Eric Olander is on to chat about Huawei, Xiaomi, and the coming disruption in smartphones that has Samsung and Apple in its sites. Also how Microsoft is fighting the US government.

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 guests:  Eric Olander co-host of the weekly China in Africa podcast

Headlines

The Verge reports Samsung announced two new tablets Thursday, an 8.4-inch and 10.5-inch Galaxy Tab S. The tablets are similar to the Tab Pro and Tab 4 lines but thinner at 6.6mm and sporting Super AMOLED screens. Samsung emphasized the screens not only have 2560 x 1600 resolution but a wider color range for more natural colors. Both devices will be available beginning July 4 in Europe, and sometime in July in the US. The 16GB 8.4-inch WiFi-only tablet will run €399/$399/£349 and the 10.5-inch version €499/$499/£449. Models with LTE will follow and run about €100 more.

Forbes reports Google plans to launch a health service called Google Fit, which would aggregate data from popular fitness trackers and apps. Similar to Apple’s Healthkit, the service would use an open API to allow apps to share information with the new Google Fit ecosystem. Forbes sources say the service will launch at Google I/O June 25-26. 

The Verge reports Apple announced a replacement program for European iPhone adapters sold between October 2009 and September 2012. The adapter is at risk of overheating. The affected adapter, Model A1300, was packaged in with European sales of the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S, and was also sold separately. Customers should book an appointment at an Apple store or authorized service provider, or contact Apple Technical Support to make the exchange.

CNET reports Facebook has updated its Messenger app for iOS and Android. Version 6.0 includes the ability to record and send video clips without leaving the app, though there’s a limit of 15 seconds. Another new feature lets you press and hold the like button longer to register a “Big Like”. 

PC World reports AT&T has joined Verizon in filing a friend of the court brief in support of Microsoft’s resistance to hand over email from a server in Dublin, Ireland, to a US Government investigation. Microsoft argues the investigators should get an Irish judge to issue the order through the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty or MLAT process. The US argues the location of the company, in this case Microsoft, is what matters, not the location of the server. AT&T wrote “this practice rests on an understanding that when it comes to data storage and privacy protections, location matters.” And warned that if the US ignores MLAT, then other countries might too and take data from US servers. 

News From You

HobbitfromPA got a good number of upvotes on the Ars Technica story that Jonathan Daniel, the man who parodied Peoria Illinois mayor on Twitter is suing Peoria’s mayor and police for violating his civil rights. Daniel created a parody account called @peoriamayor using a picture of mayor Jim Ardis. In response Peoria’s mayor got Twitter to shut down the account, but also threatened to prosecute Daniel for impersonating a public official, and had police raid search and seize property. No charges of impersonation were filed, although police did charge Daniel’s roommate with felony possession of marijuana.

metalfreak posted the Network World story that Google has started an open-source project called PDFium to create a PDF software library which developers can incorporate into apps on a variety of platforms. Google intends to replace its current closed-source PDF reader with the project. The rendering engine for the project was developed by Foxit, a long-time maker of PDF-reading software. The code will carry a BSD-3 clause software license.

KAPT_Kipper posted the Ars Technica story that IPv4 addresses have just about run out from all major registries. Asia’s APNIC, Europe’s RIPE NCC and Latin America’s LACNIC will only allow operators to get one more block of 1024 addresses and then that’s it. ARIN, the North America registry just reached it’s last phase in April, so it’s still letting ISPs come back for more for now. Only Africa’s AfriNIC is continuing to supply IPv4 addresses as needed. So IPv6. You’re up.

spsheridan posted the CNET story that the US Marshals Service announced Thursday  will auction nearly 30,000 bitcoins seized from Silk Road last October. The auction will take place June 27. Interested bidders mist register by June 23 and make a $200,000 wire transfer to a government bank to hold their place. The US Marshals Service will carry out the auction by selling nine blocks of 3,000 bitcoins and a tenth block of 2,657 bitcoins.

And KAPT_Kipper pointed out the BBC story that Xbox One owners complain a new TV ad featuring Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul messes with their Xbox. In the ad for the Xbox One, Paul says “XZbox On” which apparently activates some Xbox One’s voice command interface turning the console on. 

