Gadgetory

and on Thursday October 19th episode 302 of the 359 podcast I'm BBG and today I learned Alexa responds to burps in the house today Ben Fox Ruben Roger Chang and Alfred Inge oh sorry to be fair I cute that oh yeah that's a Alexa I'll clean this later god whew coughs just drop like 30 we're already off the rails Ben will be time out today so today we're gonna be talking about Amazon HQ - that's a massan's plan for its next major campus and nobody knows where it's going quite yet because they sent out an open call suite just try to find out yeah it's called the Amazon lottery they want cities to send in their best offers to try to get this campus and we'll also round out with Bigsby did I pronounce that right right it's fix P next Bigsby Bigsby which is coming to your refrigerator just a reminder that's Samsung's digital assistant because most people may not know about it right we can't assume people know it doesn't like a serum herbs it's don't it will eventually know then please now stop I know it's Thursday but still it's sending your questions and comments BVG we'll get to as many as you can at the end of the show let's get this podcast started yep here we go in three two welcome to the 359 I'm Ben Fox Ruben I brought rain I'm Alfred Aang so Amazon last month sent out an open call for cities to send in their best offers to land Amazon's second headquarters out of Seattle the deadline for submissions is today some of the numbers are pretty crazy about this this is they're planning on eventually spending five billion dollars to build out this campus and hope to have 50,000 employees now granted that's in like a 15 to 7 15 to 17 year time frame still this is no this would be huge for any city that gets it and you know you mentioned there's an amazon lottery and there's there's actually taking submissions on like I guess the best pitches for which city should get it yeah and there are a couple of cities that have taken this quite like a little little wacky ones there was one city that sent in a giant cactus which was really stupid how big is this giant cat it was giant I don't I don't know off the top how do they even send it they drop it off with a drone ship it over there was a Georgia city that that said it would rename part of itself Amazon that's their scene that is that is very very thirsty I also oh god New York City which is where we're doing the podcast now send it would change the lighting for a bunch of its building I mean we did it last night they just yeah they did it with the Empire State Building all the link NYC kiosks and like certain places what did they change lighting to or Amazon Amazon orange yeah I mean look I I'm gonna say I don't want Amazon New York New York doesn't need Amazon there are other cities that need it I mean the new jobs infrastructure a boost the economy New York City isn't needed we have other stuff wasn't Newark New Jersey one of the contenders Newark New Jersey is definitely one of the contenders New Jersey pulled together a big package for like seven billion dollars in tax breaks which is definitely very significant Newark a lot of people don't know is also the home to audible which is an Amazon company so an existing relationship right and Newark if anybody didn't already know this Newark could definitely use the help it's it's definitely got some blighted areas in it and Amazon would significantly change what it actually looked like however there have also been some important stories that have come out to say look do you guys really are are you seriously interested in having Amazon come to your town because there are also some other problems that may arise from Amazon putting that much investment and having that many employees troll really there's a lot of control a lot of traffic let's go up gentrification there are a lot of things to also consider it's not all positives yeah you visited their headquarters in Seattle and you know what was it like there I mean it was like Seattle is like a really nice place apparently the weather is bad but when I was there the weather was fantastic and Amazon took over giant sections but granted Amazon doesn't put its logo outside of its building so it blends in a little bit better but at the same time you know it took over a lot of the space and people should be aware of that so next up we wanted to talk about Samsung's Bigsby that's its digital assistant Samsung announced bixby 2.0 and the big thing is it's not just gonna be on your phone it'll actually come into fridges and other appliances next year right mm-hmm yeah and so if you want to talk to your fridge that's I mean who doesn't yeah or you know fridge I'm lonely or you could actually right Crist was actually showing that you could ask the fridge to look inside the fridge if you have a certain Samsung yeah I'd be lazy to look in just go you need to have a samsung fridge with a camera inside and so it's a little bit yeah it's not quite right just open it now what if you're out well what if you're the market you're like do I have milk you know what you know it would be it would be useful if like you had like some really expired stuff no it's I think it's useful if you're at the market and you want to know what oh why you can look at it from like far away yeah I was thinking a perspective like being in the kitchen oh no it's true that was the one that he showed on Twitter but either way if you want to read more about these stories check us out on CNN I'm Ben Fox Ruben I'm Raj and I'm Alfred Inge thanks for listening there it is I was like where's the where's the ending child I missed a step we were only 16 seconds and you were actually surprised we finished on time I know I'm never ready for you to finish off that's what she said anyways come on who said that about us when did they say this what a childish Oh burps and sex jokes yeah I'm sorry show how the end of the wrong week has been kind of a long