Tag Archives: Uber

PTJ 335: Going Batty

May 8, 2020 J.D. Biersdorfer 2 Comments

Comic-book worlds (and their heroes) are great for passing the time or taking your mind to new places when you’re stuck inside — and this week’s episode offers insights on the Batwoman TV show as well as making your own comics (even if drawing isn’t your strong point). El Kaiser and J.D. also discuss news from the video-game world and other headlines from around the technosphere. Spin up PTJ 335 right here!

Links to Stories Discussed on This Week’s Episode

Batwoman (The CW)
Nintendo smashes Switch sales view; says Animal Crossing is device’s fastest-selling game (Reuters)
Fortnite is now one of the biggest games ever with 350 million players (The Verge)
Twitch Is Developing Talk Shows and Dating Programs for Gamers (Bloomberg)
Microsoft reveals Xbox Series X boot screen, confirms July event for Halo Infinite and more (The Verge)
Opinion | We Are a New Board at Facebook. Here’s What We’ll Decide. (The New York Times)
Apple awards $10 million from Advanced Manufacturing Fund to COPAN Diagnostics (Apple)
Apple WWDC 2020 announced for June 22, but will be digital only (CNBC)
UK finds itself almost alone with centralized virus contact-tracing app that probably won’t work well, asks for your location, may be illegal (The Register)
Airbnb is laying off a quarter of its staff (Vox)
Parking Lots Have Become a Digital Lifeline (The New York Times)
Twitter rolls out changes to threaded conversations following tests in its prototype app, twttr (TechCrunch)
Twitter tests a warning message that tells users to rethink offensive replies (The Verge)

Do-It-Yourself Comics

Create Your Own Digital Comics Whether You Can Draw or Not (The New York Times)
Classroom-Friendly Websites and Apps for Making Comics (Common Sense Media)
ComicBook! (iOS)
Comic Strip Pro (Android)
MediBang Paint
Comic Draw for iPad
Procreate for iPad
Comics Pages templates (Printable Paper)
Can You Draw This? Of Course You Can. (The New York Times)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 322: Disney, Plus…

November 22, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

On this week’s episode, El Kaiser and J.D. offer their initial impressions on The Mandalorian, the new Disney+ live-action show set in the Star Wars universe. After a quick trip through recent tech headlines, J.D. also supplies a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint about getting started with touch-screen drawing apps. Use the Force and punch the button for Episode 322!

Links to News Stories on This Week’s Show

“The Mandalorian” (Disney+)
An update on our political ads policy (Google Keyword blog)
Hey Google, play me the news (Google blog)
Spotify turns its personalization technology to podcasts with launch of Your Daily Podcasts (TechCrunch)
Uber Embraces Videotaping Rides, Raising Privacy Concerns (The New York Times)
Uber safety push includes plans to start audio recording rides in the U.S. (The Washington Post)
How Attackers Could Hijack Your Android Camera to Spy on You (Checkmarx)
U.S. approves first licenses for tech sales to Huawei (The Washington Post)
PayPal to acquire shopping and rewards platform Honey for $4B (TechCrunch)
Doorbell camera footage can be kept by police forever and shared with whomever they’d like (The Washington Post)
Amazon Announces New Fire TV Blaster, Giving Users Voice Control Over TVs and Cable Boxes (The Streamable)
Dead musicians are taking the stage again in hologram form. Is this the kind of encore we really want? (The Washington Post)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

Can You Draw This? Of Course You Can. (The New York Times)

Episode Links, Podcast

Episode 308: Separation Anxiety

May 10, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

El Kaiser and JD finally got out of Avengers: Endgame and are back in the recording bunker to discuss recent tech news – including Google’s I/O conference and a former Facebook founder’s call for the government to bust up his former company. JD also explores the new movement that have some people spending less time staring at their smartphones screens. Episode 308 awaits!

