Episode 60 – Rita Repulsa and Magic Leap Peek
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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 the Apple Transparency Report, the Magic Leap Peek, the Cheater Detecting Mattress, the Krypton Pilot, our first look at Rita Repulsa, Trailers of the Week and More…
In Our Discussion Section we’ll talk about our interview with Aleron Kong author of the Chaos Seeds novels.
Now let’s Begin our show with Geek News
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Geek News
Apple Transparency Report
This week Apple released a Transparency Report on requests from law enforcement. National Security Requests jumped from the 750-999 category to the up to the 1250 - 1,499 category. China requested the most number of accounts at 6,724, 53% of which were disclosed. The US was second with requests for 5,192 accounts 82% of which were disclosed. The most requests for help with devices came from Germany at 11,989, 52% where some data was disclosed.
The report is one of the few ways Apple is allowed to report on government requests for customer data.
Magic Leap sneak peek
Wired got an amazing sneak peek at what’s been happening at Magic Leap, the augmented reality company. While most of their work has been kept under wraps, we do know that the company has already secured over a billion dollars in funding from people like Peter Jackson and Andreessen Horowitz.
Along with the article in Wired, Magic Leap released a video showing off some of what their product can do. The company says the new video was "shot directly through Magic Leap technology," and contains no special effects or compositing. In it, you can see Minority Report-style notifications and graphics floating in mid-air, a 3D view of Mount Everest and a school of jellyfish swimming through the room.
http://www.wired.com/?p=1999666
Nanotubes..Transform!
You may already be familiar with the idea of robots putting themselves together if you’ve seen Transformers or the T-1000. However, researchers at Rice University have taken steps to make that a reality.
Recently, Rice University released a video that shows carbon nanotubes in a dish assemble themselves into a nanowire in seconds under the influence of a custom-built Tesla coil created by scientists at Rice University.
It’s a phenomenon called “Teslaphoresis” and it may pave the way for fascinating applications of nanotechnology.
The team led by Rice research scientist Paul Cherukuri sees its invention as setting a path toward the assembly of matter from the bottom up on nano and macro scales.
Amazon Monthly
Endgadget reports that Amazon introduced a $10.99/month payment option for Prime and a separate $8.99/month plan for just Prime Video in the US. Amazon UK already offers Prime Video separately for £5.99/month
but no monthly Prime option. The Verge notes Amazon started offering Sprint customers a monthly Prime option last month.
http://www.engadget.com/2016/04/18/amazon-prime-video-is-now-a-standalone-monthly-service/
Cheater Detecting Mattress
Sleep tracking is nothing new, but one company wants to track when your mattress is being used, especially if you're not home.
A Spanish-based mattress company Durmet is touting its new Smarttress mattress with what it calls a Lover Detection System, which sends alerts to your smartphone if a partner may be cheating. Considering the mattress costs over $1000 (US), the money may be better spent on a couple’s therapist.
PS4.5?
GiantBomb says it has multiple sources that tell it Sony is making a new version of the PS4 codenamed Neo.
The Neo would supposedly have a 2.1GHz CPU up from 1.6. -- A GPU that jumps from 18 to 36 CUs and from 800 to 911 MHz.
Memory would stay at 8GB but speed would increase from 176 GB/s to 218.
All games must work on all versions of the PS4, no exclusives, including VR games.
http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/sources-the-upgraded-playstation-4-is-codenamed-ne/1100-5437/
The end of the Xbox 360
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer announced in a blog post today that Microsoft has ceased production of the Xbox 360. Existing inventory will be sold out and availability will vary by country. Xbox Live servers for the 360 will remain live. Xbox 360 launched November 22, 2005.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/20/11468704/microsoft-xbox-360-production-ceased
Spider-Man Loses Keaton gains Downey
Deadline reports that Sony Pictures’ reboot of Spider-Man will include Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr., as it ramps up ahead of production ahead of a July 2017 release date. But the news today comes as Michael Keaton, who was being courted to play the villain in the pic, has fallen out of early talks and won’t be a part of the project. Keaton was previously thought to play the villain in the movie, hypothetically as the Vulture.
https://deadline.com/2016/04/spider-man-michael-keaton-out-iron-man-robert-downey-jr-1201741663/
Syfy orders Superman Prequel show
David S. Goyer’s long-gestating Superman prequel Krypton is a go at Syfy. After developing the project for more than a year Syfy has ordered a pilot episode.
