DigitalOutbox Episode 285

Chris and Ian discuss WWDC, LinkedIn and E3

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DigitalOutbox Episode 254

Chris and Ian discuss Windows 10, Uber and Xbox

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DigitalOutbox Episode 242

Chris and Ian discuss Facebook, LinkedIn and the Apple Watch

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DigitalOutbox Episode 186

DigitalOutbox Episode 186
DigitalOutbox Episode 186 – Tablets, Tablets, Tablets

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2:26 – WH Smith takes website offline after porn e-book scandal
5:48 – Googles Project Shield offers free protection from DDoS attacks
7:44 – Argos launches own-brand budget tablet for tweenies

9:46 – Amazons new Kindle Fire HDX tablets – pre-orders open in the UK
11:00 – Nokia Keynote
15:19 – Apple Keynote
30:58 – Apple poaches Burberry CEO Ahrendts to be its new retail chief
32:58 – Windows 8.1 now out
35:57 – Twitter Solves The Follow-Back Tango, Enables Direct Messages From All Your Followers
37:12 – BBM app coming back to Apple App Store and Google Play today
38:19 – LinkedIns Intro Feature Is Very Cool And A Spectacularly Bad Idea
42:13 – Ubisoft Delays Watchdogs
44:41 – DriveClub officially delayed until 2014

DigitalOutbox Episode 160

DigitalOutbox Episode 160
DigitalOutbox Episode 160 – Twitter music, Google Glass and 5 Picks. 5!!!!

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1:48 – Twitter Music
6:16 – Google Glass No advertising allowed, developers told
12:27 – Leap Motion Controller Tech To Be Embedded In, And Bundled With, Future HP Devices
15:43 – O2 Refresh
19:43 – WordPress website targeted by hackers
22:39 – Guardian launches platform for user-generated content
27:07 – Ev Williams acquires long-form journalism project Matter
30:26 – LinkedIn buys Pulse
33:26 – Gov.uk wins Design of the Year award

Picks
Chris
PointerPointer
– Just try it
Google Remote Desktop
– Why have I not heard about this yet!!
– Brilliant in browser VNC type solution for any computer you set up through Chrome App Store and your Google ID.

Ian
Instashare
– Airdrop for iOS
– Run client on Mac, run app on iOS device
– Easily share files – it just works
– Free, IAP for £0.69p to remove adverts
Macheist
– Macheist Bundle
– 8 apps for $10
– xScope, Clarify, Path Finder, Fantastical + Totals, iStopMotion, Clean My Mac, Little Inferno
– Bargain
Yahoo Weather
– iOS
– Free
– A really slick free weather client, which integrates with Flickr
– Finally making use of Flickr elsewhere in Yahoo software
– App animations are sweet too

DigitalOutbox Episode 121

DigitalOutbox Episode 121
DigitalOutbox Episode 121 – LinkedIn stumble, Google Maps the future and E3

