Gadgetory

good morning everybody and welcome to 359 podcast episode 467 on Tuesday October 2nd and before we get started we want to send a special special shout out to our friend of the show a peck he's having surgery this morning we want him to know that he's in our thoughts and please have him in your thoughts or your prayers or whatever channel you go down we're thinking of you buddy thanks for being such a good friend for so long and we wish you a speedy recovery and until then let's get on with the show here's Ben and Roger hey hi good luck a pack yeah good luck yeah definitely so we've got we're gonna be talking about a little bit about the one +60 the upcoming flagship phone probably released in the next few weeks sometime this month I will also be talking about Verizon's 5g home service it launched yesterday but we'll talk about the sort of fine print on the limitations of that launch and then lastly we'll talk about Amazon raising the minimum wage works workers yes so it any questions on any of these stories leave in the comment section but I will pick out the best and we will get to them in three minutes and 59 seconds strong three two welcome to the 359 on Roger Chang I'm Ben Fox ribbon CNET's Lin la got an exclusive interview with 1 plus CEO Pete lo who broke down his decision to include the in screen fingerprint sensor but remove the headphone jack which is a controversial move you know it'll be the first phone in the u.s. sold in the u.s. through a carrier worth an in displayed fingerprint sensor but is it worth it to lose the headphone jack then I like the idea of an in screen fingerprint sensor more than getting rid of the headphone jack for additional like speakers because I know that's what Apple did and I'm kind of like well how much do I actually use those speakers anyway like sometimes for a speakerphone but otherwise it's it's not like I'm like blasting out music like using that so that to me feels like it could be good it's good to know real potentially I don't know I'd like to try it out but he's always phone is also the thicker I like the idea of an in screen and fingerprint sensor and I've got an iPhone 10 that has no headphone jack so I've been kind of used to it I have Bluetooth headphones oneplus actually released these uh oneplus like bullet bluetooth headphones earlier this year so they've clearly been getting people ready for this mmm why can't we just have it all it's a Verizon yesterday officially launched its 5g home service installation began yesterday but after talking with one of the the network executives yesterday I got a sense of just how limited this would be this is as a reminder in four cities la Sacramento Indianapolis and Dallas but I found out even within those cities it's a few neighborhoods and it's using this proprietary 5g technology that they're not actually gonna be expanding they're not going to actually roll that out to anymore what the few markets that are involved with the commercial launch now or like that's all we were gonna get for this year I'm also curious like how close is this to actual 5g because this is not the industry standard 5g that we're expecting later right so is this closer to like 4G or is it closer to five definitely it's great question it's it's definitely more similar to 5g it uses that super high-frequency radio airwaves to broadcast huge amounts of bandwidth so it's it's definitely more more akin to 5g in fact really all they really didn't need to do is put out a software update next year to get on to the standard so it's not a huge tweak but it means that if you were looking to get 5g home and you're not eligible then you're basically stuck with until waiting till next year until they actually roll out the industry standard and actually expand the service elsewhere okay when does the industry standard hit mobile phones though we're looking at 18 T's looking to launch later this year but it's probably gonna be very limited just like with Verizon is doing I'd expect broader adoption next year but even then it's gonna be kind of sporadic and then it's gonna be more broadly available 2020 and if you're an Apple customer expected to show up whenever in 2035 iPhone 20 alright lastly let's talk about Amazon the company has been under fire for the wages and treatment of its workers but today responded by raising its minimum wage to $15 in the US then is this enough well that's that's really like the fight for 15 movement has really been pushing for $15 an hour so this should definitely cual some of the critics from Amazon Bernie Sanders who has been a very prominent and loud critic to Amazon about this he said you know let's give credit where credit is due Jeff Bezos did exactly the right thing according to him so as far as some one of the biggest critics is concerned they feel like this is a pretty good move and they're calling on other major corporations to do the same thing right they're advocating for this $15 federal minimum wage level right yeah they're they're calling on Walmart to do the same thing fast-food companies like McDonald's so we'll see who else ends up moving closer to that $15 an hour all right for a full coverage check us out on CNN I'm Roger Chang I'm Ben Fox Ruben thanks for listening Thanks you ever had me on backup there I got it I was Benny this mount goes too fast for me sometimes I was doing my best Mariah Carey impression huh I stand by that so anyway yeah it's time to go ahead and submit your questions and comments so we can keep the conversation going right out the gate let's take one from Timothy says what's the next analogue for the headphone jack USB C or a different port coming up next these days or are those days completely over yeah and by the way is one Plus gonna provide like some sort of dongle in case you like everybody else has like a million of these I know that's a really good question yeah