September 16, 2016 - The WAN Show Document

[LinusTech]

Main News Topics

AdBlock Plus: Now Bringing you Ads

Source 1: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/09/adblock-plus-starts-selling-ads-but

• Company touts more than 90 million users willing to see “pre-whitelisted” ads

• Launching a self-service platform to sell pre-whitelisted ads

  • Will have to meet its “acceptable” ads criteria

• Acceptable ads program helps publishers who want to show alternative, non-intrusive ads to users with ad blockers

  • Does this by providing a tool that lets them implement Acceptable Ads

• Company has a list of criteria for what makes an ad “acceptable”

  • Link

• Acceptable ad system provides Eyeo with its main revenue source

iPhone 7: The Fastest Phone Ever?

Source 1: http://www.pcmag.com/news/347916/the-iphone-7-is-the-fastest-phone-ever

Source 2: http://bgr.com/2016/09/15/iphone-7-vs-android-benchmarks/

Source 3: http://bgr.com/2016/09/13/iphone-7-vs-iphone-6s-vs-galaxy-note-7-antutu/

• Benchmarks show that the iPhone 7’s A10 processor is faster than the latest offerings from Qualcomm

• Processor looks like the fastest smartphone chip on the market today

• Apple says its quad-core A10 processor, running at 2.33GHz in new iphones, has 40% better CPU performance and 50% better graphics performance when compared to last year’s A9

iPhone Generation CPU Performance & iPhone Generation GPU Performance

• PCMags benchmarks showed that the iPhone 7 is 40% faster than the S7 for multi-core performance, and twice as fast for single core performance

Google Terminates AdBlock Plus AdSense Account

Source 1: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/660755-google-terminat OP: Geek95

Source 2: https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/14/adblock-plus-ad-network-loses-support/

• AdBlock Plus unveiled its own ad network to make money from toned-down ads

  • Company said its Acceptable Ads platform would supply ads from Google and AppNexus

    • Relying on a go-between company (ComboTag) to get those ads

    • They didn’t ask underlying ad providers about a deal

• Now Google and Appnexus are ending associations with ComboTag

• Googles SVP for ads, Sridhar Ramaswamy said that his company was “caught off-guard” by the AdBlock Plus announcement.

  • Stated, “We are moving to terminate ComboTag’s AdX account”

  • “Ad blocking is a symptom of bad ads online and that’s why we believe the industry needs to align around a standard - backed by data and insights from conversations with real consumers for what constitutes a better ad experience online”

• AppNexus said that Adblock is essentially setting up “toll booths on public roads,” taking ad money that should be going straight to publishers

YouTube Could be Ordered to Pay More for Music by Europe

Source 1: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/660636-eu-copyri OP: porina

Source 2: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37360757

• Video sites like YouTube will be forced to pay more for musicians and record companies under plans to reform EU copyright laws

• Will also require publishers and producers to tell performers or authors what profits their work has generated

• Under new directive, Google News would be forced to pay newspaper publishers a fee when using small extracts or snippets of news stories

• Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the EU Commission stated:

  • “I want journalists, publishers and authors to be paid fairly for their work, whether it is made in studios or living rooms, whether it is disseminated offline or online, whether it is published via a copying machine or hyperlinked on the web."

• Commission hasn’t detailed how it would force sites like YouTube to pay more to artists

• Proposals must go to EU parliament and EU states for approval

  • Process could take years

U.S Government Issues Official Note 7 Recall

Source 1: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/661334-us-government OP: Kozworth

Source 2: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/09/15/consumer-produ

• On Thursday the U.S Government moved to recall Samsung’s Note 7 smartphones

  • Unprecedented move for the smartphone industry

• Samsung and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have issued an official recall for the Note 7

  • Comes after reports of the phone’s lithium-ion battery bursting into flames

• Formal recall allows the U.S gov’t to do several things:

  • Makes it illegal to sell the device or use them on airplanes

• Recall involves Note 7 smartphones sold before September 15th

  • U.S. officials say that 97% of the Note 7 phone sold in the US have the same battery that’s caused fires

• “Samsung has received 92 reports of batteries overheating in the U.S.

