Is it crazy for Apple to hold out for local TV? Has a perfect solution for Netflix in hotels been found?.
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It’s the Memorial day holiday in the US, so Tom’s just reading the headlines before he joins the rest of his US counterparts. Back with full shows tomorrow.
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Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Tonight, on CurrentGeek: Windows ten gets CRUSHED! Redditt gets all friendly and stuff. Simon Pegg ruffled some feathers. Marty and his 88. Where is Huell? We are putting lasers in space! How about that Orgim! Your thoughts emails and more!
Justin Young joins the show to talk about the latest reason why Apple TV rumors won’t be true, Uber’s autonomous car research and how LED lights in the grocery store can help you find the tortillas you like. Plus Len Peralta illustrates the show!
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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: Justin Robert Young and Len Peralta
Headlines
Happy Birthday Puck-Man!
Hey that Apple TV service that Apple never announced is coming? It got delayed again. Re/Code reports that according to “industry executives familiar with Apple’s plans” Apple wants to include live local TV programming. That’s a tall order. Even CBS and ABC can’t get the rights to stream local channels in their various apps. All this mean that all those rumors that Apple would announce the service at WWDC and launch it in the autumn are likely to be wrong.
There’s a new kind of car cruising the streets of Pittsburgh. Actually it’s a Ford, but the Pittsburgh Business Times took a photograph of a car which has the words “Uber Advanced Technologies Center” on the side, and a box of electronic components on the roof. The Verge reached out to Uber, which said the Ford is NOT a self-driving car, but rather “part of our early research regarding mapping, safety and autonomy systems.” As you may recall, Uber has set up a research center in a strategic partnership with Carnegie Mellon University. In less exciting news the Pirates have already lost six games in extra innings this year making thier record 18 and 22.
9to5 Mac which is actually really good about finding out things before Apple is ready to announce them, has rounded up everything it knows about iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 ahead of next month’s WWDC announcements. A lot of it you’ve heard before but the big takeaway is both OS updates will focus on quality which means a lot of reliability improvements, fewer bugs but also fewer splashy features. Although one feature called rootless, would restrict access to certain files even from Admin-level users as a measure to combat malware.
Ars Technica reports Australian Security researcher Troy Hunt reported Friday morning that data from subscribers to AdultFriendFinder.com is a available in 15 spreadsheets posted on site protected by Tor privacy. The data included 3.8 million addresses as well as age, zip code, sexual orientation and even things like whether the user was seeking an extramarital affair. The spreadsheets include data for current, former and even deleted accounts.
PC World reports Firefox will begin testing advertising tiles based on a user’s browsing history. The ads will be called Suggested Tiles and will appear on a user’s new tab page. Ad display selection happens inside the browser on the user’s machine and only a minimal amount of data leaves the browser. Yo can try it out by getting a build from Firefox’s beta channel next week. Nightly test builds have contained the feature since last summer.
TechCrunch reports Korea’s Yello Mobile, which has acquired 61 companies over the past year, just picked up Singapore-based Gushcloud. Gushcloud is an influencer marketing platform in Southeast ASia, which means it pays people to tweet and vlog and such about stuff. Yello says it plans to acquire 20 more marketing companies across Asia this year. An interesting note is that when Yello Mobile acquires a company it leaves the founders in charge and lets them continue to build the companies as if they were still independent.
TechCrunch reports that the world’s leading seller of virtual stickers — messaging app Line — is trying out a music service with some of its users in Thailand. Line Music is available for IOS and Android there and integrates into the chat app to share songs with friends and post to timelines. The music service costs the equivalent of $2 a month, though the first month is free.Line has a YouTube like TV service, a payments platform, an Uber like service in Japan and makes most of its money on in-app purchases for games.
PC World reports that Pebble will start shipping its latest smartwatch next Wednesday May 27th and finish manufacturing all orders by the end of May. According the project’s Kickstarter page by mid-June every contributor should be able to track their shipment. Next week, Pebble will introduce new Android and iOS mobile apple that only work with the Pebble Time models.
Oh and hey if you were wondering who it was that was trying to buy Salesforce— and why wouldn’t you be— CNBC reports it was Microsoft the whole time. Likely in a clever mask. People familiar with the situation said Microsoft offered as much as $55 billion. But Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said NOT ENOUGH and wanted as much as $70 billion.
