Gadgetory

good morning on Wednesday April 26 it's time for Episode two 17 of the 359 podcast I'm BVG and in the house today we got Bridget Carey and Ben Fox Ruben whoo and we're talking about creepy stuff yeah sorry we're a little late today because hot off the presses Amazon just dropped it's got a new device coming out called the echo look so we're going to be talking mostly about that it's basically got a built-in camera built-in LED light so you can take photos and videos with just your voice maybe you're really excited about it I don't know we'll talk about that it's $200 are you excited about it breaded Oh could you not tell them my face well we'll save that for we'll save that for the podcast itself also if we have time we had to drop some stuff today we'll talk about Twitter's earnings and also Sergey Brin's secret airship but the echo look I think is going to be the top of the mine today so send in your questions and comments we'll get to as many as we can at the end of the show all right hang out we'll be back to take your comments and questions in the chat in 3 minutes and 59 seconds from 3 to welcome to the 359 I'm Ben Fox Ruben and I'm Bridget Carey so Amazon just dropped news of a new device called the echo look it's a $200 device that allows people to take photos and videos using just their voice the company also introduced a new service called style check that uses machine learning to offer customer style recommendations so this is like a fashion play right like they want people to use Amazon and think about Amazon when you're buying clothes I mean like that's what I'm thinking right yeah it my first reaction to seeing this in hearing about there's gonna be software that what I go Alexa does this make me look fat like is that what I get to like get out of this that is usually what I I'm okay I'm not a fashionista so I kinda had a check the day that this wasn't April 1st because it seems so but so many people were asking me on Twitter they were like is this a joke I mean okay what does it eliminate the need to take a picture of yourself in front of the mirror and hold your camera up if you're trying to get a picture of this is my outfit today right and I am not that kind of person but then I started getting into this discussion with my colleague ashley Esqueda in LA who says this is amazing product because this is great for the fashion industry you can take pictures of what you're wearing and share it without having to bother someone else in the house and take a picture of you I'm going I'll get it and then I go well why do you need a computer tell you how if you look good or not and she's like well because you could always use another I always use a second opinion and I'm okay okay very excited glad I get out the door with two shoes that are the same in the morning so what for me I've used different shoes I've put on with two different shoes and now Alexa is gonna get mad at me about that you know all these companies wanted to put a camera in the in the smart home hub and for heaven's sakes Amazon did it with the fashion twist but it's a camera right that is a smart home hub so there's other uses there there are other applications they just made the fashion the focus here so that's that's a really good point actually because Apple has been rumored that they're going to come out with an echo eventually like an echo competitor eventually and we actually wrote a story quite a while ago that Apple was considering adding a camera into that device so again these are all rumors but like we were wondering if that was going to be a security feature or that was going to be a way for them to actually recognize different users this is different this is this is a much simpler and maybe a little bit friendlier way of actually introducing a camera into the home right so like by focusing just on fashion you're not gonna be creeped out by like oh it knows wind Ben's home and when his wife's home and it knows our faces you know so that way and you're fully in control of it you turn it on with your voice as far as saying you know take a photo or take a video this also includes a built-in camera built-in LED lights so and and the price by the way $200 it's only $20 more than a regular echo it's only $200 more than the phone I already have it as a camera on it that is that is true by the way it's also invite-only in the u.s. only and I talked to Amazon about this they said that it's going to be providing it rolling invites to customers so I actually asked like when can we get a review in and they said well you're gonna have to ask for an invite like every time huh maybe we can buy one I don't pay if we have they don't want dorky tech guys to be reviewing this thing that's for the fashion industry because they don't want to get very good you know everyone like you know trash-talking it so are people gonna buy this thing I guess I don't understand the fashion industry enough but I think those people you have to ask because this is what it's targeted to and for me it's not my cup of tea I don't need that 200 hour camera just to do that but yeah I don't know we're let's we've got like 25 seconds left let me see if I can cram one more story in here Google co-founder Sergey Brin is reportedly building a giant airship did I just get that right what is with this podcast today this is some weird stuff going on you know if you're a tech billionaire you're side hobby must be learning and investing in ways on how to fly a car because there's you know if you can't have Larry Page in his flying car startup it might as well just build your own blimp yeah that's what Sergey is doing so that's according to