Iyaz Akhtar is on to talk about the new PlayStation Vue Internet TV service. Should you cancel cable?

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Show Notes

Today’s guests: Iyaz Akhtar, Senior Associate Editor at CNET

Headlines: 

TechCrunch reports Microsoft’s Executive VP of Operating Systems told the audience at WinHEC in Shenzen, China that Windows 10 will launch this summer in 190 countries and 111 languages. HE also said Windows 10 will be a free upgrade fro all Windows 7 users regardless of whether the user can prove their copy is legitimate or not. Kind of an amnesty program for Windows pirates tech. AND Microsoft will give select Xiaomi Mi 4 users the chance to test Windows 10 on their phones. Yes their android-based MI phones.

CNET reports on the launch of Sony’s Play Station Vue Internet TV service in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia today, starting at $50 a month after a 7 day free trial. Subscribers can watch 60 channels from CBS, NBCm Fox, Discovery, Scripps, Turner and Viacom, with AMC coming soon. $10 extra adds regional sports channels and another $10 adds 26 various other channels. The service provides 3 day on demand access to many shows programming and allows a cloud DVR to store recordings for up to 28 days. Streams can be viewed on the PS3 and PS4. Support for iPads and other devices is coming soon.

Tim Cook talked with Fast company in a wide ranging interview that touched on Steve Jobs legacy and comparisons of Apple with Microsoft. Cook said he thinks Apple is more willing than Microsoft to walk away from legacy technology that holds it back. He also unsurprisingly said the Apple Watch will be the first smartwatch that matters. Doubtless that is true. To Tim Cook.

Engadget has a story on HTC’s new “Uh Oh Protection” program that will replace your broken “One M9” smart phone once for free. HTC will replace your phone for free within the 1st year of ownership if you break the screen, damage the phone, or move carriers. If you happen to take care of the phone for the 1st year you’ll be rewarded with a $100 discount on the purchase of a new One phone in the future.

The Verge reports Google X’s Astro Teller spoke at SXSW telling the audience that Google’s research lab is opening up about their projects more often and earlier. He mentioned that the Google Glass Explorer program was an attempt to do this but it was marketed too much and too often implied it was a finished project. He also talked about how baloons for Project Loon were built to fail fast so they wouldn’t accidentally drift into illegal airspace, stories about self-driving cars avoiding ducks, and how the team was disappointed when a drone delivery prototype didn’t crash in windy conditions.

CNET reports that a German court in Frankfurt has given a preliminary ruling that could ban UberPop. This means UberPop’s carpooling service would not be allowed to run in Germany and could face a fine of 250,000 Euros ($266,000). The case against UberPop was brought to court by Taxi Deutschland which argued that UberPop is illegal because drivers do not have to have the proper licenses to drive people around. Since the ruling is preliminary UberPop can still operate until a final verdict is rendered in 3 to 4 weeks. Uber Taxi and Uber Black services in Germany are unaffected.

 

News From You:

lookatthemonkeys notes The Verge reports French police visited Ubers Paris office as part of an investigation into UberPop, seizing email, documents and smartphones. And to complete the hat trick, starfuryzeta noted the Gizmodo story that Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and almost 30 others have been charged in South Korea with operating illegal taxi services. Police there seized 432 itens as evidence including handsets.

ancrod2 found the Popular Science writeup of Grant Campany, director for the $10 million Qualcomm Tricorder Xprize, speaking at SXSW about how close we are to having a real working tricorder. The prize will go to companies that can develop a home device to tracks vital signs and diagnoses up to 15 health conditions. 10 finalists were recently announced.The next round comes with 480 testing sessions in June at the University of California San Diego. The winners of the competition will be announced in January 2016, on Star Trek’s 50-year anniversary.

Guyfromtrinidad sent us this story from Engadget reporting on the fate of 43 year old Nigel Wilson in England who flew his drone over 6 football stadiums as well as Westminster and the Queen Victoria Memorial. Wilson has been charged with contravening the CAA’s Air Navigation Order 2009, which among other things forbids flying a drone near an event hosting more than 1,000 people. Wilson was summoned to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on April 16th.

 

Discussion Section Links:  

http://www.cnet.com/news/sony-launches-playstation-vue-as-bigger-pricier-internet-tv/

http://www.cnet.com/news/playstation-vue-vs-sling-tv-streaming-live-tv-compared/

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1R6zswJ0O0Q9RMldnsHAC6VrQjJTOaUYVzWT7MOt6_L4/pubhtml

http://www.theverge.com/a/online-tv-stream-price-guide

 

Pick of the day: RiffTrax

My pick is something a little different, RiffTrax!

If you are unfamiliar, rifftrax.com features some of the cast of Mystery Science Theater. The group records funny commentary tracks for major films, B-Movies and shorts.

Commentaries for major films are offered as .MP3 Downloads that you’ll then need to sync up with a copy of the film yourself. But if that sounds like too much work, they also offer a great selection of smaller films that you can download pre-synced and DRM free!

Some of my personal favorites are Viva Knievel, The Guy From Harlem, Kingdom of the Spiders (Staring William Shatner!) and Cool as Ice!

Check them out!

Rob (@blamrob on twitter)

(And no, I don’t work for Rifftrax or stand anything to gain by recommending them) :)Messages

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Warren Owen writes us with an idea.

Nintendo has dropped quarter after quarter, year after year, for half a decade. With roughly $6B in sales, yet only $29M in profit, Nintendo has a market cap of $16.8B.

Maybe now is the time. Time for what? Well What if another company just came in and bought Nintendo. Say a company with $173B in sales, $37B in profit, and $8.5B CASH ON HAND. What would happen to the “great mobile wars” if Apple bought Nintendo, and had everyones favorite characters only available on iOS? What if you could play these games, and then “AirPlay” them to your HDTV through your AppleTV (voiceover – now featuring HBO Now). What would that look like in every home across the planet? And, keep DeNA in the mix, to continue the development of new games with our old favorite heroes.
This would seem to be the perfect move for Apple.

