This Week in Google 249 (Transcript)

Leo LaPorte: It’s time for TWIG, This Week in Google. We’re going to talk about Google, Jeff Jarvis in studio with us. I’m excited. Gina Trapani will join us. We’ll talk about new features at Google, how much Glass really costs and whether you should buy one and the right to be forgotten – do you have it? How do you get it and why Google may not want it. It’s all coming up next on TWIG.

Net casts you love from people you trust. This is TWIT! Bandwidth for this week in Google is provided by Cachefly at cachefly.com.

Leo: This is TWIG, this week in Google. Episode 249, recorded May 14^th 2014

Slow Talkers

This week in Google is brought to you by Full Sail University. Full Sale offers both online and campus degree programs centered on real world experience in the entertainment media and technology industries. For more information visit fullsail.edu/twig. Also by 99 designs, the world’s largest graphic design marketplace. 99 designs connects businesses seeking quality affordable designs with a community of more than two hundred ninety five thousand graphic designers. Visit 99designs.com/twig to receive a free power package upgrade valued at $99. Also by Personal Capital, with personal capital you’ll finally have all your financial life in one place and get a clear view of everything you own. Best of all it’s free. To sign up go to personalcapital.com/twig.

It’s time for TWIG, this week in Google, the show where we cover Google, The Cloud, Twitter, Facebook, anything like that. Gina Trapani is here from her headquarters, her world headquarters at thinkup.com. Hello Gina, how are you?

Gina Trapani: Hello! I’m good. Glad to be here.

Leo: She’s not only the creator of Think up but the founding editor of Life Hacker, the author of the famous Google Wave book – the complete guide to Google Wave. She wrote it. Also a couple of Life Hacker books.

Gina: I was going to say Life Hacker books are in the 3^rd Edition.

Leo: Ok, 3^rd Edition. That’s good.

Gina: Yes you win some and you lose some. I think about a year or 2 ago now. We’re actually talking about the next edition so that’s exciting.

Leo: Awesome, I still want to that Life Hacker show with you and Merlin. I guess you’ve both kind of gone off to do it elsewhere. I guess his work show was kind of Life hackerish.

Gina: Really? I don’t even know. I’ve kind of lost track of him a bit.

Leo: He was on the other day. It was nice to see him again. Also speaking of nice to see him – look he’s in studio with us – Jeff Jarvis a University of New York professor of Journalism.

Jeff Jarvis: I’m not pink.

Leo: His flesh tones are real. He blogs at buzzmachine.com as author of public parts and what will Google do. I wish you had told me you were going to Starbucks, because I would have arranged for a better coffee experience. We actually bought an espresso machine because we were spending so much at Starbucks – like hundreds of dollars a month. I figured it out that 6 months would pay for it just for the coffee machine.

Jeff: Have you had Oprah Chai yet?

Leo: Starbucks has Chai from Oprah?

Jeff: Yes.

Leo: Is that south of India Oprah? What is Oprah Chai? Is Oprah a brand of Chai? Would this woman get her fingers out of my life? Oprah branded Chai…

Jeff: Yes.

Leo: Is it Oprah’s favorite Chai, Oprah’s best… I like Chai. I’ll go down and try it, I didn’t know…see if worked, made me want to try their Chai. They do not have good Chai at Starbucks, that was actually a…

Jeff: What is Chai?

Leo: It’s Indian tea with spices of cardamom, pepper… I can’t remember what some of the other chief spices are, maybe a little cinnamon. It’s delicious. You’ve never had Chai before?

Jeff: It sounds like something you eat with sprouts.

Leo: No, it’s fabulous. It’s spiced tea. You’d love it. No it’s not hippy dippy at all. It’s all you can get in India. Now if they made Deepak Oprah Chai… Now you’ve got a hit. Let’s see, in Google Land there is some big news.  Europe has said you have the right to be forgotten. A European court said Google must edit sensitive search results. People can ask Google to take stuff off of their index. There are 180 similar cases right now in Spain. This is a very popular thing in fact I think it was the EU’s privacy Tsar who first proposed this.

Jeff: Yes.

Leo: What is as you understand it, you are our reporter from Europe Jeff Jarvis. You’ve been there right?

Jeff: I’m closer.

Leo: Right.

Jeff: Actually Gina is closer than I am. She’s about 2 miles east from where I am.

Leo: What is the right to be forgotten?

Jeff: The argument is that when something bad about you is online you should have the right to get rid of this. But clearly that has an impact on the other party’s free speech.

Leo: Well what you could do is go to the place where it is – I don’t know, if there are pictures of you in an orgy that were distributed widely…The only place you could get it kind of turned off is Google.

Jeff:  Well the original site…

Leo: But if it’s like on a hundred sites…

Jeff: If it’s spread all over then…access to it but it’s still on those sites.

Leo: Google’s defense would be I imagine is Google merely indexes the state of the internet as it is.

Jeff: The argument that comes back then is “well what’s your algorithm?” They always risk this danger to demand to reveal the algorithm. Well how did that end up on top? This is a really…

Leo: Can’t Google defend that by saying we have page rank and this is how we use it.

Jeff: Here’s the problem, they don’t have a first amendment.

Leo: There’s no right to freedom of speech in your…

Jeff: Right there isn’t the same guarantee in the same absolute way.. On Monday we gave an award to Alan Russberger their guardian and Floyd Abrams who defended the New  York Times in the Pentagon papers case spoke and Alan keeps going on about the need for the first amendment in the rest of the world. We’re the only ones who have one.

Leo: In my opinion it seems to reflect a misunderstanding of technology – a deep misunderstanding of technology. I think the right to be forgotten is a wonderful thing and I wish it existed but it doesn’t because you’re not eliminating these websites at all.

Jeff: Well it’s worse than that Leo because what you’re really saying is that you’re going to control knowledge. It’s a men in black pen moment and you forget. So you’re telling the world to forget something the world already knows. That is offensive to the notion of knowledge. That says that we’re trying to control knowledge. Its mind control, it’s propaganda, it’s tyranny. All these things that if you’d think anyone in the world has learned this lesson it’s Europe.

Leo: Let me put a counter example. So you’re a person who doesn’t have a lot of presence on the internet, doesn’t participate in the internet. It’s not part of your life, you don’t have a Facebook or Twitter page, you in fact never put anything online attached to your name. But somebody – a bad person decides to write something bad about you. That bad person has a popular website or whatever and that bad thing gets spread everywhere. That is the entire Google search result for your name – is that bad stuff. It may even be a lie, it may be libel. What do you do then?

Jeff: We have a cure for that. That’s libel. We already have that legal mechanism and in fact in the UK it’s so wacky people from around the world go to sue on libel there. The other case is what if you got arrested for drunk driving 10 years ago and that’s online somewhere and you say well really it’s been 10 years, can’t you just forget? But it’s public record.

Leo: Not on the internet you can’t. I think that blaming Google is what’s really puzzling to me.

Jeff: That’s the anti – that’s the Luddite moment here.

Leo: Because this is just an index of what already exists on the net and they’re saying well since we can’t delete what already exists what if we just control your ability to find it. That’s not Googles fault.

Jeff: No it’s not at all. I still want to come back to this notion of free speech because in any transaction of information there are 2 parties and if you say something bad about me and I go on and say well I just didn’t like that. Or in the words of – it’s irrelevant and made Google take it down, you have the right to say no, when I call Jarvis a jerk it’s because he is a jerk. It’s because I mean it and I have a right to call him a jerk. Now that right is being impinged.

Leo: So the ruling which is in Luxemburg because it’s the European Union court of justice was in a case where a Spanish man complained to the Spanish data protection agency – it’s interesting they even have such a group.

Jeff: There are some fun groups.

Leo: That an auction – this is the same country that brought you the inquisition – that an auction notice of his repossessed home showing up on Google infringed his privacy. This is a quote from the judges – if following a search made on the basis of the person’s name the list of results displays a link to a web page which contains information on the person in question, that data subject may approach the operator directly and where the operator doesn’t grant his request, bring the matter to competent authorities in order to obtain under certain circumstances the removal of that link from the list of results. The judge is conflating the listing of the repossession which is presumably Google pointing to a page somewhere – but he’s conflating that with Google’s search results saying that Google is in fact presenting that information.

Jeff: That’s what Eric Schmidt always says that because Google is the largest entity on the internet that anything people don’t like about the internet they are going to go after Google.

Leo: This is the biggest issue. The judge said the internet search engine operator is responsible for the processing that it carries out on personal data which appears on web pages published by 3^rd parties.

Jeff: That is so abhorrent.

Leo: What if Google took out any extract that said what that content was but merely a link to the page.

Jeff: Now they have to become the court of what’s right and wrong. So I come to you and I say you should take down that foreclosure notice and Google says were you foreclosed, was it true, is it libelous? Google can’t be the court of hurt feelings.

Leo: It’s not even practical.

Gina: This is hard. I’m going to try and take it up on the other perspective. In these situations I try not to think about it from the perspective of Google but maybe from the perspective of someone who has a genuine issue. What is when Etta grows up she doesn’t like the things that I wrote about her or the pictures that I published of her when she was a child. She wants to be defined other than how I defined her. Or worse, you have those sites where friends publish private photos of their girlfriends…

Leo: That’s a better example because that could be harmful.

