Gadgetory

good morning on Wednesday februari 15th and welcome back to another episode of the 359 podcast this episode 180 and today with us we have Alfred Inge and Ben Fox Rubin good morning guys what are we talking about dividing good morning we're ganache so much so many they've got the one year later after the Apple versus FBI case where it's nothing happens still all up in the air so your privacy concerns there's no definite answer to that yet yeah so we'll definitely discuss that and you know we spend a lot of time talking about that last year and it's actually interesting to see that it continues to be a damn it that's right i went there boy we also wanted to talk about HTC they disclose that they're planning on coming out with a mobile VR headset similar to daydream or gear VR but they claim that it's going to be a little bit more complex or a little bit more sophisticated and Alfred's gonna talk to us a bit about rock climbing using a are yeah that was a fun experience once I started getting feeling in my arms again but uh and you know after all the falling do you even lift bro I don't that's but he does break dance so he's cooler than I don't know me either of at least yeah I I'll speak for myself either way send in your questions and comments we'll get to them at the end of the show as always Brian will pick out the best ones will try to answer as many as possible and that's about it let's let's get this thing going all right we're gonna get this recorded go ahead and submit your questions and comments about the topics at hand or anything else in the tech world today and we'll get to them in exactly three minutes and forty thirty what's reported four seconds three minutes and eighty-seven sec wait no welcome to the 344 three minutes and 59 seconds from 32 welcome to the 359 I'm Ben Fox Rubin I'm Alfred hang this time last year we were talking just about every day about Apple squabble with the FBI in which the government tried to get Apple to unlock an iPhone used in a terrorist used by a terrorist in the San Bernardino attack this issue dissipated after the FBI dropped its request but a year later this thing is totally unresolved so I'll Fred you think this thing is going to you think this issue between security and privacy is going to resurface at some point this year again it definitely will the Manhattan district attorney has you know been pressing for this you know it hasn't been getting as much coverage but in a lot of cases he's always been asking you know judges to get orders to get you know information from people's iphones that's how they caught a lot of drug dealers in that sense and you know it needs to be another major national incident for this to pop up in the as an issue for Apple and the FBI again yeah when you think about that that almost seems like a no inevitability like something like that is just bound to happen at some point if not this year then maybe next year not that we want it to happen but it continues to just be this unresolved issue the issues the reason why it's been unresolved those because you know the FBI found somebody else that was willing to do it for them right in that sense it was oh all right we don't need you anymore and then it turns out that the company that did help the FBI you know break into the San Bernardino shooters iPhone that company ended up getting hacked also which is what Apple was concerned about in the first right as far as creating a bath yeah if the idea if we make this kind of master key kind of thing what happens when somebody steals that which is kind of what happened to the to this firm yeah one of the I I I so so you and I as consumers we obviously see this thing as a big concern obviously I don't want the government cracking into my iPhone that seems like too powerful a tool potentially but to get the other side in there I wanted to throw out an interesting quote from FBI director James Comey he said this last year the notion that privacy should be absolute or that the government should keep their hands off our phones to me that just makes no sense given our history and our values so at least that's his position to say that like this idea of absolute privacy at least he's not buying it that is completely absurd if he for him to say given our history with that too so yeah yeah next HTC plans to release a new mobile VR headset as a follow-up to its high end veve device what's interesting about this new piece is HD he claims it will be more sophisticated than other other mobile VR headsets like the Samsung gear VR the thing that I think is really going to be key for this is what's the price going to be the gear VR is 100 bucks Google daydream it's right now it's like fifty dollars what do you think could work as like a mobile VR headset I think if they price of the same as oculus it should be fine I just love their 100 bucks yeah I just love their pitch right now where it's basically I'm you but stronger what's wit it's like oh it's gonna be like this but more powerful but yeah that's very specific thank you for that I it's it I don't know if this is really gonna get people like even more interested in VR if they haven't already but maybe more sophisticated with VR has been it's not been as accessible as it should be you know if everyone had one I think they'd be way cool or in that sense you know people making more content for it and games yeah um last Alfred you had a chance to go to Brooklyn Boulder to check out a our rock climbing tell us a bit about that so rock climbing is it in its nature is already very difficult but when you add AR to it so basically they have a webcam you know connected to a projector and the webcam registers your movements and then it has five checkpoints where as you go through it it checks off one by one it's kind of like a race I time trial thing yeah but it's rock climbing so I know how to run but I don't know how to rock climb and I did very poorly with that was it was it kind of fun like did it make it a more interesting expediently definitely it's you know it makes it a game if I ever start exercising again I will definitely get into that so if you want to read more about these stories check us out on cnet I'm Ben Fox Rubin I'm Alfred Aang thanks for listening for the record it's HTC vive yeah oh did I say