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and on Tuesday October 24th it's time for episode 304 of the 359 podcast if you can believe it and in the house today full house Alfred Inge Roger Tang and David Katz Meyer with terrible posture hey guys are we doing the bad posture show yeah this is me she's not watching that's why 3:59 got away with bad posture for like 4 minutes remember when we were audio-only and people didn't see us yeah but then I got crap all day for those days anyways let's focus yes focus people so we're gonna be talking about the Amazon fire TV the new Amazon fire TV is what we've got David on to talk about that how it stacks up with the competition you've got Roku you've got Apple TV chromecast so there are a number of options out there David's gonna be around to break it down for us and the next step Kaspersky is both the US government's holding hearings tomorrow to discuss Kaspersky and its possible involvement with Russia and all that controversy there's a lot to break down there to unpack fortunately Alfred wrote an FAQ and will be able to explain this whole beef it's all kind of confusing to me so Alfred you're naked you're naked you're gonna need help I feel like we're gonna need more than 40 minutes for this but we'll try to do it do it about two minutes if you can as always if you have any questions about these topics leave them in the comment section and Brian we'll get to the best or pick out the best we'll get them in three minutes in 59 seconds and here we go for the recording of the podcast we'll see it in a couple minutes submit your questions and comments and I'm sure David Katz may I'd love to hear from all of you here we go in three two welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Chang I'm alfred hang the reviews for the new amazon firetv are out and we have special guest David Katz Meyer to break it all down for us how's it going thanks for joining us same time so I mean bottom line the Kindle Fire sorry that was on fire TV it's an easy mistake okay Amazon fire TV is out let me the review you did the full review yeah what do you think it's really good but not as good as Roku so it's it's it's pretty easy this year there's actually two $70 4k HDR streamers wrote and Amazon fire TV that really compete for the exact same person somebody it has a 4k HDR TV wants a new streamer and you know basically has to go which one do I like so I always say with the Amazon with this one in particular it's really about voice and being able to like if you have an echo or a dot in your house you can sit there and say Alexa play transparent Alexa play stranger things whatever it is and it will turn on you know what turn on TV TV is already on it will switch and and launch those apps and play those things with just a voice command you know and you pick up the remote that is freaking cool um how accurate is it it's pretty accurate I mean it's as accurate as any search on Amazon so if you know sometimes the words don't work very well if you have the wrong word but in general you know it works and you know there get just getting better at it like all the selected stuff there's some limitations but in general that's a really cool feature be used with all that you still say the Roku beats it out yeah well Roku interface is just cleaner with Amazon you're basically staring at a whole lot of Amazon videos Amazon ads Amazon promotions that just got under my skin after a while like I want a nice clean interface like a phone yeah I want an interface I can I can customize like a phone move my apps around go into the apps get their interface and you know see what I want to see without too much you know fuss and bother and Roku still the best at that they still the best 4k selection of apps and they have a new feature on the remote so you can actually control the TV volume and power with the remote included with the box and that's really cool all right thanks next up you may be using Kaspersky antivirus software but did you know it's in hot water with the US government Alfred youyou broke down this dispute or this this issue between Kaspersky and the government what's going on yeah it's been a long six seven months for Kaspersky in the US this all kind of really started around July or June or so when Bloomberg had released a report talking about how Kaspersky had ties to the Russian government about how all the things that they were doing implied that that you know there they must be working together in one way or another a month before that FBI investigators actually questioned several Kaspersky employees working in the US and then in recent in the last two months there have been reports from the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times talking about Israeli hackers caught Kaspersky Russian spies using Kaspersky software to steal secrets from the NSA The Wall Street Journal broke that story in October as well talking about how NSA secrets were lifted from a employees computer in 2015 using Kaspersky software as well so it's there's a lot of espionage going on right so the bottom line should I dump my Kaspersky software so the thing about this is that this is more about like nation-states and this is you know kind of a Russian spy you know their equivalent of the FBI using their like hacking tools for these kinds of things and specifically targeting individuals because it's extremely hard to hack an antivirus yeah and it's targeted attack so if you think that you know there's a reason for the any like Russian spies to want to take your family vacation photos or anything like that yeah they're my kids super cute then yeah you should probably you know be careful when you're using Kaspersky software but you know the idea is that these are very focused this taxis aren't like widespread attacks so it's one of those things where you have to consider are you a target of you know right Russian espionage and if the answer is no I would assume that it's safe to continue using the software