Gina: Yes, of course I don’t think that Google can decide what’s right and wrong and decide what’s fact and what’s not but the truth is it is kind of privacy through obscurity. If it’s not listed in the first page or the search results of the first few pages it might as well not exist if people can’t find it. Or if someone has been doxed and their address and social security number has been published somewhere for some reason. I just think that it feels like there are so many instances where an individual who can’t practically reach out to all these 3^rd party web sites and ask them to remove private and embarrassing or potentially harmful information doesn’t have any recourse. I’m trying to figure out what then?

Jeff: I’m reaching back into my too elderly memory right now. Wasn’t there a feature on some search engine that allowed you to annotate things and say that there was a response – that there was more of a right to a response than a right to erase? Do you remember that?

Leo: Should be a right to do anything to the Google index.

Gina: You mean like a track back? That kind of thing?

Jeff: No it wasn’t like that; there was some kind of… Chat room, am I crazy? Wasn’t there a moment where there was an effort to be able to add on to search results?

Gina: I guess my question is, is the solution for an individual who Schmidt suggested that we’d have to change our names or reinvent ourselves?

Jeff: It was a joke. Let’s be clear.

Gina: I know it was a joke but if I’m an individual who has a history of whatever well documented online and I’m trying to reinvent myself and trying to be a better person and I’m trying to be a different person and I can’t get that information off what do I do at that point?

Jeff: Sorry it’s this big but the solution is a more tolerant society that recognizes that we all do things that were mistakes and we all do things that we’re ashamed of at some point. We all learn lessons and learn life as we go along in our attempt at it and this idea that “off with your head” if you do 1 thing wrong at 1 point or if somebody doesn’t like that you’re gay – that’s the larger issue is tolerance. We can’t solve that through trying to sanitize Google of things that people don’t like. Take Google out of it and now just say “the internet”. Now say that you said something about me that I didn’t like at some point. I said something stupid like “I like Wave” and as a technology genius on this show…

Leo: Gina wishes I would never mention that book again.

Jeff: So just because I don’t like it, you come to me and say that you have to take down what I don’t like.

Gina: So there’s the internet and then there’s most people’s lens into the internet. I think Google search results are most people’s lens to the internet. If you can’t find the book in the library…if it’s not in the Dewy Decimal System, if it’s not in the catalogue and no one can find it sure it exists but…. The reality is that employers and clients and mothers and siblings all Google people. You Google people to find out something about them and there might be a time where… I get it, it’s a tough issue.

Jeff: The next step of this is that if Google can be forced to take it down then any and every site including us will be forced to take stuff down and we’ll be held liable in Europe. If I say something – Herr Schmidt is a dork, now Herr Schmidt can go to the EU court and say you must take that down Mr. Jarvis and I say no you’re a dork and this is proof because you went to the court and asked me to take it down. No, I don’t like this, it is irrelevant to me and you must take it down. That impinges upon my speech. I just can’t get past that.

Gina: What is something is verifiably untrue? Someone says something verifiably untrue about Leo.

Leo: Well it happens all the time. I understand both sides but I think like it’s just saying well then let’s just don’t have an internet because then this is a problem. I think that unfortunately punishing Google for this first of all is ineffective. It seems misdirected. I understand what you’re saying Gina that it’s a card catalogue and if you take the book out of the card catalogue it doesn’t matter if it’s in the stacks.

Gina: But it could even be things like look at the knowledge graph. Google has taken upon itself that it’s this repository of facts and you can ask it questions and it will give you answers. What if something is the wrong answer? If something is untrue do they become the arbiter of truth at some point?

Jeff: Truth is a very hard…

Leo: That’s a problem that this puts them in a position to do that. They now have to be a judge. Boy this is a tough one. I don’t know what the answer is.

Gina: It’s tough. I tend to agree with both of you. I’m just trying to look at it from the side of the person who is less empowered. I think this is less about calling someone a name and more about someone who is in the position where information about them which is either untrue or which is truly private or should be private…

Jeff: That’s what Leo’s point is I think Gina is that the horse is out of the barn and the cat is out of the bag. We’re in a world now where knowledge or information passes around quickly. All in all I want that and it comes with a price. So we also have to teach people to check things first. We have to teach people that they do have to go online and say something to get a response. We have to recognize that people make mistakes early in life. These are new realities and trying to hold back technology isn’t going to work and so we have to deal with that reality I think.

Leo: Meanwhile you have the freedom to annoy in New York. Did you hear about that? Yesterday the court of appeals in Albany in a near unanimous decision struck down a statute that made it a felony in New York to communicate with someone in a manner likely to cause annoyance or alarm. These were actually ordinances used by the district attorney in New York to prosecute harassers. It was an anti-troll ordinance. The case involved a 54 year old Greenwich Village resident who waged a yearlong campaign against academic rivals of his father a Dead Sea scrolls scholar.

Jeff: There are all kinds of trolls in the world.

Leo: The guy is alleged to have created sock puppets false identities. He opened email accounts in the names of some of his antagonists and wrote messages confessing to wrongdoing. Of course those weren’t real. He was convicted of 30 counts of aggravated harassment, criminal impersonation, identity theft, forgery and unauthorized use of a computer; sentenced to 6 months in jail and 5 years of probation. He’s still you know… 7 of the 10 charges were thrown out. He still has misdemeanor charges of criminal impersonation and identity theft but the being annoying part… The statue was struck down. Cyrus Vance Jr. District Attorney in Manhattan says the aggravated harassment statue is one of the most important tools we have to protect victims of among other serious crimes stalking and domestic violence.

Jeff: Here’s what we have to figure out here; is it there’s a line and if it goes over the line you’re a troll. We have the story on about how trolls really are sick sadistic people. So at some point somebody is going to determine that this is an illness. If you treat it like that – this is an odd comparison here but look at Donald Sterling who did a noxious abhorrent and awful thing but he also appears to be off his rocker. So what we do in the media now is exploiting that fact to get an hours discussion on CNN repeated over and over again because he’s freaking loony. So I don’t want to speak about this guy that was in the court case in New York but trolls are literally loony.

Leo: Yes a little loony. Seems like you could prosecute as they did in a variety of ways but apparently you’re free to annoy people. It’s not against the law in New York.

Jeff: A lot of people do it to me. I am very annoyed by open mouth gum chewing and people do it. I’m annoyed by tourists who walk slowly on the side walk anywhere they please.

Leo: And short pants. None the less it’s perfectly legal.

Jeff: It is. These are legal and good thing for it.

Leo: I actually have to agree… you don’t want to take away tools to prosecute true harassers but I think there are in fact sufficient laws to prosecute them.

Jeff: We have another case on Google in Germany. An agency is now demanding that Google take down, stop compiling data across services. So there’s 1 big Google and Google can’t act like that anymore. It can’t move data across from service to service.

Leo: I don’t know how Google survives. I would just say I give up. Throw up my hands and say Europe you can have them I’m going home. What if Google did that? They did in China. What if they said ok Europe you win?

Jeff: If they’re a private company fine, if not the stock would go… because Europe as a whole has a bigger…

Leo: Must be tempting.

Gina: Google has the money and the lawyers to handle it.

Leo: I guess they’ve got people; they don’t really need to pay that much attention.

Gina: Yes they’ve got some people they’re not working long hours.

Leo: However if I were Larry Page I’d go gosh they basically want me to ruin my beautiful service and somehow become this arbiter of what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s true and false.

Jeff: Once again it show a fundamental understanding of the technology – if Google had come out fully birthed with all these services it would have 1 privacy policy for all, it would have 1 data base across all. It just happened to add them on as time went on and then rigoried them and it’s just wrinkles and it comes out of this Luddite fear.

Gina: And Germany’s history of collecting data about people. This is a deeply entrenched sort of cultural…

Jeff: Yes but there too Gina I would argue that erasing things you don’t like is also part of tyranny. They don’t recognize their own irony in this case. They’re trying to control knowledge and control information, something Europe of all places should know is a dangerous thing to do.

Leo: So this single ID thing would be simple enough to solve if Google put a check box up for you the first time you used any of Google’s services saying – because it’s without their consent in this case – it would say if you wish to use a Google service you need to give us your consent, if not, goodbye.

Jeff: You may be offended by advertising but you can’t go to a site and say I don’t want any ads here because that is the business.

Leo: So just don’t use it. I don’t know, the privacy thing is – sharing data is easily dealt with but this issue of removing search results because somebody didn’t like them… are they going to insist on a higher standard and then you just don’t like it? What is the standard?

Jeff: Relevance is one of the words I see here.

Leo: It’s very nebulous. If they said its libelous first of all you have to go to court and show that this is libel, then it has to be – that would be fun. But you don’t have to; it could be actually a true fact. And just because it happened 10 years ago…

Jeff: Or happened yesterday and you s an opinion about you that you don’t like or something you did that you wish you hadn’t done. We’ve got a few of those.

Leo: I get it all the time but it’s something you and I just live with.

Jeff: Speak for yourself. I have nothing to be embarrassed about.

Leo: My solution is to embarrass myself daily and then that way an overwhelming amount of embarrassment just dilutes the whole thing. I don’t know what to do, I really don’t. It’s really a challenge, it really is. I just don’t know what the answer is.

Jeff: We’re not going to find it. I’m reading a book right now on the history newspapers, oh boy is that exciting.

Leo: No, I bet it is actually.

Jeff: Not so far but it’s something I’ve got to read. It makes the point that the first newspaper was not invented… sorry geek out moment, you’re going to hear it, get ready…until 155 years after Gutenberg invented the press.