viv I don't want to call them out on everything my mistake I must mispronounce that every other time I do say Vybz sometimes I swear at least you understand the product maybe your pronunciations off I mean like that's that's very generous of you yes I understand the product trying to lend credibility to the show here trying right I did confuse it with the company viv that Samsung bought last year or was that earlier this year that was a was that their voice their voice recognition yeah yeah just VIII IV this is VI ve I swear I spelled it correctly so anyway vive fair enough yeah we had to kind of scam over but tell us more about the rock-climbing experience yeah we ran out of time on the podcast as always here's a extra hours so I think the coolest thing about it though is that they can move the checkpoints around which is so it took me like 35 seconds to do um the course that they've set for everybody which I saw a guy do it in like three seconds right but he probably works there right yeah yeah either he works there he goes there a lot but he that dude was incredible on it um but you know they can move it around and then usually in a rock climbing gym when they need to you know remap like the course it takes up to a week of planning because they need to make sure that it's actually Klima belen it takes like a full day for them to like actually take them out and then like put them back into the other places but with a are it's essentially they just like drag and drop it on their laptop right and then you just go and you like tap them around they had other game modes that there too but I didn't get to try them out there's one called hex it's kind of like the floors lava mmm but on a rock climbing wall so like there's like certain parts on the wall that you can't touch so you have to like climb around it that's pretty sweet then they have this one called like ghost chaser or something it's kind of like it's like pac-man so like your rock-climbing but there's like a little go somebody chasing you not somebody but there's like a projection of a ghost like chasing you that's sounds terrifying I don't want to do that apparently that one was like incredibly difficult like no one could do it yeah it makes a lot of sense to me to integrate something like this because obviously like changing up well as you said can take a lot of time just adding this additional yarn or sorry AR layer I kind of wish there was something like this but not on a rock climber like running wise we're like is gonna sound really dorky but like if you get like the ghost thing but like you could play tag like by yourself I'm sure yeah I mean that does sound dorky yeah no let's play tag with me point one other thing I mean like I know ghost mode from like racing games so yes you're racing your own ghost though right yeah yeah so like you could you could go up against your like old time from yesterday potentially yeah as like another AR concept um so it is cool to consider how you could potentially bring a are into the real world in different ways as opposed to like something like Pokemon go yeah I'm just staring at your phone screen like this way you're you're actually like doing skin on you're not tied to a device exactly playing it which i think is kind of helpful the device is kind of like it more in the background then like the actual tool that you're using maybe we talk a little bit about where we're at with this whole Apple debacle yeah yeah how much further down the road we really need to travel this trail before we see some kind of resolution I it's to me what's what's interesting is if if the FBI has the tool that they need to open up whatever iphones they need to open up or let's say an android device what have you then it's really not going to come to a head the same way that it did last year I mean this was definitely the Battle of like two major players and it just completely dissipated at some point you know like the FBI got what they needed they needed to get into the device apple did what they needed to do which was to say like look we're not going to create a backdoor that's a skeleton key we don't we don't want to what I have out there that's way too dangerous but what if what if Apple finds whatever bug or whatever backdoor the FBI had discovered then that this could potentially resurface hmm so what you're saying is no light at the end of the tunnel well until our descent one official judge like makes a call on it yeah the problem that was the issue of this one we're never officially went to court the problem with a lot of these things too is that tied up with a lot of these very scary incidents I mean this one in particular was was a terrorist attack people died another incident was a murder trial where Amazon is involved where the government was trying to get ya recordings from an Amazon echo right so it's it obviously puts the tech companies in this precarious situation where they're like fighting for privacy but over over like murder trials retirement rosso and that's that's another hand Dora's box yeah it's not an easy decision to defend and in both of those cases that it wasn't there they had no clear and present like warrant for getting information off of that it was just basically this is locked information we want to see what's in there especially if the Amazon echo case totally it could have just completely been a while in the warrant it was basically saying you know that can pick up hearing and we're hoping that you know that might lead to something same thing with the San Bernardino case dude there wasn't exactly we know that it's recorded on this we want to know what it is it was maybe there's something there which is not it would very shaky ground if you're gonna take that can be I mean I understand government officials and you know investigators want to want to turn over every stone and obviously but it's it's interesting to see that at the very least from a consumer perspective that the effort that these tech companies are taking a pretty hard stance against this kind of stuff to say like no we do not want to create these back doors particularly after like all the Edward Snowden stuff came out totally they really do not like the idea of presenting themselves as working too closely with the government on these things