Search Results for "october 17"

Darren Kitchen and Eklund are on the show today to talk about companies responding to the 1st anniversary of the PRISM leaks from Edward Snowden. Also Len Peralta will be here to illustrate!

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: Darren Kitchen of hak5.org, Len Peralta of the arts & Eklund of hockeybuzz.com 

Headlines

As MRAnthropology submitted on the subreddit, The Guardian reports mobile phone carrier Vodafone published a Law Enforcement Disclosure Report revealing how many requests for personal information the company gets by country, where it was legal to report such information. Vodafone also revealed wires have been connected directly to it and other telecom’s networks to allow government agencies to listen record and track the whereabouts of customers. These wire taps do not require warrants and Vodafone is allowed no oversight. Information on taps was not disclosed about Albania, Egypt, Hungary, India, Malta, Qatar, Romania, South Africa and Turkey where it is illegal to reveal intercepts. Ireland denied Vodafone permission to publish such info. Vodafone is making a call to end direct access to communications data. direct government wiretaps.

Nikkei Asian Review reports that sources say Apple will bring out a watch-like device running iOS this October. The device would have a curved OLED screen and collect health-related data, as well as send and received messages sent by smartphone. Apple will also partner with Nike to integrate services according to the rumor.

The Next Web reports Yahoo continues its move to get rid of third-party log ins on its site. Yahoo’s photo-sharing site, Flickr will no longer accept Facebook or Google IDs as logins after June 30. Users of Flickr are urged to create a Yahoo account if they don’t already have one, and then link that account to Flickr.

TechCrunch reports Amazon’s secret June 18 announcement will be a phone with a 3D interface, but then every self-respecting blog is reporting that. What TechCrunch found out is that the phone will use Omron’s Okao Vision face sensing technology to track the user’s head and project the three image in the right way. The tech allows a user to tilt their head to access side panels hidden from the interface otherwise. The system which uses four infrared cameras can also recognize faces and and estimate gender, age and ethnicity although TechCrunch doesn’t believe Amazon has taken advantage of these last features.

The Next Web reports Google announced its Play Movies and TV Chrome app now has an offline mode on Chrome OS. That means you can watch shows on your Chromebook even when you’re in a place without Internet like some backwards airline or city park bench. Google also announced that it is making Chromebooks available in nine more countries – New Zealand, the Philippines, Norway, Denmark, Mexico, Chile, Belgium, Spain and Italy.

Engadget reports the University of Michigan will open up its Mobility Transformation Facility this autumn for testing self-driving cars. The 32-acre research center will have a four-lane highway, city streets and road signs, street lights, roundabouts and various road surfaces. Pop-up pedestrians and mechanized bicycles will also keep things interesting. A Ford Fusion Hybrid will be the first test vehicle, but General Motors and Toyota are also involved. No plans to make Freshman use the facility to walk to class.

Engadget reports on the release of Ted Nelson’s Xanadu, released in April at Chapman University after 54 years in development. Nelson coined the term “hypertext” and began work on Xanadu in 1960. The software can embed clickable links in documents that when clicked lead to targeted information without closing the original document, shrinking out of the way or scaling up for side-by-side comparison. Nelson didn’t have the resources to beat Tim Berners-Lee to the punch but Nelson still believes Xanadu could replace a lot of what people use PDF’s for.

News From You

MikePKennedy submitted the Engadget report on VICE’s claims that US cable companies are funding groups that pretend to represent consumers in the campaign over net neutrality rules. Broadband for America for instance describes itself as a coalition involving “independent consumer advocacy groups,” and is funded by the NCTA. The American Consumer Institute is fighting against net neutrality and receives its funding from the CTIA. 

KAPT_Kipper submitted the Wall Street Journal post that research from Adobe shows Google’s browsers are the most popular in the US now, passing Microsoft. The survey combines desktop and mobile browsers. Google’s Chrome and Android browsers had 31.8% share in April, up from around 26% the prior year. Internet Explorer had 30.9% share, down from roughly 37% a year ago. IE is still the most popular on desktops alone though with 43% and Safari is the mot popular on mobile with 59%. But neither is popular on the other platform and Google is popular on both.

