DTNS 2371 – Hackers gonna hack

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comDarren Kitchen is on to talk about the Russian site that collects people’s unprotected baby monitor and cat cams. Should it be taken down? And Len Peralta is here to illustrate 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 headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Darren Kitchen of hak5.org and Len Peralta, author and illustrator

Today is the final day! It’s almost the one year anniversary of DTNS and Friday’s resident artprov artist Len Peralta is doing something special to mark the occasion. He’s drawing a poster called “In This Together” and you have a chance to be drawn into the print. There are only 26 slots left. If you want to get drawn into this piece of DTNS history, go to Len’s Patreon page: patreon.com/len and pledge at the $2.50 level or higher. Len will draw you into the print + you’ll also get a copy of it as well. Once again, that URL is patreon.com/len

Headlines:

ReCode passed on a Financial Times report that a draft motion for the European Parliament would call for Google to separate its search services from other businesses and become two companies. The motion says “Unbundling of search engines from other commercial services” should be considered. Google holds 93% of the search market in Europe compared to 67% in the US.

Aereo announced on its blog today that it will file for chapter 11 bankruptcy. CEO Chet Kanojia wrote that his teams had explored every path available to the company but cited legal and regulatory uncertainty as the main reason they chose to file for bankruptcy. Aereo appointed appointed Lawton Bloom of investment banker Argus to serve as Aereo’s Chief Restructuring Officer during this period.

The patent wars may be winding down. Reuters reports Google has agreed to settle litigation with patent consortium Rockstar which includes Apple as an investor. The consortium had sued Google and other handset makers in October 2013 over Nortel patents related to search engine technology. No details were announced about the settlement. Cisco took a $188 million charge related to settlement with Rockstar earlier this month.

Bloomberg Businessweek reports that a US federal appeals court blocked the US FCC from ordering Comcast to disclose its programming contracts. The FCC has the contracts, but wanted “interested parties” to be able to see them as part of the agency’s review of the proposed Comcast merger with Time Warner. Comcast argued revealing its fee structures would put them at a competitive disadvantage. The disclosure requirement also would apply to the FCC’s review of AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV.

Gigaom reports that Google is offering 1 terabyte of Google Drive storage, free for two years with the purchase of a new Chromebook. The offer, valued at $240, accompanies the sale of Chromebooks priced as low as $199. Interested buyers must redeem the Drive offer by January 1, 2015 to quality for the increased capacity.

ReCode reports US FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is afraid of dogs. Wheeler told reporters Friday “Look, the big dogs are going to sue regardless of what comes out. We need to make sure we have sustainable rules.” He was trying to explain why no new proposals have come from the FCC regarding Open Internet Guidelines since President Obama suggested reclassifying ISPs under Title II of the Teleocmmunications Act of 1934.

 

News From You:

HobbitfromPA posted the CNET story about a plant-based polymer from Suneris that can help stop bleeding and act like lego bricks fro the body. The substance is called VetiGel and can be applied to skin or soft organs to stop bleeding in 20 seconds. So far the substance has been determined safe for animals. Vets interested in testing it out can sign up at suneris.co/contactus.

the_big_endian sends us an NDTV report that according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International, the number of people online in India will reach 302 million by the end of this year, overtaking the US and its 279 million users as the second-largest Internet market in the world. As of the end of October, 278 million people are online in India with 159 million accessing the internet on mobile phones. China is still the largest Internet market with more than 600 million Internet users.

metalfreak posted the PC World article that Intel will join Samsung in shipping 3D NAND flash chips that stack transistors in a miniscule 32-layer cube. While Samsung’s chips have already been on the market, Intel claims they’re models can hold twice as many bits as their competitors, 256 billion bits on a single die. That means a TB of data could fit on a NAND chip that’s 2 millimeters thick. Intel plans to ship the 3D NAND chips next year.

