If Google can do it, we can too! The title of this episode is this GIF.

This week the guys geek out over Tesla adding an autopilot feature to their electric cars, mourn the death of TigerDirect retail stores, and wonder if they can follow in Google’s footsteps and communicate purely through GIFs. Plus, Ray shares his thoughts on the Cogito smartwatch.

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This Week’s Run Down

Tesla Announces Software Update for Cars Which Adds “Autopilot” Feature

Tesla CEO Elon Musk held a press conference this week at which he announced that late model Teslas will be getting a software update that will give them a new feature called ‘autopilot.’ The autopilot feature will bring ordinary Tesla electric cars that much closer to being self-driving, enabling them to stay in their lane on a well-marked highway without driver intervention. Musk claimed that the autopilot technology would enable to a driver to make it from San Francisco to Seattle without steering.

Musk also announced a feature called Range Assurance which will alert Tesla drivers when the charge in their car is getting too low to make it to the nearest charging station.

$10 Million Target Credit Card Data Breach Settlement Gets Preliminary Approval

You probably remember the massive data breach that hit Target during the 2013 holiday season where tens of millions of credit cards were stolen right out of their systems. A class action lawsuit was filed and now Target is preparing to settle? for $10 million dollars.

If that amount seems low to you, it is because Target is not going to do the usual thing and send five dollars to every customer whose card number was stolen. Instead, card holders can only be reimbursed if they can show that they were actually hurt by the data breach. They need to have had fraudulent charges placed on their card that they were not reimbursed for, that negatively affected their credit score, or show that they spent a lot of time and money resolving the problem, or that it harmed them in some other way.

The proposed settlement is only preliminary, and members of the class action suit have until November 10th to object.

RadioShack Puts Customer Data Up for Sale in Bankruptcy Auction

RadioShack is on the auction block this week as its creditors attempt to sell the company?s assets – this apparently includes a large chunk of customer data, including 65 million customer names and physical addresses and 13 million email addresses. Consumer advocates are concerned, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claims it may be illegal under state law. Texas does not allow companies to violate their own privacy policies and signage in RadioShack promises that they will not sell their private mailing list.

AT&T is also opposing the sale of data because they say RadioShack is not entitled to personal information it collects from wireless sales. AT&T wants the data destroyed to keep it from falling into competitors hands.

A bankruptcy court still has to approve the deal.

TigerDirect Closing Retail Stores

Speaking of defunct electronic stores, remember Circuit City… CompUSA… Ultimate Electronics? Well, TigerDirect bought them in the late aughts. Well, now TigerDirect is joining them in the electronic retail store afterlife. Two of the former executives for TigerDirect were recently sentenced to 60 and 80 months in jail for a kickback scheme that cost the company $27 million. Apparently that hurt the company enough that the company decided to close all by two retail stores.

It makes me sad because TigerDirect was a “dot com boom” success story. They actually started as a catalog company, but transitioned into internet sales early. When all of the retail computer stores started dying, TigerDirect was holding strong, and they bought up the stores and their IP and entered the retail market. They did a fantastic job of turning stores like CompUSA and Circuit City, which were known for fancy displays and overpriced electronics, into stores with smart employees, simple displays and prices that competed with the Internet.

TigerDirect is going to continue selling computers, electronics and computer components on its website.

No word yet if NewEgg is planning on buying its stores, but that would be the perfect irony.

Facial Recognition Software Leads To Arrest of Jacksonville Man Who Faked His Own Death

Another thing the internet has ruined: faking your own death. Jacksonville businessman Jose Lantigua had been reported dead in Venezuela two years ago. But when he attempted to apply for a new passport under his new, false identity the US State Department used facial recognition software to match him to his original identity in their database. Federal agents then set up a sting operation and caught him wearing a brown toupee and ?a poorly dyed beard.?

Lantigua is wanted on numerous counts of insurance fraud, since his family attempted to collect on his life insurance policy after his death. The insurance company has long viewed this with suspicion.

Google Responds to Reporter with GIF Instead of “No Comment”

This week, Daily Dot writer Richard Lewis published a story about YouTube reportedly planning to relaunch its livestreaming platform with a focus on computer gaming and esports. This is similar to Twitch, which Google tried to buy last year before it ended up being purchased by Amazon.

Lewis reached out to Google for a comment on the reports, and they apparently responded with something only Google could get away with. Instead of the usual “no comment,” the representative sent Lewis this animated GIF of a little girl shrugging. No text, just the GIF.

Lewis at first assumed that this was a joke, and said that he received a “no comment” response from Google in his story. The same representative sent another message saying that the GIF was, in fact, their official response.

Reviews

Ray shares his thoughts on the Cogito swartwatch this week.

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As title alludes to, we are doing things different. Deemable Tech is rebooting, and starting version 2.0.

Starting now, if you have a question about your computer, smart phone, tablet or the Internet, well you won’t hear us answer it here. We will still answer your tech questions, but we are not going to answer them on the podcast. At least, not on this podcast. We are now doing a separate podcast called Ask Deemable Tech. If that’s what you love, go subscribe to that podcast. Search iTunes for “Ask Deemable Tech”

From here on out, on this show, Deemable Tech, we are only going to talk about tech news and do gadget and app reviews. If that’s not your thing, and you don’t enjoy talking about techy nerdy things, get out of here!

Seriously though, we are trying to make a show that is more targeted at what people want. Before we were doing things that appealed to people who were into tech, and we were also trying to do a show for people that didn’t like tech stuff. We think it just ended up appealing to nobody. But, we hope you like this show or our new show Ask Deemable Tech. And, if you like either show, we hope you share it with your friends who will also like it!

If you want to help 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. reddit.com/r/Deemable

Show Notes

FCC proposes classifying internet as public utility Yay! Net Neutrality!

• http://www.wired.com/2015/02/fcc-chairman-wheeler-net-neutrality/
• http://gizmodo.com/fcc-chief-yes-lets-reclassify-the-internet-and-save-n-1683726815
• http://www.cnet.com/news/fcc-chairman-wheeler-to-use-utility-style-rules-to-enforce-net-neutrality/

Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission published an op-ed this week on Wired.com saying that the Internet should be regulated as a public utility, and the Internet subsequently exploded.

Wheeler said, ?Broadband network operators have an understandable motivation to manage their network to maximize their business interests. But their actions may not always be optimal for network users.?

Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht found guilty

• http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/04/silk-road-creator-found-guilty-on-all-counts/

Silk Road was the black market website where narcotics like hallucinogenic mushrooms were sold. Silk road is probably best known for using, and giving a bad rep to, bitcoin. Silk Road used bitcoin because of its perceived untraceability.

Arrested during a surprise sting operation, Ulbrich was taken with his laptop open and logged into the Silk Road website under the username ?Dread Pirate Roberts?. This pseudonym is a nod to the film The Princess Bride in which the Dread Pirate Roberts is actually a title passed on by a series of masked individuals. At trial, Ulbricht claimed as his defense that he had in fact created the Silk Road but then passed ownership to another Dread Pirate Roberts who had then framed him. However, with a mountain of private messages, emails, bitcoin transactions and other evidence against him, the jury didn?t buy it. Ulbricht was found guilty and will face sentencing for money laundering, narcotics trafficking and computer hacking, among others.

Ulbricht could be facing life in prison for his crimes.

RadioShack about to file bankruptcy

• http://www.wired.com/2015/02/dear-radioshack-adored-love-wired/
• http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/hopes-radioshack-revival-fade-stock-delisted-28703886
• http://gizmodo.com/farewell-radio-shack-and-farewell-to-the-twentieth-ce-1683513865

A lot of analysts are predicting that RadioShack is about to file bankruptcy. Just this week, the New York Stock Exchange delisted RadioShack, and shares of its stock are suspended from trading.

RadioShack stopped being a place for nerds to buy computer components a long time ago, and tried to become a mobile device boutique store. People were turned off by high pressure sales tactics, and staff that wasn’t quite tech savvy.

They recently trying to get back to their nerdy way by selling Arduino kits and even hiring ?Weird Al? as a spokesperson. But ultimately, nerds know that the cheapest and easiest way to get the gadgets they want is to go online.

The rumor is that Sprint or Amazon is considering buying out the retail stores.

Insecurity of banks

• http://gizmodo.com/heres-why-your-bank-account-is-less-secure-than-your-gm-1683777281

Gizmodo did a story pointing out that Gmail is more secure than most major banks, or more to the point, most banks are less secure than Gmail. In other words, the place where you keep your spam, is more secure than the place where you keep your money.

