 phone. Really? Huh? Like the NFC. Really? Oh. Like the NFC. Keep talking. I'm just letting you know we're live. Oh yeah. So like I don't use it like the NFC. I don't use the finger scanner thing. I mean, there's a lot of things I wouldn't use. I just wanted it for the camera. And if I could have gotten a phone with the same quality of camera and the same speed, I would have bought that if it was cheaper. Why not just buy a camera? Because the best camera you have, the best camera you own is the one that you have on you at all times, typically. And it's invariably going to be a smartphone. No, no, because you made it seem like you don't want to use it for anything except for cameras. No, no, but that was my overriding thing like because I, because I have a kid, so I'm just going to negatively take a shot while we're strolling about and I'd rather have something that's decent than a blurry smudge because these are the precious moments that I will make a giant photo album with. Oh, your dad didn't go. Go ahead. No, no, I was going to say, I'm thankful that my that this technology was around when I was I would I would not want 100s of pictures of me. I'm glad I'm glad we can only find like five. Yeah, five pictures of me when I was little. And I'm OK with that. The photos of me as a kid are embarrassing enough without. These kids are going to grow up and they are going to resent you. And they're going to hate you all. They will have a better, I think, a better grasp of their lives. They'll have a different approach. You're right. They will. Yeah, I'm just I'm playing. It's it's interesting because like like most people in our age group, I have a few photos of me as a child as a baby, a majority of them. I was an infant, but there's a period between grade school like basically junior high and high school. There's no photos of me. It's just like an empty period in Roger's life and it picks up again. No, I have that. I have that, too. I don't I have a freshman picture and then nothing until graduation day. And so I don't remember what I look like in between. You know, I like, yeah, I know I was hot, but I'm not sure. I have my graduation photo, like my picture. That's it. I literally have no other photos up until college. Like there's what an eight year gap. In photography of photographs of me. So what is they do? Was that my phone? This is not supposed to be making any noise. I turn. Was that your phone? Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how to meet this darn thing. OK, there it is. Basically, it's all it's too slight. It said it's learn something on the phone. There's two slider switches. I was been wondering for a while for one. It just puts it and vibrate and you have to stir mode. And then you go up and it's completely silent. Oh, I see. You got two different settings. That's kind of cool, actually, once you know. You're right. I actually like that. Having a do not disturb slide. What if there's a phone where you can download the contents onto a SDXC card and then wipe it? So when you cross the border and you give it to someone like to the border customs or whatever, they can go through your phone. When you're not worried and then when you're done with it, you just pull the card and you load everything back up. I've heard of something similar to that where they where you can hide the contents of the phone. But like you could just physically take it away from the phone. Sticking your sock or something. Oh, righty. You guys ready? Yeah, let me just get a drink from the coldest water bottle. Not sponsored. It says that water is cold even after 24 hours. It is still cold. Cold, not good enough for Lamar Wilson. He only drinks the coldest. The only thing that's where it's not sponsored is it's just funny to do. Yeah, let me know when to pop in. Just like. Yeah, I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll just introduce you when we start having the phone conversation. So OK, I actually did meet the water. I feel better now. OK, good. Let's roll. Here we go. Want someone to spend hundreds of hours reading tech news and tell you the most important stuff? Support Daily Tech News Show at DailyTechNewsShow.com slash support. This is the Daily Tech News for Friday, February 10th, 2017. I'm Tom Merritt. Jen Cutter had her power cut up there in Canada. So she's not with us today, but very happy to have Lamar Wilson, host of the YouTube channel Lamar Wilson with us today. How's it going, Lamar? It's going great. Thanks for having me. Thanks for rolling me out of bed. To do the show. I will never forget you for this. For. Wait, forget or forgive? Either one. Either one. Quite. Also, Len Peralta is not with us today, unfortunately. He's got he had a show to go to. It's a family thing, apparently. Dinner and a show. I don't know. He and his wife actually want to celebrate on Valentine's Day weekend or something, whatever. I don't get it. But he did do the show already. So we will have Len Peralta art to show you today. Really? Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Meanwhile, we got some tech news to look at. So let's get into the top stories. WhatsApp is taking its two step verification feature out of beta. Everybody can get it now in the latest version of WhatsApp. You just go to settings, choose account. You'll see an option for two step verification. Choose that and tap enable. The way the system works is it generates a six digit pass code that you'll need to remember or write down and put in a secure location. And you'll need to enter that if you switch to using WhatsApp on a new phone. So let's say you pull your SIM card out and put in another phone. When you set up WhatsApp, you'll have to enter that six digit code that time. WhatsApp will ask for the code periodically, even if you don't switch phones, just to help you remember it. You can disable it. You're in the app. So if someone were to get a hold of your phone, they could disable it. You can also have it email a backup email that you can choose to give when you set up, and that will disable it as well. It's different, though. It's kind of hard to wrap your head around. It is two step verification, because usually the two factors you need are something you know and something you have. The way WhatsApp has worked up till now is the phone that WhatsApp is on is the something you have. That's how it's verified itself. It said we're on this phone with this phone number. So now they're adding the something you know, which is the six digit code. OK, yeah, it always, I mean, I'm glad they have this feature. It's I don't use WhatsApp personally, but it's one of the biggest apps out there. It just I guess it's just still puzzling to me in 2017. We're this is news that we're still trying to get companies to get to two step. Really? No, I preach it. I mean, you're absolutely right. So many of these companies should have done it already. I totally agree with you. Yeah, yeah, so glad that glad they have it. And and I hope people I know that now here's the question. It's going to be enabled by default or people have to turn it on. No, you'll have to go in and turn it on. And like I said, there's a few quirks about it. You can choose to give an email or not. If you don't give an email, you won't have an easy time recovering that code if you forget it. So then there's the question of, well, are people going to use the same code they use for other things and that's less secure? And of course, as I mentioned, if somebody gets a hold of your phone, the second factor won't prevent them from getting in and turning off the second code. So it's it's not a perfect system. Nothing is, but it's certainly better than not having. Absolutely. Yeah. Facebook says it will provide information for an audit of its advertising by media regulator, the Media