ancrod2 sent in the Wired article that Utah representative Marc Roberts has introduced legislation int he Utah House of Representatives that, if approved, would direct municipalities in the US state to “refuse support to any federal agency which collects electronic data within this state.” The effect would be to prohibit the NSA from negotiating a new deal for cheap water service for its data center in Bluffdale, Utah. That water deal ends in 2021.

spsheridan sent us a CNET report that researchers at Princeton University have developed a 3D printer that can 3D-print quantum dot LED in layers. QLEDs shine brighter and with a great purity of color, at a lower power consumption rate, using cadmium selenide nanocrystals. They’re also ultrathin, flexible and transparent and could someday be used to create contact lenses with a heads up display, once they figure out a way to include an on-board power supply. So, not coming next year.

Discussion Section: 

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/20/webcam-hackers-watching-you-watchdog-warns

http://iconewsblog.wordpress.com/2014/11/20/is-someone-watching-you-right-now-a-warning-as-website-targets-insecure-webcams/

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/what-know-about-webcam-hackers

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-nsa-webcam-images-internet-yahoo

Pick of the Day: Legion: Skin Deep via Technosquid

Technosquid sent us this one: “My pick is the new Brandon Sanderson audiobook, Legion: Skin Deep, available free for pre-order on audible.com, set for release on November 24th. Legion: Skin Deep is the sequel to Legion, a novella which gained some popularity when it was available free to purchase from audible for a month or two back in 2012 (now $4.86 for audible subscribers, $6.95 for non subscribers, or $2.99 kindle + $1.99 whispersync for audio audible add-on.)

“Stephen Leeds, AKA ‘Legion,’ is a man whose unique mental condition allows him to generate a multitude of personae: hallucinatory entities with a wide variety of personal characteristics and a vast array of highly specialized skills.”

I really liked the original, although it was only a short two-hour reading of a 96 page story, but thankfully the sequel is more than twice as long.

In a blog post, the author noted that this is a limited-time promotion, and after one month it would no longer be available for free, but of course anyone who purchased it during the promotion would have it available in their audible libraries.”

Monday’s guest: Nicole Spagnuolo! 

 

Today in Tech History – Nov. 21, 2014

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1877 – Thomas Edison announced his invention of the phonograph, a machine that could record and play sound.

In 1905 – The Annalen Der Physik published Albert Einstein’s paper, entitled “Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?” The paper revealed the relationship between energy and mass. You know the relationship as E = mc².

In 1969 The first permanent ARPANET link was established between the Interface Message Processor or IMP at UCLA and the IMP at the Stanford Research Institute.

MP3

Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 2370 – Peak Fitness?

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comJill Duffy is here to talk about the wearables people actually care about and USE and how your Doctor’s office may be the biggest beneficiary.

Support the show at http://patreon.com/donate

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 headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Jill Duffy, writer and senior analyst at pcmag.com

Check out Jill’s great article on Fitness Trackers at Prevention Magazine

Also! It’s almost the one year anniversary of DTNS and Friday’s resident artprov artist Len Peralta is doing something special to mark the occasion. He’s drawing a poster called “In This Together” and you have a chance to be drawn into the print. There are only 50 slots left available. If you want to get drawn into this piece of DTNS history, go to Len’s Patreon page: patreon.com/len and pledge at the $2.50 level or higher. Len will draw you into the print + you’ll also get a copy of it as well. Once again, that URL is patreon.com/len

Headlines:

Engadget reports Corning has created Gorilla Glass 4. The company examined hundreds of broken devices and smashed a LOT of phones to find out that damage from sharp contact accounted for 70% of field failures. Gorilla Glass 4 is designed to stay intact 80 percent of the time when dropped from a meter above a rough surface (3.3. feet). Corning said it is already sending test samples to its customers.

TechCrunch reports Dropbox has updated its Carousel app for iOS and Android. Carousel combines photos from your device with photos stored in Dropbox to make an easy interface for viewing all of them. The Carousel feature lets you easily spin through photos to view them and a messaging feature lets you instantly send photos and videos to friends. The new app with a cleaner interface launches on iPad today, Android tablets soon and adds a web version as well.

