I’m Kristin Feledy and welcome to NewsDesk on SiliconANGLE TV for Monday, June 10, 2013. Here’s your SiliconANGLE daily round-up.

• Rdio CEO steps down as music streaming space rapidly evolves

Drew Larner, CEO of Rdio, is stepping down. Larner believes the time is right to bring on a chief executive who is better equipped to help the streaming music company compete with rivals such as Google and Apple. Larner spoke about his decision, saying, “The best person to take this to the next level, is probably someone with a different skill set. I’m a business guy and a deal guy. The next stage of the company is about building an enormous user and subscription base, and there are people out there better at that than I am.” There has been increased competition in the streaming music service space, but Rdio has some unique features that a new CEO may be able to leverage. The company recently introduced a complementary streaming video service called Vdio.

• Google closes in on Waze acquisition

Multiple sources are indicating that Google is close to completing a $1.3 billion deal to acquire the social mapping app, Waze. There have been ongoing rumors about a possible purchase. At one point, sources indicated that the final sticking point was the insistence by Waze that the Research and Development division of the company remain in Israel. Terms of the deal are said to include a guarantee that Waze will remain in place for at least three years.

After the acquisition is finalized, Waze will most likely continue as an independent product. Analysts suspect that this was a defensive move on Google’s part, to ensure the continued prominence of Google Maps. At one time, Apple showed interest in Waze, to supplement its lackluster map product. Facebook was also in talks to buy the map app when Google came in and made an offer that apparently couldn’t be refused. The deal with Google could be announced as early as this week.

• AT&T holding out on phone upgrades

AT&T customers who are anxious to upgrade their phones may have to wait a little longer. The second largest U.S. phone carrier announced that it’s extending the period that customers must wait between phone upgrades. In a move that mirrors top wireless carrier Verizon, the waiting period is now twenty-four months, up from twenty. Customers who aren’t willing to wait can still upgrade their phones, but they won’t receive the upgrade subsidy from AT&T.

Sprint continues to allow phone upgrades every twenty months. T-Mobile no longer provides subsidized phones, but will help finance new phones by temporarily increasing customers monthly payments. With T-Mobile’s plan the balance can be paid off at any time, and customers are free to finance a new phone as soon as the previous balance is paid.

• Networked storage goes portable with hybrid WiFi

PQI unveiled its new hybrid portable wireless access point at this year’s Computex. Named Power Drive, the device works like a traditional wireless hotspot device, but includes a few extra perks. Along with hotspot capabilities the device doubles as a hard drive, making it a networked storage option. Users will have the ability to send and receive files over WiFi. The Power Drive includes both a micro SD slot and a standard SD slot so photographers using DSLR cameras will no longer have to wait to share their snapshots with the world. Transferring photos from the memory card to the Power Drive, and from the Power Drive to a smartphone over WiFi makes photo sharing simple. Yet another feature of the Power Drive is the ability to act as a USB power bank. If your smartphone battery is running low you can simply plug it into the Power Drive for a quick recharge. The Power Drive has the potential to be one of the most versatile WiFi products on the market. PQI has not yet indicated when the Power Drive will ship, or what the expected retail price will be.

• Android gets an encryption boost

More news from PQI as they’ve announced an update to the classic way of encrypting your drives. By taking advantage of N-F-C on Android or Windows 8 devices, the access modes can now be changed easily and safely. First you choose the desired mode in the app on your phone, type in a password, and tap the flash drive to the back of your device. Even with the drive out of a computer, the access mode can be changed on the fly without having to delve deep into the computer’s drive utility.

In addition, the drive won’t even show up as an active disk without unlocking it from the app. This additional layer of protection combines ease of use and innovative security features for those users who aren’t well versed in the science of encryption. The drive is set to launch in the fourth quarter of this year and will be available in sizes from eight to sixty four gigabytes.

• Intel unveils double-fast 128GB thumb drive

A prototype for a new high-speed thumb drive has surfaced at the Computex trade show in Taipei, and this prototype threatens to put your current USB drive to shame! The 128 gigabyte drive from Intel features a SanDisk solid-state-drive and runs on a thunderbolt connection. This portable powerhouse would provide transfer speeds twice as fast as the latest generation of USB, yet keep a similarly small form factor.

What’s more exciting is the recent announcement of Intel’s thunderbolt two connections, which further doubles transfer speeds to twenty gigabits per second. Because it’s simply a prototype for now, there’s no release date in sight. Fortunately, we can expect to see a number of other thunderbolt two products hit the shelves before the year is up.

Join us tomorrow!

And that’s your SiliconANGLE daily round-up for Monday, June 10, 2013.  For continuous coverage on tech innovation and daily breaking analysis join us mornings beginning at 8:30am CENTRAL here at NewsDesk on SiliconANGLE TV.

photo credit: Kris Krug via photopin cc