Search Results for "june 18"

Richard Stroffolino joins the show to talk about Google’s new patent marketplace. Should you sell all your patents to Google? do you want Google to own all the patents?

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Show Notes

Today’s guests: Rich Stroffolino 

Headlines: 

Google announced a Patent Purchase Promotion today in an effort to supposedly remove friction from the patent market and apparently try to keep patents out of the hands of trolls. Anyone who has a US patent can list their patent for sale between May 8th and May 22. After the close of the market Google will let sellers know if they’re interested by June 26th, finish up the details by July 22 and pay out by late August. Patent sellers set the sale price and get a license back tot heir patent.

TechCrunch reports Facebook added a free video calling feature that works over cellular or wifi– inside Messenger for iOS and Android today. Messenger will adjust quality based on your connection. However you can’t make calls to desktop users and you can only call one person at a time. Video calling in Messenger is availablein 18 countries today with other regions to be added in the coming months.

According to data gathered by Slice Intelligences‘ consumer panel app, 376,000 of the 1.7 million Apple Watches ordered were delivered to U.S. consumers this weekend. A remaining 547,000 watches are expected to ship between April 27 and June 11; leaving 639,000 people waiting for word ofon when their watches will ship. The data was gathered based on a survey of more than 2 million online shoppers.

TechCrunch reports that Instagram has added three new image filters called Lark, Reyes, and Juno. Instagram plans to release new filters at a faster rate. But, smiley face kitty cat rainbow, that’s not the most exciting part! Instagram also added support for emoji in hashtags, which means you can now click on hashtag little poop guy and see what other fine images have been tagged with that emoji.

Apple Pay is now supported by Discover Financial Services the last of the four major credit and debit card issuers in the United States according to the LA Times. Of course not every bank supports Apple Pay yet but the number of cards supported is certainly growing.

Following up on the forum post from last week where the makers the SeaNav claimed their app had been kicked out of the iOS app store for mentioning Pebble, Apple confirmed to Wired that it was a mistake. The SeaNav update will be accepted, as will any other apps rejected in similar circumstances. The company does not plan to reject apps that support the Pebble watch.

PC World clarified a statement Nokia made over the weekend. Responding to reports that Nokia would manufacture smartphones in China, Nokia said “These reports are false, and include comments incorrectly attributed to a Nokia Networks executive. Nokia reiterates it currently has no plans to manufacture or sell consumer handsets.” However the ReCode report we mentioned claimed Nokia would design and license handsets not manufacture and sell them. In any case Nokia still can’t do any of this until 2016 thanks to its agreements with Microsoft.

Reuters reports Judge Theodore Essex of the International Trade Commission in the US ruled Microsoft’s phones infringe two wireless cellular patents owned by patent licensor InterDigital Incorporated. The decision must be reviewed by a full commission before an import ban can be enacted.

Apple didn’t top its record profit of last quarter, but they did just fine. Today they posted earnings of $13.6 billion on $58 billion in revenue, above both what it forecast and what investors were expecting. For the three months ending in March, Apple sold 61.2 million iPhones, 12.6 million iPads, and 4.5 million Macs. All told, its gross margin for everything was 40.8 percent, which came in well above the 38.5 and 39.5 percent Apple expected. Apple’s next quarter will be the first to include sales of the Apple Watch, but don’t expect the company to reveal any numbers. The watch, along with sales of the iPod, Apple TV, and Beats accessories are all lumped into a catch-all category called “other products.”

News From You:

KAPT_Kipper sent us the Ars Technica report that there was a brief moment in time back in 2011 when an 87-year old Pauline McKee from Illinois thought she won 41,797,550.16 dollars on a slot machine called Miss Kitty. The Isle Hotel Casino in Waterloo, Iowa declined to pay the money claiming it was a computer glitch. Ms. McKee sued, but the Iowa Supreme Court sided with the casino. The user-agreement on the touch screen slot machine, said the maximum payout was $10,000 and “bonus” awards were not allowed. The court ruled Pauline McKee was owed one dollar and 85 cents.

Bad news for people in search of rare flair on Reddit’s The Button game. Bishma posted that “The Button” ran into technical difficulties Sat morning with the Cassandra server that tracked button clicks. During that time many people including The Button’s creator got extremely rare flairs. Although the issue was resolved there was a point in time when the button reached zero allegedly revealing a spoiler. As of Sunday, red flair is more common and often looked down upon. Some Button enthusiats have decided to try to choose their favorite color rather than go for the lowest time count. Others have targeted getting a time of 42 as their new goal.The Button however is still active and posts are centering around quotes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide.

Discussion Section Links:  

Pick of the day:

Andy from increasingly spring like CT:

Hi Tom,

Pick of the day for you – Mountek smartphone mounts.

If you’re like me and are always disappointed with in car Nav systems, and still have a car radio with a CD slot, the sit in woe no more! Mountek makes a great smart device mount that clips in to the CD slot and uses a very thin magnet on your device to attach to a magnetic pad on the mount. For me, this was a fantastic solution to my broken GPS unit in my car and allows me to use Waze or Google or whatever on device GPS app I like without chasing the phone as it slips and falls all around my dash console. Problem solved! Instead of $600 to repair the cars’s GPS, I spent $30 for the Mountek Snap+ and I couldn’t be happier. It holds my iPhone 6 or my iPad Air easily, and keeps them in line of sight so that I can see maps and directions without looks down and taking my eyes off the road. Safe and convenient! www.mountek.com – really great stuff.

Great show Tom, you and the crew are my conduit to the Tech Zeitgeist. Without DTNS I’d be lost, uninformed and Beja-less, a truly unhappy state.

Thanks!