ReCode passes along details from Sandvine’s latest report on North American broadband usage during primetime. If you’ve been saying Netflix takes up about a third of download bandwidth, you can keep saying that. YouTube stays at number 2 with 14.04% and Amazon has risen to 2.58%. This bandwidth usage so it’s not number of streams but it’s a fair approximation. BitTorrent still takes up 25.49% of the upload. So many Linux ISOs.

Ars Technica reports Mozilla has not renewed Google as the default search engine for the Firefox browser worldwide. Mozilla has struck regional deals. Baidu becomes default in China, Yandex in Russia and Yahoo powered by Bing in the US. Mozilla told MarketingLand’s Danny Sullivan that Google remains default in Europe and it will continue to exist as an alternate option.

Gigaom reports that The Washington Post has launched a version of its news app exclusive to Amazon Fire owners. Fire users will get the app free for six months. An additional six months will cost $1. The new app will come to other devices next year but cost $3.99/month. The new app includes ‘Pinch View’ which allows users to swipe through an edition as if they were flipping magazine pages and updates twice a day at 5am and 5pm eastern with breaking news and other updates added in between.

Reuters reports Alibaba founder Jack Ma said the Chinese company will set up an international version of its Taobao ecommerce site in multiple languages including English and Chinese. Alibaba has a wholesale international site called Aliexpress but not one for consumers to sell to each other.

The Verge reports Uber hired Harriet Pearson, former privacy chief at IBM, to conduct a review of Uber’s privacy practices and make recommendations. In addition US Senator Al Franken posted a public letter to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick taking him to task for the companies attitude toward privacy and asking 8 questions which the Senator expect responses to by December 15th.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports a corporate advocacy group called the Ad Hoc Telecommunications USers Committee has visited the US FCC commissioners three times this year. Representatives of the group included Nicholas Lewis of UPS, Lawrence Chattoo of Bank of America, Carl Holshouser of Visa and James Carroll from Ford Motor. FCC filings show the topic of the meetings was “Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet” and terminating access monopolies. In a separate comment filed with the FCC the same group urged the FCC to classify broadband under Title II. Ford and Visa spokespeople told Bloomberg their representatives did not advocate for Title II.

The Verge reports Google has a new system called Contributor that lets users pay partner sites $1 to $3 a month in order to remove Google AdSense ads from the site. Mashable, The Onion, Science Daily, Imgur, WikiHow, and Urban Dictionary have been announced as partners in the new program.

 

News From You:

starfuryzeta sent the GigaOm report that the US FTC and the State of Florida announced court complaints against dozens of individuals and companies that allegedly run PC Cleaner scams. The scams trick users into installing malware and then charge them for the removal of it which then leads to further scams. The FTC obtained an injunction on their operations and an order for asset seizures though no criminal charges were filed.

KAPT_Kipper pointed out the TechCrunch story that free open source anti-surveillance tool called Detekt has been released by Berlin-based security researcher Claudio Guarnieri at resistsurveillance.org. The tool scans Windows machines for surveillance spyware used to target and monitor human rights defenders and journalists around the world.” The tool only tells you if it can find surveillance software not guarantee none exists. The software was developed in partnership with the EFF, Digitale Gesellschaft, Privacy International and Amnesty International.