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1:37 – Do Not Track – IE’s default already dead
– The latest proposed draft of the Do Not Trackspecification published Wednesday requires that users must choose to turn on the anti-behavioral tracking feature in their browsers and software.
– That means that Microsoft IE 10, which the company announced last week will have Do Not Track turned on by default, won’t be compliant with the official spec. Which means that tech and ad companies who say they comply with Do Not Track could simply ignore the flag set by IE 10 and track those who use that browser. Which means Microsoft has no choice but to change the setting.
2:48 – LinkedIn leaks your meeting notes
– LinkedIn mobile app subscribers may be surprised to learn that the calendar entries on their iPhones or iPads— which may include details about meeting locations, participants, dial-in information, passwords and sensitive meeting notes — are transmitted back to LinkedIn’s servers without their knowledge.
– LinkedIn’s mobile app for iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system, included an opt-in feature that allows users to view their iOS calendar entries within the app. Once users opt in to that feature, however, LinkedIn automatically transmits their calendar entries to its servers. LinkedIn grabs details for every calendar on the iOS device, which may include both personal and corporate calendar entries.
– LinkedIn quickly respond – http://blog.linkedin.com/2012/06/06/mobile-calendar-feature/
– We Do:
We ask your permission before accessing your calendar, this will continue to be an opt-in feature
We provide you with a way to turn off the calendar feature at any time in the settings
We send calendar data to our server only when the LinkedIn app is launched to be matched with relevant LinkedIn profiles of meeting attendees
We send your calendar data to our servers over a secure SSL connection
We Don’t:
We do not store any calendar information on our servers
We do not share or use your calendar data for purposes other than matching it with relevant LinkedIn profiles
We do not under any circumstances access your calendar data unless you have explicitly opted in to sync your calendar
We Will Improve:
We will no longer send data from the meeting notes section of your calendar event
There will be a new “learn more” link to provide more information about how your calendar data is being used
These improvements are live on Android now and have been submitted to the Apple store and will be available shortly.
5:45 – 6.5 million passwords leaked from LinkedIn
– According to a new report from Dagens IT, nearly 6.5 million encrypted LinkedIn passwords were recently dumped onto a Russian hacker forum.
– Of the millions of passwords dumped, Dagen IT claims that nearly 300,000 of them have been decrypted so far and that number seems sure to grow as users spread that hefty file around.
– The passwords are stored as unsalted SHA-1 hashes, and multiple reports on Twitter indicate that users have found their own hashes buried in the massive text dump. While unsalted hashes are much less secure than their salted brethren, it still takes a non-trivial amount of time to decrypt unless a user opted to use a common dictionary word as their password. It’s currently unknown whether or not the email addresses that correspond to those passwords have also been dumped, though if they are in someone’s possession, they apparently don’t feel like sharing.
– Considering that LinkedIn reported back in February that 150 million people use the professional networking service (a number that has certainly grown since then), the breach represents a relatively small number of users. Though chances are slim that you yourself are personally affected — 6.5 million people makes up less than 5% of LinkedIn’s userbase — those odds seem unlikely to assuage the concerns of people who are.
– Linked in confirm it…kind off
– We want to provide you with an update on this morning’s reports of stolen passwords. We can confirm that some of the passwords that were compromised correspond to LinkedIn accounts. We are continuing to investigate this situation and here is what we are pursuing as far as next steps for the compromised accounts:
Members that have accounts associated with the compromised passwords will notice that their LinkedIn account password is no longer valid.
These members will also receive an email from LinkedIn with instructions on how to reset their passwords. There will not be any links in these emails. For security reasons, you should never change your password on any website by following a link in an email.
These affected members will receive a second email from our Customer Support team providing a bit more context on this situation and why they are being asked to change their passwords.
– Check if your password was leaked – http://leakedin.org/
– Horrible – wait until there’s a leak of Facebook passwords. Meltdown.
– Eharmony and Last.fm also have password breaches
– http://www.last.fm/passwordsecurity
– http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/us-news-blog/2012/jun/07/blogpost-eharmony-linkedin-hacked-leaked
– Eharmony lose 1.5m passwords – same hackers that affected LinkedIn
– As a precaution, eHarmony has reset the affected passwords, but did not say how many of its 20 million registered users might have been compromised.
– Security experts believe more than the 1.5 million listed have been stolen
– Lastfm – only breaking news tonight but asking all users to change their passwords
– This weekend will see me go long and random on all passwords, ditch accounts I don’t use and be totally reliant on 1password. A pain but like 2 step authentication on Google, a necessary evil.
9:58 – Twitter tops 400m tweets a day
– The stratospheric figure was revealed by the social networks CEO, Dick Costolo, who noted that spam (not really) and both mobile usage and revenue are outpacing desktops.
11:05 – Vodafone and O2 speed up 4G rollout through use of shared network
– Vodafone and O2 are clubbing together to speed up the roll-out of superfast 4G mobile broadband to virtually everyone.
– The nation’s second- and third-biggest mobile operators say they will pool their network of radio masts and antennas to enable them to cover 98% of the population by 2015.
– Combined, the companies will share a network of 18,500 masts which, they promise, will extend current 2G and 3G coverage to all but the most remote villages. They will also kit out the masts with 4G technology so they can offer mobile internet speeds fast enough to download and stream TV and music as soon as the government approves the sales of 4G licences.
– The deal follows the merger of Orange and T-Mobile UK to create the nation’s biggest network, run by a new joint venture company calledEverything Everywhere. Vodafone and O2’s deal is not a full-blown merger and the companies will continue to operate different airwaves. Three, the nation’s smallest operator, piggybacks on Everything Everywhere’s network.
– Saves money but does consumer really benefit? Looks like there is 2 mobile networks now in the UK.

