Tech News Today 209

Tech News Today Episode 209

Tech News Today 209: Sloppy Science Talk

Windows Phone 7 will outsell iPhone, Another AOL-Time Warner merger, Netflix throttles Canada, and more.

Hosts

• Tom Merritt (@acedtect)
  • TomMerritt.com
• Sarah Lane (@sarahlane)
  • SarahLane.com
• Becky Worley (@bworley)
  • beckyworley.com
• Jason Howell
  • JasonHowell.net
• Iyaz Akhtar
  • thisoldnerd.finitecomedy.com

Topics

• Amazon Cloud Player goes live, streams music on your computer and Android
• How Amazon beat Google and Apple to the music cloud
• Amazon Goes Live With Cloud Based Music Service; Et Tu, Apple? All accounts are given 5GB of storage to upload content from a computer, users can purchase additional storage for an annual fee. Songs purchased from Amazon don’t count toward the storage limit and those who buy an album from Amazon will automatically get their storage bumped up to 20GB.
• Amazon’s Cloud Music Move Isn’t Earth-Shaking

• IDC Forecasts Worldwide Smartphone Market to Grow by Nearly 50% in 2011
  • "By 2015, IDC expects Windows Phone to be number 2 operating system worldwide behind Android."
• IDC Sees Windows Phone Passing Apple’s iOS in Smartphone Share by 2015
  • 2010: 303.4 Million smartphones shipped
  • 2011: 450 Million smartphones expected to ship, Android to be the leading OS

• Data caps claim a victim: Netflix cuts streaming video quality
• Netflix Canada announces new bandwidth management settings for capped users
  • Netflix streaming in Canada will default to 625Kbps which is its "Good" setting. That means that Canadians won't run into their data caps as fast. The quality setting can be manually changed.

Discussion Stories

• Sony v. Hotz: mismatched serial numbers and sealed manuals
• Sony Ericsson will let you unlock the bootloader on new Xperia Android phones -- subject to conditions
  • Sony is trying to sue George Hotz in California, but Hotz is fighting back saying there is no way he could know that Sony has a California presence b/c he never opened the documentation for his PS3. Also, Sony claims that a PSN account was made by Hotz. The account is tied to a PS3 serial number, but Hotz says his PS3 SN doesn't match Sony's. The PSN agreement would give Hotz info about Sony in CA

• UK Times Claims 79,000 Digital Subscribers
• Ex-Googlers Launch ‘NYT For A Nickel’ As Publicity Stunt; NYT Not Amused
• Kindle subscription to the New York Times will net you free web access as well

• Microsoft Wants to Make Emails More Interactive: Partners with LivingSocial, Netflix, Posterous and Others
  • Partnering with LivingSocial, Netflix, LinkedIn, Orbitz, Monster and Posterous to bring interactive elements to their emails when they appear in Microsoft’s Windows Live Hotmail service. To ensure that the emails that arrive in Hotmail are safe, Microsoft actually sandboxes the code and isolates it, so that it can’t harm a user’s machine. In addition, it checks who the sender is and will only display these messages when they come directly from the source.

• Time for a Sequel to AOL-Time Warner?

News Fuse

• The computer network NASA relies upon to carry out its billion dollar missions is too much like your Mac or PC at home; vulnerable to cyber attacks. NASA's servers contain vulnerabilities that could enable a cyberattack to cripple the entire agency, according to a recent audit report from The Office of the Inspector General. The Inspector General recommended the agency expedite the implementation of a new agency-wide program to oversee the network security problem.

• You know how all 3D glasses aren't interchangeable because of a lack of standards? Panasonic and Xpand have decided to champion the M-3DI standard for active shutter glasses. That's a great idea - you know what would have been a better idea? Introducing the standard before introducing 3DTVs.

• Way back in 2009 a company called BlueBeat were selling Beatles music for the low low price of 25 cents a track. Its parent company claimed that they had the rights to the music because it authored the music "by psycho-acoustic simulation." Strangely, they were sued by the music labels. Well, BlueBeat and its parent company have agreed to pay $950,000 to settle out of court with the labels.

• Well you knew that AT&T / T-Mobile deal was going to get scrutinized. The New York Attorney General announced that "My office will ensure New York Customers are protected…" and will "analyze the merger for potential anti-competitive impacts on consumers and business across New York State." If you're in another state, the AG doesn't care about you.

• Dutch Researchers at the Sant'Anna Superior School, together with researchers from the National Laboratory of Photonic Networks and Ericsson have established the first transmission system in the world with speeds at 448 Gbps on a double optical carrier, inserted in a commercial device on the fibre-optic network. That means, in one second you could send 20 HD movies, 7 million video calls or more likely 22,500 ADSL connections at 20 Mbps.

