Search Results for "september 24"

DTNS 2517 – Keeping Up With The Droneses

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comScott Johnson and Raj Deut are on to talk about the Microsoft shakeup and oddly how it sheds light on the market for Virtual Reality headsets.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? click here

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 guests: Scott Johnson and Raj Deut

Headlines: 

Ars Technica reports Microsoft made it’s seemingly yearly executive reshuffle today, though ReCode’s Ina Fried thinks it has more to do with people than strategy. Former Nokia CEO and head of MS devices Stephen Elop leaves and devices gets rolled into the Windows group under Terry Myerson as the Windows and Devices Group. Kirikk Tatarinov leaves Business Services and Dynamics which gets folded into Cloud and Enterprise under Scott Guthrie. Eric Rudder is leaving and his education responsibilities will move under Qi Lu in Application and Services. All those folks leave today. Separately Chief Insights Officer MArk Penn will leave in September and take his insights to a Steve Ballmer backed digital marketing services company called Stagwell Group.

Reuters reports the California Labor Commission has determined Uber drivers should be treated as employees not contractors. The ruling was filed Tuesday stating Uber is “involved in every aspect of the operation” and awarding $4,000 to Barbara Ann Berwick, a driver who complained. Uber is appealing the award.

Nest made some new announcements according to The Next Web. The Cam, is a 1080p successor to dropcam with night vision, a tripod, and a speaker you can talk through for $199. Dropcam’s cloud recording is now called Nest Aware and you get 30 days of storage for your $10 a month. It’s available in US, UK, Canada, Germany, France and the Netherlands today and ships next week. The Nest Protect gets an update that’s better at detecting fires, the thing that it is supposed to do. You can also silence it remotely with an app. It’s coming next month for $99. Nest also announced Hone Safety Rewards which gives you a 5% brake on insurance premiums and a free Protectif you share your data with insurance companies Liberty Mutual and American Family.

Reuters reports the FCC has proposed a $100 million fine for AT&T over the way it informed unlimited users about speed throttling.  AT&T has 30 days to respond after which the commission will review the proposal and make a decision. The FCC says AT&T did not properly inform customers when reductions would happen and mow much speeds would drop. That violates transparency requirements passed in 2010.

The Verge reports Amazon is updating the Kindle Paperwhite today with a new 300 pixels per inch display. That’s twice as sharp as the last iteration and the equal to the $199 Kindle Voyage. The new Paperwhite will sell for $119. You can preorder today for shipping by the end of June.

Engadget reports Dropbox has announced a new way to request files from multiple people, called File Requests. One link sent to multiple people lets them all upload files to the same folder with a maximum capacity of 2GB. None of the senders need to have a dropbox account. Pro and Basic accounts get the feature today and Business users get it in a few weeks.

Intel acquired Canadian smart-eyewear maker Recon reports CNET. Recon’s Jet $700 glasses have a built-in display to show directions, activity statistics, smartphone connectivity for texts and notifications and camera for photos and videos. The Recon team will partner with Intel’s New Devices Group to develop new wearables technologies. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

AMD unveiled several three new GPUs under the Fury name, according the Ars Technica; The flagship $649 R9 Fury X, $549 R9 Fury, and R9 Nano. All three are based on the Fiji chip an update to the GCN architecture and will feature 4GB of on-package high bandwidth memory. The R9 Fury X is comparable to Nvidia’s GTX 980 Ti with 4096 stream processors, up to 1050 MHz core clock speed, 256 texture units, 64 Render Output Unit, 512 GB/s of memory bandwidth, a 67.2 GigaPixel per second fill rate and six-phase Voltage Regulator Module for overclockers. It also has a water cooled 120mm radiator. The R9 Fury will be an air-cooled version of the Fury X and the R9 Nano a low-power GPU based on the same Fiji processor. The Fury X launches June 24th, Fury on July 14th and Nano sometime this summer.

The Next Web reports researchers from Indiana, Georgia and Peking universities demonstrated a vulnerability they call “Xara” in the OS X keychain that would allow attackers to gather passwords. The group created a malicious app and got it accepted into the OS X app store. Because there is no way to verify which app owns a credential in keychain the app can get access to every password stored after it’s installed. Another attack spoofs URLs to steal private token, since OS x does not check which apps are allowed to use which URL schemes. The group notified Apple of the issue on OCtober 15th and Apple asked for 6 months to fix. The problem still exists in 10.10.3 and 10.10.4.

Good news drone fans. The Next Web reports that at a congressional hearing on Wednesday, senior FAA official Michael Whitaker said commercial drone regulations “will be in place within a year.” On top of that Amazon’s vice president of global public policy said “We’d like to begin delivering to our customers as soon as it’s approved. We will have it (the technology) in place by the time any regulations are ready.”

News From You:

andrewdaley sent us this story from Ars Technica about a new exploit in the customized version of the SwiftKey keyboard bundled with the Samsung Galaxy S6, S5, and other Galaxy models. When downloading updates, the Samsung devices don’t encrypt the executable file, making it possible for attackers to modify upstream traffic. The exploit was demonstrated Tuesday at the Blackhat security conference in London by Ryan Welton, a researcher with security firm NowSecure. SwiftKey said in a statement that its Google Play and iOS versions are not vulnerable. Samsung has apparently shipped a patch to wireless carriers but it’s unknown if it has been applied.

dvdmon sent in the TechDirt article that the European Court of Human Rights has decided in Delfi AS v. Estonia, that websites can be liable for user comments.  The Court found the original article published by Delfi was balanced, it ruled that since the site wanted comments and made money off those pageviews, it incurs liability for what the commenters wrote. The ruling also find that since Delfi could remove comments, its filter wasn’t good enough to catch all offending comments and some comments were anonymous, Delfi is liable. Europe has no equivalent to the US rules on safe harbor.

Discussion Section Links:  

http://www.wired.com/2015/06/sony-morpheus/
http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/17/8794907/oculus-rift-touch-virtual-reality-hands-on-e3-2015
 http://www.dailytech.com/Microsoft+Plays+the+Field+Backs+Valves+VR+Push+Too/article37402.htm
 http://readwrite.com/2015/06/15/microsoft-wants-to-own-virtual-reality-hololens-oculus
 http://www.cnet.com/news/why-oculus-partnered-with-microsoft-for-its-rift-virtual-reality-headset/
 https://www.google.com/search?q=microsoft+valve+vr&oq=microsoft+valve+vr&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l2.3674j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=119&ie=UTF-8
 http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/06/microsoft-partners-with-valve-vr-and-oculus-shows-minecraft-for-hololens/

 

Pick of the Day:

Brian write:

I’d like to recommend Security Now! on TWiT’s network as a fantastic educational podcast with a large still-relevant backlog. It has all kinds of good info from how networking works to how operating systems work, along with current news and updates.

Messages:

Travis writes in:

On Monday’s show (Episode 2515) Veronica mentioned her frustrations about having to use multiple different Facebook apps for things like messenger, photos, etc. I feel very much the same way as Veronica and found that Facebook has an app called Paper, which has virtually all the main Facebook features such as News Feed, groups, and yes, even messenger in a flipboard-esque layout. Another nice perk, no ads (at least as of now).

=====

Thursday’s Guests: Justin Robert Young

DTNS 2516 – Password: Cake, Monkey, Fish Flag

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comPatrick Beja is on to talk about announcements from Sony and Nintendo. Was there nothing good at E3 this year?

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!

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

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Patrick Beja

Headlines: 

CNET called Sony’s E3 press event a mix of nostalgia and exclusives. Halo creator Bungie announced a new expansion for Destiny coming in September. Sony has exclusive deals for early access to Square Enix’s next Hitman, called Hitman, Street Fighter V and Call of Duty: Black Ops. Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate will offer PlayStation only missions and the next Disney Infinity game will come with an exclusive Star Wars figure in a PlayStation-only bundle. Square Enix remake Final Fantasy VII as a timed exclusive for the ps4. Sega launched a kickstarter for Shenmue 3 which funded its first 2 million dollar goal in 9 hours. Sony introduced a first-person shooter called Rigs that’s exclusive for Sony’s Morpheus virtual reality headset. And Sony PlayStation Vue the TV service arrived in San Francisco and LA while Sony promised future al la carte channel purchasing options. OH and Last Guardian is coming in 2016. Yeah they opened with that bombshell.

