December 17, 2017 - Episode 488

What this episode covers

Description This week, Apple invests in lasers, Mozilla alarms its users and Disney owns your TV dial. Participants Scott Ertz Host Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab. Avram Piltch Host Avram's been in love with PCs since he played original Castle Wolfenstein on an Apple II+. Before joining Tom's Hardware, for 10 years, he served as Online Editorial Director for sister sites Tom's Guide and Laptop Mag, where he programmed the CMS and many of the benchmarks. When he's not editing, writing or stumbling around trade show halls, you'll find him building Arduino robots with his son and watching every single superhero show on the CW. Opening Powered by TeknoAXE Nifty Gifties Powered by Microsoft Store Apple Doubles-Down on Face Id in Future iPhones Before the announcement of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X lines this year, there were some issues in production across Apple. A rumored Apple-branded wireless charging solution might have been canceled over charging distance. The Apple HomePod has been delayed until 2018, possibly sacrificed to the production gods. But the real issue was in the availability of the iPhone X at launch, caused in part by a single piece. read full article Piltch Point with Avram Piltch Powered by Monster Products Extra Life Powered by Razer PlayerUnknown Wants to Stop Battlegrounds Clones, But Should He? Any time a new game gains popularity, it is guaranteed that clones are not far behind. This is even more true when a game breaks into a new gameplay method. The creator of the massively popular Battle Royale game Battlegrounds, Brendan Greene, better known as PlayerUnknown, has learned this the hard way, as the number of clones of the title, also known as PubG, has been intense. read full article News From the Tubes Powered by RiffTrax Mozilla Accidentally Makes Users Think They Have Spyware Generating revenue from a free product is always hard to do, especially when there is no real place for advertising. It's not a new scenario for a web browser to build a partnership in an attempt to increase revenue. So, the idea of a partnership between Mozilla, who promotes online privacy and security, and an online game from hacker TV show Mr. Robot, is a clear winner. read full article * DRM Not Included Powered by Amazon Prime Walt Disney Company to Acquire Twenty-First Century Fox For $52.4 Billion After months of speculation, and several interested parties, the competition for Twenty-First Century Fox has come to the end, with The Walt Disney Company coming out as the new owner. The company will be paying $52.4 billion in Disney shares for the majority of the existing company. Remaining with the former owners will be the news and sports businesses, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, FS1, and FS2. Those pieces will be spun off into a new corporation, cleverly named "Fox." Rupert Murdoch intends to eventually re-integrate these properties into News Corp. read full article Closing Powered by Tech Podcast Network