Iyaz Akhtar joins us as we get the lowdown on Roku’s updated streaming stick, Logitech’s new remote, and some thoughts on Facebook, Yahoo, Guns and the Winklevoss Twins in space.

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 & GFQNetwork.com.

Headlines

Pssst, CNN; you’re selling Zite: ReCode reports Flipboard is buying Zite from CNN, which acquired the tablet newsreader company in 2011. CNN reported its sources (itself?) said the deal is valued at $60 million, but CNN PR says the report valuation is not accurate. Guys, it’s really hard to keep secrets from yourself. Zite will apparently shut down and most of its 20 employees, with the exception of CEO Mark Johnson, will work for Flipboard. Flipboard has also agreed to produce custom magazines for CNN.

What’s my password again? This was our top-voted story on the subreddit, LifeDownloaded and KAPT_Kipper both submitted links. Engadget reports Yahoo will soon stop allowing users to log in with Google or Facebook accounts. Yahoo started allowing third-party logins in 2010. The change has already happened on Fantasy Sports sites and will eventually spread across all services, including Flickr and Tumblr. Happy Tumblr Day!

More purple punch: SIT DOWN you are not allowed to leave the tech news until you’ve finished your Yahoo news. Every bit of it. CNET reports Yahoo acquired Vizify, a company that lets users create infographics and video out of social media. Vizify will shut down and the company will work to bring a more visual approach to data at Yahoo! We’ve all been wondering when that would happen.

Guns? What guns? Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports Facebook will crack down on illegal gun sales. The social network will delete posts where users indicate they would break the law. Private gun sale posters will be reminded to comply with the law. And pages related to gun sales will be required to include language regarding the importance of the law. Posts about illegal weapons are already banned, so the new effort focuses on emphasizing the importance of things like background checks.

Take me to your (new) leader: VentureBeat reports former IGN chief Mark Jung is the new executive chairman of OnLive. He hit the ground running with two new services. CloudLift lets users log in on any devices to get their downloaded games from services like Steam. And OnLive Go lets users play online games like Second Life on mobile devices. Stop it. There are people who still play Second Life and they will send giant penises at you if you mock them.

I WIN EVERYTHING: ReCode reports Dish Network won ALL of the wireless broadband airwave licenses recently auctioned off by the federal government. As we all know, the incumbent carriers in the U.S. have made no secret about the fact that there is a serious spectrum crunch, thus the need to exempt them from regulation. Dish won the 176 licenses because NOBODY ELSE BID.

Winkle, winkle little star: The Winklevoss twins are headed to space as part of Virgin Galactic’s program and they’re paying with Bitcoins, of course. On the application form under vital statistics, Tyler Winklevoss wrote, “I’m 6’5″, 220, and there’s two of me.”

News From You

Mranthropology pointed us to a Verge article about another crypto currency hitting the scene called MazaCoin. Before you roll your eyes ALL the way to the back of your head, MazaCoin is now the official currency of the seven bands that make up the Lakota Nation. MazaCoin was developed by an anonymous cryptographer as a new implementation of the Bitcoin protocol. The Lakota will keep half of MazaCoins in reserve to help prevent wild speculation.

And MikepKennedy sent in the Ars Technica story AMD is very excited about its new AM1 chipset, an SoC for desktops launching April 9. Because… desktops are hot still. Well, AMD might not be totally off the deep end here. The AM1 is meant for the still-selling low-cost desktops with a starting price of $60 for the chipset and motherboard combined. At that price, you can’t draw more than 25W and you’re restricted to PCIe 2.0. AMD’s pitting the AM1 against Intel’s Bay Trail platform.

Discussion Section Links: Roku Streaming Stick vs Google Chromecast: How do they stack up?

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33199_7-57619907-221/roku-streaming-stick-vs-google-chromecast-how-do-they-stack-up/

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-media-receivers/roku-streaming-stick-2014/4505-6739_7-35835337.html

http://reviews.cnet.com/google-chromecast/

Thursday’s Guest: Paul Spain

Eric Olander joins us to discuss whether Facebook drones can help Africa, Japan’s regulation approach to BitCoin and the real story behind the Flappy Bird flap. It’s 4 AM in Vietnam where he is, so be kind.

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:  Eric Olander, Vice President, Financial and Business News Channel,Vietnam

Headlines

Facebook to buy drone fleet. Because internet: TechCrunch reports its sources say Facebook is buying Titan Aerospace, makers of near-orbital solar-powered drones that can fly up to five years at a time without landing. For its 60 million dollars or so, Facebook would be able to use the drones to deliver Internet access to any part of the world as part of the Internet.org project, starting with Africa, according to the sources. One can only assume Facebook will not use its drones to shoot down competing Google weather balloons that deliver competing Internet.

