Gadgetory

welcome to the 359 I'm rotor Chang I'm Ben Fox Ruben I'm Alfred Inge so we're gonna have an extra extended episode of 359 one with breakdown 2018 so far it's been such a hectic year already with so many different headlines we just figured why not break down the top ten stories here so far in case you've been in a coma and you just woke up and wanted to know hey what are all the tech stories going on this year we've got you covered there you go in case you've never watched the show before this would be a good first episode to jump into know we're actually a lot better usually I promise so while we get right into it in reverse order from least to most important number 10 rise of the notch copycat zones some of the LGG 7 talk about the 1 plus 6 they're just the slew of phones with the knotch and that was a thing that drove a lot of people crazy now we're seeing so many I thought they should have been number one this this is probably the most important story of me I feel like I feel bad for number 11 now what this horrible choice rise of the knotch rise of the knotch I thought it was really funny though cuz like when when Apple first announced like the iPhone 10 everyone's like what does I hate that thing it's like gross but then like everyone started copying and I still don't understand why I mean it just goes oh hey it goes to show you how effective Apple's branding is because they've somehow convinced everyone that the notch is something worth buying like it's a it's a status symbol like oh you were able to afford this really ugly phone which it's like really I own as well but it's like how crops are cool now they actually are they like rocks are rocks are truly cool again again what do you mean they were we're all de nice to know they were super popular back in the day before they when they stopped being cool and now they're cool again yeah rocks are trendy now moxtra trendy back and they before they went public what about like they were like fashion trendy they were like dad trendy dad's wait is that the same watch your mouth dad cool without yeah but I would say the notch is like the equivalent of that like it's it's like everyone fashioned cooler dad cool I think that when it came out people thought that it was dad cool but now it's I don't I don't think it was dad no I thought it was I think it came when it came out it was fashion cool I think the biggest loser in this scenario is essential with their notch right because they're not choose weight less obnoxious they're not it's a little small not judgmental it was not much preferred that notch like that notch made sense to me it's not unlike unfortunately when you want to pack in multiple cameras front face cameras and sensors you've got a big notch like the iPhone 10 notch alright let's move on let's let's not dwell on the knotch number 9 Samsung O's Apple half a billion dollars theoretically this is the conclusion to this long-running legal battle but it's a radical I don't think it's gonna end was this over copying the knotch no Samsung is that's the thing Samsung is the one company not to go back to the notch again but they're the one the one big company that has refused to go knotch can I just ask you one knotch related question on top sure so you have the iPhone 10 does it not bother the hell out of you doesn't you actually just start to like get used to the notch you get a notch vision we're all right next up number 8 bitcoins dramatic rise and fall then you can you've been covering they're closer than most of us all saw it coming we all knew really how much money this company to pay me in Bitcoin and it was there were people in the mainstream media in the established media all like the bankers and everything everybody they heard you know you should be listening to but they're too dad cool for you to bother we're all saying this is a bubble it has no actual value do not buy it when it hits close to $20,000 and they were right it was it was so obviously a bubble and so it's just the mania has kind of died down a bit what about what about dogecoin and all those other coins they still exist and they're probably gonna find like some but the money I put there safe right yeah yeah apparently they're all like caving now okay but like though it's volatile they go up they go down I think Bitcoin will continue having value to it and I don't know we'll see but I think 20,000 may have been a little rich well yet no at seven thousand six thousand yeah Wow it literally goes down as I say right the moment I say it sorry sorry it's already lost them thousand dogs so next up a political one Trump took a little while to get on the list but president are present coming in and shockingly helping ZTE Chinese company of all of all things trying to save Chinese jobs as opposed to American jobs okay so you're the one that's been writing a lot about this why would Trump want to do something like this so ZTE has spent a significant amount and believe it's like half a billion on components and products and services from US companies guys like Qualcomm like Texas Instruments Broadcom I'm not to mention using Google services right a lot of the the core parts of Android well Android itself is also be open things like Google Play there are aspects of it that Google owns and controls so when the commerce department came and slapped us ban on ZTE preventing any American business from doing work or selling services to them was basically a death sentence it's just surprising that Trump who's just made such a big big stink about American jobs American companies stepped in and said hey we need to save ZTE that's sort of fun with saving but if I'm following what you're saying helping ZTE in effect helps us coorporate that that has been the argument I don't know that he made that argument very effectively in public but you certainly did so well done I mean there's nowhere that there's still like a major push from like the Congress to like reenact this ban though and the like citing a lot of security concerns basically making the argument that like by allowing CT to continue selling its products in the u.s. that basically opens up a channel for like Chinese spies to use those devices to you know spy it like