Lamarr Wilson joins us to talk Microsoft Surface Pro 3. Can it really replace a tablet AND a laptop? Also what are the chances Twitch YouTube alliance is real.

MP3

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

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Lamarr Wilson, Host of YouTube Weekly and Socially Awkward on Mashable 

Headlines

Erm …  don’t you mean ‘laptop’? Microsoft announced the Surface Pro 3 tablet today emphasizing, let me be clear, it’s only 9.1mm thick and 800 grams heavy. It also has a redesigned kickstand hinge that can hold almost any position up to a 150 degree angle. It also is bigger with a 12-inch screen and 2160 x 1440 resolution in a 3:2 aspect ratio. The new Surface Pro comes with a new stylus as well that is powered and connects by Bluetooth. MS also showed off a new type cover, too, with a redesigned trackpad and sturdier magnetic attachment. The new keyboard is $130. Five models of SurfacePro 3 range from $800 for one with a corei3, 64GB hard drive and 4 GB of RAM up to $1950 for a core i7 with 512GB hard drive and 8 GB of RAM. Pre-orders open on May 21, and retail availability begins on June 20 in the U.S. and to 26 additional markets by the end of August.

China h8s Windows 8: Reuters reports China’s Central Government Procurement Center issued a ban on installing Windows 8 on Chinese government computers, as part of a notice on the use of energy-saving products. The Xinhua news agency reported the ban was to ensure computer security after Microsoft ended support for Windows XP. Windows 7 is apparently still being installed according to Microsoft, which expressed surprise at the notice. Retaliation for pushing off XP? Retaliation for U.S. government accusations? Typo? Could be any of those.

No to Internet fast lanes? U.S. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler testified before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Tuesday. The FCC has used section 706 of the telecommunications act to justify its role in preserving the so-called ‘virtuous cycle’ between users searching for free-flowing information and companies investing in better networks. Wheeler told the committee, “If there is something that interferes with that virtuous cycle — which I believe paid prioritization does — then we can move against it.” 

Google knows what you did last summer: CNET reports Google has introduced Google + Stories and Movies to the G+ social network. The feature automatically curates your photos and videos into so-called ’stories.’ The feature is especially designed for vacations to work as a travelogue. Users will find it on the desktop version of Google + under photos. The feature will come to the Android app later this week and iOS to follow soon.

Can I get a pizza with that update? Dan Rayburn at StreamingMedia.com reports Apple is negotiating paid interconnection deals with some of the largest ISPs in the U.S. in order to improve delivery of cloud-based services. Apple joins Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Pandora, eBay and other content owners who have created their own CDN-like delivery networks.

Snap that app: Skype announced an update to its Xbox One app finally enabling the Snap experience. Essentially, this means you can play a video game on part of the screen while conducting a Skype call at the same time on the rest of the screen. Previously, you could only Snap apps into Skype, now you can do the reverse and Snap Skype into other apps.

Math is hard: Remember all the way back to yesterday when reports circulated that Twitter was looking to buy music streaming site SoundCloud? According to The Verge, it appears the deal is dead, at least for now. The Wall Street Journal reports that Twitter was indeed interested in purchasing SoundCloud, but has backed out of talks because “the numbers didn’t add up.” SoundCloud had been negotiating with Twitter under a period of exclusivity, but now it sounds like the company is free to talk with anyone about a potential purchase.

News From You

tekkyn00b submitted a Russia Today article that California is attempting to limit what the US NSA can do in its state. A bill in the state legislature would require the federal government to get a warrant if it wants cooperation form any California state officials in searching residents cellphone and computer records. The bill passed the California Senate on Monday with only one opposing vote. Similar bills have been introduced in 8 states.

metalfreak sent in the Help Net Security report that May is already a record month for trojans targeting Linux, according to researchers at antivirus maker Dr. Web. Different variants of three trojans seemed to have been created by one entity and mostly carry out denial of service attacks. Another sign of Linux’s rising popularity.

spsheridan sent in the CNET story that officials from 19 countries joined forces to stop 100 alleged hackers associated with malware known as BlackShades. Officials’ searched 359 houses and confiscated more than 1,100 data storage devices, along with cash, firearms and drugs. Blackshades is a Remote Access Tool giving attackers control over a target’s computer. the FBI unsealed an indictment on Monday against two men it’s claiming developed BlackShades — Swedish national Alex Yucel and US citizen Michael Hogue.

Discussion Section Links:  Microsoft Surface Pro 3

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/05/surface-pro-3-sports-12-inch-screen-is-just-9-1mm-thick/

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/20/5734102/surface-pro-3-features-pricing-announcement

http://recode.net/2014/05/20/microsoft-unveils-12-inch-surface-pro-3/ http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/20/surface-pro-3-accessories/?ncid=rss_truncated

http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/20/the-surface-pro-3-is-microsofts-answer-to-the-macbook-air-again/

http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/20/microsoft-surface-pro-3-hands-on/?ncid=rss_truncated

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/20/5734108/why-twitch-could-be-the-best-billion-google-ever-spends

http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/20/how-google-can-avoid-ruining-twitch/?ncid=rss

Pick of the day:  Arts & Letters Daily via Rich in Lovely Cleveland Today’s pick of the day comes Rich in Lovely Cleveland, (and it is also a long-time favorite of Producer Jennie’s) Rich says: “I had one pick of the day I wanted to share: Arts & Letters Daily. It’s a great place to go for really intriguing longform content, essays, book reviews and op-eds in general. I’ve long had an RSS feed for most of my more “literate” sources, but I enjoy the curation the site provides, while I don’t read every post they put up, in general I want to. The site could use a design overhaul, its barely better than a mediocre geocities site, but the content is excellent. I recommend for anyone that enjoys a good essay. 

Wednesday’s guest:  Josh Ong, US Editor at The Next Web

Iyaz Akhtar is on the show today. We’ll talk about why AT&T is genius for buying DirecTV, and what YouTube would do with Twitch. Also there’s a new big dinosaur.

