Nicole Spag is on the show to talk Sony and Oculus’s VR headset announcements AND whether that iPad is safe for your baby.

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:  Nicole Spagnuolo 

Headlines:

Project Morpheus: The Verge reports Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida announced the company’s Virtual Reality headset during a panel at the Game Developer’s Conference called “Driving the Future of Innovation.” Project Morpheus is a prototype headset, similar to the Oculus Rift, that currently works with a PS4 by HDMI and USB connection, though the company would like to make it wireless. It uses 1080p LCD screens and has a 90-degree field of view. The PlayStation and Camera and PlayStation Move integrate with the headset which tracks position 100 times per second. An SDK is on its way, but Yoshida told the Verge that the product would not be out for consumers this year.

Ars Technica reports the Oculus team had a little announcement of its own today. The Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 or DK2 bumps the pixel count to 960×1080 per eye, reduces image persistence to 2-3 ms, meaning smoother images,adds an on-device USB port for accessories, and an external CMOS sensor to assist in position tracking. DK2 will be $350 at launch and you can pre-order today at www.oculusvr.com/order, with the first batch expected to ship in July.

Engadget reports that Oppo unveiled the Find 7 phone in Beijing and yes it can take 50-megapixel photos, if you have a use for such capability. Although before you get too pixel crazy it’s just a 13-megapixel sensor using software tricks to boost the count. It can also record 4K video. The 5.5-inch Android-based Color OS phone will sell for The $499 for Find 7a or Lite in China, with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, or for $599 Find 7 with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage,and a quad HD (2,560 x 1,440) display. The Find7a should arrive mid-April and the Find 7 follows in May or June.

Flappy Bird to fly again?

GigaOM reports GE and Quirky are teaming up on an Air Conditioning unit that learns your preferences over time and can cool your room perfectly without any input from you. The unit will work with the Wink app which you’re probably already using for your connected egg carton, right? The 8,000 BTU WiFi -enabled unit will be out in May for $300.

Remember how Huawei was bucking the trend and going to put out a dual-boot Android and Windows Phone? Well they got to ‘em. TechCrunch passes along the FierceWireless report that Huawei has changed its mind and will not release a dual-OS handset, though it still plans to release a Windows Phone in 2014. Asustek recently backed off from a dual-boot phone of their own after reportedly getting pressured by Google and Microsoft.

News From You

 AllanAV submitted the Ars Technica article indicating Cogent isn’t the only Internet transit provider upset with ISP’s demanding paid interconnections. Level 3’s general counsel for regulatory policy Michael Mooney, posted to their blog complaining that ISP’s are using their near-monopolies over the last mile in the US, to strongarm providers into paying. The ISP’s say the ratio is out of whack because much more traffic comes into their netowrk than out. Level 3 points out that’s becuase end users do more downloaading than ulpoading, and proposes bit miles, the distance traffic is carried, rather than the direction, should be the basis for interconenction agreements. Level 3 also argues that FCC network neutrality regulation should cover peering agreements as well.

Speaking of regulation, Draconos sent in the Engadget story reporting attorneys general in Florida, Indiana and a few other states are working with the US Department of Justice to determine if the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable would violate antitrust laws. This gives the DoJ a few more resources, though it isn’t unusual for states to join in antitrust investigations.

cincyhuffster submitted the Pandora blog post announcing price increases for new subscribers. Existing subscribers will continue to pay the 1009 rate of $3.99 a month. New subscribers will have to pony up an extra buck at $4.99 a month, starting in May. Annual subscribers, who were paying $46 a year will be moved to the monthly $3.99 plan when their next year is up.

ChaseLaursen posted the Globe and Mail story celebrating the arrival of the Google ChromeCast in Canada for $39. The Chromecast also launched Wednesday in ten European countries — Germany, Denmark, France, Spain, Finland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and Britain. App compatibility varies by country. Canada for instance gets YouTube and Netflix. Britain gets the BBC and in France, you can use it with FranceTV Pluzz and SFR TV.

Discussion Section Links:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/03/sony-reveals-virtual-reality-headset-plans-at-gdc-panel/

http://www.today.com/moms/surprise-doc-says-ipads-may-be-ok-babies-2D79361986

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/03/16/290110766/parenting-in-the-age-of-apps-is-that-ipad-help-or-harm?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=npr&utm_campaign=nprnews&utm_content=03162014

http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1840251&resultClick=3

Pick of the Day:  Nite Ize Gear Ties

Whats Up!

Something that I use on a daily basis to keep my cables organized are Nite Ize Gear Ties. Granted, they are glorified twist ties, but they’re super durable and useful. I use one to keep the usb with my external, one for my macbook charge cable, and one for my headphones. When they’re not holding cables, they make great stands for phones/tablets.

Thanks for the great Show!

Tuesday’s  Guest:  Farhad Manjoo, of the New York Times

Don Reisinger joins me to chat about Android Wear, the new line of clothing from– wait– nope just another smart watch platform. Does this one catch your eye or wrist?

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: Don Reisinger

Headlines: 

Wear IT: GigaOM reports Google’s SVP for Android Sundar Pichai took to the Google Blog to announce Android Wear, an implementation of the mobile operating system for wearables. Of course the wearables demonstrated were watches. The system uses Google Now to surface information the wearer needs, responds to voice commands triggered by the “OK Google” phrase and also does fitness tracking. A preview SDK is up at developer.android.com/wear. Expect more on the SDK at Google I/O in June. Lots of partners were announced but LG went ahead and said it’s G Watch will arrive next quarter and Motorola’s Moto 360 should come this summer. Plus it’s actually round. Like a watch.

MYSTIC Leakza: The Verge posted about the Washington Post’s latest Snowden leak story about an NSA tool called MYSTIC. The tool can record 100% of a country’s phone calls and play back any individual call for up to 30 days. It’s like the DISH hopper but for private conversations! The system launched in 2009 and became fully operational in 2011 and is deployed in at least one country, with at least six others others up for consideration.

