Gadgetory

good morning on Tuesday december six is time for episode 149 of the 359 podcast and today i am here with Roger Cheng and Alfred and good morning guys what is going on the show today morning morning we've got a busy day when we talking about the Apple watch Tim Cook is defending it he's out there saying that record sales that sales ever as sales ever so we'll well break it down for you to see if that actually true or how much water oh that's that already been really hold but that claim to test yes next up a firm is out there with a possible reason or explanation for the explosions with the galaxy note 7 we'll talk about that and then lastly will dig into the review of Google Wi-Fi the new wife by home stamp for spoiler it's very good there you go so as usual if you have any questions on these topics leave them in the comments section or producer Brian will you pick out the best we'll try our best Ephram already let's do it this thing underway and recording of the podcast will start in three two come to the 359 we talked about the top Texan of the day and all the other crap we want to throw in I'm Roger Cheng I'm Alfred Aang so the Apple watch isn't a flop CEO Tim Cook says that the wearable set a record for the first week of the holiday shopping season a little dubious since he's never broken out the actual numbers for Apple watch but is this encouraging note uh I don't think it is I think the SmartWatch market is kind of I think the entire market is a flop right I think I mean I don't think he's lying when he's saying that it did pretty well during the holiday weekend sale only because i think you know smart watches are a pretty good gift right there one of those things where you don't want to buy for yourself because i don't i can't justify getting a smart watch bracelet but if somebody gave me a SmartWatch i think it'd be pretty cool i mean i think the timing is a little dubious you know IDC just came out with report yesterday saying that smartwatches aren't decline as fitness trackers are on the rise this is in my mind this is apples Tim Cook taking back some of the narrative of the fact that the Apple watch hasn't done as well as expected by saying by throwing out this little tidbit saying record sales getting people excited about Apple watching the thing is how do you say record sales though when you've literally released no numbers that's just that's so that's the thing that's the thing company that's the game the company's love to play especially if they don't give out numbers because they can really say whatever they want yeah come have to take it at face value right I'm not saying apples lying but maybe the numbers were pretty low last year there had a low bar to cross so I mean I do think you know again like I said I do think the holiday week kind of helps considering like they did have like some pretty decent black friday deals maybe that's what limit that to that was a part of it all right so next up a possible reason for the Galaxy Note seven fires and I know this is a dead horse but we want to keep eating it manufacturing engineering firm instrumental to tear down and found that there was no room for error when it came to the space around that battery I'm batteries tend to swell a little bit when they're fully charged so that aggressive design meant that when it was true when it was actually expanded fully charged there was much much higher chance of a causing fire that makes a lot of sense considering you know Samsung's original remedy for it was this patch that basically made it oh we can only your full charges at 60 / yes yeah yeah well think of it is is I'm still a little concerned about at this point it's been a while now Samsung hasn't said anything about the the battery issue they haven't disclosed anything wondering if they're they're hoping that we all just forget about it yeah I mean the most leave discloses we don't really know much Ryan we can't figure it out so I you know I I do think it's good enough these third parties are taking a look at it um I think it's interesting that their thought is you know they tried making a phone so good that even they couldn't um well stain it so good may not be the best way to put it right it's so thin they were obsessed with thinness yes getting this packed into a small phone and that obsession flew too close to the Sun and burned up yeah literally all right lastly um well we reviewed the Google Wi-Fi today and we're calling it basically like the best Wi-Fi option that you can have now some of the good points for it so far I've been how easy it is to manage and set up from a nap on your phone and to me personally I do think the mesh Wi-Fi network is one of the coolest things yeah that I've seen I mean it's not like this is the first time that I've ever seen it but I do every time I see it I just think this is you know I don't have to worry about getting like worse internet when I'm in my kitchen versus grow and who these mesh Wi-Fi systems have been somewhat complicated to set up I mean you kind of have to be a little bit more technically sad yeah to set it up more so than you know sending up a home Wi-Fi router so having Google Wi-Fi do this or make this as simple as possible is really a good step and the same deal like I mean I have an apartment and on one side apartment my signal just isn't as good as it should be I do wish that it was also a modem though just because it's like right now I I'm paying like that like weird rental fee yeah cable company well I have that also just by my own well