 Jennifer Jones has started supporting independent tech news directly. If you would like to be like Jennifer, become a DTNS member today at patreon.com. This is the Daily Tech News for Tuesday, July 9th, 2019 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt. And from Studio Feline's Grandma's House, I'm Sarah Lane. And from disappointingly cool Finnish countryside for summer, I'm Patrick Beta. And from the outskirts of Universal Studios, I'm Roger Chang, the producer. Yeah, we're not disappointingly cool out here. We're not cool at all. No, we're just cool. Oh, we're not cool. Oh, cool. So many meanings. So many layers. We're just disappointed. Well, folks, we have got a great show for you today. Patrick Beja is going to run down the trends in streaming video games and subscriptions and basically the big trends in games now that we've had a little time for all the E3 stuff to settle out. We've got that Uber comfort level. Is that a good thing? I don't know. Let's start with a few tech things you should know. The Mini Cooper SE is getting a battery electric version called the BEV Mini. Production will begin at Mini's Cowley Plant in the UK in November. The company estimates ranges between 148 to 167 miles. That's about 235 to 270 kilometers based on Europe's WLTP and NEDC testing protocols. Well, that is disappointing. Only 270 kilometers maximum. IBM announced its acquisition of Red Hat is complete at $34 billion. It is IBM's largest deal ever. Red Hat will become a unit of IBM's hybrid cloud division. Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst will report to CEO Ginny Rometti. Security researcher Jonathan Leichu posted about a vulnerability in the Zoom video conferencing software and also the white label to bring central version of the same software from macOS that could allow a malicious website to turn on your camera without permission. Even if Zoom is uninstalled, a local host web server may remain behind and reinstall Zoom without user interaction. Leichu has a patch for the vulnerability and some instructions for disabling video by default as a mitigation factor as well as how to shut down and remove that local host server. Leichu notified Zoom of the issue on March 26th and Zoom issued a partial quick fix on June 24th. Warner Media announced its new streaming service scheduled to arrive in spring of 2020 will be called HBO Max. Along with HBO content, the service will also exclusively have all 236 episodes of Friends, the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Pretty Little Liars. It'll also have previous seasons of Warner Produce shows for the CW like Batwoman starting 30 days before the premiere of the next season. It'll also have other content from Turner Networks, Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth DC and Looney Tunes. Alright Patrick, let's talk a little more about some peace talks, some peace implementations really. Peace in our time between Amazon and YouTube. Amazon announced that the YouTube app is available on Fire TV devices including the Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Cube as well as Toshiba Insignia Element and Westinghouse Smart TVs though not the Echo Show. YouTube Kids and YouTube TV apps will also be released later this year. It's a full-fledged app with voice controls. The Prime Video app on iOS and Android now works with Chromecast devices and the Prime Video app for Android TV is getting a wider rollout as well. So Prime Video showing up on more Android TV with some exceptions. YouTube coming back to the Fire TV. Everybody's happy. It is nice to see this happening and to see more cross-platform cooperation. That's one of the worries of having just a few competitors here as they might fight tooth and nail to keep each other off their platform. So this is good. It's a good story. What's the deal? Did they make a deal? Of course we might never know. There was a deal. What was that deal? I mean, it could be as simple as, OK, we'll put Prime Video on these platforms if you put YouTube on these platforms. I mean, seriously. Maybe the Mexicans standoff lasted long enough and they were like, all right, just whatever. But I wonder if some of the people who originally disputed it left the company and all the new people were like, why are we fighting again? I don't know. I don't have an Echo Show. Tom, I know you do. Patrick, Roger, you may as well. Is this something that you're like, ah, you know, the YouTube TV app would be great if I, if I, you know, or the. No, I mean, it was nice when it was there because there were more videos from YouTube that showed up that's like, hey, here's a new cool thing, but I don't miss it. Let's talk about the future of transportation, or at least what Uber wants you to think it is. Uber announced a new tier of service for riders called Uber Comfort. The tier requires drivers to use a car from among recent makes and certain models with a minimum amount of leg room. Drivers also have to maintain a 4.85 or higher rating. Riders who choose the levels not only get the nicer cars and higher rated drivers, but some pre-ride preferences as well that they can set in the app. Something that Uber Black and SUV riders have had since May, so Uber's rolling it out to more folks. Conversation preference includes happy to chat or no preference or quiet pleas, meaning I don't want to talk to the driver, but their temperature preferences can also be said to warmer or colder depending on what the rider wants. Varies will be 20 to 40% higher than Uber X. The new option is available in multiple US cities and in Ottawa, Canada. So these are features that were already existed. In one case for Uber Black and SUV. In the other case for the things