Search Results for "september 21"

Raj Deut is on the show from E3. Did Sony keep the lead in Mindshare? Is there any hope for Nintendo? Plus a wearable SIM card that can authenticate any device.

MP3

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

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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 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:  Raj Deut, of Reckoner Australia and 1,000 Words On

Headlines

Nintendo held a virtual E3 announcement again this year, streamed over the Internet. The main star was Super Smash Brothers for Wii U and 3DS, that lets you put yourself, or at least your Mii avatar, into the game. It also will work with 10 new Nintendo toys that connect with the Wii U through NFC on the touchscreen controller. Nintendo showed off several more games including an open world Zelda and a Mario Maker tool that lets you design your own Super Mario levels, both coming in 2015. Also coming next year is a new property called Splatoon, a family-friendly FPS that uses paint balls and lets participants swim through the paint. After the stream, Shigeru Miyamoto was showing off a prototype for a new Starfox game in development.

Sony made a big deal about exclusives in their E3 press conference Monday night, and didn’t shy away from talking hardware and services. Bungie’s Destiny will be available in Alpha Thursday, with a multiplayer beta coming July 17 and shipping September 9 bundled with a white version of the PS4. Among the avalanche of other games, were a look at The Order: 1886 coming in August and Uncharted 4 exclusive. Far Cry 4 will allow players to invite friends to play even if they don’t own the game and Little Big Planet 3 made a urprise appearance. Sony announced two game title for its virtual reality headset Project Morpheus, called Jurassic Encounter and Street Luge. The PlayStation Now game streaming service built on Gaikai will arrive in beta July 31. And the PlayStation Vita TV will come to the US can Canada under the simpler name PLayStation TV for $99 or $139 bundled with a memory card and controller. Sony’s also getting into the original content game on the PS4 with an animated series called “Powers” based on the comic book and a Ratchett and Clank movie coming in 2015.

Engadget reports Google has agreed to spend $500 million to purchase Skybox Imaging, which builds small high-resolution imaging satellites. The satellite tech could help Google Maps but also might be used as relay to spread wireless Internet around the world.

Gigaom report Honeywell launched its first Smart thermostat Tuesday called the Lyric.Unlike the Nest which attempts to learn your habits, the Lyric uses geofencing to tell if someone is home optimizing for comfort when you are and energy-savings when you’re not. It also uses humidity sensors to tell when a fan would be better at keeping things cool vs. AC. The Lyric will be available in August for $279.

VentureBeat reports Oculus VR has hired Jason Rubin to head its worldwide studios. Rubin cofounded Naught Dog game studio co-created the game Crash Bandicoot. Rubin will run content studios in Seattle; San Francisco; Menlo Park, Calif.; Dallas; and Irvine, Calif.

The Verge reports NTT Docomo announced a prototype of Portable SIM, intended to replace a phone’s SIM card. The prototype incoroprates Bluetooth, NFC and SIM into a credit-card sized unit that makes it possible to authenticate phones and other devices and allow them to make calls and connect to dat networks without having to have a SIM card inside. The device can also store profile data and credentials for other services like Amazon and Google. The carrier hopes to reduce the size even more to make it fit in a wearable device like a bracelet.

News From You

spsheridan submitted the Next Web article that Amazon has updated its Kindle apps for iOS and Android to include access to audiobooks without leaving the app. Kindle books have been able to sync with select audiobooks from Audible for awhile, but users needed to launch a separate audible app. Now, while reading a Kindle book, one tap launches the audio version and picks up from the page you’re looking at. Amazon says about 45,000 Kindle titles have the feature enabled.

