Nate Lanxon is on the show today. we’ll talk about Ello making it illegal for themselves to sell ads, Facebook’s attempt to recapture the message board spirit of 1999 and the future of community on the Web.

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: Nate Lanxon, editor of wired.co.uk, ed-in-chief of Ars Technica UK

Headlines

Facebook launched another independent app from their Creative Labs called Rooms. TechCrunch reports the app will allow users to set up Rooms devoted to a particular discussion topics. While users can choose any screenname they wish, participants must be invited by QR code. also moderators can ban users by device. Facebook will also have the ability to unilaterally delete posts ban members or take down entire rooms if they violate its community guidelines. Rooms will be available for iOS only in the US, UK ad a few other countries, with an Android version coming in 2015.

Ello raised another round of funding, $5.5 million this time, but made a more unusual move. The company has filed as a Public Benefit Corporation in Delaware. This means the company is not only beholden to its stockholders return but also to benefitting the public. Transit agencies, port authorities and government entities like the US Post Office and Corporation for Public Broadcasting are examples of Public Benefit Corporations. Ello made its investors sign a letter committing to never taking ads, never making money from selling user data and forcing any new owners that might acquire Ello to do the same.

The BBC reports that Mark Zuckerberg was in Beijing and gave a speech in Mandarin during a meeting with students at the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management. The reviews are in: Quartz said he sounded “like someone was stepping on his face”. Isaac Stone Fish at Foreignpolicy.com wrote “he can communicate like an articulate seven-year-old with a mouth full of marbles.” Zuck himself said “The Chinese language is difficult, and I speak English, but I like challenges.” Zuckerberg set a goal in 2010 to learn Mandarin, in order to better communicate with his in-laws. And maybe also China’s 641 million internet users. And the Chinese government, which does not currently allow those users access to Facebook.

GigaOm reports Amazon launched its sAWS region in Germany, its second in Europe, the other being in Ireland. The region is run out of Frankfurt. The location will improve reliability and latency for many customers and also make it easier for Germany companies to use AWS. Germany has the strictest data protection laws in Europe.

TechCrunch reports Google has hired by acquisition the teams behind deep learning startups Dark Blue Labs and Vision Factory which both spun out of Oxford University in the UK. Google will also partner with Oxford on wider research efforts int he area of AI. The teams will join Google DeepMind which Google acquired in January. The teams specialise in natural language understanding algorithms that help robots process 3D objects and movement.

Engadget reports that Canonical released Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn today in celebration of 10 years of Ubuntu. The update is very minor featuring a developer tool center that makes it easier to write Android apps, as well as support for zero-setup printers and 64-bit ARM chips. So enjoy your ‘humanness’, you 25 million Ubuntu users–it’s your special day. (If you want to read more about the ten year history of Ubuntu Ars Technica has a great writeup)

If you, like me, and almost nobody else were following the story of China cornering the market on rare Earth minerals, you can rest easy. Vox has a story showing that a combination of stepped up production in the rest of the word and reduction of dependence on the minerals in manufacturing has combined to avoid a crisis. Rare Earth minerals like Neodynium and Dysprosium are used in the manufacture of many electronics. In 2010 China produced 97% of the world’s rare earth minerals and began restricting exports.

TechCrunch reports Microsoft earnings are in and they are good! Revenue was $23.2 billion in the fiscal first quarter with earnings per share of 54 cents. That beat analysts expectations of $22.02 billion and 49 or 50 cents a share. Surface revenue was a bright spot with $908 million. And the phone line was $2.6 billion a rise from Q4.Office 365 for consumers grew to 7 million subscribers, up 25 percent from the preceding quarter. Devices and Consumer revenue was up 47 percent to $10.96 billion. Its Commercial revenue was up 10% to $12.28 billion. Windows.

 

News From You

KAPT_Kipper pointed out the Ars Technica article that driver update deployed through Windows Update for USB-to-serial chips made by FTDI is causing some Arduino microcontroller to become unresponsive. Bricked. The twist is the drivers actually only affect counterfeit chips. This may be an accident, it may be a side effect that FTDI doesn’t mind, or it may be on purpose. FTDI has recovery software that enables chips to be reprogrammed, and when used with some older drivers, it appears possible to reset the bricked chips.

swiftpawz sent us an Android Central report that Chromebook shipments increased by 67 percent in the second quarter of 2014. ABI Research, the company that rounded up the data, predicts total 2014 shipments will double those of the previous year. The US accounted for 78% of Chromebook purchases. In emerging markets, especially in Asia-Pacific and Eastern Europe, business-purchasing entities account for 75 percent of Chromebook sales.

