Technogaze

In this episode, Michael, Mark, and Raena talked about recent revelations that the use of Facebook is now illegal in Iran.  We talked about the possibility of finally having mobile coverage in the Melbourne City Loop, and the use of drones to spy on sports tactics in the World Cup.

In Aussie politics, we discussed the zombie policy of going after Australian copyright infringers, being brought back to life by the Attorney General George Brandis.  And big media is crying foul, pushing back on the prospect of legislating against increased pricing for digital product delivery, threatening to leave the country if such laws are put into place.

Further research into teleportation is taking place, with some interesting outcomes, progressing us closer and closer to a world where we’ll one day be able to truly say “beam me up, Scotty”.

The post The Aus govt going after pirates, price gouging in tech, Iran makes Facebook illegal appeared first on Technogaze.

In this episode Mark, Raena, Johnny and Michael looked at the death of the Nokia brand as Microsoft fulfils its acquisition obligations and progressively drops the name Nokia from mobile devices.

In more mobile news, we learnt that Apple is decreasing the likelihood of your device being tracked, with some interesting changes in iOS8 and how the software discovers wireless access points. Mozilla believes its $25 Firefox smartphones will be popular in Indonesia and India and Google Now tells you when to get off your train or bus – in some cities.

Green tech was making the news with CSIRO claiming a world first in the use of solar mirror farms to create supercritical steam to generate power that could compete with coal and gas powered plants.  The tiny island of Annobon off the west coast of Africa is going 100% solar with panels on the island feeding battery cells to provide solar power around the clock.

The Electronics Entertainment Expo, E3, was on last week with new game announcements and the re-release of some old favorites.  Halo 1-4 has been remastered with new graphics and a teaser for the upcoming Halo 5.  Splattoon, Sunset Overdrive and Dragon Age Inquisition had Raena and Johnny thinking about their Christmas wish lists.

Two people thought responsible for the recent iPhone hijacking and subsequent ransom demands have been arrested.  It is now thought that social engineering techniques were used to obtain iCloud usernames and passwords.

If you thought that selfies were the ultimate in capturing the real you, then you may have to have a rethink as dronies start to invade.

The post Supercritical solar power, Firefox phones, iPhone phishing, Dronies and Google tells you where to get off appeared first on Technogaze.

Today Raena, Mark, and Michael discussed the latest in tech news, including the AFP collaborating with overseas agencies in breaking botnet rings, the Tasmanian Police are moving to mobile devices to enable paperless police cars, and Google has commenced fulfilling their obligations under EU law to enable citizens the “right to be forgotten”.

Apple’s WWDC kicked off last week, and the seasonal fruit picking commenced with all the new goodies announced for the keynote.  Not least of which: tools for Apple developers to do home automation, enabling health information to be aggregated together on Apple devices, a new programming language called Swift, and a cool new feature called “Handoff” – to allow you to seamlessly swap from one form factor device to another.

China popped their head into the IT news this week with their continued suppression of information about Tiananmen Square, with no let-up for the 25th anniversary of the massacre. China will also embark on their own OS, declaring that Windows 8 is insecure, and raising concerns that they do not have access to the source code; and the new OS will be Ubuntu Linux.

And finally what may or may not be: the CIA’s first tweet.

The post Apple WWDC round-up, China blocks Tiananmen searches, the CIA joins twitter appeared first on Technogaze.

This week we had a very special Radiothon 2014 episode with Mark, Raena, Jason and Michael.  We chatted with our support admin volunteer Moshin about ‘That’s so JOY’ and what it means to him.

On the tech side we looked at Google’s latest Koala car – well their prototype driverless cars (or is that driverless horseless carriages?) that is basically a box with two seats – no pedals, mirrors or steering wheel.  Google Chromecast finaly arrives in Australia and you can smarten up your TV to see videos, share your browser window and view photos.

Hackers have taken advantage of Apple’s find my phone feature by hijacking some users iPhones.  Although unconfirmed, it would appear that they are taking advantage of people reusing passwords across multiple sites to lock the phone, demanding cash to make it usable again.  Please ensure that you don’t reuse passwords on different sites to minimise this type of hack.  Apple is also set to release its Smart Home platform at this weeks WWDC conference and there is confirmaiton that it has bought Beats Music & Electronics for $3billion USD in cash and stock swap.

LG have released a new phone that uses lasers to get the camera to focus to give almost instantaneous response to its massive 13 megapixel resolution.  And buttons seem to be the rage with smarphone case maker Cliq seeking funding for configurable buttons on their case that don’t require battery power.

