Every week Andrew and James sit down and for and talk technology, boom here it is the show!
Podcast April 17
Podcast April 24
The show notes.
Hacking….
Careem data breach in January all the conversation this morning on BB
-issue?
IOT
BBQ clean GrillBot!
Coding for beginners
Quick book
IOT
Fitbit interview
Used the Ionic Adidas version
-has a dedicated warmup/cool down app, cool
-band is soft but prefer the original
-screen seemed even brighter
-the best wearable I have used because of the visual workout features, the screen of the wearable is a tv screen!
2. S9+ WOW
-Fast to setup
-Transfer of old android to it seemless
-camera is WOW
-bixby with photos is cool…
More to come
Huawei will loan me a P20 Pro to compare to this demo unit!
The very first YouTube video was uploaded 13 years ago today
The first video uploaded to YouTube is finally a teen.
Thirteen years ago on Monday — on April 23, 2005 — YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded this 18 second clip to the site just a few months after the domain was secured, and nothing's been the same since.
Over 48 million people have watched the electrifying elephant discourse over the years, which reamains the only video on Karim's channel. Many hopped on Twitter to celebrate the genesis of the internet as we know it.
YouTube pulls a lot of video!
YouTube removed 8.3 million videos between October and December 2017, according to the platform's first ever community guidelines enforcement report. The Google-owned video-sharing website found itself the target of criticism after reports came out last year that it hosts disturbing videos masquerading as kid-friendly content. YouTube said it has decided to release a quarterly enforcement report to "show the progress [it's] making in removing violative content from [its] platform." It's probably the website's way of saying "hey, we're not sitting on our hands here," since a lot of people are still questioning whether it's actually doing something to address the issue, considering Wired came across child-exploiting videos as recently as March.
The report has also revealed that 6.7 million of the 8.3 million videos were first flagged for review by machines and were never even viewed. YouTube explained that its use of machine learning to police its content isn't a bad thing (despite reports saying that its AI is far from perfect) and leads to "more people reviewing content, not fewer." While its algorithms can delete some content on their own -- like say, spam videos -- it mostly forwards anything it suspects is in violation of YouTube's guidelines to human reviewers. Those reviewers are the ones who'll be in charge of deciding whether to pull the video or to put it behind an age gate, restricting it to logged-in users above 18 years old.
-put down the phone it is hurting kids vision!
-Flikr rescue?
The service is a kind of parable about squandered opportunity. It was once the greatest photo-sharing service on the web, a paragon of beautiful and user-centered design, with a powerful API that was open to any service that had a similar API that allowed its users to take their data with them when they left the service. It was the first service to send you the text of the messages you received using its toy messaging service and allowing you to reply to those messages from your email client. It was the first service to embrace Creative Commons licenses, and to this day, it represents a CC image repository to rival Wikimedia Commons -- I use it several times a day to illustrate stories here on Boing Boing. I have posted 21,706 photos to the service.
But the service is a mess today. I haven't been able to login to it with its app for a year, and gave up on even trying -- I only access it from my browser when I'm at home. It is slow and clunky. Its API is much-diminished, and it's been a decade since you could reply to in-service messages with your email client.
Learn to code on your phone!
Grasshopper is a free app that teaches you to Javascript coding through a series of easy-to-follow tutorials. The free app, available for iOS and Android, starts off with an introduction to the basic vocabulary of coding before moving into the coding lessons. You have to pass the vocabulary quiz before your can jump into the lessons. Each lesson has a tutorial, a practice activity, and a quiz. You have to successfully complete each lesson before progressing to the next one. If you need to stop a lesson, Grasshopper saves your place until you can resume. Grasshopper offers an optional reminder service that will encourage you to practice on a daily schedule.
China and Hightech/Lowtech to stop jaywalkers!
Apple Battery issue! WHAAAT?
Apple announced Friday that it discovered “a limited number” of its line of MacBook Pro laptops suffer from a potentially faulty component that can cause the battery to expand. The company is offering to replace the batteries in affected machines for free.
