 Yeah, that's what I said. That's what I'm gonna do. Oh, I'm not gonna forget alpha geek media though heck no All right daily ah crap Forgot to switch it out. That's the one I used yesterday. All right. Here we go Live via alpha geek radio comm the daily tech news show is made possible by Patrons like you at patreon.com Slash ace detect. Thank you for information on how to contribute go to bit.ly Slash help DTNS. You're on the frog pants studios network audio. So good. It's like you're there This is the daily tech news for Wednesday October 7th, 2015 I'm Tom Merritt joining me today like a normal Wednesday mr. Scott Johnson DTS contributor founder of the frog pants network How are you Scott Johnson like normal Wednesday? I don't like to term average Wednesday, but no It's an above average Wednesday. Sure. Yeah, you're here What a week man like Microsoft week from heck and all kinds of cool stuff to talk about great guest today I'm stoked to be here and also joining us today. Ms. Lindsay Gilpin technology writer slash Journalist co-author of follow the geeks. How's it going Lindsay? Pretty good. Pretty good. Thanks for having me Hey, thanks for joining us We're going to end some confusion. Maybe not all confusion We might even cause some confusion around all the installment plans and why they're so popular a little later on But let's start off with the headlines Google has announced something called the accelerated mobile pages project to speed up mobile web browsing a preview of a new framework Called amp HTML amp for accelerated mobile pages is open source It's available on github the tech restricts JavaScript Blocking it completely for third-party use though it does support advertising in unlimited fashion Amp users can choose to distribute their pages through the Google cache for free But they don't have to several publishers like the BBC and BuzzFeed are on board back A lot of publishers are on board as our services like LinkedIn Twitter WordPress comm bunch more if you're curious You can demo amp at g.co slash amp demo That's g.co slash amp demo and you'll see some chicklets come up on the top click on tap on one of them Do it in a mobile browser. That's what it's been for and it will load super fast This is essentially Google's response to Facebook's news pages or Apple's news app But it's open source and available for anyone to use and they don't even have to interact with Google if they don't want Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what their What's in it for them? It feels like one of those Google things where it's not clear what's in it for them That this is maybe, you know, somebody in a team who's super stoked about a new accelerated platform for mobile That's real excited about it and doesn't care so much about how them, you know Advertising model fed or how they can leverage some of their other properties. This just feels like a neat Thing and they're doing it in a way that makes it sort of open to everybody. I think it's great Lindsay can can you divine why Google might approach it this way? I think I have an idea myself. I Don't really think they need to worry It's probably just I mean, it's nice. It's a good idea But I guess they just really have nothing to worry about. I think that's it They they don't need to force people into an app the way Facebook does or the way Apple does They need people to use search on mobile more and so if they make it open for others to use It will make their own search engine work better because they can take advantage of Whoever uses this in whatever way and of course if they use the free Google cache That's gonna help to you know, drive some data through Google servers as well So yeah, I don't think they have to worry about locking in the traffic They just want to make people use it more because they think that'll lift the search engine boats more And it is a really interesting way of doing it that I think whether they're doing it in self-interest or not Is the right way to do it and make it so that other people can implement it in whatever way they want Bing can use this Right, they don't they don't have to involve Google at all They can go to GitHub use the repository implemented on their search engine and and have AMP pages in little chicklets loaded there as well It may be hesitant to but yes, they can they can use it Yeah, and I don't know why they would be hesitant to use if it catches on I think what's interesting is the publishers are jumping in and those are the ones that I think would be most hesitant to use it because of the restrictions on tracking their restrictions on the kind of analytics you can get out of it and Google says They will try to add more of that as time goes on But what it does is it actually makes ad blocking less attractive because these are pages that can have advertising But they won't be weighed down by all the JavaScript and tracking cookies and and other sorts of things that cause mobile web pages to load so slowly now yeah, it's a In a world of web caching and internet cache and file systems Amazon web services is no slouch They announced the launch of a preview of quick site. This is a business intelligence service It promises to provide visualizations and as little as 60 seconds at a tenth of the cost of Traditional business intelligence it uses Amazon's new proprietary superfast parallel in-memory computation engine aka spice Love that one. It will compete with IBM's Cognos a soft layer and on soft layer and Microsoft's power BI and as your AWS is the biggest public cloud of the bunch Amazon also introduced snowball a 45 pound unit that physically moves up to 50 terabytes at the speed of ground delivery All very interesting. I do feel like there is a every time we do that an article like this comes up I feel like we are heading closer and closer to the next phase of the internet war Which is who is caching my data? Is it Google with all this new Google cache stuff? Is it at Amazon s3 services as somebody else? The cloud is more than just a place for my files to hang out It is the next battleground for a great war Tom Yeah, the business intelligence is the next stage up like making sense of all that data that you have an Amazon being one Of the biggest certainly needs to get in on that action. Yes The spice must flow will be considered as a headline For this show, but how about that 45 pound sneaker net box? Like I just kind of adore that like oh, I have you know 50 terabytes of data How much how should I get it to you Amazon drop shipment will Have a box at your door shortly It's amazing HP announced new devices today and PC mag among many others were most taken with the HP NV 8 Note it's an 8-inch Windows tablet with a 1920 by 1200 touchscreen comes with a stylus, but you can also buy it packaged with a 10-inch aluminum HP NV note keyboard Folio and then your tablet can sit in either landscape or portrait mode while you use HP's keyboard which has 1.5 millimeters of travel From all reports it feels similar to HP's premium notebooks It's a Verizon LTE tablet it and the stylus sell for $329 and then the package with your nice keyboard folio is only $100 more $429 both of those will ship on November 8th HP also announced a bunch of other stuff 34-inch technicolor HP NV curved all-in-one desktop for 1799. That's a $799 that comes November 8th the 15.6 inch pavilion gaming laptop with g-force GTX 9 50m graphics inside Starting at $899 that's also November 8th and the specter x2 a 12-inch laptop tablet hybrid with adjustable kickstand that starts at $800 with a keyboard. That's more like a surface pro type of situation But this NV 8 note man We're getting so many interesting form factor takes on the convertible slash hybrid slash Tablete with keyboard whatever you call that form factor. Yeah, I feel like this is gonna