Gadgetory

the 359 is sponsored by USB technology the USB implementers forum reminds consumers that USB if' logos are displayed on certified USB products so the next time you're shopping for a reliable USB charger cable or device look for the logos get the whole story at enabling USB org hey good morning everybody and welcome to the 359 podcast on Wednesday August 22nd we're at episode 447 and before we get started we want to wish a very happy birthday to the uncompelled ray bradbury the legendary sci-fi author famous for the Martian Chronicles Fahrenheit 451 and one of my personal favorites the Halloween tree passed away in 2012 would have been 98 today oh wow Alfred Roger were you guys Ray Bradbury fans I mean hi 451 is definitely a favorite that was one of the best school assigned readings I bet 1984 were like my oh yeah Martian Chronicles so yes huge huge fan I was very devastated when he passed away so huge loss for the community but hey that's not what we're talking about today well we are talking about that kind of feature tech that Ray Bradbury he was pretty stoked about our third story yes he would so we we are we've got a lot of 5g stuff today we're gonna talk about t-mobile I had a chance to talk with t-mobile John Leger Mike Siebert about their vision for 5ve we'll break that down while stalk about Qualcomm showing off their latest 5g platform which I know we're all tired of talking about 5g coming but this is definitely the latest indication that is actually coming for real give a one-sixth G coming the year after okay and then lastly as Brian sort of hinted at we'll be talking about the project to send hundreds of little spacecrafts to Alpha Centauri definitely a story that Ray Bradbury would be stoked about since this is this is real they did not you know give me a seat on one of those unfortunately what they're pretty small so whatever I fit it would have been uncovered you are a small guy but maybe not that small as always if you have any questions live in the comments section Brian will pick out the best and we'll get to them in three minutes and 59 seconds see back in the chat then and three welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Chang I'm Alfred Aang t-mobile is pushing hard to get its merger with Sprint completed I had a chance to sit down with CEO John Leger and president Mike Siebert to discuss how Sprint fits into their plans for 5g bottom line is that they're they're arguing that the combination of t-mobile and Sprint will allowed them to offer a network that is both cheaper and faster which you know in when you break it down like that doesn't seem likely since that's not usually how technology works but of course it is everything is always better and cheaper and cheaper every everyone knows that that's why I'm now paying two thousand dollars for a standard phone I know what phone yours you're I didn't it's it's just it's a dark future that we live in but I mean you know obviously these these these telecom companies are very optimistic they're all racing to be first I'm very curious though of like does in this scenario this first really matter like if I'm on t-mobile and Verizon gets 5g first I'm not gonna say like oh I'm leaving this to go to Verizon because I think that like they'll probably get it like all within a few months of each other no you bring up an excellent point I think that the idea of being first a 5g is at this point really just about bragging rights it's not really gonna affect most consumers people aren't gonna jump ship just to get access to 5g and you have to sort of parse how these companies are getting to five you first verizon says it'll be first to 5g but it's gonna be a broadband service in four cities so chances are you're not gonna have access to it 18 he wants to get mobile 5g of first later this year but it's really just pucks and not phones Tebow will sprint both say they're gonna launch next year t-mobile is committed to a nationwide launch by 2020 which is which know the carrier has so there's the there's may be a likelihood that you'll be able to get 5g in the next two years maybe with T moments right now can we talk about what you can actually do with 5g I mean you we've I feel like we've been talking about 5g probably since like episode 104 the 359 by right um but yeah I mean what what's all the hubbub so 5g obviously big speed boost is the the big thing you're looking at speeds that you know 100 megabits per second basically faster speeds than what you would get at home right and so way faster speeds and that's great for streaming video or whatever but they're there looking at stuff applications like streaming VR like powering self-driving cars being able to do remote surgery these sort of thing these sorts of applications require not just a speedy Network but a responsive one and that's that's sort of the key pin for 5g so what's the holdup I mean everyone's like racing to be the first but like I said we've been talking about this for a while it's a great segue into our next door with Qualcomm announcing its mobile platform part of the issue is the heart lack of hardware right we don't have the right equipment to tap into those 5g networks the ones that are getting built now and so Qualcomm yesterday just pulled back the current on its 5g platform so it's basically telegraphing that those next flagship phones with like the the top-of-the-line processors will have the ability to do 5g they talked about 5g hotspot capabilities by the end of this year phone's coming next year that's it the $2,000 phone's probably 2,000 cheaper and faster the service not the phones and cell phones to be even crazy expensive lastly our own Steven Shanklin just published the latest installment of a road trip story this one a look at breakthrough starshot it's a project designed to send spacecraft out to neighboring Alpha Centauri and the interesting thing is these aren't huge spaceship sits there not spacecraft that you can actually get in there tight little essentially like baseballs that they're firing out using layer lasers to power them across really crazy light-years away they're saying it takes about 30 to 40 years to get to Alpha Centauri using this technique but they're hoping to answer the question are we alone I certainly hope that we are not and if anyone is out there listening 30 to 40 years from now please take me with you there we go for more on those stories shook sound Cena and Roger Chang I'm alfred ring thanks for listening I'll show 60 yeah all 16 all the time every shows us a new g3 to 359 G that's what I'm saying I'm getting tired of hearing about it just make it happen so it can be rendered obsolete you joke about it but I think one cable company at some point actually throughout the term 6g a few months ago I mean he was immediately ridiculed but yeah we're at that point where the hype is so it's gonna be rabid that we're just throwing G's everywhere it's gonna be like the end of her we're like the networks are just like we've ascended like G's and now we're sentient life-forms spoilers I've still never watched that movie it's 2018 do other things to do let's go ahead and jump into the chat and take some questions first and foremost Mike Shaw has to know the burning question did Roger get a pair of pink sneakers no I asked about the the sneakers and John later like mentioned the name of it and I couldn't pronounce it so I know I can't afford them so what was it like palancio guys or something no I have to look it up I think it's sort of the Z is John Leger a good date I'm just curious like is he is he does he hold the door for you I feel like John t'v John is great it's great to hang out with for like 30 minutes spurts but after a while you're like I gotta get out here like your parents there you go wow that's John mushy the dad of five G okay so uh here's our next one from Josh boy uh did they have a timeline on when the merger is going to be concluded yes so they are looking to close a merger by early next year but of course it is dependent upon regulatory approval and that's still not guaranteed there's a lot of folks who are giving this sort of a 50/50 shot especially noticing how the Justice Department has sort of clung to its fight to block the 18 T Time Warner merger that deal did go through but the government still kind kicking up dust about it so a lot of folks are wondering if they'll sort of offer the same kind of hurdles or obstacles to t-bone spring so it's not a guarantee at all got it from oh hang on I lost track of where I was going here oh I want to talk a little bit more about the Alpha Centauri thing because as always the last story always gets cut short and it's always a cool one in my eyes so so Shanklin went I see we had footage here that had Stephen Hawking in it has this been a long-running project that he's been working on for a couple years Franklin that is now Shaklee yeah he's been working on this for about two two and a half months so I mean that yeah the illustration I think the the Hawking footage is sort of an illustration of some of the folks the minds that are being tapped got it got it kind of look at how we travel just great distances and so yeah I mean the story to me is interesting because it's it's a little counterintuitive if you're thinking you always envision like a big spacecraft explorers you think like lost in space or one of these are more like space segways not now they're smaller than like space basketballs or something it's like when Vegeta and nappa are in there like little pods coming no they're even smaller than that because these can could you put a Kryptonian child inside one of them yes you probably could got it so there you go I know this stuff like this is cool is it just Barry Bonds like just knocking them all out of the park he just line them up I'm sure Stephen Beecham's geeking out just as hard as I am on this stuff no it's cool the fact that there's a I mean there's a latest laser beams that if we can power this thing right it it basically it shoots these things off and accelerates - what 1/5 of the speed of light you're not so I guess the game here is to shoot as many as possible so I guess what did I gonna flick the spider egg strategy here what is the spider Age try to have as many eggs as this yeah and they set strategy yeah yeah okay I probably should have three that what we're talking about oh yeah we shoot hundreds of hundreds of these because chances are most of them aren't going to make it all the way there but in once they're there though it's interesting they've got their own observation equipment right it basically it doesn't stop it just sort of whizzes by Alpha Centauri and takes captures all the data it has its own laser which fires it back it's like like a Google Maps for space kind of yeah yeah all right next question coming in from Mike Shaw again won't 5g mobile kill DSL and cable internet services now we've asked this question before that's a great question I would say if you talk to the Internet service providers that would say maybe down the line but not right away this I mean this is gonna be fairly limited deployment right you're looking at four cities with a Verizon and and I talked to them and it it seems like for a lot of places just having the standard hook up that process is like not that onerous so I can't imagine it's gonna replace broadband for a lot of people especially like places like rural areas where it is still kind of expensive to put equipment up but who knows down the line I would love to have like a fully wireless broadband service they don't sound that threatened by it though where like if there were a giant meteor coming towards like the earth and like Sciences are just saying oh maybe that'll kill us down the line but like not immediately I like I would be have a lot more concern about if I were like one of these cable companies knowing that like you know something like 5g has potential to put me out of business yeah I mean it's interesting that they're not working on a 5g like answer of their own or the issues I mean they are they do have their own wireless service but they're not you know they're not wireless companies so I feel like they're in there they're in the position they're in now and I'm sure there's maybe an element of denial to it because it does threaten their core business and they don't want to admit bilities but the fact of the matter is 5g it's gonna take a while for 5v to get out there as broadly as it would take to become to pose a risk these companies so they're right now they're at least pretending they're not worried or if they're not if they're not actually worried they're always pretending they're not pretending not to be worried is a great strategy yeah okay if they're truly not that kind of made sense and a roundabout way yeah sorry next question going back the 5g discussion Ryan Williams asks any idea when 5g is gonna be available in Canada and it really wouldn't really be worth the wait over the LTE oh great question I'm not sure about Canada that a lot of noise is being made in the US as well as Japan and Korea but I don't hear a candidate in the discussion all that often so you might have to wait a little longer come on down to the US may year tune things like right here so G don't really worth it to come here for our four five g's yeah but nothing else in terms of whether it's worth the wait I don't think you're really waiting though it's not like you're not having internet search yeah exactly your your LG the thing it is is you keep in mind that the LTE networks are getting better step-by-step you know they're not perfect yet and I think I imagine some of the issues that you you experienced with LT now you might experience the 5g in terms of coverage gaps right there's still going to be areas where there won't be five genes so you kind of are relying on the network that you have now so for a while I think the transition is gonna be really rough I think it's not this situation where you know 2019 hits they turn on a switch and like 5 G's everywhere it's gonna drop and then instead of people instead of people like kissing their uploader this picture so that will not happen from John for the general public that just goes to youtube and social media and a little bit of browsing maybe some music do you really need 5g we showed off how it helps with the Internet of Things and smart cars on the road and the madmen who let you do like open heart surgery Roger yeah that was my is 5g really that appeasing to the masses when we're already pretty solid with our up-and-down speeds for the most part pockets and exceptions of course exams yeah that's a great question I would say if you're sort of a casual user and your experience is pretty good now yeah you may not get it may not be a huge benefit at least right away but keep in mind that when LTE launched you know the first thing we got was like better speeds and that was great but then we got stuff like uber and and Instagram and we got all these different apps that popped up that worked so much better because we had a faster Network and so you really have to look at the long term benefits it's really the these speeds are insane so they're gonna be able to enable apps that we haven't even figured out yet right so that's what I'm most excited yeah I would I would agree with that like if we're considering like around the parameters of what we're using currently then yell T's like pretty good enough but like I think you know with 5g that expands your parameters and in the sense of like I like immediately always go to thinking about like mobile gaming in the sense of like you would be able to play like online games like without that much latency and there's also been talks you know I know Ian's chair wrote about this with like cloud based gaming yeah in the same sense like you don't need to have the games on your phone anymore or anything like that or even the computer that you're using like if you can just like connect it to a processor some whatnot processor but uh like a server so like a server somewhere that like can host like these like incredibly powerful games then like with 5g that would be much easy one sort of basic example that I would use Google photos is a good one right like when you pull up your Google Photos app you know your photos take a little while to load like especially if you're scrolling back through time because it's it still has to payment server with 5g it's like