Peter Wells is on the show and we’ll talk about Soundcloud’s new advertising-supported rev share plan for artists. Is Soundcloud becoming TOO YouTube-like?

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Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Peter Wells, of Reckoner, Australia

Headlines

The Verge has been chatting with sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans who say September 30th is tentatively when a press announcement of the next version of Windows is scheduled. The OS, codenamed Threshold is expected to come out as a technical preview sometime in September or October. What is guessed by many to end up being called Windows 9, will have a new mini start menu, get rid of the charms bar, and have a few other UI tweaks. We might even get a version of the Cortana virtual assistant. It’s possible we’ll get detail son the unification of Windows RT and Windows Phone as well. 

Reuters, citing subscription tech news site The Information, reports that EBay told potential candidates for the job of Paypal CEO about a possible spinoff of Paypal. Whether that would mean part or all of Paypal would be spun off, we don’t know. Ebay recently resisted demands by activist shareholder Carl Icahn to separate PayPal from its parent company.

Engadget reports Comcast will officially launch its TV service over the Internet on several college campuses this year, including Bridgewater College, Drexel University, Emerson College, Lasell College and the University of Delaware. The service comes included with room and board and can only be used on campus, although among the 80 channels are ESPN and HBO which can be accessed off campus through the WatchESPN and HBO Go apps. Comcast hopes to add other universities soon. A company called Philo provides similar service to Harvard, Stanford and Yale. 

GigaOm reports the class action lawsuit put forth by Max Schrems Europe v Facebook campaign is going forward in Austria. The Vienna Regional Court gave Facebook Ireland four weeks to respond to the claimants’ accusations of widespread breaches of data protection law.

According to CNET, Google Chrome is now available for Cubans to download at google.co.cu. Google executives reportedly visited Cuba in June to push for greater Internet access. US sanctions make it difficult for US businesses to do anything in Cuba and Google hinted as much in their G+ post about the launch but hope to figure out how to make more tools available in sanctioned countries. This will surely be highly anticipated by the five percent of Cubans that US NGO Freedom House estimates have regular access to the Internet in Cuba.

The New York Times reports Soundcloud will begin to incorporate advertising in its audio streaming service, starting with Red Bull, Jaguar and Comedy Central. The revenue will mostly go to artists and labels. A new program called On Soundcloud Premier will let select organizations and indie artists join a revenue sharing plan. Big publishers like BMG all the way own to indies like rapper GoldLink are part of the first group in the Premier program. Soundcloud said they also plan to provide a subscription service that would allow listeners to pay to make the ads go away.

The Next Web reports iBeacon-based company Estimote is promoting something they call “nearables” as opposed to wearables. Estimote stickers have integrated accelerometer and temperature sensors and can work with more than just iBeacon. A developer kit is being unveiled today with 10 Estimote Stickers for $99. 

News From You

tm204 submitted the MIT News post about a paper describing how to take discarded car batteries and recycles materials from them into longer-lasting solar panels. The panels use a compound called perovskite which requires lead. Rather than produce the lead from raw ore, the researchers can take the lead from one car battery and make enough solar panels to power 30 households. The paper will appear in in Energy and Environemental Science by professors Angela M. Belcher and Paula T. Hammond, graduate student Po-Yen Chen, and three others.

bmbuffalo posted the imgur gallery showing how a fully fucntional 1 Kilobyte hard drive was made by a user called smelly string in Minecraft. A second, larger unit created by The0JJ can store 4KB of data. The devices use Redstone to power pistons that represent binary values by pushing a solid or clear block in front of the redstone signal. Solid blocks are used as ones and clear blocks as zeroes.

funkaround sends along a Wired.com article with the depressing news that Apple’s iMesssage is being taken over by spammers, specifically those hawking fake luxury goods. According to one security analyst, iMessage is a “spammers dream” because it spans the entire Apple ecosystem and Apple scripts can churn out masses of messages. You can report spam to Apple in a tedious process involving taking screenshots or just turn off iMessage until Apple gets the hint.

tekkyn00b pointed out the Android Central article that T-Mobile is heating up the US mobile wars offering a free year of unlimited LTE service if a customer can get someone to switch from Sprint, Verizon or AT&T to T-Mobile. That means the referrer and the new customer both get the free year. Sprint for its part has offered an unlimited talk, text and data plan for $60 a month. 

Discussion Links: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/business/media/popular-and-free-soundcloud-is-now-ready-for-ads.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/business/media/popular-and-free-soundcloud-is-now-ready-for-ads.html

http://blog.soundcloud.com/2014/08/21/introducing-on-soundcloud/

http://thisisadynasty.tumblr.com/post/87945465547/brb-deleting-soundcloud

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/08/21/soundcloud-introduces-ads-first-time-brings-revenue-sharing-creators/

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/21/soundcloud-ads-musicians-major-labels

Plug of the Day:

Like tech history? I’ve teamed up with Scott Johnson to put out monthly looks at what happened in history this month. For 99 cents you get what happened on each day of the month that helped make the tech we sue today, plus illustrations from Scott Johnson. The latest book covering things that happened in September, JUST hit the store today! Check it out for 99 cents each at tommerrittbooks.com or just search Amazon.

