Tech Podcasts

Is it risky to use Allo? Should Apple by McLaren Auto? Plus Chris Kohler talks with Scott Johnson and Tom Merritt about the Tokyo Game Show. MP3 Using a Screen Reader? Click here Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org. Please SUBSCRIBE HERE. Follow us on Soundcloud. A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, … Continue reading DTNS 2861 – Motion Sickness or Regular Sickness? →

Hosts: Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ, Paul Thurrott, Mary Jo Foley Microsoft rolls out update to remove 'Get Windows 10' app, a preview of Microsoft SMS Relay, this week in layoffs, the launch of the Nokia 216 phone, Microsoft changes its 'Health' fitness apps' name, Azure customers get hit with a DNS outage, the Xbox One S Minecraft Favorites Bundle, Gears of War 4 goes gold, a way to de-Apple one's iPhone, Campo Santo's Firewatch game comes to the Xbox One with an audio tour, version 1 of 'Bletchley' Azure blockchain delivered, and more! Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/windows-weekly Check out Paul's blog at thurrott.com Check out Mary Jo's blog at AllAboutMicrosoft.com Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show. The Windows Weekly theme music is courtesy of Carl Franklin.

There are 28 North Korean websites hosted on its servers for the world to see -- but the rest of the country's online life remains a mystery. Meanwhile, replacement phones for Samsung's Note 7 hit US stores.

We're talking cord-cutting with AT&T and lace-cutting with Nike's new Back to the Future-inspired sneakers. Also, Google's Allo makes its big debut.

1994 – Microsoft releases the second version of the Windows NT OS – Windows NT 3.5 in two flavors; NT Workstation and NT Server. This replaced NT 3.1 and was the first Windows NT version to have a Server and Workstation version. NT 3.5 integrated Winsock and TCP/IP support for dial-up and networking. NT 3.5 also initiated FTP and LPR printer support. The VFAT option also allowed for naming conventions up to 255 characters. This version was a problematic one, especially since it couldn’t install on a machine with a Pentium processor inside. Therefore, NT 3.5.1 was released in 1995...

On today's show, we'll talk about the Transportation Department's push to formalize data sharing on autonomous vehicles between companies and the government; scientists' collection of gene data from residents living in Sardinia, Italy — a region with a high life expectancy; and the possibility that the European Union may investigate some U.S. companies, like it did with Apple, over unpaid taxes. 

Hosts: Jason Howell, Ron Richards, Florence Ion Guest: Tim Schofield This week, we'll be discussing Google's official announcement of its new Pixel hardware strategy, improvements to text to speech, Samsung's rush to beat the iPhone, Google Trips for travel, neural network for SwiftKey text prediction, and more! Read our show notes here. Subscribe to All About Android at https://twit.tv/shows/all-about-android. Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Video games are the new self-help, and Jane McGonigal is here to tell us why. She's an all around gaming boss (see here and here) and she's the director of game research and development at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California where she's spent years researching our brains during what she calls, "the state of play." After wading through tons of research, she found that gaming is a wonderland of possibilities to make us smarter, happier, and more creative people.  So game play isn't just an escape? Nope, it doesn't have to be. Jane says that the key to finding positive emotions and empowerment is to ground your gaming in real life. So when you're trapped in Minecraft, don't give up and walk away, trudge on. Fight. Or use creative problem-solving to get to to the next level. Those skills or resources will spill out from the virtual world and into the real one.  In fact, gaming can help cope with depression and combat anxiety, but it's all about the dosage (i.e. how much gaming you're doing). And we didn't want to leave you hanging when it comes to figuring out which games are best for what. Here are Jane's prescriptions: If you're trying to lose weight: "When you feel a craving coming on, play a visual pattern-matching game on your phone -- like Tetris or Candy Crush Saga – for ten minutes. These games have been shown in scientific studies to reduce cravings, by monopolizing your visual imagination and blocking your brain's ability to picture the thing you crave. Research shows that players make healthier eating choices in the hour after they've played!" If you need to reduce stress or combat anxiety: "Try the new game Reigns. It's a simple and easy-to-learn game in the style of games known to activate the same blood flow patterns in the brain as meditation, creating a blissful state of mind known as "flow." Research shows that twenty minutes of these flow-inducing games, three times a week, will help you focus your mind and calm yourself, and improve your mood for hours afterward. (Believe it or not, I’ve met many Buddhist monks who play Angry Birds!)" If you could use a boost of extra energy and motivation: "Play a really tricky puzzle game, like Sudoku, Cut the Rope, or The Room. Research shows that trying to solve a difficult puzzle increases dopamine levels in your brain, which is the neurotransmitter that increases your work ethic and will power. It doesn't matter if you successfully complete the game or not – just trying will do the trick, and the harder the better. So if you have a difficult project to tackle, or a complex problem to solve, prime your brain for success with fifteen minutes of puzzling first." Manoush is an old-school Tetris addict and she just downloaded it on her phone to play guilt-free. But what's your jam? Tell us what you like playing and why. As per the usual,  get in touch at notetoself@wnyc.org, or the comments section below, or on Twitter or Facebook.   For more Note to Self, subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, I Heart Radio, Overcast, Pocket Casts, or anywhere else using our RSS feed. 

