DTNS 2319 – A Battery of Questions

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comPatrick Beja and Jonathan Strickland fill in for Tom on vacation, ask lingering Apple questions, and mull Microsoft Mojang rumors. Also today is an audio only show.

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No video today : (

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

One of the unanswered questions from yesterday’s Apple bonanza is “how long will the Apple Watch’s battery last?” According to John Paczkowski’s sources, it’s about a day. The writer for Code/Red cites Apple spokeswoman Nat Kerris, who doesn’t go so far as to say the watch’s battery will only last a day. Rather, she says that Apple expects watch owners to charge their devices every night when they go to bed.

PC Mag has gathered up reports from sources including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times that say Microsoft is interested in acquiring a little game company called Mojang. The company behind the mega blockbuster Minecraft is reportedly being courted to the tune of $2 billion. This comes as a surprise to many Minecraft fans as the game’s creator, best known by his handle Notch, has resisted outside investment for the most part.

Music streaming service Deezer is getting ready to follow in Spotify’s footsteps. The music service is virtually unknown in the US but traces its history back to 2006 in France. What sets it apart from other services? It streams in the lossless FLAC format at a higher quality than competitors like Rdio and Spotify. The US service is exclusive to Sonos sound systems and will launch at a promotional cost of $14.99 per month after a 30-day free trial, eventually rising to $19.99.

Is your gmail password safe? Engadget reports that around five million gmail account passwords have been posted to a Russian Bitcoin forum. Google says that the passwords were all obtained through phishing and other user-targeting tactics. The company claims that its own servers haven’t been breached.

Twitter, Netflix, Reddit, Vimeo and dozens of other Internet companies are holding a symbolic “slowdown” today in protest of US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler’s net neutrality proposal, which would allow broadband providers to charge companies like Netflix for prioritized, fast-lane access to consumers. In case you were wondering there’s no actual slowing down of the internet today — site will feature a spinning wheel icon as well as a link to comment on the proposal at the FCC’s website.

James Temple at Re/Code reports that yesterday’s tech news wasn’t all about Apple. At the Intel developer forum, the company announced that a team of Intel designers had created a platform that can transform a standard electric wheelchair into a “data driven, connected” machine. The project received an endorsement from famed physicist Stephen Hawking. The platform incorporates sensors that monitor the wheelchair owner’s health, the status of the chair itself and even give reports on the wheelchair accessibility of places you plan to visit.

According to The Verge, an internal Microsoft document reveals the company is discontinuing the brand names Nokia and Windows Phone. But that doesn’t mean it’s out of the mobile space. In the future, the OS on phones will just be called Windows. So you can have a Windows phone, but not a Windows Phone phone. That should help clear up confusion. This aligns with Microsoft’s strategy to have a universal experience across PCs, the Xbox and smartphones. No word yet if the next Xbox console will be renamed Windows Box.

News From You

habichuelacondulce passes along a CNET report about US FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Wheeler spoke to the CTIA Wireless Association in Las Vegas yesterday, telling the group he used to lobby for that he had a new client now, “the American people” and that the industry had be better competitive if they wanted to keep regulation light. Wheeler also expressed doubts that wireless and wireline broadband networks should be treated differently when it comes to keeping the internet open.

Tom Wheeler wasn’t the only US government official talking about net neutrality yesterday. motang submitted The Verge report about Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader who represents San Francisco. Pelosi is asking the Federal Communications Commission to reclassify broadband as a utility using Title II of the Communications Act — exactly what net neutrality advocates have been pushing for. In a letter to FCC chair Tom Wheeler, Pelosi writes that Title II is “an appropriate tool to refine modern rules,” and that it can do so without the FCC overburdening broadband providers.

And KAPT_Kipper brings us the sad news the original iPod classic has been removed from the online Apple Store after almost thirteen years. The Classic, which launched in October 2001, featured the then-revolutionary Click Wheel, held 5 WHOLE gigabytes of music, and of course, it didn’t work with Windows. [Significance]

Patrick’s Pick of the Day: Alien Blue for  iOS

Plug of the Day:  DTNS t-shirts

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

 

Tomorrow’s guest hosts: Patrick Beja and Nicole Spagnuolo

Today in Tech History – Sep. 10, 2014

20140404-073853.jpg1990 – Peter Deutsch posted to comp.archives about the Internet Archive Server called “Archie” that he, Alan Emtage, and Bill Heelan had put together. It is often considered the Internet’s first search engine.

In 1991 – Paul Lindner posted to comp.unix.misc introducing “The Internet Gopher” a distributed information service. Before the World Wide Web, Gopher was the prime way to find and share documents online.

In 2008 – The Large Hadron Collider at CERN powered up in Geneva, Switzerland, on its quest to discover the secrets of particle physics, especially evidence for the Higgs Boson.

