Tag Archives: covid-19

PTJ 356: Season’s Greetings!

August 11, 2021 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Like Clippy in a Microsoft Teams background, El Kaiser and J.D. are back after a somewhat inadvertent hiatus! The new season of Pop Tech Jam kicks off with El Kaiser’s thoughts on the most recent Suicide Squad reboot/remake/reimagining and includes J.D.’s usual roundup of technology and nerd news headlines — plus some tips for tidying your phone’s home screen and making the most of shortcut menus and widgets. Join us here on PTJ 356!

The S uicide Squad (2021 trailer)

T-Mobile Confirms It Was Hacked (VICE Motherboard)
U.S. Will Investigate Tesla’s Autopilot System Over Crashes With Emergency Vehicles (The New York Times)
Galaxy Unpacked 2021 (Samsung)
App Store Law Would Be a Direct Hit on Apple and Google (Bloomberg)

Microsoft Teams: Now you can invite Clippy to your next meeting (ZDNet)
Apple Readies New iPhones With Pro-Focused Camera, Video Updates (Bloomberg)
iPhone 13: Everything we know so far (Macworld)
Is Windows 11 the beginning of the end for Skype? (BBC News)
The Incredible Disappearing Return-to-Office Plans (Bloomberg)
Google planning Silicon Valley campus, hardware lab (CNBC)
Pay cut: Google employees who work from home could lose money (Reuters)
Amazon resumes mask mandate in warehouses amid rising Covid cases (CNBC)
When Amazon Customers Leave Negative Reviews, Some Sellers Hunt Them Down (The Wall Street Journal)
Here’s How Amazon Third-Party Sellers Reportedly Hound Customers Who Leave Bad Reviews (Gizmodo)
Expanded Protections for Children (Apple)
Apple FAQ on Expanded Protections for Children (Apple PDF)
Apple’s New ‘Child Safety’ Initiatives, and the Slippery Slope (Daring Fireball)
Apple defends new photo scanning child protection tech (BBC News)
Giving kids and teens a safer experience online (Google Keyword blog)
Google to Increase Privacy for Teenagers in Search and on YouTube (The New York Times)
Roku to release 23 more Quibi shows on Aug. 13 (CNET)
Safety brief: Don’t hide a WWII-era Panther tank in your basement (Task & Purpose)
Take Control of Your Home Screen (The New York Times)

Episode Links

PTJ 349: Now, Voyagers

January 27, 2021 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

As the last week of January rolls in, so do the Internet themes and memes — including TikTok’s flirtation with sea shanties and the cold-weather fashion of Senator Bernie Sanders. El Kaiser and J.D. ponder the latest Web whimsy, as well as Google and Apple’s fight against the ongoing problems of the world, other tech news and fun things to do with your smartphone’s camera. Hear it all on PTJ 349!

Sea Shanty TikTok (TikTok)
The Music Theory of Tik Tok Sea Shanties (YouTube)
Everyone’s Singing Sea Shanties (or Are They Whaling Songs?) (The New York Times)
‘It’s just Bernie being Bernie’ — How a photo of Sanders wearing mittens at Inauguration Day went viral (CNBC)
Bernie Sanders / Sea Shanty Meme Mashup
“Star Trek: Discovery”
“Star Trek: Picard”
How we’re helping get vaccines to more people (Google blog)
Apple launches major new Racial Equity and Justice Initiative projects to challenge systemic racism, advance racial equity nationwide (Apple)
Propel Center Global HBCU Campus for Innovation
NBCUniversal is bringing its live events to Twitter users globally (CNBC)
Introducing Birdwatch, a community-based approach to misinformation (Twitter blog)
Increasing Transparency Around US 2020 Elections Ads (Facebook blog)
The Internet Is a Crime Scene, And After the Capitol Riots We Need Better Information Governance Rules for Treating It Like One. (Foreign Policy)
What the Biden administration means for Amazon (CNBC)
Google workers across the globe announce international union alliance to hold Alphabet accountable (The Verge)
Apple Elaborates on Potential for iPhone 12 and MagSafe Accessories to Interfere With Implantable Medical Devices (MacRumors)
Microsoft backtracks on Xbox Live Gold price hike (The Verge)
Clubhouse announces plans for creator payments and raises new funding led by Andreessen Horowitz (TechCrunch)
4 Ways to Do More With Your Smartphone Camera (The New York Times)

Episode Links

PTJ 347: Out With a Bang

December 22, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

As 2020 winds down to its final weeks, El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the recent spate of bad news regarding national security, pandemic spread and video-game fails. But as depressing as the news can be, there’s new hope for 2021 — at least when it comes to decent Star Wars movies and shows. Punch up PTJ 347 and join us for the ride!

