First off we now have a 100% record picking Nebula-award winning books for the club. That’s 100% of the last two years. So take note Nebula-wanters! Also we’re very excited about a new series from University of Illinois Press called the Masters of Science Fiction. You can find out William Gibson’s secrets!
DTNS 2512 – Toasters Fly Again!
Scott Johnson and Brian Ibbott discuss Spotify’s war chest, Samsung’s shiny new mirror, and the eternal magic of Flying Toasters. Tom Merritt is on assignment.
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Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guests: Scott Johnson and Brian Ibbott
Headlines:
One day after Apple announced a new music streaming service, Spotify closed a massive new round of funding. According to The Wall Street Journal, Spotify has raised $526 million from investors, and the company is now valued at $8.53 billion dollars.
Re/Code reports that Spotify also announced is has more than 20 million paying subscribers in addition to 55 million active users of the free version. That’s up from the 15 million paid subscribers and 60 million total active users the company reported back in January. We’ll be talking much more about this after the headlines.
Microsoft announced pricing today for the Surface Hub, its giant 4k multi-touch display designed to replace the whiteboard in your super sleek startup conference room. Engadget reports that the 84-inch version will cost $19,999 and go on sale in July. There will be a smaller, 55-inch version for $6,999. Both should ship in early September.
Samsung unveiled a 55-inch mirrored OLED display, as well as a 55 inch transparent display. Ars Technica reports that Samsung anticipates the displays would be used as “digital signal” for retail. The mirror OLED panel has a more than 75 percent reflectance level, which Samsung says is “at least 50 percent higher” than mirror LCDs that are currently for sale. The transparent OLED display is more transparent, letting through 40 percent of the light versus the 10 percent transparency of today’s transparent LCDs. No price was announced. Both displays are paired with Intel’s RealSense 3-D camera technology, which means that someday soon, when you look into the mirror in the dressing room, the mirror will LOOK BACK. And it will not be pleased.
Kaspersky Lab’s has admitted to being hacked. Kaspersky Lab CEO and founder Eugene Kaspersky wrote, “We discovered an advanced attack on our own internal networks. It was complex, stealthy, it exploded several zero-day vulnerabilities, and we’re quite confident that there’s a nation state behind it.” The firm called this attack Duqu 2.0 — named after a specific series of malware called Duqu. Kaspersky explained this situation as a mix of both good and bad news but claims none of its services have been compromised.
According to The New York Times, the malware was used in a cyber-espionage campaign targeting hotels that hosted Iran nuclear negotiations.
The Washington Post reports that Elon Musk’s “other company” — Space X — has asked the US government for permission to test low orbit satellites that would beam internet service from space. The plan calls for 4,000 small and cheap satellites that would beam high-speed internet signals all over the globe. If the tests go well, the full service could be up and running in about five years. Facebook recently scrapped similar plans, maybe because they don’t own their own rockets?
Facebook Messenger has topped 1 billion Android downloads, according to PCMag.com. Messenger’s David Marcus posted a photo displaying the Google Play Store’s 1 billion download badge with the image likes by colleagues Mark Zuckerberg and Tom Stocky. Facebook and Google are the only two companies with 1 billion-plus bragging rights: which according to TechCrunch includes, Facebook and WhatsApp, as well as Gmail, YouTube, Google Search, and Google Maps.
PCWorld is reporting that Congress is worried that foreign government-owned SSL certificate authority could issue phony security certificates to harvest login details from social networks, corporate networks and email accounts. The US House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce recently sent letters to Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla with questions about how the backbone of HTTPS security could be violated. In one example the Certificate authority Diginotar was hacked in 2011 and hundreds of fraudulent certificates were issues for Google, Skype and Yahoo. There are numerous government-owned CAs across the globe, including in China, France, Spain, and Turkey.
