Cox Media Group, a marketing firm, has admitted to investors that it listens in on user conversations to place ads on smartphones. Plus Canva is jacking up its prices for some users by nearly 300%. And what research into 28-years of data on cell phone use and increased rates of cancer found.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

EVs are crucial in the pivot towards a renewable energy future but what do you do with their batteries when they reach the end of their life? Plus the Wall Street Journal’s sources say Apple is in talks to invest in OpenAI. And what does Amazon have in store for its version of Alexa?

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Molly Wood, Len Peralta, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Microsoft is going to retry its rollout of Recall to Windows Insider PCs beginning in October, The U.S. FTC fines Lingo Telecom $1 million for its role in transmitting deep fake robocalls of President Biden, and Cloud storage company Dropbox has acquired AI-powered scheduling tool Reclaim.ai.

Link to Show Notes

What options does Meta in operating in the EU if they can't offer a free version that allows them to collect user data or a paid version that charges for the service? Plus in the age of AI powered services is the term “user” outdated? And Netflix announced its Q1 earnings report on Thursday. How well or not did they do?

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Nate Lanxon, Len Peralta, Roger Chang, Joe, 

Link to show notes.

Are Facebook and Twitter protected by a shield that stops them from being responsible for any of their content? We bring on Mike Masnick from TechDirt and Shoshana Weissman from the R Street Institute to talk about what Section 230 is, what it isn’t, and whether it needs to be changed. 

SHOW NOTES:

Shoshana Weissmann, Senior Manager of Digital Media and a policy Fellow at the R Street Institute.

https://senatorshoshana.medium.com/who-am-i-ff164b02707e

Mike Masnick, founder and CEO of the Copia Institute and editor of the Techdirt blog.

https://www.techdirt.com/user/mmasnick

Our discussion isn't a substitute for, nor does it constitute, legal advice. The goal of this discussion is to explore some of the legal issues surrounding CDA 230.

The central text of Section 230

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/230

(1) Treatment of publisher or speaker

No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.

There is also a section right after that on Civil Liability that offers further protections for taking certain moderation actions. 

-- What is Section 230 designed to do?

-- What are some of the major misconceptions about Section 230?

-- If section 230 were repealed with no replacement, what do you think the effect would be?

-- Do you believe Congress should replace 230? If so, with what? If not, why?

Mike:

-Fix a typo

-Reverse FOSTA

-Remove intellectual exemption property

Allison Sheridan is back with her take on the rest of CES 2021, plus we talk about the future of Podcast Media LLC as it goes up for potential sale.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Allison Sheridan, Len Peralta, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

It’s the final day at CES 2021. We take a look at the winners of Engadget’s Best of CES and the highlights from Samsung’s announcements.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Justin Robert Young, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to Show Notes.

CES 2021 wraps up as we talk home automation trends, a new heads-up-display for cars and a new open world Star Wars game.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Scott Johnson, Richard Gunther, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

It's Day 2 of CES 2021. We discuss the latest developments in High and Ultra Definition TV and Home Theater technology with Robert Heron and Patrick Norton. Plus all the chip announcements from AMD, Intel and Nvidia.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Patrick Norton, Robert Heron, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

CES 2021 has arrived. We sort through all the press releases and discuss all the gadgets, hardware and services announced at the first day of the trade show.

Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Chris Ashley, Peter Wells, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Roku has agreed to acquire exclusive global distribution rights to more than 75 Quibi shows and documentaries, some of which had not been released before Quibi shut down. After the exclusivity deals expire Ibn a bit more than a year, Roku will have the rights to show the content until 2027. The content will have to be presented in its original increments of 10 minutes or less. Why did Roku make this move and how will they benefit?

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Shannon Morse, Len Peralta, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Former executives from Discovery and Disney are launching a streaming service called Struum. Struum will not have its own content but will partner with smaller streaming content providers, instead, to offer subscribers the ability to sample content from multiple places for one monthly fee. What’s the business model for Struum and do we think it will work?

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Justin Robert Young, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

How can learning about how bacteria swim help us stop infections and make more agile nanobots? Plus will Google’s latest reorganizing really help bring AI to all of its products? And the latest Meta AI roundup.

