Gadgetory

welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Chang I'm Joanie Schlossman 5g is right around the corner the Qualcomm may give us the first look at what will really be like the company is holding its Snapdragon tech summit in Maui of all places tomorrow and we're expecting to see live 5g network demonstrations and devices that will actually be capable of running on them ahead of that Verizon Samsung announced today they are they're planning to launch a 5g smartphone in the first half of next year so what do we actually know almost nothing has become a common thing with these five g device announcements they basically say we're gonna have a 5g thing we can't tell you what it's called how much it cost specs are but it'll be it'll will be available in the first half of next year so the kind of interesting thing about it is that no really no really 5g is coming yes exactly the fact that like we've been talking about this as a thing that might be happening for Tod three three years four years at this point that it's actually gonna happen in the next few months is is I guess exciting enough exciting for people like Roger it's extremely exciting for people like Roger because I've been writing about this for a long time and I'm really eager to see this in the field it'll be just saying our own shower tip can and Jessica's ol core will be out at the Snapdragon text summit they'll be they'll be checking out this stuff so we'll get first impressions from them this week all right so let's talk about VR Joan you went to Los Angeles to check out this crazy experience based on a Charles Dickens Christmas carol right what what was that like it was really cool so it's a new wave in virtual reality trying to get people to make virtual reality that people actually want to go see where you combine a headset with a site-specific performance that includes a live actor that moves around you and motion capture suit so you don't see the live actor you see them in the headset as an avatar as different characters but they can talk to you with their own voice they can touch you you can touch them you actually interact with a real human and so yeah this one was based on a Christmas carol is definitely a lot scarier than Mickey Christmas Carol BBG and i were talking about earlier it takes in a very like true to the dickens creepy fashion and i got to go behind the scenes and check out the motion capture technology which was fun when watching this video it's basically it's a one-on-one experience right to you and an actor and that's it right yeah it's about 20 minutes there's an actor that you see that's in Victorian costume as you kind of like put on the she's the one that helps you put on the headset in a way that gets you sort of like in the mindset of while you're gonna be going yeah yeah and they do a lot of really like the technology is really cool but they also do a lot of simple things like they have they have walls that disappear so where you there was a wall before in your headset there it can disappear um physically - in addition to being in your headset and this is definitely sort of a next level or step-up from those basic VR experiences we've we've all tried and this is compared to what's come before it's still it like that they're hacking it together stage the technologies combining all these different elements the technology still is at a point where there's a lot farther it can go as a technology gets better and what was it like wearing those motion capture suits it was fun it's really comfortable it's like really a bodysuit so it's like a you know it's like doesn't cramp or anything like that but it's it's you look funny like you have like little balls and it's just really it makes they say every time so if it's on a motion capture suit the first thing they do is wave yeah wave and I did cartwheels because I can actually still do a cartwheel I was like do you not like plugged in or tied into no it's also that the room is surrounded by cameras okay they the mark the balls are the little markers and you pick up the markers visually oh nice so did you like to see yourself in VR afterwards yeah well they didn't have a chance to do a full there are two elements of the motion capture there's the body motion capture and then the facial stuff just takes a long time yeah yeah old a profile for yourself so I just did the body stuff so I got to see a little avatar myself that looks like a little like doll like a little nice alright for a full-coverage chickens on CNN I'm Roger Jane I'm Joanie Sasa thanks for listening and thanks for joining us for the recording of the audio podcast you can subscribe using the links below in the description and right now go ahead and start sending in questions and comments I know a lot of people are curious about this VR theater which actually seems like a decent use of VR finally something that's enhanced something that is unique and different and powerful more than just like Oh or this time we're gonna play doom but it's in your face or whatever and I mean a lot of cool yeah a lot of what I've seen has been like you know here's what it's like to be at the Olympic Village right you saw I look around and then that's it and after you know two minutes of the all right let's what's next so you know fact that there's an interactive level to it that it's it's one on one it's a little intimate that's yeah there's a live person who is adjusting the performance on the fly that's yeah that's nice yeah it's also like what you know the fact that like you're saying like the only you know VR stuff that I've seen is sort of thing like most of the really cool VR things that I've seen I'm lucky because I go to film festival right you get to see the best VR that's out there and so when people are like VR s lame it's over it's done the hype and I'm like well you haven't had a chance to see the coolest