Peace in our time!  Ars Technica reports Google and Viacom have settled the Viacom vs. YouTube copyright case. In fact they seem to be buddies now since the joint statement said they look forward to working more closely together. Vicaom filed the suit against Google in 2007, alleging YouTube operated outside the parameters of safe harbor. Most judges along the way didn’t agree. The seven years of fighting the suit can be indirectly held responsible for the amazing google robot that helps takedown potentially infringing content like news reports, public domain photos, and garage band music loops.

The Next Web reports on Mozilla and Unity announcing plans to bring Unity games to the Web without needing to install plugins or extensions

ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reports Microsoft has scheduled a March 27th press briefing in San Francisco at 10 AM Pacific with news, “focused on the intersection of cloud and mobile computing.” CEO Satya Nadella will kick off the briefing, which will be WebCast. Foley, and the rest of the Internet, speculate Microsoft Office for the iPad could be the centerpiece of the briefing. Sources tell her that the iPad version of Office will include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, be downloadable from Apple’s app store, and require an Office 365 subscription.

Also TechCrunch reported this happened today. In Gregory Ferenstein’s words: “Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin hung out with whistleblower Edward Snowden, who was attending the TED conference via a telepresence robot.” TED will post an interview with Snowden soon.

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is building modules that will allow the military to capture solar power in orbit and project it back down to Earth, potentially capturing more energy than ground-based solar collectors. The power would be beamed back to the ground using high-energy radio waves. In other news, Australian researchers want to beam lasers into space to clean up space junk. This is all good as long as the scientists, remember not to cross the streams.

News From You: 

MikePKennedy pointed us to our daily Amazon set-top box/dongle rumor, this time from the Verge passing along WSJ sources. Amazon will begin selling its mythical dongle in early April on its own site as well as in Best Buy and Staples.

tekkyn00b submitted the 9to5 Google post where they explain they’ve heard Google’s going to get rid of Google Voice and incorporate most of its functionality into Google + hangouts. The hangouts app already allows voice calls over the app, but if Voice was folded in, the hangouts app could be able to make and receive VoiP calls to and from traditional phone numbers. Google has already rolled in it’s messaging and Android SMS functions into the hangouts app.

KAPT_Kipper posted the CNNMoney story of the curious case of a Turkish developer named Ibrahim Balic, who was testing a vulnerability in the Google Play store and it worked. WAY too well. IN fact it crashed the Google Developer Console which is used to submit new apps and app updates. Balic told CNNMoney he did not have malicious aims, he just wanted to be sure about the vulnerability. He has contacted Google about the issue he discovered. Balic previously claimed to be behind the attempted hack of Apple’s Developer Center last summer.

BullioMarf, submitted the gog.com announcement that the game website will support Linux. Initital evidence of the support will be in GOG.com website support for Ubuntu and Mint. They hope to come with 100 Linux games ready for people to play this autumn. Games the website sells that already have Linux clients will be the easy ones to include but they also promise a variety of classics as well.

Discussion Links: Google Wearables

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/sharing-whats-up-our-sleeve-android.html

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57620495-94/lg-to-launch-g-watch-with-android-wear/

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/03/the-moto-360-is-the-first-android-wear-device-has-a-round-display/

http://recode.net/2014/03/18/google-announces-android-wear-its-plan-for-the-smart-watch-and-beyond/

http://developer.android.com/wear/design/index.html

Pick of the Day:  Pocketcasts

Hey Tom, I wasn’t planning on sending another one of these for a while but yesterday, what I consider the best podcasting app on Android, Pocket Casts. Pocketcasts got updated with Chromecast support (iOS update coming soon). But the real reason I am recommending it is that the Daily Tech News Show is one of the featured podcast on the Chromecast standby image that you see on the television between podcasts. For that alone it gets my tip of the hat. Love the show, Marlon

&

Hi Tom and Jennie!

I have a suggestion for a pick, one that seems very appropriate for DTNS. Pocketcasts is one of the best podcast apps on Android and iOS (I’m listening to a DTNS episode with it as I type this).

It’s been around for a while and offers sync between devices, great for if you have a phone and tablet that you both use for podcasts, supports audio, video, playlists, everything you would expect.

I mention it because it was just recently updated to add chromecast support, which is a pretty nice add for it, especially on video podcasts.

It is how I’ve been consuming content created by Tom for years, and I imagine that many of the listeners use some kind of podcast app, and this one is absolutely worth checking out.

Tomorrow’s guest: Nicole Spagnuolo!

Tim Stevens joins the show to talk about the future of the Internet as the US gives up the last of its control over how it’s run.

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:  Tim Stevens, CNET.com, editor at large

Headlines:

Ars Technica reports Dorian Nakamoto issued a statement today saying “”I did not create, invent or otherwise work on Bitcoin. I unconditionally deny the Newsweek report.” Nakamoto also said he has retained legal counsel and this will be his last public statement on the matter. Newsweek said it has not received any statement from Mr. Nakamoto yet.

Engadget reports on leaked documents from O2 Germany saying Apple is looking to launch an 8GB version of the iPhone 5C that would retail for 60 Euros less than the current 16GB model. An Engadget reader also sent in a photo purporting to be of the 8GB iPhone 5C.

Microsoft’s OneNote organizing software has been made available for free along with the launch of a version that runs on Mac OS X

TechCrunch reports Japan’s LINE messaging app launched a flat-rate voice calling service called LINE call. Android users in Columbia, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Phillipines, Spain, Thailand and the US can now call phone numbers in addition to other LINE users. Landline calls start at 2 cents a minute and mobile phone calls start at 4 cents a minute. users can either pre-pay or choose a plan that includes a certain number of minutes per month.

What’sApp’s Jan Koum posted to the company’s blog today reassuring customers that WhatsApp data would remain private even after his company is acquired by Facebook. Koum talked about his time growing up in the Soviet Union. He then mentioned that WahtsApp does not collect data like email addresses, birthdays, home address, GPS location etc. and added “None of that data has ever been collected and stored by WhatsApp, and we really have no plans to change that.”