JohnEllsworth3 posted the FastCompany story that the Facebook temporary message app called Slingshot that appeared in the Apple app store yesterday, appeared by mistake. A Facebook spokesperson told the Associated Press: “Earlier today, we accidentally released a version of Slingshot, a new app we’re working on.” Oops. But hey they’re very excited for you to try it out. Just not yet.

russiancatfood pointed out the Ars Technica article that gives Netflix the latest word in their spat with Verizon. Yesterday we mentioned Netflix said they would remove controversial error messages being tested on some users, that said things like “The Verizon network is crowded.” Netflix General Counsel David Hyman sent an official response to Verizon reiterating that the test of the error messages would end June 16 but adding that doesn’t mean they won’t bring them back. Hyman wrote, “…we are evaluating rolling it out more broadly. Regardless of this specific test, we will continue to work on ways to communicate network conditions to our consumers.” 

Discussion Section Links: E3 Part Two!

http://reckoner.com.au/2014/06/e3-media-briefing-breakdown-ubisoft-sony/

http://www.cnet.com/news/nintendo-lays-out-gameplan-for-wii-u-with-hefty-lineup-of-software/

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/e3-2014-nintendo-wii-u-star-fox-hands-on-and-miyamoto-q-a/1100-6420327/

Pick of the day:  ZipList via Matt Maher

This pick is in response to your Big Oven pick. I’ve been using ZipList for a couple years now and I love it. I was approaching this type of app from the opposite direction. You were looking for a recipe app that could make grocery lists, and I was looking for a grocery list app that could draw from recipes. Consequently I think the focus of the two services is different. Grocery lists are more important to me, so ZipList works a little better for my uses. For one thing, my wife and I have a shared list that we can both add to, which makes shopping SO much easier.

ZipList also has a slew of great features. One of my favorite is that I can set up a number of stores that I go to regularly. I can then edit those stores and tell ZipList the exact order of the aisles, thereby making shopping trips a breeze because I can just sail through from one end of the store to the other. It also lets me add a bunch of items to one list, and then I can choose to only show one store at a time. That way I can take a single list, but go to Costco and Safeway without seeing the items for the store I’m not in at the moment. I highly recommend the service and app.

Wednesday’s Guest: Peter Wells, who also writes cool tech stories at Reckoner, Australia

 

Iyaz Akhtar and Sean Hollister are on the show. We’ve got news coming out of E3 from Microsoft who swears they love games so please forgive them. Also did a chatbot pass the Turing test? Sort of.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guests:  Iyaz Akhtar, CNET and GFQ Network

Headlines

CNET reports Microsoft made its E3 announcements and focused on games and thanking fans. The star of the show was Halo. The Master Chief Collection will come to Xbox One November 11, allowing players to take on almost every Halo game including Halo 2 multiplayer. Purchasers also get a crack at the beta of Halo 5 Guardians which isn’t scheduled for release until sometime in 2015. Further hitching their hopes to Halo, Microsoft announced Halo Nightfall, a live-action weekly series directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan and produced by Ridley Scott. The series will be part of the Master Chief Collection.

Of course Microsoft had lots of other things to announce as well, but the focus was firmly on games. A sequel called Rise of Tomb Raider was announced coming in late 2015 as well as the announcement of a new Crackdown. Foul-mouthed squirrel Conker is coming to Project Spark. The hit mobile game Threes comes to the decidedly not mobile Xbox One this year. And Sunset Overdrive got a release date of October 28th. 

Engadget reports EA announced developer DICE is making Star Wars: Battlefront for a spring 2015 launch. Also the Sims 4 will come to PCs September 2nd. Sims will have “heart,” can die of laughter and can be imported into someone else’s game.

The Next Web reports Microsoft has redesigned Skype for iOS from the ground to give it a consistent look and feel with Windows Phone and Android apps. Microsoft promises the app will be five times faster, with smoother scrolling and synced notifications. Users will also be able to start group chats from the main hub and send messages and photos to offline users. The new app will arrive in Apple’s App Store in about a week. 

Ars Technica reports Netflix released a new monthly speed index for May showing Verizon FiOS dropping two slots behind DSL providers Frontier and Windstream. Netflix reached an interconnection deal with Verizon that should improve performance but is still being set up. GigaOm reports Netflix also announced they will stop a test on June 16 that shows error messages claiming a particular ISP is “crowded” when connections suffer. 

