fission Products in Seattle Reveal Clues about Japan Nuclear Disaster
• Know your nukes: understanding radiation risks in Japan
  • Three workers stood in water and received 170 miilisievert dose of radiation. Maximum dose permitted is 250. They also got a burn similar to sunburn. Bosses pulled them out to be safe. This level in the water is not proof of a reactor containment breach. Certainly breach is one possibility. But containment breach was a possibility over a week ago, and reactor three has been stabilised since then.

Two days ago, levels of radioactive iodine-131 were found in the city's water which were above the safety limit for baby milk calculated on the basis of a year's consumption: in other words, if babies drank such water for a year constantly they would have a tiny, minuscule extra risk of thyroid cancer. iodine-131 has a half life of 8 days, what was there would disappear in a matter of weeks. And what about Fukushima fallout nears Chernobyl levels reported by New Scientist's Deborah MacKenzie? airborne radio-iodine and radio-caesium from Fukushima are now being detected by instruments all round the world. Gerhard Wotawa of the Austrian met office (and of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organisation) emissions of iodine-131 from Fukushima could be approximately 20 per cent of those from Chernobyl. --radio-caesium, which Wotawa theorises may have been emitted from Fukushima in amounts "20-60" per cent of those seen at Chernobyl. Most of these emissions have fallen into the sea.

News Fuse

• Err... Mashable reports Color has a fix for the problem with the photo app being useless when nobody else is around... break it. Color will feature two major changes when the next update ships: You won’t be able to use the app if nobody is nearby, seems drastic, and second Color will be changing the distance required for somebody to be considered nearby. Right now the distance is 150 feet. In the future the number will adjust based on population density.

• You Hybrid users think your sooooo smart. Well you can't evade the gas tax any more. The Congressional Budget Office released a report saying they may tax people based on how many miles they drive in order to pay for highway maintenance. The proposed tax would be enforced through the use of electronic metering devices installed on all vehicles. People won't resist that at all.

• Starz plans to delay the availability of new TV shows and movies to Netflix. beginning April 1, new episodes of its original shows, like the forthcoming “Camelot,” will be delayed 90 days before being available on Netflix and a handful of other Internet services to which it licenses content. Starz added that exclusive first-run movies on the channel will later follow suit.

• Samsung has started making starts making higher capacity mobile RAM that will lead to smaller phones and better battery life. The 30nm 4Gigabit LPDDR2 chips reduce package thickness by 20 percent (down to 0.8mm) and power consumption by 25 percent. Oh and that means higher capacity RAM too! Samsung is putting out 1GB modules this month, with a 2GB version to follow next month. No word on when they'll show up in actual phones.

• We could be facing a PS3 shortage soon. Sony's blue laser diode manufacturing subsidiary in Fukushima, Japan - Sony Shiraishi Semiconductor - has been suspended due to the earthquake. Digitimes believes that this could seriously disrupt the supply of Blu-Ray devices, especially Sony's Playstation 3. Sony's blue laser diode production mostly caters to the company's own brand devices.

• RIM, maker of all things BlackBerry said profits this quarter will be much weaker than expected blaming the cost of developing the Blackberry PlayBook, as well as a migration of consumers towards cheaper handsets in its product range. Shares in Research in Motion (RIM) fell 12% in after-hours trading.

• The International Trade Commision today ruled that Apple didn’t violate any of Nokia's patents. had claimed that Apple’s iPhone and iPad 3G infringe five of its patents related to enhanced speech and data transmission, the use of positioning data in applications, and innovations in antenna configurations. No word on Apple's counter-claim that Nokia violated 13 Apple patents.

Kickers and Weird Science

• Aircell announces world's first 'airborne smartphone'

Calendar

• Nintendo 3DS available in Europe today and North America on Sunday March 27, Australia March 31
• Apple iPad 2 launches internationally; ridiculous lines form in 25 countries
• Yosion's second-gen Apple Peel 520 arriving on March 28th, ready to cellularize your iPod touch
• Nook Color Android app store coming in April along with Flash support
• Xperia X10 to get Android 2.3 this summer
• Xperia Play delayed by O2 UK due to software bugs, what are the other carriers doing?

• Watch the TWiT studios get built

Email

"In reference to Episode 205, checkpoint apps:

I am a state trooper (I'll withhold my state) :) I listen to your ""netcast"" while out on patrol.

My agency holds numerous checkpoints per year. They are very effective! We get a lot of drunk driver's off the highways because of these checkpoints. Some checkpoints we don't get any drunk driver's and others we may arrest 4 or 5. It varies from location to location. We have set up checkpoints on the same highway, at the same spot, at the same time every weekend for a month and arrested at least 1 drunk driver every time. Sometimes the same drunk drivers. Sometimes multiple drunk drivers.

What we have run into more than Apps being used is Facebook. A lot of people (especially the younger crowd) post our checkpoint locations on Facebook. We have had people we know pull up and tell us, ""You're on Facebook."" I think more people use the social networks more than any App. Either way we arrest a lot of drunk driver's, even with people posting on Facebook, twitter, etc. I am sure there are some people who have avoided our checkpoints because of Facebook, but I haven't seen any downturn in drunk driver arrests. I am assigned to a 3 county area, along with 8 other troopers. 2 of which are always on dayshift. I have arrested drunk driver's on everyday of the week, from morning until night, but typically drunk driving arrests happen more often after 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Between the 6 of us, it is not uncommon to arrest 10 to 15 drunk driver's per weekend, every weekend. And for the record, by drunk driver's I mean their blood alcohol limit is over my states legal limit of 0.08%.

I don't think that the government should tell a company what they can and can't offer to it's customers as long as it is within the law. The checkpoint apps aren't any different than the speed trap apps or people posting the location of the checkpoints in other areas. The government won't stop people from telling others, they just changed how they dispense the information. With or without apps people are going to tell their friends. They can call, text, twitter, or Facebook each other and there really isn't anything that can be done about it. We don't worry about people telling each other where we are located. We try to do the best we can and protect the public from the drunk drivers. Besides, just because we are in one location doesn't mean there aren't more of us somewhere else. We may have 3 on a checkpoint, 2 on another checkpoint and 1 patrolling. You just never know. It would be best if people would get a designated driver or taxi.

Keep up the great work! I enjoy the show.

Matt"

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Production Information

• Edited by: Jason
• Notes:

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