Daily Tech News Show

Smell-o-vision makes a return, this time in VR? And the SCOTUS issues its ruling on two cases that could affect Section 230. We go over the rulings and what it means. And we discuss the startup Sightful that’s announced the Spacetop device, described as an “augmented reality laptop” which uses AR glasses in place of a real screen. Starring Sarah Lane, Rich Stroffolino, Dr. Niki Ackermans, Roger Ch...

Allison shares her thoughts on Tesla’s latest “full self-driving beta 11”. Amazon announced new Echo devices. And we explore all the product announcements from this year’s Uber GO-GET event. Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Allison Sheridan, Roger Chang, Joe. Link to the Show Notes . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We take a look at the new accessibility features Apple previewed today including Personal Voice and Assistive Access. Vancouver based “Sanctuary Cognitive Systems Corporate” announced a bipedal robot called “Phoenix”. And Neil Saunders a senior lecturer in maths at the University of Greenwich has written a piece on The Conversation saying people need to stop anthropomorphizing AI and stop treating...

Pluto TV co-founder Ilya Pozin announced a new TV startup called Telly where they’re giving away 500,000 TVs for free. Each set contains an always-on secondary 9-inch screen beneath its soundbar, which shows a variety of widgets and ads. The Wall Street Journal’s Kate King has a story called “Online-Only Startups Adopt a Bold New Strategy: Opening Actual Shops”. Is the future of online retail in i...

Would you pay more for a generative AI chatbot that could process more user input at time? We discuss how Google’s open-source AI tool allowed a gamer to play the Dreamcast game Rez using only his face. And Twitter’s Elon Musk has chosen NBCUniversal’s head of advertising, Linda Yaccarino to head the social media platform. Starring Tom Merritt, Chris Ashley, Roger Chang, Joe. Link to the Show Note...

Is Disney Plus in subscriber free fall? What’s Fairphone’s latest repairable tech for consumers? And is the ROG Ally worth the hype or is it just another minor step in mobile gaming? Starring Sarah Lane, Rich Stroffolino, Scott Johnson, Amos, Joe. Link to the Show Notes . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anthropic announces “Constitutional AI” to help train artificial intelligence without the need for human-intensive training, and Google takes the stage to announce new tools, APIs, and LLM innovations. Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Shannon Morse, Amos, Joe. Link to the Show Notes . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is spatial audio and is worth upgrading your entertainment audio setup for it? Plus Amazon launched “Amazon Anywhere”. A service that could let you buy physical goods from within AR, VR and video games. And Ohio State University about an algorithm that can use the signals from multiple low-earth orbit satellites to determine location. Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Patrick Norton, Roger Ch...

Even as generative AI tools like ChatGPT become normalized the various security, ethical and moral issues surrounding them still grab headlines. IMGUR announced April 19th that it has new terms of service coming into effect May 15th, and it will then remove all “nudity, pornography, & sexually explicit content” from its platform. And Fast Company’s Jesus Diaz posted a story called “From Netfli...

We go through Apple’s quarterly earnings report and analyze what Tim Cook had to say about the company's operations during an interview with CNBC. French developer Vignesh Tarar has created a search tool that will index your pick of websites to create a custom search engine at usegrasp.com. We share our expectations of what will be announced and shown at next week’s Google I/O conference. Starring...

Discord is changing how it assigns user names and everybody will have to get a new one. Scientists can’t replicate what you see by scanning your brain. But they’re a step closer to being able to help send impulses to the brain that can replicate visual stimulus. And we dive into Shopify’s Q1 earnings. Starring Sarah Lane, Rich Stroffolino, Justin Robert Young, Roger Chang, Joe. Link to the Show No...

We look at a new LLM training technique called semantic decoder where data from scans of a person’s brain activity are fed into the model. As T-Mobile suffers another data breach involving hundreds of customer’s information including social security numbers, pin codes and address we ask why isn’t T-Mobile’s reputation taking a long lasting hit? And Google accounts now support passkeys to replace p...