News From You:
Do you long for a simpler time? A time when toasters flew and you could revel in the simple joys of The Randomizer? Apparently you do, because this item submitted by natebob received a whopping 48 votes in the DTNS subreddit. Sensing your need for a return to innocence, Developer Brian Braun has thoughtfully recreated every original After Dark Screen Saver including the iconic flying Flying Toasters. The iconic screensaver images are on his Github page.
The After Dark screensaver software launched for the Apple Macintosh in 1989 and appeared on Windows computers in 1991.
djsekani shared this Ars Technica story covering Verizon’s apparent failure to make good on 22 years old promise to Pennsylvania to provide fiber Internet or “comparable technology” supporting at least 45 megabits to its service area in the state. So far more than 2 million homes have either slower DSL or wireless service out of 4.2 million in Verizon’s service area. The original agreement allowed Verizon to charge higher phone rates for higher speed broadband. Telecom analyst Bruce Kushnick wrote in the Huffington Post that officials relaxed the requirements over the years, giving up on the “45 megabits per second” minimum and allowing Verizon to meet the obligation with wireless instead of fiber or other wireline technology.
DTNS producer jollyroger would like you to know that RayNiro, one of the lawyers who pioneered the wave of contingent-fee patent litigation, says he’s ready to exit the business because quote “The stand-alone patent case is dead on arrival, and I don’t think we’re unique.” Ars Techina reports that patent litigation dropped by roughly 20 percent in 2014, and patent lawsuits by “non-practicing entities,” also known as patent trolls, dropped by nearly 25 percent.
Those trolls filed about 3,700 lawsuits in 2013, and 2,800 in 2014. With more judges awarding fees to defendants, patent trolling has taken on higher risk.
In one case Niro and his firm were ordered to pay fees in a patent suit he brought against HTC. The parties are still litigating over the amount, but HTC is seeking $4.1 million. The fee order was “a wake-up call,” Niro told Crain’s Chicago Business. “I can take it once, twice, but am I going to take it three or four times? No. Why should I?”
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the Day:
Proud Co-Executive Producer gadgetchaser writes in to say:
” I’ve never sent in a pick before, but I’d like to suggest a Web service/app called Kifi (I pronounce it KeeFee, but it could also be Kai-Fye…I’m not sure what the creators call it).
It’s first and foremost a way to self curate the Web using a Chrome extension. You make Libraries for different interests and subjects and then save them in the browser. You can add tags and notes that are searchable though the web app or the extension.
There is a *gasp* social aspect to the service too, you can make your Libraries Public or Private. ..One of my favorite aspects of the Chrome extension is when I visit a new page, I get a little pop up in the corner showing me others who have added that site to a Library of their own.
I’ve tried a lot of “Pocket” type services over the years, but I’ve found that I’m actually using this one to “read it later”, likely due to the fact that I can organize things by more than just tags. I have a private library to go to and catch up and from there easily move it to a more permanent Public or Private Library if I want to keep it or just delete it and forget about it.
Messages:
HotBranch in summery-ish Montreal writes:
“Catching up on my backed up episodes, the mention of Facebook Lite in episode 2508 caught my attention because I used it to replace the regular Facebook app (and Messenger) on one of my older phones and my pokey 2012 Nexus 7 tablet.
I believe I had seen news of the original release on AndroidPolice, who provided a link to download the APK for side-loading. The interface is not as polished, but it uses far fewer resources than the regular app, and the messenger app is integrated, producing further storage savings.
Ironically, I installed Facebook Lite on my Nexus 5 and found no improvement in the Zuckerburgian experience other than to have two notifications of comments or likes that arrived at different intervals. The Lite version usually delivered the notifications first.
All this to say that Facebook Lite is available to those willing to invest 30 seconds of searching and two minutes of downloading and side-loading.
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Thursday’s guest: Allison Sheridan and Todd Whitehead
Today in Tech History – June 10, 2015
In 1943 – Hungarians László and Georg Bíró, while living in Argentina, patented the first successful implementation of the ballpoint pen.