We asked Brian Lancaster, mobile industry expert and friend of the show
Is the O2/Vod deal purely to save money?
1. Yes, it’s all about money. Mobile operators want to move as far away from site ownership and engineering as possible and focus on being content and bandwidth suppliers. British mobile operators used to have sizeable engineering teams which have reduced to single figures of permanent employees – most are now contract staff or whole areas of network management/maintenance/engineering is contracted to the likes of Ericsson.

Will it limit customer choice?
2. No. Punters will still have deals from both networks to choose from – the spectrum cannot be blobbed into one single operator lump as this would breach OFCOM and the monopolies commission rules (only O2 and VF have 900MHz spectrum – T-Mobile/Orange/EE have 1800MHz only).

Will it deliver 4G more quickly to UK?
3. No as the existing Cornerstone agreement allowed both operators to share the same sites (towers, rooftops or large indoor sites such as the Wembley, Hampden, Millenium or St James Park. O2 and VF will still have separate LTE/4G spectrum (bid for and awarded to them separately) and there will still be some duplication of network hardware.

surely it’s the government auction that will dictate the pace of 4G?
4. The current limitations/critical paths are:

i) LTE spectrum award/auction – it is not clear whether 700MHz or 2600MHz will be used.
ii) Agreement on technology standards.
iii) Greater range of consumer devices (can only come from i) and ii) ).
iv) Improved backhaul network to carry the additional data loads.
15:48 – Digital music sales outstrip physical sales for the first time in the UK
– The British Phonographic Industry has released a report showing that physical music sales have been eclipsed by digital sales in the UK this year — a landmark achievement that the US experienced in 2011. The report indicates that 55.5 percent of the UK’s music revenues came from digital sales, resulting in part in a 2.7 percent increase in overall revenue over Q1 of last year, totaling £155.8 million. In contrast, physical media sales fell by 15.1 percent to £69.3 million, though BPI’s chief executive, Geoff Taylor, says that CD sales remain a strong source of revenue.
– One of the BPI’s most interesting numbers relates to à la carte and subscription based revenue, which increased 23.6 percent in Q1 to the tune of £86.5 million, or around $133 million. Considering the difference in population, this jump in digital sales revenue is rather impressive when compared to the $241 million the US generated last year.
18:30 – Instapaper hits Android
– Like Flipboard and Instagram, Instapaper was a much vaunted iOS exclusive…until now
– The Instapaper for Android app looks and operates much like its iOS cousin, and brings all of the mobile features you would want to Android devices, including your saved articles, the ability to share articles right from your device, and all of the reading and customization options you could possibly need.
– Despite Instapaper creator Marco Arment’s long-stated claim that an Android app wasn’t on his radar, he let the folks who developed the Tumblr app for Android build this gem for him.
20:18 – Major Google Maps update
– At a press event in San Francisco this morning, Google announced that it will soon feature far better 3D maps in Google Earth. The company also announced that Google Maps for mobile will soon feature offline caching. This feature will come to Google Maps to Android soon. Google says it wants to bring this feature to all platforms in the long run.
– The company also announced that its Street View cars have now driven 5 million miles and collected 20 petabytes worth of imagery data. Google also announced that it is bringing Map Maker to South Africa and Egypt today. Google’s engineering director for Street View, Luc Vincent also announced that the company has now managed to put the hardware that Google uses to capture its Street View data into a backpack called the Street View Trekker.
– To model the world in 3D, the company will now use the 45-degree aerial images it already gathers from planes. Thanks to new imagery rendering techniques and advances in computer vision, Google can now retire its old 3D view in Google Earth and replace it with these new images. The result, which Google demoed today, is nothing short of spectacular. These new features will come to Android and iOS devices. Google expects this new technology will cover “communities of over 300 million people” by the end of the year.
24:53 – Google buys Meebo
– Meebo, the seven year-old chat service that morphed into a website toolbar and ad platform, is indeed selling to Google. The companyconfirmed the news a few minutes ago, and we’ve since dug up some more details.
– First, the amount. After raising some $70 million in four venture rounds, Meebo’s acquisition was in fact for around the rumored$100 million, we’ve heard from a source close to the matter.
– Second, we’ve learned that the product team will be using its expertise to help build out publisher tools for Google+. We don’t know if this means there’ll be some sort of new Google+ toolbar coming. But, presumably the existing Meebo properties will be morphed into G+ or otherwise closed.
