 Coming up on DTNS hot new laptops from Acer and ASUS new soundbars for smart TVs from Amazon and Roku and a way to pay for things With just your hand This is the Daily Tech news for Wednesday September 4th 2019 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt and from studio feline I'm Sarah Lane in Salt Lake City. I'm Scott Johnson and I'm the shows producer Roger Chang We were just talking about kindness and sand and it's amazing the breadth of topics that we talk about The the follies of using ways we have a tip for how to make ways work better for you That's all on good day internet, which you can get at patreon.com slash DTNS. Let's start with a few tech things you should know Razer announced three 13.3 inch blade stealth laptops with core i7 isolate processors two models have the invite video GTX 1650 discrete GPU by default the third model is an ultra book with a 25 watt TDP processor and integrated graphics All three models have 16 gigabytes of LPDDR for 3733 megahertz dual-channel RAM and PCIe M.2 solid-state drives the least expensive of the new blade stealth laptops starts at $1,500 not bad European competition commissioner Marguerite Vestiger Look at that announced examination of the Libra career cryptocurrency to see if it would harm competition Vestiger Sent questions last month to all 28 members of the Libra Association asking about conditions for membership How consumer data would be handled and how Libra backed products would be integrated into Facebook's platforms Yes, you pronounced Marguerite Vestiger's name very good. Thank you Roku announced the smart soundbar with the 4k Roku Ultra built to inside of it meaning they can do all the things Roku Ultra can do But also be a lovely soundbar I connect to any TV using the HDMI arc port or can connect by optical audio and you can connect to a device over Bluetooth Sports Dolby audio advanced signal processes to maintain sync and also has new volume modes Like for instance, there's a night mode that will raise the dialogue volume without raising the volume of the explosion So you don't wake everybody in the house up Roku also announced the wireless Subwoofer that connects to the Roku smart soundbar by Wi-Fi and maintain sync that way both devices are available for pre-order for 179 bucks and speaking of smart TVs and soundbars Tell me a little bit about what Amazon announced Sarah Yeah, I was all excited about Roku's announcements and then Amazon can store me in with their own the company announced a revamped fire TV Cube streaming device which now has an IR blaster a faster processor than the predecessor and Local voice control for some commands that the device can handle without having to send queries to Amazon servers in the cloud So you're all you're doing it all in one place the new fire TV cube is now in pre-order United States for 120 bucks Also pre-orders for Canadians folks in the UK and Germany Japan availability starts in November It was on also announced the nebula soundbar fire TV edition made by anchor which can stream video can play music Consync with other echo speakers for multi-room audio and includes remote control with a microphone in in within Pre-orders are open in the same regions. I just mentioned price is 22999 Amazon will also begin selling a variety of TVs with some partners grundek made OLED TVs with built-in fire TV software and far-field voice control in Austria and Germany starting in November JVC made TV with fire TV software is coming to curries It's in the UK and Germany's media market and Saturn will both begin selling a house brand fire TV sets next year Finally in the good old us of a Amazon also announced a new 65 inch Toshiba fire TV set So yeah, pretty significant to see grundek making a television with fire TV's far-field voice control built into it That's that's significant interesting to see the fire TV cube get a What is kind of a minor upgrade except for that ability to do some of those processes on the chip That's basic stuff like saying, you know navigate around the screen select the the YouTube icon or something like that But the big one here is the the soundbar because now you've you've you're seeing the trend here Roku and Amazon both saying We're gonna sell you a soundbar that has our Television service built in and that to me is the most significant of all these announcements because it's the next generation of these devices Not everybody wants to buy a little box that they attached their TV some people want to built into the TV, but if they don't want it built into the TV kind of a Value proposition is hey, you wanted to improve the sound of your TV any but anyway with a soundbar You're not into 7.1. You just want the soundbar We'll add some cool TV software to make your television smart. Yeah, I really like of all of these announcements I funny enough the one that jumps out to me the most is the anchor device the nebula That's now bar. Yeah. Yeah, that's three things. I need and I've been putting off The need for I should say three things. I really don't care too much about I don't know having another echo control device But or another Amazon services device But this is gonna solve that problem by being integrated with an ecosystem I already use I need a good soundbar and I need it to be smarter than the dumb one I have now So of all these devices. Oh, and I love anchors the other thing I totally trust them. They make great stuff everything from cables to Chargers to other kinds of devices. They are I think one of the most amazing brands there is for those kinds of