Cordkillers 60 – Crying Over Buffering

Cordkillers / March 3rd, 2015

How the housing market is bad news for cable and Hungary shows why cable could boost YouTube viewership.

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CordKillers: Ep. 60 – Crying Over Buffering
Recorded: March 2, 2015
Guest: Alex Hanna

Intro Video

Primary Target

Signal Intelligence

Gear Up

  • Surprise: Cable viewers really like YouTube on their set-tops
    –    Cloud Virtualization provider ActiveVideo used UPC Hungary as a case study for adding YouTube to a cable TV set-top box
    – 200K of 910K subs got it forst. 320K got it in following months
    – 68% tried it.
    – 83% of tryers became repeat users
    – 1 million minutes a day avg. session 45 minutes
    -(UPC boxes stream video only. Cloud handles all YouTube video through ActiveVideo)

Front Lines

Under Surveillance

Dispatches from the Front

Dear Brian & Tom

Just thought I’d share how much I pay here in the UK & talk a bit more about the TV license;

TV License is £145 annually ($223) – but it’s quite nice that all of the BBC channels (TV and Radio) are advert-free. The iPlayer is superb. It’s almost worth it for the kids TV channels alone.. the quality of those programs is really high, and you know the kids are actually learning something most of the time (and aren’t getting bombarded with ads).

BT for fibre broadband; £23 a month (38 Mbps down, 10 up, unlimited data), with an additional £17 a month line rental that includes the phone line.

Freeview HD OTA.. no monthly fee. I use a Humax Freeview HD DVR box I bought years ago.

Total = £52 a month ($80) for TV and unlimited fibre broadband.

Keep up the good work on the show,

Mat
Leeds, UK.

 

I know Brian uses At&t for his internet connection, but I wonder if he was aware of all the “free” stuff bundled in to the Standard (we’ll spy on you) package that make the difference between the plans $66 if you have both TV and Internet or $44 if you only have Internet.

John 

Hey Tom and Brian!

Listening to Spoilerin’ Time 59 while Brain’s talking about how hard it is to see The Walking Dead.

I have a Quick Tip: I don’t have a cable package JUST Time Warner Cable for Internet. I can still use my TWC account to log into AMC.com to watch the live stream of their channel, even though I don’t pay for the channel. It appears their authorization system doesn’t differentiate between cable packages. So I can watch Better Call Saul and Walking Dead live with no trouble at all.

Mike

 

 

Brian,

I think that Better Call Saul is set later than what you thought (late 80’s -early 90’s). In the first episode when he is ordering flowers for his potential clients (right before he runs into the kid on the skateboard), he is reading off his credit card and he says that the expiration is 11/04. So, I would estimate that the show is set sometime between 2000-2004.

Your boss,
Alex

 

 

Hi, Tom and Brian. In the last few episodes you’ve been asking people how much they pay for internet, and I thought I’d chime in. I’ve been a cord-cutter for 2 years UNTIL about two weeks ago!

Previously: 50mbps for $67 including taxes and fees.
Now: $70 for 105Mbps PLUS cable

I originally contacted Comcast (via support chat) to see how I can get my bill lowered. I have NO other broadband options for my apartment. You know the game. They told me they couldn’t give me a better price unless I was a new customer, so I went to the fabled customer retention. THEY said if I bundle, they could save me money. Great! “What are your bundles?” “Oh, we don’t have one for 50mbps anymore. But for $3 extra we can give you 105Mbps but only if you bundle cable.” What?! While I’m ideologically opposed to that crappy practice, why would I not double my internet speed for $3? I asked them to not bother sending me the cable box and they waived the setup and shipping fees, and tried to send me the box anyway. I told them, “Seriously, I don’t want it. Count me as a metric if you want but I don’t care about cable at all.” They offered to waive the monthly box rental fee if I just took box anyway. Fine. I guess it shows how desperate they are to retain/add cable subscribers in certain markets. Of course, I kept the transcript of the whole thing so there’s no funny business. ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, now it’s much easier to watch National Geographic’s Hacking the System. You should watch it sometime…

Your very pleased boss <>,
Cory

 

 

Hey guys, love the show. I was pondering on the nature of youtube and convenience. As in introduction: I am a 25 year old, second generation cord-neverer. My parents cut the cord before I was born and I grew up on broadcast and P2P file sharing. I use (in descending order) Netflix, Pluto.TV, Amazon Prime, and Hulu(free).

The fact is, I never really mastered YouTube when I was younger. As such, I do not use at as a media consumption platform. I use it pretty much only for tutorials or archived videos. Now that I am so stuck in the routine of hands off viewing YouTube, frankly, seems as antiquated to me as DVR, brodcast, DVD, or torrents.

So, Brian, Tom, riddle me this, am I crazy in thinking we are a few years away from a world where pirated media, ripped and uploaded to youtube, would be so inconvenient to seek out and watch that you would be as likely to choose to watch it as you would daytime broadcast TV? That content available on YouTube might as well be sitting in a Blockbuster? I promise you this, if SnapChat made a TV and I missed it, I sure as heck wouldn’t go try to find it on YouTube.

Thanks guys,
Anthony in San Antonio

 

 

Hey Tom and Brian just wanted to pass along another assignment as one of your bosses and let you know you should give the BBC show Broadchurch a chance. While I say you should do it before the Fox version comes out, they BOTH have David Tennent as lead so makes it interesting enough to watch both. My opinion is it has been a great murder mystery show with perfect character development.

Keep up the great work,
Nick from Austin and cord free for almost 15 years.

 

 

 

Links
patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box

DTNS 2440 – Drones, Lasers, and Satellites, Oh My!

Daily Tech News Show / March 2nd, 2015

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comWhy Samsung Pay may be the biggest announcement at Mobile World Congress, and you won’t believe what +Lamarr Wilson thinks of the Galaxy S6.