TechCrunch reports multiple sources tell it that Amazon is readying a gaming/TV device produced by Lab 126 with a dongle form factor similar to the Google Chromecast and Roku Streaming Stick. One source claimed the product will stream full PC game titles at 30fps. The device is allegedly still in testing.

The Next Web reports Google announced improvements to Google Play Games at the Game Developers Conference. New features include game gifts, multiplayer invites, and cross-platform multiplayer with support expanded to include iOS. The Google Play Store will also get 18 new game categories to help sort through all those titles out there. All the new features will roll out gradually, starting March 18.

News From You

Kylde submitted the Ars Technica story about GitHub’s reaction to engineer Julie Ann Horvath’s public revelations over the weekend that she left GitHub because of toxic office culture and the interference of the wife of one of the co-founders. GitHub CEO and cofounder Chris Wanstrath issued a statement apologizing and stating the company has put one engineer and one of the co-founders on leave, and has begun an investigation.

andrewboudreau posted an Ars Technica report about the US Department of Commerce announcing late Friday that it has asked ICANN, the non-profit organization that oversees the Domain Name System on the Web, to come up with a plan to transition out of US control. ICANN has a contract with the Commerce Department to oversee the Internet’s numbering system. That contract ends September 30, 2015 and the DoC would like itself replaced a new system of multiple non-government stakeholders to ICANN after that. The Domain Name system transferred to private control in 1997,and the contract with Commerce was the last vestige of governmental connection.

And nickgiulioni sent us the cityam.com post about Twitter user @savethemhood sending 14 million DogeCoin to the Doge4Water campaign which aims to provide safe access to water for Kenya. That’s more than $10,000 worth of Dogecoin. Demonstrating one big advantage of cryptocurrency, the donation was made instantaneously across borders with almost no cost. Similar transactions in traditional currency would have taken days and incurred fees.

Discussion Section Links: ICANN, Can You? 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57620386-93/us-government-begins-loosening-decades-old-grip-on-the-internet/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/us-to-relinquish-remaining-control-over-the-internet/2014/03/14/0c7472d0-abb5-11e3-adbc-888c8010c799_story.html

https://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-11jan14-en.htm

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/press-release/2014/ntia-announces-intent-transition-key-internet-domain-name-functions

http://www.nro.net/news/internet-technical-leaders-welcome-iana-globalization-progress

http://www.icann.org/en/about/agreements/mou-jpa/icann-mou-25nov98-en.htm

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/6_5_98dns.pdf

Pick of the Day:  www.whenisgood.net

HI Tom,
Loving the show. Would just like to draw your attention to a neat little website, www.whenisgood.net It is a simple service which allows you to find the best time for an event. I am a regular user of shared calendars in Outlook (mostly in a professional context) and events on Facebook (mostly in a personal one), but I am using When Is Good more and more in the first instance these days because it allows me to propose several times up front and let attendees dictate the best one rather than proposing a single time and rescheduling if it doesn’t work out. It is also really useful because it is its own platform and it doesn’t require users to sign up: I am a part-time University student and I like the fact that I can invite classmates to a group project meeting without being Facebook friends with them and know that they won’t need to jump through hoops to deal with it (we do have a shared calendar but no one uses it). Wonder whether this could be a candidate for a pick of the day.
All the best, Matthew, Coventry England

Tuesday’s  Guest: Don Reisinger

Darren Kitchen is back for Pi Day and a discussion of what freedoms we should preserve for flying drones. Also Len Peralta is in to draw the show!

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 & Len Peralta

Headlines:

XBox One and OnLive sittin’ in a tree … :The Verge has a post about images found by Zatz Not Funny showing a purported Amazon game controller. The pictured controller looks like the Xbox One and OnLive had a baby and pasted Android back, home, and menu buttons across its face. Oh look, it has its momma’s media control buttons and its dad’s offset analog sticks! It’s so cute! So expect an Amazon set-top box game controller called the Kindle Fire At Aliens or something soon.

Settings > General > Software Update: iOS 8 is probably Apple’s worst-kept secret yet. It’s almost as badly kept as a Samsung secret. 9to5 Mac reports its sources say Apple plans to simplify the notification center, more data-sharing options between apps, better voice memo access, eliminating the GameCenter app, and CarPlay support over WiFi. Also it’ll be faster. And betterer. And Jonny Ive-ier.

Just kidding, suckas: Remember the Asus Transformer Duet shown off at CES that dual-booted Windows and Android? Well, I’m sorry I brought it up because you can forget about it. GigaOm reports the WSJ sources say Asus is scrapping the touch screen laptop at the behest of both Microsoft and Google. One big loser will be Intel, which used the device to show off its versatility in supporting desktop and mobile on its chips.

Engadget reports Samsung introduced three new accessories designed to help disabled or visually impaired users.

UberX, Lyft changes: Ars Technica reports UberX has expanded its insurance coverage to include drivers waiting for a fare, not just drivers with passengers in the car. Lyft has also made a similar change to its insurance. Two months ago, a six-year-old girl was killed in an accident involving an UberX driver in San Francisco who was not carrying passengers at the time.

Everyone do the IPO! Bloomberg reports Chinese tech giant Alibaba is preparing to file for an IPO of stock in the U.S. as soon as April. Yahoo owns a 24 percent stake in Alibaba. A U.S. share sale by Alibaba would be a blow to Hong Kong, which hasn’t hosted an IPO of more than $4 billion since October 2010. In other IPO news, the WSJ says GoDaddy is finally about to interview underwriters for its IPO.

GigaOm reports Nokia’s Android-powered Nokia X has received one million pre-orders in just four days.

Oh, Russia: Reuters reports Russia has blocked access to the websites of government critic Alexi Navalny and chessmaster Gary Kasparov as part of a new law that cracks down on extremists or those who call for illegal activity. The state regulator said Navalny’s blog violated conditions of his house arrest, and Kasparov and two other sites called for “participation in mass events conducted in violation of the established order.”