Nintendo’s E3 digital announcement conference had a lot of new titles for 3DS and a lot fewer new titles for the Wii U.  Nintendo will release Amiibo for Bowser and Donkey Kong that will work in the Wii U version of Activision’s Skylanders Superchargers in September. The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes comes to the 3DS. A three-player cooperative take on the classic adventure franchise that has online play and arrives this fall. For 2016 the 3DS will also get Metroid Prime: Federation Force a multiplayer-focused online shooter set as a spin-off and Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam.
For Wii U owners this year there’s Super Mario Maker coming September 11th. Yoshi’s Woolly World October 16th. And later this year Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival, Mario Tennis:Ultra Smash, and Star Fox Zero. Nintendo also teased Fire Emblem: Fates and Xenoblade Chronicles the next installment in the popular JRPG.

Twitter is going the way of autoplay. The Next Web reports that video and GIF’s will now play automatically, but that the sound will be muted until you click on the video or turn the phone to landscape view. Users can opt out, and Twitter automatically disables the feature if it thinks you have low bandwidth. The change rolls out today to Twitter.com and Twitter for iOS. Android coming soon.

Computer World reports that a UK company called Intelligent Environment is promising to bring emoji-only passcodes to banks.
They claim emojis as a PIN will prevent hackers from identifying common and easily obtainable numerical passcodes, like a date of birth or a wedding anniversary. There are forty four available emojis which equals 3,498,308 unique combinations of non repeating emoji. No banks have signed on to the system yet.

TechCrunch reports Adobe’s Creative Cloud new milestone update was announced. The big addition is Adobe Stock a new stock photo and video service created after the acquisition of Fotolia. Photoshop and Lightroom get a dehaze filter. And Photoshop now has support for artboards as well a an HTML5-based design space that shows only the tools optimized for app design.

TechCrunch reports Box is now integrated in Microsoft Office Online. Box has already been available in Office 365. Box competitor dropbox integrated into office online in April.

The Verge reports Razer’s Open Source Virtual Reality platform will now support Android and position tracking. Position tracking, was a noted absence from OSVR’s initial release back in January. Hardware support within OSVR will eventually be added to allow Android phones to take the place of a dedicated VR display. In total, OSVR is now up to 144 supporters including the Unity and Unreal engines.

News From You:

KAPT_kipper submitted the Last Pass blog posted that attackers had penetrated the password manager’s network and accessed account email addresses, password reminders, server per user salts and authentication hashes. The passwords may still be difficult to crak as Last Pass uses 100,000 rounds of server-side PBKDF2-SHA256 in addition to client side rounds. And to be clear the database of stored passwords for OTHER accounts, the whole reason one would use Last Pass, was NOT accessed. LastPass has put in place email verification, suggest turning on multifactor authnetication if you haven’t already, and encourages all accounts to change their master password.

Starfuryzeta posted the article from Mashable that Google Maps can now warn you if a destination will be closed by the time you get there. Of course, the hours of operation have tobe correct and Google’s traffic estimator has to be accurate. But still, nice touch Maps.

TheRealFrankL sent us the New York Times report that the FBI is investigating whether employees of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team hacked into the internal networks of the Houston Astros to steal data on players. Investigators have uncovered evidence that Cardinals officials may have obtained internal discussions about trades, proprietary statistics and scouting reports. Astros GM Jeff Luhnow left the Cardinals in December 2011. The FBI believes the attackers used a list of passwords Mr. Luhnow had used while working for the Cardinals, to access the Astros network.

Discussion Section Links:  

http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/16/super-mario-maker-will-let-you-build-your-own-mario-levels-this-september/?ncid=rss
http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/15/8773903/sony-e3-2015-playstation-games-list-summary
 http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/16/sony-e3-reaction-video/?ncid=rss_truncated
 http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/16/8789519/legend-of-zelda-triforce-heroes-e3-2015
 http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/16/nintendo-shows-off-starfox-zero-for-wii-u-with-gamepad-aiming/?ncid=rss#.7yzb2u:LZCI
 http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/16/8789563/nintendo-amiibo-skylanders-wii-u-e3-2015
 http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/16/hyrule-warriors-new-metroid-nintendo-3ds/?ncid=rss_truncated
 http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/15/ubisoft-e3-2015-roundup/?ncid=rss_truncated
 https://plus.google.com/u/0/+PatrickBeja/posts/M5SnqhmA8B9

Pick of the Day:

Franz from -insert weather conditions here- Austria:

To play your existing PC games in full stereoscopic 3D, I recommend TriDef 3D.

The software acts as a middleware driver for games that use Direct3D 9,10 or 11. It offers extensive tweaking, works with all brand GPUs and many types of 3D technologies including color separation, and even VR headsets. There is a list of supported games on their website, but after testing all my other games, I found that a surprisingly large amount of them (>75%) did work – some even as old as 2003!

There are two downsides however:
One: At 40 USD, it’s expensive, but there is a free 2 week trial.
Two: the hardware requirements are steep, obviously, and also it takes a certain mindset to tolerate the necessary tinkering and potential frustration that come with the initial setup process
But once it runs, it’s great. So if 3D is your sort of thing, check it out.

Messages:

Alan writes:

I find it interesting that Microsoft is adding backwards compatibility to XBox One. If I remember correctly, they omitted it completely from Xbox 360. Sony got a little backlash for no backwards compatiblity in PS4, but they did start out with some backwards compatibility in PS3 before phasing it out. To me, this makes it seem like backwards compatibility is only a move to make when you’re behind in the market. That may not be the case, but it kind of looks that way. I still haven’t bought a current gen console, but I tend to favor Playstation. It seems to have more variety, since I’m not big on the most popular genres of shooters, sports, and racing. Nor fighting or zombies, so as you can see I’m really not a gamer.

Jonathan writes:

Catching up on my DTNS feed, I listened to episode 2513 where Allison and Todd talked about the FTC taking consumer protection action against Erik Chevalier for his 2013 Kickstarter campaign; a game entitled “The Doom That Came to Atlantic City”.

As an active member of the Columbus Area Boardgaming Society (CABS), I try to keep up with the boardgaming news. I wanted to note that in 2013, board game publisher Cryptozoic Entertainment, rescued the project and delivered the game in 2014 to the Kickstarter backers as was promised by Mr. Chevalier. Cryptozoic did this without receiving any money from the original campaign.

I felt they deserved a shout-out for that amazing gesture of good will toward the boardgaming community.

Relevant links:
Cryptozoic Entertainment 2013 press release – https://www.cryptozoic.com/articles/cryptozoic-saves-doom-came-atlantic-city-board-game

Dice Tower News coverage – http://www.dicetowernews.com/the-doom-that-came-to-atlantic-city/1220

Cryptozoic Entertainment 2014 game fulfillment page – http://www.cryptozoic.com/articles/doom-filled-dream-becomes-reality-42

Boardgame Geek listing – https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/124548/doom-came-atlantic-city

Columbus Area Boardgaming Society – http://www.cabsgamers.org/ 

=====

Wednesday’s Guests: Raj Deut & Scott Johnson!

DTNS 2512 – Toasters Fly Again!

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comScott Johnson and Brian Ibbott discuss Spotify’s war chest, Samsung’s shiny new mirror, and the eternal magic of Flying Toasters. Tom Merritt is on assignment.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? click here

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Scott Johnson and Brian Ibbott

Headlines: 

One day after Apple announced a new music streaming service, Spotify closed a massive new round of funding. According to The Wall Street Journal, Spotify has raised $526 million from investors, and the company is now valued at $8.53 billion dollars.

Re/Code reports that Spotify also announced is has more than 20 million paying subscribers in addition to 55 million active users of the free version. That’s up from the 15 million paid subscribers and 60 million total active users the company reported back in January. We’ll be talking much more about this after the headlines.

