Murdered robots, silent video chat, drones being shot out of the sky, X-ray vision cameras and more Windows 10 news. All the tech news worth talking about this week on Deemable Tech.

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THIS WEEK’S RUNDOWN

Yahoo released Yahoo LiveText. No one is sure why.

Yahoo announced a new app this week called Yahoo Livetext on iOS and Android. With the new app you can chat with people you know, while you look at them on a live video. What makes Livetext different than any other video chat app out there like Skype, Facetime or Google Hangouts is that you cannot hear the person on the other end. Don’t worry, it’s not your phone. Yahoo designed it like that? for some reason. We tried it out.

Windows 10 Updates

Windows 10 has been out for a week now and we’ve learned a few more things about it.

Among other things, it turns out that Windows 10 collects a lot more data on its users than previous version of the operating system did. The main reason for this appears to be Cortana: the nifty digital personal assistant needs a lot more personal data to power her search results and voice recognition. Of course, that isn’t to say that Microsoft isn’t just taking a page from Google and Facebook here.

If you want to stop Windows 10 from gathering up your contacts, calendar details, text and touch input, location data, and a whole lot more and sending it off into the cloud, you will need to let Windows know. This can be done at installation: you’ll need to select ‘custom settings’ instead of ‘express’ and then you will see the personalized settings for what data Windows will collect on you. If you’ve already installed Windows 10, you can also limit the data it is phoning home by signing in with a strictly local account rather than a Microsoft one.

Cortana herself also has settings that you will need to adjust.

Needless to say, you may find Cortana to be less functional if you disable all of these options.

Another surprise in store for those upgrading to Windows 10: Windows Media Center, Microsoft’s free media player which has for years allowed DVD playback in Windows, will disappear. Its replacement is an app in the Windows Store called Windows DVD Player, but this new app isn’t free – it will cost you $14.99. Which is too bad, considering that it doesn’t do any of the cool stuff Media Center used to do, like DVR, image slideshows, and media organization.

DVD playback isn’t the only formerly free feature is holding its hand out for your credit card in Windows 10. Minesweeper and Solitaire, those old Windows standbys, are now full of intrusive ads unless you pay a $9.99 annual fee. That’s not so great.

You know what IS great? VLC media player! It’s still free, it still plays DVDs, and it still works with Windows 10. We’re just saying.

More fun drone news

The Daily Dot is reporting that a Kentucky man blew a drone out of the sky with a shotgun. He claims that his kids told him the drone had passed over the house multiple times before, and he claims that the drone dropped down to close to the ground and was hovering over his back deck where his 16-year-old daughter was sun bathing. He had enough at that point and fired duck shot knocking it out of the sky. When the drone pilot and three of his buddies showed up to collect the drone, the father told them, “If you cross that sidewalk onto my property, there’s going to be another shooting.” Instead of doing that, they waited for the police to arrive and the father was arrested and charged with wanton endangerment and criminal mischief related to his firing the gun.

The drone owner has since released video to WDRB in Louisville showing the drone was almost 200 feet above the ground and it moving when it was shot. The drone operator says he was heading to his friends house to shoot pictures for him at his request and was only passing by.

When you shut down the newsstand, you don’t sell newspapers

Back in October 2014, Spain decided to impose a levy on Google for using snippets of Spanish news articles and linking to news articles in Google News. Google responded by almost immediately removing all Spanish news outlets from Google News.

A report commissioned by the Asociacio?n Espan?ola de Editoriales de Publicaciones Perio?dicas (Spanish Association of Publishers of Periodicals) came out last week showing that Spains little experiment is working? for no one.

The study showed that in the short term, the law will cost publishers about ?10 million or about $10.9 million. The cost will fall especially on smaller news outlets who disproportionately are getting less traffic since Google News went dark in Spain.

