 Coming up on DTNS Instagram wants to be for kids how Apple's winning the third party tracking war it started and streaming is now so big even the NFL's buying in this is the Daily Tech news for Friday, March 19th, 2021 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt and from studio Redwood. I'm Sarah Lane also Los Angeles. I'm Lamar Wilson draw on the top tech from Cleveland, Ohio. I'm Len Peralta and the shows producer Roger Chang. We were just talking about the the origins of the term Miami as as well as Len Peralta getting recognized at a Panera. All kinds of good stuff. If you want that wider conversation on our expanded show Good Day Internet become a member of patreon.com slash DTNS. Let's start with a few tech things you should know. Barnes and Noble is launching a new 10 inch nook tablet in collaboration with Lenovo. The ID I HG IPS display is designed to minimize blue light and be easier on the eyes when reading also has 32 gigabytes of storage and a micro SD slot for expansion front and rear cameras, dual audio, Dolby at most speakers plus FM radio and kids space from Google, which is a new mode for Android tablets that provide children access to age appropriate books. The U. S. Department of Justice has charged telecom and a Swiss national with theft and fraud related to breaking into 100 companies through misconfigured source code repositories and then leaking proprietary data online on a personal website facing a potential two to 20 years in jail. Cobb and also leaked video footage from the cloud based surveillance film firm, Vercata earlier this month. We talked about it on DTNS, but that is not included in these charges. Protocol reports that on March 15th, China's state run Central Television ran its annual consumer rights special, exposing consumer fraud. One segment exposed that chain stores in China were using facial recognition on security cameras to track age, ethnicity and emotional state of customers and recognize returning customers and identify past purchases in the store. After the segment aired, Koh Ler ordered the removal of all surveillance cameras for its stores in China. Max Mara said that it only used cameras to count the number of customers. The segment prompted a backlash on Weibo and other social networks as well with the hashtag shameless little backlash against facial recognition in China. In a filing to the Delhi High Court Friday, the Indian government alleged that WhatsApp's planned privacy updates scheduled to go in effect in two months violates local laws. It also asked the court to prevent WhatsApp from rolling out the update in India. India's IT ministry previously wrote to the head of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart, to express its quote, grave concerns about the update. The messaging app Telegram is bringing its voice chats feature to channels after launching them in groups back in December. Channel voice chats have no limits on participants are recordable by admin administrators, show bio text for participants, adds a raise hand mechanic sound familiar and includes direct invite links for speakers and listeners. All right. Instagram is for kids. Well, not yet, but it might be. Tell us more, Sarah. Yeah, I mean, it wants to be. Anyway, according to an internal post that was obtained by BuzzFeed News, Instagram is, all right, Lamar, all right, BuzzFeed. I know. I laughed. I laughed. Sorry, BuzzFeed. I know what BuzzFeed News is. Come on. Instagram is quote, building a new youth pillar within the community product group to focus on two things, accelerating our integrity and privacy work to ensure the safest possible experience for teens and building a version of Instagram that allows people under the age of 13 to safely use Instagram for the first time. Right now, if you're younger than 13 years old, you are technically not allowed to use Instagram. Obviously, there are some workarounds. The company knows that Instagram head Adam Massari will oversee the new project led by Facebook VP Pavney Duongi, who previously led Google's child focused products, including YouTube kids. Massari told BuzzFeed in an interview that part of the solution to age verification on Instagram quote, is to create a version of Instagram for young people or kids where parents have transparency or control. It's one of the things that we're exploring. End quote. He also said the company doesn't have a detailed plan as of yet. I think it's it's easy. I see a lot of people in our chat room saying like nope, nope, bad idea. Don't want this. It's easy to say that if you don't have a child who's going around the rules right now and pretending to be over 13 to use Instagram, I think there is a is a legitimate reason for Instagram to say provide you don't have to use it. You can tell your kids not to use this one but providing an option where if your child is just dead set on using it, you could at least have a little bit more control over it might be a good idea for some parents in some situations. That said, Lamar, I don't think this is entirely altruistic. Yeah, yeah, I was thinking that too. First of all, yeah, you may not give your phone to a young kid, but you know, kids have phones. So, you