stick this time There's been attempts at that and in in previous years even just recent years and kind of come and gone And you know, nobody really knows where this stuff ends up or how we're gonna get these things to be truly hybrid devices and with what? Microsoft released yesterday and what HP did today. It's starting to come together. It's interesting though HP always reminds me of HP of the 90s their naming conventions and you know, it's a small little thing but man one day they'll stop calling things aluminum HP NV note keyboard folio and Pavilion gaming laptop and and these kind of names are just in a way It's nostalgic in other ways. I just feel like they're confusing the marketplace heritage branding, man Heritage branding gives me that good feeling. I had 1996 when my HP Pavilion with its 366 modem got me on the graphical web And don't forget it for a while there. You could buy an HP iPod from the from gosh. Yeah, well, it's an entirely different thing But anyway, these look really nice and I'm yeah, I'm pretty jazzed about this I don't know what's gonna stick or what's gonna become new standard stuff, but you know between this and the Microsoft stuff It's all looking pretty good Pandora announced something today, you know the music people they announced today. It will purchase ticket fly These guys specialize in selling tickets for music concerts over 1200 venues in North America Don't know what this means for them, but it is an interesting move by a by Pandora I would say well, it's certainly trying to tie in the revenue stream of Concerts which has become the preeminent stream right Lindsay. Yeah, well, it's crazy how How much you know all the convenience fees they charge you like 30 bucks an extra fee? Every time you order from ticket master a ticket fly So I wonder how how they're gonna do that or if it'll make it more expensive or I don't know It's just it's absurd what they charge now online to buy tickets So you think it's do you think this is a chance for Pandora to set themselves apart from the very loud Lately competition of Spotify and Apple music and everybody who's trying to get into the streaming music business and and make them Seem like you know the grandfathers of streaming music in some weird way Is this their way of doing it kind of getting a grassroots or more brick-and-mortar approach to to tying music to concerts? And if that'll work for them. Yeah, I wonder that because I read a little bit about this and some people seem to think It's a last-ditch effort by them and then others are like maybe they're just getting it on the ground floor like you're saying for concerts, but They're talking about doing some smart data kind of things to figure out what concerts people want to go to and I guess I get that to a Certain extent, but I'm not really sure how Necessary or how useful that'll be for people I feel like you just go online to get whatever concert you want It's not one of those things you really need data for I don't know. Maybe I'm yeah, I agree with you It's not for me. Yeah, I'm not going to say oh this will make my life better But it certainly is good for Pandora as it gets them some more revenue and it could be good for artists If Pandora says hey because we put it an ability to buy a ticket right after somebody listened to a song You sold more tickets to your concert and made more money Then that starts to lessen the feeling that these streaming companies are just ripping us off right now The streaming companies are helping artists make more money off the thing they make the most money off of Yeah, and they need that because Spotify. I mean obviously they have a lot of problems with artists right now And so does Apple so anything I'll get them a Leg up on that. Yeah Fortune reports Toyota has been testing a modified Lexus GS on Tokyo's chuteau expressway It uses a roadmap and some external sensors to evaluate traffic and make decisions on the best route What lanes to choose while driving you to your destination the feature has been called? Highway teammate and was demonstrated on at an event on October 6 the automated driving works from on ramp to off ramp So it leaves you driving when you're not on the highway Toyota hopes to launch products based on highway teammate by 2020 Lindsey this is interesting in that it's Toyota not exactly going for full self-driving Yeah, and I actually I I in all the talk about Autonomous vehicles. I really like the idea of it's just helping us because I realized when I moved to LA that I'm using Google Maps more and it's Messing me up more than it used to I feel like I don't think it's as smart as it used to be or maybe it's especially the traffic And you know really you only need to figure out I kind of want to figure out things on my own But I also would like some help, you know to get to know places So I like the idea of it not being fully autonomous because sorry, but I think we're that's just ridiculous to focus on that right now But anyway, that's just why and I think you'll get more people accepting it Yeah, if they feel like they're still involved or they feel like hey when I want to drive for fun When I'm not stuck in commuter traffic, I can get behind the wheel by the way, you should be using ways in LA Just okay, I keep saying things online about that. I know because Google Maps has just screwed me And I know they're both owned by Google, but for some reason ways so much better, especially we're getting around traffic I The only other thing I'd say about this is every time this topic of self-driving cars comes up We always we always come to kind of the same conclusion conclusion, and I'm really happy to hear Lindsey say this But I I really do I'm a big believer in there has to be a bridge between What we do now with full control and what they want us to do with no control And this sounds like one to me or at least a piece of that bridge of kind of a transition period And it's only in five years. That's a very short amount of time So if that's if this is going to be quote-unquote the hybrid of this Technology the way that hybrids are between gas and electric then great It's our transition, and I think we need those because none of us are I don't mom I shouldn't say none of us a lot of us are not ready to just say let take me where I need to go robot and fall asleep in the backseat Yeah, I am definitely ready for the robot to take me and I don't have to drive, but you're right I'm not a good, but I feel like there's a lot of people in that boat, and this is a good transition Verizon will begin sharing user browsing habits with AOLs ad network. Oh, oh, I don't know if it's oh anyway starting Starting November according to the verge Verizon will use the or sorry will share the persistent user ID number it appends to the customer's mobile browsing Often called a super cookie it delivers more customized advertising now this tracking method is often unblockable undeletable undetectable and Probably worst unencrypted Verizon does allow users to opt out of the super cookie tracking by calling the company or logging into an account on a website But I would argue Tom that like Tom always says opt-in always better than opt out I hate opt-outs and that's my my main problem with this is that you've got to go turn it off Yeah, I think you're forgetting the hubbub around this that happened last fall AT&T just dropped doing this They're like fine We're not gonna just we're just not gonna do it anymore Verizon resisted And I think Verizon resisted because they were thinking about buying AOL Which they now did and they're like how can we not track all of our users on mobile and then sell that data through AOL it's a pile of money. We just can't turn away But yeah, it's a horrible tracking system that you have almost no control over that other people who run