Discussion Section Links: Huawei

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/06/13/huawei-renews-focus-on-europe/?mod=rss_Technology

http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/12/huawei-launches-an-online-store-to-sell-its-own-unlocked-phones/

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-06/huawei-says-it-can-beat-xiaomi-in-race-to-be-chinas-top-smartphone-brand

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-04/chinas-xiaomi-the-worlds-fastest-growing-phone-maker

http://www.cnet.com/pictures/xiaomi-mi3s-brings-style-to-android-pictures/

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/05/28/biden-name-one-innovative-product-from-china/

Pick of the day: Tripit & FlightAware via Tom 

Monday’s Guest:  Mike Schramm

Patrick Beja joins the show to talk about just how open Tesla’s ‘open source’ patents could be, plus news about Facebook and your privacy, Google investing in Virgin Galactic and a cup that sense what you’re drinking.

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:  Patrick Beja, host of Le rendez-vous Tech

Headlines

PC World reports Facebook is making changes to how ads work. One change will put blue arrows by ads in the news feed. When you click a blue arrow it lets you see which of your preferences caused an ad to appear and allows you to tweak those preferences so more relevant ads will show up. IN a somewhat less privacy-friendly maneuver, Facebook also announced it will now track your Web and app activity and will not respect Do Not Track settings. Users can opt out at the Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out page at http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ or use settings in iOS and Android.Or block cookies. Or don’t use Facebook.

BloombergBusinessWeek reports Intel’s appeal against a 2009 fine of €1.06 billion was rejected in its entirety by the EU’s general court. Intel was found to have broken antitrust laws in Europe by giving rebates to manufacturers who chose Intel chips over AMD. 

CNET reports on an Yves Behar designed smart cup called Vessyl from a San Francisco startup called Mark One. The thermos-like cup is covered in sensors and can detect and track what you drink and how much of it. Sensors track amount of caffeine, sugar, calories, and a proprietary hydration metric called Pryme. Mark One will sell the Vessyl through its website at a pre-order price of $99. If the company raises $50,000 the cup will retail for $199.

Elon Musk wrote on the Tesla blog today that the electric car company will “not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology.” The idea is to encourage competing carmakers to get into the business of making electric cars and accelerate their development and growth.

Sky News reports Google is in talks with Virgin Galactic for deal that would give Google a stake in the company and some technological assistance in its plans to launch satellites to provide wireless Internet. Virgin Galactic would get cash. While the deal is not final, Sky news sources estimate Google might invest $30 million and come away with a 1.5% stake.

News From You

Our top story on the subreddit came from melchizedek74. The Verge reports on Amazon following through from yesterday’s rumor and launching Prime Music a free streaming music service fro subscribers to Amazon Prime. Ad-free access to a million songs now comes along with free shipping, video streaming and ebook lending. Prime Music features curated playlists and forthcoming apps for Kindle Fire, iOS, Android, PC and Mac. The service will not have new releases, or popular songs from Universal Music.

tekkyn00b pointed out the Verge report that Starbucks plans to install Powermat wireless charging stations in table in its coffee stores in the US, starting in the San Francisco area. Most phones have Qi built in, but powermat cases are available for popular phones like the Galaxy and iPhone and a receiver “ring” will be available inexpensively to fit most cell phones. We don’t know if the rings will be sold by Starbucks.

tekkyn00b also submitted the Verge article that a US Appellate Court for the 11th Circuit has ruled that police must obtain a warrant before collecting cellphone location data. The court determined cell tower connections constitute a Fourth Ammendment issue. This ruling contradicts a ruling made in a different circuit almost a year ago. 

And Hurmoth submitted Jon Brodkin’s Ars Technica article explaining why Netflix’s performance on Verizon has not improved as fast after striking an interconnect deal as Comcast’s did. The article is worth the read if you really want to understand, but essentially, Netflix and Comcast started working on the Interconnection long before their deal was signed. Verizon and Netflix started working on their interconnection once the two companies had an agreement. Rollout begins in ernest next month and will continue through the 4th quarter.

