POP | TECH | JAM

Mobile World Congress brought in the new and the old this week, Twitter and Facebook are stepping it up to help users in need and Amazon Web Services had a sad day this week. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss it all — and YouTube’s big week of views and cord-cutting measures — on this week’s … Continue reading PTJ 224: Uncloudy Skies →

Things down here on Earth may be business as usual — mergers, lawsuits, taxes, paradigm shifts, feature updates and so on — but exciting things are happening Up Above as well as Out There. SpaceX had another successful rocket launch and resupply mission to the International Space Station, the Juno craft decided to take the long … Continue reading PTJ 223: Ahead, Warp Factor Four! →

On this week’s episode,  Don Donofrio returns to discuss possible paths ahead for of Apple this year as the company comes off a record-breaking quarterly profit and a surging stock price.  El Kaiser and J.D. have some things to say about Facebook’s new autoplay audio on videos, the price war between Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile for … Continue reading PTJ 222: Noises Off →

On this week’s episode, El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the collision of the technology industry with the government, smart television sets that watch you, the ongoing battle with fake news and the demise of the message boards on IMDb.com. Get out of the winter weather and fire up Episode 221! Links to This Week’s News Stories … Continue reading PTJ 221: Watching and Waiting →

Politics body-slammed the tech world this week, cyber-criminals have figured out yet another way to rip off unsuspecting victims and an enterprising young archaeologist has come up with a way to let volunteers help look for lost ruins from the comfort of their own homes. And when El Kaiser and J.D. finish the news, it’s time to … Continue reading PTJ 220: Lost Worlds →

Samsung thinks it’s solved the mystery of the exploding Note 7, Sprint grabs a new business partner, SpaceX returns to work and oh, cars might fly soon. On this week’s episode, El Kaiser and J.D. dive into a pile of tech-news headlines before Apple-watcher Don Donofrio drops by to discuss the company’s 2016 efforts.

* Galaxy Note 7 fires caused by battery and design flaws, Samsung says (The New York Times)

* Galaxy Note7: What we discovered (Samsung Global Newsroom)

* Failure Analysis of Samsung Note 7 (UL)

* Samsung Galaxy S8 release date rumored to be scheduled for April 15 (Tech Times)

* Trump appoints anti-regulation Net Neutrality enemy to head FCC (Gizmodo)

* The SEC is reportedly investigating why Yahoo took so long to disclose that it was hacked (TechCrunch)

* Yahoo postpones close of Verizon transaction to Q2 2017, citing work needed (VentureBeat)

* Sprint acquires 33 percent of TIDAL and creates game-changing partnership (Sprint Newsroom)

* Ringing in 2017 with updates to our Google Voice apps (Google blog)

* Saving you bandwidth on Google+ through machine learning (Google blog)

* A new generation of Chromebooks, designed for millions of students and educators (Google)

* All Chromebooks debuting in 2017 and beyond will run Android apps (Ars Technica)

* Announcing Intune for Education & new Windows 10 PCs for school starting at $189 (Windows blog)

* Mac sales declined nearly 10% last year as Lenovo, Dell and others gained ground (9to5Mac)

* App Store app prices to rise in the UK by >25% following Brexit exchange rate fluctuation...

The Consumer Electronics Show is over for another year, leaving a pile of press releases, product releases and demo videos in its wake. El Kaiser and J.D.  discuss the highlights of the 2017 mega-gadgetfest, and sample a few other stories in the tech headlines this week. Also on the show, J.D. points NASA fans in the direction of the new movie Hidden Figures — and the apps and sites celebrating these inspiring women. Through hardships to the stars, indeed.

Links to This Week’s News Stories

• I have seen the future: Alexa controls everything (Ars Technica)

• All the cool new gadgets at CES 2017 (CNET)

• Battle of the CES 2017 coffee and tea robots (CNET)

• Nokia 6, Asus ZenFone AR and Other CES 2017 Launches, Vodafone’s Rs. 499 Plan, More News This Week (Gadgets360)

• Marissa Mayer is resigning from Yahoo’s board (Business Insider)

• After Verizon deal, Yahoo to become ‘Altaba’ and Marissa Mayer to step down from board (The New York Times)

• United State Securities and Exchange Commission Form 8-K

• Facebook is going to start showing ads in the middle of its videos and sharing the money with publishers (Recode)

• Cybersecurity vulnerabilities identified in St. Jude medical’s implantable cardiac devices and Merlin@home transmitter (FDA Safety Communication)

• Commission proposes high level of privacy rules for all electronic communications and updates data protection rules for EU institutions (EU Commission press release)

• Our continuing commitment to your privacy with Windows 10 (Windows blog)

• One place to manage your privacy (Microsoft)

• Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 15002 for PC (Windows blog)

• Coming Soon to Windows 10 (Microsoft)

• Facebook, Google face strict EU privacy rules that could hit ad revenues (Ars Technica)

•

After a tumultuous year that saw the sad passing of actress and author Carrie Fisher (as well as Kenny Baker) the year 2017 has arrived. And so, coincidentally,  is Episode 217 of Pop Tech Jam.

