 Daily Tech News show is made possible by its listeners, thanks to all of you, including Father Kadan, Paley Glendale and Dr. X-17. Coming up on DTNS, USB makes things complicated, how you could become a VTuber at little or no cost, and text-to-image writing is a skill we can make money out of. This is the Daily Tech News for Friday, September 2nd, 2022 in Los Angeles, I'm Tom Merritt. And from Studio Redwood, I'm Sarah Lane. Coming out of the suburbs of Atlanta, this is Terence Gaines. Drawing the top tech stories from Cleveland, I'm Len Peralta. Oh, I see what you did there. I have no puns, but I'm the show's producer, Roger Chang. It's good to have everyone assembled on a Friday, taking us into the long holiday weekend here in the United States. Let's start with a few tech things you should know. Meta partnered with Qualcomm to produce custom chipsets for its Quest Virtual Reality headsets based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon platforms. While these custom chips will be optimized for Quest system specifications, Meta will not have an exclusive on them. Microsoft began testing its new Xbox Game Pass Friends and Family plan. So if you're a customer in Ireland or Colombia, you might be able to get this. Subscribers can share Game Pass Ultimate benefits with up to four other users for 21 euros and 99 cents a month or the equivalent in Colombia. No word when it will roll out to other markets. Google announced it will let users choose alternative payment systems for Google Store in-app purchases in India, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, and the European Economic Area. That's a new one. Google says non-gaming developers globally can apply to qualify for this program. Yeah, the EEC predates the EU and includes a few countries that aren't officially members of the EU. So it's actually a little wider area than if you just did it in the EU. The CEO of Crypto Exchange Binance, Chunging Zhao, or CZ as he goes by, posted on the company's blog that Binance was never incorporated in China. There's been a lot of scuttle but about Binance recently. You may have seen it here and there. Crypto exchanges were actually banned in China. A few months after Binance launched, he says most employees left the country by late 2018 and it has no official home base, though its official headquarters is Hong Kong, which is part of China. Variety sources say that Netflix plans to launch its ad-supported tier on November 1st. That's ahead of its previously announced target of early 2023. The company wants to launch the plan ahead of the ad-supported Disney Plus basic plan. That's set to launch on December 8th. Netflix reportedly informed ad partners it expects to have 500,000 customers on the new tier by the end of this year. Right after Netflix said there's no, all these reports of us launching earlier wrong, Variety comes out like, yeah, but seriously, you're launching it first. All right, let's talk a little more about a new version of USB that gives me a headache. Once, if you listen to the know a little more about USB4, you'll hear me even say that the USB Implementers Forum or USBIF had indicated there will be no more point versions of USB that the successor to USB4 would simply be USB5. However, on September 1st, the USBIF announced USB4 version 2.0. So technically not a point upgrade. It's not USB4.2. It's USB4 version 2.0. Cy. Yeah. Okay. So, so naming aside, let's break this down a little bit. USB4 maxes out at 40 gigabits per second. USB4 version 2.0 is an update to the USB spec that enables 80 gigabits per second data performance over existing 40 gigabits per second USB-C passive cables and newly defined 80 gigabit per second USB-C active cables. Stay with us here. There are a couple other updates to the spec as well. USB 3.2 data tunneling can go faster than 20 gigabit per second. And the spec is now aligned with the latest versions of DisplayPort and PCIe. USB4 version 2.0 will be published by November with technical detailed technical training for developers coming at USB developer days, which happens in Seattle on November 1st and 2nd and in Seoul, Korea, November 15th through 16th. So you may not see this in products until next year. In fact, you probably won't. Branding and marketing guidelines will eventually be updated to include a USB 80 gigabit per second designation for certified cables and products. Now, this is all backwards compatible. So let's be honest, most of the folks who don't listen to this show aren't even going to notice their stuff's just going to work. But the whole thing can be simpler than it sounds, depending on how you look at it. The simple take is that USB 4.0 2.0 goes faster over some existing cables. You won't even need a new cable. You would just have to have a USB 4 version 2.0 port. So if you need a gigabit per second, you might be able to use your existing cable or you can go buy a new active cable that can do it, too. It gets complicated, though, when you try to identify the port, a vendor can call it USB 4 version 2.0, but they don't have to to meet the spec. They can