Adam Christianson joins the show to talk about the not death of Google Glass and why Apple staff are so fired up about the unauthorized Steve Jobs bio.

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

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Adam Christianson from MacCast

Headlines: 

Google Glass? Not so dead. The Verge passes along Google executive Chairman Eric Scmidt’s comments to the Wall Street Journal. Schmidt said “We ended the Explorer program and the press conflated this into us canceling the whole project, which isn’t true.” He said that’s why they gave it to Nest’s Tony FAdell so it could become user-friendly. He also said Glass is a long term project and that “[It’s] like saying the self-driving car is a disappointment because it’s not driving me around now.”

TechCrunch reports on the launch of a new standalone app from Instagram called Layout. It’s a collage app that lets you take up to 9 photos and arrange them and apply filters. It can do things like pick out just the photos with faces, take a series of photos and instantly make a collage from them, and general speeds up creation. Finished collages can be saved to the device, shared to Facebook and Instagram or sent through the OS’s sharing options to other apps. Layout from Instagram is free and available for iOS now and coming to Android within months.

TechCrunch reports Microsoft broadened its agreement with Samsung to preinstall software and announced 11 similar agreements with other manufacturers like Dell. The new Samsung agreement will see Office apps installed on Samsung Android tablets starting in the first half of 2015.

Re/Code reports that Cyanogen received $80 million in funding. Investors included: Twitter ventures, Qualcomm Inc, Telefonica Ventures and Rupert Murdoch. Cyanogen has a come a long way from its open source project roots to offering a commercial version for phone makers that includes services from partners. The company aims to become a fully competitive mobile OS.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told Time Magazine that the Wall Street Journal’s story reporting a Zelda show being developed for Netflix was “not based on correct information.” So you’re saying there’s a chance! Iwata said, “As of now, I have nothing new to share with you in regard to the use of our IPs for any TV shows or films.”

The Next Web noticed Microsoft released tools and sample code for developers who want to make universal apps for Windows 10. If you want to build an app that works across desktop, tablet and mobile devices with one codebase you need to download Visual Studio 2015 CTP6 and the SDK tools for Windows 10 through the Windows Insider Program at insider.windows.com.

News From You:

Starfuryzeta sent us the Engadget report that packing peanuts — you know the things in your hair, on the floor, and stuck to the cat — may be the key to a new generation of lithium-ion batteries. Purdue University researchers developed a process that heats the peanuts and turns them into carbon sheets or carbon nanoparticles that can be used as anodes where lithium ions are stored during charging. Early test samples last for 300 charging cycles without losing capacity. They need to get that number higher but unlike most battery advances this one is already practical, cheap and easy to implement.

Doorsrio sent us this The Next Web story about Boeing receiving a patent for a force field system. PatentYogi, a patent service company created a short video explaining the patent. The patent specifically covers a system to attenuate shockwave blast energy traveling through the air from affecting an object. Sensors detect the initial blast and direction and then use lasers to ionize the air between the object and the blast creating a plasma channel or a bubble of super heated air. This causes the blast waves to be redirected, reflected or absorb by the plasma channel.

Dmmacs passed along the news that a software update later this week will allow Fitbit wearers to use multiple devices on the same account. Good news for Fitbit who would like to sell more devices to the same consumers, and good news for users who want to swap between the fitness-centric Fitbit surge and the lightweight Fitbit Flex. The update will also add features for tracking bike rides.

Metalfreak submitted the Ars Technica article that shows multiple security warnings bore you. Researchers will present a paper to that effect next month at the Association for Computing Machinery’s CHI 2015 conference. MRI images show a “precipitous drop” in visual processing after even one repeated exposure to a standard security warning and a “large overall drop” after 13 of them. The researcher team—made up of six scientists from Brigham Young University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Google propose polymorphic warnings that change their colors, text, shapes, and other characteristics, to combat the habituation.

Discussion Section Links:  

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/23/apple-becoming-steve-jobs-comment/

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/02/new-steve-jobs-book-coming-march-24/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/23/business/media/apple-opens-up-to-praise-new-book-on-steve-jobs-and-criticize-an-old-one.html

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/17/becoming-steve-jobs-book-excerpts/

http://www.cultofmac.com/315360/tim-cook-tried-give-steve-jobs-liver/

 

Pick of the day:  michaelgeist.ca

From defrosting Ottawa, Canada…

I have a pick for fellow Canadians who maybe have heard many stories about the FCC’s Title II adventures but are looking for a more local perspective. Michael Geist, at michaelgeist.ca, is a Professor of Law at the University of Ottawa who writes regularly about the CRTC (the best equivalent to the FCC in Canada), privacy, media issues, digital rights and more. I have been a subscriber to his RSS feed for years and his articles are always insightful and timely. In my opinion, Michael Geist is the pre-eminent Canadian voice on technology and policy issues in the 21st century.

