Darren Kitchen is with us to talk Google’s Project Tango Tablet and the state of Drones in the world. They can deliver pizza in India! Also Len Peralta will illustrate the show!

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 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 guests: Darren Kitchen of hak5.org and Len Peralta of the arts

Headlines

The Next Web passes along info from the paywalled WSJ report that Google is working on a tablet that incorporates the 3D sensors from Project Tango. The 7-inch tablet has two back cameras along with infrared sensors. The last time we heard about Project Tango was in February when Goolge revealed a smartphone with the sensors could purportedly map surroundings in 3D. Google is allegedly prepping 4,000 Tango Tablets ahead of Google I/O which kicks off June 25.

The Wall Street Journal also reports, via Marketwatch that Samsung plans to unveil a smartwatch that works as a stand-alone phone within the next few months. It will also do normal smart watch-y things like take photos, send email and measure your heart rate.

Engadget reports Microsoft general counsel and executive VP Brad Smith recently revealed that the software giant successfully challenged an FBI National Security Letter that tried to seek basic information from one of its enterprise customers. The letter would have prevented Microsoft from telling the customer about the request. By the way, the FBI did receive the information they sought by lawfully requesting it from the customer in question directly.

Engadget reports that BBM Protected was shown at the Blackberry Experience event in Washington. The new service creates a random encryption key for each message sent on BBM, making data thieves jobs quite a bit tougher. BBM Protected will be available in an enterprise suite available for corporate-controlled Blackberrys starting in June. The feature will extend to consumer phones running BlackBerry Balance in the autumn and then on to Android and iOS users afterwards in early winter at the latest.

The Verge reports Twitter is complying with a Pakistani government request to block blasphemous or unethical content. The blocked material includes illustrations of the Prophet Muhammad, tweets from anti-Islam bloggers, and photographs of burning Qurans. Twitter has previously blocked neo-Nazi content in Germany and accounts deemed unlawful by the Turkish government.

PC Mag reports on a thermal imaging system developed by Metaio for use in Augmented Reality headsets. The Thermal Touch prototype attaches infrared and standard cameras to a tablet, which then tracks the heat signature left behind when you touch a surface. The tech can turn any surface into a touch screen letting users to “click” on merchandise on a magazine page, play a virtual game on an empty table, and more. The tech will be on display in Santa Clara, California at Augmented World Expo May 27-29.

News From You

dwsoulsby submitted the Engadget article about SpaceX owner Elon Musk posting a series of tweets implying United Launch Alliance was awarded an exclusive Air Force deal for 36 rocket launches because Roger Correll, the official in charge of the deal, was promised a job. Correll recently took a position with one of ULA’s suppliers, Aerojet Rocketdyne. Musk says SpaceX turned Correll down for a job. SpaceX is suing the Air Force over the contract. 

terapinrex pointed out The Next Web’s article about Lifelock pulling its Wallet app from Google, Amazon and Apple app stores. Lifelock CEO and Chairman Todd Davis wrote that certain aspects of the app may not be fully compliant with payment card industry standards. The next time users open the app their information will be deleted. Switching the phone to airplane mode before openign the app will give a user the chance back up important information before it gets deleted. 

Discussion Section Links: 

http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/23/google-said-to-be-working-on-a-tablet-with-project-tango-3d-vision-powers/

http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/20/google-launches-project-tango/
https://www.google.com/atap/projecttango/

http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/22/researchers-plug-googles-project-tango-into-a-drone-to-let-it-fly-itself-around-a-room/

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/congress-thinks-the-faa-is-not-well-positioned-to-regulate-drones

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-27537120

http://austin.twcnews.com/content/news/299372/wimberley-man-sues-faa-over-drone-policy

http://www.suasnews.com/2014/05/29305/washington-archdiocese-takes-to-the-heavens-with-a-drone/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeanders/2014/05/19/amazons-drone-team-is-hiring-look-at-these-nifty-job-ads/

Pick of the day:   

Monday is a headlines show.  Tuesday’s guest is: Shannon Morse of hak5.org 

Todd Whitehead joins us to talk about the madness of eBay’s password management post-hack and get a little more perspective on who might love the Surface 3.

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 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:   Todd Whitehead of Alpha Geek Radio

Headlines

GigaOm reports Facebook announced a series of measures Thursday to protect user’s privacy. A “Privacy checkup” will show up for users over the next several days explaining who sees the information they post. Facebook also is changing the default setting for new users from public to “friends only.”

Everybody’s imitating Oculus. Hell, Zenimax even claims Oculus is imitating Oculus and is filing in court to prove it. But were you expecting Samsung to get in this race? Engadget reports its sources say Samsung is developing a virtual reality headset for mobile with OLED displays and will unveil it later this year. Samsung apparently wants to beat Facebook’s Oculus Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus to the virtual punch. Developer versions of Samsung’s rig are powered by the Note 3 and Galaxy S5.

Also on the mobile game beat, VentureBeat reports TangiblePlay is unveiling an iPad accessory called Osmo. The iPad sits in a vertical stand with a mirror attached in front of the camera. This lets the iPad recognise small objects placed in front of it. The idea is to let kids plat games that make us of physical tabletop objects as well as the software on the tablet. Examples include games that use word tiles, puzzle pieces, or involve drawing on paper. Tangible Play hopes to raise $50,000 through crowdfunding on its website to get manufacturing started.

GigaOm reports Google weighed in on the paid peering, net neutrality topic Wednesday claiming that it’s Google Fiber service doesn’t charge for peering and doesn’t use “fast lanes” to prioritize traffic. Google invites content providers and CDNs to colocate in GFiber facilities. Google says that improves customer experience and saves the company money.

The Next Web reports CodeAcademy has translated its coding courses into French, Spanish and Portuguese. The company has also partnered with several initiatives, including Ideas Box which helps people in refugee camps learn new skills, Tiger Leap, an Estonian program attempting to teach every K-12 student how to code, and government initiatives in France, Brazil, Argentina and the UK. Coincidentally all major rugby or soccer powers. CodeAcademy also announced it plans to open its first international office in London.

PCMag reports HP has put it’s 7-inch HP 7 Plus quad-core tablet on sale in the US for $100. The tablet runs Andoird 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, has a 1024×600 display, a Cortex A7 processor, 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage. It also comes with 25GB of lifetime storage from Box. 

