Gadgetory

welcome to the 359 I'm Ben Fox Ruben I'm Alfred Eng so Alfred dedicated the past few months to moonlighting on venmo under the handle at John Legend he stumbled upon a variety of fellow celebrity impersonators on the app who are able to exist in part because venmo doesn't verify its accounts and it's unlikely celebrities would use their own names on the app for obvious reasons so anyway what why do this in the first place honestly most of it was because I thought it'd be pretty funny to be John Legend I tried taking other celebrity names too Mark Zuckerberg was taken as was Elon Musk but I spoke to others that had taken these names I spoke with the person that owned at Miley Cyrus and at Guy Fieri I did try speaking with the person that owned the handle at Justin Bieber but he kind of ghosted me after a little bit so just yeah that we're still friends though we're still friends on vamo which is another weird thing you can like add people as friends on venmo yeah what was your experience though you mentioned in the story about how I guess it's like once a week somebody would request money from you for various reason yeah I guess it's I'm sure they don't do it just to me I'm sure they like look up all celebrity handles and tried you know oh if this is a real person they're a millionaire maybe they'll just give me some money you know ten millionaires respond to a request for like you know five dollars that's 50 bucks I'm doing nothing so you know I would get requests every now and then basically saying like hey you're John Legend please give me money look the saddest one which I felt really bad about was one I could tell that they were definitely reaching out to a bunch of celebrities basically saying hey we're trying to open up a Children's Hospital in Atlanta can you donate like $20 or something like that or you know of your vast net worth and it was just I felt really bad about it because I didn't have the heart cells like hey I'm not not really John Legend and I don't really have the money to give you for that really quickly - you spoke with at Betsy DeVos not the real Betsy DeVos but after the Sean Spicer blow-up when people found his venmo account apparently this guy was absolutely flooded with quests and was like trolled so much that he had to close out his account yes so people did not like the new Secretary of Education so I got she he got like 200 requests like an hour or something like that and it was all like you know hey we don't like you please give me a hundred thousand dollars for how he just screwed me over of my college tuition and things like that yeah being a venmo impersonator is not easy don't try this at home I just hope John Legend doesn't end up hated one day and I get all this next up China's ZTE which is the fourth largest phone maker in the US looks to be getting a reprieve from President Trump after the president's own Commerce Department imposed paralyzing bans against the company Trump over the weekend said he'd work with China's government to help ZTE get back into business now ZTE is they mostly do budget phones but this definitely for anybody that actually has a ZTE phone is probably pretty happy that the company is not just gonna all of a sudden go belly-up which is positive for that yes I've actually been following this for a while if if you're not familiar ZTE suffered these sanctions because last year they settled the case with the Justice Department and the Commerce Department over selling us equipment to countries like Iran and North Korea this was like a more than a billion dollars in settlements and then they were supposed to fire employees who were involved in it and then when they did in the Commerce Department basically said okay you're violating our our sanctions we're going to shut off the US market yeah they said yeah basically you did like the Google Playstore all palm which like powers all its phones Dolby speakers it basically meant that they couldn't make any more phones which is which is like really staggering yeah either way I wanted to get to one last story our own Jessica Dole cord said Google seems to be trying a little too hard to make me friends with Google assistant too late me and Google assistant are actually getting married but it does raise some interesting questions I'd say about whether you know we're getting a little too close to these voice assistants or they're trying to make them a little too much in the uncanny valley yeah I have no problem with a either way if you want to read more about these stories check us out on CNET I'm Ben Fox Ruben I'm alfred ring thanks for listening alright thanks for joining us for the recording recording of the podcast everybody I'm gonna jump into the chat now and take your questions in comment so we can keep the conversation going go ahead and submit them along this is great news for ZTE needless to say well actually great news so let's keep it on keep a lid on it yeah not to get overly political about this because obviously this is a tech podcast but it is obviously interesting slash ironic to see Trump directly saying he's going to help preserve Chinese jobs after really one of the signature parts of his administration and his campaign has been America first and American jobs but as we're talking about this CTE situation they agreed to the fine they agreed to a lot of these restrictions and then basically the Commerce Department was able to in effect force the company to shut down it does seem to me fairly draconian it's really weird like when I saw Trump's like tweet it just it just didn't make that much sense to me to me mostly because it kind of goes directly against not just the Commerce Department but also every intelligence agency and the military in the u.s. like you're not you're not allowed to have a ZTE phone on a military base the