What makes comfort food, patriotic fast food, the premiere of Peter Capaldi as Doctor Who.
Download the episode at this link.
DTNS 2307 – Google blinks, Amazon Twitches
Anthony Carboni joins us to talk about Amazon buying Twitch and Facebook fighting Clickbait.
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
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A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guest: Anthony Carboni, co-host of We Have Concerns
Patreon link: http://www.patreon.com/wehaveconcerns
Headlines
Facebook announced today it’s altering its news feed algorithm to combat clickbait. Facebook’s algorithms will note when a high number of people click on a link and then come right back to Facebook. They’ll also note if links receive low numbers of comments and likes. Those are signs of clickbait and the Facebook algorithm will not hesitate to demote such links. After enough people have been suckered into clicking to prove its clickbait.
Ars Technica spent the morning collecting all the news outlets whose sources SWORE this time Twitch was really getting bought. By Amazon this time. We know they said it was Google earlier this summer TWICE, but this time the source familiar with the situation were absolutely briefed on the matter. The price is still reportedly around $1 billion. An announcement came at 1 PM in a blog post from Twitch CEO Emmett Shear confirming the deal. He wrote they chose Amazon because they “believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision, and they want to help us get there faster.” Twitch will remain an independent company owned by Amazon.
According to Engadget, Tivo is releasing a limited edition Roamio OTA DVR where the OTA stands for over the air. The device will cost $49.99 along with a 15 dollar a month subscription for TIVO’s channel guide. Just like the $150 more expensive Roamio that has cablecard slots the OTA has 500 GB of storage, four tuners and can use the separate TiVo Stream device to stream live and pre-recorded videos on other devices. It just doesn’t have cablecard slots. Apparently cable card slots are worth $150.
Reuters passes along a report from Xinhua that China plans to release another operating system of its own by October. The first version would be for desktops, which China has done before with its own distro of Linux, but later would come OS’s for mobile devices. There’s also talk of an app store. Ni Guangnan head of an official OS development alliance established in March, hopes domestically developed software could replace desktop OSs witin two years and mobile OSs within 3-5 years.
The BBC reports on denial of service attacks carried out against most of the popular game networks like Playstation Network, Xbox Live, BattleNet and more. At the same time, John Smedley. president of Sony Online Entertainment had his plane diverted to Phoenix after a bomb threat. No one was hurt. Multiple groups have claimed responsibility for the attacks. The US FBI is investigating.
News From You
spsheridan posted a Geek.com article about for NC State University undergrads developing nail polish that can detect drugs. Ankesh Madan, Stephen Gray, Tasso Von Windheim, and Tyler Confrey-Maloney have developed a polish they call “Undercover Colors.” The polish contains chemicals that react to Rohypnol and GHB and change colors in its presence.
AcidBeaver85 passes along a Venture Beat story that Coin has changed its mind about double-charging long-waiting backers. Coin first announced that the finished product would be delayed until Spring 2015 and that backers who already paid would have to pay again if they participated in a beta. That didn’t go over so well. Coin now says backer that pre-order customers who opt into the Beta program will still receive the non-beta final product without further charge. The Coin beta program is expected to roll out in the fourth quarter.
MacBytes flags us to the The Verge article about LG’s plan to announce at circular smart watch next week. The LG G Watch R — presumably R stands for Round, will comes with a button on the side, unlike LG’s original square smart watch. The round watch will also have a digital step counter, distance meter and compass. The video also seemed to tease that the display would be a perfect circle, without the black bar at the bottom of the Moto 360 teased at Google I/O.
MikePkennedy pointed out the Next Web story that Mozilla will launch a Firefox OS phone in India this week. The CloudFX, developed by Intex Technologies has a 3.5-inch display, 1GHz processor, 2-megapixel rear-facing camera, dual SIM Bluetooth and WiFi. Hindi and Tamil are supported out of the box. Customers can order it from Sanpdeal.com for less than 2000 Rs which is about $33 US.
Discussion Links:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/25/6066295/amazon-reportedly-buying-twitch-for-over-1-billion
http://recode.net/2014/08/25/amazon-will-buy-twitch-for-more-than-1-billion/
http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/25/6066509/why-it-makes-sense-for-amazon-to-buy-twitch
http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/25/facebook-vs-clickbait/?ncid=rss
http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/08/news-feed-fyi-click-baiting/
Plug of the Day:
Plug of the day: Daily Tech News Show Shirt with Mustafa from thepolarcat.com’s logo now available in white, black and Ash. Look in the podcasts section.
