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Tech News Today for November 9, 2016

Tech News for Wednesday November 9, 2016

You may or may not feel let down by last night's election, but one thing that we can agree on is that the data geeks let us down. Whether your candidate was predicted to win or not, the predicted candidate did not win and a lot of people are asking why. Not least of which is the people putting faith in the start-up Votecastr. VoteCastr's mission was to gather, publish, and analyze voter-turnout information in swing states to provide early predictions to the race. The problem was that even though they had so-called data gurus who had worked on both the George W. Bush and the Obama campaigns, it got almost all of their predictions wrong. Read more at technologyreview.com.

Tech stocks took a hit with post-election results, but one seemed to emerge ahead and that was Twitter, which saw a 4% per share jump today. But for the past many months, Twitter has been reshaping its staff as it tries to curb criticisms and make itself attractive to potential acquisitions. Chief Operating Officer Adam Bain is leaving the company which could be the biggest transition yet, to be replaced by CFO Anthony Noto, operating in both roles temporarily until an official replacement is found. Bain worked for six years managing partnerships and essentially helping to craft Twitter’s ad efforts from nothing, and at one point was considered to be a possible candidate as CEO of the company. Noto, who will replace Bain, has been an important figure in the NFL partnership deal and Twitter’s broader designs on live streaming video. Read more at nytimes.com.

You know what's a great day after the election day read? The Android Compatibility Definition Papers for Android Nougat. According to TechCruch, the document outlines some strong feelings about fast charging by third parties. Google would like OEMs to support USB-C and nothing else for a more "Unified Experience." Read more at techcrunch.com.

Microsoft released a new test version of Windows 10 to Windows Insiders that brings something new to the OS: a virtual trackpad. It will sit tucked away in the taskbar and once tapped, the virtual trackpad will appear including two buttons to act as left and right clicks. The trackpad is intended mostly for Windows 10 tablet users who aren’t using a hardware keyboard or trackpad. Read more at theverge.com.

Megan Morrone and Jason Howell will be joined today by John Gonzalez to talk about MyVR, a new type of Social VR environment. Tech News Today streams live weekdays at 4PM Pacific, 7PM Eastern at twit.tv/live. Subscribe to the show and get it on-demand at twit.tv/tnt.

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