HP announced it’s Quarterly earnings with $X.XX billion in revenue and earnings per share of $X.X Analysts expected $27.4 billion in sales and $0.88 per share. Analysts expected a slowdown in enterprise but a firming up of PC sales.

News From You

 the_corley submitted the top story on the DTNS subreddit. Ars Technica reported on 27-year-old Nicholas Paul Knight pleading guilty Tuesday to charges of conspiracy in Federal Court. Knight is former Navy and was SysAdmin on the USS Harry S. Truman’s nuclear reactors department. He lde a team of attackers trying to gain unauthorized access to Navy databases. Knight himself attacked the Navy’s Smart Move website to gain 220,000 service members SSN birthdates, addresses and other personal data. Knight faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

ShaunDMcGee pointed us to the Engadget story that Apple says it has fixed a sever bug causing some former iMessage users who had switched to Android, to lose text messages. Apple says there is a remaining problem with the messaging platform it is still addressing. People moving off of iPhone are advised to manually disable iMessage before powering down for the last time. 

KAPT_Kipper put up the Geekwire story that US Sen. Patrick Leahy, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has killed the patent reform bill, which received bipartisan support in the House “because there is not sufficient support behind any comprehensive deal.” ” Internet Infrastructure Coalition Co-Founder Christian Dawson urged the Senate to take up the bill again. While Intellectual Ventures Chief Policy Counsel Russ Merbet said “the proposed legislation would have had severe consequences on legitimate patent holders.” So now you can guess who contributed more money to Leahy’s campaign funds.

the_corley also sent in an RD Mag story about a report appearing in the Chemistry of Materials journal by Umit B. Demirci and colleagues describing a practical way to store hydrogen as a solid. Storage and transportation of hydrogen has been a main impediment to the development of hydrogen fuel cells as an energy source. The researchers developed a novel crystal phase of a material containing lithium, boron and hydrogen, that can release the hydrogen by heating.

Discussion Section Links: EBay breach

http://www.troyhunt.com/2014/05/the-ebay-breach-answers-to-questions.html

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/22/us-ebay-connecticut-idUKBREA4L0WV20140522

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet-security/10848947/eBay-buckling-under-password-pressure.html

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-change-your-ebay-password/

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/05/after-the-breach-ebays-flawed-password-reset-leaves-much-to-be-desired/

http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/account/create-password.html

Pick of the day:   PopChar via Jeff the Graphic Designer

My pick of the day is PopChar (as in ‘character) a little Mac typography utility that helps me quickly insert those little arrows, dingbats, and symbols and so on, onto my web and print designs. It’s Mac only — and while it’s not free (it costs 30 Euros – about 40 dollars), it saves me a s*&^_load of time every day. Been using it for years and it’s rock solid. 

Friday’s guests: Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta! 

Josh Ong joins us today to talk about the Secret app coming to Android, and the secret of Lenovo’s success selling PCs. Will the US government ruin it for them?

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 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:  Josh Ong, US Editor at The Next Web

Headlines

Dear Hackers, Please stop: Our top vote-getter on the subreddit was submitted by GoodDoc today. The BBC reports eBay is forcing users to change passwords after discovering a database had been attacked and accessed between late February and early March. The database contained encrypted passwords and non-financial data. EBay has seen no evidence of unauthorized use. The attackers achieved access by obtaining employee login credentials. This is probably NOT a ploy to get people to visit eBay for the first time in years, but may have that effect.

More stuff that need different accessories: This morning Apple did not announce that they had purchased Beats. Also, Google didn’t buy Twitch. But Apple did announce a TV service. Nah, kidding. That didn’t happen either. BUT 9to5Mac reports Apple did absolutely confirm that their WWDC keynote will happen Monday, June 2nd at 10 AM Pacific Time and last about two hours. Enough facts. 9to5Mac’s sources say in addition to the expected updates to iOS and OS X, sources say Apple is planning to unveil new hardware. You can think iWatch, I’ll count on retina MacBook Airs.

‘Wait, what? I’m totally not listening to Katy Perry!’The Verge reports Facebook’s app for iOS and Android can now recognize songs and TV shows and add it to your status. “Audio recognition” starts listening as soon as you start typing a status update, and adds it to your status. You opt-in to the feature by tapping a button inside the status window. The feature will roll out gradually over the coming weeks. And Josh, you posted about Facebook adding adding free downloads of anti-malware software to its abuse detection and prevention systems for users with infected devices. A popup notifies Windows users when they attempt to log in that they may be infected.

Psssst, you smell: The Next Web reports the anonymous posting app ‘Secret’ has been released for Android and is available worldwide. You can view a friend-only timeline, take advantage of new posting options like questions that support responses, and see how many of your friends are actually on the network. The friend view is exclusive to Android for now, though it should follow soon.

Better late than never. I guess: VentureBeat reports Microsoft confirmed an update to the Xbox One in June will add support for external hard drives 256 GB and larger, by the USB 3.0 port. The June update will also introduce real names as an option. Yes PS4 users, you’ve already had both of these features for awhile. Activate smugness.

That’s wicked smaht: Josh also posted on The Next Web about SmartThings making more announcements about its home platform. A new certification program will test devices for integration with the platform. New apps for iOS and Android make it easier to add new devices. Sounds like SmartThings wants to become an app store for the smart home. 

Another day, another hack: Reuters reports a sophisticated group attacked a U.S. public utility and compromised its control system network, although there is no evidence operations were affected. The U.S. Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team has worked with the utility to put in place mitigation measures against future attacks. 

News From You

tomgehrke submitted the computerworld report that developers from CERN, birthplace of the Web, have launched an encrypted email service called ProtonMail. The system is browser-based and encrypts messages in the browser before they ever reach a server. In other words, nobody tapping or attacking the server can get your encryption keys and read your messages. ProtonMail was conceived by PhD student Andy Yen led the group that included more than 40 people at one point, including 4 PhD physicists. ProtonMail is currently in public beta and the team is working on Android and iOS apps. 

spsheridan sent in the Ars Technica story that the US state of California has approved rules to allow testing of autonomous vehicles on public roads. The rules go into effect September 16, 2014. While testing has happened previously in the state it was not standardized. Now testers need to apply for a testing permit, certify the drivers with a training program, and secure $5 million in insurance. The permit must be renewed yearly. 