Bloomberg it's just a rumor or just a report I should say but they talk to four people involved in the matter and he has told Bloomberg I have nothing to say about this right now but yeah it's a it's over ten minutes away from the Google campus in it at a NASA you know hangar yeah so we'll have to see about that too thanks for listening everybody if you want to read more about these stories check us out on CNET I'm Ben Fox Ruben I'm Bridget Gary thanks for listening all right buckle up the chats on fire oh my god because they love Bridget Bridget you are very excited about this well III really sound a little bit a little bit negative but there's there's I mean I was thinking though this is a joke and when I started talking to Ashley she was like we're asking me it was in the show real I posted this like like as quickly as I could to Twitter to say here's the YouTube video this is what it is the immediate reaction from a bunch of folks wise is this a joke this can't actually be real because it seems strange to care so much about what you're wearing for the day to spend 200 on a camera and software to tell you if you're trendy it's it's weird it's at a touch reveal who aren't really into fashion and we know that Amazon has a really big focus in the fashion they have their own show every night just about was that the style code live you know it there you go I don't watch it but they're really do i but there's that and they sell their own fashion line and so you know they're looking at this going you know what clearly there's a market here or the other way is like hey how do we get a camera in why don't we just focus on one market yeah I mean it makes a lot of sense to include a camera if somehow this can get your dimensions and then make it easier for you to buy like pants or jeans on Amazon because that's that's like a big problem that I think for them is as far as making fashion purchases especially like for pants not shirts or dresses how exactly you're going to know that it fits right if you have a camera there and it's Amazon's camera is that eventually going to enable them to say like yes this 95% of the time er this 100% of the time is actually going to fit you because we just took a picture of you and know the exact dimensions no way it depends what you're standing if it's flattering it's a mix of a bigger rhythm it's just a desert so like are you gonna experts Manning the like Oh input okay Sally just updated her photo you know is it look right um you know looks a little frumpy here maybe but it depends how you stand and usually girls all right we all know this secret your shirt is not fitting you you're just gonna do one of these and suddenly it looks like a fits you you know so what is this computer gonna do it's great let's go let's go let's go to the questions you said those chats on fire right let's go for it for the record they do love Bridget yes second really - we're gonna have to have you on a lot more we apologize in advance for all the echoes that we're gonna set off in the conversation today for those who have it on in the background yes uh them on mute please Mike and Danny in the chat point out like is there a market really for for fashion geek fashion geek studs is that I'm just gonna have to find out that's a great question is that Danny Green the other way a Danny Green or what's up Danny Green at time though like is it the echo dot isn't catered to geeks yes it's tech yes it's a little nerdy but it's become so much part of the nomenclature that it's just that you don't have to be a geek to have smart homes stuff not that it's true it was true in fact those girls don't look geeky in the promo video right they did throw a guy or two in there - they were like this is for you - guys there was a guy like opening up a closet but they knew that primarily the fashion plays are usually targeted at women I mean like that's where most of the money is made as far as fashion is concerned mm-hmm man this shirt I bought in 2000 there's proof there's lots of great thoughts being passed around in the chat right now Mike Mike Leo D big brother is watching and then he says will this push to retailers to offer their products on Amazon if they don't already right cuz that's that question that's the minute is selling off the customer images I mean not just you their images as a good point to that you can't get stuff from the gap on Amazon I mean like the gap Banana Republic old Navy they don't sell on Amazon is this somehow going to start convincing them to do that I don't know but at the very least it at least tries to draw more people into Amazon that are more fashionistas or recommendations that when I upload that photo it's you know what also would look good in that color this this skirt from Amazon was these pair of shoes rumors that you may be also interested in the following and so it's it's a way for the push more product right primarily the way Amazon works is that it's an ecosystem play I mean like just like Google just like a lot of the major companies just like Apple where if they can actually convince you to spend more time with them you're more likely to buy more stuff with them so is this a way for them to do that maybe I mean like at the very least some people that don't have an echo might want to buy an echo look because of this additional feature but I don't know this is there Amazon's like white whale can we be the master of fashion it's true yeah but like it's really hard to like a new angle this is interesting and fresh we have not seen this before yeah yeah and Google a conversation kiss tingle has actually shown Google has shown that you don't actually need a camera