Messages: 

Co-executive producer of the show Mike’s father and brother have owned an automotive repair shop for 30 years. He worries that If the auto industry is successful in their DMCA petition, it could put them and others like them out of business. He sent a quote from autoblog.com.

“Hypothetically, the EFF says, the likes of General Motors, Honda and Ford could supply ECU codes only to repair companies they contract with – or steer that business entirely to authorized dealerships. Car owners’ power to choose where they want their car repaired could be diminished.”

BUT Chris (mrforgetful on Patreon) works in IT for a motor manufacturer and gets involved in building the software systems that enable technicians to update the software in vehicles. He says: 

“Right to Repair legislation is coming into force in the US in 2017 that requires automotive manufacturers to make available the tools necessary to update vehicle software. Similar legislation has been in Europe for about 6 years (I am from the UK).
..
Although he adds: Carrying out home-made modifications to the software is out-of-scope (you must apply the software from the manufacturer).

Which leads us to Alan who pointed out:

“diesel nerds” are aware that most modern diesel engines are sold with a number of different levels of output. Naturally, the more powerful versions are more expensive than the lower output versions. There is normally no physical difference between these engines, it’s all software governed.

By now I’m sure you can see where this is going – there’s a whole industry dedicated to re-flashing vehicle ECUs to “liberate” those extra horsepower for significantly less cost than buying “The fancier model”. This will be what John Deere and GM are really trying to crack down on as they move towards greater physical commonality in their model ranges.

Randall pointed out:

“I’m not sure that your aware, but Linux is use by many major car manufacturers. There is even an automotive grade Linux project that many of them contribute to. https://www.automotivelinux.org/about/members”

Daryl Sensenig writes:

I’m an amateur vehicle hobbyist, and I enjoyed your discussion of John DeeRM. You mentioned Linux for cars. There is just such a thing. You can find a popular supplier here: http://bankspower.com. The way some vendors make it legal us by replacing the entire computer hardware.

Harry The Airline Pilot commented on the story about Chris Roberts’ tweet on a United Boeing 737-800. Harry writes:

” I have been an Airline Pilot for 36 years for many airlines, and most recently I flew a Boeing 737-800 for 10,000 hours at United Airlines. There are many inaccuracies in all the commentaries about this story. First off, he concedes that his research only pertains to the most modern airplanes – the Boeing 787, Airbus A350, and Airbus A380. This is a very small part of the current airline fleet. None of his research applies to the B-737-800 because it has no internal network. This plane is old school – it was developed in 1967. The latest versions being built today are essentially the same as back in 1967. Only new avionics and some structural and engine changes. For example he talks about taking over the fuel balancing systems. There is NO such system on the 737. It is done by looking at the fuel quantities in the tanks and manually turning pumps off and on – old school. The passenger entertainment systems on these aircraft are just after market bolt on. The only connection to the aircraft systems is the power source – literally an on-off switch in the cockpit. Also, there is no way to turn on the passenger oxygen system on the aircraft electrically. The only control, is to drop the oxygen masks. No oxygen will flow until the mask is physically pulled down. Then a chemical oxygen canister will start a reaction to produce oxygen for that row of seats for about 12 minutes.

So basically, when he says “Find myself on a 737/800, lets see Box-IFE-ICE-SATCOM, ? Shall we start playing with EICAS messages? “PASS OXYGEN ON” Anyone ? :)”, it is total bull. As far as the freedom of speech argument for defending this tweet, see how far that will get you if you joke about having a bomb next to a TSA person at security.”

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Tuesday’s guest:  Patrick Beja

Jason Hiner and Lyndsey Gilpin are on the show and we’ll talk about Tesla batteries, Google new Phone Service and how you’ll need to get creative if you don’t want a robot to take your job.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guests:  Jason Hiner and Lyndsey Gilpin from TechRepublic

Headlines: 

Google announced it’s wireless telephone service today for invitees with a Nexus 6, called Project Fi. TechCrunch reports the network promises to seamlessly switch customers between T-Mobile, Sprint and WiFi baed on whichever network is faster. The rate plan is similar to Ting. Subscribers pay $20 for unlimited talk and text and then $10 per gig of data. Customers pay only for what they use. You can request an invite at fi.google.com.

TechCrunch reports BlackBerry is buying WatchDox a startup in Israel that develops secure file sharing software. The plan is to add WatchDox software to BlackBerry’s Enterprise Mobility Management portfolio.  In addition to the software, BlackBerry may use the WatchDox team to build an R&D operation in Israel.

Facebook released Hello, an Android app dialer that lets you make free calls over Wi-Fi according to The Verge. Hello uses Facebook to ID callers and search for phone numbers, and you can send numbers straight to voicemail by choosing the numbers or using a list of commonly blocked numbers crowdsourced from other users. If you miss a call Hello will let you respond using Facebook Messenger. Facebook says it has no plans to make money from the app directly.

The Verge reports that Microsoft is updating its Band wearable to integrate bike-tracking apps Strava and MapMyRide. The new insights are visible on the Microsoft Health Web Dashboard and can now provide comparisons with an average of other users based on height and weight. It will also show users how well their body is restoring overnight during sleep. And it tracks fitness improvements over time and volume of oxygen used during an exercise so you know what time of day you tend to have your most effective workout. Microsoft Health app for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone will also be updated to support step-counting sensors present in many smartphones.

