Road trips with a baby, the witching hour of a baby, why we need a teleportation device, why air travel has become frustrating, the oddity of US territories, the FIFA corruption scandal, conspiracy theories, secret trade treaties, the lack of new travel bodes ill.
Download the episode at this link.
Ron Richards and Justin Young join the show to make some sense of the avalanche of announcements from Google I/O. Stop your head from spinning and join us.
Using a Screen Reader? click here
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here or giving 5 cents a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guests: Justin Robert Young and Ron Richards
Headlines:
Recode reports when asked about the cost of an Oculus Rift headset, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe said Wednesday, “We are looking at an all-in price, if you have to go out and actually need to buy a new computer and you’re going to buy the Rift … at most you should be in that $1,500 range.” Oculus plans to ship the headset in early 2016.
CNET reports on three concept announcements from Lenovo Tech World Wednesday. A smartwatch concept called Magic View that has a second screen that uses optical reflection to create a virtual display 20 times larger than the standard. A concept called Smart Cast would project a virtual keyboard from a smart phone and could also display content and games. And Smart Shoes would track your heart rate, calories consumed and display fitness info and even map directions on screens embedded in the shoes.
BBC reports Avago, a US and Singapore-based semiconductor manufacturer is buying competitor Broadcom. Broadcom makes semiconductors for set-top boxes, mobile phones and network equipment, with Apple and Samsung as clients. This is the 6th company bought by Avago since 2013.
Geekwire reports Amazon launching free same-day delivery for around 1 million items in 14 metro areas covering about 500 cities in the US. Orders have to be for more than $35 and the user has to be an Amazon Prime Member. Previouls Prime members paid $5.99 for same day a discount off the $8.99 plus 99 cents per item. Orders must be placed by 12:00 PM.
The Next Web reports Shazam has launched “Visual Shazam” which lets you scan certain products from participating advertisers to get an interactive augmented reality experience. When you see something with Shazam logo with a camera icon you can scan it and get AR visuals that work with the object, videos and coupons.
Ars Technica reports TWiTCH has updated its rules of conduct to prohibit streaming of “Adults Only” rated games. Previously Twitch banned individual games with overly sexual conduct or gratuitous violence. Games not rated by the ESRB may stiull be banned individually and five such titles are currently listed as banned. Players breaking the ban will receive a temporary suspension.
MacRumors reports Apple is partnering with Postmates to offer same day delivery for certain products in the Apple Store app. The option will only be available to areas Postmates serves and seems to be starting only in the San Francisco area. Delivery charge depends on location and distance.
News From You:
habichuelacondulce submitted our top vote getter, an EFF post detailing a leak of the secret Trade in Services Agreement. TISA, is cited alongside the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership as current trade deals that could be signed with the US President’s fast track authority. TISA includes provisions to require signatories to protect privacy, enforce a version of net neutrality, introduce anti-spam laws and require disclosure of source code in certain situations. TISA would also prohibit countries from requiring data to be stored locally to customers.
KAPT_Kipper submitted the Geekwire report that Amazon is launching free same-day delivery for around 1 million items in 14 metro areas covering about 500 cities in the US. Orders have to be for more than $35 and the user has to be an Amazon Prime Member. Previouls Prime members paid $5.99 for same day a discount off the $8.99 plus 99 cents per item. Orders must be placed by 12:00 PM.
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the Day:
Joe the keyboard enthusiast and loyal $5 patron:
The pick on yesterday’s show was O’Reilly’s Safari Books Online service, available for $40/month.
I just wanted to mention that if Safari interests you, but the price is too steep, be sure to check with your local library. I can access Safari for free with my library card. I’m not certain that it’s the full selection of books, but it’s certainly a lot.
We’re quick to write off libraries as antiquated and useless, but there are still great benefits available.
=====
Friday’s guest: Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta
We congratulate John Scalzi on his book deal (while Veronica teases about his Lock In Sequel’s title), applaud Ernest Cline’s choice of audiobook narrator and have polar opposite opinions about Leigh Brackett’s “Sword of Rhiannon.”
