Mozilla, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Intel and others form 'Alliance for Open Media'
Both open and closed projects have their place; there are arguments for each as to which is better. For standards, however, open is preferable. By preventing licencing fees and legal patent battles, the technology can continuously evolve without interruption.
Today, Mozilla announces a partnership with Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Intel, Cisco and Netflix to form the Alliance for Open Media. This partnership will create a royalty-free standard for playing media on the web which will be released under Apache 2.0 license.
Sling TV comes to Amazon Fire tablets
Sling TV has become the un-subscription model, bringing you TV over an internet connection and eliminating contracts. You'll need a box -- both Roku 3 and Amazon Fire TV will work just fine and put video on the big screen just like cable or satellite. The company motto is "take back TV", and it does so. You can get channels ranging from ESPN to HBO to Food Network.
But what about on the go? Well, you can use your phone, but now the screen gets a bit bigger. Sling is announcing the debut of its service on Amazon Fire tablets.
Twitter's diversity goals are completely meaningless nonsense
Workforce diversity is something that every company wants to be seen to be getting right. At the moment -- particularly in the world of technology -- they're failing spectacularly. As in so many walks of life, it's a world dominated by white, middleclass men, and it's a problem that gets worse the further up the hierarchy you look. Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft. They all have one thing in common: a desire to be seen as the most welcoming, ethnically and sexually diverse, forward-thinking companies out there.
It's great PR, and now Twitter is trying to step up its game. News of a commitment to making the Twitter workforce more diverse sounds great, but sounding great isn’t the same as being great. I've mentioned that talk of diversity is good public relations, and that's exactly what we see here -- spiel, empty gestures, misguided proposals, and embarrassingly ham-fisted approaches. Now Twitter is taking things a step further.
Amazon Echo learns new tricks as Alexa can now control music speakers and sprinklers
Since Amazon released the Echo last year (November 6, 2014 if you ask it when it was born), the device has been learning some new tricks. It can control multiple home automation devices, though setup can be mind numbing to accomplish.
Now Amazon is adding two more devices. The retail giant is announcing the addition of support for both HiFi company Musaic and sprinkler system Rachio.
Amazon Underground offers a way to get over $10,000 worth of Android apps and games entirely free
Why pay for something when you can get it for free? Provided free, really is free of course (so many "free" things these days come with hidden costs). If you’re an Android user you’ll want to sit up and pay attention to a new app from Amazon which provides a way to get your hands on all of the apps and games that are actually available for free throughout the Amazon Appstore.
Better still, while the apps and games offered might include in-app purchases in other stores, in Amazon Underground, everything is entirely free. Find an app you like and you'll pay nothing for it, ever.
YouTube Gaming is ready to give Twitch some competition
Anything computer-related can be made social and shareable, and gaming is no different. Amazon's game live streaming service Twitch has proved immensely popular and now Google is ready to put up some competition with YouTube Gaming.
Starting tomorrow (26 August), head over to YouTube Gaming and you can start a stream of your own or watch other gamers play. Of course there will also be an app, and Google is aiming to create "the biggest community of gamers on the web".
Amazon brings new tricks to Echo, rebrands app name
If you haven't yet tried out Amazon Echo then you're in for an... ah... experience. It works quite well most of the time. Response speed is amazing. It can become temperamental when you branch out into other aspects like home automation, although to be fair I think that's the fault of the hub more so than Echo.
You'll also need to get past the fact that Amazon is listening to what you say, not to mention that you look a bit like a crazy person talking to an imaginary friend.
Amazon UK ends Trade-In program that no one seemed to know about
Amazon has announced that it is ending its Trade-In program in the UK. What's that? You didn’t know about it? You're not alone, and this could well be part of the reason for the closure; it was hardly a well-advertised operation.
As you'd guess from the name, the Trade-In program gave people the option to exchange games, consoles, accessories, and books they no longer wanted for Amazon gift cards. Very little notice has been given as the program is set to close on 31 August 2015. If you are one of the people who has been making use of Amazon Trade-In, you need to act quickly so you don’t miss out on your earnings.
Does diversity in tech actually matter?
Diversity has become something of a buzzword in tech, and it's one that companies are only too keen to bandy about at every opportunity. The likes of Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon are eager to demonstrate how diverse a workforce they have built up -- but the fact of the matter is that they have all failed abysmally.
This much we know. We've seen that Facebook's workface is far from diverse, Amazon is about as white and male as it gets, and that Apple wants people to believe it's doing everything it can to foster greater diversity. Its latest report shows that the number of female, black, and Hispanic employees has increased but Tim Cook wants to do more. But the big question is: does diversity matter?
Using Amazon Echo to control your lights with Wink and GE Link
Home automation has become the wave of the future, for better or worse. Not everyone trusts it, but many others embrace it. However it seems to be here to stay now, with websites and podcasts dedicated to it, as well as an ever growing number of products hitting the market, including some rather odd ones.
However most people jump into this endeavor with lights. They seem to be the drug that gets people hooked. And now you can incorporate Amazon Echo into this, as it is quite capable of controlling a growing number of such products.
The usual suspects top Forbes' Richest People in Tech list
Forbes today unveiled its inaugural 100 Richest People in Tech list. Comprising 100 billionaires, the top of the chart is dominated by all of the names you would expect to see -- Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Page take the top five slots.
It's not just the names that are familiar. The US is the dominant country in the chart, with more than half of the list filled by American billionaires. The image of California as being the center of the world of technology is borne out by the fact that 49 of the top 100 hail from the western state. So, yes, Bill Gates tops the charts with $79.6 billion, but where are the other big names?
Why can't Amazon Echo handle this seemingly basic feature?
Since receiving Amazon Echo, Alexa, the name Amazon gives these devices, and I have grown to know one another. We mostly get along, but occasionally argue. It (she?) has learned my habits, but began playing the news the other night while I was watching TV, rather annoyingly. I'm looking forward to testing its home automation features with Nest thermostat and GE Link bulb in the near future. Hopefully Alexa won't decide I no longer need heat or lights!
But what can't Echo do? That's an open-ended question with many answers, depending on what the user wants. However, I'm only asking for one small thing, at least for now.
Improve your reading experience with the new Kindle Paperwhite [Review]
I'm late to the game, switching from a standard Kindle to a Paperwhite. Honestly, there's nothing not to like about the low-end Kindle -- it's priced right and provides a fine reading experience. But just about everything can be improved upon with a bit effort and ingenuity.
That's exactly what Amazon has done. I can't speak for the first generation Paperwhite, I never used it. But the switch from standard to second generation is a world of difference. It's noticeable right away.
Google offers lots of free cloud storage to take on Amazon Web Services
The launch of Cloud Storage Nearline brings Google firmly into the battle against Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and all the other cloud platforms currently available, but, unlike search, Google is way behind the competition.
To gain some early customers, Google is offering an enormous 100 petabytes (100 million gigabytes) of storage for free. To a single customer, that is enough to last a lifetime, but for a medium sized business it may last a few months.
Windows 10 USB flash drives now available to pre-order on Amazon
Microsoft is set to launch Windows 10 on July 29, and if you’re running Windows 7, or later, you can already reserve your free upgrade through the Get Windows 10 app in the system tray. If you don’t have a valid Windows 7 or 8.x license (you’re running XP, for example), or you want to install Windows 10 on a new system, you’ll need to buy a copy of the OS.
The good news is Windows 10 Home and Pro are now available to pre-order on USB flash drives direct from Amazon.
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