If you use a bank, your bank is probably on this list. U.S Bank, American Express, HSBC, PNC Bank, Capital One, Suntrust, TD Bank, Simple, and Wells Fargo do not offer any sort of two-factor authentication. Only Bank of America and Chase offer SMS notifications for each login.

Instagram videos now loop… just like Vine videos

• http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/03/a-leaf-from-the-vine/

It looks like Instagram is taking another page out of Vine?s playbook. Vine, of course, is the app where you can upload and view really, really short (as in 6 seconds-long) looping videos that people post.

Instagram is the app that Facebook bought for the, then ridiculous amount of one billion dollars, where people post stupid pictures of their food with filters that make the pictures look like they were taken with a crappy, antique out of focus Polaroid camera.

Instagram added the ability to upload videos in June of 2013, and the only differentiating factor was that you could upload up to 15 seconds of video, and the videos didn’t loop.

The video feature on Instagram hasn’t really taken off, and apparently someone at Instagram believes that is because the video do not loop. So they fixed that. We’ll report later if anyone cares.

#Blanking

• http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Blanking&defid=8087006

There is a new meme that is getting popular. It’s called Blanking. According to Urban Dictionary. It is when…

someone posts a photo of a blank stare on someone’s Facebook page and Twitter feed with no explanation except for the hashtag #blanking or #blanked

Examples:

I wish Frank would quit blanking me.

He blanked me on Facebook last night, and I’m still freaked out.

Blanking is so much worse than duckface.

Deemable Tech 2.0 #blanking

Image credit: John Britton / Flickr

Q: Here’s a question about a lower-tech gadget. I have a Panasonic cordless telephone with a digital answering machine. Over the years, it has collected several messages that I’d like to archive. I don’t see any inputs or outputs for doing this. Is there a way to permanently store the messages on this answering machine digitally?

A: Your question would be a lot easier to answer if your phone wasn’t cordless. If your phone had a cord on it, you would only have to buy a mini recorder control from RadioShack to connect it directly to your computer or recorder so that you could record from it. But, there are three different ways that you can extract the voicemails from the answering machine.

The Caveman Way (or The Obvious Way)

Since it is cordless, you’ll have to transfer the messages wirelessly, using the oldest form of wireless communication: sound. Hold a the microphone of a recorder up to speaker of your answering machine. Press Record on the recorder, and press Play on the answering machine. Ta da! You have a mildly listenable digital recording.

The MacGyver Way (or The Hacker Way)

If you’re feeling a little handy, there is a another method that will give you a higher quality recording. (Disclaimer: This will destroy your answering machine. It will never function in the way it was intended to function again. You could also lose all of your voicemails in the process. Proceed with caution. Also, you may want to try recording them “The Caveman Way” first, just in case.)

First, you’ll need to get a speaker cable with a ? inch plug on one side and two bare wires on the other end. You need it to be long enough to reach from your answering machine to the back of your computer or to your recorder.

Once you have the wire, you’ll need to open the answering machine case. It usually only takes a few screws to open the case.

Now, look for the speaker. You may be able to see where the speaker before you open the case. It’s where the sound is coming out of the case.

Now that you have the case open, and you have found the speaker, you should see two wires connected to the speaker. Cut or remove them from the speaker.

Splice the wires from the answering machine together with the speaker cable. Never spliced wires before? Check out the previous link for a guide from Instructables.

Finally, plug the ? plug into the microphone port on your computer or recording device.

Now, if you are recording on your computer, fire up recording software like Audacity or GarageBand and press record. If you’re using a recording device, just press record. Then, press Play on the answering machine.

If you did everything right, you should be getting a digital recording of your voicemails that sounds better than anything you could have recorded “The Caveman Way.”

If you didn’t do everything right, then you have a useless pile of plastic and circuit board. Sorry about that!

The Safer Way (or The Nerdy Way)

Since your answering machine is a digital machine, it likely has a remote access feature. Find the manual for your answering machine, (Yeah, right. You can look up the manual for your answering machine on Panasonic’s website.) and find the instructions on how to access your answering machine remotely.

Once you know how to access it remotely, use a service like Google Voice to record the call.