 Daily Tech News show is made possible by its listeners, thanks to all of you, including Mark Gibson, Reed Fishler, and Michelle Serju. Coming up on DTNSY, a shoe company is building a tech center in Georgia, is LEGO building the real metaverse, and MLB goes high tech for pitch collars. This is the Daily Tech News for Thursday, April 7, 2022 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt. And from Studio Ribbit, I'm Sarah Lane. And I'm the show's producer, Roger Chan. Joining us from the SNABO S-Cast, Nika Bonford is here. Welcome back, Nika. Hello, hello. Thanks for having me back. Good to have you along. We've got some great stuff to talk with Nika about. Let's start with a few tech things you should know. New organizers of IFA Berlin announced that IFA 2022 will be an in-person event taking place from September 2nd through the 6th of this year. IFA last held a physical event back in 2019. Yeah, remember when we were going to send you to 2020, IFA? Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, you could revisit that perhaps. Yeah, we could try again. Samsung's one of the bigger canaries in the chip shortage coal mine, especially when it comes to mobile and memory. So keen watchers of the sector pay attention when Samsung announces its quarterly preliminary results. Here are the important takeaways. Samsung's revenue is up 17.8 percent, operating profit up 50.3 percent, both those compared to the same time last year. And the company says it's mobile and it's a chip business that led that growth. Strong Galaxy S22 sales, global unit sales rose 20 percent. Samsung also likely benefited from memory chip prices. It didn't make that clear, but the prices have been strong due to demand for data centers. Samsung's foundry sales also grew because they're making chips and there's a chip shortage. So people will turn to anybody who's got a foundry to make them some chips. Coinbase began testing support for India's digital payment system UPI last month. Coinbase officially launched support for UPI in its app with users in India able to send money to and withdraw from their accounts using the UPI network. However, the National Payments Corporation of India said in a statement Thursday evening it's not aware of any cryptocurrency exchange using UPI payment instructions. Yeah, well, those both could be true. Coinbase could just be like using UPI to put money into your account and then you use the money once it's in there. I don't know. India's Tata Group is truly a giant company across multiple industries. If you're from the US, imagine if AT&T also operated salt mines and steel foundries, Tata is planning to introduce a super app to take on geo platforms, Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart. Tata knew any W will include grosser big basket, electronic store, chroma, pharmacy service, one MG, fashion brand, click, Tata's own Tata Play, streaming Air Asia and Starbucks. All this alongside Tata Pay, different from Tata Play. Tata Pay is a UPI enabled payment service that offers loans and insurance as well as an incentive to get folks to use the app. The rewards program of participants will be unified into new coins, each equivalent to one rupee. According to an internal memo seen by Mac rumors, Apple expanded its repair program to now let customers get the face ID system repaired on an iPhone 10, also known as iPhone X, without replacing the entire device. Apple launched a repair program for the true depth camera system last month, but it was initially limited to iPhone 10S and newer devices. I like that you give a little shout out to those iPhone X partisans out there. You know, that's nice. Listen, I know what you mean. You're all welcome here. All right, let's talk a little more about the metaverse. Is it a thing? No. Does everybody want to build it? Yes, we have two stories about some of the earliest steps toward building something that somebody someday might call the metaverse. Meta, of course, the biggest one trying to do this, it's developing potential in app tokens that would serve as a virtual currency for meta properties, you know, like Facebook. You probably saw a headline that says employees call them zuck bucks internally. Don't expect to be the actual name if they ever put this out in public. They don't appear to be a cryptocurrency. They're a centrally controlled token, probably more similar to Roblox's Robux, if you're familiar with those. The company is also investigating a kind of reputation token that they would issue for valued contributions on Facebook. I'm sure no one would. I was going to say. What? Like what? Like no one's going to express outrage about that if they bring that one. Meta is also testing using NFTs as a way to validate membership in Facebook groups. So not selling a thing, but like using them as a non fungible token. There's also a pilot that would include minting the NFTs on Facebook. Those are expected mid May. Meanwhile, Epic is partnering with Lego to build a new family friendly virtual space for kids. The two companies didn't announce any details, except to promise they would protect the well being safety and privacy of children and give all users, parents and children control over their digital experience, which is kind of table stakes when you're talking about any