WEBVTT - Tech News: Think Before You Tweet 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.760 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:18.160 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:20.600 and I love all things tech. And this is the 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:26.200 tech news for Thursday, May six one. For once, I'm 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:29.880 actually recording this on the day it's going out, because 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:34.680 if you listen to yesterday's episode or rerun episode, you 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:37.680 know that I was seriously under the weather with some 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:41.720 food poisoning, and um, yeah, recording was just not in 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:45.000 the cards for me yesterday. So I appreciate your patients. 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:49.440 I apologize for the delay. Let's get on with the news. 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.000 We've got a lot to talk about. One of the 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:55.480 big tech related stories that broke this week was about 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:59.520 how the Facebook oversight board upheld the company's decision to 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:02.840 ban the account of Donald Trump, former President of the 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:07.800 United States. For those blissfully unaware of all this, I'll 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:13.040 try to sum up on January six one, though honestly 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.680 it feels like it was a lifetime ago now, insurrectionists 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:20.080 stormed the US capital in an attempt to overthrow the 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:24.000 U S election. Trump's behavior and words served as a 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:27.520 motivator for this group, and Trump was often walking a 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:32.720 very thin tight rope of plausible deniability while simultaneously encouraging 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:36.319 his base, some of whom clearly intended to harm members 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.440 of Congress, and so Facebook made the decision to suspend 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.399 Trump's account to reduce the platforms he could use to 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:47.480 stir up anger and incite potential violence. The ban has 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:50.720 stayed in place since then. Facebook caught a lot of 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:54.840 flak from some groups for instituting this ban, though the 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:58.080 company stated that it was in response to Trump violating 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:02.000 terms of service on Facebook's platform. Twitter likewise had a 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:04.800 lot of anger directed towards it for a similar ban. 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.480 In an effort to distance itself from the decision and 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:12.600 to kind of take the heat off of itself, Facebook 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:16.560 formed and oversight board intended to review incidents like Trump's 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:20.440 ban and to determine whether the company acted appropriately or not. 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:23.840 But now Facebook is going to have to hitch up 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.200 its breeches and make another decision. The board came back 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:30.480 and said, well, here's your problem. You were justified and 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:33.079 banning Trump for Violet in terms of service, But while 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:37.959 y'all did was this fuzzy, indefinite ban, which is an 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:40.200 issue you're all gonna have to either lift that ban, 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:43.960 make the band permanent, or decide exactly how long the 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:48.240 band can last. I don't know why the oversight board 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:51.240 has the same accent that I do naturally, but it's 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:53.040 just that's how it is in my head. So, in 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:56.760 other words, Facebook can't just have a band of indeterminate 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:00.240 length on Trump. The parameters need to be defined. Mind. 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:02.920 The board even pointed out that Facebook was trying to 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:06.840 pass the buck here. Now clearly the company would prefer 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:10.640 that some other entity swoop in and make this decision 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:16.160 on behalf of Facebook that way Facebook and say, hey, folks, listen, 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.760 we know, we totally know we're with you, but we 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:24.000 had to go this way because so and so told 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:28.840 us to. Except in this case, the so and so said, no, dice, Mr, 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:31.600 you made this bed, you lie in it, or rather 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:36.920 they said quote. The board declines Facebook's request and insists 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:41.440 that Facebook apply and justify a defined penalty end quote. 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:46.320 So yeah, I was paraphrasing. Meanwhile, there are plenty of 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:49.200 critics who say that the oversight board itself is just 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:52.520 a bad approach, and there should be a truly independent 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:56.040 review board that's in place to look at issues like 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:59.160 Trump's ban. I think this is a case where Facebook 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:02.440 would be really torn about the idea of regulation. On 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.040 the one hand, regulation would take some of the heat 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:08.000 off the company when things like this pop up. On 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:11.320 the other hand, it could force you know, the company 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:15.400 to act more frequently in cases that involve influential users 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:20.040 and other entities on the platform when they say controversial 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:24.400 or perhaps you know, stuff that outright violates terms of service. 