Summer Movie Draft, Triage, Game of Thrones (601) Better Call Saul (210), Justified (202). With special guest Jaime Ruiz-Avila.
01:37 – Summer Movie Draft
05:20 – Better Call Saul (210)
13:17 – Game of Thrones (601)
31:01 – Justified (202)
#253 – A Tale Of Two Styles
The Hugos are out! We leave the drama to the side for this one and celebrate the novel nominees. But we didn’t waste the drama… we just saved it for our evaluations of TV show and movie-based SFF books! We even brought a little to season our conversation about The Fifth Season and A Darker Shade of Magic. It’s OK to like different styles of writing, folks!
DTNS 2745 – Disclaimer: Beyonce’s Hubby works at Tidal
Listening to music is a mess. Streaming systems no longer all have all the music you might want. Did they ever? CNET’s Iyaz Akhtar and Tom Merritt discuss what artist exclusivity does to the music fan.
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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 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
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!
Cordkillers 118 – Steam’s Stream Dream (w/ Jaime Ruiz-Avila)
How the FCC helped cablecos explain why they resist innovation, Apple might make its own original TV shows, HBO NOW FINALLY gets popular.
CordKillers: Ep. 118 – Steam’s Stream Dream
Recorded: April 25 2016
Guest: Jaime Ruiz-Avila
Intro Video
Primary Target
- Comcast will bring its Xfinity app to Roku and Samsung Smart TVs this year
– Comcast announced its HTML5 Xfinity app is coming to Samsung Smart TVs
– A custom app is coming to Roku.
– Subscribers to Comcast’s Xfinity cable service can access the channel guide, cloud DVR, and live and on -demand TV.
Comcast believes this shows the FCC does not need to mandate set-top box compatibility.
– The FCC told the Verge the new app does not “integrate or search across Comcast content as well as other content consumers subscribe to.” - Disney, CBS, Viacom worry FCC cable box proposal would do to TV what iTunes did to music
– Several companies inl. Disney, CBS, Fox, A&E, Time Warner, Scripps and Viacom filed feedback to the FCC’s proposed rules to require MVNOs to support third-party cable boxes
– Companies object that they would lose revenue if they can no longer control the order in which channels appear
– particularly concerned that these new set-top boxes will offer up shows individually, instead of presenting entire channels as cable boxes
– Worry about “commitments to secure and protect content”
– Comcast made a separate filing
– Added arguments are technical burdens to support the new boxes, might require more bandwidth
– “In any event, at a minimum, the [FCC’s proposal] vastly understates the level of work, and associated costs, that would be necessary to implement its Set-Top Box Mandate,” it writes.
Signal Intelligence
- Apple talking original content
– Feature by Nicole Laporte on Fast Company
– Apple held a private dinner at Sundance and heard pitches in LA in the weeks that followed.
– Fast Company says it would be for an “exclusives” app on Apple TV
– Two “lanes”
– 1. Beats-driven programming meant to promote music
– 2. Multiple original series.
– Alibaba Pictures set up in Pasadena.
– Run by Zhang Wei, former talk show host and Harvard MBA
Gear Up
- HBO Now comes to the Xbox One
- New HBO Now users are bugged and can’t get their ‘Game of Thrones’ fix
- HBO NOW surges in poularity despite complaints
– HBO Now comes to Xbox One and Samsung Smart TVs
– Samsung’s been getting a lot of apps.
– Is Xbox now a complete replacement in the US?
