Tech News Today for December 12, 2016
Tech News for Monday December 12, 2016
There are a lot of Netgear routers out there and if you happen to own one, listen up. A researcher publicly disclosed information about a vulnerability on a number of Netgear routers that could result in the router being taken over in ways that allow them to spy on traffic and launch other attacks. The vulnerability was reportedly disclosed to Netgear back in August, but after the researcher, codenamed Acew0rm, heard nothing in return, that information was later taken public. Read more at PCWorld.com.
Bill Gates and other billionaires just launched a 1 billion dollar investment fund to back high tech clean energy innovation. Breakthrough Energy Ventures is a 20-year fund backed by big names in tech including Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Benioff and Jack Ma from Alibaba. The announcement comes at a time when President elect Donald Trump has just filled his cabinet with several opponents of clean energy. Read more at qz.com.
Bluetooth 5, the sequel to Bluetooth 4: Electric Boogaloo, launched today and once the standard begins to hit devices sometime in the next six to twelve months, users will begin to experience some big improvements over the previous standard. Bluetooth 5 devices will hit 2 times the speeds and up to four times the distance of what Bluetooth devices can currently achieve. Read more at theverge.com.
Instagram is rolling out live video on its app over the next few weeks. The feature, which was announced last month, will let you tap a button and stream video straight from your phone like Periscope or Facebook Live. You can also scan the app to watch live streams, but once a stream is no longer live, you can't replay it. That's one way to prevent huge streaming mistakes, especially from all of the teenagers who might be on Instagram. But even so, if you have a child on Instagram, this might be a perfect time to sit down and discuss the dangers of live streaming. Read more at theverge.com.
Microsoft says its new Surface lineup is selling like gangbusters with record sales through the month of November. The company says that consumers were generally dissappointed with Apple’s new lineup of MacBook Pro’s, and as such, Microsoft is seeing more switchers from Apple hardware than its ever seen before. That’s further helped by its MacBook trade in program which the company says was its best ever. Read more at venturebeat.com.
Megan Morrone and Jason Howell are joined today by Nate Cardozo from The Electronic Frontier Foundation to talk about a new lawsuit that claims Uber employees had access to location information they shouldn't have. Tech News Today streams live at 4PM Pacific, 7PM Eastern at twit.tv/live. Subscribe to the show and get it on-demand at twit.tv/tnt.