Microsoft announced pricing today for the Surface Hub, its giant 4k multi-touch display designed to replace the whiteboard in your super sleek startup conference room. Engadget reports that the 84-inch version will cost $19,999 and go on sale in July. There will be a smaller, 55-inch version for $6,999. Both should ship in early September.

Samsung  unveiled a 55-inch mirrored OLED display, as well as a 55 inch transparent display. Ars Technica reports that Samsung anticipates the displays would be used as “digital signal” for retail. The mirror OLED panel has a more than 75 percent reflectance level, which Samsung says is “at least 50 percent higher” than mirror LCDs that are currently for sale. The transparent OLED display is more transparent, letting through 40 percent of the light versus the 10 percent transparency of today’s transparent LCDs. No price was announced. Both displays are paired with Intel’s RealSense 3-D camera technology, which means that someday soon, when you look into the mirror in the dressing room, the mirror will LOOK BACK. And it will not be pleased.

Kaspersky Lab’s has admitted to being hacked. Kaspersky Lab CEO and founder Eugene Kaspersky wrote, “We discovered an advanced attack on our own internal networks. It was complex, stealthy, it exploded several zero-day vulnerabilities, and we’re quite confident that there’s a nation state behind it.” The firm called this attack Duqu 2.0 — named after a specific series of malware called Duqu. Kaspersky explained this situation as a mix of both good and bad news but claims none of its services have been compromised.

According to The New York Times, the malware was used in a cyber-espionage campaign targeting hotels that hosted Iran nuclear negotiations.

The Washington Post reports that Elon Musk’s “other company” — Space X — has asked the US government for permission to test low orbit satellites that would beam internet service from space.  The plan calls for 4,000 small and cheap satellites that would beam high-speed internet signals all over the globe. If the tests go well, the full service could be up and running in about five years. Facebook recently scrapped similar plans, maybe because they don’t own their own rockets?

Facebook Messenger has topped 1 billion Android downloads, according to PCMag.com. Messenger’s David Marcus posted a photo displaying the Google Play Store’s 1 billion download badge with the image likes by colleagues Mark Zuckerberg and Tom Stocky. Facebook and Google are the only two companies with 1 billion-plus bragging rights: which according to TechCrunch includes,  Facebook and WhatsApp, as well as Gmail, YouTube, Google Search, and Google Maps.

PCWorld is reporting that Congress is worried that foreign government-owned SSL certificate authority could issue phony security certificates to harvest login details from social networks, corporate networks and email accounts. The US House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce recently sent letters to Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla with questions about how the backbone of HTTPS security could be violated. In one example the Certificate authority Diginotar was hacked in 2011 and hundreds of fraudulent certificates were issues for Google, Skype and Yahoo. There are numerous government-owned CAs across the globe, including in China, France, Spain, and Turkey.

News From You:

Do you long for a simpler time? A time when toasters flew and you could revel in the simple joys of The Randomizer? Apparently you do, because this item submitted by natebob received a whopping 48 votes in the DTNS subreddit. Sensing your need for a return to innocence, Developer Brian Braun has thoughtfully recreated every original After Dark Screen Saver including the iconic flying Flying Toasters. The iconic screensaver images are on his Github page.
The After Dark screensaver software launched for the Apple Macintosh in 1989 and appeared on Windows computers in 1991.

djsekani shared this Ars Technica story covering Verizon’s apparent failure to make good on 22 years old promise to Pennsylvania to provide fiber Internet or “comparable technology” supporting at least 45 megabits to its service area in the state. So far more than 2 million homes have either slower DSL or wireless service out of 4.2 million in Verizon’s service area. The original agreement allowed Verizon to charge higher phone rates for higher speed broadband. Telecom analyst Bruce Kushnick wrote in the Huffington Post that officials relaxed the requirements over the years, giving up on the “45 megabits per second” minimum and allowing Verizon to meet the obligation with wireless instead of fiber or other wireline technology.

DTNS producer jollyroger would like you to know that RayNiro, one of the lawyers who pioneered the wave of contingent-fee patent litigation, says he’s ready to exit the business because quote “The stand-alone patent case is dead on arrival, and I don’t think we’re unique.” Ars Techina reports that patent litigation dropped by roughly 20 percent in 2014, and patent lawsuits by “non-practicing entities,” also known as patent trolls, dropped by nearly 25 percent.
Those trolls filed about 3,700 lawsuits in 2013, and 2,800 in 2014. With more judges awarding fees to defendants, patent trolling has taken on higher risk.

In one case Niro and his firm were ordered to pay fees in a patent suit he brought against HTC. The parties are still litigating over the amount, but HTC is seeking $4.1 million. The fee order was “a wake-up call,” Niro told Crain’s Chicago Business. “I can take it once, twice, but am I going to take it three or four times? No. Why should I?”

Discussion Section Links:  

 http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/06/10/spotify-raises-526-million-amid-battle-with-apple/
 http://www.businessinsider.com/jimmy-iovine-apple-music-real-agenda-2015-6#ixzz3cgTPHXDY
 http://recode.net/2015/06/10/spotify-has-20-million-paid-subscribers/
 http://thenextweb.com/apple/2015/06/09/apple-music-will-stream-at-256kbps-below-the-industry-standard-320kbps/
 http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/10/investing/pandora-apple-music-spotify/
 http://9to5mac.com/2015/06/09/spotify-rdio-pandora-respond-apple-music/
 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2485680,00.asp
 http://www.cnbc.com/id/102743329

Pick of the Day:

Proud Co-Executive Producer gadgetchaser writes in to say:

” I’ve never sent in a pick before, but I’d like to suggest a Web service/app called Kifi (I pronounce it KeeFee, but it could also be Kai-Fye…I’m not sure what the creators call it).

It’s first and foremost a way to self curate the Web using a Chrome extension. You make Libraries for different interests and subjects and then save them in the browser. You can add tags and notes that are searchable though the web app or the extension.

There is a *gasp* social aspect to the service too, you can make your Libraries Public or Private. ..One of my favorite aspects of the Chrome extension is when I visit a new page, I get a little pop up in the corner showing me others who have added that site to a Library of their own.

I’ve tried a lot of “Pocket” type services over the years, but I’ve found that I’m actually using this one to “read it later”, likely due to the fact that I can organize things by more than just tags. I have a private library to go to and catch up and from there easily move it to a more permanent Public or Private Library if I want to keep it or just delete it and forget about it.

Messages: 

HotBranch in summery-ish Montreal writes:

“Catching up on my backed up episodes, the mention of Facebook Lite in episode 2508 caught my attention because I used it to replace the regular Facebook app (and Messenger) on one of my older phones and my pokey 2012 Nexus 7 tablet.

I believe I had seen news of the original release on AndroidPolice, who provided a link to download the APK for side-loading. The interface is not as polished, but it uses far fewer resources than the regular app, and the messenger app is integrated, producing further storage savings.

Ironically, I installed Facebook Lite on my Nexus 5 and found no improvement in the Zuckerburgian experience other than to have two notifications of comments or likes that arrived at different intervals. The Lite version usually delivered the notifications first.

All this to say that Facebook Lite is available to those willing to invest 30 seconds of searching and two minutes of downloading and side-loading.

=====

Thursday’s guest:  Allison Sheridan and Todd Whitehead

Cordkillers 73 – I Like No Ads

HBO Now is really popular but too expensive, AT&T wants to let people pay for your data, and what made Mad Max so good.

Download audio

Download video

CordKillers: Ep. 73 – I Like No Ads
Recorded: June 1, 2015
Guest: Roberto Villegas

Intro Video 

Primary Target

Signal Intelligence

  • AT&T wants to choose which online video services count against data caps 
    Cogent, Dish, Free Press, New America’s Open Technology Institute, and Public Knowledge asked the FCC to prevent exemptions to data caps.
    – ATT asked FCC to clarify it is allowed to provide data cap exemptions to companies for a fee
    – Open Internet Guidelines (not yet in force) do not prevent such exemptions
    – FCC instead opted to observe and “determine whether data caps are being used to harm competitors and consumers”
    – ATT has not struck any such deals for at home broadband. There is a deal to integrate Hulu into ATT U-verse.
    – ATT’s own streaming video service counts against data caps.
    – AT&T Sponsored Data exists.
    – Wireless advertising that doesn’t count against data cap
    – AT&T’s caps are 150GB per month for DSL subscribers, 250GB per month for U-verse, 500GB or 1TB for GigaPower, with overage fees of $10 per additional 50GB.