Links to Stories In This Week’s News Segment

The 8 biggest announcements from the Google I/O 2019 keynote (The Verge)
I/O 2019: New features to help you develop, release, and grow your business on Google Play (Android Developers Blog)
Facebook talked privacy, Google actually built it (TechCrunch)
Google’s YouTube Music Tops 15 Million Subscribers (Bloomberg)
The 5 biggest announcements from Facebook’s F8 developer conference keynote (The Verge)
It’s Time to Break Up Facebook (The New York Times)
Video game ‘loot boxes’ would be outlawed in many games under forthcoming federal bill (The Washington Post)
FTC Members Unanimously Press Congress for Tough National Privacy Protections (Gizmodo)
Member of Sophisticated China-Based Hacking Group Indicted for Series of Computer Intrusions, Including 2015 Data Breach of Health Insurer Anthem Inc. Affecting Over 78 Million People (Department of Justice)
Tenants win as settlement orders landlords give physical keys over smart locks (CNET)
Los Angeles Uber drivers join cities across the U.S. in strike ahead of much-anticipated IPO (The Los Angeles Times)
Windows Hello FIDO2 certification gets you closer to passwordless (Microsoft Tech Community)
Jeff Bezos unveils Moon lander concept (BBC News)
Avengers: Endgame adds the Spider-Man trailer as a post-credits scene (Polygon)

Break Up Phone (For A While, Anyway)

Do Not Disturb: How I Ditched My Phone and Unbroke My Brain (The New York Times)
Use Screen Time on Your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch (Apple Support)
Digital Wellbeing (Google)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 298: Over Easy

January 22, 2019 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Famous eggs, self-delivering scooters, rabbit-ears making a comeback and YouTube tries to ban stupidity — El Kaiser and JD catch up on a big pile of technology news from the past week or two. And in a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint, J.D. explains how to use a free, pre-built spreadsheet to track your finances. Roll on into PTJ 298 to hear it all!

Stories Discussed on This Week’s Show

Facebook’s WhatsApp limits text forwards to five recipients to curb rumors (Reuters)
Uber plans to develop self-driving electric scooters and bicycles (The Daily Telegraph)
Google Maps wants to help you avoid that speeding ticket (Mashable)
Material Design for Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Sites on Web (G Suite Updates Blog)
Oscars: ‘Roma’ Lands Netflix Its First Best Picture Nom (The Hollywood Reporter)
Netflix just announced the biggest price increase in the history of its streaming service (BGR)
Netflix in advanced talks to join major Hollywood lobbying group (Poltico)
Nielsen: 16M U.S. homes now get TV over-the-air, a 48% increase over past 8 years (TechCrunch)
YouTube bans dangerous pranks following Bird Box, Tide Pod challenges (The Verge)
An issue with protected Tweets on Twitter for Android (Twitter Help)
DuckDuckGo Taps Apple Maps to Power Private Search Results (Spread Privacy)
Twitter is bringing back the chronological timeline, and in a sensible way (Android Authority)
Facebook’s ’10 Year Challenge’ Is Just a Harmless Meme—Right? (WIRED)
Facebook’s own employees appear to be leaving 5-star Amazon reviews for the Portal camera (The Verge)
Facebook launches petition feature, its next battlefield (TechCrunch)
You Deserve Privacy Online. Here’s How You Could Actually Get It (Tim Cook in TIME)
Apple Pay coming to Target, Taco Bell and more top US retail locations (Apple)
Google: data is more like sunlight than oil (Business Insider)
Who’s ‘Scam Likely’ and why do they keep calling you? (USA Today)
Roku Removes Infowars Channel Following Backlash (Variety)
An Egg, Just a Regular Egg, Is Instagram’s Most-Liked Post Ever (The New York Times)
Ishan Goel tells TooFab why world_record_egg struck such a powerful pop culture chord, and warns about the dark side of viral success. (TooFab)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

The Easy (and Free) Way to Make a Budget Spreadsheet (The New York Times)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 265: Just Over the Ridge

March 5, 2018 J.D. Biersdorfer 2 Comments

Congratulations to the sound team on Dunkirk for the Oscars — we here at Pop Tech Jam had a feeling you were going to win!

