Gadgetory

welcome to the 359 I'm Alfred Inge I'm Ben Fox ribbon the European Union hit Google with a record-breaking five billion dollar fine over android antitrust practices on Tuesday the reasoning is that Google's got a stranglehold on the mobile phone market thanks to its agreements with phone makers like Samsung and LG they're completely dependent on Android and the agreements require them to have default apps like Google search the Google Play Store or Google Maps Chrome YouTube installed on their the you worry is that Android further deepens Google's dominance with apps and its own services I mean if you think about it Android is the most popular mobile OS out there and these phones can't really exist without Android and for them to do it they have to have Google's apps the EU argues that that gives Google and Android a unfair advantage and Google CEO sundar pichai said he would be fighting this do you think that Google really has a chance at appealing this or do you think that this is like kind of an open-and-shut case they obviously have a chance in appealing it it's a very complicated issue and sundar I think accurately referenced in his blog post today the idea that bundling your services or your apps today is very different than it was 20 years ago so the United States versus Microsoft which looms large in this particular case where Microsoft was bundling Windows with Internet Explorer and eventually had to settle that case with the United States government that was an entirely different situation the Internet's was still in its infancy and it was really hard to download different types of web browsers like Internet Explorer or what was it I think it was that statement opera those different guys so is it really depends whether regulators are gonna see that as a big difference that you could switch up your apps or your browser is much more easily these days well speaking of Google and it's expanding power my best friend rich naiva our Google beat reporter had a scoop yesterday reporting that the Ness CEO stepped down after a tough transition under Google Ness rejoined Google five months ago which originally was its own smart home company and employees at Nets complained that their CEO was more of an Operations Manager than a leader and they wanted somebody who had who had taken bigger risks with their products they didn't want like more mediocre just kind of like middle of the aisle kind of products from from nest and I'm just curious like how much crazier our smart home profits when Google really gonna get now like under new leadership I suppose that's a good question nest has really had a lot of stories written about it for a couple years now that they've had leadership problems and operational problems haven't been coming out with enough products or the right products or innovating enough maybe this change will help them continue to move forward but it seems like they're constantly in the process of shaking something up so that seems like an issue I also forgot to mention his name during this introduction it's a Marwan foz and is the I think my bigger question is also you know just they had a lot of problems with him right yes yeah and yeah I think you hit it off pretty well from riches story that they saw him more as like a nuts and bolts operations person person which maybe nest needed at the time but a lot of people were really probably hungry for the leadership and the vision of Tony Fadell that started the company and helped create the the iPod and was a big part in developing the iPhone when he was at an Apple so he was like probably much more of a big thinker I'm kind of guy and you know finally Amazon's 36 hour prime day is finally over they were projected to make what like 3.4 billion dollars from the yes from like the day and a half of sales one estimate was that it was going to be three point four billion dollars in sales which is staggering considering that it's in the middle of July well away from the holiday shopping season so how do they do you have three seconds by the way they they hit all the numbers as expected this is this is the third year where they had a record and more people joined prime than any day in previous history the company is growing so quickly though that a lot of these stats are probably going to get lapped eventually or pretty soon probably in the holiday shopping season anyway alright only 20 seconds over but you know that's it for us today thanks for listening and check us out on Sina I'm Alfred I'm Ben Fox Ruben thanks for listening I said thanks for listening and with that might rhythm is shot that's a great idea you better keep that out of it thank you everybody as always for joining us for the recording of the podcast I said thanks for listening we'll be taking your questions and comments now submit anything you want to know about Amazon or nest or the guy with the most wacky Elmer Fudd name I have ever heard in the history of everyone follow my one follows sorry I shouldn't make fun of people with speech impediments but this job dude yeah yeah not nice what the hell the other element that I wanted to mention about the Android thing is you know Google is an enormous ly profitable company they obviously can be able to afford these staggering fines there was another fine from the EU last year related to Google's services that was like 2.7 billion dollars so the financial impact is one thing the real question is is the EU gonna force Google to change its business practices and therefore and create an opening for rivals so that's something that I think people really should pay attention to in the future as opposed to these fines because the fines to a certain extent are limited and it's something that you know Google writes a giant check and you know now they they can move on with things yeah I