Tech News Today 223

Tech News Today Episode 223

Tech News Today 223: Quantum Corn Dog Entanglement

Machine-rated video games from ESRB, the white iPhone is real, Robots fight radiation, Quantum computer networking, and more.

Hosts

• Tom Merritt (@acedtect)
  • TomMerritt.com
• Jason Howell
  • JasonHowell.net
• Iyaz Akhtar
  • thisoldnerd.finitecomedy.com
• Darren Kitchen
  • hak5.org
• Jason Hiner
• techrepublic.com

Topics

• Busy Job of Judging Video-Game Content to Be Ceded to Machines
• Automated game ratings: how a form will affect the games you download
  • The ratings themselves will be assigned by machines, but the ratings are determined by a questionnaire filled out by the game devs. Ratings are reviewed by a person within 48 hours.
  • For now the system will only be used with downloadable games. Only the console makers have signed on, no mobiles yet.
  • ESRB President Patricia Vance stressed that boxed games will continue to be rated in the traditional way: "We have no plans to use this for retail, for packaged product."
  • Vance also assured Ars Technica that publishers can't game the form for a specific rating"

• Office 365 Hits Public Beta Today, So Microsoft’s Ron Markezich Gets Seven Questions
• Microsoft's Tight Control Over Office 365 Marketplace Apps

• MS Office 365 (web-based Office)
  • Public beta of MS Office 365 is live today at Office365.com, though I don't get how they call it public when you give an email and wait 2-4 weeks top hear back with the ability to join the beta.
  • Cloud based Office services, replaces Office Live Small Business. This is NOT a consumer product. Office Live Workspace Beta is for consumers.
  • New is Office 365 Marketplace, apps for Office
  • Pricing is $6 per person per month for places w/ 1-25 employees. Google is flat $50 per employee/year. Enterprise version is $24 per user per month and adds among other things, access from Office desktop version."
• App Store
  • Has over 100 apps and 400 professional services
  • Guidelines have many requirements:
  • need to have MS Pinpoint profile (which also has clear guidelines)
  • devs must make clear how the app integrates w/Office 365
  • App listing has rules like passing the Microsoft Platform Ready test
  • Free to develop apps

• White iPhone 4 Now available for order on 3 UK for £159. Earlier it said it delivered on April 20th. Now changed to unavailable in store or online.
• This page has a screenshot of the white iPhone when it was orderable
• Evidence pointing to a white iPhone launch April 26--- "reliable source" speaking to iPhoneItalia
• Mass production of Apple's A5-, Qualcomm-powered iPhone 5 rumored for Sept.
  • Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo with Concord Securities issued a note on Monday ---- iPhone 5 will feature "slight modifications" from its predecessor, including an 8 megapixel rear camera and a Qualcomm baseband for both GSM and CDMA models, the A5 processors from iPad 2, and will go into production in September,---- iPod Touch may be delayed as well. Usually announced in September.--- Kuo believes iPhone 5 will be announced at WWDC, and that iPhone 6 may come early in 2012.
• Latest iPhone 5 rumor: October release, 8 megapixel camera
• iPhone 4 to topple Nikon D90 as Flickr's most-used camera

Discussion Stories

• iRobot Packbots enter Fukushima nuclear plant to gather data, take photos, save lives (video)
  • remote-controlled iRobot ""Packbots"" Packbots entered reactor building 3 on Sunday morning
  • Each Packbot entered the facility with an attached video camera
  • Take radiation and temp readings
  • Authorities are also using a mechanical excavator and transporter to wipe away some of the debris outside the plant, while an unmanned helicopter has been hoisted skyward, to take aerial photos of the area.
  • Data collected not released yet but if successful, will be sent into two other reactors.
  • Packbots used to defuse bombs in the past."

• Legal this time? Startup offers local TV on the 'Net, with a twist
• More on Bamboom
  • Bamboom service brings live to TV via Internet, testing in NY
  • GEach user gets access to an antenna, tuner, and DVR
  • Legal hurdles as seen in FilmOn and ivi (also Zediva DVD streaming service)
  • Bamboom relying on Cablevision v. Cartoon Network Remote DVR case"

• Apple sues Samsung for 'copying' the iPhone and iPad
• Apple sought to stop shipments of HTC and Nokia phones because of a patent dispute. Well, according to a U.S. International Trade Commission staff lawyer, HTC and Nokia shouldn't worry about infringing on Apple's patents. However, that doesn't mean the two companies are in the clear. The ITC recommendation is just a recommendation and is not binding on the courts.
  • Apple claims Taoyuan, Taiwan-based HTC infringes five patents that Arovas described as being important for the “seamless integration of hardware and software” that makes the products more flexible in dealing with the complex requirements of having the equivalent of a personal computer in a phone. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has sued Samsung Electronics for copying "the look and feel" of its iPad tablet and iPhone smartphone. This relates to the Samsung Galaxy S 4G. The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of California on Friday and seeks injunctions against Samsung, damages (both actual and punitive), and a finding that the infringement was willful.

