OK, so we don’t really talk about Jurassic World on this episode. But Ray, Tom and Sean DO discuss some of the week’s tech news, including California’s new rules for Uber, the annual E3 video game trade show and more. Ray also reviews the food replacement product Soylent. All of that and more on this week’s Deemable Tech!

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THIS WEEK’S RUN DOWN

California commission rules that Uber drivers are employees

In what could be a major, precedent-setting decision for the so-called ?sharing economy,? the California Labor Commission has ruled that ride-sharing company Uber?s drivers are employees, not independent contractors. Uber has claimed that it is a logistics company and that drivers and passengers merely use its app to facilitate transactions.

However it seems that the Labor Commission took issue with this representation. It said that Uber controls the tools drivers use, monitors their approval ratings, and will terminate drivers whose approval ratings fall too low or who go too long without taking fares. The commission was ruling on the appeal of a labor commissioner?s award of $4,000 to Barbara Ann Berwick of San Francisco, who worked about two months for Uber last year.

If this ruling stands it could have huge consequences for Uber, currently valued at $40 billion. Uber is appealing the ruling.

European court rules news website liable for anonymous comments made on it

It?s a generally held legal principle that websites are not liable for offensive or infringing content users post on them if they remove that content when notified about it. In a surprising reversal, the European Court of Human Rights ruled this week that an Estonian news site called Delfi could be held responsible for anonymous and allegedly defamatory comments left on it. This goes against the existing European Union e-Commerce directive, which essentially has a version of the American DMCA. The court found the comments to be ?extreme? and Delfi?s efforts to control them to be insufficient – thus the ruling.

It?s not immediately clear what the effects of this ruling are. It doesn?t seem to change existing law, but could guide future European laws regarding what sort of content website operators can and cannot be held liable for.

LastPass hacked

If you use LastPass, and you haven?t changed your master password, stop listening to this podcast and do it RIGHT now. Seriously! Earlier this week, on its website LastPass announced it had detected an intrusion. Don?t panic, but the hackers did get email addresses, password reminders, and authentication hashes. So, that could be used to access your account.

The good news is, as we have said before, LastPass has multiple layers of encryption and it?s likely that no account data was lost in the breach. That being said, you must go change your LastPass master password, right now if you didn?t already do it, and it would be smart to set up two-factor authentication. We?re including a link in the show notes to Lifehacker?s article showing you how to do that if you?ve never done it before.

The FTC takes legal action against Kickstarter creator

One of the big stories of the internet over the last couple of years is crowdfunding campaigns, where sites like Kickstarter and IndieGogo allow people to back projects they?re excited about financially. Unfortunately, not all of those projects are on the up-and-up. Last week the FTC reported that it had taken its first legal action against a crowdfunding campaign – a Kickstarter-based project to create a board game called ?The Doom That Came To Atlantic City.? The FTC says that would-be creator Erik Chevalier had asked for $35,000 and wound up raising over $122,000 from 1,246 backers. Most of the backers pledged $75 or more in hopes of getting a backer reward that included pewter figurines. 14 months later, however, Chavalier had not provided any rewards and announced he was cancelling the game and would be refunding the money. No refunds were ever given.

The FTC has settled with Chevalier, forbidding him from ?making misrepresentations about any crowdfunding campaign and from failing to honor stated refund policies. He is also barred from disclosing or otherwise benefiting from customers? personal information, and failing to dispose of such information properly.?

Backers hoping for their money back are out of luck, though. The FTC would make Chevalier pay it back if he had it? but it appears that he doesn?t. It appears that the first rule of crowdfunding campaigns is still in full effect: let the buyer beware.

AT&T fined $100 million

The FCC won?t let AT&T be, or let AT&T be AT&T so let me see. The FCC is hitting AT&T with a $100 Million dollar fine for telling customers they had unlimited data, when in fact they were throttling them when they hit an undisclosed limit.

Travis LeBlanc, the chief of the FCC Enforcement Bureau said in a statement “Unlimited means unlimited. As today?s action demonstrates, the commission is committed to holding accountable those broadband providers who fail to be fully transparent about data limits.”

