Gadgetory

good morning and welcome folks to the 359 podcast Sea nuts daily news podcast broadcasting live from the scene at New York studios on BBG and on Wednesday November 14th episode 419 your hosts are having a bit wow that was a lot to say in a short amount of time thanks for coming to watch her show all right yesterday was a pretty hectic so we're just gonna slow things down and talk about microwaves today which is not a lie actually so the amazonbasics microwave which is Alexa enabled we we have a review out today so we're gonna talk about that there's also a new review on the antenna TV DVR the fire TV recast another Amazon product so I guess we're just talking about Amazon all week and we're gonna round out the show with an effort by the BFF the ACLU and a bunch of other groups to try to push Facebook to be a little bit more transparent with like what they do with taking down your posts when they do go against their policies either way sending your questions and comments about those topics and we'll get to as many as we can at the end of the show now let's get to the podcast the aforementioned end the show will commence in 3 minutes and 59 seconds from 3 to welcome to the 359 I'm Ben Fox Ruben I'm alfred Aang Amazon is now selling a new Alexa powered microwave it's kind of small it's 60 bucks and it even automatically reorders popcorn for you there's there's also like an Alexa powered wall clock that I'm waiting for the review to come out about that but do you think that like Amazon has finally jumped the shark with Alexa powered stuff or we're just getting started I think they're still midair on this shark I honestly like a microwave at least some what makes sense the clock was getting a little bit closer to that honestly like how much popcorn is a person eating that they need a smart connected device automatically reorder it for them I don't like I probably only eat popcorn maybe like three or four times a year unless it's free in the office which that I will eat a lot but it's free on Wednesdays Thank You dvg yeah so I mean it makes sense for me too for a microwave at least in the sense that it's in your kitchen it's something that you could use it's already digital I'm like your stove or something or like your refrigerator or something like that which also have their own smart assistance but you know microwaves just seem to make a little bit more sense what my thing is like you're already going up to an impressing buttons on it you know what's true with I'm at least put the food in yeah with a clock or something you know you can look at it and ask it something and it would like to show you on a screen or something like that with a microwave you are already there you're in front of our alright you're like you that's the whole point of being a smart voice assistant right you don't want to get up and do something mm-hmm but in a microwaves case you're already there I don't really see the point and I think it'll still sell because it's only 60 dollars yeah like this is this thing I would think is like perfect for dorm rooms yeah rich Brown who reviewed this from our smart home team said that it's really not good for like a family of four it's not big enough and it doesn't do enough but one other aspect of this that I wanted to mention was that it's the first product that uses Alexa Connect kit which is a new set of you know software and hardware it's it's kind of like a kid of stuff that third-party developers can use to add Alexa in to more of their stuff so I guess if I think they're jumping the shark they're really you're right they are just getting started anything i microwave had more smarter system features like being able to play music as like just some sort of chime boombox or something like that but it doesn't it doesn't have a LexA built-in it uses Alexa like like I wish it had more Alexa features yeah yeah maybe maybe the next generation also we've got a new review up for the fire TV recast which is a DVR for live TV using a digital antenna it's a pretty cool product it's well received by our reviewer ty Pendlebury but it's 230 bucks which means I'm probably not gonna buy it even though I do already have a digital antenna yeah I mean I'd feel like for that price you might as well just you know spend that on an F to count or something instead for like a good like two years I do have a digital antenna but I there's nothing on TV that makes me think I want this recorded especially if it's not like a cable show or anything like that I mean I guess you could record it like the Super Bowl or award shows or something like that but it's really not something why do you have a digital antenna then I don't have a cable subscription and I like watching jeopardy oh okay yeah yeah so you could use this to watch jeopardy on we're recording yeah yeah to record it and watch it later last about 70 organizations including the e FF and ACLU are asking Facebook to let users appeal if their posts are removed this comes after in April the tech firm started to allow users to appeal if their posts were pulled down for specific issues like nudity or sexual activity or hate speech these groups are urging Facebook to go further obviously so what do you think about that I mean I think it makes a lot of sense you know platforms like Facebook and Twitter they don't really adhere to the First Amendment as much as people like to think make that argument say you know this is infringing my First Amendment right when they delete my post Facebook's not beholden to that but at the same time it is probably the largest platform you can get online to get views on what whatever you think or whatever you want to say that being said though obviously the Facebook has their own rules especially this new to the nudity terrorism post hate speech and things like that it would be interesting to see if this does go through how pages that have been banned like Infowars would you know use it yeah yeah how they would actually respond with the appeals process