Tech News Today for April 17, 2017
Tech News for Monday April 17, 2017
Over the weekend a man posted a minute long video of himself murdering Robert Godwin Sr, who appeared to have no relation to the murderer. The video was not posted on Facebook Live, as some have reported, but just posted to Facebook where it remained for hours before being taken down. They disabled the suspect's account within 23 minutes of receiving the first report, but that did not come in for some time. In a statement to journalists, a representative from Facebook says the company is working hard to keep a safe environment on Facebook, but they know they need to do better. Read more at techcrunch.com.
The Daily Dot also reports that there are several unauthorized GoFundMe campaigns launching in the name of the Facebook victim. Be wary before you donate. Read more at dailydot.com.
Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) struck an agreement with Google in an antitrust case from 2015 where Russian search engine Yandex charged Google with violating competition rules in how Android devices pre-loaded its Play Store app and services on legitimate Android devices sold in the country. The ruling imposes a fine of $7.8 million that Google must pay, nine percent of Google’s Russian revenue from 2014 plus inflation. Possibly more damaging, however, are new rules that will require Google to loosen its exclusive placement of apps on Android devices, including allowing users to select a competing search engine during setup. Read more at techcrunch.com.
Tesla just slashed prices on its Model S. The 75 killowat hour version will get a price cut of $7,500, which means it will start at $69,500. Which is still $1,500 more than the price of the previous entry-level Model S Tesla, that is now discontinued. The company will stop selling the 60 killowat hour version as stock has run out. The Model X also got a little discount so it now starts at $82,500. We still don't know the official price of the Model 3 that will come out in July, but the company says it will start around $35,000. Read more at engadget.com.
You may have a roach hotel living underneath your TV and you never even knew it. Apparently, the Sony PS4 is attractive to those cute little troublemakers. Kotaku says that the PS4’s roach problem is well known to independent console repair shops, causing some places to charge an extra $25 roach fee for dealing with them. The PS4 ventilation grates are wide enough that roaches can slide in easily, and once inside, there’s enough enclosed space and warmth provided by the electronics to faciliate some award winning roach nesting action. Read more at kotaku.com.
A report in today's New York Times says the city of New York wants to force Uber to put an option to tip inside its app. Currently you can tip your Uber driver with cash, but this is not advertised. Other ride hailing apps like Lyft, let you tip within the app and now the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission has put forth a proposal requiring car services that only take credit cards to allow riders to tip in the app. The local regulator says they're responding to a petition presented in February by a non-union group that represents Uber drivers and other professional drivers in New York. Read more at nytimes.com.
Megan Morrone and Jason Howell are joined today by Katie Benner of the New York Times to discuss what the hotel industry is doing about threat posted by AirBnB. Tech News Today streams live weekdays at 4PM Pacific, 7PM Eastern at twit.tv/live. You can subscribe to the show and get it on-demand at twit.tv/tnt.