Rdio nom noms Dhingana: MediaNama reports music streaming service Rdio acquired India’s defunct streaming website Dhingana which shut down last month after music label T-Series decided not renew its music license. Dhingana founders Snehal Shinde and Swapnil Shinde will be joining the Rdio team responsible for expansion efforts in India.

News From You

metalfreak pointed us to the eWeek article about the pwn2Own event taking place at CanSecWest in Vancouver. Security researchers at the Pwn2Own security challenge found new zero-day flaws in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox, Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader technologies. $400,000 in prize money has been awarded. VUPEN security is dominating again, earning $300,000 of that prize money by successfully exploiting Firefox for $50,000, IE for $100,000, Adobe Reader for $75,000 and Adobe Flash for $75,000.

robstak posted the Gizmodo article about GE’s method of cooling a refrigerator with water-based fluid and magnets. The magnets agitate particle in the patented water-based mixture to bring down its temp and the circulate it to cool the fridge. GE thinks the system could be more than 20% more efficient than the current electric compressor and chemical coolants we use now. GE thinks they could have one ready for sale in five years, and could even show up in other cooling appliances like air-conditioners.

habichuelacondulce posted The Guardian column about Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, making a call to U.S. President Barack Obama to complain about all the spying. Leaks from Edward Snowden yesterday showed the NSA has been spoofing Facebook in order to implant malware. Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook that the government should be a champion for the Internet, not a threat and be more transparent about what it’s doing. His call left him with the impression that it will take a very long time for true full reform. Somewhat echoing Tim Berners-Lee’s webwewant.org, Zuckerberg wrote “it’s up to us — all of us — to build the internet we want.” Dan Gillmore of The Guardian says he’ll join if Zuck will promise a Facebook option that doesn’t track or store data about its users.

Discussion Section Links: Here a drone, there a drone/Hacking the hackers

http://gigaom.com/2014/03/13/drone-flight-over-harlem-disaster-shows-messy-state-of-faa-rules/

http://mashable.com/2014/03/13/drone-east-harlem-explosion/

http://gigaom.com/2013/12/08/so-you-want-to-fly-drones-heres-what-the-law-says/

http://www.faa.gov/news/updates/?newsId=76381

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-20/faa-finds-drone-flights-hard-to-police

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2014/03/nsa-botnet/

Pick of the Day:

Super passionate Patron, Marlon “TheGuyFromTrinidad,” recommends Interviewly.com, which basically makes reddit AMAs beautiful and easy to read.

Monday’s  Guest: Tim Stevens of CNET

Hockey Buzz’s Eklund joins the show to chat about whether Amazon Prime is still worth it, and give a little insight into dual-boot smart phones and instant replay in baseball. Seriously. The guy can play to all fields. He’s a five-tool podcaster.

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:  Eklund, founder, writer, podcaster at Hockeybuzz.com

Headlines:

Target hack: Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s reported that FireEye security alerts for malware in the Target system were logged on November 30th and December 2nd. Security specialists in Bangalore flagged a security team in Minneapolis but then nothing was done about the breach until mid-December.

Dual-Boot? Huawei Chief Marketing Officer Shao Yang told TrustedReviews the company is still committed to Windows Phone and indicated dual-booting with Android might be their way of showing it. He said, “If it is Windows only, maybe people will not find it as easy a decision to buy the phone. If they have the Android and Windows together, you can change it as you wish and it is much easier for people to choose Windows Phone.” He promised dual boot Windows and Android phones would ocme to the US in Q2.

Microsoft is making its Windows Phone OS available to Indian phone makers Lava and Karbonn for nothing.  Not a rupee.

Google has started to encrypt searches made by people in China

Facebook to begin running video ads in users timelines over the next few months

Hacker News pointed me to the Google blog post about Google Drive prices dropping. 15 GB stays free, but 100 GB falls from $5 as month to $2 and a Terrabyte from $50 a month to $10. You can now get 10 terrabytes or more a month starting at $100. Current users will be automatically moved to the new cheaper plans.

News From You

CincyHuffster pointed us to the Consumerist story about Amazon US raising their Amazon Prime rate from $80 a year to $100. New users can still get the current $79 rate until March 20. Existing members whose accounts renew before April 17 will also pay the $79. Memberships purchased after March 20 or renewed after April 17 will be at the new $99 rate. Amazon Prime gives users free and reduced shipping, access to streaming movies and TV shows, and ebook borrowing.

KAPT_Kipper submitted a Boing Boing article pointing out developers from the Replicant project documented a software backdoor in Samsung’s Android phones. The backdoor allegedly “provides remote access to the data stored on the device.” They believe it is “likely” that the backdoor could provide “over-the-air remote control” to “access the phone’s file system.” The IPC protocol used in Samsung’s modem implement some RFS commands that give the access. Replicant’s team cautions they may have been added for some legitimate purpose, nevertheless a resulting back door still exists.

MikePKennedy sent us the GigaOm story about a Utah home security and automation company putting 802.11ac WiFi access points on rooftops to create a high-capacity mesh network linking its customers. Vivint will use Quantenna’s gigabit Wi-Fi multi-user multiple input–multiple output Wave 2 chips in the routers that connects back to a neighborhood hub, which in turn links to a fiber node through a point-to-point microwave connection.

And jaymz submitted the Quartz article about Softbank CEO Mayoshi Son’s presentation to the US Chamber of Commerce Tuesday which tried to make the case for Softbank’s acquisition of T-Mobile with the intention of merging it with Softbank’s Sprint division. Son pointed out that one in three US citizens have no choice of wireline Internet and through argumentative gymnastics attempted to show that reducing choice in wireless carriers would make the reamining third choice stronger and capable of competing with wired Internet. Somehow. Possibly with magic.