A huge THANK YOU to BROS for hosting us and all our faithful listeners for riding along with us here in the Q-Zone. We’ll be back in January, so Happy New Year!

• Russia’s Hacking Frenzy Is a R eckoning (WIRED)
• Trump Contradicts Pompeo Over Russia’s Role in H ack (The New York Times)
• The Great iPwn: Journalists Hacked with Suspected NSO Group iMessage ‘Zero-Click’ Exploit (Citizen Lab)
• A l Jazeera journalists ‘hacked v ia NSO Group spyware’ (BBC News)
• The Antitrust Case Against Big Tech, Shaped by Tech In dustry Exiles (The New York Times)
• Google’s Legal Peril Grows in Face of Third Antitrust Suit
(The New York Times)
• U.S. and States Say Facebook Illegally Crushed C ompetition
(The New York Times)
• Tim Cook tweeted about App Tracking Transparency and it’s easy to see the targ et (iMore)
• Facebook’s Laugha ble Campaign Against Apple Is Really Against Users and Small Businesses (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
• C OVID-19 closes n early 100 Apple Stores during holiday season peak (9to5Mac)
• Cyberpunk 2077 Was Supposed to Be the Biggest Video Game of the Year. What Happened? (The New York Times)
• A Complete Guide to Every Star Wars Show Coming to Disney+ (Esquire)
• ‘St ar Wars’ and Marvel’s Futures Now Flow Through Disney Plus (Variety)

Episode Links

PTJ 339: Power to the People

June 8, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Welcome to June here in the year 1918 + 1929 + 1968! El Kaiser and J.D. drop in for a quick roundup of tech news, including rising tensions at social media companies, ongoing pandemic fallout and the newfound popularity of… online word-processing software. Take a break and dial up PTJ 339!

Doctor Who
How Google Docs became the social media of the resistance (MIT Technology Review)
Early Facebook Employees Disavow Zuckerberg’s Stance on Trump Posts (The New York Times)
Facebook Employees Stage Virtual Walkout to Protest Trump Posts (The New York Times)
Facebook removes nearly 200 accounts tied to hate groups (Associated Press)
Civil rights leaders blast Facebook after meeting with Zuckerberg (Axios)
Snap will stop promoting Trump’s account after concluding his tweets incited violence (The Verge)
Read: Transcript of Mark Zuckerberg’s meeting with Facebook employees (Vox)
Google in $5bn lawsuit for tracking in ‘private’ mode (BBC News)
Amazon warehouse workers’ lawsuit alleges ‘sloppy contact tracing’ (CNBC)
Zoom won’t encrypt free calls because it wants to comply with law enforcement (The Next Web)
Airbnb Joins Vacation-Rental Sites Seeing Surge in Summer Demand (Bloomberg)
CES set for an in-person event in 2021 (TechCrunch)
Someone Is Putting Cowboy Hats on Pigeons in Las Vegas (The New York Times)
You are probably spreading misinformation. Here’s how to stop. (The Washington Post)
Snopes.com
Let’s Clean Up the Toxic Internet (The New York Times)
How Russian Facebook Ads Divided and Targeted US Voters Before the 2016 Election (Wired)
Congress just published all the Russian Facebook ads used to try and influence the 2016 election (Vox)
Misinformation About George Floyd Protests Surges on Social Media (The New York Times)

Episode Links

PTJ 337: Pod People

May 23, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Are podcasts The Next Big Thing — again? With Spotify, Amazon and Apple all scrapping to get big names and fresh content while throwing around big money, it sure seems like something’s going on. After El Kaiser and J.D. roll through the rest of the week’s headlines, El Kaiser also offers a few suggestions for remote podcasting software. It’s all right here in PTJ 337 from the comfort of your own home!

Links to News Stories on This Week’s Show

“She-Ra and the Princesses of Power” (DreamWorks)
“She-Ra and the Princesses of Power”(Watch on Netflix)
Privacy-Preserving Contact Tracing (Apple-Google)
Apple and Google launch coronavirus exposure software (The Washington Post)
Mark Zuckerberg: Half of Facebook may work remotely by 2030 (NBC News)
Facebook to Limit Offices to 25% Capacity, Require Masks at Work (Bloomberg)
Preventing Unwanted Contacts and Scams in Messenger (Messenger News)
Twitter is testing a feature that limits who can reply to your tweets (TechCrunch)
Accessibility updates that help tech work for everyone (Google Keyword blog)
Amazon pushes Prime Day to September as it returns to normalcy: WSJ (Reuters)
The podcasting world is now Spotify versus everybody else (The Verge)
Amazon’s Audible Goes Beyond Books to Chase Spotify in Podcasts (Bloomberg)
Apple Ramps Up Original Podcasts, in Part to Help Promote TV+ (Bloomberg)
Chrome 83 arrives with redesigned security settings, third-party cookies blocked in Incognito (VentureBeat)
Protecting against resource-heavy ads in Chrome (Chromium blog)
Apple Buys Older Shows for TV+, Stepping Up Netflix Challenge (Bloomberg)
Helping members who haven’t been watching cancel (Netflix)

