Darren Kitchen is on the show to talk about the US House’s restrictions on surveillance by the NSA, the National Park Service’s restrictions on drones, and why Saturn might be the best place to take a quadcopter. Plus Len Peralta is here to illustrate the show!
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Show Notes
Today’s guest: Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta
Headlines
People familiar with the matter are BACK! Remember yesterday’s Reuters rumors about an Apple iWatch? Well the Wall Street Journal has even RUMORY Rumors that say the non-existent unannounced watch will have 10 sensors including ones to track health and fitness and come in multiple screen sizes. Now those are just statements from unidentified sources, however, somebody willing to go ON the record was KGI Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo who said, “watches are fashion accessories.”
TechCrunch reports three Georgia Tech students claim to have hacked the Yo app. That’s the app that searches your contacts for other people that have the Yo app and then allows you to send each other messages that say Yo both outloud and in text. The GT students emailed TechCrunch details on their ability to get any Yo phone number, spoof Yos, spam users and send notifications with any text. Yo founder Or Arbel says some of the security issues have been fixed and they are working on the others.
TechCrunch reports Path is separating out a messaging app called Path Talk from the main Path app. Path Talk has ambient status updates that let friends know things like when you’re traveling, nearby, and or have a low battery. Path also bought TalkTo and will roll its features into PathTalk soon. TalkTo lets you text businesses and provides the backend communication over the phone for businesses that don’t take texts.
The Next Web reminds us the Microsoft Surface Pro 3’s i5 processor version goes on sale in the US and Canada today starting at $799. The i3 and i7 models will follow on August 1. As a side note The Verge passes on Paul Thurott of WinSuperSite’s discovery that the Surface Pro 3 user guide has references to a Surface Mini. A lot of people expected a smaller Surface to be unveiled at the announcement on May 20.
CNET reports that search results for music on Android phones now returns links to launch music apps where you can listen to that music. Android detects which apps you have installed and offers you links to launch them. This only works for Google Play, iHeart Radio, Rdio, Spotify, TuneIn, or YouTube. It also only works in the US but Google plans to expand to other countries and other services.
News From You
tekkyn00b posted the TechCrunch story that the US House of Representatives passed an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill, placing limits on on how the NSA can gain access to communication, including email, online browsing, and chat histories. The amendment received bipartisan support, passing 293-123. It must also be approved by the US Senate.
ssnapier sent along the Verge article that the FCC has issued its largest fine in history, $34.9 million, to CTS Technology, a Chinese company that has been selling hundreds of models of signal jammers, which are against the law in the US. The jammers could block radio communications including cell phone, WiFi, Bluetooth, satellite radio and GPS, sometimes up to half a mile away. CTS must stop selling and marketing the jammers to US customers and hand over information about who bought them.
tm204 has the post from ComputerWorld about the passing of another print tech magazine. June 23 will be the last dead tree edition of Computerworld. Computerworld’s website will continue and get a redesign later this summer. A new tablet version of the magazine will launch August 1.
metalfreak submitted the Ars Technica report that Johns Hopkins University professor Matt Green asked one of the developers of TrueCrypt for permission to fork the existing code to start a new independent version. TrueCrypt’s developers ceased work on the project at the end of May. One of the developers responded to Green, “I don’t feel that forking truecrypt would be a good idea, a complete rewrite was something we wanted to do for a while. I believe that starting from scratch wouldn’t require much more work than actually learning and understanding all of truecrypt’s current codebase.”
Discussion Section Links: Drone and where in the galaxy you can fly them
http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/20/5828046/us-park-service-directing-national-parks-to-ban-drones
http://rt.com/usa/167124-nasa-send-quadcopter-drone-titan/
http://phys.org/news/2014-06-nasa-titan-potential-prebiotic-chemistry.html http://www.nasa.gov/content/titan-aerial-daughtercraft/#.U6R_yo1dXA4
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-cassini-titan-20140618-story.html
Alternate awesome titles:
Title: No drones in parks. DRONES IN SPAAAAACE!
Title: “Drones Are OP Please Nerf”
TItle: I was offered a griffen, so I’m going with the horde.
Title: Yodor
Title: That drone is after my picnic basket!
Title: “Full NASA Regalia”
Title: Parks and Drone Limitations
Title: “Is that a hodor mini?”
Title: So I married a drone
Title: “Park Your Drone”
Title: “Hodorcrypt”
TItle: This is a drone-free park
Pick of the day: Duolingo via Tom
Monday’s Guest: Lamarr Wilson