PTJ 232: Love and Rocket

April 26, 2017 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Love is all around as the unofficial 2017 Geek Summer Movie Season gets ready to roll next week with the arrival of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in theaters ‚ with Wonder Woman, King Arthur, and another Spider-Man right behind. After a stomp through the week’s tech headlines (including the hunt to shoot down fake news and drones you can fly with your head) El Kaiser and J.D. discuss some of the most anticipated films on the way over the next few months.
Ooga-chaka-ooga-ooga!

Links to Stories in This Week’s News Segment

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales launches Wikitribune, a large-scale attempt to combat fake news (Nieman Lab)
Wikipedia founder to fight fake news with new Wikitribune site (The Guardian)
Our latest quality improvements for Search (Google blog)
Uber’s C.E.O. plays with fire (The New York Times)
Tim Cook reportedly threatened to pull Uber from App Store (CNet)
We can do better (Unroll.me)
HipChat security notice (HipChat blog)
YouTube restores ‘wrongly blocked’ LGBT videos (BBC News)
(YouTube Creators blog)
DJI’s new FPV goggles let you control your drone with head movements (TechCrunch)
Cassini completes final — and fateful — Titan flyby (NASA)
The power of LinkedIn’s 500 million member community (LinkedIn blog)
Popular antivirus program mistakenly IDs Windows as threat, creating chaos (NBC News)
Marissa Mayer will make $186 Million on Yahoo’s sale to Verizon (The New York Times)
Computer pioneer Harry Huskey dies aged 101 (BBC News)
30 must-see upcoming movies of 2017 (NerdMuch)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 231: Veni, Vidi, Vendi

April 20, 2017 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Are we ready for the vending machines to silently judge us based on our snack habits? Some New Yorkers will find out soon as new models equipped with artificial intelligence are making their way to town. Meanwhile the disruptors are getting some disruption themselves, Facebook’s F8 conference brings new announcements, there’s a new Star Wars trailer out and El Kaiser and J.D. wonder if it’s time for iTunes to retire. Grab a bag of chips or your favorite meat-stick product and settle in for a listen here on Episode 231!

Links to Stories in This Week’s Show

Inside the hotel industry’s plan to combat Airbnb (The New York Times)
New York moves to require Uber to provide tipping option in its app (The New York Times)
Facebook Spaces: A new way to connect with friends in VR (Facebook)
The 4 most important things Facebook just announced (Time)
Manhunt in Cleveland after video of killing posted to Facebook (NBC News)
Community Standards and Reporting (Facebook Newsroom)
Netflix falls short on users without a ‘House of Cards’-size hit (Bloomberg)
Apple readies iPhone overhaul for smartphone’s 10th anniversary (Bloomberg)
Apple is having trouble getting the iPhone 8’s signature feature to actually work (BGR.com)
Comment: Rumored Apple TV account switching in tvOS 11 may suggest multi-users for iPad with iOS 11 (9to5Mac)
Samsung says Bixby voice assistant won’t ship with Galaxy S8 (Axios)
PayPal teams up with Android Pay for mobile payments (TechCrunch)
Steve Ballmer serves up a fascinating data trove (The New York Times)
Introducing new ways to organize your saved posts (Instagram blog)
Introducing New World Lenses (Snap blog)
Artificially intelligent vending machines are coming to NYC (Time Out New York)
Cassini at Saturn (NASA)
NASA finds evidence of hydrothermal vents on Saturn’s moon Enceladus (Popular Mechanics)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi Official Teaser (StarWars.com on YouTube)
We know who the ‘Last Jedi’ is and its scary but not surprising (Mashable)
Apple rebrands iTunes Podcasts as ‘Apple Podcasts’ (MacRumors)
iTunes needs to go (well, the name, anyway) (Macworld)
Loopy Cases

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 230: Siren Songs

April 13, 2017 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Things got loud last week down in Dallas, but it wasn’t just at a Mavericks game as hackers managed to set off every public-safety alarm in the city and freak out a lot of people. Meanwhile, a Russian spam king got collared, a new version of Windows 10 rolled out and Google confronted accusations about a gender pay gap at the company. This week’s episode also features the welcome return of journalist Laura M. Holson to the Pop Tech Jam recording table as she offers insight on her recent story about John Dean, the White House counsel back in Richard Nixon’s Watergate days — and a discussion on how some things never change.

