Gadgetory

good morning on Monday November 13th its episode 3 15 of the 359 podcast my name is BBG and your host today include Ben Fox Ruben and maybe Roger Chow maybe we're not all here it's Monday wiki saying I had a long weekend at a waterpark it just doesn't sound it's not as fun as you think pretty much all the time yeah alright but we're speaking of water sports we'll be talking about cruise ship the future of cruising I actually got a chance to check out Royal Caribbean's a text showcase last week so we're gonna run down what it looks like to be on the cruise ship of the future to be discussing VR roller coasters on Malaysia there is a VR a weird show Lego I know that this roller coaster that basically matches up singles day shopping holiday right it's arguably the biggest shopping day of the year globally completely and like puts black fire to shame right completely overshadowing Black Friday's China does not have a lock so they're do right now get to it do you have any questions leave in the comments section I will try to answer them and here we go for the recording of the podcast feedback in the chat and three minutes and 59 seconds from 3 to welcome to the 359 dr. chan I'm Ben Fox ribbon are you fed up cruise ships I got a chance to check out Royal Caribbean's showcase for its upcoming technology and most of it is designed to let you be lazier than ever there's this concept stateroom with LEDs everywhere that sort of simulated the time of day you can so you can stay there all you wanted if you play our games there there's a new facial recognition system to speed through your check-in process but the best feature I saw was the ability to order a drink no matter where you were on your app on an applet or phone and have a service show up with the pool if your stateroom wherever you are it knows this is amazing right this is the technology we've been waiting this is real practical tech Radin get jet packs but we got this how does it work and when you were actually at this demo they did it and it worked at the demo right yeah yeah yeah so they were actually doing sort of a dry run er beta test in this warehouse in Brooklyn that they took over and kind of converted as a pseudo demo tech cruise ship experience uh yeah there's on the phone it used a combination of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth beacons I figured out the server's will all have their own phones on the tray best would pop up with your face you had to send them self ahead of time with your face and then a little bit of like a little map underneath they gave those servers a bit of approximately like a than 9 feet radius of where you might be and then they'd figured out the last couple feet ok they'd show up to drink it wasn't a hundred percent like my cameraman mark was here uh who is a beard you were to drink and we stock boy I saw the server like go and like that's other beard guy like hey are you are you mark and you know obviously you could get right the first time but it worked pretty well there apparently even if you order the drink and you move around the waiter will still be able to track you because it's which is pretty cool which means more like you could order a drink on the go and then it will show up yep when you get to the craps tables the other cool experience was the virtual dining which isn't their new and brocro bid had a cool little spin on it was more like it wasn't like a full-course meal or anything like that it was sort of three little appetizers that she ate it was time to experience so it was kind of telling the story you were in this like Japanese teahouse the teahouse sort of exploded and opened up into a Japanese garden each bite you took kind of triggered a new event these kind of change but it was kind of cool I would do that like once but it's I think as you mentioned in the story it's a little isolating yeah it's kind of like going out to a restaurant by yourself it's totally gimmicky let's begin a VR our own Zoey Chung get to check out this roller coaster out of Malaysia that through it mashes up surf those old-school thrills and actual roller coaster but you're wearing a VR headset and I add the whole lego experience it's like a racing game in VR while you're doing a roller coaster yeah exactly this is like the easiest way to vomit why would you do that to yourself look it's not the first one there was out there was a VR road closed around London from last year so this stuff is actually happening I I'm kind of skeptical about it for God's sakes it's a roller coaster enjoy your roller coaster why do you have to put a VR headset on top of it but hey if people want to try it out why not and last we want to talk about a single stay this is Ali Baba's made-up holiday they obviously broke their records because big break records every single year calculating twenty five billion dollars in sales generated from 1.5 billion shoppers in one day Wow way to go singles thing well what singles day is a made-up holiday that Alibaba created I think back in 2009 and it's similar to prime day that you get in the US and a couple of other countries idea that if you're single you should see yourself yeah and if they're hoping to bring it I think to more countries in the future but it's right before the like the big holiday shopping season so I don't know that people would really go for it in the US but we'll see we've already got Black Friday and