Discussion Section Links: Amazon Price Hike and the genius of Joe Maddon

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/13/us-amazon-prime-idUSBREA2C12G20140313?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

http://consumerist.com/2014/03/13/amazon-jacks-rate-on-prime-memberships-to-99year/

http://www.reddit.com/r/DailyTechNewsShow/comments/20bbmg/amazon_jacks_up_rate_on_prime_memberships_to/

http://www.businessinsider.com/joe-maddon-baseball-replay-system-2014-3

Pick of the Day:  

YouTuber Baltmatrix passes on this little gem of a site along to  DTNS listeners: Clippingmagic.com

This site grants the ability to remove backgrounds from any picture and create pre-keyed images. As a long time Youtube Toy reviewer I have found this site to be indispensable in making useful images out of what would be otherwise unusable PR stock photos.

A.K.A. Matt in Baltimore, MD

Friday’s  Guest:  Darren Kitchen of hak5.org

Scott Johnson joins me to wish the World Wide Web a happy anniversary of being presented in a paper! Is the spirit of the 1990s still alive on the Web, or did we kill it?

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:  Scott Johnson, of the Frogpants Studios Network & Nerdtacular

Headlines:

Happy Birthday, WWW: We got you a Snowden leak! CNET reports on The Intercept’s revelation of a US NSA operation called Turbine. It’s an automated system designed to hack millions of computers by using the tried and true tactics of all purveyors of malware like spam, hijacked web pages and good old fashioned man in the middle attacks. The malware would then hijack webcams and microphones, log browsing and keystrokes, you know, the usual. Hi Bob! As always, the NSA was only targeting bad guys, so when they directed Turbine at sysAdmins of foreign telcos, it was only because they needed to as a means to an end, because that made it easier to target a “government official that happens to be using the network some admin takes care of.”

Well, for some odd reason, Tim Berners-Lee thought the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his proposal for the Web was a good opportunity to fire people up about taking back their rights to privacy and keeping the Internet open. At least that’s what he told BBC Breakfast. Which is a TV show, not a plate of eggs, beans and fried tomatoes. Berners-Lee seems to think all this targeted surveillance somehow will scare you into joining his WebWeWant.org movement to pass an Internet bill of rights. We assume you will get excited for a day about this and then go right back to your normal state of apathy and excitement about Doge. At least the NSA believes that’s what you’ll do.

A really popular online thing launched yesterday and everybody tried to use it at once, and even though the big company behind it expected a lot of users the servers still had problems, and everybody got mad, and then eventually it got fixed and now everybody is blogging about it. This time it was Titanfall.

Razer’s got a new Blade

Apple Store to reduce its 30-day return period for iPhones to the same 14-day return period offered by US mobile phone carriers, starting March 13th

Alibaba will spend HKD $6.24 billion (about USD $804 million) for a 60% stake in ChinaVision Media Group, producer of fine TV shows and films. ChinaVision is the distributor of films like “Journey to the West: Conquering the Demon.”

Yahoo and Yelp have launched their search partnership in the US

The European Parliament passes the EU’s first data protection overhaul since 1995

News From You

the_corley posted an Ars Technica report on Google buying Green Throttle. Pando Daily broke the story. Green Throttle Gaming makes gaming controllers for Android. The company mysteriously shut down in November, and now everyone seems to think they know why. Green Throttle’s big product advantage was the ability to connect up to four controllers to one smartphone or tablet. Please add your own wild speculation about Google Game Consoles here.

habichuelacondulce pointed out the Washington Post article mentioning that FunnyorDie.com is now the number one source of referrals to the US healthcare.gov site. Or so White House health care spokesperson Tara McGuinness said on Twitter. The President appeared on Zach Galifanakis’ ‘Between Two Ferns’ show to promote the site. Of the 5.9 million views on the video more than 19,000 viewers continued on to healthcare.gov. That’s 3/10th of a percent!

And draconos pointed us to a Gizmodo report on Meghan Neal’s Motherboard article on a way to vinylize your digital music. German engineer Souri Automaten designed the first incarnation of the device almost 30 years ago. A record lathe with a diamond stylus cuts the master. The machine costs $4,000 but the look on your loved ones face when you give them a mix-LP will be priceless.

Discussion Section Links: WWW25

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/on-25th-anniversary-of-web-lets-keep-it.html

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/12/online-magna-carta-berners-lee-web

http://gigaom.com/2014/03/12/25-years-after-inventing-the-web-tim-berners-lee-invites-users-to-help-draft-global-bill-of-rights/
https://webwewant.org/

http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html

http://info.cern.ch/Proposal.html

Pick of the Day:  Medium.com

Oh boy oh boy, Jennie loves Medium. It’s a gorgeous online writing site that lifts online writing out of the ‘Blogger’ era. (It helps that Medium was created by Ev Williams and team, who…well… you know.) The site has rich photo options, and a beautifully designed, simple to use interface. It’s a site that makes you want to write and share that writing with others. Medium is still a work in progress–it’s not always clear should happens with a post after its published, other than tweeting it out and submitting it to a Medium collection, but its been fascinating and satisfying to watch the Medium universe expand. Free.

Thursday’s  Guest:  Ryan Block

Brian Cooley joins us to explain the odd proprietary and confusing world of in-dash smartcar interfaces. Can we just use our phones carmakers?

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:  Brian Cooley, host of CNET On Cars and The Next Big Thing Show

Headlines:

TWITTER WAS DOWN OMG: And that is pretty much the only lasting effect. Shouting. And jokes.

Apple readies major improvements to its maps: 9to5 Mac reports its sources say Apple is readying major improvements to Apple maps for the next version of iOS. Leveraging engineering experience from acquisitions, Apple Maps will be more reliable and have more data points of interest, especially regarding public transit directions.

Ad for HTC’s All New One leaks:  GSMArena got a hold of a photo of a brochure about HTC’s All New One.  In addition to using the “All new” moniker, the phone sports a ‘Duo Camera’, yes two cameras pointed in the same directions, that lets users choose focus points and implement effects like 3D. HTC tried the dual camera thing before with the EVO 3D. The brochure was from Australia’s Telstra and indicated he phone will cost AUD 840 (RRP) off-contract.

Drive on over to the Google Drive Store! Google’s had add-ons for Google Drive apps for awhile but now TechCrunch reports they’ve all been collected into a new store. The store is available from the menu bar of text or spreadsheet docs. There are 50 apps available now including MailChimp, UberConference, Avery Label Merge and more.