Sorry this was long and dramatic.
What are your thoughts?

@WOnet on all the social things

BOL REUNION!

Just announced: The Buzz Out Loud 10 Year reunion on March 29th at 12:30 pacific /3:30 p eastern and 7:30p GMT! It’s free! Tom, Molly, Veronica, Jason and many other special guests! Tickets for the event at the Hak 5 warehouse are available at http://bit.ly/BOLreunion but if you want to attend online you don’t need even need a ticket. The event will stream live on Alpha Geek Radio and on YouTube with more details forthcoming.

Buzztown’s Back!

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.

Thursday’s guest: Justin Robert Young

 

Patrick Beja talks with us about Nintendo’s tentative move to mobile phones and tablets and the mysterious NX console platform that’s coming.

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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 5 cents 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 guests: Patrick Beja, DTNS contributor and host of the Pixels podcast, Le Rendez-vous Tech and The Phileas Club

Headlines: 

It’s that time again. Apple Television Rumor time! This one comes from the Wall Street Journal. Apple will supposedly launch a TV service with around 25 channels for around $30-$40 dollars a month. It would include ABC CBS and Fox channels but not NBC because of a dispute with Comcast. However 9to5 Mac has a source that says NBC wants to launch apps on Apple TV, Fire TV and Xbox in the second half of this year. The new NBC app would require a cable subscription in order to us.

 

Engadget reports that Google has started reviewing some apps before they are available for download in the Google Play Store.
The policy, which has been in effect for a few month, uses a mix of algorithms and human intervention.  Google also launched a rating system for Android apps that will label which games are appropriate for various age groups.

Nintendo announced in a press conference that it will partner with mobile game publisher DeNA to make original mobile games using Nintendo characters and worlds. Along with the new games, this autumn Nintendo will launch a cross-platform membership service for mobile devices, PC and Nintendo devices. One of those devices will someday be a new game console referred to as NX. Nintendo called it an “entirely new concept” but we won’t hear any details on that until next year. Ars Technica has one of the best stories rounding up the details.

Engadget reports Microsoft announced Windows 10 will support logins by fingerprint, facial recognition and iris scan.  Of course the device it’s running on has to have the right sensor—- but a framework called Hello will make sure the login experience is consistent across different manufacturers.  For devices without sensors, a feature called Passport lets you enter a password and device-specific PIN.  All the biometric data and the PIN will be stored on the machine.

Engadget notes Sling TV launched today on Xbox One. You can pin Sling TV to your Home screen, control the app with Kinect for Xbox One and Snap with other activities so you can play games and watch Sling TV at the same time. Existing Xbox One owners can try out the service free for a month (up from the usual 7 day trial). If you don’t have an Xbox One you can get 3 months free if you purchase an Xbox One before March 22 2015 from a Microsoft retail outlet or online store.

PC World reports Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang revealed details about the GeForce Titan X at the GPU Technology Conference.
The card has 3072 CUDA cores, 12 GB of RAM and costs $1,000.
Huang claimed the single-precision floating point performance is 7 TFLOPS but only 200 GFLOPs in double-precision. The one benchmark revealed was neural net analysis.  Titan X can process the data in 1.5 days compared to 5 days for the Titan Black.

ReCode reports NVidia also announced a self-driving car platform called Drive PX that will go on sale in May for $10,000. This is the platform teased at CES, powered by two Tegra X1 chips and supposedly 3,000 times faster than DARPA’s DAVE platform. The platform also can be trained and Huang said it gets smarter with every OTA update. NVidia hopes to expand its partnerships with Tesla, Audi and BMW. He’ll probably get his wish with Tesla since Elon Musk joined him on stage to talk about security with self-driving cars.

ReCode reports Facebook has launched the ability to send payments through Facebook Messenger at no cost.  Once you’ve tied your debit card to your Facebook account, you can click a dollar sign icon to open a payment screen in messenger.  If someone sends you money and you don’t have a debit card attached, Facebook will hold the money for you until you get it set up.  No payment can be sent without a PIN or thumbprint scan.  The rollout will start in selected US cities and progress internationally later.

3D printing start-up, Carbon3D, has developed a new 3-D printing process that works fast enough to be used for production instead of just protyping reports Re/Code. The process is called CLIP or Continuous Liquid Interface Production. CLIP involves using light and oxygen to grow objects from a pool of resin instead of building the object layer by layer. Carbon3D says CLIP is 25-100 times faster than traditional 3-D writing and can work with a wider array of materials. Carbon3D debuted the technology Monday at the TED conference in Vancouver and said they are turning it inot a shipping product but did not state price.

News From You:

tahras submitted the Verge article that Microsoft marketing chief Chris Capossel told folks at the Microsoft Convergence event that Microsoft is researching a new name for the Project Spartan browser that will come in Windows 10. Testing shows that whatever the name is, it is perceived better if it has the name Microsoft at the beginning. A version of Internet Explorer will also ship with Windows 10 but it will be the last of its name.

KAPT_Kipper wants you to know that you can now pause videos on your Google Chromecast with your TV remote. As long as it is infrared and has a play/pause button.  TechCrunch reports that Chromecast uses the HDMI-CEC protocol for the function.  So if starting a cast turns your TV on, then this should work for you.  The functionality doesn’t work in every app yet but works in many.

tninja3000 sent us the GeekWire report that Microsoft will let third party retailers Amazon, Best Buy and Target sell the Microsoft Band wearable starting today. The fitness and health tracker already available in Microsoft stores costs $199.99 in the US and offers notifications and lightweight apps, and integration with Android, iOS and Windows Phone. The Microsoft Band will also launch April 15th in the UK,for £169.99.

