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Month: December 2016

Police Seek Amazon Echo Data in Murder Case

amazon
Jason Tate

Billy Steele, writing at Engadget:

Amazon’s Echo devices and its virtual assistant are meant to help find answers by listening for your voice commands. However, police in Arkansas want to know if one of the gadgets overheard something that can help with a murder case. According to The Information, authorities in Bentonville issued a warrant for Amazon to hand over any audio or records from an Echo belonging to James Andrew Bates. Bates is set to go to trial for first-degree murder for the death of Victor Collins next year.

Amazon declined to give police any of the information that the Echo logged on its servers, but it did hand over Bates’ account details and purchases. Police say they were able to pull data off of the speaker, but it’s unclear what info they were able to access. Due to the so-called always on nature of the connected device, the authorities are after any audio the speaker may have picked up that night. Sure, the Echo is activated by certain words, but it’s not uncommon for the IoT gadget to be alerted to listen by accident.

What a strange new world we live in.

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HandBreak Leaves Beta After 13 Years

Jason Tate

HandBreak, one of the best video transcoders out there, has finally left beta and hit version 1.0 … after 13 years.

After more than 13 years of development, the HandBrake Team is delighted to present HandBrake 1.0.0. Thank you to all of our many contributors over the years for making HandBrake what it is today.

‘Firewatch’ Comes to the Mac

Video Games
Jason Tate

One of my favorite games from the past year, Firewatch, has come to the Mac App Store.

The year is 1989. You are a man named Henry who has retreated from his messy life to work as a fire lookout in the Wyoming wilderness. Perched high atop a mountain, it’s your job to look for smoke and keep the wilderness safe. An especially hot, dry summer has everyone on edge. Your supervisor Delilah is available to you at all times over a small, handheld radio—your only contact with the world you’ve left behind. But when something strange draws you out of your lookout tower and into the forest, you’ll explore a wild and unknown environment, facing questions and making choices that can build or destroy the only meaningful relationship you have.

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Cool App: Record Bird

Apps
Jason Tate

I’ve been playing around with this new app called Record Bird that lets you select a bunch of your favorite bands and make sure you’re notified when they release new music.

Record Bird informs you about new and upcoming music releases of your favorite artists and genres. Always be the first to know about a new album or single by your favorite bands and musicians.

It’s missing some of the more indie artists at the moment, but it’s a pretty cool app. Worth giving a look.

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