Patrick Beja joins the show to talk about whether we want wearables to control our moods. And whether we think they can. Plus Jennie Josephson weighs in on the Instagram-Bieber’s Butt issue.

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Show Notes

(more…)

Veronica Belmont reports in on the advent of fighting robots on the Japanese acceptance of a US fighting robot challenge.

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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: Veronica Belmont

Headlines:

The Guardian reports attackers took control of the Twitter account of Italian security firm Hacking Team, and posted allegations that 400 GB of documents had been accessed. Hacking Team says it provides “tools to police organizations and other government agencies that can prevent crimes or terrorism.” Posted documents appeared to be emails, invoices and screenshots some of which showed dealings with countries like Ethiopia and Sudan. Christian Pozzi of Hacking Team tweeted that a lot of what is being posted is not true.

CNET reports that Instagram will let you share pictures that are 1080 pixels by 1080 pixels the first improvement since Instagram launched supporting 640 by 640 resolution.. The feature is gradually rolling out, and let’s everybody take moment to enjoy this terrific update before we start grousing about the lack of support for multiple accounts.

Tech Crunch reports that Amazon has added an iOS app for its Cloud Drive service. Android apps for Google Play and Amazon app store showed up in June and the iOS app became available over the weekedm. The apps are fairly basic, offering a simplified folder list and a way to view and share files but no editing, moving files, uploading from mobile and no automatic sync. Users can also play music and videos stored on Cloud Drive. Amazon’s Unlimited Everything plan costs $60 per year and its Unlimited Photos service is $11.99 per year.

The Verge reports that it has sources that say Microsoft is finalizing Windows 10 for manufacturers this week. Once the release to manufacturing (RTM) build is ready, Microsoft will send the final copy of Windows 10 to its PC partners ahead of a release to the public on July 29th. Though Windows 10 bug fixes and updates will continue even after that. Microsoft also announced its music service, formerly Xbox Music will be named Groove in Windows 10. Xbox Video gets the snappy rename of Movies and TV.

The Next Web reports Bitcoin engineer Ryan X. Charles wrote on Medium that he worked on a decentralized version of Reddit that used bitcoin to fund hosts. Reddit would no longer control content outside of what it wished to host in the official Reddit company version of the service. This is suspiciously close to what Fred Wilson described on avc.com today as he predicted a decentralized media platform using the blockchain was going to happen soon. Meanwhile Reddit CEO Ellen Pao posted an apology and another promise that Reddit will improve tools and communication with moderators. A new Moderator Advocate will serve as a point of contact for mods. I hear Victoria Taylor is looking for a gig.

Mojang has announced a “whole new version” of Minecraft specifically for Windows 10 according to CNET. The new version will feature Creative and Survival modes, as well as online and local multiplayer with the Pocket Edition. It also adds multiple control setups, a GameDVR and a built-in feedback system so players can let Mojang know what they like–and what they don’t. A beta version of the game launches on July 29 for $10 and will be free for owners of the existing Minecraft game.

Google launched its first Android One device in Pakistan in partnership with QMobile according to the The Express Tribune. The QMobile A1 is now available at retail stores across Pakistan. The phone comes with a 4.5-inch touch screen, a 1.3GHz quad core processor, a 5-megapixel rear camera with an LED flash, a 2-megapixel front camera, 1GB RAM and 8GB of built-in memory. The dual-SIM phone runs Android 5.1 Lollipop and will cost 11,500 Pakistani Rupees – about US$113.

The Wall Street Journal reports that McDonald’s Corp. and Yum Brands Inc. are testing digital payment options in China. McDonald’s will test mobile ordering and payment under a pilot program in the current third quarter. The aim is to speed payment and meet consumer demands. Yum said its KFC business began partnering with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in June to launch mobile-payment services for 700 stores in China. Customers can pay for their in-store orders with scanning bar codes generated by Alibaba’s mobile-payment application Alipay.

ECN Mag reports Dan Baechle, a mechanical engineer at the US Army Research Laboratory, is testing MAXFAS, a mechatronic arm exoskeleton, designed to train new Soldiers to shoot. After subjects wore MAXFAS, then performed a shooting trial, tremor was lessened. MAXFAS is modeled from a robotic device to train arm motion of stoke victims at the University of Delaware. Baechle hopes someday that MAXFAS could be used to improve aim on the battlefield under adverse conditions.

