We’re checking in on All The Birds in The Sky by Charlie Jane Anders and why some people were put off by Patrica and Laurence’s parents. Trust us, so were Patricia and Laurence. Also it’s March Madness and we have the hot inside track on the April fantasy winner and how YOU can pick it.
DTNS 2712 – Save The Puppy? [ ] Yes [ ] No
People let companies track them and store gigabytes of information about them yet encryption and privacy have never been hotter topics. Do people really care about their privacy or only the appearance? Patrick Beja and Tom Merritt discuss with special guest Molly Wood.
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Show Notes
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Cordkillers 112 – DVD Swingers Club (w/ Ben Howard)
Would you pay $50 to see a brand new movie in your house? And why PlayStation Vue is not what you think it is. With special guest Ben Howard.
CordKillers: 112 – DVD Swingers Club
Recorded: March 14 2016
Guest: Ben Howard
Intro Video
Primary Target
- New system to let you rent movies from home while still in theaters
- Hollywood’s biggest directors want to bring new movies straight to your living room
– The Screening Room
– Same day as theaters in home movies
– Set-top box costs $150
– $50 per movie (48-hour window)
– Two free tickets to theater
– Exhibitors cut in on revenue (as much as 20%)
– Supposedly finalizing a deal with AMC theaters
– Universal Fox and Sony all interested
– Screening Room wants to be exclusive partner
– Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, and Peter Jackson support the idea
– Backed by Sean Parker
Signal Intelligence
- PlayStation Vue service goes nationwide in US
– PS Vue added outside New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, and Miami without local channels
– Packages are cheaper $30, $35 and $45
– New packages offer ABC, FOX and NBC on demand with CBS to be added “at a later date”
– PS4, PS3, Amazon Fire TV, and Fire TV Stick, iPad and iPhone Google Chromecast on iOS
Gear Up
- 4K Roku TV from Best Buy starts at $400
– Best Buy’s Insignia brand beat TCL to the punch to become the first 4K TV with Roku built-in to hit the shelves. 43, 50 and 55-inch models run $400, $500 and $650 respectively. Online now and in stores in April.
Front Lines
- Comic-Con will launch a streaming service on May 7th
– The company Comic-Con International is teaming up with Lionsgate to offer a streaming service of classic SciFi and Fantasy as well as live streams of select panels from conferences like San Diego Comic-Con. The service called Comic-Con HQ soft launches on Free Comic Book Day May 7th for free with a formal launch (and likely a fee) in June. Adam Sessler will host an interview series and Kevin Pereira will executive produce a talk show, also Impossible Science, Her Universe (Geek fashion) and Kings of Con (scripted) - Vimeo unveils its next set of Originals, including its first-ever feature film and concert
– Vimeo announced Thursday its second slate of original programming. Vimeo’s first feature-length film is a documentary called “Wizard Mode” about one of the world’s greatest pinball players. its first concert film features indie “chillwave pioneer” Toro y Moi. CollegeHumor’s Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld (“Jake and Amir”) bring a series called “Lonely and Horny. “Garfunkel and Oates: Trying to be Special,” features Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci. All four premier this year at various times starting in April. - YouTube Gaming expands to 4 new countries alongside new pop-out player feature
– YouTube Gaming announced it’s iOS and Android apps are now available in Canada, New Zealand, Ireland and Australia. The app also got some changes, removing the sidebar for a simplified homepage and adding a Live tab. The Android app gets a pop-out player for watching video while using other apps as well as adding in DVR and 60fps playback support. - Following YouTube Red, video subscription service Vessel goes ad-free for paying subscribers
– Vessel is now ad free for all paying subscribers and there’s a new subscription plan where you can choose to pay$19.99 for a year instead of the normal $2.99 a month.
Vessel also announced plans to offer year-long exclusives on some shows from creators like Linus Media Group, Brittani Louise Taylor and JeromeASF. - Another Vote for Sports on the Web: Fox, Sky Invest in Streaming Soccer Startup FuboTV
– 21st Century Fox and Sky are investing in soccer subscription service FuboTV. 40,000 subscribers pay $10 a month for a mix of matches from La Liga, the MLS and others.
