Justin Robert Young, Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta fill in for Tom on vacation and talk about Apple Security.

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

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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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest hosts: Justin Robert Young, Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta!

Buy Len’s great artprov “The Jawcracker” as drawn live on DTNS!  http://lenperaltastore.com/products/jawcracker-print

Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke to the Wall Street Journal today, promising additional steps to keep hackers out of user accounts, but said that none of the Apple ID’s and passwords obtained in the recent celebrity iCloud leaks were taken from the company’s servers. Cook said hackers obtained the nude photos of more than 100 women by either correctly guessing security questions to obtain passwords, or by obtaining the data from a phishing scam. Apple will launch new security measures in two weeks, alerting users via email and push notifications when someone tries to change an account password, restore iCloud data to a new device, or when a device logs into an account for the first time. Apple will also begin encouragin users to turn on two-factor authentication, and overall pay more attention to account security. We talk about this and more in a few with Darren.

Gigaom has the roundup of Thursday’s Motorola event in Chicago, where the company unveiled updated versions of its Moto X and Moto G smartphones and revealed its new Android Wear smartwatch, the Moto 360. As expected, the round smart watch was the star of the party. The Moto 360 pairs with any smartphone running Google Android 4.3 or above using Bluetooth and features wireless charging. Motorola says the wireless radio is powerful enough to allow a user to leave their paired phone several rooms away and still access apps on the watch. The 360 has a heart-rate monitor and pedometer and responds to touchscreen and Google Now voice commands. The watch weighs 1.72 ounces, features interchangeable bands, and costs $250 dollars. Oh also? it’s all sold out. But I’m pretty sure they’ll make some more.

We should probably tell you about those phones, too. The Moto X’s AMOLED screen grew from 4.7 inches to 5.2 inches, featuring full HD resolution. Motorola has contracted with a Chicago tannery called Horween (yeah, you heard me now let’s all say it together WHORE-WEEN) to custom-design leather back plates. The X will cost $100 WITH a contract from US carriers or $500 for the unlocked unsubsidized version. The Moto G, also got an ungrade to speaker, processor, camera and screen and will only be sold as an unsubsidized, unlocked phone for $180.

And one more Moto nugget to jab in your ear. The Verge reports that the company also unveiled a wireless earbud called The Hint, which is about the size of a peanut, and is intented to sit in your ear all day long. The hint has 3.3 hours of talk time, costs $149.99 dollars and will be available in the fall.

Reuters reports that an unknown hacker or hacker group broke into a test server supporting the US healthcare.gov site and uploaded malicious files. The first intrusion occurred on July 8th, when malware designed to launch a DDOS attack was uploaded. Healthcare officials told Congress no personal data was stolen.

Hoping to find DOTA 2 sharing the same schedule as Monday Night Football and SportsCenter? Don’t hold your breath. At Code/Media Series: New York, ESPN President John Skipper offered his opinion on eSports. “It’s not a sport — it’s a competition. Chess is a competition. Checkers is a competition, mostly I am interested in doing real sports.” In November of last year, Riot games claimed it had 8.2 Million concurrent TWITCH viewers for it’s League of Legends championship. Not to compare chip stacks, but ESPN reported a record 1.23 million total viewers for it’s live broadcast of the 2013 World Series of Poker final table.

Reuters reports that lawmakers in New Orleans have voted to allow online for-hire car companies like Uber to operate in the city. Under the new ordinance, Uber will be allowed to provide its Uber Black service, which enables passengers to connect with drivers of luxury cars via a smartphone app. The council did not vote on whether to authorize popular and less expensive ridesharing services like UberX and Lyft, which have been the focal point of legal challenges from taxi cab firms and regulators around the globe.

It’s that magic time, when all coffee is pumpkin coffee and the Full Corn Moon hangs heavy in the sky. It’s the silliest of seasons for Apple rumors in advance of their official announcement next week. So here are a few of the best. Brian X. Chen of the New York Times reports the new larger iPhones will have a one-handed mode that can be toggled on or off to make their large screens easier to use and furthermore, the rumored iWatch will be ANNOUNCED Tuesday but not available until 2015. What? You like your rumors more specious? How about this from SlashFilm editor Peter Sciretta who passed along a nugget on Twitter saying U2 ALLEGEDLY shot a commercial for an unnamed new Apple product in Ireland with legendary video director Mark Romanek. Or we can be boring and tell you the official announcement will be streamed to Safari Browsers and AppleTV’s at 1 pm ET / 10 am PT this Thursday September 9th LIVE from the Flint Center for the Performing Arts where near 30 years ago, Steve Jobs announced the original Macintosh.