In 2013 – Apple announced two new phones, the iPhone 5S with a fingerprint scanner, and the iPhone 5C a cheaper and colored version of the iPhone 5.

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Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 2318 – I’d Taptic That

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comScott Johnson, Veronica Belmont and Allison Sheridan  fill in for Tom on vacation and talk all about Apple’s  big day.

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

As expected, Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled the Apple Watch today. It’s a rounded rectangular smartwatch with a sapphire crystal display. The watch needs to pair with an iPhone. In addition to a touchscreen, the Apple Watch includes a “digital crown,” a small dial on the side of the watchface which is used to scroll through a list or zoom in on a map. Pressing the crown jumps you back to the home screen. The watch knows when you’re raising your wrist to look at it and activates the screen. The device measures force and provides haptic feedback through a “Taptic Engine”. A Digital Touch feature lets you ping friends, draw on the touch screen and share your heart beat. Sensors on the back of the watch track your pulse. There are six different interchangeable watch bands and three different ‘lines’: Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport and an 18k gold Apple Watch Edition. The watch supports iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5C and iPhone 5. Apple Watch starts at $349 dollars and will go on sale in early 2015.

Apple also revealed two new smartphones with larger displays — the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. Both devices are also thinner–the iPhone 6 measures 6.9mm–the Plus is 7.1mm. The larger phones feature higher resolution, and a landscape mode for the home screen, similar to the ipad. Under the hood there’s a new A8 processor– a 64-bit chip that features 2 billion transistors and up to 25 percent faster CPU performance, with 50% faster graphics performance, according to Apple. The 16GB iPhone 6 will cost $199, 64GB will cost you $299, and there’s a new 128GB version at $399 — all with a two-year contract. The new phones are coming to US and 8 other countries September 19th, and are available for pre-order September 12.

Apple ALSO unveiled Apple Pay, an NFC payment feature for the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and the Apple Watch. It will launch in October as a free update to iOS 8, and it will be supported by 220,000 merchants that already support contactless payments. Apple Pay uses near field communication, along with a new chip called the Secure Element that stores payment information in an encrypted, secure fashion. All transactions will be conducted with a one-time code that doesn’t transfer personal shopping information to Apple (or credit card information to individual cashiers), and payments can also be immediately suspended by using Find My iPhone.

Home Depot confirmed that its payment security system was breached in a malware attack, similar to an attack on Target in 2013. Home Depot says the breach may have begun in April, and could affect purchases in all 2,200 US Home Depot stores. Home Depot says pin numbers were not stolen, but Brian Krebs of KrebsonSecurity reports that Home Depot customers credit and debit card numbers are for sale online, including the cardholder’s full name and the city, state and zip code of the Home Depot where they made a purchase.

Amazon announced it’s bringing its Prime Instant Video streaming service to all Android phones in the U.S., U.K. and Germany. Users will be able to shop from their phones and have access to the “tens of thousands” of TV shows and movies currently available on the Prime Instant Video service. It’s a little complicated to install though–users will have to download and install the main Amazon app, then go into the app and use in-app tools to download and install the Amazon Instant Video player app. You’ll also need to enable a setting on your phone that permits you to install apps from “unknown sources” – meaning locations beyond the official Google Play store. But hey, Amazon videos on Android!

News From You: 

anotherjmartin posted the top vote-getter in the subreddit today: Ars Technica reports that AT&T and Verizon have asked the US FCC *not* to change its definition of broadband from 4 megabits per second to 10 megabits per second. The FCC periodically raises its definition of what internet service can be considered broadband. In a recent filing, AT&T claimed 10 megabits per second “exceeds what many Americans need today to enable basic, high-quality transmissions.” The lobbying organization for US cable companies also filed in support of the “it’s good enough, please don’t make us upgrade our infrastructure” position. The FCC is also considering whether cellular service can qualify as a “functional equivalent for fixed broadband.”

lionelhaverford submitted this little gem about the perils of branding. The Verge reports that Microsoft made a $400 million dollar deal with the NFL so that the Surface could be “The Official Tablet of the NFL“, which is why you saw Drew Brees reviewing plays on the tablets this past Sunday. Just one problem: Fox’s announcers, who are not a part of the deal, kept calling the Microsoft tablets i-pads or “these iPad-like tools.” To which Mr. Spacely responded, “JETSON!!!!”

Discussion Links: Apple Day!