CNET has a preview of HP’s new back to school Laptops and Hybrids. The $499 Pavilion x360 fold-back hybrid’s 11-inch model has a fanless design with comes with Intel’s Core M, a 1,366×768 touchscreen panel. The $529 13-inch Pavilion x360 comes with Core i3 and i5 and an optional 1920 x 1080p display. The $679 15.6-inch Envy x360 comes in silver and red and uses Core i5 or Core i7 and discrete graphics from Nvidia. HP’s other Pavilion laptops come online May 13 and in stores June 21 in 14”, 15”, and 17” all with optical drives starting at $479. The Pavilion x360 is out in the US May 13. The Envy x360 on June 13 online and June 21 in stores.

An application form to receive a free developer edition of Valve’s HTC Vive virtual reality set has been posted. Go to steamcommunity.com/steamvr/signup and enter your company name, URL, team size, and a detailed description of your VR project and you might just get a headset shipped to you this spring or summer.

News From You:

Jaymz668 and starfuryzeta both pointed out the Engadget article that Tesla emailed investors to let them know that the April 30th announcement from the company will be a battery for the home and a very large utility-oriented battery. No details on how the battery would improve on existing home batteries most often used to store excess power from solar installations. That’s what April 30th is for I expect.

Starfuryzeta marked the BBC story for inclusion that reports Adblock won a judgement in a Hamburg Germany court against German news publishers Die Zeit and Handelsblatt. The publishers claimed Adblock was anticompetitive and threatened company revenues. The court ruled users have a right to use the plug-in.
The Publishers may appeal after the written decision is delivered.

Waffleophagus pointed out the BGR report noting Jay-Z and softbank backed music service Tidal is no longer in the top 700 apps on iPhone in the US. Pandora and Spotify are numbers 3 and 4 in the US. Spotify was not in the top 40 prior to March 31. Tidal has announced an upcoming service called Disovery which will allow independent artists to upload their music directly to the service.

KAPT_KIpper posted a Gizmodo story from the RSA conference about an iOS 8 vulnerability demonstrated by researchers from Skycure Monday. If a device connects to a compromised WiFi access point attackers can generate an SSL certificate that can cause apps and sometimes the whole phone to crash and endlessly reboot. Targets of the attack would have to move out of range to stop the cycle. iOS 8.3 mitigates the effects somewhat. Skycure previously reported the vulnerability to Apple.

Discussion Section Links:  

Pick of the day:

jbhannah writes:

For my personal website and a few others that I run, I use a service called Cloudflare for DNS, as well as caching and HTTPS. It works like any other DNS provider, and has a very easy-to-use interface for managing your DNS records. It also provides various levels of caching of pages, scripts, and images on its CDN servers in different parts of the world, which improves your site’s load times and reduces server load, and can even run various optimizations on them to further reduce file sizes and load times. And, it lets you enable HTTPS for your sites, even if you don’t have your own SSL certificate, and without any server configuration—all you need to do is press a button; same with enabling IPv6 access to your site, even if your server doesn’t have IPv6. Best of all, while they do have additional, paid features available, all of what I mentioned and use is available with a free account (as long as you don’t mind sharing an SSL certificate with other sites; you can pay for your domain to have its own certificate). I highly recommend it: https://www.cloudflare.com/

Messages:

Ron Ladd wrote:

There are a number of sources for good high quality music and hdtracks.com is one of them.

Just be sure you know what you are buying and if it is worth what you pay. To quote from a site that has fantastic information on audio, “misinformation and superstition only serve charlatans. Xiph.org has a good article “24/192 music downloads …and why they make no sense” you can find it at
http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
Just under the headline is a link to a video clip, “Digital Show and Tell” that is the best 24 minute digital audio vs analog audio explainer that is MUST WATCH for anyone interested in audio, you can find this clip at
http://xiph.org/video/vid2.shtml

Ross writes in:

The problem with the twitter vs phone analogy from the conversation with Jenny and Patrick is this: Over the years, laws have been passed to prevent harassment and provide recourse to the victims of telephone harassment. Twitter does not have these protections. Add in the ease of the harasser recruiting aid with a simple hash tag and it gets ugly fast.

Rich from Lovely Cleveland had a good thought:

“Twitter is interested in free speech in so much that it makes them a relevant conduit of information, against which they can serve ads, and when free speech enters into them realm of heinous abuse or bullying, they have the financial interest to curb it so as not to dissuade users. …“free speech” is a charged phrase, and Twitter’s obligation to it is purely commercial (which in this case is leading to an outcome that appears to be morally satisfying).”

Peter added:

I would love to see Twitter accounts require identity verification. …And with this improved level of accountability, if you are getting harassed, go to the police! I would like to see arrests. And one of the first things the police/FBI do when you report death threats or harassment is to tell you not to publicize or draw attention to the fact you have been threatened. It makes the situation 1) harder to investigate 2) invites more trolls. And yet this is never what these people do.

Cody wrote in with the positive side of Twitter DMS:

He wanted to use an artist’s music in a game he was developing and had to go through the long dance of publicly at replying the person getting them to follow him back and THEN being able to DM. “This was somewhat frustrating considering the timed nature of my project, and although you could make the case that the artist should have had other ways to contact him, not being able to do so on Twitter unless we followed each other has a bit annoying.”

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Thursday’s guests:  Lamarr Wilson & Justin Robert Young

Nate Lanxon is on the show to talk about Microsoft’s secret strategy to dominate and what things we DON’T want in the cloud.

MP3

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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 headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guests:  Nate Lanxon 

Headlines: 

Business Insider reports Yahoo has renewed its search deal with Microsoft. Bing ads must show up against 51% of traffic now instead of the exclusive deal it had before meaning Yahoo can monetize 49% of its traffic in other ways if it likes. Microsoft is also taking over sales of all the BIng ads.

If you want to walk into an Apple store and buy an Apple Watch you will now have to wait until at least June. 9 to 5 mac shared an Apple memo from SVP of Retail and Online Sales Angela Ahrendts wjo wrote: “due to high global interest combined with our initial supply, we are only taking orders online right now. I’ll have more updates as we get closer to in-store availability, but we expect this to continue through the month of May.”

