Tech News 2Night 177 (Transcript)

[Top TN2 Animation ] Tonight! China is blocking more outside services including Google, Beats’ future with Apple is up in the air, and is HTC going to make the new Nexus tablet? Tech News 2Night is Next! [TWiT Open] [Main TN2 Open] This is Tech News 2Night Episode #177, for Monday September 22, 2014 Enhance your work flow- send files of almost any size easily and securely with Citrix ShareFile. Try ShareFile today! For a 30 Day Free Trial, go to ShareFile.com, click the microphone and enter TN2! I'm Sarah Lane, Let's get right to the Tech Feed! The Chinese government continues to tighten internal security at a cost to foreign companies, particularly Google. A chief technology officer of a start-up in China tells the New York Times under the condition of anonymity that just using Google Drive in China has become a challenge for employees to share files and documents. Google used to have a third of China’s market for Internet searches back in 2009. Today, it's down to 10.9% after Chinese censors began blocking more and more searches from reaching Google’s servers. The company shut down its servers in mainland China back in March 2010 to avoid online censorship, instead sending users to unfiltered results from its servers in Hong Kong. The Chinese government then began intermittently blocking the Hong Kong servers as well, a practice that continues today. Google's app store Google Play is also only partly accessible in China. All of this creates an impression with many Chinese users that Google doesn't have strong services. Because censors permit just a fraction of traffic to reach Google’s servers in Hong Kong, many Chinese users keep reloading their Google pages repeatedly in the hope of getting through. And unsurprisingly, China's state-controlled media is not doing much to set the record straight. / Apple bought Beats Music and Beats Electronics for $3 billion earlier this year. Today, Techcrunch reports that the company plans to shut down Beats Music, but Apple PR rep Tom Neumayr tells Re/Code that the story isn't true. Re/Code speculates Apple won’t shutter the Beats streaming service, but might change the Beats Music brand. Though it probably won't touch the Beats headphone service, which already has strong name recognition. / Apple announced it sold more than 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices in their opening weekend, which is a new record for the company. The company's iPhone sales record is twice what it was in 2012 and a million more than in 2013. In September of that year, Apple said it had sold 5 million iPhone 5 models three days after launch. Last year, with two models, the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, the company sold 9 million in three days. / But screw Apple, let's talk about BlackBerry. The company plans to sell its new smartphone, the Passport, at a lower price than rival products in an attempt to regain some of the market. Blackberry CEO John Chen said in an interview today that the Passport will cost $599 in the U.S. without subsidies when it goes on sale this Wednesday.. though initial launch is limited to London, Toronto, and Dubai . The handset has a 4.5-inch square screen and a physical keyboard, and will be the first global launch of a device since the company's BlackBerry 10 phones launched in 2013 to little fanfare. Chen says the phone's larger screen will appeal to users who need to be productive on their phones, such as those working in the medical field, and that the battery will last 36 hours and a large antenna will benefit reception. / AT&T has teamed up with Samsung as the exclusive carrier to offer the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, which will go on sale on September 26th, The Galaxy Alpha has a 4.7-inch form factor (HD resolution) and has a 2.5GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, a 12 megapixel camera, and 32GB of internal storage. / Sony first announced the PlayStation Vita TV settop box in Japan last year, and today the company is finally announcing the device for the U.S. market, priced at $99.99. The device streams video content and gives users access to play any PlayStation Vita game on their big screen TV, or for a price of $139.99, you’ll get the PlayStation TV, a DualShock 3 controller, an 8GB memory card, a a USB cable, an HDMI cable, and The LEGO Movie game. Sony says that nearly 700 games will be supported at launch in the U.S. and Canada on November 14th, and pre-orders are open. / Oculus showed off its new prototype Crescent Bay over the weekend at the Oculus’ Connect conference. The Crescent Bay has a faster frame rate, 360-degree head tracking, and integrated headphones, and it’s lighter than the previous prototype. Oculus also announced the new Oculus Platform coming to the Samsung VR, which brings VR to mobile apps, web browsers, and a VR content discovery channel. The Crescent Bay is not an official developer kit, but instead a “feature prototype” designed to show off the future of what Oculus is doing, similar to the pre-DK2 “Crystal Cove” prototype. The Crescent Bay likely won’t ship out to developers but will prepare them for what Oculus puts into the “DK3? or whatever it calls its next developer kit, which VR makers will be able to buy. Coming up, why you might be getting served legal papers... via Facebook and next I'll talk with Eric Limer from Gizmodo about reports that HTC will make the new Nexus tablet. [AD] Most of us rely on email to communicate with our clients and coworkers And we’re frequently exchanging files like: Contracts, spreadsheets, presentations, photos and more But – if you’re sending these important or confidential documents as regular email attachments, you could be risking your business File-size restrictions, bounce backs, clogged inboxes and security breaches make email attachments the wrong choice You need to know about a better way: Citrix ShareFile Instead of attachments, Citrix ShareFile sends your documents as secure links You can quickly send files of almost any size Control who has access and for how long And receive email alerts when files are opened and reviewed Plus, Citrix ShareFile is easy to use and will help you work more efficiently Keep everyone on the same page with shared folders that sync automatically Access files from anywhere using your computer or mobile device We rely on ShareFile like millions of other professionals [[Call to Action (Verbatim)]] Sign up today for a 30-Day Free Trial - no obligation! Go to ShareFile.com, click the microphone at the top of the homepage and enter TN2 Remember - Visit ShareFile.com and type in TN2!" [Segment #2] Eric Limer Associate Editor Gizmodo "HTC Returns to Tablets with Google Nexus Partnership - What will it be called and what are the specs? - How much will it cost? - Why HTC this time? - What will it look like- any cool design features? - What took so long? - When will it be announced and available? ## thanks Eric Limer Associate Editor Gizmodo [Kicker!] In a rather bizarre court ruling, a Staten Island man has received permission to use Facebook to serve his ex-wife legal notice that he doesn’t want to pay any more child support. A Family Court official ruled that Noel Bis-cocho could use Facebook to serve Anna Maria Antigua because other, more traditional methods to serve her with papers have not worked, although Antigua “maintains an active social media account with Facebook” — and had even “liked” some photos posted on Facebook by Biscocho’s second wife “as recently as July.” Staten Island Support Magistrate Gregory Gliedman noted in his Sept. 12 order that it was the first of its kind in New York, and also the first in the United States that didn’t involve an attempt to serve someone overseas. [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.