Discussion Section Links

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/microsoft-to-us-stop-hacking-data-centers-2014-06-05

http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_on_the_issues/archive/2014/06/04/unfinished-business-on-government-surveillance-reform.aspx

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/google-offers-new-encryption-tool/?_php=true&_type=blogs&hpw&rref=technology&_r=0

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jun/06/vodafone-reveals-secret-wires-allowing-state-surveillance
http://www.vodafone.com/content/sustainabilityreport/2014/index/operating_responsibly/privacy_and_security/law_enforcement.html#eocp

Pick of the day:  Big Oven via Tom!

http://www.bigoven.com/ 

Schedule for live streams of Phoenix ComicCon via Alpha Geek Radio available here:  http://bit.ly/AGRPhoenix

Monday’s Guest: Iyaz Akhtar  

Iyaz Akhtar is on the show today. We’ll talk about why AT&T is genius for buying DirecTV, and what YouTube would do with Twitch. Also there’s a new big dinosaur.

MP3

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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, senior associate editor at CNET.com, and podcaster on the GFQNetwork

Headlines

Variety reported Sunday that their sources say Google’s YouTube has reached a deal to buy online streaming video service Twitch for more than $1 billion. The all-cash offer is expected to be announced anytime. Twitch’s most popular video streams involve video games, including live gameplay and esports coverage. Twitch claims more than 45 million monthly users. It consumes 1.35% of all bandwidth in North America at peak times, just a little more than HBO Go.

Reuters reports Google acquired Divide, a company that helps corporations manage devices like smartphones that are owned by the employees. In a post on Divide’s website, the company said it would join Google’s Android team. Divide’s app separates a device owner’s own data from corporate data, making it easier for businesses to manage multiple types and brands of devices.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich told Reuters at MakerFaire that Intel’s next-gen Broadwell processors will ship in time to be used in computers sold during the holiday season, though it might be tough for them to be in time for back-to-school rush. The chips were delayed because of setbacks in a new manufacturing process instituted last October.

Recode reports that “people familiar with both companies” tell them Twitter is considering a deal to buy Soundcloud. The Berlin-based SoundCloud has 250 million users who upload and share audio clips. Twitter launched a Music app last year but killed it in March. Soundcloud for its part might benefit from Twitter’s ad-selling experience.

The Telegraph reports Facebook has added an ask button to relationship status on profile pages. Users who leave their relationship status blank may receive inquiries about it from anyone who can see their profile. Facebook has been adding the Ask button to several elements of the profile section like employer and phone number. There is no way to to turn the ask button off.

Tom would never let Iyaz do dinosaur stories on TNT, but there’s nothing he can do about it now. Boing Boing passes along the discovery of the massive species of dinosaur. It’s just a tad bigger than Argentinasaur, the previous biggest species, but cooler than that, they found a whole herd of them!

News From You

spsheridan submitted the USA Today report that AT&T announced Sunday it plans to acquire DirecTV for $48.5 billion of stock and cash at $95 a share. As a comparison, Comcast is offering $45 billion to buy TWC. Kevin Smithen, an analyst at Macquarie called the deal financial engineering, pointing out the acquisition would bolster AT&T’s free cash flow. Although DirecTV makes money its subscriber growth has slowed. AT&T’s U-Verse TV service has 5.7 million subscribers DirecTV has 20.25 million subscribers in the US.

KAPT_Kipper submitted the 9to5 Mac writeup of Korea Times report that Apple and Samsung are in talks designed to end patent disputes between the two companies. FOSS patents Florian Mueller thinks a settlement could be reached “very soon.” Apple recently agreed to end disputes with Google and work together on patent reform.

metalfreak gave us the ITWorld story on the US Department of Justice obtaining Grand Jury indictments against five Chinese military officials for obtaining information on nuclear plant design, solar manufacturing and other secrets. China denied the allegations and called them, “made up.” Its the first time the US has filed charges of corporate cyber spying against specific officials of foreign governments.

And tekkyn00b posted the verge article on scientists proposing a particle collider that could turn an 80-year old theory on turning light into matter, into reality. The system would work by shooting high-energy photons into a field of other photons, turning some of the massless particles into an electron and positron, AKA matter with mass. 

