Gadgetory

and good Wednesday morning from the scene at New York podcast studio it is May 17th and we are ready to kick off episode 229 of the 359 podcast my name is B V G and in the house today I've got Alfred Inge and Joanie soles Minh and sorry we're a little late today because we're getting ready for Google i/o have you heard of it it was like small startup so seriously like normal humans call Google yes io is for true passionate followers which are readers I'm watching so yeah so they'll be probably talking a lot more about Android Oh today which I found out is not the same thing as Roboto so I've just learned about that and we'll also be talking more about the wanna cry ransomware because it's still one of the worst ransomware attacks in the world and the hacker group that basically released the NSA tools that helps to fuel the spread of wanna cry resurfaced after missing for about nine months so we'll be talking about both of them on the podcast today so stick around and we'll be back to join you in the chat in three minutes and 59 seconds from 3 to welcome to the 359 on malphur dang I'm Joanie Sussman Google's i/o conference kicks off today at 10 a.m. Pacific Time which we've got full coverage of that you can check out on cnet.com you can expect a lot more details about the next update to Android which they called Android Oh hopefully that's for Oreo they're also going to be revealing what they're bringing to the table of Google home virtual reality and all the other millions of things that Android is on so John you know knowing what we know about Google and Android oh what's on your wish list for Google i/o why definitely want to I mean everyone wants to know what candy um I was going to be but I think a lot of people are interested in Google home and Google assistant how that's going to right now are in a world where the echo and Alexa are the assistant in the home that's on everybody's the tip of everyone's tongue like Google home hasn't really been able to penetrate and take over where echo is just kind of like rocketed into popularity so to be answered to see what they can offer that will be able to supplant I mean what updates do you think that they'll need for Google home or like the Google assistant to effectively compete with Amazon's echo like lineup they have like seven of them that right and there's one Google home I think well part of the problem is that Amazon benefited from the store like the echo system that it has cool has a giant echo system but it's just so fragmented in a way like you know what I mean like it what do you know you don't use five chat app search is a really important thing but it's not a thing you want to do with your speaker and that's the thing that Amazon is I'm sorry that Google is best at so do you think that they need to add other features like the side search kind of like calling like what Amazon did a few I don't think it's about volume its volume of features I think it's about figuring out what it can do better than Amazon can giving people one reason why they're like I can't do that on my echo yeah I remember they had a cool feature it was like kind of like voice recognition so it would know your voice profile based on I mean I thought that was something that would like take on the vehicle like really proficiently just because like based off of like calendars you can only have one right now in Amazon echo whereas Google if it recognizes your voice and tell you like what your events are versus like what maybe like your kids events are that day yeah and with music too if you want to listen to music that's tailored to you then when your husband or child ask for listening to music that's tailored to them it shouldn't be the stuff that's further yeah I know my girlfriend hates it when I'm on her Spotify on echo because Grey's ever discovered weekly so yesterday the hacker group the shadow brokers resurfaced for the first time in months after they wanna cry ransomware outbreak so in April they released an NSA exploit that allowed the ransomware to spread as fast as it did and in their resurgence warned that there would be more leaks in a data dump of the Month Club starting in June so it'd be based off of a subscription model and they compared it to like this is like a wine of the Month Club I think of it as like the Netflix of brands more well no because I can't just keep going back on it and they've also mentioned in the past that care what people do with their leeks so even if I if it was like just me that's subscribed to it and I got all the data dumps if like it would most likely go public because we would just publish it online or on these like databases where people can get access to it they said that you know they have more exploits coming for Windows devices routers and browsers they've also said that they have exploits for Windows 10 devices if you notice the wanna cry virus spread basically off of old outdated and machines but this one they're saying they have you know exploits for the latest Windows Device so they're going to be releasing more details on that but security experts that I've spoken to have said it's doubtful that they have Windows 10 exploits considering that all their stuff that they stole from the NSA was like a few months ago not a few months like from like a few years ago what it means is for you know consumers is that you're more exposed yes basically like even if you were protected by not having the most ancient possible Windows version out there this means that you're more expected all right well if you like these stories be sure to check us out on Tina calm mal mal for ding I'm Joni Salzman all right Joan you got me thinking when you were talking earlier about the echo but the echo ecosystem yeah and Matthew the echo system if you just have bad pronunciation Matthew in the chat says yeah all right fine Matthew in the chat saying he's had a less than favorable experience with his Google home for a myriad of reasons from the actual voice recognition literally like the pitch of voice it struggles with sometimes um do you think this is going to be a hot ticket at i/o this year Google general yeah yeah it last year and because I think these companies Google and Amazon in particular have talked about how voice is the next computing platform like we're we've been through this period where mobile is the thing that's dominated the transit the transformation of our cultures and of how we communicate and how we understand the world and blah blah blah their argument is that voice and artificial intelligence is what's going to be driving next phase that's going to be the next major computing platform and so home is a big part of that for them Google assistance a big part of that them so I imagine is going to be a centerpieces here to can imagine how it couldn't be I mean