Starring Sarah Lane, Robb Dunewood, Dr. Niki Ackermans, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Verizon’s 3G network will seemingly get another stay of execution. Verizon had initially said its 3G network would be shutdown at the end of 2019, later delaying it to the end of 2020. What’s causing the delay and are there practical reasons why it’s still running?

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Scott Johnson, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

We examine three cryptocurrency news items including the US Office of the Comptroller of Currency Interpretive Letter 1174, that says banks may use stablecoins and the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is proposing requiring financial institutions to collect personal information like name and address, for anyone involved in large cryptocurrency transactions.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Robb Dunewood, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

It’s 2021 and this year many of the major auto makers will be introducing all-electric models into their lineup. What can we expect and from whom? CNET's Roadshow Editor-in-Chief, Tim Stevens is here to fill us in!

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Tim Stevens, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

With 2020 coming to a close it's time to cast predictions of what will happen in tech in the year 2021. See what bold insights our contributors have this time around and what we all think of their prognostications.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Lamarr Wilson, Patrick Norton, Robb Dunewood, Roger Chang

Link to the Show Notes.

Welcome to our 2020 Tech Predictions Results episode. Back at the end of 2019 we brought on a group of contributors to share what they thought might happen in the world of tech in the year 2020. See who was right, who was wrong and compare what we worried about with what actually happened.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Scott Johnson, Jenn Cutter, Shannon Morse, Allison Sheridan, Roger Chang.

Link to the Show Notes.

2020 is almost over but before it closes checkout all the highlights from the past year in this special Best of show put together by our very own Theatremonkey!

Staring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang, Shannon Morse, Scott Johnson, Justin Robert Young, Nicole Lee, Ant Pruitt, Len Peralta, Chris Ashley, Patrick Beja, Patrick Norton, Anthony Lemos

This is our end of year Listener Co-Host Show. This is the annual episode where we invite several of our supporters to appear alongside us on the show. This time we thought it be fun to have some of the folks who help moderate our Discord and Twitch chat to give us their perspective on the show and our audience.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Preston Monroe, Willie Scott, Beat and Dan Christensen.

Welcome to our holiday retro show episode. We look back at the stories from Sept 21st, 1999 and share our thoughts on how those stories turned out 20 years later.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane and Roger Chang

Is 5G Slower Than 4G on Verizon? We reveal the surprising details and the truth behind Verizon's 5G network.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Scott Johnson, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

We learn how researchers in Japan are exploring the feasibility of using electric rays and sting rays equipped with pingers to help map the ocean floor.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Blair Bazdarich, Roger, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

We evaluate the leaked specs for Sony’s upcoming PS5 Pro. Plus power demand from data centers is holding back AI development. What are the solutions? And US cybersecurity firm and Google subsidiary Mandiant said Wednesday that a hacking group with ties to the GRU was behind the January cyberattack that caused a tank at a water facility in Muleshoe, TX, to overflow.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Scott Johnson, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Last week we talked about the launch of Apple Fitness+ and who it's best for. THIS week we can talk about using it since Allison Sheridan has been doing just that!

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Allison Sheridan, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

The US Commerce Department added 77 entities to its "entity list," 60 from China but also companies from Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Malta, Pakistan, Russia and the United Arab Emirates. What does this mean and are products from those companies now banned?

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Lamarr Wilson, Len Peralta, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to Show Notes.

We take a closer look at the antitrust suits filed against Google as 35 states, Guam, Puerto Rico and DC led by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson. The suit accuses Google of anticompetitive behavior including designing its search engine to favor its own products above competitors.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Justin Robert Young, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Facebook took out full page ads in the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal saying “We’re standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere." The statement centers on updates to Apple's third-party ad policy coming early next year which could limit Facebook and others from targeting ads. So who's right and who's wrong and will the consumer benefit in either case?

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Scott Johnson, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Patrick Beja gives us an overview on where video games and video gaming is in 2020.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Patrick Beja, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

A breach in the Orion network management platform from a company called Solar Winds has led to attacks on FireEye, Microsoft and several US government agencies. Solar Winds said Sunday that updates to its Orion platform between March and June may have carried malware as a result of a sophisticated nation-state supply-chain attack. We unpack what exactly happened.

Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Peter Wells, Keith Townsend, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Microsoft has identified a malware campaign it calls Adrozek which began as late as May this year, peaked in August and is still ongoing. How can you avoid it and what should you do if you're infected?

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Shannon Morse, Len Peralta, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

It's not a good week for Facebook. After two antitrust lawsuits were launched against Facebook in the US Wednesday, Germany’s Federal Cartel Office announced it is investigating Facebook's requirement that users have a Facebook account to log in to an Oculus VR devices. The office believes the practice "could constitute a prohibited abuse of dominance by Facebook." We examine new allegations and explain what they might mean for the social media giant.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Justin Robert Young, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

The US Federal Trade commission filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging Facebook illegally maintains "its personal social networking monopoly through a years-long course of anticompetitive conduct." The FTC is asking the court to order Facebook to sell off WhatsApp and Instagram, prohibit anticompetitive conditions on developers and require notice and prior approval of future mergers and acquisitions.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Scott Johnson, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Streaming services are the new hotness. AT&T CEO John Stankey announced at a conference that HBO Max subscriptions rose from 8.6 million at the end of Q3 to 12.6 million as of early December while NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said Peacock passed 26 million signups as of Monday up 4 million since October.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Patrick Norton, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

How is YouTube expanding its efforts to stop ad blocker use on YouTube? Plus we take a closer look at why Humane AI pins have been poorly received. And we explain the buzz around the audio based social media platform, Airchat.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Saturday JD.com became the first virtual platform to accept digital yuan, the government's official digital currency. Is this a watershed moment for government issued digital currency?

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Robb Dunewood has put a lot of work into his home video studio and is ready to share all tricks he's learned and a few of the products he thinks are worth knowing about.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Robb Dunewood, Len Peralta, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

WarnerMedia announced its entire slate of movies in 2021 will debut on HBO Max in 4K HDR at the same time they appear in theaters. That means Dune, Suicide Squad, The Matrix 4, Godzilla vs. Kong, the whole slate. Each movie will be available on HBO Max for a month. Theaters like AMC will run the movies as well and may continue to run them after the 30 days.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Justin Robert Young, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

What does Salesforce want with Slack and who should be the most worried about the company's acquisition?

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Scott Johnson, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Yesterday we told you about DeepMind's AlphaFold system that uses an attention-based neural network to predict protein folding structure in a matter of days. This avoids needing the huge computing resources to brute-force predictions, such as folding@home or the meticulous and labor intensive use of direct observation both of which take much longer. Today Dr. Kiki is going to help us understand what this advance of neural network training can actually do for us.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Dr Kiki, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to Show Notes.

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in Van Buren vs. United States regarding the application of the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). We discuss the premise of the case and how a ruling one way or another will impact computer use.

Starring Tom Merritt, Rich Strophollino, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to The Show Notes.

The Verge's Tom Warren notes that despite the Xbox Series X having more powerful hardware, the PS5 has been outperforming it, particularly in frame rate, according to benchmarks from Digital Foundry. What's going on and is there deeper going on?

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Scott Johnson, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Twitter announced it is relaunching its verification process with new guidelines, the Australian inspector general for the intelligence community discovered intelligence agencies were “incidentally” collecting data from Australia’s COVIDSafe contact tracing app, and the future of newspapers.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Peter Wells, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Adobe is integrating generative models for Adobe Premiere, its video editor. Plus after Apple made changes to its App Store policy allowing emulators, the company booted off its first emulator iGBA. And Samsung has taken its crown back as the leader in global smartphone shipments.

Starring Tom Merritt, Nica Montford, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

If you plan to upgrade your home theater display this holiday shopping season wait till you hear what Robert Heron has to say on what to look for and which TVs should be on your shortlist.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Robert Heron, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.

Patrick Norton is back with some choice picks for your holiday gift buying list.

Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Patrick Norton, Roger Chang, Joe.

Link to the Show Notes.