News From You:
TVSTRavis submitted the top story on the subreddit today. A Consumerist article from a couple days ago reports that General Motors attorney Harry Lightsey told a public US Copyright Office hearing that software in GM cars is licensed to the owner of the car. This is similar to claims we discussed regarding John Deere tractors. The Office is expected to issue a ruling in July.
johnsie776 posted the Ars Technica story that researchers from Cambridge University found an estimated 500 million Android phones do not completely wipe data when users choose the factory reset option, even if full disk encryption is on. The researchers were able to recover login credentials, text messages, email and contacts from 21 phones running Android 2.3 to 4.3. The findings are published in the research paper, “ Security Analysis of Android Factory Resets.”
Discussion Links:
http://www.engadget.com/2015/05/22/philips-led-vlc-navigation/?ncid=rss_truncated
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/networks/philips-creates-store-shopping-assistant-with-leds-and-smart-
phonehttp://blog.bytelight.com/post/93503988148/place-2014-recap-finding-technologies-to-scale#.VV9yaFnBzGc
http://website-assets.bytelight.com/assets/how_it_works-1ee62918322ee289a0c7d315b2554cd0.jpg
http://www.bytelight.com/http://phys.org/wire-news/193743383/carrefours-led-supermarket-lighting-from-philips-helps-shoppers.html
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150504005274/en/Floor-Ceiling-Philips-Showcases-Latest-Connected-Lighting#.VV9x11nBzGc
http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2015/05/tone-experimental-chrome-extension-for.html
Pick of the Day: The Rufus Cuff
dash2justice was listening to Veronica wishing that the Apple Watch could work on it’s own without having to be tethered to her phone, and has an alternative to the Apple Watch. The Rufus Cuff is a smart watch that has a 3″ screen and can either be tethered to your phone or can run on it’s own because it runs full android Kit Kat (with support for future OS updates). So it can run on it’s own but will stand out. But think about all the cool wrist computers like oh, I don’t know, maybe THE PIPBOY.”
Engadget wrote: “It connects to your Android or iPhone via Bluetooth for mobile data, making calls and sending texts, but it’s running a full version of Google’s mobile OS and can hook on to WiFi if you’re in a cellular dead-zone”
Messages of the Day
I enjoyed the discussion you had with Allison yesterday about social media and other technology. The introduction of the telephone was compared to what is being said about the internet. I am 79 remember when many people didn’t have a phone. My mother would often send me to the neighbors to tell them someone had call our house for them. I remember the family sitting around to listen to the radio. In 1960 , my wife and I moved 2000+ miles from home. Long distant call were expensive and only used for emergencies. We had a stretch of five years without being able to visit family and friends. Now I have daughter who lives in the Seattle area, a granddaughter who lives in Colorado Springs with three of her own children. We Skype with them several times a week. I have been able to re-establish relationships with high school and college classmates with Facebook. Although I don’t understand why kids will text each other when standing next to one another, I prefer the technology we have available today.
Bill Burlingame
Huntsville, AL
—
Hi Tom, Jenny, et al,
On Wednesday Llamar was talking about his disappointment in ad block. I understand that it is tough as a creator to see a revenue source blocked by the user, but there has to be a reason they are choosing to do this. Advertisements on the web are annoying to me, and while I want the creators I love to get paid, I want them to get paid because I am enjoying content, not because I am annoyed. I run add block on my machine and would on my phone with no reservation because I support the content I want to support (like this show) of my own accord. Didn’t make me a free loading jerk.
Anthony from finally thawed Maine
—
Ted Dushane from lovingly academic Ann Arbor, Michigan.
I listened with interest to your discussion of the very bad practice of using security questions.
My wife and I have developed a workaround that I recommend for your audience:
Following are the rules for our system:
(1) make up a secret phrase which will apply to all answers. Call it:
OURPERSONALPHRASE
(2) examine each security question. For each one, determine the subject of the question, call it:
SUBJECT
(3) the answer to the question will then be:
OURPERSONALPHRASESUBJECT
(4) Almost all sites give you several optional questions, but in case they force one of them to have a date for the answer, my wife and I have chosen a date which we always use for that question. Obviously, it is not a date of any importance to us but one we determined using a random number generator. We have never found a site requiring more than one date among the answers.