  • 26 reports of burns

  • 55 reports of property damage

    • Including fires in cars and a garage

• With the recall, Note 7 owners can exchange their Note 7 phone for a new one, or get a refund

• Samsung’s guidance about what consumers should do with the phone has been confusing

  • Initially people were told to turn their phones off and trade them into mobile carriers or Samsung themselves

  • In South Korea customers were told to download software that would limit the charge on the Note 7’s batteries

Samsung Has Stopped Airing Galaxy Note 7 Commercials on TV in Korea

Source 1: http://www.sammobile.com/2016/09/14/samsung-has-stopped-airing-galaxy-note-7

• One reason for doing so is that Galaxy Note 7 shipments have been suspended for over a week now

• Some analysts expect that sales won’t resume until next month

GameRoom Launched - Single Client for all of Your PC Games

Source 1: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/661097-gameroom-client-launched OP: Bouzoo

Source 2: https://gameroom.me/features

Source 3: http://www.game-debate.com/news/21365/gameroom-launches-pulls-all-your-pc-gam

• GameRoom hopes to plug into all clients, tracking what games you’ve got, how long you’ve played them, and letting you launch through it as well

• First publically available branch has been released

  • Required Java to run at this stage

• Features (Taken from GameRoom Page):

  • User Friendly

  • Automatic import: scans and imports games from Steam, GOG, Origin, etc.

  • All your Steam Games: Displays all of them through the client

  • Scrapping

  • Sort - Group - Search

  • Does more than launching your games

  • Time monitor

 

Rapid Fire

HP Buying Samsung Electronics Printer Business for $1.05B

Source 1: http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/hp-buying-samsung-electronics-printer-b

• HP said Monday that it’s the largest print acquisition in the company’s history

• Will help it go from traditional copiers to multifunction printers

• Said the deal with also strengthen its position in laser printing

• Samsung’s printer business includes more than 6,500 printing patents

• Deal expected to close within a year

Alibaba Fires Employees for Hacking Their Way to Free Mooncakes

Source 1: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/09/alibaba-fires-employees-for-hackin

• China’s mid-autumn festival started on Sep 15th

  • Holiday is commemorated in Chinese culture through exchange and sharing of moon cakes

  • Cakes are round pastries filled with lotus seed paste or red bean paste and sometimes the salted yolk of a duck egg surrounded by a thin crust

• Traditionally these moon cakes are given as presents by businesses and are in huge demand leading up to the festival

• Alibaba offered its employees one mooncake each, complete with one Alibaba plush inside

  • Additionally cakes were sold at cost to employees for friends and family through an internal e-commerce page

• Four software engineers at the company were able to add software to the system, directing extra mooncakes to themselves

• Alibaba’s internal security team detected the hack and found the four had amassed themselves 124 boxes of cakes

• One alleged cake hacker confessed on site Zhihu

  • Claimed he couldn’t buy a cake through the internal website, so he created his own plug-in for the back end of the system

  • Within two hours of doing so, he was caught and asked to leave

  • Stated that “This is the fastest dismissal I have ever experienced.” “It may also rank high on the list for goofballs”

Apple Put a Barometric Vent in the Space Where the iPhone 7 Headphone Jack Would Have Been

Source 1: http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/16/12941040/iphone-7-teardown-plastic-be

• Apple said that waterproofing the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus meant it was more of a sealed box

  • To have an accurate and working barometer, Apple used this space to create a vent

• Barometer is used to measure altitude

  • Apple says the one featured on the iPhone 7 can measure minor changes like climbing a flight of stairs

OGN to Launch Overwatch League, DoA and MonteCristo to cast

Source 1: http://www.espn.com/esports/story/_/id/17558894/ogn-launch-overwatch-

• CJ E&M Corporation’s esports broadcaster and tournament organizer OGN will host a 28-team Overwatch league

  • Called Overwatch APEX

• From Oct 7th through to December

• Organization tells ESPN that the league will feature a prize pool of approximately 177,000 USD

