Tech News 2Night 119 (Transcript)

[Top TN2 Animation ] Tonight! FilmOn picks up where Aereo left off, a former Amazon worker calls it a "prison", and the culture clash between car makers and Google over self-driving cars Tech News 2Night is Next! [TWiT Open] [Main TN2 Open] This is Tech News 2Night Episode #119, for MONDAY JUNE 30, 2014 I'm Sarah Lane, Let's get right to the Tech Feed! In the wake of last week’s Supreme Court ruling that barred streaming service, Aereo, from operating without a license, streaming tv and movie service FilmOn has reclassified itself as a cable company,. Today the company announced a new paid streaming package in 18 cities across the U.S., that allows viewers to watch broadcast channels like ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox on their computers or mobile devices. FilmOn's founder, Alki David, is responding to the Supreme Court's finding that services like FilmOn and Aereo are basically cable companies. Ideally, broadcasters will now treat FilmOn as a cable company by allowing it to use their signals in exchange for a fair royalty payment. In order to qualify as a cable company, FilmOn claims it must charge its subscribers, which is what the company has begun to do today. The technology is what FilmOn calls a “Teleporter," and it's a safe bet the broadcasters won't be thrilled. The Supreme Court has also announced that will not consider Google's challenge to a class-action lawsuit alleging the search giant violated federal wiretap law when its Street View cars collected data from private Wi-Fi networks.The lawsuit followed admissions by Google that its Street View cars also collected "payload" data that was being sent on unsecured Wi-Fi networks when the Google cars drove by. Such data can include emails, usernames and passwords sent over the Internet. Google acknowledged the data collection in 2010 and said it was an accident. The class action, filed on behalf of individuals whose information was collected, alleged Google violated the federal Wiretap Act, which bars the interception of electronic communications. / Ever feel like your smartphone is just not private enough? The Blackphone might appeal to you then - The product of SGP Technologies, a joint venture between the cryptographic service Silent Circle and the specialty mobile hardware manufacturer Geeksphone, it's the first consumer-grade smartphone to be built explicitly for privacy, and starts shipping to customers who preordered it this week. Blackphone's operating system is PrivatOS, which gives the user a higher degree of control over what apps running on the phone are allowed to access and what they can do. Pre-installed applications on the phone all focused on keeping conversations, searches, and app data private—as well as preventing Wi-Fi attacks and data harvesting when the phone is out in the wild. The services bundled in include a two-year subscription to Silent Circle’s voice, video, and text services, three one-year "Friend and Family" Silent Circle subscriptions that allow others to install the service on their existing smartphones; Two years of 1GB-per-month Disconnect virtual private network service, Disconnect’s anonymizing search, and Two years of SpiderOak cloud file storage and sharing, with a limit of five gigabytes a month. And for even more specs, Ars Technica has a great hands-on review. / A new documentary about Amazon called Amazon Rising, which premiered last night on cable network CNBC, explores worker conditions at Amazon warehouses and claims that Amazon steals business from its partners who sell goods on its marketplace. One former worker interviewed for the documentary said “I felt like Amazon was a prison,” and reported tough working conditions. CNBC also said it spoke to more than 100 independent businesses who sell their wares through Amazon’s online market. Two dozen of them claimed that Amazon attempted to ink separate deals with the merchant’s suppliers to purchase the same goods that the merchant sells and compete directly with them on Amazon.com. / Google Glass was introduced to the UK two weeks ago, and The Independent already is reporting that movie theaters will be banning them. Among the theaters that will ban Glass are The Vue cinema chain, which will ask guests to take off Glass when the lights dim, and Leicester Square cinema, which has already previously asked a Glass Explorer to remove his headset. In the US, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and The 5 Point Cafe in Seattle have also publicly banned Google Glass. Google has asked cinemas and restaurants to try Google Glass themselves before instituting any policies. While we're on the Google subject, the company will shut down its social networking service Orkut on September 30, 2014. People can export their profile data, community posts and photos using Google Takeout, which will be available until September 2016). Starting today, it will not be possible to create a new Orkut account. But that's not all - Google's also killing Quickoffice, its Microsoft Office–compatible productivity app for Android and iOS. The Google team says that "Existing users with the app can continue to use it, but no features will be added and new users will not be able to install the app." The copmany says it's integrated Quickoffice's Office document compatibility layer into its separate Docs, Sheets, and Slides apps. Coming up, the first ever social network that's all Emoji. But first... [Segment #2] Chris Davies Executive Editor, SlashGear Article-- ""Google “arrogant” self-driving car plans turn off automakers"" -The car makers come from big, legacy companies who do things relatively slowly compared to tech companies. It seemed there was a clash of cultures. Was this tech-arrogance or tech-envy? -Was Google going into this to get the car companies to basically make vehicles for them? An analogy would be the smartphone market where phone makers build phones for the Andriod OS. -Where does this leave us, the public who wants self-driving cars? Does this slow the process down? -Beyond the technological aspects the liability issue was a big problem. You mentioned in your article that the car makers were more worried about who would be sued if (when) a self-driving car is involved in an accident. //Thanks Chris Davies Executive Editor, SlashGear [Kicker!] Like expressing yourself via Emoji? Then you'll love Emojli, a social network launching soon that is completely emoji based, from usernames to status updates. The creators of Emojli, claim there won't be any spam on Emojli because there isn't an emoji for spam, unless you count the emoji for a pile of poop. Emojli will launch on iOS soon, and will make its way to other platforms later this year. To reserve your username, which can of course only be in emoji, head over to Emojli's launch page. And if you're looking for me there, I'm crown / smiling cat with heart eyes / crown. [good bye] That's it for this edition of Tech News 2Night. Subscribe to this show at Twit.tv/tn2, and write us at tn2@twit.tv Don't miss our morning news program, Tech News Today, tomorrow and every weekday at 10am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern. I'm Sarah Lane, thanks for watching.