Discussion Section Links:  

http://recode.net/2015/03/17/why-nintendo-making-mobile-games-is-such-a-big-deal/

http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/17/nintendo-partners-with-dena-to-brings-its-games-and-ip-to-smartphones/

http://www.cnet.com/news/mario-set-for-smartphones-as-nintendo-forges-new-mobile-deal/#ftag=CAD590a51e

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/03/nintendo-partners-with-dena-to-develop-mobile-phone-games/

http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/17/nintendo-nx-console/?ncid=rss_truncated

 

Pick of the day: streamingnation.com.au

G’day Tom, Jenny and Pals

Travis from Melbourne, Australia here – with a website that might be useful to other Aussies, especially over the next few weeks. It’s streamingnation.com.au, covering news about the local options for streaming video.

There’s two Netflix-ish services who’ve recently launched, being Presto and Stan, but the elephant in the room is Netflix itself (coming next week, baby!)

Streaming Nation also has lists of newly added shows and films, and has recommendations, which I’m keeping for those nights when my wife just can’t make up her mind

Keep up the awesome work.

Trav.

Messages

I am a cablevision internet subscriber. I don’t have a cable box, only a TiVo . If I subscribed to HBONOW through cablevision, how would I watch? Through apple TV with cable login? Would I have to get a box? If this is the case, why bother? Discounts? Otherwise apple TV would be more convenient, right? Thanks from one of your bosses, Bob

=====

Comcast in North Georgia cable modem users here. We have a 300 GB limit…. and if you cross the magic threshold, they just start charging you some flat rate for each additional 10 or 50 GB or something (I have NOT done this), so now they just make more money from bandwidth hogs.

Woo hoo. No more bandwidth caps. Just what I asked for, sort of.

whistl

=====

We asked for legal uses of P2P after the story that Windows 10 updates will be distributed peer to peer. Mink sent us a link to a makeuseof post from August 2013 that mentioned Archive.org, government data sets, BitTorrent Sync, and BitTorrent bundles. Branden from Winterless Salt Lake serves up 6.6 TB of apps and patches via P2P for the 40,000 computers in his school district. And William downloaded the entire BitCoin blockchain shaving a day off the time to get his bitcoin node up and running.

And Mink added the interesting question of “whether “mobile” (slower & less reliable networks with more data caps and using inherently smaller storage devices) will make torrents more or less attractive to users. “

=====

Hey guys!

A few months back I sent in an audio recording which you played where I discussed the opportunities that are created by GoPro’s new product with builtin wifi/internet service (hopefully). Meerkat would be crazy not to reach out to them for reasons I am sure you can understand. I shot Meerkats support a brief email as well since they are a fun little startup. They could do great things together.

Thanks!
Joe

BOL REUNION!

Just announced: The Buzz Out Loud 10 Year reunion on March 29th at 12:30 pacific /3:30 p eastern and 7:30p GMT! It’s free! Tom, Molly, Veronica, Jason and many other special guests! Tickets for the event at the Hak 5 warehouse are available at http://bit.ly/BOLreunion but if you want to attend online you don’t need even need a ticket. The event will stream live on Alpha Geek Radio and on YouTube with more details forthcoming.

Buzztown’s Back!

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.

Wednesday’s guest: Iyaz Akhtar

 

Nicole Lee joins us to talk about Meerkat. Has it brought back SXSW’s app magic? Can it survive?

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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 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 guests: Nicole Lee of Engadget.com

Headlines: 

The Verge reports Facebook updated its community standards page Sunday night to clarify what the policies are. They haven’t actually changed the policy. Among the clarifications Facebook says they want people to use the name they go by regularly, not necessarily their legal name. Hate speech is allowed for satire or commentary. Nudity is still not allowed but more strictly defined and exceptions made for artwork.

TechCrunch notes numbers of government requests for Facebook data were also released. Requests decreased in the US and UK while increasing in India, Turkey and Russia. The US still requests the most while India is number 2. The total number worldwide rose from 34,946 in the first half of the year, to 35,051 between July and December 2014.

The Verge reports Microsoft launched Office 2016 preview. Microsoft improved search, storage footprint, and email delivery performance, as well as image insertion in Word and Excel 2016. Not all the new features for Office 2016 are in the rpeview yet. Microsoft also launched a test version of Skype for Business, with the ability to integrate with Office apps. The final version of Skype for Business will be available in April, with the final Office 2016 coming later this year. Interested? sign up at Microsoft Connect website at connect.microsoft.com.

Reuters reports BlackBerry will launch high security tablet aimed at governments and enterprise in cooperation with IBM and Samsung. The SecuTABLET is based on the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and works with BlackBerry’s SecuSuite for voice and data encryption. The device is undergoing certification by the German Federal Office for Information Security for secure rating. According to the Wall St Journal, the tablet will be available this summer at a price of $2,380

TechCrunch notes Elon Musk tweeted yesterday that a Tesla press conference will take place Thursday at 9 AM and “end range anxiety… via OTA software update. Affects entire Model S Fleet.”

TechCrunch has covered a new report by the Pew Research Center found 30% of US citizens surveyed have taken steps to shield or hide their information from the US government. TechCrunch notes 52% of those surveyed said they were “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” by government surveillance programs, but 46% said they were “not very concerned” or “not at all concerned.” The survey found that 87% of adults have heard at least something about government surveillance programs and 57% said it is unacceptable for the government to monitor the communications of US citizens, but a majority said spying elsewhere is OK. Most often peopleo change privacy settings on social media, avoiding apps entirely and using social media less. Well… is that about government interference or drunk selfies?

Engadget reports on the launch of free public Internet service at a Havana cultural center. Popular artist Kcho got approval from the state telecom Etecsa to open up his WiFi router at the cultural center. The connection is 2 Mbps but doesn’t caust a centavo.

Variety reports HBO Now will be offered by Cablevision to its broadband-only subscribers. In other words if you get your Internet fro Cablevision, you won’t also have to sign up for TV if you want HBO. Cablevision said it will provide pricing and other details about how HBO Now will be made available to broadband subs in the coming weeks.

