 Coming up on DTNS Spotify wants to make TV out of podcasts. Employees love working from home and Amazon announces all the hardware things This is the Daily Tech News for Thursday, September 24th, 2020. From Studio Redwood, I am Sarah Lane In lovely Cleveland, Ohio, I'm Rich Schiropolino From Oakland, California, I'm Justin Romano And I'm the show's producer, Roger Chang Before the show started on Good Day Internet, we were talking about getting toad and life throwing you curveballs and, uh, why having a swimming pool is a big old money pit If you want to know more about that, get the wider conversation in our expanded show, Good Day Internet, become a member at patreon.com slash DTNS for all of that For now, let's start with a few tech things you should know Twitter told the Verge the company will soon start testing voice DMs in Brazil The new audio DMs will have a simple play pause button and there's a report message option if the recipient needs to use it Twitter started rolling out support for audio tweets for iOS back in June, but received criticism that failed to factor in accessibility before launch Twitter design chief Dantley Davis told Protocol that the company has since changed its product development process so that accessibility is always factored into new features Sling TV launched Sling Watch Party in beta, letting up to four people watch synced content throughout a desktop Chrome browser tab The feature works with live programming, including a text chat, Watch Party host control, pausing and rewinding controls Epic Games, Spotify and Match have all formed the Coalition for App Fairness Alliance that seeks to change app stores, notably Apples and Googles Marketplace rules, which the coalition says gives unfair advantage to their own products and services Epic sued both Apple and Google for removing Fortnite from their app stores, though a spokesperson said that the group wasn't created directly in response to that lawsuit, but as a social welfare organization pushing for legal and regulatory changes The new deadline for a block on distributing TikTok in US app stores is September 27th. Ahead of that, ByteDance filed an injunction request Wednesday arguing that the order violates constitutional protections against free speech and due process Washington DC District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols will hear the request. Meanwhile, ByteDance continues to seek approval from commerce authorities in China for a deal with Oracle and Walmart Several Chinese state media outlets have argued against the deal, but the government has not commented Bloomberg sources say India's biggest telecom, Jio, has started working with at least two domestic manufacturers to make 150 to 200 million Android smartphones These will be for 4,000 rupees each, that's 54 bucks. Jio reportedly wants to entice the 350 million basic and feature phone users still relying on 2G service in the country to upgrade and gain access to Jio's 4G network, which would help Jio transform into a digital services provider and one of the biggest smartphone vendors Google Maps will start rolling out a COVID-19 layer option on iOS and Android this week, showing the spread of the pandemic in states, counties, and even some cities. Areas on the map will be color coded based on case rate using a seven day average of confirmed cases with labels showing if cases are increasing or decreasing Case data is pulled from Johns Hopkins COVID-19 dashboard, The New York Times, and Wikipedia The UK government's NHS COVID-19 contact tracing app began rolling out across England and Wales on September 23 The app supports Google and Apple's Exposure Notification API, as well as scanning QR codes to register visits to specific locations Alright, let's talk a little more about the airlines, they're struggling, and they want your business, right Justin? Oh yeah Sarah, United Airlines will launch a pilot to offer COVID-19 tests to passengers The trial will begin on October 15 and offer tests to passengers flying from San Francisco to Hawaii Ordinarily, passengers would be required to undergo a two-week quarantine after arriving But United worked with the Hawaiian government and health regulators to meet requirements so there would be a pre-trip negative test And therefore the passengers would not have to quarantine Tests can either be done using an at-home kit from color, which would be requested 10 days before the trip and submitted 72 hours before flying Or use the Abbott ID Now rapid COVID-19 test at SFO, which would return results within 15 minutes So I don't want to be a naysayer because I understand, first of all, United Airlines is like, you know, let's get people flying again, you know, let's help them out Hawaii also well known for being a destination that relies on tourism very heavily, very hard hit by this Because people don't want to go to Hawaii and quarantine for two weeks before they can enjoy their vacation But both of the tests sound like, you know, they're like, they both suck for different reasons If you take a test 72 hours before your trip starts and you're negative, you still have some time to get COVID before you go on vacation Now, you know, obviously people should be responsible, but people aren't responsible The other option is taking the test at SFO, you're