We were left with nothing to remember Sean Birch except dozens of his high school graduation pictures.

Producer Sean Birch is back. So, Ray is under control, no more innuendos and inappropriate jokes. In this episode Ray, Tom and Sean tackle how Facebook helped France but forgot about Lebanon and talk about crappy USB-C cables, Microsoft putting the Zune out to pasture, the new Star Trek TV show and the Chromestick.

By the way, we don’t just have a subreddit page for the fame and the glory. We have it because we want to know what you want us to talk about! We know you’re purusing the tech news all week. Go to our subreddit page, reddit.com/r/deemable, and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down.

And make sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review on iTunes and on Stitcher. The more subscribers we have and reviews we get, the more people will find our show.

If you have a response or 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.

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 asmallorange.com.

THE RUN DOWN

Facebook Safety Check Helps France, Ignores Beirut

The Washington Post reports that Facebook turned on its ?Safety Check? feature for a man-made disaster last weekend for the first time, for the attacks in Paris. With Safety Check, users who are in an area affected by a disaster who login to Facebook are greeted by a message asking them if they are safe. If they indicate that they are, a status update is then posted to their wall letting their friends and family know.

Facebook said that about 4.1 million users checked in within 24 hours after the attack, about one-third of metropolitan Paris?s population. Safety check has been deployed on five previous occasions, including the earthquake in Nepal in April, Tropical Cyclone Pam in the South Pacific, and Typhoon Ruby in the Philippines. It was originally inspired by the aftermath of the 2011 Japanese tsunami.

Facebook has drawn criticism because it has not deployed the feature for several recent disasters in the Middle East, including for the double suicide bombings in Beirut just a day earlier. Facebook says that it plans to deploy the tool more frequently in the future.

Crappy Cables Be Crappy

One of the dangers of buying something online is that it could be a dud. This is especially a problem if you buy things from some random website. But sometimes even products from Amazon can be lemons, and the reviews ? which are often written by less-than-tech-savvy customers ? don’t always save the day. Well, one very tech savvy customer is doing everything he can to change that.

Gizmodo reports that a Google engineer is buying USB-C cables off Amazon, testing them and reviewing them. Benson Leung is a Chromebook engineer, specifically an engineer on the Chromebook Pixel team, which, no surprise, has a USB-C port on it.

From Benson’s experience, good USB-C cables are hit-or-miss. And unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to matter if they name brand or not. He’s found some cables with the wrong wiring, the wrong resisters, or will just completely burn out your charger, USB hubs or your mobile device.

You can follow him and read his reviews on Amazon or on his Google+ page, because? he works for Google? so of course he has a Google+ page.

Microsoft Finally Puts Zune Out of Its Misery

This week marks a sad time for those who love Microsoft?s Zune audio players (don?t laugh, there may be some out there).

PCWorld reports that Microsoft officially shut down all Zune-related services this week, including the Zune Music Pass streaming subscription service, and the Zune marketplace where users could buy MP3s.

Anyone still subscribed to Zune Music Pass was automatically switched to Microsoft?s new Groove Music service. As for the MP3s, if any of them had DRM they sadly might not work after a while because the license can?t be renewed.

It has taken a surprisingly long time for Microsoft to both stop the services and stop using the Zune name. The company stopped making Zune hardware all the way back in 2011. They kept using the brand name for a few years before they switched to using ?Xbox? branding for a lot of things.

Google Answers

Shout out to redditor BHK123 for suggesting our next story. Google?s search app is about to get better at understanding complex questions. According to VentureBeat, a new update to the Google search app allows it to better understand superlatives, ordered items, and dates. As an example, Google suggests the question ?Who was president when the Angels won the world series?? Google will figure out that you?re talking about US Presidents and baseball and combine the two to return the correct answer: George W. Bush.

Chromestick

Fans of ChromeOS rejoice, you are that much closer to being able to have Chrome on almost everything. Ars Technica says that Google and Asus have partnered up to create a 2.6 oz HDMI stick with ChromeOS that can be plugged into any monitor or screen, instantly turning it into a Chromebook. The stick contains 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. It also has a single USB port. The stick will reportedly retail for $85.

Star Trekkin’ Across The Universe

You are all no doubt very excited about the new Star Trek television show that has recently been announced. I know I am. Well The Hollywood Reporter claims that the show will not, as you might expect, be airing regularly on network TV. While the pilot episode will indeed air on CBS, the regular episodes will stream on CBS All Access and will require a $5.99 monthly subscription to view. CBS All Access includes CBS feed, which as of right now includes 85 shows, according to IT World. Some shows do appear to include commercials.

The new Trek show is slated to appear in January 2017.

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.

And, don’t forget to help us to decide what stories we talk about on the show, go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. deemable.com/reddit will take you there.

This week Tom shares news about Taylor Swift tackling problems with Apple Music, Sean hits the “undo send” button on that embarrassing email he just sent, and Ray looks at why a branch of the U.S. military is still running Windows XP. That and more on this week’s Deemable Tech!

If you’re listening to Deemable Tech on our website, would you subscribe to the show on iTunes or on Stitcher? And, while you’re there, would you leave a review and say a few nice things about us? The more subscribers we have and reviews we get, the more people will find our show.

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Make sure to share Deemable Tech on the forums, Facebook, Twitter and all over the interwebs.

Thank you to our Redditors who have been helping us decide what stories we talk about on the show. Go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. Deemable.com/reddit will take you there. We’re also looking for a new admin to help manage and moderate our subreddit page. Submit a text post to our subreddit explaining why you would make a great admin.

THIS WEEK’S RUNDOWN

Taylor Swift makes Apple change its mind about paying artists during free trial period of Apple Music

In an abrupt about-face, Apple has changed course and decided to pay artists during the free trial period of Apple Music streaming.

Apple executive Eddie Cue specifically attributed this change of heart to an open letter penned to the company by Taylor Swift, in which she said that she would not be making her album “1989” available on the streaming service because she felt they were not compensating artists fairly. Since Apple’s announcement, several indie labels have announced that they were signing up with Apple Music.

Image credit: Jana Beamer / Flickr

Gmail officially adds “Undo Send” feature

If you’ve ever sent an email and realized that you didn’t attach an attachment — or worse, wrote something you never meant to say to the other person — Gmail added a feature this week that you will love: Undo Send!

Well, maybe “Undo Send” is a bit of a misnomer. What the feature really does is delay sending your message for 5, 10, 20 or 30 seconds to give you the chance to change your mind. Just turn on “Undo Send” in your Gmail settings, and the next time you send something you didn’t mean to you can just hit the “undo” button at the top of the page.

The team at Gmail has actually been experimenting with this feature for the past six years (and you could use it before now, if you knew that it existed and knew how their Google Labs section works), but they officially made it part of their mail service this week.

We should note that this appears to only work for personal Gmail accounts at the moment. So if your employer uses Gmail for your work email, you still need to be cautious about what you send for the time being.

Disney and ABC TV cancel plans to offshore IT jobs

Back in October, Disney gave notice to around 250 IT employees that work for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. To make it worse, they thought they were being called in to find out they were getting bonuses.

Actually, no, it gets worse than that, they then found out that they were being “given the opportunity” to work longer if they stuck around and trained their replacements. The controversial part was their replacements were foreigners in the country on H-1B Visas. The purpose of the H-1B visas was to attract IT workers to the US to fill the gaps in tech labor shortages, not to replace American workers with lower wage earning employees.

Some media outlets mentioned it, but it really picked up steam when a few weeks ago, Disney’s ABC Television Group called in about 35 application developers for a meeting, and told them they were being laid off, and they were going to be training their replacements, more foreign employees on H-1B visas.

However, just last week, Disney did a complete about-face, and canceled the layoffs. Of course, no one would speak to the media on the record, but an anonymous source told Computerworld that Disney just “want[s] this to go away — right now.”

A source at Disney also told Computerworld that this change had absolutely nothing to do with the dozens of negative news stories that popped up after the news got out.

You can get Windows 10 for free, but there’s a catch

Since Windows 10 was first announced, Microsoft has released a lot of conflicting statements about who exactly would be able to get it free. From the beginning they’ve been consistent in saying Windows 10 will be a free upgrade to users who have Windows 7 and Windows 8 and 8.1. But for other users, things have been less clear.

First they said that even users without legitimate copies of Windows would be able to upgrade, then they said they wouldn’t. Then this week there was more confusion. It appeared that Microsoft would be giving away a free copy of Windows 10 to any user who agreed to test it. However it now appears that the situation is more complicated than that.

Installing the Windows 10 preview will grant users free access to Windows 10, but only as long as they stay in the preview program. If they leave at any point, their preview copy will eventually expire. In other words, you can get Windows free as long as you agree to beta test new releases of the operating system… forever.

Facebook working on facial recognition software that doesn’t need to see your face

Facebook researchers say they are working on experimental systems that will allow Facebook to recognize users in photos based off their hairstyle and clothing. In other words, it is facial recognition that doesn’t actually need to see your face.

According to the researchers, the new system is accurate 83 percent of the time, far better than current facial recognition systems which need clear, full frontal shots of people’s faces to recognize them. The researchers described the project as “experimental” and “long term” and said that we shouldn’t expect it to be rolled out on the site any time soon.

Good thing, considering the controversies that Facebook’s facial recognition algorithms have caused in the past.

The Navy says Windows XP is worth $9 million

According to Computerworld, the U.S. Navy has about 100,000 computers running Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Office 2003 and Exchange 2003. Server 2003 expires in July, and all of the others have been expired. To keep their computers running in tip-top shape with security updates, the Navy is paying Microsoft $9.1 million.

If there was ever a computer you wanted to be secure, it would be a computer in the Navy.

And, to be fair to the Navy, Windows XP still has approximately 10-14 percent market share, depending on who’s counting, which, either way, still puts it over Apple’s OS X.

Ebay and Amazon banning confederate flag merchandise

Major online retailers, including Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba are banning and removing Confederate flag merchandise from their inventories in the wake of the tragic shooting at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The man the police have identified as the shooter, Dylann Roof, had posed in several photographs with a Confederate flag. As calls have spread for the flag to be removed from state flags and capitals, retailers have been quick to distance themselves from it publicly.

Actually getting flag merchandise off the shelf may take time, however. As of the time when we recorded this episode, however, some confederate flag merchandise was still available.

Microsoft Office coming to Android

Microsoft released full versions of its Office productivity apps (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) for the Android operation system this week.

This comes after about month of beta versions of these apps being available for Android users. Microsoft said in a statement that the incorporated a lot of feedback from users of these early versions into the final ones.

These apps won’t work on all Android devices, especially older ones, but they will work on a majority of smartphones and tablets. The Microsoft Office mobile apps are currently free in the Google Play store.

Amazon now paying Kindle Unlimited authors by the page

Amazon has announced that starting on July 1, they will begin paying authors in the Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Lending Library programs by the number of pages read, rather than simply when their book is downloaded. To keep the system from being gamed by large fonts, Amazon has introduced the Kindle Edition Normalized Page Count, or KENPC, which is a formula that will attempt to standardize page counts for all books.
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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.

And, don’t forget to help us to decide what stories we talk about on the show, go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. deemable.com/reddit will take you there.

Photo Credit: “Taylor Swift RED tour 2013” by Jana Beamer is used under CC BY 2.0.

This week Ray warns us about storing our SSDs in hot places, unless you want to wipe your drives clean. Tom explores the dangers of asking questions on Quora. And Sean finds out why one company is trying to make the food replicators from Star Trek a reality. Plus the guys look at Facebook’s new “instant articles,” learn why Microsoft is saying Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows they’ll release, and delve into Verizon’s purchase of AOL. Then later, Sean acts like Steve Harvey as Tom and Ray play a few rounds of the online game Google Feud.

But first, could we ask a favor of you? If you’re listening to Deemable Tech on our website, would you subscribe to the show on iTunes or on Stitcher? And, while you’re there, would you leave a review and say a few nice things about us? The more subscribers we have and reviews we get, the more people will find our show.

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 asmallorange.com.

Make sure to share Deemable Tech on the forums, Facebook, Twitter and all over the interwebs.

Thank you to our Redditors who have been helping us decide what stories we talk about on the show. Go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. Deemable.com/reddit will take you there.

THIS WEEK’S RUN DOWN

SSDs can lose data really fast

You know those amazingly fast SSDs that are replacing hard drives in high end laptops like practically every Mac on the market? Well, there is a trade off. You definitely don’t want to store your wedding pictures on them. Or your tax records. Or your receipts from Best Buy. Because, some SSDs can lose their data in only a few days.

According to Gizmodo, heat is the enemy. The length of data retention is cut in half for every nine degrees of temperature increase. So, if you do like a lot of people Ray has talked to have done, and stick your old computer in a hot storage unit, expect to reinstall Windows on it when you get it out, because the SSD might be blank.

Just another reminder to back up your data!

Man weighing two job offers finds one of them retracted after asking Quora which of them he should take

In the news this week, yet another cautionary tale about being very careful with what you post online.

Last week a San Francisco engineer who was weighing competing job offers from Uber and Zenefits posted on Quora, asking the advice of its users on which to take. The engineer said that he liked what Zenefits was offering but that it didn’t seem as compelling a ?buzzword? to have on his resume as Uber.

The dilemma was presumably cleared up for the engineer when Zenefits’ CEO responded, saying “Definitely not Zenefits,” and retracting the job offer.

While the post was later changed to remove the public job retraction, presumably the damage was done. It was not clear if the candidate, who remains anonymous, had accepted Uber’s offer.

Microsoft representative claims that Windows 10 is the “last” version of Windows

This week at Microsoft’s Ignite conference, tech evangelist Jerry Nixon was quoted as saying, “Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10.” Microsoft confirmed this statement to The Verge, saying that it would be focusing on “Windows as a service,” delivering continuous updates to the system rather than rolling out new versions of Windows.

That is of course until the next time Marketing gets a bright idea in its head and they announce Windows 20.

Facebook rolls out “instant articles” from major news publishers

Starting this week on the iOS Facebook app, some news articles will load much, much faster when you click on them. Facebook is calling these ?instant articles?, and they will be available from a handful of publishers that have partnered with Facebook, including the New York Times, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, BBC News and National Geographic, among others. Instant articles won?t look much different to users, at least at first – they will just load instantly when clicked. In the future, however, Facebook may add auto-playing “video covers” as well.

Facebook will allow new, special interactions with Instant Articles, including audio captions, geotagged photos, and interactive maps. And of course, there will be no ads.

No word yet on when Android users will see this feature.

Israeli company creates Genie, a futuristic appliance that can create instant meals on demand

A new Israeli device called the Genie, which claims its inspiration from Star Trek’s fictional replicators, can turn pods of dehydrated powders into meals on demand. While details are light, supposedly the meals can be customized to personal preference, including specifying whether they should be gluten-, dairy-, or egg-free. The Genie will also work with smartphones and mobile devices.

No word if it responds to voice commands like, “Tea, earl gray, hot.”

Verizon announces plan to buy AOL for 4.4 billion dollars

In a surprise announcement this week, Verizon and AOL announced that Verizon will buy AOL for $4.4 billion dollars. People with knowledge of the matter say that Verizon is looking to acquire AOL’s mobile, video and advertising technology. Verizon may be looking to offer its own streaming video platform which it can sell ads against. It will also acquire popular news site The Huffington Post, not to mention the legacy dial-up service which once made AOL a powerhouse.

Verizon is currently valued at $200 billion dollars, making the four and a half billion in cash they plan to spend on AOL little more than a rounding error.

It’s time to play the feud!

Credit: Google Feud

You may have seen the site Google Feud making the rounds on social media recently. This online game combines weird Google autocomplete search suggestions with Family Feud style game play, in which you have to guess the top 10 ways Google autocompletes a specific sentence or question (for example, “Is it weird to _____”). Sean plays the role of Steve Harvey – or John O’Hurley, Louie Anderson, Richard Dawson, or whoever you favorite Family Feud host was – while Ray and Tom guess their way through a few rounds.

This week, Comcast can’t keep itself out of the news. First, Comcast announces that it is bringing the fastest Interwebs in the country to Jacksonville (WOOT!) and other cities in Florida. Then, the FCC and the Justice Department rain on Comcast’s parade and lets it know they are not going to let it merge with Time Warner Cable. In other news, a paranoid dad flew a drone to school with his daughter, and two guys took the iPhone/Android fight way too far.

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 asmallorange.com.

If you haven?t subscribed to Deemable Tech yet, get on it! Subscribe to Deemable Tech in iTunes, on Stitcheror subscribe to the show in another podcast reader. Make sure to leave a review on iTunes and Stitcher. The more reviews posted, the higher Deemable Tech will be listed, and the more listeners will see the show.

And make sure to share Deemable Tech on the forums, Facebook, Twitter and all over the interwebs.

Thank you to our Redditors who have been helping us decide what stories we talk about on the show. Go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. Deemable.com/reddit will take you there.

THIS WEEK’S RUN DOWN

Comcast Gigabit Pro

People in Jacksonville and some other towns in Florida are going to be pretty excited next month. In a story Jessica Palombo contributed to Deemable.com, Comcast is bringing the fastest fiber optic Internet service in the country to a few cities in Florida, including our own fair town. The service, which is called Gigabit Pro, will actually have 2 Gbps download and upload speeds ? more than twice the speed of Google Fiber.

However, Comcast would not give a price for the new service. The next fastest service from Comcast is Extreme 505, which runs up to 505 Mbps up and down, and costs over $400 a month with taxes and fees.

Comcast Drops Its Bid to Merge With Time Warner Cable

Speaking of Comcast, earlier this week it was looking pretty  looked bad for its merger with Time Warner Cable. According to Bloomberg, the Justice Department’s antitrust department was going to recommend blocking the merger. And, the FCC was not negotiating the terms of the deal with Comcast, which made it look even less likely that it was going to go through.

But now, ?people with knowledge of the matter? have told Bloomberg that Comcast is backing out of the merger. There was supposed to be a board meeting Thursday. And an official  announcement will probably come Friday.

As the Verge pointed out in an editorial, throughout this whole process, Comcast has never answered this simple question: Why not compete?

Verizon to offer custom pay TV packages, let customers choose monthly programming bundles

And while we?re on the subject of Internet and TV providers, in move that is one small step closer to a la carte cable TV, Verizon recently announced that they are rolling out a new pay TV service that will let customers choose from channel bundles that they change monthly.

These Verizon FiOS ?Custom TV? packages will start at 65 dollars a month for broadband service, 36 fixed basic cable channels, and two genre-based channel packs that customers can swap or unsubscribe from after a month. You can also add packs for an extra 10 dollars. Verizon has seven of these packs to choose from, including sports and children?s programming.

Verizon says they are going after customers who want something in between giant, fully loaded cable packages and cheaper basic packages offered by their competitors.

After “Drone Dad” follows his daughter to school, DJI Phantom 2 grounded

Tennessee father Chris Early?s daughter decided she wanted to walk to the school bus by herself so he did what any tech-inclined father would do: he followed her with a drone.

The drone was a model known as a DJI Phantom 2 which has a high def video camera mounted on it. Early followed his daughter with the drone. A local news station caught wind of this and the story went nationwide. Chris Early has been called ?overprotective?, ?the world?s most embarrassing father? and ‘drone dad’. As a result of all the attention he says he has grounded the drone for now.

One World Trade Center Elevator Shows 515 Years Of New York City

One World Trade Center has added an elevator that displays 515 years of New York City history in 50 seconds.

The New York Times covered this story, but I wrote an article about it for Deemable.com.

While they haven?t developed time travel, the engineers and designers behind the elevators that takes guests to the observatory at the very top of One World Trade Center in New York City have come pretty close. When you board the elevators, you will see a panoramic view of New York City rising out of the underground in the 1500s all the way up through time to the 102nd floor today.

The elevator uses nine 75-inch screens to create the illusion that it is a glass-walled elevator traveling through time.

Along the way, you’ll see the arrival of the Europeans, the Revolution and the rise of the skyscrapers. Inevitably, as time travels through the late-1900s, one of the Twin Towers enters your sight and just as quickly fades away as the 2000s begin. It is a touching, beautiful memorial to the history of the site. You can see The New York Times video of the elevator on our website at Deemable.com

YouTube celebrates 10 year anniversary

This week marks the 10 year anniversary of the first video being uploaded to YouTube.

On April 23 2005, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim posted a 19 second clip of elephants at the zoo titled “Me at the zoo.”  In it, Karim discusses the elephants’ “really, really, really long trunks” and, well, that’s all. Pretty tame compared to what you can find on YouTube today.

About a year after this video was posted, Google acquired YouTube for $1.6 billion.

According to reports, YouTube will mark the anniversary with a month-long celebration starting next week.

Skycure Hack Can Use Wifi To Disable iOS Devices

A research firm called Skycure reported that it has developed a hack based around a bug in iOS that could allow it to disable all nearby iOS devices using a wifi router. The wifi router has to be configured in a specific way. It will then cause any device connected to it to keep crashing and rebooting in an endless loop. It can be combined with another hack that forces iOS devices to connect to that network. Essentially the only way to escape the endless cycle of rebooting would be to get out of range of the router.

Skycure has not publicly released technical specifications for the bug it used to create the hack to give Apple time to patch it.

Argument Over Which Smartphone Is Better Turns Deadly

Police in Tulsa, OK apprehended a man staggering around a parking lot late at night cut up and covered in blood. The man reported to them that he had been in a fight with his roommate over which smartphone was better – the iPhone or the new Samsung Galaxy. iPhone versus Android fights can get heated, but most stop short of physical conflict. The man reported that he and his roommate had been drinking and wound up stabbing each other with broken beer bottles. Both were admitted to the hospital and are expected to make a full recovery. No word on whether either man was arrested or whether either had his mind changed about his preferred choice of phone.

How many tabs does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

Redditor Peanut Butter Shudder suggested an answer to Ray’s question. Last week during Shower Thoughts, Ray said he didn’t know how many tabs he had ever opened in his life. Peanut Butter Shudder mentioned Tab for a Cause on our reddit page (reddit.com/r/deemable) Tab for a Cause apparently tracks how many tabs you open and it has a bit of slacktivism built into it. If you install the browser extension, you’ll raise money for charities simply by browsing the internet. Heck, why not?

Who had the best segue?

Vote! Send us an email to feedback at deemable dot com or leave us a voicemail at 1-888-972-9868.

And, don’t forget to help us to decide what stories we talk about on the show, go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. deemable.com/reddit will take you there.

Photo credit: iPhone vs Android by nrkbeta.no is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0.

This week the guys are elated about the death of Internet Explorer, the low, low price of free to upgrade to Windows 10, (even if you never paid for Windows 7 or 8) and Mario, Zelda and the gang are finally coming to mobile phones, but not the way you want them to.

If you haven’t subscribed to Deemable Tech yet, get on it! Subscribe to Deemable Tech in iTunes, on Stitcher or subscribe to the show in another podcast reader. Make sure to leave us a review in iTunes and Stitcher. The more reviews we have the higher we’ll be listed, and the more listeners will see our show.

And make sure to share us on the forums, Facebook, Twitter and all over the interwebs.

Thank you to our Redditors who have been helping us decide what stories we talk about on the show. Go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. Deemable.com/reddit will take you there.

This Week’s Run Down

Windows 10 is free for everybody!

So, you may have heard of the latest version of Windows that Microsoft is working on releasing later this summer. If you haven’t, it’s called Windows 10. If you’re wondering why it’s called Windows 10 instead of… you know… Windows 9, it’s because of a little coding shortcut where programmers referred to Windows 95 and Windows 98 as – you guessed it – “Windows 9.”

Well, it turns out that Windows 10 is going to be FREE for everyone, well almost everyone.

Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s Windows chief to Reuters “We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10”

So that means, as long as you have a computer running Windows 7 or Window 8 or 8.1 you can install 10 on your computer, at no charge, even if you stole the version that’s on your computer right now.

The Death of Internet Explorer

Microsoft confirmed this week that Internet Explorer will not be the primary web browser in Windows 10. Yes, the venerable Internet Explorer, which has been a part of Windows since Windows 95, is being put out to pasture. It will still ship with the next version of Microsoft’s operating system for backwards compatibility reasons, but a new browser with the codename Project Spartan will be Microsoft’s flagship browser. Project Spartan’s real name has not been released yet but Microsoft says that it will not use the Internet Explorer branding.

Nintendo to develop mobile games

After years of speculation, Nintendo is moving into the mobile game market. They announced this week that they have partnered with Japanese mobile game giant DeNA to “develop and operate new game apps based on Nintendo’s intellectual property, including its iconic game characters, for smart devices.”

They were quick to point out that their primary focus will still be their game consoles like the Wii U and 3DS, and that these new mobile apps are intended to complement, not replace, those systems. In the same announcement, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said that a new console codenamed NX is development.

Unfortunately for those of us hoping this means we’ll be able to play classic Mario or Zelda games on our devices, Iwata also said that Nintendo’s plans do not include direct ports of console games. He cited differences between dedicated controllers and touchscreens as the reason.

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If you have a comment, contact us at feedback at deemable.com or leave us a voicemail at 1-888-972-9868.

Help us decide what stories we talk about on the show, go to our subreddit page and submit a story. Or vote other stories up or down. reddit.com/r/Deemable

Photo Credit: Internet Explorer, a web developers menace by Jorgen Kesseler is used under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Q: I heard you talking about Windows XP expiring. I don’t want to go to Windows 8, and I can’t find any new Windows 7 computers to buy. What do I do?

A: We’ve been talking about this a lot lately because Microsoft officially stopped supporting Windows XP on April 8, 2014. This means that, while you can continue using XP on your computer, Microsoft will no longer be doing anything to keep it up to date. There won’t be any new security updates or patches to keep hackers from finding new ways to break into the operating system. If you decide to stick with Windows XP, Microsoft is basically saying that you are now on your own. They recommend upgrading to Windows 8 instead.

The Start Screen in Windows 8 received a lukewarm response from some users.
Image credit: Microsoft

You didn’t say why you’re not interested in Windows 8, James, but we’re going to guess that it may have something to do with its user interface. Microsoft decided to completely get rid of the classic Start Menu with Windows 8, and replaced it with a Start Screen that was unlike anything else on the market. This made a lot of people unhappy because it was not what they were used to. It even made some people literally sick to their stomachs from motion sickness because the Start Screen slides from left to right while you’re using it.

We’re happy to report that Windows 8.1, the latest version, is much better in this respect. They’ve brought back the Start Button, and you can reduce the motion features associated with the Start Screen. According to rumors, Microsoft may just return to the classic Start Menu in the next version of Windows.

Unfortunately, James, you really can?t afford to wait for that to happen. And you’re not likely to find a new computer with Windows 7 on it because Microsoft no longer sells the rights to manufacturers to install it on new computers.

If you really want to go to Windows 7, you can still purchase copies of it from third party vendors like Amazon.com, NewEgg or TigerDirect, and install it yourself. This isn’t very difficult if you are just upgrading your old Windows XP machine. Just stick the disc in the drive and follow the instructions. Microsoft has gone to considerable lengths in the last few years to make Windows upgrades easy.

However, things get a little tricky if you’re looking to install Windows 7 on a new computer with Windows 8 already on it. To do this, you’ll have to completely remove Windows 8 from your computer first, which means formatting your hard drive and starting from scratch. This can be intimidating, so we recommend paying your friendly neighborhood computer guy to do it for you. He can probably get Windows 7 safely installed in an hour or two, and you’ll have some peace of mind knowing that it’s been done right.

Windows 8 Pro, which has been available as an upgrade for Windows XP, Vista and 7 users for only $39.99, will be jumping in price up to $199.99 after January 31st. The standard Windows 8 will be available for $119.99. However, if you purchased a Windows 7 PC after June 2nd of last year but before January 31st of this year, you have until February 28th to register for the Windows Upgrade Offer to receive the upgrade for $14.99. After that date, you’ll have to pay full price too if you decide to upgrade to Windows 8.

Why the 500% increase? The $39.99 was never intended to be permanent; it was a special offer to encourage early adoption. Depending on how you look at it, that may or may not have been successful. According to a report by web metrics firm Net Applications Windows 8 market share in December grew by 57% over November’s totals.

However that still leaves Windows 8 in 7th place in market share at a dismal 1.72%. This leaves Windows 8 trailing far behind Windows 7 at approximately 45%, Windows XP at 39% and even Windows Vista at 5% and Mac OS X 10.8, 10.7 and 10.6 at about 2% each. Compared to one month after Windows 7’s launch, Windows 8’s activation rate has been significantly lower, and Windows 7 did not have a drastic introductory price to drive sales. Time will tell of this is too soon to bring the price of Windows 8 up, or if consumers just decide that new operating system isn’t worth the higher price.

If you’ve been on the fence about upgrading to Windows 8, the time to make up your mind is now. If you wait until February 1st, you’ll have to pay an $80 or $160 procrastination fee. However, if you feel the same way the guy in this video feels, maybe it’s worth the wait. Caution, some language NSFW.

Source: Windows Team Blog via The Verge

Do you think that Windows 8 will continue to grow in market share and over take Windows 7 and XP, or do you think that Windows 8 is going to be left out in the cold, especially after the price jump? Will Windows 8 be the new Windows Vista? Let us know in the comments down below.

We’re back and we’ve got spam! Yes, folks, even we here at Deemable Tech get spam now and then. But, this is a new kind of spam scam, so tune in to find out more about it so you don’t fall victim to it. Also, we have our predictions for 2013 in the tech industry, and we have apps to help you keep your New Year’s resolutions. And one listener wants to know, can a laptop be used as a desktop? All that and more, on this episode of Deemable Tech!

Make sure to subscribe to the show in iTunes by clicking here, or subscribe to the show in another podcast reader by clicking here. Also, make sure to leave us a review in iTunes. The more reviews we have the higher we’ll be listed in iTunes and the more listeners will see our show!

Need tech help? Got a problem or tech question about your computer, phone or tablet? Give us a call and leave us a voice mail at 904-372-3336 (DEEM), or send us an email to questions at deemable dot com. We’ll take the best questions and answer them on the show.

Episode 25 – Single-Handedly Fixing New Year’s Resolutions and 2013 Tech Predictions!

What are your resolutions for 2013, and what apps are you using to keep track of them? Also, do you have any tech predictions for 2013? Tell us in the comments down below!

Deemable Tech – Episode 13 – Online dating makes me paranoid

Debunkable:

Links we mentioned on today’s show:

• Carbonite vs Mozy
• Setup a bulletproof automated backup system with CrashPlan.
• 5 best offline backup tools
• Java.com
• Should you disable Java on your computer? MSNBC
• Slate – Why you should disable java on your browser right now
• Mashable – Why ?Slacktivists’ Are More Active Than You Think
• http://blog.okcupid.com/

Bumper Music

• 8 Bit Remix: Mission Impossible Theme

• 8 bit James Bond

Yesterday, both Nokia and Motorola announced their latest flagship phones, the Lumia 920 and the Droid RAZR HD respectively. Both of them seem like they will be quite impressive phones when they come out. The question that wasn’t answered at either of these press conferences is, when are they being released?

Kobo did the same thing today. They beat Amazon to the punch by announcing two new e-readers and a new 7-inch Android tablet hours before Amazon’s event scheduled for later today. They didn’t provide a specific launch date for the Arc, the Android tablet, but at least they gave us prices and told us what month it was coming out.

Why is it that Apple and Amazon seem to be the only companies able to wait until a product is ready to be sold before they announce it? Nothing, and I mean, NOTHING, is more excruciatingly frustrating as a consumer and a tech enthusiast than to listen to an entire announcement about an amazing product, only to be left hanging, waiting for the two most important details: when can I buy it, and how much does it cost? Does announcing a product before the company has even decided how much they are going to charge for it actually help to increase sales? I know that beating Apple out of the gate has to be good idea, but announcing a phone or tablet without a price or a launch date is like jumping the gun and then tripping and falling on your face. You’re not going to win the race, even if you are a better runner. In my humble opinion, announcing a product before it is ready to be launched screams insecurity. Your company is saying that you really don’t think you can compete head-to-head with another company’s product, so you have to announce yours first, or you’ll lose in the long run. That doesn’t make me want to buy your product. That makes me want to kick you in the shins.

I’m done.

End rant.

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With over 750 million users worldwide, online companies are taking aim at Facebook to fight for consumers’ time and advertising dollars, but Facebook doesn’t plan on backing down anytime soon. Amidst the notable launch of Google+, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced last week that Facebook would be launching “something awesome” this week during a press conference for media members. The news event will take place tomorrow at Facebook’s headquarters located in Palo Alto, California.

While touring the company’s 40-person engineering campus in Seattle, Zuckerberg said that the announcement would be about something that was developed there at the site – which plays a major role in the mobile arena for Facebook. Although there are numerous rumors regarding the announcement, it is speculated that the company will either be launching the long-anticipated Apple iPad app or new features such as a photo-sharing app and video-chat powered by Skype. The two well-known brands, Facebook and Skype, have already entered into a partnership that integrates the social media outlet with clients for Skype. When Skype was purchased by Microsoft in May, the connection between Facebook and Skype became even more entrenched, as Microsoft bought a $240 million piece of the Facebook pie in 2007.

Facebook has taken its own steps in trying to make any transition to Google+ more difficult by blocking Facebook Friend Exporter, a Google Chrome extension that let’s users extract contact information their friends have shared with them via Facebook and import them elsewhere. After Google+ was announced last week, one of the first to create an account was Mark Zuckerberg – who ironically has the most followers… even more than Google CEO Larry Page.

Photo by Doug Gross via CNN