News From You:

Rpattony posted the TorrentFreak article highlighting another of the many nuggets found in the recent US Open Internet order. “Nothing in this part prohibits reasonable efforts by a provider of broadband Internet access service to address copyright infringement or other unlawful activity.” It is apparently OK for the ISP to determine what is illegal and what is infringement.

Starfuryzeta sent us this story from the Verge reporting on Yahoo’s new Password-free email login. The new approach dubbed “on demand” passwords sends Yahoo email users a time sensitive code through an app or cellphone text message. No more need to remember a password. Every time you login you’ll be sent a new code. Just don’t lose the phone tied to the account. The new password features is available now and can be enabled from the security section of your account information page.

KAPT_Kipper found the Yahoo Tumbler post announcing the release of source code for Yahoo’s new end-to-end encryption browser extension for Yahoo Mail. The encryption interface is described as intuitive, however, it will have to be activated each time you want it and info like recipient, subject line and time will remain unencrypted. Yahoo used the Google end to end extension in the project. Yahoo released the source code to GitHub and plans to have end to end encryption available for all users by the end of the year.

Eziwireless sent us this Engadget report on Windows 10’s unique update feature. The Verge noticed that a leaked version of Windows 10 lets you grab updates from other PCs whether they’re local or online.This peer-to-peer network patching would accelerate the updating process as well as limiting bandwidth usage on metered internet connections.

Philman 132 submitted the Boing Bong BBS post about GNU Terry Pratchett. When implemented on Apache or Nginx, web-servers transmit a special “X-Clacks-Overhead” header reading “GNU Terry Pratchett.” Pratchett’s book Going Postal described a system called The Clacks where workers who died in the line of duty could have their name transmitted in the system’s signaling layer, because (“A man is not dead while his name is still spoken”

 

Discussion Section Links:  Twitter & Meerkat

blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/03/16/after-twitter-snub-meerkat-aims-to-push-out-new-features/?mod=rss_Technology

www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/16/meerkat-twitter-block-ben-rubin-social-graph

techcrunch.com/2015/03/16/meerkatroullette-is-chatroulette-for-meerkat-because-meerkat

meerkatroulette.com

techcrunch.com/2015/03/14/bird-vs-mammal

www.fastcompany.com/3043716/sxsw/twitter-only-gave-meerkat-2-hours-notice-before-cutting-access-to-the-social-graph

Pick of the Day: 

Christopher Ragsdale writes: In listening to this discussion on episode 2448 I was reminded of an interview I had heard recently with author Douglass Rushkoff about his book “Present Shock”. Not trying to sell books here. I think you and Jennie might be interested in the info in this book:

rushkoff.com/present-shock

Messages

Every time y’all talk about how bandwidth caps on home Internet access is a thing of the past, my left eye twitches in a peculiar manner. Y’see, I have Comcast as my ISP. The highest tier home service available in my area (Charleston, SC). And we have a 300GB per month cap. Did I mention that this cap only went into place about a year and a half ago? Surprisingly (or not?), not very long after the cap went into place, Comcast had the infamous share holder call in which the CEO stated flatly that Comcast has no plans to implement bandwidth caps.

Cheers,
-Sam

=====

Buzz Out Loud REUNION!

Join the Buzz Out Loud 10 Year reunion on March 29th at 12:30 pacific /3:30 p eastern and 7:30p GMT! It’s free! Tom, Molly, Veronica, Jason and many other special guests! Tickets for the event at the Hak 5 warehouse are available at http://bit.ly/BOLreunion but if you want to attend online you don’t need even need a ticket. The event will stream live on Alpha Geek Radio and on YouTube with more details forthcoming.

Buzztown’s Back!

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.

Tuesday’s guest: Patrick Beja!

Darren Kitchen and Brian Brushwood join to talk about the effect tech is having on Brian’s home town and the SXSW Interactive festival. Plus Len Peralta illustrates the show.

MP3

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

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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 5 cents 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!

Justin Young is in for an early show wherein we greet the new FCC Open Internet Rules and discuss why Snapchat is worth $15 billion these days.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? click here

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 5 cents 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: Justin Robert Young

“As Ars Technica reports the FCC released its report on “Protecting and Promoting the Open Internet”. In the 400 page document the rules themselves make up 8 pages. The rest is commentary and analysis including a 64-page dissent from Commissioner Ajit Pai and a 16-page dissent from Commissioner Michael O’Reilly. Among the analysis are the forebearances from Title II which include this line that will cause most of the debate: “”we do not forbear from
sections 201, 202, and 208.”” The rules will now be published in the Federal Register within a week or two. 60 days after that happens the rules go into effect, except for additions to the transparency rules which require approval by the Office of Management and Budget. Let the parsing BEGIN!”

Recode reports that Apple has stopped selling Jawbone Up, and Nike + FuelBand in its stores ahead of the Apple Watch launch. The Mio, a heart tracking device worn on the wrist, can only be found in Apple’s online store. Recode checked stores in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Los Angeles and New York. The CEO of Mio said Apple notified her a few months ahead of time that the tracker would be removed from the store, citing a desire to “rework branding for the stores, and to make the Apple brand more front and center” and “minimize the number of accessories.”

Bloomberg Business reports that 11,000 people have already signed up for a Stanford University cardiovascular study using Apple’s Research Kit. The medical director of Stanford’s Cardiovascular Heath department said that getting 10,000 people enrolled in a medical study would normally take a year, and 50 medical centers around the country. The article also notes some researchers are skeptical that the data won’t be skweed by the type of participant or rendered controversial by things like unclear consent forms. Way to harsh Stanford’s mellow, Bloomberg Business.

Buzzfeed reports that Twitter has issued new rules that say “You may not post intimate photos or videos that were taken or distributed without the subject’s consent.” and says it will lock the accounts of users who violate the rule. The company also issued a new FAQ regarding stolen nudes and revenge porn which they posted on reddit. Users can report possible violations through Twitter’s reporting process.