Front Lines
- Comedy Central, BET, MTV, and more are coming to Sling TV
– Viacom and Dish settled their negotiations not only by avoiding an outage but also agreeing to add channels to Sling TV. Comedy Central, BET, Spike, MTV and Nick Jr. will be among the new networks , but NOT Nickelodeon. They’ll show up in the coming months. - Comcast to Launch Sony’s Crackle on Xfinity On Demand
– Meanwhile Crackle is now available through Comcast’s Xfinity on demand offering both on TV and Comcast’s app. Select titles are available at launch with additional programming added over the coming months. - 12 Netflix Originals That Will Be Streaming With HDR Video
– 12 Netflix properties were officially announced as coming in HDR although not timeline was given. They are A Series of Unfortunate Events, Bloodline, Chef’s Table, Hibana, Knights of Sidonia, Daredevil, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, The Defenders, The Do-Over, and The Ridiculous Six. - Lionsgate Launches Distribution Through Steam, Includes ‘Hunger Games’
– Video game store Steam is now renting movies from Lionsgate. More than 100 films will be available including Hunger Games movies, Saw, Divergent and Twilight.
Under Surveillance
- The full cast list for Twin Peaks, which comes to Showtime in 2017, has been released: Eddie Vedder, Trent Reznor
- Peabody Awards Recognize Jessica Jones, Mr. Robot, and The Leftovers as Damn Good Shows
– Mr. Robot, The Leftovers and Jessica Jones won Peabodys for excellence in broadcasting.
– Jones “unpopular questions about power and consent, while constructing vivid and compelling characters”
– Leftovers – “challenging, deeply philosophical, boldly imagined drama.” - Redband Trailer for The Do-Over (sandler, Spade) coming May 27 to Netflix.
- New trailer for season 2 of Chef’s Table coming May 27.
- Mr. Robot’s second season is coming July 13th (Sam Esmail directing all 10 episodes)
- Stephen King’s It comes to theaters Sep. 18, 2017
- Game of Thrones renewed for seventh season to air in 2017
- Brian: Better Call Saul, Game of Thrones, Justified 202
- Tom: Better Call Saul, Lemonade on HBO, Orphan Black, Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley, Justified (202)
- Jaime: Better Call Saul, Silicon Valley, Game of Thrones, Outlander season 2, Legends of Tomorrow Space 1999 Story of Maths on Netflix
- On the Lookout: Deadbeat, Thunderbirds
Dispatches from the Front
Hey guys,
Just listened to last week’s show and was wondering if either of you have tried the Xbox One for its media options.
I am not sure how common this set up is for everybody but an Xbox with kinect, HDMI pass through for a cable box and a harmony remote let’s me easily access anything I want using the Xbox – One Guide.
The One Guide lays out suggestions for movies to rent or purchase, what is popular in most video apps like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube or if you chose to look at your cable provider’s channel guide will list categories such as live TV shows trending on Twitter.
What has really surprised me is that I recently realized how easy it is to be able to say “”””Xbox on”””” which will wake it up and turn on the TV and follow it with “”””watch ESPN”””” and it just finds the channel for me. (No need to memorize #s) Or I can use a remote, a game pad or cell phone to control everything.
I know one of the features (that admittedly might bother some) is that the kinect will recognize when I’m sitting in front of the TV and have favorites/suggestions loaded based on my profile and the same based on my wife’s profile if she is watching TV.
If you guys have tried it out would love to hear your thoughts.
Cheers!
– Byron
Hi Brian, Tom, Bryce and guest,
I know they are several months away but I was thinking about how I was going to be able to watch this summer’s Olympics. Since I cut the cord I have found ways to get some of the live TV I was missing but sports has been the hardest to find. This will be the first Olympics since ditching cable TV so I was wondering if you know if NBC makes the Olympics available to those of us without a cable box.
Thank you for making my commute enjoyable and educational. I’m happy to say I am one of your bosses.
– Jennifer, Stuck in traffic on the Mass Pike
Hey gentlemen got to say something……. YOU JJEERRRRKKKKKSSSSS. You guys just had to say Animaniacs was on Netflix didn’t ya. I was dumb enough to watch the first episode AND NOW I CANT GET THE DAM ANIMANIACS THEME OUT OF MY HEAD AND WANT TO BINGE ON EVERY EPISODE phffft 😛 Jerks 😉 . Even after all these years I remembered the theme word for word, I missed that show. Keep up the awesome work
– Robert E from Oklahoma
The love affair is over. The sling streaming beta blacked out the blues Blackhawks game. I had to prove where I lived to get the channel. Sling is saying they are subject to the same blackout rules as everyone else. This is a lie since local dish and cable subscribers can watch. I got to watch the game earlier this week on Fox sports Midwest without issue. Maybe Playstation view is right for me.