prime Day and Cyber Monday and I don't know giving Tuesday there's there's a lot of ways for you to spend your money there you go for those stories and more chickens on CNET I'm Robert Chang I'm Ben Fox ribbon thanks for sitting treat yourself couldn't I help myself I was actually just binge binge rewatching part indirectly time last night which is a worthy thing to do yeah oh yeah so we'll have plenty of chat and comments to get to let's start right off the bat Matthew batch or the - in the chat - why would I want to vacation on a ship that holds as many people as the towel when I grew up in I prefer the ship's about 300 passengers or less I got it I kind of agree with that because I too came from very small town right and I hate people you know if you hate people cruise ships or not they're not for you I mean we I just did it I was not a big fan of cruise ships but now that I've got a kid and parents who were willing to watch my kid on this cruise ship it was I had an amazing time it's a little more encapsulated exactly it's like it's all kind of favor but your place to place the idea is that you know you can go from town to town and you don't have to unpack and pack constantly you know you've got one place that kind of moves you around for and to me it makes sense for those types of contained experiences yeah to just cram as much tech into them as possible and there are always new cruise ships coming on line so why not just add more tech into them it's the same thing that they're doing with cars you know like Tesla is getting so much attention by just putting tablets all over cruise ships they there's not bid the most cutting-edge it's not the most cutting-edge industry at all about it will give Royal Caribbean's some credit I mean the newer ships they rolled out do have more technical like this robotic bartender they've got fast Wi-Fi still expensive but most cruise ships have terrible Wi-Fi that's really expensive so and it's this kind of pervasive Wi-Fi network they spit up on these boats to allow for things like being able to eat your drink wherever you are that's so it's to their credit date they've got a critical you need your drink wherever you whatever and wherever you are there's one other element that I'm looking at from your story that we didn't get to which was self-driving shuttles yes so I went to cram every detail but they it's hilarious because there they were testing out these and these are so a trial they're not rolling there's not officially yet it's Navy oh is the the company that is basically supplying these self-driving shuttles but they're hoping to get into port they'll take you from a ports like the main city usually around it's not lazy they don't own a pot on the ship but like you previously would have to walk from the ship to whatever main town horrible I know right but then these shuttles they'd they estimate they could get like six shuttles going round round trips and that pretty much could service the entire and it's funny things that happen despite that happened was they just Las Vegas had just rolled out these shuttles in the city that day and one of them got into an accident yeah yeah and it was because of the shuttle itself an error it was ultimately human error like it was another truck that kind of backed into it you know problem was the shuttle didn't know to backup it just stopped didn't know what to do and then it got big it was a very minor accident turned the headlights the hydrogen yeah obviously there still needs to be a lot of research and work done all these things I believe the University of Michigan also has these shuttles for use for their students I want to see the wall-e pods on the sheriff airships we're getting there that's what I'm saying it the axiom yeah cruise the Starliner actually just cut up that egg-shaped vehicle into smaller pieces and then we'll be able to ride around just like we did in wall-e I'd say that was cut blown away by the stateroom as well because they covered the entire ceiling with an LED yeah this a kind of stream an LED stream on the floor and it all kind of integrated to work like it could be morning could be something could be like a rain forest with rain falling like basically if you never wanted to leave your stateroom like that's like the because that's exactly why people go on a cruise right you block to me people go on cruise to basically be stationary so I think it makes sense from from what they're drink from a revenue perspective I think some of those rooms don't any windows yes that was very helpful I think that was probably one of the best practical benefits if you have no windows this simulates the idea that being outside that it's like not so claustrophobia and you're saying fair enough we've got a collective mindset going on here in the chat that I love it the one in yellow just says super lazy awesome tech that's kind of the summation of it that's been Slater also says it is freaking awesome and like from a technological standpoint it is awesome but I want to go back to the one of my god they actually like it's a cool gimmick to expand on that the one in yellow brings up if you're gonna go on holiday why would you be using VR for example it's not like the bus drivers holiday wants to go driving all over the place like why would you want to live on a virtual situation that just mimics your real situation or the example that is why are you leading at