In 1977 – A few days after going on sale, Apple began shipping the Apple II for the first time.
In 2003 – The Spirit Rover launched on a Delta II rocket, beginning NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission.
In 2013 – Apple introduced iOS 7 and Apple OS X Mavericks at their Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. They also gave a sneak peek at the new cylindrical Mac Pro and announced their streaming music service called iTunes Radio.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
DTNS 2511 – Slow Moving Fiber
Patrick Beja and Iyaz Akhtar chew on some WWDC leftovers, some Xbox News and of course, IPV6 Day in Finland! Note: Tom Merritt is on assignment. The audio on this MP3 is imperfect. Because Jennie is imperfect. Improved audio coming tonight. 
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A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guests: Patrick Beja and Iyaz Akhtar
Headlines:
Major Nelson has revealed that Microsoft has released a new Xbox One console. This new variant includes a 1TB hard drive, new matte finish, a newly designed Xbox One Wireless Controller and in select regions HALO The Master Chief Collection. The new controller will feature a 3.5 mm stereo jack so you can plug a headset directly into the controller with settings for volume, voice and game balance, and mic level in the console’s settings menu. The updated xbox one will ship June 16th in the US and select markets for $400. You can also buy the controller separately for $60 or in a Special Edition Covert Forces silver and black color scheme for $65. The price of the current 500GB Xbox One will now drop to $350.
Re/code clarified that Apple Music will support offline listening for albums, songs, and video. WHAT ABOUT PODCASTS, asked everyone in this audience?!?! Technology writer Jordan Merrick rounded up more details that weren’t in the WWDC presentation, including the fact that OS X El Capitan will support third-party photo editing tools in the Photos app, and Maps for OS X will gain support for transit directions. He has lots more interesting nuggets on his site, which will be in the shownotes And sunbun submitted this Verge article, about Apple’s FIRST Android app, called Move to iOS, that helps transfer essentials like contacts, messages, calendars, mail accounts, and media from an Android device to any iPhone or iPad running iOS 9 wirelessly.
Business Insider has a write up of a report from The Information which says Facebook had a previously unknown plan to build a satellite which would have provided cheap internet access in the developing world. As it turns out, it’s not so cheap to build and launch a satellite. The venture would have cost around $500 million, and so it was cancelled, all before we ever knew about it. Facebook may still continue with its plan to deliver cheap internet via leased satellites.
Twitter has tweaked how they’re shown on the Tweet page to make conversations easier to follow. Tweets that are part of a conversation are connected by a line. To see more of the replies to a specific Tweet within a conversation you can click “View other replies”. The feature will roll out to all users on twitter.com today and roll out to mobile apps in the future.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the US FBI wants Congress to expand their authority to tap into secure messaging apps. According to the FBI, Islamic militants and their followers are using instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Kik, as well as data-destroying apps such as Wickr and Surespot. The FBI estimates that 200,000 people around the world see “terrorist messaging” each day from Islamic State zealots and that the group’s recruiters then troll Twitter, Facebook and other sites to see who is re-posting their messages and invite them to text directly on encrypted or data-destroying apps.
The Verge reports that starting today, Sony’s PlayStation Now game streaming service is available on select Samsung Smart TV’s in the US and Canada. Although you won’t need a playstation console to play you will need a Dualshock 4 controller. The service will support standard features like trophies, online multiplayer, and cloud-based game saves. PlayStation Now started as an online streaming game rental service but Sony has since offered a monthly $20 subscription fee option.
A recent Ericsson Mobility Report shows mobile subscriptions in Q1 2015 was at 910 million for all of Africa including 21 million new subscribers according to BizTech Africa. The report also indicates smartphone subscriptions will be more than double reaching 6.1 billion and that in Sub-Saharan Africa GSM/EDGE only subscriptions will still be predominant until 2020.