KAPT_Kipper pointed out the TechCrunch story that free open source anti-surveillance tool called Detekt has been released by Berlin-based security researcher Claudio Guarnieri at resistsurveillance.org. The tool scans Windows machines for surveillance spyware used to target and monitor human rights defenders and journalists around the world.” The tool only tells you if it can find surveillance software not guarantee none exists. The software was developed in partnership with the EFF, Digitale Gesellschaft, Privacy International and Amnesty International.

habichuelacondulce passed along the Consumerist report about a graphic designer in Tennessee who was moving an hour away. He called his cable company and was told he could move his business class broadband service to his new location. But the installer never showed up! The man called his cable company again and was told his new address wasn’t served by the company and he owed $2,789 in early termination fees. Anyone want to guess the cable company? Veronica? Anyone? A local news station got involved and–you guessed it–Comcast, confirmed the early termination fee, but then said there were extenuating circumstances in the case and the fee would be waived. Good job, WSMV Nashville. Next up, a monkey that goes bananas for basketball!

Discussion Section: Fitness Trackers

http://www.prevention.com/health/healthy-living/tech-report-coolest-health-and-fitness-trackers-today-and-tomorrow

http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2014/11/20/basis-peak-fitness-tracker-gets-notifications-stylish-new-watch-bands/

https://www.fitbit.com/store?gclid=CjwKEAiAv7ajBRCIldS7rp7wzFkSJAAA1n4DJjrdS4rlayFN_j3kop3tSZy7D3iUyhnPU9Vl00PbzBoCXZLw_wcB

Pick of the Day: Bomgar via Greg Harris

Check out Bomgar.com for the best in enterprise remote desktop support for nearly every platform. It’s simple, intuitive, comprehensive, and full featured. It’s available for hosted or managed and can be virtual or appliance based.

Friday’s guests: Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta

 

Today in Tech History – Nov. 20, 2014

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1984 – The SETI Institute, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence was founded by Thomas Pierson (CEO), and Dr. Jill Tarter. No luck so far, but they keep looking.

In 1985 – Microsoft finally released Version 1.0 of Windows. It was considered slightly inferior to competitors like DESQview and the Macintosh.

In 1998 – The first module of the International Space Station launched. Zarya, also called the Functional Cargo Block, provided electrical power, storage and propulsion. It’s now consigned to being used for storage.

MP3

Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 2369 – Eye-popping Retina Sounds

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comIyaz Akhtar joins us to look a little closer at what Apple Watchkit tells us about the Apple Watch, get a report on the Jolla Tablet from Slush in Helsinki, and find out why zero-rating data doesn’t seem to bother Australians.

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 headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

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

Headlines:

MacRumors passes along the Financial Times story that Apple will put the Beats app into iOS making it a default app on every iPhone and iPad starting early next year, possibly as early as March. FT’s sources indicate Beat swill remain a paid subscription service but may get rebranded under iTunes.

The Next Web reports Samsung is adding curated video to its Milk music streaming service. Milk Video brings selected clips from the likes of Vevo, Funny or Die, Vice and more. You can’t add video, but you can follow certain providers and if you register, you can swipe away videos you don’t like so the system learns your preferences. You can download Milk from the Google Play store but it only works on Samsung Galaxy devices.

That’s right the Jolla tablet soared past its $380,000 crowdfunding goal in a couple hours and is on its way to a million. Other specs on the 8-inch tablet include a 2048×1536 display, 1.8GHz quad-core Intel processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and five-megapixel camera. Jolla expects to start shipping in Q2 2015. It started at $189 on indiegogo but is now $204.

TechCrunch reports BitTorrent announced it will move its Sync cloud storage product out of beta in early 2015 as Sync 2.0. Free users will get an upgraded interface, syncing and apps. A new Pro tier will be added for $40 a year that gives users access to very large folders, control of file permissions and ownership, automatic sync and priority tech support. After Sync 2.0 launches, BitTorrent plans a mobile app to make it easy to send and receive large files.

Engadget reports Nielsen will begin tracking viewership of streaming video services Amazon and Netflix next month. The system identifies shows by their audio. The data could prove useful for companies who sell shows to Netflix and Amazon. Neither company shares viewership data, which makes it hard to know how valuable any particular show might be to the companies.