Hosts: Steve Gibson, Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ Concerns over a significant expansion in effectively warrantless intrusion into end-user computers, the forthcoming change in Internet governance, NTIA's contract with ICANN to handle IANA is expiring in ten days! Google's next move in using Chrome to push for improved security, the interresting details emerging from a successful NAND memory cloning attack on the iPhone 5c and Steve shares the details and findings of a recent Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) problem on GRC and his recommendation for the best website security scanner! We invite you to read our show notes. Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/security-now. You can submit a question to Security Now! at the GRC Feedback Page. For 16kbps versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve's site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written Spinrite 6. Bandwidth for Security Now is provided by Cachefly.

Hosts: Megan Morrone, Jason Howell Guest: Sam Abuelsamid Google is teasing a smartphone event, the Sunlight Foundation is shutting down, ProPublica examines Amazon's pricing algorithm, macOS Sierra becomes available, the United States government releases the Federal Automated Vehicles Policy, Megan and Jason unbox Leo's ceramic Apple Watch, and a study by the Journal of American Medical Association carries interesting implications about fitness wearable users. Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-today. Thanks to Cachefly for the bandwidth for this show.

Has the excitement gone out of apps? Patrick Beja thinks it may have he and Tom Merritt talk with developer Brett Rounsaville about whether excitement of the app hunt is over. Plus macOS Sierra and guesses on Google’s forthcoming phones. MP3 Using a Screen Reader? Click here Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org. Please … Continue reading DTNS 2860b – Windows Velociraptor →

Hosts: Rene Ritchie, Andy Ihnatko, and Alex Lindsay The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are out in the wild - leading to both praise and complaints about hissing, the home button, and Lightning headphones. MacOS Sierra officially released today with a host of improvements, especially for iPhone and Apple Watch owners. Also, Apple responds to criticism about its perceived lack of diversity. Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/macbreak-weekly. Bandwidth for MacBreak Weekly is provided by Cachefly.

We also discuss Comcast getting into the wireless business and whether Brexit will affect tech spending in London.

Cloud Custodian is a tool that unifies the dozens of tools and scripts most organizations use for managing their AWS accounts into one open source tool. It’s a stateless rules engine for policy definition and enforcement, with metrics and detailed reporting for AWS. Organizations can use Custodian to manage their AWS environments by ensuring compliance with security policies, tag policies, garbage collection of unused resources, and cost management via off-hours resource management, all from the same place. Custodian policies are written in simple YAML configuration files that specify given resource types and are constructed from a vocabulary of filters and actions. Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/floss-weekly Here's what's coming up for FLOSS in the future. Think your open source project should be on FLOSS Weekly? Email Randal at merlyn@stonehenge.com Thanks to Cachefly for providing the bandwidth for this podcast and Lullabot's Jeff Robbins, web designer and musician, for our theme music.

Comcast and partner Verizon plan to launch a fresh cellular service next year.