Tech News 2Night 172 (Transcript)

[Top TN2 Animation ] Tonight! Smile, the FBI's new face recognition system is ready to go, the U.S. Government's demand for user data is growing, and it's official- Microsoft buys Minecraft for billions. Tech News 2Night is Next! [TWiT Open] [Main TN2 Open] This is Tech News 2Night Episode #172, for MONDAY SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 This episode of Tech News 2Night is brought to you by NatureBox. NatureBox ships great-tasting, healthy snacks right to your door. Forget the vending machine, and start snacking smarter with healthy, delicious treats like Cinnamon Swirl Kettle Kernels! To get your free NatureBox sampler go to naturebox.com/twit. That’s free NatureBox snacks at naturebox.com/twit. I'm Sarah Lane, Let's get right to the Tech Feed! After over 3 years in development, the FBI has announced that its Next Generation Identification system (or NGI) is now fully operational. The bureau will be rolling out new features for ongoing criminal notifications, as well as a facial recognition feature called the Interstate Photo System, or IPS, which will serve as "an image-searching capability of photographs associated with criminal identities," according to the FBI's press release. The system is expected to collect as many as 52 million faces in total. though some in the industry have called out the IPS as ineffective, for mixing traditional mug shot photos with non-criminal faces pulled from employment records and background check databases. For a given face, NGI returns a list of 50 candidates, and only promises an 85 percent chance that the suspect will be on the list. All that said, law enforcement groups across the US will begin working with the system soon. / Today Google published its tenth transparency report covering government requests for user data, and guess what? The government's been busy! According to the company, worldwide data requests not related to FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) and NSL (National Security Letters), there has been a 15% increase in requests compared to the same time last year. And snce 2009, the increase in requests has grown 150%. Google notes that US-specific requests have grown 19% since last year and 250% since 2009. Google believes the USA Freedom Act which is currently awating a vote in Congress, will help curb the mass collection of data, because would prevent the bulk collection of user metadata and allow Google to be more transparent about requests for user information. / The Federal Communications Commission has just released an updated count of how many comments it's received on net neutrality..... and it's a LOT. The public has filed 3 million comments on the matter, says the FCC, which is more than double the last official count of 1.48 million. This is also an FCC comment record, upsetting the previous champion Janet Jackson for her infamous Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction some years back. The FCC is closing the net neutrality docket and will stop accepting further comments later tonight. So hurry if you still want to be heard, you have very little time left. / People want bigger iPhones - Apple announced today that early orders for the new 4.7 inch iPhone 6 and the 5.5 inch iPhone 6 Plus — topped four million in the first 24 hours that they became available for order online over the weekend, which is double the number of early orders that came in for the iPhone 5 when it first went on sale online two years ago. The new phones arrive in stores on Friday. Apple's financial earnings lean heavily on sales of the iPhone, which accounts for about 70 percent of Apple’s profit. / Microsoft confirmed today that its rumored Windows event will take place on September 30th, in San Francisco. The event is expected to include a release of the technical preview of Windows 9, codenamed Threshold, and the successor the Windows 8.x OS that was released in 2012, along with the Surface line of tablets. Microsoft isn't expected to release a preview of its updated version of Windows RT that may include Windows Phone components until early 2015. Coming up, what do 200-thousand iPhone 6's look like when stuffed in the cargo hold of a 747? and next I'll talk with Josh Ong from The Next Web about what might happen to Minecraft now that Microsoft bought it? [AD] Drop the candy bar, drop the potato chips – they’re not good for you! Do what I do – get natural, delicious snacks at naturebox.com I’m going to give you the chance to get free snacks with a sampler box featuring five of their most popular snacks. NatureBox has hundreds of delicious snacks. I don’t feel guilty about eating them, because they’re better for me. They’ve got zero artificial ingredients, zero trans fats and zero high fructose corn syrup. You’ll even find snacks that are low in sugar and gluten free. So in the afternoon when you’re hungry, do what I do - grab Peanut Butter Nom Nom’s from NatureBox. Or Baked Sweet Potato Fries. Or Blueberry Almond Bites. So good and so good for you! [[Offer/ Call to Action]] Start your free trial and get a free sampler box at naturebox.com/twit. Stay full. Stay strong. Start snacking smarter. Go to naturebox.com/twit. And we thank Nature Box for their support of Tech News 2Night [Segment #2] Josh Ong U.S. Editor, The Next Web Microsoft buys Minecraft for $2.5 billion - Minecraft is one of the most popular games of all time. It makes money ($360 million in reveune last year). Part of the fan intrigue is community. Is this a risky move for MS? - Minecraft users create things in the game. Will this change? - Creator Markus ""Notch"" Persson quits. The other two co-founders are leaving too. - Do we know if MS will support Minecraft on other platforms? - Xbox head Phil Spencer released a statement about the acquisition. Any hints about the future of the game? ##Josh Ong U.S. Editor, The Next Web" [Kicker!] Were you one of those first 4 million iPhone buyers who got through online to pre-order? If so, there's a decent chance your new iPhone is in the photo above, where it just flew across the Pacific Ocean from China to the US. The images come from Mac Rumors forum user "goforblacksky" who recently landed in Anchorage with his 747 full of iPhones. 200 thousand of them. The cargo weighed in about 256,000 pounds, putting him just under the max landing weight of 643,000 pounds. And according to his estimations, about 20 to 30 of these airplanes are coming out of China daily stuffed with iPHones. [good bye] That's it for this edition of Tech News 2Night. Subscribe to this show at Twit.tv/tn2, and write us at tn2@twit.tv Don't miss our morning news program, Tech News Today, tomorrow and every weekday at 10am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern. I'm Sarah Lane, thanks for watching.