KAPT_Kipper pointed out the Register report that a developer in London claims he accidentally received keys to NBC Universal’s websites because of a username mixup on GitHub. Glenn Shoosmith has the username Glenn. Apparently someone at NBC Universal tried to add a user named Glen to a private repository and when Glenn Shoosmith’s name was autosuggested, they selected it without noticing. The private repository contained all kinds of config files as well as secure Amazon Web Services secret keys and access token to their servers according to Shoosmith. He didn’t touch any of the items and notified NBC of the mistake. His only sign of a response was when the NBC repository disappeared from his dropdown of choices in GitHub.

Discussion Section Links:  Secret, on Android

http://gigaom.com/2014/05/21/anonymous-app-secret-launches-on-android-and-expands-worldwide/

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/05/21/secret-launches-android-dedicated-friend-feed-availability-everywhere-world/

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/05/21/us-china-lenovo-cybercrime-idINBREA4K0JB20140521

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-21/lenovo-profit-trails-estimates-as-phone-marketing-costs-increase.html

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/05/21/uk-cybercrime-usa-china-media-idUKKBN0E107K20140521

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/21/us-lenovo-results-idUSBREA4K04D20140521?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

Pick of the day:  Mpix via Loren Lang

If you’re into photography at any level, you usually reach a point where you want a print that’s a step (or more) above what you can get from your desktop photo printer or the machine at […insert name of national chain store here…]. Enter professional photo labs. There are a number of web services but Mpix is the best one I’ve dealt with. You can get all sorts of products from them (photo books, calendars, cards, etc) as well as high quality prints. Their service can also include framing and retouching, all at a very reasonable price. FYI – Mpix is the lab that a lot of professional photographers use as their go-to fulfillment service. Note: I’m not affiliated with them in any way. I’m just a satisfied customer. Jennie also notes they have Android and iOs Apps with ‘Touch to Print’ functionality.

Thursday’s guest:  Todd Whitehead of Alpha Geek Radio

Lamarr Wilson joins us to talk Microsoft Surface Pro 3. Can it really replace a tablet AND a laptop? Also what are the chances Twitch YouTube alliance is real.

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 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: Lamarr Wilson, Host of YouTube Weekly and Socially Awkward on Mashable 

Headlines

Erm …  don’t you mean ‘laptop’? Microsoft announced the Surface Pro 3 tablet today emphasizing, let me be clear, it’s only 9.1mm thick and 800 grams heavy. It also has a redesigned kickstand hinge that can hold almost any position up to a 150 degree angle. It also is bigger with a 12-inch screen and 2160 x 1440 resolution in a 3:2 aspect ratio. The new Surface Pro comes with a new stylus as well that is powered and connects by Bluetooth. MS also showed off a new type cover, too, with a redesigned trackpad and sturdier magnetic attachment. The new keyboard is $130. Five models of SurfacePro 3 range from $800 for one with a corei3, 64GB hard drive and 4 GB of RAM up to $1950 for a core i7 with 512GB hard drive and 8 GB of RAM. Pre-orders open on May 21, and retail availability begins on June 20 in the U.S. and to 26 additional markets by the end of August.

China h8s Windows 8: Reuters reports China’s Central Government Procurement Center issued a ban on installing Windows 8 on Chinese government computers, as part of a notice on the use of energy-saving products. The Xinhua news agency reported the ban was to ensure computer security after Microsoft ended support for Windows XP. Windows 7 is apparently still being installed according to Microsoft, which expressed surprise at the notice. Retaliation for pushing off XP? Retaliation for U.S. government accusations? Typo? Could be any of those.

No to Internet fast lanes? U.S. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler testified before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Tuesday. The FCC has used section 706 of the telecommunications act to justify its role in preserving the so-called ‘virtuous cycle’ between users searching for free-flowing information and companies investing in better networks. Wheeler told the committee, “If there is something that interferes with that virtuous cycle — which I believe paid prioritization does — then we can move against it.” 

Google knows what you did last summer: CNET reports Google has introduced Google + Stories and Movies to the G+ social network. The feature automatically curates your photos and videos into so-called ’stories.’ The feature is especially designed for vacations to work as a travelogue. Users will find it on the desktop version of Google + under photos. The feature will come to the Android app later this week and iOS to follow soon.

Can I get a pizza with that update? Dan Rayburn at StreamingMedia.com reports Apple is negotiating paid interconnection deals with some of the largest ISPs in the U.S. in order to improve delivery of cloud-based services. Apple joins Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Pandora, eBay and other content owners who have created their own CDN-like delivery networks.

Snap that app: Skype announced an update to its Xbox One app finally enabling the Snap experience. Essentially, this means you can play a video game on part of the screen while conducting a Skype call at the same time on the rest of the screen. Previously, you could only Snap apps into Skype, now you can do the reverse and Snap Skype into other apps.

Math is hard: Remember all the way back to yesterday when reports circulated that Twitter was looking to buy music streaming site SoundCloud? According to The Verge, it appears the deal is dead, at least for now. The Wall Street Journal reports that Twitter was indeed interested in purchasing SoundCloud, but has backed out of talks because “the numbers didn’t add up.” SoundCloud had been negotiating with Twitter under a period of exclusivity, but now it sounds like the company is free to talk with anyone about a potential purchase.

News From You

tekkyn00b submitted a Russia Today article that California is attempting to limit what the US NSA can do in its state. A bill in the state legislature would require the federal government to get a warrant if it wants cooperation form any California state officials in searching residents cellphone and computer records. The bill passed the California Senate on Monday with only one opposing vote. Similar bills have been introduced in 8 states.

metalfreak sent in the Help Net Security report that May is already a record month for trojans targeting Linux, according to researchers at antivirus maker Dr. Web. Different variants of three trojans seemed to have been created by one entity and mostly carry out denial of service attacks. Another sign of Linux’s rising popularity.

spsheridan sent in the CNET story that officials from 19 countries joined forces to stop 100 alleged hackers associated with malware known as BlackShades. Officials’ searched 359 houses and confiscated more than 1,100 data storage devices, along with cash, firearms and drugs. Blackshades is a Remote Access Tool giving attackers control over a target’s computer. the FBI unsealed an indictment on Monday against two men it’s claiming developed BlackShades — Swedish national Alex Yucel and US citizen Michael Hogue.