Tech Crunch reports that Jawbone has partnered with American Express to allow the new Jawbone UP4 fitness tracker to pay for things at NFC enabled card readers. The authorization token is stored on the band itself, and the credit card information can be deactivated if the band is stolen. The UP4 will cost $200 at launch — $20 more than the payments-less UP3 and launch “this summer”. Jawbone also introduced a new mid-range band called the UP 2 for $99 which replaces the UP24.

Good news Big Data fans. TechCrunch reports from the Hadoop summit in Brussels that Google launched the open beta of Cloud Dataflow and updated BigQuery. CloudDataflow can process data asboth streams and batches and automatically scales to the dev’s needs. BigQuery’s update lets users store data in Google’s European Data centers to keep it out of the US’s surveillance system and only in danger of the French one. It also adds row level permissions which will keep the marketing department from messing up your supply chain data when their pulling sales info.

The New York Times reports China’s Banking Regulatory Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology sent a letter to banks Monday that suspends rules that would have required tech companies to turn over source code. The rules will be reissued after a revision to take into account amendment suggestions.

Engadget reports the World Bank’s latest Global Financial Inclusion database states that 12% of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa have mobile wallets, making it the most advanced region for the etechnology. Kenya leads the way with 58%. BizTechAfrica notes M-PESA, one of the most popular payment systems, will launch the 2nd generation of its platform in Kenya next week bringing improved speed and efficiency. Meanwhile a Pew Research report notes cell phone ownership has reached about 90% in Nigeria and South Africa. Texting is still the most common activity on phones in the region followed by photos and video and mobile banking.

News From You:

Jaymz668 sent us this story from TechDirt. Netflix will be begin rolling out encryption via HTTPs over the coming year for all of its infrastructure including streams. Although previous trials impacted server capacity by 50% Netflix is now confident that it can implement HTTPs at a lower capacity cost. Tests start this quarter. And from the same story, Mozilla has proposed to deprecate unencrypted web pages – sites that use http: – in a move they hope will encourage web developers to move to HTTPs. As a carrot the browser will only implement new features on sites using HTTPs.

Starfuryzeta let us know about the Ars Technica story that Cynaogen is partnering with Microsoft to integrate Bing, Skype, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, and Microsoft Office into Cyanogen OS. MS has committed to creating native integrations of those apps as well.

Discussion Section Links:  

Picks of the day:
Mistobox – Personalized Coffee Delivered
Blue Bottle at Home (formerly Tonx)

Messages

David from finally Spring has sprung St. Paul:
As dominant as Google is in Europe people can still choose to use another search engine. Why don’t these companies that are claiming they are affected by Google’s dominance use advertising to point people at other search sites or create partnerships with other search sites to help cover the cost of advertising in things like magazines and bill boards and their own web pages?

Ian in Sunny San Diego on government collection of metadata:
I think a possible solution would be: any government collecting data from its citizens should be required to open source that data. This has two positive effects to help ensure that only “appropriate” data is collected.

PARAPHRASING NOW
First, since the data will be public, we can see if any of it is dangerous to law-abiding citizens.

Second, faster detection of illegal activity since more eyes are on it.

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Friday’s guests:  Darren Kitchen & Len Peralta

Roger Chang is on the show today to talk about 4K phone screens, whether changing a background image should be a felony, and the many faiths of the Reddit Button.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? click here

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Roger Chang

Headlines: 

The US FCC’s Open Internet Order was published in the Federal Register today. A trade group representing ISPs called USTelecom filed suit in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Sharp announced a 5.5 inch 4K IGZO display with an 806 pixels per inch density according to phone arena.com. The Ultra-HD display will sport a resolution of 2160 x 3840. IGZO or Indium gallium zinc oxide is a semiconducting material used in the TFT Backplane of flat-panel displays. Rival smartphone maker Samsung has hinted at a 4K display for their upcoming Galaxy Note 5.

Engadget reports that ASUS is getting ready to launch the VivoWatch, a fitness-centric wearable with a claimed 10 day battery life. The watch will have a tough stainless steel body, your standard IP67 rating against dust and water, heart-rate monitoring and sleep tracking. No price has been revealed yet, but expect that info to emerge during Milan Design Week which begins tomorrow.

Ars Technica reports on a shocking case of potential cause and effect in the free market. After Google Fiber announced its expansion into Charlotte, North Carolina, Time Warner Cable announced that their residential internet customers will “experience” internet speed up to six times faster than their current speed, at no extra cost. Customers who get up to 15Mbps will now receive up to 50Mbps, those who get up to 30Mbps will now receive up to 200Mbps; and customers who get up to 50Mbps, will receive up to 300Mbps, all at no extra charge.

TechCrunch reports Apple updated Final Cut Pro X, Motion and Compressor software, with support for new camera hardware, and new 3D animation resources and effects features. Final Cut Pro 10.2 supports four video scope views at once, and support for additional video formats. Motion 5.2 adds improvements to 3D title building, and 12 new generator effects. Compressor 4.2 makes it easier to get a movie up for sale on iTunes. CNET reports Apple also sold about 1 million Apple Watches this weekend according to analyst estimates.

TechCrunch reports 3D Robotics launched a new quadcopter called the Solo meant to be easy to fly for beginners, with a focus on aerial photography. Pilots can use a GoPro to stream video to a phone through the 3-axis Solo gimbal. The Solo can update firmware over WiFi and has an accessory bay for future hardware expansion, like a forthcoming Lidar camera. The motor pods are also swappable for easy replacement. The Solo costs $999 and the Gimball an extra $399 coming to the US in May and globally in June and July.