cuz Apple gave up Apple gave up on the dongle for its newest iPhone yeah somewhere I am yet so I have an iPhone 8 for work and I have the Lightning jack headphone yeah headphones that I never use they're just like I have one of those and then I have all these other headphones with headphone jacks and like as long as I have the dongle somewhere and I'm like must have dropped it or misplaced it or accidentally swallowed it a bunch of times but yeah as long as that's there we're okay swallowed it well yeah so I mean they're gonna rely on the USB C port for the connection but yeah terms of dongles who knows yeah next question comes from Alex Mitchell I know people love the headphone jack but if it makes room for more room for battery I'll take it personally switch to wireless music years ago that's really more a statement than a question sorry I myself have switched to wireless largely but I like having the option because I have these really nice mixing headphones that sometimes I like to like review some of the mixes and masters I've done as an audio engineer on my phone but that's a very niche thing I get it I mean we we run the joke into the ground because that's what we do here no but yeah I guess what's your final real takeaway guys yeah yeah I've learned to live without a headphone jack I've had Bluetooth headphones for a while if it meant having this injustice on screen a fingerprint reader I'm I'm all for it frankly I know I'm probably for an iPhone or Samsung phones - I'm yeah I have a Samsung phone as my personal phone now that it has a headphone jack I'm not switching that phone for at least another year or two so but but I'm now aware of the fact that at some point I'm gonna be forced to switch over and probably do like bluetooth headphones or something which is which is probably fine you know so I I do go out running once a season and um and it would be nice it would be nice to have like you know like wireless or like bluetooth headphones for something like that yeah for sure I wonder what else would you trade for the sake of the end screen fingerprint touch like what where where's the cutoff I don't know would you trade like water resistance for that I would trade read the screen foreign fingerprint no we show you kind of a gray slate kind of backing there and you just stared that yeah I just want Apple to hear me for once I wanna I want you to eliminate the screen screen this phone like let's go he's talking about just the regular like core phone yeah yeah those old phones and they'll charge you more for it yeah rotary to scan my finger and understand that it's me I don't think there should be a trade-off where while I get it from oneplus why they needed the additional room for it and the headphone jack is it does take up quite a bit of space that's why Apple got rid of yeah - that's why the Google pixel got rid of it these phones are getting increasingly more expensive so why fourth customers into making a decision as far as like one or the other to be fair this we don't have a price on this phone yet but it's rumored to be around 550 which is significantly lower than your iPhone 10 or your Galaxy S 9 right yeah so there's that it's it's not you know that one plus is claimed to be this premium phone and less than lower than premium price and for the most part they've generally done it right they've got sort of the top tier processor the specs are usually fairly high in well yeah there you can see some trade-offs right it's not you know it's not IP water resistant dust resistant they say it is water resistant but it's not i p rated so it's not like officially rated you know still doesn't wireless charging so there's so few things that it's missing out on it's not it's not exactly you know the full-fledged super phone yeah and we'll see samsung an apple make will see how much of a splash it makes in the US because this is the first time that they're gonna be getting a major carrier that's right i connected to them with t-mobile obviously that's their their ascendant they're doing better than they used to after you know years of years of work but they're also not AT&T or Verizon which are the top two so right what are your thoughts on that I mean I think this is this gonna only help one plus I mean it's it's always an extra set of challenges when you have to optimize a phone specifically for a carrier but I think for the for t-mobile customers looking to get the one plus I think this is the best way to get it cuz this will be a phone optimized for some of the specific bands that t-mobile runs on so that means better coverage higher speeds and just better service overall from well that's optimized for the network nice yeah next question comes in from Alex Mitchell I know people love the headphone jack oh sorry we already covered that one I'm out of place Timothy do how will the screen protector affect the in display sensor ooh it's unclear at this point I think I think I should be fine imagine they took that into account with the in screen fingerprint sensor they're like that sticker that you say it's gonna if your fingerprint can get read through glasses I'm pretty sure I can get read through what completely supplies they haven't confirmed it blue I suspect as this is because some of its sister companies have used technology they use optical fingerprint sensors which basically shines the light up a little bit and actually reads the image of the fingerprint so having an extra layer doesn't really affect anything if it's transparent so it shouldn't be an issue nice yeah there you go although next up from James ooby dooby doo thicker phone does that mean a bigger battery uh I don't think so it's still kind of unclear I don't think he broached that subject of battery life so we'll find out hopefully means a bigger battery but I think the way the way he made a comment the thickness was really attributed