Free Music Battle #1362

April 18, 2019PodcastKirk

Free music battle heats up with the race to the bottom with free music offerings from both YouTube Music and Amazon. Great for consumers but it appears that the ad model that radio uses may actually now work in the digital divide which is exciting in itself. Time will tell how effective these offerings are as we are getting nickel and dimed now for every little service. I have some news to share on the next show which will come from the Blubrry studio in Columbus, Ohio.

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Amazon and Google Announce Official YouTube App to Launch on Fire TV

April 18, 2019amazonamazon, google, YouTubeJenThorpe

Amazon and Google announced that in the coming months, the two companies will launch the official YouTube app on Amazon Fire TV devices and Fire TV Edition smart TVs, as well as the Prime Video app for streaming to Chromecast and Chromecast built-in devices.

In addition, Prime Video will be broadly available across Android TV device partners, and the YouTube TV and YouTube Kids app will also come to Fire TV later this year.

The flagship YouTube app will be the easiest way for users to watch all of their favorite YouTube content on Fire TV. Users will be able to sign in to their existing YouTube account, access their full library of content, and play videos in 4K HDR at 60 fps on supported devices. In addition, standalone YouTube TV and YouTube Kids apps will also launch later this year on Fire TV devices and Fire TV Edition smart TVs where available.

Chromecast and Chromecast built-in users, along with Android TV users, will have easy access to the Prime Video catalog including the latest seasons of Amazon Originals like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Hanna, Homecoming Beach, Catastrophe and The Grand Tour, along with Amazon Original movies like Donald Glover’s Guava Island, and Academy Award nominated films like The Big Sick and Cold War.

Engadget points out that this ends “a long contentious relationship between Amazon and Google.” According to Engadget, the addition of YouTube apps only applies to Fire TV devices.

Facebook Uploaded 1.5 Million People’s Email Contacts Without Consent

April 18, 2019FacebookFacebookJenThorpe

It feels like we are hearing about Facebook doing nefarious things with people’s data at least once a week. The latest news comes from Business Insider which reported that Facebook harvested the email contacts of 1.5 million users without their knowledge or consent when they opened their accounts.

Business Insider has learned that since May 2016, the social networking company has collected the contact lists of 1.5 million users new to the social network. The Silicon Valley company says they were “unintentionally uploaded to Facebook,” and is now deleting them.

A security researcher noticed that Facebook was asking some users to enter their email passwords when they signed up for new accounts. This was supposedly to verify their identity. To be clear, Facebook wasn’t content with having a new user’s email address – it also wanted the password to that user’s email address.

Business Insider checked this out, and found that if you did enter an email password, a message popped up saying it was “importing” your contacts. Facebook did not ask user’s for permission to do that – it just went ahead and grabbed that information.

A Facebook spokesperson gave a statement to Business Insider. In it, Facebook claims that the contacts were not shared with anyone and that Facebook is now deleting them and notifying people whose contacts were imported. The statement does not say that Facebook is deleting the email passwords that it required new users to give them.

Personally, I find this disgusting. It seems like Facebook feels entitled to grab as much data as it can not only from its users – but also from people who are in the process of signing up for a Facebook account. When it gets caught doing this, it claims this was done “unintentionally.”

I find it hard to believe that someone unintentionally created something that would suck up people’s email contacts. I find it even harder to believe that the thing that sucks up contacts was unintentionally implemented as part of Facebook’s sign up process.

Final Hawaii Shows #1361

April 15, 2019PodcastKirk

We are fast approaching the Final Hawaii shows with my upcoming travel we will have less than 5 shows left here that will be video in nature. While audio only shows will continue to the end it’s really crazy to know that I am that close to busting down the studio here. The time is going to go really fast. I get you all caught up on what transpired at NAB and the schedule for the next couple of weeks.

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Microsoft Revealed Hackers Accessed Email Accounts

April 14, 2019MicrosoftMicrosoftJenThorpe

Microsoft has confirmed to TechCrunch hat a certain “limited” number of people who use web email services managed by Microsoft (such as @msn.com and @hotmail.com) had their accounts compromised. The breach happened between January 1 and March 28, 2019.

According to an email Microsoft has sent out to affected users, malicious hackers were potentially able to access an affected user’s email address, folder names, the subject lines of emails, and the names of other email address the user communicates with. Microsoft says the hackers were not able to access the content of any emails or attachments or login credentials like passwords.

Microsoft recommends that affected users change their password. No enterprise customers are affected by this breach.

The Verge reported that Microsoft has started notifying some Outlook.com users that a hacker was able to access accounts for months earlier this year.

According to The Verge, the security breach happened weeks after a former security researcher pled guilty to hacking into Microsoft and Nintendo servers. Microsoft’s Windows development servers were breached for a number of weeks in January of 2017, allowing hackers across Europe to access pre-release versions of Windows.

The Verge has an image of the email that Microsoft sent to people who had their email accounts breached. TechCrunch has the full text of the letter in their article. If your email account was affected, then you likely have already received that email.

In general, it is a good idea to change your email passwords from time to time. Most people are tech-savvy enough to spot questionable emails and know that they should not click on any link those sketchy emails contain. That said, there will be people who cannot tell the difference and who get phished.

The best solution to prevent hacking would be for big companies like Microsoft to put more effort into preventing hackers from breaching people’s email accounts.

Disney+ Will Launch in November 2019

April 12, 2019StreamingDisneyJenThorpe

Disney announced that Disney+ will launch in the U.S. market on November 12, 2019, at $6.99 a month. The launch date coincides with the holiday season, when many children (and some adults) have days off. Plenty of time to watch Disney content!

Disney+ will launch in November with a robust library of theatrical and television content, and in its first year will release more than 25 original series and 10 original films, documentaries and specials by some of the industry’s most prolific and creative storytellers.

New original titles for Disney+ include:

From Marvel Studios:

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, a live-action series with Anthony Mackie returning as Falcon and Sebastian Stan reprising his role as Winter Soldier
WandaVision, a live action series with Elizabeth Olsen returning as Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany reprising his role as The Vision.
Marvel’s What If…?, the first animated series from Marvel Studios and takes inspiration from the comic books of the same name. Each episode will explore a pivotal moment from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and turn it on its head, leading the audience into uncharted territory.

From Walt Disney Studios:

Toy Story-based projects Forky Asks a Question, an animated short series, and the short film Lamp Life.

From National Geographic:

The World According to Jeff Goldblum, a documentary series where Goldblum pulls back the curtain on a seemingly familiar object to reveal a world of astonishing connections, fascinating science and a whole lot of big ideas.
Magic of the Animal Kingdom, a documentary series which takes viewers behind the scenes with the highly respected animal-care experts, veterinarians and biologists at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Epcot’s SeaBase aquarium.

From Disney Television Animation:

The Phineas and Ferb Movies (working title), an animated film featuring many of the original voice cast.

This list is in addition to previously announce Disney+ scripted originals that are part of Disney’s Star Wars, Marvel, Walt Disney Studios content. All 30 seasons of The Simpsons will be available on Disney+ on day one. Family friendly Fox titles like The Sound of Music, The Princess Bride, and Malcom in the Middle will also be on Disney+.

To me, it sounds like there will be a ton of interesting things to watch on Disney+. It is astounding how much stuff The Walt Disney Company owns. Disney+ will be competing with Hulu and Netflix.

Julian Assange Arrested #1360

April 11, 2019PodcastKirk

Hi everyone, I am filling for one more episode and Todd will be back this coming Monday with an all-new episode from the Blubrry studios. I want to give a huge thank you to Todd for allowing me to come aboard the GNC team as executive producer as I want to give many thanks to all of the Ohana out there for the kind words and encouragement that you all have given since I came on 2 years ago. It is truly appreciated!
The news is a little light for this episode however the big news today was that Julian Assange was arrested and may soon be extradited in the US.

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