about getting the better drivers and the better cars with more leg room, that was available to Uber Diamond level, like loyalty level people. So they're just saying, oh, let's take all of those things that already existed and package them as a level we could charge more for and see if people will pay for it. So this is essentially Uber trying to increase their margins, I suppose. Yeah, I mean, it's offering features where, you know, where I'm like, I don't know, I'm a small person. I'm like more leg room. I don't care. Put me in a smart car. I just want to get from point A to point B type thing. But that does matter to some people. Or let's say you're maybe going to be on a conference call and you actually don't want the driver to be talking to you not because you're trying to be rude, but because that's just the way it goes. Or temperature control is something that's really important to you. Uber is like, okay, we'll put these features into something that we can charge you a little bit more for and then you feel like you're in control of your own experience. Well, and how far can they, sorry, go ahead though. No, I was just going to say it also, I mean, if you do the same thing with your mouth, you can get into the car and say, like, hey, I have to be on a call. Do you mind if I, you know, if I don't talk or how can you turn down the air conditioning? It's a little cool in here. I have plenty of drivers who ask me how the temperature is. This is a way for people who are like, I don't want, I want to avoid the awkwardness of asking. I just want to make it efficient. Have it known from the beginning what I want. Well, there's this whole, it's like this frictionless thing that's being pushed onto us in so many forms. And getting a car for Uber or Uber Eats or a variety of other things are, you know, sometimes I'm like, okay, that makes sense. That's cool. That's convenient. At least the option is up to me. And other times I'm like, I feel like they're inventing situations that don't actually exist all that often in order to upsell me. I just had a thought. It's kind of hijacking a little bit of the email in a small way. I was thinking what else could Uber charge you extra for in these situations? What if you could eat, they combine Uber Eats with the ride. You can order the food with the ride. It arrives. You get in, you eat while getting to the place you want to be at and then you pay and they charge you extra. And if you want to talk with your mouthful or not, there's a selection for that. There's an option for that as well. Yes, of course. Would you like a little dolly table that you can sit over your flap while you eat? That would work. A little TV tray with an iPad on the backseat on the seat in front of you. Uber Patrick is available for consulting. And it would be called Uber food and ride. Because it only serves French food. Only French food, right? Apple refreshed some MacBook Pro and MacBook Air Laptops. The entry-level MacBook Pro adds a touch bar and touch ID along with a 1.4 gigahertz quad core eighth gen core Intel i5 coffee like chip with a turbo frequency of 3.9 gigahertz, but still only offers to a USB-C port. So it's no longer without a touch bar, but it still only has two USB-C ports. A 128 gigabyte SSD model goes for $1299 and 256 gigabyte model for $1499. The MacBook Air got updated with true display and a $100 price drop. The air now starts at $1,099 or $999 for students. Both laptops also come with the updated third-generation butterfly keyboard while it still exists. Apple discontinued the 12-inch MacBook, though, and the non-retina MacBook Air models. Those are just not available. Anybody who has a non-retina MacBook will probably be like, you know, it's fine. But having had retina for as long as I have with several machines that I use regularly, going back to the non-retina is like, I might as well be looking at something underwater. How do you live with yourself is essentially your reaction. How did I live with myself all of that time? We just weren't looking at something that was nice and crisp and clear. So it doesn't surprise me that that's being phased out. I don't know. I'm kind of in the market for a new MacBook Pro. The touch bar is something that people have lamented. I actually use it pretty often, and maybe I've forced myself to use it because it's there more than it being really helpful to me. I will get my money's worth out of this computer. Yeah, exactly. But it is something that I certainly don't dislike it. It's an option that I can use or not. But yeah, the MacBook Air coming down in price a little bit for folks in the market for something light and easy. I think the only, you know, the real thing that I've seen people complain about is that the new entry-level MacBook Pro just has those two USB-C ports rather than four. I have four on my MacBook Pro that I'm using right now. And this guy's on its last legs, and I use all of them constantly. Like two would be untenable. Yeah. I'd say if you want to get a new MacBook Pro, wait a few months, wait until the end of the year to see if those new keyboards are going to show up. That's the rumor from last week, I believe. And that might be a significant game-changer for the device. Indeed. Let's move on to music streaming, shall we? The Spotify Lite app came out in beta last year and is now being released officially in 36 markets on the Google Play Store in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. The 10-megabyte app can run on any device using Android version 4.3 or higher. It can also handle unreliable or weak connections. The app is available for free and premium Spotify account holders. It supports search and saving for songs, artists, and