either way if you want to read more about these stories check them out on CNET I'm Ben Fox Ruben I'm Alfred Inge thanks for listening and that's a wrap on the recording of the audio podcast you can subscribe using the links below right now we are anxious to hear your questions and comments and before we go any further Alfred and Ben you need to put a kibosh to the a word we'd yeah yeah yeah I was gonna apologize for that if we're gonna talk about Amazon not incessantly echo we gotta find a new code word yeah people watch our shows without headphones on that's my question well thank you for watching the show and I will do my best to stop saying the smart assistant in the echo speaker why don't we just say echo I've changed the weak word on mine when I was still using it okay yeah we can try I have tried to do echo before I'll try again so in the meantime we want to give a quick shout out around the world to all of our fantastic and lovely audience listeners Watchers however you choose to consume our droving drabble shouting out to kpop out in melbourne we don't get a lot of Australians on the show nice but I've had time Pendlebury on yeah yeah so let's go ahead and kick it off taking a question from Matthew - our old friend - in the chat I'm am I looking at the correct microwave it appears to be only 700 watts and I was looking at the article when he mentioned that and that's true this is a very lightweight microwave yeah but at that price it's pretty comparable yeah to a certain extent amazon is presenting this microwave as kind of the first step for Alexa connect kit which as I mentioned before is kind of this kid to provide to third-party developers to create their own devices using the Amazon voice assistant so I don't it's but at the same time amazon also has a huge ecommerce website that they already know what are some of the most popular microwaves that are already selling on Amazon so I kind of feel like they know it's gonna sell at a certain price point and b700 and wot isn't really that good but they probably know it's good enough to work as a good pilot for Alexa Kinect kid good answer to a good question next up from Timothy do what is Amazon's real end game for the and I like this quote unquote Amazon lady powered microwave like what there okay so this is stepping-stone technology for that right they're experimenting seeing where this can be implemented it's not like anybody was really crying for their microwave to let them be lazier and fatter but this is them trying to see where any semblance of a voice assistant can be beneficial in life and you got to start somewhere right it's like it was there and the fridge and then like what's next if it's successful they're gonna keep building it and at $60 a pop I kind of feel like people are probably gonna be pretty interested in it it's not really a very big commitment the bigger commitment is really if you want to buy an echo speaker which can run you like $100 plus or I don't know just buy during Black Friday where they sell them for like three cents so but it's it's from some of the stuff that alfred was talking about there's a lot of additional stuff that they could probably add to this to make it better with the assistant I mean their end goal goal is to essentially create the entire ecosystem around your smart home you know they don't want just the the echo dot or the you know the echo itself or anything like that they want you have an echo clock and like an echo microwave so that if you want to switch to a Google home then it becomes this whole thing of okay well I would switch that but that doesn't work with my microwave or anything they basically want to yeah everything haven't you locked in and you know building on that also like your security system your entertainment system that goes to the recast so and and that continues to help build Amazon and convince you to keep getting a Prime membership because all that stuff works better with a Prime membership number one number two it's been shown that the more echoes you have in your home whether you have a Prime membership or not all those things build-up to ensure that you're more likely to buy stuff off of Amazon so really like it wouldn't surprise me that like the folks that buy the microwave are also better Amazon shoppers for Amazon sake and another thing to kind of point out here that's important is it's not that the Amazon ladies built into the microwave it will speak to your Amazon lady device so you're gonna need an echo or an echo dot for this to even function correct I thought that was kind of interesting rather than just build it in natively that again it's just expanding on the ecosystem they want you to invest in it's entirely possible that they're gonna build one with an echo dot built into it in the future but for now like I said it's it's being presented as a way to get developers interested in using the connect kit so I I don't think it does nearly as much as maybe it could because it's just kind of like a pilot project kind of thing they just wanted to workshop this and say like hey why don't you guys try this too I shed out to mark dybul who points out that if they really wanted to make the microwave relevant they would have had it so that the amazon lady could reset your clock after the power goes out I would love that that happens like every three days in my house I mean that's kind of what they were doing with the Amazon clock aren't they so yeah the wall clock hasn't shown up yet I'm waiting for that review the coolest feature of the clock was that it was like you don't have to change it on daylight savings time by the way it's an analogue clock yeah that was the thing like that I'm gonna push to just talk about the wall clock when that review comes out I'm very interested to find out what happens with the clock you wear it around your neck like a Flavor Flav necklace I think that would be it would be pretty great and she gives you directions and restaurant reviews nice here's one from Ryan