DTNS 2432 – Also, Spider-Man

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comJustin Young is on the show and we’ll talk about how Sony shows the days of the electronics company are over.

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Show Notes

DTNS 2431 – Nadella Opens Windows

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comPatrick Beja is on the show to talk about Microsoft integrating with competing cloud platforms, committing to international privacy standards, allowing everyone to develop apps for the Xbox. What is this strange new Satya Nadella-run company?

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Show Notes

Today’s guest: Patrick Beja, DTNS contributor and host of Le Rendez-Vous Tech, Pixels and The Phileas Club

Headlines: 

Ars Technica passes along the WSJ info from sources that Apple wanted more sensors on the Apple Watch but left them out for lack of reliability. Among the sensors erejected were a skin sensor that could measure stress and heart rate and one that measured blood pressure and Oxygen in the blood. WSJ also reports Apple ordered between 5-6 million united to be manufactured for the first quarter of the watch’s availability.

Microsoft announced today that its Office for iOS apps now support iCloud as well as File Picker— allowing any cloud storage service to integrate with Office for iOS.  Similar support for Android and Windows 10 is coming. Microsoft also announced a Cloud Partner Program for Office online that launches with Box, Citrix and Salesforce as partners.

Microsoft also announced adoption of the International Standards Organization’s Standard for cloud privacy. The policy means Microsoft is committed to letting you control your cloud data, providing transparency about how its handled, placing strict limits on public use, including not using it to sell ads, and informing on government requests for your data when the law allows. The British Standards Institute has verified Azure office 365 and Dynamics CRM are aligned with the code of practice.

The Verge reports that Sony is taking pre-orders for the developer version of its own augmented reality glasses called SmartEyeglass that connect to your smartphone. The glasses look like heavy wrap arounds, and attach by a cord to a circular, err, thing? Controller? Hoozywhatsit? — that houses the battery,speakers, microphones, NFC and touch control sensors. The controller clips on to the lapel of your trendy raincoat to announce to everyone on the street that you are using augmented reality glasses— in case the heavy black glasses on your face didn’t do that already.  The glasses go on sale March 10th for $840.

TechCrunch reports that IDC believes Xiaomi has passed Samsung as China’s number one smartphone maker. IDC estimates Xiaomi’s marketshareat 12.5% in 2014 compared to 5.3% in 2013. Samsung’s share dropped from 18.8% to 12.1% over the same period. Xiaomi’s success could be attributed to its low prices, online flash sales as well as a combination of fewer models and longer average selling time per device.

TechCrunch reports Pebble has brought Android Wear support out of beta and made it available for everyone. That means Android apps on your phone that support Android Wear can work with the Pebble now.  Pebble’s integration works with phones running Android 4.0 and newer. Users should update their Pebble to the firmware v2.9 and update to the latest Pebble Android app (v.2.3.0)

The Next Web is reports the release of Android One phones in the Philippines. Andoird One is the program to bring full Android to affordable phone models on a standardized platform.The Cherry One and MyPhone Uno, will go on sale in a few weeks. Both phones feature dual SIM support, a MicroSD slot, a special offline YouTube playback feature and special data plans.

News From You: 

starfuryzeta submitted the Verge article pointing out Microsoft announced at the Stanford Cybersecurity Summit on Friday that Windows 10 will support Fast Identification Online, AKA FIDIO. FIDO uses localized authentication to replace passwords. Microsoft, Google, PayPal, and Bank of America are all supporting the open standard.

tninja3000 sent us the Wired news that the company building Elon Musk’s HyperLoop is going public. With Musk’s permission, crowdfunding outfit JumpStartFun created Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. which gathered 200 engineers together to brainstorm in exchange for stock options.  These engineers have day jobs at places like NASA, Boeing and Airbus.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies will go public in Q3 2015, hoping to raise $100 million towards developing a useful prototype.

Yesterday we mentioned the infected firmware on hard drives being spread by folks Kaspersky calls the Equation Group. Buried in one of the exploits was an MD5 hash that Kaspersky could not crack. KAPT_Kipper submitted the Ars Technica report that after asking from help from the wider community, password crackers Jens Steube and Philipp figured out the plaintext behind the hash was Arabic for “unregistered.” The hash was probably meant to prevent infecting unwanted users. Six other hashes in different exploits remain unknown.

