Nerd News Tracker

So many companies will simply ditch their bad product, and move on. Others will double down and continue fleecing customers. We've seen this so many times. MASSIVE props to Logitech for doing the right thing. Just over a year ago, Logitech launched the Harmony Express...

I tried to find someone who says this EARN IT Act is a good idea. The few good ideas contained within, are complicated by the elimination of privacy, encryption, and other protections for the general public. Sure, there are bad guys out there, but creating broad...

I'll admit that I'm running the new Public Beta of iOS 14 right now. At the same time, I strongly suggest that most people do not do this unless they are a glutton for punishment. Not because I see anything wrong yet, but because Beta programs are subject to having...

Netflix has had user profiles for years. Selections of action movies just for Dad, wholesome fun for the family, and educational for junior. Amazon Prime has finally followed suit, and has developed the same thing. This article covers how to set it up for your account...

Parler.com is gaining attention from some, who wish to be free from bans and censorship for ideas. It's also attracting others who wish to be offensive, use bad language, and push the boundaries to see if they can get banned. Unfortunately, I think that this will...

You may have had a chance to check out a Watch Party on Facebook, or some other services. Amazon is now in the game, and that's exciting. Netflix is currently missing out, but I don't think it will be for long. After testing Watch Parties for Twitch, Amazon is rolling...

Resident Apple fanboy, Keith M. Sedor, talks this week about how there's nothing wrong with Apple putting even more money in their pockets by requiring everyone to buy something that is REQUIRED for usage of that smartphone. Selling a car without tires just doesn't...

YouTubeTV and ESPN+ both announced price hikes. In the day and age of the cord cutter, this is crazy. YouTube wants $15 more a month and ESPN+, in a time where few sports are being played, increased by $1. At this rate, streaming YouTube will cost more than many basic...

It's interesting to see facial recognition being banned by cities, and with the politicians in D.C. taking this on, it may prove to be an interesting world. Current issues have slowed this down, with IBM backing out, Amazon stepping back, and let's not forget that...

A Microsoft Store was an interesting exercise in design rebuttal to the Apple Store. Unfortunately, they operate in a different pricing structure, and don't mint money anywhere near the same as the very profitable Apple products. Their smaller amount of self-owned...

Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and others are all rethinking their approach to social media. Some are doing this as a boycott for political pressures, while others are simply realizing that positive and negative attention to one's mission are often overshadowed by what happens...

I prefer a different headline. Tesla's quality blows it's own engine. Tesla owners unhappy over crash in quality. There are so many puns that underscore how poor this is for Tesla. The big number... 250 owner experienced problems for each 100 vehicles. Just drives you...

I am pleased that this opinion came down. It's something that I expect will continue to be fought, as we constantly are arguing on both sides for this. Reading the 4th Amendment, and the references to "papers and effects" clearly says "get a warrant", but this court...

I will close this week, talking about Olympus cameras, and this latest turn of events. It's a history for me that goes back to when I was a pre-teen working with a film SLR back in the early 80's. Even though their DSLR's were not quite what we wanted... well, listen...

WWII is over. What? Yep, old news articles haunt us on Facebook. Their approach now is to scan the dates and discourage people from posting old information in a day and age where we value up-to-the minute updates. I like this, but remain concerned about some of the...

Keith will talk a lot about WWDC this week. This is just one of the many items that will be covered.You might think the biggest announcement of WWDC 2020 is Apple ditching Intel processors in favor of first-party silicon, but you’d be wrong. No, the big news is that...

In a perverse dirty political stunt that undermines the process, TikTok users (of a software owned by the Chinese government) , and and K-pop fans (primarily Korean), were encouraged to RSVP for Donald Trump's rally. I didn't like it in 2008 when Rush Limbaugh...

I am largely in favor of something like this. Zuckerberg's quote of "For those of you who've already made up your minds and just want the election to be over, we hear you". This is just what we need when things are so divisive. If only we could CHOOSE to select and...

The amazing keyboardist and composer Jean-Michel Jarre is preparing for something to top his already impressive record of having 4 of the top 12 attended concerts worldwide. His latest concert will be a new type of event, an immersive "avatar" concert, comparing the...

After backlash for not encrypting, for allowing police to have access to conversations, and more, Zoom has announced a change of heart. Encryption will be an option on calls. They will also require free users to verify themselves with a phone number and other details,...

T-Mobile announces post-merger layoffs, and then suffers a massive outage lasting 12-15 hours. It was blamed on a leased fiber circuit failure from a third party vendor. Of course, these are unrelated. There is no way that a disgruntled Sprint employee who was...

Not surprisingly, T-Mobile laid off employees following their merger with Sprint. They had committed to growing net employment as they sought approval for the merger. Still, this was bound to happen... on a conference call... with no questions allowed. Since these...

In a story that has more versions than I can count, ZeroHedge and the Federalist both faced demonetizing actions by Google. Both right leaning, the Federalist appears to have been spared at the last minute, or was never under threat, or was simply guilty by some...

