Search Results for "october 29"

DTNS 2414 – Holo World

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comDarren Kitchen and I chat with Sean Hollister about his experience trying Microsoft’s HoloLens and ask Ek from HockeyBuzz about the NHL putting GoPros on hockey player’s heads during the all-star game.

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Jennie’s Friday Art!
Jennie's illustration

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 guest: Darren Kitchen, Sean Hollister, and Hockeybuzz’s Ek 

Headlines

If you’re a Windows Insider, Engadget points out the new Windows 10 Technical Preview is now available via Windows Update. That gives you Continuum if you have a hybrid device, the new Xbox app and Cortana. Though Cortana on the desktop can take down notes and answer questions she’s still having a little trouble with complex reminders. No Project Spartan or Office update yet either. You can get the download at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-download

9to5 Mac has sources that say the battery in the Apple Watch may not last as long as Apple hoped. If you believe the sources the watch uses an Apple S1 chip, similar to the A5 running SkiHill, a modified iOS with a retina-class color display. Supposedly Apple wanted 3 days of pure standby time life but is only getting between 2 and 3 days. The sources also say 3,000 watches are in the wild being tested around the world and the watch is on track to ship in March.

TechCrunch reports Microsoft has acquired open-source analytics company Revolution Analytics which focuses on the R programming language for statistical computing. In marketing speak that means Microsoft wants to “use the power of R and data science to unlock big data insights with advanced analytics.” So like data mining. Um in simpler terms? Kind of a really super powerful spreadsheet that helps find trends that help drug makers and scientists discover things.

The Verge reports Uber has applied for a taxi license in New Delhi and resumed operations. Uber was banned a month ago after a driver was accused of raping a passenger. Uber will only allow drivers who have reverified police clearance within the last six weeks. Uber is also conducting background checks on all drivers and implementing vehicle documentation reviews.

ReCode reports Box.com’s IPO got off to a healthy start. The online storage company priced 12.5 million shares at $14 each and opened trading at $20.20, and closed at $23.23. Box raised $175 million in the offering which valued the company at $1.7 billion.

Ars Technica reports that the Raphael Pirker a drone operator who was fined $10,000 by the FAA for illegally operating the drone and flying it in a “reckless manner” has settled his lawsuit with the government. Pirker has agreed to pay $1100 and drop the lawsuit challenging his citation, that claimed the FAA was enforcing a non-existent law against drone operations. FAA ban on small drone flights for commercial applications are still in effect. Pirker used a drone while shooting a commercial for the University of Virginia.

According to a story by the NY Times the Winklevoss Twins are looking to take the Bitcoin virtual currency mainstream by creating the first regulated Bitcoin exchange for US customers, a “Nasdaq of Bitcoin”. The brothers have begun hiring engineers from hedge funds and engaged a bank and regulators hoping to open their exchange in the next few months. The exchange will be named Gemini.

 

News From You: 

KAPT_Kipper sent us the Ars Technica article that Google’s Project Zero has published three 0-day vulnerabilities in Apple’s OSX. Project Zero finds vulnerabilities and gives software manufacturers 90 days to deal with them before making the vulnerabilities public. These three were reported to Apple on October 20, 21st and 23rd,2014. One of the issues may have been mitigated in OS X Yosemite and all three appear to require prior access to machines. The program recently published three vulnerabilities in Windows.

tm204 pointed out the Skift article about Expedia acquiring Travelocity for $280 million. Expedia gets the websites in US and Canada. Swiss-based Bravofly has an ahreement to acquire Travelocity Europe AKA lastminute.com, pending regulatory approval.

Discussion Section Links: 

 http://gizmodo.com/project-hololens-hands-on-incredible-amazing-prototy-1680934585

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/23/gopro-live-broadcast-nhl/?ncid=rss_truncated

http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/23/gopro-nhl-partnership/

http://gopro.com/news/gopro-and-nhl-new-partnership-will-change-the-way-you-watch-hockey

Pick of the Day:  Kuissential SlickFroth 2.0 – Electric Milk Frother, Cappuccino Maker via Christian

Hi Tom!

In response to whether Google is capable of offering decent customer support for a possible MVNO, I wanted to share my experience.

My general rule of thumb is that Google had fantastic support for anything they do where you pay them money directly. This includes Google Apps, the play store, Nexus devices, etc. In those instances I’ve had some of the best customer service I’ve ever experienced in the tech world. It’s only in Google services like gmail and calendar where Google had nonexistent customer service (at least I haven’t found it).

This is why I have no doubt that a Google MVNO would have superb customer service. I also think they’d probably do a great job at disrupting the market with great process and bandwidth caps. Maybe they won’t even have bandwidth caps!

Matt Maher
Sterling, VA

Peter Frazier wonders if Google as an MVNO would lead to free data on Chromebooks. Here’s his line of thinking:

“I wonder just how much data browsing is after subtracting away audio and video streaming?

If they took Chrome OS in a direction where the on board storage was beefed up, and Google Music was a lot smarter about caching your most played songs when on WiFi.

Throw in an option to only use video on WiFi. Now that were starting to see ‘download video’ from YouTube, you could expand the caching of some of your ‘watch later’ as well, and put more development time into that aspect of YouTube to make it a lot more seamless and the videos are just there.

Also they have the ‘low bandwidth’ option on phones, what if they brought that to Chrome OS as well in a HUGE way. Same content but using considerably less bandwidth.

I’m thinking if this was on their plan of attack for the last year, they ‘could’ provide an all you could eat data plan for a large portion, if not all, of our day to day browsing when you buy a chromebook. If they get the bit’s down enough, and adjust the advertising strategy on this class of Chromebook it in theory could be viable.

