Tech News Today 312

Tech News Today Episode 312

Tech News Today 312: WebOS Is In A Better Place

Google TV finally getting apps, Why Samsung will buy HP's PC business, Facebook gets more Google + like, and more.

Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com

Hosts

• Tom Merritt (@acedtect)
  • TomMerritt.com
• Sarah Lane (@sarahlane)
  • SarahLane.com
• Iyaz Akhtar
  • thisoldnerd.finitecomedy.com
• Jason Howell (@raygun01)
  • JasonHowell.net
• Tim Stevens
  • engadget.com

Topics

• Facebook pushes privacy with sweeping redesign
• Making It Easier to Share With Who You Want
• Facebook Makes Sharing More Granular (Hmm … Where Have We Heard That Pitch Before?)
  • Inline Profile Controls: Content on your profile, from your hometown to your latest photo album, will appear next to an icon and a drop-down menu
  • Profile Tag Review: You can choose to use the new tool to approve or reject any photo or post you are tagged in before it's visible to anyone else on your profile.
  • Content Tag Review: You have the option to review and approve or reject any tag someone tries to add to your photos and posts.
  • View Profile As option
  • Rolling out to 1% users starting Thursday. When they reach you, you'll see a prompt for a tour that walks you through these new features from your homepage.
  • Meanwhile, a semantic tweak changes the descriptor from “everyone” to “public” so users can better understand the potential impact of their content.

• Logs suggest iPhone 5 is dual mode, coming next month with 8GB iPhone 4
• WSJ: iPhone 5 coming to Sprint
  • Sprint Nextel Corp. will begin selling the iPhone 5 in mid-October, people familiar with the matter said
  • iOS developer's activity logs show a suspected next-generation iPhone model connected to both Verizon's and AT&T's networks.
  • sources within Apple's Asian supply chain expect the updated phone to be released in September along with an 8GB iPhone 4 model

• Fox’s 8-Day Delay on Hulu Triggers Piracy Surge
• Illegal downloads of Fox TV show rise after delay
  • tracked several popular Fox shows--including Hell's Kitchen and MasterChef--on BitTorrent over the last week to see if there had been an increase in illegal download activity.
  • Fox instituted 8 day delay on shows on Hulu one week ago
  • During the first five days, the number of downloads from the U.S. for the latest episode of Hell's Kitchen increased by 114 percent compared to the previous three episodes
  • For MasterChef the upturn was even higher with 189%

Discussion Stories

• Is Samsung Aiming to Snap Up HP’s PC Business?
  • According to Digitimes’ sources, Samsung met with top HP notebook contractor Quanta Computer, as well as Compal Electronics and Pegatron Technology, to discuss outsourcing notebook orders.
  • All these companies are in Taiwan. Samsung currently manufactures all its PC products in China
  • Samsung “seem(s) like it is already in preparation to take up Hewlett-Packard’s (HP’s) PC business.”
  • Samsung ships 10 million laptops annually (a projected 16-17 million this year), compared to 64 million PCs and 40 million laptops HP shipped in 2010.
  • Outlet for memory, hard drives, screens, batteries and other computer components
  • Acer is already struggling with falling PC shipments, Asus doesn’t have the cash, and MSI is too small. Lenovo has already taken over IBM’s PC division and doesn’t need PSG. Neither Sony nor Apple wants to be in the low-end PC businesses anyway: both target people with more money. Microsoft can’t buy PSG because it would be a giant headache, from an anti-trust point of view, and because it would be competing with its own customers (a mistake Google is making by buying Motorola’s phone division). That leaves two main options — Toshiba and Samsung — with the latter being the clear favourite.

• TouchPad buyers say Barnes & Noble reneged
• HP Reports Second Wave of TouchPads Coming
• Huh? TouchPads Now Selling for Almost $300 on eBay
• Get Android Running on a TouchPad, Win Up To $1500 in Prizes
• TouchPad to get Document Editing this week via update from QuickOffice
  • BN.com couldn't handle all the orders and had to cancel some.
  • a second wave of webOS TouchPads would be coming later this week
  • You can sign up to get an email when they arrive: http://www.hp.com/united-states/webos/us/en/shopping-touchpad.html?aoid=35252
  • TouchPads on eBay are fetching somewhere between $200 and $300 for resellers.
  • the site Hack n Mod running a contest offering up to $1500 for getting Android running on a TouchPad --- a group called TouchDroid is also working to get Android running on TouchPad
  • Document editing coming ain an update to QuickOffice this week

• Google Releases TV SDK
• Android developers can start writing Google TV apps
• Android SDK add-on brings Market one step closer to your Google TV
  • Google on Monday introduced a preview version of its Google TV add-on for Android software development kit (SDK), a software component that allows developers to write apps for Google TV.
  • It requires Android 3.1 API 12 or later.
  • Google will only include apps in the Google TV section of the Android Market if the apps include a manifest file that indicates compatibility with Google TV devices.
  • Apps can't use touchscreen, Bluetooth, camera, location/GPS, microphone, NFC, telephony, and sensors for device orientation, movement, and brightness.
  • Apps can take advantage of channel-changing and program guide info
  • "With the upcoming OS update to Honeycomb, Google TV devices will be Android compatible," said Ambarish Kenghe, a Google TV product manager, in a blog post today. "That means developers can build great new Android apps for TV, optimize existing mobile or tablet apps for TV, and distribute those apps through Android Market."

