TechStuff

What gives those classic video games like Super Mario Bros and Legend of Zelda their unique sound? We look at what makes 8-bit audio special, and why the 8-bit part isn't really the important, uh, bit.

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Elon Musk says unless Twitter can prove its claim that less than 5% of all monetizable accounts are bots, the acquisition deal won't progress. A security researcher shows it's possible to unlock and start a Tesla vehicle through hacking. And how many times is your data traded online every day?

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Not all self-driving cars are made equal. We take a look at the various levels of autonomous driving and speculate on how long it might be until we have a truly autonomous car on the roads.

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Is there a kill switch for the Internet? Is that legal or ethical? Ben Bowlin joins the show to talk about it.

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All right, stop! Collaborate and listen; ICE is back with invasive digital surveillance covering essentially all US residents. Plus the SEC is after Elon Musk (again), the EU might outlaw end to end encryption and we learn what Google has announced at its I/O event.

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On May 10th, 2022, Apple announced it was discontinuing the iPod Touch, the last in the line of iPod products. We look back on the debut, evolution and impact of the iconic iPod.

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DRM, or digital rights management, can cause far more problems than what it was meant to solve. And it doesn't even solve the problem it was designed to do. In this episode, we look at several cases where DRM caused problems for legitimate customers.

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The last couple of years have been hard, but they've also pushed businesses to adapt quickly and innovate. We look at the technologies that power work.

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Nate Lanxon from Bloomberg joins the show to talk about the history of Internet Explorer and the future of Project Spartan.

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In this episode sponsored by Nissan, we take a look at the technologies being developed right now that will reshape the web and how we interact online. From Web3 to the metaverse to, yes, NFTs, we look at what's good, what's bad and what could define our future.

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In the late 90s, a man calling himself Michael Fenne had a radical idea: why not create a 1,000-channel online video network? The result was PIxelon, a company that in its short history had one of the craziest journeys in tech history.

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The US invests in electric vehicle batteries. Meta decides to shut down its podcasting platform. And Spotify is in Roblox now!

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It's hard to hold onto information. Paradoxically, it can also be hard to get rid of it. In this episode, we look at why long-term data preservation is a challenge, and the lengths people will go to in order to clear out digital information.

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Nate Lanxon from Bloomberg joins the show to talk about the history of Internet Explorer and the future of Project Spartan.

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Meta saw more users join its services, giving investors more confidence in the company. Amazon is in a tussle with the Australian government. And the UK plans to fine streaming services that display "harmful content." 

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Some researchers in the UK made a breakthrough that could have a dramatic impact on the cost of fuel cell technology. But how do fuel cells work anyway, and what's holding us back from using them?

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Despite all the back and forth, it looks like Elon Musk's bid for Twitter will be a success. And as you can expect, the Internet reacted with measured rationality and decorum. 

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In a continuation of last week's episode about tech and the music biz, we look at how different media had a huge impact and how digital downloads and streaming would change everything. 

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