– Finally, following the original tip we got today, we’ve confirmed that there are layoffs happening within the sales and marketing arms of the company.
25:40 – Google buys QuickOffice
– it has acquiredQuickoffice, a company best known for its mobile productivity suite for Android and iOS. Google plans to bring Quickoffice’s “powerful technology” to its own Apps product suite. Quickoffice allows its users to create and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on their mobile devices. The company says its software is currently installed on over 300 million devices in more than 180 countries.
– The financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed by either Google or Quickoffice.
– Quickoffice CEO and co-founder Alan Masareknotes that he hopes that “by combining the magic of Google’s intuitive solutions with Quickoffice’s powerful products, our shared vision for anytime, anywhere productivity can only grow.”
– Given Quickoffice’s focus on building native apps for mobile devices, chances are that Google will use this acquisition to launch more of its own native mobile productivity apps as well.
26:59 – Airtime finally launched
– Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning — who are debuting their much-anticipated (and more family-friendly!) version of ChatRoulette today.
More than 15 years ago, Fanning and Parker were just teenagers trolling chat rooms. “We were both hackers,” Parker said in New York today. “We were interested in computer security. The goal was some sort of miscreant behavior…. We were basically cyber criminals.”
Today, their lives are a world apart. Parker is a multi-billionaire, even factoring in Facebook’s recent declines. Their launch in a Chelsea warehouse right now has Martha Stewart in the front row and Jimmy Fallon as the MC.
– Basically a family friendly chatroulette
– Got $35 million in seed funding
– Parker’s first call on Airtime during the demo was to television host and model Olivia Munn. The second was Snoop Dogg.
But the celebs didn’t save Airtime from an embarrassing five-minute stretch where the product didn’t work in demo mode (the real product hadn’t gone live yet). A call to Snoop Dogg took a few tries. When Joel McHale, a TV host came on, the product failed to work for several minutes. “Whose ass are you going to fire?” he asked Parker on-stage.
– Login via Facebook
– You could call it a more fun version of Skype, a one-on-one Google+ Hangouts with your Facebook graph, or the evolution of Chat Roulette. But what you’re going to call it is fun. Pull in a favorite YouTube video or select one you’ve already shared to Facebook and instantly you’re watching together. It feels simple, intimate, and casual — like you’re actually interacting in person.
– However your paired with strangers based on your social graph
30:34 – Microsoft at E3
– Halo 4 – new enemy (forerunner) and weapons, step change for multiplayer
– Splintercell
– Fifa and Madden with Kinect – swear and the ref could punish you
– Fable
– Gears of War – 2013
– Forza Horizon – End October
– New Kinect voice commands
– New sport TV options this year
– Xbox Music – Xbox, Windows 8, Windows Phone – doesn’t discuss features, 30 million tracks, analyst says coming to iOS and Android
– Nike Kinect training
– Xbox SmartGlass – http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/5/3064855/microsoft-xbox-smartglass-preview
– Works with Windows, iOS and Android phones and tablets. Makes TV more engaging and games more thrilling.
– Can resume video playback on different devices
– The SmartGlass app provides other, less obvious details. For instance, as Game of Thrones airs on the TV, the tablet shows a map of Westeros, showing where in the world a particular scene is taking place. Neat!
– SmartGlass will also extend to games. Developers can also harness it to create companion utilities for Windows 8 tablets and Windows Phone smartphones.
– A Madden title is compatible with SmartGlass. Choose your plays, draw hot routes and control the players using a tablet.
– “And you can do that with any device.”
– Internet Explorer is coming to Xbox this year.
– “Xbox Web Hub” opens up the browser. Anything is a voice command or simple swipe away. Menu navigation is done with swiping and voice on the Kinect, but it looks like typing and other navigation features can be done on SmartGlass.
– Tomb Raider
– Ascend:New Gods – God of War for Xbox – tick
– South Park – game looked shit but loved the South Park creators taking the mick out of Smartglass
– Dance Central 3
– Call of Duty:Black Ops 2
– Emphasising the ecosystem which is getting pretty strong. No new console…all next year?
40:28 – Nintendo at E3
– Pre-E3 demo showed many new things
– Wii-U gamepad
– http://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/03/wii-u-gamepad/
– Nintendo has made some notable tweaks and revisions to the prototype version detailed last year at E3, adding a new NFC reader and writer, motion and gyroscope sensors, and fully-independent infrared TV remote functionality. The thumbsliders have been replaced by analog thumbsticks, which now support L3 and R3 inward depressions. Nintendo has also made adjustments to the controller’s ergonomics and dimensions, adding new handgrips on the bottom, making the Gamepad wider, and adjusting the button layout.
– Headphone jack and stylus