CarPlay powered by QNX: USA Today points out that the new Apple CarPlay system in part is powered by QNX, the embedded OS of choice among automakers, and QNX just happens to be owned by BlackBerry. Ford is actually moving off Microsoft’s Sync to QNX according to Bloomberg. N4BB first pointed out the interesting fact. Paul Leroux, public relations manager at QNX Software Systems, “We have a long-standing partnership with Apple to ensure high-quality connectivity with their devices, and this partnership extends to support for Apple CarPlay.”

Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer to retire in September

Cortana, voice assistant, in action: Unleash the Phones has video of Microsoft’s forthcoming Cortana voice assistant in action. Though no words are spoken by the operator or the phone, you can see the setup system which asks the user some personal questions, like most enjoyable part of an evening, and thoughts on food. No kidding. Cortana is expected to be part of Windows Phone 8.1 and be officially unveiled at the BUILD conference in April.

Microsoft integrates Skype with Outlook.com

Twitter mistakenly sends password reset email to many users

Aether’s Cone Speaker reviewed: Several sites, including Wired, have a review of Aether’s Cone speaker. Unlike say a Sonos system, the Cone speaker has no remote and no Bluetooth connectivity. It uses WiFi to connect to a music service (available services have yet to be named) and then keeps tabs on your behavior to find out what you like to hear. It also has voice recognition in case you want to request something in particular. The only other control is the speaker grill which you can twist right to skip to a new song or twist left to replay. The Cone will sell for $399.

Intel purchases wristwatch health tracker company Basis for around $100 – $150 million

Bring me red page… I can’t… I can’t see you… Broderbund founder Doug Carlston has donated Broderbund’s software and corporate records to the museum, The Strong. Correspondence, photos and other material that reveals the culture of the studio that developed Myst, Prince of Persia, the original SimCity and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, will be preserved. The high school version of our producer Jennie is SO happy. So is the college-aged version of Tom. Who feels really old now.

 News From You

Rich_Seattle submitted the Ars Technica story that the US Department of Justice has thrown in on the side of broadcasters, in the Aereo vs. the broadcast world Supreme Court knockdown coming this April. Recode reports the Justice Department made the filing Monday arguing that Aereo gives users access to copyrighted content in the first instance without paying licensing fees. KAPT_Kipper also submitted this story under a different link.

biocow posted the Verge link about Radio Shack closing 1,100 shacks in the US. That’s more than twice the number expected.Radio Shack will have 4,000 locations left. The company lost $191.4 million last quarter. TVSEgon also submitted a link for this story.

dillydobbs & Tekkyn00b submitted the Gizmodo link about Flexcoin shutting down. While not nearly as large as Mt. Gox, Flexcoin says 896 bit coins were stolen from its store. Bit coins that were not stolen will be returned to customers before the shutdown. Polonix also admitted thieves stole 12.5% of its bit coin reserves, but that company will replenish the lost coins itself.

adi_lachman pointed us to a WSJ article about Dish striking a deal with Disney to limit the use of its Hopper ad-skipping feature on Disney-owned channels. Interestingly in return, Disney granted DISH rights to stream Disney channels like ABC and ESPN as part of an Internet delivered, IP-based multichannel offering.

Discussion Section Links:  How Japan is dealing with bit coins / Flappy Bird Perspective

http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Policy-Politics/Japan-to-regulate-Bitcoin-trades-impose-taxes

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1440514/japan-considers-regulation-bitcoins-wake-mt-gox-failure

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0001087024

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/27/flappy-bird-clones-iphone-ipad

Wednesday’s Guest:   Iyaz Akhtar of CNET & of the excellent podcast Quest for Peace.

David Spark brings us tales from RSA. We also chat about Apple’s CarPlay, Microsoft’s Cortana, and other less prosaically named devices and services in the news.

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:   David Spark, journalist, producer, speaker, and owner of Spark Media Solutions.

Headlines

Apple to unveil CarPlay in Geneva this week: CNET reports iOS in the car is now called CarPlay. Ferrari, Mercedes and Volvo will all show off models at the Geneva auto show this week. CarPlay is till an in-car touchscreen display with voice command. It requires an iPhone 5, 5C or 5S to be connected with a lightning cable to work. Only Apple apps will integrate with the initial exception of Spotify and iHeartRadio. The system won’t show up at car dealers until later in 2014 for some brands with most others to follow in 2014.