MP3

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

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 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Iyaz Akhtar, senior associate editor at CNET.com, and podcaster on the GFQNetwork

Headlines

Variety reported Sunday that their sources say Google’s YouTube has reached a deal to buy online streaming video service Twitch for more than $1 billion. The all-cash offer is expected to be announced anytime. Twitch’s most popular video streams involve video games, including live gameplay and esports coverage. Twitch claims more than 45 million monthly users. It consumes 1.35% of all bandwidth in North America at peak times, just a little more than HBO Go.

Reuters reports Google acquired Divide, a company that helps corporations manage devices like smartphones that are owned by the employees. In a post on Divide’s website, the company said it would join Google’s Android team. Divide’s app separates a device owner’s own data from corporate data, making it easier for businesses to manage multiple types and brands of devices.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich told Reuters at MakerFaire that Intel’s next-gen Broadwell processors will ship in time to be used in computers sold during the holiday season, though it might be tough for them to be in time for back-to-school rush. The chips were delayed because of setbacks in a new manufacturing process instituted last October.

Recode reports that “people familiar with both companies” tell them Twitter is considering a deal to buy Soundcloud. The Berlin-based SoundCloud has 250 million users who upload and share audio clips. Twitter launched a Music app last year but killed it in March. Soundcloud for its part might benefit from Twitter’s ad-selling experience.

The Telegraph reports Facebook has added an ask button to relationship status on profile pages. Users who leave their relationship status blank may receive inquiries about it from anyone who can see their profile. Facebook has been adding the Ask button to several elements of the profile section like employer and phone number. There is no way to to turn the ask button off.

Tom would never let Iyaz do dinosaur stories on TNT, but there’s nothing he can do about it now. Boing Boing passes along the discovery of the massive species of dinosaur. It’s just a tad bigger than Argentinasaur, the previous biggest species, but cooler than that, they found a whole herd of them!

News From You

spsheridan submitted the USA Today report that AT&T announced Sunday it plans to acquire DirecTV for $48.5 billion of stock and cash at $95 a share. As a comparison, Comcast is offering $45 billion to buy TWC. Kevin Smithen, an analyst at Macquarie called the deal financial engineering, pointing out the acquisition would bolster AT&T’s free cash flow. Although DirecTV makes money its subscriber growth has slowed. AT&T’s U-Verse TV service has 5.7 million subscribers DirecTV has 20.25 million subscribers in the US.

KAPT_Kipper submitted the 9to5 Mac writeup of Korea Times report that Apple and Samsung are in talks designed to end patent disputes between the two companies. FOSS patents Florian Mueller thinks a settlement could be reached “very soon.” Apple recently agreed to end disputes with Google and work together on patent reform.

metalfreak gave us the ITWorld story on the US Department of Justice obtaining Grand Jury indictments against five Chinese military officials for obtaining information on nuclear plant design, solar manufacturing and other secrets. China denied the allegations and called them, “made up.” Its the first time the US has filed charges of corporate cyber spying against specific officials of foreign governments.

And tekkyn00b posted the verge article on scientists proposing a particle collider that could turn an 80-year old theory on turning light into matter, into reality. The system would work by shooting high-energy photons into a field of other photons, turning some of the massless particles into an electron and positron, AKA matter with mass. 

Discussion Section Links:  DirectAT&T

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/18/us-directv-att-idUSBREA4B0W220140518?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/19/5730854/att-can-bail-on-merger-if-directv-loses-nfl-sunday-ticket

http://recode.net/2014/05/19/att-says-it-wants-to-sell-web-tv-too/

http://recode.net/2014/05/18/att-starts-telling-washington-why-its-directv-deal-should-pass/

http://www.cnet.com/news/regulatory-approval-for-at-tdirectv-may-hinge-on-the-bundle/#ftag=CAD590a51e

http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/05/with-comcast-time-warner-merger-looming-att-will-acquire-directtv/

Pick of the day: YouMail via Jake Lackey from Fresno, CA

Hey Tom,

I just wanted to suggest a Pick of the day of YouMail for Android and IOS. I have been using YouMail since my first Blackberry phone years ago and I’m pretty surprised i don’t ever hear anybody ever talking about this app. I didn’t want to have to pay the 2.99 a month for visual voice mail from Verizon and started using YouMail which is totally free. YouMail will automatically forward your voice mails to their service which you upload your contacts to and download the app for your phone. Then on our phone you can see a list of who called and play their message from the app, rather than having to play the messages 1 by 1 and wondering who called. You can skip around and only listen to the messages which you think are important. It even has a spam folder for the messages that you don’t ever want to listen to.
You can set up individual voice mail greetings from a list of suggested downloads from the site or use what they call “smart greeting” which will answer the voice mail with, “hello *insert name here*, *user* cant come to the phone right now please leave a message” like a personal assistant would. Most people who call are shocked that my voice mail knows who is calling me. You can also get transcript for your voice mails and save them as MP3′s and share them. which works great when the doctors office calls and i can just forward the message to my wife, who takes care of that stuff.

I am strictly an Android user and not 100% sure how well it works on iPhone but i know with Android it integrates with the call list and you can play the messages directly from the recent call list on your phone rather than actually opening the app.

You do have to sign up with YouMail at Youmail.com and get an account which is free then you can customize the many different ways you would like your voice mail to be handled. I have unlimited data and not sure how much data this uses on a regular basis but is one of first apps i always download no matter what phone i am using. There is a paid option for this which is only 5 dollars of month which is not required but gives you a ton for features as opposed to the 3 dollars for the Verizon version which gives you nothing extra.

I couldn’t explain everything about this app you will have to just check it out to see how convenient this is. I figured that there are quite a few of your listeners that will get lots of use out of it like i do.

Tuesday’s guest:  Lamarr Wilson

 

Darren Kitchen and Breki Tomasson join the show to get an international perspective on the U.S. net neutrality debate, and talk about what tech companies have your back when the government comes for your data.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guests: Darren Kitchen and Breki Tomasson

Headlines

If that doesn’t beat all … The Wrap reports Mog founder David Hyman has filed a lawsuit claiming he was fired before he could receive the benefits of his incentive plan after MOG was purchased by Beats in 2012. Hyman says he would have received between 2.5 to 25% of the company’s equity depending on market valuation, but he was fired before the incentives kicked in as part of a deliberate effort to deprive him of compensation. Hyman wants more than $20 million in damages. Beats has note yet commented.

