Summary: This week on The Waves of Tech 224, we cover all things tech and we enjoyed every minute of it!! Starting out, we discuss the kill switch legislation that has been introduced in California as they strive to curb the crime of smartphone theft. Next, we toss around the idea of AT&T becoming the second largest cable providing by buying DirecTV. We finish the show by talking about the new art of app surfing and Mozilla struggling with pleasing their users. Enjoy the show and continue to ride…the waves of tech! California Kill Switch, Round 2, SB 962 Text In a second draft of his kill switch legislation, Senator Mark Leno of California received enough support to push the bill onto the next stage. In his legislation, it requires any smartphone manufactured or sold in California to be equipped with an anti-theft, or kill switch function, that is user controlled. Smartphone theft is unquestionable an issue and this bill takes that step to protect the data and information on someone’s phone. AT&T may buy DirecTV for $50 billion Seems like AT&T is getting into the big buying business. A few weeks after Comcast announced the purchase of Time Warner Cable, AT&T picked up the phone and called DirecTV and is offering $50 billion for the cable provider giant. If approved, this would make AT&T the second largest cable provider with 27.5 million. You guessed it, right behind Comcast that may have 30 million after the TWC acquisition. Goodbye TV channels Channel surfing is so…old school. The new thing to do – app surfing! With a huge boom in the Internet-ready TV industry, we are changing the way we watch, consume, find, and share new entertainment content. The revolutionary set-top boxes, Smart TVs, and TV dongles are changing our focus from finding content through channel surfing to flipping back and forth from one app to another app. Mozilla ditches plans to show ads in Firefox’s new tab page Mozilla seems to be pushing all the wrong buttons of their Firefox users. After the uproar over Firefox 29, users were heard loud and clear when Mozilla planned to implement advertising on the “New Tab” page of the browser. What seemed to be a very simple revenue stream for Mozilla turned into another act of back peddling for the company. It’s back to the drawing board for the Firefox crew.