Fujifilm camera sees through clothes

Fujifilm has announced a new camera called the X-T1 IR which boasts a 16 megapixel sensor, high speed autofocus, and wifi connectivity. Oh yeah, and according to a new Wired report, it may be able to see through some clothes. That’s right, the “IR” in X-T1 IR stands for ‘infrared’. Infrared photography allows would-be shutterbugs to capture some trippy and dreamlike images and helps specialists like crime-scene techs locate blood spatter. But it can also allow pervs with cameras to get an eyeful, given the right conditions. Specifically, the clothing in question would have to be pretty thin in the first place for these cameras to see through it.

Hopefully dweebs hanging around the girls’ locker room will be priced out of the market: the cameras will start at $1700 when they go on sale in October.

Macs get malware too

Wired is reporting that the first firmware worm for Mac has been developed. The worm dubbed “Thunderstrike 2” is a proof-of-concept. (The original Thunderstrike did the same thing, but required physical access to the computer) The worm can spread from Mac to Mac without it needing to be networked. Even air-gapped Apple computers would be vulnerable to the attack. Since it is a firmware worm, the processor chip would have to be reflashed to eliminate the worm, and since these are Macs we are talking about, this basically means they would have to be thrown away, because who can work on Macs, amirite?

Fortunately, the worm was created by hackers who are discussing their findings at the Black Hat Conference this week in Las Vegas, so manufacturers like Apple will be able to use their research to improve the security of firmware.

The mysterious murder of HitchBot in the city of brotherly love

Our next story is something of an unfolding saga.

A year ago, a team of Canadian researchers created a small robot which they dubbed HitchBot. HitchBot was completely immobile, but it could interact with people. It’s mission was to hitchhike from place to place. In 2014 it successfully hitched all the way across Canada. Later it made a similar journey through Germany and the Netherlands. On July 17th of this year, HitchBot set out for its biggest road trip yet: crossing the US, starting in Massachusetts and hopefully winding up in San Francisco’s Exploratorium. Sadly, the little bot that could had only made it to the city of Philadelphia when tragedy struck.

The precise details aren’t known, but HitchBot was found dismembered, its limbs strewn across the street and its internal wiring damaged or scooped out. Although HitchBot reportedly takes a picture every ten minutes or so of its currently location, no picture was taken of its assailant.

This is where things get a little weird: two Philly-based YouTubers were reportedly the last people who the bot ‘hitched’ a ride with before it was destroyed. They then came forward claiming to have obtained surveillance footage from a nearby camera showing the attacker. The footage they delivered appeared to show one of the YouTubers kicking and stomping on an obscured object and waving what looked like HitchBot’s limbs around. After some initial confusion, the YouTubers said this was a prank and that they in fact had nothing to do with HitchBot’s demise.

There are still some good Samaritans in the City of Brotherly Love. Hackers from a local makerspace offered to rebuild HitchBot. However, the bot’s original creators intend to rebuild it themselves better than before, so that it will be ready for its next big trip. The predicted starting point? Philadelphia.

If you have a suggestion, or just have a comment for the show. Give us a call and leave us a voicemail, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email to feedback at deemable dot com.

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What happens when you realize you skipped an episode number? Just keep on rollin. This week on Deemable Tech we are talking about… the Apple big announcement. Apple finally announced all the details on the Apple Watch. Apple also announced a new MacBook, ResearchKit and HBO Now.

An incoming call notification on the Apple Watch Edition. Image credit: Apple

This Week’s Run Down

Macbook

Apple announced a new laptop, called…the MacBook.

It’s thinner than the MacBook Air, but it is also less powerful than the MacBook Air and has less battery life than the MacBook Air, and it’s more expensive than the MacBook Air. So, it’s basically, just like the MacBook Air was to the original MacBook when the MacBook Air came out.

It has a 480p FaceTime Camera, but it does have a retina display though, which gives it an advantage over the MacBook Air.

