Gadgetory

saddle up it is Wednesday November 30th and time for episode 146 of the 359 podcast my name is Brian and I'm hanging out here with Ben and Alfred how's everybody doing today it is a great November 30th yes as as most November 30th SAR today we've got we're talking about Netflix you're going to be able to watch stuff offline now you binge even when you're not connected to the Internet we've got Facebook's arcade and a pill that farmville oh god it's I really like better games in farm bill yet which is hard to do you're considering how great farmville is absolutely um and then on top of that a pill that you can take that's it's a digital pill it's a patent for one that can make your flights easier but probably much creepier too yeah yep so we'll talk about all that stuff and yeah we'll get to the show and send in your questions and comments we'll get to them at the end of the show and Alfred will be hosting today so be nice the host of the least doesn't rhyme but alright let's do it okay and we will start the recording of the podcast in three two welcome to the 359 where we talk about the top tech news of the day and all the other crap we feel like throwing in Nam Alfred hang I'm Ben Fox Rubin we're leading today with Netflix this announcement this morning that you'll be able to finally download your shows and stream offline but there's a catch while the majority of Netflix is original series are available for you to download on your devices not every show in the catalog is downloadable Zootopia is though you know this is something that subscribers have been pushing for for a while so you know they can watch netflix on long commutes when they don't have any data so are you going to be using using this on your next train ride home Ben yeah probably i mean we definitely on longer you know like rides out to boston to go visit my in-laws we use the amazon offline streaming or offline downloads a lot so you know that's that's how we use that and we'll probably cycle and Netflix as well it's just it makes sense into me it's kind of surprising that it took this long for them to do it yeah it's really helpful with the service that you actually pay for and then you know why can't I get this one I don't have data when I'm spending all this money yeah on it and I've definitely like watch shows or like you know basically loaded up an episode and paused it on my phone like waiting for me to go underground and when it does like it's already loaded oh that's a total pain I did in a very very like roundabout way so this kind of makes it like way easier yeah the only complication for me is and this is also true for Amazon offline viewing is that some things you are able to download other things you aren't that's mostly because of licensing issues so as you mentioned Zootopia you're not going to be able to do that I know you will be able to watch the tour sure yes it is worn i read that you're not able to do i thought i would like downloading we'll have to find out yes it does utopia is on it all right great my line a great movie I've watched it 30 kill time speaking of killing time Facebook is making it even easier to get distracted at work as it introduces instant games on your newsfeed and messenger app they had many games before I messenger like basketball and soccer where you kind of just swipe the ball but now it's ringing full-length title so you can play pacman or Galaga space invaders on Facebook you know how is anyone gonna get any work done now I don't know it'll probably get me to like at least try out facebook Messenger a little bit more often I don't typically use messenger you know all that much like whatsapp is in my regular stream of usage like I talked to a lot of my friends on whatsapp a messenger really isn't there yet is this going to be something that gets me to start opening it up a little bit more often hey we'll see um I it just adds a competitive element to it for me on messenger because in my group chats it will tell you like when your friends play something in the chat and then I'll put their high score up so that it's so that's pretty cool then for me it's like I want to like get the high score in this group chat among like this group of friends and things like that yeah the other thing that I liked was that they were obviously mindful of the fact that notifications especially from farmville were a big pain when they really went crazy in two games the last time around so they're not going to be doing that as much which which i think is really smart obviously I'm going to invite you to play pac-man now so I can get more cherries so these no so British Airways also filed a patent for a smart pill that you can take and it monitors your body so it's kind of creepy like flight attendants will know if you need a blanket yeah if you need if you're too cold like they know your temperature now they can bring you a blanket is they filed a patent for it so it's not real yet but yeah but still okay and the other idea the this is the other use case potentially is like they know you're asleep because of the digital pill you swallowed so I wouldn't take a pill just for that though just as like you can also walk up head and see that I'm serious about this like I don't mean I mean there's cases where I'm like pretending to be asleep so I don't have to interact with you but i donno that allow they're gonna like feed you a meal because they know you're not really asleep that'd be really really strange but yeah i don't think i'd take the pill for I don't know if you would but if it's not for medical purposes why on earth are you doing it I mean I don't need to make it easier lank it no forget it terrible idea if you want to read more about these stories check us out on cnet I'm Alfred Aang I'm Ben Fox Rubin thanks for listening look at that gorgeous graphic so everybody's really excited about Netflix nobody really cares about anything else yeah yeah take this long to happen I mean I'm not I don't want to express any hey I love me my Netflix but Cutler how did this take so long so apparently they had some sort of philosophical argument which which ended up being wrong that eventually Wi-Fi and your data connection would be good enough that you wouldn't actually lose a connection anywhere and you'd be able to watch Netflix no matter what anywhere you are it was a very holidays we know is totally false it was a very optimistic view of the future how things are gonna develop right and on top of that this is going back to Jones story Jones salzman wrote the piece today along with rich trenholm and she said that all netflix has also been pushing into more countries and so India for instance they have much spotty or Wi-Fi much spot of your connections so it also makes a lot more sense in that market to provide offline viewing so that you could actually use netflix in more places i'm kind of surprised that i didn't launch some lame marketing thing with the title