iterations it's hardly begun what's that I say it's hardly begun yeah I think what we've seen so far has been so preliminary that that has been underwhelming yeah the true potential hasn't been unlocked but this is a step in the right direction and this is something where you know they hope to it's in LA and you can get a ticket for it and they're hoping to expand it to other cities too so it's something that they're hoping to make more accessible not just for people to go to film festivals I'm curious in the opening there they had a guy like touching your shoulder and talking to you what character was that he plays all the virtual reality characters so she lays what's the name of the sorry the name of the business partner of Scrooge Jacob Marley Marley yes Jacob Marley the ghost of Christmas past present and future oh yeah we don't see Tiny Tim we do see some there are some characters that aren't abot our bass that are pre-programmed that are really creepy but not like him he doesn't show up that's pretty cool I want to hear more about it but right now sir enjoys asking what headset was that actually being oh good question that was it was a rift they used an oculus rift and like I said you know I mentioned before that it's something where they have to hack together different elements you know the people that made it are very experienced in the film world and so they were very expert on the motion capture thing bringing in the VR thing but that's like an instance where it's a rift and so it has to be connected to a computer but you're walking around a space a 360 degrees small space and so like when the quest comes out that could make it easier the oculus quest which is one of those like all-in-one you don't have the core that that links you to oh yeah that could make this sort of thing even more accessible for people to put on but to answer question yet was with a rift and they had it set up so that the tether the cord tether connected to a sort of rig on the ceiling that would that's adjustable that can move back and forth and side to side so as I walked around the space the core I could feel the cord sort of tugging here and there but in addition to the actor that's in the space with you in the motion capture suit there's a scene partner who is also in the room that I never see or interact with are really here and she is the one who she has a tablet that fires off specific events in the experience on cue so if it takes so like at the beginning the actor asks you specific questions that you have to answer and if the person who's responding answers very quickly all those questions then she can cue it right then but if that person who's in the experience you know if I took a really long time and I got into a diatribe answering these questions she can she also in addition to the firing off the events in the experience she also makes sure that you don't get tangled up in the court or the court doesn't get stuck there and she's the one that's moving the walls so that they can disappear and yeah so there's like this whole thing this whole production that's happening you don't ever see it it's kind of no I definitely the fact that this isn't it's not like a standard performance like every performance is basically different based on your reactions so the actor said that like it's funny the director said that there's three categories that they've categories different participants as runners sleepers and performers because people tend to like fall into those three buckets but the actor did say like they'd ask these three questions at the beginning three or three or four and the purpose of that is to understand kind of how comfortable you are in this situation if like that way he can because he can't see your eyes they're in a headset he can't really gauge it's hard to gauge just from body language alone like if you're kind of freaked out being in here if you don't like being told which one were you I was a runner and what does a runner does runner is somebody who they're in the headset they get into the space and the whole like crew is kind of like waiting to see like what this person is like and then all of a sudden she's like runner like me like I'm like oh I'm gonna go over there and so I'm like see anything so I'll send them in the other corner when maybe they needed me over in that corner gotcha yeah sounds disorienting I think I'd be a runner to people that are into like games yeah really runners people that are used to like the idea of there being like objectives in VR you know like wanna like touch everything right people that are like into acting you know people in in LA there's a higher proportion of those are what are the performers that when the actor starts talking to them they're like make up a character example - yeah and then sleepers they said are people that mostly stay to themselves and one spot and allow themselves to be shepherded through a little more possibly they also said that those are the people that tend to have the most emotional reaction because they're the ones that are really kind of taking it in and experiencing a real way rather in like a playful like that's a game sort of way fascinating yeah I want to farm out a question to you guys and to the chat what do you want to see become immersive VR theater is there a particular experience or maybe an intellectual property that you think should come next after the Christmas Christmas Carol I would be curious to see what people would love to see themselves like inserted into that sounded weird you know what I mean but yeah what do you think would be a good vr experience now that we're actually seeing it getting used and more than just like a playstation kind of play form I mean a no-brainer would be Star Wars for me yeah batter Monty Python actually like Holy Grail yeah inserting in the Holy Grail would be awesome I mean I've got coconuts