servers Can use to track you without your permission or Verizon's permission For that matter because there's a persistent ID put into every URL you use on a Verizon mobile browser and Not the only reason it's not even a major reason, but it's one of the reasons I'm glad I'm not on Verizon for my mobile service anymore So there yeah, so yeah, look has there been a more final word on anything in the history of the world There is a shift though between there used to be just like AT&T was the butt of everybody's jokes Everybody ripped on them terrible coverage this not your program's bad grandfather plans and all this I feel like there is a shift of attitude Like the opposite of what Microsoft are having right now and it's happening toward or in the direction of The folks over at Verizon, so we'll see how that shakes out I guess Computer chip company Samsung announced its best quarter in two years on strong sales of its chips and displays operating profit rose 80% Revenue rose 7.5% Samsung's chip unit was responsible for about half the company's profit and sales of displays to Chinese smartphone makers helped a bit, too The company also apparently has a smartphone unit Yeah, that didn't help them much in the earnings there. No, but Samsung's such a great company in that they can you know They're quietly providing ram to Apple their chief rival when it comes to you know The number one phone sales when it comes up to iPhone versus Galaxy S phones or whatever And they've got all these hands and all these different cookie jars They're very very interesting company to me, especially when you look back at the other day I was thinking back in the 80s if you wanted to go buy a crappy little 13 inch TV Your best bet if you didn't want to spend a lot of money was a Samsung or gold star and they were terrible They broke with like the first month. They were awful They were like Hyundai's then but man these South Korean manufacturers and companies have just up to their game in every possible way and Samsung's You know, they're awesome They're cool. Well, and we all always think of Samsung as the smartphone maker and consumer electronics But smartphones while they sell a lot of them still have been the most troubled part of Samsung And what this shows is that that's not what they're best at right what they're best at right now is semiconductors chips and displays Just like Sony is best at image sensors right now. Yeah, everyone's using their cameras and they don't even know it Reuters reports the US FAA will test technology from CACI International to detect and track rogue unmanned aerial systems You may know them as drones FAA officials say unauthorized flights are growing and pose a safety and security risk Detect and avoid and radio command and control technologies might be necessary for UAS's as they're called to fly autonomously over long distances for services like we were talking about earlier package delivery Do you want that 45 gig box? So yeah, they are talking in this about registering hobbyists Which I know is going to cause an uproar around people are like, hey if I just want to fly an UAS in my backyard I shouldn't have to register with the government That's gonna that's gonna cause a problem if they keep talking that way But having detection systems or coming up with some way For these things to automatically be prevented from class B airspace from from around airports I think is a good thing to investigate we Joe the pilot wrote in response to our discussion with Darren yesterday about this Fine that the FAA is trying to levy which by the way Joe says that fine is not gonna be 1.9 million dollars It's gonna go way way down It's it's good to know that the FAA is looking into this because this is where it can be getting Getting dangerous if people who don't know what they're doing or do know what they're doing and don't care Start flying into airport regions or as we had happened here in Southern, California in them into where firefighting is happening It can really cause Real damage and real problems. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm all for Enthusiasts getting what they want. It seems like if the regulation can happen on the side of the drone manufacturers Then it's just like any other device electronic device in your house a lamp has to have a certain, you know Certification EPA, whatever it is. It doesn't you don't want it to cause a fire, right? So why not why not this because it makes I shouldn't have to register to plug in a lamp? Oh, you should not Yeah, so I'm kind of on both sides. Yes Engadget reports on three 8k panels that broadcaster NHK showed off at SeaTac in Japan yesterday JDI's 17.3 inch LCD that one was just announced last week along with Ortiz's 9.6 inch LCD with 915 dots per inch That one's from back in May and sharp SELs 13.3 inch OLED display that one was announced last June NHK hopes to see these come out sometime before broadcast the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 8k. I just figured hey, yeah, these aren't necessarily brand new But it's good to know that there's some 8k display panels getting some attention out there somewhere Synaptics unveiled its own force touch technology for touch screens called clear force actually quite like this name Synaptic says it can be used for speed scrolling zooming by applying variable force While also sliding your finger. There's some multi-touch for you create Excuse me clear force will be available in force enabled screens in early 2016 and yes Synaptics holds 60 count them 60 patents on this version of force touch Synaptics is very quick to point that out so that people don't say they're ripping off Apple You can you can have different implementations and we're and we're going to see a bunch of things with force touch I have you used it either one of you. I didn't it's awesome. Have you not used it yet, Lindsay? It's I'm so shocked that I like it. I thought gimmicky stupid thing number one I don't care about it This seems like a weird like they tacked it on just to make it so the s series of the phone would sell better and We got one in here and I started messing with it and it is a bona fide kind of game changer for me And I think it's just because tactically it feels like I am I make it my thumb is making its way through the device in a way that feels natural and normal and the feedback is real and it's it's just kind of a human interaction that feels great to me Totally shocked at how well that works. It's awesome Bloomberg rounded up the people familiar with the matter. They actually use those words again. They're coming back into vogue They say that Amazon is exploring creating a TV service a live TV service involving channels from CBS and NBC The familiar people say deliberations are preliminary So you could put this one on the shelf up there next to the Apple television service room Or in fact, you should dust that off while you're up there because that one's been up there for about five years now Also The NBC and CBS are also thickly involved with Hulu and about 20 other projects So if they are doing something it wouldn't a surprise me and be it just a matter of whether Amazon has a cloud of the money And I don't know if I'm ready for another $15 a month television service so we've had to Internet Lot when they say live they just mean like linear channels like you would get on cable two services launch here in the United States One is sling TV which has no local channels and the other is PlayStation view which has Fox NBC and CBS channels, but no ABC channels So you can look at that and say well it's how I mean I guess it's possible Amazon could strike a deal like Sony did and come up with something and then I mean That's where Amazon improves on Netflix is suddenly it's providing you that kind of service plus the