Discussion Section Links:  Microsoft Surface Pro 3

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/05/surface-pro-3-sports-12-inch-screen-is-just-9-1mm-thick/

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/20/5734102/surface-pro-3-features-pricing-announcement

http://recode.net/2014/05/20/microsoft-unveils-12-inch-surface-pro-3/ http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/20/surface-pro-3-accessories/?ncid=rss_truncated

http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/20/the-surface-pro-3-is-microsofts-answer-to-the-macbook-air-again/

http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/20/microsoft-surface-pro-3-hands-on/?ncid=rss_truncated

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/20/5734108/why-twitch-could-be-the-best-billion-google-ever-spends

http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/20/how-google-can-avoid-ruining-twitch/?ncid=rss

Pick of the day:  Arts & Letters Daily via Rich in Lovely Cleveland Today’s pick of the day comes Rich in Lovely Cleveland, (and it is also a long-time favorite of Producer Jennie’s) Rich says: “I had one pick of the day I wanted to share: Arts & Letters Daily. It’s a great place to go for really intriguing longform content, essays, book reviews and op-eds in general. I’ve long had an RSS feed for most of my more “literate” sources, but I enjoy the curation the site provides, while I don’t read every post they put up, in general I want to. The site could use a design overhaul, its barely better than a mediocre geocities site, but the content is excellent. I recommend for anyone that enjoys a good essay. 

Wednesday’s guest:  Josh Ong, US Editor at The Next Web

Iyaz Akhtar is on the show today. We’ll talk about why AT&T is genius for buying DirecTV, and what YouTube would do with Twitch. Also there’s a new big dinosaur.

MP3

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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 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: Iyaz Akhtar, senior associate editor at CNET.com, and podcaster on the GFQNetwork

Headlines

Variety reported Sunday that their sources say Google’s YouTube has reached a deal to buy online streaming video service Twitch for more than $1 billion. The all-cash offer is expected to be announced anytime. Twitch’s most popular video streams involve video games, including live gameplay and esports coverage. Twitch claims more than 45 million monthly users. It consumes 1.35% of all bandwidth in North America at peak times, just a little more than HBO Go.

Reuters reports Google acquired Divide, a company that helps corporations manage devices like smartphones that are owned by the employees. In a post on Divide’s website, the company said it would join Google’s Android team. Divide’s app separates a device owner’s own data from corporate data, making it easier for businesses to manage multiple types and brands of devices.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich told Reuters at MakerFaire that Intel’s next-gen Broadwell processors will ship in time to be used in computers sold during the holiday season, though it might be tough for them to be in time for back-to-school rush. The chips were delayed because of setbacks in a new manufacturing process instituted last October.

Recode reports that “people familiar with both companies” tell them Twitter is considering a deal to buy Soundcloud. The Berlin-based SoundCloud has 250 million users who upload and share audio clips. Twitter launched a Music app last year but killed it in March. Soundcloud for its part might benefit from Twitter’s ad-selling experience.

The Telegraph reports Facebook has added an ask button to relationship status on profile pages. Users who leave their relationship status blank may receive inquiries about it from anyone who can see their profile. Facebook has been adding the Ask button to several elements of the profile section like employer and phone number. There is no way to to turn the ask button off.

Tom would never let Iyaz do dinosaur stories on TNT, but there’s nothing he can do about it now. Boing Boing passes along the discovery of the massive species of dinosaur. It’s just a tad bigger than Argentinasaur, the previous biggest species, but cooler than that, they found a whole herd of them!

News From You

spsheridan submitted the USA Today report that AT&T announced Sunday it plans to acquire DirecTV for $48.5 billion of stock and cash at $95 a share. As a comparison, Comcast is offering $45 billion to buy TWC. Kevin Smithen, an analyst at Macquarie called the deal financial engineering, pointing out the acquisition would bolster AT&T’s free cash flow. Although DirecTV makes money its subscriber growth has slowed. AT&T’s U-Verse TV service has 5.7 million subscribers DirecTV has 20.25 million subscribers in the US.

KAPT_Kipper submitted the 9to5 Mac writeup of Korea Times report that Apple and Samsung are in talks designed to end patent disputes between the two companies. FOSS patents Florian Mueller thinks a settlement could be reached “very soon.” Apple recently agreed to end disputes with Google and work together on patent reform.

metalfreak gave us the ITWorld story on the US Department of Justice obtaining Grand Jury indictments against five Chinese military officials for obtaining information on nuclear plant design, solar manufacturing and other secrets. China denied the allegations and called them, “made up.” Its the first time the US has filed charges of corporate cyber spying against specific officials of foreign governments.

And tekkyn00b posted the verge article on scientists proposing a particle collider that could turn an 80-year old theory on turning light into matter, into reality. The system would work by shooting high-energy photons into a field of other photons, turning some of the massless particles into an electron and positron, AKA matter with mass. 

Discussion Section Links:  DirectAT&T

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/18/us-directv-att-idUSBREA4B0W220140518?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/19/5730854/att-can-bail-on-merger-if-directv-loses-nfl-sunday-ticket

http://recode.net/2014/05/19/att-says-it-wants-to-sell-web-tv-too/

http://recode.net/2014/05/18/att-starts-telling-washington-why-its-directv-deal-should-pass/

http://www.cnet.com/news/regulatory-approval-for-at-tdirectv-may-hinge-on-the-bundle/#ftag=CAD590a51e

http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/05/with-comcast-time-warner-merger-looming-att-will-acquire-directtv/

Pick of the day: YouMail via Jake Lackey from Fresno, CA

Hey Tom,

I just wanted to suggest a Pick of the day of YouMail for Android and IOS. I have been using YouMail since my first Blackberry phone years ago and I’m pretty surprised i don’t ever hear anybody ever talking about this app. I didn’t want to have to pay the 2.99 a month for visual voice mail from Verizon and started using YouMail which is totally free. YouMail will automatically forward your voice mails to their service which you upload your contacts to and download the app for your phone. Then on our phone you can see a list of who called and play their message from the app, rather than having to play the messages 1 by 1 and wondering who called. You can skip around and only listen to the messages which you think are important. It even has a spam folder for the messages that you don’t ever want to listen to.
You can set up individual voice mail greetings from a list of suggested downloads from the site or use what they call “smart greeting” which will answer the voice mail with, “hello *insert name here*, *user* cant come to the phone right now please leave a message” like a personal assistant would. Most people who call are shocked that my voice mail knows who is calling me. You can also get transcript for your voice mails and save them as MP3′s and share them. which works great when the doctors office calls and i can just forward the message to my wife, who takes care of that stuff.