Monday’s guest:  Veronica Belmont

DTNS 2390 – Cute Is the New Black

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comDarren Kitchen is here and we’ll talk about the FBI’s identification of North Korea as responsible for the Sony attack. Should we believe them? Also the FCC gets sneaky and gets sneaked upon. Plus Len Peralta bravely illustrates the great leader.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? click here

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 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:  Darren Kitchen,  founder of hak5.org and Len Peralta, author and artist

http://www.patreon.com/len

Headlines

The US FBI announced today that it has concluded that the North Korean government is responsible for the attacks on Sony Pictures Entertainment’s internal systems. The FBI cited similarities in code, infrastructure and tools used in previous attacks they have attributed to North Korea. Meanwhile Ars Technica reports on a public note claiming to be from Guardians of Peace saying Sony could released The Interview as long as it deleted the assassination scene. CNN reported a source from Sony told it that an email was sent asking for all trace of the movie to be eliminated. And the US President said he wish Sony had spoken to him first before bowing to pressure not to release the movie. Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton said his company “spoke to a senior advisor in the White House” and told CNN “We have not given in. And we have not backed down. We have always had every desire to have the American public see this movie,” shifting responsibility to the theater owners.

The Telegraph reports Apple is upset at allegations by the BBC’s Panorama program that workers at a Pegatron plant that makes Apple products are being mistreated. Undercover reporters for Panorama brought back video of sleeping workers and alleged denial of days off, refusal to surrender government IDs and coercion in filling out forms regarding voluntary work choices. Apple senior vice president of operations Jeff Williams said both himself and CEO Tim Cook were “deeply offended by the report. Williams claims suppliers have achieved an average of 93 per cent compliance with the 60-hour workweek limit this year. Pegatron said they were carefully investigating the BBC’s claims, and will take “all necessary actions”.

ReCode reports T-Mobile USA has settled a lawsuit with the US Federal Trade Commission that accused the company of profiting from unauthorized charges known as cramming. At least $90 million will be returned to subscribers who can show that they had to pay the unauthorized charges, which includes $22.5 million in fines that T-Mobile will pay to the states and Federal Communications Commission for the violations. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued Sprint for a similar matter earlier this week. AT&T settled a similar FTC complaint in October for $105 million.

Tech Crunch reports that Facebook is releasing a new app today called “Stickered for Messenger”. The app allows users to select one their own images, resize it and paste a virtual sticker on top, then send it to their friends. The app was built by Facebook’s Creative Labs mobile design studio, and it is the first companion app for Messenger. Stickered For Messenger will be available later today on Android and is coming to iOS soon. The Messenger app itself is receiving a speed boost and new animated sending/sent/delivered/read receipts.

Google today filed a lawsuit in Mississippi district court against Mississippi attorney general Jim Hood for serving the search company a “burdensome retaliatory subpoena.” Hood has claimed that Google’s anti-piracy provisions violate a Mississippi consumer protection law. Google has also issued a document preservation notice to both the MPAA and the law firm Jenner & Block, asking them to retain documents related to a so-called Goliath campaign Umm, hello? I think you movie guys just woke a sleeping Goliath.

Reuters reports its sources say Google is working on a version of Android that would be embedded in cars. This would be different than Android Auto which transmits data from a phone to a car’s screen. The embedded version would always work whether a phone was in the car or not. It will supposedly come along with the Android M OS.

GigaOm reports BlackBerry is profitable! One cent a share but STILL! PROFITABLE! It also generated a positive cash flow of $43 million in the last quarter. And the good news pretty much ends there. Smartphone sales were down to 1.9 million from 2.4 million in the previous quarter. Service revenue was also down 12 percent from the previous quarter. But hey, PROFITABLE!

The Washington Post cites industry officials who say the US House of representatives will consider legislation in the new year to prevent ISPs from blocking or slowing down certain websites while also providing a new provision for regulation of broadband providers called Title X. That would make Title II classification unnecessary.

 

Meanwhile the FCC slipped out an official notice of proposed rulemaking to consider widening the definition of a Multichannel Video Programming Distributor to include Internet delivery alongside cable and satellite. The change would technically remove the requirement that an MVPD have transmission facilities thus allowing the use of the Internet as that facility. All that means broadcasters have to negotiate for carriage with anyone who wants to carry multiple channels of live TV.

News From You

Jaymz668 posted a TechDiret column by Timothy Geigner describing a fight in southwest Chicago over whether to add filters to Internet access in the Orland Park Public Library. After a complaint from a mother, the board decided not to install filters but instead ask for ID. However the mother and others have continued to press the board to install filters. Geigner states that open access to the unfiltered Internet for adults should be defended.

spsheridan sent us the Wired UK report that International Space Station commander Barry Wilmore needed a ratcheting socket wrench. Which was kind of a bummer, because he left his on EARTH. Normally, Wilmore would have had to wait months for the next ISS resupply. But the folks who made the 3D printer on the space station overheard th eproblem and whipped up a quick design for the wrench. Then NASA emailed Wilmore the design, he printed it out on the station’s 3-D printer and hey presto SPACE WRENCH!

jaymz668 passes along a Consumerist article about a US Department of Commerce report on broadband competition. At 10 Mbps 70% of US citizens have a choice between two companies and 28% have a choice between 3. Only 85% have 25 Mbps service or faster available. At that speed 37% have a choice between two providers and 9% can choose among three. 59% have access to 100 Mbps service and 8% have a choice between two providers at that speed the rest have one choice. 3% have access to gigabit fiber and only one choice in all those areas.