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:29.480 As I've said many times, Facebook's revenue comes from advertising, 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:33.560 and it makes more money the longer people are actively 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:36.960 on the platform, so it wants to keep people there 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.040 as much as possible. That means there's a real incentive 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:43.920 for Facebook to allow controversial, influential people to be active 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:47.719 on Facebook because they drive a lot of engagement, and 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:52.040 engagement means more ads get served, and that means Facebook 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:55.039 makes more money. So I imagine the company is not 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:59.360 super jazzed about being more proactive in dealing with influential 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:05.120 people who violate terms of service. Moving on, mining frequently 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:08.600 has a negative environmental impact, and for that reason, some 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:12.040 regions have put in a lot of restrictions around mining. 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:15.880 But what if the mining was virtual, Well, the state 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:18.920 legislature of New York is considering a bill that would 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:22.160 put a three year ban on bitcoin mining in the 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:26.200 state while the state conducts an environmental study looking at 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.640 the impact of bitcoin mining. So let's do a quick 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:34.520 refresher on what bitcoin mining is. So it's all about 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:39.279 a proof of work approach to blockchain, and I'll dive 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:42.039 in just a little bit. There is a network of 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:46.680 computers that are connected into the bitcoin system. This system 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:50.520 keeps track of every single transaction that's made with bitcoin 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:54.360 all over the world, and every computer that's connected to 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:59.000 this system can see the shared ledger of all transactions. 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:03.320 These transactions get packed into blocks, and then once a 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:07.720 block of transactions gets validated by this system, that block 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:12.720 joins a chain of past transaction blocks that stretches all 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.320 the way back to the very origins of bitcoin. Each 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:20.159 block that follows builds upon the blocks that were behind. 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:22.480 That also means there's no way to go in and 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:25.320 alter a past block, which would mean that you know 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:29.560 someone's potentially trying to erase or duplicate a transaction. You 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:31.560 can't do that because if you make a change to 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:35.760 a past block, it affects every single block that followed. 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:38.839 It further down the chain up to the most recent one. 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.160 That means everyone would notice the change because everyone can 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:47.000 see the entire chain of transactions. The process of validating 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:53.200 these transactions includes mining, and essentially mining involves very fast 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:58.160 computers trying to guess an extremely large number. Now, how 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:01.760 difficult that number is to guess depends upon the amount 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:06.640 of processing power that's being thrown at the bitcoin mining system. 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:10.280 The goal is to stick to a ten minute cycle 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:14.240 as closely as possible, and so the system actually dynamically 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:20.520 shifts the difficulty of this problem. This guessing problem based 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.080 on how much processing power is being thrown at the 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:26.600 system at that time. The computer that guess is correctly 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:30.160 gets rewarded a certain number of bitcoins six point two 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:32.760 five right now, and each bitcoin is worth more than 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:36.120 fifty dollars apiece. And since there is a chance to 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:40.760 mind bitcoins every ten minutes, and each successful mining operation 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:43.560 nets you more than six bitcoins, it can be really 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:47.360 profitable to own the computer that makes the right guess. 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:52.760 But these guesses require computers that are ridiculously powerful and fast. 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:56.680 Bitcoin miners will set up networks of computer systems just 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:01.800 dedicated to this, using multiple GPUs. GPUs work really well 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:04.880 because they lean heavily on parallel processing, so they are 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.240 particularly well suited for bitcoin mining. And there is a 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:11.880 huge incentive to build out these really powerful computer systems 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:15.080 to do this, which is expensive, but obviously the payoff 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:18.080 is huge. So if you make the investment and it works, 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:21.000 then it pays for itself very very quickly. I mean 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:23.560 every ten minutes you have another chance to net another 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:28.400 six plus bitcoins. However, running these things requires a lot 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:30.880 of electricity, and this is where we get to the 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:34.360 environmental impact. If the source of electricity is a power 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:38.120 plant that's powered by fossil fuels, the mining operation is 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:41.600 contributing to carbon emissions and other types of pollution and 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:45.320 climate change. In upstate New York, bitcoin miners have been 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:49.080 using converted fossil fuel power stations to set up shop. 