Justin Young and I debate the warning from the Future of Life Institute about safe development of AI. It’s a sober debate about the risks of artificial intelligence. RUN!!!!!!!

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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Justin Robert Young, DTNS contributor and co host of Night Attack, Weird Things and host of The JuRY show

Headlines

The Next Web reports The United States Central Command twitter and YouTube accounts were accessed and messages posted by a group calling itself the CyberCaliphate and claiming an affiliation with ISIS, presumably referring to DAESH. Links were posted to zip files which contained some public documents as well as others of unverified origin.

The Verge reports that Samsung has added the 5.5 inch Galaxy A7 to its line of metal-frame smartphones. The phone is 6.3mm thick, with a dual 1.8GHz and 1.3GHz quad-core processors (or 1.5GHz and 1.0GHz in the dual-SIM version) and a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon chip 2,600mAh battery and 1280×720 screen resolution, instead of full HD. The A7 also ships with Android 4.4 Kitkat, so no Lollipop on this phone in the immediate future. The phone is expected to be priced at what the Verge describes as “mid-range levels.”

The New York Times reports that according to a declassified report, the FBI has been more involved with the United States warrantless surveillance system over the last few years. Over the past 7 years, The FBI has reviewed email accounts of non-Americans from the NSA’s Prism system, retained copies of unprocessed data for analysis, nominating new email accounts of phone numbers for collection. The information comes from a Justice Department review of activities under the FISA Ammendments Act of 2008. The Times requested the report be declassified through the Freedom of Information Act. Parts of the report remain heavily redacted.

The Next Web reports that US President Barack Obama called for a new law today that would require US companies to report any data breaches to their consumers within 30 days of discovering the attack. The Personal Data Notification and Protection Act would also make it a crime to sell a person’s information overseas. The Federal Trade Commission would be empowered to issue penalties to companies that fail to comply.

Bloomberg Business Week reports IBM was granted the most patents int he US for the 22nd straight year. IBM received 7,534 patents in 2014. Samsung had the second most and Canon third. IBM spends about 6 percent of its annual revenue on research and development. Companies like Google and Oracle spend around 13 percent.

Did someone say Google and Oracle? The US Supreme Court has requested the view of the President of the US regarding an appeal’s court conclusion that Oracle’s Java APIs are protected by copyright. The Supreme Court is considering taking up the case. The US Department of Justice will likely respond to the request. Google’s Vint Cerf argues allowing copyright on code meant to enable programs to talk to one another sets a dangerous precedent. Oracle felt the lower court decision was a victory for software innovation.

Gigaom reports that the interior ministers of 12 European Union countries met on Sunday and issued a joint statement condemning the attacks on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The ministers also reaffirmed their “unfailing attachment to the freedom of expression, human rights, democracy, and tolerance.” Then they called on ISP’s to “create the conditions of a swift reporting of material that aims to incite hatred and terror and the condition of its removing, where appropriate/possible.” Which, could be seen as the opposite of freedom of expression, human rights, democracy, and tolerance. The group also resolved to develop positive, targeted and easily accessible messages, able to counter propaganda.

For the second time in less than a month, Google’s Project Zero disclosed a Microsoft bug before Microsoft got a chance to fix it. Google notifies software manufacturers of a bug and then waits 90 days for it to be fixed before disclosure. Microsoft The Verge quotes Chris Betz, senior director of Microsoft’s Security Response Center summing up the age old debate over responsible disclosure. “Those in favor of full, public disclosure believe that this method pushes software vendors to fix vulnerabilities more quickly and makes customers develop and take actions to protect themselves. We disagree … We believe those who fully disclose a vulnerability before a fix is broadly available are doing a disservice to millions of people and the systems they depend upon.”

Google’s under a little scrutiny themselves. According to Tod Beardlsey, an engineer at security firm Rapid7, there are 11 vulnerabilities in Android WebView, a key component of the old Android browser and one used by apps to display web pages. Google has stopped patching the component for phones running older versions of Android before KitKat. About 46% of Android users run JellyBean the version right before KitKat, meaning those users won’t get the patch. Google refers any patches for those systems version of WebView to OEMs many of whom control the updates anyway. Google does support other patches for older version of Android and also issues patches for its own software through Google Play Services.

GigaOm reports the US FAA has approved CNN to test the use of drones in news coverage. CNN has been working with the Georgia Institute of Technology on drone use for aerial footage. Now CNN will test multiple professional-grade drones for the FAA. The administration will consider setting a range of rules for different drones.

Engadget reports Cuba’s ETECSA telecom is launching it’s own public WiFi in Santiago de Cuba this month. The price will be $4.50 an hour. Keep in mind the average monthly wage was $20 as of 2013. But it’s legal unlike sneaking access to WiFi from hotel’s and offices without approval.