to block out ransomware and many other things at it because it is still a fairly high rate it still once antiviruses yeah so all right that's all the time we have for more of these stories chicks on CNET I'm Roger Cheng I'm Alfred I'm David Katz Meyer thanks for listening Alfred I understood none of what you said trying to break it down and give us a big info-dump so there's a lot to process a complicated story I think the main takeaway is that Kaspersky antivirus is still a really good software company countries around the world still use it Germany continues to use it and they even publicly stated you know despite all these allegations and reports there has been no technical evidence being put out there about this and they're still continuing to use it in September the Brazilian armed army signed a new contract with burski and Interpol which is kind of like a European like police force I guess oh yeah it's sort of an international place well yeah they recently signed an agreement to continue you working with Kaspersky for it's like cybercrime operation I guess in the u.s. though there's gonna be I have to imagine this to be a chilling effect for just yet even normal customers right look they see these headlines they yeah kind of equated with Russian spies you know it's at that point even if it's highly rated you gonna start looking shopping around yeah they're gonna have a lot of trouble basically getting their reputation back up to par in the US and in Western Europe which is about 60 percent of their market oh wow and you know I think the idea is you know even if they are one of the best there's still multiple options out there for you right so it's one of those things where why should we stick with this when there's like concerns about it I mean I will say the I mean having the government kind of on your back about something like this that's a huge negative impact I mean I bring up the example wall way which the US government a few years yeah several years ago basically said well you're not allowed to sell any network equipment cuz we have concerns about security the company but basically government made it clear like we're not talking about phones but while we still has struggled to sell phones here that brand is pretty much non-existent even though it's been pretty successful around the world here in the US having that blackmart from the government and it is like it's a death son so yeah I think I think a lot of it has also been discussed behind closed doors it's kind of like first surfaced when Senator Marco Rubio kind of brought up during an intelligence hearing he asked the head of Cyber Command and somebody from the NSA basically would anybody recommend using Kaspersky software unprompted they kind of just brought it up out of Norway which which is kind of their way of getting it open to the public without revealing that much like I just like something from a closed hearing just bringing it out front like out of nowhere so that's the thing a lot of these issues that they have are really behind closed doors and that's why there's not that many technical details out on it and that's also why Kaspersky yesterday had offered basically were allowing third-party mom of our source code of our updates and things like that right from an independent source and so they can let everybody you know like what are the issues with our company without you know you know trying to defend their name and and all this like controversy surrounding them okay Ryan well the questions yeah let's stay on the same topic here coming in from imagine soggy can we talk about AVG do we need to find a new free antivirus program and if yes which one I wouldn't use AVG eyestone that me personally why is that they're just not that highly rated okay on there Kaspersky did offer a free antivirus and anti-malware for me I just try to practice like safe security measures and I'm like using Windows Defender which yeah is free and I also just like I'm like very paranoid all of a lot of links that I open so I'm like already extra secure on that and then I'm also like not on my desktop a lot right is the thing actually I do use Kaspersky for actually my license is expired so I was using the free one is it just as effective yes oh yeah I'm right then but didn't you say you were worried about your kids photos me yeah yeah there's that I'm sure the Russian government really wants to the idea is that you know I talked with a security expert in my story talking and she was basically saying if somebody's trying to hack you they're not gonna do it through like your antivirus because that it's extremely difficult to do and they're gonna get you through other means that are much easier like I don't know sending you like a phishing link or you know something at you trying to get you to click on that like it's like buying your social number from experience yeah Equifax Agrifac sorry sorry experiment yeah well Experian had its own issues a few years back you know they're not completely innocent here right right yeah well the point is that there there's like multiple measures out there and you know I think your antivirus which is a prime target but it's also like pretty hard to hit that's the bottom line is your antivirus is probably fine but you're screwed either way cuz they'll find another way yep yeah yeah just to put a positive spin on it not antivirus I'm just Pro healthy if I'm trying to be PC here's our healthy viruses out there - that's the optimistic way to look I'm Andy I like it what I'm anti Monte Phi don't protest all right here's a good question from Assad isn't that the same what the CIA FBI are doing the same with Google Facebook Apple and Microsoft systems as far as I'm assuming like partnering monitoring goes yes I think part of the idea is you know we do it too so as far as like spying on other countries and using hacking measures bourree I mean I think that was one of the big like things that you know Kaspersky had kind of brought up in their argument