TechCrunch reports Minecraft creator MArkus Persson AKA Notch has released his latest game called Cliffhorse in which you control a horse on a hilly green landscape as it pushes a ball. The game is free to download though users can choose to pay dogecoin or Bitcoins if they like and is available for Windows.

TechCrunch reports Facebook has launched a new app called Slingshot that lets you send annotated pictures and videos to friends, who can only see them if they send something back. Unlocked shots can be held to view later, but once swiped away they are not stored. The app is not available in all markets around the world.

News From You

KAPT_Kipper submitted the BBC story that Sony sold 18.7 million game consoles in its fiscal year that ended in March putting it in front of Nintendo which sold 163 million. That’s the first time Sony has passed Nintendo in 8 years. Nintendo fans may take solace int he fact that figures released for the last week of May, showed 19,312 Wii Us were bought in Japan compared to just 6,022 copies of the PS4.

melchizedek74 posted the CNET story about Amazon expanding their “Login and Pay” service to allow for recurring payments like subscriptions. Login and Pay lets customers use their Amazon account and its associated payment methods, to buy products on non-Amazon sites. Amazon has been testing the new subscription portion of the service with mobile phone service company Ting.

Our top story on the subreddit today, comes from tekkyn00b. The Verge reports developer Frederic Jacobs noticed that iOS 8 will randomize a phone’s MAC address when searching for WiFi hotspots, reducing the chances that your phone can be identified. Lots of businesses, especially at malls and shopping centers, gather the publicly broadcast MAC addresses in order to gather marketing data on shoppers. While shops promise they do not collect personally identifiable information, randomizing the MAC address broadcast to WiFi will make sure of it.

And Berke80 sent in the Engadget story that Elon Musk told folks at the UK launch of the Tesla Model S yesterday, that he wants to open the designs of the Supercharger system in order to make a standard that other car makers can adopt. Musk would require participating companies to include charging costs in the cost of the car and help pay to maintain the supercharger network.

Discussion Section Links

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/9/5793642/halo-nightfall-digital-series-coming-to-xbox-from-producer-ridley-scott

http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/09/halo-master-chief-collection/?ncid=rss_truncated

http://www.cnet.com/news/lara-croft-plans-to-raid-the-xbox-holiday-2015/#ftag=CAD590a51e

http://thenextweb.com/media/2014/06/09/halo-nightfall-digital-series-headed-xbox-one-remastered-halo-compilation-november/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=profeed&utm_reader=feedly

http://www.cnet.com/news/halo-5-confirmed-for-2015-halo-master-chief-collection-out-in-november/#ftag=CAD590a51e

http://www.cnet.com/news/e3-2014-microsoft-xbox-one-focus-is-all-about-games/#ftag=CAD590a51e

http://recode.net/2014/06/09/an-ai-program-allegedly-passed-the-turing-test-so-what/

http://io9.com/why-the-turing-test-is-bullshit-1588051412
http://www.princetonai.com/

Pick of the day:  PC Perspective’s Hardware Leaderboard via Andy Welch

Andy Welch has our pick of the day: “For building a desktop, I’d like to recommend PC Perspective’s Hardware Leaderboard as a very useful reference. I don’t have time (or interest) in keeping up with the latest in pc hardware, but when I need a new desktop pc every few years, this is a great spot that I go to. They update it monthly to provide an updated list of major components based on current prices and technology. They show 4 different builds from about $500 low end, $1000, $1300, and $3000 top end. I’ve used it myself and recommend it to others all the time.”