Gear Up

Front Lines

  • Apple Subscription TV Service Won’t Be Announced Next Week
    – Apple will not announce a new TV service at WWDC next week. But les Moonves says CBS is still in negotiations and the only holdup is money. That is all!
  • Nvidia launches its Shield set-top box for Android TV — with optional 500GB hard drive
    – Nvidia launched its Shield set-top box with a Tegra X1 processor that bundles Android TV in with the ability play games from the GRID, Nvidia’s cloud service for $200 at 16GB or $300 at 500 GB. Oh and it has voice control and 4K support too. 
  • Netflix Tests Teasers For Original Programming, But Has No Plans To Run Third-Party Ads
    – So you may have noticed trailers before or after your Netflix shows. Netflix spokesperson Cliff Edwards told TechCrunch “We’ve had originals teasers at the end of shows for a while. Some members of seeing tests at the beginning of shows. As you know, we test many things over the year, many of which are never universally deployed.” OK. CLIFF. But does that mean Netflix is going to put ads in someday HUH? To which Cliff responds: “Our policy around ads is unchanged. We have no plans to support third-party ad units.” OK Cliff. You win this round.
  • Lenovo unveils a $49 Chromecast competitor
    – Lenovo has a Chromecast-like device except it’s shaped like a hockey puck, not a dongle and costs $49. It works with any Miracast or DLNA device. Arrives this August.
  • Rogers, Shaw face Netflix head-on by making Shomi available to everyone
    – Canadian fans were very excited to tell us that Shomi, the Netflix-like service owned by the Rogers and Shaw cable companies in Canada, is now available to everyone, not just Rogers, Shaw and Bell customers. This starts sometime between June and September and the price stays C$8.99.
  • TiVo profit, revenue beat estimates on subscriber growth
    – TiVo had better than expected quarterly revenue and profit rose by 8 cents a share. Net revenue rose 7.2% Subscriptions rose 27% to 5.8 million in the 3 months ending April 30. So those of you who say we never report good news for TiVo. There you go. 

Under Surveillance

Dispatches from the Front

I can personally attest that you absolutely can continue with the chicken challenge threat seemingly indefinitely, at least with Comcast. I have both bluffed as well as legitimately threatened to cancel service and have always been given a good enough deal to keep me on board. I have had free HBO for almost 4 years, occasionally call up and get free Showtime, and constantly keep my package rates around $100 for their fastest internet plus basic cable. I do the math every 6-12 months and it is still not financially worth cancelling cable, at least as long as they keep bribing me. Granted it is a pain to sit through the torture of Comcast customer service, but I have accepted that until we have more competition in the market.

Regarding re-opening movie rental stores and the inability to rent movies that may are only available for purchase on Amazon, Vudu, etc, I have an exciting new service for you: Netflix. If you want to watch new movies before streaming is available they are very often available through the Netflix DVD service (yes I am one of those few who still have this service). This applies even more to older movies which may be difficult to find streaming – Netflix’s DVD rental service has pretty much any older movie or TV show you can possibly think of available.

Klye

 

 

Dear killers of cords,

Last week’s program contained a message from a listener/viewer who sang the praises of the Acorn channel. Please permit me to share a different view of Acorn.

My dear, sweet, gray-haired, cord-slashing mother was the recipient of a Roku box from yours truly for Christmas in 2009. She almost immediately switched to streaming-based content and hasn’t looked back.

As a fan of PBS and British programming, she also became one of Acorn’s early subscribers. At the end of last year, though, she concluded that most of the Acorn content she wanted was also available to her through Netflix and Amazon Prime — so she canceled the account.” Suffice to say Joseph then details how the charges kept coming depite her efforts to cancel. So his point is be vigilant about charges when you cancel a service.

Joseph

 

 

What it do Killers,
I’m definitely interested in an expanded Spolierin’ Time show with picks, recommendations, maybe even Spolierin Time specific guests (love to see some Film Sack or Auto Pilot crossover bits). I’d also appreciate more technical and how to stuff. 

Kenneth 

 

One thing you might consider is separating the funding for Spoilering Time from the regular Cordkillers. I do not mind getting billed for both, but some people may not want to pay for Spoilering Time. You should give your Patreons the option to fund one or the other or both. I do know if Patreon can handle that kind of separation or if a separate Patreon page would have to be set up for Spoilering Time. It might be a gauge to measure support for spoiling.

Mike

 

 

On keeping with shows, like them or not. Personally I think you are doing it right. Be clear why you are loving a show, or clear on why you are dumping it. Watching you make that decision, discussing it, and creating conversations with the community about it, is where the value is. Don’t throw good time after bad.

Todd

 

 

Hi guys,

I’m listening to you talk right now. Here are a few thoughts from a Patreon supporter:

I like what you’re doing with the timer, but I think shouting “extension” is dumb. Just extend it. As Brian pointed out, sports TV does this. When they do, they *actually* just blow the countdown clock all the time. Watch an episode of Pardon the Interruption sometime with Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon on ESPN as an example. It’s great.

Thanks for a great show.

Dave

 

2015 Winter Movie Draft
draft.diamondclub.tv

  1. Amtrekker: $427,551,427
  2. GFQ: $416,963,546
  3. Frogpants: $334,997,492
  4. Night Attack: $105,742,219
  5. DTNS: $54,588,173
  6. Cordkillers: $37,084,164

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box

DTNS 2504 – ICANN’t ban North Korea

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comDarren Kitchen is on the show and we’ll talk about Professor Kim Heung-Kwang’s interview with the BBC claiming 6,000 North Korean hackers have the power to destroy whole cities. Plus Len Peralta rejoices over the Cavs success. And illustrates the show.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? click here

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 guests: Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta

Headlines: 

Apple posted its recommended workaround for the iPhone Messages bug according to the Verge. The support document directs iPhone users to reply to the malicious message. Apple is working on a fix, The bug is also affecting iOS users of Twitter and Snapchat who have notifications on for those services. With Twitter it crashes the phone but causes no lasting damage. With snapchat it makes the chat history with the sender inaccessible.

PC World reports on Google’s announcement that Levi’s is the first partner for its smart fabric called Project Jacquard. The experiment weaves electronics into cloth to create the equivalent of touch screen controls. Demos at Google I/O showed fabric that could manipulate a 3D image on a display, change the songs on a phone and control lights. Think of it like a mouse in your pants…. wait….

Reuters reports Path sold some of its apps to South Korea’s Daum Kakao. If you’re making the remark “who uses Path anymore?” you are giving yourself away as not Indonesian. INSTANT DATA MINING. IN any case the makers’ of Kakao Talk didn’t get all of Path. Just the social network and the Path Messenger. Path Places, which enables connections between customers and business like restaurants, stays with Path, though it has been disbaled for the time being. Path has also been developing non-Path branded apps like GIF creation app Kong.

Washington Post reports cites a new report from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that says digital security is essential freedom of expression and warns weakening encryption in some countries could undermine that freedom worldwide. The report was written by special rapporteur David Kaye, Director of the International Justice Clinic at UC-Irvine. . Kaye wrote governments “should avoid all measures that weaken the security that individuals may enjoy online, such as backdoors, weak encryption standards and key escrows.” because it results in weaker security for everyone.

Tech Crunch reports that Apple acquired augmented reality startup Metaio on May 22nd. The company launched back in 2003 as an offshoot of a project at Volkswagen. 9 to 5 Mac’s Mark Gurman, who has good sources, believes Apple is working on an augmented reality feature for its Maps app, and of course there’s that VR headset that Apple patented earlier this year.

The Verge reports the welcome news that you can finally use GIF’s on Facebook! Mostly. If you drop a link to a GIF which has already been uploaded elsewhere on the Internet, the GIF will appear. Upoloading a GIF directly to Facebook doesn’t seem to work just yet.

