Gadgetory

good morning on Wednesday October 12 episode 122 of the 359 podcast with roger chang and alfred and good morning guys good morning it is wednesday yeah happy Wednesday everyone halfway through the week almost we're like 45 minutes away from halfway through the week right exactly at 12:00 I don't technicalities all right depends what time zone you're in yeah I don't say it feels like it feels like Friday already for me it's been such a long week but we've had a lot of lot to talk about lots of Samsung means we will get into Samsung but first we want to talk about Amazon's new music service we will talk about Samsung but in the context of its effects on virtual reality and then lastly we'll talk a little bit about Facebook and Twitter getting to a little hot water for providing user data to the police for police surveillance I will say it's a little bit more complicated than just that you can help break it down to me because I'm gonna give the very simple pitch line and you could talk about the the nuance yeah and wherever time we'll have now at that point as always if you have any questions about any of these topics leave in the comment section or producer Brian will will pick out the best all righty all right let's do it and we'll start our recording for the three of the ion podcast episode 122 and three - welcome to the 359 when we talk about the top tech news of the day now we have crap we want to throw in I'm Rocco Kane I'm out for doing Amazon launch its new music unlimited service today it's an all-you-can-eat plan similar to Spotify and Apple and like the other two costs $10 a month but the real standout option here is a special $4 a month rate if you only plan to stream the music through your echo device so it seems like Amazon's really pushing echo right yeah so what do you think is this something that that you'd actually you know invest in if you had an echo with this the $4 offer be appealing to you I'm actually planning on getting an echo dot and I think Amazon's got a really smart strategy strategy by just making everything you know as cheap as they can yep so it you know gets out to everybody and then everyone has it and then here's all these other side services that we have with it it's really interesting that you know folks like Apple and Spotify really focused on getting people to subscribe using the service on their phone focus has always been on the phone and so for Amazon to kind of come in here and create this kind of like side service for specifically for the echo it's an interesting move right sort of like side steps everyone yeah I just don't think that people are gonna buy and echo specifically for Amazon music especially for that discount of four dollars you're saving six dollars a month and I think it's a lot that's a lot of money and I seventy two dollars a year a month though I mean like that's like what like fifty cents a day like laugh true of you know it's just and then the only advantage I would see to it is that you know it comes with it but if you have an Amazon echo me chances are you already have Amazon Prime yes which would most likely mean that you wouldn't even have to pay for that so no that's that's not true there's two different so there are two different services there is the existing prime music that's been around for a while it's not that great the music slug has really slim and the user interface isn't that great this new service music unlimited is more like Spotify and more like a please the breath of songs is way higher the user interface is a lot better it is a legit service that can compete against these other two like prime music was sort of like this little analog right it wasn't that great but it was you're not paying extra for it so whatever this one they acknowledge that this is a service that you have to pay extra for it is better so this won't be a part of prime know it's not part of prime to breakout service so you'd have to actually again you have to spend ten dollars for the service or if you're Prime member eight dollars a month so that changes things then but I still think you know people are gonna want to listen to their music on other other platforms I'm interested in it I I'm planning on getting an echo dot and I think most people that have Bluetooth speakers to begin with already have a subscription or something like Spotify or Apple music so Amazon's gonna have to really entice people with you know exclusives or like what Apple is doing sure or its massive library like what Spotify is doing so next up we are talking about the note 7 to buckle still we wanted to look at it from the context of virtual reality you know the note 7 was really supposed to push geared the gear VR and virtual reality as a whole oculus and Samsung we're really counting on people to buy this phone and then get into the virtual reality world now there's no more note 7 what does this mean for VR visit blue this is bighead mostly because the Samsung gear VR was you know kind of the middle ground between you know having a ten-dollar like Google cardboard kind of device and then $1,000 oculus right it was like it's sort of a semi polished experience right yeah and it a lot that was kind of where the oculus was reaching a lot of people and now with you know the note 7 gone and the and the Samsung gear you know basically tailored for the note 7 that's kind of like it's a big step back and it's gonna affect oculus and you know the VR Justin no the gear the new gear VR actually has a USBC plug-in so it was really designed for the note there is like sort of a dongle or attachment you can make it backwards compatible but you know no one's buying that new dad gear VR for lastly the ACLU accused Facebook and Twitter providing user data for police surveillance just the latest incident in which social media is being used to track civil unrest and crime how would