Gadgetory

it's tuesday april eleventh episode 208 of the 359 podcast I'm BBG and I'm here without fitting and Roger Cheng good morning guys what are we talking about today morning morning we're gonna be talking about Apple and the go figure I know I know not something Apple wants us to talk about it's not all positive it's not positive I know it's Qualcomm leveling some serious charges specifically one of the biggest ones is that sort of confirming Kwazii confirming a rumor that apple had actually dumbed down the Qualcomm chip in certain iphone 7 that came out last year if you had a tmobile or a 18t iphone congratulations you had a slightly slower slow down artificially slowed down modem thanks to all kinds of shenanigans with that with Intel we'll get we'll get more into that in the podcast yikes on bikes um well there's only the iphone 7 though right so it's only be my inferior iphone that's not the seven that has a headphone jack is perfectly fine whoa maybe maybe problem is that so the new iphone sevens were theoretically supposed to tap into faster networks because your phone couldn't accept apple kind of done that work down so i will explain why the podcast will also be talking about a cool feature that alfred wrote about how tax season is really open season for hackers yes file your taxes now if you haven't already which you should all you should and because they live in a week yeah but you should really yeah there's another reason for that with what what's on bombing that you know hackers and lastly of course we'll have to talk about united airlines incident because that's at what everyone's talking about right now yep and how it's it's just gone viral it's exploded though and really heads to do use the word explode with the plane i know that's terrible yeah not intentional not intentional at all alright so let's let's get started as always if you have any questions leave them in the comments section brian will pick up the best and we will get to them in three minutes and 59 seconds from 32 welcome to the 339 when we talk about the top tech news of the day all the crap we want to throw in I'm Roger Tsien I'm Alfred hang the gloves are off to spat between Apple and Qualcomm with Qualcomm filing a response to apples patent licensing lawsuit one of the biggest charges is a Rubens floated around for a while the idea that Apple dumbed down the Qualcomm modem chip in certain iphone 7 so that would perform the same as the supposedly inferior Intel modems as a reminder Apple started selling iphone 7s with the both Intel and Qualcomm modems in different versions for instance if you had a tmobile or ATT iphone you had an intel chip if while verizon and sprint iphones got the Qualcomm one so up what do you think I mean this is rumors been floating around what do you think of the idea the Apple intentionally dumped down one version to keep it on pace with the the inferior chip I mean I can't confirm it or anything like that but it seemed very plausible considering that there had been plenty of rumors as far as Mac product goes where there's kind of as like planned obsolescence anybody aware you know instead of just having it work forever after a certain point it just kind of slows down and I've noticed that on a lot of my devices right where okay i'll just buy an entirely new one I just don't understand why would only be for t-mobile and Sprint iPhones one so I mean I think it's less about planned obsolescence and more about sort of keeping things competitive again for the first time Apple opened it up so Intel could provide a modem chip into some of the iphone 7 and at least as far as what the qualcomm charges state that Intel modem was not as good and so to keep everyone on a level playing field they actually in technically dumbed down the qualcomm ship and I think it's because Apple wants to have two suppliers right they don't want to just get Qualcomm chips they want to have Intel Qualcomm together you know keeps them both on their toes and theoretically gets them a better price all right well I wrote a story and if you haven't filed your taxes yet you definitely should so during tax refund season you'll find that or a study found that spam email related to taxes increased by about six thousand Wow or so and they're all basically saying you know hey we have your tax information here like do you want and they can come in a word document that contains a virus on it and then once they fish out your password and all that all the information they first thing they look for is your tax information like your w-2 your driver license all that stuff and your emails hopefully just just to break it down like what is a I mean there's the term fishing comes up a lot with security yet what does that mean it basically means when you what they send you a link and it looks like a link that you would normally log into but you know in in fact they're just keylogging your password gotcha so then they get act they basically get your password by pretending to be one website you know it's like just stealing it that way and then using that to log in on your account gotcha so yeah file your taxes follow taxes now and be mindful of random emails up here alright we couldn't do this podcast without talking about the United Airlines mess was what a passenger was violently ejected from the plane after refusing to give up a seat videos of the incident went viral on Facebook and Twitter is this at the end of United and what do you think I mean I think airliners tend to have a lot of money but I don't think they can really shake this off literally after last week with the leggings yeah yeah which at least with that one you know they had an excuse an excuse although it's a terrible excuse but at least they had an excuse with this one you know they've tried you know months it's sad that they can look back to leggings and sit ago what those are the good day yeah but it's it they tried they tried mucking it up with