POP | TECH | JAM

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!

Note: Pop Tech Jam is on vacation next week.

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!

In this week's show, J.D. and an overworked El Kaiser discuss the week's news, including Google's big fine and Amazon Prime Day's big fail. There's also an exciting turn of events for those wishing rocket jet-packs were real. J.D. also has a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint about making your Windows PC or Mac clean up after itself. Hear it all now on Episode 281!

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!

In that quiet time of the year between developer conferences and the back-to-school sales, product announcements are scarce — but the hazy, lazy days of summer are no vacation for the legal world! As El Kaiser and J.D. discover on this week's episode, court rulings and decisions by lawmakers dominated the news this week, with a few bug revivals thrown in for good measure. J.D. also explores the new Windows 10 Timeline feature in Microsoft's latest operating-system update, so beat the heat and find a cool place to settle in with Episode 279!

On this week's episode, El Kaiser discusses his return to gaming and adventures with hardware, and J.D. explores the world of indoor maps. In tech news this week, Disney marches on to a Fox acquisition, Facebook tries a way to block spoilers, the Dark Net gets busted and this fall's new Doctor Who series will have its own unique look and sound. Find a cool spot to kick back and spin up PTJ 278!

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!