The craziest part is that, except for the headphone jack, the new MacBook only has one port, USB-C. Everything goes through the USB-C port – power, display, thumb drives, accessories, everything. To do almost anything you will have to buy an adapter, which costs $79 a piece.

As a result a lot of people will not be buying this laptop, especially DJs.

The new MacBook is available in silver, Space Grey and… gold, for some reason.

The new MacBook has a new trackpad called a “Force Touch” trackpad. It does not have a physical button, but it is pressure sensitive, and gives haptic feedback when you click it. The Force Touch trackpad opens up new ways to interact with the computer such as “Gradually add pressure to the trackpad to vary the speed with which you fast-forward through a QuickTime movie or zoom in on a location in Maps.”

Apple TV – HBO Now

Apple also announced a partnership with HBO to bring unbundled HBO to cable-cutters. For $14.99 a month you can watch Game of Thrones without a cable subscription, but only on an iOS device. HBO Now is available on iPhone, iPad and the Apple TV.

ResearchKit

In one of the most surprising announcements, Apple revealed ResearchKit. ResearchKit is an open source software development kit that medical researchers can use to easily create apps for studies. The idea is that these apps will utilize the sensors in iPhones to “track movement, take measurements and record information – functions that are perfect for medical studies.” iPhone owners would be able to download these apps to participate in research and provide information regardless of where they are. Since iPhones are the most widely used smartphones, it is hoped that this will lead to larger sample sizes and more frequent data, thus creating a truer representation of the population.

Apple Watch

Preorders started on the 10th.

The watch will go on sale for reals on April 24th.

Three Versions

There are a whole bunch of combinations of watch bands and cases. Way too many to describe them all. If I did, I am pretty sure Tom would kill me.

Apple Watch Sport

• Aluminum Silver or Aluminum Space Gray Case
• Fluoroelastomer watch band
• $349 and $399

Apple Watch

• Stainless Steel Case or Stainless Steel Space Gray Case
• Fluoroelastomer ($549/$599), Classic Leather Buckle ($649/$699), Modern Leather Buckle (38mm $749), Leather Loop (Smartcase-esque – 42mm $699), Milanese Loop ($649/$699), Steel Link Bracelet ($949/$999), Space Black Steel Link ($1,049/$1,099)
• $549 up to $1099

Apple Watch Edition

• 18K Gold
• Priced from “Geez Louise” to “Hoo boy!”
  • Otherwise known as $10,000 to $17,000

Mashable – My Apple Watch Nightmare

If you missed it live, Ryan Thompson from GAAM, Games Art and Music, stopped by the studio tonight to talk to us about the upcoming The Legend of GAAM Show July 13 at 6:00 PM at the Museum and Gardens at 4160 Boulevard Center Drive, Jacksonville, Florida. Before we talked to him about that, we answered Joel’s question about which Macbook Pro and which Airport to pick. Then, we helped Katy pick a newsreader for her Android phone.

GAAM on Facebook

#41 – The Legend of GAAM Is EXTREME, But It’s Not Free-99
DRAFT SCRIPT

RAY: From WJCT studios in Jacksonville, Florida, I’m Ray Hollister,

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

RAY: and this is Deemable Tech, tech help worth listening to.

RAY: This week’s episode of the Deemable Tech podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at a small orange dot com.

TOM: And, by audible.com – Deemable Tech listeners can get a FREE audiobook download at audibletrial.com/Deemable Over 100,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

RAY: And, from All Florida Insurance Options, an authorized Progressive agency, helping people shop for insurance at 904-757-3288 or at their office in Highland Square on Dunn Avenue in North Jacksonville.

TOM: Got a question about your computer, smart phone, tablet or the Internet? Give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or send us an email at questions@deemable.com.

RAY: So, if you haven’t noticed, the podcast has been a little sporadic lately. We’ve been only doing the show every other week.

Summer vacation!

