 This 10th year of Daily Tech news show is made possible by you the listener right there listening to me with me in your ears right now Thanks to every single one of you including Justin Zellers pepper geesey Carmine Bailey and new patrons Welcome them everybody silence signals and Al on this episode of DTNS PC mags I as actor has been using the galaxy flip and razor plus which flip phone is best We're gonna make him tell you plus what to expect from Nintendo's next console and augmented reality Takes a big step for This is the Daily Tech news for Tuesday August 1st 2023 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt and from studio with the hatchet. I'm Sarah Lane from New York City I'm I as actor and I'm the shoes producer Roger chain big happy birthday to Chey Wan from La Sarah Femme It's a birthday. Yeah Hmm if any of you in the audience know what I'm talking about Feedback to the tech news show calm. You'll make my day Hey, I as you want to do some tech news with me and Sarah today. That sounds delightful. Let's do it All right now. We do have a special message for Canadians today It's extra special to have you here since meta has started the process of blocking news links on Facebook and Instagram in Canada in response to the online news act But it doesn't stop us from bringing you the quick hits Uber reported a better than expected Q2 with a record number of rideshares and operating profit for the first time in the company's history That's a big one net income came in at 394 million dollars up 1 billion year-over-year because last year was a loss the company saw a 22% increase in trips on the platform combined with cost Discipline as CEO Daraa cause for Shahi put it so much AI news today here at the top Things you need to know Axios reports the Google plans to overhaul Google assistant and start using generative algorithms like Bard with it in Another part of Google YouTube is testing machine-generated text summaries of videos to appear on the search and watch pages They would not replace creator written descriptions a law in China goes into effect August 15th requiring generative AI apps to obtain a License in that country in advance of that law Apple has removed multiple apps from the App Store in China If you want to keep AI from using your art to train and then imitate you technology review reports on a couple tools that are meant to make images Unusable in generative AI training without changing how they look to humans Chinese automaker Geely announced it will launch a large language model to help with autonomous driving and in-car entertainment as part of the Galaxy L6 car coming later this year and finally the Financial Times reports the meta plans to launch chatbots called Personas that have unique personalities So it could be a historical figure like Abraham Lincoln or it could be a personality with a purpose like getting travel advice from a surfer You weren't joking a lot of AI news today The BBC launched social dot BBC which is an experimental master on server that it's testing for the next six months Now you can't create accounts or posts on this exact server But you can leave replies the BBC said content moderation is the potential concern since master don't doesn't have a dedicated Moderation team, but calls it an acceptable risk It's interesting if you build it will they come a Few security items to be aware of today a flaw called the bleeding pipe in the forage framework that many Minecraft mods use will let attackers control servers and game devices and you don't want that So players should update to patched mods or delete unpatched mods and of course scan their systems for malware The FBI is actively warning the public about the malicious use of generative AI to socially engineer targets as well as create Malware many security researchers believe that guardrails against creating malware in tools like cheat chat GBT are fairly good And it's probably easier for most malicious people to find exploits in more traditional manners but the FBI wants everybody to be aware and Bleeping computer warns of a malicious Android app called safe chat making the rounds that once installed could intercept messages from SMS Telegram and signal doesn't break the encryption It just intercepts them because it's on your phone and it requires user interaction So be on the lookout for people asking you to install apps that ask for unusual permissions That's something you should always be on the lookout for I suppose in some global drone news on Monday China imposed restrictions on exports of long-range Civilian drones this is due to concerns over drones being used for military purposes, even if they're Civilian drones on both sides of Russia's war in Ukraine Expert controls take effect today though some drone experts will still be allowed Meanwhile, the UK's first drone mail delivery service a joint effort between Royal Mail and London based Skyports drone services has begun in the remote Scottish islands of Orkney The drones will carry mail from Stromness to Gramsie and Hoy I hope I'm getting those right where postal staff will complete their usual delivery routes The project is a three-month test although both partners plan to continue it on a permanent basis if it all works out well You know what Abraham Lincoln used to say about drones. What's that? I don't know But I'm gonna ask that persona for meta and I'll get back to you. There you go All right, we got Nintendo rumors We do so video game chronicle sources say that development kits for Nintendo's next console have been delivered to key game studios Now Nintendo is reportedly