Williams this is just a nice little shout out it says my biggest disappointment of Amazon not coming to Toronto no more visits from Ben oh thanks yes I was in Toronto earlier this year and I had a great time and the food is excellent there it's supposed to say I mean they still could open up an office in Toronto I mean wow this is like hq8 now that they're on so I they honestly could like they straight-up changed the rules in the middle of the of this of this whole search and settle owed now we're gonna do two cities instead I've announced Ville Toronto Toronto showed there they're great Canadian kindness by I got a release from I think it's Toronto global the folks that put together the proposal for Amazon and they said they were very very proud of their efforts and it increases the exposure for Toronto so I I haven't really seen a lot of cities throwing Amazon under the bus after the fact even though they probably have reason to New York I mean other than through yeah New York did and New York got HQ to but the losers the responses that I saw from the losers were all like very kind and they were like we appreciated the exposure we appreciated the opportunity New York and not Virginia was one of the only ones that there was quite a considerable but backlash from a lot of local politicians that didn't like it yeah that didn't like the incentives I don't think it's gonna change like now he's already drives interesting to me that all this like outrage against it only came out once the deal was set in stone not set in stone but like announced it most likely because you know not many people knew what like New York City was offering because so many of these offers were so secretive I know you spend a lot of time looking for it details from what every city offered to them I put a compilation together as well but that was like just basically what was public information mm-hmm but yeah New York's deal was not public and now that we've seen it you know this does not seem like a good deal for many local politicians or people that live in Long Island City yeah I mean in Cuomo and de Blasio or arguing the other side yeah Cuomo said Cuomo the governor said that this is a nine to one ratio for every dollar we put into this project we got nine dollars back that we're gonna use for public housing for education for infrastructure that's their argument and they're obviously getting a lot of backlash from folks in New York that's saying like oh I see you've got 1.5 billion dollars for one of the most wealthy companies in the world but you know not for heard the subway so that's probably going to continue as this project keeps going but anyway thanks for the question that was a bit of a tangent on what's going on in New York right now speaking of the subway I like how that was brought up in the chat yesterday and by the time I got up this morning it's a full-blown mean what the onion put on an article that said I don't know if this predates the conversation so if we were just getting trolled in the chat nice job but yeah that that Amazon is building a subway system in New York just for prime customer just for Amazon employees yeah I feel like whoever was in the chat probably read that yeah I missed that one well the person in the good on just that smart and should be writing for the onion next question more from Ryan Williams are they essentially they being Amazon trying to do what Samsung did with Bigsby but with a much better assistant uh yeah probably but Samsung makes more stuff directly so they build refrigerators and ovens and washing machines Amazon doesn't really do that yet I guess you could consider the possibility like the door is slightly more open now that they decided to build a microwave but a microwave is a long way away from you know some of those much much bigger appliances so Samsung has more of an advantage in kind of pushing bixby because it has so much control over this huge pipeline of appliances but Amazon also has a ton of partnerships so if you are a customer for Amazon lady sorry this is really slowing me down if you do use the echo speaker you you have like a ton of options as far as buying appliances that work with it speaking of other appliances let's say if Amazon were to do a fridge would that be in heavy competition with Samsung's smart fridge I don't think it would be unless they partner up with somebody that makes like if Amazon makes their own fridge I don't I don't have the numbers but I would I don't know how many people order for online as opposed to going to a store and like picking it up there and having it delivered from the store which Samsung obviously is in a lot of stores that with their refrigerators as far as unless Amazon puts their own refrigerators in stores and also makes it much cheaper I don't really see them doing that like for online they do sell fridges on Amazon along with everything else but their own fridge no of course not but and and it would be interesting if they decided to build their own fridge I'm not discounting it that it would never happen at all but it would obviously piss off the folks that are already on Amazon selling their fridges but we've seen Amazon do that a million times as far as if you if you sell on the site you can readily expect that if you're popular enough and if you sell enough Amazon very well may decide to create a competing you may offer competition directly against you on its own website here's one from dad sure he says Amazon still needs to develop a drone to get the meal out of my freezer and stuff it into the microwave yeah see that's like such an important aspect of this as you were saying Alfred that you still have to go to the microwave open the door put the food in and close at that point like what are you gonna do like you're you're you're gonna go up and put your food in it and then close it and say like set like the eos 4 5 yeah so like if you're in the flow of doing stuff I can see that somebody might get in the habit of doing that but is it