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Lamarr Wilson, host, showcaser, and internet personality at lamarrwilson.com

Headlines: 

Google’s Sundar Pichai dropped some announcement bombs at MWC. Project Titan is about to be where Project Loon was a couple years ago, taking its first test steps. Titan delivers Internet by drone where Loon does it by balloon.

In addition to continuing to experiment with balloons and drones for delivering data, the company plans to launch an experimental mobile network in the US in the “coming months” as an MVNO. The network will be rolled out in cooperation with unnamed mobile carrier partners and will combine WiFi and LTE for coverage. TechCrunch reports Pichai said the company does not intend to be a network operator at scale. Interesting sidenote. T-Mobile also announced a combined WiFi and LTE network in the WiFI bands coming in 2016.

Pichai also said he works closely with Magic Leap and used Google Translate as an example of something the mythical AR product can improve.

He also mentioned Google Pay, a project to give app developers a consistent back-end to operate mobile payments in their apps. Google would provide API access to a secure way to store payment info and tokenize card numbers for any app maker.  So consider it all a big Google I/O teaser trailer.

Not be outdone, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the MWC audience that Facebook is still building drones, lasers and satellites of its own in order to spread Internet around the world as part of the Internet.org project. According to Mashable, Zuck even said he love to do more in cooperation with Google on the project. Although he did downplay the lasers and satellites saying most of Internet.org will be delivered through more traditional means.

CNET noted that responding to a concern from Telenor Group CEO Jon Frederik Baksaas, Zuckerberg emphasized that apps like FB Messenger and WhatsAPP— which compete with carriers own messaging services — will not be included in Internet.org offerings.

GigaOM reports Mario Zanotti, SVP of operations at Millicom said data users rose 30% in Paraguay and 10 times in Tanzania after rolling out Internet.org.

Reuters reports HP says it will buy WiFi networking gear maker Aruba Networks for around $2.7 billion. That would be HP’s biggest acquisition since it bought Autonomy Plc in 2011, an acquisition that did not go well. The acquistion would boost HP’s share of enterprise WLAN market from 4-5% by adding Aruba’s 10-13%. HP still plans to separate its compuert and printer business from its enterprise hardware and services business later this year.

TechCrunch reports SGP Technologies announced the BlackPhone 2 at MWC. The new security-focused phone has an all-glass front and rear, along with a 5.5-inch full HD display, 64-bit processor and more RAM. It goes on sale this summer. Silent Circle also showed of a prototype of an 8-inch tablet called Blackphone+ set for an autumn release. SGP also announced a tablet-based secure audio conferencing system called Silent Meeting.

Intel has announced a slate of new mobile processors from Mobile World Congress according to Wired. The X3, is an inexpensive, entry-level System on a Chip with either a 3G or 4G LTE modem, bluetooth and x86 architecture. The X5 and X7 are positioned as mid and high end chips and also the first 14nm System on a Chip designs for tablets. Both chips have double the graphics power of previous intel chips and support for features like RealSense 3D and TrueKey face recognition password authentication all without reducing battery life. Intel also announced a new LTE advanced modem, the XMM 7360 with promises of more stable connections and download speeds of 450 Mbps via carrier aggregation. Devices featuring the modem will appear in the 2nd half of the year. X3 devices will ship this quarter while quad-core 3G and LTe versions as well as X5 and X7 devices will come in the 2nd half of the year.

9to5 Mac reports Apple CEO Tim Cook told Apple store employees in Berlin last week that the Apple Watch will launch in Germany in April, the first indication the Watch would launch in multiple countries.

Gamasutra reports that Unreal Engine 4 is now completely free to download for all. Current subscribers to the rights to develop on the engine will receive a prorated refund for the current monthly charge. Anyone who ever had a subscription will receive a $30 credit of the Unreal Engine Marketplace. While development is now free royalties on sales of games that use the engine remain thes same. 5% on gross revenue of each project after the first $3,000 earned.

CNET reports Alcatel launched a reversible phone called the OneTouch Idol 3— meaning you can hold it upside down and still talk on it— and a 6-inch Hero 2+ phablet for $299 both running Cyanogen OS.

Ars Technica reports despite Google’s frequent claims that Lollipop will come with encryption on by default, this seems to apply only to Nexus devices. The latest version of the Android Compatibility Definition document gives carriers an out by saying, “it is very strongly RECOMMENDED as we expect this to change to MUST in the future versions of Android.” So not quite yet for all phones. It’s suspected that performance issues may have caused Google to give way a bit this time around.

Ars Technica also notes that OS X 10.10.3 beta is now public, bringing the new Photos app with it. You can find out more at https://appleseed.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/

News From You: 

starfuryzeta sent us the news that Google Plus has changed leadership again. Ars Technica reports that Bradley Horowitz has taken over for Dave Besbris, who took over for Vic Gundotra eleven months ago. Some recent comments by high ranking Googlers seem to indicate that Hangouts will be “split out” from G+. Horowitz referred to his department as Photos and Stream products.

Cosmicvibes sent us this Register UK story that Blackberry has announced it will port key client features like the soft keyboard, Universal Search and Hub to iPhone and Android in the enterprise. Blackberry will offer 3 bundles: The Security Suite which includes containers, authentication and VPN features, The Communcation Suite and a Productivity Suite. All bundles will require a blackberry server and will only be available to consumers if their mobile provider makes it available to them.

davidpolanco pointed out the Engadget story that SanDisk showed off a 200GB microSD card that still transfers at 90MB a second. And it only costs $400 when it ships in Q2!

More News From WWC:  

Samsung had an uncharacteristically straightforward announcement at Mobile World Congress yesterday. No dancing. No singing. No skits. Just The Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones, a new version of the Gear VR for those phones.

