Gadgetory

good morning on Wednesday February 7th is episode 352 of the 359 podcast I'm BVG and your host today our Ben Fox Rubin and Roger Chang what's up guys good morning how you doing great how are you very very calm very calm oh yeah I'm in a mellow Zen stay after watching history get made yesterday which we'll be talking about later the nice little hitchhikers guide reference I was thrown into the little car I'll talk about on the show I know what you're talking about yeah okay I know what you're talking is there is there still a live shot of Starman somewhere in outer space there is yeah I mean it was last night it wasn't last yeah yeah and we're over a hundred thousand people watching it so so check it out as you can figure out we're gonna be talking about the SpaceX launch we'll also be talking about wireless charging and how it's gonna get a lot lot better and then lastly we'll talk about uber and lame-o limos alphabets self-driving car unit and the ongoing legal battle and good ol Travis comic making headlines again so that's not the name you used for him earlier good old that's a star man right there you sure you know come on beautiful okay the show all right let's do it as always if you have any questions about these topics I'll leave them in the comments section Brian will pick out the best and we will get to them in three minutes and 59 seconds from three to welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Cheng I'm Ben Fox Raven do you have an iPhone 8 or an iPhone X and have tried out the wireless charging on it chances are you might have been a little disappointed it's a little slow you can't exactly top it off top off the battery quickly but the good news is it's gonna get a lot better our own Jessica dual-core breaks down some of the advancements coming in to wireless charging over the next year from faster charge up times to potentially sending power over the air mm-hmm Ben you're you don't have a do you have a phone with a wireless charging keep it going right you're yeah have some fun yeah yeah the SA you use it no I don't why not because like it came with like a quick charge thing yeah it works pretty well for me already and it's oftentimes much more effective than wireless charging yeah I mean they have the wireless charge thing and it costs something like thirty dollars but right I didn't really have much of a need for it right because the quick charge works pretty well already yeah that's sort of the issue and I think especially for I think iPhone users who've been excited about wireless charging just realize that you put this thing down your pad and like it takes hours to like to get how many full charge is he really oh yeah and that's because apples jumping in this a little bit late there but the standards have sort of not been finalized with point where they're they're allowing for faster charging that's going to come soon so is do you need to get air power like the new air exactly air power is supposed to work with a faster standard that's not coming out for a while they haven't really talked about when come out but there's that I think the future though is way more exciting the idea of be able to broadcast power over the air yeah you walk into this room and all of a sudden your phone or your your your speakers start charging wirelessly yeah that being said that has been a long promised thing in tech and I'll believe it when I see it obviously there are a handful of startups that are working on this technology already I mean like technically you could do this at your house right now but it's still a little bit well it's not that good I think the one reason or the one reason we're optimistic is that the FCC has approved this look there there's actually there's actually approvals and there are companies who are you know fully back to a lot of funding who are able to kind of invest in this area it's not gonna scope with phone you're not gonna see in your phone right away but I can imagine smaller devices like headphones are gonna get that capability sooner rather than later it's yeah not just a pipe dream so next up we want to talk about the spacex falcon heavy launch Congrats Elon Musk for successfully launching the most powerful rocket since the Saturn 5 in 1967 and the capper he attached a astronaut dummy driving a Tesla on the rock and you got your sea star man yeah a live feed and there's this great Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy reference right the dashboard says don't panic love that if you're a big Douglas Adams fan can really appreciate that but while this was going on live there were a handful of people watching this in the office and that's kind of like yeah whatever not interested but then I kind of got curious and checked it out later it was really cool there were the side boosters that then simultaneously landed at the same time and there were a lot of people on Twitter talking about like you know NASA used to do this we were so proud of like the space mission so you know there's all this like camaraderie around space yeah glories of it just know the event was the second biggest livestream in YouTube's history with over 2.3 million concurrent views alright lastly former uber CEO Travis cosmic is back in headlines he took the stand in day two of the uber whammo trial of her self-driving car technology one damning email know that he'd requested or uber had requested data road maps and a pound of flesh yeah which is a weird weird thing to say and when asked what he meant he couldn't really could really remember he said he said I used that term a lot yes maybe on a roll and no checkout Kent Sherman's feature on the knowledge this is the special test that drivers have to take in order to drive a black cab in London basically you're supposed to be able to drive or navigate without a map or GPS from one point to another in anywhere in central London mm-hmm and it takes years to learn and these drivers say that it gives them better insight to getting around the city than GPS for these stores or more check us out at CNN I'm Roger Cheng I'm Ben Fox Ruben thanks for listening all right thanks everybody for sitting through the recording of the audio podcast you can download that later for now I'm gonna go ahead and jump back into the chat and start fishing out some of your best comments and questions about the historical day about wireless charging so actually when we were talking about that when you were talking about that there was a video playing that we had surfaced from CES this year and I don't remember the name of that company but that's that broadcast power we were talking about yeah yeah do you recall what that is can you expand a little bit because seeing it in action was totally badass there are a couple of companies doing this sure specifically which company are French I know energist is one of them that they're they're trying to do sort of the idea is like you'd have a it works almost like a wireless modem you'd have like a central modem either table you know mounted on the wall of the ceiling and it just said it just sends out signals like Wi-Fi but it's power do you want do you want do want do want yeah alright oh you do want I do want it yeah the three companies that Jessica mentioned in her story are aasaiya energy switch you mentioned in power test oh yeah an apparently power cast was the furthest along in development and they're the ones that got the FCC approval obviously FCC approval in my perspective is really important because like you know this is a brand new technology and I think a lot of people are obviously concerned about health risk when it relates to shooting power over the air like electricity whatever so so their their argument is this is this is no more dangerous than Wi-Fi signals essentially that said it is kind of freaky the idea like power is going through your body and the health risk that that might theoretically pose yeah it depends how people really look at it if they look at it as something completely new and different or they look at it it's similar to your cell phone which is sending and receiving data and signals all the time so it's board a note that you know you're not just like wireless charging on your wireless pad right now it's pretty slow like this kind of over-the-air wireless charging would be super super slow because because they you know broadcasting more power than just our look a little bit of a trickle is would be would be dangerous so you're saying that I don't walk into a room and literally a lightning bolt shoots into my phone a physical lightning bolt yes it shocked you so much it's dramatic no it's it's the term is called trickle charge the idea is like you're just there all the time right it doesn't matter where your phone is it's just constantly getting it and the phone is smart enough to know when it's already been topped off yes so it's not trying to give more charge than your phone actually in terms of the sort of early applications of this I told like things like wireless headphones hearing aids devices are kind of small that don't but it that's tough to charge it requires constant charge that would benefit the most room so yeah so one of the ones that that I thought of that I didn't get to mention this during the podcast is like different IOT sensors they might have around in the house that might actually be embedded in the wall that you can't actually you wouldn't be able to easily change the battery at all yeah whether it's up on the ceiling or inside the wall something like that and depending on what different types of sensors you have in your house this is something that could actually ensure that the battery will just stay charged yes same with the wireless speakers right like with an echo Speaker I think imagine if it was getting a wireless charge from just something broadcast from the room you can move it anywhere there's literally no wires connected that thing anymore right so elephant in the room Matthew data points out have we heard from the hippies about how terrible wireless power is now I wouldn't use language maybe that accusatory but damn it this elephant in the room yeah how long until we find out there's some dangers associated with this that's I mean that's why I think the FCC approval is so important because they've done some of their due diligence now but things change yes you see has been wrong in the price pressure to do long term health studies for any type of things like this that sounds like they have their eyes on this ears to the ground concurrently because this is a weird kind of risky situation yeah well look it's I think it's an area that's gonna get a lot of scrutiny I would I would argue more scrutiny than normal because it is such a freaky concept I think a lot of people are gonna want to take a really close look at what those potential risks are yeah I agree and it's it's if you convey to people in the right way that it's a very low amount of power that's being fed through and and related to something else in their life I mean like everybody knows radio waves are all over the place right radios Wi-Fi raves I think that's the analogy that I keep getting I'm hearing from folks in the industry like it's it's basically like Wi-Fi if you're comfortable with Wi-Fi signals going through the room going through your body then this is the same this is basically a kin to that mmm-hmm I would love to have like a layman's chart to explain that to me because I'm not a physicist understand how power is related to a power converted into airwaves yay essentially not really sure how I think it's magic might be sorcery this is out like that right when you talk to people about it I mean just the idea that like power gets transmitted over the air that seems like kind of unbelievable if you really kind of break it down well manufactured power in the past we've been able to convert things like solar and yeah yeah but actually taking power in one place and then moving it to another it is the fascinating content yeah like one other so this would be really far out there but there is a company I think it's called solar something or other solar roads they're there they basically turn the roads into solar panels the concept of having an electric vehicle that could then be charged by the road while it's driving right yep could significantly increase the mileage and we're one of those cars in a similar application and as we talk about that toss-up between you know keeping it at a low power low wattage so that it's less dangerous and how much that is the toss-up is like what is it is it charging anything worthwhile certain joy points out what about drones like as of right now that could be a good petri dish to test out low power transmission before you apply to something like a full that passenger vehicle I would say that's a little bit tough because how do you get that especially with drones moving oh yeah I don't know how you direct the power to that drone open air that we use my own pod technology where it directs the music beamforming it beam for me that Wi-Fi over that power right call it right now 2019 buzzword beam foreign Power Beam form power again I like this stuff this stuff is all a lot of this is like wish lists kooky stuff but we'll see what's possible I mean like if if that they do end up creating a lot of movement with this it is really interesting to think of what could actually be possible with this type of technology so there's a recurring name in the chat right now you might have heard of a Nikola Tesla say this is all his dream coming true I like that imagine saw he said didn't Tesla want to give this to us a long time ago it should be fine Nikola Tesla also tried to invent the earthquake machine just pointing that out to everybody whoa if we recall that little bit of his three no I didn't even know that panel patented it being able to generate enough energy to topple buildings that is terrifying right I will say there's there's our middle ground pretty mantle crazy over the air wireless charging and just stuck on a pad there's something that's like magnetic resonance which allows it to kind of jump off like a feet or two and the idea being like you could have a charging plate on the base of your garage you drive your evey car right over it and then when you park and garage it automatically starts charging without having to plug anything in yeah I'm like the plug can be cumbersome it's not like I have an electronic vehicle or anything but right you have to like install it you have to plug it in every having something that's a little bit simpler than that might be bad so I spoke to a couple called electricity a year ago and they mentioned that they were shooting for cars in 2020 to have that capability Merilee as someone who's worked in audio engineering for 15-plus years yep kill all the cables yeah yeah here you more questions Megan Moyer will Apple be able to equal Androids wireless charging I think that's the goal with a plan yeah and especially with Erica nothing are they gonna do it yes because I think everyone the whole Apple is basing its wireless charging technology off of this cheese standard and so basically it's as soon as it catches up to the cheese standard which Samsung already kind of had a head start on and made some tweaks to go a little faster but as soon as they catch up to like sort of where do those standard it's gonna be I think they're all gonna be comparable after a while mm-hmm and then in addition to that Jessica mentions in our story that the the expectation is is that these wireless charging capabilities especially the Qi standard are eventually going to meet and then surpass wired technology right I think is pretty interesting that's not for a little while right now it's not like an immediate goal or anything like that but once you actually can do better than Wired that's when I think customers start to pay a lot more attention to it right now so right now the Qi standard is for 15 watts you able to get 40 watts so that's a lot of watts I guess so so why don't we talk about space or as tim korean command & Conquer said spiced wild dream says this was disappointing Wow heavy launch is such a failure because they lost their core booster utter failure that's pretty strong language in Johnson saying did you guys find odd and disappointing that SpaceX kept quiet about the core booster landing failure and the command center audio of its loss went viral so what is our takeaway from this is does this stain the entire process because I think by and large we were calling this a success yeah I mean losing the core booster is not ideal but I mean it was a successful launch regardless and this is this is probably one of the more significant launches in in decades right with yeah even had anything this ambitious for a long time yeah not only that but like SpaceX has also had complete failures in trying to do different launches so this was this was obviously I would probably say this is a positive takeaway for them and when when you're doing something like this that the that is so cutting edge there is an expectation that it's not all going to work perfectly yeah absolutely so we were talking earlier about a little hitchhikers Easter Egg yeah I'm pulling it up right now of Starman Ben would you like to enlighten us and what you were referencing Starman yeah there's a so the there's a YouTube video right now just a live feed of a dummy in the Tesla that you can see in outer space just kind of hanging out and there were over a hundred thousand people watching this last night now it's down it's trickle down to fifteen thousand people but if you're you know kind of bored and when I hang out with Star man in outer space you can now that's kind of cool it's kind of peaceful yes very then yeah are you seeing I'm I just caught okay now I'm getting another advertisement but baby I just saw him like just go by go by the beautiful mother earth right there yeah YouTube right now let's go and point out just low of dead center on the screen right in the middle of the dashboard where the control panel would be what's that phrase Ben panic Oh hitchhikers I haven't wait what well you ever read his records guide to the galaxy no I have I have the bug I just have I have luck I have the book I cracked it open and got as far as I I mean I feel like it would be perfect for your sense of humor there was something about like always have a towel with you yeah silly this is practical advice man it is probably zap now have you have a towel with me right now so Matthew Dodgers concerned over spaceman or star man sorry star man are we tracking him how are we sure that won't become space debris like could it punch a hole in the ISS oh that's isn't it connect the International Space Station has incurred a car accident it's attached to the rocket or the attach the rocket like so that's what I thought it or a path which has likely been pre-programmed a thousand times over yeah avoid any other potential paths that are programmed up there yes I would hope so boy does it just get released oh it goes off and we need a live stream cut away to Elon Musk's face just do you ever uh have you ever watched heavy metal no the the opening of that it's like an animated movie but the opening scene of it is like an astronaut driving like a convertible yeah yeah and it lands it and it's like this is very much like I feel like very heavy metal vibe to it right another thing the next thing that must meet the launch into outer space is a giant flying turtle okay like make everybody on acid be like wait a minute that is either is that the hitchhiker's reference or is that a Stephen King reference it's I don't even know it's like a reference to some like tapestries that I've seen on Haight and Ashbury oh okay what you've never seen flying turtle in outer space yeah reference to like I don't know what the direct reference I thought that was a music reference but for what it's worth Roger you get bonus points today for referencing a heavy metal that one is one of my favorites of all time it is gnarly as hell it is dark it is evil and you know who was from know Kevin Eastman I'm Ninja Turtle Fame oh really yeah it was a election a short story is based around characters that were developed in his heavy metal magazine if no one's ever seen it for what it's worth it's super not safer work super not safer daddy under the age of like 40 yeah is is animated but it is one of those like super dark super adult turtles by the way they're apparently making it appear injustice I was literally just watching that trailer before we walked over here to the studio shall I go ahead and bring it up sure why not whoa give me a second talking about outer space is really gone for something yeah tangents here come on who's not excited about this I'm quasi excited only because I mean I'm a big turtles fan but the game hasn't played like I'm playing a proper video gaming just my kid was born so it's hard to get excited about console games now oh come on this looks really really fun and those injustice games are solid in they are they are I've played them I played the earlier ones but I haven't playing justice to I haven't yet either but just as a geeky turtle fan you know the kid grew up in the 80s that's not sure you know what I did play well we did play cuphead and Dragonball Fighters II I played one round of ink got my butt kicked that was my my limited experience here in the office with console gaming I'm only playing I just started playing Mirror's Edge catalyst oh really yeah it was on sale if like five bucks the other day who I heard mixed reviews about it so I waited how much five bucks well it was five bucks I think was a flash sale so it's gone are the Ninja Turtles part of the DC Universe no not officially but as of late there's been a lot of crossovers there's some rumors that there's going to be a Batman into turtle movie because they've already done three Batman Ninja Turtle comic book crossovers with the current incantation now Batman is way too dark to have Ninja Turtles can be dark yeah it's been dark they started dark yeah started darker than Batman okay so by the way anybody that's checking in to the podcast right now we started by talking about wireless charging and his face somehow we have it's pretty clear Ninja Turtles pretty clear star man a very strong influence on this conversation hey we're excited again we should be excited again yeah absolutely all right I'm going one last skim across the questions to see if there's anything good to keep the conversation going but we are just about out of time what else we've got coming up that we might want to mention I wanted T's dark there occurs still in the uber wham-o trials I could go on here yeah exactly she's there now from day three you can expect a story in a few hours once the session wraps up but she's already in the trial tweeting away if you want to follow her for any updates on the the courtroom drama there yeah and definitely check out Ken german's piece on the knowledge this is part one of the two-part series he's gonna have a second part tomorrow kind of looking at some of the technology but it's just fascinating the lengths that London cab drivers have to go to actually qualify to become a London cab driver mm-hmm it literally takes years and you basically have to memorize all essential London which is crazy yeah it requires an insane amount of spatial intelligence I can only do that you couldn't do it yeah I bet you those cabbies are probably really good at chess because oh yeah and you have when you have that level of spatial intelligence usually it can you know track over into other things but you can see why those drivers would be a little bit resentful of uber drivers who basically just your only qualification is you've got to film yeah which is that's one of the issues that I think a lot of people have with those ride-hailing services yeah is that they they've just completely circumvented a lot of the other regulations so there you go yeah I mean look we'll see how the uber trial goes you know if it doesn't go over swea could have significant impact as we said yesterday and there are autonomous driving efforts and yeah well we'll keep a very close eye on that trial one thing that I was trying to allude to that you guys completely missed on is what's coming up in two weeks yeah little thing show r350 ninth episode which which is an absolutely arbitrary number whenever comes down yeah I think we do want to read somehow we made it to 359 so that's true we made that number of episodes it's pretty impressive hmm thanks to the audience thanks to you guys yes yeah we'll be doing a very very extra-special extra-long episode it'll be 3 hours and 59 minutes starts around the same time as usual 11:00 a.m. Eastern but will run for hours and we'll be on YouTube live Facebook livestream periscope all the usual places and it's gonna be crazy when we partnering with a nonprofit called mouse mouse not org which is focusing on STEM education for kids and helping to improve diversity in tech so totally worthwhile cause but we're gonna be talking about that and we're just gonna be when we hang out with a lot of your favorites the regulars you know Scott Stein Dan Ackerman Katz Meyer yeah all through all get ready for you all those guys all the experts to get all your questions that we can't answer ready since we'll actually have real experts on hand to talk about all these things gadgets tech issues all that stuff I mean we got four hours to kill so so what a lot it's Wednesday February 21st yeah tell your friends and we'll try to get a schedule up so you can get kind of a ballpark idea of yeah laying out cuz we'll have a revolving door of the guests coming in and out throughout the day and I'm gonna have a pee bottle underneath the desk because I won't be able to leave yeah yeah sorry man so yeah okay forward to have anybody around thanks for all the yucks so far yeah this is great super fun to do and yeah we hope to see a you know every day up until and beyond but especially on the 21st yep and on that note all right go for it you liked anything you saw our heard here check us out on SEANET the podcast is available on iTunes tune in stitcher feedburner google play music and the amazon echo NC not calm sorry I just have to thanks I'll see I'm doing it eventually all right take everybody season yeah tomorrow