 Daily Tech News show is made possible by its listeners thanks to all of you including Bjorn Andre, Jeff Wilkes and Father Kadan Coming up on DTNS. Will E3 be more like packs in the future plus Sony pulls movies that people fade for and pulls discs from collectible bundles This is the Daily Tech News for Friday July 8th, 2022 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt Some deep in Dogtown, St. Louis. I'm Patrick Norton on the show's producer Roger Chang and we are very happy to have TV host and streamer Trisha Hershberger back on the show We're gonna talk about E3 we're gonna talk about Sony, but let's start with a few tech things you should know In early April Microsoft began blocking VBA macros on downloaded office documents by default as a security precaution Company said it's gonna roll back that decision citing feedback from customers Microsoft did not initially announce the rollback, but confirmed the change after customers noticed a change in the default behavior My stuff is broken SpaceX announced Starlink Maritime a satellite internet service for watercraft offering up to 350 megabits per second down Customers need to purchase dual terminals a fancy set of antennas for $10,000 is a one-time cost with a monthly service at $5,000 a month coverage at launch is limited to coastal waters in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Chile Well, that surely sounds painfully expensive SpaceX has a case study that points out that moving to Starlink from traditional Very small aperture satellite internet service for their drone ships drop their monthly internet tab from $165,000 a month to a mere $50,000 a month while increasing what they call fleet throughput by 5,900% seriously from very limited personal experience traditional high-speed satellites in obscure areas or out on the ocean is Insanely emotionally traumatizingly painfully expensive. It's one of those compared to what you were paying. It sounds cheap. Yeah We like to keep you up to date on fast-growing services You might not hear about anywhere else, but you might hear about down the road and because you listen here You already know about them universal music groups signed a deal to make its catalog available to um dune dough MD UN DO it's the fast-growing music service with about 20 million users as of the end of June mostly in Nigeria But also expanding across Kenya Ghana and Tanzania Universal music group is behind some of the biggest labels on the continent. So it's a good get for um dune dough Def Jam Africa Blue Note Africa and Motown Gospel Africa will be joining the platform among others nice Netflix is sponsored with excuse me Netflix has partnered with Sennheiser to replace born old stereo audio with Sennheiser's Ambio 2 channel spatial audio system at least on some of its original programming most notably stranger things season 4 Just search for spatial audio and you'll find a list of Netflix titles that include the feature Netflix already offered spatial audio on supported Apple products But this is supposed to run on anything from cheap TV speakers to your cell phone headphones tablets laptops you get the idea I've had a good 10 20 minutes puttering with it and I can safely report It is ye old psychoacoustically tweak stereo sound to make it more bigger and enveloping Big props to Sennheiser by the way for giving re-reporting mixers the ability to tweak this in the production process I'm looking at you Poorly rendered spatial audio and classic albums from certain music sites that make me go why Why did you do this to this innocent album? So what you're saying is what Sennheiser doing is very spatial The wall street journal sources say google has offered to place the part of its business that auctions and places adds into a separate company But still under the alphabet umbrella remember google's part of alphabet as is waymo and a bunch of other companies They just take all the ad tech and make it its own out from that company, right? That solves the problem, right? The u.s. Department of Justice has been investigating google for abusing its position as both a broker and auctioneer of the ads Usually those are separate parts of the process There was no information about whether this part of google's proposal would be acceptable to the doj or not All right, uh, you laugh, but you never you never know until you ask i'm gonna be very Let's talk a little bit more about uh, what's going on with uh, sony and movies right now And i'm not talking about sony pictures in this case. We're talking about playstation Tell us last year in august Sorry a bit of a internet lag there last year in august 31 sony Stopped offering tv shows and movies on his playstation store and at the time it wrote that users can still access Movie and tv content they have purchased through playstation store for on-demand playback on the ps4 ps5 and mobile devices It's okay. We're just not selling any new stuff They didn't exactly say for how long though and as of august 31st this year customers in germany and austria at least Will no longer be able to view your previously purchased studio canal content. We removed from your video library A variety reports. That's about 314 titles in germany 137 in austria Most importantly for a lot of people that's going to include both pattington movies and the children wept And some lionsgate films like john wick and hunger games and the teens and older people wept We have not heard whether any refunds