Pick of the Day: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a CCG (collectible card game a la Magic: The Gathering) from Blizzard Entertainment featuring characters from the WoW universe. As someone who never played WoW, on it’s face, it didn’t sound that interesting, but, as someone who played a little Magic back in the day, the second I loaded this onto my iPad, I was hooked. You can play your friends or random people in friendly matches, ranked matches or an arena mode where you draft a deck and then play it on the spot. The game is packed with excellent graphics, animations and music; ever-expanding content; and a vast and active community. The game is free to play with in-app purchases (totally not required) and is available for PC, Mac and iPad with Windows 8 and Android tablet support to come in the near future. Too much fun not to pass along.
Tuesday’s guest: Molly Wood
Today in Tech History – Aug. 25, 2014
In 1609 – Galileo Galilei craftily beat a Dutch telescope maker to an appointment with the Doge of Venice. Galileo impressed the Doge and received a lifetime appointment and a doubled salary. Later that autumn, Galileo pointed his telescope to the Moon, and trouble began.
In 1981 – Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Saturn. Eight years later on the same day in 1989, Voyager 2 would make its closest approach to Neptune.
In 1991 – 21-year-old Finnish student Linus Torvalds wrote a newsgroup post about a free operating system he was working on. He said it was “just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu.” His OS would eventually be called Linux.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Cordkillers Ep. 34 – My mother is part camel
Want to understand why HBO won’t go Internet only and Comcast will? We have a camel and fig metaphor for you.
CordKillers: Ep. My mother is part camel
Recorded: August 24, 2014
Guests: Jeff Cannata, Anthony Carboni
Intro Video
Primary Target
- Wall Street Estimates for HBO Broadband-Only Revenue, Profits
- – Barclays analyst Kannan Venkateshwar.
– HBO “windows” all of its new programming for digital-only subscribers. That is, you could stream “Game of Thrones” or “True Detective” on your iPad, but you’d have to wait for six months or a year to get the new seasons. Venkateshwar figures HBO could sell these wait-a-while subscriptions for $11 a month, a discount from the $15 a month the average cable TV subscriber pays for HBO.
– Sell the real-deal version of HBO over the Web, but charge a premium for it, like $18 a month. The theory here is that there are several million people with broadband who don’t pay for TV right now, and it seems unlikely they ever will. So why not turn some of them into paying customers?
– Could generate up to $600 million in new earnings, Venkateshwar estimates.
Signal Intelligence
- Comcast launches internet-delivered cable TV at MIT and several other schools
- – Bridgewater College, Drexel University, Emerson College, Lasell College and the University of Delaware. T
– Included with room and board and can only be used on campu (althoughh HBO Go Watch ESPN, etc.)
– Comcast hopes to add other universities soon.
– A company called Philo provides similar service to Harvard, Stanford and Yale.
Gear Up
- Will Roku bring smart TVs into the cool crowd?
- Roku integration in TCL and HiSense TVs
– TCL on preorder at Amazon and in retail in next few weeks
– HiSense hit stores late September
– 32-inch TCL set $229, $649 for 55-inch
– NPD est. 2/3 of N. A. TVs are ‘dumb’
Under surveillance
- BitTorrent’s Science Fiction Series Looks Like an American Apparel Ad
- Children Of The Machine Facebook
- BitTorrent, ‘ConTV and Rapid Eye Studios making “Children of the Machine”
– First extended clip
– “Implants” and “jolting”
– Once the 60-minute pilot is completed, it will be available to everyone for free on all platforms at the end of 2014
– If enough people sign up for the flat rate of $9.95, the series will continue.
Front Lines 2014
- ChannelMaster introduced a Leaf-like antenna called Flatenna which they’re selling for $10 with free shipping.
- Simple.TV owners can set up guest passes to stream shows on Web, mobile and Roku.
- -Guests can’t watch live TV or schedule recordings, only access previously recorded shows. Up to 5 users can access a Simple.TV at once without performance hit, they say.
- Firefox for Android got Chromecast support this week.
- –At the same time the Abitcool website started referring to something called “Matchstick” which is likely the Firefox OS powered streaming stick they’ve been working on.
- The good news? A revised online viewing agreement means local games may not be blacked out for online viewing next season?
- -The bad news, you’d still probably need a cable TV plan in order to be able to watch them.
- Steven Spielberg is apparently developing a Minority Report television series.
- -It would supposedly follow the pre-crime unit as they prevent crimes. Godzilla writer Max Borenstein has allegedly been hired to write the pilot.
- Nimble TV has reinvented itself again. It now lets pay TV subscribers in New York or Chicago watch some channels on a Web-connected device for free.