Leo: That’s what happens.

Jeff: It took them 155 years to say hey I could use this to spread information. Wow cool.

Leo: The first 150 years all they did is print bibles.

Jeff: And indulgences. So I’m just saying that we don’t know what the internet is yet. The change on society is indeed fundamental.

Leo: And society is fighting it.

Jeff: As societies tend to do but it isn’t going to work.

Leo: In the long run it doesn’t does it?

Jeff: No.

Leo: We have lots more to talk about. Google change log coming up. We’ll put Gina to work but first a word from Full Sail University. Full Sail offers both online and campus degree programs centered on real world experience in entertainment, media, technology, visit fullsail.edu/twig and you can learn a lot more. Marketers these days – if you’ve ever watched the Maverick show you realize it’s so much more than it used to be. You have to be proficient in using web-based tools, techniques to reach audiences and consumers in a digital environment, online marketing and web based channels and search technologies and analytics. All of this stuff, how to you learn about this stuff? You might know everything there is to know about how to market, but do you know how to market online? Full Sail University online Internet Marketing Master’s program is designed for people who want to keep pace with marketing technologies. Of course it covers topics like search engine optimization, social media marketing, web metrics, analytics and online consumer behavior. You’ll work on real projects with real clients generating experience and results and of course your instructors are actually in the business so they understand. Full Sail’s online and on campus degree programs are centered on real world education and experience and you can earn a Masters in as little as 12 months. Through Full Sail’s project lunch box program students also receive a Mac Book Pro loaded with Apple’s complete line of creative software tools as well as degree specific pro level applications. If you want to learn more they’ve got masters programs in business intelligence. That would be a very useful thing. I could use some intelligence right now. Innovation and entrepreneur-ship and new media journalism – Learn more about Full Sail’s master’s degree program in internet marketing or any of their related programs. Check out fullsail.edu/twig. Fullsail.edu/twig. We thank them for their support of TWIG. The fact that they’re advertising on TWIG tells you they know a little bit about this stuff. They’ve got some sense here.

Jeff: Is that a hint the Keuney should be advertising on TWIG?

Leo: No they don’t need to, they’ve got you.

Gina: That’s true.

Leo: The dean Sara Bartlett is here once again. We’re going to talk later about a relationship. Keuney and TWIT…

Jeff: A marriage.

Leo: We’ll call it Tweuney… I had to go that way; the other way wouldn’t have worked out so well. We’re going to take a trumpet break here. Ladies and Gentlemen I give you… the wrong sound. That was my fault, I pushed the wrong button. Ladies and Gentlemen, Gina Trapani – the latest from Google.

Gina: Spell up, have you guys seen this? It’s a new Chrome experiment. It’s a browser based spelling game for English speakers if you go to spell up with Google.com you can try out the game. In fact Leo you should probably try it out.

Leo: I’m an excellent speller.

Gina: You are, you’re an excellent speller. I know that about you without even having had a spelling bee with you.

Leo: This is fun whatever’s going on.

Jeff: I used to be good until Google came along and ruined my spelling because I can just look it up.

Leo: I was just looking at a review that had the worst spelling ever.

Gina: This experiment is showing off Chrome’s new web speech epi.

Leo: Ok my speakers are turned up. Please click allow.

Gina: So you want to allow your microphone access.

Leo: And this is not flash, it’s Html 5. Oh I made some noise and it heard. G.O. That was easy.

Gina: The idea is that you make a tower of words. So I guess it should give you the next one.

Leo: I can’t hear it what?

Jeff: You can hit the replay button next to the mic.

Leo: P.l.a.y.

Gina: Alright you get the idea.

Leo: Why can’t I just go p l a y?

Gina: Yes, it could be a little faster.

Jeff: You know how much I like slow talkers? There’s an old Bob and Ray routine. The – president – of—the – slow—talkers – of – America.

Leo: That’s a great interview. This is the most annoying game ever.

Jeff: But you can do that in New York now. You can do that, it’s legal.

Leo: This game is hell. I’m going to hell and they will play this game at that speed for the rest of eternity.

Jeff: Maybe if you had a Chrome book it’d be faster. Just spell it already.

Leo: No, you just shut up because every time you say something it ruins it. I give up, this is not something you can play with a father in the room. Next.

Gina: Next up, Gmail gets revamped hangouts on the desktop.

Jeff: That makes Leo so happy.

Leo: I couldn’t get rid of it. I couldn’t close it.

Gina: What was more annoying for you? The spell up game or the new hangouts?

Leo: Right now Google is 0 for 2. The reason is I show my Gmail all the time and the hangouts were there so I just turned it off but you can have it in Google Plus. Did they not have emogies before?

Gina: They had emogies, they brought back emogies, they brought back the little green availability bubble to let you know if your friend is online and they added message snippets which just means when you’re looking at your contacts list you can see the last thing a person has said, kind of a snippet of their last message to you. There’s a new search box so you can find friends on your list and you can find friends that aren’t on your list.

Leo: Oh I see the green dot. So the green dot next to Dan says he’s online. Available right?

Gina: Exactly. So you’ll notice that looks a little different in Gmail and also if you use the hangouts extensions for Chrome which I do. You’ll also get the availability bubbles.

Leo: Oh there’s a hangouts extension for Chrome. I should put that in here.

Gina: Yes it kind of puts it in a separate window.

Jeff: So when I use it for the show I can use that aye Chad?

Chad: Yay. I love hangouts extension.

Leo: So you use it too?

Chad: I used to use Google talk and now the hangouts has replaced everything. It’s that separate application thing that they rolled out where it can run when your Chrome isn’t up and running.

Leo: It can?

Chad: Yes. So to do that on the PC it’ll now be at the top of your PC bar and it’s just the little…

Gina: Wow that’s quite nice I didn’t know about this.

Chad: Yes, it’s quite nice. It’s the thing that has replaced Trillion and other full-fledged chat.

Leo: There it is. Cool. So it’s going to have all those new features as well?

Gina: Yes it will.

Jeff: I can’t even remember, how do I get to the Web store to get…

Leo: Help me Gina! We’re old.

Chad: Go to settings, extensions, get more extensions.

Leo: I just Goggle Hangout extensions and that pretty much works. So I’m just saying let me google that for you Jeff.

Jeff: I would but I have the experts of the world right here. It used to be that when you got a new tab that it was on there.

Leo: So my mood now is not text it’s emoji.

Jeff: One of my students is going to do a business based on emogies. Don’t ask me…

Leo: It’s called Path. Ok, more options. Good this is cool. Sign into Hangouts when Chrome starts, keep hangouts on top, show tray icon. So that kind of keeps it semi-permanent just floating there.

Gina: Yes. Moving over to iOs Google search for iOs added a few options that we already have on Android, new voice search options and more relevant search results. Also the app recognizes voice search cues and conversational input so you could say to the app “what’s the weather like” and when you get results you can follow up with “how about this weekend” and you’ll get the results for the coming weekend. Like it does on Android the app on iOs will now also alert you when new articles on certain topics appear. That’s powered by Google now. I don’t know if you guys have seen this but Google now cards which update the websites you’ve visited or just suggesting articles about things you’ve searched for before. I got the notification for the new Justin Bieber album.

Leo: Oh is that out?

Gina: Yes.

Leo: Oh, I’ve got Bieber fever.

Gina: You’re a believer. Google’s knowledge graph now extends into Google Maps. As you search for certain locations you’ll get a quick facts card that’ll tell you information about that place. So if you search for the space needle or you search for Brooklyn Bridge…

Jeff:  You know the only problem is what irritates me about maps is that all that big box on there takes up the map.

Gina: In my test it was collapsed by default so you actually had to… There are cards that are stacked and you have to click on the quick facts card in order to expand so it won’t take up all the space by default. Google Wallet updated for Android and iOS actually and it introduces multiple accounts so if you launch Google Wallet you can switch between your Google accounts instead of a separate pin for each account so that’s nice for folks like us with a couple of accounts. We talked about this a couple of episodes ago but the Google drive update that rolled out this week – that finally officially removes document editing. So that’s read only and search only, if you want to edit your sheets or docs you have to install the separate sheets and docs apps which lets you edit both online and offline. It’s a little annoying when you first go into drive and click on a document but once you get the other app you have all the functionality it used to have. They’ve just separated it out into these different apps. That’s it, that’s all I got.

Leo: That is the Google change log. Thank you, Gina Trapani.

Gina: You’re welcome.

Leo: We’re going to take a break and when we come back we’ll tell you how you, yes you can own a Google Glass of your very own.

Jeff: Because I’ll sell you one.

Leo: Really, with Jeff’s prescription? Our show today brought to you by 99 Designs, the world’s largest graphic design market place. What is the current count of 99 Designs? I think they crossed 3 hundred thousand designers. They’re all waiting for you at 99designs.com. Yes, 301,481. The tote board is turned over once again. That is a big community of designers and they’re waiting for you to start. They call it a zyne contest. You could say a request for design or something. The idea is you go there for your logo, for app design, business card design, and web page design. Get a t-shirt, we get t-shirts frequently, our latest hoodie is a 99 design. Post the project and say how much you’re willing to pay, designers will then flock to you and offer you ideas, you can refine it with the designer pick one, pay them and you get the design. Projects start at just 199 dollars and your happiness is always 100% guaranteed. The designers love it and you will love it too. In fact 2 million dollars in pay outs to designers last month alone. It’s a hub for design talent and for people who need design work. 99 Designs, really inspiring. You can see the rest of the video at 99designs.com. A neat story about Nicholas who became a 99 Designs designer and actually got a pretty good gig out of it. If you have design work you need done just go to 99designs.com/twig. We’re going to give you a $99 power pack of services absolutely free that gives you more designer time and attention. They’ll bold, highlight and feature your design project in 99 Designs market place and you’ll get nearly twice as many designs. 99designs.com/twig – an army of designers is waiting for you right there right now. They’re going to do – they have a lot of interesting things in the works. I probably shouldn’t talk about it until… One of the things they’re going to have as an offer is a whole logo kit so you get the logo design but then you get letter head…                                                             It looks even dorkier with a wire hanging off.

