 Daily Tech News show is made possible by its listeners, thanks to all of you, including Tony Glass, Philip Less, and Daniel Dorado. Coming up on DTNS is the chip shortage done? Maybe for some, but not for everybody. Plus, the NFL launches its own mobile streaming service, and Terence Gaines helps us understand the mysterious world of third-party iPhone repair. This is the Daily Tech News for Monday, July 25th, 2022 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt. And from Studio Redwood, I'm Sarah Lane. And in the suburbs of Atlanta, this is Terence Gaines. And on the show's producer, Roger Chen. It's going to be a lovely day. Shall we start with some tech things you should know? Bloomberg sources say that the British satellite internet company OneWeb is close to a merger deal with France's UtilSat to create a pan-European operator. This could mark further consolidation in the private satellite industry. Last year, ViaSat acquired InMarsat for $4 billion, rather, to create the biggest geostationary satellite company. Yeah, competition heating up. That's always a good sign for us. Meta launched a music revenue sharing program in the United States, letting creators include licensed music in videos on Facebook and earn 20% of in-stream ad revenue, because there will also be ads when you welcome that in. This applies to videos posted to Facebook that are longer than 60 seconds. Reels are not eligible. Remember, reels get cross-posted from Instagram to Facebook. Creators can view expected earnings in their Creator Studio, and Meta will expand the program to other markets outside the U.S. in the coming months. Google fired Blake Lemoine. You might remember him as the engineer who claimed the company's Lambda language model was sentient. Lemoine had been placed on paid administrative leave after making statements about Lambda to the press. Google said he, quote, chose to persistently violate clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information, end quote. It maintains his claims are wholly unfounded. Yeah, Douglas Hofstadter had a really good article about how you might be able to tell if an AI is sentient or not worth checking down. Netflix's iOS app now includes a sign up button that will take you to their website to sign up. So they're circumventing the Apple payment system, and this is okay. You may recall that up until 2018, Netflix let you sign up within the iOS app using the Apple payment system, but it switched to only allowing existing customers to log in to avoid sharing its percentage of the sign up with Apple. Apple updates its policies for so-called reader apps like Netflix in March, and now Netflix is allowed to offer external links for account creation. Intel announced a new strategic partnership with MediaTek to build chips for smart edge devices using Intel Foundry Services, hoping to provide more balanced, resilient supply chain as well as capacity in the U.S. and Europe. TSMC currently produces most of MediaTek's chips used in consumer devices. Ah, speaking of chips, is there good news? Good boy. We're starting to see signs that demand for chips might be slowing down, at least in some sectors. TSMC, the aforementioned TSMC, had an earnings call and CEO CeCe Wei warned, quote, our expectation is for excessive inventory in the semiconductor supply chain to take a few quarters to rebalance to a healthier level. Note that he's not saying, I expect excessive inventory. He's saying it's already here, and it may take a while to reach equilibrium. After literally years of covering an ongoing semiconductor shortage, excessive inventory isn't something we've really heard a lot about from any particular chip maker. So something has changed, not just in CPUs either. DRAM prices have fallen 10.6% in Q2. GPU prices fell 17% last month. So Sarah, I mean, it's tempting to want to say that chip shortage is over, right? It is tempting, but not quite the reality. Wired's Will Knight spoke with supply chain analysts, and it seems like the whole topic is about to get a little bit more complicated. So in the past, it was easy to say chip shortage because the shortage affected pretty much all chips. Different types of chips, though, need vastly different components. So yes, some chips are seen excessive inventory, but not all chips. And it's worth talking about the different kind of chips that we consider separate at this point. Yeah, so yes, Intel is freezing hiring. Yes, SK Hynex is considering cutting capital expenditures by as much as a third. But Wired's Knight notes that lead times on chips for more business and enterprise-focused electronics, things like medical devices, telecommunications equipment, cybersecurity systems are still roughly double what they were pre-supply chain crisis. You're talking 52 weeks to get a delivery. And the supply of chips for cars has not improved either. And in fact, supplies of raw materials like resin and steel are now starting to run short for automakers. And the COVID-19 unpredictability obviously plays a part here. The impact on the supply chain remains an issue. Strict lockdowns in China affected companies like Tesla and Apple, big companies making lots of stuff for consumers. Those lockdowns, they come and go. But according to a Shenzhen government notice, the city once again this week has asked its 100 biggest companies like the automaker BYD, Huawei, ZTE, DJI, Foxconn all to operate in a closed loop with living employees and even minimal contact between plants and offices. Most companies aren't saying how this will impact output, but obviously there's a lot of speculation there. Foxconn says operations