Gadgetory

good afternoon on Tuesday November 28th it's episode 323 of the 359 podcast CNET's Daily News soundbite roundup something or other what keep adding buzz words yeah and your host today or Alfred Inge and Roger Chang you guys what's on the docket don't know if it's really busy right now no we're gonna be talking about the iPhone expert pixel to camera it's the burning question right this is the best the Apple's got the best of Google's got which camera did better see that pitted them against each other we'll have the results on the podcast we'll also talk about the latest NSA breach Alfred's gonna give us a lowdown on that more more embarrassing disclosures I guess it keeps happening to the NSA and it's just it's kind of sad right for a secure for an organization that's supposed to have these top-secret documents it's just how does this keep happening right and then lastly Google's working on a security feature that could keep strangers from glancing over your shoulder peeking at your phone I'm actually pretty eager to see this I'm a not I know yeah that's what afterwards you waiting to do it will explain yeah he's a little bit of a lurker so be warned if you seem in person all right as always give any questions with the topics leave it in the comment section but I will get to them I will try to answer them in three minutes to 59 seconds from 3e - welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Chang I'm Alfred Aang it's the Royal Rumble smartphone cameras see unites pitted the iPhone X against pixel two in a camera shootout and now the pixel has an edge and sharpness the iPhone photos tend to come out with the warmer so it really kind of is based on your preference if you like warmer photos they're probably better for portrait mode or for portrait photos in general the speaking portrait mode the pixel 2 offered a pretty strong option and despite the fact that it only uses one lens but when it comes to you know the telephoto lens and actually zooming to 2x obviously the iPhone X with its second lens wins but they're surprisingly close yeah I think it comes down to what you take your photos of the most yeah if you're a person that likes to travel a lot and takes photos of the landscape around you you know look at this beautiful site yep I think the pixel to like wins it in that scenario because there's a lot more for you to like play with and then you know there's just more that you can capture in one mm-hmm but I think if you're the type of person that likes taking photos of people yeah the iPhone 10 wins out in that scenario where your Instagram feed is full of look at this person and look at this person that I'm right or my wife's case just flows my kid yeah exactly so yeah I think it depends on the type of photographer that you are I am pretty impressed that the pixel two is able to do what a can with one lens on the portrait mode this is really effective in the people the people that are on the focus really pop for me yeah I'm a big fan of it I think I think it makes a lot more sense to focus on to make the software better than it does you know to stack it with hardware makes it cheaper for everyone involved if you think about right speaking of which like you can get the pics the baseline pixel - you don't have to get like the super-sized version has this feature whereas if you really want the best camera you have to get the iPhone 8 plus or the iPhone yeah or 10 that's that's already right there a premium that you hadn't paid for for the best camera features uh so next up the NSA is dealing with yet another breach Alfred what slow down all right so essentially a researcher from up guard or security company had discovered a Amazon Web service server that had no password on it holding up more than a hundred gigabytes of NSA data it had come from a branch of the NSA called INSCOM which is this essentially intelligent security command yep which is their joint effort with the US military and it basically had red disk on it which was a old program from 2013 that the military spent ninety three million dollars on mm-hmm and it was basically a program that you know tagged like had drone strike footages and you know satellite images of people and just basically commands going back and forth on it right and this was all publicly available on this website um the researcher Chris Vickery he basically just did like a scan for he finds a lot of these open like AWS servers and he found this one from from the NSA I want to focus on then by the way I want to give a shot of SAC Whittaker and ZDNet who got the scoop yes the AWS plane like I feel like I've seen a lot report about AWS storage servers that are unencrypted and allow this information gets leaked out that way yes why are people just encrypting this stuff um so when I asked the researcher about this he brought up a good point we're on a lot of these buckets so on these servers sometimes you need it to not have a password if you're trying to like share it within like your organization without if you're trying to point to it for another web service that is protected like if I'm trying to use my program to run based off of this but my program can't like get the password without it to be fair though in this scenario when I spoke with Chris about this specific server yeah he basically there was no reason that it didn't okay yeah so this should have been you air this is humans being stupid yes all right lastly Google's working on a security feature that can keep strangers from glancing over your shoulder and looking your phone called an electronic screen protector