Darren Kitchen is on the show and we’ll talk about Apple buying Beats Electronics and the UN debating the need for autonomous killer robots. also Len Peralta will illustrate the whole shebang. Join us won’t you?

MP3

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

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guests:  Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta

Headlines

The Financial Times reports “as early as next week” Apple will announce a deal to acquire Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion. Beats is the leading headphone seller in the US, founded by musician Dr. Dre and record producer Jimmy Iovine. The company recently launched an online music streaming service as well. FT says some details have yet to be agreed on and the talks could still fall apart.” The Next Web reports a video posted to Facebook by actor-singer-songwriter Tyrese Gibson had the caption “Dr Dre ON THE night his deal went public that he did with Apple 3.2 BILLION!!!!” It has since been removed.

TechCrunch reports Apple has hired Ari Partinen, the senior engineer who worked on Nokia’s PureView smartphone camera technology. Partinen confirmed the move on Twitter. Nokia’s PureView technology uses a technique of pixel oversampling to reduce noise in images — enabling lower resolution shots to be produced with high clarity and strong color.

The Verge a federal court ruled Google must pay Oracle for the use of the Java API in Android, overturning a lower court decision. Google built its own version of Java but used the Java API to make it easier for programmers to write for Andorid. The district court had ruled the API was “a utilitarian and functional set of symbols.” Oracle appealed the ruling and a Federal Court says the API is Oracle’s property and as such Google has to pay. Lawyer Sara Jeong tweeted the decision is like “getting mad at a screwdriver for looking like a screwdriver.” Supreme Court here we come.

CNET and many Netflix users noticed today that Netflix has raised their prices as promised, $1 a month in the US and £1 a month in the UK and €1 a month in the Eurozone. That means monthly rates for new customers of £6.99 per month €8.99 or $8.99. Exisiting Netflix customers are exempt for the next two years. Netflix also says it will reintroduce the old pricing levels but those plans will only get you standard def and one user per account. 

PCMag reports link shortening service, Bitly announced late Thursday it has been hacked, exposing user email addresses, encrypted passwords, API Keys and OAuth tokens. At this time no accounts appear to have been compromised. The company has secured all paths that led to the compromise and urged all users to reset passwords. 

Reuters reports Xiaomi will release its first tablet soon. Reuters says its sources say the tablet will have a 7.9-inch screen and be called the MiPad.The Chinese smartphone company will hold an event in Beijing May 15 but has not said what it will announce. A 4G sucessor to the Mi3 smartphone widely being referred to as the Mi3S is also a possibility. 

Engadget reports that UK ISPs BT, Sky, Virgin Media and Talk Talk have all signed a deal with the music and movie industry organizations to send out educational missives to alleged pirates starting next year. So if someone thinks you’re infringing copyright and you’re a customer of one of these ISPs, starting next year you might get a letter telling you to stop infringing copyright.

News From You

Our top story on the subreddit comes from spsheridan who posted the GigaOm story about new groups opposing FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s Net Neutrality plan. The latest protest letter comes from more than 50 venture capitalists asking for the commission to reconsider the proposal that would allow commercially reasonable discrimination. Several organizations are planning a May 15 protest, the day of the FCC open meeting where the notice for proposed rulemaking will be voted on. Professor Tim Wu writing in the New Yorker proposed a clever plan where the previous rules could go into effect but if companies sued the FCC again, ISPs would be reclassified as telecommunications services, thus discouraging lawsuits.

One company has already started a direct protest, dillydobbs and Aractor both posted this one.  Ars Technica reports on Neocities.org, a webhosting company that has throttled any connections to its homepage from IP addresses arising inside the FCC, to 28.8Kbps speeds. Neocities creator Kyle Drake wrote “ I’m not removing it until the FCC pays us for the bandwidth they’ve been wasting instead of doing their jobs.”

KAPT_Kipper submitted the Ars Technica story that Amazon has taken action against the wireless device company Mediabridge Products, that you may remember sent a threatening legal letter to an individual who wrote a negative review of one of their wireless routers. Mediabridge posted an official statement to its Facebook page defending its actions and admitting Amazon has revoked its selling privileges. 

And TheFixxer sent us the CNET article about self-healing plastic developed by researchers at the University of Illinois. Jeffry Moore, who worked on the research team under aerospace engineering professor Scott White said the material is nonliving but repairs itself in a way similar to living organisms. When the plastic is damaged, liquids flow into the gap and form a gel, similar to the way blood coagulates to heal a wound. The technology can regenerate a hole created by a nine-millimeter bullet. 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/09/us-xiaomi-tablet-idUSBREA480I920140509

http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/09/isp-warning-letter-uk-downloaders/?ncid=rss_truncated

Discussion Section Links: 

http://recode.net/2014/05/09/what-is-tim-cook-thinking-lets-pretend-we-can-read-his-mind/

http://www.cnet.com/news/beats-boss-jimmy-iovine-to-join-apple-report-says/#ftag=CAD590a51e

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/9/5698158/what-apple-is-really-buying-with-beats

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27340359

http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/09/beats-apple-confirmed/?ncid=rss_truncated

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27343076

Pick of the Day:  Tonx and Misto box – They send you coffee!