remained normal, at least for now. And if that sounds like deja vu, that's because a similar situation occurred in Shanghai a few months ago. So you might say, okay, well, what's going on with the lockdown? Shenzhen reported 21 cases for Saturday up from 19 a day ago. I'm obviously talking about COVID. Yeah, right. China considers 21 cases to be lock it down, shut it down. We're zero COVID where the rest of the world, I mean, and you could argue that it's too much the other way. The rest of the world isn't operating like that for the most part right now. I don't know. I look at this and I think maybe it was even a better idea to have Roby on Friday talking about building a PC because it sounds like the parts GPU CPU Ram are the things that are coming down in price and becoming more available. Whereas the specialty things you need to make electronics that you buy off the shelf, you know, at a best buy out of target are the things that we are not going to see as much of because they use older equipment. And so you can't increase the capacity of making them as fast. Terrence, what's your take on all this? It just sounds like things we want them to go back to normal. So any little slice of hope that things are getting back to normal, we are quick to report on it. But just like you mentioned, China, even though that 21 cases seems like low dust to them, that's important. Monkey pox coming back. Well, I'm not coming back. You're starting to get more coming on the scene. Yeah, COVID, you know, starting to come back just specifically in our neighborhood, you know, in our area, you know, there's two schools getting back to school. They're starting to re re invoke mask mandates. So we want to turn this corner so bad. So any little news that things may be changing for the better, I think we're quick to report on. But I don't see this being over anytime soon. Yeah, I look at this. And I think it's not that the chip shortage is over. It's that the supply chain has has new problems, right? It's not a static situation where it got bad and it's just going to get better. It's a complicated situation. And it goes back to what you're saying, Terrence, which is COVID didn't get bad and then get over. COVID is more complicated. It's transmitting in a different way. It may not be as lethal, but it's more transmissible. That causes more uncertainty. You've got inflation. You've got a war in Ukraine. There are all kinds of factors that are changing things up to the point where we may have great news for chips in certain sectors that could lead to a glut, which is what TSMC was warning about. And it may be that in a year or so, we have a problem where there are too many of some chips and too few of others and suppliers of either or both risk going bankrupt because they can't access the capital they need in a worsening economy to deal with either prices that are too low or shortages that don't allow them to make things. Well, you all might be familiar with the song. Are you ready for some football? If you live in the U.S. anyway. But there's a variation on the song called, are you ready to pay for some streaming football? There is. Yeah. The National Football League hopes so. NFL just launched its first in-house streaming service. So here's how it used to be. If anyone's not familiar in the past, Yahoo Sports offered free live local and prime time games on mobile devices and also laptops. Game Pass for $100 a year offered access to replays of full games. Game Pass will still be available outside the U.S. These are both being replaced though. So Tom, tell us, what are the new services? Yeah, NFL plus because everything is a plus is 499 a month. It lets you watch on a mobile device all the live out of market preseason games. So preseason, you can watch everything that's not in your home market and live local and prime time regular and postseason games on your mobile device. Seems a little topsy-turvy, but it gives you more in the preseason than it does in the regular season. You also get NFL network shows, some live audio of all the games either in your browser or the app. NFL plus premium is the next tier up. So 499 a month gets you the live games. 999 a month adds ad free game replays, condensed games, coaches films, all 22, which lets you see every player on the field. A few more bells and whistles all available in the NFL app. Now you might say, well, is this just NFL Sunday ticket? It isn't. This is different than NFL Sunday ticket. That lets you watch live out of market games on your TV as well as mobile. Direct TVs deal on Sunday ticket ends after this season. Multiple outlets report that Apple and Google, among others, are involved in talks to get those rights. Yeah, and they're not projecting any subscriber numbers yet for this service, especially because it's combining two other services, one that was priced well above this one, one that was free. So it's kind of all bets are off. But this is significant, not so much in the service itself, but that the NFL is taking control of some of its content that the NFL is saying, we're going to do this in-house. We're going to provide it through the NFL app. And they are not going to do that with Sunday ticket. They say they're going to contract that out to a streamer still. But Terrence, I know you're not as big of an NFL fan as you used to be, but you still follow this stuff, right? Yeah, no, absolutely. I was going to say when you mentioned NFL Plus, and it's like, aren't we tired of the pluses in the streaming services? I mean, just pick any other word. Any other word. But I was going to lead into it to also say, I think as a whole, I