But now that we know who won the 2018 Academy Awards, life is still full of burning questions: Who am I? What is my place in the universe? Why do the Klingons on Star Trek: Discovery look so different from the Klingons in the rest of the canonical series? This week, El Kaiser and J.D. discuss The Klingon Question after tackling the technology news of the moment. naDev ‘oH Qap!

Links to Stories Discussed on This Week’s Episode

Twitter Health Metrics Proposal Submission (Twitter blog)
Introducing Uber Health, Removing Transportation as a Barrier to Care (Uber Newsroom)
Google launches Slack competitor Hangouts Chat (Reuters)
ESRB defends “fun” loot boxes as it starts labeling all “in-game purchases” (Ars Technica)
Amazon acquiring Ring to help with Key delivery system (CNBC)
Updates to YouTube Live streaming (YouTube blog)
Google Clips review: a smart camera that doesn’t make the grade (The Verge)
Google Clips camera review: The AI-powered camera takes photos and video (The Washington Post)
Samsung’s Galaxy S9 is official: Fingerprint sensor finally in the right place (Android Police)
Built for the Way We Communicate Today: Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ (Samsung Pressroom)
Apple Turns Up Audio Ambition With High-End Headphones (Bloomberg)
T-Mobile and Sprint name first 5G cities, as race to build next-gen network intensifies (GeekWire)
5G Cell Service Is Coming. Who Decides Where It Goes? (The New York Times)
PayPal Settles FTC Charges that Venmo Failed to Disclose Information to Consumers (Federal Trade Commission)
Amazon’s Battle to Bring Conversational AI Into Your Home (WIRED)
‘Alexa, How Can Podcasters Make Money From Voice Assistants?’ (The Wall Street Journal)

Star Trek Continuity

Klingon Head Ridges Will Finally Be Explained on Star Trek: Discovery, with Science (io9)
Star Trek: Discovery’s Klingons may look unfamiliar for a reason (Polygon)
The Klingon Forehead Problem (Ex Astris Scientia)
The Evolution of Klingon Foreheads (Ex Astris Scientia)
Klingon augment virus (Memory Alpha Wiki)
Alex Kurtzman Explains Star Trek: Discovery’s Klingons (io9)
Does continuity matter for Star Trek: Discovery?
(The Verge)
Star Trek: Discovery’s Changes To Klingon Canon Are The Worst Part Of A Great Show (ScreenRant)
The “Wand Order Problem” (The Harry Potter Lexicon)
Mistakes in the Harry Potter books (Harry Potter Wiki)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 240: Hall Monitor

July 1, 2017 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

It’s almost like we needed the Justice League to come sort things out with all the disruptions erupting all over the technology scene this week. So, you ask, what happened? Yet another ransomware attack spread rapidly worldwide, the European Commission got all up in Google’s business on an antitrust charge, and Walmart had a slapfight with Amazon over the cloud. Meanwhile, Twitter and some of its pals are teaming up to fight the spread of violent extremism, Facebook wants to do TV and Apple’s getting ready to chuck a bunch of old apps off the iOS 11 wagon. But on the bright side, we’ve now had J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series with us for 20 years now. Come hang with El Kaiser and J.D. as they try to make sense of the week here on Episode 240 of Pop Tech Jam!