VoIP Podcasting Apps

Episode Links

PTJ 336: Slice of Life

May 16, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Thinking of spending some of your inside time recording a podcast or your own music? After a tour through the week’s technology headlines with J.D., El Kaiser offers some shopping tips on microphones that make you sound way better than the one built into your laptop. Just click the Play button to hear it all on PTJ 336 — starting with a suggestion for another binge-worthy show to pass the time in the Quarantine Life.

Links to Stories in This Week’s News Segment

Community (NBC)
The 15 best episodes of Community (EW.com)
Community Cast — Including Donald Glover — to Reunite for Virtual Table Read (Variety)
TikTok Broke Privacy Promises, Children’s Groups Say (The New York Times)
Your Second First Trip (Uber Newsroom)
Google removed 813 creepware apps from the Android Play Store (ZDNet)
The Many Kinds of Creepware Used for Interpersonal Attacks (Semantic Scholar)
Merkley, Colleagues Continue to Lead Charge to Protect Consumers from Internet Shut-Offs During Pandemic (Jeff Merkley)
Keeping our employees and partners safe during #coronavirus (Twitter)
Apple Plans to Return More Staff to Offices in Break From Rivals (Bloomberg)
Organize your tabs with tab groups in Google Chrome (Keyword blog)
Protecting against resource-heavy ads in Chrome (Chromium Blog)
A first look at Unreal Engine 5 (Unreal Engine)
PlayStation 5 will launch in 2020 holiday season despite coronavirus: Sony (CNBC)
Facebook to pay $52m to content moderators over PTSD (BBC News)
Jeffrey Katzenberg Blames Pandemic for Quibi’s Rough Start (The New York Times)
‘Hamilton’ coming to Disney+ in July (CNN)
Slice raised $43M in Series C funding to power local pizza (Slice Pizza Blog)

Shopping for Microphones

Episode Links

PTJ 335: Going Batty

May 8, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer 2 Comments

Comic-book worlds (and their heroes) are great for passing the time or taking your mind to new places when you’re stuck inside — and this week’s episode offers insights on the Batwoman TV show as well as making your own comics (even if drawing isn’t your strong point). El Kaiser and J.D. also discuss news from the video-game world and other headlines from around the technosphere. Spin up PTJ 335 right here!

Links to Stories Discussed on This Week’s Episode

Batwoman (The CW)
Nintendo smashes Switch sales view; says Animal Crossing is device’s fastest-selling game (Reuters)
Fortnite is now one of the biggest games ever with 350 million players (The Verge)
Twitch Is Developing Talk Shows and Dating Programs for Gamers (Bloomberg)
Microsoft reveals Xbox Series X boot screen, confirms July event for Halo Infinite and more (The Verge)
Opinion | We Are a New Board at Facebook. Here’s What We’ll Decide. (The New York Times)
Apple awards $10 million from Advanced Manufacturing Fund to COPAN Diagnostics (Apple)
Apple WWDC 2020 announced for June 22, but will be digital only (CNBC)
UK finds itself almost alone with centralized virus contact-tracing app that probably won’t work well, asks for your location, may be illegal (The Register)
Airbnb is laying off a quarter of its staff (Vox)
Parking Lots Have Become a Digital Lifeline (The New York Times)
Twitter rolls out changes to threaded conversations following tests in its prototype app, twttr (TechCrunch)
Twitter tests a warning message that tells users to rethink offensive replies (The Verge)

Do-It-Yourself Comics

Create Your Own Digital Comics Whether You Can Draw or Not (The New York Times)
Classroom-Friendly Websites and Apps for Making Comics (Common Sense Media)
ComicBook! (iOS)
Comic Strip Pro (Android)
MediBang Paint
Comic Draw for iPad
Procreate for iPad
Comics Pages templates (Printable Paper)
Can You Draw This? Of Course You Can. (The New York Times)

Episode Links

PTJ 334: Grand Central Tracin’

April 29, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer 2 Comments

Contact tracing! It’s all the rage around the world as countries try to track the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus though voluntary smartphone apps. In this week’s news segment, El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the various approaches these apps take before moving on to other headlines around the tech world. El Kaiser also shares his adventures with cloning a hard drive. All this and more on PTJ 334!