when when their software I had detected the NSA hacking tools so the story goes is that the NSA employee brought NSA like files home on his home computer it's already a big no-no yeah and that's how the Kaspersky software picked it up because the tools were hacking tools so it was basically oh you mean our antivirus packed up this malware that your government of like agency wrote like basically the idea is like it did its job the question is okay but how did it get from this antivirus to in the hands of like the Russian like government like that's like okay we get step a two-step you about how did this end up in like the Kremlin yeah yeah but yes the the US government also uses like a variety of hacking tools and leveraging like tech companies so yeah it's exactly the thing we all suck yeah all right one more on this topic from imagine soggy but if it's true about Kaspersky wouldn't they be able to create a profile about us to target this information which Artie is known for doing yeah but they're not in the line of sending out this information yeah this is less about this isn't party nation this is more about actually securing animation stealing information so it's it's sort of the opposite got it all right let's switch gears back over to the Amazon fire TV I'm sure David's relieved hey guys still here James favorite burski do you know if the new fire TV supports dual dolby atmos high-quality audio yes it supports high quality audio is in regular dolby it also supports at most the issue is that the Amazon fire TV doesn't have any apps that support Atmos yet so Vudu right now is kind of the main purveyor of Atmos that's on roku right now and Roku stick also is that most oh no although there's a new thing called movies anywhere you may have heard yes so we talked about that a little bit movies anywhere is a really cool thing if you own movies that actually paid for movies movies yes I thought I have about 500 DVDs at home that's true I have I have DVDs in a big IKEA bag to Walmart and and did this to digital you could make those into your new Vudu library oh so there's a thing called movies anywhere that links your owned movies of course you can probably just get sign-ins from Vudu Google Play and even Apple iTunes the mother lode people paying for money movies so movies anywhere allows you to link all those accounts on the backend and then on the front end which can include any of those apps or Amazon you can just go in and watch anything movie so many other services so on fire TV which lacks a voodoo app and a Google Play app and obviously iTunes it can still access movies that you bought on those other services thanks to movies anywhere a wonderful new service nice little very very bad I mean I feel like I feel like we should take turns answering questions on each other speeds pronounced experience yeah so there's the Atmos is there yes just not support it Matthew - are the - in the chat asks does the fire TV play YouTube if so will it do a better job than my Google home at playing the videos I want for the life of me I can't get my cuckoo home to play my watch list yes but I think you're talking about voice control you're saying hey okay google play videos about silly cats I don't know what videos you're looking for what words they have in the spoken commands but often if you have you know words that trip up systems it'll trip up anything whether it's you know Google home or Alexa but the fire TV won't play Google of it YouTube videos it will play YouTube videos directly if you if you use those voice commands so you can say play videos on YouTube but and as will the as will a Google home so that works but you know whether one is better than the other recognizing your voice historically I found that Google home is better recognize your voice if you're having trouble with Google home commands playing videos by a chromecast don't expect better performance from fire TV don't go out and buy a dot and a fire TV expecting to get better cat videos from without having to use their house that the voice command work tonight if I say like play orange the new black mm-hmm it'll know to load up Netflix or what like what if like how does it know which video service tool it all depends so for example Amazon is obviously favored as always right so if you say transparent or man and a high castle or whatever that works great if you say orange the new black or you know a Netflix show it will it will actually call up the search result for that show you have to and it'll say you know watch on Netflix is get generally the default and then you say Alexa play so it's a two-step process firing into yeah so it's still up in the air and this goes back to a lot of these walled garden things whether that's Amazon's follower that's Netflix is fall for not building in the hooks but long story short all of these things have these kind of little barriers unless you're using their own sort of service and Netflix is you know kind of famously independent in terms of things like but there is a there is a YouTube app on that right yes yeah so the issue is what you can use the voice commands to play specific videos yeah no it works you can and and it just sometimes takes a little bit more of a command so you know you have to you have to be a little more specific sometimes you have to say on YouTube or whatever it is you know you can't just say play crazy cat videos and it'll work but if you did say like no that is one day there's no way to a default for those commands to be YouTube but if you said place Amazon so they probably won't do this play crazy videos on YouTube it would know it would load up honestly I didn't test that no crazy crazy cast nosy cat cats videos I'll go back and do it that's a massive playlist you guys can check it out it's me going crazy pull my hair out acting like okay what's up next let's just spend a couple more minutes on Amazon yeah Josh Buddha says well not technically Amazon but streaming video Josh Boyd uh I'm moving into