Jeff: It was out of juice.

Leo: Now you look really bizarre.

Gina: The reality of Google Glass is that it’s generally out of juice.

Leo: How much – Jeff Jarvis is wearing his Glass. How much battery life do you typically get out of that?

Jeff: Well I forget to turn it on, I leave it in the bag and it turns on somehow.

Leo: By itself. So Google is now apparently as far as we can tell saying anybody who wants it can have it. It’s still 1500 bucks. It’s not the final version. It’s still kind of the Glass explorer…

Gina: Explorer edition. You get a free pair of the titanium collection frames which is nice. You have to buy those separately…

Leo: Free huh?

Gina: Free, and of course it’s US only and it’s for as long as they have Glass in stock but it sounds kind of open.

Jeff: This says to me that they’re not going to do a consumer version.

Leo: That was always my contention that I didn’t think they were. Certainly if they do this and you bought one for 1500 dollars and in 3 months they announce a 300 dollar one you would be peeved. By the way there is some speculation and I’ve seen a number of articles saying that Glass costs as little as $150 for Google.

Jeff: There’s a new teardown we have…

Leo: From IHS. Now they point out that much of the cost of a device like this comes from engineering development.

Jeff: Yes but it’s not like you try to get all cost…

Leo: From 5 people.

Jeff: Yes, the test lumps from the first 5.

Leo: I think it’s reasonable to say that Glass should be expected – by the way we reported a teardown that said it was 80 dollars. But even if 150 or 300 dollars… let’s say it’s 300 dollars, if they’re off by a factor of 2, if it’s 300 dollars it’s still 5 times more than… Chad did we show Jason Howell’s Glass video of Savannah walking?

Jeff: Jason Howell’s video shows the single best reason to have… It is just…

Leo: You gave me props Jeff and I thanked you on Google plus saying Leo bought this for Jason and that’s exactly why I bought it for Jason; unlike Jason I didn’t have a newborn and I thought wow this is really going to be great for him. Here’s Savannah wearing Glass.

Gina: This is so great, this makes me happy.

Leo: This is his daughter. He stayed home that day from work. She was a little cranky and had a fever and didn’t feel well.

Jeff: He’s torturing her now.

Leo: Jason’s wearing Glass and that means he’d got direct contact with Savannah, she’s not thinking dad has a camera. Here she goes, she’s going to take a couple more steps by herself. That’s such an important moment as you know.  That makes it all worth it. For me 1500 dollars is all worthwhile right there. I remember - who doesn’t remember their baby’s first steps. I remember Abby and Henry’s first step absolutely. I’ll never forget it. I wasn’t there for Abby’s but I was there for Henry’s. His first steps were at a rest stop between here and Redding California.

Jeff: Let me out of here.

Leo: I’m not going to Redding, it’s too hot. I remember them but I don’t have video of them and I never would so I think that’s really great that Jason does have that.

Gina: It is great. I still have a shot. Jason’s raised the bar very high. Etta is really late, she hasn’t walked on her own yet. She hangs on and cruises but she hasn’t started walking yet. Now that I’ve seen that I’m like oh man I should wear Glass every minute I’m with her because she’s so close.

Leo: That’s the thing about Glass; you have to be there at the right moment.

Gina: That’s true.

Leo: I wasn’t even in the room when Abby walked. I don’t know, where do you go…

Jeff: Does anybody want to buy a Glass?

Leo: You mean your Glass?

Jeff: Well that too…

Leo: No, I don’t think anybody wants to buy Glass. It’s too expensive. Where do we get it? Do we go to glass.google.com? Does the project page have how to buy it? I don’t know.

Gina: Yes, google.com/glass/start. Become an explorer and choose your color and frames and shades.

Leo: So you’ve got sky and chaco which is out of stock, tangerine definitely not out of stock, cotton which is really just gray, shale which is just a darker gray. I’d get the orange. Might as well if you’re going to wear it – announce it. Select your complimentary accessory. Feather light titanium frames, oh these are for prescription. Which ones did you get, the curve, bold, split or thin? Can you only get one? So I can get sunglasses from Maui Jim.

Gina: Your frames look really good Jeff.

Jeff: Yes, these are nice aren’t they? They’re not my Glass.

Leo: Are they titanium?

Jeff: No they’re plastic. Plastic from Google, are you kidding?

Leo: It’s good except you’ve got this black thing over here at your right temple. Maybe for orange I’d like it better. I’m going to choose bold because again you’re wearing glass, why try to hide it. Add to cart, accessories, check out.

Jeff: Should we dare him?

Leo: No I’m not going to buy it but I can walk right through this. Here’s my cart, let’s see, subtotal 1500 dollars. I agree to Glass terms of sale without reading. That’s with tax; oh no shipping is already included. Buy with Google.

Jeff: Wait a minute, you just clicked?

Leo: No it’s not a buy yet.

Gina: It just prompts you with the wallet.

Leo: You have to give it the address because now it’s going to say – oh there’s the tax 125 dollars, so 1625. That’s ridiculous.

Jeff: Should I wear mine to IO or not?

Leo: Yes you should, you’ll be at home with all the other geeks.

Jeff: I’ll go look for the men’s room and scare Chris Goeble.

Gina: I just can’t ever bring myself to wear Glass to Google events. I went to an event here in New York a couple months ago and there were a few people in the audience with Glass and I just couldn’t do it. I don’t know why.

Jeff: That’s the one place in earth Gina where you’d fit in.

Leo: You’d notice how quickly I clicked those terms of service and in fact that’s what everybody will do but it probably would behoove you to be wary. They say this is beta. Like if it breaks are they responsible? There’s no responsibility. I’m sure those terms of service say you’re buying as is without warranty. We don’t warrant for any use or purpose.

Gina: They probably do say that. My experience has been that they’re pretty responsive. I don’t know if you’ve had the same experience Jeff. They called to see how I was doing, there’s a community, they seemed pretty…

Jeff: Here are the terms of service. They’ll accept returns within 30 days. 1 year within receipt under ordinary consumer use. Like there is an ordinary consumer use for this…

Leo: Ok, so they’ll replace it if it breaks in the first year. So I have 30 days to decide not to buy it. Just for you at home I think 30 days would be more than enough to get a sense of what it does and how you can use it and on day 29 send it back. If you’re curious that’s a good idea.

Jeff: There’s a colleague of mine who said no hold on to them.

Leo: It will be a bit of history.

Jeff: I still have my Newton. This is the wearable Newton.

Leo: Yes it’s kind of Newtony isn’t it.

Gina: I remember when Wave launched and CNN did a whole thing and when they pressed enter and launched it – Google’s reinventing email and you could tell that they were documenting it because they thought it was going to be this big moment in technology and that’s not going to be in the computer history museum.

Leo: Did you see this guy typing in his Google Glass? This is from Minuum which is the world’s smallest keyboard. Is this a joke?

Gina: No Minuum is an actual app and it’s a different way to type.

Jeff: He’s going to slide right off the mountain while he’s typing.

Gina: I think it’s crazy but I think it’s interesting.

Leo: You can dictate right?

Gina: This is the thing , you want to use voice input. Typing on your glass would be insane.

Jeff: It’s like Morse code.

Gina: Look at the last 5 seconds of this video. Look at that!

Leo: So are these proto types? Are they selling this? He’s typing on his arm.

Gina: Yes he’s typing on his arm. I don’t believe that you can do that yet.

Leo: That’s strange. Then he was typing in the air too. I guess you see a key board. What is he wearing? Is that ring on his finger part of the – must be a sensor.

Gina: Yes that must be that gesture ring. You’re right.

Jeff: An index finger ring is not good. That’s not fashionable.

Leo: It looks like a donut.

Gina: I think it’s interesting to experiment with different input types, especially when you think about this with a watch or other kinds of wearable’s. I would speak what I want to say but if you’re in a place where you can’t speak you could use Glass.

Jeff: I’ve always wanted to figure out 1 handed typing that somehow you can get every letter in some way.

Leo: It doesn’t look at all strange.  Oh you mean one of those cording keyboards like the bat?

Jeff: Yes just 1 handed.

Leo: It was cool like the guy in the MIT, where you were the only one and you had a lot of gear and you were really inventing something. Now it’s just product and that’s kind of less cool.

Jeff: Even less cool.

Leo: The more people - I can’t take you seriously.

Jeff: Like you ever do.

Leo: I do but not now.  The more people that look like that even less cool. I don’t know.  Somebody in the chat room pointed out and this is true… do not wear your typing ring on the middle finger because you could really get hurt. Hey we were talking about the Chrome extension and you were saying Chad in Windows you’re able to make that an app?

Chad: Yes.

Leo: You can’t do it on the Mac unless you’re using Chrome Canary. They are now tying those together.

