The TechnoBuffalo Show Episode #046 – Cord cutting, Google Fi and more!
The TechnoBuffalo Show Episode #046 – Cord cutting, Google Fi and more!
2015-05-07
and welcome to episode 46 of the
TechnoBuffalo so I'm why of your to host
for today Sean ani editor-in-chief of
the site and i'm joined by deputy
managing editor Todd Hazleton everybody
I've discovered that as the show goes on
I just keeps stretching your first name
out longer I'm not sure why I just do ha
let's get ready for Todd how are you
doing this week I'm good it's low
quieter this week it is it's crazy I
wrote that in our newsletter that went
out like sort of finally a little bit of
quiet i've been saying it's been crazy
busy and almost like every week we've
had an event yeah and if it's not an
event it's something new coming in with
gap of watches g4 or something and then
you know later this month we have google
i/o and then we have in june WWDC we
have III in june so it's gonna pick up
again but yeah this is like a calm in
the storm right before we move into the
busy summer season yeah and of course
with our increasing entertainment
coverage we have the summer movie season
kicking off and yeah it's going to be a
long summer a long hot summer yeah
couple topics we wanted to touch on
today and the first one that we were
going to tackle was cord-cutting which
actually we we have a question we don't
really don't start with question right
away but such a mahal asked for you know
what does it mean to cut the cord does
it mean internet only and no cable TV
subscription so that's kind of what
we're going to talk about today and
after even though I have been considered
the streaming media you know expert i'm
using are you i'm using air quotes for
those of you listening to the audio only
version of the show even though that has
been you know kind of my my wheelhouse
I've still kept a subscription to
DIRECTV because I'm 43 you know I TV has
always come to me
in that format in some way or another
and honestly after looking at the bill
this month i just went you know what
there's I i sat down i started looking
at like Netflix and Amazon Prime and
Hulu and even CBS all access and when I
can get all my shows that's it I'm done
and between all my receivers and
programming and all that insurance i was
paying 151 dollars a month to directv
which I just feel is outrageous and by
time I now here's the thing i don't
consider amazon prime a subscription for
the video portion because i use the
shipping primarily you don't anything
online I'm not accounting that in my
calculations but so I'm paying I'm still
paying seven ninety-nine a month for
Netflix because I'm an old enough
customer to still be on that right hulu
will be seven ninety-nine a month and
CBS all access with five ninety-nine a
month which by the way CBS that really
still sucks that your separate so hope
I'm looking at let's see that's eight
dollars eight dollars 16 plus 60 it's
$22 i'll be paying twenty two dollars a
month and compared to 151 so you're not
gonna do HBO in anyone i'm not going to
do HBO yeah I vieo yes I would like to
but that's that's 15 bucks a month just
for that sir right hell yeah and the way
I look at it even if let's say you know
I wanted to buy a season of a HBO show
ok so that's going to be 40 bucks well
that's a one-time price out of the
entire year mm-hmm you know so i can buy
one to two seasons a year and not feel
bad about it right yes you'll come out
ahead you know why pay the monthly
subscription I mean I would like CBS
yeah i watch The Big Bang Theory
survivor the amazing race just yesterday
they confirm Supergirl so I have to
watch Supergirl because I'm a giant geek
who knows if he'll suck I'm still going
to watch it
but so you're saving more than a hundred
bucks you could actually go out and buy
two seasons of anything each month and
still you see anymore still come out
ahead yeah wow yeah and that's it's
ridiculous to me yes my internet usage
is going to jump through the roof and
I'll have to wait to see if my cable
company goes hey wait a minute which
luckily my cable company it might my
like say my cable company but my
internet company you know luckily they
don't have overages they their rule is
if you go over your limit for three
consecutive months then they force you
to go to the next package up which in my
case would be another twenty-five
dollars a month still coming out ahead
right Wow I think we pay here and
because I have comcast so it's all
together like 140 and that has that's
HBO all of our TV channels and then I
get pretty decent internet but it's
different you know it depends on the
market here in two well you pay yeah
well I'm in a market where we only have
one cable company here and it's a small
company called cable one which oddly
enough yesterday I had to call them
because my internet went down and when I
called them they had a pre-recorded
message as of May third and I had no