QUICK BURNS
AndrewP – Just read on the Tor.com website that Tanith Lee passed away 🙁
Joanna: Holy crap, John Scalzi just signed a $3.4 million deal with Tor for his next 13 books. Well, if he still thought that he hadn’t “made it”, he has no excuse for that, now. Given his blog, though, I don’t think imposter syndrome was something he suffers much anymore, if at all. More details, including the plan of books.
James (Observant Raven) The first trailer for The Magicians TV series has been released.
Louie: Wil Wheaton to narrate the audiobook of Ernest Cline’s Armada.
James (Observant Raven) The trailer for Arthur C Clarkes Childhood’s End tv series has been released.
Astronaut reads ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ in space
See a first look at Matt Damon in Ridley Scott’s ‘The Martian’
Finalists: 2015 Aurora Award
BARE YOUR SWORD
Are some stories just too old? Forgotten or unreadable by today’s standards?
Adding “Lemmed” as a shelf
Just for fun – reviews of self-pubbed “bad” ebooks
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION
Next month: City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett
WRAP UP
Sword of Rhiannon by Leigh Brackett
ADDENDUMS
Inkshares promo! If you’ve heard about Inkshares on the show, and want to try it out, use the link: inkshares.com/secrets/swordandlaser
You’ll get $10 in credits to back a book you’d like to read! If you’ve already created an account and have backed one of the S&L contest entrants, you’ve already received an additional $5 to keep the momentum going! So head over to the S&L Collection contest and back your favorites!”
Our show is currently entirely funded by our patrons at patreon.com/swordandlaser Thank you to all the folks who back our show and if you would like to support the show that way head to patreon.com/swordandlaser
You can also support the show by buying books through our links! Find links to the books we talk about and some of our favorites at swordandlaser.com/picks .
We congratulate John Scalzi on his book deal (while Veronica teases about his Lock In Sequel’s title), applaud Ernest Cline’s choice of audiobook narrator and have polar opposite opinions about Leigh Brackett’s “Sword of Rhiannon.”
Scott Johnson is on today and we’ll talk about Mary Meeker’s annual Internet trends report. Can this woman ever be wrong? Will messaging apps become the dominant mobile hub?
Using a Screen Reader? click here
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guests: Scott Johnson
Headlines:
An AppleInsider reader, Kaitlyn, let the blog know Tuesday that receiving a particular text message made up of Unicode characters from various character sets caused iPhone restarts and lockouts from messages. When the text is received while the screen is locked the phone reboots and messenger is unavailable until a new message is sent to it. The problem according to Apple Insider is that notifications can’t render the full block of Unicode text, so iOS hogs resources trying to render the message. Apple is aware of the problem.
During an interview with Walt Mossberg at Code Conference reports The Verge, an audience member asked Apple’s senior VP of operations, Jeff Williams what Apple was going to do with its huge cash reserves. Williams said, “Well the car is the ultimate mobile device, isn’t it?” Was he trolling or telling?—- Williams also confirmed that a preview of a native Apple Watch app development kit will be released at WWDC on June 8.
Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers delivered her Internet trends report at the Code conference. She started delivering them 20 years ago. Meeker says Messging is becoming the dominant use of mobile and messaging apps may become a hub for commerce and identity management. She also discussed the rising popularity of drones, identified Housing, Transportation and Food is areas ripe for innovation, the increasing easiness of freelance and contracting and the need for regulatory reform there and pointed out India is number 1 in new Internet users and is becoming the next big tech market.
Google will soon index some iOS apps in the search results it returns in the iOS versions of the Google app and Chrome, according to Tech Crunch. Google has been indexing apps on Android phones for a few years and started indexing apps whether installed or not a few months ago. Developers who want to have their iOS app indexed by Google will have to add deep linking support among a few other things and fill out an online form. The form does not guarantee Google will begin indexing the app.
