Julio Ojeda-Zapata is on the show today. We’ll talk about ways you can replace Aereo with your own DIY solutions, plus Oculus Dev conference, TSA’s war on dead electronics and more!

MP3

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

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Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Julio Ojeda-Zapata, Tech Writer, St. Paul Pioneer Press

Headlines

Facebook’s Oculus announced its first developer conference, called oculus Connect, will take place September 19-20th at Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles. In addition to keynotes from Brendan Iribe, Palmer Luckey, John Carmack and Michael Abrash, attendees can take part in sessions and labs with in-house Oculus engineers. Oculus also acquired RakNet, a provider of a cross-platform C++ game networking engine, and open sourced it under a modified BSD license. You can get it from the oculus GitHub Repo.

TechCrunch reports Gartner published forecasts for global PC, tablet ultramobile and mobile phone shipments for 2014. 2.4 billion units will ship from these categories, 88% of which will be mobile phones and tablets. About half of those will run Android. And tablets only make up 256 million of those. PCs are expected to ship 308 million units. Meaning that tablets won’t quite surpass PCs this year. However Gartner expects that to change in 2015 when they predict 317 million PCs will ship to 320 million tablets. Interestingly, Gartner sees growth in tablets slowing while PC declines are predicted to slow and then reverse. 

Daily Tech reports the LG G3 smartphone and the G watch will go on sale in the online and IRL AT&T stores July 11th in the US. The G3 is an Android 4.4 KitKat phone with a 5.5-inch QHD display. The G Watch, on the other hand, runs Google’s new Android Wear operating system.

The Next Web reports South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has introduced new rules requiring Apple and Google to make it easier for users to get refunds for apps. Google has not allowed refunds and must now also prevent apps from automatically charging full price for an app at the end of a trial period. Apple does already allow refunds but will be required to make its policy more visible and doa abtter job notifying customers of changes in its contractual agreements. Google’s changes will only apply in Korea, while Apple is considering making its changes apply worldwide. 

Engadget reports the second-generation Kinect sensor for Windows will begin shipping on July 15th. The new kinect was already available for pre-order from Microsoft for $199/£159. Developers can publish Kinect apps to the Windows store.

Reuters reports the US Secret Service arrested 30-year-old Russian, Roman Valerevich Seleznev Saturday on charges of hacking US retail computer systems in order to steal credit cards. Seleznev was indicted in the state of Washington on March 2011 on charges of bank fraud, identity theft and accessing a protected computer. 

Engadget reports the mobile payment consortium of telcos and commerce partners called Isis has decided to change its name to avoid comparisons with Sunni militia in Syria and Iraq that has declared a caliphate spanning those states. The new name was not announced yet. One imagines Archer may face the same dilemma.

News From You

Tekkyn00b had our top vote getter today from iMore.com. The United States Transportation Security Administration has ordered new security measures regarding electronics carried on to direct flights to the US. Passengers may be asked to turn on devices like cell phones, and devices that will not turn on will not be allowed through security. The BBC reports the checks may be done at security checkpoints or at boarding gates. Passengers can put dead electronics in checked luggage, try to charge the phone nearby, or opt to use a service to have it shipped. The rules apply to newly-purchased devices as well as broken ones.

spsheridan submitted the verge article noting YouTube has begun durfacinglinks to its Video Quality Report in videos that are buffering or having other streaming issues. A new pop-up bar reads “Experiencing interruptions? Find out why” and links to a page comparing ISPs in your area and ranks them by their ability to stream YouTube. That way informed consumers can look at the report, realize that while their current ISP may not support good streaming they can— despair if you’re in the US or Canada? Well it will work great in countries with ISp comeptition I suppose.

tm204 submitted the ReCode article claiming its sources say Google has set aside as much as $500 million to expand the Google Shopping Express Service nationwide in the US. The service lets customers order items from local retail stores and have them delivered, sometimes the same day. Google wants to tie the service into search ads for products to try to reclaim the product searching crown from Amazon.

Discussion Section: Roamio, Roamio

https://www.tivo.com/shop/configure/tivo-roamio#/tivo-stream

http://www.slingbox.com/go/buy

http://tablotv.myshopify.com/

https://us.simple.tv/#getit

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mohu/mohu-channels-personal-channel-guide-makes-tv-smar

http://www.channelmaster.com/Products_s/329.htm#DVR+

http://www.gomohu.com/shop/the-leaf-indoor-hdtv-antenna.html?gclid=CjwKEAjwiumdBRDZyvKvqb_6mkUSJABDyYOzbwxemrGzPBFzocW_YNWdKdpCwuoSsq09lNcJqsuwOxoCCcPw_wcB

http://www.rcaaudiovideo.com/antennas/

http://www.winegard.com/get-free-tv/hdtv-antenna/flatwave/

Pick of the Day: Alesis Multimix 8 via Tom

Alesis Multimix 8

Tuesday’s show: Shannon Morse of hak5.org

Is Tech getting jerky? We talk with Justin Young and Patrick Beja about apps like ParkingMonkey and ReservationHop. Plus illustrations by Len Peralta

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Patrick Beja! Justin Robert Young! Many nerds!

