DTNS 2221 – Slicing up Nokia

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comDarren Kitchen is here and we’ll give our thoughts on the future of Nokia’s mobile phone business now that Microsoft owns it, plus find out why if you’re not taking a selfie with your drone, you’re doing it wrong. Also a drone rock band exists. And Len Peralta illustrates the show!

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Show Notes

Today’s guests: Darren Kitchen and Len Peralta

Headlines

Nokia got pwned: Microsoft announced it has acquired Nokia’s handset business for €5.44 billion (around $7.2 billion) although, because of cash and capital adjustments over the 8 months since the transaction was first announced, the final price may end up being slightly higher. Nokia will make that clear next week. Their earnings report is scheduled for April 29. Microsoft now owns the Lumia, Asha and Nokia X brands of phones. It can keep using the Nokia brand for 10 years. Nokia can’t use its own name on mobile devices until after December 31, 2015. Meanwhile, Nokia retains its networking infrastructure arm, the HERE mapping division and Advanced Technologies which does research and licensing. 

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DTNS 2220 – Net-reversality

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comPatrick Beja is on the show and we’ll talk about the FCC’s proposed Open Internet rules. Are they good, bad or irrelevant? How worried should you be?

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Show Notes

Today’s guest: Patrick Beja! And we all rejoice! 

Headlines

Rules of engagement: The FCC’s Chairman Tom Wheeler posted on the FCC website that a draft Open Internet Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will circulate today to the commission. The notice will be discussed at a meeting May 15th, then opened for public comment. The notice tries to re-craft Open Internet guidelines after being struck down in court. It preserves the transparency requirement and prohibition against blocking. However, it changes the non-discrimination rules from reasonable to “commercially reasonable” opening the way for paid prioritization of traffic to ISP customers. 

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The FCC puts the Internet on life support

The magic of the Internet has been that anybody with the skills can make a service that looks and works just as well as a large company.

Are you a good writer? Your blog can compete with the New York Times because the platform is the same. Good at video? You can deliver it to a worldwide audience right alongside Hollywood. Talent and promotional acumen become more critical deciding factors than wealth.

What the FCC seems to be considering would change that. New entrants to a market would face a cost barrier. A Netflix or a YouTube will be fine, because they can’t be outright blocked under this proposal and they can afford to pay for the smooth access their product needs.

This is a solution designed to make sure big businesses get a fair break. Not you.

A new video company that wants to compete with Netflix? Now they need to gather even more venture capital. The cost of innovation gets higher, meaning fewer attempts at innovation, meaning a greater trend towards oligopoly and a resulting stagnation.

The FCC seems to be constructing their approach to look for immediate harm, which they will not find. You can’t prove that a company that never entered the market because it was too expensive was harmed. This is insidiously dangerous whether it is intentional or not.

This isn’t about “neutrality” or packet prioritization or even peering. Small innovators don’t start out big enough to need peering agreements like Netflix does. When they get that big, they can afford to negotiate them, like Netflix is.

However what seems to be on the table is allowing ISPs to charge for traffic coming to the individual consumer as well as charging that consumer to access it. That would be fine if customers could make a choice. If a competing ISP could market themselves as an open Internet provider where ALL sites perform well not just the big ones. Since we do not have ISP competition in the US, that won’t happen. ISPs can do what they want, with no market recourse for the consumer.

And that’s what gives the lie to Chairman Wheeler’s statement.

He writes, “The Notice does not change the underlying goals of transparency.” However transparency is almost useless when you have no choice of provider.

He also writes, “behavior harmful to consumers or competition by limiting the openness of the Internet will not be permitted.” That seems to be aimed at content providers, but wouldn’t it be great if that applied to ISPs? Except there is almost no competition on the ISP level, which hurts consumers and the FCC does nothing about that fundamental root problem.

This entire procedure of developing Open Internet Guidelines seems to be a practice in misdirection. Rather than treat the problem, lack of ISP choice, the commission, and the public are arguing over the symptoms.

If the Internet was a patient and the FCC its doctor, that doctor would seem to be saying, “We will not allow this nose to get unreasonably runny and we will let you know every symptom of the illness. But we won’t worry about trying to cure the disease. No lobbyist has paid for that.”

DTNS 2219 – OnePlus One is Too– Exclusive

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comRich DeMuro is on and we’ll talk about the gorgeous and extremely affordable One PlusOne and whether Rich has any invites for us since you have to be invited to purchase one. Also prior art for monkey math and why 3D printers will never print your spare parts.

