Todd Whitehead is on the show today. In light of Facebook’s new launch of Atlas to market to people across devices and even offline, we’ll talk about whether we’re OK being the product or not. Ello anyone?
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Show Notes
Today’s guests: Todd Whitehead of Alpha Geek Radio
Headlines
Facebook announced it’s relaunching its Atlas ad platform with a new interface and the ability to track people across devices and even bridge the gap between online ad impressions and offline purchases. Techcrunch reports Facebook is quick to remind us that Atlas isn’t an add network but meant to measure and verify ad impressions. Facebook calls it “people-based marketing.” Although it also assures us that the data is encrypted and not associated with individual people. So they in no way have little private dossiers about every single thing that you do in your life. Nope.
The Verge reports Cloudflare deployed universal SSL offering free SSL encryption to any site that opts in, including customers of Cloudflare’s free service. Cloudflare says “Yesterday, there were about 2 million sites active on the Internet that supported encrypted connections. By the end of the day today, we’ll have doubled that.”
The New York Times reports that all those folks waiting in line to buy iPhones so they could resell them in China may not have paid off as much as hoped. The iPhone 6 and 6 plus have not been approved for official sale in China yet. The Times tells anecdotes of falling prices on grey market iPhones and one wholesaler complaining they have way too many iPhone 6’s in stock. MacRumors reports a leaked internal memo indicates the iPhone may be approved for sale soon, hit stores October 7th and go on sale in China October 10th.
CNET reports that Microsoft will open a flagship retail store in New York City on Fifth Avenue, replacing a Fendi store. Back when Microsoft launched the original Surface back in 2012, the company opened a pop-up store in Times Square, and they do have some retail stores in the New York area, but this is their first permanent Manhattan location. No word on an opening date yet.
Ars Technica reports that Adobe is finally bringing Photoshop to Chromebook as part of its Creative Cloud offering. As such, the app will be accessed remotely not stored locally. This streaming Photoshop will run in a “”virtualized environment” but won’t have GPU support at launch. The network requirements are listed as “5 mbps/max latency 250,” and right now the program is in beta and only available to US education customers who subscribe to Adobe’s creative cloud.
Lenovo announced it will officially close its acquisition of IBM’s x86 server business on October 1st. CNET reports that will make Lenovo the third largest seller in the x86 server market. IBM will continue to provide maintenance support on the servers for a certain extended period time.
FireChat has become a popular tool for sharing information among students demonstrating in Hong Kong. The app allows communication in a mesh network using Bluetooth and Apple’s Multipeer Connectivity Framework when cell data or WiFi won’t work. TechinAsia reports student activist leader Joshua Wong posted a message urging people to download FireChat in anticipation of poor cellular network connectivity.
News From You
gullwingdmc passes along a 9 to 5 Mac report that Apple has removed an app called Launcher from its App Store for “misuse of widgets.” The app allowed users to create custom shortcuts to apps from Notification Center. Users who already upgraded to the pro version of the app through an in-app purchase will still be able to use the pro capabilities, but no one else will be able to purchase the upgrade. Apple said there is no chance that Launcher will be allowed back with the widget functionality still in place. So remember to treat your widgets with kindness and respect, people.
habichuelacondulce pointed out the Ars Technica article on research out of the University of Central Florida that indicated Google Glass is no safer than phones for texting while driving. However Glass users did regain control of their vehicles faster than phone users following traffic incidents. This adds to other studies that generally show the distraction of texting or calls is the danger not the form factor of the device upon which they are accessed.
diggsalot submitted the BGR report that Microsoft may make Windows 9 free at least for some customers. Among the many reports, Indonesian online publication Detik said earlier this week that President of Microsoft Indonesia Andreas Diantoro said Windows 9 would be free to existing Windows 8 users. Microsoft has an announcement about Windows scheduled for tomorrow Sept. 30.
Discussion Links: The Product is YOU.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/28/facebook-atlas-relaunch/
http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/28/facebook-acquires-atlas/
http://atlassolutions.com/2014/09/29/meet-the-new-atlas/
http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/13/facebook-custom-audiences-measurement/
Pick of the Day: The Evoluent vertical mouse via Dave Popovich
Dave Popovich of Stuart, Florida writes: Wanted to share a product that has saved me lots of medical bills. Being a network administrator for 500 users in 9 locations, you can guess I spend a lot of time at my computer using my mouse. And that meant I would drive home after work, and massage my right forearm because of the dull ache of the carpal tunnel pain.
I don’t remember how I discovered this product, but it has really made a difference – the Evoluent vertical mouse at http://Evoluent.com. I have been using the regular size, right handed, wired versions for years now, at home and at work and have no more wrist pain! It works by turning your hand 90 degrees so you rest your arm on the outside bones and not the soft tissue of the inside arm. They also make smaller mice and left-handed mice!
Only caveats: with years of training to use a mouse one way, you are a bit less accurate at first using the vertical mouse. just takes a little practice. Also, the mouse has LOTS of extra buttons, which I found got in the way, but just go into the driver and set those trouble buttons to not do anything.
It really has changed my life and many vendors and computer service folks are very interested when they see it on my desk.
Tuesday’s guests: Patrick Beja and Molly Wood!