Pick of the Day: You Need A Budget via Mike Reed

I would like to suggestion YNAB (You Need a Budget) as a pick. This is a great piece of software, and set of basic rules to assist you in managing your finances. Their software is not cheap at $60, but it is very much worth it. There is a Windows and Mac version for the desktop, and iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire for mobile. The killer feature is Dropbox synchronization. I can be at the grocery store, make my purchase and as I walk out of the store, input the transaction into my mobile device. It immediately updates through Dropbox to any other client, and shows me what the budget for that category was, and what it is now. The company is extremely supportive with numerous live classes to learn the process and software, and a great and helpful online community. I recommend this software to people who need help, and people who don’t. It is a great way to stay on top of your finances, and set great goals for the future.

Friday’s Guest: Darren Kitchen of hak5.org and Len Peralta of all the arts!

Jeff Cannata is on the show. We’ll talk about Twitter’s new policy of removing photos of dead family members and how it ran right into free speech issues with the videos of reporter James Foley’s death.

MP3

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A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Molly Wood is on the show and while we celebrate the movement of Ballmer from tech mogul to eccentric sports owner, we also ponder why Uber and others seem to think they can make Webvan and Kozmo’s business models work again.

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Molly Wood, deputy technology editor for The New York Times, yo!

Headlines

The HTC One (M8) for Windows Phone became a reality today and likely the longest name in smartphones. It’s essentially the same as the Android M8 but only available in a 32GB version. It’s available in the US to start, from Verizon for $99 on contract. 

The Next Web reports that former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has stepped down from the company’s board of directors so he can focus on his new role as owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team. Ballmer plans to remain Microsoft’s biggest individual shareholder, but wrote in a public letter to CEO Satya Nadella that it would be “impractical” to remain on the board with his other time commitments.

Android Police has some secret unconfirmed source of info about Google’s upcoming subscription music service, which they say will be called YouTube Music Key. The new service will offer offer ad-free music, audio-only playback for background or screen-off listening, and offline playback. YouTube Music Key will allegedly be free for the first 30 days, after which the service will run $9.99/month. According to Android Police, that price will include both YouTube Music Key and Google Play Music Key, the new name of Google Music All Access.

Engadget reports that Dropbox-owned Mailbox has begun rolling out early access to its desktop email client. If you are a current Mailbox user or signed up for the beta, you should be issued a betacoin as well as a few more betacoins to share with friends. The rollout goes in batches so you may not receive your betacoin right away. The software runs on OS X Mavericks and shares several features with the popular mobile app. The company has not decided on a release date for the final version.

The Next Web reports Uber has launched a test service called ‘Corner Store’ in parts of Washington DC. For a couple weeks you’ll be able to choose an Uber driver from the corner store tab who can deliver you various convenience store items like toothpaste, shampoo, aspirin, etc. When you’ve selected an available driver, you’ll confirm your address, then get a link to a list of available items and prices, then choose your items if available, then wait for a call from the driver to place your order, then when the driver arrives you go outside and confirm your order. It’s that EASY! —- Also Uber hired President Obama’s former campaign manager David Plouffe to be Senior Vice President of Policy and Strategy.

The Next Web passes along details from an IDC report that Q2 shipments of smartphones in India grew 84 percent year over year. Overall though feature phones still made up 71% of all shipments, meaning there’s plenty of room for that skyrocketing smartphone market to continue to rocket into the sky. Micromax was India’s overall top mobile phone shipper, while Samsung topped the smartphone category.

News From You

tm204 submitted a subscription only report by The Information that we know not everybody can afford to read — so we also found a story from CNET —about Google’s attempts to find new users by offering some of its services to children. This would include a child-safe version of YouTube featuring a dashboard to let parents monitor their children’s activity. Any new version of the site targeted at kids would need to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which imposes restrictions on web companies targeting children under 13 years old. Most big tech companies shy away although kid-focused businesses like Disney and Nickelodeon have found plenty of ways to work within the law.

magoojc posted the Ars Technica article about a settlement between Personal Audio LLC and Adam Carolla over a patent dispute that affected podcasting. Both sides filed a joint motion to dismiss and agreed to a quiet period until Sept. 30. Both the lawsuite and Carolla’s countersuit were dropped without prejuice meaning they could be refiled. Personal Audio is still suing CBS, NBC and Fox over video-on-demand services. The EFF is challenging the Personal Audio patent in an “inter partes review” being conducted at the US Patent Office.

Sewell2 pointed out the Ars Technica story about Delaware’s “Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets and Digital Accounts Act,” which gives heirs and executors the authority to take legal control of a digital account or device. Right now under California law for instance, if I die, my heir does not have the right to access any of my Twitter accounts. However some oppose the law as it makes no provision for confidential records, such as those of patients stored in a deceased Doctor’s email account.  

