Tech News Today For October 7, 2016
Tech News Today For Friday October 7, 2016
With the walls crumbling down on Yahoo thanks to the disclosure of up to 500 million accounts being accessed by hackers along with Yahoo's alleged compliance with intelligence agencies that would involve real-time scanning of inbound email for its users, a common question has been whether Verizon's $4.8 billion bid for the company would be affected or not. The New York Post says that Verizon is getting cold feet, and is actively looking at either a reducing the price $1 billion or getting out entirely. Sources say that Yahoo is holding firm, saying a deal is a deal, and legal recourse might be out of the question due to the terms of the deal. Neither Verizon nor Yahoo would comment. Read more at venturebeat.com.
Later this month Microsoft will hold an event where they're scheduled to announce a new Surface. Writing on ZDNet, Mary Jo Foley says the fall hardware event on October 26th will also feature Windows 10 & gaming news as well as a Surface all-in-one device, with a Surface branded mouse and keyboard. The invitations featured a clear glass window with the words, "Imagine what you'll do" on the outside, which suggests Surface, but what kind of Surface? Read more at zdnet.com.
We haven't heard if Spotify is williong to pull the trigger on actually acquiring Soundcloud yet, but a key component of Soundcloud's unique offering is hitting Spotify and Apple Music beginning now. Both companies struck a deal with Dubset earlier this year, which means users of those services will begin to see short form remixes of tracks by other artists appearing in the music catalogues. The challenge, of course has always been identifying the tracks within a mix and paying those who would own the copyright for those tracks, as well as the artists who's tracks were remixed. Dubset actively scans these tracks to identify those master recordings, and has deals to pay everyone involved once identified. Long form DJ mixes is next, according to Dubset, but no official timing has been given for that. Read more at techcrunch.com.
BMW, Toyota, and insurance company Allianz formed a partnership to license the technology of big data startup Nauto. As the autonomous car race heats up, the companies' deal is not just a partnership and investment, but an agreement to share safety info through Nauto's platform. As this self-driving car space is moving faster than some people can say Tesla's Autopilot, it is important to remember that sharing safety data is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation's federal guidelines for self-driving cars. As AI begins to shape different parts of our lives, it becomes more and more important that big companies share their data. Nauto co-founder Stefan Heck told Recode it took a year of convincing to get BMW & Toyota to share theirs. Read more at recode.net.
After an official recall replaced potentially dangerous Note 7's with probably not dangerous Note 7's, that one "probably not dangerous" Note 7 burned to a crisp on a Southwest Airlines flight, resparking the debate on whether these devices are even safe at all. And now, Sprint, AT&T and Verizon are opening up exchanges to those who've received even a replacement Note 7, allowing customers to trade in for any other devices in their stores as the US Consumer Product Safety Commission has stepped in to perform another formal investigation into the safety of those newer models. Read more at engadget.com.
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