Tech News Weekly (Video)

Facebook has agreed to an audit by the Media Rating Council to verify the accuracy of its ad data after a number of measurement errors were revealed by the company last year. Facebook also detailed other improvements to ensure that advertisers feel confident that their ads are being seen by users.

WhatsApp is now supporting two-step verification to further improve the security of its service. The optional setting requires users to pick a PIN that will be required along with the account password anytime the user sets up a new device with the service.

Ford made a $1 billion investment in Argo AI, a relatively unknown AI company, that will help develop self-driving technology for Ford's vehicles. Argo AI will operate as a subsidiary to Ford, but will be run independently. That technology will also be licensed out to other automobile makers.

We discuss the future of augmented reality piano lessons and how Amazon's Tap is getting less tappy.

Plus, we speak to Stephen Shankland from CNET about WebVR technology as well as Sam Machkovech from Ars Technica about his thoughts on the new films John Wick 2 AND Lego Batman.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guests: Stephen Shankland and Sam Machkovech

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Early this morning Twitter announced fourth quarter and fiscal year 2016 results. User growth slowed, revenue slowed, and shares of the stock plummeted. This is normally the biggest quarter for advertising yet Twitter's ad revenue still sunk.

A new Cortana feature is coming to Windows 10 that will remind you that you've made a promise to someone in an email, when the time is right. The feature will initially support Outlook and Office 365 accounts, with support for more email services at a later date.

Microsoft has convinced a Federal Judge to allow the company to sue the Department of Justice to protect the privacy of its customers. Microsoft wants to take the DOJ to court to claim that gag orders are overbroad and in violation of the First Amendment.

Google is requiring developers to add or update their app's privacy policy in an effort to clean un-managed apps from the Google Play Store.

Taser International acquired a startup called Dextro that analyzes video to make it discoverable, searchable, and curatable. The artificial intelligence will be used to analyze and sort through Police body cam footage.

• Kurt Wagner from Recode shares his thoughts on Snap's IPO from last week, and how the company is beholden to Amazon and Google.
• Josh Constine from TechCrunch details Facebook's updated Safety Check feature that allows locals to offer direct support to those in crisis.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guests: Kurt Wagner and Josh Constine

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Pinterest launched a new beta feature of its app called Lens, that allows users to search by image across all of Pinterest. Users can also Shop the Look which uses image search to link to a product's store page if a user sees something that they want to buy.

Android Wear 2.0 is here, with Android Pay capabilities, standalone apps, and improvements to fitness tracking. LG is launching the updated OS on two new smartwatches in a partnership with Google. The LG Watch Style and LG Watch Sport go on sale this Friday.

Best Buy is trimming down its Oculus Rift demo stations from 500 stores to around 200, saying demand for demos of the Virtual Reality technology has slowed significantly since the holidays. Some workers say those pop-ups would go days without interest in a single demonstration.

• Alyssa Bereznak from The Ringer tells us everything we need to know about the singing Uber side-hustle.
• Rene Ritchie from iMore joins us to weigh in on Apple's new TV hire and how one day you won't have to watch Amazon Prime on your iPad like an animal.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guests: Rene Ritchie and Alyssa Bereznak

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Twitter just got serious about abuse and harassment. In a blog post the company says soon they'll filter out abusive tweets before you see them.

YouTube is rolling out mobile live video streaming functionality to creators with more than 10,000 subscribers, as well as support for Super Chat, a feature that allows fans to connect with and give back by paying creators for preferred placement in the chat window for up to five hours.

Motherboard says that the hacker responsible for taking down 20 percent of The Dark Web is a first timer. The vigilante took down the private web hosting service Freedom Hosting II and knocked at least ten thousand sites offline. They're allegedly filled with child pornography.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

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A US magistrate ruled that Google is required to hand over email data to the FBI that is stored on its servers abroad. A related appeals court ruling last month said that Microsoft was NOT required to share user data stored in Ireland, but the judge in this case broke from that precedent which has privacy advocates concerned.

In response to the Note 7 firey kerfuffle, The South Korean government says they will tighten battery regulations. The Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy will institute new certification measures to require safety of lithium-ion batteries based on new technology in the production process.

The FTC says that Vizio will pay $2.2 million dollar in a settlement agreement surrounding its collection of consumer viewing data involving 11 million of their TVs. That data was collected without consumer knowledge and Vizio is now required to obtain explicit consent for what data it collects and how it plans to share that data.

We'll also talk about the world's first data dress, and how they got those drones to follow orders at the Super Bowl.

-- Michael J. Coren from Quartz talks about immigration, the future of Silicon Valley, the HB-1 Visa policy, and the International Entrepreneurs Rule.

-- Bryan Clark, US Editor at The Next Web talks about NASA Engineer Mark Moore, Uber Elevate, VTOL, and the future of flying taxis. Do not call them flying cars.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guests: Bryan Clark and Michael Coren

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The Washington Post reports that federal regulators are telling nine companies that they can no longer participate in Lifeline, the program that provides low-cost Internet access to low-income Americans.

