This week, things really go nuts when Veronica realizes that she likes Tom’s book pick more than Tom does, which causes Tom to question everything he has ever known. Meanwhile, over on Goodreads, Thane questions whether present tense is the bane of genre fiction! Hmmm…
DTNS 2582 – Clock Blocked
What Apple giveth, Apple taketh away and what Tom Merritt and Scott Johnson think of the Texas high schooler’s controversial clock and what it means for tech education.
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Show Notes
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It’s Spoilerin’ Time 87
Movie Draft Wrap Up, Triage (Mr. Robot), Mr. Robot Finale, Rick and Morty (207), The Shield (705)
00:47 – Movie Draft Update – Summer 2015 Wrap Up
03:47 – Triage (Mr. Robot)
09:07 – Mr. Robot 110 (season finale)
16:06 – Rick and Morty (207)
20:28 – The Shield (705)
DTNS 2581 – 99 Googballons
Could virtual assistants replace search or even our UI? Tom Merritt and Patrick Beja discuss.
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Show Notes
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Cordkillers 87 – Show Us What You Got
Hulu goes commercial free-ish, Voice search comes to Apple TV, why Netflix won’t let you watch offline.
CordKillers: Show Us What You Got
Recorded: September 14, 2015
Guests: Kristi Kates, Mulango Akpo-Esambe
Intro Video
Primary Target
- Hulu Starts a Commercial-Free Option to Rival Netflix and Amazon
– Hulu launched a commercial free tier for $12 a month
– Exceptions are shows that Hulu hasn’t got the license to show commercial free
– Those shows will have a commercial before and after each episode.
– Grey’s Anatomy, Once Upon A Time, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Scandal, Grimm, New Girl, and How To Get Away With Murder.
– Shows only available because you authenticated through a cable service will still have commercials
Signal Intelligence
- Netflix Exec: No Offline Downloads Because Too Much Choice Is Bad
- Rakuten’s Wuaki.tv Beats Netflix To Offline Downloads, Starting First With Mobile Devices
– Amazon and Wuaki now offer the ability to download certain shows fro offline viewing.
– Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt told Gizmodo that offering offline video options is too much choice
– “One of the things I’ve learned is that every time you offer a choice, you paralyze some people who can’t decide if that’s what they want to do or not. Now, that sounds really stupid and self-serving, but it is in fact true.”
– He said tests have shown adding an addition step in the decision-making process can stop people from watching anything at all
– Netflix would rather make the existing service work in more places like planes, trains and hotels
Gear Up
- Apple Unveils A More Powerful Apple TV, Shipping In October
- It’s hard to build Apple TV apps and that’s good for users
- Plex will bring its media streaming to Apple TV
– 4th gen Apple TV (Eddy Cue senior vice president of Internet Software and Services)
– “The future of TV is apps”
– “Over 60% of pay TV streaming video is consumed on an Apple device.”
– Remote – touchpad, airplay button, voice control “siri” button,
– Searches across multiple apps: iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Showtime
– Plays screen savers that are daypart appropriate
– movies/tv shows/app store/photos/music
– FF, rewind, with thumb on touchpad “what did she say?” skip back
– Can use phone or tablet as a controller
– Can ask Siri for weather and sports scores
– Runs TVOS
– App store including games and shopping and even Zillow?