 

Discussion Section Links:  Microsoft

http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/17/8050743/microsoft-xbox-one-apps-sdk-plans

http://blogs.office.com/2015/02/17/new-cloud-storage-integration-office/

http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/17/microsoft-adopts-cloud-privacy-standard/?ncid=rss_truncated

http://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2015/02/16/microsoft-adopts-first-international-cloud-privacy-standard/

https://medium.com/@jason/microsoft-is-interesting-again-very-f9c5bef7116

Pick of the Day: Forecast.io

Hello Tom, Jenny, and esteemed Guest du jour,
I am a long time listener, first time emailer and Co-Executive Producer of the show. I am kind of addicted to weather websites and, with all the weather that we have experienced on the east coast lately, I wanted to pass on my new favorite website for viewing up-to-the-minute and forecast information. It’s forecast.io and it uses the same data that is fed into the darksky app but it’s web based and free. Check it out and you’ll be hooked too! Love the show and keep up the great work!
–Mark Kerzner, Centreville, Maryland

Wednesday’s guest: Justin Robert Young

DTNS 2430 – Headlines Edition

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comIt’s the Presidents Day holiday in the US, so here’s a brief headlines only edition of the show to fill the gap.

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Show Notes

DTNS 2429 – Who Archives the Archivers?

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comJustin Young is here to help us avoid losing our entire generation’s history in a digital black hole. But who can save us? Vint Cerf? Archive.org? Some people at Carnegie Mellon? We will tell you. And Len Peralta will draw it.

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Show Notes

Today’s guests: Justin Robert Young and Len Peralta

Check out Len’s amazing artprov of the week “Ye Olde Digital Dark Ages”

http://lenperaltastore.com/products/ye-olde-digital-dark-ages-dtns-2-13-15-print

Headlines:

USA Today reports that the View-Master stereoscopic photo viewer is going digital. The old View-Master was a red plastic viewer that you held up to your face and viewed cardboard “reels” with small color slides in simulated 3-D. Mattel has teamed up with Google to make a new virtual reality View-Master based on Google’s Cardboard VR form factor. Instead of sliding in a cardboard reel, you slide in an Android smartphone. New reels are placed in front of the viewer to add augmented reality 3D interfaces to the experience you get from the Mattel app, though you don’t NEED the reels. The new viewer will cost $29.99 and include a sample reel. Additional three-pack reels will cost $14.99. Coming this autumn.

CNET reports US President Barack Obama signed an executive order to create a framework to allow better communication between tech, finance, energy and health care industries and the US government for the purpose of cybersecurity.The President is hosting the White House’s first summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection at Stanford University today. Financial and retail executives and Apple CEO Tim Cook are attending. Facebook, Google, and Microsoft all sent less senior executives.

So what did the one CEO who attended to the Cybersecurity Conference have to say? Well CNET reports you’ll now be able to use Apple Pay to enter US National Parks. Hooray! Cybersecurity problems solved. Let’s go home boys! OH wait. Apparently the government and tech companies need to work together to protect the rights of customers and citizens who Cook pointed out, are actually the same people. Cook said:”If those of us in positions of responsibility fail to do everything in our power to protect the right of privacy, we risk something far more valuable than money. We risk our way of life.”

9 to 5mac notes that Apple seems to have hired former Mercedes-Benz Research and Development president and CEO Johann Jungworth as the Director of Mac Systems Engineering. According to a story in the Financial Times Apple’s recent hirings in the automotive industry are for a new research lab where iPhone unit managers are researching automotive products.But… why? The hiring follows a week’s worth of rumors about Apple’s desire to get into the automotive market. But also, we don’t know anything. At all. Beep beep.

TechCrunch reports that Apple is OK with pot but no longer OK with visible weapons. Devs and advocacy groups, including social networking app MassRoots, have been petitioning Apple to change its stance on banning drug-themed apps. As of Friday the MassRoots app is back, but it must perform a location check that prevents users outside of the 23 states where marijuana use is legal from accessing its network. As for the guns, a developer named OrangePixel noted last month that Apple made him blur out guns from screenshots of his game Gunslugs 2 because otherwise it violtaed policy against showing “violence against human beings.” Pocketgamer dug into it and found that Apple is as Marco Arment pointed out, enforcing the policy that all screenshots must be OK for ages 4 and up.

