Why 2016 was a GOOD year- DTNS WEEKLY TECH UPDATE 12/29/2016
Added 2016-12-29 17:08:14 +0000 UTCHey all, thanks for reading! This is the weekly newsletter companion to Daily Tech News Show at http://dailytechnewsshow.com/
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This week I took a closer look at 2016 and realized we made some BIG jumps this year in technology. In fact in some ways 2016 could be seen as a transition year from one phase of tech to another.
But first! There was some news this past week and big thanks to Rich Stroffolino fro filling in on Daily Tech Headlines to bring it to you! Here's a recap of some of the week's top news.
NEWS
The Information reports that Bentonville, Arkansas police issued a warrant to Amazon to hand over data from an Echo device related to a murder case. It is unclear what audio information Amazon would have, while the Echo is always actively listening, it only transmits a small part of the audio before the wake word to Amazon. Amazon has declined to hand over the information, stating the warrant was "overbroad". https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/27/an-amazon-echo-may-be-the-key-to-solving-a-murder-case/
Twitter launched live streaming of 360-degree video on its Periscope platform yesterday. Anyone can watch the new video content in a browser or on the mobile app, but streaming will be limited to "select partners". No wider rollout plans were discussed. http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/28/14107026/periscope-360-degree-live-video-streaming-twitter
In a brief blog post, Cyanogen Inc., the company seeking to commercialize the open-source CyanogenMod OS, announced it was discontinuing all services and CyanogenMod-nightly builds by December 31st. Source code will remain available for personal builds. In a seperate post the head moderator for the CyanogenMod community announced the project would continue on in the forked project, LineageOS. https://www.cnet.com/news/cyanogen-to-shut-down-services-by-years-end/
The Korea Fair Trade Commission fined Qualcomm the equivalent of $854 million for unfair patent licensing and moden chip sales tactics. The commission ruled that Qualcomm forced manufacturers to pay royalties on an unneccesarily broad patent portfolio, and restricted competition by limiting licensing of modem chip patents. The commission further ruled that the company must negotiate in good faith with rival chip makers to license patents, and renegotiate chip supplies with handset OEMs. Qualcomm plans to appeal the decision. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-qualcomm-antitrust-idUSKBN14H062
For the first time, Consumer Reports will not give an Apple laptop a recommended rating. The consumer product testing organization said all three models of new MacBook Pro had highly inconsistent battery life. Recent software updates did not change the outcome of the tests. The tests involve surfing 10 webpages over and over in Safari with the screen on. Consumer Reports does not use benchmarking software. http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-macbook-pro-2016-consumer-reports-2016-12
Consumer Reports announced Tesla topped its annual owner satisfaction survey. 91% of Tesla owners surveyed would buy another Tesla in the future. Porsche and Audi took the number two and three spots. http://gas2.org/2016/12/23/tesla-tops-consumer-reports-owner-satisfaction-survey/
Six researchers from Apple's machine learning group published their first AI research paper. The paper named "Learning from Simulated and Unsupervised Images through Adversarial Training" describes methods of unsupervised machine learning to improve the quality of synthetic training images. Essentially, real world images used to train AI are relatively time intensive and costly. Synthetic images are quicker and customizable. The method Apple's paper describes is how to improve the quality of these simulated images, using two machines competing against each other for best results. https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/26/apple-leaps-into-ai-research-with-improved-simulated-unsupervised-learning/
The NFL entered into a strategic partnership with Chinese social network Sina Weibo to livestream three playoff football games and the Super Bowl this year. Sina Weibo is the largest social network in China. The agreement also allows the network to show on-demand clips and other footage. The NFL previously allowed the service to stream 6 regular season games this year, with an average of 1.5 million viewers per week. https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/28/nfl-to-stream-live-games-on-sina-weibo/ --- https://nflcommunications.com/Pages/National-Football-League-Becomes-First-Sports-League-to-Stream-Live-Games-in-China-on-Sina-Weibo.aspx
After 13 years in development, the open source video transcoding app Handbrake released it's 1.0 version. The new version comes with updated presets for transcoding new web and MKV video, as well as support for Intel's QuickSync Video encoder on Skylake or later CPUs. A new documentation beta was also released, which provides user friendly directions for using the software. https://fossbytes.com/handbrake-1-0-0-release-download-features/
On Friday, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets ruled that T-Mobile's zero-rated music streaming violated net neutrality regulations. T-Mobile will face fines of 50,000 euros a day if it continues to offer the service. T-Mobile Netherlands announced it plans to appeal the decision and will leave the zero-rating in place. https://www.wirelessweek.com/news/2016/12/dutch-regulators-halt-t-mobiles-data-free-music-service
Cuban state media reported that the country opened its first computer factory on December 23rd. The factory hopes to produce up to 120,000 tablets and laptops per year. Chinese tech conglomerate Haier will supply equipment, technology, and training as production ramps up. The factory is owned by the Cuban Informatics, Communications and Electronics Entity, and aims for these devices to be export commodities. http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/cuba-first-computer-factory/
CLOSER LOOK - 2016 Was A Big Step Forward in Tech
As 2016 comes to a close the meme is that it has been a horrible year and most will be glad to see it go for one reason or another.
But in technology, 2016 was a big step forward. The problem is the step happened so slowly it's sometimes easy to forget it happened. At the beginning of this year autonomous cars were an item people hoped would someday get out of the lab. At the end of the year they're offering rides to consumers in Singapore and Pittsburgh.
http://time.com/4492763/uber-self-driving-cars-pittsburgh/
At the beginning of the year quadcopter delivery of food and parcels was considered a vaporware publicity stunt by Amazon. At the end of 2016 we have UAV's delivering regular commercial products in Rwanda, mail in France and 7-11 items in Nevada.
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37646474
http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/12/drone-postie-france-approves-mail-deliveries/
Some things we knew were going to happen but it's interesting to reflect how we've moved from anticipation of "whether" to expectations of the next version.
Virtual Reality became a common marketplace reality and the conversation has shifted to getting versions without wires that have more capabilities than all those cheap mobile versions. Augmented Reality has taken over the place of speculation as to "whether" it will work and be a hit.
http://www.theverge.com/a/best-vr-headset-oculus-rift-samsung-gear-htc-vive-virtual-reality
Also in the US Internet-only television service has become a competitive marketplace not a test market for a few thousand adventurous souls.
https://www.cnet.com/news/directv-now-vs-sling-tv-vs-playstation-vue-channels-compared/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2016/12/23/vr-ar-very-real-2017/95719704/
No, not everything has made advances in consumer tech.
Wearables were the one major trend to see, if not a reversal, a stagnation as we went from hearing about the future of the smartwatch to hearing that fitness was the only killer app so far. Something we were saying before smartwatches hit the scene.
https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/05/idc-wearables/
And smart phones have gone from being a hot tech item to a staple of almost all people in developed countries and increasingly in developing countries as well. Motorola even released an ad mocking how little excitement we have about new smart phones these days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8bycmuU4To
But overall 2016 can be seen as a big year. A shift from tech news dominated by phones and tablets to VR, self-driving cars and drones.
Thank you for coming along for the ride this year and experiencing it all with us on DTNS. Here's to 2017 bringing us more surprises!
Cheers,
Tom