to have multiple users speakers it just doesn't someone like me i buy my clothes a at a merch table at a show and be reorder the same pair of pants I have for the last 12 years right so they fed yeah wait let's look at all the tech billionaires Zuckerberg has a hoodie every day that's the same I mean every everyone is like you know on stage like looking the same all the time you even Tim Cook so what you're saying is you're not on fleek right they're not on fleek they don't get it Amazon I guess is trying to get it I hate myself for saying that out loud I'm sorry I don't yeah yeah yeah leave leave me be so before we get back into the intended application this let's talk about some of the speculated other applications of this device because not only is Amazon always listening now it's always watching why can't it be a security cam exactly that's coming up again and again and again in the chat how could it be applied possibly as a security camera done camera that was that that's another way so this was actually rumored initially last month somebody actually found like a leaked photo on amazon.com was like scraping amazon.com and found a photo of this and that was the initial thought was that this is a security camera because nest is already out there the assumption was is that if you're going to include a camera on one of these devices of course it's a security camera so this is a much more targeted and specific usage yeah then I think we were expecting but I think if you just sell security camera people start going when is it on and when is it off and I guess there's a few funny feelings you get from that I was on a roll with these weird unit askers between Spotify is true alleged headsets that just play music and now a camera that just tells you what to wear so Amazon's also backwards and technology from the phone that does everything however Amazon is being at least a little bit smart about this by doing invite-only in the US only so they can at least try to gauge demand by the numbers invite wasn't echo at first invite only that's correct so for quite some time too yeah until they actually made it available publicly but they made it invite only for long enough to actually know what the size of the market was how many they needed to build so by the time they came out with the dot and kept adding more and more to the echo family they had a pretty good idea of what was actually what what people really wanted out of it I can imagine just the incredible YouTube blogs to be coming out of this just definitely Tralee right but like could you live stream on YouTube using this camera well yeah it is a game at Jeffrey's asking can you take a remote picture from the Alexa app and then just keep it I guess remote picture like you're at work and you take a picture from home I guess off your home that's creepy yeah that's a sound a bit can a scam if they've connects to your home Wi-Fi you could do that tentatively I mean type yet Grennan we've known about this thing for all of 40 minutes so that's true it's true and good for Amazon for constantly never warning me about anything I literally was preparing for the five gasp and they were like guess what we have a nude surprise they and they've been doing this too with like their grocery pickup thing which had been had been rumored for months and they said mean it's funny when you surprise like this what happens you get that first reaction of like is this a joke because there's no time to really think about wait is there a market for should we talk to some industry experts and see if there's no they don't want to do that they just want to like go out because they know so much so many people in the tech press are I'm sorry nerdy dudes so I am a nerdy dude I mean look at me I'm not a fashionista myself so I don't know I'm not gonna connect with this and maybe I don't want us to dive in deep well amazon knows that it doesn't really have to pre briefed reporters on this kind of stuff there's also more of a potential of that getting leaked out if they do that so they're just gonna come out with it really like all at once and let people go wild with it and there's a very very strong chance that some of the some of the fashion magazines and will will glom onto this and say hey this is this is tech but this is also really interesting for our industry why not use just a camera on your laptop yes sure or your phone I mean the 360 thing does have something of an appealing weasel to it not absolutely you're 16 oh it doesn't know I thought there were three six you know is its absence and then like and then it generates and then you you you can like look back at the replay like you look like from behind yeah it's just a video oh it's like I can spin around in a circle and it'll shoot the video of it I don't know what if I a mirror right the point of the depth-sensing camera by the way from the video was that light so the background is fuzzy so you're whatever you're wearing pops in the image so it's actually creating a focal point yeah again it's it's a unitasker type of thing like exactly what you had said before there are definitely more than a few people that are resistant to this brian says an amazon camera giving fashion advice is a disaster in the making what's to stop amazon from shoving the products down people's throats yeah obviously the point if you got this your tear down with you know amazon soda it doesn't faze you yeah it's an opt-in they're not putting these in everybody's home mandarin yeah not imagine that um yeah and and it's worth remembering that there is this thing called what is it the Amazon tap or the echo tap that it's it's another echo device