The S6 has a 5.1-inch Super AmOLED screen capable of 577 ppi. It has an Exynos Octacore processor with 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM. Options from 32 to 128 GB of storage, and no SD card slot. Built-in wireless charging for WPC and PMA standards BUT no more removable battery. The fingerprint scanner no longer requires a swipe. The S6 Edge is essentially the S6 with a rounded touch screen that wraps around both sides of the phone and can deliver specialized alerts.

Coming to both phones later this year is Samsung Pay which bundles in LoopPay’s magnetic swipe emulator along with NFC which means it should be accepted at almost any retailer that takes credit cards. And a new Gear VR takes advantage of the S6’s improved display resolution, is 15% smaller than the older Gear VR, although it’s still an Innovator’s edition.

Both S6’s go on sale April 10 around the world, in white, pearl, Black Sapphire and Gold Platinum with a Blue Topaz S6 option and Green Emerald S6 Edge.

HTC announced a new One, the HTC One M9. It looks similar to the M8 but has a Snapdragon 810 processor, moves the UltraPixel camera to the front in favor of a 20-megapixel camera on the back. It comes with 100 GB of Google Drive storage too. The Next Web says the M9 will come to Taiwan and Europe in mid-March and the US later in the month.

HTC also announced a standalone fitness tracker called the Grip GPS. It’s rugged and waterproof with an OLED touchscreen. It goes on sale in the US for $199 this spring, and the Verge says a series of global devices coming later this year.

We also heard about the HTC Vive, a virtuality reality headset made by HTC in partnership with Valve coming sometime in the Spring to developers. This is not a case you slide an HTC phone into either it’s a full on Oculus Rift competitor. Engadget says it will plug into your PC and work with some kind of tracked controllers. Google, Lionsgate and HBO are all on board as partners.

Engadget reports Sony announced the Xperia Z4 tablet and the mid range Xperia M4 aqua phone at Mobile World Congress. The Z4 tablet is pitched as an iPad Air competitor. It has a Snapdragon 810 octacore processor, 2560 x 1600 screen and is 6.1 mm thick weighing 389 grams all running Android 5.0 Lollipop. No price but it’s coming this spring. The M4 Aqua looks similar to the Z3 compact. It has a 5-inch 720p display, an octa-core Snapdragon 615 processor, LTE, 8GB of storage (expandable with microSD) and a 13-megapixel rear camera with a wide f/2.0 aperture. It’s priced at €299 coming to 80 countries in the spring. Both devices are waterproof.

The Next Web reports Microsoft launched the Lumia 640, a 5-inch Windows Phone device that will go on sale in April. The device will ship with Windows 8.1 but will be upgradeable to Windows 10 later this year. It comes with 8GB of onboard storage and will have single and dual-SIM variants. Microsoft also announced a “super-sized” 640 XL with a 5.7-inch HD display and a 13-megapixel camera, which measures 9mm thick, also on sale in April. Both models include 1 year of Office 365 included, both have 3G and LTE models. The Lumia 640 3G model will cost around €139 ($156), the LTE version will cost €159 ($179), the XL version with 3G will cost €189 ($212), and the LTE version will cost €219 ($246)

Qualcomm announced the forthcoming 64-bit Kryo- based Snapdragon 820 will run its Zeroth cognitive computing platform. That means your phone could supposedly learn how to protect against unknown malware, and use interfaces that recognize expressions and head movements among other contextual behavior. Samples should deliver to by the end of the year. Engadget reports Qualcomm also announced a new 3D fingerprint sensor called Sense ID which uses ultrasound to detect fingerprints through glass and metal. It should come to hardware later this year.

Reuters reports NTT DoCoMo and Nokia are partnering to bring 5G wireless to the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020. The companies say they can achieve 2 Gbps in an indoor trial using the 70 GHz spectrum. They plan an outdoor trial later this year. CNET reports AT&T and Nokia Networks believe 5 G networks may also be rolled out elsewhere in 2020.

ZDNet reports Cyanogen and Qualcomm will partner up to provide Cyanogen OS for future Qualcomm reference devices running the 200, 400 and 600 series processors. The reference design program is meantto streamline the rapid introduction of devices at lower development costs. Cyanogen’s new Launcher will be provided to these low to mid level devices.

CNET reports that Jolla is launching Sailfish OS 2.0 and issued a call to companies from Russia, India, China and Japan to join the Sailfish crew. Jolla promises that Sailfish will have an improved interface and support for intel chips, include enhanced notifications, event view simpler access to functions via swiping, and features to improve privacy. Sailfish 2.0 is available for licensing to manufacturers and partners.

arstechnica posted a hands on preview of HP’s Spectre x360, a convertible laptop/tablet featuring Broadwell processor and all metal construction. The 15.9mm thick and 3.3lbs device folds similar to the Lenovo Yoga has, 3 USB ports, SD card reader, a mini DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI port, an Intel HD 5500 GPU for 4K output at 60Hz, 13inch screen. Pricing starts at $899 for a 1080p IPS touchscreen, with a Broadwell i5 processor, anintegrated HD 5500 GPU, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB SSD

Xiaomi announced a GoPro-Style action camera for $64. The Yi Action Camera records video at 1080p (60 frames per second) and includes a 16-megapixel camera that uses Sony’s Exmor R BSI CMOS image sensor. The Yi has 64GB of memory and weighs 73grams, and can go 40 meters underwater. The device is available in China at the Mi.com store.