Orbital Computing: GigaOm reports on Physicist Joshua Turner’s proposal to use the orbits of electrons to generate the binary states that make computers work. Turner, a Physicist at SLAC National Accelerator calls it orbital computing. which does not mean SkyNet in this case. The orbit is the electron’s around a nucleus and claims you can switch it’s state 10,000 times faster than you can switch the state of a transistor today. Take that Moore’s law!

Ok, Glass Explorers, this is cool:  A new Glassware App called Preview allows users to look at a movie poster or an image of one and view the trailer on Glass. You can move from poster to poster down the theater hallway and the app will switch to the appropriate trailer. Just remember to take off your Glass before entering the movie theater to avoid unwanted interaction with federal authorities.

The Next Web reports DigitalGlobe is putting its Tomnod crowdsourcing platform to work in the effort to find Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Volunteers are assigned a collection of satellite images to look at and pin any possible clues or wreckage. DigitalGlobe analysts will check areas that users identify then inform authorities of any findings.

CNET reports New Jersey fast-tracked a rule change Monday that would eliminate direct sales of automobiles from a manufacturer, a practice that Tesla Motors pretty much hinges their entire business on. Tesla appeared before the NJMVC today to argue against the rules, but does not appeared to have swayed the commission. The rule passed and will go into effect in April, giving Tesla a month or so to close its two stores.

News From You

tekkyn00b posted the Verge article about Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, accusing the CIA of searching Senate computers for copies of an internal agency interrogation report and violating both anti-hacking laws and the Constitution. CIA head John Brennan has denied Feinstein’s accusations. Senator Feinstein has been an outspoken advocate of the US NSA’s surveillance efforts.

draconos sent in the CNET story that CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said Tuesday that if Aereo’s online service that brings users over the air broadcasts is deemed legal by the Supreme Court, CBS could go OTT. That means CBS programming would be delivered over the Internet itself rather than over the air, and a company like Aereo would have to pay for it rather than access it from broadcast. CBS stations have broadcast obligations in order to keep their over the air spectrum but could meet those with a variety of local and older programming different than the main network.

And KAPT_Kipper posted the Ars Technica story that Intel and partners will make 800 Gbps cables available in the second half of the year to data centers. The cables are based on Intel’s Silicon Photonics tech that can send 25Gbps across each fiber. The new connector goes by the name (not acronym) MXC and holds up to 64 fibers and can maintain speed over 300 meters. It’s also less sensitive to dust and damage. Data centers generally use 10Gbps cables today. The Facebook-led Open Compute Project are among the organizations already testing out the MXC-based cables.

Discussion Section Links: Cars! Internet! WWW25!

http://audiusanews.com/newsrelease.do;jsessionid=7470C704F1179FABFC8A2C088EB9DBEF?&utm_medium=twitter&id=3702&mid=1

http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/11/audi-att-lte-pricing/?ncid=rss_truncated

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-57619829-48/2014s-battle-for-dashboard-supremacy-apples-carplay-vs-googles-oaa-vs-mirrorlink/

Brian Cooley’s 1986 report on a thing called EEEE -MAIL:  http://vimeo.com/2243667

Pick of the Day: Sell used gadgets at Gazelle.com

Tuesday’s Guest:  It’s our 50th show tomorrow!

Molly Wood joins to talk Edward Snowden’s SXSW prescription for solving the world’s surveillance issues. It’s pretty much encrypt all the things.

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

Headlines

Ars Technica reported on Edward Snowden’s address to the crowds of SXSW Interactive, appearing by Google Hangout, allegedly behind seven proxies, Heyo! Snowden reiterated he does not regret leaking the revelations. He emphasized that encryption is good and easier encryption methods are needed to protect privacy. He also called again for better oversight of intelligence agencies.

Forbes reports attackers took over the Reddit account and personal blog of Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karepeles on Sunday posting accusations that Karpeles had kept some of the supposedly lost BitCoins and presenting 716 megabytes of data allegedly taken from MT. Gox’s servers as proof. Before you go downloading that file though, be warned there are reports that links int he file may install malware. Meanwhile, ZDNet reports Mt. Gox filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in the United States. The company has already filed for bankruptcy in Japan.

Engadget reports iOS7.1 is now available as a free download. The latest update comes for anyone with an iPhone 4, 5th gen iPod touch or iPad 2 or newer. The update includes CarPlay support. Cars with CarPlay can interact with Siri, access music, navigate with Maps, answer calls and send texts, all hands-free. The feature comes on select new Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Ferrari models for now.

Google’s Sundar Pichai announced Sunday that Google will release an Android-based SDK for wearable devices in two weeks

Ars Technica reports Sony and Panasonic just announced a new optical disc specification. What you say? Optical is dead? Maybe for your music and possibly video but certainly not for archival purposes. “Archival Disc” format promises to store between six and 20 times the data of a standard 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray disc. The first round of discs should become available in summer, 2015 and hold 300 GB of Data, 150GB per side. The companies hope to boost that to a terabyte eventually.

ITProPortal reports on UK Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking at CeBit, and announcing a 5G wireless research partnership between the UK’s King’s College University, University of Surrey and Germany’s University of Dresden. The PM also committed £45 million to Internet of Things research. He and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also re-iterated commitment to a single European telecom market and the abolition of roaming charges.

Reuters reports a US biotech company has received approval in Britain to manufacture an edible tablet containing microchips that can tell if a patient has taken their medication while also monitoring vital signs like heart rate. Proteus Digital Health’s sensor is the size of a grain of sand and is powered by stomach juices. Info is sent to a small skin patch, which then passes the data on by Bluetooth.

News From You:

KAPT_Kipper submitted a CNN report on HBO Go experiencing problems loading video for on demand viewers as millions tried to watch the season finale of True Detective. HBO Go tweeted an acknowledgement of the problem and attributed it to overwhelming demand. As of Monday the service was back to normal.

gowlkick posted an Ars Technica story that the Linux Foundation will work with edX to make the “Introduction to Linux” course free and open to all. The course usually costs $2,400. Students can choose to audit or receive certification. More than 2,500 people signed up for the course in the first hour after posting. The official start date has not been posted but it will be scheduled sometime this summer.

