DTNS 2157 – What Google’s DeepMind plans

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comRaj Deut joins us to chat about Google’s AI ambitions, and check in on the PS4 Xbox One console wars a few months later.

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Show Notes

Google acquires AI company called “DeepMind”

Reuters reports Google acquired a UK company called “DeepMind” that works in artificial intelligence. According to the DeepMind website, the company wants to combine the “best techniques from machine learning and systems neuroscience to build powerful general-purpose learning algorithms.” DeepMind was founded a neuroscientist and child prodigy in chess Demis Hassabis along with Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman.

Apple Reports Flat Earnings during Holiday Season  Apple announced it’s Q1 earnings for the period ending Dec. 31 with $57.59  billion in revenue and earnings per share of $14.50.  Analysts expected $58.1 billion and $14.36.  

Federal prosecutors file criminal complaint against underground bitcoin exchange:

Ars Technica reports US Federal Prosecutors filed a criminal complaint in US Federal Court in Manhattan against two people charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. The two operated a company which sold bit coins for use on the now defunct Silk Road website. According to the complaint, Robert M. Faiella, 52, of Cape Coral, Florida, operated an underground Bitcoin exchange on Silk Road from 2011 to 2013 along with Charlie Shrem, 24, of New York City. Shrem is Vice President and acting CEO of BitInstant and Vice Chairman of the BitCoin Foundation.

News From You:

clemro posted a GigaOm story about Google and Samsung reaching patent peace. The two companies signed a 10-year cross-licensing deal for patents related to a broad range of technologies. Samsung also settled a court case by reaching a cross-licensing deal with Ericsson that will cost Samsung $650 million.

AllanAV posted a BitcoinBoard story about TigerDirect processing $500,000 worth of BitCoins in the first three days it began accepting the currency. More than 2500 orders were reportedly placed using BitCoin

And spsheridan passed along a BGR report highlighting a Russian blogger, Eldar Murtazin who claimed Google plans to discontinue the Nexus line of mobile devices in 2015 in favor of Google Play branded devices. Google has launched Play editions of the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S 4 among others, but those devices, while running stock Android are still updated by the carrier. Nexus devices get updates directly from Google, and therefore are the first devices to get updates.

More links from the show:

Microsoft to rename its SkyDrive cloud storage product to OneDrive

Two Aloft hotels will begin using Bluetooth proximity keys to allow guests to unlock their hotel rooms from their cell phone

TechCrunch reports Market research from Kantar Worldpanel shows Android continues to be the most popular smartphone platform with 69.5% of sales across 12 key markets worldwide.

DTNS 2156 – Take that outages!

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comMichael Wolf Joins to chat about Gmail’s assault on a Fresno man, the 30-year-old Mac, and the untold story of Nest.

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Show Notes

Gmail, G+, Hangout outage Google’s Gmail had a complete outage earlier today starting just after 2 PM Eastern time and finally getting a green light on Google’s Apps Status Board at just around 3:30 PM Eastern. The problem seemed to affect Google+ and 8 other apps according to the status board. It comes along with a very strange email bug. SearchEngineLand noted Also Google’s ESite Reliability Engineering team sat down for an AMA right as the outage happened, which was convenient for people wanting to know what was going on. Monday that a Gmail link in search was pre-filling a user’s name in the compose window when clicked. Yesterday, David S. Peck of Fresno, California began receiving thousands of blank emails. TechCrunch reports when you search Gmail on Google, and click the email sub link, a compose window comes up with Mr. Peck’s email pre-filled. Peck is a Business Marketing professional with experience in banking.

Qualcomm acquires HP’s old Palm patents: USA Today reports that Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm has acquired about 2,400 patents from Hewlett-Packard that were once owned by Palm. No word on how much Qualcomm paid or what their intentions are. LG bought WEbOS from HP last year. That means there’s very little left of Palm at HP.

News From You:

guyfromtrinidad pointed out an Engadget story about the Korea’s Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning, introducing new guidelines that guarantee a user’s right to uninstall software preinstalled on phones, aka Bloatware. Certain apps are exempt from the requirement such as WiFi, Settings and App Stores. The rules go into effect in April.

