Search Results for "september 10"

Justin Robert Young, Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta fill in for Tom on vacation and talk about Apple Security.

MP3

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

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guest hosts: Justin Robert Young, Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta!

Buy Len’s great artprov “The Jawcracker” as drawn live on DTNS!  http://lenperaltastore.com/products/jawcracker-print

Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke to the Wall Street Journal today, promising additional steps to keep hackers out of user accounts, but said that none of the Apple ID’s and passwords obtained in the recent celebrity iCloud leaks were taken from the company’s servers. Cook said hackers obtained the nude photos of more than 100 women by either correctly guessing security questions to obtain passwords, or by obtaining the data from a phishing scam. Apple will launch new security measures in two weeks, alerting users via email and push notifications when someone tries to change an account password, restore iCloud data to a new device, or when a device logs into an account for the first time. Apple will also begin encouragin users to turn on two-factor authentication, and overall pay more attention to account security. We talk about this and more in a few with Darren.

Gigaom has the roundup of Thursday’s Motorola event in Chicago, where the company unveiled updated versions of its Moto X and Moto G smartphones and revealed its new Android Wear smartwatch, the Moto 360. As expected, the round smart watch was the star of the party. The Moto 360 pairs with any smartphone running Google Android 4.3 or above using Bluetooth and features wireless charging. Motorola says the wireless radio is powerful enough to allow a user to leave their paired phone several rooms away and still access apps on the watch. The 360 has a heart-rate monitor and pedometer and responds to touchscreen and Google Now voice commands. The watch weighs 1.72 ounces, features interchangeable bands, and costs $250 dollars. Oh also? it’s all sold out. But I’m pretty sure they’ll make some more.

We should probably tell you about those phones, too. The Moto X’s AMOLED screen grew from 4.7 inches to 5.2 inches, featuring full HD resolution. Motorola has contracted with a Chicago tannery called Horween (yeah, you heard me now let’s all say it together WHORE-WEEN) to custom-design leather back plates. The X will cost $100 WITH a contract from US carriers or $500 for the unlocked unsubsidized version. The Moto G, also got an ungrade to speaker, processor, camera and screen and will only be sold as an unsubsidized, unlocked phone for $180.

And one more Moto nugget to jab in your ear. The Verge reports that the company also unveiled a wireless earbud called The Hint, which is about the size of a peanut, and is intented to sit in your ear all day long. The hint has 3.3 hours of talk time, costs $149.99 dollars and will be available in the fall.

Reuters reports that an unknown hacker or hacker group broke into a test server supporting the US healthcare.gov site and uploaded malicious files. The first intrusion occurred on July 8th, when malware designed to launch a DDOS attack was uploaded. Healthcare officials told Congress no personal data was stolen.

Hoping to find DOTA 2 sharing the same schedule as Monday Night Football and SportsCenter? Don’t hold your breath. At Code/Media Series: New York, ESPN President John Skipper offered his opinion on eSports. “It’s not a sport — it’s a competition. Chess is a competition. Checkers is a competition, mostly I am interested in doing real sports.” In November of last year, Riot games claimed it had 8.2 Million concurrent TWITCH viewers for it’s League of Legends championship. Not to compare chip stacks, but ESPN reported a record 1.23 million total viewers for it’s live broadcast of the 2013 World Series of Poker final table.

Reuters reports that lawmakers in New Orleans have voted to allow online for-hire car companies like Uber to operate in the city. Under the new ordinance, Uber will be allowed to provide its Uber Black service, which enables passengers to connect with drivers of luxury cars via a smartphone app. The council did not vote on whether to authorize popular and less expensive ridesharing services like UberX and Lyft, which have been the focal point of legal challenges from taxi cab firms and regulators around the globe.

It’s that magic time, when all coffee is pumpkin coffee and the Full Corn Moon hangs heavy in the sky. It’s the silliest of seasons for Apple rumors in advance of their official announcement next week. So here are a few of the best. Brian X. Chen of the New York Times reports the new larger iPhones will have a one-handed mode that can be toggled on or off to make their large screens easier to use and furthermore, the rumored iWatch will be ANNOUNCED Tuesday but not available until 2015. What? You like your rumors more specious? How about this from SlashFilm editor Peter Sciretta who passed along a nugget on Twitter saying U2 ALLEGEDLY shot a commercial for an unnamed new Apple product in Ireland with legendary video director Mark Romanek. Or we can be boring and tell you the official announcement will be streamed to Safari Browsers and AppleTV’s at 1 pm ET / 10 am PT this Thursday September 9th LIVE from the Flint Center for the Performing Arts where near 30 years ago, Steve Jobs announced the original Macintosh.

News From You: 

metalfreak passes along a PC World report on a Chinese man who is suing one of the country’s state telecommunication firms for disrupting access to Google after the government started blocking the company’s services in May. Wang Long, a legal practitioner, sued China Unicom, demanding that the company provide an explanation, and refund his Internet broadband and mobile charges from the past five months. One Chinese state-run publication said this is the first time a local resident has sued a company for failing to provide access to Google.

