Pop | Tech | Jam

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 →

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 →