Pick of the Day: The Tea Table via Eric

I know you have had a lot of coffee picks, so I thought I’d throw in one for the tea-lovers in the audience. I’ve been buying my loose-leaf tea from http://theteatable.com/ for a few years now, and I can’t recommend them highly enough. They have a great selection of teas– black, green, herbal, you name it– at great prices. They also have a pretty good selection of teapots and other accessories, including the Finum Brew Basket, which could be a pick in its own right. -=Eric

Tuesday’s guest: Patrick Beja

DTNS 2439 – LLAP Mr. Nimoy

Daily Tech News Show / February 27th, 2015

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comTim Stevens is on the show to chat about Tim Stevens world tour and the idea of Apple Watch controlling your car. We’ll also share a moment about how Leonard Nimoy affected our lives. And Len Peralta will be there to memorialize it all in song. Or art. Probably art.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Tim Stevens, CNET editor at large and Len Peralta, artist

Check out Len’s art for this week at lenperaltastore.com

Headlines: 

Engadget passes along that Google won’t ban adult content posted to Blogger after all. The company had announced that existing sexually explicit images and video would be made private and future such material might be deleted. Not anymore. Google cited “a ton of feedback” and the “negative impact on individuals who post sexually explicit content to express their identities.” Jessica Pelegio, Google’s social product support manager wrote in the Blogger Help Forum “we’ve decided to step up enforcement around our existing policy prohibiting commercial porn.” Google also called on blog owners to mark any blog pages with adult conent as “adult” so they can be placed behind a warning page.

The Daily Telegraph got to accompany Apple CEO Tim Cook on a surprise visit to the Apple Store in Covent Garden, London. While most of the article discusses known features of the forthcoming Apple Watch such as fitness tracking and Apple Pay, it also mentioned that Cook said the watch could replace car keys. That’s sure to give more fuel to the Apple Car rumors.

TechCrunch reports that Google has unveiled plans for new headquarters in Mountain View, which will be a simple block of offices. Ha. KIDDING! It’s going to be monstrous. The new headquarters would be made of a semi-transparent series of canopies covering lightweight block structures that can be moved around as Google focuses on new products. This is the first time Google has designed and built new offices from scratch, and it partnered with Bjarke Ingels at BIG and Thomas Heatherwick at Heatherwick Studio to create the design. The nearly ten-minute video of the concept is best enjoyed with a tiny espresso and a masters in architecture.

The Next Web reports UK TV and broadband provider Talk Talk confirmed that its networks were breached in December. Attackers took personal data like names, addresses phone numbers and TalkTalk account numbers. Some customers have been targeted as a result. TalkTalk has taken steps to remedy the situation and continues to work with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

As VentureBeat reports, VideoLAN launched a big update to its VLC media player today. After a year of work on the VLC engine and libVLC library by volunuteers you can get new versions of the player for desktop, iOS, and Android as well as beta versions for Android TV, Windows Phone and Windows RT. Lots of features have been brought across from one platform to another, like resume playback and in-app downloading coming to the desktop. But all platforms get the ability to automatically detect rotated videos as well as improved support for multiple codecs including VP89, and H265.

ZDNet reports Silent Circle has bought out Geeksphone’s share of the SGP technologies, maker of the JV and Blackphone products. Silent Circle plans to announce a privacy ecosystem, including new devices, software and services, at Mobile World Congress.

Lenovo’s next batch of Windows 10 PCs will ship with limited amounts of unrequested software reports the Verge. Lenovo announced it will begin shipping with fewer pre-installed apps hoping to “become the leader in providing cleaner, safer PCs.” Lenovo machines will come with the operating system and related software, software required to make hardware work well (like device drivers), security software and Lenovo applications. Lenovo will also post information about all pre-installed software and explain clearly what it does.

 

 

 

News From You: 

thgraphics sent us this story from ZDNet about the Chinese government backing away from US tech brands for state purchases. A recent Reuters report revealed a number of US tech brands like Apple, Cisco, Intel and McAfee have been dropped from the Chinese government’s list of authorized brands. The number of foreign technology brands fell by a third based on an analysis of the list.

If you thought patent wars were over, KAPT_Kipper would like you to think again. The GigaOm story he flagged says Ericsson filed two complaints Thursday with the International Trade Commission against Apple for “infringing Ericsson patents that are essential to the 2G and 4G/LTE standards.” It also filed multiple complaints in the US Eastern District of TExas court over the infringement of 41 patents. Well at least Apple ended a patent case Tuesday. OH wait! Smartflash LLC, which one $532.9 million Tuesday figured Apple’s too good a mark to let go. So Smartflash is suing Apple for infringement of the same two patents it one on Tuesday bit used in devices not covered int he previous case.

 

Discussion Section Links:  

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/watch/11439847/Apple-Watch-will-replace-your-car-keys-says-Tim-Cook.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-visiting-germany-belgium-and-israel-2015

 

http://www.cnet.com/news/actor-leonard-nimoy-mr-spock-dies-at-83/

Pick of the Day: 

@TheRealNimoy https://twitter.com/TheRealNimoy/status/569762773204217857

 

Monday’s guest: Lamarr Wilson

 

DTNS 2438 – We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Net

Daily Tech News Show / February 26th, 2015

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comJustin Young is in to talk about the US FCC’s vote to adopt new Open Internet Rules under a Title II classification for ISPs. Plus Jonathan Strickland joins to help us understand what the heck Title II is.

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Justin Robert Young and Jon Strickland

Headlines: 

The US FCC voted 3-2 to adopt an order for new Open Internet Rules. Broadly the rules will enhance the existing transparency order and prevent blocking and discrimination under the authority of Title II of the Communications act of 1934. The new rules have not been made public. The FCC must receive and respond to dissenting statements from the commissioners who voted against the rules. Once that has happened the rules will be published in the Federal Register and will go into effect 60 days from the date of publication.

The US FCC also voted 3-2 to preempt state laws to allow the City of Wilson, North Carolina and the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee to expand their existing gigabit broadband service to nearby towns where speeds offered are not as fast.