News From You

starfuryzeta submitted the TechCrunch report on the company Palantir formed in 2004. The company is thought to use data mining techniques to assist law enforcement agencies and security companies. TechCrunch received a private document from 2013 that’s being circulated to investors. It describes Palamntir’s data analysis targets as government, fincance sector and legal research. Securities Investment Protection Corporation used Palantir’s software to sort through the mountains of data, over 40 years of records, to convict Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff. Clients like the LAPD can search datasets for connections using natural language. It has also been used to comabt fraud. the CIA, DHS, NSA, FBI, the CDC, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, Special Operations Command, West Point, the Joint IED-defeat organization and Allies, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children have all used the sysetem. International Consortium of Investigative Journalists uses Palantir to gain insight into the global trade and illegal trafficking of human tissue.

KAPT_Kipper submitted The Verge report that Google is about to release an updated version of its Google Translate app for Android which will automatically recognize speech in several popular languages and change it into text. Previous statements from Google have hinted that upcoming versions of Google translate would be able to deliver delay-free, “near perfect” translations. Last month Skype unveiled its real time translation program. Time to get those two programs to translate each other in hilarious videos.

Discussion Section:

http://www.cnet.com/news/artificial-intelligence-experts-sign-open-letter-to-protect-mankind-from-machines/

http://futureoflife.org/misc/open_letter

http://futureoflife.org/static/data/documents/research_priorities.pdf

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/stephen-hawking-transcendence-looks-at-the-implications-of-artificial-intelligence–but-are-we-taking-ai-seriously-enough-9313474.html

Pick of the Day: Downpour via Tom

Downpour for DRM-free audio books. Been trying it out over the weekend and it’s great!

Announcements!

Our next DTNS contributors have been announced: Scott Johnson and Veronica Belmont!  If you’d like to hear more of Scott and Veronica, go here: patreon.com/acedtect

DTNS has an Instagram account! Jennie will be posting from CES until she falls down.  http://instagram.com/dtnspix/ 

Tuesday’s guest: Simon Dingle, partner at 22seven and hosts (tech)5 on 5FM in South Africa

Darren Kitchen joins us to look over the Best of CES and ponder the call to arms from Doc Searls and David Weinberger’s new clues. Can we save the Internet? Yes. Because Len Peralta is here to illustrate the show. And that’s not nothing.

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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Darren Kitchen, hak5.org and Len Peralta, artist

Headlines

The Guardian reports that Facebook, Google and Apple all have responded to the attacks and murders at French Satirical publication Charlie Hebdo. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted that he is committed to making Facebook “a service where you can speak freely without fear of violence.” Google added a black ribbon tot its homepage and pledged €250,000 via the Digital Press Fund to support the magazine. Apple has updated its French website to include a banner with the words “Je Suis Charlie” a common phrase of support and solidarity.

Microsoft’s Spartan browser is spawning so many leaks you’d think it was an Apple product. BGR reports it will integrate Cortana. CNET And The Verge are hearing the same. The Verge’s sources say the browser will allow to write and share notes on web page as well as group tabs. Neowin posted mockups of screenshots and then Cnbeta posted actual screenshots. ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley says Microsoft will not replace IE with Spartan. Microsoft is expected to officially discuss Spartan at its January 21 Windows 10 preview event.

TechCrunch reports on Pew Research Center’s report that Facebook is still the most popular social network in the US but its growth has slowed. One segment that is growing is the 65+ crowd. For the first time more than half of Net users in that age group use Facebook. 56% to be exact. Also US folks are using multiple social networks in greater numbers. 52% of the population use two or more, up from 42% in 2013. LinkedIn and Pinterest are tied for second mot popular followed by Instagram and Twitter. Regular use is steady among all but Twitter which saw daily visitors decline from 46% of users in 2013 to 36% in 2014.

Reuters reports Box.net filed expected share prices in advance of its IPO at $11-$13 per share which values the company at $1.55 billion. Box expects to raise up to $162.5 million from the offering of 12.5 million class A common shares. They don’t however expect to be profitable anytime soon.

According to Re/code’s sources, Twitter is planning to launch a new feature in the next few weeks which will allow users tpost video directly to Twitter rather than use Vine or another third party host. Users can shoot edit and post from within the Twitter app, or upload video from their device. The new feature may have a time limit of 20 seconds.

The Next Web reports that Bitcoin exchange Bitmap is reopening today after being attacked earlier this week. The attack resulted in the loss of 19,000 bit coins worth around $5 million. Bitstamp said its customers would not lose money as a result of the security breach, and that the loss represented only a small amount of its reserve, with the majority held in ‘cold storage’ offline.

Reuters reports that China’s transport ministry has banned taxi-hailing apps from working with cars and drivers that don’t have taxi licenses. This applies to local services such as Kuaidi Dache and Didi Dache as well as Uber, which is partnered with Baidu in the country. The nationwide ban comes after authorities in the Chinese city of Chongqing began investigating Uber in December over concerns that its drivers were not properly licensed.

 

 

 

 

 

News From You

therobertonline sent us the slashgear story about Minecraft user Koala_Steamed who built a functional RedStone Word Processor inside Minecraft. It has a 5 x 10 character display and the ability to open saved files. It includes 400 bits ROM x4/1600 bits of memory and can type symbols, numbers, and upper/lower case letters. The whole thing is full of blocky amazingness which you can see in Koala_Steamed’s YouTube video about the project.

