Episode 11 – When can we 3D printing our own Automated Car?
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Welcome to another episode of Geek Bytes Podcast. The podcast that brings you all this week’s tech and geek news.
I’m Ramon Mejia…….I’m Edgar Acosta
This Week in Geek News we talk about changes to Spotify, PayPal being fined $25 million dollars, Google’s Plan to eliminate human drivers, Ubers poaching, how to 3D print your clothes and food, President Obama’s world record, The App that fills your gas tank, Warcraft details, Fear the Walking dead news, the new trailers this week and more
In Discussions we’ll talk about our review of Pitch Perfect 2 with guests Amy Acosta and April Mejia
We Begin our show with Geek News
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Geek News
Spotify, no longer just a music streaming service
· The Verge reported that today Spotify announced that it is changing the way it works.
· It will now provide users with playlists tailored to them.
· Runners will be able to match their music to their running pace.
· They are Adding video and podcasts to streaming service
o Content partners include: Comedy Central, Vice News, and The Nerdist, ABC, Adult Swim, BBC, Comedy Central, E!, ESPN, Fusion, Maker Studios, MTV, NBC, RadioLab, Slate, TED, TWiT, Vice News, and WNYC.
· Ramon: Spotify is changing to be more competitive in the crowded music streaming market.
o Competitors: Apple-Beats launching soon, Jay Z’s Tidal (high quality audio), Google Play, Rdio ($4 ad free service), Pandora, and more.
· http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/20/8629335/spotify-adds-podcasts-videos
Pay Pal pays $25 million for being sketchy
· After the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a complaint against PayPal today, the company quickly agreed to refund $15 million to customers it ripped off over the past few years.
· PayPal will also pay an extra $10 million in fines to the CFPB, so the total settlement is $25 million. The CFPB accused PayPal of all sorts of schemes
· The almost impressively illegal scams that PayPal’s now paying for include:
o Advertising deferred-interest promotions, but then flat-out giving customers the wrong information when they asked about them, or just never answering the customer service line
o Charging customers with the interest they were unable to defer due to receiving the wrong information and/or never being able to speak to a representative about the deferred-interest promotion
o Automatically signing people up for credit accounts without asking permission
o Setting these credit accounts as the default for purchasing, which led to people getting hit with late fees and interest fees on accounts they didn’t know existed
o Lying about $5 and $10 credit promotions and then never fulfilling them
o Not bothering to remove late fees even after people paid them
o Taking weeks to process payments
o Not bothering resolving customer disputes
· http://gizmodo.com/paypal-has-to-pay-25-million-for-being-sketchy-as-hell-1705630163
Streaming services to increase to 330 million subscribers by 2019
· Juniper Research reported this week that subscribers for services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video will grow from 92.1 million in 2014 to 333.2 million global subscriptions by 2019.
· Trend led by growth in North America followed by the Far East
· Growth spurred by inexpensive devices like the Chromecast $35 and Fire Stick $39 that can turn dumb TVs into smart TVs.
Google’s 5 year plan to eliminate human drivers
In the past few years, Google has used about two dozen modified Lexus RX450h SUVs to drive nearly a million autonomous miles around Silicon Valley.
· Its vehicles have been in 11 accidents in all that time, none of them serious, and none of them caused by Google.
· These days, the fleet is logging 10,000 miles a week, focusing on Surface Street driving, where variables like pedestrians, intersections, and cyclists make for a lot of complications.
· It expects to have a finished product by 2020.
· All or nothing approach. Not working on incremental vehicle automation but total overhaul of the driving system.
· http://www.wired.com/2015/05/google-wants-eliminate-human-driving-5-years/?mbid=social_fb
Uber poached Carnegie Mellon’s top robotics lab to build self-driving cars
· Starting in January of this year Uber quietly started to hire people away from CMU's National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC).
· Hired away whole groups of researchers and scientists
· Yesterday the company announced plans to lease a 53,000 square foot facility, a mile down the road from CMU, that will be transformed into the company's new Advanced Technologies Center
Electroloom lets you 3D print your own clothes
· The process is called Field Guided Fabrication,
o Using an internal electric field inside the printer chamber to guide fibers onto whatever shape they are trying to create.
· Kickstarter project
3D print your food
· The Bocusini (B-oh-cuisine-E) allows you to build objects from sugar and marzipan (mar-Z-pan) and draw on foods with absolute precision.
· The system is basically a simple 3D printer with a heated extrusion head that takes small cartridges of marzipan, chocolate, and fudge.
· You can print a few dozen little objects – buildings or sugar frogs – with each cartridge.
· http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/18/bocusini-will-3d-print-your-food-like-a-fine-robotic-pastry-chef/
Glowforge lets you laser cut in 3D
o TechCrunch reported on Glowforge an affordable ($2500) laser cutting machine.
o Laser cutters remove material to create 3D objects or engrave
President Obama set a world record
· President Obama's new @POTUS account managed to set a new Guinness World Record last night for fastest time to reach a million followers on Twitter, all only five hours after it went live
· Previous record set last year by Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. after the actor reached a million in 23 hours and 22 minutes.
