Tag Archives: Amazon

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 315: Rise Up

August 7, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Hoverboard travel is here! In experimental trips across the English Channel, anyway. El Kaiser and J.D. take off through the week’s headlines, including more accusations of retaliatory workplace culture at Google, the move toward “pay with your face” forms of authentication and requirements for getting one of those new Apple Cards. J.D. also hosts a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint about getting more of that notepad program on your smartphone. PTJ 315 awaits!

Terminating Service for 8Chan (Cloudflare)
Apple is spending more than ever on R&D to fulfill the ‘Steve Jobs Doctrine’ (Patently Apple)
Amazon Gives Option to Disable Human Review of Alexa Recordings (Bloomberg)
Our hardware sustainability commitments (Google)
Google Employee Alleges Discrimination Against Pregnant Women in Viral Memo (VICE)
Apple Card Customer Agreement goes live on Goldman Sachs’ website ahead of August launch, warns about jailbreaking (9to5Mac)
Apple Card customer agreement (Goldman Sachs)
Half of all Google Chrome extensions have fewer than 16 installs (ZDNet)
Streaming media player growth slows, smart TVs step up (nScreenMedia)
As China turns towards facial recognition payments, are QR codes on their way out? (South China Morning Post)
For Many Diabetes Patients, Skin Patches and Phones Are Replacing Finger Pricks (The Wall Street Journal)
Flyboarding Frenchman crosses English Channel (BBC News)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

Collecting Your Thoughts Is Good. Organizing Them Is Even Better. (The New York Times)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 312: Call the Law

June 24, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Big Government finally seems to be paying attention to Big Tech, but will anything actually change? El Kaiser and JD discuss some of the assorted bits of legislation aimed at regulating intrusive technology. And, in a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint, JD offers tips for whipping up your own letterhead in case you need to fire off an old-fashioned epistle by post or PDF. Episode 312 awaits!

Is Firefox better than Chrome? It comes down to privacy. (The Washington Post)
YouTube under federal investigation over allegations it violates children’s privacy (The Washington Post)
YouTube weighs changes to how it handles children’s content (CNN)
The Most Popular Kids’ Video Site in the World Isn’t for Kids (Bloomberg)
How 13 Became the Internet’s Age of Adulthood (WSJ)
Senators Markey and Hawley Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Update Children’s Online Privacy Rules (Sen. Ed Markey)
Exclusive: Mark Warner wants Google, Facebook to put a price on your data (Axios)
Senate Bill 748
House Bill 946
Robocalls prompt bipartisan push in Congress (The Washington Post)
Robocalls are overwhelming hospitals and patients, threatening a new kind of health crisis (The Washington Post)
Coming in 2020: Calibra (Facebook Newsroom)
Facebook announces Libra cryptocurrency: All you need to know (TechCrunch)
Libra, Facebook’s new cryptocurrency, isn’t likely to make it far (Axios)
NASA hacked because of unauthorized Raspberry Pi connected to its network (ZDNet)
Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now from $35 (Raspberry Pi)
Google was never really serious about tablets (The Verge)
Walmart and Amazon want to see inside your house. Should you let them? (Los Angeles Times)
What Happens After Amazon’s Domination Is Complete? Its Bookstore Offers Clues (The New York Times)
Helping kids learn to evaluate what they see online (Google blog)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

Get More From Your Letters With Custom Stationery for Print or Pixels (The New York Times)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 311: Slide Tackle

June 14, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

On this week’s show, JD takes a short break from watching the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 to round up some news with El Kaiser — including the annual Mary Meeker Internet Trends presentation, legal looks at Big Tech and game-world announcements. El Kaiser, ever on the hunt for good-sounding audio gear at reasonable prices, offers his review of the Mixcder E9 wireless headphones. Have a listen to PTJ 311!