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said the messaging service is planning an initial public offering, at Re/code’s Code Conference. Spiegel also mentioned plans to expand its reach to include older users including changes to the Apps hold-to-watch feature. Spiegel also predicted a market correction is coming and his company has prepared accordingly. You can catch the rest of the interview on the Re/Code website.
Fortune reports Pebble began shipping the Pebble Time to around 79,000 Kickstarter backers today. The Pebble cost $199 has an e-paper display multiple day battery life and works with multiple smartphone platforms.
9to5 Mac reports sources say Apple is developing an alternative to Google Now supposedly codenamed Proactive. It would automatically provide timely information based on the user’s data and device usage pattern. Apple acquired the personal assistant app Cue in 2013, which was sort of a mix of voice-recognition assistant like Cortana and predictive notification like Google Now.
Xiaomi (Shao-me) posted on Facebook that it will officially launch online stores in the US on June 1 and Germany France and the UK on June 2 at http://mi.com/store. The Mi Stores will not sell phones in these regions but will sell lots of accessories like headphones and the Mi Band.
News From You:
starfuryzeta sent us the Business Insider report that AdBlock Plus won again in court, this time in Munich, Germany. Two German broadcasters RTL Interactive and ProSiebenSat 1 had sued saying that users should not be allowed to block ads. The court ruled that the software was not anti-competitive because users chose to install AdBlock Plus and Eyeo did not have enough dominance of the market to stop online publishers from finding sufficient users who would see ads.
Kylde, our self-described subreddit janitor, sent us a Washington Post report that Chuck Johnson has been permanently suspended from Twitter after asking for funds to “take out” civil rights activist DeRay McKesson. Twitter has also suspended several of Johnson’s new accounts.
AllanAV noted the Ars Technica writeup on the US Internal Revenue Service’s disclosure that it has shut down its transcript service, which allowed taxpayers to request copies of past tax returns. The IRS noticed unusual activity and found that more than 100,000 accounts had been accessed by unauthorized parties. The system required knowledge of personal, financial, and tax information—including date of birth, tax filing status, and address. It appears the attackers had such information on the accounts that were accessed.
tm204 sent us the Engadget report that pop culture retailer Hot Topic has purchased Geeknet, owners of the ThinkGeek online store for $122 million. Companies who license pop culture, FORM A… MEGASTORE.
starfuryzeta sent us the Recode announcement that Vox Media which runs The Verge will acquire Revere Digital, which runs ReCode. Several ReCode staffers will move over to The Verge (including Bonnie Cha and Lauren Goode) to write reviews while Walt Mossberg will write for both sites.
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the Day:
Derek aka Bishma – Director of Engineering in Eugene, Oregon writes:
Here is a pick I’d like to share: Safari Books Online
Safari is a service from O’Reilly and Associates (makers or the iconic animal books on all things technology) that offers on-demand access to tens of thousands of titles. The service is not limited to O’Reilly as the make titles available from other big technical publishers like Adobe Press, Prentice Hall, Pragmatic Bookshelf, and more. Additionally you get access to many titles as “rough cuts” (not necessarily their final edit) or “fresh cuts” (finished editions sometimes weeks before they arrive in stores) so that you can get a jump on the latest and greatest. They also have a good collection of videos including many from O’Reilly’s conferences (OSCON, Velocity, Strata, etc).
Reading can be done via website or mobile app – their features page says the Android app is “coming soon” but it is in fact available in the play store. Each month you’re on the service you can earn credits toward downloading titles or chapters in pdf, mobi, or epub formats if you need or want offline access.
The cost, at $39/month or $399/year, seems a high compared to things like Netflix but when you consider many of the titles available retail for $40+ dollars it pays for itself quickly if you spend a lot of time researching new technologies or improving your tech skills as I do.
I’m always surprised how many technology professions I encounter who don’t know this service exists so I wanted to share with everyone in DTNSland.
Messages:
Rich from Lovely Cleveland:
Once Google Tone makes its way to mobile, I could see it being a huge boon for radio advertisers. Imagine if radio ads had Google tones embedded, each time your phone hears one, it pings Google and lets the advertisers know (and Google gets to keep the demographic info of the phone user for their own purposes). All of this could easily be accomplished by including some small bit of language in the EULA and providing for some obscure method to opt-out. It could totally change the metrics used for ad sales on radio.