OK, Glass, who’s my new boss? As JohnEllsworth3 pointed out on our subreddit, Google appointed a new leader of its Google Glass team. The BBC reports as of May 19, Ivy Ross replaces Babak Parviz. Ross previously worked for Art.com, Calvin Klein, Mattel and Gap, among others, but most relevant to Glass, she was once the lead designer at eyewear maker Bausch & Lomb. This follows on news tekkyn00b pointed out from 9to5 Mac that Google’s lead electrical engineer working on Glass, Adrian Wong, has left to join Oculus VR.

Oh, Snap: IT Worlds reports the EFF released its 4th annual “Who Has Your Back” report, ranking trustworthiness of tech firms with your data. In the wake of reaction to Snowden revelations, nine companies received the maximum 6 stars across categories, Apple, Credo Mobile, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Sonic.net, Twitter and Yahoo. On the other end of the scale, AT&T and Amazon earned only two stars, and Snapchat got just one.

Lack of confidence, perhaps? Re/code reports at least 10 members of the nonprofit Bitcoin Foundation have resigned after Brock Pierce was named Director of the Foundation last week. Pierce, once the star of Disney’s “First Kid,” has been troubled by lawsuits regarding his past ventures, though all have been dropped or settled out of court. Some members of the board called for more careful vetting of future candidates and the removal of Pierce. The Foundation has more than 1,500 members.

Je suis une baleine: The Next Web reports Google will acquire Quest Visual, the makers of the app, Word Lens Translator. Word Lens changes words in images from one language to another to help viewers read them. Quest says it will incorporate the Word Lens technology into “Google Translate’s broad language coverage and translation capabilities.” Quest has been authorized to make Word Lens free to download during the transition. 

Protests rock Asian firms: Reuters reports ongoing anti-China protests in Vietnam caused Foxconn parent Hon Hai Precision to order Vietnamese workers to take a three-day leave beginning Saturday. The protests have been spurred by disputes in the South China Sea and have targeted both Chinese and Taiwanese companies.

Get your resumes ready: Re/code reports China’s tech giant, Baidu, hired artificial intelligence researcher Andrew Ng to be chief scientist and create a new Baidu Research initiative with labs in Beijing and Sunnyvale, California. Ng co-founded education startup Coursera and once worked on the Google Brain team. He specializes in deep learning, which teaches machines to process large amounts of data by mimicking neural networks.

News From You

KAPT_Kipper posted the Ars Technica report on Adobe’s Creative Cloud outage that started Wednesday and was finally resolved today, Friday. During the outage, users who signed out could only sign back in as trial users, unless they had already expired their trial in which case they could not use their software. Adobe told Reuters customers can apply to get compensation for the outage which will be considered on a case by case basis.

spsheridan sent us the BBC story that a program called Vital has been appointed to the board of directors of the venture capital firm Deep Knowledge Ventures, which focuses on drugs for age-related diseases. Vital will process data and vote on prospective investments. Professor Noel Sharkey of the University of Sheffield pointed out that most companies use recommendations from algorithms to inform investment decisions, so having one vote is maybe a tad bit gimmicky.

Discussion Section Links: 

http://www.fcc.gov/document/protecting-and-promoting-open-internet-nprm

Calendar link: 

https://www.ciscolive.com/online/connect/agenda.ww?cid=000052088

Pick of the day: PCPartPicker via Matthew from the UK & France

“My pick is a site called PCPartPicker. It’s a one-stop shop for people wanting to build their own custom PCs by letting you “build” your PC with a compatibility checker to ensure you don’t mix things up like putting an Intel CPU in a AMD motherboard or cramming a graphics card into a case that can’t fit it.

The other killer feature it has is price comparison and history. It compares component prices from popular stores such as Amazon and Newegg in the US and others from 7 different countries. Also you can generate Reddit Markups to show Redditers your build and ask for help or BBCode for other forums. If you’re going to build a PC, look no further than PCPartPicker.”

Monday’s guest:  Iyaz Akhtar

Justin Robert Young and Nilay Patel join us to talk about the FCC’s notice for proposed rulemaking regarding the Open Internet. Is the Internet f**ed?

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Nilay Patel, managing editor of Vox.com & Justin Robert Young of Night Attack & Weird Things podcast

Headlines

The US FCC held a meeting today in which they discussed expanding spectrum for the use of wireless microphones. Also net neutrality came up which was really just them asking a bunch of vague questions about what they should do and giving everybody 4 months to come up with an answer for them. Slackers.

Business Week reports Xiaomi announced its first tablet and a 4K television on Thursday. The MiPad will come in six colors and cost around $240 for a version with 16 gigabytes, and $275 for a version with 64 gigabytes. The new version of the MiTV will be a 49-inch 4K TV with external speakers for around $645. Both products run the MiUI, which is a customized version of Android. 

The BBC reports that after a European court ruled individuals can force removal of “irrelevant and outdated” links from search results, Google has received fresh requests. A politician seeking re-election wants links about his behavior in office removed. A man convicted of child abuse also wants links to stories about his conviction removed. To be clear the court rules links from search engines should be taken down but the stories themselves cannot be removed at the source. Google has not indicated how they will respond. 

The Next Web reports FourSquare has launched iOS and Android versions of a new app called Swarm. If you’re confused because you thought FourSquare’s Foursquare app did check-ins, you’re wrong. They are removing check-ins from FourSquare, so if you want to check in to places, you need to download Swarm. And in Swarm even lets you skip checking in by enabling passive tracking, which you may have already experienced a version of courtesy of the NSA. Swarm is meant to help you find nearby friends and see if places are swarming. Enjoy.

GigaOm reports HTC announced the HTC One Mini 2. It’s a smaller 4.5-inch version of the M8 with the same design and aluminum-heavy build, but without the special depth-sensing camera. It also has a Snapdragon 400 processor instead of the M8’s 801. The One Mini 2 will be available in grey, silver, and gold, when it goes on sale in June. No price was announced.

CNET reports FlappyBird creator Dong Nguyen told CNBC Wednesday that the game will return, possibly as soon as this August. The updated version will allow players to compete with others in real time. Nguyen also said the game will be less addictive this time. Something that bothered him about the original.

