Reporter Laura Holson joins J.D. and El Kaiser to discuss celebrities and their tech startups. Despite an impressive roster of artists, Jay Z’s Tidal music service appears to be struggling against more established services like Spotify and Pandora. Is it a failed vanity project, a callous moneygrab by some very rich pop music performers or … Continue reading PTJ 143: Jay Z’s Tidal and Other Celebrity Techies
Who says the epistolary arts are dead in this age of text and email? As user-privacy rights and national-security concerns continue to clash, stern words are still the weapons of choice. This week, a coalition of 140 technology companies, security experts and other industry players sent a letter to President Obama asking him to “reject any proposal that U.S. … Continue reading PTJ 143 News: Red-Letter Days
At its Ignite conference in Chicago this past week, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 will be the last version of its flagship operating system. No, they aren’t throwing in the towel in the fight for OS dominance, the boys in Redmond have decided that Windows will stop being a standalone system and instead become a service … Continue reading PTJ 142: Microsoft Changes the Paradigm
This has been quite a year for mergers and acquisitions — or at least attempts thereof. This week, Verizon Communications announced it was buying AOL. Inc. for $4.4 billion dollars. AOL Inc. produces digital content and advertising and claims to be the 4th largest online property in the United States with 200 million customers. The … Continue reading PTJ 142 News: You’ve Got Sale!
The weather this year has been one for the Buzzfeed listicles — after ass-shattering cold and way too much snow all winter, we’ve now moved on to a new season we can complain about. For example, a tropical storm grazed the South and tornadoes blew through the Midwest in the past week. We talked about keeping prepared … Continue reading (Hopefully) Helpful Hint: Plane Plan
This summer is shaping up to be a Geek movie lover’s dream with Disney’s Marvel and Disney studios dominating multiplexes but do not despair! Their are many other geektastic offerings unspooling over the next few hot and sticky months and we’ll list a few of them for you. Go ahead and grab a bucket of popcorn … Continue reading PTJ 141: Let’s All Go To The Movies
Google didn’t have much luck dethroning Facebook as everyone’s go-to social media experience, so is the Google+ site now aiming to be a challenger elsewhere? The new Google+ Collections debuted this week and it’s billed as “a new way to group your posts by topic.” Like, uh, on Pinterest? Facebook announced its new Internet.org platform this week, which … Continue reading PTJ 141 News: Go, Greased Lightning!
May is upon us and the summer movies are starting to fly fast and furious. In fact, Fast & Furious 7 has already flown by, having dominated the box office for much of April. But as geeks everywhere know, Avengers: Age of Ultron opened last Friday here in the States and quickly became the second-largest … Continue reading The 2015 Summer Popcorn Harvest
Police departments around the country are adding a new piece of gear to the standard uniform: A small video camera to record interactions with civilians. Bodycams can provide evidence of what actually happened during an altercation, but as The New York Times pondered this week, what happens when your arrest video lands on YouTube? Journalist Laura M. Holson leads … Continue reading PTJ 140: I Am a Camera
After we recorded last week’s episode (of course), news broke that the Comcast deal to acquire Time Warner Cable was kaput. While those worried about cable monopolies were happy the Comcast deal was scuttled, not everyone was thrilled about it — namely Time Warner Cable customers who say their quality of service is so miserable, … Continue reading PTJ 140 News: Cable Ties and Record Highs
