This week, we’re once again joined by Greg Davies, host of Blendover and Heavy Metal Historian podcasts (and of course the TARDISBlend podcast hosted here at Geeks of Doom) as we discuss Uber tests autonomous cars, Twitter lets you tweet longer, Google‘s modular phone Project Ara, will Apple become the next Blackberry, are crime algorithms racist? And why you shouldn’t piss off Peter Thiel  …and much more!

Podcast

What We’re Playing With

Andy: update on computer build
Greg: Google Project Fi and Nexus 5X
Tosin: Maker Faire & LootCrate

Headlines

• Uber officially confirms testing self-driving Ford Fusion cars in Pittsburgh
• Spotify family plan is now cheaper, $14.99 for up to 6 people
• Twitter won’t count photos, videos, @names in replies toward 140 characters “in the coming months”, will allow self-retweets
• Audio fingerprinting being used to track web users, study finds
• Yahoo’s False Prophet: How Marissa Mayer Failed to Turn the Company Around

Audible Book of the Week

• How Google Works by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle
• Sign up at AudibleTrial.com/TheDrillDown

Music Break: Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode

Hot Topic

• Google teams with IMAX and Yi Technology on new VR cameras
• Project Ara modular phone shipping to developers in Q4 2016, to consumers in 2017; Google is spinning out Ara from ATAP team into a separate business unit
• If Google’s right about AI, that’s a problem for Apple
  • Apple opening Siri to third-party apps, preparing a Siri SDK for release at WWDC, and developing an Amazon Echo rival
• Crime prediction software, increasingly used to guide sentencing in US, found to be biased against black defendants in study of 7K cases

Music Break: Overwatch Overture by Neil Acree

Final Word

• Peter Thiel has been bankrolling Hulk Hogan’s lawsuits against Gawker Media
  • How Can We Make You Happy Today, Peter Thiel?

The Drill Down Video of the Week

• What is Overwatch?

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Geeks Of Doom’s The Drill Down is a roundtable-style audio podcast where we discuss the most important issues of the week, in tech and on the web and how they affect us all.

Hosts are Geeks of Doom contributor Andrew Sorcini (Mr. BabyMan), marketing research analyst Dwayne De Freitas, and Box product manager Tosin Onafowokan.