Gadgetory

and good morning on Thursday April 26 thanks for joining us on the 359 podcast for episode 393 the recording will start soon but first we want to give a quick shout out to rich warred von nürnberg who submitted today's backing track it's called stay a while you can find his music at the caravel net slash saw we'll put a link to it in the show notes afterwards a big shout out to required for submitting a soundtrack to the 359 podcast the first original song yeah this is an original song a fan pretty awesome thank you so thank you yeah really appreciate it that's so been Roger Alfred we have a stack show as always yeah so we'll be talking about snap spectacles lovely you're still here everyone is so excited about no I know in other news dial-up is back right Wow in those hits in early so we're gonna be talking about Facebook's earnings as well as the continued controversy over Cambridge analytic a and lastly Ben's gonna be talking about the final story in our funny follow the money package look at the death of cash so as always if you have any questions living in the comment section Brian will pick up the best and we'll get to them in 3 minutes 59 seconds in three two welcome to the 359 I'm rotor Chang I'm Ben Fox ribbon I'm Alfred Aang snap spectacles are inexplicably back snap announced a second version with faster uploads water resistance and better audio quality for video and also tout a smaller profile but I have to ask why is there a camera company that's what they make why wouldn't why wouldn't snap what these are glass cameras they have cameras on that camera built-in they also take photos now which I'm so confused they couldn't take photos before there was only video before and you had to hold it down and you couldn't like change the amount of time that are recorded for or anything like that okay the first spectacles were very bad I actually own a pair actually using yes I use them for like two weeks all right there you go totally worth it how much were they again they weren't like I'm good thirty hundred three hundred fifty now look at these new ones because they're water-resistant take it to the beach yeah she's got a pair kind of like the water resistance idea but it's just I'm I would have to see how it affects my phone's battery life because that was like the biggest reason why I stopped using it it was like killing my phone battery yeah all right so next up Facebook is facing its biggest crisis ever but you couldn't really tell from there the recent quarterly earnings revenue was about 50% and profits were up as the quarter of the company just got better and using data to create targeted ad so I guess I mean the it's scandal proof essentially maybe it still Cambridge analytic is still a fairly new phenomenon for the company so maybe it didn't hit this particular quarter the social network had 2.2 billion monthly active monthly users in the quarter which is up 13 percent from the year before right that's the number to really pay attention to to see if people are migrating away from really you think we'll see a drop-off in the next quarter report that would probably be more likely if there is a drop-off at all right I I would argue those it probably won't be yeah with all that also talked about you know hashtag to leave Facebook people really haven't jumped on board actually getting rid of those accounts yes I can break even noted that it wasn't like a major impact to like how many people are using Facebook yeah it's also a huge huge pool of users and so how many people would have to delete facebook to try to not just stop the growth from happening but actually get the number to go down yeah I don't know if you tell the controversy isn't over Zuckerberg is maybe heading to the European Parliament for another round of grilling and the UK today called it a morality free zone so yeah lastly Ben you've got the final story in the funding fall of the money package I did it the death of cash tell us about it is it dead can I stop using my cash I just give it away to me how much do you use cash now though that's the thing I'm actually I've not completely stopped using cash but I tend to not my wallet right most people tend to have I would say like an emergency 20 or 50 dollars in their wallet well feather roughly high-roller there are only about 5% of Americans that don't have any cash at all in their wallet so if you're one of those people with a very small minority I mean I it varies but sometimes that they'll go like a week or two without any cash my wallet and like I will actively choose places where they take credit cards or debit cards yeah I try to live cashless but I can't do it in my own neighborhood like if it were around this office I'd be able to do it yeah like in my neighborhood it's like they're all very old-school there and it's like most of them are like cash only there right and that's a major hurdle to actually doing cashless a lot of the boosters that argue for cashless say that it's more secure there's less fraud you're less likely to you know lose your money if I just you know kind of somebody takes 20 bucks off of you don't know where it went so oh the flip side is hackers hackers wallet baby yeah they can they can hack your wallet yeah especially a Bitcoin wallet that's definitely true so alright that's all the time we've got for more of these stories chicks I've seen it I'm Roger Chang I'm Ben Fox Ruben I'm alfred hang thanks for listening and thanks for joining along for the recording of the regular audio podcast that is now being