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Hacker Involved in ‘Celebgate’ Pleads Guilty

Technology
Jason Tate

James Vincent, writing for The Verge:

A hacker has pleaded guilty for his role in the “Celebgate” breach of 2014. Edward Majerczyk faces up to five years in federal prison for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Like fellow hacker Ryan Collins, the 28-year-old Majerczyk used a phishing scam to trick celebrities into entering their online credentials into fake ‘security’ sites. Majerczyk then used this information to illegally access more than 300 personal Gmail and iCloud accounts, retrieving private photos and videos from targets including celebrities. No individuals affected by the hack were named in court documents.

Kevin Durant Joins Golden State Warriors

Kevin Durant Joins Golden State Warriors
Jason Tate

Kevin Durant has joined the Golden State Warriors, basically, on paper, forming an unbeatable basketball team:

But I am also at a point in my life where it is of equal importance to find an opportunity that encourages my evolution as a man: moving out of my comfort zone to a new city and community which offers the greatest potential for my contribution and personal growth. With this in mind, I have decided that I am going to join the Golden State Warriors.

With that new huge contract I’m sure he’ll be able to find a nice one bedroom apartment in San Francisco.

Searching for a Good Reason to Remove the Headphone Jack

Headphones
Jason Tate

Jason Snell, writing at Six Colors:

I have a point of view on all this, but I’m trying very hard not to get mad about something that hasn’t happened. This is a tech unicorn, an unannounced feature on a nonexistent product, and it’s important to keep that in mind. Still, it’s not a bad intellectual exercise to ponder why Apple might make such a move, and what the ramifications might be.

The speculative conclusion at the end about the rumored “AirPods” sounds right to me. What I really hope for is that any wireless headphones that Apple ship don’t use Bluetooth, but instead use a new, maybe proprietary, technology along with Bluetooth. Bluetooth is a massive pain in the ass to use with multiple devices and flaky as hell.

One thing I have seen when I’ve talked about this with some non-techy friends: they either don’t care at all and just use whatever headphones come with their phone or they really care and find this to be an absolute abomination. I don’t see much middle ground. We discussed this whole thing in more detail on this week’s episode of Encore because it really does fascinate me to no end. The tradeoffs seem almost unbearably negative, but yet it seems so inevitable at the same time.

Apple Exploring Tidal Acquisition

Apple
Jason Tate

Daisuke Wakabayashi, Hannah Karp, and Patience Haggin, writing for the Wall Street Journal on how Apple is apparently looking into buying Tidal:

The talks are ongoing and may not result in a deal, these people said. Apple is exploring the idea of bringing on Tidal to bolster its Apple Music service because of Tidal’s strong ties to popular artists such as Kanye West and Madonna.

I’m not sure if this makes much sense, but Nick Heer nails what has to be the thinking:

One of the ways they differentiate themselves is to swoon artists enough for them to make their newest releases exclusive to a platform for a short amount of time before it’s generally released. A bunch of these exclusives over the past year went to Apple Music, but those they didn’t get — the newest albums from Kanye West, Rihanna, Beyoncé, and other high-profile artists — all went to Tidal. If Apple were to maintain those relationships post-acquisition and keep the ones they have, they’d have the exclusive release market effectively cornered.

John Feldman Goes Track-by-Track on ‘California’

Blink-182
Jason Tate

John Feldmann, who either saved or ruined Blink-182 according to the internet, did a track-by-track breakdown of California with Fuse:

“Sober,” we did with Patrick Stump, who is a good friend of mine. Fall Out Boy supported Blink for many tours. They’re all the oldest friends. I hang out with those guys a lot and he was just kind of here and he had this idea—what could Blink be on modern rock radio in 2016? What does that look like? What does that mean, when there aren’t really live instruments on the radio?

It’s full of little tidbits of information. And typos.

Alicia Keys Not Allowing Phones at Concerts

Technology
Jason Tate

Speaking of ways to avoid phones at shows, Alicia Keys has been using the Yonder pouch at her shows. The Washington Post reports:

Dugoni says the pouch serves two purposes. The artist can try out new material without worrying about it being leaked. Fans will also realize that they actually enjoy a show more without constantly filming, texting and Tweeting.

“If you haven’t been to a phone-free show, you just don’t know what you’re missing,” he says. “There’s something about living in real life that can’t be replicated.”

On That Patent to Disable the iPhone Camera

Apple
Jason Tate

Lots has been written about Apple receiving a patent that would allow infrared signals to temporarily disable the phone camera. I think Stereogum writer Collin Robertson best expresses my thoughts:

That might be OK … assuming the technology is only used at concerts and doesn’t extend to, like, disabling phone cameras during instances of police brutality and/or sociopolitical/religious unrest.

Most of the time patents never actually lead to shipped products, I hope that’s the case here.

Google Licenses LyricFind for Search Results

Jason Tate

Alex Pham, writing for Billboard, on how Google has licensed lyrics from LyricFind to add into their search results.

Google has signed a multi-year licensing deal with Toronto-based LyricFind to display song lyrics in its search results, both companies announced today. A query for the lyrics to a specific song will pull up the words to much of that song, freeing users from having to click through to another website. Google rolled out the lyrics feature in the U.S. today (June 27), though it has licenses to display the lyrics internationally as well.

The Optimal Distinctiveness Theory

Jason Tate

Oliver Burkeman, writing for The Guardian, on the phenomenon of when something gets so much praise, or hype, and then you end up avoiding the praised thing expressly because of how much everyone else seems to like it:

So what’s going on? One explanation is what psychologists call “optimal distinctiveness theory” – the way we’re constantly jockeying to feel exactly the right degree of similarity to and difference from those around us. Nobody wants to be exiled from the in-group to the fringes of society; but nobody wants to be swallowed up by it, either. In toddlerhood and teenagerhood, this manifests as a bloody-minded refusal to do what we’re told, precisely to show we can disobey our parents. Perhaps it never entirely goes away.

I’ve been reading up on the optimal distinctiveness theory on Wikipedia today and it’s almost funny how well it describes interactions I see in our forums on a daily basis.

Jack From All Time Low Working on Music With Tyler Posey

Jason Tate

Teen Wolf actor Tyler Posey spoke with Billboard about working with Jack from All Time Low on some new music together:

It’s so early in the works, but Jack from All Time Low, he and I have become really good friends over the past year, and just recently we talked about producing something with each other and writing music with each other. So we’re about to do something really big and, hopefully, do a collab with a bunch of other punk guys. It’s all punk. My whole life is punk. That’s all I want to do is be performing punk onstage, so it’s going to happen. Within the next year, I guarantee you.

Taking Back Sunday to Release ‘Tidal Wave’

Taking Back Sunday
Jason Tate

Taking Back Sunday have announced, via Entertainment Weekly, that they will release Tidal Wave on September 16th.

When asked if he would classify Tidal Wave as part of the emo genre associated with their past albums, Lazzara explains, “Look, in my mind every album anyone’s ever written is an emo album because there’s a lot of emotion that goes into all of that. You can’t listen to ‘Hey Jude’ and tell me that’s not an emo song. I don’t like being pigeonholed because I think there’s more to it than that. I think this record highlights that very well, so no I wouldn’t consider it an emo record in the traditional sense of the word.”

So … The Beatles: greatest emo band of all time?