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 how the tech are you? It's time for the
Speaker 1: tech news for March third, twenty twenty two. Let's dive in.
Speaker 1: Meta's vice president of connectivity told c NBC at the
Speaker 1: Mobile World Congress, which is a big event that's all
Speaker 1: about things like smartphones. Uh, they said that the metaverse,
Speaker 1: at least Meta's vision of the metaverse, is going to
Speaker 1: require more advanced home and cellular networks in order for
Speaker 1: it to work properly. Now, that should not come as
Speaker 1: a surprise. Presumably. Meta's version of this admittedly vague concept
Speaker 1: includes virtual and potentially augmented reality hardware, and to make
Speaker 1: that kind of hardware work really well, you need really
Speaker 1: low latency. Oddly enough, folks can get pretty immersed in
Speaker 1: virtual environments even if the graphics are fairly primitive. So,
Speaker 1: like graphic resolution isn't hugely important. It's nice to have,
Speaker 1: but it's not necessary to have a convincing experience. However,
Speaker 1: high latency that is a perceptible lag between when you
Speaker 1: do something like turn your head and when it is
Speaker 1: reflected in the virtual world as in, like you turn
Speaker 1: your head and then after a moment your point of
Speaker 1: view shifts, that's a real problem. It creates this swimmy,
Speaker 1: unpleasant sensation, and latency really contributes to that feeling emotion
Speaker 1: sickness that some folks get when they try out VR.
Speaker 1: The greater the latency, the more the more people are
Speaker 1: going to feel not so good using the technology. And clearly,
Speaker 1: if you are banking on this being the future of
Speaker 1: the Internet, you need people to be comfortable using it. However,
Speaker 1: on top of all that, the Metaverse is presumably going
Speaker 1: to allow for a lot of other stuff besides just
Speaker 1: wandering around virtual environments. There's a whole commerce component to it.
Speaker 1: In fact, we'll be talking about that towards the end
Speaker 1: of this episode. And if there weren't other elements, like
Speaker 1: there were not commerce elements, Meta would not be boring
Speaker 1: billions of dollars into this Because you know, the company
Speaker 1: is doing this because this is where they see revenue
Speaker 1: generation being in the future, so they want upload and
Speaker 1: download speeds to be maxed out in order to keep
Speaker 1: up with what the company plans to throw in us,
Speaker 1: and I think this is also another reminder that whatever
Speaker 1: the metaverse does turn out to be or meta verses,
Speaker 1: because lots of companies are working on this, we're still
Speaker 1: several years out from it being a thing. I've often
Speaker 1: cited the general idea of it being ten years out
Speaker 1: from a truly engaging and compelling metaverse, because all the
Speaker 1: pieces that are going to play a part in making
Speaker 1: that happen are going to have to go through at
Speaker 1: least a couple more generations of evolutions before they meet
Speaker 1: the needs of sustaining and supporting a massive online virtual
Speaker 1: world capable of supporting tons of users simultaneously. Sticking with Meta,
Speaker 1: recently it released its Widely Viewed Content Report. This report
Speaker 1: was Meta's attempt to get ahead of other sources that
Speaker 1: would frequently produce lists of the most popular Facebook posts
Speaker 1: on the platform. So, for example, Kevin Ruce, who is
Speaker 1: a journalist with The New York Times, had created a
Speaker 1: Twitter account that pulled data from a monitoring platform that
Speaker 1: Facebook created. So this was a Facebook tool and it
Speaker 1: was called crowd Tangle, and this Twitter account was just
Speaker 1: pulling data from that to generate a top ten list
Speaker 1: of where the most popular links were coming from in
Speaker 1: the United States a week and then tweeting it out,
Speaker 1: and a lot of them. In fact, most of them
Speaker 1: belonged to various right wing outlets, and this appeared to
Speaker 1: suggest that Facebook was potentially supporting right wing sources more
Speaker 1: than others, perhaps in an attempt to fight back against
Speaker 1: a perception that Facebook suppresses right leaning points of view. Now,
Speaker 1: Facebook was not thrilled with this use of its tool,
Speaker 1: and in fact squashed the crowd Tangle project the internal project,
Speaker 1: and now the company produces its own report, presumably to
Speaker 1: push back against this perception that the platform is you know,
Speaker 1: has a bias towards boosting right leaning messaging. And the
Speaker 1: report is fairly vague when it comes to how Facebook
Speaker 1: determines things like the most popular posts and such, but
Speaker 1: it largely shows that the most popular pages and links
Speaker 1: tend to be connected to stuff like entertainment or recipe,
Speaker 1: you know, relatively trivial things. However, there's one standout weird
Speaker 1: thing in the report, and that is there's a listing
Speaker 1: of the most viewed pages during the last quarter of
Speaker 1: one and the top spot goes to a mystery, at
Speaker 1: least a mystery for anyone who's outside of Facebook, because
Speaker 1: in the report under the source it says, quote, this
Speaker 1: page was removed by Facebook for violating community standards end quote,
Speaker 1: and there's a link to the page, but of course
Speaker 1: the page has been removed, so that link is inactive.