Tuesday’s Guest: Raj Deut, of Reckoner Australia and 1,000 Words On

Iyaz Akhtar joins the show to talk about the hot new phone at the developers conference this week. Tizen! Oh and yes we will also talk about the 1 million announcements from Apple’s WWDC.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Iyaz Akhtar, senior associate editor, CNET.com and host of many podcasts on the GFQ Network

Headlines:

That new hardware we’ve been waiting for has finally been announced by the world’s leading smartphone maker at its developer conference! Samsung launched the world’s first smartphone powered by the Tizen operating system!! The Samsung Z. Samsung also uses Tizen in its Galaxy Gear 2 smatwatch and released a developers kit for Tizen-based TVs. The Z goes on sale in Russia sometime between July and September.

The BBC reports The United States has charged a Russian man named Evgeniy Bogachev of being involved in a cybercrime attack affecting more than 1 million computers. Authorities have seized control of a botnet used to steal personal and financial data, though they believe its operators may regain control in about two weeks. Bogachev is said to go under the names lucky12345 and slavik, and is thought to have last resided in Anapa, Russia. Charges filed in a court in Pittsburgh include conspiracy, wire, bank and computer fraud, and money laundering.

Apple announced new features for its main operating systems, OS X and iOS, at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. The next version of OS X will be called Yosemite and include a new design similar to iOS7 plus several new features including adding online search to spotlight, airdop compatibility with iOS devices and the ability to answer phone calls and send and receive non-iOS text messages from the desktop. iOS8 will get many new features including support for replacement keyboards, platforms for health info called HealthKit, and home automation called HomeKit and a new programming language called Swift. Siri gets shazam integration as well as an always on mode that can be activated by saying, “Hey Siri.” And iCloud Drive now is integrated into finder, works across devices, and gets a price cut to 99 cents a month for 20 GB and $4 a month for 200 GB. OS X Yosemite is available to developers at WWDC today, will go into open beta in the summer and come to all for free in the Fall. iOS8 is available to developers at WWDC today and will come to all in the fall. 

You Start Menu fans may have to wait a bit longer for its triumphant return. ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley says a change in plans may delay the menu from returning in Windows 8.1 Update 2, expected to arrive in August. Looks liek the Menu will wait until the release of Threshold expected in April 2015. Microsoft’s Terry Myerson showed off the new start menu at the Build conference in April, but did not promise when it would arrive.

News From You

AllanAV posted the Ars Technica story about a patent troll being ordered to pay court costs, the first case of fee shifting since the Supreme Court mandated such fees be paid in exceptional cases.  A Santa Barbara startup called “FindTheBest” spent $200,000 defending itself in a case brought by Lumen View which demanded a$50,000 licensing fee. The judge found that LumenView was trying to extract a nuisance settlement. US District Judge Denise Cote wrote, “The question of whether this case is exceptional is not close, and fee shifting in this case will serve as an instrument of justice.”

tm204 posted the 9to5Google story that Asus announced a slate of new Android tablets at Computex including a lineup for the MeMO Pad Series, a next-gen FonePad and a tablet/laptop/smartphone hybrid Transformer Book V that runs Windows and Android. That last one has 12.5-inch display with a up to a TB of storage. Asus says it’s, “the world’s first five-mode, three-in-one covered laptop that features a Windows and Android laptop and tablet as well as an Android smartphone.” No price or release dates on nay of the new products.

KAPT_Kipper sent in the GigaOm story indicating that sources told the Wall Street Journal and Space News that Google intends to spend around $1 billion to launch 180 small satellites into space in order to provide global Internet service. Greg Wyler of O3b networks has apparently joined Google and started a company called L5 or WorldVu. That company supposedly has access to the Ku-band spectrum abandoned by SkyBridge. What the service would be and how much it would cost is unknown.

metalfreak noted the GreatFire.org version of a story also reported by Reuters that Google services are being disrupted in China. GreatFire reports the blocks started four days ago and now extend to all Google services. Greatfire also suggests IP addresses that can be used to evade the block. This week marks the 25th anniversary of events in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. 

Plug of the day: Today’s plug is for a terrific weekly podcast called 8-Bit Life, in which host Roberto Villegas talks in depth with an eclectic mix of guests from the online universe. This week Roberto’s guest is someone you may have heard me mention on this show once or twice; our own producer Jennie Josephson, who has something to say about how this whole show got its start.