Taiwan's version of CES has shifted their plans from September to next June. This is a recurring theme as our world continues to readjust. While not as big as CES, the 43,000 visitors from around the world still make a big impact. One has to wonder if tech innovations...

Imagine being told that you have to let the government know where you are at all times. No, this isn't a parolee being monitored... it's all people. Straight out of George Orwell's book so many years ago, this is a scary approach that Singapore is taking, and while...

I'm just plain uncomfortable with this. It's clearly out of teh 198 4 playbook as well, monitoring everyone's travels at all times. At least a country isn't going to make it compulsory... or will they? (look for the other posting I have made!)Schools hope tracking...

With the largest video game convention shut down due to Covid-19, the announcements will still be coming, just scattered, as we've already noted. This shows a calendar of the upcoming announcements which may bring interesting battles to your screen. E3 2020 was...

In a shocking advance from the Twitterban world, Wendy's account was shutdown, not because of something they did, but because one of their franchisee's donated money to Trumps reelection campaign. This kind of approach is offensive to anyone who believes in the free...

The new Android OS is available now in Beta, but I'm less than impressed with the new feature list. Chat improvements, followed by major tweaks to location permissions like Apple, Do Not Disturb like Apple, media player like Apple, screen recording like Apple, and...

In a crazy attempt to control speeds, Cox Internet has attacked entire neighborhoods for the actions of one high-volume user. In the various actions, they've downgraded all users to 10Mbps, even if they were on 1000Mbps (or Gigabit) plans. The kicker is that the user...

I have been less than impressed with the comedy of Space Force (Netflix), but this move to snag a trademark ahead of our government is absolutely funny to me. I'm hopeful that they will both work together to provide more entertainment, both of the fictional and...

In both digital and physical form, the largest annual convention in the United States may still be happening next year. The details were quietly posted in May, but Marty Winston and I think this may also be subject to change. Neither of us are planning on taking this...

Zoom does not have encryption for the free folk, and it's being done to help aid the police. Their security consultant said "Most harmful behavior on the videoconferencing app comes from free users with fake identities". An interesting assessment, and I wonder how the...

This scam is actually old. I'm posting it to bring attention to it, as it's back in play again, probably due to some success. Be careful with anything where someone wants you to verify anything electronically for someone else. Crooks are impersonating WhatsApp users'...

I really like Mark Zuckerberg's statement that defines why I am uncomfortable with fact checking, censoring, or any other politician's speech being attacked. "The point of that program isn’t to try to parse words on is something slightly true or false. In terms of...

It disturbs me that the headline reads "most", but the details say 54% support Twitter in the feud with Trump, without giving standard details like margin of error. Twitter's decision to require you to read their view before Trumps statement was a form of censorship,...

As the years go by, man is discovering new ways to leverage tech in his quest to "fight the man". From the Egyptian shutdown a few years back and them leveraging a chat app, to various social media sites having to be shutdown during recent issues in China. Downloads...

Scams are rampant around anything that people are scared of. The latest is 5G, and there are peddlers of various protections to spare you the ills of 5G. A device that's been identified as an ordinary USB stick, claimed that it "provides protection for your home and...

We check out the prices for services frequently for reporting on the radio show, but these are amazingly low. Botnets for $5 a day, stolen credit card numbers for $1, and ransomware-as-a-service at $5. It's all because there are a lot of professional badbuys out...

In what should not be a surprise to anyone, cyberattacks have gone up against healthcare and medical facilities. The United Nations apparently was surprised. The statistics, however, showing an attach every 39 seconds, a 600% increase, and more.... are interesting to...

It should hardly be a surprise, but if millions of people are at home, can't go out, etc... video game companies will thrive. Nintendo being at the top of the gaming world already, will wind up being one of the benefactors of this virus. I'd like to see how Sony and...

Many different locations will have bias across the Internet, from left to right. It's interesting that one of the co-founders of Wikipedia acknowledges that it is no longer neutral. This is an issue that is disturbing as many often use it as a source of fact, rather...

An interesting story in tech, where a hacker (the experimental kind) decided to hack a calculator. Casio responded with a massive attack, claiming copyright, even though he only added his own code. Casio will squash the hacker and stop him, but would lose the case if...

Moving into the realm of the big discussion, Shopify staying closed and announcing the world has changed is the next name in the saga to embrace this. Twitter was the first big name, but I think we will continue to see more names follow suit. (Reuters) – The CEO of...

General Electric has been one of the big names in lightbulbs for my entire life. That's about to change as they leave what made them what they are today. I'm sentimental, and would have tried to keep it, but then again, perhaps that's why I'm not a CEO.GE started with...

Staying non-political on this... which is hard. I don't think Trump can shut them down, and I don't think they should censor / attack / squelch him. The rest of the article and comments in the article are political. Once again, Trump has doubled down. Following the...

