Tech News Today for December 8, 2016

Tech News for Thursday December 8, 2016

It’s official. LinkedIn is now a Microsoft entity, a mere two days after receiving EU regulatory approval for Microsoft’s biggest acquisition deal to date (it should be noted that LinkedIn is a sponsor on the TWiT network, including this show). Microsoft outlined some of its goals post-acquisition, including LinkedIn Notifications in Windows 10 Action Center, extending LinkedIn’s sponsored content across Microsoft properties, and synergies between resume building within Microsoft Word and job applications within LinkedIn. Read more at zdnet.com.

Sources at Bloomberg say Samsung's Galaxy S8 will have a bezel-less all screen design and no home button. The phone will probably release in March or April of next year after Samsung's signature extravagent announcement at Mobile World Congress at the end of February. Bloomberg's sources also say that the release could be delayed due to additional testing in order to avoid the catostrophic disaster that was the Samsung Note 7. Read more at bloomberg.com.

Developers who are interested in creating bots that run on Google Assistant by way of Google Home can begin to build their own Conversation Actions now. These new skills won’t require a user to pre-install anything on their hardware to kick off the conversation. Users would simply ask for the skill by name, for example: “Talk to personal chef about homemade cannoli” and that would kick off the conversation. These conversational actions will eventually also roll out to Pixel and Allo users as the platform progresses. Read more at theverge.com.

Automation replacing jobs is a common refrain on this show and as we move from an industrial age to an information age, the future of work for all of us is uncertain. We've talked about universal basic income on this show, that's the proposed plan to ensure that every member of society is guaranteed an income regardless of their employment status. Now according to Quartz, a group of technologists, investors, and activists have vowed to spend ten million dollars over the next two years to come up with ideas of how Universal Basic Income might work. Read more at qz.com.

Magic Leap, the fantastical and super secretive mixed reality startup that earlier this year raised another $800 million dollars from investors without any sort of publicly viewable product, has, according to former employees, been misleading in its portrayal of what the technology can do. Earlier this year, the company released the video called “Just Another Day in the Office at Magic Leap” showcasing the technology, but in actuality, sources say it was created by special effects companies including those responsible for the films Mad Max: Fury Road and The Hobbit. Read more at theinformation.com.

Tech News Today with Megan Morrone and Jason Howell streams live at 4PM Pacific, 7PM Eastern at twit.tv/live. You can subscribe to the show and download it on-demand at twit.tv/tnt.