Andrea Smith joins us to lament the fate of Flappy Bird, duck drones in Dubai and get prepped for protest.

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

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

Show Notes

Developer removes Flappy Bird game from Android and iOS stores Reuters reports that Dong Nguyen removed his popular app Flappy Bird from the Android and iOS App stores, this weekend. Now that it’s gone, phones with the game installed, which still works, have showed up on auction sites like eBay, some with bids in the tens of thousands of dollars. Nguyen posted on Twitter that the game’s success ruined his simple life and he couldn’t take it anymore. He says the removal was not about legal issues, and he would still make games.

Nokia to launch Android-based phone at Mobile World Congress Mashable passes along a Wall Street Journal report that Nokia will launch an Android-based phone later this month at Mobile World Congress. The device will not come with the Google Play app store and will target emerging markets. Microsoft is in the process of finalizing a deal to acquire Nokia’s handset business which predominantly makes Windows Phones.

News From You

AllanAV posted a cleantechnica article to the subreddit. The article describes a Polish Startup producing grapheme. The startup is co-owned by mining company KGHM and the Industrial Development Agency (ARP). It uses technology developed at the Institute of Electronic Materials Technology in Warsaw. That would make the company the only one commercially producing graphene. Graphene-based devices could make a big difference in solar power and energy storage among other industries.

Kylde, our self-described Subreddit janitor, submitted an article from AndroidPolice noting T-Mobile winning its lawsuit against former suitor AT&T over the color purple. A federal court in Texas has ruled that AT&T’s budget carrier AIO Wireless infringed T-Mobile’s corporate trademark magenta. Aio said it was plum not magenta.

And spsheridan and habichuelacondulce both submitted articles from geek.com and geekosystem respectively, discussing a DARPA program to develop a brain implant for soldiers to help trigger memories and overcome memory loss. The device would record and stimulate brain activity.

More links from the show

HTC to focus on low-end smartphones in an effort to boost sagging profits

Huawei to show off a smartwatch at Mobile World Congress later this month

Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange still down

Microsoft opens multi-factor authentication to all Office 365 users

Darren Kitchen joins the show to talk about NBC’s Sochi hacking report among other things, and Len Peralta illustrates the stories.

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

Kill Switch legislation to be introduced in CA The LA Times reports California lawmakers led by State Senator Mark Leno plan to introduce legislation requiring devices like smartphones and tablets to be sold with a “kill switch” that would render them inoperable if stolen. Some devices, like the iPhone and the Galaxy S4, come with such features already. The carriers are lukewarm on legislating technology, but most are waiting to see the text of the bill before opposing or supporting it.

Facebook lets you Look Back at your Look Back video (and edit) TechCrunch reports Facebook has added an edit button to the “Look Back” videos it automatically created for most users in celebration of its tenth anniversary. The function lets you pick new photos and posts from a pre-populated list and no you can’t change the order. if you never got a video, then you also don’t get the edit feature.

Nokia and HTC bury the patent hatchet For all you people who complain that all we report is bad news, patent news, or both, here’s a ZDNet story for you. Nokia and HTC signed a patent and technology agreement that dismisses all patent litigation between the two companies. HTC pays a little money. The collaboration involves HTC’s LTE patent portfolio. Lawyers cash fat checks. Consumers get to buy phones. Everyone goes home happy.

NSA metadata program collects less data than you might think The Wall Street Journal has a new report, not from Edward Snowden leaks this time, that cites anonymous sources saying the NSA metadata program only collects data for 20 percent or less, because it doesn’t cover most cell phones. The Washington Post said even that smaller amount is still useful.

News From You

jaymz668 posted a story from the WSJ’s Corporate Intelligence blog, indicating that next year the US will joint the majority of the world in implementing a chip and pin system for credit cards and ditch the old signed receipts. Both MasterCard and Visa have set October 2015 as an important deadline in the switch. That’s the “liability shift” After that time liability for fraudulent transactions switches to the merchant unless they are using chip and pin.

MANAGEMIKE WHO’S ALWAYS SHOUTING HIS NAME submitted an Ars Technica story of one Ronaldo Boschulte who got a new modem form his ISP Comcast, which unbeknownst to him, doubles as a public WiFi router. Comcast started adding the modems by default in mid-2013. Comcast reassures customers that their broadband connection will be unaffected, but if they REALLY want to switch it off, they can, they just have to perform the arcane ritual of self-immolation known as calling Comcast customer support.