VentureBeat reports Pinterest is stripping out affiliate referral codes from all links on the service. Companies like RewardStyle and Hello Society help users make money when people click their pinned images but Pinterest claims it’s led to spammy behavior and broken links. However Pinterest might want to roll out their own in house referral program. IN the meantime Pinterest recommends more wholesome way for pinners to make money, like “participate in paid social media marketing.”

The Next Web reports Line has launched the Line@, which connects brands to fans, clients and customers. The iOS and Android app lets brands send messages, chat one on one, and share posts to followers. The free plan allows up to 1,000 messages per month, the paid plan at $50 per month allows for 50,000 messages, images and links with the option to send additional messages for a penny each. Brands can also pay $24 for a personalized premium ID for a year, which then costs $12 every year after.

GigaOm passes along a report from The Information that Google wants to exempt Android developer’s services from data charges in some markets, starting with ecommerce and transportation apps in India. Google wouldn’t zero-rate its own apps, just act as a middleman between carriers and developers who want to pay the cost of data for its customers.

 

News From You: 

KAPT_Kipper posted the Ars Technica article that Lior Shamir, a computer scientist at Lawrence Technological University, has shown that a series of image analysis algorithms can discriminate between real Jackson Pollock paintings and pieces that mimic his style 100% of the time. So no, Dad. Sadly the computer has proven that you can’t dip a monkey’s tail in a bucket of paint and get the same result. Shamir has placed the source code for this analysis package, termed “Wnd-charm,” online. You can read more in the International Journal of Art and Technology.

Habichuelacondulce pointed out the posting at Crain’s about a Brooklyn company bringing Gigabit Fiber to the Industry City complex in Sunset Park. Yes it’s only a small tech-savvy Brooklyn development is getting symmetrical Gigabit. And yes it’s going to cost $500 a month. But until now if you were a post-production company or some other tech company that needed high bandwidth gigabit was going to cost you $3,000 a month. So this will make service accessible to startups and artists. And Brooklyn Fiber hopes to expand to Red Hook next.

Discussion Section Links: Digital Dark Age

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31450389

http://www.cmu.edu/silicon-valley/news-events/dls/2015/cerf-news.html

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/13/what-is-bit-rot-and-is-vint-cerf-right-to-be-worried

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/13/google-boss-warns-forgotten-century-email-photos-vint-cerf

https://www.google.com/search?q=vint+cerf+archive.org&oq=vint+cerf+archive.org&aqs=chrome..69i57.2799j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=119&ie=UTF-8#q=vint+cerf+archive.org&tbm=nws

https://archive.org/about/

http://longnow.org/people/board/danny0/

https://archive.org/about/contact.php

https://olivearchive.org/about/

http://isr.cmu.edu/

https://olivearchive.org/docs/collection/

https://archive.org/details/internetarcade

Pick of the Day: 

Hi DTNS crew,

I was listening to Monday’s show on my drive home today and heard Brian mention running a test of his internet connection using speedtest.net. While I do occasionally use this as well I find that www.speedof.me to be a more accurate test and it runs on html5 to boot! Keep up the great work and please remember to put the new cover sheets on your TPS reports.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/checking-your-bandwidth-five-html5-apps-to-try/

One of your many bosses,

Jason Z.

Monday’s show is headlines only due to a US Holiday

DTNS 2428 – Death, Taxes and Now Facebook

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comSarah Lane is on the show and we’ll talk about Facebook’s new options for managing your Facebook account after you’re dead. How much should you plan for your post-mortem social life?

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Show Notes

DTNS 2427 – YotaPhone Does, There is No Try

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comScott Johnson joins the show and we’ll have a good old fashioned talk about wearable fitness trackers, and why science says we don’t need ‘em!

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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:  Scott Johnson, of the place with the pants on the frogs.