Headlines

9to5Mac reports that Jean-Claude Biver, head of watch brands at LVMH told CNBC that Apple has hired one of watchmaker Tag Heuer’s sales directors. A source confirmed the hire to 9to5 Mac. Apparently, Patrick Pruniaux former Vice President of Sales and Retail for Tag Heuer was the person hired. Apple has not said anything publicly about the hire or whether they even believe watches exist.

The Verge reports the Pew Research Center released another in its series of reports on the future of the Internet called Net Threats. Pew asked the experts “By 2025 will there be significant changes for the worse and hindrances to the ways in which people get and share content online compared with the way globally networked people can operate online today?” Of the respondents, 35 percent said yes, while 65 percent said no. Among the threats specified, the respondents listed government crackdowns, Internet surveillance, and prioritization of near-term profits over the long term benefit of the Net, particularly net neutrality concerns. Another threat was overcompensating for the amount of information people are flooed with each day.

TechRadar reports Lenovo has received permission to acquire IBM’s low-end server unit from the anti-monopoly bureau of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. The deal was announced in January and is also awaiting approval from the United States.

ZDNet reports the head of Google’s spam fighting team, Matt Cutts, is taking a break for a couple months. Cutts says he’ll be gone through October so he can be with his family more. Cutts is the target of a lot of consternation from folks who hate it when Google changes their search algorithm. Some speculate it may be a step towards Cutts leaving Google.The anti-spam team wills till be keeping sites from gaming search results int he meantime.

TechCrunch reports Nielsen’s US music report on the first half of 2014 shows the shift from music downloads to streaming continues. On-demand streaming was up 42% over the first half of 2013 while digital track sales fell 13% and album sales fell 11.6%. Vinyl sales rose 40% over 2013. Audio streaming is gaining parity with video streaming of music with 33.65 billion music tracks streamed compared to 36.64 billion music videos.

Wired reports that Nadim Kobeissi will release a bet aversion of an all-purpose file encyrption browser plugin called miniLock at the HOPE hacker conference in New York. The free and open source plugin is meant to make it easy to drag and drop files to encrypt so that no one but the intended recipient can unscramble them.

News From You

tm204 submitted the DasErste article about the NSA program X-Keyscore targets anyone who uses or visits sites for privacy protections tools like Tor or the Linux-based Tails operating system. German public television broadcasters NDR and WDR reporters analyzed X-Keyscore source code which indicated the program has targeted a German student who runs a Tor node. The EFF has noted that the more people who use the tools, the less helpful targeting users blindly will be for any surveillance efforts.

JalenJade on Twitter pointed out a story at iMedicalApps.com that studies demonstrating the efficacy and safety of an “artificial” or “bionic” pancreas for people with type 1 diabetes have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine and announced at the American Diabetes Association Scientific Session in San Francisco. The Boston University-based project uses an iPhone, a Dexcom G4 continuous glucose sensor and Tandem T:Slim insulin pump. 

KAPT_Kipper submitted the TorrentFreak article that SoundCloud has given Universal Music the ability to remove allegedly infringing copyright music from the service without consulting anyone or taking into an account a counternotice. DJ Mr Brainz had his paid account terminated due to repeated copyright infringements as a result of Universal’s capability. The DJ believes his use of the music was either authorized or fair use but when he sought clarification on the reason for the takedowns Soundcloud could not answer as UNiversal had removed the files directly.

Discussion Section: Reservation Hop

http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/03/everyone-seems-mad-at-reservation-hop-founder-admits-he-was-taken-aback-by-the-criticism/?ncid=rss

Monday’s show: Julio Ojeda-Zapata, Tech Writer, St. Paul Pioneer Press

 

Various attendees at Nerdtacular help comment on the headlines of the day.

MP3

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Scott Johnson is on the show to chat about Google’s acquisition of Songza and what this means for how we listen to music. Also get a preview of Nerdtacular!

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Justin Robert Young is racing from the airport, so his part will be played by Veronica Belmont and eventually we’ll all talk about Yahoo picking up Community and what this means for the future of television.

MP3

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

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

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

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the 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 and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest: Veronica Belmont & maybe, just maybe JuRY

Headlines

GigaOM reports Samsung announced the Galaxy S5 Mini Tuesday. The smaller version of the S5 has a 4.5-inch AMOLED screen that’s 720p capable, 1.4GHz quad-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM and a microSD card slot. Those specs are a touch below the bigger S5 but the mini also comes with the waterproofing, heart rate monitor, fingerprint scanner and Galaxy Gear compatibility just like the big version. It goes on sale in 4 colors starting in Russia in July and will expand to global markets afterwards.