also label the port as super speed, 80 gigabits per second, or just 80 gigabits per second. However, you get it. If you get it, it will be good for your storage devices, your hubs, your docks and your displays. So there's a point to the upgrade. Well, I think it is. I think it is clear. It's like, look, if you need it to give a good bit per second to have more storage, more to, you know, better docks and displays, you can get it. What's not clear, like you're saying, Sarah, is, OK, but how do I make sure that I have it? That's where it starts to get a little muddy. Yeah, that's all nutty. You may have heard the term VTuber used lately. It stands for virtual YouTuber and is usually applied to someone who's doing videos where a digital avatar represents them. It's still in its early phases and seems similar to where podcasting was in, say, around 2007, getting popular, cheap to do it, but take some DIY perseverance. Jenny Zhang at Wired has an excellent article talking about all the different kinds of VTubers and what you need to do it. There are lots of ways, some evolving AI and 3D modeling. But if you're starting out, you can do it using the basics. I almost no cost. It's worth a read if you're really interested. But here's a short version of what Zhang found out when talking to VTubers like Kyle Overdrive, Jams and Phofamit. Hopefully I pronounced that correctly. Yeah, yeah. You can use some free software called Vroid to create a 3D model. That's a terrible name. You don't have to spend. Well, it depends on what you're thinking of when you say it. I guess I'm thinking of the nasty stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like void like droid. If that's what it's supposed to think of. Anyway, without picking on the name, it's free. OK, so you don't have to pay for it. You get your 3D model. You can also use a marketplace called Booth.pm. If you want to get some character outfits or even buy an off the shelf model, if you don't want to use Vroid for around 50 bucks, custom models run you into the hundred dollars. So off the shelf, it might be something that somebody else is using. If you want to get it customized for yourself, it's a hundred bucks. But if you buy it off the shelf model, you can customize it yourself using open source blender software, which is also free to be able to run the model for a live stream. You're going to need a computer powerful enough to play your typical current triple A video game title. Kyrie uses a machine with an NVIDIA GeForce GTS 1070 Intel Core i7 and 16 gigs of RAM. So the cheapest computers might not be able to do this, but you don't need the latest highest grade model. You'll need a camera, of course. Most of the folks out there are using your typical Logitech C920 or something similar. You also need software that tracks your face and then maps your movements onto the virtual character model that you got. The people Zhang talked to all use something called VC face. That's not like venture capitalists. It's VSEE, like you see a virtual face VC face. That's free. You don't have to pay anything for that either. You also need a mic, a better mic than probably you got built in your laptop. You'll want some lighting, ring light, something like that. And like any online content creator, you're going to need the content. That's probably the hardest part. You're going to need to enjoy doing it. So Terrence, I know you've got kids and this is very popular with people coming up. Yeah. So I have kids like Tom mentioned specifically. I have a 12 year old that is getting into YouTube. She's putting up content all the time, but she has kind of went back and forth. Well, let me let me rephrase I have went back and forth with allowing her to use her face on YouTube because parent, right? Yeah, this may be an alternative. And in addition to have some a little privacy and just, you know, wait for it to get old enough to actually develop an online presence. It may be a barrier of entry. So if she's really into it, going through these steps of creating a virtual avatar for YouTube, kind of can be a barometer to see how interested she is into it. So if I present her with this, hey, you know, you can be a V a VTuber and you can use your face without actually using your face, but you have to go through step A to step B to step C to step D. Got to use this software. You got to set it up if she goes through it and she actually, I guess, completes all the tasks necessary to become a VTuber. Then to me, that says, OK, you're actually into it. You actually want to do it. You know, you're really going to go through the rigmarole, the red tape to actually do this. So that kind of be a barometer of a level of interest, because, you know, our kids are these days. So being one thing, one minute and then five minutes later, it's on to something else. I think you think, you know, the idea of a 12 year old saying, well, OK, I guess I understand that my dad is uncomfortable with me having, you know, my actual face. And personality too much on YouTube. The, you know, the the VTuber model might actually be kind of