Gadgetory

oh my god can it be is the 359 back yes yes we are with a returned Cadillac of equipment in here so bear with me while I get used to the new setup and before we even get going BVG here just wants to say thanks to all of you guys who have been staying loyal and hanging out with us and making the company think it's worthwhile to give us new equipment to keep trying to make the show better on the show today we've got the illustrious Ben Fox Ruben and Dan the man Ackerman it's because I just watched good morning Vietnam and Robin William introduces the the next producer of the show is dan the man Levitan and that's a lot of stuff I would have also accepted can plan flam no but it's it's a good nickname either way for today we're gonna it's it's like now earning season so we're gonna get through a couple of the major earning season big names Google was last night we'll also talk a little bit about billionaire Twitter with Muskaan's Zuckerberg trading barbs trading barbs is a good way to say it over artificial intelligence also Dan was on CBS this morning talking about implantable RFID chips we'll talk a little bit about that and if we have time we'll talk about some notes as well which is looking for donations so it doesn't shut down we started the four minutes yet we haven't even started our minutes yet but I'll get you out of here soon enough not to worry as usual sending your questions and comments BBG we'll get to the best ones at the end of the show without further ado let's podcast here we go in three two welcome to the 359 I'm Ben Fox Ruben and with me today is special guest Dan Ackerman heroic tech reviewer and author of the Tetris effect why thank you yeah thanks for being here my pleasure first up alphabet Google's parent company last month was hit with a massive 2.7 billion dollar antitrust fine in Europe but the search giant is strut shrugged off the problem and still ended up making gobs of money last quarter does this it all surprise you oh no because we've talked a lot about how X percent of every online ad now it goes to either Facebook or Google and the interesting takeaway from this for me at least was that that the revenue per click is going down but they've revenue overall for Google's online advertising is going up so it's such a scale issue that they have such gigantic scale they don't need to worry about the actual per click revenue on on desktop in particular going down how much do you think people should be concerned though that Google is now so dominant just like Facebook not only anomaly and advertising but also in just like search where this is how you find what you need on the internet that they're just gonna have too many of those levers of power and they're gonna favor their own stuff that's how they ended up getting trapped in the e usage well it's very hard to not get trapped by by EU regulations they're sort of all all encompassing all over the place but this is why we invented the term too big to fail mm-hmm well I do be over Google it'll be fun I mean it's a perfect case it's a perfect use case for it do you think anybody could catch up to Google and search like this Microsoft do search even to search even matter that much anymore or is it every other business that's important cloud services personal software services you know all these other things YouTube yeah YouTube you don't think you go oh it's a search engine you know yeah the everything company just like Amazon just like it is everything store so next moving on billionaire Twitter is all aflutter yet again today during a facebook Q&A Mark Zuckerberg on Sunday called it quote pretty irresponsible to trade quote doomsday scenarios about AI Elon Musk who's raised concerns about this in the past shot back on Twitter today saying sucks quote this is not very nice understanding of the subject is limited okay I mean like I understand that talking about billionaire Twitter especially because like Donald Trump is now president and you know he trades barbs with folks everyone this is this is now what Twitter has turned into by now to be fair Zuckerberg didn't say this on Twitter he did it during a Facebook live from his own backyard while having a barbecue responding to a viewer question right about the state of artificial intelligence and if it's something we should be concerned about you know who's basically saying he took a more positive view this is the state of our conversation though it's the Star Trek view where the future is actually good and positive and technology means good things for people look I'm not suggesting that a four-minute podcast is the best place to adjudicate these issues to adjudicate like whether generalised AI is going to dominate us or not but I don't know that Twitter is either so it's a great place to fire off a 3 a.m. tweet whether you're complaining about your Attorney General or the CEO of Facebook hey it's it's great for everybody also Dan so you were on CBS this morning this morning talking about RFID chips implantable RFID my my talking head popped up for a few seconds this morning in a report about a company in Wisconsin that is offering employees