News From You

tekkyn00b sent us the TechCrunch article about OpenDNS getting $35 million in funding from investors. Since 2005 the company has offered an alternative way to resolve domain names. That’s good if you want to avoid ads from your ISP on pages not found, as well as providing potential security benefits. The company also runs a service called Umbrella that protects business users any place they connect tot he Internet on any device, without haing to install local hardware.

A user named geewhipped posted this Mashable story to the subreddit. Google announced a partnership with Zix on Thursday to bring a product called Google Apps Message Encryption aka GAME. For $35 a year the service encrypts email end-to-end. Unlike the previous Google Message Encryption product, which was part of Postini, GAME integrates with Google Apps directly. No need to log into Postini. 

Discussion Section Links: I give you the F.C.C.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/15/5720730/how-to-comment-on-fcc-net-neutrality-proposal

http://gigaom.com/2014/05/15/net-neutrality-2014/

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/05/fcc-votes-for-internet-fast-lanes-but-could-change-its-mind-later/

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/15/5717928/fcc-votes-on-net-neutrality-proposal-in-may-meeting

http://www.fcc.gov/document/fact-sheet-protecting-and-promoting-open-internet

http://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-launches-broad-rulemaking-protect-and-promote-open-internet

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/05/15/statement-press-secretary-net-neutrality

http://www.vox.com/2014/5/14/5717142/tsa-precheck-net-neutrality-fast-lanes

Pick of the Day:  PC Part Picker via Matthew from the UK & France

My pick is a site called PCPartPicker.
It’s a one-stop shop for people wanting to build their own custom PCs by letting you “build” your PC with a compatibility checker to ensure you don’t mix things up like putting an Intel CPU in a AMD motherboard or cramming a graphics card into a case that can’t fit it.
The other killer feature it has is price comparison and history. It compares component prices from popular stores such as Amazon and Newegg in the US and others from 7 different countries. Also you can generate Reddit Markups to show Redditers your build and ask for help or BBCode for other forums. If you’re going to build a PC, look no further than PCPartPicker.

Friday’s guests:  Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta

Dr. Kiki is on the show. We’ll talk about quantum positioning that could be 1000 times more accurate than GPS, and the future of the Internet of Things. Will it rob of us free will? Assuming we have it in the first place.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Dr. Kiki Sanford, host of This Week in Science

Headlines

PC Mag reports the Pew Research Center released the next in its 8-part series celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Web, this time asking more than 1600 experts what they think the Internet of Things will turn into by 2025. There are more connected devices than humans right now and that number is growing at a faster rate. As you can imagine, some experts expected cheaper medical diagnostics, improved safety and efficient planning of your day. Others worried about privacy from ubiquitous data collection and security against malicious hackers. Also we might lose our free will. 

Marketwatch reports that Speaker of the House John Boehner and three other House Majority leaders signed a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler warning him not to consider “any plan to impose antiquated regulation on the Internet.” The FCC is meeting tomorrow to vote on a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding Open Internet Guidelines.

Reuters reports, Yahoo is continuing its trend of acquiring small, mobile start-ups by buying Blink, a startup with an app that lets users send messages that will self-destruct at a time set by the sender. I should repeat that again, because it’s possible all you heard was Yahoo & self-destruct. To repeat, Yahoo has bought a cheaper Snapchat. Oh and it’s shutting down the app too. REPEAT just the app. Yahoo is not shutting down. 

The Next Web reports Microsoft will refund Xbox Live Gold memberships starting in June for anybody who was paying the fee just to get apps like Netflix which will become free to access starting in June. You have to wait for the change to take place then you can cancel and receive a pro-rata refund. Other than June, no specific date has been set for the change. 

CNET reports Mozilla has agreed to include the Encrypted Media Extensions standard in the Firefox browser. This makes it easier for copy-protected media to play in the browser. Firefox is the last major player in the browser market to adopt the standard. Because Firefox is open source and by definition a DRM module is not, so the module will be downloaded from Adobe after the browser is installed. 

The Verge reports Samsung officially apologized for the illnesses and deaths of some of its factory workers. CEO Kwon Oh-hyun said “We should have settled the issue earlier, and we are deeply heartbroken that we failed to do so and express our deep apology.” A documentary released last month uncovered 56 cases of leukemia and other blood cancers among Samsung workers. 

Tablets failed for years until someone decided they needed an input system suited to tablets not just a translation of a desktop interface. MIT Technology Review reports on a project at Carnegie Mellon University that allows users to control a smart watch by physically tilting, clicking, and twisting the watch’s bezel. Assistant professor of human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University, Chris Harrison, who worked on the project thinks the issue with smartwatches is that we can’t get the input and output good enough. Harrison is also exploring ways we can control smart watches without even touching them. 

News From You

Our top story on the subreddit was posted by mranthropology. Business Insider reports on Julie and Scott Brusaw’s project in Idaho to prototype an industrial-strength solar panel that could withstand the weight of even the largest trucks. Not only could the panel turn roads into solar power collectors but could potentially power electric vehicles. The project has already received two phases of funding from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration. Their company is called Solar Roadways and they’re looking to raise $1 million on Indiegogo.

KAPT_Kipper posted the TechCrunch article that Google has opened up Google Glass for sale to anyone in the US willing to part with $1500. This is still part of the Explorer Program and will only be on sale while supplies last.  

mranthropology sent us the GigaOm story about new data from Sandvine showing Netflix’s share of prime time download traffic on the Internet rising a couple points to 34.21%. YouTube declined to 13.1%. The big new power in traffic hoggery is TWITCH at 1.35% putting them right up there near Hulu’s 1.74% and in front of the much more restricted HBO Go’s 1.24%. Those are all download. The winner in Upload? Bittorrent of course with 24.53% followed by good old HTTP. But Netflix is 4th at 6.44%. Better work on those ratios Reed. 