scats soloed by Ben Fox Ruben go ahead little sis bye over there a little bit sound exactly the same so I'm gonna go ahead and jump into the chat and start taking out some questions and comments so we can keep the conversation going right out the gate from DC one four seven it is Thursday my dude can I pay with my face using snapchat spectacles by just head-butting the contactless terminal yes yeah yeah that's actually why money is dead now your brain says you like smash if the it only works if the spectacles break though so you have to break the spectacles and then buy a new pair for every single way to go snapchat I'm just really confused by the whole spectacles thing because it had to book a 40 million dollar loss in November because it had so many unsold spectacles so they're doubling down on the strategy yes some of the these new spectacles were made with the parts of the unknown ones I mean unsold one really yeah yeah so you know they were selling stock back from the dead Franken glasses but I mean I don't know like it's clear that they want like their hardware to be like a major selling point for them right they are trying it is cool I get that they're China they're trying to be a camera company that they're trying to hardware they're trying to be cool but like I don't know it hasn't really caught on like I still see actually I see fewer of them now but those the the snap whatever yellow vending machines right may be the reason why they're like going so gung-ho about this is like try to copy that Facebook and Instagram can't copy sunglasses book could do I mean they have the money to copy be a failing business but about why bother they can just be a fast followed word to snapchat successful businesses as opposed to catching up on something doesn't really maybe map is just like the incubator for all the future business models a Facebook maybe it's like a heart maybe it's a honeypot and they want Facebook the copy you have way more to lose than we do so looking at this I I want to ask a broader question this was back more than a year ago snapchats or snap incorporated stock was at around $27 now it's below 15 yeah what could help this company like I I feel like after the IPO everybody like the the Polish came off a lot of people actually do use it like everyone like goes off about you know oh in Instagram stories like the thing that everybody uses but like that's the thing that like influencers and like you know media companies are using like but part of the problem there is investors aren't necessarily looking at that they're looking at yeah daily active users nothing active users and those numbers have not been that great and the whole this whole we're gonna do a whole reboot thing the reboot thing didn't really work out so well I think there's there's just a lot of questions about the direction yeah I would say that the only place where snapchat really wins on is like demographic yes like they they actually have like a lot of young users as opposed so like Instagram stories is like very popular right now and I've like even started using that instead of like snapchat anymore I definitely use it it's just yeah it's more convenient but it's one of those things where I don't know I feel like it'll end up like Facebook where it's like just old people on it maybe Instagram is already where old people are yeah they're like the cool people maybe I don't know I don't think I'm a cool person that's me right yeah cool whatever more questions from sir enjoy why can't snap make the spectacles look a little more subtle they look so cartoonish I agree with ya the Ridgid had a rigid had a great tweet on it where like so the little glass like cameras on the sides they look like like their eyeballs and they're like looking on the side like cross-eyed like that are there two cameras on yes what why - why just one both sides or something all right Devin yeah so they look like eyeballs yes for symmetry purpose oh that's the new ones yeah I am disappointed though that the new one wasn't just like a monocle like snap monocle yo like that seriously hipster I would wear that I know because you're a hipster so too string choice question though I think they very intentionally made the design look like this because they don't want to make them look like regular glasses yes so this is a marketing ploy they want people to recognize them as snapchat beyond beyond that I mean it there are physical limitations to putting a camera to glasses you can't make them look like regular slimmer profile glasses because you still have the hardware that night I think they wanted the cameras to be obvious yeah yeah like when like Google glass had there and it was just like yeah sure that's exactly what dcv 1 4 7 is saying in the chat right now you don't want to have the hidden glass yeah and get called out yeah that's true creep that's good it's definitely a creep move so let's talk about some alternatives for snapchat and if they really do want to embrace being a camera company Josh Boyd says a snap made a cheap GoPro like camera I would buy that where would we like to see a snap camera implemented besides stupid looking glasses a friend of mine actually use the glass as like a GoPro like camera like he would just put her on like the dashboard of his car or something like that impress it if you want it's what it locked into doing a snap story yeah so it's short video shorts well yeah I think that's how I like it manages to like last throughout the whole day like it's not recording video like constantly