it's also why companies like signal or basically you know bringing in tools that that's basically even if we even if we wanted to give you the information we couldn't it's all encrypted right not all says similar stuff yeah which is which is interesting and that definitely allows them to like wipe their hands yeah situation calling out to everyone in the chat how do you feel about this do you think that there is warrant and reason for federal agencies to be able to obtain information from your device's would you volunteer it yourself do you feel that that is a call that you as a consumer should make or the company should be able to entitle just interested to see whether ins perspective on this is I'd say if like an agent came to me and was looking for information I guess it man it's it's so subjective it's really thorny like if I was involved like if I was the somehow victimized or someone I knew was victimized I think I would obviously volunteer that information but if it was something that had nothing to do with me personally I would struggle with that the complication to is that you know if somebody's gonna argue the case that like you have nothing to hide like why don't you just disclose information well that's an incredibly slippery slope exactly i heartily dogs and like once you get once you go down there it's a Pandora's box you cannot come back right you're right you're basically I remember listening to something NPR a couple days ago that suggested that the way technology is moving these days this concept of privacy is something that will have existed for several decades it didn't exist in the past and it won't exist in the future and like what we consider privacy is is just is you know an illusion that we're all under these days I mean we gave up the console arrived to see the minute we got smartphones the minute you put a tracking chip in your pocket sure yeah ontario there are reasons for a number of different things the amazon echo and the google home is another really good example of that where people very comfortable with the idea of having a live mic which granted is waiting for a wake word but it's still alive mic in your home people use nest cams all the time which is which is you know very much a camera like that's a Wi-Fi connected camera you know like and that's only as good as the software behind it from you know getting hacked and having people look inside your house I mean like I'm not trying to like to scare the hell out of people but you know we're already there it says some of these technologies it's the ultimate pro con list right are these benefits and advancements worth the risk mmm because there is an inherent risk through all of this right and talking to technology companies if anything they're really interested in getting more data about us because they claim that that will allow them to give you better products understand you better give you what you want faster more efficiently what have you so it's I mean that balance is going to continue well it's a similar fashion with advertising and cookies right when you're watching online video it's like I don't mind ads if the good ads sell me something good if this thing can bring better aspects to my life yeah let's fall back on the I have nothing to hide kind of argument but then I mean do they want to hear me fighting with my girlfriend yes I'm the echo or something like that right right so my mind you it's unknowingly providing fodder for a really good reality show that's cat is really bright that's some creepy that's the team's own stuff right there yeah in the chat Jerry says he would volunteer if it's going to save lives but Danny says keep it locked down period right there's a difference between volunteering your information though and having oh the the contract you sign and title it to someone else yeah right without your explicit permission yeah absolutely yeah yeah that you volunteering is you giving it up and then other people like just being able to look into your phone at any point you know whatsoever without any kind of discretion or warrant or anything like that that's a little different yeah yeah and and probably some like people are probably a little more comfortable with that idea the problem with you know some of these other aspects is a court is like forcing the information to come out which I i would think people are a little less or a little more cautious about you know because they're losing control I mean ultimately should government agencies police security type agencies have the right to make that call it's he exactly that a question yeah that's the question and that's still very much still up in the air yeah and like this this situation with Apple and the FBI could have easily gone to the Supreme Court now that didn't devil's advocate do you think and God forbid any more incidents occur would that force the hand I don't think it forced their hand but I think it bring the issue back up again and then now with a different president you know that kind of chairs a whole new perspective yeah absolutely whole new perspective yeah yeah in chard tip construe today as she mentioned that during the campaign president Trump while he was still a candidate argued you know very strongly about the idea that like who does Apple think they are they should they should at least this information that he came up with yeah he called for a boycott so totally but is it really about releasing the information or is it about protecting protecting the right of choice for the company and its customers well Apple was bringing up that it wasn't it was more so about security aspect of it where okay well even if we did make this tool like there's like it's probably gonna get stolen at some point so exactly yeah right which is a which they're creating the weapons of mine yeah that's a very interesting it wasn't we don't want to help you or we don't want to give up information it was yeah but think about how it'll affect everyone else kind of thing yeah right the thing the thing that is you get Moshe to the castle yeah the thing that's most intriguing about it is is that behind the scenes there there is that key that's available it just isn't as publicly available you know like there was that third party that showed up what was it celebrate