According to Apple, the potential problem is present in the 13-inch version of the MacBook Pro. Only the base model of the machine is affected; versions of the laptop with the Touch Bar are not at risk. The units with the possible defect were manufactured between October 2016 and October 2017, though it isn’t clear exactly how widespread this issue is.
Apple will determine the eligibility for repair through a device’s serial number. The company has set up a website where users can determine if their MacBook Pro will qualify for the free replacement battery.
For those that are eligible for the fix, be ready to be without your laptop for a little. Apple warns that service can take up to three to five days, and may require the device be shipped to the Apple Repair Center.
Apple is also offering the opportunity for a refund to any MacBook Pro owners who already got their battery replaced and paid the $129 fee typically charged for the service.
Apple OLED issues!
Google has another messaging system in the works… CHAT
-rich communication services, sort of like imessage age and whatsapp…
Instead of building another goddamn app, which the company has done countless times already to middling success, this time Google is aiming to adopt a new standard for messaging that will move users away from SMS. In order to accomplish this, Google has quietly been lobbying major mobile carriers to adopt a new technology, called Rich Communication Services (RCS).
Chat is essentially just the consumer-friendly face slapped atop the stuffy name given to the communication protocol. Chat will be accessible through Android Messages, the default messaging app that comes installed on most Android devices.
When Chat goes live—expected sometime later this year—it will automatically be turned on within the existing Android Messages app and will supersede SMS as the primary protocol for messaging. Texts going between users with Chat will be sent over RCS, and those Chat messages will be sent via a user’s data plan rather than SMS plan. Those messages will reportedly eat up a minimal amount of data per message.
Conversations with those who haven’t using the new protocol will default back to SMS. Google and Microsoft are on board with RCS, but Apple isn’t so don’t expect to hear complaints about green text bubbles come to an end any time soon.
So what’s new with Chat? It supports a number of amenities of a modern messaging app. It will offer read receipts, typing indicators, group texts, and full resolution photos and videos.
What Chat won’t support is end-to-end encryption, which means messages can potentially be intercepted by law enforcement or malicious actors. The lack of support for such security leaves Chat a step behind alternatives like Apple’s iMessage, Signal, and WhatsApp.
The adoption of RCS will reportedly enable Google to build out features that have too long been absent from its messaging services. The Verge reportedthat Google will likely build a desktop interface for texting that would allow users to send messages from a device other than their phone. The company is also expected to build out new integrations for Chat, adding the ability to send GIFs and stickers, as well as make it compatible with other Google products like Google Photos and Google Assistant.
A single night’s stay in the room will cost you $349, which makes us wonder why the hotel bothered to waste precious real estate on beds and a shower—why not put a couple of arcade machines in there instead?
If I was shelling out that much money to hole up in a gaming oasis, I wouldn’t be wasting my time sleeping or worrying about personal hygiene. I’d be playing every game I could until house cleaning came to dig me out from underneath a mountain of Doritos crumbs.
New Facebook Privacy
How long does Facebook keep my data?
That depends. If you delete -- not deactivate, actually delete -- your account, Facebook will delete your posts, including photos and status updates. But that doesn't include the data Facebook got about you from sources other than yourself. So everything Facebook learned about you from your friends, from data brokers and from other websites, is kept for as long as the social network wants it.
The company also hangs onto information it might need for legal reasons, and to prevent abuse on its platform. "For example, if relevant, we exchange with third-party partners about the reliability of your account to prevent fraud, abuse and other harmful activity on and off our products," the policy says.
Do I have any say in this?
In this case, "leave it" means leaving Facebook.
LAST WEEK NEED TO BLOG THIS
Parking reservation app? Madinat… DEWA Sustainable building great food trucks need parking
From meme to superstar
Travel Hacks
Wallmart expand their reach with postmates
Is this the alternative to audi books?
This is such a good idea by nintendo to blend high and low tech with the Switch!