it's where everybody's talking about even though Amazon's got kind of leaps and bounds ahead of everybody at this point that's yeah standard yeah it how smart can you make your home yeah I mean but the thing is I think that's the reason that it's appealing to most people echo in that sense is because it's not how smart can you make your home it's how easy it is to use for a limit like very specific things like everybody uses echo for music timers and whether than maybe traffic like it's four things and it does really well and I'm sure Google homes can do those maybe it can't I actually haven't used Google home I don't know if you guys have tried it I had trouble using it well yeah you had a test yeah really frustrating setting it up with our Wi-Fi but to be fair like our Wi-Fi is a little different than me and interntional Wi-Fi mine Evan yeah so I don't blame the Google home for that but I will say it was frustrating I was worried about the the echo dot though or just like Amazon's echo in general I don't know like how widespread the adoption like really is like I'm like the only person in my friend group that has it and the only reason why I got it because like only fifty dollars and I work in you know just feel the words like I should know like how these work and like why like you know why people are talking about them so much like I suggested them to my friend because I really liked it and really I don't know why I need this you know that's kind of the thing where it is probably going to be the future at some point I think people probably had the same mentality when it came in like the first iPhone or like the first smartphone was I why would I need my phone go online no I think that was a mentality with mobile phones maybe not with iPhone because Apple is such a follower like you know what do they call it fast follower or they take something that's already become like a thing that's got traction and make it perfect give the old Apple spit-shine yeah exactly um but I remember I mean when mobile phones were becoming popular a lot of people were like why the how do you need to reach me all the time yeah kind of like I still say that to people so yeah Josh in the chat thinks that Google needs to add an echo dot yeah confit that's what I'm saying like if they made one that was like $50 I guarantee you like like that comp gap in between like Google and like Amazon on this would would like clothes like so quickly yeah because the problem is they're not in enough homes and you know not gotta up the D competition yeah and the thing is like at that price like you can't justify to somebody like why they need this for their home yeah unless they're like already got money to blow otherwise it's just like that's again like I said that's the only reason why I bought the echo dot like it was like $50 I don't like them yet I mean that speaks to one of Google's previous like homerun hits from an IO which was when they first don't filled chromecast you get it for $35 you can get a year of Netflix free I think or was it three months of Netflix weeks you basically like they're basically giving them away for it for free and those things became ubiquitous yeah you look like in six months you gonna you look at all the Google things that have like caught on from like IO that like are late hit and then you look at the price tags on them and like that's obviously like a huge factor on it like even yeah like Google cardboard which was like free in some cases and like five dollars if you like really wanted one and I see them like everywhere they're like given out at like 7-eleven and stuff but yeah chromecast - that's like my go-to like birthday present - yeah it's 35 dollars but like it's like so helpful for people right there's nothing like pejorative about having a product that's priced and cheaply if it's not a bad product like Apple's special and Samsung is special with their phones because people have already realized that it's worth paying hundreds of dollars to them it's worth not paying hundred dollars for the later downgrade you know what a real that might be kind of cool for for like if Google did want to come out their version of like an echo dot hmm so you know the chromecast like audio where you can just plug it into a speaker and it turns it into like a Bluetooth speaker right if they're a little make something like that but like also make it like a smart speaker mm-hmm that would be like yeah really useful and what I mean I enjoyed the Google Play experience that ecosystem I subscribe to it I use it I've used it for years there's like cloud backup my massive library yeah I would love to be able to take my entire to go on a thumb drive right more or less like that's kind of how they because that's the thing like I like you said like the Google ecosystems like perfectly fit for someone that where it's like if you have YouTube bread or if you have like YouTube TV I would not be able to do that from like my echo to my chromecast because they don't like to play nice with each other but if if Google had something that was like around the same price point and then I already have my chromecast and I already have my Android phone and all these things like they would all work together so well and then as opposed to like oh you can't do that because Amazon doesn't like YouTube like that kind of it's just frustrating it sounds like David in the chat wants Google to go ahead and skip an Amazon step and go right to the the echo show and put a touch screen on knowing no you're sure I'm just you already know I didn't feel about this but I'm just going to say it again where like I still think that's like one of the weirdest or like dumbest decisions on Amazon's and it's a smart landline it makes no sense no yeah but their phone was pretty bad too I mean yes we did which is not what at that point it's not one of the words because I've had so many bad yeah it's I think part of the reason is that it's look if you have $230 to blow then go ahead sure like you can like video chat with your friends but you know what else you can video chat with your friends on yeah a laptop a phone that's I think there another failure was the Google glasses yes however Jer Jerell I'm I apologize Jarrell in the chat is asking he wants the Google glasses back what do we think about that all right while we're at it calling us everybody else what's your wish list for this year we're just kind of burned in time because the stream is about to kick off and then we're going to send it over to our team in San Francisco and they're going to lead the charge on that so we appreciate your being here with us as we all kind of collectively speculate well what does he want Google glass in like the same form factor though like those little weird well I want Google glasses back well the thing that's