basically their um their answers like oh well he was being rude and using right but then we painted on the passage but there's video of what happens and it's just you know this whole thing is inspired just have a serious backlash against United there's an entire subreddit now devoted just to you know United horror stories wow that's crazy alright lastly I wanted to plug our tech enable package which explores the role that tech plays in providing new kinds of accessibility the last chapter just how-to guide on talking to your parents into adopting smart home tech published today but the whole series is worth a look so for that story more check on cnet i'm robert chang i'm out for doing thanks for listening so going back to the Qualcomm chips yeah let's talk about the timing of when this started to come to light because some people are alleging that this has been well known since the debut of the phone yeah yeah so there was a lot of discussion about sort of speed differences between the Qualcomm chips and Intel chips just in general the the sort of speed tests have shown that the ones running on the Intel chips performed worse than the Qualcomm ones but in this particular instance cual comes actually accusing Apple of basically limiting the capabilities of that Qualcomm chips so it actually could theoretical faster can tap into faster network speeds and Qualcomm is saying the apple com dumbed it down to kind of keep it a little bit more on pace with the performance you get with an intel chip sure and do we think that there's any influence from carriers over this ah no you know what I've talked to the carrier's about this I mean most of them wouldn't even touch this topic a lot of the times you know they basically just get the phone the Apple gives of them they don't really question it that much they do their own testing for sure but the thing of it is that the testing isn't going to find that the chip isn't going to perform well because it does perform well in connection to network you get a decent coverage with it but in terms of that full network speed you're not going to get the full full access to the network carrier speed technology right and just to quell some fears this is only isolated to the iphone 7 not the iphone 6 success right because the iphone 6 but basically all the generations before the other 17 used only qualcomm modems that for the first time they open it up to intel and Qualcomm because they want to get a second supplier frankly we just want the competition there for suppliers and I think that's sort of result and you know until you know they're not really known for making modems for phones they're really kind of very they're very few customers or like a handful of INEC Chinese phone makers and the apple was their biggest customer so it's it's again it's kind of a it goes back its kind of black mark so would it be just to keep like their phones equal with the phones with the Intel chip so make sure that Intel kind of stays in the game I'm like having a hard time understanding why Apple would want to purposely cripple their own devices because they think they want hit around but among equal playground video they wanted to avoid a situation where like half the iphone 7 South there performed significantly better than the other half mm-hmm and like you'd be able to figure that out via speed test and they did some just be tested find that even even after they're the alleged crippling those Qualcomm ship phones proceed to perform better than we're consists more consistently than the Intel mean if they wanted to do the whole you know we want to keep diversity and our chip so that in case something kind of goes wrong like yeah this batch is still fine why wouldn't they just put all the Qualcomm chips that perform better on like the plus and then you know the Intel chips on the seven on its own I think it's a matter of carrier technology if you look at the carrier the way the cares were segmented sprint and verizon run on kind of similar technology then you know 18 t-mobile they kind of run similar type of technology I think that's why the chips got kind of went that direction they couldn't it would be more expensive to segment a different versions of the phone as opposed to like different characters because you could design because you have to design a specific chip for sprint verizon anyway so you might as well just have one manufacturer do that shelton in the chat is asking why should Qualcomm care wouldn't this her Apple not Qualcomm well I mean Qualcomm cares because you know they they argue that I mean it's part of the lawsuits part of the charges that they're throwing em and one of them is that their argument is that Apple hurt customers by doing this by basically keeping customers from having the best possible experience on their iphone 7 by artificially dumbing this chip down throttling darling yeah and hopes that you'd buy it again well I don't know if it's that I mean I really think it's more about trying to keep things on level pace with with Intel because they want to keep until the game because they want that second supplier there well isn't this also in response to a lawsuit from Apple against absolutely this is a counter lawsuit it is they are it is actually a formal legal response to the patent licensing law suit the apple filed back in January an apple for the record I mean then really comment specifically on the Qualcomm charges for guests they basically just referred back to the filing from January and basically they argue that Qualcomm has been benefiting from unfair royalties for years the chat wants us to move on to United all right boy discussion here so charming it back out to you guys we want to know what your personal response and experiences are maybe you've got a horror story from united yourself what is your takeaway from this I mean we make a lot of jokes on this but this is dark this is this is awful now yeah maybe you watch the video it's