The Financial Express reports Singapore-based FireEye released a report about online espionage operations targeting government and commercial organizations going back to 2005. FireEye believes the group responsible is state-sponsored likely by the Chinese government. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei “I want to stress that the Chinese government firmly bans and cracks down on all forms of hacker attacks,” and called for international cooperation against such attacks.

News From You:

AllanAV sent us this story from the Slate. 14-year-old eighth-grader Domanik Green of Paul R. Smith Middle School in Holiday, Florida, was recently arrested and charged with a felony: offense against a computer system and unauthorized access. He was released from Land O’Lakes Detention Center on Wednesday. The Tampa Bay Times reports that the Pasco County sheriff’s department took action after Green used a teacher’s administrative password, a person’s last name which he saw the teacher type in – to log onto a school computer and change the background image. “I logged into a teacher’s computer who I didn’t like and tried putting inappropriate pictures onto his computer to annoy him,” Green told the Times.

StarFuryZeta alerted us to a Gizmodo post about Mysterious Radio Signals being received by astronomers at the Parkes Observatory in Australia for years. Astronomers were puzzled over the source of these brief but intense bursts. Astronomer Emily Petrol installed a real-time radio interference monitor and it turns out they were coming from the microwave in the lunch room anytime someone opened the door before the timer was done.
Paulgannon01 sent us The Next Web report that in the UK, new regulations are in effect providing legal recourse to people subjected to “revenge porn.” The new offence criminalizes “the disclosure of photographs or films which show people engaged in sexual activity or depicted in a sexual way, where what is shown would not usually be seen in public,” The sharing must be done deliberately with the intention of causing the person in question distress.

Discussion Section Links:  

Pick of the day:

Dear Tom,
After hearing the pick from DTNS 2452 concerning RiffTracks, I wanted to expand on the selection of commentaries available online. Zarban.com (quoting from the website)

is a catalog of audio commentaries for movies and TV episodes available on the Web. You can download a commentary and listen to it while you watch the show and enjoy the scholarly insights and/or hilarious insults they offer.

They are mostly fan-made commentaries but some are official tracks (e.g. Aronofsky’s “The Fountain” commentary that he originally hosted personally is now archived by Zarban.com). Other contributors can be hit and miss, but I would highly recommend What Are You Doing Movie (formerly Down In Front), Tysto, and Film Grok. They generally have a countdown after a short minutes of introduction, and listeners can sync their copies with the recorded commentary audio.

At the time of this correspondence, Tysto has a commentary for “Resevoir Dogs” that I am very much looking forward to visiting. Listeners can also find entries for such gems as “Nightmare Sisters,” if that’s their bag.

PATRON since day 1:

Nic in Louisiana

Messages

Good day Tom,
I work for high tech manufacturing company like your guest, and single source parts are actually more common than your guest suggested. He was giving the text book answer.

It’s often normal with anything cutting edge to only have one vendor. And sometimes it’s easier too, especially if you have a relationship with a vendor who performs better than others.

Keep in mind that marketing’s plan is forward looking, and their dreams might not match what’s possible on a new product. They should dream. The goal normally is to reach marketing’s plans, not the other way around.

Natron

Peter Wells is on the show to help review the F8 announcements and bring us up to speed on Australia’s move to allow warrantless metadata surveillance of all its citizens.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? click here

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s Guest: Peter Wells, editor of Reckoner.au

Headlines

Lots of announcements from Facebook’s F8 developer keynote this morning. So let’s run through them. The big one was Messenger Platform. This allows developers to integrate Messenger into their apps. For example you can go from Messenger to the Giphy app to find that perfect animated GIF then back to messenger to send it to a friend. Or jump to the ESPN app to grab a story and send the link to a friend. Facebook is also trying out business communication over Messenger with Everlane and Zulily. Customers can talk to customer support and get order updates through messenger.

More from F8! Facebook will now support 360-degree ‘spherical’ videos in news feed which will also be supported in Facebook-owned Oculus Rift. You can also now embed Facebook videos on other sites, providing a direct challenge to YouTube.

Facebook also updated the comment system so that comments on a story Facebook sync with Facebook embedded comments on that story’s web page and vice versa.

And Facebook’s platform-as-a-service product Parse announced Parse for IoT, Enhanced Sessions to improve app security, support for React and a new debugging tool. The first step for IoT is an SDK for Arduino with other SDKs to come.

Engadget reports Sony announced the “yukimura” update will come to the PlayStation 4 tomorrow bringingthe long promised suspend/resume function that lets you go from sleep mode into a paused game. You also get the ability to back-up and restore to an extrenal USB drive, the ability to share to DailyMotion and search your Facebook contacts to find anyone who is also a PSN member. Finally verified accounts arrive to identify developers, producers, designers and community managers.

The Daily Dot has sources that say YouTube is planning to relaunch its live streaming platform with a renewed focus on live gaming and esports. YouTube has apparently recruited a team, of up to 50 engineers with expertise in the streaming industry. The company will likely make an official announcement on its revamped streaming service around E3 in June.

Engadget reports Leap Motion announced it’s building an optional faceplate to add motion sensing to Razer’s Open Source Virtual Reality headset. The faceplate will be an option for the OSVR dev kit expected to be available for pre-order in May with units shipping in June at the earliest. Leap hopes to embed its motion sensors in more VR headsets.