Under Surveillance
- Game of Thrones Season 6 starts April 24
- Captain America; Civil War comes May 6
- Amazon’s first live show debuts online tonight
– Amazon launched a live daily 30-minute show called “Style Code Live.” It will stream M-F at 9 PM Eastern. There’s no advertising but viewers can purchase beauty projects mentioned in the show through a gallery located below the video player. And there’s a chat room. - Yahoo, NHL enter pact to stream four live games a week
– Starting LAST Friday, Yahoo began streaming live hockey matches four times a week under a deal with the NHL. The streams will be free to viewers outside the competing teams’ home markets. Yahoo has a separate deal with NBC Sports to stream two additional games a week. Yahoo also has deals with MLB and the PGA and is bidding on rights to NFL streams. - Netflix’s Luke Cage will premiere on September 30th
- The New Voltron Cartoon on Netflix Is Being Headed Up by Legend of Korra Alums
– Netflix’s reboot of Voltron have named Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos as showrunners. Dos Santos directed and produced for Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra and Montgomery was a producer and storyboard artist for Korra. - Netflix Buying Will Smith-David Ayer Supernatural Cop Movie ‘Bright’
– The Hollywood Reporter says Netflix is the top bidder for a movie called Bright about a magic-infused cop starring Wil Smith and Joel Edgerton with David Ayer directing. Max Landis wrote the script. The deal has not been completed yet. - Brian: 10 cloverfield ln, Justified, 11.22.63, more House of Cards, Great Minds with Dan Harmon
- Tom: Better Call Saul, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Justified, 11.22.63 (105)
- Ben: Vinyl, People Vs OJ Simpson, Love
- On the Lookout: You’re The Worst
Dispatches from the Front
Hey Cordkillers,
Wanted to share my experience when I called Charter to ask about their internet only TV package called Spectrum TV Stream. The first part of the call was a combination of the customer service person not knowing what I was talking about, and then being transferred several times. The person who finally know something about what I was talking about had to look it up. Bottom line is that it is $13/month for a bunch of crappy channels (i.e. HSN), and ‘local’ 3 network channels. Its $19 if you want anything decent. I took a pass.
Hi Tom and Brian,
Any chance of getting Tom’s cord cutting guide in iBook or PDF format for us non-kindle users?
Love the show and I just became a Patreon or as you all like to say, I am now one of you bosses. 🙂
– Jimmy
Long time supporter here to chime in about your recent conversation about HBO and how it’s performing.
While I think Tom and Brian have both brought up good points, you may be overlooking one thing. You may recall when HBO launched a year ago it did so only on the Apple TV when the new season of Game of Thrones started. It wasn’t until after the season concluded they launched on other devices including the device with the most penetration in the market, that being the Roku.
This combined with HBO making the recent season available for purchase around the same time they launched their service on these other devices, in my opinion led to the masses choosing to purchase the season as opposed to the service.
I think once the new season of GOT comes and goes we’ll have a much better idea of how HBO is doing as many people, including myself, won’t be trying the service until that new season is aired. If I like HBO enough I might just stay for more.
– Gary
Fan TV, after telling it I was interested in this show many moons ago, just notified me that Don’t Trust Andrew Maine is now available on Amazon instant video. I’m watching it now, finally.
– Ben
Hey Dudes!
This kickstarter is intended to share physical dvds over the internet. It reminds me of some odd mix of Napster and Aereo.
So, they’re screwed right?
Or is it saved by the European/French court system?
Rock and Roll!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1151191861/movieswap-join-us-to-freethemovies
– Ryan
Links
DTNS 2711 – AI: Artificial Instinct
Microsoft is opening up a version of Minecraft that teaches AI, while another AI beats world champions at Go. So where do we Organic Intelligences fit into all this? Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont discuss.
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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 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
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!
DTNS 2710 – Psychological Costs of Notifications
Peter Wells and Justin Gibson discuss the differences between iOS and Android, as well the headlines of the day.
<!–Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.–>
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
Follow us on Soundcloud.
A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 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
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!
Weekly Tech Views – March 12, 2016
Real tech stories. Really shaky analysis.
For the week of March 7 – 11, 2016…
It’s Daylight Savings Time again. It’s always tough losing an hour of your weekend; just make sure you sacrifice something unimportant like doing a load of laundry or making dinner for your kids so you have time to savor the Weekly Tech Views.
Space: The Final Bum Steer
Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin plans to take tourists into space in 2018. Six people at a time would take these short trips to experience weightlessness.
Jeff Bezos-owned Amazon has posted a job opening for a senior software development manager of virtual reality.
Yeah, nobody’s going into space.
“Okay, guys, you are really going to enjoy being part of the select group of humans to experience weightlessness in space. It’s going to be thrilling. We’ll be taking off in just a moment, as soon as you all put on these special safety goggles. We’ve found weightlessness can have some negative effects on the exposed human eye.
“What effects? Good question. Well, it seems in 83 percent of cases the eye will pop like a champagne cork from the orbital socket, and, tethered by the optic nerve, will bounce off your face in zero gravity like the world’s slowest game of pabbleball. So, no matter what, DON’T REMOVE THE VIRT–THE SAFETY GOGGLES!”
“He Based The Firm On Me, You Know”
The Supreme Court declined to hear Apple’s appeal of the $450 million verdict against them in an ebook price fixing case, meaning Apple will start paying out $400 million to affected ebook buyers. Certainly, nobody is accusing the Justices of acting in their own self interest, though each is expected to collect a healthy windfall for their John Grisham collections.
Low Sodium Diets Were Less Common Then
Verizon was fined $1.35 million by the FCC for using “supercookies” to identify mobile users and track their activities across the web, enabling Verizon to target advertising. Verizon said, “Really? $1.35 million? You didn’t forget a zero?” Then they shrugged and peeled $1.5 mill off the roll of cash they keep in their pocket and said, “Keep the change.”
