Tech News Today 568
From The Official TWiT Wiki
Episode 568 |
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Recorded: August 20, 2012 Published: August 20, 2012 Duration: 50:53 |
Contents |
Tech News Today 568:I Like My Newspaper
Everything about to change for Hulu, OnLive replaced by OnLive, Why everyone's all excited about Synaptics.
Hosts
- Tom Merritt (@acedtect)
- Sarah Lane
- Iyaz Akhtar
- Jason Howell
- Fr. Robert Ballecer
News Fuse
- Friday, OnLive performed a deft form of bankruptcy which allowed it to sell all its assets to a new company that will also be called OnLive backed by Lauder Partners. The new comapny announced it will hire almost half the staff back, and keep most of the rest as consultants, paid in options, until it gets enough money to hire them back too. Users of OnLive should see no disruption of service. HTC announced today it lost $40 million it had invested in the original OnLive.
- A July internal memo between News Corp and Disney and obtained by Variety include information about future exclusivity, ad counts, selective content access, and a plan to "Outline transition plan for new CEO. Discuss potential candidates and process." A management buyout of Hulu stakeholder Providence Equity Partners, expected to close in September, plus this memo, point to a gamechanging future for Hulu.
- People are excited about a new trackpad. Yeah, I'm serious. Synaptics is showing off its new ForcePad, which is a new pressure sensitive trackpad that has no moving parts. It can detect 64 levels of pressure from your fingers. The company also is offering new keyboards called ThinTouch which drop the scissor mechanism for a slider mechanism. Both the Forcepad and the ThinTouch are thin and are expected in laptops next year.
- Motorola filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission claiming Apple infringes seven of its patents including location reminders, e-mail notification, and voice recognition. As is usual with ITC complaints, it seeks a ban on infringing devices. This is the second complaint Motorola has made against Apple, the first, regarding a WiFi patent. should receive a decision on August 24th.
- According to someone familiar with the matter speaking to Bloomberg, Samsung and Apple are meeting today in an attempt to resolve their smartphone patent dispute before a U.S. jury begins deliberating. The companies’ lawyers will report to U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in federal court in San Jose, California, on the outcome of today’s telephone discussion between Apple’s Tim Cook and Samsung’s Kwon Oh Hyun.
- Best Buy's got a new head! Hubert Joly is the new CEO of Best Buy. He'd previously worked at Carlson, which operates restaurants and hotels like the Raddison. Best Buy says that Joly has "expertise in turnaround and growth." He starts running the company in September.
- Apple has responded to concerns that iOS is vulnerable to SMS spoofing. Apple issued a statement saying SMS can be spoofed on any phone, but iMessage verifies addresses which protects against spoofing. Apple wisely cautions customers to be careful if directed to unknown websites or addresses over SMS.
- Watch out Amazon! Barnes & Noble announced today it's expanding, for the 1st time internationally, NOOK e-readers and digital bookstore to the UK, launching in the fall. The company will offer its E Ink readers, Nook Simple Touch, and will open up its NOOK Store to consumers in the UK, providing access to more than 2.5 million titles.
- In the fallout from the Oracle Google World Series of patent trials, Judge Alsup ordered both companies to disclose any payments made to bloggers to write about the trial. Google and Oracle both deny retaining anyone to write specifically about the lawsuit. Oracle disclosed it hired Florian Mueller as a consultant but denied any connection to the case. Oracle also accused Google of running a network of influencers, which Google denied.
- A post over at MariaDB says that Oracle is hiding MySQL test cases and revision history is not being updated. Test cases are extremely valuable to developers. This has people thinking Oracle is doing whatever it can to kill MySQL. Oracle has not responded yet.
Randomizer
- Disney Adds A Bit Of Nonsensical Anti-Open Source FUD To Kid’s Sitcom
Calendar
- Dell's earnings report tomorrow 8/21
- Also tomorrow Y Combinator Demo Day at the Computer History Museum
- Motorola schedules press event for September 5th, dubs it the 'day's main event'
- LG's Optimus Vu — a smartphone-tablet hybrid with a 5-inch screen — will be available in select markets across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America from September, according to a company press release. The international model will feature an Nvidia Tegra 3 system-on-chip, replacing the Snapdragon S4 processor which powers the Korean and Japanese versions of the device, and will lack LTE connectivity.
Incoming
Voicemail #1
- An opinion on Google Play gift cards
Voicemail #2
- Why the set top box is so out of shape
E-mail #1
Hey TNT crew,
On episode 567, you guys discussed the use case for buying the Windows 8 tablet over a Windows RT one. I think a lot of people can't get passed the term "tablet", and thus consider their usage to be limited. However, if a keyboard is to be included with the Windows 8 tablets, it actually becomes a MacBook Air competitor, rather than iPad. Personally, as a web developer who likes to travel, this one device can cater for both of my needs.
Love the show, and keep up the good work.
Joe
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Production Information
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- Notes:
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