DTNS 2147 – Google Buys a Nest

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comIyaz Akhtar joins to chat about products at CES you CAN actually buy, the rise of messaging apps and Google buying Nest Labs.

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Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreeddit

Show Notes

As I mentioned on the show today, next Thursday and Friday I’ll be shooting season 2 of Sword and Laser’s video show. So I need YOU to guest host.

Next Thursday and Friday will be special “News From You” shows. I’ll still pop in with a couple late-breaking headlines but I want to hear YOUR news reports. What’s the tech project you think isn’t getting
enough attention? What’s that point about wearables you think nobody else has mentioned? Let your voice be heard!

Here’s what you do
Record your bit as an audio file and email it to feedback@dailytechnewsshow.com and use the subject line NEWS FOR YOU or CALL (512) 593-2459 that’s (512) 59-DAILY. If we get it by 3 PM Eastern/11 AM Pacific Thursday morning, we’ll consider it for that day’s show. Same thing for Friday.

More show notes:

Google buys Nest for $3.2 billion: Always thought hip thermostat-maker Nest was Apple-like? Well think again. The Next Web reports Google just announced it has acquired Nest Labs for $3.2 billion. Nest will maintain a separate brand identity and Tony Fadell, who worked on the original iPod, will continue to lead the company.Fadell said Google will help Nest “change the world faster than we ever could if we continued to go it alone.” Google Ventures was an early investor in Nest.

Facebook purchases Branch:  According to CNET, Facebook has purchased Branch, a social topic discussion forum backed by Obvious Corp, the incubator owned by Twitter co-creators Evan Williams and Biz Stone. The news broke earliest on Jelly, the questions app launched by Biz Stone at CES. The Verge has sources that say Facebook paid around $15 million. Branch’s nine-person team will become Facebook Conversations, based in New York.

News From You:

Space X wins contract with Japanese satellite company: habichuelacondulce sent us a report from Bloomberg BusinessWeek that SpaceX has won a contract with Japan’s SKY Perfect JSAT Corp. to launch a telecommunications satellite in 2015. The satellite will replace an existing satellite, providing coverage to Asia, Russia, Oceania and the Pacific Islands.

Amazon most highly regarded brand in the US, according to YouGove Brand Index: spsheridan points us to a Business Insider story about the latest rankings from the YouGove Brand Index showing Amazon was the most highly regarded brand in the US last year, stealing the top spot from the Sandwhich-artists at Subway. Most tech companies took a dive not he chart after the Snwoden spying leaks implicated them. YouTube at 6 and Amazon’s Kindle at 10 were the only other tech brands int he top 10.

Virginia Court of Appeals orders Yelp to reveal names of negative reviewers:  WhoEver63 posted a BBC story about the Virginia Court of Appeals ordering Yelp to reveal the names of anonymous negative reviewers of Hadeed Carpet Cleaning. The judge said users have the right to express themselves anonymously, but added “If the reviewer was never a customer of the business, then the review is not an opinion; instead the review is based on a false statement.” The court believes Mr. Hadeed has provided sufficient reason to believe the reviewers were not customers. Yelp disagrees.

More links from the show: 

17 CES gadgets you can actually buy this year:

http://ces.cnet.com/2300-35294_1-10019396.html

Paris taxi drivers stage protest against Uber: 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/13/idUS327484426620140113

New Windows OS to ship April 2015:

http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/threshold-be-called-windows-9-ship-april-2015

WordPress founder moves into CEO role at parent company Automattic: 

http://recode.net/2014/01/13/matt-mullenweg-shifts-into-ceo-role-at-automattic/

Flurry Analytics released datashowing overall app use grew 115% year over year in 2013:

http://blog.flurry.com/bid/103601/Mobile-Use-Grows-115-in-2013-Propelled-by-Messaging-Apps

Dropbox outage Friday night caused by buggy OS upgrade: 

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/01/dropbox-messed-up-os-upgrade-caused-two-days-of-downtime/

EA makes a version of Sim City playable offline: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25715010

8 thoughts on “DTNS 2147 – Google Buys a Nest

  1. Tom,
    Great show with Iyaz, always good rhythm with the two of you. The music was a nice touch. Watching your pre beta shows is making me more aware of the cadence of two anchors which seams more conversational and engaging? Maybe an occasional special guest? Anyways the show is getting better with each release. Thanks for giving us a choice.

  2. I think one of the reasons that Google keeps Motorola and Nest as independent subsidiaries (for now) is that they are hardware companies, and Google doesn’t yet consider hardware to be part of its core competence. Maybe if Glass becomes a big success they’ll feel more comfortable in hardware.

  3. It was great to hear 2/3 of the old news show. I never realized how important the flow, familiarity, and personalities were to the whole experience until it was gone. You’re doing a great job with the new show, thanks!

  4. Awesome show!!! Thank you for continuing the great work. I know Iyaz is busy but please please if possible MORE of you two. I really appreciate and enjoy the rapport you two have, especially when you don’t agree on something 🙂 You two are a great news and entertainment team.

  5. Great to hear Iyaz and Tom again!

    I unsubscribed from TNT and added this as my daily podcast for tech news.

    One question, what time will it normally be available?
    TNT was usually available for download at around 4pm Eastern Time.

    Hope you can respond! 🙂

    Thanks and keep up the great work!

    Avi

  6. Iyaz probably won’t be able to do a tech podcast because of his job, but you should definitely consider him to be a guest every now and then, this show as superb.

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