The magic of the Internet has been that anybody with the skills can make a service that looks and works just as well as a large company.

Are you a good writer? Your blog can compete with the New York Times because the platform is the same. Good at video? You can deliver it to a worldwide audience right alongside Hollywood. Talent and promotional acumen become more critical deciding factors than wealth.

What the FCC seems to be considering would change that. New entrants to a market would face a cost barrier. A Netflix or a YouTube will be fine, because they can’t be outright blocked under this proposal and they can afford to pay for the smooth access their product needs.

This is a solution designed to make sure big businesses get a fair break. Not you.

A new video company that wants to compete with Netflix? Now they need to gather even more venture capital. The cost of innovation gets higher, meaning fewer attempts at innovation, meaning a greater trend towards oligopoly and a resulting stagnation.

The FCC seems to be constructing their approach to look for immediate harm, which they will not find. You can’t prove that a company that never entered the market because it was too expensive was harmed. This is insidiously dangerous whether it is intentional or not.

This isn’t about “neutrality” or packet prioritization or even peering. Small innovators don’t start out big enough to need peering agreements like Netflix does. When they get that big, they can afford to negotiate them, like Netflix is.

However what seems to be on the table is allowing ISPs to charge for traffic coming to the individual consumer as well as charging that consumer to access it. That would be fine if customers could make a choice. If a competing ISP could market themselves as an open Internet provider where ALL sites perform well not just the big ones. Since we do not have ISP competition in the US, that won’t happen. ISPs can do what they want, with no market recourse for the consumer.

And that’s what gives the lie to Chairman Wheeler’s statement.

He writes, “The Notice does not change the underlying goals of transparency.” However transparency is almost useless when you have no choice of provider.

He also writes, “behavior harmful to consumers or competition by limiting the openness of the Internet will not be permitted.” That seems to be aimed at content providers, but wouldn’t it be great if that applied to ISPs? Except there is almost no competition on the ISP level, which hurts consumers and the FCC does nothing about that fundamental root problem.

This entire procedure of developing Open Internet Guidelines seems to be a practice in misdirection. Rather than treat the problem, lack of ISP choice, the commission, and the public are arguing over the symptoms.

If the Internet was a patient and the FCC its doctor, that doctor would seem to be saying, “We will not allow this nose to get unreasonably runny and we will let you know every symptom of the illness. But we won’t worry about trying to cure the disease. No lobbyist has paid for that.”

Rich DeMuro is on and we’ll talk about the gorgeous and extremely affordable One PlusOne and whether Rich has any invites for us since you have to be invited to purchase one. Also prior art for monkey math and why 3D printers will never print your spare parts.

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
Today’s guest: Rich DeMuro, technology reporter at KTLA News

Headlines

OnePlus unveiled the OnePlus One smartphone today with a 5.5-inch 1080p 401 ppi dislpay,a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801, 3 GB of RAM and a 3,100 mAh battery. A 13-megapixel Sony Exmor camera can shoot 4K video. The internaional version runs CyanagenMod’s 11S version of Android 4.4 the Chinese version will run Color OS. The 16GB version with a silk white backplate will run you $299 and the 64GB in sandstone black costs $349. Yep. those are unsubsidized prices. It supports LTE and will be available initially in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, the UK and the US. When? Who knows the first 100 come out April 25 as part of a competition and you have to get invited to buy one after that.

Reuters reports Facebook received antitrust approval for their acquisition of Oculus VR according to a list published by the US Federal Trade Commission Wednesday. Facebook announced the deal March 25th, planning to pay $2 billion for Oculus.

The New York Times reports IBM has opened up its Power microprocessors for third parties to modify and manufacture under the supervision of the OpenPower Foundation, incorporated by IBM in December. The foundation includes two dozen members including its founder, IBM as well as Google, Samsung, and Nvidia. IBM’s first sever computers based on the Power8 chip technology were announced Wednesday as well. IBM’s ARM-like approach is meant to battle against Intel which dominates the server chip market. 

Hot on the heels of launching MI.com, The Next Web reports Xiaomi revealed it will expand into 10 more countries this year tarting with Malaysia, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, followed by Russia, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico. The company also announced a new dual-band 2.4GHz/5GHz router called the Mi Router Mini for CNY129 ($21) and a full-sized router the Mi Router, which comes with a Terrabyre hard disk CNY699 ($112).