that you have to press the button for the most part I think now you can actually do voice-activated but for the longest time you had to push a button on it it was mobile and I don't think those have been selling well at all so there is a possibility so they did really well with the dot they did really well with the original echo but though there is this other echo product out there that didn't really sell all that well so this meant for taken to the beach though tunes right are you going to the park or the playground or a picnic what else if you're gonna invest you're gonna do that sucking or not gonna do that first right so so the possibility of the look becoming another tap is also a possibility but they want to keep testing out different echo styles and looks there's another rumor that's been floating for quite some time now that they're looking at an echo with with like a screen on it which granted you can get Alexa on your fire tablet so I don't know why they would use I mean yeah I don't know I don't know you're having it in your kitchen countertop and it's just sitting there but it's got a it's got like a decent cellphone sized screen on it so if you need recipes you can watch it down down video as you go Alexa tell me how to make a hot toddy right and then they and then they provide like a video or something yeah I think the idea for them is is that like they know the echo is really popular and if they can create an echo literally for everybody they will so that's what's happening I don't I don't know that this is gonna work you know I don't I think like a lot of people as you said are resistant but um they're they're gonna keep riding this echo wave as long as they I mean there's gonna be a camera for your fridge to tell you for milk is out so Amazon fresh can come by and deliver you some we are so close to that actually happening there are smart fridges out there that basically do that but you still have to manually trigger it yeah it's just like put a little sensor in the fridge a new milk yeah so let's get a couple more questions in before we wrap it up for the day Matthews asking so it's Amazon going to take a page from Google's playbook but instead of recognizing my voice it'll recognize my face maybe well thanks that's what Apple's rumored to be doing and that's the best idea for when you're talking to it at least it knows my settings when I walk in the door versus my husband settings when he walks in the door I think the problem there is is that I think people are a little bit more comfortable with voice as opposed to visual so yeah people figures a little bit more intrusive Xbox member when that when that was a requirement people freaked out yeah people don't like I'm sorry Dave imagine soggy and Brian are on the same page so imagine saw he's asking so the pictures be permanently stored in the Amazon Cloud and will they Facebook and try to sell them off that's that's meant adding I should imagine psyches question and then Brian asked you know or comments that I see a whole lot of leaked videos coming out of this oh yeah oh my god out a doubt this yeah the next I mean like that that does those are both very good points and they there there is a messages oh hey I privilege just said not funny and they're images in fact al 9000 yes I mean like when you when you add a camera into your bedroom obviously that creates the potential for problems but at the same time I mean people with nest cameras already do that well wasn't there like an issue with like some of these always on assistants catching people talking you know and and even if they don't intend to say hey Alexa or whatever it would just kind of pick up so yes already it sorry the issue of like its hearing my conversations and now it's just another element of that yeah yeah I mean it's I don't remember I was gonna say I mean like I'm just I'm like literally still digesting this so it's good to do the podcast now too because like we literally just found out about this yeah I gotta bikes just like tech from that movie clueless or something oh my god that would fit perfectly in that movie oh they would have that's inevitable they're probably gonna do a clueless reboot right yeah that'll happen and they'll include them include this I need augmented production but I meant my fashion on don't make it snippy or something kind of bratty and it'll be a character in itself like my robot is this is a baby step probably - yeah yeah point your camera tell me what I should wear right or like the echo home they'll just make a house for you it'll be pre-built you'll walk in Alexa will be we're finally getting that smart home horror film though I forgot the title of it but I saw that it's coming down the line I think I sent that to you the other day it's speculated about it I'm glad it's finally coming to be because it's happening in real life anyways excellent chat today keep the conversation going let us know what you think about this silly s camera happening in your home that is your opinion and before we wrap it up Assad is asking me specifically that about the image behind you Ben there's a poster that I keep I keep around and says inspirational quote JP G and I got to tell you the reason I have that here is because I get so destitute and depressed about the idea of having terrible cameras watching everything I do at all times that I just need some beautiful imagery to keep me going throughout the day so thank you absolutely yeah well thanks for joining us today Bridgette thanks everybody for watching the 3:59 is available on iTunes TuneIn stitcher SoundCloud Feedburner Google Play Music and of course cnet.com thanks for watching