Discussion Links: Uber’s doing what now?

http://blog.uber.com/cornerstore

http://blog.uber.com/cornerstoreinventorylist

http://blog.uber.com/RUSH

http://blog.uber.com/uberMOVERS

http://recode.net/2014/08/07/instant-replay-the-second-coming-of-on-demand-delivery/

http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/19/6045095/uber-cornerstore-delivery-service

http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/04/wunwun-because-everything-should-be-available-on-demand/

https://www.instacart.com/faq

http://mercurystartups.com/node/14

https://www.therealreal.com/about

http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/19/uber-corner-store-turns-the-transit-app-into-a-delivery-service-for-daily-staples/

http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/15/uber-to-test-moving-services-in-atlanta-nashville/

Plug of the Day: Alpha Geek Radio

Pick of the Day: Battery Doctor via Jamie Brand

I’ve been using this app for awhile now and I swear by it. It’s called Battery Doctor and it frees up memory on your phone. Whenever I launch a game or memory intensive app, I will run this to free up some memory. It’s free and available for iOS and Android phones.

The real reason I’m making this a pick for you however, is a feature they added recently. You are now able to setup a service called One Tap Boost, and after a quick settings profile is setup, it will add a boost icon to your springboard. One tap will now quickly free up memory for you without having to open the main Battery app, and it also closes automatically once you’re done! A great app for those who use several apps throughout the day!

Wednesday’s Guest: Jeff Cannata, co-host of a brand new comedy podcast called We Have Concerns

Alex Hanna joins the show to talk about the leaked Moto 360 watch, Twitter messing with your stream, and updates tot he Xbox One that make it easy for Microsoft to take your money.

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Alex Hanna, web developer and host of Diamond Dialogue

Headlines:

MacRumors spotted some pictures on Chinese website Dianxinshouji.com of a purported Apple lightning cable with a reversible USB end. The USB 3.1 Type C cables will come with reversible USB on both ends. But these alleged Apple cables fit into a current Type A USB port by making the connector thinner. Ars Technica reports a company called Tripp Light offers reversible USB Type-A cables.

Mashable reports that a Best Buy spokesperson confirmed that a page for the Moto 360 was accidentally published on the store’s website over the weekend. The page listed the device for $250 with a 1.5-inch round backlit LCD face and voice-activation. It would run Android Wear and be water resistant as well as available in silver or gray. The Moto 360 is expected to be announced at Motorola’s September 4th press event in Chicago.

ReCode reports Twitter started experimenting with surfacing posts favorited by people you follow, making favorite work like retweet. The favorite is used by a lot of people to bookmark something or sometimes to silently compliment or even be sarcastic about a post. Making it work like retweet seems like it would be redundant to make it work like retweet.

TechCrunch reports US hospital operator Community Health Systems announced that attackers have stolen about 4.5 million records with patient names, addresses, birth data, phone numbers and SSNs. The data seems to have been stolen between April and June of this year. Community Health Systems will offer identity theft protection to all the patients whose data was stolen.

GigaOm reports that Softbank announced Monday it will be the exclusive carrier for a new smartphone from Sharp, called the Aquos Crystal. The phone will come in two screen sizes, 5-inch 720p and 5.5-inch 1080p both with a Snapdragon 400 CPU and 1.5 GB of RAM. Both phones have almost no bezel meaning the front is almost all screen. The 5.5-inch Aquos Crystal X will arrive in December with the 5-inch version coming to Japan August 29th. The Acquos Crystal is expected to be available later in the US on Softbank-owned Sprint.

GigaOm reports Uber is no longer banned in Berlin as the company has lodged an appeal. The prohibition of Uber is suspended until the case is resolved. Uber did not stop operations after the ban was issued last week.

Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen has a new game called Swing Copters. The Verge says the game will be free to play with a small ad or dollar to play ad free.You essentially tap to lift a character with a propeller hat up and avoid swinging hammers. Touch Arcade says the game should be available in the iOS app store on Thursday. 

Everybody who’s been yelling that Nintendo should make games for mobile can shut up now. Bloomberg affiliate the Pokemon Co. announced a trading card game for the iPad. There is already a Pokemon trading card game for the desktop. The iPad game will come to the US and Europe though a release date was not announced.

Engadget has a great story about a violinist named Roger Frisch who started experiencing tremors, but only while he was playing. Doctors determined that he needed a brain pacemaker, but in order to know exactly where to implant the device, they needed a little musical assistance. The patient stayed awake during the surgery and played violin with a special bow, equipped with a motion-tracking device– when Frisch played steadily the surgeons knew their equipment was in the right place. The operation was a success, a link to the video will be in the show notes, or you can just wait for Season 11 of Grey’s Anatomy. 

News From You:

jaymz668 submitted a How-t-Geek article about how shocked, shocked they are to find fake versions of programs in the Windows Store. The smokingest of the guns they found were several links to fake VLC media players that charged you money and then just linked you to the real VLC app. They found loads of other examples, some that don’t even have Windows Store versions like iTunes. Microsoft certifies Windows store apps for content compliance before making them available and has offered promotions where they paid developers $100 for every app accepted in the store. Howtogeek did not claim any of the apps had malware.

tm204 wants to know: Are you feeling a bit confused? Do you lay awake at night, wondering whether all those terrible new stories in your feed are legitimately outrageous or just outrageously funny? Well, you may be suffering from Satire Awareness Deficiency. Or as it’s know around here, SAD. According to Mashable, Facebook is testing out a new tag to help SAD users distinguish fact from funny. How will it work? The tag will put the word SATIRE in front of SATIRICAL ARTICLES from publications such as The Onion. But how you ask, will the algorithm determine which articles from The Onion are satiric, and which are legitimate reviews of your new TV show? Don’t worry, if there’s anyone I trust to know comedy, it’s an algorithm. 

