DTNS 2400 – CES: The Down Lowe on Oculus

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comRoger Chang and Paul Spain join us to chat about the top CES announcements from Dish’s Net-only TV service with ESPN to Nvidia’s Tegra X1 to a report from Allison Sheridan on using an Oculus Rift to remodel your bathroom.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Paul Spain of the NZ Tech Podcast is at CES, Roger Chang, tech journalist with a special report from CES from Allison Sheridan

Headlines

Dish announced its Internet-only service called Sling TV that will stream 12 channels for $20 a month starting “soon.” The star of the show is ESPN but it also will carry Disney Channel, ABC Family, Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel, TNT, CNN, TBS, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim. Subscribers will have the option of adding other channels in $5 a month packages like Kids, and News and Info. Streams can be paused, rwound and fast forwarded but there is no DVR functionality. Subscribers can only view on one device at a time though it supports Web, iOS, Android, Roku, FireTV, Xbox One and LG and Samsung Samart TVs. Best thing? No contracts.

Engadget reports that Intel unveiled 14 broadwell-series chips including including 13 15-watt processors with basic Intel HD graphics, and four 28-watt models with Intel Iris graphics. Most of those are Core i5 and i7s and they’re all dual core. While these chips boost productivity and battery life a little, the big gains come with 22 percent improvement in 3D graphics benchmarks, and up to 50 percent faster video-conversion time.

Ars Technica reports Google unveiled partnerships with new audio products that can take advantage of Google Cast. That means you can send audio from compatible apps and websites straight to things like speakers, just like you would do with a Chromecast devices. Sony, LG and Denon were named as partners but no product details were provided.

LG today announced the LG G Flex 2, a successor to the G Flex, which is a little smaller at 5.5-inches but a higher resolution screen at 1080p. It still has the curved body and the self-healing coating on the back. It also contains Qualcomm’s 64-bit Snapdragon 810 processor with 2GB of RAM and support for LTE Category 6. No word on price or availability.

The Next Web has Garmin’s announcement of three GPS smart watches. The Fenix 3 supports GPS and GLONASS for location, and measures heart rate, speed, distance, vertical drop and more. It arrives Q1 in five versions starting at $499.99 up to the Sapphire model at $599.99. The Epix is touted as a hands-free navigation device, with maps, compass, altimeter available Q1 for $550 or $600 with topo map preinstalled. And finally the Vivoactive is the budget model with apps, color display interchangable bands and wireless sensors. It also launches Q1 from $250 to $300.

TechCrunch reports that a company called Gogoro announced the Smartscooter, an electric scooter powered by swappable batteries lithium ion batteries. The scooter goes from 0-30 in 4.2 seconds, with a max speed of roughly 60mph, and has two battery slots. Max range is 100 miles. When the scooter runs low on battery power a smartphone app would direct you to a “Go Station” hub where you can swap out the shoe-box sized, 20 pound batteries. Batteries can be reserved, but the user doesn’t “own” any batteries–instead you subscribe to rent. No cost has been announced, and a battery swapping network large enough for a major city is more goal than reality at this point.

Nokia can make phones but not feature phones because Microsoft still owns the Nokia brand from when it bought part but not all of Nokia but it only owns the brand temporarily, so when I say Microsoft launched a phone called the Nokia 215 that’s why. It’s a $29 feature phonerunning Series 30+ with Opera Mini and Facebook Messenger and Twitter. It has a dual SIM model and it gets 29 days on a charge. It will roll out first in select markets in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe this quarter.

CNET reports Tencent has launched China’s first private bank. It’s entirely operated online. WeBank launched Monday and although it’s the first bank in China not controlled by the government, Premier Li Keqiang attended the launch ceremony.

The Verge reports Panasonic will release its Life+ 4K TVS this spring, running Firefox OS. No pricing or release dates were announced. Meanwhile don’t confuse THAT launch with the FirefoxOS powered Matchstick which struck up it’s own partnership to be built inside smart TVs, monitors and settop boxes from TCL and Philips/AOC. The integration features Matchstick’s answer to Google Cast called Flint, an open source casting protocol that anyone can build with.