Links to Stories on This Week’s Episode

Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (Twitter)
Zack Snyder steps down from Justice League after daughter’s death, Joss Whedon takes helm (EW.com)
New cyberattack spreads from Russia to Britain (The New York Times)
UK Parliament cuts email access after cyberattack (SecurityWeek)
Antitrust: Commission fines Google €2.42 billion for abusing dominance as search engine by giving illegal advantage to own comparison shopping service (European Commission)
The European Commission decision on online shopping: the other side of the story (Google)
Amazon accuses Walmart of bullying in cloud computing clash (BBC News)
Uber founder Travis Kalanick resigns as C.E.O. (The New York Times)
Justin Caldbeck takes indefinite leave of absence from Binary Capital (Axios)
Facebook is going Hollywood, seeking scripted TV programming (The Wall Street Journal)
Public iOS 11 beta now available — here’s how to get it (BetaNews)
Repair is the new green (iFixit)
Zillow sends cease and desist letter to McMansion Hell, the architectural criticism blog we need right now (Gizmodo)
Cash ‘lives on’ after 50 years of ATMs (BBC News)
The man who really invented the cash machine (BBC News)
Harry Potter: How the boy wizard enchanted the world (BBC News)

Welcome to the 64-Bit World

The end of the road for some apps (The New York Times)
Photographers, beware of upcoming macOS transition issues (PetaPixel)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint, Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 239: Leak Week

June 24, 2017 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

June is Internet Safety Month, but it hasn’t been very safe for the personal information of 198 million people, which got exposed by sloppy data handling. The notoriously private Apple got trolled as well when a top-secret meeting about stopping data leaks got, er, leaked. After wading through the tech headlines of the week, El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the merits of RAID, as well as how to turn your smartphone into a handy magnifier for those annoying moments when you actually have to read the fine print. Episode 239 of Pop Tech Jam awaits you.

Links to Stories in This Week’s News Segment

GOP data firm accidentally leaks personal details of nearly 200 million American voters (Gizmodo)
UpGuard welcomes security expert Chris Vickery (UpGuard)
Leaked recording: Inside Apple’s global war on leakers (The Outline)
Apple’s Tim Cook asked President Trump for coding requirement at US schools (Apple Insider)
Amazon is buying Whole Foods for $13.7 billion (Business Insider)
Amazon plans cuts to shed Whole Foods’ pricey image (Bloomberg)
Time Warner just handed Snapchat a $100 million lifeline (CNBC)
FTC and two state attorneys general challenge proposed merger of the two largest daily fantasy sports sites, DraftKings and FanDuel (FTC.gov)
Evolution of Dropbox’s Edge Network (Dropbox blog)
Connecting more Americans with jobs (Google blog)
You asked, and we’re answering (Uber blog)
Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg joining Apple to lead video programming (Apple Newsroom)
Google launches exclusive Play Music feature for Galaxy S8 (Android Authority)
Atari CEO confirms the company is working on a new game console (VentureBeat)
Ataribox

Tech Term

• RAID levels explained (PCMag.com)
• Digital storage basics, Part 2: External drive vs. NAS server (CNET)
• How to configure a cheap, secure RAID backup system (Macworld)

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint

Use Your Phone as a Digital Magnifying Glass (The New York Times)
Using Android to Zoom In for a Closer Look (The New York Times)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 238: Thank You for Our Childhoods, Adam West

June 14, 2017 J.D. Biersdorfer 2 Comments

Geek hearts around the globe were broken this past week with the passing of Adam West, the actor who created the iconic interpretation of Batman on the eponymous mid-1960’s television show. Dan Greenfield, editor of the 13th Dimension website devoted to comics, joins El Kaiser and J.D. for a discussion about West’s impact as a performer, role model and pop-culture stalwart.

One the tech side of the news this week: Big changes at Uber, big announcements from the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles and big bucks for the Drone Racing League. Join on in — and let’s all pour out a Bat-40 for Mr. Adam West.