it's not like battery life on the camera on the glasses itself isn't that great yeah well it would function more like a real camera but like you you're not able to upload like long extended footage on snapchat if you look at a GoPro right saying don't lock it to snapchat I mean no but GoPro is like those cameras you know have some heft to it because there's there's camera there's bad storage storage so that's a little bit tough integrate that into a wearable is that's a little bit tricky like we and we've seen someone saying no like here not necessarily a wearable though he says if they made like they're only GoPro if snap decided to actually start manufacturing more legitimate camera type products yeah he might be like they're so snap is so tied into its system that it would be tough to see them do it GoPro is struggled it's a downfall of every company that came before them AOL I don't know who on and on I know that in like 2017 like around last May like snap acquired like a drone company which maybe they were trying to do like you know selfie drones yeah sup so there you go talk about a unitasker maybe you have to put the glasses on the drone and then it or that data meant to so how are we going to actually get these new snappa they're gonna do the kiosks again no you can order them online Oh so they actually made it a pleasant experience god forbid oh come on they guide so much attention yeah it was a good mark the attention of being jerks yeah it's true bye you know how the tech world works where excuse really important attention to big jerks that's like very in line with Chad's reputation how would you fake it through yeah I could see it anyway alright let's move on into Facebook from imagine soggy the impact in Facebook's revenue will be in advertisers not using the platform because of reduced profitability excellent point will people on Facebook stop clicking on ads is the real question and as a follow-up let's see where Facebook revenue is one year from now it says that's a fantastic point because also points yeah points yeah ultimately yeah Facebook makes its money from advertising my the only quibble to that is Facebook it's gotten really really good at using our data to create really specific ads and there's very few places that are I mean Google's probably the other you know the only other option there are few places for advertisers to get that kind of super specific targeting so I don't know how much it's really gonna hurt its bottom line I just don't have other alternatives so during the testimony Zuckerberg like mentioned to one of the senators basically you know people actually like getting ads that are targeted toward them as course like irrelevant ads and so I've started like since I started like my new Facebook page that I've liked nothing on and like comment and I'm not it's so weird it's like so they have no profile to target me based off of and it's just like hey here's some like Dragon Ball Z thing I don't know why why is this on yeah it was really weird I don't get it I don't know why I'm getting don't you like you like try to buy like so new already it's not that weird they know you better than you know you're like what weather stuff I'm getting them sandals I mean I said it'll be cool I've said it before trying to sell me something I don't mind being sold stuff that I would like but I mean I remember for a minute there in the earlier stages of Hulu I was getting ads for like depends under gold I'm like yeah definitely early stage of Hulu they didn't have targeted yeah I think Facebook's really good at that now I it's usually stuff the ads that pop up now stuff that you kind of care about them but the one I hate tell them are that I don't know what the algorithm is but it's just regurgitate stuff that's already in your amazon shopping looks like I know they're suggesting when I joined Magic the Gathering sick deals deals yeah i mean ii never played Magic the Gathering never play again miss Theriot typing type I think they just do like hey your friends like this maybe you'll like it - I don't know that - yeah oh yeah more questions more on Facebook from APEC for the people who grew up in the social world type media I think this one's that you Alfred who posts everything online and don't care do you really think they'll delete their accounts and stop using now we've talked about this before yeah yeah yeah have you seen my Instagram there's like nothing on it and like my new Facebook page that has nothing on it yeah it's not hard to like delete your account like my my thing has always been like you don't have to delete your whole account just like start fresh like you can add all your old friends again but like now that you have this knowledge that oh you know they are using all my data for this thing like just don't do anything on it except like the very minimal thing that you need to do I've act on this new profile I've actually rejected people now we're like dude I sent them a message after I was like hey look there's nothing personal but like I don't like I don't need to talk to you dude and I know your preferences and your preference is a terrible that's extremely personal friend I got a friend request from a dude that I haven't spoken with since like high school and was just like why that's how Facebook is why man like we have him sometimes none of us welcome old friends back into the okay but like I had this fate the old Facebook page for years and he never hit me up on that so I was like there's literally maybe onion but it didn't surface for