Tag Archives: Twitter

PTJ 346: Pour One Out For Arecibo

December 7, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer 2 Comments

After long, unintended absence, El Kaiser and J.D. are back to praise The Mandalorian, chew on the news, talk audio hardware and mourn the loss of the iconic radio telescope at Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory. As 2020 continues its quest for Worst Year Ever (Modern Edition), we remind ourselves to stay flex in the Q-Zone. PTJ 346 is here for you.

Links to Stories on This Episode

“The Mandalorian” (Disney+)

U.S. and States Say Facebook Illegally Crushed Competition (The New York Times)
‘It’s Hard to Prove’: Why Antitrust Suits Against Facebook Face Hurdles (The New York Times)
More than 1,200 Google workers condemn firing of AI scientist Timnit Gebru (The Guardian)
Timnit Gebru’s team at Google is going public with their side of the story (The Verge)
Timnit Gebru’s actual paper may explain why Google ejected her (The Verge)
Timnit Gebru: Google staff rally behind fired AI researcher (BBC News)
The researcher, one of the company’s best-known Black female employees, said she was fired last week (The New York Times)
Police Drones Are Starting to Think for Themselves (The New York Times)
Drones Are Poised to Reshape Home Design (The Wall Street Journal)
Updating our rules against hateful conduct (Twitter)
Twitter expands hate speech rules (Engadget)
‘W onder Woman 1984′ Heading to HBO Max, Theaters Dec. 25 (The Hollywood Reporter)
Warner Bros Sets Entire 2021 Movie Slate To Debut On HBO Max Along With Cinemas In Seismic Windows Model Shakeup (Deadline)
AMC Boss Adam Aron Slams Warner Bros HBO Max 2021 Theatrical Window Concept: Studio Sacrificing “Considerable” Profit (Deadline)
Disney f aces digital dilemma despite streaming success (Financial Times)
Apple Preps Next Mac Chips With Aim t o Outclass Highest-End PCs (Bloomberg)
Salesforce buys Slack in a $27.7B megadeal (TechCrunch)
Are cibo Observatory (National Science Foundation)
Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory: Its loss is already being felt, and it feels very personal (CNN)
Puerto Rican scientists mourn loss of Arecibo Observatory’s iconic telescope (Space.com)

Shure Microphones

• Beta 87A

• Beta 87C

• MV 7

• S M7b

Episode Links

PTJ 345: At Last

October 19, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer 2 Comments

What day is it? Does it matter? Time may be a flat circle that got hit by the Covid Truck for many people, but things have happened this month: Apple finally rolls out its four iPhone 12 models, Facebook finally bans Holocaust-denial content and and a House committee finally produces its report on Big Tech and monopoly. El Kaiser and J.D. muse upon it all, along with with a new set of headphones that gets the Rosado Review. Hear it all on PTJ 345!

• Six Russian GRU Officers Charged in Connection with Worldwide Deployment of Destructive Malware and Other Disruptive Actions in Cyberspace (United States Department of Justice)
• The Citizen Browser Project—Auditing the Algorithms of Disinformation (The Markup)
• Facebook says it rejected 2.2m ads for breaking political campaigning rules (The Guardian)
• Twitter, Responsibility, and Accountability (Stratechery by Ben Thompson)
• Apple Launches ‘Apple Music TV,’ a 24-Hour Music Video Livestream (Variety)
• Apple introduces iPhone 12 Pro an d iPhone 12 Pro Max with 5G (Apple Newsroom)
• Apple announces iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini: A new era for iPhone with 5G (Apple Newsroom)
• Apple introduces HomePod mini: A powerful smart speaker with amazing sound (Apple Newsroom)
• Removing Holocaust Denial Conten t (About Facebook)
• Why Facebook Can’t Fix Itse lf (The New Yorker)
• The new Nest Thermostat: more energy savings for more people (Google Nest)
• Amazon’s Latest Gimmicks Are Pushing the Limits of Privacy (WIRED)
• Amazon launches an AR app that works with new QR codes on its boxes (TechCrunch)
• The House Antitrust Report on Big Tech (The New York Times)
• Google’s merger with ITA helped it grow into the giant that the Justice Department is scrutinizing (The Washington Post)
• E U targets Big Tech with ‘hit list’ facing tougher rule s (Financial Times)
• Exclusive: TikTok rival Triller explores deal to go public – sources (Reuters)
• Disn ey reorganizes to focus on streaming, direct to consumer (CNBC)
• AKG K553 MKII Headphones

Episode Links

PTJ 342: Summer Grilling

August 4, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

The recent weather across much of North American isn’t the only thing that’s been a little toasty — TikTok, Big Tech and the kids who hacked Twitter last month are also feeling the heat. El Kaiser and J.D. take in the latest headlines from the technology world and also offer more tips for entertaining yourself in a partially closed pandemic city. Come join us here on PTJ 342!