While some are saying return is coming soon (Apple), or scaled over the rest of this year as desired (Facebook, Google), Twitter went the other direction and said "go for it". This is a good approach, as it recognizes the major benefits from zero commute, flexibility...

In the world of haves and have-nots... Apple apparently wants everyone to go back to the office. It's an unfortunate approach, especially since they are looking to move soon. Apple plans to start having employees return to its corporate offices around the world in the...

In the new effort to twist the world to a single point of view, this new approach from Twitter will label something that could take people away from Twitter's pravda, even though it's not misinformation. Welcome to the new world of manipulating.The new rule applies to...

Payday loans, debt collection practices, and GrubHub. What? I'm a capitalist. Still, there comes a certain point where outrageous fees and practices ripoff others. In $1042 of sales, this pizza guy received only $376 in revenue. This is a week old, but GrubHub just...

More companies quickly followed Facebook on the planning to work from home for the rest of the year. In the tech world this is far easier. It does mean that the IT support staff of many companies will need to grow, as the nerds start supporting all layers of remote...

Two massive conventions hit Las Vegas in the hottest weeks of the summer, Black Hat and Defcon. These two conventions are the location where hackers from around the world gather alongside FBI, NSA, and other security progressionals. Ironically, the first with the...

Flexibility in these times is key for employers and employees. As we move forward, there will be a lot of plans to return to offices, and they will vary, but this extension and flexibility of "through the end of 2020" is definitely employee friendly. Facebook CEO Mark...

The death of ownership. It's a book, and the the author has been on our show. This is an example of the intrusion, where a company comes along and says you'll now have to pay a monthly fee if you want your product (owned for years) to continue to work in a week....

I struggle with robocalls, but I also trouble with squelching them. The largest problem I have is that they frequently don't follow the rules laid out, and lack decency to stop when asked. Near daily, I get a recorded call from a random number that is from some group...

Imagine being told in advance of anything that you might say, that your statement might not be politically correct. It's also a nice little warning that says you may be squelched, limited, or censored. A certain set of molding to your mind, your thoughts, your...

I fully expect this post will not last long on Facebook. Their new "Facebook Supreme Court" which is supposed to be non-partisan has a series of members that are of one partisan view. The troublesome part of this, is that this "court" will now be the arbiter of all...

A common challenge is to offer large amounts of cash to hackers to break an operating system. For $100k, it is likely that someone will come up with a suitable exploit. This is in the field of IoT (Internet of Things), that Marty Winston labels the IoHT (Internet of...

And in further updates, the Musk baby's name might not be as horrible as previously mentioned. Apparently California only allows letters, apostrophe's, and hyphens. In scarier news, the A-12 in the name is reported as the "A-12 = precursor to the SR-17 (our favorite...

I've seen some strange names before, but Elon Musk's 6th child takes the cake. ‘X Æ A-12' - X appears to be the first name. The symbol formed by capital A and E merged together is pronounced Ash. And A-12. This is not some crazy new version of the Tesla, or a SpaceX...

Following the dramatic Lyft layoff, Airbnb decided they should lay off 1900, or 25% of their company. It sounds cold and callous, to mention they gave the axe to those folks via a Zoom meeting, but it's part of today's world. On the flip side, they are giving 14+...

We have a lot of people around the world who are working to make cool things happen. This approach is amazing, simple, and probably just what the doctor ordered! Let's see if the FDA thinks so!Nvidia Chief Scientist Bill Dally has released an open-source ventilator...

Interesting legal battle back and forth. "We're not in California" and "We don't use American IT services." There's a claim of immunity because of their clients. Another approach is to say that they had approval through other apps. Slimey approaches abound. Spyware...

Marty and Benjamin will discuss this interesting event, and more regarding CES and it's future, on this weeks show. The news — reported Thursday by American Public Media — is renewing social media speculation about whether the virus was circulating at the show in...

The latest preview of iOS adds the same (pseudo-anonymous) tracking features of Android, in an attempt to slow down Covid-19. If you've got an iPhone with facial recognition, it also knows if you're wearing a mast, allowing you instant access to the keypad, instead of...

Not content to sit on the sidelines, Facebook took on Zoom this week, and so many more. What used to be social-media, is now an overabundance of video connection tools. This will not end anytime soon. Up to 50 people can chat in a room at once, with no time limit. See...

As if there weren't a million other competitors in the game, Google is trying to muscle in on the videoconferencing market. Three different options, and now all of them are free, at least for now. There are still some incentives to purchase, but with Zoom's issues,...

Intel announced the latest generation, 10 if you are keeping count, of their processors. The new speeds and the capabilities will be amazing, for sure. The list of so many variations are listed on the article. The article does note that AMD makes up for processing by...

Of little surprise as we all stay home... Lyft decided to reduce workforce, send some home, and reduce salaries of even more. The new normal may actually be a big huge survival test machine, deciding not only who gets sick, but which companies are also not healthy....