DTNS 2678 – Landscape Mode, Baby!

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comWant to take great pictures with your phone’s camera? Myriam Joire is here to tell Patrick Beja and Tom Merritt the differences between hardware and software, tips for good photos and whether two lenses are better than one.

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

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

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

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

Show Notes
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DTNS 2679 – Landscape Mode, Baby!

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comWant to take great pictures with your phone’s camera? Myriam Joire is here to tell Patrick Beja and Tom Merritt the differences between hardware and software, tips for good photos and whether two lenses are better than one.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? Click here

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

Follow us on Soundcloud.

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

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

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

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

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

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Cordkillers 106 – Cordkillers React

Time Warner Cable numbers rise, The FCC tries to save cable companies from themselves and The Fine Bros. piss off the Internet. With special guest Iyaz Akhtar.

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CordKillers: 106 – Cordkillers React
Recorded: February 1 2016
Guest: Iyaz Akhtar

Intro Video

Primary Target

Signal Intelligence

Gear Up

  • The FCC is going to war over set-top boxes
  • Actual proposal
    – FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has proposes requiring multichannel video programming distributors, like cable TV companies, to allow subscribers to use any set top box to access service in the following ways
    – What programming is available (channel listing, on-demand offerings)
    – Entitlements – can you record the programming, transfer it to mobile etc.
    – Content delivery
    – Companies could use any published transparent format to do so. 

Front Lines

  • Time Warner Loves Hulu, But Also Wants To Ruin It
    – The Wall Street Journal reports that Time Warner (NOT the cable part but the part that owns HBO and Turner) is in talks to buy a stake in Hulu. At the same time Time Warner would like Hulu to stop showing current season episodes of TV shows. 
  • Apple could pull a Netflix, start creating original TV shows
    – Sources told TheStreet.com that Apple’s Eddy Cue, chief entertainment architect, and Robert Kondrk, VP of iTunes content, has been talking with TV producers about creating original programs to offer exclusively in the iTunes store. 
  • Time spent online ‘overtakes TV’ among youngsters
    – Childwise has been tracking children’s media usage in the UK since the mid-1990s. For the first time their latest survey said children 5-16 in the UK spent an average of 3 hours a day online and 2.1 hours a day watching television. Netflix was the most popular TV service of any kind followed by ITV1 and BBC1. 
  • Sundance champ ‘Birth of a Nation’ chose Fox over Netflix
    – Birth of a Nation from Nate Parker won the Sundance film festival Grand Jury and Audience prizes for drama. Netflix sidles up and offered $20 million according to Hollywood Reporter. But Turner took a lower bid of $17.5 million from Fox Searchlight in order to insure a wider theatrical release, as well as showings in high schools and colleges. 
  • Sky’s Now TV Smart Box looks a lot like a Roku 4
    – Sky and Roku have introduced the Now TV Smart Box which combines pay TV content and 60 free-to-air channels along with streaming services. It looks very similar to the Ultra HD Roku 4. The box will be available to Sky subscribers later this year. 

Under Surveillance

Dispatches from the Front

Hi fellow Cordkiller dudes! A longtime fan, (aka MaxxAmmo) with a possible story or lead. Seems Amazon has taken Star Wars Rebels S2 Ep11 and called it Season 3 Ep 1!! Can you say “”Money grab?”” As a cordkiller and someone who has bought the Season Pass, I was outraged! Many season pass holders were furious and left harsh comments on the episode 11 page demanding Amazon fix this obvious problem. The comments have since mysteriously disappeared overnite. As an Amazon Prime member and long time loyal Amazon customer I called and expressed my outrage, the only resolution offered was a full refund of my Season 2 pass and the price of Episode 11 in HD credited to my account. I was told this is being investigated by Amazon and no clear answer why (S2 Ep. 11) is called Season 3 Ep. 1 was offered at this time. Link to Amazon’s Star Wars Rebels Season 3 page here.

Kevin

 

 

Netflix/Hulu blocking VPN

Another use case of why you’d need to use a VPN legally is our phones. 

With the presence of Free Wifi everywhere, including my employer, I don’t want anyone watching my phone’s web traffic just because I don’t want to chew through cellular data so I run an always on VPN on my phone. 

