In this show, Marcello Sukhdeo talks about Snapchat’s TV-like shows coming later in 2017, also cell phones have taken over landlines in the US and FBI director James Comey is calling for smartphone manufacturers to provide a way so they can our access data.

Snapchat

Snapchat is partnering with TV companies like NBC, ESPN, ABC, Turner, NFL, and others to create special shows for its millennial audience.

Snapchat is getting a boost of original content through the deals it has made with these TV companies to bring three- to five-minute minisodes in Snapchat’s Stories section.

The company is working with the TV producers to create interactive content to encourage audience engagement. This comes right after Twitter’s announcement that it would have 24/7 live video content —with the focus on news, sports, fashion, and celebrity events. But for Snapchat, it looks like it is going for more scripted or planned shows rather than live recorded events.

We know that video is the main means of consuming content today, actually it is estimated that this year video content will represent 74 per cent of all internet traffic. By 2019, according to Cisco, the global internet traffic from videos will make up 80 per cent of the entire traffic on the internet.

With these revealing statistics, it’s quite easy to see why this big push by companies to get more into video and Snapchat is one them that is sure to benefit from this.

Cell phones have taken over landlines in the US

According to a U.S. government study released on Thursday, 50.8 per cent of homes and apartments had only cellphone service in the latter half of 2016. This is the first time that cell phones are used in homes more than landlines.

Today, 45.9 per cent of households still have landline phones. The rest 3 per cent or so of homes have no phone service at all. About 39 per cent of U.S. households have both landline and cellphone service. 

Renters and younger adults are more likely to have just a cellphone according to the study because it is easier to relocate without the hassle of calling up the landline company and because the younger generation is more into the newer technologies. 

But there is something else to this group: "Wireless-only adults are more likely to drink heavily, more likely to smoke and be uninsured," "There certainly is something about giving up a landline that appeals to the same people who may engage in risky behavior."

The survey didn’t give the answers why this is so, but it obvious that this is a younger group that hasn’t encountered severe health issues yet so drinking and having fun are the things on the mind.

Comey wants smartphone manufacturers to create a backdoor

FBI director James Comey told a Senate oversight committee this week that the FBI has been unable to access almost half of the mobile devices it tried to examine in the first half of the fiscal year.

Comey said the FBI had been unable to access the contents of more than 3,000 mobile devices in the first half of the fiscal year, using what he described as “appropriate and available technical tools, even though there was the legal authority to do so.” He said that represented “nearly half” of all the mobile devices it had attempted to access in that time frame.

Comey made the statement in apparent support of the latest attempt at forcing phone manufacturers to provide backdoor access to the authorities.

“I could imagine a world that ends up with legislation saying that if you’re going to make devices in the U.S. you figure out how to comply with court orders. Or maybe we don’t go there. But we are having productive conversations right now I think.”

He appeared to be suggesting that manufacturers could somehow create a way in for law enforcement agencies without creating a backdoor.

Techbites 

Bitcoin cleared the $1,600 level for the first time on Thursday. The cryptocurrency has pulled back a bit and now trades at $1,585.71 a coin but It's higher for the 14th time in 15 days, gaining more than 35% over that time.

Google said it shut down an email spam campaign that impersonated its online file service, Google Docs. Earlier reports suggested the attack was a phishing scam potentially aimed at harvesting personal information and maybe even Google login credentials. But in a statement late Wednesday, Google said that while the campaign accessed and used contact information, no other data was apparently exposed.

And finally, Facebook is closing in on 2 billion users. In its first quarterly earnings report for 2017, the company reported that it has 1.94 billion monthly active users as of March 31st, which is a nearly 300 million increase from this time last year.