just carry out like Chinese operations like on our network it's important oh that mean they got in trouble for selling products that contained us technology to Iran and North Korea they got they got hammered for that they got they got they came to a settlement the US for certain partners they failed to enact all that line which is why they situation right yeah it still seemed pretty extreme to me that they would their company could completely fail over something like that but hey that's what happened all right next up number six Avengers couldn't get away with Avengers was a huge cultural milestone people everyone was talking about it sorry but know I look good between Avengers and Deadpool it seems like all the concerned about comic book fatigue is overblown hello Black Panther yeah exactly I was the highest-grossing film of the 2018 so far I believe way more than Avengers I think Avengers has already surpassed it okay you might be right love that yet to whisper a check is the first time for everything okay next seven four five yeah any verse Laurel I know we had to talk we have to talk about what did you guys hear when Roger just said that what did you hear by the way what war you're responsible when you heard it I I wanted I don't know if Brian's here for this episode but I really enjoyed hearing his take about this where he just got really angry and he were just like it's just it's just a trick with audio it's really simple I don't know why everybody cares about this so much still angry Wow way tell me why you're that angry I mean it was it's sort of a it's an illusion right people were kind of freaking for the audio equivalent of like is it a rabbit or a duck it's just like this is so stupid that's my problem with it it's just some silly stupid gimmick and I guess just I don't want to tap my own back here to her but I've worked on audio so long that it was just like well this is obvious what's going on here and why did you tell us Brian he did yes I wasn't that way I just like any time I heard it which is like your father is proud of you of what you're doing say oh that's cool sorry that's what was interesting I think there was no no I heard the opposite cause of disappointment there was also another one that came out right yes yields of Vianney versus world where if you had it in your head that I'm listening to it and it says this it would say that and you're not really I don't remember who's like powerplant and Daisy yeah totally worked and I thought that was more effective one except that just because it came on the heels of Yang vs. Laurel I love that it's like somebody came up with a she's gonna be awesome hell yeah oh this is the next big thing and then it wasn't so but thanks Dan for the tip next up a little bit more serious note merger mania still alive there were a lot of deals last year this year we had 18 t winning its case against the DOJ - by Time Warner DOJ just approved the deal between Disney and Fox and Sprint t-mobile we're getting together so it's like the adventures of companies yeah it's just like I've become one company that's not a good thing right well neither was Avengers by well ventures was great yeah I mean so wait why isn't it a good thing uh fewer fewer potential competitors means of these that are then they could jack up the prices on customers and surprise competition for upstarts I mean it's it's basically why we have anti monopoly laws but I guess those don't really mean much no look the government betwe least before this previous administration under the under Obama if it was a administration we had the government which particularly with wireless they were pretty adamant against mergers between the four players they wanted four national players because it kept everyone honest kept deals flowing kept prices lower we'll see what-what Sprint t-mobile looked like they made the argument like they need to get together to build the super 5g Network II which 5g by the way I did not put in my top 10 list because it's not here yet there's a lot of 5g hype but it's really the same stuff we've been hearing like it's coming and it's amazing but we actually haven't gotten it so if you're wondering 5 G's not I thought number 5 would have been 5g yeah what the hell man yeah versus Laurel man we were all talking about it what if 5g came out but we were so busy came out running out for a while just so fast yeah Oh number three for night that's the top of for night took over everything took over the lives of most children from what I understand like in schools it's just basically that's all they're doing I still have it into this game I'm very excited to play it but I haven't offered you're a huge floor 9 player um I'm not I've seen people play it I've watched people play it I'm just like this game really isn't for me I mean you know I gotta give tip my hat to them they made a free game and you know are still able to make millions because off everyone like hats and dances and stuff like that's where most of their money comes from but he games pretty fun too I'm I'm not taking anything from it I don't play it's not for me but I played it a couple of times I put it on my phone unfortunately for better worse they incorporate everyone into the same place so someone who's playing on the computer can be playing against me that's a real problem if I'm on my phone because the controls are not that smooth so you know a little shout-out to pub G which came out with the Battle Royale gameplay style I actually enjoy playing that a little more because I don't die as quickly it's also supposed to be like more realistic right G was the bigger deal last year and like that probably would have been on your list had we been doing this the same time last year we did so sorry bub G number two net neutrality laws and no more so the FCC is finally official and the FCC had rolled back the laws after many months of debates about fights that protests gathered but gone there done yeah when when are we gonna win when's this tiered service gonna show up yeah if you I'm eager to see if it's actually gonna happen there are all these concerns yes so this guy's gonna what your what your what plan you're on if you're on the podcast downloading a 3:59 