– 64-bit A8 chip, Bluetooth 4, 802.11ac MIMO, IR
– 32GB for $149, $199 for 64GB, late October
– SDK Available for devs today, no webkit, so no browser
Front Lines
- Microsoft, Amazon video to join Disney’s cloud movie service
– Disney announced Amazon and Microsoft has joined Disney Movies Anywhere. That means Disney movies purchased from Amazon or through Xbox will also be available on any other Disney Movies Anywhere Service, and vicer versa. Vudu, Google and Apple are already part of the system. - U.S. Consumers Now Spend More Time In Apps Than Watching TV
– A Flurry App Analytics report says the average US consumer spends 198 minutes a day in apps v. 168 minutes watching TV. And that doesn’t count the browser as a an app. TV minutes have remained steady while app minutes have been growing year over year. - TiVo revenue beats estimates on subscriptions rise
– TiVo subscriptions rose 26% in Q2, though we don’t know how much is from cable and satellite customers and how much from OTA. The company says it expects continued growth from cable and retail. Also Android users can now download TiVo recordings for offline viewing if they have a TiVo Stream or a box with Stream built into it. - Binge watching clock
– Want to know if you have time to binge all the episodes of DragonballZ/ Well if you have 5.2 days available you can. We know this thanks to bingeclock.com. The service can caluclate how much to binge on shows with commercials, without commercials and skipping credits. - Hey South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong! Netflix says its launching in your countries in early 2016.
Under Surveillance
- Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror to become a Netflix show
– Radio Times says Netflix has struck a deal with Charlie Brooker to fund additional episodes of Black Mirror. Channel 4 which aired the first two runs of episodes is said to have a first look deal on new episodes. - Marvel’s Jessica Jones will premiere on Netflix on November 20th
– Marvel’s Jessica Jones is coming to Netflix November 20th. An enigmatic teaser trailer is out. Kyrsten Ritter is Jessica Jones, Mike Coler is Luke Cage and David Tennant is the Purple Man. - A trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s next TV series Red Oaks is up. It comes to Amazon October 9.
- If you have something capable of displaying 4K video, you can watch space stuff on a new 4K NASA channel launching November 1st.
- Brian: The Shield (705), Rick and Morty, Bojack Horseman season 2, Mr. Robot finale (twice!), couple more episodes of rebels
- Tom: The Shield (705) Late Show w/ Stephen Colbert, Star Trek: Voyager, US Open, Rick & Morty (207), Mr. Robot finale
- Mulango: Mr Robot finale, Doctor Who, Clone Wars because of rebels, Rick and Morty
- Kristi: Agents of Shield, Astronaut Wives Club, Inside Llewyn Davis
- Bryce: Update (Knights of Sidonia, Hotwives), Narcos
- Narcos has been renewed a mere week after its premiere.
Dispatches from the Front
With Hulu going commercial free (Hey Tom, take $4 of my dollars I send you and get a month commercial free and then go back to the commercial version and then tell me if you don’t really notice the commercials on Hulu 😉
Also Sling TV giving me access to Rugby (and my dad is waiting for Apple TV to have sling on it so he can start watching Tennis. He worked in TV for years and only does OTA for his tv viewing)
I am so close to being totally Cord Free but I have horrible reception here in West Hollywood so I still have a TiVo with local cable channel service. We use the Tivo for recording live events like award shows. Is there a service out there that allows me to record / view these shows for later or live viewing? Or is it just a matter of time to wait for it to happen. (AKA Apple TV live streaming coming early 2016/2017/2018….)
Thanks in advance and keep up the good work.
– Blair in West HollyWeird
I’m ready to kill my cord. I love my Fios, but I’m done giving that much money to Verizon every month.
I love with 2 teenagers who are mostly cord-free anyway, but I do have 3 TVs I need to drive OTA signals to. I know about the Channelmaster for OTA DVR action but I really need the potential to run all 3 TVs simultaneously live for local sportball. Is there a solution for this that only involves 1 antenna shared somehow? I’m in a remote suburb and need to get my antenna in the attic or on the roof and don’t want to have to do it x3.
– Rob Damascus, MD
Hey Tom and Brian,
Today marked week one of NCAA Football. Over the last few years conferences have created their own networks; SEC network, Big 10 network, ect. These can usually be found in cable sports packages. While a lot of the networks are aligned with ESPN, they require their own authentication. SLING to the rescue. I added the sports package to my Sling subscription today and was off to the gridiron. The authentication on the ESPN website is pretty flawless. To activate the app on my Amazon Fire TV stick I had to enter a code on another connected device.
