By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Nov 15, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET The Politics of Tech
Did you know that SpaceX has no patents? They don’t – the reason is that the founder, Elon Musk, considers China to be their greatest competitor and published patents would make it too easy for China to copy them. [Business Insider]
The push for a mandatory internet filter in Australia is now dead. [TheNextWeb]
Google’s groundbreaking fiber network in Kansas City is up and running! [Google Fiber Blog]
Here’s a fun list of things Australians have invented. [BBC]
This company is developing a live feed of Earth from space – pretty cool! [Urthecast]
Here is a “virtual keyboard” for the iPhone that was developed by a student in the UK. [BGR]
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Nov 13, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
 IPhone and paranoia.
For the past week my iPhone has regularly refused to send forward emails I have attempted.
Instead, I receive a message that the message is being stored because it is being rejected by the server.
At first I figured it was Apple just buying time to transmit messages. I realize they are busy and just had an avalanche of new messages after releasing the iPhone 5.
But by the third day of blocking my emails, I became suspicious that Apple had a detection device that refused to send emails not up to snuff.
I retread my dozens of “stuck” emails and although they weren’t my best work, they weren’t so poorly written that they should have been prohibited by Apple.
By the 5th day of blocked emails I began to wonder if all the people I email were complaining to Apple about my incessant emails and requested a a week moratorium.
And today, Day 7, as my first few emails are blocked, I am beginning to wonder if a lot longer than a week has been requested
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Nov 12, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
You are going to want more cow bell with that laptop.
Years ago in my MBA class I remember learning that the extra warranties that a certain unnamed tech store was offering customers had an 80% profit margin. They got sued and changed their policy—in part.
But since then I have never been able to bring myself to purchase one of these. You know the ones. You buy a new laptop and for another $150 the store provides an extended warranty on top of the manufactures warranty.
It’s always an awkward moment for me when I get to that point with the sales clerk. I know it’s coming. “Sir, have you heard about our extended safety coverage opportunity? It’s a great deal…”
I usually stop them and act like I don’t have the authority to make such an executive decision (either in my home; or my business, which I own). I say something like “I need to run it by my firm and let them decide. But not right now.”
But last night I had an unusually pushy sales clerk. After my standard response he said, “No. You can’t wait. It’s pretty much a point of purchase opportunity and that’s it.”
I shook my head and said, “I understand. I’ll just pass for now.”
And then after a pregnant pause I heard, “May I ask why you are not taking advantage of this offer? It’s really smart to do.”
“Huh?” I thought to myself. “Is he calling me stupid? Do I have to justify everything in the store I’m not buying today? Gee. Seems a little heavy handed. What could I say that would be clever but also make this point? Hmmmm. How about, “Look. I’m gonna come clean with you. I’m an idiot and need you to explain the warranty to me really slowly so I can understand this time.”
Or, “Look, I’m an adrenaline junkie and love to try to beat the odds in every area of my life—but especially with Bungie Jumping and with laptop warranties.”
And then I settled on it. “I think —if I hear you correctly—what you are trying to say….is to tell me, ‘Dude, you are going to want more cow bell. Am I right?” Hinting that the “good deal” warranty was about as helpful as a clanging cow bell in the background of a 70’s rock song.
But by this point the sales clerk had already walked away. And the only place I can share my somewhat clever– but way too late–quip is to post it today on Facebook.
Just hope he sees it. And get’s my cow bell reference.
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Oct 25, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET The Politics of Tech
Windows 8, the newest operating system from Microsoft, is being released this week. Are you interested in checking out an early review? Here’s one. [The Verge]
Sony has announced a 20-inch 11 lb. tablet. It looks like the base model will put you back $879. [Geek.com]
This is the coolest robot design ever. [YouTube]
Game developer Zynga laid off more than 100 employees this week as the companies value continues to drop. The timing of the lay offs was interesting as they chose to make the announcement during Apple’s event revealing the iPad Mini. [Tech Crunch]
There has been at least one ruling on the multi-touch patent controversy – this week a Dutch court ruled that Samsung did not infringe on Apple’s patent. [Reuters]
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Oct 18, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET The Politics of Tech
Check out the tech behind Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking free-fall. [Extreme Tech]
In a story that is becoming more familiar over time a major wireless provider has started selling information on their users that they have collected. This time it is Verizon that has been exposed. Verizon is accused of selling customers’ geographical locations, app usage, and Web browsing activities, this of course raises privacy questions and could possibly brush up against federal wiretapping law. [CNET]
The Pirate Bay has moved its entire file-sharing operation to the cloud – making what was already a hard organization to pin down for law enforcement even trickier. This move should make the Pirate Bay effectively raid-proof. [TorrentFreak]
A woman who lost her hearing due to a tumor and created a helmet that translates ambient vibration into vibration that the inner ear can interpret and “understand.” Adversity is the mother of invention? [Amelia Marzec]
Amazon admits it makes no profit on its Kindle sales. I didn’t see that one coming. Of course, Amazon counts on their Amazon store leading the industry in e-book sales. [Forbes]
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Oct 11, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET  The Politics of Tech The nation’s major internet service providers by year’s end will institute a so-called six-strikes plan, the “Copyright Alert System.” The players in this plan, that is back by the White House and encouraged by Hollywood, are AT&T, Cablevision Systems, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon. Could this push users to look for alternative or smaller ISPs? [Wired]
More on file sharing and why the MPAA is losing it’s battle to change the digital culture. [TechDirt]
“Last year, for the first time, spending by Apple and Google on [patents] exceeded spending on research and development of new products” [9to5Mac]
Twitter is taking a strong stance against so called “frivolous lawsuits” related to patents. [Gigaom]
A writer for Ars Technica gets cold called by a by a tech support scammer – comedy insues. [Ars Technica]
“From 0 to 450 mph (720 km/h) in 2.0 seconds” – Amazing. [YouTube]
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Oct 9, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET Disappointing iPhone discoveries.