Amazon channel that shows all their Originals and stuff that'd be interesting. Yeah, it could be interesting. I just I don't know man I just feel like this stuff's gonna get a little bit crazy and we're gonna be so the a la carte thing We asked for is actually happening and now we're not sure and now you don't want it anymore too much choice It's not so much too much choice It's just too much too much thinking and too many apps and then I gotta have it run on too many things And I don't know I guess what I wanted with that was one device and a bunch of a la carte to No, I know I mean you long for the days of the Soviet Union when the government just came in and said here is your service I get that it's easier No, I think in all seriousness, I think what we're going through right now is confusing But this isn't the way it's always gonna be this is the part before the shakeout, right? This is when smartphones met the that weird LG thing and blackberries and Trio's and it's like, I don't know if any of these are any good yet And we're we're waiting for that iPhone moment where somebody says here here is the service and here's how it should work Yeah, and then Android everyone. Okay, we know it then that came and then when you have the iPhone moment Then you get your androids and you get your windows 10s and and you and but everybody kind of knows the playing field at that point I should want to save you some emails because I already heard people clicking. Yeah Submit some stories vote on them folks daily tech news show dot reddit.com That is the place to go to let us know what you're interested in that helped us put this line up together today So get some votes in there submit some stories daily tech news show dot reddit.com and thank you for doing so That is a look at the headlines Canter world panel com tech has come out with a study of the quarter It's three months ending August 31st now keep in mind when we talk about this That means the iPhone 6s and the 6s plus were not on sale They hadn't been announced through this entire quarter, but even so without Apple's new payment plan 47% of smart phones sold in the United States were linked to installment plans those plans like T-Mobile Sprint Verizon and AT&T have where you don't pay much up front if anything and you just pay off your phone with monthly payments 20% of the phones sold in the US during that period were on Contracts and then the rest were prepaid now if you break that down by platform 51% of iPhones were still sold on the installment plan and keep in mind. That's not and that's without the Apple plan yet 37% on contract and 12% on prepaid for Android. It was a little less 46% on installment But only 15% on contract 39% on prepaid and I think you just have a different socioeconomic breakdown of the people buying Android versus iOS because you can get a lot cheaper phones if you're buying on Android What it Lindsay you're you're the one who wanted to talk about this? Why why do you think people really are doing installment plans in these numbers? Yeah, I thought about this because it struck me because at the end of July I had to go get a new phone really quickly and You know had decided on iPhone went into AT&T and needed a new plan and everything and I they explained so much to me about This installment plan was 20 something dollars a month and this one was 30 something plus the data and then you add this and then you add that and That's way less we swear than a contract so you should do that But you're paying for the full price of the phone and I just got so confused I was like, okay, like I guess I'll do AT&T next like I don't really do I have a choice So I really think it's they've made it so confusing and even after researching online I found this thing on CNN money that was like this breakdown of all the plans for all the providers and it was just insane like how because they don't even add on the data or the Texting or whatever it is. So it's just it's incredibly confusing and I feel like people just don't feel like they have a choice Well in the the Apple market, maybe even a little bit different than the than the Android market in that the annualization of the iPhone is is Is the thing I mean they do Far and beyond what other manufacturers are doing and they're more staggered and also when you can upgrade the different Android versions are different So it's kind of a different ecosystem on timing, but with Apple doing every year same time There are people like me who want to go get the six and then the six s on the s year I want the seven when the seven comes out the seven s when that comes out and you like that turn around Well, some of us have had to do things like well, it's a subsidy way My daughter's plans up. So I'm gonna I'm gonna steal her plans. You can have mine keep using my old phone I'll get a new phone on the new plan because I've still got a year on the old plan And then when that one comes up, we'll switch it back. I'll get to use that plan again No, they do that so long and then you know one day your kids move Not part of your plan anymore So so for me and your wife's like nope We're not having more kids just so you can have a cell phone But I think that there are a lot of people like that who Want a simple way to do that that doesn't feel crazy to them And if you can lay the math out in a way And I feel like Apple's done a slightly better job with their plan to lay out what the math is and explain that Well, this includes Apple care if you do it and it's this much per month for this long And every year you 12 months swap out for the new thing or you can wait till the 24 and pay the one off you have They've basically shown that it's essentially the same cost as if you bought the phone outright with cash and bought Apple care plan That's much simpler than what I think AT&T's messaging is and maybe they can't be because again They don't just have iPhones and cell they have a huge range of other kinds of phones to to put on these plans And they and they kind of go all over the map I can tell you from my perspective I was hesitant at first because they didn't trust anybody. I'm like How are you guys making more money on this thing than I should be paying or whatever? But they kind of got me now because this idea of being able to go in there once a year And just swap the thing out I don't really care about the old one anymore. Give me the give me the new thing walk out of there with it No one's the wiser in a weird way. I'm I'm paying for a phone as a service instead of as a device I own And I and I can't believe I I'm saying that I like that now. I think I do like it I think I'm not a hundred percent yet get late wait till next year about this time They'll be a better. I'll have a better answer for that. But right now it does kind of seem like A good way to deal with these year over year people who hate the two-year contract And I I think that android phones In general like you say aren't on a particular cycle, but particular manufacturers are samsung comes out with its galaxy s Phones around the same time and its note phones around the same time every year So samsung which has been rumored to be considering the same sort of Pay-off plan for their phones would probably be well served by doing it But again, but all of that said why is anybody doing it? Whether apple's doing it in a nice clean way or whether t-mobile has the best deal because if you look at it They're the lowest monthly payment plan of all the carriers in the u.s Why is it that immediately and there were fears about this people are like well people understand contracts Then and there are people like scott johnson who have whole systems of livings, you know built around the contract system Are they really going to want to do all this math turns out? Yeah, and lindsay. I don't