Our big Mobile World Congress preview show (The 3:59, Ep. 358)
Our big Mobile World Congress preview show (The 3:59, Ep. 358)
2018-02-20
good morning on Tuesday February 20th
it's episode 350 8th on the 3:59 podcast
and your host today are Ben Roger Alfred
hello good morning good Tuesday morning
it's gonna say Monday but it's really
Tuesday yes yeah happy Presidents Day
yesterday
yeah our president laid it all right we
got a stack show so we'll get started
right away we won't be talking about
Mobile World Congress the big themes
obviously 5g and Samsung's gonna pull
out we all know it's gonna be the galaxy
s 9 we'll be talking about
cryptocurrency Bitcoin yeah awkward
interview with Matthew let's go either
the question mark guy or the free money
guy depending on ya if you if you had a
TV in the 90s you definitely know who
this guy and then we'll talk about why
students the goal figures into
cryptocurrency yeah so without further
ado if you have any questions leave them
in the comments section Brian will pick
out the best and we will get to them in
three minutes and 59 seconds from 3 to
welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Cheng I'm
betting Fox ribbon I'm Alfred Aang
Mobile will Congress the wireless
industry's biggest trade show starts up
next month next week but the big reason
that you should really care about it I
mean it's a little well Keats in
Barcelona so it's a little bit off hours
the reason you should care Samsung is
showing off the Galaxy S 9 they're gonna
hold an event on Sunday so we're gonna
see the next big flagship throne phone
from Samsung what's the big deal with
this one it's gonna be the camera or
something samberly imagine so they're
you know obviously they haven't
announced a details yet but they hints
from their other teaser and the leaks
that we've seen we've seen from my boy
Evan blast evey leaks showed that yes
the camera is the big thing we're
looking at potentially a dual lens
camera to match what the iPhone 7 or
iPhone 8 and X have and that seems to be
the big focus that the change of the
phone actually physically doesn't look
that different
no surprise yeah we're we're expecting
something as a result of Samsung showing
up showing a big basically the story
that I wrote the previous that basically
everyone else sort of Nokia
has kind of like dropped out of mobile
Congress like there they're there and
they're showing off like smaller or like
lower profile phones yeah yeah our
wearables but most most companies are
staying away from the show because
they're all comfy so how often does this
happen where Samsung just comes and like
steals the show from everybody so they
generally dominate the show last year
they weren't there the year before they
were but almost always like LG has a big
flagship phone Huawei has a big flagship
phone for whatever reason I don't know
everything's aligned in a way that like
everyone else is kind of looking to hold
their own events later this year and
Samsung sort of has the entire show to
itself feels kind of like a jerk thing
to do though because they do have the
resources to throw their own show you go
to their like unveiled events like all
the time oh yeah and they definitely
have more reason it feels like they
don't need Mobile World Congress they
don't but it is a good excuse to you
know it's good way to get everybody in
one place for you to hold event
I mean they've done traditionally they
have owned the show in the past but I
think they're gonna dominate Mobile
Congress this year more so than in past
shows and of course we have to talk
about 5g Katie Collins or previous
stories looking at how that's good it's
less sizzle more substance so we've been
hearing years of hype about 5g I think
it started become reality first trials
are coming out later this year so you're
gonna start to see more concrete
commentary on what's gonna look like at
the show
Katie actually mentioned in her story we
won't see the first 5g device until
later this year yeah what is that device
it'll look like a puck okay wireless
hotspot how first go in here like how
good is it gonna work doesn't it need
like a whole network around it yeah so
18t is announcing or is launching its 5g
network in 12 cities so presumably in
those cities you'll have generally good
and fast coverage there and the hotspots
basically will connect other devices to
that network all right so we're moving
on speaking of we're gonna be talking
about the question mark guy yeah so if
you're not familiar with him his name is
Matthew Lesko he made his name in the
90s basically wearing this suit with a
bunch of question marks and I'm really
yeah and then just yelling about free
money and how you can get it from the
government I had been thinking about him
in tandem with blockchain and like
cryptocurrency for a while just because
it seemed like
like blockchain and cryptocurrency it
was our generations Matt Lesko of all
these like coin bros that are just like
hey yeah look how rich I am now you can
do it too just invest in this like so
I'm like let me reach out of this guy so
and surprisingly he's not a fan right no
yeah he kind of looks at it like a scam
and he's kind of saying like they're
exaggerating in like the exact same way
that I did 20 years ago
okay all right speaking of
cryptocurrencies Steven Seagal is the
ambassador king of scam of Bitcoin with
two eyes two gen bit quite cool yeah
between you tell me what's going on can
Steven Seagal please get a bunch of
question marks on this little wannabe D
I mean he's not the only celebrity to
have their own cryptocurrency or be the
ambassador dual cryptocurrency there's
Paris Hilton Floyd Mayweather