People in Russia may not care now, but SkyJedi does, and he submitted this coin desk post that bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox paused all withdrawals yesterday while they tracked down an issue encountered by some bitcoin withdrawals. Not only that but they promised an update Monday. At least that’s Monday Japan time. Users with bitcoin withdrawals stuck in limbo started to receive their coins back in their Mt. Gox wallets this morning.

More links from the show

Fazio Mechanical Services issued a statement Thursday saying it was the victim of a sophisticated cyber attack and is working with Target and the US Secret Service to investigate.

Amazon integrates image recognition into its iOS shopping app, no barcodes necessary

Apple buys back $14 billion of its own shares in the past two weeks for a total of $40 billion over the last 12 months

Russian officials rule that BitCoin is a money substitute and can not be used by individuals and legal entities

Brian Brushwood joins us to chat with Peter Bright about whether Verizon has started degrading Netflix traffic after they won their recent court victory over Net Neutrality. Also Sony ditches their PC business so it’s time to reassess how dead PC’s are.

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Note: The video stream (which is in beta mind you) experienced a catastrophic streaming failure. We’re hoping it pops up out of YouTube at some point and we’ll put what survives up here. In the meantime here is a post-show hangout nee encore. – Tom

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) of a video that’s just a still image with the audio 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

Sony to dump PC business
Recode reports Sony announced it will sell its VAIO PC business to investment fund Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) by the end of March. In the meantime Sony says it “will cease planning, design, and development of PC products,” and the Spring 2014 line launch will be its last. VAIO owners will still get support from either Sony or JIP. Sony will also make its TV division into a subsidiary and focus on high-end 4K models. All of this means about 5,000 jobs will be cut. Engadget reports Sony is also shutting down its digital bookstore in the US and Canada, transferring customers to Kobo starting in late March. Sony did have some good news, announcing a profitable 3rd quarter with $23 billion in revenue, up 24% over the same time last year on the strength of the PS4. However in a revised full-year forecast, Sony expects to lose $1.1 billion.

Verizon could be throttling Netflix and Amazon, but no actual evidence so far

News From You:

webitube posted on the subreddit a GigaOm article about an attack on an electrical substation near San Jose California. The Wall Street Journal reports snipers fired on the substation for almost 20 minutes, knocking out 17 transformers, as well as cutting nearby telephone cables. The damage took a month to repair. The attackers and their motives are still unknown.

habichuelcondulce and jaymz668 and Jose Gomez by email all sent us various links to the story of Dennis Aabo Sørensen who live science reports lost his hand as a result of a fireworks accident but now has a prosthetic hand that has a sense of touch. Electrodes embedded in Sørensen’s arm communicate with touch sensors in the prosthetic to deliver impulses to his remaining nerves. He can tell different objects by feel, according to a study detailed in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Silvestro Micera, a neural engineer at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Italy and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne in Switzerland, led the team that developed the hand.

mcfads23, who also happens to be our producer Jennie, submitted this psfk article on the subreddit, about Changefolio,at changefol.io a platform that makes it easy donate money to charities. The service connects with a user’s bank, then lets the user pick a charity. From then on, purchases can be rounded up or small percentages of purchases can be taken and automatically donated as micro-transactions. So for example you can have the service take 2% of your grocery bill every time you shop and donate it to a food bank. And of course their are graphs and achievements and the ability to post to Facebook and Twitter.

Amber Mac joins the show to talk about YouTube’s boss, Susan Wojcicki. Can she do for YT what she did for AdSense on Google Search? Also a way to revolutionize academic publishing with BitTorrent.
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

Wojcicki is new YouTube head: ReCode reports Susan Wojcicki, SVP of advertising for Google, is SVP of YouTube. Current YouTube head Salar Kamangar will apparently start work on his own projects, similar to the shift Andy Rubin made when he left Android. Wojcicki has recently been splitting her commerce-oriented duties with Sridhar Ramaswamy. She was the 16th employee at Google and housed the company in her garage for a time in 1998. Wojcicki has led the department responsible for AdWords and AdSense, the most profitable arm of Google.

