Gadgetory

and good morning on Wednesday December 6 it's episode 328 of the 359 podcast I'm BVG and your host today is the entire team Ben Fox Ruben Roger Chang and Alfred a squat goals it is important to mention that this is the last time this year that all four of us are gonna be together for the podcast we'll be back well Alfred and I are gonna be doing it next week doing it wrong I'm all for the year starting Friday but you guys we round up these guys will be around next week and then we'll be taking an extended break before CES where we will be back on the show floor actually in RFC net booth at CES with a live show and then be back after that with the audio with an audio podcast for a little while so we'll just keep doing the podcast the schedule is gonna be a little wonky little weird for the next couple of weeks so you can bear with us yeah yeah but enjoy this moment where we're all actually here it's like the last family dinner before everybody gets divorced whoo no it's a pretty dark I may start crying today we'll be talking about I mean speaking of drama we'll be talking about the drama between Google and Amazon how nice what I will be talking about what a transition Qualcomm's welcome microsoft's attempt second attempt to create more nimble laptops running on the type of processors that power your phone so they're a little bit more phone like and lastly we'll be talking about Alford's Q&A with Maggie Hassan senator from New Hampshire to talk about IOT security so as always if you have any questions leave them in the comments section Brian will pick out the best and we'll try to get them in three minutes and 59 seconds from 3:00 to welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Chang I'm Ben Fox ribbon I'm Alfred hang claws are out in the fight between Google and Amazon Google said yesterday was pulling YouTube from amazon firetv know that amazon in turn doesn't carry products at the chromecast and Google home not coincidentally these are products that compete with Amazon's own fire TV and echo line up Ben you're the story what's up with this are we are like you are fire TV customers just screwed out of YouTube now at at the moment but you know to a certain extent I guess it's at least valuable for the public to know that this is going on and Google's been going on for a while yeah have increasingly been big competitors against each other yeah Amazon has been getting more into online advertising Google's been getting more into e-commerce through Google Express so in some ways I kind of saw this as an inevitability the problem is is that the customers are gonna end up losing out like if you shelled out money for an echo show for instance you're just not gonna have YouTube on it for the time being which kind of sucks it's like a primary reason to have the definitely lose a lot more not having YouTube than you would you know not having Amazon TV or anything or like anything like that yeah like I would rather have YouTube than prime video yeah there's a ton of content there and I think Amazon did try to figure out a workaround where they just provided the web service like they just opened the web page for YouTube temporarily while they were in a disagreement with Amazon or with Google about this and Google basically is now restricting even that which is which is pretty intense and might be like the disputes between you know networks and cable company whenever there's issues over right yeah just like in that case it's really the customer they ended up losing next up we want to talk about Microsoft and qualcomm availing the first two pcs running Qualcomm Snapdragon processors now the big deal about this is it turns these laptops essentially into phones they last for 30 days on standby one of the laptops would leave the seuss one or the hp1 runs video playback for 22 hours straight that's like a huge amount of battery life you know there are some downsides it does run on Windows 10 s that's sort of the lockdown version but it does run all the core Windows apps that is a big contrast from Windows RT this is the software they unveiled five years ago that was supposed overall supposed to run on these Qualcomm processor is supposed to be lighter and more efficient and total failure yeah there are there are some cool things about this the always-on connectivity the availability to instantly wake I don't know if it's really gonna be the shot in the arm that the PC industry needs but I mean they're trying it's interesting I do I question whether people want a laptop that's constantly connected to a cellular network cuz that means you have to pay for that cognitive a right does anyone want to pay like an extra whatever 10 bucks a month for that yeah I don't know I'll believe it when I see it I mean they've been talking up this whole you know PC like that are more like your phone's thing for a really long time now and it really hasn't worked out for them in the past alright lastly offered you interviewed senator Maggie Hassan about security IOT security what'd she have to say yet she essentially she co-sponsored the IOT security bill essentially saying that federal government should have a standard of security on any internet-connected devices that they purchase right I think the biggest takeaway from her points though is that there needs to be a balance between government regulation and innovation in you know Silicon Valley but the other ideas there kind of been moving like way too fast on their expansion and it's time to slow down a bit and take yeah and take a good look at yourself and you know what are we doing here and could this have any adverse effects before you go and push through of these kinds of like new tech the idea of having basically forcing like any government purchased product to have these minimum standards because they'll be adding those standards to these products don't basically add these centers to all product yeah yeah so alright for boiling these stories check us out and see net I'm dr. Chang I'm Ben Fox ribbon I'm Alfred Inge thanks for listening and that's a cut on