packed, you're already wearing your Hawaiian shirt, you're ready to go, can't wait And then all of a sudden you've got a positive test and now you're at an airport and that's a whole other thing But this is definitely a step in the right direction because, you know, people are, you know, people want to travel You know, we need to figure out ways to safely be able to move that needle forward And yet people don't want to get COVID and that's where this is, you know, the rubbers meeting the road with United You know, they announced that they were doing away with change fees as a way to entice people coming back And this is something that I wouldn't be shocked to see go a little farther Like those Abbott tests are not cheap, but then again, if you are factoring that cost into the idea that you could actually get Some of these routes moving again for United, maybe it's worth it And, you know, the next level on this which might be a little scary is like, okay, well, is it only for first class customers Or are they going to like wall off or bubble off of people that got the test so they know that they are getting their COVID free And the rest of everybody is just rolling the dice Well, and the other thing that I have a question about is how scalable this is, you know, this is on like what one or two flights a day at most You know, currently kind of in this trial one specific airport one specific location, obviously, you know, why any kind of island destination is going to There certainly is an incentive right for them to want to quarantine everybody and to get this kind of testing would be would be certainly effective You know, the question is, you know, how again like that's a lot of that's a lot of management one of like sending tests to people and just like is that is the The number of tests there to kind of move this beyond a pilot project. I mean, certainly United is certainly seems willing to throw some money at this, which I guess doesn't hurt But that's the that's my question is like how do you make this work beyond just this one instance having having having taken the Abbott test I've taken the Abbott now test you need the machinery, the swab and a tech so it's like there is a world in which that is a more high capacity thing The question that I would ask to all of our dear listeners is flying for some people is anxious business enough. Do you want to tag on a COVID test which is something else that brings anxiety to various people And even if this all works out great, particularly the test from color, you know, I can barely make my flight half the time requesting something 10 days before my trip like, okay, well, we all have to Work in advance a little bit more, you know, no last minute flying for some time now submitted 72 hours before flying, you know what if it's 70 then you know you got a bunch of angry customers and there's a lot of customer service that has to happen and You know, the airlines deal with a lot of that anyway so yeah it's it'll be interesting if anybody wants to fly to Hawaii and let's us know how their experiences please write us feedback at daily tech news.com All right moving on Google released an employee survey which found that 62% of employees want to return to their offices at some point, just not every day 10% of employees didn't want to come back to the office at all 15% said they'd like to come into the office ad hoc or for specific events. According to an interview with alphabet CEO Sundar Prachai, the company is working on new hybrid work models to adapt including rearranging its offices, figuring out more long term remote work options. And back in July Google announced it was extending its work from home policy until July 2021 so they have some time to work some kinks out here but you know, having been at workplaces in the past where there was no work from home option unless you were deathly ill. You had to be there because that's what being a team player meant. You know, knowing that 62% of employees are like, I don't want to go in there every day. I don't have to go in there every day. That's what I was saying all that time. But nobody cared because it's just you know it just seems like you were trying to play hooky. So you know this is what companies have to do. Well, it's, I think where we're going to land with all this is that a lot of these Silicon Valley companies including Google, Apple and the like have created a culture where work from home was fairly well tolerated. In fact, a lot of these companies really pioneered the idea of infinite vacation days, meaning that you didn't have X amount of vacation days. Now, a lot of that is kind of tricky because they didn't want to give a bunch of engineers that never took vacation days, the things that they could just cash out gigantic checks when they left. But I think that's where we're going. Where we're going is stay home if you have a sniffle, right? Also, if you're just kind of feeling like not coming into the office, stay home, that's fine. You can keep the wheels moving long term. I think this does affect the footprint of these companies. I don't know if we're ever going to see something like one hacker way like Facebook built or the Googleplex ever again. I just like the 15% of employees that are on a power trip that just want to comment. I