and it uses AI of course because everything uses AI now and facial recognition to alert you if someone is looking at your screen Alfred you're disappointed this I am I am not a fan of this to be fair I would hate it if somebody was looking over my shoulder is that my phone so I am a hypocrite pretty sure you're a bit of a lord I like I don't know that's like my favorite thing to do to do when I'm bored on the train is looking over like stuff if somebody just has their phone oh that's cool this guy like has a lunch in an hour all right well as for for what's worth I think it's cool and I kind of want to see this unfortunately it's still feature that's being worked on so it's we're hoping that it will come to Android soon for these stories and more check us out at CNN I'm Roger Cheng I'm Afra ding thanks for listening so I just have this terrible image in my head of the security feature in that Google's gonna implement in the phones where it to prevent people from looking at your phone instead of it actually doing anything technologically advanced like I've just one of those springy boxing gloves just comes out of your phone and punches the unrecognized face I would probably pay extra for that security feature I think it'd be effective oh yeah could you imagine trains though these like these box these boxing clothes would just come pop down and action only is only if it actually made like the sound effect from Who Framed Roger Rabbit like it actually has the new men in black like flash how far are we from building in neuralyzer function to our mobile devices they can't be too far away no or it maybe you know maybe which but was it yeah alright everybody so go ahead and feel free to throw in any questions or comments about today's story is there anything else kind of generally in the techo sphere that's going on right now yeah in the meantime holy crap NSA yeah right yeah this was a probably like the fifth major breach in the last like few years or so I mean it's just embarrassing but it said like I an organization that's supposed to be all about keeping secrets it just is really an effective yeah I mean two of the situations are the words you're using or strong enough oh it's really disappointing I mean kind of ineffective to be fair to of the situation I said really I say burn the witch we're from like contractors actually three of them if you count Edward Snowden was also a contractor yeah so you know three of them were form contractors this one specifically was like from their server that they set up themselves it really made no sense for this to be public and it's like ridiculous that when I spoke with the researcher he base I told them this sounds like as simple as typing in a URL to find this and he said this it doesn't sound like it is as simple as typing in well Wow and the way that he had found it was so he found a CENTCOM breach before which was another part of like the military command like yep and he basically after finding that one with the same URL he's like hmm what are the coms are out there so he just starts experimenting oh my god Norrell doing that he finds so you know they're really randomly typed yep and found it yep Wow I mean that's just wow that's your tax dollars I know just so much yeah but we're talking this morning like it this is fairly common right the idea that ultimately with all the cyber security defenses you can throw up its some oftentimes ends up being yeah some idiot screws things I brought I brought this up to been our Amazon reporter or am Amazon me and who Ben Fox Ruben guy anyway so I basically brought it up with him I'm like why does this keep happening like AWS servers and things like that he reports on Amazon a lot any saying you know Amazon has a lot of these security features in place and which I you know I've seen a lot of press releases from Amazon about the fact is that they don't turn it on or enable it or anything like that is it Amazon's responsible to turn on those feature or it's a client it's yes yeah so the NSA had the tools to encrypt it yes did not flip this yeah as did Verizon and us voter records when those were leaked on that and Viacom and the Pentagon it basically comes down to this like Amazon right now with like AWS on secure stuff is like a it's like a vault company yeah we're like they're selling its all these people and then you know they're completely oh look how come your vault doesn't work it's like you didn't close it that's that's the best way that I can describe it like these breaches are happening because they're failing to like properly secure their stuff and it's not like it's Amazon saying like oh you can't have a password or anything like that oh let my mom in charge of the NSA really like it's like it's too hard the passwords just to cache where it's just one two three four no no this one it didn't have a password at all I know I'm we're trying to be optimistic one two three four the password for the air lock damn it has the change the password for my suitcase let's talk about the iPhone pixel camera comparison yeah let's do it I really liked your takeaway from that where it's like oh these are actually kind of purpose-driven and there's a applications for both of them so find where you want to enthuse yet what do you suggest for someone who doesn't like to take photos don't get your headset yeah just leave it at that but yeah I thought that was and you can kind of see and I as you were describing that and I'm looking at the the b-roll of the footage that they took it totally shines through in that case and you can definitely see more detail