Discussion Section Links: WWDC Day One

http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/22/os-x-beta-seed-program/

http://www.apple.com/osx/preview/

Pick of the day:  Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman, via Russell Manthy:

Had a book recommendation that might be of interest to the listeners. Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman. This a compilation of six lectures on the basics of physics by one of this century’s most brilliant minds. The lectures were given to the freshman class at Cal Tech in the early sixties and were designed to give a general overview of the principles of physics including basics concepts, relation of physics to other sciences, the theory of gravitation and quantum behavior. These are elementary lectures (no math required) and give a tremendous insight into the basics in Feynman’s colorful and humorous style using simple explanations and interesting anecdotes and metaphors. Although these are older they cover things that have not really changed in the intervening years. The Audible version of the book is actual recordings of the lectures; it is great to hear them as presented by Feynman himself.”

Tuesday’s Guest:  Lamarr Wilson, host of Mashable’s YouTube Weekly and Socially Awkward

Steve Gibson is on the show to talk about the strange disappearance of TrueCrypt and what your best options might be for whole disk encryption.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes
Today’s guests:  Steve Gibson, of Gibson Research Corporation and Security Now!

Headlines

Apple, Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue and Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine took the stage together at the Code Conference last night in the wake of the announcement that Apple has agreed to purchase Beats Electronics and Beats Music. Cue said, “Music is dying in the way that we’ve known it,” referring to declining digital sales in the face of rising streaming services. Iovine thinks the music business is “desperately insecure” and Silicon Valley is “slightly over-confident.” Cue thinks Iovine and Dr. Dre are the men for the job. While Beats hardware is nice Cue made it clear that the deal is “about music.” Apple expects the deal to close after regulatory approval sometime in September. Cue also stoked excitement for Monday’s WWDC keynote saying, “we’ve got the best product pipeline that I’ve seen in my 25.”

BloombergBusinessWeek reports that Laszlo Block, Google’s SVP for people operations posted to Google’s blog about the company’s diversity statistics. 30 percent of Google workers are women and 39 percent are racial or ethnic minorities. The majority of nonwhite Google employees are of Asian descent. This puts Google close to the middle among tech companies that disclose these sorts of statistics. More companies are feeling pressure to reveal diversity statistics. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has said that Facebook plans to reveal theirs eventually.

GigaOm reports on YouTube expanding its video quality report to include regions in the United States. The report, previously released in Canada, gives stats on the streaming quality of YouTube on your ISP and compares it to other ISPs in your region. 

The Verge has a story on a report from security consulting group iSight Partners that claims a phony news agency called NewsOnAir has been building ties with senior US military and diplomatic officials as well as US and Israeli defense contractors. The group would make social network connections and use fake names over services like Twitter, Facebook, WordPress and LinkedIn. The aim of the site was to present fake login pages to steal credentials. The group’s central domain was registered in Tehran. 

BBC reports Turkey’s Constitutional Court has ruled a block on YouTube violated freedom of expression laws and have ordered ISPs in Turkey to lift the block. Lower courts have previously ordered the block lifted but the government did not respond, claiming offending material still existed on YouTube.

BBC also reports London’s transport authority has announced it does not believe Uber’s car service breaks laws by using an app to determine charges.The authority referred the matter to the High Court to issue a binding ruling on the matter. The Taxi Drivers claim the app is equivalent to a meter which private drivers are not allowed to use. The drivers plan a demonstration for June 11.

News From You

Our top story on the SubReddit today was submitted by Nova461. Developers of TrueCrypt are redirecting traffic from their website to a sourceforge page claiming the software may have security vulnerabilities and due to the end of support for Windows XP, they will no longer develop TrueCrypt. The developers posted instructions for using alternative disk encryption on Windows and OSX.