know my guess is It's because when you walk into buy a phone They say well, you can pay $650 and own the phone today and just pay for the service or you can pay $200 but you're locked into a two-year contract And it doesn't give you any discount or You can pay nothing And then for an extra $20 a month you have that phone And then when you're done paying it off then it's still yours to keep And all we hear is one is really expensive one is $200 and the other is $0 that I have to give them right now And I think that's all the math that most people do Yeah, yeah, and it's actually it's interesting because I mean phones don't last two years anymore. So It's the studies have shown that they love what 18 months maybe so Really eight months. Wow 18. Oh 18. Okay. That makes more sense It's about it's about 18 where you start noticing scratch. Yeah. Yeah, but um, yeah, I think it's I think it's really interesting especially because more so Younger generations don't care so much about owning things as much as you know We used to like we don't have that attachment to like this is my phone and I need it You know, it's like I just want the best version of whatever there is so and it's not like I Tom to answer your question even more simply And and just hearing about lindsay's experience going into that at&t store is It just sucks the two-year contract thing sucks It sucks because contracts suck and now I realize that what we've done is we've signed up for just a different kind of two-year contract It's a two-year contract nonetheless, but there's something about it that just seems to suck less to me Well, it's rent to own Right, I mean, which is a horribly economically a horrible thing to do Uh, because they what what happens in the two-year contract if you cancel early is you have to pay them money What happens with the rent to own model that we have now is they take your phone Right, you send over repo man. I get it. It's totally we're gonna have cell phone repo men now And thought about that just uh dog the bounty hunter. He'll take it But it but it is kind of that weird thing that you know, it's it's we're trading a contract for a contract But for some reason this seems simpler to me and I I'm kind of in on it And maybe I'm a sucker or maybe I'm the I'm the wrong guy to ask But if you'd asked me six months ago I had told you flat out no way I was ever going to do this and now I think I may have been convinced But actually speaking it still makes the most sense to buy the phone Unlocked outright at the beginning gives you the most options and it costs less in most cases But most people don't want to do that You know and and a lot of people can't do that they might be able to pay $20 a month But they're not going to be able to shell out 650 750 dollars Right or in the iphone case said 900 something dollars if you want the you know the 128 gig Yeah, yeah that let's say that that is absolutely the most options the best price the best everything There's something about doing that it would be like paying cash for a car And driving off the lot knowing that you just lost half your value because that's just how it is when you buy a new car with cash So you or when you lease a car right where you're definitely paying more money, but you have the convenience It's much more of a lease. Yeah, this feels more like a lease without harsh As harsh a penalties are as harsh a interest kind of problem that you would have with a traditional loan So I think that that's just the thing we're starting to see our phones as more commodities Uh and services less the and less like a Computer I need to maintain and I think that's maybe part of this as well as a shift in the thinking Well depression era tom says you should just go without a phone until you could afford to buy one But realistic 21st century tom is like, you know what this is probably the best of both worlds Right, you can afford to get a phone now But you're not locked into a punitive weird contract You can even trade down Into a cheaper phone later on and there are prepaid phones So I feel like overall it probably is a better option than the contract system And it's also a two-year experiment we can just try this out for those who are worried about it What's the worst that can happen? You can do the math and see what you're paying It's not like that's all hidden and you can you can figure that stuff out and for the record I prefer dust bowl tom over depression era They're pretty much this is yeah, they're the same era, but there's different sensibilities Right, uh one's headed to california for a land of opportunity Hey europeans and australians and folks who are like, what is with your crazy system over there? We've had this for years or we haven't had this problem. Uh, let us know feedback at daily tech news show dot com How does your system differ or not differ from what we're describing here Our pick of the day comes from tyler and his pick is the economist The economist magazine he says he likes it because it provides insightful articles broken up by section They have great weekly science and technology. He says he even likes Uh specifically the technology quarterly which explores cutting edge of tech and tech policy every three months The newspaper also has a great mobile app He says which offers the ability to create audio playlists of articles being read by people with soothing english accents Uh tyler says I always feel smarter after listening to a few of them Lastly articles tend to be brief at most a page or two long Which allows digesting a few rich nuggets of information and analysis on a short subway trip or waiting in the queue for coffee They say things like queue in england says tyler Uh, so yeah, uh, thanks for the pick. I'm actually a reader of the economist myself I I find them part of a uh, of a well balanced diet of news and information Well, that's good. What do you what do you cheap day with like what's your uh, what's your crappy? Intake like, you know, people can eat healthy all week, but they're gonna have a big mac by friday What do you what's what's that for you with the reading? I guess it's reddit I was hoping it was reddit. Yeah, or or or uh, uh, This don't take offense web cartoons. Yeah web comics They're terrible for you of which extra life is in my is in my list of feeds Uh in there by the way, I really liked the selfie stick one. That was good That's a guy holding a phone and then put it on the selfie stick and it was literally the same length from his face And I just I wanted to scream at him so You're doing it wrong Uh, thank you tyler send your picks to us feedback at daily tech news show dot com You can find my picks at daily tech news show dot com slash picks Uh, finally our message of the day from jp Who says he's from seven hills close enough to parma to enjoy the pierogies without having to wear white socks with my sandals Ohio Ohioans are laughing their asses off at that right now Uh, he says I was listening to the microsoft windows 10 devices coverage on show 2596 And I wanted to comment on a major omission during the snark over the new phones One of the major points windows continuum was completely missed Continuum also allows a person to make just their windows 10 lumia phone function as a full-blown computer Including a monitor keyboard and mouse. I didn't time the segment But it seemed that about as much time if not more was dedicated to using the phone in continuum mode As was given to the phone itself the idea of allowing a person to do full office functionality With a mouse and keyboard and only owning a phone is a major Concept of course being a verizon customer. I'll be lucky to ever use this myself I'll just have to be happy cuddling my icon running 8.1 at night. There will be a windows Lumia phone come to verizon. I fully expect don't worry, uh jp, but yes, thank you Uh for that we we should have discussed that continuum demonstration because continuum is one of the things that I Think is the most compelling about windows 10 and I would like to try that out myself To see just how well it works, but is that not the dream of like, oh my computer's in my pocket and then I just plug it into a keyboard mouse and Monitor and now I have my full computer and I can use it just like like always, but it's all one device I've always wanted that Yeah, that's huge. Lindsey is that a is that how you would want to use windows is to be able to say Everything i'm doing is just coming with me everywhere I go Uh Why not I don't know. I don't like that I don't like that mentality in general Everything coming with me wherever I go. Well, it's all in the cloud anyway It's just the processor that lets you access it is a way I think part of it Is taking it from high-minded concept to something that that works as well as you hope it with So for example, when you say your phone will do anything windows can 10 can but you're like Well, yeah, but it's not going to let me play heroes of the storm on maximum Let me crunch my video down as fast as I need it to like my big rig at home wood or or whatever So there's always that but maybe we're closer to that than we've ever been and that alone is exciting to me Because it's been the promise for ages and now maybe we're you know, we're finally to that place I remember bill gates trying to convince me that windows ce was the way to take windows on the road And it wasn't it was terrible for that It was a piece of garbage but now we're to a place where maybe this is Kind of happening and even a little bit is okay with me. So I'm cool with it. Let's see where they take it But I'm pretty cool with the idea And the continuum mode is what makes the surface book work so that you can pull that screen off and lose the gpu without losing your session Uh, and I man, I've been real close to buying a surface book Uh over the past 24 hours the thing that's hold me up is they only give a maximum of 524 gigabytes Uh, and I want a terabyte in my laptop I'm this close We're either of you excited by any of the microsoft products yesterday particular What do you think of that stuff? Oh, I I didn't really pay attention I don't know All right, I found I think that book is pretty hot. Um, I'm I'm an apple guy generally I'm a big os 10 fan or have been for years I think you know somebody was garbage and I really like yo capitan. So that's where I stand right now, but Microsoft's giving me more and more reasons these days to be interested in not just their software, but their hardware and Uh as an artist who needs to do things on the go I'm very interested in how that stylus and uh and book will function as a Is a portable solution to that as well as all the other things you need sort of a tablet slash notebook for so You know for I thought I was locked in on an ipad pro this year I'm not so sure now I need to see some reviews and hear from some actual artists who get some hands on But they may be they may be the thing I get and I'm I'm just kind of shocked that I'm even saying it But I was really impressed with it yesterday Yeah, I have to say I was really impressed with the pixel c from google And it's and it's nifty magnet thing, which is pretty awesome until I saw the the surface book And and now I'm I just wish I could have a terabyte inside. I know I can do an external drive and all of that It's just it's it's a personal thing. It's a me thing. It's not a you think Microsoft Uh, thank you jp for the email and thank you lindsay gilpin for joining us. It was really great. Have you along? Thanks a lot You can follow lindsay on twitter twitter.com slash lindsay gilpin. It's l y n d s e y g i l p i n anything else to let folks know about Um, no, just I do a lot of clean tech kind of environmental writing too. So just follow me on there for That kind of stuff Excellent keep an eye out big things coming Scott johnson also has big things coming twitter.com slash Scott johnson name one of the big things We launched a new show on the network for enthusiasts for the video game heroes of the storm which I mentioned earlier Not on purpose, but just came to mind It is a podcast dedicated to that fantastic blizzard title Which has only been out a little bit almost just shy of a year in full release And if you're interested in that we have two episodes up third one coming this weekend They can find more at frogpants.com slash core and all the ways to subscribe and get it for free. You're right there Excellent. Thank you to our partners slash bosses slash patrons the folks who make the show possible It's about five percent of you out there say, you know what I get enough value out of the show I want to make sure the show continues. So even if it's only a dollar a month Uh, we would love to have it and if you're willing to give it to us head over to daily tech news show dot com Slash support to find out all the ways to keep the show afloat Our email address is feedback at daily tech news show dot com. You can give us a call 51259 daily That's 5125932459 listen to the show live monday through friday at 4 30 p.m Eastern time at alphageek radio dot com and visit our website daily tech news show dot com We will be back tomorrow with more talk to you then The show is part of the frog pants network Get more at frogpants.com Time and club hopes you have enjoyed this brover Makes me laugh every time My apologies to allison charidan, but it wasn't written down in front of me and I totally blanked. Oh, no Oh for tomorrow. Yeah That's weird. I wrote it in there But it's allison charidan tomorrow That's really weird. It didn't take You know what happened and I had this happen to me a few times Is that even if you write it in and you click off onto another tab or page? Sometimes it doesn't stay Hmm Yeah, we've had that happen Usually it's one like I go away for a while And don't get out of the dock that it won't refresh every once in a while. That happens. It's really weird Hey, lindsay Were you just in southern utah? I just saw an instagram photo that made me uh, yeah, I was That's beautiful down there, isn't it? Oh, it's amazing. I took three weeks and drove out here from kentucky And so, uh, I spent the most time in utah. I fell in love with I had never been there before Nice, I'm up in city and I get down there now and again But I'm always excited when somebody sees how rad that stuff is down there. It's so oh my gosh Yeah, we went to moab and then down to um, we're gonna go to grand gulch But yeah, I had a dog so couldn't bring the dog anywhere So, um, we just kind of went in and around the canyon lands and camped around there and everything But it was amazing. I want to go back already. Yeah, it's really cool. Moab's awesome too. Just all that red rock everywhere Really neat. Yeah. Yeah, I never seen anything like that. So it's neat like an alien planet when you when you go down Wait, isn't there one that is goblin valley or whatever with the really weird Yeah, that are on top of little yeah, it has this really strange. Um, What's the word the just the weathering over the years created these really weird pillars And they just you can walk down and hike down and that stuff. It's like being on a different It's like some star trek planet. It's just crazy I went to arches and that was really neat. I had then did a big hike there So that was beautiful. It was hot obviously Even now it's still I mean even in the fall it's still pretty warm down there I hate to interrupt because actually I think this is cool Nature conversation, but we do need a title for the show You talk comes up like I know which one I would pick which one roger I would pick the spice must flow I don't know. I kind of like Verizon stole the cookie from the cookie jar Um I just like cookie leaves bad taste that's another good one Pandora, what was the ticket? Fly there was a ticket fly one too pandora makes the ticket fly Tickets fly at a pandora's box for a couple of us Um Let's see big on the drone worse. Wait, we've done that one. Yeah, we've done every version of that one Um, can you lease me now? If you lease me now That's pretty funny. Oh, I get it. It's the Verizon. Yes. Can you lease me now? Good The return of the pocket computer what The return of the pocket computer. Uh-huh. That's an option. I think uh, I think the top ones might be good HP has dumb names for their products Probably enough that I can go with can you lease me now? It works on several levels Yeah Immediately makes you sing that's the thing should it be can you lease me now good? Like the Verizon commercial or can you lease me now? Yes as written This just makes me No, no I don't have a strong opinion on the matter What about people familiar with the matter Can you lease me now left without the good is is the way the commercial usually is the end anyway, so remembered Yeah, that's how you remember it. So which way just without the good So lease me now without the good. Yes, or the yes either one The enemy of yes is the good. Is that the old friends? Yeah, no, can you lease me now a question mark? Yes So keep the yes Oh No, then why did okay So the title we're all agreed on is can you lease me now? How would the yes yes agreement to you third base? Who's on first Hey, I wrote a whole thing for that. I'm ready to go All right, uh, so about those alien landscapes in southern Utah They're amazing. What kind of dog do you have Lindsay? Um, it is not my dog. My boyfriend's dog has a australian shepherd. Oh You know our dog is a rottweiler shepherd mix But a lot of people will often say ask us if she's australian shepherd or cattle dog sometimes too Yeah, my sister has a cattle dog Because you have cattle We had a sheepdog for a while we had no sheep Poor dog my friend actually had seven sheep dogs and sheep to go with it Oh, really? But the dogs were like they didn't really do anything except wait. Is that the basis of that movie seven sheep for seven sheep dogs? No, I've never seen that variation of like seven brides for seven Um Carry on without me your boyfriend has a wicked cool mustache. I'll give him It's absurd Whatever it takes I think it looks great I'm just jealous of these photos beautiful down there that this time of year Yeah, I was on I was on the top of my instagram game doing that road trip. So kind of I'm lacking lately, but that's okay super cool Hi jacks Hey, buddy How was your dog Jenny? He's seven years old Wow, my instagram is full of adorable pictures of my dog. I'll just say does jacks have his own instagram yet? Yes, he does. I thought so. I thought you started that. Yeah, it's uh aww underscore POM awp To respect his anonymity on the internet, which I just destroyed Look at him So cute Yeah, he's a hoot. There's a slum of him going down the stairs for like two days ago. So yeah Oh my gosh I'm doing a project with my kids that involves them very cautiously going out on the internet my school kids And um, okay. It's like wait a minute. Yeah, sorry. I do not have children. I should clarify And so I said I would do the experiment along with them involving the dog So the dog is now part of the the project of like how you connect with people on the internet Behind a dog. It's so true. Yeah So Lindsay you're from Kentucky. Yes Louisville. Did you get the Ohio joke by the way? I wasn't sure if it was close enough to Louisville I we kind of make fun of Ohio in general Which like I'm from Kentucky. So I really shouldn't make fun of it But Yeah, so Do you guys uh, you guys what's the general uh upper down on justified? Do people like that show in Kentucky or is it I like that show. I haven't not caught up on it, but Most everyone I know likes it. It's not accurate at all. I've seen a lot of times. Yeah, that's just wondering If they're close on that stuff Yeah, it's not not really. It's not even some of the landscapes are Actually filmed there, but a lot of it obviously is not they sent a crew once to get some b-roll That's a mountain b-roll. Well, you know, if it's an establishing shot, they probably just shot that all at one go Yeah, but according to the imdb. It's the locations are la and pittsburgh. Well, pittsburgh was the pilot pittsburgh Yeah, that's sad So matt and I played a game the other day called most famous tv show From each of the 50 states can you name them all and it's like a long time fictional setting or actual shooting location so fictional setting because actual shooting setting might involve too much mobile Gotcha, but um, but yeah fictional setting like what what Show has done the most for any given state Magnum pi hawaii. Yeah, you can go a long time there hawaii 50 hawaii lost hawaii like you can really Continuum for british columbia. Yes. No It's target for british columbia But it was the first it was the first show shot shot in vancouver that i've ever seen that admitted it was in vancouver Was a battle star Or what? No, battle star was in vancouver continuum is actually set in vancouver battle star was in space yes Battle star never said it was in vancouver until maybe the last episode i guess i don't know If it's a hurry look at it Well, they never so they film everything ever they never admit they're there Yeah, nothing like like the flash is shot there, but it's in central city and arrow is also shot there But it's in starling city and except that's just you know, they shoot the same block from a different angle Yeah Change the name of the city to tax break city That was the best part in continuum the first episode where I saw the robson street sign and i'm like They didn't have to shoot around it. They could leave it in the shot. That must have been so liberating I think the funniest one was a rumored due south With the mountie in chicago it came out like in the lady. Oh, yeah, sort of that was shot in toronto And they tried to make it look like chicago, but occasionally you would see the cn tower in the background. It's like wait a minute I can't even hide that You don't remember when the cn tower used to be in chicago. Yeah, no, I thought that was a serious Coming up with wyoming You try to find a famous show from wyoming Cowboy show Right Where was uh bonanza shot or supposedly well, that's part of the fun of the game Well, hold on Ponderosa for a while. We were huge on that. We had touched by an angel and um What was that other show that that guy got in trouble later? Touched by the actor You're not far off. It's the other guy Roger Oh, yeah Anyway, they filmed all that stuff here and for a long time We were like this hot spot and then they quit doing the tax incentives and they everyone went to vancouver If you if you go to a blog called vfx soldier He goes and he he's a visual effects guy and he basically his big rant is that the us doesn't have a unified tax break script structure for Productions and that's why all these productions leave the country the you know, though canada britain They used to go to astrea, but now for a while that are super expensive even with the tax break. So they didn't stop doing it mexico Anything I think new mexico for a while was spending a lot of money George is a state that spends a lot of money on tax breaks, which is why a lot of shows are shot In or around Atlanta Was the movie the zombie movie zombie land was shot in georgia Oh, yeah, Atlanta's big. Oh, we're all walking dead. Yeah, is it walking? Is that actually in georgia filmed in georgia and said in it too, I think Yep Dodd vickers listens to a lot of the stuff we all do he's he works for um something Sleepy hollow. Well, then there's a bunch of anime. There's those animation studios in georgia as well Yeah Like archer is made out in georgia the other fun game is trying to debate amongst the california shows And the new york shows which show had the most impact On the city itself Oh like The wire obviously in baltimore Breaking bad in albuquerque, but like in new york where there's multiple shows to choose from which is the most new york show ever Law and order sv I like the confidence in the immediate answer Obviously I can't think of anything for san francisco other than the streets of san francisco No, there's others. No, there's gotta be Mash bridges everywhere Dirty harry for san francisco, right? That's a movie mrs. Dalf. Oh, you're only talking tv. Okay Drive-by fruiting I would argue maybe Mythbusters has some some effect on this. Yeah, but it's it's it's Is it really like bringing to light san francisco? No, like it's not a Maybe no because in that case I would say the real world san francisco because that was a bad Pedro The rock with nicolas cage I automatically discount any nicolas cage movie. Oh man, that's a great move. That's a great one Speaking of discounts on nicolas cage movies a new bundle is out The humble cage bundle cage bundle it's called a cage fury look into its eyes All dogs go to heaven the series was set in san francisco. I found a list Yeah, there's open for a movie on wiki for every state. Yeah, nicolas cage is a national treasure, all right Macmillan and wife Or was Star Trek 4 well all of them Yeah, but four is all in san francisco. He's right. Yeah for and they and they it's all stereotypes and everything I just rewatched four the other day. It's the best movie Oh, so we can fight about that too. No, no, no, it's not the worst sky worst time travel is going to check five is the worst Okay, you're right Five for bad. I'm sorry six Wait, no wait five is the good guys where they go find god, right? Oh, is that I thought that was No, six is okay. I need my pain. Six is good. Well, someone asked you if you got it Can I give you one thesis statement that will make you like four more Yeah I would posit that the first of all the entire musical score of all the new rebooted star tracks Is more influenced by star trek 4 than any other movie Really? I would say that the humor that is at the core of all star trek movies was always best expressed in star trek 4 I completely agree. Okay. I agree with that 100. Yeah, and so it has a value It has a value to mainstream audiences where they dumb down all of the star trekking us of it It's about wales and a giant chocolate bar in the sky Um, it's not a generous of you to call it a chocolate bar. It's a baby roost That's spock being a hippie and Too much lds in the 60s. So that's why you don't like it. Exactly. That's a good memory on that joke and The worst part the worst part though and come on. Roger. You got to agree with me here You can't be shot around the sun and turn time backwards. I'll agree with you there You put you know what that's the thing though that that actually established that whole thing for the rest of the star trek universe So if they've done it since then Where's this red matter? You know, what's fake going faster than the speed of light in the ship that looks vaguely like a vulture But it's possible It's a warp bubble roger. So the shape of the ship doesn't matter Yeah, it doesn't actually it doesn't matter if you go in the dilithium crystal interact with the dancing So this is the thing I don't understand about the slingshot around the sun We could go back in time We go faster, but you're already going faster when you hit warp speed, right? Is it warp one? Yeah, but then you add speed At that point you're really should be going back in time No, but you're going faster through normal space not through warped space Well, so it's very important to mention and this is a big problem That's a that whole movie featured not one enterprise ship. It was all the bulkin ship. That's it It's not a It's Yeah, I mean also another thing to keep in mind fictional Okay, so so let me so wait you're scott. You're super star trek nerd, right? I love star trek So star trek 3 the where the search for spok. Yeah That was literally called search for spok. Yes So when spok is growing up and he goes to the hope on far thing With what's her name the the one that was originally played pal No, not to paul. Was it the one played by christie alley? Yeah, yeah, savage. Oh, savage Savick was uh, that wasn't savick movie that one. It was a different. That was robin curtis That was the one they replaced. That was the actress replaced. That's where I learned about sabo Right. So I want to know did like she and the spok do it Because that whole thing is kind of his puberty All right. All right whole Direction I didn't expect but I know spok has a kid is what I want to know spok did not have a kid As far as we know spok had no children I I can go look it up in the star trek encyclopedia, but as far as we know Yeah, I don't think he didn't freeze terrible dude. I don't any potential spok children are non canon Look, I guess Wrath of con is amazing. He extended director's cut of motion picture isn't as bad as you remember There's moments in there that are okay. It's really not. It's not nearly as bad as you remember, but I know it's boring. It's boring, but it's more trekky than any of them It wasn't the guy from seventh heaven in star trek the motion picture Yes, he was he was he's the one that ran off of the veager bald lady So he was always in the weird stuff. Yeah, that's her name And then so you had that too was amazing still holds up great movie. That's all right Grease terrible of course. Well, but the opening sequence is really It makes me really happy Three sucks Oh, man, just don't like a motion. You don't like you forgot who played roger Hold on roger. You forgot who played um the klingon bad guy. Um, yeah, it was doc brown That's awesome See that's why the bird of prey could go back in the time because you already had the he already had the flusk capacitor Actually hadn't thought of that. That's very funny. I bet you if you go back there, there's a letterman jacket somewhere hanging up on the bulkhead This is better than any podcast we've ever recorded Okay, I Will admit that I think here's two things. I think that are amazing about the continuity of the star trek movies Even though they are yes wildly uneven Everything that they do to get on the enterprise and go save spock Um, like all the the fun and that's a really fun sequence for me is watching them all contribute to stealing the enterprise Stealing the ship and I love that But in four at the very end when the charges are being read Each the charges are read and each one of them the camera tracks patch each one of them And it's each charge is associated to the person who did it at that tracking shot And that to me is a wonderful level of detail that can only be done by people making six movies So even though it was uneven and even though four was goofy I just love the care that I like that too and I like that for another reason the the rest of the cast never got The spotlight the Spock and Kirk always got which is a problem with Picard and Riker and everybody else in all the other movies It's just the way it works with the secondary cast and it was nice to see them get this Everybody gets a moment. Yes, everyone. It's great. Everyone wins a prize just like it should be in all sports with the nuclear Mouse and talking to it Little League soccer of movies computer An old computer All right. Well, I'm glad we have we've resolved this for all time There will be no more need to debate the relative value of the various original Star Trek movies We'll get to the next generation movies next time. Thanks for watching everybody