In space, no one can hear you scream, but on Soundcloud, you can now hear the sounds of space. Or at least the sounds from things that flew into space. thisisnotjr sent us the BBC report that NASA has released 60 sound samples of historical audio from NASA missions on Soundcloud, including the immortal words of Neil Armstrong when first stepping onto the moon, and Apollo 18’s “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” Commencing download in 10, 9, 8…

Discussion Links: 

http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/23/facebook-rooms/?ncid=rss

http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/23/josh-miller-rooms/?ncid=rss

http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/23/ello-raises-5-5-million-legally-files-as-public-benefit-corp-meaning-no-ads-ever/

https://ello.co/wtf/post/FsXDQrTHGLKhHbaSaVrHXg

https://ello.co/downloads/ello-pbc.pdf

http://www.tsu.co/

Pick of the Day: on{x} via Christian W

You were mentioning Microsoft Garage…

I believe one of the most exciting things to come out of that endeavor is on{x}.

https://www.onx.ms/

It can best be described as Tasker on steroids. Using javascript you can make your Android phone react to certain situations.
Just got home? Text someone.
Geolocation near anything matching the bing search “Science museum”, get a notification.

If you can code it, it works.

I used it when I had an android phone. Now I have a Lumia 930, and the sucker is more locked down than an iPhone.

Love the show.
From wet, cold and currently sucky, Trondheim Norway.

Christian W.

Friday’s guests: Sean Hollister, Reviews Editor at Gizmodo and Len Peralta, DTNS artist in residence

Eric Franklin from CNET joins us to talk about the new iPads out today and the future of tablets in general.

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: Eric Franklin, Cnet section editor covering how-to and tablets / co-host of CNET’s The Fix

Headlines

ReCode reports Twitter unveiled a developer toolkit called Fabric at Flight, the company’s first mobile developer’s conference. Fabric has three main parts. Crashlytics SDK helps devs fix any app’s stability. The MoPub SDK helps devs implement Twitter’s MoPub advertising in apps. And the Twitter SDK which as you might expect, allows Twitter posts to be embedded in apps, but ALSO has a password-free authentication mechanism called Digits. Rather than use a Twitter account, Digits can create an account for any service using only a phone number.

Google has a new email app called “Inbox” from the same people who built Gmail. TechCrunch reports that the Inbox app is designed to present information from your emails in a helpful context; it shares similar features with Google Now. “Inbox” Features include “Bundles” a way to group similar types of emails together, like receipts; “Highlights” which flags the user to upcoming events and all those links to articles your mom sends you; as well as Reminders, Assists and Snoozes. Best of all, it’s available cross-platform, however, as an app for iOS, web and Android, but only in the Chrome browser.

The Next Web reports Microsoft released the final build of it’s Kinect SDK 2.0 for Windows. For the first time, developers can publish Kinect apps tot he Windows store. The second-generation Kinect for Windows was released in July. Microsoft also announced a $49.99 adapter kit which can make the Xbox version of Kinect work with Windows.

Those of you waiting for the first Apple Pay glitch can relax now, or get excited if you’re a hater I guess. Bloomberg reports about 1,000 transaction made with Apple Pay were mistakenly duplicated. A processing mistake between BofA and one payment network, not Apple, was to blame according to a person familiar with the matter. A Bank of America spokeswoman apologized and said the company was correcting the mistake immediately.

TechCrunch reports on an app called PhotoMath from MicroBlink that can take a picture of a math problem and deliver the steps for solving it. While the app could be very attractive to math students, Microblink says it does not want to get into the education market but merely show off what its machine vision technology can do. The company provides ready-to-use SDKs for particular use cases, such as bill payments or equation solving. But I think I can prove students will find the demo very compelling.

The Verge reports Apple’s Tim Cook and Chinese vice premier Ma Kai met today. The Xinhua news agency says the pair “exchanged views on protection of users’ information” and “strengthening cooperation in information and communication fields.” No mention was made of the iCloud attacks alleged to be coming from within China, although Apple has acknowledged “intermittent organized network attacks.” Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is also in Beijing to visit Tsinghua University where he has been appointed a member of the School of Economics and Management’s advisory board.

TechCrunch reports Xiomi’s Hugo Barra announced the company will migrate international user data to servers outside of China. Barra believes the migration will cut network request latency for users in India by up to 350ms, and help users in Malaysia to experience 2-3x faster Mi Cloud photosync. Xiomi brings in a large part if its revenue from software services. MIUI services will be housed in Amazon AWS data centers in Oregon and Singapore with more locations being considered.

Samsung and Barnes & Noble are teaming up again with a tablet called the Galaxy Tab 4 Nook 10.1, because that’s a snappy name! According to Engadget, it’s essentially the same build and design as the Galaxy Tab 4, but with Barnes and Noble apps including Nook Library and Nook Shop. The cost is $199 after instant rebate and includes $200 worth of free book-related content.

 

 

 

News From You

UKtechBlogger sent us a New York Times article about the Hungarian government’s desire to tax the Internet. The draft bill in the Hungarian parliament would tax Internet providers 150 forints (that’s about 60 US cents) per gigabyte of data traffic. The economic minister says it will raise up to 20 billion in revenue. Fixed-line Internet traffic in Hungary was 1.15 billion gigabytes in 2013 plus another 18 million in mobile internet which is more like 175 billion forints. So maybe there’s going to be a cap on the total amount? Either way, Hungarian citizens are not happy, and have planned a rally on Sunday outside the economic ministry.

gowlkick submitted the CNET story about several companies demonstrating 1 Gbps or faster Internet service over DSL at the Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam this week. Broadcom, Triductor Technology and Sckipio are making network equipment chips that support something called G.fast that enables faster DSL speeds. Network equipment would need to be less than 50 meters from buildings to deliver top speed. G.fast service could arrive in homes beginning in 2016, although Telekom Austria has the tech working in real-world tests already.

And finally, battlekoalatsu submitted an Android Central report about some new Android apps from Microsoft Garage, a newer ‘work on what you want’ division of Microsoft. Yes. Android apps. From Microsoft. Apps include “Next Lock Screen” a notification lock screen; “Journeys and Notes” a social travel app, Bing Torque, an app that launches a Bing search wen you turn your wrist. Finally there’s CityZen, an app to send information from the public to their local government to fix problems. This app only works for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation in India.

 

 

Discussion Links: Tablets!

http://www.zdnet.com/whats-right-and-wrong-with-the-new-ipad-air-2-and-ipad-mini-3-7000034956/

http://www.cnet.com/products/apple-ipad-air-2/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/20/us-apple-results-idUSKCN0I928I20141020

http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/15/tablet-sales-growth-plummets-in-2014-as-android-smartphones-continue-to-soar-gartner/

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/10/21/ipad-air-2-55-faster-iphone-6/

Pick of the Day: Presonus Studio One via Byron in Los Angeles

Just wanted to turn you onto an audio recording application I just learned about a couple of months ago: Presonus Studio One.

It’s a professional DAW (digital audio workstation) for both Windows and Mac, and comes in a variety of paid versions starting at $99.95, but the version that I’m most excited about is the FREE version! For 30 days, you can try out the Professional version which costs $399 (still cheaper than ProTools and comes with the Melodyne tuning plug-in and a mastering suite!), but after 30 days, it becomes a more limited free version, that is still quite functional!

I’ve been using the free Audacity program for years, but I have always wished it could do live effects processing, but unfortunately it can’t. I have also used GarageBand, but it has its own limitations as well, namely 24-bit recording at 44.1 khz.

Studio One Free lets you record unlimited tracks, with higher bit rates and sample rates (if your interface supports them) and it includes 9 plug-in effects. The only thing missing from the free version that I wish it had, is a compressor and gate, but it’s still pretty darn good without it, especially for free!

Thursday’s guest: Nate Lanxon, 

Patrick Beja is on the show today and we’ll discuss whether Google’s use of U2F (like Yubikey) for login security is the wave of the future.

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: Patrick Beja, DTNS contributor and host of Le Rendez-vous Tech

Headlines

Reuters reports augmented reality startup Magic Leap raised $542 million in funding led by Google and Qualcomm. This would be just another startup receiving another round of funding if it weren’t for the mystery. Very few people know what Magic Leap’s product is. CEO and founder Rony Abovitz has said Magic Leap will develop “the most natural and human-friendly wearable computing interface in the world.” Apparently the device will track your eyeballs and project images directly on them, meaning that images appear within the natural world. Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Android, Chrome and Apps at Google, will join Magic Leap’s board.

PC World reports the US Federal Trade Commission has appointed privacy consultant Ashkan Soltani as its new chief technologist, beginning in November. Soltani is a security researcher who won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2014 along with his co-authors who covered the US NSA surveillance programs.

GigaOm reports China denies any involvement in a man in the middle attack on Apple’s iCloud within China. The attack coincided with the launch of the iPhone 6 in China according to Greatfire.org. Swedish security researchers at Netresec said the attacks seem are being performed from within China, on backbone networks belonging to China Telecom and China Unicom. Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, told journalists the government was “resolutely opposed” to hacking. China Telecom also said accusations against the government were “untrue and unfounded.”