– Sean
Bryce asked about netflix country availability:
That will do more than what you want, but it will do what you were talking about.
– Kurt
DTNS 2744 – SWIFT on Security
Can Google stop employees from leaving to do startups? Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt discuss project 120 which aims to do just that and give Google some ownership at the same time.
Using a Screen Reader? Click here
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
Follow us on Soundcloud.
A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 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
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!
DTNS 2743 – The World’s Petri Dish
Peter Wells, Patrick Beja and Hannah Francis discuss the news on a beautiful Kyoto afternoon.
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Follow us on Soundcloud.
A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 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
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!
Weekly Tech Views – April 23, 2016
Real tech news. Really shaky analysis.
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Weekly Tech Views, where each story, like the Cleveland Browns draft in a few days, is sure to start promisingly but end with you saying, “What the heck just happened?”
Take That
Amazon is now offering their Prime Video streaming service as a stand alone product for $8.99 per month, the announcement coming just after Netflix increased their rate to $9.99 per month. Netflix, of course, did not take this lying down, and immediately created NetBoox, promising to undercut Amazon’s book prices by a dollar. Currently, the selection is limited to what they could find laying around the employee break room, but $7.92 isn’t bad for a (minimally-stained) copy of Gone Girl.
Paging Doctor Langdon
Intuitive Surgical Inc reported a profitable quarter as use of their Da Vinci surgical robots–which specialize in hernia surgery–rose 17% from a year ago. Despite the promising financial news, Intuitive thinks Da Vinci use could have been substantially higher, but was hindered by the robot’s high cost prompting medical facilities to institute extreme security around them, often consisting of thick steel doors secured by not only multiple physical locks but intricate passcodes, and we all know what a bear it is to figure out… the Da Vinci code.*
Honey, This Is What We Call A Silver Lining
Intuitive will soon have company in the robotic surgery market from Medtronic Plc, a company partially funded by Google. They have reportedly been delayed due to some Google self-driving car software finding its way into their version of the robot. As a result, some hernias were not completely repaired, though patients’ groins do slip smoothly into third gear.
It’s Always Something
After the pilot of a British Airways flight reported that he believed a drone had struck his plane during landing, the UK Transport minister failed to back up the claim, stating, “it may have even been a plastic bag or something.” This is not to say that either gentleman would want to mislead us, but I’m just reminded that “or something” was my favorite way of not quite lying as a kid. When my dad discovered a crack in the windshield of our car on my return from a party, I told him there had been a big truck in front of us kicking up rocks from the road and one “must have hit us or something.” And “or something” technically does include “during a game of Beach Ball Skeet Shooting, the heavy metal tip of an errant lawn dart I threw smacked the middle of the windshield.”
Don’t Worry About The Wii, It Took Care Of Itself
Microsoft has ceased production of Xbox 360s, nearly eleven years after its launch on November 22, 2005. This occasion has led to the hurriedly completed miniseries 11-22-05, a sequel to Hulu’s Stephen King project 11-22-63. This time, rather than attempting to stop the Kennedy assassination, James Franco’s Jake Epping, on orders from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, goes back in time to stop the release of “that meddling PlayStation 3.”
Old Things Come To Those Who Wait
The end of Xbox 360 production also means many households will be making plans to upgrade, including ours. The 360 is finally going to fall into my price range! Bring on Halo 3!
And Also Be Sure To Check Out MealChamp
Google Play Music has started carrying podcasts. You can search for and subscribe to specific podcasts, or browse “channels” focused on comedy, news, business, etc.