pretty graphic yeah it's it's it's a little disturbing it's mean I me a favor from almost tech perspective like it just sir shows you how unsaved a united is in terms of like the social elemental things because they're the verb the initial statement they put out with this kind of like robotic statement yesterday really blame the passenger and then the fall of stain from the CEO wasn't that much better way more the over bookings like for Rhea comma dating the over book isn't Pastor Mike even addressing the issue here yes it just and it was yeah I have to wonder if that guy's job is on the line I mean you also have to kind of consider how often this has happened before talking like tech angle on this like consider how often this probably happened like before you know smartphones were ya thang know that you might like the idea of like adding the video element whether it's live video recorded video and having it post to live definitely adds an element like just the idea this public shaming that you just consider all the things that like United might have gotten away with you know we have the effect of social media putting a magnifying I didn't even know they did so I don't know if you guys knew the situation right like the full breakdown the situation this guy was randomly selected to be removed from the plane because they need to make room for United crew that needed to get to Louisville uh I didn't know they did like I know they offered incentives to get people to get off the plane but I know they're like had a computer like randomly select you can get it I think it's their their failsafe and it could still be a complete load of BS right just you know throw a dart at a board I will carry a lot of people actually asked about their computer how it randomly selects people and I've learned bit like a fury if you're a I'd like status member there's no way you are randomly selected for this yeah yeah um oh I had I had a oh this is also so we're on on the tech angle of the power of the mobile phone and the social network and how this quickly came to light and there's not a whole lot of great i mean there's always gray area but there's a whole lot less in this scenario because you got a front-row seat yeah this is also all coming to fruition on the tail of the new FCC Commissioner making moves to try to ban any and all phone activity Ron air I thought I was just talking on the phone was it just to shock just I think verifying and also they I mean that was that never went to affect really like they had band-aided about and I think I just effectively said yes we're not gonna do I'm surprised I was even being considered cuz like do you get reception when you're on a plane mmm not only yeah I don't ya so I was like being in relation ritory it because if you gogo inflight Wi-Fi Wi-Fi calling you can actually talking about okay or we could facetime yeah I mean you could be yeah a jerk about it I just thought that was interesting that they were unfolding kind of side by side but no yeah when you're saying there's no gray area because everyone can see it because it's all online and somebody just happened and there's multiple camera angles of it to ya oh yeah and the thing is that you know typically the responses from major corporations has been to create a gray area where it's like oh well he was being belligerent let's blame it on him right it's his fault you know you look at the Chicago Police Department's response was like he fell and then you look at basically you know everyone's calling them out on their on their answers was like yo there's video we all saw what happens when I can't tell us that like this is like spin it yeah have you guys ever had any nasty experiences with united we got Josh in the chest as i got stuck in SG for two days because a mechanical problem on the you a 78 is that SJ singapore right i'm assuming so right that's the code that that's what anytime I hear SGI yeah it's mr. Kapoor um that's a rough way no I don't fly united I tend to fly delta just stay away from united and i probably will so even more after this but yeah I mean I don't experiences with you know that's this about anywhere near this level yeah usually the only issue for me with flights is like it's delayed or you know yammering overbooking kind of issue which i feel i did have one situation where i was booked in the same seat as another person and i was done we were double booked but they found to see for me really quickly yeah so that wasn't like a real issue I was panicking for a second like wait what like I'm looking at his ticket my takeaway they're the exact same this how's this happening that's really responsible uh there no it happens a lot though they over by me they overbook planes they really shouldn't do that right absolutely like the only industry that does that it's such a terrible practice yeah so I've had a rather positive experience with I think it was a long time ago but i believe it was american airlines almost 20 years ago i was flying to florida and back alone I was younger and then uh what ended up happening was like a mechanical problem caused the plane to like last flight out of that I get cancelled and they they chauffeured me out got me a suite in a really swanky hotel gayi you know cop my ticket got me back in the plane first thing in the morning gave me free round trips for a year Wow nuts that was 20 years ago yeah that's kinda what United was Connor they were offering first 400 of four hundred dollar voucher and it's not a stay at a hotel and then they bumped up to 800 and still nobody wanted to know what the like why not bump it up a little bit more or why not bump them up to like business class unless that's over book to you know the idea that like if the people can't be moved by money I guessing the plane itself is over but yeah like but why yeah why not come up with another airliner be 1000 or 1200 like if you kept going up in increments like that can someone's gonna raise her