Jeremy Rand

Messages

In response to Friday’s show where HBO, Showtime, and others want to put servers into an ISP’s Data Center… As a person who has done such a task with third-party payment gateways on major card providers networks and third-party servicers on major banking networks, it is very cost-prohibited. To do this, you would have to set up a termination point for the main-feed to connect to a lease-line that terminates at the data center in question. The trunk of the lease-line at the data center will still need to be connected into a dedicated switch within the data center. The servers will have to connect up to the switch. This all will have to be done twice (primary/backup or hot/hot fail over or some type of forced fail over load-balancing). Say all this was accomplished then you have server support, patching, emergency access, upgrade cycles and more.

There is a lot more detail that I could bore you with, but you get the idea. Putting a server into another company’s data cent
er is glossed over as an easy-inexpensive task. If it was, then all the bank’s and financial institutions I’ve worked for must have been doing something wrong.
Akamai, F5, and the like, have a business-model that capitalizes on the connectivity complexities and costs. It will be cheaper, more efficient to use them than do it yourself. Most tier 3 and tier 4 data centers already have access to these services built in.

BTW, if they do want to do this, I’m always looking for work !

Love the show!

Joe formerly from lovely Cleveland.

=====

BOL REUNION!

Just announced: The Buzz Out Loud 10 Year reunion on March 29th at 12:30 pacific /3:30 p eastern and 7:30p GMT! It’s free! Tom, Molly, Veronica, Jason and many other special guests! Tickets for the event at the Hak 5 warehouse are available at http://bit.ly/BOLreunion but if you want to attend online you don’t need even need a ticket. The event will stream live on Alpha Geek Radio and on YouTube with more details forthcoming.

Buzztown’s Back!

PODCAST AWARDS

Also Podcast Awards! Remember yesterday, and the day before, when we told you how you could vote for your favorite podcast in the Podcast Awards? Well guess what, you can vote again today! For example, you could vote for DTNS in the technology category, but you can also support Night Attack in the “Mature” and “Video” categories. Also you can vote for The Instance, Film Sack and our good friends at The Morning Stream and Night Attack. I guess you could also vote for Serial. But only once. Vote once a day at http://www.podcastawards.com/ until March 24th.

Tuesday’s guest: Patrick Beja

Darren Kitchen talks with us about the fragmenting of the Internet in light of the GreatFire DDoS and other crackdowns.Plus Len Peralta illustrates the show.

MP3

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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

Justin Robert Young joins the show to talk about a Pew Research report that says developing countries don’t see the Internet improving morality. But it’s great for education and news.

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: Justin Robert Young, DTNS contributor and co-host of Night Attack, Weird Things and JuRY talks and JuRYmore podcasts

Headlines: 

The Next Web reports TAG Heuer, Intel and Google announced a partnership at the Baselworld watch fair. TAG will launch an Android Wear watch with Intel hardware by the end of the year. Intel previously has partnered with Fossil on smart watches and powered a smart bracelet called Mica.

Starting on the Apple Watch’s preorder date of April 10th, customers will have up to 15 minutes to check out and try on the Watch at an Apple Store. 9 to 5 Mac talked to”sources briefed on the upcoming changes” who say that each store will set up 10 or more “try-on” stations, and four different zones– In Zone One, employees will help customers try on the entry level sport edition; Zone Two is for sales, Zone Three is for questions, and Zone Four is– well, if you have to ask, you can’t afford it. (Hint: it’s gold). Apple is also considering ‘try-on’ appointments if things get too busy.

Engadget reports Opera announced it has acquired VPN company SurfEasy. Senior Vice President of Products Nitin Bhandari says his team has “concrete plans” to integrate personal privacy products from SurfEasy into the Opera browsers.

Got range anxiety? The Verge reports Tesla will release a software update with a Range Assurance app, that runs in the background, communicating with Tesla’s network of chargers. The app will warn Model S drivers if they risk having less energy in their batteries than it will take to get to the nearest charger. Telsa is also introducing a Trip Planner that will take into account charger locations on long-distance trips. The update will be released within two weeks.

