Gadgetory

welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Chang I'm Alfred hang Instagram is expected to announce the ability to shoot longer more polished video as well as a snapchat discovery like hub later today it's another instance where Instagram and its parent Facebook is seemingly copying snapchat again well yeah I mean it's almost as if you know the long video format and really didn't work for Facebook so were like oh there's more people using Instagram now maybe we'll try it out that way I'll say this I hated when Instagram updated their video limits from like 15 seconds to a whole minute right so for them to you know kind of go with this whole we're gonna do like a full length thing I mean reportedly right like nothing's really confirmed yet but that's kind of the direction where where it seems to be heading to be fair though I have also been wrong about this met many times where like people say like oh we love the the minute video format well I mean I don't know if I I understand the minute video for a man the 15-second format especially I just kind of scrolling through it's easy to get through a minute video I don't know if I'm gonna be scrolling through and all of a sudden it's like a half hour yeah polished news video or something unless it's the seen a video of course yes but yeah it does it's not really conducive with the way I use Instagram terms like kind of flicking through so I mean we'll see this is what do you make of this discovery hub discovery hub like feature people have been complaining about the way that Instagram brings like videos to your feed like bring the chronological feedback a lot from an explorer like I usually explore tab a lot but like it is annoying when I click on something I was like oh cool this was supposed to two weeks ago why is this showing up on my feet now right kind of thing so I don't know if they'll do the same job of discovery and also I really hope Instagram like they're they're probably copying like the worst snapchat feature because like nobody uses discovery right like people really go on snapchat to like talk with their friends and like see their friends stories and things like yeah discovery is just kind of like oh cool like with Instagram I mean you are you are checking things out and so I guess there might be more of an appetite if there's a dedicated section to to video and this really I feel like they're putting this in position to let you know actual content producers come in and make pong videos definitely their play to compete against YouTube I mean there was that study from like the Pew Research Center like in March or so that was talking about how Facebook's not the top like app for social media app among like Millennials anymore like it's like YouTube and then Instagram all right and Facebook oh we own this one we just like take all the things that failed on Facebook and like try to put them on Instagram all right so we need to talk about net neutrality California is actually weighing a bill right now that would actually provide the strongest protections out there for an open Internet but there is surprise a surprise political infighting that is threatening to water it down ultimately it's surprising actually that is a Democrat Democratic Assemblyman from Los Angeles who is introducing amendments to the existing proposals that would kind of strip out the power on these bills it's just uh it's just sort of the the next turn in the wheel the net neutrality yep opera I mean if this passes though is this like one of those scenarios where because there's so many companies in California that it would kind of affect the rest of the country or it's not just companies in California basically any company who has to do business with California would have to honor those rules if you're honoring those rules from one state you kind of have to do that for everything especially a state as large as California we'll see what happens again this is a there's gonna be hearing on this later today so we'll give you updates as you come along lastly the sweepstakes for 21st Century Fox continues Disney just rolled in with a seventy one point three billion dollar offer for Fox that outbids Comcast a 65 billion dollar offer as well as Disney's original bid and so I mean for geeks the bright side as this combines potentially Disney's Marvel characters Avengers characters with Fox's x-men characters giving us that kind of dream Marvel reunion man they really want that Deadpool money huh I mean Deadpool is a successful franchise so we'll see alright for these stories check us out have seen it I'm Rob Chang I'm alfred Aang thanks for listening well two seconds to pass the today we did it kind of I'm impressed I'm proud of you finally anyways as always time to jump into the chat pull out some great questions and comments so that we can keep the conversation going and connect with you guys our favorite part of the show stick around I'm gonna dig through in the meantime let's take a question from Michael Brown in regards to the Disney Comcast Fox debacle what we need like a trendy hip cool name for this whole thing is it like a scandal or are they fighting each other no it's not scandal it's Secret Wars some secret it's pretty good pull out for good pull anyways Michael Brown says does anyone think comcast is just trolling Disney to try and get them to cough up a lot