month or two or three in a long life yeah so not for you so it's been a relatively short life actually to retarget to Amazon yeah I'm actually pretty surprised that this thing took off the way it did Amazon's genetic ax yeah it does a couple of these like you know experimental things they did it with primed a couple years ago I mean the drones I mean they just the drones doesn't actually exist yet but with primed a that ended up becoming its biggest sales day of the year up until the holidays and then I just like they seem to have a knack for like monopolizing the headlines but there's like big splash announces well they're not they're legit like like the drone thing or or the prime day like people can't stop talking about this stuff right and with this one to this one is only gonna make one city happy right everybody else is gonna be a loser and there are dozens of cities that I'm sure say should have just done a game show this is basically the American Idol and bachelor yeah The Rose goes to Cincinnati but I think it's a good point to also mention like people have asked like well what did Seattle get 20 years ago it's a lens Amazon in the first place wasn't like it wasn't like a supermassive about it what did Seattle get they offer didn't offer yeah but what is Seattle what does he had a law firm now to keep him on wondering so Seattle isn't specifically a contender but King County and a couple not to keep sorry around them not for a cue to but I'm just wondering if CL does offer brakes now for Amazon like I don't know off the off the top I'm gonna head I don't know yeah that Amazon is definitely still growing in Seattle however Seattle is going through like this whole soul-searching situation where they're like did we do something to upset you Amazon why are you moving to like this giant campus and there there has been a lot of like concern about whether Seattle maybe wasn't business friendly enough Amazon to one to I was like yeah it was like a nice like tech like City though cuz Microsoft's out there too although they're not really in Seattle they're kind of like out in the burbs yeah in Redmond yeah yeah but if they just opened up another HQ like in Seattle like that's just yeah I would love that but we pick Seattle again well like it makes sense for Amazon to diversified locations though mainly so the reason that a big reason a lot of folks were talking about why Amazon would need to do this in the first place was because they were outgrowing Seattle Seattle is not Silicon Valley they definitely there's a lot of poaching goes on between Microsoft and Amazon but yeah despite beside that there's not as much going on there when you compare it to Silicon Valley where you have like so many more tech companies and talent - right so so to diversify to a different area where you are gonna get a different pool can you can you handicap it do you have a favorite do you have a most likely candidate my my most likely candidate and this is for a lot of other people's is Boston Amazon already has offices in Boston for its Alexa like it's AI brains behind Alexa yeah a lot of those folks are in Boston they could also tap into all the smart people that come out of Cambridge with you know Harvard MIT so what I would have guessed you would have even chosen Philly I am from Philadelphia so Philly is also tried yeah it Philly is another area it's also a city that could use that kind of yes there are certainly blighted areas in Philadelphia that have been blighted for decades and could Amazon know if I made a pitch for it I believe so and so I'm gonna also run through so Moody's last year came out with or sorry last week came out with the top ten contenders I'm gonna run through a handful of them they put Austin number one then Atlanta Philadelphia Rochester New York Pittsburgh PA Pittsburgh where I went to school so represent Rochester yeah interesting and then and then behind Pittsburgh is the New York Jersey City White Plains New York that like hold by the New York area so people aren't really at least Moody's isn't strongly expecting Amazon to end up here yeah because like it's so expensive where we are they were they build same amount of tax monies in yard probably upstate like I don't think it would not upstate but not New York City right right like maybe White Plains where yeah you still live cuz they've got like IBM's up there they've got the IBM's yeah that's right but it's not like there would be some flashy new campus in the middle of the city no no like luxury condos we're taking over Central Park just all that would but wait wait wait nurse T these these different places have been I wouldn't surprise me if mayor de Blasio were like yeah just build over a Central Park no way let's take a page from Arrested Development make it a floating campus in the sky on the sea that would be Amazon barge just like the mick barge that was such a huge success the way remember when McDonald's anguish no no no everybody go to youtube and look up the mick barge your ships dropping right crazier that's better do we have questions by the way yeah first of all new free to dis at the comment that's my contribution huh we got a lot of people making really great bids in the chat about their local yeah Josh Boyd says I feel like Chicago would make a lot of sense because it's basically the center of the country yeah logistical II that's for sure totally fair I like mothers mustache she says Atlanta has the biggest International Airport Savannah has one of the biggest ports the tech industry is huge here in the metro Atlanta Georgia Tech I could see Georgia being for sure a contender for them yeah Lana's a huge hub I'm surprisingly put Austin as geographically I don't get its column great like yet does have talent and Whole Foods is based there and Amazon just bought Whole Foods so there are there are reasons to go to cool town yeah yeah that's why that's why I would hang out