Discussion Links:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/update-on-sony-investigation

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/12/fbi-claims-north-korean-involvement-in-sony-pictures-attack/

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/12/hackers-tell-sony-the-interview-may-release-now-with-edits/

http://recode.net/2014/12/19/live-blog-president-obama-to-address-north-korean-role-in-sony-hack/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/white-house-says-sony-hack-is-a-serious-national-security-matter/2014/12/18/01eb8324-86ea-11e4-b9b7-b8632ae73d25_story.html

Pick of the Day: 

Tom,

When you were discussing the need for batch renaming tools you mentioned that you would sometimes need this for renaming digital camera files with a date or location instead of just having them named something like IMG_0001.JPG.

I use “geosetter” to read the EXIF header and automatically rename the files with the date the pictures were taken. There are options to choose the date format or embed some descriptive words in the filename.

http://www.geosetter.de/en/

Love the show,
John from Silicon Valley

=====

Thanks for fielding this question, and many thanks for the great feedback from the DTNS community, Alex Hana and Darren Kitchen

While researching this on my own, I stumbled on a web site that crowd sources alternative technology solutions. So, here’s a pick from me:

AlternativeTo
http://alternativeto.net/

(And here’s the one for Truecrypt)
http://alternativeto.net/software/truecrypt/

I haven’t used it a lot yet, but it let’s you ​vote on nominated alternatives, has a review and comments section for each solution.

​Thanks again! Mike​

Facebook Developer’s Conference alert link:

https://www.fbf8.com/portal/preForm.ww

Cordkillers Ep. 46 – Cultural CliffsNotes

Dana Brunetti joins us and talks about his cord-cutting experience and whether Nielsen rating Netflix and Amazon is a good idea. 

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CordKillers: Ep. 46 – Cultural CliffsNotes
Recorded: November 24, 2014
Guest: Dana Brunetti

Intro Video 

Primary Target

  • Watching shows online is more common now, Flurry says, but TV’s hardly dead yet
  • -Flurry does analytics on mobile apps
    – US citizens spend more than 10 minutes more a day on mobile devices than watching TV
    – 2 hours 48 minutes on TV: 2 hours 57 minutes using mobile
    – Combines Flurry analytics with ComScore and US Bureau of Labor Statistics on TV usage.
    – Nielsen numbers report a much larger number for time spent on TV: 4 hours 36 mins. a day
    – Survey in UK in April by Ofcom what device you would miss most. Older respondents chose TV. 16-34 chose smartphone.

Signal Intelligence

  • Nielsen will finally start tracking Netflix and Amazon video
  • Nielsen to Measure Netflix Viewing
  • – WSJ says Nielsen will begin tracking non-mobile viewers of subscription online video services like Amazon and Netflix
    – Scans audio of the programs to identify shows.
    – Important for content producers when striking deals with the services.
    – TV viewership down 7% yoy in October 18-49
    – 40% of households subscribe to streaming video service.
    – Subscribers watch around 20% less TV

Gear Up

Front Lines

Under Surveillance

2014 Winter Movie Draft
draft.diamondclub.tv

  1. Scott: $256,679,469
  2. Tom: $121,897,634
  3. Brian: $57,729,445
  4. Justin: $29,983,069
  5. John: $10,950,001
  6. Brett: $0

Dispatches from the Front
When you covered the new CBSNews online initiative, I immediately installed the Roku app.
Content is very traditional TV, but the presentation is pretty painless.
Gives me a quick way to make sure I didn’t miss any stories the masses are talking about.

There are a couple of small flaws:
Ads are often much louder than the content
Ad repeat often (Not too surprising since it’s new ad inventory for them to sell.)

But I deleted my app this morning. [STORY ABOUT HOW HIS ROKU GOT STUCK PLAYING 5 ADS IN A ROW AND HE HAD TO REBOOT]

I’m a big supporter of ad-supported free media. It drives me crazy when publishers do it so wrong.

I fear they will count this experiment in online as a failure – not realizing it’s the experience, not the format that failed.

Lon

Hey Tom and Brian, Love the Show(tm). Just wanted to let your audience know that the MPAA’s new wheretowatch.com website doesn’t discriminate between online and offline content. I got super-excited when I searched for “CHiPs” (don’t judge me) and saw it was available on Netflix. Well, my joy was quickly dashed when I went to Netflix and saw that it was available only on DVD. So while the MPAA is taking a step in the right direction, so far this site isn’t a replacement for canistream.it.

Keep up the great work,
Your Boss

Rob

 

According to wheretowatch.com there are no legit places to watch House of Cards Season 2. No legit places to watch Game of Thrones Season 5.

I know this is still officially in “beta” but I’m not going to take the effort to come back and check every month until they get this right. This brand is ruined for me.

John
 

While the same actor who plays Spike in Buffy also plays Braniac in Smallville, that actor is James Marsters, not James Marsden. Love the show, but without careful attention to those last names starting with M, I could be confused with Tom.

Tom

 

In regards to Spoilering Time for Interstellar, Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey are roughly the same age. As they are using the black hole for a gravity assisted slingshot, Hathaway exclaims “you look pretty good for 120 years old” (or something along those lines). I think we are to believe that the time dilation through the black hole is negligible which leaves Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey the same age. Love the show!

Brian

Links
patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box

DTNS 2371 – Hackers gonna hack

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comDarren Kitchen is on to talk about the Russian site that collects people’s unprotected baby monitor and cat cams. Should it be taken down? And Len Peralta is here to illustrate the show!

