Some of the changes in the tech space over this period included the increase in popularity of QR codes, working from in light of COVID and how electronic drivers licenses are now a thing, with organisations adopting their use slowly.

Our newish studios at the Victorian Pride Centre in St Kilda and some of their unique capabilities were examined. AI debuted on the show, reminding us that we were listening to Technogaze, which led to a discussion about AI, describing what a large language model was and how it provides answers to questions. We had a quick look at each of the major players in this space, including Apples unique run it on local hardware approach.

Always running out of time, we had a quick look at Microsoft Recall and NBN’s fibre rollout plans.

The post Weeeeee’re Back! appeared first on Technogaze.

The makers of RCS, the smartphone application designed to remotely turn on the phone’s microphone and collect other data which is used by many Governments around the world, were hacked. The Hacking Team, the name of the Milan based company, had 415GB of data leaked online. Some of it via their twitter feed. Details of a zero day exploit of Adobe Flash was part of the data leaked, prompting Adobe to release yet another patch to it’s software.

Lissa and Jason continue their chat about Women in Tech, from the perspective of a Teacher. They explore the differences between boys and girls and how each approach and use technology.

BBC Micro:bit

The BBC have revived the BBC Micro, this time in the form of the Micro:bit. The tiny circuit board, supporting a processor, a couple of switches, LEDs and powered by batteries will be given away to every Year 7 student across the UK. Supported by websites and teachers, the program hopes to lift student interest in computing beyond playing games and texting.

A German man, scanning the promotional QR code on his bottle of tomato sauce, reached a website that he was not expecting. The porn site had used a domain name that the sauce makers had let lapse.

The post Hacked Hackers, a bit of BEEB and Saucy QR Codes appeared first on Technogaze.

We partnered with Fender Bender to look into what was happening with Autonomous vehicles, beyond the usual Google related stories. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are starting to be included in more vehicles, with some supporting both products.

Mark and Jason were in Singapore for Pink Dot and filled us in on it’s origins. Google came under fire when it banned the app for Lesbian Magazine Curve for the second time – supposedly for breaching its explicit material provisions. Apple made history at WWDC with two women on stage for the first time – continuing it’s ongoing commitment to diversity.

WWDC included a slew of announcements with upgrades for OS X, iOS and Watch OS. Power management seems to be a focus with iOS with a new low power mode, able to eek out another 3 hours of use.

Despite all of that, we were fixated on the prototype oven that can recognise food and cook it so that even the humble bagel can have a crispy top and soft bottom.

The post Fender Bender, Pink Dot and Appleness appeared first on Technogaze.

On the Tech front, a specially crafted text message has been able to crash any iOS device. The bug, in a widely used Apple library, also affects OS X and the Apple watch.

Our tin foil crinkled loudly when we heard that a National Face Recognition System was to be setup as a joint project between various law enforcement agencies. Meanwhile, Interpol has chastised Australia as not supplying biometric data when requested. Citing disparate law enforcement agencies and multiple instances of red tape as a major blocker.

Android Auto, finally made it to its first production vehicle and Google I/O produced a slew a announcements. Amongst them the next iteration of Android – M. Incorporating fine grained app permissions as well as Doze mode.

The Kiwis are using the net to crowdsource finalists for a potential flag redesign should the upcoming referendum vote in favour of a flag change.

The post Radiothon, String of Death and Android Auto appeared first on Technogaze.

Uber made local news this week, pushing back against the Australian Tax Office’s stipulation that Uber drivers must charge GST like all other taxi drivers.  Some news for the aviation buffs as well, with a hacker declaring he has been able to gain access to the flight control systems of 20 different airliners while on-board.

Fernando and Behnaz joined us in the studio to talk about their research into video conferencing, focussing on the physical context, and determining whether we adjust our conversation based on our surrounds and the types of technology being used.

And finally, we had a go at Facebook’s “internet.org” campaign, and some timely (but non-legal!) advice for anyone who may be accused of downloading the Dallas Buyers Club illegally.

The post LG’s wallpaper display, taxing Uber, video conferencing research appeared first on Technogaze.

News of extraordinary numbers of Australians taking up Netflix surfaced during the week, placing it above industry stalwart Foxtel, only to be corrected; the numbers were a minor embellishment from an overzealous research company.

We did a rumours-round-up of the upcoming iPhone, and discussed failings of Russian Siri, which seems to consider the Russian word for “gay” as profanity. We also touched on Samsung’s latest watch offering, and the latest DDoS vector, aimed at home Internet routers.

The post WIndows 10, Anti-homophobic tech under Swedish waters, Netflix and Foxtel appeared first on Technogaze.

Tesla are leveraging their knowledge in batteries by releasing a line of batteries intended for home and business use to augment power from renewable energy sources. Advances in battery technology using aluminium will decrease charging time and extend the life of batteries. Don’t hop in the car just yet to go buy one as it’s likely to be a decade before these batteries are commercially available.

Journalist Ben Grubb has been victorious in getting access to his mobile data metadata from Telstra, after the Privacy Commissioner ruled in his favour – 688 days after he made his request. Telstra are likely to appeal this ruling.

Some people might not like the new Apple Watch, but one user who is blind and deaf thinks that it’s haptic feedback is a boon as she is able to navigate by the taps that she feels on her wrist.

The post Nano Pies, Aluminium Batteries and Metadata appeared first on Technogaze.