Rating Council. It's an independent regulator, not a government issue. Facebook will hand over data, including the exact time in milliseconds that an ad was displayed on Facebook and Instagram. And if you wonder why this is happening, you'll recall it back in September. Facebook had said that a metric for average user time on videos was artificially or accidentally inflated as it only counted videos viewed for more than three seconds. So Facebook really trying because they're making lots of money. They've got strong user growth. They've got strong advertising sales and they really want to dispense with this notion that their metrics are not reliable. So they are easily willing to let somebody come in and audit it. They must be confident that it's going to pass, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, look, I'm not saying they want to become the next YouTube, but they certainly are taking video seriously now. I mean, they're they even going to roll on an app on the Apple TV. It was not there already. So they're they're really taking this seriously. And it's good for the transparency because they get a lot of views on things and and I always wonder what counts as a view. Is it me float, you know, floating by really fast? As they catch that as a view, how many seconds, whatever. And so this independent regulator would definitely set the matter straight so we know for sure what's going on. And they they have said they want to make an effort to get creators and they use that word, which is a YouTube word to get on their platform. Make short form video. I've heard reports of, you know, 10 minutes or less kind of videos. Those are the kinds of things you do on your on your channel. Lamar, is is it tempting at all for you and folks who do that? It is. They actually we connected through email a couple of days ago. I had I had spoken with them actually a year ago this month about their live program and I never really got into that. So we're in talks again to just converse because look, look, as a creator, I never want to be tethered to one platform. You know, put all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea. And so, you know, the more possibilities, the better for the business. So yeah, absolutely. No, it makes perfect sense to want to put things in various places. The question that people are going to have is are folks going to watch this on Facebook? And if so, how is that watching going to differ? Because it is a different experience to use Facebook than to use YouTube. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Do I don't want to put you in a weird position because I know you know, there's things that you haven't even thought about or decided. But have you thought about yet the different like would you do different kinds of content for Facebook? And would you try to target that? Or is it more of a of a replication of what you do? I'm just curious. No, there's a couple of things that I've thought about. I've thought about splitting my content on YouTube, where YouTube is just the showcasing of products. And maybe Facebook is the the lifestyle behind the scenes. Who Lamar is, he's using the products in a lifestyle manner. And because that doesn't be more long form and since they're mentioning they're they're looking at 10 minutes or more, that that might be a good thing to post on Facebook. I haven't seen that kind of content be successful yet, because I haven't really seen them in examples of it. It's usually quick, quick bites of news or funny things. But the text on screen, right? That's yeah, yeah, right. So that, again, my idea may not work, but that was at least what I was thinking first, you know, just in a set of trying to make two channels on YouTube, provide two different experiences of me and two different platforms that people can just watch with which one they want to watch. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. The unboxing video goes to YouTube, because that's what people are used to. The Lamar in the car, sort of, you know, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, which I, by the way, we're we're going to talk about your Lamar in the car video with one plus three T, but you yelling at the Mercedes and like getting legitimately excited about the parking spot. Like I love that kind of stuff. Oh, thank you. Xiaomi announced its Redmi 4A phones are being assembled in Indonesia. That allows them to sell them at Aerophone stores in Indonesia. Phones sold in Indonesia must be made up of 30 percent local content that's similar to a rule they have in India. In addition, the Wall Street Journal reports that Xiaomi is developing its own smartphone chip called the Pinecone, which could come in the Mi 6 later this year. Wall Street Journal reports Xiaomi acquired mobile processor technology from the Tang subsidiary Leadcore Technology through a shell company called Beijing Pinecone Electronics. So they were trying to hide the fact that they were acquiring it by using that shell company. But Wall Street Journal has sources that kind of busted through that. And this is something Samsung has been developing its own chips. Obviously, Samsung also is a chip maker that's easier for them. Apple, of course, bought a fabulous semiconductor design company and they famously have been designing their own chips. This is the kind of thing that could be in the Qualcomm's market. Yeah, I wish I knew more about Xiaomi. I mean, every time I'm on your show or listen to your show, they come up and I'm pretty ignorant about how big they are or how successful. They used to be bigger. They used to be the leading smartphone maker in China and they've fallen. We just had that story a few days ago as they are trying to increase their retail channels because they used to just do flash sales online. They've tried to expand into India where they're actually doing OK. They have been selling in markets in Indonesia, but they had to jump through some hoops to keep doing that and to be able to get their phones into retail stores in Indonesia. They definitely had to do this assembly. And you're seeing Apple do the same thing. Apple's talking about having their phones assembled by Wistron in India so that they can qualify for local retail sales. Essentially, what Xiaomi is doing is the same thing as Apple, except they're based in China, Apple's based in the United States, but they're saying we have these phones that people have brand loyalty to. We just need to figure out how to get them into people's hands. OK, do they have their own OS or are they relying on Google? Yeah, they have their own branded OS. And so, yeah, we're looking to that that chip side of things. It gives them even more control over what the phone does. I think that's exciting. I mean, what why have I mean, it sounds a little controversial. But we know what why have American companies necessarily taken over over there if they can develop their own great great things for their, you know, for their own region. Oh, yeah, Huawei is doing it. Oppo is doing it. CTE is doing it. A lot of the ascendant smartphone brands are coming from that region of the world. Yeah, I think that's excellent. Yeah, and and Xiaomi keeps making noises about wanting to come into the US. There's a lot of barriers to that, and we will see if they actually make it. But that would be one of the markets it needs to bust into to be able to keep growing as well. Probably political barriers, I'm thinking. Well, there's there's that there's several. There's there's there's logistical and political both. Wall Street Journal reports. Samsung will launch the Galaxy S8 at an event in New York in March. The Guardian and Venture Beat had previously reported that the phone might be announced on March 29th and go on sale April 21st. Those dates have not been