Pop | Tech | Jam

The new year is here and so far, 2018 is already throwing its five moves of doom around the ring: Massive security flaws in the world’s computer processors, a giant lawsuit against Spotify, the government’s white-hat hacker shortage, YouTube drama and all kinds of bad behavior on Twitter. El Kaiser and J.D. discuss it all … Continue reading PTJ 257: Lucha Libre →

As the tired old year of 2017 limps toward the exit, it seems fitting that age discrimination is in the news this week — both for smartphones and human job-seekers. El Kaiser and J.D. sort through two weeks’ worth of headlines, share their musings on Star Wars: The Last Jedi and offer up a warning … Continue reading PTJ 256: Age/Old Problems →

The cryptocurrency Bitcoin is all over the news this month, and El Kaiser and J.D. discuss some of the more recent developments, along with the Consumer Reports verdict on the iPhone X and the legal tussle between oracle and Google. El Kaiser shares his thoughts on Crisis on Earth X and J.D. offers a (Hopefully) … Continue reading PTJ 255: Boom or Bust? →

Net neutrality is on the ropes, Twitter is yanking back some of those Blue Badges of Verification, Project Loon is bringing Internet connectivity back to parts of Puerto Rico and Amazon’s cashier-replacement software is getting better. El Kaiser and J.D. ponder these stories and the rest of the week’s tech news. And don’t you just … Continue reading PTJ 254: Charge! →

It’s been a heavy week of Congressional hearings over foreign influence in a U.S. election and another terrorist attack in New York City — and technology was all over both events. El Kaiser and J.D. ponder the recent developments, as well as the arrival of the iPhone X and an iOS 11.1 update that brings … Continue reading PTJ 253: Trolling Right Along →

It’s nature gone wild: The Bad Rabbit ransomware is having a mad hop through corporate networks around the world and rubber fish are lip-syncing Amazon’s Alexa. Meanwhile, Google wants to secure your account with actual keys and Amazon wants to pop the lock on your front door for package delivery. Spin up Episode 252 to … Continue reading PTJ 252: Naughty Bunnies →

El Kaiser and J.D. are back this week with the usual suitcase full of technology news to unpack, including Samsung’s announcement that its Bixby virtual assistant is open (source) for business.  And while Blue Apron is folding up a bit of its workforce,  and Google’s DeepMind A.I. software is folding proteins. Oh, and let’s not forget, … Continue reading PTJ 251: The One After the 250th Episode →

Google took its turn spewing out the fall product lineup this week, with the Pixel 2 phone, Pixelbook laptop, Pixel Pen Stylus — and a whole bunch of Google Home offerings — announced. Meanwhile, Yahoo’s big hack was worse then the company previously announced (why, yes, it is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month). The former Equifax … Continue reading PTJ 250: “El Kaiser, Did We Forget to Mention This Was Our 250th Episode?” →

It’s not just the abundance of pumpkin spice revving up the Big Apple air the first week of October — it’s the buzzy excitement of New York Comic Con returning once again to the Jacob K. Javits Center on the west side of Manhattan for four days of high-octane pop-culture fun. J.D. gets an insider’s … Continue reading PTJ 249: “Alexa, Activate My New York Comic Con Badge!” →

Who’s there? It’s this week’s episode of Pop Tech Jam, with ideas for coping with the current state of the world. From SEC hackers to Nest’s new indoor/outdoor security system to Equifax still doing harm to its customers, it’s been a busy seven days. But hey, NASA has a free illustrated ebook on the recent … Continue reading PTJ 248: Knock, Knock →

As the scale of the epic security fail at the Equifax credit bureau comes into focus, El Kaiser and J.D. throwback to Episode 159 and a previous conversation about freezing your credit to ice out identity thieves. Among other headlines this week: The end of NASA’s historic Cassini mission to Saturn. Later in the show, … Continue reading PTJ 247: Hello, Epic Equifail! Goodbye, Cassini! →

After a two-week summer vacation, El Kaiser and J.D. return to the studio to catch up on the week’s technology news: Facebook ‘fesses up to a chunk of Russian ad buys during the election, Amazon looks to expand its corporate footprint, researchers have discovered a way to hack most of the popular voice-activated assistant programs … Continue reading PTJ 246: What’s the Frequency, Siri? →

You have your good history and you have your bad history — and both kinds are mashed up here this week on Pop Tech Jam. The violent protests in Charlottesville last weekend were amplified in all directions thanks to social media and the technology industry finds itself entwined with current events, as El Kaiser and … Continue reading PTJ 245: Blasts From the Past →

Whether it be The Defenders kicking butt across the New York City zone of the Marvel Universe or NASA’s assorted spacecraft exploring the real universe, this week’s episode of Pop Tech Jam has you covered. El Kaiser and J.D. get their geek on with plenty of chatter about comics, consumer technology and spaaaaaace! Won’t you … Continue reading PTJ 244: Across the Universe →

After a discussion about the stirring audio mix used to back the film Dunkirk,  El Kaiser and J.D. make a lot of noise about this week’s technology news — including new government regulation around the world. However, if it all gets to be too much, perhaps a nice friendly drone will deliver a tureen of soup … Continue reading PTJ 243: Sound and Fury →

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is coming back for a 40th-anniversary run, but a couple of old standbys are getting boxed up for the software attic. El Kaiser and J.D. take a stroll through the week’s headlines and talk later about Google Street View — and how those who love it can make their own outdoor … Continue reading PTJ 242: So Long, Old Paint? →

After a two-week hiatus, El Kaiser and J.D. are back with the tech news of the week — including Amazon’s latest experiments for making money and Google Glass finally finding a home of sorts. And how about that Doctor Who announcement last weekend, eh? Oh, and if you have to ride the New York City … Continue reading PTJ 241: Glass Houses →

It’s almost like we needed the Justice League to come sort things out with all the disruptions erupting all over the technology scene this week. So, you ask, what happened?  Yet another ransomware attack spread rapidly worldwide, the European Commission got all up in Google’s business on an antitrust charge, and Walmart had a slapfight with … Continue reading PTJ 240: Hall Monitor →

June is Internet Safety Month, but it hasn’t been very safe for the personal information of 198 million people, which got exposed by sloppy data handling. The notoriously private Apple got trolled as well when a top-secret meeting about stopping data leaks got, er, leaked. After wading through the tech headlines of the week,  El Kaiser … Continue reading PTJ 239: Leak Week →

Geek hearts around the globe were broken this past week with the passing of Adam West, the actor who created the iconic interpretation of Batman on the eponymous mid-1960’s television show. Dan Greenfield, editor of the 13th Dimension website devoted to comics, joins El Kaiser and J.D. for a discussion about West’s impact as a … Continue reading PTJ 238: Thank You for Our Childhoods, Adam West →