This story is sponsored by AutoBull. Audio books are fine for long trips, but what if you just need something short to listen to when you make a quick drive to the corner store? Welcome to audio blogs, from AutoBull! Why do we call ourselves AutoBull? Not because you might confuse us for another popular sponsor of podcasts, that’s for sure! That’s definitely not it! No, we know people like to listen in their car, and we specialize in blogs that focus on, well, for this family publication let’s drop a syllable and call it “bull.” We think aficionados of blogs with misleading or outright incorrect information is an underserved market. That’s why our featured blog this month is the Weekly Tech Views. No matter how many times you listen, you won’t find a single cogent thought! Sign up now and get two free audio blogs! We recommend using one credit on the Weekly Tech Views, because that’s actually the only blog we carry right now. So the second credit may not be particularly valuable just yet. But we’ll find another blog. Probably. Blogs as pointless as the Weekly Tech Views aren’t growing on trees, you know.
They Just Can’t Help Themselves
Volkswagen says it is going to buy back nearly five hundred thousand diesel engine vehicles that were programmed to fake compliant emission test results. This may help VW owners feel a little better about the company, at least until they try to deposit the check signed by Mr. Fakey McDieselton.
It’ll Never Replace My 5th-Grade Candy Dish-Ashtray-Dinosaur
Chemists have developed ceramics that can be used in a 3D printer. This could supposedly be very beneficial for improving parts used in microelectronics, automobiles, and spacecraft, which is all well and good, but it would be a shame if this were adopted in schools and supplanted pottery-making in art classes, denying millions of kids the joy of creating something with their own two hands and then making Freddy Krueger jokes around the kiln.
Maybe Something With The Word “Laser”
Magic Leap was showing off their augmented reality headset, and explained that their technology, while apparently similar to the Hololens method of “beam-splitting,” was “better than beam-splitting.” Right. And there’s a food better than cheesy fries. Go home, Magic Leap, you’re drunk. (I don’t actually know what beam-splitting is, but it sounds pretty science fictiony, and Magic Leap doesn’t have a cool name for their process, so I’m Team Beam-Splitting.)
Though The Plots Have Nothing To Do With Reality, Virtual Or Otherwise
Virtual reality headset maker AuraVisor is teaming up with VR Bangers (not a joke) to provide in-room adult VR content for hotels in–go ahead, guess which city… that’s right–Montpelier, Vermont.
No, of course it’s Las Vegas. The visors–pre-loaded with requested videos–will rent for $20, which, given the technology, sounds not particularly expensive, seeing how hotel pricing results in that same $20 buying you a bottled water and a couple candy bars from the mini-bar. But where they get you is the highly-recommended $200 vat of Purell.
———————————————————————————————-
You know that fantasy movie draft I keep claiming Tom and Jennie took part in, even though the “zero” next to Team DTNS’s name suggests “taking part in” is a rather liberal interpretation of what they’ve been doing? Well, that’s changed in a big way. It took them all of three days to go from last place to second place. You can get the details and their reaction** in the CRUMDUM.
* That sound you hear is a blogger high-fiving himself.
** “Reaction” is simulated, and not based in what many call “reality.”
There you go. The tech blog equivalent of drafting a first-round running back with bad knees and a severe allergic reaction to leather. Better luck next week, I guess.
Mike Range
@MovieLeagueMike
Weekly Tech Views by Mike Range is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
DTNS 2472 – Tip Your Uber Driver
Can you be an independent contractor without being exploited? Shannon Morse and Tom Merritt discuss the pros and cons in light of the Uber settlement. Plus why you should now carry cash for Uber rides but Lyft.
Using a Screen Reader? Click here
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
Follow us on Soundcloud.
A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 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
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!
East Meets West 344 – Long May She Reign
Happy Birthday to her majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the meaning of monarchy.
East Meets West 345 – Long May She Reign
Happy Birthday to her majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the meaning of monarchy.