Pop | Tech | Jam

It's been a week of heavy legal news, deals and global affairs — almost enough to make you want to escape to a fantasy realm to take a break over a pint of butterbeer. El Kaiser and J.D. sort through the stories of the week before moving on to a discussion of how the Harry Potter franchise is keeping active far beyond the original seven books. PTJ 277 awaits behind that Play button — Alohomora! 

A judge cleared the way for AT&T and Time Warner to merge, Apple plans to reinforce its iPhone security, Microsoft made a bunch of announcements — but hey, here comes the annual E3 event to bring in the fun. El Kaiser and J.D. sort through it all before a discussion about the VPNFilter malware — you know, that one the FBI was warning about the other week — and how to protect your router from it. Spin up PTJ 276 to hear it all!

If it's early June, odds are the technology-news business will be dominated by announcements coming out of Apple's annual World Wide Developers Conference. However, new revelations about Facebook's privacy practices did draw attention and even CEO Tim Cook found time to comment — as Apple unveiled new tools designed to hamper companies like Facebook who have been quietly hoovering up personal data from unsuspecting users for years. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the week's events and a few other non-Apple headlines on this week's episode before offering a (Hopefully) Helpful Hint about recording a video of the action on your phone screen. Roll PTJ 275 to hear it all!

Even without the NBA finals in the mix, it's been a busy time out in California with a fierce net-neutrality bill passing a hurdle in the state senate and Mary Meeker's mega-slideshow on Internet trends. El Kaiser and J.D. surf through the week's tech news before stopping to ponder life without Twitter — if only just for a little while. Punch up Episode 274 and have a listen!

Yanny or Laurel? El Kaiser was too busy mixing up podcasts to weigh in, and J.D. thought the whole thing was dumb and tuned into Queen Ida and the Bon Temps Zydeco Band instead — but The New York Times built a handy little tool to demonstrate how audio frequencies factor into the matter. Beyond all that, Episode 273 serves up the week's tech news, pours one out for Tom Wolfe and contemplates the strange notion of secure and private email. Give a listen!

This past week saw two big developer conferences unload several boxes of announcements, as Google I/O and Microsoft Build fought for media attention like "Godzilla vs. Gamera". El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the ramped-up interest in artificial intelligence coming out of both conferences, along with other headlines from around the technosphere. J.D. also offers suggestions for dealing with an excess of emoji, and previews new characters under consideration by the Unicode Consortium. Come sit a spell and join us for Episode 272!

Fresh off the latest Facebook user-abuse apology media tour and visit with the U.S. Congress, Mark Zuckerberg made a slew of announcements at this week's F8 Developers Conference in California, which El Kaiser and J.D. discuss on this week's episode — along with other news from the tech realm. Episode 271 also sports a quick look at the big geek movies headed into theaters this summer and an explanation of "malvertising." Spin up this latest installment of Pop Tech Jam to hear it all!

California fires a shot across the bow of the FCC's net neutrality repeal, Amazon's Alexa has a new do-it-yourself project for users and even aquariums aren't safe on the Internet of Things. El Kaiser and J.D. sort through the technology news of the past 10 days before discussing a great vacation destination for aviation and NASA nerds: The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virgina, home to the National Air and Space Museum's big collection of airplanes and spacecraft. Jump into it all here in Episode 270 of Pop Tech Jam!

Mark Zuckerberg lands in the Congressional hot seat this week over Facebook’s role in user privacy protection and the social network’s influence on life, culture and election interference. After a march through the current tech headlines with J.D., El Kaiser has a roundup review of earplugs for those times when you need to screen out … Continue reading PTJ 269: Flying Solo →

El Kaiser and J.D. return from Spring Break and head right into the news of the week, which includes Spotify’s initial public offering, an iPad update from Apple, background information on the latest credit-card hack and this year’s collection of April Fools jokes by corporate America. J.D. also takes a look at the revamped version … Continue reading PTJ 268: Rock ‘Em, Shock ‘Em →

As The Social Network once again finds itself in the hot seat over user privacy, El Kaiser and J.D. ponder the big picture and Facebook’s effect on civic affairs. After the weekly roundup of tech news, this week’s episode also features some very special guests — and not all of them are chatbots. Fasten your … Continue reading PTJ 267: Facebork →

A preview peep of the new Android P operating system has arrived for developers and Microsoft is adding an “S” mode to the next version of Windows 10. El Kaiser and J.D. also discuss other letters in the news this week, including SEC and OMG, as in “OMG, why is the Amazon Alexa laughing by itself???” You … Continue reading PTJ 266: Brought to You By the Letters “P” and “S” →

Congratulations to the sound team on Dunkirk for the Oscars — we here at Pop Tech Jam had a feeling you were going to win! But now that we know who won the 2018 Academy Awards, life is still full of burning questions: Who am I? What is my place in the universe? Why do the Klingons on … Continue reading PTJ 265: Just Over the Ridge →

Going . . . going . . . gone. Twitter finally swooped into action and chopped off thousands of bot accounts and other automatons that were violating its rules. SpaceX fired off another rocket and the repeal of the Net Neutrality rules landed on the Federal Register —which means an open Internet could be gone … Continue reading PTJ 264: Now Departing →

Google delivers on its commitment to block intrusive ads in the Chrome browser, Microsoft plans to unleash a Beast Mode for Windows 10 power users and Apple. . . well, Apple’s just staining the furniture with the HomePod speaker. El Kaiser and J.D. also discuss other highlights from the week’s tech news and offer tips for rural … Continue reading PTJ 263: Put a Ring on It →

The Space Race is back on — and Elon Musk’s own cherry-red Tesla Roadster is the pace car of the 21st century, having been shot into orbit around the sun by its owner. This week, El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the SpaceX test flight of the Falcon Heavy rocket on February 6th, 2018; check out … Continue reading PTJ 262: Waiting In the Sky →

On this week’s episode. El Kaiser shares his thoughts after a binge of Star Trek: Discovery and J.D. explores a new way to find things that interest you on Instagram. A roundup of the week’s tech news includes a discussion of Twitter’s fake-followers problem, Amazon looking for new ways to provide employee healthcare and Google’s attempts … Continue reading PTJ 261: DISCOVERIES →

The backlash against the Federal Communication Commission’s rollback of net neutrality regulations continues — even a certain monarchy-themed hamburger establishment has weighed in with a video. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss the latest developments concerning the Open Internet, and also ponder Twitter’s photo-cropping skills, the Google gestalt and  listening to Netflix in other languages. Click … Continue reading PTJ 260: WHOPPERS →

Whether it be tech giants facing Congressional committees or the Google Cultural Institute showing people the power of facial-recognition algorithms, El Kaiser and J.D.  have things to say about it all. Also in the mix: Several states and advocacy groups have fired up the Lawsuit Machine and aimed it at the Federal Communications Commission’s recent … Continue reading PTJ 259: Face Time →

The annual Consumer Electronics Show wrapped up in Las Vegas last week, leaving El Kaiser and J.D. plenty of new gadgets to mull, from “intelligent” toilets to high-concept “social-empathy robots.” But other stuff happened outside of Vegas, too — Facebook changed up its News Feed, Spectre and Meltdown patches rolled out, and half of California … Continue reading PTJ 258: WELCOME OUR *NEWEST* ROBOT OVERLORDS →