This is it y’all, the last Tech with Taylor — ever.
I might cry.
But before that, let’s get to this week’s news.
1. AT&T might buy DirecTV
In yet another attempt of corporations trying to monopolize everything from Internet to cable, a report by The Wall Street Journal said AT&T — the only company close to Comcast in terms of terribleness — is in talks to purchase DirecTV for a cool $40 billion.
The report says the deal would give AT&T control of around 26 million cable customers, only 4 million short of the estimated total of consumers under Comcast if its buyout of Time Warner passes.
If this sounds bad, it is. Internet and cable are largely unregulated in this country, which means several small monopolies pop up around around most cities. In Baton Rouge, that’s Cox. If you’ve got Dish, DirecTV or AT&T Uverse, you’re an outlier.
So if two of the biggest cable/Internet providers in the country buy the other two biggest cable/Internet providers in the country, there’s cause for worry. It severely limits the choice and buying power of the consumer — that’s the whole focus of the net neutrality argument.
Hopefully, the deal falls through or Congress does its job and prevents this obvious detriment to competition from forming.
Though they don’t have the best track record in that area.
2. Logging in with Facebook isn’t creepy anymore
If you’re like me, you hate logging into apps with Facebook. Especially if they require that you log in with Facebook (looking at you, early Spotify).
Luckily, Facebook knows this and it offering anonymous login now. Now the app won’t remember your login credentials, so it’s especially useful if you want to try an app out without giving it access to everything you’ve ever posted on Facebook and who all your friends are.
Even better, Facebook will let you select what exactly the app can see if you decide to give it access to your account. So if you want it to know your friends list but not your email address or your birthday, that’s possible.
Good job Facebook, you managed to be a little less creepy with our personal information.
3. Monument Valley
In 2007, a small Japanese company released a game called “Ecohochrome” for PSP and PS3. It was a black-and-white puzzle game where the player solved seemingly impossible puzzles (like using the Penrose Triangle to travel between platforms) to reach a goal. The game reviewed well, but never took off.
Fast forward to 2014, and Ustwo has released Monument Valley on iOS. It’s the same concept — solving impossible puzzles through visual trickery — but with gorgeous color and an eerily abstract story about a fallen kingdom of sorts.
It might sound lame, but the game is gorgeous and a great play. It’s a bit pricy at $3.99 for only 10 levels, but well worth it if you’ve got an extra couple bucks.
4. Microsoft finally brings Office to iPad
The most popular office suite in the world finally, mercifully, made itself available on a tablet earlier this week. Office for iPad has been years in the making and brings Word, Excel and PowerPoint to arguably the best tablet on the market.
Early reviews are positive — CNET called Office for iPad a “rich set of tools for managing and creating documents,” but lamented the lack of access to user-created templates.
Much like the desktop counterpart, the main version of Office isn’t free. You’ll need an Office 365 subscription to get access to most of the applications and to utilize SkyDrive to save content between your desktop and tablet.
But hey, we finally got a half decent word processor on iPad (Sorry I’m not sorry, Pages.)
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Is that it? Is Office for iPad really going to end my three-year run of Tech with Taylor? Of course not. This will be the last news recap post, but I’m not quite ready to give up my title just yet. I’m going to write a column of sorts for next week to kind of sum everything up. I hope to see you there.
