 Coming up on DTNS, Comcast makes a smart move into smart TVs. Facebook joins the pile on against Apple's App Store. And why more than just Amazon stores may lose cashiers. This is the Daily Tech News for Friday, August 28th, 2020 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt. And from Studio Redwood, I'm Sarah Lane. From Studio Denver, I'm Shannon Morse. Drawing the top tech stories from a rainy Cleveland, Ohio, I'm Len Peralta. And on the show's producer, Roger Chang. Yeah, man, the rain just kind of blew right in. It's crazy. There's a lot of lightning and stuff. Weather on the 8th, the Daily Tech News Show. We were just talking about keeping birds as pets on Good Day Internet. If you'd like some of our advice, apparently ducks. Very good choice, according to Shannon. Get that wider show, Good Day Internet, patreon.com, slash DTNS to get it. Let's start with a few tech things you should know. Epic Games send emails to Android users noting that they can still play the new season of the new Epic Games app for Android. They can access it through Fortnite.com slash Android or from the Samsung Galaxy Store. Epic says, however, Fortnite users who already own the game on Google Play can continue to play the current game. But because season three Battle Pass wrapped up on August 27th, that was Thursday of this week, players can't progress further. The Battle Lab, Duos and Limited Time game modes are also a no-go for Google Play users at this time. Apple's App Store is currently promoting PUBG Mobile, which is a Fortnite competitor. The same day, Apple is set to terminate the Epic Games developer associated with Fortnite. Now of note, PUBG Mobile is built with Epic's Unreal Engine. Apple told Epic that it would terminate Fortnite's developer account on Friday, August 28th today. After Epic added a direct payment option to Fortnite, which caused Apple to remove Fortnite from the App Store. Yeah, but don't forget, the judge told Apple they couldn't do that, so they're probably not going to do that to Unreal Engine, but they will keep Fortnite out of the App Store. Apple agreed to pay $9.75 million to settle a lawsuit regarding the PowerBeats 2 earbuds. The lawsuit alleged that the PowerBeats 2 originally released in 2014 were falsely advertised as sweat and water resistant and built to endure, but failed to hold their charge after minimal use. Customers who purchased the device before August 7th have until November 20th to submit a claim for payment with a maximum theoretical payment of $189 per proof of purchase. That's bigger than the usual. In the legal filing of the settlement, Apple did not admit to wrongdoing, saying the settlement was cheaper than going to trial. Google introduced Google Assistant Snapchat back in 2018, which shows mobile users items like appointments, reminders, and commute times on a single screen. Snapchat will now include tasks, push notifications for birthdays, and suggestions for podcasts, restaurants, and recipes. Snapchat will also learn users' routines and surface information based on time of day, like commute times, weather at the top in the morning. Snapchat can also now be activated by voice by saying, show me my day. Twitter announced it will hide tweets that feature copy and pasted text without any modifications from the source tweet. Twitter updated its censorship policy to include, quote, copy pasta, which means text that was duplicated from the original post and then shared. In a tweet, the company said that it may limit the visibility of tweets that it believes are behaving as copy pasta. Delicious, delicious copy pasta. All right, let's talk a little bit about putting cameras underneath the display. Oh, let's. So remember a couple of weeks back here on this very show we talked about the ZTE-25G coming September 1st with the under-display camera. We were wondering at the time how that would affect image quality. Is it gonna make it murky? Is it gonna be fine? How's it gonna work? Xiaomi has some answers and says that it uses a self-developed pixel arrangement that lets light pass through the gap area of sub-pixels. So in other words, the area above the camera sensor would have the same pixel density as the rest of the screen just in a slightly different arrangement. So you wouldn't have that dim spot that you might see on some under-display cameras that you may have seen in the past. The sensor is designed to hide more components under the sub-pixels, meaning that more light will get under the sensor as well. However, the company also said it updated its imaging algorithm so that the camera itself can provide the same image quality as conventional selfie cameras because it still won't get all the light. It would if it wasn't under the display. Xiaomi will launch a phone that uses its under-display camera technology in 2021. So yeah, I mean, this is the company kind of saying, don't worry about it, we got this. Yeah, we'll see how good it is when they actually launch it, but this makes sense to me, which is that I suppose the display in that area might look slightly different, because otherwise you'd just have the entire display in that arrangement. So they're