Gadgetory

and good morning on Wednesday March 14th it's episode 369 of the 359 yes I'm BVG he and the microphone explode because the house is full with Ben Roger and Alfred yeah hey morning what up what up I wasn't even supposed to be on the show today then some breaking news happens yeah you kind of snuck in on yes what are you gonna be talking about Alfred and act former equifax executive has been charged with insider trading shocking Attorney General's Office in Georgia and securities so that that'll be the last story on our segment we'll be talking about been scooped on using Amazon's Alexa to send friends money it hasn't happened yet but it's expected will attentively later this year it will and then we'll also be talking about graphene from our colleague Katie Collins she talks a little bit about some of the practical applications of what is considered a a wonder material but we'll get into all the crazy stuff bottom line is a phone that will charge in seven seconds and may last days using graphene no way all right uh as always if you have any questions in the comment section Brian will get to the best and we will try to answer them in three minutes and 59 seconds see you guys on the chat starting in three two welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Chang I'm Ben Fox ribbon I'm Alfred hang well you use Alexa to send cash to your buddies Ben you've got a scoop on a cuppie making this happen yes so give us the details what's going on here yeah it's a Virginia company called day owned they work with governments and banks to create a lot of different biometric and security software and platforms they created this way for you to actually send money to your friends and family it's peer-to-peer payments using Alexa so it's not as simple as saying Alexa send mom 50 dollars but there is a chance that eventually it could get that easy and so how does this work is like can I just go into your house and like Ben send Roger 50 bucks no so that's an Roger and 50 if I'm gonna send you money I would first have to set you up as a payee online online do that now right yes yes and then after I say that I want to send money I still have to use my phone I open up my phone verify that I actually want to do this payment and then you have to do some sort of authentication whether it's using face ID touch ID a pin something like that so there are some additional it wasn't that like I feel like that's just another spike that's just really annoying yeah could you just pay on your phone would it be simpler to just take out the Alexa yeah potentially it could be and also this isn't this isn't out now Dejan is hoping to partner with banks where this could come out in the next 9 to 18 months the idea would be that eventually voice authentication could be available through Alexa so it could be eventually as easy as just saying you know Alexa pay this person and as long as they're set up as your payee you could do it is that so you know after mobsters and loan sharks have beaten you up so badly that like you can't handle them the money or use your hands to use your phone that you got your voice to do it and that is exactly it yeah I always think as I explain this to people they're like what if somebody has a gun to your head I'm like somebody has a gun to your head in your house yeah you probably really a problem your buddies probably gonna write exactly all right let's know next up if you haven't heard of a material called graphene graphene is a thin layer of pure carbon atoms tightly packed into a honeycomb structure but all you really care about is it can do amazing things because it's super thin and super strong it's ideal way to transmit power so in theory this could be used like a 5g of material oh really you're over-promising yes like Toby used to theoretically charge a phone in as little seven seconds and because it can hold a lot of power it could theoretically run the phone for days I'm also super thin and super strong by the way just so you know it's not flexing Alfred I don't I mean I think it has a lot of potential I'm on Ben's side here was like I'll see it when I believe it when I see it it definitely promises a lot the material is absolutely fascinating I'm Stevie shangkun's write about it we've heard about in the past about sort of the different applications for it obviously the I think the most attractive for most people is like the application in battery power but mostly in the research world right it is Katie's talked to the sort of the graphene some of the graphene experts at mobile Congress two weeks ago and you know she thought this might be happening in a couple of decades but they're so they're saying two to three years no way no commercially not commercially but I imagine like it'll start showing up in research or R&D with companies right now is totally academic but I imagine it'll actually get a lot closer reality that we think those are DS hoarding all the cool tech for themselves for sure are DS lastly a new development Equifax trauma alfred you've got all the details yeah so this is a breaking news story a former Equifax executive who used to be their chief information officer he knew about the breach in August and price sold his stock ten days before they announced it publicly making nearly a million dollars had he waited until after he only would have lost one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars so now he's facing these charges over that also he's been fired over this as well ouch okay first of all there it's just a legend at this point he hasn't actually been convicted yet that's right for more details on the story check us out on seen it I'm Roger Cheng I'm heading facts Rubin I'm Alfred Inge thanks will sing shock oh it's starting I know yeah he just it's it's from a legal perspective he hasn't been convicted yet so he's not he's not guilty until he's proven guilty that's true that's how the legal system works yeah I'm like