• League will feature 16 teams in its professional level, including 12 from South Korea

  • Will be determined through both online and offline qualifiers

• Tournament will feature familiar faces to OGN Fans on its English broadcast, including Erik Lonnquist and Christopher Mykles

• South Korea will be the first region to launch a regular regional league, officially licensed by Blizzard

  • Other leagues in both North America and Europe have been proposed

Logitech Bought Saitek from Mad Catz

Source 1: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/661361-logitech-bought-sa OP: Carde

Source 2: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/3073495

• Announced September 15th, 2016

• Ujesh Desai, vice president and general manager of gaming at Logitech said: “We’re pleased with this tuck-in acquisition of the Saitek product portfolio”

  • Will complement the Logitech G gaming products

    • Including products like the G29 or G920 Driving Force steering wheels

Google Maps Can Show How Much You’re Speeding

Source 1: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/09/google-maps-will-finally-show-how-

• Users report a speed limit sign showing up in the bottom corner of Google Maps

• Picture of That

• Random user reports as of now, nothing official

Microsoft Edge Continues to Dominate Battery Life

Source 1: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/661295-edge-continues-to-domin OP: GoodBytes

Source 2: http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/15/12926524/microsoft-edge-chrome-bat

Source 3: http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/3/12781480/google-chrome-53-material-de

• Google has released Chrome 53, which claims to bring power improvements and improve laptop battery consumption

  • Microsoft did a benchmark comparing Firefox, Chrome, Edge and Opera

• Microsoft’s Test (Video Link)

• Benchmark Graph (Microsoft Edge #1, Firefox #2, Chrome #3)

British Scientists Have Developed a Cheaper, “Unbreakable” Touchscreen for Smartphones

Source 1: http://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/mobile-phones/british-scientists-h

• Reportedly a fifth of the cost of current touchscreens

  • $A14 a square meter, as opposed to $A70 a square meter for indium tin oxide

  • Technology could be rolled out as soon as 2018

• Currently electrodes in touch screens are made from indium tin oxide (ITO)

  • Supplies are slowly running out, so scientists are trying to find the next electrical conductive material that could be used by manufacturers

• Scientists in britain have been looking at hybrid materials that can conduct electricity

• Using a simple and inexpensive method, physicists are producing hybrid electrodes from silver nanowires and graphene

  • Found a way to lay the nanowire in such a fine film that it remained transparent

  • By combining both graphene and nanowires, scientists were able to create a film that conducts electricity but was highly flexible and resistant to cracks and breaks

• Findings published in the journal “Nanoscale”

FBI Director: Cover up your webcam

Source 1: http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/technology/fbi-director-cover-up-your-web

• On Wednesday FBI Director James Comey defended putting a piece of tape over his personal laptop’s webcam

  • Claiming the security step was a common sense one that most should take

• “There’s some sensible things you should be doing, and that’s one of them,” he said

• “You do that so that people who don’t have authority don’t look at you. I think that’s a good thing.”

Device Can Read Pages of a Book Without Opening It

Source 1: http://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/device-can-read-the-pages-of-a-bo

• Team of researchers at MIT and Georgia Tech figured out a way to read the pages of a book without opening it

• Pulled it off with a system they developed that looks like a cross between a camera and a microscope

  • Could someday be used by museums toscan contents of old books too fragile to handle

  • Or to examine paintings to confirm their authenticity or to understand the artist's creative process

• Device called the ‘terahertz spectrometer’

  • Uses terahertz waves - a type of radiation situated on the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared light

  • Managed to clearly read only nine pages, though it could see writing on up to 20

• “We were very excited because we didn’t think we would be able to see as deep as we did,” said Barmak Heshmat, a research scientist at MIT Media Lab

  • Heshmat says the team is already in talking with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York about using it

  • Says broader use of the device would be limited by cost, which runs about $100,000 USD

• Heshmat says the system works much better than x-rays

  • With x-rays, you won’t be able to read the pages unless the ink is written with a metal

Tesla is Suing an Oil-Company Executive it Says Impersonated Elon Musk

Source 1: http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-lawsuit-oil-executive-impersonated-el

