Will It Bend?

Will It Bend?
Number	2779
Broadcast Date	JUNE 7, 2016
Episode Length	40:53
Hosts	Tom Merritt
Guests	Patrick Beja

Do we want rollable bendable screens for our phones and tablets? As the prospect becomes more realistic Patrick Beja and Tom Merritt talk about what rollable bendable screens might be good for.

Guest

• Patrick Beja
  • Patrick's Patreon

Headlines

• Snapchat redesigns Discover and lets you subscribe to your favorite publishers

Snapchat is redesigning its discover section to let publishers include an image and a headline. Live stories will now live next to Discover selections on both the Stories and Discover page. And publishers get a subscribe function by tapping and holding during a story.

• HTC Vive demos hit retail as VR headset rolls out to 24 countries

The HTC Vive is back in stock and shipping within three business days of orders in 24 countries. Preorders made through retailers are being fulfilled this week as well. Starting in June, the Vive will be available for demo in Microsoft Stores, GameStop, Micro Center and elsewhere.

• Lenovo is set to reveal next-gen VR/AR hardware: here's what we know so far

While Lenovo said it will not come out with a new Razr it is going to announce new products on Thursday June 9. Ahead of that announcement chipmaker Movidius issued a press release that it will provide Myriad 2 chips for a series of AR and VR products from Lenovo. The Myriad 2 is used for computer vision in the DJI Phantom 4 quadcopter and can be used for positional tracking without external sensors. The first of the series is dedicated mobile VR device set to debut in the second half of 2016.

• Twitter officially announces Material Design revamp of its Android app

Twitter announced a redesigned Android app with no new functions but using Google's Material Design look. Tabs replace buttons for Timeline, Moments, Notifications, and Messages. A floating action button is back for composing your tweets. Other menu items like settings are in a menu accessed by tapping the profile icon.

• FBI seeks expanded National Security Letter to include browser history and more

The proposed US Electronic Communications Privacy Act mandates a warrant for the government to to access email on online data. It has been passed in the House and is pending in the Senate. A proposed amendment would allow the FBI access to ECTR (electronic communication transactional records) with a National Security Letter. ECTR includes domain names visited, email metadata and IP address. The ECTR Coalition, which includes Facebook, Google, Yahoo and the EFF among others has signed an open letter against the amendment arguing it could be used to deduce personal information, and making the case that the FBI has abused its NSL authority in the past. A 2007 audit by the Office of the Inspector General (IG) found the FBI collected information not permitted and used stored information in cases not relevant to the original investigation. The amendment is being voted on by the US Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.

Submitted by Dracenduria

• The voice-first user interface has gone mainstream

Ben Bajarin writing on Tech.pinions and ReCode describes two studies he helped conduct about voice interfaces. Among the findings: The Amazon Echo is used mostly in the Kitchen and living room, while Siri and Google are mostly used in the car and home. The top three use cases for Echo were music, lights and timer, while the top use for for Siri and Google was search. Siri is the most used voice interface on mobile. And respondents generally said they would use voice interfaces more often if they worked better and recognized natural language more.

• Startup aims to stop data leaks and ransomware both on prem and in the cloud

Egnyte Protect wants to provide selective encryption and control over data residency and retention for both locally and cloud-stored data. The software as a service analyzes documents and file activity to decide when to allow actions. Egnyte says it can detect malicious behavior like ransomware. Egnyte Protect will only be available to enterprises as a paid product.

• Samsung May Release Phones With Bendable Screens in 2017

Bloomberg reports it sources say Samsung is considering introducing two new smartphone models with bendable OLED screens. One model would fold in half like a cosmetic compact. The other would have a five inch screen that could unfurl into a display as large as 8 inches. The devices are supposedly part of “Project Valley” and could be announced as early as February 2017 at Mobile World Congress.

Discussion

• Samsung May Release Phones With Bendable Screens in 2017
• Report: Samsung’s bendable, unfurlable phones and displays due in 2017
• Samsung W2016 flip phone is now official, touts powerful specs and premium build
• Watch Samsung’s rollable display in action
• 3B. Samsung Flex & Multiple Display Devices
• 2014 Samsung Flexible OLED Display Phone and Tab Concept
• LG made an 18-inch display you can roll up like a newspaper
• Sharp's Free-Form Display could change the face of technology
• Samsung might launch smartphones with foldable screens next year, but will anyone care?