PTrevethan shares a TechCrunch report about a new Google indoor mapping backpack, which is not at all ominously named The Cartographer. The backpack uses a process called “simultaneous localization and mapping” (SLAM), which allows the user automatically generated a floor plan in real time, while using a tablet to map ‘points of interest’.

And ancrod2 has a Gizmodo report about the latest in wearable technology. Hint: It’s not a watch. Researchers at Hong Kong Polytechnic have created Fabric Circuit Boards--that’s fabric woven out of a mixture of copper and elastic threads using computerized knitting technologies. The stretchy fabric is bulletproof which has great potential for people who get shot; it can also carry a current and communicate, which means that someday your shirt can tell you that its dirty, and your yoga pants can inform you that they are, indeed, see-through.

Plug of the Day:  The Sword and Laser Anthology collects 20 amazing stories from new writers in the Sword and Laser book club audience. 10 SciFi and 10 fantasy stories with an introduction by Patrick Rothfuss. Get a copy at swordandlaser.com/store

 

Pick of the Day:  “What If” by Randall Munroe via Preston

Preston in only OK Silly-con Valley has our pick of the day: “I just wanted to throw in a pick of the day for Randall Munroe’s new book “What if?“. Although I haven’t read it yet I have read all his entries at his site what-if.xkcd.com and really enjoyed them all. Randall tackles absurd hypothetical questions such as “What if there was a robot apocalypse? How long would humanity last?” and “Has humanity produced enough paint to cover the entire land area of the Earth?” using science, logic and humor. Ever wonder if you could lift yourself in the air with guns Yosemite Sam style? The answer is in here. (The answer is yes, but don’t try it at home.)

Monday’s guest hosts: Scott Johnson, Brian Ibbott and Justin Robert Young!

 

 

Dan Patterson is on the show and we’ll talk about super fast subs, banning after work email, and Timothy B. Lee will join in to talk about this whole Uber-Lyft fight.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Dan Patterson, technology journalist

Headlines

ReCode reports Apple plans to unveil a wearable device along with two iPhone at a yet-to-be-officially-announced September 9th event. The wearable will supposedly make us of HomeKit and HealthKit as one might expect. A rumored October event was rumored to announce a wearable but is still rumored to still be on.

Dropbox increased my storage to 1 TB today. As CNET reports Dropbox Pro users now have one tier that doublse the previous top tier of 500 GB and it costs $10 a month the previous price of the lowest tier of 100 GB. Dropbox also is rolling out the ability to password-protect shared links, share in edit or view only mode as well as add expiration dates. Finally users can remotely wipe folders on lost or stolen devices.

The Verge reports that Microsoft will begin selling the Kinect sensor as a standalone product on October 7th. The Kinect will sell for $149 dollars and come with a copy of Dance Central Spotlight. Back in May, Microsoft began selling the Xbox One without the Kinect for a reduced price of $399. Kinect for Windows is still expected later this year.

The Next Web reports Google will launch its first campus in Asia with a startup-focused location in Seoul. Google’s startup program currently has locations in London and Tel Aviv as well. Google hopes to launch the campus sometime next year.

The Next Web reports Twitter has opened up its Tweet activity dashboard to English, French, Japanese and Spanish users who have had an account for at least 14 days. Everybody else should get it soon. This is the dashboard previously only available to advertisers. Head to analytics.twitter.com if you have a few hours to get lost stats nerds.

Gigaom reports that Germany’s Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is exploring the idea of passing a law to ban after hours work and email calls. German firms such as BMW, Volkswagen and Deutsche Telecom have banned after-hours work communication on their own already. The labor minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, called for such a law earlier this month to combat burnout.  

News From You

KAPT_Kipper submitted the GeekWire story on Google’s domain registration service which is currently invite only. Google offers free WHOIS privacy protection, and up to 100 free email forwarding addresses for $12. Domains can be configured as usual though there is built-in integration with Wix, Shopify and Squarespace. The downside is Google doesn’t support all domain names, like dot-TV, yet. 

davidpolanco pointed out that Seagate is now shipping an 8 TB 3.5-inch hard drive with a SATA 6 gigabit-per-second interface. Select customers are getting the drives now with wider availability next quarter. 

KAPT_Kipper passes along the Consumerist report that Hewlett-Packard is recalling nearly six million power cords because they can overheat, creating a fire and burn hazard. HP received 29 reports of melting cords, including two that included claims of minor burns. The LS-15 AC cords were distributed with HP and Compaq notebook and mini-notebook computers and with accessories such as docking stations. The cords were sold in the US and Canada from September 2010 to June 2012 at electronics stores and hp.com We’ll have a link to the instructions on what to do in the show notes, but instruction number one is unplug that cord!

MacBytes sent in the Engadget story that researchers at Harbin Institute of Technology’s Complex Flow and Heat Lab have developed a way that could allow submarines to travel from Shanghai to San Francisco, 9,873 km, in as few as 100 minutes. Using a sort of a airbubble that takes advantage of supercavitation and reduces drag, vehicles COULD reach the speed of sound underwater about 5800 km/h. They just need to crack launching, steering and powering it and BOOM Superfast Submarines.