Discussion Section Links: Quantum Positioning and the Internet of Things
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22229694.000-quantum-positioning-system-steps-in-when-gps-fails.html#.U3Onrq1dXA4

http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/14/russia-threatens-gps-iss/

http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/05/14/internet-of-things/
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2458060,00.asp

http://gigaom.com/2014/05/14/the-internet-of-things-will-end-expired-milk-at-the-store-and-your-free-will/

Pick of the Day:  WSUS Offline Update via Jeremy Dennis

My pick is called WSUS Offline Update. It’s a tool that uses the
Windows Update features of Windows to download all available updates from Microsoft’s servers for the products you select. After
downloading the files it can make an ISO image or output the files to
a folder for use with a USB drive.

I use it on new builds of computers or VMs so I don’t have to babysit
them while getting them up to date. When you run it on the target
system there are options for to automatically restart after rebooting
to continue the update process. It really saves time when you have a
new Windows install and need to do other stuff while it updates.

Thursday’s guest:  Justin Robert Young of Night Attack & Weird Things podcast

Molly Wood is on the show today. We’ll discuss whether the $129 Moto E is a smoking gun, and why Microsoft is backtracking on Kinect Xbox One bundles and the Xbox Live requirement for Netflix.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Molly Wood, columnist for The New York Times. 

Headlines

Un-Kinected: CNET reports Microsoft announced a new Xbox One without the Kinect bundled will begin selling June 9th for $399 in the U.S. and £350 in the UK. A separate Kinect will become available later, though no timeline was announced. Microsoft also announced that sometime in June, its paid subscription service, Xbox Live Gold will no longer be required for most apps, including Netflix, ESPN, and YouTube. If you do keep paying though, Xbox One owners will get Games with Gold and Deals with Gold features starting in June. 

Who you callin’ cheap? Ars Technica reports Motorola announced the Motorola E Android smartphone for sale unlocked at $129. The E runs Android 4.4.2 Kit Kat, has a 4.3-inch 960 x 540, 256 PPI display, a 1.2 GHz dual-core Snapdragon 200 processor, 1 GB of RAM and 4 GB of storage. Although, it does have a microSD card slot that can add up to 32GB. Motorola even promises it will get at least one update to the next version of Android, possibly more. Like the Moto G, it has swappable rear shells you can buy for $15. One big gap, no front-facing camera. The phone comes to 40 countries in the next few weeks.

Multi-taskers with ADD, rejoice! 9to5 Mac cites “sources with knowledge of the enhancement in development” say Apple will add split-screen multitasking to iOS8 for iPad. It’s described as similar to how Windows 8 can snap multiple apps in the tiled interface on tablets. The iOS feature would let users drag content from one app to another. On the back-end, this means iOS developers could share content between apps. Sources do warn that the feature might be pushed back to a later version or canceled altogether. Oh, sources.

I’ve come undone: ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reports Microsoft is adding advanced rules and a new undo option to Outlook.com.  Users will be able to create multi-condition, multi-action rules, including options for time constraints, email tallying, checking read/unread email state and more. Microsoft also simplified undo functions by adding an undo button and allowing CTRL-Z to work wherever you need to undo. The new features start rolling out today and should arrive for all users in the next few weeks.

Where’s my stethoscope when I need it? GigaOm reports LG will begin selling its Lifeband Touch fitness wristband on May 18 in the U.S. for $150, with Asia and Europe releases to follow. The Lifeband can track the usual fitness metrics but can’t track your heartbeat. That’s why it’s fortuitous that LG will also start selling its Heart Rate earphones this month exclusively at Best Buy for $180, with additional retailers coming mid-June.

And the saga continues … Re/code reports 28 CEOs of U.S. Internet Service Providers sent a letter to the U.S. FCC urging the agency not to reclassify their services as telecommunications. Some have urged the FCC to classify ISPs as telecommunications providers, as they were until 2002, in order to have a firmer legal justification for net neutrality regulations. The ISPs say in their letter that doing so, “would impose great costs, allowing unprecedented government micromanagement of all aspects of the Internet economy.”

Eviction notice: More elements of the Cold War are returning! The Verge reports Russia has rejected a request by the United States to continue to use the International Space Station after 2020. The U.S. wanted to extend joint missions until 2024. The U.S. currently pays Russia $60 million per person to ferry its astronauts to the space station. Russia will also bar the U.S. from buying Russian rocket engines that would be used to launch military satellites from the US.

News From You

Our top story on the subreddit today came from ancientbearwizard who submitted yesterday’s Guardian excerpt from a book by Glenn Greenwald alleging the NSA has been intercepting shipments of routers heading for export. The US spy agency then installs surveillance tools, repackages the device and sends it along. The allegation is based on a leaked June 2010 report from the head of the NSA’s Access and Target Development.

mranthropology sent us a Wired article that Volkswagen announced it will introduce a 10-speed dual-clutch transmission targeted to arrive in the 2015 Passat. More gears allows the engine to optimize RPMs and save fuel. VW Group Chairman Dr. Martin Winterkorn believes the design can help improve fuel economy across VW’s group model range by 20 percent. That includes not only Jettas and Audi A4s but Bugattis and Porches as well. 

MikePKennedy posted the Verge story about  a European Court of Justice ruling that Google is responsible for content on its servers and must respond to individual requests to remove outdated or irrelevant information originating from third parties. A Spanish resident asked Google to remove links to an article about his house being auctioned after a failure to pay taxes. The individual said the matter had been resolved making the articles outdated. The decision runs counter to a statement made last year by the Advocate General.

tm204 sent us a Rice University posting that Rice chemist James Tour and his colleagues have developed a flexible material that combines qualities of a battery and a supercapcitor without using lithium, which is found in almost all commercial batteries today. It can charge and discharge quickly like a supercapacitor or discharge more slowly like a battery. The capacitor is about a hundreth of an inch thick and flexible like graphene. The researchers hope they can make it even thinner.

The Kicker

 According to former Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield, today the last day you can (legally) watch the video of him singing ‘Space Oddity’ aboard the International Space Station. The first music video shot in space was filmed in 2013 near the end of Commander Hadfield’s tenure on the ISS  and his license of the David Bowie song expires today. Although Hadfield says he’s working with Bowie’s people to extend the rights, it’s worth watching again, for the weightless guitar solo, and to honor Hadfield for proving that astronauts don’t just have to be stoic scientific ciphers; they can also take the time to be creative in space. If you’re listening to this podcast on Wednesday, never fear, Hadfield’s original song “Jewel in the Night” is still available.