These resolutely low-tech items are the stuff of Labo (short for laboratory), a series of add-ons for the breakout Switch handheld console, which Nintendo introduced in March of 2017. As much maker projects as they are games, Labo’s DIY kits let you fold cardboard parts into smart toys that you can engage using the Switch. The $70 Variety Kit provides the makings of a piano and a fishing rod, along with a house, a motorbike, and two radio-controlled cars. Labo’s second offering, the $80 Robot Kit, contains parts for a visor and backpack that, once built, turn the wearer into a Transformers-style automaton. (Crouch down and your character can zip over terrain like a tank; stand up and raise your arms and it takes flight.)
Much of the technology that brings Labo’s structures to life is found in the Switch’s controllers, which detach from the console’s main touch screen. When placed inside a cardboard car, for example, the controllers’ coordinated vibrations propel it forward. Pop one controller into the handle of the fishing rod and its motion sensor detects whether you’re lowering your bait or reeling in a feisty mackerel, with all of the action depicted on the Switch screen in real time. Inside Labo’s piano, a controller uses its embedded infrared camera to identify which keys you’re pressing.
Love this idea of an INNOVATION Sprint!
A few years ago, we didn’t have the culture, strategy or infrastructure to experiment with new technologies and new ways of working. In part, switching from a project-based to product-based culture allowed us to try something different: a dedicated two-week period to focus on exciting new projects.
There are three main goals for this Innovation Sprint:
Provide space to give team members an opportunity to innovate
Promote learning beyond the scope of day-to-day work
Help build and strengthen relationships across teams and departments
ONLINE security warnings!
Online Security Advisory: Beware of phishing emails
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Dear Mr Piecowye,
Reports on phishing attacks have been on the rise in recent months. We would like to advise our customers to be wary of unsolicited emails, messages and phone calls that claim to be from Singapore Airlines.
Examples of recent phishing emails include informing recipients that they have been selected for a survey or won a draw, and requesting for their personal details to participate or claim the prize.
Singapore Airlines does not send emails asking customers to click on a link to enter their personal details unless it is to log in to their KrisFlyer account or to make a flight booking on singaporeair.com. We recommend you verify such emails and phone calls if you have any doubts via the following link: http://singaporeair.com/en_UK/feedback-enquiry/.
Learn more about phishing here.
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AI and interaction with books a possible thing from Google? Cool… a glimpse at where AI is going and WHY you want to read on an electronic device!
HBO renews silicon valley I have to start watching this!
A GMail redesign is coming actually pretty cool maybe!
We've been covering the rumors and leaks surrounding the new Gmail redesign that's coming in the next few weeks, and now The Verge has a new tip. Google is introducing a Confidential Mode, which will allow Gmail senders to prevent recipients from forwarding, copying, downloading or printing certain emails.
Gmail is also adding more features that will appeal to business users. You can set a a passcode to open emails, generated by SMS, and set an expiration date on emails. These are, of course, in addition to the features that have already been leaked, such as snooze, smart replies and the different views of Gmail.
These are certainly interesting new security features. It's unclear how they will work as of right now. As The Verge notes, Gmail's restrictions on copying, downloading or printing will probably not prevent someone from taking a screenshot of an email (and certainly won't stop them from taking a photo), and it's unclear how any of this will apply to those who use IMAP and POP3 to access Gmail. It will be interesting to see what happens when the redesign finally rolls out in a few weeks.
Sweden experimenting with EV vehicle charging built into the road!
"If we electrify 20,000km of highways that will definitely be be enough," eRoadArlanda CEO Hans Säll said. "The distance between two highways is never more than 45km and electric cars can already travel that distance without needing to be recharged. Some believe it would be enough to electrify 5,000km."
The electrified rail system is expected to cost €1m per kilometre, which would make it 50 times cheaper than building an urban tram line, according to The Guardian. But installing these roads could encourage automakers to include smaller batteries in their EVs if they end up counting on these strips to recharge electric cars mid-drive.
Cyber hygiene I like that idea
Rumble strip torture!
Apple Leakers go to jail!
