 Coming up on DTNS, messaging services want to give you good COVID-19 info. Amazon is straining under that delivery pressure and what is next for those influencers stuck in doors? This is the Daily Tech News for Monday, March 23rd in Studio Redwood. I'm Sarah Lane. From North Olmsted, Ohio, I'm Rich Strampolino. From the Los Angeles area, I'm Lamar Wolf. I'm your host producer, Roger Chang. Before we started this DTNS show, we were talking about all sorts of stuff. I got some reading glasses because I've decided to just accept my reality. We were talking about Rich's very expensive glasses, Lamar's lack of haircuts, and all sorts of other stuff. Help me. And that is all part of our expanded show. Good day, internet. You can get the wider conversation by becoming a member at patreon.com. For now, let's start with a few tech things you should know. Disney Plus will still launch in most of the EU on March 24th, but committed to reducing bandwidth utilization from the service by 25%, similar to what's been done with Netflix and other streaming services in the EU. Disney announced the launch in France is delayed, however, until April 7th. The company also indefinitely suspended the launch of the service in India originally scheduled for March 29th. Google launched its dedicated COVID-19 information site at google.com. The site is available in English with a Spanish version on the way and offers state-based information, safety, and prevention tips, search trends related to COVID-19 with information from the World Health Organization and the US CDC as well as links to US state's local health sites. All this information will also be provided in information cards for people searching for COVID-19 related topics. A new report from Strategy Analytics shows that global smartphone shipments in February decreased 38% on the year from 99.2 million units to 61.8 million. This is the largest annual drop in shipments with a report noting that the COVID-19 outbreak in Asia dropping both supply and demand. Quite a drop. As part of the local state government's lockdown order, RideHalien platforms Uber and Ola suspended all rides in Delhi until March 31st in India. Uber suspended all shared rides in India last week, and Ola said it's restricting ride options in the country as well, including vehicles on healthcare workers and those that support public services. Alright, let's talk a little bit more about some apps and services doing some good for Information Rich. Yeah, it seems like mobile messaging is becoming increasingly important in providing information about COVID-19. To that effect, the World Health Organization launched a chat bot on WhatsApp for COVID-19 related information. Information is updated daily and it launches with English support with Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Russian, and Spanish support arriving in the coming weeks, although no set timetable specifically. In other news, though, kind of similar, Facebook announced it will provide free service to government health organizations and UN health agencies to use Messenger to scale the responses to the COVID-19 crisis. This can be used for Facebook developers to help automate things like answering commonly asked questions, so you're not inundating support workers with those where there's a ready set answer for that, and provide a way to set out mass updates of new information. And finally, kind of tangentially to this, Apple updated Siri in the US to provide a CDC-approved conversation flow to answer user questions if they ask Siri, hey, if they tell Siri, I think I have COVID-19 symptoms. I started with WhatsApp because I was like, alright, I don't got WhatsApp installed. Let's see how good it is. And I was pleasantly surprised. It's a number, the country code is Switzerland, so it took me a minute to find it in the country code list. But it's a number and you message it and say hi, just to kind of get the conversation started. It's a chatbot. And it was pretty good. I mean, there was a lot of information there. It was organized into categories like health information, depending on where you are, safety steps that are in place. There was also a, and they're all numbered, so you can say like number five, let's get more information about that. One of the categories is debunking conspiracy theories because there's a lot of misinformation going around. We all know that. And WhatsApp is doing its best, especially because it's WhatsApp. And that's a platform that a lot of people use to spread information saying, listen, if you hear that, if you live in a really cold climate, you're not going to get it. Or if you get in a hot tub, then it'll kill it. Or if you gargle with a certain kind of this or that, you're fine. Or there's all sorts of, and I hadn't even heard some of these misleading claims. But suffice it to say there's a lot going on right now. And so I thought that was pretty good. It does take a couple steps to get to that point, though, and don't want to be a pessimist. But I know a lot of people don't go through the process of educating themselves because a lot of social networking is getting information somewhat passively from people that you trust, whether or not they should be trusted. Lamar, what do you, what's your experience with this? So I tested out the Siri when I'm going to be careful not to say the word, you know, because mine is right here. But yeah, so yeah, she asked you, she asked you a question. She said, hey, are you ready to get started? So you're doing like a survey. And so you, you know, he's like, hey, do you have a fever? Do you have the dry cough? And you say yes