yeah yeah not you know create a new headquarters for five billion dollars yeah I mean it's up to Jeff its whatever wherever Jeff feels friend Jeff is BFF the first name nice that's your Bezos if you're nasty be in Jeff that's me that's what we call each other yeah he being named Jeff right I would watch that show oh yeah slide 83 says Detroit if we're talking blighted yes that's true in Detroit has definitely been one of the area's that's been kicked around an eventual I think they made a pitch not sure off the top of my head the problem is is with a place like Detroit you wonder if they have enough firepower to actually you know make a really strong edge you know then they can start their own self driving car delivery system from there oh yeah the other the other problem too is is like does Amazon really want to get into the automotive industry I feel like they definitely do maybe I don't think for like consumer prefer definitely for like shipping delivery yeah it's if you want to go in like the middle of the country I think Chicago sounds like a bit of a stronger contender but you know there are a lot of other places like Salt Lake City Utah is on this list really it's fake Hoover it also made the list I was gonna ask if there's any question about them going across the border yes just made a big pitch for Toronto yeah Toronto yeah and you know somebody else even contributed Puerto Rico I mean that would be nice but also logistically or difficult I don't I don't like I don't think there's enough like tech talent specifically for the infrastructure their perspective is like needs it right now like yeah yeah yeah well absolutely right I I think that yeah like for Newark I think New Jersey but just logistically transportation wise that would I know I think New York City's in pretty rough shape they could probably use the boost jobs yeah you know just give out more tax breaks for giant companies I think I was pretty clothing that's what we do New York let's go back yeah so the dash says with so many places wanting HQ to it seems like just a money-making scheme for Amazon absolutely that way it's right Amazon is really just trying whether I have a lot of competition well the competition means like they can go to these cities in like well like what can you offer us right what kind of tax breaks what kind of I mean yeah very plausible that they just basically don't pay taxes for like 15 years right right I'm speaking of taxes there's no taxes in Texas yeah you're right for Georgia residuals though not necessary for businesses how was that how it works I'm curious to see because it was for Florida's the same way every I got so much attention with this though that I wonder what other company could also play this game or is it like the Amazon I mean I've never could do that right I've never seen companies before kind of like dangle this out in front of cities usually it's like all kind of behind the scenes soil right like tax breaks and things like that Twitter was kinda like that what that's f right yeah they have it kind of like I mean it came out but I sort of had this handshake deal with that stuff tax breaks they didn't try to like you know like you said dangle cross other cities so yeah the Amazon way to go I Amazon like a big splash yeah always well we'll see hopefully they move here it would just be easier for me to like visit their offices all the time all the time hey you want to break some wine bottles on Windows later today so let's talk about turnaround time slide 83 says the thing is that there's going to be a long turnaround time on them really getting things up and going no matter where they build oh yeah you think people will be willing to deal with the changes over upwards of a 15 year period I think that's being a little extreme I only 15 years is really gets fully established I mean it'll it'll go like you'll see construction go up a lot faster but it's that's why I think it's a refined old form no no it's totally fine but there's any one my final form for them to dangle five billion dollars in investment and fifty million employees sorry everyone in America works here now that's that's like the time timespan Christmas actually right we all just like turning our badges ya know Abbas on pad alright it was on hiring 50 billion actually that's I mean how what you do right post office yep in that basically how tim horton's works in canada everyone just has their own Timo's idea I mean everybody works it there are a lot there are a lot of them I'd be pretty bummed out if this did end up going to Canada sorry - any Canadian listeners out there but it would be nice if Amazon did you know stay within the United States but you know they they are China held up a such competition so patriotic you know I do love this country all right let's blast you a couple more questions thanks Ben will a patriotism but you sir how am I supposed to respond what am I supposed to make like a snide no no you're good you respond exactly how you should responded are we done Mary let's go hope so okay America Matthew badger will HQ to actually have a real effect on local economy and contrast a bill of goods and sports stadiums and other effects oh yeah oh yeah absolutely yes very Bob's alone I think the the point is is that it would have such a significant impact on certain cities like big cities yeah that it could you know gentrify areas and raise rents and raise taxes well beyond that like Amazon sets up shop all their businesses are gonna come around it's it's not like it's just Amazon it's not in a you know vacuum its other people are gonna want to build businesses around that exactly then that kind of secondary tertiary effects are just as important as well as someone in the chat earlier and I apologize because I missed the the screen name pointed out that just maintaining that facility in itself is an entire job force oh yeah absolutely great point so that that's