Ghostface Killah the game a bunch of
rappers like getting into it now you
know it's it's it's a big cash grab for
them they don't really have to do
anything in the press as Matthew Lesko
says right it's free money free money in
it alright so tomorrow is our big 350
ninth episode so we decide to go all out
with a special for our podcast in
cooperation with mouse which is a
nonprofit group dedicated to spurning
STEM education for children so don't be
alarmed if your podcast just keeps going
and going tomorrow you know we're doing
something special for our big 350 new
9th anniversary so tell them I'm Roger
Tsien I'm Ben Fox ribbon I'm out for
gang thanks for listening thanks for the
a cappella rendition alright thank you
everybody as you heard tomorrow's gonna
be a super long show so come prepared
with your best questions until then I'm
gonna go through your moderately okay
questions that you've submitted today
and keep the conversation going until
then why are they making their own
Bitcoin why is this happens you want to
keep making in front of Steven Seagal
I'm gonna send you a video right now if
Steven Seagal running I don't know if
you've seen this but it's called Steven
Seagal runs like a girl and this is not
- justjust hold on I'm sending it to you
on slack right now it's okay so so this
is this is an easy one to answer why are
they doing this because it's free and
easy money at this point of celebrity
for the celebrities and also for the for
the folks that do the Aiko's because in
to a certain extent
like oh by the way it's an initial coin
offering so it's similar to an IPO in
that regard but they are much less
regulated than you would actually have
to to get onto the stock market so while
the regulations are considerably lower
it just there's there's this big cash
grab going on everybody's you know
thinks it's like gold rush so at some
point the thing is they're launching I
SEOs seemingly every day do they make
money though that's the thing like out
of them do I mean you're just talking
about - there's a lot of like crypto
like ICO scams - where it's like you get
all these investments and then you
literally just disappear off the face of
it which has happened so there there is
a lot of like scamming going on and you
know see like the authorities kind of
bust like crack down and some of that
yeah yeah I imagine this was taught me
of costs which by the way everyone
listening you should totally invest in
Alfred coin which I won't do that I
won't do that to you guys
he's legit 3:59 coin is also tomorrow
sounds like a really good idea frankly
so I need to pay for my kids college
education somehow the value is limit to
three dollars though I'm okay with that
it's gonna the total value of the coins
all the billion of them that's an extra
three dollars and 59 cents that I didn't
have it's true that that is true all
right Alfred we have this queued up
doing are we gonna so Steven Seagal if
you've ever watched any of his movies he
does not know how to run I don't know
why he runs like this it's like he's
swatting like visors maybe there's some
sort of martial arts move maybe yeah so
this is the guy who's the master never
thought about this by the way I don't
think he's really a girl cuz I don't
think girls no they don't but like
that's just nature like normal people is
like the fins
I for one I'm glad to see Steven Seagal
back in the limelight yeah I'm with
Steven Seagal I mean I did too but I'm
okay with him being gone he's a lot
puffier than I remember oh he's
definitely gained some weights but
that's I had to write us yeah that's
right a story about him like two years
ago because he visited like the Russian
ambassador's office or something like
that and they gave him like carrots and
watermelons and he like just straight he
had to eat them like in front of them to
like look polite I guess it's the
goofiest thing that's a very strange
combination I think the hands I will
never get tired we make Harris and
watermill yeah and I tweeted out a photo
of it it's great I would never like get
tired of making fun of Stephen Segal
amazed how much you know about Congress
and 5g we somehow decided listen if it's
memed
Alfred's gonna bring it to the table all
right in the questions Danny Green are
they s9 and the new iPhone going to be
5g because I can't burn up my data file
fast no no no no chance
the first 5g phones will come out early
next year and even then I don't imagine
there be showing up in the flagship
phones I feel like it's gonna be kind of
experimental for a little while
or somewhere the phones might have 5g
capabilities but then you know we're
started gonna be there yeah yeah I would
I would probably say from from what you
said that 5g is only gonna be available
from AT&T and a handful of markets well
by G it would be spotty Mobile on Sprint
and Verizon will deploy some level of it
here and then you've seen deployments in
Japan and Korea but like in Europe its
way behind so from a global scale it
doesn't really make sense to have 5g in
phones yet with the hockey puck thing by
the way if I were to get something like
that how close what and I'm in the right
market how close would it be that like I
could potentially drop my broadband
start using it as a Wi-Fi connection if
I wanted to um that's a great question I
don't know like it I mean that's what
Verizon has been trying to deal with
there there 5g
plans is to you know basically drop
traditional projects why they're not
investing in FiOS as much as they used
to right I mean isn't the reason why
people don't do that already with like
the LTE boxes that they also have like
the on-the-go like Wireless stuff yeah