him maybe a surface now at the recommendation yes I mean maybe he just joined I don't know no no it's just a friends with it doesn't matter what it seems like this is more of a personal Garage thing now we've gone from like Facebook best practices to I'm just I can't just walk it my point look Alfred what's out the best practice is just delete your account and then make a new one so like you can still keep in contact with your friends but you don't have to like quit cold-turkey yeah I guess so I wouldn't know that seems like a lot early yeah that's the thing it's a lot of work especially if you yeah I've got like a thousand people in my network how many of them do you regularly talk to you then add make a new face we're gonna only add those five people that's kind of that's a good point you're right about that I like syringe eyes idea to just start going to chaotically weird dark web places or like my garden you should see Bridget's Bridget with all the research she has to do takes her out of her you know typical comfort zone a lot sure so her cookies must just be a cesspool and her Facebook ads are all over the place sark hacker yeah yeah so there's actually a Chrome extension that will actually do that for you it's like take you to the darknet it's basically like no it'll like it's a script that like poisons like your facebook data so that like it's just like a bunch of random stuff that they get it makes like random posts with just a bunch of gibberish so they have no idea how do I like target to you that's another thing you can do that there you go that seems easier I would like to say that I have successfully severely downsized my facebook interaction over the past three weeks I have posted two things one was to commemorate the loss of one of my heroes Carl Kessel who I met a few years ago so rest in peace sir and then yesterday I met Henry Winkler so I couldn't help but yeah so jealous Barry zuckerkorn he's very good yeah so I couldn't help but brag just another note about the like the you know people that grew up in social media generation that post everything and don't care yeah they're doing it on snapchat where it deletes itself so it really doesn't matter and they don't track it anyway that's why there's no like massive log of it like online that's like people are fuckin stay there's a younger portion of yeah snapchat has if anything I'm much more concerned about like the younger demographic that's like everyone that wants to be like YouTube stars and like that lasts like them that's their like people and they're not gonna delete that because it's one of those things like I want to be a star so I want to like yeah I want it out there mmm all right and our few remaining minutes Victor wants us to come back and talk about cash again and I think this is a good thing to talk about because it's one of those things we've seen come in a long time and it's still kind of a long way off but he wants to know how long until we think we are just paying with our phone SmartWatch etc oh I don't think it's our gonna 100% go away like us like maybe like 20-30 years like the whole world society yeah that's never gonna happen yeah no no I think it'll definitely happen at some point but it's really far off like physical cash like actual yeah like that's it's been predicted for more than 20 years yeah the cash will die there's obviously well from the story that we were out today there's there are more reasons why there would be a tipping point nowadays but it's true especially in the developing world it's much more cash societies that know what would actually developing world their mobile payments are they are taking off they are taking off but it's it's starting at a lower level yeah so that you know places like Kenya it's much generational perspective there they are already way more comfortable with it than we are that is absolutely true but again it's it's starting from a lower level than you have in the United States or other developed yeah part of that issues yeah there's different different technologies like what they're used to doing we're not doing and the technology they're using is a lot more rudimentary versus ours yeah yeah yeah the other thing to really think about too is like what does cash do it's kind of like thinking about like a book versus an e-book or a tablet what does cash actually offer you that the other stuff literally can't do it's there it's physical it's time test you can buy drugs with it you could buy drugs with it completely anonymously which is a big reason why people would want to be using you could do that potentially with Bitcoin is probably easy yeah but there's like a log of that there's like if they if they know that it's your wallet than like it's pretty obvious that it's you but yeah like also certain things I mean what if you do natural disaster most people defer back to cash just like you remember with hurricane sandy people started you because the phone networks a lot of the phone like cell phone networks were down they started using like the actual like phones on the street right pay phones the pay phones thank you the street phones now what if you make the venmo transaction and in in the note in the subject note you just put not drugs does that cover your yeah exactly yes good at Columbia University actually got busted over that Oh like they said no but like he was a drug dealer at like the campus and his whole log was like that's like what cops used against him in the case it's like been Molag yeah that was real Internet stacks for