Metalfreak pointed out the LinuxGizmos post about a non-profit spinoff from the UNiversity of Cambridge called lowRISC is developing an open-source 64-bit SoC that hopes to enable fully open hardware from the CPU to the development board. The SoC is based on the new 64-bit RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture out of UC-Berkely. RISC-V comapres favorably to the 32-bit ARM Cortex-A5. You can find out more at http://www.lowrisc.org/

Discussion Links: 

http://www.cnet.com/news/xbox-one-august-update-lets-you-buy-and-download-games-remotely/#ftag=CAD590a51e

http://www.cnet.com/news/major-xbox-one-update-rolls-out-to-preview-members/

http://majornelson.com/2014/08/17/next-xbox-one-update-begins-rolling-today/

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/smartglass

http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2014/08/18/xbox-one-august-update-starts-rolling-today-bringing-new-activity-feed-mobile-purchases/

Plug of the day: Daily Tech News Show Shirt  with Mustafa from thepolarcat.com’s logo now available in white, black and Ash. Look in the podcasts section.

Pick of the Day: 

 

Tuesday’s Guest: Molly Wood!

Brian Ibbott is on the show and we’ll talk about 50 Cent’s new earbuds that measure your heart rate and the way the ice bucket challenge for ALS is revealing subtle secrets about tech moguls. And Len Peralta is here to illustrate the episode!

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Breki Tomasson joins us and we’ll talk about why everyone hates Uber. At least every city government, it seems. Berlin is the latest to ban the ride sharing service.

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
Today’s guest: Breki Tomasson, founder and host of the CSICON podcasting network

Headlines

The Berlin Senate’s State Department for Civil and Regulatory Affairs ordered Uber to stop infringing passenger transportation law with its service. The Senate is concerned for passenger safety with unlicensed drivers as well as insurance to cover the drivers themselves. Uber says they have insurance but they still face €25,000 fines for every ride in violation. Uber also will appeal the decision and believes it can continue service.

NPR reports that the Knight Foundation commissioned data analysis firm Quid to analyze responses to the US FCC’s request for feedback to its proposed Open Internet guidelines. About half the responses were derived from templates which is low compared to the 80% templated response to financial regulation. Two types of responses were not part of organized talking points. One focused on maintaining a diversity of opinion. The other invoked meritocracy and the idea that people should be able to compete equally. Quid was founded by NASA scientist Sean Gourley and former Yelp product manager Bob Goodson.

Robin Williams daughter Zelda announced she was leaving social media for a “good long time” after some users posted offensive images and messages to her in the wake of her father’s death. The Washington Post reports Twitter says they have suspended the offenders, and will not tolerate abuse “of this nature.” Twitter’s VP of trust and safety said the site will further improve policies adding, “This includes expanding our policies regarding self-harm and private information, and improving support for family members of deceased users.”

Engadget reports YouTube has refreshed the apps it makes for TV with it’s new Material Design look. It includes features already available on smartphones including a guide that pops up on the left, latest videos from subscriptions and curated channels. The new look is available now on the Xbox One and will roll out to other streaming devices over the next few weeks.

Following in the footsteps of tech luminaries Satya Nadella and Mark Zuckerberg, Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller has taken the infamous ice bucket challenge, in which you or someone you know dumps a bucket of ice water on your head in order to raise awareness and money to fight the nerve-disorder ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Schiller then challenged Apple CEO Tim Cook. Don’t forget it’s all meant to help http://alsa.org/

The Wall Street Journal reports that Africell, an African telco run from Lebanon has received approval to move into Uganda where they will take over Oranges former operations. The company has a long road ahead of it to combat giant incumbents like MTN, Vodafone, Safaricom and Bharti Airtel. But Africell is the market leader in Sierra Leone and Gambia and hopes to continue to expand by targeting smaller markets where it can grow fast. Chief Executive Ziad Dalloul noted the carrier has seen boosts in subscriber revenue because data use has been doubling every six months.