playlists. And it also lets users set a data limit for the app. However, there aren't plans to bring the Lite app to iOS, at least at this time. So this is significant in that Spotify is becoming one of the many companies who is making a Lite app because they want to increase their market share in areas of the world that are increasingly using smartphones but have data limits or unreliable connections, that sort of thing. And these Lite apps are important for getting uptake there. It's not on iOS because the people who have those concerns generally don't buy iPhones. They buy less expensive phones. I wonder if there... It has less functionality, I suppose. I wonder if there's a reason to not get... 90% of the functionality of the main Spotify app, most of the limited functionalities around video, which isn't essential to the experience anyway. I wonder if people wouldn't prefer to have the Lite app instead of the regular one, just because why not? Yeah, because if it's using less data, if it's probably better on your battery life maybe a little bit too. Yeah, for sure. But it's certainly most important for the people who are like, yeah, I don't have a lot of storage on this phone because it's the phone I could afford and I don't have a lot of data because it's the data plan I could afford, but I still want to listen to my music. Yeah, good on them. Let's move on to gaming, an update to Google's Stadia FAQ on July 3rd, clarified that once purchased, games will be available on Stadia even if the publisher removes it from the service. So they will always be available as long as Stadia is in operation, I suppose. A Stadia account can also support up to four controllers for local multiplayer games and the Stadia controller can be set up by Bluetooth Low Energy and then use Wi-Fi for gameplay or it can be plugged in by USB for both. Google also clarified that beyond the Pixel 3 and 3A, all Chrome OS tablets will support Stadia at launch. Also, redemption codes will be sent to purchasers of a founder's pack, founder's subscription, which can be used on any Google account so you're not limited to the one you purchased it on. Yeah, that's kind of nifty the Chrome OS thing. I hadn't even thought about trying this out to be honest and then I realized, well, wait a minute, I don't have a Pixel book. Maybe I will try this out. Who knows? Well, did you get the founder's pack? No. So you won't be able to try it out? No, not really. I'll have to wait till the HoiPoloA goes in and buys the subscriptions. It's not like if you don't buy the founder's pack, you can never play it. No, the point I was going to make is that this is really a kind of beta that isn't called a beta because once it's available for everyone, you will be able to use it on everything, supposedly. You won't even need a Chrome OS tablet. In that respect, I will need you to send me your redemption code since they can be used on any Google account. Yes, I will definitely absolutely be able to do that. Yeah, be a pal. That's a good point. I do think that... There will be trafficking in these redemption codes, I bet. Yeah, I'm guessing some people will... I guess the people who ended up buying and keeping the founder's pack are going to want to try it. So once you've redempted it, it's on your account. But this is what's confusing about this whole service. Again, they're not calling it a beta, but the thing that launches in October or November is so restricted that it certainly looks like a beta. It quacks like a beta. Yeah, and the wider releases next year. Well, folks, we have more to say about streaming services, including Stadia. But if you want to get all the tech headlines each day in about five minutes to keep things efficient, be sure to subscribe to dailytechheadlines.com. So Patrick had an excellent article up on his medium about three events that symbolize gaming trends and kind of breaking it down for us what those trends are. Patrick, take it away. Sure. So what I tried to do in this article, and I'm going to try to summarize here, is look at the trends that we've all heard about and kind of look forward to what's going to be happening in the next quote-unquote generation of consoles. Maybe not at the beginning, which is going to start next year, but down the line in a few years, maybe 2023, 24, 25. And those three events slash trends are, of course, game subscriptions. We've talked about those a lot. Streaming services, we've talked about those a lot. And in a somewhat cheeky manner, I'm saying controllers getting to every device, which is very important, but it leads to something else. So for subscriptions, I think something that everyone will agree on is that they are really cool and everyone wants them, not everyone, but a lot of people want to get those subscriptions to game services. Keep in mind this is different from streaming. You can have a subscription on the streaming service and vice versa, but not necessarily both together. A subscription can be something that allows you to install games on your local machine to play them. And they are good for consumers because they are a good deal. You get a lot of content for publishers. They get the insurance to get your money every month instead of having to convince you to give them 60 bucks every few months, which is a more involved act. And I would argue even for developers, it gives them more ways to generate more revenue streams. Their option isn't only to sell you the game, they can provide it to some other services. So I think it benefits everyone in the industry, and so it's definitely here to stay. There's always an economic exception to the rule. I've figured out the way to buy games and make it work the best, and