necessary like do you need it no of course not so the in home food drone makes a lot of sense who is that from - fetch yeah great idea - yeah oh so somebody should definitely do that there should also be drone delivery from Whole Foods to the freezer yeah or to your house yeah just breaks through the window and it breaks through a different window the second time Amazon lady I need a pizza yeah ok we're almost out of time let's take a couple more questions here's a really good one from tech slacker do you think what do you think about Amazon focusing heavily on markets like India for growth since perhaps the US market maybe becoming oversaturated yeah the US market is definitely already saturated and especially when it comes to prime customers so there really isn't that much more room to grow that being said the u.s. is obviously Amazon's biggest market and its most important but yeah India is definitely a really interesting area it's not one that I've really focused on too much but there's a it's really interesting what's going on there between Amazon and Walmart Walmart recently purchased for a ton of money Flipkart which is a major local e-commerce player there and also Alibaba is trying to grow there so if you're looking for a lot of competition in e-commerce India is definitely an area where that's happening and that should be good for customers as far as lower prices more selection and we'll see if Amazon ends up winning out let's take one more from Timothy do Timothy's full of good questions these days if let's hypothetically say the Amazon and Google were to bind together and develop a smart assistant Empire would there be any legal implications in that like a monopoly essentially yeah what do you think maybe I don't know that's it that's a good question there are other smart assistants but those are the two biggest ones but it's still a very new market so I don't know if like anti-competitive folks would really get involved in something like that there there is a theory generally speaking that all these smart assistants are eventually going to start working together and you're just gonna have you're gonna ask them different things for like they're they're gonna get good at certain elements and you're gonna ask them different things for different stuff that you need I don't think that's coming anytime soon but even Jeff Bezos mentioned the idea of having smart assistants work together and not have Amazon lady do anything and everything I like that we're actually getting into the habit and I'm trying that's right it's good it's good that's really breaking by how quick it's I'm slowing down a lot from it but it's fine okay last one for the day we're gonna do a quick follow-up to HQ to doctor says I'm sure that really cares but it appears that Arlington is practically renaming a section of the region just for HQ to look up national landing you know anything about this Ben yeah renaming it they called it that but there is no place in Arlington called national landing I didn't think that they were renaming I thought I thought it was that the name wrong area from what I understood okay so the area is has been called Crystal City I was under the impression that it's been rebranded it had been rebranded already as national landing but not specifically for this deal yeah I don't know why because Crystal City is a pretty cool name but maybe Crystal City was kind of slummy before so they had an interest in changing it to something like really I don't know bland like national landing they probably should have just changed it to Bezos fill because that's what it's going to be so Hazel's burg Bezos burg they should have like just gone for the gold and just said you know here you go Jeff here's here's another slice of plain and earth yeah hasn't Governor Cuomo changed his name yet to Amazon Cuomo not yet but I would love to see that happen moments like these I really wish that I still had a soundboard with a rimshot on it yeah let's work that into the next year's budget yeah I don't think anybody is really calling a national landing like I mentioned it in my story yesterday but I'm gonna go right back to calling it Crystal City because Crystal City is what everybody's been calling it the whole time yeah National Landing is essentially what they like local like developers called it in their way to like try to attract Amazon to Arlington but yeah that's not like that's not a historical name for like its Crystal City yeah they're trying to call it national land until I kind of rebrand and make it look cool kind of like what's a bad name yeah it's just so bland I mean I mean that's essentially what like real estate developers did for like Dumbo back in in Brooklyn like Dumbo is a cool name sure yeah I mean I'm sure somebody will say that about national landing okay probably just Bezos I don't know but somebody thinks it's cool I guess more than Crystal City either way it's nice to have somebody you out there dad she's on the scene and keeping us posted on what's going on in the front line he says I National Landing will be parts of Crystal City Pentagon row and Potomac yard so needless to say thanks for contributing looking forward to hearing more from you that being said we are out of time and forgive us we are not gonna have a show tomorrow because CNET decided that they wanted me to come in here at 5:00 a.m. to roll tape on another project mmm and I get to work 16 hours straight yeah thanks for filming my birthday party again I really appreciate it Brian yeah of course any time so yeah Gordon sorry folks no show tomorrow we will be back on Monday regularly scheduled pray for me tomorrow's gonna be a very very long day and then we'll say goodbye and have a great week I won't we then yeah I guess so yeah the 3:59 podcast is available on iTunes tune in feedburner stitcher google play music google podcast the amazon echo also known as Amazon Alexa right and of course cnet.com thanks everybody for your questions and we'll see you on Monday you