The World’s Petri Dish
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| The World’s Petri Dish | |
| Number | 2743 |
| Broadcast Date | APRIL 24, 2016 |
| Episode Length | 47:57 |
| Hosts | Peter Wells |
| Guests | Patrick Beja, Hannah Francis |
Peter Wells, Patrick Beja and Hannah Francis discuss the news on a beautiful Kyoto afternoon.
Guest
Headlines
- The US Justice Department on Friday night dropped its court case trying to force Apple Inc. to help authorities open a locked iPhone. This is the case involving an iPhone 5s that was seized from suspect Jun Feng as part of a 2014 drug investigation in New York. “Yesterday evening, an individual provided the passcode to the iPhone at issue in this case,’’ prosecutors said in their terse letter to the judge. “Late last night, the government used that passcode by hand and gained access to the iPhone. Accordingly, the government no longer needs Apple’s assistance to unlock the iPhone, and withdraws its application.’’ The Wall Street Journal notes the sudden withdrawal from the case is a setback in more ways than one for the Justice Department. It leaves unchallenged a 50-page ruling by a magistrate judge concluding the government doesn’t have legal authority to force companies like Apple to help investigators open devices.
- MacRumours is reporting that all Apple Watch Apps must be 'native' by June 1, 2016 - just in time for Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference. Peter spoke to a developer friend of his, and the change means he'll need to rewrite his own Apple watch app with the watch 2.0 SDK, even though he doesn't even bother using his own app, and his usage stats show not many people use it either.
- Earlier this week the Guardian ran an interview with Tinder chief, Sean Rad who explained the matchmaking company used Australia as a beta testing ground for new app features, such as the 'super like'. Rad said that the simple virtue of Australia being “far away from everywhere” meant it was a safe place to roll out changes to the app without influencing users elsewhere, and that Australians were early adopters of new technology.
- The Wall Street Journal reports that Comcast has been trialling 300gb data limits in the US, and the effect it is having on it's customers. Comcast technically has a 250 gigabyte monthly limit on its 23 million Internet customers but stopped enforcing it in 2012. The company is running a series of trials with a data threshold of 300 gigabytes, and, in some areas, varying thresholds and an unlimited option for an extra fee. Those trials reach 14% of its broadband customers today, about 2.8 million homes, largely in Southern states.
- As the lovely Justin Robert Young mentioned, Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull outlined his new cyber security laws this week. Now, we should point out that Australia is unofficially in an election campaign right now, so expect to see a lot of stories like this over the next twelve weeks or so. The election, while not officially announced yet, will be happening July 2nd. Turnbull likes to think of himself as quite the hip tech savvy prime minister, partly to distance himself from previous prime minister, Tony Abbott, a man who probably googled Facebook to got to Facebook. Turnbull loves talking innovation, and how he's agile, etc.
- Qualcomm Inc surprised analysts on their earnings call this week by announcing they may be losing a key customer in the coming months. Qualcomm Chief Executive Officer Steve Mollenkopf told analysts he is “assuming” that a major customer will give orders to a rival, indicating a potential loss of business for the company. While he didn't name names, the internet has decided these are Qualcomm modem chips - not the processors, that go into iPhones. Apple of course, declined to comment.
- ComputerWorld reports that scientists may have accidentally discovered a way to make batteries last a lifetime. A typical Lithium-ion battery breaks down badly between 5000-7000 cycles. Researchers at the University of California may have discovered a simple way to build a Lithium battery that can withstand 100,000+ cycles. This was a serendipitous discovery as the researcher was playing around with the battery and coated it in a thin gel layer. The researchers believe the gel plasticizes the metal oxide in the battery and gives it flexibility, preventing cracking.
- Submitted by GreggN
- The register reports that the European Commission has confirmed something rather hilarious to privacy campaigner Alexander Hamff. In its letter, it states that publications running scripts to determine whether readers are using ad-blockers are indeed accessing the readers' private data. This means they are breaking the EU law that requires them to get consent for accessing that data (this May 2011 law is the reason we Europeans are seeing these annoying cookie popups everywhere). Basically, under EU law, publishers have to ask their users for permission to block them.
Sunday Reads
- If you're looking for an interesting read this Sunday, then head on over to Mashable, who have a fantastic article on Xiaomi's plans to take over the world.
- And Wired has an indepth look at Magic Leap, the secretive VR company that has managed to secure funding from the world's top investors, without really telling anyone what it's up to.
- Sunday Watch: "The Story of Overwatch" - Gamespot's 60 minutes long documentary about the game "Overwatch" by Blizzard Entertainment.
Sunday Stars
- Reply All is a show about the internet, made with the production values and budget of This American Life. It's an always fascinating show, and this week they discuss the war on ecnryption, so if you're not already listening, add it to your weekly roster.
- Peter's Star
- DLC: video games (and board games) with Jeff Cannata and Christian Spicer.
- Patrick's Star
Messages
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| Preceded by: "Tip Your Uber Driver" |
The World’s Petri Dish |
Followed by: "SWIFT on Security" |