Ars Technica reports that Sony has announced its replacing its per rental remote game subscription service for Playstation Now with a flat monthly fee. Starting January 13th, PS4 owners in North American can sign up for unlimited streaming access to more than 100 PS3 games like Batman: Arkham City and The Last of Us. A one month subscription will cost $19.99, three months $49.99, and a free seven day trial is available for new subscribers.

The US FCC has a new complaints site at https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us designed to make your complaining a more enjoyable experience. The new site is streamlined with helpful information, complaint monitoring 24-7 and faster delivery of complaints to customers. The Consumers Union advised the FCC on the new portal.

Lenovo announced a partnership with Intel on the P90 smartphone a 64-bit Atom Z3560 powered device with Intel’s LTe-Advanced modem chip. The Intel XMM can handle 150 Mbps down and 50 up though the service has to also be capable of that. It’s Android 4.4 out of the box unfortunately. Otherwise its a 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 display at 400 ppi. 32 GB stoarage and 2 GB RAM with a 13-mpxl rear cameras.

And Lenovo got into wearables with the E-ink Vibe Band. The band shows notifications from your phone for calls, SMS, Facebook, Twitter, WeChat and more, but with no more than 150 characters and can track steps and sleep. The VIBE band will cost just $89 although a release date was not announced.

Qualcomm announced an easy way for manufacturers to make smart light bulbs without worrying about all the crazy protocols out there! Just use theirs! IN partnership with smart lightbulb maker LIFX, Qualcomm has developed chip design that any company can license. It uses the AllJoyn protocol which means it can connect to any product in the house— that uses the AllJoyn protocol. A protocol led by Qualcomm.

Asus unveiled an updated line of Transformer hybrid Windows PC’s and photo-friendly smartphones at CES today. CNET reports that the Transformer Book Chi series is a clamshell laptop that detaches into a tablet. The $699 T300 Chi use Intel’s new Core M processor and has a 1920×1080 resolution screen or $799 for the 2560 x 1440. The $399 10.1 inch T100 has an Atom processor and the T90 costs $299. All three sizes come tot he US in February, no pricing.

As for phones the ZenFone 2 will run Android 5.0 Lollipop Intel’s 64-bit Atom Z3580 processor, a quad-core 64-bit CPU, and includes 4GB of RAM and Intel’s LTE-Advanced XMM modem chip for $199 available in March and the ZenFone Zoom, with a 13 megapixel camera which features a 3x optical zoom. The photo phone will be available for $399 in the US sometime in Q2.

News From You

tninja3000 pointed out the Engadget story that Google’s Nest has announced loads of new partners in its Works With Nest program. Pebble and Jawbone are already in on the action but today Nest announced LG, Philips and Withings are among the new partners. SCenarios could be Nest noticing you leave and making sure the LG smart oven is off, The Withings Aura sleep sensor noticing you go to bed and telling Nest’s thermostat to adjust the temp. Or the Nest Protect smoke alarm causing the Philips Hue bulbs to flash or glow red or something. Uni Key, Ooma and Lutron are among other new partners.

metalfreak called our attention to the OS News post regarding the Intel Management Engine and how operating systems leverage it to restrict things like screenshots of proteced media. The IME is a coprocessor that among many other things implements Protected Audio Video Path to stop nasty pirates from ripping content in ways like using screen recorders on realtime playback. This has the side effect of preventing some innocent things like taking screenshots, because the pixels aren’t stored where they are expected to be.

Discussion Section: CES!

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/05/sling-tv-announced/?ncid=rss_truncated

Dish Introduces Sling TV, Its Over-The-Top Alternative To The Cable Bundle

http://recode.net/2015/01/05/you-can-finally-get-espn-on-the-web-for-20-a-month/

http://recode.net/2015/01/05/chipmaker-nvidia-accelerates-move-into-smarter-cars/

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/4/7492771/nvidia-drive-cx-ces-2015

Here’s How Nvidia’s New Tegra X1 Stacks Up To The K1 And Apple A8X On Paper

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/05/nvidia-x1-benchmarks-performance/?ncid=rss_truncated

Pick of the Day: The Computerphile channel via Brent

Hi Tom,

I just wanted to say I love your show and wanted to contribute.