Monday ‘s guest: Iyaz Akhtar of cnet.com and GFQ Network

Dan Patterson is on the show. He’ll talk about his experience training Sudanese media makers in Egypt and how mobile phones are changing the world.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Dan Patterson, technologist and journalist

Headlines

Did I say “forever”? I meant, “not really”: The Next Web reports Snapchat agreed to a “Consent decree” with the U.S. FTC over a database leak and misrepresentation of how the service stored user messages. Snapchat had said photos and videos would “disappear forever,” although there were many ways to work around that. Snapchat changed its privacy policy, app description and in-app notifications. Snapchat’s agreement with the FTC requires that it create a privacy program, subject itself to independent monitoring for 20 years, and stop misrepresenting how it handles user data.

Next stop – Head of the WORLD! Reuters reports that Samsung replaced the head of its mobile design team, Chang Dong-hoon, who offered to resign last week. Lee Min-hyouk will take over the role. Chang will focus on the Design Strategy Team, which is responsible for long-term design across all Samsung’s businesses. Lee has been a rising star at Samsung, becoming the company’s youngest senior executive in 2010 for his role in designing the Galaxy series of phones. 

Can’t wait to see the comments section: Reuters also reports more than 100 technology companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon signed a letter to the U.S. FCC opposing proposed open Internet guidelines that would allow commercially reasonable traffic discrimination. The letter called the rules a ‘grave threat to the Internet’ and called for a delay in their proposal. A meeting is set for May 15th which would make the proposal official, and open the guidelines to a public comment period.

Mario figurine, anyone? Ars Technica reports Nintendo plans to release a low-priced game console targeted towards “emerging markets.” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata spoke to the press following an investor briefing Wednesday, but didn’t give details on the new hardware or what countries it would be released in. Nintendo also announced “the Nintendo Figurine Platform” featuring collectible toys that share data with a variety of Nintendo games using NFC.

I would like all the players to wear pink: The Verge reports Epic Games announced the next Unreal Tournament will be completely free and developed in the open. The development will be lead by senior Epic Games programmers, but anyone can contribute. The company plans to use forums and Twitch Streams as well as a GitHub repository. The company plans to make money off a forthcoming online marketplace for user-generated mods and content. 

Thanks, I think? Re/code reports executives from Comcast and Time Warner Cable appeared before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. Most of the questions asked what the benefit to the consumers would be. Comcast replied the combined company would deliver a significantly improved customer experience, but not lower prices. Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas, noted that the combined company would serve 91% of Hispanic households, and asked for assurances the company would not discriminate against non Comcast-NBC spanish-language programming.

Move over, Twitter: The Next Web reports Japanese messaging app Line reported revenues have increased 223% over the past year and 19% over the past quarter. Line has more than 420 million registered users and makes half its revenues from in-app purchases related to some 30 games connected tot he messaging app. Line also makes money from advertisers who can push messages to followers who have asked for them. Paul McCartney for instance has more followers on Line than on Twitter. The company has been piloting flash sales through the app. And also stickers. They sell virtual stickers. 

News From You

Angryfuture submitted the top story on the subreddit today from Tweaktown, which I also found reported on Ars Technica. Lawyers for Mediabridge Products who make routers, sent a letter to a redditor called trevely Monday threatening to sue unless he deleted a negative review of a Medialink Wireless Router from Amazon. Mediabridge’s attorney, Neal Jacobs says trevely’s review was a “campaign to damage, discredit, defame and libel Mediabridge.”

toddkam posted the Business Week article about a group from Université Laval in Quebec who won Shell’s Eco-marathon Americas competition with a car that achieved 2,824 miles per gallon. If that impresses you, it shouldn’t. Last year the same school achieved 3,587 miles per gallon. The car, which competed in the prototype class of the competition has a teardrop shape, and is not built for comfort or speed.

Spydrchick submitted the Gawker story that a band from LA called Vulfpeck racked up $20,000 in royalties from Spotify thanks to their album Sleepify. The band asked fans to stream the entirely silent album through the night as they slept, racking up plays for Vulfpeck that paid $.007 cents per track. Fans could generate $3 a night for the band and enough nights and enough fans added up to $20K. Spotify spokesman Graham James said, “Sleepify seems derivative of John Cage’s work.” Spotify has also made the band remove the album for violating terms of service. Whether they’ll get paid a check remains to be seen.

Discussion Section Links: 

http://danpatterson.com/2014/04/28/sudan-stories-language-guns-phones/

http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/2014/23.aspx#.U2vHKq1dXA6

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/23/mobile-reading-revolution-unesco-study-phones-africa-subcontinent

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/m4ed/mobile-reading/reading-in-the-mobile-era/

http://www.cp-africa.com/2014/05/03/gallup-africa-continues-going-mobile/

https://www.undpegov.org/mgov-primer.html

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/africa-in-focus/posts/2014/04/18-women-mobile-technology-maret-rakotondrazaka

Pick of the Day:  Todoist via Ashish Bogawat

Ashish Bogawat has our pick of the day: the task list management app Todoist. “With a pretty minimalistic interface, the app can be as simple or complex as you want – no mean feat in this day & age. That it has native clients available for virtually every platform out there, as well as offline mode in the web app is just icing on the cake.”

Friday’s guest: Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta

Pelle Eklund and I talk about whether proposed net neutrality regulations are already slowing investment and why an LG fridge that text messages you is actually a step backward for tech.