Pick of the Day

• Radiant Player for Google Play Music™

This one is for Tom and all the other die hard Google Music fans out there. Are you tired of loading up Google Music in a tab and hitting your Media Keys (F7, F8 and F9 on the Macbook keyboard) to no avail?

Radiant Player is an open source desktop app for OS X and it provides rock solid media key support and a mini player in your taskbar. In Google Chrome I would always have CPU and/or memory issues with leaving Google Music running in a tab, but Radiant seems to manage those resources better as well.

If you're a Macbook user and Google Music lover, then you definitely want to get Radiant Player.

Submitted by Ian from Sunny San Diego

Messages

Hey Tom,

Loved listening to your discussion with Veronica about passwords. I have fairly strong passwords myself, but I feel the strength of the password almost doesn't matter with 2FA enabled. Does it really matter if my password is "dadada" with 2FA turned on?

I'd rather have a weak password and 2FA, then a VERY strong password and no 2FA.

Thanks,

Sent by Scott

Hello Tom,
Security and password management is highly challenging, if not impossible if you’re totally blind.
I subscribe to LastPass, but I run into 4 major challenges:
Management: I have to either have focused time with my wife, or a very trusted friend who remotes into my computer, to go in and generate/reset, save, and setup auto login for me.
Forms & Auto login: I have to setup auto login to sites because the LastPass icon next to the login fields, and other edit boxes for autofill forms is not viewable or usable by my screen reader (Window-Eyes on PC). I’ve turned off LastPass autofill access on my Android device because it’s simply not usable and always telling me I’ve timed out.
2 or 3 factor auth: I’ve known about Google Authenticator, Authy, or even SQRL, but they all require either vision to take a picture or align your phone with an image or QR code on a screen. Or, you get a code sent to you via text or email and depending on how long the code is, the screen reader will read it as a whole number, e.g. 836710 (eight hundred thirty six thousand seven hundred ten), then you have to listen to it over and over to breakdown what the numbers are, then go back to wherever you need to enter the code, navigate to the edit box to enter it, and dependent on the expiration time of the code, you might have not done it in enough time and have to start over with a new code and hope you’re faster, or you simple give up until “someone sighted” can help you. Anyone for a 8-12 digit whole number code?
Browser Plugin/Extension Access: With the screen reader I’m using I’m basically forced to use browsers in this order, IE, Firefox, then Chrome. The LastPass plugin/extension menus are not accessible or usefully convenient, which is what a password manager is supposed to be.

Basically, I can NOT use LastPass on my own.

I want to protect my accounts and follow the advice given by security minded individuals, but until someone builds an accessible desktop and mobile app, I’m stuck in a place where I feel like I have little to no options to be secure on the net. Please don’t forget or ignore what might seem like a small group, because as technologists get into their 50’s & 60’s, that small group will increase significantly. Will we wait until that becomes a reality and their hacked, to start asking difficult questions about security with accessibility?

Thanks,

Sent by William from extra hot Portland Oregon

Would you consider a preshow warning like "The Following Program contains audio that will activate your voice controlled devices"

Pay my mortgage! Thanks Belmont.

Here's my question, which devices could be updated so they only respond to the owners voice ? Didn't a(n HTC) smartphone have that feature a while back?

Wasn't thrilled about the Echo, don't care to listen to clock radio quality speakers, but purchased a DOT & connected it to a good set of speakers and LOVE IT!

However watching DTNS is a pain, unless I mute the DOT mic...

So what would happen if I get the DOT to play DTNS and the content the DOT is playing says the wake word?

Sent by Ron

I wonder, how cool (and star trek like) would it be if... after a command, there was a setting in the device, that when turned in, you must say something like "Authorization Picard, Omega 4" before the command would actually go through?

Sent by Byron

Links

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

Preceded by: "Da Da DUH!"

Will It Bend?

Followed by: "with Lamarr Wilson"