Reuters reports that U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman in San Jose said Tuesday that plaintiffs can bring a class action against Facebook regarding online purchases by children. Facebook argued against a class action, saying the claims were too disparate, and an injunction would not address them. The parents of two children who made large amounts of in app purchases brought the suit in April 2012. It says Facebook violated California law by refusing refunds under its “all sales are final” policy when the parents complained. A trial date is set for October 19th.

Bloomberg has sources that say Alibaba will invest $200 million in Snapchat based on a valuation of $15 billion. Snapchat is supposedly seeking a round of $500 million of investment. CB Insights says the valuation ranks it right behind Uber at $40 billion and Xiaomi at $45 billion.

Meanwhile Reuters reports Alibaba is hiring in Seattle for positions related to cloud computing. Microsoft and Amazon, also in the Seattle area, also do cloud computing. Alibaba has already hired 10 software engineers or computing experts from either Microsoft or Amazon since July 2014. Alibaba launched its first cloud computing hub outside of China on March 4 in Silicon Valley.

Reuters reports US District Judges Edward Chen and Vince Chhabria in San Francisco federal court said in two rulings that the status of drivers for Uber and Lyft will need to be decided by juries. Both companies face class action lawsuits on behalf of drivers who want the benefits of being employees not independent contractors.

The BBC is working with Samsung, Microsoft, ARM and the people behind Raspberry Pi to give 1 million 11 year-olds in the UK a free computer reports CNET. The low cost machine, still in development, is called the Micro Bit, and is similar to the Raspberry Pi and Arduino. The unit fits inside the palm of a child’s hand and sports a simple array of LED lights as a display plus Bluetooth. It launches this September and will support Python, C++, and Touch Develop. The BBC will also launchshows about programming as well as a new drama based on the development of Grand Theft Auto along with a documentary on Bletchley Park.

Reuters reports Xiaomi will being local production of devices in India within 12 to 18 months. Xiaomi has sold more than a million phones in 5 months in India. Xiaomi is also looking to invest in start-ups and service centers and will open 100 stores in the country to help consumers “experience” the phones. So you’ll be able to walk into a store in India and by a Mi Phone? No. Xiaomi insist on continuing to use online flash sales and Flipkart.com to actually sell phones.

The Next Web reports a new UK Parliamentary report from the Intelligence and Security Committee revealing how the agencies gathered bulk personal data, and recommending Britain’s laws governing those agencies should be overhauled. Some members of the UK’s intelligence services have been fired for “inappropriately” accessing personal data. The report concludes that existing laws were not broken and bulk data collection did not amount to mass surveillance or threaten privacy.

If you’ve seen the video going around of a laughing Spanish man subtitled as if he’s telling the story of how the new MacBook was created, the Next Web would like you to know. Juan Joya, a Spanish actor and comedian known as El Risitas. If you don’t speak the language, the story he’s actually telling is about washing pots and pans in the ocean. It is the new “Hitler Reacts.”

Bad news in chip town. Reuters reports Intel cut its revenue forecast for Q1 from $13.7 billion to $12.8 billion +- $300 million, citing lower-than-expected demand for business PCs and lower inventory levels across the PC supply chain.

News From You

metalfreak submitted the Ars Technica article that Google now claims its Project Loon balloons can stay aloft for more than 6 months and deliver LTE service to an area the size of Rhode Island. The US State of Rhode Island is 3,140 km².

philo1927 cited two stories of major companies taking a breather from competing. In a TechDirt article Cablevision vice chairman Gregg Seibert says “I don’t want to roll a truck to you every two years if you keep going back and forth to another provider … So we’re getting rid of that lower quality, lower profitability base of subscriber.” And in a CNET article, AT&T CFO John Stephens says “We won’t chase customers net additions for the sake of another account. We’re going to be smart about it.”

Discussion: Snapchat

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-11/alibaba-said-to-plan-snapchat-funding-at-15-billion-valuation

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/11/us-alibaba-snapchat-idUSKBN0M72L320150311

http://digiday.com/platforms/madness-snapchat-moves-closer-becoming-sports-broadcaster/

http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/03/dont-even-try-to-be-chic-on-snapchat.html

 

Pick of the day: tapiriik.com

I had wanted to keep this one to myself as it is so useful but it’s probably time to share…

I am a keen runner and will change running tracking app depending on features or, for example, whether my Garmin is charged! I also like to keep a backup of my runs on Dropbox. Have a look at the site – he supports all major providers – a massive selection and it keeps growing.

There is only one service which allows this – tapiriik.com. It is run by a chap called Colin Fair who offers great support. Best of all, it’s free for manual syncing. If you want automagic syncing, it costs a paltry $2 per year.

Oh, and it isn’t limited to running, but all sports. It will even sync activities marked private and keep them private.

I encourage listeners to try it and to pay for it!

Love the show, as ever.

Andrew from libertine London

Message:

Hello Tom,
Another issue with MLB tv is, if you are in between markets, you are considered part of their viewing areas. I live in Charlotte and when I subscribed two years ago I was considered to be in the Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals, Baltimore Orioles, and for some reason the Cincinnati Reds markets. As a Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox fan it seemed like every game I tried to watch was blacked out because of markets or national broadcasting rights, so I cancelled the service. Thanks for the great work.
Chris in Charlotte NC
Sent from my iPhone

Tomorrow’s guest: Brian Brushwood! Darren Kitchen! Len Peralta!

Ever wonder why pro sports can’t get rid of local blackouts on digital streams? Hockeybuzz’s Eklund is here to help us understand that and how Samsung hopes to force hockey fans to buy a Galaxy or Note.

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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

Patrick Beja is in today. First the Web now mobile. In light of the shut down of GigaOm, can journalism survive continued disruption?

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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 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, DNTS contributor and independent podcaster. Check out Pixels and The Phileas Club on Frenchspin.com

Headlines: 

TechCrunch reports an Apple Spokesman confirmed the Apple Watch battery is replaceable and the lifecycle is about three years. The Next Web has a good breakdown of the way Apple calculates battery life. The 18 hours of typical use means 90 time checks, 5 per hour, 90 notifications, 45 minutes total app use and a 30-minute workout with Bluetooth. Other estimates are that total talk time is 3 hours. Total music over Bluetooth is 6.5 hours. Heart rate sensor use runs 7 hours. And if you do nothing but check the time you should get 48 hours. Charging up from empty takes 1.5 hours to 80% and 2.5 hours to full.

