Gadgetory

and good morning from the scene at New York studios it is time for the 3:59 podcast episode 291 I'm BVG and in the house today we've got Ben Fox urban Alfred Inge and David Katz Mayer David Katz Mayer thank you very much for being D yeah I came all the way from my desk about ten feet away Natalie doodlee are you hi Khalid Oakley Duke Lee dongle so you can already tell it's gonna be a good show today it's gonna be a great show we're gonna talk mostly about TV stuff yeah just David why you're here so we're gonna be talking about the Amazon fire TV which was just announced yesterday and also the Nvidia shield there's a new integration with home assistant that was sorry Google assistant that was announced this morning yeah send in as many questions and comments as you want about all things TV whether they streaming boxes what TV I should buy whatever David can literally answer every single one of them I have no doubt in my mind about talking into your television room you know what this reminds me I was looking up I did a report years ago 2013 on the first Samsung Smart interaction television I don't remember this you could wave at it you could talk into thin air well now now you can do that and it actually works but are any of them ever gonna be as smart as a TV on pee-wee's Playhouse never yes all right let's save it for the podcast let's get moving on that sending your questions and comments BBG we'll get to as many as you can at the end of the show let's do this thing all right I'll be recording the audio podcast I'm back to talk to you in the chat draw up some good questions today we could use them three minutes and 59 seconds from 3:00 to welcome to the 359 I'm Ben Fox ribbon I'm Alfred hang and with us today is David cat's in the cradle cats Mayer pound for pound the premier guru on all things TV oh yeah garni shirt today I'm ready to sing it okay so there's a lot of news in just the past 24 hours about the colliding world of video streaming devices and voice assistance let's start with the Amazon new fire TV it's $70 it's got a weird shape and it now supports 4k HDR video shame dude yeah it's it's totally square squares the new round and it back your TV it's a phrase in the technology of should we call it dongle and it you know is just like a chromecast except it does fork HD are just like a chromecast Ultra which cost the same the difference is this one has a remote and it's it's a seems like a pretty sweet deal for a 4k HDR streamer yeah there was a bundle that I think just got announced either yesterday or today where you could get it with an echo dot for how much 80 bucks another 10 bucks step up and get it it's not the dot what are you gonna do you're gonna new there's another dot in the garage you can use one in the bathroom or you can use it in the living room yes you talk to the fire TV yes so this is something that Amazon actually rolled out last month the finally after years of having to hold up the microphone and talk into it like your walkie talkie style in the mid 80s you can say hey Alexa into a room and if you have echo dot or any other echo device always on always listening it will control your television you can say watch Manchester by the sea which works great because it's an Amazon property or watch stranger things which doesn't work quite as well because it's Netflix but you get the idea it's it's pretty cool we I give it a full run-through on CNET and it's it's it's great so now all the fire TV devices work like that including the new 4k HDR one and the $40.00 stick which it remains in the line one of the things that we were hoping to see yesterday was an integrated product where it was basically an echoed dodd plus a fire TV mash together yeah are you a little disappointed that didn't happen darn it well that was in the leak it was a cube thing it had buttons on the top you know so again the idea was you had all this functionality in one device now with this bundle you know it's 80 bucks I can't imagine this cube would be that much you know more expensive than that so they think you big cysts you think the cube is somewhere I'm kind of anti cube at this point I feel like if you can get a dot and a little you know dangling stick thingy that does everything that the cube does you don't need a cube whatever the cube is like cheaper than both of those combined though all hail the cube if if so that would blow my mind but you would be their parents they're good at cutting prices those guys at Amazon definitely you mentioned in your story to the the fire TV like a new fire TV box maybe on the way they may hate that have that up their sleeve so maybe the cube will be coming yeah yeah and and the other thing is the competitive landscape so Roku still hasn't by the way those guys had a pretty successful IPO from what I understand they have something that they're probably going to release at some point in your future like they always do every fall and and last year they still make my favorite 4k HDR streamer so they are the biggest fish in the streaming you know stream right now and we're expecting to see Google yeah we might get another chromecast so you know stuff is still happening in a space we obviously saw the LTV 4k recently which isn't a stratospheric price point compared to all the other guys let's move on to Nvidia shield so they got they became the first TV device to get Google assistant you had a chance to play with this what what was your experience how good was it it was okay it was okay we're blown away yeah it was it was one of these things where it was very similar sorry to the LX you know it's saying into thin air similar sort of functionality the the downside is that you got to use its the Nvidia shield is basically a streaming gaming mega box for geeks it's about 200 bucks you get one for 180 but it doesn't you know work out of the box with this functionality the idea is is the game controller