idea they've done this as of May third
they no longer offering pay-per-view
channels huh and that's big and they
bluntly say there are enough internet
options that we do not and usage has
dropped so dramatically that we will no
longer be offering pay-per-view that's
interesting I thought that was really
interesting because if you think about
it you know if you go on iTunes you can
rent in a movie for 299 399 somewhere in
that range same with Amazon so there are
plenty of options so why pay you know
pay-per-view usually was like 7 99 or so
you know why even bother to think about
using that right so it's going to be an
interesting new world for us I you know
as I've mentioned on the show before I
live with my family you know because of
where we are and you know none of us
have ever gone without having some sort
of
regular television coming in and so yes
it's going to take some adjustment the
big question I've been getting is what
device we're going to use we're going to
use primarily the roku yeah it's in a
bit now i do have a chromebox attached
to my television so there are certain
shows that we watch that are not on any
streaming services but their websites
offer streaming so we'll use the
chromebox to watch those shows from
their website nice yeah and that will be
a super simple solution on those so it's
going to be I'm sure it's going to take
some adjustment you know we're big yo
just turn the tv leave it on for Bo a
bunch of clever time yeah you know the
now we're debating sling yeah because if
we had if we subscribe to sling then we
could just still leave on like food
network or whatever right you shouldn't
sit it but if we got the basic package
that's twenty dollars we're still coming
out ahead there's gonna be so hard for
us to not come out ahead weird we would
have to actively try to spend money do
not come out ahead it's pretty
compelling I don't even know if I could
like with comcast I guess I could just
do internet when I lived in New York
City we did I was technically a cord
cutter back then but I wasn't a cord
cutter in the sense that I was streaming
stuff because there wasn't really a lot
of options at the time I guess there was
Netflix um but I just was really only
just paying for internet we didn't have
TV I guess but I don't know you know I
live in a building where Comcast's order
has the building I don't know that I
could even go to just internet there'd
be some TV in there well I think up
until like the past three years I always
wondered how cord cutters did because
there weren't that many options right
you know and it was a lot of downloading
torrents yeah but like oh yeah I get
everything online uh-huh yeah legally
there's the
word I i will be doing everything
absolutely legally no and it's going to
be an interesting you know experience
i'm sure i'll write some articles about
it and i'm sure i'll talk about here on
the show and that now i will say we're
not cutting the cord until after the
season finales because we're like well
we need some time to adjust to the idea
so we're waiting for our shows to finish
like arrow the flash whatever and then
we're going to cut the cord later
there's one do you have like and within
the next two weeks oh so route would
yeah but by the end of this month we
will have cut the cord now when you cut
the cord is there does this work sort of
like carriers do you like wireless
carriers had to pay a fee or is it just
sort of like i'm done and you send
everything back if we had still been
under contract with directv we had
fulfilled our agreement with them so we
are a month to month at this point okay
so yeah i can just call up and go we're
done by what about other but you know
what the cost usually is i'm just
generally curious that i'm not sure i'm
not sure it depends on if you took an
agreement with them which we used to and
we kind of was starting to move towards
this and so we didn't take a new
agreement with them a while back and
just a ton months a month but i just
like any contract there's sure to be an
etf right o funniest a fee I ever ran
into and totally not tech related I used
to belong to it to a national gym chain
and when I bought my own treadmill I was
like you know I went in to quit all that
and I had not caught in the contract
that I signed originally I had fulfilled
my months which was 18 months mmm I
fulfilled my months and gone to month to
month even with that I still had to pay
them a goodbye month yeah yep I remember
that one antigen in your i looked at the
manager i was like you're kidding me
right he's like no I was like look I'm
not going to imagine you didn't write
the contract and I
I should read it closer but you're
kidding me right crazy yeah things that
sneak in all these things I'm curious
about it too because we had fios was
finally put my building which was like I
said usually dominated by Comcast and
they were going around knocking on doors
you know like here are plants and stuff