This year I found this youtube channel called computerphile. I first saw it appear when the channel posted a video on how the heart bleed vulnerability works (they did not want people to use the bug, but showed how it worked and why)

Warning some videos are very technical!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9-y-6csu5WGm29I7JiwpnA

The youtube channel has loads of videos about all kinds of computer related questions including networking, computer history and many others. If you have some time browse through the list of videos.

Enjoy,

Brent

Announcements!

Our next DTNS contributors have been announced: Scott Johnson and Veronica Belmont!  If you’d like to hear more of Scott and Veronica, go here: patreon.com/acedtect

DTNS has an Instagram account! Jennie will be posting from CES until she falls down.  http://instagram.com/dtnspix/ 

Tomorrow’s guests: ALL THE PATRICKS! Patrick Beja from France and Patrick Norton from CES!

DTNS 2399 – Is CES Over Already?

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comMolly Wood and Tim Stevens join the show to talk about what’s coming up at CES and why everybody gets so excited about it, while at the same time calling it irrelevant every year.

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Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Tim Stevens, CNET Editor at Large focused on tech products and automotive & Molly Wood personal technology columnist for The New York Times

Watch for Tim’s CES work here! http://www.cnet.com/ces/

Molly’s CES preview will be posting later today at: http://www.nytimes.com/bits and she will be doing lots and lots of CES stories so stay tuned!

Headlines

The Next Web reports Xiaomi released details of the Redmi 2, an update to its Redmi 1S phone. The 2 has 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 Quadcore processor, supports LTE, ups the front0-facing camera to 2 MP and has a 2,200 mAh battery, while running Xiaomi’s MIUI 6 version of Android. The phone will sell in China for 699 RMB. Xiaomi announced yesterday it sold 6.1 million phones in 2014.

Swiss Watchmaker Withings has announced a more affordable version of it Activité smartwatch called the Activité Pop made of cheaper PVD_coated metal with a silcone strap. The Pop will sell for $150 quite a bit less than the $450 of the regular Activité. The Pop comes in Azure, Shark Gray and Sand and tracks sleep, steps and swimming. It also syncs to Withings’ Health Mate app for iOS. Android is coming soon. The Verge reports The Pop goes on sale at Best Buy Jan. 5.

PC Mag reports on several new hard drives released by Seagate and LaCie. Among the highlights, the Seagate Seven is a superslim external 2.5-inch USB 3.0 500 GB drive available by late January for for $99.99. The LaCie Mirros packs a 1 TB flash drive in a Gorilla Glass 3 case designed by Pauline Deltour with a matching ebony wood stand. It should arrive in late January for $279.99. There’s also a 500 GB Wifi-enabaled Seagate Wireless in February for $129.99. The Seagate Personal Cloud home NAS in 3, 4 and 5 TB or two-drive bay models at 4, 6 and 8 TB, in late January, though no pricing yet. And LaCie Rugged RAID4TB array in Q1 for $449.99.

Acer made its 15.6-inch Chromebook official coming to the US starting at $249.99. GigaOm reports displays range from 1366 x 768 tp 1920 x 1080 and storage in 16 or 32 GB varieties. You can also choose between 2 and 4 GB of RAM and between 5th-gen Celeron or Core i3 Broadwell chip. All the screen size doesn’t come light though as the ChromeBook 15 weighs in at 4.85 pounds.

According to the Washington Post, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told fellow FCC commissioner before Christmas that he intends to circulate a draft proposal of Open internet Guidelines internally in February with an eye towards voting on the guidelines within weeks. FCC spokeswoman Kim Hart confirmed the timetable to the Post.

Reuters reports that Intel invested $24.8 million in Net-connected eyewear company Vuzix Friday. Last month fashion eyewear designer Luxottica announced a partnership with INtel to bring tech into fashion brands. Intel also has deals to develop wearable devices with Fossil Group and Opening Ceremony for things like watches and bracelets.