just want to feel like it. I'll show up at the office. I'll get the free snacks and then I'm going to go back home. When I worked TechCrunch, which was a team of writers, they weren't all based in San Francisco, but most of them were. It was an office that I went to all the time because I was on the video team, but the writers just kind of came and went. Most of them didn't. Some people just liked being in an office environment. It was the first place I ever worked where I was like, they just come in if they feel like it. And sometimes you just never see them and the folks in charge were like, yeah, as long as they're writing, we don't care where they are. Being a writer is a little bit different than a lot of other jobs, but it worked. There was a level of trust there and accountability that if you've got that, you do have a lot more flexibility than being in one building. All right, well, the Facebook oversight board will begin hearing appeals on content decisions on the platform as soon as mid or late October, according to board member Julie Owano. The board will consider decisions to leave up content at launch, but initially only if Facebook itself refers a case to it. Users at some point will be able to have a user who will be able to appeal leave up decisions as well as soon as possible, but a system for appeals has been delayed due to technical and privacy challenges. At launch, user submitted content moderation appeals will be available across 18 languages. The Facebook oversight board was first proposed by Mark Zuckerberg way back in 2018 and is set up as an independent trust. Facebook has committed to implementing the board's content decisions unless dooming so breaks the law. So it's been a while that we've been hearing about this considering this we've heard naming of board members and what powers of you know what how they will be able to moderate content. So there's a lot of criticism over their original kind of mandates and that seems to have changed now. You know, Justin, does this kind of does this do anything to solve the issues surrounding Facebook when it comes to content moderation? Best thing the Facebook can hope for with this is that it's a security blanket that people feel good about because they're able to report to something. And you know, maybe if the board has an adversarial relationship with Facebook that people will feel better that there's some kind of actual watchdog here. If it doesn't, then it will just be looked at as an ineffectual nub on the edge of this behemoth that is swallowing all of our privacy and data like so much krill. I do have to wonder, you know, being named to the board there. I mean, that has to seem at a certain point like a like a tremendous opportunity, right? Like if you're if you're passionate about, you know, you have a platform as large as Facebook and being able to have some some way to shape the content that appears on there. But I mean, that has to be a thankless job where you're either seen as potentially either seen as a rubber stamp or, you know, you know, kind of thrown under the bus the soon as some sort of controversy pops up. Like, you know, to the to the board members of that board. That's a that's a fine line that you have to walk for sure. Yeah, I mean, the thing with the oversight board is, all right, duck announced it in 2018 and people went, hmm, all right, well, let's let's see how this goes. Then it's delayed because they're technical and privacy issues that the company has to work out. And then they kind of stopped talking about it for a while and then people come back around and go, well, where's that oversight board? We got an election year. We're getting close here. You know, let's let's let's see what's going on here Facebook. So yeah, I think there's a lot of like announcement. We're on it. And then, oh yeah, now we have to do this. Spotify announced a partnership today with production company churn in entertainment with credits including Ford versus Ferrari hidden figures and New Girl to turn its original Spotify exclusive podcast into TV shows and movies. And churn in will get a first look deal a.k.a. first dib writes on pitching development of content that Spotify owns churn in Spotify and Pineapple Street media have already begun work on a TV adaptation of the clearing and Spotify owned Ghiblet media previously turned it show homecoming into a prime video original original series. Yeah, it's the DT and S movies coming soon. We just got to get by. You can't say that Sarah because then people are going to get scared that that DT and S sold to Spotify while we didn't we didn't. With that lies and it's this is also you know what I first read this this morning. I was like what podcast turned into TV shows. It's like, you know, it's kind of fiction episodic stuff that has done well. And there is a lot of that and there are some podcasts. A passenger list comes to mind. I think I'm the only one on the team whoever listened to that but like that was a gripping fun. I think it was like eight or 10 episode audio series. And I think that podcasts is it's such a great testing ground. Do people like this? Do we have good listenership? You know, does the audience seem engaged or people talking about it online? Well, that's a lot cheaper to figure something out story wise