Episode 41 – I fought the Thought Police and I won
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Welcome to another episode of Geek Bytes Podcast.
I’m Ramon Mejia…….and I’m Edgar Acosta
Every podcast we bring you the roundup of the week’s best Geek and Tech news, then we discuss that news and anything else we’re interested in that week.
In Geek News this week, we’ll talk about Bitcoin creator who was raided by police, Amazon brining more for cord cutters, HTC Vive delayed, the official Apple battery case, U.S. Court says ‘No Thought Police’, Trailers of the Week and More…
In our Discussion section we talk about…our review of Netflix’s original show Jessica Jones.
Now let’s Begin our show with Geek News
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Geek News
Court Rules That Breaking Your Employer's Computer Policy Isn't a Crime
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued an opinion rejecting the government’s attempt to hold an employee criminally liable under the federal hacking statute—the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act(“CFAA”)—for violating his employer-imposed computer use restrictions.
The decision is important because it ensures that employers and website owners don’t have the power to criminalize a broad range of innocuous everyday behaviors, like checking personal email or the score of a baseball game, through simply adopting use restrictions in their corporate policies or terms of use.
The court also ruled that the government cannot hold people criminally liable on the basis of purely fantastical statements they make online—i.e.,thoughtcrime.
The case the court ruled on was the ‘Cannibal’ Cop case in which a police officer was fired, arrested, and then convicted of planning to murder then cannibalize someone. The officer was convicted on the evidence obtained from his personal writings and post to a fetish website.
http://gizmodo.com/court-rules-that-breaking-your-employers-computer-polic-1746133150
Reported bitcoin 'founder' Craig Wright's home raided by Australian police
The Guardian reports, that this week Australian police gained entry to a home belonging to tech entrepreneur Craig Wright, who had hours earlier been identified in investigations by Gizmodo and Wired, as being the creator of the cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.
The Australian Federal police said in a statement that the raids were not related to the bitcoin claims. “The AFP can confirm it has conducted search warrants to assist the Australian Taxation Office at a residence in Gordon and a business premises in Ryde, Sydney. This matter is unrelated to recent media reporting regarding the digital currency bitcoin.”
FDA approves hand held gunshot wound closer
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved a pocket-sized invention that has been used for about a year and a half on the battlefield, but now may one day save your life at home.
The invention, called XStat, is a syringe-like device that can plug a life-threatening wound — think a deep wound, such as a gunshot or stabbing lesion — by injecting it with a collection of tiny, super-absorbent sponges. It's especially handy for wounds that can't be wrapped in a tourniquet, such as a gash to the groin or armpit.
http://www.techinsider.io/revmedx-xstat-sponges-fda-approved-seal-wounds-civilians-2015-12
Amazon Makes A Bid For Cord Cutters, Adds Showtime, Starz And More Streaming Partners To Prime
Looking to target the growing number of cord-cutters who are opting out of costly pay-TV all-in subscriptions, Amazon is adding a greater selection of video content to its Prime subscription service. Today the company announced the Streaming Partners Program, dozens of TV streams for Prime customers, including subscriptions for Showtime, Starz, A+E Network, AMC, Ring TV Boxing and more. Unlike other Prime services, which are bundled in free with Prime membership, Amazon will be charging for these streams after a free trial period. Showtime and Starz, for example will cost $8.99 per month.
HTC Vive VR headset delayed until April
The Verge reports that after originally promising to ship units before the end of 2015, HTC has now announced that its Vive VR headset won't be available to consumers until April of next year. The company posted a statement on its blog attempting to "clear up speculation and misinformation" about the launch, confirming the delay. "We will be starting the new year by making an additional 7,000 units available to developers, followed by commercial availability in April 2016," the statement continues. In a later update, HTC added that pre-orders for the April launch will begin at the end of February.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/8/9873840/htc-vive-headset-delay-april-2016
Mozilla launches Focus, a new ad-blocker for iOS
There's a new ad-blocker coming to the app store. Today, Mozilla is launching Focus, a new program taking advantage of iOS 9's content-blocking API. Unlike broader blockers like Crystal or Peace, Focus is designed to give the user in-depth control over what to block from a given page, with different settings to block ads, analytics, and tracking through social networks like Facebook.
The app borrows its blacklist from Disconnect.me, a browser plug-in that maintains a list of 5000 trackers, including many associated with ad networks.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/8/9870860/mozilla-focus-ad-blocker-ios-app-store-download
Apple Just Released Its Own Official iPhone Battery Extender Case For $99
The Smart Battery Case, as Apple has dubbed it, extends the life of the iPhone 6 or 6s. It’ll cost $99, and is available now.
According to Apple, the Smart Battery Case increases the 6s’ battery life up to 25 hours of talk time, 20 hours of HD video playback, or 18 hours of LTE web browsing. On its own, meanwhile, the 6s is rated for around 14 hours of talk, 11 hours of HD video, and 10 hours of LTE browsing. So that’s an improvement of right around 80% across the board.
http://techcrunch.com/2015/12/08/apple-iphone-smart-battery-extender-case/?ncid=rss
That’s it for Geek News
We’ll move on to trailers of the week.
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Trailers of the Week
Every week we bring you the best trailers that came out this week. This week we begin with…
Jane Got a Gun
With help from her former lover (Joel Edgerton), a woman (Natalie Portman) tries to save her husband (Noah Emmerich) from a gang of killers in the Old West.
Release date: January 29, 2016 (USA)
The Legend of Tarzan
Tarzan, having acclimated to life in London, is called back to his former home in the jungle to investigate the activities at a mining encampment. Tarzan swings into theaters July 1, 2016.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
We don’t know much about the story of this TMNT sequel. In the trailer we do see Beebop, Rocksteady, KC Jones, Shredder, some alien invasion ships, and of course Megan Fox returns as April O’Neill. The CGI Ninja Turtles come back to theaters June 3, 2016
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny
Netflix's follow-up to the Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is here, giving us our first real glimpse at how the streaming company plans to take on the Wuxia classic. Here, Michelle Yeoh has reprised her role as Yu Shu Lien, who must now strive to protect the legendary Green Destiny sword, which once belonged to legendary swordsman Li Mu Bai, from an evil warlord. Available on Netflix February 8, 2016.
Final Fantasy VII remake
During this past weekend’s PlayStation Experience in San Francisco, SQUARE ENIX® debuted a new trailer for FINAL FANTASY® VII REMAKE, the full remake of the award-winning role-playing game, FINAL FANTASY VII. The new trailer features the first CG scenes as well as gameplay footage. While t1he press release did hint that the game might be released episodically, no release date was given.
That’s it for Trailers of the Week
Now onto our Discussion section
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In our discussion section we talk about anything we’re interested in this week, and this week we’ll begin our discussion with…
Our review of the Netflix original show Jessica Jones.
That’s it for us this week. Thanks for listening.
For the Geek Bytes Podcast I’m Ramon Mejia and I’m Edgar Acosta. Now Go Geek out about something.
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Music Credits
"Happy Bee", "Movement Proposition", "Theme for Harold (var.3) ", "Take the Lead"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/