Tech News Weekly (Video)

Facebook has updated its developer rules for both Facebook and Instagram to prohibit its user data from being used as ammo for surveillance tools that have been used in the past to track political upheaval by authorities. Facebook says its policies already prohibited this, but it's making the policy even more explicit for developers.

Intel just bought Israeli computer vision tech company MobileEye for $15.3 billion dollars. This will make Intel a real player in the race to get autonomous cars on the road and cement its place in an industry that Intel's CEO says will be worth about $70 billion by 2030.

Pandora Premium is a new streaming service that takes all of the familiar aspects of Pandora's traditional service and adds the ability to pick and choose albums and songs at will from their library, with a broad focus on tailored content based on listening history. Pandora Premium will begin to roll out starting Wednesday and starts at $10 per month.

Plus, 15% of all live Twitter accounts are bots and why that matters a new app that lets you send sparkles to people while you're watching YouTube videos together and Levi introduces a new smart jacket that's designed to make you look at your screens less often. Plus, founder of DuckDuckGo Gabriel Weinberg is here to talk about how to keep your keywords to yourself.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Gabriel Weinberg

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Driverless Car Project Waymo has filed a federal injunction to stop Uber's self-driving research. The documents filed are part of a case we reported last month that involves Google's claim that Uber stole Waymo's designs for LIDAR, a key technology of the driverless car.

Google is looking to make things a bit less annoying for humans by making CAPTCHAs invisible. Google isn't sharing the secret sauce, but the company says its system no longer needs your help recognizing when you are a human, and when you might be a robot posing as a human. THEY ALREADY KNOW.

Facebook is testing a new feature that will remind you to finish videos that you started watching. Facebook is testing the continue-watching feature only on the web version of Facebook right now.

We also discuss drones that shouldn't hurt when they fall on your head and how one man bred a snake with emoji on its skin. Plus, Sam Abuelsamid from the Wheel Bearings Podcast tells us everything we need to know about the uncertain future of vehicle-to-vehicle communication in driverless cars.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Sam Abuelsamid

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Uber says they'll stop using the controversial Greyball tool that was used to show an alternate version of the app to regulators in the US and abroad, though they won't be getting rid of it entirely. Uber still plans to use it to deter users who are violating their terms of service.

Facebook announced a new Snapchat-inspired feature called Messenger Day that lets Messenger users share photos and videos with their friends or on a public scale that last for 24 hours before disappearing. Those Days will appear at the top of the chat thread screen inside Messenger.

Google will upgrade its enterprise messaging tool in two parts -- Hangouts Chat for communicating via text, and Hangouts Meet, which will allow for audio and video conferencing. Google says you'll be able to transition seamlessly between the two.

Plus, Google has a new virtual whiteboard for business, Lyft is aggressively expanding in the US, and Nsikan Akpan from PBS News Hour shares how a company called bioMASON is using bacteria to make cement while also helping to reduce carbon emissions.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Nsikan Akpan

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Apple and Google say that most of the vulnerabilities profiled in the cache of Wikileaks documents have been fixed and they will continue work to rapidly address any identified vulnerabilities in the future, so continue to get your updates when you can.

Google announced its new Video Intelligence API that enables its Artificial Intelligence to pick apart a video down to the identification of individual elements, allowing for search capabilities similar to Google Photos but with video content stored in Google's cloud.

ReCode reports that Didi Chuxching, China's ride-hailing Uber competitor is opening a self-driving lab in Mountain View, California. The company has talked about using its treasure trove of data for autonomous research, but Didi says it has no plans to roll out a ride hailing service in the US.

Plus, Pinterest acquired social Q&A service Jelly, the Statue of Liberty goes dark... but why? And we talk to Julie Cohen, director of the new documentary American Veteran, about the impressive technology available to quadriplegics.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Julie Cohen

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Wikileaks unleashed an unprecedented collection of CIA hacking tools and code with the codename Vault 7, to the tune of 8,761 docs and files, and hundreds of millions of lines of code. Wikileaks claims this is the biggest dump of its kind.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has revealed new photos of his human moon shuttle, the New Glenn, named after John Glenn. Bezos says that his first customer is the satellite operator Eutelsat.

Pinterest has released a browser extension that will let you buy anything you see on the Web. It doesn't even have to be on Pinterest. The feature is exclusive to Chrome right now, but Pinterest engineer Kent Brewster says the extension will come to other browsers soon.