News From You: 

efc88 sent us The Next Web/Buzzfeed report that Greece’s temporary capital controls, which restricts Greek citizens from taking money out of the country, also mean Greek citizens can’t use their credit cards in the online store of a foreign country. Several people in Greece have tweeted that their credit cards were declined in Apple’s online store, and Paypal issued a statement saying that funding of Paypal wallet from Greek Bank accounts is “currently not available.”

starfuryzeta sent us the Engadget report that in celebration of Amazon’s 20th birthday on July 15th, the company will host a “global shopping event” for Amazon Prime members with allegedly “more deals that Black Friday. If you’re not an Amazon Prime member you can sign up for the free 30 day trial and experience the magic of…wait for it… PRIME DAY.

Discussion Section: 

http://qz.com/445535/japan-has-accepted-the-uss-giant-robot-fighting-challenge/?utm_content=buffera90a6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

http://www.theverge.com/2015/7/6/8899879/giant-robot-duel-megabots-kuratas

http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/30/3201328/kuratas-suidobashi-mech-robot-japan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuratas

http://www.megabots.com/http://suidobashijuko.jp/http://www.tested.com/art/makers/529168-maker-faire-2015-megabots-giant-fighting-robot/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/11721037/Japan-and-America-agree-to-put-giant-fighting-robots-into-battle.html

Pick of the day:

Niyas writes:

You know how we can get the special characters like ♣ or ♬ or ‰ using the built-in character map apps or even selecting special fonts like Webdings on a desktop. But this has always been more difficult on a mobile device. Enter Notengoenie at http://m.notengoenie.com They have a set of special characters (albeit not a very exhaustive one) that we might need quickly while composing something on a mobile device. I have used this web-app so many times and it is on the top of my bookmarks. Sometimes, owing to the sheer convenience of it, I even use it while I’m on my desktop.

Messages:

Jonathan writes:

As someone who commutes over an hour one direction every day for work I am all in for self-driving cars. The efficiencies of metering traffic and having cars adjust to traffic conditions would be great. Not to mention I can’t wait until we get to the point that I could have that hour of sleep back in the morning while the car gets me to where I’m going. All of that sounds great as we go down the path of our eventual robot overlords delivering us like packages on drones. However, as a motorcycle rider, I don’t want to get to a point of riding without me in control. Even if we do start getting self-driving motorcycles it would take the fun out of the experience. So while I look forward to the benefits, I hope we never get to a day that manual driving is not possible or even illegal.

Thanks for all you do. Listening to the show is something I look forward to every day.

Have a Great Day!

—-

Tuesday’s Guest: Patrick Beja

It’s a holiday in the US so Tom has a shorter show reading the headlines with a little commentary on the whole Reddit AMA thing.

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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

Dan Patterson joins the show to try to explain why you might not get Windows 10 on launch day and how tech is either destroying or saving journalism.

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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: Dan Patterson

Headlines:

Microsoft gave more details on the rollout of Windows 10 in a blog post from Terry Myerson today. The short version? Not everybody will get it on July 29. OEM partners get it “soon” to start imaging for new devices. “Soon after” retailers will get it for customer support. July 29 Windows Insiders get it. THEN people who “reserved” an update will get it in waves “scaling up after July 29.” If you reserved it Microsoft will push a notification when you’re ready or will provide details if your system has issues that might prevent the upgrade. Businesess will get it on July 29 and Volume License customers will get it August 1. See? easy.

Engadget reports SEOBook’s Aaron Wall noticed some Google search ads showing up in a small number of queries on Yahoo. The New York Times confirmed the arrangement is a “small test.” Yahoo still has a partnership with Microsoft but it is no longer exclusive and the partnership can be terminated in October. Yahoo and Google walked away from a partnership in 2008 after opposition by the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division.

CNN Money reports that Mastercard will experiment to pay with your face. 500 customers will be able to us the Mastercard phone app, to confirm a purchase with either a fingerprint OR stare at a phone’s camera and blink once. The blink is meant to prevent someone using a still image of you. Mastercard has partnered with most major smartphone companies including Apple, Google, Blackberry and Samsung and is working on deals w/ the banks that issue the credit cards.