Links to Stories in This Week’s News Segment

Spain arrests Russian thought to be kingpin of computer spam (The New York Times)
Alleged spam king Pyotr Levashov arrested (Krebs on Security)
Hacking attack woke up Dallas with emergency sirens, officials say (The New York Times)
That Dallas siren hack wasn’t novel—it was just really loud (Wired)
Aviation officials warn: Don’t fly drones over US military bases (Ars Technica)
Airplane cell phone calls won’t be allowed in US any time soon (Ars Technica)
Microsoft’s Minecraft set to launch its own currency (Bloomberg)
Comcast is planning a Netflix rival using NBC shows (Bloomberg)
Introducing the New Instagram Direct (Instagram blog)
Google accused of ‘extreme’ gender pay discrimination by US labor department (The Guardian)
Our focus on pay equity (Google)
Similar items: Rich products feature on Google Image Search (Google Webmaster blog)
Microsoft finally says goodbye to Windows Vista (The Verge)
Yes, another Windows Update 10 is here (The New York Times)
John Dean, who worked for Nixon, sizes up Trump (The New York Times)
Watergate in a Minute (YouTube)
The Watergate Scandal: Timeline and Background (WatchMojo.com)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 229: Private Investigations

April 8, 2017 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Protections for consumer privacy and data collection took a hit this past week, as regulations were rolled back into nonexistence — sending some concerned Netizens to software they hope will help shield their online activity. The big question: Does it work?

Meanwhile, Yahoo and AOL take an Oath, Samsung’s Galaxy S8 reveals some enviable features, Amazon finds yet another way to get your cash and Google tries to make sure perfectly nice advertisements don’t end up on hateful YouTube videos. Join El Kaiser and J.D. as they discuss it all in Episode 229!

Links to Stories in This Week’s Show

Amazon launches Amazon Cash, a way to shop its site without a bank card (TechCrunch)
Amazon Cash (Amazon)
5 Samsung Galaxy S8 features Apple should steal for iPhone 8 (Macworld)
Microsoft touts Microsoft-customized edition of Samsung Galaxy S8 (ZDNet)
Apple Mac Pro design was a bad bet, admits firm (BBC)
Facebook rocket: what is the new icon? (Wired UK)
Artificial intelligence is key to defeating future hackers (The Hill)
Google training ad placement computers to be offended (The New York Times)
Spotify Premium users will get some albums two weeks before free users (TechCrunch)
Verizon announces new name brand for AOL and Yahoo: Oath (The New York Times)
Marissa Mayer will not be part of the new AOL-Yahoo combined company called Oath (Recode)
FCC limits order on Charter extending broadband service (Reuters)
ACA pleased FCC eliminated broadband overbuild mandate in Charter-TWC-BHN merger order (American Cable Association)
New bill would crack down on border phone searches without warrants (The Verge)
The Protecting Data at the Border Act (United States Senate)
Trump signs bill to roll back privacy rules into law (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
Post-FCC privacy rules, should you VPN? (Krebs on Security)
Choosing the best VPN for you (thatoneprivacysite.net)
Is Tor Really Anonymous and Secure? (How-To Geek)
TOR browser (The TOR Project)
VPNs Won’t Save You from Congress’ Internet Privacy Giveaway (Wired)
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The independent audio magazine devoted to mashing up pop culture, technology and more. J.D. Biersdorfer and Pedro Rafael Rosado are your hosts. It's an Internet Radio revolution!