Though there are no "tablets of stone" in today’s marketplace, big tablets are apt to be "far more breakable than smaller ones," SquareTrade, the global supplier of insurance protection plans for tech devices, said in a report Wednesday. SquareTrade subjected 10 of the most popular tablets on the market to a series of "drop and dunk" tests, and declared the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 the winner for robustness. On a 1-10 scale, with the highest values reflecting the highest risk of breakability, the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 scored a 3.3, while the most fragile of the lot, the Tmax 9 HD, scored an 8.2, the company said. "Overall, compact tablets performed above expectations, faring better in drop and dunk tests than larger models like the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 or Tmax 9 HD." Moreover, "larger tablets proved to be far more breakable than smaller ones, as well as the least water resistant," it said.
New America's Open Technology Institute joined other entities to launch Datacivilrights.org. The site will be a resource that addresses how the "big data" phenomenon affects civil rights issues, New America said Tuesday in a news release. The site features talks by technologists and civil rights leaders, and background materials "that detail algorithmically driven, automated computer decision systems and their ability to help and hinder equal opportunity, fairness, and social justice," it said. New America partnered with The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Data & Society Research Institute, it said.
Hadoop cloud service Altiscale raised $30 million in a Series B funding round, said a company news release Tuesday. Altiscale’s Hadoop-as-a-service is an open source software for the storage and processing of big data. The financing round was led by Northgate and included General Catalyst Partners and Sequoia Capital.
Discovery Communications and Hulu signed a new distribution agreement giving Hulu subscribers access to Discovery programming. Hulu will gain exclusive subscription VOD rights to the Discovery Channel's series Deadliest Catch, Discovery said Tuesday in a news release. The deal also includes programming from several networks, like Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery and TLC, it said.
Consumers who snatched up 4K TVs in Black Friday deals have more Ultra HD content to watch on them. Amazon announced Tuesday that its long-awaited Ultra HD streaming content is now available to Amazon Prime customers, for free under their $99 annual membership fee, and starting at $19.99 per movie for non-Prime members. Amazon Ultra HD content currently available includes the Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live! Concert -- sponsored by LG -- along with original series from Amazon including Alpha House and Transparent. Other 4K content available on Amazon includes Orphan Black from the BBC; and Sony Pictures movies such as After Earth, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; and This Is the End. Amazon Ultra HD movies and TV shows can be accessed on compatible Ultra HD smart TVs, “including models from LG, Samsung and Sony, with more added next year,” said Amazon. It didn’t immediately respond to questions about compatibility with other brands or streaming media players.
A slew of tech and media luminaries participated in a $25 million Series C funding round for Change.org, the website said in a news release Tuesday. Investors in the financing round included Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington; Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates; Virgin Group founder Richard Branson; and the Omidyar Network, an investment firm backed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Change.org expects to use the funding to develop its mobile applications. The website has more than 80 million users in 196 countries.
ISPs provided significant increases in average speeds for Netflix streaming since November 2013. In the U.S., the average speed for the top 10 cable and fiber ISPs increased to 3.07 Mbps, up from 2.03 Mbps in the same period last year, Netflix said Monday in a blog post. That's due in part to Cablevision, Charter, Cox and other ISPs increasing their average speeds significantly "without requiring additional payment to reach mutual customers," it said. "Additional interconnect capacity also helped normalize performance across these ISPs." In the U.K., speeds increased from 2.62 Mbps in November 2013 to 3.31 Mbps since then, it said.
Extreme Networks will offer Wi-Fi connectivity to IMG-affiliated universities. IMG selected Extreme Networks to help provide a network infrastructure "that is consistent with networking solutions recently implemented for professional sports' teams and their stadiums," Extreme said in a news release. Extreme's Wi-Fi networks will be deployed to enable thousands of fans to access networks from their seats and common areas of sports facilities, it said. Its system is designed to support high-density requirements, like support of in-venue mobile application delivery, Extreme said.
Qualcomm Life, a subsidiary of Qualcomm, joined vitaphone e-health solutions to power high-tech, "high-touch" telehealth and remote monitoring services. The companies will integrate their management solutions and platforms "to enable seamless biometric data capture from medical devices and coordinated team-based care in a high-tech, high-touch service model," Qualcomm said Monday in a news release. This integration will allow vitaphone to launch chronic disease management programs with blood pressure monitors, weight scales and other equipment, it said.
The Broadband Forum, which represents broadband service providers and technology suppliers, has thrown its support behind the new ITU-T ultra broadband access standard, G.fast, as a new way to deliver "bandwidth intensive" consumer applications such as Ultra HD, the group said Monday. G.fast "makes it possible for telcos to deploy 4K UHD services faster and more affordably than they could with Fiber to the Home," the forum said. Its announcement quoted CEA President Gary Shapiro as saying that with Ultra HD the "hot new product" this holiday selling season and beyond, "consumers need confidence" that bandwidth-constrained 4K online content distribution services "are feasible," Shapiro said. "G.fast offers a promising way to overcome this challenge."