Links to News Stories on This Week’s Show

Mary Meeker’s most important trends on the internet (Vox)
US regulator acts over plague of nuisance phone calls (BBC News)
Sprint and T-Mobile Merger Faces New Hurdle With Lawsuit by States (The New York Times)
House Opens Tech Antitrust Inquiry With Look at Threat to News Media (The New York Times)
Amazon is creating detailed 3D models of suburbia to train its new delivery robots (The Verge)
Apple to Buy Drive.ai in Bid for More Autonomous Vehicle Talent (Bloomberg)
What Does Apple Know About You? (Axios)
NFC gets a lot more powerful in iOS 13 (TechCrunch)
Apple Accidentally Leaks Radical iPhone Upgrade (Forbes)
Telegram faces DDoS attack in China… again (TechCrunch)
Huawei Is Said to Demand Patent Fees From Verizon (The New York Times)
Microsoft deletes massive face recognition database (BBC News)
Why airport facial recognition raises privacy concerns (The Washington Post)
Google Fails to Have Lawsuit Originally Brought by James Damore Thrown Out (Gizmodo)
Exclusive interview: Google CEO defends YouTube practices (Axios)
YouTube CEO apologizes to LGBTQ community after outcry (The Verge)
Amazon to shut down its Amazon Restaurants business in the U.S. (GeekWire)
This week’s dead Google product is Google Trips, may it rest in peace (Ars Technica)
Stadia: everything you need to know about Google’s game-streaming service (TechRadar)
Microsoft Project Scarlett Xbox: 8K graphics, SSD, and ray-tracing in 2020 (The Verge)

Headphones Review

Mixcder E9 Wireless Active Noise Cancelling Headphones

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 310: Apple-Picking Time

June 3, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

El Kaiser and J.D. were off binging Good Omens, but finished just in time for Apple’s 2019 edition of its World Wide Developers Conference. This week’s episode discusses the major announcements from the keynote — including a revamp of El Kaiser’s absolute favorite piece of Mac desktop hardware. Looming government regulation, verified Rotten Tomatoes reviews and a virus-riddled laptop celebrated as art are also in this week’s headlines. Listen in to Episode 310!

Links to Stories in This Week’s News Segment

“Good Omens” (Official Trailer | Prime Video)
How Amazon’s Good Omens series pays tribute to author Terry Pratchett (Polygon)
Robert Pattinson Is Officially ‘The Batman’ (Variety)

Apple’s WWDC Highlights: Death of iTunes and $6,000 Macs (The New York Times)
Why the iPhone 11 successor could be the phone to get (CNET)
Apple Suddenly Confirms Three New iPhones (Forbes)
Amazon could face heightened antitrust scrutiny under a new agreement between U.S. regulators (The Washington Post)
Google Is at the Center of a Storm Brewing Over Big Tech (The New York Times)
Twitter Is Running Lots More Ads, And Some Are Scammy Or Just Bad (BuzzFeed News)
Snapchat Employees Abused Data Access to Spy on Users (VICE)
An Update on How We Are Doing At Enforcing Our Community Standards (Facebook Newsroom)
Opinion | Nancy Pelosi and Fakebook’s Dirty Tricks (The New York Times)
IGTV Now Supports Landscape Videos (Instagram)
How Ireland became Europe’s data watchdog (BBC News)
What’s for dinner? Order it with Google (Google blog)
Amazon interested in buying Boost from T-Mobile, Sprint (Reuters)
Mobile carrier AT&T will now accept payments in crypto (The Block)
Amazon Is Working on a Device That Can Read Human Emotions (Bloomberg)
We’re introducing Verified Ratings and Reviews to Help You Make Your Viewing Decisions (Rotten Tomatoes)
Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass is coming to PC (Engadget)
Metadata is the biggest little problem plaguing the music industry (The Verge)
Auction for a laptop full of malware closes at $1.3 million (updated) (Engadget)

Apple World Wide Developers Conference 2019 Announcements

New iPod touch delivers even greater performance (Apple)
Apple previews iOS 13 (Apple)
The new iPadOS powers unique experiences designed for iPad (Apple)
Apple unveils powerful, all-new Mac Pro and groundbreaking Pro Display XDR (Apple)
watchOS 6 advances health and fitness capabilities for Apple Watch (Apple)
tvOS 13 powers the most personal cinematic experience ever (Apple)
Apple WWDC 2019 Keynote Video (Apple)
The Mac Pro Cheese Grater Is Back (And It Looks Powerful as Hell) (Gizmodo)

Episode Links, Podcast

Episode 308: Separation Anxiety

May 10, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

El Kaiser and JD finally got out of Avengers: Endgame and are back in the recording bunker to discuss recent tech news – including Google’s I/O conference and a former Facebook founder’s call for the government to bust up his former company. JD also explores the new movement that have some people spending less time staring at their smartphones screens. Episode 308 awaits!