Discussion Links: 

http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/26/6067663/this-is-ubers-playbook-for-sabotaging-lyft

https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/504379051050414081

http://gigaom.com/2014/08/26/those-canceled-lyft-rides-were-all-part-of-ubers-elaborate-master-plan-to-recruit-drivers/?

http://www.businessinsider.com/kalanick-defends-ubers-tactics-2014-8

http://www.vox.com/2014/8/27/6074919/the-uber-recruitment-scandal-isnt-scandalous

http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/11/technology/uber-fake-ride-requests-lyft/

http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/12/uber-lyft-slap-fight/

Plug of the Day:  Like tech history? I’ve teamed up with Scott Johnson to put out monthly looks at what happened in history this month. For 99 cents you get what happened on each day of the month that helped make the tech we sue today, plus illustrations from Scott Johnson. Check them out for 99 cents each at tommerrittbooks.com or just search Amazon.

Pick of the Day: Slice.com via Scott Odle

After hearing a while back about Luke Pohr’s pick Package Buddy I wanted to add my pick for tracking purchases, SLICE.COM. Slice builds on Package Buddy by automating tracking and putting all your purchase and tracking info in one app. It scrapes your email to give you a purchase history and can give you notifications for items shipping, out for delivery, and delivered. Slice also helps you track all your online purchasing habits. Once I signed up it gave me my entire online purchasing history since I first began ordering online, 8 years worth!

Thursday is a headlines only show, as Tom gets on his dragon and flies to the Con!

Peter Wells is on the show and we’ll talk about Soundcloud’s new advertising-supported rev share plan for artists. Is Soundcloud becoming TOO YouTube-like?

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Peter Wells, of Reckoner, Australia

Headlines

The Verge has been chatting with sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans who say September 30th is tentatively when a press announcement of the next version of Windows is scheduled. The OS, codenamed Threshold is expected to come out as a technical preview sometime in September or October. What is guessed by many to end up being called Windows 9, will have a new mini start menu, get rid of the charms bar, and have a few other UI tweaks. We might even get a version of the Cortana virtual assistant. It’s possible we’ll get detail son the unification of Windows RT and Windows Phone as well. 

Reuters, citing subscription tech news site The Information, reports that EBay told potential candidates for the job of Paypal CEO about a possible spinoff of Paypal. Whether that would mean part or all of Paypal would be spun off, we don’t know. Ebay recently resisted demands by activist shareholder Carl Icahn to separate PayPal from its parent company.

Engadget reports Comcast will officially launch its TV service over the Internet on several college campuses this year, including Bridgewater College, Drexel University, Emerson College, Lasell College and the University of Delaware. The service comes included with room and board and can only be used on campus, although among the 80 channels are ESPN and HBO which can be accessed off campus through the WatchESPN and HBO Go apps. Comcast hopes to add other universities soon. A company called Philo provides similar service to Harvard, Stanford and Yale. 

GigaOm reports the class action lawsuit put forth by Max Schrems Europe v Facebook campaign is going forward in Austria. The Vienna Regional Court gave Facebook Ireland four weeks to respond to the claimants’ accusations of widespread breaches of data protection law.

According to CNET, Google Chrome is now available for Cubans to download at google.co.cu. Google executives reportedly visited Cuba in June to push for greater Internet access. US sanctions make it difficult for US businesses to do anything in Cuba and Google hinted as much in their G+ post about the launch but hope to figure out how to make more tools available in sanctioned countries. This will surely be highly anticipated by the five percent of Cubans that US NGO Freedom House estimates have regular access to the Internet in Cuba.

The New York Times reports Soundcloud will begin to incorporate advertising in its audio streaming service, starting with Red Bull, Jaguar and Comedy Central. The revenue will mostly go to artists and labels. A new program called On Soundcloud Premier will let select organizations and indie artists join a revenue sharing plan. Big publishers like BMG all the way own to indies like rapper GoldLink are part of the first group in the Premier program. Soundcloud said they also plan to provide a subscription service that would allow listeners to pay to make the ads go away.

The Next Web reports iBeacon-based company Estimote is promoting something they call “nearables” as opposed to wearables. Estimote stickers have integrated accelerometer and temperature sensors and can work with more than just iBeacon. A developer kit is being unveiled today with 10 Estimote Stickers for $99. 