optionally the option to have an RFID chip implanted in their hand and you can use that in place of your ID card to open doors to log into your computer to buy stuff from the vending machine in the office or to use the copy machine and it's been done in Europe a couple times it's really kind of a publicity stunt because this company three square they make vending machines basically so it's you know they I get that it works for their business model they want to encourage this sort of thing imagine you go up and buy anything just by swiping your hand but you know what you can't earn you know location tracking on your phone off if you want to you can leave your ID card at home and you know you can't take this thing out of your hand without is voluntary right it's fine but what happens when it goes from voluntary to well you don't have to but company culture strongly recommends it I find this highly highly troubling I so do a lot of people and I feel like that's the natural reaction you know when they come to chip you yeah last just wanted to mention the longtime debunking websites knope's is in a bit of legal in a bit of a legal tussle and it's asking for donations to stay float good news it's already hit its goal of raising $500,000 on a GoFundMe page but if you want to throw them a few more bucks go for it anyway if you want to read more about these stories check us out on CNN I'm Ben Fox Ruben and I'm Dan Ackerman thanks for listening we have a good question in the chat it's not entirely relevant to everything we're talking about today but excuse me I'm having a hard time reading at this point for some odd reason sir Rob Sharda what do you think about Google Android octopus oh the enjoyed oh is that really the new name now okay I know it was like an easter egg convinced we're convinced it is maybe it isn't it's an octopus even if you coated it with sugar is not candy as far as I could tell maybe it is in in certain countries but I think that they're probably gonna go with Oreo I think Arthur post was just like a fun little way of a use do they use it I guess they have used kind of license you know trademark names before they use white cat right whoo owns Oreo why wouldn't the biscuit or EOP I got it fake why wouldn't they be all over or something like that well here's like when they wouldn't let Steven Speilberg use M&Ms and et and he had to switch to Reese's Pieces instead and look what it did for that brand oh my guess is a true movie story this is why I eat Reese's Pieces to this day I thought that to really say this is why you have me on here so I can give you this 80s movie licensing trivia either way I don't think it's gonna be octopus but their's is entirely possible that they decide to switch things up and go with something what percentage of people are gonna get on their phones within the first year or so anyway fragmentation in Android is so out of control you won't have octopus Oreo whatever that's an exciting new play you know they're experimenting it's like the weird potato chip flavors that they keep coming up with octopus Oreo there you go done all right so coming from Michael Brown our old buddy Michael Brown welcome back how is it that Google is hit with an army of finds whereas apple doesn't gonna be that Google is still not so great at businessing that's it I don't know you want to jump in on that one that's it that is a very good I think Apple gets a lot of grit they have a lot of problems I think with their Irish tax situation Rex but they're also not in as many businesses as Google is in terms of the person tracking and and the advertising and it's very difficult to not run afoul of European regulators who take a much different view of Commerce and the rights of companies versus the rights of individuals then we have here in the US and not only that Apple their biggest business is smartphones and in phones they are still I think they're number two to Samsung and Samsung and Apple both have so many competitors so it would be hard I mean I'd want to look into it a little bit more so it's a very good question for Michael but mostly the fines are about information tracking and and and how these are resolved yeah this one in specific I think it was around shopping results okay Google favored its popular sites or services versus competitors with Apple it would be a little bit harder for them to do something like that because they don't control the market as much as Google does in certain areas before we go ahead and move on to some more questions I actually have one Dan this whole microchip thing is creeping me out to no end you're gonna use on Friday so get ready Thanks it's a Star Trek discovery tie-in okay everyone on the future Enterprise is gonna have a hand wave door open implant chip okay so the door doesn't open for you you have to wave your hand because right you don't want to cling on get in there my thought is that though like would you do this if was an option just being the more tech savvy of us here today I think I'm more tech savvy sorry we're definitely not doing because I'm aware of what that entails you see people getting paranoid