planning to launch a new console in the second half of 2024 So the dates add up they make sense, but what else are these sources saying? Yeah, okay They are claiming it'll be usable in a portable mode So just like the Nintendo switch But it might have an LCD screen instead of an OLED screen to bring the cost down so that there can be more storage So the cost of manufacturing may be not the cost to you It also will have a cartridge slot according to the sources, which might make you wonder if it'll support switch cartridges It's worth recalling that in February Nintendo told investors that the current 98 million switch users Factor into its plans for the next console. So that implied there may be some backwards Compatibility but like you said Sarah this none of this is terribly surprising This is about the time seven years later after the original switch Mid-cycle for the PlayStation in the Xbox that you would expect Nintendo to start talking about bringing out a new console It's been so long. They're still running. I believe on a Tegra processor That's in my shields TV, which is ancient and super old in this and the even with the upgraded versions of the switch We still didn't get anything other than an OLED maybe a larger screen All I'm hoping for is a Nintendo doesn't have a Wii U debacle Just whatever you name this thing just make sure people know that it's a it's an upgrade and it is backwards compatible You can have that that's not there's nothing wrong with that But then if you have like, you know, let's say you call it switch advanced, you know We all figured that out with Gameboy advanced So maybe just stick to that kind of naming convention because next year if you're like why don't just get that old switch or to switch you You don't want that confusion We are we are in the tic-tac pattern of the disappointing Nintendo console, right? Because there was Gamecube, which I actually personally love most people didn't like it Then there was the Wii which everybody thought was amazing Then there was the Wii U which people did not like then there was the switch which everybody thinks is amazing Is it gonna be the switch cube? Would it just be like a cooler switch maybe Yeah, if it's gonna be portable with an LCD screen that could be enough to get people upset if like it's not that different And it doesn't have as good of a screen Yeah, I don't know. I I the switch is so beloved in fact, I feel like I Well, it depends on who's playing but I feel like I hear Someone's love for the Nintendo switch quite often like as if it were sort of new, but it is yeah So yeah, I don't know it that I don't know I I Have no real guess here But I know people are gonna be excited about whatever it is the Wii and the switch were departures From previous consoles models. It does not sound from these rumors these these leaks I guess that this is a departure although this isn't an official word so we don't know there might be some other stuff going on We haven't heard about but I I think we're gonna get an evolution of the switch and it probably won't be a bad Version of the switch, but it it I can't imagine them coming out with something that is a huge departure if they're gonna make it I got one idea Maybe they can soup it up with some kind of like a sterile dock so the dock is smarter than just Pushing through the same signal. Maybe the on device is a little bit less powerful than the docked device So you can get like yeah 4k on your 4k TV, but you're on the go with your LCD You get 1080p It's not that big a deal because you still can output these major major releases That's the only thing I think could work because it wouldn't confuse like oh, there's a new dock Does work my old switch? No, it doesn't or maybe it does that's kind of a crazy idea with usb-c That's a good bet something the dock. I like that. I'm gonna go with that. I'm gonna steal that and say it was my idea Slightly related to all of this for you mechanical keyboard fans out there You know who you are 8-bit do released its first mechanical keyboard It's wireless has 87 keys is compatible with Windows and Android and has a hot swappable switches, which is nice There are two editions, but the end edition is inspired by classic NES console designs Almost all white has gray red and charcoal accents makes you feel like the days of yesteryear You can order it now for $100 shipping August 10th Now for all you fans of open standards, you know who you are a big move in the world of augmented reality Listen to it. Listen to that crowd of open standards fans You know what we kid But there are a lot of you out there in the audience Adobe Apple Autodesk Nvidia and Pixar have formed the Alliance for Open USD to promote a standard for interoperable 3d tools and data. So basically a standard for augmented reality This is kind of been I've seen it compared to JPEG. I've seen it compared to HTML It's kind of somewhere in between it's based on Pixar's open source universal scene description That's the USD in the group's name and video already uses USD as the foundation for the omniverse platform If you've seen some of the stuff people make for augmented reality there If you were to create something that someone might want to call part of a metaverse You'd want something like USD because otherwise you'd have to replicate the geometry The cameras the lighting all the materials for each thing you create on Each platform you'd want to make it for so having a standard means you can use whatever software you want and make it for Whatever platform you want as long as they support standard with a standard You just make your