MP3

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

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Eklund, founder of hockeybuzz.com

Headlines

The Verge reports Evernote announced an expanded partnership with LinkedIn for better address book organization and improved business card scanning in the iOS app. Evernote’s scanner will pull information from LinkedIn as well as add time and place of the contact. LinkedIN will start directing folks to Evernote for card scanning rather than its own CardMunch app which is shutting down July 11th. 

GigaOm notes Google is buying StackDriver, which monitors cloud workload, especially for customers of Amazon Web Services. Google has been trying to build up its own cloud platform to compete with Amazon. 

Most of you will not care at all that Apple’s VP of worldwide communications, Katie Cotton is retiring after more than 18 years at the company But this is big news for journalists who have deal with Apple PR. Apple told Recode Cotton wants to spend more time with her children. 

ZDNet reports that HP is the latest to get on the open source OpenStack cloud platform. HP will invest $1 billion in cloud computing and add openstack in 20 data centers over the next 18 months. HP is joining NASA, Rackspace, IBM and others in promoting Openstack and running your own private cloud as an alternative to the Amazon and Google’s of the world and their public clouds. Insert “get off my cloud” joke here for those over 30. Convert to ‘cloud rap’ subgenre reference for others.

TechCrunch reports Google is buying Appetas, a site that helps restaurants build their own websites, even integrating services like grubHub and OpenTable as well as social networks in an easy cost-effective manner. Google plans to shut the service down. 

Ars Technica reports Nintendo— oh Nintendo. Wii U sales missed fiscal year projections by 80,000 to come in at 2.8 million. Nintendo went into the fiscal year expecting to sell 9 million. Hey but the 3DS sol 12.2 million units still below the 13.5 million projected. Nintendo also lost money. Lots and lots of money. ¥46.4 billion, the third straight annual loss. Hey but Nintendo has three things going for them. Mario, Zelda and no debt!

CNET reports on Huawei’s launch of the Ascen P7 smartphone. It’s a 5-inch Android phone with 1920×1080 display running Huawei’s Emotion interface. But the big feature is the 8-megapixel front-facing camera. Yep. Front-facing, rear one has 13 mehgapixels. But 8 megapixels should give you some nice high-res selfies. Just in time for selfies to become passé. Which is why Huawei made up a new word to describe group selfies like Ellen would take at an awards cermonies. Groufies. Huawei would like you to call those groufies. The phone will be available initially in June in dozens of European and Asian countries for a price of 449 euros (US$625) unlocked. 

The Verge passes along data from a UN ITU report that the Internet will have 3 billion active users, about 40% of the world’s population, by the end of this year. Active means they used the Internet once in the past three months, not just had access to it. Three out of four people in Europe will be using the internet by the end of the year, compared to two out of three in the Americas and one in three in Asia and the Pacific. In Africa, nearly one in five people will be online by the end of the year. Mobile phone subscriptions should reach 7 billion and mobile internet subscriptions should make up 2.3 billion.

News From You

spsheridan had our top story of today on the subreddit. BGR reports Al Franken, my friends, has made a video promoting a website called noslowlane.com. The US Senator is trying to rally opposition to the FCC regulations that would allow comercially reasonable traffic prioritization. He uses Google Video vs. YouTube as an example of the open Internet working to make a scrappy up and comer defeat a behemoth incumbent. ‘Cause Google Video sucked and YouTube was better and so Google bought YouTube and killed Google Video and YouTube might have never got off the ground if it had to pay commercially reasonable video rates to a bunch of ISPs. 

tm204 pointed out that App.net has good news. They’re profitable and self-sustaining thanks to paid subscriptions for the social network. App.net will continue to operate normally on an indefinite basis.Without any employees. Yeah the bad news is to be profitable App.net can’t have any full time employees, including the founders. So they’re all gone. The company will get by with contracters and will be open sourcing a larger and larger percentage of the App.net codebase. 

tekkyn00b gave us the Verge story that Russia’s President signed a law requiring any blogger with more than 3,000 readers to register with the Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media agency. The law covers microblogs and social networks as well. Registered writers will be responsible for fact-checking and are forbidden from harming the reputation of a person or group or hiding or falsifying “information of general interest.” Writers will also be required to publish their surname, initials, and email address.

MikePKennedy submitted the Verge story that the US Navy announced the Navy eReader Device, yep, abbreviated as NeRD. It’s an e-ink tablet with no Internet, no removable storage, and come preloaded with 300 books that will never change. The Navy doesn’t allow devices like iPads which have cameras and emit signals that could be detected.

And here’s some breaking good news ABOUT calendars! It only took 90 minutes to fund the kickstarter to bring Upcoming.org back to life. Remember Upcoming? The terrific arts and tech calendar site that yahoo bought in 2005 and then ignored and then sunsetted in 2007? Well Yahoo allowed the Andy Baio, the sites original creator to buy back the domain, and then today, 90 minutes after he launched the kickstarter it was funded. Jennie, who writes up the calendar each day is VERY happy about this. YAY!