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/09/apple-reveals-long-rumored-apple-watch/

http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/09/apple-unveils-the-4-7-inch-iphone-6/?ncid=rss_truncated

http://gigaom.com/2014/09/09/apple-intros-a8-chip-because-bigger-iphones-need-more-horsepower/

http://gigaom.com/2014/09/09/apples-live-stream-stumbles-fails-amid-huge-demand/

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/09/with-apple-watch-a-naming-tradition-ends/

http://recode.net/2014/09/09/what-we-still-dont-know-about-the-apple-watch-and-apple-pay/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/09/us-apple-launch-u2-album-idUSKBN0H42ED20140909?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/09/the-iphone-6-and-apple-watch-keynote-video-is-now-available-for-replay/?ncid=rss

http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/09/apples-new-iphones-get-dslr-like-camera-features/?ncid=rss

 

Pick of the day: Tim’s Vermeer via Lisa Boban

Usually the pick of the day is a piece of tech,an app or website. But I’d like to suggest a documentary that appealed to me as a geek. “Tim’s Vermeer” follows inventor Tim Jenison as he attempts to discover and recreate the technology which may account for the ability of Johannes Vermeer to create paintings with stunning color accuracy. Art and Technology are shown as complementary disciplines, and not apposing forces. It’s a wonderful ride. It’s available on all the usual rental sites (iTunes, Google Play, Vudu).

 Plug of the day: The Sword and Laser Anthology

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

Breaking News after the show: 

Microsoft is reportedly buying ‘Minecraft’ developer Mojang for $2 billion

http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/09/microsoft-buying-mojang-minecraft/?ncid=rss_truncated

 

Verizon offers free iPhone 6 in return for two-year contract, used phone

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/09/us-apple-launch-verizon-idUSKBN0H42CZ20140909?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

Tomorrow’s co-hosts: Patrick Beja and Jon Strickland!

 

 

Today in Tech History – Sep. 9, 2014

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1940 – At McNutt Hall at Dartmouth College, George Stibitz demonstrated the first remote operation of a computer. He connected to his Complex Number Generator at Bell labs by telephone using 28-wire teletype cable.

In 1947 – While troubleshooting the Harvard University Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator, operators found a moth trapped between the points of relay #70 in Panel F. They affixed the bug to the log and wrote “First actual case of bug being found.” While this was not the first use of the term ’bug’ for a computer problem, ‘debugging’ became popular for fixing bugs after this case.

In 1999 – The Sega Dreamcast debuted in North America. However many were distracted by the supposed 9/9/99 bug that ended up being just as much of a non-problem as the Y2K bug.

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Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 2317 – Fire Sale

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comJustin Robert Young, Scott Johnson and Brian Ibbott fill in for Tom on vacation and talk about Twitter’s Buy Button, Amazon’s Fire Sale, and Apple’s upcoming big day. 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

Tech Crunch reports that Twitter has announced its first commerce product — The ‘Buy’ Button. According to a Twitter blog post, the rectangular blue button with the words ‘BUY NOW” will be visible to a small number of US users. Clicking on the button will allow those users to make purchases within the tweet. Payment and shipping information will be stored by Twitter for future purchases. The test will begin on mobile and eventually move to desktop. We’ll be chewing on this one in our discussion section in just a bit.

According to Ars Technica, there’s a fire sale on the Amazon Fire Phone. The device, which is still exclusive to AT&T will now cost 99 cents for a two-year contract. A contract-free phone is now 200 dollars cheaper, dropping from $649.99 to $449.99. Amazon has not released sales numbers for the Fire, but reviews have not been too kind, and a recent study tracking mobile ad impressions for the new phone implies that sales have been lackluster.

The Verge reports Apple has now added another layer of iCloud security. As first spotted by MacRumors, Apple has already begun sending out alert emails when iCloud accounts are accessed from a traditional web browser. The alerts are being sent out even if the specific browser has been used previously to access iCloud. According to The Verge, since iCloud is typically used to link apps, browser logins are now being treated as unusual enough to trigger an alert.

The Verge also reports that Reddit has shut down the subreddit tied to the nude photos in ‘celebgate’ attack. In a statement published on its official blog, a representative for the company said that “we deplore the theft of these images and we do not condone their widespread distribution.” Pressure to shut down the subreddit intensified once it was discovered that pictures of gymnast McKayla Maroney and actress Liz Lee were taken while they were underage.

Ars Technica reports that DVR manufacturer TiVo has announced that the company its next DVR, the TiVo Mega. Scheduled to be released in early 2015, the Mega is a a rackmount DVR with six tuners and 24TB of storage, which works out to about 26,000 hours of recorded SD content, or 4,000 hours of HD. That’s three YEARS of television. The device will cost approximately $5,000 dollars. So that’s 3 years of tv for only 21 cents a day!

Ah, the joys of Autoplay. Facebook announced today that it now serves a billion video plays per day, with two-thirds of those views from mobile devices. Hey did I mention that new auto-playing feature that’s on by default? The company also says it will soon be rolling out a YouTube-like view counter for public video and a metrics dashboard for publishers who can’t wait to roll around Scrooge McDuck style in all that glorious auto-play generated revenue.

Facebook also announced today that it now has 100 million monthly active users in Africa. That means half of Africa’s Internet users are visiting the social network each month. Eighty percent of those active users are getting their Facebook fix on mobile devices. Facebook has spent a lot of time and effort getting their site to work well with weak signals and older phones found in Africa.

Ah yes! The mists are rising! The ocean roils! We are here! Apple Announcement EVE! Are the stories that pop up on The Devil’s Night of tech rumors MORE credible or are we so excited that we’ll believe ANY lie this close? YOU DECIDE! Here they are! Perpetualy unfulfilled iFeature NFC appears to be happening, Bank Innovation.net reports the iPhone will utilize tokenization technology to facilitate payments and 9 to 5 Mac chimes in that Apple and Disney retails locations are being upgraded to the latest iBeacon and NFC tech in anticipation of the phone’s arrival. 9 to 5 Mac also posts screenshots of some of the native apps for the new 5.5 inch iPhone which demonstrates a new “landscape” mode that boasts an iPad-esqe 2 pain interface.

Watch it all tomorrow at 10am Pacific: http://www.apple.com/live

News From You:

anotherjmartin sends us an Ars Technica report that Comcast has begun using its 3.5 million US wifi hotspots to serve ads for Comcast products, regardless of whether the website being viewed wants those ads, or even knows those ads exist. It works like this: when a w-ifi user requests to view a page, Comcast injects its JavaScript into the packets being returned by the real server. In addition to obvious security concerns, Comcast may also have injected itself back into the net neutrality debate: as US regulators ponder whether Comcast and other ISPs should be required to deliver broadband without altering or initiating data packets. According to the company, Comcast home customers are not affected. You know, yet.

And KAPT_Kipper passes along a BBC report that Intel has launched a new generation of processors featuring 14 nanometer transistors, the smallest ever to appear in a commercial product. The new Broadwell Core M chip is 50% smaller and 30% thinner than the last generation. According to Intel, manufacturers should now be able to produce “razor-thin” fanless tablets that are less than 0.35 inches thick.

Discussion Section: Twitter Buy Button

http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/08/twitter-commerce-buy-now/

http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/8/6120079/twitter-commerce-buy-button

https://blog.twitter.com/2014/testing-a-way-for-you-to-make-purchases-on-twitter

Pick of the day: Followmy.tv via Anthony Eales

followmy.tv helps you keep track of all your TV shows and in particular what episode you are up to. Netflix, Hulu & Amazon does this well already but if you are watching on network & cable television as well as downloading you need somewhere to keep track of what episode you are up to. followmy.tv does it all in one place with a very handy dashboard that has all the next to be watched episodes of TV shows you are watching.

With the power of always knowing which episode you are up to in a TV show you can plan your own TV schedule with ease.

Honourable mention goes to Trakt @ https://trakt.tv but I much prefer followmy.tv

Plug of the Day: All the t-shirts!

Did you know that Daily Tech News Show T-Shirt is available in white, black and Ash at Slashloot.com in the podcast section? Did you also know you can also find fine Morning Stream T-shirts and other fine promotional items at slashloot? What, you’re more of a Night Attack fan? Well those t-shirts are available at http://www.scamstuff.com/collections/diamond-club

Tomorrow! Scott Johnson, Veronica Belmont and Allison Sheridan take on Apple Day!

 

Today in Tech History – Sep. 8, 2014

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1930 – The first roll of waterproof, transparent, pressure-sensitive tape was sold. Its brand name “Scotch” has become synonymous with cellophane tape.

In 1966 – The TV show Star Trek made its network television debut with the episode “The Man Trap”. Star Trek would have a profound influence on future technology thought and design.

In 2004 – NASA’s unmanned spacecraft Genesis crash-landed when its parachute failed to open.

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Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

Today in Tech History – Sep. 7, 2014

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1927 – The first fully electronic television system was demonstrated by Philo Taylor Farnsworth in San Francisco.

In 1979 – The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, ESPN, makes its debut. It will become one of the main drivers of cable TV adoption and one of the main factors in the switch to Internet television.

In 1981 – The first large parallel processing computer, ILLIAC IV, ends its nearly decade-long life at the University of Illinois.

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Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

Today in Tech History – Sep. 6, 2014

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1947 – The aircraft-carrier Midway became the first U.S. vessel from which a long-range rocket was launched. The rocket had a mishap though, and exploded at 5,000 feet.

In 1954 – US President Eisenhower waved a ceremonial “neutron wand” over a neutron counter in Denver, Colorado, to signal a bulldozer in Shippingport, Pennsylvania to begin construction on the first commercial nuclear power plant. It was part of the “Atoms for Peace” program.

In 1997 – The USS Grace Murray Hopper, guided missile destroyer, was commissioned by the U.S. Navy in San Francisco, named after the computer pioneer.

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Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 2316 – Naked Security

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comJustin 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

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 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!