Month: February 2019

• 

  From left to right: The Moto G7 Play, Moto G7 Power, and Moto G7. [credit: Ron Amadeo ]

Today, Motorola is announcing the new Moto G series for 2019: the Moto G7 family. There are three devices to take a look at: the Moto G7, the Moto G7 Power, and the Moto G7 Play. Along with the phones from Nokia, members of the G series are among those rare smartphones that can be had for under $400, and that makes them pretty interesting.

We were able to spend some hands-on time with all of them, but before we get into the details, let's load up a big ol' spec sheet and talk numbers.

At first the spec sheet seems fine. We've got easy $50 increments between devices, and while the SoC always stays the same, more expensive devices get better screens, more RAM, more storage and better cameras. Then we get to the battery section and things get crazy. The more expensive device has a smaller battery!

Enlarge / Captain Marvel's cinematic adventure will appear on Disney+, not Netflix. (credit: Marvel)

The more we learn about Disney's new streaming TV and movie service, the more ambitious it sounds. Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors on the company's quarterly earnings call that the service (called Disney+) will host TV shows and movies licensed from other parties in addition to content being made in-house by Disney properties like Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios.

Iger hedged a little in terms of long-term plans, though, saying that the larger strategy is focused on producing original content but that third-party content will be part of the launch strategy later this year. He said that the long-term strategy is "pretty heavily weighted to internally sourced versus externally sourced."

Referring to the launch window, he also said, "Because we need to launch the service with some volume and it takes time to ramp up, we're buying certain products from the outside opportunistically." Disney will additionally tap some of the programming it gained ownership of in its merger with Fox.

Enlarge (credit: Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

On Thursday, Cisco formally joined the parade of major tech companies that have been calling for a comprehensive federal privacy law that would once and for all set a clear standard for tech companies nationwide.

Currently in the United States, there is a patchwork of laws governing how various types of data are handled—health, financial, etc.—but there isn’t a clear set of rules for Silicon Valley giants that traffic in vast amounts of information sharing. As a hardware networking giant, however, Cisco does not profit from user data in the same way that a company like Google or Facebook does.

In a blog post, Cisco’s top lawyer, Mark Chandler, called the current legal framework "not adequate." Cisco hasn’t put forward specific bill language just yet; it is speaking for now in generalities.