Recode reports US FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Wednesday that the agency would consider draft “Open Internet,” or net neutrality, rules at an agency meeting May 15. Wheeler is expected to propose the same guidelines as before but with different legal justification. A recent court case indicated the FCC had the right to regulate the Internet, just not with the justification it used for its last set of guidelines.

Facebook announced it’s Quarterly earnings with $2.00 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $0.34 Analysts expected $2.36 billion in revenue and $0.24 per share. It now has 1.28 billion total monthly users, 802 million daily users, and 609 million daily mobile users. with 59% of ad revenue coming from mobile. Also, David Ebersman — the CFO who took Facebook public is departing the company later this year.

Apple announced its quarterly earnings with $45.6 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $11.62. Analysts expected $43.6 billion in revenue and $10.16 per share. Apple also announced an increase in its share buyback and dividend as well as a 7-for-1 stock split.  iPhones: 43.7 million versus 37.7 million expected
iPads: 16.35 million versus 19.7 million units expected

News From You

spsheridan submitted the Recode story that Google is including a time machine feature in its street view imagery in the Web version of Google Maps. Users can move a slider in many street view images to see what the scene looked like in any other images taken by Google over the past eight years. Some of the most dramatic views come in Onagawa, Japan where the GPS-locked images show you how the ground shifted 3 degrees after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. 

KAPT_Kipper posted the Gizmodo story that Amazon has struck a deal to add some back-catalog shows from HBO to its Amazon Prime Instant Streaming service. Prime members will get access to every episode of The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Six Feet Under, Rome, Eastbown & Down, Enlightened, and Flight of the Conchords; and select seasons of Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, and Treme. Early seasons of Girls, The Newsroom, and Veep will be included as they pass the three-year mark from original airing.

Beatmaster80 pointed out Paul Thurott’s posting about Google offering to help Samung mount its defense against Apple. A deposition of Google attorney James Maccoun played for jurors in the Apple-Samsung patent case described email messages in which Google offered to help cover Samsung’s legal expenses and possible damages payments, and offered indemnity on some of the patent infringements. Samsung has said it did not seek help from Google and the deposition makes it clear Google approcahed Samsung.

Tahras pointed us to the Roku blog where the company announced that YouTube is now available in the Roku Channel store for all current-generation Roku devices in the US Canada, UK and Ireland. Current generation players refers to those introduced after July 2011

Discussion Section Links:  OnePlus One = Phone

http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/23/5642810/oneplus-one-smartphone-official

http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/23/oneplus-one-launch-ceo-pete-lau-interview/

http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2014/04/23/oneplus-unveils-one-powerhouse-android-smartphone-cyanogenmod-starting-299/
http://oneplus.net/

Pick of the Day:  PFsense 

My pick is PFsense , if you like DDWRT as a router firmware you will LOVE PFsense it is a opensource free router software that runs on old hardware AOK. Loaded FULL of enterprise level features and easy configuration. It is able to keep up with my 100 MB internet and high user demands with logging, multiple network segments, Guest network capture portal with vouchers, and so much more. It is overkill for any residential router but that’s how use geeks role!

Also +1 for Plex!

Harrison,  Flower Mound, TX USA

Meetup! If you live in the Los Angeles area, come by our meetup this Saturday! Jennie and I will be hanging out Saturday, April 26th, starting at 6pm, at the 326 Bar at The Original Farmers Market at 3rd at Fairfax. 6333 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90036 

Thursday’s guest:  Patrick Beja! And we all rejoice! 

Raj Deut joins us to toss around the Amazon tilt phone rumor and compare the US free TV system to Australia’s, in light of the Aereo case.

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Raj Deut, of The Reckoner

Headlines

Multiple trusted sources told Boy Genius Report that Amazon’s new phone will not only have a 3D interface but also use tilt controls. Tilting the phone will reveal menus, additional information like text labels of icons and even scroll text. Amazon has not confirmed any details but is expected to have an announcement within a few weeks. 

Engadget got a sneak peek at Lytro’s new camera, the Lytro Illum. Lytro’s cameras capture 40 megarays of light on a high-resolution sensor allowing users to change the focus of a photo after the fact as well as alter depth of field. Lytro images can only be processed by Lytro’s own software at this point, but can then be exported in familiar formats. The Illum will release in July and sell for $1,599, though pre-orders will save $100.