Netflix officially announced today that it will launch in Australia and New Zealand in March 2015. CNET reports a price hasn’t been set yet, but Australians will be able to sign up for a free one-month trial, then chose from three pricing plans. New Zealanders and Australians can sign up now for updates at https://www.netflix.com/global

And Engdaget reports on China’s Meizu unveiling the highest screen resolution in the current smartphone market in its new MX4 Pro. The followup to the MX4 has a 5.5-inch 2560 x 1536 resolution which they call 2K-Plus. The phone also has a fingerprint reader called mTouch and high-fiedlity audio that Meizu called ‘retina sound’ which might be bad for your eyes if literal. What it really means is a 32-bit digital audio converter from ESS and a TI OPA1612 amp. It comes to China December 6th for CN¥2,499 ($410) at 16GB on up to ¥3,099 ($510) for the 64 GB.

Gigaom reports that British telecommunications regulator Ofcom will free up spectrum in the 700MHz range for mobile broadband use by the start of 2022. That range of spectrum is used for 4G/LTE in the U.S. and Asia. In the UK free-to-view digital TV and wireless broadcast microphones currently use the 700MHz band.

News From You:

Hurmoth submitted the Ars Technica report that the US Senate only got 58 of the 60 votes it needed to pas the USA Freedom Act which would have placed limits on NSA surveillance. Bulk phone surveillance would have ended and data would have remained with phone companies and only searched by request with specific terms. It would have also added a privacy advocate to the secret FISA Court. The bill was supported by several cicil liberties groups and law enforcement agencies including Director of the NSA James Clapper.

ShamelessTub passed along a BBC report about Tony and Jan Jenkinson, who who had a bad experience in a hotel in Blackpool, England. The elderly couple posted a negative review about The Broadway Hotel on TripAdvisor. The hotel then charged the couple £100 on their credit card for the bad review, per hotel policy, which Mrs. Jenkinson didn’t read, because she wasn’t wearing her glasses. The UK Trading Standards Council is investigating whether the hotel is in violation of trading practice regulations.

In the latest episode of The Wire ancrod2 pointed out the Ars Technica article that Baltimore natural PO-lice withdrew evidence from a court case against a 16-year-old robbery suspect rather than reveal how information leading to an arrest was obtained. Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams asked Detective John L. Haley how police located the suspect’s phone. Detective McNulty – I mean Haley cited a non-disclosure agreement prevent ed him from revealing the information. Jude Williams said “ “You don’t have a nondisclosure agreement with the court!” according to the Baltimore Sun. Prosecution withdrew the phone and a gun from evidence but intend to continue the case. One can imagine many bottles of Jameson’s were smashed by the railroad tracks that night.

starfuryzeta passed along an Engadget report that Uber is now investigating itself for violations of its own privacy policy. Apparently Uber’s New York general manager Josh Mohrer used Uber’s so-called “God View” tool to track the movements of Buzzfeed reporter Johana [Boo-YIN] Bhuiyan in two instances: one in order to meet the reporter for an interview and a second time to use as an example in an email meant to answer questions related to a story on Uber competitor Lyft. The problem is the reporter did NOT give Mohrer permission in either instance. Uber’s privacy policy states that employees at all levels are prohibited from accessing rider or driver data, unless it is for a limited set of “legitimate business purposes” including facilitating payments, monitoring fraud, and troubleshooting.

In addition, entrepreneur Peter Sims told Reuters he considered suing Uber after his location was broadcast to a room at an Uber launch party without his permission.

Discussion Section: Apple watch

http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/18/7243085/most-important-apple-watchkit-discoveries

http://thenextweb.com/apple/2014/11/18/meet-apples-new-font-designed-watch/

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/11/18Developers-Start-Designing-Apps-for-Apple-Watch.html

https://developer.apple.com/watchkit/#agreement

https://gigaom.com/2014/11/19/how-good-wearable-design-can-actually-reduce-tech-distractions/

Pick of the Day:  One Tab via Bill Burlingame

I’m obsessive about browser tabs. I keep many tabs open in several instances of Chrome all the time and I like to have them in a particular order. I have found the Recent Tabs selection in Chrome to be unreliable. Several weeks ago, Allyn Malventano of PC Perspective gave this as his tip. It’s a Chrome extension called One Tab. I have been using One Tab since then.

