POP | TECH | JAM

The countdown to the opening of the newest “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” has officially begun! This week saw the release of a new trailer, an official movie poster, and pre-sale tickets. One thing noticeably absent from all the hoopla: Luke Skywalker. Also on the show, El Kaiser delivers his annual “State of the Podcast” rant and J.D. takes a look at note taking apps for mobile devices. Oh yeah, and we lots and lots of tech news.

El Kaiser is back from the House of Mouse with a Tech Term focusing on the magic of technology at Disney parks and J.D. fills us in on the many commands available to use with Siri, Cortana, and Google Now. Don’t fret, we have the week’s tech news sprinkled with our usual generous helping of snark.

Back in the day, Microsoft was the elephant in the room. Apple was a cult favorite and Google was just a search engine. These days, Bill Gates’ pride and joy is the scrappy underdog and is doing all it can to stay relevant. To that end, the boys from Redmond unveiled a slew of products this week and that took aim squarely at behemoths Apple and Google. In a Hopefully Helpful Hint segment, J.D. explains how we can tweak privacy setting on Windows 10.

Technologist Don Donofrio stops by this week with a review of the new iPhone 6s Plus and some insights on life with an Apple Watch. (And check out the articles he mentions on both the iPhone’s evolving camera and Sherry Turkle’s recent essay about face-to-face conversation in a smartphone world.) Apple put out a press release this week saying it sold 13 million new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus phones in the first three days of sales, so hopefully some people were having meaningful conversations while waiting in line at the Apple Store.

And here’s one tip, even if you still have an older phone — but upgraded to iOS 9. Many tech sites around the web suggest that you turn off the Wi-Fi Assist option in your iPhone’s settings unless you have the cherished old unlimited data plan. The setting, which is on by default and lets the phone automatically jump to a cellular network if your Wi-Fi signal is lousy, was driving up mobile data bills for many unsuspecting people with capped data plans. The Wi-Fi Assist toggle is down at the very bottom of the Cellular settings on your iPhone, and owners of cellular iPads with monthly data plans may want to flip off Wi-Fi Assist as well. If you do have the unlimited data plan — burn, baby, burn!

This week on the galaxy’s best independent tech-themed podcast, El Kaiser breaks down the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and J.D. digs up some news apps that may may actually help you forget the long lamented Google Reader. And, of course, we have a whole mess of pumpkin-spiced tech news for your listening pleasure.

The Internet is a wonderful thing, but where there is good, there is also bad — namely the major spike in identity theft and credit-card fraud. Within the past couple years, hacks of huge customer-info databases like Target, Anthem, Sony, eBay, Home Depot, the IRS, Ashley Madison, JPMorgan, CVS Photo and U.S. government computer systems have put the personal information of millions of people into the hands of evildoers.

Getting a fraud alert call from your credit-card company — or seeing and stopping unauthorized charges on your monthly bill — is annoying enough to deal with, but things get kicked up several notches in the PITA department if your whole identity is stolen. If someone gets your Social Security number, address and other personal information, you can find your credit wrecked by that person signing up for new credit cards in your name and running up unpaid bills.One thing you can do to protect yourself, however, is to put a Security Freeze on your credit file with the big three agencies – Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. The freeze locks up access to your credit report — which people issuing new credit cards want to see before they approve a new account. If it’s you wanting that new account, you just have to provide a pre-approved PIN to unlock your reports for creditors, but an identity thief won’t have access to that. So most likely someone else’s application for a new credit card in your name will be turned down, thus saving your credit integrity.

You can put the freeze on your credit file in about 20 minutes by going online to the sites of Experian, TransUnion and Equifax and filling out a webform. You do have to type in your Social Security Number for this, so make sure you are on a secure Internet connection. You also need to remember the PIN you pick to unfreeze your accounts. If you are nervous about doing this online, you can also call each agency:

* Equifax — 1-800-349-9960

* Experian — 1‑888‑397‑3742

* TransUnion — 1-888-909-8872

Depending on the state you live in, there may be a small fee to freeze or unfreeze your credit files. Activating a security freeze does not affect your credit score, stop fraud on existing credit cards or prevent you from getting a free annual credit report. It also does not stop your mailbox from filling up with “prescreened” credit-card offers and pamphlets, but you can call or go online to opt out of those at 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688) or at www.optoutprescreen.com.

Intrigued, but want to know more about the credit deep freeze?

In this special double-sized episode, we look at this week’s Apple product announcement and feature a bountiful late summer harvest of tech news.

Also on the show, are technobabble, jargon and buzzwords ruining our ability to write clearly — and get the point across with our colleagues? Author Phil Simon joins us to discuss the general state of professional  correspondence in this high-tech world of ours. Phil’s latest book, Message Not Received: Why Business Communication Is Broken and How to Fix It, is out now and here’s its trailer:

Message Not Received – Book Trailer from Phil Simon on Vimeo.

You date someone and suddenly they cut off  all contact. Texts are ignored, calls are unanswered. No explanation for the disappearing act. That poor confused, and propably angry soul, has just been “ghosted” and in this world, there are two types of people: ghosters and ghostees. El Kaiser explains how it is actually harder than ever to completely shut someone out of your life these days.

The iOS and Android have more in common than most people think. On this weeks episode, J.D. looks at the similarities between the two dominant mobile operating systems.

We also offer up a late summer hunk of tech news and shenanigans.

POP | TECH | JAM: Same as it ever was…