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 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 guest: Darren Kitchen of hak5.org and Len Peralta, author and illustrator

Today is the final day! It’s almost the one year anniversary of DTNS and Friday’s resident artprov artist Len Peralta is doing something special to mark the occasion. He’s drawing a poster called “In This Together” and you have a chance to be drawn into the print. There are only 26 slots left. If you want to get drawn into this piece of DTNS history, go to Len’s Patreon page: patreon.com/len and pledge at the $2.50 level or higher. Len will draw you into the print + you’ll also get a copy of it as well. Once again, that URL is patreon.com/len

Headlines:

ReCode passed on a Financial Times report that a draft motion for the European Parliament would call for Google to separate its search services from other businesses and become two companies. The motion says “Unbundling of search engines from other commercial services” should be considered. Google holds 93% of the search market in Europe compared to 67% in the US.

Aereo announced on its blog today that it will file for chapter 11 bankruptcy. CEO Chet Kanojia wrote that his teams had explored every path available to the company but cited legal and regulatory uncertainty as the main reason they chose to file for bankruptcy. Aereo appointed appointed Lawton Bloom of investment banker Argus to serve as Aereo’s Chief Restructuring Officer during this period.

The patent wars may be winding down. Reuters reports Google has agreed to settle litigation with patent consortium Rockstar which includes Apple as an investor. The consortium had sued Google and other handset makers in October 2013 over Nortel patents related to search engine technology. No details were announced about the settlement. Cisco took a $188 million charge related to settlement with Rockstar earlier this month.

Bloomberg Businessweek reports that a US federal appeals court blocked the US FCC from ordering Comcast to disclose its programming contracts. The FCC has the contracts, but wanted “interested parties” to be able to see them as part of the agency’s review of the proposed Comcast merger with Time Warner. Comcast argued revealing its fee structures would put them at a competitive disadvantage. The disclosure requirement also would apply to the FCC’s review of AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV.

Gigaom reports that Google is offering 1 terabyte of Google Drive storage, free for two years with the purchase of a new Chromebook. The offer, valued at $240, accompanies the sale of Chromebooks priced as low as $199. Interested buyers must redeem the Drive offer by January 1, 2015 to quality for the increased capacity.

ReCode reports US FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is afraid of dogs. Wheeler told reporters Friday “Look, the big dogs are going to sue regardless of what comes out. We need to make sure we have sustainable rules.” He was trying to explain why no new proposals have come from the FCC regarding Open Internet Guidelines since President Obama suggested reclassifying ISPs under Title II of the Teleocmmunications Act of 1934.

 

News From You:

HobbitfromPA posted the CNET story about a plant-based polymer from Suneris that can help stop bleeding and act like lego bricks fro the body. The substance is called VetiGel and can be applied to skin or soft organs to stop bleeding in 20 seconds. So far the substance has been determined safe for animals. Vets interested in testing it out can sign up at suneris.co/contactus.

the_big_endian sends us an NDTV report that according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International, the number of people online in India will reach 302 million by the end of this year, overtaking the US and its 279 million users as the second-largest Internet market in the world. As of the end of October, 278 million people are online in India with 159 million accessing the internet on mobile phones. China is still the largest Internet market with more than 600 million Internet users.

metalfreak posted the PC World article that Intel will join Samsung in shipping 3D NAND flash chips that stack transistors in a miniscule 32-layer cube. While Samsung’s chips have already been on the market, Intel claims they’re models can hold twice as many bits as their competitors, 256 billion bits on a single die. That means a TB of data could fit on a NAND chip that’s 2 millimeters thick. Intel plans to ship the 3D NAND chips next year.

ancrod2 sent in the Wired article that Utah representative Marc Roberts has introduced legislation int he Utah House of Representatives that, if approved, would direct municipalities in the US state to “refuse support to any federal agency which collects electronic data within this state.” The effect would be to prohibit the NSA from negotiating a new deal for cheap water service for its data center in Bluffdale, Utah. That water deal ends in 2021.

spsheridan sent us a CNET report that researchers at Princeton University have developed a 3D printer that can 3D-print quantum dot LED in layers. QLEDs shine brighter and with a great purity of color, at a lower power consumption rate, using cadmium selenide nanocrystals. They’re also ultrathin, flexible and transparent and could someday be used to create contact lenses with a heads up display, once they figure out a way to include an on-board power supply. So, not coming next year.

Discussion Section: 

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/20/webcam-hackers-watching-you-watchdog-warns

http://iconewsblog.wordpress.com/2014/11/20/is-someone-watching-you-right-now-a-warning-as-website-targets-insecure-webcams/

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/what-know-about-webcam-hackers

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-nsa-webcam-images-internet-yahoo

Pick of the Day: Legion: Skin Deep via Technosquid

Technosquid sent us this one: “My pick is the new Brandon Sanderson audiobook, Legion: Skin Deep, available free for pre-order on audible.com, set for release on November 24th. Legion: Skin Deep is the sequel to Legion, a novella which gained some popularity when it was available free to purchase from audible for a month or two back in 2012 (now $4.86 for audible subscribers, $6.95 for non subscribers, or $2.99 kindle + $1.99 whispersync for audio audible add-on.)

“Stephen Leeds, AKA ‘Legion,’ is a man whose unique mental condition allows him to generate a multitude of personae: hallucinatory entities with a wide variety of personal characteristics and a vast array of highly specialized skills.”

I really liked the original, although it was only a short two-hour reading of a 96 page story, but thankfully the sequel is more than twice as long.

In a blog post, the author noted that this is a limited-time promotion, and after one month it would no longer be available for free, but of course anyone who purchased it during the promotion would have it available in their audible libraries.”

Monday’s guest: Nicole Spagnuolo! 

 

DTNS 2354 – CurrentConundrum

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comAndrew Mayne is on the show and we’ll talk about the CurrentC attack and all this Apple Pay, Google wallet hoopla. Does this mean mobile payments have finally arrived?