And MikePKennedy pointed out the Verge story about Neil Young’s new high quality music project. Starting March 15th, a Kickstarter for PonoPlayer will give music lovers the chance to pay $399  to get a triangle-shaped player that will work with the high fidelity music to be sold at PonoMusic.com.  PonoMusic will not feature any DRM, but you’ll only be able to store 100-500 albums on the 128GB PonoPlayer.

Discussion Links: Snowden at Southby

http://recode.net/2014/03/10/eus-neelie-kroes-snowden-gave-us-wake-up-call/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57620111-83/snowden-at-sxsw-the-nsa-set-fire-to-the-future-of-the-internet/

http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/10/Snowden-encryption-and-oversight/?ncid=rss_truncated

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/03/10/edward-snowden-addresses-sxsw-saying-whistleblowing-defence-national-constitution

http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/10/5488348/edward-snowden-on-surveillance-encryption-and-constitution-at-sxsw

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/10/snowden-the-nsa-is-setting-fire-to-the-future-of-the-internet

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/03/ed-snowden-at-sxsw-theyre-setting-fire-to-the-future-of-the-internet/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57620081-83/wikileaks-julian-assange-nsa-critics-got-lucky-because-agency-had-no-pr-strategy/

Pick of the Day:

The intrepid Daily Tech News Show team spent the weekend rigorously testing all the Texas BBQ we could reasonably get our hands on. If you’re in Austin, here’s our BBQ pick of the day, also maybe the century. It’s The Salt Lick in Driftwood Texas. It’s a bit of a drive, but the brisket made Jennie cry a little. Find a friend with a car! Go! You won’t regret it.

 

Darren Kitchen is here for his Friday gig along with Russ Pitts. We’ll talk with Russ about how he thinks sometimes you SHOULD engage trolls. Also why the Aereo case could kill cloud storage. Plus the two main reasons for SXSWi to exist. Plus Len Peralta illustrates the show!

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, Russ Pitts, & Len Peralta 

Headlines:

I am not Dorian Nakamoto: Yesterday was an eventful day for Dorian Nakamoto. CNET’ Eric Mack summed up the day and proposed a theory. First Dorian came out of his house yesterday afternoon, grabbed an AP reporter, saying he wanted his free lunch, and headed to the AP offices in downtown LA for an interview followed by a train of reporters. He told the AP he was misunderstood by Newsweek and as far as Bitcoin goes he told them, “I got nothing to do with it.” Later a new comment from Satoshi Nakamoto appeared on the original 2009 Bitcoin forum post, saying “I am not Dorian Nakamoto.” CNET freelancer Eric Mack’s theory? We’re all getting trolled and MAYBE Satoshi Nakamoto is Andy Kaufman.

Dev build of Mavericks gettin’ all 4k and stuff: 9to5 Mac reports Apple’s latest developer build of OS X Mavericks lets users with 4K monitors natively set them to run at a pixel-doubled “Retina” resolution. It ends up thesame as running a Retina MacBook Pro. The screen doubles the resolution in the same space so you see sharper graphics

Samsung brings the Milk: PC World reports Samsung announced a new online radio service Friday called Milk. The service is available for free. No ads. No log in. Really? really. Oh here’s the catch. It’s only in the US. AND It’s only available in the Google Play store and only works with Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones and tablets. Samsung says they are thinking of expanding to non-Samsung devices though, and they WILL expand worldwide eventually.

Pebble 2.0, now with more Android! Engadget reports Pebble 2.0 is now available for Android users, giving them access to the Pebble App Store, a new interface and a new locker for apps and notification improvements.

Privacy questions raised about Facebook & Whats App: Digital Democracy are asking the US FTC to investigate how Facebook’s proposed purchase of WhatsApp will impact the privacy of WhatsApp users, who exchange private messages via the service. The complaint alleges Facebook’s plans for WhatsApp would violate WhatsApps users understanding of their exposure to online advertising.

News From You

metalfreak submitted a ScienceMag article about a system that can turn images into sequences of sound, allowing blind people to see. The system builds on work from 1992 by Dutch engineer Peter Meijer, who created vOICe, an algorithm that converts simple grayscale images into musical soundscapes. In 2007, neuroscientist Amir Amedi and colleagues at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem began training subjects who were born blind to use vOICe. Amedi’s team recently released a successor to vOICe, called EyeMusic, as a free iPhone app. The new algorithm produces more pleasant tones and can even provide color information.

normgregory directed our attention to a Deadline article reporting that Aereo’s appeal of the injunction Utah has been denied. The 10th Cicrcuit Court of Appeals denied the request to overturn the injunction 2:1. That means Aereo will have to go dark after all in Salt Lake City and Denver, despite the fact that the company is headed to the Supreme Court April 22.

tsukiri submitted the Ars Technica story on the US Navy deploying its first directed energy weapon this summer on the USS Ponce. Oh wait did I not say laser? Because lasers. IN fact it’s called the LaWS for Laser Weapon System. The lasers can explode fuel aboard smaller targets and blind drone or missile imaging sensors. Larger targets still need missiles and guns, but the laser is cheaper to fire at a bout a buck a shot. Also, thank you to all the men and women serving on the USS Ponce.

And on the other side of the drone aisle, or weapons emplacement, KAPT_Kipper pointed us to the Ars Technica tale of Judge Patrick Geraghty dismissing a $10,000 fine against Raphael Pirker, who used a camera drone to film on the University of Virginia campus for commercial purposes. The judge said the FAA rules were not enforceable against model aircraft whether commercial or not.