all I think the example that I came out was you know they were offering you an experience that you couldn't get on the ship was frankly you probably couldn't get anywhere else you went to Japan right this idea of like being this tranquil Japanese teahouse the screen doors actually kind of shatter and all the paper folds this isn't gonna work for a full meal this isn't gonna be sitting there for an hour this is like this the demo that we had was maybe 5 minutes long 7 is long and I kind of see it like that it's more of an attraction it's they suggested that like this could be a cool like candy type sampler like it wouldn't be for a full meal again you just have like little little dessert bites or whatever and I give them credit over the last piece the last bit of food that I had was this chocolate truffle with pop rocks and so I had it almost look kind of like you know popped around my mouth to kind of tingle run my mouth and like spray and VR my caterpillars curl out your mouth yeah pretty much like it was kind of cool and I also said I have to say this is the first time I tried they used HD see five headsets paired with leap motion is the first time I've tried it it's actually pretty amazing like regularly there were no cables or anything they recognized my hands and my fingers and I was actually those very responsive very little lag that was a was 69 69 does point out it would be good for people with disabilities and that's yes an excellent point as always yeah yeah for those who can get to the ship but night might not be able to get around the ship as easily give them experiences so that they can at least have the fresh ocean air and yeah expand on that technology helps both people with disabilities and the incredibly lazy that's super important right my thought though is I it's it's it's is this sad it's kind of sad in my eyes think about it oh let me go on this first of all it's only a ticking time bomb until the ship gets an autonomous driver like in Walia it goes on rampage who Danny Green points out this is basically west water on the open sea that's actually kind of unfortunate slip but think about if you go out I'm gonna use like whale watching is an example where you go out in the boat and the weather sucks and like you're gonna go see whales I pay a lot of money they'll see whales and the whales never showed up cuz they got better stuff to do right and then you put on VR goggles like okay here's some sake they are whales is that sad that's kinda sad to me when if you're not gonna have the experiences faking it really a good substitute I would argue yes if you were trying to replicate something that you're trying to get on the ship but in this particular case like that was that VR experience was not something you were gonna get on the ship unless you're on or something but if you were really kind of a cruise at the Bahamas and you're doing some sort of like Japanese teahouse theme for your experience that's kind of cool because it's different it's it's looking a little gimmicky I think if I compare to folks who visit the ice bar and a cruise ship or Vegas right that's like a weird thing you know yeah yeah but they so experience in itself yes it's literally a bar there's one in the Hilton in New York yes yeah there is there's one in Vegas I bet that will be their idea is that this is it's a unique experience it's it's not something you would do every day but it's kind of something cool you would try on a vacation Chris gamer brings up that he's nervous about ever being on a ship that's self driven you know self-driving ship doing an emergency now let's think about this for a second Ophir ships have been virtually self driven for a long time yeah I mean you're not fully autonomous but I mean pun intended there on cruise control they are and you know what they're they're operating on sensors that can detect things that that humans can write we couldn't have so much work out exactly right like water like object detection like yeah it's like the computers can actually handle things a lot better yeah so I don't know if I love this idea of course I'm not really big on cruises to begin with I don't know about anybody I'm not I like I kind of like have converted but mostly because it's easy it is easier yeah when I was like what definitely when I was single and attached we're married it makes sense to me that you're spending a lot of money you're gonna spend a lot of time on this ship you're gonna cram it with as much technology as possible the VR rollercoaster concept though I'm not on board with like I would definitely try it once just to see what but it's one of those things where I think what are the commenters mentioned like you're already on a roller coaster live that experience be in the moment instead of flying it that's the thing though in those 4d rides like the Back to the Future right Universal I used to love those things yeah of course that without years ago fine they were new man they're getting a little stale now how do you expand on that well maybe this is the case we actually get extra sensation the actual feeling of weightlessness relative weightlessness you get on a roller coaster that kind of thing where they can't replicate that in a 40 theater that's just a little box hopping around both situations the one in London or the UK and the one Zoey tried Malaysia these are old roller coasters that basically rather than like go