MacBytes pointed out the Engadget article on Samsung’s SSD that uses almost no power in standby mode. The SM951 SSD uses 10-nanometer-class MLC flash tech and can read data at 2.15 GB/s and write at 1.55 GB/s . It also consumes a paltry 2 milliwatts in standby mode. Manufacturers will be able to order 128, 256 ad 512 GB versions.

 

Discussion Section:

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/08/best-of-ces-2015-winners/

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/9/7509787/verge-awards-best-of-ces-2015

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/08/razer-forge-tv-peoples-choice/?ncid=rss_truncated

Pick of the Day 

For anyone in the Apple ecosystem with tight data plans, I just got My Data Manager from Mobidia Technology. This is a solid app to track your data usage for your iphone/ipad/iPod Touch in real time. It tracks both your wifi and cellular data, and you are able to set your billing cycle and data cap as well. You can see a graph of your usage to see where you use the most data and get notifications when you’re getting close to your limit. Best of all it’s 100% free!

My Data Manager: http://www.mydatamanagerapp.com/

Cheers!
Jamie in Beautiful BC

Announcements!

Our next DTNS contributors have been announced: Scott Johnson and Veronica Belmont!  If you’d like to hear more of Scott and Veronica, go here: patreon.com/acedtect

DTNS has an Instagram account! Jennie will be posting from CES until she falls down.  http://instagram.com/dtnspix/ 

Monday’s guest: Justin Robert Young

A listener asks the question if Google won CES without even being there. Declining search marketshare int he US says Google isn’t winning everything. Is the search giant the new Microsoft? Justin Young and Tom Merritt discuss.

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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:  Justin Robert Young, DTNS contributor and co-host of Night Attack, Weird things and JuRY podcasts.

Headlines

Bloomberg reports StatCounter reports Google’s US search marketshare dropped to 75.2% in December that’s down from 79.3% a year ago, and Google’s lowest search marketshare since 2009. Yahoo’s share rose to 10.4%. The likely culprit is Firefox’s switch to Yahoo as its default search engine which started December 1st.

Reuters reports Sony will delay the scheduled January 11th release of the PlayStation 4 in China, due to “various factors.” Sources from Sony in China told Reuters negotiations with Chinese authorities were part of the reason for the delay. A ban on game console sales was partially lifted in China last year but strict rules about what kind of games can be sold still exist.

Apple posted today that it has created 1,03 million in the US and revenues generated through the app store rose 50% in 2014. The price of iOS apps is about to rise too but the developers won’t see a cut of that. TNW notes Apple sent a reminder to devs in Canada, Europe, and Norway that prices will rise in those app stores due to an increase in VAT in the EU and exchange rate changes. Apple also said prices would “change” in Russia though not which direction, and prices in Iceland will drop.

Gigaom reports that during Audi’s connected car demo at CES yesterday, a smart watch was used to call a self-driving car to the stage. Here’s where it got interesting. Some members of the media noticed that the watch looked different than anything they’d seen before. Turns out it was a prototype for an LG Smartwatch running WebOS. Both Android Central and The Verge have good videos where you can watch the interface.The watch could be ready by early 2016.

The Verge reports that the Line messaging app is launching a taxi service in Tokyo, and thus going head to head with Uber. From the Line app users can call a cab from Nihon Kotsu, one of Japan’s largest cab companies, and use Line Pay for the transaction. Uber fully launched in Tokyo in March and British app Hailo operates in Tokyo and Osaka.

French music streaming service Deezer acquired Muve Music from AT&T’s Cricket. Futhermore, Deezer will partner with AT&T to sell Deezer music services to Cricket subscribers. Deezer gets Muve user data including playlists and songs, and the 2 million Muve customers get 45 free days of Deezer after which they would have to pay $6 a month.

We already told you Netflix denied changing how they treat VPNs, but CNET has a quote from Netflix’s chief product officer Neil Hunt that may shed a little light on the subject. Hunt said “On the Android app we added a fail-safe, so that if DNS times out we fall back to Google DNS.” That could explain users reporting being forced to use Google DNS on Android.

The game is heads-up limit Texas hold’em. Fixed number of bets all a fixed value. The question? How can you create set of strategies for your computer to ensure Nash equilibrium is reached. We’re talking game theory here pardner, and Neil Burch, a Ph.D. student in computer science at the University of Alberta in Canada and his co-authors have the answer in a paper published in the Jan.8 journal of Science. The algorithm, named CFR+ by its creators, uses an improved version of a technique called counterfactual regret minimization. It also uses 262 TB of storage space. So it may be hard to sneak into the casino under your bolo tie.

Torrentfreak reports that an organization called Takedown Piracy acting on behalf of Wicked Pictures, sent Google a search result takedown notice for thousands of URLs. This in and of itself would not be newsworthy but among the URls it targeted were open source GitHub projects from Facebook, Netflix and Yahoo. Facebook’s Rebound java library for spring physics suffered because Wicked has a movie called Rebound starring Stormy Daniels. Netflix’s workflow visualization tool Lipstick conflicted with a movie that uses that word. And Yahoo’s responsive CSS modules called Pure conflicted with the movie Impure Hunger. All three projects and many more at GitHub were delisted from Google because of the request.