News From You

tm204 submitted the MIT News post about a paper describing how to take discarded car batteries and recycles materials from them into longer-lasting solar panels. The panels use a compound called perovskite which requires lead. Rather than produce the lead from raw ore, the researchers can take the lead from one car battery and make enough solar panels to power 30 households. The paper will appear in in Energy and Environemental Science by professors Angela M. Belcher and Paula T. Hammond, graduate student Po-Yen Chen, and three others.

bmbuffalo posted the imgur gallery showing how a fully fucntional 1 Kilobyte hard drive was made by a user called smelly string in Minecraft. A second, larger unit created by The0JJ can store 4KB of data. The devices use Redstone to power pistons that represent binary values by pushing a solid or clear block in front of the redstone signal. Solid blocks are used as ones and clear blocks as zeroes.

funkaround sends along a Wired.com article with the depressing news that Apple’s iMesssage is being taken over by spammers, specifically those hawking fake luxury goods. According to one security analyst, iMessage is a “spammers dream” because it spans the entire Apple ecosystem and Apple scripts can churn out masses of messages. You can report spam to Apple in a tedious process involving taking screenshots or just turn off iMessage until Apple gets the hint.

tekkyn00b pointed out the Android Central article that T-Mobile is heating up the US mobile wars offering a free year of unlimited LTE service if a customer can get someone to switch from Sprint, Verizon or AT&T to T-Mobile. That means the referrer and the new customer both get the free year. Sprint for its part has offered an unlimited talk, text and data plan for $60 a month. 

Discussion Links: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/business/media/popular-and-free-soundcloud-is-now-ready-for-ads.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/business/media/popular-and-free-soundcloud-is-now-ready-for-ads.html

http://blog.soundcloud.com/2014/08/21/introducing-on-soundcloud/

http://thisisadynasty.tumblr.com/post/87945465547/brb-deleting-soundcloud

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/08/21/soundcloud-introduces-ads-first-time-brings-revenue-sharing-creators/

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/21/soundcloud-ads-musicians-major-labels

Plug of the Day:

Like tech history? I’ve teamed up with Scott Johnson to put out monthly looks at what happened in history this month. For 99 cents you get what happened on each day of the month that helped make the tech we sue today, plus illustrations from Scott Johnson. The latest book covering things that happened in September, JUST hit the store today! Check it out for 99 cents each at tommerrittbooks.com or just search Amazon.

Pick of the Day: You Need A Budget via Mike Reed

I would like to suggestion YNAB (You Need a Budget) as a pick. This is a great piece of software, and set of basic rules to assist you in managing your finances. Their software is not cheap at $60, but it is very much worth it. There is a Windows and Mac version for the desktop, and iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire for mobile. The killer feature is Dropbox synchronization. I can be at the grocery store, make my purchase and as I walk out of the store, input the transaction into my mobile device. It immediately updates through Dropbox to any other client, and shows me what the budget for that category was, and what it is now. The company is extremely supportive with numerous live classes to learn the process and software, and a great and helpful online community. I recommend this software to people who need help, and people who don’t. It is a great way to stay on top of your finances, and set great goals for the future.

Friday’s Guest: Darren Kitchen of hak5.org and Len Peralta of all the arts!

Alex Hanna joins the show to talk about the leaked Moto 360 watch, Twitter messing with your stream, and updates tot he Xbox One that make it easy for Microsoft to take your money.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Alex Hanna, web developer and host of Diamond Dialogue

Headlines:

MacRumors spotted some pictures on Chinese website Dianxinshouji.com of a purported Apple lightning cable with a reversible USB end. The USB 3.1 Type C cables will come with reversible USB on both ends. But these alleged Apple cables fit into a current Type A USB port by making the connector thinner. Ars Technica reports a company called Tripp Light offers reversible USB Type-A cables.

Mashable reports that a Best Buy spokesperson confirmed that a page for the Moto 360 was accidentally published on the store’s website over the weekend. The page listed the device for $250 with a 1.5-inch round backlit LCD face and voice-activation. It would run Android Wear and be water resistant as well as available in silver or gray. The Moto 360 is expected to be announced at Motorola’s September 4th press event in Chicago.

ReCode reports Twitter started experimenting with surfacing posts favorited by people you follow, making favorite work like retweet. The favorite is used by a lot of people to bookmark something or sometimes to silently compliment or even be sarcastic about a post. Making it work like retweet seems like it would be redundant to make it work like retweet.

TechCrunch reports US hospital operator Community Health Systems announced that attackers have stolen about 4.5 million records with patient names, addresses, birth data, phone numbers and SSNs. The data seems to have been stolen between April and June of this year. Community Health Systems will offer identity theft protection to all the patients whose data was stolen.

GigaOm reports that Softbank announced Monday it will be the exclusive carrier for a new smartphone from Sharp, called the Aquos Crystal. The phone will come in two screen sizes, 5-inch 720p and 5.5-inch 1080p both with a Snapdragon 400 CPU and 1.5 GB of RAM. Both phones have almost no bezel meaning the front is almost all screen. The 5.5-inch Aquos Crystal X will arrive in December with the 5-inch version coming to Japan August 29th. The Acquos Crystal is expected to be available later in the US on Softbank-owned Sprint.

GigaOm reports Uber is no longer banned in Berlin as the company has lodged an appeal. The prohibition of Uber is suspended until the case is resolved. Uber did not stop operations after the ban was issued last week.

Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen has a new game called Swing Copters. The Verge says the game will be free to play with a small ad or dollar to play ad free.You essentially tap to lift a character with a propeller hat up and avoid swinging hammers. Touch Arcade says the game should be available in the iOS app store on Thursday. 

Everybody who’s been yelling that Nintendo should make games for mobile can shut up now. Bloomberg affiliate the Pokemon Co. announced a trading card game for the iPad. There is already a Pokemon trading card game for the desktop. The iPad game will come to the US and Europe though a release date was not announced.

Engadget has a great story about a violinist named Roger Frisch who started experiencing tremors, but only while he was playing. Doctors determined that he needed a brain pacemaker, but in order to know exactly where to implant the device, they needed a little musical assistance. The patient stayed awake during the surgery and played violin with a special bow, equipped with a motion-tracking device– when Frisch played steadily the surgeons knew their equipment was in the right place. The operation was a success, a link to the video will be in the show notes, or you can just wait for Season 11 of Grey’s Anatomy. 

News From You:

jaymz668 submitted a How-t-Geek article about how shocked, shocked they are to find fake versions of programs in the Windows Store. The smokingest of the guns they found were several links to fake VLC media players that charged you money and then just linked you to the real VLC app. They found loads of other examples, some that don’t even have Windows Store versions like iTunes. Microsoft certifies Windows store apps for content compliance before making them available and has offered promotions where they paid developers $100 for every app accepted in the store. Howtogeek did not claim any of the apps had malware.

tm204 wants to know: Are you feeling a bit confused? Do you lay awake at night, wondering whether all those terrible new stories in your feed are legitimately outrageous or just outrageously funny? Well, you may be suffering from Satire Awareness Deficiency. Or as it’s know around here, SAD. According to Mashable, Facebook is testing out a new tag to help SAD users distinguish fact from funny. How will it work? The tag will put the word SATIRE in front of SATIRICAL ARTICLES from publications such as The Onion. But how you ask, will the algorithm determine which articles from The Onion are satiric, and which are legitimate reviews of your new TV show? Don’t worry, if there’s anyone I trust to know comedy, it’s an algorithm. 

Metalfreak pointed out the LinuxGizmos post about a non-profit spinoff from the UNiversity of Cambridge called lowRISC is developing an open-source 64-bit SoC that hopes to enable fully open hardware from the CPU to the development board. The SoC is based on the new 64-bit RISC-V Instruction Set Architecture out of UC-Berkely. RISC-V comapres favorably to the 32-bit ARM Cortex-A5. You can find out more at http://www.lowrisc.org/

Discussion Links: 

http://www.cnet.com/news/xbox-one-august-update-lets-you-buy-and-download-games-remotely/#ftag=CAD590a51e

http://www.cnet.com/news/major-xbox-one-update-rolls-out-to-preview-members/

http://majornelson.com/2014/08/17/next-xbox-one-update-begins-rolling-today/

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/smartglass

http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2014/08/18/xbox-one-august-update-starts-rolling-today-bringing-new-activity-feed-mobile-purchases/

Plug of the day: Daily Tech News Show Shirt  with Mustafa from thepolarcat.com’s logo now available in white, black and Ash. Look in the podcasts section.

Pick of the Day: 

 

Tuesday’s Guest: Molly Wood!

Adam Curry joins us to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Daily Source Code show and podcasting as we know it.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes
Today’s guest: The Podfather, Adam Curry of the No Agenda podcast and curry.com

Headlines

James Bamford, author of the Puzzle Palace and Shadow Factory published an account on Wired of his 3 days spent interviewing Edward Snowden in Moscow. Among the many revelations, Snowden cites two main discoveries that caused him to do what he did. On was the data center built in Blufdale, Utah to store intercepted data. For the other, he describes a tool called MonsterMind that would monitor all digital communications and ‘auto fire’ without human supervision if it detected an attack. Snowden also claims he was told the US caused the Internet outage in Syria in 2012 when covert software installation on an ISP went wrong. He also expresses disapproval of cyberattacks on China which he says target civilian institutions like universities and hospitals. 

Samsung announced the Galaxy Alpha, a 4.7-inch Android phone with a metal ring around it that causes many reporters to write the word ‘iPhone.’. The screen is 720p, runs on Samsung’s octa-core Exynos with 2 GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The Alpha will come in five colors and be available at the beginning of September. No word yet on price.

The Next Web reports WeChat now has 438 million active users, up from 396 million last quarter and hot on the tail of Facebook’s WhatsApp with its 500 million users. The gains come in spite of the fact that 20 million Chinese WeChat accounts were closed last quarter due to a new law that requires public account owners in China to register real identities and receive permission to disseminate news. 

You may have heard that the Internet broke recently because of the 512K limit. The problem is that global routing tables, which must be stored on every border router, have grown to the maximum number of routes supported on some older hardware platforms. That number os 524,288 or 2^19. Jim Cowie at Renesys writes that the situation is more of an annoyance than a threat. All of the routers that operate core infrastructure have plenty of room and are unaffected. Affected routers may cause local connectivity problems but those can be quickly identified and hardware upgraded. Thx to CdrMarks.