like, well, this may not be the best arrangement for the perfect resolution, but you likely won't notice it. You certainly won't notice it as much as if we took pixels away. And it's like a screen door, if you think of it that way. They're moving pixels around so that there are some gaps, and the light will come through the display, through those gaps in the pixels. It's so small that you won't notice it. The pixels won't be removed. They'll be the same number. So the resolution will roughly be the same, and then they move some stuff around underneath so that the light's actually getting to the sensor and not being blocked by some element of the camera or wasted that way. That all makes perfect sense to me. Curious if it's gonna work out in reality. I, maybe I have a very unpopular opinion here, but I really don't worry about how aesthetically pleasing a notch is or is not on the front of a display. And this is after reviewing several different smartphones and comparing display options. So am I the only one here thinking like, yes, it's aesthetically pleasing to have it under the display, but I would rather them focus on the aperture of a lens and the wide angle of a selfie camera, which I'm still not super happy with the options that are available on the market. I would rather them focus on that than focus on technology that puts the camera under a display when I just don't really care about it that much. I mean, Shannon, I'm with you on this one. I really like, I've always been like, it's a tiny little notch. Give me the best camera, do it well. That's all I care about. I really don't, I will never look at that little portion at the top or bottom of my phone and be annoyed about that. But I know a lot of people do care. Well, I don't really care about the notch that much. It doesn't bother me when I have a phone with a notch. I love the idea of a display that doesn't have it. That sounds cool, but I'm not upset about it. I mean, I don't know, notch haters, maybe you need to explain yourselves. Why are you doing this? Well, I appreciate you both confirming my opinion on under-display cameras. So Facebook is suing a company called Moby Burn, which their parent company is called OakSmart Technologies and its founder, Fati Haltas. So Facebook found the company was paying apps to install an SDK, and that SDK would use the digital key assigned to the app for login and use it to collect information about the app's users' Facebook account, like their name, locale, time zone, email address, Facebook ID, gender, all this without permission. Facebook disabled Moby Burn's apps and they requested an audit, but Moby Burn denied it had collected any Facebook data. Now Facebook also issued a cease and desist for the same reason to a company called One Audience, which it is also suing in court. I think this is a good sign for Facebook. Five years ago, Facebook would have seen something like this, held up its hands or shrugged metaphorically speaking and said like, oh gosh, that's horrible. I mean, that's not our business. They shouldn't be doing that, but it's not our fault that people break the terms. We just set the terms and when we catch them, then we'll punish them. Here Facebook proactively is going out and trying to do audits to say like, we need to figure out what you're doing here to determine if it's okay. And they're pretty sure this is not okay and what they're describing definitely sounds like it's not okay. And if Moby Burn's saying, no, we don't collect that data, then the way to prove that is the audit, right? Right, exactly. And this is not the first time that Facebook is saying, hey, we're going to audit developers. This has been a part of their new policies for quite some time. So we have seen this, but this is the first time that we're seeing them actually go out and sue a company because they're denying this access. Facebook has made a ton of updates and this is one of the very, very rare occasions where I will say that I think Facebook is doing the right thing here where they're proactively going after these third party developers and making sure that your data is more secure and is not as accessible as it used to be before Cambridge Analytica was a thing. So I'm happy that they're doing this and I hope that it kind of gives some future acknowledgement to other third party developers that may have thought that this would be okay to do so in the fact that Facebook is now actively pursuing these. Yeah, I see some shouting Freud in our chat room about like, oh, Facebook's doing someone else for stealing data, that's ironic. You would rather have them doing that than not, right? What Facebook got in trouble for was not them stealing your data, it was letting others use their platform to steal data. So this is good, don't punish Facebook for this one. It doesn't excuse anything else they've done, but I think this is one where we say, okay, yes, this is the right thing to do for sure. Facebook also in the news for telling Reuters that Apple rejected a version of its app from the App Store that included a banner that told users that Apple would receive 30% of the sales from its new paid online events feature. Now you may think, well, that sounds kind of catty, why would they call that out? But you have to consider that the events feature lets small businesses host things like workout sessions, cooking classes, things that they can't do in person necessarily, make some money online, and here's the key, Facebook does not keep any part of that payment. The users get all the money, the small business, gets all the money that the participants of the event get unless they're doing it through the App Store. If the user of the cooking class is paying through the Facebook app on iOS, then Apple takes 30% out of that. So it all would go to the business unless it's through iOS. Now, Facebook said Apple cited an App Store rule against publishing irrelevant information, including information about Apple or the development process in an app. Facebook said that it asked Apple to waive the 30% fee so that business owners could keep all the money, but Apple declined. Facebook ultimately removed the message in order to get the update published on the App Store so they didn't pull an Epic and do a lawsuit or get blocked. But that means that businesses will get more money from Android users than iOS users. The thing that bugs me about this is the fact that Apple cited this rule and called it irrelevant when small businesses are going to want to know why, for example, if it's supposed to be a $10 ticket, they're only getting $7 if it's a 30% cut. I feel like that's quite relevant when you're a small business and you're trying to make money online. Yeah, I mean, this whole story, when it broke earlier today, my first reaction, as were many others, was sort of like, I roll Facebook versus Apple, like everyone's so rich, just everyone shut up. But when I do think about third party that folks who are trying to build a business and use Facebook's platform to do that for whatever reason it may be and the fact that this does hurt them through no fault of their own, there is something to this. I mean, whether or not Apple can work with Facebook on something is very irrelevant, irrelevant to use that term again, these folks who are like, I don't know, I mean, okay, do we try to build our business on the Google Play Store a little bit more and that kind of thing? So I do see why folks are up in arms about this. Otherwise, it all feels very, that giants fighting with giants. Yeah, I wonder if Facebook couldn't make the argument that this is just a payment transfer like PayPal. If I send you money on PayPal, Apple doesn't take 30% of that, right? Even though it's an in-app payment, because they're like, oh no, this is a payment system that wouldn't make sense. Like Apple's rules, they're trying to keep them simple, I get that, and they want the rules to apply to everybody and I think that's good. But there are exceptions to the rules that you need to acknowledge. And I think this is one of them where Facebook's like, look, you're just taking money out of small businesses' hands. This isn't about a small business that put an app in the app store and you're trying to recover the cost of making the app store. This is a small business trying to do something and we're trying to help them and now you're taking 30% of that. And I don't know, I mean, I don't know, maybe Apple disagrees, maybe you disagree with me and say, no, that's still using the app store. So you gotta take that 30%, tough luck, small businesses. But I don't think Apple really wants to be taking this money, to be honest. It's just like, well, these are our rules and it's blindly pulled. It's a principle thing, yeah. And it's getting messy. Well, Protocol reports that Comcast, an entirely different company, is pursuing plans to offer its X1 set-top box operating system to smart TV makers. The X1 powers the company's Xfinity cable boxes as well as a Roku-like streaming box, which is called Flex. Now Cox Cable already uses some X1 hardware and software and Charter says that it's also negotiating a license as well. X1 is not just for cable service though, it also runs third-party applications like Netflix and YouTube. But to get on smart TVs, Comcast would have to win out over Roku, Amazon's Fire TV OS, and Android TV as well from Google. Some makers like LG and Samsung even have their own smart TV OSes. That sounds like a... License this out too. Sounds like a hard competitive market to get into for Comcast. Yeah, and just to clear up any confusion, this isn't Comcast trying to put their cable service in your television, okay? I could see where you might think that. This is Comcast saying, we've got a Roku-like interface, right? Where you don't have to buy anything from us to use it. We'd like to have television makers use that operating system. Yes, we use it to provide our cable service. T.S. Cox and Charter use it to provide their cable systems. But it doesn't have to be used for cable. You could have it on a smart TV and just provide the apps like Netflix, et cetera. And I think that's incredibly smart of Comcast to try to monetize that, to say, look, we know cable subscriptions are going away, but we've developed this technology to take advantage of streaming and we're good at it. Maybe we