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 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 guest: Andrew Mayne, magician, illusion designer and filmmaker /co-host of the Weird Things podcast

Headlines

Ars Technica reports the Merchant Customer Exchange let customers know that attackers have obtained some email addresses of people who signed up for more information, or were participating in the pilot program for Current C. Current C is the mobile payment system that uses QR codes and connects directly to your bank. MCE said some of the addresses obtained were for dummy accounts and they do not believe any other data was taken.

Gigaom reports that Reddit has created a crowd funding platform called Redditmade that lets reddit moderators raise funds by selling t-shirts and other items. All the redditors need is the deisgn. There is a time limit of 30 days for a campaign to reach its goal. Good news, the reddit secret santa sticker pack is 6% funded!

Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet reports that Microsoft aims to release the next version of Office 16 client and server applications in the second half of 2015. Speaking at Tech Ed Barcelona, Microsoft’s Julia White confirmed that the company still plans to releasethe next Office client and server apps together. Mary Jo’s sources also say Microsoft is expected to release its Office for Android tablet offering soon, possibly in early November 2014. The company also is expected to disclose timing and possibly a public preview of its next Office for Mac release soon.

The Verge reports on HP’s new Sprout PC, a 23-inch all in one with built-in 3D camera that ‘sprouts’ from the top of the screen and projects images down onto an multi-touch capacitive mat which can control projected objects and applications with 20-point touch, a stylus or a projected keyboard. The camera includes Intel’s RealSense 3D camera, a 14.6-megapixel high-resolution camera, an HP DLP projector, and an LED desk lamp, meaning. It doesn’t just project either it can also scan 2D and 3D objects.The Windows PC comes with 1TB of storage and an Intel i7 processor. It goes on sale November 9th for $1,899.99 and will be demonstrated at select Best Buy and Microsoft Stores this weekend.

Once you scan in your 3D objects you can then print them into a new Multi-Jet Fusion HP 3D commercial and manufacturing printer. CNET reports HP claims the technology is ten times faster than what’s inside existing 3D printers, because it builds an entire surface area, instead of one point at a time. HP also plans to develop new 3D printing materials, using color, ceramic and metal. The product won’t be fully available until 2016, although early customers may get access sometime next year.

Ars Technica reports attackers entered the administrative network of the Executive Office of the President of the United States. An unnamed official told the Washington Post “we are still assessing the activity of concern,” which we think means they don’t know if any data was taken yet. According to the Post’s anonymous sources the attack was discovered in October after a foreign government told US officials.

Hey, It’s me! Good news for Nintendo! Listen to my words closely. Strong sales of Wii U and 3DS software generated quarterly profit of 24.2 billion yen (about $224 million) in net income forthe latest quarter a big raise compared to the loss of over eight billion yen (about $74.2 million)last year. Super Smash Bros. for 3DS sold 3.22 million copies worldwide in September alone. The Wii U sold 6000,000 units to reach a total of 7.29 million, about equal to the Xbox One, which is a year younger of course. 3DS sales lowered to about half of the previous year.

TechCrunch reports former Google Wallet and Paypal guy Osama Bedier showed off his new future-proofed payment terminal, Poynt. The android-based tablet in a dock supports magstripe, chip and pin, NFC, Bluetooth, QR codes and beacon, in one device sold at cost which will be about $299. Poynt is looking to partner with banks and has deals with two of the top five in the US so far.

Tech Crunch reports that internet.org will give free data access to basic web services and local resources to Tanzania via its internet.org app which will be distributed by carrier Tigo. Tanzanians can use Facebook, Messenger, BBC News, and Wikipedia, and get local news, health info, online education, classifieds, and sports coverage. Users can buy access through Tigo if they want to explore more of the web.

News From You

Galcyon pointed out the Verge article that the US FCC is in fact considering a proposal to change the rules regarding what entities are considered multichannel video programming distributors. This is the rule change we’ve mentioned before that would let companies like Verizon or Aereo get the same deals for carrying TV channels over the Internet as cable and satellite providers get. In a blog post, FCC Chair Tom Wheeler wrote “The definition of an MVPD should turn on the services that a provider offers, not on how those services reach viewers.”

h82or8 submitted the Boing Boing post about Daily Dot’s report that Verizon’s new news site ‘Sugar String’ is telling prospective reporters that they will not be allowed to write about US spying or net neutrality. Patrick Howell O’Neil of Daily Dot received messages from SugarString editor-in-chief Cole Stryker detailing the policies. Howell says several other reporters were also recruited under the same stipulations.

and irishtechguy let us know about a Yahoo news story that every county town in Ireland could have access to gigabit Internet within three years. Eircom announced it will begin installing fiber-to-the-home next month through December 2017 covering 66 regions. Eircome is also partnering with Belcarra to bring fiver to rural Ireland. Yesterday the European Commission approved a partnership between Vodafone and ESB to build a similar network which will reach 500,000 premises in 50 towns during the first stage. Both networks will offer open access to ISPs.

Discussion Links:  

http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/10/cvs-rite-aid-supported-alternative-to-apple-pay-already-hacked/

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/10/how-mobile-payments-really-work/

http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/29/week-apple-pay-google-wallet/?ncid=rss_truncated

http://www.mcx.com/blog/answers-to-your-questions/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/technology/apple-pay-runs-afoul-of-a-rival.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0

http://www.mcx.com/blog/1028-email-incident-report/

Pick of the Day: Alive Inside via Stephen Ewell

Love the show. I had the chance to see to see a screening of the documentary Alive Inside the other night and they mentioned that it is now available on Netflix, so I thought the DTNS community might find it interesting. It’s a film that highlights the power of technology and music to make a difference in our lives, by highlighting a nonprofit using mp3 players to connect with individuals with Alzheimer’s. Great story and great cause.
Keep up the great work. Let me know if you plan to attend International CES this year and I’d love to meet up.