because it's like stupid expensive yeah
there's the thing of it is there are we
don't know how 5g plans
look both 4G right now you have decent
speeds already but the Capulets are
employment when you hit a certain level
they throttle you down so it's not great
if you're streamed for instance
streaming all your content on some sort
of set-top box or your it's just
constant of phone using data it's not
practical right all right moving on what
do we think about ZTE axon 9 razor 2048
wants to know when will the ZTE release
the axon 9 it seems that the renders
going around is for a different device
yeah we're not gonna see the Exxon 9 at
Mobile Congress like I said most of the
companies there have kind of shifted
their flagship plans away from over
Congress so you'll probably see it later
this year I don't think that phone was
ever in the cards for this show anyways
but you know surprisingly like companies
like LG huawei HTC have traditionally
shown off phones at the show and they're
kind of they are showing off phones but
they're not really flagship phones so as
for ZT yeah where I don't think were
gonna get much we're gonna get something
from them but nothing flagship level so
from LG by the way LG usually shows off
its latest G line right yeah g6 was at
the last show the g6 was at the last
show and they really they tried to
dominate the show last year cuz Samsung
was not there they were sort of de facto
big player but the g6 was complete flop
so guys to the point where I don't think
they're good there is gonna be a G line
phone this year there's gonna be
something else shaking up their whole
plans I love that the one year that
Samsung doesn't show up the standout is
a phone that was really popular in 1999
yeah that was it no Nokia 3310 was a
standout phone was a darling a mobile
Congress last year and just because it
was retro I haven't seen anybody with
that phone yet no nor would you but it's
coming to the u.s. or did come to the
yeah I came but you know who's gonna buy
that phone I don't know like baby
pictures like this weekend phone you
kind of disconnect from the world which
makes sense but also you think about
yeah just like logically speaking or you
really don't like pop out the SIM card
in your phone and like put into this
other phone like I'm gonna escape from
also I would imagine that if
it's the weekend you would want like
your actual because you're probably
gonna take like a lot of cool photos
yeah you know like play games yeah it's
like it's really not that hard to
disconnect by like not checking your
emails or like pretty hard for me I
really drank the kool-aid on that phone
at the time and that home sad that it
didn't everyone drank the kool-aid I
mean there is so excited for that drank
the kool-aid I think it was more so just
like 2017 was a big year of like
nostalgia Tech yeah you know I can play
these 8-bit games Wow
take his back although it wasn't even
like actual Nokia snake it was like an
upgrade it is that great yeah yeah
really funny I do you know if Nokia is
doing anything like retro or like missed
out possibly yeah yeah engage they'd be
silly not to engage that was like the
video game phone game phones out there
compete with the Nintendo switch bring
back the n-gage the bulky Nokia brick
that I had was like 50 390 or something
I love that thing though was
indestructible I threw it at so many
windows nice yeah cool okay more
questions more questions Michael Brown
isn't Mobile World Congress we're
Android wear gets some brand new
hardware maybe ooh a Google does have a
kind of like stealthy but visible
presence it's like it did they don't
announce anything there but they've got
like they've got collectable pins they
have these big like a big booth there
that you can like you get like bags or
you get schwag basically and people go
crazy for that stuff like they have
collectable pins on every booth like a
different Android pin that people
literally spend their entire tradeshow
walking around getting these pants not
actually doing anything just getting
these pins so as for actual concrete
news like Android wear I would be very
skeptical that they would make any news
there but Google sort of has a knack for
staying in the minds of folks at the
show without actually announcing
anything from Michael Laveau day what
about LG are they gonna come with loaded
guns or not I love that brand would love
to see them snap back yes I was saying
like that what we're seeing LG is gonna
have something but it's not going to be
like
the g7 there'll be a phone they've sort
of hinted that the phone will use
artificial intelligence AI was a big
theme for LG at CES they could continue
that with phones Congress but it's not
gonna be like the big super flagship
phone it's gonna be something a lot of
the rumors sort of point to it being an
update to the V 30 right on from Moshood
UE what do you think about these s9
leaks and I think he's looking for a
more personal take away from what we've
all been peeking at not the officials
seen it reporting on it right right I
mean yeah they're the phone's I don't
it'll be interesting how they're gonna
sell this phone cuz like the focus is on
the camera which is smart but it doesn't
look like it's particularly different
from the previous version which to be
fair the s8 I thought was a fantastic
phone without a great new design to it
but it seems like it hasn't changed that
much so it means strategies work for
Apple pretty well because Samsung so
people are definitely gonna pay
attention to it however I would say that
the s8 was a much bigger gear for
Samsung they had to bounce back problems
with the note 7 the stakes were a lot