Acer also highlighted its V 17 Nitro laptop with Intel’s RealSense 3D camera. The 3D sensor can let you control games and apps with hand motions. It also can scan objects, including your face. for inclusion in software or for 3D printing projects. Otherwise its a standard Acer 17-inch desktop replacement with a quadcore Core i7 1 TB drive combined with a 128 or 256 GB flash drive. Engadget says it ships in January although the price is TBD.

News From You

starfuryzeta submitted the TorrentFreak article that Netflix has started to force its Android app to use Google DNS, which makes it harder to use DNS-based location unblockers. Several VPN IP ranges were targeted as well. TorGuard noticed access problems by its users starting in mid-December. Hulu implemented blocks on VPN users a few months ago. The blocks have the affect of preventing out of region subscribers from using the service but also prevent users concerned with security and privacy from using the service as well even when within the proper region.

KAPT_Kipper posted the Engadget story that the US Smithsonian Institution has posted more than 40,000 pieces of art from its Freer and Sackler galleries online. The images can be used for non-commercial purposes for free. Need a Wandala painting from the 1100s as your wallpaper? Easily done.

Discussion Section: CES 2015

http://www.cnet.com/news/ces-2015-everything-you-need-to-know/

http://ces.cnet.com/

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/2/7472871/ces-2015-preview-consumer-electronics-show-predictions

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/01/ces-2015-preview-what-to-expect-when-youre-expecting-ces/

https://gigaom.com/2015/01/04/my-ces-2015-expectations-connect-all-the-things/

Pick of the Day: Tablo TV via

I have a pick for someone who is looking to get rid of cable. I recently picked up a Tablo:

https://www.tablotv.com

It is a DVR for over-the-air broadcasts. Setup is simple. You connect an antenna, a USB hard drive for storage and connect up the power brick. You can plug it into Ethernet or just put it on your Wifi network. The unit can hide wherever it is convenient because after it is setup, you just stream live and recorded TV to your devices. We are a mostly Apple household so we stream to iPads and iPhones and Airplay to AppleTVs or stream to a web browser on one of our computers. The website says they support Android tablets and phones, Kindle Fire tablets, Roku and Plex. I haven’t tried any of those though. It is simple to browse the guide and setup recording schedules. You can even set it up to be reachable remotely so you can watch your TV wherever you have Internet access.

Be aware that you do need to buy a guide subscription but they have several different options for that too, including a single lifetime subscription fee.

Tablo is one part of my cord-cutting solution which also includes Netflix and the odd iTunes TV show purchase. I heartily recommend it.

Announcements!

Our next DTNS contributors have been announced: Scott Johnson and Veronica Belmont!  If you’d like to hear more of Scott and Veronica, go here: patreon.com/acedtect

DTNS has an Instagram account! Jennie will be posting from CES until she falls down.  http://instagram.com/dtnspix/ 

New DTNS Goals for 2015

On Friday’s show I announced that Scott Johnson and Veronica Belmont would be the next two regular weekly contributors we’d like to add to the show. If our Patreon hist the next level, we can make that happen for sure! So if you can spare a dollar. That’s 5 cents a show. Go kick in at patreon.com/acedtect.

That will get us within striking distance for an official video version of the show!

What do these contributors mean? No more guests?
No. It doesn’t mean that. It means we’ll have reliable regular guests who know how the show works and have a good flow.

It also means we have more flexibility to get guests who are experts on a particular story or aspect of a story. We’ve had a few reporters who like being on to talk about a thing they’re covering, but don’t really feel comfortable hanging out for the whole show. This gives us the ability to have them on more often.

In any case, we hope you’re excited and can help us bring Scott and Veronica on board!

Tom

DTNS 2398 – Curve Skeptics

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comJust the headlines as we ramp up to CES, plus a surprise visit from someone, and new goals for 2015.

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 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

New 2015 Team Logos

The 2015 season is closer than you think. In celebration of the new year, The FSL announced the brand new Phil Meadows logos for the new 2015 teams.

