Tech News Today 274

Tech News Today Episode 274

Tech News Today 274: Tunder-beardo?

HP wants Samsung to make WebOS? All the Twitter founders are gone, AntiSec has Anonymous on a rampage, and more.

Hosts

• Tom Merritt (@acedtect)
  • TomMerritt.com
• Sarah Lane (@sarahlane)
  • http://www.sarahlane.com
• Jason Howell (@raygun01)
  • http://www.jasonhowell.net/
• Iyaz Akhtar (@iyaz)
  • http://thisoldnerd.finitecomedy.com

Top Stories

• Myspace to Be Sold to Specific Media for $35 Million
• Specific Media to Buy Myspace
• Myspace Acquired, CEO Out: Email From Mike Jones To Employees
  • Myspace has been sold to to Specific Media, an advertising network, for $35 million
  • News Corp had hoped for $100 Million, News Corp. bought Myspace for $580 million in 2005,
  • Staff of 400 will be cut in half
  • A Myspace deal would giveSpecific Media access to data about Myspace users to be used for ad targeting.

• Biz Stone Is Leaving Twitter
• Biz Stone Steps Back From Twitter To Relaunch Obvious With Ev Williams And Jason Goldman
  • The Obvious Corporation created to try to buy back Odeo, incubated Twitter, then faded away.
  • Jason Goldman, Evan Williams and Biz Stone restarting Obvious
  • "Our plan is to develop new projects and work on solving big problems aligned along a simple mission statement: The Obvious Corporation develops systems that help people work together to improve the world."
  • Williams left in March, Goldman resigned in December.
  • Is "taking a step back" the new "assigned to other duties"

• 10″ PlayBook Production Stopped In Favor of First BlackBerry ‘Superphone’
• RIM to scrap PlayBook2 in favor of superphones
  • Forbes and n4bb report RIM has ceased work on a 10-inch PlayBook
  • Switching to a QNX-powered Smartphone
  • Single-core 1.2GHz processor (same as Bold 9900), word has it that the same dual-core processor in PlayBook is a huge battery killer, but a dual-core processor is still a possibility
  • 900+ screen resolution
  • 4.3″ touchscreen
  • 7-inch LTE PlayBook may come in October

Discussion Stories

• HP ‘talking to a number of companies’ about potential webOS licensing, Jon Rubinstein gives us the lowdown
  • HP CEO Leo Apotheker confirmed to Bloomberg that HP is in talks with “a number of companies” about licensing webOS.
  • This is My Next talked to webOS chief Jon Rubinstein who clarified they want partners to take WebOS as their main operating system.
  • "if we’re going to be one of 5 or 6 OSs, it’s hard to see — it wouldn’t make any sense.”
  • Bloomberg has several sources claiming Samsung is on the list, with Samsung supposedly looking for a platform it can customize, in case Google starts locking down Android.
  • “Samsung will continue to strengthen its relationship with Google to provide ultimate values to customers.”

• Apple officially responds to Final Cut Pro X complaints with new FAQ website, next ‘major release’ coming with fixes
• Final Cut Pro X FAQ eases fears of some, confirms those of others
  • Has said some features of FCPX will arrive with OSX Lion
  • because the software includes an "all-new project architecture" and "new and redesigned audio effects, video effects, and color grading tools," there's no way to bring in old projects without losing data
  • as for output to tape, APple says FCPX is "designed for modern file-based workflows"
  • API will be released in next few weeks so add-ons can be developed to support output to OMF, AAF, and EDL and other exchange formats
  • XML export, a way export audio tracks, and volume licenses "coming soon"

• AntiSec Slams Arizona Cops (Again) with Super Personal Data Spill
• Ariz. police confirm 2nd hack on officers' email
• Anonymous smites Orlando after charity arrests
• Anonymous posts hacked Universal Music, Viacom data
• Ohio teen may be linked to LulzSec attacks
• FBI Raids Iowa Woman’s Home in Lulz Security Hacker Investigation
  • Anonymous continued its AntiSec campaign releasing more info about Arizona Border Police and ZDPS including security numbers, girlfriend pics, and more. AZDPS confirms the hack on officer's email
  • Anonymous also launched a denial of service attack against a local tourism website, orlandofloridaguide.com and promises to DDoS one Orlando website a day
  • Anonymous is reported to have hacked into the Universal Music and Viacom servers. According to the Wall Street Journal [sub. req.], the group has released a cache of files that it claims represents the passwords and other user data stolen from a Universal Music affiliated site, as well as those from Viacom networks.
  • Stories from Cincinnati's WKRC and the Hamilton Journal-News in Ohio reported that the FBI conducted a search on Monday of a home on Jackson Road in Saint Clair Township.
  • LulzSec had previously named two people suspected of giving information on the arrested Ryan Cleary, including someone with the handle m_nerva, who was revealed as a resident of Hamilton, Ohio, which is located in Saint Clair Township.
  • Gawker reports that at about 11 am last Thursday, 29-year-old Laurelai Bailey spoke with FBI agents for 5 hours in her home about hackers she knew. They seemed to be very interested in Kayla from LulzSec.