Google's primary launcher for Android for the past few years has been the Google Now Launcher. But then the Pixel phones came along with their own launcher to confuse things. And now, Google is telling Google Mobile Services partners that it's discontinuing the Google Now Launcher in the near future.

Re/Code says big data is creating more options for women in executive leadership roles. According to news coming out of the Global Women in Data conference, personal and financial performance metrics are helping women overcome bias. Data has the power to amplify the social impact of female leaders and help women keep their positions at the top.

A whole lot of people on the social web pledged to delete Uber as backlash to a number of decisions the ride-hailing company has made related to the Immigration ban and President Donald Trump himself. But how much of an impact did it actually have? We'll look into this and talk about how Facebook wants to market to the broken-hearted.

• Sam Machkovech from Ars Technica is here to talk about the biggest gaming news of the week.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Sam Machkovech

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Snap filed its S-1 paperwork with the SEC, kicking off its much anticipated pursuit to take the company public with a goal of a $3 billion IPO. The stock will trade on the New York Stock Exchange as SNAP.

Facebook unveiled Lumos, its new machine learning platform for training and deploying new ways to analyze photos including automatic insertion of alt text for people with visual impairments.

Amazon's Q4 earnings missed on revenue expectations, pulling in $43.7 billion compared to an expected $44.68 billion. Even its biggest money maker, Amazon Web Services, missed on revenue with $3.5 billion versus analyst estimates of $3.6 billion. Amazon stock fell nearly 4 percent in after hours trading.

Also, we cover the release of Cellebrite's hacking tool data to the public, the end of Firefox OS, and we chat with Rae Paoletta from Gizmodo about new studies on the health effects of space travel.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Rae Paoletta

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Google's Waymo self-driving cars are getting even smarter according to a new report showing that the rate of human driver takeovers in self driving mode has dropped 75 percent in the past year, even with a 50% increase in driven miles.

GoPro is selling its Karma drones again after a safety recall issued days after the drones went on sale in October. GoPro says that the revised drones won't unexpectedly fall from the sky like before, thanks to corrections in the latch mechanism that holds the battery in place.

In celebration of the first day of Black History Month, black employees at Twitter have launched Blackbirds, a direct messaging bot that shares knowledge and information about black history as well as opportunities for community engagement.

Snapchat is reportedly expanding on its "World Lenses" filters that overlay animations and objects on top of real world elements in interactive ways, which could be good for advertisers as the company nears its IPO announcement.

The Wall Street Journal says Facebook is developing an app for Apple TV to bring original, longer form video from publishers to TV sets.

• Kurt Wagner from Recode discusses Facebook's big earnings report, the growing success of Instagram, and the results of the Oculus Zenimax case.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Kurt Wagner

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Apple posted record sales of its iPhone for the 4th quarter of 2016 with 78.3 million sold, continuing its trend of increasing revenue year after year. CEO Tim Cook also said that its Apple Watch was breaking records, though no numbers were shared.

While everyone was deleting Uber, the ride-hailing service inked a deal with Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz. Over the next few years the German car maker will operate their own self-driving cars on Uber's ridesharing network.

Nintendo reported quarterly earnings of $569 million in profit, a major improvement over last quarter's $57.1 million loss. Nintendo credits Pokemon Sun and Moon for the 3DS for much of that movement with 14.69 million in sales.

Yesterday we told you that ransomware had locked a hotel full of guests out of their rooms. According to The Verge the computers were attacked, but hotel patrons were neither locked in nor out of their rooms. Hotel staff had some trouble programming new keys, but that was it.

The Nextbit Robin phone offered virtually unlimited storage thanks to smart cloud storage mechanics of low priority files. Now gaming company Razer announced that it bought Nextbit, and all 30 team members will now continue their work on Nextbit products as Razer employees.

• Adrienne Matei, editor of NUVO magazine, talks about chatbots to bring your dead friends and family back to life in a kind of augmented eternity.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Adrienne Matei

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Representatives from Google, Apple, Microsoft, HP, Tesla and others spoke up this weekend in opposition of Trump's Travel Ban.Sergey Brin from Google was also seen protesting at the San Francisco airport, while Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos also pledges legal action against Trump's travel ban.

Uber tweeted about how it would still service the JFK airport during an immigration protest, sparking many users to push back on social media. Users posted photos showing how they were deleting Uber from their phones while using the hashtag #DeleteUber.

The Washington Post says that Ransomware killed 70% of Washington DC closed circuit TV storage devices ahead of the inauguration. Cameras could not record between Jan. 12 and Jan. 15. The problem has been solved now and officials say the city did not pay the ransom, but instead removed software from each infected device and restarted the system.

Dropbox is focusing on the enterprise by bringing Paper, its collaborative document service, out of beta to a global audience. The revised app includes Smart Sync for enterprise users which gives direct access to cloud-stored files within the desktop environment automatically, on demand.

Fitbit says they'll cut 110 jobs after disappointing holiday sales. The company also warns of profit and revenue losses this quarter. FitBit a new smartwatch coming out at the end of this year, but it might not be enough to save the company.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-today.

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