Links to News and Stuff Discussed on This Week’s Show

Avenue 5 (HBO)
Apple and Google release first seed of COVID-19 exposure notification API for contact tracing app developers (TechCrunch)
NHS rejects Apple-Google coronavirus app plan (BBC News)
Two Million Australians Download Coronavirus Contact-Tracing App (Bloomberg)
Germany flips to Apple-Google approach on smartphone contact tracing (Reuters)
Coronavirus: Why are there doubts over contact-tracing apps? (BBC News)
Europe’s Privacy Law Hasn’t Shown Its Teeth, Frustrating Advocates (The New York Times)
‘iPhone 12’ likely to ship in the same timeframe that the iPhone X did (Apple Insider)
Microsoft Teams Vulnerability Exposed Organizations to Attacks (SecurityWeek.Com)
Verizon, AT&T, Comcast won’t cancel service through June due to coronavirus (Reuters)
Twitter turns off its original SMS service in most countries (The Verge)
Google Pixel Buds 2 review roundup: What critics love and hate (Tom’s Guide)
An ESPN Commercial Hints at Advertising’s Deepfake Future (The New York Times)
Warning Signs And Symptoms Of Hard Drive Failure (Prosoft Engineering)
How to Make a Bootable Clone of Your Mac’s Hard Drive (How-To Geek)
SuperDuper!
Carbon Copy Cloner

Episode Links

PTJ 333: ‘MYST’ E-Memories

April 22, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

As much of the United States drifts into its second month of lockdown to help stop the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus, El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the joy of playing old predictable games in decidedly unpredictable times. This week’s episode also includes a roundup of the past week’s technology news and a sharing of feelings about the Titans show on DC Universe. Spin up PTJ 333 to hear it all!

Links to News Stories Discussed on This Week’s Show

Apple iPhone SE 2020 update (MacRumors)
Zoom’s Security Woes Were No Secret to Business Partners Like Dropbox (The New York Times)
Virtual Nightlife Grows Past DJ Livestreams to Paid Zoom Clubs (Bloomberg)
Walmart is selling its on-demand video service Vudu to Fandango (TechCrunch)
Facebook removes some events calling for protests of stay-at-home orders (NBC News)
Facebook to Introduce an App for Gaming (The New York Times)
Mark Zuckerberg: How data can aid the fight against covid-19 (The Washington Post)
Instagram founders launch COVID-19 spread tracker Rt.live (TechCrunch)
‘One World’ concert raises more than $127m for WHO emergency response fund (CNN)
San Diego Comic-Con Canceled Amid Coronavirus Pandemic (The Hollywood Reporter)
The Entire Weekend Box Office Report Is From a Single Drive-In in Florida (ScreenCrush)
Domestic 2020 Weekend 16 (BoxOfficeMojo.com)

Retro Games for Uncertain Times

The Comfort of Childhood Media During Lockdown (The New York Times)
Myst
How to Find the Video Games of Your Youth (The New York Times)
Some Alternatives for the Bored Gamer (The New York Times)
It’s a Perfect Time to Play Video Games. And You Shouldn’t Feel Bad About It. (The New York Times)
How to Run Old Games on Your Modern PC (PCMag.com)
Castle Wolfenstein (1984) in the Internet Archive
Return to Castle Wolfenstein on Steam
The Internet Archive Software Collection
Untitled Goose Game

Episode Links

PTJ 332: Anti-Virus Software

April 13, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer 2 Comments

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues its spread, Apple and Google join forces to create a platform to track the disease — even though privacy advocates have concerns. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the program, along with the other tech headlines of the week. And, with network connectivity more important than ever, El Kaiser offers some tips on getting the most out of your home Wi-Fi. It’s all here waiting for you in PTJ 332!

Links to News Stories Discussed on This Episode

Coronavirus Contact Tracing: Apple and Google Team Up to Enable Virus Tracking (The New York Times)
How Apple and Google are tackling one of the toughest parts about tracking COVID-19 exposures (The Verge)
Apple and Google detail bold and ambitious plan to track COVID-19 at scale (Ars Technica)
Coronavirus: UK confirms plan for its own contact tracing app (BBC News)
Britain’s NHS working with Google, Apple on app to track coronavirus contact: Sunday Times (Reuters)
Contact Tracing in the Real World (Light Blue Touchpaper)
ACLU White Paper: The Limits of Location Tracking in an Epidemic (American Civil Liberties Union)
Apple Maps will soon display COVID-19 testing locations (9to5Mac)
PayPal, Intuit QuickBooks approved for coronavirus small-business loan (CNBC)
Warehouse workers are forcing Amazon to take COVID-19 seriously (The Verge)
Robots Welcome to Take Over, as Pandemic Accelerates Automation (The New York Times)
Apple Plans IPad-Like Design for Next IPhone, Smaller HomePod (Bloomberg)
Screen time is nothing to feel guilty about during the coronavirus — for adults or kids (The Washington Post)

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!