Tech News Today 433
From The Official TWiT Wiki
Episode 433 |
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Recorded: February 8, 2012 Published: February 8, 2012 Duration: 46:26 |
Contents |
Tech News Today 433: You're Putting It In Wrong
Windows 8 coming soon, iPhone bankrupts another carrier, Boxee fights evil, and more.
Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com
Hosts
- Tom Merritt (@acedtect)
- Sarah Lane (@SarahLane)
- Iyaz Akhtar (@Iyaz)
- Jason Howell (@RayGun01)
- Ina Fried
- allthingsd.com
Top Stories
- Windows 8 Consumer Preview due February 29: why it's not called beta
- Microsoft to Launch Consumer Preview of Windows 8 in Barcelona on February 29
- First Windows 8 'Consumer Preview' preinstalled apps revealed
- Microsoft Windows 8 Consumer Preview to be unveiled at MWC in an invitation-only event Feb. 29
- Microsoft has previously said to expect a beta in late Feb. so this is as late as it could get. Expect a download?
- Several Metro style applications will be included according to The Verge
- One source has revealed that Microsoft is working to enable SMS support for the Messaging app
- Nokia Cutting 4,000 Manufacturing Jobs
- Nokia to Cut 4,000 Manufacturing Jobs as It Shifts Production Work
- Nokia announced it will cut 4,000 manufacturing jobs in Komarom, Hungary, Reynosa, Mexico and Salo, Finland.
- Transferring assembly of smartphones to Asia. Non-Asian factories will focus on customizations for certain markets
- Sprint Posts Wide Loss, Big Gain in Revenue and Customers, Thanks, in Part, to the iPhone
- Sprint Sells 1.8 Million iPhones in Initial Quarter, With 40 Percent Going to New Customers
- Sprint adds 1.6m subscribers in Q4 2011, sells 1.8m iPhones, but loses $1.3b
- Sprint Bringing 4G LTE to Baltimore, Kansas City
- The iPhone is a nightmare for carriers
- Numbers
- Lost $1.3 billion for the quarter, 43 cents per share, on revenue of $8.7 billion.
- Year-over-year $929 million, 31 cents per share, on revenue of $8.3 billion. Also larger than 3rd quarter losses.
- 1.6 million customers gained in quarter, 5 million gained in year. Best sub. growth since 2005.
- iPhone impact -- The cost of adding an iPhone customer is about 40% higher than the cost for the average non-iPhone customer, according to Sprint.
- 1.8 million Sprint customers bought an iPhone. 40 percent (around 720,000) were new subscribers.
- average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by a record $3.69, sales improved by five percent to $8.72b in total, and Sprint's 55 million customers are a new record for the carrier.
- Sprint estimates that its operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) was reduced by $684m by iPhone subsidies and Network Vision investments (LTE).
- Misc
- Sprint added Baltimore & Kansas City to mid-2012 LTE launch joining Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio
Discussion Stories
- Amazon adds Viacom shows, expands streaming selection
- With Viacom deal, Amazon looks like a real competitor to Netflix
- Amazon, Viacom deal brings more TV shows to Prime Instant Video service
- Amazon announced a deal to stream Viacom content on Amazon Prime
- Viacom content includes BET, Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon shows
- Titles include Chappelle's Show, Jersey Shore, some seasons of the Real World* Dora the Explorer, Deadliest Warrior and Mob Wives*
- *'ed titles are not on Netflix right now
- Brings Prime Instant catalog to more than 15,000 videos.
- Content will be available over the next several months.
- Boxee Stands With The CEA Against Cable Companies, Courts The FCC Chairman To Stop Proposed Ruling
- Cable Companies Want Government to Help Them Increase Your Bill & Limit Competition
- 1996 FCC rule says cable providers must provide a basic set of unencrypted stations so TVs, tuners, or navigation devices like the Boxee Live TV can receive them. . Usually just local broadcast stations also available through OTA tuner.
- Cable co.'s want to switch to digital from analog. A few years ago the FCC granted Cablevision rights to ditch analog, move competely to digital. Cablevision said all-digital signal freed up space to provide 100mbps home internet. Comcast says it can fit 10-15 digital stations or 2-3 HD stations onto single analog transmission.
- National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) says digital boxes (encrypted) help remotely troubleshoot problems- fewer service calls is better for Earth. The real story- NCTA says 77% of cable subscribers are already on a digital service. Netflix has more subscribers than any single cable provider like Comcast, Cablevision, TWC. “the marketplace is robustly competitive and video services are being delivered over a range of different platforms to a wide array of different devices” ... cord-cutting scares them.
- Boxee, The Consumer Electronic Association (CEA) and the AllVid Tech Company Alliance all oppose this. Boxee's blog calls BS. Cable companies spent $50 million last year lobbying FCC. says this will slow innovation, hurt consumers by raising rates. AllVid says the FCC should keep waivers to case-by-case basis.
- HP’s NFC-Equipped Ultrabook Comes to Market
- HP's glass-covered HP Envy 14 Spectre available for pre-order, ships February 17
- HP starts Envy 14 Spectre pre-orders, but high-res screen is currently not an option
- HP Envy Spectre goes on sale today ships Feb. 17
- $1,399, it’s 20mm thin with a 14-inch screen, supports up to 256 gigabytes of storage and boasts up to nine and half hours of battery life
- Has NFC which allows you to transfer URLs from Android phones to the Spectre
News Fuse
- Google's quietly offering "Google Screenwise," a Chrome extension that will let Google see all of your browsing behavior. If you sign up, you'll get a $5 Amazon gift card code and for every three months you use Screenwise, you'll earn another $5 gift code for a maximum of a $25 payout. Google told SearchEngineLand that the Screenwise project actually started earlier in the year and clarified that testers are able to leave the project at any time.