We have good reasons, I have a pile of products to review like the Therapik and the Jabra Halo 2.
We’re also working on getting the app developed. Starting in September we’ll come back with weekly podcasts.

Today on the show we have a special guest, Ryan Thompson, creator and President of GAAM, which stands for Games, Art and Music.

But first we have a couple questions from listeners.

Joel writes: Hey Ray and Tom,
You may remember me from such questions as, “should I sick my finger in there?” and “is this burning sensation normal?”
Today I’d like to know about the differences between some Apple products.
I’m slowing being turned to the Gala side (that’s an apple joke) and switching to more and more Apple products.
I would specifically like to know about the differences between two products:
MacBook Pro vs. MacBook Pro w/Retina Display
and
AirPort vs. AirPort EXTREME!
For the MacBook Pro, it’s important to note that I am not a graphic designer/artists. The extent of my photo editing skills will just be basic touch-up of photos. I’m not looking for a gaming rig, just something that’s reliable, fast, and that has a decent battery life.
For the AirPort vs. Extreme, other than awesome flashbacks to the ’90s,
what makes the EXTREME so EXTREME?
RAY: OK, let me answer your first question. Here’s the differences between the Macbook Pro and the Macbook Pro with Retina Display.
Obviously the Retina Display model has a retina display. 2880 x 1800 pixels vs 1440 x 900 pixels
-More pixels, brighter screen, incredibly high detail. More room for photo and video editing
– Also the Retina display model is thinner and about a pound lighter.
The retina model comes with more standard RAM, 8 GB vs 4 GB, but you can get 8 GB in the standard Macbook Pro model.
The retina model comes with 768 GB flash storage, but the standard model comes with 512 Solid State drive or 1 TB hard drive.
Also, the retina model does not have an optical drive so no DVDs or CDs.
If you are graphic designer, or video editor, I’d say go with the retina model if you can afford it. Otherwise, I’d stick with the standard model, unless you just really want the retina display.
—–
Now, for Airport vs Airport Extreme
There’s actually three options, Airport Express, Airport Extreme and Airport Time Capsule.
The difference is in the price, size, speed and capability of the routers.
The Airport Express is the cheapest at $99, smallest at about the same size as an Apple TV (about a 4 inch square, 1 inch tall.). It’s also the slowest. It only runs up to 802.11n. It also only has one Ethernet ports and one USB port. You can plug a printer into it and share it on your network. You can also use the Airport Express for audio AirPlay. So, you can play music or podcasts wireless from your iOS devices or Mac computers to speakers plugged into your Airport Express.
The Airport Extreme costs $199, and it is about the same size, but about 4 times taller. It looks like four Airport Expresses stacked on top of each other. It runs 802.11ac which is the fastest existing WiFi standard. It can run up to 3 times faster than 802.11n, if you have a computer with a 802.11ac wifi adapter. With the Airport Extreme you can also share a hard drive on your network in addition to a printer.
The Airport Time Capsule is basically an Airport Extreme with a hard drive built in. The 2 TB model costs $299, and the 3 TB model costs $399.
Strangely the Time Capsule and the Extreme both dropped the AirPlay feature.
Also, if you were wondering, because I was, neither the Macbook Pro, nor the Macbook Pro with Retina Display come with 802.11ac wifi. They only have 802.11n.
The only Mac that is currently for sale with 802.11ac is the new Macbook Air. The new Mac Pro (the well designed trash can) will have 802.11ac.

