Friday 15 December 2017

The Morning After: Net neutrality gets the ax

Engadget Email Newsletter

It's Friday, December 15, 2017.

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

This Friday morning, we deal with how the FCC has repealed net neutrality and the repercussions of that. Disney is planning to buy a huge part of Fox, which would include the rights for the first Star Wars movies, X-Men, The Simpsons and countless others.

It’s done… or is it?

The FCC has repealed net neutrality

Now that Ajit Pai has pushed through an FCC vote (along party lines, three to two) to undo Title II net neutrality protections, what’s next? We can explain, but first up is a series of court battles, including lawsuits filed by a number of states to keep Title II in place.

Including rights for Marvel and ‘Star Wars’ that it didn’t already have.

Disney buys large chunks of Fox for $52 million

The Disney conglomerate adds Fox’s movie and TV studios (including big-name franchises like X-Men, Avatar, Alien and The Simpsons), majority control of Hulu, FX cable networks and $13.7 billion in debt. Now the big question is if this deal will pass muster with government regulators.

Let’s define ‘professionals.’

The iMac Pro is fast, but who is it for?

Today marks the release of the iMac Pro, Apple’s first all-in-one desktop aimed at professionals. The question isn’t how it looks (like the regular iMac, but in Space Gray) or how it runs (fast), but who it’s for. It would be tempting to just say ‘creative professionals’ -- the term we tech writers always fall back on when describing Apple users -- but that doesn’t suffice here. We got to see how Apple’s most powerful PC ever handles under heavy use -- it’s not all designers.

More like an asset.

Bitcoin is failing as a currency

In the past 12 months, the value of bitcoin has risen from a low of $777.91 up to a high of $17,178. The currency has always been volatile, but for a while its ceiling was around the thousand-dollar mark. This new surge was largely due to the investment community -- and is ensuring that bitcoin will probably never work as a currency per se. It may function as something else, however. Something closer to gold.

It’s all about the Joy-Cons.

Nintendo is really excited about the Switch’s detachable gamepads

Who needs cloud saves when you have easy local multiplayer?

But wait, there's more...

1. The best movies and music to give as gifts

2. Watch Blue Origin's test dummy experience space tourism

3. Ataribox delays pre-orders due to development problems

4. ISS astronauts won't miss out on 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi'

5. We talk to the creative forces behind the Nintendo Switch

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Thursday 14 December 2017

Editor's Pick: FCC Votes 3-2 to Upend Net Neutrality

FCC Votes 3-2 to Upend Net Neutrality

David Jones Dec 14, 2017 1:50 PM PT
	The FCC on Thursday voted 3-2 to repeal Obama-era Net neutrality rules that prevented ISPs from blocking, throttling or otherwise giving preferential treatment to customers. Backers of the repeal characterized it as promoting greater technological innovation and freedom to conduct business. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai spearheaded the reversal of the Title II Net neutrality regulations. [More...]

More Picks:

Google Reveals What Searchers Wanted in 2017
The iPhone 8 and iPhone X ranked No. 2 and No. 3 respectively in overall searches on Google this year, and No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in the consumer tech search category on the Google Trends Year in Search 2017 list released Tuesday. Bitcoin ranked No. 2 in global news searches, and "how to buy bitcoin" ranked No. 3 among how-to searches on Google in 2017. [More...]

Creeping Decentralization and CRM
One of the big stories of next year might be decentralization. Decentralization is what it sounds like: pushing centralized processes and decision-making to the periphery, where it is believed people can be more effective at dealing with whatever is on tap. Western democratic capitalism runs circles around Soviet style centralized command-and-control economics. [More...]

New Open Source Tools Test for VPN Leaks
ExpressVPN on Tuesday launched a suite of open source tools that let users test for vulnerabilities that can compromise privacy and security in virtual private networks. Released under an open source MIT License, they are the first-ever public tools to allow automated testing for leaks on VPNs, the company said. The tools are written primarily in Python, and available for download on Github. [More...]

