June 7, 2020 - Episode 563 - Show Notes

June 7, 2020 - Episode 563

Sunday Jun 7, 2020 (01:27:53)

Description

This week, Zoom's plans are out of focus, Epic Games is shining a light on mobile stores, and Google users are in the dark.

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.

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Some users defend Zoom's decision not to encrypt all meetings

When it comes to privacy and security, Zoome has not been a success story. A year ago, an issue in the software allowed anyone to turn on a Mac's webcam without the owner's permission or knowledge and uninstalling Zoom didn't remove the exploit. This year, we have seen Zoom bombing become the norm, with people joining meetings that they are not invited to. To combat its image, the company has announced that it intends to encrypt meetings from end-to-end, but that new feature comes with a caveat: not everyone gets it.

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Extra Life

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Epic Games Store could be coming to mobile to fight walled gardens

It is no secret that Epic Games has a dislike for the status quo. The company recently changed the licensing for Unreal Engine to make it free until a game has made a million dollars. They also recently launched a low-cost publishing service, bucking the industry norm. Even the Epic Games Store has taken an altered approach to the concept, taking a far smaller percentage. However, their biggest fight has been against the walled gardens of the mobile operating systems.

News From the Tubes

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New suit asks for $5 billion over misunderstanding of how web works

If the internet is good at anything, it is distributing information, whether or not it makes any sense. seen everything from people believing articles from The Onion to purposeful disinformation campaigns. However, the most common scenario is people simply misunderstanding how things work. That is the basis behind a new class-action lawsuit alleging that Google has violated the US Federal Wiretap Act. This law protects people from the interception of private communications. Originally intended to protect wireline phone conversations, it has been expanded over the years to include other communications. The suit is asking for $5 billion in damages.

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Netflix now owns a historic physical movie theater in Hollywood

The journey for Netflix is a fascinating one. The company started by mailing physical DVDs to subscribers and pivoted to streaming. They were so ready to be done with physical media that they intended to spin the DVD business into Qwikster, a plan that was abandoned. Over the last year or so, the company has had to pivot back towards physical movies to be eligible for academy awards. That pivot has led to the company purchasing a physical movie theater.

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