reading through the court documents right now the complaint against him and there's this one part where he so apparently they were only assigned to look at a breach like they didn't tell him what company was breached when they were investigating it in July and then around August he sent up he allegedly sends a text to a co-worker saying basically saying I think it was us that was pretty oh my god sounds like they have him like dead to rights at this and then the Monday after they saw his search history and he looks up the like stock like impact on the Experian criminy well he did this on his work computer I don't know what computer just said he searched it up but then a few hours after that so he looks it up at 10 a.m. on August 28th and then like he looks up Experion breech experience stock price September 2015 and then after after that like a few hours after he sails like he allegedly sells all his shares but well no no he's definitely sold all his shares that's problem that information that we know but you missed the one part where they checked a search history and somewhere in like 11:15 a.m. he googled how to insider trade yeah that's I don't know I mean this was like a major issue for a lot of folks like after the breach had been announced they cited him and two other CEO do this as well tell me okay he got fired and has like a major he has like a 19 million dollars right okay shoot yeah sell any stuff okay this CEO got an oxime a million dollars yeah I mean they all they all do right it doesn't matter if you failed your job you still get paid I mean like this was a huge breach excuse me for still being surprised at the fact that you can only fail up when you become a CEO but that's what you should Michele OPC is I mean that's really the key and a name I'm actually more named Macklemore did name is he as you are you are the CEO of breakdancing there you go I applied to chief breakdancing officer right there I applied to be one but there's no listings on LinkedIn you're not looking the right places yes I mean I and they need some experience points but I just don't I don't have it under my belt yeah I'm sorry alright I kind of want to talk a little bit more about this graphene stuff graphene that we're all skeptically optimistic it just sounds like like charger 5g seven seconds and it's gonna last forever so like look the thing of it is is this is a it's good to be skeptical about it for sure but Fame does this graphene would represent like a wholesale change out of our battery technology which which we've is really really difficult to write because everyone is very used to lithium ion with the way we charge things with the materials that's used to charge phones so that this would require like a wholesale change in everything like the entire universe of how batteries charging all works right so there's a lot of logistical issues that have to be have to go through before this becomes something that you and I can actually use but the fact that is there like and is a there's actually promise to this is encouraging well and the other issue is is that the current solution with lithium ion is just bigger battery not good I mean that you know like I haven't been able to significantly improve they as in all the mobile phone makers and the manufacturers haven't been able to significantly improve battery technology and what decades yeah because I mean everyone is useful with Iran it works its stable aside from the occasional tendency to catch on fire right if you puncture it it's like the standard so it's for everyone it's like it's comfortable to use it's reliable but there was up sometimes right and there but there is there are yeah there's very little innovation as you said and it seems like the only way to get more juice from a battery is to make the battery bigger and that's the only issue and that conflicts with the industry's need to have every phone be super thin and it's belt right so something like graphene I'm looking forward to I'm skeptical about it as well but I'm looking forward to that right so by the way other applications up because it's so thin because it's so light it can be used it can be weaved into clothes as sensors it could be used to make robotic limbs more it's easily controllable so that's what caught my attention the most is how versatile it is we're looking at Katie's article and I have only maybe kind of in passing heard some of your comments about it yeah in the past and then looking at the article itself and seeing how many different applications there are from like shoes to robots yeah to food identification yeah hang on I'm gonna bring some of this up right now that's kind of blowing my mind how is this it's like the hemp of tech it's so it's like a multi-purpose miracle drug of a kind of it I mean they keep calling a wonder material this was you know this is found out in Europe that's why a lot of European research are really putting a lot of energy and resources behind it but yes it's like at some point I think it can be applied to sensors and actually be able to read and understand whether or not it can it can tell whether milk is like soy milk or regular milk they can tell whether it's gone bad does graphene talk graphene has hold conversations may be your best friend right it's just really you can barely see you like then Nick and this just sounds like vibranium what's the one is vibranium is not the one from that's the one from black man I'm mixing it with some thinking about the other one from the people the giant blue people what's that one possibility somebody from the Chad tell us what the avatar thing was I've never seen avatar okay two people here I haven't seen avatar and Roger and I are not remembering so there's more than a few people who are upset with Equifax I think we should all come up with an appropriate punishment for those by the way just wonder it's unobtainium least vibranium sounds exotic and unique vibe radium