Tech News 2Night 114 (Transcript)

[Top TN2 Animation ] Tonight, Google gets into the domain registration business, Glass expands to the UK, and the aftermarket kit that could turn your vehicle into a self-driving car, Tech News 2Night is Next! [TWiT Open] [Main TN2 Open] This is Tech News 2Night Episode #114, for Monday June 23, 2014 This episode of Tech News 2Night is brought to you by lynda.com. Learn what you want, when you want, with access to over 2,400 high-quality online courses--all for one low monthly price. To try it free for 7 days, visit lynda.com/tn2. That’s L-Y-N-D-A dot com slash T-N-2. I'm Sarah Lane, Let's get right to the Tech Feed! Google announced today it's building a domain registration service called Google Domains. It's in invite-only beta for now at domains.google.com. The company says that according to its research, 55% of small businesses don’t have websites, and this could help companies get started with their online presence. Google Domains won’t include hosting, but website building providers Squarespace, Wix, Weebly and Shopify have signed on as partners. One Google Domains launches, customers will have the option to buy and sell domains through the service, and Google won’t charge them extra to register their domain - or domains - privately. Other perks - create up to 100 email addresses on the domain and as many as 100 customized sub-domains. Google Domains will use Google's own DNS servers as well. / Is Tony Fadell the new head of hardware.. or not? A report in The Information published this morning claimed that Fadell, former Apple executive and current CEO of Nest, would take over Google’s hardware division. Interesting particularly because Google hasn’t built a lot of its own products up until now - its Nexus devices, Chromebooks and Google TV set-top boxes have all been built by partners, though it has experimented with the Chromebook Pixel, Chromecast and Nexus Q. However, Fadell tweeted about two hours ago that this claim is completely wrong, and that he runs Nest as a separate business with its own management. / Google Glass is finally available outside the US to one lucky country - the UK. The Explorer Edition is being sold through the Google Play store for £1,000 and is available in Cotton, Charcoal, Tangerine, Shale and Sky colors. Google is also selling the frames from its Titanium collection as an optional add-on. Each Explorer Edition comes with an extra frame or shade for free additional frames are £175, and individual shades cost £120. All items are listed to ship within one to two business days, and if you live in London, you may try Glass at one of Google’s demo days on June 27-28. Good timing, since Google's I/0 starts this Wednesday, June 25th. / The parking app wars are heating up! This morning, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera sent MonkeyParking a cease-and-desist letter on grounds that their business is illegal. MonkeyParking's app allows people to post information about the spot they are about to leave, and other drivers can pay for that information. The company currently operates in two cities, Rome and San Francisco. A cease-and-desist letter to the company cites the San Francisco Police Code. “It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to enter into a lease, rental agreement or contract of any kind, written or oral, with or without compensation, for the use of any street or sidewalk.” The city warns it could cite drivers $300 per transaction, and that the company could face civil penalties of up to $2,500 per violation. The city attorney is giving MonkeyParking until July 11 to end operations in the city or face further legal action, according to the letter. San Francisco ended a trial of its own sensor-based parking system and an app that helped drivers find open parking spaces based on the information from the sensors late last year, but the San Francisco Chronicle has reported the program will be restarted and expanded. / Microsoft announced it will begin offering 15GB of free storage to OneDrive users, a bump up from 7GB. This puts OneDrive in the pricing line of Google Drive, which also also offers 15GB of free space. Microsoft also says within the next month, Office 365 users will get 1TB of free space, up from 20GB. The 1TB cap was previously reserved for Office 365's business users. Microsoft also dropped the price of its monthly plans to $1.99 for 100GB (down from $7.49) and $3.99 for 200GB (down from $11.49). Current OneDrive or Office 365 users will automatically see their storage limits go up. And rounding out Microsoft news, the company is offering a new program where you can get up to $650 in store credit when you trade in select MacBook Air models through 7/31/2014. The MacBook Air must power on to be considered working. Water-damaged devices and devices with cracked screens are not considered working devices, and depending on an Air's condition, the trade-in value may be less than the $650 credit. Back in September of last year, Microsoft offered up to $200 towards a Surface if you traded in your old iPad. Microsoft also has a Recycle for Rewards program, which allows people to trade in their old device for a gift card toward an Xbox, tablet, smartphone, or other Microsoft device. / Amazon's Instant Video app on iOS now includes free episodes for selected ad-supported TV shows, plus HBO content like The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, True Blood and Boardwalk Empire. Instant Video users will be able to stream the “first episode” of selected TV shows for free. These shows will also include advertising breaks both before and during video playback. The company already offers this feature on Kindle Fire devices and on the Roku, where it could be discovered via the “First Free Episode” carousel from the TV or Video section. No word on an Android app update as of yet. / Coming up - Google Glass is fashionable! No really, it is! High fashion! And next I'll chat with Tim Stevens from CNET about an aftermarket kit designed to make your car self-driving [AD] "This episode of Tech News 2Night is brought to you by lynda.com. Want to learn how to use Photoshop? Build your own iOS app? Improve your photography skills? lynda.com offers thousands of online video courses in software, creative, and business skills across a wide variety of subjects. With a lynda.com subscription, members received unlimited access to the entire course library. lynda.com works with software companies to provide you updated training, often the same day new versions hit the market—so you’ll always have the very latest skills. Learn from top experts, and all of the courses are produced at the highest quality--not like the homemade videos you’ll find on YouTube. Whether you have 15 minutes or 15 hours, you can learn at your own pace, on your own terms. [[Call to Action/Offer (Verbatim):]] It’s only $25 a month for access to the entire lynda.com course library. Or for $37.50 a month, you can subscribe to the premium plan, which also includes exercise files. And you can try lynda.com right now, with a free seven-day trial. Visit lynda.com/TN2 to access the entire library—that’s over 2,400 courses—free, for 7 days. That’s L-Y-N-D-A dot com slash T-N-2." [Segment #2] Tim Stevens Editor at large, CNET The Cruise RP-1 is a $10,000 add-on designed for certain Audi cars and basically makes them self-driving cars. -How does it work? -Is the Cruise RP-1 only for certain roads and only in California, right? -What are the limitations of the system? -When will it be available? -When do they expect to expand to other car makes and models? -This is an aftermarket product-- How will this impact Google’s self-driving cars? Could it help them? //Thanks Tim, You're also reviewing the new electric Harley-Davidson motorcycle. When will this review be up? [Kicker!] Hey, Glasshole, let's talk fashion! Online luxury fashion retailer NET-A-PORTER is now carrying limited edition DVF | Made for Glass, a version of Google Glass designed by Diane Von Furstenberg and made to look, well, designer-y. Priced at $1,800, the glass versions come in colors like brown, teal, plum, charcoal and white, each with matching shades. They're currently only available for shipping to US customers.and support prescription lenses and include a one-year warranty. [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.