Rhino Security Labs founder Benjamin Caudill has developed a hardware proxy that lets users IP address appear to be up to 2.5 miles away according to Motherboard. The ProxyHam is a Raspberry Pi, Wi-Fi Card and 3 Wi-Fi antennas stuffed into a cardboard box. One Antenna connects to a public Wi-Fi network and the other two antennas transmit and receive to the user. The idea is to plug it in a hidden corner of a library or coffee shop, somewhere with public WiFi. That way of the user’s IP address is located, they won’t be nearby if someone shows up to find them.

TechCrunch reports Xiaomi announced it has sold 34.7 million smartphones in the first half of 2015, up 33% over last year. That’s a nice jump, but not on pace to hit the 100 million smartphones CEO and co-founder Lei Jun estimated the company would sell in 2015. Xiaomi begins selling phones in Brazil July 7. Xiaomi sold 61 million phones in 2014.

According to multiple sources talking to The Verge, Facebook has held talks with Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group about “getting into music”, but they haven’t decided exactly how yet. Discussions are still in the early stages.

ZDNet reports that HP has filed regulatory paperwork with the US SEC regarding plans to spilt the company into two entities by the end of 2015. As expected, HP Inc will sell PCs and printers, while HP Enterprise will focus on commercial Technology with HP CEO Meg Whitman as its head.

Engadget reports the United Arab Emirates National Innovation Committee, WinSun Global and a few other companies plan to use a 20-foot 3D printer to make the parts for an entire office building including the furniture . WinSun Global has already printed a six-story apartment building in China. The project will use Special Reinforced Concrete (SRC), Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP), and Glass Fiber Reinforced Gypsum (GRG) and be ready in a few weeks.

News From You: 

KAPT_kipper submitted the Mashable report that Apple’s new iCloud Music Library syncing isn’t working properly for some users. Tracks are moving onto the wrong albums, album art becomes incorrect and some artists get listed multiple times. And of course all errors get replicated across all devices plugged into the service. Apple has also turned off home sharing for phones and tablets in the new version of iOS.

KennedyStyle submitted the DSL Reports post about Chicago’s new 9% cloud taxes. One is the extension of an amusement tax to electronically delivered amusements like Netflix and Spotify. The other covers “nonpossessory computer leases” or cloud computing. The city requires providers of these kinds of services to begin collecting the tax starting September 1.

gowlkick shared this real life crime thriller from Ars Technica. Carl Mark Force, the head of a Baltimore-based DEA team that investigated the Silk Road drug trafficking website, has pled guilty to extortion, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. Force took payments from Slik Road’s Roiss Ulbricht that he didn’t tell his superiors about and diverted the bitcoins into his personal accounts. He also confiscated money from a customer of his own company and contracted with 20th Century Fox for a movie without supervisory approval. Force has agreed to pay about $500,000 (£320,000) in restitution with $150,000 of that already been paid. Sentencing will take place in October.

starfuryzeta sent us the news that André Borschberg — the pilot flying the Solar Impulse 2 aircraft around the world –has broken the world record for the longest solo flight. Steve Fossett set the previous 76-hour record in 2006 while circumnavigating the globe in the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer. Borschberg had been aloft for more than 4 days without fuel since taking off from Nagoya, Japan and still had almost 40 hours to go before he’s due to reach Kalaeloa, Hawaii. The trip around the world began in Dubai March 9.

Discussion Section: 

https://medium.com/the-news/quick-thoughts-about-the-news-1dc0968c169e

Pick of the day:

HotBranch in sunny, jazz-festy Montreal writes:

Listening to DTNS 2527 and the discussion about the state of modern radio and the lack of locally-produced and curated music reminded me of Bill Fitzhugh’s book, Radio Activity, where a classic rock DJ unwittingly becomes an amateur investigator.

In addition to being a fun, witty whodunnit, there is a cornucopia of incredibly well-researched musical references. Finding a print copy will require hunting through used book stores and yard sales, but the Kindle version is available at Amazon

Fitzhugh is one of my favorite authors, because he regularly weaves musical references and absurdist humor into a solid and entertaining story.

Messages:

Mat Aspinall – Nickelbacker in Having-a-mini-heatwave York, England writes:

Following your discussion of Beats 1 I thought I’d give it a try during my morning train commute. I was delighted to find that as we went through a tunnel and I lost all phone service, the music continued seamlessly. It seems the songs pre-buffer so that if you loose your data connection, so long as you pick it back up before the song ends, the station is uninterrupted.

