Daily Tech Briefing: April 23, 2014

In response to the highly publicized Heartbleed flaw, the OpenSSL project has come under intense scrutiny. As is common with the open-source development model, the open-source OpenBSD operating system community has forked the OpenSSL code and is creating a different version of an open-source cryptographic library, known as LibreSSL.

OpenBSD founder Theo de Raadt explained that he was not notified of the Heartbleed flaw when it happened, and rather than waiting for the OpenSSL project to resolve the problem itself, OpenBSD plans to handle the situation itself by creating LibreSSL for inclusion in OpenBSD 5.6, with other operating systems to follow.

People who want to keep up with the latest online updates about any topic that interests them can now use new subscription tools from Google Trends to do so. Gavri Smith, a Google software engineer, explained that the new subscribe feature for Google Trends will allow users to see custom search information on any topic and get mail notifications about searches for any topics they want to follow.

AT&T is working with The Chernin Group to invest in and launch their own “over-the-top” video services. According to a recent announcement, the companies have committed $500 million to fund the project. Some examples of popular over-the-top video services already running over wireless networks to AT&T-supported handsets include Netflix, Hulu and Amazon’s Video on Demand.

AT&T Chief Strategy Officer John Stankey explained in a statement that the two companies want to combine their skills to help meet the growing demand from consumers to be able to access content when and how they want it.

Finally, according to a recent survey from Nielsen, one in six consumers who has heard about wearable technology, also known as wearables, is also using them. Specifically, 61 percent are wearing fitness bands, and consumers between ages 18-34 account for 49 percent of owners of these bands.

The report also discovered that many people are turning to smartphone apps to help them meet their fitness goals and women are actually driving the growth in fitness and health apps.