News From You

 TVSEgon pointed out the Ars Technica story that gives us a little more about what Tom Wheeler, Chairman of the US FCC had to say at CES yesterday. We told you he set a date of Feb. 26 for a vote on open Internet guidelines. He said a LOT more than just that, talking extensively about Title II and how it could be used to achieve no blocking, no throttling and no paid prioritization without imposing rate regulation or discouraging investment. Wheeler urged listeners to look at the wireless industry to see how the FCC might enforce Title II for ISPs.

spsheridan sent us the Variety report that famed astrophysicist Neal deGrasse Tyson will host National Geographic channel’s first ever late night show. The show will be called “Star Talk” and will premiere in April. Tyson is almost definitely the first astrophysicists to host a late night talk show.

starfuryzeta called our attention to the ZDNET story about touch-sensitive and transparent carbon nanobud— or CNB— films from Finnish nanotechnology company Canatu. Unlike metallic nanowires and metal meshes, Canatu claims CNBs are 100% stretchable and perform better in sunlight. The material can be used to add a touch-sensitive display to almost any surface although the screen size is limited to 15 inches or less. The first wearable devices using CNB films for touch sensors are scheduled to be released next spring.

 

Discussion Section: Google soul search

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-07/google-loses-most-u-s-search-share-since-2009-while-yahoo-gains.html

http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/07/is-youtube-the-yahoo-of-2015/

http://media.fb.com/2015/01/07/what-the-shift-to-video-means-for-creators/

http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp

http://www.netmarketshare.com/search-engine-market-share.aspx?qprid=4&qpcustomd=0 

Pick of the Day via technosquid

My pick is sarahlane.com, thurrott.com, and the twitter handles of the same names. On Wednesday, both of these technology reporter favorites made (unrelated) announcements regarding big changes in their professional lives.

Announcements!

Our next DTNS contributors have been announced: Scott Johnson and Veronica Belmont!  If you’d like to hear more of Scott and Veronica, go here: patreon.com/acedtect

DTNS has an Instagram account! Jennie will be posting from CES until she falls down.  http://instagram.com/dtnspix/ 

Tomorrow’s guest: Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta are back in 2015!

Nicole Lee joins the show to talk about the Best of CES– and some of the worst.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? click here

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Nicole Lee, senior editor Engadget

Check out Engadget’s Best of CES finalists written by Nicole Lee!

Headlines

Intel had its keynote address at CES last night and Brian Krzanich showed off Curie, a tiny computer with an Intel Quark low-power chip and Bluetooth that can be used in rings, bracelets and even buttons. Reuters reports Curie is due later in 2015. Krzanich also announced the company is investing $300 million in math-related education and other programs to help employ more women and minorities in the technology and the video game industries. Krzanich also announced a goal to reach full representation of women and minorities in Intel’s workforce by 2020.

AT&T announced that beginning January 25th, customers with the Mobile Share Value plan can roll over unused data to the next month. Rollover minutes only last a month and are only used after all normal plan data is used.

Nicole Lee got a look at the Avegant Glyph, a stylish pair of Beats-looking headphones that can also project a video screen on your eyes when you tilt them down to cover your face. A smartphone or other device with an HDMI cable provides the video. Small DLP arrays bounce light directly on your retina, giving the appearance you’d get from an 80-inch screen with a 40% field of view. You can preorder the Glyph for $499 until mid-January when the price jumps to $599. Avegant will ship production versions to its Kickstarter backers in late 2015 and others by the end of the year.

Wired Reports US FBI Director James Coney told an audience at the International Conference on Cyber Security today that the Sony Pictures Entertainment attackers sometimes failed to use proxies and in Coneys words, “we could see that the IPs they were using…were exclusively used by the North Koreans.” He also said a behavorial analysis unit trained to analyze writing and action also was used as evidence.

Remember yesterday when Patrick asked when the Pono will be available? Now, Patrick. The Verge has a look at Neil Young’s triangular high-fi music player available to the general public for $399. It comes with 64 GB of built in storage, plus a 64 GB microSD card and can hold microSD cards up to 128 GB in size. The software is Android based and according to the Verge, “pretty basic”. The Pono is available in black or orange. Ok fine, but what about the music? The Pono plays almost any kind of audio file, FLAC, WAV, Apple Lossless. OK fine, but how does it SOUND? According to the Verge reporter Chris Welch — “pretty fantastic.”

Engadget wrote up Intel’s HDMI Compute Stick, which is a 4-inch long Windows 8.1 machine. The HDMI dongle has a quad-core ATOM CPU, 32 GB of storage, 2 GB of RAM a USB port WiFi and Bluetooth 4 plus a mini-USB for power. The Intel product page even mentions a micro SD card slot It arrives in March for $149. You can also get a version with only 1 GB of RAM and 8 GBof storage with Linux for $89.