The station isn’t really for me but I have to admit this is a really cool thing that BBC radio stations I normally listen to can’t do….I tested the iPlayer radio app and found its better at this than I remember, but always cuts out briefly when rejoining the live stream.

The real difference is that Beats 1 picks up the stream seamlessly, where as with my usual iPlayer app I notice the reconnection. The length of time the stream continues without a data connection is also pretty good.

Interestingly you can loose your data connection whilst the presenter on Beats 1 is talking and you’ll still get a seamless experience, so I guess the station isn’t as ‘live’ as they keep saying.

So Beats is still winning on the ‘seamless experience when travelling through patchy phone coverage’ front, but not enough so that I’ll keep listening to it.

 

Scott Johnson and Peter Wells join the show and talk about Microsoft throwing their support behind using Minecraft in education. But is it the right kind of support?

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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: Peter Wells of Reckoner, Australia

Headlines:

The Verge reports on an update rolling out to Snapchat on Android and iOS today. Among the changes, you no longer have to keep your finger on the screen to view snaps and stories. There are also two new ways to add friends. And add nearby finds anyone else who also happens to be looking at the add nearby feature in your vicinity. The other lets you use a screenshot of a QR code to add someone.

Fortune reports Facebook changed its logo. Did you notice? The a in Facebook is now a simpler “single-story” a, the letters are slimmer and there’s more whitespace. Facebook apparently wanted to modernize the logo and make it better suited to viewing on mobile.

ReCode reports Facebook is offering a few dozen partners 55% of revenue from ads shown next to certain videos, starting this autumn. Selected partners like the NBA or Funny or Die will can make money off videos featured in a new area called Suggested Videos. Ads in the Suggested Video feed are autoplay but live on their own and play as you scroll. The feature comes to iOS within weeks and Android and the Web in a few months.

Marc Gurman of 9 to 5 Mac is at it again with two rumors about the next iPhone. I’ll start with the first. Gurman’s source showed him a picture of the logic board with Qualcomm’s 9X35 Gobi modem platform. That chip is more power efficient, a little smaller and best of all supports LTE speeds up to 300 Mbps.

So it’s probably going to look totally different right? Well, no. The source images show a case for the next iPhone that is almost identical in size and design to the current generation iPhone 6 and 6+. Everything else, camera holes, connectors, speakers, mic, all the same. So how do we know it’s not just a picture of a current iPhone case? Different internal mounting structure and Marc Gurman’s trust in his sources.

PC Mag reports YouTube announced you can now watch non-live video at 60 frames per second in its Android and iOS apps. The higher frame rate was already available on the desktop, Apple TV and PlayStation. It’s not available for mobile Web or third-party apps yet.

TechCrunch reports a regional court in Austria ruled as inadmissable a class action lawsuit brought against Facebook by Max Schrems. The suit claims Facebook has violated EU privacy protection laws. The Austrian court said it had no jurisdiction since Facebook’s headquarters is in Dublin and a case would have to be filed in Ireland. The judge also raised questions about Schrems status as a private individual since he organizes vocal protests against privacy violations.

Reuters reports India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading a digital week meant to deliver on a campaign promise to connect 250,000 villages in India by 2019. Officials will announce billions of dollars in investment and plans to stop net imports of technology and electronics by 2020 with the aim of creating 100 million jobs. Before this week the main thing the government has been credited with is bringing free WiFi to the Taj Mahal.

The Independent reports that ARIN, the administrator for IP addresses in North America has become the last regional registry to activate its unmet requests policy. While ARIN has some smaller blocks of addresses available the organization encourages companies to make use of the IPv4 transfer market. Or, you know, switch IPv6 already.

The Wrap reports that the full length trailer for the feature film called “Steve Jobs” was released today. The trailer features Michael Fassbender as Jobs, and Seth Rogen yelling, I mean, playing Steve Wozniak. The movie has an October 9 release date. It is directed by Danny Boyle and written by “The Social Network” screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. No truth to the rumors that Aaron Sorkin’s next movie is about the founding of LinkedIn. “C’MON REID – NO ONE’S GONNA WANT THAT MANY EMAILS!”