Traditional logistic methods are being challenged with a new drone capable of reforesting 1 billion trees a year and Amazon piloting deliveries to your car boot. Sweden’s Uppsala University is releasing DNA mapped sequences under Open Source licensing to make this information available to the scientific community.

Using every opportunity to enforce it’s anti-Gay laws, Russia has accused Apple of promoting Gay Propaganda when it included U2’s album in last years iTunes update. The cover of the album featured the bands drummer and son embracing, shirtless.

Backlash from the gaming community forced Valve to shutdown it’s Mods store. This was an attempt to monetise mods by selling them on their store and splitting revenue between the mod & game developer and Valve. They voluntarily shut down the store after 4 days of protest.

Wheelchair bound 73yo Stephen Hawking displayed a sense of humour when asked about Zayn Malik leaving One Direction.
[box]Stephen Hawking on Zayn Malik

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The post Apple’s Gay Propaganda, $mod and Zayn Malik appeared first on Technogaze.

We had Rune in the studio to find out more about National Youth Week. We asked her how young people are using technology and we got some insights in how the next generation are likely to relate to and use Technology.

Marvel Comics have revealed that X-Men character IceMan is gay in their latest edition with a story line that brings a young Bobby Drake into the future to reveal his story.

Meanwhile Twitter, who has admitted at being slow to combat harassment, has introduced new rules and tools to combat online bullying. Unfortunately this came too late for Jack Monroe, who as a prominent foodie and LGBTIQ identity was harassed after her support of the Greens and has abandoned the platform.

Our Ausdroidist, Jason Murray, joined us on the phone to talk about the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. Changes to Android Wear were made this last week and we looked at some it’s new features.

The post Mobilegeddon, National Youth Week & IceMan Cometh appeared first on Technogaze.

Robotics is an emerging technology, with drones being a very visible part of it. A new drone from Canada has some interesting features including the ability to fly a route under control and then let the operator ttweak its path, so that if you are shooting video or stills you end up with the perfect result.

Apple and Microsoft have just released new iterations of their portable devices with the lightweight

MacbokPro being criticised for it’s lack of ports – with its headphone jack and a single USB-C port for power and anything else you wish to use it with. The Surface 3 drops the need to run Windows RT  with its Intel processor running proper Windows and has generally be well received.

Jawbone have released an NFC equipped fitness tracker that you can use instead on your credit card and Ikea is rolling out smart furniture that will wirelessly recharge your phone.

However, nothing prepared us for the soft 3D printed bunny.

The post Printing Bunnies and Watching Apple as we Droned Along appeared first on Technogaze.

As usual there was a lot to talk about. With .com power being applied in Indiana to force changes to a new law that allowed discrimination against members of the LGBTIQ community. Specifically the changes remove the right to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation/and or gender identity – regardless of your religious beliefs. A similar law in Arkansas has been held up, when its Governor refused to proclaim it.

In Australia the Senate passed the Mandatory Data Retention Legislation with dissent coming from Independents and the Greens. Protection of Journalistic metadata exists in name only, despite assurances from senior politicians and Malcolm Turnbull kindly offered advice on how to avoid having your metadata captured by the new laws.

Netflix launched in Australia and New Zealand, prompting its competitors to launch or relaunch similar offerings. Netflix customers on iiNET and Optus will be happy with the un-metering of the traffic. The same cannot be said of all the other non-Netflix customers on those ISPs who saw the performance of the network overall drop as thousands flocked to the new streaming service.

The post Scratchy Transmitter, .com Power, Netflix and Data Retention appeared first on Technogaze.

Rumours are swirling around that the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (estimated to be worth USD $20bn) is gearing up to begin manufacturing its very own gaming console, to take on Microsoft’s XBox and Sony’s Playstation ecosystems.  Sony has decided to stand up to the hacking and threats of terrorist acts over the release of its recent movie “The Interview” – with select cinemas across the US deciding to screen the movie afterall, and a further online release on Google, Microsoft and Sony movie services.

Back in the land down under, the Australian government, in an effort to understand the impact of its proposed data retention laws, has released a questionaire to ISPs, requiring them to complete a response in 14 business days.

And finally, the French are up in arms over use of the acronym “LOL”, declaring that full word phrases such as “mort de rire” are best use of the language of romance.

Tune in next week as it’s our final week before a three month break!

The post Apple CEO Tim Cook donates to GLBTIQ campaign, Alibaba’s rumoured gaming console, photo sharing apps appeared first on Technogaze.

The Sony Pictures hack continues to make news, with threats of violence against the screening of the movie The Interview behind the cancellation of its release. The US Government is officially pointing the finger at North Korea and news sources continue to report on details of leaked documents. Sands Casino in Las vegas was also attacked earlier this year by Iranian hacktivists following anti-Iran remarks by the the Casino’s CEO.

Microsoft is now accepting Bitcoin to top up your Microsoft Wallet and the NBN has reached new agreements with Telstra and Optus to take ownership of existing copper and cable infrastructure instead of scrapping it.  Telstra is also in the running to maintain these networks on an ongoing basis.

The Technogaze team wish everyone a Happy Holiday!

The post NBN, Hackathon, Bitcoin and News appeared first on Technogaze.

Telstra have launched their WiFi anywhere product allowing existing Bigpond customers to get access to WiFi hotspots in commercial areas and to piggy back off other Bigpond customers when not at home. A similar product by Comcast in the US has recently seen one home owner sue for placing a “vast” burden on electricity bills.