Here are 2 examples, where the phrase chosen is “I love summer”
Security question: “What is your favorite touring car?”
Answer: Ilovesummercar (since “car” is the subject of the sentence)
Security question: “What is your wife’s first pet’s name?”
Answer: Ilovesummername
Monday: DTNS contributor Veronica Belmont!
Allison Sheridan is on the show. Are you addicted to your smartphone because of social networks? Has the Internet made you antisocial? Can these both be true?
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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 guests: Allison Sheridan
Headlines:
The CBC reports the ‘five eyes’ intelligence alliance of Canada, US, UK, Australia and New Zealand sought to find ways to intercept app updates from the Google and Samsung app stores in order to install spyware. According to documents, the agencies targeted mobile app servers in France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Cuba, Morocco, the Bahamas and Russia. The same agencies also found security gaps in Alibaba’s UC Browser, the most popular 3rd-party browser on smart phones. Citizen Lab, a human rights and technology group in Toronto recently found the leak and alerted Alibaba in mid-April.
“sources briefed on the plans” have told 9to5 Mac that Apple could demonstrate a split-screen applications feature for the iPad in iOS9 at WWDC. Multi-user login support and the mythical 12-inch iPad — code names J98 and J99— are also in the offing later this year… still. Also a TV! And a car! And the iPony!
Engadget reports that YouTube now supports 60fps for LIVE streaming. For now you’ll need an HTML5-compatible browser to see the streams. YouTube will encode these streams in both 720p60 and 1080p60 formats but will automatically throttle down to 30FPS for devices that can’t handle 60. Other new HTML5 playback features include rewinding a live stream and double speed video play back to catch up. YouTube collaborated with Elgato and Spilt to ensure continued compatibility of Elgato Game Capture, Xsplit Broadcaster and Gamecaster.
Trivia game QuizUp is now a social network according to TechCrunch. The new app includes forums with comment threads, likes, and photo-sharing. Users can search for a specific type of user by location age and gender. QuizUp has more than 12,000 topics. There are 33 million users worldwide, who play approximately 7 million games per day, the average user spending 30 min a day playing.
Google may have an answer to Huawei’s ‘Lite OS’ for the Internet of Things when Google I/O rolls around next week. Ars Technica reports on an Information piece that Google’s OS is codenamed Brillo, will be marketed under the Android name and is developed by a group “linked to the Android unit.” So it’s probably Android-based. Brillo will be aimed at devices with 32-64MB of RAM and will allegedly be offered free to OEMs.
TechCrunch reports on a new study from Google regarding security questions like ‘what was your first pet’s name’. Researchers looked at ‘hundreds of millions’ of these questions and their answers from Google users and concluded that “secret questions are neither secure nor reliable enough to be used as a standalone account recovery mechanism.” The answers are either too easy to guess or too hard to remember. Google’s researchers recommend sites use SMS backup codes, secondary email addresses and other means to securely authenticate users.
Reuters says the US Department of Commerce proposed new export controls Wednesday that would treat zero-day software flaws as potential weapons. Among other things, that would require bug hunters to get a license to collect bug bounties from any company outside the ‘five eyes’ countries. The new rules are subject to a 60-day comment period.
The Pew Research Center has two reports out that show people in the US are fairly certain their privacy is gone in public and in private but they haven’t done anything to protect it themselves. More than 90% of adults surveyed felt that who gets information and what is collected about them is important. 31% are confident the government and phone companies can keep their info secure. 38% felt the same confidence in credit card companies. However 91% have not made any changes recently to internet or phone use to avoid tracking.
News From You:
themoke got the top vote getter on the subreddit today with a post of an Imgur gallery in which MacMAnsen uses a photocopier to back up his Kindle copy of Orwell’s 1984. He even made it a hardbound book. And then re-uploaded the scanned pages as an ebook.
the_corely sent us this The Next Web story that Amazon’s Prime Now service now offers one-hour delivery from local stores starting in select neighborhoods of Manhattan delivering from D’Agostino, Gourmet Garage and Billy’s Bakery. Amazon says it will expand its service across Manhattan in the coming weeks and add Eataly and Westside Market. Other cities with Prime Now will follow. If you’re in the area, you can place your orders through the Prime Now app to take advantage of Amazon’s new offering.