Katy writes: Hello Tom and Ray!
I like to follow a few blogs and would love to get updates when new posts are added. Can you recommend a blog reader app for my Droid?
Thanks guys!
PS, we love your show! My twin babies Christopher & Clara like to listen to it with us every Thursday morning. They’re going to be so smart!
TOM: Wow, those poor kids. Thanks for listening, Katy! Anyway, what you need in as RSS reader app. We’ve talked about RSS before. It’s basically the way that blogs can publish their content to third party apps. Almost every blog out there supports this.
RAY: Lots of news sites do also.
TOM: Yeah. So with a good RSS reader app you can get all your news and favorite blogs in one place. If you go to the Google Play Market and search for ?RSS reader’ you’ll see dozens of apps, most of them free.
A word of caution, though: do not download the Google Reader app. Google Reader is being shut down July 1st, 2013. So if you download it now you’ll only have a matter days of before it stops working.
RAY: It’s too bad, since Google Reader was kind of the 900 lbs gorilla of the RSS reader world.
TOM: That’s true. In fact Google Reader was more than just an app, it was also an entire back-end database that synched what you had and hadn’t read across multiple devices. A lot of other apps actually depended on it. And that’s why you also need to avoid apps that are dependent on Google Reader, because those will also stop working on July 1st. A few examples include the NewsRob and GoodNews apps. Those tell you that they run off Google Reader and that they will be shutting down. Be sure to check for that on any app you download.
RAY: Okay, so those are apps not to use. What are some suggestions for apps that Katy should use?
TOM: Feedly.
RAY: Feedly?
TOM: Feedly.
Feedly is the heir apparent to Google Reader. If you were previously using Google Reader, Feedly is making it very easy to migrate to Feedly. Like Google Reader, it allows you to synchronize what you’ve read across multiple devices, like your desktop and your phone. It looks and feels similar to Google Reader, except it is more customizable. Feedly would be my #1 and probably my #2 suggestion for an RSS Reader app for Android right now.
RAY: Yeah, Feedly is great. And it’s also available for the iPhone in the App Store.
TOM: gReader is another app that is getting strong reviews. It used to connect Google Reader, but now you can connect it to Feedly.
RAY: Why wouldn’t people just use the Feedly app?
TOM: Well, it’s possible people might like the feel of gReader more. But yeah, if you’re just starting out like Katy is, I would recommend Feedly. And the best part of all, it doesn’t cost a thing!
TOM: It’s Free-99!
RAY: It’s Free-99?
TOM: It’s Free-99!
RAY: Personally, after I heard the news about Google Reader, I spent the requisite amount of time mourning my favorite news reader, but after that I decided not to move on and find another reader. I’ve gone back to just reading Google News for the big headlines, and checking the individual websites. I do use Flipboard a bit to follow some sites, but otherwise, I have reduced the amount of news reading I have done by about 90%. I’m not sure if I’ll go back or not, but for now, I’m satisfied with Flipboard.

I have a confession to make. I am attached to my laptop. I fall asleep with it running near my bed. When I wake up, I check my email before I brush my teeth. As a freelance writer, my livelihood depends on a steady connection and speedy applications. Last week I reluctantly put my MacBook in the hands of a computer repair friend and he noted, “You have computer separation anxiety.” While CSA is not (yet) recognized by any psychology journals, there are some options to lessen the fear that comes from being away from your computer.
These apps can keep your business running whether you are sneaking your iPhone with you on a family vacation* or working through lunch.

Dropbox It’s easy to work across multiple computers when I put my work in progress in Dropbox. It’s secure and syncs quickly.

Pulse I like the interface for this app. I can stay on top of news and keep up-to-date on all my favorite sites with the swipe of a finger. It’s easy to scroll back for archives and share favorite articles.

iCal Keeping track of meeting times with clients in different time zones can be tricky. I like setting email reminders of important events. This app is also cool because I can import my Google calendars as well.

GoDocs Continuing my Google obsession, my workday would not be complete without Google Docs.  I use the spreadsheets to keep track of mileage and expenses.

PayPal I like knowing when a client makes a payment. Through Paypal, I can send invoices for unpaid bills.

*Please note that I do not advocate sneaking an iPhone on family vacations. I hear it is healthy to unplug and bond with those who still love you.

How do you remain productive away from the office? Let me know in the comments if I missed any awesome apps.

iPhone 4 image courtesy of Apple.