I am strictly an Android user and not 100% sure how well it works on iPhone but i know with Android it integrates with the call list and you can play the messages directly from the recent call list on your phone rather than actually opening the app.

You do have to sign up with YouMail at Youmail.com and get an account which is free then you can customize the many different ways you would like your voice mail to be handled. I have unlimited data and not sure how much data this uses on a regular basis but is one of first apps i always download no matter what phone i am using. There is a paid option for this which is only 5 dollars of month which is not required but gives you a ton for features as opposed to the 3 dollars for the Verizon version which gives you nothing extra.

I couldn’t explain everything about this app you will have to just check it out to see how convenient this is. I figured that there are quite a few of your listeners that will get lots of use out of it like i do.

Tuesday’s guest:  Lamarr Wilson

 

Darren Kitchen and Breki Tomasson join the show to get an international perspective on the U.S. net neutrality debate, and talk about what tech companies have your back when the government comes for your data.

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 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 guests: Darren Kitchen and Breki Tomasson

Headlines

If that doesn’t beat all … The Wrap reports Mog founder David Hyman has filed a lawsuit claiming he was fired before he could receive the benefits of his incentive plan after MOG was purchased by Beats in 2012. Hyman says he would have received between 2.5 to 25% of the company’s equity depending on market valuation, but he was fired before the incentives kicked in as part of a deliberate effort to deprive him of compensation. Hyman wants more than $20 million in damages. Beats has note yet commented.

OK, Glass, who’s my new boss? As JohnEllsworth3 pointed out on our subreddit, Google appointed a new leader of its Google Glass team. The BBC reports as of May 19, Ivy Ross replaces Babak Parviz. Ross previously worked for Art.com, Calvin Klein, Mattel and Gap, among others, but most relevant to Glass, she was once the lead designer at eyewear maker Bausch & Lomb. This follows on news tekkyn00b pointed out from 9to5 Mac that Google’s lead electrical engineer working on Glass, Adrian Wong, has left to join Oculus VR.

Oh, Snap: IT Worlds reports the EFF released its 4th annual “Who Has Your Back” report, ranking trustworthiness of tech firms with your data. In the wake of reaction to Snowden revelations, nine companies received the maximum 6 stars across categories, Apple, Credo Mobile, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Sonic.net, Twitter and Yahoo. On the other end of the scale, AT&T and Amazon earned only two stars, and Snapchat got just one.

Lack of confidence, perhaps? Re/code reports at least 10 members of the nonprofit Bitcoin Foundation have resigned after Brock Pierce was named Director of the Foundation last week. Pierce, once the star of Disney’s “First Kid,” has been troubled by lawsuits regarding his past ventures, though all have been dropped or settled out of court. Some members of the board called for more careful vetting of future candidates and the removal of Pierce. The Foundation has more than 1,500 members.

Je suis une baleine: The Next Web reports Google will acquire Quest Visual, the makers of the app, Word Lens Translator. Word Lens changes words in images from one language to another to help viewers read them. Quest says it will incorporate the Word Lens technology into “Google Translate’s broad language coverage and translation capabilities.” Quest has been authorized to make Word Lens free to download during the transition. 

Protests rock Asian firms: Reuters reports ongoing anti-China protests in Vietnam caused Foxconn parent Hon Hai Precision to order Vietnamese workers to take a three-day leave beginning Saturday. The protests have been spurred by disputes in the South China Sea and have targeted both Chinese and Taiwanese companies.

Get your resumes ready: Re/code reports China’s tech giant, Baidu, hired artificial intelligence researcher Andrew Ng to be chief scientist and create a new Baidu Research initiative with labs in Beijing and Sunnyvale, California. Ng co-founded education startup Coursera and once worked on the Google Brain team. He specializes in deep learning, which teaches machines to process large amounts of data by mimicking neural networks.

News From You

KAPT_Kipper posted the Ars Technica report on Adobe’s Creative Cloud outage that started Wednesday and was finally resolved today, Friday. During the outage, users who signed out could only sign back in as trial users, unless they had already expired their trial in which case they could not use their software. Adobe told Reuters customers can apply to get compensation for the outage which will be considered on a case by case basis.

spsheridan sent us the BBC story that a program called Vital has been appointed to the board of directors of the venture capital firm Deep Knowledge Ventures, which focuses on drugs for age-related diseases. Vital will process data and vote on prospective investments. Professor Noel Sharkey of the University of Sheffield pointed out that most companies use recommendations from algorithms to inform investment decisions, so having one vote is maybe a tad bit gimmicky.

Discussion Section Links: 

http://www.fcc.gov/document/protecting-and-promoting-open-internet-nprm

Calendar link: 

https://www.ciscolive.com/online/connect/agenda.ww?cid=000052088

Pick of the day: PCPartPicker via Matthew from the UK & France

“My pick is a site called PCPartPicker. It’s a one-stop shop for people wanting to build their own custom PCs by letting you “build” your PC with a compatibility checker to ensure you don’t mix things up like putting an Intel CPU in a AMD motherboard or cramming a graphics card into a case that can’t fit it.

The other killer feature it has is price comparison and history. It compares component prices from popular stores such as Amazon and Newegg in the US and others from 7 different countries. Also you can generate Reddit Markups to show Redditers your build and ask for help or BBCode for other forums. If you’re going to build a PC, look no further than PCPartPicker.”

Monday’s guest:  Iyaz Akhtar

Justin Robert Young and Nilay Patel join us to talk about the FCC’s notice for proposed rulemaking regarding the Open Internet. Is the Internet f**ed?

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 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: Nilay Patel, managing editor of Vox.com & Justin Robert Young of Night Attack & Weird Things podcast

Headlines

The US FCC held a meeting today in which they discussed expanding spectrum for the use of wireless microphones. Also net neutrality came up which was really just them asking a bunch of vague questions about what they should do and giving everybody 4 months to come up with an answer for them. Slackers.

Business Week reports Xiaomi announced its first tablet and a 4K television on Thursday. The MiPad will come in six colors and cost around $240 for a version with 16 gigabytes, and $275 for a version with 64 gigabytes. The new version of the MiTV will be a 49-inch 4K TV with external speakers for around $645. Both products run the MiUI, which is a customized version of Android. 

The BBC reports that after a European court ruled individuals can force removal of “irrelevant and outdated” links from search results, Google has received fresh requests. A politician seeking re-election wants links about his behavior in office removed. A man convicted of child abuse also wants links to stories about his conviction removed. To be clear the court rules links from search engines should be taken down but the stories themselves cannot be removed at the source. Google has not indicated how they will respond. 