to the environment and there's definitely more of a shine and a gloss that works better for like yeah while that picture i noticed that when i was comparing my instagram and my girl friends Instagram where all her photos are of like scenic stuff and food and all that junk and all my photos are like pictures of me and my cat so I know you'd be an iPhone person she would probably if I took more photos yes we're willing to spend money yeah so essentially it's like that's I think that's like the biggest difference where there are people that like like taking photos like scenic things like aesthetically pleasing and there are people that like taking photos of me people for the record Lexi kind of in terms of the bottom line she said that the bests are all rounder for photos and video the iPhone acts I keep saying iPhone I should be iPhone tax what should all right it's a iPhone acts for the best still photo she actually believes the pixels better and it was I think it was DAC so mark that offered that scored the pixel to a point above the iPhone acts and like you said that is kind of a testament to the technology that they were able to implement with a single lens right right because it's all soft well the improvements are essentially software yeah but what can we do with three lenses that's what I'm asking three or maybe four screw up there skip three go to four just white seventeen if we can't have the damn horrible your videos will have some lenses we're gonna bring back the fire phone that one have like six lenses did it did it yeah that's like five or six in the front cuz it did like 3d mapping oh yeah man and that company becomes move for picture cause it was nothing to do with picture quality's all about sort of like mapping your your face in 3d you got it it didn't work man right now yeah yeah so this was a couple years ago alright so let's go ahead and jump into the chat since we're on the topic of the pixel to Matthew scope has a question for us now he wants to know where he can get a pixel two XL phone besides the horizon or a Google store ideally unlocked and not online from an Amazon or an eBay resource where can we send them I don't know like you basically eliminated yeah that's maybe Craigslist if you want to meet up with someone in person there you go no he said no he said probably wants to walk into a store that's not a Googler Verizon um get one more Best Buy I mean depending on where you live there are you know like third party like hardware stores there's a bunch of like you know non name-brand like phone stores that in my neighborhood but I will also make the argument that a lot of them can have you know counterfeit phones I had written a story about one like like relatively close to my house actually that they got busted with like a ton of counterfeit like iPhones and Galaxy phones last year so it's hard to trust those as well yeah there's a handful of people suggesting Best Buy in the chat also device compel says a pawn shop yeah that's probably your best bet I think you're stuck in the yeah yeah because Best Buy tends to only sell out yeah part okay because they get paid by the carriers yeah all those phones so you'll have to unlock it yourself sorry that's the best we can do for you sorry going on syringe Oi our new friends friend Roy I for someone who doesn't click photos unless absolutely necessary present company included is the razor phone the best hardware this year the razor oh sorry no no this is the gaming phone he's talking about the from the laptop makers yeah yeah yeah I mean I I'm not a fan of the design because it's really big and bulky I'd be able to stand on its side because it's oh yeah you were showing me that is ridiculous it's it's a big phone it's physically big it's physically big yeah yeah and it's you know it's got top-notch hardware the cameras whatever like I I haven't really spent a lot of time with this so I can't write fully recommended and I don't think I reviews even up yet but you know it's for at least on paper it's a fine phone as long as you don't mind the giant size yeah I mean if you want like a really nice phone and you don't really care about the camera I think there's a lot of like options out there I'd you know the LGP 30 is a pretty like right which actually has a decent camera though yeah but like decent right it's not like if you if the camera is like not a concern for you you just want like great Harbor I would've the 1 + 5 t yeah came out that's a pretty decent phone I mean it's got top-notch hardware it doesn't have two lenses it doesn't really do portrait mode that great so if you can't on camera that's yeah perfect yes hey like it also has a great camera but like if you don't care about it that much like right they say it doesn't do portrait mode so there are some drops to the camera but it's a fine phone Michael Brown our old buddy Michael Brown what's going let's get angry again how can the NSA one backdoors to company service such as Google but can't even keep their own damn servers yeah I added the damn cuz okay that that's been a major argument of a lot of tech companies if you take a not just the NSA too but just US government in general if you take a look at any government yeah Apple versus the FBI debated the essential argument was we're not trying to prevent what you guys from solving this investigation we're trying to prevent you know somebody from stealing the like software that we write for you because then they can use that to crack into any phone and we don't because that's happened has shown multiple times can happen yep so yeah let's go and talk about the Google security feature again Nowell in the chat is saying I have a problem with this feature if an alert pops up on your screen while you're reading something watching something it's gonna know you annoy you more than the lurker leaning over your shoulder or not I don't know about you but I think I'm smart enough to not do something so private when I know that I'm just out in public yeah but even if it's not your business dude if I'm just even though you have your the biggest I don't want people spying on me but I like spying on people I'm the NSA way to bring it back full circle that's the case - no I mean it's just I don't care I don't give a crap I mean I just like the idea that it's a feature we could use but that's the thing that someone's working on it was like you know what this is a real problem I can solve I guess I don't know how much of a problem it really is though that's where I'm like what if I'm like what if you're like a kid and you're trying to you know like you got any games yeah and their parents are like behind you I like trying to like see what you're up to and then like it would it would spot them right behind you or what if I'm like talking smack about you and like you're like walking behind oh I no there's like a notification it was your first amendment right as far as I'm concerned actually yeah he would care at all all right I would care if you saw it those we're just about out of time we I think we got a new fan a new friend here Matthew scope he's filled with questions what do we think is going to be in the pixel 3 well we're already thinking about three already thinking about three I like that device compel says it's just gonna be a chip in our heads I say that's a brief google owes or that we joke but it's closer than we think early a pixel just like here it is they just embed it in your eyes it's ten thousand dollars but in all seriousness what what are what are in a broader stroke if we're gonna talk about next-gen phones already cuz we're barely you know yeah sure we're nice to what's out there you know what do we think is gonna be coming I think they're I don't think it's gonna be a big jump in hardware I don't they focused a lot I mean I think if they were I agree to that if they were ambitious they'd they'd try to go after like crazy crazy ideas like folding phones and I definitely think by next year low they'll have caught up with everyone else was the fullscreen kind of thing yeah pixel to excel is kind of like that yes not exactly a full screen but it's kind of up there I agree I think they're gonna play a catch up a little bit with a couple of features but is it water pouring its yeah so probably a couple of those key features they need adding which already exist for Braniff phones out there and that was easy yeah you know but I'm not expecting anything massive nothing monumental yeah like stuff like the foldable phones which I think it's gonna be one of the big innovations coming next year no courage no for yourself twelve times the origami I see what you did there another Rick and Morty reference all right we are just about out of time let's take one from Michael Brown to go out on yeah what were you guys favorite stories covered this month what oh I got my bylines for that I mean for me it was it was very grueling big emotionally exhausting was by my compilation of the top tech turkeys of the year yeah which usually is very like light-hearted like hey look at all those stupid things Tech is done this year was like serious joke is like sexual harassment like losing your social security information it was just you know Russia influence on our on our presidential election it's just some of it a lot of it was just really dark it was just weird mix cuz like early on it was like Oh home pod delay or like oh look at the BlackBerry it's screwing up again and then it goes to that from that to like yeah oh you know always a great story this month this happened like at the beginning of November - I was at I was at DC all right word for Facebook Twitter and yeah and you weren't wearing the monopoly outfit no I was not but yeah that was really fun I got to you know travel out to Washington DC and meet Facebook Google and Twitter's uh legal counsels yeah and basically watch them get grilled by Congress that's fake news bots that's awesome yeah and then the week after that Yahoo and Equifax his former CEOs had to show up to testify those their breaches that was a fun week was busy yeah yeah it's been a busy month been a busy year hectic crazy here yeah where it's almost over and I can't wait for it I wish I could say really participate in this conversation but in my role I don't do anything with a lot of specific stories I'm more behind the scenes pushing the buttons I'll say that I had a real great blast working on yesterday's buyer's guide live show I like doing stuff like that I was really that's why we do these live shows here every day that's interesting for me is pushing buttons and setting cameras and all that so that's that's my people I think we all had a good time yeah more of those yeah I want to see more of those yeah and on that note all right on that note you liked anything you saw or heard here check us out on CNET our podcast is available in iTunes tune in stitcher SoundCloud Feedburner google play music Amazon echo yeah and that's it I was gonna say of course cnet.com cuz man whore said getting it man get that in my head but I started with it so once again graceful dismount alright thanks everybody we'll see you back normal time tomorrow yay goodnight you