Essence of life: 🚽 & 🐔

Essence of life: 🚽 & 🐔 (Toilet and Chicken)
Number	2485
Broadcast Date	MAY 4, 2015
Episode Length	35:52
Hosts	Tom Merritt
Guests	Veronica Belmont

Veronica Belmont joins the show to talk about the rising use of emojis. Does it signal the final demise of our civilization or is it the birth of a new universal language that will unite humanity in peace and prosperity? Or somewhere in between.

Guest

• Veronica Belmont
  • VeronicaBelmont.com
  • Sword and Laser

Headlines

• Facebook opens up Internet.org amidst net neutrality row

The BBC reports on Facebook’s announcement that it will open its Internet.org program to all developers who meet certain criteria. Internet.org allows mobile users to access certain services without incurring data charges. Net neutrality advocates in INdia have accused the service of picking winners and losers. In response Internet.org will allow developers to join if the service is not data-intensive, can run on feature phones as well as smartphones, and encourages exploartion of the broader Internet.

• Microsoft Office 2016 Public Preview is now available

Engadget reports that Microsoft Office 2016 is now available for free public preview. You don’t have to be a dev, or even an Office 365 subscriber to test out the newly redesigned universal apps or try out real-time co-authoring in Word, one-click forecasting in Excel, or access to OneDrive attachments in Outlook. Just go to products.office.com/office-2016-preview or look for the link in our show notes.

• Accessory makers plan to tap Apple Watch’s hidden port for battery straps, faster charging

According to a post from 9 to 5 Mac the makers of Reserve Strap have confirmed plans to take advantage of a hidden 6 pin port on the Apple watch. The hidden port means the strap doesn’t have to use the indictuive charging, allowing quicker and higher capacity charging, improving durability and eliminating interference with the Apple Watch’s sensors. The port is covered and hidden inside of the slot where straps connect to the device. Reserve Strap will provide a tool to access it. You can preorder Reserve Strap for $249, but availability has not been determined.

• Alcatel-Lucent, Algeria to build Orval undersea cable system

BizTechAfrica reports Alcatel-Lucent and the Algerian government have signed an agreement to deploy 560 km of fiber-optic cable to link Oran, Algeria to Valencia, Spain. Upon completion in 2016 the cable will deliver an ultimate design capacity of 20 Tbps.

• Mozilla wants to deprecate non-secure HTTP, will make proposals to W3C ‘soon’

Mozilla has made its https plans official. VentureBeat reports Mozilla announced it intends to “start removing capabilities from the non-secure Web” specifically sites that don’t support https. Before you freak out keep in mind Firefox’s security lead Richard Barnes said “… we will have to monitor the degree of breakage and balance it with the security benefit. We’re also already considering softer limitations that can be placed on features when used by non-secure sites.”

• The Truth About Smartphone Apps That Secretly Connect to User Tracking and Ad Sites

Security Researcher Luigi Vigneri and his colleagues at the French graduate school and research center Eurecom have developed an app that checks what sites Android apps connect to according to the The MIT Technology Review. The team say 10% of apps they tested connected to more than 500 different URLs. 9 out 10 most frequently contacted ad related domains run by Google. They call their new app NoSuchApp or NSA and plan to make the app publicly available on Google Play in the near future.

• Tell the Copyright Office not to criminalize using unapproved goop in a 3D printer

Every 3 years the US copyright Office considers proposed exemptions to Section 1201 of the DMCA which makes it a felony to break “an effective means of access control.” Boing Boing reports this year a petitioner has requested an exemption for the right to use unapproved materials in 3D printers. 3D printer maker Startasys has asked the Office to deny the exemption claiming only one person wants to use unapproved materials in their 3D printers. Interetsed parties can reply at https://dmca.digitalrighttorepair.org/form

• Google+ Collections Feature Begins Its Rollout

Android Police reports Google + announced Collections today, a new way to group your posts by topic. Or a way to curate your content by sets, if that helps. Or a way to Pinterest on Google. Each collection can be shared publicly, privately, or with a specific set of people. Once you create your first collection, your profile will display a new tab where other people can find and follow your collections. Android Police dug into the code and noted that collections can be suspended for violating terms of service, including hate speech, illegal content and copyright infringement.

• Facebook And Nokia Quietly Ink Deal For Here To Power Maps On Mobile, Instagram And Messenger

TechCrunch got Facebook and Nokia to admit they’re partnering to provide Nokia Here maps to some Facebook users. Facebook confirmed its testing Nokia HERE maps in Android versions of standalone apps like Instagram and Messenger. TechCrunch also discovered HERE maps being used in Facebook’s mobile site. Facebook has been among the companies rumored to be interested in acquiring Nokia’s mapping division.

News From You

• Apple pushing music labels to kill free Spotify streaming ahead of Beats relaunch

Multiple sources say the US Department of Justice is looking into Apple’s business practices regarding music services. Allegedly Apple has encouraged major music labels to push Spotify and others to shut down their free streaming tiers. Apple has an antitrust monitor on its campus after it was found guilty in an ebook antitrust case last year. Apple is appealing that decision.

Submitted by jaymz668

• Twitter kills MS-Dos games embedded in tweets

The Guardian reports that Twitter has disabled the feature that allowed you to play classic DOS games from Archive.org embeded in a Twitter post. Twitter’s policy prohibits gaming inside Twitter Cards. No word on whether FUN in general is prohibited by Twitter policy :P

Submitted by Motang

• Boeing 787 Dreamliners contain a potentially catastrophic software bug

Ars Technica reports about a bug in Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner Jet. The US FAA issued a memo last week that Boeing reports that when the 787 has been powered continuously for 248 days all generator control units go into failsafe mode and lose AC power due to a software counter error. If all 4 units were powered on at the same time they could conceivably all lose power at the same time 248 days later. Boeing is developing a patch, meanwhile the workaround is to turn the generators off and then on again.

Submitted by Indi_de_lis

Discussion

• Emojineering Part 1: Machine Learning for Emoji Trends
• Who Needs Words When You Have Emoji?
• Every time you send someone an emoji, a little part of language dies
• Emoji, the new language of the internet, is improving the way we communicate online
• emojitracker: realtime emoji use on twitter
• Unicode 8.0.0
• What Are the Most Popular Emoji in Your Country?
• Instagram Blocks Eggplant Emoji Searches
• EMOJI DICK;

Pick of the Day

• Google Music

On DTNS #2473, Nate Lanxon talked about how he rips his music & syncs it with his mobile devices with iTunes. If you want to do this with your Android, I want to recommend the Google Music app. You can upload up to 50,000 songs to it for free, and you can either stream or download them to any device with the Google Music app. It’s great if you already have a collection of ripped music already and want to listen to it anywhere.

Submitted by Co-Executive Producer anotherJmartin

Links

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

Preceded by: "Tesla Drives It Home"

Essence of life: 🚽 & 🐔

Followed by: "Mind the Mind Gap"