Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and a love of all things tech. Is time for
Speaker 1: the tech news for Thursday, July twenty one. Let's get
Speaker 1: to it now. A few times this year I have
Speaker 1: mentioned the right to repair movement, and this movement seeks
Speaker 1: to change how you know, some corporations and companies really
Speaker 1: locked down their products and they require customers to go
Speaker 1: through you know, authorized channels for maintenance and repair, like
Speaker 1: the only way you can get something fixed is by
Speaker 1: going to a licensed vendor that does repairs well. Back
Speaker 1: in the old days, you know, if you had the
Speaker 1: tools and the know how you know, and the time
Speaker 1: and inclination, you could repair stuff yourself after you bought it.
Speaker 1: But over time this has changed as more companies have
Speaker 1: made the internal workings of their products difficult or sometimes
Speaker 1: even impossible for the average person to access. And then
Speaker 1: you add in proprietary stuff like fasteners like special screws
Speaker 1: that require specific types of screw drivers to remove, or
Speaker 1: you have warranty agreements that are void as soon as
Speaker 1: someone even thinks about trying to do repairs themselves, and
Speaker 1: you then have this ecosystem that continues to exploit customers
Speaker 1: long after the initial purchase. It's kind of like that
Speaker 1: idea of how can we lock someone in so that
Speaker 1: we can have them be a continual source of revenue,
Speaker 1: as opposed to someone who buys a product once and
Speaker 1: then they're gone. Well. U S President Joe Biden recently
Speaker 1: signed an executive order that doesn't quite fix this, but
Speaker 1: it might get the ball rolling. The order encourages the
Speaker 1: Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, to draft new rules that
Speaker 1: would restrict companies from, you know, restricting their customers so much.
Speaker 1: It's far too early to say what those rules might
Speaker 1: end up looking like should they get drafted, but presumably
Speaker 1: they could include stuff like requiring companies to post information
Speaker 1: about diagnostic and repair tools that you would need to
Speaker 1: detect and address problems with their products. For people who
Speaker 1: aren't confident in their ability to fix their own stuff,
Speaker 1: there will still be the option to go to authorize
Speaker 1: repair services. It also will open up opportunities for other
Speaker 1: people to open up repair services without necessarily going through
Speaker 1: some lengthy and potentially expensive licensing deal with the manufacturer.
Speaker 1: So in other words, this doesn't mean that it would
Speaker 1: suddenly be illegal for you know, Apple to continue to
Speaker 1: run the genius bar. They still could totally do that,
Speaker 1: but it wouldn't mean that Apple would potentially have to
Speaker 1: make available the information people would need if they wanted
Speaker 1: to do their own repairs on Apple products, assuming they
Speaker 1: had the ability to do that. It will be interesting
Speaker 1: to see how this develops, as the right to repair
Speaker 1: a movement has been gaining a lot of ground in
Speaker 1: many places, as several states in the United States have
Speaker 1: already kind of past local laws about this, and we're
Speaker 1: also seeing movement on this issue in Europe. Now, if
Speaker 1: you've been listening to me for any length of time,
Speaker 1: you know that I can be a bit critical of
Speaker 1: cryptocurrencies for a lot of reasons. Uh, the proof of
Speaker 1: work types of cryptocurrencies where you're using computers to try
Speaker 1: and solve mathematical problems in order to mine the cryptocurrency.
Speaker 1: That includes cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and the current version of ethereum.
Speaker 1: Those have a massive carbon footprint and obviously that's a problem.
Speaker 1: They also tend to place a great strain on certain
Speaker 1: markets like graphics processing cards. You know, and semiconductors. They
Speaker 1: can really affect those, you know, big time, and that
Speaker 1: means that other people who need or want those things
Speaker 1: can't get them. Then you've got organized crime rings that
Speaker 1: flock to cryptocurrencies for various reasons. You know, they tend
Speaker 1: to be the currency of choice for black market deals
Speaker 1: and that sort of thing. Now, this is not to
Speaker 1: say that I think cryptocurrencies are just playing bad period,
Speaker 1: but rather that they have a lot of downsides, and
Speaker 1: I'm not the only one to think so. Jackson Palmer,
Speaker 1: who actually co founded a cryptocurrency, has recently come out
Speaker 1: to level a few more criticisms towards cryptocurrency in general,
Speaker 1: and you know, addition to the ones I just mentioned. Now,
Speaker 1: to be clear, the currency Palmer co founded was doge coin,
Speaker 1: which really did start off as a joke, and arguably,
Speaker 1: depending on your perspective, still is a joke. It's just
Speaker 1: a joke that some people take weight too seriously. Palmer,
Speaker 1: who actually had been pretty quiet for the last couple
Speaker 1: of years, recently tweeted a thread that included some statements
Speaker 1: like quote, I believe that cryptocurrency is an inherently right wing,
Speaker 1: hyper capitalistic technology built primarily to amplify the wealth of
Speaker 1: its proponents through a combination of tax avoidance, diminished regulatory oversight,
Speaker 1: and artificially enforced scarcity end quote. So we can add
Speaker 1: those to the list of downsides for cryptocurrency, and I
Speaker 1: happen to agree with Palmer and that from my observations,
Speaker 1: the crypto community seems to consist of a lot of
Speaker 1: evangelists who are trying to convince more people to buy
Speaker 1: into crypto and then telling those who are already into
Speaker 1: HODDLE or h O d L, which stands for a
Speaker 1: hold on for Dear life when things go into a slump.