KAPT_Kipper spotted this Mashable story about developer Steven Hickson bypassing Snapchat’s new security feature which was meant to protect the service from bots. The new feature requires a user to spot the SnapChat logo when signing up. Hickson says he wrote a program to identify the logo automatically. It took him about 30 minutes to write it and he made it available on GitHub.

habichuelacondulce submitted this Time story about UK TV show Top Gear pitting a Mercedes driven by The Stig against a Google StreetView car in a race. The Streetview car claims it wasn’t racing at all but just mapping the track. Sure Streetview.

And stephenater sent us this Wired article about the first Internet.org hackathon. Developers were asked to test their apps on a simulated Indonesian and Nigerian networks running at 2G speeds. Internet.org is the consortium established last year by Facebook, Nokia, Samsung, Ericsson, Opera, Qualcomm, and MediaTek to bring the Internet to the two thirds of the planet that isn’t already online. Developers from Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, AccuWeather, Huffington Post, and even nonprofit Water.org learned how to make their apps work for the majority of the world’s citizens.

More links from the show: 

CNET reports Samsung made money last quarter, but made less money than the quarter before for the first time since 2011:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57617714-94/samsung-q4-operating-profit-misses-analyst-expectations/

EP&T reports IHS has released numbers showing Apple spent the most on semiconductors last year at $30.3 billion while Samsung drafted along right behind them at $22.2 billion:

http://www.ept.ca/news/apple-samsung-lord-over-oem-field-once-again/1002875822/?&er=NA

Facebook makes some predictions about the researchers at Princeton who made some predictions about Facebook:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57617715-93/facebook-pokes-holes-in-princeton-research-with-parody/

Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet very kindly ended our weeks with a Windows rumor. Looks like March 11th is shaping up to be the Windows 8.1 release date according to Mary Jo’s sources:

http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-windows-8-1-update-1-rumored-release-target-is-march-11-7000025559/

DTNS 2155 – Follow the path of the Beam

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comJason Hiner joins the show to talk about Lenovo buying the last of IBM’s PC business and where 3D printing meets the Internet of things. Also don’t text while walking.

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Show Notes

Apple to release two new iPhones in 2014: The Wall Street Journal reports Apple plans to release two new iPhones this year. Shocker, we know. Each of the two would have a bigger display than the iPhone 5S, estimated to be 4.5 inches and 5 inches respectively. Both phones would have the same aluminum design as the %S, meaning no plastic phone like the 5C. The smaller is allegedly in production while the bigger is in preliminary development.

Lenovo agrees to buy IBM server unit for $2.3 billion in cash and stock:  Ars Technica reports Lenovo agreed to buy IBM’s x86-based server unit for $2.3 billion in cash and stock. IBM will keep it’s high-end server and mainframe unit but all its x86-based businesses are now gone. IDC reported in August that IBM held the top spot in server market share, and about 3/4 of that was IBM’s x86 unit. That means Lenovo will quickly reach parity with Dell and likely come close to HP in the server market.

News From You:

clemro passed along a Phys.org story about a Virginia Tech research team that developed a battery that runs on sugar, maltodextrin to be exact, with an energy density an order of magnitude greater than other sugar-based batteries. A sugar-based battery would be cheaper, refillable, and biodegradable.  Sweet!

dmmacs passes along an iO9 retelling of an LA Times story, about a man named Mike Seay. Seay’s daughter died in a car accident last year. He recently received an absolutely awful piece of junk mail from Office Max, addressed to “Mike Seay, Daughter Killed in Car Crash.” Office Max told the LA Times the letter is a result of a mailing list rented through a third-party provider” and offered its apologies to Seay. OfficeMax is investigating why the information was aggregated in that way.

Tahras pointed us to Cory Doctorow’s post on Boing Boing about library audiobooks going DRM-free. Overdrive, which is a main supplier of digital material for libraries has announced it’s retiring its DRM’ed Windows media format for audiobooks and replacing it with unrestricted MP3s.

More links from the show:

Walking while texting is dangerous. Science says so: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/personal/2014/01/22/texting-walking-hazards/4647357/

TIVO says they’re ‘not out of the hardware business’, despite layoffs:  http://mashable.com/2014/01/23/tivo-hardware-not-dead/

9to5 Mac reports a new Apple TV set-top box is well into testing and could be introduced in the first half of this year. 

http://9to5mac.com/2014/01/23/new-apple-tv-set-top-box-likely-coming-soon-appgame-store-possible/

Neiman Marcus announced 1.1 million customer credit and debit cards may have been compromised by malicious software

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/01/23/neiman-marcus-11-million-cards/4796647/

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board said that the statute upon which the NSA’s phone record collection program was based “does not provide an adequate basis to support this program.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/independent-review-board-says-nsa-phone-data-program-is-illegal-and-should-end/2014/01/22/4cebd470-83dd-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html

Long days and pleasant nights, DTNS’ers!

