Alexa All Over Your House

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Alexa All Over Your House
Number 2698
Broadcast Date FEBRUARY 26, 2016
Episode Length 34:57
Hosts Tom Merritt
Guests Michael Wolf, Len Peralta

Amazon’s on a hiring spree for Echo and Alexa. Michael Wolf talks with Tom Merritt about Amazon’s smart home domination plans. Len Peralta is here to illustrate the show too!

Guest

Headlines

Mark Zuckerberg spoke in Berlin Friday and live streamed the Q&A on Facebook. Appropriately enough he announced that live streaming is coming to Facebook’s Android app. The rollout to Android starts in the US with other countries to follow. Live streaming is already available on Facebook’s iOS app. Zuckerberg also announced it is extending its efforts to police hate speech to include hate speech against migrants. He noted that artificial intelligence could help deal with hate speech identification.
In an interview with NPR’s Morning Edition, San Bernardino Sheriff Jarrod Burguan said there’s a good chance that nothing of value is on the iPhone 5C that for which the FBI would like Apple’s help cracking the password. Sheriff Berguan said "What we are hoping might be on the phone would be potential contacts that we would obviously want to talk to." He said the high value of any information found makes it still worth pursuing.
9to5 Mac’s Mark Gurman’s sources are the stuff of legend and now the little muses are whispering in his ear that Apple will not only release a 4-inch iPhone but will call it the iPhone SE. It will replace the 5S and sell for the same price. Yesterday Gurman said his sources say the next iPad will be 9.7-inches but called an iPad Pro not Air. The rumor has been that Apple will have an event on March 15th.
Mercedes-Benz is replacing some robots with humans on its S-Class assembly lines at its Sindelfingen factory. Engadget reports Head of production Markus Schaefer said, "Robots can't deal with the degree of individualization and the many variants that we have today.” It’s an isolated data point though. The International Federation of Robotics notes the number of industrial robots rose 43 percent from 2013-2014.
Submitted by habichuelacondulce
While Microsoft just obtained cross-platform development company Xamarin, it announced Thursday it’s shutting down its ‘Astoria’ toolkit for bringing Android apps to Windows 10. Mary Jo Foley notes that many experts expect Microsoft to shift focus to Xamarin which can let developers target multiple operating systems not just Windows. However for now Microsoft’s Windows Bridge for iOS will be the only way to bring mobile code to Windows 10 devices.
Fashion Fund is a fashion design competition TV show from CondeNast starring Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and Diane von Furstenberg. that started on Hulu in 2011 then moved to Ovation TV for season 2 in 2014 and season 3 premiered Thursday on Amazon. Interestingly it’s not on Amazon Prime. Shows will arrive once a week for free to anyone willing to watch the ads that come along with it.
Samsung just won a court victory in a patent case against Apple. Which one? THIS Apple-Samsung patent case is the one quick links, like when phone numbers become tappable, and slide-to-unlock and autocorrect. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington DC overturned a May 2014 verdict of a federal court in San Jose that had ordered Samsung to pay Apple $119.6 million. The three-judge appeals panel unanimously found Samsung did not violate quick links and that the other two patents were invalid. The panel also found Apple violated one of Samsung’s patents.
China’s WeChat Pay announced support for overseas vendors. That means users continue to add money in RMB but can spend it nine different foreign currencies including US, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australian and Canadian dollars, British pounds, Japanese Yen, and Korean Won. Conversion rates will be set by banking partners and WeChat Pay covers outgoing transfer fees.
Steven Petrow wrote an article for USA Today describing how someone on his flight from Dallas to Raleigh admitted to hacking his email during the flight. The man spoke to him after they had deplaned pointing out that GoGo inflight wireless was an open WiFi access point and without using a VPN, unencrypted traffic is open for anyone to see. The hacker made a point about this sort of privacy violation is why the Apple encryption case is important, then walked away.
Submitted by TheBaldOne5
19 of the world’s 40 recorded selfie-linked deaths have happened in India, according to Priceonomics. The AP reports the city of Mumbai has declared 16 no-selfie zones in the city. It’s really a no access ban since anyone who enters a prohibited zone will fined 1200 rupees, whether they take a photo or not.

Discussion

Pick of the Day

I know that some of your fans, myself included, are aspiring to have their own internet audio and/or video show. In my search to find the balance of equipment and cost I came across the Audio Technica ATR2100. For $55 on Amazon you get a mic with built in XLR and usb. Its got great reviews, and in my personal experience its got great off axis rejection. Its a swiss army knife of microphones, and its pretty cheap.
Submitted by John

Messages

In the discussion on the Samsung store Scott mentioned wanting to get his hands on gear before purchasing.

I suggest trying out your local library. Everyone should already know to go there for things like 3D printing and other maker space activities. We are adding VR to that mix as well. Many libraries do simple things like Google Cardboard programs. Some of us go farther. The Creation Station in Broward County (FL) has an Oculus Rift out on the floor for the public to walk and in and try out. Come visit your library and see what is happening.

Love the show
Sent by Bob


More folks have been reacting to Ron's request for someone to explain what VR is good for.

I'm an engineer at a nuclear power plant. We're currently exploring using an Occulus or some other VR headset to help us plan work. There are places in the plant where there is a considerable amount of radiation (not enough to cause long term damage to someone, but enough that you wouldn't want to be there for long). We try to keep the total amount of radiation exposure as low as reasonable so using a 3D model of the plant and a VR headset could limit the radiation exposure without limiting our ability to plan work, etc.
Sent by Kevin


I have worked in oil and gas for 14 years bot in contract construction work, and currently as a company operator. I currently work on the North Slope of Alaska where there is always a large push to minimize the size of equipment module foot prints in the name of lessening our environmental impact.

This often means from an "operator" stand point we are at the mercy of piping layouts that look nice on paper, but when you actually have to work with the equipment it is near impossible to access. ... I could see this tech being used take ISO drawings with measurements and render them in a 3D environment that would allow the operators and engineers to virtually walk down the mods before construction to make sure that scale and layout is going to work.
Sent by Chris


And we had LOTS of great responses from teachers and others regarding yesterday's conversation on making Computer Science a requirement for high school graduation. Here are a couple samples.

As a technology teacher, I straddle the two sides of this “great divide.” With an English and theater Bachelor’s degree and a Computer Science Master’s, I am bilingual enough to understand the jargon and to translate effectively for the young mind. There are very few who are interested in translating technology for others. This makes it very difficult to find effective teachers who have a high enough degree of knowledge to challenge young learners to learn more about the subject.
Sent by Steve


I think the most important aspect of this kind of tech education is not any specific language, but the experience of working on a project where each student leverages their own individual abilities to collaborate on building a piece of technology. We've heard from a couple of our alums that these classes were what prepared them most for college and beyond.
Sent by Davey


I’ve been raising awareness in my community about an organization called Technology Education and Literacy in Schools or TEALS. ... They pair a licensed high school teacher with a volunteer from the workforce to teach CS classes. TEALS is backed by Microsoft and its employees. It has had success in the Seattle area and it’s branching out to other schools around the country. The application period for CS professionals and and schools for the 2016-2017 academic year is now open. If listeners are interested in helping out, more information can be found at http://tealsk12.org.
Sent by Nate on the Windy West Bench of Salt Lake City

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Preceded by:
"Carpe Drone-um" 		Alexa All Over Your House
 Followed by:
"Out Think Disruption"
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