Gizmodo reports Ford has introduced technology that limits a car’s top speed based on posted speed limit signs in the UK. The Intelligent Speed Limiter will be available on the Ford SMAX (S-Max? Or Smacks?) and uses a dashboard camera to keep an eye on road signs, adjusting the speed of the vehicle accordingly. Speed limit data can also be pulled from GPS systems if installed. If the vehicle exceeds the set speed limit, an audible warning alarm is triggered and the vehicle’s engine stops getting fuel until it slows down enough.

TechCrunch reports Apple has acquired FoundationDB, a company specializing in NoSQL databases. FoundationDB was well known for its ability to handle ACID-compliant transactions quickly and strong scalability of its database technology. TechCrunch notes the acquisition could bolster Apple’s server-side infrastructure for the App Store, iTunes, cloud services or rumored live TV service. A notice on the FoundationDB website notes that downloads of its database software is no longer available.

The Verge reports a free-to-play game called Halo Online will launch in closed beta this spring in Russia. The game was developed by 343 Industries along with Saber Interactive and Innova Systems. It will be a multiplayer only version of Halo 3 designed to run on low-end PCs. Activision recently partnered with Tencent to bring Call of Duty Online to PCs in China.

News From You

djsekani submitted the Verge article that Radio Shack put its database of 13 million customer email and 65 million physical addresses up for auction as part of its bankruptcy proceedings. Dominant shareholder Standard General won the bid but the court must approve. Attorneys general from Texas and Tennessee have challenged the purchase on the basis that Radio Shack’s privacy policy says it will not sell customer information. AT&T also claims it is the rightful owner of some of the data. The US FTC has previously allowed data like this to be sold in bankruptcy cases as long as the privacy policy is maintained and the buyer is in the same general line of business.

habichuelacondulce sent us the Verge story about Amazon’s testifying before a Senate subcommittee that the drone approved by the FAA is already obsolete. The FAA took a year and a half to process Amazon’s application to fly one specific model of drone. Amazon’s VP of global policy Paul Misener claimes the European Aviation Safety Agency, which treats drones as a new category of aircraft has a dramatically shorter approval time. Amazon also argued for automated flight to be allowed not just line of sight. Misener warned that drone innovation would suffer and development could move overseas to take advantage of less restrictive legislation.

Hobbit fromPA saw that ReCode saw a document outlining a new Google service called Pony Express that lets you receive and pay bills from within Gmail. Gmail users have to verify their identity with a third party and provide account numbers. Once done, bills show up in a special folder and users can choose to p[ay them from within Gmail, using a linked credit card or debit card. The service is scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter.

Discussion Links: 

Pick of the Day:  Sublime Text

Hi Tom & Jennie

On Friday’s show the listener’s pick was learn Python the Hard Way. This got me thinking about a pick that I’ve been meaning to send in for a while.

Sublime Text is a plain text editor with loads of useful features. In fact I’ve used it for several years as a web developer as my main editor. I even wrote my university dissertation using it! There’s also lots of plugins for it to assist with editing all sorts of languages or just plain text files.

Both major versions are free to use with a “unlimited trial”, which basically means every 15th time or so you press save you’ll have to close a popup window. Which sounds annoying but if you’re just editing the occasional file I think its totally fine.

So if you’re ever in need of a lightweight, easy to use text editor which is supported on all desktop platforms, Sublime Text is my go-to recommendation.

Keep up the good work,

Ali Smith a.k.a fortythieves in chat

P.S. [Feel free to ignore this during the show] I’ve been a bit slack on this myself, but I just wanted to put out a quick reminder that bestofbot is still a thing and archiving the best bits of DTNS

Message of the Day

It seems lately you or guests have made a mention to divx when talking about something that has failed. On episode #2453 JuRY mentioned it after talking about the DRM on LED. This was the last straw. There is no way you could be talking about DivX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DivX) the video codec because its a codec. It either is used or not but fail is kind of a strong word for a media wrapper.

So I did a search of the tubes in the event there was another meaning and sure enough Wikipedia has the answer. DIVX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIVX) was a Circuit City video rental service. I have no knowledge of this and I think I would have been their target audience.

Thank you for the great shows!

-Jim

======

Just wanted to let you and your audience know that the docket and some of the pleadings in the RadioShack BK case (case# 15-10197, Delaware), are available via the RECAP project on archive.org if they care to peruse (otherwise Pacer access cost $0.10 PER PAGE). While a Chapter 11 case is a morass of legalese and somewhat arcane procedures, it may be of some interest, if for nothing else then getting a glimpse at the inner workings and relationships of a large corporation. For a more readable version, your listeners can also checkout https://cases.primeclerk.com/radioshack , which does a better job of presenting the same info.

Rich from Lovely Cleveland

========

Rafael: Listening to the show and yes I use my roku in a hotel with a software program called connectify hotspot which creates a router based on hotel Wi-Fi.

Tomorrow’s guests:  Special early time at 11am PDT, 2pm EDT, with Justin Robert Young and Steve Kovach of Business Insider. 

Iyaz Akhtar is on to talk about the new PlayStation Vue Internet TV service. Should you cancel cable?

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Iyaz Akhtar, Senior Associate Editor at CNET

Headlines: 

TechCrunch reports Microsoft’s Executive VP of Operating Systems told the audience at WinHEC in Shenzen, China that Windows 10 will launch this summer in 190 countries and 111 languages. HE also said Windows 10 will be a free upgrade fro all Windows 7 users regardless of whether the user can prove their copy is legitimate or not. Kind of an amnesty program for Windows pirates tech. AND Microsoft will give select Xiaomi Mi 4 users the chance to test Windows 10 on their phones. Yes their android-based MI phones.