Bill Burlingame
Huntsville, AL

Thursday’s guest: Jill Duffy, writer and senior analyst at pcmag.com

Today in Tech History – Nov. 19, 2014

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1872 – E.D. Barbour of Boston, Mass. received the first U.S. patent for an adding machine capable of printing totals and subtotals. The so-called “calculating machine,” proved impractical.

In 1967 – Hong Kong TV, the first free over the air commercial television station in Hong Kong was established. Today it is known as TVB.

In 1981 – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos banned video games, citing such insidious examples as Space Invaders and Asteroids as a “destructive social enemy, the electrical bandit.”

2006 – The Nintendo Wii launched in North America.

MP3

Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.

DTNS 2368 – Uber Regretful

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comPatrick Beja is in residence today and Nokia just surprised us all with a tablet. Is this the resurrection of the old Nokia? Should Microsoft be angry?

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 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, DTNS correspondent and host of Le Rendez-vous Tech and Pixels podcast

Headlines:

Facebook launched a new standalone app today from its Creative Labs team, called Groups. Gigaom reports the app– as you might expect– helps users manage their Facebook Groups. Users can create a group, keep up with the latest posts in their existing groups, and search for new groups based on interests. Unlike Facebook’s standalone Messenger App, no one is going to force you to download this one. You can still access your groups through the original Facebook app.

Nokia announced a new tablet called the Nokia N1. The 7.9-inch tablet uses Nokia’s Z Launcher app and runs Android Lollipop and uses an Intel Atom Z3580 processor AND uses the new reversible Type C USB Connector but only at USB 2.0 speeds. Nokia designed the tablet which will be made and sold by FoxConn. It will come to China first around Feb. 19th— Chinese New Year— then to Europe later— and be priced at the equivalent of US$249.

Ars Technica writes up the controversy over Uber Senior VP of Business Emil Michael saying Uber should hire researchers to look into personal lives of journalists and give the media a “taste of its own medicine.” Michael specifically criticized Sarah Lacy of PandoDaily for accusing Uber of “sexism and misogyny” and intimated there was a ‘specific claim’ Uber could prove about her life. The remarks were made at a dinner for Uber execs and journalists in Manhattan on Friday. Uber thought the meeting was off the record, a BuzzFeed editor was not informed of that. Michael stated his remarks were wrong and he regrets them. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick posted several times to Twitter explaining among other things that Michael’s remarks were terrible and do not represent the company.

The Verge reports Apple released WatchKit today, giving developers the tools they need to begin coding and testing apps for the Apple Watch. Watch apps can have their own interface, add a page to the Glances screen and send notifications. All apps must be extensions of existing iOS apps. Tools for native watch apps won’t come until later next year. Still no word on when the watches themselves will be launched.

PC World reports Intel will megre its PC and mobile processor divisions as the line between tablets and laptops continues to blur. The new division will be called the Client Computing Group encompasing Core and Atom processor teams. The Mobile and Communications group will send its Atom processor team to the new group and its modem teams move to a new wireless R&D group. Kirk Skaugen, lead of the PC Client Group will lead the new combined team which takes effect sometime after Jan. 1.

The BBC reports that scientists at Google have created machine-learning software that can accurately describe what a photograph looks like using simple language. The software uses a neural network trained to recognize images, then runs that data through a neural network designed to generate simple language and voila, captions! The software could be used to help visually impaired people understand pictures, provide alternate text for images in places where mobile connections are too slow for images, and put every caption writer on earth out of business.