Engadget reports that Google is broadening out its Google Sign-In feature with Smart Lock for Passwords. In a Google Developers blog post Smart Lock for Passwords is described as a “frictionless” method for users to sign-in to apps on Android and sites in Chrome. Smart Lock works a bit like a password locker. Once a user saves a password to Smart Lock, they can skip entering their credentials on all of their authenticated Chrome and Android devices. For instance, Netflix is a partner meaning once you add Netflix to Smart Lock say on a laptop, you wouldn’t have to go through the painful process of signing in again on an Android TV.

News From You:

KAPT_Kipper sent this TorrentFreak story that Hola VPN sells users Bandwidth to others through a service called Luminati. An 8chan message board operator, Fredrick Brennan claims that Luminati was used to attack his website. Hola says it has suspended the user that misued its service and it would cooperate with any law enforcement activity related to the attacks. Hola’s FAQ makes it clear that it uses bandwidth from Hola users’ computers when they are sitting idle and the company defines idle as meaning a device is connected to electric power (not on battery), no mouse or keyboard activity is detected, and the device is connected to the local network or Wifi (not on cellular)). Any users who don’t want this to happen can buy Hola for $5 per month.

kyro5976 sent us the Cult of Mac report that more than half of the the founding artists in Jay-Z’s Tidal music streaming service may have to pull their music from site after Jay-Z failed to reach a music licensing agreement with Sony. Among the artists affected: Taylor Swift’s man Calvin Harris Alicia Keys, Daft Punk, Usher, and uh, Beyonce. Jay-Z was apparently hoping a deal with Sprint was going to cover the cost of Sony’s licensing terms, but apparently Sprint has decided that they are not in a “financial investment” situation.

Discussion Section Links:  

 http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32925495
http://www.businessinsider.com/these-are-countries-that-could-lose-internet-easily-2014-12 
 http://www.businessinsider.com/internet-outages-reported-in-north-korea-2014-12
 http://bgp.he.net/AS131279#_asinfo

Pick of the Day:

Joel the Yooper DTNS Nickle-backer:

For a long time I have drooled from afar the world of home automation as the solutions were either too expensive or too complex for the whole family. The I saw this on the shelf for only $24 bucks. LINK Starter Pack by GE. It comes with a WINK based hub and 2 60-watt equivalent dimmable LED bulbs. I’ve found it to be a great way to test out this new tech trend without getting too invested. And if I do decide to go further, there’s a bunch of compatible products.

I don’t know the price elsewhere but it’s listed as a “special buy” on Home Depot’s site. Whatever that means.

Keep up the great work.

PS: I promise I don’t work for Home Depot.

Messages: 

Toby Atticus Fraley:

Just a quick tip, the Kickstarter succeeded!! Pittsburgh International Airport is getting a Robot Repair shop, opening this September. This is the first time a public art installation for the airport has been crowdsourced! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tobyfraley/robot-repair-shop

Co-Executive Producer Damien from Gloomy-outside-my-hospital-window-Maitland, Australia:

Hello Tom, Jenny and <insert contributor here>

When I heard about testing of Google Tone I immediately cringed at the thought of security implications.

You (Tom) made an offhand comment about malware bridging the air gap and moved on.
I’m astounded that no one else seems to have made any other comments about the potential risks associated with a technology designed to bypass one of the most fundamental security concepts. That a stand alone, unconnected computer is unhackable.

I realize that it is an optional extension and the user has to click to confirm, but we know how easy it is to convince people to click on links that they shouldn’t.

Thanks for all your work on the show

Dave from too-damn-sunny-and-not-enough-rainy Los Angeles:

As an avid phone photographer and videographer (also known as “Dad”), I was very excited to hear that Google’s new Photos app is going to support unlimited photos AND videos! … When I went to turn on the new feature on my account, the options for storage were “High Quality (unlimited storage) – great quality at reduced file size” (my emphasis) and “Original – Full resolution that counts against your quota.”

My deduction from these descriptions is that the “unlimited storage” will still be compressing your files to be smaller, meaning Photos isn’t necessarily suitable for our primary backup, but it would still be a great way to have our entire library of family photos available in the cloud. Can you confirm that this is how the unlimited storage will work?

And Ted who’s Lumia 1020 supports RAW photo backups did a little more research:

I went directly to Flickr and Google. Neither one supports RAW at this time. Limits per unit upload:
Google: photo 75MB, Video 10GB
Flickr: photo 200MB, Video 1GB

Dwayne here from somewhere in the desert which I can not wait to leave.

You said you have never seen the sharing of photos with a link. Microsoft has been doing this for years and I love it. MSFT have some good features here like giving the sender rights to allow the receiver to just view, download or edit, time span that they have access and it is built in to outlook and OneDrive. This way you can email the link to anyone without any restrictions. Also the receiver does not need to be logged into anything. Love the show!

Sent from my Windows Phone

=====

Monday’s guest: Veronica Belmont

Cordkillers 71 – Decidedly Less Juicy

Is Hulu or CBS the future of cord-cutting apps? Has TiVo cracked the perfect bundle?

Download audio

Download video

CordKillers: Ep. 71 – Decidedly Less Juicy
Recorded: May 18, 2015
Guest: None

Intro Video 

Primary Target

Signal Intelligence

Gear Up

  • Plex comes to TiVo
    – Oh TiVo. You keep being so close to a really great cordcutting device.
    – TiVo Roamio getting Plex app 6/8
    – Opera-based version of smart TV apps. 720p only
    – Won’t integrate with universal search
  • TiVo wants to become the legal version of Aereo
    – Multichannel says TiVo plans to use Aereo trademark and customer lists in a legal version of the service
    – TiVo CEO Tom Rogers wants to offer low-cost bundles of channels and streaming services
    – “The answer is pretty clear — it’s kind of the Aereo model, done legally and better.”
    – Event planned in San Jose for July to unveil new Aereo. 

    – Essentially Rogers says that Cable should bundle TiVos with OTA and broadband services in with their Internet.

Front Lines

Under Surveillance

Dispatches from the Front

PLEASE, for the love of everything that is good in the heart of a Mother of Dragons… quit with emails and conversations about spoilers.

The Geeky Brit
Ian, Ontario, Canada.

 

 

 

Regards WMC demise.

I too am disappointed with Windows 10 not continuing WMC. You mention apps like plex and Kodi. Yes, I use plex myself… but what I will miss most from WMC is the OTA DVR functionality. As of now, I have yet to find ANY other DVR software as easy to setup and use as Media Center.

Since there isn’t really any hope for this, or worth arguing ALL my points, I have a question?

What is the best software available to use PC with OTA tuners to record broadcasts? Preferably something that can handle multiple tuners and has a reliable guide to schedule series… oh and it has to actually RECOGNIZE the TV tuner without extensive manual setup… that was the key of WMC and what angers me most about Microsoft’s decision.

Thanks for the show.

David C. St. Louis, MO

Go Cards!!

Kodi has OTA DVR functionality

 

 

Cordkillers. Love the show. I was one of the lucky ones to get on the deal for the Lifetime TiVo OTA for $299. Got it last week, and I am loving it. I haven’t had a DVR since I went OTA and been using Hulu as my cloud DVR per say. Now w/ TiVo OnePass, I see myself canceling Hulu (once I catch up on some shows). I can keep up w/ the motto and record what I want so I can watch what I want, when I want (and now CBS!). Cutting another monthly bill is awesome.

Neil

 

 

 

Hello Everyone,

I have to say I love the prospect of Apple TV. I really loved the speculation where the first month for every app is free and then using that information to tailor a package to you.

The fact of the matter is though I don’t like Apple and mostly likely wouldn’t get an Apple TV. What I really love if the potential for the Roku TV’s. You guys have made comments before about a TV not keeping up with the Software which is a downside to Smart TV’s. If I was going to trust anyone to buck the curve on that it would be Roku. I have had my Roku 1 longer then I’ve had 3 of my TV’s so when it comes to Software keeping up with Hardware Roku I trust. The bonus of that is if after 5 year the hardware isn’t keeping up with the tech, it’s $30 for a stick and $69 for a Roku 2 right now, that is not bad in my opinion.

