Tech News Today 490

Tech News Today Episode 490

Tech News Today 490: Facing The Existential Threat

Microsoft buys some Barnes and Noble love, UK blocks Pirate Bay, can Skype spy on you, 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 (@Iyaz)
• Chad Johnson (@omgchad)
• Russ Pitts (@RussPitts)
  • Polygon.com

Topics

• Barnes & Noble to spin off digital Nook business, Microsoft will invest $300 million into it
• Barnes & Noble Shares Leap on News of Microsoft Deal
• Microsoft buys stake in Nook, college textbook business
• Could Microsoft-B&N deal foretell Windows 8-powered Nook?
• Barnes & Noble Spins Off Nook, With Help From Microsoft
• B&N 8-K: Microsoft Paying $180M Advance On Nook For Windows 8, $125M For Content, Tech Acquisition
  • Microsoft ($300 million for 17.6%) and BN partnering on Newco
  • Newco (provisional name) will be a subsidiary of BN and focus on digital and college bookstore
  • Windows 8 will come with a Nook app.
  • B&N and Newco will have a royalty-bearing license under Microsoft's patents for its Nook e-readers and tablets. B&N and Newco will have a royalty-bearing license under Microsoft's patents for its Nook e-readers and tablets.
  • MJ Foley points out we now know what Andy Lees has been up to since he left WinPhone
  • Everyone speculates we may see Windows 8-based Nook reader from B&N.
  • TechCrunch notes: according to the 8-K form filed by Barnes & Noble earlier today. Microsoft paying $180 million revenue sharing on the Nook app $125 million (equal to $25 million over five years) “for purposes of assisting NewCo in acquiring local digital reading content and technology development.”

• The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK ISPs, court rules
• U.K. High Court Orders ISPs to Block The Pirate Bay
  • Swedish file-sharing site The Pirate Bay must be blocked by ISPs Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media, says the UK High Court. within the next few weeks
  • 6th ISP, BT, requested "a few more weeks" to consider their position on blocking the site.
  • British Phonographic Industry (BPI) (Britain's music industry trade group) demanded The Pirate Bay shut down in July 2011, unsuccessful. Then BPI aasked ISPs to block PB in November 2011. They said they wouldn't without a court order. Previously court order was obtained to block Newzbin 2, similar to PB, downloadable content, some pirated.
  • In Feb the High Court ruled that The Pirate Bay violates copyright regulations, going beyond "enabling or assisting". The case was seen as a green light for rights holders to force ISPs to block access to a number of high-profile filesharing sites in the UK, using the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Earlier this year PB moved away from torrents to the magnet format.
  • PB founders found guilty of copyright infringement in April 2009 in Swedish Supreme Court, sentenced to one year in prison, and hit with fines of about $32 million Swedish kroner (about $4.5 million). Appeal denied in Feb .
  • Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group: "It will fuel calls for further, wider and even more drastic calls for internet censorship of many kinds, from pornography to extremism. Internet censorship is growing in scope and becoming easier. Yet it never has the effect desired. It simply turns criminals into heroes."
  • virgin: "As a responsible ISP, Virgin Media complies with court orders addressed to the company but strongly believes that changing consumer behavior to tackle copyright infringement also needs compelling legal alternatives, such as our agreement with Spotify, to give consumers access to great content at the right price."
  • O2: "On the wider point about copyright infringement, we have always said that music rights holders should continue to develop new online business models to give consumers the content they want, how they want it, for a fair price,"

• Skype Reveals Remote and Local IP Address Of All Online Users - key is that you can get IP even if the person doesn't want to be your contact.
• Skype exploit reveals all user IP addresses
• Skype hack reveals your global and local IP addresses
  • A cracked copy of SkypeKit can be used to look up IP addresses on any online Skype account.
  • Script starts an add a Skype contact request but does not complete it. The log file will display the local and remote IP of that Skype user, even if the user is not added to the list of contacts in Skype.
  • It bypasses certificate authentication normally used by Skype to verify the app
  • Proof of concept has been uploaded to Github
  • This can also be done with a patched version of Skype 5.5 with debug-log turned on.
  • IP addresses can be used for crude geolocation. Also IP addresses can be used to obtain more info in lawsuits.
  • Skype told The Verge: “We are investigating reports of a new tool that allegedly captures a Skype user’s last known IP address. This is an ongoing, industry-wide issue faced by all peer-to-peer software companies. We are committed to the safety and security of our customers and we are taking measures to help protect them.”

