Tech News Weekly (Video)

On Monday online magazine The Intercept posted a scoop about a cyberattack by Russian Military Intelligence on the makers of electronic voting services and equipment. The story was based on a highly classified intelligence report that an anonymous source sent it to The Intercept. The Intercept inadvertently outed its source and Patrick Tucker from Defense One explains how.

Apple announced something during yesterday's WWDC keynote that caught our attention and could be the predecessor for Apple branded AR or VR goggles somewhere in the future. AR-Kit is a new tool for developers that enables what Apple calls "world-tracing", which uses the iPhone's camera and motion sensors to map a user's environment, and can use that map to pin objects to points within it. For example, an upcoming Ikea app will use the platform to allow users to virtually place Ikea objects in their room prior to purchase.

If you hail a Lyft in Boston, be aware that it might be driverless. Instead of developing its own in-house autonomous car system, Lyft has partnered with NuTonomy, a company that has had a fleet of self-driving cars on the road in Singapore since last Fall and is now launching in Boston.

Plus, Stephen Shankland from CNET tells us all about IBM and Samsung's breakthrough in 5nm technology, and Matt Curtis from This Week in Law discusses how Harvard let go of incoming students who shared memes in a private facebook group.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guests: Stephen Shankland, Patrick Tucker, and Matt Curtis

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Apple held its annual Worldwide Developer's Conference keynote where they announced the HomePod, the rumored Siri speaker that will be available in December. Apple pushed the sound quality of the device with its seven-speaker array of tweeters and real-time acoustic spatial awareness that will determine the room its in and play music accordingly.

Apple's next Mac OS update is High Sierra, with an update to the Apple File System, Safari updates that will stop autoplay media in the background and increase privacy by blocking certain types of ad trackers, and Metal 2 and Metal for VR. It's available as a developer update today, a public beta this summer, and then available to all later in the year.

New MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and iMacs are shipping today, starting around $1300. And in December you'll be able to buy a $5000 new iMac Pro with space gray finish, a 5k display, and up to an 18 core Xeon processor.

Plus, FitBit loses significant ground to Apple and Xiaomi in wearables, Palmer Luckey is getting into the border security business, Amazon has a new phone in the works, a Supreme Court case will see if cell location data is protected by the fourth amendment, and Quincy Larson from Free Code Camp joins to tell us a little bit about students of code.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Quincy Larson

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According to a new study by Rutgers University, Airbnb hosts are discriminating against people with disabilities. Researchers completed a randomized field experiment of 3,847 lodging requests made between June and November, 2016 in the continental US.

Qualcomm's updated Quick Charge 4 Plus will speed up Quick Charge to be 15% faster, lower the temperature while charging by up to 3 degrees, and has improved safety features that monitor temperatures to make sure things don't overheat or short circuit while charging.

Corporate-level password management service OneLogin admits that a recent data breach exposed customer data, even data that was encrypted. The attack started May 31st in the company's US Operating Region.

Plus, Delicious is bought by Pinboard and it'll be shut down for good, Facebook is working on a chat app for kids, Sam Machkovech from Ars Technica talks good news and bad news for Nintendo Switch Online, and why Tekken 7 is so good on the PC.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Sam Machkovech

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Skype has been redesigned to include new social features reminiscent of Snapchat, including Capture for ephemeral photo and video sharing, Highlights for 24-hour story sharing, and expanded video, voice and text chat support.

Google is reaching out to publishers to forewarn them of the upcoming inclusion of ad blocking in its Chrome browser with a tool for publishers called "Ad Experience Reports" that will educate them about their own bad ads ahead of the switch in order to give them time to address the issues prior to the feature's launch early next year.

Apple said it has paid out more than $70 billion to developers who've uploaded apps to its iOS App Store since opening up in 2008. Apple said that in the last 12 months alone, downloads have grown over 70 percent.

Plus, Motorola releases the Moto Z2 Play handset and a number of new Moto mods, Apple's Swift Playground now controls Lego robots and Sphero orbs, and Roberto Baldwin from Engadget discusses what the Trump administration's decision to back out of the Paris Climate Agreement might mean for business in Silicon Valley tech companies.

Hosts: Jason Howell and Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Guest: Roberto Baldwin

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Nest unveiled the Nest Cam IQ, a high def security camera with a 4K HDR sensor, night vision, and integrated mics and speaker. The IQ will lean on Google's deep learning smarts for object recognition, facial detection, and sound alerts based on emergency noises like breaking glass. The Cam IQ is available for pre-order in the US for $299.

Mary Meeker's annual internet trends report is out and the bots are winning. In addition to other notable stats of 2016 from the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers exec, internet traffic from bots surpassed human-generated traffic in 2016.

Apple might indeed show a Siri Speaker at next week's Worldwide Developers Conference to get developers working to support the platform, according to Bloomberg. Mark Gurman and Alex Webb say that manufacturing has begun, and the Speaker will likely include virtual surround sound capabilities when it ships later this year.