Microsoft testing voice-activated assistant: The Verge reports Microsoft is testing a voice-activated assistant currently named Cortana, yes like the Cortana in Halo, though on Windows Phone she’ll just be a circle. Sorry. Although apparently you can set Cortana to call you Master Chief. Cortana can use contacts, location reminders, and behaviors to help you out with notifications, similar to Google Now. Microsoft expects to unveil Cortana along with Windows Phone 8.1 at BUILD which starts April 2nd.

Samsung to release two new Chromebooks in April

Zynga’s push into mobile: Zynga has taken a lot of criticism for not being able to branch out past Farmville. So many will be happy to hear this PC Mag article that Zynga is making a big push into mobile with three new games. It’s first hot new title for mobile, Farmville 2: Country Escape. OK. Text MOO to 99642 if you want in on that one first. The second major advance is the still-existing Words with Friends. Now with dictionaries. Coming in the next few week.s Well it’s not like they went all the way back in time to when Zynga was just a poker app— The third new game is New Zynga Poker. Sigh.

Gartners latest tablet marketshare numbers show Android tablets collectively overtook the iPad in 2013

Mt. Gox confirms loss of 750,000 bit coins deposited by users,  as well as 100,000 bit coins held by Gox itself have disappeared, likely due to a bug in the website’s code. Meanwhile, a chunk of code lifted from Mt. Gox and posted to Pastebin appears to be part of the exchange’s backend for the website. The code reveals that anyone with access to the server could have easily redirected transactions and taken coins from customers wallets.

Google and Samsung express concerns to China’s Ministry of Commerce about Microsoft’s impending acquisition of Nokia

Reddit to donate 10 percent of its advertising revenue for the year to non-profits: At the end of the year Reddit will take suggestions on what charities should receive the money. An election will then be held and funds donated to the top 10 non-profits selected.

 News From You

LifeDownloaded submitted the Verge story on Microsoft’s executive shakeup. Tony Bates, the company’s executive vice president for business development and evangelism, and Tami Reller, its marketing chief, are both leaving the company, according to an email sent to employees. Eric Rudder, executive vice president of advanced strategy, will take over Bates’ Biz-Dev duties while a full-time replacement is sought. Reller will stay to train up Chris Capossela, as executive vice president and chief marketing officer. Mark Penn also joins the Senior Leadership Team as chief strategy officer.

AllanAV posted the IFLScience article about skin cells being transformed into human liver cells that can not only function in an organ but even inside the liver of another species. A team from the Gladstone Institutes and the University of California San Francisco announced the success in the publication, Nature. Successfully transplanting the cells will not only make growing transplants for humans more possible, but increase other research possibilities.

KAPT_Kipper sent us the Kotaku story of a Texas man, Eugene Thompson who appears to have stabbed his girlfriend’s estranged husband with a replica Legend of Zelda Master sword. The man must have still had some hearts left because he smashed Thompson with a flower pot before succumbing and heading to the hospital in serious condition.

And Jaymz668 posted the Verger story about Kickstarter celebrating the milestone of $1 billion in pledges from 5.7 million people. The site announced the landmark figure today with a special page full of stats about campaigns and pledgers. According to Kickstarter, just 40 people pledged a total of $1,084 to seven projects on the site’s first day; the site now brings in over $1 million per day.

Discussion Section Link:   RSA Roundup

http://www.sparkminute.com/2014/02/28/video-2014-rsa-conference-end-of-show-report/

Pick of the Day: Buy Me A Pie

Tuesday’s Guest:  Eric Olander

Darren Kitchen shares some thoughts on TrustyCon, we discuss some new reasons why Comast-Netflix doesn’t impact net neutrality directly, and Len Peralta illustrates the show live!

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:  Darren Kitchen of hak5.org

Headlines

 Mt. Gox applies for bankruptcy: Ars Technica reports Mt. Gox applied for bankruptcy protection in Japan, claiming debt of about $63.6 million, with assets of just more than half that. CEO Mark Karpeles reportedly appeared at a press conference bowed in contrition and apologized in Japanese. A bankruptcy supervisor will develop a restructuring plan for the company.

Tim Cook says Apple sold $1 billion worth of Apple TV devices: Reuters reports Apple CEO Tim Cook told investors at a shareholder meeting Friday that Apple sold $1 billion worth of Apple TV devices last year. Cook even got extremely close to telling a joke, for him, saying “It’s a little more difficult to call it a hobby these days.” Oh Tim, you kidder.

Netflix internal hackathon produces dream product: TechCrunch has a story about Netflix’s internal hackathon producing some amazing mods for the video service. One monitors data from a fitbit to tell when you’re asleep and pauses your show for you. Another let you build multiple playlists for a lean back experience. Radial was a faster input keyboard for use on game consoles. And Beam let visitors temporarily use your Netflix account on their devices, then logged them off when they left your house. Sadly Netflix noted that the hacks might never become official part of the Netflix product. Might. So you’re saying there’s a chance!