kind of kid focused announcement. But the creators of Fortnight teaming up with a company that makes building brick based video games. Seems like fair competition or Roblox and Minecraft. Yeah, I I given the popularity of Lego and how it's only increased over the years. I mean, you got Lego land and and, you know, it's it's a very sort of tangible, fun thing for people of all ages, really, but certainly kids. It's a very smart. This is a very smart partnership, very smart. Yeah, I agree with you. I it kind of surprises me that the the Lego verse hasn't had some sort of a partnership like this in the past, because, yeah, clearly, if you're comparing it to something like Roblox or Minecraft, I mean, this is this is digital stuff that that, again, people of all ages, but particularly children enjoy very much. So yeah, it's it's seems like it seems like a good win for both companies. For sure. Yeah, Nika, what in particular about this? Do you think, you know, makes it such a slam duck? Because I agree, it does seem like one. I mean, kids are big business. I mean, they are huge business and you're putting together two of the biggest, you know, pieces that kids are really into Legos and then Epic Games. I mean, that really is almost like a perfect storm of of, you know, different types of entities coming together. And, you know, parents are going to be able to take these kids to these spaces. And, you know, I hate to say it, but, you know, just kind of say, here, kids go play and kids go off and play for hours and, you know, you're kind of sitting back. Then you talk about the merchandise that's going to come out of this as well. It's just it's even more it's pretty it's pretty pretty spectacular. What I think the use cases for this is and how it has the potential to be really huge. Yeah, that's a really good point, because Legos is a very trusted brand amongst families. So it's not so much. Well, I'm not saying Epic's not like it does. It's not an either or a state bed. I'm just saying Lego very trusted, right? But it gives it gives the credence to Epic. It's going to make Epic more palatable. And I guess it's going to give them some sort of, you know, it's like a co-sign from Lego to say this is safe for your kids. And, you know, Epic can only benefit from that. Yeah, unless it is, you know, deemed unsafe for some reason, which these sorts of things do happen. But but yeah, I that's that's the whole thing, right? It is like if if parents or guardians or or, you know, whoever's looking after younger folks feel like this is a good this is a good, you know, solid place for my kid. They're learning stuff, they're having fun. They can be sociable friends. I mean, that's that's that's what everybody wants. But you have to be careful. Kids love the Fortnite company. Parents love the Lego company. It's a good it's a match made in profit heaven. I've taken my nephew to Legoland here in Atlanta. And it's just it's wild. The whole scene is just it's just like, oh, my God, I'm trying to keep an eye on him. And I'm like, I don't know where he is. It's just the sea of children like running and jumping and playing. And it's just like, where's my kid? Like that's where that's where the metaverse starts. They they bring in augmented reality into the Lego theme parks. I don't know, just possibility. Possibility, you want it out there? Well, speaking of themed things, Nike announced it would open a technology center in West Midtown, Atlanta in early 2023. And it's not waiting for the building to actually be done to get work done. Employees are working remotely until it's ready. It will host security professionals for the east coast of North America and also research how to use machine learning to improve shopping experiences. It'll also expand Nike's work on what it calls a digital first operation. So if you're not familiar with what Nike's been doing thus far, it has been working to be a digital first with things like being able to pay with an app in a store, scan items to check stock. Nike's also brought its tech to Foot Locker becoming something of a retail platform provider as well. Although it's currently only working with Nike products, but a lot of people buy Nike products at Foot Locker stores. Nike also operates a vending machine called Unlock Box that scans a QR code on Nike Plus and you can get free stuff like Air Jordan pins or sunglasses, USB chargers. You know, it's fun. It also does something called a shoe case. Get it? Like showcase, but for shoes, which lets you scan your app to participate in real time raffles for a chance to buy limited edition shoes, which for any sneakerheads, you know, you have to be really on top of that kind of thing. So fun perks. The Atlanta Technology Center will be led by Dr. Mona Lisa Pinkney, who's been Nike's senior director of cybersecurity. Dr. Pinkney is also co-founder of the Black Employees and Technology Network, or BEIT, and assists with the women in cybersecurity. Anybody? Yeah, I'm very interesting. I listen, I love it. This is pretty big. I love a Nike running shoe. This is I really I can't say that I've been to a Foot Locker recently, nor have I been using any of Nike's digital first products. But I like where the company is going here. I like where it's sort of like, yes, if you want to buy