I have noticed some streaming issues, I have Optimum 100MBPS (down) internet, but the picture goes form 480 up to HD and back regularly. The audio also drops out sometimes while the video continues in the ESPN app. On the sling app, I would get total black screens with no audio then everything would come back.
While it is not as nice as cable was to watch sports, it was so much easier to add the sports pack and will be easier to remove it. I am just starting my post cord cutting experience. Moving 1/3rd of the way across the country was a great motivator. I am still getting all my devices unpacked and hooked up, but it feels nice to be saving effectively $80/month and getting more content I am interested in.
Your boss,
– Sean
Amazon has acquired video technology company Elemental – Full disclosure, I was employee #12 at elemental six years ago. …
Companies like these three are very much infrastructure companies – they’re features are the guts of the video workflow….
Think about one of Amazon’s other big recent purchases – twitch. Twitch is the eyeballs, Elemental is the efficiency of delivery on that service (and improved quality i imagine). Between just Amazon Instant Video and Twitch, there should be a pretty big value in having elemental onboard.
Here’s one last piece and then i’ll shut up. Elemental has a lot of big broadcast customers – the Olympics, BBC, ESPN, Disney, and even google and Microsoft. Imagine how interesting license rights negations get when your talking to the platform that delivers the content AND the company encoding your content.
– Andy Beach
Links
DTNS 2580 – I choose you, Kimishima!
Microsoft has new hardware coming, Google’s getting serious about cars and Nintendo has a new President. Plus, Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt talk with +Kevin Purdy about the best Android-compatible watches.
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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
To read the show notes in a separate page click here!
Weekly Tech Views – 9
Real tech stories. Really shaky analysis.
Give me five minutes and I’ll give you the week in tech, without the annoying facts or common sense.
For the week of September 7 – September 11, 2015
We start, of course, with news from the Apple Press Event…
You Can’t Spell Tablet Without Table
Apple is expanding their tablet line with the iPad Pro, which, despite being nearly twice the size of the iPad Air, actually conserves space in your home by converting, with the optional fold-out legs, into a dining room table.
Hard Core Star Wars Fans Rebel Against Force Touch
An angry mob of Star Wars fans gathered outside this week’s Apple event to protest the company’s Force Touch feature, claiming it was intentionally deceptive. “They have shown with the Apple Watch that Force Touch does not mean you can control your device with your mind,” said Tommy McCourty, raising and shaking his left arm, where a space black stainless steel Apple Watch rattled against the gold plastic of his C-3PO costume. “And just try to return it because of that. I’m pretty sure…” He turned to face the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, where Apple executives were, after eight hours, guiding the press event toward its halfway point, “…YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO LAUGH AT CUSTOMERS!
“And now they want to claim the iPhone will have Force Touch? Enough is enough.”
Just then, word reached the crowd that Apple was not, in fact, using the term Force Touch for iPhone interaction, but rather 3-D Touch. There was a momentary silence, and then a 250-pound man wearing a Princess Leia slave costume shouted, “We won!” and the air was filled with jubilant droid screams and Wookie bellows.
At last report, the vigilant crusaders were headed for the Glad company to demand the dismissal and possible execution of the creator of the ForceFlex garbage bags, which, it turns out, have to be tied by hand.
A Rose Gold By Any Other Name…
Of course, Apple’s most anticipated announcement came when Tim Cook unveiled this year’s wacky, made-up color option for devices. The winner, as we all know now, was “Rose Gold,” which, according to insiders, narrowly edged out “Chrysanthemum Platinum” and “Fuchsia.”
And, in non-Apple news…
Whisky-A-No-No
In one of mankind’s most vital experiments, a Scottish distillery sent whisky to the International Space Station for three years to find out what effect microgravity would have on flavor. The control sample kept on Earth had hints of raisins, toffee, vanilla, and creamy fudge, while tasters found the “space whisky” to have aromas and flavors of smoke, violet perfume, and antiseptic lozenges, a combination classified by whiskey aficionados as “My Grandmother’s Purse.”