Microsoft may test a free version of Windows 8.1, which would be bundled with the Bing search engine

Google yanks fake FBI listing in Google Maps

Flocking Drones!

California state appeals court rules drivers may legally read digital maps on their phones while in the car

News From You

uscwaller pointed us to the story on TorrentFreak that Creative Commons co-founder Lawrence Lessig prevailed over Liberation Music and will receive damages in his fair use fight. In a talk on Fair Use in 2010, Lessig used a clip of people dancing to a song by Phoenix as an example. A video of the talk was taken down from YouTube after a DMCA notice was issued by Liberation Music, the band’s label. Lessig fought the removal and sued Liberation Music. The two entities have settled and Lessig will receive an undisclosed sum for the damages the label caused with the wrongful takedown. Liberation admitted in a statement it agrees that Lessig was making fair use of the music.

uscwaller got a twofer in NFY today pointing us to the Wired Article about drone cargo ships. Rolls Royce is developing unmanned vessels to move the world’s cargo around. Along with robots in the warehouse and self-deicing trucks, the entire supply chain could soon be automated and human-less.

Kylde submitted a T3 post about Virgin media upgrading the speeds of its 12.5 million UK customers. Those who have the 120Mbps package will get 152Mbps while those on the 30Mbps plan have been bumped up to 60 and those on the 60 plan bumped up to 100. Yeah that’s right you just get more speed without asking. That’s this ISP’s response to people using more bandwidth. Well done Virgin Media.

And KAPT_Kipper submitted a GeekWire article about Amazon having more talks with record company execs about creating a streaming music service. Amazon already provides a cloud music locker but not a service like Spotify or Rdio. Recode’s sources seem to think this time the talks are quite serious and a deal could get done.

Discussion Section Links:  Trustycon, Tor & Netflix/Comcast

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/2240215264/TrustyCon-Hypponen-warns-of-government-malware-loss-of-vendor-trust

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/28/snowden-privacy-products-trustycon-2014

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/tor-develops-its-own-anonymous-im-tool-to-hide-chat-from-spying-eyes/

https://whispersystems.org/blog/the-new-textsecure/

http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/02/heres-comcast-netflix-deal-structured-numbers.html?curator=MediaREDEF

Pick of the Day: Automatic

Automatic is like a fit bit for your car! It plugs into your car’s ODB port and connects via BTLE to your smartphone (Android or iOS).

The app gives you feedback on your driving (I now know it costs me $5 in gas to get to work in the morning), saves where you park on a map so you don’t get lost in the parking lot, tells you what’s wrong when the check engine light comes on and will even call 911 for you if you are in an accident.

On top of all that, they’ve recently added iBeacon support (which doesn’t mean a lot now, but in the future can do stuff like let you in and out of your parking garage or even pay at a drive-through apparently) and, as of today, IFTTT support (finally I can stop getting in trouble for forgetting to text my wife when I’m on my way home from work, or, alternatively, I can use it to do things like turn off the lights when I leave home.) – Dr. Karl,  forever resident of BuzzTown.

Monday’s Guest:  David Spark, journalist, producer, speaker, and owner of Spark Media Solutions.

Patrick Beja is on the show and we discuss British intelligence looking at nude photos of Yahoo chatters, plus more net neutrality thoughts, and a very special birthday that made all of this possible. You have not guessed who it was, I promise.

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:  Patrick Beja, host of RDVTech

Headlines

British spy program ‘Optic Nerve’ captures Yahoo web chats, including nude images: The Guardian reports on documents obtained from Edward Snowden describing a UK GCHQ spy program called ‘Optic Nerve’ which ran from 2008-2010 for sure and was showing up on an internal wiki as recently as 2012. The program captured images from Yahoo chats, saving a still picture every 5 minutes. Analysts could only look at metadata in bulk searches but could get images if a username was the same or similar to targeted individual. In addition to testing facial recognition and feeding some data to the US NSA. the GCHQ was surprised to find a “number of people use webcam conversations to show intimate parts of their body to the other person.” Around seven percent of the images included “undesirable nudity.” The report did not estimate the amount of desirable nudity.

Google’s Project Ara project to arrive as early as next year with $50 price tag:  Time’s Technologizer blog reports Google’s Project Ara modular smartphone could arrive early next year priced at $50. That’s the phone that has blocks you can plug in and replace to add or upgrade functionality. Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group reportedly will finish a functioning prototype within a few weeks.The $50 version would only have WiFi, but then you could always get more block later. The freemium model comes to hardware!

