Nerd News Tracker

Gigabyte is a major motherboard manufacturer if you're going DIY. Apparently, it also has a backdoor that will install updates to the firmware. Where this goes south, is that the servers that serve up the firmware updates, are not secure. This could lead to a major...

The first generation of Google's Chromecast is now end of life...Google has ended support of its first-gen Chromecast dongle. These alternatives are your best bet for a replacement. See full story on The first Chromecast is obsolete. Here's what you should get next |...

With Mark Zuckerberg's push for virtual reality, which has struggled, with his Metaverse project, for whatever reason, this week he announced Meta Quest 3. This set of goggles is $500, instead of the predecessors $300 pricetag. Perhaps Zuckerberg has become emboldened...

Facebook and other social media sites are coming under attack, with new legal demands to pay for news content. This happened in Australia, and now California has the Journalism Preservation Act that would require payment of revenues against news content. It's all...

Various celebrity voices have been available in the past for your Waze, Google Assistance, and Alexa. Each of these has slowly went out of favor, and Alexa has been one of the last holdouts. This feature, however, is moving towards the Recycle Bin, as Amazon announced...

Florida Gov, Ron DeSantis, announced his bid for next years Presidential election. He did this on Twitter, which is an odd location, as it's not really known as a video platform. When a half million or more viewers tried to take it in, Twitter wasn't prepared, and...

Netflix finally made the official announcement on the account sharing issue. The amount was predicted to be an additional $8 a month, and was accurate. Netflix is rolling this out, and a portion of users are announcing their exit from the service. Netflix has already...

HP printers received an update around the second week of May, and it turned some printers into big huge expensive bricks. It leaves an error code up, and HP is asking folks to reach out for support. This is a double whammy for HP who we talked about last week, in...

Microsoft Surface Pro X users ran into a major problem on Tuesday. A recent update happens to kill both of the cameras on this system. The fix reported by some knowing users was to backdate your system to May 22nd. Others suggested purchasing a new camera. This may be...

How does one plan to create a habitat on the moon or Mars? In just a few weeks, a four-person crew will enter into a 3D printed building developed for NASA. It's part of the plans for how we might move to space. It's intent is to print using the regolith, essentially...

The initial headlines of the Rimac Nevera breaking a number of performance records is misleading. It's an electric supercar, and they are impressive already due to instant torque. So with that in mind, a 0-60 in 1.74 seconds, zero to 250 miles per hour to zero...

We knew this was coming...Netflix says that almost 5 million people are now subscribed to the company's ad tier and its making me thinking of switching. See full story on Almost 5 million people are watching Netflix ads - maybe I should tooFound at bgr.com

Expected. Didn't take long. Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about OpenAI ChatGPT. Download OpenAI ChatGPT and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. See full story on OpenAI ChatGPT on the App StoreFound at...

Disney built an extravagant experience called the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. It's a massive, immersive journey across to a galaxy far far away, bah blah blah... $6,000 for a couple to spend two days doing a Live Action Role Play of Star Wars in Florida, just...

Many companies are still bursting into the AR/VR space, and Steve will talk some of that on this week's show. One company, called Sightful, has a coming product called Spacetop. Think of a laptop, but without the traditional fold up screen. Instead, you put on a set...

HP is at it again. The released a firmware update across large amounts of their printers, locking them down if the toner or ink cartridges aren't official HP product. Their claim now is that it's to protect against malware and hackers. Before, they wanted to protect...

Google is cleaning house, wiping hard drives, and shutting down... your accounts. It isn't as bad as it sounds, however. The goal here is anything that hasn't been used for more than 2 years. This shouldn't be a big surprise, as Google is just like any other company....

A service popped up this week called Telly. It's promise to the 1/2 million people who get one of these 55-inch smart TVs is that it's free. The tradeoff is what we've seen for years... if the service you get is free, then you are the product. This will serve up ads,...

Apple haters got excited this earlier this week when Facebook announced they were pulling Messenger from the Apple Watch. In my mind, this isn't about Apple, as people have realized that some apps are natural on phones and others are not. This is, however, about...

