Tech News Today 400

Tech News Today Episode 400

Tech News Today 400: Whistling Pirates

Go Daddy reverses course on SOPA, Louis CK makes and gives a bunch, Online shopping brings its own stress, and more.

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Hosts

• Tom Merritt (@acedtect)
  • TomMerritt.com
• Sarah Lane (@sarahlane)
  • SarahLane.com
• Iyaz Akhtar (@Iyaz)
  • thisoldnerd.finitecomedy.com
• Jason Howell (@raygun01)
• Nate Lanxon
  • wired.co.uk

Topics

• Over 40 Internet Companies Come Out Publicly Against SOPA
• Anti-SOPA registrar will help you leave GoDaddy for anywhere, even the competition
• Go Daddy No Longer Supports SOPA
• Brave GoDaddy CEO Says He’s Neither For Nor Against SOPA

• Record Online Shopping Brings New Meaning to “Holiday Stress”

• Louis CK makes $1 million in 12 days, proves that DRM-free content is valued
• Louis C.K. Nets $1M for Online Show, Pledges Charity Donations
  • $250,000 to pay production and Web-related costs; $250,000 for a "big fat bonus" to his staff; $280,000 to charities like The Fistula Foundation, The Pablove Foundation, charity:water, Kiva, and Green Chimneys; and $220,000 for himself.

Discussion Stories

• Spare some idle CPU cycles for charity this season

• Samsung: No room for ICS on Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab, TouchWiz to blame

• Volkswagen turns off BlackBerry email for employees after work hours

News Fuse

• AT&T's getting its holiday wish and is getting some spectrum. The FCC approved AT&T's purchase of 700MHz spectrum from Qualcomm. It only cost $1.9 billion. Qualcomm had used that spectrum for its unsuccessful MediaFLO mobile TV service.

• Republic Wireless's not-really-unlimited service is now really unlimited. The company announced via its blog that it's "all-in" and you'll be able to use a Republic Wireless phone without a chance of being booted. This new strategy is beta, so it may not be permanent.

• We're back to square one in the whole Google vs. Author's Guild mess. If you recall the Author's Guild wants to collect royalties on all the orphaned works that Google has scanned in. Since their agreement fell apart they're back to suing each other. Thursday, Google asked Judge Chin to agree that copyright infringement lawsuits must be filed by copyright holders themselves, not associations claiming to represent them. If successful, the motion would make it much harder to bring action against Google.

• Dropbox announced a new version of its Android App. Dropbox 2.0 brings bulk uploads, the ability to star files for offline access, and file renaming. The company says this version is optimized for Ice Cream Sandwich.

• HP's issued some new firmware to "mitigate" a vulnerability in some of its LaserJet printers. That vulnerability? Oh, that was the one where someone theoretically could try to set your printer on fire remotely. There haven't been any reported instances of flaming HP printers yet.

• GoGo, the company that provides in-flight wireless to many airlines, filed for an IPO in which it hopes to raise up to $100 million. This year, Gogo announced that it would branch out beyond just in-flight WiFi, but will also offer news, video, shopping deals and more.

• RIM just got sued over the trademark for "BBM" by a broadcast group called BBM Canada that has used the mark for around 60 years. BBM Canada CEO Jim MacLeod said he'd reached out to RIM before but hadn't made any progress in negotiations. RIM filed for the BBM trademark in 2010, but was rejected.

• New research out of the NPD group says that smartphones are taking the place of many camcorders and cameras in the U.S. in the first 11 months of 2011. Camcorder sales were down 13%, while point-and-shoot cameras sales were down 17%. However, those phones aren't replacing SLRs - detachable lens camera sales were up by 12%.

• The $25 barebones Raspberry Pi PC is one step closer to production. A bunch of the ARM-based boards are being tested and if they pass, you'll be able to grab one in January. The company's blog says that so far testing has been going well. If you're curious about specs, you're looking at a 700 MHz processor and 128 or 256MB or RAM. You'll have to bring you own hard drive.

Randomizer

• London takes the wraps off new hybrid double-decker buses

Calendar

• NORAD ready to track Santa Claus again
• Dual-core Meizu MX fully unveiled, launching with HSPA+ Jan. 1

INCOMING

Email

"TNTers,

I was just listening to your last podcast in which you discussed Xylogic's report on the top apps on the Adnroid market vs iOS's. Th prevailing theme of the discussion was that the games were not on Android yet. I did some ""crude journalism"" and went to look at the actual reports out of curiosity. And, I would like to bring up a counter point. A good portion of Android's top apps were from companies that provide system changing functions, like launchers, LED flashlights, and widgets. This type of app is just not possible on the iOS because of their AppStore restrictions. So maybe it is not that iOS users have more games, but that Android users have more options. Just food for thought.

I love the show.

Roger Coelho"

"Hi there,

Tom talked about Playbook OS2 coming out with email and PIM support. Wasn't it just last month that they showed off native email(on the playbook). I have attached a few pictures showing this. Please correct this mistake as it may misinform many listeners.

Thank you, love the show.

Agaba Nkuuhe."

Sponsors

Ford

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Production Information

• Edited by: Jason
• Notes:

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