more money we're just gonna get y'all get your own movie you can get way more money just hang tight all right just hang tight no they got those mouse pocket on your ebay order so that like people think that other people are interested in it raises the price that would be the ultimate solid by Comcast unfortunately no I think Comcast legitimately wants to have the Fox assets I mean they're fairly valuable you've got avatar one of the most profitable movies of all time you've got the x-men franchise you've got all the Fox TV shows they're like if Disney got their hands on avatar there would be like 80 of them by the end of this decade oh yeah and then there would be Avatar spin-offs yeah the origin story was their planet Pandora oh yeah that's right yeah Michael Brown also has is a confirm that Deadpool is the main demand for purchasing Fox I mean right now he's almost untouchable the last movie did really well the first movie but like blew everyone's mind as far as how well it could possibly have done I mean that's I think you know the x-men are still above more lucrative at large however at this point Deadpool and x-men are virtually merged yeah totally I mean especially with Deadpool kind of no spoilers all right fine I mean there's talk of you know an x-force franchise they want to build or speed out of Deadpool really you know I don't think we would look at Deadpool is just a singular property that they're interested they're obviously interested in the entire x-men franchise but it just goes beyond x-men right there's Seth MacFarlane strange properties or there's well there is fantastic for not exactly the most lucrative property but imagine what Marvel could do with that like Disney's Marvel could do with the Fantastic Four and it's not just comic-book stuff I mean there's there's definitely tons of other Fox entertainer properties that would fit well with Disney the other thing we don't really talk about as much Fox owns a 30% stake in Hulu as does Disney as does comcast whoever wins the Fox sweepstakes basically takes a 60% control of Hulu and that's a streaming service I used to become a joke but now is legit Pleasant Disney want to start its own streaming service exactly Netflix is me like Fox then if they had all the Fox properties that's just way more content that they have in their library that they don't have to pay for that they can stream out to you and anyway it's not warm to watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia although no Netflix say more about it oh you're right I'd pay for just that alone it is interesting though like we say it's not just about the comic books but that's undoubtedly massive driving force right now because it's just the blockbuster result oh yeah every blockbuster movie now is somehow based in a comic book it's a trend it will die someday it will phase out it'll go the way of the Western I think it as a big comic book fan myself I Nev in feeling the fatigue right now and we we joke about the Star Wars movies and being like a million of them now it'd be funny if like they jump on this bandwagon just right at the last second and like comcast scoops up comics just in time for people to be like nevermind yeah that that happens I hope Comcast just like ends up wasting all its money like that I'm pretty sure they've done a good job with the NBC Universal property is just I mean remember fast and the fast food franchise is probably one of the most favorite comic I'm just saying the terms of like franchises like they've done well with you know what fast and furious is pretty much like a comic book property at this those movies are there they are superheroes now there I mean you can argue across like like kick a nuclear miss yes just a regular on my back well like a nuclear missile just series where the cars kind of shield Vin Diesel from an explosion which makes absolutely the fire goes past Vin Diesel he's somehow remains unscathed I mean these are comic-book movies let's face it here's a question about net neutrality from a dog will ISP really follow the net neutrality deal for all states couldn't they just do like a regional service yeah I think they could dad no actually it's no really no it's really tough to do that because you see that's that's why I'm in here and you're out there I mean you I mean theoretically you could you could sort of break it up so somehow the traffic in California but it's such a logistical nightmare that it's it's hard to say whether or not they would actually do that I mean you mean they can't do what like trunk did where I was just like oh GDP are by the way you can visit our website trunk is gone it's now tribune again oh boy it did away with the trunk name but go back to your question yes they could theoretically do that it would be really tough and keep in mind there are other other states doing this or a Washington Oregon I think New York is considering one and if you see this weird patchwork of states enforcing net neutrality laws within their borders that's gonna make things really difficult for the eyes peas in terms of where they should or shouldn't honor those those laws so we'll see that's yeah and it's one thing it's easier to do across continents because you know you can more easily shut down parts of the internet regionally from country to country as opposed to state-by-state that's that's tough let's move on back into