about RFID chips going back years you know someone's gonna come up behind me in the subway and have a scanner in their pocket and get up you know bright close to my pocket so it's not just the it's not just the receivers that you know about it's the ones that you don't know about right and that's why they sell those ridiculous like line passport holders to put your RFID chip passports in well one of my primary concerns with that too and we were talking about this yesterday was how do you how are you supposed to update it granted I understand that RFID chips don't really change yeah and I don't think the data is carried on the chip it's more of a signifier to to summon your cloud data aid that being said technologies always improve you will yes five years from now you probably would want to change it and let's say something goes haywire with it gonna have to go to your doctor to fish the damn thing out and replace it that just sounds like a bad idea to the court I mean they've been doing it the pets for years though that's the thing what they use the pet technology on you maybe you want to think twice about that I am NOT a pet yet you know you know you know you're AI super how would AI is gonna make you their pet and then they will chip you Oh God and then then Zuckerberg will be don't the AI will be chipping here we go I was wrong muscles right welcome our robot overlords you have to say that every once a while just to get it on the record officially do not like this podcast anymore this is freaking me out calling out to the chat who would volunteer for something like this do you see potential benefits in your lot in life would this actually be that beneficial to you we got a horse if we got a hard no from Danny Green of course Danny Green what's up man and to expand on this imagine soggy asks any way of turning the implanted microchip off seems like it's been around for five plus years with loveseats let loves good question imagine saggy but it's a really good question I because I mean so I saw Scott Steiner brought something by the other day that I was looking at and it was a wearable on the same idea but that's an on case-by-case foreign voluntary opt-in situation but the idea of this like wave your arm open the door that's awesome having it under my skin not awesome implantable bracelet in general implantables have been used for medical reasons like a pacemaker or I don't know like a hip replacement what-have-you where you basically need it to continue to live or to substantially increase your mobility this is the bodhrán t-shirt workplace efficiency no no keep track of how many copies you make on the office copier that says an office copier I'm not used I've been you 12 years I've never used a copy machine at this office you're very you don't believe in dead trees I I just don't believe in in in photocopies I don't know I just wonder it like would that cause complications with other electronics all right set off metal detectors would you scrub MRI machine or you can screw up your phone like you're tired yeah I've thought about that is I would you get a bluetooth drop out right and somebody's like what's going on he's like oh that's me I'm paired to my hand phone sounded wrong I take back the common first step on the slippery slope towards transhumanism yep which I believe Elon Musk also warns against yes look I Elon Musk and I think Bill Gates and a handful of other important tech billionaires have all talked about the fact that generalized AI could end up being a problem they've presented all these doomsday scenarios I get it that Mark Zuckerberg is trying to say like listen stop acting like chicken little about this whole thing but like once the cats out of the bag the cats out of the bag so like let's go back to great technology futurists of the past like James Cameron mm-hmm James Warsaw who foretold this very eloquently in in in his classic work The Terminator mmm-hmm that is where we're headed according to Michael Brown it sure is he says I know I wouldn't I'd prefer ambient computing with my natural biometrics eyes singing voice he says the moment we start adding Hardware within ourselves for non health reasons I think that's a step towards a dark place that's right right great transhumanism the merging of man and machine right I mean like the probably beside legs and Logan yeah pretty much yeah I've seen that yeah thanks to the spoiler I can't believe trailers I'm pretty impressed that we merged those two completely separates our video what are you waiting for I actually have I just haven't watched oh my god I can't get through a movie of too old oh my god it takes like four nights to watch one movie I watch one movie all the way through this weekend and I greatly regretted it was no Island Skull Island the King Kong movie was Samuel Jackson it's and low-key it's enjoyable the whole thing is a waste except for the after the credits scene which which redeem the entire it's due fee but it's fun and it's the one of the better did you see the after credit scene to me I was like yeah I I literally give a little fist popping money right there yeah okay back to the Q&A