DTNS 2475 – Are you Nokia or Yeskia?

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comEric Franklin is on the show to react to news Nokia might make new phones and talk about the upcoming Heroes of the Storm release. Will this make MOBA a household word?

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Show Notes

Today’s guests:  Eric Franklin from CNET

Headlines: 

Two sources briefed on Nokia’s plans told ReCode that the company’s Technologies division plans to market Nokia cell phones next year. The division also has some virtual reality products in the works. Nokia Technologies is the research and patent holding division and will likely license designs to a company whoo will manufacture, distribute and sell phones under the Nokia brand. Under an agreement that transferred Nokia’s handset business to Microsoft, Nokia can’t sell phones under the Nokia brand until the end of 2015 and can’t license the brand until Q3 2016.

TechCrunch notes that the next big update for Android wear is officially on the way. Among the new features are wrist flicking gestures. Flick away to view the next card or notification and flick towards you to go back. Emoji drawing lets you draw an emoji you want to use. And new interface flow that simplifies menu access when you swipe. Finally wi-fi support. That means your watch can connect to your phone over the Internet to get notifications even when you’re phone is not with you. You just need to connect your watch to WiFi. The LG Watch Urbane will be the first device to get the update with others following over the coming weeks.

TechCrunch reports the $299 OnePlus One phone is now available to anyone who wants it. Previously buyers had to get an invite or get lucky in a flash sale of some kind. However the followup phone OnePlus 2 will arrive this autumn and will only be available by invite at launch.

CNET reports that Twitter users can now choose to allow direct messages from all other users whether you are following them or not. The system also allows users to reply to any DMs they receive, without having to follow back to reply. On smartphones with iOS or Android, users will also see a direct message button on profiles that they can message. [[The Twitter blog post on which the change was announced used the example of being able to privately message a neighborhood ice cream store about your love of their salted caramel ice cream.]]

Engadget pulled an important tidbit out of a Bloomberg article in which sources claim that Elon Musk almost sold Telsa to Google in early 2013, when Tesla had to close its factory due to low sales. The deal would have kept Musk in charge of Tesla for eight years. Musk and Google’s Larry page even shook hands on it, but the whole thing fell apart because Tesla started to make make money thanks to Model S orders. Neither Google nor Tesla would comment on the Bloomberg story.

TechCrunch reports Facebook’s Internet.org program launched in Indonesia Monday. The program allows users to access certain sites without incurring data charges. The practice, known as zero-rating has been criticized in India for violating net neutrality principles.

 

News From You:

JohnEllsworth3 alerted us to this news item from the Verge. During AMD’s earings call last week, CEO Lisa Su said ” “With the Windows 10 launch at the end of July, we are watching sort of the impact of that on the back-to-school season, and expect that it might have a bit of a delay to the normal back-to-school season inventory build-up.” SPOILER! Microsoft has said it will launch Windows 10 this summer in 190 countries and 111 languages but hasn’t provided a firm date.

Flyingspatula posted the Gizmodo article on Mobilegeddon. The dramatic name for a tweak to Google’s search algorithm regarding mobile sites tomorrow. The tweak only affects searches on mobile phones, not even tablets, and gives sites with a mobile-friendly design a boost in search rankings. You can tell which sites are deemed mobile-friendly by looking for the gray “mobile-friendly; moniker by their name in search results on a phone or by using Google’s test tool in its developers section.

KAPT_Kipper sent us this update from ZDNet that TWiT will reboot the classic TechTV Show “The Screen Savers” under the name “The New Screen Savers.” The show was announced during the 10 year celebration of TWiT and will feature many of the original members of the show as guest co-hosts on the show including; Kate Botello, Patrick Norton, John C. Dvorak, Morgan Webb, Martin Sargent and Kevin Rose.

Doorsrio sent us a Gizmodo report that Norway will be the first country to turn off FM radio in 2017, as the country completes its transition to DIgital Audio Broadcasting or DAB. Norway has 22 channels on DAB compared to just five in the FM spectrum, and according a a TNS Gallup poll 56% of Norweigan listeners use digital radio every day. US a 2012 Pew study showed that 90% of the US still listens to AM/FM radio weekly, even as more are switching over to Internet-only services.

 

Discussion Section Links:  

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/blizzard-s-moba-heroes-of-the-storm-gets-a-release/1100-6426757/

 

Pick of the day:

Jeff recommends ninite.com writing, “it gives a quick way to install popular OSS and freeware. They automatically remove annoying toolbars and bloatware usually included with the standard installs. I’ve been using it for years and whole heartedly recommend it for people who do a lot of PC building.”

 

Messages:

Anthony from Edinburgh writes:

In Friday’s (mostly illuminating) discussion of https, I thought there were a few misses.

The cpu/dollar impact of https is typically not significant. See e.g. https://developers.google.com/web/shows/cds/2013/got-ssl where Gmail found it cost 1% cpu, 2% network. However, using https for previously carefully optimized streaming of large video files is a special case with significant cost – according to e.g. http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/04/it-wasnt-easy-but-netflix-will-soon-use-https-to-secure-video-streams/ Netflix did a whole bunch of work and it still hurt them.

You didn’t mention the impact to latency. The initial ssl handshake does do extra roundtrips, so time to render the page can take a hit. See e.g. http://serverfault.com/a/570409
Using https does not hide which websites you are visiting. It only hides which particular resource within the website is accessed (and, of course, the content of that resource.)

“Interactivity” is a red herring. Sure there’s some correlation between interactivity and e.g. authenticated activity, but conflating the two is misleading.

Up to you whether any of the above are worthy of “426 Upgrade Required” status. :-)

Rich from Lovely Cleveland:

The best argument I have for using HTTPS everywhere: most work network firewalls pretty much will let you right through if you’re using HTTPS. Not that I EVER use my work computer for personal reasons.

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Monday’s guests:  Patrick Beja