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Returns On Disney+ (StarWars.com)
Star Wars: The Bad Batch is a new Clone Wars spinoff coming to Disney Plus in 2021 (The Verge)
Microsoft to continue discussions on potential TikTok purchase in the United States (Microsoft blog)
With TikTok, ‘Uncool’ Microsoft Aims for the Love of Tweens (The New York Times)
Florida Teenager Is Charged as ‘Mastermind’ of Twitter Hack (The New York Times)
Three Individuals Charged For Alleged Roles In Twitter Hack (Department of Justice)
Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google grilled on Capitol Hill over their market power (The Washington Post)
New Pixels—and new prices—are here (Google Keyword blog)
Google Pixel 4A Review: At $350, a Win for Those on a Budget (The New York Times)
A partnership with ADT for smarter home security (Google Keyword blog)
More Than 1,000 Companies Boycotted Facebook. Did It Work? (The New York Times)
Is Your Chip Card Secure? Much Depends on Where You Bank (Krebs on Security)
Instagram morphs into an information powerhouse (Axios)
‘An Incredible Day’: Splashdown Concludes NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 (NASA)
NASA, ULA Launch Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission to Red Planet (NASA)
The Official Guide to New York City (NYCgo.com)
Self-Guided Walking Tours of NYC (FreeToursByFoot.com)
Self-Guided Walking Tours (GPSMyCity.com)

Episode Links

PTJ 341: Tick Tock

July 21, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer 2 Comments

How long until a hacked social-media platform causes real damage in the world? Are TikTok’s days in the US numbered? Is time running out for political ads on Facebook? Is anybody watching Quibi? El Kaiser and JD have questions — and opinions. Also, what local stores and restaurants are still open as the COVID-19 pandemic eases up or crashes down around the country? Just dial up PTJ 341 to find out answers to at least some of these questions!

Stories in This Week’s News Segment

An update on our security incident (Twitter)
Hackers Tell the Story of the Twitter Attack From the Inside (The New York Times)
EBay Nears Deal to Sell Classified-Ad Unit to Adevinta (The Wall Street Journal)
Spotify Fans Can Better Connect to Creators With New Video Podcasts (Spotify)
Apple commits to be 100 percent carbon neutral for its supply chain and products by 2030 (Apple)
TikTok: Amazon says email asking staff to remove app ‘sent in error’ (BBC)
TikTok Users Respond to Potential Ban (The New York Times)
DNC and RNC warn campaigns about using TikTok (CNNPolitics)
House votes to ban TikTok on federal devices (Politico)
Under fire from Washington, TikTok touts U.S. job growth (Axios)
Facebook Considers Banning Political Ads Before US 2020 Election (Bloomberg)
Facebook’s Civil Rights Meeting Didn’t Go Well (The New York Times)
SiriusXM Is Buying Stitcher in Deal Worth Up to $325 Million (Variety)
Apple allocates more than $400 million to combat California housing crisis (Apple)
Is Anyone Watching Quibi? (Vulture)
Quibi App Free Trial to Paying Customer Conversions Very Low (Vulture)
The Data-Driven Tech Engine at the Heart of Hollywood’s Content Factories (The Wall Street Journal)
Top Ubisoft Executives Out Amid Allegations Of Company-Wide Misconduct (Kotaku)
Mozilla suspends Firefox Send service while it addresses malware abuse (ZDNet)
Linux team approves new terminology, bans terms like ‘blacklist’ and ‘slave’ (ZDNet)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

COVID-19 Google Maps updates

Episode Links

PTJ 338: Flight CLUB

May 29, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Twitter’s act of adding fact-checking labels to a couple of presidential tweets set off a storm in the social-media world — almost at the same time real-life stormy weather caused officials to scrub the NASA-SpaceX launch to the International Space Station, the first on an United States rocket since 2011. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss it all ahead of America’s rescheduled return to space this weekend. Blast off with PTJ 338!

