Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss Facebook and privacy, HBO and a disappearing cup, a CES award being returned to the company it was taken away from, phone scams and spam stats, Uber's IPO, LEGO's new STEM kit, San Francisco and paper money, and more.

Kent in Chandler, Texas listens on 97.5FM KTBB and asked: "For years, I have been a Windows guy and have avoided Mac or anything from Apple. But lately I've heard that Macs are pretty well invulnerable to trojans and other cyber attacks. Is this true? I'm looking at a new job that will require me to use both and I haven't been on a Mac since 15 years ago."

http://www.intotomorrow.com/media/podcasts/2019/05-10-2019/05-10-2019-H1S1.mp3

Kent, nothing is anything proof, but Macs do better against malware.

Initially the general excuse was that their market share was just so much smaller that no one bothered with them, but as their marketshare has grown, reports of infections have not. They do have a solid permissions system and the operating system does try to keep potential sources of infections somewhat under watch.

Having said that, who has a problem with malware anymore? Scams seem to be the bigger problem these days more than malicious software.

Macs are easy enough to use, it won’t take you very long to get up to speed even if you haven’t used one in 15 years. Don’t be afraid of either, they’re both nothing more than adequate tools for the few things a smartphone can’t do well…

James in Durham, North Carolina listens on Newsradio 680 WPTF and asked: "Have you heard any recent news about when and if BLINK will go forward with their video doorbell plans, and begin marketing the doorbell?"

http://www.intotomorrow.com/media/podcasts/2019/05-10-2019/05-10-2019-H1S5.mp3

James, all that we know for sure is that the project isn’t officially dead, having said that, there is also reason to believe that it will never quite be released as expected.

Blink makes cameras that run on battery, they are generally well regarded and they seem to work perfectly well. They can also be remotely accessed and that works perfect well, that seems like 90% of that work of building a smart doorbell.

However, there is one big, big thing playing against this project: Blink is owned by Amazon. Ring is also owned by Amazon, and Ring is already the best known smart doorbell product out there.

Amazon may very well choose to just integrate Blink technology into Ring and sell it for more money than to make it a $99 competitor to their own more expensive product and risk dragging the cost of their own Ring devices down.

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