TechCrunch reports that Apple sent out invites today for an event at 10am on Monday, March 9th with the tagline “spring forward.” What in the world could they possibly be talking about on that day? Well Daylight Saving Time begins in the US on March 8, the day before the event so it could just be a really elaborate reminder to test smoke alarms and reset clocks. Or it could be the Apple Watch. And I guess it could also include MacBookAir or iPad updates to um, pad out the announcement.

TechCrunch reports Google launched a pilot program to allow app developers to advertise their apps in the Google Play store. Devs running Google search ads already can choose to have the ads also run against Play store searches. This would put their app at the top of the search result with a small ‘Ad’ button appearing under the App’s name. To start, the ads will begin running on the latest version of the Play store for a small number of smartphone users only.

ZDNet reports Docker’s orchestration services are now available to the public. Compose 1.1 and beta version of Machine and Swarm are all available for download. Machine lets any laptop, server or VM run Docker apps, Swarm clusters multiple servers into a single machine and Compose makes it easier to build a complex distributed app from a number of containers. This marks the evolution of Docker from one-off containers into a full platform. Docker has more than 30 partners including AWS, Google, IBM, Microsoft and VMware.

VentureBeat passes along news from Strategy Analytics that Apple’s estimated global smartphone operating profit reached $18.8 billion last quarter up 31% year over year making up 88.7% of the market. Android cashed in 4.8 billion for 11.3%. Careful mathematicians will note that adds to 100%. That means while Android dominates sales, Apple’s making all the money and no other platform is making squat.

Ars Technica reports on a blog post on EFF.org indicating evidence of possible exploitations of the insecure certificates issued by Komodia as part of Superfish and other software. Researchers Joseph Bonneau and Jeremy Gillula found more than 1600 entries in the Decentralized SSL observatory of certs that should have been rejected but were accepted by Komodia. Some of the certs might have been invalid due to routine issues but the researchers felt it was unlikely all of them were.

News From You: 

melchizedek74 and KAPT_Kipper want us to know that if that Superfish news wasn’t enough of a headache for Lenovo, Engadget reports that Lenovo.com was hijacked to show pictures of kids at computers with a link to a Twitter account claiming to represent the group Lizard Squad. In addition Ars Technica reports the DNS hijack was also able to intercept email before Cloudflare updated the MX records. Which basically means they took this hijack to the Max, Justin.

HobbitfromPA wanted us to make sure we mentioned the DroidLife story that Google Play Music has doubled its capacity from 25,000 songs to 50,000 all still at the low low price of nothing.

Discussion Section Links:  

http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/26/fcc-passes-strict-net-neutrality-regulations-on-3-2-vote/?ncid=rss
http://publicpolicy.verizon.com/assets/docs/VZ_NR_–_2-26-15_VZ_Statement_on_Open_Internet_Order_FINAL_1.pdf
http://live.theverge.com/fcc-title-ii-net-neutrality-live-blog/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-25/at-t-verizon-set-to-clash-with-fcc-over-mobile-web-regulations
https://gigaom.com/2015/02/25/mark-cuban-on-net-neutrality-fcc-cant-protect-competition/
http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/why-everyone-was-wrong-about-net-neutrality
http://strawpoll.me/3738696/r
https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2011/09/23/2011-24259/preserving-the-open-internet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verizon_Communications_Inc._v._FCC_%282014%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast_Corp._v._FCC
http://www.circleid.com/posts/20100406_fcc_comcast_ancillary_jurisdiction_ancillary_to_something/
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/26/8115953/fcc-net-neutrality-vote-reactions

 

Pick of the Day: Hola.org
Co-Executive Producer Biocow recommends hola.org. Hola is a browser plug-in that creates a VPN through dozens of countries.

Hola was simple to instal and very easy to use. It creates a button in the browser which when clicked opens a nice interface that lets you scroll through countries and displays a small flag of the country you’re browsing through.

I used this on a Mac using FireFox but their site says they have solutions for Mac and PC, FireFox and Chrome and even Androids, iPhone and iPad.

Thursday’s guest:  Tim Stevens and Len Peralta

 

DTNS 2437 – Gemalto Says it’s Just SIM Antics

Daily Tech News Show / February 25th, 2015

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comChris Ashley joins us to talk about whether we believe Gemalto when they say no SIM keys were stolen, and whether Microsoft plans to supplant Google on Android.

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Show Notes

Today’s guest: Chris Ashley, co-host of the SMR podcast

Headlines: 

Gemalto issued a press release today stating it detected two sophisticated intrusions in 2010 that it now believes could have been an operation by the US NSA and UK GCHQ as described in leaks from Edward Snowden. Gemalto is the world’s largest supplier of SIM Cards for phones. One intrusion was an attempt to intercept communication by employees in a French office and another was a phishing attempt on a mobile operator. Gemalto detected no breaches in its SIM Card database and does not believe the breach of office networks could have resulted in massive theft of SIM encryption keys.

ReCode reports The US District Court for the eastern district of Texas ordered Apple to pay $533 million dollars after being found guilty for patent infringement. The jury found Apple willfully violated three Smartflash patents in iTunes related to DRM, storage and access through payment systems. Smartflash lodged the suit in May 2013 in Cupertino California but was held in Tyler Texas where Smartflash is based. Apple had asked the jury to find the suit invalid because previous patent inventions covered the same technology.

 

Motorola’s new Moto E has LTE and a bigger screen for $149 The second-gen Moto E has a 4.5-inch (but still 540 x 960 pixel) display, 4G LTE networking, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor. The removable backplate has been replaced by six colored bands that can be used to personalize the device. Other upgrades include a new 5-megapixel camera withautofocus, 8GB of internal storage, up from 4, and Android 5.0 Lollipop. Motorola also added its Quick Capture feature, which lets you launch the camera with just a twist of your wrist and the Active Display feature that wakes the screen up with notifications or when you pull it out of your pocket.