The Intercept reports on documents leaked by Edward Snowden from a security gathering called the “jamboree” sponsored by the CIA’s Information Operations Center and held on a Lockheed campus in Northern Virginia. Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories discussed a modified Xcode that put secret backdoors into apps— a modified OS X updater that could install a keylogger— and attempts to break encryption on iOS firmware. Attacks against Microsoft devices were also discussed.

The Next Web reports that The Wikimedia Foundation is joining Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and 6 other organizations to sue the National Security Agency and the US Department of Justice over the NSA’s mass surveillance program. Wikimedia says that the intelligence agency’s methods captures communications by its users and staff, thereby violating their privacy and threatening intellectual freedom.

Yesterday the tech news blog GigaOm came to a sudden halt.  A post on the site said GigaOm was unable to pay its creditors and had ceased operations. Founder Om Malik, who is no longer working on the site, expressed regret and thanked its workers and readers.  The company does not intend to file for bankruptcy but it’s eventual fate is unclear.

The Verge reports a “source knowledgeable with Android Wear’s product road map” says the next software release will add WiFi support, gesture support like flicking the wrist to scroll, and easier access to apps and contact.

The Verge has the news that the Playstation 4 and PlayStation Vita are going on sale in China on March 20th.  The PS4 will code 2,889 yuan (about $464) and the Vita will sell for 1,299 yuan ($207). Chinese officials banned foreign game consoles in 2000, driving most gamers to PCs or mobile devices.  The prohibition was lifted in 2013, and Microsoft launched the Xbox One in September 2014.

The Daily Dot reports the UK’s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology issued a briefing saying a ban on data encryption and online anonymity is neither acceptable nor feasible. Earlier this year UK Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to ban encryption on the web and end online anonymity to combat terrorism and child pornography. The briefing specifically mentioned TOR as a tool used to bypass censors and the difficulty foreign censors have had in blocking it. Furthermore it noted that 1,624 domains were found to have child abuse material on the open Web, while 36 were found on the Dark Net.

TechCrunch reports the app Yik Yak seems to have been delisted from the Google Play store. The anonymous localized chat app can be found in search but is not listed on any charts. Yik Yak is listed as #20 in social on iOS. Several college campuses in the US have banned the app recently because of the offensive and abusive nature of some postings.

News From You:

tninja3000 & starfuryzeta would like you to know that the US Senate has confirmed former Google Inc executive Michelle Lee as the head of the US Patent and Trademark office. Reuters reports that the position had been vacant for more than two years with Lee as acting director. Lee had been head of patents and patent strategy at Google and joined the USPTO in 2012.

the_corey has sent us a story from The Next Web with a report that Sky Broadband has been ordered to hand over customer data to copyright enforcement company TCYK by a UK court.  Sky has sent letters to subscribers explaining the situation and that they should examine any correspondence from TCYK carefully.  Sky subscribers who receive a letter from TCYK can contact the Citizens Advice Bureau for guidance.

Discussion Section Links:  

http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/09/pioneering-tech-blog-gigaom-is-shutting-down/?ncid=rss

https://www.google.com/search?q=ad+spending+media&oq=ad+spending+media+&aqs=chrome..69i57.3407j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=119&ie=UTF-8

http://adage.com/article/media/digital-overtake-tv-ad-spending-years-forrester/295694/

http://www.emarketer.com/adspendtool

http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/20/2015-ad-spend-rises-to-187b-digital-inches-closer-to-one-third-of-it/

 

Pick of the Day:  Synergy Project via Satya

Satya: Hi Tom,

My pick is Synergy Project, http://synergy-project.org.

It is a pretty cool and very useful software for a sharing a single keyboard and mouse across multiple computers without any additional hardware.

It costs 10$ and works on all operating systems. It is worth every penny.

Messages:

Hi Tom-

When I saw the new USB port world serve as charger and it’s some input, I freaked at first. When I thought about it, I realized with modern battery life, Wi-Fi, cloud storage, and Bluetooth, ports are less useful than they were in the past.

I’m glad they kept the headphone jack since Bluetooth audio fidelity still isn’t quite to to snuff yet. I’m hoping future Wi-Fi specs can support multiple connections to connect wireless storage or wifi headphones or speakers while not cutting off your network access. Pull that off and we might enter a brave new portless world.

Thanks for the great work!

Mike in Smoggy Beirut

================

“Hey, guys. A quick thought on the new MacBooks.

To understand how Apple is positioning them, I think it makes sense to consider its specs:
Retina screen.
M-class processor (which doesn’t require a fan).
Extremely thin and light.
Just two ports (power/data and audio).
Emphasis on touch interaction.
Three colors.
Sort of reminds me of an iPad.

I think it’s really meant for people who are tired of trying to combine an iPad with a keyboard in order to get real work done. In other words, in my opinion, the new MacBook is the best iPad Apple’s ever made (and I want one).

Christian”

=====

BOL REUNION!

Just announced: The Buzz Out Loud 10 Year reunion on March 29th at 12:30 pacific /3:30 p eastern and 7:30p GMT! It’s free! Tom, Molly, Veronica, Jason and many other special guests! Tickets for the event at the Hak 5 warehouse are available at http://bit.ly/BOLreunion but if you want to attend online you don’t need even need a ticket. The event will stream live on Alpha Geek Radio and on YouTube with more details forthcoming.

Buzztown’s Back!

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.

Wednesday’s guest: Eklund!

Tim Stevens is back to chat with us about HBO Now, ResearchKit, a new 12-inch MacBook and the Apple Watch pricing.