• Lawsuit filed Wednesday, claimed that Todd Katz, CFO for Quest Integrity Group, e-mailed Tesla’s CFO using a similar address to Musks looking to gain information that wasn’t disclosed in an earnings call with investors

• According the lawsuit, Katz used “elontesla@yahoo.com” to send an email to Tesla CFO Jason Wheeler asking about the company’s sales and financial projections

• “The point of this action is that this was perceived as an effort to gain inside information, non-public information,” John Hueston, a Los Angeles lawyer representing Tesla, said

Apple Japan Unit Ordered to Pay $118 Million Tax for Underreporting Income

Source 1: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-japan-tax-idUSKCN11M09O

• Apple Inc. ITunes unit in Japan was ordered to pay 12 billion yen ($118 million) in tax by local authorities for underreporting income

  • They have since paid the amount, reports say

• Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau determined the unit, which sends part of its profits earned from fees paid by Japan subscribers to another Apple unit in Ireland to pay for software licensing

  • They had not been paying a withholding tax on those earnings in Japan

U.S Woman Launches Lawsuit Against Canadian Vibrator Maker

Source 1: http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/u-s-woman-launches-lawsuit-against-canadian-v

• American woman has launched a proposed class-action lawsuit against the Canadian-owned maker of a smartphone-enabled vibrator

  • Alleging the company sells products that secretly collect and transmit “highly sensitive” information

• Lawsuit explains that to fully operate the device, users download the We-Connect app on a smartphone, allowing them and their partners to remote control over the Bluetooth-equipped vibrator’s settings

  • In the app’s “connect lover” feature - which promises a secure connection - allows partners to exchange text messages, conduct video chats and control a paired We-Vibe device

• Lawsuit alleges that unbeknownst to customers, Standard Innovation designed the We-Connect app to collect and record intimate and sensitive data on the use of the vibrator

  • This includes the date and time of each use as well as vibration settings

• Company said “we take concerns about our customers privacy and data practices seriously”

• Lawsuit calls for an injunction prohibiting the company from collecting this information

 

(RUMOR) Supposedly Leaked 1080Ti Specs Show GDDR5 (Non X)

Source 1: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/661047-supposedly OP: Misanthrope

Source 2: http://www.overclock3d.net/news/gpu_displays/nvidia_gtx_1080ti_specificatio

Rumored Specifications Comparison

 

 

 

 

[Shoob]

RIP audio after 36:00.

[Dionyz]

26 minutes ago, LinusTech said:

 

 

 

 

 

No audio at 35:58 and onward, so basically the sponsor spot is also have no audio. So I would remove the video and reupload it.

[captain cactus]

@LinusTech @Slick Yo, there's no audio from the 36 minute mark until the end of the video, and the timestamps in the video description are completely out of whack. Might wanna reupload this.

 

 

You done goofed m8s

[TravisB]

Audio is gone after the 36min mark.

[Daniel644]

the Sound Cloud is also missing the audio starting at the same point

[Megalopath]

Is there a different way to watch the rest of the video? 36m in it looses audio.

[Daniel644]

1 minute ago, CaptainMike47 said:

Is there a different way to watch the rest of the video? 36m in it looses audio.

https://www.twitch.tv/linustech/v/89746222

But for whatever reason it's like 10 minutes shorter.

[Flyingbluejay]

Seems like they're working on it, the video is down now

[Skiiwee29]

Yep, video has been pulled down so they can correct the audio issue. Be patient little beings of earth. 

[Daniel644]

FYI, they posted on twitter

 

Quote

It looks like there's a sound issue with the WAN show I will have to fix it when I get home - LS

 

[Djole123]

Audio is lost at 36min mark? Pff, nothing unsual considering Linus prepares it at the last minute.