don't think this is a fun that they're really gonna just be like oh let's just write a check for it though I don't really know there's a lot of money I agree with you they're definitely gonna fight it but if the EU decides to just focus on financial impact it's not actually going to change it I think it's not going to change their business practice I mean like Windows Phone and Blackberry I don't think well they did have their fan bases and seeing something like this kind of makes me wonder how would things have shaken out differently if Android had another major competitor it wasn't just iOS because iOS is more of a premier or more of a premium product it's only through Apple and it doesn't have nearly as much market share yes yes okay thanks let's take a question from Eric oh s--- it's not really a question as much as a statement they need a one trillion dollar fine that sounds kind of hard why [Laughter] from nesrin now the net now that nest is a proper Google home team part do you think nest will announce new products at the next pixel hardware event I think Google will announce new products that you know that nest will be like compatible with I mean after they had merged there was that story that that came out that they were working on a like a Google home like enabled like thermostat kind of thing we're like you could talk to it as if it were a Google home as well I think you can expect to see a lot more of that in you know future nest products but I I do think that they're trying to make this more like Google branded as opposed to like nest yeah that's just me when it comes to hardware I think that it's pretty difficult to make like a really quick pivot so all these leadership changes can't possibly be good for the company and they're not I don't think that they're gonna come out with something new in the immediate term but the hope is to create a good foundation to have better stuff moving forward that's what I would expect to see next question coming in from syringe Oi whatsapp CEO stepping down over privacy issues now nest CEO stepping down does this feel like a trend for companies bought by tech giants I mean I would make the argument that those were two completely different cases though true that being said like when whatsapp was bought I mean this guy is stepping down with like 1.3 billion dollars so I don't really know money yeah I don't really see the parallel here for him and yet for him it was more of like a moral issue whereas in this case this guy was so this guy the the Ness CEO this is the second like Nessie oh because the original founder had already stepped down after Google bought them so this was somebody that was put in by Google right and then and then as people didn't really like yeah and we're like look we got a we don't like what he's doing I don't like what's going on here we feel like we're coming out with mediocre products going back to what syringe I said though I think it's pretty obvious that like if you agree to sell your company you're probably not gonna be there either you're either gonna be one of those founders that's gonna leave after you your stock vests or maybe maybe you get ridden out whatever but like it is no longer your company as much as there's a claim that like we're gonna buy you but it's gonna stay independent yeah I mean like when the rubber meets the road like they bought your yeah I almost never see that scenario play out when like I mean they buy the company and then they stick around for the rest of like that companies like incarnation I mean it happened with like Instagram when they were bought it happened with oculus when Facebook bought them whatsapp now that we've seen so yeah i really don't i don't i've never really seen them like sticking around after they've been bought i'm is they got i'm sure their money yeah i'm sure there are cases when the founders do stick around but more often than not founders do tend to be serial entrepreneurs that want to go and start something else and that is generally what ends up happening like Andy Rubin is a good example yeah to where he's the Godfather of Android after Android ended up getting scooped up by Google now he's off to doing essential so he's always up to new stuff too so in a lot of ways that's really good for tech industry and the economy that these really smart people end up recirculating and developing new stuff serial entrepreneur that sounds like such a skeevy corporate evil side doesn't it sorry it's a term that I've heard a lot and it's it's a just launching and taking some breakfast foodies it's a breakfast food that I'm also working on with Alfred so I hope people buy it where it's the opposite of avocado toast right it's it's worth I'm launching a Kickstarter later today so look look for that it's basically as useful as a child-size submarine it's it's Captain Crunch but with like a tiny Elon Musk faces instead so here's a question from Timothy do asking isn't that the OEMs problem of adding more browsers not Google's issue the the argument from the EU is that the OEMs are too beholden to Google and are required to preload a lot of Google services yeah and that bundling creates an anti yes it's not that there's not enough browsers out there it's that all these phones that are coming out even though there are no em they have to have Chrome on it or they have to have YouTube on it and the argument is that like they shouldn't be like be allowed to do that right and even though you can very easily swap out apps again from the --use perspective it's the path of least resistance for customers and if you've already got Chrome on your phone you're probably just going to use that and not switch to firefox or another competitor again those are the e use arguments not mine but that's that's kind of what their position was from and da inserts