Tag Archives: Alexa

PTJ 258: WELCOME OUR *NEWEST* ROBOT OVERLORDS

The annual Consumer Electronics Show wrapped up in Las Vegas last week, leaving El Kaiser and J.D. plenty of new gadgets to mull, from “intelligent” toilets to high-concept “social-empathy robots.” But other stuff happened outside of Vegas, too — Facebook changed up its News Feed, Spectre and Meltdown patches rolled out, and half of California seems to be suing Apple over that iPhone slowdown move. Spin up Episode 258 to hear it all!

Links to Stories on This Week’s Episode

 

 

 

PTJ 252: Naughty Bunnies

It’s nature gone wild: The Bad Rabbit ransomware is having a mad hop through corporate networks around the world and rubber fish are lip-syncing Amazon’s Alexa. Meanwhile, Google wants to secure your account with actual keys and Amazon wants to pop the lock on your front door for package delivery. Spin up Episode 252 to get the details from El Kaiser and J.D., plus some tips for jumping smartphone platforms if you’ve decided to leave Apple for Google — or vice versa.

And don’t forget: Stranger Things 2 is now streaming on Netflix!

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(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

PTJ 250: “El Kaiser, Did We Forget to Mention This Was Our 250th Episode?”

Google took its turn spewing out the fall product lineup this week, with the Pixel 2 phone, Pixelbook laptop, Pixel Pen Stylus — and a whole bunch of Google Home offerings — announced. Meanwhile, Yahoo’s big hack was worse then the company previously announced (why, yes, it is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month). The former Equifax CEO got trolled hard at his Senate hearing and NASA invites space fans to send their names to Mars. Upward!

Links to Stories Mentioned on This Week’s Show

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

PTJ 249: “Alexa, Activate My New York Comic Con Badge!”

It’s not just the abundance of pumpkin spice revving up the Big Apple air the first week of October — it’s the buzzy excitement of New York Comic Con returning once again to the Jacob K. Javits Center on the west side of Manhattan for four days of high-octane pop-culture fun. J.D. gets an insider’s view of the expo from Rich Bernatovech and Jamie Fay, two local comics creators who’ve been attending the event for years. This week’s episode also features a ramble through the recent tech headlines — including Amazon’s avalanche of Alexa gear — and a certain El Kaiser who’s more than a little leery of Apple’s new Face ID technology. Bang! Pow! Play!

Links to Stories on This Week’s Show

Interview With Rich Bernatovech and Jamie Fay

PTJ 246: What’s the Frequency, Siri?

After a two-week summer vacation, El Kaiser and J.D. return to the studio to catch up on the week’s technology news: Facebook ‘fesses up to a chunk of Russian ad buys during the election, Amazon looks to expand its corporate footprint, researchers have discovered a way to hack most of the popular voice-activated assistant programs by sonic frequency — and the headlines just keep on coming. El Kaiser also previews two new pieces of gear from OWC and Anker for ultrabookers who need to pack their own USB ports and J.D. reports on a couple of scams gaining steam around the Internet. Summer’s over, folks! We’re back to work here on Episode 246!

Links to Stories Mentioned in This Week’s Episode

EL Kaiser’s Gear Preview

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

PTJ 241: Glass Houses

After a two-week hiatus, El Kaiser and J.D. are back with the tech news of the week — including Amazon’s latest experiments for making money and Google Glass finally finding a home of sorts. And how about that Doctor Who announcement last weekend, eh? Oh, and if you have to ride the New York City subway system, do we have a tip for you!

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

 

PTJ 238: Thank You for Our Childhoods, Adam West

Geek hearts around the globe were broken this past week with the passing of Adam West, the actor who created the iconic interpretation of Batman on the eponymous mid-1960’s television show. Dan Greenfield, editor of the 13th Dimension website devoted to comics, joins El Kaiser and J.D. for a discussion about West’s impact as a performer, role model and pop-culture stalwart.

One the tech side of the news this week: Big changes at Uber, big announcements from the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles and big bucks for the Drone Racing League. Join on in — and let’s all pour out a Bat-40 for Mr. Adam West.

Links to Stories on This Week’s Show

PTJ 236: Corporate Spies

On this week’s show. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss Google and Twitter’s current wave of privacy-policy changes and data-sharing with advertisers (all taking place before Facebook’s latest flap). Also in the news this week: patent trolls, resolution motion-sensor camera, Russian hackers actually hacking Russians and Iris, the data-sniffing dog. Buffer up and have a listen to Episode 236 of Pop Tech Jam!

Links to Stories in This Week’s Episode

PTJ 234: Winging It

Facebook scrambles to blunt the effects of fake news on the United Kingdom’s upcoming election, John Oliver and his fans have suggestions for the Federal Communications Commission, Amazon’s been busy and could a fried-chicken sandwich be headed for space? El Kaiser and J.D. chew through this week’s headlines and Don Donofrio drops by with an Apple status update. All this and more on Episode 234 of Pop Tech Jam!

Links to Stories in This Week’s News Segment

Paradise by the Dashboard Light

Car entertainment systems have been around since at least 1930, when a brand new company called Motorola designed one of the first successful AM radio systems for an automobile. 87 years later, even base-model cars are on the dealer’s lot with streaming stations right in the console, USB ports for connecting music players and Bluetooth chips for wirelessly linking smartphones.

Tech companies are also getting their software directly into the dashboard to integrate smartphones and cloud services. Platforms include Google’s Android Auto, Apple’s CarPlay and Microsoft Connected Vehicle.  And Amazon’s Alexa assistant will be showing up soon in some Ford and Volkswagen models.

As they did with 8-track and cassette tape decks, though, carmakers are slowly phasing out compact disc players as installed features in favor of digital audio files and streaming connections. But if you have CDs you want to play — say, educational lectures you don’t feel like ripping to MP3 — and your car dealer has no aftermarket solutions to suggest, it is possible to hack together a system for $50 or less.

Most dashboard entertainment systems still have an auxiliary audio port available; check your car’s manual for the location on the dashboard if you don’t see the port. In most cases, you can use this port and a 3.5-millimeter auxiliary audio cable to connect the headphone jack on an inexpensive battery-powered portable CD player. Set the audio input on the dashboard to AUX and push the play button on the CD player.

Check your car’s manual (yes, it has one) to find out about the types of audio devices you can connect to your dashboard entertainment system. If you do not have an old portable CD player on hand, you can still find options at stores like Amazon, Best Buy and Target. Prices generally start around $20, but get a shock-resistant player because American infrastructure has seen better days.

An auxiliary audio cable costs $5 and up. If you don’t want to keep feeding the player batteries, an electrical adapter for the car’s 12-volt power port takes care of the juice.

Most new cars support Bluetooth wireless connections, so if you hate cables, swap in a Bluetooth adapter with its own 3.5-millimeter plug that connects to the CD player. Once you pair the adapter to the car’s Bluetooth system, you can stream the audio from the CD player to the sound system. Taotronics and Mpow are among the companies that make Bluetooth adapters for less than $35 and there are plenty more online.

No matter what you’re using to boom your tunes in the cabin, though, drive safely.