The MHL Consortium announced SuperMHL a new connector format that can play 8K video at 120 fps and color ranges up to 48-bit. You can also link multiple SuperMHL devices and charge with up to 40W of power. It also supports Dolby Atmos and DTS-UHD AND its reversible. o what awesome devices use the spec? None. The spec will be done at the end of January. So maybe next CES for the devices.

Spoiler alert: This story may spoil your appetite. Forever. But bear with us. Bill Gates funded something called The OmniProcessor, and yesterday he went and checked it out. And by checked out, we mean that Bill Gates drank clean water that was reclaimed from human waste. HOLD ON. The Omniprocessor is a building-sized machine that boils sewer sludge boils sewer sludge, burns the dried sludge to create steam which powers a steam engine to make electricty and then the steam is cleaned to become pure drinking water. Janicki Bioenergy created the machine, which is scheduled for a pilot run in Senegal later this year. But Bill, how did it TASTE? “It’s water,” Gates said after taking the worlds smallest ever sip.

Reuters reports Xiaomi has started allowing its phones to be sold in stores in India, changing its online-only approach. The Redmi Note 4G will be sold in Bharti Airtel shops in six cities at 133 locations. Xiaomi also plans to launch its pricier Mi4 by the end of this month or early next.

 

 

Engadget reports on the first phone from Saygus in five years and we mention it mostly for you spec lovers. 256 GB of storage a 21MP rear camera, 13 MP front camera, stereo Harmon Kardon speakers, 60GHz WiFi. The rest is fairly standard, a 5-inch 1080p screen 2.5 GHz Qualcomm quad core processor and 3 GB of RAM. Price and release date? Ha ha. No.

The Verge reports that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler says the FCC will vote on net neutrality on February 26th, 2015. Wheeler spoke just now in a public interview at CES, saying “We’re going to circulate it to the commissioners on February 5th and vote on it February 26th.”

 

News From You

The world-beating t2t2 who among many super powers hosts our chat room at irc.dtns.tv submitted this PC Gamer article that Riot, makers of League of Legends, is QUOTE “in the process of creating our own direct network for League traffic and working with ISPs across the US and Canada to connect players to this network.” They hope to ave it up and running as early as March. The idea is to reduce ping time, packet loss and stabilize connections. So rather than try to push governments to give them help with business deals Riot just decided to build their own Autonomous Network backbone. Go Riot.

habichuelacondulce sent us the 9 to 5 mac report that Monster announced it will sue Beats Electronics for allegedly stealing its headphone technology. The suit accuses Iovine and and Dre of “deliberate acts of corporate betrayal” claiming the two “engaged in a conspiracy and course of conduct to improperly cpntrol Monster’s incredibly successful engineering, manufacturing, marketing, distributin and sales channels. ..” The original Beats headphones were developed in partnership with Monster but when HTC acquired Beats, a change of control provision was cited as a reason to terminate the partnership.

 

 

Discussion Section: CES Best of finalists

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/07/introducing-the-best-of-ces-2015-finalists/

http://www.engadget.com/about/editors/nicole-lee/

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/06/anova-touch-wifi-sous-vide/

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/06/avegant-glyph-headphones/

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/06/mophie-iphone-6-plus/

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/05/secret-event-ces2015/

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/02/sony-smartwatch-3-review/

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/05/nvidia-x1-benchmarks-performance/

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/05/gogoro-smart-scooter/

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/04/zensorium-being/

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/05/samsung-ces-keynote-liveblog/

Pick of the Day:

Awhile back Kevin was listening to Darren Kitchen and I talk about the possibility of Facebook getting a dislike button and we mentioned it would be nice if you could select different emotions. Kevin writes: “The discussion reminded me of a site that aggregates and summarizes the hottest news, called Newser (www.newser.com). I have used this site for years, and really like how it presents news. If you look at a story, you have the option to click a reaction to the story. They offer Hilarious, Depressing, Scary, Intriguing, Brilliant, and Ridiculous as options (see the attached image). They then allow users to search news based on what type of story they want based on the reactions.

Announcements!

Our next DTNS contributors have been announced: Scott Johnson and Veronica Belmont!  If you’d like to hear more of Scott and Veronica, go here: patreon.com/acedtect

DTNS has an Instagram account! Jennie will be posting from CES until she falls down.  http://instagram.com/dtnspix/ 

Tomorrow’s guest: Justin Robert Young

Patrick Beja and Patrick Norton are here to talk about the top stories out of CES as well as the fight for one standard in the Internet of Things and wireless charging.

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: Patrick Norton of TekThing.com and Patrick Beja, DTNS Contributor and host of Le Rendez-vous Tech, Pixels and The Phileas Club

Headlines

Sony announced the Walkman ZX2 a high-end music player. Yep. Music player. Or as Sony puts it “the fruit of continuous refinement in high audio quality technologies.” It has a matte black case and runs Android 4.2. Yep. Jelly Bean. It can do apps but it’s meant to do DSD, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, Apple Lossless and even MP3 up to 192 KHz/24 bits, plus it has Bluetooth and NFC and 128 GB of storage. The ZX2 launches this spring for more than $1,119.99 according to the Verge. The very first walkman in 1979 sold for $150 which would be $536 in 2015.