Discussion Section Links:  DirectAT&T

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/18/us-directv-att-idUSBREA4B0W220140518?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/19/5730854/att-can-bail-on-merger-if-directv-loses-nfl-sunday-ticket

http://recode.net/2014/05/19/att-says-it-wants-to-sell-web-tv-too/

http://recode.net/2014/05/18/att-starts-telling-washington-why-its-directv-deal-should-pass/

http://www.cnet.com/news/regulatory-approval-for-at-tdirectv-may-hinge-on-the-bundle/#ftag=CAD590a51e

http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/05/with-comcast-time-warner-merger-looming-att-will-acquire-directtv/

Pick of the day: YouMail via Jake Lackey from Fresno, CA

Hey Tom,

I just wanted to suggest a Pick of the day of YouMail for Android and IOS. I have been using YouMail since my first Blackberry phone years ago and I’m pretty surprised i don’t ever hear anybody ever talking about this app. I didn’t want to have to pay the 2.99 a month for visual voice mail from Verizon and started using YouMail which is totally free. YouMail will automatically forward your voice mails to their service which you upload your contacts to and download the app for your phone. Then on our phone you can see a list of who called and play their message from the app, rather than having to play the messages 1 by 1 and wondering who called. You can skip around and only listen to the messages which you think are important. It even has a spam folder for the messages that you don’t ever want to listen to.
You can set up individual voice mail greetings from a list of suggested downloads from the site or use what they call “smart greeting” which will answer the voice mail with, “hello *insert name here*, *user* cant come to the phone right now please leave a message” like a personal assistant would. Most people who call are shocked that my voice mail knows who is calling me. You can also get transcript for your voice mails and save them as MP3′s and share them. which works great when the doctors office calls and i can just forward the message to my wife, who takes care of that stuff.

I am strictly an Android user and not 100% sure how well it works on iPhone but i know with Android it integrates with the call list and you can play the messages directly from the recent call list on your phone rather than actually opening the app.

You do have to sign up with YouMail at Youmail.com and get an account which is free then you can customize the many different ways you would like your voice mail to be handled. I have unlimited data and not sure how much data this uses on a regular basis but is one of first apps i always download no matter what phone i am using. There is a paid option for this which is only 5 dollars of month which is not required but gives you a ton for features as opposed to the 3 dollars for the Verizon version which gives you nothing extra.

I couldn’t explain everything about this app you will have to just check it out to see how convenient this is. I figured that there are quite a few of your listeners that will get lots of use out of it like i do.

Tuesday’s guest:  Lamarr Wilson

 

Darren Kitchen is on the show to help us understand why we shouldn’t freak out about the OAuth flaw, and what Apple, Google and Facebook are really doing to protect their users from government data requests.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Darren Kitchen, hak5.org

Headlines

Our top story on the subreddit was submitted by Beatmaster80 and tekkyn00b. Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Google are all updating their policies to expand the notification they give users when a government agency requests their personal data. Yahoo announced a similar policy in July, and Twitter has always done so. Users would not be notified if a court order prevents it or if there is imminent risk of physical harm to a potential crime victim. The policies will have no effect on NSA data collection or National Security Letters both of which are required to remain secret by law.

bmorales submitted a CNET story about Nanyang Technolohical University student Wang Jing uncovering a flaw in OAuth and OpenID that could be used to steal a login token from services like Facebook or Google, when using those services to login to a third party site. The token could then be used to retrieve data from Google or Facebook. Mashable’s Christina Warren has an excellent writeup of the issue. It’s not a weakness in OAuth at all but caused by a weak implementation on the third-party website’s side, which could be mitigated by certain practices on the side of Facebook or Google. Also, the attack requires you to click a suspicious link AND choose to then login with a service. So no. This is not another Heartbleed.

The Next Web reports Microsoft’s Windows Phone manager, Joe Belfiore held a Reddit AMA today where he said Windows Phone will get a file manager by the end of the month, hopefully. The app will let you create new folders, move files from one folder to another, and search within folders.

Ars Technica reports on a system called Large Emergency Event Digital Information Repository, meant to let citizens upload videos and photos to help police investigations and disaster response. Amazon Web Services has teamed with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department on the project. Santa Barbara, CA authorities are the first to use the system and are calling on the public to upload images taken of a riot last month at the Isla Vista community near the University of California at Santa Barbara. Apps for LEEDIR are available for iOS and Android. 