has a far-field mic in it so if you want to you know say these things into thin air without holding a remote you got to leave your game controller sitting on the table kind of a kludge at CES they announced this thing that was like a little like Glade air freshener that plugs in and as a far-field mike and and a speaker in it that is called the nvidia spot much like what Amazon announced and but they didn't give it pricing availability on that so maybe they'll make the system better but the point is Google assistant gives you all that great Google system stuff you have on your phone already and the Google home speaker but now it's built into this game box we're gonna see more stuff soon Sony TVs will also have Google assistance so you know that's it's another thing you talk to in the living room sounds great all right if you want to read more about these stories check us out on CNN I'm Ben Fox Ruben I'm alfred hang the David that's Myer you know talking I'm not editing that out guys it's actually our new outro [Laughter] post-credits bonus what is it marble great the next spider-man movie just rolls credits and they need to see Tom Holland pretty solid one of the questions is like the big thing question I wanted to get to David about this wise where do you see all this going just kind of like to wrap up everything that we talked about on the pad podcast in in a little bow where is this going I think it's a couple years TV isn't it like integrated into the television to the television right right so that's one issue right now so you got about many things that you know will work only by plugging him in what you want isn't integrated into the television yeah so I think that's what I was gonna get yeah so you want a TV that has all this stuff built into it already and you know we saw that like you know years ago with Samsung they did attempt and it failed miserably and they stopped doing it but for example these Sony TVs with Android operating system are going to get Google assistant I was really surprised when Amazon's fire TV that came out earlier it's made by a company called Element didn't have far-field mics built in because that seems like a pretty obvious thing to do you know just just build it all into the same you know TV so I think that's probably coming next year what about being able to upgrade right like it's easier to upgrade an echo dot than to upgrade your television so is there a value to having those things be separate I think so but I also feel like you know what what was an upgraded echo dot give you you know what I mean like it kind of does a pretty great job already I mean I'm sure Amazon can answer that question by saying Oh better Sonics and no volume control how often do you replace your TV anyway yeah it's it's not that all yeah that's that that's the point is that if Amazon does at some point come out with you know some sort of improved Alexa controls your your you're less likely to update your your television because it's hundreds of dollars as opposed to one of one of those the only thing that makes me lean towards getting a TV with like a Google assistant as opposed to an echo even though I have like a ton of echoes in my home is that it doesn't play well with YouTube whereas you know home assistant does yep and that's like I watch most of my content on YouTube so especially like live streams of great podcasts like the 359 I didn't know you were going there I can't I can't think of any other ones but Apple buy of all four that's right all right net picks I think I think the last chore on the selection from CNET last four or four I think is tomorrow so check it out people is it yeah I believe so and I think they may be doing a marathon so check it out sweet fellow 404 fans yeah way to break the sad news no yeah I mean it's but worse is how and strong and we'll be here every day it's not our last episode it might be this was actually a pretty solid one pretty great to end on just throw more damn it in there damn it alright let's jump into some questions Tammie Thompson's got a good one do you think Amazon is just throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks yes would all the announced products and wines are such a push for voice control yes on the first part absolutely they're just trying to like push the envelope test out what's actually possible in the smart home and see what actually sells it seems pretty likely to me that some of these devices that they have in the echo line are not gonna succeed or are gonna sell very poorly but they are hopefully trying to find the next echo dot that's their big seller in the echo line then they probably should have made the price is much lower yeah they could hello wait for prime day all right as far as the big push for voice I mean like maybe you can answer that yeah easily the thing about a TV is that it's just a pain in the butt you got a bunch of remotes so there's a bunch of buttons on them it's so much easier just say you know watch stranger things or whatever they then that's been the dream and now they're really I think very close to making a reality and we were talking before like with YouTube for example it comes down to these guys playing nice with each other and Google and Amazon are not good friends and apples not good friends all these guys are kind of trying to competing each other but also offer each other services and the difference is between the devices come down to what you want to watch I mean if you have a bunch of prime stuff you bought a lot of stuff on Amazon you know the fire TV because is great it's it stuff comes up you know immediately on Amazon and same thing with Apple when you know you buy a bunch stuff on iTunes and their home pod speaker might integrate this far-field voice stuff when it comes out later this December so I would expect that yeah and and so you know all these guys are again fighting for the same sort of turf