Discussion Section Links: 

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/527006/talk-of-an-internet-fast-lane-is-already-hurting-some-startups/

http://bgr.com/2014/05/07/senator-franken-net-neutrality-campaign/

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27308869

 

Pick of the Day:  Google Keep via Vance McAllister

Vance McAllister has our pick of the day: Tom, as you might guess, my pick is a Google app, but one that tends to fly under the radar despite doing one simple thing very well. Although I am a dedicated Evernote user, I have been finding myself using Keep more and more without any overlap. Whereas Evernote is my digital file cabinet, I use Keep as digital Post-It Notes. It is fast and easy to pull up on a phone or computer to jot down a name, number, create a quick list, or anything that I need to save for later. Then, just like a Post-It Note, that information is usually used and discarded. Anything important enough to keep still goes into Evernote, but I am not cluttering Evernote up with these small, temporary bits and pieces. The Keep interface on Android and iOS is clean, simple and attractive, and there is even a standalone Chrome App for Windows and Mac in addition to the web interface. Since it is free and available on every platform, I encourage folks to give it a go! Vance, from the increasingly hot California desert

Thursday’s guest: Dan Patterson, technology journalist

Allison Sheridan joins me to talk about the rising maker revolution, open source hardware, and Google’s advance on the classroom.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s Guest: Allison Sheridan of podfeet.com and The NosillaCast

Headlines:

CNET reports Google and Intel announced more than 20 new devices running Google’s Chrome OS on Intel’s Bay Trail and Haswell processors. PC makers: Acer, Asus, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, LG, and Toshiba will all make the devices. Lenovo had their own Chrome OS announcement including a 64-bit Bay Trail powered Yoga Chromebook. Samsung was notably absent. All announced devices use conflict-free metals in their construction. I haven’t seen this many non Wintel PCs since the OS/2 Warp days. 

Remember we said the jury awarded Apple $120 million in the latest Apple-Samsung patent dustup? Well surprise, suprise, Samsung is plans to challenge the verdict as “unsupported by evidence,” according to Bloomberg. Samsung will tell the court they would rather pay a lower amount, according to Samsung lawyer John Quinn. Zero. They would like to pay zero please. Both companies will also likely pursue bans on each others devices. Want to know why Samsung and Apple are at each others throats like this? Go read Kurt Eichenwald’s excellent in depth writeup at vanityfair.com.

CNET reports Microsoft sent out invites to the press for a “small gathering” on the morning of May 20th in New York City. It could mean Microsoft just wants a few of their favorite journalists to have brunch, or it could mean Microsoft is being clever and wants to announce a smaller Microsoft Surface tablet.

CNET reports Flux, once a part of the secretive Google X labs has raised $8 million in Series A funding. Flux is developing and testing its collaborative-design software for the building construction industry. The idea is to help build sustainable structures that reduce energy consumption. It hopes to launch the product in early 2015.

Gigaom reports Dropcam will launch a line of sensors called Tabs, that can tell when a door or window has been opened as well as detect movement. The Tabs work with the dropcam cameras and will sell for $29 starting in August. The cameras themselves will also get an upgrade in August, being able to use the cloud to tell when a human is in its view and eventually tell which human that is. More details to follow at the GigaOm Structure Conference June 18th and 19th.

The Next Web reports Google Maps for Android and iOS got an update with several new features including the ability to tell you which lane to be in so you don’t miss your exit off the highway, as well as avoid high traffic lanes! Maps also gets an easier way to take an alternate route while driving as well integration of Uber alongside other transit options. 

TechCrunch reports Google is rolling out a new Classroom app which uses Docs, Drive and Gmail to make it easier to hand out track and accept student assignments. The system is free and Ad-free but will be invite only to start. Educators can apply to the preview program at https://classroom.google.com/signup and the first group of testers will be notified in about a month. 

News From You: 

AtomicSpaceGun posted the Gizmodo article about a series of email exchanges revealed by Al Jazeera News between the US NSA director at the time Keith Alexander and executives from Google. The exchanges from 2012 were obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request. The meetings indicate Google along with Microsoft, HP, AMD, Apple, and others were working on cybersecurity issues such as efforts to secure BIOS on enterprise platforms and participation in “classified threat briefings.” The meetings were part of seomthing called the Enduring Security Framework and don’t seem to have any relationship to programs revealed by Edward Snowden’s leaks. 

the_corley sent us the Engadget story that Dropbox closed down many of their shared links after realizing a security flaw could unintentionally expose those documents. Apparently Dropbox was not doing anything about blocking referrer links from being logged. Let’s say Allison sent me a document via a dropbox link that had a link to apple.com in it. Then I open that document from the dropbox link and click on the link to Apple.com. The sysadmins at Apple could look int heir logs and see that someone was referred to their site from the dropbox link. Then they could access that same document using that link. Dropbox says they have patched the problem.

HouseofBrick had the most popular new story on subreddit today. Ars Technica reports that a ban on drones announced by the US National Park Services does not appear use a legal basis that could apply to drones. Instead of creating a new regulation and holding the public comment that usually comes with it, the Park Service cited an existing regulation that restricts “delivering or retrieving a person or object by parachute, helicopter, or other airborne means.” So no riding your drones into or out of Yosemite people!

And TVSEgon posted the Gizmodo story of a man who accidentally received a $400,000 unmanned aerial vehicle delivered to his door by UPS. Not by drone. Reddit user Seventy_Seven. said he called UPS who said it was up to him whether to keep it or not. A card in the box said it belonged to NOAA Aircraft Operations Center in Tampa, Florida, whom Seventy_seven said would get a call next.

