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Tech News In Brief - 6/4/10

by John Moe // Posted: 06/04/10 11:44 AM

Google data collection mess gets messier

China blocking Foursquare

U.S. Cyber Command wants to ‘operate freely’ to protect and defend computer resources

Is YouTube about to offer live streaming? Because shouldn’t everything be more like Chatroulette?

Microsoft Patch Tuesday is coming. Stores have had decorations up for months, of course

Could Microsoft be buying AOL? “Welcome! You’ve got Ballmer!”

Get energy from the stars

Car charging stations coming to town

Gadget tells you when you need a break. Thanks, gadget

Comments | Filed Under: google foursquare security youtube microsoft twitter aol energy

Could Microsoft be buying AOL?

by John Moe // Posted: 06/04/10 11:11 AM

At the D8 conference, AOL chairman Tim Armstrong said that the company, which is currently using Google for search on its sites, is looking for a new search deal. Armstrong said he was negotiating with more than two potential partners (which is kind of weird because besides Google and Bing, who else would it be? Alta Vista?). But Nicholas Carlson of Silicon Valley Insider suspects that this is all just show before AOL sells out to Microsoft and pairs up with MSN. It’s rumor but it’s something to watch. AOL is far removed from the days where it dominated the internet but it still has millions of faithful subscribers. Migrate those people over to something with Microsoft’s software capabilities and you could have a pretty powerful entity.

Comments | Filed Under: aol microsoft

today's show

What will we do with all this "white space"?

09/26/10 11:15 AM

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There’s a vote coming up this week in Washington that will have a big impact on how you use the internet, what’s available to you, how much faster you’ll be able to get things online. On Thursday, the FCC is expected to open up unused parts of the broadcast spectrum, a lot of people call it “white space”. This is space that was positioned to be something of a buffer between television stations but such padding is proving less essential since the conversion to digital TV.

On today’s show, we talk to Glenn Fleishman from Wi-Fi Networking News and The Economist about how the spectrum works and what kind of new space we’re talking about. We also check in with Tim Wu from Columbia Law School about the companies that will look to use the space and what it all might mean for you and me as internet consumers.