Tech News 2Night 128 (Transcript)

[Top TN2 Animation ] Tonight! Top Internet companies take a stand on net neutrality, 3D printers go on sale at Home Depot, and a long-rumored Apple iPhone might be delayed. Tech News 2Night is Next! [TWiT Open] [Main TN2 Open] This is Tech News 2Night Episode #128, for MONDAY July 14, 2014 This episode of Tech News 2Night is brought to you by NatureBox. Order great-tasting, healthy snacks delivered right to your door. Forget the vending machine, and get in shape with healthy, delicious treats like Coconut Date Energy Bites! To get 50% off your first box go to naturebox.com/twit. That’s naturebox.com/twit. I'm Mike Elgan, Let's get right to our top story.. "Major tech companies finally weighed in on the FCC’s proposal for net neutrality. They did it in the form of a letter from the Internet Association, which speaks for Google, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, eBay, Amazon, Netflix, Yahoo and many others. Here to shed light on this news is Harry McCracken, a longtime technology editor and columnist, the founder of The Technologizer blog, recently the editor-at-large of TIME and soon to be technology editor at Fast Company. Welcome, Harry. Q: Harry: This is as close as we’re going to get to a consensus from the tech industry. What was their basic position? Q: The letter called for applying the same rules to both landline and wireless connections. Is that unexpected, or will that be considered radical by the FCC? Why weren’t they equal before? Q: The existing proposal allows for paid prioritization when it’s “commercially reasonable.” The Internet association found that bit problematic. What’s their problem with it? Q: How influential is this letter going to be? Q: On a separate issue, you posted a piece this morning that restored my faith in humanity. Your post was about a trend in click-bait journalism where the article promises to restore the reader’s lost faith in humanity for one reason or another. Why does this cliche work? Q: Isn’t it mostly click-bait journalism that destroyed our faith in humanity in the first place? // Thanks Harry Coming up, I'll tell you why the World Cup soccer tournament was the biggest sports event in the history of the Internet. [Segment #2] [AD] I’m going to say something that’s going to surprise you -- You should be snacking more! Why? Nature Box, that's why. Nature Box snacks have ZERO trans fats, ZERO high fructose corn syrup -- and NOTHING artificial. Nature Box sends great tasting snacks right to your door with free shipping anywhere in the U.S. Here’s how it works: Click on the “Continue” button to choose between 3 subscription options. Then place your order. Once you’re a member, you can select which snacks you’d like in your monthly box. You can select by dietary needs: Vegan, Soy Free, Gluten Conscious, Lactose Free, Nut Free and Non GMO. You can also select by taste: Savory, Sweet or Spicy. The next time you get cranky and hungry and are ready to eat anything, remember Nature Box. Snack guilt free with Coconut Date Energy Bites, Santa Fe Corn Stix, Pear Praline Crunch and over 100 more healthy choices! [[Offer/ Call to Action]] To get 50% off your first box go to naturebox.com/twit. Stay full! Stay strong! Go to naturebox.com/twit. And we thank Nature Box for their support of Tech News 2Night / and now for the tech feed The former head of Google Glass is leaving Google to join Amazon. Babak Parviz announced his career change on Google+. Parviz has been working on various ways to bring contextual information and sensors to glasses and contact lenses for many years. One pet project was Google Contact Lenses, which are able to monitor the wearer’s glucose levels. It’s not clear what Parviz will work on for Amazon, but he hire may signal a new emphasis on research at that company. / How mainstream is 3D printing becoming? Well -- pretty mainstream. Some Home Depot stores will soon sell MakerBot Replicator 3D printers as part of a pilot program. Home Depot has been selling the printers online for months. Now they’ll go on sale at about 12 locations in California, Illinois and New York. In addition to the Replicator, the stores will also carry MakerBot’s Replicator Mini 3D printer and MakerBot’s Digitizer 3D scanner. Home Depot also plans to add kiosks to demonstrate 3D printers to shoppers, and explain how they work. / Apple is expected to announce both a 4.7-inch iPhone and, for the first time ever, a larger one expected to come in at 5.5-inches when the screen is measured diagonally. But now, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who is often right about such predictions, says the larger iPhone may be delayed past October or even until next year because of supply constraints associated with its first-ever sapphire screen. And the rumored iWatch may be delayed as well, according to Kuo. / Growing evidence suggests that the nickel used in many consumer electronics products may be causing allergic skin irritation. The most recent report comes from an article to be published in the August 2nd issue of the medical journal Pediatrics, which traced an 11-year-old boy’s rashes to possible exposure to an iPad. After reducing nickel in the boy’s diet and covering the iPad with a case, the boy’s rashes improved. Apple said in a statement that the company uses the highest quality materials in its products and that Apple meets the same standards set for jewelry. We reported on this show in the past on the recall of a Fitbit fitness-tracking bracelet because of reports that some users were forming blisters, which the company said were probably caused by an allergic reaction to nickel. Pediatricians are reporting a rise in nickel allergies among children, and doctors are being advised to check for exposure to consumer electronics as a source of the problem. [Kicker!] The World Cup soccer tournament ended yesterday, with Germany triumphant over Argentina to win the cup -- a huge win for Germany. But it was also a big event for the Internet -- in fact the biggest Internet event ever. Engadget reported today that Brazil’s disastrous defeat by Germany was the most-tweeted sports event in history -- triggering 32 million tweets. Facebook also reported that the World Cup overall was the biggest traffic-generating sports event ever for the social network, with comments, likes and posts totalling more than 280 million interactions. Meanwhile, the Spanish-language network Univision, which live-streamed World Cup games online, reported 456 thousand unique viewers. [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 Mike Elgan, thanks for watching.