After a two-week summer vacation, El Kaiser and J.D. return to the studio to catch up on the week’s technology news: Facebook ‘fesses up to a chunk of Russian ad buys during the election, Amazon looks to expand its corporate footprint, researchers have discovered a way to hack most of the popular voice-activated assistant programs by sonic frequency — and the headlines just keep on coming. El Kaiser also previews two new pieces of gear from OWC and Anker for ultrabookers who need to pack their own USB ports and J.D. reports on a couple of scams gaining steam around the Internet. Summer’s over, folks! We’re back to work here on Episode 246!
Links to Stories Mentioned in This Week’s Episode
- An Update On Information Operations On Facebook (Facebook Newsroom)
- Russian firm tied to pro-Kremlin propaganda advertised on Facebook during election (The Washington Post)
- Facebook is now using Instagram to push Stories on more people (Mashable)
- Facebook Offers Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for Music Rights (Bloomberg)
- Apple Reaches Music Deal With Warner, Eyes Sony Pact (Bloomberg)
- Apple Event on September 12 (Apple)
- Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8: The Best Screen, for a Hefty Price (The New York Times)
- Amazon to build second HQ in North America, seeks proposals from cities for $5B campus with up to 50K jobs, ‘full equal’ to Seattle operations (GeekWire)
- John Deere is Paying $305 Million for Blue River Technology (Fortune.com)
- A Simple Design Flaw Makes It Astoundingly Easy To Hack Siri And Alexa (Fast Company Design)
- DolphinAttack: Inaudible Voice Commands (Academic paper)
- YouTube Live: faster, easier and more accessible (YouTube Creator blog)
- Urgent DACA legislation is both an economic imperative and humanitarian necessity (Microsoft on the Issues)
- Lenovo Settles FTC Charges it Harmed Consumers With Preinstalled Software on its Laptops that Compromised Online Security (Federal Trade Commission)
- Boston Red Sox Used Apple Watches to Steal Signs Against Yankees (The New York Times)
EL Kaiser’s Gear Preview
(Hopefully) Helpful Hint
- Fake Dropbox Please verify your email address delivers Locky ransomware (My Online Security)
- Legit Conformation Email? (Dropbox Forum)
- Protect your Dropbox account from phishing and malware (Dropbox)
- How to Avoid Phony Facebook Phone Lines (The New York Times)