Thursday’s guest: Christian Cantrell, science fiction author and tech writer

Cordkillers Ep. 42 – Gore Porn

Amazon’s crazy cheap Firestick, Netflix made Coach Taylor do something bad, Roku wants some money.

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CordKillers: Ep. 42 – Gore Porn
Recorded: October 27, 2014
Guest: Scott Johnson

Intro Video 

Primary Target

Signal Intelligence

  • Netflix has two more TV shows for 2015: ‘Bloodline’ and ‘F is for Family’
  • Two new Netflix originals
    – Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman, who were the creators of Damages.
    – Coach Taylor says “We’re not bad people, but we did a bad thing.”
    – 13-episode original, with the plot focusing around “a family of adult siblings whose secrets and scars are revealed when their black sheep brother returns home.”
    – March 2015
  • F is for Family
    – Animated by Bill Burr, EP with Vince Vaughn set in the 1970s
    – Voices from Laura Dern and Justin Long
    – Burr will premiere his new stand-up special I’m Sorry You Feel That Way on Netflix December 5th, 2015

Gear Up

  • U.S. TV startup Roku to confidentially file for IPO: WSJ
  • Roku Seeking Secretive IPO: Report
  • Roku planning to file for an IPO in the US – selected bankers
    – Companies with less than $1 billion annual gross revenues can keep confidential
    – Last month, the company announced the Roku Powered program, an initiative aimed at helping Roku strike up direct partnerships with pay-TV providers. (BBC, Dish etc)
    – The Information reported Roku pulled in $190 million in revenue in 2013.
    – Says it is near profitability
    -Could Roku be the box to unify two worlds?

Front Lines

Under Surveillance

Dispatches from the Front

What do you mean by “all the spectrum” if you look at the swath of spectrum actually being used for OTA (uhf and vhf) there is very little actually being used when compared to other technologies like Lte, wimax and wifi.

I am looking at it from a wireless engineer / networking side as such that trying to reuse what is there for another purpose.

There is more spectrum that is licensed and used for the private sector than any other form. Direct TV, dish, xm radio, airline cell carriers just to name a few own more spectrum combined than those that are used for public OTA TV services.

So in a way yes I’m saying that for quality of service and sheer reach of consumption OTA is as good as it gets. Now sure we can transition to mpeg4 OTA and get better use of it but to say that we could replace the spectrum in favor of an on demand solution for everyone just could not happen with the limited bandwidth that uhf and vhf have combined.

Thanks for the reply,
Josh

 

 

 

If we end up paying a-la-carte for our programming, then our money will be going directly to the channels we care about instead of being divided across the hundreds of channels that we don’t care about. I wonder if that will make better programming or less commercials. Thoughts?

David 

 

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box

 

 

Today in Tech History – Oct. 25, 2014

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1955 – Tappan introduced the first microwave oven for home use. It sold for $1,295. Raytheon developed the Radarrange after engineer Percy LeBaron Spencer was working on an active radar set and accidentally melted a candy bar in his pocket.

In 1977 – VAX/VMS was born. At a shareholder meeting, DEC, the Digital Equipment Corporation, released VMS v1.0 the first version of what we later would call OpenVMS, along with the VAX 11/780 architecture which increased the PDP-11 address space.

In 2001 – Microsoft Windows XP hit retail shelves for the first time.

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Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

Cordkillers Ep. 41 – You would steal a policeman’s helmet

HBO will do some kind of Internet service next year. People say Yay! CBS will do one now. People say boo. Google unveils Nexus player. People sort of notice!

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CordKillers: Ep. 41 – You would steal a policeman’s helmet
Recorded: October 20, 2014
Guest: Kristi Kates

Intro Video 

Primary Target

Signal Intelligence

Gear Up

Front Lines

  • Aereo Asks FCC to Change Definition of Video Distributor
  • – Aereo Chief Executive Officer Chet Kanojia met with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and other officials on Oct. 8 to advocate for online programming to be added to the definition of an MPVD.
    – This would be a big victory for any company attempting to create an online multichannel TV service
    9 Remeber Discovery refused to let Sky Angel carry its channel online. It could not flat out refuse in this scenario)
    – if a programmer has a stake in a distribution service, then it is required to sell its programming to MPVDs.
  • Good News, TV Guys: ComScore Found Your Missing TV Watchers
  • – Comscore survey says the younger a viewer is the less likely they watch on a TV
    – Millennials say they spend a third of their TV-watching time watching TV on computers, tablets and phones
    – 24 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds say they’re not subscribing to pay TV. — 13 percent say they’ve cut the cord, 11 percent never had a cord.
  • Amazon’s Instant Video app now shows your homemade movies
  • Upgraded Amazon Instant Video apps for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and certain TVs from LG and Samsung can show photos and videos stored in Amazon Cloud Drive for users in Germany the US and UK.

Under Surveillance

Dispatches from the Front

Tom and Brian,

Quick note: Quit watching The Walking Dead mid-season 2. Tried last season, quit. Brother tells me to watch current season’s premier. Holy crap! I think I’m in.

Fred in Pooler, GA 

 

Do you have an explanation for why movies take so long to be available to rent? It is so frustrating to see DVDs to buy but not to rent. I want to rent Catching Fire, which was released in 2013 and it is only available to buy. Grrrrrr!

Pam

 

Hi,
Thanks for your show, we cut the cord about 3 years ago and finding new shows has probably been the hardest part to get used to! Your show has helped me in this regard quite a few times. I wanted to pass along a show I stumbled upon in Netflix that I am in love with! It’s called An Idiot Abroad, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it because know one in my immediate circle seems to love it as much as I do, I want to see if I’m weird, if Brian likes it then I’m legit!