Gaming company Razer and professional VR company Sensics announced an effort to standardize Virtual Reality development.  The Platform is called Open Source Virtual Reality or OSVR. Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan called it the “Android of virtual Reality”
meaning it’s not meant to compete with things like Oculus— but instead become a standard for cross-platform compatibility.  Apps built with it can run on Windows Android and Linux. A devkit will be released in June 2015 for $200 with a 1920 x 1080 screen and 100-degree field of view. A limited test run will be made available at GDC in March.

Razer also debuted the Forge TV a 4×4 inch microconsole running Android meant to sell for $99 in Q1. It has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 quadcore processor, an Adreno 420 GPU 16GB of storage and 2GB of RAM. It runs Razer’s Cortex:Stream which delivers low-latency and HD resolution improvements to cut down on lag as PC games are streamed to the Forge TV. Users can also stream music, video, and use other apps and control the console using iOS, Android, ChromeBook, and Windows devices.

9 to 5 mac reports that Apple is selling fully unlocked, SIM-free iPhone 6 and 6 Plus phones in Apple’s US retail and online stores. Previously T-Mobile was the only US carrier selling unlocked iPhones. Pricing remains $649 to $949 depending on screen size and choice of storage space. You just don’t get a SIM card.

CNET reports that Fitbit unveiled two new wearables that track your heart rate as well activities– the Fitbit Charge HR and the Fitbit Surge. The Charge HR includes 24 hour heart rate monitoring. The Surge, Fitbit’s first official smartwatch, adds GPS, text message notification and music control. Both provide caller ID, sleep monitoring, heart monitoring and EVEN show you the time of day. The Charge HR costs $150 USD and the Surge smartwatch $250. Software updates will allow users to link five devices to one Fitbit account.

CNET reports on Lenovo’s LaVie Z series which promises a 13-inch clamshell laptop, the LaVie Z HZ550 that weighs 1.72 pounds, and a Yoga-style 13-inch hybrid the LaVie Z HZ750 at 2.04 pounds. The company claims both are the lightest models available in their class.
A magnesium-lithium chassis is 50% lighter than aluminum according to Lenovo.  Both models have screens available up to 2560 x 1440 and use Broadwell chips. The HZ550 laptop will start at $1,299 and the HZ750 hybrid will start at $1,499, with both available in the US in May.  Both models will be available in Japan sometime in the spring.

Lenovo also announced the Yoga Tablet 2 with AnyPen conductive display that requires you to use a pencil or ballpoint pen to write on the screen. The Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 will be available in January 2015 starting at $299.

Ars Technica reports Broadcom announced a chip for cable modems today that allow for gigabit per second Internet service. Comcast was quick to jump in and say they’ll implement the chips along with DOCSIS 3.1 this year. Comcast’s fastest residential service today is 505Mbps downstream and 100Mbps upstream.

As if screaming for attention, the Apple rumor mill spun into high gear today. 9to5 Mac says sources within Apple say the next 12-inch MacBook Air will be smaller than the current 13-inch version and narrower than the 11-inch model. Along with other design tweaks and moved power button the big bombshell in the rumor is that there would only be one USB Type-C port and a headphone jack with no other ports.  The rumored ship date is mid-2015. — ALSO 9to5 Mac says “sources familiar with the product’s development” say the Apple Watch will ship to the US by the end of March.

GigaOm notes that Microsoft has opened up its Office apps for Android to all. The Android versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint are still preview editions but can be obtained from the Google Play Store. Your tablet will need to be ARM-powered with a screen size between 7 and 10.1 inches and be running Android KitKat or Lollipop.

News From You

KAPT_Kipper pointed out The Verge article about The Internet Archive at archive.org has added 2,400 MS-DOS games to its library for you to play for free in a browser. The collection includes id Software’s Commander Keen, the apocalyptic RPG Wasteland, the original Prince of Persia, early FPS games like Wolfenstein 3D, and many more.

starfuryzeta passes along the TechCrunch report that Intel has shut down all of its Russian-language developer forums as a result of the Russian government’s new “Blogger law. The law, announced last year, puts tighter controls on sites with more than 3,000 daily readers including mandatory registration.  Those who violate the law are subject to fines.  Intel is redirecting Russian users to post on Intel pages on third-party sites, or English language Intel sites hosted outside of Russia.

ancrod2 posted the Gizmodo story that’s been kicking around all week that GoGo’s inflight WiFi service is using man-in-the-middle tactics. A Google engineer named Adrienne Porter Felt posted a screenshot on Twitter showing GoGo was issuing its own google.com security certificate when she was loading YouTube.com. That’s usually a sign of a man in the middle attack. GoGo said in a statement that “One of the recent off-the-shelf solutions that we use proxies secure video traffic to block it.” In other words its bandwidth shaping that’s at fault.