Say Cheese
Canon is introducing a 247-megapixel image sensor that they say can make out the lettering on a plane eleven miles away. If my calculations are correct–try and follow my logic here–that means someone on a plane eleven miles away could capture images on the ground. Which is bad news for our neighbors, Ed and Judy. They just dropped five grand on a community-mandated eight-foot privacy fence after a dozen seven-year-olds at Tina Nelson’s birthday party paused festivities (according to reports, this was a spirited game of Who Can Wear the Most Cake Frosting?) to watch Ed, Judy, and their Labor Day picnic guests playing a spirited game of their own–Nude Bocce. “It’s the way God intended bocce to be played,” Judy told them, just before the kids’ horrified parents yanked them into the Nelson’s house, a process that took longer than expected, because frosting is slippery.
It seems Ed and Judy, following their recent retirement, had pledged to avoid “growing old” by living life “unconventionally,” or, “in a creepy and obscene manner” as the Neighborhood Association put it in the complaint filed with the city.
“Now what, does this camera mean we have to put up a dome because some kid in a window seat on his way to Disney World might snap a photo of our backyard on badminton night? I’m telling you, Thoreau had the right idea; if we could find a nice, secluded, away-from-uptight-humanity spot in the woods we would go full-on Walden Pond, right now. I mean, if it got at least twelve meg internet access. Jude and I have to have our Netflix. Catching up on True Blood, you know.” He nudged me and said, “We watch an episode, then play act it. Getting me some Sookie nookie, right?”
There is no fence tall enough to keep that image from my mind. Thanks, Canon.
Say, I’ve Been Looking for a New Way to Look Like an Idiot in Public
Nintendo is preparing to release Pokemon Go, an augmented reality game for smartphones that has you chasing the game’s characters in the real world. It looks interesting, but the promotional video’s scene of Pokemon characters running through Times Square is nothing new. If you don’t see a sprinting Pikachu carrying an Elmo head and being chased by a cop (and the rest of Elmo) on a Thursday afternoon, you’re not paying attention.
That’s Exactly What He Wants Us to Think
The latest car hack comes from a scientist who claims that, using a low power laser and pulse generator, he can make a self-driving car think there is an obstacle present when there isn’t.
Or is there?
Did anybody stop to think that maybe this guy is an evil genius who has developed an Invisible Obstacle-inator which is placing all too real hazards in the car’s path, and the car is correctly identifying them? Huh? As usual, nobody is going to believe the poor car, the Haley Joel Osment of the vehicle world, that sees things nobody else does. “Just another run-of-the-mill car hack,” the media says. And nobody questions it, because these days, apparently, anyone with a Raspberry Pi and a garage door opener can hack a car. So the mad scientist gets to test his dastardly invention without anyone catching on. Then, when it’s too late, he takes over the world by–
Hey, here’s a question: is it possible to take too much cough syrup?
Thanks again for stopping by the Weekly Tech Views Blog. If you enjoyed it, feel free to send a friend or five this way. If you weren’t so crazy about it, we’ll just pretend this never happened.
Mike Range
@MovieLeagueMike
Weekly Tech Views Blog by Mike Range is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
DTNS 2579 – One More Ad, With Feeling
Startups are beginning to do emotion detection on video and even offer “emotion as a service.” Do we want advertisers to know how we feel? Natali Morris and Tom Merritt discuss, while Len Peralta draws live.
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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 2578 – It’s An App App App App World
Print is dying. Music is dying. TV is dying. App use is on the rise. Is all this true or just a clever shell game? Ewen Rankin, from British Tech Network, 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 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!
S&L Podcast – #227 – Cherie Priest And The Caverns Of Inspiration
This weekend at DragonCon 2015 in Atlanta, we had the great fortune of chatting with Cherie Priest for an hour in front a live audience of Sword & Laser enthusiasts! Listen in to hear Cherie’s rise from goth to glorious, the proper way to distinguish steampunk from goth, and why Lizzie Borden is not who you thought.