Boeing to make secure phone CNET reports on Boeing’s dupe secure government and military phone: Yes Boeing is making a phone. Codenamed Black, it comes with loads of security features, dual SIM cards, a modular back for mission-specific needs like satellite communications or ultra-specific geolocation. Also any attempt to open the device would delete the data and software. The device won’t be available to the consumer market and technical information on “Black” is to remain confidential or protected by non-disclosure agreements. Also we never had this conversation.

The European Commission plans to hold talks on clearer guidelines for in-app purchases to prevent free-to-download games from misleading customers

GigaOm reports on crowd funding for a wearable fitness device called Moov which would audio and visual instruction WHILE you’re exercising

Baidu finished 2013 with its fastest revenue growth in more than a year increasing 50.3 percent to 9.523 billion yuan beating analyst expectations of 9.319 billion 

Pew research data shows 87 percent of people in the US use the Internet. That number shoots to 99 percent in households that earn more than $75,000 a year

News From You

Hey Steven Strogatz, I hope you made a bet on your prediction that computer-assisted math solutions would surpass human comprehension. Josh sent us an email with a link to the iO9 article about a computer that has solved the longstanding Erdős discrepancy problem. The solution is as long as all of Wikipedia’s pages combined and impossible for a human to confirm. The only way to check if it’s right is to see if another computer attempting to solve the same problem comes up with the same answer.

KAPT_Kipper posted the TechCrunch article about Sony announcing it’s shutting down 20 of its 31 retail stores in the US. Sony is busy offloading unprofitable parts of its business, even considering things like selling Sony Pictures, so this isn’t a shock. The 11 stores to remain open are in California, New York, Florida, and Houston, Texas.

And tm204 noted the Computer World story about Apple’s decision Tuesday that it will no longer issue security patches for OS X Snow Leopard. The last Snow Leopard security update came in September 2013. Snow Leoaprd was released in 2009. Apple generally only supports the newest and previous versions of its OS, but has supported Snow Leoaprd longer. Still. 19% of Macs were running Snow Leopard according to Net Applications data. Snow Leopard was the last version of the OS capable of running applications on the PowerPC processor.

Discussion Section Links:

Yahoo webcam images from millions of users intercepted by GCHQ

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-nsa-webcam-images-internet-yahoo

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/02/spy-agency-intercepts-yahoo-webcam-chats-nudes-and-all/

Pick of the Day:

I always heartily endorse Writer, at writer.bighugelabs.com Its essentially an internet typewriter, a super stripped down word processor. By default its green text on a black background (takes me back to my DOS days), and when in full screen mode it gives the best distraction free writing experience I’ve ever had. It has basic features, word count and a word count goal percentage, along with online saving across their servers. There’s a subscription option with some more advanced editing features and the ability to save to Google Drive/Dropbox, but the free version is all I’ve ever need. Every time I try NaNoWriMo its my go to.

Unprompted and hopefully not resented. Thanks

Rich from Lovely Cleveland

Tomorrow’s Guest:  Darren Kitchen of hak5.org

Sean Hollister is on the show to tell us how Google is about to conquer its own town. We’ll also update you on BitCoin and trot out some exciting new net neutrality metaphors!

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:  Sean Hollister, senior reporter at The Verge

Headlines

Mt. Gox hit with federal subpoena:  Ars Technica reports on the latest with Mt. Gox, the bit coin exchange that’s been down for more than a week. Wednesday morning, CEO Mark Karpeles wrote a new post on the Mt. Gox website reassuring people that he is still in Japan working hard to find a solution to Mt. Gox’s issues. The WSJ reports the US Southern District of New York has issued a federal subpoena to Mt. Gox. That court often deals with financial crimes. Japanese authorities say they are looking into the collapse themselves.

(more…)

Roger Chang joins me to dig into the Mt. Gox Bitcoin mess, have some further thoughts on Comcast-Netflix and look at a new language! Also, do selfies cause lice?

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:  Roger Chang, TV and web video producer

Headlines

Mt. Gox goes offline: Ars Technica and really the whole tech journalism sphere are reporting on Mt. Gox going offline. The site has been replaced by a message that transactions are closed for the time being for the protection of users. A joint statement from other Bitcoin exchanges accuses Mt. Gox of being a bad actor and promises make botching more secure and easy to use for customers. A leaked set of slides purports to show Mt. Gox plans to name a new CEO and possibly sell the company to new investors and relaunch under the name Gox. The domain name Gox.com is owned by MT. Gox’s CEO and the record was updated Feb. 24th.