plan yeah yeah or the social media plan where that's how I get my all that that that actual specific tearing would actually happen I feel like there would be enough of a consumer backlash that how we wouldn't play well but I can see subtle shifts over time it's the thing that's these companies are smart they're not gonna do anything drastic right away you're gonna start to see changes over time business models change some would argue that they're they're good for consumers the practices zero-rating for instance gives you data free access history that's some people would argue that's a good thing but others would say like this is also anti-competitive because it puts you at gives you an unfair advantage over everyone but there is a chance of it coming back right so they passed the vote in the Senate and the Senate passed the congressional review act prom is it also still needs the house and president Trump to sign off on it and that seems really unlikely there are gonna be lots of lawsuits that ties this up we've got states like California washed to New York I'll consider their own net neutrality plan so this is a lot this is a story that's long for a long ways from ending there's still definitely a lot of drama left a lot of a lot of debate discussion yeah and then lastly the the biggest store of the year where'd you get more microphone for that oh yeah there we go more notches no oh no no no it's Facebook's Cambridge Channel in the scandal of course how could we not talk about that at the top story of the first half of 2018 it was bad it seemed like was there I don't know as like because I pay attention or a lot of privacy issues and like for me this was one of those things like finally like somebody's like this is getting like the National like tension that like I feel that it deserves like Facebook for years have been has been like harvesting data from folks and I mean it's not just Facebook I mean with the idea that like the spotlight being on Facebook has also brought a spotlight over like Google and how much data they take which is arguably much more than Facebook does but I think you know this this does suggest like much more awareness from people now about like oh maybe I shouldn't like upload this photo or something like that because like Facebook is gonna use that and make money off of that by not selling info on you but like by saying oh look there's a dog in the photo this person probably likes dog just put dog ads like direct dog yeah it's towards them alright the question though is is that actually going to cause a shift in consumer behavior or is it just a short-term bump kind of like the hashtag delete uber just gonna go back there was even a short-term bump it seemed like they didn't have any there was a zero negative impact yeah you look at they're like sure wasn't huge numbers exactly if you look at the numbers like their users yeah the bark was worse than the bite in this scenario I think it's because well unlike deleted uber like there's an option there's not another option for Facebook with ruber you do lyft you can get a cab there are other options with Facebook there are a few other places that like contain all your information in your social you could also just not use Facebook you use Instagram Facebook what whoa what's that come on there are other alternative I mean like you do have like Twitter and snapchat which are like bigger they're publicly traded companies they're not tiny or anything they're not exist the same Twitter is not a good alternative thing I mean because either book is more personal to your friends in your family either it may not it's it's more public face either way even like talking about Twitter like if Twitter had the size that Facebook did it would still be taking your data so that's not like that doesn't take away the issue at hand here is that like your data is like literally everywhere and and you know experts that I've spoken to about this have basically said like the only way that like your data is ever gonna be private like online is if there's like a monumental shift in how the works like I you choosing to pay for all the content that you want that's why Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg had suggested like for us do not take data on people Facebook would have to be a paid subscription model and it might be an indication of like where the internet would be headed but like that would be a major shift in like how everyone interacts with like what when they go online Alta Malay they don't wanna do that they don't want our paychecks that's you hold your growth immediately right and also there's a lot of scrutiny like if I'm paying for something all of a sudden like I'm a lot less tolerant of issues like this if I'm if I'm paying for you know just you know what I just realized what number eleven was that lost out to knotch what GDP are we should totally talk about that was part of the camera gentle heart of games yeah okay I kind of bundled them all together but that's that's great your privacy stuff yeah yeah I mean it was kind of coincidental that like the gdpr stuff came around the same time as because they had passed GDP our last year like it was basically like you have like a year or two but the timing was kind of perfect right the controversy lined up right when it took effect all right that was a magenta for a break and we did it we solved the Internet guys was number eleven GDP our well it was number 11 with Huawei oh I'm glad we left that off talking about knocking that's right know we've got a full list you can check it on CNET we are taking a slight hiatus for the week for the Independence Day holiday we will be back on Thursday with a live show to take your questions Alfred will be hosting that day so don't watch it definitely watch it because he'll probably have some crazy new intro oh yeah and I can't do that if I'm the one hosting it though yeah so don't all right if you like anything you saw or heard here tricks on CNET our podcast is available on iTunes tune in stitcher Feedburner google play music google podcast and was on echo of course Tina calm all right thanks thank you all see on Thursday later well not you too All Right see ya for know Thursday bye