thing Maya Houdini Autodesk 3ds max Adobe Substance 3d designer Whatever and then you can know that it's going to work interchangeably again like the graphic interchange format the GIF You know, it just works across platforms open USD group will work within Linux's joint development foundation Which gives it a path to be recognized by the international organization or of standardization ISO So this could be on its way probably is on its way to becoming an ISO standard And other companies like Epic Unity and even IKEA have all expressed support for the standard The doors have been flown open for others to join the Alliance You might expect those three companies to maybe step up and join the Alliance soon We're not hearing though from Intel or AMD about this nor have I seen anything from meta Yeah Well, I don't know as you were describing this time, you know, you mentioned the the GIF standard It also reminds me of you know various video editing programs, right? It's all gotten a lot better Over the years, but remember having to like output the same video like 40 different times depending on where you wanted the video to live somewhere It still can be a headache, but it you know, it's it's gotten a lot more streamlined because All of the platforms want you to use those platforms, you know, so they just they decided to make it easier And start to agree on things. Yeah, this this sounds like it sounds like a great idea I guess I'm not surprised that metas a holdout just because metas sort of on its own planet when it comes to the metaverse right now But you know, we'll see what happens, you know as more companies decided to jump on the bandwagon I mean Techno Mitch asked if Microsoft was on that list. They're not this is a very small list This is Apple kind of is the only hardware maker Well, Nvidia makes hardware, but they don't make headsets and Apple's the only headset maker and the others are our software makers So it does feel like it's early enough that you might get Microsoft signing up later Certainly, you're you're hearing from unity. You're hearing from epic. They'll probably join later. I Wonder why metas not in on this from the beginning. Did they not want to be or did these companies not want them in on it? I can't imagine they wouldn't have wanted them in on it. Meta must have just declined If I read the background stories correctly Pixar open sourced USD several years ago. Is that correct Tom? Yeah, 2016 That's okay. So there's no real need to necessarily be on this alliance to Use us to take advantage of it Maybe not gonna join the alliance but the fact that Apple's behind this definitely gives a huge insight to people going Hey, look, they want as many developers as they can to get familiar with some kind of format So they don't have to relearn everything for the vision Vision Pro the thing is getting content for these hardware devices that cost Thousands of dollars it better be worth it and the more people that you can get to work on the same kind of Standard the better and I'm just thinking that it's only a matter of time before other companies want to be a part of this because then I Maybe they can sort of influence what? Parts become more and more standard or not then again still open So anybody out there with any programming skills or even lack of programming skills these days You can figure out how to make something better because one of the other things I was reading about this is that open USD is kind of a kind of a chunky format and it was a Mobile interface and there's a competing standard and I could see stuff. It could be like a but the rules of physics We don't have a unifying theory of everything. There's a small mobile version and there's a big everything version But it's it seems like it's a really smart thing for Apple to be part of this So they actually have content for that expensive expensive piece of hardware. Yeah, yeah, they want to encourage developers They want to make it easy for developers. There's some discussion on whether to make get F part of this standard So it might get bigger. It's usually Apple holding out From these standards a lot of times because they have a better way of doing it They're like wow the standard is nice, but we figured out in a more efficient way I wonder if that's what's going on. Well, I mean they could have helped create it with Pixar considering Steve Jobs is Connection to the company for the longest time. I know there might be connections back there Yeah, maybe there's like hey, we kind of made this already. We know we're also here So that's that's my guess because why would Apple get ahead of this? They're already on it Now for those of you who use Android I have something for you as well Ron Richards and Huentui Dao bring you Android faithful a podcast devoted exclusively to Android news and information Done in partnership with Daily Tech news show. We're very proud that Ron wanted to work with us on this So catch it Tuesdays 8 p.m. East Coast 5 p.m. Pacific or just get it whenever you want by subscribing at www.androidfaithful.com In the past couple of months Motorola and Samsung have both announced new Foldable flip phones all the rage. So the natural first question is how do they compare which one's better? Now I as you've been spending a lot of time recently with both of these phones So what are your big takeaways and how do they stack up to each other? Okay, let's see if I can show them on screen. We've got the motto of right now in my left hand We've got the nobody can nobody on audio can see that but they don't have to believe me that they are Where they're I have seen proof I as really does have these two phones devices in my hand and I will say that they excel at different things and they don't get everything right just yet the Moto Razer Plus figured out how to use a small screen on the front of the device Way better than Samsung figured out with the flip five I will say because flip-flops that created orders hardware. It's got a better glass It's got really goes really glass with you. It's got IPX eight ratings. They're like it can be dunked in the water So I'm not dust proof. It's got about the same cameras there but it's got a very refined design then you've got the The Razer Plus which is more rounded and it's nice But the main thing is you almost never have to open the device unless you want to on The flip the amount of times you will see something saying we'll open the phone for this Kind of the purpose to me I wonder what you guys think about this Do you guys actually want to use a small phone like something that's a 3.5 inch display or 3.6 display and then choose to open your device Or do you really just want to pocket a 6.7 inch device in a more compact one factor? I don't know. That's a good question. I mean if I compare it to something like My you know and this is iOS my my Apple watch which gives me a lot of information, but it's limited You know, I have to I have to grab my phone at some point, you know for the stuff that I want to do But I know that because they're not supposed to you know, they don't they're not They're connected wirelessly, but they're not part of the same machine So it bothers me less it might bother me more if my phone was constantly saying hold it differently And then you'll all will be a revealed I Get what when was saying on the day of the Samsung announcement, which is The foldables are great the pixel and the and the Samsung is getting closer to the pixel in in their form factor of They work like a candy bar phone and you open them up But the flips are more compelling to more people because they're small Because it's like oh I can actually keep this in a smaller pocket I can keep it in a smaller bag and then open it up and it be a phone So I you know if I had to come up with a person who'd say no I want that It would be someone who's who's doesn't like having to shove a big old candy bar style phone in a pocket or a purse And likes the idea of the flip because it's it's more compact I mean and there are devices right now out there that can do that you get the flip I want to say a couple generations ago. We had the very small LCD Or ones that just don't barely have these like one-line displays you can have that so you're like looking at it as a Glanceable piece of information But I think when you go to a 3.4 inch or larger screen that's full collar 60 Hertz It should be able to do a little bit more than act like a bunch of widgets now to Samsung's credit They do have the the ability to add apps You got to go into the settings and find it and they give you a list of six apps You're allowed to know which is very lame and two of them are different messages apps So that's even worse. I mean these are text messages apps But if you jump through a ton of hoops, and it's in my review right now of PC PC mag if you get good lock and then run through like 15 steps You can install any app on the good lock widget and even then it may not run Which is more mind-boggling because some guy who made Cover OS or cover screen OS which used to work on the old flip and other devices He spent time at the or he or she I don't know went to this to the Samsung store learned How to create support for the new flip and it works now So in other words it can run any app and pretty much any widget But Samsung has decided to close it down for this I assume in my perspective a little bit like very Apple-like control like this is the experience You're gonna get because this is the one we'll get let you have but Moto since I think they have less to lose They're like go for it. It can go inside outside. We don't care. You can run apps however you want I really I think that For the durability aspect I like that you don't have to open the phone because if you got a limited amount of folds Why waste them because like you have to type a one line message back Now granted you could do that with both of these devices But there's just so many small things that I didn't realize that the razor can do on that small screen Because again a 3.6 inch screen on the razor Is slightly larger than the 3.5 inch display that was on the iphone the original iphone So it's not that crazy wild. Yeah Aspect ratio is different so I'll I'll I'll deal with that but like it's sure very different Yeah, it sounds like you look at the original iphone and I'm like this isn't real There's no way we all used that's for children. I thought it was that's no way there's no way who could even see it I want to I want to hold hold you you know to to picking One of these but I I feel like it's pretty clear that you like the razor plus better Is is there something about the flip five that you would say it did better than razor plus at all the hardware is The hardware is way better. It's stronger. It's got better better glass. Like I said, it's got better ipx eight ratings I mean the other one's got an ip 5 2. I want to say so it's got Something like yeah, it's dust versus water right on the on the two the razor basically if it sees water It's going to freak out. So I would not splash resistant Yes versus dunking one So I'm not a big fan of that I will say that the software implementation on the razor is better at this point But as a piece of hardware The flip five i'm just basically it's one software update from being Like perfect or almost perfect. It's so close to being perfect that it's just maddening That it's just a software tweak that they need to do And maybe that'll happen between now and it's released on the 11th because I mean the software is supposed to be baked by now But it's very frustrating But yeah, so hardware wise I think the flip five is amazing I think software wise that the moto has figured out the right way to go from inside to outside and back If you had to choose just one which one would you pick? Might be different for different people, but I probably pick As it stands with no like out of the box experience, I'll go with razor plus Yeah, because of the software sounds like yeah, I don't want to tinker with that right now More to do more to tinker Um, well, uh Since 1977 the voyager 2 probe has been tinkering around in the universe Exploring it, uh, and while 12.3 billion miles away from earth. I mean it's far Uh, it tilted its antenna to 0.2 degrees away from earth This is last month after an incorrect command was sent and it lost contact In fact, we talked about it at the time. It was very sad You know that voyager 2 has been around for a long time. However NASA reported on tuesday that during a regular scan of the sky, which it does It picked up a heartbeat single signal rather from the probe Indicating that voyagers 2 is still ticking out there Now nasa can't talk to it yet. They've got a huge dish in canberra australia Which is now trying to regain contact with the probe by sort of bombarding the area They think voyager 2 is in with the correct command original command But even if that doesn't work voyager 2 is already programmed to reset its orientation multiple times each year to keep its its antenna pointing at earth With the next reset on october 15th at which point nasa says We will probably have a joyful reunion if we don't before then I think the the most identifiable part of this story is entering a wrong command and then spamming with commands to undo it Like yeah, every one of us has experienced that It's just crazy to think of nasa doing it over Well, I hope it works and if it doesn't hopefully october 15th resets it, but yeah I remember when I was like voyager 2 well, you know it's been around since 1977 I mean we were lucky to have it as long as we did right But the fact that voyagers like i'm just slightly off course, but i'm here is just very heartwarming Yeah, it's good. It's good that we we know it's still out there. All right. Let's check out the mail bag Let's do it. We got a lot of feedback on our e-bike conversation That was during our extended show good day internet with megan maroney And roger and myself yesterday So we'll read a couple of them one comes from daniel Who's an avid cyclist also has a motorcycle knows a lot about e-bikes daniel says in the us Legal e-bikes come in three classes class one petal assist only up to 20 miles per hour class two the same But throttle up to 20 miles per hour class three pedal assist only up to 28 miles per hour. My gosh, that's really fast daniel says when most people complain about crazy e-bikes Most of the time these are those 30 to 50 miles per hour max speeds with throttles And if they even have pedals, they're kind of a technicality They need to be banned and you obviously need a license and insurance to ride a motorcycle I think class two and class three e-bikes should only be allowed for adults And some licensing or permitting is probably appropriate daniel also reminds us that when people complain about bicyclists breaking laws or Motorcyclists breaking laws that car drivers break the same laws at about the same rates But with more dangerous consequences the solution always seems to come back to better and safer infrastructure And then lin forwarded a link from electric calm about california assembly bill 530 Which is in draft and set for committee vote and once anyone without a driver's license to Need a license for an e-bike an e-bike ban for anyone younger than 12 years old thank you Yeah, I haven't I haven't read the the draft of the bill But that does not sound like the worst idea after our conversation yesterday Yeah, no, I was I was uh Pleasantly surprised just how many people are into that conversation. We got more emails about e-bikes Then we have about any other topic this week. Uh, so Right good good pick. Good. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, um, I think it was it was megan the idea So thank megan maroney, um, but we're first going to thank you Isaac to our because you are a wonderful human and we're always glad to have you on the show Let folks know where they can keep up with the rest of your work Go to pc mag.com. I got the review of the galaxy z flip 5 up right now working on the review for the z fold 5 Should be in should be up in the next couple of days All my stuff to their pc mag.com and there's a lot of great information there. So stick around Yeah, read that and uh, stick around for the extended show good day internet There's another foldable out there that is has been trying out and he's none too pleased with it Find out why ias is not pleased with the google pixel fold stick around Just a reminder, you can catch the show live monday through friday at 4 p.m. Eastern 200 utc find out more at daily tech news show dot com slash live We're back doing it all again tomorrow with scott johnson joining us talk to you then This show is part of the frog pants network Get more at frog pants dot com Time and club hopes you have enjoyed this program