Reuters reports in an interview with Bloomberg TV Virgin Group’s founder Richard Branson said “We have teams of people working on electric cars. So you never know. You may find Virgin competing with the Tesla in the car business as we do in the space business.” Virgin Group spokesman Nick Fox told Reuters. “We are working with the Virgin Formula E team to develop the plan for next season’s cars. Our aim is to build a leading engine and car for next season. Maybe ultimately that could be used in the broader car market in the future”.

TechCrunch reports Android Auto is live for devices running Android 5.0 Lollipop or later. Of course tat doesn’t do you much good unless you have a compatible car stereo system. That means the US and UK and a model from Pioneer. Android Auto apps are now available on Google Play store including Pandora, Spotify, Soundcloud and more.

CNET reports that US revenue generated from streaming music like Pandora and Spotify eclipsed sales of CDs last year, according to the Recording Industry Associate of America. Streaming music sales were 1.87 billion in 2014, compared to 1.85 billion in CD sales. CD revenue dropped 12.7 percent while streaming revenue jumped 29 percent. Digital downloads still make up the biggest chunk at $2.58 billion though that fell 8.7%. Total music sales in the US fell 0.5 percent to $6.97 billion last year.

Fortune reports at CeBit Alibaba founder and CEO Jack Ma showed off a facial recognition feature meant to be used with Alipay service. Ma called it “Smile to Pay.” It works by comparing a photo taken at the point of purchase with a stored photo. Smile to Pay will come to China first then other countries.

TechCrunch reports Rethink Robotics, the company responsible for the teachable industrial robotic arm Baxter, has released a smaller lighter version called Sawyer. While Baxter was meant to repeat the same simple task again and again, like sticking things in a box, Sawyer is aimed for tasks that require more agility and flexibility. Baxter and Sawyer can be used together to address 90% of the manufacturing tasks that cannot be automated with existing technologies. Sawyer costs $29,000, weighs 42 lbs, can carry up to 9 lbs, reach up to 1 meter, has a barcode scanner, object recognition and includes force sensing joints to locate parts in a semi structured environment.

The Next Web reports Pebble has pledged $1 million towards the development and support of smartstrap projects for the new Pebble Time watches. Smartstraps plug into special ports to extend functionality to the strap. Pebble highlighted concepts from Seeed Studio with modular function-specific strap pieces and Spark.io which adds cellular connectivity. Developers should tweet @Pebble or email devsupport@getpebble.com with ideas.

News From You:

The_corley sent us this Engadget story reporting the success of a Google ballon delivering an internet connection from Chile to Australia. Part of Google’s Project Loon the balloon was launched from New Zealand and across the Pacific to Chile, 5500 miles away. After testing the ballon’s command functions and airborne LTE network they sent it back across the Pacific to Australia and tested internet connectivity achieving two hours of connectivity in places where it might not occur otherwise. The tests are giving Google a better picture of how the system will scale.

Berke80 submitted the TechDirt story highlighting The IlluMask. Let’s assume you find a light therapy mask covered in LEDs a desirable product. You’d normally have to pay hundreds of dollars for one. The IllumiMask is only $30. How could this have been done? By breaking it. Even though LEDs should last 30-40,000 hours, IllumiMask programs in a restriction that only lets you use the mask 30 times for 15 minutes each time before you have to throw it away and buy another. However as TechDirt explains, a screwdriver, a paperclip and some gentle hands can reset the IllumimAsk’s use count letting you use it for the life of the bulbs.

 

Discussion Section Links:  

http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/19/in-emerging-markets-internet-blamed-for-having-negative-impact-on-morality/?ncid=rss

http://www.pewglobal.org/2015/03/19/internet-seen-as-positive-influence-on-education-but-negative-influence-on-morality-in-emerging-and-developing-nations/

 

Pick of the day:  Gazelle

Tom and Jennie,

I know most people in your audience know about Gazelle as a place to go to sell used electronics, but I recently discovered they are an excellent place to buy them as well. They list their items on their eBay storefront, and list their condition from “poor” to “very good” and give clear explanations of what each category means. Their prices are really competitive and you don’t have fight other people’s bids since its all “buy now”. Their free shipping is also excellent, I recently bought an iPad mini 2 32gb, it arrived at my door within 30 hours of ordering. The only downside is the inventory fluctuates fairly quickly, so if you see a deal you should probably jump on it. They are also my go to recommendation for replacement phones out of contact, thought your audience should know.