New numbers from the Kantar World Panel for the quarter ending in May show Android gaining back 2.8 percent points in market share in the US for 64.9 percent. Credit was given to strong sales of the Samsung Galaxy S6. Android dropped 2.9 points in Europe’s big five markets of Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. The iPhone 6 topped the charts in all those markets except Spain. In China, Apple, Huawei and Xiaomi were the top three in order all with in a half percentage point of each other.

News From You: 

habichuelacondulce reports that the FBI is searching for suspects who have been cutting fiber optic cables in California’s Bay Area, disrupting Internet service as far north as Seattle. The Wall Street Journal reports that cables in Livermore, CA were severed early Tuesday morning causing disruption to Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing service, and to services provided by Hurricane Electric and Wave Broadband.

starfuryzeta passed along the Ars Technica story that starting today in Australia hundreds of mobile apps will not be allowed to be sold in the Google Play and Firefox app stores because they have been refused classification. It’s a pilot program that requires all apps to be rated by the International Age Rating Coalition. Those refused classification cannot be sold in participating app stores. So if you want to play Shroom Tycoon 2 or Pop Pet, looks like you’ll have to sideload.

 

Discussion Section: 

http://www.geekwire.com/2015/microsofts-new-minecraft-site-pitches-it-to-teachers-as-prime-tool-for-classrooms/

http://education.minecraft.net/http://www.cnet.com/news/teaching-kids-to-code-using-minecrafts-building-blocks/

http://www.cnet.com/news/young-minecraft-players-invited-to-design-the-perfect-park/

http://www.geekwire.com/2014/minecraft-education-strategy/http://minecraftedu.com/newshttp://computercraftedu.com/

 

Pick of the day:

I was browsing new releases on the Xbox One store and found there is a new, free Tunein Radio app. While I’m sure the traditional radio content is great I downloaded this app for one reason… Alpha Geek Radio. With this Tunein app I can get Alpha Geek Radio and it’s great geeky content on my Xbox One, including DTNS, what more could one want?

From Nik

 

Messages:

Tom and distinguished guests,

I think the reason people are trying to make a big deal out of Beats 1 Radio is because of the severely deprecated state of terrestrial radio, at least in the US. Aside from the usual Morning Zoo and drive time shock jocks, commercial radio has gone to great lengths to take the experience of curation away and to make it as mechanical as possible (there are several stations in Cleveland that don’t even have DJs, just robot voices telling you the song name and artist between each track). I think there’s a really interested audience that wants a curated experience from someone that’s enthusiastic (or at least good at pretending to be) about sharing new and interesting music , especially people with access to the industry. Just as podcasting in a lot of ways borrowed some of the format of AM talk radio & NPR and put it out to a worldwide niche audience, I think Beats 1 could take what was great about FM radio in the 70s and 80s (minus the coke and payola?), and update it to make it relevant today. If anything, I’d love to see them allow people to create their own little radio programs and host them through the service (for subscribers only, obviously), but that seems like a total pipedream.

Rich from Lovely Cleveland

Full disclosure – I am a DJ on WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland (a college station) and therefore have not undue (arguable) bitterness toward commercial radio. <shameless plug> Also please listen to the MP3 Removal Squad on 91.1 on Sundays from 6-8am EST (a week long archive is available at wruw.org). </shameless plug>

Hi Tom and the Gang,

This Jemuel (pronunced “gem-you-L”) from sunny sometimes rainy Trinidad. More important to me than if Spotify, Rdio, Google Music, Xbox Music or Apple Music is better, is, which one is available in Trinidad. So as nice as the debate about which works the best or has the most users today or has the best features, what really matters is availability. Apple Music launched in 100 countries on day one. Before today if i wanted streaming music I had no options, I tried using a DNS proxy to get Spotify for a while but that stopped working. I dont see the rest of the other service going worldwide anytime soon. So even if Apple is not No. 1 in the US they still might end up with the most users simply because its available in more places.

P.S. Side note the price is cheaper here too $5.99US ($39TT)

Keep Up the good work

Jemuel

Hi DTNS All star League, Marlon “TheGuyFromTrinidad” here. Just wanted to share this link and I can confirm it worked (if it has been plugged when you are recording this) and what I really want to ask is this just a bug or should we be concerned about apple and security.

http://www.androidauthority.com/listen-to-beats-1-on-android-621699/

Thursday’s guest: Dan Patterson