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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 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: 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>

=====

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

=====

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

Darren Kitchen is back to talk about arrests of malicious hackers in the UK and US and things he learned from NON-malicious hackers in Europe in February. Drones, Club-Mate and more! And yes Len Peralta is here to illustrate it.

MP3

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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 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 guests: Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta

Check out Len’s amazing DTNS artprov:

http://lenperaltastore.com/products/there-and-hack-again-dtns-3-6-15-print

Headlines: 

ReCode reports Apple executives have been promising music labels it will not have a free tier for digital music when it launches its own subscription streaming service later this year. Apparently Eddy Cue and Jimmy Iovine have been trying to convince labels to distribute music with Apple first, for a service targeted at $8 a month.

Also something about Apple releasing a watch Monday. Apparently 9to5 Mac’s Marc Gurman knows somebody with one of the watches and it gets 5 hours of battery life with heavy use – the ability to see your heart rate at any time— 8 GB of storage— unlinked music playing. All kinds of stuff. Gurman’s usually right about this kind of thing.And we’ll find out for sure on Monday. When Apple actually announces the watch.

ZDNet reports that Oracle has begun bundling the Ask.com toolbar with its latest release of Java 8 Update 40 for Mac. The Ask toolbar has bundled with Java for Windows for several years. The option to install the toolbar must be unchecked by the user during installation.

eWeek reports that Microsoft published a security advisory yesterday, March 5, saying that all supported versions of Windows are vulnerable to the FREAK technique. Microsoft has issued workarounds for Windows Vista and newer. Windows Server 2003 does not have a workaround. Microsoft has seen no evidence of the attack in the wild but will issue an update, possibly out of band. Both the browser and server must be vulnerable for the exploit to work. You can visit https://freakattack.com/ for information on browser patches.

Reuters reports that Apple will be added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average after the close of trading, March 18th and AT&T will be removed. The Dow Jones tracks 30 stocks considered representative of the US economy. The Dow Jones Average was created in 1896. AT&T was added in 1916. It was removed in 2004 but reinstated in 2005 after a merger with SBC.

The BBC reports the UK National Crime Agency’s National Cyber Crime Unit co-ordinated the arrests of 56 people suspected of crimes like data theft, fraud and writing viruses. 25 separate ops were carried out across England, Scotland and Wales. A suspected Lizard Squad member was arrested in Leeds — which we will now spell with 3’s— and an arrestee in London is suspected of being part of D33d which is already spelled with 3’s. The NCA also visited 70 firms to inform them their servers were vulnerable to attack. They even set up four ppo-up shops to give security advice and check devices for malware.

The Next Web reports the US Department of Justice charged three men with hacking into US email service providers. Viet Quoc Nguyen allegedly hacked 8 providers obtaining more than 1 billion addresses. Giang Hoang Vu allegedly sent spam to tens of millions of the addresses. Both men are vietnamese but were living in the Netherlands. Canadian David-Manuel Santos Da Silva was indicted for allegedly helping the two purported hackers launder the money.

ReCode reports Amazon has opened an online store on Alibaba’s Tmall.com marketplace in China. Tmall offers virtual storefronts. Amazon also operates its own ecommerce site in China.

The Sydney Morning Herald is reports that starting April 1st Australia’s Telstra will give customers access to a limited set of their metadata – for a fee. Metadata information includes who was called, time, location and duration, but does not cover contents of the communication. It also doesn’t include who called you. The policy reversal came after SMH’s Ben Grubb lodged a complaint with Australia’s Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim. Australia is considering data retention laws that wopuld require telcos to store 2 years of customers metadata for law-enforcement access.

 

 

 

 

News From You: 

thelouisguy sent us this story from CBC that Alain Philippon of Quebec has been charged with hindering or preventing border officers from performing their role because he refused to give Canadian border security the password to his phone. According to the Candian Border Services Agency the minimum fine is $1000 up to a maximum of $25,000. Philipon plans to fight the charge. Travelers crossing most borders have a reduced privacy rights. The Canadian Border Services Agency would not say why Philippon was asked for the password. IN astatement the agency said, “Officers are trained to look for indicators of deception and use a risk management approach in determining which goods may warrant a closer look.”

HobbitfromPA sent us the Phandroid post that only owners of the Nexus 6 will be able to use Google’s wireless carrier announced earlier this week at Mobile World Congress. The Wall Street Journal has the sources on this. Google’s service will combine WiFi with LTE using other carriers networks. We’ll no doubt hear more about it at Google I/O, May 28.

Discussion Section Links: 

https://wiki.london.hackspace.org.uk/view/LondonAerospace

https://spacefed.net/wiki/index.php/Spacenet

Pick of the Day: ProfessorMesser.com via Brandon Pierce

This site is geared toward helping people get CompTIA Certifications. Features:

– Full course streaming videos on the site and Youtube (free!) covering all topics for the A+, Network+, Security+ and Windows 7 certifications
– Videos & mp3 are available DRM free for purchase
– Live study groups for the A+, Network+ and Security+ on the weekends, with a chatroom for discussion and questions
– Chat is also available on the site 24/7 for questions
– PDF study notes for purchase
– Study quizzes

I got my A+ and spent only $20 on study materials.

Messages:

Hi Tom,

Derek from lovely “wait did we really go straight from fall to spring?” Eugene, Oregon here. In my (just thought of) capacity as DTNS AWS Co-executive producer I thought I’d weigh in on the discussion of MLB Advanced Media’s capacity for things like WWE and HBO.

In the first keynote of the 2014 re:Invent conference last November the CTO of MLBAM gave a brief talk on the tools and architecture that they are able to leverage with AWS to achieve greater and greater scale all the time. As someone who oversees an AWS based SaaS product that gets millions of pageviews a day I can tell you that capacity is a much more complicated equation than just number of servers but the tools to achieve truly elastic and practically limitless capacity are getting better on a daily basis. For a company as sophisticated as MLBAM running on a platform like AWS the past means very little in being able to predict how they will fair with the new load from HBO Now.