the recording of the audio podcast stick around everybody I'm gonna jump into the chat start fishing out some good questions and commentary or whatever you got for us in the meantime talks time talk amongst yourselves you know if that was the last show we did together for the year which it was I was I was pretty happy with it a lot information I really wanted to talk a bit more about your interview yes yes correct let's go yeah let's get into it yeah so I mean what are the odds that this thing actually passes though it's getting a it's having a hard time getting on the floor currently but I don't think because it doesn't have to support cuz it's a bipartisan bill there's like both Democrats and usual this time yes age we're like everything has to be partisan yeah I think I think the reason why it hasn't like had an audience on the floor yet is because there's I think IOT security is a very important like issue but I also think like as far as Congress goes there's there's still a lot more fish to fry out there first what one other fortunate one other area that I wanted to touch on relate to this is do you have any sense of how the tech industry is responding to this because this would be increased regulation yeah I think that it's it's it's clever from the government's perspective to direct this at government issued yeah acknowledge II so that that kind of thing restricts the focus a little bit more but also could potentially expand yeah accurate II cable yeah so she was talking about that where essentially you know they don't want to put regulations on Silicon Valley just yet they don't want to say you know if you want to sell this to the public you have to meet these kinds of standards they're so they're kind of putting on themselves for so basically if we're going to be buying IOT products they have to meet this this level of security so it's not saying you know they're not going to company say you need to be better at this it's kind of for themselves saying we need to be better with the kinds of products that we buy the hope is that because they buy so much that you know makers out there will say okay well we need to raise our security standards because if we don't like we lose the US government as a customer and they're like one of our like biggest customers out there right I would probably say that especially with IOT it's it's always a weakest link type of situation that's that's generally what ends up happening so some of the knockoffs or like lower tier players are the ones that generally get consumers in trouble we're not talking about like yeah store Amazon and these are the government's yeah that's that's where I was going for so so unfortunately I think that I mean in in the area of IOT where consumers would end up getting privacy or security issues this bill because it's directed at government-issued stuff probably isn't going to significantly impact I mean I would disagree with that I think that a lot of what the government as in IOT stuff isn't like products like Bill like you know like nest or Amazon products it's not like they're buying like a smart doorbell for like the Senate floor or something like I would love to see that the the federal government like the majority of the IOT stuff that they're buying is more so like sensors that they put in which street lights or you know like underwater to like test water levels and things like that so those are like would I would say are around the level that you're talking about where yeah it's cheaper it's cheaper it's single purpose like Security's not really built in like by design and that in that aspect so it's hard to find like name brand like sensors you know Google is not going out with like oh we've got these like water system like level testers kind of I do I do like that this is kind of they're trying to change the culture and the thinking of the industry in terms of their attitude security because what why don't we move on to some of the questions we got a couple sure let's start off with our old friend Matthew - or the - in the chat - yeah I'd like to see Amazon try to build a service like YouTube there's like kind of like kind of sort of a version that already exists there yeah they tried to get like pro-am video creators onto a certain language no it's done it now it's not a wedge which they introduced it I think it may have been last year and I don't know that it really went anywhere but it was they did attempt to try to get more pro-am video creators to start going to prime program as professional amateur yeah okay so it's so it's not like it was because like the way that they directed it it's like YouTube was more like come one come all and this one was a few more hurdles like you had to be at a certain I know Facebook's trying this but like this point there there are no other sources even close to YouTube when it comes to content you want to watch right right but it's probably good that people are basically is getting pretty close to it though I'd say yeah professional Facebook not Facebook watch but like when you scroll in your Facebook feed like what's the majority of stuff that you see video but if the video been somewhere else yeah yeah yeah it's not necessary stuff I yeah actively go to Facebook to think video ya tube is the video source my point being like it's a big blow right not having that is a huge huge deal but you see more and more of it become something of a coagulate where there are actual competitive services out there right which should ultimately be a good warning shot across the bow of YouTube right now in the midst of ad pocalypse sort of look I mean back to dachas original question like I don't think Amazon I can come up with anything even close to my eye unfortunately the closest thing that they have is probably twitch but which is specifically targeted a Vimeo and dailymotion are two direct competitors that have existed for years and they're specifically targeted in a video and I would argue that they're nowhere close to the size or scale of YouTube so even if Amazon wanted to get really really