DTNS 2154 – The YASMS Chasm

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comMolly Wood and Peter Wells join to talk abotut he great Chinese website blackout, T-Mobile USA becoming a bank, and more.

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Show Notes

DTNS 2153 – The Beats goes On

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comVeronica Belmont joins to chat about Beats Audio, 3D Printing and the sale of Intel’s OnCue.

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Show Notes

Verizon to acquire Intel’s media division:

Ars Technica reports Verizon will acquire Intel’s media division including the OnCue TV service. Verizon gets the intellectual property, products and employees in the deal. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam plans to incorporate OnCue into Verizon’s FiOS TV service. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of this quarter. The news came along with Verizon’s 4th quarter earnings report. Verizon posted a net income of $7.9 billion, or $1.76 a share, a nice jump over last year when the company lost $1.9 billion, or $1.48 a share. The company also added 1.6 million contract subscribers, despite price competition from T-Mobile USA.

 

 

Launch Day for Beats: CNET reports Jimmy Iovine’s Beats launched their new music service today on iOS and Android, with a Windows Phone version coming this Friday. There’s also a limited Web version for desktop. The service features staff-curated playlists as well as playlists curated from partners like music magazines. Users can select a ‘Just for You’ playlist based on their preferences, Highlighted lists created by Beats staff, The Sentence, which is a playlist created by filling in words mad-lib style, or just browse through genres and activities. The service has a 7 day free trial and then costs $10 a month, although longer trial periods and family plans are available for AT&T users.

News From You:

Dustin Schmidt on Google+ points us to a Bloomberg BusinessWeek story highlighting the fact that when Windows XP support ends on April 8, a lot of ATMs will be running an unsupported OS.

Habichuelacondulce submitted this BuzzFeed article reporting that people have raised 26 million dogecoins, about $33,000 worth, in support of the Jamaican Bobsleigh team. The team qualified for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia but needed $40,000 to pay for equipment and travel.Since that time Jamaica’s Olympic committee has announced it will pay for travel costs.

Webitube submitted this Washington Post story that the recently passed US budget will make about half of taxpayer-funded research available to the public. Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education agencies with research budgets of $100 million or more must give online access to their funded research within 12 months of publication in a peer-reviewed journal, making it openly accessible.

More links from the show:

Apple likely to announce record sales:

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2014/01/19/apple-iphone-q1-2014/

Man pulled out of theater for wearing Google glass

http://www.chron.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Man-Interrogated-By-FBI-For-Wearing-Prescription-5162212.php

RSA refusniks set up TrustyCon

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/01/trustycon-security-counter-convention-planned-for-rsa-refusniks/

 

DTNS 2152 – Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comTony Fadell promises Nest won’t spy and Amazon wants to read your mind. Just a few quick headlines as it’s a holiday in the US.

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And special thanks to Katie Best and Jennie Josephson for putting our News From you episodes together last week.

Show Notes

DTNS 2151 – News from You 2

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.com
Tom’s still on assignment for Sword & Laser, but his listeners fill in for him again with the “News From You.” Also, Darren Kitchen  of Hak5 reports from SchmooCon 2014.

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And special thanks to Katie Best and Jennie Josephson for putting these episodes together.

Show Notes

News From You:

Greg Skinner (TVsEgon) kicks of the show by sharing some thoughts on Cisco’s Internet of Things  predictions.

Another listener asks a simple question about the Internet of Things: Why?

Chimaera on the BBC’s report that China wants to clone all the things…starting with pigs.

Adam Paulauski has some questions about net neutrality.

EternalSword reports on the recent League of Legends and f.gwenifill DoS attacks.

Veronica Belmont reports in on a cool new rock found on Mars.  Veronica, Mars.

Steve Wooding on router vulnerabilities. Also, the port scanner.

Scott from Columbus has some thoughts on 3-D printing.

Steve for Steve’s Tech News on Windows 9

Carl from New York on the logistical issues of switching from AT&T to T-Mobile.

Benjamin J on Symantec  filing a patent for protecting BitTorrent users.