For viewers that are interested the talk from the MLB CTO is in the day 1 keynote and starts at the 16 minute mark here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp0Qv4N3uXQ

Derek “Bishma”
Software Architect

=====

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

Veronica Belmont and Justin Young are on the show to help fend off Apple rumors and talk about MLBAM’s OTHER opening day, the purported launch of HBO Now in time for the April 12 premier of Game of Thrones.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? click here

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 guests: Veronica Belmont of Sword and Laser and Justin Robert Young of Night Attack and Jury Talks

Headlines: 

Mobile World Congress? Tech reporters are most concerned with how to smuggle jamón iberico out of the country in their pants. GDC? Hungover. BUT This coming Monday is an Apple announcement. And so the rumors are flooding in to fill the gap! Here. We. Go.

Bloomberg says the never announced 12.9-inch screen iPad will be delayed until September for manufacturers. Some people call the delay of rumored products “starting.”

The WSJ adds the imaginary product will have a more power-efficient Oxide LCD screen and a USB 3.0 port. The WSJ adds the imaginary product will have a more power-efficient Oxide LCD screen and a USB 3.0 port.

WSJ ALSO says a 12-inch MacBook Air will be announced Monday.

And 9to5 Mac reports Apple will NOT announce a new live streaming music service Monday.

TechCrunch says that mythical service will debut at WWDC in June

I can confirm from asking myself that Apple will also not announce a car, a television, or a space rocket or Monday.

The Verge reports that Office 2016 for Mac is about to catch back up to Windows. The last version was released in 2010. Microsoft today announced a preview program for the new Office 2016 for Mac. Major points: Cloud services will be integrated directly into the suite of programs, Word will get co-authoring, and Excel keyboard shortcuts are now consistent between Mac and PC versions. Microsoft wants it ready in time for summer. The company has not yet announced pricing or exact availability dates, but a standalone version is expected.

The Verge reports Imgur has launched a new iPhone app that gives viewers an endless row of swipeable pictures with titles. To comment, like or dislike, or read comments just double tap the picture. When you first open the app the most “viral” images are shown to you first but there are also options for random and latest submissions as well. You can’t upload through the app yet, but that feature is in the works. A new version for Android is also coming soon.

Fit-solidation is official. TechCrunch reports Fitbit confirmed the acquisition of FitStar, makers of a personal training app that creates customized workouts with celeb athletes like NFL star Tony Gonzalez and yogi Tara Stiles. FitStar has two million registered iOS users. Fitbit co-founder and CEO James Park says the company also plans to expand FitStar to other platforms.

Look out Progressive Insurance, TechCrunch reports Google is launching “Google Compare for Auto Insurance” which lets California shoppers compare rates from different insurance providers. The option will pop up after a consumer does a Google search for “car insurance” or by going to google.com/compare. Google plans to offer it other states later in the year. While the move could help bolster revenue for Google through commissions many high profile insurance brokers like Progressive, State Farm, Allstate and GEICO have declined to work with Google. TechCrunch speculates that Google might also be doing this to learn about pricing risk in advance of self-driving cars.

Engadget reports that 2009 is back! I mean, RockBand is back! Rock Band 4 is coming to Xbox One and Playstation 4 later this year. Harmonix says all previous songs will work in Rock Band 4. The company wants to make old peripherals work but there will also be new peripherals. Also no news on Rock Band Network. This will be a platform for DLC it seems. Harmonix will talk more about Rock Band 4 this weekend at PAX East in Boston, and in June at E3 2015.

News From You: 

ccastro425 posted the Engadget story about a laser from LockHeed Martin that can stop a car from more than a mile away. The fiber-optic laser called ATHENA burned through the engine manifold of an F150. It works by “spectral beam combining which involces taking multiple laser modules and pointing them to the same place. Like the death star. And no the truck didn’t explode, just stopped running.

AB-ee-CHWAY-lah-con-DOOL-say submitted the PC World report that Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, said Microsoft is opening up app development for the Xbox One. Windows developers will be able to port their apps to the Xbox. Microsoft wants to make Xbox Live accessible through the API to all game developers no matter how big.

Michsineath submitted this topic. The Cost of eBooks in France and Luxembourg won’t be going down anytime soon reports Reuters. Judges at the European Court of Justice today, dismissed arguments by both countries that ebooks should be treated as goods not a service. EU rules allow member states to set lower VAT rates on printed books, however the European Commission decided that France and Luxembourg’s application of those rates to electronic books was illegal. Statista predicts ebook sales in Europe are expected to account for a fifth of book sales in Europe by 2017 up from 4.5% in 2013.

 

Discussion Section Links:  HBO NOW?

http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/03/hbo-now-coming-this-spring-for-15-per-month-with-apple-as-launch-partner/

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/4/8149579/hbo-now-streaming-service-name-pricing-report

http://consumerist.com/2014/12/09/hbo-seeks-streaming-video-help-from-major-league-baseball/

http://www.wsj.com/articles/mlbs-streaming-tech-unit-goes-pro-1424718022

http://www.techhive.com/article/2888298/major-league-baseball-might-spin-off-its-video-streaming-operation.html

https://gigaom.com/2014/12/09/hbo-gone-cto-leaves-after-hbo-outsources-streaming-service/

http://www.cnet.com/news/nba-espn-deal-drafts-streaming-only-service-for-cord-cutters/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeuLion

 

Pick of the Day: Mohiomap via Michelle

Dear Tom, Jennie, today’s guest and behind the scenes DTNS team,

I would like to recommend Mohiomap, to DTNS followers. This developing site is a visual cloud based, free, curation tool, currently combines, Google drive, Evernote and Dropbox, with more services in the pipeline to be added.

Certainly helps to visualise and manage all the resources one has stored across these various platforms. IMHO A new service worth checking out, supporting, testing and giving feedback too.

https://www.moh.io/mohiomap/welcome.php

Thanks for the great show.

BFN
OOROO
Michelle not from lovely Cleveland

Messages: 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.

Friday’s guest: Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta