DTNS 2190 – Moomeemo

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comHockey Buzz’s Eklund joins the show to chat about whether Amazon Prime is still worth it, and give a little insight into dual-boot smart phones and instant replay in baseball. Seriously. The guy can play to all fields. He’s a five-tool podcaster.

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Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Eklund, founder, writer, podcaster at Hockeybuzz.com

Headlines:

Target hack: Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s reported that FireEye security alerts for malware in the Target system were logged on November 30th and December 2nd. Security specialists in Bangalore flagged a security team in Minneapolis but then nothing was done about the breach until mid-December.

Dual-Boot? Huawei Chief Marketing Officer Shao Yang told TrustedReviews the company is still committed to Windows Phone and indicated dual-booting with Android might be their way of showing it. He said, “If it is Windows only, maybe people will not find it as easy a decision to buy the phone. If they have the Android and Windows together, you can change it as you wish and it is much easier for people to choose Windows Phone.” He promised dual boot Windows and Android phones would ocme to the US in Q2.

Microsoft is making its Windows Phone OS available to Indian phone makers Lava and Karbonn for nothing.  Not a rupee.

Google has started to encrypt searches made by people in China

Facebook to begin running video ads in users timelines over the next few months

Hacker News pointed me to the Google blog post about Google Drive prices dropping. 15 GB stays free, but 100 GB falls from $5 as month to $2 and a Terrabyte from $50 a month to $10. You can now get 10 terrabytes or more a month starting at $100. Current users will be automatically moved to the new cheaper plans.

News From You

CincyHuffster pointed us to the Consumerist story about Amazon US raising their Amazon Prime rate from $80 a year to $100. New users can still get the current $79 rate until March 20. Existing members whose accounts renew before April 17 will also pay the $79. Memberships purchased after March 20 or renewed after April 17 will be at the new $99 rate. Amazon Prime gives users free and reduced shipping, access to streaming movies and TV shows, and ebook borrowing.

KAPT_Kipper submitted a Boing Boing article pointing out developers from the Replicant project documented a software backdoor in Samsung’s Android phones. The backdoor allegedly “provides remote access to the data stored on the device.” They believe it is “likely” that the backdoor could provide “over-the-air remote control” to “access the phone’s file system.” The IPC protocol used in Samsung’s modem implement some RFS commands that give the access. Replicant’s team cautions they may have been added for some legitimate purpose, nevertheless a resulting back door still exists.

MikePKennedy sent us the GigaOm story about a Utah home security and automation company putting 802.11ac WiFi access points on rooftops to create a high-capacity mesh network linking its customers. Vivint will use Quantenna’s gigabit Wi-Fi multi-user multiple input–multiple output Wave 2 chips in the routers that connects back to a neighborhood hub, which in turn links to a fiber node through a point-to-point microwave connection.

And jaymz submitted the Quartz article about Softbank CEO Mayoshi Son’s presentation to the US Chamber of Commerce Tuesday which tried to make the case for Softbank’s acquisition of T-Mobile with the intention of merging it with Softbank’s Sprint division. Son pointed out that one in three US citizens have no choice of wireline Internet and through argumentative gymnastics attempted to show that reducing choice in wireless carriers would make the reamining third choice stronger and capable of competing with wired Internet. Somehow. Possibly with magic.

Discussion Section Links: Amazon Price Hike and the genius of Joe Maddon

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/13/us-amazon-prime-idUSBREA2C12G20140313?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

http://consumerist.com/2014/03/13/amazon-jacks-rate-on-prime-memberships-to-99year/

http://www.reddit.com/r/DailyTechNewsShow/comments/20bbmg/amazon_jacks_up_rate_on_prime_memberships_to/

http://www.businessinsider.com/joe-maddon-baseball-replay-system-2014-3

Pick of the Day:  

YouTuber Baltmatrix passes on this little gem of a site along to  DTNS listeners: Clippingmagic.com

This site grants the ability to remove backgrounds from any picture and create pre-keyed images. As a long time Youtube Toy reviewer I have found this site to be indispensable in making useful images out of what would be otherwise unusable PR stock photos.

A.K.A. Matt in Baltimore, MD

Friday’s  Guest:  Darren Kitchen of hak5.org