know, you know, this is a nice, they believe, but as you were saying, Tom, it's, it sounds nice on the surface, but the bottom line is, you know, they want more users. And that's not a bad thing. They're company and I'm not, I'm not saying shame enough for wanting more users, but like, this is a way just like, yeah, we got a huge, you know, under 13 year old audience, you know, they're on this other site. I won't name it, but you know, it's I'll say Lake Locke, maybe, you know, just it rhymes with that, you know, so, you know, if they're over there, we want them as well. How can we make that happen? So yeah, not altruistic. Well, I have a friend with a 10 year old daughter, and I often, you know, whenever I go and visit them, I'm always like, 10 year old child, tell me about the youth, you know, because it's actually really helpful for me. And sometimes these sorts of things come up on the show. But one of the things that my friend has done for from, you know, the birth of Instagram was like, Oh, my kid's not getting on that. No, no, no, no, wait, no, that's, that is not, that is not a safe space for my child. And you know, when she made the decision, her child was even younger. So you know, when you got when you when you have anybody that's under 13 that yes, does have access to Instagram, and obviously other apps, as you mentioned, Lamar, it makes sense for a company to be like, Listen, let's try to give them something that's like YouTube kids. Sure, some kids don't want to use YouTube kids, or some parents may not even know about it. But that is a good option. And at least is a little bit more limiting to the point where the company's happy because the kids now using their service and hopefully parents, guardians, etc, are happy because it, it doesn't seem like an adult space that kids are playing in. Yeah, I mean, I see the argument both ways. And I think Instagram's doing it for both reasons. One is, you're, you're going to make it safer for the kids who would do this anyway, by providing more options and more opportunities. It's not a guarantee. It's not going to make it perfectly safe. But it does help. But also, you're right, LaBar Instagram also, you know, wants a gateway that will get people using this later in life. My niece, both my nieces have Instagram accounts, because their parents feel like we want to control it from the beginning, we're going to create an account for them, we're going to use it, we're going to control what goes on to it. And then when it becomes time to hand it over to them, we will have been part of that process. But every, every situation is different. A lot of, a lot of parents who are parents of shout actors or actresses do this, they'll run, they'll run the Instagram until, you know, they're 13. I know of one who he's 14 now, she still runs it, you know, but, but like, they usually kind of hand it over. So yeah, it's, it's, they, yeah, they have a presence because they have a presence online, but we're going to make sure it's safe and keep the creepers out. So I respect that. Yeah. All right, let's talk about some streaming. All right. So the MPAA notes that online video descriptions rose 26% to 1.1 billion in 2020, passing 1 billion worldwide for the first time. Now with theaters closed, streaming became a main option for video entertainment and studios funneled movies to streaming services from Hamilton and Seoul on Disney Plus to Warner Media putting all 2021 releases on HBO Max. Now that added to services like Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV Plus, they'll already bring in movies like Borat and Greyhound to their services. Now spending on home entertainment grew 23% to 68.8 billion. Take out Blu-rays and DVDs and digital home entertainment grew 30%. In fact, the rise of streaming did not offset the fall in physical and theatrical entertainment, but the entire industry dropping 18% in 2020. Now part of that can be attributed to the drop in the number of movies released in 2020, which was down 63% to 319. Box office sales, of course, plummeted in 2020s. You might expect down 72% to 12 billion. So yeah. So this is obviously, I love streaming services. I love the rise of this. I wanted to continue to be a thing. I know there's, you know, a lot of people didn't like or at least industry people didn't like what HBO Max Day was like, hey, we're going to just throw everything out, you know, in 2021. You could watch it at home if you want to. But I think when that happened, as much as, you know, I know a lot of people love, you know, the theaters and I'm not standing going to go away or to like the Blu-ray experience, you know, I take it as like Pandora's Box has kind of been open to, you know, it's one of those situations where you've given this to people for a year. And, you know, even a post pandemic whenever that date is, I'm not sure you can take, just take that back and go back to how it was in 2019. I'm actually what do you feel about that? I mean, the temptation is going to be there when you have an 18% drop where it's like, oh, without any movies, streaming didn't make up for it. It's like, well, but you could have put more movies out than you did. You didn't