great in that way, like play around. And but it's still it's sort of like, I don't know, having some sort of a locked Instagram account, but still some access type thing. Yeah. And this is just getting more and more popular. I I think what fascinates me the most about this story is it reminds me of where podcasting was and I don't know about 2007, you know, when Apple had started to list podcasts on iTunes. So people were starting to hear about it, but not everybody had heard about it. And if you wanted to do a podcast or even get a podcast before iTunes, you had to work at it. You had to anybody could do it. You could do it for free. You could still do it for free. But but you had to to know what you were doing. You had to get the tools. You had to manually create RSS feeds. And then you had to explain to people how they. Yeah, yeah. And again, what and so so VTuber doesn't have that explain how side, because you just put it up on Twitch or YouTube or whatever. But it does have that that sort of, hey, everything's free. Anybody can get into it. You just got to put in the work and to your and to your point, Terrence, if your daughter or anybody else puts in the work, they're getting some skills in blender, you know, in 3D animation and design that could be transferable to something else if they get bored with doing this. Yep, lighting, audio, if you're doing transitions, if you're mixing in images and graphics, you know, that all to me that kind of says my kids are at the age of like, all right, are you going to do this? Are you not? So going through those steps to me is like, OK, you're interested. Yeah, it's kind of the this is very fascinating to me, even though I've I've never personally experimented with any VTuber thing. There are many situations where I'm like, you know, I got something to say, but I don't really want it to be me. You know, maybe it could be, you know, an avatar that's sort of representative of me, which kind of makes me think of what, you know, many companies going for the metaverse are thinking of and hoping that people glom onto. It's not for everybody. But there is there is something to be said about saying, this is this is the image that you will see of me, whether you know me or not, maybe you know me, maybe you've never met me. But it's something that can be of, I don't know, maybe comfort for the content creator or the audience. And there's there's nothing wrong with it. Yeah, I think that's the big attraction to it is I want to create content, but I don't want to deal with people judging me on who I am. So I'm going to create an avatar. And if they don't like the avatar, fine. But it's because that's not me. Me and I think it can be changed. Yeah, and it can be adapted. But but even if it's not, it's like there's a level of protection between you. I hadn't even thought about the metaverse connection. I I immediately like sped ahead 10 years in my mind and thought, are we going to look at VTubers and think, oh, they were the earliest forms of metaverse stars before it all blew up? Or are we going to look at this and go like they called them VTuber? What a weird thing to call them. Like, you know, is this just going to be something that was like, yeah, I guess that's kind of like what we have now, but it won't be won't really be connected. Yeah, it definitely could see like a gateway drug to get into the metaverse. Because now before we're like metaverse, oh, that's stupid. VTubers, though. Oh, OK, I can see it now. Yeah. I mean, if I when in iOS, it's like I've created my avatar that like roughly looks like me, you know, I only have so many choices. I didn't think about it that hard. If that avatar was representing stuff that I was saying of, you know, any consequence, then it would matter more and to have more tools to make that more lifelike and maybe like me, but in all the ways that I can decide. That's I think that's where we're going here. You could actually watch your videos back with less anxiety. Oh, gosh, I mean, here's hoping. You're just this is very good for people. Tinvec mentioned this in our chat. It this is very good for folks with social anxiety, because again, it gives you that barrier. It gives you that that distance to to have a little feel, a little safety in doing this. I don't know. There may be a future for us, Sarah. This this may be, you know, we may be DTNS hosted by VTubers. Yeah. Watch out, world. Yeah, catch us next week. I know Roger. We probably talk about this in the post show in the extended show. Roger had a lot of thoughts about companies taking advantage of this to create a star that they can replace the person behind it. So there's there's probably something on the corporate side coming for this as well. If you have a thought like that or anything on the show, but you don't know our email address, here it is. Email us feedback at DailyTechNewShow.com. Earlier this week, when we talked about the person who won a prize at the Colorado State Fair using the text to image generator mid journey, we mentioned in the discussion that crafting the prompts to make images