you get a more nuanced take yes so it's a lot more than just Facebook and Twitter providing the data more so that it was a Chicago based company called geofeedia yes that basically took you know public data and they can get into Twitter and Facebook API through it so the blink is not really on Facebook and Twitter so those companies restricted access or cut off access to geofeedia as soon as they were cold yeah right but I will say this is that it really hurts a lot of like political movements you know those that are born on Facebook and Twitter and you know organized through those so it does deal the blow to those and you know right people might want to organize on different websites as a result alright so for more on those stories check us out on CNN I'm Roger Cheng I'm alfred Aang thanks for listening and right out the gate I think we can you've already kind of covered this but just to reclassify this is not for pre the Amazon music this is not for pre existing prime customers know the only the only benefit is that you'll get a $2 discount if you're a Prime customer so this is a standalone music service again it is a legit service that is on par with what Apple music and what Spotify offers so that's not and not the prime music that you have now your subscription but is it built upon that similar or same prime library no no dependent much wire library ok that's that's another big question my music library is restricted I think everyone knows this very right it's because you're not paying extra for it so they're just sort of giving you and we've talked about this the service isn't that great the user interface isn't that great it's kind of confusing to use yeah this new app that they created for Music Unlimited is much cleaner simpler and has access to a much much wider library music that's interesting though that that inputted underneath the Prime umbrella I thought that they would have done that only because Amazon usually likes to keep its the ecosystem all all in together always better incentive you know more than a two dollar discount yeah yeah well I mean look that's where the I think they're experimenting with different models as you saw that with the four dollar plan that I mean that they're really trying to push the echo hard there's there's a different kind of mode of motivation here for Amazon I'm interested to see anyone in the chat what music services you have preferred we a have a lot of people who are fans of Apple we have a lot of people fans of Spotify I've actually dabbled in a lot of them myself yeah just be having a colossal library I'm on my own and looking for contingency plans because I have lost that life or due to an unfortunately placed mountain Dew bottle oh no I will say YouTube red is a very underrated music service oh yes yeah like YouTube has like a huge selection of music yes you know some of them might be not supposed to be on YouTube but yeah I mean it's there right listen to it so as of right now I myself stick pretty loyally to Spotify I've just yeah an inbred and the same I'm enjoying it I have yet to really be disappointed by you pay for Spotify I do actually and I I find the price to be pretty comfortable thing about Spotify what sort of sets it apart from everyone else is it's the only one with that free tier right it's and that's I think that's what gets people and to Spotify a lot easier of that but with all the rest of them you so pay ten dollars up front but yeah but if I like I'm on I'm on the free tier I didn't pay for Spotify in a long time but it's good enough for me I mean aside from the occasional ad that kicks in every half-hour I mean it's pretty handy yeah when you're DJing weddings DJing ard definitely I like to actually have access to that on the fly it's fast downloads the quality is fine it's no no loss list but it's right pretty okay I can live with it but whose losses are just title losses yeah I think the average like listener I can't really even tell the difference correct especially like it again like I say I'm using in party scenarios where the fidelity is not too high is concerned right liquors flowing exactly really the fidelity is not priority I'm not gonna walk up to you hey there's a little exactly it's not truly lossless quality what's going on here I really like Google Play as well oh yeah I jumped right on that bandwagon as soon as I came out years ago and then I hit the ceiling with the uploads which I know has sense increased and I have yet to get back and fix my yeah library but that was where I kind of like they lost me was I have way more than that could handwrite I at the time I think of all of the music services I think Google Play Music probably has like the best playlists I mean they they pretty much just took over songs uh yeah yeah and I'd been using songs there for a really long time so do they and sorry I'm not as familiar with Google Play Music is it the same model where it's like all you can eat or all you could listen to well I was attracted to because you could upload yours okay modify - that's true but it's more of like a cloud syncing this is more like a like a store worried yeah yeah and again when I've already lost my entire library was due to an action I take no risks anymore but if you're going in with no library at all what free does is the best service like what is the one that you feel has the most access to music I go to Spotify to find stuff I don't have I occasionally dabble around YouTube to try to find the real dark horse buried rare type stuff and it's it's it's ever-changing cuz they like they gain and lose licenses all the time the libraries are constantly changing and I'm always wondering which which service has the best library it could be just I'd be up to your personal reference I would argue it to youtube if you're gonna because the crowdsource yeah pretty much I mean it's not all