Speaker 1: Crypto has actually been a slump since mid spring, but
Speaker 1: the cynical people suggest that this messaging be more about
Speaker 1: crypto investors trying to stabilize and then drive up the
Speaker 1: value of crypto for their own personal gain before they
Speaker 1: switch to something else. In other words, of course, people
Speaker 1: are going to say you need to buy into this
Speaker 1: because their own investments hinge on the value of the
Speaker 1: currency going up, so they will take whatever steps they
Speaker 1: can to drive up the value, and then potentially they'll
Speaker 1: bail once they reach a certain threshold, and that could
Speaker 1: end up making the value plummet again and affect everybody
Speaker 1: who came in buying and after it. It's because of
Speaker 1: this that some people point to cryptocurrency and say that
Speaker 1: it's similar to a pyramid scheme. It's not a pyramid scheme,
Speaker 1: you know, not strictly speaking, but depending on people's behaviors
Speaker 1: and how the market behaves, it can have a similar
Speaker 1: effect to a pyramid scheme. Palmer went on to say
Speaker 1: that crypto has its own cabal of wealthy investors, who
Speaker 1: in effect are just as manipulative and controlling as you know,
Speaker 1: currencies that are based around centralized financial institutions. It's not
Speaker 1: a good look. In other words. Palmer also said that
Speaker 1: crypto gives opportunities to the wealthy to exploit the less wealthy, or,
Speaker 1: as he said, quote, cryptocurrency is almost purpose built to
Speaker 1: make the funnel of profiteering more efficient for those at
Speaker 1: the top and less safeguarded for the vulnerable, like taking
Speaker 1: the worst parts of today's capitalist system e g. Corruption, fraud, inequality,
Speaker 1: and using software to technically limit the use of interventions
Speaker 1: e g. Audits, regulation, taxation, which serve as protections or
Speaker 1: safety nets for the average person. End quote. Pretty you know,
Speaker 1: tough stands there. Over on Twitter, Fleets is nearing the
Speaker 1: end of its fleeting moment. In the spotlight water fleets,
Speaker 1: you might ask, well, if you are asking that, I
Speaker 1: think that's probably a good indicator of e they're going away.
Speaker 1: Fleets currently are, and soon we will say. We're a
Speaker 1: Twitter feature that lets users post tweets that expire so
Speaker 1: very much, kind of like you know snapchat or those
Speaker 1: Instagram posts that are gone after twenty four hours. This
Speaker 1: idea of the momentary message. Fleets similarly had a twenty
Speaker 1: four hour lifespan. After that they would get deleted. Twitter's
Speaker 1: message about this was a bit cheeky. They tweeted on
Speaker 1: the four that quote, we're removing fleets on August three,
Speaker 1: working on some new stuff. We're sorry or you're welcome
Speaker 1: Twitter end quote. Cute. Twitter first introduced fleets eight whole
Speaker 1: months ago, so it really did not take long for
Speaker 1: the company to say, yeah, this just isn't working out
Speaker 1: because ain't no one using it. Twitter has plateaued in
Speaker 1: user engagement, which is not a great thing in a
Speaker 1: world that values revenue growth year over year. It's you know,
Speaker 1: just not good enough to do well. You have to
Speaker 1: actually do better than you did before. Anyway, fleets will
Speaker 1: be gone on August three, and by August four, I
Speaker 1: predict no one will have even remembered it, because it
Speaker 1: will be twenty four hours later. If you're an Android user,
Speaker 1: and if you have volunteered to be part of the
Speaker 1: Android twelve beta program, you might notice that your phone
Speaker 1: is handling auto rotate better than it had before. So
Speaker 1: Android twelve will be coming out of beta a little
Speaker 1: later this year, but for the time people who want
Speaker 1: to run the risk of having an incomplete operating system
Speaker 1: build on their phones can elect to be part of
Speaker 1: the beta test. I'm one of those suckers. Um one
Speaker 1: of those people, actually, and one of the most recent
Speaker 1: updates to the beta involves auto rotate. Now. Traditionally Android
Speaker 1: has relied solely on accelerometers. These detect a change in
Speaker 1: orientation and speed. I've done episodes about accelerometers. They are
Speaker 1: super interesting things. They technically detect a change in velocity. However,
Speaker 1: this approach doesn't always yield perfect results. There have been
Speaker 1: times where I've tried to watch, say a YouTube video
Speaker 1: on my phone, particularly if I'm like lounging, laying down
Speaker 1: or something, and I want to watch maybe like an
Speaker 1: A S M R video, so that I can go
Speaker 1: into a coma and I'll turn my phone into landscape orientation,
Speaker 1: and yet my screen refuses to make the switch. It's
Speaker 1: still in portrait mode. Well, this new update leans a
Speaker 1: bit on the device's front facing camera, so, in other words,
Speaker 1: and Android twelve smartphone will rely not just on the accelerometer,