think we're starting to get tired of streaming services in general. But if the one entity could kind of change our minds about streaming, it would be the NFL sports in general, but particularly in the United States, it would be the NFL. So while I think NFL Plus and all pluses and while streaming services in general starting to get long in the tooth and we're starting to get tired of them, I think the NFL, while they should have done it maybe a year or two ago, especially with COVID, I think NFL may be one of the one entities to where people say, hold on now. And people do the streaming service juggle. It's like, all right, well, how do I get NFL? And if I get NFL, then what do I have to get rid of? Am I getting tired of Netflix? Does Peacock serve me? How much am I really watching on Apple TV Plus? I think consumers will really start to not necessarily entertain the idea of just jumping all in. But at the same time, I think the NFL going streaming and offering the versatility being able to watch it on mobile or on your TV, whatever the case may be. I think people will actually start to take more interest into streaming when originally we was kind of, and we're over it now. Yeah, I think that's 100% true and we'll get more true if they announce Apple or Google or Amazon as the Sunday ticket performer. Like these two combined are going to be the big story. Right now it's a situation where for the coming season, it'll be, oh, I need to get a satellite dish if I want to get Sunday ticket. Right, it's more accessible with mobile or it's more accessible via Apple and Google versus, like you said, trying to figure out how I'm going to get a satellite dish. Yeah, so you actually might see more people pick this up because $5 a month isn't bad. $5 a month is, you know, a cup of really expensive Starbucks coffee, you know. Or a couple of them over a month. Yeah, exactly. Or for a month. Yeah, or they'll clip something else. Something else to get chopped off. You know, people are getting tired of Netflix. Yep, yep. That might be the thing that goes. So I look at this and I think it's going to get that person who's out and about, doesn't want to get direct TV, wants to watch the game and realizes, oh crap, I could pay $5 right now and watch the game. I will. And then they're signed up as a monthly. Which is, I mean, that's a good point, Tom, that, you know, if you really want to watch a game, you pay $5 to watch the game. Yeah. But if you get a bunch of other games as a result, then it starts to seem pretty attractive. And then, like you said, Terrence, things like Netflix or HBO Max or, you know, all the other stuff that you feel like you should pay for. But maybe you're not really using. Then that drops off. And so it's a little bit of a, you know, a domino effect. Yeah. GPag84 asks a good question in our chat room. Direct TV does do an internet TV service called Direct TV. Now Sunday ticket is not part of that. And that's partly because the rights were for Verizon's Yahoo. Back when Verizon owned Yahoo and Direct TV didn't get that. So. Remember that. Those were the days. Well, folks, if you have a thought about this, if you're like, wait a minute, I live in an area that's in 17 NFL local markets somehow. What games will I be able to watch? Email us feedback at DailyTechNewShow.com. One of the worst feelings in the world is when you drop your phone and it cracks, especially if it's that new expensive iPhone that you just plucks a thousand dollars down to get, you get a crack screen, you get a non responsive screen, even worse. So what do you do? Well, you might go to one of those mall kiosks. You might go to that little store in the strip mall down the corner. Terrence used to repair iPhones as a side hustle. And we're going to ask him to help us from the other side of the counter figure out if this is a good idea or not. Terrence, if somebody breaks their iPhone, what do you think their first step should be? I know people don't want to hear this. And I know it sounds boring and I know it sounds lame. But the first thing you should do is check and make sure your backups are on, whether it be iCloud, if you have an iPhone, if Google Photos or Google Sync or Google Drive, if you have an Android or just good old fashioned plug it up to your computer and let the backup do its work manually. That would be the first thing because even though you think, oh, it just the screen just cracked. You never know what other things are connected because these phones are so tight and so intricate that the screen may be sitting on top of the cellular radio or the modem or the wireless connection that kind of throws everything off. So while you think it's just cracked slowly, but surely you're losing connection and then now you can't get to anything. So I think the first thing to do is make sure your data is safe and secure someplace else. I mean, even a cracked screen, which I am a non-iPhone case user. I don't know. I just can't learn from my own mistakes, but thank you Terence. But I also have had many cracked screens over time. You know, putting your, well, in my case, iPhone down and like, I don't know, there's a little bit of water on the counter. Not the biggest deal. Once it's cracked though, kind of a big deal. Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. So when do you think it's appropriate to go to a third party like, like a kiosk or a local store versus if you have an Apple store as a choice, go into the genius bar. In my opinion, it depends on your phone. And what I mean by that is back when I was repairing phones, the iPhone 8, 9, 10 were out. Those in my opinion were relatively simple to repair. Back then there wasn't, you know, Apple wasn't certifying them as being waterproof or water resistant or dust resistant or any of these things in those older phones. So if you have an older phone, like for instance, in my case, I've got kids. I don't give them the new phones. They get the older versions, right? So if one of my kids cracked their phone, I wouldn't be so concerned about, okay, I need to make sure it's certified and I get the extra special Apple certified license and I make sure I got to go to a retail authorized repair center. I would typically say, okay, well, if I'm not going to fix myself because I don't feel like it, then I may take those type of phones, earlier iPhones or just Android, Samsung in general, the older versions that used to be a little bit easier that wasn't so technical. Those would be the ones that I would consider, okay, I would take those to the strip mall or I would take those to the mall kiosk because I'm going to fix those now. The newer phones, like I said, they're now waterproof, they're dust proof. They've got all these extra restrictions on them, which makes them even more restricted as far as how they're put together, which makes them much more harder to take apart, put that back together. Those devices I may consider going to an authorized Apple authorized or OEM manufacturer certified repair shop or go straight to your corner Apple store if there's one in your store. And the certification part of this does make it a little easier to figure out who's been vetted. A, do you think that certification is a good guide and trustworthy? And B, how do you tell if a kiosk that isn't Apple certified is okay to trust? Well, I can guarantee you with almost certainty that the kiosks folks are not certified. So you are throwing caution to the wind or, you know, playing the luck game when you are taking your phone to me. There's not a trick where you can like look them in the eye until you just got to try them out. No, you just got to trust them. Some, it depends on the person there fixing the phone that day. They may treat your phone like their own and take the extra special care. In most cases, those places are simply there to turn a profit, so they're not going to get, I'm pretty sure, let me see, I'm not going to, I don't want to go shade on anybody, but I'm pretty sure they're not getting the most best, you know, screen parts, you know, they're getting all the high end supplies. They are just there to fix your phone while you eat cinnabon, right? Exactly. You know, they're not going to treat your phone in many cases like a Apple store, which they have a little bit more reputation. If you take your phone at Apple store, you know, and you don't have the same experience, that carries a little bit more weight than some dude in the middle of the mall. And last, last question, what about Apple self-repair? So, if you are a person that really is interested in seeing the inner workings of your phone and you have the small enough fingers to deal with all the different parts involved into taking a phone apart and you have the patience and you have the diligence and the resilience because those parts are very, very small because you think all of the components that go into a phone is not just the screen, it's the battery, it's the cameras, it's the vibrators, it's all these other, the battery, all these other parts, that stuff is very compacted in there and it takes a while to be able to get through that process. So, the self-repair kit will give you some, I guess for lack of a better term, a ease that Apple has at the very least on your shoulder and saying, look, this is how we suggest you do it and these are the tools we think you should use and this is the process that you need to go through. There's that sense of ease that Apple has already done this and they're giving you the blueprint versus you going to another website or going online and just downloading something from the internet or going to YouTube which is most people will probably do, you know, it's based on their experience versus the people who made it, this is the blueprint that you need to go through to get through this process. So, while it may be intimidating to do it, at the very least it's coming from Apple, so you kind of feel better that they've kind of laid everything out to ensure you have the best process. Well, moving on to AI. We talk about AI and it's pluses and minuses on the show all the time, but in many cases, AI can be kind of fun, especially if you're a creative person. Example of that, the next one, so over a year ago now where a group developed a short film script, they called Date Night. After experimenting with an AI called Clever Bot, the group switched to another bot called Shortly AI, that's marketed towards people suffering from writer's block, encouraging writers to overcome their frustration of writer's block by using AI. The researchers of this particular project say as long as they input the beginnings of the script, it is pretty able to follow the screenplay format that they originally set into place, including scene headings, dialogue, action lines. So they generated a few inputs for the project called Date Night. I will include a few now. Intro, Benny's house, night time. Benny and Julia, both in their 20s, sit at two ends of a long table drinking wine. This is all written by AI and it's a little fun, but it'll blow your bleeping mind. And that's how it starts. The group tried out a few options, how the conversation was going to go, what's going to happen, and says at this point, the AI did struggle to stay