subscriptions are going to screw that up. But that's not most people. I think you point that out very well in your article. Most people have a more predictable way of buying their games, and subscriptions will probably save them some money, except if they forget to cancel the subscription, which is where it comes in to be making some money for the subscriber provider. They'll always have a little bit of that breakage. Yeah, it's either forgetting to cancel or just thinking, just like you do with Netflix, well, there's enough good content that I'm not going to bother to cancel for a couple of months and then come back. And of course, this is targeted at relatively hardcore gamers. When we say everyone, it's this subsection of the core gamer community, which is still a lot of people. Streaming is really interesting as well, because I think a lot of gamers, again, those people, think this is not going to be interesting for me, but they think of it in terms that are what they consider their habits right now. They're not thinking what streaming will enable for them in the future, such as something we talked about, trying out games that are in your subscription you don't want to install. If there are 20, that is a good thing. If you want to try a game from a competing service, it's easier to stream them. Another thing that is interesting with Google is the idea that they would be the white box service for all publishers to come in and they have a streaming service that lets you install games on PC. What about all the other devices? Well, just get your subscription on Stadia and then everyone can use it on every device. And that is, I think, a compelling offer for those publishers to be available through subscriptions on every device. And from the industry standpoint, it makes a lot of sense because it breaks the barrier of platform holders having to sell you the console for you to access the games after that. Well, and it also makes it easier for you if the things you want to play are going to be there to say, well, that's the thing I subscribed to then, rather than I'm going to have to pick an EA thing and a Blizzard thing and a Microsoft thing, right? Like potentially you could simplify your life a little bit. So that, I think Google is going in a different direction. It's not that Stadia is going to have its own subscription service that is going to include games from many different publishers. That might happen at some point, but I think what they're going to do as they are already doing with Ubisoft is say, Ubisoft, you have a subscription service. It's available on PC because, you know, not necessarily on other platforms. If you bring it to our service, people get a free tier at 1080p streaming. And if they are subscribed to your service, they can use these games, all of the games from your subscription on Stadia, the ones that you have ported over, but they don't have to pay Stadia. They just pay the subscription they already pay. And Google gets a cut of the money that Ubisoft gets. Ubisoft gets for the subscription. And they might do that with... It's less about, I don't have to pay for multiple subscriptions and more about, oh, I've got one service that makes it easy to know I can play my games on all of these different devices. And it's more interesting for the publisher because the publishers are not going to be able to ramp up the infrastructure to offer streaming. It's much easier. It's the only option to go with, well, Google in the case of Stadia or maybe Microsoft or, you know, they don't have a subscription themselves, if they are willing to do that. But in the case of Stadia, they're already willing to do it and they don't have a subscription themselves, at least so far. So it's easier to approach. Yeah. Kind of like Amazon Web Services for websites, except for video games. Yeah. What's the reason for that? About controllers. So the controllers... Go ahead, Patrick. The controllers thing is, you know, Apple is bringing the real controllers, or Xbox One to its iOS devices, including Apple TV, which means gamers can finally play games because the controllers are incredibly important. If you don't have good controls, you can't play those games, the traditional console games on your device. And since it's already possible on Android devices, it means every game is going to be available everywhere through streaming in good conditions. Of course, if you have a decent connection. That means that a PlayStation 4 owner, if they want to try an Xbox game, they don't need to go out and buy an Xbox because every single device in their house is already going to be able to play that game. Halo 6 is probably going to be available on the Microsoft streaming service. So you don't need to buy an Xbox, just press a button and you're playing. And in the mind of Sony, the Sony person, as a company, what do you do when that's the case? Because traditionally, you didn't need to worry about people jumping over because there was a large barrier to entry. Now that there isn't, is it worth it for them to have the Microsoft streaming service available on PlayStation? Which is people in tech might not understand how incredibly impossible that idea is. But for gamers, it's heresy. But the reasoning makes sense because if you are Sony, your customers are going to be able to play those games anyway. So would you rather let them play them on another platform or have them play those games on your platform and get a cut of the money they're going to be giving Microsoft? It's a strange thought, but it might happen. I could see that happening. I really could. I think people, they tend to personalize technology companies and think of them as people who don't like each other. And they're much more complex than that. And companies particularly are willing to do something that you might find unlikely if you're like, actually we can make a lot of money doing that. Exactly. And Microsoft has been moving that way. Sarah, did you have something you wanted to add in? No, I just, the more we talk about this model and how models are evolving, the more I'm like, it just sounds like cable TV to me. I mean, and I know that it's different, right? You know, we're evolving, but it's sort of like, it's that kind of, it's all encompassing. You pay this thing per month and you get everything. And some people are like, that's what I want. But more and more often, especially because we're now used to kind of all a cart models. People are like, well, I want to pay less for just like five of those games rather than 40 of them. But there are a lot of similarities, but there are also key differences. You can decide which services you subscribe to. They're all ala cart. So you can get one if you want, and that's it. The other difference is you're not locked in. You can very easily cancel the service from one month to the next. And if I can add the last difference, you get a, you have the other option, which is to buy an existing game, which is 60 bucks. 60 bucks will give you four to six months worth of that service for that game you want to buy plus a ton of other games. So it's not exactly the same dynamic as cable. Yeah. Well, thanks to everybody who participates in our subreddit completely free all a cart. Don't even need you submit stories and vote on them at dailytechnewshow.reddit.com. Thanks to everybody who submit stories, you make our days brighter and you make our rundowns easier. Also everybody in our Facebook group, you can find us at dailytechnewshow.com. All right, let's move on to Chris Christensen, the amateur traveler who is back with a story about an airlines ad campaign telling potential passengers perhaps not to fly. This is Chris Christensen from amateur traveler with another tech in travel minute. One of the most unusual airline ads you might see is a recent ad from KLM because KLM is asking you, do you really need to fly? In an effort to promote more responsible travel, especially because of CO2 production and global warming, they have a video ad which has come out that says, we need to ask you something to fly more responsibly. Do you always need to meet face to face? Could you take a train instead? Could you contribute by compensating your CO2 emissions or packing light? It's an unusual campaign and a very unusual source. So kudos to KLM for giving us food for thought. I'm Chris Christensen from amateur traveler. In Sweden, actually, there's a new concept that's starting to become popular, which is plane shaming. People are kind of shaming themselves and possibly others for taking the plane when they don't necessarily need to but we're just for taking the plane. It's a thing. Well, very responsible, those Swedes. Clever KLM Swedes in both of you. Well, yeah. I know, like the cynic in me is like, what's this all about? What do you want KLM? Hey, we got an email here as well. Yeah, we do. From Rich Straffolino, our very own, Mr. Anthropology, we're going to talk a little bit about what we're doing about our conversation yesterday about the idea of using car rentals for something other than driving the cars. Rich says, I think the short-term car rental company should be looking at people wanting to use their car rentals for sitting around as an opportunity. Partner with delivery services to have somebody with lunch waiting for you when you hop in, for example. Maybe have the car already cooled down if you want to take a nap in there and blanket. Maybe have some cars rated for productivity with better noise insulation, dedicated hotspots, or phone chargers on hand. There's a lot of value adds to be had once you've figured out that this is a desired use case. We can call it Uber No. That means it doesn't go anywhere. Uber Static. Uber ZZZ. Ah, nice. ZZZ, et cetera. Thanks, Rich. You know, we work with you every day, and we're pleased to get your feedback on stuff that we talk about on the show. And also thanks to Patrick Beja. Patrick, where can people keep up with all your latest? Well, if you want an expanded conversation on the topic we covered, we just recorded last week, I believe, the latest episode of MVGB with Scott Johnson, the monthly video game briefing, which every month breaks down the most important stories in gaming for people who are not hardcore gamers but still interested from afar. So there's that. And if you are a hardcore gamer, Pixels is my gaming show in English that you might be interested in. It's available in your podcast app, and it's called Pixels. Folks, if you're worried about eWaste, we have a good show for you. I talked to a professor from Canada about eWaste, and he pointed out that, A, focus on the end product, what goes in the landfill, we may, in fact, we are not getting the whole picture on how to prevent eWaste. And the things that you think may be the problems with eWaste are not the biggest problems anymore. You got to check this out. It's in the Patreon feed right now at patreon.com slash dtns. If you have burning questions or something you want to go off your chest, guess what? We've got an email address and that email address is dailytechnewshow.com. We're also live Monday through Friday. Join us if you can for 30 p.m. Eastern 2030 UTC. Find out more at dailytechnewshow.com slash live. Back tomorrow with Scott Johnson. Talk to you then. This show is part of the Frog Pants Network. Get more at frogpants.com. The Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.