accessories So I'm very happy to see them doing this and we'll probably pick that thing up Side unseen just because I really like and trust those guys I I wonder why they don't have the far field mic in The nebula soundbar unless it's a cost issue or amazon just didn't want to license them the patent for that part of it Because because they put it in the grundig tv, right? Like why couldn't put it in the nebula soundbar? Right and for 230 bucks. It's not the most expensive soundbar But you know, you're paying for something that has a lot of bells and whistles Yeah, that's the other thing is anchor products tend to be less expensive than you know, bigger branded competing products But they don't skimp on quality and warranty and everything I've ever gotten from them just works as as designed So for whatever reason I'm just having a lot of brand loyalty on that announcement and I and I feel pretty good about it But I also I also just feel good about the idea that this is not me Diving into a single branded product that is completely controlled by one sort of you know closed garden This is amazon voice services. This is anchor hardware This is you know a sound device that's you know, pretty much universal to whatever i'm going to need whether it's bluetooth or whatever It just feels like a nice Middle ground choice where i'm not having to you know, pledge myself for the next 10 years to some new brand What about roku though 179 bucks? It's cheaper still an open platform although they're making the hardware in this case That will bother you um Part of it would be this I need to hear the sound quality side to side because that would be the big differentiator between these two devices So hearing the roku versus the the anchor anchor speakers have been really good from my experience for what they're meant to be Roku would have to You know impress me in that regard, but I don't know why it is I I just hold you love anchor That's what it sounds like. Yeah, it's weird in my head. I see steel and I see plastic You say roku. I see plastic your anchor. I hear steel I don't know why but there's just like that that's not the actual look of the devices That's just your your sort of imaginatory It also sounds to me like the nebula is going to be much better if you're like, okay Well, what if I bought a couple, you know cheap end echo speakers and I can kind of recreate surround sound I know that roku's new sound bar does connect to other devices via bluetooth But that's a little bit more limited depending on what you have I'm always trying to figure out how to create surround sound with like cheap parts in a smaller room Yeah, well, I mean the sound bars do a pretty good job of of surround sound But it's never going to be the same as an actual 5.1 or 7.1 or something Yeah, I mean if you have the bluetooth is just a added feature the bluetooth isn't how it connects most of the time That's just like oh, I mean with your phone Yeah, but I think one of the selling points with the nebula is oh and if you have other echo speakers Then you can do multi audio in a room The u.s federal trade commission announced wednesday that it has fined google over allegations that youtube violated the children's online privacy protection act or copa Google will pay 170 million dollars total in fines 136 million of that goes to the fdc That's the fdc's largest yet copa violation fine 34 million is going to go to settle a complaint with the new york attorney general's office for similar violations Copa requires data collection of users that are age 12 or younger to be done with parents consent Has to have a privacy policy has to disclose what's being collected a few other restrictions and youtube Didn't age gate videos you could go to youtube.com and watch videos all day long with no need to even log in right well YouTube was using data on viewers age 2 to 12 in sales pitches to toy companies At the same time claiming it did not have users younger than 13 Because it didn't allow you to sign up for an account if you said you were younger than 13 And so google claimed it didn't need to comply with copa Catching them doing both those things is what led to the fine and youtube must now also let owners of channels identify child directed content Which will then face different data management policies and youtube of course has agreed to follow all copa guidelines going forward I love that youtube's like well, we we can't have users under 13 because those are our rules However, here's a lot of data on children to do that is definitely You know a company that it has a few hundred people and one of them not knowing what the other is doing I'm sure the person who wrote that email said okay legally defensively we can say we don't target kids We don't sign up kids our videos aren't meant for kids. So we don't have to follow copa But in the data they found like hey, but well it looks like we have some kids Let's let's pitch matel and hasbro with that right sure. Yeah, not only do you have some kids you have Millions of kids I guarantee there are millions of kids under 13 with accounts that say they're over for They made youtube kids because they knew that right? That's why they made it and that and that was a good thing I think I think youtube kids is a really smart move. Although it's still a little weird, but but this is just another step in the maturation process of youtube where they have to sort of grapple with these larger Issues that usually only tv people had to worry about but now they're the tv people and they're having to worry about