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If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

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Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
Today’s guest: Rich DeMuro, technology reporter at KTLA News

Headlines

Does that come with LoJack? OnePlus unveiled the OnePlus One smartphone today with a 5.5-inch 1080p 401 ppi dislpay,a 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801, 3 GB of RAM and a 3,100 mAh battery. A 13-megapixel Sony Exmor camera can shoot 4K video. The internaional version runs CyanagenMod’s 11S version of Android 4.4 the Chinese version will run Color OS. The 16GB version with a silk white backplate will run you $299 and the 64GB in sandstone black costs $349. Yep. those are unsubsidized prices. It supports LTE and will be available initially in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, the UK and the US. When? Who knows the first 100 come out April 25 as part of a competition and you have to get invited to buy one after that.

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DTNS 2218 – Aereo Assault

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comRaj Deut joins us to toss around the Amazon tilt phone rumor and compare the US free TV system to Australia’s, in light of the Aereo case.

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A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Raj Deut, of The Reckoner

Headlines

Shake it like a Polaroid picture: Multiple trusted sources told Boy Genius Report that Amazon’s new phone will not only have a 3D interface, but also use tilt controls. Tilting the phone will reveal menus, additional information like text labels of icons and even scroll text. Amazon has not confirmed any details but is expected to have an announcement within a few weeks. 

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DTNS 2217 – Microsoft is Finnish-ed, Oy.

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comIyaz Akhtar joins the show to talk Microsoft’s impending acquisition of Nokia’s handset business as well as why you really do need to worry about Heartbleed.

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A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Iyaz Akhtar, of cnet.com

Headlines

Goodnight, Nokia: Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith posted to the Official Microsoft Blog this morning that the acquisition of Nokia’s Devices and Services division will close this Friday, April 25th. Small changes have been made to the deal since it was first announced. Microsoft will manage nokia.com and Nokia’s social media sites for up to a year. Microsoft will no longer acquire a manufacturing plant in South Korea, but instead, take on 21 Chinese employees from Nokia’s Chief Technology Office. A letter reported by Nokia Power User says the division will be called Microsoft Mobile Oy (Oy is a stock company abbreviation) and be a wholly-owned subsidiary.

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DTNS 2216 – Sporglebörk

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comDarren Kitchen is on the show today to talk about the latest frightening Heartbleed attack on VPN, and just how scared we all should appropriately be. Also a listener suggests using our hearts as passwords, thus making heartbleed possible IRL. Plus Len Peralta illustrates the show!

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A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guests:  Darren Kitchen of hak5.org and Len Peralta of the art world. 

Headlines

Let the updates begin: The Next Web reports Facebook has made the first major update to its “Paper” app, the alternative way to access Facebook posts on a mobile device. Paper now has notifications for birthdays and events, the ability to add photos in comments, unread counts to groups, as well as nine new article covers for Bloomberg News, Mashable, FT, kottke, Fox News, Popular Science, The Hollywood Reporter, Vanity Fair, and Hacker News. Still no word on availability on Android or anywhere outside the U.S. 

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DTNS 2215 – Love in the Time of Instagram

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comAndrea Smith joins us to talk about Facebook’s new Nearby Friends feature, and how social networks like Instagram and Twitter are leading to marriage.

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A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Andrea Smith, technology journalist and executive producer and host of CE Week TV

Headlines

Can you see me now? Facebook announced a new feature called Nearby Friends, that shares your general location with others and vice versa. The feature is opt-in, and both friends have to approve before locations will be shared. You can control what level of friends see your location too and choose to temporarily share precise locations with individuals. Notifications will use logic to take into account people you are always nearby so you don’t get barraged with notifications for every co-worker or family member. You can also turn it off anytime. Facebook will roll the feature out slowly in the U.S. over the next several weeks.

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DTNS 2214 – “And That Was The Internet”

Logo by Mustafa Anabtawi thepolarcat.comDanny Sullivan joins us today to talk about Google’ earnings potential as well as Bing’s integration with Cortana and why it got Danny to switch his default search engine!

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A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes
Today’s guest:  Danny Sullivan, founding editor Search Engine Land

Headlines

You’re not the boss of me, Android: Senior vice president of Samsung’s product strategy, Yoon Han-kil told Reuters Samsung’s first phone running the Tizen OS will launch around the end of the second quarter. That high-end smartphone will be followed by a more middle-market version. The second version of the Gear smartwatch released last week, runs Tizen. Although Samsung plans to release an Android-based smartwatch laster this year. Soon also said Samsung plans to launch a new version of the Galaxy Note with a new form factor in the second half of this year.

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