Kylde submitted the Ars Technica story that a group at Brigham Young University has created an app for Google Glass to help the deaf to view an ASL interpreter in dark situations, like a planetarium, without bothering other attendees. The project is called Signglasses. The full results of the group’s research will be published in June at the Interaction Design and Children conference.

KAPT_Kipper passed along the Ars story about researchers at Japanese Telecom NTT publishing a paper that includes a description of a working 115-bit optical Random Access Memory device made of photonic crystals. The crystals can store light in a high-energy state and emit it after a high-energy pulse, thus optical bits. Granted they’ve only achieved 105 optical bits so far. That can be increqased, the bad news is the energy usage. 28-bit memory takes about 150 micro-watts to store which will be hell on your battery life. But if that can be figured out fiber optic singals wouldn’t have to be converted to electronic ones to be useful. Fiber to your RAM!

And SkyJedi & HarryLeeSmith let us know that Ars Technica reports that the Linux Foundations’ Core Infrastructure Initiative, which was formed in response to Heartbleed, has raised enough to fund a security audit of OpenSSL’s code base as well salaries for two full-time developers. OpenSSH and Network Time Protocol will also receive support for developers and infrastructure.

Discussion Section Links: 

http://steve.grc.com/2014/05/28/whither-truecrypt/

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/05/truecrypt-is-not-secure-official-sourceforge-page-abruptly-warns/

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/05/true-goodbye-using-truecrypt-is-not-secure/

http://steve.grc.com/2014/05/29/an-imagined-letter-from-the-truecrypt-developers/

https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green

http://truecrypt.sourceforge.net/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/29/truecrypt_analysis/

https://tails.boum.org/blueprint/replace_truecrypt/

 

Pick of the day:  Lastpass via Alex in drizzly Nottinghamshire, UK

I know you’ve mentioned it on the show before, but it’s not on the picks page (yet), so I thought I’d mention a recent feature that’s been introduced to LastPass that meant that I finally purchased the premium version – and has turned out to be the best £8 / $12 (annual) I’ve spent on an app. (Of course, the best general $1 per month I spend is being a patron for DTNS!)

The killer feature for me is password completion in android apps, including Chrome for website logins. I recently got a Nexus 7 and setting it up with all my apps took no time at all because I first installed the LastPass app which filled in all my logins as I went. The mobile app used to have its own browser so I had to choose between password completion or the functionality of Chrome – but now I can have both.

It’s only on Android for now it seems and it works by pretending to be an accessibility aid – popping up on screen when a prompt is detected which works well about 95% of the time.

Friday’s Guests: Molly Wood and Justin Robert Young!

 

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

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

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

Headlines

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

News From You

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

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

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

Discussion Section Links:  Secret, on Android

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pick of the day:  Mpix via Loren Lang

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

Thursday’s guest:  Todd Whitehead of Alpha Geek Radio

Brian Brushwood joins the show to chat about Facebook getting all privacy-friendly and Hulu allowing free full episodes on your phone. The FCC even says it will fight for municipal broadband. It’s the nicest day on the Internet ever!

MP3

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

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Brian Brushwood of the Night Attack  e

Headlines

Facebook had a few big announcement at the F8 developer’s conference Wednesday morning. Using Facebook to login on another service is now entirely under the user’s control. Users can choose line by line what they will and will not share with another service. Up to and including the ability to log in entirely anonymously. The company also promises to fix bugs within 48 hours, support all APIs for two years, and open source a system called AppLink that makes it easy for mobile apps to link directly to each other without going to a browser. Finally Facebook announced their “Audience Network,” a way to buy ads on non-Facebook sites that benefit from Facebook’s data. Facebook Audience Network is open for registration today.

Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins announced in a blog post today that this summer Hulu’s mobile apps will get a selection of full episodes for free, without needing a Hulu Plus subscription. Hulu added clips from shows to the Hulu app for non-subscribers in October. The feature will come first to its Android apps. The post also mentioned a redesigned iOS app coming later this summer as well as new ad units, including one that would allow a viewer to order something like a Pizza without leaving the Hulu experience.

