Gadgetory

and good morning on Thursday October 26 the bit of a late start to episode 306 of the 359 but thanks for hanging out with us on BVG and here your host today Ben Fox Ruben Roger Chang and Alfred Inge we got a busy busy got a straight today y'all my name's Trey word gets around I'm not making favorites here alright anyways what do we have loaded on the docket today we've got quite a few things we're gonna delve into the Google pixel to Excel screen problems that's what we're gonna start off today's podcast with and then Twitter having an issue with Artie and Sputnik they decided to ban both of those Russian media outlets that just came out earlier like maybe half an hour this morning and then we'll wrap up with a quick preview on Amazon's earnings which are coming out tonight without further ado sending your questions and comments to BVG he'll get to as many as he can at the end of the show let's get moving here we go in three two welcome to the 359 I'm Ben Fox Reuben I'm Robert J I'm Afra dang the Google pixel to excel just started shipping and it already has problems reports have cropped up this week that the phone's displays are showing screen burnin which are basically ghosts of images staying on the screens now granted this isn't as bad as exploding as exploding phones but it's still not that good for Google no it's kind of a it's a real sore spot right because the pixel to excel is the phone that you know it's got the slimmer bezels it looks nicer it's a bigger phone it's presumably the one you want if you're a power user and to have these kinds of burnin issues it really makes you think well maybe I should go with the Samsung is it is it a sore spot though I thought it was kind of like a October like Halloween promotional thing like oh yeah yeah well no so far it hasn't we've actually been able to replicate the problem usually these problems they happen to a small percentage of these phones so oftentimes our review units don't have those shoes we actually were able to replicate I think of two of the five units that we tested yeah and yeah it's there it's legit it's yeah and for anybody that has been in on on the market for a Google pixel to excel you probably want to hold off until this whole situation gets resolved Google said that it's actively investigating the issue next up Twitter announced this morning that is banning advertising from Russian media outlets RT and Sputnik saying the US intelligence agencies found that quote they attempted to interfere with the election on behalf of the Russian government twitter is also donating nearly two million dollars it got from Artie Alfred what's your analysis on this decision well here's the thing about this so they're only banning sponsored content which has been what the scrutiny from Congress has been about essentially you know you took money from these organizations to help spread propaganda you're basically making a profit off of propaganda so they're basically saying okay fine we're not gonna take their money anymore but it really doesn't get to the root of the problem which is the fact that propaganda still exists on your social network right well we were talking about this too is that Artie and Sputnik weren't banned from Twitter just advertising banning them from the platform they're banning them from putting advertisement on and if you really want to look at how like fake news and you know propaganda spreads it's not through advertised content it's through like botnets and people posting you know just just general like getting fake news spread around it's not gonna be because you know oh I saw this ad for an RT link well it's also important out there I mean the timing of this is very suspicious given that Twitter is set to testify before a Senate hearing a discussion about Russia right yeah so they're there China and there's obviously there's been a lot of talk about the government coming in regulating these companies mase book twitter google so it seems like it's twitter tryna like throw the regulators are boned to kind of ease off yeah i suspect that you know a lot of these companies i've already looked at you know Artie and Sputnik with a lot of suspicion as far as you know accepting ads from them but Twitter is kind of the first one to basically say we're not taking any of these ads at all like period alright last to switch it up a bit Amazon is reporting its earnings tonight its first since buying high-end grocery Lutz for 13.7 billion dollars hopefully we'll see a little bit more about what it's done with the new business so far it seemed like they've increased Whole Foods traffic by lowering the price of avocados so good for them yeah I mean I wonder how sustainable this all is this is a completely different business from Amazon this is definitely lower margins it's a lot more competitive its kind of puts Amazon in a different place right yeah I long as they continue to have AWS which is their cloud services business that's really gonna be the big profit driver for them and I don't know who sees and who knows exactly what's gonna happen with Whole Foods going forward so yeah well maybe get a little bit more answers tonight if you want to read more about these stories check us out on CNN I'm Ben Fox Ruben I'm Roger Tsien I'm Alfred Inge thanks for listening so it's time to jump into the chat and I'll start farming out some of your best questions and comments for the guys to floor but until then what advice do we have for people who have the pixel too and they're already experiencing these burning but just to be clear it's just the pixel Excel the Excel excuse me a bigger specific bigger one the pixel two uses a different display uses the AMOLED display which doesn't have any issues the the issue here or the difference is the two Excel using something called plastic OLED Peola which is a new yeah it's a different kind of material and I think that's that's a difference here we do have a story on CNET that specifically runs down all the different scenarios that you might be able to use basically if you bought this phone through Verizon within the past 14 days you can do a return no questions asked the same thing with Google if you bought it through Google over the past 15 days and I would save you if you call and complain to Google their customer service is pretty good even if you got beyond that time frame like they'll probably try to make it right so what attentionally the same thing with Verizon mostly like a hardware issue though right like this isn't like like they can just patch it the resolved no no it's like have to basically yes once you have burn in on the display display or they'll place the phone entirely yeah so you you could make an argument if you are a pixel 2xl owner that this is a defect even if you bought it past that like 14 or 15 day window and then hopefully get a replacement or just you know switch to a different phone I think we we actually recommend that particular 4 pixel phones you should buy directly from Google I know Verizon is their official you know US carrier partner and you can buy through Verizon but it seems like Google's customer service has proven to be pretty good over the past few years so it's recommended you to buy drove me through them yeah I mean I kind of feel a little bit bad for Google this is like the second big problem that they've had with some of their newer stuff coming out like we were just talking about the Google home Mini came out recently that they had like just like phantom problems with that one - yeah hardware is a hard game but if you think about it now both of their issues are both ghosts related so I still think it's Halloween promotion totally could be a Halloween together after how we pass is like the foes magically fix themselves just kidding everything's fine there's Thanksgiving related problems start smelling like Turkey you know what I would definitely buy Google home Mini if I started out or if it like randomly started smelling like Turkey absolutely so in the chat conquer and several others are in the midst of their pre-order limbo do you think they should cancel they're gonna fix this it'll be an easy fix and manufacturing I just declare if you're if you're pre-ordering a pixel of 2 you should be fine but yeah if you're if you're looking for that pixel 2 X 2 XL if I'll probably wait it out a little phone ly they were way to a better version it's coming to like delay the pre-order we're like you still keep your pre-order but like only send it to me one like you know the fixed version is available right yeah because they're gonna have to cancel their pre-order and then like order it again once it's available and do that who's to say that it's available like you know that they'll still be guaranteed one once that right it's unfortunate yeah tell us a little bit more about what Amazon's gonna do do you think they're gonna have a shiner year been a shiny thing like they've had like a pretty wild 2017 we were just talking last week about the Amazon lottery as it's being called where they're gonna build the second headquarters in another major city in North America and that just like sparked so much attention and like all these major municipalities were jumping through hoops trying to get a Hasan's attention and these like very thirsty in ridiculous ways so on top of that Amazon's just had like a pretty strong year presenting itself and like granted they're a major tech company anyway but they've really like shown themselves off especially this year mmm yesterday a bit of a stumble with Amazon key though so yeah there were some reactions the backlash on social media has been pretty relentless yeah I would say that was as if people don't like strangers climbing in their home no I I continue to believe that people will vote with their wallets and there might be like a bunch of people that aren't commenting on Twitter about this that do actually want to use the service they buy it and then Amazon will actually know if there is a market for my friend was actually talking about how great it because he always like asks us we all live near each other and he's like hey can somebody come to my house and get like my package I'm at work right now it's on my doorsteps well you also get packages delivered to you yeah office so like there are a lot of people that I think this could potentially end report II bucks for that or 250 yeah that's ridiculous I'm just gonna go to the post Docs you fifty gets you get you the camera and the hardware in the installation yeah oh and I can't even install it cuz I don't own like the house yeah I don't exactly I don't think it's even available in New York City yeah there's like too much complication with that but what's interesting