Google and EU reach agreement to settle antitrust investigation Bloomberg reports Google and the EU’s Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Alumnia have reached an agreement to settle a three-year-old antitrust investigation. Google made a five-year pledge to grant three links to rival services next to any specialized searches of Google’s own, such as Google Shopping. Competitors will pay at least 3 euro cents to bid for a spot with images in a shaded box on some of Google’s search pages. The deal will become legally binding sometime in the next few months after the Commission formally rejects complaints against Google. The EU is still informally investigating Google’s use of Android.

The Daily Snowden: British Intelligence agency has conducted cover action against Anonymous  Ars Technica reports NBC News published new documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealing the British intelligence agency, GCHQ, conducted covert action against the activist collective that often identifies as Anonymous. Among other things, GCHQ infiltrated IRC chat for Operation Payback, which targeted payment providers after they stopped donations to WikiLeaks from being processed. GCHQ employed a covert informant and conducted social engineering, DoS attacks and deployed malware. GCHQ crippled the operation, unmasked some members and led to the arrest of Edward Pearson aka Gzero.

DARPA creates an Open Catalog InformationWeek reports the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, aka DARPA, most famous for bringing the world the Internet, has created an Open Catalog at darpa.mil/OpenCatalog/. The site includes software toolkits and peer-reviewed publications from XDATA, a big data initiative. The software projects listed on the site include visualization, analytics, and infrastructure and link to code repositories.

News From You

isting posted this TechCrunch article about NewEgg getting into the free shipping biz. Similar to Amazon Prime, NewEgg has launched a program called Premiere. For $50 a year, Premiere subscribers get free 3-day shipping and discounts for 2-day and 1-day delivery. You also get restocking fees waived on returns which also get their shipping paid for, as well as special customer service and special deals. Customers can try Premiere free for 30 days.

pete_C and Amber both pointed us to a WSJ article about US electronics retailer Radio Shack closing around 500 stores in the coming months. Radio Shack has roughly 4,300 stores. The Journal did not know which stores would be closed. Radio Shack had received some praise for a Super Bowl ad promising to bring the store out of the 1980s.

More links from the show

Samsung Reins In the Theatrics for Galaxy S5 – NYTimes

IPCom suing Apple for more than 2 billion – The Verge

Windows 8.1’s first update, called cleverly, Update 1, may not arrive until April after all – ZDNet

Xbox One owners are in for two updates not just one – Engadget

Twitter announces its first quarterly earnings – TechCrunch

Researchers use torrent site as free academic library – PSFK

Justin Young and Paul Thurrott join us to chat about a new camera pill you can swallow and a new Microsoft CEO that investors seem willing to– Microsoft has a new CEO Satya Nadella, and we’ll talk about 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

Microsoft announces Satya Nadella as CEO and member of the board: Microsoft announced it has appointed head of Cloud and Enterprise, Satya Nadella as CEO and member of the board of directors. Bill Gates steps down as Chairman to become the board’s Founder and Technology advisor, with a commitment to spend more time supporting Nadella in “shaping technology and product direction.” John Thompson, who was the lead independent director, and headed the search for a new CEO, takes over as Chairman. Thompson is CEO of Virtual Instruments. Outgoing CEO, Steve Ballmer, remains on the board.

Facebook Launches ‘A Look Back’: The Next Web reports as part of Facebook’s 10th anniversary, the social network has launched s feature called “A Look Back.” If you go to www.facebook.com/lookback you’ll find a personalized movie or photo collection of your biggest moments shared on the social network. Mine consisted entirely of events of the last year including one picture twice because it was so good. Your mileage may vary.

News From You

SkyJedi pointed us to Google Maps official G+ post about some Waze functionality finally shooing up in the iPS version of Google Maps. Starting with the latest update the iOS Google Maps navigation function will notify you of faster routes as traffic conditions change. Android received this function previously.

KAPT_Kipper posted a CBC News story about the PillCam, an ingestible pill camera used to screen for colon cancer, being approved for use in the United States. Patients who have experienced an incomplete colonoscopy can now swallow the pill to complete it. The capsule has two miniature color video cameras, a battery and a light source, and transmits images for about 10 hours. Potentially to TwiTCH. Or a Hangout. Actually no the data is transferred to a computer to be compiled and then viewed later by a doctor. The PillCam is commercially available in Canada, Japan, Europe, Latin America, Australia and parts of Asia and Africa. And yes you smartypants a capsule camera for the small intestine HAS been around since 2001, WE KNOW.