Chad: This is a little different.

Leo: You open the document and it will open a Chrome app in the browser right?

Chad: Right.

Leo: So if I have Readme.text associated with a text editor that is a Chrome extension. In the past there was no way to double click on read me and have… That’s kind of interesting, Ben did this. I think Ben did a little illustration of what this show is reminding him of. Ben can you put Glass on the old man on the left? Unfortunately that really looks accurate. That’s Statler and Waldorf from the Muppet show. Why can’t Gina get Miss Piggy or something? Come on, I guess you like Gina.

Gina: I’d probably be Miss Piggy.

Leo: This is actually a bit of a hack to get the Mac to do this. To enable it you have to be first of all using Google Chrome Canary which is their gamma version, not even beta but gamma and then you have to use Chrome Flag, enable apps file associations. It’s kind of cool. They actually say it’s easier to do on a Mac because of the way a Mac works. I think we should start doing more – clearly we need to do more Chrome extensions. Like your app arena on All about Android we should do Chrome extension. Clearly that’s becoming more and more the thing.

Jeff: An all about Chrome show.

Leo: No that would be terrible… all about Internet explorer, all about Firefox.

Jeff: Did you note the 20 year anniversary of Netscape?

Leo: Yes I did, I saw a very interesting picture of Jim Barksdale. 20 years ago! Was it the IPO or ….cause it was 94.

Jeff: No, the browser was released in October of 94. No it was before October so it must have been when the company was formed.

Leo: Very cool.

Gina: A Chrome show would be like Chrome Cast, Chrome OS, and Chrome…

Leo: We actually could do a Chrome show, there is something there. Meanwhile we’ll cover Chrome stuff on this show.

Jeff: It’s our turf Gina, it’s ours.

Leo: Yes, don’t give it away to someone else… young person. Let us old folks do it.

Gina: We can leave Android…

Leo: Yes Android for all about Android. You’re the host of that along with Jason, that’s fine but we want to keep Chrome extensions. Last month covered a quomo in New York appointed a 3 person commission to advise on the use of technology in schools. 1 of the 3 Eric Schmidt seems like somebody that would know a little bit about technology in schools. He is still the chairman of the board at Google. Apparently there are consumer watch dogs and others that are not happy.

Jeff: Watch dog being the organization that goes after Google all the time.

Leo: That’s their job not to be happy. They filed a complaint with the New York state joint commission on public ethics saying Schmidt has quote serious trouble in unlawful conflicts of interests. It is a good point, I figure Eric is going to go in there and say use Chrome books. But I think he might also have the good sense to recuse himself.

Jeff: What do you do if you never get any advice from anyone in industry?

Leo: Consumer watchdog said it’s because Eric’s the only Google person with a seat at the table. If it were 1 of several technology representatives it would be more acceptable.

Jeff: I’ll buy that much.

Leo: Get Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt and Tim Cook on that board.

Gina: I thought that that was a good point and honestly I’d rather see somebody who was an advocate for the students primarily who is very tech savvy versus someone from a company.

Leo: How savvy is Eric Schmidt? Hey kids, if you want to buy pants… We’ve got a solution for you.

Gina: Or I’d like to see someone like you Leo who reports on updates…

Leo: I do actually. I sit on a non-profit board advising on technology.

Gina: That’s great.

Jeff: Did you promote Chrome books?

Leo: I did and they bought Lenovo Windows notebooks instead. That’s ok. You know why they did? Because they used the 1 to 1 program in the school and they used to use Mac’s but Apple’s prices just got out of reach. So they had to go Windows. They use all Google services, Google docs and everything; I think it’s just a matter of time before they go to Chrome books. If you were to run your own mail server because you’re very privacy conscious and you didn’t want Google to get information about your emails, how much of your mail wouldn’t be visible to Google, turns out not much, only about half. Benjamin Mako Hill who has the copy righteous blog says it doesn’t even matter if I don’t want Google to have information because you are probably using Gmail – about half of my correspondence uses Gmail. I use Gmail and if anybody sends anything to me whether they use Gmail or not is exposed to Google.  If all your friends use Gmail then Google has your mail anyway. So he wrote a little program to go through all the email he’s kept in his inbox since April 2004 – that’s when Gmail first came out to see if they had a Gmail address or not, to see how many emails Google would have and he said about a third of the email in my inbox comes from Google. I think he’s lower than most of us. I’m going to do an analysis. I might get a lot of email from AOL.Com users. It also says that the proportion of my email that comes by Google is much higher.

Jeff: Yes, that stands to reason.

Leo: Despite the fact that I spend hundreds of dollars a year and hours of work to host my own email server Google has about half of my personal email.

Jeff: It’s probably even higher than they know because if you send email to Buzz Machine, you don’t know that it’s…

Leo: Right, that’s right. TWiT.tv is an apps account. You send an email to leo@twit.tv and it’s going through Google.

Gina: Yea that’s right. And that’s what he’s saying, right? That it goes through their SMTP servers or whatever, or forwarding addresses.

Leo: So just give up, you know. Just give up, it’s okay.

Jeff: One of the people in the chat room says “you said a minute ago that if you don’t like Google then just don’t use it, and now you’re still trapped in it anyway.”

Leo: Well don’t use email. Or only use 43% of your email.

Gina: There’s a little key in this, all these people have all my personal letters because I sent them to them. That’s the nature of it, right.

Leo: It would make sense to me the campaign not to use Gmail, that would be…

Jeff: Okay, this is up for discussion today, it’s exactly that. You sent me a letter then you come along five years later and say “I demand that you destroy that letter that I sent you.”

Leo: Too late

Jeff: I have a right to be forgotten.

Gina: The difference between someone who has a Gmail account and a Google account and has all their email stored in Google and uses their services all the time is that Google is actively advertising that person. Where as someone who hosts their own email account, even though Google is storing email they’ve sent to people who use Google, from what I understand, Google isn’t building a profile or keeping a store of data about that person to try and advertise them because they’re not signed into a Google account when they send that email.

Leo: Right.

Gina: For the folks who do want to opt-out of Google’s advertising on whatever level, I think it is still worth setting up your own email server. I actually have quite a few friends who do that. I’m too lazy, but…

Leo: Well it’s a good thing you don’t live in the People’s Republic of New Zealand. Apparently New Zealand is not going to require network operators, internet service providers to register with police. Their staff must have security clearance and when they change networks by gear, they actually have to get approval from the New Zealand Spy Agent.

Jeff: Who spies on New Zealand? What’s there to spy?

Leo: The Government Communications Security bureau, that’s interesting, I don’t know. I always thought of New Zealand a little bit like hippies, apparently not. New Zealand, if you’re an internet service provider, you’re going to have to register. This is like China. You have to register with the police. Did you read Liz Gaine’s article about how boring it was to take a ride in the Google autonomous vehicle? I guess that’s a good thing, although the headline from a lot of people was that it was mundane, it was boring. I don’t know. She says the car braked for J-walkers, paused when it was coming around a curve and couldn’t see whether the light in front of us was green or red. And it skiddered when it worried a bus would be turning into our lane.

Jeff: That doesn’t sound mundane. That sounds nerve-racking.

Gina: That does sound nerve-racking.

Leo: Did you see Silicon Valley this week?

Gina: Yes

Leo: One of the characters gets into an autonomous vehicle and it says “Where would you like to go?” He gives the address, “I’d like to go home.” And about halfway through the trip the autonomous vehicle says “re-routing.” And all of a sudden it’s on its way to an island, a man-made island in the middle of the ocean. And the guy’s in the backseat, he says “hello car?” The car makes a big U-turn and keeps going, drive into a container on a ship. The guy’s going “let me out!” They seal the container, the ship sails, he’s off on an island in the middle of the ocean. Finally he gets there and the container is opening, he thinks finally humans. Turns out the whole island in the ocean is manned by more robots. We don’t know what’s going to happen to his character. Now that’s a self-driving vehicle.

Jeff: That’s a self-driving script?

Leo: I think it’s pretty funny. It was well-done. It was a B+ subplot stretched throughout the show. Every once in awhile they check back, where is he now? Anyway, good for Liz. I don’t know how she got a ride in the self-driving car. That’s kind of cool. I wonder if we could get a ride. Have you driven it?

Jeff: No I haven’t but I was going to visit Google campus and somebody said “oh well you get to ride in the car.” But they didn’t do it that day. I think they do it for you.

Leo: Oh I would love to do that.

Jeff: Yea?

Gina: We should see if we could arrange the whole twit crew to go for a ride. That would be pretty awesome.

Jeff: That would.

Leo: She said…

Jeff: Do a show from the self-driving car.

Leo: That would be great. Now I presume there’s a guy sitting in the driver’s seat with his hands poised over the wheel just in case.

Jeff: That’s got to be a nerve-racking job, you’re always ready.

Leo: My distinct impression was right, that the Google self-driving car is nowhere near ready for commercialization. She said she felt fairly confident in it, but…

Jeff: There are also stories today that Google is talking to auto companies actively.

Leo: Yea.

Gina: Jeff, so my question for you is, I know you said you can’t stop progress but, would you take a ride in the self-driving car across a bridge? That’s my question.

Leo: I wouldn’t do that!

Jeff: Is the self-driving car suicidal?

Leo: I wouldn’t do that. Apparently Google employees are commuting to work with self-driving cars.

Jeff: Really?