Discussion Section Links: Ground Control to Moto E

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/05/motorolas-moto-e-runs-kitkat-resists-scratches-costs-129-unlocked/

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/12/htc-sensation-4g-official-1-2ghz-dual-core-qhd-display-and-th/

http://www.cnet.com/news/new-399-xbox-one-without-kinect/

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/05/head-of-xbox-says-plans-to-decouple-kinect-from-xbox-one-began-in-april/

http://gigaom.com/2014/05/13/microsoft-wants-to-boost-xbox-video-streaming-by-making-it-free/

http://news.xbox.com/2014/05/xbox-delivering-more-choices

Pick of the Day:  Ghostery via Loren Lang

Ghostery is a web privacy tool that is available as a browser add-on (for most major browsers, anyway) and an iOS app. It blocks all sorts of trackers, beacons and cookies from over 1900 sources and you can choose to allow or disallow any or all of them with individual granularity as well as whitelisting sites to allow everything from them. You can also choose to allow an item once and then automatically go back to blocking it which is extremely useful when blocking something breaks a site in some way. I’ve first checked it out when i heard Steve Gibson recommend it in 2011 (see Security Now, Ep. 305) and have been using it ever since. I’m not fully in the Tin Foil Hat Brigade but I also don’t necessarily want to have everything I do on the web tracked and sold. There wasn’t a lot of middle ground between being not caring and locking things down so much as to make some sites unusable. Ghostery is exactly the compromise I was looking for.

Plug of the Day: It’s a Thing, a podcast about things that are becoming  ‘ a thing’ with Tom Merritt and Molly Wood.

Wednesday ‘s guest:  Dr. Kiki Sanford, host of This Week in Science

CNET’s Iyaz Akhtar is on the show today. We’ll talk about Twitter’s new mute feature, float a few more idea about why Apple might want to by Beats, and discuss FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s latest revision to net neutrality rules.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest:   Iyaz Akhtar of cnet.com and GFQ Network

Headlines

Our top story on the subreddit submitted by spsheridan, tekkyn00b, saxonjf and others reports FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will circulate new Open Internet Guidelines language Monday with new wording to make it clear that allowing paid prioritization should not lead to unfair discrimination against non-paying traffic. Wheeler also will propose an ombudsman position to handle complaints. Comments on paid prioritization and reclassification of the Internet as a telecommunications service will also be specifically sought as well as comments on outside proposals from Mozilla and Professor Tim Wu.

The Next Web reports Twitter added a mute feature to its Android and iOS apps as well as Twitter.com. To mute someone, go to a users profile page, click the gear icon, and choose mute. This allows you to avoid seeing posts from the person in your timeline but you can still communicate by DM with that person if need be. Muted users can still favorite, reply to, and retweet your tweets.

CruxialCIO reports IBM introduced new software-defined storage technology based on methods developed for IBM’s Watson, the cognitive-computing platform. Watson could process 200 million pages of structured and unstructured data using a similar process, according to IBM. A key part of the offering is Elastic Storage which makes it easier to scale access to billions of files. Applications could include genomic data for cancer research, product-design simulations or even travel reservations. Yes that implies curing cancer and booking travel efficiently– are equally complex tasks. The Elastic Storage technology will be available through IBM’s SoftLayer cloud platform later this year.

The Next Web reports LG published a video teaser of its first smartwatch, called the LG G Watch. The watch will be the first powered by Google’s Android Wear platform. It will be water and dust resistant and have a metal body. When it will arrive and how much it will cost are still mysteries. 

News From You

Habichuelacondulce submitted the Mashable story on The Parrot Bebop quadcopter drone. The Bebop has an HD video camera, built-in GPS, image-stabilization AND Oculus Rift compatibility. Oh yeah. A 14-megapixel fisheye lens sends HD video which can be viewed in real time and controlled on a smartphone or tablet. OR an optional Skycontroller extends the range of the drone to 2 km AND an be connected to a Display like say, an Oculus Rift headset. The headset can then control the Bebop’s camera position. The drone and skycontroller will be available sometime in Q4.

spsheridan sent in the Recode story about  a bionic arm with three joints and four fingers that can catch objects in mid-flight, developed by researchers in Switzerland. In a video, the arm catches a bottle and a tennis racket. The robot is trained to catch objects by watching humans. While you and I may imagine playing a game of catch with our robot pals, researchers plan to affix the arm to satellites in order to catch flying space debris. 

habichuelacondulce submitted a Washington Times article that was a little light on details, so we dug up a MassLive.com version, about a woman charged by Springfield, Massachusetts police with violating the state’s wiretapping laws by using her phone to make an audio recording of her arrest. The woman was also charged with disorderly conduct and carrying an open container of alcohol. She denies all the charges. Massachusetts law prohibits the recording of audio without the consent of the person being recorded, although U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that the First Amendment protects the right of individuals to record video of police at work in a public place.

Discussion Section Links: Mutes & Beats

http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2014/05/12/twitter-introduces-mute-feature-android-iphone-web/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=profeed&utm_reader=feedly

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-12/apple-s-deep-ties-with-iovine-key-driver-of-beats-deal.html

Pick of the Day:  Package Buddy via Luke Pohr

Luke Pohr has today’s pick: “Hi, Tom and Jennie. My Pick of the Day is Package Buddy. Its on Android, and what it does is allow you to keep track of shipments of items that are being shipped to your address. All you do is get the tracking number and select the carrier that your shipment is on. Add that info to the app. The app will search for the tracking info for you. Also update you where your shipment is. This is way more convenient than going through your email every single time. I have used this app for years, still do and its great. And best of all its free!”

Important: Beatmaster just flagged us that Gigi B. Sohn, FCC Senior Counsel for External Affairs, will be doing Q&A on Twitter tomorrow at 2pm ET. Follow @GigiBSohnFCC and add #FCCNetNeutrality to your question, leaving almost no more characters for your question. 

Tuesday ‘s guest: Molly Wood–you may have heard of her. 

On the show today I made a passing reference to Tim Wu’s plan to solve the regulation of the Internet by using alternate justification.

After the show I got this email from Sandy1202

Could you explain what this article means on your show? I can’t follow it all.