I mean one of he kind of alludes to a point made me that he's not trying to make but I'm going to just extrapolate sorry but Google glass never really got a shot like it was only always just a development product like it was never even though you could order them and you could be whatever they call them explorers like you could be an explorer with Google glass yeah Emily a trial program yeah it was a trial program from the beginning and when they realized that they were the trial was like crashing and burning they never made it a consumer product like a legit something that you could just go out Iram art of your life one of my professors like was part of that little program and I tried it out for a day and it just you just like imagine trying to talk to somebody or there's like looking like yeah at the top left corner the whole time and like they're not talking to you or they are talking about they're not looking at you and it's just like it hurts your eyes it hurts to like talk to other people I don't know if they're going to bring it back that it has to be a completely different form factor because the way it is now with like a headband with a little like shard of glass on the top corner like just did not look cool at all yeah but I think that a lot has changed since then I mean that when did google glass come out that was two years ago three years ago a lot has changed since then I mean it's only been two or three years but in that time like VR headsets didn't exist until about a year ago as a publicly accessible product and people look still look dorky with her wearing VR headsets but they look less dorky now I just want VR head touch to look cool like ski goggles looked cool in like the 90s when people would wear them like up top here without like Webber Magnum oh yeah like Method Man did that all the time and Redman and it was so cool that's subjective I just want the VR like just in that fashion I think we were getting a bit of a hive mindset going on in here at Simon Cross seems to agree with you I said he says I need to be able to connect a set of speakers to both my chromecast and chromecast Audio then I can go the go hole home on audio at home imagine Sagi oh jeez I lost it I lost at Google seems just uh seems to stay with only one form factor unfortunately I agree with Alfred that they need a cheaper Google home I think they are largely on the same page it's like eight things that's why I bought the the Kindle Fire tablet to the seven with the fifty dollar one just because it's cheap just give me cheap stuff that works well that's like that's my like bottom line like if it's cheap and it works fine like I'm buying it like he brings up a good pain point about echo where echo really fails is that you can't connect your dots or your echoes to each other throughout your house yeah not really like if you want to be playing and I could be wrong but as I understand it you can't be playing like if you're in your bedroom and you're playing your music on that echo and you go down your stairs to your kitchen you want to just keep playing that oh you can't do that with with Amazon product expression which is really frustrating I think for a lot of people may be awesome though is it the same with Lana to that you have it follow you like yeah and they're like why can't she just do that that's one of those things that I think normal consumers maybe there's a technological reason why it's really difficult or maybe there's a reason why they don't want to do it economically it's better I don't know if I could like where the music as it plays back on your head and I don't know just aside uh yeah that'd be really cool if Google came out with something like that like like a phone for your head phone heads phone heads yeah that'd be really cool that would be my gown like that I would spend easily like two three hundred dollars for those if you like Coneheads we have to wrap it up soon because uh the getting ready to kick off the i/o coverage in that in our SF office but I wanted to bring up I think josh has an interesting point here in the chat Google can take the market that snapchat tried to start with the spectacled I'm assuming he's falling down on the lines of the Google globe with spectacles those are specifically only glasses as thing was only captured yeah with Google glass they had all the bags and then some it's like we're going to you can see maps on and you can watch you can get text messages on you know all these things whereas respectable is like just capturing so that's the thing like you didn't have to like look outward at any direction like you looked at indirection you want to record glass like you have to look at like what you're trying to see on the little screen so that's kind of like the awkward point of it but a lot of changes yes so I think people are more accepting of smart glass now and I think and make them look cool like this like snapchat that was spectacles yeah also subjective but yeah I think I think they'd have a hit if it like actually looked decent a couple of quick wishlist notes for the upcoming i/o from Michael Brown in the chat revamp Android TV and new Android wear features I'm interested it's interesting how much I'm seeing about the Android wearables in the chat right now and not a whole lot of specifics but a lot of chatter about where they could go with that and that would be an interesting angle for them to take Michael also says Google should expand on its plan on messaging more messaging yeah let's have 200 apps to chat with people so we got in here in this office we have hangouts and then we're using slack and then we're also getting text messages Walkman well no there's like Google's like just Google there's like our duo hang out it sounds like there's a Winter Soldier hello duo hang out god yeah that's my point that they have so many of these asian cars but with with wearables i do think that it's really cool that they're trying to bring like more elements of google assistants who like their smartwatches if that seems like the perfect place to add it it is perfectly to have it for sure yeah all right we got to cut it off because they're going to start kicking things off over in San Francisco thanks everybody for hanging out with us early today speculating about the upcoming i/o stick around here they'll be starting up the new stream in just a few minutes and then it'll be kicking it right over to the Google coverage streaming it right from CNET YouTube livestream so on so forth and thank you all so much want to send us out Alfred I definitely do anyway thanks for checking us out again if you like us the 369 podcast is available on iTunes TuneIn stitcher SoundCloud Feedburner Google Play Music and of course cnet.com alright take care everybody hang out and they'll be back with Google i/o shortly you