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the Day:
Messages:
Chris, one of our nickel-backers from Fresno identified another reason that Spotify might be rolling out a running option for their service. He writes:
“As a consumer, I’ve got a budget for paying for services, and if I’m a runner/gym rat/fitness enthusiast who likes to listen to music mostly while I’m working out, there are already options that are geared towards my use like Rock My Run, and FIT Radio. By including similar features inside Spotify, that might get me to cancel my paid subscription to a different service and upgrade my free Spotify account to put all my music listening into a single app.
Michael from Scotland laments:
“Why can’t Spotify just be like an good ol’ PC music player (or an mp3 player on mobile) – I open it up and boom I am straight into a list of all the favourites songs, albums and artists I have added! No friend list! No recommended playlists! No trending whatevers! … Why does it feel like when music went online I suddenly needed to be constantly nagged about what I should be listening to? …It should just be a music player, for the music I like! Every Spotify annnouncement just sounds like feature creep.”
Sonia in Pure Michigan country assures us that up there in 4 season Southeast Michigan they have the self-driving car in winter problem covered! She writes:
“The Mcity test facility on U of M’s North Campus (home to the School of Music, my alma mater, as well as the School of Engineering, which I abandoned due to an allergy to physics) is slated to open this summer. It’s interesting to note that Google is moving their Ann Arbor presence to North Campus as well, building a new campus — an increase of jobs from their former home in downtown Ann Arbor. Coincidence? Perhaps — but I think not.
Here’s a link to the Mcity website:
http://www.mtc.umich.edu/test-facility
Can’t wait to see the data coming out of there!
Tim among the people:
(including Dave immediately in the chat room yesterday) Google bought songza (for a fraction of the price of beats) after Apple bought beats.
=====
Friday’s guest: Justin Robert Young and Len Peralta
We talk with Rachel Aaron about why she doesn’t worry about genre anymore and how she had to fight the siren song of Warcraft to become a professional writer.
We talk with Rachel Aaron about why she doesn’t worry about genre anymore and how she had to fight the siren song of Warcraft to become a professional writer.
Scott Johnson and Lamarr Wilson join the show to discuss Spotify’s new custom playlist and running features. And can adding video and podcasts boost the money it makes from music?
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: Scott Johnson and Lamarr Wilson
Headlines:
Spotify announced the addition of Spotify Now— Songza-like custom playlists — Spotify Running— sophisticated playlists for running that change with your pace— as well as the addition of videos and podcasts. Spotify Running will integrate with Nike + and RunKeeper apps later this year. Spotify Now launches for iOS in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Sweden today. Spotify Running comes to iOS globally today.
ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reports that Twitter user @h0x0d discovered a download page marked ‘Microsoft Confidential’ for a Microsoft-made iOS app called ‘Flow by Outlook.’ Text describing the app read “Reach anyone with an email address and all conversations for you and others are also in Outlook.” Only conversations started in Flow appear in Flow. A Microsoft spokesperson said the company had nothing to share about Flow.
Engadget is reporting that Adblock Plus app is returning to the Google Play Store after being pulled in 2013 for “interfering” with other apps. To avoid problems the new Adblock Plus is a modified version of the Firefox Android browser with ad blocking built in. It does not support extensions or Firefox’s synchronization feature. The app hasn’t yet gone live in the Play store so users are encouraged become testers by signing up to Adblock Plus’s Google+ community and download the app directly.
TechCrunch reports that Microsoft is now offering the digital tv tuner designed by Hauppage for the Xbox One. The tuner is compatible with Snap, voice control, OneGuide and streaming to other devices, even if someone else is using the Xbox for gaming. It does not support DVR functions, though you can pause, FF and rewind live TV for up to 30 minutes. Microsoft is offering a bundle that includes the tuner and a Mohu Leaf 50 antenna for $100.
PCMag.com reports on Google’s Tone Chrome extension. When you want to send a URL, click the blue button and the service broadcasts a series of tone. Any machine within earshot that also uses the extension (including those on a phone or Hangout) will receive the URL. Just remember that ANY computer that can hear the tone will get the URL.
Yonhap News reports that LG Display has unveiled an OLED display panel that sticks to the wall. The 55-inch wallpaper panel is 0.97 mm thick, weighs 1.9kg and sticks to the wall using a magnetic mat. LG’s existing 55-inch OLED panel is now seemingly fat 4.3 mm. No word on when the new wallpaper panel wil make it in to production.