Here’s a revision of what I wrote back to her.

It’s a legal trick. The court said in January that Section 706 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act was not a sufficient basis for net neutrality regulations.

They said the FCC could do two things. Come up with a new basis for the regulation, or reclassify broadband providers as telecommunications providers, so-called Title II classification.

Internet was classified as telecommunications until 2002, when ISP’s convinced the FCC to reclassify Internet providers as Information providers, similar to cable TV providers. This allowed the ISPs to close their networks to third party competitors.

The ISPs currently lobby very hard against classifying the Internet as telecom again.

So current FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler won’t reclassify Internet as telecom because he would face a fight. Instead he’s trying to strike a compromise. Use the rules that were thrown out in court, with the Section 706 justification, but change them to allow commercially reasonable discrimination. This is an attempt to appease ISPs by letting them charge, but still having some rules against discrimination. He hopes by doing this ISPs won’t take him to court, but there will be enough net neutrality regulation to satisfy others.

What Professor Wu suggests is a legal maneuver called arguing in the alternative. The idea is to put the old rules back in place, while still using Section 706 as a primary justification. HOWEVER, in addition you also justify the rules on the basis that the FCC has the authority, which they do, to classify ISPs as telecoms.

What that does is makes it so that if an ISP goes to court, they not only have to convince the court that Section 706 is not a proper basis for regulation but that the FCC doesn’t have authority to regulate them as a telecom. This would be very hard to prove, since the authority to regulate as telecoms is well-proved and Internet has been regulated as a telecom previously and fits the definition under Title II. (defined as “the transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the user’s choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received.”)

Taking that rule to court might end up with the court throwing out the Section 706 justification but then LEAVING the telecom justification, resulting in all Internet providers being reclassified as telecom operators which is exactly what they don’t want.

Wu’s proposition is that the ISP’s won’t want to risk a lawsuit in that case, and will happily agree to Section 706 regulation rather than risk the reclassification.

Darren Kitchen is on the show and we’ll talk about Apple buying Beats Electronics and the UN debating the need for autonomous killer robots. also Len Peralta will illustrate the whole shebang. Join us won’t you?

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guests:  Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta

Headlines

The Financial Times reports “as early as next week” Apple will announce a deal to acquire Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion. Beats is the leading headphone seller in the US, founded by musician Dr. Dre and record producer Jimmy Iovine. The company recently launched an online music streaming service as well. FT says some details have yet to be agreed on and the talks could still fall apart.” The Next Web reports a video posted to Facebook by actor-singer-songwriter Tyrese Gibson had the caption “Dr Dre ON THE night his deal went public that he did with Apple 3.2 BILLION!!!!” It has since been removed.

TechCrunch reports Apple has hired Ari Partinen, the senior engineer who worked on Nokia’s PureView smartphone camera technology. Partinen confirmed the move on Twitter. Nokia’s PureView technology uses a technique of pixel oversampling to reduce noise in images — enabling lower resolution shots to be produced with high clarity and strong color.

The Verge a federal court ruled Google must pay Oracle for the use of the Java API in Android, overturning a lower court decision. Google built its own version of Java but used the Java API to make it easier for programmers to write for Andorid. The district court had ruled the API was “a utilitarian and functional set of symbols.” Oracle appealed the ruling and a Federal Court says the API is Oracle’s property and as such Google has to pay. Lawyer Sara Jeong tweeted the decision is like “getting mad at a screwdriver for looking like a screwdriver.” Supreme Court here we come.

CNET and many Netflix users noticed today that Netflix has raised their prices as promised, $1 a month in the US and £1 a month in the UK and €1 a month in the Eurozone. That means monthly rates for new customers of £6.99 per month €8.99 or $8.99. Exisiting Netflix customers are exempt for the next two years. Netflix also says it will reintroduce the old pricing levels but those plans will only get you standard def and one user per account. 

PCMag reports link shortening service, Bitly announced late Thursday it has been hacked, exposing user email addresses, encrypted passwords, API Keys and OAuth tokens. At this time no accounts appear to have been compromised. The company has secured all paths that led to the compromise and urged all users to reset passwords. 

Reuters reports Xiaomi will release its first tablet soon. Reuters says its sources say the tablet will have a 7.9-inch screen and be called the MiPad.The Chinese smartphone company will hold an event in Beijing May 15 but has not said what it will announce. A 4G sucessor to the Mi3 smartphone widely being referred to as the Mi3S is also a possibility. 

Engadget reports that UK ISPs BT, Sky, Virgin Media and Talk Talk have all signed a deal with the music and movie industry organizations to send out educational missives to alleged pirates starting next year. So if someone thinks you’re infringing copyright and you’re a customer of one of these ISPs, starting next year you might get a letter telling you to stop infringing copyright.

News From You

Our top story on the subreddit comes from spsheridan who posted the GigaOm story about new groups opposing FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s Net Neutrality plan. The latest protest letter comes from more than 50 venture capitalists asking for the commission to reconsider the proposal that would allow commercially reasonable discrimination. Several organizations are planning a May 15 protest, the day of the FCC open meeting where the notice for proposed rulemaking will be voted on. Professor Tim Wu writing in the New Yorker proposed a clever plan where the previous rules could go into effect but if companies sued the FCC again, ISPs would be reclassified as telecommunications services, thus discouraging lawsuits.

One company has already started a direct protest, dillydobbs and Aractor both posted this one.  Ars Technica reports on Neocities.org, a webhosting company that has throttled any connections to its homepage from IP addresses arising inside the FCC, to 28.8Kbps speeds. Neocities creator Kyle Drake wrote “ I’m not removing it until the FCC pays us for the bandwidth they’ve been wasting instead of doing their jobs.”

KAPT_Kipper submitted the Ars Technica story that Amazon has taken action against the wireless device company Mediabridge Products, that you may remember sent a threatening legal letter to an individual who wrote a negative review of one of their wireless routers. Mediabridge posted an official statement to its Facebook page defending its actions and admitting Amazon has revoked its selling privileges. 