News From You

kyro5976 posted the Ars Technica story about Ryan Lackey of CloudFlare and Marc Rogers of Lookout discussing their project called Personal Onion Router To Assure Liberty (PORTAL), the a pre-built software image for an inexpensive pocket-sized “travel router”. The idea is to make existing encryption and privacy tools always there so you can’t forget to turn them on. Portal includes the full capabilities of Tor—including pluggable transports that help foil network monitoring tools. The system is only available as a GITHUB download for now but the aim is to make it available in an easier way.

spsheridan passes along a 9 to 5 mac report that Apple has announced it will explicitly prohibit benzene tied to leukemia and n-hexane which may cause nerve damage from its iPhone and iPad assembly process. Chinese and American labor watchdog groups petitioned the company to investigate whether the chemicals were being used. Apple conducted a four-month study, and claims there is no evidence that workers health was being put at risk but they have updated their restrictions to explicitly ban the two chemicals from the final assembly process.

ccastro425 pointed out the Engadget story that a leaked internal memo published by TMO News indicates that starting August 17, T-Mobile USA will start warning customers that use high levels of data on their unlimited LTE plans, that they may be throttled. T-Mobile claims they are targeting customers who have bypassed the default tethering feature or engaged in peer-to-peer file sharing. Users who don’t respond to the warning will have their speeds throttled for the remainder of the billing cycle. 

MikePKennedy posted the Verge article that Lenovo now sells more smartphones than PCs. Smartphone sales more than doubled for the company between April and June. Lenovo sold 15.8 million smartphones last quarter compared to 14.5 million PCs. 

Discussion Links:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-14/uber-faces-wrath-of-berlin-cabbies-as-car-sharing-app-flouts-ban.html

http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/aktuell/pressebox/archiv_volltext.shtml?arch_1408/nachricht5326.html

http://blog.uber.com/berlinchoice

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/08/14/uber-pits-itself-against-taxi-booking-apps-with-launch-of-ubertaxi-in-hong-kong/

http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/14/6002831/uber-berlin-ban-taxi-app

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/14/uber-taxi-service-banned-berlin-safety-grounds

http://gigaom.com/2014/08/14/uber-flouts-berlin-ban-despite-the-fact-that-its-drivers-face-massive-fines-for-non-compliance/

Plug of the day:  Take This

Kung Fu Drafter sent us a note saying “given the tragedy of Robin Williams death and the fact that many of my geekier friends (and myself) deal with depression, I thought I would remind my online friends of the site takethis.org” Take This promotes awareness and education of mental health issues and empathy for those suffering from emotional distress with the goal of eradicating the stigma of mental illness.

They just redesigned the site to make it easier for people, to find information about what they or someone they know might be experiencing. They’ll be at PAX Prime in Seattle with a dedicated space called the AFK Room, where people can take a break and regain their calm.

Share your story, volunteer, or donate at takethis.org.

Pick of the Day:  ACLU’s Know Your Rights pamphlet

With the ongoing events in Ferguson, Missouri, today seems like a good time to brush up on your rights as a citizen, or as a visitor to the United States, when it comes to matters of law enforcement. Now you may not be in, or anywhere near Ferguson, Missouri. But you might be at conference someday, or at a sporting event where things get out of hand, or holding a computer in a public place at the wrong time. So Producer Jennie, who has had several disappointing run-ins with various law enforcement agencies in her past life as a news producer, would like you to know that the ACLU has a handy booklet entitled “Know Your Rights” which is downloadable at ACLU.org. Producer Jennie would also like to remind you that in a chaotic unfolding situation, the best thing to do is NOT to yell about knowing your rights to a bunch of upset law enforcement officials, but rather to get to safety as quickly as possible. 

You can use your phone to film the police, even if they tell you not to: Read up on those rights and restrictions here: 

http://gigaom.com/2014/08/14/you-can-use-your-phone-to-film-the-police-even-if-they-tell-you-not-to/

Friday’s guests: Brian Ibbott and Len Peralta

Adam Curry joins us to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Daily Source Code show and podcasting as we know it.

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
Today’s guest: The Podfather, Adam Curry of the No Agenda podcast and curry.com

Headlines

James Bamford, author of the Puzzle Palace and Shadow Factory published an account on Wired of his 3 days spent interviewing Edward Snowden in Moscow. Among the many revelations, Snowden cites two main discoveries that caused him to do what he did. On was the data center built in Blufdale, Utah to store intercepted data. For the other, he describes a tool called MonsterMind that would monitor all digital communications and ‘auto fire’ without human supervision if it detected an attack. Snowden also claims he was told the US caused the Internet outage in Syria in 2012 when covert software installation on an ISP went wrong. He also expresses disapproval of cyberattacks on China which he says target civilian institutions like universities and hospitals. 

Samsung announced the Galaxy Alpha, a 4.7-inch Android phone with a metal ring around it that causes many reporters to write the word ‘iPhone.’. The screen is 720p, runs on Samsung’s octa-core Exynos with 2 GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The Alpha will come in five colors and be available at the beginning of September. No word yet on price.

The Next Web reports WeChat now has 438 million active users, up from 396 million last quarter and hot on the tail of Facebook’s WhatsApp with its 500 million users. The gains come in spite of the fact that 20 million Chinese WeChat accounts were closed last quarter due to a new law that requires public account owners in China to register real identities and receive permission to disseminate news. 

You may have heard that the Internet broke recently because of the 512K limit. The problem is that global routing tables, which must be stored on every border router, have grown to the maximum number of routes supported on some older hardware platforms. That number os 524,288 or 2^19. Jim Cowie at Renesys writes that the situation is more of an annoyance than a threat. All of the routers that operate core infrastructure have plenty of room and are unaffected. Affected routers may cause local connectivity problems but those can be quickly identified and hardware upgraded. Thx to CdrMarks.

News From You

spsheridan submitted the story of a murder suspect who allegedly asked Siri where to bury a body. Ars Technica reports Gainesville, Florida detective Matt Goeckel presented evidence in court Tuesday showing the suspect telling Siri, “I need to hide my roommate.” The Gainesvilel PD has clarified that the queries in the screenshot were not necessarily connected to the alleged murder.

KAPT_Kipper submitted an Engadget report that Amazon is stepping into the ring ‘em up fight with Square, unveiling Local Register, a credit-card reader and app for small businesses. The online retailer is offering a flat charge of 1.75 percent per payment until January 2016, compared to the 2.75 percent charged by Square and the 2.7 percent charged by Paypal. (The fee rises to 2.5 percent on Jan 2, 2016). The card reader costs $10 and is available for Android, iOS, and Fire devices, and a bundle that includes a Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 for $380.

Turns out Amazon v Square was just the undercard. KAPT_Kipper, our designated grudge match correspondent, also submits a Tech Crunch report thathttp://techcrunch.com/2014/08/12/uber-lyft-slap-fight/, compared to the 5,000 cancellations that Lyft alleges were generated by Uber. TechCrunch reached out to Uber to see how the company is getting that 13,000 number, but until then perhaps the two mobile-car hailing companies can settle this the old-fashioned way, with a drag race down main street at midnight. 

Discussion Links:
http://radio-weblogs.com/0001014/categories/dailySourceCode/2004/08/13.html

http://blog.curry.com/2014/01/15/theDailySourceCodeArchiveProject.html

http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/08/10-years-of-podcasting-code-comedy-and-patent-lawsuits/

http://radio-weblogs.com/0001014/2003/10/12.html#a4604

Plug of the day:  Alpha Geek Radio: mobile.alphageekradio.com

Pick of the Day:  Satechi Universal Smartphone Slot Mount via Artem Russakovskii

Hey Tom, I just listened to the episode where you mentioned the need to get a phone mount for your car. Just like you, I was into the concept of dash mounts for years, but none really worked the way I wanted them to, and I’ve tried many. Someone recommended a CD slot mounted… well, mount. And I have to tell you – it has fulfilled all my desires, for under $20. Nobody uses CDs anymore, so why not put the CD slot to good use instead? It’s located in a much more convenient place that’s both closer to you and doesn’t obstruct the view. It’s sturdy and doesn’t move unless you want it to (it does swivel every which way). The mount easily expands to fit a large phablet (my Note 3 and OnePlus One had no issues at all).
The mount is made by Satechi, a company with great history and track record: Just like it already did for many people, it will change your life. It changed mine, and everyone I’ve recommended it to loved it so far.

Check out The Novelization Realization, a podcast by Rich in Lovely Cleveland

http://novelizationrealization.tumblr.com/

Thursday’s guest: Breki Tomasson

Allison Sheridan is on the show today. We’ll cover the big GamesCon announcements like Skylander, how Viv will beat Siri’s pants off, and why women spend more money on and are more loyal to mobile games. Won’t you join us?

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

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A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Allison Sheridan, host of The NosillaCast on podfeet.com

Headlines

Microsoft delivered a slate of Xbox news at GamesCon in Cologne , Germany. CNET compiled a list of the announcements. The Xbox will get an exclusive on “Rise of the Tomb Raider” set to arrive in late 2015. The Xbox One will get DLNA support for media centers as well as the ability to playback media from USB. Two new bundles are coming. An all-white Xbox One with “Sunset Overdrive” will sell for $400 w/o Kinect on 10/28/ and “Call of Duty Advanced Warfare” with a specially skinned Xbox One and 1TB hard drive arrives fro $500 November 3. Among several other game-related announcements, the Halo 5: Guardians beta begins December 29.

Bloomberg has talked with the secret society of “people with knowledge of the matter” and THEY say Apple’s suppliers have started manufacturing new 9.7-inch iPads. A new version of the 7.9-inch iPad mini is also entering production. A different group known as “people familiar with the situation” have said Apple will make announcements on Sept. 9.

Lyft gave some data to CNN which apparently shows 177 Uber employees ordered and canceled more than 5,000 rides from the rival company since October 2013. Lyft drivers complained that even when they don’t cancel they sometimes take short low-profit rides in which they try to convince Lyft drivers to come work for Uber. Uber told Ars Technica the claims are “patently false,” although Uber does run promotions to get riders and driver to convince other drivers to come work for Uber. 

GigaOm reports Apple is the latest in a string of tech companies releasing diversity reports. Of Apple’s 98,000 employees, 55% identify as white, 15% Asian, and 7% black. 70% are male, which is about the same as Google and Facebook. If you don’t count retail stores, 35% of Apple employees are women, but if you further limit it to tech roles, it drops to 20%. In Apple’s leadership team, 64% are white, 21% Asian, and 72% male. 