higher the stakes were way higher so
with this one
III think that as long as it's it's an
incremental improvement they do a little
bit more work with the camera maybe we
will hear more about their voice
assistant Bixby right then people people
will probably buy it well look if they
have a dual lens camera that definitely
is a good sign point cuz iPhone 8 still
doesn't have that that's the base model
of the iPhone still doesn't have a dual
cam yeah the other problem is is that
the like the iPhone 8 line isn't doesn't
look any different than the iPhone 6 yea
soda Samsung really have to completely
redesign their phone from last year
because of what I'm curious if they if
they're if they've thought about like
bringing a notch into it just like cuz
they seem to like emulate a lot Apple
stuff right we all know we need more
notch it's it's certainly recognizable I
mean you could immediately identify it
so a lot of people made fun of it but it
is an iconic I wouldn't be surprised by
the Mobile Congress a lot of lower
profile guys come out
with the knotch mm-hmm at this point
it's I believe in it's like it's become
like a not status symbol but it's
definitely like if your way that it's a
way of showing that this guy sounds ah
yes it's a way of showing you've got the
lace and grace from iPhone and it's a
knotch
and that's really the only way to look
at hey the essential phone also has a
notch I also came out with first it's
just small or not nobody owns it too
small or not alright we are almost out
of time there's lots of great
conversation going on about Google
project Phi and the Algeria 20 possibly
bringing back the replaceable battery
experience new flagship phone so thanks
everyone for contributing but we just
got to close it out with a couple of
final thoughts danny green does ask
he's on fire today do you think Google
will drop the fiber and go with 5g in
the future I think that's a great
question I mean I think that's yes I
mean they've already kind of backed away
from physical fiber they after the
initial city deployments I think they've
completely dropped it like they don't
they're not Google Fiber isn't adding
any cities anymore because it's crazy
expensive and you're taking up sidewalks
it just doesn't really it seems like
they had the exact same calculus that
Verizon did yeah is that they realize
that building out the fiber underground
even though it works really well just
isn't worth it and it's probably we have
the extra incentive where Verizon had to
basically go in every city and sell them
on this idea like we'll give you a free
playground if you let us come in and dig
up your streets
whereas cities were welcoming Google in
they're like oh yeah we'll just you know
welcome we're working with Google don't
worry about regulatory stuff we'll just
clear that up for you even with that it
was still crazy expensive just
practically speaking like digging you up
sidewalks and putting in fiber that's
not easy and having so 5g or some other
LD wireless technology is just a lot
cheaper a lot more efficient and future
proofing closing thoughts before we say
farewell last year we had that 3310
sneakin underneath the radar on us and
kind of blew everybody's doors off not
in the traditionally like excellent
register away more in less knowledge a
man really are we going to see any more
surprises like that what are you looking
forward to
what what is are completely off-the-cuff
non-official MWC 2018 predictions I want
to see another retro phone just just
because it's funny and it's interesting
in people it gets people talking alright
so I'm hoping to see something hopefully
from Nokia otherwise I mean Blackberry
made a big splash last year it's like oh
wait it's still alive it's a thing so
maybe they'll say something we'll see or
Motorola or more right that's right out
with one bring back that sharpies yeah
bring back the legit razor found the
razor
that's what I want to see or the star
tech or the car phone by the way I don't
know that you mentioned this yet on the
podcast but you're gonna be at the show
yeah that's right I mentioned so here's
why Roger knows so much about this not
only does he cover mobile regularly yeah
I'll be living mobile for the next week
or so but yeah I'll be I'll be there
starting Friday yeah but there the whole
week so look out for Roger stories yeah
that's why I'll be gone next week
actually tomorrow will be my last show
and what a show it will be yes right
speaking of as we mentioned earlier
tomorrow is a 350 ninth episode of the
359 we will be live from 11:00 a.m.
Eastern Standard Time until 3:00 3:00
p.m. 59 and 3:00 p.m. 59 there will be a
rotating cast of hitting me right now
which is why I can't get the words that
going why did I sign up for we're gonna
be are our friend Mike Sorrentino will
actually be most likely spending a lot
of the same amount of time yes as well
helping out with questions so we'll be
here on YouTube as usual periscope as
usual livestream as usual we're gonna
spend a few minutes on Facebook as well
but not for the entire four hours it's
complicated but if you're around you can
find us we'll be taking questions across
the board lots of guests rotating in and
out and all your favorites Dan Ackerman
Bridget Carey is that dogs got Stein and
then as you mentioned house David Katz
Meyer and David gods mark yeah and and
then mouse org all right and that's it
for today we hope to see everybody back
tomorrow at your best convenience for as
long as you can give us
we're here all day folks yeah yeah it
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see you tomorrow tomorrow
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