- Google paying users to track 100% of their Web usage via little black box
- The WSJ reports that in a November letter, Apple asked the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to clarify how "essential" patents are handled. Apple claims that the lack of standards for royalties has led to high rates and would like the owners of essential patents to have a "no injunction" policy. Currently, Apple is clashing with Samsung and Motorola Mobility over essential patents.
- Path CEO Dave Morin published an apology for copying users' address books to Path servers and that the company "deleted the entire collection of user uploaded contact information…" Additionally, the new version of Path for iOS is available today and will ask a user to opt in or out of sharing your contacts. If you change your mind about opting in, the post says to email service@path.com to change things.
- Eolas technologies are back in the news. You may remember them suing Microsoft in 1999 over additions to browsers. That case was eventually settled out of court. This time biologist Michael Doyle from Eolas claims that his program from 1993 for allowing doctors to see and manipulate images of embryos over the Web gives him the right to claim royalties from pretty much every interactive use of the Web since then. Tim Berners-Lee inventor of the Web testified Tuesday. Apple is among the companies who settled but Yahoo, Amazon, Google, YouTube, GoDaddy, JC Penney, Staples, and CDW Corp are all fighting on. The jury trial over validity f the patents is expected to begin Thursday.
- A while back, there were reports of HP TouchPads shipping with Android on them. HP just released the source code for that TouchPad-optimized version of Android. The files are available for download right now although there appears to be an issue with the WiFi driver.
- Teaser images for what appears to be an Android powered LG Optimus Vu are making the rounds and it has a 5-inch touchscreen with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Datacider says it has specs: 1.5Ghz QUalcom processor, 1GB of RAM, NFC, an 8 megapixel camera and Android 2.3.
- For those of you who like "voice calls," Vonage's new app for iOS and Android has arrived and Vonage claims you can get high quality audio with a minimum bandwidth of 64KBps. Calls and texts from Vonage to Vonage users are free, but if you'd like to use the app as a traditional voice line, there are in-app purchases for that. Vonage claims that the rates are 30% cheaper on average than Skype's.
- Anonymous exposed a whole slew of email messages from Syria's Ministry of Presidential Affairs. The messages showed off information meant for the United Nations and talking points for the President's interview with Barbara Walters amongst other things. 78 users had their passwords exposed as well and as usual 31 of them were 12345.
- Last week, Ubisoft announced that a server transition would cause some games to be unplayable temporarily, but that games like "Anno 270" and "Driver: San Francisco" would be fine. That's not what happened though - if you wanted to play those two games, you were out of luck. Ubisoft says it is aware of the situation and says gameplay ought to be reenabled by Thursday morning.
Randomizer
Calendar
- Nokia Lumia 800 bundle launching February 14th in the US for $899 to Microsoft retail stores - carrier independent, includes Nokia Play 360 Wireless Speaker, Purity HD Stereo Headset, and an in-ear Bluetooth headset.
- T-Mobile's announced its “Valentine’s Day Sale.” On Saturday, Feb. 11, T-Mobile is offering 4G smartphones and select tablets for free with a mail-in rebate for models like the Samsung Galaxy S II, HTC Amaze, Blackberry Bold 9900 and the T-Mobile SpringBoard.
- iTunes is streaming a Free Paul McCartney concert on February 9th - via desktop versions of iTunes or via iTunes Live option on Apple TV. You know where you won't find McCartney songs? Streaming services.
INCOMING
"Hey, Tom and Sarah! In reference to the 3-year-old photos on Facebook: as one who deals with Oracle databases, I recognize the fear of deleting an item. That's why you just replace it with an empty record. Facebook could've simply replaced the photo with a black square and be done with it. All links and references would still be valid. No additional flags or permission-checking required. This is common practice in the world, so I'm inclined to believe they simply want to avoid deleting any user data if they can get away with it.
Honestly, though...anybody who thinks that they have some sort of right to remove or take-back the data that they upload to the ever-duplicating internet is going to learn a hard lesson. A truly embarrassing photo will have been saved, shared, and probably search-indexed by multiple sites by the time you realize what you've done. ""Undo"" only exists in word processing and casual games. This is real life we're talking here, and Facebook can not save you from yourself.
Love getting my daily fix! --- Jim, the Aerospace Engineer, Calif."
"I felt compelled to write to Sarah and share something she has probably been told a million times since episode 428.
She and Shannon Morse were discussing the difficulty of telling which ear bud was ""left"" and which was ""right."" For some number of years the ear bud industry has adopted a practice of placing tactile cues on the buds.
Most of the time it is a small raised ""dot"" on the left bud, but other times it is a raised line or some pattern. It seems that ALL of the ear buds I see today have these cues. Which probably means that Apple buds do not, as I have not owned an Apple product in nearly a decade.
Thanks for the time and listening to what you probably already know.
- Curt Moreno The Kung Fu Drafter"
Sponsors
Gazelle
- ad times: :48-:56 and 17:29-19:21
Production Information
- Edited by: Jason
- Notes:
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