July | 2014 | the digital hazard

This week on the show, I talk briefly about the reparations that Sony is paying out as a result of the 2011 PlayStation Network hack, how Amazon has quite a bit of cash flow, and what Apple’s Public Beta of OSX Yosemite might mean for the desktop experience. We dive into why Twitter, Google and Facebook having a 70/30 gender split in their workforce might not be as evil as you might think, how judges don’t seem to understand how warrants work, and the fact that Apple just patented a wristwatch. I also freely admit that I’m no lawyer.

Download This Week’s Episode

Sony to pay for PSN hack in 2011

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/07/sony-to-pay-up-to-17-75-million-in-2011-psn-hacking-settlement/

Less than one-third of Twitter employees are women

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/10987902/Less-than-third-of-Twitters-staff-is-female.html

Amazon misses sales projections, still rakes in lots of money

http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/24/amazon-drops-5-after-missing-in-q2-with-in-line-sales-of-19-34b-larger-than-expected-loss-of-0-27/?ncid=rss

Amazon announces Amazon Wallet, aiming to transition into offline point-of-sale transactions?

http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/22/amazon-quietly-launches-its-consumer-facing-mobile-wallet-app-amazon-wallet/?ncid=rss

Judge’s warrant could undermine personal email security

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/gmail-warrant-probable-cause-judge/

Deaf advocacy groups don’t want Verizon’s accessibility argument against net-neutrality to stand

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/07/deaf-advocacy-groups-to-verizon-dont-kill-net-neutrality-on-our-behalf/

OSX Yosemite Public Beta released this week

http://www.macworld.com/article/2454516/with-yosemite-public-beta-apples-more-open-than-ever.html

Apple granted broad patent for the iTime wristwatch

http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/07/22/apple-granted-comprehensive-itime-smartwatch-patent-with-in-strap-circuitry-arm-gesture-support

Science News

You could have a Terabyte of memory in your phone

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/529386/super-dense-computer-memory/

Japan’s Prime Minister wants a robot Olymics in 2020 alongside Tokoyo games

http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/22/5927879/japan-pm-shinzo-abe-wants-robot-olympics-2020

This week on the program, we start off by talking about technology that needlessly makes life ‘simpler’, Keurig’s new anti-copying K-Cup system and GE’s foray into Phillip’s smartphone controlled lighting market. Nielsen reports what we already suspected, that streaming is taking market control from downloads, at least in the US, and Google’s anti-webspan chief, Matt Cutts is taking leave for a few months. After talking about DARPA’s emergency response robot challenge, we go into examples of things that are threats to the open internet by 2025, misuse of the ECJ’s ‘right to be forgotten’, and revelations about how little you have to do for the NSA to follow up on your internet traffic. You also might want to steer clear of Facebook, especially if your mood is volatile. All this and more this week!
Download This Week’s Episode

Keurig’s DRM for Coffee

http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/30/5857030/keurig-digital-rights-management-coffee-pod-pirates

GE to get into the smart lights market

http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/01/ge-link/?ncid=rss_truncated

Music Streaming continues market hold

http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/03/streaming-is-killing-downloads/

What will kill the free internet by 2025

http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/3/5868359/free-internet-2025-pew-report

Google’s anti-spam chief to take some time off

http://www.zdnet.com/googles-embattled-webspam-chief-matt-cutts-is-taking-a-few-months-off-7000031242/

DARPA sets finals for robotics challenge

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9249481/Ready_the_robots_DARPA_sets_finals_for_robotics_challenge