actually on that note we have a few newbies in the crowd today first and foremost shout out to all our regulars Danny Michael imagine soggy so on so forth but we want to welcome folks like Caleb into the show he's asking what exactly is this about how do we describe this wait white podcast it's too late no no new faces new voice you for coming we our podcast we're a podcast we do podcasts no other casts spotting things we do the tech news of the day I mean like but look it's it's the dead of the summer so we kind of sometimes take the opportunity to talk about all sorts of stuff like I don't think this Wisconsin RFID chip thing is particularly new but it certainly is an interesting topic so and we had somebody kind of look at it firsthand here yeah oh we lost them these two right here at this point slacking I'm tweeting on two levels busy writing stories let's move some bucks so Kaitlin truce effect where we're a podcast you started as an audio podcast which you can still subscribe to in a number of different platforms but we figured hey why not turn this into more of like a morning show we're not well I'm not gonna say we're not doing anything here anyways but in the scene at New York office we're in early we got good stories to ramble about it kind of gets us a warm-up for the day and then we like to invite you guys in to hop into the chat and hit us with Q&A and it really gets all of our brain juices flowing first thing in the morning mm-hmm so thanks for comin if you count eleven a.m. is first thing in the morning well which I do frankly we're we're strategically trying to span the the time zones bicoastal yes Michael Brown says movies like transcendence come into mind which is a great movie but nanotechnology is awesome but freaky yeah absolutely all this stuff is coming I mean that's the thing and luckily it's humans that are creating it right now situation when robots started to create other robot raise their own implantables for you yeah they tell you it's optional but give you a little robot wink oh don't worry it's optional right and how do we know Mark Zuckerberg isn't a robot already he was replaced back in 2004 yeah this is suck 2.0 yeah it's like the Paul McCartney uh you know conspiracy theories the Paul is dead theories where he was replaced by a look-alike oh right oh yeah it's the same thing who was the walrus yeah yeah yeah I got the cover of Abbey Road he's barefoot and everyone else's shoes on I know cigarette yeah I'm you thrown some good references out today history repeats itself the world of our spa lies and duck mm-hmm Josh says I would want to be able to take off my connected device when I want to disconnect and snap your head right Yeah right exactly if we're putting chips in people anyways why not have like modular body parts like the what was the glycan Motorola phone the modular yeah so you chop your hand off and then you just go to the Apple store and buy a new hand I mean if I seen hook have you seen Dustin Hoffman and you're holding your eyes it really works you're just holding it wrong right Michael Browns asking how would chips help CNET dan no floor that one wait you mean like plantable chips like Doritos every day I mean there was different companies have this idea that if you had this it would replace that little mag stripe ID card to use the swipe into your office wipe out access to your computer but it was it works it's not hard to use yeah but I can steal you but I could hard time yeah yeah I could steal your card you could lose your car my hand that's true listen once we're chopping off hands it's it's you know no holds barred there yeah yeah they always say oh you got your fingerprint lock it's biometric it's very secure it's then they're taking thumbs mm-hmm what happens when it's the whole hand yeah I mean usually it's supposed to be a live thumb though it needs to be keep it warm for a while I've looked this up I mean I gotta clear my history I've done this in like Mission Impossible Minority Report or something it's really like it starts once you talk about biometrics start getting really morbid because they're like alright how do we get the body parts so that we can sneak in yeah right no thanks and on that note it's probably a perfect place oh yeah to conclude for the day and unfortunately for the week this has been a great test drive no wait aren't we back tomorrow right tomorrow we are back tomorrow tomorrow as well tomorrow's well I can't think tomorrow is Wednesday yeah one more we aren't in on Thursday though sorry folks but we will be back tomorrow and then week following we're back full force full force day week I like Howard Stern yeah sorry we're big shots we're big shots we can do what we want either way thanks for putting up with us during the hiatus and we're really happy to get back into gear here yeah definitely my like script isn't up so I'm just gonna have to wing it the 359 is available on iTunes TuneIn stitcher SoundCloud feed burner Google Play Music and of course on cnet.com den Ackerman thank you very much for being my because you're working the controls thanks everybody we'll be back tomorrow see ya