316: The Perfect Combo

Five Minute Tech News

Firefox drops Google, Apple changes Free to Get, Sony says goodbye to Sorkin, the happiest state has higher suicide rates, and more.

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• Firefox drops Google as default search engine, signs five-year deal with Yahoo | The Verge
  Yahoo and Mozilla announced a five-year partnership that would make Yahoo the default U.S. search engine for Mozilla's Firefox browser on mobile and desktop. In December, Yahoo will roll out an enhanced new search function to Firefox users, and will also support Do Not Track functions in Firefox as a result of the partnership. The agreement also sets the stage for future product integrations, but so far the companies are keeping quiet on what those might be. Firefox has lost market share in recent years but is still used by roughly 17 percent of webgoers. According to Mozilla CEO Chris Beard, Firefox users search the web more than 100 billion times each year, suggesting a major windfall for Yahoo as a result of the deal. A search engine no one uses paired with a Web browser no one uses. The perfect combo.
• Apple Sticking With Arizona Plan After Supplier Falters - Bloomberg
  Apple has told officials in Mesa, Arizona, that it’s committed to bringing jobs and manufacturing to the area even after the bankruptcy of GT Advanced Technologies a supplier that was going to make sapphire screens for iPhones in the city. “They’ve indicated their commitment to us: They want to repurpose that building and use it again,” Mesa City Manager Christopher Brady said in a recent interview. Apple has said it’s focused “on preserving jobs in Arizona” and promised to “work with state and local officials as we consider our next steps.”
• Apple Relabels “Free” Download Buttons On iTunes And Mac App Store To “Get” Following Pressure from EC | TechCrunch
  Across the iTunes and Mac App Stores, a minor but also notable change is taking place with regard to how Apple is marketing its iOS and Mac applications. Instead of free apps being labeled as “FREE,” the download button now reads “GET.” The change likely has to do with increased pressures from the European Commission, which this summer, succeeded in forcing Google to relabel apps that offer in-app purchases. In EU countries, Google changed the label of the Top Free Apps to read “Top Apps,” and changed its Top Free Games section to just “Top Games,” as it moved towards compliance with the new guidelines. The problem, according to the commission, games labeled as “free” could mislead consumers about the true costs involved, and they should not directly market in-app purchases to children, nor pressure them to ask their parents to pay for the additional features.
• Netflix Streamed 19,500,000 Terabytes Of Video In The 1st Quarter of 2014 | Cord Cutters News
  Here's are some mindblowing tidbits about Netflix. In the first quarter of 2014 Netflix streamed 6.5 billion hours of videos. With an average quality of HD that brings the total data sent by Netflix to over 19,500,000 terabytes in just 3 months. That is an astonishing 6,500,000 terabytes every month. At this rate Netflix will use 78,000,000 terabytes of data in 2014. This is a huge increase over 2013 when Netflix streamed only 4 billion hours of video totaling 12,000,000 terabytes of data in the first quarter of 2013. With an average of 4,000,000 terabytes of video every month in the first quarter of 2013. In just one year Netflix average data usage increased by 2,500,000 terabytes every month to 6,500,000 terabytes. At that rate Netflix will use 27,000,000 terabytes of data in the first quarter of 2015.
• Sony Pictures said to ditch Aaron Sorkin's biopic on Steve Jobs - CNET
  The latest Steve Jobs movie hasn't even started filming and it's already experienced another defection. Sony Pictures, the studio that acquired the rights soon after Jobs' death in 2011, has pulled out of the project. In the wake of Sony's departure, Universal Pictures is said to be making a play for the biopic, which is being written by Aaron Sorkin. The departure is the second major desertion from the project in less than a month. "Dark Knight" star Christian Bale, who was announced in late October as the actor to portray the late Apple co-founder in "Jobs," withdrew from the project earlier this month after reportedly deciding he was not right for the part.
• Ashton Kutcher Defends Uber Against 'Shady Journalist' | Business Insider
  One day after Uber’s SVP of business suggested his company spend millions of dollars hiring people to investigate the private lives of its most vocal critics in the media, actor and entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher, an investor of Uber, defended the company on Twitter. “What is so wrong about digging up dirt on shady journalist?” Kutcher asked, tagging PandoDaily, TechCrunch, and Uber in the tweet. He goes on to say “We’re all public figures now!” Kutcher, who founded his VC firm A-Grade Investments in 2010, has invested in several companies besides Uber, including Secret, BloomThat, Airbnb, Fab, and Flipboard. Senator Al Franken has also written an open letter to Uber's CEO asking about its conduct.
• There's a Suicide Epidemic in Utah — And One Neuroscientist Thinks He Knows Why - Mic
  Despite ranking as America's happiest state, Utah has disproportionately high rates of suicide and associated mood disorders compared to the rest of the country. In fact, it's the number one state for antidepressant use. Perry Renshaw, a neuroscientist at the University of Utah, might have the answer: altitude. Renshaw has found a correspondence between high altitudes and high suicide rates. So much for that Rocky Mountain high.

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