yeah and then like if you only needed for people to get off you're not really cutting yourself at a loss that much right that's why likes one of the thing is such a stupid response on their part to call the police yeah over a man who was on the phone with his lawyer and at the same time just essentially you know he paid for his ticket right it's not like he snuck on it's not like he was drunk or belligerent all just like really what this comes down to is how is this put so poorly managed in advance where they didn't pre accommodate for the necessary cruel and he schedules yeah do change and bring evan flow but come on there should be some kind of reserved seating program the extent where the customers are not impacted by poor management of the crew and people asking why why couldn't the crew just get on the next flight well then that would have only caused a domino effect on the further flight right those guys need to be in Louisville to get that next flight out kind of thing um it's uh it's a tough one dad is it reminds me I don't know if you guys watched 30 rock but uh the Matt Damon episode was on ways the pile of the plane yeah he's declaring sky law this is what it is Scylla I gotta you gotta wonder if there could be a better system if anybody out there has an idea that I'd love to hear a better system is to not over book no seriously like no other industry does this imagine you go to movie theater right you know we all the way through be like sorry no no we have we have proceeded reserved for somebody else yeah it's absurd they just don't don't do that such a terrible practice and it's like to maximize your profits but at the same time like you're you know it's at the expense of the customer yep on the flip side of things JW in the chat says to be honest I've owned always flown with United and have only had a good experiences I'm six foot eight very tall and they're always complimentary towards me to the exit row if available no I mean if your regular thing is if you're a regular flyer of your status flyer hmm they treat you a lot there there you're definitely treat differently there's a there's definitely like sort of a a long gap between sort of regular common flyers and folks who like our regular travellers frequent fliers who you have status or gold diamond whatever whatever the little levels are but they definitely treat you better imagine saggy says the problem is not with the customer it's on the airlines agree with Alfred there you go Alfred by a vote of confidence on why we did something beside your no no actually thank you that sounded pretty sarcastic for me but I try um there's a delivery yeah it's hard for me to say anything positive without it sounding sarcastic that is it what about a cooperate here we go i think i might be reading between the lines here but Sheldon says how about several airlines would stand by pilots to shuttle era to other locations so I'm thinking like maybe that means why couldn't the United staff jump on the Delta flight in the next 10 min yeah and I thought they did that too I thought there was some sort of why you know handshake deal where other airlines could help like provide what were they called jump seats or whatever for four crews of other companies right going I mean that yet that makes sense right it's just a simple cooperation yes you know synergy between the airline's they're like that happens but maybe not to the extent that it should be I mean it's definitely a thing I've seen in the movies yeah it's gonna try to be too real that would that sounded dumber after I know I know but you know what that's where I got my facts too so it's it's cool um why couldn't they just randomly choose again why were they so locked into coming after this guy who obviously was severely resistant well that mean they did randomly choose he was what I can I randomly choose they chose four people three people actually already left I thought I thought like a couple left a couple like a man in a woman or someone there was three other people out begrudgingly got up left and we compensated yeah the last guy was this one well I think I think it's one of those things where maybe like it's like a Hunger Games kind of thing where oh well we rolled the dice you four were picked we can't do it again kind of thing right right right like yeah like if you obviously if he like he makes that much noise they can't like I'm has a weird pressing yes sit there like we do the process just because of what I was superb like imagine imagine if like you're on that flight and they decided to do it again and then like somehow you get picked and well liked the idea is like okay well that guy raised such a fuss right I'm going to do the same thing I'm just gonna do the same gang nubs in the chat clarifies and thank you for this this is the term I was trying to think of it they do have that my brother is a pilot and they can deadhead daddy yes yeah yeah I've heard that yeah it's a it's an unfortunate situation I i personally have concerns about United as a company in the near future yeah because this is far from the first and certainly far from the last as things start unfolding as you said there's an entire subreddit dedicated to it now I only got to kind of skim through this but I did see a horror story about a luggage handler throwing a dog cage ooh like I I don't know what I kind of feel like that's a little bit worse just yeah that's that's call me crazy it's pretty bad um let's see if they're still an airline at the end of the year I don't may be about out that would be nice to see all right that's probably more than enough time yeah but there's been a great discussion everybody thank you for yeah thank you let's wrap it up for the day yeah if you like anything you saw or heard here check us out on cnet our podcast is also available on itunes tune in stitcher SoundCloud feedburner google play music you will see you all 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