Gadgetory

and good Tuesday morning uh oh god what's the day June 28th June 2006 20 babies three of the 359 podcast and sorry we're late I got locked out of my apartment this morning but you know who didn't Alfred Inge and Roger Chang hey guys that's right right here on time so we knew the date I try ah look we're we're to do a short show no Q&A today just because we've got other stuff it's got other meetings kind of wealthy lives I don't know why I just have to work basically that is your life is my life anyways we've got a busy show we talking about Netflix with their choose your own adventure style videos uber and lyft teaming up in Texas and a universal the attempt to build a universal digital ID it's an interesting concept oh yeah it's super interesting I kind of wish it exists it now but it would be so hard to create that it's just one of those things that's what I'm yeah that's why that's why it intrigues me because it's a very ambitious goal I just can you imagine just carrying like a like a universally you and did your life I just wish it was like some universe that I could wake up in and it's already there right I feel like this would definitely cut a lot of headaches out and just travel you know things like that so alright as always well you can leave your comments to the leave your questions your comment section but we'll probably ignore them we'll probably have to today but we're gonna try to get through this as fast as possible thank you for joining us regardless thank you and we'll talk to you as soon as we can hopefully maybe we'll see probably tomorrow yeah or tweet at me here we go tweet at us tweet at us ere we go we're still gonna come back afterwards so we can shut it down proper and here we go for the recording of the podcast in three two welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Chang I'm Afra dang remember those old choose your own adventure books well netflix is bring that style storytelling to kids videos the first is Puss in Boots trapped in an epic tale which debuts on the surface today Alfred you found those books back yeah I actually read a lot of them for goosebumps I died every time or there was that one where I turned into a seagull Wow yeah it was the one where his shoes had like wings and then he like kept floating in the air and then I remember one that was based I read more the general choose-your-own-adventure building but there was one time travel I remember I kept getting stuck in this weird time loop where I was that time leave I was stuck like five minutes ahead of everyone else so I would show up and then like everyone would react to me five minutes later and just kept going like that oh I thought that's kind of trippy for a kid if you think about I thought it was a time loop where I just kept turning you back to the same page on page five go to page six go to page four terrible loop that would be uh but yeah that's an interesting thing because Netflix is known for sort of yeah you sort of you turn on whatever you want to watch you just you Chuck your remote because it just automatically plays that this is sort of a big change for them yeah I think they had an amateur version of this on YouTube for a while where because on YouTube you could do like timestamps on videos yeah it would be like choose-your-own-adventure videos but on YouTube but I think Netflix is trying to make this more of like a professional like formal version yeah um but yeah I guess with this case you can't really binge on it anymore because you just have to like oh I have to like pay attention in this now exactly you actually have to be fairly active and you know allows you to sort of skip not necessarily chapters but I guess their their plot points that have branching options for you I think it's smart to do it with a like starting with like a children's series first so it's kind of like Dora the Explorer but you know instead of like the dead blank stare that she gives you is like you can actually like interact with it so I think I think it's really interesting I think kids would like actually love this thing totally Joan Salzmann actually wrote the story she asked Netflix about whether or not you know man the high castle or house of cards might get some sort of choose your own adventure type alternate universe take on it Netflix was pretty mellow that they didn't think that was actually going to happen this is really sort of experiment to see how it works for kids videos I think you're right doing with kids starting with kids on content is a pretty smart movement alright next up our own Derek Kerr has an exclusive on frenemies we were in lift actually partnering to lobby the Texas government to get its way when Austin tried to require fingerprint checks on ride-sharing drivers the two companies lobby together directly to the state government who overrode the city's rules become a blueprint for how companies makes these companies may expand to other market it's interesting that you know when it's they're both up against the government they will come together on something like this so this is actually also happened in New York in 2015 when Mayor Bill DeBlasio was trying to you know set more limitations on uber and lyft not get rid of them but in the same way that the Texas government or the Austin government was basically saying we you know we want more identity we want more regulations the same way that we have on our taxi industry like they do in New York right uber and lyft were just saying no way they got together for this too they lobbied a lot of you know um state officials and they put out like a huge ad campaign like Ashton Kutcher tweeted out about like in New York like well you know we're laws but actually Kutcher speaks we almost listen it's like he doesn't like do that that often in here alright so lastly we gotta get to the UN is attempting to build a universal digital ID however you wrote the story I mean tell me more about this this attempt this this project so last year was their first ID 2020 summit and it was basically the way to address the issue going on with refugees yeah where a lot of them didn't have their IDs on them because they're fleeing from their homes from like chaos and things like that and then once they get to the border they can't provide any documentation proving who they are and it would be turned around which tragic so they wanted to come up with this digital solution where you know they could scan a QR code that's like on their bracelet or they'd show an app if they haven't have their phone on them and things like that and now that goal is expanded from like just refugees to like they want to try to build this for literally every human being on the planet I think that's fascinating because it's I mean one that would take the hassle out of a lot of things like travel Commerce I mean you're talking about IDs that store education history medical history getting a bank account ever exactly getting health care in a foreign country like having this ID would be useful that said it's super ambitious cuz I can't I can't see a lot of you individual countries adopting adoption is actually the hardest problem right now yeah the tech isn't the issue the issue is you know getting around all the government paperwork right all right we got to leave it that we're running late so for more of those stories check us out on CNET I'm Roger Cheng I'm alfred Aang thanks for listening so I have like one minute until you got to run yeah and this is still again mostly my fault because I got locked out this morning I screwed everything up but I think the cheesy adventure thing is really cool as hell yeah I'm excited I see how it works in principle or practice I mean just hearing about it seems really cool like I think it's something I'd love my kid to watch when he's older to watch videos if you like it'd be great for kids I even if they made an adult version of this though I don't think I'd watch it just because it's too interactive I wanna sit down and I would watch what it yeah there's that like if I watch a show I'm there like binge watch something I mean like think about like the old crush on Netflix and chill this would totally screw the game yeah uh um and but but like the whole thing is if I want storytelling interactively like I would just play a video game that has a lot of like immersive stories in it and like you know I can actually do a lot more than just watch what's going I can like that sure this is sort of like watching all the cinematics from a video game with a couple like quick action but yeah you know just choosing Lefter which was actually an old arcade game I forgot the name of it but yeah it's the it that we're 3d one right the holographic yeah something like that but remember the game I remember the title but I mean it's essentially QuickTime events which after I spent the entire weekend playing Shenmue oh yeah relevant to her interest yes yeah so it's basically so he did it he's totally yeah it feels like that games have been going their way for a long time I could stuff like heavy rain yeah basically just interactive movies now yeah I'm kind of astonished that this hasn't happened sooner with the advent of like I think it YouTube a nanotech it has I mean YouTube definitely has yeah a history of these kinds of used you choose your own adventure type storage structures I think Netflix it's taken a while for Netflix because obviously they've got a huge base they they don't they want to be a little conservative about this to plant a little bit safer yeah kids content this is dream DreamWorks license stuff so obviously there's gonna be a peel their production value yeah its introduction this is from DreamWorks yeah well it's like Puss in Boots is this wreck yeah right put some boots and put his puss and booties no no no no put some this is licensed from yeah that's what I was wondering okay should have made a Shrek book come on no what any questions we'll take one or two I I wasn't really looking to be on that's all right I don't know I think a lot of people are also kind of intrigued by this concept of well that so it's out today because you can actually check it out oh it is Netflix i'm alessandra died I don't think exception pretty sure that's not an option this is a kids book man or kids videos bumps is a kids book like in Dark Souls ooh goose bumps was dark for its time though like it's surprising I wake it was like really popular in the 90s I think was exactly as dark as it needed to be guess so all right let's edit let's wrap it up yes sorry again everybody thanks yeah with us thanks for joining us regardless we'll be back in full force tomorrow do better tomorrow all right bring us up all right if you liked APU saw or heard here check us out on CNET our podcast is also available on iTunes TuneIn stitcher SoundCloud Feedburner and Google Play Music see y'all tomorrow bye you