is like in home delivery and in-home services are Amazon's not even the only one that's trying to do it so if it does change if people start getting interested in used to that I mean like the potential of like not having to wait at home for the Cable Guy it just gets taking care of on its own there is a lot you would trust the cable guy to show up and you'd let them in so the idea of Trust is another issue entirely but having to work from home for the day right and have to sit there and wait for a four hour window for the cable guy to show up for something that's very simple yeah something like this understand what's no does that work if you're working if you're working in your office right and the cable guy shows up what do you remotely let him in and trust that he comes into your oh yeah there's a camera you can watch him the whole time yeah I mean I think that's some it might be a big leap for people exactly great I think that taps into the real concern and where the people just don't want strangers in their home yeah but like there are also people that use Airbnb where they let strangers in their home weekend some paid to do it yeah just vacation know who those people are yeah that's nice stranger you're you're approving them coming into your yeah and for let's be honest for all these Airbnb hosts there it's not their homes right it's like there's ii totally so yeah there's less of an issue there and I don't know I think that's and I think that's why Amazon has a bit of a hurdle like at least if you just look at the reaction on social media people just are creeped out by the ideas well they like you know they're immediately referencing murder like it's not even like this is kind of creepy they're like I'm gonna get murdered by the delivery guy that so you have any sense because if their home they wouldn't be using that service in the first place true unless they don't unless they go in there sneak in and just stay there though fine social media is logical it makes sense for this to work if like you get a notification one day unlock it so you can like watch them yes the thought of the phone being like oh there's somebody in your house with like and I'm okay with it mmm it's something you've got to really think about I feel like I like this I like this for like like I'm sorry the example you gave was like with your friends it's your friends are coming in like letting them into the home they need to pick up something like approved like key holders or something yeah but if you have a smart door lock you could do that already anyway I'm you just give them in the passcode there's no real reason to have the security-camera the idea like it make sense if ready for like pretty like I'm not trying to get you to just spend money you had mentioned like that there they'd be interested in something with like dog walkers - yes yeah there's a lot of things that could possibly work and that would be great for like getting my cat's fed wait a minute all right we should get back to like the primary issues but yeah thanks for the general question about Amazon and obviously that resulted in a lot of conversation about Amazon key what else we got we're still talking a lot about it there's still conversation going on the - says well some apartment dwellers already have to deal with inspections while they are at home but the thing about that is that your landlord allowing something so that's re - the property owner or manager who's that liability yeah but that doesn't mean that you're not unaware of strangers being in your domicile to some extent now that this has happened to me like that's that's part of apartment living sometimes we got some commentary from alien or Sutan and this is a thought that never even occurred to me but like where do you see someone follow the male driver around and use the opportunity to barge into the house after he gets the door open is being oh thanks I'm home thanks for bringing my package and oh yeah think about that window of opportunity but you got a thing with with something like it really with time I mean someone would have to like no trust me people people in my neighborhood like have figured out the timing of the delivery trucks and totally I kind of follow that around edges right there's got to be a - a liability they should be able to like confer with you or that person to say show me your your app identification you know like an uber they have to check who you are because I've gotten in the wrong mover before yeah totally and then ended up in Maryland no they still put you out no I well ironically ended up going to the right place oh really so you're good at the wrong goober they like took you to the right place yeah it was the weirdest thing me sure you were just in the right Hoover car no absolutely 110% do you have an identical twin no me myself and another person waiting on the same block waiting to go to the same place somehow so weirdest thing I've ever experienced all right I think that's kind of where we gonna run out for the day but that things up a little we had the week go quick today but thanks everybody for joining us yep and Ben you want to bring us home yeah definitely the 359 is available on iTunes tune in stitcher SoundCloud Feedburner Google Play Music and of course twitter.com no comm cnn.com there we go thanks everybody see you my next see you next week