Google had their announcements this week at I/O, about 4 weeks ahead of Apple. The latest iteration of the Pixel, branded the 7a, was expected. The Pixel tablet finally has specs and a shipdate of June 20. The Pixel Fold was a star for some, but a folding phone at...

Tesla is planning on expanding access to Full Self Driving across all of it's North American cars. The headline is big and huge, and then it does roll down into the details. It'll be a one-month trial, and it still isn't the big deal of fully autonomous driving, the...

About a year ago, Amazon closed on it's deal to purchase MGM Studios. 4000 films, 17000 TV shows. This was a large acquisition for a company that loves to tout their streaming service. This week, however, Amazon has decided that it'll not only move parts of the MGM...

This was one of the articles that I used this week for what I'll call a "reconsideration" of my thoughts on the TikTok ban. Why Rand Paul formed an unexpected alliance to stop the march to ban TikTok See full story on Why Rand Paul formed an unexpected alliance to...

Moody's, the famous investor resource, came out with unsurprising news this week. No secrety, but they have noted that the future of money is in the digital realm. They point to the fact that 80% of transactions in 2021 were made without cash. China has a similar...

The first of Apple's Rapid Security Response patches went out on Monday. These patches went to recent versions of the operating system, with an intent to resolve issues pertaining to exploits from the bad guys. The first set out of the gate was not smooth, but it was...

Keith and I will talk about this on this weeks show. Multiple news media organizations are disappearing, names that you might be familiar with. Vice, Buzzfeed, VOX, Gawker, and more. This is going to change how we learn of the world in coming years.A steep decline in...

AI has taken a predictable, yet interesting direction this week. It can be best described as saying that your next position may come from AI. LinkedIn has a new feature that will draft a cover letter to a hiring manager for you. It was rolled out to the services...

Apple and Google working together, for a change is great. The latest effort is with Bluetooth trackers like the Apple AirTags, enabling their usage on Android devices, as well as creating an open standard for the other manufacturers, like Tile, Samsung, and more to...

The death knell sounded this week for Windows 10. Microsoft announced that Version 22H2 is the last feature update. From here out, it'll be security patches only until October 2025, or at least then. Why do I say that? Because Microsoft has a very long history of...

The death knell sounded this week for Windows 10. Microsoft announced that Version 22H2 is the last feature update. From here out, it'll be security patches only until October 2025, or at least then. Why do I say that? Because Microsoft has a very long history of...

The Chevy Bolt has been around since 2016, and is Chevrolet's top selling electric vehicle. This week, Chevy announced the last Bolt would roll off the line later this year. Sales where 20,000 last quarter, and that's important for the next bit of info. The plans are...

One of the stranger things (no pun intended) that Netflix has been doing, is putting up South Korean shows and films. They perhaps see value, as popular series like The Good Doctor, and The Masked Singer both have originations in... South Korea. Squid Game,...

In a bit of non-news items, the iPhone is in second place for shipments worldwide. The claim is that it's always a shocker, so why do I say non-news? Because it happens every year. Q4 is first place, and Q1 to Q3 is in second place. I see some promise because usually...

Tesla has been moving prices down for a while. Part of this has to do with a waning demand, and an increased ability to supply. It also has to do with keeping those tax credits in their range, as well as attempting to recoup some of their loss of market (from 74% to...

Starship launched on Thursday morning from the SpaceX facility at the Southern tip of Texas. The rocket arrived to about 40km and struggled to work into the recovery phase, and then went BOOM. To those who saw the video, it looks like a massive failure. To SpaceX, and...

Would you rather avoid subtitles? Amazon's response this week, was to setup a new feature to boost the dialogue on movies at your option. This is something that is currently on select movies and TV shows, but presumably will be rolled out across their entire...

This week, Southwest Airlines had yet another hiccup in their computers, grounding 2000 flights on Tuesday, and messing with their systems. This time was a firewall issue, preventing them from putting planes in the skies. This is after their problems around Christmas...