News From You: 

metalfreak passes along a PC World report on a Chinese man who is suing one of the country’s state telecommunication firms for disrupting access to Google after the government started blocking the company’s services in May. Wang Long, a legal practitioner, sued China Unicom, demanding that the company provide an explanation, and refund his Internet broadband and mobile charges from the past five months. One Chinese state-run publication said this is the first time a local resident has sued a company for failing to provide access to Google.

PTrevethan shares a TechCrunch report about a new Google indoor mapping backpack, which is not at all ominously named The Cartographer. The backpack uses a process called “simultaneous localization and mapping” (SLAM), which allows the user automatically generated a floor plan in real time, while using a tablet to map ‘points of interest’.

And ancrod2 has a Gizmodo report about the latest in wearable technology. Hint: It’s not a watch. Researchers at Hong Kong Polytechnic have created Fabric Circuit Boards--that’s fabric woven out of a mixture of copper and elastic threads using computerized knitting technologies. The stretchy fabric is bulletproof which has great potential for people who get shot; it can also carry a current and communicate, which means that someday your shirt can tell you that its dirty, and your yoga pants can inform you that they are, indeed, see-through.

Plug of the Day:  The Sword and Laser Anthology collects 20 amazing stories from new writers in the Sword and Laser book club audience. 10 SciFi and 10 fantasy stories with an introduction by Patrick Rothfuss. Get a copy at swordandlaser.com/store

 

Pick of the Day:  “What If” by Randall Munroe via Preston

Preston in only OK Silly-con Valley has our pick of the day: “I just wanted to throw in a pick of the day for Randall Munroe’s new book “What if?“. Although I haven’t read it yet I have read all his entries at his site what-if.xkcd.com and really enjoyed them all. Randall tackles absurd hypothetical questions such as “What if there was a robot apocalypse? How long would humanity last?” and “Has humanity produced enough paint to cover the entire land area of the Earth?” using science, logic and humor. Ever wonder if you could lift yourself in the air with guns Yosemite Sam style? The answer is in here. (The answer is yes, but don’t try it at home.)

Monday’s guest hosts: Scott Johnson, Brian Ibbott and Justin Robert Young!

 

 

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MP3

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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Allison Sheridan joins us to look over the cool things announced at IFA, including an Oculus-Samsung joint VR helmet, a Samsung phablet with a warped screen and Sony’s e-ink bracelet.

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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Allison Sheridan, host of the Nosillacast

Headlines

Samsung announced new products including a virtual headset at IFA in Berlin. The Gear VR is a joint creation with Oculus VR that can track your head movements with a gyroscope and accelerometer and give you a 96-degree field of view. The Gear VR only comes with sensors and a focal adjustment lens. The screen and processing is provided by the new Note 4 which was also announced. Note 4 is a 5.7-inch phone with a 1440p SuperAMOLED display coming in October. A variant of the Note 4 called the Note Edge was also announced. It has a screen that bends and wraps around the right side, giving you notifications or a taskbar depending on the application. 

Sony announced some new phones as well. The Xperia Z3 has a 5.2-inch 1080p display, a 2.5 GHz snapdragon processor and a 3100 mAh battery that Sony says will last two days. It’s also water resistant. The very similar Xperia Z3 compact is a little smaller at 4.6-inches and only has a 720p display. The snappily named Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact is an 8-inch 1920 x 1200 device with a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801, 3GB of RAM, 4500mAh battery and LTE. Sony also announced a fitness tracker with an e-ink screen called “SmartBand Talk” and a fitness watch with built-in Blueooth, GPS and 4 GB of storage called the SmartWatch 3. The watch comes this autumn for €229.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog points out that despite Apple recommending all users enable two-factor authentication, it doesn’t protect all Apple services. It seems designed to protect credit card information. It’s used on Apple ID support, the My Apple ID management console; or making an iTunes, App Store or iBooks purchase from a new device. That means photos are not one of the things you get extra protection on from 2FA. Furthermore if an attacker has the username and password for an iCloud account, software from Elcomsoft could be used to extract files from an online backup, even an old one.

TechCrunch reports on Asus announcing its first Android Wear device called the Asus ZenWatch. It has a a sandwich-like design with a rose gold-colored middle layer and stainless steel top and bottom, with a brushed surface around the face.It features a heart rate sensor on the underside and a number of gesture controls and preloaded features like unlocking your phone by tapping the watch and covering the face to mute. It’s expected to sell for €199 later this year.