Headlines:

Ars Technica reports that some users of Samsung TVs say a Pepsi ad with no audio is being inserted into their movies every 20-30 minutes when using Plex or Foxtel TV apps. One redditor reported the ads went away if you disagreed with the Yahoo Privacy Notice in the TVs smart hub settings. Samsung has a partnership with Yahoo to serve pop-up ads. Samsun told Business Insider in January that the ads would be opt-in.

Reuters reports that stolen iPhones dropped 40% in San Francisco, 25% in New York and50% in London after Apple added a kill switch to the phones in September 2013. London Mayor Boris Johnson, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman have all called for laws mandating the kill switches. California passed such a law which has yet to go into effect.

Bloomberg Business reports that according to the usual suspects, I mean, the people with direct knowledge of the matter, Samsung plans to release two new versions of its Galaxy smartphone next month at Mobile World Congress. One of the phones will have a display that wraps around both edges. Similar to the Note Edge but on both sides. Both phones will use Samsung chips, have all metal bodies and have 5.1 inch screens.

The Verge passes along a report from “the Information” that Square is working on an Android tablet to replace the current iPad based Square Registers. The project is in its early stages and may not go through to production. In addition The Information also claims Google is testing out a new mobile payment system, called Plaso, that would let customers pay by confirming their name or initials at the register.

GigaOM reports Facebook has launched a collaborative threat detection framework called ThreatExchange. ThreatExchange is a hub where organizations can share data on attacks and malicious activity. Facebook’s graph-database correlates the data points together and figures out new relationships like malware targeting specific domains or IP addresses. The idea is to stop attacks before the occur. Current participants include Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, Yahoo, Bitly and Dropbox. ThreatExchange is available now in beta.

TechCrunch passes along details from a report by Ernst & Young that shows China, India, Russia and Mexico will have 2 billion broadband connections by 2016, twice that of more mature markets. Smartphone shipments will double in those countries between 2014 and 2018. China will have 500 million wireless broadband connections by 2016. India will have the youngest average age by 2020. Russia has the higest penetration rates for broadband services. And Mexico’s population has the highest per capita consumer spending of the four at $11,000 per person.

Reuters reports that China’s Potevio will begin selling YotaPhone 2 later this quarter. Its the first mass market distribution deal for YotaPhone. The Yota Phone has one screen for calls and apps and a second always-on display for notifications and e-reading.

Wired reports that US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, AKA the people who brought you Internet, have a project called Memex to index pages ignored by commercial search engines as well as sites on TOR network’s Hidden Services. The ones with .onion addresses that are only accessible through the TOR browser. They want to look for hidden relationships int he content that would be useful to law enforcement, military and private sector entities.

We previously mentioned BitTorrent’s partnership with Rapid Eye Studios to launch an original sci-fi show called Children of the Machine. Today BitTorrent announced a revised distribution plan. Children of the machine will launch in “late 2015″ as a free ad-supported video through BitTorrent Bundles. You can also pay $9.95 for no ads and bonus features. ALSO BitTorrent’s chief content officer and his team are moving from San Francisco to LA to work with the Rapid Eye team. The partners intend to launch shows with a 30-60 day exclusive window.

News From You: 

spsheridan sent us the ArsTechnica story announcing that all major wireless carriers in the US must start unlocking paid off phones today. The FCC and the carriers agreed in 2013 to unlock devices upon fulfillment of contract terms por payment of an early termination fee. Prepaid users can get their phones unlocked after a year of.

habichuelacondulce sent us the Reuters report that the UK will make it legal to test driverless cars on British roads next summer, as long as a person is present and able to take control of the car if necessary. The British Department for Transport is working on a ‘code of practise’ for driverless cars which will be published this spring.

Discussion Section Links: 

https://gigaom.com/2015/02/11/study-says-dont-buy-a-fitness-tracker-just-use-your-phone/

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2108876

http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2015/02/case/

http://qz.com/184639/fitness-trackers-are-no-good-at-counting-calories-and-other-lessons-learned-from-wearing-four-at-once/

https://gigaom.com/2014/12/08/insurance-provider-oscar-will-reward-you-if-you-hit-your-step-goal/

http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/11/android-wear-2014-shipments/?ncid=rss_truncated

Pick of the Day: 

I wanted to share this awesome PC building resource to all my fellow DTNS listeners who want to be able to build the best system for their budget.

http://logicalincrements.com

Logical Increments provides you a list of the best components at several price levels starting at destitute for $200, up to a monstrous system for $4000. Each tier will give you a choice of 3 for each component, the price, and a link where you can purchase it. All items in each tier are also designed to work best with other items in that tier. A great resource for anyone wanting to build their own system, especially a hardcore gaming machine.