and I was like I mean I'd consider it
but I think I'm locked in this some kind
of contract right well is it still
comcast though verizon fios Oh verizon
fios okay so your buildings not just
strictly comcast net it was now like as
of this week they just started offering
files too gotcha well hey if you're us i
think the plans are lower than they
would otherwise because yeah yeah since
they've got competition to look at now
so oh no it's gonna be interesting and
i'm sure there will be some frustrating
hiccups that i have not foreseen but are
you worried at all about see the nice
thing about the TV least for me is that
I have you know usually one remote
except with the xbox one I have the
controller too and you can use one guide
like are you annoyed at all that you're
gonna have to bounce around like oh man
I gotta go on the chromecast now so that
means you gotta get the keyboard mouse
out done that that has crossed my mind
and so I'm actually I'm gonna go
old-school I'm going to make a sheet and
it's going to list what day we will now
watch the show because of course where I
have to shift everything because the
hulu doesn't have the show at the same
time right right right so let's what day
the show will be on what service it's on
because it's it on CBS all access or is
it on hulu and also which device we have
to watch it on luckily most of
everything will come through the Roku
there's just a couple odd balls that are
the yeah that will have to use the the
chromebox for that comes back to
something you're talking about the other
week and it reminds me of the boxee box
but something that could just pull all
of it together you know one user
interface yeah if you pay for this this
this and this is what shows up and then
you have sort of your typical old you
know cable listing of channels but it's
just the ones you pay for well I mean n
theory yes we could use the chromebox
for everything but the Roku's just so
blasted easy right you know I it's just
a lot easier to pick up that little
remote and which now has voice search
which has dedicated buttons for certain
services yo I don't know he's great we
love our rookie too yeah yeah although
someone's like this podcast is sponsored
by Roku please it's not we swear exactly
swear we're just big Roku fans if matter
of fact in my office I have a roku
television during happy for those of you
listening on the audio I I held up my
remote but uh which is awesome that
they're now building it into televisions
yeah but no we're not we are not paid by
Roku this is not a paid endorsement so
as we go as I go along on this journey I
I will continue to update people but the
the other thing we wanted to talk about
this is also another potentially cost
saving new services google phi or fee or
however you want to say I think it's 52
like Wi-Fi but project fight because it
operates on Wi-Fi too yeah so I for that
for those that don't know what it is why
don't you walk them through it Todd yeah
so it's just google i guess it was a
couple weeks ago announced there that
they're serving as a wireless carrier
but really it's it's technically a
mobile virtual operator network operator
so MVNO like you would have from say a
boost mobile or something else that runs
on somebody else's network and in case
of busan boost mobile it's owned by
sprint but project phi operates on
t-mobile and Sprint's networks chooses
the betta the one that has the best
signal for you and gives that to you at
all times and then also allows you to
place calls over Wi-Fi and stuff like
that and it has agreements presumably
with tmobile for international roaming
to so that your your calls are low-cost
abroad but you still get the text
messages and stuff and data which is
just like with t-mobile offers when you
travel to I want to see it's like 120
plus countries something like that but
right now countries that
mobile does right exactly and right now
it's an invite only and there are some
sacrifices came out yesterday you got it
give up some of your google voice stuff
like your google voice number and all
that switch over these very odd to me
yeah it did seem odd to me too but i
guess they got it assignee of something
right but the i don't know because you
can also like if i were to switch one of
my ATT numbers right that's not on the
contract over i could use that number so
it does seem weird that I'd give up my
google voice number but maybe it's
something in the back end it's like tied
to your account like it wouldn't know
because i have a google voice number TV
i don't really use it hey i have one too
and I can't remember last time I
actually used it so it's so it has that
Wi-Fi calling handoff to the regular
networks low costs in general its
low-cost I think if you used a lot of
data it starts to get a little more
expensive because it's ten bucks
gigabyte pretty much flat rate however
if you don't use it all you get that
credit back towards your next bill up