Wired has an excellent Steven Levy write-up about Viv Labs attempt to make a truly intelligent digital assistant in the mode of Siri. Viv’s cofounders Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham all created Siri. For two years they’ve been working on Viv. The difference between Viv and Siri is that Viv should be able to learn on the fly and understand requests it wasn’t pre-programed to. For example take “Give me a flight to Dallas with a seat that Shaq could fit in?” Siri would search the Web for keywords. Viv will generate its own program to link information from Kayak, SeatGuru and an old NBA Media Guide. Viv is designed on three pillars: It will be taught by the world, it will know more than it is taught, and it will learn something every day. 

BBC News reports that Activision’s putting out a version of Skylander for tablets. Skylander is a free game where kids unlock in-game content by buying RFID enhanced action figures and placing them on a base station,— which IN TURN unlocked 2 billion dollars in sales for Activision. The tablet version will also be free. To use the figurines, you’ll need a new version of the portal base which connects by Bluetooth. The app comes out for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire in October.

Sony had its share of Gamescon announcements in Cologne as well. The company announced it sold 10 million PS4 consoles worldwide. Sold not shipped. A new feature called “Share Play” will come inSystem update 2.0 and allow your friends to join a game or take over the controls from anywhere even if they don’t own the game. NBA2K, Towerfall and Child of Light were all mentioned as implemtning SharePlay. Europe got a couple announcements. PlayStation Now the game streaming service, won’t arrive until sometime in 2015. However, Sony’s PlayStation TV, essentially a Vita in console form will come to Europe November 14th for99 euros.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/08/share-play-will-let-you-play-any-ps4-game-with-friends-online/

http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/12/sony-teases-a-virtual-couch-mode-for-ps4-multiplayer-even-if-your-friend-doesnt-own-the-game/?ncid=rss

http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/12/sony-playstation-tv-europe/?ncid=rss_truncated

News From You

ancrod2 posted the Washington Post story that the US FCC has established a task force to study misuse of surveillance technology that intercepts cellular signals to locate people, monitor calls, and send malicious software. The tech described is an IMSI catcher often called “Stingray” and is widely used by police and intelligence services. The devices work by mimicking cell towers. The FCC wants to determine the extent to which criminals and foreign intelligence services use the technology against US citizens. 

Hurmoth pointed out the 9to5 Mac story that the USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced the USB Type C connector is ready for production. The new smaller USB port features a reversible connector. Its powerful enough that one design can work for both PCs and mobile devices. The spec allows for 10 Gbps speed and USB Power Delivery of up to 100W. 

habichuelcondulce and TexasTeacher both submitted links about Tim Davis. Who is Tim Davis? Well, if you’re one of the many people who’ve been feeling a little empty inside because there’s been no outrageous Comcast customer service call lately, Tim Davis is your new best friend. Davis moved to a new apartment, and chose to self-install his Comcast wireless equipment. Everything worked just fine for a few weeks. Until it didn’t. A Comcast technician was dispatched, and discovered a problem with the wires outside. Since the problem was out of Davis’s control, he was told there would be no cost to him. On a call. Which he SECRETLY RECORDED. Then he got the bill. And lo, there were charges. Almost two hundred dollars worth, including a failed self-install. So Davis called again. And things did Not Go Well. But that crafty Tim Davis, he had a SECRET RECORDING, which he played for the Comcast rep. And only because of this SECRET RECORDING, he got his money back. So Comcast customers, perhaps its time to start SECRETLY RECORDING every single call you make to Comcast. Ever. Needless to say the link to this SECRET RECORDING will be in the show notes.

Discussion Links:

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/08/08/report-women-are-more-engaged-and-spend-more-than-men-when-it-comes-to-mobile-games/

http://www.flurry.com/blog/flurry-insights/mobile-gaming-females-beat-males-money-time-and-loyalty#.U-pbDoBdXA7

http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/09/women-gamers-are-spending-more-time-in-the-mobile-gaming-sphere-than-men-says-report/

Plug of the day: The Sword and Laser Anthology collects 20 amazing stories from new writers in the Sword and Laser book club audience. 10 SciFi and 10 fantasy stories with an introduction by Patrick Rothfuss. Get a copy at the Sword And Laser Store.    

Pick of the Day: MouseWait via Producer Jennie.

Producer Jennie has returned from conducting very important business at Disneyland. While she was there she relied heavily on The Mousewait app.——— If you’re in the US and headed to Disneyworld in Florida or Disneyland & California Adventure in Anaheim, CA, the MouseWait app uses close to real-time data from their dedicated social community to post wait times and fast pass availability for every ride and popular food spots in both parks. The app also features an overall crowd index, a programmable To-Do list and a lively community posting advice. I rigorously field-tested the app, on our past two trips and found it impressively accurate. The app is ad-supported and free, and available on iphone for both parks and on Android just for Disneyland so far. If you want to learn more about it, check out mousewait.com

Wednesday’s guest: The Podfather, Adam Curry of the No Agenda podcast and curry.com

Nate Lanxon is on the show today to chat about the Hachette-Amazon spat, as well as a little on Broadwell chips and the $300 million 60 Tb/s cable Google wants to lay.