Because of this when these conditions are present
– I’m at home
– the VPN is still on
– I’m in the US
– I’m connecting to a US VPN endpoint 

The end result is Hulu and Netflix are blocked. 🙁 

Dave

 

 

Hello Tom and Brian,

On last week’s episode you guys were talking about how Netflix had no real reason to release viewership numbers, that made me wonder how the show creators and production houses felt about this. Wouldn’t it hurt their ability to negotiate with other networks or services when shopping around other shows they make? Seems like that could backfire in the long run.  Anyways love the show, keep up the awesome work. 

Your boss,
Juan

 

 

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers

2015 Winter Movie Draft

 

DTNS 2678 – You Must Construct Additional Pylons

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comThis weekend was the first competition to build Hyperloop pods. Could we really travel by high-speed vacuum tube someday? Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt discuss.

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

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

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

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

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

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

Weekly Tech Views – Jan 30, 2016

Untitled drawing (1)

Real tech stories. Really shaky analysis.

Another month comes to an end, but the Weekly Tech Views rolls on.

But Do You “Like” Like It?
Facebook is adding companions to the Like button, called Reactions. You can now also choose from Ha-ha, Wow, Love, Sad, and Angry (which, coincidentally, is the outline for every reality show, ever). This is the second go-round at fame for these five reactions, who originally anticipated movie stardom years ago, before Disney’s Snow White and the Twelve Dwarfs ran into budget cuts.

As a warm up for the arrival of Reactions, how about a quiz? Which reaction would you choose for each of today’s Weekly Tech Views stories? Keep track, and we’ll see if you’ve gotten the hang of it at the end of this post. Good luck!

So You’re Saying People Buy Some Of The Stuff We Make?
Sony is merging Sony Computer Entertainment with their PlayStation businesses to form a new company called Sony Interactive Entertainment. The move doesn’t officially take effect until April 1, giving the company time to put the employees of the computer branch through an intensive eight-week program designed to acclimate them to the concept of being part of a profitable company.

And That’s Without The Pencil
Apple is recalling some wall plug adapters because, in rare cases, the adapter could break and cause a shock. Apple has not identified the degree of shock, but electricians estimate it could range from “shaking hands with someone on shag carpeting” to “learning the price of an iPad Pro.”

Tuesday, 6PM: Come And Knock On Our Door
Microsoft’s virtual personal assistant, Cortana, will soon be able to automatically create reminders for you, based on information in your emails and calendar. For more on this story, we take you to 1977 and an episode of Three’s Company

Stanley Roper: “So it’s going to constantly nag me to do something without me telling it to? You sure it’s not named Helen?”

(Mr. Roper spends a full ten seconds smiling a very self-satisfied smile directly into the camera)

Helen Roper: “Maybe if you had some initiative and did something on your own, I wouldn’t have to nag.”

Stanley: “I do plenty! I just fixed their sink!”

Chrissy: “It’s true. It looked like real good duct tape, too.”

Stanley: “Never mind that. (To Helen): “And what have you ever done on your own?”

(It’s Helen’s turn to stare at the camera, eyebrows arched, and the audience snickers, knowing damned well what’s coming)

Helen: “Believe me, I have to do something on my own every night.”

(Audience howls)

Stanley: “I wish you were Cortana so I could push your button to make you be quiet.”

Helen: “If you would push my buttons I’d let you call me Cortana or Wonder Woman or whatever you want!”

(Huge, ridiculously long laughter from the audience, during which Jack does three double-takes, a spit take, and falls over six separate pieces of furniture.)

Want Some Pants With Those Pockets?
Apple is rumored to be introducing a new phone in March, the iPhone 5se. It will be a return to the four-inch form factor, which comes as a blow to a fashion industry that was finally coming to grips with the needs of the 6 Plus. You can bet they are scrambling now at Oscar de la Renta, desperately trying to decide whether to go ahead with their Prodigious Pockets line of ladies evening wear.

C U L8R
There was an exodus at Twitter this week as the heads of Media, Product, Engineering, and Human Resources all left the company, just days before Twitter’s two-day leadership summit. Also, panels at the summit covering leadership in Media, Product, Engineering, and Human Resources have been cancelled due to irony.