to the the sensor hmm yeah I want more battery - from Walid why does oneplus have a similar knotch design like the iPhone why not something more innovative I'm calling it next why indeed why indeed well it's because no one's really figured out how to do a how to embed a camera into the front of the phone without you know that's getting really hard I mean the only the one we've seen is that weird prototype one with the prototype that the pop-up camera which always kind of freaked me out because it fell like a part that would break very easily oh yeah accidentally like knock it into a wall yeah yeah I think that the the thing with the notches is that it's become shorthand for premium yeah yeah you know like kind of like an attractive design as much as I don't like it it's just kind of this is this is the next every level - yeah Google's doing it you know you did it already Samsung is the only one that's been resistant but if you look at it like the the bezels of the top and bottom are kind of like kind of look at you're like yeah I kind of wish there was really less okay I don't know the knotch thing but you know it's yeah look you said it's become shorthand for a premium phone apple set the agenda or set the the standard for what a premium phone looks like and as usual a lot of companies are sort of crowding in there and I definitely feel like from from what whether the person was mentioning is it would be nice to see a little bit more diversity as far as design is concerned absolutely and we probably are gonna get there I hope eventually we're not gonna be stuck with the notch I think for years and years and years that would really surprise me but where exactly we're gonna go after the knotch I have no idea I think getting getting the camera embedded behind the glass to me so yeah really difficult and having like a pop up camera I just feel like a lot of people would be really uncomfortable pop of camera to me is sort of a temporary solution I think getting the camera beneath the glass and we have seen companies patent that kind of technology I think Apple actually has a pen for that that doesn't mean they'll actually implemented but that's sort of the direction that I think it will have to go to get just everything to be all screen you're just holding a big screen at that point yeah I mean like I feel like that's Johnny Ives like ultimate goal oh yeah and he's talked about that a lot where it's just like a simple sheet of glass and yeah apparently even see through which III can't imagine how you're supposed to make a battery see through but maybe water processor yeah all right like the wire yeah do we have a tolerance level for the kind of notch that we're seeing out there I've been seeing terms like I drop in water drop being tossed around I'm not familiar with these design changes cuz I have a phone is that essential one way you don't like the thickness of the knotch III that's what I assume this is in reference to your style or design the amount of occupation that the notch has what do we think is like the cutoff point or are we zero tolerance show I'm young I have an iPhone 10 so I'm pretty tolerant of my notch at this point it kind of like fades in the background yeah you can kind of like just I think the essential I probably had best ride that the little tiny notch at the I mean it's a single camera though so you're seeing companies put out multiple camera systems obviously face IDs run by a significantly more sophisticated front-facing camera system so it needs to be a little bit thick or wider and I'm ok with that like if it means I could do portrait mode selfies I'm cool with the extra notch with yeah I mean like you've had that phone for like a year now yeah and it doesn't really seem to bother you that much though yeah I if I had a notch phone I'd probably like not notice that after a while but oh okay here's the freaky with my Luddite lifestyle of headphone jack and how knotch so here's the thing with the with a lot of these phones the the dimensions the screen ratio are as far longer than a normal video format so even when you're watching a video on your iPhone or Samsung phone there are black bars on the left and right so usually the black bars are where the notch is so it doesn't really obscure your video experience do we think that there is a conspiracy out there to kill the headphone jack and boost Bluetooth technology yeah continuing on the Bannack company that is in fact benefiting from the wireless headphone trend is bluetooth is that i'm not a company not a company to technology yeah well it's a standards body there's like a group that meets like a group of engineers that meets and agrees on standards it's not a company it doesn't really benefit I mean I guess it does benefit from adoption from a kind of I don't know for a mile yeah because who sits on that level yeah yeah but yeah it's more the companies are selling you Bluetooth accessories are benefiting so and there is probably some truth that I mean look I think there are some physical issues with headphone jacks that that why I understand why they're removed but I don't think there's like a grand conspiracy I would be very interested to find out if there was like some sort of cabal that was meeting that was like dead set on getting ready yeah yeah and like the headphone jack folks because the headphone jack has been around for so long or all like very old and crotchety and don't know what's actually being done to them I unfortunately it goes back to the same thing with like Apple where Apple set a standard and then everybody else yeah followed suit so Apple was the first one to do it and a lot of people complain one indication that there isn't this like cabal of you know headphone jack haters is the way they've kind of the way headphone jacks have been eliminated like progressive looper fades it's like Apple did first you