Links to Stories In This Week’s News Segment

The 8 biggest announcements from the Google I/O 2019 keynote (The Verge)
I/O 2019: New features to help you develop, release, and grow your business on Google Play (Android Developers Blog)
Facebook talked privacy, Google actually built it (TechCrunch)
Google’s YouTube Music Tops 15 Million Subscribers (Bloomberg)
The 5 biggest announcements from Facebook’s F8 developer conference keynote (The Verge)
It’s Time to Break Up Facebook (The New York Times)
Video game ‘loot boxes’ would be outlawed in many games under forthcoming federal bill (The Washington Post)
FTC Members Unanimously Press Congress for Tough National Privacy Protections (Gizmodo)
Member of Sophisticated China-Based Hacking Group Indicted for Series of Computer Intrusions, Including 2015 Data Breach of Health Insurer Anthem Inc. Affecting Over 78 Million People (Department of Justice)
Tenants win as settlement orders landlords give physical keys over smart locks (CNET)
Los Angeles Uber drivers join cities across the U.S. in strike ahead of much-anticipated IPO (The Los Angeles Times)
Windows Hello FIDO2 certification gets you closer to passwordless (Microsoft Tech Community)
Jeff Bezos unveils Moon lander concept (BBC News)
Avengers: Endgame adds the Spider-Man trailer as a post-credits scene (Polygon)

Break Up Phone (For A While, Anyway)

Do Not Disturb: How I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain (The New York Times)
Use Screen Time on Your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch (Apple Support)
Digital Wellbeing (Google)

Episode Links

PTJ 306: Internet Cleanup in Aisle Three!

April 12, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Freshly returned from spring break, El Kaiser and JD jump into the week’s headlines — including government attempts to regulate technology platforms and robots rolling through Walmart. JD also has a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint for wrangling the massive photo collection stuffed on your smartphone. Push play to hear it all on Episode 306!

Julian Assange Charged by U.S. With Conspiracy to Hack a Government Computer (The New York Times)
WikiLeaks Founder Charged in Computer Hacking Conspiracy (United States Department of Justice)
The UK’s online laws could be the future of the internet—and that’s got people worried (MIT Technology Review)
The Online Harms White Paper (GOV.UK)
Websites to be fined over ‘online harms’ under new proposals (BBC News)
The Deceptive Experiences To Online Users Reduction (DETOUR) Act (Scribd)
U.S. senators introduce social media bill to ban ‘dark patterns’ tricks (Reuters)
YouTube Disables Comments on Livestream of Hearing on Hate Speech (Variety)
#SquadGoals: How Automated Assistants are Helping Us Work Smarter (Walmart Newsroom)
Walmart to expand in-store tech, including Pickup Towers for online orders and robots (TechCrunch)
Asking Alexa for news no longer has to stop with the latest headlines (Nieman Journalism Lab)
Amazon Workers Are Listening to What You Tell Alexa (Bloomberg)
Facebook’s new Watch Party video-streaming feature is wildly popular with pirates, who use it to run illicit movie marathons (Business Insider India)
AP to fact-check video, Spanish-language content on Facebook (Associated Press)
Opera introduces Reborn 3, the first desktop browser with Web 3, faster VPN and ad blocker (Opera blog)
Will Apple Just Kill iTunes Already? (Gizmodo)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

Organizing Your Unwieldy Photo Collection Is Easier Than You Think (The New York Times)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 303: Fire in the Troll Hole!