back here I can help they're not the same brand their personal effects full effects too to make it real yeah I know I always dreamed of being mauled by a bunny - sidebar Flying Circus is now on Netflix just FYI oh there you go thank you for that PSA alright let's go ahead and take questions from the chat coming right out the gate Matthew dad sure is qualcomm expected to release anything exciting and speaking of Qualcomm are there any snapdragon 3,100 based wearables yet ooh I don't know but the second one yet although I think that LG one that came out was suppose with the w7 I think don't quote me I'm not sure in terms of what's expected at this event and we're gonna get the next flagship Snapdragon processor they've already announced the 5g modem the ex 50 that's that's what every phone will need to have to be able to tap into 5g you'll probably get to see more stuff on the terribly named always on pcs those are the laptops that they announced last year that Snapdragon powered pcs partnership with Microsoft you'll probably see a bit more of that this week but there's gonna be a lot of talking about 5g a lot of talk from the partners pretty good not just Qualcomm but folks like Verizon and Samsung and others talking about how some of this stuff is gonna look like in the first half sir enjoys coming out is telling us he he wants to see Ghostbusters in VR that's actually already happens - enjoy did you have that VR I'm pulling up that video right now a side bar I'm still playing ghostbusters world and I'm doing awesome Joe Dunmore says transformers in VR would mean chill oh yeah with like but which transformers like actual scale size giant robots transforming around you but like yeah the good kind or the baked I think we have to be the good kind they're already moving even the studios moved away from the bay kind yeah alright let's take a quick peek at this ghostbusters VR experience Jeff took part in a couple years ago this was actually here in New York and this actually I wanted to get to and I couldn't make it in time before they had to close it you know to talk but talk about the idea of transformers in VR that's one example where the VR makes something possible that would be impossible otherwise because for you in a physical space the VR scale can be like as depending on your computing power infinite so you can have practical effects that give you like you can have Rush's of wind that make you feel like a hundred and ninety foot tall like transformer is moving past you and it looks like in there you are but you don't need to actually have a space that's a hundred and ninety feet taller however tall transformers are that's drifting into like for what is it 4d theater that we see floating around out there and yeah like the forty movies that they have yeah yeah I saw Star Wars in 40 once upon a time and it was mixed reaction from me well it wasn't yeah what are the 40 effects is it just wind or is there like smell or does it though its potential for kind of any of the above specifically I saw rogue one so like the chairs are constantly in motion which I found actually kind of distracting and annoying yeah especially when you're trying to snack so it's like the crawl comes up or like like the text would come up and your chair leans back you know it's like I don't need that it's like you're one person walking on the hallway leans around the corner your chair leans like that's a little much but all the enhanced particle effects in the air and they like wind blowing through that was great to an extent the water effects were cool but rogue one takes place in rainstorm and on the beach way and I'm gonna tell you right spray water on you oh I was drenched by the time I got it yeah it was yeah that that I was not a fan of and it's still like an air-conditioned cold theater so you're just kind of uncomfortable by the yeah that doesn't that's not right but that's me all over the technology still work flawlessly I was just kind of personally annoyed by some of the effects of it but it's hey it's what I signed up for right yeah but it's also like it speaks a little bit to being overzealous with a technology when it's like if it doesn't serve the story then it's not good you said well I just don't want to get what I mean sounds terrible it's growing pains though yeah for sure bad idea until you try it a couple more VR claims would we leave off transformers MCU anything MCU that's a no-brainer yeah that's a game ECMA says Call of Duty VR that could be fun tech slackers has matrix in VR like that one right on the nose I mean yeah very meta storm king says how about a Star Trek experience in VR a lot of material to mine from that franchise I feel like they're kind of they're just be working on there was that Star Trek experience we're like you worked on a console with like other people yeah you were on this bit you're on a starship and he each had to like do like one task or something it was really kind of dumb but there was a Star Trek experience again I think it's a good example of like VR done wrong cuz it was sort of like you get the you know you can move around you see the inside of the starship and I think you have like a console where you do one thing you've got to coordinate with three other people or alike I don't know the ship crashes or something I don't even know but yeah that's great that sounds like a really fun experience where you're like so immerse that you think you're going to die on a ship let's go back to 5ge Chris Wesley says I feel like it's too soon for 5g right now it would be nice if they get everything that is buggy with it fixed before rolling it out like they did with 4G he's right don't count on it tell me I'm wrong there no they're definitely rushing to get 5g out and it's gonna be that transition is gonna be pretty Rocky the first couple of years I mean you may not even have 5g in your