– Calling it the WiiPad? Wii U Gamepad?
– Wii U Pro controller
– http://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/03/wii-u-pro-controller-unveiled-looks-awfully-familiar/
– Nintendo launch an Xbox Controller for the Wii U
– Miiverse for Wii U
– http://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/03/miiverse-announced-for-wii-u/
– Miiverse is an online system planned for the company’s upcoming system that displays a Mii plaza on the Wii U GamePad – it’s looking like a much expanded version of the Wii’s Mii Plaza feature.
– The plaza will show Mii characters gathering around game icons and feature a messaging system for players to connect with players they both do and do not know, as well as a variety of other asynchronous functionality. The messaging system includes a “spoiler” checkbox to prevent players from wrecking a friend’s game experience (should they choose to use it), as well as the ability to send images and drawings to one another. Miiverse will also feature a social networking-style “wall” of sorts, where players can post screenshots from games.
– Miiverse will also inhabit the 3DS and mobile devices (Android, iOS) in the future, though it will not be available immediately at launch.
– Pikman 3
– Super Mario Bros U – classic 2D Mario game – friend can use gamepad to place blocks
– Batman: Arkham City – use touchscreen to control unique aspects in game
– Scribblenauts
– Darksiders II
– Mass Effect 3
– Tank, Tank, Tank
– Tekken Tag Tournament
– Trine 2
– Ninja Gaide 3
– Wii Fit U
– Sing – new music performance game – gamepad displays lyrics – gamers…sing
– Lego City Undercover – open world lego game, use gamepad to find…criminals?
– 3 games from Ubisoft – zombi u, rayman legends, something else, just dance 4
– Nintendoland – Wii U’s version of Wii Sports – 12 attractions
– No pricing or release date for Wii U
– 3DS
– Super Mario Bros 2
– Paper Mario:Sticker Star
– Luigis Mansion Dark Moon
42:20 – Sony at E3
– Beyond: Two Souls – live the life of a video game character – from creators of heavy rain – looking great and ‘stars’ ellen page
– Playstation All Stars Battle Royal – fighting using PS characters on Vita and PS3
– Playstation Plus – more free games coming to subscribers – this month Infamous 2 and Saints Row 2 – also free for a year to all those in the E3 audience
– Littlebigplanet 2 DLC – turn Vita into a controller
– Far Cry 3 – 4 player coop & free DLC on PS3
– Assassins Creed 3 – free DLC on PS3
– Vita – Call of Duty and Assassins Creed 3 this October, PSOne classics also coming
– Wonderbook – make books come to life with Eye and Move. Working with JK Rowling.
– HTC will be first Playstation Suite non Sony partner – now renamed Playstation Mobile – kick in the pants for Android gaming?
– God of War ascension – looks as good as ever but still with the QTE – March 2013
– The Last of Us – new from Naughty Dog (uncharted) – survival horror in post pandemic world – again looked very good
– Move – not much mention (unlike Kinect) although there is a racing wheel that yo plug the move controller into coming this year
– Also outed the gold controller – sums up everything wrong at E3
44:52 – Ubisoft at E3
– Just Dance 4
– Far Cry 3
– Wii U is coming out…so theres a Rayman game
– ZombiU – zombies…on the Wii U
– Assassins Creed 3 – looked very good
– Watch_Dogs – 2013 – GTA/Bladerunner/24/Rubicon – looked pretty amazing – http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-06-05-ubisofts-watch-dogs-unveiled-platforms-not-yet-disclosed
47:54 – EA at E3
– Dead Space 3 – Feb 2013
– Madden – control team from other devices
– Simcity – looked very impressive
– Battlefield – 5 expansion packs – new vehicle and maps – lots of new content
– Medal of Honour Warfighter – out October, uses Frostbite engine – environments are getting destroyed
– Fifa 13 – FIFA club getting a lot of attention, FIFA 13 on ipad, android connected to console game, new iPhone app connected to the social club – gameplay – updated impact engine, more dribbling
– Need for Speed Most Wanted – Open world driving game, where players race, chase and explore competing to become Most Wanted among their friends. That … sounds like Burnout Paradise – October 30th – video looks great 🙂
– Crysis 3 – 2013
48:42 – Missing at E3
– 3D
– streaming games (Onlives iOS client still in review…after 6 months)
– new consoles