Department of Defense has like stopped like anybody from buying it and like with several recommendations against it for like security concerns so it not only is it you know in conflict of the Department of Commerce's actions but now like every intelligence agency to which like I don't I don't understand where any of this is coming from but yeah it's the timing is definitely very interesting and it's worth mentioning to our own Roger Chang has been writing all about this and this comes at the same time though Huawei another Chinese handset maker was basically bounced from Best Buy stores to so they're facing a lot more hurdles in the u.s. trying to sell to US consumers and we'll see what happens now after Trump tweeted about this whether some of that is actually going to get relaxed and consumers from a consumer perspective people are going to be able to get these options yeah because a lot of Chinese officials have actually been lobbying us what like US officials about this there's been reports let during the talks about the the us-china trade war that was going on with the sanctions that this was like a topic that had come up multiple times et has spoken about that as well when I wrote about this when I reached out to the Commerce Department they had basically said that usually in these cases these sanctions like that's it you don't get to negotiate about it and but they've been making a special exception for ZTE so there's been like more negotiations from that I'd like to know what ven Mo's at John Legend has to say about this can we can we talk to him first um I'll just turn on the Google assistant and ask okay anyway what sort of questions do we have coming in well I mean just on the front of the ZTE there are plenty of consumer level consumers who are very interested in making sure that they can still get their hands on these because there are great discount phones yeah and and if you already have one these Commerce Department bans meant that you wouldn't be able to get the newest Android patches or updates even if ZTE had created their own app store to rival the Google Play Store it wouldn't be able to populate it with us apps yeah which is a lot of apps so you could see why this is this was being described as like paralyzing from from CTS perspective absolutely let's talk about venmo imagine sag he wants to know wow alfred was that legal I mean it's about as legal as somebody going on twitter with the handle at John Legend one or something like that sure people impersonate celebrities all the time on social media there was actually a scam going around on Twitter when you know bitcoin was at it's like big big like selling point where people would like make fake handles pretending me like Warren Buffett or Elon Musk and like they tweet at people saying like hey I'm giving away free like Bitcoin just like you know send me some money and then when it raises up that's just about yeah obviously but like that's them pretending to be celebrities as well that is actually illegal but dude did I read this correctly in your story though that what you did was technically against venimos yes policy yeah your so then most policy is that you have to be accurate and who you represent yourself as so the folks that I spoke with like at Miley Cyrus even though her handle was that Miley Cyrus her photo was still like of her and then the display name was like her actual name not everyone does that though you know I must doesn't do at Elon Musk doesn't do that I don't do that so it's it's not like Kanye at Kanye West doesn't do that either I reached out to like every fake celebrity I could think of not all of them responded because there they might actually be the real celebrity isn't really cool yep yeah Mike Sean wants to know Alfred there's a cop here Mike Sean wants a no but Alfred can you sing um I can't no that's not that is not in my wheelhouse okay moving on to Google assistant Mike Shaw says I love how Google assistant I love Google assistant I think it opens a door to the Star Trek computer could totally get that actress a voice and then coming from Michael Brown he says back in 2016 there was a scene at video about Google's Google now not being personal enough or as personal as even Cortana or a Siri finding that it's kind of contradictory that we're being critical of it right now let's remind you like we there are people here everybody's got an editorial opinion as long as it's staged that way if we are going to ask the three of us in this room right now I'm nervous about it just because it's not the fault of the technology of course it's fascinating wonderful technology to see it come this far I'm more afraid of the humans that are going to abuse it yeah and addressing Michael Brown yeah Jessica was looking at this more from like a personal column perspective just to put a little bit more meat on what she said because we didn't get to this in the podcast itself she writes I don't need to be friends with my technology I don't need to be greeted I don't need to get to greet me by name wait for it to respond or pretend to know me and you know that's that's her own personal opinion from having written a lot about voice assistance myself a lot of these technology companies see it as a doorway to getting you more comfortable with using it and using it more often but I could certainly understand what her perspective is here but you offered I mean I have no problem with it trying to be more personal I actually like it that way but like I said I I can understand why some people might be uncomfortable by that there are some aspects of it where I I do wish like okay that's pretty unnecessary like you don't need to tell me good morning okay I don't I know that's so basic though really yeah but I mean maybe that's something that could be said for people who it's part