confirmed by Samsung. Galaxy S8 is expected to have two models with curved displays, rear-mounted fingerprint sensors, thin bezels, headphone jack, a virtual assistant called Bixby, which will not actually be built on the VIV Labs. Technology would be an expansion of the S voice services. VIV Labs were the co-founders of Siri who were acquired by Samsung. So we may not see a product from them yet. That may be waiting for a future Samsung phone. Yeah, I heard this is going to be a pretty hot phone. So I'm sorry, I couldn't. I have to. Oh, let me know what you did. Yeah, please note, please note. No, I look. Big company to make mistakes. Yeah, I actually never even joked about it. You know, I'm really glad that Apple didn't took the high road on that one, too. You know, so I'm excited that the galaxies are always really cool phones. I really love the the the last age phone. It was like a really nice looking phone. So I'm hoping they bounce back. And I know this is not the Note series, but their name still got tarnished. No, I, you know, it's a fair point because I forget in my own personal bubble because I make a great effort to separate the note from the galaxy so that I don't accidentally impugn the Galaxy S series for something that has been a problem in the Note series because the Galaxy S series hasn't had any problems. But that's me because I do the show. Well, a lot of people out there just think, oh, it's Samsung. And it was the Samsung Galaxy Note. That was the official name of it. So a lot of people see Galaxy and they don't care if it says S8 at the end. So far, it does not seem to have impacted the S7 sales in nearly the numbers that people had expected. And yeah, this is going to be Samsung's big chance to say, hey, new feature. Battery doesn't explode in these bottles. Absolutely. So I knew what's in the best. I was just playing. Yeah. And by the way, Exeter M says that you cover the Samsung battery fire. We did cover that. The Samsung battery factory fire. And we pointed out when we covered it previously that it was the waste disposal section of the Samsung SDI plant that had a fire. A that section of the plant has had fires before. It's not unusual for waste disposal to have fires. It did not damage anything. There were no fatalities. And I did joke at the time that it could have been a bunch of disposed of Note 7 batteries that caused the fire, which may be may or may not be true, but it wasn't the factory. And I think a lot of headlines are saying it was the factory because, you know, it was the waste disposal section located at the factory. But that makes it sound a lot worse than it was. Well, it's a good headline. It's so yeah, that's why he did that. And finally, KGI Securities Analyst Ming-Chi Quo reports that Apple will launch three new iPhones this year with wireless charging and OLED displays. Quo reports that because of that wireless charging, the phone gets pretty hot and Apple is going to add an additional graphite sheet for better thermal control. Ming-Chi Quo has a pretty good record on these sorts of things. And while it's way early to start speculating on really what's going to be in the new iPhone, I think the idea of wireless charging being pioneered by Apple could be significant because a lot of times when Apple adds a feature that other people have had, it starts to finally catch on and people start paying attention to it. You can say that's unfair or fair, but that's that seems to happen a lot. And the idea of this having a thermal issue, I think raises some issues because of all of these thoughts of, hmm, what about batteries and thermal control and that sort of thing? Right. Yeah. So I was I was looking at some of the comments of Mac rumors about this. And it married one of my comments in my head before you said that. It was like, man, it's like, yeah, like how long has this been out? Like, like now that you know, it doesn't sound, I guess it's because we're in a tech world, but wireless charging does not sound as exciting anymore. And then knowing Apple, they won't go with the standard everyone else has. So people who have wireless charging in their new cars, a lot of new cars are coming out with that, you know, who's to say they won't go with the same standard? What Apple sometimes does, they don't they don't always do this. But what they sometimes do is come up with an implementation that is different that makes us go, oh, well, I didn't think wireless charging was that interesting, but now I do. And I'm not saying I know what that is, but I will say with the AirPods, the wireless charging of the AirPods, I didn't think was going to be that big of a deal. And I really like the way it's implemented, where I just pop them in the case and I don't have to think about them every so often. The case gives me a red light and I plug it in. That happens maybe once a week for me. So it really has reduced my thinking about having to charge my headphones, which is great. All right, this stuff we'll see. Hey, if you want to get all the tech headlines each day in less than 10 minutes, actually, we're shooting for five minutes, subscribe to dailytechheadlines.com. All right, so we talked a lot about phones here. Xiaomi is going to try to take control of more phones. We've got a hot new phone coming from Apple. Oh, nice. Oh, not not thermally issued phone coming from Samsung, but the high end phones, the big high end smartphones, that's what everybody always talks about. What about the bargain phones? We I actually have this conversation with a few different people in our analysts slack. Those are the folks supporting us on on patron at the $20 a month level, because they are saying, why should I spend all that money on a Google pixel on a Samsung Galaxy S8 on an iPhone when I can get really good specs in a mid-range phone? Now, I know you've got a full discussion on your YouTube channel, but what was your impression of using the OnePlus 3T, which, by the way, just became available again in the 128 gigabyte version. If you're if you're looking to buy one, it was out of stock for a while. So the OnePlus 3T back in the news, because you can get that 128 gigabyte version for four hundred seventy nine dollars. How did it work for you, Lamar? Yes. So this actually is the one hundred twenty eight. I didn't even know until I looked it up that they had a difference. So I want to say I am I was user and I did I mentioned in the in the video, I've you I don't know how many Android phones I have used and had over the years going back to the G1 and I was very impressed. First of all, just by how comfortable this this was in the hand. Everything was fast. Like, you know, when I tried Android maybe a year or so ago, it still was a little stuttering and hesitation. I saw none of that with this phone and one of the biggest features that I fortunately forgot to mention because I was driving in that car in a video was the dash charging. Now, that's a big deal. The 30 minutes charge in the USBC and you get a full day's power. It's crazy. Like and you see more and more companies implementing I think beats this implemented that with one of their headphones. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. And so I have I have no complaints. I like that the the fingerprint sensor works almost as well as on an iPhone. I'm glad that it's not a gimmick on the back. I just cannot stand up. I like the ones on the back. You do. OK. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. It's a very traditional phone. Not that many frills, but I found it very comfortable to use the camera was fine. I know it's not the best one out there, but everything ran fast. I think in part because six gigs around. I mean, this has one of the latest processors is pretty pretty fast on there. And I like it's just like the perfect phone. But here's the thing. When you mention high end and budget, I don't it maybe it's just I didn't know the difference. I didn't look at four hundred and seventy nine dollars as as budget. It's like it's only it's not low. Yeah. OK. Yeah. It seems like it's only a couple of hundred dollars away from a pixel. Well, why should one of my what are my commenters say? This is just a low a cheaper pixel, which I know is I think you wrote in here. What is this has USB to three. The Google Pixel is six hundred and fifty dollars for the sixty four or thirty two gigabyte version. Two dollars more or so compared to the four hundred and thirty nine dollars for the one plus three T sixty four gig. And for that extra two hundred and eleven dollars, you get a little more storage, you get loads of bands. The pixel is is works everywhere in the world, whereas the the three T doesn't support US CDMA, for instance. Oh, so you cannot get a sprint here. Yeah, you can't get on sprint with that. You can get on Verizon, but only partial connectivity. It's not the pixel has a superior camera. It's US. They're both USB C, but the pixel is USB three, the one plus only USB two. There's a few extra sensors in the pixel, like a barometer, advanced haptics, et cetera. And then there's the design. You may look at the pixel and think, oh, that's such a superior design. And maybe you think that at the Galaxy S eight, et cetera. But yeah, you're right. I mean, these phones are very comparable, but you're saving two hundred dollars on on one of them. And I just lost your sound. Give me a moment. Oh, yeah. No worries to the audience. I think for two hundred dollars, you may say the design or that worldwide compatibility is worth it. Like I need those things. So I'm willing to spend that two hundred dollars. But I, you know, if you don't need those, if you don't value those, these phones compare very favorably. Roger Chang, our producer, has actually been looking for a phone for his wife to replace her old phone as well. How have you been approaching this? So, you know, the thing about phones typically is that I have sound right now. I will rectify this to continue talking. So the thing about phones, especially in news headlines, is that they all focus on what's considered what they call a flagship or a high end phone or halo phones, phones that represent the affirmation of the company, you know, whether it's technology, design style, it's there to be emblematic of the bleeding, the leading edge of what the company can do, whether it's Samsung, whether it's Huawei, whether it's Apple. The the the actual situation for a user, though, is I don't most people don't use all those fancy features of the phone. For example, I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 and I bought it because I had a really good phone or not phone, a really good camera. And that's what I want. I was looking specifically at. But there's a bunch of features on it that I don't use. I don't use the fingerprint scanner. I don't use the NFC. I don't use a number of features. I do use it's a faster clock speed because I encrypt my phone and the faster the phone is the the more seamless the encryption is because it's on the fly encrypting your data back and forth. But for my wife, I just need a phone that will last long enough, but still allows her to take conference calls with work, be able to use Waze or Google Maps to get from point A to point B without getting lost, pretty reliable GPS. The display needs to be adequate, but it doesn't need to be stellar. It doesn't need to be high grade calibrated display where you look at it and you can do your photo proofs on it and she doesn't need a camera that needs to be at the top. It just needs to be better than average to take pictures of our kid when she's running around. And the thing is with the Google Pixel, with the iPhone, if you're buying those phones out of out of plan and unlock, they're super expensive. And so I've been targeting around the four hundred dollar range for a phone. And I think most people would actually be in the same boat, maybe not maybe a little less than four hundred bucks, maybe three two hundred dollars, because what they really need is something that's reliable day to day. Does everything want it's nice to have all the features. But if you don't really use them, it's kind of a waste because they're just sitting there and you're not using that. Plus, you know, more often than not, the Google Pixel, if you especially if you get the flagship one, it's huge, it's tremendously big. If you're a guy who doesn't have a lot of pockets or just like, you know, you want to shove in your pants pocket, not going to fit. And the same thing, like if you want to integrate into your car, you don't want a giant, you know, you don't want to stop you there, though. I have a I have the iPhone 7S, the big one, and it fits in my pocket just fine. Well, you got big pockets. But I carry I part part. Well, so it's I mean, and the one we're talking about, the one plus three T is also five point five inches. So it's not small, you know, I totally I am actually looking at the one plus three T because I think it's actually that sweet spot in terms of functionality, but also price point. Because if you go all the way on either end, if you go all the way on the high end, all the awesome features, you go all the way on the low budget and then you skip a lot of stuff. And really, it's kind of like with most products, you want to have the best value. You get the most bang for your buck, right? You either get you can either go for for everything top grade and spend the spend, you know, more than more than your paycheck, or you can go super budget, but at the same time, you're going to miss out on a bunch of things, whether it's, you know, camera quality, the ability to make those sacrifices. Yeah. I think we got you back. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So I want to thank you for your patience and I pressed the wrong button somewhere. Oh, yeah. So I saw your questions here. Like, do we really need to be spending several hundred dollars on phones? And when you think about the iPhone, when you get at the top line, you spend a thousand after the warranty and the tax. And I mean, it's not a cheap thing that I made the argument in my well, very briefly in my video yesterday about how I'm not against people, you know, because some people feel ashamed. They use boost mobile or they use your cricket. Look, you know, you're you're spending less money than me. Congratulations. I mean, you have a nice smartphone that does about all that you most people need to do at a ninety nine dollar price point or sometimes free, you know, depending on things. So I know Roger's saying foreign is a sweet spot. But there has to get a point. I don't know. Apple's probably never let us get there. But it has to get a point where you get a really darn good phone for one to two hundred bucks and and and you are completely satisfied. I think that's where we have we have to go because this idea of spending a thousand seven dollars to a thousand bucks every year because you want to keep up, you know, with the Joneses, whatever, it's a little tiring. Well, and you know, it's interesting you bring that up. When I buy a phone, I buy it until I keep using until it no longer. Functions, sometimes the company has changed names as in your old Blackberry bull. Yes, I I love that phone. But there was a point where there just weren't the apps I needed to run on the phone in order to get through my life. The same thing I had a Nexus for it was great. But as soon as encryption on the phone became a thing and I really wanted it, boom, it just killed the processor, right? It just would not. It would it would it was unbearably slow and non