News From You:
Starfuryzeta submitted the ArsTechnica report on a new attack on HTTPS-protected websites detailed in a research paper called “Imperfect Forward Secrecy: How Diffie-Hellman Fails in Practice.”. The attack, being called ‘logjam’ affects servers that support Diffie-Hellman key exchange by downgrading to 512-bit encryption. It takes advantage of a weakness in the encryption added in the 1990s to allow US law enforcement to break the encryption if used by foreign entities. It’s similar in this way to the FREAK attack uncovered in March. The attack is estimated to affect 8.4% of the top 1 million websites as well as a slightly larger percentage of mail servers. Internet Explorer is protected and updates to other browsers are expected in the next few days. Server admins are encouraged to disable support of DHE_EXPORT ciphersuites that allow downgraded connections. ore info can be found at weakdh.org/
cdnDude74 submitted the TechRepublic article that Google plans to roll out their own VPN service. A reference to Google VPN was found in “Google Connectivity Services” in Android 5.15 on a Nexus 6. However the service isn’t active yet.
mranthropology submitted The Verge article about Huawei’s announcement of an Internet of Things operating system called LiteOS, that’s 10 kb large. LiteOS is meant for any smart device from wearables to cars and will be made open to all developers with zero configuration necessary for users. Huawei is also marketing its Agile Network architecture to help companies manage all those incoming connections.
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the Day:
J. wrote in with an explanation of why customer service reps often ask you for all the information you already told the phone tree:
“I’m a tech support rep for a major ISP. In regards to account info when you call customer service. With large companies, different call centers handle different regions. The system is in place more to route you to the right person than to give that person your account. That having been said, I do get a pop-up with your account number about 60% of the time. The account number is generated and auto-pops based on the phone number you typed or said in most cases. The difficulty is that a person with your phone number may or may not be a person you want accessing your account, so we ask for it anyway, along with other CPNI info. Consider it 2 factor authentication.
Short version… I’m not gonna be that Apple rep who let someone into Tom Merrit’s email account.”
Messages:
Doug wrote regarding municipal broadband:
“First, the existing monopolies or near monopolies on broadband are the direct result of municipal interference in the market. Both telephone companies and cable companies were granted monopolies to encourage infrastructure buildout. Why should I expect further interference in the market to be more competently accomplished?
Second, in most cases where cities provide services, they grant themselves monopolies and charge monopolistic prices. An example: My last house was in an unincorporated part of the county I live in, and I could get trash service for $10 per month, up to 10 containers, the trash company would return the containers from the curb to the side of my house, and recycling was free. After moving to a municipality that has city pickup, the price is $30 per month, I have to buy containers at $60 ea. from the city, and if I want to recycle, I have to buy a separate container for that. Three times the price for much less service.
If you could guarantee that cities:
1. Had to charge their real costs (that is, that they were prohibited from subsidizing broadband with other revenues, including amortization of the buildout costs) OR had to allow access to any subsidized infrastructure to any competitor at an audited fair price
2. Were prohibited from enforcing a monopoly on broadband
I’d support municipal broadband.
=====
Thursday’s guest: Allison Sheridan
Patrick Beja is on the show and we’ll talk about protest letters regarding encryption back doors and zero-rating, an app store for your 10-year-old car and the most annoying innovations in tech.
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 Beja
Headlines:
The Washington Post reports 164 tech companies organizations and security researchers sent a letter to US President Obama asking him to reject any proposed law that would “deliberately weaken the security of their products.” US FBI Director James B. Comey is among several US government officials pushing companies to allow government to have access to all encrypted data. The letter is signed by three of the five members of a presidential review group appointed to assess policy in the wake of the Snowden leaks.
The BBC reports 67 digital rights groups from around the world signed a letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stating concerns about the Internet.org initiative. The letter says the project threatens freedom of expression, privacy and the principle of net neutrality. Internet.org lets users access participating services without incurring data charges. It does not currently support https, ssl or TLS. Internet.og is currently available in Zambia, India, Colombia, Guatemala, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malawi.