it's a taste you pull up the app all your photos are loaded in already you don't the wait it's as if they were on your phone they might even be faster yeah yeah and I think like you know you talked about your example of like VR heart surgery stuff but like I'm just thinking about VR in general well like you can just like see people in VR with like that Facebook thing that they're doing the the not work space but like the thing they're like chat yeah service yeah exactly like that would be definitely be something that like be analyzed under that just mean that in real time yeah I mean 5g will enable that make that super smooth experience I also just like thinking about the way that like you watch TV and like TV shows and all these things like just like even it within the parameters currently like just like how quickly you'd be able to download like movies off of Netflix now would be completely different yep so then the next burning question is will LG e a 4G LTE service become cheaper because of the implementation of look t-mobile's promising cheaper service but truthfully I don't imagine the prices go down imagine you like get more for your money is ultimately holidays they kind of it's the Samsung argument you know they justified that the note nine is like a better value because they give you more i imagine that that's gonna be what the argument is for for these carriers because it's hard for me to see them actually cut prices per se especially if they're pouring money into investing these networks their argument is that there's more capacity with with the spectrum they get especially a t-mobile and Sprint combined means it's the cost of delivering the services cheaper and that they want to pass those savings down to consumers I imagine you'll just get more in terms of like capacity in terms of the ability to you know consume data like that's gonna all jump but I don't know prices are actually gonna be cheaper do you think I be generally surprised if they the prices went down do you think that with 5g that they're still gonna be these issues of like hey it's unlimited but like not really like do you think that that expands the price that's the big question yes I mean technically if what they're saying is true then like these limits should all go Yeah right like throttling should go away the fact that like there's a high definition and a standard definition video an option like that should all be high definite should all be 4k streaming the limit does not exist because there was that issue with those firefighters in California yes the throttle yeah absolutely verizon says it was a customer error they blame the customer but the firefighters they blame the fire but yeah like the issues of throttling should actively go away at least for a while I imagine like once they open it up in like the capacity is huge people will start creating apps and different programs that take advantage of all that bandwidth once this gets start starts getting eaten up again you can see the carrier's tighten things up and I would like to see 5g open up the open the doors to like a truly fully unlimited no strings type plan again and that that they'll cancel in like two years yeah well at least you get four feet get grandfathered in yeah while you can this one just came in from Mike Shaw that caught my attention it says I saw a story where a company is making a hourglasses that we use v GE to instantly overlay information on the real world may even people's social media stuff over their heads and store hours this sounds like a little bit of what we saw at the last Google i/o and more specifically it sounds a whole lot like magic leap mad yeah magic leap Google i/o I mean a company old odg is one that I looked at a few years back they've got smart glasses running on LTE I would say it's gonna be a little while before we get smart glasses running on 5g I mean in terms of the battery consumption those glasses would have to be super bulky to work but yeah the idea is if you've got a 5g connection you can overlay data superfast as if it was stored on the glasses themselves but really running over the network and so definitely that's definitely more exciting prospects making actually smart glasses relevant again I'm working I'm more curious about who would actually buy into that like I get I feel like it'd be cool for like the first 20 minutes and then it should be useful for consumers but imagine like an auto mechanic wears glasses if your starid an engine and they could see the diagram yeah there's been talks about using this within like the US military as well yeah the US military already use a smart closet yeah so like having a 5v connected one like having like data relay to your glasses in real time that's that would be huge so I'm glad you actually mentioned battery because that was the next question from Ricky is uh how will it 5g performance on devices affect battery life on your previous we phones is it going to help hurt what do you think well it's not gonna work on existing phones anyways you if you want 5g you're gonna get a new well okay I'm my phrase that wrongs how we talked about how the battery's gonna be on like a giant a our goggles let's talk about just a phone yeah of course it's unclear everyone I asked that question to all the the handset makers all the carriers basically everyone and they all say they have a plan to account for it but I do remember when 4G LTE first came out those first phones were like they did not last that