Speaker 1: but the front facing camera that will then try to
Speaker 1: detect the orientation of your face. So if your face
Speaker 1: is sideways, well that's a pretty good signal for the
Speaker 1: phone to rotate the screen into its other mode. And
Speaker 1: for those of you who are concerned with privacy, and
Speaker 1: honestly all of us should be, Google reps say that
Speaker 1: this feature is kept strictly local to your phone and
Speaker 1: that no images, video, or anything like that will be
Speaker 1: recorded or sent off of the device. It will just
Speaker 1: happen in the background on the hardware itself, So while
Speaker 1: the camera will briefly become active, it won't be recording
Speaker 1: or streaming or anything like that. Google has actually built
Speaker 1: out something called the Android Private Computer Core or a
Speaker 1: p c C, which will handle processes like this. That is,
Speaker 1: processes that might be super invasive or creepy if they
Speaker 1: were not restricted to the hardware of the phone or
Speaker 1: handset or tablet or whatever itself. Now, I think that's
Speaker 1: a pretty wise move. It gives Google the opportunity to
Speaker 1: play with technologies that could really give some cool features
Speaker 1: to our phones. But if they were, say, connected to
Speaker 1: the cloud or to the outside world, they would represent uh,
Speaker 1: potentially catastrophic privacy or security risk. I think it's a
Speaker 1: wise decision to go this direction. Facebook has just added
Speaker 1: a new feature today called sound Emoji's, and as the
Speaker 1: name suggests, it adds sounds to certain emoji. For example,
Speaker 1: there's a ghost emoji, and you might think it would
Speaker 1: say something like woo. When you activate it now it
Speaker 1: gives a cartoonish evil laugh. Um, there's a smoochy emoji
Speaker 1: that's making kissy sounds. There's a cricket emoji. The cricket
Speaker 1: is extremely realistic looking to me. I mean, it's a cartoon,
Speaker 1: but it's crickets are funky looking critters. Anyway, it makes
Speaker 1: cricket noises so that when someone makes that clunker of
Speaker 1: a joke. You know, someone like me who just rattles
Speaker 1: off puns and dad jokes incessantly, you can respond with
Speaker 1: that and they'll get the message. I know, I do. Uh.
Speaker 1: When I checked just before recording, there were twenty eight
Speaker 1: emoji total that have sound capability added to them. Some
Speaker 1: of them it's not necessarily a sound you would immediately
Speaker 1: suspect when you push it, like some of them end
Speaker 1: up prompting a little musical sting as opposed to a
Speaker 1: you know, sound effect. But it's just a small sample
Speaker 1: of the massive number of available emoji in messengers, so
Speaker 1: it's not every single emoji. Thankfully, a few have specifically
Speaker 1: not made the cut so far. I'm looking at you,
Speaker 1: poop emoji. No one needs to know what you sound like. Now. Apparently,
Speaker 1: Facebook plans to update the list and occasionally include, like,
Speaker 1: you know, topical or culturally relevant sound clips from stuff
Speaker 1: like TV shows and musical artists. So in a way,
Speaker 1: this is kind of continuing down the pathway of stuff
Speaker 1: like animated gifts and the like. It's another way to
Speaker 1: include little, playful, interactive elements in messaging. UM. I have
Speaker 1: only sent one. I have not yet received one, so
Speaker 1: I don't even know how it works when you receive it.
Speaker 1: I know that from sending it. When you're choosing the emoji.
Speaker 1: Um it plays back whatever sound it's going to play
Speaker 1: for the person you send it to. But the person
Speaker 1: I sent it to has not yet responded to that
Speaker 1: that sound emoji, which might be an indicator that I
Speaker 1: need a new friend. We will see, but I don't
Speaker 1: know what it's like to receive one yet. I'll let
Speaker 1: you know, or maybe you'll know by the time we
Speaker 1: have another episode. Moving on, Bloomberg reports that Netflix will
Speaker 1: be adding in streaming video games as part of its
Speaker 1: service sometime within the next year, and apparently at no
Speaker 1: extra cost to subscribers. The company has actually hired Mike
Speaker 1: verdu who worked in the games industry at places like
Speaker 1: Oculus and Electronic Arts, and Verduo is going to serve
Speaker 1: as the VP of Games Development. Now. I wonder if
Speaker 1: that means we're gonna see some original titles for Netflix games. Maybe. Personally,
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that they do some tie ins with some
Speaker 1: Netflix original series because I really want my Unbreakable Kimmy
Speaker 1: Schmidt adventure game. Gosh darn it. And that's it for
Speaker 1: the news for Thursday, July one. We'll be back next
Speaker 1: week with some more news. If you have suggestions for topics,
Speaker 1: I should cover in episodes of tech Stuff. Please reach out.
Speaker 1: You can leave me a message over on Twitter. The
Speaker 1: handle for the show is text Stuff H. S W
Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff
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