TechCrunch has the tech specs on Apple’s just updated MacBook Pro iMac. The 15” Retina MacBook Pro now comes with a new force touch trackpad, improved PCIe-based flash drive with 2.5x the performance, one more hour of battery life, and a new Radeon R9 M370X discrete GPU option. Prices start at $1999 for a 16GB, 2.2GHz quad-core Core i7, and 256GB of storage. The iMac 5K Retina now comes with a 3.3 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor and Radeon R9 M290 graphics card. And Apple is now selling a lightning dock for your iPhone 6 and 6 plus for $40. This one should last through a few more models since the base is open.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple shelved plans for a 4K television, according to people familiar with the matter. The reason? The features — including a camera that would allow users to make video calls — were not compelling enough to impress executives. However, according to Reuters, prominent investor Carl Icahn says Apple will still introduce a TV, and a car. And he wants Apple to buy back more stock. And he wants a pony. The pony part is unconfirmed.
ZDNet reports that Microsoft has released public previews of Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Android phones today. The new Office app previews require KitKat 4.4.x or higher and devices with 1 GB of RAM or more.You’ll also need to join the Office Android Preview group. “Become a tester” on Google Play by visiting the Word,Excel and PowerPoint apps. Wait for Google Play to replicate permissions, then click above mentioned links and follow the download links to install apps from the Google Play Store. Finally join Microsoft’s Google+ community for support, feedback and queries. But that’s all!
Tech Crunch reports that Google is adding tweets to its search results. Use the word Twitter in your search request or just search for a term and see if people are saying anything about it on Twitter.
Results will show up for English-language mobile users today on browsers and Android and iOS Google apps. Google is working on adding it to the desktop and other languages.
Automatic is launching an app store and SDK for its on-board diagnostic— or OBD plug— according to CNET. First-generation Automatic dongles are compatible with the new App Gallery but not the new SDK. The new dev platform includes a streaming SDK that only works with second-generation Automatic hardware. The new hardware is able to send raw, real-time performance data to select third-party apps over Bluetooth. The streaming SDK is in currently in private beta. The second-generation Automatic adapter will retail for $99.95 same as the first-gen.
News From You:
This was our top vote-getter on the subreddit today. johnsie776 posted the Ars Technica report that the state of North Carolina has sued the US Federal Communications Commission. The FCC pre-empted state law to help the City of Winston expand its municipal broadband network. The state claims that the FCC unlawfully inserted itself between the State and the State’s political subdivisions. The case is now in the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Tennessee is also suing the FCC in the Sixth Circuit regarding municipal broadband in Chatannooga.
jaymz668 sent the KitGuru post noting a Chrome and Android engineer said in a Reddit AMA session late last week— that developers are working on improving Chrome’s resource usage on mobile as well as memory leaks on the desktop. Here’s hoping.
habichuelcondulce pointed out the PC World article that the Center for Digital Democracy and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood filed an update to their U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint against The YouTube Kids app. The update adds a video of allegedly harmful content to the complaint originally filed in April. The groups also added the complaint that Google is deceiving parents about the effectiveness of the screening process. Google said it is working to make the videos in YouTube Kids as family friendly as possible.
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the Day:
Daryl Sensenig (in lovely Lancaster County, Pennsylvania):
My pick is Bing Maps. I know that nearly everyone uses Google Maps, but I feel that Bing is much better in several ways:
1. In my experience, the routing is better and the travel time estimates are more accurate.
2. Their satellite view (bird’s eye view) is actually photos from airplanes and not satellites. So, it is much more detailed than Google Maps in many areas.
3. I prefer the interface over the new Google Maps
That said, there are a few drawbacks:
1. Their street view doesn’t have quite as good coverage
2. Business search isn’t quite as strong.
Messages:
Alex writes in:
Long time listener to the show. Since the United In-Flight systems “hack” keeps popping up in the news, I figure I should clarify some points. My company created and maintains the In-flight Entertainment (IFE) system for United. The IFE server receives one-way communication from the planes avionics, such as altitude and heading. Those values are saved as a variable and used to trigger automated functions, such as retracting overhead monitors when descending for landing. In my test lab, I have to manipulate those variables to test the systems operations during various flight scenarios, since I’m not on a real aircraft. Those are the variables that the security researcher saw. Modifying them in flight will have no effect on other systems. You can trick the IFE system to show that we are flying to Hawaii on the passenger map display, but plane’s auto-pilot won’t change. Also on the real aircraft, the avionics systems will periodically refresh any modified data with real data. It just that the polling rate is really slow to avoid flooding these underpowered systems.