On average, affected subscribers were throttled for 12 days a billing cycle. The fine is a drop in the bucket compared to the billions of dollars AT&T has made from its so-called ?unlimited? plans. However, it is the largest fine proposal in the history of the FCC. The Federal Trade Commission also has a pending lawsuit against AT&T for the same issue.

SwiftKey vulnerability on Samsung Galaxy phones opens 600 million devices up to hacking

Another day, another hack that potentially affects millions. Security researchers at the BlackHat security conference in London have demonstrated that it is possible to exploit Samsung?s customized version of the SwiftKey keyboard to allow hackers to secretly gain access to the phone?s camera and microphones, text messages, memory, and to install malicious apps. It appears that Samsung grants the SwiftKey app high level privileges but makes no effort to encrypt updates to the software. The SwiftKey app is used on virtually all Samsung Galaxy phones, which means about 600 million devices worldwide. There?s not much users can do to make themselves safer at this time, other than to avoid unsecured wifi, and even this will not make them absolutely safe. Simply not using the SwiftKey keyboard will not help. The only real fix will be a patch from Samsung.

E3

This week is the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the annual trade show for the video game industry. This is where game makers announce new games and technology, as well as show off games that are currently in production.

There were many announcements and interesting things at this year?s E3, so we?re not going to be able to cover all of them today. In fact, we?re actually recording this episode on Wednesday, so there may have been more this week than we are even aware of. But we did want to mention two things we thought were cool, and they were both from Microsoft.

First, Microsoft announced that their Cortana digital assistant that can currently be found on Windows Phone will be coming to Android and the Xbox One. This means that you will be able to perform common tasks on your Xbox using voice commands. No firm release dates for these, but Microsoft did say that the Xbox One version will be out ?this fall.?

Microsoft also showed off their Hololens augmented reality headset live onstage at E3.

The Hololens — which Microsoft announced a while ago yet we?ve never talked about it — are holographic glasses that let you see and interact with virtual objects and environments as if they existed in the real world. Unlike virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift, the Hololens is transparent so you can see the actual world around you.

During their presentation this week, Microsoft demoed this technology using everyone?s favorite game, Minecraft. Explaining it verbally won?t do it justice, so we have included a video of the demonstration in the show notes at Deemable.com. The presentation begins with a Microsoft developer wearing a Hololens playing Minecraft using an Xbox controller on a virtual screen on the wall he was looking at. He then gets up, stares at a table on stage and says ?Build World.? This results in the Hololens building a three dimensional version of the Minecraft world on top of the table, which the developer can move around and look at from different angles. He can also manipulate things by using voice commands and gestures.

Polygon: Hololens hands-on review

Forbes: Hololens will cost significantly more than $400

St. Louis Cardinals allegedly hack the Houston Astros

Time to talk about SPORTSBALL!

The St. Louis Cardinals are being investigated by the FBI and the Justice Department for allegedly hacking the Houston Astros. What is a Cardinal or an Astro? A Cardinal is red birds that lives in Missouri and an Astro is a grey dog from the future that has a speech impediment. They get together to play sportsball with a baseball bat.

Why did the Cardinals hack the Astros? I have no idea. Were they trying to get secret sportsball techniques? Maybe. According to the New York Times, the database that was hacked contained statistics and values about the players and potential recruits.

The ?hack? looks like it was as complicated as using crappy passwords. Jeff Luhnow, who is now the Astro?s general manager was an executive at the Cardinals until 2011. He took some of the front office personnel from the Cardinals when he left. Investigators compared a list of passwords used by the staff when they worked for the Cardinals and they apparently used the same ones at the Astros.

REVIEW

Ray shares his experience with the food replacement product Soylent.

Image credit: Soylent

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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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If you spend a lot of time on social media, you may have noticed a fair number of ads for subscription boxes on your feed. The trend of companies offering monthly packs of curated products has steadily grown over the past several years, and you can now find sites offering boxes of everything from specialty dog treats to designer makeup shipped directly to your door. I’ve always wondered how well these services work and if they’re worth the price, so I decided to try some of them out.

What Is It?