Trump signs executive order targeting Twitter after fact-checking row (BBC News)
Trump’s Order on Social Media Could Harm One Person in Particular: Donald Trump (The New York Times)
Trump’s Illiberal Internet Fairness Doctrine (National Review)
What journalists should know about Communications Decency Act Section 230 (Poynter)
Jack on Twitter
Defying Trump, Twitter Doubles Down on Labeling Tweets (The New York Times)
Facebook and Twitter clash over fact-checking as Trump threats intensify (CNN)
Appeals court ruling suggests little legal traction for Trump’s anti-Twitter campaign (POLITICO)
Twitter adds native “scheduled tweets” function (Twitter support)
Twitter, Facebook Win Appeal in Anticonservative-Bias Suit (Bloomberg)
Arizona sues Google for allegedly violating Android users’ location privacy (The Washington Post)
Microsoft launches Cortana app for Windows 10 without Amazon’s Alexa (VentureBeat)
Apple Buys Machine-Learning Startup to Improve Data Used in Siri (Bloomberg)
Apple acquires the full Fraggle Rock collection in first major licensing play (The Verge)
How Delivery Drones Are Being Used to Tackle COVID-19 (WeRobotics)
Drone drops off Isle of Mull coronavirus masks (BBC)
Visit Isle of Man (Isle of Man Government)

Spaaaaccce!

Space Out and Explore the Universe Without Leaving Home (The New York Times)
Launch America Overview (NASA)
NASA
SpaceX

Episode Links

PTJ 337: Pod People

May 23, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Are podcasts The Next Big Thing — again? With Spotify, Amazon and Apple all scrapping to get big names and fresh content while throwing around big money, it sure seems like something’s going on. After El Kaiser and J.D. roll through the rest of the week’s headlines, El Kaiser also offers a few suggestions for remote podcasting software. It’s all right here in PTJ 337 from the comfort of your own home!

Links to News Stories on This Week’s Show

“She-Ra and the Princesses of Power” (DreamWorks)
“She-Ra and the Princesses of Power”(Watch on Netflix)
Privacy-Preserving Contact Tracing (Apple-Google)
Apple and Google launch coronavirus exposure software (The Washington Post)
Mark Zuckerberg: Half of Facebook may work remotely by 2030 (NBC News)
Facebook to Limit Offices to 25% Capacity, Require Masks at Work (Bloomberg)
Preventing Unwanted Contacts and Scams in Messenger (Messenger News)
Twitter is testing a feature that limits who can reply to your tweets (TechCrunch)
Accessibility updates that help tech work for everyone (Google Keyword blog)
Amazon pushes Prime Day to September as it returns to normalcy: WSJ (Reuters)
The podcasting world is now Spotify versus everybody else (The Verge)
Amazon’s Audible Goes Beyond Books to Chase Spotify in Podcasts (Bloomberg)
Apple Ramps Up Original Podcasts, in Part to Help Promote TV+ (Bloomberg)
Chrome 83 arrives with redesigned security settings, third-party cookies blocked in Incognito (VentureBeat)
Protecting against resource-heavy ads in Chrome (Chromium blog)
Apple Buys Older Shows for TV+, Stepping Up Netflix Challenge (Bloomberg)
Helping members who haven’t been watching cancel (Netflix)

VoIP Podcasting Apps

Episode Links

PTJ 334: Grand Central Tracin’

April 29, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer 2 Comments

Contact tracing! It’s all the rage around the world as countries try to track the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus though voluntary smartphone apps. In this week’s news segment, El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the various approaches these apps take before moving on to other headlines around the tech world. El Kaiser also shares his adventures with cloning a hard drive. All this and more on PTJ 334!

Links to News and Stuff Discussed on This Week’s Show

Avenue 5 (HBO)
Apple and Google release first seed of COVID-19 exposure notification API for contact tracing app developers (TechCrunch)
NHS rejects Apple-Google coronavirus app plan (BBC News)
Two Million Australians Download Coronavirus Contact-Tracing App (Bloomberg)
Germany flips to Apple-Google approach on smartphone contact tracing (Reuters)
Coronavirus: Why are there doubts over contact-tracing apps? (BBC News)
Europe’s Privacy Law Hasn’t Shown Its Teeth, Frustrating Advocates (The New York Times)
‘iPhone 12’ likely to ship in the same timeframe that the iPhone X did (Apple Insider)
Microsoft Teams Vulnerability Exposed Organizations to Attacks (SecurityWeek.Com)
Verizon, AT&T, Comcast won’t cancel service through June due to coronavirus (Reuters)
Twitter turns off its original SMS service in most countries (The Verge)
Google Pixel Buds 2 review roundup: What critics love and hate (Tom’s Guide)
An ESPN Commercial Hints at Advertising’s Deepfake Future (The New York Times)
Warning Signs And Symptoms Of Hard Drive Failure (Prosoft Engineering)
How to Make a Bootable Clone of Your Mac’s Hard Drive (How-To Geek)
SuperDuper!
Carbon Copy Cloner

Episode Links

PTJ 328: Going Viral

March 15, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

With COVID-19 disrupting life all over the world, El Kaiser and JD get socially distant and take to their respective bunkers to discuss the pandemic’s effect on life, work and everything. Click into PTJ 328 to have a listen wherever you happen to spending your international public health crisis!