Leo: The day you can sit in the backseat with nobody in the front seat, that’s a self-driving car. If you’re sitting in the front seat with your hands poised over the steering wheel, then I think that’s more tense than driving itself.

Jeff: I think it is too.

Gina: Just give me the wheel.

Jeff: Plus, what does it take to take it over? How long is that added response time?

Leo: Right.

Gina: That’s a good question.

Leo: Google self-driving cars still have trouble in rain, especially on the highway when other cars kick up water. They’re currently about as good as a human driving in heavy fog. And forget snow, they haven’t even tried that.

Gina: So California.

Leo: Snow, what’s that man? You mean that water is going to freeze?

Gina: That will version 4.0

Leo: Yes. This is good, in fact he says for all the millions of measurements and computations per second, you’re really only doing two things. The throttle and the steering. How fast you’re going and which way you’re going.

Jeff: So this story from venture beats says that Google self-driving car technology may appear in Toyotas, Fords, and other wildly available vehicles in about six years.

Leo: The cycle for developing a car is fairly long, it’s about five years. So it could well be just that. Didn’t Twitter have a mute function all along? I see so much about this mute function.

Gina: Not the official apps. On the unofficial apps, third-party apps have mute technology.

Jeff: What’s the difference between mute and block again? You explained this before Gina, but I forget.

Gina: Mute is you’re following the person but you don’t see their tweets in your timeline, for however long that person is muted.

Leo: You don’t un-follow them, you just shut them up.

Gina: Yea, you just don’t see them in your timeline.

Leo: And more importantly, the muted user will not know you’ve muted them.

Gina: Right, and you appear to be following them in fact. It’s like the way to unsubscribe to someone but keep them as your friend.

Leo: This is programming on the head of a pin. And I love 9-5 Google which used Donald Trump as an example.

Gina: I think he used cases like Leo is live-tweeting Silicon Valley. I don’t want to watch that. So I mute him for the duration of the show.

Leo: Or you know when conferences, everybody’s at South by Southwest, I wish you could mute a hash tag.

Jeff: If I’m at a conference irritating people, I want to say number one I’m from New York, I can irritate you. And number two, just mute me.

Leo: Feature will roll out to all users over the next coming weeks. And finally Flappy Bird is back. Thank God.

Gina: The world was a much worse place without it.

Jeff: Did you play it?

Leo: I did play it, I still have it. You want to play it?

Jeff: No I hate games.

Leo: Well this game you would really hate. Flappy Bird creator Muweng Dong says “I’m bringing the game back in August. It will be a multi-player game” and he’s been spending all his time making it less addictive.

Gina: Aww, this guy. Who feels really bad for him? I mean the fact that he’s a game maker and he’s trying to make it less addictive.

Leo: It was too successful.

Gina: It was too successful.

Leo: It was too successful and he said that people were wasting too much of their life. I feel bad. Well we’re glad to have Dong back in the android store.

Gina: Back in the mix.

Leo: What store doesn’t need more dong. We’re going to take a break and when we come back… thank you for laughing. Jeff did not laugh. Let the world go forth. This show, brought to you by my good buddies at Personal Capital. In fact I was just meeting with them, I love these guys. Personal Capital, they said can we use the word life hacker. I said no I don’t think so. Gina has to. But it is a life hack. It is a way to make you  life… you guys must have trademarked LifeHacks.

Gina: I think we trademarked LifeHacker, but not LifeHacks.

Leo: Well two words, Life Hack. Here’s the problem, if you’re a busy person and you’ve got a family, you’re working, the last thing you have time to do is keep track of your finances. And if you’re saving for the future, if you’re investing for the future, the chances are good that you’re either not doing it at all or ignoring it, or you’re getting ignored by some stock broker in some mahogany walled office. Or maybe you decided to go the digital route and use a digital broker and even more ignoring goes on. Personal Capital is such a great solution. First thing you’re going to do is visit personalcapital.com/twig. It is free to sign up. And I’ll explain how that works. It’s a free and a secure tool that will gather all your accounts, everything together. Your checking, your charge cards, your mortgage, your loans, and your investments. All in one place, you get a good live dashboard you can look at on your computer or your mobile device. A single screen, exactly what’s going on. It will show you among other things, how much you’re overpaying in fees, how you can reduce those fees. And people sometimes ask you, if it’s free how do they make money? It’s kind of fermium… you can get a certified financial planner to give you advice. These are not salesman. They are not selling you stock, they do not make commission on stock. They’re giving you independent advice on your investments. And that is a really great thing. We know you like to do things fast, you like to do things easy, and sometimes some of the most important stuff gets ignored. This is a way to get it done without consuming your life to get an investment checkup, mutual fund fee calculator, to get research and insights. They’ll send you personalized updates every week with highlights and suggestions to keep your finances on the right track. It’s really okay to save and invest. It’s important to save and invest, do it right with a free tool that can give you unbiased financial advice. Personalcapital.com/twig, absolutely free. And I think you will like it. Personal Capital. I’ve been using it for two years, since I met the founder, Bill Harris. He was on Triangulation.

Jeff: Rich I tell you, rich!

Leo: I’ll tell you one thing, I could have been less rich if I had not been using Personal Capital. Especially the last couple years, been a little up and down, wrong investments can be a big mistake. Sometimes these stockbrokers will say “we have a mutual fund for you run by our own company with a 5% fee.” Let us get our tip and our number and our tool of the week. We’ll start with Gina Trepani.

Gina: This is a new Google Now feature that I think is a little weird but also kind of interesting. You can use Google Now to remind yourself to cancel things. Like Amazon Prime and Netflix. I don’t know what this is about. I don’t know if Google is trying to get you to cancel Amazon Prime, but maybe. Anyway, they remind me to cancel Fox for example.

Leo: That seems anti-competitive on the face of it, but okay.

Gina: Now they’ll show you a little cancel subscription link that will take you right to the cancel page.

Leo: That’s what’s different. Because you can always say remind me to “X” but this actually says I see the word cancel let’s show you… you know this is great because I do that. I had a Vonage subscription for four years that I never used. And it was on my to-do list, but if I had known they had a click-to-link to go, I would have done it.

Jeff: Well I can’t even remember how long it took me to cancel AOL.

Leo: Yea, same thing. And they slowly draw the money.

Jeff: Here’s the one I need. Whenever I go to Europe I sign up $100 for one month for data on my phone.

Leo: Another great one.

Jeff: And I always forget. Do it right away because the bills are coming in. My wife asked me the other day did I cancel it. I said no but I’m going back to Europe.

Leo: I do that all the time. This is good.

Gina: I have many iOS magazines, subscriptions that just sort of pile up on my iPad which is not charged. That will not work with this but I think this is pretty good.

Leo: You can still ask for a reminder but you can’t have a link to it. That is very interesting that Google would get into this business.

Gina: It feels kind of interesting. It’s a little weird, and yet it’s there. So there you go, kids. Cancel everything that’s not Google.

Leo: Can I say cancel Google Wallet or I mean…

Gina: Cancel Google Listen or Access, that’s a good question.

Leo: I would think so.

Gina: Cancel Amazon Prime.

Leo: I love it that that’s the example.

Gina: There should be a little sign up for Google Shopping Express.

Jeff: It’s funny being out here. You see the Google delivery trucks all over, and Amazon delivery trucks.

Leo: Oh yea. Fertile territory for those guys. Yes we are.

Jeff: Oh yes here it is. Thank you Ben for an updated image.

Gina: Thank you Ben.

Ben: We got complete with Glass too, very good.

Leo: Now that’s Photoshop wizardry. I like it! We should use that as our album art for today’s show.

Gina: That would be great.

Leo: That’s awesome! I actually think that looks better than the original.

Jeff: It does, it’s crazy.

Leo: Miss Piggy, Stattler, and Waldorf, the hosts. Yea, old men.

Gina: Although I did like the commentary when you guys…

Leo: That was the real, you know. You know that was really the intent all along.

Gina: I know.

Leo: Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for a number I see you have several Jeffrey.

Jeff: Always prepared.

Leo: Always ready.

Jeff: Well I guess maybe we could do eight things to look for at IO.

Leo: Eight things?

Jeff: Eight things. There’s also a video of ten things in respect to IO, but I didn’t watch the video so…

Leo: Two more than eight.

Jeff: So what do we have there? We have one of those bloody slide shows you got to go through.

Leo: Oh I hate that stuff. Should I go through it for you so you don’t have to? Let’s do it. Information week.

Jeff: So number one is the Nexus 8. Will we have a Nexus 8? We vote on this… what do you think? Nexus 8, yes or no?

Leo: Nexus 8… oh that would be a 8-inch tablet.

Jeff: A new Nexus tablet, what do you think? Gina?

Gina: No.

Leo: No.

Jeff: No. Okay, no. Next one is Android 4.5.

Leo: Wait a minute I’m getting an ad on every single slide. Holy camoli. What was the next one?

Jeff: Next one is Android 4.5

Gina: I don’t know what the version number, but yes on the redesign.

Jeff: A flatter motif, fewer textures and shadows. Like I care.

Leo: Android Hostess Hoho, it’s K-H, right? Hostess Hoho. Android Hoho.

Gina: That’s right.

Leo: Yea.

Jeff: What does it say here? Just said something about that I thought. Moonshine, codename moonshine.

Leo: But it has to have an H right, it’s dessert with an H.

Jeff: Oh right, hoho.

Leo: We just did Kit Kat.