that's a huge one and that's not just thinking like oh who's working the assembly lines say like they're gonna need groundskeepers they're gonna need maintenance you're gonna need engineers and electricians and they're gonna need delicious sub shops to make delicious subs for all those 50 million workers probably need people to write all those like press releases that they're gonna be putting out I know so if you guys are coming to New York all right yeah a couple more real quick Rick says the cactus was from Tucson and it was 21 feet tall well done Rick they send that in one piece basketball hoops I think it was a tractor-trailer something they said flatbed I remember that okay yeah that probably makes a lot more sense somewhere might dumb my nose oh yeah you can put it down yeah and just just to point out to him azan decided not to keep the cactus because they were like we were not allowed to take gifts you know we wanted to stay fair to everybody so I think it was like to some I don't know like Conservancy or Oh God Arboretum or whatever but that makes sense yeah so they just yeah like they gave it to the next guy mystery but hey corby imagine Jeff Bezos holding a 21 feet tall like actively what do I do with this thank you a couple more come more Dre Frey says will Bixby be able to summon Google on your fridge or toaster toasters I'm sure they do you can summon Google now like it's a genie yeah you rub your phone be a feature Najeeb also has where's the Amazon phone oh oh great question I've long time no it's not I don't like there used to be in Amazon was the fire phone and there is like a very soft rumor that came out I think out of like press in India that talked about the ice phone that they were developing but that was several months ago is that like the codename for it yeah that's the codename is the ice phone and I don't know if it would just be for developing markets or what-have-you but it's it's it's not I mean that would make a lot of sense to me right like a super super cheap phone that sounds like that's a direct outlet to Amazon shopping right tablet yeah well no but like in emerging markets where are those super cheap phones do really really well but yeah this was something that was mentioned again from I think it was an Indian publication and never mentioned again so usually like when these things tend to get hide you get a lot of rumors stories and that one was just kind of a one-off yeah so don't expect an Amazon phone just yet all of this talk of like the smart devices this makes me think the world is going to turn into them movie them my Brave Little Toaster remember that we're like all the appliances were like personified and yes I remember the toaster I don't remember his friends I just wrote this in a vacuum nice play and what else train or something that's all I remember from that movie reminds me no no but like I remember from Brave Little Toaster that the air conditioner was played by Phil Hartman rest in peace and it was terrifying auto-delete air cuz he like Ozzy's DreamWorks or something maybe but all I know is like the air conditioner explodes and it traumatized me wow this is a weird episode alright one more question before we wrap it up take a hello from South Korea it's my first time watching live hey what's up to obtain a joining us Bixby here in Korea is not too bad I guess I like I guess just like Syria and I wonder how BIG's beat is doing in the u.s. you know they say it's I mean they they threw out a large number I forget what it was yesterday at the developer conference but there was no way to say whether or not people were actively using big space so it's hard to say I do really like that big space the only voice assistant that's you know bilingual no doesn't like to like understand Korean yeah a Google assistant I think does a couple different right and Alexa speak I thought Alexa didn't okay oh I'm sorry and then series piece a bunch of language yeah really wrong on that one there I know it's okay but it's good to mention actually I mean hey if you have any like what what do you use things before I'm actually really curious like what an active Bixby user how an active Bixby user employees because to be frank it's not as prevalent here in my us as they might try to I don't have a number state so I don't have a chance to really play with it when the demos came out when we got a chance to play with the phones big spiel wasn't ready yet so since it came out like I have a chance to play I like this comment from from Josh he says do the count accidentally pressing the button as using Bigsby they probably probably yeah sure yeah if you press that button if you get anywhere close to the button that counted can they and I forget I don't remember if they actually gave you the option I know initially they didn't give you the option to change it but I wonder if they've changed they've updated so so change the like before it was like it had to be the big abundant even when big speakers around it was just sort of like a a useless bun but I feel like that's come a waste especially if you don't use Bixby well yeah it would be nice if they let you change it to like the Google assistant button but who knows you can hit the home button for Google system mm-hmm and that's all we got for the day yeah hey if you get a chance to respond to us tweet at us yeah Witter we do want to hear what your perspective is and how you do use Bixby and that goes for anybody anybody who is engaging with Bixby we're just kind of curious yeah point feel free to tweet at us at at the three five nine podcast at Twitter and then email us at the three five nine at CNET calm cool and that'll be it want to take us out Ben oh I have to do it fine all right the right leonidas the 359 is available in iTunes tune in stitcher SoundCloud Feedburner Google Play Music and of course cnet.com thanks for watching hey so next week I will try to do better you