or no, I said no. And asked if I traveled, you know, was traveling outside of US said no. And then she just says, well, you're probably not. You know, you probably don't have any problems, but be diligent or I forgot what the word was, but you know, just like just watch for your symptoms. I felt it was like pretty helpful. I didn't, I didn't do a scenario where I said yes to anything. So I don't know what she says after that if she tells you to get to the doctor or she gives you a resource. But it's just nice to kind of have that, you know, because I talk to her all day because I'm lonely. So it's great. It's great that she's that she's there for me if I get sick. So it'll be interesting to see if there's further integration with any of these, you know, as response networks kind of get built out. You know, that Siri thing might be really helpful if it then could, you know, provide like more information about, you know, where to get some telemedicine advice where to, you know, potential. You know, obviously you're not going to go to a testing facility directly. You're going to talk to a doctor first, but you know, the kind of those next step but good first efforts and kind of meeting people where they are. Right. You always have your phone on you, you know, you were always using, you know, what's happened stuff like that. Not letting people go to different lengths and stuff like that. Yeah, I tried out the Siri functionality as well. And the first question was like, do you have a cough? Is your chest tight? Do you have a fever? I said no. And then the second question was, have you been in contact with somebody who might have been exposed to the virus? And one of the options was not sure, which I'm not. So I said that. But the answer, the conclusion, Siri was like, you're probably low risk. And I thought, well, I hope so. Yeah. What percent of low risk am I exactly? But again, yes, more information is better than none, especially with people who are used to talking to their voice assistance. Absolutely. So let's talk about Amazon. Amazon announced it will stop shipping non essential products to customers in Italy and France to allow fulfillment centers to focus on more needed supplies. Amazon considers baby products, health and household items, beauty and personal care, groceries and industrial, scientific and pet supplies to be essential. Customers can still order non essential products from sellers that do not use fulfillment by Amazon. The company had previously announced it will be prioritized at essential items worldwide and now customers and merchants in the US have seen shipment dates from non essential items pushed back as far as April 21. I personally have seen that. With prime orders now seeing a minimum five day estimate. Amazon confirms that this is not a technical bug, but accurately reflects current estimates. So once again, yeah, I was looking for some, you know, set up another part of my office looking for an item I needed. And it was just like, yeah, I think it was April something was just it was, they didn't even like give a clear delivery day was the kind of a delivery window. It was not fulfilled by Amazon. The shippers responsible, you know the manufacturer whoever it is and right and you know so they don't know when they'll be able to ship it out so. I have heard, I've heard some reports that I have not experienced this myself but reports of people saying toilet paper is an essential item and my delivery date is well into April so I think that there's some some slipping going on and more popular products, regardless. So I would have had to confirm this isn't a bug. We're really, really backed up. Exactly. And it was weird. Right. And I think, I don't know. I know a lot of people are like at the Amazon, they should just, you know, be able to fix this. We know that Amazon is in the process of hiring 100,000 new workers and delivery drivers. I don't know exactly where they are in that process but they've made it clear that they're they're ramping up. In fact, Instacart announced something similar just today right before we started the show to get people the goods that they need that they need delivery people for so that they don't have to go out. At the same time, you know, it's it's sort of hard to say well Amazon should have figured out how to deal with something like this because we're in such uncharted waters. We've been talking about this for weeks and it's still so up in the air how this is going to shake out. It sounds like the company is doing the right thing. Essential items for the most part and that's a little bit of a subjective term because what's essential may not be to you and vice versa. But for the company to say listen, you know, somebody's pet is going to go hungry because they can't get food for their pet and they can't get to a pet store. This is an essential item over something like that HDMI cable that Lamar needed at the last minute kind of thing that he would have gotten on prime maybe same day. So yeah, it's it's it's a tough one but I don't think Amazon is immune to delivery strain because this is supply chain stuff like anybody else. Yeah, and there's just no way to model for the type of demand and to scale up that there's just no precedent for it. So I mean I certainly reflecting like they said they're reflecting the reality of the situation. Being at home though doesn't mean people aren't trying to help with COVID-19. I know I'm going through lockdown here in Ohio and I know a lot of other people around the country are kind of in the same boat. But residents at Mass General are organizing the Covent 19 moonshot