know everyone kind of crapped on them and then Google did it like a year later and the Samsung continues out the headphone jack and they're crapping on everyone all these other companies the had crapped on Apple have now basically phased out their headphone jacks as well so it's done like if it was more coordinated I feel like that that would be proof of conspiracy but I don't know why I mean like like I'm like offering a very serious answer to this question and really this is some good facts yes a facts based show hang on I'm digging for the Illuminati graphic to try to bring up there we go I you know let's just put a kibosh on it the Bluetooth technology works perfectly fine it's great I use it I give sleep headphones at night so it's like a sleep mask with speakers built-in so I can fall asleep doing nature sounds Nancy gale force winds by the way works hold on all right I feel like I've read that having like an actual headphone jack like wired headphones are supposed to like sound better yes see that's where I'm getting at though like with the headphones like that the trade-off is I had several wired ones before and I rolled over and broke like seven of them so I finally went Wireless there is plenty of benefits to technology we're talking about fidelity let's be honest most of us are listening to lossy quality audio and video compressed audio and video on our phones it's just more convenient that way it carries over 4G better for those of us who are audio files or those who are musicians like Carlos talking about using them with its guitar and drums and piano sounds and doing mixes and masters and projects like that live music myself included sometimes you want that extra boost that's why I still enjoy having the option in case I'm actually using my phone as an interface for something is it that frequent no let's be honest but some of us still use it but it is niche hmm there you go good info yeah switching gears over to 5g as we're coming down in the last few minutes of the show are there any phones using 5g yet life improvements asks I wonder what was struggling the most that'll benefit from 5g I think we've talked about automated cars a lot hmm yeah and then Bailey's asking who controls 5g the 5g mobile yes yes they sit across from the guys they yeah they shared off the space because it's Oh so I'll try to take all those questions well in terms of there is like the 3gpp Center there are there is like an industry group of multiple companies that get together and and kind of work on a common standard the standard is called v GN r and r stands for new radio you don't really need to know that all you need to know is that that's what everyone is sort of agree to what Verizon has is a slightly different one it's the five GTF I think technical forum standard which is their own proprietary thing leave it to Verizon yeah yeah I know what were so they were so many are there I need phones there are no phones there are definitely no five motor phones that will be coming out this year you're looking at probably sometime in the first half maybe even the first quarter of next year but it's still kind of unclear I think Sprint and LG have committed to being the first here in the u.s. to have a smartphone that runs on 5g but it's they're all gonna come out fair and fairly short or I think there's even some rumors that Samsung's next flagship phone the Galaxy has 10 or maybe the s10 plus we'll have 5g you have to imagine though that just like in the early days of 4G these phones might be a bit bulkier they might the battery life might not be that great the first I think the first generation of 4G phones are really kind of terrible in terms of the experience so Earth's G of anything is kind of terrible exactly so you have to imagine that that first run 5g phones may not be so great hmm running out of time what is the current minimum wage in the US and will Amazon customers feel any residual effects from the raise that the employees got else the current US federal minimum wage is $7.25 that hasn't been raised since 2009 Wow whether customers are gonna feel any residual impacts from this I feel like that's probably unlikely it's such a big company and Amazon already claims that its full-time employees when you include incentives and bonuses those full timers already get $15 or more so are you gonna see prices creep up yeah probably but for other reasons you know like you know not necessarily for this but for like reasons of translation or tariffs yeah we've got our yeah or just the fact that like Amazon such a big retailer now that it could raise prices because people use it for convenience so if you do see prices go up I wouldn't immediately point to the higher wages and claim that that's the reason so it's it's like with a lot of things it's probably got a lot of factors attached to it and last but not least from our buddy sir enjoy the in screenreader was expected headphone jack exclusion was not any scoop on the improvement in charging since sister brand Oppo upgraded to super V ooc charging and I just want to go ahead and put it out there we need to start calling it Super Buu going forward there is - charging I don't think it's got the improvement that you reference but I think we're still gonna we'll find out Larry this month when the phone actually launches we've gotten like they fed us bits of information with this interview but we will get the full story oh that few weeks thanks guys and thanks to the audience as always for joining us one more well wish to mr. a Peck we hope to see you back in the chat soon take care we'll be ready for you and we'll see all old guys tomorrow from the back same bat-time same bat-channel roger yep 3:59 is available on iTunes tune in stitcher SoundCloud feedburner could play music with a podcast Amazon Alexa of course cnet.com not soundcloud okay see y'all tomorrow later you you