than creating a first season of a television show, you know, or trying to turn something into a movie. That can happen later on when you know that the the user base, the listener base, the viewer base, all of those things is already in place. All right, who's I'm ready to be the bad guy. This is a this is bad. This is a bad story. Effectively, the greatest thing about podcasting is that everybody owns their own thing, right? Now every podcast wants bigger audiences and Spotify is in on some level saying, look, we're growing our listenership. We are going to promote the things that we own the biggest so you could have a shot at that. We could also money up front or we can give you money for all the things that you've built if you're Joe Rogan or Gimlet or something like that. But ultimately, this is them making their money back. This is them saying, OK, well, anything that you could have sold as a movie or a television show. Now we're going to get money to have a first look deal that then we are going to be earning the lion share of that cash and not the creator who made the thing. And I think it also reflects the fact that it I mean to your point, Justin, you have the money up front that there's only so many public radio stations to put out like these high profile, you know, serial kind of type where you have to have extensive research. You know, some podcasts require years of research and upfront work to kind of put that together. Someone's got to pay for that. So, you know, it also kind of reflects that there is to hit this level of professionalism that that, you know, a lot of podcasts are maintaining now, you know, requires investment and Spotify is certainly there to see that and reap the rewards later as well. Yeah. I mean, although some people just do it independently, like raise that it season two first episode on October 4th. Find the trailer on my Twitter at Justin Arion. To get all the tech headlines each day in about five minutes, subscribe to DailyTechHeadlines.com. All right. We have a lot of hardware news from Amazon. They had a hardware event and boy, did they have a lot to talk about. So we're going to do the same. Amazon announced their cloud gaming platform called Luna, launching initially on PC, Mac, Fire TV, iPhone and iPad through the browser, eventually coming to Android. The service will launch with a $5.99 per month introductory price, providing access to Luna plus channels games to up to two devices at once with 4k 60 frames per second streaming on select games. There'll be over 100 games in the Luna plus channel and Amazon will partner to offer different channels highlighting different genres and publishing with an Ubisoft channel in development. Luna will offer integrated Twitch streams in the service and Twitch users will be able to launch Luna games as well. Amazon is offering a, you know what her name is, enabled a Luna controller for $49.99, but games can also be played with a keyboard and a mouse. So now we have all the rage, man. We have the big three public cloud providers all kind of putting their streaming game stakes in the ground, you know, Amazon kind of being the last one to the table, you know, among Google Microsoft. And interesting approach now with this channel based kind of offering Luna plus, you know, as his own discrete package, having, you know, Ubisoft other publishers kind of putting together their own packages. We're not sure yet if those are going to be charged separately where, you know, you can just only get the Ubisoft thing if that's if those are your games, but we will. It's an interesting approach as opposed to Xboxes and Stadia is kind of all in one configurations for theirs. Yeah, it's an interesting idea and I will leave it up to the gamers in the audience to tell me whether or not it's a compelling idea in general. My sense is with the gaming community is they like what they like and they like exactly what they like when they like it and they don't like interesting they like regular and they like cheap. All right, well, speaking of cheap, these may be at that price level the Echo smart speaker lineup now offers a spherical design there's a new echo out starting at $99. And it includes the AZ one neural edge chip to do voice processing directly on the device what's not punting it back to the cloud supposed to deliver much higher faster performance. It also features built in a Zigbee hub and supports Amazon sidewalk networking protocol that's their big mesh networking play. It's shipping October 22nd. The Echo dot is also getting the new spherical design and starts at $49.99. And there's also a model with an LED clock for $10 more shipping October 22nd and November 5th, respectively. You know, anybody up for Nexus Q version 2.0 here with these these round echoes. I love them. I think they look cool. It certainly it certainly sets them apart from a variety of other speakers. I know the LED clock is like some people are like whatever. Honestly, if there was a clock on every single device in my house, I would be the happiest person ever put a clock on every smart speaker I have because they they're just, you know, they just sit there otherwise. We have said this before, I'll say it again. If Amazon can put their voice assistant on paper clips, they will. They just want it to be accessible. So