Exoddit

	Exoddit
Number	2536
Broadcast Date	JULY 14, 2015
Episode Length	37:07
Hosts	Tom Merritt
Guests	Veronica Belmont, Jessica Conditt

Veronica Belmont and Jessica Conditt talk with Tom Merritt about Beacon’s, Nokia’s indecision and the next generation of visionary game designers.

Guest

Headlines

Meet Google’s “Eddystone”—a flexible, open source iBeacon fighter

Beacons are one-way transmissions that give you information for what your near, like bus stops or shopping discounts. Google is launching Eddystone an open source, cross-platform Bluetooth LE beacon. Eddystone is cross-platform for Android and iOS and open source under the Apache v2.0 license, though Google will offer its own proprietary Nearby API, and Proximity Beacon cloud service. Unlike most beacon implementations, Eddystone supports multiple “frame types” including a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID), actual good old fashioned URLs, Ephemeral Identifiers.

Nokia confirms may re-enter mobile phone market through licensing

Nokia's getting to be like that friend who says it really is going to finally start that project they've been talking about. You just wish they'd stop talking about it and get on with it. Reuters reports that Nokia confirmed Monday that it MAY start designing and licensing mobile phone handsets under its brand name in 2016. It just needs a partner to take on manufacturing, sales, marketing and customer support. The company stated that a Nokia branded phone would not arrive before the 4th quarter of 2016, when its deal with Microsoft allows Nokia to sell phones under its name again.

Google About To Reopen Map Maker, Largely Outsourcing Moderation

Search Engine Land reports Google is preparing to reopen Map Maker with a new moderation procedure that will rely more on community mods meaning updates may take longer to be added. The company said the tool will reopen in phases beginning early next month, and Google will hire "qualified Regional Lead candidates" to moderate. Some edits will still require Google approval.

Facebook testing its own virtual assistant, 'Moneypenny'

Engadget passes along that sources tell The Information that Facebook is developing its own virtual assistant called Moneypenny. Moneypenny would live inside the Facebook Messenger app and the sources say it would actually have real people answering your questions. So Amazon's MayDay button meets Siri.

Apple Pay lands in the UK, some major banks missing

CNET reports that Apple Pay has launched in the United Kingdom but not all the banks annunced as partners made the initial launch. HSBC and FirstDirect said they will join in later this month, and Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland will be supported in the autumn.

First TV, Now Games: Comcast Starts Streaming Service With Electronic Arts

Re/Code reports Comcast is starting a streaming game service in partnership with Electronic Arts. In the initial test period, a random group of Comcast subscribers who have X1 set-top boxes will be able to play for free. You can volunteer to be randomly selected at xfinity.com/xfinitygames. The service will use a smartphone or tablet as a controller and focus on casual games like Plants Vs. Zombies and FIFA 13. Data used will count against any data caps you may have.

Google accidentally reveals data on 'right to be forgotten' requests

The Guardian found data hidden in source code of Google’s transparency report that reveals information about the people making right-to-be-forgotten requests. Of roughly 220,000 individual requests made to Google, less than 5% concern criminals, politicians or high-profile public figures. That data covers about 3/4 of the requests made to date. Google has updated the source code to remove the data.

News From You

Firefox Now Blocks Flash By Default

Gizmodo reports that Mozilla has blocked all versions of Flash starting Monday night as a result of multiple zero-day vulnerabilities. Adobe has since released a new version of Flash that Firefox does not block.

Submitted by starfuryzeta

Reddit Chief Engineer Bethanye Blount Quits After Less Than Two Months On the Job

Reddit's chief engineer Bethanye Blount confirmed she has left the company because she didn't think she could deliver on promises being made to the community. She said, "there are some very aggressive implied promises being made to the community — in comments to mods, quotes from board members — and they’re going have some pretty big challenges in meeting those implied promises.” Blount had been with Reddit for less than two months.

Submitted by DrewCPU

Discussion

Pick of the Day

Microsoft Garage Mouse without Borders

I needed to work on two different machines, and had to pull data from one to work on the other.

I didn’t want the clutter of a KVM and Synergy dropped their free version.

I stumbled upon Mouse Without Borders by Microsoft Garage.
The set-up was a breeze : install on both computers, sync via security codes and voilà it's working, and most importantly it's working great.

You can set up up to 4 computers, choose to lock the mouse to avoid accidental switching if you want.
…there is no master/slave relationship between the machines meaning that you can use the input devices from any of the linked computers to control the others.

- the "share clipboard" functionality seems a little iffy
- can’t make the "share file" functionnality work at all

Anyway, overall, if you want to share a mouse and keyboard over different Windows machines, it is a painless and completely free solution.

Keep up the good work,

Submitted by Nicolas Kowal

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"His Game Ended Before Its Time"

Exoddit

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"Neil Young to Net: “Get off my lawn!”"