Weekend Wrap-Up: Heartbleed Hits the Web; Google Preps Android TV
Happy Sunday, techies. If you’ve been out of the loop the last seven days, fear not — the Weekend Wrap-Up is here to get you caught up on the past week’s biggest tech stories.
As usual, the Wrap-Up comes in two forms: video (brought to you by the talented Landon Robinson) and text (brought to you by the less talented me).
Let’s dive in.
Heartbleed Hits, Affects Over Half of the Web’s Servers
Well, this sucks. Over half of the servers on the Web rely on a technology called OpenSSL to create a secure, encrypted connection between the server and the user. And we just found out this past week that a major vulnerability exists in several versions of OpenSSL used on several popular websites. How major? Those exploiting it can potentially steal user passwords or fool users into using a fake but legitimate-looking website. The vulnerability has been patched by the OpenSSL team, but I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about the repercussions of it in the near future.
Google is Readying Android TV, its Next Crack at Your Living Room
Google has created two different living room products thus far, each with varying amounts of success. Google TV didn’t fare so well; meanwhile, Chromecast has been a hit. It seems Google will look to revive the smart TV idea with Android TV, an ecosystem built around its Android operating system. It’s actually not the first time Android will power smart TVs — if you remember, Google TV was actually built upon Android — but will the second time be a charm? We’ll have to wait and see.
Twitter Unveils a New Profile Design: It’s Facebook
Twitter announced a new profile design this past week, and as many users browsed to the celebrity profiles the designed rolled out to, they couldn’t help but get deja vu. The new Twitter profile design, as it turns out, looks a lot like Facebook’s profile design. But it doesn’t stop at looks; another Facebook-like feature, pinned tweets, has been added. This feature mimics Facebook’s own highlighted posts feature. The new profile design hasn’t rolled out to most users just yet, but stay tuned.
T-Mobile Continues to Bring the Fight, Announces $40 Simple Starter Plan
There are exactly two game-changing wireless carriers in that industry right now: Virgin Mobile (owned by Sprint) and T-Mobile. T-Mobile remains in that category thanks to a new Simple Starter Plan it announced this past week. The plan offers unlimited talk and text, as well as 500 MB of data for a mere $40 per month. Sure, it’s not the $35 unlimited talk, text and data offered by Virgin, but it’s still miles above what carriers like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint itself are offering.