Peter Wells joins us from Australia, and therefore the future, to talk about how Netflix became the second most popular streaming service in Australia without ever launching there.
Problems with the phablet? Apple Insider passes along info from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo’s note that says Apple’s 4.7-inch iPhone is still expected to debut in the autumn, but a larger 5.5-inch iPhone will not come until later. Kuo says Apple is working out the kinks in the device’s in-cell touch panel, as well as color unevenness on the next iPhone’s metal casing. Kuo also expects that Apple will debut a new Apple TV set-top box this fall with motion controls and potentially support for a third-party App Store.
Ashley Esqueda is on the show today. We’ll talk about Amazon’s plea to let them test their shipping drones. I guess they were serious! Len Peralta is also along to illustrate the show.
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella published an email memo to his employees on the company website today, laying out his vision for all to see. The 3100 word manifesto claims Microsoft is no longer so much about devices and services as it is about productivity and platform. Nadella used the word productivity 20 times in the memo. One notable exception to the productivity push was the Xbox. Nadella said Microsoft would “continue to innovate and grow our fan base with Xbox.” He also showed his literary bent quoting Nietzsche and Rilke.
TechCrunch reports Amazon is launching a secure enterprise storage service called Zocalo in limited preview today. Amazon says the service lets users “store, share, and gather feedback on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, webpages, images, PDFs, or text files – from the device of their choice.” Pricing is $5 per user per month, which includes 200 GB of storage for each user. Amazon Workspaces customers get Zocalo for free but at 50 GB a user. 200GB per user costs an extra $2 a month for those customers.
LinkedIn may be retiring its Contacts app, but TechCrunch reports they’ve launched a new replacement called LinkedIn Connected. More than just a contacts manager, the new app will try to alert you to information about your contacts that you need to know, such as profile updates, job changes, birthdays and more. The new app will only be available in English speaking countries and on iOS for now, though Android is on the way.
TechCrunch reports on a new app for Google Glass called MindRDR. It works in conjunction with the Neurosky EGG biosensor, to read brainwaves. The app translates the brainwaves into a meter you see in glass. Focus hard enough to lift the meter and a picture is taken. Focus harder and the picture is Tweeted. It’s a small start— TO MIND CONTROL! Neurosky retails for £71 in the UK.
MANY of you, including normgregory and KAPT_Kipper on the subreddit pointed out the Aereo letter to U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan which argues since the US Supreme Court ruled Aereo has an “overhwelming likeness to the cable comanies” Aereo should get to benefit from their legal protections. Specifically Aereo would like to be allowed to pay the compulsory license fee set up for cable companies in Section 111 of the Copyright Act of 1976. Broadcasters told the court they found this request “astonishing,” but they really have nothing to worry about. The 1992 Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act provides the broadcasters the right to demand Retransmission consent which they can charge for. Most likely they could just charge Aereo more than it could afford and be done with them. However the broadcasters don’t want a precedent set that a cable company operating over the Internet is the same as one operating over traditional cables.
KAPT_Kipper submitted the GeekWire report on Microsoft Bing’s preternatural ability to predict the World Cup Soccer results. Bing has predicted every one of the 14 knockout round matches correctly. It only got 60% of the group matches right. Bing uses data like team records, strength of schedule, margin of victory in past matches, home field advantage, weather and playing surface among others. It predicts Germany will beat Argentina in the final.
fja sent in the BBC story that emergency legislation will be brought in next week in the UK to force phone and Internet companies to log records of customer calls, texts and internet use. A recent ruling of the European Court of Justice has removed the obligation on telecoms companies to retain records of when and who their customers have called, texted and emailed. The three major parties in the UK all agree that the data needs to be retained to aid law enforcement. The emergency legislation will not extend previous rights and will create a Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board as well require transparency reports.
Now I’ve recommended Waze to you before, but yesterday Jennie was driving down from Connecticut to New York City at 10:30pm at night and ran into terrible stand still traffic. Her Apple map program had nothing to say about this, so she opened up Waze, a community-based traffic and navigation app. Jennie discovered that due to construction, I-95 was down to ONE LANE. She says there was something very comforting about knowing that ten Waze-rs were ahead of her in the jam, showing her exactly where the crunch began and ended. Armed with their knowledge, Jennie was able to exit I-95 and drive the streets of Stamford, CT for a mile and a half, then get back on the highway post-construction and cruise on home to New York City. So thanks Waze!
Michael Wolf is on the show to talk about how retailers hope to grab your loyalty for the Internet of Things. Is this going to be the worst format war yet?
Shannon Morse is on the show to discuss whether the Internet of Things can be saved from chaos by open source platforms, hardware and standards. We need to have some standards people!
Julio Ojeda-Zapata is on the show today. We’ll talk about ways you can replace Aereo with your own DIY solutions, plus Oculus Dev conference, TSA’s war on dead electronics and more!
Scott Johnson is on the show to chat about Google’s acquisition of Songza and what this means for how we listen to music. Also get a preview of Nerdtacular!
Justin Robert Young is racing from the airport, so his part will be played by Veronica Belmont and eventually we’ll all talk about Yahoo picking up Community and what this means for the future of television.
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guest: Veronica Belmont & maybe, just maybe JuRY
Headlines
GigaOM reports Samsung announced the Galaxy S5 Mini Tuesday. The smaller version of the S5 has a 4.5-inch AMOLED screen that’s 720p capable, 1.4GHz quad-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM and a microSD card slot. Those specs are a touch below the bigger S5 but the mini also comes with the waterproofing, heart rate monitor, fingerprint scanner and Galaxy Gear compatibility just like the big version. It goes on sale in 4 colors starting in Russia in July and will expand to global markets afterwards.
Peter Wells joins us from Australia, and therefore the future, to talk about how Netflix became the second most popular streaming service in Australia without ever launching there.
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