No One Expects the Dragon Age Inquisition!

No One Expects the Dragon Age Inquisition!
Number	2383
Broadcast Date	DECEMBER 10, 2014
Episode Length	34:12
Hosts	Tom Merritt
Guests	Eric Franklin

Eric Franklin joins us to talk about why you need to put your phone out of sight and whether video game makers should stop publishing broken games.

Guest

• Eric Franklin
  • CNET How-to

Headlines

• Instagram adds verified badges for celebrities and brands as it reaches 300 million users

The Next Web reports that Instagram announced today that is has reached 300 million users, with more than 70 million photos and videos shared each day. Instagram also announced verified badges rolling out over the next few days, but only for people with a “high likelihood of being impersonated” also known as celebrities, brands and athletes. If you are one of these people, there is support page. If you are not, you can not yet request the honor of verification.

• Google's new Hangouts app introduces clever location sharing

The Verge reports that Google Hangouts is getting a major update on Android today. In addition to 16 new sticker packs and video filters, now when a contact asks “where are you” a new prompt appears letting you share your location with a single tap. You can now associate a phone number with your hangout account, as well as a ‘Last Seen’ time stamp that shows when you were last using the program.

• Nokia’s Here Mapping App Now On Google Play Globally, Coming Back To iOS In 2015

TechCrunch reports Nokia’s HERE maps app is now available in the Google Play store globally. The app has been downloaded 1 million times already despite not being in the store. An iOS version is coming in early 2015. Nokia also added 18 countries to the navigation system bringing the total to 118. If you already sideloaded the HERE app the new version will come as an update, no need to reinstall.

• The Pirate Bay still isn’t back, could it be gone for good?

The Next Web reports that ThePiratebay.cr is not the resurrection of the site that you may think it is. The Next Web says this is just a cached version of the service. There are fake versions of the Piratebay being launched that are attempting to charge users. There are reports that ThePiratebay.cr redirects you to ThePiratebay.ee which is a site that charges users to use the torrents.

• Apple and IBM launch their business invasion with new iOS apps

The Verge reports the first apps to result from Apple and IBM’s enterprise partnership will start being used this week in companies like Citi, Air Canada, Sprint and Banorte. The first round of 10 apps include a mixture of applications aimed at financial institutions, insurance businesses, and even government agencies. The apps are tailored to industries for instance one helps airline pilots be more fuel efficient. Another helps law enforcement with incident awareness. This is the first phase of the partnership which also involves hardware rollout and management.

• Microsoft begins integrating Bing search into Office

ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reports that Microsoft has begun the Bingification of Microsoft Office starting with Word Online, the browser-based version of Word. The new embedded search capability called “Insights for Office” will begin rolling out everywhere Bing is available starting today. The search function is free, and there will be no ads. So now you don’t have to leave a Word document to search for information to put in a Word document!

• Youku Tudou, One Of China’s Leading Streaming Video Sites, Launches Its First Hardware Line

Youku Tudou, one of China’s largest streaming video sites, is moving into hardware with a p2p WiFi router, a 4K smart TV box and 15.6-inch Android tablet. TechCrunch reports the company is launching a cloud entertainment business unit to create services to deliver Youku Tudou games and videos to the devices. China is the world’s biggest smart TV and OTT (over-the-top) content market, with 20 million to 30 million sets sold each year.

• BitTorrent is building a decentralized web browser

GigaOm reports BitTorrent CEO Eric Klinker announced Project Maelstrom Wednesday, a P2P-based Web browser for a serverless Web. Maelstrom delivers pages from other users computers similar to the way file sharing is done. Websites are published as torrents.

News From You

• LastPass follows Dashlane in letting you change loads of your passwords at once

The Next Web reports that my dream of yesterday had probably already come true as I was saying it. We talked about Dashlane’s new feature that lets you change all your passwords in one click and I expressed my wish that this should come to Last Pass. Well. LastPass announced that it’s auto-password change feature is now available for all users in beta. Similar to Dashlane it supports 75 of the most popular websites. LastPass still doesn’t have one button to change all the passwords at once.

Submitted by skyban

• People are distracted by their phone even when they AREN'T using it, study claims

The Daily Mail reports about a study from the University of South Maine showing people are distracted by their mobile phone even when it is not in use. Test subjects were asked to take two tests requiring their attention. One involved picking a number out of a row of 20, the second asked them to find the number and cross out two numbers in the same row that added up that number. If that confused you put your phone away. Those who’s phone was out of sight during the test scored 20% higher on the than those who could see their phone.

Submitted by F1Ben

• L.A. and San Francisco Are Suing Uber, Too

Gizmodo reports that the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco are suing Uber on the grounds that it misleads consumers about their safety as well as overcharges them. San Francisco DA George Gasconcalled Uber’s claim to have an industry leading background check process, “completely worthless.” Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lace claims Uber’s advertising is false. Uber has also been deemed illegal by the Joint transport commissioner of Hyderabad for failing to obtain permission from the Regional Transport Authority to operate a taxi service in the city.

Submitted by Biocow

Discussion

• Dragon Age: Inquisition issues huge stability and gameplay patch
• Why are so many video games broken at launch?
• Dragon Age: Inquisition PC Graphics Workaround for Patch 2
• ‘Dragon Age: Inquisition’ Wins Game of the Year at The Game Awards
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection Rolls Out Another Matchmaking Patch
• Assassin's Creed® Unity Live Updates & Patches | Ubisoft (US)
• SONY AND EVOLUTION 'EMBARRASSED' OVER DRIVECLUB LAUNCH
• PlayStation Boss: DriveClub's Disastrous Launch On PS4 Didn't Damage Our Reputation, says "Getting Harder To Deliver Stuff"

Pick of the Day

• Rename Master

On Monday’s DTNS #2381 Paul wrote in with his pick, Name Changer, for renaming files on the Mac. So Dan from San Antonio thought he’d add a pick for a file renamer for Windows.

I have been using Rename Master from joejoesoft.com. It’s a free program as well. You can do sequential numbering of files, insert or remove characters based on position, find and replace, etc. The interface is easy to use. It’s been around for at least 4 years and is updated semi-regularly as needed.

Submitted by Dan from San Antonio

• Bulk Rename Utility

I’ve used the Bulk Rename Utility for years. It almost suffers from too many options – very powerful. It’s free but worth a donation (at least to me).

Submitted by Bill

• Sick Beard

lbutler uses a free piece of software for OS X, windows, and Linux called sick beard which scans all of your media files like TV series or movies and has a feature where it will rename them in such a way that Plex understands them.

Submitted by lbutler

Links

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

Preceded by: "Can You Spare a Plaintiff?"

No One Expects the Dragon Age Inquisition!

Followed by: "No News is Spanish News"