Thanks for your Time,
Nicky Marson

 

 

 

Hey guys,

I wanted to add a little bit to your Apple TV predictions. In our house we primarily use Roku boxes simply due to the availability of ALL THE CONTENT. On what other device or platform can you get Amazon Video and Google Play video on the same big screen enabled device? This is what I want on a new Apple TV – apps directly from the content providers – and if the rumor is true about being announced at WWDC I’m hopeful that this might come true.

Here’s my prediction – at WWDC they will announce an Apple TV SDK and a beta that runs on current Apple TVs. This gives developers time to write and test apps prior to any new hardware. Then at this year’s iPhone event the new box is announced. This would allow them to have a fully stocked Apple TV App Store prior to launch like they did with the watch. With the technologies that came with iOS 8 and the watch the foundation is in place for building Apple TV apps as app extensions.

I can’t wait!

Thank,
John in rainy Billings, MT

 

 

 

Hello Tom and Brian! You were discussing CBS All Access this week and Brian described it as meeting the “completeness” vector. But I wonder if you’ve actually used it?

My wife and I did a trial week to try it out and catch up on some shows we watch on CBS. But when she went to watch Big Bang Theory, it was missing several episodes – at that point, it had only the three most recent plus the first four of the season, but not the ones in between. We checked another show she watches, Criminal Minds, and found a similar result – only the last five episodes, same as is freely available on their website. They also still had the most ads of any streaming service I use – and that behind the paywall!

While it is true that other shows did have the complete current season, it was very hit-or-miss. We wound up cancelling the service because CBS “All” Access did not, in fact, give us access to all of the current season’s programming. For the same basic price as Hulu Plus or Netflix, I would expect that at the very least. Their back catalog is pretty readily available elsewhere too – for instance, I can watch any episode of Star Trek ever on Netflix. For my money, they need to worry less about the back catalog and worry more about actually providing complete current seasons.

Love the show – you guys helped me figure out what I needed to do to cut the cord, and I’m pleased to say we’re one year cable-free and don’t miss it! Thanks!

Sincerely,
Andrew L

 

2015 Winter Movie Draft
draft.diamondclub.tv

  1. GFQ: $406,655,335
  2. Amtrekker: $372,030,708
  3. Frogpants: $146,708,083
  4. Cordkillers: $36,282,735
  5. Night Attack: $23,446,781
  6. DTNS: $0

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box

DTNS 2362 – Ahey Irisay

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comVeronica Belmont is on the show and we’ll talk about President Obama’s proposal to reclassify ISPs in the US as commence carriers to solve net neutrality concerns.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Veronica Belmont, co-host of Sword & Laser

Headlines:

The President of the United States of America posted a letter and video today declaring his support for reclassification of Internet Services as Common Carriers under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. President Obama expressed his opinion that regulations shouwl not allow blocking, paid prioritization or throttling and ISPS should provide increased transparency. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler welcomed the Presidents comments and said he would consider them, presumably along with the 4 million others the FCC has received on the issue.

Facebook’ stand-alone Messenger app now has 500 million monthly active users, according to PC World. The number of monthly active users doubled in the six months, since Facebook cut off access to chat in their main app and required users to download the separate Messenger app. Facebook-owned WhatsApp reported 600 million monthly active users in August.

Reuters reports researchers at FireEye have discovered a bug in iOS that could enable attackers to access sensitive data on devices by getting users to install malicious applications that replace legitimate apps. FireEye calls the attack “Masque Attack.” FireEye disclosed the vulnerability to Apple in July and Apple is working to fix the bug. The WireLurker exploit takes advantage of this vulnerability. FireEye advises iOS users not install apps from unofficial app stores.

CNET reports Apple has put out a tool to help former iOS users disconnect their phone number from iMessage. Some users who switch to a non-Apple phone find text messages are still routed to their iMessage account where they are lost. The solution has been to switch off iMessage on the old phone though some users said that didn’t work. The new tool lets you remove the phone number from iMessage so that text messages are never accidentally routed to your Apple accounts at all.

The Next Web reports Mozilla released some new features for Firefox in celebration of the 10 years since the release of Firefox 1.0 on Nov. 9 2004. Among the new features are an easier sign in process, a walkthrough of privacy features, and a forget button that clears anywhere from 5 minutes to 24 hours of browsing history. DuckDuckGo is also now a standard search option.

Andrew Lewman, executive director of the Tor Project told the BBC that the significance of Europol and US Agency busts of 17 people associated with darknet sites may be overblown. Originally several sites had been reported shut down and rumors circulated that Tor had been compromised. Europol later clarified that 400 pages were closed in association with the services that hosted them. 27 services were seized in the operation. Lewman does not believe Tor itself was compromised in relation to the raids.

Reuters reports Samsung applied for a license to invest $3 billion in a second smartphone factory in Vietnam. This new factory will also be located in Than Nguyen province. Samsung has been increasing production in Vietnam to reduce costs.

Ars Technica reports that Pirate Bay and Flattr co-founder Peter Sunde, also known as brokep, has been freed from a Swedish prison after serving 5 months of an eight month sentence. A Swedish court found Sunde and three other co-defendants guilty of aiding copyright infringement as part of The Pirate Bay. Upon release, Sunde tweeted, “My body just got re-united with my soul and mind, the parts of me that matters and that never can be held hostage.”

TechCrunch reports the United States Postal Service is the latest to have its database targeted. The attack focused on employee data like social security numbers, addresses. Some information recorded from customer calls may also have been accessed. The intrusion was detected in mid-September.

 

 

 

 

 

News From You:

KAPT_Kipper submitted the GigaOm story that the Raspberry Pi foundation has put the Model A+ on sale for $20, making it the most affordable RaspBerry Pi on the market. The A+ comes with the new 40-pin GPIO header which can use the same HAT add-on boards that the B= can use.

habichuelacondulce submitted the Torrent Freak report that based on information it has received, Comcast recently sent out its 1 millionth Copyright Alert notice in the US. That’s about 2,000 notices a day. The alerts are part of the “six strikes” system in the US that aims to educate users about copyright infringement. No impact on actual infringement has been shown as yet.

 

Discussion Section:  POTUS and Net Neutrality

http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/10/president-obama-calls-for-a-free-and-open-internet-wants-it-reclassified-as-a-utility/?ncid=rss

https://gigaom.com/2014/11/10/obama-tells-the-fcc-to-implement-real-net-neutrality-and-hes-serious/

http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/10/7186787/tim-wu-says-obamas-net-neutrality-plan-is-bold-courageous-and-just

http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/10/the-fcc-fires-back-at-the-presidents-net-neutrality-plan/?ncid=rss

http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/10/7186243/obama-just-did-the-right-thing-for-the-internet-and-made-life-hell

http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/10/hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaah-ted-cruz-you-silly-senator/?ncid=rss

http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/10/7186111/obama-net-neutrality-plan-draws-bold-reactions

http://www.whitehouse.gov/net-neutrality

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/11/10/protesters-descend-on-fcc-chairmans-house-over-net-neutrality/

http://www.fs.fed.us/specialuses/commsites/documents/pl-104-104.pdf

http://transition.fcc.gov/Reports/1934new.pdf

Pick of the Day: Atlas Wearables via Andrei

Hi Tom, Jenny, and guest ..

Long time listener … first time caller (?).

About fitness trackers being able to track more, I thought I’d pass along Atlas Wearables (www.atlaswearables.com). Through their Motion Genome Project should be able to recognize different exercises.

2nd production units can be preordered for $249 (!) + S&H for spring 2015

Love the show, Andrei

Tuesday’s Guest: Breki Tomasson, founder of the CSICON podcasting network

DTNS 2354 – CurrentConundrum

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comAndrew Mayne is on the show and we’ll talk about the CurrentC attack and all this Apple Pay, Google wallet hoopla. Does this mean mobile payments have finally arrived?

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Andrew Mayne, magician, illusion designer and filmmaker /co-host of the Weird Things podcast

Headlines

Ars Technica reports the Merchant Customer Exchange let customers know that attackers have obtained some email addresses of people who signed up for more information, or were participating in the pilot program for Current C. Current C is the mobile payment system that uses QR codes and connects directly to your bank. MCE said some of the addresses obtained were for dummy accounts and they do not believe any other data was taken.