TechCrunch reports Microsoft has increased security for OneDrive and Outlook.com. Outlook.com now supports TLS which keeps email encrypted as long as the receiving email service also supports TLS. Both Outlook.com and OneDrive now support Perfect Forward Secrecy encryption as well which helps mitigate damage if a secret key is compromised.

Engadget reports GE is taking on the smartphone-controlled light bulb dominance of Philips with some new bulbs called Link. The bulbs require a $30 hub to operate, but then the bulbs themselves are only $15-$25 each. Lifx bulbs run $100, Philips new Lux bulbs are $40 and even Insteon costs $30. Link bulbs are controlled through the Wink app made by Quirky and should last 23 years or so. Home Depot is taking pre-orders for the bulbs today and they’ll ship this autumn.

Computerworld passes along that DARPA has set the date for the final stage of its three-phase Robotics Challenge to be held June 5 and 6, 2015, in Pomona, Calif. 11 teams will compete for a $2 million prize, though DARPA expects the number of entrants to increase. The first two phases involved demonstrating software for autonomous etasks like walking, using tools, climbing and driving. In the finals, the robots will face a full-scale disaster situation, and have to use a series of ladders, doors, cars and valves to handle the situation.

TechCrunch The US National Archives and Record Administration has made its ongoing efforts to upload content to Wikimedia Commons a core part of its purpose. NARA uploaded 100,000 images in 2012 as a test. 4,000 Wikipedia articles featuring NARA records received more than one billion page views in 2013. The uploads range from mundane federal agency records to World War II photos and presidential portraits.

News From You

MacBytes posted the Verge article giving a few more details on Keurig’s Coffee pod DRM scheme. Key patents on Keurig’s pods expired in 2012 leading to third-party pods. Keurig makes most of its money selling pods not machines. The new brewer going on sale this autumn, scans pods for special markings, based on anti-conterfeiting technology used by the US Mint. Its essentially DRM for coffee. It’s also going to make your old Keurig machine much more valuable.

robodashy has the Mashable story that the United States Food and Drug Administration has approved ReWalk Robotics’ personal exoskeleton for marketing in the U.S. The 46-pound robotic legs support their own weight plus a 220-pound user who wears a 5-pound backpack. A wrist-device with physical buttons controls the device. The battery is designed to support a full day of intermittent walking, but if the wearer walks non-stop, the battery will last three to four hours. Users have to be between 5-foot-3 and 6-foot-3. The device costs $69,500 and is not covered by insurance in the US.

spsheridan submitted the Ars Technica story about No-IP.com going down after Microsoft seized 22 domain names it claimed were being abused in malware-related crimes. Millions of legitimate servers relied on No-IP for dynamic domain name services, including AlphaGeekRadio.Microsoft claimed No-IP domains were used 93 percent of the time by Bladabindi and Jenxcus malware and its operator, Defendant Vitalwerks did not take sufficient steps to address the abuse.

And tjburbank sent in the story from Daily Dot about Paypal freezing the account of crowdfunded ProtonMail. The ProtonMail project wants to make an easy email encryption tool. A Paypal representative said it was not sure if ProtonMail was legal. Apparently Paypal figured it out as the account was restored late this morning. Paypal in a following statement claimed “a technical problem this week resulted in PayPal applying restrictions to the account.” Right. ProtonMail says it will not rely on Paypal for donations until its assured there will not be a repeat of this.

Discussion Section: 

http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/30/community-will-get-its-sixth-season-on-yahoo/?ncid=rss

http://www.wired.com/2014/06/community-sixth-season-yahoo/

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/community-returning-sixth-season-yahoo-715857

http://www.fastcocreate.com/1682555/ken-marino-shows-how-to-parody-the-already-ridiculous-with-burning-love

Pick of the Day: SNL Archives on Yahoo Screen

Jennie’s pick of the day is the SNL archive on Yahoo Screen. Disclaimer: Jennie worked for Yahoo’s video department not too long ago. And then that ended. Yet she STILL wants to recommend the incredibly deep bench of archival Saturday Night Live clips that you can find on Yahoo Screen, including ones you don’t often see online due to music rights, like Will Ferrell’s gut-busting ‘Cowbell’ sketch as well as Chris Farley & Patrick Swazye’s legendary dance-off in the “Chippendales” sketch. The archive also includes older, deeply subversive clips like Buck Henry’s “Uncle Roy” and the legendary face-off between Chevy Chase & Richard Pryor known as “Word Association.” Enjoy the rest of your day, people.

Wednesday’s Guest: Scott Johnson with a Nerdtacular’14 preview.