CNET reports on the launch of Sony’s Play Station Vue Internet TV service in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia today, starting at $50 a month after a 7 day free trial. Subscribers can watch 60 channels from CBS, NBCm Fox, Discovery, Scripps, Turner and Viacom, with AMC coming soon. $10 extra adds regional sports channels and another $10 adds 26 various other channels. The service provides 3 day on demand access to many shows programming and allows a cloud DVR to store recordings for up to 28 days. Streams can be viewed on the PS3 and PS4. Support for iPads and other devices is coming soon.

Tim Cook talked with Fast company in a wide ranging interview that touched on Steve Jobs legacy and comparisons of Apple with Microsoft. Cook said he thinks Apple is more willing than Microsoft to walk away from legacy technology that holds it back. He also unsurprisingly said the Apple Watch will be the first smartwatch that matters. Doubtless that is true. To Tim Cook.

Engadget has a story on HTC’s new “Uh Oh Protection” program that will replace your broken “One M9” smart phone once for free. HTC will replace your phone for free within the 1st year of ownership if you break the screen, damage the phone, or move carriers. If you happen to take care of the phone for the 1st year you’ll be rewarded with a $100 discount on the purchase of a new One phone in the future.

The Verge reports Google X’s Astro Teller spoke at SXSW telling the audience that Google’s research lab is opening up about their projects more often and earlier. He mentioned that the Google Glass Explorer program was an attempt to do this but it was marketed too much and too often implied it was a finished project. He also talked about how baloons for Project Loon were built to fail fast so they wouldn’t accidentally drift into illegal airspace, stories about self-driving cars avoiding ducks, and how the team was disappointed when a drone delivery prototype didn’t crash in windy conditions.

CNET reports that a German court in Frankfurt has given a preliminary ruling that could ban UberPop. This means UberPop’s carpooling service would not be allowed to run in Germany and could face a fine of 250,000 Euros ($266,000). The case against UberPop was brought to court by Taxi Deutschland which argued that UberPop is illegal because drivers do not have to have the proper licenses to drive people around. Since the ruling is preliminary UberPop can still operate until a final verdict is rendered in 3 to 4 weeks. Uber Taxi and Uber Black services in Germany are unaffected.

News From You:

lookatthemonkeys notes The Verge reports French police visited Ubers Paris office as part of an investigation into UberPop, seizing email, documents and smartphones. And to complete the hat trick, starfuryzeta noted the Gizmodo story that Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and almost 30 others have been charged in South Korea with operating illegal taxi services. Police there seized 432 itens as evidence including handsets.

ancrod2 found the Popular Science writeup of Grant Campany, director for the $10 million Qualcomm Tricorder Xprize, speaking at SXSW about how close we are to having a real working tricorder. The prize will go to companies that can develop a home device to tracks vital signs and diagnoses up to 15 health conditions. 10 finalists were recently announced.The next round comes with 480 testing sessions in June at the University of California San Diego. The winners of the competition will be announced in January 2016, on Star Trek’s 50-year anniversary.

Guyfromtrinidad sent us this story from Engadget reporting on the fate of 43 year old Nigel Wilson in England who flew his drone over 6 football stadiums as well as Westminster and the Queen Victoria Memorial. Wilson has been charged with contravening the CAA’s Air Navigation Order 2009, which among other things forbids flying a drone near an event hosting more than 1,000 people. Wilson was summoned to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on April 16th.

Discussion Section Links:  

Pick of the day: RiffTrax

My pick is something a little different, RiffTrax!

If you are unfamiliar, rifftrax.com features some of the cast of Mystery Science Theater. The group records funny commentary tracks for major films, B-Movies and shorts.

Commentaries for major films are offered as .MP3 Downloads that you’ll then need to sync up with a copy of the film yourself. But if that sounds like too much work, they also offer a great selection of smaller films that you can download pre-synced and DRM free!

Some of my personal favorites are Viva Knievel, The Guy From Harlem, Kingdom of the Spiders (Staring William Shatner!) and Cool as Ice!

Check them out!

Rob (@blamrob on twitter)

(And no, I don’t work for Rifftrax or stand anything to gain by recommending them) :)Messages

=====

Warren Owen writes us with an idea.

Nintendo has dropped quarter after quarter, year after year, for half a decade. With roughly $6B in sales, yet only $29M in profit, Nintendo has a market cap of $16.8B.

Maybe now is the time. Time for what? Well What if another company just came in and bought Nintendo. Say a company with $173B in sales, $37B in profit, and $8.5B CASH ON HAND. What would happen to the “great mobile wars” if Apple bought Nintendo, and had everyones favorite characters only available on iOS? What if you could play these games, and then “AirPlay” them to your HDTV through your AppleTV (voiceover – now featuring HBO Now). What would that look like in every home across the planet? And, keep DeNA in the mix, to continue the development of new games with our old favorite heroes.
This would seem to be the perfect move for Apple.

Sorry this was long and dramatic.
What are your thoughts?

@WOnet on all the social things

BOL REUNION!

Just announced: The Buzz Out Loud 10 Year reunion on March 29th at 12:30 pacific /3:30 p eastern and 7:30p GMT! It’s free! Tom, Molly, Veronica, Jason and many other special guests! Tickets for the event at the Hak 5 warehouse are available at http://bit.ly/BOLreunion but if you want to attend online you don’t need even need a ticket. The event will stream live on Alpha Geek Radio and on YouTube with more details forthcoming.

Buzztown’s Back!

PODCAST AWARDS

Also Podcast Awards! Remember yesterday, and the day before, when we told you how you could vote for your favorite podcast in the Podcast Awards? Well guess what, you can vote again today! For example, you could vote for DTNS in the technology category, but you can also support Night Attack in the “Mature” and “Video” categories. Also you can vote for The Instance, Film Sack and our good friends at The Morning Stream and Night Attack. I guess you could also vote for Serial. But only once. Vote once a day at http://www.podcastawards.com/ until March 24th.