it in ways that Hopefully doesn't mean more regulation. They can just sort of adhere to the current regulation And everyone will be okay The light company began shipping light phone 2 to crowdfunding backers light phone 2 was designed to be fully functional As a simple phone adding to the limited feature of the first light phone while trying to maintain the promise Of limiting distraction. We're all looking for that. I guess the phone originally was Supposed to be or supposed to ship in april But was delayed to improve the design the light phone tool retail for $350 with a 2.84 inch e-ink touch display Bluetooth tethering and more So my old man reaction to this story is just turn off your notifications people just turn them all off You know and then when you miss one then you could turn that one back on but why do you need a whole separate device? But apparently some people are like, you know what that just doesn't work for me and I get that You know the willpower argument is never a really good argument for somebody who's like Yeah, but that doesn't stop me from eating the chocolate bars or whatever it is, right? So having a device where you're like, I will take this one and I won't be able To be notified because it's limited is good problem with the light phone one was Nobody was using it because it was too limited. So we're trying to strike the balance here. Yeah Well, especially since I think I think a lot of it with the with the original light phone and I had a couple friends Who were like, oh, this is great for a limited time And then they abandoned their phones because it was just too restrictive It's like, okay, all it really does is make phone calls. Well I've gotten really used to making a phone call as a last resort because I have so many other ways to get a hold of people Making a phone call is rude, right? It's just it's just there are just even if I some people are better on the phone than others But it's like we just have so many more options I have been trained to use a variety of ways to get a hold of people depending on the person You know, I'm probably not going to connect with scott over whatsapp But another friend I would because I'm like that's how they hang out. You just get used to it So it's restrictive in a weird way. So I think opening it up a little bit more But still saying hey, we're trying to cut down on what could be Unhealthy usage of stuff that is not enriching your life. It's kind of taking away from it or it's wasting time That's a good thing But yeah, I mean, there's still a lot of self control that needs to be had in any situation like this I'm I'm with you tom. I think if there was really an issue It's like our phones have gotten better and better at bundling in tools that help us at least know our usage Even if our behaviors don't change at least we kind of know like hey I'm spending a lot of time in this app and that's that's almost better than taking away options for me Tom was right about the whole chocolate thing. I mean what they're trying to say as well If we limit all that then there's nothing you can do about it the other way is like buying twinkies and having them in the In the cupboard and knowing they're there but just Stalwartly avoiding them. Yeah, right and and I get that But the phones are so versatile in terms of giving you more choice That if you're really serious about limiting your stuff Just go in there and do that because your phone does it already Yeah, but now you have a more somewhat more viable option I think this is one of the better versions of this if you're looking for something like that It's a little pricey though That's a chunk of change The new york post reports amazon is testing scanners that identify people by their hands to let them pay for purchases in stores Sources told the post the technology is called the orville not the orville just orville Excuse people who watch tv and is being tested at vending machines at amazon offices in new york the machines Use computer vision and depth sensors to identify handshape and size. So this is not fingerprints. This is not vain layout Uh, this is your hand the shape of your hand Probably more similar to something like face id or you know, simple face recognition Yeah, anything else. Yeah. Yeah, I mean we were so we talked about us on tms with tom's morning And the conversation rolled into well, what if your hands you get mutilated or you get older your hands You get arthritis like your hands are going to start looking different So maybe there's recalibration or those those kind of issues that you'd have to deal with any other kind of disfigurement or loss or change depending on what kind of bio Um, you know security you're using but this seemed like as good as any other I'd love to raise my hand at a at a Whole Foods and have it just go bloop. All right. See you mr. Johnson. You're good Yeah, I imagine it being more like a gum jabar The pain box from dune where you stick your hand in a box and it scans it. It's probably not like either one of those But but yeah, it's not it's not palm print It's scanning your your full hand and yeah, I mean your hand might change shape over time But probably less than your face and they've been able to make face id work. So, um, this is interesting And of course they're testing it. That's that's why you test things to see if you can make it work I want I want the first error So I can find the person who has an identical hand to me somewhere in the world who might also be shopping at Whole Foods Right. I mean, it's going to be pretty