responsive. I needed a phone that could have a real time encryption on it. And I wouldn't notice, right? I would be able to go through Facebook. I would do the Google Maps. I would be able to go through my Gmail and it would not seem like it was slowing down. And so for me, as long as this phone works the way it does over the next this year and next year, I'm going to keep it at a point. It's the same thing like what people have with PCs. People use their PCs until the stuff they need to get done can no longer be done on that part or that particular machine. Then it's time to upgrade. And those low end phones that Lamar's talked about, those track phones, boost mobiles, sure, those are getting good enough to last longer. Processor speed is no longer as big of a differentiator in phones. It certainly isn't in computers and it's not as much in phones. Ram is starting to be easier to find in these lower end phones. And I think that's why we're looking at the one plus three T because it has gotten to the point where these medium range phones, the difference between them and the top end is almost almost always design or marginal features. Exactly. And I think there is a, you know, we saw this in consumer electronics. I mean, you know, there is a push to get people to upgrade, right? Because that's how the companies make money. And so they keep adding feature after feature. But there comes there comes a law of diminishing returns where people say, well, you know what, what I have is good enough or I don't need your, you know, way to solid gold, you know, a phone from from from from the heavens kind of thing. I can get by with your mid-range model. Does everything they start making the metal in the phone, the top selling point that we know we've reached anything. Do you think do you think there's something that that top end can still offer that would be compelling to make you want to pony up? Wow, that's a that's an excellent question. And I'm not I'm not sure either. I can't think I can't think. I mean, Apple offers a name just as much as BMW does, right? Or or Mercedes does with G-Wagon. I believe Mercedes that that's there. Yeah, that's what it's off in your car video. Yeah, exactly. That that's the good memory, by the way. Yeah, that I can't think of anything except experience. I mean, the reason I use Apple is experience is not I can't quantify it on a hardware because on a hardware. No, it's it's just this is just as good, if not better. It's some some respect. So I think you're right. I think the responsible person will get the best budget phone. I think Apple is going to if they haven't realized it, I mean, they did before with the the Lorian phones. They tried to yeah, which was not the right idea. I think they need to get their top of line tears a little bit down. Well, I know the rumors are and we don't know if this is true. It's hard to tell if it's reliable that the next iPhone is going to be a thousand dollars unsubsidized, right? And that and that and that's because that's that expensive. Right. And that's because they don't want some parts that might be a little bit more expensive. So heaven forbid, Apple ever takes a loss of profit. They're not on their hardware. They're never going to take a loss. You're right. Yeah, exactly. And so they pass it on to us, which is ridiculous. But I mean, I it's great to see in many ways, the advancement of technology has allowed the commodification of features that we used to consider luxury, like really good cameras, GPS, all these things we take for granted. And I think I mean, it's it's in the kind of in the middle where the battle is going to be fought. That's where the real money will be made, right? You can have as many high end phones as you want. But if people can't pony up the cash where it's not going to go anywhere. But I'm sorry. Oh, no, just saying, like, but the mid tier is again, the sweet spot where you can get enough of the features to grab enough people who will pay more than what their basic models will sell for. But it was not that same level premium. So you still have your halo product, which is, you know, whatever at the high end, but you have your kind of every man or every day he product in the middle that people gravitate to go ahead, Lamar. Oh, the last thing that the last thing I'm looking for, just answered, and that still may be a software thing, or at least a more powerful phone is we get to a point where, you know, I walk it in, put my phone down in a dock or on a table and it becomes my computer. Then, you know, then and I know Windows tested that with some of theirs. Didn't work out because I tested it out. It didn't work as well. It was a little glitchy. But that kind of idea where the, you know, the laptop, the iMac or the PC, whatever you use, that is your main computer that you're carrying around. That's the only other iteration I see where that makes sense for this to be more expensive. Yeah. And it's not there, like you say, continuum on Windows is probably the closest to being able to do it because it can, it actually works. The Android one is very close and an Apple hasn't come with anything like that yet. So I think this is the year that the top end phones have their last chance to come up with something different. We will see Samsung's best effort with the S8 and apparently another note. And we definitely, with Apple and their 10 year anniversary, the rumors swirling certainly indicate that they are going to make a big effort to convince you that you need to get in on a new iPhone, that it is not a three year upgrade cycle this time around, even if you've just gotten the last iPhone. And it will be very, very curious. I will be very curious to see if they can convince people and we'll just have to wait and see to find out. I mean, I will, if I may, I want to add one last thing and I'm going through the chat room, one thing that hit upon me is that one way for companies to kind of bump people to buy newer models is to just literally drop support. We're not going to update it. We're not going to give you any security badges. If you want any of that, you can need to migrate to a new or newer. Yeah, I don't really like this argument that companies intentionally undermine their products to do support. I think that a lot of times they may decide that it's not worth the extra effort because they would like to boost sales. But I don't think from the people I've talked to in the industry that they actively design obsolescence. I don't think they do. More often it's been that obsolescence is is just a fact of of the improvement of the parts available. I will not disagree with you, but I just it is it's definitely one of the things that made me move up is when they stopped. And I think a lot of times it's it is something that's going to make you move up. I just I don't know if I buy into the conspiracy theory that it's all part of the evil plan of all of them. No, I'm not saying it is. It is it is it is a march of technology and that's how things work. But that's inevitably one thing that will happen where you're just like, I can't use this phone anymore except for the TV market. They're evil. They want you to get a new TV every year. OK, the TVs are the things that I use the longest. They're the they're the ones that I can go the longest with. I think that's why they feel that way because the TV people are like, damn, as long as their TV keeps working, they're never going to buy another one. We really need to try 3D. No, really? 