The Next Web reports FourSquare has launched iOS and Android versions of a new app called Swarm. If you’re confused because you thought FourSquare’s Foursquare app did check-ins, you’re wrong. They are removing check-ins from FourSquare, so if you want to check in to places, you need to download Swarm. And in Swarm even lets you skip checking in by enabling passive tracking, which you may have already experienced a version of courtesy of the NSA. Swarm is meant to help you find nearby friends and see if places are swarming. Enjoy.

GigaOm reports HTC announced the HTC One Mini 2. It’s a smaller 4.5-inch version of the M8 with the same design and aluminum-heavy build, but without the special depth-sensing camera. It also has a Snapdragon 400 processor instead of the M8’s 801. The One Mini 2 will be available in grey, silver, and gold, when it goes on sale in June. No price was announced.

CNET reports FlappyBird creator Dong Nguyen told CNBC Wednesday that the game will return, possibly as soon as this August. The updated version will allow players to compete with others in real time. Nguyen also said the game will be less addictive this time. Something that bothered him about the original.

News From You

tekkyn00b sent us the TechCrunch article about OpenDNS getting $35 million in funding from investors. Since 2005 the company has offered an alternative way to resolve domain names. That’s good if you want to avoid ads from your ISP on pages not found, as well as providing potential security benefits. The company also runs a service called Umbrella that protects business users any place they connect tot he Internet on any device, without haing to install local hardware.

A user named geewhipped posted this Mashable story to the subreddit. Google announced a partnership with Zix on Thursday to bring a product called Google Apps Message Encryption aka GAME. For $35 a year the service encrypts email end-to-end. Unlike the previous Google Message Encryption product, which was part of Postini, GAME integrates with Google Apps directly. No need to log into Postini. 

Discussion Section Links: I give you the F.C.C.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/15/5720730/how-to-comment-on-fcc-net-neutrality-proposal

http://gigaom.com/2014/05/15/net-neutrality-2014/

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/fcc-votes-for-internet-fast-lanes-but-could-change-its-mind-later/

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/15/5717928/fcc-votes-on-net-neutrality-proposal-in-may-meeting

http://www.fcc.gov/document/fact-sheet-protecting-and-promoting-open-internet

http://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-launches-broad-rulemaking-protect-and-promote-open-internet

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/05/15/statement-press-secretary-net-neutrality

http://www.vox.com/2014/5/14/5717142/tsa-precheck-net-neutrality-fast-lanes

Pick of the Day:  PC Part Picker via Matthew from the UK & France

My pick is a site called PCPartPicker.
It’s a one-stop shop for people wanting to build their own custom PCs by letting you “build” your PC with a compatibility checker to ensure you don’t mix things up like putting an Intel CPU in a AMD motherboard or cramming a graphics card into a case that can’t fit it.
The other killer feature it has is price comparison and history. It compares component prices from popular stores such as Amazon and Newegg in the US and others from 7 different countries. Also you can generate Reddit Markups to show Redditers your build and ask for help or BBCode for other forums. If you’re going to build a PC, look no further than PCPartPicker.

Friday’s guests:  Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta

Dr. Kiki is on the show. We’ll talk about quantum positioning that could be 1000 times more accurate than GPS, and the future of the Internet of Things. Will it rob of us free will? Assuming we have it in the first place.

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 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: Dr. Kiki Sanford, host of This Week in Science

Headlines

PC Mag reports the Pew Research Center released the next in its 8-part series celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Web, this time asking more than 1600 experts what they think the Internet of Things will turn into by 2025. There are more connected devices than humans right now and that number is growing at a faster rate. As you can imagine, some experts expected cheaper medical diagnostics, improved safety and efficient planning of your day. Others worried about privacy from ubiquitous data collection and security against malicious hackers. Also we might lose our free will. 

Marketwatch reports that Speaker of the House John Boehner and three other House Majority leaders signed a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler warning him not to consider “any plan to impose antiquated regulation on the Internet.” The FCC is meeting tomorrow to vote on a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding Open Internet Guidelines.

Reuters reports, Yahoo is continuing its trend of acquiring small, mobile start-ups by buying Blink, a startup with an app that lets users send messages that will self-destruct at a time set by the sender. I should repeat that again, because it’s possible all you heard was Yahoo & self-destruct. To repeat, Yahoo has bought a cheaper Snapchat. Oh and it’s shutting down the app too. REPEAT just the app. Yahoo is not shutting down. 

The Next Web reports Microsoft will refund Xbox Live Gold memberships starting in June for anybody who was paying the fee just to get apps like Netflix which will become free to access starting in June. You have to wait for the change to take place then you can cancel and receive a pro-rata refund. Other than June, no specific date has been set for the change. 

CNET reports Mozilla has agreed to include the Encrypted Media Extensions standard in the Firefox browser. This makes it easier for copy-protected media to play in the browser. Firefox is the last major player in the browser market to adopt the standard. Because Firefox is open source and by definition a DRM module is not, so the module will be downloaded from Adobe after the browser is installed. 

The Verge reports Samsung officially apologized for the illnesses and deaths of some of its factory workers. CEO Kwon Oh-hyun said “We should have settled the issue earlier, and we are deeply heartbroken that we failed to do so and express our deep apology.” A documentary released last month uncovered 56 cases of leukemia and other blood cancers among Samsung workers. 

Tablets failed for years until someone decided they needed an input system suited to tablets not just a translation of a desktop interface. MIT Technology Review reports on a project at Carnegie Mellon University that allows users to control a smart watch by physically tilting, clicking, and twisting the watch’s bezel. Assistant professor of human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University, Chris Harrison, who worked on the project thinks the issue with smartwatches is that we can’t get the input and output good enough. Harrison is also exploring ways we can control smart watches without even touching them. 

News From You

Our top story on the subreddit was posted by mranthropology. Business Insider reports on Julie and Scott Brusaw’s project in Idaho to prototype an industrial-strength solar panel that could withstand the weight of even the largest trucks. Not only could the panel turn roads into solar power collectors but could potentially power electric vehicles. The project has already received two phases of funding from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration. Their company is called Solar Roadways and they’re looking to raise $1 million on Indiegogo.

