Lamarr Wilson is back and we’ll talk about hot new hardware coming out of Computex. An Intel Core processor with full Windows in a tablet thinner than an iPad Air? 4K Laptop? Check. A 5-way laptop/tablet/phone running Android and Windows? Not kidding.
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Show Notes
Today’s guests: Lamarr Wilson, host of Mashable’s YouTube Weekly and Socially Awkward
Headlines:
More chips! Less power! You want new hardware? Intel’s trying to catch your eye at Computex. PC World reports Intel showed off the new Core M line of processors that draws less than 10 watts of power, making possible a 7.2-mm thick tablet with 8 hours of battery life. The tablet is Intel’s “Llama Mountain” reference design, that manufacturers can you use as a jumping off point for their own tablets. Still, a thin Windows 8.1 Pro tablet that has 8 hours of battery life and docks with a light keyboard to become a laptop looks appealing to some folks. Asus has already said they’ll ship Transformer Hybrids with the chip later this year.
Where’s that soft focus tool? The Next Web reports on the rollout of Instagram version 6 to iOS and Android devices. Now, when you select a filter on your photo, you’ll see a wrench icon to give you access to a suite of editing tools. Among the new features are color adjustment, sharpen and the ability to adjust filter strength.
That Glass goes great with your top: Glass Almanac are among the folks reporting on Google’s announcement of Diane von Furstenberg-designed Google Glass. DVF|Made for Glass includes five new frames and eight new shades to convert you from GLASS-hole to GLASS-sionista! The collection will be available June 23 for Glass Explorers.
We don’t need to stinkin’ rules: Kickstarter has gone anarchist and ended all rules! Well, not quite. GigaOM tempers things with facts, but DOES report that the new rules make it more attractive for hardware makers who had been turning to Indiegogo and the like and their less restrictive policies. One major change is a new feature called “Launch Now” for qualifying projects to skip the wait for a community manager’s approval. About 60% of projects qualify right now and Kickstarter expects that to rise. The new simplified rules simply state the project must create something to be shared, be honest, and not raise money for charity, offer financial incentives or involve prohibited items.
OK, who dropped “Fancy” in again? The Next Web reports Motorola announced Moto Stream, an accessory that can make any speaker a wireless Bluetooth speaker. Up to five connected devices can drop tracks into the speaker as long as they’re within 300 feet. It’s available today for $50 at Motorola.com.
The Zuck gets closer to the next 5 billion people: Reuters reports Facebook acquired Finnish company Pryte which provides a service allowing phone users without data plans to purchase data in small quantities meant to gain access to specific apps like Facebook itself.
Back in action: Mashable reports Turkey’s telecommunications authority lifted a ban on YouTube Tuesday, four days after the Constitutional Court ruled that the ban violated Turks’ free speech rights. YouTube was blocked for a total of 67 days.
These aren’t the droids you’re looking for: GigaOm reports on the launch of a robotics research partnership between the European Commission and 180 private companies, called SPARC which will invest €2.8 billion. The European Commission believes SPARC will lead to the creation of over 240,000 European jobs and hopefully a lot of really friendly European robots.
Mobile wins the day: Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet reports that her sources say Microsoft’s Tiled Interface version of Microsoft Office, meant for tablets, won’t arrive until spring 2015 now, meaning Office for Android will arrive first, sometime before the end of 2014.
News From You
KAPT_Kipper sent in the CNET story about how John Oliver brought down the FCC. Sort of. Oliver spent 13 minutes on his show “Last Week Tonight” delivering an insightful description of Net Neutrality, capping it off by calling for all the trollish commenters of the Internet to “focus your indiscriminate rage in a useful direction” at fcc.gov/comments . Yesterday the FCC’s comment system buckled yesterday afternoon under the pressure of that rage suddenly being focused on one point. It seems to have recovered— for now.
metalfreak posted the Ars Technica article about the release of a 64-bit version of Chrome announced on the Chromium blog. Google claims the new version brings 25% performance improvement in graphics and multimedia. Google also claims improvement in security and stability. 64-bit Chrome is currently available for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 in the developer and canary channels.
And Splendor78 pointed out the Washington Post article about Suzi Levine becoming the first US Ambassador to take the oath over a Kindle e-reader displaying the US Constitution. This continues a trend. New Jersey firefighters were sworn in on an iPad edition of the Bible in February.
Discussion Section Links: Hardware Delight!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/sharifsakr/2014/06/03/computex-2014-roundup/
http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/02/asus-gx500/?ncid=rss_truncated
http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/02/asus-steam-machines/?ncid=rss_truncated
http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/03/intel-llama-mountain-prototype/?ncid=rss_truncated
http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/02/intel-bets-on-surface-pro-3-like-2-in-1-devices/
Pick of the day: Audible.com via Brian in Houston
Audible is my pick of the day. I started with a book called The Moon is a Harsh Mistress a few years ago when I heard it mentioned on a podcast by Tom. I have discovered a ton of great content including the Dresden Files series and several biographies that are made so much better when read by the author. My library now includes hundreds of books and with the cost per book being less than $10 when you do the highest tier membership it’s a great deal.
Thanks Tom for introducing me to Audible, it has made the daily commute, workouts at the gym, and walking the dogs daily much more enjoyable.
Schedule for live streams of Phoenix ComicCon via Alpha Geek Radio available here: http://bit.ly/AGRPhoenix
Wednesday’s Guest: Allison Sheridan, Allison Sheridan, host of NosillaCast at podfeet.com
