Tech News Today 505

Tech News Today Episode 505

Tech News Today 505: Clothbot: Do Your Worst

Chrome is the most popular browser? But Google is anticompetitive, cable companies join hands to help you wirelessly, 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)
• Jason Howell (@RayGun01)
• Julio Ojeda-Zapata (@ojezap)

Top Stories

• Chrome is the most popular browser in the world, says StatCounter
• StatCounter bar graphs
  • Statcounter reports for the Week of May 14-20 Chrome averaged a higher traffic share than any other browser.
  • 32.76 % - Chrome 31.94% - IE
  • IE still most popular in North America and Australia, Europe Firefox most popular in Africa
  • Big lead for Chrome comes from South America with 50% overall share
  • Chrome also leading in Asia, but barely. IE still leads in China, South Korea and Japan.
  • StatCounter counts raw page views based on tracking code installed on more than 3 million sites globally.

• EU finds four potential antitrust offenses in Google search, prefers to resolve them amicably
• European regulators offer Google chance to settle antitrust violations
• EU Offers To Settle With Google Over Anti-Trust Claims
  • The EU has finished 18 months of investigating Google's search practices and found 4 areas of concern
  • Joaquín Almunia, EC Vice President for Competition Policy stressed the Commission's desire to get them settled "without having to engage in adversarial proceedings." The EC gave Google a matter of weeks to respond.
  • Displays links to vertical services (maps, images, news) differently than links to competitors. May result in preferential treatment.
  • "Google may be copying original material from the websites of its competitors such as user reviews and using that material on its own sites without their prior authorization." (travel, restaurant)
  • AdSense agreements "result in de facto exclusivity requiring them to obtain all or most of their requirements of search advertisements from Google"
  • "Google imposes contractual restrictions on software developers which prevent them from offering tools that allow the seamless transfer of search advertising campaigns across AdWords and other platforms for search advertising."
  • "We've only just started to look through the Commission’s arguments," Google said in a statement. "We disagree with the conclusions but we're happy to discuss any concerns they might have. Competition on the web has increased dramatically in the last two years since the Commission started looking at this and the competitive pressures Google faces are tremendous. Innovation online has never been greater."
  • Google controls 78.64 percent of the desktop search market, down from 83.19 percent a year ago, according to NetMarketshare"

• Facebook Sinks Well Below IPO Price In Early Trading
• Facebook IPO 'was not our finest hour,' says NASDAQ chief
• Mark Zuckerberg's Marries Longtime Girlfriend
  • Facebook stock sunk down to $34 most of the day, losing 4% off it's IPO price closing at $34.03.
  • Some are blaming loss of momentum on opening day because of NASDAQ glitches
  • Today, NASDAQ chief executive Robert Greifeld conceded that the exchange is "humbly embarrassed" by the situation, telling reporters that Friday's troubled launch "was not our finest hour."
  • Unspecified problems with canceled orders were blamed.
  • On Saturday Mark Zuckerberg married Priscilla Chan in a surprise ceremony at his house in palo Alto.

Discussion Stories

• China Clears Google to Buy Motorola Mobility
• China finally approves Google’s Motorola Mobility acquisition, deal likely to close next week
• Google will keep Android free and open for at least five years
• Up to 30 percent of Motorola staff could be laid off following Google buyout, says TechCrunch
  • China approved Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility over the weekend
  • Require that Android be Android free and available without discriminating against any particular device maker for five years.
  • Unclear if this means no early releases of OS updates as tests
  • Also unclear if this means services that are part of Android must also remain free.
  • $12.5 billion deal. Google gets 17,000+ patents. They'll be combing over them looking for any they can claim rivals like Oracle and Apple are infringing
  • a Motorola spokesperson said that "we are pleased that the deal has received approval in all jurisdictions and we expect to close early next week."
  • in an 8-K form filed today, Motorola explained that with the China approval "the companies are moving to close the transaction within two business days."
  • TechCrunch reporting acquisition will be followed by layoffs.

• CableWiFi ties up 50,000 WiFi hotspots for cable subscribers to share
• Cable Providers Join Forces for Nationwide Wi-Fi Network
• Five US cable companies team up to offer over 50,000 'CableWiFi' hotspots to subscribers
  • Bright House, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox and Time Warner teaming up on WiFi for cable Internet subscribers
  • 50,000 metro WiFi hotspots in a combined network across US called "Cable WiFi" - available to customers subscribed to cable Internet packages with the participating companies. **Cablevision & Bright House Networks have already launched their CableWiFi access initiative in New York City and central Florida.
  • NYC, LA, Tampa, Orlando, Philly first to get it, rolling out over the coming months
  • compete with municipal wifi initiatives - free but spotty... this would not be free, no ties to local gov.
  • Enable WiFi on your wireless device.
  • 2 Select “xfinitywifi” in your list of available networks.
  • 3 Sign in with your Comcast username and password.
  • wifi finder app to locate hotspots near you