And TheFixxer sent us the CNET article about self-healing plastic developed by researchers at the University of Illinois. Jeffry Moore, who worked on the research team under aerospace engineering professor Scott White said the material is nonliving but repairs itself in a way similar to living organisms. When the plastic is damaged, liquids flow into the gap and form a gel, similar to the way blood coagulates to heal a wound. The technology can regenerate a hole created by a nine-millimeter bullet. 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/09/us-xiaomi-tablet-idUSBREA480I920140509

http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/09/isp-warning-letter-uk-downloaders/?ncid=rss_truncated

Discussion Section Links: 

http://recode.net/2014/05/09/what-is-tim-cook-thinking-lets-pretend-we-can-read-his-mind/

http://www.cnet.com/news/beats-boss-jimmy-iovine-to-join-apple-report-says/#ftag=CAD590a51e

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/9/5698158/what-apple-is-really-buying-with-beats

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27340359

http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/09/beats-apple-confirmed/?ncid=rss_truncated

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27343076

Pick of the Day:  Tonx and Misto box – They send you coffee!

Monday ‘s guest: Iyaz Akhtar of cnet.com and GFQ Network

Dan Patterson is on the show. He’ll talk about his experience training Sudanese media makers in Egypt and how mobile phones are changing the world.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Dan Patterson, technologist and journalist

Headlines

Did I say “forever”? I meant, “not really”: The Next Web reports Snapchat agreed to a “Consent decree” with the U.S. FTC over a database leak and misrepresentation of how the service stored user messages. Snapchat had said photos and videos would “disappear forever,” although there were many ways to work around that. Snapchat changed its privacy policy, app description and in-app notifications. Snapchat’s agreement with the FTC requires that it create a privacy program, subject itself to independent monitoring for 20 years, and stop misrepresenting how it handles user data.

Next stop – Head of the WORLD! Reuters reports that Samsung replaced the head of its mobile design team, Chang Dong-hoon, who offered to resign last week. Lee Min-hyouk will take over the role. Chang will focus on the Design Strategy Team, which is responsible for long-term design across all Samsung’s businesses. Lee has been a rising star at Samsung, becoming the company’s youngest senior executive in 2010 for his role in designing the Galaxy series of phones. 

Can’t wait to see the comments section: Reuters also reports more than 100 technology companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon signed a letter to the U.S. FCC opposing proposed open Internet guidelines that would allow commercially reasonable traffic discrimination. The letter called the rules a ‘grave threat to the Internet’ and called for a delay in their proposal. A meeting is set for May 15th which would make the proposal official, and open the guidelines to a public comment period.

Mario figurine, anyone? Ars Technica reports Nintendo plans to release a low-priced game console targeted towards “emerging markets.” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata spoke to the press following an investor briefing Wednesday, but didn’t give details on the new hardware or what countries it would be released in. Nintendo also announced “the Nintendo Figurine Platform” featuring collectible toys that share data with a variety of Nintendo games using NFC.

I would like all the players to wear pink: The Verge reports Epic Games announced the next Unreal Tournament will be completely free and developed in the open. The development will be lead by senior Epic Games programmers, but anyone can contribute. The company plans to use forums and Twitch Streams as well as a GitHub repository. The company plans to make money off a forthcoming online marketplace for user-generated mods and content. 

Thanks, I think? Re/code reports executives from Comcast and Time Warner Cable appeared before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. Most of the questions asked what the benefit to the consumers would be. Comcast replied the combined company would deliver a significantly improved customer experience, but not lower prices. Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas, noted that the combined company would serve 91% of Hispanic households, and asked for assurances the company would not discriminate against non Comcast-NBC spanish-language programming.

Move over, Twitter: The Next Web reports Japanese messaging app Line reported revenues have increased 223% over the past year and 19% over the past quarter. Line has more than 420 million registered users and makes half its revenues from in-app purchases related to some 30 games connected tot he messaging app. Line also makes money from advertisers who can push messages to followers who have asked for them. Paul McCartney for instance has more followers on Line than on Twitter. The company has been piloting flash sales through the app. And also stickers. They sell virtual stickers. 

News From You

Angryfuture submitted the top story on the subreddit today from Tweaktown, which I also found reported on Ars Technica. Lawyers for Mediabridge Products who make routers, sent a letter to a redditor called trevely Monday threatening to sue unless he deleted a negative review of a Medialink Wireless Router from Amazon. Mediabridge’s attorney, Neal Jacobs says trevely’s review was a “campaign to damage, discredit, defame and libel Mediabridge.”

toddkam posted the Business Week article about a group from Université Laval in Quebec who won Shell’s Eco-marathon Americas competition with a car that achieved 2,824 miles per gallon. If that impresses you, it shouldn’t. Last year the same school achieved 3,587 miles per gallon. The car, which competed in the prototype class of the competition has a teardrop shape, and is not built for comfort or speed.

Spydrchick submitted the Gawker story that a band from LA called Vulfpeck racked up $20,000 in royalties from Spotify thanks to their album Sleepify. The band asked fans to stream the entirely silent album through the night as they slept, racking up plays for Vulfpeck that paid $.007 cents per track. Fans could generate $3 a night for the band and enough nights and enough fans added up to $20K. Spotify spokesman Graham James said, “Sleepify seems derivative of John Cage’s work.” Spotify has also made the band remove the album for violating terms of service. Whether they’ll get paid a check remains to be seen.

Discussion Section Links: 

http://danpatterson.com/2014/04/28/sudan-stories-language-guns-phones/

http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/2014/23.aspx#.U2vHKq1dXA6

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/23/mobile-reading-revolution-unesco-study-phones-africa-subcontinent

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/m4ed/mobile-reading/reading-in-the-mobile-era/

http://www.cp-africa.com/2014/05/03/gallup-africa-continues-going-mobile/

https://www.undpegov.org/mgov-primer.html

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/africa-in-focus/posts/2014/04/18-women-mobile-technology-maret-rakotondrazaka

Pick of the Day:  Todoist via Ashish Bogawat

Ashish Bogawat has our pick of the day: the task list management app Todoist. “With a pretty minimalistic interface, the app can be as simple or complex as you want – no mean feat in this day & age. That it has native clients available for virtually every platform out there, as well as offline mode in the web app is just icing on the cake.”

Friday’s guest: Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta