Iyaz 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.

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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, 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

Mary Jo Foley joins the show to talk about the future of Microsoft under Satya Nadella, particularly Windows. Can Microsoft survive without the Windows cash cow? And Len Peralta illustrates 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: Mary-Jo Foley, All About Microsoft for ZDNet & Len Peralta, artist

Len 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!

Headlines

Fortune Magazine reports that the iPhone 6 and 6 plus went on sale in China today and there were long lines and throngs of people–just not at the Apple store. Turns out the actual Apple store was only selling unlocked phones at the full subsidized price. China’s three major mobile carriers had the discounted, subsidized phones, so that’s where the crowds were.

GigaOm notes Snapchat announced Friday it will begin putting ads in your snapchat feed. In the official blogpost Snapchat wrote: “It’s going to feel a little weird at first, but we’re taking the plunge.” The ads will appear under “Recent Updates,” the section of the app where people’s daily “Stories” show up.

Android Headlines passed along the WSJ report that Google’s BVp of engineering for Andoird, Hiroshi Lockheimer is now also in charge of ChromeOS. Sundar Pichai is in charge of Android, Chrome and Apps. Last month some Android apps were made available for ChomreOS and a hack made practically all of them run. Google has said the two operating systems will remain separate, but it sure looks as if they’re making it easier for them to merge.

PC Mag reports MasterCard and Zwipe announced a contactless payment card with an integrated fingerprint sensor. It’s the magic of TouchID with Google’s NFC Wallet Payment minus the phone. A ssuccessful live pilot was conducted with Norway’s Sparebanken DIN bank. The device is set to roll out internationally next year.

The Verge reports Facebook announced it has been searching anonymous posting sites for leaked passwords and proactively trying them on Facebook. If one works, that user’s password is reset and the user is notified.

The Washington Post reports US President Barack Obama has nominated a former Google executive to lead the US Patent and Trademark office. Michelle K. Lee has been deputy director of the Patent office since January, and has degrees from MIT in electrical engineering and computer science, so confirmation would represent a win for Silicon Valley over the pharmaceutical industry which had wanted the president to appoint one of its own. The position has been vacant for two years.

BusinessWeek reports Argentina launched its first domestically buil communicatiosn satellite Thursday. The ARSAT-1 was launched from French Guiana and will provide digital TV, cellphone service for Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay for 15 years. It will also improve phone and Internet connections in remote areas, including Antarctica.

Ars Technica reports Whisper CTO Chad DePue took to Hacker News to dispute Guardian claims that Whisper tracks its users even when geolocation has been turned off. DePue called many assertions laughable and ridiculous but did say the company wants to know “where a user is in a general sense for things like tracking time zone so when we send pushes we know not to send pushes at 3 in the morning.” Security researcher Moxie Marlinspike responded that DePue’s comments seemed to confirm Guardian reports and wrote, “if you haven’t designed something that gives you truly unlinkable anonymity, don’t claim to provide it.” The Guardian also responded with more information backing up its claims.

After being accused on Reddit of misrepresenting it’s hardware, the Anonabox router has been suspended by Kickstarter. Anonabox purported to create a simple to use Tor router that you could plug into any computer to provide instant anonymity, especially when used with the Tor browser. As we mentioned earlier this week, the device had not been audited.

 

 

 

News From You

TheGavW let us know about a BBC report that it will begin publishing a continually updating list of its own articles removed from Google searches under the European Union’s right to be forgotten ruling. In a meeting hosted by Google, BBC editorial head David Jordan said that the BBC felt some of its articles had been wrongly removed from the search index, including a blog post by its Economics Editor, which may have been requested for removal by a commenter on the article. An EU spokesman said this particular removal was “not a good judgement” by Google. In turn Google went and banged its head against the wall, saying “that’s what WE TOLD YOU.”

And finally, h82or8 sent us the Boing Boing report that James Comey, head of the FBI said in a speech on Thursday that the “post-Snowden pendulum” is too blame for Apple and Google offering properly-encrypted cellphones and its “gone too far.” He hinted that the administration might seek regulations and laws forcing technology companies to leave a backdoor open for spies on smart phones and other devices. Mr. Comey did not suggest ways to prevent hackers and foreign spies from using the same door.

 

Discussion Links:

http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-os-chief-myerson-on-the-future-of-one-windows-7000028286/

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/

http://www.citeworld.com/article/2835278/development/universal-apps-is-the-future-of-windows-development.html

http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2014/10/11/future-microsoft-depends-windows-free/

http://news.microsoft.com/2014/09/30/microsoft-unveils-the-future-of-windows/

Pick of the Day: Boxcryptor via Scott from Terrific Toronto and Terrific Tom from the internet:

Tom,

I love your shows, DTNS and Cordkillers are my top two.

I was listening to your story yesterday about the leaked Dropbox accounts and I was wondering if you have ever used or heard of Boxcryptor?

https://www.boxcryptor.com/

Its a 3rd party app that encrypts your files locally before sending them to what ever cloud storage service you use (DropBox, Google Drive, Box etc…) I use it on my windows 7 laptop, Blackberry 10 smartphone and Android tablet. I enjoy the piece of mind knowing that even if my cloud storage account is hacked, all my files are encrypted.

Monday’s guest: Iyaz Akhtar, senior associate editor CNET

Len Peralta is a regular every Friday illustrating the show’s stories. His Friday ‘artprov’ is amazing. If you like his work you must check out his new comic ‘Exterminite.’

What if there was a company that could go into your dreams and kill your nightmares? EXTERMINITE is a mind-bending 5-part graphic novel series from Len Peralta, Mikey Neumann, and Kris Straub that will scare you out of your own pants, hilariously.

BUY EXTERMINITE AT AMAZON.COM

Here’s the first five pages free thanks to Len!

Or get a ZIP file.

Andrea Smith joins us as we review what Apple announced today from Retina iMac to iPad Air 2 and more.

MP3

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

“Everything Apple Announced at Its iPad and Mac Event”
“Apple Built A SIM Card That Lets You Switch Between AT&T, Sprint, And T-Mobile | TechCrunch”
“Facebook Adds Emergency Check-In Feature for Natural Disasters | Re/code”
“Revealed: how Whisper app tracks ‘anonymous’ users | Technology | The Guardian”
“Osmo Raises $12 Million For Its Hardware-Based iPad Game For Kids | TechCrunch”
“Will”.i.am unveils Puls”
“Lenovo to challenge Xiaomi on smartphones with new company in China | PCWorld”
“Twitpic Couldn’t Find An Acquirer, Will Shut Down After All On Oct 25th | TechCrunch”
“CBS launches ‘All Access’ streaming subscription without the need for cable | iMore”
“Teen Pirates Pay For Movies More Often Than Non-Pirates | TorrentFreak”
“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 | The Verge”
“AnandTech | An Introduction to Semiconductor Physics, Technology, and Industry”
“Mobile Technology Fact Sheet | Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project“

Andrew Zarian joins us and we’ll debate how good the possibility of HBO’s announced over the top Internet service might be.

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 guests:  Andrew Zarian, founder of the GFQ Network

Headlines

CNET reports Google introduced three new Nexus devices today. The 8.9 inch Nexus 9 tablet by HTC, the Nexus 6 smartphone with a 5.93-inch display by Motorola and Asus’s Nexus Player, with Android TV. All run Lollipop, which is the new name for Android L. The Nexus 9 and Nexus Player start preorders October 17 – in stores November 3. Nexus 9 runs from $399 for 16GB up to $599 for 32GB with LTE The Nexus Player is $99 with an optional game controller for $40. You can preorder the Nexus 6 October 29 for sale in November. Sprint, US Cellular, AT&T and T-Mobile will have it in the US. Unlocked it runs $649 for 32GB and $699 for 64 GB.

So when will other phones are get Lollipop? Google says the Nexus 5 smartphone, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets and Google Play edition devices should get it in the coming weeks. Ars Technica reports HTC promised updates for some flagship phones within 90 days of Lolipop’s release. And Motorola says both the 2013 and 2014 Moto X, the 2013 and 2014 Moto G, the Moto E, and the Droid Ultra, Maxx, and Mini will all get it too though Motorola didn’t say when.

Usually I avoid Apple leaks especially the day before an announcement but this one has actual facts. Mark Gurman at 9to5 Mac discovered screenshots for the iOS 8.1 iPad user guide in iBooks included pictures of an iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3. The screenshots indicated both new models had touch ID sensors and the iPad 2 has a new Burst mode for pictures. The designs pictured are nearly identical to current iPads.