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:52.480 The price of electricity is really low there. That helps 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.920 cap the costs of operation because running these systems means 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:58.640 you're not just using up electricity, You've gotta pay for 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:02.040 that electricity too, So you want to have the lowest 0:09:02.080 --> 0:09:05.679 amount of cost per electrical unit in order for you 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:09.319 to be able to run the business profitably. The weather 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:11.559 and Upstate New York also plays a factor. It's a 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:14.160 little cooler than in other parts of the country. That 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:18.000 reduces the costs of keeping all those processors cool enough 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:21.559 so that they don't overheat. Now the state is potentially 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:24.560 banning mining operations for three years in order to make 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:28.839 sure that the environmental impact isn't more harmful than good. 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:31.840 And honestly, I think this points at how the proof 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:35.720 of work approach, that's what I described earlier, it's flawed. 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:39.840 If the cryptocurrency becomes the center of speculation like Bitcoin did, 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.840 and it has an incredibly inflated value, then you'll see 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:46.079 the sort of rush to corner of the market on it, 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:50.480 and you get these unintended consequences. There are other methods 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:54.560 that blockchains can use besides proof of work, but they 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:57.000 too can have their own drawbacks. I'll have to do 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.280 a full episode on it in the future to kind 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:03.720 of just gcribe the different methodologies and the pros and 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:08.199 cons of each one. And now for our segment called 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:12.920 News that Continues to Baffle, Jonathan IBM announced it has 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:17.160 created a silicon chip that has two nanometer architecture, meaning 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:20.320 the components on this chip measure just two nanometers in 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:23.839 size on an individual basis. Uh. The nanometer, by the way, 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:27.360 is one billionth of a meter. Recently, Apple introduced the 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:30.280 in one chip and its new Imax. These have a 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:34.280 five nanometer architecture. Other companies are relying on chips that 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:39.479 have a seven nanometer architecture. Intel is still using architecture 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:42.880 that's got ten or fourteen nanometer components on it. So 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:46.080 what's the big deal with all this. Well, smaller components 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:49.679 means that potentially you can cram more of those components 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:52.000 onto a single chip. So if you've got a chip 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:56.520 that measures I don't know, a centimeter per side, well, 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:59.880 then you could fit way more to nanometer scale com 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:04.640 opponents on that than you could with fourteen nanometer scale components. 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:09.559 And more components potentially means more powerful and more power 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:13.959 efficient chips. Now, it's not quite as simple as shove 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:17.000 more transistors on there. Uh. The way you lay out 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:20.000 the transistors matters a lot. In fact, it matters so 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:24.079 much that Intel, while having those larger components than its competitors, 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:27.040 is really able to pack those components in at a 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:30.640 density that allows for a lot of power output. But 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:33.679 another big element, as I said here, is efficiency, as 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:37.360 in power efficiency. IBM says these chips will allow for 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:41.800 greater power efficiency, which means longer battery life. But the 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:43.920 thing that blows my mind is that when you get 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:46.719 down to this super tiny scale you have to deal 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:50.160 with some fundamentally puzzling problems. You're getting down to the 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:54.560 level of quantum effects, which we don't experience in our 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.719 day to day lives, right, you just don't. You've got 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:00.480 to get down super super tiny before you start to 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:04.440 observe quantum effects. And one of those quantum effects is 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:08.080 called tunneling. And this is a doozy all right, I'm 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:09.959 going to give you a very high level view of this. 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:12.920 So circuits, when you really get down to it, our 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:18.880 channels for electricity, and electricity generally speaking, is the flow 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:21.800 of electrons. Well, it turns out that we really can't 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:25.480 say exactly where an electron is at any given moment. 