sounds cool like there's a purpose to it oh yeah cations will never be here iums so yeah let's let's talk appropriate punishments for Equifax I mean this is incredibly unprofessional news reporting here but I don't think anybody in the world is like no let's defend them are you they've already like how many how many of their executives have already been arrested I mean I would have loved for the CEO did not get his money that would have been nice that would be nice I would have been at least something you know I screw up on the job and I think fired out I don't get like really million dollar payback really the last post I worked in $19 that's why you're working here man I'm looking at another court document on this right now so correction he didn't use Google to search up did he use zoom that's what I meant to say lock him up that is terrible that is that's a reason that is a reason it I mean that's that's parchment it's not right just be just using pain constantly like that should be that's punishment that's just funny yeah using anything but being the rest of his life Microsoft is so pleased you will get Bing right now how do you become a chief information officer and use Bing of a like multi-million dollar company and you're using Bing people use Bing I think it's got I'm what person people market that aren't chief information officer oh good lord how do they get this far I'm floored how did they I failed so far up rush you get remember life a company like Equifax like experience these are like institutional companies that don't they compete with each other they're they're like that you have to use them have to use and so there's not motivation to be better when you earn in a salt position and oddly enough there are three of them so I would think that there would be a competitive reason for them but they're trying to be better than there really isn't cuz everyone needs to get like scores from all three exactly at least you out it but this is a company that like has no motivation because it it's sort of entrenched in this its business and so maybe there isn't motivation to be better we were talking a while back about just sort of saying that are they gonna change their name yeah are they gonna cease to get as much business it seems to me like they seem to be skating along just fine you kind of have to use them that's the problem yeah so there's no like there's even if they screw up you're still paying them for your credit score's so where's the motivation be better mm-hmm I just love they even in the chat mic sauce like no wonder they were hacked they freaking use Bing yeah they're dumb enough to use Bing to take away from this yeah I mean I'm still digging through a lot of the court documents right now but yeah this is I'm curious to see what will happen to the other two executives that were also caught like with not insider trading but like clearly sold their stock like wait before this announcement happen right because they haven't been charged and you know with the other two they had mentioned I remember when they asked their former CEO Rick Smith about this they mentioned yes they sold their stock during this timeframe when we knew about it but they did not know about this like they were just selling it randomly but so look maybe it takes time to develop a case yeah it'll be the evidence on the CIO it sounds like from look clearly he wasn't like he was like leaving a trail pretty yeah the CIO is like that's kind of easy to figure out only because he's this yet yeah thanks for he's directly in a voyage yes you know for like there are other roles I can't remember what their roles were but it didn't have that much to do with security so they legitimately might not have that knowledge and there are by the way there are executives who have pre-established plans where they do sell stock on a periodic basis if I remember correctly that's what Intel claims yeah that they have plans that they're signed up for well in advance and like at certain times automatically stock gets sold and so it does look bad yes timing wise but we don't really know what happened yeah with the very little amount of time we do have left then we kind of blue pasture with your scoop but it was such cool potentially cool but potentially frightening scoop yeah who out there would use voice pay cuz right out the gate I'm super nervous about that I think the idea is to just try to provide an additional convenience and try to like do more habit-forming using Alexa that's why I think a lot of these banks are interested in doing it and they can already do balances you can check your balance which is a low risk issue you could also you know send your monthly auto loan or your monthly mortgage payment but actually like for me to send Roger or Alfred money that's a little bit more complicated and yeah that does come with additional risks and there's no telling if it'll take off so there's a lot of different ways to do purely there there's that element where like I think every company in the world is seeing this trend of people embracing smart home speakers and trying to develop a way to form a relationship there right mm-hmm so like if you have your the bank you like you want you basically want to be able to say like Alexa called Chase or Bank of America because they're like it gets it gets that in your head right if forms assault slow flies that relationship right and it's something people do fairly regularly and if it if this I could see this as potentially being something that people could use somewhat more often because like there are like 30,000 skills that Alexa has and like I would say most of them hardly anybody uses this could actually be something that people might try the at least the first version of this with all the authentication steps you've gotta jump through wow it makes total sense like I don't know if it's worth the trouble like I am more intrigued by that sort of ultimate idea of like voice