COVID-19 Coronavirus Outbreak (World Health Organization)
Coronavirus: What We’re Doing and How You Can Help (Folding@Home)
IsItCanceledYet.com
Twitter makes working from home mandatory for employees around the world in response to COVID-19 (TechCrunch)
Coronavirus Is a Preview of Our Self-Isolating Future (Medium)
Apple’s next iPhone will add a rear-facing 3D depth camera (Fast Company)
AT&T Suspends Broadband Data Caps During Coronavirus Crisis (VICE)
Comcast keeps charging overage fees (Ars Technica)
Comcast accidentally published 200,000 “unlisted” phone numbers (Ars Technica)
Resumption of work at Foxconn factories in China beats expectations, says founder (Reuters)
Apple’s New iPhone Camera Looks Like A Huge Upgrade (Forbes)
Apple’s massive iPhone 12 upgrade to pack a ‘world-facing’ 3D camera (BGR.com)
Bill Gates is stepping down from the boards of Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway to focus on ‘philanthropic priorities’ (Business Insider)
Firefox 74 slams Facebook in solitary confinement: Browser add-on stops social network stalking users across the web (The Register)
Why the web needs to work for women and girls (World Wide Web Foundation)
Apple Arcade

Episode Links

PTJ 324: In With the New!

January 8, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

2020 is here and with it, new laws and other rules that might make life as a technology consumer a little easier. After a quick recap of the recent headlines by J.D., El Kaiser shares his adventures as both an impulse buyer of a brand new iMac Pro, and as the custodian of a trusty old 2008 Mac Pro tower that still has some life in it. Happy New Year, Pop Tech listeners, and here’s Episode 324!

Links to News Stories on This Week’s Show

Wrapping up CES 2020: Anxiety, cats and yet another streaming service, called Quibi (The Washington Post)
Twitter will put options to limit replies directly on the compose screen (The Verge)
Enforcing Against Manipulated Media (About Facebook)
Facebook bans deepfakes, but new policy may not cover controversial Pelosi video (The Washington Post)
Facebook Ad Library
Spotify brings streaming ad insertion technology to podcasts (TechCrunch)
Why you’re getting so many privacy update emails this week (USA Today)
California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA): What you need to know to be compliant (CSO)
California Consumer Privacy Act
What California’s new privacy law really means for you (Fast Company)
‘We have a huge problem’: European regulator despairs over lack of enforcement (Politico)
President Trump signs robo-call bill into law (CNNPolitics)
New Free File agreement signed to strengthen program, help taxpayers (Internal Revenue Service)
Microsoft takes court action against fourth nation-state cybercrime group (Microsoft on the Issues)
Pentagon Warns Military Personnel Against At-Home DNA Tests (The New York Times)
The 2010s were supposed to bring the ebook revolution. It never quite came. (Vox)

El Kasier’s Big Upgrade

iMac Pro (Apple)
SoftRAID
Mac Pro, 2008 Edition (Apple History)
Computer vs. Smartphone (Computer Hope)
Americans favor mobile devices over desktops and laptops for getting news (Pew Research Center)

Episode Links

PTJ 323: Years and Years

December 17, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

As 2019 winds down, so does another decade of consumer technology. After a quick tour through recent headlines, El Kaiser and J.D. reflect on the highs and lows of the past 10 years in the world of gadgets and services. Come take a trip down geek memory lane here on PTJ 323!

Links to Stories in This Week’s News Segment

Our Progress on Leading the Fight Against Online Bullying (Instagram)
An update to our harassment policy (Official YouTube Blog)
Google and YouTube moderators speak out on the work that’s giving them PTSD (The Verge)
Twitter’s Jack Dorsey created a walled internet garden. Then he realized he hated tending it. (NBC News)
@jack on Twitter
Amazon sellers can’t use FedEx Ground for Prime shipments (CNN)
New Orleans cyberattack: Recovery process will last week or more, FBI aiding investigation (NOLA.com)
The world’s first 3D-printed neighborhood is being built in Mexico for families living on $3 a day (CNN)
Alexa can now respond in the voice of Samuel L. Jackson — here’s how to set it up (NBC News)

The Tech of the Decade

The 10 Best Gadgets of the 2010s (Time)
iPhones, Samsung Galaxy, and more: the 100 gadgets that defined this decade (The Verge)
The Most Iconic Tech Innovations of the 2010s (PCMag.com)
The Biggest Tech Product Flops of the 2010s (PCMag.com)

The independent audio magazine devoted to mashing up pop culture, technology and more. J.D. Biersdorfer and Pedro Rafael Rosado are your hosts. It's an Internet Radio revolution!