Also, Airbus releases a flying car concept that reeks of the future. And we talk with Joe Dugandzic from SmarterHomeLife.com about creating a smart home on a budget.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guests: Iain Thomson and Joe Dugandzic

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Over the weekend Google's "featured snippets" stories spread new's that former President Obama was planning a coup and that women are evil. Google fixed the problem and said that it's unfortunate that sometimes their search results contain inappropriate or misleading content

FitBit is updating its smaller form factor Alta wearable to the new Alta HR by adding a continuous Heart Rate monitor to the device. The battery on the Alta HR is rated at around seven days on a full charge, costs $150 and will be available in April.

A security researcher for MacKeeper says Spam empire River City Media has accidentally exposed 1.4 billion email records, including names, addresses, and even some IP addresses after not protecting a remote backup with a password.

Plus, Consumer Reports will begin rating the security of the products it reviews, Snap's stock price drops after only a few days, and Kyle Orland from Ars Technica is here to talk about his experience with Zelda Breath of the Wild.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Kyle Orland

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New data shows that Chrome OS has continued to dominate in the US K-12 education market, pushing Apple's iOS down from 19 to 14 percent. Chrome OS now has a 58 percent market share in US classrooms.

Running out of storage on your hard drive? You could try keeping your data on your DNA. Researchers have learned how to efficiently code an entire operating system, a short film, an Amazon gift card, and a bunch of other stuff onto a single nucleotide.

New legislation passed in Virginia allows for delivery robots to hit the streets starting in July. The bots can travel no faster than 10 miles per hour and a person is required to monitor the path and take over the controls if things go wrong, but there are no line of site requirements.

The Uber for private jets wanted to charge journalists $2000 if they didn't write a favorable piece about them. We talk about the future of Pixel phones and free integrated Cognitive Assessments software from NASA. Plus, Iain Thomspon from The Register joins us to talk about Uber's latest scandal. This one involves Greyballing.

Full episode can be seen at twit.tv/tnt/1717

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Iain Thomson

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Amazon revealed that the AWS outage that partially turned off the internet earlier this week was caused by an authorized S3 team member who inputted the wrong command while trying to remove a few servers during routine maintenance. That error caused many more servers to go offline than was intended.

Google is officially opening up its Assistant AI beyond Pixel devices to Android users running Nougat and Marshmallow, though they haven't specified which devices will get it first. Google is also updating its Allo messaging app to include a quick shortcut to Assistant from inside the compose box, making it easier to tap into the power of Assistant while chatting.

After rumors began to spread that the next wave of iPhones might ditch Apple's proprietary Lightning connector for a USB-C port, Apple analyst Ming Chi Kuo expects the lightning port to stick around while still supporting fast charging thanks to the adoption of USB Type-C Power Delivery technology.

Plus, Netflix has projects for makers, a Norwegian broadcaster is quizzing would-be commenters before they post to cut down on trollish behavior, and Alex Kantrowitz from Buzzfeed discusses why he thinks Snap has a tough row to hoe now that its IPO is on the books.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Alex Kantrowitz

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Twitter is rolling out more anti-harassment features including the ability to mute specific usernames and words from the timeline , as well as hiding accounts with the default egg avatar, a common attribute of trollish burner accounts.

Microsoft says they'll give you more choice and control in the new Creators update that comes out in a month, including granular controls around privacy, location, speech recognition, and the ability to snooze your updates. Windows Insiders can start testing the new features today.

Spotify appears to be testing a new Hi-Fi streaming tier, which could cost between $5 to $10 monthly on top of the $10 Spotify Premium service. Spotify Hi-Fi would offer lossless CD quality audio as well as discounts on vinyl, along with a free record.

We discuss how Facebook is using AI to detect suicide before it happens, the cost to Marrissa Mayer for Yahoo's security woes, and Sam Machkovech from Ars Technica joins us from the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco to talk about Nintendo Switch fever and a price reduction for the Oculus Rift.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Sam Machkovech

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YouTube TV is a new $35 per month service to bring a bundle of broadcasts and around 35 affiliated cable network channels to subscribers in a standalone app that will launch this Spring.

At Mobile World Congress, Google's Senior Vice President of Hardware Rick Osterloh told a small group of journalists that the Pixel premium line will live on, but only in phones and tablets as the company has no plans to make another Pixel laptop. Osterloh also said they had no plans to create any more of the previous models.

The Raspberry Pi Zero W is an upgrade to the $5 Raspberry Pi Zero that was first released in October of 2015. The W version takes the same specs from the original, adds support for 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, and costs a measly $10 plus tax.

We talk about what happened with the Amazon Web Service outage, breakdancing robots from Boston Dynamics, a new mobile conferencing app for the enterprise, and Harrison Weber, executive editor at Venture Beat, explains what happened to the moss piglets that might have lived inside your Android phone.

Hosts: Megan Morrone and Jason Howell

Guest: Harrison Weber

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