Stephenater on the cloud security concerns for (non-NSA) federal workers.

An electronic voice (!) on the NSA hacking non-internet connected computers.

Nathan Lock is back with his roundup of tech news in the UK including more Smart TV advances and how technology is helping to find the happiest place in the U.K.  Hint: It’s a pub.

Chase Nunes on the new Xbox One “Titanfall” Wireless Controller

Josh Page reports on the the miiPC at CES.

Rob Reed shares a Fortune article about how Uber and other companies are changing life for the cab drivers, not just the passengers.

Patrick Beja from France has some Tech Thoughts on the effects of app-centric computing.

And finally,  Russ Pitts  on Take This,  an organization that provides empathy, education and support about mental health and wellness.

DTNS 2150 – News From You

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.com
Tom’s on assignment for Sword & Laser, but he’s got a great fill-in host…you!  Also: Darren Kitchen of Hak5  files a report en route to ShmooCon 2014.

 

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And a special thanks to Katie Editor for editing today’s show!

Show Notes:

Spotify drops free web listening time limit:  http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/15/spotify-limits/ 

Facebook adds trending topics:  http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2014-01-16/facebook-adds-trending-topics-to-site

Starbucks storing mobile passwords in clear text:  http://www.wtop.com/628/3543679/Starbucks-storing-mobile-passwords-in-clear-text

News From You:

Rich From Cleveland kicks off News From You with thoughts  on the 4k TV’s coming out of CES.

Dominique Corriveaux’s  has some ideas about on 4k TV prices.

Stephenater on wearable tech and whether it will translate beyond the ‘tech-o chamber’.

Anthony From Long Island on issues with the Fitbit Force.

Paul Kitchen on future IPv6 concerns.

Nathan Lock with updates from the UK tech scene on changes to Humax for Freesat, and the death of O2′s Wallet.

TJoe reports on Android on Atom.

Randall Bennett from Vidpresso on apps vs desktop platforms.

Toby Pinder on quantum bitcoin mining.

Google’s acquisition of Nest is still on your collective mind:

DJ has long-term concerns about Google’s track record of shutting down ‘unused’ services.

A listener from Edmonton has thoughts about Nest and Google’s customer service track records.

Nicole Lee of Engadget sends her take on the Google/Nest pairing.

In fact, Google in general is occupying your collective thoughts: 

Richardya on Google’s methods of acquiring new users.

Scott Johnson of FrogPants Studios and Current Geek  has some predictions on Google’s future.

Adam Christianson from the Maccast has some final thoughts on Google, including that that one we’re all thinking…you know, the one it might be time to worry about?

Molly Wood has a special message for Tom.

And finally, Patrick Beja checks in from France with a tech thought worth pondering about hackers.

 

 

 

 

DTNS 2149 – Encrypt all the things

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comScott Johnson and Darren Kitchen join me to chat about the latest NSA revealtions, the ultra-secure new Blackphone, and whether encryption and security have gone mainstream.

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Show Notes

Apple refunds $32.5 million as part of FTC settlement: The BBC reports  Apple will refund US$32.5 million as part of a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission. The settlement is in response to complaints about in-app purchases made by children without parental consent. Apple has also agreed to change billing procedures to insure customers give comest before they are charged. That change will be in place by March 31st. An internal email from CEO Tim Cook obtained by 9to5 Mac claims the settlement terms were things Apple would have done anyway.

The Blackphone: Ars Technica reports Phil Zimmermann, the creator of PGP email encryption, along with other folks from the SilentCircle encryption company have teamed up with the Geeksphone folks to create a new mobile phone called the Blackphone that will feature a suite of privacy and security tools. Its PrivatOS will feature secure phone calling, tecting, video chat, file sharing, browsing, and a built-in VPN. The Blackphone will be unlocked and work on GSM carriers. Blackphone will be available for pre-order beginning February 24, 2014, at Mobile World Congress.