Discussion Stories

• Oracle: Google execs 'knew this day would come
• Java creator James Gosling: 'Google totally slimed Sun'
• Google sums up its Java case: 'There was no copying'
• Oracle and Google make their closing arguments in Android infringement trial
  • Oracle and Google presented closing arguments.
  • Oracle: Google's making excuses. Emails show they knew they needed a license. "Google executives knew this day would come"
  • Google: Oracle made up the copyright of APIs defense for the trial, Emphasise Schwartz testimony, copied code is 9 lines out of 15 million (de minims). "There was no copying"
  • Judge Alsup asked jury to act as if APIs can be copyrighted. Judge will make that decision.
  • Jury expected to take a day and a half but could take up to a week. After that the trial moves on to patents.
  • James Gosling (considered father of Java) left Oracle April 2010 Said Oracle is in the right and Google slimed Sun. Gosling then worked for Google for 5 months. chief software architect at Liquid Robotics, which develops ocean-going robots that record and transmit data.

• LG Cloud, a streaming service for all three of your screens, launches on May 1st
• LG launches LG Cloud, blows raspberries at S-Cloud
• LG Tackles Cloud Streaming Via LG Cloud Beta
• LG dumps Windows Phone for Android focus
• LG To Pull Away From Windows Phone’s Loving Embrace, Refocus On Android
  • LG's launched a cloud service called "LG Cloud"
  • Will be a beta on May 1st in South Korea and the US, full launch expected next year. (although you can sign up now)
  • Allows you to access your photos and videos (incl. 3D content) on your phone, PC, smart TV and set top box
  • Videos are transcoded on the server and are streamed
  • Apps: First one is the LG Cloud Android app. There is a PC client for XP and Windows 7. There's a web app that lets you upload and download, videos don't seem to play back
  • Apps will be available via Play Store and LG's own "Smart World"
  • Free and paid tiers will be offered. Pricing will vary by market and haven't been announced yet.
  • 5GB free for everyone. 50GB for 6 months if you have an LG TV or phone
  • LG is going Android. In an earnings call, the company said it would focus on Android and will not introduce any new WP devices, but will continue R&D.
  • “the total unit of Windows Phone sold in the global market is not a meaningful figure.” - LG Spokesperson talking to the Korea Herald

• Nvidia fires up $1,000 dual-Kepler GeForce
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 690 announced for May 3rd: two Kepler GPUs for $999
• NVIDIA unleashes GeForce GTX 690 graphics card, loads it with dual Kepler GPUs, charges $1k
  • At Shanghai Game Festival Nvidia announced new graphics card
  • GeForce GTX 690 - 2 28nm Kepler GPUs. 3072 Cuda cores running 915 Mhz base clock.
  • Two sticks 2GB GDDR5 RAM for 4 GB dedicated video buffer.
  • plated aluminum outside, magnesium alloy around the fan for vibration reduction
  • Dual vapor chamber and center-mounted fan
  • Limited availability May 3 for $1000. Wider avail on May 7
  • Can run 2 in SLI as an effective quad-core
  • Claims: 4db quitter and twice framerate of GTX680s in SLI. Crysis 2 Ultra at 57.8fps

News Fuse

• The NYT took a look at three years of Kickstarter projects and found that the highest average funding went to the design category raising roughly $29,000 per project. On sheer numbers, film and video projects pulled in the most amount of money by raising $60 million; design pulled in $29 million, $7 million of which belong to the Pebble watch.

• Kickstarter smartphone-watch project tops $7 million in weeks

• Google released a new version of the FCC's findings when the agency invested Google for grabbing WiFi data via its Street View project. The report says that a rogue engineer is responsible for intentionally writing the code that captured the data. That engineer also communicated his actions to a senior manager and the Street View team via an October 2006 document that managers say they didn't read. Google still says it did not okay the engineer's actions.

• Exclusive: Google releases FCC report on Street View probe

• Apple makes a lot of money - for Nokia. According to Nokia's financial statements, Apple paid Nokia roughly $600 million for patent licensing in the last quarter. Windows Phone, on the other hand, led Nokia to lose $1.7 billion.

• According to the New York Post, Hulu may require users to authenticate that they have a paid television subscription to watch some programs. Last week, Hulu's non-network partner, Providence Equity Partners, sold off its interest of Hulu. The Post says the move was motivated by Hulu's authentication plans which are in their "first steps."