that they did with phones and except there's a new player Amazon that doesn't have a phone and they're the leader so I think it makes it pretty cool to see them see their dynamics play out and which ones you know what services they play nice with and I think the winner hopefully is one that will you know play nice with everybody and let you watch what you want to watch with your voice right and not only watch yeah looking at it more broadly I totally agree that it is a land grab in voice computing that we're seeing right now and is more broad than just watching yeah what you want to watch how you want to shop how you get your information what you ping to like just ask any sort of like trivia weather or whatever and that's why you're seeing so much activity going on right now cuz this is the this is the next big lane grab along with some other stuff but this is a big one has all the voice commands stuff though like her TV at least been only for like Oh like watch netflix like web services like could I tell it to like change to the channel to like ESPN or something yeah so for on the Amazon TV for example it's integrated antenna you could say watch CBS for example you know a feed of CBS and it works great um but the other thing you know I really love the Late Show I think it's really interesting that you know you bring up the whole stuff that's not watching TV but it's still on your TV and that's where the Google assistant they have a pretty cool promo ad that they put out at the same time as this shield update rolled out where it's basically just a guy like he'll watch Game of Thrones and you'll be like oh who's that actress and since it's cool assistant knows you're watching Game of Thrones it'll up with Daenerys the actress and then I'll be like oh how tall is she gonna be like oh five three and yeah where can I get that dress and then you'll be like you know it's an ad of theirs yeah and it's just TV like that well that's what they're they're saying it's like mom's if you're polish if you're I want to know how tall Denarius is absolutely and if you're in five three by the way and if you're in this mode of like oh TV I just gonna use it to lead me down the rabbit hole a distraction into other areas you know the living room assistance to help you with that and sell you some you know some dresses on the way yeah I obviously people already use their phones and laptops that way why not the television yeah how do we fun time for some more questions yeah all right we've got Kevin in the chat it says uh when will there be a Google assistant update for Sony TV's great question Kevin Google says a couple of months we'll see I'm curious to know what they're gonna do with far-field again because they just have these microphones in their remote controls and I don't know if they're gonna you know you're gonna have to leave that on the table and talk loudly into it from afar or maybe they'll do what Amazon did which is the smart thing and have a google home speaker be able to listen all the time and control your television and right now anybody still can't do that so a couple months on the Sony thing they're the only other Android TV operating system so they're going to be probably the next to get Google assistant in terms of the TV entertaining space I wish these remote controls with mics had like a search function on them where like when you lose your remote you can just yell out like oh that and then it ping and then you can go and just like rabbit it's a great idea do they do that let me think Roku has had that on their devices for a while and it's it's a button you just press the button on the box and the remote will play you know a ping or ride of the valkyries or whatever you want to that's not voice controlled though [Laughter] uh you know it's it's but it's there and I love that idea I was acting like Logitech the arming remote cries like why don't you have this I freaking lose this thing all the time but you know yeah but what if you lose the box then life right David Alex in the chat is looking to buy a new TV around 55 inches what do you recommend and why great question for David Thank You CLP series samenow TCL p-series 600 bucks best 55 inch TV I have seen this year bang for the buck it's the Roku TV I've mentioned Roku a few times it's a great operating system but it's also 4k HDR Dolby vision great picture quality local dimming yada-yada in its 600 bucks holy crap does it have voice control if you plug in Amazon fire TV stick into it so I don't really like the whole like voice control for TV thing I mean I don't know I also don't watch TV that much so maybe that's me it's remotes have become complicated and my phone as a real so the idea is still you can put your phone in your pocket and you said of saying you know cute cat videos on YouTube or whatever you're watching Alfred you can say that into thin air and your cute cat videos will pop right up alright yeah arguably it's supposed to make things easier but I think at this point we're still bridging and transitioning and to things getting a little bit more complicated sometimes as they keep adding more integrations more controls different things that you can do yeah and it you know this is always like you know can my six-year-old use it and the answer is they might if they're gonna watch the right thing but it'll generally get frustrated because PBS KIDS isn't supported or whatever you know so you're in that weird area where a lot of stuff doesn't work yep so we have a follow-up question and unfortunately don't have tied Pendlebury here but do you have any perspective on sound bars for James I have perspective on sandbars yeah the best sound bar right now is a Vizio I can't give you the brand but it kicked all the others but I feel like it's 150 I'm sure if you search for Ty's article he's got it covered yeah it's on the top of the best sound bars list just google that on seeing