Great news for Nexus lovers, and how Google builds Android for specific devices, YouTube announces 60 frames per-second support and crowd funding.
Plus never get trapped by a speed camera again, and Germany pushes back against Verizon’s NSA cooperation.
Direct Download:
MP3 Audio | OGG Audio | Video | HD Video | Torrent | YouTube
RSS Feeds:
MP3 Feed | OGG Feed | iTunes Feed | Video Feed | Torrent Feed
Become a Tech Talk Today supporter on Patreon:
Show Notes:
— Headlines —
No, Google Isn’t Going To Kill Its Nexus Devices
Every time Google releases a new named and numbered version of Android, it also announces a new Nexus device, built by one of Google’s top manufacturing partners like LG or Samsung. Dave Burke, the head of Android engineering and the Nexus program at Google, says that the company plans to keep doing just that.
“People just get excited by concepts and forget why we do things,” Burke told me in an interview. “We are still invested in Nexus.”
Burke would not discuss Silver. “Android Silver is not something that we are commenting on right now,” he said. But the prospect of Silver doesn’t mean that Nexus is going away.
You can’t build a platform in the abstract, you have to build a device (or devices). So, I don’t think can can or will ever go away. And then, I think Nexus is also interesting in that it is a way of us explaining how we think Android should run. It is a statement, almost a statement of purity in some respects. I don’t see why we would ever turn away from that, it wouldn’t make sense.
YouTube introduces 60fps video and crowdfunding )
First up is the news that YouTube will soon be introducing
support for 48 and 60 frames per second. In the announcement on the
YouTube Creators blog gamers have been singled out as the group
that this will most benefitAlso new is fan funding, which has been hinted at for a while. The feature will allow fans to contribute money to your channel at any time for any reason and will be introduced soon. This will make a huge difference to those whose channels aren’t necessarily big enough to benefit from ad revenue. YouTube has already got a handful of creators to sign up to test this out across both desktop and Android.
The car that outsmarts speed cameras
Speed camera fines could become a thing of the past if Hyundai has its way.
The brand is set to sell a luxury sedan in Australia that is capable of outsmarting speed cameras with a combination of GPS and braking technology.
Speaking in Seoul at the launch of the Hyundai Genesis, company spokesman Guido Schenken told journalists that the car could identify speed cameras and slow down if drivers are going too fast.
Over NSA worries, Germany ends government contract with Verizon | Ars Technica
Germany has opted not to renew its government contract with Verizon, citing concerns over spying by the National Security Agency. The contract will expire in 2015.
In a German-language statement (Google Translate) posted to the Ministry of the Interior’s website, Berlin noted that it needs “an infrastructure with an increased level of security.”
Verizon has maintained the contract since 2010.
“There are indications that Verizon is legally required to provide certain things to the NSA, and that’s one of the reasons the cooperation with Verizon won’t continue,” Interior Ministry spokesman Tobias Plate told reporters, according to the Associated Press.