Apple releases OS X patch for SSL security bug: TechCrunch reports Apple has released their OS X patch for security bug that meant all data secured in SSL was susceptible to man in the middle attacks from nearby hackers. The bug was patched for iOS this weekend. Anyone running OS X 10.9 is urged to update the OS as soon as possible. The patch also adds audio-only capability to FaceTime on the desktop.

Blackberry announces a Foxconn-made phone called the Z3: TechCrunch has the new BlackBerry announcements including the much-rumored Foxconn-made phone called the Z3. The touchscreen smartphone has a 5-inch qHD display, 1.2GHz dual core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1.5 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage and an internal FM radio! The Z3 will launch in Indonesia first. BlackBerry also announced a 3.5-inch phone with a QWERTY keyboard called the Q20.

T-Mobile adds 1.6 million subscribers in Q4: But they lost $20 million or 3 cents a share on revenue of $6.83 billion. All those snotty ads cost money. Still they only added 61,000 subscribers a year ago so the expensive ads did seem to work.

Tivo founders launch QPlay device

Motorola took to Twitter to announce the company is working on a watch to come out this year and promise a new version of Moto X coming late summer

Freescale Semiconductor introduced an ARM-baed micro controller unit smaller than a golf ball dimple for use in embedded devices that make up the Internet of Things. 

Ewwww….

News From You

pete_C posted a ZDNet story to the SubReddit that got some up votes. Seems Ars Technica noted the security team at FireEye developed a proof-of-concept app that could run in the background of a mobile device and log your keystrokes. FireEye originally posted that they successfully got such an app through Apple’s app store but that post has been removed. The defense for now is to be careful what apps you install, and only allow apps you trust to run in the background.

and sewell2 submitted the Ars Technica article on Stephen Elop becoming head of Microsoft’s Devices and Studios group, once Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s handset division is completed. Devices and Services makes the Xbox and the Surface among other things. The Nokia handset business will fall under that division as well. Julie Larson-Green, who currently heads Devices & Services, will become “Chief Experience Officer” of the “My Life & Work” team as soon as Elop joins.

News from Roger: Google sets roadblocks to stop distracted driver legislation

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/25/us-google-glass-lobbying-idUSBREA1O0P920140225

Discussion Section Links: Mt Gox Has Fallen

https://www.mtgox.com/

http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/02/mt-gox-once-the-worlds-largest-bitcoin-exchange-shuts-down/

http://blog.coinbase.com/post/77766809700/joint-statement-regarding-mtgox

http://www.scribd.com/doc/209050732/MtGox-Situation-Crisis-Strategy-Draft

http://winkdex.com/#/

http://gigaom.com/2014/02/24/this-could-be-the-end-of-bitcoin-leak-shows-massive-theft-at-mt-gox-price-falls-below-500-amid-pleas-for-calm/

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_Malleability

https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/understanding-bitcoins-transaction-malleability-problem/

http://two-bit-idiot.tumblr.com/post/77817993185/motives-disclosures-suspicions-mt-gox-update

Pick of the Day: 

Tomorrow’s Guest:  Sean Hollister, West Coast Editor at The Verge

We have Iyaz Akhtar and Nate Lanxon joining us to chat about the Samsung Galaxy S5. We also clear up *some* of the confusion around the Netflix Comcast agreement. The bad things about it are likely not the bad things you think they are.

MP3

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

Samsung announces  the Samsung Galaxy V:  The 5.1-inch phone comes with a fingerprint unlock button, built-in heart rate monitor, and is IP67-rated for water and dust resistance. It can be submerged in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes. It also comes with a 16-megapixel camera capable of recording at 4K and inside sports a 2.5GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM,and a 2800mAh battery. The Galaxy S5 is scheduled to launch globally on April 11 and will be available on all major US carriers. Samsung also announced the Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo and Gear 2 Fit with a heart rate monitor, the next versions of the Samsung Galaxy Gear smart watch. The new versions run on the Tizen operating system, promising better battery life and camera placement.

Nokia introduces Android-based smartphone with Microsoft Apps Ars Technica reports Nokia introduced a line of Android-based smartphones. Similar to a Kindle Fire, the Nokia X phones will run Android underneath but without any of the Google services. Nokia will have its own app store, mapping services, search by Bing, and Microsoft apps like Skype and Outlook pre-installed. The interface also has a Windows Phone-like style. The 4-inch Nokia X goes on sale immediately for €89. The 4-inch X+ and 5-inch XL go on sale next quarter, at €99 and €109 respectively.