The Verge reports the next Call of Duty game, Advanced Warfare, will launch on November 4th, and star Kevin Spacey as head of a private military corporation that has launched an attack on the US. The first trailer showed up on the official Call of Duty YouTube page late last night. 

Macrumors reports Apple is expanding its iTunes Match service to Japan. The service, which costs ¥3,980 per year, lets iTunes users match their library with cloud versions of the songs for quick storage, which can then be accessed from any Apple device.  

News From You

KAPT_Kipper posted a GigaOm story that a class action complaint has been filed against Google, alleging secret deals force Samsung and others to use the Google search engine on mobile devices, creating a search monopoly, which in turn makes devices cost more. The crux of the complaint is that Google offers Mobile Application Distribution Agreements, which require device makers to make Google the default search engine if they want to include Google’s other mobile apps like YouTube and the Google Play app store. Google told GigaOm by email “Anyone can use Android without Google and anyone can use Google without Android. 

metalfreak sent in the PC World story about the Attorney General for the US state of Washington filing a lawsuit against a company that raised $25,000 on Kickstarter but failed to deliver its product, a retro-horror playing-card deck called Asylum. The project funded in October 2012 and has yet to deliver any rewards. Kickstarter’s terms of use requires creators to fulfill all rewards of their projects or refund backers. The complaint, filed in King County Superior Court, seeks restitution for consumers and as much as $2,000 per violation of the state’s Consumer Protection Act.

Beatmaster80 pointed us to the Record story that Lila Tretikov has been named Executive Director of Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that runs Wikipedia among other projects. Outgoing director Sue Gardner will end her term on June 1. Tretikov was previously chief product officer at SugarCRM. Tretikov’s personal background growing up in the Soviet Union and her experience with open-source engineering seem to be the main reasons she got the job.

KAPT_Kipper posted an ITWorld story that Sony has developed magnetic tape that stores data at 148 gigabits per square inch, 74 times the density of standard tapes. That could mean 185 TB tape cartridges. Current LTO-6 cartridges can handle up to 2.5 TB. Tape is still used for long-term data storage. The Tape Storage Council industry group reports tape capacity shipments grew by 13 percent in 2012 and were projected to grow by 26 percent last year.

Pootinky pointed to a a slashdot posting about a Vanderbilt University graduate student, working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who has discovered a way to create three-atom-thick nanowires capable of linking transistors and other components. It’s a step toward devices that could be as thin as paper.

Discussion Section Links:  New Security Flaw discovered

http://www.cnet.com/news/serious-security-flaw-in-oauth-and-openid-discovered/

http://tetraph.com/covert_redirect/oauth2_openid_covert_redirect.html

http://mashable.com/2014/05/02/oauth-openid-not-new-heartbleed

http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-oauth-v2-threatmodel-08#section-4.1.5

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/apple-facebook-others-defy-authorities-increasingly-notify-users-of-secret-data-demands-after-snowden-revelations/2014/05/01/b41539c6-cfd1-11e3-b812-0c92213941f4_story.html?hpid=z1

Pick of the Day:  Dogeforsale.com via Luke Olsen

Looking to get into some Dogecoins before the DogeCar takes the track at Talladega this weekend. Not sure how to how to navigate crypto exchanges? Have no fear dogeforsale.com is here. Its a site where users can buy and sell Dogecoins with paypal, google wallet, debit cards, etc. The site is a basic escrow service, it holds the coins during the transaction. Get Dogecoins fast and securely. much speed very secure. DISCLAIMER: I’m a seller on the site “SkyJedi” 

Good cause of the day: Podcamp Nashville

PodCamp Nashville happening May 17 in Nashville, TN is one of the last and largest Podcamps in the country. They are in need of sponsors and patrons or will have to cut out major parts of the event or cancel. For as little at $100 you can become of friend of this event the has been so vital to the Nashville creative community. This Friday is a deadline that they need to make a $2500 payment for the event. If you or a company you many know would like to help out Podcamp Nashville please visit: http://bit.ly/pcn14friend

Len Peralta was on assignment today So Jennie did some 8th grade-level fear-based art: What’s A Poor Normal To Do

Monday’s guest: Jon Strickland

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

Natali Morris joins the show and we get tot he bottom of all this April Fool’s Day nonsense. Also it’s Gmail’s legit 10th birthday.