Thanks and love the show!

Jamie in beautiful BC

I’d like to submit howtoreplaceyourpc.com as a listener pick. The site is meant for people who are not listeners of DTNS, who just use a computer, and occasionally they need to get a new one. The site covers Mac and Windows, desktops and tablets and phones. If someone comes asking what computer to buy, and they are not an immediate family member, this is where I send them. The site was made by one of the managers at a UK company providing home tech support.

The site does heavily push for Apple products, but does not focus on them exclusively, and Mr. Hutton does provide explanations for why he suggests what he does. Also, he does use Amazon referral links.

Thanks for the read, and insert generic closing message here.

~ A. Karl Kornel – karl@kornel.us

Wednesday’s guest:  Sarah Lane of Tech Crunch

DTNS 2426 – Google Browser MD

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comPatrick Beja is with us today to talk about Google’s new health facts surfacing in search. Can Google claim to be unbiased while curating facts?

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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

DTNS 2425 – Samsung Listens to Its Customers

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comBrian Brushwood joins the show to talk about Samsung’s SmartTV that listens to everything you say and reports back to headquarters. Is that really what’s going on? is it worse than the Xbox or Amazon Echo?

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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

DTNS 2424 – Glass Ceiling

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comJustin Young is on the show and the two of us will decide the true fate of Google Glass. Is it dead, for the enterprise, or poised to have its greatest moment yet? Plus Len Peralta is here to illustrate the show!

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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: Justin Robert Young and Len Peralta

Check out Len’s amazing art for the week: “Would You Hit A Guy Wearing Glass?”

Headlines

The Verge reports the first Ubuntu phone will go on sale next week in online flash sales throughout Europe. The Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Editions is built by Spanish company BQ and will sell for €169.90. It’s a modest price for a modest phone. 4.5-inch display with 540 x 960 qHD resolution, a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor 8 GB of storage and no LTE. It does have dual micro-SIM. The OS uses cards instead of apps, delivering content by category. Services include Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Time Out, Yelp, and Cut the Rope with Spotify, SoundCloud, and Grooveshark also included through web APIs. Followers of @ubuntu and @bqreaders on Twitter will get first alert each time the phone becomes available.

Bloomberg reports a large number of people who work at Tesla, used to work at Apple. In fact 150 of the 6,000 or so Tesla employees have Apple on their resume. Musk says the two companies design philosophies are closely aligned and that Apple tries to recruit from Tesla as well. Execs and engineers from larger established tech company relocate to smaller Valley start up. Also, water is wet. Lebron James is good at basketball and Tom’s Beard is majestic. What else is new?

CNET reports an advisory group set up by Google recommends the company limit its “right-to-forgotten” search result removals to Europe, where it is the law. Google does not alter search results for its non-European domains, even though they can be accessed from within Europe.

TechCrunch reports Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In project has started a CS&E Chapter to help women in computer science and engineering find advice and support. The chapter is launching in partnership with Facebook, LinkedIn and the Anita Borg Institute.

TechCrunch reports that Uber is adding two new safety features to its app in India. An in-app panic button and journey and location sharing with up to five people will roll out to users beginning February 11. The features will come to the app worldwide at a later date.

BuzzFeed wrote up a profile of ride-hailing service Gett moving in on Uber’s turf in New York. Gett or Gettaxi is the second largest international ride-hailing company by revenue, after Uber. The two companies have squared off previously in Tel Aviv, Moscow and London. Gett rolled out fixed rate rides of $10 in Manhattan in September. Gett’s biggest advantage is coming into markets with legal approval. Almost the opposite tactic Uber takes.