Pick of the Day: Goodreader via Russell Manthy

Russell Manthy has the pick of the day: “We have been using iPads for business for about two and a half years now and the key tool we have found is Goodreader. As there is no native file manager on the iPad you need a way to manage, present and share files. After trying a number of others we have found that Goodreader is the best for what we do. It handles almost any standard file type (PDF, MS Office, video, images, etc.) and allows you to manage and display them in a manner very similar to the typical file manager on the desktop. It populates from cloud services like Dropbox, Box, the Microsoft cloud service and a variety of others. Documents can also be added from email attachments and it links to your email to send documents from the app. One other really nice feature is that it has a fairly robust markup tool for PDF files. We utilize this in meetings quite a bit when the iPad is connected to a projector. It allows for real time markups and speeds the consensus building on projects.”

Tomorrow’s Guest: Eklund of hockeybuzz.com

Jonathan Strickland is on the show with an intriguing story about a way to combine solar AND wind to solve our energy woes. Plus Mozilla gets all creative with the net neutrality problem. Did they solve 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 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: Jon Strickland, host of FW:Thinking, co-host of Tech Stuff and writer for How Stuff Works ho

Headlines

CNET reports Apple and Samsung have finally reached the end of one of their patent battles. A jury handed down a verdict Friday in San Jose California, ordering Samsung to pay Apple $119.6 million and ordering Apple to pay Samsung $158,400. Apple had asked for $2.2 billion and Samsung wanted $6.2 million. Apple’s lawyers disputed one of the damages figures so the jury deliberated again Monday morning. The jury raised the award for one Samsung violation but also lowered the award for another leading to essentially the same $119.6 million decision. Some suspect that might not even cover Apple’s court costs.

CNET reports Amazon and Twitter have teamed up to make it easier to shop. Starting today Twitter users can link their account to an Amazon account. Once that’s done products can be added to an Amazon shopping cart by responding to any Tweet with an Amazon link and using the hashtag #AmazonCart or in the UK #AmazonBasket. No word on the terms of the deal though Amazon did say Twitter is not getting a cut of each purchase.

Reuters notes that over the past year Apple has hired a half dozen promintent experts in biomedicine, the latest moving over to Apple two weeks ago. Apple is reportedly recruiting other medical professionals as well. Much of the hiring is apparently around sensor technology. Most people suspect it’s related to a wearable device. Apple has trademarked the name iWatch in Japan, though apparently Swatch is not too happy with that name being taken by Apple.

TechCrunch reports Oculus responded to allegations by ZeniMax that John Carmack violated his non-disclosure agreement after he left ZeniMax-owned iD software, which he founded, to go work for Oculus on VR technology. Oculus repeated Carmack’s claim that ZeniMax shelved their own VR projects which led to Carmack’s departure. Oculus stressed ZeniMax never contributed any IP or technology to Oculus products.

GigaOm reports EvLEaks has pictures of a smaller version of the HTC One M8 called the One Mini 2. The Mini 2 does not look to have the second sensor that measures depth during photo-taking. It also has only one LED flash. Otherwise if the leaked picture is accurate, and EvLeaks has a good track record, the Mini2 looks just like the M8 only smaller.

News From You

Our top story on the SubReddit was submitted by MikePKennedy. Engadget reports teams competing at Harvard, Cambridge and California found that pumping blood from young mice into older ones led to the elderly mice developing more blood vessels in the vein, demonstrating clearer thinking and faster running. Harvard researchers subsequently isolated a protein called GDF11, which helped both the operation of hearts and brains. Before your steal your younger friends and family’s blood, remember that you are not a mouse.

spsheridan posted the Next Web article about John McAfee launching a secure messaging app called Chadder.  Produced by McAfee’s Future Tense Private Systems, the app aims to be like Wickr and others encrypting messages so only the recipient can read them. Chadder is in beta but available for Android and Windows Phone. 

cincyhuffster pointed out the GigaOm report on Mozilla’s effort to help the FCC fix the Net Neutrality problem. One solution has been to reclassify ISPs as telecommomunications providers, often referred to as Title II classification. The idea is politically impossible. ISP’s were classified as Information providers in the early 200s partly because they host email and storage, or did in large numbers back then. Mozilla’s clever plan is to leave ISP’s as information providers when managing their own systems, but classify any inbound traffic from content providers as telecommunications. IN other words split it in two. Mozilla hopes to influence the Notice for Proposed Rulemaking the FCC will deliver on May 15th.

tekkyn00b and MrAnthrpology both submitted reports of Target’s CEO resigning in the wake of the Target data breach. The Verge reports Gregg Steinhafel will step down as CEO, President and Chairman of the company and give up his seat on the board of directors. Chief Financial Officer John Mulligan is expected to take over as president until a successor can be found. Target’s former head of technology, Beth Jacob, resigned in March.

Spsheridan submitted the GigaOm report on a blog post from Internet transit provider Level 3, accusing 5 US ISPs and one European one of using market powers to interfere with traffic flow. Level 3 says it has saturated ports with 12 of its 51 peers. Six of those peers are in the process of cooperating on upgrades to alleviate congestion. The other six are doing nothing and Level 3 says they are also networks with dominant or exclusive market share in their local market. 

Discussion Section Links: Solar Wind!

http://phys.org/news/2014-05-energy-tower-electricity-arizona.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-28/solar-wind-wins-approval-for-1-5-billion-power-tower.html

Pick of the Day:  Video DownloadHelper

Hey Tom, Fascinated Video Size Guy here. Got a pick for the show that will also solve the confusion for the YouTube video download. My pick is Video DownloadHelper. It’s a free add-on for Firefox and it gives you the ability to download any video on YouTube and other video sites. But wait there’s more!!!! YouTube always stores multiple versions of videos so YT and it’s users can adjust the quality to best match their connection speeds and needs. VDH adds a button that allows you to simply choose which version of the YT video you want to download. I’ve used VDH for many years and can recommend it highly to anyone looking to download YT videos, especially people who produce a daily tech news shows Love the show, Fascinated Video Size Guy

Tuesday’s guest: Allison Sheridan, podfeet.com

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

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Darren Kitchen, hak5.org

Headlines

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

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

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

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

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

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

News From You

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

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

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

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

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

Discussion Section Links:  New Security Flaw discovered

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

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

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

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

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

Pick of the Day:  Dogeforsale.com via Luke Olsen

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

Good cause of the day: Podcamp Nashville

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

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

Monday’s guest: Jon Strickland

Denise Howell is on the show today and we’ll touch on Foursquare splitting, what Hulu’s model should be, and how you can tell the FCC what you think of their net neutrality stance.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes
Today’s guest: Denise Howell, of This Week in Law

Headlines

TechCrunch reports Foursquare will split its app into two. The original FourSquare app will no longer have a check-in function but focus on discovery, exploration and recommendations. It will use geolocation to track where you go and how long you stay. The other app, called Swarm, will have the traditional check-in feature with a heat-map and the ability to see nearby friends. Swarm will also have a messaging feature. 

Boy Genius Report, which seems to have a never-ending supply of Amazon smartphone leaks, has another Amazon smartphone leak. This time it’s a picture of the phone, NOT hidden in a case. Instead multiple sources have verified to BGR that they have a real image of the design of the front and back of the yet-to-be-officially-acknowledged phone. Amazon is widely expected to launch the phone in Q3.

TechCrunch reports snapchat added two new features today. A traditional chat like interface lets you talk in text in realtime. You know like text messaging. The other feature lets you make a video call from that text chat screen. You’ll have to keep your finger on the screen to keep the video active, although the call will stay live. When you leave a call or chat and swipe back to the main screen your chat history disappears in typical snapchat fashion. The update should arrive for iOS and Android later today.

Microsoft has released patches for all supported version of Internet Explorer to fix a nasty zero-day vulnerability that could allow attackers to get full user permissions over a PC. In a surprise move, Microsoft issued patches for users of Windows XP. Microsoft officially stopped supporting the 12-year-old XP in April. 

News From You

Spsheridan submitted our top story on the subreddit. BGR passed along a WSJ story that big tech companies like Google, Netflix and Yahoo, “say they are considering mobilizing a grass-roots campaign to rally public opinion around the idea that the Internet’s pipes should be equally open for all.” Last week FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler admitted he will propose Open Internet rules that would allow for “commercially reasonable” prioritization of certain Internet traffic.

tekkyn00b posted all the T-Mobile stories from Android Central today. For one T-Mobile USA has acquired 700 MHz spectrum from Verizon, which will help improve LTE coverage. T-Mobile also published its Q1 earnings reports. The good news, is the company added 2.4 million customers, bringing it close to third place Sprint. The bad news, it lost $20 million because of the costs of acquiring all those new customers. Still long-term that bet should pay off. IN adition Recode reports T-Mobile CFO Braxton Carter and marketing chief Mike Sievert say a potential merger with Sprint would only allow them to become more disruptive. Like an un-carrier on steroids, Carter’s words. 

habichuelacondulce submitted the CNET story that AT&T has raised the possibility of acquiring DirecTV according to sources talking to the Wall Street Journal. Apparently AT&T started flirting with DirecTV in February in response to the potential Comcast TimeWarner Cable merger. Of course AT&T has allegedly flirted with Dish Network before as well. Are they serious or just a tease? They’ll never tell. Until they file with the SEC then they’ll be legally required to tell. 

Spsheridan spotted the Ars Technica story about Google Now for Android helping you remember where you parked, automatically. You don’t even have to yell “remember where we parked!” or anything. Using Android’s Activity Recognition System to detect when you go from driving to stopping then walking, Google Now notes the GPS location of the stopping part. Of course if you’re in a multi-level garage you still need to remember what floor you’re on. 

MikePKennedy submitted the Verge story that Amazon has admitted it has been offering same-day delivery service to San Francisco, Dallas, since earlier this year. Don’t you feel better not hiding that anymore Amazon? Other same-day markets also got their deadlines pushed a little later in the day. So you folks in Indianapolis now have until 11:30 AM not that ungodly 7 AM deadline you’ve suffered under up until now. Although there’s bad news fro Las Vegas which is losing its same day service. Sometimes you win sometimes you lose your same-day service, Vegas. And New Yorkers now have to make their orders 30 minutes earlier to qualify. Stop yer whining New Yorkers just get up earlier and order!

Beatmaster80 pointed us at the Ars Technica story about Zenimax Media, the parent company of Id Software and John Carmack’s old employer, alleging that Carmack is a thieving little thief. Actually Zenimax alleges that technology Carmack developed while he was still at Zenimax was the genesis of what would eventually become the Oculus Rift development kit. Carmack left Zenimax-owned id in November. Carmack tweeted, “No work I have ever done has been patented. Zenimax owns the code that I wrote, but they don’t own VR.”

Discussion Section Links:  Net Neutrality

http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/04/state-laws-that-ban-municipal-internet-will-be-invalidated-fcc-chair-says/

http://bgr.com/2014/04/30/google-netflix-fcc-net-neutrality/
http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/30/5666628/your-corporate-internet-nightmare-starts-now

http://www.fcc.gov/comments 

Pick of the Day:  Waze

Friday’s guest: Darren Kitchen of hak5.org

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

MP3

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

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

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

Headlines

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

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

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

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

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

News From You

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

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

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

Discussion Section Links:  

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday’s guest: Denise Howell

Scott Johnson is on the show today, and we’ll try to explain what all these Netflix-ISP deals mean, plus decide how much we hate the change to Comixology’s in-app purchasing system.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes
Today’s guest: Scott Johnson, of the frogs! With pants!    e

Headlines

Apple drops what?! CNET reports Apple made a minor spec upgrade to processors in its MacBook Air laptops, going from a 1.3GHZ chip to a 1.4GHz Core i5. However, Apple did something more unusual when it also dropped prices. The 11.6-inch MacBook Air dropped $100 dollars to $899 in the U.S. and £100 to £749 in the UK. The entry-level 13.3-inch Air dropped $100 to $999 in the U.S. and £849 in the UK.

Get walking, Lazy Bones: The Next Web reports on Acer’s latest product line announcement including the Liquid Leap smart band that tracks fitness and pairs with a smartphone. It’s 17mm wide and will come as a bundle with Acer’s Liquid Jade 5-inch smartphone. Both products are expected to launch in late July or early August, although not in the U.S. However, they might want to list on Amazon. That company just launched a new section of its site called Wearable Technology, covering smartwatches, wearable cameras such as the GoPro, healthcare devices and fitness trackers.

A lose-lose situation: Reuters reports Apple and Samsung both made their closing arguments in the titanic patent case going on in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Meanwhile, in the court of public opinion, TechCrunch reports Apple and Samsung are both losing. Strategy Analytics released smartphone market share figures for Q1. Samsung dropped a point to 31.2% of the market. Apple dropped two points to 15.3%. Huawei even stayed flat at 4.&%. The market as a whole grew 33%, so it’s smaller vendors like Lenovo who are making all the gains. 

Move over, Risto, there’s a new CEO in town: Chairman Risto Siilasmaa is done being Nokia’s interim CEO, according to Re/code. He can go back to his chairman role, as Rajeev Suri takes over as CEO of the new mobile-phoneless Nokia as of May 1st. Suri previously served as head of the company’s network infrastructure equipment business. He has been with Nokia since 1995.

Show me the … bitcoins: The Verge reports on the MIT Bitcoin Club’s program to give $100 worth of bitcoins to every MIT undergrad this autumn. The club raised a half million dollars from alumni and the bitcoin community in order to research what happens when an entire community has access to the currency. The club will work with the campus, local merchants and faculty for support in the project.

Twitter earnings

News From You

Our top story on the subreddit was submitted by spsheridan, pointing to a DSLReports post that the FCC has taken the unusual step of creating an email for feedback, regarding its open Internet guidelines, before the notice of proposed rulemaking has officially been approved in a meeting. You can send your thoughts about the proposed ‘net neutrality’ rules to [email protected]. The meeting to approve the notice happens May 15th, after which a period for public comment will open. 

gowlkick posted the CNET story about Firefox’s major interface refresh, the first big design change since 2011. Among the new features are a Firefox account to smooth cross-browser sync, a customizable graphic menu and rounded tabs that better emphasize what tab you’re looking at. You can now get to menu items from a triple-lined icon at the upper right, similar to Chrome and IE. Overall the changes attempt to unify the look across mobile and desktop. Firefox 29 is available at getfirefox.com

KAPT_Kipper sent in the Verge story that Netflix announced it has agreed to an interconnect agreement with Verizon, similar to the agreement it struck recently with Comcast. Netflix hopes the agreement will, “improve performance for our joint customers over the coming months.” After the Comcast agreement Verizon had indicated it was close to such an agreement itself. AT&T is said to be prusuing a similar deal.

ArokTheBourbonGuy submitted the Gizmodo story that University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering found graphene oxide nanoparticles are very mobile in lakes or streams and therefore likely to cause negative environmental impacts if released. Graphene in groundwater was found to settle out or be removed by subsurface environments. The work makes it important to reduce the risk of spilling graphene into surface water.

Discussion Section Links:  

http://recode.net/2014/04/28/netflix-signs-comcast-like-web-traffic-deal-with-verizon/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2615431/Netflix-signs-deal-Verizon-boost-speeds-subscribers.html

http://arstechnica.com/features/2008/09/peering-and-transit/

http://comicbook.com/blog/2014/04/27/gerry-conway-the-comixology-outrage/

Pick of the Day:  Xboot via Justin “Chivalrybean” Lowmaster

XBoot is a program to create a bootable USB stick from various ISO files. I use mine to load SpinRite, MemCheck, Ubuntu Live and some others. I found it while looking for one by watching this review on Hak5:  Thanks for the show, Tom and Scott!  

Wednesday’s guest:  Brian Brushwood of the Night Attack

Rafe Needleman joins us to talk about why you shouldn’t use any version of Internet Explorer for awhile, and how far off we are from Google’s self-driving car becoming available for everyone.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes
Today’s guest: Rafe Needleman, editorial director, Yahoo Tech  e

Headlines

Our top story on the subreddit today was submitted by both tekkyn00b and jaymz668. Ars Technica is among those reporting that attackers are actively exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer versions 6 through 11. There is no fix yet, so all users are advised to use an alternate browser. If that isn’t possible for some reason, users should install Microsoft’s Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit. FireEye wrote that disabling Adobe Flash neutralizes the attack. Disabling vector markup language support also mitigates the attack. 

Google’s Director of the Self-Driving Car project, Chris Urmson, made a blog post today about the project’s emphasis on city street driving. The self-driving car has logged 700,000 autonomous miles, but most of that is highway driving. City driving is much more complicated. New advances enable the car to read stop signs, recognize other objects like buses and pedestrians, and even tell when a bicyclist is indicating a lane change. 

Ars Technica reports that AOL is now urging all its customers to change passwords after an investigation into hacks reported last week. Turns out the breach affects at least two percent of accounts, with attackers getting email addresses, encrypted passwords, security question answers and other contact info. 

Recode has the story that Alibaba’s pre-IPO quiet period is not as quiet as you might have expected. The company invested $1.22 billion in video site YouKu Tudou today giving it an 18.5% stake in the popular video-sharing company. Alibaby also set up a joint venture with China’s leading mobile browser, UCWeb, to build a new mobile search engine called Shenma, in order to take on Baidu on mobile. Services like AliPay, Taobao and Tmall will be integrated into Shenma.

News From You

Spsheridan pointed us to the Skype blog post announcing that Skype group video calling is now free for all on Windows, Mac and Xbox One, with all platforms, including mobile, to get it free in the future. Existing paying users will be informed of the change, everybody else can just fire it up anytime they want.

KAPT_Kipper pointed us to the TorrentFreak article about Netflix posting a job for a software engineer experienced in peer-to-peer. Ars Technica spotted the ad which describes a focus on researching the possibility to allow users to stream videos via peer-to-peer technology. Netflix has pondered what would happen to peering agreements with it if ISP users were uploading as much as they downloaded. 

the_corley submitted the GigaOm story that Comcast has agreed to sell operations serving 1.4 million of its subscribers to Charter Communications and create a spinoff company to serve 2.5 million customers that would be part-owned by charter. The point would be to reduce the combined number of subscribers of a merged Comcast and TWC to less than 30% of the market by getting rid of 3.9 million subs. The FCC has tried to enforce a 30% subscriber market cap, though the courts wouldn’t allow it. COmcast is trying to follow the rule anyway as a way to win approval for the merger.

sebgonz posted the LA Times article about the discovery Saturday of the legendary ET Atari cartridges dumped in a landfill in Alamogordo, new Mexico. The excavation was done as part of a documentary being made to show on Microsoft’s Xbox game consoles later this year. No report yet if any of the cartridges were playable. 

metalfreak submitted the liliputing article about a new HP Slatebook running Android on a Tegra Chip. HP has not officially launched the device, but Notebook Italia discovered a promotional video on the HP website that describes it. The device will have a 14-inch HD display, 2 GB of RAM and 16GB storage, with microSD, HDMI, 3 USB ports and Beats Audio. No price or launch date was mentioned in the video. 

And lifedownloaded pointed out the Reuters report that Chinese authorities have ordered several television shows removed from Chinese video sites. The shows were shown with copyright approval from their makers, so this is not a piracy issue. Four shows, The Big Bang Theory, The Practice, The Good Wife and NCIS, were ordered removed from Youkou Tudou Sohu and Tencent. Last week a directive from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television tightened the process for getting approval to put TV and short films online. It is not clear why these four shows were targeted, although state TV broadcaster China Central TV recently acquired the rights for Big Bang Theory.

Discussion Section Links:  Self Driving Cars & IE Security Flaws

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/5-things-to-know-about-googles-self-driving-cars-84125852129.html

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-latest-chapter-for-self-driving-car.html

http://gigaom.com/2014/04/28/google-car-gets-much-better-at-city-driving/

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/new-security-flaw-affects-all-versions-of-internet-84085229159.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27184188

Pick of the Day:  Tadpole bluetooth speaker from iFrogz

Just wanted to pass on a quick pick of the day. I have three kids with iPhones that love listening to music in various locations (work, camping, hiking, etc.). They love to share audio as well and bluetooth speakers can be too pricey to want to risk in some of those situations. Enter the Tadpole bluetooth speaker from iFrogz (www.zagg.com). The Tadpole is a keychain size “speaker” that comes in a variety of colors. The sound is much larger than it’s size would indicate. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the highest quality sound but for the situations above and for only $20, it is well worth the price. it was definitely a hit with my kids and I will be grabbing a couple more. Love the show and thanks for all you do!  Greg in Houston

Tuesday’s guest:  Scott Johnson, of the frogs! With pants!