ZDNet reports Google unveiled an Android for Work program Wednesday which can establish work profiles on mobile devices. The program lets sys admins manage approved apps on the profiles and set up default encryption on Android 5.0 Lollipop devices. Employers can only manage work data and do not see personal data. Likewise users can add and remove apps at will on the personal side. Google is partnering with enterprise management firms to deliver the program, including Cisco, Salesforce, BOX and SAP among others.

Threatpost reports Google is making its bug-finding contest Pwnium a never-ending affair. Bug-hunters no longer need to wait for a security conference to cash in. Security researchers can submit bugs found in Chroium year round and Google will not place a limit on the number they will reward with cash money. In fact Tim Willis of the Chrome security team said the rewards pool “goes all the way up to infinity million dollars.” The bugs just have to meet the same criteria they always did. And winners have disclose all the details of the vulnerability along with the exploit.

Deep Q-network or DQN a product of Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence program has successfully mastered 49 Atari 2600 games according to Ars Technica. Unlike previous AI game masters where information like rules for playing chess or trivia information was pre-loaded into the system, DQN taught itself how to play the games and win. Researchers modeled DQN’s AI on a trial-and-error behavior similar to humans and animals, and developed a process called “deep reinforcement learning”. By “remembering” past outcomes and its associated actions DQN was able to score about 75% of the points of a human game player. Games DQN successfully mastered include Breakout and space invaders but it failed at Ms Pac-Man and similar games that required planning and foresight.

CNET passes along the South Korean daily Donga News’ report that Amazon may open branch offices in Seou’s Gangnam area as early as next month. Amazon’s US carerres website lists several positions in Seoul and first-round interviews for 300 positions reportedly took place over the last week. That’s a challenge to local ecommerce heavyweights eBay Korea and Gmarket. At least it’s not Alibaba’s Tmall… Yet.

News From You: 

KAPT_Kipper sent us the news that the Eiffel Tower now generates its own power with new wind turbines. CNET reports that a pair of VisionAIR5 wind turbines designed by renewable energy specialist Urban Green Energy have been installed on the second level, about 122 meters or 400ft from the ground. The turbines have been painted to blend in with the Eiffel tower, and produce almost no sound. They can produce, a total of 10,000kWh per year — enough to power the tower’s first floor. The tower will also soon get LED lighting, solar panels, a rainwater collection system and high-power heat pumps. Not bad, giant iron tower built in 1889, not bad at all.

AllanAv submitted the Tom’s Hardware exclusive that A “source with knowledge of the matter” says the DirectX 12 will work much differently than older versions. For one the API will combine all graphic resources in one bucket and let devs divide up the workload as they wish. The upshot is reduced latency by reducing the frame queue to one or zero. The source also indicated that DirectX12 could work across multiple GPU architectures at once. Meaning you could build a system with a Geforce and Radeon working in tandem or even aggregating APUs with GPUs.

mranthropology passed along a Windows Central report that Microsoft will remove Google Chat and Facebook Chat support from Outlook.com in the next couple weeks. The People page in Outlook will stay updated with the latest contact information from Facebook and Google if you’ve connected them. Microsoft blames Google for discontinuing its Google Talk chat protocol. No word on why Facebook is getting the boot.

Discussion Section Links:  

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31619907
http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/24/8101585/the-nsas-sim-heist-could-have-given-it-the-power-to-plant-spyware-on
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/02/19/great-sim-heist/
https://gigaom.com/2015/02/25/gemalto-downplays-impact-of-nsa-and-gchq-hacks-on-its-sim-cards/
http://www.gemalto.com/press/Pages/Gemalto-presents-the-findings-of-its-investigations-into-the-alleged-hacking-of-SIM-card-encryption-keys.aspx
http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2013/05/a-few-thoughts-on-cellular-encryption.html

 

Pick of the Day: http://testmy.net/

Bill Russell writes: “I wanted to throw in another ISP speed test. TestMy.Net is a great alternative that I’ve been using since I read about the possibility that ISPs were prioritizing their packets to boost the numbers. TestMy.Net randomly generates the data that is sent so ISPs can’t even cache the data to deceive the meter.

One thing I really like about TestMy.Net is the ability to run repeated tests. You can set it to run once every 5 minutes for 100 repeated tests or every 24 hours for only 5 tests. This recently helped out a coworker that had a 60Mbps connection that was being slowed down every night around 11pm to the point that he couldn’t watch Netflix or play online games(less than 500kbps). He used TestMy.Net to show his ISP exactly when and how often this was happening and within a few weeks the ISP replaced hardware and now he’s getting his 60Mbps and sometimes more.”

Thursday’s guest:  Justin. Robert. Young.

 

S&L Podcast – #207 – Crowdfunding an Abomination with Gary Whitta!

Shows/ Sword and Laser / February 25th, 2015

Gary Whitta is an award-winning screenwriter who wrote The Book of Eli and worked on the first Star Wars standalone film. So when he had an idea for a dark historical fantasy story he wrote a book. Why? We ask him that, about successfully crowdfunding his novel, and much more on this episode! 

Direct download here!

Oh, and yes. We ask him about Star Wars too.

Abomination by Gary Whitta

Follow Gary Whitta on Twitter

DTNS 2436 – Stop– Pebble Time

Daily Tech News Show / February 24th, 2015

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comPatrick Beja is in today, to marvel over the Pebble Time and its record-breaking Kickstarter. Is the Pebble bigger and/or better than the Apple and Android watches?