Nielsen, the company that tracks tv ratings has partnered with Adobe Systems to measure viewership of digital video across all Internet-connected platforms. According to Reuters, this includes desktops, smartphones, tablets, game consoles and over-the-top boxes. The system will launch in 2015 with ESPN, Turner Broadcasting, Sony’s Crackle, Viacom and Univision already signed up.

The Verge reports that the best features of music service Songza–including smart playlist creation– will now be a part of Google Play Music on Android iOS and the web. Google acquired Songza back in July. An update today will add a version of Songza’s Concierge service, offers a colorful list of activities (working out, sleeping, studying, calling Comcast, etc.) designed to match your activities and mood. The feature is available only to All Access subscribers, but there are no ads. A Play Music representative said it’s “business as usual” for the stand-alone Songza app.

Everyone, you can relax now, the continuity of our future timeline is assured. There WILL be a working hoverboard available for purchase in time for the Back to the Future ‘Oh My God It’s The Future’ deadline next year. Gigaom reports that a California startup called Arx Pax has created a board called the Hendo, which can hover three quarters of an inch above the ground, but only on certain types of metal capable of generating a magnetic field, like copper. And it definitely won’t work on water. Oh, and it will cost $10,000. The company’s ultimate goal is to create a small white box that adds hovering capabilities to anything in your home, office, or museum. So, hovering Mona Lisa, coming in 2015.

Hold on to your pants, people. Yahoo beat expectations in their Q3 earnings report, announced today. TechCrunch report that Yahoo with sales of $1.09 billion excluding traffic acquisition costs and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.52. Revenues including acquisition costs were $1.15 billion. Analysts were expecting on average non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.30 on ex-TAC sales of $1.04 billion.Yahoo’s stock is up over 4% in after-hours trading, following this news. Now, what’s Yahoo going to do with their five billion dollars in Alibaba cash.

ReCode reports HP will demonstrate a new product called ‘Sprout’ at an event in New York Oct. 29. According to people who’ve seen it, the product combines a large flat-screen display with a flat touch-enabled work surface and an overhead assembly that combines a projector and a 3-D scanner. The overhead device projects images downward onto the work surface, which users can manipulate with their hands or with a stylus.

 

 

 

 

News From You

Kylde pointed out a Lifehacker post about what will be our main discussion story today. Google is implementing a new second-factor authentication scheme called Security Key which allows you to use a Universal 2nd Factor key, like Yubikey, to login. The key uses the open FIDO framework to authenticate you rather than typing in numbers that could be phished. In other words you just stick a special USB key in your device and press a button. For now Security Key only works with Chrome.

KAPT_Kipper submitted a TechCrunch article reporting that Microsoft will drop Nokia branding from its Windows phones. The phones will now be called “Microsoft Lumia” phones. The rebranding will begin in France and move around the world. That means the name Nokia will only be used by Nokia which still exists as a mapping and network technology company.

hometownrival submitted the iMore story that Apple has responded to a Washington Post story co-written by future FTC Chief Technologist Ashkan Soltani, pointing out the OS X Yosemite’s spotlight search sends data back to Apple. Apple said it limits what data is collected, does not even attach it so an IP address or any kind of persistent identifier and points out you can opt out of Spotlight Suggestions, Bing or Location Services for Spotlight.

 

Discussion Links: USB Security

https://gigaom.com/2014/10/21/this-usb-key-secures-and-unlocks-your-google-account-in-chrome/

http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2014/10/strengthening-2-step-verification-with.html

http://www.zdnet.com/duo-security-announces-u2f-authentication-support-7000034911/

https://fidoalliance.org/

https://fidoalliance.org/specifications

http://www.biometricupdate.com/201410/nok-nok-labs-adds-apple-touch-id-support-unlocking-fingerprint-authentication-possibilities-for-app-developers

Pick of the Day: GAuth Authenticator via Stephen Funkhouser

Tom I agree with your skepticism about using a tool like Authy that syncs your 2nd factor authentication keys between machines. Security and convenience are always at odds, and in this case we don’t know enough about how Authy works to trust them blindly.

I personally use Gauth Authenticator as a chrome extension (there’s a Firefox one available also). It’s open source with a public repo on github. It stores your key data locally, so only you have it. I also like to backup the text version of my 2nd factor keys in LastPass in the notes section under each accounts record. Thanks for a wonderful, and insightful podcast.

Plug of the week:  DTNS artist in residence Len Peralta has a new comic out that’s burning up the charts on Amazon. It’s called Exterminite about a company that can go into your dreams and exterminate your nightmares. Check it out!

Wednesday’s guest: Eric Franklin, Cnet section editor covering how to and tablets / co-host of CNET’s The Fix