Tech Crunch reports that messaging App Jott has become super popular in US middle schools. Jott allows users to send private messages on a closed network without a data plan or wifi connection. The app uses a mesh network that operates via low energy Bluetooth or a router within 100 feet of each user. Jott began testing in select middle schools in March and it like, blew UP.
News From You:
KAPT_Kipper sent us this story from GeekWire covering Amazon’s push to become an SSL Certificate provider by applying to be a root certificate authority. By becoming a root CA, Amazon can sell SSL certificates that are automatically trusted by common web browsers and operating systems. It is unclear how big the revenue opportunity for Amazon is for digital certificates and how aggressively they will market them, but GeekWire thinks providing encryption certificates seems to be a natural add-on service for Amazon Web Services.
spsheridan sent us this Reuters story reporting that top US tech companies sent a “strongly worded letter” to President Obama yesterday, saying “We are opposed to any policy actions or measures that would undermine encryption as an available and effective tool.” The letter was sent through two industry associations — The Information Technology Industry Council and the Software and Information Industry Association. They represent tech giants including Apple, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft. The letter was also sent to other government officials, including FBI Director James COMEY, who was like, “C’mon, people. I JUST TOLD YOU we have a problem with WhatsApp!”
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the Day:
LWATCDR aka David the Programer in Florida sends in this suggestion:
If I might add a suggestion for pick of the day for very low spin or even spin free news. Yes Voice of America is still around. A lot of people will dismiss this as propaganda but VOA actually worked on the principle that if they told the truth then people would believe them and that the truth was almost always better for the US than the oppressive nations. Of course you do not need to take my word for it just try it out and see what you think.”
Messages:
Rich from Lovely Cleveland writes:
Thinking about the Apple Music service as announced and I started considering that Apple may not need this to initially be massively popular to be successful.
This may be a move to deny, or simply slow, the scaling of other streaming services to profitability. Everyone considers Spotify to be the giant in the space, but to this point they are not a profitable service, they need to continue their impressive growth to scale to a point where they can be.
Apple could win, or at least create a foothold in the space, simply by disrupting Spotify’s growth. At this point, their biggest advantage is being convenient and already built into the device millions of people are using (and when subscribing on mobile that have a big price advantage).
Simply by being a frictionless service for people to access, they could disrupt Spotify’s business. Admittedly I’m sure Apple would love to be the biggest player in the room, but they’ve set this up to be a war of attrition, which I have a hard time seeing them losing.
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Wednesday’s guest: Scott Johnson & Brian Ibbott
It’s Spoilerin’ Time 74
Movie Draft Update, Mr. Robot Feedback, Game of Thrones (509), Sense8 (Eps. 101-104), The Shield (602)
00:47 – Movie Draft Update
03:30 – Mr. Robot Feedback
06:29 – Game of Thrones (509)
21:00 – Sense8 (Eps. 1-4)
32:58 – The Shield (602)
Today in Tech History – June 9, 2015
In 1902 – Joe Horn and Frank Hardart opened the first US Automat at 818 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia. The waiterless restaurant charged a nickel for most dishes.
In 1931 – Robert Goddard received a patent for rocket-fueled aircraft design (US. No. 1,809,271). Sadly we do not have a lot of rocket-planes in operation.
In 1986 – The Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center opened to support the National Science Foundation’s NSFNET, which linked five supercomputer centers. NSFNET would eventually allow commercial uses and transition to the open Internet.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Cordkillers 74 – NAScar
Everyone’s watching TV on mobile. Is Showtime too expensive? Android TV is making a comeback.
DTNS 2510 – WWDC: What Would Drake Curate?
Veronica Belmont and Justin Young join to break down the four big announcements from Apple’s WWDC about OS X, iOS, WatchOS and Apple Music.