A military data leak was tracked down this week to a 21 year old member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. Some of the leaked information is being announced as true, while other pieces are false. This data dump was on a series of public...

I'm on some public broadcast stations, so this news item has me split. From NPR's website: Federal funding is essential to public radio's service to the American public and its continuation is critical for both stations and program producers, including NPR. So I was...

Another item happened 50 years ago this past week. Motorola's Marty Cooper punched in a phone number, and hit send on the first cell phone call. He reached out to his counterpart at Bell Labs to taunt him a little. For fun, let's talk about the tech of the day. No...

This new feature from Google will guarantee you the lowest price on your airline flights. This comes from Google Flights, and leverages a number of features coming from one of the biggest number crunchers on the plant. The problem right up front is that you have to...

Keith and Benjamin will spend some time this week talking about the latest news that iPhones can provide a major health risk. (We admit this is clickbait!)Apple is putting a warning for users who may have implanted medical devices. Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson explains...

Space, the Final Frontier, and you know the rest. Some 50 years since we've had a man on the moon, the Artemis project is moving forward to take us back again. Apollo 8 was the first manned craft to leave Earth and orbit the moon. Artemis II is next up, and will bring...

Parmigiano Reggiano is getting into high tech. Nope, no cheesy jokes here. They are putting QR codes and microchips onto the big wheels of cheese for authentication. You think it kinda silly, right? Putting aside the Kraft, and the stuff that says parmesean, or a few...

The popular gaming platform, Steam, has given Windows 7 and 8 users just about 9 more months to upgrade before being turned off. Fortunately, this isn't a large impact, as they represent about 2% of Steam users, but it does show that we are moving away from Windows 7....

A warning came this past week about Microsoft pushing subtle ads into the Start Menu of Windows 11. That's right, we've already seen pushes for you to purchase their games, but now, their services as well. Microsoft also tossed adds into their ChatGPT variation on...

A scare tactic has been setup to draw your eyes. News reports abound about how AI could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs. What they leave off is that it's an equivalence of certain jobs that will change. Nobody talks today about jobs that were...

Think of that cable bill, the tech subscription, that gym membership. We are all stuck in one of those contracts which is nigh impossible to kill. We've been there, and it's bad. The Federal Trade Commission has said that slavery was outlawed over a century back, so...

Amazon opened the week with another announcement of layoffs, including 9,000 across Amazon Web Services, which is what many corporate servers run on. They also laid off folks in Twitch, as well as shutting down Digital Photography Review, a leading set of experts on...

The world of AI, of GPT, will be gaining much attention over the coming months. This will be due to various companies leveraging the various models to be on the bandwagon early. Microsoft has placed tons of cash into AI development in recent days, and the new updates...

Ryan Reynolds, famous for playing Green Lantern, amongst a few other roles... OK, that's a joke on one of his worst roles... but he owns about 25% of Mint Mobile. Or he did... as T-Mobile has stepped up and offered to pay $1.35 Billion to pick up the band. The fun...

GPT-4 is on the way. If you've tinkered with ChatGPT or some of the other variant's, you've been using GPT-3 or 3.5, unless you've been using Bing. Before you start thinking GPT-4 is an amazing evolution, it's not... it's subtle, nuanced, and still moving forward at a...

Meta, aka Facebook, Instagram, etc, has announced another series of layoffs, of another 10,000 employees. Now, this is something that more likely reflects the issues that they have been having with reduced growth, struggles in some of their ventures like the VR world...

Not wanting to be caught off-guard, the EPA has told local water systems across the country to prepare and protect against cyber-terrorism. With many residents no longer near safe water, the threats to our water are significant if not addressed head-on. The EPA has...

In a shocking turn of events, Taiwan has fallen victim to what may be the most brazen act of cyber warfare to date. Taiwan has some of their citizens without internet after several undersea internet cables in the waters around Taiwan have been intentionally cut. The...

Ford has a new patent that would allow for various options of repossession of the car you purchased from them. OK, Joe didn't pay his monthly payment... first we'll turn off his A/C... in Arizona. Or let's remove some of the farous features like GPS, radio, cruise...