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:29.320 It's more like we can have a general idea of 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:31.920 where that electron might be. You can think of it 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:36.280 as a hazy field, and the electron could be anywhere 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:39.600 in that field. There's certain probabilities that it's at any 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:44.480 one position within that general field. All right, So let's 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:48.720 say we've got this field and it's moving down the hallway. Now, 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:51.000 the walls on either side of this hallway are pretty thick, 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:55.840 so the field can't overlap into the space beyond those walls, 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:58.840 so the electron can only be somewhere within the field 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:02.280 that's inside hall But then the field gets to the 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:05.280 end of the hallway and there's a closed door at 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.080 the end. This door is not as thick as the 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:10.880 walls in the hallway, and so once the field gets 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:13.480 close enough, some of the field actually overlaps to the 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:17.400 other side of the door. This means there is a 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:21.200 small probability that the electron is actually on the opposite 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:25.079 side of the doorway, and as long as something is possible, 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:29.280 it means that sometimes it actually happens. So that means 0:13:29.400 --> 0:13:33.320 sometimes that electron is on the opposite side of the doorway, 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.520 as if it had tunneled through the door or if 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:39.160 the door had opened. Neither of those things actually happened. 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:43.079 The door remain closed, the electron did not physically tunnel 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:45.960 through the door. It's just that it was possible to 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.360 be on the other side, so sometimes it is. Now 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:51.920 this is really hard for us to grasp because nothing 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:54.600 in our experience behaves this way. But when you start 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:58.400 making chips that are down at this scale, you have 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:02.160 to factor these kind of things in with that design. 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:05.600 For a long time, physicists were leaning toward the end 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:07.960 of Moore's law, or at least the end of seeing 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:13.120 smaller components on chips because of these fundamental quantum effects. 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:16.480 So I always find it astounding when engineers figure out 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.920 ways to work around it. And to be clear, I 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:22.680 don't know what IBM has done in order to kind 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:25.120 of avoid these issues, because once you get down to 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:29.600 one to three nanometers, tunneling is something that I just 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:32.600 don't know how you avoid it. So I'm very curious 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:37.440 to learn more about this particular process. Twitter has created 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:41.600 a new feature that asks if you really seriously want 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.320 to send that mean spirited tweet out into the world. 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:47.480 The feature scans the words you use in a tweet, 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:51.160 and if those words are quote unquote mean, then Twitter 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:53.680 will send a prompt you asking if you really want 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.760 to send that tweet out, and you've got three options. 0:14:56.840 --> 0:14:59.320 You can go ahead and tweet it, you can edit 0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:02.280 the message, or you can just delete it. Now I 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:04.880 know that in the past I have shot off a 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:07.880 tweet in anger and then regretted it, and a lot 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:11.000 of other folks have done way worse than that. Sometimes 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:14.960 nothing comes of it and you just look a little petty, 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:17.960 or in my case, a lot petty. But other times, 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:21.000 sending off a mean spirited tweet brings along with it 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:23.920 some serious consequences that can have a huge impact in 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.040 a person's life. I'm sure you can all think of 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:29.360 a few cases in which someone tweeted something that they 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:33.600 either thought was justified or funny or whatever, and it 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:38.160 ended up causing them serious problems. People have lost jobs 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.040 over this stuff. So Twitter now has this feature to 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:44.120 help people take a moment to consider what they're saying 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:47.400 and how they're saying it before they commit to it. 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:50.240 And I like this. Twitter has always been a tool 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.520 that allows people to shoot off thoughts without any real delay, 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.400 and that's not always a good thing. I've joked in 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:58.360 the past that I kind of want to Twitter like 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:02.560 service where I can type and angry messages and hit send, 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:06.840 but the messages don't actually go anywhere. It's just a 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:10.280 way to vent without actually making things worse. This is 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:13.560 kind of like that, though, of course you do still 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:15.640 have the option to go through with it and tweet 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.520 out that awful thing you typed. I'm not sure how 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:22.440 extensive Twitter's filter is or what criteria it uses to 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:26.120 scan for quote unquote mean language, but the company has 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:28.200 been testing the feature out with a limited number of 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:30.600 users for more than a year and says that it 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:34.560 saw thirty four percent of users revising messages after receiving 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:37.800 a prompt, and that as a whole, they saw fewer 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:41.960 offensive messages in general, like people began to adjust the 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:45.040 way that they would word things after receiving prompts a 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:47.720 few times. I think that's a step in the right direction, 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:50.760 and it may mean in the future will really know 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:53.320 who the jerks are on Twitter. Those are the folks 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:57.280 who still send out mean spirited messages despite having this prompt. 