BoingBoing.net
Xeni Jardin is a technology-culture journalist. A co-editor of BoingBoing.net, she is a contributor to Wired magazine and NPR's Day to Day. Jardin is a breast cancer survivor.
PROFILE
Xeni Jardin
Guest
FROM Xeni Jardin
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Is the iPhone X worth $1000? The iPhone X boasts an edge-to-edge display, facial recognition technology, no home button, wireless charging, and a better camera. Should you be swayed by the hype and go for it? We also discuss the story of Instagram taking down a photo of a mom with her son, who has a facial disfigurement.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Does Amazon want to take over the world? Amazon dominates online retail in the U.S., and now it’ll own actual grocery stores, since its purchase of Whole Foods is a go. Amazon has also been opening up brick and mortar bookstores, and designing an algorithm for making apparel. To compete, Google is partnering with Walmart so you can do voice shopping from home.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Tech industry fights white supremacists Before violence broke out in Charlottesville last weekend, Airbnb had decided to deny service to known white supremacists, including Richard Spencer. As events unfolded, Uber banned a white supremacist who allegedly made racist comments to his Uber driver in DC. Facebook and Twitter began policing hate speech on their sites. Several parties tried taking down the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Your Roomba is spying on you, should you care? Defcon, one of the world’s largest hacking conventions has kicked off. It includes Voting Village, a place where hackers can carry out attacks on various voting machines to show how vulnerable our elections are. Also, the little vacuum robot Roomba is mapping your house.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Why free payment apps like Venmo are really not-so-free The free peer-to-peer payment app Venmo has a social element that other similar apps don’t have. How secure is your personal data and the money you send. How does Venmo make money, anyway? Also, the Dept. of Justice announced today that the black market site AlphaBay has been busted up. Finally, Apple announced new emoji this week.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Newspapers want a better deal from Facebook and Google News outlets need Facebook and Google to get their stories in front of as many eyeballs as possible. But the two tech giants soak up the bulk of online ad revenue. Now a group of newspapers wants to band together to negotiate a better deal. But they’ll need permission from Congress first.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
What Uber's downfall means for Lyft Ride-sharing giant Uber is making (mostly negative) headlines every week, and CEO Travis Kalanick just resigned. Is this just what Lyft’s been waiting for: Uber’s implosion? From its start, Lyft presented itself as different from Uber, and it’s been quietly growing.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Uber executive fired after revelations that he shared a rape victim's medical records Uber’s President of Business in the Asia Pacific, Eric Alexander was fired Tuesday after reports surfaced that he had obtained the medical records of a woman who was raped by an Uber driver in India. The company also announced it had recently fired 20 other employees.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Can Waze Carpool fix LA traffic? Navigation app Waze is expanding its carpool feature across California next week. The feature connects drivers with riders heading to the same place so they can ride together and save on gas. However, it’s not intended to be the next Lyft Line or Uber Pool. There’s also a legal fight between Uber and Waymo, in which Waymo says Uber stole its self-driving car secrets.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
After 7 years in prison, what will Chelsea Manning do with her freedom? Chelsea Manning was released from prison Wednesday . She was originally sentenced to 35 years for leaking thousands of military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks. But Barack Obama commuted most of her sentence before leaving office. Manning has posted photos on social media to celebrate -- her first steps of freedom, enjoying pizza and wine.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
French President Macron fights back against hackers Russians are suspected of interfering in the recent French election. The campaign of now President-elect Emmanuel Macron was hacked. But Macron’s technology team saw it coming and launched a counteroffensive. Also, LA-based Snapchat has lost more money in the past three month that the company has made, ever.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
New tech can mimic your voice with eerie accuracy Part of Facebook’s anti-violence plan is hiring 3000 more people to monitor content and pull down harmful or violent posts. Families of the victims of the San Bernardino terrorist attack are suing Facebook, Twitter, and Google for knowingly supporting terrorism. And some companies are developing technology that can mimic any voice.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
FCC threatens net neutrality, and Amazon judges your clothes FCC chair Ajit Pai outlined his plans to undo Obama-era net neutrality rules, which require internet companies to treat all internet traffic equally. Amazon just introduced Echo Look, which lets its original voice assistant, Alexa, judge what you wear and help you pick your outfit.
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Facebook wants to read your mind, and turn your thoughts into status updates Days after a man posted a video to Facebook of him randomly shooting and killing another man, Mark Zuckerberg said his company will keep doing all they can to prevent similar tragedies from happening again. He then talked about unveiling ambitious new features that will allow users to augment reality.
Recommended
Design and Architecture
Farewell LA freeways, Peter Shire is back Angelenos don't want more freeways but we seem not to want mass transit either. Metro has killed the 710 freeway extension, and bus and train ridership is down across the region. What's the future of getting around in LA? And, Peter Shire is having a comeback. What attracts a new generation to his playful ceramics and furniture?
The Business
Revisiting showrunner Steven Bochco on his memoir Steven Bochco, the writer-producer behind record-breaking Emmy winners Hill Street Blues, LA Law and NYPD Blue, fought battles with everyone from out-of-control actors to network censors in his long career. He isn’t afraid to tell those tales in his memoir, Truth Is a Total Defense. This week we revisit the conversation where he shared some of his favorite stories with us.
The Business
In 'Speechless,' Scott Silveri combines comedy, family & disability Scott Silveri has written and produced sitcoms for more than 20 years. In all that time, he never encountered a TV family that looked anything like the one he grew up in -- with a mom, a dad...and a brother with cerebral palsy. He changed that with his show Speechless on ABC. Silveri tells us about looking to his own past for stories, and why he was determined to make a family comedy and not just a "disability show."