On this week’s show, El Kaiser and J.D. discuss some early announcements out of the Consumer Electronics Show, what Facebook’s been up to lately and explore suggestions to the Twitter’s CEO about improving the bird-themed microblogging service.

J.D. also has a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint about watching the skies. While you’re looking up, raise a glass to the memories of the actors that brought Princess Leia and R2-D2 to life all those years ago. They will be with us, always.

Links to Stories in This Week’s Episode

* HBO moves up debut of Debbie Reynolds-Carrie Fisher documentary ‘Bright Lights’ to Jan. 7 (Los Angeles Times)

* Raising the IQ of today’s smart home (Lenovo blog)

* DISH and Amazon deliver Alexa voice control on Hopper DVR (Businesswire)

* Alexa, start the washer: Whirlpool makes it possible at CES (CNET)

* Seiki, Westinghouse Electronics and Element Electronics introduce the first line of 4K Ultra HD Smart TVs with Amazon Fire TV (PR Newswire)

* Facebook & Google dominate the list of 2016’s top apps (TechCrunch)

* Facebook developing Copyright ID system to stem music rights infringement (Billboard)

* Facebook doesn’t tell users everything it really knows about them (ProPublica)

* How does Facebook work with data providers? (Facebook)

* Luggage tag code unlocks your flights, identity to hackers (PCmag.com)

* Elon Musk’s SpaceX says it has found cause of rocket explosion and plans to fly again Sunday (The Washington Post)

*

After a tumultuous 12 months in tech, culture and politics, this annus horribilis (as many found it) is finally on the way out the door. On this last episode of the year, El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the week’s tech news before exploring the highlights, lowlights and other notable events of 2016. Thanks for listening this year, Jammers, and we’ll be back in 2017!

Links to This Week’s Stories

* CES 2017 rumor roundup (TrustedReviews.com)

* Smart Living: Consumer expectations for smart home technology (Consumer Technology Association)

* Brick-and-mortar is out, brick-and-mobile is in (Consumer Technology Association)

* ASUS releases CES 2017 ZenFone video teaser, new phone (phoneArena.com)

* Samsung claims sleek new laptops are lightest on market, at just 1.8lbs (Ars Technica)

* New Galaxy S8 leak highlights Samsung’s big decision (Forbes)

* How Apple alienated Mac loyalists (Bloomberg)

* Apple extends discounts on USB-C adapters and accessories until March 31 (MacRumors)

* Apple AirPods teardown (iFixit)

* AirPods teardown reveals charging case may have been cause of delay (MacRumors)

* Apple’s Tim Cook assures employees that it is committed to the Mac and that ‘great desktops’ are coming (TechCrunch)

* LinkedIn resets some Lynda.com users’ passwords following data leak (Venturebeat)

* Yahoo says 1 billion user accounts were hacked (The New York Times)

* Airbnb is building a flight-booking tool (Bloomberg)

* Amazon Fire tablets updated with kids’ reading app, Amazon Rapids, and a more powerful Alexa (TechCrunch)

* Building Jarvis (Mark...

If you’re still clinging to a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 — even though the highly flammable device has been officially recalled — Samsung is coming for you with a phone-bricking update in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, the bacon emoji has arrives in iOS 10.2, Netflix is getting all up in the virtual reality and you can now use Dropbox from your Xbox. Also in this week’s episode, El Kaiser presents his Tech Term of 2016 and J.D. has a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint on replacing your smartphone battery. Just press Play!

Links to This Week’s News Stories

* Apple AirPods are now available (Apple)

* Google scaled back self-driving car ambitions (The Information)

* Google is no longer developing its own self-driving car: report  (The Verge)

* Google said to plan ride-sharing service with Fiat Chrysler (Bloomberg)

* Slack calls: Now with 100% more video (Slack blog)

* Happy Holidays! (Snap Inc.)

* Samsung announced that it will cripple remaining Note 7 phones beginning December 19 (BGR)

* Carriers announce the exact dates they plan to kill your Galaxy Note 7 (BGR)

* Apple releases iOS 10.2 w/ new emoji, Messages effects, US-only TV app, wallpapers, more (9to5Mac)

* Check out every single new emoji in iOS 10.2 (Macworld)

* Long after its iOS debut, Google’s Gboard keyboard finally comes to Android i

* Netflix VR for Daydream is now available on the Play Store (Android Police)

* Netflix and HBO launch virtual reality apps on Google Play (BGR)

* Instagram brings live video broadcasts to all U.S. users (TechCrunch)

* Introducing Live 360 (Facebook Media blog)

* Dropbox for Xbox: View and share from the biggest screen in your house (Dropbox blog)

* No, many Bothans did not die in Rogue One: We have all failed Mon Mothma and the Star Wars canon (inverse.