Thursday’s guest: Justin Robert Young

Veronica Belmont and Justin Young are on the show to help fend off Apple rumors and talk about MLBAM’s OTHER opening day, the purported launch of HBO Now in time for the April 12 premier of Game of Thrones.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? click here

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Veronica Belmont of Sword and Laser and Justin Robert Young of Night Attack and Jury Talks

Headlines: 

Mobile World Congress? Tech reporters are most concerned with how to smuggle jamón iberico out of the country in their pants. GDC? Hungover. BUT This coming Monday is an Apple announcement. And so the rumors are flooding in to fill the gap! Here. We. Go.

Bloomberg says the never announced 12.9-inch screen iPad will be delayed until September for manufacturers. Some people call the delay of rumored products “starting.”

The WSJ adds the imaginary product will have a more power-efficient Oxide LCD screen and a USB 3.0 port. The WSJ adds the imaginary product will have a more power-efficient Oxide LCD screen and a USB 3.0 port.

WSJ ALSO says a 12-inch MacBook Air will be announced Monday.

And 9to5 Mac reports Apple will NOT announce a new live streaming music service Monday.

TechCrunch says that mythical service will debut at WWDC in June

I can confirm from asking myself that Apple will also not announce a car, a television, or a space rocket or Monday.

The Verge reports that Office 2016 for Mac is about to catch back up to Windows. The last version was released in 2010. Microsoft today announced a preview program for the new Office 2016 for Mac. Major points: Cloud services will be integrated directly into the suite of programs, Word will get co-authoring, and Excel keyboard shortcuts are now consistent between Mac and PC versions. Microsoft wants it ready in time for summer. The company has not yet announced pricing or exact availability dates, but a standalone version is expected.

The Verge reports Imgur has launched a new iPhone app that gives viewers an endless row of swipeable pictures with titles. To comment, like or dislike, or read comments just double tap the picture. When you first open the app the most “viral” images are shown to you first but there are also options for random and latest submissions as well. You can’t upload through the app yet, but that feature is in the works. A new version for Android is also coming soon.

Fit-solidation is official. TechCrunch reports Fitbit confirmed the acquisition of FitStar, makers of a personal training app that creates customized workouts with celeb athletes like NFL star Tony Gonzalez and yogi Tara Stiles. FitStar has two million registered iOS users. Fitbit co-founder and CEO James Park says the company also plans to expand FitStar to other platforms.

Look out Progressive Insurance, TechCrunch reports Google is launching “Google Compare for Auto Insurance” which lets California shoppers compare rates from different insurance providers. The option will pop up after a consumer does a Google search for “car insurance” or by going to google.com/compare. Google plans to offer it other states later in the year. While the move could help bolster revenue for Google through commissions many high profile insurance brokers like Progressive, State Farm, Allstate and GEICO have declined to work with Google. TechCrunch speculates that Google might also be doing this to learn about pricing risk in advance of self-driving cars.

Engadget reports that 2009 is back! I mean, RockBand is back! Rock Band 4 is coming to Xbox One and Playstation 4 later this year. Harmonix says all previous songs will work in Rock Band 4. The company wants to make old peripherals work but there will also be new peripherals. Also no news on Rock Band Network. This will be a platform for DLC it seems. Harmonix will talk more about Rock Band 4 this weekend at PAX East in Boston, and in June at E3 2015.

News From You: 

ccastro425 posted the Engadget story about a laser from LockHeed Martin that can stop a car from more than a mile away. The fiber-optic laser called ATHENA burned through the engine manifold of an F150. It works by “spectral beam combining which involces taking multiple laser modules and pointing them to the same place. Like the death star. And no the truck didn’t explode, just stopped running.

AB-ee-CHWAY-lah-con-DOOL-say submitted the PC World report that Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, said Microsoft is opening up app development for the Xbox One. Windows developers will be able to port their apps to the Xbox. Microsoft wants to make Xbox Live accessible through the API to all game developers no matter how big.

Michsineath submitted this topic. The Cost of eBooks in France and Luxembourg won’t be going down anytime soon reports Reuters. Judges at the European Court of Justice today, dismissed arguments by both countries that ebooks should be treated as goods not a service. EU rules allow member states to set lower VAT rates on printed books, however the European Commission decided that France and Luxembourg’s application of those rates to electronic books was illegal. Statista predicts ebook sales in Europe are expected to account for a fifth of book sales in Europe by 2017 up from 4.5% in 2013.

Discussion Section Links:  HBO NOW?

Pick of the Day: Mohiomap via Michelle

Dear Tom, Jennie, today’s guest and behind the scenes DTNS team,

I would like to recommend Mohiomap, to DTNS followers. This developing site is a visual cloud based, free, curation tool, currently combines, Google drive, Evernote and Dropbox, with more services in the pipeline to be added.

Certainly helps to visualise and manage all the resources one has stored across these various platforms. IMHO A new service worth checking out, supporting, testing and giving feedback too.

https://www.moh.io/mohiomap/welcome.php

Thanks for the great show.

BFN
OOROO
Michelle not from lovely Cleveland

Messages: PODCAST AWARDS

Also Podcast Awards! Remember yesterday, and the day before, when we told you how you could vote for your favorite podcast in the Podcast Awards? Well guess what, you can vote again today! For example, you could vote for DTNS in the technology category, but you can also support Night Attack in the “Mature” and “Video” categories. Also you can vote for The Instance, Film Sack and our good friends at The Morning Stream and Night Attack. I guess you could also vote for Serial. But only once. Vote once a day at http://www.podcastawards.com/ until March 24th.

Friday’s guest: Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta