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DTNS 2340 – PC Healthy, Doesn’t Need Tablets

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comScott Johnson is on the show and we’ll talk about why the PC market is not as doomed like everybody says. It’s doomed in a different way.

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Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Scott Johnson, co-host of The Morning Stream, The Instance, Current Geek and more! Chief Frogpantser.

Headlines

Yesterday we had an Apple invitation, today we have the reemergence of people familiar with the matter. Gigaom passes along the news that The Wall Street Journal’s sources say Apple had wanted to supersize the iPad with a 12.9 inch display this December, but those plans have now been pushed back so Apple’s suppliers can cope with demand for the iPhone 6 Plus. So yes. The iPad Apple never announced is now said by anonymous people not to be happening because reasons.

PC Mag reports that Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said ads are coming. Speaking at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit, Spiegel said ads would show up in the Snapchat stories feature, between shared photos and videos. Spiegel said ads won’t be too disruptive to users, and at this point the ads would not be targeted. This would be Snapchat’s first source of revenue.

Yesterday Carl Icahn told Tim Cook on Twitter he was going to send an open letter he believed Tim would find interesting. Today Icahn’s letter says he believes Apple is undervalued and therefore should accelerate its stock buyback program. That would turn some of Apple’s cash into some of Carl Icahn’s cash. Interesting!

Ars Technica reports Microsoft wants to reassure you its serious about hardware so its safe to buy a Surface. A new package bundles a Surface Pro 3, docking station and Type Cover keyboard for a savings of $150. There’s also a 3-year warranty option that covers accidental damage and speeds up hardware replacement. Microsoft also announced Surface Pro 3 is now Energy Star compliant and it will provide more info on driver and firmware updates.

Reuters reports Google will ask the US Supreme Court to rule on whether APIs can be copyrighted. Oracle is suing Google for incorporating parts of 37 Java APIs in Android. It’s not a patent lawsuit. It’s a copyright one. A San Francisco federal judge familiar with coding ruled Oracle could not claim copyright protection of parts of Java. A US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington overturned the decision. The case is not only about direct copying. The main issue is whether Google is guilty of infringement for writing its own different code to carry out exactly the same function or specification of any methods used in the Java API.

Sony announced its Xperia Z3 smartphone will launch in the United State on Verizon Wireless in slightly updated form as the Xperia Z3v. The new version will still have a 5.2-inch display, a Snapdragon 801 processor, and the ability to stream PlayStation 4 games within your home. But it will have soft plastic sides, instead of rounded metal, and the battery will be larger and use Qi wireless charging. The phone will be available October 23rd for $199.99, and only in black and white. Verizon will also begin offering Sony’s SmartWatch 3 later this month.

What will we get if everybody has gigabit Internet? PC World reports Pew Research Center asked more than 1400 experts that question. The most common theme in the answers was that it would change basic human interactions. Online interactons would feel more real including vivid telepresence and holograms some of which will disrupt the education models we use now. Wearable health monitoring could become more widely accepted.

Skype today announced Skype 7 for OSX today and a preview version for Windows. The Next Web reports that the latest desktop version of the app resembles the mobile version with a stronger focus on text chat and improved inline photo support. This version will also make it easier to text and share images while on a video chat, and include icons for file sharing that display the file type.

The Verge reports that Lenovo announced the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, which is 17% thinner and 15% lighter than the Yoga 2 Pro. The 3 features a watchband hinge to improve ‘flipping’ and is powered by Intel’s Core M-70 processor,with up to 8GB of Ram and 256 GB of flash storage. Battery life is advertised at 9 hours. The Yoga 3 Pro will cost $1,349 at Lenovo’s online store and Best Buy and come in three colors, silver orange and gold. Lenovo ALSO announced the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro with a built-in projector, which lets you beam 16:9 high res images (including movies) directly to a wall or screen. It has a recommended retail price of $499.

News From You

tm204 pointed out Imgur announced Project GIFV. GIFs uploaded to Imgur will be converted on the fly to MP4 video format. The conversion reduces file size, improves quality but still looks and behaves like an animated GIF.For instance a 50 MB animated GIF becomes 3.4 MB after conversion. Imgur plans to submit an accompanying specification for GIFV to relevant standards organizations before the end of the year.

ancrod2 didn’t want us to miss that Belkin explained why its routers stopped working earlier this week. Belkin told Techrunch that a cloud service associated with router operations caused a false denial of service. It took Belkin about 15 hours to fix the issue. Belkin did not specify what service it was.

Discussion Links: PC Life!

https://gigaom.com/2014/10/09/pcs-are-making-a-comeback-in-europe-and-the-u-s-analysts-say/

http://www.electronista.com/articles/14/10/08/market.still.slumping.overall.but.name.brands.see.growth.in.third.quarter/

https://gigaom.com/2013/11/07/think-the-pc-market-is-generally-scary-these-days-wait-until-you-see-the-uks-figures/

https://gigaom.com/2014/07/07/despite-slowing-growth-tablet-sales-expected-to-overtake-pcs-next-year/

http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/10/08/surging-mac-sales-put-apple-among-top-five-global-pc-vendors-for-first-time-idc-says

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2869019

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS25187214

Pick of the Day:  Telegram Instant Messaging via Dean aka ​DRAiNO

Telegram is a very lightweight instant messenger app that not only supports copy and pasting images and uploading of documents, but it is very secure (since it uses the MTProto protocol) and it simply requires only a mobile phone number and a unique code given to you via SMS for each device you set it up on. What’s even more awesome is that it integrates with your contacts on mobile platforms.

It is available for almost every phone/tablet platform (iOS/Android/Windows) as well as a very stable (yet unofficial) desktop application.

 

Tomorrow’s guest: Lamarr Wilson

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