Reports also say that he tampered with his seat box casing and got access to the internal diagnostic port to achieve this hack. Also, reports say that he obtained the admin password which how he was able to jump firewall from the seat subnet to the server subnet.
TL;DR if you have physical access to a client machine and the admin password, you can get access to the servers. But you can’t change anything beyond the server. Only what the server perceives to be real data, but the data will be refreshed periodically anyways.
Sean wrote:
“On Fridays show Darren talked about car trains. He was using some sarcasm, but had a point. Everytime I hear about self driving cars I get frustrated. I live where we have snow and other forms of weather. This never seems to be addressed by companies developing self driving technology.”
Rolando – Your fan from Paraguay, the heart of South America writes:
As our communication becomes increasingly more digital, I think we need a symbol for ironic comments, pics, etc. to have the same immediate recognizable unmistakable effect as other symbols have for their own meaning [for instance, no one doubts the meaning of the ‘bird’ (pardon my French)].
This has been tried before, but the proposed symbol for irony didn’t catch on.
So, when I heard you talking with @veronica in her official appearance (great add!) about emojis, I thought that I’d ask you, to ask to your bright and passionate audience, to create and establish a universal Irony emoji.
Wouldn’t it be great? It’ll be a great legacy! #NotBeingIronicHere
Congrats on your newest milestone and keep it up!
=====
Wednesday’s guest: Scott Johnson & Lamarr Wilson
Patrick Beja is on the show and we’ll talk about protest letters regarding encryption back doors and zero-rating, an app store for your 10-year-old car and the most annoying innovations in tech.
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Show Notes
Today’s guests: Patrick Beja
Headlines:
The Washington Post reports 164 tech companies organizations and security researchers sent a letter to US President Obama asking him to reject any proposed law that would “deliberately weaken the security of their products.” US FBI Director James B. Comey is among several US government officials pushing companies to allow government to have access to all encrypted data. The letter is signed by three of the five members of a presidential review group appointed to assess policy in the wake of the Snowden leaks.
The BBC reports 67 digital rights groups from around the world signed a letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stating concerns about the Internet.org initiative. The letter says the project threatens freedom of expression, privacy and the principle of net neutrality. Internet.org lets users access participating services without incurring data charges. It does not currently support https, ssl or TLS. Internet.og is currently available in Zambia, India, Colombia, Guatemala, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malawi.
TechCrunch has the tech specs on Apple’s just updated MacBook Pro iMac. The 15” Retina MacBook Pro now comes with a new force touch trackpad, improved PCIe-based flash drive with 2.5x the performance, one more hour of battery life, and a new Radeon R9 M370X discrete GPU option. Prices start at $1999 for a 16GB, 2.2GHz quad-core Core i7, and 256GB of storage. The iMac 5K Retina now comes with a 3.3 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor and Radeon R9 M290 graphics card. And Apple is now selling a lightning dock for your iPhone 6 and 6 plus for $40. This one should last through a few more models since the base is open.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple shelved plans for a 4K television, according to people familiar with the matter. The reason? The features — including a camera that would allow users to make video calls — were not compelling enough to impress executives. However, according to Reuters, prominent investor Carl Icahn says Apple will still introduce a TV, and a car. And he wants Apple to buy back more stock. And he wants a pony. The pony part is unconfirmed.
ZDNet reports that Microsoft has released public previews of Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Android phones today. The new Office app previews require KitKat 4.4.x or higher and devices with 1 GB of RAM or more.You’ll also need to join the Office Android Preview group. “Become a tester” on Google Play by visiting the Word,Excel and PowerPoint apps. Wait for Google Play to replicate permissions, then click above mentioned links and follow the download links to install apps from the Google Play Store. Finally join Microsoft’s Google+ community for support, feedback and queries. But that’s all!
Tech Crunch reports that Google is adding tweets to its search results. Use the word Twitter in your search request or just search for a term and see if people are saying anything about it on Twitter.
Results will show up for English-language mobile users today on browsers and Android and iOS Google apps. Google is working on adding it to the desktop and other languages.