serious about video I think it's a very high bar in full disclosure - said he was being sarcastic but I don't know it was actually great question is a good question considering his sarcasm yeah I now that you've brought up the term Pro Am though I kind of want to rename the show that is kind of what we are professional amateur oh we're really good at being amateur it's very it's very definitive of how we operate uh Tammy Thompson Google money grab they are rumored to be working on a video home assistant so this will be forcing others off to force you to buy theirs you know what Tammy I didn't know that isn't that a rumor that's been out there did we just break news on the podcast we don't we never did no why would we but either way if they are planning for an echo show competitor number one that would be really interesting number two they have the capabilities so I wouldn't I wouldn't say that I think it's easy to blame Google but you feel like it's also Amazon you know is the is basically the largest online retailer out there and it's shutting out Google's eyes right it's clearly like anti-competitive reasons so you know they're neither party here is completely guilty and it's okay just to get amazon's person active out there bring it it's not clearly anti-competitive reasons their take on it wise is that they throw out Apple TV and Google chromecast two years ago because they weren't as good it wasn't as good of an experience for prime video because you couldn't actually get it sounds pretty anti-gay I'm just I'm just from a reporting perspective I just want to get you still there so partnerships what's interesting is is with Apple TV now getting prime video does that then mean that Apple TV will get really introduced on amazon.com I would probably I mean like it's totally hard to predict that though I have no idea if they would actually do it because they in some ways they've already paid the price of kicking out Apple TV good points Jesse gateman what does Google actually want from Amazon before they put the app back I think they just want to be on the store second largest retailer online retailer world's largest online reach like okay that's why you that's why you have me here it's okay so is it it's different products are they just saying like mostly they're like TV stuff like chromecast and home and all that and nest like apparently I I would have to look it up but apparently a bunch of new nest products were also bounced from Amazon Oh quietly last month and like nobody even noticed so that's the thing and and like those were apparently bestsellers so there's a lot of shenanigans I would say going on none of this is surprising to me because Amazon's been known to do that kind of stuff when they were having a fistfight with her shed the book publisher they also significantly degraded the ability to search for her shed books on its website I mean that that is amazing delay consolidation of power that's what happens you've got a retailer like that everybody goes to you they they can they have a huge impact if ya if you get on their bad side I love I love billion-dollar companies making things harder for average people because they have disputes with each other yeah I don't know that hissing match I don't know that it makes either one look good it's pretty hard it's pretty hard to like defense people and same deal like a network cable network no one really ends up winning not only that but like they both end up like they're talking points are very customer oriented that we're doing this for the customer the customer is right all this other stuff the customers sitting there being like I just spent two hundred and thirty dollars on an echo show I don't I don't care about your talking points I just want to watch what I want to watch yeah exactly and on that note do or do not there is no try awesome screen name I love Star Trek you just took the G he's broken do or do not there is no try says both Google and Amazon need to be reminded who the customer is yeah totally Emmet's themselves because apparently you know it's alright for the customer whatever they do I don't know there there are plenty of other places that you could buy those Google products I'm not saying that they don't have a point here as far as like trying to get onto amazon.com but it kind of it's pretty lousy for customers I mean I think we all are the timing of this is interesting I mean they just rolled out or Google just rolled out their their expanded line of new home Google mini and you know that was that was clearly a hot product sold at Best Buy but they were missing a big chunk of business with people going to Amazon and just seeing echoed on right that's the same price um I did ask my echo died to purchase a Google home mini mm-hmm and it offered me an echo dive really thank you and if you go on amazon.com you put in Google how mini your search more than that come out with yeah echo product so you know there's wonderful does that where like if I try googling echo dot like the photos autos like a cool whole mini they don't and and I think they get into a lot more trouble with that because that's there is Amazon's like technically doing the same thing yeah it's like my video is on store so I guess it's I don't know the problem is is that amazon has been widely seen as being searched for shopping and that's usually the first place that a lot of people go online to search for any given item because they have so many of them so III do think that there's a point to be made as far as them gaming amazon.com and you know just not including competitor I just feel like it would be more obvious I think regulators would jump on Google a lot faster if they sort of manipulating I wouldn't disagree with you but I think that Amazon should be held to a similar standard good point all rights take a few more questions before the end of the show Josh Moya do you think Google is gearing up to release an echo show or tablet of them of their own that does kind of make sense tablet I don't have I mean I think he means sort of like a kitchen table desktop type device III really we have very smart viewers because I hadn't considered that but it does make I hope they don't just because I still think the echo shows like very dumb it's dumb it could be improved upon I definitely could be a man it doesn't look great but you know I put my iPad on the kitchen like you know on a stand in the kitchen and we use kind of like what the echo show is used for you use video Chad you recipe but imagine if your iPad on the stand in the kitchen could only be that like you couldn't move it anywhere ever like it stay there it'd be useless that's where your family congregate I mean honestly I'm in my kitchen a lot and I don't like I mean I I have my tablet I piranha stand five minutes ago yeah this is also true the echo show is still pretty new so I think we're still trying to figure out who the customer is for the echo show I think families do you give any indication of how well it's done I don't think it's doing super well but I don't have a ton of statistics on that we just know very very clearly I think I do not have statistics so because Amazon doesn't really like send out numbers unless it's doing amazing yes that's correct however there's a lot of research firms don't there's a lot of third party information that shows that the echo dot is by far like the biggest one like that's that's really really strong law so my biggest thing is like aesthetically it still just looks kind of ugly to me but the show I just hate the concepts of it I don't need like a like standing tablet well unfortunately now you can't even watch YouTube on its behind it's it's just like a big heavy break that's like sitting and you know taking yeah and like I feel like YouTube is like kind of perfect for that look like the scenario that you're talking moment is just in your kitchen you can like look up like recipes on that like what am I gonna watch like top gear like in my kitchen watch Top Gear in general it sucks know what's their new show that they have read tour yes Grand Tour which is pretty yeah bring back good girls for a vault what you are chef there you go JB JB all right we're almost at a time mallum ace is Google cutting accessories Amazon to Amazon the micro version of net neutrality the idea of like cheating I guess I mean goes back to the original question you're talking about in terms of like prioritizing your products over someone I think it kind of is it's actually kind of a smart analogy because it's ideal like as a store you should technically be neutral which no sorr really is yeah I don't know I think I think the idea of the internet was like this is supposed to be something for everybody Amazon like we're a business and we can sell what we damn well please Ben's point like the idea like holding it to a higher standard that's kind of like that would be the net neutrality or holding yeah because it's I just heard the search of shopping I think the problem is is that Google gets held to that standard a lot because they're so dominant in search and searches like the entry point to so much of the Internet but for shopping Amazon is clearly very very dominant in that space right so there are arguments to be made obviously Google is making them that like why are you including our products like this isn't cool so I this is also worth mentioning that like this could potentially just be a negotiate point oh yeah Google and Amazon are probably having negotiations Google decided in the heat of the holiday season we're going to embarrass Amazon and make this look bad maybe they're gonna have a kumbaya moment at some point it seems like it's entirely possible I mean like Amazon needs that echo show to have YouTube on it and yeah nice to have it on the fire TV too so yeah I mean my expectation would be that they are gonna come to some sort of agreement I was excited it's really dampened my prospects of getting and Amazigh like a fire TV like a stick or anything like that oh yeah most of the stuff I watch is on YouTube yeah the 350 drawing live stream I know which is which is really good and the viewers again our viewers are probably the best probably the best viewers I would say so ever I mean yeah definitely - Josh boy - oh yeah Danny Green you can't find on Amazon fire TV alright just to bring us out since we are done for the week yeah and Rodgers done for the year wait wait no you lost Damon no we're back tomorrow actually today actually is today the last day we'll all be together I guess that's that is right tomorrow so sorry beer we are here tomorrow okay just because you need to get emotional it's going to be a continuing looming topic do we have any more developments about the net neutrality case I know that they are petitioning for a delay on the vote yeah information good question nothing beyond that right now I think they're still you know there's obviously a lot of movement and the kind of Pro net neutrality camped to kind of delay and to sway the republic commissioners ultimately I mean I think it's still just gonna go through there are three Republican commissioners Hopkins almost always vote anti net neutrality or anti these regulations and so but now no no concrete updates yeah delay doesn't in to a certain extent is just a short-term band-aid for that was just like I heard I said last night theoretically you know we get a Democratic president in a couple years then maybe it all swing backs the other way so that's government for you it's gonna swing yep swingers gonna swing yeah all right I think we're just about to place stop yeah so sad yeah let's keep doing this for another 20 minutes That's not me man all right you like to anything you saw her here chickens on a sea net our podcast is available in iTunes tune in stitch your fee burn google play music and the Amazon echo but no but not that is available on YouTube well I'll be the podcast is available in cnet.com by the way thanks thanks also news.com yeah news.com which we also own is that yet you done I'm done I was done a while ago these guys are just chiming in All Right see y'all tomorrow thanks everyone