The Los Angeles Guardians of the Galaxy try to capitalize on their roots playing in the Galaxy while identifying with the upmarket LA metro area.

GUARDIANSofthe GALAXY

While The Cheyenne Mountain Gators make no secret of the pride in their teams ability to play to all fields.

Cheyenne Mountain Gaters

DTNS 2397 – Predictions for 2015

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comPatrick Beja and Justin Robert Young share their predictions for what to expect in tech in 2015.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? click here

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 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!

Cordkillers 51 – I’m Not a Reality Show Kinda Guy

The Interview hits online, Netflix says goodbye and hello and 4K apps on Vizio.

Download audio

Download video

CordKillers: Ep. 51 – I’m Not a Reality Show Kinda Guy
Recorded: December 29, 2014
Guest: None

Intro Video 

Primary Target

Signal Intelligence

Gear Up

Front Lines

Under Surveillance

2014 Winter Movie Draft
draft.diamondclub.tv

  1. Scott: $378,364,906
  2. Tom: $325,740,292
  3. Brian: $317,556,820
  4. Brett: $223,479,164
  5. John: $133,316,656
  6. Justin: $74,147,621

Dispatches from the Front

Brian,

I already told you… eBay your jail broken first gen AppleTV. You will get enough money to buy at least two current gen AppleTVs in return. Look on eBay and see for yourself. Get it done, and stop bashing the AppleTV!

David

 

 

Hey Brian and Tom,

I just thought you would find this confirmation of the ending of the legend of korra series.
One of your bosses

Rodrigo

 

 

Im now saving 136.00 a month I cut the cable tv and phone and just kept internet went from 187.00 down to 51.00. I spent around 200.00 to install a DB8E antenna on the roof with a four way distribution amp. I live about 40 miles from new orleans and mississippi gulf coast so i have one antenna bay pointed to new orleans and the other to the gulf coast and I get all the channels from both markets a total of 41 channels. I have a roku stick on each of the four tv’s and with the antenna and roku’s with amazon, hulu, and netflix im set.

Randy

 

 

Hi Brian and Tom,

I have been watching you all for a couple of years now and really like the show. I wanted to let you know about this device I came across the other day, it’s called Brilliant TV. It’s from a small start up company near West Palm Beach, FL where I live. From what I can tell, this device seems to be close to what the old Boxee Box use to offer. It’s a small set top box that runs a version of Android and it’s an aggregate of all on-line content that is available for free. To include TV Shows, Movies, sporting events and foreign television as well.

Again, they are a small company and the device is a little expensive.($500 is what they told me but is says $599 on their web site.) However, these guys seem to have done a pretty good job on the delivery of the product from what I saw in the demonstration.

Take a look at this device and see what you think. You can find it at this URL: http://geekypickers.com/product/brillianttv-set-top/

I look forward to hear what you all have to say about this device.

Keep up the great work Brain and Tom.

Jimmy 

 

 

[SPOILER TALK] for The Walking Dead

On the last spoilerin’ time I listened to you mentioned that you stopped reading The Walking Dead comics before the Eugene reveal and I realized that you did the exact same thing as me. I read the comic up to the point where Abraham’s crew appeared and stopped, and I watched the show until the disappointment that was the governor and stopped. My roommates continued to watch the show in the living room where I catch glimpses and can tell what part of the story they are in (me being the only one to have read the comics in the house) and they got to the point where Abraham appeared and I thought “Oh no… I don’t want the crappy show version to ruin the comic for me” (though now that I have seen parts of season 4 and 5 I see that they are taking even more liberties with the source material and is at best loosely based on the comics) so I took the plunge and read (renting from the library) the nearly 100 issues I needed to to catch up, it was the best decision I have made in a long time. The most recently completed story arc literally shook the core of my humanity (maybe not so much, but it was really good), so I suggest that you continue the comics.

TL;DR Continue the walking dead comics!

 

 William

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box

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DTNS 2396 – Predictions Results Show

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comIyaz Akhtar joins the show to look back at our predictions for 2014. How well did we do? Listen and find out.

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 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