Based on DC Comics characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Krypton is set two generations before the destruction of the legendary Man of Steel’s home planet. It follows Superman’s grandfather — whose House of El was ostracized and shamed — as he fights to redeem his family’s honor and save his beloved world from chaos.
HBO renews popular shows
After months of negotiations, HBO’s flagship drama series Game Of Thrones has been renewed for a seventh season ahead of its Season 6 premiere this Sunday. The size of the order has not been announced amid speculation that the series was considering shorter Season 7 and 8 final seasons.
Also picked up are comedies Veep for a sixth season and Silicon Valley for fourth.
https://deadline.com/2016/04/game-of-thrones-renewed-season-6-veep-silicon-valley-hbo-1201741600/
Rita Repulsa First Look
Entertainment Weekly brings us our first look at Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa in the new Power Rangers movie!
http://www.people.com/article/elizabeth-banks-power-rangers-movie-rita-repulsa-first-look
Celebrity Deaths
WWE Legend and Reality Star ‘Chyna’ Joan Laurer was found dead in her apartment this week. She passed at the age of 46.
Prince, who pioneered "the Minneapolis sound" and took on the music industry in his fight for creative freedom, died Thursday at age 57.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/21/entertainment/prince-estate-death/
That’s it for Geek New
We recently were able to interview one of our favorite LitRPG authors Aleron Kong and it was a blast. We also have one of the most popular listings for LitRPG content. We are only able to produce such content because of all our wonderful supporters. If you like the podcast or any of the other content we produce please consider becoming one of those supporters.
Whether it’s becoming a monthly Patreon subscriber or giving us a good review on iTunes there are tons of great ways to support us. For all the ways to do so visit our support page at geekbytespodcast.com/support
Now We’ll move on to trailers of the week.
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In our Trailers of the Week section we discuss the best trailers that came out this week. Remember you can watch the full trailers at geekbytespodcast.com; We begin this week with…
Lady Dynamite
Netflix has a new comedy series starring Maria Bamford and executive produced by Bamford, Mitch Hurwitz and Pam Brady. Lady Dynamite is based on what Bamford has accepted to be “her life.” The occasionally surreal episodes, refracted across multiple periods inspired by the actor/comedian’s life, tell the story of a woman who loses – and then finds – her s**t. All episodes premiere May 20 on Netflix.
No Men Beyond This Point
In this mockumentary, women rule the world and are no longer giving birth to males. A quiet, unassuming housekeeper named Andrew Myers finds himself at the center of a battle to keep men from going extinct.
The Magnificent Seven
Desperate townspeople hire seven mercenaries (Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke) to battle a ruthless industrialist in the Old West.
I loved the original 1960 version with Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, and Charles Bronson. This trailer seems to inject more humor but also more explosions and action.
Release date: September 23, 2016
Jason Bourne
Matt Damon returns to his most iconic role in Jason Bourne. Damon is joined by Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel and Tommy Lee Jones, and Julia Stiles. w
While little is known about the plot of the movie we do know that it has been 9 years since the Bourne Ultimatum. What has Jason Bourne been up to now that he remembers everything?
Find out July 29th, 2016.
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 interview with Aleron Kong, author of the Chaos Seeds series of bestselling LitRPG novels. We’ll have a link to the interview in our show notes.
That was a sweet clip from the interview. The full interview is 45 min. long and is available exclusively for download for our Patreon backers.
Be sure to check out Aleron’s books: The Land: Founding, The Land: Forging, and The Land: Alliances on Amazon.
http://www.geekbytespodcast.com/reviews/2016/4/18/author-interview-aleron-kong
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