that legit yeah yeah Spotify prop I mean Apple music probably has the best library and I think you can count on it always being there was especially with some of the exclusives yeah yeah a lot of people do miss the the other services not having the free tier yeah I mean that was something that Spotify kind of hammered out ahead of time like now that's that's locked up like no one else is doing it mm-hmm I really I don't mind me honestly they don't I don't either they use the right algorithm in traffic try to sell me stuff I want way awful ads on Spotify oh you're like really bad I didn't think they were so bad I I hate when they do the like the promo filler stuff yeah there's a journal answer I always I always got car commercials or like how to fix her car cons things that I've never googled car about there they're the one that car companies always buy the I guessed yeah say overs yeah you're gonna get that no matter what because this is America damn it this is all you're driving Leonard in the chat what is what is K box we have not heard of it if you guys are of k box as a streaming service no Leonard Phyllis in yeah what is you're interested in Leonard hope it's not something dirty Randall asks what about you music it's a direct enemy of Spotify an apple don't you think I'm assuming you mean YouTube music again oh right unless there's something called you mean I'm unaware like you use the letter or use in y-o-u why are you you YouTube music I guess um well if it is YouTube music I'm gonna say that you know I think YouTube has the largest library out of 30 there you go KK box sorry I said it's not K box kkbox I misread his original message oh it's an Asian music collection oh is it region-locked is it available internationally or is the K for like karaoke yeah what does what what are the letters mean but there's two kids where their surveys and karaoke we're intrigued yeah Hyrule and Leonard we are very interested in finding out more about this yeah cuz actually I don't this there's certain songs certain like j-pop k-pop songs that I can't get on Spotify yeah right yes they're definitely on youtube there's a great anime playlist on Spotify that I put on yes sir yeah I just did to my girlfriend do you need to share with me cuz I might I would actually genuinely appreciate that there's that and like on Soundcloud soundcloud there's musicians that speak of like self-sustaining ecosystems like SoundCloud is kind of its own beast yeah that you're not going there to find necessarily chart-topping music specific genres you're going there as like an electronic typically not exclusively fan DJ's or mix clouds welcome Natalie SoundCloud is my favorite place to find like joke songs and meme songs Joe yeah there's like all these like Seinfeld like remixes on cloud and it's hilarious there and then all these joke rappers that are on soundcloud like oh that's great i use it like that's why that my second most used music up well I like SoundCloud as a discovery service they have real fun algorithms like I'll just start and let it kind of go down that rabbit hole when I just like I don't know what I want to listen to I'm looking for something yeah something different surprise me that's what I appreciate SoundCloud for yeah it's a good place to listen to indie artists too that India is surely I find a lot of great dance on there the rapper got started on soundcloud also right yep yeah now look at him yeah no kidding yeah oh I lost my train of thought is gonna say something more about well i've it has anyone ever used Mixcloud know it's like come catered more towards like full DJ sets but there's also like no holds bar I've put podcasts like old podcast used to produce up there I remember when music streaming sites there was like kind of like a wild wild west kind of thing there was like Grooveshark and my restaurant teams yeah tune in still around really yeah yeah but tunings more for streaming radio yeah not again not exclusively but that's largely what it's radio and the internet let's go way back go way back to the origins and who used certain download clients that we may want oh yeah I don't think I can say this on live on-air sure we can I can say yeah it was bad user Napster Kazaa cos ah I used all of them there was bare cher LimeWire frostwire bear I don't know and I was supposed to be like the clean version of it but I think I didn't use it ma'am no no generation now will ever understand the risk of giving your computer cancer just to get it was not it was not a great time I mean that's how I discovered some of my favorite bands back in like high school and I mean I will say this though like vote that risk is the reason why I'm like so like I became like technologically like literate yeah things where I'd see something like oh there's no way this song is only like 15 like kilobytes like it's gonna be some other thing oh yeah that's also kind of how I figure out how to like that's true like like that's how you found out about like sample rates yeah it's like I wouldn't have even known about you know like my computers like registry Keys if I weren't trying to get rid of viruses on my own oh wow because I wasn't like how am I gonna tell my parents had tried like putting the song on my computer and I got a virus oh I was like I just fixed it on my own yeah nice oh man that was terrifying time what I mean you learned from it right but you know what we take away from it too and this is something I say all the time like give me an excuse to pay for this content yeah yeah why these TV and music service put their stuff behind them not just paywall that's a problem that you still try to figure out it's like how do you reprogram people to think music actually has value to it like it's not all free look I'm happy to pay for Spotify because I'm happy with the service and the giant selection I can get on if it granted