The post Radiothon 2014, Koala cars, iPhone hijacking, Laser phones and Chromecast appeared first on Technogaze.

Raena, Johnny and Michael were driving the Technogaze bus this week, looking at all things Tech.  eBay’s recent announcement of their hacked user database three months ago caught our eye with eBay advising all users to change their passwords.  Although no known attacks have occurred following the theft of the encrypted password database, it is another reminder not to use the same password across all your accounts.

The Tailored Access Operations unit in the NSA has been providing free upgrades to some lucky router and server owners.  Intercepting packages from the manufacturer and then upgrading them with additional firmware – at no extra cost – is just part of the service.  Meanwhile, the NSA has been recording all mobile phone calls in the Bahamas as part of a piggy back operation lead by the DEA to capture drug traffickers and dealers.

Catfishing is where someone pretends to be someone other than themselves to lure you to hand over money or for some other nefarious purpose.  Johnny, a catfishing victim himself, talked about techniques being used and how to find out whether you are being catfished or not.

Driverless cars excited the whole team and we posed the question as to what an intelligent car would do should it be confronted the choice of saving your life as a passenger or several other lives in another car.  Asimov’s 3 laws of Robotics immediately sprung to mind:

Continuing on the automotive theme, we looked at Tesla’s foray into the Australian market and an exciting crowd-funding project that looks to put specially designed glass solar panels on roads, complete with computers and LEDs.  Harnessing the sun’s energy during the day, these smart roads can provide intelligent traffic management systems by indicating closed lanes dynamically and providing power back into the grid.

The post Catfishing, Complimentary Router Upgrades, Driverless Cars and Smart Roads appeared first on Technogaze.

The beautiful Autumn weather didn’t stop Raena, Mark & Michael from gazing into the world of consumer electronics, gadgets, technology.

Heartbleed continues to draw blood as some companies have SSL certificates reissued with the same key as their previously compromised certificate, negating the benefit of changing the certificate.  The recent budget ,although positive for medical research, was detrimental for a number of other industries – in particular gaming.  Luke Miller joined us on the phone to talk about the impact on the local gaming industry.

The U2 spy plane has caused a ripple yet again, this time in US airspace as LAX and other airport flights were shut down for a number of hours over air traffic control issues.  Flying at a much lower altitude, the latest lightweight drone from French manufacturer Parrot sports a high resolution stabilised camera and an extended wifi coverage of 2km, albeit with a 12 minute battery life.  This new drone is controllable by an Oculus Rift VR headset.

The Norwegian Army is also testingthe Oculus Rift to control armored vehicles to provide enhanced visibility for those times when the hatches are battened down.

Bitcoin goes to University – a new MIT research project is providing MIT students with $100 in bitcoin to see how the peer-to-peer electronic payment system can be used in the University ecosystem where all members have easy access to it. Researchers are hoping that new and innovative payment practices may emerge that can be applied to other currencies or as a way to make bitcoin more readily accepted.

Apple iOS 8 is expected to be unveiled at WWDC 2014 later this year and rumor has it that side-by-side apps will be supported on iPad.  Microsoft Surface and Samsung Android already support this feature and Apple may finally catch up on this front.  Larger screen iPhones with higher resolution are also on the cards.

If you sometimes feel inundated with meaningless tweets, then Twitter’s latest feature roll out may be for you.  This allows you to mute or turnoff tweets (anonymously) from people you have followed, but your tweets will still reach them.

Nostalgia reigned supreme for children of the mid-eighties when we looked at a new Acorn BBC Micro emulator from developer Matt Godbolt

The post Heartbleed continues, Budget woes, Spy planes & drones, Bitcoin goes to University and iOS8 beside itself appeared first on Technogaze.

In today’s show, we discussed the latest in Uber’s foray into cheap car rides in Australia.

We interviewed Brian Knappenberger, writer and director of the upcoming Human Rights and Arts Film Festival film, “The Internets’ Own Boy” – a documentary detailing the life of Aaron Swarz, an Internet whiz kid who fought to make available information that should be free.

We talked gaming again this week, highlighting Nintendo’s exclusion of same-sex couples from its latest game, Tomodochi Life.  We also talked about other new released from Nintendo – a remake of the ever popular Pokemon series.  And Kevin Spacey, after his character in House Of Cards, Frank Underwood, being a heavy Call Of Duty player, now plays a role inside the game itself.

We also talked about Russia and Iran censoring the Internet, and the chilling effects that such action has on the ideals of free speech.  Disclosed e-mails between Google and the NSA reveal that they had regular meetings – fuelling speculation that the activities of the PRISM wiretapping program were in fact, a co-operative affair.