In a move that sounds dangerously like what HTC was saying a few years ago, Samsung’s head of investor relations Robert Yi told investors Samsung plans to make fewer phones next year, according to the WSJ. GigaOm said the company plans to cut its list of current devices by at least a quarter. So heads up Galaxy Active, Galaxy Star, Galaxy Pocket 2, Galaxy Ace Style LTE, Galaxy J, Galaxy Core Lite LTE, Galaxy Core Advance, Galaxy Grand Prime, Galaxy S III Mini VE, Galaxy Alpha, Galaxy V, Galaxy Avant, Galaxy Mega, Galaxy Mega 2, Galaxy Grand Neo, and Galaxy W.

Reuters reports on IBM’s new email app for business that combines social media, file sharing and other analytics to predict interactions with coworkers. The app– called IBM Verse– does not want to rat you out to the boss– but rather act as a personal assistant and do things like draft response emails based on pervious interactions.

 

 

News From You:

metalfreak sent along the PC world article that a Certificate Authority called ‘Let’s Encrypt’ will start providing website owners with free SSL/TLS certificates starting sometime in Q2 next year. The CA will be run by a new public benefit corporation called Internet Security Research Group set up by Mozilla, the EFF and others. IN an attempt to get as many people as possible using TLS, ‘Lets Encrypt’ will automate certification issuance, configuration and renewal processes. Another primary sponsor, existing CA IdenTrust will cross-sign the certificates.

Peter_File pointed out the Verge article about WhatsApp’s Android app adding strong end-to-end encryption by default. WhatsApp partnered with Open Whisper Systems, developers of TextSecure among other apps. Open Whisper CTO Moxie Marlinspike says it took six months to get the code ready for the huge deployment.

metalfreak passed along an Ars Technica report that Honorable Ernest H. Goldsmith of San Francisco Superior Court ruled that Google’s search results qualify as free speech. S. Louis Martin of a website called CoastNews sued Google for violating antitrust laws because it put its site lower in search results, than Bing or Yahoo. The site also sued over Google’s refusal to deliver ads to CoastNews after the site posted photographs of a nudist colony. But the court decided that Google is protected by the First Amendment and has the right to organize its search results as it sees fit.

Discussion Section: Nokia N1 Tablet

https://gigaom.com/2014/11/18/non-microsoft-nokia-launches-android-n1-tablet-and-z-launcher/

https://www.zlauncher.com/

http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/18/7239695/nokia-n1-first-tablet-with-reversible-usb

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8733/nokia-announces-n1-tablet-79-powered-by-android

http://bgr.com/2014/11/18/nokia-n1-release-date-specs-android-5-0-lollipop-tablet/

http://n1.nokia.com/

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/11/nokia-launches-an-android-tablet-with-smartphones-likely-to-follow/

Pick of the Day:  myfav.es

My pick is myfav.es I use it for my browser start screen on our Win7 HTPC with Logitech K400 to make life easier for my wife. She’s been happy with it, so I’ve never ventured to anything like Plex or XBMC.

Wednesday’s guest: Iyaz Akhtar of cnet.com!

Today in Tech History – Nov. 18, 2014

20140404-073853.jpgIn 1883 – US and Canadian railways adopted five standardized time zones to replace the multitude of local times scattered across North America. It was called “The Day of Two Noons” as each railroad station clock was reset as standard-time noon was reached within each time zone.

In 1928 – Steamboat Willie premiered at Universal’s Colony Theater in New York City. It was the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was also the first official appearance of Mickey Mouse. Happy birthday Mickey, now give us back a reasonable public domain date.

In 1977 – A startup called Microsoft, fresh off developing its own version of FORTRAN, won the right in arbitration to license its version of BASIC, previously licensed exclusively through MITS, makers of the Altair.

In 2012 – The Nintendo Wii U launched in North America. The console did not yet feature it TVii service but did require a 5GB download which took over an hour to update the console’s software.

MP3

Subscribe to the podcast. Like Tech History? Get Tom Merritt’s Chronology of Tech History at Merritt’s Books site.