This week’s tech highlights included a few big moves from Microsoft, President Obama’s stance on net neutrality, the MBA Bubble, and more. Here are the stories you don’t want to miss this week (11/8-11/14).
1. Google announced that the company has agreed to a deal in which it will lease Moffett Field from NASA for the next 60 years. Regarding the deal, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, “As NASA expands its presence in space, we are making strides to reduce our footprint here on Earth.”
2. President Barack Obama came out in favor of net neutrality, saying that “an open Internet is essential to the American economy.” He presented a net neutrality plan advocating for the FCC to reclassify broadband under Title II of the Telecommunications Act – a stance that has been the favorite of net neutrality advocates.
3. Reddit CEO Yishan Wong resigned, and co-founder Alexis Ohanian has returned to the company to fill the full-time executive chairman role.
4. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spoke to the press at an event, during which he emphasized the three main components of his company: Windows, Office 365 and Azure.
5. Danny Crichton wrote a piece describing the Great MBA Bubble of 2013, and how it has come to a close. Less MBA graduates are seeking employment Silicon Valley startups, and are returning back to Wall Street for jobs. But should San Francisco be worried?
6. After 12 years of using the .NET framework programming model for developers who want to build Windows apps, Microsoft plans to take .NET to both the Mac and Linux soon. The company will also be open-sourcing most of the full server-side .NET core stack.
7. Peter Yared tells his story of being a computer programmer since the pre-mobile, pre-web late 1970s/early 1980s through today, and why developers are more needed than ever in this brave new world.
8. Samsung announced the “Project Beyond” camera, designed to capture 3D footage for use with Samsung’s Gear VR headset.
9. Kyle Russell introduced you to a hot new phone case from Prynt that turns your smartphone photos into Polaroid shots with a built-in printer – and it has an augmented reality feature too.
10. Google announced family-friendly games designed for Chromecast, which indicates an effort to turn the streamer into a console alternative for Wii or other multi-player console users.
11. A Chinese programmer installed Windows 95 on a brand new iPhone 6 Plus, showing that once again, its still cool to see resurrected software run readily on new hardware.
12. YouTube’s long-awaited music subscription service has finally arrived, and its called YouTube Music Key. It offers access to Google Play Music’s entire library, ads-free music videos, background playback capabilities, and offline caching for viewing without a connection.
13. DJI introduced a new transforming drone model called the Inspire 1. Built off of the success of the Phantom, the Inspire 1 has the ability to stream 1080p video up to a mile away. Its transforming design provides an unobstructed 360-degree view. See for yourself.