shut up and take my money mean for your breakfast Kickstarter so Ben you're off to a good start oh sweet all right that is great news I can't wait to sell on them be fired here's another one from Eric owes a fine needs to be high enough to hurt you which at this point seems kind of difficult for somebody like Google if it's very low then that stops someone like Google from just paying a fine every year and just changing their practices like what how can they actually hurt Google and teach them a lesson like everything is a perpetual slap on the wrist when you're as big as Google or Facebook or Microsoft I would say five billion dollars it's not a slap on the wrist that's like a hefty sum of money they're like even like even though like Google is worth as much as it is like I just I'd argue five billion dollars is a hell of a lot of money for them yes and on top of that we still have to see if they are going to force them to change their business practices it's possible that they do require them to open up Android and you know but this is something that if Google appeals it could drag on for a couple of years so it's really hard to say in these cases it's really interesting to me though that all the like different moves against the tech industry have all really been coming from the EU like it's not really the US government that's been you know dropping all these like different fines and regulations I mean there was like GDP are now you know these fines there was another there was another set of fines that had come from a court in England that I wrote about like about like a month or two ago essentially about Gmail security stuff on iPhone so there it's a really interesting point that you mentioned that so I went to Peter Thiel talk a couple months ago and he directly mentioned this issue and said it's because the Europeans are jealous that they don't have any major tech companies on their continent and so they basically it's easier for them to like poke at these major multinational American companies than create their own stuff it also I mean like that's that's an interesting theory from teal it also points to the fact that the EU does not own these companies they are not on America they're not on EU soil yeah so it is to a certain extent easier for them to throw rocks at them what did it just be that wouldn't it just be that like they wouldn't be allowed to be used in EU which is a big chunk of their that way that would be a nightmare scenario for those companies and it would I don't think we're really quite there yet but that's an interesting point to mention winding down on time but let's take another great question from syringe oi who is always able to throw the slightest bit of shade at Apple in the most classy of ways will these push backs force Google to become more like Apple and start mass producing pixels for the vanilla stock experience and move far ahead of the Android competition within that's a good idea I mean like it's a terrible idea but a very interesting theory from string Joyce o pixel at this point is has a very very low market share I believe but you know I have a couple of friends that use it and like it a lot um I would welcome that just because then that would mean cheaper phones for me and like I do like the pixel a lot I think like three of my friends so 75% of my friends have pixels and they love them yeah that's nice of you to say I have an Android like a Samsung phone so I guess I'm the other 25% no I said friends oh okay I got it yeah cool mark dybul things that Google should be fine the Google of dollars I think that would be significant Chad has really turned on Google I love which by the way we're on YouTube just like just find them some more and like there's no reasoning behind it like there could be like privacy issues there could be the antitrust issues or just I don't like them and but it's just I just take more money away from them that that's it yeah yeah I mean it's the the other fine from last year for 2.7 billion dollars was was also really significant and you do wonder what exactly is gonna change with this what other ideas the EU has to find them even more I do you think it is a silly request though it's like stop putting your own apps on your own operating system that makes no sense to me I get that logic but that being said like the US versus Microsoft and was very directly related to this yeah that everything to do with creating an ecosystem with your software that bundled things and it's super helpful and valuable for the company but at the same time creates a platform where you you basically force out rivals and that's what the the regulators are at least claiming is going on in this case let's help clear up a detail for and what about Safari on iPhones that's similar to how Chrome is stuck on androids or am I totally off-base with this yeah I mean you're correct about that and but Apple maps like that that's been the argument from from Google though where they've been saying like you're ignoring the fact that like Apple does the exact same thing but the argument from the EU is that you know because Android phones are so much more popular than iOS is that like they have a dominant market position basically I mean that that's the basic argument here we're like yes like it's also bundled on like iOS stuff but I think they only have like what like a 30% share of like I believe it's an 80/20 % yes swab where 80% of the market is controlled by Android and 20% by Apple it's also different because Apple not only controls the hardware but the software and the apps like its own app like suite of apps whereas Android is offered for free to other phone manufacturers which makes them dependent and with and beholden according to the EU to Google so it's so it's a slightly different relationship obviously one