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Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org
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A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s Guests: Veronica Belmont and Justin Robert Young, DTNS contributors
Headlines
Because there’s nothing developers like more than sitting apparently, Apple took 2.5 hours to announce four things. here’s the shorter version if you missed it. OS X. will have an API for search and spotlight gets some natural language search capabilities. You can slide a tab left to pin it in Safari and now mute from the address bar. Windows Snap comes to OSX too. The Metal graphics API comes from iOS to OS X bumping out OpenGl and delivering 50% rendering improvements and reducing CPU usage 40%. So better performance and battery life. OS X El Capitan comes to public beta in july and as a free upgrade int he autumn.
iOS 9 introduces Proactive assistance so it can do things like put “now playing” on the screen when you plug in your headphones or automatically add calendar appointments based on emails you get. Search can deep link into apps. The notes appgets checklists, camera integration, drawings and more. Maps gets transit directions. And Newsstand is replaced by a news app that pulls in pretty pages from partners and regular pages from everyone else. The iPad adds shortcuts to the keyboard, the ability to use the keyboard as a trackpad, a new task switcher and a slideover panel for using two apps at once, a split view if you have an iPad Air 2 and picture in picture for video apps. Finally low-power mode can turn 1 hour left to three hours left on your battery, HomeKit added support for more devices, Carplay can support wireless connections in future cars and Swift 2 is going to go open source with a compiler and standard libraries for iOS, OS X, and Linux by the end of the year. It’s coming to Public Beta in July then as a free upgrade in fall to all previously supported iOS devices.
WatchOS 2’s big news was native apps and the ability to connect directly to WiFi. Devs get to access the mic, healthkit, homekit, accelerometer, taptic engine and sounds, digital crown and play audio and video. Devs can also customize the ‘complications;’ that get added to watch faces and there are some new watch faces to boot. You can also time travel by rotaing the digital crown and seeing what appointments and notifications are coming up. And transit maps and Wallet with its loyalty cards are coming to the watch as well as the ability to control HomeKit. Devs get access to a preview of the SDK next week. Watch OS 2 will be a free update in wide release this autumn.
Finally Apple Music will be Apple’s new subscription music service. It has a 24/7 radio station called Beats One manned by Zane Lowe, Ebro Darden, and Julie Adenuga. a social network called Connect that lets artists post music, photos, videos and messages which can crosspost to Facebook and Twitter. And of course for $9.99 a month you can get access to everything in the iTunes library as well as curated recommendations based on your tastes and exposure to new music you might like. Apple Music will launch in more than 100 countries June 30 with iOS 8.4 and a new iTunes. Apple TV and Android versions are coming this autumn. And a family subscription allows up to 6 accounts to share a subscription for $14.99 a month.
Well that’s all the Apple news from WWDC. Now with the wasting no time award comes Bloomberg with a new Apple rumor. According to its sources, Bloomberg says Apple is assembling a high-speed data network and upgrading how it builds data centers so be more competitive in the cloud. Basically it wants its own connections between its 4 data centers in California, Nevada, North Carolina and Oregon, to increase reliability and speed. Its building new data centers in Arizona, Ireland and Denmark as well. Seems likely given that new music service and a rumored TV service.
The Next Web reports that Skype’s automatic voice translation tool, which was part of a separate Translator app, will be integrated into the main Skype desktop app for Windows by the end of this summer. You can still try out Translator app until then. The app translate voice conversations between English, Spanish, Italian and Mandarin speakers, as well as over 50 written languages. No word on when the integration will roll out to other operating systems.
9 to 5 google reports that AT&T has officially unveiled the Samsung Galaxy S6 Active on its website. The phone runs 5.0.2 Lollipop, comes with a 5.1″ QHD Super AMOLED display and gets its ACTIVE name from an IP68 rating and certification to meet military standards for water and dust resistance, shock, vibration, extreme temperatures, humidity, and high altitude. It comes in Blue Camo, White Camo, or Gray and as expected has a 5.1″ QHD Super AMOLED display and 16MP rear and 5MP front-facing cameras. The S6 Active will be available June 12th from AT&T with $0 down and installments ranging from $23.17 to $34.75 a month depending on your plan.