Discussion Section Links: Don’t Feed The Trolls,  But Don’t Let Them Feed on You.

http://www.falsegravity.com/?p=603

http://www.takethis.org/

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140306/00350726450/aereo-case-isnt-about-aereo-about-future-cloud-computing-innovation.shtml

http://www.project-disco.org/intellectual-property/030414-why-aereo-matters-to-the-cloud-a-primer/

http://www.takethis.org/

SXSW Pick of the Day:  Austin BCycle.  Bike share, duh! If you’re at SXSW you can ride one of these cheerful red bikes to and from all the various events– believe you me, the walk from the Convention Center to the Paramount Theater is no joke. So don’t walk! Take a bike.  Also thanks to Kristin Nelson for taking the time to talk with us about SXSW.  🙂

Austin Pick of the Day: Barbecue! I’m going to to the Salt Lick, like, NOW. (jj)

What an online troll looks like in real life:  http://lenperaltastore.com/products/dont-engage-the-troll

What was that weird thing at the end of the show?  Matt talks tech in which Producer Jennie interviews her husband Matt about technology. Matt knows a lot about comedy, screenwriting, and 80′s sitcoms, but technology? Not so much.

Monday’s Guest: Molly Wood of the New York Freakin’ Times! 

Paul Spain joins from New Zealand and we’ll discuss the topic of Newsweek doxxing Satoshi Nakamoto.

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:  Paul Spain, host of NZ Tech Podcast, NZ Business Podcast

Headlines

Bitcoin founder revealed: Newsweek reporter Leah McGrath Goodman published the results of her investigation into the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin. After finding a Satoshi Nakamoto in public records on naturalized citizens, Goodman tracked a model train enthusiast to Southern California. When she showed up at his house, he called the Sheriff’s department. After they arrived, he told her “I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it.” The Internet has largely reacted with rage, accusing McGrath of Doxxing Nakamoto.

The more things change … Engadget reports Facebook has redesigned its news feed to be a bit like the mobile version of the social network and bit like the older version of the feed. Typeface changes to Helvetica for Macs and Arial for PCs, shared stories will no longer indent when a friend leaves a comment, the left-hand column is simplified and photos will be full-width and multiple photos shared in a collage. The design is much simpler than the one showed off last March, which ReCode reports is the result of poor reactions in testing.

Apple vs. Samsung, Part XXIIVIIIIXXXXIIX: CNET reports Judge Lucy Koh gave the latest round of the long-running Apple-Samsung patent fight to Samsung. Apple had requested a ban on 23 Samsung devices found to have infringed on its patents. Early Thursday, Judge Koh denied Apple’s request. Judge Koh did uphold the $290 million in additional damages awarded to Apple by a jury last November. Both sides can appeal both rulings.

Oceans of money: TechCrunch reports cloud hosting company DigitalOcean raised a Series A round of $37.2 million. The company is aimed to compete with Amazon EC2, Rackspace and the like. DigitalOcean provides scalable virtual private servers for $5 a month to start.

How do you feel? How about now? GigaOm reports on an iPhone accessory called Wello. It looks like a typical iPhone case, but the small chip embedded in it along with two sensors, keep track of vitals like blood-oxygen level, blood pressure, ECG, heart rate, temp and more. You just hold your fingers over the sensors to begin tracking. Wello works by Bluetooth and is available for pre-order now in a number of countries. It is expected to retail for $199 in the U.S. and will ship in the fall, pending FDA approval.

Looking so long at these pictures of you: Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports Getty Images has begun a program where bloggers can get an approved embed code of Getty Images and use them for free on blogs and social media pages, as long as the use is not commercial. The embed code sends information about Web traffic back to Getty.

X marks your spot: Reuters reports Flickr co-founder Katerina Fake’s Findery site has launched its mobile app. Findery lets users mark important places on a map and include descriptions, pictures, videos and other information. Fake says Findery is meant to provide more meaningful info. The app is available in the iOS app store.

Doing the CEO shuffle: ReCode reports Sony has announced that Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America (fine purveyors of PlayStations) will step down at the end of the month. Sony Network Entertainment International COO Shawn Layden will take Tretton’s place on April 1. Tretton has led the division since 2006 and worked on the team that launched the first PlayStation in 1995. In less disruptive, yet fun Sony news, Deadline Hollywood reports Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems production company has decided to develop a “live-action adaptation” of The Last of US.

News From You

KAPT_Kipper submitted the Next Web article about Firefox investigating why Dell UK is charging £16.25 to install Firefox on its machines. Mozilla, makers of Firefox, say they have no deal with Dell for such a questionably useful service, and it is a violation of the Mozilla terms of service. Dell told TNW it is charging for the service of installation, not the software itself.

TVSEgon sent us the sad AP story of the discovery of virtual currency exchange First Meta CEO Autumn Radke found dead near her apartment tower in Singapore. Singapore’s police say they do not suspect foul play, but did classify it as “unnatural,” which can mean accident or suicide.

And Draconos pointed us to the CNET story that hot on the heels of Dish’s deal with Disney, DirectTV told Reuters IT is in talks for a similar deal to be allowed to include Disney TV content in some future Internet-only video service.

Discussion Section Links: Finding the founder of Bitcoin/CEO of Bitcoin exchange found dead

http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/03/14/bitcoin-satoshi-nakamoto.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/leah-mcgrath-goodman-responds-2014-3

http://gigaom.com/2014/03/06/of-bitcoin-and-doxxing-is-revealing-sakamotos-identity-okay-because-it-was-newsweek-and-not-reddit/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/ceo-of-bitcoin-exchange-found-dead-in-singapore/2014/03/06/7649bc60-a4f3-11e3-b865-38b254d92063_story.html

http://stream.wsj.com/story/markets/SS-2-5/SS-2-474236/

Pick of the Day: Producer Jennie recommends Intelligentsia coffee. Yeah, so the name’s a little much, and it ain’t cheap, but the fresh-roasted coffee is just that good. Intelligentsia has coffee bars in three cities: Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. If you live elsewhere, they have a great online shop for both coffee and tools of the trade and a tremendous app that helps you make a perfect cup of coffee–whichever method you prefer. (They sell some pretty delicious tea, too.)

Friday’s Guest: Darren Kitchen & Russ Pitts