What’s that, Google Tone is included in the next Google Now update that’s already installed on every new Android phone? I could NEVER see that happening <insert yet-to-be-agreed-upon-sarcasm-punctuation-mark>.
=====
Thursday’s guest: Justin Robert Young
Mad Max: Fury Road, Movie Draft Update, Game of Thrones (507), The Shield (511)
00:40 – Mad Max: Fury Road
16:51 – Movie Draft Update
22:21 – Game of Thrones (507)
30:14 – The Shield (511)
Subscribe to and support Cordkillers at http://www.cordkillers.com
Become our bosses! Pledge at http://www.patreon.com/cordkillers
Download audio: http://archive.org/download/STEp72/STEp72.mp3
Brian and Tom reflect on your suggestions to make the show better and open the floor for more suggestions to make Cordkillers even better.
Send feedback to [email protected]
Subscribe to and support Cordkillers at http://www.cordkillers.com
Become our bosses! Pledge at http://www.patreon.com/cordkillers
Download video: http://archive.org/download/StateOfCordkillersMay/State%20of%20Cordkillers-May.mp3
Patrick Norton joins us to talk about Microsoft announcing Cortana for iOS and Android and Microsoft’s continuing cross-platform strategy. Crazy, genius or both?
Using a Screen Reader? click here
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
Today’s guests: Patrick Norton
Headlines:
Microsoft announced today that it will bring a Cortana app to Android in June and iOS later this year. The app will have most of the functions of Cortana but can’t work with settings or launch apps. Windows 10 is also getting a companion app for phones that helps you integrate whatever phone you have with your Windows 10 device. And the Xbox Music apps are getting an update in late June or July that will let them play music stored in One Drive without additional charge.
Twitter’s Periscope is now available for Android users according to CNET. The Android version of the popular broadcasting App will have comparable features to the iOS version including the ability to tweet links to their broadcasts and location sharing. Additionally Android users get specific control over notifications, including when a follower goes lives, shares a broadcast or is followed by someone else, and if a user leaves a broadcast to answer a text message, they will get a notification inviting them back to the broadcast they were watching.
9 to 5 Mac reports that Apple’s Jony Ive has been promoted to the newly created position of Chief Design Officer at Apple. Ive will still be in charge of the company’s hardware and software design teams overall, but day-to-day management of the Industrial Design department will go to Richard Howarth, and Alan Dye will manage User Interface Design on desktop and mobile devices. Ive will focus on the design of Apple’s retail stores and the new Apple campus.
9 to 5 Mac has sources that say Force Touch will come to the next version of the iPhone and be supported by iOS9. Force Touch is built into new MacBooks and MacBook Pros as well as the Apple Watch. On the phone it may replace some long press-and-hold interactions.
ZDNet reports EMC will buy Virtustream for $1.2 billion allowing the company to offer hybrid cloud managed service. The acquisition ads the as-a-service element to VMware, Enterprise Hybrid Cloud, converged infrastructure and such. If you’ve been following the chatter about hybrid cloud impress your friends and say “I think managed services marketing is going to supersede that.”
CNET reports that Android Police has revealed rumors from a reliable source that Google will release two new Nexus phones but no tablet this year. One phone produced by LG codenamed “Angler” will feature a 5.2” screen, possibly a Snapdragon 808 processor, and 2700mAh battery. The second phone will be a 5.7”, a Snapdragon 810 processor, and 3500mAh batter from Huawei codenamed “Bullhead”. Both phones should be out around Oct.
The Verge reports that Ford has expanded their test of a car-sharing service in London with a full service called GoDrive. The service is one way, with guaranteed parking at your destination. It will use a fleet of Fiestas and Focus Electrics and initially be open to 2,000 people who will have access to 50 cars spread across 20 locations around London. Realtime charges are displayed on GoDrive’s smartphone app, and the first five minutes are free so that you can figure out how to use the car’s controls.