• First light wave quantum teleportation achieved, opens door to ultra fast data transmission
  • What they did: the first-ever transfer, or teleportation, of a particular complex set of quantum information from one point to another, opening the way for high-speed, high-fidelity transmission of large volumes of information, such as quantum encryption keys, via quantum communications networks. allows us, for the first time, to quickly and reliably move quantum information around. This information can be carried by light, and it’s a powerful way to represent and process information. Previous attempts to transmit were either very slow or the information might be changed. This process means we will be able to move blocks of quantum information around within a computer or across a network, just as we do now with existing computer technologies. Quantum teleportation, or entanglement-assisted teleportation, is a process by which a qubit (the basic unit of quantum information) can be transmitted exactly (in principle) from one location to another, without the qubit being transmitted through the intervening space. It is useful for quantum information processing, however it does not immediately transmit classical information. So, if I want to send a qubit, call it c, I entangle two qubits, a and b and then give you a. Now you have one qubit a and I have two a and c. But a and b are entangled. I perform a unitary option on b and c and get two classical bits out of it. You're qubit a because it was entangled now has information about qubit c but it's in one of four random states and info about c can't be extracted. So I send the two bits to you and you use them to perform a unitary operation on your qubit a which turns it into qubit c. And voila you have the qubit of information 'teleported' to you.

UPSHOT: For some problems, like a database search, quantum computers offer a polynomial speedup. We need reliable ways to ransfer qubits to take advantage of that speed.

News Fuse

• Want a phone with a dual-core 2GHz processor? Well a Samsung exec let a newspaper know that the company is planning on such a thing by next year. That's some serious computing power in the palm of your hand - but odds are people will still use the tiny computer to play Angry Birds.

• If you go to ThePirateBay.org you'll notice that the site is calling itself The Research Bay today. That's because The Pirate Bay has partnered with Lund University to "help researches to better understand habits and norms within the file-sharing community." So if you're going to get torrents today, you'll be helping a school! Try not to do anything illegal though.

• Inside Mobile Apps is reporting that Apple may have made some changes to its App Store rankings. Apparently, the amount of times an app is downloaded no longer carries the same weight in Apple's Top App sections. The site guesses that Apple is now looking at usage - like daily and monthly uses of an app - to tweak its rankings.

• Yahoo has decided to better meet "needs of [its consumers" that it will keep log data for a total of 18 months. Originally, the company kept data for only 3 months. If you're wondering what kind of data will be kept - oh, just things like IP addresses, your ISP and what sites you visited. This change in Yahoo policy will start in July.]

• The EFF is $10,000 richer thanks to George Hotz. Hotz had raised money to pay for legal defense since he was being sued by Sony over DMCA violations involving the PS3. They eventually settled out of court, but Hotz still had money for his defense. So, he donated it with a message that read, "This money goes to the EFF in hopes that America can one day again be a shining example of freedom, free of the DMCA and ACTA..."

• Grooveshark's Android App recently got the boot from the official Google Android Market, but hat doesn't mean the app is dead. Now, Android users will be able to get the Grooveshark App from Grooveshark directly. That's a nice thing about Android - even when your app is kicked, it's not too hard to bring it back.

• It's time for the revenge of Panda! Google's search algorithm tweak implemented wave 2 last week and Sistrix now reports that Demand Media's eHow was hit hard, dropping 66% in results returned. Demand doesn't seem to mind. The content publisher said Monday that its first quarter results remain on track and that its’ second quarter page view growth will be on par with a year ago. So it's like, whatevs.

• According to the Wall Street Journal, Twitter is in talks to buy TweetDeck. The Journal is citing the ever popular "people familiar with the matter" as its source. Earlier this year, it appeared that TweetDeck was going to be bought up by UberMedia, which owns several Twitter apps already. However, that deal never went through.

Kickers and Weird Science

• The iPad is taking away American jobs, Jesse Jackson Junior's sanity (video)

Calendar

• .XXX went Live on the IANA Root Servers on Friday
• The So We Might See coalition is asking people to take a "media fast" for seven days starting yesterday. That's right - no phones, tvs, computers, you get the idea.

• Verizon brings out LTE MiFi 4510L, asks for $100 on a two-year contract or $270 without [Today]
• RIM's BlackBerry Playbook launches tomorrow April 19
• Portal 2 Launches tomorrow April 19
• Yahoo Buzz to close on Apr 21st (Digg-ish clone)
• Google is Shutting Down Google Video April 29, you have until May 13 to export your videos. Google video will become search only.
• HP's Veer launch party scheduled for May 2

Voicemail

• PlayBook and Android

Email

"Hi TNT crew!

I've heard you guys talk several times about how Apple gets it and figured out the magical art of having all the cariers release their updates at once and why can't the other guys (Google and Microsoft) figure out how to do the same.

Well I have both an AT&T and a Verizon iPhone in my family and the only time Apple managed to release updates to all carriers at once was back before they appeared on Verizon. ie: When they were only on AT&T!! :O)

My daughter's Verizon iPhone cannot even get 4.3 yet! (just got 4.2.7 last week)

I'm not complaining, because I have no need real need for the 4.3.x updates, but just wanted to point out that the credit you give them might be a bit overdone.

Thanks for the Show! You guys rock!

- Tolga Balci"

Sponsors

Freshbooks

• Freshbooks.com
• Fb - 3
• ad times: :35-:42 and 19:46-21:14

Production Information

• Edited by: Jason
• Notes:

This area is for use by TWiT staff only. Please do not add or edit any content within this section.