HTC reveals mid-range smartphones, saves the ‘flagship’ device for March 25th: According to Recode, HTC announced two mid-range smartphones at Mobile World Congress. The HTC Desire 816 features a 5-megapixel front camera, 13 megapixel rear camera, a quad-cord Snapdragon processor and 5.5 inch display. The device hits China in March and other countries in April. The 4.7-inch Desire 610 ships to Europe In May. No pricing available yet for either phone. The company saved a new flagship device for an event on March 25th. The Verge reports HTC also announced the ‘Power to Give’ app which uses idle phone processors to provide up to a petaflop of processing power to speed help cure AIDS, fight cancer and help SETI find ET, who could then phone home on a new — nope. Not gonna do it.

Zuckerberg talks internet.org at Mobile World Congress: The BBC wrote about Mark Zuckerberg’s speech at Mobile World Congress. Zuckerberg focused on the Internet.org effort he spearheads, which aims to put billions of people online. A pilot program was announced to bring free online education to students in Rwanda. A partnership between Facebook and Unilever will research lack of Internet access in India, and another survey will estimate the value of expanding access in the developing world in general. CNN reports that in a Q&A session, Zuckerberg also said WhatsApp was worth more than $19 billion because it has the potential for 1 billion users. He also indicated he though the government blew it in its response to the Snowden leaks.

News From You

MANAGEMIKE and elefunk both submitted stories about Netflix and Comcast announcing the two companies have reached a mutually beneficial interconnection agreement. The Wall Street Journal claims Netflix will pay for the deal. Ars Technica’s sources could not confirm that. Dan Rayburn argued on streamingmedia.com that this agreement is a good thing for both Netflix and Comcast.

http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/02/media-botching-coverage-netflix-comcast-deal-getting-basics-wrong.html

http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/02/netflix-is-paying-comcast-for-direct-connection-to-network-wsj-reports/

http://gigaom.com/2014/02/23/the-netflix-comcast-agreement-isnt-a-network-neutrality-violation-but-it-is-a-problem/

http://arstechnica.com/features/2008/09/peering-and-transit/

flashsider submitted a CNET report that Mozilla announced a partnership with Chinese semiconductor designer Spreadtrum to produce a FirefoxOS phone that will sell for $25. A prototype was available, and CNET’s Stepghen Shankland said it worked well. Mozilla also showed off new FirefoxOS phones coming from Alcatel, ZTE and Huawei, as well as tablet designs from VIA, Foxconn and Alcatel.

SkyJedi submitted the Guardian article that Jan Koum, CEO of WhatsApp announced voice capability will be added to the Android and iOS versions of the app starting in the second quarter of this year, followed by some Nokia and BlackBerry phones. Competing messaging apps like KakaoTalk, Line and BBM already offer voice services.

More links from the show

Sony announces two smartphones and a tablet at Mobile World Congress

 Microsoft announces bundles of the Xbox One console with the game Titanfall for $499 starting March 11, that’s the same price the Xbox One sells for in the US without Titanfall

Apple releases security patch for SSL vulnerability

Brazil and the European Union agreed Monday to lay an undersea communications cable between Lisbon, Portugal and Fortaleza, Brazil. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said the $185 million cable project was central to “guarantee the neutrality” of the Internet.” 

Ashley Esqueda and Darren Kitchen join to get pumped for the Samsung Galaxy S V, buyout a Chevy’s, and divine the release date of the Oculus Rift by reading the entrails of an Oculus Rift. 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

Apple acquires Burstly TechCrunch reports Apple acquired Burstly, the company that owns analytic tool FlightPath and the app TestFlight which lets developers distribute their apps to beta testers before they submit it to the app store. TestFlight plans to end support for Android app testing as of March 21st. Shocker.

Samsung: Number 5 is Alive. (Also, wet.)  TechCrunch reports on Samsung’s teaser video promoting its upcoming February 24th announcement. The video shows a lot of people having fun doing things that involve phones somehow along with suggestive words like “Alive” and “Wet” all accompanied by the number 5. SO CRYPTIC SAMSUNG! I’ll be joining Cali Lewis and John P. for the GeekBeat.tv coverage of the event Monday at 2 PM Eastern.

News From You

Normgregory submitted our first News from You on the subreddit. This Reuters story tells how DirecTV Chief Executive Officer Mike White rather unsurprisingly has called for close scrutiny of the proposed Comcast-Time Warner merger, and the effective broadband monopoly it would create. But White didn’t exactly say he’s against it, just that his company has not decided what position to take, and wants to make sure it’s appropriately scrutinized.

habichuelacondulce pointed us to this Engadget article on Broadcom’s new BCM4771 Global Navigation Satellite System System on a Chip. What does that mean in English? Better battery life for wearables like smart watches that want GPS built in. The 40-nanometer construction and new sensor hub also make it more accurate. Broadcom will show it off at Mobiel World Congress next week.

