Tim Stevens is on the show to chat about Tim Cook’s world tour and the idea of Apple Watch controlling your car. We’ll also share a moment about how Leonard Nimoy affected our lives. And Len Peralta will be there to memorialize it all in song. Or art. Probably art.
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Show Notes
Today’s guests: Tim Stevens, CNET editor at large and Len Peralta, artist
Check out Len’s art for this week at lenperaltastore.com
Headlines:
Engadget passes along that Google won’t ban adult content posted to Blogger after all. The company had announced that existing sexually explicit images and video would be made private and future such material might be deleted. Not anymore. Google cited “a ton of feedback” and the “negative impact on individuals who post sexually explicit content to express their identities.” Jessica Pelegio, Google’s social product support manager wrote in the Blogger Help Forum “we’ve decided to step up enforcement around our existing policy prohibiting commercial porn.” Google also called on blog owners to mark any blog pages with adult conent as “adult” so they can be placed behind a warning page.
The Daily Telegraph got to accompany Apple CEO Tim Cook on a surprise visit to the Apple Store in Covent Garden, London. While most of the article discusses known features of the forthcoming Apple Watch such as fitness tracking and Apple Pay, it also mentioned that Cook said the watch could replace car keys. That’s sure to give more fuel to the Apple Car rumors.
TechCrunch reports that Google has unveiled plans for new headquarters in Mountain View, which will be a simple block of offices. Ha. KIDDING! It’s going to be monstrous. The new headquarters would be made of a semi-transparent series of canopies covering lightweight block structures that can be moved around as Google focuses on new products. This is the first time Google has designed and built new offices from scratch, and it partnered with Bjarke Ingels at BIG and Thomas Heatherwick at Heatherwick Studio to create the design. The nearly ten-minute video of the concept is best enjoyed with a tiny espresso and a masters in architecture.
The Next Web reports UK TV and broadband provider Talk Talk confirmed that its networks were breached in December. Attackers took personal data like names, addresses phone numbers and TalkTalk account numbers. Some customers have been targeted as a result. TalkTalk has taken steps to remedy the situation and continues to work with the Information Commissioner’s Office.
As VentureBeat reports, VideoLAN launched a big update to its VLC media player today. After a year of work on the VLC engine and libVLC library by volunuteers you can get new versions of the player for desktop, iOS, and Android as well as beta versions for Android TV, Windows Phone and Windows RT. Lots of features have been brought across from one platform to another, like resume playback and in-app downloading coming to the desktop. But all platforms get the ability to automatically detect rotated videos as well as improved support for multiple codecs including VP89, and H265.
ZDNet reports Silent Circle has bought out Geeksphone’s share of the SGP technologies, maker of the JV and Blackphone products. Silent Circle plans to announce a privacy ecosystem, including new devices, software and services, at Mobile World Congress.
Lenovo’s next batch of Windows 10 PCs will ship with limited amounts of unrequested software reports the Verge. Lenovo announced it will begin shipping with fewer pre-installed apps hoping to “become the leader in providing cleaner, safer PCs.” Lenovo machines will come with the operating system and related software, software required to make hardware work well (like device drivers), security software and Lenovo applications. Lenovo will also post information about all pre-installed software and explain clearly what it does.
News From You:
thgraphics sent us this story from ZDNet about the Chinese government backing away from US tech brands for state purchases. A recent Reuters report revealed a number of US tech brands like Apple, Cisco, Intel and McAfee have been dropped from the Chinese government’s list of authorized brands. The number of foreign technology brands fell by a third based on an analysis of the list.
If you thought patent wars were over, KAPT_Kipper would like you to think again. The GigaOm story he flagged says Ericsson filed two complaints Thursday with the International Trade Commission against Apple for “infringing Ericsson patents that are essential to the 2G and 4G/LTE standards.” It also filed multiple complaints in the US Eastern District of TExas court over the infringement of 41 patents. Well at least Apple ended a patent case Tuesday. OH wait! Smartflash LLC, which one $532.9 million Tuesday figured Apple’s too good a mark to let go. So Smartflash is suing Apple for infringement of the same two patents it one on Tuesday bit used in devices not covered int he previous case.
Discussion Section Links:
| http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/watch/11439847/Apple-Watch-will-replace-your-car-keys-says-Tim-Cook.html |
| http://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-visiting-germany-belgium-and-israel-2015 |
http://www.cnet.com/news/actor-leonard-nimoy-mr-spock-dies-at-83/
Pick of the Day:
| @TheRealNimoy | https://twitter.com/TheRealNimoy/status/569762773204217857 |
Monday’s guest: Lamarr Wilson
The link to Len’s Store in “Check out Len’s art for this week at lenperaltastore.com” is borked.
Love the show though, always.
Oops. Fixed now. Thanks!
As we know, Star Trek combined two genres: fantasy and science fiction.
And we see that in the process of developing the Star Trek show it came to pass that those opposite backgrounds were embodied in the same character: Mister Spock.
Mister Spock, who has a Vulcan father and a human mother. Of course, from a science fiction point of view that is ridiculous: aliens and humans cannot interbreed. But that is beside the point. Star Trek is character driven, Star Trek is about how we humans treat each other.
In the Star Trek universe a Vulcan and a Human can produce offspring; good stuff to write stories.
The Vulcans have telepathic abilities, as in the capability to mindmeld. Vulcans have a psycho-biologic ability: Mister Spock can incapacitate an opponent with a touch of his fingertips: the Vulcan nerve pinch. It’s somthing that emanates from his fingertips. According to the Wikipedia article about the Vulcan nerve pinch the concept was introduced by Leonard Nimoy, who felt that the kind of brawny fighting that Captain Kirk does would be undignified for Mister Spock. The concept remained hazy, and throughout the subsequent episodes and movies different writers treated it in different and incompatible ways.
Mister Spock: both a Vulcan and a Human.
Mister Spock: both a Scientist and a Wizard-out-of-fairy-tale.
The character Mister Spock just doesn’t make any sense.
Fascinating.