PC Mag reports LG just launched a teaser site showing off its upcoming G Watch. The square watch will come on Champagne gold with a white band or stealth black. Also known as yellow or black. The watch will run Google’s Android Wear OS with its standard set of features like the OK Google voice command activation and smart notifications. The watch will also be water and dust-resistant. The G is supposed to launch sometime before the end of June.

The Verge reports Google now lists the Nest thermostat for sale in the Google Play store alongside other Google devices, for the standard retail price of $250. However Google will plant a tree for every Nest ordered today in honor of Earth Day. Google acquired Nest in January.

The US Supreme Court heard arguments over the legality of the Aereo service that delivers over the air broadcasts of television to users. At the heart of the case is whether Aereo is delivering an unauthorized public performance, as the broadcasters believe, or a private performance from rented equipment, as Aereo argues. Justice Stephen Breyer expressed concern that a decision favoring broadcasters could impact cloud storage providers like Dropbox. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg questioned whether the thousands of antennas Aereo uses are necessary, or just a way to get around copyright law. Justices also brought up previous lower court rulings fiunding renting of cloud DVRs to be legal and questioned why Areeo wasn’t treated like a cable company since it seemed to act like one. Overall the case appears too close to call, but a narrow ruling on the copyright issue seems most likely, leaving more details to be fought out in lower courts.

Representatives of the US Department of Commerce are meeting with representatives of various nations at Net Mundial in Brazil this week to discuss a new governing framework for ICANN that removes the Commerce Department’s oversight. A multistakeholder approach, in which private enterprise, academia and government all have a say has been drafted into an “otcome document” for further discussion. 

The Next Web reports Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has launched a simplified domain name for its website at mi.com. Hugo Barra announced the new domain name on Twitter. Barra is in charge of Xiaomi’s marketing outside China. According to the Weibo page of Xiaomi’s co-founder Li Wanqiang, the page cost CNY3.6 million. Xiaomi launched outside China for the first time in February, selling phones in Singapore. 

News From You

metalfreak posted the announcement on Phoronix that OpenBSD developers have decided to fork OpenSSL in the wake of the Heartbleed vulnerability. LibreSSL will be the new project which aims to rewrite code and remove limited or deprecated code in an attempt to clean it up. For now LibreSSL is only supported on OpenBSD and plans to ship with OpenBSD 5.6

tekkyn00b found the Apple Insider article about a leaked slide from Intel outlining the next generation of Thunderbolt, code named “Apline Ridge.” Chinese Blog VR Zone discovered and published the slide. If the slide is correct, Bandwidth would double from 20 to 40 Gbps and power consumption would fall by 50%. Alpine Ridge would release in 2015 alongside a new CPU dubbed “Skylake.”

MikePKennedy pointed us to the Verge article about a research team led by Margaret Livingstone that taught three rhesus macaques to add. The monkeys learned symbols for the numbers 0 to 25 as well. The monkeys chose correct answers well above 50% of the time, but did not show their work. 

Discussion Section Links: Amazon’s smartphone, plus Aereo & The Supremes

http://bgr.com/2014/04/22/amazon-smartphone-specs-details-kindle-phone-exclusive/

http://www.cnet.com.au/what-is-hbbtv-339347112.htm
http://www.freeview.com.au/

Pick of the Day:  Scotusblog via Jennie answering a question from Kevin in Cypress, Texas

Our pick of the day is the answer to a question posed by Kevin in Cypress, Texas. “Since the Aereo case is being heard by the Supreme Court this week, I decided to search the app store for an app so I could listen to the audio feed of the hearing. I can’t seem to find one. Do you know if such a thing does exist? It would be a great choice for your pick of the day.

Sadly there are no live streams of Supreme Court oral arguments. However, audio recordings are released free on the Court’s Web site, www.supremecourt.gov, at the end of each argument week. But don’t despair! Jennie’s pick of the day is ScotusBlog, which is one of the best websites around for reporting and analysis of the highest court in the land. It is available as an iOS app, and they’re working on an Android version. ScotusBlog live blogs opinions as they are handed down, which is helpful when you’re having a hard time wading through the complex legal language that determines whether one guy is elected president or the other guy.

Wednesday’s guest:  Rich DeMuro, technology reporter at KTLA News

Hey there, I’ll be doing a meetup in Los Angeles this Saturday.

The Daily Tech News Show team (both of us) will be there, so if you can make it, we’d love to hang out!

Date: Saturday, April 26th,
Time: 6pm
Where: The 326 Bar at The Original Farmers Market at 3rd at Fairfax.
Address: 6333 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90036

See you there!