If you miss the physical keyboard of your blackberry, we have good news for you. If you bought a Samsung Galaxy S8 for the Bixby digital assistant, we have bad news for you. Plus, we talk to a consumer protection lawyer about what it means to give away your DNA to Ancestry.com.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Joel Winston

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Uber has fired Anthony Levandowski, its VP of technology and the former head of its self-driving car effort. The decision to fire the engineer/executive came after Levandowski decided to plead the fifth and not offer any evidence or testimony defending himself or Uber in a lawsuit filed by Levandowski's previous employer, Google's Waymo.

Andy Rubin, the father of Android, unveiled the Essential Phone, with premium specs, a titanium body and ceramic back, pure android, a near bezel-less screen design, and magnetic pins on the back for modular expansion. The Essential Phone is currently up for preorder for $699.

Sheryl Sanderberg -- lobbyist? In 2014, Facebook's famed Chief Operating Officer personally lobbied the Irish Prime Misiter, Tee-shaw Enda Kenny, both offering praise and threatening to take Facebook's investment dollars away from Ireland if the company didn't get its way. Facebook's European headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland. She also pushed for "one stop shop" provisions in the EU's new privacy laws, and indeed that came to fruition. That will go into effect next year.

Plus, malware that clicks ads while you play android games, a big patent win that is consumer friendly, a mechanical gaming keyboard that is okay with you eating your sandwich over it, and Alison Griswold from Quartz says food delivery in the internet age is a tough nut to crack.

Hosts: Jason Howell and Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Guest: Alison Griswold

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Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and another few dozen tech companies have sent a letter to Congress urging internet surveillance reform. The companies suggest specific reforms to the way the government collects information from non-US persons who are not suspected of wrongdoing.

If you've been ordering food from the delivery app Sprig, well, you won't anymore. Sprig is shutting down. Over a 4 year period the San Francisco startup had raised $56 million dollars and delivered millions of meals. But that wasn't enough to find its way to profitability.

Bitcoin is getting bigger, especially in South Korea and the rest of Asia. But as the price of bitcoin rises, some of the exchanges can't handle the traffic. TechCrunch reports that Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange that's received over $117 million in funding from investors, can't handle the traffic.

We also discuss Mark Zuckerberg's Harvard graduation speech, Apple's new AI chip, and a mechanical watch that costs $26,000 and won't even let you send emoji to people. Plus, Sam is here with the weekly gaming segment to talk about Rime, Destiny 2, and more.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Guest: Sam Machkovech

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Journalist Walt Mossberg has posted his last column on Re/Code, the site he co-founded. His final piece is worth your time as it describes our ambient computing future where devices that we interact with on desks, in our laps, or in our hands are no more and computing is simply around us, in the air.

Facebook's Instant Articles is opening up to supporting Google's AMP and Apple's News formats in its open source dev kit. An extension will allow publishers to create their content in a way that supports all three formats.

This week the US Department of Homeland Security met with European officials to discuss a potential laptop ban on flights. While no specific timeline has been set, Bloomberg reports that some airports will begin tests to determine the feasibility of the ban.

Plus, T-Mobile virtualizes customer phone numbers, a benefits bill for the gig economy is on the horizon, smart pants that could someday charge your phone while you walk, and Spencer Soper from Bloomberg discusses Amazon's brick and mortar grocery strategy.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Spencer Soper

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The New York Times reported on a document that shows how the Trump administration is asking Congress for the ability to capture or destroy any drone from the sky that they deem a threat to a "covered facility." The report also absolves any of those people from any legal action that might result from the capture or destruction of those drones.

Google can now prove to advertisers that you're buying stuff, even if you're buying it in a brick and mortar store. The company announced a new tool that uses credit card receipts to track purchases in physical stores, and they're using machine learning to do it.

Intel announced plans to make the Thunderbolt 3 specification royalty-free, removing a barrier for hardware manufacturers that want to use the data transfer spec in their products. Intel is also integrating Thunderbolt 3 into its CPUs, which it hopes will help drive adoption of the protocol in devices and peripherals using Intel's chips.

We also talk about DJI's new $500 Spark drone, malware in subtitles, walking on water, and the debate that never dies: GIF VS GIF.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

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Microsoft introduced the new Surface Pro with configurations including Core m3 and Core i5 models up to Intel's seventh generation Kaby Lake processor. They utilize an improved hinge design, offer 13.5 hours of battery life, and support for the Surface Dial, but no longer include the Surface Pen inside the box.

Microsoft is also making inroads with the Chinese government by creating a version of Windows 10 that's just for them. It's called the Windows 10 China Government Edition and it's based on Windows 10 Enterprise Edition.

The Chaos Computer Club demonstrated how to fool a Samsung Galaxy S8's iris scanning technology to access the device. The process includes taking a digital picture of the owner's face from up to 15 feet away using the night mode setting, printing that photo onto paper, dropping a wet contact lens onto the eye ball, and flashing that in front of the phone to gain entry.

Also in the news today, Google's AlphaGo beats the Go champion in their first round of play. The Netflix of China is failing and has pivoted to focus on the Chinese speaking community in the US, and Robocop has come to Dubai to detect your emotions.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-today.

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