Tech News Weekly (Video)

Mobile World Congress in Barcelona has begun. As expected, there were no flagship phones from Samsung. Instead, we talk about the new blackberry, with a physical keyboard and the Nokia 3310 that lets you play Snake.

Game streaming service TWITCH will let viewers buy games straight from the stream. Streamers will get 5 percent of the profits of the sale of the game starting in the Spring of 2017.

Other news coming out of Barcelona this week is that Masayoshi Son, an executive at Softbank says computers will exceed human intelligence in 30 years. Also, super smart robots will outnumber humans AND more than a trillion objects will be connected to the Internet. Unclear if this speech was meant only to frighten us or to promote the fact that Softbank's semiconductor subsidiary ARM says it will be equipped to produce the trillions of chips needed to power our internet of everything.

Scott Johnson from The Frogpants Network joins me to talk about all the rest of the tech news you need to know including Kara Swisher's scoop about Uber's Travis Kalanick who asked his Senior VP or Engineering to step down. And two people are going to pay SpaceX to send them to the moon in an autonomous space ship. We also talk to Ashley Esqueda from CNET about the future of virtual reality as a social experience.

Host: Megan Morrone

Guests: Scott Johnson and Ashley Esqueda

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Google's Waymo is suing Uber's Otto for stealing 14,000 of its confidential secrets. Google says it has forensic evidence proving that Anthony Levandowski downloaded the cache of files mere weeks before his resignation that preceded his co-founding of Otto.

Web performance and security company Cloudflare has fixed a bug from September 2016 that leaked private user information, including encryption keys, private messages, and credentials. The security flaw, affectionately known as Codebleed, was caused by a coding error that was discovered by Google researcher Tavis Ormandy on February 17.

The FCC has plans to wipe out customer protections implemented last year by then-chairman Tom Wheeler that required ISPs to get customer consent before sharing their private information and browser history with third party advertisers.

We attempt to untangle the web of messaging on Android, and give you a preview of what to expect at Mobile World Congress this weekend. Plus, Sam Machkovech is here to talk about his hands-on with the Nintendo Switch, and we do not mourn the loss of Google Spaces.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Sam Machkovech

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Apple, Google, and IBM have all criticized President Trump's policy on transgender student rights. Apple told ReCode, "We support efforts toward greater acceptance, not less, and we strongly believe that transgender students should be treated as equals." Trump overruled previous Federal guidelines that allowed transgender students to use the restroom corresponding to their gender identity.

SHA-1, a cryptographic hash function first introduced ten years ago, saw its first collision meaning two different documents produced the same cryptographic hash signature. Google has been pushing for SHA-1 to be deprecated citing its insecurities in light of more modern encryption algorithms.

Last year, police in Bentonville, Arkansas acquired a warrant to access the information contained within an Amazon Echo in a 2015 murder case. Today Amazon is balking at the warrant, claiming that it violates the first amendment.

Qualcomm is updating its VR headset reference design, leaked photos of the new Huawei sport watch to be announced at Mobile World Congress, and AI that will help clean up toxic comments sections. Plus, we talk to Leah Fessler from Quartz about her tests of how AI helpers respond to abuse.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Leah Fessler

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Verizon announced its plans to offer a limited pilot of its next generation 5G wireless service to 11 US markets sometime by mid-year. The test will be deployed as a home internet solution as opposed to a mobile solution, at least initially.

Apple says the Apple Park will house 12,000 employees who will move in as construction of the building and the surrounding area continues into the summer.

Waze Rider, Waze's ride sharing service, is expected to expand from its limited pilot to several cities throughout the US. Waze Rider offers competitive rates when compared to traditional ride sharing services like Uber.

We talk about the SpaceX do over, Tesla's profits, and exoplanets, plus we continue to explore ways you can avoid handing over your facebook password at the border in the not-too-distant dystopian future.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

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Verizon will pay approximately $4.48 billion in cash for Yahoo's internet assets. That's $350 million dollars off for a company that's suffered two major privacy breaches, the first impacting at least 500 million accounts in 2014 and a second in 2013 that accessed over a billion accounts.

UPS began testing its own drone in Tampa Bay Florida. The launchpad was the roof of one of the company's brown delivery trucks, with the driver effectively mounting and activating the drone's autonomous navigation with a tablet. That freed up the driver to deliver a package while another package flew itself through the air.

Today the Center for Democracy & Technology published a public letter expressing their position against the proposed Social Media Password Requirement by the Department of Homeland Security. Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, also sent a letter to the secretary of DHS, asking about the problem and demanding accountability.

