Tech News Today 56

Tech News Today Episode 56

Tech News Today 56: Arc Of The Banana Mouse

Google Chrome OS tablet, Broadband speed lies, and the Microsoft banana mouse.

Hosts

• Tom Merritt (@acedtect)
  • TomMerritt.com
• Becky Worley (@bworley)
  • BeckyWorley.com
• Erik Lanigan (@eriklanigan)

Top Stories

• Google launching a Chrome OS tablet on Verizon, goes on sale November 26

• Chrome Web Store coming in October?

• Verizon to Put Live TV on the iPad

• Verizon, HBO planning on iPad streaming apps

Other Stories

• ISPs Lie About Broadband "Up To" Speeds

• What if ISPs had to advertise minimum speeds? In Hungary, they do

• Spotify-style streaming beats piracy, boosts sales - survey

• Intel's 'Sandy Bridge' to use new specialized silicon

• Microsoft's Arc Touch Mouse revealed?

News Fuse

• Ubuntu 11.04 dubbed Natty Narwhal, will impale users in 2011

• Windows Live Essentials 2011 beta updated, gets Facebook chat

• T-Mobile is promoting its first HSPA+ Android phone named the G2

• Verizon testing a $99 unlimited plan that simply matches Sprint's famous offering

• Microsoft makes a return to Flight Microsoft's Flight Simulator is set to make a comeback.

• Apple awarded patents for Slide to Unlock, keyboard letter pop

Kickers and Weird Science

• Celebrity Nerds: Justin Long jailbreaks his iPhone like a PC guy (video)

• Apple’s App Store Director Sells His Own Fart Apps

Calendar

• September 13-14, 2010, San Francisco, CA: APPNATION is the first global conference and exposition to focus exclusively on the burgeoning consumer applications marketplace.

• TWiT at Dragon*Con. Meetup tentatively for Saturday night September 4

Feedback

Voicemail

• Jose - Our first caller has some news about Quake

• Dave - Our next caller has a solution for the God Squad

Email

• Hi TNT crew

Re wifi and health. Tom, you basically got it right. For a detailed discussion about where the science is at, at the moment, and the plausibility of wifi posing a health risk, I strongly recommend this blog entry by Neurologist (and science podcaster) Steven Novella:

Banning Wi-Fi From Schools

All the best

Theo

• Hey TNT Crew,

The guy from the Navy on yesterday's show did have a good idea about randomizing the keypad for security reasons to prevent smudge attacks. However, that would not work on Android phones. The unlock screen is just a bunch of dots, so you can't randomize them - they all look the same! (Of course, maybe they DO randomize them, and no one knows it but Google.) I believe the best security feature would be to *require* that at least one dot be used twice in the pattern. They have a strength meter on their passwords, maybe they need to consider a strength meter for unlock patterns too.

Keep up the great work! - Jason from Rochester, NY

• Hi Tom and crew,

I wanted to comment on the discussion the other day about preferring text messaging over voice calls and the idea that text messaging will overtake voice minutes as the primary option in cellphone plans.

What about instant messaging? As more people get smart phones capable of running IM clients don't you see more and more people ditching expensive text messaging for instant messaging that would use your data plan?

Love the show!

Mike.

• I really don't want to clutter your inbox, but I thought you'd enjoy

this. Turns out I was spotted by a fellow geek while recording your video:

Hawaii used an iphone app to summon the rainb

Have a great show!

Ryan

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Production Information

• Edited by: Erik
• Notes: Mediafly publish: 7:55

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