to the expense of building a roller coaster or nine folds on the custom exactly it's a way cheaper way to it's a cheaper way to offer a new experience or fresh probably doesn't have well that's pretty entrepreneurial right there's a good job back to a would they say I'm sure places would charge for a remote ride via VR for people who can't travel or travel that far visit a theme park you know it's in another country yeah late that sensation though and how far can we take sensation simulation before it becomes old hat chairs that moved around right at the screen right imagine Julian via I think it's the same principle I don't think it's that difficult to create some sort of room or pairs I think in Japan there was one of those Campari Oh card experience pair to a seat that moved in conjunction with the way you mm-hmm that would be awesome right that's been the promise in VR for a long time I don't think that we're quite there yet most of the time when you're talking about like VR experiences it's mostly in the video game world yeah it's really interesting how we've come so far in filmmaking and they can do so much to create middle-earth up on the big screen and yet pretty much buy it wholesale and now we're doing that to our lives but it's much harder to do in a VR experience and the computational power behind creating middle-earth as something completely immersive and fully believable in a VR headset I don't think that we're quite there yet it still looks it's it's we're still well within the uncanny valley like that why would you want to live in the star wars for why wouldn't you of course all right all right before we go let's talk about stupid fake holidays yes coming up I mean Black Friday's are not real they're not entirely it's true Black Friday has been around for a long enough time that people tend to forget that Black Friday my wife like a list of heroes from Black Friday items I have the hardest time calling it a holiday called black right it's a big sale it's a big sale I know but if I remember it sounds so evil the shop a terrible marketing decision well the reason if I correct me if I'm wrong the reason it's called Black Friday's because that's the day that all the retailers go into the black light that's they go from the red to the black and that's when they said it's national rhetoric that applies anymore though not only that but like it's actually that's how boldface they're being with the sale where they're like you know what is a bit of a negative connotation these days I don't know cyber monday it's it's also they're trying to climb onto that one too and that one also like that's not a negative connotation yeah there's small business something there's also another one on Saturday yeah they just basically want you to keep spending isn't it Small Business Saturday Saturday so Wow which is a nice one in my up in my personal opinion I said a they try to you know do that one for the mom and pops even though that's also made up I mean Valentine's Day started it all back in the day actually no my wife is like she's like this totally made-up do not buy flowers on Valentine's Day bright wiggly jack up the prices yes so between that and singles day and I love somebody in the chat pointed out love day from The Simpsons oh yeah that's brilliant love day will educate you after the show what's what's going to be with it's the same thing it's just like I made up it's like Simpsons version yeah but what's gonna be the next stupid made-up holiday that we come up with it's gonna be like a VR day as long as people keep buying stuff during I mean you can argue already like iPhone launch day was its own thing yeah hello I know ceremony and some pop and circumstance just sort of like yeah III buy exactly what you're saying everybody like gets in line and pretends like it's a sale and everyone everyone talks about sale it's just like here's the first day you could buy this product this really expensive price yeah I have these ideas brewed in my head but I'm afraid to say I'm out loud because if they actually come true because it would be easy enough to pull these off I'm gonna feel like a monster like for example if we rallied Alfred to get the Millennials together for a snap day they just have or avocado toast day like you're giving birth to these things as we speak like there's a second scream like Goku event that goes on and look at the raw day we can make anything as stupid holiday anymore what are we done to be fair like a dozen people showed up to the door was it really I would say you the consumer have the power to kill off these made-up holidays if you one literally stopped shopping on those days they'll stop talking they can media they can let's make a life day from Star Wars a real thing from Josh Boylan yeah I don't know that one really it's the notorious Star Wars Christmas special life day okay yeah right well I don't think it's it's the only wookies I think it's supposed to be like oh the Christmas Christ so galaxy far far away it's just life day that make sense it does gonna make sense and in the meantime there's Festivus for the rest of us and i'm that note it's time to wrap it up all right good Monday it was a good week yeah all right you like anything you saw her hurt here take us on CNET our podcast is available on iTunes turn in stitcher SoundCloud Feedburner and google play music thanks everybody see you tomorrow yep Mona Tuesday