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:00.680 They could also be bots, but at least know who 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:03.000 the jerks and the bots are, so I'm all for it. 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:07.440 One of the revelations out of the ongoing legal battles 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:11.840 between game developer Epic and Apple is that Microsoft has 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:15.880 never made a profit off their hardware sales for the Xbox. Now. 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.719 This doesn't come as a shock, but it is confirmation 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.520 of what was a widely held belief in the industry. 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:25.520 Lori Right, the VP of Business Development at Xbox, was 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:29.080 called as an witness for Epic, and the fact that 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:32.800 the company loses money on every Xbox sold is kind 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:35.720 of a crucial part to epics argument. So let's break 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:39.480 this down. So Microsoft sells the Xbox at cost or 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.919 at a loss, making no money on hardware sales. To 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:45.960 turn Xbox into a revenue generator, the company has to 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:48.560 make up for that loss in other ways, and one 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:51.800 way is to develop games and sell them for the console. 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:55.199 Another way is to offer services through the console that 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:58.680 require a subscription h this is why the Xbox Game 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:02.320 Pass is really important and product for Microsoft. And another 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.840 way is to take a cut of in game transactions 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:09.960 for certain titles like Epics Fortnite. So when players make 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:15.360 an in game purchase in Fortnite, Xbox takes at cut. Well, 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:18.960 Apple does the same thing. And yet what started off 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:22.880 this whole legal battle was Epic trying to sidestep Apple 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:26.119 by offering users a work around to make in game 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:31.120 purchases on iOS versions of Fortnite without going through Apple's system, 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:34.280 which meant Apple would not get the thirty percent cut 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:37.760 of those transactions. So why did Epic try to sidestep 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:41.479 this with Apple but not with Microsoft. Well, according to Epic, 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:45.000 the big difference here is that Microsoft's revenue depends upon 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:48.399 these sorts of transactions because the company is not making 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:53.400 money off hardware, whereas Apple isn't taking a loss on hardware. 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:56.600 When Apple sells an iPhone, it does so at a profit, 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:00.520 and so argues Epic, Microsoft has a justific cation for 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:04.760 taking a cut, but Apple does not. Anyway, the interesting 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:08.440 thing here is getting confirmation that so far Microsoft has 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.960 never profited from the sale of Xbox consoles, though that 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:16.119 could eventually change with the latest generation of hardware. Also 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.879 this week, SpaceX had a successful test of a Starship 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:23.600 prototype vehicle. The starship is shaped like a rocket and 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:28.200 launches vertically from the ground. During descent, the starship maintains 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.520 a horizontal orientation for most of the journey back to 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:35.199 the surface, but engages its rocket engines to flip the 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:39.399 spacecraft back into a vertical position before its final descent 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.080 legs so it can land vertically on a landing pad. 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:46.480 SpaceX has held a few tests of this type of spacecraft, 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:49.800 but all the earlier tests ended with those test vehicles 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:53.800 being destroyed, or, as the New York Times tweeted, quote 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:57.880 SpaceX successfully landed a prototype of a spacecraft it hopes 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:00.440 to one day sent to the Moon and Mars. It's 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:05.000 the first time the vehicle didn't explode. End quote. I 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.919 had detect some shade in that tweet. I wonder if 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:12.400 the New York Times got that prompt before they sent it. HM. Well, 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:16.400 that wraps up the news for Thursday, May six one. 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.800 I hope you are all well. I am very much 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:21.960 well on the way to being fully minded, so I 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:25.440 appreciate that. If you have any suggestions for topics I 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:28.560 should cover on tech Stuff, send them my way on Twitter. 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:31.919 The handle for the show is text Stuff H s 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:40.920 W and I'll talk to you again really soon. Text 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:44.399 Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:47.160 from my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:50.439 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.