Discussion Section Links: All our patents are belong to you

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you

http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/09/tesla-wants-to-open-its-supercharger-standard-to-other-electric-car-makers/

http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/17/twitter-announces-innovators-patent-agreement-gives-ip-control-to-engineers-and-designers/

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/new-study-suggests-patent-trolls-really-are-killing-startups/

Pick of the day: Newsblur via SkyJedi

Since Feedly is being buried under a sea of Ddos Trollery, I’ll share my RSS solution: Newsblur. It has free and premium sides, iOS and Android apps. Import your feeds from any service. They also have sharing, and all the other bells and whistles of a modern day RSS reader.

Friday’s Guest:  Eric Olander co-host of the weekly China in Africa podcast

Peter Wells joins the show to talk about the TweetDeck XSS attack, DDoS attacks agains Evernote and Feedly, and why the Internet seems to be falling apart lately.

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:  Peter Wells, editor of Reckoner, Australia

Headlines

The Internet was shaken today when Tweetdeck users everywhere began retweeting javascript code most ofen involving a heart symbol. It was not love they were spreading, but a cross-site scripting attack. It also manifested as popups with avrious messages like yo and XSS in Tweetdeck. Twitter fixed the vulnerability but then shut down Tweetdeck services for an hour to confirm the fix. It affected users of Tweetdeck in Chrome and reportedly users of the Windows app. Hat tip to melchizedek74 who submitted this on the subreddit.

The Washington Post reports Microsoft is contesting a search warrant issued by a judge in New York compelling the company to turn over customer data stored in a server located overseas. The emails in question are on a server in Ireland and connected to a drug-trafficking investigation. Verizon filed a friend of the court brief supporting Microsoft. Microsoft believes US investigators should file the request with an Irish district court judge. The US government believes the location of the records is irrelevant, only the location of the company matters.

Reuters reports Taxi drivers slowed traffic in London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Barcelona in protest against Uber, a US company that allows users to summon cars for rides via an app. Taxi drivers across Europe say Uber breaks local taxi rules, violates licensing and safety regulations and its drivers fail to comply with local insurance rules. Uber says its drivers comply with all local regulations.

TechCrunch reports Pinterest launched “Guided Search” on its mobile apps which surfaces related terms at the top of the screen as enter a keyword in the search box. The search bar is also much more prominent on the site now. The change is rolling out to English-speaking users over the next few weeks with more languages to follow.

CNET reports the $25 Firefox Phone is coming to India. Intex and Spice, will build Firefox OS phones based on a processor from Chinese company Spreadtrum and sell them for around Rs 1,500 in the next few months. Mozilla also announced Chunghwa Telecom, the largest mobile network operator in Taiwan, has signed up with Firefox OS. ZTE’s Open II and Alcatel’s One Touch Fire E are still scheduled to go on sale this summer.

TechCrunch reports Parrot, the popularizer of the quadcopter drone has some price and release dates for its latest creations shown off at CES earlier this year. The Jumping Sumo, which rolls around on the ground on two wheels, squeeze through small places, and well, jump has a 20 minute battery life and will be available in August for $160. The Rolling Spider is a quadcopter that can also work with two optional wheel attachments allowing it to scale walls and ceilings with an 8 minute battery life. Yeah. . It will arrive in August for $100. As a sidenote the US FAA approved the first drone for commercial use Tuesday. AeroVironment will fly unmanned Puma aircrafts over Prudhoe Bay in Alaska to survey oil pipelines, roads, and equipment for BP.

