The Messenger is the Medium

The Messenger is the Medium
Number	2840
Broadcast Date	AUGUST 24, 2016
Episode Length	36:58
Hosts	Tom Merritt
Guests	Scott Johnson

Chat interfaces are being used in news and fiction apps, but they’e not bots. Is it a fad, or is your text message screen the format of the future? Scott Johnson and Tom Merritt discuss.

Guest

• Scott Johnson
  • Frogpants

Top Stories

• Google Fiber hits Salt Lake City, now available in seven metro areas

Scott Johnson - Google Fiber started taking signups in Salt Lake City! Are you in the area?

• Steve Wozniak says Apple must fix iPhone 7 Bluetooth or revive its headphone jack

Regarding the next iPhone, Steve Wozniak told the Australian Financial Review, ""If it's missing the 3.5mm earphone jack, that's going to tick off a lot of people." Now here are some more top stories.

Submitted by Phreddd

• An Exclusive Look at How AI and Machine Learning Work at Apple

Stephen Levy has a feature on Backchannel about Apple's work in AI. Apple moved Siri's voice recognition to a system based on neural networks on July 30, 2014. Apple also insists AI is baked into other features like identifying a caller even if they are not in your contacts list, or appointment reminders that aren't in your calendar, or the list of apps you're most likely to open when you swipe right. The palm rejection in the Apple pencil uses a machine learning model. Levy says Apple thinks machine learning is only "the latest in a steady flow of groundbreaking technologies." Apple doesn't have a machine learning department. In Phil Schiller's words, "“We use these techniques to do the things we have always wanted to do, better than we’ve been able to do." They don't publish research or publicize ML because they don't want to tip off competitors. But they do spend most of a day with Stephen Levy to combat the perception that Apple is lagging behind in AI.

• Microsoft updates Word Flow keyboard for iOS with built-in search

Microsoft released WordFlow 2.0 today, an update to its iOS keyboard. You can swipe left to bring up new options, search for animated GIFs, your contacts or the Web. You can now use 3D Touch to change the location of the cursor. The space bar is more accurate and emojis are suggested as you type phrases like thumbs up.

• Google warns it will crack down on “intrusive interstitials” in January

Google announced it will begin lowering search rankings for sites that use "intrusive interstitial" ads, beginning January 10, 2017. Offending examples include pop-ups that cover content after navigating to a page, stand alone ads that users have to dismiss before a page will load, and ads that are so large you have to scroll to find the content. Google carved out exceptions to this policy for pop-ups for legal notices like cookie notifications, login boxes for paywalls, and "reasonable" and dismissible banner ads. The new policy replaces a November 2015 policy which penalized sites for pop-ups encouraging the download of mobile apps.

• A satellite exec is taking over Project Loon, the internet balloon program born at Google

Tom Moore, a senior VP at satellite company ViaSat is leaving the company to take over Alphabet's Project Loon which delivers Internet service from high-altitude balloons. Mike Cassidy who has been in charge of Project Loon will step down but remain with Alphabet's X division which oversees the project. Moore begins his new role at Alphabet's X in September.

• China shows first images of Mars rover, aims for 2020 mission

China showed off its planned Mars Rover expected to head to Mars in July or August 2020. A Long March 5 carrier rocket will get it from Earth to Mars orbit in 7 months where it will head down to land near the equator. The six-wheeled rover weights 200 kg (441 pounds) and has 13 instruments including radar, a drill and remote-sensing camera. It'd designed for a three-month mission but could last much longer. China's Yutu Moon rover was meant for three months and lasted two years. China is also planning a manned Moon landing for 2036.

• Mind the air-gap: Singapore's web cut-off balances security, inconvenience

In order to reduce cyberattacks, Singapore is working on cutting off Web access for machines used by public officials by May of 2017. Public servants could still surf the Web on separate personal or agency-issued devices.

Discussion

• Penny Arcade - Comic - Metafiction
• Penny Arcade - News - Metafiction
• About — HOOKED
• Hooked Is An App For Readers Who Think Fiction Should Be More Like Text Messaging
• Wattpad - Stories You'll Love
• Cell phone novel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Quartz’s new app wants to text you the news

Messages

You are probably correct when you say the ones who have something to hide won't list their social media details, but their families and friends might. This is a means to collect intelligence and match associations.

I think we are also kidding ourselves if we think our government and every other government is not actually doing this already. It is not a difficult process to take some information from a customs form and hit the Twitter and Facebook APIs to do a search. I would almost be disappoint if they were not at this point.

The Onion figured it out years ago: http://www.theonion.com/video/cias-facebook-program-dramatically-cut-agencys-cos-19753

Sent by Matt

As someone who's been online dating for a while, I can attest to how trivial it is to find someone's social media profiles with just a first name and some basic demographic information. I regularly vet my dates by looking up their social media profiles and finding these profiles rarely takes more than a minute. If US Customs wants to find a traveler's profiles, I am confident they can do so quickly and easily. Disclosing your account just saves them 2 minutes of googling.

Sent by Jason from New York

VCR's had a copy protection method that practically was very similar to HDCP. And it worked over a composite video signal. It essentially prevented you from making a direct copy of a tape by inserting excessive signal levels that mess with the gain control. There is a great explanation here...
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question313.htm

The "Dumb" video signal that you desire actually already exists, and is called HD-SDI. This standard is uncompressed, unencrypted, high definition digital video signal. It does not support HDCP. And can work on cable runs up to 1000ft. This is the standard for professional video system around the world. The audio equivalent of a "Dumb" digital signal is called AES. And the day that phones and laptops support these standards would be a grand day for us all! Why they are not, I will never understand.

Sent by Ned

Links

• This episode on dailytechnewsshow.com
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• DTNS subreddit

Preceded by: "Instapapers Please!"

The Messenger is the Medium

Followed by: "WhatsApp with my Privacy?"