Check It–A Triple Popcorn Combo!
Periscope is integrating with the GoPro Hero 4, allowing users to stream and record video through the app. I’m sure there will be plenty of X-Games types sharing adrenaline-fueled, death-defying exploits with live Periscope audiences. For viewers who think athletes performing back-to-back-double-cork-1260s off of 22-foot walls of ice are just showing off and would rather find some cultural use for this technology, you are welcome to check out our stream, where you get to see which snack my wife and I have chosen for each episode of Jessica Jones.

A Phone In The Hand Is Worth Hours Of Laughs
Microsoft is beta testing the Word Flow keyboard, which is designed to make one-handed typing more convenient. Finally, our national nightmare is over! No longer will I have to put down my hot wings in order to tweet that I’m enjoying hot wings! And I’ll have plenty to watch while tweeting and eating, with YouTube executives projecting–during just the first month of widespread Word Flow use–a 350% increase in “Texters Obliviously Walking Into A Large, Immovable Object” videos.

I Love The Smell Of Union Strife In The Morning
French taxi drivers took to the ring road around Paris and burned tires to protest Uber’s continued operation under different rules than those governing taxis. This was a stroke of strategic genius, because, as history has shown time and again, nothing unites a divided public behind your cause like filling their city and lungs with the world’s most toxic potpourri.

Live Lint Look-In
Facebook has made live streaming available in the U.S. to iPhone users. Friends will be notified that your video is available and the feature will allow unlimited replays of all videos, including what is sure to become the platform’s most frequent post, “Inside of Pants Pocket.”

Grab On To Something
Asian Uber competitor GrabTaxi is changing its name to simply Grab, because they are no longer just a taxi service. There is the private car service GrabCar, motorbike taxis GrabBike, delivery service GrabExpress, and carpooling GrabHitch. They have even made their first foray into the U.S., providing tourists donkey rides in the Grand Canyon via GrabAss…

[Bells ring, a marching band begins playing, confetti falls from the rafters…]

“I’m humbled to accept, on behalf of the Weekly Tech Views, this Low Hanging Fruit Award for making the 10,000th GrabAss joke in response to this story. I guess, contrary to the doomsaying of my high school guidance counselor, a sense of humor that stagnated at the seventh grade level is good for something. Bless you all.”

Facebook Reactions Quiz Answers:

They’re all Ha-Ha. If you didn’t answer Ha-Ha to all of them, you’re doing it wrong. You shouldn’t even be allowed near Facebook, since you’re obviously a liar looking to hurt people’s feelings. Not that I care what you think.*

* Also would have accepted Love.

Remember 2015? Of course not, nobody does. Oh, some of your finer colleges may offer history classes that cover it, but those cost thousands of dollars and require getting out of bed. Instead, for the next week (through February 6), you can relive that bygone year’s biggest tech stories and their accompanying severely flawed analysis for only 99 cents! That’s right, the Weekly Tech Views compilation The Internet is Like a Snowblower (And 200 Other Things I Got Wrong About Tech This Year) is 67% off for one week!

That’s just half a cent per inaccuracy! You won’t find that kind of value outside of a presidential debate.

Amazon, here I come!

Snowblower Cover - Original - Final

Back next week with a special February issue that will be… pretty much like the January issues.

Mike Range
@MovieLeagueMike

Creative Commons License
Weekly Tech Views by Mike Range is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

DTNS 2677 – Point. Shoot. Take cash.

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comMore major banks want to enable ATMNs to work with cell phones. Tom Merritt and Darren Kitchen discuss whether this is a good idea. Len Peralta is in to illustrate the episode.

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

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

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

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

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

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

DTNS 2676 – Your Vote Could Not Be Completed as Dialed.

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comIs Microsoft the new Diebold? Microsoft partnered with InterKnowlogy to create a system to improve reporting of results from the Iowa Caucus this year, part of the US Presidential Election system. Justin Young and Tom Merritt discuss.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? Click here

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

Follow us on Soundcloud.

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

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

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

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

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

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!

DTNS 2675 – Apple Falls Far From The Trend

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.com
Is Apple’s hot streak over? Tom Merritt Scott Johnson and Breki Tomasson discuss. Plus machine learning gets better at Go and recognizing things.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? Click here

<!–Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.–>

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

Follow us on Soundcloud.

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

If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

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

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

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

Show Notes
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!