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Show Notes
Today’s guest: Tim Stevens, editor-at-large CNET.com
Headlines:
Oh that watch. We finally have the details. An Apple Watch app comes first along with iOS 8.2 today. Thats how you’ll manage app selection and installation. It also will have a magnetic charger that snaps to the back after you exhaust the 18 hours of normal use battery life. The aluminum-bodied Sport collection comes in silver and space grey. $349 for the 38mm and $399 for the 42mm. The Apple Watch Collection has more band options and comes for $549 to $1049 for the 38 mm and $599 to $1099 for the 48mm depending on what band you choose. Finally the Apple Watch Edition collection comes in solid gold and if you have to ask you can’t afford it, but it starts at $10,000. You can preorder and get an in-store demo starting April 10 and the watches begin shipping April 24 in 9 countries.
Apple announced a new 12-inch MacBook with a 2304 x 1440 screen a new trackpad that can gauge how hard it’s clicked and a fanless unibody construction. Most of the insides are batteries leading to a 9 hour battery life for browsing. The laptop has 802.11ac WiFiu and Bluetooth 4 but only one USB-C port for power, data, display and of course USB. It comes in silver, space grey and gold starting at $1299 for 256 GB and $1599 for 512 GB shipping April 10.
Apple also announced ResearchKit, an open source framework for creating diagnostic apps to conduct health research. Examples included a Parkinson’s, asthma, diabetes and breast cancer. Apple never sees the data and the user of the app decides what data is shared with the app maker.
Techcrunch reports open source Saleforce rival SugarCRM has acquired Stitch mobile platform and iOS app to help salespeople follow and close deals. Stitch provided analytics to make email and documents more useful while using machine intelligence to surface better sales opportunities. SugarCRM will shut down Stitch and roll its tech into the core Sugar application.
PC World reports that Samsung has released a free web version of its Internet streaming music service, Milk. The browser version has a linear slider to fine tune taste, and introduces keyboard shortcuts. The free version has no ads, but you’re limited to skipping six songs, there’s also a paid version that lets you skip all you want. Music streams at 128Kbps and you’ll still need a Samsung device to use it on a phone, tablet or TV.
GigaOm reports that German webmail providers including Deutsche Telekom and United Internet will roll out a browser plugin next month designed to make end-to-end PGP encryption easier to use. It will work on the German government backed De-mail system as well. United Internet developed the plugin with the Mailvelope OpenPGP project and the code will be published. The plugin will become available in April for Chrome and Firefox.
Cryptic tech invite alert! CNET reports that T-Mobile sent out invitations to an upcoming New York event with the words “This one’s a real piece of work.” The press-only event is scheduled for Wednesday March 18th in Manhattan. Presumably it will not be a collection of opinionated mothers sitting on stage discussing their beloved son’s latest girlfriend.
Remember FriendFeed? Remember Facebook bought it in 2009? Well you can forget about it. Platform posts and messages will go away April 9.
News From You:
Zuntax sent us an Engadget report about a cell phone privacy nugget embedded deep in federal drug case. The defendant filed a motion to suppress evidence, which the court denied. But within that ruling, the judge determined that police officers need a warrant to get phone location data, because a cell phone user has a reasonable expectation that their position data will remain private, even when limited to information about what cell tower was used. The ruling isn’t legally binding, but does serve as a notice to police not to play fast and loose with evidence gathering, at least not in California.
KAPT_Kipper and MacBytes sent us the BBC report that a solar powered aircraft “Solar Impulse-2″ completed its first leg of an around-the-world trip. The aircraft took off from Abu Dhabi and landed in Oman after a 12 hour flight. The pane will circumnavigate the globe over the next five months. Andre Borschbeg and famed baloonist Betrand Piccard will swap piloting duties. The plane has 17,000 solar cells lining the top of the wings, and uses lithium-ion batteries to store power for night flying.
habichuelacondulce sent in the Bloomberg report that Tesla said it is cutting jobs in China. The Chinese Economic Observer reported the company would reduce staff by 30%. Tesla spokesman Gary Tao said the changes started at the beginning of the year. CEO Elon Musk said in January that Chinese sales were slow because of concerns over charging.
Discussion Section Links: Apple Keynote
http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/9/8177087/macbook-port-adapter-accessory
https://gigaom.com/2015/03/09/how-much-apple-watch-costs-when-it-goes-on-sale/
Pick of the Day:
My pick of the day is your old android phone if you have one. They make great dedicated remotes for your Chromecast. If you old phone won’t sell for much, wipe it and install just your entertainment apps. You may get a little extra speed out of the old phone if you can root it and install a ROM without any bloatware like Cyanogenmod. Improve battery life by putting into airplane mode, and then just turning on WiFi.
Steve in the OC
Messages:
Hey Tom it’s been a busy week, but I seem to recall you talking about wireless device charging vs USB ports recently… Just to be clear; some systems like the Powermat being installed at Starbucks does charge the device via inductive coils with the ability to also send data back to Starbucks.
The power receiver changes the load presented to the transmitting coil, the frequency of this load change allows the system to read the ID of the device being charged. So the system CAN track users. When built into a device it would be unclear to the user how much access this system would have to other data stored on the device. After market adapters most likely would only be able to ID the same adapter since the adapter would only connect to the on board battery.
For public charging, I’ll stick with a USB cable that only has the power pins connected.
<tips tin foil hat>
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Tom et al.,
This is Steve from ‘getting the rain out of our system, before SXSW starts’ Austin. After hearing Darren talk about Club Mate on the show yesterday, I thought your listeners might want to know that it is now being widely distributed in the US. In Austin alone there are seven retailers selling it, and The 2600 Club in Brooklyn will ship you a case anywhere in the US.
This link has a tool to show the retail locations near you:
http://club-mateusa.com/
Order form to buy via mail:
http://store.2600.com/clubmate.html
I hope that you find this useful:
– Steve
-Ron
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PODCAST AWARDS
Also Podcast Awards! Remember yesterday, and the day before, when we told you how you could vote for your favorite podcast in the Podcast Awards? Well guess what, you can vote again today! For example, you could vote for DTNS in the technology category, but you can also support Night Attack in the “Mature” and “Video” categories. Also you can vote for The Instance, Film Sack and our good friends at The Morning Stream and Night Attack. I guess you could also vote for Serial. But only once. Vote once a day at http://www.podcastawards.com/ until March 24th.
Monday’s guest: Tim Stevens