Take care,

Melanie

 

You guys have to give Manhattan (on WGN America, Hulu, iTunes) a try. Wife and I love this show. Fascinating drama about the time period and the science with the A bomb. Purchased the season on iTunes and look forward to it every Monday. Just got renewed for a second season.

Jon

 

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box

DTNS 2347 – Tom Buys an Orange with Apple Pay

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comIyaz Akhtar is back today and we’ll talk about the launch of Apple Pay, how it works in the real world, and what we bought with 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 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 guest: Iyaz Akhtar, senior associate editor CNET, podcasting on The GFQ Network

Headlines

iOS8.1 came out today which brings back the camera roll, enables handoffs of text and phone calls to OSX Yosemite and enables Apple Pay. The payment system is set up in the Passbook settings and does not store credit card info but creates tokens that are used to identify the phone’s owner. Near-field Communication is used to transfer the token to a credit card terminal that then conducts the transaction entirely with the bank. Personal information is not stored on the phone. 220,000 locations in the US can now accept Apple Pay as well as many apps.

Android Police reports that a forthcoming update for the Gmail app in Android 5.0 Lollipop, will be able to handle email accounts from other providers like Yahoo and Outlook. Users will be able to swipe the screen between accounts or choose them from a dropdown menu once setup. The accounts will still be separate from the user’s Google account so no forwarding or Pop access setup will be necessary.

The Verge’s sources confirm a Forbes report that Microsoft will launch its own wearable fitness band within the next few weeks. In fact sources say it will be stocked in time for sale during the holidays. While it will tell time the device will focus on fitness tracking things like steps, heart rate, and calories burned. It will also supposedly support Windows Phone iOS and Android.

Gigaom reports that Spotify has announced a family plan option, offering up to four extra accounts at a 50% discount. The accounts are under one billing statement, but each family member gets their own Spotify account, so no more confusing muddling of your listening history, recommendations and playlists. Existing accounts can be linked under the new plan. Spotify says the new feature will roll out globally over the coming weeks. “Family” could mean co-workers, roommates and/or chatrealmers, right? When you listen, you’re family!

The BBC reports 40,000 esports fans filled Seoul’s World Cup stadium to watch the 2014 League of Legends World Championship this weekend between the Star Horn Royal Club from China and Samsung White..Thousands more around the world filled up movie theaters to watch the match. For the record Samsung White beat the Star Horn Royal Club to win one million dollars.

 

 

 

News From You

KAPT_Kipper passed along the Gigaom report that IBM is reportedly paying a company Global Foundries 1.5 Billion dollars, but NOT to acquire them. Instead Global Foundries would take over IBM’s commercial chip-making unit, which had been losing up to $1.5 a year. IBM missed sales and profit expectations for the most recent quarter and earned a profit of $3.68 per share, which was 14 percent below the $4.32 that had been expected.

metalfreak submitted the slashdot posting that OS X Yosemite sends a lot of data back to Apple and there does not seem to be a way to shut it off. A GitHub repository says it “provides a corpus of network communications automatically sent to Apple by OSX Yosemite.” Among the info sent is when the user selects “About this Mac” and search terms entered in Safari, no matter what search engine is selected as default. It’s unclear if all privacy options were selected in the OS and what the network communication might be used for.

evilninja01 tipped us off to a stopthecap.com posting claiming South Korea is about to get 10 Gbps broadband. Digital Trends reports Sk Broadband was set to unveil the service at the 2014 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference today. The service could transfer 1 GB of data on0.8 seconds. Of course there’s no word when the service will actually be available to customers. Bell Labs showed off 10 Gbps over copper wire in July. South Korea has an average Internet connection speed of 24.6Mbps, ahead of No. 2 Hong Kong with 15.7 Mbps. No wonder they’re so good at esports.

Erniev23 flagged us to a Guardian report that The Twelfth Doctor has a new mission: teach children to code. A new “Doctor Who” online game debuts Wednesday October 22nd on the CBBC website, and includes voice narration by Peter Capaldi, who portrays the current incarnation on television. The free web game is aimed at children 6-12, using puzzles based on programming concepts to help The Doctor rebuild a Dalek.

And another quick note from Metalfreak. Looks like the ChromeOS devs have changed their mind on EXT2/3/4 file support. NetworkingWorld reports the team changed its mind and plans to re-enable ext2/3/4 support in Files.app immediately. They say “It will come back, just like it was before, and we’re working to get it into the next stable channel release.”

Discussion Links: Apple Pay in the Wild

http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/20/ios-8-1-with-apple-pay-now-available-heres-what-else-it-brings-to-your-iphone-and-ipad/?ncid=rss

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2014/10/20/apple-pay/17612285/

http://blogs.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/2014/10/20/why-apple-pay-faces-lighter-compliance-than-paypal-google/

http://9to5mac.com/2014/10/20/ios-8-1-apple-pay-icloud-photo-library-continuity/

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-20/apple-pay-is-too-anonymous-for-panera-starbucks-and-other-retailers

Pick of the Day: Raspberry Pi w/ XMBC

I know I’m a little late on this, but I’m just catching up on the podcasts this week. I wouldn’t normally dredge up stories mentioned six days ago. However, I’ve been in search of the best HTPC solution for almost a decade. I’ve tried and owned everything, Roku, Apple TV, Google TV, Chromecast, and of course simply hooking my PC up to my TV. The BEST solution though came in unlikely package, it was a Raspberry Pi with XMBC. Obviously a PC is the best solution, but computers are big, loud, hot, and expensive and when it comes to the UI it can be a bit clunky. The Raspberry Pi w/ XMBC (RaspBMC is the official name) gives you all the power and ports you need in an affordable package. I’ve got a Panasonic Viera smart TV’s in the house, so you simply hook the Pi to the TV via HDMI, and it automatically integrates with the TV remote. It’s a little long winded but this video goes into all the details:

This is my first time writing in, but I just had to share this solution because I never hear it mentioned and it’s so incredibly brilliant. You can run 1080p video, with all the features of XMBC, all from an affordable Raspberry Pi that has such a tiny footprint. Hope you find this as interesting as I did.