on track with the characters reorienting themselves to swinging emotions. They're living in a kind of heightened melodramatic reality. We will have a link, by the way, in our show notes to the film. It's worth watching because it's very strange toward the film's end. The characters even start talking about the movie itself referring to prior fictional events. And the craziest part is, at one point, in the action lines, the AI said, with a looming pause, Julia, I think we're in a movie. Self-awareness. I mean, if it's sentient, I think this is the best example of that. It's a little creepy. It's creepy, but it's like, what's weird is that, obviously the actors, they're like, okay, let's see how crazy this gets and we're going to act this out. That's kind of cool. And it sort of turns out to be pretty cool, but it's strange. It's like, why are they seeing these things? The AI is like, I don't know, I'm doing my best, guys, you wanted a screenplay. We know this has been kicking out for a while. We've got a lot of news coming out around GPT-3 and the boy getting fired and all that stuff. Go check it out. It will help you feel better about AI. My question is, is this plagiarism? That's my question. Is this plagiarism? I think it's just a fun Friday night. That's what I think. Let's check out the mailbag. Let's do it. Mike in Steamy, Dubai loved our special guest week last week. We're going to talk a little bit about what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about quality and quality. Mike also said, I wanted to ask your indulgence with a little e-waste rant. I've seen an increase in manufacturers including very short cables that don't give users enough distance to actually plug in their device and put it on a table for charging. The most recent example are a new pair of Sony headphones that I purchased. I bought the headphones with a USB-C port to have the option of using USB-C cables as a headphone cable given the lack of headphone jack on my Android devices. I thought I could save battery and get better sound, but no. Sony included a three inch to four inch nubbin that would not reach from a power outlet to the floor, let alone my head to my pocket. Additionally, it's a USB-A to USB-C cable. As we make the transition to USB-C futures, why even bother to give me a cable that will be useless in just a few years if not sooner? This is the third or fourth cable like this. I had package, I found package with a device and would rather have none at all than a useless e-waste cable. Yeah, man, I've been there. My ring doorbell battery charger is a little short orange cord and it's just enough to sit next to the outlet, but if your outlet's up above, it's a problem. So, you know, I think they do these for cost savings so they can say they gave you a cable without having to spend a lot of money. I can't even be saving them that much. Right. You know, to have another few inches on a cable, I mean, I can't imagine that that is where the price really gets into play. Yeah. I don't know, Terrence, what are your thoughts? No, this is clearly just a check a box and say, look, we gave you all you needed. You didn't have to buy anything else technically. So we gave you a stupid cable. You don't want, shut up. Right. Technically, it works. Yeah. We also sell very small tables that you can sit next to your outlet to set your device on when it charges. Right. Just, you know, kind of, you know, just be a little turtle. You're fine. Yeah. They gave them, they gave the little mice, the little tacos and the little food. Now they have a cable. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I'm with Mike though. I'd rather them not give me anything and just make me buy my own separate cable than to give me that worthless one. Well, because then you get to know each other. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Mike. And thanks to everybody who writes us in. Please do keep those emails coming. It helps us make a better show. Feedback at dailytechnewshow.com. Also thanks to Terrence Gaines for being with us today. Terrence, where can people keep up with all that you do? Well, you can find me on the internet via social media at brother tech. That's BRO. T H A T E C H Instagram, Twitter and Facebook a little bit. I am also a podcast Apple centric post podcast with my co-host Monica Montfort. It is the SNABOS cast and my folks Rob Dunwood and Stephanie Humphries. We have a tech podcast from a different perspective called the tech John. You can find us on the internet at thetechjohn.com. Good stuff. Definitely follow what Terrence is doing. He's making good work. Also, it's Monday and we have brand new bosses that came to us over the weekend. David, Joshua, Christophe and Kenneth are all now backing us on Patreon. Thank you, David. Thank you, Joshua. Thank you, Christophe. And thank you, Kenneth. The fantastic four Patreon backers. Yeah, you all got to get together and figure out what your superpowers are. And we look forward to your AI movie script soon. Yeah. And seriously, thank you. After not having somebody Friday, we thought, ah, the streak is over, but you've restored our face. Really appreciate it. Indeed. A reminder, there's a longer version of the show called Good Day Internet. We call it GDI for short. Available at patreon.com slash DTNS. Reminder that we are alive here on this show Monday through Friday, 4 p.m. Eastern. 20 hundred UTC is where it all goes down. Find out more at dailytechnewshow.com slash live. And we are back doing it all again tomorrow with I as actor joining us. Talk to you then. 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