And Rich_Seattle pointed us to an Engadget story that European streaming service Lovefilm will become part of Amazon’s Prime subscription in both UK and Germany starting Feb. 26th, under the new name Prime Instant Video. The Prime service which still gives one-day shipping will jump from £49 (€29) to £79 (€49). Existing subscribers won’t have to pay extra until the next time their subscription is up. Lovefilm will continue to run a DVD rental business.

More links from the show

Oculus Gearing Up to Host its Own VR Convention, ‘RiftCon’

Amazon getting ready to launch an Internet video streaming box?

Google acquires Spider.io

Fitbit issues a voluntary recall of the Fitbit Force following reports of skin irritation

Nvidia announces the Tegra Note 7 LTE for $299

Korean Messaging Service Kakao Gets Ready For A $2 Billion IPO 

Jolla’s Sailfish OS and smartphones are commercially ready and heading into new markets 

Oculus, not just for games

Pick of the day via listener Ron Kehn:

I recently discovered an app that allows me to use my Google chromecast to play videos stored on my android device.

The free application is called AllCast. It is available on the playstore.  A review can be found at Digital Trends

Veronica Belmont and Nate Lanxon join us to explain why Facebook REALLY bought WhatsApp. Also why Twitch Plays Pokemon is probably more important.

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

Facebook Did What? I don’t know if y’all heard, but Facebook announced it has agreed to acquire messaging app company WhatsApp for $4 billion in cash and about $12 billion worth of stock. An additional $3 billion worth of stock goes to the founders of WhatsApp and its employees that vests over 4 years. Co-founder an CEO of WhatsApp Jan Koum also gets a spot on Facebook’s board. Fortune reported Google had offered $10 billion but no board seat.

Reassuring Blog Post from Jan Koum

Jan Koum’s first Tweet

David Rowan of Wired UK spent three days with WhatsApp for article in March 6th issue of Wired

Mark Zuckerberg has learned what Steve Jobs knew: You need to disrupt yourself before your competitors do

NPD releases US smartphone market numbers:  The smartphone market grew there by 21% in 2013. Apple captured 45% of the market growing a bit over 2012’s 44%. Samsung and LG also grew at the expense of HTC and Motorola.

The Kansas legislation attempting to ban nearly all municipal broadband networks is apparently dead: Joshua Montgomery, who runs a small ISP in Lawrence, KS, told Ars Technica he thinks they killed the issue at least for a year. A Senate committee hearing has been canceled and not rescheduled. Kansas Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau (D) told Montgomery in an e-mail that the bill “has lost its momentum at this time.”

News From You

KAPT_Kipper posted the GigaOm story about Aereo losing its court case in the US District Court covering the 10th Circuit including Utah and Colorado. Judge Dale Kimball is the first of three Distrcit Court’s not accept Aereo’s argument that renting a micro antenna to a customer over the Internet is not a public transmission. Judge Kimball wrote “Aereo’s device or process transmits Plaintiffs’ copyrighted programs to the public.” The Supreme Court will hear Aereo’s case April 22. In the meantime Aereo will have to shut down operations in Salt Lake City and Denver.

Dmmacs submitted a GigaOm story about Visa and MasterCard announcing upgrades to their point-of-sale systems to take advantage of new capabilities in Android 4.4, aka Kit Kat. Previous NFC systems required hardware cooperation, meaning mobile carriers could keep out competing payment products in favor of their own. Google has developed host card emulation which allows the security element to be done in software allowing Visa and MasterCard to use NFC without any cooperation front he hardware makers.

Kylde pointed us to a Slashdot posting about Mercedes-Benz new 360-degree video capture method. A ball made of wide-angle cameras allows the viewer to swivel and tilt the camera angle in pretty much any direction as the car speeds around the track. And yes there’s an iOS app. The device will launch with the Mercedes AMG F1 team this year.

And flying spatula submitted this Engadget article about Waze updating its navigation map for Android and iOS to talk to your calendar. If your appointment has a location you can now ask Waze for directions right from inside the calendar.

More links from the show

Microsoft’s Office Web Apps changes its name to Office Online, launches new features

HTC to  show first of three wearable devices at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week. 

Virtual keyboard Fleksy has made itself open and free for developers to integrate into iOS apps

Google announces Project Tango– aims to develop a prototype smartphone equipped with cameras, sensors and chips that can create a 3D map of a user’s surroundings.

Mobile analytics firm Distimo releases a new report showing the most lucrative markets for game apps are Japan, Australia, and South Korea, in that order.