ReCode reports Box announced it plans to offer a lot more businessy things so they can sell a cloud platform to companies in the insurance, finance, health care, pharmaceuticals and media industries. If buzzwords like industry-specific services and workflow get your blood boiling— and admit it, we know it does for some of you— it’s worth looking into. Box Workflow tool will try to streamline collaboration starting in 2015. Box for Industries will be a customized Box platform designed for a specific business type such as retail, healthcare and media and entertainment.

Ars Technica reports on Toshiba’s Chromebook 2 which has a 13.3-inch 1366 x 768 display and 2 GB of ram for $250. However if you shell out for the $330 model you get 4 GB of RAM and a 1080p IPS display. Both models use the dual-core Bay Trail-based Atom chip, the Celeron N2840. It comes in three colors (“Charcoal, Aqua, and Rose”), and goes on sale October 5.

Reuters reports that Verizon will pay 7.4 million dollars to settle a US FCC investigation into improper privacy notifications. The investigation, which began in 2006, found that the wireless company failed to properly notify two million new customers of their privacy rights in their first bill before using their information for marketing purposes. In addition to the settlement, Verizon also agreed to send opt-out notices on every bill. 

CNET passes along an IDC report that shipments of phone-tablet hybrids are expected to surpass laptop shipments this year, and sales of traditional tablets next year. IDC expect electronics companies to ship 175 million phablets this year, compared to 170 million laptops. And next year, they project shipments of 318 million phablets, compared to 233 million tablets. IDC defines a phablet as a smartphone with a screen size of 5.5 to 6.99 inches. 

News From You

silentworld07 pointed out the KrebsOn Security report about a possible credit card breach at Home Depot. Credit card breaches are unfortunately not very uncommon these days. Home Depot operates 2200 stores in the US and 287 elsewhere, though the extent of the breach is not yet known. Still most people don’t keep their nude photos at Home Depot since its a hardware store, so it isn’t getting the kind of attention other breaches get. Home Depot says that it is working with banks and law enforcement agencies to investigate reports of suspicious activity.

spsheridan passes along The Verge report about the nice mobile wallet app whose developers picked out a nice name, only to find that another organization was already using that name. The developers of the ISIS mobile wallet announced in June they would change the name of the app to avoid being confused with the violent Islamic terrorist group. Today they announced the app will now be called Softcard. Uh, excuse me, Softcard? Softbank is on the line, and they are NOT happy. 

Discussion Links: Samsung & Sony

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29044863

http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/3/6098745/samsung-gear-vr-oculus-announcement-hands-on

http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/03/samsung-virtual-reality/

http://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-unveils-galaxy-note-4-note-edge/#ftag=CAD590a51e

http://www.cnet.com/news/with-galaxy-note-edge-samsung-returns-to-comfort-zone-hardware/#ftag=CAD590a51e

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/09/samsung-reveals-vr-headset-powered-by-a-smartphone/

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/09/sony-launches-trio-of-flagship-devices-z3-z3-compact-and-z3-tablet/

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29010497 

Plug of the Day: Like tech history? I’ve teamed up with Scott Johnson to put out monthly looks at what happened in history this month. For 99 cents you get what happened on each day of the month that helped make the tech we sue today, plus illustrations from Scott Johnson. Check them out for 99 cents each at tommerrittbooks.com or just search Amazon.     

Pick of the Day: Questionable Content via Tom Betz

Listening to your DragonCon discussion of the potential risks of AI brought to mind a daily comic strip I follow, Questionable Content.

A slice-of-life comic set in an alternate-universe present-day Northampton, Massachussetts where self-aware Artificial Intelligence has existed for decades and AIs live among humans as voluntary cooperative or paid partners and companions, Jeph Jacques’ QC follows the lives of slacker twenty-something Marten Reed and his friends, family and acquaintances.
I really love the way the strip treats the many variants of AI as commonplace, integrating them into a world that is very like the one we already live in.

If you start from the beginning of the archive, you can see the development of Jacques’ drawing style; but it’s clear that his world was pretty fully formed as a concept from the beginning. Jacques has also re-drawn the whole story in his fully-developed art style, and collected it into a book. Either way you get to it, well worth your time.

Tomorrow’s guest:  11:30am Pacific show (aka Jennie’s tech rehearsal) with Justin Robert Young!