authentication and be able to read your voice and like it knows it's you and identifies you and it sort of confirms that payment right away yeah hey Ben Alexa take take fifty dollars from Ben ouch awesome power by the way like when you're talking about earlier if you walk in the Ben's house or you're like Ben give me money before you corrected yourself and when you meant to say the echo right then give me money I just picture Ben in the couch like what are you doing I'm watching Umizoomi interesting concept here from Sir enjoy do we think the Alexis step into making transactions will actually push voice detection technology into a much higher more secure level I think that's a very good point and it's entirely possible the the company they own already does voice authentication the problem is is that Alexa doesn't oh we gotta stop saying Alexa we're triggering everybody which our echo the echo doesn't allow them to grab audio snippets so they can't do voice authentication now that's one of the primary hurdles for doing that but as banks insurers governments all these different or major organizations wanted try to start using the echo speaker for things yes absolutely I think voice authentication will have to get better yeah to them to have them start adopt I imagine like that's I mean Google start things with like being able to recognize different voices right mm-hm and so I imagine this is sort of a logical next step like Amazon has to be working on something like are we are we only looking at voices like the security measure here though because didn't we have our on video where that producer in Kentucky was able to like like do impressions of others peek other people's voices and it recognized him as them yes but like I said we're not even there yeah I think this is something that's down the line right this isn't a year or two maybe this is two or three years where the technology actually gets good enough that it can authenticate brightest and you actually and you'd have to get Amazon's okay on it and you would also have like a passphrase so you would say something like my my my voice is my passport or something ridiculous like that Wow any other applications that we think this could apply to with with money now coming into play I know we can always shop on Amazon with the echo but that has been constrained do we think there's gonna be doors open for things like online betting gambling that kind of you know because right now let this is my mind the thought in my head is this is already risky I already make terrible drunk purchases on the internet yeah and if you have to take one less step out of enough to do is oh my god stop it Roger all right you all right I can already do that yeah and but you also have to set it up yeah there's there are a lot of potential applications for it I forgot when ajan like bets or something like that where you can like tell it to like put like $50 down on something like that and then it automatically transfers over you could also do like in skill purchasing potentially a little bit more easily using something like this so that would help developers actually charge a little bit more effectively during this time can only well you can order on you can order pizzas but dominate you you shop elsewhere with Alexa Best Buy is one of the few other retailers that you can shop with using Alexa I mean have any voice I'm sorry with the echo with the Google smart assistant with okay double the very you can shop with Ferb at other places like I think it's Walmart Costco there are a handful of places that you can do through google shopping so you you get more I think target is another I mean being able to make purchases we're and having your voice be the authentication the confirmation of that purchases that'd be kind of handy yeah and there's there's a potential for that at this point peer-to-peer payments looks to be something that folks should look out for I guess by the end of the year maybe and we'll see well obviously like keep track of when which first bank if this actually does happen will actually entail with that so much bank hold it'll be it might be somebody internationally I'm not sure yet so it may be somebody in the US it may not be I was thinking Capital One has been very heavily into the echo speaker so my money is on them but I don't have any proof that that would or would not happen I feel like other contenders are like H&R Block we're pretty kind of on the up-and-up as far as digital transactions have gone and maybe even chase being one of the bigger bigger ones who are more prone to try new things and are already pretty secure and safe in their own methods yeah the other banks in the u.s. that have already started with all amazon skills our ally bank US bank a bunch of credit unions so there's there's definitely potential there yeah we are right at the end of the road here Danny Green reminded me I forgot to say this morning happy pi day everybody that's right yeah and not to end on a too somber of a note but just want to send a Godspeed message to hmm Stephen Hawking who we lost late last night and the world will be will severely miss this mind and this inspiration of a human so not to not to bring it down too far and the very well-put yeah it's a huge loss a really massive loss to the to the theoretics community to the world medical community to humankind yeah right so and like the potential of a person what you can do and not letting things stop you having literally literally every single roadblock in your path and still persevering and surviving and maintaining and succeeding and that's the kind of inspiration and motivation we could all use in our lives these days that's like all right and at that on that note if you liked anything you saw or heard here check us out on CNET our podcasts also available on itunes tune in stitcher feed Google Play Music and the Amazon echo cool cool take care everybody see you tomorrow tomorrow