4K? No. HDR. How about HDR? That good to me? I think 8K, 8K TVs will be the one where I don't do it. Yeah. Hey, thanks to everybody who participates in our subreddit. You can submit stories and vote on them at DailyTechNewShow.Reddit.com. Real quickly, pick of the day and a few messages. We got a pick of the day from Brian. How is it 70 degrees in February, Colorado? I did. Man, I'm almost jealous and I'm in LA. He says, I recently discovered the 20,000 Hertz podcast as a music and movie buff and aspiring podcaster radio talent. It scratches an itch about sound production. The latest episode is about audio descriptions for movies and TV shows for the visually impaired or those that simply want to listen to a show or movie as someone that helps champion the use of screen readers. I thought you and Allison Sheridan might enjoy the episode. So go check it out. 20k.org and we'll have a link directly to the episode he's talking about. I know Brian Brushwood is a big fan of these two. He listens to it while he goes jogging, where he can listen to a television show, essentially, and have it described to him. No, man. Then your picks to us, folks, feedback at DailyTechNewShow.com. You can find more picks at DailyTechNewShow.com. I got an email from an anonymous person who works for an entity that handles FOIA requests who says, I wish my agency had a web form like the FBI for requests that on for a typically request our forms handwritten, copied in black and white and scanned. The office that handles FOIA is ill equipped to actually provide the documentation. So pushes it to the relevant bureaus. And since FOIAs are not anyone's focus, it typically typically goes to a temp worker that doesn't know the office. Once the temp gets it to the right office, ideally, we shove it to an intern who has been with us for four months max. Most people in my office rotate out after two or three years, but most requests are for documents going back five or ten years. Most people in my office minimize printed documentation to prevent accidentally leaving classified material in an insecure area. So there are few files to physically find. And most requests are for digital products that are frequently poorly organized and difficult to search for, since there are no standard storage or file naming conventions until just a few months ago, emails were not centrally stored or indexed. In fact, email accounts were capped at a few megabytes and employees don't keep their accounts when they switch offices resulting in years of lost documents. As for Justin's frustration with the process, since we rely on temps to coordinate the process, we get flooded with requests backlogged for months. No one actually conducting the search has FOIA searches as their responsibility. And no one gets promoted for doing a thorough expedition job, processing these requests. All this said, and I know this is getting long, I am actually a supporter of Freedom of Information Act requests. And I wish Congress would appropriate resources to properly archive and index documents and conduct proper searches. This is a great example of, you know, we like to throw around the conspiracy theory of like, ah, the government's just dragging their heels because they don't want us to get the information when the reality on the ground is a little more subtle. It's not that anyone is actively ignoring your request. It's that the government doesn't prioritize it. They don't have the resources to get it done. Is dragging their heels by not prioritizing and funding it, not trying to deny that, but the individuals are not like ignoring your request and laughing and having pie in the break room instead of looking for your point. They're just not getting the prioritization to be able to do it. I would like pie. Yeah, man, me too. Same here. Yeah, I think we're all that's one thing this country can agree on. And finally, Brian Q. Web says, Hey, Tom and insert knowledgeable co-host with bright personality here. That's you, Lamar. Hey, I just finished listening to Thursday's podcast. It's Friday here in Taipei because I'm in the future. And I recently took my kids to an HTC Vive pop up in a local tech mall. It cost $50 a ticket, but there were some cool activities set up. Anyway, I wanted you to know they solved the sweat problem on the VR headsets the same way it has been solved in public restrooms for your seat for your face. Nice. They gave masks, which you can see if you if you click on the link in the show notes or watch the video that cover your face, right? Where the straps hit your face. So you're not you're not sharing sweat when different people. You know what? Those totally look like the ones the face masks they use when you get sick. They just like with the eye with eye around your eyes instead of around your mouth. And I know now here's the really important question. How many of us really use the toilet? But take the time to put the paper in it. No, you don't have to answer it, but it's a question. I don't know what to answer. I will say that I'm a very hygienic person, very hygienic person. And thinking about how others may answer that may encourage you to use them more in the future. Oh, God. Oh, man. Thank you, Brian, for for being on the scene report. We thought it would come from Japan, but it came from Taiwan. Fantastic. Again, thanks to Lamar Wilson for co-hosting today. I really appreciate it. Lamar, let folks know where to find more of what you're doing. Yes, you can find me at youtube.com slash Lamar Wilson, where I am showcaser extraordinaire. I'm not actually extraordinary, but I show. Oh, thank you. I showcase cool products ranging from tech to food to weird stuff. So that's interesting stuff coming up next week. Just be sure to subscribe and see what we're doing on the channel. So it's always fun. You might get a new Xbox controller. You might get a one plus three T. You might get some new flavors of Oreos. You just never know. Go subscribe. I have retired from the Orioles. Oh, really? That's okay. I shouldn't overpromise YouTube.com slash Lamar Wilson. And of course, Len Peralta not here today, but he still drew Goldy Goldman. The man of gold who says the only phone I use is one made of solid gold. He is the one that will keep buying those top end phones till the end of time. Also, there's a disclaimer at the bottom of lens art that says that Goldy Goldman is not a financial analyst and you should not rely on him for recommendations of what to purchase solid gold. All right, you know, you don't want solid gold. It's too soft. Yeah, gold and and and yeah, we'll get all mushy. Goldy Goldman, you can you can you can take a look at this yourself at Len Peralta store dot com and even buy a print of Goldy Goldman. Very good to put in your gold room and decorate. It might go perfectly with that gold clock you have. Should you have that's one incredibly gaudy house. I was like, I was like, how did you know I had a gold clock? It's amazing. People in the audience are saying that right now. Len Peralta store dot com. Please go check it out and buy. But he's got all kinds of good prints in there. Go shop around, give give Len a little bit of your love. Big thanks to everybody who supports this show and gives us a little bit of their love, including Bruce Cheatwood, Brian Primack, Patrick Cohn. Good to have you back, Patrick. And huge thanks to Riley Briggs, Thor, Michael Wood and Klaus Havoc, who all just raised their pledge and allowed me to cry. Havoc at patreon.com slash DTNS. One last time, please take our survey. If you haven't already bit.ly slash DTNS 2017, let us know what you think of the show. We've got some questions that'll help us make the show even better than it already is. Our email address is feedback at DailyTechNewsShow.com. We're live Monday through Friday, 4 30 p.m. Eastern, alpha geek radio dot com and diamond club dot TV and our website. If you haven't figured it out already, it's DailyTechNewsShow.com. Have a great weekend, everybody. Back on Monday with Veronica Belmont. Talk to you then. This show is part of the Frog Pants Network. Get more at frogpants.com. Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program. It's all gold, man. So, so what happened in the show is I thought you all were able to hear my email pop-ups. Oh, OK. Which we could, by the way. Oh, OK. Because I didn't think I was hearing them here. I thought, because sometimes they split the, I make, we split the sound. Right. And so I went in to try to change that the moment I clicked sound. It made everything blank. So it wasn't my Bluetooth didn't go off. And the Bluetooth was rock solid. It was just, I press, I press something. So, and panic, oh, good. Oh, no. I was just going to say, thankfully, it was right at the time when Roger was ready to give his opinion. Oh, that's real. That was, and maybe I knew that. Maybe I knew. It's, it's, it's a weird, like it's a weird thing because so smartphones are now at that point where you're very dependent on. The actual, you know, speed and there's tech technological upgrades in it, like a PC, but at the same time, it's a consumer electronics product, like a DVD player. And you don't really need to upgrade those, which you buy the one or even a Blu-ray player. So it straddles that weird divide where it's consumer electronics, but, you know, it's very dependent on all these new advances in technology here in the early years of any product, right? They always advance much faster at the beginning until they get to the point where you're like, OK, we think we really have all the feature sets figured out. There's not much else to do. You've a VCR is a VCR, after a certain point. Yeah. I remember when the first VCRs didn't have a remote, you just have to go walk up to it or the remotes they did have were the ones that had a wire on it. Yeah. Plug it in. I have no idea what you all are talking about. Wait, you don't know the VCR? It was it was the pre-DVR. I'm being, I'm being. Yeah, back. You used to. No, I'm just kidding. Let me see titles. Top of the heap is keeping up with the phones is it's going to take something really good to unseat that one. I like it. And then trailing at second is Lamar in the car. Sounds like a Dr. Seuss book. You can't feel my video title for me. Oh, yes, you can. Yeah. That's that's actually Lamar's title of his videos. Yeah. Apple pursues wireless charging. Marches headlong into 2012. Solid, Goldy, Goldman. Samsung's hot new phone. Toilet seat covers for your face. I'm not sure if it's funny, but I'm not sure people would get that. There's gold in them cell phones. Yeah. OK. Now, that first one is perfect to me. Yeah, keep it up with the phones. This is good stuff. By OK. Not everyone can get it. You know, it's funny, the biggest sales on beamers aren't the seven series. Is there three or five? Yeah, I'm still I'm still car shopping. So I'm looking at at the X3 model right now. I used to be super into cars, like I was a total gearhead in high school and college. And now the point is I just want a car that I don't have to worry about. That to me is the ultimate luxury. I wanted people say, like, well, then you get a car that's an appliance. It's not fun to drive. It's like driving isn't fun anyway. Driving is not fun. Thank you. You're stuck in the freeway. You're stuck in traffic. It's not fun. You live in a living in LA area. It's nothing fun about driving. You just want a car that starts up every morning. And as long as you take it in for, you know, five thousand mile oil change, whatever, you're, you know, you're good as gold. Yes. So I feel the same way. I'm just looking for I really like to cross over vehicles because right now I'm riding something that's really low to the ground. And I'm just I'm just tired of being on the ground driving. So I'm tired of being on the ground. I have a go cart. No, no, it's not that low. It's just, you know, just a regular sedan. But I just wanted to hire when everybody else has these huge cars, like these big SUVs, you can't see over them. And it's like you can't see around them. They did your lane. Sometimes if there's two of them in a three lane road, you can't fit between them because they're lagging over and out of self defense, it makes you would want to buy one of those just so you can compete on the road. So you understand me. That's exactly what I do when I deal with here. I totally like my car, though. I like my sedan. I'll tell you why. I used to drive a pickup truck and it was cool. But even with the V8 in it, it was a 305. It was just heavy and it's, you know, turning was crappy. Let's say I made a lot of modifications like I got aftermarket springs and struts and shocks, new rims and all. It's like, no, I'm just going to stick with a car. It's about a thousand pounds lighter. It gets great gas mileage. It's very nimble. And this is the thing I've learned. Nimble, this is key in California highways. If you're not going to go like compete with a bigger car, you want to go nimble so you can weave in and out of them. I've been at the I've been. It's like it's almost like a smoking the band and move. You get two tractor trailers and they're both on either side of you. And somehow they seem to converge at some point. He's like, I got to get I got to get out of here before I get smushed. Yeah, that's why I stick with my 15 year old Toyota. And every every car has to have turbo. Well, they all need to go now. It's because I don't know if they're going to change it, but the EPA regulations increase CAF, the corporate fuel economy for the for the entire range of cars. So to do that, they have to make the cars lighter and putting a V8 in it makes it super heavy. That's what I've been shopping. I've really seen it in V8 unless it's in a really high end once now. They do they do four cylinder with turbo, which was about as fast as because I think my car right now is a six cylinder. And they have their own issues. I mean, they tend to wear out quicker, right? And you really need to be build a strong block because you're putting more pressure into it. Typically, I find the sweet side being like the turbo six. Or if they do have a turbo for it's like a higher displacement for. I mean, in Europe, they try doing turbo three cylinder cars, but they actually put out more pollution in the exhaust because you're running them at such high temperature to burn off that it was actually making more particulates like on the diesel. So, yes, so speaking of fun, and there is a fun car I test drove that and I hate to use that word fun, but like you just had some fun features. I was the key of sports was really enjoyable. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah, it was. I drove. I drove it only because I was in in there. I want to see the Nero, you know, the ones on the Super Bowl. That Melissa McCarthy, I think was driving. So yeah, when she was doing the ecological. Yeah, with the hybrid. So I walked in because I was in the area and I just wanted to try that and I didn't like it at all. It was it was too low. And I said like, but I tried to support it. I was like, and this is a nice car. And then I went to the X3 and I was like, that's a nicer car. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's twenty thousand dollars cheaper than the the card is supposed to feel like it's twenty thousand more dollars more expensive. And you like the cheaper car. You thought I like I like the cheap. I like the cheaper. I know I know it's not a big name recognition here in LA. You know, drive around with a key is not necessarily cool. But this time I drove a key was a rental car. And admittedly, this was a long time ago. I might be close to 10 years ago, but I did not like it. It did not feel good on the road. It was very, very silly. I wouldn't need you have a soul. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I don't like the souls. Yeah, I for me, a fun car is a car that I can climb out of after driving and I'm not tired, fatigued or angry. Like if the car drove itself by over. My other I'm going to make that a bumper sticker. My other car is a lift. That's actually another car is a grab taxi. But, you know, I mean, it's having a larger car or truck is always helpful if you go into like the hardware store for buying furniture. That's my problem. That's my problem. Trying to go to even I can't get some of the simplest things that just can't fit it in that little sedan. And then my friend who has a soul fits in here just fine. So, yeah, it's like I want some of this just a little bit higher and wider. My friend who has a soul in context. It makes perfect sense. Yeah, I should have taken some. But yeah, all my other friends are so unlike the rest of us. You know, this is the thing. I drive a Camry. It's a 2006 2006 Camry was the last year for that body. And it's actually the right proportions that I have managed to shove a lot of unwieldy things from Ikea from from different stores. So like as soon as they put the back seats down, it's super roomy. Well, see, my credit back seats will not go down. That's the that's the yeah. If your back seats don't go down in a sedan, that's killer. Right? Because we fit a lot of stuff in that 2002 Prius in that 2001 Saturn that we had. And well, the back seats went down. You see, when Prius came out was out back in 2002. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was the same body model as what? The Yaris or the no idea that was a fully literate. Yeah. No, it was a hybrid hybrid. Oh, OK, that's right. Sorry, I didn't I didn't know it was it was at all. Oh, yeah. No, it's a classic car now. Right. I've got a classic car. That's awesome. Let me go to the classic car show with my 2002 Prius. Yeah, just having a flexible car is just awesome. For the longest time I I used to before the truck, I rolled around in a local station wagon and that I guess I heard that thing was super handy. I could cram everything into it. It was awesome. The last the last time Eileen Rivera blew me off before I finally got her to date me, I went to a bonfire with with Roger in that station wagon. Yes, we went to go to be with Patrick Norton at the beach. Man, that car was great. It was just underpowered. That's the only problem that Volvo was so underpowered. Wow, I've never. Oh, yeah, I've only owned. Well, no, my first car was a horrible, horrible Dodge car. But like, yeah, I always owned like Dodge Neons. Oh, no, those are the worst. They they rode pretty well. They did what so this is what they had to do. The problem is my experience with this is my experience with domestics and foreign cars. So for the longest time, my dad would only buy European for some reason. So we had a Volkswagen fastback, which basically looked like a stretch of Volkswagen Beetle for like the 71. Then we got then he got the Volvo, which I actually inherited. The problem with European cars is they charge you through the nose for everything like or I know because I deal with that now. And, you know, and it's the thing is they're not expensive parts. They just because it's a cashier, it's European. I can put you I can slap a 50 percent surcharge on it. Yeah. The most important are the opposite, right? They're super cheap parts. But the problem is they're super. A lot of them for the longest time were super, super cheaply screwed together because GM and Ford and Dodge or Chrysler were so hell bent on cutting costs that they would they would go through and try to cheap out on a lot of pieces, which invariably led to low reliability, because, for example, the tourists, the tourists, the early tourists were notorious for the transmissions giving up after around 60,000, giving up after around 60,000 miles because someone decided that to save money, they would shave some of the metal on some of the parts in it to reduce the amount of material that was going to the transmission. Problem is, it made the transmission. You said they used to be, though. They will be used to be in that thing. Well, and possibly not because of the three brands that Consumer Reports rated as the most reliable. Buick was number three. So it was Toyota, Lexus and Buick and Toyota, Lexus, same company. So so it's it's very telling. I think they think I'm not Jim, but the domestic automakers realize that you cannot cut your way to profit profitability, right? I mean, a lot of assembly domestic automakers have a lot of assembly done outside the country, too. Oh, yeah. And well, if you if you find any domestic cars from the 90s and the 80s, you'll notice that a lot of the same switch gears, steering wheels all look the same, even if it's between like a Pontiac and a Buick and a Chevrolet and a nose book, because they just shared parts. Yeah, because that was how they cut costs. I read something recently that the the car with the most American made pieces in it. You know, like the parts are made in America, not just the assembly was a Honda. I believe it. I think it was definitely this year. I mean, up until I think they're starting to build the power chains because it used to be that you could build the partially because of US laws. They would have to build the car in the US, but they would ship over the transmission and engine, the power trains. But I think they've built us some plants in the US partially because of it's just cheaper to do it, not cheaper, but it makes more cost effective sense to to have it in house, but also because for specific North American brands like the Toyota Tundra, which is a full size truck that they don't sell anywhere else outside of Canada and the US. You need to build the engines for them since they don't have them you know, for that you mean you don't drive the big Toyota Tundras in Japan. I can't imagine. Well, you know, when you the largest, they drive them over the city. It's the largest. The largest car I remember seeing in Japan was a was an Australian built Ford. What is it? A Explorer. It was like left hand drive, but it was sitting there. They're probably going, you look cute. It looked like a suburban, looked like a Chevy suburban surrounded by all these little, you know, Japanese for what they call the key K cars, K E I. I'm sorry, the Honda Accord, not the Civic. It's huge, so huge. I think it's just the most bizarre thing because if you've ever been to Japan, it doesn't really dawn at you at first until you really think about it. But everything is set to scale. So the roads and the buildings look like they're supposed to. But when you're physically there, you actually measure it. It's actually a lot smaller. Oh, it's just like Disneyland. Yeah, exactly. It's totally just like that. Like their garbage truck. I remember there was like they were picking up garbage in the in the neighborhood where I was staying at. It was a garbage, a garbage truck. But it was like if you built a garbage truck, that was half the size. Right. But it built to scale. So it looked exactly the same because it was half the size. And there were like six guys hanging off the side of it. And they're going to pick up the garbage and throw it in the back. I guess every all the buildings at Disneyland are built to five eighth scale. Oh, interesting. So the first floors are normal. But then the rest of the building is five eight. I didn't know that. Yeah. That's how they make it seem like it's a small world after all. It really is about five eighths of the real world. It's exactly how small the world is after all. All right, still waiting on SoundCloud to finish some processing. But I think we're done for the stream. Thanks everybody for listening and watching. Thank you again, Lamar. You're welcome. Everyone have a lovely weekend. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Eat some pie. Bye tomorrow. I mean, bye.