Gadgetory

good morning on wednesday october fifth it's time for episode 117 of the 359 podcast with rock not Roger Cheng with Ben baj juven and Alfred Aang thanks for joining us everybody how are you guys doing today okay I when was the last time I was even on the show I don't remember how this works you were on the show before yeah whoa I used to be I used to be the co-host okay yeah now it's now we've rotated people in which I'm very happy about I get to go home and just sleep on the couch I guess it's no longer a burden on your life it's thank God yeah absolutely so today we're gonna be talking about the Google pixel again Alfred wrote a great story about verizon exclusivity deal that they have in the u.s. we're also talking about a new park with Amazon it's called prime reading wrote about that this morning and the last story is about the samsung galaxy note 7 because we can't do a podcast without mentioning those guys it's blown up it is not i but this story hit yeah so like with every other show sending your questions and comments and we'll get to them Brian will get to them at the end of the podcast four minutes from now and I guess we should get started let's do it here we go let's take it off in three two welcome to the 359 where we talk about the top tech news of the day plus whatever crap we want to throw in I'm Ben Fox Rubin imap4 dang first in a throwback to the olden times of the phone biz Google is locking itself into an exclusivity partnership with verizon for its new pixel phones so i offered you wrote about this today does this make sense is this a good idea for google um well Google is actually getting the most out of this deal you know they're going to be able to get their phones in stores which the Nexus wasn't in people can go in and you know pick them up feel them test out that camera that Google has been bragging about they're also getting you know verizon's customer support from it they're getting distribution they're getting all these deals that you know Google can't provide you know if I go to a verizon store I can trade in some of my phone old phone ones for three hundred dollars off that's pretty small yep you're not going to be able to get that from google itself I mean if you don't want to be tied down you know you can still get it unlocked you're just going to have to pay full price for it or get project get it with project file and pay about 27 bucks a month plus Google's plan so it's not a complete lockdown kind of like how it was with the motorola droid which was really the beginning of Google and verizon's relationship so Google is getting the most out of its verizon gets basically look at this crazy you know awesome phone and were the only ones that have it if you want it up straight with a carrier with you know a pretty good deal that comes with it too so verizon also talks a lot about how its data network is one of the strongest there is out there and with the Google pixel they have google assistance so you have to ping the cloud a lot to actually get that voice assistant working and it also has unlimited photo and video storage at like full resolution do you think that that's a reasonable talking point or do you think that that's a good idea or is that going to get people tagged actually by the pixel because it's going to go on the verizon network and you know they're claiming that their data is the best I think that's why Google you know specifically picked verizon for this exclusive partnership I mean any other network that's not as reliable as verizon you know Google assistant might not seem that enticing to them where it's you know oh it's not working something's messing up here I think Google wanted its rollout of this very coveted AI program to you know work right out of the box and I think that's why it was kind of hey let's go with verizon on this exclusively yeah we'll see if it dies next amazon rolled out yet another new perk for Prime members called prime reading which offers a rotating selection of about a thousand ebooks as well as magazines & comics it's a smaller benefit than like prime day or the unlimited free shipping but it's just another reason to try to get people to keep reupping their prime membership do you think that that would do it for you as far as like okay keep taking my money every year well I already have a prime membership I also buy ebooks a lot I'm interests to see what the selection is so far I haven't raised mohabbat yeah I haven't really seen that much that that's impressed me I don't know I i think you know most people already are buying the books that they want and then I if this is a I don't I don't really see this as being a perfect you know oh I gotta get on Amazon time now yeah I wouldn't think so either and last a chicago-based casting agency has posted a call for current or former owners of the note 7 the samsung galaxy note 7 to share their experience with the galaxy note 7 the note 7 recall and their overall experience with Samsung why this I feel like this ad campaign is going to blow up in their face that is a pretty good college Hey look at all these devices that messed up please come tell your story about I don't see anything positive really compelling it could be really compelling I'd like to see what it actually looks like so anyway if you want to read more about these stories check us out on cnet on Ben Fox Rubin I'm out for dang thanks for listening uh late to the game but but don't thanks that was nice I like that a lot I'm interested in this amazon reading yeah i mean i'm a pretty dedicated prime user shipping videos everything as am i and i'm already subscribed to comixology which they are yet they only gal like comics and ebooks netflix for common yes well it's not netflix for comics it's just a digital platform for your subscriptions so i'm opting into specific issues but there are they have comiXology and limited out there now and that's like netflix where you're paying like a flat fee for a month for archive of available titles yeah i don't know how much they'll be you know people will be using it for the books as much but I mean the comics and magazines part that might be interesting yeah but even that is a rotating selection and I think they were really promoting the ebooks portion of this where it's about a thousand ebooks right and then in addition to that we're going to have a rotating selection of some light like sports illustrated National Geographic Traveler I think there were just the and also by handful of comics I don't know the comics off at the top of my head but some of them were in the press release so I I wouldn't really get too excited about this specifically if you're like crazy about comic books but i don't know maybe if you find one of them in the rotation that you're really into you could check it out I would say that I kind of feel like this is a bit of a ploy on Amazon's part to get you to get Kindle unlimited which is a ten dollar a month service with over a million ebook so if you actually look at the kindle app where you can c prime reading now they they they constantly reference like Kindle unlimited they have like Kindle unlimited branding all over the place so it's kind of a reminder to Prime folks like hey like this thing exists maybe you want to use it and that's a decent enough incentive though especially for a power reader somebody who's just constantly reading and forgives of us who have longer commutes in the morning taking public transportation this might be really good program I'm definitely interested hmmm curious as if to anyone in the chat is interested as well let us know if you think you might opt into that know what else did we talk about today yeah I'm already checked out cuz I'm not after today for this week sorry guys I got I got you have I've got comic con on the brain I'm there tomorrow you know what I'm curious about is if any of anyone in the comments would actually appear in this advert for samsung oh yeah all are you know note 7 owners out there who I've seen in the comments before you know when we warned them you know hey if you have one with the defective battery please return it there were all these comments no I'm fine I don't care Evan you know I just want to see like I just put it in a baking tray didn't everything it's all good you know how many of them would actually appear in this advert I'd be interested to see I would if I was a note 7 owner I absolutely and I was in the Chicagoland area I would because if you're chosen for it you're paid like six hundred dollars or more so you at least like get back the money for I don't know like the the pants that they've burned off of you or whatever it's enough to buy a pixel yeah yeah someday for your new phone that's not a no 7 this is not completely related but did anybody see the latest Grand Theft Auto mod oh yeah where they modded the grenades and the Samsung no sevens oh really yes that's pretty brilliant yeah they like that a lot the gift that keeps on giving yeah yeah do we have any questions today not really people are talking about pricing and the Google home and going back and forth about the pixel yeah I'm still I'm into the pixel idea that might be my next move on I need to upgrade again are you gonna get it through horizon though are you getting it unlocked I'm gonna have I'm probably gonna do it unlocked because I'm eighteen t well not only that but like they actually add some bloatware if you lie directly through verizon Alfred you mention that in your story so that was the biggest issue that I had with it to be honest yeah it comes with it comes of go 90 my verizon and verizon messaging which is I've never even tried verizon messaging I've been a verizon customer since like I was in college which was a very long time ago apparently so I didn't even know what is verizon messaging have you tried that is it any good I have it on this company phone because i have a galaxy for that you know seen i gave me it's it's just like a whole cluster of things I I just use google hangout on it just to talk and like facebook Messenger because one none of my friends have my number on this anyway oh yeah and then so it's just like all online stuff but I just looked at and like I had already been getting spam messages on it like the day so I was not a fan of verizon messaging it's unfortunate that it is going to come with the pixel though if you sign up with verizon which is the exclusive carrier just because the pixel is supposed to be and google phones in general is supposed to be this pure Android experience free of bloatware and now here's all these apps that are by definition bloatware so yeah yeah but it has a headphone jack this is which which I guess we'll get some people pretty happy about it today yeah I'm actually pretty impressed by I I like want to get my hands on a pixel I think the problem is is that one of the last major phones to do an exclusivity deal was the fire phone I think we AT&T and it completely flamed out it did really really poorly so my expectations are not that high that this thing is going to really be a blockbuster at least out of the gate it looked pretty cool it looked pretty good but you know it's still got to go up against the Samsung Galaxy s7 the iphone and nobody even knows what the pixel name is at this point like folks like us do but it still has a long way to go to really get a lot of recognition of them yeah they Google today actually took out a huge ad blitz in newspapers so I guess kind of spread the word if you look at the new york times today it's like a whole like cover like four page press that like literally wraps around the times do you read the physical newspaper i saw a tweet of it okay good wow I was good you almost scared me and be like we need to send Alfred de la spells are all this guy hey do we have any idea when some of the Google home products are gonna actually start coming to international markets specifically India I was so focused on pixel yesterday that I did not I was not that focused on the Google home I had written about it in the past but no I don't know the answer to that okay off the top of my head we have a really fantastically dedicated Indian audience and they're a little bum that they're not getting chromecast ultra and Google home products right away so yeah yeah i think the pixel is going to be coming to india the pre-orders start if i remember correctly october 13th 13th or 14th it looks like yeah some of the the chatter going back and forth yeah but with the Google home I mean if the Amazon echo is any indication the echo existed only in the US market for more than a year or a year and a half before they ported it over to the UK market when they had to do a handful of different things like you know like Alexa spell color you know and like color had to have a you in it in the UK market so as you can imagine like bringing it to different international markets there are all these additional nuances that you have to add into these assistants I'm not saying Google can't do it I just know that with the echo it did take a little bit of time so sure yeah yeah do we have any idea case manufacturers are starting to work on the pixel models specifically like if otterbox is going to make a case i can't imagine they wouldn't I would hope so yeah there's already cases out for it like that's that was part of the original leak yeah when it happened in you know the one was from a case company and then verizon's offering these like live cases whatever it's kind of like interactive with your with your pixel so one of them has like a Google Earth kind of thing where like you put it on and it shows like it like sets a live wallpaper for you on your phone and all this stuff I hate those yeah so it's not only exclusive deals I kind of kind of add yeah they did show off a handful of like pretty cool-looking cases yesterday but I think a lot of them were directly through google yeah right I imagine yeah for now but yeah yeah yeah there should be I mean if it if it takes off and it does well yeah you're gonna see a ton of cases for this and it looks a lot like the iphone 6 and 6s and seven frankly so I don't see how it would be that difficult we have a case around it do you think it really looks alike though like that hold back it's like how about yeah not the back but the general form a Fed is definitely very similar but like different forms can you really take on I'm totally I agree with you I agree in in that sense but um I think that you know I don't know too much about the nexuses but I feel like the Nexus is didn't look as much there are more square they had like uh more like edges you haven't yet and instead of like a round like a circular kind of thing I definitely like the circular look more yeah then again i also have an iphone so do you think androids next update will have the same google now like the pixel comes with what the nougat update I think so I allegedly I think we kind of talked about this we kind of touched on it yesterday about if there's going to be any retroactive firmware updates for like the Nexus phone they will and they will do it for the video signal sent nexuses I don't think they're going to go beyond that but I think they're only I don't think I think like other android phones might be out of luck he has one re dr you guys is aware of any heating issue with the 821 processor no not two minds that is that something that's already being rumoured somebody's asking about it in the chat I I have not heard anything either so I know with previous Qualcomm models they had a lot of issues with overheating I haven't heard but that was while it was on the chips beat so I was much more aware of when it was happening but it turned into you know a full-blown controversy I believe with the 810 or the 820 when they tried to move away from that processor as quickly as possible even though it was in a bunch of flagship phones from last year I haven't heard a single thing about the a21 but then again I haven't been covering chips the way I used to Snickers bar Jamal that's a great name by the way says he's mad that the pixel isn't coming bundled with the tango software being that it's a flagship phone and giving it to lenovo fab to pro i know about three of those words what do you know about the tango software it's times like these i wish roger was here he would probably be able to answer a lot of these questions a lot better so he has a money start over yeah he has a much deeper knowledge on like every like phone ecosystem see how one good thing is is that what is it withdrew verizon this comes with date that like the daydream vr headset yeah if you preorder it before the before the release date you can get a free day dream with it which I'm excited jhansi had to see to it I think it's like luxury google cardboard so i can live with that I'm looking forward to I think the controller things got a cool feature I was really into that like space shooting game that they showed off I don't know you were it was like furiously writing the pixel story I had to like jump off like I didn't maybe I should go back and like watch the rest of it because for me the Google home is like a really like fascinating concept i think that right out of the gate it is really going to give the ecco run for its money and will solve the venture into what do you think about the google assistant voice some are criticizing for being too robotic um it's a machine i don't i don't understand why people always think like oh it needs to be like a human voice you might disagree with me on this one I just I think it weird when like oh you know it sounds like a human being I'd rather it be robotic to be honest so you know that it's not the comfort challenge before becomes Hal 9000 uh Snickers bar Jamal cleared up tango was augmented reality I didn't even know that oh thank you very much Snickers bar Jamal will keep an eye out for that for sure yeah it's it could potentially be something that they had in some time later again if pixel is something that takes off I would mention too that I talked about this a bit in my story that there's a big potential frenemies problem that if the pixel does in fact turn into a blockbuster phone and I'm not saying that it will then it turns into this complicated issue with LG and Samsung and HTC and all the different phone makers that use Android software all of a sudden they're at a luck with their primary you know OS menu be there are 0 s providers yes what are they going to turn to exactly that's it turns into a complicated situation for them because there isn't another option out there like it's not like iOS as all of us I mean it'll just make better hardware that's yeah it's a marketplace there's competition ooh that's this harsh what stuff ok ok there are world you always hear I guess that's true make a better OS yeah i mean like they have a right to complain though to google to be like look you guys are stealing our market share but i can say sicily although it's their own product and their own OS well again I don't know that the pixel is really gonna take off so yeah if but it could be it could create complications for Google if it did I guess that's all i wanted to mention but yeah I mean I can understand that I you know companies that are upset that you know this google you know who made their their OS or now you know beating them during yeah yeah yeah so yeah so let's close it out with one last compare and contrast we want to know what the difference is between google assistant and google now and then take that beyond a compare and contrast them to the performance of Syria or Cortana okay I can deal with that Google now from what best I know about it was kind of the precursor to the Google assist I think that they're going to sunset Google now and it's going to turn into Google assistant you're going to be if you're a google person you're going to see a lot more of google assistant and a lot more places the pixel is going to be the first phone that's built in with google assistant they're also going to have google assistant in the google home and they're probably going to find a lot more places to put it so you're going to they're not going to focus as much on Google now they might use google now I think it has like the different like cards you're probably still going to see those as far as like you know for like what the weather is or like a sports games and different things like that for four different voice assistance it's I found that it's fairly subjective it really depends like what you tend to use it for I've been pretty disappointed with Siri for years and I use her a lot with Cortana I haven't used that as often but from what I heard it seems to be pretty good a lot of it really has to do with voice recognition and then in the back end how good that voice recognition is with finding what it is that you actually want so my expectation is is that Google system is going to be one of the top ones really really quickly because that's google's bread and butter I think the Amazon Alexa is also pretty good for what it does but it still seems to be pretty limited compared to Google assistant an assistant will still respond to ok Google yeah yeah of course I would think so yeah but you could also like I think you press the home button yeah oh that's great yeah yeah I pretty much only used it to set timers yeah the the pixels getting a lot of criticism about its design people pointing out the chin and some people aren't too thrilled with the name of the phone let alone blandness of Google assistant and I just had it wrong with tae shin I don't every phone as a chin these day said this one specifically too big and I just had a thought the next model for the Google pixel phone baleno the leno okay that's not about Axl for extra Leno yeah just lean into it just own it and I wish I astron I am confused by the pixel name I do agree with the branding of it I don't understand why they couldn't have just left it as nexus just quit I don't understand like the there's always some kind of like symbology or something behind Google's names words products right and I don't understand like they're they're gonna have to explain pixel to me on this one I don't get it I know what a pixel ways I don't understand how it fits into the branding on this new device so fair enough ad the other day or sure google has a history right down to their actual namesake of them a little abstract with their title mine I like the name pixel you know we've just we've come to accept the google to and no one knew what that was in the beginnings yeah but it did it did have yeah I some sort of like as you said like like there was a definition because it has a good camera maybe that could we could argue for that that's probably the most logical that's the only way i can think of house I don't you think they should they pull the name out of a hat to sound it's part of the alphabet as like we didn't have something with a pea yeah that's entirely possible actually that is definitely possible all right let's uh let's wrap it up let's do it all right if you liked what you saw or heard check us out on cnet com the podcast is also available on itunes tune in stitcher SoundCloud feedburner google play music and of course on cnet com i'm going to say that again alright thanks for watching and we'll be back tomorrow so thank you guys you