• If you wanted to get your hands on a laptop with Intel's latest and greatest Ivy Bridge processors, listen up. Right now, a number of companies including Dell's Alienware, HP and Maingear have Ivy Bridge-equipped laptops ready for pre-order. If you have to have one ASAP, it looks like the HP Pavilion dv6t or dv7t are your best bet with a shipping date of May 9th.

• Surely this will save Nintendo! The company is launching a brand new edition of its 3DS - what's different about it? It's purple, but not just any purple - "Midnight Purple!" It'll cost for $170 when it launches on May 20th, which is the same day as Mario Tennis Open's release.

• Users of the international version of the Tegra 3-powered HTC One X can now install CyanogenMod. This version was developed by the TripNDroid Mobile Engineering team and is available at the Modaco forums. So if you wanted to get rid of HTC's Sense UI, you've got your chance - but be warned, camera and Wi-Fi hotspot functions don't work yet.

• It takes energy to power the cloud, so Apple is buying a whole bunch of Bloom Fuel cells to power its data center in North Carolina. If you're unfamiliar with Bloom's technology, its Bloom Energy Servers can generate electricity using a variety of sources like biogas or natural gas while reducing carbon emissions partially because energy doesn't have to travel on the power grid.

• Some guy just joined Viddy, a service with a video sharing mobile app. That's not usually news, but that guy is Mark Zuckerberg. People are comparing Viddy to Instagram, which led folks to speculate if Zuckerberg might just buy the company. If you're curious, Zuckerberg posted a video of his world famous dog, Beast.

Randomizer

• Paul Miller is leaving the Internet

Calendar

• RIM's annual BlackBerry World kicks off in Orlando this afternoon. Lots of folks paying close attention to what RIM will tell developers and partners.

• Future Insights Live (Future of Web Apps, Future of Web Design, Future of Mobile, and Future of Web in the Enterprise) starts today, goes through 5/4 in Las Vegas

• Wired Business Conference in NYC tomorrow

• Kombat coming to the Playstation Vita tomorrow 5/1

• Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung are set to meet on May 21/22 to begin talks that could potentially lead to a settlement in their ongoing patent infringement lawsuit battle. The talks will be overseen by Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero in SF

INCOMING

Voicemail

• Using Google Drive and keeping your files intact

Email

"Hi TNT Crew,

I just listened to episode 489 and wanted to respond to the comment that “hand held gaming” is moving to phones and that devices like the Nintendo 3DS are a “lost cause”.

While I don’t entirely disagree, as a father of 3 boys who love hand held gaming and who don’t have or need smart phones, devices like the Nintendo, DS, DSi and 3DS are great platforms for them to game on. They can share games and sync their devices for multi player gaming experiences without the need for data plans, social network accounts, etc.

What I have noticed over the last few years is that as the devices have gotten more sophisticated (like the 3DS) they seem to be targed at an older market and that may be their ultimate undoing, my 9 years old’s 3DS can do some amazing things that he is too young to understand or take advantage of, and by the time he is old enough to “get it” he will likely have moved on to a smart phone or iPod Touch type device.

My 13 year old son has a 3DS and an iPod Touch and he plays on both, mainly because Nintendo's flagship game franchises like Super Mario, Pokémon and Zelda are not available on iOS, if they were he’d probably never pick up his 3DS, which provides further support of your comments that Nintendo should sell their games on other platforms if they want to stay totally relevant.

Love the show!

Barry in New York"

"Hey Twit Heads,  :-)

In Friday's show you talked about a new implant for eyesight. Like you, I think that it is truly awesome. Unlike you, I do not want it. You need 4 times the resolution of an 8k TV to approach the capacity of the human eye.

I've been slowly going blind for 50 years. I was an early adopter of eBooks, before the iPod and Audible came along. All the accessibility tricks available to computer users have helped me to remain somewhat productive. Yet I do not want a vision implant. Technology is wonderful until it fails. I recently replaced a pair of hearing aids at $3,200 per ear because my other ones just got old. Besides, like my electronic ears my electronic eyes will not feel natural, might be subject to radio interference, etc. give me a natural alternative instead. Fortunately there are a couple on the horizon. Some group in Oregon will be starting a clinical trial on Gene Therapy for Retinitis Pigmentosa patients soon. It'll be a race to see who gets to market first.

Where the new electronic eye may prove more useful and you guys missed this is in robotics. Enjoy the show, keep up the good work

Will Mullen Chicago, IL"

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Production Information

• Edited by: Chad
• Notes:

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