Google is the latest tech company to recognise the Trans* community by moving away from a male/female gender identification and allow individuals to self-identify and select the pronoun that Google+ will use when referring to them.

Apple is in court, looking likely to win a 10 year old anti-trust case involving deleting non iTunes store music from a consumers iPod but has lost the right to Trade Mark the words App Store in Australia.

In a lighter note, Barack Obama has been nicknamed the Coder In Chief after writing his first Java line of code – moveForward(100);

The post Pollies Dictionary, Google Gender and Coder In Chief appeared first on Technogaze.

Apple became the first business in the world to reach a market capitalisation of $US700bn with 3 of the largest 4 companies being in the IT sector. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the World Wide Web has called on politicians to learn how to code. This he says, will aid them in their policy decisions once they have a better understanding of how technology works.

The EU restates its position against monopolies by calling on Google to be broken up – separating its Search Engine business from the rest of the organisation. Although voted on by the EU Parliament, the group has no power to enforce their decision. In what appears to be state sponsored spying software, in a similar vain to Stuxnet, security researchers have discovered new malware that has been hidden since 2008. Infecting primarily computers in Russia and Saudi Arabia, it has been found mainly at ISPs and Telcos.

In what is a worrying finding, the report into the murder of British Fusilier Lee Rigby accused Facebook of “providing a safe haven for terrorists” because they did not alert the security services to a threat by one of his murderers. By contrast, a former director of MI6 has said Facebook would not have the resource to monitor all posts, nor would the security services be able to respond to the avalanche of data that this would result in.

A more efficient polarising filter is set to extend the battery life of smartphones as it allows more light through – compared to filters in use today. The subsequent reduction in brightness needed to illuminate the display will offer significant battery savings as well as improve low light performance of the camera.

The post Happy Birthday JOY, a $700bn Apple and Spying Malware appeared first on Technogaze.

The G20 was on everyone’s lips this weekend, with potential threats of hacking manifesting itself with Australian media organisations being targeted supposedly by Chinese interests.  It appears that the Chinese President wants to know what questions will be asked of him. Meanwhile, Queensland University researchers are geoparsing tweets to determine how disruptive the G20 is to residents and participants.

A recent study by a peak Telecommunications lobby group has found that Australians will pirate less content if it was more readily available and cheaper.  Coincidentally, Foxtel has recently cut its pricing, so it will be interesting to see the impact on subscriptions and illegal downloading.

Lissa joined the group to talk about her recent woes in upgrading from Windows 7 to 8.1 which was in stark contrast to her experience in upgrading OS X.  In further Apple news, they finally have provided a solution to SMS’ not being delivered when people move away from iPhones to another platform.  This coincides with a class action being launched against Apple on this issue – 3 years after it first came about.

In news that has excited the Microsoft development community, Microsoft have announced the open sourcing of its .NET platform, which will also mean that it will run on other operating systems – not just on Windows.

What is JOY’s loss is NZ’s gain, as we farewelled Technogaze regular Raena as she embarks on her next adventure.

The post Vixen Panda, Open Source .NET and Farewell to Raena appeared first on Technogaze.

Mac Malware spreading from OSX to iOS devices is infecting some users that are downloading OSX software from dodgy sites.  Unfortunately the malware has well formed security credentials so that the iOS devices believe it is software from the App store.

Meanwhile Spain has imposed the Google Tax on news aggregators by charging them to display news items from newspapers.  A similar move in Germany failed when traffic to newpapers dropped dramatically after they were no longer included in Google News aggregation.

New sexting laws in Victoria aim to stop sending of images of others without permission and to punish people who threaten to send revealing images.  Telstra have launched a faster 4G network and we looked at the new version of Safari for Yosemite.

The post Sexting, Google Tax and Mac Malware appeared first on Technogaze.

iiNet is heading to court to protect the privacy of its customers by refusing to give up customer details to a complaining copyright holder.  Facebook has gone down the pseudonym path in its implementation of Rooms, their latest chat app where you can gather and chat in specific topic rooms.  Rooms are accessible by invite only.

UTS’ Magic lab has recruited Steve Wozniak as its newest teaching staff to work in the innovation space, whilst Apple’s first computer the Apple I recently sold at auction for more than $900,000.  iOS8.1 has just been released supporting Yosemite’s handover feature – so when some one calls your phone, your iPad and Macbook ring as well.

Samsang’s Knox sandboxing security software, that protects data, isn’t quite as secure as Fort Knox. It has an unprotected file aptly named, pin.xml, that holds enough information to break into the sandbox.  A fix is on the way.

HRH Queen Elizabeth II has just sent her first tweet.  Although it’s taken her a while to tweet, she was one of the first British civilians to send an email.

The post Elizabeth R Tweets, Woz in OZ and Hoverboards appeared first on Technogaze.

POODLE is the latest SSL vulnerability taking advantage of a technology that should have been retired long ago. Many websites are now likely to remove SSL 3.0 support which will result in applause from the tech community – as if a wooden stake was driven through the heart of IE6.

Chinese officials will tame the disorderly internet by prohibiting paid commentary. Affecting journalists and bloggers, the Government prefers that its own web commentators, the Wu Mao to guide public opinion on controversial issues.