an apartment that has a Smart TV and I'm bringing my Google home is it worth bringing my chromecast yeah that thing is like the size of a put it in your in your coin pocket in your pants so yeah I totally bring it I mean I assume he could probably also gift it to somebody I think is it gonna be redundant to have a smart TV and a chromecast so the question there yes because the whole thing is Google home if you're if you're into talking to your TV and getting it to do stuff Google home plus chromecast works great the Smart TV probably doesn't work with Google home unless it's a late-model Sony with Android TV and then it kind of doesn't work as well as chromecast so yeah that's the issue is you know the the the the Smart TV interface is always going to be behind a chromecast or at Amazon fire or Roku in general so you know trust in those little plug eeny dongles more than you're gonna trust in you know some interface designed by Samsung in 2014 but is it really only so like you can talk like talk to the TV like is that the only like real added advantage well chromecast is really slick in a lot of other ways you know it has great app support via phones you know it's it loads quick you know sometimes the Wi-Fi is better than on a smart TV so yeah again with an older Smart TV chromecast to run circles around it you know provided you're okay using your phone to call it videos all right we got one more and it's a David's favorite question what do you think is the best out of all the streamers out there money is no object money is no expensive one so the most expensive one is Nvidia shield and arguably the I mean pricier than Apple TV yeah yeah so it's well they just Nvidia released a version that does include a game console for $20 less to match Apple TV's price I would not buy that because you know game consoles another 20 bucks but anyway that's a great box does pretty much everything now a voice commands agreed on because it's built in Google assistant that would probably the one that I would buy second very close second place is Apple TV just because it has Dolby vision it annoys me that it does everything in HDR but you can kind of get over that and I didn't ding it hugely in the review but those two are are your gold plated streamers and they're both really competitive and they honestly serve different markets so you know Plex people add a lot of files quote-unquote that they want to stream shields great for that gaming shield does all the apps it's got great voice with Google but apples a really slick interface and that the remote is great on there the voice is really good with Siri blah blah blah so those two are your your gold-plated ones and you always tell me anytime I'm asking about it that you are you favor Roku yes as far as budget yes so again if I have all the money in the world ice I still might use my Roku you know at home I have access to pretty much any stream where I want and I still use Roku so the idea with Roku is that it's super simple and it kind of does everything you want so anytime when you're streaming you're basically like so what do I really want to do with this thing and it's really the only pure play like Roku really only makes these boxes right there they're not trying to get into this they are this and TVs which is a huge growth for them but yeah they're they're specializing in streaming and they they don't have an axe to grind they don't still want to sell you videos like iTunes or Amazon or angle so right cool before we wrap it up let's just address one there's a couple of people in the chat we're kind of curious about what the current status of crack is oh it's still that rampant on the streets it is 1988 after all so what where are we standing what's the latest development oh the crack multiple companies have released like patches for them so if you want if you know the next time you get you're a little like update prompt you should probably it's not useless yeah most likely a security up I at Google and Apple if both said that they were releasing them in the upcoming weeks so if you've got a notification to update from them yeah definitely do that new Apple TV beta is for crack they're saying that's coming out like tomorrow the next day yeah so yeah like I said it's very hard to keep track of all the smart home stuff yeah that could be affected by this but like I said as soon as you got a prompt to update you should that being said though there's been more developments about like how the attack actually works and like hacking and antivirus it's like extremely difficult to do and it's also a targeted attack like it's not a mass attack like ransom that's what you local right yeah weird spreads from like one thing to another like somebody has to basically say like I'm definitely going after Alfred or I'm going after Brian on this and I'm going to stand outside of his house they're gonna be severely disappointed what a laptop and you also have to know that they're on wpa2 like Wi-Fi yeah and then you also have to know like like at what point the vulnerability like words it's it's a lot of factors so I feel like it's the Kaspersky argument again what unless you think you're somebody that's going during a high-value target yeah yeah which none of us are it's a massive corruptibility that's still a obstacle course to get through what you're saying yeah we're so mean we're so insignificant that's sort of our protection that and like a lot of companies have already kind of patched this so yeah this is not an invitation for anybody to try to hit me with this yeah we're we're you disappointed you're really relevant yeah but I am saying it's very difficult to do and it's mostly like targeted attack though again though update your systems anyway yep exactly always and write that note all right if you like to anything you saw or heard here check us out on CNET our podcasts also available on iTunes today's stitcher SoundCloud Feedburner and Google Play Music I'm just tired guys dammit on three two one