like netflix everywhere titan like new top rated a baby it's coming where was like netflix on airplane mode stuck 20 minutes in the subway mode kind of thing so I was like you can watch it from anywhere yeah i've never i've i've done it with like Netflix but I've never been able to you know actually I mean like the way that I've done it has like the jank way that I do it where it's just like oh let me load this up before I go underground and then do it yeah but the thing is like I feel like it's happened like way too late in the in the sense where it's Amazon did it that day or two ago but I've also been jörg I've like binge devery thing that I need to binge on like that's what you're saying is now Netflix is officially obsolete you've out in it I like if they had Seinfeld I would watch like I would download those episodes and watch them on the train by like otherwise there's always more to watch come on in this also to me this makes sense from from a strategic perspective that they pushed into a lot of their own license shows a long time ago so and those are the shows that you're going to be able to like download so they don't have those licensing issues like they do with other studios so they have full control over things like house of cards or they mostly have full control over house of cards stranger things a lot of the documentaries that they've been pushing into so I think that was smart that they now have their own library that they can decide would it do with being able to download and watch it on your commute definitely helps me when people are saying oh yeah what do you mean you didn't watch all of stranger things yet it's only like in the first day making fun of me what's the matter with you I'm always making fun of you but it's just one of those things words like look I have like places to go I'm like you know things to do oh sure but now I can watch it on my way to places to go and things to do so you know I'm probably gonna finish all these shows now look you pay the monthly subscription this is a way of actually making it more valuable for people so why not yeah and and hey people are excited about it today as well they should be probably should have happened a little while ago but i don't think that flicks lost subscribers and if anything people are just like happier with the service which is what netflix one it definitely feels more like a about time like a date absolutely here's an interesting point that Ben brings up in the chat on Netflix was trying to work with cell providers previously the true do free streaming without using data anybody know where those talks LED or if they broken down I don't know they pretty much led nowhere there was a whole like big issue about like net neutrality with Netflix where they thought they were kind of like the vanguard behind all this where it's like work because I had all these issues with like streaming and how much data that like Netflix takes up t-mobile had their whole like stream on kind of stream on and planning on yeah bye oh shoot here comes a lawsuit but other than that it hasn't really gone anywhere where it's you know all these companies that say oh there's unlimited data but it's not exactly unlimited and then again Netflix takes up so much data that that did start to become a problem yeah so luckily this solution this skirts the issue a little bit which is good you know you just download the stuff that you want to watch and hopefully they'll continue adding stuff and that's what they said even if it's like too much data you can always like downloaded like at home on Wi-Fi and then well yeah I mean that's what I would assume people would want to do as opposed to like really you know hanging up their data plan so totally so here's the question what is the first thing you're going to need to offline binge go probably narcos just cuz i can i I haven't watched any of it because I didn't have time for it but now that like I'm on these train rides my only issue is I don't think my train rides are long enough for me to watch narcos ok I might be like I might start taking like the local train instead of the Express train now here's a real first world problems yeah yeah I totally I mean most of what we used amazon for is for kids shows so we'll download those like i said on the podcast will download those well you know throw them at my year old yeah exactly so like we're probably gonna find like different kids chose to use so that's that's the easiest and most obvious house of cards no no we know what your embarrassingly behind on watching not not not the strategic Netflix yeah what happen you wash it Marco Polo for I don't think I've watched narcos either absolutely watching I stopped watching orange is the new black while ago nothing nothing embarrassing that I haven't totally missed out on like when house of cards came out there's like it's like a thing though like Netflix shaming oh how you don't watch that that's a first world problem if anything if I think stranger things were in the habit why haven't you watched that yet with stranger things happening there was a single person on the scene that staff who did not give me hell for that because it did not watch it for like a couple of weeks until after it came out it's okay it's really good I love the 80s vibe I'm sure people will now watch it even more I member scott stein like cornered me and he goes of all people in this world Brian Van Gelder should be the one watching stranger things Josie grew in the ocean I don't destroy yeah maybe I'll try to watch like more jessica jaymes I remember you were Jessica Jones thank you um that's another show that I don't know no I'm not gonna shame you for that but i will say i think that's my absolute most favorite you are we'll talk that one up yeah and i watched the first couple episodes i was totally there with you and then it kind of droned on a little bit so I it's not the most high impact that's for sure but by the time you get through it has one of the loudest messages cool all right I'll try to get back it just screams it at you so on that note I have yet to finish Luke Cage ok myself for because I was really enjoying it and I just got distracted so now you have a new opportunity yeah it's let's all all right i'll finish jessica jones you finish Luke Cage and that will be our future I'll get on i'll get on iron fist when it comes out and then we can be the very good so what's that the defenders yeah we can meet the defenders sure when does this go into effect what what the binging not the am did the offline when we see what was going on today is it today yeah yeah it's right now ish all right yeah let's wrap up the show okay we've got stuff to download that sounds good all right you want to do this or I'll do I'll do it alright the 359 podcast is available on iTunes tune in stitcher SoundCloud feedburner google play music and of course on cnet com thanks for watching of course see tomorrow