Picks
Chris
Input Output
– A new chrome experiment for Google IO 🙂

Tam
Productive Macs Bundle
– 8 great Mac app’s for $39.99 – closes in 10 days
– RapidWeaver, DEVONthink, Printopia and MailTags are really good app’s

Ian
MacUpdate Bundle
– 11 great Mac app’s for $49.99
– Parallels Desktop 7, Screenflow, Civ V and Busycal are excellent
– If you wanted just Parallels or ScreenFlow this bundle would save you money and get you some extra free app’s

DigitalOutbox Episode 93

DigitalOutbox Episode 93
In this episode the team discuss England Riots, Google buying Motorola and future games roundup.

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Shownotes
1:42 – England Riots
– Social Media to blame…
– Off course not…but was used for good
– The @RiotCleanup Twitter page has amassed more than 50,000 followers in fewer than 10 hours and is consistently broadcasting cleanup locations and times, along with other pertinent information regarding the initiative.
On Facebook, a similar page has emerged as the central location for information on the world’s largest social network.
And for a more static look at where the action is, riotcleanup.co.uk is being constantly updated with cleanup location information. In an email interview with Ian, the creator of the website and resident of rural Shropshire, England, he explained:
“I was sitting at home following the #londonriots hashtag — then I saw #riotcleanup start to appear. I am not in London, but wanted to do something. Near enough simultaneously, I registered riotcleanup.co.uk as someone else got the Twitter account @riotcleanup going. Then, I just knocked something together as fast as possible and uploaded it!”
– Beyond the riot cleanup, another effort to catch and prosecute looters has taken root, with the Tumblr account “Catch A Looter” accepting and posting images of looters for identification.
– Zavilla – http://zavilia.com/ – posting up pictures from the riots asking people to submit names of those they can identify
– Unless off course you read the Daily Mail, Express or Sun – then twitter is to blame for the riots
– Blackberry helping police as will T-Mobile/Orange
– 16 year old Glaswegian arrested over attempts to incite a riot via Facebook
– Twitter traffic sky rockets during riots
– Off course, the government need to blame something – http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/11/david-cameron-rioters-social-media
– Social media tools have responsibility
– Home secretary to meet Facebook, Twitter and RIM to discus their responsibiliites
– Why not the mobile phone providers?
– A move to disconnect potential rioters would mark a huge shift in Britain’s internet policy, with free speech advocates likely to accuse the government of ushering in a new wave of online censorship.
– Scotland Yard has made a string of arrests of people suspected of inciting the violence across England by using BlackBerry Messenger, Twitter and Facebook.
– Cameron urged Twitter and Facebook to remove messages, images and videos that could incite more unrest across the country. “All of them should think about their responsibility and about taking down those images,” he said.
– Greater Manchester Police use twitter to reveal details of those convicted – http://thenextweb.com/uk/2011/08/11/greater-manchester-police-tweeting-names-dates-of-birth-and-addresses-of-looters/
– Names, DOB’s, Addresses are sent out via their twitter account
– Info already available due to court appearance, but making it much more available
– Back to Facebook – http://thenextweb.com/uk/2011/08/16/uk-man-gets-4-year-jail-sentence-for-setting-up-facebook-riot-page/
– UK Man gets 4 years in jail for setting up facebook riot page
– a 22-year old Latchford man named Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan has been charged with organizing some of the actions after setting up a page on Facebook.
– While that might seem extreme for merely setting up a Facebook page, Assistant Chief Contable Phil Thompson believes otherwise:
“If we cast our minds back just a few days to last week and recall the way in which technology was used to spread incitement and bring people together to commit acts of criminality it is easy to understand the four year sentences that were handed down in court today.”
11:28 – Google buys Motorola Mobility
– Google just announced that it is acquiringMotorola Mobility. The search and online advertising company is buying the company for approximately $12.5 billion (or $40 per share), in cash. The price represents a premium of 63 percent to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares last Friday. Google had about $39 billion in cash at last count.