News From You

spsheridan submitted the story of a murder suspect who allegedly asked Siri where to bury a body. Ars Technica reports Gainesville, Florida detective Matt Goeckel presented evidence in court Tuesday showing the suspect telling Siri, “I need to hide my roommate.” The Gainesvilel PD has clarified that the queries in the screenshot were not necessarily connected to the alleged murder.

KAPT_Kipper submitted an Engadget report that Amazon is stepping into the ring ‘em up fight with Square, unveiling Local Register, a credit-card reader and app for small businesses. The online retailer is offering a flat charge of 1.75 percent per payment until January 2016, compared to the 2.75 percent charged by Square and the 2.7 percent charged by Paypal. (The fee rises to 2.5 percent on Jan 2, 2016). The card reader costs $10 and is available for Android, iOS, and Fire devices, and a bundle that includes a Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 for $380.

Turns out Amazon v Square was just the undercard. KAPT_Kipper, our designated grudge match correspondent, also submits a Tech Crunch report thathttp://techcrunch.com/2014/08/12/uber-lyft-slap-fight/, compared to the 5,000 cancellations that Lyft alleges were generated by Uber. TechCrunch reached out to Uber to see how the company is getting that 13,000 number, but until then perhaps the two mobile-car hailing companies can settle this the old-fashioned way, with a drag race down main street at midnight. 

Discussion Links:
http://radio-weblogs.com/0001014/categories/dailySourceCode/2004/08/13.html

http://blog.curry.com/2014/01/15/theDailySourceCodeArchiveProject.html

http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/08/10-years-of-podcasting-code-comedy-and-patent-lawsuits/

http://radio-weblogs.com/0001014/2003/10/12.html#a4604

Plug of the day:  Alpha Geek Radio: mobile.alphageekradio.com

Pick of the Day:  Satechi Universal Smartphone Slot Mount via Artem Russakovskii

Hey Tom, I just listened to the episode where you mentioned the need to get a phone mount for your car. Just like you, I was into the concept of dash mounts for years, but none really worked the way I wanted them to, and I’ve tried many. Someone recommended a CD slot mounted… well, mount. And I have to tell you – it has fulfilled all my desires, for under $20. Nobody uses CDs anymore, so why not put the CD slot to good use instead? It’s located in a much more convenient place that’s both closer to you and doesn’t obstruct the view. It’s sturdy and doesn’t move unless you want it to (it does swivel every which way). The mount easily expands to fit a large phablet (my Note 3 and OnePlus One had no issues at all).
The mount is made by Satechi, a company with great history and track record: Just like it already did for many people, it will change your life. It changed mine, and everyone I’ve recommended it to loved it so far.

Check out The Novelization Realization, a podcast by Rich in Lovely Cleveland

http://novelizationrealization.tumblr.com/

Thursday’s guest: Breki Tomasson

Ken Denmead is on the show. We’ll chat about how MIT researchers can reconstruct audio from a bag of potato chips behind soundproof glass. Also a little on the overreaction to NASA and the propellant-free microwave drive.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes
Today’s guests:  Ken Denmead, Grand Nagus at GeekDad.com

Headlines

Not a good 24 hours for Samsung. First Canalys announces its data showed Xiaomi shipped just less tan 15 million smartphone units in China in Q2, taking the top spot away from Samsung which shipped 13.2 million in the country. That was barely enough to stay in front of Lenovo. Then Counterpoint Research claims Micromax has passed Samsung in India to take the top spot in mobile phone market share with 16.6% for Micromax to Samsung’s 14%. The good news for Samsung? They still hold the SMARTphone crown in India with 25.3% to Micromax’s 19.1%.

None of the following is actually official. Techcrunch, citing a Re/Code report, says Apple has scheduled a ‘big media event’ for Tuesday September 9th, at which Apple is likely to unveil its next generation iPhone. Here’s what the rumor roundup has rustled so far: Phones with 4.7 inch screens, and possibly also another device with a 5.5 inch display. The new iPhone *may* use the new A8 processors, *could* be all metal, *might* have temperature and humidity sensors, and could *possibly* support for near-field communications. Bloomberg And Wall Street Journal are also reporting the September 9th date.

Reuters reports Blackberry has sent a memo to its employees saying restructuring is done and the company is back on track to be cash flow positive by the end of the year. In other words, if you’re still working here, your job is safe for now. BlackBerry has cut its workforce by 60% over the last three years. 

GigaOm reports Justin.TV has shut down after seven years.  Existing members have until September 5 to transfer their accounts to Twitch. Archived video is not available. Justin had shut its archives down June 15. The company now solely exists as Twitch which had 50 million unique viewers in July and is rumoured to have agreed to sell to Google.