News From You

KAPT_Kipper has our top story on the subreddit, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports Comcast has turned on the first 50,000 of its residential hotspots in Houston, to use WiFi routers in homes to provide wider WiFi service for Comcast customers. The routers separate access from the home users network and offer it with the SSID xfinitywifi. Comcast says it shouldn’t impact home service since public hotspot users are provided through a separate channel on the modem called a “service flow.” Controversially the service is turned on by default without the subscriber’s consent. Customers have to log into their Comcast account and turn the service off themselves. 

metalfreak pointed out the TechGage post about Civilization V coming to Linux via Steam OS. It’s also on sale to boot. That addition helped the number of unique Linux titles at Steam to pass the 500 landmark. Currently, TechGage counts 516 Steam games available for Linux.

spsheridan posted the Ars Technica story that US FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wrote a blog post titled “Removing Barriers to Competitive Community Broadband” shortly after meeting with Mayor Andy Berke of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Wheeler wrote, I believe that it is in the best interests of consumers and competition that the FCC exercises its power to preempt state laws that ban or restrict competition from community broadband.” Wheeler has said similar things before but the FCC has no stated plans to act on the statements.

And supey777 pointed out the Sydney Morning Herald article that ISP iiNet’s regulatory officer Steve Dalby is encouraging customers to write letters expressing opposition to the government’s piracy crackdown. Attorney-General George Brandis made statements that he was considering a scheme of piracy notices and requiring blocks for certain websites. Mr. Dalby believes the graduated response proposal would incur costs with ISPs and have no effect. 

Discussion Section Links: 

http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/11/tweetdeck-fixes-xss-vulnerability/

http://hiddentext.wordpress.com/2014/06/11/xss-and-tweetdeck-and-the-person-behind-the-discovery/

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/11/5800370/tweetdeck-vulnerability-lets-attackers-execute-code-remotely

http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002167.html

http://dc406.com/component/content/article/643-tweetdeck-chrome-extension-xss-vulnerability.html

http://www.electronista.com/articles/14/06/11/evernote.recovers.from.multi.hour.ddos.attack.feedly.continues.to.suffer/

http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/11/feedly-evernote-and-others-become-latest-victims-of-ddos-attacks/

http://www.scmagazine.com/online-gambling-site-hit-by-five-vector-ddos-attack-peaking-at-100gbps/article/355020/

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/04/meetups-multi-day-outage-was-due-to-a-newer-more-powerful-type-of-ddos-attack/

http://www.digitalattackmap.com/#anim=1&color=0&country=ALL&time=16232&view=map

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/11/5800634/p-f-changs-investigating-possible-credit-card-hack

Pick of the day:  Bialetti.com  via Peter Wells

Thursday’s Guest:  Patrick Beja of L’Ordre du français philosophes Technologie 

And just because, here’s the full text of the email we got defending the future of Steam…very well written!

“Hey Tom!  Travis from Quaint Bristol Tennessee.

Raj Deut is on the show from E3. Did Sony keep the lead in Mindshare? Is there any hope for Nintendo? Plus a wearable SIM card that can authenticate any device.

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:  Raj Deut, of Reckoner Australia and 1,000 Words On

Headlines

Nintendo held a virtual E3 announcement again this year, streamed over the Internet. The main star was Super Smash Brothers for Wii U and 3DS, that lets you put yourself, or at least your Mii avatar, into the game. It also will work with 10 new Nintendo toys that connect with the Wii U through NFC on the touchscreen controller. Nintendo showed off several more games including an open world Zelda and a Mario Maker tool that lets you design your own Super Mario levels, both coming in 2015. Also coming next year is a new property called Splatoon, a family-friendly FPS that uses paint balls and lets participants swim through the paint. After the stream, Shigeru Miyamoto was showing off a prototype for a new Starfox game in development.

Sony made a big deal about exclusives in their E3 press conference Monday night, and didn’t shy away from talking hardware and services. Bungie’s Destiny will be available in Alpha Thursday, with a multiplayer beta coming July 17 and shipping September 9 bundled with a white version of the PS4. Among the avalanche of other games, were a look at The Order: 1886 coming in August and Uncharted 4 exclusive. Far Cry 4 will allow players to invite friends to play even if they don’t own the game and Little Big Planet 3 made a urprise appearance. Sony announced two game title for its virtual reality headset Project Morpheus, called Jurassic Encounter and Street Luge. The PlayStation Now game streaming service built on Gaikai will arrive in beta July 31. And the PlayStation Vita TV will come to the US can Canada under the simpler name PLayStation TV for $99 or $139 bundled with a memory card and controller. Sony’s also getting into the original content game on the PS4 with an animated series called “Powers” based on the comic book and a Ratchett and Clank movie coming in 2015.