• RealNetworks has just lost its head. Robert Kimball was CEO of the company for about a year before departing. Real's executive VP will fill in as CEO while the board looks for a new person. So if you're looking for a job out there, you could start at the top since Real is hiring!

• Yesterday we mentioned that the International Trade Commission ruled Apple had not violated five of Nokia's patents. So today Nokia returned to the ITC with seven more patents they accues Apple of violating. These patents relate to multitasking, data synchronization, positioning, call quality, and Bluetooth accessories, and affect "virtually all products" in Cupertino's portfolio.

• Analyst Charlie Wolf with Needham & Company issued a new note to investors on Tuesday entitled "AAPL: Shock and Awe!" In it, Wolf reveals he has increased his projected iPad sales for 2011 by 10 million, to a total of 30 million. He also predicts 40M to be sold in 2012.

Kickers and Weird Science

• German students make life-sized VR Fruit Ninja, declare war on digital produce (video)

Calendar

• Xbox 360 Update Preview Program begins for a new version that includes "an updated Xbox 360 disc format, sign up for your 'sneak peek' now
• Computer Weekly Magazine Killed After 45 Years, As Website Is Sold
• Sprint begins Kyocera Echo reservations..you can reserve the phone now for $200 (after a $100 mail-in rebate) to ensure you'll have it on its April 17th release date, and they've warning that there'll be limited quantities
• Lenovo CEO: LePad's slimmer successor should arrive in September or October
• Mozilla launches Firefox 4 on Android
• Thursday World Backup day
• Diary of Facebook on MTV tonight

• Watch the TWiT studios get built

Voicemail

• Mr Thompson: A welcome message

Email

"Hey TNT, I think I have a guess as to why the Motorola Xoom isn't the Nexus of tablets. While it is pure Google and has nearly every feature you could want, it does not feature NFC, which is all the rage with Google lately. I bet if we see the Nexus Tab from LG it will have baked in NFC.

Also, I highly doubt that the Xoom will get blurred. I wouldn't put it past Moto to skin future tablets, but I can't fathom them retroactively skinning my precious Xoom.

One more thing, I looked at Best Buy's site to check up on the wi-fi only Xoom, and I noticed that now that the Wifi model is available, the 1 month Verizon service requirement for the 4G model is back! I don't know if they are enforcing it, but it's very prominently stated on the web page. All I can say is that I'm glad I bought my Xoom before that was put in place.

--Kevin"

"Tom has made at least a couple of comments on Ce-137 that are inconsistent with science.

In show 207, Tom made a comment to the effect that there is no known path to damage from Ce-137, unlike I-131 which concentrates in the thyroid.

In show 208, Tom made a comment to the effect that while all radiation is dangerous, Ce-137 is less dangerous.

Both of these statements are incorrect or misleading.

Ce-137 gives off a gamma ray in its decay chain. 500 RAD of Ce-137 will kill just as well as 500 RAD of any other gamma ray isotope.

Ce-137 has a shorter half life than Plutonium, for example. Thus a given quantity of Ce-137 (say 1 mole) will give off more radiation per second and thus be more dangerous than the equivalent mass of Plutonium.

From Wikipedia:

"Because of its beta decay (to 137mBa), 137Cs is a strong emitter of gamma radiation.[41] Its half-life makes it the principal medium-lived fission product along with 90Sr—both are responsible for radioactivity of spent nuclear fuel after several years of cooling up to several hundred years after use.[42] For example 137Cs together with 90Sr currently generate the largest source of radioactivity generated in the area around the Chernobyl disaster.[43]"

See also http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/cesium.html

Overall, I appreciate the general tone of discussion on TNT regarding Japan, knocking down the excessive panic, etc. It is just that the good guys need to get their facts correct.

Also, one can get direct from the source information at http://www.nisa.meti.go.jp/english/index.html or www.iaea.org

Thanks.

Ralph Elwell Nuclear Engineer Richland WA"

"Hey TNT Crew,

I just wanted to let you know that after a long day of travel issues which began with leaving my house at 5am in freezing cold weather, cloudy skies, rain, delayed flights, rental car problems, and a hotel which had oversold it's rooms...I just received an email from Saul Colt at Freshbooks letting me know that I had won a cake! Then the sun came out, my rental car was upgraded for free, and the hotel called me back telling me that they actually do have a room available for me...at a discounted corporate rate! (All true...I swear.) It could be coincidence, but I choose to believe that the Freshbooks cake email was somehow a trigger of a spate of good luck. I may even play the lottery later on.

Anyway, I wanted to say thanks for letting me know about Freshbooks and thank you all for the thorough and thought provoking show you guys do every day. It is much appreciated.

-- Del Putnam 757.952.6030 http://delputnam.com"

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Production Information

• Edited by: Jeff
• Notes:

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