Rich from Lovely Cleveland

Messages

Hey, guys. I’m a little behind on shows, but I wanted to suggest Dropbox as another legitimate use of peer-to-peer file sharing. The “LAN Sync” option will sync your files across computers on your network without each peer having to go through Dropbox’s servers. When setting up a new computer, the first thing I do is install Dropbox and enable LAN Sync which significantly reduces the synchronization process. (If doing so on Windows, you have to explicitly give permission for the firewall to allow traffic on that port.)
Best,
Christian

=====

BOL REUNION!

Just announced: The Buzz Out Loud 10 Year reunion on March 29th at 12:30 pacific /3:30 p eastern and 7:30p GMT! It’s free! Tom, Molly, Veronica, Jason and many other special guests! Tickets for the event at the Hak 5 warehouse are available at http://bit.ly/BOLreunion but if you want to attend online you don’t need even need a ticket. The event will stream live on Alpha Geek Radio and on YouTube with more details forthcoming.

Buzztown’s Back!

PODCAST AWARDS

Also Podcast Awards! Remember yesterday, and the day before, when we told you how you could vote for your favorite podcast in the Podcast Awards? Well guess what, you can vote again today! For example, you could vote for DTNS in the technology category, but you can also support Night Attack in the “Mature” and “Video” categories. Also you can vote for The Instance, Film Sack and our good friends at The Morning Stream and Night Attack. I guess you could also vote for Serial. But only once. Vote once a day at http://www.podcastawards.com/ until March 24th.

Wednesday’s guest: Iyaz Akhtar

Iyaz Akhtar is on to talk about the new PlayStation Vue Internet TV service. Should you cancel cable?

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 guests: Iyaz Akhtar, Senior Associate Editor at CNET

Headlines: 

TechCrunch reports Microsoft’s Executive VP of Operating Systems told the audience at WinHEC in Shenzen, China that Windows 10 will launch this summer in 190 countries and 111 languages. HE also said Windows 10 will be a free upgrade fro all Windows 7 users regardless of whether the user can prove their copy is legitimate or not. Kind of an amnesty program for Windows pirates tech. AND Microsoft will give select Xiaomi Mi 4 users the chance to test Windows 10 on their phones. Yes their android-based MI phones.

CNET reports on the launch of Sony’s Play Station Vue Internet TV service in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia today, starting at $50 a month after a 7 day free trial. Subscribers can watch 60 channels from CBS, NBCm Fox, Discovery, Scripps, Turner and Viacom, with AMC coming soon. $10 extra adds regional sports channels and another $10 adds 26 various other channels. The service provides 3 day on demand access to many shows programming and allows a cloud DVR to store recordings for up to 28 days. Streams can be viewed on the PS3 and PS4. Support for iPads and other devices is coming soon.

Tim Cook talked with Fast company in a wide ranging interview that touched on Steve Jobs legacy and comparisons of Apple with Microsoft. Cook said he thinks Apple is more willing than Microsoft to walk away from legacy technology that holds it back. He also unsurprisingly said the Apple Watch will be the first smartwatch that matters. Doubtless that is true. To Tim Cook.

Engadget has a story on HTC’s new “Uh Oh Protection” program that will replace your broken “One M9” smart phone once for free. HTC will replace your phone for free within the 1st year of ownership if you break the screen, damage the phone, or move carriers. If you happen to take care of the phone for the 1st year you’ll be rewarded with a $100 discount on the purchase of a new One phone in the future.

The Verge reports Google X’s Astro Teller spoke at SXSW telling the audience that Google’s research lab is opening up about their projects more often and earlier. He mentioned that the Google Glass Explorer program was an attempt to do this but it was marketed too much and too often implied it was a finished project. He also talked about how baloons for Project Loon were built to fail fast so they wouldn’t accidentally drift into illegal airspace, stories about self-driving cars avoiding ducks, and how the team was disappointed when a drone delivery prototype didn’t crash in windy conditions.

CNET reports that a German court in Frankfurt has given a preliminary ruling that could ban UberPop. This means UberPop’s carpooling service would not be allowed to run in Germany and could face a fine of 250,000 Euros ($266,000). The case against UberPop was brought to court by Taxi Deutschland which argued that UberPop is illegal because drivers do not have to have the proper licenses to drive people around. Since the ruling is preliminary UberPop can still operate until a final verdict is rendered in 3 to 4 weeks. Uber Taxi and Uber Black services in Germany are unaffected.