KAPT_Kipper posted the TechCrunch article that Google has opened up Google Glass for sale to anyone in the US willing to part with $1500. This is still part of the Explorer Program and will only be on sale while supplies last.  

mranthropology sent us the GigaOm story about new data from Sandvine showing Netflix’s share of prime time download traffic on the Internet rising a couple points to 34.21%. YouTube declined to 13.1%. The big new power in traffic hoggery is TWITCH at 1.35% putting them right up there near Hulu’s 1.74% and in front of the much more restricted HBO Go’s 1.24%. Those are all download. The winner in Upload? Bittorrent of course with 24.53% followed by good old HTTP. But Netflix is 4th at 6.44%. Better work on those ratios Reed. 

Discussion Section Links: Quantum Positioning and the Internet of Things
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22229694.000-quantum-positioning-system-steps-in-when-gps-fails.html#.U3Onrq1dXA4

http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/14/russia-threatens-gps-iss/

http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/05/14/internet-of-things/
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2458060,00.asp

http://gigaom.com/2014/05/14/the-internet-of-things-will-end-expired-milk-at-the-store-and-your-free-will/

Pick of the Day:  WSUS Offline Update via Jeremy Dennis

My pick is called WSUS Offline Update. It’s a tool that uses the
Windows Update features of Windows to download all available updates from Microsoft’s servers for the products you select. After
downloading the files it can make an ISO image or output the files to
a folder for use with a USB drive.

I use it on new builds of computers or VMs so I don’t have to babysit
them while getting them up to date. When you run it on the target
system there are options for to automatically restart after rebooting
to continue the update process. It really saves time when you have a
new Windows install and need to do other stuff while it updates.

Thursday’s guest:  Justin Robert Young of Night Attack & Weird Things podcast

Molly Wood is on the show today. We’ll discuss whether the $129 Moto E is a smoking gun, and why Microsoft is backtracking on Kinect Xbox One bundles and the Xbox Live requirement for Netflix.

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 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, columnist for The New York Times. 

Headlines

CNET reports Microsoft announced a new Xbox One without the Kinect bundled will begin selling June 9th for $399 in the US and £350 in the UK. A separate Kinect will become available later, though no timeline was announced. Microsoft also announced that sometime in June, its paid subscription service, Xbox Live Gold will no longer be required for most apps, including Netflix, ESPN, and YouTube. If you do keep paying though, Xbox One owners will get Games with Gold and Deals with Gold features starting in June. 

Ars Technica reports Motorola announced the Motorola E Android smartphone for sale unlocked at $129. The E runs Android 4.4.2 Kit Kat, has a 4.3-inch 960 x 540, 256 PPI display, a 1.2 GHz dual-core Snapdragon 200 processor, 1 GB of RAM and 4 GB of storage. Although it does have a microSD card slot that can add up to 32GB.Motorola even promises it will get at least one update to the next version of Android, possibly more. Like the Moto G has swappable rear shells you can buy for $15. One big gap, no front-facing camera. The phone comes to 40 countries in the next few weeks.

9to5 Mac cites “sources with knowledge of the enhancement in development” say Apple will add split-screen multitasking to iOS8 for iPad. It’s described as similar to how Windows 8 can snap multiple apps in the tiled interface on tablets. The iOS feature would let users drag content from one app to another. On the back-end this means iOS developers could share content between apps. Sources do warn that the feature might be pushed back to a later version or canceled altogether. Oh sources.

ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reports Microsoft is adding advanced rules and a new undo option to Outlook.com.  Users will be able to create multi-condition, multi-action rules, including options for options for time constraints, email tallying, checking read/unread email state and more. Microsoft also simplified undo functions by adding an undo button and allowing CTRL-Z to work wherever you need to undo. The new features start rolling out today and should arrive for all users in the next few weeks.

GigaOm reports LG will begin selling its Lifeband Touch fitness wristband on May 18 in the US for $150, with Asia and Europe releases to follow. The lifeband can track the usual fitness metrics but can’t track your heartbeat. That’s why it’s fortuitous that LG will also start selling its Heart Rate earphones this month exclusively at Best Buy for $180, with additional retailers coming mid-June.

Recode reports 28 CEOs of US Internet Service Providers sent a letter to the US FCC urging the agency not to reclassify their services as Telecommunications. Some have urged the FCC to classify ISPs as telecommunications providers, as they were until 2002, in order to have a firmer legal justification for net neutrality regulations. The ISps say in their letter that doing so, “would impose great costs, allowing unprecedented government micromanagement of all aspects of the Internet economy.”

More elements of the cold war are returning! The Verge reports Russia has rejected a request by the United States to continue to use the International Space Station after 2020. The US wanted to extend joint missions until 2024. The US currently pays Russia $60 million per person to ferry its astronauts to the space station. Russia will also bar the US from buying Russian rocket engines that would be used to launch military satellites from the US.

News From You

Our top story on the subreddit today came from ancientbearwizard who submitted yesterday’s Guardian excerpt from a book by Glenn Greenwald alleging the NSA has been intercepting shipments of routers heading for export. The US spy agency then installs surveillance tools, repackages the device and sends it along. The allegation is based on a leaked June 2010 report from the head of the NSA’s Access and Target Development.

mranthropology sent us a Wired article that Volkswagen announced it will introduce a 10-speed dual-clutch transmission targeted to arrive in the 2015 Passat. More gears allows the engine to optimize RPMs and save fuel. VW Group Chairman Dr. Martin Winterkorn believes the design can help improve fuel economy across VW’s group model range by 20 percent. That includes not only Jettas and Audi A4s but Bugattis and Porches as well. 

MikePKennedy posted the Verge story about  a European Court of Justice ruling that Google is responsible for content on its servers and must respond to individual requests to remove outdated or irrelevant information originating from third parties. A Spanish resident asked Google to remove links to an article about his house being auctioned after a failure to pay taxes. The individual said the matter had been resolved making the articles outdated. The decision runs counter to a statement made last year by the Advocate General.

tm204 sent us a Rice University posting that Rice chemist James Tour and his colleagues have developed a flexible material that combines qualities of a battery and a supercapcitor without using lithium, which is found in almost all commercial batteries today. It can charge and discharge quickly like a supercapacitor or discharge more slowly like a battery. The capacitor is about a hundreth of an inch thick and flexible like graphene. The researchers hope they can make it even thinner.