project and they're trying to develop either a rapidly deployable mechanical ventilator or a way to modify an existing ventilator to be able to be used on multiple patients at once within the next 90 days. It's interesting though that the project is inviting engineers designers and technologists to collaborate with medical experts and the emphasis here really being to kind of cross fields here and brainstorm about ways that you know if you're you're just in in medical practice you might have thinking as an engineer or designer or something like that really bringing that that cross methodology to the fore here which I think is really interesting and then the kind of the computing end of it. The distributed computing project folding at home turned its network to COVID-19 related work and the project has seen a 12,000% increase in contributions in the last two weeks with 1200% I'm sorry 1200% still a big huge. I'm a zero off and they've seen 400,000 new members so just just a giant spike for them with those new contributions they're up to 470 pettiflops of output to simulate the dynamics of COVID-19 proteins and hunt for new therapeutic opportunities. And just for some comparison there was another news story out today that IBM was leading a consortium of national laboratories in the Department of Energy and that kind of stuff, and they were in the 300 pettiflop range of all their computing the 16 supercomputers combined. So just got to give some context for how how much computing power is theoretically at the disposable folding at home. Just really cool to see these kind of you know kind of crowdsource or grassroots ways to try and help. And we've seen this across the spectrum not just from a technology basis but just people you know just eager to reach out just to just to help with people that are lonely or anything like that across the spectrum and technology is proving to be no different in this regard. So, so quick question I'm a little familiar with folding at home not much I know what they do in general but is there a project out there that you'll be able to contribute your computer that's sitting around your house. Oh, that's literally what this is okay. Yeah, I didn't I didn't know we could contribute that they were doing their own servers. No, that that is the reason that there's been such an uptick and participation in fact we talked about the fact that folding at home was going to focus on COVID-19 related work again to try to figure out you know what protein situation can actually really be helpful for doctors and the more the merrier when it comes to this kind of research. It is very heartwarming to see what the participation levels has been I mean what why did they announce that about two weeks ago I mean that's that's that's a that's a lot of I want to sign on my computer. Totally. Yeah, Sam. Yeah. Yeah, that's a and and that's really printing space and I know that when Allison Sheridan was on the show recently and she was like quality control I mean that's certainly something that we have to look out for because there are lots of solutions that might seem easy to make. And we have some tools that can be contributors to this sort of thing. And she makes a good point. And I think, you know cautiously optimistic is a good way to look at this but yeah the folding at home stuff is is very cool so thanks to everybody who's participating. Strength and numbers. Oh, what a real silver blade and in a Twitch chat set I hope former Bitcoin miners turn their power to COVID-19 that would be great. Yeah, yes. Yeah. Yeah, because some server farms used for good. Well, believe it or not, we have some non COVID-19 news today. I know I know I hold on to your butts. The film listing service movie phone has been sold yet again for $1.075 million to born in Cleveland LLC as part of the chapter seven bankruptcy of Helios and Matheson, the parent company of movie pass. Stay with me here. Started as a phone service for movie information back in 1989 movie phone sold to AOL for $388 million. A lot of money back then was later sold to Helios and Matheson for $9 million quite a bit of a drop after Verizon bought AOL. It's now just shy of $1 million but it lives. Why don't you just tell me what movie you want to see. Okay, I had to do it. Sorry. What I think is interesting about this is I mean think of like any of the like the movie information services like like, you know, Fandango or just any of those that would just drop in valuation. I mean, admittedly 1999 was a long time ago like I guess for for the oldies like me it doesn't seem but you know 21 years ago now. But to see that just like just that it's hockey stick devaluation over time. I guess I mean if you don't remember I mean back in the I mean you remember going to the theaters like like the first ad you would see it would be like a Coke ad and then a movie phone ad like right at the top of the theater. Yeah, just it just totally bizarre to see this and like the double poison pill of AOL owning something and then movie password. I always thought something like this will I would hopefully be able to not not assimilate but but but to change over time and movie phone becomes, you know, an online thing and and and they didn't yeah they didn't seem to to it's kind of sad to see from 388 million to 1 million that's that's a that's a huge drop so in 1999 that was still worth 388 million but it just to show you how many people were still dependent on phone services that you would never use anymore back then because it was the early days early days of the Internet. Now I may mess up this name and I apologize and it's just saying