 

Discussion Section: Standards!

http://www.cnet.com/news/key-wireless-charging-groups-a4wp-pma-agree-to-merge/#ftag=CAD590a51e

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/06/pma-a4wp-merger/?ncid=rss_truncated

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30692154

https://gigaom.com/2015/01/06/smartthings-next-generation-hub-will-support-thread-and-the-oic/

http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2015/01/06/context-focused-wi-fi-alliance-competitor-ibeacons-due-arrive-devices-year/

Pick of the Day:

Announcements!

Our next DTNS contributors have been announced: Scott Johnson and Veronica Belmont!  If you’d like to hear more of Scott and Veronica, go here: patreon.com/acedtect

DTNS has an Instagram account! Jennie will be posting from CES until she falls down.  http://instagram.com/dtnspix/ 

Tomorrow’s guest: Nicole Lee of Engadget!

Roger Chang and Paul Spain join us to chat about the top CES announcements from Dish’s Net-only TV service with ESPN to Nvidia’s Tegra X1 to a report from Allison Sheridan on using an Oculus Rift to remodel your bathroom.

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Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Paul Spain of the NZ Tech Podcast is at CES, Roger Chang, tech journalist with a special report from CES from Allison Sheridan

Headlines

Dish announced its Internet-only service called Sling TV that will stream 12 channels for $20 a month starting “soon.” The star of the show is ESPN but it also will carry Disney Channel, ABC Family, Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel, TNT, CNN, TBS, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim. Subscribers will have the option of adding other channels in $5 a month packages like Kids, and News and Info. Streams can be paused, rwound and fast forwarded but there is no DVR functionality. Subscribers can only view on one device at a time though it supports Web, iOS, Android, Roku, FireTV, Xbox One and LG and Samsung Samart TVs. Best thing? No contracts.

Engadget reports that Intel unveiled 14 broadwell-series chips including including 13 15-watt processors with basic Intel HD graphics, and four 28-watt models with Intel Iris graphics. Most of those are Core i5 and i7s and they’re all dual core. While these chips boost productivity and battery life a little, the big gains come with 22 percent improvement in 3D graphics benchmarks, and up to 50 percent faster video-conversion time.

Ars Technica reports Google unveiled partnerships with new audio products that can take advantage of Google Cast. That means you can send audio from compatible apps and websites straight to things like speakers, just like you would do with a Chromecast devices. Sony, LG and Denon were named as partners but no product details were provided.

LG today announced the LG G Flex 2, a successor to the G Flex, which is a little smaller at 5.5-inches but a higher resolution screen at 1080p. It still has the curved body and the self-healing coating on the back. It also contains Qualcomm’s 64-bit Snapdragon 810 processor with 2GB of RAM and support for LTE Category 6. No word on price or availability.

The Next Web has Garmin’s announcement of three GPS smart watches. The Fenix 3 supports GPS and GLONASS for location, and measures heart rate, speed, distance, vertical drop and more. It arrives Q1 in five versions starting at $499.99 up to the Sapphire model at $599.99. The Epix is touted as a hands-free navigation device, with maps, compass, altimeter available Q1 for $550 or $600 with topo map preinstalled. And finally the Vivoactive is the budget model with apps, color display interchangable bands and wireless sensors. It also launches Q1 from $250 to $300.

TechCrunch reports that a company called Gogoro announced the Smartscooter, an electric scooter powered by swappable batteries lithium ion batteries. The scooter goes from 0-30 in 4.2 seconds, with a max speed of roughly 60mph, and has two battery slots. Max range is 100 miles. When the scooter runs low on battery power a smartphone app would direct you to a “Go Station” hub where you can swap out the shoe-box sized, 20 pound batteries. Batteries can be reserved, but the user doesn’t “own” any batteries–instead you subscribe to rent. No cost has been announced, and a battery swapping network large enough for a major city is more goal than reality at this point.

Nokia can make phones but not feature phones because Microsoft still owns the Nokia brand from when it bought part but not all of Nokia but it only owns the brand temporarily, so when I say Microsoft launched a phone called the Nokia 215 that’s why. It’s a $29 feature phonerunning Series 30+ with Opera Mini and Facebook Messenger and Twitter. It has a dual SIM model and it gets 29 days on a charge. It will roll out first in select markets in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe this quarter.

CNET reports Tencent has launched China’s first private bank. It’s entirely operated online. WeBank launched Monday and although it’s the first bank in China not controlled by the government, Premier Li Keqiang attended the launch ceremony.

The Verge reports Panasonic will release its Life+ 4K TVS this spring, running Firefox OS. No pricing or release dates were announced. Meanwhile don’t confuse THAT launch with the FirefoxOS powered Matchstick which struck up it’s own partnership to be built inside smart TVs, monitors and settop boxes from TCL and Philips/AOC. The integration features Matchstick’s answer to Google Cast called Flint, an open source casting protocol that anyone can build with.