ReCode reports HBO CEO Richard Plepler told investors at the Time Warner Inc. Investor meeting, “in 2015, we will launch a stand-alone, over-the-top, HBO service in the United States. We will work with our current partners. And, we will explore models with new partners.” Current partners are cablecos who also happen to be ISPs.

ReCode reports Netflix hit expectations for revenue in Q3 with $1.41 billion and 96 cents per share earnings. However they missed on subscriber expectations and the stock market is not happy. In a letter to investors, Reed Hastings wrote, “This quarter we over-forecasted membership growth.”

Ars Technica reports a new vulnerability in SSL version 3 called POODLE has been discovered that could be used to recover session cookies and impersonate users through a man in the middle attack. This is NOT OpenSSL so does not relate to Heartbeat. Modern browsers have switched to TLS not SSL v3 so most client-server interactions won’t be affected. HOWEVER, browsers have a nasty habit of falling back to SSLv3 when TLS fails or doesn’t exist, which mans attackers could use a link to trick a user into becoming vulnerable. What is to be done? Server operators should stop supporting SSLv3. GigaOm reports companies like Twitter, Cloudflare and others have done so. Users should turn off SSLv3 support in their browser. Go to zmap.io/sslv3/browsers.html for instructions. Mozilla and Google have announced they will remove support for SSLv3 from their client software. There is not a way to turn off SSLv3 in Safari or IE6. Hopefully Apple will fix Safari. IE6 on the other hand should be long dead anyway.

Venturebeat reports that Qualcomm will acquire CSR, maker of Bluetooth and GPS chips for $2.5 billion in cash. CSR is based in Cambridge, England; in addition to its chips, the company has branched out into cars, and the internet of things. CSR had previously turned down an acquisition offer from Microchip Technology, a maker of microcontrollers.

ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reports Microsoft and Docker have announced Docker container support will be included in the next release of Microsoft Windows’ Server, expected mid 2015. Docker container apps will run on Windows Server or Windows Server Next vm in Azure. Docker uses containers to enable apps to run across platforms, or have multiple apps run at once on one server, without needing a vm.

Ebay reported its 3rd quarter earnings, reported revenues of $4.4 billion, growing 12% from a year ago, and beating both Wall Street’s expectations and Ebay’s own estimates. PayPal is on track to process 1 billion mobile transactions in 2014, with mobile payments this quarter at $12 billion, up 72%.

News From You

ebridges13 submitted the Sploid post about the Aviation Week story on Lockheed Martin’s compact fusion reactor, which is safer and cleaner than nuclear fission. The CFR experiment T4 is about the size of a business jet engine. Up until now fusion reactors were massive in size and expense. Lockheed’s CFR uses plasma containment more efficiently such that for the same size it can generate 10 times more power than a typical fusion reactor. Before you get too excited Lockheed has yet to build a prototype and even then would be 5 years off from production.

MacBytes submitted The Verge Report writeup of the news that Facebook and Apple are offering a new employee benefit: both companies cover the costs of egg-freezing procedures up to $20,000 for individual employees. The procedure, known as oocyte cryopreservation, allows women to harvest healthy reproductive eggs during their most fertile years and freeze them for later. While the procedure is still relatively new, and doctors are still assessing its effectiveness it does indicate that Apple and Facebook are thinking about the needs of their current and possibly future female employees.

KAPT_Kipper submitted the VentureBeat article that Firefox 33 arrives today for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. Among the new features is support for encoding and decoding OpenH264 sandboxed support through Cisco’s H.264 implementation. It works for WebRTC but not the video tag yet. There are also improvements to the search bar. The Android version has added a send to device option for video that works with Roku and Chromecast devices.

Discussion Links: HBO To Go?

http://recode.net/2014/10/15/hbo-says-its-going-to-start-selling-on-the-web-next-year/

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/15/6982281/hbo-go-no-cable-streaming-netflix-worst-nightmare

http://www.timewarner.com/newsroom/press-releases/2014/10/15/hbo-chairman-and-ceo-richard-plepler-announces-hbo-to-offer-a

Pick of the Day: NoRoot Firewall via Loren Ahrens

I developed a problem with my android phone telling me, “Temporary server error, please try again later.” To isolate the app that is causing the problem I am using NoRoot Firewall. Every app that is calling home is easily identified. I’m surprised by a few and the will be uninstalling them now. Since it has been so easy and useful, I thought I’d share it.

Tomorrow’s guest: Andrea Smith, technology journalist