News From You: 

starfuryzeta sent in The Guardian post reporting the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal declared Friday that regulations covering access by Britain’s GCHQ to emails and phone records intercepted by the US National Security Agency (NSA) breached Articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention on human rights. 8 relates to private and family life and 10 to freedom of expression. The court made the decision because the public was unaware of safeguards int he program. The GCHQ was pleased that the surveillance itself was found legal and only the details to be made public needed to change.

DocSneer posted the ProPublica article calling attention to the financial problems of Werner Koch, the coder maintaining Gnu Privacy Guard. After the publication of the article the Linux Foundation awarded a one-time grant of $60,000 and his donation page reached a funding goal of $137,000. Additionally Facebook and Stripe each pledged to donate $50,000 a year to the project.

And jaymz6689 posted the TechDirt article which, bear with me takes details from a Music Business Worldwide post about a report from Ernst &Young and French record label trade group SNEP. What did they all find? Of streaming revenue generated by platforms like Spotify, about 20.8% goes to the platform itself, 16.7% to taxes, 10% to songwriters, 6.8% to artists and the largest share, 45.6% goes to labels. If you take out taxes and the platform, payouts of royalties go 73.1% to labels.

Discussion Section Links: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/style/why-google-glass-broke.html

http://www.cio.com/article/2879048/google-glass/google-glass-is-alive-and-well-in-the-enterprise.html

Pick of the Day:  Lots of pics for Jody

Hey Tom – as a brand new co-executive producer, I felt compelled to offer up a couple of picks…

As someone who just started a new job, Charlie App has been a great tool for me to not only see how I may be connected to the new folks I meet but also a great way to remember people’s names.

Charlie App – charlieapp.com
Charlie combs through 100s of sources and automatically sends you a one-pager on everyone you’re going to meet with, before you see them.

Another great tool I recently found is Sidekick. Sidekick is a Google Chrome extension that when open will track when and where a person reads your email. Kinda creepy but also kinda cool.

Sidekick – app.getsidekick.com
Sidekick is a free service that gives you email superpowers with contact insights, email tracking, and email scheduling.

Keep doing your thing! Really enjoy DTNS.

Best, Jody

Monday’s guest: Brian Brushwood!

DTNS 2423 – Apple TV: Where Have I heard This Before?

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comTodd Whitehead is on the show. We’ll talk about Twitter’s teacups and troll regrets along with the appearance of the annual Apple TV rumor.

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Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Todd Whitehead, Alpha Geek Radio

Headlines

Remember the Swatch Watch? No? (damn kids) Well, it was a super popular casual watch from the 1980s — Swatch stands for Second Watch, if you were wondering. According to Bloomberg Business, the Swiss watch company plans to sell a smartwatch, or perhaps a Swartwatch. Swatch CEO Nick Hayek said in an interview that the device will use NFC, let consumers make mobile payments, and somehow won’t have to be charged, while still working with Windows and Android software. It may be available by April, around the same time as the Apple Watch.

The Verge obtained a message written by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo on an internal forum taking personal responsibility for Twitter’s harassment and abuse problems. After an employee asked what they could do to stop cyberbullying, Costolo wrote, “we suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we’ve sucked at it for years. It’s no secret and the rest of the world talk about it every day.” Costolo said “we’re going to start kicking these people off right and left and making sure that when they issue their ridiculous attacks, nobody hears them.”

You hear that? — That’s the sound of NDAs lifting. Last June at WWDC Apple announced the Photos app, the replacement for Aperture and iPhoto and previews abound on the Internet today. The Verge reports key highlights include icloud integration. When you take a pic on your iPhone it will automatically be uploaded to your iCloud drive. There’s also a new auto crop tool, a new zoom out view and new square book formats. Keep in mind, you won’t have the same level of granular control especially compared to Aperture’s pixel-peepers level of tweaking. So don’t delete Aperture or iPhoto for Photos app, just yet. Developers can download the beta version of OS X that includes Photos now.

Bloomberg reports Twitter has licensed direct access to its data— the so-called firehose— to Google. While Google can index and include Twitter posts in its search without paying, access to the firehose allows for posts to show up in search as soon as they’re posted. Engineers are working on the connection which should start having an effect sometime int he first half of this year.