believe it works and I think because
it's google it's all really easy to
manage works right on your phone does
require a new sim card they said
obviously because you can't use you know
just sprint or just t-mobile it's going
to use both and they haven't really
talked about I saw even in the invite
news yesterday like how you get that
presumably they mail it to you overnight
or something and then it only right now
works with the nexus 6 only in the
United States is it sort of available
for customers and again that's I see a
question here do you think it will pick
spin other countries outside the USA and
I don't think right now no it won't
because it's tied with tmobile espresso
Google would need different roaming
networks or writing partners and
presumably it could I mean t-mobile in
the United States is owned by deutsche
telekom in which telecom big German
carrier it could do that in Europe but
there's nothing in place right now and
other phones I think may be unlocked
phones but again its Nexus 6 right now I
think it's tuned right for them to use
so that's why it's just that but I'm
excited for it to sort of roll out more
broadly right now it seems very very
limited exactly exactly i mean i'm
intrigued by it but you know it could be
huge cost savings for for the right
people that can use it it's gonna save
them money yeah you know but it does
need to expand to more hands that's for
sure and you know as Benjamin McDonald
was asking about expand into other
countries I think if it ever does expand
to other countries this could be huge
hmm yeah but it's just a matter of I
think it's in its infancy right now yeah
well it's definitely in its infancy or
baby yeah yeah bacon ferry baby steps oh
you know when you're limiting not only
to one country but to one phone yeah I
don't know I would love to see them
maybe if they just teamed up with
different manufacturers like say Samsung
was able to offer a Google five phone or
1 plus was able to do a Google photo
that would be perfect right yes
something like that that is fuzzy under
no contract ooh so you'd still buy your
one pause at the full price and then
they were able to offer you a package
and then you know one plus gets a cut of
the deal right and it would be simple i
think is it's just I think it's just a
matter of bands and probably a little
bit of software which would be easy but
the bands and you know Nexus 6 supports
right off the top of my head but a lot
so if it just had the right bands and
presumably it would just work so down
now so I don't know it's it's going to
be interesting and monev men ave 9900 is
asking what do you what do you think
about google fine its future it honestly
I don't know if google has a grander
plan for this it is such a small baby
step that's almost kind of like a well
let's just toss our hat in here and see
what happens yeah but you have to wonder
if maybe it's also like trial stages
with google fiber and that's not you
know nationwide yet at least it has that
internet you know groundwork laid that
it could do something huge here
especially if it was able to get
ownership of the frequencies but I think
right now
it's really interesting to see how they
teamed up with t-mobile and Sprint it
sort of tells you that like one isn't
good enough which I mean in general
t-mobile's got great speeds in some
areas same with sprint but like stand
alone there neither one is you know on a
level of eighteen t and Sprint's I think
and it combined it's a it's a pretty
good partnership because one of the
things that t-mobile struggles with is
indoor connectivity it's just one of the
issues with its business I think it's
fixing that with the rollout of
seventeen hundred megahertz but sprint
obviously since it operates on different
bands they penetrate buildings a little
easier so you don't have to worry about
that so much it's really sort of the
complement each other so I think that
were taught uh non google fire related
but I wanted to address this real quick
Nathan gulseren not a question but just
wanted to say thanks text on Buffalo for
the LG g3 sent me for the contest been
watching for years you're quite welcome
Nathan that for anyone that's ever
wondered if there's actual winners
there's one of ya they are people we do
everyone so while we do get questions
yeah do you actually give these prices
out yes believe me our shipping bill
shows that we actually do get these
praxis yeah you should tell the
company's stupid yes it we have to fill
everyone that supplies us with prizes we
have to tell them who won and everything
else so yes prices really do go but
congratulations Nathan glad glad one of
our podcast fans doing something but uh
let's see from brazen Franco what would
happen if Google decided to merge fiber
and 50 sounds like it could that's what
sort of what I was saying it sounds like
you stand alone service but what so long
as Phi is depending on Sprint t-mobile
which it is obviously then I don't know