MP3

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

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

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

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

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

Show Notes

FEATURED REVIEW: Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb

Shows/ Sword and Laser / February 24th, 2015

Welcome to our Featured Reviews! In this series, we’ll be highlighting book reviews by the S&L audience. If you want to submit a review, please check out the guidelines here! -Veronica

Review by Emily Carlson

The Low-Down:
Robin Hobb is back, my friends. And for devotees of her epic fantasy series, Realm of the Elderlings, this is a very good thing. Fool’s Assassin is the much-anticipated continuation of the story of Fitz and the Fool, a pair of outcasts who struggle to save their beloved Six Duchies from near disaster. 

Fool’s Assassin opens while Fitz is enjoying his well-earned retirement. Things are finally peaceful and although he cherishes the quiet contentment of his life, Fitz struggles to accept that the need for violence is completely over. He still sequesters himself away from his loved ones, still keeps secrets like a compulsion, still can’t seem to let go of the intrigue – no matter how much he might like to. 

But when some suspicious coincidences start hinting of danger lurking outside Fitz’s rural, idyllic life, it seems it might be a good thing that Fitz has had trouble letting go of his past, because it certainly hasn’t let go of him. 

Key Themes
Country life, paranoia, fatherhood, A MURDER MOST FOUL, prophesy, creepy-crawlies, class, secret passageways, THE ULTIMATE DRAMA QUEEN

What’s Good 
Hobb is a master storyteller. Over the course of the last nine books, Hobb has honed her characters into realistically flawed, frustrating, and oh-so-lovable men and women.  Though the over ten-year gap between Fool’s Fate and Fool’s Assassin gnawed at many fans, the gap was deliberate. With such beloved characters and intricate plot, Hobb has been careful not to exploit them. That is the true triumph of this novel. Nothing here feels forced, nothing feels like Hobb simply wanted to capitalize off of her most recognized and well-loved series. Instead, Hobb has crafted a story that leaves you thinking, Of course! How could I have thought Fitz would fade into quiet retirement?? 

Hobb’s strength has always been her ability to make us care about her characters, and Fool’s Assassin fits right in with her previous books. Some of them have us tearing our hair and shaking the book in frustration, some have us cheering into the pages, but all of them feel fully realized. 

Furthermore, in a marked departure from her previous books staring Fitz, we are finally privy to more than one first-person narrator! Though I won’t reveal who this narrator is, I will say that it was a refreshing and exciting change that is probably going to prove necessary in her next novels. Hobb also builds on our feelings of dramatic irony in this book (everyone remember those high school English classes??) – the characters are intentionally a few steps behind the reader, creating delicious tension to put us all on the edge of our seats.

As another tasty tidbit, it seems that we may finally get a glimpse into the mysterious southern country The Fool hails from!

What’s Less Than Good
Though Hobb springs into action with hints of doom left and right, make no mistake – Fool’s Assassin falls victim to first-volume-in-a-trilogy-syndrome. Odd ends from the previous series and wrapped up. We build a detailed picture of Fitz’s current life. New threads of intrigue are introduced. But, just when the action is starting to get really exciting, we break for the new book. Fool’s Assassin is crucial to move the plot along, and that’s not all that it does, but it can feel frustrating to have so many questions by the end of the book. 

Furthermore, though Hobb always strives to have her novels and trilogies as self-contained as possible, readers with no experience in Realm of the Elderlings will be shortchanged by starting with this novel. Tearful reunions will make no sense, bittersweet partings won’t have their full effect. But that doesn’t mean this series isn’t worth it, it means those readers should look forward to this book at the end of finishing the previous nine books – because it is totally worth it. 

The Final Verdict
Hobb had a lot of expectations to live up to when she decided to continue the story of Fitz and the Fool. Such a beloved series is both a blessing and a curse to an author. However, Hobb rises to the challenge admirably. Although only time will tell if this series can capture the grandeur of her previous novels, Fool’s Assassin has all the hallmarks of a great new series. 

More than anything, Fool’s Assassin promises to capture our attention for her next novel in the series, and leaves us all slobbering for more. 

Fool’s Assassin: Book One of the Fitz and the Fool Trilogy

$17.71

By Robin Hobb

Cordkillers 59 – Critically Acclaimed

Cordkillers / February 23rd, 2015

Amazon green lights all our favorite pilots, why we don’t need a universal remote, and how cable can actually be for Cordkillers.

Download audio

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CordKillers: Ep. 59 – Critically Acclaimed
Recorded: February, 23 2015
Guest: None

Intro Video 

Primary Target

  • Amazon green-lights The Man in the High Castle TV series, also Mad Dogs
    –    Amazon Green Lights 5 out of 13 pilots
    – Later this year and in 2016
    -Man in the High Castle (Most watched so far)
    -Mad Dogs
    -The New Yorker Presents
    -Young adult shows
    -Just Add Magic (based on book by Cindy Callaghan)
    -The Stinky & Dirty Show (Based on I Stink series by Jate & Jim McMullan)
    -Woody Allen produced show not in pilot slate
    -Alpha House and Trasnparent returning for new series.

Signal Intelligence

  • Google launches YouTube Kids on Android and iOS
    – Family-friendly version of YouTube for iOS and Android 9coming soon to Kurio and nabi)
    – Simpler bigger brighter interface
    – Curated to select videos “appropriate for the whole family”
    – 4 categories: Shows, Music, Learning and Explore
    – Supports voice search

    Parental Controls:
    – A Timer
    – Sound settings (turn off bg music and sfx)
    – Turn off search
    -Feedback section for parental opinions

Gear Up

  • Touchscreen Remote Control Ray Aims to Change Your TV Experience
    –    Ray Enterprises – new universal remote called “Ray Super Remote”
    – Showed at Code/Media summit last week
    – Controlled via apps. Not every devices has an app. Deal with Dish but not all cablecos. (Can still work standalone)
    – $199
    – 4.8-inch touchscreen
    – Mute, volume, sleep physical buttons. All else touchscreen
    – Works w/ Bluetooth, WiFi, ZigBee
    – Switches inputs when app for device is tapped
    – Get to know what shows you like and suggest them
    – 10 hours on a charge w/cradle