Our top story on the Subreddit today, Ars Technica reports FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, speaking at the Cable Show, said he intends “to preempt state laws that ban competition from community broadband.” 20 US states have laws limiting muncipalities ability to create their own broadband infrastructure. TechCrunch also reports Wheeler said “If someone acts to divide the Internet between “haves” and “have-nots,” we will use every power at our disposal to stop it,” including considering reclassifying ISP’s as telecommunications providers. Wheller also said “Prioritizing some traffic by forcing the rest of the traffic into a congested lane won’t be permitted under any proposed Open Internet rule”. State laws that ban municipal Internet will be invalidated, FCC chair says

The Verge reports Google launched standalone iOS and Android apps for Google Docs, its word processing program, Google Sheets, its spreadsheet program and Google Slides, its presentation program. The new apps are similar to their counterparts in the unified Google Drive app, but with a different color scheme.

Wired reports on Dark Wallet, a bitcoin application designed to protect its user’s identities in more ways than the bitcoin system does on its own. Chiefly the application encrypts and mixes together users payment infos, so its not easily traceable from the Bitcoin public ledger. Dark Wallet was conceived by Wilson and Amir Taaki. Wilson Taaki also created the first entirely 3D-printed gun. Dark Wallet is set for release on Thursday. 

News From You

MikePKennedy submitted the Engadget report of the WSJ story THAT Google has stopped scanning the 30 million email accounts registered under its apps for education program. Google scans email in order to display ads triggered by keywords. Ads were never used int he product, but the data was mined to inform targeted ads elsewhere. 

metalfreak submitted the Slashdot posting alerting readers to the fact that the Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), is being considered by the US Senate Intelligence Committee. This third version of the bill was written by committe chair Dianne Feinstein and is circulating but has not yet been introduced. Under the current draft of the bill, companies could not be sued for incorrectly sharing customer information with the federal government, and broad law enforcement sharing could allow for the creation of backdoor wiretaps.

tekkyn00b submitted the Verge story that the US Supreme Court made it easier to force the losing party in a patent suit to pay the legal fees of the winner. This is widely seen as a way to discourage frivolous patent lawsuits. The Patent Act stipulates a case must be exceptional in order for the legal fees to be shifted to the loser. Lower courts have used a high standard to determine when a case is exceptional, meaning it is rarely found to be so. Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing for the 9-0 majority, said judges should define an “exceptional” situation as “simply one that stands out from others.” 

Discussion Section Links:  

http://gigaom.com/2014/04/30/hulu-is-opening-up-free-video-streaming-to-mobile-devices/

http://blog.hulu.com/2014/04/30/today-at-the-hulu-upfront/

http://io9.com/dreamworks-predicts-that-in-the-future-well-buy-movies-1569787028

Pick of the Day:  http://owncloud.org/

I love using Dropbox for storing and sharing many of my personal files. However as I work in healthcare I have to be extra careful when it comes to storing and sharing Protected Health Information. I highly recommend ownCloud (owncloud.org) as a private cloud alternative. They have Mac, PC and Linux clients as well as iOS and Android apps. The data is securely stored on our company servers. And best of all it’s open source software.
Cheers, Dave (aka DaHa the rare times I get to visit the chat room)

Thursday’s guest: Denise Howell

Iyaz Akhtar is on the show today. We’ll discuss some pretty cool flexible tech that could let you scan things by laying it on your screen. Also, we get the scoop on Android TV from The Verge’s Sean Hollister.

MP3

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Iyaz Akhtar of CNET & GFQNetwork

Headlines

GigaOm reports Android lock screen app Cover said Monday it was joining Twitter. The app that launched in invite-only beta in October, replaces the Android lock screen with one that suggests apps based on location. The current Cover app will remain in the Google Play store for now, but the development team will be working on things for Twitter.