of the child's regular ecosystem and teaching the child general interpersonal communication pleasantries greetings and they're doing that they're doing robots yeah I mean that's that's more specific like for like an issue for me though like I said like everyone has their own personal preference on this I'm gonna come grow up somebody on the train says good morning to me like don't I would anybody on the train one exactly I think that that comes in grain from living in New York right so using Amazon's voice assistant in my house allied one of the things that kind of bugs me we're talking about like you know how how it could have a personality or whatever I'll ask for something she'll tell me the answer and then I'll say thanks because that's just like typical way of like talking to a person that's what I've done my whole life you just say thanks and she doesn't respond ever because the microwaves off yeah right the like and and what would be required from Amazon's perspective is so I keep the Mike hide here you say thanks and then just say you're welcome afterward that's then a privacy issue they probably don't want to wait into but I just kind of feel like that makes it more obvious that I'm talking to a robot and it would make it a little bit easier for me if it did say you're welcome sometimes wanting Amazon to leave like the microphone on to like so it can hear you say thanks is kind of like the person that like after they like say god bless you after you sneeze they like wait for you to say things like you're welcome and technically technically I could say Alexa thanks and then she'll probably have a canned answer for that I don't know that's what that's what it should do instead of like the gap of like waiting for you to say thanks so you're just like passive-aggressive a just like you're welcome by the way Oh or or just keep like the light ring going waiting for me to say something when you don't I just like oh by the way you're welcome if if echo and Google start getting passive-aggressive you're welcome you're welcome you can have look that up on your phone it's right in front of ya because we know where your phone is by the way Ryan Williams wants to know how long until people start falling in love with their assistants I mean or what it's worth always end up talking about my assistant is more helpful than most of my friends oh yeah I mean the movie her keeps coming back with with this type of situation and I think that's kind of what Jessica was was pointing out to she's just like look it's it's a tool it's a utility it's not my buddy and I just want to get the information out there so to that extent if that's the direction we end up going in I guess it might be easier faster to get your information but I don't think that's direction we're going in at all I think if anything they're gonna do more stuff like Google duplex where it's just gonna be more uncanny and you're gonna talk to it more often from sir enjoy google's AI mimicking human tones is not the real issue humans avoiding face to face and vocal interactions with each other is terminators of Skynet is a fainter future but the recess a reclusive human race aboard the axiom on wall-e is well in the present they had to bump into and revive society and humanity in that movie who will do that for us I would make the argument that both of those things can be issues they're not each other the world sucks I call the stepping stone everybody is bad well I mean I think that's exactly what Google is trying to do with its whole digital wellness like features coming out on Android pee where you know they want people to interact more of the world they like want you to be on your phone unless they're giving you the option yeah I put a tweet out with this story like basically writing like Willy Wonka wants people to eat less chocolate kind of thing because it's like really Google it is feel good and I I definitely appreciate your point that giving people the additional tools doesn't necessarily mean they're gonna use them at all and they've definitely created these types of devices in the interest of grabbing your attention I mean I don't think people are as just disconnected from each other because of Technology as like people make it out to be though I think that like we have more options now to both disconnect and you know disconnect like from people I mean and and also like reach out to people like because of Technology like I would be gonna whale s birthday parties if it weren't for like Facebook or anything like that or you know people that I like I probably wouldn't keep in touch with if I if I didn't like see them on Twitter or anything like that well Alfred finding the silver lining what's going on here sorry I wasn't paying attention what were we talking about like that like I plot you on Facebook because your posts were really annoying but that's the other point too where it's like it's much easier for me to disengage from people like in the sense like oh like I don't want to talk to you right now I'm just gonna stare at my phone the whole time from Shane like what he was doing so here here's some nice in the middle responses to this from Shane Tom it's not quite sure why it's uncomfortable to talk to a digital assistant if the end result is the same does the journey matter from imagine soggy why is this such an issue this is finally a real assistant where a computer can do the mundane task for you good job Google mm-hmm the other thing that's interesting from Google is that having spoken to their executives when we were at CES they really view their assistant a little bit more broadly than Amazon does to a certain extent Amazon's Alexa is very much like first a voice assistant Google thinks of itself Google assistant as like more of a digital system yeah whether you're texting or voice