unlikely. Yeah, but that's going to happen But that would make a good documentary, wouldn't it? Well, Roger had said earlier He was convinced that it was going to be no time before somebody walked in with a rubber hand and got through Roger was going to create the rubber hand It's like it's like a new carpool scam. Yeah, I've got this hand. No, really There will be one case. I guarantee it might not be rubber. It might be wood might be something It might be just, you know, I get it Sir, can you please extend your whole arm out of the coat? Oh, it turns out it's not just a rubber hand It's also three children And an overcoat. They're on top of each other. It's two. All right. If they're if they're middle-aged kids This is not too different than the fact that I'm still almost always carrying my wallet with me Even though I can use my phone to pay for things because I'm like failsafe, right? So, yes, your hand might be the way it goes if for some reason the machine is down or it's being weird It's like you will most likely have a backup form of payment until the stuff gets really really good Facebook announced on tuesday that us the us department of homeland security It would be violating rules if the agents created fake profiles to monitor people seeking to enter the country Facebook requires all users to use real names even if they're secret agents Facebook says it'll shut down accounts of anyone found to violate that policy Including those under cover DHS told the associated press that fake accounts make it easier to review visa and green card and citizenship applications DHS also does not allow agents to interact on Facebook only passively reviewing information Yeah, according to this ap story, they can't friend people. They can't like posts. They can't interact in any way Uh, and let's for the for the sake of discussion here. Let's set aside The controversy over whether DHS should be doing this. There's a whole conversation to be had about should Uh, someone who is applying for a visa have to subject their social media to scrutiny or not, right? We could we could have that conversation in a separate arena But just for this The thing that struck me and we talked about it quite a bit in our our production meeting today Why would you need a fake account? For for DHS to do this if they're not interacting if they're not Friending anybody they're not liking anything all they're doing is viewing and on facebook You I don't think you can even tell who has viewed your profile No, yeah Yeah, it wouldn't need to be a fake account If you're involved in a clandestine operation having your real name anywhere in print is probably something you don't want Sure, but we're not talking about espionage here. We're talking about DHS reviewing visa applications, right? Like it's probably public record who are the people in the visa application review staff anyway Yeah, I I'm kind of I'm with Tom on this in that I'm confused why they think they need them to be fake given all the Factors that we know but the only thing I can think of is It's probably just well If facebook changes their policy and suddenly they do report visits We're not caught unaware. So if we have fake accounts and we're covered either way That's what I bet is going through their heads. I think it has to do with what sarah said Which is secretly they are friending people and liking people and conducting espionage But they can't say that so they need they need to that could be that could be but either way It's it's like they're covered right like With a fake account they can do whatever they need to do and if something changes on the facebook side Which is now happening which is kind of going to mess them up But if something happens well, then they are forced to You know, they'd be forced to reveal themselves. So I don't I don't know what their motivations are It's very weird. Well the whole the whole thing about well We're just monitoring something someone might say that might lead us to believe that they were planning to enter the u.s Okay, some people are going to be doing that in public. Oh, no, no, no, no This is I have applied to enter the u.s And this person reviewing the application is now looking at social media to find out Are they on there saying things that would cause concern? Yeah, no, that's what i'm saying. Yeah. Yeah, but if they're but okay So yes, they might be on there saying things that cause concern They also might be doing that much more privately in which case the agent would want to be Being a little bit more sleuthy in terms of but they're not allowed to friend people They're not allowed to like they're not allowed to interact. So they couldn't be sleuthy That's my point But if they're fake, then maybe they're doing it without that's well That's the only that's the only explanation I could think of is that they're all of these policies aren't maybe facebook Knows this and is like well, let's just say for the record. You can't do this Well, I think facebook can can just easily say like look you can't make a fake account. I don't care who you are That allows them to just get out of the conspiracy theory business Yes, yeah, like they need it. They don't need any help in that arena They could probably get out of some of that. So yes, facebook's like we told the secret agents to just follow our rules Now There are people in the chat room suggesting there might be a regulation against certain employees Registering themselves on social networks. I don't we don't see a citation for that because I so I can't say that for sure But but maybe there is a policy that says, you know, if you're in this position, you're not allowed to have a facebook account I don't know that that seems odd. Maybe your facebook account. It can't be used for official purposes that that could make sense, too I don't know So sure Well, folks, if you want to get all the tech headlines each day in about five minutes Keep up to date quickly subscribe to daily tech headlines dot com We're going to finish up with some of the announcements at etha going on in berlin One of the biggest tech conferences of the year acer Announced the following four new chromebooks with screens from 11.6 inches up to 15 inches all with google assistant starting at 249 dollars Up to the most expensive the convertible spin 311 chromebook at 329 dollars acer also expanded its concept d pro grade laptops Adding a budget 15 inch concept d3 model and then offering even though they're all pro grade They now offer the concept d pro line, which is basically the the previously existing concept d laptops But with nvidia's quadro rtx graphics cards in there Uh, they're available in november with the concept d3 starting at a thousand dollars and the new upgraded pro concept d's From $1,700 acer also announced the $14,000 predator thronos air gaming chair Which you may not realize is a cheap version of the $20,000 Thronos chair announced at last year's etha this new cheaper one Does not have a motorized arm. That's the big savings But it does have a built-in massage button available in q4 in europe In north america. Yeah, that chair is something. Have you guys seen that thing? It's like a throne for the king of gaming or onos. That's why they named it that I guess. Yeah, literally it is really Ale's named it predator. Yeah That's a gaming laptop and probably an increasingly hard to justify choice in these days, but you know Sure. Yeah, I mean they they they are They make great stuff though, and i'm excited mostly about those nvidia the the integrated video and those Laptops is super super good those quadra or not quadra. What do they call the crap? I just had it my head. Oh, it's right there. There you go. The rpx 5000s are very fast For mobile, you know for mobile use So it's nice to see those things inching closer and closer to desktop power Of course, then they turn right around and make desktop the king again, and it won't matter But for now it looks real good Asus showed off prototypes of laptop gaming displays with a 300 hertz refresh rate. Yeah I Promised to ship a 1080p 300 hertz display in the zephyrus s gx 701 in october Asus also announced an upgraded ROG Phone 2 ultimate addition The difference between the ultimate and the regular ROG Phone 2 is it has a terabyte of storage in a matte black finish And also supports faster cat 24g lte the new ROG Phone 2 ultimate will cost you 1199 euros when it arrives in october if you didn't know the ROG Phone 2 Not ultimate With its 120 hertz OLED display ships this month for 899 euros and finally asus announced its pro art line Including the 17 inch studio book pro 10 with asus screenpad 2.0 That's a touchscreen trackpad or it's basically a touchscreen where the trackpad is That can be used as a mini display if you want It also has nvidia quadro rtx 5000 and up to intel zeon or ninth gen core i7 processor inside No price on that but it should be available by the end of the year. They say that one is interesting to me I'm not sure I want it I I'd have to see the touchscreen trackpad in use in a way where i'm like. Oh, yeah, this is really nice as a mini display 17 inches is huge But but if it's light and thin then you know a lot of screen real estate Yeah, I want it. I don't I don't think I think it's safe to say I don't need it. Um, also, I have I have questions about that 300 The the the screen Yeah, hertz is insane. That's insane like 120 hertz you can tell a difference You can absolutely tell a difference someone say 144 hertz is is the maximum. I'm not sure the human eye I'd have to do the science. I don't know enough about it, but I don't think the human eye can tell So that 300 hertz is going to be monster overkill and they're going to sell at all So you can tell your friends that you have a 300 hertz refresh rate. That's what they said about ak Well, that's off anybody making tv's that that's true. But this thing is obviously aimed at Gamers twitch gamers and by twitch gamers. I mean fast paced Shooter gamers people that maybe you want to be pros because limiting that thing to 1080p Is always a sign Well that the gamers not looking for the ultimate in 4k fidelity in the games they play They are looking for the fastest possible display which only helps you when you're playing Yeah, yeah No, I mean even if it's overdoing it even if there isn't any Reason to have a 300 hertz display, which hey if you know of a reason that you can justify feedback at daily technician.com We'd love to hear it You it's going to be the the one where you're like well There's not going to be a problem with the refresh rate if I've got 300 hertz, right? So that's true That's uh, that's a good one. We've got some got some good stuff They're coming from aces and that's green bed by the way is a new we saw that at ces So it'll be interesting to see if it really gets any kind of uptake And what kind of use is that gets put to? Hey, thanks to everybody who participates in our sub reddit You can submit stories You can also vote on stories that other people submitted at daily tech news show reddit.com We love your contributions. We also love our facebook group facebook.com Slash groups slash daily tech news show. I'd say check out the mailbag, but it's not an email It's comments on patreon. It's feedback. So I guess it's the feedback It's the feedback. Yum. Yum. Yum. Yeah, so uh, this is actually great timing because my live with it The second live with it three month period with smart light bulbs is coming to a close I've taken lots of notes. In fact, we're going to go through a lot of those notes on the show And uh, that'll all be available to you. We're going to do that after the show tomorrow However, live with it goes on the third era is going to be What smart watch should sarah live with and we decided, okay Well, what's the category because it's worked up pretty well that I we choose a category where I'm like I don't really have any of that. I don't have an opinion yet What I don't have smart watch So we narrowed it down to four the apple watch series four and yes We know that there may be something that's announced next week. If so, we will take that into consideration Yeah, it might become a series five. We'll see exactly fit bit versus two. That's new. Um, you know Seems like a that's a that's an easy one the samsung galaxy watch active two and the fossil gen five And so far voting's open to anybody so patrons and anybody who would like to Contribute, please do vote the more the merrier and yeah, we have we have a lot of good responses so far in the comment section People saying vivid versus two seems like the logical choice. Um, this is probably the smartphone that's going to work As well with ios as android and vice versa, you know, obviously the apple watch is an obvious choice for an iphone user such as myself But it's not the only choice That was from tyler tyler said that um, michael also said I I'd rather see your view on Uh, the yet to be announced apple watch five again, michael, we will we will cross that bridge if we come to it scott said I voted for the fossil gen five wondering how well a traditional android Based smartwatch would work with an iphone And the comments keep coming in so it's it's good to know what what what you all uh What you all think and how you will influence our buying decision making genuinely excited for the possibility of the voting Getting the versa in your hands because I'm I am really and I've been and I or excuse me an apple watch user for a couple years I love this thing. It's been great, but I think it's priced out of a lot of people's pockets and I think that they Given, you know, how quickly apple updates them. You always feel sort of this weird pressure to get the latest one I would very much like to see fit that have some really cool competition in this base going oled Making that uh software even better. I still get my notifications and all the things I really use this for So my vote not that it counts, but I would vote I'd vote for the fit that that's what I do Well, as of this recording the versa and the apple watch are neck and neck, uh for for uh as as in the lead So, yeah, we'll see we'll see how this all shakes out in the next Well, a couple weeks and when I say a couple weeks some of this stuff There's some pre-orders to keep in mind and yes There are some announcements that are coming next week and the following week that we want to take into consideration Just in case the landscape changes more drastically than uh, then we expect so yeah got a couple weeks to vote Thank you in advance. Yeah, don't even have to be a patron If that wasn't clear just go to patreon.com Slash dtns, uh, you will have to create a patreon login, but you don't have to spend any money if you don't want to to vote in the poll nice Thanks to scott johnson for being with us today scott you've put in your smartwatch votes What else have you got going on? Oh all sorts of fun stuff, uh Go check it out over at frogpants.com if you're interested in the podcasting side of what I do or the art side of what I do there's something there for everybody So go check it out lots of stuff happening Just put up a new episode of current geek it's a show I do with tom on tuesdays and we have so much fun on that show We're actually doing what we like to call an autopilot edition of the show next week next tuesday Where we're watching the pilot of friends now. What makes that weird is how weird that episode is it is a funky Pilot and it's not what you remember if you go watch it now you'd be like this is not like the rest of the series So we tried to do that we find strange stuff like that even in the most popular of shows to get a little bit of a surprise So current geek every week on tuesdays You can find that at frogpants.com and lots of other stuff as well Follow me on twitter at scott johnson too if you're so inclined not to overload you But we are also thinking of changing our patreon rewards So we came up with a proposal and we'd like you to look it over if you are someone who wants to support the show on patreon Let us know if there's anything in there You just can't live with you can find the proposed patreon reward changes at daily tech news show dot com slash patreon And if you have feedback for us a great way to do it is send us an email feedback at daily tech news show dot com If you'd like to join us live monday through friday. Well, guess what good news We are live for 30 p.m. Eastern 20 30 utc and you can find out more the daily tech news show dot com slash live Back tomorrow with justin robber young talk to you then This show is part of the frog pants network get more at frogpants.com Hope you have enjoyed this bro