According to Tom’s Guide, a new device called Navdy can sit on your dashboard and project maps, images and text on to a 5 inch flip-up glass screen. The projected image is transparent and appears to float six feet ahead of the driver, and I quote “so it doesn’t distract.” The device can pair with your smartphone to make calls and stream music, and plugs into a car’s OBD II port for power. Navdy will ship in early 2015 for pre-order price of $299, with future Navdy’s selling for $499. In their video, LonelySandwhich assured me its safe because pilots use a similar thing. Thanks Adam. The Daily Tech News Show is now accepting suggestions on how this could possibly be safe. 

ReCode reports Microsoft confirmed Tuesday it has hired former Qualcomm executive Peggy Johnson to head up business development. Johnson will start Sept. 1 as executive VP of global business development, reporting to CEO Satya Nadella. Johnson was most recently heading global marketing and Qualcomm Labs.

Ars Technica reports that 17-year-old Joshua Rogers of Melbourne has discovered another way to spoof a browser cookie to bypass PayPal’s two factor authentication. The procedure involves using the process that links eBay to Paypal accounts. An attacker would still need to know the victim’s userid and password. Rogers, a whitehat hacker, says he reported the vulnerability to PayPal June 5 but received no response. 

News From You:

tm204 submitted the MIT News post that researchers from MIT, Microsoft and Adobe will present findings at SIGGRAPH on how to reconstruct audio from video of certain objects. One experiment recorded video of a potato chip bag from 15 feet away behind soundproof glass. An algorithm interprets minute vibrations on the bag to reconstruct the audio. While most of the experiments required high quality video of up to 6,000 fps to detect the vibrations, the researchers also figured out how to exploit sensors in 60fps consumer camera, to detect lower quality but still usable audio. None of the experiments could interpret the audio in real time. One capture took two hours to process. 

Hurmoth posted the Ars Technica article that Aereo is still fighting. We know Aereo argues they should be allowed to pay the compulsory license to continue operating. Another argument asks permission to continue to provide recorded video since in oral arguments the Supreme court indicated that did not violate Plaintiffs’ public performance rights. While US District Judge Alison Nathan rejected Aereo’s emergency motion on these arguments, she ordered both sides to file papers in support of their positions over the next five weeks.

SpydrChick pointed out the Dvice story that the IEEE has released a new official standard for 802.22 that can cover 12,000 square miles. The standard is designed to take advantage of spectrum from 54MHz to 698MHz opened up by the shutdown of analog TV. In theory the standard will supposedly be able to broadcast data at up to 22 Mbps 62 miles from a single base station over WRANs (wireless regional area networks).

MacBytes passes along an Engadget reports that the DAWN OF THE ROBOTIC EXOSKELETON IS UPON US! Sort of. South Korean carmaker Daewoo has been testing a robotic suit that allows shipyard workers carry objects as heavy as 66 pounds with ease by putting all the load on the machine at least for three hours the battery lasts. Daewoo hope that the exoskeleton will eventually hold up to 220lbs, just as soon as they figure out how to cope with slippery floors and twisting movements. So no moonwalking in the exoskeleton, people.

Pick of the Day: Pluto.tv via Chris

Hey Tom and Jennie, love the show. Just discovered pluto.tv – a cool app to watch video online. Over a hundred curated channels in a nicely organized channel guide for that “lean back” experience. Now with chromecast support on Android, this is a nice pick for folks just looking for a variety of queued specialty content online. I can’t speak for the rights clearances or how these channels are legally vetted but I thought it was worth sharing… maybe something of interest for the cordkillers podcast as well.

Plug of the Day:  The Sword and Laser Anthology collects 20 amazing stories from new writers in the Sword and Laser book club audience. 10 SciFi and 10 fantasy stories with an introduction by Patrick Rothfuss. Get a copy at swordandlaser.com/store      

Wednesday’s guest: Jessica Naziri

Lamarr Wilson is back to help us understand how SnapChat is worth $10 billion.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes
Today’s guest:  Lamarr Wilson of all the funny.  And also Mashable.

Headlines

ReCode reports Google changed Hangouts for businesses and Chromebox for Meetings today. Users of Google Apps for Business will now get access to Hangouts without needing a G+ ID. Hangouts will allow up to 15 participants, and will interoperate with video conferencing from Blue Jeans and IntercCall. Starting in September, Dell will sell a version of Chromebox for Meetings with the ability to connect it to more than one display at a time and new management capabilities for administrators.

According to the BBC, Nintendo reported a larger first quarter loss than expected, with a 9.9 billion yen loss (97 million USD), compared with an 8.6 billion loss (about 86 million USD) deficit a year earlier. Nintendo did sell 2.82 million copies of Mario Kart 8 during the quarter, but overall sales fell 8%. Nintendo said it expected new releases in the coming months to boost demand before the holiday shopping season. Hyrule Warriors to the rescue? 

Bloomberg reports China’s Alibaba is part of talks to provide another round of investment in SnapChat. The financing would value SnapChat at $10 billion. Alibaba rival TenCent is already a small and quiet investor in SnapChat.