our products, buy our products. But we want to make the experience as much as we can, as seamless as possible. And we want to expand on that technology and we're going to have a technology center. And, Nika, you know, for for folks who aren't so familiar with the Atlanta tech scene, you know, does it make sense that it would be in Atlanta? Absolutely. And I say that for a couple of reasons. If you come into the Midtown Atlanta area, you'll see, you know, you know, the names of these huge tech companies, Google, Microsoft, they have these huge technology complexes all down the corridor. There are so much talent here in Atlanta for technology. We have a huge entrepreneurial base, a huge app. I mean, the technology scene here is just pretty explosive. And that's just pretty much like in the downtown Midtown area. But you also have on the outskirts of Atlanta, these huge, you know, technology companies that are just flooding into the city. Like Atlanta really is becoming like the Silicon Valley of the South because pretty much every tech presence that you can think of is literally right here in the city. So it makes perfect sense. It's people trying to get in on a piece of the tech pie here in Atlanta. And the fact that Atlanta is so economically friendly as compared to some of your typical tech companies. If you think about Silicon Valley, if you think about New York, if you think about DC, the the price point for, you know, being able to have people come into the city and live, be able to buy property or be able to rent or, you know, those type of things. It's it's here. The presence is here. The the vibe of the city is very tech focused that you can pretty much run into anybody and pretty much everybody is into tech in some sort of of avenue here. So it makes perfect sense. I mean, literally everyone and so many tech companies are making their presence known here in Atlanta. Yeah, we're going to talk to Justin, Robert Young, tomorrow in Austin. I'm going to be there about how Austin is becoming more of a tech hub. I think I think what's happening is we're seeing the decentralization where you don't have to be one place. Nike, it's interesting enough that Nike is actually got a credible tech effort going on. There are those few companies that's been able to do that. A lot of companies try to do that and they don't do it very well. I feel like Nike does it really well. And I think it's interesting that they just looked around and said, you know what, we don't have to go to Seattle or San Francisco. Let's let's let's go somewhere that makes sense for us. And they picked Atlanta and as so many incentives, the state provides so many incentives for tech companies. That's why we have like such a booming like entertainment complex here. Pretty much every movie that you can think of that's been made has been made right here. Pretty much all the Marvel movies have been shot here. They are currently shooting the new color purple musical movie here in Macon, Georgia, which is maybe about an hour southeast of here. So it's one of those things where the state recognizes that we have a unique populace and we have a unique set of people here and the environment to, you know, engage these huge companies. And if they're giving these types of tax incentives and business incentives, it's it's a win-win for the state and it's a win-win for the companies as well. Well, let's talk baseball, shall we? Major League Baseball has been, let's call it reluctant to let teams use technology to gain an advantage on the field. So it's a big step that the MLB has approved something called the pitch calm system to let catchers send directions to pitchers electronically. Catcher behind home plate, pitchers pitching to the batter, you get it. A catcher wears the technology on their forum and they can press one of nine buttons to identify the pitch type and the location. Then the pitcher hears that call through a bone conduction listening device that they're wearing. The channels are encrypted and teams can program various code words assigned to words like fastball or curveball if they're really paranoid about somebody overhearing it. The MLB is giving every team three transmitters, 10 receivers and a charging case for the system, which works in both Spanish and English. Teams can use one transmitter and up to five receivers at any time that can include three other fielders besides the pitcher and the catcher. And these can only be used on the field during games. It is somewhat restricted. So not in clubhouses, not in bull pens, not in dugouts. This is also optional. If a player says, I'd like to stick with hand signs. They can, they certainly can. But the pitch con system is designed to minimize sign stealing, which if you follow MLB baseball, you know, in the last several years, particularly, you know that this is an issue. Yeah. And if you're not a baseball fan, all you really need to know is that the guy throwing the ball and the person catching it, they they need to be on the same page of what you're throwing so that it doesn't, you know, get away from it. Right. Yeah. Because if the pitchers throw in a curveball and the catcher doesn't know it, it'll fool him to not just not just the batter. Typically, that's done with hand signs. Like Sarah said, this system allows them to do it in a way that nobody else can steal just by looking. And that's the biggest thing. You get a runner on second base standing behind the pitcher. They can see the hand sign. Now, they may not know what it means, but they might be able to figure it out if they pay attention long enough. And patterns. Exactly. So this way, the catcher just has a thing on their on their forearm that they're like, OK, I know this middle button is fastball. I'm going to press that. The pitcher just hears fastball. It's low enough. Nobody else can can hear it. Other players in the field can have it in their hats, too. So they also hear it and know, you know, OK, that's what's going to happen. And maybe that affects how that ball gets batted. And so the end result is nobody can see anything. Even the thing on the forearm of the catcher doesn't have any labels. The catcher has to remember which buttons go with which pitches. They can flip it around and program it themselves. And like Sarah said, they can change it to say something else. If they're worried about somebody overhearing something out on the field, they can say and call fastball, Axl F or, you know, whatever they want to call it. And but but you can't look down as the batter and see like the word fastball on the catcher's forearms. So there's it's a it's a really good way to get around that kind of of sign stealing, which which isn't illegal. There are illegal ways to do it that cause the controversy. But you don't want the other team knowing what you're going to throw. Nika, I'm not I don't know how how much of a baseball fan you are, if any. But one of one of the questions that I had when I read this story, I was like, oh, that's pretty cool. But why why does it why is it relegated to field only? Why would, you know, a clubhouse or a bullpen or a dugout be an issue using the technology? And I don't expect you to answer. So I yeah, I used to be a huge baseball fan. You know, we used to go to games all the time, that type of thing. It's just, you know, pretty much not a huge interest anymore. I mean, we had the World Series, you know, Atlanta as a champion. So that kind of bumped it up a bit. But for me, my first thought when I when you were going through the story is so thinking from like a technology mindset, you know, can someone hack into one of these things? And, you know, we've all seen what happened with what was it the New York Patriots, you know, some of the things they were doing that were kind of on the shady end. So my first thought went to could someone hack one of these things and get the information that way? I think they're probably keeping it on field just to mitigate any type of external conversations, possibly being transmitted, you know, to other teams or people in the stands. I mean, people if they want to be nefarious and do nefarious things, they will they will find a way. So I think by one limit limiting it to the field, it basically cuts down on what a person could get, because you can always change what your hand signs mean. You can always change what you're programming into, you know, this little wrist device. But, you know, if you are allowed into the clubhouse, into the dugout and you hear, you know, strategic conversations that may give the other team a bit more of an upper hand than just figuring out what the hand signs are. What the what the commands are from the wrist, you know, contraption that they have. Yeah, it's an encrypted connection. So it would be hard to break. And I think I think the other the other problem is they they don't want people using this for something else. They want the pitcher in the catcher to use it to to send messages about pitches to each other. That's why they don't want the coaches using it in the dugout where they're stealing the other team's signs and then using it to, you know, like, I'll press fastball, but that means that we think they're going to steal, you know, they're trying to cut that side of it. Yeah. Yeah. And when you're talking about using this, you want to, you know, make the box as small as possible on what you can use this for. So it it makes sense. I get it. But like I said, I didn't realize that copying hand signs. I didn't realize it was that big of a thing as of late. So, oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That was pretty shocked by that. It's whole jobs by multiple people trying to figure this out. You know, for anybody who's not who's not, you know, a huge MLB fan. I mean, this is I actually, I mean, hand signs are one of my most favorite things while baseball. I just love them because it's like, it's code. It's right. You know, you can't decipher it. However you can, you can have attention. If you study enough. Yeah. Yeah. So this is, you know, this is this is again, you know, the league's attempt to say, OK, all right, we we we've got to figure out another solution so that, you know, we have a fair playing field going forward. But half the teams are expected to use it. And I also thought it was really fascinating. The pitchcom is created by a company called Promistik and they're called Promistik because most of their tech is used by magicians. So it's now magicians and pitchers using the same technology. I love the idea of like magicians talking to each other, like, OK. Well, it's yeah, yeah. Right. Because with magicians, it's like being able to do something with your assistant or something like that. But yeah, magicians to cut your leg off. Yeah, throwing a fast saw. Well, folks, it's opening day of baseball and the Cardinals Pirates Games about to get started. So let's let's move along. What do you want to hear us talk about on the show? One way to let us know is in our subreddit, you could submit stories and vote on them at dailytechnoeshow.reddit.com. Lots of news related to Google today. First, Google Lens Multi-Search has launched in beta in the US in English. The feature in Android and iOS Google Apps lets you use an image and words to conduct a search. You take an image or import one into Lens, then you can tap add to your search and then you'll get a chance to type your text. Demos of the feature are focused on clothing shopping. So a picture of a pink dress you like with the word purple could lead to shopping results for getting that same dress in the color you want. But other examples include maybe you've got a broken part. They have a bicycle. Apparently, bicycle parts are in here and you put phrase how to fix. That could get you a tutorial video. You could put a picture of a manicure you like and the word tutorial so you could figure out how to do that yourself. Multi-Search does not work with every image yet. It has to be trained. So this is really a beta, but the images in the video it will work with will expand over time and results will come from any platform. Google made it clear that as long as it can index it, it'll include it. If the image type works, it's not partnering with shopping sites to monetize this. It's not going to only show YouTube videos when it does its results. At least that's what it's promising. Nika, what do you think of this? I think there is definitely a market for this because I know I search for things all the time and a way for it to make it easier. I'm all here for it, you know, and I let's be honest. I don't know anybody who really uses anything other than Google for searching. So I just think it just adds another dimension to making things easier for people to find and, you know, doing it looks like a little bit of machine learning in there to kind of predict what you're trying to figure out to do. So, I mean, I get it. I could see, you know, it definitely being helpful. Sarah, what do you think? Well, I love the idea. I feel like my the way that I search things on Google specifically is pretty specific, and I feel like I've figured out this is how you ask the thing to get the result that you want. That doesn't always work. I mean, we've all gotten better at it over time, but it's with the tools that are available to us. Having, you know, the thought of kind of being like, OK, let me show Google a picture of this dress that I like, and hopefully it exists in another color, and that might surface without me having to do some sort of like complicated query and, you know, look at a bunch of shopping sites that won't actually lead me anywhere. That is awesome. It's not really the way that I search for things currently, but I welcome a world where this becomes pretty commonplace. And we all are able to search using text, search using photos, search using videos. And again, it's the algorithm is smart enough to know, OK, I understand what you're asking, and here's what you want. Yeah, until it's complete enough that I don't have to know what it's good at. I don't think it catches on very widely. It just has to be pretty universal like searches. You don't have to think, oh, I can't search for that because it's not good at that. And that's going to be a limitation in adoption is that people are like, oh, I tried it and it didn't work for the thing that I was trying to use it for. Right. We got a few other Google things here real quickly. The Wall Street Journal reports Google pulled a few dozen apps from the Play Store March 25th because they were harvesting data, including location, email and phone number, as well as clipboard contents and what devices were nearby on Wi-Fi could also scan folders, including WhatsApp downloads. They were encrypted, but they could do some hashing to figure out, you know, maybe what was in there. The Journal says a Panamanian company called Measurement Systems wrote the code and paid developers to include it in their apps. The code was found in Muslim prayer apps, weather apps, highway speed trap detectors, QR code readers and more. The code was discovered and reported to Google in March by security researchers who co-founded the company AppSensis. And while millions of phones still have the code installed, those researchers say that the SDK stopped collecting the data after their findings began to circulate. So whoever was doing it pulled it. Wall Street Journal found connections between Measurement Systems and a US government contractor called Vostrom, which is located in Sterling, Virginia, although Measurement Systems denies that there's any connection there. Google rolled out a privacy guide to help you figure out what all those privacy settings in Chrome mean. The privacy guide includes controls for cookies, history sync, safe browsing and making searches and browsing better. XTA developers notes there's no page for DNS options using phones as a security key, changing site permissions, a few other things. Everyone on Chrome 100, though, gets the guide over the next few weeks as a new menu option on your privacy and security tab in the Chrome browser settings. The more you know, I don't see anything wrong with this. Not at all. Google advised developers that starting on November 1st, 2022, the Play Store will hide and block installation of apps that target an Android API that is more than two years out of date. In other words, two years behind the latest major Android release. Google already requires new apps and app updates to target an Android API level within one year. Of the latest major Android OS version release. So this really only affects abandoned apps or apps that maybe not totally abandoned, but are not actively maintained. Existing users of these older apps will be able to reinstall them and use them on any Android OS version that the app supports. Well, it is time again for Teching Wall Black, our segment where Nika puts the spotlight on a black innovator or entrepreneur in the field of technology. Nika, who are we highlighting today? So this is a pretty interesting subject that we were highlighting this week. The person that I chose this week is very interesting because I've noticed the folks that I've chosen for this year have all created foundational type technology. And Mark Dean is one of those people. He is an inventor and computer scientist. I know we hear about inventors and computer scientists all the time, but this guy is pretty particular. He is he was the chief engineer at IBM for the team that developed the original home computer of the IBM's nine original patents for the PC. He holds three of them. So he holds a third of the original patents for what we now know as, you know, the PC, the home PC that we pretty much all use. In addition to those three, he has over 40 other patents overall. He started out. He started out at IBM for his for the he's been at IBM for the bulk of his career. He's held multiple executive roles there. He was a CTO for IBM Middle East and Africa vice president of their Al Medin Research Center. But one thing I think that we can't, you know, gloss over in addition to leading the team that basically created the original home PC, he co-developed the ISA, which is the industry's standard architecture system bus, which basically allows us to connect anything to our PC. So when you think of any peripheral cameras, lights, microphones, any of all any of those types of things that we now use that we pretty much take for granted just to pop in to to a port. He along with one of his fellow IBMers basically basically created this. So in addition to, you know, basically laying the foundation for the PC, he has some honors and accolades that are, you know, most certainly warranted for his innovations. He is the first black IBM fellow. He is an elected member to the National Academy of Engineering, and he also has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. And he holds BS, MS and PhD all in electrical engineering. So Mr. Mark Dean, we salute you because without you our lives would be very, very different. Yeah, if you've used anything like a PC today or connected anything to it. Thank Mark Dean. Sounds like right for sure. That's great. That's amazing. Yeah, I did go, Mark. It's not everybody is as accomplished. Certainly not me. But yes, yeah, good stuff, Nika, as always. And thanks for being on the show. We always love to have you, whether it's an awful event or just a just a technology day as it was today. Let folks know what what else you do and how they can keep up with your work. I co-host the Snoboes podcast along with my co-host Terrence Gaines. You can find us at snoboescast.com. You can, you know, find out everything about the show. They are becoming a Patreon, all that good stuff. And for me personally, I am TechSibyDiva on all of the platforms. All the social media platforms, the same thing. So yeah, that's where I am. That's where you can find me. Well, look up, Nika, everybody, or you're missing out. Also, we want to have a couple of new brand new bosses to thank. Very exciting. Ross and James are our newest patrons. Just started backing us on Patreon. Thank you, Ross and thank you, James. Oh, there it is. Yeah, audience is sleepy. Listen, folks, the audience was like, wait, we haven't had some new bosses in a while. We had a little dry run back there. So they're out of practice. You got to get the audience back into it. Sign up, patreon.com slash DTNS. Yeah, it's like a it's like a baseball game. There's a longer version of the show called Good Day Internet. It's available at patreon.com slash DTNS. We'd love to have you if you want a little bit of a wider conversation. But for now, a reminder that DTNS is live Monday through Friday at four p.m. Eastern at twenty hundred UTC and you can find out more at dailytechnewshow.com slash live book market. Tell our friends. Also, what does the tech scene look like in Austin, Texas? Well, Tom's going to find out tomorrow because he's going to be on location with Justin Rubber Young at his studio. Talk to you then. This show is part of the Frog Pants Network. Get more at frogpants.com. Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.