• Leap Motion: 3D hands-free motion control, unbound
• Leap 3D motion control system is 100 times more accurate than Kinect, will cost $69.99
• Leap Motion
  • Leap Motion unveiled Leap 3D which would bring motion control to computers via USB device, costs $70,
  • The Leap could recognize and track your hand movements in the air in 3D space using sensors and cameras and Leap's software.
  • The system creates a "three-dimensional interaction space" of four cubic feet
  • More than one hand can be recognized, sticks, pencils
  • Demo video shows controlling games, drawing things, pinch to zoom, panning
  • the actual device is very small
  • Leap says its device can sense motion down to the most subtle movements of a finger, which the company says is 200 times more sensitive than anything else on the market.
  • Leap will release an SDK, and the device is compatible with OS X and Windows 7 and higher. Linux support is "on the agenda"
  • Leap is giving out devices to developers who qualify
  • Available for pre-order at leapmotion.com
  • Dev kits ship in 1-3 months
  • Consumer version will ship in winter
  • CEO of Leap, Michael Buckwald told CNet that the technology that made this possible was via research and not due to the latest processors or other recent hardware, which implies the Leap should work on older machines.
  • Kinect for PC is $249 list

News Fuse

• Need a fix of Ghost Recon before "Ghost Recon: Future Soldier" launches tomorrow? Who you gonna call? FACEBOOK! The Facebook game "Ghost Recon: Commander" is available now and since it's on Facebook - it encourages social behavior. Players are encouraged to work together.

• It's been a long time since I rock n' rolled, but it hasn't been that long since Apple filed for a preliminary injunction to ban import of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the U.S. That happened on Friday. Apple claims Samsung is infringing on Apple's design patents. If Apple is granted the injunction, it could force Samsung to redesign the Tab like it did in Germany.

• What the world needs now is love sweet love and another social network apparently. Microsoft has taken So.cl out of beta. First introduced lat year, So.cl is focused on students and while open to any user Microsoft told Cnet that it is "an experimental research project focused on the future of social experiences and learning, especially among younger people."

• You say you want a revolution, well y'know - you're going to get it because Comcast introduced its X1 UI at the Cable Show in Boston. The new UI creates a unified home for on-demand, streaming, DVR'ed video and real-time video. The X1 also includes apps like Facebook and Pandora. The new UI will roll out in Boston first then to roll out nationwide.

• Tonight, we are young and so is the "TiVo Stream." The new device introduced today allows users of TiVo Premiere or Premiere Q to stream video to the iPhone and iPad. Unlike the Slingbox, TiVo Stream will allow you to stream to multiple devices without messing with your living room set top box. TiVo also unveiled another set-top box that lets people view video from their Premiere or Q from any room in their house. Both products will launch later this year.

• Time to pour a little out for Microsoft's Aero Glass. Microsoft has curb stomped the glassy look and moved to a flattened Metro-like look for its Windows 8 desktop. WinUnleaked noticed that Windows 8 Release Preview will come with several pre-installed Metro style apps for Sports, News, and Travel. The Release Preview will be available in the first week of June.

• Windows 8 tinkering points to news, sports apps

• Remember those HTC phones that were held up due to U.S. Customs over Apple patents? On its investor relations site, HTC says that some of its products have "passed review" and have been delivered to telecoms in the U.S. However, HTC could not give specifics as to which devices are getting through. The Inside Sprint Now Blog says the HTC EVO 4G LTE is making its way to Sprint and will be delivered by May 24th.

• Looks like those reports were true because Yahoo will sell 50% of its stake in Alibaba for the sum of $7.1 billion. The two companies have also agreed that the remainder of Yahoo's interest in Alibaba will be sold off in later stages. The LA Times reports that the deal is structured to make it more attractive for Alibaba to IPO by 2015.

• Fat Lady Finally Sings: Yahoo and Alibaba Officially Shake on $7 Billion Stock Sale Deal (Updated)

• Sorry, Joel Tenenbaum, the U.S. Supreme Court will not review your case. Tenenbaum is subject to a $675,000 fine for sharing files after losing a case to the RIAA. Tenenbaum appealed the jury award as unconstitutionally punitive, but the Supreme Court decided not to review the case. That means Tenenbaum will have to retry the cases in lower courts.

Randomizer

• Clothbot robot grips and climbs the wrinkles on your clothes
• St. Paul Pioneer Press coverage of the robotics event where the Clothbot was exhibited

Calendar

• Motorola Droid RAZR and RAZR Maxx getting Android 4.0 in Q2, Bionic in Q3
• Linux kernel 3.4 is out: this update focuses on support for the latest processors and graphics cards, including AMD's Trinity and Radeon HD 7000-series, NVIDIA's Kepler stack, plus the graphical component inside Intel's Medfield mobile chip.
• SpaceX Dragon capsule scheduled for yet another launch attempt tomorrow at 3:44AM ET

INCOMING

Email

"Hey TNT Crew,

Just a quick note about the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace changes you mentioned on Friday. The reason why they’re forcing this is upgrade isn’t because of a security risk that would affect end users, it’s to enable Marketplace Encryption to prevent app piracy. The Windows Phone Marketplace doesn’t currently have encryption to prevent people from pirating apps (if you know what to do, you can download app packages without paying for them and sideload them illegally). Microsoft added support for Marketplace Encryption in 7.5 but left it disabled on their Marketplace servers until enough people upgraded their phones to 7.5. It appears that enough people have upgraded now and they’re flicking the switch, but this will break all 7.0 phones’ access to the Marketplace, which is why they’re warning people to upgrade now or lose access.

Andrew"

Sponsors

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Production Information

• Edited by: Jason
• Notes:

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