Gigaom reports that Reddit has created a crowd funding platform called Redditmade that lets reddit moderators raise funds by selling t-shirts and other items. All the redditors need is the deisgn. There is a time limit of 30 days for a campaign to reach its goal. Good news, the reddit secret santa sticker pack is 6% funded!

Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet reports that Microsoft aims to release the next version of Office 16 client and server applications in the second half of 2015. Speaking at Tech Ed Barcelona, Microsoft’s Julia White confirmed that the company still plans to releasethe next Office client and server apps together. Mary Jo’s sources also say Microsoft is expected to release its Office for Android tablet offering soon, possibly in early November 2014. The company also is expected to disclose timing and possibly a public preview of its next Office for Mac release soon.

The Verge reports on HP’s new Sprout PC, a 23-inch all in one with built-in 3D camera that ‘sprouts’ from the top of the screen and projects images down onto an multi-touch capacitive mat which can control projected objects and applications with 20-point touch, a stylus or a projected keyboard. The camera includes Intel’s RealSense 3D camera, a 14.6-megapixel high-resolution camera, an HP DLP projector, and an LED desk lamp, meaning. It doesn’t just project either it can also scan 2D and 3D objects.The Windows PC comes with 1TB of storage and an Intel i7 processor. It goes on sale November 9th for $1,899.99 and will be demonstrated at select Best Buy and Microsoft Stores this weekend.

Once you scan in your 3D objects you can then print them into a new Multi-Jet Fusion HP 3D commercial and manufacturing printer. CNET reports HP claims the technology is ten times faster than what’s inside existing 3D printers, because it builds an entire surface area, instead of one point at a time. HP also plans to develop new 3D printing materials, using color, ceramic and metal. The product won’t be fully available until 2016, although early customers may get access sometime next year.

Ars Technica reports attackers entered the administrative network of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. An unnamed official told the Washington Post “we are still assessing the activity of concern,” which we think means they don’t know if any data was taken yet. According to the Post’s anonymous sources the attack was discovered in October after a foreign government told US officials.

Hey, It’s me! Good news for Nintendo! Listen to my words closely. Strong sales of Wii U and 3DS software generated quarterly profit of 24.2 billion yen (about $224 million) in net income forthe latest quarter a big raise compared to the loss of over eight billion yen (about $74.2 million)last year. Super Smash Bros. for 3DS sold 3.22 million copies worldwide in September alone. The Wii U sold 6000,000 units to reach a total of 7.29 million, about equal to the Xbox One, which is a year younger of course. 3DS sales lowered to about half of the previous year.

TechCrunch reports former Google Wallet and Paypal guy Osama Bedier showed off his new future-proofed payment terminal, Poynt. The android-based tablet in a dock supports magstripe, chip and pin, NFC, Bluetooth, QR codes and beacon, in one device sold at cost which will be about $299. Poynt is looking to partner with banks and has deals with two of the top five in the US so far.

Tech Crunch reports that internet.org will give free data access to basic web services and local resources to Tanzania via its internet.org app which will be distributed by carrier Tigo. Tanzanians can use Facebook, Messenger, BBC News, and Wikipedia, and get local news, health info, online education, classifieds, and sports coverage. Users can buy access through Tigo if they want to explore more of the web.

News From You

Galcyon pointed out the Verge article that the US FCC is in fact considering a proposal to change the rules regarding what entities are considered multichannel video programming distributors. This is the rule change we’ve mentioned before that would let companies like Verizon or Aereo get the same deals for carrying TV channels over the Internet as cable and satellite providers get. In a blog post, FCC Chair Tom Wheeler wrote “The definition of an MVPD should turn on the services that a provider offers, not on how those services reach viewers.”

h82or8 submitted the Boing Boing post about Daily Dot’s report that Verizon’s new news site ‘Sugar String’ is telling prospective reporters that they will not be allowed to write about US spying or net neutrality. Patrick Howell O’Neil of Daily Dot received messages from SugarString editor-in-chief Cole Stryker detailing the policies. Howell says several other reporters were also recruited under the same stipulations.

and irishtechguy let us know about a Yahoo news story that every county town in Ireland could have access to gigabit Internet within three years. Eircom announced it will begin installing fiber-to-the-home next month through December 2017 covering 66 regions. Eircome is also partnering with Belcarra to bring fiver to rural Ireland. Yesterday the European Commission approved a partnership between Vodafone and ESB to build a similar network which will reach 500,000 premises in 50 towns during the first stage. Both networks will offer open access to ISPs.

Discussion Links:  

http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/10/cvs-rite-aid-supported-alternative-to-apple-pay-already-hacked/

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/10/how-mobile-payments-really-work/

http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/29/week-apple-pay-google-wallet/?ncid=rss_truncated

http://www.mcx.com/blog/answers-to-your-questions/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/technology/apple-pay-runs-afoul-of-a-rival.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0

http://www.mcx.com/blog/1028-email-incident-report/

Pick of the Day: Alive Inside via Stephen Ewell

Love the show. I had the chance to see to see a screening of the documentary Alive Inside the other night and they mentioned that it is now available on Netflix, so I thought the DTNS community might find it interesting. It’s a film that highlights the power of technology and music to make a difference in our lives, by highlighting a nonprofit using mp3 players to connect with individuals with Alzheimer’s. Great story and great cause.
Keep up the great work. Let me know if you plan to attend International CES this year and I’d love to meet up.

Thursday’s guest: Christian Cantrell, science fiction author and tech writer

Cordkillers Ep. 40 – I love you for the conditions we are in

Nielsen is inaccurate but HOW inaccurate? Also whether Amazon should join Ultraviolet. 

Download video

Download audio

CordKillers: Ep. 40 – I love you for the conditions we are in
Recorded: October 13, 2014
Guest: Derrick Chen

Intro Video 

Primary Target

Signal Intelligence

Gear Up

Front Lines

Under Surveillance

On our Radar

  • Young Ones
  • -YOUNG ONES is set in a near future when water has become the most precious and dwindling resource on the planet, one that dictates everything from the macro of political policy to the detailed micro of interpersonal family and romantic relationships

Dispatches from the Front

Just listened and wanted to point out that in the conversation about Kevin Smith Brian called Tusk a bomb /flop /don’t remember. However since he’s obviously a Smith podcast listener he probably knows but didn’t think about it, but Kevin has really moved away from the traditional money making methods in favor of more musician styled.

I don’t know for sure about the financing of the movie, but if it’s anything like the Super Groovy Cartoon Movie it’s probably mostly self financed. I know he’s planning on touring it to theaters with live performances, so ticket sales will hopefully make up the “traditional rocket sales” loss.

For example Super Groovy cost $69,000 to make, and was never really released to theaters. But with the tour it was paid for in the first few shows, and while I don’t know exactly what it brought in from what he’s said in podcasts I believe it’s something on the order of five million. Think of the pure profit from that with none of the marketing overhead.

It’s work, yes, but almost his own version of crowd funding… Think of it as interactive Patreon. Possibly something like that could be a vehicle for other well known creators to pay for projects they want to do but can’t get a green light.

-Derek in Chattanooga

PS. Brian is completely right, Myst was the streaming pile that Seventh Guest stepped over on its way to level ‘Awesome’ 

 

 

Hey Brian and Tom,

I’m the science teacher in Taylor whose email yall read on the last episode about Netflix offering channels that streamed the same content to everyone at the same time. I was working my Saturday part time job with Austin Moonwalks (Brian: hit me up if you want a deal for one of the girl’s birthdays!) when I heard it and about flipped out. Thanks guys, it was awesome to hear yall talk about it. I don’t expect you to revisit it on the show, but just to clarify: I think I overstated how much I cared about the “communal” experience of watching what everyone else was watching. I didn’t mean for that to be the main focus. That was more of a side-effect. For me, its more about the giving-up of control that I need. For example:

My favorite TV show growing up was Star Trek The Next Generation. I watched it at 9pm every night on FOX 42. (Do you remember before it was KEYE, Brian?). I didn’t get to decide what episode I watched. I watched whatever came on: good or bad, whether I liked it or not. Because THAT was the one that was on, and there was nothing I could do about it. Now, I have every episode of the series at my disposal, but I can’t pick one out to watch. It’s impossible! I even devised a randomizing system to pick one out for me, but even that didn’t quite work because I could still stop and change it if there was a part I didn’t like.