you think of that name before you think of any other name. This is a highly competitive genre. And I'm just excited to see that we've passed a mile marker where no longer do we have the tower like we now have nostalgia for these voice assistant smart speakers, which is mind blowing to me. Hey, by the way, there's a new fire TV stick that Amazon announced and a fire TV stick light, which offers HD streaming with HDR support and a redesigned interface, including profiles and a favorite shortcut bar. The fire TV stick light has a slower processor and a remote that doesn't include volume controls. The standard TV stick is $39.99 and the light is $29.99 both shipping September 30th. Who's got stocking stuffers to buy? That's about right. Yeah. Good prices. Good prices here. You know, the stick lights and not having volume controls might be slightly annoying, but hey, 30 bucks. Yeah. Guest room, kids room, your aunt, Sally, your uncle Todd, you can't think what they want. Sally doesn't need anything more than the light. Just whatever. Get them the light and that's it. And you'll be like, oh, you plug it in. You watch Miss Maisel. It's an absolute dream. Rich, is this the sort of thing you'd give as a stocking stuffer? Kids? No, only because I'm weird with not giving things that you need a subscription to for gifts. Right. Here's this thing. Now you pay. It's my own cheapness being reflected on my friends. Well, there's also the Echo Show 10. This one's new because it has a motorized swiveling base to ensure that it's always facing you. I love this. It also includes a 13 megapixel camera. It will use the base to keep you in frame during video calls. Maybe you're, I don't know, cooking and talking to Aunt Sally at the same time, moving around, dancing, making TikToks. It also includes the new AZ1 chip, a Zigbee hub, Bluetooth, L E and sidewalk support and Netflix support now available on show devices. Pre-orders for the show 10 open tomorrow for $249.99 shipping sometime before the holidays. I really do. I mean, even I don't do a lot of video calling on my Echo Show because I don't know. I don't like talking to people in general, but I do find that depending on where I am, because I've tried to figure out where to put the Echo Show, that's the best part. And I've decided that it's my kitchen, but at certain angles, I can't see anything. So if there was some way to just not even have it follow me when I'm moving, but just be able to easily swivel it without moving the entire unit, that's just nice. The key to this will be like how it moves because if it's like, if it's like has this like more like soft organic, like it could almost be like kind of almost have like a wally kind of feel to it. Whereas if it's if it's too abrasive, then that's like the creep factor coming in. What I really want though is when it doesn't understand you that it just like kind of tilts the screen sideways like it's sad. Like it's like, I'm sorry, I couldn't, I couldn't do it. So the reality of all these devices is that where you want a smart screen isn't always where you want a camera. And so now, if you just wanted like a little picture, like for example, in our living room, we've got our little Echo Show that is by our couch, right? But if we're talking to family and that's part of the pitch, right? That's what all the commercials is about is see the cute niece or nephew or grandchild on this device. Now me and my wife have to like kind of sit like like we're like peacock feathers, like like slowly like slightly apart from each other while we're sitting next to each other on the couch. But this I think where this is going is saying, no, the camera will move. You don't need to like it can sit exactly where you need it to be in that moment and it'll move to find you when you need to have the conversation. Right. Well, hey, if you want new developer tools and frameworks for voice assistance, Amazon has you covered. First up, there's Sidekick, which can read books with kids. There's also a new voice profile for kids, which will switch to a kid friendly mode if it attacks a kid's voice, also possibly insult a full grown adult and improvements to conversational and home monitoring capabilities. Amazon says the assistant may start asking some context based questions to help it better understand what to do and improve intonation depending on the context of conversations using Amazon's neural text to speech technology. Follow-up mode then, which lets users not have to keep using a wake word in the middle of a conversation will let multiple people participate in these ongoing chats. Then there's the new guard feature, which will try to detect and filter out a baby crying, a dog barking and the sound of snoring, depending on communication. That's very loud snoring. And there's also a $4.99 a month premium version, which will detect the sound of footfalls, doors closing and opening possible Foley artists in your home as well. And I'll give you access to an emergency hotline. A new command will also let users wipe the slate clean by saying, delete everything I ever said. Oh, yeah, having a bad day. Now you just have that one command. You know what? You know what? You A lady, just delete everything I've ever said. I hate my life. Yeah. I like I love how the premium version of the