they need to work on how they're actually paying the artists out cuz there's a lot of controversy surrounding that's ado we don't need to get into now but you know it's the same like we wouldn't have torrents if you would just let me find the episodes of the TV shows I want kind of thing yeah yeah yeah you know rhetorically of course yeah that videos its own I mean what's own best we don't want to give that rabbit hole today Michael wants to know what we think is what is needed for a music streaming platform to be the absolute best whose offline listening free listening moment ears what are like the essential ingredients to the perfect streaming recipe Wow well we all blind streaming is the Vegas thing yeah yeah like an offline mode would be great a fridge here because not everyone's gonna want to pay and the only way to hook no people in is to have that free tier and the figure out how to better traffic those ads yeah that's true smarter more appropriate ads but it would always be appreciated yeah tell me something I want yeah because I mean it's I'm okay with ads that are actually helpful generally yeah good yeah if it's ads for cars and you don't own a car then maybe that's why I'm getting ads for cars though because they're like it knows that you just you haven't searched for a car in a while yeah but yeah as far as like I do think Apple music has like a lot of these elements that like make like a top tier music app but I think I just think it's although I feel like the user interface for Apple music is still calm yeah I when I when I first started using it it had the whole weird like tutorial thing it well the initial version of Apple music I felt was so complicated to use there were so many different like levels that you had to get into just to like access the playlists or add a song to a playlist that it wasn't really weighted to me I will say this I really did like and this might be good news for you know the echo dot and this new or just the echo in general and this new music streaming service that they have you know I really liked controlling Apple music theory that yeah that was so actually that's one of the main highlights for this Amazon music and limited features that they were really pushing the whole voice command thing like you could you play the sort of like that you could sort of rattle off a few words from the lyrics and like have it see if they can guess the song so there they really put a lot of effort into kind of making the voice command the central feature of that echo package or that echo option so I don't know I mean that there might be some people families who might invest in that right it's just maybe they don't need it for their phones but it's sort of a central hub in the home you know you know would make a music app you know to me top tier at least if it had a Netflix like feature where you know you can make profiles for other people that log on to them yeah because you can't do that modify if I log in on it and someone else tries logging and I get logged out and if there's like a shareability you kind of I mean you have the multiple devices it was the same thing like it's an organizational type but no you can't both be logged in at the same time but there's a multiple account option there but if I have like a family plan I think but everyone like it's still like go like just Alfred yeah oh really yeah yeah you would have to have your own account and you pay for it on your own with your own I think that's a great idea there you know some people brought up stuff like exclusive albums and I I mean I think that's a very subjective right consideration I don't like the exclusive things on streaming services I think it's killing like you're gonna drive people to its cannibalizing yeah you're gonna drive people to wanna like pirate music again again if you do that yeah what happened well that's exactly is like oh I need I'm signing up for sling TV but I need to have a Time Warner account to get this shows episodes kind of things yeah like there were all the like last year there were a lot of albums that came out you know exclusively on tide or exclusively on Apple music like Kanye West's album you know the life the problem when I was exclusively on tidal yep got illegally downloaded like millions of times the same thing happened to Frank Ocean I'm right and then you know we haven't we hadn't seen reports like this for a while when it was all over and everywhere but then then it started having these exclusively on this app and then you know here come all the illegal download yeah and if you still use an iPod Nano you can have access to FM radio if you recall that I do still use an iPod Nano it's funny that there's FM FM radio classic radio really in here yeah I do listen I listen to what I'm like walking and I'm like because it's an iPod I'm generally I'm tired of these songs that I had yeah yeah but I keep it for when I'm on the train cuz I don't pay for any of these other subscription like you know Spotify all this stuff so I don't have offline listening so it's basically when I'm on the subway and I'm underground I have no reception I listen to that because I can't stand listening to people talking on the train look at that Wow all these decades later an FM radio still hanging out oh yeah I'm a radio junkie I'm a fan like that's how I was raised it's how I ended up here where I'm doing this crap so alright no there's been a great a great conversation very interesting stuff guys we're definitely gonna check out kkbox com yeah yeah we're lazy is that free hopefully is if we'll find out we'll find out we'll check it out but thanks for joining us yeah absolutely if you liked anything you saw or heard here check us out in CNET our podcast is also available on iTunes TuneIn stitcher SoundCloud Feedburner Google Play Music and of course Tina calm all right see you all tomorrow