We'll tell you how to buy Snap Spectacles online, why you should NOT believe the story of Mark Zuckerberg making a newspaper man eat his sports page, and why AOL is not and was not ever cool. Plus, professional photographer Trey Ratcliff explains why Apple might be dead to him.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Trey Ratcliff

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a comprehensive 5,800-word letter detailing how Facebook can help facilitate a global community that is informed, supportive, engaged and inclusive in an ever-changing and polarized world. He also writes about battling a trend of misinformation on the network and beyond.

Sources to Reuters say that SoftBank, Sprint's parent company, might pursue a sale of Sprint to T-Mobile's parent company Deutsche Telekom. Softbank's dissappointment with Sprint's lack of growth in the US is given as the impetus for the sale. Negotiations would likely begin in April.

German regulators say the My Friend Cayla doll is an espionage device and as such, sales have been banned in the country. The doll takes voice questions from children and transmits that data via WiFi to a server that sends the answer back, raising privacy concerns. It's also been shown to be easily hack-able.

We discuss how connected cars are increasingly hack-able, how YouTube is getting rid of the 30 second unskippable ad, and guest co-host David Spark tells us all about his time at the RSA Security Conference all week.

Host: Jason Howell

Guest: David Spark

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The Seoul Central District Court in South Korea issued an arrest warrant for Jay Y Lee, acting head of Samsung, alleging bribery, perjury, and embezzlement. The court is seeking his arrest as a way to prevent the destruction of evidence or fleeing the country.

Twitter has begun rolling out a temporary throttle for accounts seen as abusive. If Twitter detects that the content of your Tweet has violated their rules, they will send you a notification that says your account features have been temporarily limited.

Google Home users can now purchase everyday items from companies like Costco, Whole Foods, Bed Bath & Beyond, and more thanks to new support for Google Express. Users must enter payment info into the Home app to get started.

We talk about Snap's lowered IPO valuations, advancements in Google's plan to spread internet through the world with balloons, and the results of Monopoly's online poll to oust one of their beloved game pieces.

Rhett Allain from Wired also explains the physics behind wireless charging.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Rhett Allain

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The Wall Street Journal says that phone calls might be coming to the Amazon Echo and Google Home as early as this year, provided they are able to overcome regulatory hurdles and privacy concerns.

Sources tell Bloomberg and Recode that Verizon is near completion of a renegotiated deal that could cut anywhere from $250 million to $350 million dollars off of Yahoo's $4.8 billion price. Once the deal is finalized, Verizon and Altaba Inc (the renamed Yahoo) will share liabilities for future breaches.

A new headset by eSight is helping the legally blind to see. It is equipped with a high speed, high-def camera, two sensors, two OLED screens, and a controller that helps people with severely low vision adjust what they're seeing. The device has FDA Type 1 clearance and costs $10,000.

We also talk about HTC's bumpy road, Amazon's Prime subscriber numbers, and we chat with Sami Main from Adweek about PewDiePie's controversial string of YouTube videos, and the risks brands take when they saddle up with influential personalities.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Sami Main

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Apple has released the trailer for Planet of the Apps, its foray into original exclusive content for Apple Music and Apple TV. It's basically Shark Tank but for app developers, and will premiere sometime this Spring.

Open Whisper Systems, the non-profit behind Signal, announced a beta version that adds encrypted video calls and a promise of better call quality. You can activate the new features in the "advanced" settings menu.

Facebook announced its soon-to-release standalone app for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung Smart TVs. The app will bring videos from friends and liked pages onto the TV, as well as recommended videos based on your viewing history.

We also discuss Microsoft's call for a digital Geneva Convention, EHang's upcoming drone taxi service in Dubai, and we talk with Ian Sherr from CNET about love... in the digital age.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Ian Sherr

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Google launched Lists for Maps that allows users to make organized lists of places and share them with friends.

Facebook is reportedly negotiating with record labels to secure the rights to copyrighted music so its users can legitimately use that music in their own uploaded videos.

According to Bloomberg, Google's compensation system for engineers developing its self-driving cars multiplied salaries and bonuses based on meeting milestones that ultimately led to its best staffers being so highly compensated, they could comfortably leave for other opportunities.

After a history of resistance to music streaming services, all of Prince's Warner Brother's music library is now widely available on Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora.

Rumors about the new iPhone are pointing to the inclusion of Qi wireless charging technology. Apple has also reportedly struck a deal with Samsung to bring its curved OLED displays to the new phone when it launches.

Jason Howell goes hands-on with the new LG Watch Sport, one of two new smartwatches released with the latest version of Android Wear 2.0.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

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