The Next Web reports Microsoft announced its first update to Windows Phone 8.1 will release Cortana to roam across the world. The voice-activated assistant will be launched as a beta in the UK and in China under the name Xiao Na. Alpha versions of Cortant will arrive in Canada, India, and Australia. All the versions will be localized with spellings and pronunciation. The US version will get new features like snooze times for reminders, impersonations, and a hands-free mode. Folders are also coming to the home screen and VPN supports WiFi hotspots. Preview for Developers will get the update next week and the rest of us mere mortals will see it in the coming months.

Apple Insider reports Russia’s Ministry of Communications and Mass Media asked Apple and SAP to provide source code for inspection. The government wants to make sure the code doesn’t hide any nefarious spy programs. Microsoft agreed to a similar proposal in 2010.

Security Week reports The Tor Project disclosed details of an attack that attempted to deanonymize users. The attack was detected on July 4 while Tor was trying to identify attacks leveraging a method discovered by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s CERT. Tor project leader Roger Dingledine believes the attack may have been conducted by the researchers as a test, but is frustrated beciuse Tor can’t get access to the research. A talk on the topic was planned for Black Hat but then was canceled at the request of the University. Dingledie advised that users who operated or accessed hidden services between February and July 4 should assume they have been affected.

GigaOm reports the UK will permit driverless cars on British roads for testing starting in January 2015. The trials will last between 18 months and 3 years. Tests are already taken place on public roads in Japan and parts of the US. Trials on Swedish roads begin in 2017. 

Wondering why EA Access only came to the Xbox One? Ars Technica reports that a Sony representative told Game Informer that it essenitally just wasn’t worth it. The unnamed Sony rep touted the 200% growth of PlayStation Plus memberships since the launch of PlayStation 4 saying, “We don’t think asking our fans to pay an additional $5 a month for this EA-specific program represents good value.” So, basically, take your early access to Madden 15 and shove it.  

GigaOm reports FreedomPop will begin selling first-gen iPad Minis and Samsung Tab 3s which will come with the service’s standard free 500 Megabytes a month as well as 500 SMS and 200 voice minutes. Yees you heard that right. You can make calls through FreedomPop’s voice app on your Tablet. You can bring your own tablet on too, as long as it’s compatible with the Sprint LTE network that FreedomPop uses. The iPad mini will sell for $319 and the Tab 3 for $199.

News From You

melchizedek74 posted the Ars Technica article that a survey by the US Government Accounting Office came to the shocking conclusion that people don’t like data caps on home Internet service. They also found that home Internet service providers admit that data caps aren’t really needed to prevent congestion. Instead data caps are needed in order to charge people more for Internet. 

spsheridan submitted the Wired article the peers of the realm in the House of Lords have, after weighty consideration, determined that the so-styled “right to be forgotten” as described by the European Commission is simply “wrong.” The EU sub-committeee of the Lords consulted with the Information Commissioner’s Office, Minister for Justice and Civil Liberties Simon Hughes and Google, before arriving at their inescapable conclusion. Chairman of the Sub-Committee Baroness Prashar said the reality was “crystal clear” — “neither the 1995 Directive, nor the Court of Justice of the European Unions’s (CJEU) interpretation of it, reflects the incredible advancement in technology that we see today, over 20 years since the Directive was drafted”.

And finally, sdc111 passed along the BoingBoing post of an NPR report that astronomers at two different radio telescopes on opposite ends of the earth have now picked up fast “burst” radio signals that seem to originate outside our galaxy. Now before you submit your bid to build the wormhole surfing machine based on the schematics that are surely embedded deep within the signal, responsible scientists would like to remind you that these radio bursts could caused by blitzars, pulses of energy from a supermassive star collapsing into a black hole. Or by powerful solar flares from closer stars. Or by something an equally wondrous and yet unknown natural phenomenon. OR ALIENS SCIENTISTS!

Discussion Section:

http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/30/snapchat-in-talks-with-alibaba-joins-the-10-billion-valuation-club/?ncid=rss

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-30/snapchat-said-in-funding-talks-with-alibaba-at-10-billion-value.html

http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/20/tencent-snapchat/

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+does+snapchat+make+money%27&oq=how+does+snapchat+make+money%27&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64.4093j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=119&ie=UTF-8

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2013/11/snapchat-doesnt-make-any-money-why-is-it-worth-so-much/

http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/25/how-could-snapchat-make-money-college-kids/

http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/10/5887211/can-snapchat-make-money-without-losing-its-cool-filters-stories

http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/24/snapchats-first-monetization-move-will-be-in-app-purchases/

http://www.wired.com/2014/01/secret-snapchats-monetization-success-will-surprise/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhuet/2014/07/23/snapchat-celebrity-advertising/

http://www.tubefilter.com/2014/07/25/jerome-jarre-snapchat-shonduras-chris-carmichael 

Pick of the Day: Francisco Rivera picks testmy.net

Forever, I’ve used speedtest.net by Ookla to check my connection. It’s pretty and all, but I’ve since found testmy.net and it’s great, free, and allows for automatic repeat testing at almost any interval, which is great if you’re trying to find out if your service drops out at odd intervals.

Thursday’s guest: Patrick Beja!