- -Want all your channels and a cloud DVR? You pay from $5 to $30 a month. It’s essentially slingbox/DVR service in the cloud.
On Our Radar
On Screen
- Brian: The Leftovers
- Tom: Doctor Who, The Leftovers, The Shield (302)
- Jeff: Last Week Tonight, Magic in the Moonlight
- Anthony: Doctor Who, The Leftovers, Last Week Tonight
Dispatches from the Front
Hey Brian and Tom
i have been catching up on the show and was watching episode 32 “cord apathetics” when i heard Brian say something that finally made me disagree with him, as i usually see things from both host points of view. when Brian said we need to get rid of the over the air signals i was taken aback by this. my 86 year old grandmother wants to cut the comcast cord and only have phone service (she needs it for lifealert as much like r.l. stine she lives alone) and she told me that she only wants to get the local (35 miles away) Lansing stations. to make a long story short i am searching for an outdoor antenna as all the indoor ones can not penetrate the walls of her living room and she also refuses to get internet.
Thanks love the show
Greg
Brian and Tom,
Just thought I’d mention something for the guy who was disappointed with the lack of content he wanted to watch on Netflix. Canistream.it is a great website that has a mobile web version and even mobile phone apps. It allows you to search for pretty much any TV show or movie and it will tell you what services it is available on for streaming or renting or digital purchase or even DVD rental/purchase. I use it all the time and it’s great for those us trying to cut the cord!
Chris
Hey Tom & Brian,
Love the show, yada yada yada. Regarding the Movie Draft at Box Office Draft.com. What, who or where is the source for the movie listings for the next draft ? When would it be coming out ? And will the spreadsheet template be available to copy and paste into the league I would like to create ? Need some nitty and gritty on this, as I would like our family who it spread out over much of the country to join in on the fun.
Thanks,
Dave
Links
Today in Tech History – Aug. 24, 2014
In 1456 – According to a handwritten note by illustrator Heinrich Cremer, the final binding of the Gutenberg Bible took place.
In 1995 – Microsoft released Windows 95. During development it was referred to as Windows 4.0 or by the internal codename “Chicago.”
In 2001 – WebKit received its first commit of code from Apple. The Safari browser appeared two years later and WebKit was open sourced in 2005.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
FSL Tonight SemiFinals – Return of the Senators
Today in Tech History – Aug. 23, 2014
In 1852 – The first time signals were transmitted by telegraph from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
In 1966 – Lunar Orbiter 1 took the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.
In 1993 – Nintendo agreed to use Silicon Graphics Inc. technology in a video game player it was developing.
In 2012 – Microsoft unveiled a new logo for the first time in 25 years, opting for simple squares of color and block type with an overlapping ‘f’ and ‘t’.
In 2013 – Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced he would retire within the next 12 months.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
DTNS 2306 – Hacking Green Lighted
Darren Kitchen is on the show and we’ll talk about the hack of Secret that means your secrets can never fully be Secret. Also how to hack traffic lights. Plus Len Peralta is here to illustrate the show!
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 and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today in Tech History – Aug. 22, 2014
In 1932 – The BBC began public television broadcasts.
In 1955 – The first computer user group, SHARE was founded by users of IBM’s Model 704 computer. The first meeting was held in the basement conference room of the RAND Corporation.
In 2007 – The Storm botnet sent out a record 57 million virus-infected emails. It failed to take down the Internet.
Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
DTNS 2305 – Cloudy with a Chance of Ads
Peter Wells is on the show and we’ll talk about Soundcloud’s new advertising-supported rev share plan for artists. Is Soundcloud becoming TOO YouTube-like?
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 and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guest: Peter Wells, of Reckoner, Australia
Headlines
The Verge has been chatting with sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans who say September 30th is tentatively when a press announcement of the next version of Windows is scheduled. The OS, codenamed Threshold is expected to come out as a technical preview sometime in September or October. What is guessed by many to end up being called Windows 9, will have a new mini start menu, get rid of the charms bar, and have a few other UI tweaks. We might even get a version of the Cortana virtual assistant. It’s possible we’ll get detail son the unification of Windows RT and Windows Phone as well.
Reuters, citing subscription tech news site The Information, reports that EBay told potential candidates for the job of Paypal CEO about a possible spinoff of Paypal. Whether that would mean part or all of Paypal would be spun off, we don’t know. Ebay recently resisted demands by activist shareholder Carl Icahn to separate PayPal from its parent company.