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Tech News Flash

Tech News Flash: Thursday -- December 14, 2017

TechNewsWorld -- All Tech - All The Time
http://www.TechNewsWorld.com
Part of the ECT News Network

Headline Scan
Google Reveals What Searchers Wanted in 2017
Creatives Not Likely to Blanch at iMac Pro's $5K Price
New Open Source Tools Test for VPN Leaks
Oops... Some HP Laptops Shipped With Hidden Keylogger
If You're Ready for Arch, ArchMerge Eases the Way
The Tech Wars of 2018
Qualcomm Unveils Powerful New Snapdragon SoC
Google and Amazon Square Off, Ignoring Customers in the Middle

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Today's Story Highlights

Google Reveals What Searchers Wanted in 2017

The iPhone 8 and iPhone X ranked No. 2 and No. 3 respectively in overall
searches on Google this year, and No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in the
consumer tech search category on the Google Trends Year in Search 2017
list released Tuesday. Bitcoin ranked No. 2 in global news searches, and
"how to buy bitcoin" ranked No. 3 among how-to searches on Google in
2017.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85006.html

Creatives Not Likely to Blanch at iMac Pro's $5K Price

Apple will release a professional version of its all-in-one iMac desktop
computer with a $5,000 price tag on Thursday. Up to now, all-in-one
computers in general and iMacs in particular have been seen as stylish
offerings for home and family, but Apple has changed that in a big way
with the iMac Pro. Apple has given the Pro workstation-class graphics,
processors, storage, memory and I/O -- all without increasing the size
of the iMac.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85001.html

New Open Source Tools Test for VPN Leaks

ExpressVPN on Tuesday launched a suite of open source tools that let
users test for vulnerabilities that can compromise privacy and security
in virtual private networks. Released under an open source MIT License,
they are the first-ever public tools to allow automated testing for
leaks on VPNs, the company said. The tools are written primarily in
Python, and available for download on Github.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85005.html

Oops... Some HP Laptops Shipped With Hidden Keylogger

Some HP laptops users came with a preinstalled program to capture the
keystrokes of users, a security researcher recently discovered. The
researcher, Michael Myng aka "ZwClose," discovered the keylogger
software while trying to solve a keyboard problem for a friend. The
software is turned off by default. After Myng contacted HP about the
program, it quickly released a patch to get rid of it.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85002.html

If You're Ready for Arch, ArchMerge Eases the Way

Newcomer ArchMerge Linux offers a big change for the better to those
switching from the Debian Linux lineage to the Arch Linux
infrastructure. ArchMerge Linux is a recent spinoff of ArchLabs Linux,
which is a step up from most Arch Linux offerings in terms of
installation and usability. Arch Linux distros are notorious for their
challenging installation and software management processes.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/84986.html

The Tech Wars of 2018

We are coming up to the end of the year, and it's a good time to look
forward. Stepping outside of politics and the obvious war between the
Democrats, Republicans and common sense, there is the war between Amazon
and Google, which likely will redefine the growth of digital assistants.
There's also the war between Intel and Qualcomm in the personal
computing arena.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/84995.html

Qualcomm Unveils Powerful New Snapdragon SoC

Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform, an SoC built
for immersive multimedia experiences including extended reality, on-
device AI and high-speed connectivity. The SoC will power next-
generation Android flagship smartphones and Windows 10 notebooks based
on ARM architecture. Xiaomi reportedly will use it in its forthcoming Mi
7 flagship, to be released next year.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/84996.html

Google and Amazon Square Off, Ignoring Customers in the Middle

A long-simmering dispute between Google and Amazon has escalated into a
front-burner feud, following Google's decision to block its YouTube
video service from Amazon's Echo Show, effective immediately, and from
its Fire TV, effective Jan. 1. Google apparently decided to cut off
YouTube as retaliation for Amazon's refusal to carry its products,
including Chromecast and Google Home, on its website.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/84992.html

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