Automatic is launching an app store and SDK for its on-board diagnostic— or OBD plug— according to CNET. First-generation Automatic dongles are compatible with the new App Gallery but not the new SDK. The new dev platform includes a streaming SDK that only works with second-generation Automatic hardware. The new hardware is able to send raw, real-time performance data to select third-party apps over Bluetooth. The streaming SDK is in currently in private beta. The second-generation Automatic adapter will retail for $99.95 same as the first-gen.
News From You:
This was our top vote-getter on the subreddit today. johnsie776 posted the Ars Technica report that the state of North Carolina has sued the US Federal Communications Commission. The FCC pre-empted state law to help the City of Winston expand its municipal broadband network. The state claims that the FCC unlawfully inserted itself between the State and the State’s political subdivisions. The case is now in the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Tennessee is also suing the FCC in the Sixth Circuit regarding municipal broadband in Chatannooga.
jaymz668 sent the KitGuru post noting a Chrome and Android engineer said in a Reddit AMA session late last week— that developers are working on improving Chrome’s resource usage on mobile as well as memory leaks on the desktop. Here’s hoping.
habichuelcondulce pointed out the PC World article that the Center for Digital Democracy and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood filed an update to their U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint against The YouTube Kids app. The update adds a video of allegedly harmful content to the complaint originally filed in April. The groups also added the complaint that Google is deceiving parents about the effectiveness of the screening process. Google said it is working to make the videos in YouTube Kids as family friendly as possible.
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the Day:
Daryl Sensenig (in lovely Lancaster County, Pennsylvania):
My pick is Bing Maps. I know that nearly everyone uses Google Maps, but I feel that Bing is much better in several ways:
1. In my experience, the routing is better and the travel time estimates are more accurate.
2. Their satellite view (bird’s eye view) is actually photos from airplanes and not satellites. So, it is much more detailed than Google Maps in many areas.
3. I prefer the interface over the new Google Maps
That said, there are a few drawbacks:
1. Their street view doesn’t have quite as good coverage
2. Business search isn’t quite as strong.
Messages:
Alex writes in:
Long time listener to the show. Since the United In-Flight systems “hack” keeps popping up in the news, I figure I should clarify some points. My company created and maintains the In-flight Entertainment (IFE) system for United. The IFE server receives one-way communication from the planes avionics, such as altitude and heading. Those values are saved as a variable and used to trigger automated functions, such as retracting overhead monitors when descending for landing. In my test lab, I have to manipulate those variables to test the systems operations during various flight scenarios, since I’m not on a real aircraft. Those are the variables that the security researcher saw. Modifying them in flight will have no effect on other systems. You can trick the IFE system to show that we are flying to Hawaii on the passenger map display, but plane’s auto-pilot won’t change. Also on the real aircraft, the avionics systems will periodically refresh any modified data with real data. It just that the polling rate is really slow to avoid flooding these underpowered systems.
Reports also say that he tampered with his seat box casing and got access to the internal diagnostic port to achieve this hack. Also, reports say that he obtained the admin password which how he was able to jump firewall from the seat subnet to the server subnet.
TL;DR if you have physical access to a client machine and the admin password, you can get access to the servers. But you can’t change anything beyond the server. Only what the server perceives to be real data, but the data will be refreshed periodically anyways.
Sean wrote:
“On Fridays show Darren talked about car trains. He was using some sarcasm, but had a point. Everytime I hear about self driving cars I get frustrated. I live where we have snow and other forms of weather. This never seems to be addressed by companies developing self driving technology.”
Rolando – Your fan from Paraguay, the heart of South America writes:
As our communication becomes increasingly more digital, I think we need a symbol for ironic comments, pics, etc. to have the same immediate recognizable unmistakable effect as other symbols have for their own meaning [for instance, no one doubts the meaning of the ‘bird’ (pardon my French)].
This has been tried before, but the proposed symbol for irony didn’t catch on.
So, when I heard you talking with @veronica in her official appearance (great add!) about emojis, I thought that I’d ask you, to ask to your bright and passionate audience, to create and establish a universal Irony emoji.
Wouldn’t it be great? It’ll be a great legacy! #NotBeingIronicHere
Congrats on your newest milestone and keep it up!
=====
Wednesday’s guest: Scott Johnson & Lamarr Wilson