 

News From You:

lookatthemonkeys notes The Verge reports French police visited Ubers Paris office as part of an investigation into UberPop, seizing email, documents and smartphones. And to complete the hat trick, starfuryzeta noted the Gizmodo story that Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and almost 30 others have been charged in South Korea with operating illegal taxi services. Police there seized 432 itens as evidence including handsets.

ancrod2 found the Popular Science writeup of Grant Campany, director for the $10 million Qualcomm Tricorder Xprize, speaking at SXSW about how close we are to having a real working tricorder. The prize will go to companies that can develop a home device to tracks vital signs and diagnoses up to 15 health conditions. 10 finalists were recently announced.The next round comes with 480 testing sessions in June at the University of California San Diego. The winners of the competition will be announced in January 2016, on Star Trek’s 50-year anniversary.

Guyfromtrinidad sent us this story from Engadget reporting on the fate of 43 year old Nigel Wilson in England who flew his drone over 6 football stadiums as well as Westminster and the Queen Victoria Memorial. Wilson has been charged with contravening the CAA’s Air Navigation Order 2009, which among other things forbids flying a drone near an event hosting more than 1,000 people. Wilson was summoned to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on April 16th.

 

Discussion Section Links:  

http://www.cnet.com/news/sony-launches-playstation-vue-as-bigger-pricier-internet-tv/

http://www.cnet.com/news/playstation-vue-vs-sling-tv-streaming-live-tv-compared/

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1R6zswJ0O0Q9RMldnsHAC6VrQjJTOaUYVzWT7MOt6_L4/pubhtml

http://www.theverge.com/a/online-tv-stream-price-guide

 

Pick of the day: RiffTrax

My pick is something a little different, RiffTrax!

If you are unfamiliar, rifftrax.com features some of the cast of Mystery Science Theater. The group records funny commentary tracks for major films, B-Movies and shorts.

Commentaries for major films are offered as .MP3 Downloads that you’ll then need to sync up with a copy of the film yourself. But if that sounds like too much work, they also offer a great selection of smaller films that you can download pre-synced and DRM free!

Some of my personal favorites are Viva Knievel, The Guy From Harlem, Kingdom of the Spiders (Staring William Shatner!) and Cool as Ice!

Check them out!

Rob (@blamrob on twitter)

(And no, I don’t work for Rifftrax or stand anything to gain by recommending them) :)Messages

=====

Warren Owen writes us with an idea.

Nintendo has dropped quarter after quarter, year after year, for half a decade. With roughly $6B in sales, yet only $29M in profit, Nintendo has a market cap of $16.8B.

Maybe now is the time. Time for what? Well What if another company just came in and bought Nintendo. Say a company with $173B in sales, $37B in profit, and $8.5B CASH ON HAND. What would happen to the “great mobile wars” if Apple bought Nintendo, and had everyones favorite characters only available on iOS? What if you could play these games, and then “AirPlay” them to your HDTV through your AppleTV (voiceover – now featuring HBO Now). What would that look like in every home across the planet? And, keep DeNA in the mix, to continue the development of new games with our old favorite heroes.
This would seem to be the perfect move for Apple.

Sorry this was long and dramatic.
What are your thoughts?

@WOnet on all the social things

BOL REUNION!

Just announced: The Buzz Out Loud 10 Year reunion on March 29th at 12:30 pacific /3:30 p eastern and 7:30p GMT! It’s free! Tom, Molly, Veronica, Jason and many other special guests! Tickets for the event at the Hak 5 warehouse are available at http://bit.ly/BOLreunion but if you want to attend online you don’t need even need a ticket. The event will stream live on Alpha Geek Radio and on YouTube with more details forthcoming.

Buzztown’s Back!

PODCAST AWARDS

Also Podcast Awards! Remember yesterday, and the day before, when we told you how you could vote for your favorite podcast in the Podcast Awards? Well guess what, you can vote again today! For example, you could vote for DTNS in the technology category, but you can also support Night Attack in the “Mature” and “Video” categories. Also you can vote for The Instance, Film Sack and our good friends at The Morning Stream and Night Attack. I guess you could also vote for Serial. But only once. Vote once a day at http://www.podcastawards.com/ until March 24th.

Thursday’s guest: Justin Robert Young