show up on mid journey or Dolly in a way that's useful in a way that looks good is a skill. Well, the Verges 80 Robertson has an article today called Professional AI Whispers have launched a marketplace for Dolly prompts. So not only is it a skill, but it's one people are making some money from if they're good at it. Yeah. So the major player in this space is prompt based. Letting folks buy and sell prompts for Dolly, GPT three, mid journey, stable diffusion. There are others, but those are the big ones. The promise is that the prompts that you buy so you pay for them will then supposedly reliably produce a certain art style or subject on the attended platform. It's kind of like just a very deep search, I guess, that maybe some people are better at than you are. Good prompts includes keywords for the intended aesthetic, important elements for a scene, brackets for variables that the buyer can plug in themselves. So you have some, you know, some options even after you buy a prompt. But prompt sell for three to five bucks going. That's the going rate prompt base keeps 20 percent of that. So that's how they make their money. The writer of the text retains whatever rights come from within writing a prompt for these things, something that's entirely untested in the legal world. So lots of questions there. A good luck with that one, right? But for example, prompt might say acute sloth. And having said that, I don't know if sloths are cute. Well, they would leave pet type in brackets, right? So that you could go wherever you want to lie. Got you. Got you. OK, well, that makes sense. Well, I wouldn't say sloth. So you say acute insert. Brontosaurus. Brontosaurus, there you go. Yeah, you insert pet here in a tree with leaves all around it and berries growing on the branches. That's probably not a prompt for selling, but it contains the kind of the elements you're looking for. A person who can sell these is good at knowing how to wait words, what words to choose and how to phrase things. So maybe the Brontosaurus may be the most important thing with the leaves kind of ancillary, right? They create something that will reliably produce good results. Remember, these systems don't produce the same results, even if you put them in the same same prompt. Yeah, that's sort of the beauty of it. Yeah, yeah. And so creating creating that text that even if it's not going to get the same thing every time, every time you get something good, that's the skill. Robertson interviewed designer Justin Reckling about what he thinks makes him a good prompt writer. He's been selling these to some success. He says it's basically because he is an artist and a coder and engineer. So he understands how the system will interpret what he writes. And he has an idea about what's good aesthetics. He says he spends about ten to fifteen dollars in credits on Dolly to create a prompt because he's trying things, you know, to see what works and he needs to sell about five to ten of those in order to break even usually takes a couple of months for a prompt to sell two to three times. So this is not an immediate return. His most popular prompt is a Dolly prompt called block cities that will create isometric cityscapes if you're doing world building or making a video game or something like that. And he sells it for two dollars and ninety nine cents. Reckling also created a GPT three model at type stitch dot com that was trained on good prompts to take keywords from you and then generate good prompts. He says he uses it to get ideas. He's never actually tried to sell a prompt generated by it because there's it's still not good enough. But it's what we use to create the tree leaves all around it with berries growing on the branches that came from from type stitch.com. So I feel like this is fascinating because while it's probably not a lucrative business model and it may never become one, it seems like he can barely break even. It does show that there's a skill to this and that and in that debate over whether creating these involves you in any way as a creator. Right. Should you have any investment in the art that's put out by these? I think that's important to take into account is that not not everybody can just put in text and come up and get the tool to spit out something that looks good. And the investment thing was something I was going to speak out on because there were some stories when there's some stories where some A.I. you was able to input text and then it would create art for you. But people were, of course, human nature. We were using it for all the wrong things because they didn't have any sort of investment in it. Now, if you can put speak words or put text into something and create art that you can profit off of, maybe people may take it a little bit more serious versus just goofing around with it on social media. Well, that's exactly that. That's that's what some people are doing. I don't have Dolly to access yet. So Dolly to people out there help a sister out. But I have a friend who's actually really good at it. And when he creates art, you can see what what the prompt was. And it's very it's it goes pretty deep. You know, it's like two kids hanging out by the pond. But one of the kids is sort of angry at his mother. And the other kid is wearing a green shirt. And, you know, you can you can actually the the more detailed you are in the prompt, the more well, not the better that the image is going to be, but the the more specific the more control you have over what it puts out. Maybe. Yeah. And that is I really liken it to me saying, OK, Terrence, you and I, let's let's both search for something pretty specific. And let's see what who has the more eloquent search term, you know, right? A little competition prowess. And, you know, it's it's it's it's kind of like copy editing. Not everybody has the same skills. No, because if everybody was blogging, it would be wouldn't be a dead art. Well, everybody used to blog. You know, if everybody could blog it, well, yeah, yeah, exactly. You still be doing it and making money. Tim, Tim, Tim Vex on fire in the chat today. He asked the question I think a lot of folks have, which is, OK, but he's selling that block city thing for two ninety nine. Can I just type in block city to Dolly and get it myself? And the answer is no, because he's not selling the word block city. He's selling a prompt his version that I put block city into type stitch. And it suggested a city that is completely enclosed in a block of courts with only one small opening at the top for light. I don't know if that's the best example. But it's something along that line of complexity that will consistently produce the result that you see in his listing. So so it's yeah, sure. You say anybody can do it, but not anybody can do it. Right. It takes a special crafting. It's it's almost a kind of poetry or like crafting a search term if you want to be less less dramatic about it. But yeah, it's it's it is a skill, whether it's a worthwhile skill or not. Right now it's like break even, you know, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. It could be. It could be helps to be on the ground floor. Well, speaking of search terms, you may be a parent who has a child, maybe they're a younger child. And that child might say like saying things like you're a poopy stupid but because that's a kid. If so, and you say, yep, that's me. Joey Helpisch gets it since Amazon's assistant frequently plays his ukulele hit poopy stupid but if you were to ask nicely, if a child asks Helpisch says he asked kids from his school, give me five syllables to start. And the four year old girl screamed poopy stupid but and then the next 10 minutes were me writing down everything that the kids were yelling at me that poopy stupid but was doing. So Helpisch, he gets kids. He also added the song to Amazon music. And here's where it gets interesting because it netted him a few hundred dollars at first because enough kids just say things like that. And his song would play. Then the pandemic hit and the streams on Amazon for poopy stupid but went through the roof. It's now been streamed about 10 million times on Amazon music and has generated about $10,000 in total income for Helpisch. Not bad. Yeah, right. You know, you know, for for a whim. But Helpisch isn't alone here. In fact, songwriter Matt Farley has recorded more than 23,000 songs with some creative names. But his biggest hit is poop, poop, poop, poop song. Farley says I make more money off of Amazon music than any other streaming service because he's using all of them. And I'm pretty sure my kid I have a five year old contributed to that because that is exactly what the kids yell any time they want to hear something. So I can attest to this personally as a childless person. I had no idea how how much kids just like poop. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Poop, but everything, everything. They say everything. So my nieces create a song that goes poop, poop, poop. So either they should record it and send it to Amazon music immediately or they should sue Farley. Exactly. Prior. Right. Right. Right. IP. This is my intellectual. Literally IP. Yeah. Exactly. IP. No, this is genius. And one of those great laws of unintended consequences where I love the story of Helpisch that you told Sarah, where he's like, yeah, I knew kids like this. I get kids. I had the kids help me write it. I and and if you read that Buzzfeed article, he didn't even look until they were like kind of hitting hard times. And he's like, well, let's just see if it ever like brought me any money. And that's what he found a few hundred dollars in there. And then it took off. So yeah. I mean, it is this is SEO, you know, at its finest, right? Just, you know, what what do the kids want to yell into the into into the universe? We'll have a song that will play that song and I will make money from it. Yep. That's a message to anybody out there. Start that business because there are people out there making money off of poopy stupid butt. Don't let your hate go getting your head about that business idea. Just do it. Just listen to the children think outside the box. There's something for everybody here. Do it for the children. Somebody who's probably heard his children say poopy stupid but more than once in his life is Len Peralta, who has been illustrating today's show. Len. Poop, poop, poopy, poop, poop, poop. No, actually, you know, when you start talking about AI and mid-journey, a little bit nervous, right? I'm not totally nervous that things are going to, you know, that it's going to replace artists. But I actually like this idea of coming up with prompts. I like that prompt. And so this piece of art, that's a really, really tough one to explain how you're not watching. But it is a this is a prompt. I didn't do this is I'll read the most of it in detail. Yes, it's wax figures of Al Roker and Eddie Munster standing in the corner amused by an upset child and a bear in the big blue house costume that has been tattooed on the foot of someone whose big toenail was injured by having a basketball thrown at it during Golden Hour. Done in the style. You got that golden hour. That's a key phrase. Golden hour. It's done in the style of Len Peralta for DT and S. Yes, there's also. Now, did you actually run this through, Dolly? I didn't. I just thought you know the answer already. Yeah, I know. This is not a deli creation. Is this the next step, though? That is the next step. Absolutely. Yes. And it's, you know, for those of you not watching the video feed, you got to go check it out because this is the next phase. And this is why it will never take away. The artist will never disappear and is trying to defend his job. I'm trying to defend this because I created this stupid thing based on based on the photos I had. A computer can never match you. Please send us the A.I. Attempts to mimic Len feedback at DailyTechNewShow.com. I was like, please, please do. We're not kidding. I want to see it. Not kidding. Great. I'd love to see it, please. Yes, you can actually get this right now. If you're a Patreon subscriber, Patreon.com forward slash Len. It's right there for you for the taking, right? And and of course, you can also get this. Have my online store, LenPeraltaStore.com, which I'm also taking commissions. So hit me up, hit me up. And I might do a Dalai mid-journey site, something like this for you as a gift or something. No. Well, Len, good stuff, as always. Also good stuff from Terence Gaines. Terence, we got a big week coming up next week. But in the meantime, where can people keep up with your work? Yeah, definitely. You can find me online at brothertech.com. That's B-R-O-T-H-A-T-E-C-H. That's where I do all of my Apple support stuff. In addition to that, I have two tech podcasts. Myself and my co-host, Nika Montfer will be on DTNS next week, talking about all things Apple far out of it. But after that, you can find us in our more extensive rundown on thesnoboestcast.com. That's where we publish all of our weekly shows. And then in addition to that, myself, Tom Dunwood and Stephanie Humphrey, we have a tech podcast from a different diverse perspective on thetechjohns-t-e-c-h-j-a-w-n.com. All good stuff. We thank you for being with us today. We also think our brand new boss could be lost. That's their name. Could be lost. Just started backing us on Patreon. Thank you. Could be lost. You are our winner. Guess what? You're not. You could be, but you're not. You found your home. You're not lost here. Welcome. You are seen. Patrons, stick around for our extended show. Good day, internet. We affectionately call it GDI. You can also catch this show, DTNS, which is live Monday through Friday at 4 p.m. Eastern, 200 UTC. If you can join us live, we'd love to have you. It's lots of fun. You can find out more at dailytechnewshow.com slash live. We are out Monday because it's Labor Day in the U.S. But we'll be back Tuesday with I as actor joining us. Have a great weekend. This week's episodes of Daily Tech News Show were created by the following people. Host producer and writer, Tom Merritt. Host producer and writer, Sarah Lane. Executive producer and booker, Roger Chang. Producer, writer and host, Rich Strafilino. Video producer and Twitch producer, Joe Kuntz. Technical producer, Anthony Lemos. Spanish language, host, writer and producer, Dan Campos. News host, writer and producer, Jen Cutter. Science correspondent, Dr. Nikki Ackermanns. Social media producer and moderator, Zoe Dutterding. Our mods! Beatmaster, W. Scottis 1. BioCow, Captain Kipper, Steve Gadarama. Paul Rees, Matthew J. Stevens, a.k.a. Gadget Virtuoso. And J.D. Galloway. Modern video hosting by Dan Christensen. Video feed by Sean Way. Music and art provided by Martin Bell. Dan Looters, Mustafa A. Acast and Len Peralta. Live art performed by Len Peralta. Acast adds support from Tatiana Matias. Patreon support from Dylan Harari. Contributors for this week's show included Allison Sheridan, Justin Robert Young and Terence Gaines. Our guests this week were Rob D'Amillo and Will Harris. And thanks to all our patrons who make the show possible. This show is part of the Frog Pants Network. Get more at FrogPants.com. Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.