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Tech News Today for April 4, 2017

Tech News for Tuesday April 4, 2017

Changes are afoot as it relates to US government access to the technology toted by foreigners as they enter the country. A number of measures are being considered as part of President Trump's promise of extreme vetting for visitors that would possibly include forced disclosure of phone contacts, as well as the passwords of their social media accounts. Read more at wsj.com.

At the same time, new legislation has been introduced to limit what law enforcement can do when an American is entering the country. The bill would ensure that border patrol agents couldn’t search phones belonging to US citizens without a warrant, or turn them away if they refuse to comply. Read more at buzzfeed.com.

In a really unusual move, Apple invited a handful of tech reporters down to its Cupertino headquarters to talk about the Mac. Apple's marketing chief Phill Schiller told reporters: “We are in the process of what we call ‘completely rethinking’ the Mac Pro." Schiller said that next year, Apple will finally release a successor to the current Mac Pro, which has been largely unchanged since its release in Decemnber 2013. The company is also working on a new stand alone display. These new devices will be built with modularity in mind, as well as quicker hardware updates, so hopefully Mac Pro owners won't be stranded without performance increases as has been the case the last few years. To hold over pro users -- like animators, archetects, graphic designers and anyone who needs a ton of power from their machines -- Apple will be releasing a more powerful version of the iMac this year. One thing Apple won't be doing for any of these new Macs are touch screens. Schiller said: “It’s not a big need of the Mac Pro customers that we’re trying to address.” Read more at techcrunch.com.

And you thought Pokemon Go was last year’s news. A federal judge is near a decision on whether the massively popular (if only for one magical summer) augmented reality game violated the law by sending players onto the private property of New Jersey, Florida and Michagan residents. Game mechanics placed virtual game elements on their property, bringing large crowds of gamers into the area. The rulings could set precedent for whether developers are on the hook for the behavior of its players. Read more at wsj.com.

Twitter is reportedly in talks with pay-TV broadcasters to expand it's ongoing live video push. The Telegraph reported Tuesday that Twitter is trying to complete deals with the likes of Sky, BT and ESPN so that those who already have subscriptions to those networks would be able to link their subscriptions with their Twitter account, and then watch those channels inside of Twitter's app. Twitter has signed live streaming deals with the NFL, Wimbledon and Cheddar in the past. Signing deals directly with networks could get Twitter access to programming it currently doesn't have the rights to, like European soccer games, which many Twitter users tweet about while watching on their TV sets. Read more at telegraph.co.uk.

Twitch, the gaming streaming site owned by Amazon, announced that it will be offering a way for viewers of game streams to click through to the shopping site to purchase the game they are watching. Around 50 games and add-ons will be offered for purchase during the streams of those games, with 5 percent of the sales generated on those channels going directly to the Twitch streamers who motivated the sale. Read more at engadget.com.

Megan Morrone is out today, so Nathan Olivarez-Giles will be hosting with Jason Howell. 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.

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