even make as many movies. So it's not a fair comparison. That said, they are going to want to get you back in the theaters. Theaters still make a lot of money. And that's what that drop points out, is you need theaters to bridge the gap. I don't think anyone ever expects, at least I don't, that theaters go away entirely. No. You know, I think people still will want the theater experience for certain kinds of movies. But I think you're right that the genie is on the horse out of the barn running away as far as the window exclusivity of 90 days. That is over for almost everything. Maybe maybe some big blockbusters will still get that 90 day window. Whether we'll see more day and date, theaters are going to push back on that. So but I think we'll see faster movies coming to streaming faster and maybe a few more day and dates be allowed here and there. Yeah, I just like the option. Like theaters theaters can stay around for a long, you know, for eternity. You know, and I know I'm talking from privilege here, right? I think we're all can agree with that. You know, I'm saying I'll pay 30 as to be at home. That's privilege. I completely get it. But if there is an option, I just want to I just want to be able to take it. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, as somebody who hasn't gone to movie theaters all that much really in the last 10 years, not that I don't like them, but it I know I know it's crazy. Sometimes sometimes I do, but it would it would often be like, well, this movie requires me to see it in the theater type thing. And I think that that's a driving factor for a lot of people. It's like, well, it's going to be like, you know, the sound and the blockbuster, you know, quality to it and all of that stuff. And that's why it's fun. It's it's a fun place to go and see this movie. And it's better than watching it at home. Well, now, you know, our home audio systems and and televisions and and everything that kind of goes into a home theater is getting more and more accessible as well. So you put the two together. It's like, hey, theaters are shut down for the foreseeable future. And people go, well, I still like movies. I have other options. And now I think it's going to become a little bit more of a discerning. Do I really want to go to the theater for this movie? Because I could enjoy it at home where beforehand, I didn't think I had that option. Yeah, more things moving to streaming. The National Football League has finished its media rights deal to run through 2033. So this covers the next 11 years with all the usual partners Viacom, CBS, Fox, NBC Universal all are going to pay more than $2 billion per year to run NFL games. Disney will pay $2.7 billion to run games on ABC and ESPN. But there is a new player on the field, Amazon, paying $1 billion for exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football. Amazon previously did stream games that were also broadcast and streamed by other networks on Thursday Night, but starting in 2023. So not next season, but the season after. Thursday Night Games will only be on Amazon Prime Video. And the major partners will also be able to stream more of their games. Disney would be able to stream games on ESPN plus, including one game exclusive to ESPN plus per year. NBC Universal will also be able to simulcast on Peacock, including a select number of exclusive games on Peacock. Viacom, CBS will simulcast on Paramount Plus. Fox will simulcast football on 2B. National Football League finalized its 11 year media rights agreement adding Prime Amazon Prime Video as an exclusive partner. NFL said in its own release about the issue that it will continue to be the only sports league to deliver all of its contests regular season and post season on over the air television implying there will be local broadcasts of some of these streaming exclusive games. So Thursday Night Football, if your local team is playing might be on the air in your market. But otherwise, nationwide, you're going to have to get a Prime Video app somehow. Yeah, I again, I'm a very, very casual a sports person. But, you know, as core cutting is, you know, it's obviously a thing now that is the missing puzzle, piece of the puzzle, right? You know, is how do I get my sports? If you if you want to watch it, I know Hulu, you might have covered it, just integrated ESPN Plus into it. So and I, I do it. Yep. Yeah. And I've taken mention of where it's actually like in Hulu, like so, you know, so you can like, you know, I don't want to use the ESPN app. Yeah, you don't have to leave the Hulu app to get to it. Yeah. And I love that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I love that. You know, I like the 30 for 30 doc, you know, but like, yeah, this is kind of an inevitability, but it's cool to see Amazon going out there. You know, who knows if what does it say here, you know, this is not going to do what a Disney Plus. I guess that answers that. Say, hey, would they have a Disney Plus thing? No, it'll be on ESPN. But like, I think it's this is progress. I don't know. What do you think, Sarah? I think it's kind of crazy that Amazon paid a billion dollars to get exclusive rights to Thursday night football games. It wasn't that long ago where Thursday night football games weren't even a thing, but but they are and kind of big, big deal. And and the fact that sure, getting a prime membership not hard or getting access to Amazon Prime Video, not hard. I mean, you have lots of options is still something very different for anybody. Like you mentioned Tom outside of the local market, who's like, I really care about this game. I want to watch this game where do I get this game? It becomes a very different story than, well, I have cable. I'll, you know, find out on one of those channels. Yeah, and I think it shows that we've hit the tipping point on streaming in 2020 probably helped us get there where maybe not everybody, but more people than not know how to stream stuff now. And so the NFL and Amazon aren't worried about that. They're not worried about undercutting the audience. They've had a couple of years to prove this. They're not starting this till 2023. So they've even got a little runway to get people used to it and increase adoption. But almost as significant is that idea of like, if you don't have cable but you subscribe to Peacock, ESPN plus, Paramount plus, and then just get to be which is free with ads, you get all the football games. There. Thank you for re-mentioned that again. I forget, I should. Yeah, I forgot to really good. Yeah, those are actual live channels within apps, which are incredible. And that they have that in there. Yeah. And there was nothing in here about Sunday Ticket. I assume that will continue. But I'm curious how that's going to continue. We also didn't mention NFL Network. We'll have some exclusive games continue and that you do have to have a multi-channel subscription of some sort. Could be YouTube TV or Sling or something like that. But yeah, it will be harder to get all of them in one package than it used to be. Hey, folks, you want to join the conversation about this? There's folks in there talking about big screen movies going back to 4.3 and stuff in our Discord. Write this very second. Join that Discord conversation by linking your Patreon account at patreon.com slash DTNS. Now, there were two notable reactions to Apple's upcoming policy that will require user consent before companies can do third-party tracking on iOS. Now, one seems to be throwing in the towel. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Josh Constain clubhouse that Apple's changes might benefit Facebook. A change of tune from full-page ads saying they will ruin small businesses. Zuckerberg said businesses might want to conduct commerce directly through Facebook and Instagram if Apple's policies make it harder for them to use their data in order to find the customers that will want to use their products outside of our platform. Now, meanwhile, the China Advertising Association had been developing an alternative tracker called Cade that they claimed didn't violate Apple's policies. Now, however, the Financial Times reports that on Thursday Apple said warnings to two Chinese apps for using the Cade as a test. So the Chinese marketing industry source told the Financial Times this action will put a stop to these tests. Now, Tom, Sarah, my reaction to the Facebook thing first was, all right, is this a red herring? Come on now. You were so fired up about this. What's really going on? You're like, oh, no, it's okay. It's like, wait, wait, what do you know? What do you know, Mark? That we don't know what you had a different take? I think what he knows is, okay, we got to play along with Apple. Facebook and Instagram, and any Facebook property really, wants people to be able to conduct commerce, period. So if there's some sort of situation where Facebook and Apple are not getting along, fine. But the company doesn't want that to affect the end user. Yeah, I think the Facebook thing is Zuckerberg realizing that he wasn't getting any traction on either getting Apple to change their mind or getting legal action against Apple on this. And it was affecting the Facebook stock price. You were seeing people go on like, well, maybe he's right. If Apple doesn't budge, then Facebook's not going to make as much money. And so this is him telling the shareholders, don't worry about us. We're still going to make the money. In fact, this could be really great for us because businesses won't be able to get to customers other way. And we'll have all this first-party tracking that we can do. To me, it says, okay, they see the writing on the wall. This is not going to change. And earlier this week, we were talking about that China Advertising Association Gambit and wondering, okay, is Apple going to, I mean, are they going to cut off all of China or what are they going to do here? We have our answer. They're going to say, no, you can't use that. And so next move is the China Advertising Association to say, we're going to use it anyway. And then we'll have a showdown and see what happens. But my guess is because of that source with the Financial Times, they'll be like, oh, okay, that's not going to work. You know, back to the drawing board. Not going to use that. All right, we talked a lot about NFTs on the show, the crypto tokens that give you bragging rights about owning something digital like art or treat or a slam dunk video. Several places to buy and sell NFTs are out there. Nifty Gateway, Mintable, Variable. OpenSea was one of the earlier startups in the NFT game, starting back in 2017, when NFTs mostly meant crypto kiddies. It's come a long way since then. It's where Len Peralta has been listing his art as NFTs and where I bought one of Len Peralta's NFTs as art. OpenSea just raised a new round of funding and says $95 million in digital merchandise was sold on OpenSea in February, compared to $8 million in January. That's a big jump. NFTs are taken up. You may not understand them, but people are spending money on them. Now, art is getting most of the press, but OpenSea also has things like a virtual avatar of singer Shawn Mendes or trading cards from Tampa Bay Buccaneers, tight end Rob Gronkowski, digital real estate in a world called Decentraland and even domain names to point to your Ethereum wallet. So this is interesting to me that OpenSea not just got a round of funding, but pointed out as part of their due diligence, we're making a lot of money. That's why we were able to get that round of funding. It's fascinating. The whole thing is fascinating. And it's happening so quickly. I mean, were we even talking about NFTs a month ago on the show? I don't think that we were. I mean, it's truly a, the cryptocurrency world is rather neat in general, but and we've had so much response from our audience about, well, here's how I think people might want to think about NFTs to make it easier for them to understand why this is of value, depending on who you are and what the art is. And I love that because I think we seem to be getting closer and closer to a point where it's like, yes, okay, you don't have to care about this thing, you know, the piece of art that Tom Merritt bought, but Tom Merritt cares about it. And that can be applied to so many other kinds of things in life that people care about. This is just an easier way to keep tabs on who owns what, but it's the same thing. It's that fandom thing. I definitely agree with you. Was this jump Elon Musk and Gary Vee basically? Those helped for sure. Yeah, you're absolutely right. I don't think it's any one thing, but each bump hit the beach ball farther, and Gary Vee and Elon really know how to spike. Like they definitely hit that beach ball up. So yeah, my experience behind the NFT was not pleasant, which just further confirmed me that this is a real thing, because if you have to go through all the hoops that I went through just to purchase Len's art, because I just wanted to do it partly to help Len, but also to have the experience, and this many people are doing it, like there's something to it. You don't have to understand it, but some people do. It's the same thing that makes you buy cosmetic items in Fortnite, I guess, drives that. Well, something that other people might not understand is the meaning of your text that you sent last night late. Grammarly's mobile keyboard can now analyze the tone of your writing to help you understand how you might be coming across to your recipient. This is before you even sent the message. This is for you by analyzing factors like your word choices, your punctuation. The feature was already available in Grammarly's online editor. If you're familiar with Grammarly, you might say, wasn't this already available? It was, but now mobile keyboards as well. So when you tap on the green G icon at the top of the keyboard, you'll see info on how you may sound to someone reading your message. They also include helpful emoji at times to, you know, like, I don't know, I mean, if it's like a face with money eyes or something that maybe you're talking about finances, it also needs 150 characters to do its thing properly. So one word answers back to somebody that might be passive aggressive, not actually what Grammarly is for, but anything longer than that might be helpful. Yeah, so you get a little angry face if you sound angry and then you can be like, oh, well, I don't mean to be angry. Let me rewrite that till you get that face at least straight, if not happy. Yeah, exactly. Have you all heard, is it an old people thing that we're not supposed to use periods? Those are aggressive. Like, yeah, I don't know if Grammarly touches on that. Yeah, what is Grammarly tuned for Generation Z, the millennials, Generation X, like, you know, and is there a slider for that? I don't know, because the skull face is apparently the only appropriate happy face these days. Yeah, I like this idea though. Yeah, now this is good stuff. So let's check out the mail bag and see what other good stuff we have. Let's do it. This one comes from Russell, who has a suggestion for upcoming this week in Science and DTNS crossover show that's happening in April. Russell says, it could be interesting to delve into the world of quantum computers a little bit more. Maybe look at the science, but behind quantum mechanics and then talk about how that applies to the technology behind how it's applied and how the computers are constructed and how they function. Gee, Russell, this will be an easy one. Yeah, we could probably do three episodes just on that, but I think we could still touch on it. I like that. That's a good one. Yeah, that's cool. Then Prof Metcalf wrote in and said, after hearing Sarah talk about the horror of the Apple remote for password entry, I just wanted to toss this out there. You probably know it, but when you get to the screen where you would type with the remote, you can pick up your iPhone if you have one and see if it will let you type there instead. My Apple TV does this and it's a lifesaver. You know, I almost even brought that up. It wasn't necessarily pertinent to the point Sarah was making, but if somebody doesn't know that you can do that, Prof Metcalf has written in to make sure that now you do. Indeed. That is a good reminder to all of us who have a stupid apple to give you feedback at daily tech news show.com is where to send any feedback that you might have for us. Keep those emails coming. We love them. Also shout out to patrons at our master and grandmaster levels, including Reed Fischler, Mark Gibson, and Martin James. Also very extra special thanks to Helen and Harriet's father who just upped their pledge on Patreon. Thank you, Helen and Harriet. You have a great dad. It's due. All right, let's check in with Len Peralta who has been drawing today's show. And this may be one of my favorites. You've done it. I love it. Are you ready for some football in the Amazon? No, you know, I'm really excited about football night in the Amazon on Thursday nights. I'm expecting to see my Cleveland Browns probably playing a Thursday night game. This is my take on that, right? Like, you know, the next step is going to be, I know Jeff Bezos is no longer a CEO there, but you know, it's going to be, he's going to be on the helmets. Yeah. He's going to be, you know, you're going to have the whoever, the Greenville Amazons or whatever playing eventually. The Seattle Seahawks become the Seattle Amazons. Something, something. They're going to be something. This actually, this image is actually the NFT. By the way, thank you very much, Tom, for buying the NFT. I appreciate it. This version is the NFT version, which is over at openc.io. If you check it out at lookforlenp, a little bit different than the one you get if you're a Patreon backer, or if you buy it at my online store at lennproaltestore.com. So a lot of different options. Finally, I want to mention real quickly, running a Kickstarter with my son Max, Geek-a-Week masterpiece. You may want to check it out there. We're 40% funded going into the second week. Need your help. So head on over there and check it out. Geek-a-Week masterpiece over at Kickstarter. Thanks a lot, guys. Very cool. Also, thanks to Lamar Wilson for being with us today. Lamar, how's your week been and where can people find out about it? Week has been great. I was on The Rock's Instagram stories, so that was it. That was like a highlight of my week yesterday, yeah, about something I unboxed. It's better than my week. Well, yeah, you can find me everywhere at Lamar Wilson all over the socials. I'm on pretty much every platform, except Snapchat right now because I got a little two-factor issue and Facebook because I'm not old enough. I'm kidding. I am old enough, but I'm not under. Go check it out, folks. Also, if you need a little more explanation on big tech topics, we have a second show for you. Patrons just get it right in their feed, but I talk about topics like Wi-Fi 6, 5G, etc. This week's episode is on USB 4. Last week's episode is on blockchain. If you're like, I don't understand, do I need USB 4? I don't understand what blockchain is. Go subscribe, knowallittlemore.com, and you'll get nice explanations of both of those. And again, you get those automatically if you're a patron at dailytechnewshow.com slash Patreon. We are live on this show Monday through Friday at 4.30 p.m. Eastern, 2030 UTC. You can find out more at dailytechnewshow.com slash live book market. Put it on your calendar, and hopefully we'll see you soon. Also, we'll be back on Monday. Have a great weekend. Talk to you soon. This is part of the Frog Pants Network. Get more at frogpants.com. Oh, that's right. It's Friday. Time to thank everyone who makes the show possible. This week's episode of dailytechnewshow was created by the following people, host producer and writer, Tom Merritt, host producer and writer, Sarah Lane, executive producer and booker, Roger Chang, producer, writer and host, Rich Strafilino, video producer and Twitch producer, Joe Kuntz, associate producer, Anthony Lemos, Spanish language host, writer and producer, Dan Campos, news host, writer and producer, Jen Cutter, social media producer, Shannon Morse, our mods, Beatmaster, W. Scottus One, Zoey Brings Bacon, BioCow, Catten Kipper and Jack Shid, moderation and video hosting by Dan Christensen, video feed from Sean Wei, music provided by Martin Bell and Dan Looters, ACAST ad support from Tim Rigeri, Patreon support from Stefan Brown. Contributors for this week's show include Scott Johnson, Justin Robert Young, and Lamar Wilson. Guests on this week's show include Peter Wells, live art performed by Len Peralta, and thanks to all our patrons who make the show possible.