· http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/19/8626405/obama-guiness-world-record-potus-twitter-million-followers
GAS WITHOUT THE STATION
· Scott Hempy was driving one day with his wife and wondered why you couldn’t fill up your gas tank while driving like they fill up planes mid-flight.
· Turned into the app Filld
o You download the app, put in some info about your vehicle, and give it your address. Enter a window of time for delivery and a truck is dispatched to your location. You still have do the hard work of making sure the gas cap is unlocked.
o Filld currently has one fuel truck operating in the affluent neighborhoods of southern Silicon Valley: Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Redwood City.
· http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/19/8617855/filld-startup-deliver-gas-app
Los Angeles, CA raises minimum wage to $15
o LA city council voted to raise the minimum wage every July by about $1 till the wage is $15 in July 2020.
o http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/19/la-minimum-wage_n_7336932.html
Disney celebrates 60 year anniversary
o https://disneyland.disney.go.com/events-tours/60-years-diamond-anniversary-celebration/
Nintendo hires Bowser as VP of sales
o "Doug Bowser brings decades of experience, not fire breath," the famed game maker said in a press release.
New Details about Fear the Walking Dead from Robert Kirkman
· Recently, Robert Kirkman talked to the reporters about his new show Fear the Walking Dead. The good folks at Nerdist reported some of the details.
· The show is set in Los Angeles, Ca right before the outbreak of the Zombie Apocalypse.
· The story centers on Kim Dickens and Cliff Curtis as two single parents, with kids from previous marriages, fighting to make a life together during the zombie outbreak.
· While Kirkman confirmed that the spinoff show would not explain what caused the zombie outbreak
· He did say that the show would give the audience an early view of the world crumbling as outbreak begins and then spreads throughout LA.
· Kirkman also noted that the zombies in Fear the Walking Dead would be different than those in the original series.
o He described a much more ‘human’ walker, since all the zombies would be very new and not decayed as they were when Rick woke up.
o More human means more emotionally brutal zombie slaying
· Overall, Kirkman noted that the outbreak in LA would be different story than the original but would still have the psychological tension and zombie action the fans have come to love.
· http://nerdist.com/fear-the-walking-dead-creator-robert-kirkman-talks-new-series/
Warcraft movie reveals new character, release date, and synopsis
· Legendary Pictures released the first images of Ogrim Doomhammer a character in the upcoming movie Warcraft
o based on Blizzards World of Warcraft,
· Later they also announced an official release of June 10th, 2016.
· Synopsis doesn’t really tell us anything about the story.
· http://epicstream.com/news/New-Warcraft-Synopsis-and-Premiere-Date-Released
Opening Weekend Battle- Mad Max: Fury Road Versus Pitch Perfect 2
· Pitch Perfect 2- Opening weekend earned $60 million dollars domestically. Internationally $27 million in 29 territories to bring its overseas total to $38.1 million, including Australia’s take from last weekend where it opened early. So far that is a grand total of $108.4 million to date.
· Mad Max: Fury Road stars Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne. The film is an action oriented car chase set in the Mad Max world. Mad Max: Fury Road brought in an estimated $44.4 million from 3,702 theaters this opening weekend.
New Pixel Trailer
· Check out the new trailer for Pixel starting Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad, Ashley Benson and Brian Cox. The movie premiers July 24th.
· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIOcWZOQL5M&feature=youtu.be
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
· In this next chapter of the epic “Maze Runner” saga, Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and his fellow Gladers face their greatest challenge yet:
· Searching for clues about the mysterious and powerful organization known as WCKD. Their journey takes them to the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with unimaginable obstacles. Teaming up with resistance fighters, the Gladers take on WCKD’s vastly superior forces and uncover its shocking plans for them all.
· In Theaters - September 18, 2015
· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-44_igsZtgU&feature=youtu.be
For a review of the topics we covered and any of the links in show notes for this episode visit our site geekbytespodcast.com
If you have any comments or suggestions for us, please e-mail us at feedback@geekbytespodcast.com
Onto our Discussion section
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Discussion
Pitch perfect 2- With Guests Amy and April
· Pitch Perfect 2- Opening weekend earned $60 million dollars domestically. Internationally $27 million in 29 territories to bring its overseas total to $38.1 million, including Australia’s take from last weekend where it opened early. So far that is a grand total of $108.4 million to date.
· Mad Max: Fury Road brought in an estimated $44.4 million from 3,702 theaters this opening weekend.
Ultra-Violent Internet Content
o Facebook autoplays videos
Recommendations
Invisible Inc. - Invisible Incorporated (Invisible, Inc.) is a turn-based tactical espionage game. Take control of Invisible's agents in the field and infiltrate the world's most dangerous corporations. Stealth, precision, and teamwork are essential in high-stakes, high-profit missions, where every move may cost an agent their life.
PC and Mac game.
Pros: easy to learn, options to make harder, randomly generated levels,
Cons: short main story (5-6 hours), pretty tough on harder settings
Where to get it: Steam, http://www.invisibleincgame.com/, GOG
That will be it for us this week.
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Thanks for listening folks. Now Go Geek out about something.
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Music Credits
"Happy Bee", "Movement Proposition", "Theme for Harold (var.3) ", "Take the Lead"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/