The Tesla S D, for dual, has two motors to independently power the front and rear axles. Making the car super grippy it also improves driving range and allows the vehicle to go from 0-100 in 3.4 seconds. A software upgradeable Autopilot feature relies on in-built sensors, radar and camera to provide adaptive cruise control and in the future – a go-fetch feature where the car will come to you when you are ready to be collected. GM has changed tracks and will now support both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for its vehicles instead of trying to write its own ecosystem. Aftermarket Navdy is a Heads Up Display unit that can be fitted to any existing vehicle to provide emails, texts and navigation that hover 6 feet in front of the windscreen.

Ello, the ad-free social network, burst onto our consciousness a few weeks ago. According to Google trends, which provides feedback on how often terms are used in Google searches, the interest in Ello has waned as quickly as it had peaked. Could this be goodbye for Ello? Apple & Facebook have added freezing of womens eggs to the medical coverage that they provide to employees – augmenting a number of existing fertility treatments that are available.

Both Apple & Google released new products this week. The iPad and iPad mini range have been revamped with the iPad2 faster, lighter and cheaper. Whilst Android Lollipop will appear on the latest Google reference devices – the Nexus 6 phone and Nexus 9, iPad Air competitor, tablet.

The post Disorderly Internet, Fast Cars, Frozen Eggs and POODLE appeared first on Technogaze.

China has blocked access to privacy conscious search engine DuckDuckGo, extending the restrictions on Internet access in the country.  The NSA’s wide reaching powers to collect data can be traced back to the Reagan era and Google falls foul, yet again, to EU laws on the rights of people to decide how their private data is used.

The Greens are using Grindr to target pink voters – with ads appearing on the users app when they are in the St Kilda/Prahran area. Whilst in Egypt, Grindr users are being warned about entrapment by law enforcement agencies. Snowball is a new Android app that combines a number of different chat apps into a single location, so its easier to manage your chats.

Budgee the robot comes to your rescue when you have run out of hands.  Linked to your smartphone, Budgee is a bag on wheels that will follow you about, carrying your shopping.

The post DuckDuckGone, Pollies on Grindr and a Snowball’s chance .. appeared first on Technogaze.

This week saw the announcement of Windows 10, the replacement for Windows 8.  More of a morph between Win7 & Win8 this is likely to be the last major release from Microsoft with the company moving to smaller and more frequent incremental updates.

Facebook apologised to the GLBTIQ community over its handling of ‘non-real’ names and has adjusted its definition to names that people use on a daily basis – as opposed to their birth names.  What was Facebook’s loss when they kicked off so many users was new social network Ello’s gain.  Ello has promised not to have any advertising so as to protect people’s privacy by not selling user details to advertisers.

On a lighter note, Thailand has invented a food tasting machine to check the authenticity of Thai food made overseas.

The post Windows 10, Facebook Apology, Ello and Tax Avoidance appeared first on Technogaze.

Yahoo as an early investor in Alibaba has made a lot of money, but shareholder confidence is still waning.  And Eric Schmidt, the Google Chairman, was doling out advice to the Europeans on accepting disruption or face the peril of higher unemployment.

The world was #shellshocked by the latest bug found in open source linux.  Lying dormant for 22 years, the bug in the bash shell can be easily exploited by injection type attacks.  There was a lot of noise and probably less substance to the iPhone 6+ bending stories that have occupied the blogosphere this last week.

Australian ingenuity and fondness for a brew, combined in Queensland with QUT students fermenting leather like textiles.

The post Alibaba shellshocked into space on a bent phone appeared first on Technogaze.

Grindr’s privacy concerns came up again this week – where it turned out to be very easy to pinpoint the location who had their “distance” featured turned on.  Competitor Scruff responded with a very easy-to-follow explanation of the technological problem, and steps they took 1 year ago to ensure such a breach isn’t feasible on their app.

The post Aussie Community TV’s future in doubt, Apple made a small announcement, Scruff responds to Grindr privacy breach appeared first on Technogaze.

Paul Mignone from the University of Melbourne was in the studio talking about the upcoming 3D printing showcase.  He brought along a 3D printed head of Ned Kelly, made from his death mask, as well as a printed model of a patients bronchial tree that surgeons used to practice an upcoming surgery.  Paul refused to be drawn as to when we could expect to have a Star Trek type replicator.

The countdown to Sep 9 has truly begun with more rumours abound of the iWatch, iPhone screen sizes & NFC chips as well as possible new retina displays.  Samsung also released some new devices last week with the release of the Note 4, Galaxy Edge with the curved display, the Gear S watch and an Occulus VR that uses your phone as the snap in display.

In creepy stories, we looked at a promo video of a Google Glass app that analyses behaviour, blink rate, gender and so on.  Grindr’s location revealing api call was dramatically demonstrated by a developer who dynamically showed Grindr users plotted on a map.  Grindr’s response has been to turn off location identification in countries where it is illegal to be gay.  This led onto a more general discussion about technology and how it can be used, usually against women, to monitor and physicaliy track their location, to their detriment.  The  Domestic Violence Resource Centre has a program called Smart Safe, that aims to educate in how to detect and avoid such situations.

The post Ned Kelly, 3D printing, Apple Rumours and Creepy Apps appeared first on Technogaze.

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 has been released, the third iteration that the software company hopes to bring it into the more contemporary devices and platform world.

The editor of Aussie gaming site games.on.net published a very poignant statement on the importance of equality in gaming, and declaring that hatred towards females and minority groups is unwelcome on the forum.

And in government, our Attorney General George Brandis has been asked to put his data where his mouth is, with Australian Greens communications spokesperson – Scott Ludlam – requesting that he publish his own metadata to the Australian people, to demonstrate that there is no harm in revealing metadata in the way the government proposes.

And finally, we discussed a biometrically aware shirt – which will be used during this year’s US Open to monitor the wearer’s vital signs.

The post Worlds smallest 3G modem, Apple announcement coming soon, heart rate sensing tennis shirts appeared first on Technogaze.

Fresh from their indignation of Angela’s Merkals phone being spied upon by the US, it appears that the German intelligence service (BND – Bundesnachrichtendienst) have spied upon Hillary Clinton.  Angela Merkel is still waiting on the BND to delete the recording as instructed.

Telstra has been helping ASIO and police forces for some time in providing meta data about internet usage.  This includes URL’s and raises the question yet again about the proposed mandatory data retention laws.

Apple is looking at giving the humble mouse and USB plug a makeover and Secret, the app, is banned in Brasil as it violates it’s constitution.

The post The Internet is Full, Accidental Spying, Meta data and URLs appeared first on Technogaze.

We also discussed recent revelations that the city of Berlin has banned Uber from operating its hire car service within its jurisdiction.

We compared diversity in gender and minority groups amongst the big tech companies including Apple and Google.  And while on the topic of big tech, a US$350m settlement has been denied by the courts, forcing an imminent trial to thrash out accusations of a conspiracy to avoid poaching each other’s employees.

The post Telstra buys its way into media content delivery, Uber banned in Berlin, diversity in tech appeared first on Technogaze.

The whole Technogaze crew were fighting for the microphone when we looked at the Governments plans for ISP mandatory data retention.  Confusion over what constitutes meta data and what precisely falls under the data retention umbrella was shared equally across the media and Government members.

Jason’s ranty pants were thoroughly aired before we looked at plans by the Government to combat online piracy.  The Government is requesting submissions from the public on their discussion paper prior to 01-September.

MIT used chip packets and indoor plants to spy on conversations using an ordinary video camera, while London Buses are allowing customers to pay for their trips with their phones instead of an Oyster card.  Jason showed off his Android Wear watch and discussed some possibilities of dating app integration.

The post Ranty pants, Spy plants and Dating with your wrist appeared first on Technogaze.

The FBI have looked at the future of self driving cars.  Noting how this could help them in their surveillance activities but realising that self-driving bombs were now a possibility.  They did acknowledge that there would be a significant reduction in road traffic accidents.

Dave spoke about the Internet of Things – a topic close to his heart.  We looked at aspects of home automation, health & fitness, enthusiast access and questions about data ownership.

Amazon released more information about it’s plans to deliver goods via drones and they also came up with a novel approach to new French laws barring online retailers from offering free delivery on books.

The Finnish city of Helsinki is launching a pilot program to encourage its citizens to use private cars less and instead to use public transport, taxis and car sharing.  A new prototype finger reader is allowing vision impaired to listen to printed words.

The post Internet of Things, Finger Reader and China v Apple appeared first on Technogaze.

Russia’s been at it again, this time with laws passing their lower house of Parliament that require all data for Russian citizens to be stored on Russian soil.  Local Australian authorities have been accessing mobile phone tower data without any judicial oversight, and Facebook’s social experimentation is a little bit more prevalent than what we first thought.

Contraception meets technology as well, with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funding research into an implant enabling women to choose when the slow release hormonal treatment is released.  We also discussed how solar energy may actually be the solution to Australia’s power consumption problems.

The post 3D printed blood vessels, dumping data from phone towers, solar energy in Australia appeared first on Technogaze.

Depending on your perspective, Free Speech took a battering in New York State, where an individuals right to be protected from Cyberbullying has been removed.  This happened after its highest court struck down Anti-cyberbullying laws, introduced in 2010, stating that these laws encroached on First Amendment rights to Free Speech.

Facebook revealed that it conducted a mass mood manipulation experiment on 700,000 unsuspecting users.  It promoted negative or positive items in users news feeds to see what impact it had on a users mood.  It measured mood by looking at the content of subsequent posts.  Some Governments are looking into the legality of this experiment, but by in large the feedback from FB users was – underwhelming.

More tinfoil revelations that the NSA is targeting subversives that search about details on the TOR network or who visit a popular Linux Journal online.  TOR was designed to allow internet users anonymous access and ironically was initially sponsored by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

Bitcoin was legalised in the state of California with the repeal of a law that restricted trading to US Dollars only and in Australia, the ATO is still mulling over the tax status of the currency.  Whether it is classified as money or goods will have a profound impact on businesses trading in bitcoin and the delay in classification is potentially increasing risk for these traders.

Jason joined us on the phone to give us a detailed look into Google I/O.  Android Wear, the new version of Android designed for wearable devices, was a large focus of the event.  Three watches will initially support this new version of Android with a lot of excitement around the Moto 360, the watch with the round screen.  Android Auto was announced as a means of integrating a cars display with your Android phone.  Using the processing power of the phone and casting the display to the car screen, local gestures on that screen will be sent back to the phone. Minimising the work that the in-car device has to do, will future protect it as people will change their phones more often than they change their cars.

If you wanted an Oculus Rift, but find it hard to justify the cost, then Google Cardboard may be just what you were looking for.

The post Solar Power in Germany, Cyberbullying setback in NY State, Facebook Experiments on us and Google IO in Detail appeared first on Technogaze.

Google IO happened, and we discussed some of the stats and Android use presented in the keynote, and we touched on some of the new tech Google are looking to introduce on the Android platform.

And finally we discussed what not to do in your victims home if you are a burglar.

The post My Ex Boyfriend The Space Tyrant gets green lit, Google IO, 25 years of the Internet in Australia appeared first on Technogaze.

In Aussie politics, we discussed the zombie policy of going after Australian copyright infringers, being brought back to life by the Attorney General George Brandis.  And big media is crying foul, pushing back on the prospect of legislating against increased pricing for digital product delivery, threatening to leave the country if such laws are put into place.

Further research into teleportation is taking place, with some interesting outcomes, progressing us closer and closer to a world where we’ll one day be able to truly say “beam me up, Scotty”.

The post The Aus govt going after pirates, price gouging in tech, Iran makes Facebook illegal appeared first on Technogaze.

In more mobile news, we learnt that Apple is decreasing the likelihood of your device being tracked, with some interesting changes in iOS8 and how the software discovers wireless access points. Mozilla believes its $25 Firefox smartphones will be popular in Indonesia and India and Google Now tells you when to get off your train or bus – in some cities.

Green tech was making the news with CSIRO claiming a world first in the use of solar mirror farms to create supercritical steam to generate power that could compete with coal and gas powered plants.  The tiny island of Annobon off the west coast of Africa is going 100% solar with panels on the island feeding battery cells to provide solar power around the clock.

The Electronics Entertainment Expo, E3, was on last week with new game announcements and the re-release of some old favorites.  Halo 1-4 has been remastered with new graphics and a teaser for the upcoming Halo 5.  Splattoon, Sunset Overdrive and Dragon Age Inquisition had Raena and Johnny thinking about their Christmas wish lists.

Two people thought responsible for the recent iPhone hijacking and subsequent ransom demands have been arrested.  It is now thought that social engineering techniques were used to obtain iCloud usernames and passwords.

If you thought that selfies were the ultimate in capturing the real you, then you may have to have a rethink as dronies start to invade.

The post Supercritical solar power, Firefox phones, iPhone phishing, Dronies and Google tells you where to get off appeared first on Technogaze.

Apple’s WWDC kicked off last week, and the seasonal fruit picking commenced with all the new goodies announced for the keynote.  Not least of which: tools for Apple developers to do home automation, enabling health information to be aggregated together on Apple devices, a new programming language called Swift, and a cool new feature called “Handoff” – to allow you to seamlessly swap from one form factor device to another.

China popped their head into the IT news this week with their continued suppression of information about Tiananmen Square, with no let-up for the 25th anniversary of the massacre. China will also embark on their own OS, declaring that Windows 8 is insecure, and raising concerns that they do not have access to the source code; and the new OS will be Ubuntu Linux.

And finally what may or may not be: the CIA’s first tweet.

The post Apple WWDC round-up, China blocks Tiananmen searches, the CIA joins twitter appeared first on Technogaze.

On the tech side we looked at Google’s latest Koala car – well their prototype driverless cars (or is that driverless horseless carriages?) that is basically a box with two seats – no pedals, mirrors or steering wheel.  Google Chromecast finaly arrives in Australia and you can smarten up your TV to see videos, share your browser window and view photos.

Hackers have taken advantage of Apple’s find my phone feature by hijacking some users iPhones.  Although unconfirmed, it would appear that they are taking advantage of people reusing passwords across multiple sites to lock the phone, demanding cash to make it usable again.  Please ensure that you don’t reuse passwords on different sites to minimise this type of hack.  Apple is also set to release its Smart Home platform at this weeks WWDC conference and there is confirmaiton that it has bought Beats Music & Electronics for $3billion USD in cash and stock swap.

LG have released a new phone that uses lasers to get the camera to focus to give almost instantaneous response to its massive 13 megapixel resolution.  And buttons seem to be the rage with smarphone case maker Cliq seeking funding for configurable buttons on their case that don’t require battery power.

The post Radiothon 2014, Koala cars, iPhone hijacking, Laser phones and Chromecast appeared first on Technogaze.

The Tailored Access Operations unit in the NSA has been providing free upgrades to some lucky router and server owners.  Intercepting packages from the manufacturer and then upgrading them with additional firmware – at no extra cost – is just part of the service.  Meanwhile, the NSA has been recording all mobile phone calls in the Bahamas as part of a piggy back operation lead by the DEA to capture drug traffickers and dealers.

Catfishing is where someone pretends to be someone other than themselves to lure you to hand over money or for some other nefarious purpose.  Johnny, a catfishing victim himself, talked about techniques being used and how to find out whether you are being catfished or not.

Driverless cars excited the whole team and we posed the question as to what an intelligent car would do should it be confronted the choice of saving your life as a passenger or several other lives in another car.  Asimov’s 3 laws of Robotics immediately sprung to mind:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Continuing on the automotive theme, we looked at Tesla’s foray into the Australian market and an exciting crowd-funding project that looks to put specially designed glass solar panels on roads, complete with computers and LEDs.  Harnessing the sun’s energy during the day, these smart roads can provide intelligent traffic management systems by indicating closed lanes dynamically and providing power back into the grid.

The post Catfishing, Complimentary Router Upgrades, Driverless Cars and Smart Roads appeared first on Technogaze.

Heartbleed continues to draw blood as some companies have SSL certificates reissued with the same key as their previously compromised certificate, negating the benefit of changing the certificate.  The recent budget ,although positive for medical research, was detrimental for a number of other industries – in particular gaming.  Luke Miller joined us on the phone to talk about the impact on the local gaming industry.

The U2 spy plane has caused a ripple yet again, this time in US airspace as LAX and other airport flights were shut down for a number of hours over air traffic control issues.  Flying at a much lower altitude, the latest lightweight drone from French manufacturer Parrot sports a high resolution stabilised camera and an extended wifi coverage of 2km, albeit with a 12 minute battery life.  This new drone is controllable by an Oculus Rift VR headset.

The Norwegian Army is also testingthe Oculus Rift to control armored vehicles to provide enhanced visibility for those times when the hatches are battened down.

Bitcoin goes to University – a new MIT research project is providing MIT students with $100 in bitcoin to see how the peer-to-peer electronic payment system can be used in the University ecosystem where all members have easy access to it. Researchers are hoping that new and innovative payment practices may emerge that can be applied to other currencies or as a way to make bitcoin more readily accepted.

Apple iOS 8 is expected to be unveiled at WWDC 2014 later this year and rumor has it that side-by-side apps will be supported on iPad.  Microsoft Surface and Samsung Android already support this feature and Apple may finally catch up on this front.  Larger screen iPhones with higher resolution are also on the cards.

If you sometimes feel inundated with meaningless tweets, then Twitter’s latest feature roll out may be for you.  This allows you to mute or turnoff tweets (anonymously) from people you have followed, but your tweets will still reach them.

Nostalgia reigned supreme for children of the mid-eighties when we looked at a new Acorn BBC Micro emulator from developer Matt Godbolt

The post Heartbleed continues, Budget woes, Spy planes & drones, Bitcoin goes to University and iOS8 beside itself appeared first on Technogaze.

We interviewed Brian Knappenberger, writer and director of the upcoming Human Rights and Arts Film Festival film, “The Internets’ Own Boy” – a documentary detailing the life of Aaron Swarz, an Internet whiz kid who fought to make available information that should be free.

We talked gaming again this week, highlighting Nintendo’s exclusion of same-sex couples from its latest game, Tomodochi Life.  We also talked about other new released from Nintendo – a remake of the ever popular Pokemon series.  And Kevin Spacey, after his character in House Of Cards, Frank Underwood, being a heavy Call Of Duty player, now plays a role inside the game itself.

We also talked about Russia and Iran censoring the Internet, and the chilling effects that such action has on the ideals of free speech.  Disclosed e-mails between Google and the NSA reveal that they had regular meetings – fuelling speculation that the activities of the PRISM wiretapping program were in fact, a co-operative affair.

And finally, we discussed Larry Ellison’s balls.  Basketballs, that is.

The post The Internets’ Own Boy, Kevin Spacey on CoD, Larry Ellison’s balls appeared first on Technogaze.

Yes, we had a very special gaming episode unearthing the fate of ‘ET the game’ with the discovery of dumped cartridges in landfill in New Mexico.  Zero Suit Samus is the latest game to be accused of sexism with its main character being slimmed at the hips, expanded in the chest and wearing rocket propelled heels.  On the definitely maybe happening front, the games world is looking forward to the followup of the Mass Effect trilogy – will it be called Mass Effect 4?

An Internet Explorer zero day exploit prompted Microsoft to issue an out-of-band patch to it’s browser.  This exploit affects all versions of IE from 6 onwards and in an unusual move it even provided a patch for Windows XP – the OS that it de-supported only last month.  Please ensure that you update your Windows computers.

On the banking front, the Commonwealth bank is looking to counteract recent ATM skimming fraud by letting you use your mobile phone to get cash from ATMs.  Myki is in the news again with PTV looking to introduce new gates at stations that are 20% faster than current ones. We also explored the reaction of the NSW Department of Transport to UberX – the ride sharing variant from Uber.

Changes to Facebook will mean that in the future when using your Facebook logon to access other websites, you can choose how much of your Facebook information you will share with the website or even logon anonymously.

In wrapping up, even Michael (renowned for his lack of cat affection), was excited by the prospect of remotely playing with cats using a new Kickstarter project – Kittyo.

The post Games, Games, Games, ATM Skimming, Myki, IE security flaw and Facebook does anon appeared first on Technogaze.

In this episode we took to the air and looked at the technology behind improving the tracking of aeroplanes around the globe.  The FAA has mandated ADS-B on all commercial aircraft by 2020, with planes to report their position every minute to land and satellite based base stations as well as other aircraft.  In-flight internet access is set for a boost with Gogo planning to use geostationary satellites to provide download speeds of up to 70mbs.  Compared with access speeds of 3mbs today, mile high surfing is set to approximate NBN speeds.

The NBN this week countered TPG’s cherry picking of the fibre-to-the-basement market by announcing its own plans to provide FTTB to 50,000 apartments initially, thereby causing TPG and others to rethink their position.  Heartbleed is still causing ripples, with Bloomberg reporting that the NSA knew about and exploited the vulnerability for the last two years.  Meanwhile if you are a Google Chrome user the Chromebleed extension can help you detect sites that have not been patched.

During the week the Commonwealth bank suffered an extended outage of its EFT, Internet and phone banking services and then managed to confuse customers with its marketing doublespeak response to Heartbleed related questions.