Buried in a history of why Google Glass died, the New York Times reports a glimmer of hope for the product. According to people with knowledge of Tony Faddell’s plans, Ivy Ross’s team will be redesigning Glass from scratch and will not release it until it’s complete.

ReCode has this year’s winter tale of Apple creating a TV service. This year’s rumor takes the form of Apple in preliminary talks with TV programmers to create bundles of programming to be sold directly to consumers over the Web. With SlingTV and PlayStation Vue in beta and HBO and Verizon’s services expected later this year, this could be the year the Apple television service rumor comes true. But just don’t be too shocked if the autumn rumor about talks with Apple falling apart makes its usual appearance.

BT has confirmed it is acquiring UK mobile network service company “EE” from Orange and Deutsche Telekom for $19 billion dollars. The move will allow BT to sell its broadband, fixed telephony and pay-TV services to those EE customer who don’t already subscribe to BT’s offerings. EE has a subscriber base of 33 million in the UK and the largest 4G customer base in Europe.

The Verge reports Mattel and Google will hold a join event February 13th in New York, the day before Toy Fair 2015. The invite features a graphic reminiscent of the ViewMaster and reads “Mattel invites you to view what’s possible with exclusive announcement and product debut” followed by the Mattel and Google logos.

GigaOm reports Twitter earnings are out. $479.078 million in revenue beat expectations of 453.1 million and Earnings per share of 12 cents beat expectations of 6 cents. User growth was not as rosy. Monthly average users went from 284 million in Q3 to 288 million in Q4 which is a 20% jump over Q4 last year. Analysts are already grouchy about that slow growth.

News From You: 

HobbitfromPA sent us the story from NBC reporting that the FBI is investigating an attack on the IT systems of Anthem, one of the largest health insurance companies in the US. Anthem spokesperson, Kristin Binns said attackers, “obtained personal information relating to consumers and Anthem employees who are currently covered, or who have received coverage in the past”. The information accessed included names, birthdates, Social Security numbers, addresses, income data, employment information and email addresses. Anthem serves customers in 14 states.

starfuryzeta sent us The Next Web’s report that Under Armour, a company that makes workout clothes, has acquired personal training app Endomondo for $85 million and diet and exercise counter MyFitnessPal for $475 million. My Fitness pal has 80 million users and Endomondo has 20 million. Add that to the 120 million users of MapMyFitness, already owned by UnderArmour and that is a huge community of people who need just might need some exercise clothes.

Discussion Section Links: 

http://recode.net/2015/02/04/apple-is-talking-to-tv-programmers-about-its-own-web-tv-service/

http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/apple-in-talks-again-to-offer-tv-channels-report-1201424182/

http://allthingsd.com/20091102/apples-itunes-pitch-tv-for-30-a-month/

http://nypost.com/2012/03/01/apple-throws-weight-around-in-tv-negotiations/

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Unshockingly-Apples-Dream-of-TV-Disruption-Held-up-By-Cable-129924

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-02-12/apple-said-to-plan-new-set-top-box-amid-time-warner-cable-talks

Pick of the Day:  MapMyFitness.com via Jamie in beautiful BC

Another app pick I want to share with my fellow DTNS’ers. As 2015 just started and a lot of people are trying to stay on track with their new years resolutions, I wanted to make people aware of the Map My Fitness line of apps for iOS and Android, more specifically MapMyWalk. The free version of this app provides a wealth of features to help you both track your various workouts, as well as provide incremental audible updates as to your current pace and distance travelled. The GPS functionality will plot your walk/run on a map for you to save and use later, and you can save your favorite routes to use on a later date. It will also give you a weekly recap of how many workouts you did, total distance travelled, and total calories burned. It also works with many fitness trackers, as well as uploading data to Health Kit on iOS. Can’t say enough good things about this great free app for those wanting an easy way to live an active lifestyle.

Thanks as always! Jamie in beautiful BC

Update on Windscape

“Windscape software recommended and apparently that was bad timing. Thomas Sidla emailed the company that makes it Gaucho Software and got this reply: “”Last week, the National Weather Service changed something on their servers, so I’ve been scrambling to update my apps for the change.” The Update went live last night so it’s all working again.

Tomorrow’s guests: Justin Robert Young, Len Peralta!