The first subscription box I’m reviewing (chosen at random) is Loot Crate, which according to their website is a “monthly gear and swag club for those that live and embrace the geek and gaming lifestyle.” This box (or crate, as they call it) is aimed at fans of such things as comic books, video games and superhero movies. I fit squarely into this demographic (read: I’m a geek).

Loot Crate’s July 2014 “villains” box. Check out those awesome Deadpool socks. Image credit: Loot Crate

Each month, Loot Crate ships a “product discovery” box filled with items like toys, shirts and gadgets picked by their staff and centered around a particular theme. For example, the “villains” themed crate for July 2014 (seen above) included among other things a Joker shirt, a Darth Vader keychain and a pair of Deadpool socks. They often use a lot of licensed products from popular brands like Marvel, DC, Nintendo and Star Wars, so their crates usually offer broad appeal.

Loot Crate provided me with their August 2014 box to review. Following the previous month’s “villains” theme, this one was appropriately centered around “heroes.”

Loot Crate’s August 2014 “heroes” box. Image credit: Loot Crate

What’s In It?

• Funko Pop! Guardians of the Galaxy Groot bobblehead doll – Funko’s Pop! line of vinyl figures and bobbleheads consists of super cute versions of many popular characters – everything from Disney princesses to horror movie icons –  that have giant heads and huge eyes. Groot, if you don’t know, is one of the characters from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy comic and blockbuster movie. Put these two things together, and you have one adorable bobblehead. As an added bonus, this Loot Crate exclusive version of the figure glows in the dark.

Sidebar: I have to say that I would have liked this box even more if it were themed entirely around Groot. I love Groot. I didn’t know anything about the character before seeing the film, but now I can’t get enough of him. I would have been on board for a full “Groot Crate” (I’ll be here all week!).

• Kidrobot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Ooze Action mini-figure – Based on the Nickelodeon show, these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures are about three inches tall, have disproportionately large heads and include their weapons of choice as accessories. Each box included a random choice out of the four Turtles; I received Raphael and his trusty twin sai. These figures are also glow-in-the-dark.

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sunglasses – These glasses, made to look like the Turtles’ trademark bandannas, were also different with each box. Because I’m color blind, I assumed the pair I got were red to go along with the Raphael figure. However, my Deemable Tech colleagues have informed me that they are in fact supposed to be Michelangelo’s orange mask. Either way, I’m wearing them as I type this.

• Shwings – These “wings for your shoes” accessories come in a variety of shapes and colors, and you attach them to your shoes by lacing through them. I received a gold foil pair of lightning bolts that kind of remind me of The Flash, but sadly don’t make me run any faster.

• Video game air freshener – Again, it appears that which air freshener was in your box was chosen at random. The picture on Loot Crate’s site shows a Mega Man themed one. I received a Sonic the Hedgehog air freshener in the shape of the hedgehog himself. The packaging lists the fragrance as being “Sonic Breeze,” which reminds me of a “fresh rain” or “mountain stream” scent. I have to wonder, though, do they mean this is what it smells like when Sonic runs past you? If so, that adds a whole new layer to those games.

• “Digital loot” card – This card includes three codes for various apps and PC games: a full Steam download code for the PC game Defense Grid: The Awakening; a special character unlock code for the Doctor Who Legacy app; and a special level unlock code for the PC game Gauntlet.

• Deadpool magnet – Based on the world of Marvel’s Deadpool (aka Wade Wilson aka the Merc with a Mouth), this magnet was designed to look like a box of “Wilson’s Chimichang’Os” cereal, “the breakfast of anti-heroes!” What are “Chimichang’Os,” you ask? Well, they appear to be chimichangas in a bowl of milk. That’s Deadpool for you.

• Loot Crate button – A special button for this month’s theme includes an illustration of heroes like Mega Man, Captain America and Batman.

• Loot Crate magazine – This booklet features articles and activities tailored to each month’s theme (among others, the August one included an article on the origins of several popular comic book and video game heroes). It also contains descriptions of all of the items in the crate.

Loot Crate’s box is about the size of a small shoe box, so I was surprised by the amount of stuff they were able to fit in it. The inside of the box is designed (at least for this month) to resemble the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ sewer home, and served pretty well as a display for the TMNT mini-figure.

How Much Does It Cost?