Plug of the week: Exterminite!

DTNS artist in residence Len Peralta has a new comic out that’s burning up the charts on Amazon. It’s called Exterminite about a company that can go into your dreams and exterminate your nightmares. Check it out!

Tuesday’s guest: Patrick Beja, podcasteur extraordinaire

DTNS 2345 – 5K for $2.5K

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comAndrea Smith joins us as we review what Apple announced today from Retina iMac to iPad Air 2 and more.

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 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

Apple took an hour and 20 minutes this morning to let the press and its fans know the following: iOS8.1 is coming Monday and Apple Pay will launch with it. OS X Yosemite is available today along with a new iWorks Suite. WatchKit for devs is coming in November. The iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 are available for preorders tomorrow, shipping next week. It’s 6.1 mm thin, adds TouchID an A8X processor, M* motion coprocessor, better cameras and silver, space grey and gold colors from $499 to $829. The iPad Mini 3 has TouchID and space grey, silver and gold as well. A new iMac ships today for $2499. It’s 27-inches with a 5120 x 2880 resolution display. And the Mac Mini got a spec bump and a price drop to $499.

One thing not announced in the 82 minutes of one-liners that were the Apple press conference today was a new multi-carrier SIM. TechCrunch notes the Apple website says LTE-equipped models of the iPad Air 2 have an Apple SIM that lets owners use short term plans across a variety of carriers in the US and UK. The list includes AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint in the US, and EE in the UK.

ReCode reports Facebook is adding a check-in feature for use during natural disasters, called Safety Check. The idea is to let friends and family know you are safe. If a diaster happens, Safety Check will send a push notification asking if a user is safe. Then the user can check a list of friends and family to see who else has checked in. The feature is active for all 1.3 billion users worldwide.

The Guardian reports anonymous messaging service Whisper is not as anonymous as they have claimed. The company continues to track location by IP address even if geolocation has been turned off. The Guardian claims all data since the launch of the service is stored, even though Whisper says it will only store data for a brief period. Whisper has shared user data with the US Department of Dense, FBI and MI5 and appears to have a lower legal threshold for doing so according to its terms of service. Whisper told the Guardian it “does not follow or track users.”

TechCrunch reports Osmo, an iPad game device not only raided $12 million in Series A funding but will be made available in 284 Apple stores in the US and Canada. The company was founded by Pramod Sharma, who helped build Google’s book-scanning machine, and Jérôme Scholler, who worked on Chrome for Android. The game includes a reflective cameras that attaches to the iPad, a stand, and game tiles in various shapes and letters. The game can recognize the tiles and incorporate them into the games.

The Verge reports Will. i. am unveiled a wrist device called the Puls. While it tells time it also can connect by 3G on its own to make calls and access online services. It mirrors an existing SIM card so you can use the same phone number as your cell phone. It can also pair with wearable batteries for extended life. It will be available in black, white, pink, blue, solid gold, and solid gold with diamonds. No pricing or release date was announced.

PC World reports Lenovo will create a new subsidiary company in order to attack the fast-growing consumer mobile device market in China. Lenovo didn’t use the word Xiaomi in its statement. Lenovo’s new company will focus on “close customer engagement” and have an “Internet-based business model.” But again. They did not use the word Xiaomi or anything that rhymed with it.

Remember how TwitPic was asked to change its name by Twitter, so it announced it was shutting down and then it said it found a buyer so it wouldn’t shut down? Well that was wrong. It couldn’t find a buyer and it is shutting down October 25th. Unless– I don’t know– You wanna buy it?

News From You:

gadgetvirtuoso and spheridan both submitted reports from Gizmodo and iMore that CBS launched an Internet-only service today called CBS All Access for $6 a month through CBS.com and the CBS mobile apps. Subscribers full seasons of 15 prime time series after they air as well as past seasons of 8 popular series. It also includes access to classic TV shows. Subscribers who are in one of 14 markets where CBS owns the local station can watch live streams. That includes New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. One exception to the live stream is NFL games.

TheLazyOne pointed out a TorrentFreak report on a new study out of Australia that 74% of 12-7 year-olds do not download copyright-infringing materials online. That said, the ones doing the pirating are also spending more money. 69% pay to see movies at the cinema. Among the non-pirates, the figure is just 49%. And 46% of the scofflaws buy movies and TV shows from iTunes compared to 29% of the law-abiding crowd. Teens were the least likely to pirate with piracy rates increasing as Australians aged. Overall piracy rose from 25% of Australisn to 29%. The study was commissioned by the IP Awareness Foundation which counts the MPA, Foxtel and other key industry players among its members.

Discussion Links:

iOS 8.1 is coming on Monday, will bring Apple Pay and Continuity support

Apple releasing OS X Yosemite to the public today for free | Ars Technica

Apple’s iPad Air 2 Is Thinner, Faster, And Has Touch ID | TechCrunch

Apple reveals the 27-inch iMac with Retina Display starting at $2,499

Mac mini: Apple unveils an updated miniature Mac priced from $499 | The Verge

Microsoft’s next Build conference starts April 29th with Windows 10 on the agenda

AnandTech | An Introduction to Semiconductor Physics, Technology, and Industry

Mobile Technology Fact Sheet | Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project

Tomorrow’s guest: Mary-Jo Foley, Microsoft watcher at ZDNet