Finally habichuelacondulce submitted a Reuters story about yet another credit card data breach. The breach occurred at food and beverage outlets at 14 hotels, including some operated under the Westin, Renaissance and Radisson names as well as Marriott, Holiday Inn and Sheraton, between March 20 and December 16 last year. The data included names, credit car numbers, security codes and expiration dates.

More links from the show

TechCrunch reports the company ‘FiftyThree’ which already held the trademark for ‘Paper by FiftyThree’ filed for the trademark on the name ‘Paper’ January 30th, which just happens to be the day Facebook announced their new app called ‘Paper’ which FiftyThree is none too pleased with.

Microsoft announces a $15 million strategic investment in Foursquare as swell as a commercial licensing deal that lets Microsoft use FourSquare data.

Apple is allegedly working on a content delivery network or CDN. A CDN usually serves data for download or streaming like apps, images and I don’t know television shows.

Telefónica announces a partnership with popular Japanese messaging app Line

Want Internet access anywhere on the planet? Now you have choices. Engadget reports Iridium unveiled Iridium Go, a hotspot that lets five WiFi devices connect, send texts and calls over the satellite service.

+Patrick Beja joins to talk about the dispute over Facebook’s Paper app, who won the Super Bowl on the Internet and Flappy Bird.

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

Attn: Facebook Legal, Trademark Division: The NY Times reports that hot on the heels of the release in the US today of Facebook’s new iOS app Paper, comes a complaint from a company called FiftyThree that makes an award-winning drawing app called Paper. Georg Petschnigg, co-founder and chief executive of FiftyThree told the NY Times he has asked in writing for Facebook to refrain from using the name. He also took to the FiftyThree blog to implore Facebook to “apply the same degree of thought they put into the app into building a brand name of their own.” FiftyThree has a trademark on the name “Paper by FiftyThree.” There are many other apps in the iOS App Store called Paper as well.

Windows 8.1 is now 4th most popular Windows OS TechCrunch passes along some Netmarketshare data from January showing that Windows 8.1 has passed up Vista to become, as of January, the 4th most popular edition of Windows at 3.95% to Vista’s 3.3%. The most popular Windows is XP with 29.3% an actual rise over December’s 28.98%. Meanwhile the first update to Windows 8.1 known as Update 1 leaked over the weekend showing interface changes making it easier to use a keyboard and mouse, and the ability to pin Metro apps to the desktop. Update 1 is expected to be released as early as March 11.

News From You

DrewCPU, mranthropology and a whole bunch of other folks are excited about this Next Web report that Google has opened up the ChromeCast to all developers. The SDK for Android, iOS, the Web and Chrome. Developers can incorporate the code into existing apps without having to rewrite. Developers can get the new SDK at developers.google.com/cast/ and sample apps at GitHub. Users of ChromeCast should expect to see many more apps with ChromeCast capability in the coming months.

The Verge reports Microsoft, Google, LinkedIn, Facebook and Yahoo have all now reported numbers for National Security Letters and requests made under the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Combined the numbers can only be reported to the nearest 250 and if separated only to the nearest 1000. Apple and LinkedIn reported their numbers last week and chose to report combined numbers of fewer than 250 requets. The remaining companies today broke the requests into categories. No company listed getting more than 999 orders in six months for any one category.

AllanAV posted a DSLReports link to a TorrenTFreak article about an AT&T Mobility patent filed in September that would enable a carrier to charge a customer more money for certain kinds of traffic, like file sharing or video. A user gets a certain number of credits for certain types of traffic and data requested is checked to see if it is permissible or non-permissible according to the carrier. While a patent filing is far from a working system, the recent decision against FCC Net Neutrality guidelines makes systems like this more interesting to follow.

More links from the show:

Apple experimenting with wireless charging

Beta Chrome browser to receive Google Now notifications via notifications center on Mac, Windows, Chromebook computers:

Reuters reports the US Department of Transportation will propose a rule mandating vehicle-to-vehicle communication technology be built into cars be put into place by 2017.

PC Magazine reports that the super popular Android and iOS app FlappyBird is coming to Windows Phone.