News Fuse

• A 5.9 earthquake centered in Mineral, Virginia had far ranging effects all over the east coast. Landline and cell phone service for both Sprint and AT&T were disrupted in New York and other parts of the east. Verizon did not experience an outage, but T-Mobile's network was strained by high call volumes. Service in New York has been restored.
• Nintendo often revises its Gameboy handheld consoles and the latest rumor says there will be a new version of the 3DS next year. According to 01net, a French gaming site that apparently has a good track record, the new 3DS will not focus on the 3D features of the 3DS, which also may mean a new name. 01net also reported that Nintendo is working on a $10 snap-on analog joystick for the current 3DS.
• The courts just can't decide if cell phone records require a warrant. In a decision today, Federal judge Nicholas Garaufis wrote "The fiction that the vast majority of the American population consents to warrantless government access to the records of a significant share of their movements by 'choosing' to carry a cell phone must be rejected." This won't be decided for certain until the Supreme Court finally weighs in.
• Lawsuits bring all sorts of creative arguments. This time, Samsung is fighting Apple's design patents by arguing Apple's iPad design isn't original and cites the 1968 classic "2001: A Space Odyssey." To paraphrase the legal brief, "As with the design claimed by the D’889 Patent, the tablet (in the movie) overall rectangular shape with a dominant display screen... and a thin form factor.” Ah, lawyers.
• Twitter has added yet another feature; this time profile pages will have a "Recent Images" section in the right pane. Now while Twitter can now accept images directly, the Recent Images section will also work with Instagram, TwitPic, and yFrog. Video thumbnails won't be included and images from before January 2010 won't be included.
• Dish had been on a spectrum acquiring-spree recently, but now we've got some idea what they will do with it. The company just applied to the FCC to use that spectrum for a wireless LTE network. Both Dish and the FCC haven't made an official statement on the matter. The news comes from Credit Suisse analyst Jonathan Chaplain. Chaplain also mentioned that Dish would be building its network over a "realistic" schedule.
• The Building Windows 8 blog continues to detail the latest in the next Microsoft OS. This time, Steven Sinofsky, has announced that Microsoft will build in "the most robust and reliable USB stack" by using its custom Microsoft USB Test Tool, otherwise known as "MUTT." MUTT simulates all kinds of USB behaviors seen by Microsoft in the past. Microsoft aims to have USB devices work the way they are supposed to.
• A Chinese military documentary revealed evidence of government-sponsored cyber attacks in six seconds of B-roll. The video showed an attack being launched on the main website of the Falun Gong spiritual practice. The attack is launched from an IP address 138.26.72.17, which belongs to the University of Alabama in Birmingham. The documentary was meant to depict the US as an aggressor in cyberspace.
• The Sony Android Tablet codenamed the S1 has a new name according to Engadget. The new name for the 9.4-inch S1 tablet is - drumroll please - "Tablet S" and it will be released in the first two weeks of September sporting Android 3.1. The Tablet S has some features that ought to appeal to home theater types with its IR blaster and DLNA compatibility so you can send media to other DLNA-enabled devices like your TV. The final price is still unknown, but the rumor is $599.
• RIM is rolling out three more BlackBerry OS 7 devices. All three are versions of the BlackBerry Curve and share similar specs. The 9350, 9360, and 9370 will all have a 5-megapixel camera, an 800Mhz processor, and a 2.4-inch display. The models are differentiated by their radio capabilities and internal storage. The devices will hit Canada this month. Sprint has landed the low-end model, which will launch on September 9th.

Randomizer

• Using Tablets Becoming Popular Bathroom Activity
• Coming Soon: Batteries That Run On (And Clean) Used Toilet Water

Calendar

• Android 3.1 is hitting Motorola Xooms in Canada today. Enjoy the latest Honeycomb, Canucks.
• Starting today PS3 fans will be able to pre-order a limited number of the N-Control Avenger add-on for the PS3. It'll run you $50 and will ship in November, when everyone will be able to get one.
• Sprint announced new prepaid rates for users of the HTC Evo View 4G tablet. A "day pass" costs $14.99, plus applicable taxes and fees. That entitles you to 150 MB worth of data, compared to 100 MB of 3G data for the same price on Verizon or AT&T's networks. A 500 MB week's pass costs $29.99, while a 1.5 GB monthly pass costs $49.99.
• Eidos Montreal and Square Enix launched Deus Ex: Human Revolution today, the latest in the much loved Deus Ex series. You can get it for Xbox, PS3 and for Windows on Steam.
• The Zune software, used to update Windows Phones, just got updated to version 4.8. So all you Windows Phone users will get better backup and update options.

Email

"Hello TNT Crew,

Nobody seems to mention Chumby player as a possible use for the $99 HP TouchPad. I think it's possible to run Chumby apps within TouchPad's web browser and the 9.7-inch touch screen would be a great form factor as a Chumby player.

As I understand, you can run Chumby apps in any Flash-enabled web browser. You can create a virtual Chumby, get your own URL (I used bit.ly to shorten it), select from 1000+ apps like Facebook, Flickr, news and weather, and play them all day long. http://www.chumby.com/mychumby/virtualchumby I actually didn't know about this until recently but now we are enjoying the app slide shows everywhere in the house.

I love the show. Please keep up the great work.

Cheers, Komei (pronounced "Co-May") Fremont, CA"

"Hello all, I was listening to yesterdays show this morning and heard you postulating how some Google Plus accounts were getting the Verified Name checkmark. I had a verified name in Google Profiles and it looks like that has carried over to my Google Plus account. I am not a celebrity but just an average Google product user who used a credit card to buy international phone credits in Google voice.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/105961084316552220453/posts

Jacob H. Loeb"

Sponsors

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Production Information

• Edited by: Jeff
• Notes:

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