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:  Natali Morris, CNBC Contributor and cofounder of ReadQuick

Headlines

Today is April 1st. April Fools’ day which the Internet first made amazing and then risked ruining. How did the Internet do this year? Google Japan gave us a robot hand you can use to type. Google+ introduce auto awesome photobomb which inserted David Hasselhoff into your pictures. Richard Branson played along with Nest for flights, giving Virgin airline passengers climate control. YouTube decided to stop producing the memes and let people do it this year. And SwiftKey for physical keyboards, Roku Watch, Samsung, Toshiba, AND HTcC’s smart gloves, CERN changing to comic sans as the official typeface, Sphero’s selfiebot, iFixit bought by Apple, AND the inevitable raft of awesome, possibly soon to be real fake products from ThinkGeek.

April 1st is also Gmail’s birthday. Harry McCracken has an excellent piece on Technologizer about the origins of Gmail and why it was launched on April Fool’s day. It mostly had to do with Sergey Brin’s sense of humor. Happy birthday Gmail! You did better than the email system I was using ten years before you, called PINE.

And now news. Ish. Reuters reports Apple suppliers will begin producing displays for the next iPhone in May, which would be about right on schedule for a fall release of the phone. Reuters source says Japan Display, Sharp and LG Display have all been tapped to make screens. The screens being produce in May are supposedly 4.7-inches, a big jump up from the current 4-inch screens in the iPhone 5S. Apparently a 5.5-inch screen is in the works but hit a snag and won’t be produced until later this year.

Engadget reports its sources say Google is testing a new camera app for Android with a background-blurring effect for portrait shots and improved panorama and Photo Sphere modes. Also photo framing gets a tweak so that what you see in the viewfinder is what you get in the picture. Nothing creeping in at the edges. And support for third-party filters is also supposedly on the way. The improvements would come in a standalone app so Android device owners wouldn’t have to wait for a carrier update to their OS.

Now actual news from not anonymous sources. TechCrunch reports that Pavel Durov, founder of Russian social network Vkontakte, announced he has resigned as the company’s Acting Director General. Durov said said it became “increasingly difficult” to run the social network after ownership changes put pressure on the company’s freedom of speech ethic. Durov has become increasingly outspoken about mass surveillance and freedom of speech in Russia. He sold his remaining stake in the company in January. Mail.ru owns 52% of Vkontakte.

CNET’s Jeff Bakalar reports select Xbox Live members will get invites to early access to a few new features for the Xbox One. Among the features are the ability to set DVR recordings and watch recordings from a tablet or smartphone. Also coming is “Rent Once, Play Anywhere” which lets you stop playback of a rented video on one device, say your Xbox and pick up where you left off on another, like a Windows Phone.

News From You:

fja submitted the BBC story on OKCupid dissuading its visitors from using Firefox, in protest over CEO Brendan Eich’s previous support of antigay marriage law in California. Visitors to OK Cupid’s site who use Firefox receive a screen asking them to use another browser, with an explanation of why. However a link does allow Firefox users to continue on to the main site. Mozilla told the BBC it has not been contacted by OKCupid and said “Mozilla supports equality for all, including marriage equality for LGBT couples.”

LifeDownloaded passed along the Verge story that HP has settled a class action lawsuit that alleged the company misled investors. The plaintiff’s claimed HP publicly said it would flood the market with WebOS powered devices after acquiring Palm in 2010, but that privately the company never actually planned any such thing. HP will pay $57 million as part of the mediated settlement.

And KAPT_Kipper posted the GigaOm story that Google+ users can now see a stat telling them their total views adding up profile, post and photo views since October 2012. The number will show up on the profile page. Number-hungry companies desperate to show some kind of reach on their brand pages are calling this addition ‘analytics.’

Discussion Section Links:  

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/01/homestar-runner-springs-back-from-the-dead-releases-new-stuff-for-the-first-time-in-four-years/

http://time.com/43263/gmail-10th-anniversary/

Pick of the Day:  f.lux

Wednesday’s Guest: The Internet’s own Lamarr Wilson!