It’s not just TV shows. Do you guys remember before DVRs, just going through the channels and happening on a movie that you liked? Maybe you even had it on DVD or VHS, but hadn’t watched it in years. You could have pulled it out anytime and watched it, but you hadn’t and probably wouldn’t for years to come. But there was something about it being ON TV that made you stop changing channels and watch the whole thing.

That’s the feeling I’m talking about. Watching and ENJOYING something by chance, because that’s what was on, and there was nothing you could do about it.

If Netflix had a Sci-Fi “channel”, it could play movies, TV shows, or even documentaries (all of which came from what Netflix already has), and you could just put it on and watch what was there (knowing that other people were watching it too). Maybe I’d come across a TV show I never would have watched or a good movie I hadn’t seen in a long time and never would have picked-out even if it were suggested. If I don’t like what’s one the Sci-Fi station, I can click on the comedy station and see what’s there.

I guess some might call this “vegging out,” but that’s exactly what I need to do sometimes.

Anyway, sorry to write so much. Just wanted to make sure you understood what I meant, whether you agree or not.

-Andy (better known by 11 year olds as Mr. Morris)

 

 

Hey Brian and Tom,

I was listening to this week’s show and I had an idea. When you discuss the number of “bosses” you have and how to support the show on Patreon, I think you should call the segment “The TPS Report” (Total Patreon Supporters). You could do it with or without a fancy bumper since Tom usually leads in with a factoid from the relevant year but what will he do when you pass 2014 bosses after all? 🙂 Maybe a running gag about new cover sheets would be in order? Just a thought and I am also one of your bosses!

Thanks,

Tony Sheler
Albany, OR

 

 

Brian said a few times in the last episode that the chromecast is ‘open’. I’ve looked into developing for the chromecast and I want to say it definitely is not. If you want to make your app chromecastable you need to have your application approved and your application signing key signed by google. And there’s no way around this. It’s not like Android where you can check the ‘unknown sources’ box and do whatever you want. It is totally controlled.

This may be why the firefox stick could be better. If it’s truly open you may see things available there that you will never see on chromecast. Particularly I’m thinking porn and piracy apps like popcorn time, or even legally grey apps like grooveshark (an app which google has just banned from chromecast see http://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/09/09/grooveshark-longer-supports-chromecast-following-riaa-claim-infringes-artists-copyright ). That freedom and real openness might be just enough to give the firefox dongle an edge.

Clint Armstrong

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box

DTNS 2334 – Embedded ARM Dealers

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comNicole Lee joins us to talk about ARM’s new version of the mbed OS targeted at the Internet of Things. with OIA, AllSeen, Thread, Zigbee and more out there, will we ever have a unified platform?

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Nicole Lee, senior editor of social + internet for Engadget

Headlines

Bloomberg Businessweek reports malware targeting the iOS and Android devices of Hong Kong demonstrators has been discovered. Security company Lacoon discovered an Android app purporting to help activists coordinate protests was malware. In tracing its activities Lacoon discovered malware designed to steal information from jailbroken iOS devices. The malicious programs can apparently access your contacts, text messages, call logs, pictures, and keychain.

Microsoft revealed an upcoming addition to Office, called Sway, which can automatically assemble and format presentations. Their called “sways” and are multimedia, animated, interactive presentations that live within a Web container—that can be created, published and viewed from any connected device with access to Microsoft’s OneDrive service. Sway can pull from any website including Facebook and Twitter. And since its Web-based it works across platforms including iOS and Android.

Bloomberg reports Johannes Caspar, Hamburg’s privacy watchdog ordered Google to limit how it combines user data. In 2012 Google changed its privacy policy to unify it and data collection across all its properties. The unification of that data collection is what worries Caspar because it could be misused to “compile detailed movement patterns, detect the social and financial status, and friendship, sexual orientation and the relationship status.” Caspar said users must have the ability to determine how their data is used.

TechCrunch reports Facebook’s VP of Product, Chris Cox posted on Facebook today, apologizing on behalf of the company for any hardship caused by Facebook’s real names policy. Controversy began when a single user flagged hundreds of Facebooks pages of drag queens for using fake names. The pattern wasn’t noticed among the thousands of reports for fake names Facebook deals with daily. Cox said Facebook will improve its tools for dealing with reports as well as provide more deliberate customer service to flagged accounts.

TechCrunch reports that the Windows 10 Technical Preview is now available as a free download for those who want to test drive the new OS, or help hunt bugs in early builds. You can either update a Windows installation or get an ISO to use on a virtual machine or other device. If you join the Windows Insider Program, you’ll be able to submit feedback through a dedicated app. The preview expires in mid-April of 2015. If you want to take the plunge, head to preview.windows.com.

Bloomberg reports that “people familiar with the plans” say Apple will add a gold color option to the latest version of the iPad, which rumors say might be unveiled at a rumored announcement rumored to take place October 21st. Apple oddly, declined to comment, but other Apple products have been gold so that makes this rumor GOLDEN.

GigaOm reports Verizon decided at the last minute not to begin throttling unlimited plan subscribers on its LTE network. The plan had been starting today that when the network was congested to knock the heaviest unlimited plan users down to 3G speeds. Verizon’s statement says after a few months of “dialogue” the company “decided not to move forward with the planned implementation of network optimization for 4G LTE customers on unlimited plans.”

News From You

KAPT_Kipper: Rule Brittania, Brittania rule the Wav Files, and MP3s and VOBs and, well, what I’m trying to say is UK copyright law has been amended and starting today subjects of Her Majesty are free to copy MP3s, CDs DVDs and live broadcasts for personal use, as well as enjoy broader fair use, parody and qiuotation rights. This means you are no longer a bandit filthy outlaw for copying music to your phone or cloud storage folder. You can also quote and parody the work of others without permission.

Don’t mind the gap. The screen gap that is. RunawaySnail submitted a 9 to 5 google report that early purchasers of the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 have complained of a small gap between the screen and the device case. GAPGATE!!!!! Today Android Central discovered that the Note 4 owners manual actually references the screen gap, calling it “”a necessary manufacturing feature”” and states that some rocking or vibration of parts may occur. The manual goes on to explain that “”friction between parts may cause this gap to expand slightly.”” GAPGATE OVER! The Galaxy Note 4 went on sale September 26 in Korea.

And Metalfreak sent us a PC World article about the Google Play store, which is attempting to add more transparency by making developers list a price range for in-app purchases in their app descriptions. The article includes a screen grab of EA’s FIFA 15 Ultimate Team with a range from 99 cents to $99.99. The Google Play store does not require developers to list exactly which items cost how much, so your next question, what the heck could be worth $100 in FIFA 15 Ultimate Team remains, for now, unanswered.

Discussion Links: Unify the internet of things!

http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/01/arm-mbed-device-platform/?ncid=rss_truncated

https://mbed.org/ecosystem/partners/

http://www.oracle.com/us/solutions/internetofthings/overview/index.html

http://www.contiki-os.org/

http://www.cnet.com/news/internet-of-things-promote-thread-protocol-at-google/#ftag=CAD590a51e

http://www.cnet.com/news/internet-of-things-gets-a-hand-from-arm-operating-system/

https://allseenalliance.org/

http://openinterconnect.org/

http://linuxgizmos.com/open-interconnect-consortium-takes-on-qualcomms-allseen/ 

Pick of the Day: G.I Joe Coffee Company via Scott Napier

G.I Joe Coffee Company is awesome. They sell fair trade, good quality coffee, but 20% of all proceeds go to support disabled veterans. I know you get tons of picks, but I figured I had to throw one in the mix since it is a cause near and dear to my heart (retired Army and 90% disabled myself).

Thursday’s guest: Anthony Carboni