guard feature, which is cool. I mean, honestly, I can't tell you how many times my dog doesn't really bark, but he does these like very loud yonze. And that happens somewhat often when I'm asking her something and she can't understand what I'm saying. It would be so great if that could be filtered out as like this is a known sound to not take into consideration. But I love how you got to pay a premium version. You want that door closing and opening to be filtered out. Well, that's a subscription. Here we go. Audio noise as a service. Amazon announced the hundred and twenty nine dollars and ninety nine cents Eero six and the two hundred and twenty nine dollar ninety nine cent Eero pro six mesh Wi-Fi routers. The internet people love it. It also has an eighty nine ninety nine Eero six extend your all support Wi-Fi six and have a built in Zigbee hub. All can support more than seventy five devices combined simultaneously. All three products launch November second packages range from two Eero six routers for one hundred ninety nine or three for two hundred and seventy nine and a two pack of Eero pro six routers for three hundred ninety nine or sorry two pack for three hundred ninety nine or three four five hundred ninety nine. There we go. And the big deal I saw with these I saw Dan Sefert tweet this out. He'd kind of confirmed this with Amazon. The big deal with this is these are the first Wi-Fi six kind of mesh routers that will allow you to use integrate them into a Wi-Fi five system as well. So you can kind of gradually build out your system eventually if you want to do a whole home Wi-Fi six kind of thing. There were a few more announcements in Amazon's hardware event but we we'd be remiss if we did not include the ring always home cam a small autonomous drone that flies around your house with a 1080p camera when you're not home. It's not supposed to be flying around when you are home. It's supposed to be making sure everything's safe. The drone is autonomous with users mapping their house beforehand so it knows where to go and not crashing to the wall directing where they want the drone to go or not go. It can also be integrated with ring alarm systems to investigate disturbances if there are any. The camera is blocked when the drone is docked. So you know it's just it's doing its job for a specific purpose and Amazon says it makes enough noise. So you'll know when it's around it's not going to sneak up on you and be some you know flying drone. Well we Amazon says it won't. But it does ship next year for $249.99. So my initial cynical thought is finally security theater that is not as subtle as the rest of rings product offerings. But I don't know. I don't hate this. I think it's I mean it's certainly pricey at $250. But especially like you know if you have a rental property or your vacation place or somewhere else where you just kind of want every once in a while. Take a walk through it without having to walk through it like this could be pretty helpful. Yeah absolutely. I'm just going to call the 2021 headline where you know this shows up on show Dan and someone's taking control of your tiny Amazon drone scaring terrifying headline that's theoretically possible. Also if you have a pet. I mean my cat would not go for this. Maybe she'd get used to it eventually. But boy you guys do it. It's fine. I guess. I guess. They got used to the room but they can get used to the drone. All right. Well thanks to all those who participate though in our subreddit we get great stories from there every single day submit stories and vote on them at daythetechnewshow.reddit.com. We also want to give a big shout out to our master and grand master level patrons super appreciative to Carmine Bailey, John and Becky Johnston and Chris Benito. Thank you and a shout out. We love the master grand masters and all patrons we also love Justin Robert Young Justin. It's been a delight as always what else have you been up to. Well a few things politics politics politics my politics podcast has a guest segment from Tom Merritt on the most recent episodes so head on over there right now to where all podcasts are found. Also I mentioned before but my history podcast raise the dead is coming back with season two it'll be all about the 1964 election of Lyndon Baines Johnson versus Barry Goldwater. The three episode season begins on October 4th you can get the trailer right now on either the raise the dead feed same as the first season or you can find that on my Twitter at Justin are young. Excellent. Hey everyone reminder Monday August 5th we kick off our creator theme week we're going to look at technology, how it's changed and how it's still changing how people create things visual effects costumes and props narrative game design. All sorts of goodies and we have a lot of guests lined up. You do not want to miss it and it all starts Monday August 5th. Thanks again to everybody for supporting us if you want to know more daily tech news show dot com slash patreon. All right our email address is feedback at daily tech news show dot com we're live Monday through Friday at 430pm Eastern 2030 utc find out more at daily tech news show dot com slash live back tomorrow with Tom Merritt. Lamar Wilson then brought to you giant dress. 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