I am very disappointed with the camera app I discovered last night on my iphone that also records video.
It’s a very cool app, for sure. Not being critical of the app or of how it works. In fact, it actually works extremely well–which is really the cause of my problem.
It was the disappointing quality of what I decided to record that is bothering me.
But then again I am probably being way too hard on myself.
I mean think about, how many people have ever said the words, “OMG, I just recorded myself singing and I sound much better than I even imagined I would.”
Not many. And I am in the majority.
Was hoping I sounded like an aging American version of Paul McCartney singing Blackbird. Instead it sounded more like my father’s half-hearted attempts to sing along with the hymnals at church before he’d eventually stop because he didn’t want to call attention to himself for carrying a poor melody.
Maybe Apple should include a warning saying, “Actual recordings will sound like a time your parents sang and embarrassed you and not like the singer you are impersonating.” That might help a little.
 Very disappointing discovery, and the last time I’ll be pointing that app in my direction.
Here’s my last video recording of me ever on my iPhone. Without the audio. Because, frankly, I learned last night that I look much better singing “Blackbird” than I sound.
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Oct 4, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET The Politics of Tech
The Philippines have passed a law that is many times worse that SOPA. It criminalizes cybersex, torrenting, and criticizing someone online. [CBS News]
On the topic of torrents, the founder of Pirate Bay, Gottfrid Svartholm, continues to be imprisoned without official charges being filed. [TorrentFreak]
The CD turned 30 years old today! [What HiFi]
After the criticism of the new Apple Maps app following the release of the the iPhone 5 last week Apple CEO Tim Cook has apologized via press release. [engadget]
MIT grads advancing molten salt reactor which can use thorium as a nuclear fuel. [Forbes]
Why It’s Bad That Smartphones Have Banished Boredom: When we reach for a smartphone at every pause in our day, we forget how to reflect naturally [Slashdot]
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Sep 27, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET The Politics of Tech
The country of Brazil has ordered for a Google executive to be arrested after Google refused to remove a video from YouTube that criticizes a candidate running for mayor of a city in Brazil. [Washington Post]
The future is now – driverless cars have been made legal in the state of California. [Bloomberg]
The iPhone 4 faced adversity with it’s antenna being susceptible to the “death grip” and now its newer brother the iPhone 5 has its own controversy over Scuffgate. [Extreme Tech]
Verizon CFO, Fran Shammo – “Unlimited is just a word, it doesn’t really mean anything.” Alright, then. [engadget]
More Apple news as this week they lost a touch-screen patent case against Samsung and Motorola in Germany. [Washington Post]
Iran is preparing to block Google from the country in response to the anti-Islam independent film “Innocence of Muslims.” [Guardian]
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Sep 20, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET  The Politics of Tech Google Fiber is doing its best to embarrass the cable industry into offering better Internet service. I, for one, hope it works. The US is ranked 28th in the world in terms of broadband speeds. [Time]
Canada is not doing any better than the US – their broadband Internet has been graded as “Third World” by Netflix. [gigaom]
AT&T has come under fire from FCC for Facetime restrictions. AT&T stand by the belief that net-neutrality rules don’t apply to Facetime. [The Verge]
Here’s a funny video where Jimmy Kimmel goes on the street to ask people to compare an iPhone 4S under the guise of the new iPhone 5 to the person’s own iPhone 4S. [YouTube]
Could a Warp Drive be on the horizon? It appears to be more of a possibility than once thought. [Yahoo!]
The RIAA’s living nightmare: music pirating is increasing and it’s driving sales. [RealWriteWeb
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