Front Lines

  • Hulu Replaces Its Queue With “Watchlist,” A Smarter, More Personalized View Of Your Favorite Shows
    –Hulu has a couple notes to tell you about. A new feature called Watchlist replaces the Queue, favorites, and shows you watch sections. Now when you click the plus button on a show (or add to watchlist) it gets added to the watchlist. Shows are ordered based on viewing behavior. Also Hulu got exclusive streaming rights to all 15 seasons of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. If you’re into that.
  • DirecTV Subscribers Edge Up in 2014, but Growth Rate Slows
    –For 2014 DirecTV ended with 20.35 million subscribers up 5% from 2013. That’s an addition of 99,000 subscribers which is smaller than the 169,000 the company added in 2013. However Q4 saw an increase of 149,000 subs up from 93,000 in Q4 2013. And just in time to take an advantage away from SlingTV. DirecTV announced its customers now have access to Disney streaming apps, including Watch ESPN, WatchDisney and Watch ABC. 
  • Comcast’s live TV app has doubled its channel count in a year
    –Comcast also announced it has doubled the number of channels available on the Xfinity Go app since it launched last year. It now has 70 channels. Some of those channels allow for on demand viewing of shows and even downloading for offline viewing.
  • Nearly A Third Of Canadian Netflix Users Pretend To Be American
    –A study from Media Technology Monitor found that 29% of respondents admitted to using a US IP address to access Netflix. 40 percent said they were spoofing their IP to access other, non-Netflix U.S. media content online. 

Under Surveillance

Dispatches from the Front

Hey Brian and Tom,
Thanks for splitting up the show into two feeds. I picked the Cordkillers only Audio Feed. as you guys spoil shows I haven’t seen yet.

anyway,

Thanks for doing that.

Tim, Minneapolis, MN Patreon member.

 

 

As a Cordkillers fan from day zero (Frame Rate days), I always find it interesting that Brian sometimes feels guilty for having cable, even for the duration of his Hacking the System show. I have no intention of getting rid of my cable at this time or in the near future. In fact, I’ve just upgraded my FiOS bundle with a 2 year contract. I’ve gotten so used to the combination of having so many channels at my fingertips to adapt to my variable viewing tastes throughout the year and the time-shifting convenience of the DVR service. Then there’s not having to worry about what service has the show I want. There’s no shame in paying for what you want, albeit on only some of the devices you want (no Amazon Fire TV FiOS app just yet).

Here are the details of my service:
I have FiOS TV Quantum service, which has a new cable box with 1TB of storage and records 6 shows at once (no more DVR conflicts on those heavy primetime evenings). The service includes the highest tier of TV packages (Ultimate HD). It’s particularly useful because it includes the sports channels like (beIN, Universal Sports, etc.). They’ve also given me a 3 year price guarantee (no price hikes) and 2 years of all premium channels free.
The bundle includes the FiOS 75/75 Internet service, which almost always gives me the total bandwidth whenever I need it. I can even downgrade that back to the 50/50, if needed, to save another $5/mo without breaking the bundle.

My bill comes out to about $158 after taxes and government fees, which is about as much as I was paying before the upgrade, and that price is guaranteed (minus the free programming expiring) for 3 years, even after my contract expires.

Hope that wasn’t too long-winded for you, but I thought I’d share my service info in response to the email you guys read on episode 58.

One of your many bosses,
Curtis from MD

 

 

Man guys,
It sounds to me like you guys spend a ton of dough on TV/Entertainment. This is my set up, I’m using a knockoff leaf antenna I got on Amazon for $39. That gets me all the broadcast networks. I have TWC internet access 50mps down that I get for $29.99 plus tax (I recently got them to get me another 12 months promotional rate by calling them up and telling them I wanted to cancel my service. I told them Earthlink was gonna get me 30mps for $29.99 then the TWC rep was all like well we can get you 50mps for $29.99.) Anyways then I pay $7.99 a month for Hulu, I basically use Hulu as my catch up service. Instead of paying the cable company $10 to record a bunch of stuff, I can watch whatever I want and don’t have to worry about setting up a recording. I watch The Walking Dead for $1.99 an episode on Vudu though that expense is going to be getting wrapped into one of my new favorite services. Finally I now pay $20 a month for Sling TV and every few months I sub to Netflix when House of Cards comes back and now Marco Polo. So anyways all in all I spend about $60 a month to watch exactly want I wanna watch when I wanna watch it. I feel like I’m doing pretty good after hearing you guys are spending hundreds of bucks a month.
One of your 2000 bosses,
Ken

 

 

First: thank you for making a Cordkillers only feed.

Secondly: we don’t pay anything for TV, apart from the mandatory £12.12 per month ($18.61 aprox.) for the TV License as I watch live TV *

For Internet/Phone calls, our bills come to about £30 ($46.06 aprox.) but I did a little chicken challenge a couple of times with Virgin Media, and have managed to get a £10 discount and a secondary £5 discount, so we are actually only paying about £15 per month ($23.03 aprox.) at the moment for UP TO 50Mpbs down** and a standard landline with free weekend calls.

So in total, we pay about £27.12 / $41.65 per month for decent quality internet and the chance to watch live TV.

Anonymous

 

 

Thought I would share what I pay for Internet and TV.

I live in Northwest Indiana 20 miles away from Chicago. I pay 29.99 a month for 25mbps down 5mbps up from Comcast. Have an OTA antenna with a channel master + dvr. I also have Prime and Netflix. If there is a cable show that I want, I get a season pass on Amazon.

Basically less than $50 a month for TV and Internet.

Jeff

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box