Darren Kitchen is back for Pi Day and a discussion of what freedoms we should preserve for flying drones. Also Len Peralta is in to draw the show!

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guests:  Darren Kitchen & Len Peralta

Headlines:

XBox One and OnLive sittin’ in a tree … :The Verge has a post about images found by Zatz Not Funny showing a purported Amazon game controller. The pictured controller looks like the Xbox One and OnLive had a baby and pasted Android back, home, and menu buttons across its face. Oh look, it has its momma’s media control buttons and its dad’s offset analog sticks! It’s so cute! So expect an Amazon set-top box game controller called the Kindle Fire At Aliens or something soon.

Settings > General > Software Update: iOS 8 is probably Apple’s worst-kept secret yet. It’s almost as badly kept as a Samsung secret. 9to5 Mac reports its sources say Apple plans to simplify the notification center, more data-sharing options between apps, better voice memo access, eliminating the GameCenter app, and CarPlay support over WiFi. Also it’ll be faster. And betterer. And Jonny Ive-ier.

Just kidding, suckas: Remember the Asus Transformer Duet shown off at CES that dual-booted Windows and Android? Well, I’m sorry I brought it up because you can forget about it. GigaOm reports the WSJ sources say Asus is scrapping the touch screen laptop at the behest of both Microsoft and Google. One big loser will be Intel, which used the device to show off its versatility in supporting desktop and mobile on its chips.

Engadget reports Samsung introduced three new accessories designed to help disabled or visually impaired users.

UberX, Lyft changes: Ars Technica reports UberX has expanded its insurance coverage to include drivers waiting for a fare, not just drivers with passengers in the car. Lyft has also made a similar change to its insurance. Two months ago, a six-year-old girl was killed in an accident involving an UberX driver in San Francisco who was not carrying passengers at the time.

Everyone do the IPO! Bloomberg reports Chinese tech giant Alibaba is preparing to file for an IPO of stock in the U.S. as soon as April. Yahoo owns a 24 percent stake in Alibaba. A U.S. share sale by Alibaba would be a blow to Hong Kong, which hasn’t hosted an IPO of more than $4 billion since October 2010. In other IPO news, the WSJ says GoDaddy is finally about to interview underwriters for its IPO.

GigaOm reports Nokia’s Android-powered Nokia X has received one million pre-orders in just four days.

Oh, Russia: Reuters reports Russia has blocked access to the websites of government critic Alexi Navalny and chessmaster Gary Kasparov as part of a new law that cracks down on extremists or those who call for illegal activity. The state regulator said Navalny’s blog violated conditions of his house arrest, and Kasparov and two other sites called for “participation in mass events conducted in violation of the established order.”

Rdio nom noms Dhingana: MediaNama reports music streaming service Rdio acquired India’s defunct streaming website Dhingana which shut down last month after music label T-Series decided not renew its music license. Dhingana founders Snehal Shinde and Swapnil Shinde will be joining the Rdio team responsible for expansion efforts in India.

News From You

metalfreak pointed us to the eWeek article about the pwn2Own event taking place at CanSecWest in Vancouver. Security researchers at the Pwn2Own security challenge found new zero-day flaws in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox, Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader technologies. $400,000 in prize money has been awarded. VUPEN security is dominating again, earning $300,000 of that prize money by successfully exploiting Firefox for $50,000, IE for $100,000, Adobe Reader for $75,000 and Adobe Flash for $75,000.

robstak posted the Gizmodo article about GE’s method of cooling a refrigerator with water-based fluid and magnets. The magnets agitate particle in the patented water-based mixture to bring down its temp and the circulate it to cool the fridge. GE thinks the system could be more than 20% more efficient than the current electric compressor and chemical coolants we use now. GE thinks they could have one ready for sale in five years, and could even show up in other cooling appliances like air-conditioners.

habichuelacondulce posted The Guardian column about Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, making a call to U.S. President Barack Obama to complain about all the spying. Leaks from Edward Snowden yesterday showed the NSA has been spoofing Facebook in order to implant malware. Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook that the government should be a champion for the Internet, not a threat and be more transparent about what it’s doing. His call left him with the impression that it will take a very long time for true full reform. Somewhat echoing Tim Berners-Lee’s webwewant.org, Zuckerberg wrote “it’s up to us — all of us — to build the internet we want.” Dan Gillmore of The Guardian says he’ll join if Zuck will promise a Facebook option that doesn’t track or store data about its users.

