While the tussles between politicians and Big Tech heat up as August sizzles to a close, El Kaiser and J.D. sip fizzy water in the shade and explore the accusations and rebuttals coming from both sides of America’s political divide. Apple’s latest acquisition, Twitter’s recent experiment and a blockchain that few people realized was hiding in plain sight are also in the news mix this week, and J.D. has a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint about hopefully helping friends and family with their computer problems, even when you’re miles away. Crank up the air conditioner and PTJ 285!
Election security — or lack thereof — dominated the headlines this week as social-media platforms moved to boot trolls and industry leaders met to discuss what to do with the U.S.midterms looming. Meanwhile, Walmart and Kobo teamed up on ebooks, rumors about Apple’s fall event popped up right on time, Samsung released its Galaxy Note9 and Google is trying to find regular doses of good news out there. All this and more on Episode 284!
Celebratory adult beverages were likely consumed around the technosphere these past few days as Apple became the first trillion-dollar company, Motorola announced 5G phone hardware was on the way and fans of white wine pushed for their very own emoji. El Kaiser (fresh off an appearance on the Wide Range Media podcast) and J.D. explore those stories and more, and a soon-to-be-vacationing Kaiser shares packing tips for his traveling gear bag. Grab a cold one and chill out to Episode 283!
On this week’s episode, El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the things that are making the tech world shake, rattle and roll — including Amazon’s facial recognition software not passing muster with the American Civil Liberties Union, Facebook’s stock price plummeting and the possibility of the Broadway musical Hamilton coming to Netflix. In the (Hopefully) Helpful Hint, J.D. also describes a new scam going around that shows off an old password you’ve actually used in the past. Ride along with Episode 282!
Several companies have now stepped up the fight against fake news — most noticeably, Twitter, as the service finally began to delete fake accounts and return follower totals back to the realm of real people. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the efforts, as well as the state of streaming television, Apple’s latest updates and the things one can find for sale on the Dark Net. In a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint, J.D. has some tips for how to stay charged up when traveling. All aboard Episode 280!
It’s been a week of heavy legal news, deals and global affairs — almost enough to make you want to escape to a fantasy realm to take a break over a pint of butterbeer. El Kaiser and J.D. sort through the stories of the week before moving on to a discussion of how the Harry Potter franchise is keeping active far beyond the original seven books. PTJ 277 awaits behind that Play button — Alohomora!
A judge cleared the way for AT&T and Time Warner to merge, Apple plans to reinforce its iPhone security, Microsoft made a bunch of announcements — but hey, here comes the annual E3 event to bring in the fun. El Kaiser and J.D. sort through it all before a discussion about the VPNFilter malware — you know, that one the FBI was warning about the other week — and how to protect your router from it. Spin up PTJ 276 to hear it all!
If it’s early June, odds are the technology-news business will be dominated by announcements coming out of Apple’s annual World Wide Developers Conference. However, new revelations about Facebook’s privacy practices did draw attention and even CEO Tim Cook found time to comment — as Apple unveiled new tools designed to hamper companies like Facebook who have been quietly hoovering up personal data from unsuspecting users for years. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the week’s events and a few other non-Apple headlines on this week’s episode before offering a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint about recording a video of the action on your phone screen. Roll PTJ 275 to hear it all!
Even without the NBA finals in the mix, it’s been a busy time out in California with a fierce net-neutrality bill passing a hurdle in the state senate and Mary Meeker’s mega-slideshow on Internet trends. El Kaiser and J.D. surf through the week’s tech news before stopping to ponder life without Twitter — if only just for a little while. Punch up Episode 274 and have a listen!
This past week saw two big developer conferences unload several boxes of announcements, as Google I/O and Microsoft Build fought for media attention like Godzilla vs. Gamera. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the ramped-up interest in artificial intelligence coming out of both conferences, along with other headlines from around the technosphere. J.D. also offers suggestions for dealing with an excess of emoji, and previews new characters under consideration by the Unicode Consortium. Come sit a spell and join us for Episode 272!
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!
