Tinder for the Pentagon

Tinder for the Pentagon
Number	2820
Broadcast Date	JULY 28, 2016
Episode Length	39:45
Hosts	Tom Merritt
Guests	Roger Chang

The US Department of Defense tries to rejuvenate its DIUx unit to get silicon valley smarts involved in military applications. Roger Chang and Tom Merritt discuss.

Guest

• Roger Chang

Top Stories

• Strong Galaxy S7 sales push Samsung to biggest profits in over two years

Samsung reported its strongest earnings in more than two years. Revenue was 50.94 trillion won ($45.2 billion), up 5 percent year over year and operating profit was 8.14 trillion won ($7.22 billion), up 18 percent. The mobile division accounted for more than half of the revenue and profit on the backs of strong sales of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. Samsung expects solid sales in Q3 with the introduction of the Galaxy Note 7.

• Mercedes-Benz shows off the first fully electric heavy urban transport truck

Daimler revealed the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck in Stuttgart Wednesday. The all-electric has a total admissible weight capacity of 26 metric tonnes (29 US). It has a maximum range of 200 kilometers making it practical for short haul runs. The Fuso Canter E-cell that powers the truck is being tested in a 6-tonne Urban eTruck by Hermes and others in Europe. Daimler expects wide-scale production at the beginning of the next decade after hoped for drops in prices and increases in performance for the batteries.

• Hyperloop One opens its first manufacturing plant

Hyperloop One announced it will open its first 105,000 sq foot manufacturing plant named Metalworks in North Los Vegas. It will manufacture parts for the companies initial test platform, DevLoop. The facility will also house a propulsion lab, and be used to solve some of the engineering challenges that face the platform. The company did not announce when Metalworks would officially open.

• Joining the Growbot team! 🤖

Veronica joining Grobot! (She'll stay on DTNS)

• Major LastPass security bug puts millions of accounts at risk

Security researchers like Tavis Ormandy and Mathias Karlsson of Detectify labs have both reported finding security holes in Last Pass. A LastPass spokesperson told Wired it verified the reports and issued a fix. Karlsson reports he received a bug bounty of $1,000. Users are encouraged to update LastPass on browsers.

Submitted by runningmag

• SoftBank sees sharp recovery for Sprint, flags much investment for ARM

Softbank reported a 0.2% increase in operating profit to 319.2 billion yen as wider losses at Sprint were offset by solid earnings in Softbank's Japanese telecom business. Sprint did increase postpaid subscribers and expects to be cash flow positive in the next financial year. This month Softbank announced plans to purchase chip designer ARM. CEO Masayoshi Son said on the earnings call, "I'm telling ARM management - let's increase the number of engineers, boost R&D spending and make investments proactively." He added, "From now on, I plan to spend 45 percent of my time on Sprint and another 45 percent on ARM."

• Turning urine into beer. Yes, that's a thing now

CNET’s Erin Carson reports scientists at a Belgian university have created a machine that turns urine into drinkable water and fertilizer. Obviously this could be good for rural areas without access to clean water. But it can also be used to make beer. The machine uses solar energy to heat urine that's been collected in a boiler which is then put through a membrane that separates the water from nutrients like potassium, phosphorous and nitrogen. The researchers harvested 1,000 liters of urine at a festival in Ghent, Belgium. They intend to turn it into beer. Back into beer, we should say.

Discussion

• Pentagon Wants Brain-Stimulating Headset to Improve Combat Skills
• Carter Announces Changes, Contracts for DIUx
• Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Jeff Bezos To Join Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Advisory Board
• Increasingly eclectic Pentagon innovation board adds Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jeff Bezos
• DoD’s Silicon Valley Innovation Experiment Begins

Pick of the Day

• Hiya: Caller ID, Call Blocker & Protection for a Better Phone Experience

I know of a great third-party solution (for blocking spam calls) Hiya.

This free app will identify potential spam callers, which will show as a block of orange with a big warning icon while your iPhone is ringing. (The Android UI is a bit different from the screenshots in the Play store).

Submitted by Jesse (hometownrival)

• Extreme Call Blocker - Android Apps on Google Play

I have a pick called "Extreme Call Blocker" (on Android).

There are a number of settings for the app, but I have it set up to "pick up and hang up" on any number not in my Contacts. This completely eliminates any residual voice mails from the spammers. It also loads the FCC Spam Number list so these calls are automatically blocked.

Submitted by Zach

Messages

Hey Tom,
Oddly, having Nintendo switch back to cartridges actually makes me like the idea of the NX even more.
In the mobile gaming world size is a big factor, and optical disks are really not practical. Small disks don't hold very much, the spinning draws a lot of power, load times are slower, and scratching is an issue.
Full size bluray disks only hold 50 GB. Compare that to SD cards that hold 512 GB in a thumb nail sized package, and you have to wonder why even Playstation and XBox are still using disks.

Download is better than optical, if you have the disk space and internet, but then you lose the option of sharing with friends or reselling. I'd still rather have a cartridge because then the on device memory can be used for other things, and I have the option to let the kids or wife play the game on their own device, and not on mine.

With 4K video becoming more accessible, I can even see flash based cartridges becoming more of a thing, instead of using optical disks for video.

Anyway, good move Nintendo, I hope it catches on.

Sent by Andy

Links

• This episode on dailytechnewsshow.com
• Support DTNS on Patreon
• DTNS subreddit

Preceded by: "Parenting and Tech: The True Boss Level"

Tinder for the Pentagon

Followed by: "Mess Esports"