it's one or the other and I I feel like with texts there's a lot less noise or a lot less personality so if you don't really like that maybe you're more likely to like text with it if you have an Android phone so that's that's at least an option for somebody like Jessica if you just want your answer and you want to get on with your day I just find it ironic I got a text message this weekend which was a very lovely message and I appreciate it for the person who may or may not be watching this but it was funny to think that they spoke to their echo and said text Brian so that it would type a message to send to me and it said text Brian first it said sent from an echo which meant they spoke into the echo Oh built a text message and sent it to me I've got to try that I still haven't used that why wouldn't you call oh okay to avoid like a media I wasn't aware of that feature I've got to try that I want to send you a well wish or information but I want to make sure that this conversation doesn't go anywhere yeah pretty much I mean that's what I do when I text people like I texted like happy Mother's Day yesterday but like I didn't want to like continue the conversation oh my god you didn't call your mom where's my girlfriend's mom oh Jesus thank God I called my mom watch here was like shooting daggers at you with our eyes being like you didn't call your mother we don't have to shoot daggers he's already a dead man I'll say that I watched the movie valerian this weekend valerian city of a thousand planets it sucked but the entire thing was predicated on the back of them having a virtual assistant with them at all times as anyone seen this movie no it's basalt what's his name the guy did fifth element right John's the guy who did fifth element did a city with a of a thousand play it's essentially it was bad if like the International Space Station's spun on a control and planets from all over the place start aggregating there and then of course there's a military I don't want to give away too much of the plot it's got Dane Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne and they're fun it's kind of silly it's visually interesting but they they're soldiers right and the entire time they have this virtual assistant in their neck like put on their neck that they carry around it's called Alex go figure and they're paralyzed when you're out of reach of Alex like it becomes a recurring plot point where someone you can't do anything where it where's where's valerian the guys name is valerian where's valerian I don't know I can't reach him movies over like it comes to a screeching halt over and over yeah yeah it's a it was kind of like douchey but it's like oh my god were living that life yes it's it's a little too close to home I have to say that if I leave my phone at home which I haven't done in a long time I feel like I would probably have the same situation fair enough either way don't watch valerian it really kind of sucks is that the space Jail movie they're not in jail okay because there is a space Jail movie that I thought was really dumb but guardians a galaxy topic no no no no it was like they have a jail in outer space and then like the president's daughters like taking a tour of it and then there's like a prison break or something like that sounds awesome - that's was that Riddick I hold on like the only pitch black yeah there another something called lockout I don't know yeah it was really bad the star is guy Pierce I do not know that was a really bad movie I think this proves that I will watch any piece of sci-fi trash let's take one more question from Mike Shaw off-topic but maybe related once we get 5g our phones will be in our glasses and augmented reality will give us info about places and people around us useful but maybe creepy and we're already seeing a little that leaked in with what Google unveiled with their maps AI at i/o last week with the directions and essentially ad placement of businesses up in front of you if you're looking they are through Google Maps trying to figure out where you're going like maybe you want to stop in for a coffee yeah but like I'm not it so it's definitely a good point that Mike is making but I'm not convinced that all this information is gonna be on glasses on your face if all the information is right there on your phone is it really gonna be that much harder to pull it out of your pocket and that way you can have that information when you need it remove it from your face when you don't want it to be there and just I don't know having seen Google glass and have it be like such a huge failure i I don't yeah it'll be something that'll be on on like all times that doesn't really seem like really used I mean like you never know what the future is gonna hold so maybe we're told wrong about this and I can't wait to watch this podcast in 2050 and be like hahaha boy was that wrong yeah I can't wait to watch out on my glasses on my glasses alright we are just about out of time and especially since I seem to have horrifically offended Alex Mitchell sorry I did not like valerian I thought it was like Twilight for space nuts okay that sounds very cool then oh come on because the movie that was a masterpiece Alex liked it I was selected because he was such a prominent figure in the movie obviously the moon would be out at all time so werewolves would be out at all times and then I was like that more like vampire bad cliche so acting okay so no they're all wearing spaces anyways it wasn't perfect it could have been worse I guess but by alright I guess I'll take us out 3:59 podcast is available on iTunes TuneIn stitcher Feedburner and google play music the Amazon echo and of course Sienna calm thanks everybody for watching we'll see you again tomorrow take care everyone have a great night please send money to at John Legend