Gina: Mustang version of Kit Kat.

Leo: Now wait a minute, I don’t know my alphabet. L…

Gina: L…

Leo: What would L be?

Jeff: Lollipop?

Leo: Or lick-a-maid?

Jeff: Licorice?

Leo: Licorice. Lemon Heads.

Jeff: Lemon Heads, that’s a good one.

Leo: Android Lemon Heads, who’s going to get the… you know I’m sure they’re calling them right now.

Jeff: Licorice, I never liked licorice.

Leo: Licorice is a dessert. Don’t you like licorice though? These are delicious. Natural Redvines.

Jeff: I didn’t know licorice was natural.

Leo: Well you can get natural licorice. Get natural anything.

Jeff: I’m irritated by people who open their mouth while chewing.

Leo: Yes. Number four… oh we didn’t even mention the changes in Gmail that just appeared. Or did you mention the change law?

Gina: They haven’t come out right. This is a rumor.

Leo: It’s a rumor.

Gina: Speculation I think, which is why I didn’t include it.

Jeff: So you think they’ll announce the new Gmail at IO?

Gina: I’m yes on this. I think this is going to happen. I think they’re testing this. I think there’s going to be some new stuff in Gmail. I think this redesign is going to happen. I think there’s going to be some tasks and out coming.

Leo: Google, can you stop redesigning Gmail and just make it iMac please? I beg of you this fake iMac is confusing. I cannot find a good mail client on the Macintosh and I’ve tried them all now. The only ones that are only good are just a window to the Google website, the Gmail website.

Jeff: Wow.

Gina: Yea.

Leo: Because it’s not traditional, it’s not a traditional IMAP implementation mostly because it doesn’t do folders, it does filters but it doesn’t use IMAP tags even though it could use IMAP… Anyways, please just fix it.

Gina: Yea it’s because you can do multiple labels so it’s not like a one to one folder.

Jeff: Google could do with Gmail at IO that I think would get us an innovation would be adding encryption.

Leo: I’m going to add that to this list we just made at nine. Absolutely encryption. I bet you that is in fact.

Jeff: That’s the crowd that will respond. Next… is focus on design.

Gina: Yes.

Leo: They announced that already, they said this is going to be the design Google IO.

Jeff: Everything these days is design design design. Go around the valley and it’s “I’m designing, I’m thinking.” Alright next.

Leo: Next is 6 phone. They’re going to have a name collision.

Jeff: They’re about due…

Leo: They got a problem. This might be the last phone.

Jeff: LG is going to have a 7, an 8, an 8.3 and a 10…

Leo: I think this is where you go to what was it, silver that they were proposing.

Gina: Yea I think it’s going to be Android Silver.

Leo: This is where you do Android Silver instead of Nexus 6 because there can’t be a Nexus 7. There already is, so I think you make the change now.

Jeff: What do you think, Nexus 6 in IO? Gina?

Gina: I don’t think so.

Leo: No, me neither. I think maybe Silver though.

Jeff: You think maybe a new phone?

Leo: The silver would be a silver edition of mainstream phones like Google Play Edition. Right? Is that right Gina?

Gina: Yes, Google Play edition but consumer focus.

Leo: Silver is kind of like Microsoft did with Windows. They had a signature series where it didn’t have a lot of crap.

Jeff: Number seven is Android 5.

Leo: Android 5 Milk Dud. That’s probably not a good name. Marshmallow? Mallomar?

Gina: Mallomar, now you’re talking.

Leo: Android Mallomar, that’s a brand name I could get behind.

Jeff: Reportedly allows a device to perform a task normally associated with a particular app, only without having to open the app to do it.

Leo: What?

Gina: No.

Jeff: No.

Leo: I don’t even understand what they’re talking about.

Jeff: Alright next, Google Plus refocused. Here’s the question. Will they talk about Google Plus at IO?

Leo: Yes.

Jeff: Gina? I think it could be Uncle Ted we don’t talk about.

Gina: I don’t think they do.

Leo: We should make a bingo card out of this.

Gina: They’re going to talk about photos but they’re not going to talk about Google Plus. No.

Leo: I’m going to be depressed if they do that. But this is good. We should make notes on this.

Gina: Bingo card.

Jeff: But who buys the coffee on the way to the show?

Leo: I’m going to stay here. So I’m going to do the keynote while you guys are at the show. And then you’re going to whip up here afterwards as we’ve done in the past and we’ll do This Week in Google.

Jeff: Jeff on the Bridge.

Leo: Is Mike going? He is going. Everybody’s going. Jason’s going. I’m going to be all alone here. Chad… is that Liz? Was that Liz shouting? Oh that was Tanya wasn’t it. Tanya you can join me. We’ll be covering it from here as the keynote. And then I will make a note… no that’s Liz’s bouncing.

Jeff: Oh hello Liz.

Leo: I will make a note of this and then when Google doesn’t, as we get to the end of the keynote, will Larry Page do his…?

Jeff: No, here’s the real question. What’s the question Robert Schoball is going to ask of Larry Page?

Leo: Will they let Schoball go to the microphone this time? Or will he be tackled before he gets anywhere near it?

Jeff: And then number nine is something wild. Will there be something wild…?

Leo: A Nexus Q type of device.

Jeff: Yes, something when we get up here and we all admit we were surprised. Will we all get here and then make a surprise at IO? Gina?

Gina: I don’t think so, although where’s my watch? There’s no mention about watch here. I want a watch.

Leo: This is the timeframe for the Moto X watch, right?

Gina: I don’t think we’re going to get blindsided by something from left field, like the Q this year. I mean I love that, that’s awesomely fun. But I don’t think so. But that’s just a guess.

Leo: How about an update to Chromecast? That’s got to be a successful… what about Android TV? Didn’t they say there were going to replace Google TV with Android TV?

Gina: Oh that’s true. Android TV, that could be a surprise.

Leo: Motorola did not at its event announce a new X did they?

Jeff: Did they announced the E?

Leo: They announced the E.

Gina: They announced the E. And they announced the G, right with LTE.

Leo: Right. Both of which are low end, low price phones for the developing world.

Jeff: It’s time for a next interesting phone.

Leo: I feel like the Motorola… Motorola deal hasn’t closed. They’re still Google, but they’re on the way out.

Jeff: What’s that one there? What are you carrying now?

Leo: This is the M8, the same one that Gina uses, except I don’t use the Google Play edition, I use the HTC edition. But I do like this phone. You know we played with, and I think, did Jason

show you yesterday? The Harmon edition of this, the Audiophile edition of this?

Gina: Yea he did. What do you think?

Leo: I liked the sound quality. I thought the sound quality was actually better. But I don’t know if I would say spend $50 more on a phone just because some better headphones and improved sound quality.

Gina: You get those crazy headphones, right?

Leo: Yea and you’re stuck with a black versus some of the other choices and colors.

Jeff: Jason, I can see your fingerprints

Leo: Yea, you know what that phone is brand new and it looks.

Jeff: Either that or you’ve been eating the potato chips, haven’t you?

Leo: And I don’t like the black and gold so much. Gina, do you have the gray, this deal?

Gina: Yea I have this deal.

Leo: Look at how dented mine is over time. And then, there’s lots of scratches here. Now Sherlock Holmes noted that a drunk must live at a house because of all the scratches around the keyhole. Do you remember that?

Jeff: Yea.

Leo: Okay, well you may think I’m a drunk as well because of all the scratches around the USB port.

Jeff: It’s because you never know what’s up or down.

Leo: I always do it wrong! Scratch, scratch.

Jeff: It has three sides.

Leo: Yep, and none of them fit.

Gina: It’s always pitch black and I’m trying to plug the thing in and I…

Leo: I haven’t done my job. I am tool-less today, I’m sorry to say.

Gina: Oh, did you try Yahoo! News Digest?

Leo: Oh that’s the new… yea I’ve used it on iOS.

Jeff: It’s on here now…

Leo: And I kind of like it, do you?

Jeff: Really?

Gina: It’s on Android now, it was my pick last night.

Leo: You don’t it? You know New York Times is also doing that.

Jeff: On the Android yet or not?

Leo: Not yet. But the idea is that instead of waiting through all these articles, and all these things that you have to read, why don’t we just pick nine stories that are important. And in fact, we won’t even give you all the text to start off, just give you a summary. Because you’re a busy person and you don’t need all the detail. But you can click on it and drill down and get more information. And I kind of actually like it. Here it is.

Jeff: What’s the name of the app?

Leo: Yea, it’s down a little ways. Yahoo! News Digest. It’s very pretty. And this was the way it was on iOS as well. So, this is Wednesday morning’s digest and they literally give you just nine stories. Oh, so that’s different than my iOS. iOS you go down. To go down if you want to read more about it, this is the coalminers in Turkey. And you see as you go, you’re going to get pictures, you’re going to get videos, and you just keep going down if you want to have more detail. Right? So I think that’s kind of nice, even down to tweets and references. But the idea is you don’t have to drill down. You could just say there’s that headline, that story won. Story two, wildfire season opens. Thousands in San Diego flee. Court-ordered judge calls for stories to undergo mental evaluation. Military dilemma. Pentagon okays Manning’s transfer for gender treatment. Ruled unconstitutional, judge strikes down Idaho’s same-sex marriage ban. Not one of these stores was in TWiG, so far. The finish to the Clippers game. The stay to Texas execution. The Swedish Oscar-winning director Searching for Sugarman died. That was a great movie. That’s terrible.