mary-jane he asked them to like make a code off of it earlier but he's like clearly very easy to like bust yeah all right don't do stuff on November basically but I mean look cash there are some disadvantages of cash right like in terms of moving money around be who save money it's really difficult if you don't have like a certain level of income right because like opening a savings account on a bank it's really tough yeah I think if you can't get a bank account you can't save money and so have like having access to these kinds of tools especially as they go digital you're you know you're able to save manage manage your money save your money access more financial tools yeah I talked to a start-up CEO and Barbados they're developing a whole retail network where you can take the Barbados dollar and turn it digital and access it from an app and that just the convenience of being able to do that it was actually really interesting because like it's something that I don't live in my normal life at all where people have to go directly to utility company to pay their bills in cash yeah you could just pay the utility bill through the app that just makes your life I mean you will still go to cell phone stores now to pay their bills right yeah up until weird yeah no true they don't have accounts set up right like it's there's no electronic transfer because they don't have the income for it they literally have to go in and pay by cash or pay by cheque there are still some merits to paper transactions ill beats points out like leaving a tip it's nice to do yeah either because you don't have to claim it on your taxes right or at least most people don't even know you kind of technically are supposed to but you're supposed to yeah there's a whole light you don't grey economy to where like people get paid under the table that's mostly in cash exactly there are a lot of reasons why cash would continue to be continue to exist crypto currencies obviously provides certain levels of that with the anonymity that's also being challenged by a lot of regulators these days - is agreeing with what we were talking about yesterday a little bit and the the splintering of the mobile payments and how there should be a better assistant standard yeah I mean good luck with that oh yeah that's that's the big issue I think Brigitte had a really great video breaking that down individual companies and individual parties have their own vested interest in keeping things fragmented but that's not good for anyone yeah and using Google pay on my samsung s8 isn't that much fun because the fingerprint sensor is in like a really weird place oh yeah I have to try it like three different times I'll try it yeah like it doesn't it doesn't require an NFC terminal that's a problem with Android is that like there's five different options every Samsung pay Google page when I was when I was an Apple users just Apple pay now you're like why don't you try some check paying but I don't know it's only two I mean that's so much yeah try try setting up your messaging services they gave me like fifteen options for messaging services hello you should make a low your primary that's where all my friends are beats also mentioned it kind of sucks getting stuck behind the stumbling fool present company included that was yes pay with mobile payments at Robert can I just point out have you ever been stuck behind the grandma with the checkbook at the grocery store 25 cent penny gum I do remember Bryan Ben and I we did this little experiment of a couple years ago just sort of testing how the Mobile Payment experiment experience would be we like walked around the cities we used we couldn't there were a lot of places we couldn't use it obviously other places were worked but the worst scenario was like we were in a cab and it was time to pay and like it was supposed to take back then it was called Google they rebranded news anyways so the we had like an HTC phone we're holy at the sensor and like we were just keep kept fiddling around with it cuz it would register like the cabbie was getting pissed at us we stopped at this intersection we're just really and if father registered but it took us like five minutes it was like excruciating a long time to like get it to work so the technology is not ready is what your said that was but this was several years ago I mean things have gotten a lot better those contactless payment connections do seem to line up a little bit easier now kind of hard to believe that that's but it was already that long like it's been around that long and it doesn't feel it feels still fairly new because even though it's been around for several years it was still kind of a niche thing until Apple brought to the mainstream yeah it's still neat it's totally there so only people are aware of it like before when Google had it just people it was around but people just didn't know or care about it okay so in closing thoughts one for the road from Sur enjoy what do you think is more likely to happen cryptocurrency getting widely mainstream or mainstream currency getting widely electronic I'm voting good question though very good question I mean cryptocurrency has a lot of oh sorry go ahead we can oh I'm just saying we gotta go we gotta go sorry I gotta go I have to go yes so if you'd like to anything you saw hurt here check this out I seen it our podcast is available on iTunes tune in stitcher feedburner google play music and the amazon echo we'll see you all next week well not me but we'll see these guys next week alright good bye bye