Netflix fights piracy with pricing, Norway kills FM radio, Match.com is shown to be dumb, Google searches Find My Phone, and Matthew McConaughey reacts to the new Star Wars trailer.

Netflix Battles Piracy With Pricing

Netflix continues to grow at an astonishing pace. After building a userbase of millions in its native United States, the streaming media service expanded overseas, and its most recent financial results suggest it's still going from strength to strength.

Interestingly, it turns out Netflix sets it prices according to the levels of piracy in each territory it enters. As reported by TorrentFreak.

David Wells, Netflix' Chief Financial Officer, revealed, “Piracy is a governor in terms of our price in high piracy markets outside the US. We wouldn't want to come out with a high price because there’s a lot of piracy, so we have to compete with that.”

Ted Sarandos, Netflix' Head of Content, boasted, “The real great news is that in the piracy capitals of the world Netflix is winning. We’re pushing down piracy in those markets by getting access.”

While this suggests that if you want the price of Netflix in your country to fall you should start pirating popular movies and television shows more, that's obviously not the message Netflix is trying to get across. Instead, the company offers an alternative to piracy, and it's trying to make it as attractive an option as is possible. Which sounds sensible.

Norway Says No Way To FM Radio

Norway has officially announced its intention to switch off FM radio in 2017, with the Minister of Culture revealing Norway will completely transition over to DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) radio. In doing so, Norway will become the first country to switch over to digital, leaving those will traditional FM radio receivers without any stations to listen to.

Thor Gjermund Eriksen, head of NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation), said, “This is an important day for everyone who loves radio. The minister’s decision allows us to concentrate our resources even more upon what is most important, namely to create high quality and diverse radio-content to our listeners.”

Norway, like many countries, is already well on its way to switching listeners over to digital radio. However, setting a deadline just two years into the future means hundreds of thousands of people, especially older generations, are now being forced to act quickly or lose access to a format they have been using all their lives.

Match.com Logins Are At Risk

Everybody logging into Match.com is at risk of having their credentials stolen, reports Ars Technica. This is because Match, one of the many dating services now available online, uses unprotected HTTP connections rather than the encrypted HTTPS standard.

This means anyone on the same public network as someone logging in to Match could steal their username and password, and, according to Scott Bryner, this has been the case since at least March. Now that the issue has been raised in public, Match.com will hopefully address the problem.

Google Can Now Find Your Phone

Google can now find your Android smartphone or tablet for you without you having to do anything beyond typing "Find my phone" into Google Search. Finding your phone has previously been available via the Android Device Manager, but you no longer even need to use that.

Everybody with the latest version of the Google app installed on their device can use this method. Unfortunately, while it allows you to either locate your lost device on a map or ring it, you cannot remotely disable it. So if it's been stolen rather than lost, you're still screwed.

McConaughey Reacts To Star Wars

And finally, even Matthew McConaughey teared up at the sight of Han Solo and Chewbacca standing in the Millennium Falcon. I mean, not really, but whoever edited this video sure made it look convincing. It's actually McConaughey's character in Interstellar crying at a video from home, but this reality is much more entertaining.

Everybody who is even remotely interested in Star Wars has probably now seen the latest trailer for The Force Awakens. But whether you have seen it or not, you should be sure to check out our extensive write-up of everything revealed during the opening panel of Star Wars Celebration Anaheim.

Your Views on Today’s Tech News

Is Netflix offering a legitimate alternative to piracy? Is Norway right to kill off FM radio in favor of digital radio? How did you react to the latest trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens?

Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.

Image Credit: F_A via Flickr