neighborhood so in terms of getting the bugs out of it I mean the only way to get the bugs out is to launch this thing and to kind of fix it on the go they've had you know a couple years of trials but they're fairly limited but to really kind of stamp out some of the the big like reception issues or coverage issues you need to have more coverage to see what where things break down and how you actually could fix it so that's why I'm in favor of like pushing forward because that's the only way we can get this stuff and get it working I think you're right in this case as much as I like to see them work although the bugs as well yeah the only way to get a true petri dish test that's more than just a controlled like concentration group that that won't be enough they really need to see this thing in the battlefield this is how how wrong things can go so I mean we're gonna have to weather it so Qualcomm is testing out they're gonna throw up these 5g networks these test networks for for folks to try out they're gonna be like perfect optimal condition imagine you know Qualcomm and Samsung and all these companies are wheeling in there 5g demos they're gonna work perfectly and but that's not how it's gonna work in the real world the only way to get that kind of real-world experience and track record is to deploy these things and have people serve as guinea pigs as a bit is there for a bit no you need to actually have it fail to find out where that fail points gonna be yeah exactly here's one from tech slacker this is this is interesting I knew nothing about this I've read somewhere that hundreds of birds are falling dead during a 5g testing trial in the Netherlands is there any such harmful environmental concerns with 5g as compared to 4G I've not seen this report so I can't really comment about birds but I you know the the spectrum the radio frequency is much higher than your standard cellular network there hasn't been anything to concretely prove that it's there's a health risk there so it's hard for me to really say I and it's I'm yeah you know I don't know wanna go there I don't wanna go near the dead bird thing I wasn't either because yeah speculate at all because I haven't read the report good because there are plenty of sited resources and a simple Google search but if you check out Snopes did 5g cellular network test cause hundreds of birds to die false that happened back in November there was a medical conspiracy blog health not News reported quote-unquote that is seemingly disturbing story about headlines of hundreds of birds and then of course went to Facebook because that's where everything that's wrong lands and then yeah I'll try to link this in the description of the show if anyone wants to dig up but it's easy enough to turn up on on Google it looks like that's that's a bogus claim but hey nothing wrong with being concerned no folks express concerns about just having more cell towers in your neighborhood and that's that's gonna happen that's thing like and and you know people are adverse to having them near their homes and 5g will bring these cell towers closer to your home so definitely concern all right we got just about enough time for one maybe two more questions before we call today when can we expect the earliest phones with the new Snapdragon chips Oh Snapdragon chips pry would be willing to bet Samsung with the Galaxy S ten is probably gonna be the first phone I think it'll be kind of a race you'll see some phones get announced that may be ahead of Samsung but I think in terms of like a phone you'll be able to hold in your hands it'll probably be Samsung first all right and here's the last one for the day coming in from our buddy sir enjoy Qualcomm is fighting on multiple frontiers while doing their normal business the 5g race clashes against Apple war against Intel to introduce Snapdragon chips to PC laptops great their success ooh I I won't give it a number of great I'll just say it's all kind of working progress at this point the Apple thing is and it can go either way at this point I think they've they're I think they're sitting in a better position that Intel when you give them the fact that you know they haven't been in pcs they're trying to get into the PC business it's probably gonna take them a while but it's it's all kind of new growth there they're definitely at the forefront of 5g I mean there's a reason why President Trump killed the Broadcom Qualcomm deal it's because his administration has a weird fixation with 5g and wants to maintain US leadership there and Qualcomm is more than the big leaders in 5g and so I would say their core business still has some real challenges so that's why you're hearing so much about all these different areas they're trying to get into because they want to distract you from the fact that the phone business is slowing down and and their core business is sort of you know it's not hit a rut but it's definitely the growth there is not what it used to be lofty question before we walk out the door would you say that 5g is kind of like our generation space race whoo yeah much lesser degree yeah between 5g and AI I think those are two like critical technology races that that we'll see from country to country I think you know China is up there they want to be ahead and 5g they've got a big company in Huawei kind of pushing the 5 G's standards between I think 5g and AI those are two areas where I think countries are being fairly competitive with each other like getting there first interesting that's kind of that's a one to keep an eye on I think we are out of time thanks everybody for joining us we are going to wrap it up here and we'll see you back here again tomorrow for another episode of 3:59 Roger yeah your vision is available on iTunes tune in feedburner stitcher google play music google podcast the amazon echo of course cnet.com we'll see y'all tomorrow bye bye