Links to Stories on This Week’s Show

Russia’s cyber attack on 39 states could jeopardize future US elections (CNBC)
The malware used against the Ukrainian power grid is more dangerous than anyone thought (Motherboard)
Uber CEO to take leave, diminished role after workplace scandals (Bloomberg)
Uber’s Michael is said to blame board, not behavior, for ouster (Bloomberg)
E3 2017: all the announcements from gaming’s biggest show (TechRadar)
The original Age of Empires is being remade for the PC (TechRadar)
Beyond Good and Evil 2 is a cult classic 15 years in the making (TechRadar)
E3 2017 News (GameSpot)
Facebook reportedly adding publisher subscription feature (Axios)
Amazon rolls out contact blocking for Alexa voice-calling feature (GeekWire)
Andy Rubin’s Essential phone announces carrier availability and it’s… Sprint (Ars Technica)
Essential Phone (Essential)
Drone racing league raises $20 million from Sky, Liberty Media, WWE (Variety)
Adam West, straight-faced star of TV’s ‘Batman,’ dies at 88 (Hollywood Reporter)
Adam West Saved My Life (About Men Radio)
13^th Dimension: Comics | Creators | Culture
Adam West: A Celebration (13^th Dimension)
Julie Newmar on Adam West: He Was a ‘King to the End’ (13^th Dimension)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 237: Days of Wonder

June 8, 2017 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference opened this week, bringing a ton of announcements and new-product demos to the faithful. Don Donofrio drops by to sort it all out with El Kaiser and JD. Meanwhile, governments fight with the Internet on multiple fronts and a certain Amazon Princess conquers the worldwide box office. All this and more on Episode 237!

Links to Stories in This Week’s Episode

Top-secret NSA report details Russian hacking effort days before 2016 election (The Intercept)
Contractor charged with the first leak under Trump (The New York Times)
London attack: Tech firms fight back in extremism row (BBC)
Uber fires more than 20 employees in harassment probe (Bloomberg)
Major web companies and public interest groups announce Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality (Fight for the Future)
July 12th: Internet-wide day of action to save Net Neutrality (Battle for the Net)
IDC: Wearables grew 17.9% in Q1 2017, Xiaomi and Apple overtake Fitbit (VentureBeat)
SteamVR is coming to Mac—and Apple says it will actually work (Ars Technica)
(9to5Mac)
Microsoft leak reveals new Windows 10 Workstation edition for power users (The Verge)
Wonder Woman sets a record opening for a female-directed feature (BoxOfficeMojo.com)

Apple Stuff

Apple previews iOS 11
Apple introduced the new iPad Pro
Apple refreshes the iMac
Apple updates the MacBook and MacBook Pro
Apple gives a sneak peak at the new iMac Pro
Apple demos macOS High Sierra
Apple introduces HomePod
Apple announces watchOS 4
Apple revamps the App Store
Apple WWDC Keynote video
WWDC 2017 (MacRumors)

Episode Links, Podcast

PTJ 232: Love and Rocket

April 26, 2017 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Love is all around as the unofficial 2017 Geek Summer Movie Season gets ready to roll next week with the arrival of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in theaters ‚ with Wonder Woman, King Arthur, and another Spider-Man right behind. After a stomp through the week’s tech headlines (including the hunt to shoot down fake news and drones you can fly with your head) El Kaiser and J.D. discuss some of the most anticipated films on the way over the next few months.
Ooga-chaka-ooga-ooga!

Links to Stories in This Week’s News Segment

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales launches Wikitribune, a large-scale attempt to combat fake news (Nieman Lab)
Wikipedia founder to fight fake news with new Wikitribune site (The Guardian)
Our latest quality improvements for Search (Google blog)
Uber’s C.E.O. plays with fire (The New York Times)
Tim Cook reportedly threatened to pull Uber from App Store (CNet)
We can do better (Unroll.me)
HipChat security notice (HipChat blog)
YouTube restores ‘wrongly blocked’ LGBT videos (BBC News)
(YouTube Creators blog)
DJI’s new FPV goggles let you control your drone with head movements (TechCrunch)
Cassini completes final — and fateful — Titan flyby (NASA)
The power of LinkedIn’s 500 million member community (LinkedIn blog)
Popular antivirus program mistakenly IDs Windows as threat, creating chaos (NBC News)
Marissa Mayer will make $186 Million on Yahoo’s sale to Verizon (The New York Times)
Computer pioneer Harry Huskey dies aged 101 (BBC News)
30 must-see upcoming movies of 2017 (NerdMuch)

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!