Loot Crate offers three choices of subscription plans:

• Recurring one month subscription for $19.37 per month (includes shipping and handling).

• Recurring three month plan for a total of $55.11 up front (includes shipping and handling).

• Recurrently six month plan for a total of $105.99 up front (includes shipping and handling).

Loot Crate advertises that the products in each box have a total retail value of $40 or more. From my calculations, this crate had at least $70 worth of items (based on current Amazon.com prices). Subscribers are also entered into a monthly drawing for a “Mega Crate” valued at over $750.

Verdict

Part of the allure of this type of “mystery box” subscription is the surprise factor of not knowing what you’re going to get. Unfortunately, that surprise factor can also mean your satisfaction with the the box could vary from month to month depending on your personal taste. While I really liked the selection in this Loot Crate box, I can imagine not being interested in another month’s theme or items. Because of that, I don’t know if I could ever commit to one of the more expensive plans they offer (especially since you have to pay for it all at once). I would, however, consider paying for the monthly subscription.

Overall, I was quite satisfied with Loot Crate. I would recommend it for anyone who likes this particular slice of pop culture, or enjoys these types of collectibles. For the price and the value of the items included, I think it is a good deal.

And if you’re reading this, Loot Crate: please consider my “Groot Crate” idea, OK?

I’ll leave you now with a picture of me wearing those Shwings.

Oh yeah. Stylish.

This week we did things a little differently on Deemable Tech and actually didn’t answer any questions! Ray and Tom are both back in the studio following almost a month of holidays, illnesses and no shows. After catching up and making sure everyone is feeling better (spoilers: they are!), they’re joined by producer Sean Birch to play a round of geeky trivia we’re calling DOES NOT COMPUTE.

Then all three review some new tech gadgets, including the bug bite itch relief instrument Therapik, the Jabra HALO2 Bluetooth headphones and the Lifeproof Fre iPad Mini case.

Remember, we are prepping for the first Deemable Tech hour-long radio episode. Get your calls in at 1-888-972-9868 to “audition” for the show!

#55 Reviews! Reviews! Reviews!

TRANSCRIPT

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

TOM: I’m Tom Braun,

RAY: and this is Deemable Tech. 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: Got a question about your computer, smart phone, tablet or the Internet? You can give us a call us at One Eight Eight Eight, Nine Seven Two, Nine Eight Six Eight, or send us an email to questions@deemable.com.

TOM: Well we?re back after quite a long break. Let?s address the elephant in the room. Ray, what happened?

RAY: Well, I had major surgery!

TOM: Today on the show we?re changing things up a little.

RAY: Right, we are going to be doing fewer questions. We?ve realized that the people who listen to our podcast and the people that listen to our radio segments on NPR are not necessarily the same people.

TOM: With all due respect to any radio listeners out there, the typical podcast listener is a little more tech savvy. And we want to make this podcast more interesting for you guys. We don?t have a specific plan. Instead we?re going to try different things. And if you have suggestions for things you?d like to hear us try, let us know. Questions@deemable.com.

RAY: Well, later on in the show, we have some cool tech products to review, but before we jump into that, what do we have on the docket first, Tom.

TOM: We?ve come up with a segment called DOES NOT COMPUTE. I?ve compiled some quiz-show style questions about tech facts, things that the average user may not know. I?m going to ask Ray joined by our producer Sean Birch some of these questions and we?ll see how they do.

Where did the word robot originate from?

Ken Olsen, the founder of DEC, said in 1977, ?There?s no reason for any individual to have a ____ in their home.?

What is the only sport played on the moon?

In a vacuum light travels at 670 and a half million MPH. Harvard scientists recently used slowed a beam of light down to what speed?

How many bytes are there in a kilobyte?

Reviews

Therapik Bug Bite Itch Relief Gadget

Jabra HALO2 Bluetooth Headhpones

Thanks for all your questions, and keep them coming. Call us at our toll-free number, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email at questions@deemable.com. Also, subscribe to the show! Search for Deemable Tech on iTunes, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and follow us or subscribe.

Our producer is Sean Birch. I’m Ray Hollister, I’m Tom Braun, and this is Deemable Tech. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.