Instagram since that's gonna be coming up in a hot second Michael Brown asks if Instagram tried to add to that market it'll be smart for them because a lot of kids looking at you Alfred use Instagram as well as adults yeah Alfred all right Oprah's Instagram is actually give us give us your opinions youngin honestly yeah I mean I I think people use Instagram though is like a time waster kind of thing we're like they're just they're like the subway yeah you're not gonna be there for like a 30 minute thing though that for me is sitting down and watching something and like it might be cool if there was integration portal where you can like cast it to your TV I like to watch on TV cuz that's what I do if like YouTube videos you can't do that now right no you can't do that friends maybe they'll announce that today yeah uh from my perspective this is all this another kind of crazy cockamamie move I want to use stronger language and I'm uncomfortable using in the scenario but I mean look at Facebook live Facebook watch look how well those panned out everybody wants to be a TV network right now everybody wants to be Netflix but they're not a media company just exactly but neither was Facebook and now look it's like that's that's Facebook's yeah line Facebook continues to insist that it's not a media you're a technology company so yes everyone wants to get in this obviously it's because that's where the money is right they they want to go into long-form content because that's where all the Luke Earth ads are they want to be a YouTube they want to be a Netflix just by Fox yeah but yeah so we'll see Tammy Thompson does state the obvious just a way to justify ad roles on longer form video you can't do it on those short clips that's exactly it you hit right on the nose there that's why we have a 30 minute show now 30:59 Thank You Fleur bye yeah but we're fun yeah yeah we're okay we're the exception to the rule so if Instagram does roll out this like hour-long like format now do you think that the 359 is gonna pop up there after whoo that's great question offered I don't know get all the kids get all the well have to find out what this announcement actually is before we can figure we could figure out 15 they've already got a spread over weight right it's actually so I'm cool with that don't don't tell Beecham here's one from med 669 will the app be able to finally turn on the tablet yet if they can't make it make the app turn I say step back and fix that problem before adding more yeah yeah that's my point though that like instagrams supposed to be like this like square it's a vertical experience it was so long until Instagram started letting you upload like photos like yes wide yeah yeah or whatever like it would only be square photos and you'd have to crop it it was the worst thing and like so that's that's kind of what you know like that that's what works for Instagram and like I don't really see them making it like a vertical like me I mean if they were to do the like the the casting feature they would have to make it horizontal right like it's not gonna look good on ya I mean and like to be fair like live even though I don't really watch that many Instagram live videos I know that kicked off for a lot of them only because like so many celebrities use it because it's less for more than like a Facebook live or anything like that and that feature really isn't available on snapchat yeah a lot of celebrities have used like Instagram live and that's like how a lot of like these like celebrity gossip stories pop up now right oh Kim Kardashian said this at like the two hour and 38 like minute mark on her live stream like definitely I have someone with Kim Kardashian Instagram a lot of beat yeah I just I find that ironic though that like Instagram came it blew up because it was a mobile specific video format or media format photos and videos and now they're like kind of moving trying to move back to like traditional media at a time where like everyone else has been trying to copy Instagram yeah aside from snapchat I mean the irony is not lost on us right now in this conversation but look at stuff like vine when that launched their whole gimmick was it's gotta be a six second video and nowadays nobody is sticking on to their gimmicks yet vine had this like really strong cult following well that's also like why vine died though because they can you like monetize it correct so like they keep threatening vine 2.0 you think it's gonna come back and be like 30 minute minimum I feel like once you break the minute markets are like whatever you actually just go crazy you actually need to have a pilot video and jeez I like the APEC is asking do we think if Facebook Instagram snapchat are just getting too big for their britches spreading spreading themselves too thin will other services that they originally offer continue to suffer and lose support as they keep trying to become TV networks that's a question I mean that's I feel like that's the dilemma for all big companies they kind of spread out and do different things that's kind of like Google turn into alphabet I don't know we'll see that they are they're different teams I mean Kevin sighs from the CEO of Instagram he's still in charge of that project and Facebook still has tons of resources and to pour it into their nest feed and it's not just trying to become like a media like power is you know they're they're literally trying to be like everything on the internet now where it's like they've got their like fake Craigslist with the marketplace and they've got their fake tinder that's coming out soon with their their new like dating feature and stuff like that yeah I think for Facebook it the idea is like how can we get people to stay on our property as long as possible and you know this is what happens when you make it's the Walmart best I've got money to throw at everything so thanks Alfred for not turning on not muting your phone for the show better be important yeah actually Instagram of course it makes me think that you know Ned six six nine points out it's a great way to train people to make great short videos there's something to be said about working in media for 17 plus years that you get attuned to things like timing and format and being able to push content forward without hemming and hawing and bumbling and stumbling as I'm doing right now but I remember once upon a time this little show used to struggle to get to to the four-minute mark and then they bought an egg timer and then stopped caring what are you talking about we still care was just we're just terrible on you know timing that's all I do like that we have to celebrate when you get four minutes you know I will say also a particularly when it comes to just sort of like personal video like people take 5 minute long personal videos like I am guilt like my kids my kids and like even when I'm watching my kids video after a million - I'm like I'm getting kind of bored you know I got a move on like they don't do anything until the three-and-a-half mark well that's true too but I mean the ideas like I'm fearful like my fee being flooded with like long boring videos because you know videos they're cut for a reason right there edited for a reason is it ironic that in the the current state of social media we're in where the attention spans continue to get shorter and we keep getting mandated to make more concise messages into content that we produce that these platforms are just kind of opening the gates and saying let's stream the world yeah oh yeah because I make some more money I think was it cuz I'd get bored you leave yeah but like it's more about like ad dollars yeah they're spending more time there's some videos art that are worth sticking around for for a longer for a longer period of time those are the ones I'm gonna bring in money today well you know what I did do something the other day I did put on like a three-hour long wouldn't like the NASA streams the space streams like the soothing music and stuff ya know I was not high it wouldn't have hurt but see that kind of stuff just atmospheric but if they're supposed to be action where the hell is I mean there's a whole network of that like style of like live streaming on YouTube though it's like really popular now there's like at least 3000 something streamers like every day that I see whenever I check out the 24/7 lo-fi hip-hop chill beats to study to channel on YouTube which I'm sure you've seen it and there's like Grammys 2019 white grannies that's going to the Grammys now that's what I call Lofa hip hop chill music to study to 24/7 but yeah there's like that there's like all these like live streaming channels that are literally just like atmospheric there's a reason why the Netflix stocks yeah the the fireplace yep yeah it's weird I just don't understand why III think it's just more continuing throw anything at the wall and see what sticks well I think there's definitely come a bifurcation of how our viewing patterns are I think for the most part on a daily basis we want shorter videos we have short attention spans but if there are things that we're passionate about we'll dig in for like an hour or two hours and stuff right mm-hmm 3:59 videos on cnet.com or youtube yes or youtube.com or periscope or livestream website or echo yeah I like I watch the are like 30 minute videos all the time just because it's like something I'm very passionate about and there you go and he's a millennial he's supposed to have short attention span yeah I mean yeah it's not about re-watch ability is a totally different story I don't know why we're defending ourselves and this we're not poor Alfred brought this upon us but it's it's it's more about the live experience like we're all checking the headlines first thing in the morning we're all reading the paper together that's kind of the way I see this show yeah oh no no rebuttal to that know that I think that's spot-on okay white okay let's take a couple more quick questions Brandon Stiles what's the point of uploading any video to Instagram when the quality is butchered to death doing an impression now you're in my language they're supposed to only be like a minute long like not about I wonder if they're gonna address that today I mean that that could be a really if they want to really push he's kind of polished slickly produced videos you're right that's that's an excellent point like cual video quality resolution is gonna have to be upped so we'll see let me rephrase that question now what is the point of uploading anything to Instagram period question mark hmm it's a broader philosophical yes so I am i I recently stopped uploading things on Instagram and I like have to stop myself now when I take a photo it sounds like oh that would look good on us cramps like no don't do it like just why is it is get out of the cycle I don't really wanna like it's like okay quiet little photo I like a bunch of people like I feel good about myself I don't I don't know man people people need it people but there's been a few times now where like I'll take a photo I'm like that was a really good photo but I don't want to show this too well you just show to your girlfriend that's what I do now well for folks who are lonely this is a way for them to communicate for that with the outside world I wonder if this is kind of a step back towards channel surfing you know we're on the apex of a fully chord cut society I know we'll never be on 100 percent there but it's definitely a continuing climbing number is this these constant stream of consciousness platforms from the chilled cow to the Lofa hip hop to the NASA streams to people putting their entire lives on Instagram capability potentially coming is this going back to like channel surfing liked it background noise you know actually I feel like consciously watching because I've I cut the cord a long time ago when I put something on to watch I'm watching it I'm not back rounding it I would say that's fairly - I think to your original point about how Instagram and even in some ways Facebook it's it's about wasting time or killing time when you're you're sit around doing nothing like my wife does that a lot she flicks through Facebook Facebook newsfeed for videos she doesn't like the video she just moves on next one right so it just I feel like that's become our new channel surfing yeah I mean I found myself doing that last weekend where I there was like nothing on Netflix that I wanted to watch i coded youtube I they oh there's nothing here either and then I watch I put something on on Twitch like in the background oh really like a smashed ornament okay anyway so super smash no more smash we're done with smash at least for now it's that like at the end of year we talk about smash again no more smash only because I suck at it dammit I really like green Mario one more question remember burn and hype that was before CNN bought it in accident do you think streaming apps he bean did I read it wrong yeah I read it wrong sorry Beaman hype do you think streaming apps especially short vids are just a fad and won't last I think there's it's an awkward fit trying to get both into one format like it's it's either short video or it's Paul I don't know if they coexist well it's a fad I mean in the same way that like short films aren't a fad it's just a different format right I think they're I think they're both able to they're both able to exist maybe separately I think idea of making them coexist together in one platform I think it's still awkward and most companies have struggled to do that I would say maybe YouTube because it's just a giant repository for this stuff it's probably done it best yeah but like there's also like various youtubers that like make their whole career off of like just like short videos alright ZD does that a lot that's what I'm saying like I think YouTube is probably done the best job yeah that's also the place you go for all video right yeah it's not like it's not like these other places where you sort of have a mindset of what Instagram about is about right and it's not about long-form it yeah I don't know I mean YouTube always added that freedom of the lack of constraint the lack of format so people can can experiment with how their creativity can flesh out some make three minute videos ten minute videos hour long videos 24 minute long videos but it feels like they're trying to force us into just staying online more just like we're talking about with Facebook they just want you to stay there forever the Walmart effect yeah that's I mean they're trying to force you though like no they're not sure to force you but that's the goal right it's good you to spend more and more time on these platforms more time there means more exposure to potential ads which means more money it's really interesting to me that so after Google and Apple and both they're like conferences yep did this whole like oh we're all about like digital oneth wellness now and check it out we'll tell you how much time you're spending on each app like Instagram and Facebook go with like decided let's make them stay on the app even longer there you go so digital wellness is all about staying online so anyways come back in an hour and we'll have the full Instagram livestream feeding out that you can put on in the background and not care about any more than this outro music - say it - I would rather just steal that stream and put it back out there frankly yeah the event starts at 10:00 a.m. Pacific 1:00 p.m. Eastern yeah definitely check us out go back to see net for all the live coverage there we'll be watching I'm curious to see what the with that you can actually only watch the stream on Instagram where like oh you're right that's super annoying wait is it is that your eyes so that I think it's I think it's only on Instagram live terrible what a terrible idea yeah but we're going to relay it there you go again see that be on Instagram watch it on seeing it we'll have it on our site yeah anyways we gotta go Roger you wanna take us out yeah the 3:59 podcast is available on iTunes tune in stitcher 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