Engadget reports Google has agreed to spend $500 million to purchase Skybox Imaging, which builds small high-resolution imaging satellites. The satellite tech could help Google Maps but also might be used as relay to spread wireless Internet around the world.

Gigaom report Honeywell launched its first Smart thermostat Tuesday called the Lyric.Unlike the Nest which attempts to learn your habits, the Lyric uses geofencing to tell if someone is home optimizing for comfort when you are and energy-savings when you’re not. It also uses humidity sensors to tell when a fan would be better at keeping things cool vs. AC. The Lyric will be available in August for $279.

VentureBeat reports Oculus VR has hired Jason Rubin to head its worldwide studios. Rubin cofounded Naught Dog game studio co-created the game Crash Bandicoot. Rubin will run content studios in Seattle; San Francisco; Menlo Park, Calif.; Dallas; and Irvine, Calif.

The Verge reports NTT Docomo announced a prototype of Portable SIM, intended to replace a phone’s SIM card. The prototype incoroprates Bluetooth, NFC and SIM into a credit-card sized unit that makes it possible to authenticate phones and other devices and allow them to make calls and connect to dat networks without having to have a SIM card inside. The device can also store profile data and credentials for other services like Amazon and Google. The carrier hopes to reduce the size even more to make it fit in a wearable device like a bracelet.

News From You

spsheridan submitted the Next Web article that Amazon has updated its Kindle apps for iOS and Android to include access to audiobooks without leaving the app. Kindle books have been able to sync with select audiobooks from Audible for awhile, but users needed to launch a separate audible app. Now, while reading a Kindle book, one tap launches the audio version and picks up from the page you’re looking at. Amazon says about 45,000 Kindle titles have the feature enabled.

JohnEllsworth3 posted the FastCompany story that the Facebook temporary message app called Slingshot that appeared in the Apple app store yesterday, appeared by mistake. A Facebook spokesperson told the Associated Press: “Earlier today, we accidentally released a version of Slingshot, a new app we’re working on.” Oops. But hey they’re very excited for you to try it out. Just not yet.

russiancatfood pointed out the Ars Technica article that gives Netflix the latest word in their spat with Verizon. Yesterday we mentioned Netflix said they would remove controversial error messages being tested on some users, that said things like “The Verizon network is crowded.” Netflix General Counsel David Hyman sent an official response to Verizon reiterating that the test of the error messages would end June 16 but adding that doesn’t mean they won’t bring them back. Hyman wrote, “…we are evaluating rolling it out more broadly. Regardless of this specific test, we will continue to work on ways to communicate network conditions to our consumers.” 

Discussion Section Links: E3 Part Two!

http://reckoner.com.au/2014/06/e3-media-briefing-breakdown-ubisoft-sony/

http://www.cnet.com/news/nintendo-lays-out-gameplan-for-wii-u-with-hefty-lineup-of-software/

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/e3-2014-nintendo-wii-u-star-fox-hands-on-and-miyamoto-q-a/1100-6420327/

Pick of the day:  ZipList via Matt Maher

This pick is in response to your Big Oven pick. I’ve been using ZipList for a couple years now and I love it. I was approaching this type of app from the opposite direction. You were looking for a recipe app that could make grocery lists, and I was looking for a grocery list app that could draw from recipes. Consequently I think the focus of the two services is different. Grocery lists are more important to me, so ZipList works a little better for my uses. For one thing, my wife and I have a shared list that we can both add to, which makes shopping SO much easier.

ZipList also has a slew of great features. One of my favorite is that I can set up a number of stores that I go to regularly. I can then edit those stores and tell ZipList the exact order of the aisles, thereby making shopping trips a breeze because I can just sail through from one end of the store to the other. It also lets me add a bunch of items to one list, and then I can choose to only show one store at a time. That way I can take a single list, but go to Costco and Safeway without seeing the items for the store I’m not in at the moment. I highly recommend the service and app.

Wednesday’s Guest: Peter Wells, who also writes cool tech stories at Reckoner, Australia