– The acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a dedicated Android partner, will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.
– It’s also a move to build up the company’s patent portfolio, he adds, as it will “enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies”.
– 17000 patents, 7500 pending patents (Google only had 1000 patents prior to this)
– Although announcement talks up Android and patents, Motorola Mobility also makes TV hardware
– Now fully vertically aligned like Apple
– If seen as purely as a patent buy, thats $18 billion on big patents this year alone
– Motorola Mobility is what used to be the Mobile Devices division of Motorola until January 2011.
– A few years ago, Motorola bet its future in the mobile devices market by going full Android, launching the “Droid” – initially on the Verizon network – on November 6, 2009. The “Droid X” and “Droid 2″ followed in 2010.
– Big question now is: how will HTC, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Acer, Lenovo and other Android device makers respond to this news? – http://www.google.com/press/motorola/quotes/
– It’s all about defending Android – allegedly
17:26 – HP to buy Autonomy…and spin off hardware business
– $10 billion for autonomy
– Spin off hardware…which includes web-os
– Post pc world, dominated by iPad and Apple, Google and Android – no profit in hardware for HP
– 250,000 touchpads unsold at best buy
– Look at IBM – top 5 company in world and mostly all software and services
21:39 – LinkedIn makes a dick move
– LinkedIn users are upset that the company has taken the Facebook approach in regards to online privacy with a recent change to the privacy policy. Under the guise of providing more privacy controlto the user, the social network has automatically opted-in its 100 million users into the social advertising program without informing them of the change beyond a blog post.
– When a LinkedIn user views a third-party advertisement on the social network, they will see user profile pictures and names of connections if that connection has recommended or followed a brand. Any time that a user follows a brand, they unwittingly become a cheerleader for the company or organization if it advertises through LinkedIn.
– In order to opt out of social advertising, the LinkedIn user has to take four steps to escape third-party advertisements:
– Hover over the user name in the top right hand corner of any LinkedIn page and click ‘Settings’. On the Settings page, click ‘Account’. On the Account tab, click ‘Manage Social Advertising’. Uncheck the box next to “LinkedIn may use my name, photo in social advertising.” and click the save button.
– Users also may want to opt out of receiving email from LinkedIn advertisers. This setting also allows LinkedIn advertising partners to spam users with promotions during email marketing campaigns if the user follows the brand. To opt out of this setting, click the Email Preferences tab and click on the ‘Turn on/off partner InMail’ link to locate the check box.
24:46 – Amazon release cloud based Kndle Reader
– Amazon may have changed its Kindle iOS app to comply with Apple’s revised in-app subscription policy, but the retailer has now come out with its own, web-based alternative, known as the Kindle Cloud Reader. Compatible with both Chrome and Safari, the new app is essentially a browser version of the Kindle eBook reader, providing PC, Mac and Chromebook users with access to their digitized libraries.
– The tool also offers local storage, allowing for offline reading, though Amazon’s device limit still applies, so if your library’s already strewn across multiple gadgets, the app’s reading functionality may be limited.
– The company unveiled the Cloud Reader today with relatively little fanfare or explanation, but its site highlights the service’s main attractions, including its iPad optimization
– Build around the app store restrictions
– Interesting to remember that first iPhone had no iPhone and told developers to build web apps, now dev’s are building web app’s to get around Apple restrictions.
26:57 – Apple win suit to block Samsung 10.1 sales in Europe
– A new ruling by a regional court in Dusseldorf, Germany has granted Cupertino a preliminary injunction, blocking the sale and advertising of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 across Europe, save for the Netherlands.