Discussion Section Links: Here a drone, there a drone/Hacking the hackers

http://gigaom.com/2014/03/13/drone-flight-over-harlem-disaster-shows-messy-state-of-faa-rules/

http://mashable.com/2014/03/13/drone-east-harlem-explosion/

http://gigaom.com/2013/12/08/so-you-want-to-fly-drones-heres-what-the-law-says/

http://www.faa.gov/news/updates/?newsId=76381

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-20/faa-finds-drone-flights-hard-to-police

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2014/03/nsa-botnet/

Pick of the Day:

Super passionate Patron, Marlon “TheGuyFromTrinidad,” recommends Interviewly.com, which basically makes reddit AMAs beautiful and easy to read.

Monday’s  Guest: Tim Stevens of CNET

Darren Kitchen joins the show to talk about NBC’s Sochi hacking report among other things, and Len Peralta illustrates the stories.

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

Kill Switch legislation to be introduced in CA The LA Times reports California lawmakers led by State Senator Mark Leno plan to introduce legislation requiring devices like smartphones and tablets to be sold with a “kill switch” that would render them inoperable if stolen. Some devices, like the iPhone and the Galaxy S4, come with such features already. The carriers are lukewarm on legislating technology, but most are waiting to see the text of the bill before opposing or supporting it.

Facebook lets you Look Back at your Look Back video (and edit) TechCrunch reports Facebook has added an edit button to the “Look Back” videos it automatically created for most users in celebration of its tenth anniversary. The function lets you pick new photos and posts from a pre-populated list and no you can’t change the order. if you never got a video, then you also don’t get the edit feature.

Nokia and HTC bury the patent hatchet For all you people who complain that all we report is bad news, patent news, or both, here’s a ZDNet story for you. Nokia and HTC signed a patent and technology agreement that dismisses all patent litigation between the two companies. HTC pays a little money. The collaboration involves HTC’s LTE patent portfolio. Lawyers cash fat checks. Consumers get to buy phones. Everyone goes home happy.

NSA metadata program collects less data than you might think The Wall Street Journal has a new report, not from Edward Snowden leaks this time, that cites anonymous sources saying the NSA metadata program only collects data for 20 percent or less, because it doesn’t cover most cell phones. The Washington Post said even that smaller amount is still useful.

News From You

jaymz668 posted a story from the WSJ’s Corporate Intelligence blog, indicating that next year the US will joint the majority of the world in implementing a chip and pin system for credit cards and ditch the old signed receipts. Both MasterCard and Visa have set October 2015 as an important deadline in the switch. That’s the “liability shift” After that time liability for fraudulent transactions switches to the merchant unless they are using chip and pin.

MANAGEMIKE WHO’S ALWAYS SHOUTING HIS NAME submitted an Ars Technica story of one Ronaldo Boschulte who got a new modem form his ISP Comcast, which unbeknownst to him, doubles as a public WiFi router. Comcast started adding the modems by default in mid-2013. Comcast reassures customers that their broadband connection will be unaffected, but if they REALLY want to switch it off, they can, they just have to perform the arcane ritual of self-immolation known as calling Comcast customer support.

People in Russia may not care now, but SkyJedi does, and he submitted this coin desk post that bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox paused all withdrawals yesterday while they tracked down an issue encountered by some bitcoin withdrawals. Not only that but they promised an update Monday. At least that’s Monday Japan time. Users with bitcoin withdrawals stuck in limbo started to receive their coins back in their Mt. Gox wallets this morning.

More links from the show

Fazio Mechanical Services issued a statement Thursday saying it was the victim of a sophisticated cyber attack and is working with Target and the US Secret Service to investigate.