March 11, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Can Big Tech get busted up and does Facebook’s pivot to privacy seem legit? El Kaiser and J.D. roll through the recent news, stopping to ponder the “Save the Internet” Act, a slew of new streaming channels and the success of Captain Marvel at the box office — despite concentrated efforts from certain quarters to drag down the film’s ratings. It’s all here on PTJ 303, where we also have our annual guide to helping your friends and family avoid tax-season scams this spring.

Links to News Stories on This Week’s Show

Here’s how we can break up Big Tech (Elizabeth Warren on Medium)
Elizabeth Warren vows to break up tech giants if elected in 2020 (BBC News)
A Privacy-Focused Vision for Social Networking (Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook)
Facebook says the future is private messaging, not public posts (Columbia Journalism Review)
This could be the beginning of the end for Facebook’s social network (Recode)
The False Promise of Mark Zuckerberg’s Come-to-Jesus Manifesto (Vanity Fair)
Combatting Vaccine Misinformation (Facebook Newsroom)
Facebook sues Ukrainian quiz-makers for stealing user data with malware plugins (The Verge)
SXSW Festival
Sunshine Week
The US Government Will Be Scanning Your Face At 20 Top Airports, Documents Show (BuzzFeed News)
In New York City? Grab a BuzzFeed print newspaper, today only (Nieman Lab)
Bicameral Democratic Leaders Unveil Save The Internet Act To Restore Net Neutrality Protections (House Committee on Energy & Commerce)
Text of the “Save the Internet” Act (House Committee on Energy & Commerce)
“I’m Just a Bill” (Schoolhouse Rock)
Democrats unveil “Save The Internet Act” to restore net neutrality laws (NBC News)
Colorado Senate passes bill to reinstate net neutrality regulations (Colorado Watchdog)
Disney’s new streaming service will offer entire Disney Vault of classic films (Fast Company)
NBC News Readies May Launch of Streaming-Video Service (Variety)
Comedy Central Launches YouTube Originals Channel (Variety)
Crew Dragon Splashes Down in Atlantic Ending First Commercial Crew Mission (NASA)
Trolls Are Tanking Captain Marvel’s Rotten Tomatoes Reviews. But They Can’t Stop Its Box Office Haul (Fortune)
Box Office: “Captain Marvel” Flies to Historic $153M in U.S., $455M Globally (The Hollywood Reporter)

Be On Guard This Tax Season

IRS Dirty Dozen 2019 (Internal Revenue Service)
Tax Scams / Consumer Alerts (Internal Revenue Service)
How to know it’s really the IRS calling or knocking on your door (Internal Revenue Service)
IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting (Treasury.gov)
Automated calls requesting tax payments in the form of iTunes or other gift cards (Internal Revenue Service)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 301: Golden “Opportunity”

February 14, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

As NASA declares its Mars Opportunity rover’s mission to be over, El Kaiser and J.D. raise a glass to the plucky little machine who did far more than what was expected of it — and sent back so much science. This week’s batch of headlines also brings a potential new subscription service (or two) from Apple, Amazon bailing out of New York City and a Tinder-like app for cattle. J.D. also discusses apps to better plan your home renovation. Here’s a toast to Opportunity from PTJ Episode 301!

Links to Stories Discussed on This Week’s Show

NASA’s Opportunity Rover Dies on Mars (The New York Times)
NASA’s Opportunity Rover Mission on Mars Comes to End (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
Photos From the Opportunity Rover’s Mission on Mars (The New York Times)
Publishers Chafe at Apple’s Terms for Subscription News Service (The Wall Street Journal)
Publishers cry foul at Apple’s terms in new sub service (Digital Ad Age)
Apple targeting April launch for video service (CNBC)
Apple Invites Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon to Video Launch (Bloomberg)
Apple Event Planned For March 25 Around A News Subscription Product (BuzzFeed)
Announcing Extra Crunch (TechCrunch)
Apple fails to block porn & gambling ‘Enterprise’ apps (TechCrunch)
620 million accounts stolen from 16 hacked websites now for sale on dark web, seller boasts (The Register)
JP Morgan is rolling out the first US bank-backed cryptocurrency (CNBC)
Mozilla to use machine learning to find code bugs before they ship (Ars Technica)
Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Headquarters (The New York Times)
Amazon is acquiring Wi-Fi router company Eero (Business Insider)
An Update on Android Things (Android Developers Blog)
LinkedIn debuts LinkedIn Live, a new live video broadcast service (TechCrunch)
Tudder (ProductHunt)
Tinder-style app for cows tries to help the meat market (BBC)
Tinder for Cows: Tudder Mobile App for Breeders (Bloomberg)

Home Improvement

How to Make a 3-D Model of Your Home Renovation Vision (The New York Times)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 296: “Ring Out the False, Ring In the True!”