– Samsung can still appeal the ruling — in the meanwhile, however, the decision will stand. According to The Telegraph, the likely appeal will take about a month to be heard by the judge who granted the injunction.
– Samsung responded – The company notes that all products already distributed to retailers in Germany will not be affected by the decision. And naturally, Samsung promises to fight to have the injunction lifted.
– Looks really bad – Samsung didn’t defend themselves, Apple’s legal submissions look dubious (i.e. made up) and it’s now been reversed to just Germany
32:40 – Orange Film To Go
– Allows Orange customers to rent a free movie every week
– Text FILMTOGO to 85060 for redemption code
– Can be used on a Thursday, then normal iTunes rental conditions apply
– Although free, txt message costs 35p
34:24 – iPlayer updates for TV
– The app – launching initially on the Sony PlayStation 3 games console, which has run the browser-based version of iPlayer since 2008 – has been built from scratch and includes new features such as viewer recommendations. HTML5 based and will roll out to TV’s and connected devices over the coming months
– Daniel Danker, the BBC’s general manager of programmes and on demand, said that iPlayer viewing on internet-connected TVs increased five fold in the six months to July, reaching 3.1m programme requests a month.
– “We’re going beyond the tech-savvy. We’re making iPlayer easier to use for the mainstream audience,” Danker said. “With today’s announcement, we’re transforming iPlayer in its most natural home.”
36:15 – Sony Price Cuts
– PS3 now cut to £199, street price may be £180
– a new cheaper version of its PSPhandheld console, with a price point of €99 will be launched before christmas
– won’t have wi-fi support and I still can’t see it getting sales
37:56 – Slimmer Cheaper Wii
– Nintendo will launch a redesigned Wii gaming console in Europe by the end of 2011.
– The updated console will be part of a new Wii bundle, which will include “the newly configured Wii console in white, a Wii Remote Plus controller, Nunchuk, and copies of Wii Sports and Wii Party,” the company announced Wednesday.
– The device will be cheaper and slimmer than the original Wii. Nintendo did not announce the bundle’s price or release pictures of the new Wii. The console also will be designed to stand horizontally rather than vertically like the current Wii. Additionally, the new Wii will not be backward compatible with Gamecube games.
40:10 – Onlive UK Launch Date
– Launches in UK on September 22nd
– OnLive has claimed that more than 100 “top tier” titles will be available from the launch date. It is yet to announce specific games, but has told the Guardian that it is in the process of licensing most of the catalogue currently available in the US. Many major publishers including Ubisoft, THQ and Square Enix have partnered with OnLive to make games such as Assassin’s Creed, Homefront and Batman: Arkham Asylum available via the instant-play technology. However, the two biggest game publishers Electronic Arts and Activision have yet to announce any supporting titles.
– Users will be able subscribe for free at the official UK website. They can then choose to rent games for a limited periods, buy unlimited access to specific titles or pay a monthly fee to access the OnLive PlayPack Bundle, which gives unlimited access to a large chunk of the OnLive line-up. UK prices are yet to be announced, but in the US, most titles offer a three-day pass for $5.99, a five-day pass for $8.99 or a full price of $20-$60. The PlayPack bundle is $9.99 a month
– Can play on Mac, PC, iPad and Android tablets and via set top box
– Partnering with BT but will work on any broadband platform
– Still sceptical but time will tell
43:39 – Google+ Games
– Rolling out across the platform
– 16 games available initially
– Hopefully won’t pollute like facebook did
– It’s got Angry Birds!
47:32 – End of games drought
– Gears of War 3 – 20/09/11
– FIFA Soccer 12 – 30/09/11
– Forza – 14/10/11
– Batman: Arkham City – 21/10/11
– Battlefield 3 – 28/10/11
– Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception – 02/11/11
– Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – 08/11/11
– The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – 11/11/11

Picks
Ian
Lion Tweaks
– The application has been developed to quickly turn off numerous exclusive features of Lion; the list includes, enable 2D-dock, remove system window animation, remove mail window animation, disable auto-spelling correction, change iCal and Address Book leather UI to aluminum look, enable permanent scrollbars, show hidden files, disable crash dialog popup.