or what was the company I don't remember it was either way it was a cyber security firm that showed up and was able to unlock the iphone and that's what that's what kind of cleared up the whole situation yeah I mean it's obvious that it's not impossible again right I notice these are very good questions I don't know the ads uncharacteristically heavy on the show today yeah I mean the best really i mean like to me this is fascinating because i think both sides have very legitimate argument absolutely you know like there's no it doesn't get great right answer there's no right answer and had it actually gone to the supreme court from just just from an observers perspective I'd be fascinated to see what their view of what's the balance here like what's actually appropriate man that's a tough one because you do like I think there's an inherent instinct to want to help right if something horrible happen and you can somehow provide an asset or information to benefit that to solve it you want to but it's like but then what happens when they have they have that key to have that weapon and they come back later and they use it against you yeah because it doesn't uh would happen that it could happen and you can't on doing that the best part when they unlocked the San Bernardino shooters iPhone 5c was that it had nothing on it they found nothing there so I mean assuming that this whole case had gone through and you know Apple did lose like they would have all been for you know solutely nothing either well yes and no it would have given the FBI a huge tool for future scenario yeah really basically like force the tech companies to roll over and hand over their information so do we have any more comments by the way we should probably get wrapped up soon uh props to death omen in the chat who is currently clearing their web browser history as we speak uh let's break them all a second we gotta go we gotta do end on a light note jason wants to know if anyone here would buy the Nintendo Switched completely off topic would you buy the new he's gotta switch expert Riley's convinced after seeing it in person to be honest I think it was the size that like really got to me when I realized it's about like the same size as your 2d s that's my two days at least which I carry around a lot it was basically oh it's actually a lot more portable than I think it is and they made a good point so when they designed the battery life of it the idea was basically the biggest concern was can you play during your commute to work right so right now it had a lot of criticisms for being only like three to five hours of battery life but that's you know people looking at at the from the perspective Nintendo's previous handhelds with Chad you know pretty good battery life on it but also they were looking at it from the perspective of it being a home console which you know is it's just plugged in all the time what can it can only be charged from its own dockers at us bc its USBC so you can cut charge it at your desk at work and take it but about so when they when they were developing the battery life for it was basically can I get this from my home to the office and back you know and have it last the whole day that was their threshold for like what the battery life is and I don't know I see myself playing on on the subway coming in you know when i'm supposed to be working during this podcast yeah so you're dropping coin on this i'm waiting basically i'm waiting for like some kind of bundle because three hundred dollars for just that console is still a little bit like wonky to me yeah i would wait until at least seven more games to yeah basically well do you see this is something that's gonna like really help reinvigorate Nintendo I mean like they've been losing in the console game you can oh yeah not you can only get so far with a console I think they're gonna need the games to back it up which they've always had the games to back it up arguably yeah I don't know if we have enough time on the back I said I mean at least the the franchise mainstays the the Super Mario galaxy's yeah the legends of Zelda is varying back and forth never really completely falling off it definitely will be interesting to see like how that plays out like for their mobile strategy because legend of zelda mario galaxy you know sunshine all those games those are not games that you play like on a commute like you'd have to be no you're safe at all the times or something like that because like I can't like there's certain games that I don't play on the subway because I know like I'm gonna miss my stop or something like that if I like and I can't like just like shut it off or anything like that i'm currently frustratingly plowing back through sonic CD on my commute and it is infuriating yeah exactly that's the so it'll be interesting to see those games layup but for other they do have other kinds of games you know where it's just you know play and then you need to shut it off and then you know keep playing it again later on like Bomberman 5 being one of that yep yeah I'm very excited for that one by the way I don't know if it's five it's our it's Yeah Yeah right I've been playing bomberman 5 that's why I've been I don't game I haven't been no I have a I have a ps4 and I have the you know xbox 360 which I had been playing a little bit so I've been I just finished DMC but I haven't been playing Nintendo that much no I haven't thought like consistently played Nintendo a hundred of time I'm not in the market for this way the last night I don't have a gamecube I'm yeah in the gamecube was phenomenal you know what I love that system you know what pull me in if they had an augmented reality peripheral and you could play metroid first person that would be pretty oh that's coming that was your eyes and wait you'll never see me again ever alright cool i'll be about time to wrap it up yeah good show guys all right the 359 podcast is available on itunes to an insta Shore soundcloud feedburner google play music and i think it's on it's on cnet is it of course of course it's done seen it all right guys let's let's let's wrap it up will you will see you it's Wednesday so we'll see you again tomorrow or thursday for our last podcast of the week and thanks always for watching last good day to you all you