Geek.com has the story of Seagate’s 6TB hard drive, matching Western Digital in capacity, but without needing to fill the drive with helium. The Seagate Enterprise Capacity hard drive is available in 2, 4, 5, and now 6TB capacities with a 128MB cache and spin speed of 7,200rpm. No pricing or word on consumer models were made available.

GigaOm reports two new chips from Qualcomm were announced Monday. The Snapdragon 808 and 810 support 64-bit computing, support LTE-Advanced wireless speeds up to 300 Mbps and dual-stream 82.11ac WiFi. The 810 also gets 4K video support. Apple has 64-bit support in its A7, and Intel has a 64-bit Android Kernel, but Android does not have an official 64-bit version yet. Google I/O is coming up end of June though. The new Qualcomm chips will become available in commercial devices in the first 6 months of 2015.

Microsoft introduced a new version of Skype for broadcasters Monday morning, called Skype TX. The “studio-grade” version has high-quality audio and video without unnecessary features like call notifications and ads. Skype TX comes with HD-SDI video output and input, balanced audio output and input, auto aspect ration conversion, support for multiple, simultaneous calls, operator previews, and more. Media organizations can sign up at media.skype.com/skype-tx but no other details on pricing or shipping were announced.

The Verge reports M3D launched a Kickstarter today to bring a new consumer 3D printer called Micro. The Micro accepts PLA and ABS plastics as well the company’s own Micro filament spools. The company also claims it has made much more intuitive software. M3D hopes to have assembly line production rolling between August and September for delivery starting in March next year. The printer costs only $249 but you’ll have to back at $899 if you want one from the first batch. The $50,000 was reached in minutes and in the first day, M3D has raised almost a half a million.

News From You:

Our top vote-getter on the subreddit was submitted by KAPT_Kipper. The TechCrunch story relates the protest that took place against Kevin Rose outside his apartment in San Francisco. Rose, the co-founder of Digg and Revision3, works for Google Ventures now. Protestors targeted Rose because he is a venture capitalist and because of controversial things he said on the show DiggNation in the past. The group demands Google give $3 billion to an anarchist organization to create autonomous, anti-capitalist, and anti-racist communities throughout the bay area and northern California.

Draconos posted the Ars Technica article that the US Supreme Court has declined to rule on the constitutionality of the NSA’s bulk telephone metadata surveillance program. Activist Larry Klayman had appealed directly from the US Distric Court decision in December, skipping over the US Appeals Court, which has been done before. That means the case would have to go through the appeals court, which also means it would likely not be resolved before the US Patriot Act expires on June 1, 2015.

tekkyn00b submitted the 9to5 Mac story on a demonstration at Microsoft’s ThinkNext Conference of a device that charges batteries compact enough for smartphones in 30 seconds. StoreDot claims the commercial version of the charger will only cost about twice as much as today’s chargers but production isn’t expected until 2016.

gowlkick sent us the CNET story on HTC’s earnings. It’s not a good report. Between January and March 2014 HTC’s total revenue fell by more than twenty percent over the previous quarter with a loss of $62 million. However, sales didn’t fall for the first time in 28 months AND KGI INvestment projects a 50% rise in Q2 sales due to the popularity of the HTC One M8 and HTC Desire 816.

cincyhuffster posted the Verge article about the Amazon Dash, a 6-inch long plastic stick that lets customers of the Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service, add items to their shopping list either by voice command or scanning an item itself. Shoppers then have those items already queued up the next time they need to place an order.

And pnthrldy posted the OMG Chrome story that the London Borough Council for Barking and Dagenham is replacing 2,000 of its Windows desktops with Samsung Series 3s running Chrome OS. The council expects to save £400,000. About half that is from licensing costs and the other half to power efficiency.

Discussion Section Links: Android TV and flexible tech

http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/5/5584604/this-is-android-tv

http://gigaom.com/2014/04/07/how-thin-flexible-electronics-will-revolutionize-everything-from-user-interfaces-to-packaging/

Pick of the Day: Roboform.com

Tuesday’s guest: Michael Wolf, Forbes contributer and host of the Next Market Podcast