more question from Nasreen Google is reportedly going to launch their own fully fledged ecommerce service in India this coming October do you think they will do the same in the u.s. too called Google Shopping Google Shopping they have it already and India only no no and you in the u.s. it's Google Shopping and you know maybe or sorry Google like Google Express it used to be called Google Shopping Express and now it's called Google Express they partner with a bunch of you know like major retailers like Target and Walmart to ship stuff maybe they're doing something a little bit more like direct in India I don't know anything about that so this is gonna start in India and I yeah but like maybe maybe the maybe this person can give us a little bit more information about the India service does this mean that like Google is going to create its own warehouses its own breasts day yeah and they're gonna and there it does this mean that they're gonna have warehouses and like their own inventory and do their own shipping kind of like Amazon that would obviously be interesting because right now Google Express like they just partner with major brands like major retailers to kind of work as a middleman you know so like they're they're more of like platform to like sell stuff from I don't know adidas we got just enough time for a couple more questions APEC asks what customers actually download different browsers and set up phones having a phone without Google Apps the be kind of empty would normal people want to take the time to do that I do I would personally yeah I think the majority of people though tend to stick with their default app when they can just because I think it follows a theory of if it's not broke why try to fix it and it if it comes already and there's no problems with you using Chrome like you really just want something that works unless you want something like specific like a specific feature that like Firefox might have or anything like that like most people really just want to browse Oh like it like i prefer chrome to safari but on my iphone like i safari works fine for me and like there's nothing like specific that i can get with chrome that like safari doesn't provide so i just leave it as safari on my iphone another example for me personally is that anytime i get an iPhone like a new one for like work or personal I usually download Google Maps because I found Google Maps to be more useful yeah for most that's yours that an apple that's the thing like unless it's like in like something that you prefer already and want to change to like let your example of Apple maps in Google Maps I'm sure lots of people do that or you know if they're driving and they know that Google Maps isn't that great for driving but ways is like they'll download that and then Waze is owned by Google yes but it's still it's not it's not a default app that comes with your phone that's true is my point so like I think that's like that's when somebody will go out of their way to download an app that's not default but otherwise like and and a good example like so for instance there are some rivals that are trying to do exactly what you're mentioning so for instance like Firefox is really trying to focus on privacy elements for its browser to try to get people to say like oh we don't want our data to get packaged and sold and us that be advertised too so Firefox is trying to differentiate itself in the market for that there's also a search engine called DuckDuckGo yes which like I don't use that much but it's interesting that they're also trying to get a little bit more attention by being the anti Google doing a little bit more privacy in their search so maybe that is gonna function as a useful rival yeah at this point both of them even Firefox I would argue or it's significantly niche compared to like Google services let's take a couple more from Chris garner why did Apple get rid of Google Maps wait that was a while ago it was but this is somewhat related I was like a default app I'm curious as to see if we think collectively we're heading towards this whole like default mentality if you're gonna start seeing phones become way more proprietary I know you just mentioned some of the partnerships that are being brewed but do you think overall we're gonna start seeing more phones that are locked down to their own ecosystems or are we gonna hopefully see a little more than fold in the industry all these major tech companies are really into creating ecosystems that you like live in constantly whether it's mobile or smart home or desktop laptop whatever and it does create a significant amount of convenience for customers that's why it's helpful to like have only Apple products for certain people or only Google products for other folks but so I don't think they're gonna become more open because it's way more profitable for the companies to just get you to keep using their services and and like only their services so if anything I think they're they're gonna try to create more of a stranglehold and take up even more of your time that's that's at least my expectation from Raheel how much is Google's net worth we can Google that I think what if Google like adjusted its like search results so it says like 80 bajillion dollars so last I checked Google was the third most valuable company in the world by like market cap by like how much their stock trades at and the market cap is currently 837 billion dollars so could for Google the other two highest companies Apple is number one and Amazon is number two Microsoft is way up there too I think Microsoft is number four I thought Amazon overtook Apple no not yet but they could they couldn't especially after all those amazing Prime Day sales yeah so I never even got anything on prime day we hope everybody at a positive prime day we Negi after