On a lighter note we looked at the Alert Shirt from Foxtel that lets you feel what footballers feel, when on the field, with the use of haptic feedback technology.   We closed the show with a look at an upcoming Facebook mobile feature called Nearby Friends, that with opt-in permission, will tell you when friends are in the area – so you can catch up.

The post Techdrive, Inflight Internet, Haptic feedback, Commfail, NSA bleeds and NBN vs TPG appeared first on Technogaze.

In this latest episode, Mark, Raena and Michael discussed the OpenSSL vulnerability known as “Heartbleed”, including what it is, how you might be affected, and what you can do about it.  We also talked about the recent promotion, and subsequent stepping down, of Brendan Eich as CEO of the Mozilla Foundation, after revelations of his funding towards the Proposition 8 campaign against equal rights.

Finally we moved on back to talk about gadgets – including the recent Windows 8.1 update, and some new features Microsoft are talking about for the Windows Phone. And finally we discussed some Apple rumours, and drones that fall from the sky.

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We refuted a recent internet meme that would have you believe that changing the font that you use would save money and for the first time ever we dedicated a whole block of the show to Microsoft.  Is Satya Nadella turning the company around?  Although Win XP is no longer supported, some 28% of internet users are still using this version of Windows.

Jason from Ausdroid, was on the phone to talk about the latest Android handsets – the HTC One M8 and Samsung S5.

The post April Fools, Apple v Samsung, Oculus Rift, Office for iPad, Win XP and the latest Android Smartphones appeared first on Technogaze.

The annual South by SouthWest (SXSW) film, interactive and music festivals were held in Austin Texas during the week.  Edward Snowden appeared via internet link and stated that he would do it all again if the opportunity arose to act as a whistleblower.  He also discussed how encryption of data traffic can help to combat casual eavesdropping of data and encouraged major Tech Companies to offer this for their websites and products.  A drone featuring an on-board taser was showcased at the festival as was perhaps a glimpse of the future of computing: using electrons around a nucleus as a replacement for the transistor – this technology promises speed improvements of a factor of 10,000.

We also donned our tin-foil hats and talked about the accusation by a US Senate Intelligence Chief accusing the CIA of hacking into their enquiry and deleting documents. Thanks to Stanford University research, we discovered that metadata around phone calls and their duration is not nearly as anonymous as we have been led to believe.

The post Telstra Privacy Breach, Twitter Crashes, SXSW, CIA Hackings and the Value of Metadata appeared first on Technogaze.

Apple’s Tim Cook recently made headlines with a slap-down of right wing shareholders questioning their approach to environment and social issues, and while on the topic of Apple, we discussed some of the recent product speculation floating around the Internet.

The post Women in Tech, Apple speculation, Open Source TLS bugs appeared first on Technogaze.

Laurent , the creator of the new gay nightlife events app, WATTSON, was in the studio and we explored his personal reasons for devising the app and the interesting techniques he uses to bring relevance to his audience.

In more general news we saw how the UK’s GCHQ security agency  has been capturing stills from Yahoo webcam chats, the AFP have been using drones in operational situations, the benefits of crowdsourcing data on women ovulating and how placing chips in Oysters is helping the farming of this food.

In wrapping up the show, we had a playful look at the NSA’s Top 10 Pickup Lines.

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In other news, Facebook has changed the way it allows its users to identify themselves from a gender perspective as well as giving control over who gets to see their choice, Flappy birds has come and gone and we had a look at what made the game so addictive and why it was withdrawn from the market.  Printing with water is a new take to reduce printing costs and allow paper to be reused and Police forces around the world are using technology in new ways – is this good or not?  Plus the usual roundup of news and items that tickle our fancy.

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We discussed Vehicle-to-vehicle tech and the US Government’s efforts to mandate communication tech  in the US in coming years.  We discussed the possibility of changing the standard design of traffic lights, with the idea of a timed hourglass design floating around the Internet.   If you’d like to live forever, perhaps you could consider signing up to Eterni.me – a web based system that allows people communicate with a virtual version of yourself.

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3D printing is still changing with new printers that are capable of printing in full colour, use tougher materials such as fibreglass and carbon fibre and a new orthotic supply service that you can use in place of going to your podiatrist.

Edward Snowden is a nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by Norwegian politicians  as Apple’s Tim Cook is denying that there is a back door to their system, although a gag order prevents him from going into more detail.  Some rumours of sapphire glass for the next iPhone with perhaps in-built photovoltaic charging and the next Apple TV looks set to include an inbuilt Airport Express and Cable TV Tuner.

Google surprises some by selling its Motorola phone division for a $9bn loss – although it is keeping the patents and the Moonshot advanced technologies and projects division.  If $9bn sounds like a lot for patents, Google is set to pay out close to $1bn on a recent case that it lost against a patent troll – so perhaps the sale price was fair.  Finally we looked at an ongoing Google Chrome exploit that allows a malicious site to keep your microphone open long after you have thought it was turned off.

The post Bird like drones, Free Google Taxis, Latest 3D Printing, Apple Sapphire Glass ,TV and the cost of Patent Trolls appeared first on Technogaze.

We looked at improvements in technology that allow the colour blind to better distinguish colours, how a Las Vegas casino that was the first in the city to install a telephone in 1907 is again leading the introduction of technology by accepting bitcoin as a valid method of payment. As well as having an amusing look at a new Google Glass sex app – ok Glass Pull Out, is a valid command.

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