would be offered. I hope in sony's case They make it good on this because this is just not nice This is the exception that proves the rule most the everybody talks about being afraid that this will happen It almost never happens But this is the worst case scenario of I paid for a thing and now I can't use it anymore The reason this doesn't usually happen is when companies do close down like flickster did for instance flickster Not quickster. That was netflix flickster Was a was a tv movie rental service a sales service. They migrated you to another service Target had its own service. They migrated you to another service and Sony didn't do that when sony shut down their thing They just decided they would keep making it available for people and you knew that Without migrating you to a going concern. They weren't going to be able to afford to continue to do that my guess here Is that there's a deal with studio canal that expired and studio canal said well if you are not continuing to make us money We're not going to renew that deal Yeah, that definitely tracks and you know like you guys were saying this is the age old argument to buy physical media Why would you buy physical media? I know a lot of us are digital only I'm mostly digital only because I have tons of dvds and blu-rays that just take up space on my shelf Now if you collect those that is like a niche thing that a lot of people go for But the argument to collect those even if that's not your specific specific collector style Is that when something like this happens You're not sol so to speak and I I feel awful for you know those folks in germany and austria right now that Paid for oh owned these movies, but don't actually own them It's it's a good reminder when you buy things on a digital service. What are you actually buying? You knew you're buying into the service and if the service is no longer there then neither are your Purchased items. I think if you look at music what we're seeing with music is People have gotten over the fear of not being able to own because so much is available so much of the time We're not there with video We don't feel secure yet that like well if I want to watch something it'll be somewhere right because most stuff is somewhere But it's also not everywhere whereas music is is pretty much everywhere right you you can find it Most things are also on tidal spotify apple music whereas in video. It's well if it's on netflix It's not on disney plus. It's not on the other thing. So it's more complicated I don't think it's necessary for everyone to switch to physical media right away This is just bad policy from sony and they should have done better By their customers from the moment they ended this last year I I'm just going to quietly ignore the large stack of blue rays and cds that occupy storage in this basements I I don't know it's I you are absolutely correct tom That this is the nightmare scenario that almost never happens You know and as trish points out, you know, most people are living the you know the the the streaming lifestyle I I also feel like the options have narrowed so much that the players that are remaining To buy content online are pretty you know me if you look at like apple google These are huge companies that that this is practically a side cell for their primary businesses So I think they'll be able to keep this supported, but it's always a little nerve-wracking Um, you know, especially if you can't do things like migrate titles to movies anywhere Which you still can't do with a bunch of titles including that would have been that would have been the other thing Right if sony was part of movies anywhere Then you would just like open a voodoo account before sony closed down Port most of your stuff over although some exceptions including lions gate Weren't part of movies anywhere, right? So that's another I was about to point that out. Yeah It's like it's so close so I was gonna ask is movies anywhere kind of generally regarded as the most ubiquitous Of the movie streaming services at this point. Well, it's it's it's the only cross service platform, right? so if if if you're going to If you're gonna participate in buying movies online, which again I think a lot of fewer people are doing that than they used to because they just decide to stream stuff off of whatever service They happen to be Using rather than owning them But but yeah movies anywhere is the way to go. It's kind of your only thing There was another one called ultra violet that went away. So you're you're pretty much, you know Your category management is movies anywhere. They just need to get everyone in in the in the store so to speak Well Similar story here But with a different spin god of war ragnarok now scheduled for release on november 9th for ps4 and ps5 And is with most big game releases these days There are special collectors editions that feature all kinds of cool extras in there For instance, the yoke gnar edition includes a mjolnir replica, you know doors hammer A knowledge keepers shrine that looks really cool a seven inch vinyl record that has the music from the game by bear mccrary You get pins. You get rings. There's a steel book display case a bunch more stuff It does not however include the game disc Neither version of the collectors edition Uh, they have two there's yoke gnar and just the collectors edition neither of them include the game disc You get a digital download code. So you get the game But it's a code a code that you cannot use Until the box with the code in it physically arrives in your hands So you're not going to be preloading you can still buy a disc of thor ragnarok Or god of war ragnarok if you want but that is separate That's the standard of the launch editions of the game the launch edition comes with some free dlc But these don't include any of the physical objects that the collectors edition do now Sony has done this before they previously omitted the disc in the collectors edition of horizon forbidden west But they did sell a special edition with a steel book and a mini art book Mass Effect legendary edition also offered a legendary cash bundle that didn't even include a copy of the game at all physical or digital But there were other versions of with collectibles that did It's no secret that growing number of gamers don't buy discs Ars Technica notes that in its retail spot check They estimate about 25 of the people who bought a ps5 opted for the one without a blu-ray drive So offering collectors editions with the download code isn't odd Ubisoft has done that a lot But not offering an option that has a disc Kind of seems like it might be an emerging trend trisha. Is this just the way of things? I mean honestly since the latest gen console releases both playstation and xbox have offered a digital only option I wonder if this is a way to Not make the folks who've purchased the digital only console feel excluded Like this way they can still get the premium collectors edition without you know a disc that feels like Oh, maybe I should have a different console I don't know. That was my only thought in reading this. I think it's very funny to get a steel case Without a disc. Yeah without a disc that seems strange But that being said I purchased the horizon forbidden west special edition I have the steel case and I just used the download code and when I got it It didn't strike me as weird at that time now when we're talking about it here I'm like, oh, yeah, that is strange But it made me think what about when I got horizon forbidden west special edition Didn't feel weird then. I guess I guess we're all just so used to digital game codes at this point Or especially if you come from pc gaming, you're very used to steam codes. I don't know patrick. What are your thoughts? No, we there's like no console gaming. The first thing we have no console the house is a play date So, you know part of me was like, that's right. People still get games on, you know Captain I have 300 blu rays is like. Oh, yes video games are still sold on discs. Isn't that fascinating out quaint But the because everything in our house all came off of you know steam or or one of the other platforms Yeah, I'm with part of me was like so tom and I were talking about this earlier part of me is like this is And then part of me was like it is really weird I think you know on the head the whole point of a steel case is to have a disc inside of it And to have a steel case without a disc is just peculiar You know, I'm also wondering when there's going to be the first sort of special edition cassette To go along with the seven inch vinyl option since I've I've I've been I've been Oh, yeah, it's coming because I've been seeing more and more people releasing cassette versions, you know, and And I've I've even found a place that claims to be doing eight tracks new eight tracks I'm trying to figure out where they're sourcing those because I thought nobody in the world was still making them So just when you thought you were done with lots of dead mediums falling back Yeah, it's not it's not weird to me that they would offer a collector's edition with a download code Uh, there's there's a bunch of music acts that I follow that do that when they put their concert stuff out on blu-ray They'll offer you a version. That's just the download code Uh, but you still get all the books and pictures and stuff and liner notes that go along with it So, uh, I get that what I don't get is not offering you the version with the disc, right? Why not also have one for the person who either uses the discs to play Or even just wants to have the disc as an artifact, right as as a thing to to have in their collection Some people are like that. They just they just want to have the physical thing Yeah, I mean is this a move by sony to Like them kind of communicating to us that they think that the physical media is on its way out. I don't know I I wonder if having a permanent copy of this So I wonder if it's that or if they just don't want to Pay to do the production run, you know, obviously they're they're making discs because they're selling the standard edition But they don't have to make as many. I don't know Yeah, it's it's it's it's just peculiar. Maybe nobody maybe somebody forgot Maybe it got through all the layers of people have to sign up on this And somebody somebody from sony america is going to be like, oh crap. We forgot that skew One with the cd in the steel case wasn't that supposed to happen Well, now they've forgot for three franchise special editions in a row, you know, yeah, yeah Or maybe maybe you could Well, I mean you can't buy it as an add-on, right? You can buy the standard edition take the cd and put it in your steel case I suppose To go with your code. So you just a little extra money. Yeah Uh And so you didn't worry about preload when you've gotten the digital code shipped to you before trisha It sounds like that wasn't a big deal No, I I you know I I try to plan it for the day that i'm going to stream the game or something like that when I have access to it and generally I will either wake up really early in the morning because i'm excited and just you know get it that morning So before my stream starts, I know I have plenty of time to download it Preload is always nice, but for me, it's not a necessity. That's a big deal Uh, well folks, uh, hopefully these are of interest to you. That's why we talk about this stuff But uh, we're always interested in what you would like to hear us talk about on the show In fact a couple of these stories today and the quick ones at the top came from our sub reddit So get in there and submit stuff and vote at daily tech news show dot reddit dot com The entertainment software association which puts on e3 when e3 happens Announced thursday that e3 will happen in the second week of june next year in person and online From the los angeles convention center as is supposed to happen in the world all will be back to normal The esa also said it will quote feature in-person consumer Components Which is what read pop is kind of famous for and I bring that up because esa is partnering with read pop Which puts on packs new york comicon star wars celebration among other things read pop also runs gaming websites Like euro gamer rock paper shotgun and games industry dot biz Uh e3 has been so many things to us over the years from a small thing in a hotel one year suddenly Uh to you know the largest video game show in the world at times Do we think that read pop can help them reach their final form? Is this the end game for e3? Can't you think of any other horrible gaming metaphors for this trish? Uh, it's a third. Yeah third form on the bus battle. Uh, I don't I don't know I'm failing on your gaming metaphors But I honestly really do hope that read pop can build e3 into something special again Whether it's just nostalgia or you know my my fan fervor Um e3 is something that holds a special place in my heart And I think that you know it's very possible that the time of e3 as it once was has now gone by Now that we see a lot of virtual keynotes at events like this But there is something still very special about a packs about a star wars celebration. That's all of these Gaming fans and enthusiasts gathering together to celebrate their love of video games and so if Esa is trying to transform e3 from an industry only event To a fan event or an industry and fan event hybrid as we've seen it in some past years I I have hope That read pop could do it. I mean packs is probably one of the best Enthusiast events as far as catering to the consumers and not just the industry that I've ever been to Again star wars celebrations very like that as well as new york comic con. Um, so Fingers crossed that that could happen Um, I you know as someone that has worked in games journalism over the years and has gone Simply just to cosplay and be a fan of video games I would love to see an in-person event come back and be really special Now if it is going to be all digital keynotes from here on out and that that fan component that Uh, even even hands-on component if that's missing I do think e3 might be dead in the water. What do what do you think abrick? I you know, it's it's funny because I read this then I read this again And then all I could think of was there were two gentlemen I I had to fly recently And I routed through I don't know phoenix or vegas but a couple of guys got on the plane were on their way home from star wars celebration and You know, these are you know two guys in their 30s And they spent like the first 25 minutes of the flight telling the The basically the grandma sitting in between them about this convention And you know, when you talk to people about star wars celebration or you talk to people about packs You know, it's just a giant fire hose of stoke. People love it. It's amazing. It's this incredible experience It taps into all this stuff that they love to do. It's inclusive It goes on and on and on and on so if anybody can make a you know E3 this extraordinary experience. I would think read pop is uh either that a read pop has just managed to associate itself with extraordinary events that it just happens You know what I mean? Like it's if the problem is the management and not the event Then I feel like E3's got a really good shot with read pop Because the stuff they put on is just beloved. Yeah, they've got amazing track record and I could see someone somewhere saying well Imagine if packs had the industry built into it already not the packs doesn't have the industry, right? But they've had to go bring the industry to it. E3 already has the industry there It's good. It's going to still show up even even with all of the Uncertainties over the past few years with covet and everything the industry is going to show up at E3 So if read pop can plug that into the consumer base I mean, I could imagine a scenario where virtual keynotes still happen But you can experience them at E3 In the hall and get hands on with the games even if the presentation isn't actually in the hall And right people still be pretty happy with that Yeah, I think I think that would be the hybrid way to do it moving forward and then of course now we also have EA summer of play and summer games fast and all of these other E3 like events taking place at the same time Vying for that E3 type mantle. If you will who's going to be the next E3 And so I think it's it's a little sad for esa that they're vying for their own title of who's going to be the next E3 But I just I as a fan and as someone who You know does work in gaming journalism from time to time I'm just sitting back with my popcorn anxiously awaiting. What comes your read popcorn my read popcorn Yeah, I mean tokyo game shows not a bad model for you know that kind of hybrid event So it can certainly be done. I uh, I look forward to seeing what what they Come up with. I don't know. Maybe they'll partner with keely or something crazy like that I'm not you know, you'd ever know There's it thinking outside of the box yet to be done Uh, speaking of thinking outside the box right now solar energy is about 3% of the global supply And when a solar panel goes dead it pretty much becomes trash, uh, it can be Sold as crushed glass or or something like that, but it's not really Effectively recycled You might want to hold on to those dead solar panels then because Norwegian Energy Industry Analyst Reichstad Believes the economy the economics of recycling solar panels is about to change It estimates the value of recyclable materials from solar panels may grow from the 170 million dollars it is now It's not nothing, but it's not a lot considering the number of panels To 2.7 billion by 2030 and there's three reasons for that expectation One solar panels are becoming more affordable to install and therefore more people are installing them Which is raising the demand for new panels Two the materials to make those new panels are becoming more in demand because they're making more panels And the handful of countries that mine and process the materials needed are coming under closer scrutiny and sometimes sanctions as in the case of some solar products made in china So there are there's a tightening of supply of the materials Not the least of which is logistics and supply chain issues that are affecting everything and three It's becoming easier and cheaper to extract valuable materials from older panels Used to be you couldn't really get the silver and polysilicon out They're making progress on being able to do that as well as many of the other materials in there So it looks like we may be able to take those old solar panels that have like a 25 year lifespan Which right now that means some of the earliest installations from the early 2000s are reaching the end of their life And possibly extract the materials to create new solar panels out of them I like this um, you know, it's been kind of crazy watching The recycling a few years ago. I fix it. Uh, kyle kind of started tracing some devices Kind of from turning them in for e-cycling to where they ended up and you know, the terrifying things Okay, some stuff ended up in Landfills despite the fact they're supposed to be recycled some stuff ends up, you know in streets In open flames basically being melted down for whatever metals they can get off of the board The rest of it kind of gets pitched and it's kind of extraordinary to watch especially as With availability on some of these rare earths get squirrelier and squirrelier or more complicated or more expensive Or just the fact that we're running out um, hopefully This continues to grow as an option because otherwise you get into that science fiction trope where you're mining landfills in your urban dystopia, you know searching for capacitors or You know bits and pieces to a walley situation. Yeah. Yeah You know nothing to sci-fi dystopia dramatic, but I love anything it keeps Stuff out of landfills is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. So yeah Pat when you were reading that did you happen to read if there were certain e-cycling services that you know Had a better track record than others There are uh, you know, I've found out that in a lot of cases it's just gotten so much better in the last few years and there's a sort of a a Best thing to do I could say is kind of go to iFix it and see where they recommend But most of the major places you can recycle stuff now I I feel comfortable in saying in most of the major places you can recycle stuff now are much better about it But uh, I do not have the latest information on on who the best places to take stuff to do this Gotcha, so cool. I will do some research Uh, and if you know some places you can email us feedback at daily tech news show dot com Let's check the mail bag now jeff wrote in Uh, and pointed out that on yesterday's show dts 43 11, uh patrick and myself Contemplated the value of a meta account versus a facebook account in relation to quest headsets The news was that they're dropping the requirement of a facebook account and implementing meta accounts in august And I was pointing out that there's not a lot of difference between those two because facebook's You know still owned by meta and meta still owns all your data either way Uh jeff writes a lot of people are contemplating whether there's a difference But for me, there's an important difference when my son received a quest to headset I had to use my facebook account to set it up So he was immediately linked with my social graph Which doesn't include anyone less than three times his age It also linked the friends he games with all of whom are less than a third my age to my facebook account Having a separate meta account means that I can finally separate him And his gaming social graph from my facebook social graph by creating his own account It also means that I can now consider getting a second headset so that we can game together since previously doing so Would have involved me creating another facebook account which not only would have violated their terms of use But been a heavy hammered approach to the small issue of wanting to game with my son That is such a good point that is such a good use case example because I do think a lot of us are talking about it of Who owns all your data? But when it comes to the practical everyday applications of using these devices, that's a really solid use case Yeah, I don't when my son's old enough to use a vr headset. I don't want all of his little gaming friends attached to my facebook But they'll be charming Well, and this is a lot of times when people say like why do you need an account for children? You know and and the the answer is maybe you don't need a facebook account for children But you might want to play games with your children on the quest in which case Do you need an account for them to play because that's the way they set up the quest unfortunately And to be fair when we say for children the quest is recommended for ages 13 and up So not little little children, right? But for teenagers. Yeah, and you might not want them to have their own facebook account yet Also, I think from a marketing standpoint There are people who think oh, I don't want a facebook account. I left facebook ages ago, but meta Is this a new thing? Yeah Yeah, we touched on that yesterday We might have just sort of assumed it more than talked about it But that's the part of it where I'm like It really is just a brand change in that respect and and that probably will help meta because some people who are anti facebook will be a Oh, oh, I'll I'll sign up. It's not called facebook now and not look too much farther into it Um, which you know good good for them. I guess I mean there's a lot of people who are pro instagram But anti facebook. So sure I I am one of them. I'm not anti facebook, but I don't use facebook I don't like using facebook and I I rarely log into it But I use instagram all the time because I don't have a moral objection to the company I just I just like one product over the other, you know What experience uh, well, let's uh, thank patrick norton for being with us for two days in a row Thank you patrick for for stepping in it was great to have you man Thanks for having me. It was great to be here As always tweet at patrick norton or head over to avxl or search for avxl And your favorite pod catcher to hear robert and I and by the way how to recycle end of life atronix Uh, ifixit.com slash wiki slash e-dash waste is a place to go to find out where to get rid of your stuff in a certified and Smart manner. So hopefully that helps everybody out and uh, there's a link in the show notes for you trish Trisha hershberger, thank you so much for bringing your sunshine into the show as always It's a pleasure to have you back where can folks find out what you've got going on online Thank you so much for having me tom. This is always so fun if people want to follow what I'm up to online Um, I stream on twitch twitch.tv slash trisha hershberger Or you can follow me on all the socials at that girl trish with no i in the girl So that g r l trish And I I do the tech and gamey hosty things for a variety of different outlets So if you watch amazon live if you watch twitch gaming if you watch ign if you watch crown channel You'll see my face pop up in those places from time to time But yeah my home base at that girl trish or twitch.tv slash trisha hershberger and thank you so much for having me Thank you and uh, thanks to our brand new boss, uh, who who made the show possible We couldn't have had trish or patrick here without the help of our patrons including the newest patron johnny homecoming. Thank you johnny for supporting the show yesterday and uh, you know if we get a brand new boss We give him a big old shout out on the show could be you tomorrow patreon.com slash d t n s There's also a longer version of this show called good day internet that starts right now for patrons available at patreon.com Slash d t n s we're live 4 p.m. Eastern 200 utc find out more daily tech news show dot com Slash live and we'll be back monday with nika monford from snobo s is our guest talk to you then This week's episodes of daily tech news show were created by the following people host producer and writer tom merit host producer and writer sarah lane executive producer and booker roger chang producer writer and host rich straffolino video producer and twitch producer joe coontz technical producer anthony lamellis Spanish language host writer and producer dan compost news host writer and producer jen cutter science corresponded dr nicky ackermans social media producer and moderator zoe deadarding our mods beatmaster w scottis one bio cow captain kipper gadget virtuoso steve guadorama paul reese matthew j stevens and jd galloway mod and video hosting by dan christensen video feed by sean way music and art provided by martin bell dan luders mustapha a a cast and len peralta a cast ad support from tatiana matias Patreon support from dylan harari Contributions for this week's show came from shannon morse scott johnson and patrick norton and our guest on this week's show Was trisha hershberger thanks to all the patrons who make the show possible This show is part of the frog pants network Get more at frogpants.com Diamond club hopes you have enjoyed this program Thank you