More interestingly, did you know that the origin of both the term and concept of “supercookies” dates back to America’s Old West? As you’ve likely seen in Westerns, cowboys would refer to the cook as Cookie. If a cowboy especially enjoyed a particular meal, he would say, “That was super, Cookie.” Well, Cookie, wanting to stay on the guys’ good side, would file away this information, tracking everyone’s preferences, so that he could replicate the results on special occasions like birthdays or winning the weekly long-distance spittoon-filling contest. Of course, on long cattle drives, the menu pretty much came down to subtle variations of beans and dried beef, so sometimes the best Cookie could do to was up the saltiness of a recipe to a cowboy’s preference by making a concerted effort to let more sweat than usual drip from his face into the “stew.”
It Is Better To Look Good…
Ride service Lyft is integrating with Facebook Messenger, but this comes months after rival Uber did the same. In a letter to shareholders, Lyft pointed out that they remain the undisputed industry leader in pink moustache integration.
And Our Cat Gets To Watch Zootopia!
A company called Screening Room wants to make it possible for us to watch first-run movies in our home. After buying the $150 set-top box, current movies would cost $50 each. Expensive, yes, but for a couple and their three kids, might it not be worth ten bucks a pop to not wrangle the gang into the car, find parking, hunt down non-sticky sections of theater floor (accompanied by non-broken seats), and escort little Bennie and Bonnie to the restroom mid-movie? Also, microwave popcorn and a six pack of Faygo instead of theater concessions? You break even right there.
Even with no kids of your own, it could be financially viable. Try this: make one trip to a theater with your wailing four-year-old nephew and explain that you have to bring him in to the 9:30 opening night showing of Captain America: Civil War because you can’t find a babysitter. Watch how fast everyone in line kicks in a few bucks so you can watch at home. You’ll still be watching movies for free in the comfort of your living room when the next Star Wars comes out!
Does It Come With The Tie I Suppose I Have To Wear To Dinner?
The Tovala company is Kickstarting a smart oven that reads the bar code on a prepackaged meal and not only knows whether to bake, broil, steam, or use convection heating, but at what temperature and for how much time. This obviously falls in the category we like to call Technologically Impressive But Unnecessary. I have a microwave oven. Done. Yes, I’ve come across the occasional food where the only cooking instructions were “On the stovetop,” “In the oven,” and “On the grill.” Know how I cooked them? That’s right, “In the microwave.” Name something that can’t be cooked by setting the microwave at the highest heat for two minutes. Not done? Two more minutes. Hot dog comes out a little rubbery? It’s a hot dog. A little stadium mustard and it’s fine. But you go ahead and “bake” or “broil.” That is, have your butler instruct your chef to do so, Your Highness.
No, Of Course They’d Break It In Five Minutes, But Theoretically…?
Toyota’s Project Blaid is developing a device to help blind people get around more easily. The device is worn around the neck and uses cameras to recognize things like stairs, doors, and signs. Haptic feedback guides the wearer to their destination.
This is brilliant for the visually impaired, but can I suggest, as an additional revenue stream, marketing these to college campuses for the beer impaired? The student signs one out from the rack at the bar’s exit by scanning his ID (or, let’s face it, letting an employee scan it–we don’t have all night) and–presto!–he avoids the half dozen occurrences of deciding which of the three wavering doors he’s supposed to go through on the way back to his dorm (and most likely ending up splayed in front of the front door to the dorm where the cute girl from Medieval Lit that he keeps wanting to talk to lives). The around-the-neck design may need to be rethought, however, for drunk college kids with bellies full of beer and cheesy fries. Particularly for the sake of the work/study kid getting minimum wage to go around campus the next day to collect them.
And I’m Getting Close At Yahtzee
AlphaGo, an artificial intelligence program developed by Google’s DeepMind unit, defeated an 18-time Go champion in the first two games of their five game series, stunning experts in both the AI and game worlds. Sure, everyone’s all gaga when a machine beats a human, but when I beat the CD-ROM version of Battleship three straight times? Crickets.
Okay, you read it, and it only took five minutes, so I guess you should go ahead and make dinner for your kids. Remember–high heat, two minutes, stadium mustard.
Mike Range
@MovieLeagueMike
Weekly Tech Views by Mike Range is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
DTNS 2709 – Alexa, What’s In My Wallet?
Justin Robert Young, Eric Geller and Jaime Ruiz talk FCC, FBI and lots of other security-minded acronyms. Tom Merritt is on assignment!
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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
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!
DTNS 2708 – Privacy Badger Don’t Care About Tracking Cookies
Opera builds ad blocking into its browser. Justin Young and Tom Merritt fire up the old ad blocking debate and why it’s NOT about blocking ads.
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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 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
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!
DTNS 2707 – Astronaut Prime
A machine learning algorithm beat a Go Master and Blue Origin announces plans for manned flights including space tourism. Andrew Mayne and Tom Merritt discuss.
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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you are willing to support the show or give as little as 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
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!
#246 – The 34 Rules Of Robotics With J – F Dubeau
We chat with J-F Dubeau, author of The Life Engineered, first book in the Sword and Laser Inkshares collection. Find out whether the thousand year old robots in the book had any real life inspirations and whether they have sex. We’re guessing you’re slightly more interested in one of those questions than the other.