 

 

 

[Taf the Ghost]

On Ad Blocking, Brave (the browser) is the first real big step into the direction that that Internet is headed towards.   Because the issue with Ads has always been that the end-user has to trust the Website.  But with almost all Ads now delivered by Ad Networks, the end-user is trusting an algorithm somewhere that they barely know exists.  (This is before bringing into the discussion the security issues.)  With the rise of Flash ads and similar approaches, most websites are functionally useless without Ad Blocking.  Thus, you run Ad Blocker.

 

But the approach that Apple has taken with the "walled garden" for their technology will simply spread to other areas, as you need gate-keepers since the Internet has no physical location reach issues.  It isn't the death of the "Free Internet' (which actually died before even Web 2.0 happened).  It's just the further progress of limiting the damage other parties can do.

 

 

[MaxRink]

To Lukes Batterytests:

Ur visiting websites with Ads and Ads vary. And not only the Ads vary but also the scripts loaded to load and track the ads, those are often even bigger than the original Ad.

If you would run your tests with an adblocker on you would get rather consistent results

[AxelRantila]

Paradox Interactive CEO's summarized my thoughts about ad-blocking in a single tweet. It is from about a year ago but it is still applicable.

 

I have seen game and software companies adept to piracy via new business models with pretty good success. I honestly see no reason to why publications, content creators and the like cannot do the same.

[DaiGurenMK42]

The Fitness tracking video I am excited for. If you can get 5 people of different athleticism to get data that would be awesome. It is like the idea of having an average person compete against the athletes at the Olympics for the understanding of the difference. 

[DaiGurenMK42]

Hey Luke. Is a rock waterproof?

[ddswh1pk0s]

Love it how last week on the show luke complains about iphone 7's screen resolution because having a 4k phone screen is important, but apparently being way more responsive than any other android phone (linus' words not mine) is not important and no one cares. I'll have you know that the only reason why I haven't switched to android is because any of my friend's android phones that I've tried is a laggy piece of shit after 3 months.

[AnonymousGuy]

NV isn't fooling me twice on the Titan X.  I'll just wait for the 1080ti and get the same performance for 30% less, and non reference PCBs, and advanced RMA options from EVGA.

[wil7]

When they asked the users, the users assumed that it will allowed ads for the specified website. For example going to a website that you like but has ads then you will see their ads and they will get their money. For them to take their money is what the issue is about. 

[spuc]

@Slick if you are going to test "Microsoft Edge Continues to Dominate Battery Life"  and experiencing differences on the same system, why not use clonezilla to copy the harddrive bit-by-bit in order to make the test consistent?
 

[The Knome]

Thank you Linus for pointing out the obvious fact that leads to us folks using ad blocking software.
Massively intrusive ads.
Unable to watch an entire video without a break every 2 minutes for another ruddy advert, or not being able to read what is a very short article without masses of click bait scattered all over.

Now, as a parent,,, the other massive issue is the content of these click bait ads on what are intended to be respectable websites. Ones that are intended for research and reporting. And there is no way to filter these. And AdBlock Plus has perverted this even more (thankfully where one takes a dump on users another steps up).

How Linus Media places ads?
I have no problem at all, sit and watch them, frankly the added in humour of the team reading them out adds to the best experience.
The issue I have taking up any of them is that they are limited to Canada and the US!

[Freeman]

Is there a way to have AdBlock or program with the same functionality set up to be off by default and allow me to turn it on selectively?

[Rodrigo_B]

@Slick Regarding the laptop browser/battery comparison.

The best test to do this is to run each program in each computer and compare the times.

For example,

Computer 1 battery life with Nothing (just screen on always), Chrome, Edge, Mozilla, etc.
Computer 2 battery life with Nothing (just screen on always), Chrome, Edge, Mozilla, etc.
Etc...

Then you take the time of nothing running minus the time for each browser and the closer to 0 the better the performance of browser per battery.

As example:

Computer 1

Nothing 8hrs
Chrome 6hrs
Edge 4hrs
Mozzila 3.5hrs

Ranking

Chrome (8-6) 2
Edge (8-4) 4
Mozzila (8-3.5) 4.5

Then you do the same for the other 3 computers and you average the results and rank browser:

Chrome (2, 3, 2, 2.5) = 2.375

 

Hope that helps.