and now. But a new note from Apple analyst main she quo. That's right. Hey, beautiful work. Thank you predicts that a new high end 6.7 inch iPhone schedule for 2020 will feature a center shift image stabilization on the rear camera with the technology expanding to multiple models in 2021 with the periscope telephoto lens predicted for 2022. Meanwhile, in early I was 14 build obtained by 95 Mac shows Apple is building up the find my app or find my app sorry set the wrong was debuted debuted in I was 13 as a combination of find my phone and find my friends. And I was 14 this would include the ability to be notified when someone doesn't arrive at a specific location by certain time, as well as when a contact leaves a location before a set time. Find my also includes AR kit support and I was 14, letting users visually obtain location information and AR. This is again this is all speculation. And there was a little leak there but I don't know it doesn't feel like it's too early to talk about phone iPhones or not. This year, I'm ready. Manji quo has a very good track record. So yes, although this is not anything that Apple has announced. These are, you know, these are, these are solid rumors plus rumors pro. But I mean, I also I skipped the 2019 iPhone bump. I am still rocking the 2018 model and it's kind of falling apart. So I'm going to limp along to this fall. Assuming that there are new phones that happen in the fall. I'm excited about a 6.7 inch iPhone. First of all, huge with the best image possible sensor shift image stabilization on the rear camera. As I understand it, this would help. It's ultra wide photos have the image stabilization that that non ultra wide photos already enjoy on the newer iPhones, which is great. You know, some people don't really take advantage of their cameras, but that is one of the selling points of the iPhone and anything that's, you know, any other top end models that's in that category. So that's really the only camera I use now. So that's great. And periscope telephoto lens that's 2022 but hey, it's right around the corner. I'm more excited about the find my app which I really think that find my iPhone and find my friends going together was the right call makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And this this feels like a service play. I mean for for Apple to build out that find my and to make it from something like oh I lost like find my phone was like someone stole my phone I lost my phone. And this to me seems more like something to get you just more in the habit of using it every day to integrate it with your calendar and you know not just for dropping your kids off at school but it's like. Okay if I'm late leaving the store or if I you know if I leave early to change plans or something like that. I mean yeah you could say it's a little bit of like a nanny, you know, situation but I do think they're they're building out some interesting use cases beyond just oh I lost this or drop a pin and find me later or something like that. My friends quite a bit and we've just all of our activity has dwindled. I never care where they are and I never look, but I do use the temporary you know if I'm in LA and I'm supposed to meet Lamar somewhere, and I'm not totally sure how long traffic is going to be and it might be a little bit weird, you know I'll be like for the next hour you can kind of see where I am. And being able to get a ping from the find my app which I assume is how you get notifications if for some reason I was running later something weird happened without you having to check you know my map that's that's just that's just convenience. I'm wondering if wise will be using this to. Oh, my husband is late where is it. And I won't say what he's doing. I'm just saying there might be some concerns there that that you know, be careful husbands don't do bad things. Okay, hey folks if you want to get all the tech news in about five minutes. Check out daily tech headlines dot count. Oh, key dokey we heard today, not a big surprise but it is today's news a VidCon has announced it's canceled its annual show which was scheduled for June 17 through 20th in Anaheim, California it's where they've been doing the shows for the last few years. The company said it's looking to make the conference happen sometime in the fall but for now, tickets will be refunded. The team says it's also looking into virtual formats and remote speaker options seems to be the trend although you know there's Google I O for example was like, you know we're not doing anything we're just going to regroup and do this the right way later. Lamar, I know that you didn't go to VidCon last year did you. I didn't. I was around VidCon. Yeah, I was or my presence was there. We're close enough. It isn't it's it this is a big event. It's a big event for for content creators. And I know a lot of folks are disappointed it's good that they're refunding the tickets but this is just a bigger conversation that I'm so glad you're with us Lamar actually because I know you have a lot of thoughts about this the idea that people who make their content as influencers, whether or not you like that word, you know what I love that word. You know, if you're if you if you are, you know, making your, you're living your livelihood reviewing products, you know, you know, comedy stuff, you know anything that you know the YouTube stars would be a part of the Instagram influencers. It is affected and we talked a lot on the show about the industries that will some industries are seeing a bump in in in requests, of course, but many industries are have been really shaken up. And, for example, there was a verge article about online content creators, you're quarantined at home, and you think all right well you know your Instagram model, you know you take like a pretty photo of yourself now you're just in a building rather than on a street. In some cases I know I know it's so hard to be an Instagram model I know you all feel my pain. In some cases you can kind of roll your eyes but at the same time you have to think, okay well if somebody has a contract with a company, you know you wear their clothes or you talk about how you know they have good vitamins or whatever it is. And if you have another contract to do something that's required to be outside or in front of a landmark or something, it's possible that you're not going to get paid. And if you have budgeted out stuff for yourself for the next quarter and beyond, that can hurt. It hurts the way that anybody has hurt that expects to get money rolling in and no longer has it. Lamar, how has this affected you because you are very prolific as far as as as your video content goes and and has it changed the way that you do things. Yeah, it's been it's been a challenge. You know fortunately I did have a little back backlog of my last two videos have been things I've done in the past, but I'll give you one example. I'm working on a video with the Samsung not paid or anything but they you know they send me a TV to check out and this was before everything went down so like you know and and now that it's here, you know, I called them again and I was like, Wow, this TV is great. I really want to talk about it but you know how do I come off talking about this thing without seeming like, you know there's like, you know, you know there's people out here, losing their jobs and I'm like hey, check out this $6,000 $7,000 TV I got on here you know yeah let's buy it just put it on credit you know so you know it and I have figured out a way to navigate around that thankfully because you know I'm able to do some comedic things to kind of lighten it but it's a challenge I had I had someone ask me about a taste test, and not that there's anything wrong with doing the taste test, but it made me immediately question. Wow, is this the right time to be your frivolously playing around playing out with cereal or stuff like that when people can get groceries. That's just that's in my head. So I am just being a little bit more cautious about how to navigate this and you know I came up with some tips of my own of how to maybe a rubric or so how to come up with this and what I found out I talked to my audience that the audience is just as stressed as we are they're they're going through a lot of things they're scared whatever they they really want us to continue to do what we do you know and they want a need entertainment. And they just want us to you know they want us to be aware, you know I was you know that things are happening and be respectful of it but by and large they just want us to continue to entertain and be respectful and so what I've been trying to do and I encourage other you know influencers and air coaster just to think for a few minutes before you hit post like type out what you're going to type or have that picture ready but really think is it the you know what would be the response you know if you were receiving that and you were struggling. What would be the response you know and adjust accordingly, I think and I don't I know this one is tricky. The, the, the what everybody kind of under quarantine, you know I've seen some creators who are posting group group collabs said and you know they're all on the couch or they do any skits and things and maybe that stuff was made in the past I posted one today. Me and a friend who was that was made a month ago, but I did put a disclaimer at the beginning of the video. So maybe that's something like that is like hey this was made before. You know we just finish it you know or maybe just don't post it or you know especially if you're doing it in real time, like if you're actually out there gathering I mean these people are looking to you as a role model whether you like it or not. So maybe not do that because you're then selling them that it's okay for them to do and then that causes a chain reaction that none of us want. Absolutely I think it's I've definitely seen. Don't have to call them out don't have to dox the select. Some some stuff online where I'm like, okay, I get it you're stuck at home like the rest of us but you're in a mansion. There are certain things where you're kind of like it I don't think that you know your message is in poor taste you're trying right you're trying to use the the the media that you have at your disposal to connect to people in new ways and I can't hate anybody for that. That said, there are some tone deaf things I've seen recently where I'm like, you should have chosen Lamar's tip number two, just think on it for a few minutes just just a few minutes. Don't have your kid on a hoverboard, you know, flying around the back here I won't say who was. It's just like, it just, yeah, it just sends a weird message. It's really, it's really awkward. I don't know. Yeah, there's a definitely a line to walk between, like you said, not wanting to be insensitive and be and you know kind of like posting something frivolous that that people will say, Well, you know where we're you know worried about our health and safety right now you know we don't want to be expensive technology, but then at the same time, you kind of, you have an audience that loves what you do already, and you want to provide that service. So that real quickly, I want to go as I looked at others who are kind of doing it very responsibly a lot of the tech channels on YouTube. They're I mean they're still talking about the new Mac, the MacBook you all talked about it that came out of the iPad. So you could use the world doesn't stop right you still, I still will talk about this TV is actually TV sales have gone up since since this quarantine so people kind of do want to know about it it's just my how I do it you know and make sure I don't come off, you know bragging or a look at me and and you know as long as long as I do that I think I'll be in a good position. Yeah, I almost bought an exercise bike. It was something less expensive but I'm like I should just do it and then I was like Sarah. Walk around the block and think about this and I was like that's $1200 what are you doing. No, I was looking at an auto list, and I was like, Oh, but yeah same thing was like why am I spending $1000. If you if you bought something because you're stuck at home that has improved your life we would like to know about in fact you could join the conversation in our discord and let everybody know you can join by linking to a patreon account at patreon.com In the mail bag. Yes, that's in the mail bag. Michael, he actually touched on something that we often talk about internally here on the show and it's sort of like, do we have, you know, words that we'd always like to replace with other words or if there's a sentence that's kind of a run on sentence, how do we condense it so there is a we have a flow here and Michael says I know pretty much everybody has given up on saying iPhone 10 in favor of iPhone X Michael I still say iPhone 10 but I know what you mean. Michael says it's been a surprise though how often I've started to hear X instead of times. The other place I often hear it is with dimensions if some something is 15 by 12 centimeters the I'm already say I'm already saying by instead of X 15 X 12 cm. Michael says used to be said 15 by 12 centimeters, but I often hear 15 X 12 cm. Michael says I realize these are common forms of writing, but to have them said that way has gotten to be jarring, but also common and sometimes I have to write down what's being said, so that I can see it and understand. Michael's email was a little bit longer he also had another example where it's like something, let's say we're talking about the new iPhones and the camera capabilities, and it's like five X zoom over previous model something like that I'm just, I'm just making up a term. Like you said five times zoom. That's technically correct but it sounds a little bit weird. And so I think that there are situations where we know that you know what five X means, even though it is a little clunky. I'm not sure. I'm not sure if anybody feels that one or the other is grading but I feel your pain Michael because there are certain. In fact, there are certain words that are banned on DT and s for variety of reasons because we've all just come to the conclusion that we can say it a different way. So, this is not one of those terms though and think about you know what our standard is. If I hear now want to know how loud. I'm just like, but oh God, yeah. That's like CMS to me see. Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't even take a unit of measurement. Yeah, that's it's. Thanks for the email Michael and thank you a special shout out to our patrons at the master and grandmaster levels, including Philip less Frederick Huebner and James Callison. Thanks so much for your continued support of the show. Absolutely. Also, thanks to Lamar Wilson. I missed you Lamar. I feel like it's been six months even though it's only been one but thank you. It's been an interesting month. How have you been keeping busy? This month has been crazy. Yeah, I have been doing a lot, you know, different background and things and but yeah, I'm trying to keep busy on YouTube where I talk about gaming tech and pop culture stuff. So now they talk to my audience. You're about to get sick of me because I'm going to be on. I'll be almost every day now. So get ready for it. But you can find me on YouTube. Just type in Lamar Wilson with two hours. And yeah, if I'm even one hour issue pop up. Yeah, to make a mistake. It's okay. Very good. Also, thank you so much to our patrons. We know that this is an uncertain time for a lot of you if you can afford to keep supporting us directly. Please do. We appreciate it so much. Some of you have recently bumped up contributions to cover those who need it right now. Thank you so much for that. Again, strengthen numbers. Direct support is the best way to keep us independent and support the livelihoods of the whole DTNS team. We are so, so grateful for all of you. You help us make the show fun and we love doing it. If you find yourself in a situation where you do need to cut some costs, we completely understand we have other ways you can support the show. Other folks here on our Patreon who can pick you up in the meantime, and you can always promote the show to others. It's a great way to support us and get the word out. Reminder, you can support the show at any level at dailytechnewshow.com. Rich? Oh, yes, our email address. Yeah, our email address, if you want to reach out, is feedback at dailytechnewshow.com. We're live, of course, one week through Friday at 4 p.m. Eastern Time at 233 UTC. Find out more at dailytechnewshow.com. Tom is back tomorrow along with Patrick Nasia. Talk to you then. Bye. The show is part of the Frog Pants Network. Frog Pants Network. Get more shows like this at frogpants.com. Time and Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.