and crashed it was definitely much more newsworthy than I had anticipated I mean like the glitches were fairly like surprising and much longer lasting than I love new pointment after though where it's just like oh we had a rough day hahaha don't ask us about how this happened already one more pretty much one more question from Eric OHS at this point in time smartphone software is primarily made by Apple or Google why do you think there haven't been any major new players it's been more than 10 years now that was the best baby no I don't know paid me to say that great thanks Alfred now would that set us back like 5 years what have you done I basically set everyone back to my age right I don't know what hasn't been new competitors there's been a procedure I mean look the point is is that there have been competitors like blackberry and Windows Phone are two very good examples of that and the market spoke and they decided that like those aren't as good and they didn't get enough developers to work on apps like it's hard to create a mobile platform and it basically was like a winner take most situation where there just ended up being a top two it was really really hard anymore to get in I think like think about how there aren't that many competitors and like the voice assistant market right now even though there's like everyone is trying to come up with their own voice assistant right like they've got you've got Syria you've got Alexa you've got the Google home assistant then you've got Samsung's own big speed and then you have got there's one that's like slowing my mind right now but there's there's Cortana yeah IBM started like Watson assistant there are a bunch of other small but like when you think voice assistants you really only think like Alexa or the Google home maybe Siri and like the idea is that like because these are all so popular everywhere all these developers are making skills and apps and content only for the really popular ones and then like all the other ones like essentially just gonna start fading away soon like I wouldn't be surprised if one of them just like dropped out was like we're not trying to do this anymore but hey you can use a lot on our device now instead like there it's just like it's not a game or playing for them anymore yeah one of the interesting examples is that Amazon did create a forked version of Android for its tablets and it has its own app store where you can't really get the exact versions of Google Apps because Google doesn't let you use them and it also if I remember correctly provided that forked version of Android on the fire phone which was short-lived and didn't really work out but I guess ultimately it's it's really hard even even like a like a version of Android like a significantly different version of Android it's hard to really build up enough market share to make it worthwhile are you saying fort just as like a self-censorship kind of way or what no specific thing so it's actually forked okay yeah sorry significantly changed it enough that Google's like suite of apps like they decided that they like Google wasn't gonna work yeah it's a big it's like I almost bought one for like 20 dollars and I'm just like I can't get any Android apps on this is pretty much useless you can get Android apps on them but like they're like through we are like third party stuff or whatever like the Amazon App Store is a little bit weird in that way because they forked it away from I'm just gonna keep saying forked anyway I'm really looking forward to the day that Apple shows their true colors when like they realize that Siri isn't really all it was made up to be and they've become kind of bottom of the barrel as far as the voice assistance goes and they turned into that bratty kid on the playground who's like I didn't want to play anyway boy stupid no I mean they were kind of first to afflict the voice of system stuff true but they're weak compared to the echo and the Google home yeah but they're I think they're aware of that though that for them it's more just like we don't want to collect data on people and like we think our voices system can work fine without being able to collect data on you because like I really only use mine or like set a timer or like an alarm as opposed to you know help me by like eight rolls of toilet paper or something that's like I don't type that I just let me dream I think it'd be funny if one of the tech giants turn into a spoiled brands and we don't want to do these anyways that's what I've that's what my official prediction that's coming in five years mark it down okay we're out of time I think we need to get cats back in here sometime soon you've got more than a handful of people in the chat from her heel to Bobby who want to hear about home theater stuff Roku wireless speakers which I know yeah we're coming so yeah we got to get David Katz back on the show are you talking about the Roku smart smart speakers that they announced a few days ago I believe so yeah could be a good excuse to bring cats on yeah I'll pull them out of the basement we haven't fed him in a bit so I don't know if he's okay so there was a ton of news today but if it's a little bit slower tomorrow maybe we'll try to get cats on or I don't know sometime last time I tried getting in money at pinkeye gross so yeah I'll give it to him again cats a fan favorite we should just get him on more often in general yeah that sounds good to me anyways take it home all right well you know thanks for listening again if you liked what you heard the 359 podcast is also available on tuned in stitcher feedburner google play music google podcasts the amazon echo slash alexa am I forgetting anything no see Netcom Cienega yeah thanks for listening and we'll see you tomorrow I guess thanks for listening thanks for listening but no you you