that it you know it's not going to be
like Google taking on AT&T in that sense
where you have ATT that has you and
Verizon see where they provide Internet
in addition to wireless connectivity
services but I think fiber could
potentially give Google the speeds it
needs to do something like that as long
as it can get the spectrum you know to
deploy it and
those things take a long time I mean
we're talking you know we've been
watching over the past couple years LTE
rollouts you know which tmobile sprint
still rolling it out nationwide well
t-mobile stills from private between
process from David DeMille has anyone on
the techno Buffalo team been accepted
the project five no not yet I email i'll
try to see we could kind of weasel our
way in I heard back but I also apply you
know just like everybody else so just
kind of waiting yeah because I didn't
have a nexus 6 I I did not apply but the
we we did put in applications and we
have not heard anything as of yep yeah
we're going on hopefully hopefully let's
see here we've got a bunch of other
questions coming in from Benjamin
McDonald do you think that Android M
will support computer seeing as they
said that quote Android M will support
all devices unquote or something like
that though they took it away I think
it's more I mean possibly i think is
especially in the future if they decide
to merge Chrome OS and Android a bit
more they sort of are bringing together
but I think it was just more of the same
message that we saw with Android L
android lollipop five point out and on
that it would you know it's this
operating system for everything so
Android auto Android wear Android TV you
know android on your phones and tablets
I think it's more along the lines of
that like on all your screens I don't
know that I mean I think it's going to
support computers I just don't think
it's going to be like this operating
system because they have chrome OS for
that but I would love to see you no more
apps make their way over to Chrome OS
and vice versa well I guess just just
one way don't really need Chrome apps on
Android it sort of our easiest uh let's
see here from verizon Franco bengay my
entertainment off of just the internet
for the last few years never missed sat
so far youtube twitch and popcorn time
hahaha don't judge me i used to have
netflix but then tuner went down in the
baguette beginning of the year I got
locked out for VPN uh we won't talk
about popcorn time
so that's why you're cutting the cord no
no no i i went on popcorn time once um
you know just to see what it was like it
would it took got worked a lot better
than I thought it would yeah um but
that's just not my my style for those
that use popcorn time I don't care
whatever yeah either no I I try to I try
to live an aboveboard life but you know
it to each their own and I have zero if
someone else does it whatever yeah but I
was surprised how well it worked yeah
the YouTube see I'm just not one of
those people that can just sit around
and jump around YouTube videos all day I
just it's not again I think it's a
generational thing because I'm very used
to it Joey brings us up a lot when we're
discussing scheduling a post and that
that was a hurdle he felt I had to get
over he's like you schedule like you
you're a television network on the
half-hour exactly could for those that
don't know we do we write a lot of our
posts in advance they're written that
day but like we get ahead so I don't
want to push them all at once oh I
schedule on throughout the day and I
used to do every 30 minutes hmm and Joey
was like we need to bring that down I
was like but why is like because we're
not television network but yeah yeah so
it's YouTube is just that I I do watch a
lot of YouTube I just usually though I
go look some topic up watch what i need
and then I leave I don't just sit there
for hours and watch youtube videos I've
gotten recently I like to sit in bed I
the chromecast in my bedroom and pull up
youtube usually like go through the
TechnoBuffalo videos the day and
chromecast him up and I like that too
but I'm not actually the same way I
don't really bounce around YouTube all
that often and if I do it's sort of an
endless pit of funny videos and then I
don't get anything done that's a reddit
like I can't
in myself like during the workday can't
do it so I just I read it's like my
bedtime browsing a friend a while back
emailed me a picture he was chrome
casting the TechnoBuffalo show does 55
inch television I was like that's just
frightening looking like 32 inches yeah
you know it was me on the screen at the
time I was like no that's not no no but
for those of you that may be chrome
caching us don't don't let me know from
juan vargas do you think Google will
ever release chrome at OS is a
standalone so I could install it on a
regular pc or laptop that's all I wonder
I mean especially now that it's running
on Intel chips and it has been for a
little bit but uh that's a good point
that'd be cool that could be very cold
yeah I kind of like when people were big
into making hackintosh a--'s although i
think in general and like I'm not
knocking Chromebooks at all but it is
very much just like I mean if you
already have the chrome browser it's
sort of very similar really aside from
the Android app support a excellent
question from David DeMille is there any
reason you guys don't use Apple TV just
curious um I have a couple reasons one
of the big ones and I own hey I oh I own
one too for those listening on that
exactly I'm holding up the apple TV
remote I love apple design I think this
may be the worst designed remote in the
history of man it absolutely is and it
was funny there's a report the other day
about you know they might add touch
controls in the new remote and like
every story and I wrote in ours was like
have you ever tried to go through a list
a long list with that remote I hate this
remote with the fiery passionate yeah
the other thing is that Apple TV doesn't
offer near the number of channels that a
Roku does a Roku Roku has over 2000
channels Apple has a much tighter
lockdown
what channels they offer and when it
comes to service like Netflix I just
really really hate this remote oh that
that's a large chunk of the reason I
don't watch re don't use Apple TV nearly
as much as I use Roku yeah well I
ultimately end up and I have a Roku I
like a lot but I ultimately end up just
using whatever systems connected so
either the ps4 xbox one because sort of
Gorga chromecast it's just quicker apple
TV is connected just not usually not
from a Nathan dollars and oh I can beat
that I stream you to my chromecast on my
75 inches ducky I bet my beard looks
magnificent in all your HD but oh good
lord um I might look like Minecraft
though because version we're on our
webcams aren't very good on an ultra
HDTV pixels excuse me I'm gonna go out
and punch a tree from karaoke that's on
Apple's potential plan to try and
convince music labels to end the current
freemium model like what youtube and
spotify currently does and make all
users pay a monthly fee for streaming if
that rumor is true Apple is going to
gain so much ill will yeah daggering I
feel like like the the free model works
because for example I use Spotify for
free for a while and I was like this is
really great i'm willing to pay for it
so like I if it's driving people to then
pay for the service which then I mean in
a whatever I know artists like Taylor
Swift feel like they don't make enough
money from Spotify but if then they
artists get paid because I'm paying for
it and it's a legitimate business then
like the free model does work and it's
fair and it's ad supported stuff like
that so to me I always like how is the
free model really any different than
radio right that's not you know and just
like you I I didn't pay I don't
I don't know why I'm not a huge fan of
Spotify I much prefer Pandora Sue and I
I pay for Pandora you know and as I lay
in bed every night yo catching up on the
news of the day on my iPad I've got a
paint or channels you know streaming for
my television you know so yes I I do pay
and the reason I pays I don't want hear
the ads right you know if they gets
modified for the Dave curated list see
which is kind of similar i I don't know
I mean we've heard that the music
industry hates the the free versions and
I think that speaks more to and I'm
gonna be blunt and get some what
political perhaps I'm for the the just
blatant greed of the music industry I
was gonna say they hated Napster too so
what big one the music industry is
easily one of the greediest industries I
have ever seen yeah it is staggering how
they feel they should be paid for
absolutely everything it's just like
having owned a retail store I could not
play the radio the radio mind you in my
store without paying a licensing fee
because then that was considered a
public performance really yeah so even
though the radio was behind our counter
and we kept it at a very low volume so
long as we kept it below certain decibel
level which I can't remember what what
that number was I didn't have to pay
that's obscene yeah because the under a
certain decibel level it was considered
personal use I'm like you're going to
come in here with a decibel meter and
and measure how loud i'm playing my
radio it's terrible and you know it
comes back to like here spotify people
are paying for music we're not using
Napster we're not using Bozek Kazaam not
like it's we're legal now so like take
it yeah are you happy
angry uh for relaxed like a cat also if
it has already been asked what do you
think about the e saying that skype is
too much like sky yeah that was crazy I
was part of it we I don't remember who
wrote that one but when i was editing it
i just kept reading going this can't be
real i had to go back through the story
too i was cuz BBC News drove it and I
thought it was I was like what escape in
sky and I know it came down to like
partially the skype logo has clouds
involved okay I'll come on you gotta be
back at the time skype first came around
I was working in the web 2.0 space hmm
the skype logo is just like any other
web two point O logo at that time oh
yeah that art style was everywhere they
were not trying to imply bubbly bubbly
they weren't trying to imply clouds in
the sky that was the most ridiculous
story I've read all this week hey I was
a mind boggled by this yeah I I'm
definitely on skype side of the even
think about the way you say the word you
don't actually say sky racist okay yeah
nobody's like did you say skier's skype
ya know skype is blue it reminds me of
when King games was trained to trademark
the word saga of right yeah yeah so now
we're going to learn that sky television
owns the rights to the word sky I mean
it's it's ridiculous and microsoft said
that um you know they're confident
didn't peel work in their favor and it
has to i mean ridiculous yeah yeah uh um
let's see here we got a lot of questions
going here uh from whoa okay that's a
Greek name from coot coot 'can i believe
hey guys is Roku available in other
countries I'm from Greece there is no
netflix support but apple TV is
available do you have any idea
yes Roku is available i know at least in
the United Kingdom I don't know beyond
the eye and Canada I don't know how much
they've expanded into the rest of Europe
though so you may want to go to Roku
calm and look into that if it ever comes
there it has my high recommendations
yeah I'm not sure oh let's see here from
Nathan Golson I switched from my galaxy
s3 done iphone 6 plus and I actually
love the smoothness of iOS but i feel
it's missing a few things what would you
like to see an iOS 9 i'd like to see the
notifications changed um to be more like
android ok great a like notification
shade is useless for me i just have to
go through and clear everything totally
great the notification shade is
completely useless yeah I'm cie Siri
needs a lot of work too and I think it
apparently is going to get a lot of work
but Google now is leaps and bounds
better i think Cortana is better in a
lot of ways like right now Syria doesn't
sort of like tap into your stuff like
your email to get your flight schedules
in your packages and I really like that
about Cortana and Google now so I hope
it comes to Syria yeah I fully agree on
every everything you mentioned on it the
notification shade to me is completely
useless and what I really hate is you'll
get a notification and I keep making the
mistake of hitting the home button to
turn on my screen and because of touch
ID it immediately takes me in and I
can't see what the notification was even
what services for oh yeah I don't know
how many times I've been like well I
don't know what it was if it was
important they'll get a hold of me yeah
I don't think I'm actually I'm positive
but it's not and yeah it's not in order
of when they come in either nope so it's
just like like if you go to
notifications you know it's just like
messages app store you know netflix and
this is like what like we could be the
ability to do a chronological order yeah
yeah totally cuz then if you miss it you
know just go in you're like oh
it is let's go yeah maps have elapsed uh
speaking of maps from Erin Erin saheed
oh I believe I thoughts on nokia's here
mapping system and whether they should
enter into a deal with Facebook you know
they're the belle of the ball without
even trying at the moment yeah it's
crazy I mean nobody was talking about
here maps to like recently and I think
it's because all these companies serve
want their own mapping system right and
then you see we were actually recovered
a report this morning their first I was
like oh it's the rumor that BMW audi and
mercedes-benz want to buy here maps
again we've heard that except for this
rumor came from Forbes actually sounded
pretty legitimate those three car
companies are ready to make a bid on
nokia here maps and the reason is for
self-driving cars and they don't want
Apple and Google who already have maps
and you know Facebook I don't think
they're hanging in the self-driving cars
but uh Hoover had talked about it that
was another interest in here but they
don't want these silicon valley firms
now having a Nokia Maps and so basically
owning all of the mapping technology for
self-driving cars and sort of running
the industry there and the fewer I guess
is that Google will launch this
self-driving car operating system that
powers its own maps and everybody will
get it for free and then here are these
car companies sort of you know out on
their own so they want nokia here maps
stay ahead of it which i thought was
really interesting yeah i just i find it
interesting how everyone seems to be you
know asking for a dance with here and
it's 50 because I nokia here maps is
okay and works on windows phones and so
I still prefer google maps and now it
works on android here maps and it's
great for offline stuff free voice
guided navigation all kinds of stuff but
it just was sort of like I don't think
very popular among most people and which
is sort of this MA and now all of a
sudden it's like facebook launched the
mover wants and these car companies want
I mean you can see how important really
good mapping software is yeah yeah no
total
uh from such in the hall will the oculus
rift be worth the wait when it comes out
early 2016 or is it better to go with
one of its competitors I have not had a
chance to really try me the VR headsets
but Todd you've tried many eight in the
five I like them both I think they're
both can be really exciting definitely
worth the wait i wish it was out now but
i'm willing to wait for it i would
really want to see the price and
requirements um you know I was going to
rebuild my pc which I you guys know that
up and running Windows 10 on it but it's
it's just so slow these days of them not
using it but I'm gonna wait now I think
until early 2016 when I see the hardware
requirements for oculus rift and stuff
so I know I'm building a system you know
power that thing because what I've seen
uh in my demos it was really
mind-blowing but I don't know what kind
of hardware you know for the vibe and
the rift was running they wouldn't
really tell us except for that they were
nvidia graphics cards so it's going to
be an expensive computer and then
probably an expensive headset yeah it's
gonna be interesting to see where this
goes I i I'm not completely sold on the
concept of needing VR yet I'm grab CC
some definite use cases and because I
I've gone through enough gaming
peripherals over my ears you know to
just I have a big question on these
sorts of things I'm going to have to see
oculus or any VR headset get a killer
app that is a must have yeah I want to
see like a huge you know multiplayer
game world that you can run around and I
mean that would just be because you
really feel like you're there so this
will be the resurrection of Second Life
yeah well you know I read an article
about that second life is still going I
saw that too but the head and it has
more users than it did at the time where
it was supposedly the hottest thing who
who's you thinking I have no idea I've
never once used up maybe Apple has like
all their meetings in second life we can
sneak into him I remember when si si le
iphone 7 remember
see us i built an entire episode around
second life no they built a mystery Epis
that role in mystery episode they built
a murder mystery around second life
played a part in it oh man well i love
the south park episode about oculus
where they couldn't tell if they were in
the real world of the oculus oculus
world yeah they didn't know who was
wearing it uh from kuchen uh vr or AG
which you think is better for those that
don't know a G stands for augmented
reality I'm far more interested on what
I'm not going to make the comment that I
made a couple weeks ago about augmented
reality I heard about that one on
Twitter a lot look what no was a thing
horrible is the fact that I eat I
basically said that I needed things to
help me deal with reality hahaha which
was it quite the way I meant it but I
think they're just totally different
right like vr to me seems origin for
gaming and stuff and then augmented
reality what we've seen with microsoft
hololens is you know put a youtube video
here on the wall and then fix your sink
I don't know why why does it always come
down to plumbing with the hololens
believe it's like do the demo of it how
often do you fix your sink anyway oh it
does come down to that hmm just idle
Palmer haha they beat me to the Joker's
gonna be like you know what there's this
great technology the three-dimensional
everything it'll even do the work for
you ya know I I'm far more interest in
augmented reality than I am in virtual
reality there are two very different
creatures really when you look at them I
could see a lot of potential uses to
augmented reality I imagine say you're
driving you know and sometimes you're
like wait is that the road no it'd be
great if on augmented headset it do an
arrow pointed like I went there right
there it's really cancel displays which
is I guess this exact movements reality
right you
I know HUDs are definitely a version of
augmented reality anyway that is going
to bring this week's episode to a close
as always we digitized joints I know it
did go fast as always you can find us on
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show you can also subscribe on pocket
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anywhere anywhere there are podcasts you
can find the TechnoBuffalo show until
next week i'm sean on any I'm the
editor-in-chief of TechnoBuffalo I've
been joined by deputy managing editor
Todd Hazleton my everybody will see you
all next week till then take it easy
bye-bye
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