And finally, we discussed Larry Ellison’s balls.  Basketballs, that is.

The post The Internets’ Own Boy, Kevin Spacey on CoD, Larry Ellison’s balls appeared first on Technogaze.

All seats were filled in the studio this week with Mark, Raena, Johnny & Michael gazing into the world of consumer electronics, gadgets, technology and GAMES.

Yes, we had a very special gaming episode unearthing the fate of ‘ET the game’ with the discovery of dumped cartridges in landfill in New Mexico.  Zero Suit Samus is the latest game to be accused of sexism with its main character being slimmed at the hips, expanded in the chest and wearing rocket propelled heels.  On the definitely maybe happening front, the games world is looking forward to the followup of the Mass Effect trilogy – will it be called Mass Effect 4?

An Internet Explorer zero day exploit prompted Microsoft to issue an out-of-band patch to it’s browser.  This exploit affects all versions of IE from 6 onwards and in an unusual move it even provided a patch for Windows XP – the OS that it de-supported only last month.  Please ensure that you update your Windows computers.

On the banking front, the Commonwealth bank is looking to counteract recent ATM skimming fraud by letting you use your mobile phone to get cash from ATMs.  Myki is in the news again with PTV looking to introduce new gates at stations that are 20% faster than current ones. We also explored the reaction of the NSW Department of Transport to UberX – the ride sharing variant from Uber.

Changes to Facebook will mean that in the future when using your Facebook logon to access other websites, you can choose how much of your Facebook information you will share with the website or even logon anonymously.

In wrapping up, even Michael (renowned for his lack of cat affection), was excited by the prospect of remotely playing with cats using a new Kickstarter project – Kittyo.

The post Games, Games, Games, ATM Skimming, Myki, IE security flaw and Facebook does anon appeared first on Technogaze.

The usual suspects were in the studio this week with Mark, Raena & Michael talking all things tech. With the help of generous listeners and Marks magnificent offer to match dollar for dollar all donations, we surpassed our expectations and managed to raise a large amount of money for Techdrive.  Techdrive is raising money to properly equip volunteers with computers, software, office and recording equipment so we can continue to bring high quality audio production to you.  Thank you for your wonderful support.

In this episode we took to the air and looked at the technology behind improving the tracking of aeroplanes around the globe.  The FAA has mandated ADS-B on all commercial aircraft by 2020, with planes to report their position every minute to land and satellite based base stations as well as other aircraft.  In-flight internet access is set for a boost with Gogo planning to use geostationary satellites to provide download speeds of up to 70mbs.  Compared with access speeds of 3mbs today, mile high surfing is set to approximate NBN speeds.

The NBN this week countered TPG’s cherry picking of the fibre-to-the-basement market by announcing its own plans to provide FTTB to 50,000 apartments initially, thereby causing TPG and others to rethink their position.  Heartbleed is still causing ripples, with Bloomberg reporting that the NSA knew about and exploited the vulnerability for the last two years.  Meanwhile if you are a Google Chrome user the Chromebleed extension can help you detect sites that have not been patched.

During the week the Commonwealth bank suffered an extended outage of its EFT, Internet and phone banking services and then managed to confuse customers with its marketing doublespeak response to Heartbleed related questions.

On a lighter note we looked at the Alert Shirt from Foxtel that lets you feel what footballers feel, when on the field, with the use of haptic feedback technology.   We closed the show with a look at an upcoming Facebook mobile feature called Nearby Friends, that with opt-in permission, will tell you when friends are in the area – so you can catch up.

The post Techdrive, Inflight Internet, Haptic feedback, Commfail, NSA bleeds and NBN vs TPG appeared first on Technogaze.

If you like what we do, please donate to the JOY 94.9 2014 Tech Drive.

In this latest episode, Mark, Raena and Michael discussed the OpenSSL vulnerability known as “Heartbleed”, including what it is, how you might be affected, and what you can do about it.  We also talked about the recent promotion, and subsequent stepping down, of Brendan Eich as CEO of the Mozilla Foundation, after revelations of his funding towards the Proposition 8 campaign against equal rights.

Finally we moved on back to talk about gadgets – including the recent Windows 8.1 update, and some new features Microsoft are talking about for the Windows Phone. And finally we discussed some Apple rumours, and drones that fall from the sky.

The post SSL vulnerabilities that make our hearts bleed, Mozilla CEO dramas, Apple rumours and Microsoft voice control appeared first on Technogaze.