it and it's it's right there it's it's a from what I understand it says it's his world beater right now Nikolas is calling ul Alfred says you mr. grumpy pants thank you yeah I mean like that's why he's here all right so unrelated news Matthew dad sure what's up - hey Dad I have a very serious question who is older Alfred in or Cena as a company I asked because I was just thinking about watching Richard Hart host seen at Central when I was in high school I actually was thinking about this the other day cuz I was I'm speaking of our general manager over at the coffee so Cena it's what like 24 now no 23 to 22 okay so yeah I'm like a year older yeah I thought you were born on the same day that Cena was I thought that was you stopped like I'm trying to lie about my age on the show dude he was the chosen one the golden boy a red ball boy if you will raised around this office for years yeah I mean I'm somewhat terrified they even asked the chat how old they think I am but you know 76 76 I think that's older than you right CNN is not older than me that is stop lying about your age dude all right fine fair enough I'm a I'm 18 all right another through this beard another one from - real quick is there an Alexa compatible curing so I can voice order my Earl Grey tea hot mm-maybe sure why not that is possible they have like a thousand products that integrate with Alexa Keurig might be one of them now or you can just put your Keurig on a smart switch and you know you could definitely do that way yeah there since we're plugging a lot of CNET stuff that we do have a whole smart home page that you can see the different Alexa and Google assistant integration so I would say check that out and you'll be able to see a lot of the different devices that work with those specific voice assistants and they cover the heck out of coffee and then smart home off oh yeah and like su v--'s oh yeah whatever a suit is if you need to stir some water to cook your meat they're your boys also Showtime is a great Channel oh is it I love you the circle I love homeland but that's too long just like to say that I think Roger Chang is an amazing editor in person I mean for someone who's 23 he knows what he's talking about absolutely it's great taste all right a couple more quick ones before we call the day Tammy has another good question there there are cheaper elects enabled speakers like the you fee Jeanie I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that right or the Fabrique speakers that currently do the same thing as echo without the multi-room features will they be worth purchasing instead the multi-room features are definitely very useful talking to right Crist who's he's the smart home guru out in Kentucky that I talked to a lot about Alexa integrations he mentions that there are a handful of devices that do provide a lot of those Alexa features but do not have the multi room compatibilities and so you'll ask Alexa so to do something and multiple devices are actually going to answer that can be really really annoying so I think Amazon is obviously trying to protect its ability to continue to sell you its own line of echo devices to a certain extent we're gonna see that stuff also rollout to those devices as well from my experience of the multi room feature has really not been that great it doesn't work with Spotify me I mean I'm sure they're gonna be adding that feature soon and it also doesn't work if it's on Bluetooth speakers like it's only if it's the echo on its own or if it's like plugged in into like another set of speakers and all my echos are plugged or like connected to Bluetooth speakers so it does not work that well like right now yes a room is hard yeah it's about sinking like party mode throughout your whole house and it took sonís a while to perfect it and and actually now the Google the chromecast Audio is really good that's the thing to the the multi-room sinking from my experience has been like one or two seconds off sometimes and like I really only play the radio on it because like what else can I do with it right now yeah and you can hear that it's pretty obvious yeah you know it's like walking into the past when I go into my kitchen I know about traffic or name all right let's get off-topic for one hot second Danny Green is wandering around the Apple store Danny well what would what should Danny buy what the store hi Apple t-shirt stock I don't know we need phones not the iPhone eight if you have any iPhones from the past two or three years wolf yeah well if you you can you could just hang out until the iPhone X comes out yeah just go on their computers and loiter there for the rest of the day I've done that at months yeah yeah just get um Danny get a MacBook Pro with a touch bar yep put it in a box send it over to me Danny critters and then go on our video like on all of their computers yeah it's like just boost our viewers that's there you go that's a great fact do that long it's a solid idea right now all right before we go let's get David under the microscope here alex says chromecast fire TV or Roku Roku at least so far easy one I will be able to answer that in more depth in detail once the Roku and/or chromecast announcements come later this month I'm thinking but you know right now it's Roku good enough I think that's about a great place to end it off for the week but a good week funny yeah not not filled with Samsung and Apple and the same redundant stuff over and yeah you should watch our show on Monday it's incredible what was that the equifax show no that was the one that didn't exist oh yeah yeah thanks for coming on yes yeah let's bring us home the 3:59 is available on iTunes tuned in stitcher SoundCloud Feedburner google play music and of course Cena comm tired of plugging this website all right well and short for it and show time no no we're not on show yeah ok thanks everybody thanks and thanks to David for joining us Janet