Episode 34: Synthesized voices and headphones that spy on you

Dan's away this week, so Marc and Riley are left to argue about: Lyrebird, a Montreal company that can synthesize a voice with just 1 minute of speech; the rise and prevalence of contactless payments in Canada; Invest Ottawa's ploy to attract immigrant tech workers to the city; Bose headphones snooping your audio data.
Speed round:
-Emoji are the new gargoyles
-Spotify is hiring to launch self-branded hardware
-Amazon's launching a marketplace for subscriptions
-April 23 was the first day Britain produced power without coal since the 1880s
-Check your credit card statement if you've been to a Holiday Inn recently
Recommendations
Riley — Don’s Photo Walk (http://donsphoto.com/blog/2017/03/save-the-date-sunday-april-23rd/)
Marc — Office Space: Idle Profits (https://itunes.apple.com/ph/app/office-space-idle-profits/id1163059158?mt=8)

Dan's away this week, so Marc and Riley are left to argue about: Lyrebird, a Montreal company that can synthesize a voice with just 1 minute of speech; the rise and prevalence of contactless payments in Canada; Invest Ottawa's ploy to attract immigrant tech workers to the city; Bose headphones snooping your audio data.

Speed round:

-Emoji are the new gargoyles

-Spotify is hiring to launch self-branded hardware

-Amazon's launching a marketplace for subscriptions

-April 23 was the first day Britain produced power without coal since the 1880s

-Check your credit card statement if you've been to a Holiday Inn recently

Recommendations

Riley — Don’s Photo Walk

Marc — Office Space: Idle Profits

Links:

Lyrebird claims it can recreate any voice using just one minute of sample audio | The Verge — Artificial intelligence is making human speech as malleable and replicable as pixels.Spending in Canada Up, Fueled by Rise in Contactless Payments | Techvibes — the volume of “tapped” dollars increased by 62% during the quarterInvest Ottawa launches new international campaign to attract tech workers | CBC News — "Ottawa is often mischaracterized as purely a government town," said Invest Ottawa CEO Michael Tremblay.Bose headphones spy on listeners: lawsuit | Reuters — The complaint filed on Tuesday by Kyle Zak in federal court in Chicago seeks an injunction to stop Bose's "wholesale disregard" for the privacy of customersUnroll.me’s CEO is ‘heartbroken’ that users are upset their data was sold to Uber | The VergeThis building uses emoji cast in concrete as modern gargoyles | The VergeSpotify hiring to launch self-branded hardware, potentially a wearable | Android CentralAmazon launches a new digital subscription marketplace | The VergeBritain goes a day without coal-fired power for first time since the 1880s | The VergeHoliday Inn customers urged to check credit card statements after widespread hack | Globalnews.caThe business of GIFs: then and now | Vox