Tech Crunch reports that a company called Menlo Security emerged from stealth today with $25 million in Series B Funding. Menlo has some buzz because it plans to fight malware by isolating every email and web page in a virtual container and then delivering a safe mirror image to your browser. The malware is therefore trapped in a virtual container which is ‘disposed of’. It doesn’t use special software or require modification at the browser level.
Boing Boing brings us the news that The Reddit experiment The Button has ended. The Button was launched April 1 and after 1 million, 8 thousand three hundred 16 presses, the timer reached zero (for real this time) without anyone pressing it. Rest in peace button.
News From You:
starfuryzeta sent us the Engadget report that South Korea plans to fight the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory System, known as MERS by tracking the cellphones of 2300 people under quarantine to make sure they don’t leave home and infect others. The country’s deputy prime minister called it an “unavoidable measure”.
thegraphics sent us a Tech Crunch report that Showtime’s standalone streaming service will launch on Roku and Playstation Vue in addition the previously announced iOS and Apple TV launch. The service will cost $10.99 per month and include both the East and West coast live Showtime feeds. As with its launch on Apple devices, Roku customers in July will be able to try the service for 30 days for free before committing to the monthly fee. PlayStation Vue subscribers can add it as an alacarte option.
Discussion Links:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/06/apple-music-is-the-next-chapter-in-music/
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150608006468/en/Introducing-Apple-Music-%E2%80%94-Ways-Love-Music.#.VXX1XFxVikp
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/06/apple-gives-developers-a-more-powerful-native-apple-watch-sdk/
http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/08/apple-homekit-wwdc-update/?ncid=rss_truncated
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2015/06/08/apple-announces-swift-2-will-be-open-sourced/
http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/8/8737639/apple-ipad-split-screen-multitasking-wwdc-2015
http://recode.net/2015/06/08/apples-ios-9-software-promises-a-smarter-siri-multitasking-on-ipad/
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2015/06/08/apple-announces-news-its-flipboard-competitor/
http://recode.net/2015/06/08/apple-pay-wants-to-be-your-wallet-so-it-added-loyalty-and-store-branded-cards/
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/06/apple-announces-ios-9/
http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/08/osx-el-capitan/?ncid=rss_truncated
Pick of the Day: VTC.com
Jeff has a pick: Recently you mentioned safaribooks.com, which is a great site for learning.
I would like to add VTC.com which offers high end sys admin training videos. I have learned so much from this site and I don’t know of any other site that offers so much high end technical content like this and when you are done with a course you can print a certificate to turn into HR. They have reasonable pricing and multiuser accounts.
Check it out at http://www.vtc.com
Tomorrow: Tom is on assignment, but DTNS contributor Patrick Beja and CNET’s own Iyaz Akhtar are on the show!
Today in Tech History – June 8, 2015
In 1637 – Rene Descartes published “Discourse on the Method for Guiding One’s Reason and Searching for Truth in the Sciences”, which formed the basis of the modern scientific method. It’s also the source of the quote “I think, therefore I am.”
In 1949 – George Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-Four was published. The book still affects notions of privacy and inspired the iconic Apple commercial that introduced the Macintosh computer.
In 1955 – Tim Berners-Lee was born in London. He grew up to develop the World Wide Web.
In 2008 – Apple announced Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.
Today in Tech History – June 7, 2015
In 1954 – Computer science hero Alan Turing died. His death was ruled a suicide from eating an apple containing cyanide. Turing formulated the famous Turing test and broke code at Bletchley park during World War II.
In 1975 – Sony introduced the Betamax video recorder for sale. It would lose the format war to VHS but find a niche in broadcast production.
In 1980 – The first US solar power plant was dedicated at the Natural Bridge National Monument, Utah.
Like Tech History? Get the illustrated Year in Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.