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
The New York Times spoke with three Apple employees about a training program known as Apple University. Steve Jobs started the program in 2008 and hired the dean of Yale’s School of Management to head it. Classes are described using things like Picasso’s “The Bull” to illustrate simplification. The classes are taught year-round tailored to particular positions within the company.

CNET reports Intel’s long-delayed 14 nm Broadwell chips are finally in significant production. Intel said the first systems using Core M, the lowest power Broadwell variant, will hit store shelves during the holiday season. Most Broadwell powered devices will come in 2015. The Core M “enables less than 9 millimeter fanless two-in-ones for the first time from Intel. Core M is 50% smaller, 30% thinner and has a 60% lower power idle than Haswell.

The Next Web reports Google has joined an effort to create a Trans-Pacific cable system called Faster by Q2 2016. Google joins China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, Global Transit, KDDI, and SingTel, with NEC as the system supplier of the $300 million project. FASTER will feature 6-fiber-pair cable and optical transmission with expected capacity of 60Tb/s connecting the West coast of the US with Chikura and Shima Japan.

GigaOm reports Microsoft announced the Nokia 130 Monday, on sale for €19. The candybar styled handset runs Nokia OS and can play music and display videos on its 1.8-inch screen. http://gigaom.com/2014/08/11/microsoft-debuts-e19-phone-and-no-it-doesnt-run-windows-phone/
Huawei told Shanghai’s China Business News that the company plans to phase out more than 80% of its low-end mobile phones in the second-half of this year. Huawei says the majority of low-end phones it makes are for carriers, not because of customer demand. Huawei intends to focus on branding its own models.

Reuters reports Xiaomi rolled out a software upgrade Sunday to fix a loophole in its cloud messaging system that triggered unauthorized collection of data from user’s contacts. Xiaomi Vice President Hugo Barra apologized for the unauthorized data collection and said the company only collects phone numbers in users’ address books to see if the users are online. The messaging system will be opt-in from now on and numbers sent to Xiaomi will be encrypted and not stored.

NEWS FROM YOU
MikePKennedy sent the Engadget story that Acer announced a new 13-inch ChromeBook with a 1080p HD display and a claimed 13 hours of battery life running a quad-core Tegra K1 chip from Nvidia. That makes the $299 laptop the first with an NVIDIA processor inside.

dbrodbeck posted the Wired article by Mat Honan reporting his experience after liking everything he saw on Facebook for two days. After the first hour of the experiment the humans were gon from his feed. Content mills rose to the top and it became about brands. His entire feed was filled with Huffing ton Post and Upworthy. It also littered his friends feeds with all the things he liked.

Plug of the day: Alpha Geek Radio – mobile and regular

Discussion Story

Hachette CEO: “More than 80% of the ebooks we publish are priced at $9.99 or lower” — Tech News and Analysis

Amazon Drags Authors, Readers and George Orwell Into Its Fight With Hachette | Re/code

Amazon puts Disney DVD and Blu-ray pre-orders on hold in latest contract dispute | The Verge

An Important Kindle request

If you love books then you should be rooting for Amazon, not Hachette or the Big Five — Tech News and Analysis

Authors United

Amazon and Hachette: The dispute in 13 easy steps – LA Times

Much at Stake in Amazon-HBG Fight

German Publishers Seek Amazon Inquiry – NYTimes.com

Amazon’s E-Books Antitrust Clash in Germany on EU Radar – Bloomberg

Calendar
EA’s new subscription service is now available to all Xbox One owners, not just beta participants. The service gives you unlimited access to select EA games for $4.99 a month or $29.99 per year

In 1950 – Steve Wozniak was born in San Jose, California. He would grow up to invent the first successful personal computer, and revolutionize desktop computing.

In 1965 – Shinji Mikami was born in Japan. He grew up to become a video game designer for Capcom, revolutionizing survival-horror games with his popular series, Resident Evil.

Lockheed Martin has set the launch of DigitalGlobe’s high-resolution WorldView-3 satellite for August 13th. Its creators can start selling extra-sharp pictures (with detail down to the 10-inch level) six months after the craft is up and running.

Pick of the day:
Elder Scrolls Online from Nate Lanxon
Send your picks to feedbackatdailytechnewsshow.com and you can find MY picks at dailytechnewsshow.com/picks.

Messages of the day ([email protected])
Call from Dave in Orlando on Twitch

“Hi Tom & Jennie,

The head-up display discussed on Friday was provided by my car manufacturer. It really is very useful – showing my speed, turn-by-turn directions, etc. while keeping my eyes on the road. I also have my phone connected through bluetooth which allows me to see and interact with a limited amount of information such as audio tracks and incoming calls. And that’s it! I can’t read texts or email nor would I ever want to.

I look forward to seeing third party apps built into our cars (after all Waze is more accurate than my in-car sat nav), but there needs to be continued thoughtful consideration about what kinds of information drivers should be allowed to access.

Love the show!
Dave”

Thanks to Nate Lanxon

Tomorrow’s guest: Allison Sheridan of Nosillacast

Veronica Belmont is here to talk Twitch crackdowns and WarKittehs. Yes Kittens who hack WiFI. No kidding.

MP3

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes