 Coming up on DTNS, Sonos keeps cranking out the products YouTube takes on TikTok and why Facebook has stopped everyone from posting links to Australian news sites. This is the Daily Tech News for Wednesday, February 17th, 2021 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt. And from Studio Redwood, I'm Sarah Lane. I'm the show's producer, Roger Chang. Joining us, Patrick Norton, host of AV Excel is back in the house. How's it going, Patrick? It's all the way up to 22 degrees here in St. Louis, and I can actually see the sidewalk. It's glorious. Yeah, well, at least you're in a cold place used to this. All of our thoughts go out to all of our friends in the south, particularly in Texas right now with all the power outages. Of course, we have lots of friends like Brian Brushwood and others down there. So keep warm. Hope you guys find power. If you want to hear us talking about tea, Sarah Lane needs some tea name ideas. You've got to get a good day internet. Become a member at patreon.com slash DTNS. Let's start with a few tech things you should know. Google Maps for Android will now start supporting street parking payments through a partnership with Passport and Park Mobile in more than 400 U.S. cities, including Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C. The feature comes to Google Maps on iOS, the company says soon, and also includes expanded contactless payment for public transit to now include 80 transit agencies globally. Epic Games filed a formal antitrust complaint against Apple in the European Union. Epic claims the company has, quote, completely eliminated competition in app distribution and payment processes. Epic currently has ongoing legal challenges to Apple's App Store rules in the United States and Australia as well as a filing with the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal. Amazon is launching Build It, a program to introduce concept products to customers that can pre-order them if they think that they sound cool. If enough customers do pre-order, Amazon will make the product and then ship it. Customers only get charged if the product actually ships and the price does go up for customers who didn't pre-order. So there's an incentive there. This is similar to previous day one editions of products like Echo Frames. Three Build It products are currently available, a smart sticky note printer for $90, a smart nutrition scale for $35, and a smart cuckoo clock for $80. Those pre-order prices last until March 19. Garmin launched the $799 Enduro, a multi-sport smart watch for endurance athletes, including 70 days of battery life on a single charge and up to 80 days with three hours of daily solar charging. Enduro offers real-time information on current and upcoming climbs for runners and cyclists, includes a built-in recovery advisor that factors in sleep and other wellness data, and includes a heart rate sensor, pulse oximeter, and GPS. That is a lot of battery life. Yeah, it's cool. Microsoft will now let Game Studios submit games for evaluation against Microsoft's Xbox accessibility guidelines, allowing members of the gaming and the disability communities to provide useful feedback. Microsoft will work with developers to address game sections that may be challenging to those with disabilities. The company also updated its guidelines to remove overly technical terms, add high-level questions to help direct accessibility efforts, and add info on how certain features and practices impact accessibility. That's good stuff. Good job, Microsoft. All right, let's talk a little more about YouTube announcing several new products coming this year. YouTube TV viewers, y'all are getting an option for 4K streaming of some available shows, offline viewing of recordings, and unlimited concurrent streams at home. So if people are out of the house, there'll still be a limit, but if everybody's on the same network at home, they won't limit your streams, your concurrent streams. You know, good for families. YouTube Kids, speaking of families, will let parents add individual channels and videos to YouTube Kids. If they're not already in there, but you're like, ah, there's this one channel. It's not in YouTube Kids, but I'm cool with my kids seeing that. You can add it as a parent. YouTube will also expand in-video e-commerce beyond the current beta, which is limited to beauty and electronics. Also expand applause tipping later this year, and creators will have an option for automatic video chaptering. New playlist and discovery features are coming to YouTube Music. YouTube VR is getting improved accessibility search and navigation, but probably the big announcement was YouTube Shorts. Not briefs, but instead a TikTok competitor coming to some creators in the U.S. in beta in March. The TikTok-like feature launched in India in September. It limits videos to 15 seconds and includes tools for adding music and editing clips together. On a scale of Facebook Lasso to Instagram Reels, how do we feel about YouTube Shorts? Of course it's strong. You're right. Yeah, and Patrick, I don't know, you start. It's been interesting to watch people on TikTok try to figure out what to do with YouTube Shorts. YouTube Shorts is, I think, absolutely a stake in the ground to try to kill TikTok a little late and totally different in its approach. But I think it's going to be interesting to watch what it does and where it goes. I'm very, very curious. So I don't watch a lot of YouTube on a mobile device. I assume YouTube Shorts are very much mobile focused as TikTok is, although you can watch TikTok on a desktop as well. The majority of folks are creating and consuming that kind of short content on the go or on mobile devices, smaller screens. So I'm already not totally at the target market for this. YouTube has a lot of users though. It doesn't make sense for a company of YouTube size not to say, well, let's make this very popular type of media that is doing well in other places. I suppose if the company lost a ton of money by doing so that they'd scrap it eventually, but it seemed inevitable, really. And there are probably people who are just like, YouTube's my place. This is where I have built up an audience or YouTube's my place. This is where I've had all these subscriptions already of people that I like and follow. And so if there's somebody that you really keep up with on YouTube and they start experimenting with YouTube Shorts, then yeah, you're probably going to watch them. I will say that there are actually 60 seconds, not 15 seconds. The YouTube Shorts. Ah, okay. That's a big difference. It is kind of weird to have YouTube be like, we're going to do vertical videos. They're going to be 60 seconds long. It's like, hmm, where could they have gotten that idea? Well, I mean, whether it's 15 or 60, thanks for catching that. The idea here is short video like TikTok. And the reason YouTube thinks this is working is because it's working in India. They've had three and a half billion views in India. One of the reasons it's working in India is that India blocks TikTok. Now, that hasn't kept TikTok from operating entirely, but it has affected TikTok enough in India for TikTok to be considering selling off its TikTok branch to somebody else that will be allowed. There's a whole separate story and we've covered it before on DTNS of India and their border disputes with China and how they've been blocking a lot of Chinese apps. But that means YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels are going to have a better chance of finding an audience. When it comes to the U.S. where TikTok is really successful, I'm less bullish on this. I definitely feel like YouTube has an algorithm, but its algorithm is more known for making you an extremist than it is giving you cute skateboard videos. TikTok's algorithm is very much a friendly algorithm. And when they have to go head to head, I feel like this feels like YouTube gaming where it's like, sure, like Sarah said, YouTube's got a big audience. They've got a lot of content that's friendly to short video, but just because they have that doesn't mean they need a new product to be able to push that. Well, I'm excited about some of the additions to YouTube VR. I don't know if I'm the only one here that really cares about it, but YouTube VR is a lot of fun. It depends on what you're watching, of course, but yeah, I hang out in there quite a bit. So playlist and discovery features. I do a lot of flying over the earth and VR on YouTube. Thank you very much. So that's good. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, listen, YouTube is... YouTube TV stuff is cool too, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Offline viewing of recordings definitely comes in handy when we all start, I don't know, traveling again and you just don't have internet at the time that you want to watch something. Yeah, it's all good stuff. Well, speaking of good stuff, potentially Mobile World Congress will take place starting June 28th in Barcelona and won't have requirements that attendees be vaccinated from COVID-19. Instead, attendees will need to test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of the event with testing also available on site. The organizers also promised to create a touchless environment for the event. We don't really know what that means, but you probably won't be touching a lot of products. Attendance is expected to be no more than 50,000 attendees. Mobile World Congress usually tops over 100,000, more like 110,000. So it's less than half of that. Mobile World Congress Shanghai, which usually takes place in June, starts February 23rd. That is right around the corner and expects 20,000 attendees. That is also down from its usual 60,000. Well, this is a big deal because if you remember last year, Mobile World Congress was the one saying, no, we're still going to happen. We're still going to happen with a lot of people at the very earliest days of lockdown saying, I don't know if you should have that happen. And then they ended up canceling it in a very close call, like right near the time it was supposed to happen. So they swapped it with Shanghai because China basically has its own bubble. Everything's normal in China, but not a lot of people are allowed into China, at least not without strict quarantine and testing. So Shanghai having Mobile World Congress in the normal Barcelona time makes sense. Whether we're going to see any issues around this or not, I think is everybody's question, but it is a milestone that they're even willing to have this at all. I think a lot too has changed in the last 300 plus. However, many days it's been, you know, since we were kind of having this conversation right around a year ago, you know, the whole thing that still sticks with me is, well, listen, you know, you get a COVID test 72 hours before you show up at the show and who knows where you started versus where the show is, you know, if you came in contact with any number of people between however long back and when you're actually at the show, you could get a test again on site to be extremely careful. But you know, you just can't, unless you're truly putting people in a physical bubble, which is not what the show is doing, you can't truly know for sure that you're being 100% safe. But this time last year, it was just such a what if everything was a what if everybody was, you know, there were more questions than answers. And I think that we're at least in the situation now where it's like, we still have to take lots of precautions. This has to be like very, you know, rigid counting of who is here, and have they been tested and are they okay. And nobody's touching anybody. Nobody's touching products and then the product gets handed to the next person. It's going to be heavily sanitized all of that. I hope we're in a much better position to handle now. And that's all Patrick has to say on that. Well, you know, I was having a moment where it was like, you know, most of the rest of the world is not having quite the same. There's there's lots of drama in terms of assembling people in a small place and having run up against each other and yell and shout and do all the other things people do at trade shows. And it's still a lot worse here than it is in the rest of the world. I have no plans on attending Mobile World Congress unless by some, you know, one, I'm not planning on attending it period to at this point. I think it's very aggressive. I wish them well. It'll be exciting to see what happens and, you know, I mean, June is very far away. And I don't say that to say like everything will be fine by then. But also, I've been wrong about every prediction I've tried to make more than a month in advance for the past year. So who knows, by June 28, things may may look perfectly normal. And with masks and social distancing and 72 hour tests, this may seem perfectly reasonable. It also may seem uncomfortable. It probably will be some combination of both. But anybody who can who thinks they can tell you what it's going to be like on June 28 and Barcelona is lying because nobody knows. I bow to your superior analysis of the unanalysis of the bill. Yeah, my superior my superior is copying out of making a prediction. Thank you. I appreciate it. I think it was well done. Sono's schedule and announcement for March 9. The invite shows a person out in a field. So I don't know portable speaker anyone. Recent FCC filing from Sonos described a small battery powered speaker with Bluetooth and a wireless charging stand. Sonos noise canceling headphones showed up in a filing with the German patent and trade out mark office though. So those might be on the list too. But Sonos CEO Patrick Spence said in the latest earnings call that there was only one new product coming in March. So if I had to guess, Sarah, I would think that person out in the field is carrying their portable speaker because they wouldn't be announcing just headphones. I wouldn't. So I would I would guess that as well. Yeah, unless Patrick Spence is just really trying to wow us with a with an announcement of like two products. Haha, I was lying. I said there was only going to be one. I think it'll probably be the portable speaker. Portable speakers are great. But Sonos is historically on the expensive side of all products. You know, in its particular category. So the portable speaker for me always comes across as that's the gadget that I don't totally care about sound quality because there are so many variables depending on where you are. Is it windy outside? You know, it's the sound, you know, bouncing off other things. Now, Sarah, you'll be maybe credit cards salivating with me. Well, maybe so. And maybe this is, you know, we've got, you know, where I live, the big house, the fancy house, you know, has speakers built in, you know, to the to the sides, you know, all around the pool and that sort of thing. That's all fine and good. But this is the sort of thing that gives you the same experience if you got a couple portable speakers, especially if you can hook it up to the main to the main system. It's not like you have to go on a hike in order to use a portable speaker, but you could do that too. It's funny because the move Sonos is current mobile speaker, which is the move sells for $400. All the FCC filings on this next product, what appears to be the next product, it's, you know, all of the Wi-Fi is it's in its Bluetooth and Bluetooth low energy, which, you know, basically moves you in one of two directions. Like Tom said earlier, you know, headphones or speaker. I think you're right. I think it's a speaker. I'd be curious if they can actually get something down in that Sonos one range where it's, you know, maybe under $200 that would make it much more compelling. I think it's still incredibly spendy, you know, for a Bluetooth speaker, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and has Sonos quality, you know, and is is portable and uses the Sonos app or uses the Sonos app when you're away from the house. That can be really, really interesting. At least for people who are already trapped in the Sonos environment, it's like, Oh, there's a Sonos app there and there's a Sonos, Sonos, Sonos. So what you're saying is this is a great product for people who are in the Sonos universe. That's, that's all Sonos products. I mean, that's the beauty and the, you know, the, the rub of Sonos is like, once you have a few products, you're like, Sure, there is some. Pringles of audio equipment. Yeah. I have just one. Right. There's going to be, I could probably figure out some daisy chain to introduce this new product into my system, but if I just got that Sonos five, then it's just a, you know, that's how they get you. And it's not cheap, as you mentioned, Patrick. Well, folks, you know what is cheap? Join in our Patreon and getting in on our Discord. Patreon.com slash DTNS. For just two bucks a month, you can join, you get access to the Discord at all levels, and then you can be chatting with all kinds of other Sonos fans and otherwise. Just look it up. Patreon.com slash DTNS. Australia is debating a bill that if made law would require any platform deemed dominant to pay large news publishers for the privilege of linking to their content. There's an arbitration clause in there. We've talked about this before on the show. Up until now, Facebook and Google were the platforms identified as qualifying under the law. And Australia's government has made it clear that this law would apply to regular Google search, not just Google news. Google has said if the law is passed, it might stop operating in Australia altogether. And we've talked about the fallout that that could cause among deals with Apple for default search or people with Google Home, etc. At the same time, it has been signing multiple deals with news publishers to show it will pay for news. Google just doesn't want to be made to pay for it and doesn't want to pay for links in general search at all. That's their line in the sand. And we've noted before that this seems like negotiating tactics from both sides. And it looks like the negotiations at least with Google are developing. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told Sky News that deciding on whether Google search should qualify under the new rules is a decision he would make with advice from Australia's competition regulator. So backing off of saying, no, Google search is in there. He further added, if there are commercial deals in place, then that becomes a different equation for me. In other words, keep signing deals, Google. And maybe we won't apply this law to search if it passes. And Google has been signing the deals, signed a deal this week with Seven West Media and Nine Entertainment. Those are two of the biggest Australian media groups with over the air TV, newspaper, online assets. Google reached a deal with Junkie Media, smaller news publisher. They're going to have their content in Google News Showcase. And just this morning, Google reached a worldwide deal with News Corp to develop a subscription platform, share ad revenue, and develop audio and video journalism. And of course, News Corp owns about two-thirds of Australia's major city newspapers. Google is paying larger amounts for these deals as well. Compare the deal in France with more than 100 publishers is said to be total worth $26.5 million U.S. The deal with Australia's Seven West Media alone is somewhere between $7.7 and $23 million U.S. And the sitting morning Herald reported that the Nine Entertainment deal is worth around $23 million U.S. But is it enough? Freidenberg told ABC he hears, quote, these are generous deals. These are fair deals. These are good deals for the Australian media business. But I imagine he wants Google to keep writing checks for the moment and he'll nod or something when it's enough. Okay, so we feel like Google's maybe doing the right thing. Maybe Australian and Google heading towards some kind of agreement here. What about Facebook? We're getting a little different flavor from Facebook. Facebook's managing director of Australia New Zealand wrote in a blog post Wednesday that if the bill passes, Facebook will, quote, stop allowing news content on their service in Australia. And they didn't wait. They've already done it. You can't post an Australian news link on Facebook right now. Nobody will be able to view or share Australian news on Facebook. And nobody in Australia will be able to see news links or posts from any news publisher. So if you're not on Australia, no share in Australian news. If you're in Australia, no sharing news at all. The post made the argument that unlike Google, Facebook doesn't bring in its news links. The publishers and the audience do. And it makes up less than 4% of what people see in their news feed. In other words, it's not worth paying what we'd have to pay. So we're out says Facebook. And Sarah, it looks like we've got hardball from Facebook and Google close to an agreement. Yeah. The Google thing, it's sure there are some strides being made. It sounds like Google is, is, is paying up in certain areas where it probably just feels like it's, it's worth it to do. So I just can't help but think, okay, we know that Facebook and Google are just the two huge companies that we're talking about right now. So the other companies are kind of like, have fun. Google and Facebook, you got to pay because you're the big guys. But why, you know, what, at what point does Google say, well, hold on, like not this country also now this country is getting into this now. Now we're, now we're starting to feel a little bit picked on when it comes to Facebook. Facebook is like, well, most of the stuff on Facebook isn't news anyway. I think the company said it's something like around 4% of what is going to be shared or read in Australia. So, or I think worldwide really. And so Facebook's like, all right, I mean, it wasn't really a big content driver for us anyway. And we don't want to play along. So play Brinksmanship. We can try to call your bluff Australia. Yeah. Yeah, I, I'm, frankly, I, I mean, I'm not going to say who's right and wrong here, but I'm sort of surprised that Google didn't take a harder stance. I, so let me click get a clarification on thing. Is this to link to content or actual physical content? Or is this just a link to the place where the content is? Yeah, this is any link. If you have a news link on Google under this law in search, it could be something that Google would have to pay for. And that could have to go to arbitration. But now the treasurer is saying, well, maybe we'll leave search out of it. We'll have to determine that because Google's writing a lot of checks. It looks like maybe they're doing the right thing. So maybe we'll have it only applied to Google news. Whereas Facebook already blocked. Like I tried to post hilariously, I thought. Sydney morning news article about Facebook blocking Australia news on Facebook and Facebook wouldn't let me do it. They already, it's not even a law yet and Facebook is already doing this. So they're, they're definitely trying to play hardball. They're trying to say, you don't want to pass this or this is the world you live in. And I don't know that Australia's government's going to back down to that kind of tactic. It seems like they'll play nicer to Google now than they will to Facebook. Well, go ahead, Patrick. No, it's just I was like outside of extracting payments, like what's the upside. But I guess everybody in Australia knows where their local newspaper is and everybody outside of Australia can. Yeah, I mean, it'll force off Facebook to share news articles, not the end of the world. But yeah, you know what, I'm going to be interviewing Michael Geist this weekend to talk about this and the French deal and this idea of paying for news. So look for excerpts from that interview or the full interview for patrons soon because I'm looking forward to talking to him about that. Very cool. Well, last month, panelists noted that Chromebook shipments quadrupled during the pandemic. Now, IDC estimates that Chrome OS overtook Mac OS for the first time as the number two OS for worldwide desktops, laptops and workstation sales, including annual market share to 10.8% in all of 2020, peaking at 14.4% in Q4. Mac OS ended 2020 with 7.5% and Windows firmly in the number one spot with 80.5% for the entire year. Although it was 87.5% in Q1 and did fall to 76.7% in Q4. Yeah. Perhaps, yeah, nipping at Windows heels as well. Chrome OS passing Mac OS, Patrick. I mean, that's a milestone. Well, it's also, it's a sign that Chrome OS is just absolutely, Chrome OS is just absolutely floored the education market in the United States. And it's, it's, there was some laughable stuff last year where, where, you know, one of the marketing bucks at Apple was like, well, Chromebooks are fine. If you're just taking tests and everybody in the audience was like, keep telling yourself that, you know, it's been kind of amazing actually to see how they've just absolutely taken over. And they also, they work, they're easier to administer. They're so much less expensive. It works incredibly well. There's an infrastructure built there. And I find it fascinating to watch this because everything that's happening is for an entire generation of students, Chromebooks are turning into this gateway to like, do I really need a Windows laptop? Do I really need an Apple laptop? And I have the funny feeling it's growing. And also, you know, I know, I've known a couple environments and security where they're just like, we're just going to give all of the rank and file Chromebooks because they're easier to administer and they're easier to keep secure. So I think this is, you know, nobody's paying for links to, you know, education just yet, at least in Australia, still kind of blown away with the paying for links thing. But the, it's been kind of amazing to watch this kind of creep up and just absolutely take over. I mean, I think 60% of the US education market, which is something like a $43 billion industry is on Chromebooks at this point. Yeah, that's a lot. And so much distance learning, you know, home education and everything certainly accelerated what was already a trend. But like you say, that's a trend that could continue to build on itself. And, and Chrome OS, if people don't realize like you can just share it around with people pretty securely, because everybody logs in and gets gets their entire environment loaded when they log in and they don't see anybody else's environment. Kind of perfect for that. Yes, it is. Well, some new ways to communicate if you're an emoji fan, Apple's updated syringe emoji does not include dripping blood as it has in the past because the emoji is supposed to better describe the COVID-19 vaccine. In fact, it's being used that way quite a bit. Wikipedia, which follows the goings on of emoji things said that the syringe once mostly associated with blood donation now very often used to express and represent pandemic life alongside other emoji like the face mask or the microbe. The change showed up in the beta version for iOS 14.5. So if an empty syringe or at least not one filled with blood strikes your fancy, you've got new options people. The bloodless syringe is here. Finally. I guess if you do it wrong, there might be blood in any way. I mean, this is going to sound like I'm kidding, but this may be the most significant change the pandemic has had where everything else was an acceleration of a trend. There was no trend against blood in the syringe emoji until the pandemic came. All right, let's check out the mailbag. Let's do it. We got quite a bit of feedback from our conversation yesterday. Alison Sheridan was on the show. We were talking about LastPass saying free tier not going away, but if you want the features of the free tier, you might have to start paying for them. Thor said, I just wanted to take the opportunity of LastPass getting more restrictive on their free tier to point out my favorite alternative, Bitwarden. By the way, Thor was not the only person who suggested Bitwarden seemed pretty popular. It's open source says Thor and it has a third party security audit integrates with iOS and Android well, as well as desktop computers and browsers. Their free tier still allows you to use it interchangeably on all platforms. That was an issue with LastPass is going to restrict you to one kind of platform. Thor says it also has a great passphrase generator making passwords that are easy to remember. But as Alison said, it's worth paying for a service that you do rely on. Yeah, so it looks like Bitwarden. I mean, I love that it's open source. First of all, I love that it's third party audited and it's free for two users. If you want more users is when you start to pay. So that's really attractive. I mean, I think one thing that was confusing with the LastPass announcement is they're limiting you to a platform. You can use it across all your computers, but you then can't use it on your mobile devices or you can use it on all your mobile devices, but then can't share it at computers unless you pay. So it's still pretty broad and free, but that is not as generous as what Bitwarden's doing where they even give you to you can share it amongst two different people. Well, it's not as as generous as what LastPass has been doing for approximately forever. And again, if they want to make money, they want to move forward, but it's also kind of like. Also, I realized why we had the 15 seconds 60 second confusion on YouTube shorts. It's both. 60 seconds is the limit to the video. You're absolutely correct, Patrick, but the shorts camera app will only do 15 seconds. Oh, so you can upload something that's longer? Yeah. So you can have a very second on your shelf in your YouTube shorts shelf, but you can't use the YouTube shorts camera app to do more than 15 seconds. That's not confusing YouTube at all. Not at all. Well, if you have thoughts on YouTube shorts or your favorite password storage vaults or anything in between feedback at dailytechnewshow.com is where to send us all your ideas, your questions, your comments or your deepest darkest secrets. Shout out to patrons at our master and our grandmaster levels, including Paul Boyer, Philip Shane and Irwin Stur. Also big thanks to Patrick Norton, who's looking very dapper today. And if you're not watching the video version, then you should have been because you look great as usual. Patrick, where can people keep up with the rest of your work? As always, AVXL or find me at Twitter at Patrick Norton, at PatrickNorton. Twitter.com slash Patrick Norton somewhere in there. Hey, folks, we got lots of folks out there listening to Daily Tech News Show without supporting us on Patreon. That's fine. We have ads that support us that way, especially if you can't afford it. We totally get it. 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