NYT: NSA has implanted software in 100k computers worldwide: The New York Times reports the NSA has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world, some of which aren’t connected to the Internet. How? The agency secretly inserts circuit boards sometimes by USB which transmit covert radio signals to a base station that is up to 8 miles away. The cards can be inserted by spies, manufacturers, or sometimes an unwitting user. Targets of the project include the Chinese Army, Mexican drug cartels and Mexican police, EU trade institutions and various friendly governments. The information comes from documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

News From You:

Facebook to launch Flipboard-like reader?  tm204’s subreddit submission seems to have garnered some interest from you. He posted a ReCode story about Facebook possibly launching a Flipboard-like news reader this month. According to Recode’s Mike Isaac, the product would be known as “Paper” and be a mobile-focused news reading app or possibly Web app. The product supposedly comes out of the team behind the Facebook News Feed and is an attempt to make Facebook into your morning news-reading experience much like the good old newspaper used to be.

Human travel to Mars affordable by the 2030s?  stephanater’s submission got some votes from y’all too. Mashable reports sending humans to Mars by the 2030s could be affordable. Relatively speaking. A workshop of 60 folks from government, academic, and other organizations found that a NASA-led mission could work within the agency’s budget if it was restored to pre-sequestration levels. NASA would also have to continue to develop the Space Launch System heavy lifting rocket and the Orion space capsule.

The News From You segment reflects YOUR votes so get in the subreddit and vote at dailytechnewsshow.reddit.com

More links from the show: 

EU wants more concessions from Google related to anti-competition charges:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/15/us-eu-google-idUSBREA0E0PF20140115

Hewelett-Packard is getting back into the smartphone market, sort of:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2088241/hp-launches-voiceenabled-tablets-in-india.html

New versions of Google’s Chrome browser for iOS and Android include  optional setting to reduce browser data usage by up to 50 percent:

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/15/5311892/chrome-reduced-data-usage-google-translate-app-shortcuts

DTNS 2148 – Is Net Neutrality Dead?

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comAllison Sheridan and Jon Brodkin join the show to talk about the doom of Net Neutrality, uncarriers, and more.

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Show Notes

US Court of Appeals rules FCC can regulate ISP policies, but…. Reuters reports the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled the FCC does have the authority to regulate ISPs traffic policies, but under the FCC’s own rules it cannot regulate ISP’s as a common carrier. Therefore the court ruled in favor of Verizon regarding two rules that prevented blocking of applications and discriminating against traffic. The Court ruling could be reheard, appealed to the Supreme Court, or the FCC was given a chance by the Court to adjust its policies.

More links: 

Net Neutrality is half dead:  http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/01/net-neutrality-is-half-dead-court-strikes-down-fccs-anti-blocking-rules/

The ruling:  http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/3AF8B4D938CDEEA685257C6000532062/$file/11-1355-1474943.pdf

How the FCC screwed up its chance to make ISP blocking illegal:  http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/01/how-the-fcc-screwed-up-its-chance-to-make-isp-blocking-illegal/

Moto G: Google Play edition:  In lighter news, The Next Web points out Google just released a Google Play edition of the Moto G for $179 in 8GB and $199 in 16GB. That’s unsubsidized, unlocked, and unskinned. It’s also Unavailable outside the US. ON the flip side the Moto X will start shipping in Europe in February where it will cost £380 or €399 without a contract.

News From You: 

NewEgg wins Supreme Court decision: nzit posted to the subreddit a press release from NewEgg touting their victory in the US Supreme Court over Shopping Cart patents. Soverain Software had claimed NewEgg and others had violated its patents for online shopping carts. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit invalidated as obvious Soverain’s patents. Soverain appealed to the Supreme Court which yesterday denied the appeal letting the previous decision stand.

Charter Communications offers to acquire TimeWarner Cable, TWC declines: clemro submitted this ZDNet story that Charter Communications made an offer valued at US$61.3 billion to acquire the US third largest cable company, Time Warner Cable. TimeWarner Cable’s Board of Directors unanimously rejected the offer. Charter intends to appeal to the shareholders directly.

More links from the show: 

CNET reports Facebook has agreed to a deal with Russian search engine Yandex for access to Facebook’s stream of public data:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57617200-93/facebook-opens-public-data-to-russian-search-engine-yandex/

WinAmp + Shoutcast = done! 

http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/14/aol-sells-winamp-and-shoutcast-for-5-10m-to-radionomy-takes-12-stake-in-belgian-digital-audio-company/

AMD unveils Kaveri processor: 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/14/amd_unveils_kaveri_hsa_enabled_apu/

Steam virtual reality overlay available in the beta client:

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/14/steam-vr/

Device support changes for Ubuntu Touch:  

http://androidcommunity.com/ubuntu-touch-device-support-dwindles-20140113/