Jeff: So you want to know more?

Leo: So again, you see what happened there? That was the first one that got me interested. If you haven’t see Searching for Sugarman, that’s a fascinating documentary with quite a twist about halfway through. Sony posting a $1.3B quarterly loss. Yikes. So that was nine stories, here’s ten. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”… new album number one in over 50 countries. And then did you know, that’s interesting. I also got a little thing that said, well I don’t have it now. How many stories I had gone through. I think this is… there’s a lot of editorial judgment on it. I don’t know.

Jeff: But is it federally automated or not?

Leo: Yea, I think so. I don’t know if it gets smarter.

Gina: It’s pretty straight forward. You get one in the morning, 8am.

Leo: What’s the big deal? The United States, U.K., Canada, and international editions.

Gina: It’s just a quick way to catch up on the news on your commute.

Leo: You can get pretty deep! New York Times Now is very much the same idea except you have to pay for it.

Gina: Right.

Leo: This is free from Yahoo! In fact I don’t even need to sign into my Yahoo! Account.

Jeff: One of my favorite tweets today was the editor of New York Times, Gilliberson just got ousted. Replaced by Dean Mackett and the best tweet I saw. I forget who it is to give credit. But it was ‘the news of why will be available only for New York Times premium platinum users.

Gina: That’s good. I like it. It’s also a pretty good widget that remembers what you read and what you haven’t. And you can flip through the stories in the Android widget. That’s the only main difference between the Android version and the iOS version.

Leo: That gives me a good tool that’s related, so that’s one. But here’s another one, I always thought that news stand was just like selling magazines. But it is in fact a news app with a nice widget. You can scroll through the newsstand stories even if you don’t buy a magazine. You can see news highlights, this is the Google Play newsstand. And I think it’s actually a pretty darn nice summary of the news. Now if you subscribe to magazines it will show up here.

Jeff: I like it too. I use it every day.

Leo: I prefer this to the Yahoo! Now we just looked at, frankly.

Jeff: There’s a different use case and I’m not sure what it is exactly for newsstand versus Flipboard.

Leo: Here’s highlights. It’s like Flipboard. Here’s the news…

Jeff: But it’s different and I like them both.

Leo: Business, entertainment. And if you subscribe to a magazine it will show up here but I don’t actually subscribe to any magazines in newsstand or newspapers. But I did log into my New York Times account.

Jeff: I’ve subscribed to lots.

Leo: Yea.

Gina: What’s this, player recommendation?

Leo: No, no. So I just thought it was a Play store, another Play store. It’s Play Newsstand…

Jeff: It’s for places—it’s a Google News app but it’s not Google News.

Gina: Play Newsstand…

Leo: So you have Play books, Play games, Play movies and TV, Play music, and Play newsstand. And I just assumed because it’s lumped in with these you know, places where you buy music or you buy movies and TV, that is like Apple’s newsstand where you buy and subscribe to. But it’s actually much better because…

Jeff: Oh much better, very good.

Leo: Because it’s actually a news app.

Jeff: And this reminds me, I’ve been complaining about something for a long time.

Leo: Alright, complain about it.

Jeff: So the Google Finance app is awful. It’s like an orphan child, here it is. And when you try to go to places or you try to go to a story, there’s bad sources. It constantly has problems updating. If you go back to the portfolio, then go to Google let’s say. And then you get news but the news is always weird sources. It doesn’t give you very much good stuff. Sometimes you try to click through and you get sent to the worst…

Leo: This is the type of news you get in Yahoo! Finance. It’s finance news.

Jeff: I know but Google could do a better job at this.

Leo: It’s very much like the Yahoo! app or any other financial app I think. Most people use that for your stock pricing and the only reason you look, oh you can have a ticker, the only reason you look at news is say “why did that stock dump?” So it’s that kind of news.

Jeff: The other thing I don’t understand why they don’t do, is there isn’t a “Google News” app. Now Google News has made nice things from a…

Leo: I’m surprised they even still do Google News. Do you think, I mean really seriously. I’m surprised. That feels like Google Reader, that feels like another…

Jeff: Don’t say that.

Leo: Another time and place.

Jeff: I use Google News every week for this show. I use Google News often.

Gina: I’ve used News occasionally. There are times when I get results that are old and I switch over to News and they get…

Jeff: Hillary does not have brain damage.

Leo: Well remember she got hit in the head.

Leo: There was some concern that she was injured. Why do I have two phones? Oh this is Jason’s. Well good, thank you Gina. You gave me my tools, the Yahoo! News, Yahoo! News Digest, and Google Newsstand. Funny newsstand which is actually a very good and is a great widget. A very good little news app, whether you to subscribe to anything in it or not.

Gina: Yea, thank you. So the widget wasn’t in my widgets list. I had to launch the app and then say okay, got it, I’m in. And then the widget showed up.

Leo: Oh.

Gina: So, I got it now. It’s a nice widget.

Leo: Yea! It’s quite pretty. You can scroll. You know, these are all very much like Flipboard. Current, remember Google Currents, which for a while was the choice. But I think this is nice. Doesn’t take up a lot of space, you can just tap the down bar and go through stores like this.

Jeff: Which one was that?

Leo: This is the newsstand one.

Jeff: It’s the newsstand widget, oh. You put that in.

Leo: I have used Newsstand.

Jeff: I forgot how to put widgets in. Where do I find the widgets?

Leo: I don’t know.

Jeff: Here I have my helper here.

Leo: I don’t know, Jeff. Google it! It’s a long tab on a long screen.

Jeff: I have a right to irritate you, I just want you to remember that.

Leo: Or you can go to your app drawer and tap the widget tab. And then drag them to your screen. Our show today, it’s come to the end. It feels like that the intelligence is going downhill this way.

Jeff: Hey! Hey! Man you come here and you get abuse.

Leo: It’s like smart, dumb, and dumber. No I’m just teasing you.

Gina: Some of us need someone to dumb down the news and summarize it and some of us need help putting widgets on our home screen.

Leo: You’re telling me there’s a hangouts extension in Chrome? Are you kidding me? I’ll buy you lunch.

Jeff: Who did you throw your shoes at or something?

Leo: Stattler Waldorf! Maybe these guys don’t know what they’re talking about. I remember when he was on TV. Our show is every Wednesday, 1pm.

Jeff: Let’s have more fun on this show!

Leo: That was gripping.

Jeff: Whose idea was that? Brilliant genius.

Gina: It was fun, it was fine.

Leo: That’s a game to play by yourself.

Jeff: You’ve exhausted everything else in life you can do. Your last two minutes before you die, you play that game.

Leo: There’s not enough time in two minutes. The idea though is to help you learn to spelling English better, so it’s really for non-English speakers. We do this Week in Google every Wednesday afternoon, 1pm Pacific, 4pm Eastern time, 2000UTC. On twit.tv if you watch live you’ll see great fun. And occasional profanity but if you don’t you can get the on demand version which we have expunged off profanity and fun. And you get that right there in your iTunes or Stitcher, or use a great TWiT apps or just go to twit.tv/twig. Nice to have you here.

Jeff: It’s great to be here. I love being here. Next time we’ll be here, all three of us together.

Leo: After I…

Jeff: IO

Gina: Yes.

Leo: What day is that? That’s June…

Jeff: 25

Leo: End of June, alright. That’s exciting.

Jeff: It is?

Leo: We will do live coverage by the way, the IO keynote, and then do This Week in Google right after. Gina Trepani is at thinkup.com. You got to get ThinkUp, if you haven’t got it yet. Just get some insights, I like to do this. Off to do my ThinkUp. See how my week was on Twitter. It takes Twitter and Facebook, analyzes it and tells you what happened, who followed you, which tweets were big. Wow, that was a big one.

Gina: Oh, Leo. More people follow you than went to Woodstock.

Leo: Oh, ha!

Gina: That chart is a bug. Let’s go past that.

Leo: That’s a big bug.

Gina: You got to fix that.

Leo: That’s not right.

Gina: Sorry about that.

Leo: That’s not right. This status update got quadrupled the likes for Leo Laporte.

Gina: That is also a bug. We’re in beta. That status update… this is not going well.

Leo: Here we go, now that is a good... look at that.

Jeff: That is great.

Leo: Did you do that just for me, Gina.

Gina: Absolutely.

Leo: That is so awesome. Is that Marishi-mash Yogi? I don’t think that’s Woodstock. I think that’s something else. What is that? Is it Woodstock? That’s how many people went to Woodstock, more than half a million people follow Leo Laporte. But the difference is that Woodstock there was no spam box. So that’s a big difference.

Gina: True, that is true. Good point.

Leo: This is a really useful tool. I really like it. My updates from last week had the best response between 9am and 10am. That’s when I should be tweeting. That’s just the little thing that’s useful.

Gina: Thanks Leo.

Leo: Thank you Gina.

Gina: We’ll fix that chart.

Leo: Right after all of that Android which is another favorite out of the week which he does every Tuesday on this network, 5pm Pacific. Jeff Jarvis is at buzzmachine.com, City University of New York if you want to study journalism, this is the guy to learn from here. He’s making a book, the history of newspapers. How about that?

Jeff: My homework…

Leo: And he also published a couple of fabulous books, but the most recent is Public Parts which you can get at bookstores everywhere. Thank you, Jeff.

Jeff: Thank you.

Leo: Thank you Gina. Thank you all for joining us! We’ll see you next week on TWiG.