Engadget reports Google announced Tuesday it is funding a $20 million grant to make the world more accessible. The Google Impact: Disabilities program wants to “create universal access for people with disabilities.” The gernal public is asked to submit What If questions and startups and inventors are asked to respond. The program is open for submissions until September 30, 2015 at 2:00 pm at http://get.google.com/disabilitiesimpactchallenge/
News From You:
Derekhuether shared a post from inhabitat.com with stills of Tesla’s gigafactory under construction in Nevada. The factory will span 10 million sq. ft. when completed. In a Tweet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, “This is not the full Gigafactory, it is just the pilot plant (1/4 size).” The finished factory will cover hundreds of acres and be among the largest factories in the world. Tesla’s Gigafactory will be run on renewable energy, using power from three sources: the flat roof will be covered in solar panels and the factory will be plugged into a nearby wind farm and a geothermal electricity plant. Emory Peterson, a Nevada local, shot the video using a DJI Phantom 3 Professional Quadcopter Drone from a mile away.
habichuelacondulce posted the BloomBergBusiness article that Charter Communications was near a deal to buy TWC and that deal is now confirmed. Charter will pay about $55 billion. Patrick Drahi’s Altice SA had also been pursuing TWC, driving up the price. .Bright House Networks will also be acquired by Charter and merged into the combined entity. The combined business will have about 17 million subscribers second in the US to Comcast’s 22 million. Comcast dropped their pursuit of TWC in April due to regulatory concerns. French billionaire The transaction is expected to be completed by the ned of 2015.
Metalfreak flagged the PC World report that Orange is moving Kenyan mobile subscribers off CDMA and launching five LTE networks in Africa this year. This is a growing trend in Africa. Telecom Namibia shut down al its CDMA sites March 31st and moved customers to HSPA+ and LTE. One factor for the moves besides speed and service is that CDMA handsets cost more than GSM.
Discussion Section Links:
Pick of the Day:
Devulu recently wanted a self-hostable way to save articles and webpages like a personal Pocket. Devulu writes:
After some searching I found Wallabag which is free and open source and does the job quite well. While the interface may not be as intuitive as other partially free or paid services, the features make up for it.
It has Apps for Android iOS and Windows Phone, I have not used the apps myself but I hope they are good.
There are Firefox and Chrome extensions/addins plus a bookmarklet
You can also download all your saved links in ePub 3, Mobi or PDF format, it can import from similar services like Pocket Readability or Instapaper and export for moving to a new wallabag.
You can customize the theme, have multiple users and probably some more features I have left out.
Messages:
Allison Sheridan writes:
I asked Steve to post in the Reddit an article by Wired about changes at GoDaddy but I wanted to give a plug about it too. The new CEO seems to have made substantive changes about women. From hiring female CTO to hiring 40% women into technical and engineering internships this year, and finally getting rid of the sexy lady ads.
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/godaddy-isnt-company-think/?mbid=social_twitter
Marlon”theGuyFromTrinidad” writes:
I don’t know if you will be doing a Google I/O preview, well…because sorry to say your contributors Android Fu…isn’t that strong, but that’s ok cause Ron Amadeo is here to rescue you. Last week he published this epic 6000+ word article that breaks it all down. So now, you to, can look like an Android shaolin master. (apologies, I was listening to Wu Tang Clan when I wrote this)
=====
Wednesday’s guest: Scott Johnson
Is it crazy for Apple to hold out for local TV? Has a perfect solution for Netflix in hotels been found?.
Subscribe to and support Cordkillers at http://www.cordkillers.com
Become our bosses! Pledge at http://www.patreon.com/cordkillers
Download audio: http://archive.org/download/CordkillersEp72/CordkillersEp72.mp3
It’s the Memorial day holiday in the US, so Tom’s just reading the headlines before he joins the rest of his US counterparts. Back with full shows tomorrow.
Using a Screen Reader? click here
Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.
Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.
A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!
Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!
Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!
Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit
Show Notes