Amazon integrates image recognition into its iOS shopping app, no barcodes necessary

Apple buys back $14 billion of its own shares in the past two weeks for a total of $40 billion over the last 12 months

Russian officials rule that BitCoin is a money substitute and can not be used by individuals and legal entities

Myke Hurley from 5 by 5 joins us to review some of the cooler items from off the beaten path at CES.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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 subreeddit

Show Notes

As I mentioned on the show today, next Thursday and Friday I’ll be shooting season 2 of Sword and Laser’s video show. So I need YOU to guest host.

Next Thursday and Friday will be special “News From You” shows. I’ll still pop in with a couple late-breaking headlines but I want to hear YOUR news reports. What’s the tech project you think isn’t getting
enough attention? What’s that point about wearables you think nobody else has mentioned? Let your voice be heard!

Here’s what you do
Record your bit as an audio file LESS THAN 30 SECONDS PEOPLE, and email it to [email protected] and use the subject line NEWS FOR YOU. If we get it by 3 PM Eastern/11 AM Pacific Thursday morning, we’ll consider it for that day’s show. Same thing for Friday.

More Notes

Samsung to announce the Samsung Galaxy S5: Bloomberg reports Samsung’s executive vice president of mobile, Lee Young Hee said the company will announce the Samsung Galaxy in March or April along with the successor to the Galaxy Gear which will have more advanced functions and an improved design. Lee also said the company is investigating iris recognition for the phone and will announce at least one more wearable device this year. Samsung registered a design for eyewear in October.

Gmail to allow users to send messages to Google+ users: The Next Web reports that Google will allow Gmail users to send messages to Google + users, without knowing the email address. The email address behind the G+ account will only become visible to someone who has received a message from that account. Also only one message can be sent to G+ name until that person responds. So if you don’t reply, they won’t know your email, and they won’t be able to email you again. If a sender is in your circle, their message will show up in the primary tab on Gmail, while other messages will go to the Social tab. You can override all this by changing a setting in Gmail to limit who can send you messages to your circles or nobody at all. The feature will roll out to all users over the next couple days.

FCC chairman weights in on AT&T’s sponsored data plan: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is not shy about commenting on AT&T’s sponsored data plan. Yesterday at CES, The Verge reports Wheeler said “Be sure, that if it interferes with the operation of the internet; that if it develops into an anticompetitive practice; that if it does have some kind of preferential treatment given somewhere, then that is cause for us to intervene.” And GigaOm reports that in a speech at the Computer History Museum in San Jose, today, Wheeler said “It is not the sort of thing that should be prohibited out of hand. But, again, history instructs us that not all new proposals have been benign.“

News From You:

More security experts pull out of RSA conference:  habichuelacondulce submitted a story from Information Week reporting the number of security experts pulling out of the RSA conference in protest of their dealing with the NSA has risen to nine. AS we mentioned before Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure was the first to pull out but now Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist and senior policy analyst for the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project; Google senior staff software engineer Adam Langley; attorney Marcia Hofman; and Taia Global CEO Jeffrey Carr. are among the people who will not attend their presentations or skip the conference altogether. RSA has said it did not use an algorithm now known to be weaker because of the NSA, but it has not denied receiving a $10 million payment.

Infected Yahoo ads in Europe part of a Bitcoin mining scheme:  webitube pointed out a TechDirt article explaining that the malware that recently infected Yahoo ads in Europe was Bitcoin mining software. The idea would be to use infected computers to mine for bit coins and credit any coins minted to the malware authors. This would have the negative effect of running infected computers constantly and running up infected users’s electric bills.

More links from the show: 

Snapchat is sorry:

http://gigaom.com/2014/01/09/snapchat-says-sorry-for-getting-hacked-updates-app-with-phone-number-opt-out/

Apple and Samsung want to work it out via mediation:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/09/us-apple-samsung-idUSBREA0802P20140109?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

WWE launches its own network: The online network will be available on computers, iOS and Android devices as well as the Kindle Fire, Xbox 360, PS3 and 4 and Roku but only in the US.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/8/5289714/wwe-launching-24-7-subscription-network-to-bring-wrestling-to-you

Makerbot announces the Replicator Mini:

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/6/5281882/makerbot-replicator-mini-announced-ces-2014

Pebble Steel actually steel:

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/126190-pebble-goes-premium-pebble-steel-available-from-29-jan-for-249