Lucasfilm | POP | TECH

As the tired old year of 2017 limps toward the exit, it seems fitting that age discrimination is in the news this week — both for smartphones and human job-seekers. El Kaiser and J.D. sort through two weeks’ worth of headlines, share their musings on Star Wars: The Last Jedi and offer up a warning about using browser extensions.

It’s been a crazy year in many ways, but Pop Tech Jam returns in early 2018, just in time to make fun of the weirdest products at the Consumer Electronics Show. Spin up Episode 256 here and look for us in a few weeks. Happy Holidaze, Jammers!

Links to Stories Discussed on This Week’s Episode

Apple Plans Combined iPhone, iPad & Mac Apps to Create One User (Bloomberg)
Apple responds to reports of worn batteries forcing iPhone CPU slowdowns (Apple Insider)
Facebook Job Ads Raise Concerns About Age Discrimination (The New York Times)
Facebook Is Also Helping Employers Keep Job Ads Away From Older People (Gizmodo)
How to use login verification (Twitter)
Web browsing comes to Amazon’s Fire TV ahead of YouTube ban (CNET)
The War Over Net Neutrality (Bloomberg)
New York AG to Sue FCC Over Net Neutrality Repeal (The Hill)
Netflix rips net neutrality repeal: ‘This is the beginning of a longer legal battle’ (The Hill)
Three U.S. men plead guilty to crimes tied to 2016 botnet attacks (Reuters)
How a Dorm Room Minecraft Scam Brought Down the Internet (Wired)
Twitter says Russians spent ~$1k on six Brexit-related ads (TechCrunch)
New to Office 365 in December—extending human ingenuity with everyday AI (Office Blogs)
Microsoft looks to make Bing results smarter with new AI-powered features and Reddit partnership (TechCrunch)
Google Assistant is coming to older Android phones and tablets (TechCrunch)
News Feed FYI: Fighting Engagement Bait on Facebook (Facebook)
Facebook plans to stop paying publishers to make news feed videos (Digiday)
Disney’s Buyout of Fox Officially Announced, Bringing Home X-Men, Deadpool, Fantastic Four (The Mary Sue)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

Protecting Your Data When Using Browser Extensions (The New York Times)
After Blowback, Firefox Will Move Mr. Robot Extension to Store (Gizmodo)

Series 3 of the BBC’s “Sherlock” finally makes its debut on PBS stations across the United States but if you can’t get enough of the deerstalker hat wearing detective, J.D. fills us in on other ways to get our Sherlock fix. Pedro deals with the disappointment of not having any cryptocurrency named in his honor by telling us what he knows about digital money. In the news, the U.S . Court of Appeals strikes down F.C.C. net neutrality rules; hackers mark the one-year anniversary of the death of programmer and digital-rights activist Aaron Swartz; Winamp will whip more llama ass; Google goes shopping; Snapchat continues to deal with its growing pains; and the bells begin to toll for Microsoft’s Windows 8.

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