December 28, 2018 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

As 2018 comes clanging to a close. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss Amazon’s healthy holiday sales, Instagram’s effects on people, Snapchat’s “dog lenses” and a new essay that wonders just how much of the Internet is real anymore. And in the last (Hopefully) Helpful Hint of the year, J.D. offers a guide for preserving your one-of-a-kind family photographs and slides in the digital realm.
Ring up Episode 296, right here!

Links to Stories on This Week’s Show

Amazon’s Record Holiday Shows Consumers’ Spending Splurge (Bloomberg)
How Instagram has been good for independent bookstores like Books Are Magic and the Last Bookstore (Vox)
Instagram Apologizes for Horizontal-Scrolling Test Glitch, Rolls It Back After Quick and Furious Backlash (Variety)
Android TV sees huge growth thanks to 100 pay TV partners (9to5Google)
Apple’s Future Looks Rotten (Gizmodo)
Patreon Bars Anti-Feminist for Racist Speech, Inciting Revolt (The New York Times)
Snapchat Adds Dog Lenses, But I Still Won’t Use It (Gizmodo)
How Much of the Internet Is Fake? (New York magazine)
We finally started taking screen time seriously in 2018 (TechCrunch)
Hot tub hack reveals washed-up security (BBC News)
“Ring out, wild bells,” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint: Digitize and Fix Your Ancient Photos

How to Rescue, Repair and Revive Old Family Photos (The New York Times)
Printers & Scanners (Wirecutter)
Google PhotoScan
Adobe Photoshop Fix

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 295: Smokin’!

December 18, 2018 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

The year is winding down, but the movie selection at the local cineplex is heating up with several sizzling releases this month. Also in the hot seat: Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, who got to have his belated chat with Congressional members, and social-media companies who missed the massive amount of misinformation spread across their platforms in 2016 and beyond. And for those don’t want to burn a lot of cash on wireless headphones, El Kaiser has a a review for you. Fire up Episode 295!

Links to Stories Discussed on This Week’s Show

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse won the box office with a $35 million opening weekend (Vox)
How Peter Jackson Made WWI Footage Seem Astonishingly New (The New York Times)
Can Aquaman and Wonder Woman save the DC superhero universe? (The Independent)
Aquaman (Official Movie Site)
New report on Russian disinformation, prepared for the Senate, shows the operation’s scale and sweep (The Washington Post)
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Withheld Russia Data, Reports Say (The New York Times)
Russian disinformation teams targeted Robert S. Mueller III, says report prepared for Senate (The Washington Post)
Russian Trolls Came for Instagram, Too (The New York Times)
Russian 2016 Influence Operation Targeted African-Americans on Social Media (The New York Times)
Google Hudson Square: our expanded New York campus (Google Keyword blog)
Google CEO Sundar Pichai grilled by Congress on privacy, bias and China plans (CNN)
Amazon Is Reportedly Sick of Hawking You Cheap ‘Crap’ That Doesn’t Make It Any Money (Gizmodo)
A Year Without Net Neutrality: No Big Changes (Yet) (Wired)
Huawei Hemorrhages Allies in Europe on Growing Security Concerns (Bloomberg)
France to introduce digital tax in new year (BBC News)
SQLite bug impacts thousands of apps, including all Chromium-based browsers (ZDNet)
Kiwibot delivery robot catches fire after ‘human error‘ (BBC News)
Students set up candlelight vigil for delivery robot that caught on fire (Mashable)

The El Kaiser Hardware Review

Mixcder E7 Active Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Headphones with Built-in Mic

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!