can make some money off that. Maybe we can get, you know, Vizio or somebody to license that operating system. But like you said, Shannon, it's a tough market to crack into, even if you're Comcast, because there is a lot of competition out there. Samsung's got a Tizen OS that they want to license out. LG just uses web OS themselves. And you've got Fire TV and Roku and Android TV. It does surprise me, though, that smart TV operating systems are a vibrant marketplace. I kind of thought that set-top boxes would make that less useful, but it appears that it isn't. Although don't count out all the people who are like, okay, we're ready to cut the cords. And Comcast is a brand that we know. And, you know, we might be buying a new TV and that would be, you know, like that actually- We have the X1 cable box. Oh, this TV uses the same interface with familiar with that, yeah. We don't understand all that other start-up-y stuff. Let's go with a name brand that we know. I'm not saying that Comcast has a home run here, but I think that that is what the company is banking on, that enough people will be like, okay, we're ready to go into the next level of, you know, enjoying entertainment and we're going to stick with the brand that we know. Yeah, tens of millions of people familiar with the X1 brand. So as somebody who is a current Roku user, I feel like the only way I would consider this is if they also had deals with HBO Max, for example, because that's currently not available on the Roku and that's been a problem getting them to come to some kind of agreement. So Comcast may have a better foothold when it comes to making some kind of licensing agreements with all of these streaming services. So they might have a market there, but I guess we'll have to see. And for people who hate Comcast, you won't be seeing the Comcast branding, I bet, just the X1 branding. So maybe- Yeah. I don't know. Folks, if you want to get all the tech headlines each day in about five minutes, be sure to subscribe to dailytechheadlines.com. See that's Ben Fox Rubin wrote up a great report on MasterCard announcing a platform called Shop Anywhere in partnership with the Cell Robotics to let shoppers walk out of stores without having to go through a cashier. Sound familiar? Tests of the platform included a Duncan store that let people check in at a kiosk and then go get their donuts and have somebody make them their coffee and then just walk out. No registers involved. Pilots of the program are coming to a Duncan in Southern California, a Circle K gas station convenience store in Arizona and an unnamed location run by a stadium operator Delaware North. So it would be one of those in the stadium stores that you'd be able to walk in and out of is what it sounds like. MasterCard is also working with White Castle on a cash-free drive-through idea. It piloted with Sonic last year. So this is something that MasterCard has been doing a lot of development on. Shop Anywhere can be retrofitted into existing stores. So you don't have to build a new store and it works in more types of retail outlets than Amazon Go's similar technology. They both use cameras and sensors, but MasterCard seems and excels seems to be a little bit more adaptable. The platform joins the 25 Amazon Go stores, Apple Store where you can use your phone, Sam's Club in Dallas, all offering cashierless options, as well as platforms being developed by Zippin and Standard Cognition. In fact, Standard Cognition also working with Circle K on an Arizona store, on a store in Phoenix. So this sounds like we are going to see this happen. This is going to be the trend is that eventually you'll have the ability to just walk in, grab your stuff and walk out in various stores by either checking in on a kiosk or having the right phone app or something like that. I love this idea mainly because I've gotten to experience that Amazon Go store in San Francisco and it was just so easy. The convenience was simple, although they still had people there. So I know a lot of people are concerned about, you know, cashiers losing their jobs, but Amazon Go stores even, they still had people outside educating users on how to access the store, how to download the app, et cetera, et cetera. So there was still a place for employees in these stores. And I feel like even coming into now with the pandemic, cashier-less type of conveniences like these are going to become more of a norm even after the pandemic is over because it is so much faster. It's such a pleasing experience. It's so less stressful and it's a lot better for privacy too because nobody's going to see what you're checking out with as well. So there's a lot of reasons. Except for Mastercard, I guess. Yeah, except for Mastercard. I'm sure that they will have some kind of partnership where they can see exactly what you're ordering and the store will know exactly what you are checking out with, of course. And that makes sense from an inventory base, but when it comes to like having another person being able to see, like as you're checking out, you know, if you're buying certain things that could be somewhat embarrassing. So it would be nice to have that privacy, especially as well. Yeah, if I buy, you know, two large boxes of KitKats, I don't want Sarah to know that when she's checking me out. If I am going to Dunkin' Donuts, I would love to have the cashier list based registers so they don't see me buy pumpkin spice lattes every single day. Well, and listen, we are in a situation in these trying times of ours where I think we've all been at a supermarket being like, whoa, the lines are extremely long and you gotta be six feet apart. And you know, maybe you could do like a self-checkout kind of thing, but you can't do that. With everything that you buy, for example, if you buy alcohol, somebody has to, you know, check your ID type thing. So there's a little bit of, there's still some friction there, but there is the, I think more than ever, the idea of, oh, okay, even if I'm not like a tech person, I really want to go that way. I really want to have as much or as little human contact as possible for my safety and those around me. And so you're starting to get people on board with this whole thing. And listen, I don't want anybody to lose their jobs, but as you said, Shannon, at these stores that are cashier-less, you still have people stocking shelves and making sure that customers are happy and not confused. And there are jobs at this point. So I think- And nowadays, even, oh, sorry for interrupting. And nowadays, even with the pandemic, like you have employees that need to make sure their social distancing requirements and they're wiping down counters and wiping down anything that people are touching. So there's definitely still a place for employees even in these kind of cashier-less bases. Yeah, it does seem like these stores don't employ fewer people. I may be wrong and you may be right to be skeptical out there, but it seems like, you know, most cashiers don't only do the cashier, they're usually having to run the register, at least when I was in retail. And that was a long time ago. You hated having to run the register because you're like, ah, it's taking me away from my job, right? I have to stand here now and not do all of the other things that I have to get done every day. And so providing extra customer service can increase sales. So it makes sense that like running the register isn't necessarily a very productive thing. It's a necessary thing. And if you can take the human out of it, you can actually use humans to do more productive things than that. And I think that's proving true in these systems. So I'm not as worried about people losing their jobs in the cashier list. And it does have some benefits, which we've mentioned, like not having to touch stuff because you just walk out, you know? You don't have to touch a terminal. And just being more convenient in general. Yeah. Now I know that another argument about these kind of stores is, especially with MasterCard doing a partnership is the fact that not everybody has credit cards accessible to them. A lot of people still use cash myself, including quite often, but you can do contactless cash payments still. And you see that even in grocery stores with their self-checkout kiosks. So that's still entirely a possibility, even if Microsoft is partnering with these companies, they can still have these cash checkout systems for folks that don't have credit cards. Yeah. Amazon added a cash payment after they took some criticism of like, hey, what about people who are unbanked? You're cutting out poorer people from being able to use your store. And Amazon added a cash option where you can go and be able to use cash even at the Amazon Go stores. So that's something that needs to be addressed, but I think it's addressable there for either MasterCard or Amazon or any of these other systems. And hopefully they do. I wonder if that would add to some privacy if you pay with cash instead of checking out with a credit card. Well, that's another question, right? It's like, okay, can I pay with cash and also have you not track all my purchases? Yes, exactly. Good question. Well, if you have ideas about how that would go, you can join our conversation in our Discord, which you can join by linking to a Patreon account at patreon.com slash dtns. Let's check out the mail bag. Oh, let's. Adam and San Diego had a really good, great one, said, wanted to point out on the heels of you talking about that LG mask, that LG was touting to help keep people safe. Adam says, he was getting all the publicity, but a very popular Kickstarter that I happen to participate in, just out of sheer curiosity, I have no association with the company, just curious. The campaign has since ended, so they've moved over to an Indiegogo for regular pre-orders. This one essentially does all the things that LG won is promising, except they're much closer to production and have made COVID protection claims as well. You can see FAQ to learn more about that. They were originally asking for $100,000, wound up getting funded over $3 million. So we'll be interesting to see how this one turns out. Yeah, I don't know how to feel about, I mean, Indiegogo, right? Like anybody could put something up, but this is a real company. I actually dug into it. They don't have a ton of experience. The folks who are running it have worked, you know, one or two other jobs. It's not a huge company with big names necessarily attached to it, but they seem legitimate. They are SGS lab tested, not FDA approved. So it's this thing where they're like, this is definitely not just pulling the roll over your eyes or anything, but there's some assurance you get when LG makes the thing, you're like, okay, they'll definitely make the thing and they'll probably follow the rules because they're a big company and they don't want that kind of blowback. This one seems a little more risky, but it's not entirely, you know, it didn't set off all my Spidey sense. So interesting to see that and it's nice to see smaller companies getting in and coming up with these kinds of things. Shannon, I know you were excited by this idea. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I used to live in California and we had the wildfires and now being in Colorado. So even if, you know, our pandemic ends and people don't necessarily have to wear masks all the time, it's still something that I would invest in just from the sense of keeping, you know, my senses healthy. So I love the idea of this and this is something that I would absolutely back just from a health perspective. Yeah, I want a few more tests to make sure that this doesn't have any unintended consequences myself, but I like the idea, I like the idea. Well, we'd like the idea of you being a master or grandmaster patron level and we would like to shout out a few of you, including Paul Boyer, Ken Hayes and Tony Glass. Let's check in with Len Peralta, who has been illustrating today's show. Len, what have you drawn for us today? You know, I kind of took a different take on this, you know, because Dunkin' Donuts had used this first, I thought there's a big marketing push for this, right? I think they could actually come up with something that they could sell that would be very different and this is, behold, the no-do donut, which is the future fruit stuff for a cashless society, I think, you know, it's your plain old donut. You're just not paying the normal way, right? And I know, you know, if you still want to... You're not paying the dough for it. I get it. Exactly. Yes, so it sort of sounds healthy, but it really is about the cashless society. Exactly, exactly. And you can still get the regular donuts if you want to pay cash. It's just if you want to pay and just walk out, you get the no-do donut right there. So... Is this like what you would find in a Star Trek replicator? Yeah, I think so. It could be. It could be. And I think, you know, Shannon, I think you make a little tiny cameo in this as well there as does Tiny Mantis in the image. Yes, so this image is right now available at my online store at lennpropstore.com. Also at my Patreon, patreon.com, slash Len, which I should mention you can now pay, you know, be a patron for the entire year and save, I think it's 30% or something. Anyway, check it out and check out this image, please. It's also contact-free. You don't have to come near Len to do it. You don't have to come near, and I highly recommend you don't come anywhere near. That's all. Len, great work as always. Also thanks to Shannon Morse for being with us today. Shannon, I know you're very busy and let folks know where they can keep up with all the things that you do. Absolutely. Well, thank you for having me, of course. YouTube.com slash Shannon Morse is the best place to go for everything that I'm doing. I'm on my way to 30K, so anybody that subscribes is super helping my own full-time job. And one video you might be interested in is I just did a whole tutorial about setting up Plex on a Synology Network Attach Storage server, and it works flawlessly. I'm so excited about this thing. So I was really happy to be able to do that tutorial and share it with folks. And don't forget to subscribe on our social media too for Daily Tech News Show. Twitter.com slash Daily Tech News SH is where you can find us on Twitter. And then we're also on Instagram, instagram.com slash D-T-N-S-PIX-P-I-X. And if you share your photos, I will be more than happy to share them on our social media. Yeah, please send us the photos if you got a tiny Mantis classic shirt that you wanna wear. And you can remember Shannon runs our social media accounts because it's Daily Tech News SH, just like in Shannon. That's how you can remember it. There you go. Hey, folks, also back us on our Patreon. Patreon.com slash D-T-N-S. If you're listening to this with ads, you don't have to. You can be listening to it on an RSS feed made just for you and delivered into your ears. Go check that and other perks out at Patreon.com slash D-T-N-S. If you have feedback for us, we would love to hear it. Our email address is feedback at DailyTechNewsShow.com. Send your burning questions or comments there. We're also live Monday through Friday at 4 or 30 p.m. Eastern 2030 UTC. And you can find out more at DailyTechNewsShow.com slash live. We'll be back on Monday. Talk to you then. This show is part of the Frog Pants Network. Get more at frogpants.com. Hope you have enjoyed this program. Ha ha ha ha.