The Kicker

 According to former Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield, today the last day you can (legally) watch the video of him singing ‘Space Oddity’ aboard the International Space Station. The first music video shot in space was filmed in 2013 near the end of Commander Hadfield’s tenure on the ISS  and his license of the David Bowie song expires today. Although Hadfield says he’s working with Bowie’s people to extend the rights, it’s worth watching again, for the weightless guitar solo, and to honor Hadfield for proving that astronauts don’t just have to be stoic scientific ciphers; they can also take the time to be creative in space. If you’re listening to this podcast on Wednesday, never fear, Hadfield’s original song “Jewel in the Night” is still available.

Discussion Section Links: Ground Control to Moto E

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/05/motorolas-moto-e-runs-kitkat-resists-scratches-costs-129-unlocked/

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/12/htc-sensation-4g-official-1-2ghz-dual-core-qhd-display-and-th/

http://www.cnet.com/news/new-399-xbox-one-without-kinect/

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/05/head-of-xbox-says-plans-to-decouple-kinect-from-xbox-one-began-in-april/

http://gigaom.com/2014/05/13/microsoft-wants-to-boost-xbox-video-streaming-by-making-it-free/

http://news.xbox.com/2014/05/xbox-delivering-more-choices

Pick of the Day:  Ghostery via Loren Lang

Ghostery is a web privacy tool that is available as a browser add-on (for most major browsers, anyway) and an iOS app. It blocks all sorts of trackers, beacons and cookies from over 1900 sources and you can choose to allow or disallow any or all of them with individual granularity as well as whitelisting sites to allow everything from them. You can also choose to allow an item once and then automatically go back to blocking it which is extremely useful when blocking something breaks a site in some way. I’ve first checked it out when i heard Steve Gibson recommend it in 2011 (see Security Now, Ep. 305) and have been using it ever since. I’m not fully in the Tin Foil Hat Brigade but I also don’t necessarily want to have everything I do on the web tracked and sold. There wasn’t a lot of middle ground between being not caring and locking things down so much as to make some sites unusable. Ghostery is exactly the compromise I was looking for.

Plug of the Day: It’s a Thing, a podcast about things that are becoming  ‘ a thing’ with Tom Merritt and Molly Wood.

Wednesday ‘s guest:  Dr. Kiki Sanford, host of This Week in Science

CNET’s Iyaz Akhtar is on the show today. We’ll talk about Twitter’s new mute feature, float a few more idea about why Apple might want to by Beats, and discuss FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s latest revision to net neutrality rules.

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 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:   Iyaz Akhtar of cnet.com and GFQ Network

Headlines

Our top story on the subreddit submitted by spsheridan, tekkyn00b, saxonjf and others reports FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will circulate new Open Internet Guidelines language Monday with new wording to make it clear that allowing paid prioritization should not lead to unfair discrimination against non-paying traffic. Wheeler also will propose an ombudsman position to handle complaints. Comments on paid prioritization and reclassification of the Internet as a telecommunications service will also be specifically sought as well as comments on outside proposals from Mozilla and Professor Tim Wu.

The Next Web reports Twitter added a mute feature to its Android and iOS apps as well as Twitter.com. To mute someone, go to a users profile page, click the gear icon, and choose mute. This allows you to avoid seeing posts from the person in your timeline but you can still communicate by DM with that person if need be. Muted users can still favorite, reply to, and retweet your tweets.

CruxialCIO reports IBM introduced new software-defined storage technology based on methods developed for IBM’s Watson, the cognitive-computing platform. Watson could process 200 million pages of structured and unstructured data using a similar process, according to IBM. A key part of the offering is Elastic Storage which makes it easier to scale access to billions of files. Applications could include genomic data for cancer research, product-design simulations or even travel reservations. Yes that implies curing cancer and booking travel efficiently– are equally complex tasks. The Elastic Storage technology will be available through IBM’s SoftLayer cloud platform later this year.

The Next Web reports LG published a video teaser of its first smartwatch, called the LG G Watch. The watch will be the first powered by Google’s Android Wear platform. It will be water and dust resistant and have a metal body. When it will arrive and how much it will cost are still mysteries. 

News From You

Habichuelacondulce submitted the Mashable story on The Parrot Bebop quadcopter drone. The Bebop has an HD video camera, built-in GPS, image-stabilization AND Oculus Rift compatibility. Oh yeah. A 14-megapixel fisheye lens sends HD video which can be viewed in real time and controlled on a smartphone or tablet. OR an optional Skycontroller extends the range of the drone to 2 km AND an be connected to a Display like say, an Oculus Rift headset. The headset can then control the Bebop’s camera position. The drone and skycontroller will be available sometime in Q4.

spsheridan sent in the Recode story about  a bionic arm with three joints and four fingers that can catch objects in mid-flight, developed by researchers in Switzerland. In a video, the arm catches a bottle and a tennis racket. The robot is trained to catch objects by watching humans. While you and I may imagine playing a game of catch with our robot pals, researchers plan to affix the arm to satellites in order to catch flying space debris. 

habichuelacondulce submitted a Washington Times article that was a little light on details, so we dug up a MassLive.com version, about a woman charged by Springfield, Massachusetts police with violating the state’s wiretapping laws by using her phone to make an audio recording of her arrest. The woman was also charged with disorderly conduct and carrying an open container of alcohol. She denies all the charges. Massachusetts law prohibits the recording of audio without the consent of the person being recorded, although U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that the First Amendment protects the right of individuals to record video of police at work in a public place.

Discussion Section Links: Mutes & Beats

http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2014/05/12/twitter-introduces-mute-feature-android-iphone-web/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=profeed&utm_reader=feedly

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-12/apple-s-deep-ties-with-iovine-key-driver-of-beats-deal.html

Pick of the Day:  Package Buddy via Luke Pohr

Luke Pohr has today’s pick: “Hi, Tom and Jennie. My Pick of the Day is Package Buddy. Its on Android, and what it does is allow you to keep track of shipments of items that are being shipped to your address. All you do is get the tracking number and select the carrier that your shipment is on. Add that info to the app. The app will search for the tracking info for you. Also update you where your shipment is. This is way more convenient than going through your email every single time. I have used this app for years, still do and its great. And best of all its free!”

Important: Beatmaster just flagged us that Gigi B. Sohn, FCC Senior Counsel for External Affairs, will be doing Q&A on Twitter tomorrow at 2pm ET. Follow @GigiBSohnFCC and add #FCCNetNeutrality to your question, leaving almost no more characters for your question. 

Tuesday ‘s guest: Molly Wood–you may have heard of her.