I have that's the grip I have a fios is because I I can't actually get my I can't use my own money yeah like I have to use their modem yeah the pay the rental fee which always knows yeah that's frustrating so I do we should have that but for what it is it's it's a very good product alright for more on these stories check us out on cnet I'm Roger Cheng I'm Alfred Aang thanks for listening the first question in the chat today is from Hugo should i skip my study time to listen to you yes yeah what are you even studying for yet come on man what are you studying Hugo we're cute yeah this is like holiday break for a ruined school no no no no my god sorry I'm like oh it's only december i remember rogers old haha and just back from vacation so in my mind I'm still kind of semi on vacation mode Alan wants to know how does the google Wi-Fi stand up to the high end routers at pros use uh you know what it's it's it's not a router yeah that's the thing sort of a mesh now it extends the router that you had if you've got like a pro you still have to have a base level and the google Wi-Fi I mean mega best pro level router probably has better range than yeah your basic one but if you have a large home or if you're trying to connect to it also kind of buildings on what your internet speed is if you have like a normal like internet speed it's like there's really no point I'm assuming if you have a pro router then it's gonna be like pretty quickly as it is for sure so it kind of depends on like what the size of your home is I think one of the bigger selling points for Google wifis the just the ease of setup for it though how about putting a side-by-side with an apple airport I think n it doesn't really stack up right the airport is and i have an airport apples and oranges if you will yes testing a limited rate app l'aéroport Haslam it's it's a router so it's it's not this mesh network that Google Wi-Fi is the idea of Google wifis you've got multiple hubs you put around your home and that extends the network again so you've got a better signal everywhere that being said that I mean if you're an apartment like my size I don't know how relevant that is right just because it's so time you live in brooklyn's yea I'm guessing your home is it's it's tiny yeah so like at this point I'm like I live in the burbs so like I kind of need one these mesh net what yeah but my router is like so bad that like even when I go in like if I just try using my laptop and like my kitchen or like another room like that's not my living room it works but it's like slow as hell yeah yeah like my phone on like LTE is faster yep so michael says that the Apple watch is by far the most popular SmartWatch but is because of the brand not the device yeah that's true I would say yeah yeah I mean also the competition's been pretty weak right yeah I mean Samsung has been out there they've been pushing it pretty hard but I I think I see a lot of gear s I would make the argument though is that like you know apples kind of the only smart watch company out there not company but like they're the only ones pushing the SmartWatch is kind of like a luxury item right whereas others have been trying to go for as like a utility kind of like device yeah and that's why they're losing to limit bit and all these a lot yeah exactly a lot of them are pushing this as sort of a fitness tracker alternate yeah like but it's like three or four times more expensive yeah Fitbit so yeah definitely it would be great if Google Wi-Fi was a Combinator router modem so do you think Google will actually venture into that realm and make their own router to complement this I mean technol it's already i think modem is what that it doesn't have which I to animate sorry sorry yeah I I wish they would but i also don't know like how big the modem market is out right now do you really think i mean i don't know about you but I kind of just take the default one that's given to me from what writer I kind of hell but I pay like an extra 10 bucks a month for no but I gotta have to because it's like hooked into what it uses a coaxial connection I mean just all the good routers that I like I always do the math on these things where I'm just like okay well if I get a good router no sorry if I get a good modem which is like about like 120 dollars really good decent and then it's like okay I'm only gonna have like time warner cable or or you know files for about a year anyways and is one of those things where it's well I might as well just pay the extra ten but then I don't get to keep it but then it's it then comes the issue of you know if I switch to a new company and they say oh you're like modems not compatible with our like system which is happening or so it just it all just is very frustrated with microphones I don't think I could bring I can't use my own yeah I give him five bought one yeah they're like nope sorry it's so frustrating an ideal world we wouldn't even need modems and things would just be Wireless I mean eventually 5g man yeah yeah that's the world of 5g but we've got some time for that we have many many many many years so yeah I mean with that in mind I would probably assume you know Google's probably not looking into the modem market yeah I mean I think they're looking more at wireless solutions as opposed to something that's that's hooked into your face yeah connection yeah home network is kind of a waning concept I would yeah even look even guys like Verizon 18t like their their vision is to connect your home and without any wires and then speaking yeah for them yes being on that note though with Google Wi-Fi i would assume that the best you know usage of it would be in like malls like not even homes but just like you know like think about how big malls are right well malls I believe used more professional grade yeah vendors right they have like you'll see those giant modems not attached throughout the mall um creating its own mesh network I think that's a little bit more business great like Google Wi-Fi probably can handle the kind of capacity that's requiring them all yeah going back over to the Samsung will take a couple more questions before we have to wrap it up if it's universally a battery problem why has only a fraction of like one percent actually quote-unquote exploded makes no sense why is no one talking about the third party cheap charging cables I mean that's that's a good point that except excellent point that definitely I think makes that betting increases the risk of an explosion I think the fact that it's just a tiny fraction it's not guarantee that these phones are going to blow up but I think it's just a matter of the design the way it's all packed in increases the odds of it yeah doesn't mean that's guaranteed there's a lot of faction to play here but it's simply one more concept of a liability right in this case and also it's not least it's not like these charging cables are joined to other phones though well that's thing beat well Dave yet we've heard a lot about it to some buddies these applications to fill ya third party I mean usually these like unknown third party accessories for one I think you should just never buy them never use them but they do contribute to the problem I know but I don't know if it seems like the note 7 problem is more isolated to specifically to the battery it's not it's not the cable the cable stuff is sort of standard problem throughout the industry yeah the node 7 problem is its own issue I mean I have more than a few amazon basic cable's floating around my home because they are very cheap and now I'm really starting to reconsider my decisions after seeing what's going on are those things my five for iPhones are they mfi I don't compatible like you know if you buy a third party one will usually say a math I were made for iphone or made for ipad that usually maybe I should start paying better that's more the sort of the seal that Apple grants to third parties that's sure is that this actually works as a problem wasn't that part of the problem they were manufacturing fake yeah so some of them were so yeah and if you do yeah a lot of the counterfeit stuff that I that I've seen from that warehouse yeah so they they also had fake boxes and like fake labeling on that too so yeah it's really already else yeah it's pretty easy to make a label up yeah yeah one more can you hardwired the Google routers through the house if cat5 is run throughout the house are they explicitly wireless I know that they have an ethernet port on they do have a corner yeah okay sorry this dress I mean that would be a lot of trouble though your warrants what's the point of that oh yeah I mean you can but it just seems like a lot of trouble to I guess guarantee what he sayin he's already got that kind of pre run and thinking about updating hard way yeah yeah they all have supplement we all have yet reports yes I take it back one more one more broad sweeping what are your predictions for companies in 2017 Apple Google Amazon wow that's a very well uh I think I may be covering this a little bit more before we wrap it up yeah we see on season but maybe put it in the back your heads for now yeah that's something to think about it might come out the iphone 8 maybe I'm phone x iphone ex that's my bold prediction they're gonna be branded and well well do and i also do you think Samson's going to come back with a note 8 from every indication from them I feel like they should scrap the whole brand but I think they're gonna come back um i'm looking for a ten try to erase their memories of of exploding phones and then yeah i think google is going to try to research tablets a little bit more of this whole Andromeda thing no i think i think their next big priority is getting the the wearable like we talked about crappy the wheels are right now getting the watch sort of back on track because they kind of dropped not drop the ball but they've kind of they've deprioritized android wear this year and i think we're gonna see them tri-valley's build back the market similar what they did the pixel phone i think we'll see some sort of pixel like watch revy saying the pixel stuff is going to blow up next year figuratively oh oh yeah Matt not samsung Angela yes I think I already doing easy joke I know we made yeah it's already been hailed as like what the best android phone this year I mean yeah well you know what like their best android phone title changes every month with like the newest android phones yeah alright we've gotta wrap it up there we do i want to put one pitch out for tomorrow for everybody who likes to join us on the regular we love you thank you very much hit us up tomorrow with what your tech wish list is what's on your christmas list hanukkah list whatever list for gifts you want to receive this holiday season we're not giving the neck realm we're not giving them to you i just want to start a conversation alright so if you like anything you saw her here dixienet our podcasts also available at on itunes tune in stitcher SoundCloud feedburner and google play music I'll see y'all tomorrow but you