We learn about Rediet Abebe, a key black innovator in AI development. Samsung bans generative AI tools like ChatGPT after employees load sensitive data into a prompt. Multiple companies have joined together to propose an industry standard to the IETF for “unauthorized tracking alerts” for Bluetooth trackers like Apple’s Air Tags or Tile’s Trackers. And we go through things you should know about Bl...

Geoffrey Hinton, 2018 Turing Award winner for his foundational work in AI, recently left Google so he could speak freely about the dangers of AI without negatively impacting Google whom he believes has acted responsibly in its AI roll-out. Is juice jacking a real threat to users of up to date smartphones? And JAMA has a story about the comparison between real physicians and ChatGPT answering patie...

We get a RSA Conference wrap-up from David Spark, ask why there's no standardized threat actor naming convention, and Reddit began testing persistent chat channels with 25 volunteer subreddits.  Starring Sarah Lane, Rich Stroffolino, David Spark, Roger Chang, Joe Show notes here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How has cloud computing, data centers and generative AI increased the demand for fossil fuel energy instead of reducing it? Chicago’s Human Computer Integration Lab demonstrated a way to give you haptic feedback in VR without anything on the front of your hand. IDC reports that smart phone sales fell 1.6% on the year. That’s the 7th straight quarter that smartphones sales have fallen year over yea...

We further explore the fear people have over generative AI tools by taking a look at what AI firms are doing to stoke those fears. While Netflix saw growth in its North American subscriptions for its service the number abroad has dropped. Is it temporary or signs of a more concerning problem? And Microsoft still hopes it can convince the UK Competition and Markets Authority to allow the company to...

GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra said the company will stop making the Chevy Bolt EVs with Michigan plants that makes them converting to making electric trucks by 2024. AT&T helps complete the first successful test mobile phone call from Texas to Japan, via an AST SpaceMobile BlueWalker 3 satellite. And does Social Media tires you out and makes you more likely to buy unnecessary things? Starri...

Canadian musician Grimes Tweeted she would split 50% royalties on any successful AI generated song that used her voice. Is this a sign musicians see generative AI differently that their labels? How is BeReal responding to waning interest in the platform? And with AARP statistics reporting at least 45% of people over the age of 50 still regularly play video games we ask if older gamers are being ov...

Humane, a startup founded by two ex-Apple employees, demoed a wearable personal assistant device that doesn’t need to pair with a smartphone. Proton, the Swiss company that created a secure private mail service called Proton Mail has announced a beta of password managers service called Proton Pass. And how are the costs of generative AI stacking for companies developing the technology? Starring To...

We have an excerpt from “A Word with Tom Merritt” where Tom talks with cyber-ethnography researcher and writer, Ruby Justice Thélot, about how people evaluate the veracity or truthfulness of information they find on the internet. And we share internal misgivings from inside Google about the issues with its ChatGPT competitor Bard and its not ready for primetime functionality. Starring Sarah Lane,...

Canadian startup Precision AI has developed an AI crop-spraying drone that can reduce herbicide use by up to 90%. And we look at the big stories coming out of Netflix’s earnings report Tuesday including subscriber growth, password sharing crackdown, and technical issues that stopped the live streaming of Love Is Blind. Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Scott Johnson, Roger Chang, Joe. Link to the...

How does the decentralized nature of Mastodon make the social media experience different from other social media platforms and what kind of expectations should people have? Amazon Prime Video now has a “Dialogue Boost” in select shows in English. And Nvidia is reaping the rewards of its push towards AI GPGPU designs. Is this a space ripe for a competing player? Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, An...

Netflix delayed then canned its live stream for the cast reunion of Love is Blind after running into technical faults. Does this bold ill for Netflix live streaming plans? The New York Times’ reports sources say that Samsung began considering replacing its default Galaxy phone and tablet search engine with Bing back in March. Is this a threat to Google’s mobile strategy? German artist Boris Eldags...

Conversations around ChatGPT always seem to involve job loss. But Jeff Dwoskin proves that’s always true as he shares how he uses the AI tool to simplify his podcast production process. We examine the state of social media platform BeReal. And Spotify is closing down its Wordle like game Heardle. Starring Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Jeff Dwoskin, Len Peralta, Roger Chang, Joe. Link to the Show Notes...