News Fuse

• Sony's playing musical chairs with its executives. Starting in September, Kaz Hirai will have the new title of Sony Computer Entertainment Chairman. He'll take over for a retiring Akira Sato. Andrew House will become the new CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. House is currently the head of Sony's European video game unit. A Sony spokesperson says the moves have nothing to do with that huge PSN breach.

• If you've taken a look at Google Plus - you may notice that it has some flashy animations and is actually sort of pretty for a Google product. It turns out that Andy Hertzfeld, who was part of the original Apple Macintosh dev team as a software and UI designer, is behind Google Plus's design. Google let Hertzfeld have freedom to design Plus as he saw fit.

• World renowned law firm DLA Piper has withdrawn from representing Paul Ceglia - the man who claims to own half of Facebook based on dealings with a young Mark Zuckerberg. Why would a law firm withdraw from representation? There are number of reasons, but I'm guessing DLA Piper made the move because representation could cause a breach of ethics or a violation of law.

• Looks like it's Samsung's turn in the ongoing Apple/Samsung legal war. Samsung has filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission to ban the import of the iPad, iPod, and iPhone. The ITC has up to 18 months to make a decision. Such hate - Samsung and Apple should just hug it out.

• Free-to-play is all the rage these days with video games. Blizzard has freed up a part of World of Warcraft. The game is now free to play up to level 20 with a Battle.net account. If you had previously tried the 10-day or 14-day free trials, you'll be able to go back to your character and continue for free until you reach level 20. So, go forth and game your brains out, people.

• If you're sick of your Verizon contract but don't want to leave because of that early termination fee, you might have an out. According to The Consumerist, you have the next 60 days to break your contract without being charged the ETF because Verizon is increasing a "regulatory fee" by 3 cents. The Consumerist warns that you may face resistance trying to explain you shouldn't be charged the ETF, but as long as you tell them the fee is a "materially adverse change of contract," you ought to be home free (well maybe after you talk to a supervisor).

• Google Labs has sneakily released "Google Swiffy," which converts Flash SWF files to HTML5. This could be quite the handy tool for any web developer who wants to quickly make flash content available to iOS devices. Google has a gallery of examples online including a converted version of pong.

• Oracle is suing Google over a car accident -- wait. That's not right. Oracle is suing Google over patents! According to Oracle, Google's Android OS is infringing on patents related to Oracle's Java programming language. Oracle is asking the court for $2.6 billion in damages, but Google says Oracle's math is wrong.

• MediaMall, makes of PlayOn, are working on a new product called "PlayLater." Currently in private beta, PlayLater will let its users record online video to watch later. So imagine you want to watch something on Hulu but it's going to expire soon. You could use PlayLater to record the video. PlayLater files will only work in Windows Media Player and are laden with DRM. The app will cost $5 a month or $50 a year.

Randomizer

• Silver pen allows electrical circuits to be handwritten on paper and other surfaces

Rumour Mill

• No Apple iPhone 5 or 'Baby' iPhone Until 2012, Wall Street Says

Calendar

• 4 years ago today Apple released the first iPhone in the U.S.
• IE10 Platform Preview 2 is available for download right now.
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G up for pre-order from Verizon, finally
• Windows Phone ‘Mango’ starts rolling out to registered developers today
• Mozilla Releases Thunderbird 5
• Tomorrow June 30, the Open Knowledge conference opens in Berlin.
• NASA formally sets July 8 for final space shuttle launch
• HTC ChaCha will be called Status in US, come to Telus and AT&T this summer. The Cha Cha is already out in other countries.

Email

"Love the show, one of my favorites on the network (with iPad Today and TWiG).

Just as a heads up, if you have a Google Apps account, since they can't use Google Profiles, are not able to sign up for Google+ beta. When is Google going to allow their PAYING customers to use their applications (latitude, profiles, plus, etc.). I would love to not sign into two google accounts every time I want to use a google product.

I love Google, but sometimes they feel like they only go part-way.

Keep up the great work! -Dan, Boston Twitter / Chatroom - MonkeyDKS"

"Just got this in my mail today... Looks like the Associates program is being terminated now for California folks...

SteveB"

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Production Information

• Edited by: Jason
• Notes:

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