long despite the fact they were bulky they had large batteries to kind of accommodate the LTE connection the phones didn't run long and I imagine it'll be very similar Safari file I think I remember like when I had my first smartphone I purposely set it to only like 2g unless I need me G yeah unless I needed it no no like this before four so I purposely like set it to like 2g only unless I say no you have no data then yeah yeah but like I would rather have no data than like my I have your phone today yeah okay I would basically only turn it up to 3G if I need it to like look for stuff any good time the argument that they made is you know they've obviously learned a lot from 4G they've got more intelligent systems that allow for like directing battery usage when it's not needed like shutting off 5g when it's not needed or like turning it on what it is so we'll see I mean I'm a little skeptical that these phones are gonna run that long but again it's that's a that's a problem for next year now maybe not the comments section is killing me right now Chris Osborne says 5g AR for tinder would be hope seeing people's profiles pop up over their heads and then priority one follows up 5g starting the suitcase cell phone war all over again I love our audience yeah well like a sprint just announced last week that it will have the first 5g phone in the US if they're tapping LG to make it I asked them about sort of the bulk and they say like it's not it's gonna be a little thicker than your normal premium flagship phone but it's a it's not gonna be significantly bigger so we'll see we'll see how they work Brandon Franco asks do you think 5g will have a lot of home throttling oh great question like as a broadband service I would think so yeah I would say early on no I think they're just gonna like it's gonna be wild wild west for the first few years as experiment with it and because that home broadband service is using what's known as millimeter wave spectrum that's super super high frequency spectrum that's got a lot of capacity you're not gonna hit a limit for a while so I can imagine these companies sort of letting people go crazy for a while just to really test the full capabilities of 5g so yeah I can't imagine throttling limits at least early on here's a question coming in from BVG how long until a GTI screws this up oh I'm not gonna answer that Alfred will I don't know if we have enough time like who's a who's a Nadja pie one more for 5g chris osborn do you think Apple Google Samsung and all of them will offer LTE versions and 5g versions of their new phones oh well I mean you're gonna see LTE versions of phones this year for sure I mean next year not every phone is going to be 5g there's definitely gonna bleed over for a while yeah you're definitely gonna and in terms of phones with 5g there will definitely be an LTE connection it's not like it's 5g only like no there's no 5g network that's gonna handle it in terms of coverage so you're gonna have to have that fall back to LTE but they're gonna be plenty of phones that will just be LT only next year it's not like next year is the year 5g where everything just switches over it's gonna be gradual though the telecom companies would very much like you to believe that you're a 5g it's like I feel like 5g is like a youtube comment section now where every company is just gonna come like first riser shows with like wrist wrist wrist alright just a couple minutes left to chat about the probes the Alpha Centauri pros Storm King asks do these probes have anything to do with president Trump's space force that's a good question private a project so this is not this is not space force related so when they get out there what are they looking to send back is it just gonna be more pictures and information from greater distances that we haven't achieved yet or are they actually pursuing something specific you know like Mac and me you know I think they're trying to run a scan for basically scan for life-forms scan for what plants look like what what sort of the the atmosphere is like in the Alpha Centauri system so the I think they're looking for whatever they can find and then and that firing back that data that's because the Alpha Centauri system is literally our measured closest neighbors yes it's our next-door neighbor we're gonna start there and then only 40 years away yeah that's what if that's really not that big a deal what if the folks in Alpha Centauri had also sent out laser probes laser powered probe and they hit ours at the same time now what if the probes had 5g smart driving capabilities and we're able to avoid a head-on collision in space there's a hide these stories completely Orwellian John Legere is there he's also wearing pink sneakers five of them because they've got five feet so well we all know John Legere is actually an alien so I don't know what you guys are looking for but we are out of time thanks everybody for joining us the questions and comments keep flooding in I wish we could go longer yeah yeah we'll definitely do more 5g shows for sure Brian sorry it's just not visually interesting from a video productions I know I know anyways thanks everybody and thanks USB for as always sponsoring the show this entire month and we'll be back tomorrow Roger you're up yeah Cena it's available without podcast is available on itunes tuna and stitcher fever Google Play Music and the Amazon Alexa of course you can find our podcast on cnet.com see y'all tomorrow Lou goodbye you