Engadget reports Comcast will officially launch its TV service over the Internet on several college campuses this year, including Bridgewater College, Drexel University, Emerson College, Lasell College and the University of Delaware. The service comes included with room and board and can only be used on campus, although among the 80 channels are ESPN and HBO which can be accessed off campus through the WatchESPN and HBO Go apps. Comcast hopes to add other universities soon. A company called Philo provides similar service to Harvard, Stanford and Yale.
GigaOm reports the class action lawsuit put forth by Max Schrems Europe v Facebook campaign is going forward in Austria. The Vienna Regional Court gave Facebook Ireland four weeks to respond to the claimants’ accusations of widespread breaches of data protection law.
According to CNET, Google Chrome is now available for Cubans to download at google.co.cu. Google executives reportedly visited Cuba in June to push for greater Internet access. US sanctions make it difficult for US businesses to do anything in Cuba and Google hinted as much in their G+ post about the launch but hope to figure out how to make more tools available in sanctioned countries. This will surely be highly anticipated by the five percent of Cubans that US NGO Freedom House estimates have regular access to the Internet in Cuba.
The New York Times reports Soundcloud will begin to incorporate advertising in its audio streaming service, starting with Red Bull, Jaguar and Comedy Central. The revenue will mostly go to artists and labels. A new program called On Soundcloud Premier will let select organizations and indie artists join a revenue sharing plan. Big publishers like BMG all the way own to indies like rapper GoldLink are part of the first group in the Premier program. Soundcloud said they also plan to provide a subscription service that would allow listeners to pay to make the ads go away.
The Next Web reports iBeacon-based company Estimote is promoting something they call “nearables” as opposed to wearables. Estimote stickers have integrated accelerometer and temperature sensors and can work with more than just iBeacon. A developer kit is being unveiled today with 10 Estimote Stickers for $99.
News From You
tm204 submitted the MIT News post about a paper describing how to take discarded car batteries and recycles materials from them into longer-lasting solar panels. The panels use a compound called perovskite which requires lead. Rather than produce the lead from raw ore, the researchers can take the lead from one car battery and make enough solar panels to power 30 households. The paper will appear in in Energy and Environemental Science by professors Angela M. Belcher and Paula T. Hammond, graduate student Po-Yen Chen, and three others.
bmbuffalo posted the imgur gallery showing how a fully fucntional 1 Kilobyte hard drive was made by a user called smelly string in Minecraft. A second, larger unit created by The0JJ can store 4KB of data. The devices use Redstone to power pistons that represent binary values by pushing a solid or clear block in front of the redstone signal. Solid blocks are used as ones and clear blocks as zeroes.
funkaround sends along a Wired.com article with the depressing news that Apple’s iMesssage is being taken over by spammers, specifically those hawking fake luxury goods. According to one security analyst, iMessage is a “spammers dream” because it spans the entire Apple ecosystem and Apple scripts can churn out masses of messages. You can report spam to Apple in a tedious process involving taking screenshots or just turn off iMessage until Apple gets the hint.
tekkyn00b pointed out the Android Central article that T-Mobile is heating up the US mobile wars offering a free year of unlimited LTE service if a customer can get someone to switch from Sprint, Verizon or AT&T to T-Mobile. That means the referrer and the new customer both get the free year. Sprint for its part has offered an unlimited talk, text and data plan for $60 a month.
Discussion Links:
http://blog.soundcloud.com/2014/08/21/introducing-on-soundcloud/
http://thisisadynasty.tumblr.com/post/87945465547/brb-deleting-soundcloud
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/21/soundcloud-ads-musicians-major-labels
Plug of the Day:
Like tech history? I’ve teamed up with Scott Johnson to put out monthly looks at what happened in history this month. For 99 cents you get what happened on each day of the month that helped make the tech we sue today, plus illustrations from Scott Johnson. The latest book covering things that happened in September, JUST hit the store today! Check it out for 99 cents each at tommerrittbooks.com or just search Amazon.
Pick of the Day: You Need A Budget via Mike Reed
I would like to suggestion YNAB (You Need a Budget) as a pick. This is a great piece of software, and set of basic rules to assist you in managing your finances. Their software is not cheap at $60, but it is very much worth it. There is a Windows and Mac version for the desktop, and iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire for mobile. The killer feature is Dropbox synchronization. I can be at the grocery store, make my purchase and as I walk out of the store, input the transaction into my mobile device. It immediately updates through Dropbox to any other client, and shows me what the budget for that category was, and what it is now. The company is extremely supportive with numerous live classes to learn the process and software, and a great and helpful online community. I recommend this software to people who need help, and people who don’t. It is a great way to stay on top of your finances, and set great goals for the future.
Friday’s Guest: Darren Kitchen of hak5.org and Len Peralta of all the arts!