Ars Technica reports that Sony has announced its replacing its per rental remote game subscription service for Playstation Now with a flat monthly fee. Starting January 13th, PS4 owners in North American can sign up for unlimited streaming access to more than 100 PS3 games like Batman: Arkham City and The Last of Us. A one month subscription will cost $19.99, three months $49.99, and a free seven day trial is available for new subscribers.

The US FCC has a new complaints site at https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us designed to make your complaining a more enjoyable experience. The new site is streamlined with helpful information, complaint monitoring 24-7 and faster delivery of complaints to customers. The Consumers Union advised the FCC on the new portal.

Lenovo announced a partnership with Intel on the P90 smartphone a 64-bit Atom Z3560 powered device with Intel’s LTe-Advanced modem chip. The Intel XMM can handle 150 Mbps down and 50 up though the service has to also be capable of that. It’s Android 4.4 out of the box unfortunately. Otherwise its a 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 display at 400 ppi. 32 GB stoarage and 2 GB RAM with a 13-mpxl rear cameras.

And Lenovo got into wearables with the E-ink Vibe Band. The band shows notifications from your phone for calls, SMS, Facebook, Twitter, WeChat and more, but with no more than 150 characters and can track steps and sleep. The VIBE band will cost just $89 although a release date was not announced.

Qualcomm announced an easy way for manufacturers to make smart light bulbs without worrying about all the crazy protocols out there! Just use theirs! IN partnership with smart lightbulb maker LIFX, Qualcomm has developed chip design that any company can license. It uses the AllJoyn protocol which means it can connect to any product in the house— that uses the AllJoyn protocol. A protocol led by Qualcomm.

Asus unveiled an updated line of Transformer hybrid Windows PC’s and photo-friendly smartphones at CES today. CNET reports that the Transformer Book Chi series is a clamshell laptop that detaches into a tablet. The $699 T300 Chi use Intel’s new Core M processor and has a 1920×1080 resolution screen or $799 for the 2560 x 1440. The $399 10.1 inch T100 has an Atom processor and the T90 costs $299. All three sizes come tot he US in February, no pricing.

As for phones the ZenFone 2 will run Android 5.0 Lollipop Intel’s 64-bit Atom Z3580 processor, a quad-core 64-bit CPU, and includes 4GB of RAM and Intel’s LTE-Advanced XMM modem chip for $199 available in March and the ZenFone Zoom, with a 13 megapixel camera which features a 3x optical zoom. The photo phone will be available for $399 in the US sometime in Q2.

News From You

tninja3000 pointed out the Engadget story that Google’s Nest has announced loads of new partners in its Works With Nest program. Pebble and Jawbone are already in on the action but today Nest announced LG, Philips and Withings are among the new partners. SCenarios could be Nest noticing you leave and making sure the LG smart oven is off, The Withings Aura sleep sensor noticing you go to bed and telling Nest’s thermostat to adjust the temp. Or the Nest Protect smoke alarm causing the Philips Hue bulbs to flash or glow red or something. Uni Key, Ooma and Lutron are among other new partners.

metalfreak called our attention to the OS News post regarding the Intel Management Engine and how operating systems leverage it to restrict things like screenshots of proteced media. The IME is a coprocessor that among many other things implements Protected Audio Video Path to stop nasty pirates from ripping content in ways like using screen recorders on realtime playback. This has the side effect of preventing some innocent things like taking screenshots, because the pixels aren’t stored where they are expected to be.

Discussion Section: CES!

https://gigaom.com/2015/01/05/dishs-new-sling-tv-service-liberates-espn-from-the-cable-bundle/

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/05/sling-tv-announced/?ncid=rss_truncated

Dish Introduces Sling TV, Its Over-The-Top Alternative To The Cable Bundle

http://recode.net/2015/01/05/you-can-finally-get-espn-on-the-web-for-20-a-month/

http://recode.net/2015/01/05/chipmaker-nvidia-accelerates-move-into-smarter-cars/

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/4/7492771/nvidia-drive-cx-ces-2015

Here’s How Nvidia’s New Tegra X1 Stacks Up To The K1 And Apple A8X On Paper

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/05/nvidia-x1-benchmarks-performance/?ncid=rss_truncated

Pick of the Day: The Computerphile channel via Brent

Hi Tom,

I just wanted to say I love your show and wanted to contribute.

This year I found this youtube channel called computerphile. I first saw it appear when the channel posted a video on how the heart bleed vulnerability works (they did not want people to use the bug, but showed how it worked and why)

Warning some videos are very technical!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9-y-6csu5WGm29I7JiwpnA

The youtube channel has loads of videos about all kinds of computer related questions including networking, computer history and many others. If you have some time browse through the list of videos.

Enjoy,

Brent

Announcements!

Our next DTNS contributors have been announced: Scott Johnson and Veronica Belmont!  If you’d like to hear more of Scott and Veronica, go here: patreon.com/acedtect

DTNS has an Instagram account! Jennie will be posting from CES until she falls down.  http://instagram.com/dtnspix/ 

Tomorrow’s guests: ALL THE PATRICKS! Patrick Beja from France and Patrick Norton from CES!