BGR Daily Breaking Stories

Daily Headlines WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2014

Yet another way net neutrality opposition is ruining the Internet Isn’t it peculiar how everyone agrees that things like “Internet fast lanes” are bad except for the companies that stand to directly benefit from these net neutrality-bending ideas, and the lobbyists on their payrolls? The debate rages on, and net neutrality shot into the spotlight yet again earlier this week when President Obama came out in opposition of fast lanes, and in support of Title II of the Telecommunications Act, which would reclassify Internet service providers as utilities. Shockingly, FCC commissioner and former top cable industry lobbyist Tom Wheeler doesn’t seem to agree. We have covered a number of ways Internet fast lanes and other concepts that are outside the bounds of reasonable net neutrality are already ruining the Internet, and now we have another huge one to toss onto the pile.  MORE → Here is everything on sale at Walmart for Black Friday After the Black Friday 2014 ads for Best Buy, Target and Microsoft have already been revealed, Walmart’s full sales offer for this hotly anticipated shopping day has also been made available, with BFAds already having obtained a copy of it.  MORE → FCC may give us Internet ‘fast lanes’ no matter what Obama says President Obama this week caused quite a stir when he came out in favor of a bold plan to protect net neutrality that would involve reclassifying ISPs as common carriers. Unfortunately for net neutrality advocates, Obama doesn’t get the final say when it comes to this issue. Instead, that honor goes to the Federal Communications Commission, which is headed by a former cable lobbyist that Obama decided to appoint as chairman last year.  MORE → The first smartphone to get Lollipop isn’t even a Nexus Google has yet to roll out the official Android 5.0 Lollipop updates for its existing Nexus smartphones, including the Nexus 5 and Nexus 4, but it looks like Motorola has already beaten its former parent company to the punch. Ars Technica reports that one 2014 Moto G model has already been updated to Lollipop, and it’s the U.S. unlocked model, which has now received its 386.8MB Android 5.0 update.  MORE → T-Mobile forced to push back Nexus 6 launch to offer customers ‘best experience possible’ Expected to start selling the Nexus 6 on November 12th, T-Mobile on Tuesday posted a short message on Google+ announcing potential buyers that it has decided to postpone the launch of the handset in order to be able to offer them a better experience.  MORE → iOS 8 adoption slowly inches towards 60% of iOS devices iOS 8 adoption hasn’t been stellar for Apple, compared to the previous iOS version, but the company has published new iOS distribution numbers on its developers portal, revealing that 56% of iOS devices talking to the App Store have iOS 8 installed, according to data measured on November 10th.  MORE → Microsoft announces big Black Friday deals In addition to Target and Best Buy, which have already revealed plenty of details about their upcoming Black Friday sales, Microsoft also has special deals planned for the upcoming shopping spree, including some interesting Xbox One bundles. The company has updated its Black Friday Offers page to highlight its Black Friday sales that will be available to buyers online starting with 12:00 a.m. on November 27th.  MORE → Video: Watch one of Google’s amazing robots reenact a classic scene from The Karate Kid It’s been a little less than a year since Google embarked on a major spending spree of robotics firms and since then we haven’t heard too much about the company’s growing android army. Per 9to5Google, there’s a new video showing off a robot built by the Google-owned Boston Dynamics in which it reenacts the classic scene in The Karate Kid where Daniel stands atop a small barrel on a beach and tries to maintain balance while performing assorted moves.  MORE → This accessory makes it (sort of) safer to look at your phone while driving You shouldn’t text and drive. You really, really shouldn’t. That said, if you’re the kind of person who just can’t help picking up your phone whenever you hear a little buzzing sound, you may want to check out Alfah Mobile, a new smartphone accessory that’s trying to raise $35,000 on Kickstarter.  MORE → Windows Phone has been a huge disappointment this year – but Microsoft isn’t worried yet It’s safe to say that Windows Phone has been a massive disappointment this year. Despite being a strong overall platform, it still hasn’t gained any traction and Microsoft hasn’t released any flagship hardware for the device so far on par with 2013’s Lumia 1020 or Lumia 1520. Business Insider reports, however, that Microsoft isn’t too concerned about its mobile operating system despite the fact that most third-party data suggests that its market share has either stagnated or even decline this year. MORE →