Speaker 1: It doesn't take you to anything, and Facebook didn't actually
Speaker 1: identify what the page actually was or who made it. However,
Speaker 1: it does helpfully show that a hundred twenty one point
Speaker 1: eight million accounts on Facebook viewed that page's content, which
Speaker 1: means not only is it number one, the the most
Speaker 1: viewed page of Facebook during that period, it actually puts
Speaker 1: it more than ten million views ahead of second place.
Speaker 1: So if Facebook's intent was for this report to assuage
Speaker 1: doubts about the platform, it ain't working. Not when the
Speaker 1: most popular page was one that Facebook subsequently removed because
Speaker 1: the page was violating Facebook's rules. That actually kind of
Speaker 1: suggests that Facebook ain't so great and enforcing its own
Speaker 1: rules if the page got to that level of popularity
Speaker 1: before it was booted off the platform. Anyway, even if
Speaker 1: you think of the report is Facebook's attempt to change
Speaker 1: the narrative, it looks to me like that attempt wasn't
Speaker 1: particularly successful, and one more Facebook specific story for today.
Speaker 1: The site recently pulled the plug on its pilot program
Speaker 1: called Campus Uh. That project was meant to create a
Speaker 1: suite of features catered specifically toward college students and a
Speaker 1: lot of y'all probably remember that Facebook started out as
Speaker 1: a college based online social network. In fact, originally in
Speaker 1: the old days, in order to get a Facebook account,
Speaker 1: you had to have an active college email account. But
Speaker 1: it looks like whatever mojo was there back in the
Speaker 1: early to mid two thousand's is all gone now because
Speaker 1: Campus is closed. Meta says that the Campus project taught
Speaker 1: the company many things, chief of which is that college
Speaker 1: students can make better use of tools like Facebook groups
Speaker 1: to do what Campus was trying to do. So, in
Speaker 1: other words, they said, well, there's no need to reinvent
Speaker 1: the wheel. College students are relying on groups and that
Speaker 1: seems to be exactly what they need. Of course, we
Speaker 1: also know that Facebook has seen a decline in user
Speaker 1: adoption among younger users. Fewer younger people are joining Facebook,
Speaker 1: so it may also be that the company was not
Speaker 1: seeing enough students actually using Campus to justify its continued support,
Speaker 1: like it would just be a drain on company resources
Speaker 1: and they pulled the plug. That's also a possibility. This week,
Speaker 1: US President Joe Biden delivered his State of the Union address,
Speaker 1: which obviously covers a lot of territory, but part of
Speaker 1: that speech was a call on Congress to create and
Speaker 1: pass legislation that will increase protections around data privacy and
Speaker 1: security with regard to children. He was specifically referencing social
Speaker 1: media and social networking platforms like TikTok and Instagram. He said, quote,
Speaker 1: it's time to strengthen privacy protections, band targeted advertising to children,
Speaker 1: demand tech companies stopped collecting personal data on our children
Speaker 1: end quote, And he announced that the White House is
Speaker 1: looking to fund a study on child safety on social
Speaker 1: media platforms. Now, we've already seen plenty of disturbing evidence
Speaker 1: out of meta itself that suggests the picture on its
Speaker 1: effects on on children ain't good. But it's also important
Speaker 1: to remember that those studies, those reports, we're based off
Speaker 1: pretty small sample sizes, So it actually does make sense
Speaker 1: to expand on that and to do a larger study,
Speaker 1: especially one that's conducted outside the company, so there's not
Speaker 1: the chance of company bias in there. And there's already
Speaker 1: some movement in Congress on this subject, because this is
Speaker 1: a topic that actually has support across both political parties,
Speaker 1: which is pretty darn rare these days. Obviously, should this
Speaker 1: start to evolve into proposed legislation, we're going to see
Speaker 1: differences of opinion on how to structure laws meant to
Speaker 1: restrict companies and how they conduct their business. That's just
Speaker 1: gonna happen. But I think everyone's going to maintain the
Speaker 1: idea of if this is to protect children, we have
Speaker 1: to be on board because you don't want your next
Speaker 1: political opponent to run ads saying we started, we proposed
Speaker 1: a law to protect your children and this person struck
Speaker 1: it down. That would just be political suicide. So I
Speaker 1: expect we will see more movement on this, just don't
Speaker 1: know how it's going to emerge. Okay, we've got some
Speaker 1: more news stories to cover before we get to those,
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. Before the break, I was
Speaker 1: talking about the President's State of the Union address that
Speaker 1: is a federal response to the matter of child safety online.
Speaker 1: We're also seeing individual states in the United States take action. California, Florida,
Speaker 1: and Kentucky are among those. The attorneys general for those
Speaker 1: states have joined in on an investigation into the video
Speaker 1: platform TikTok to determine how the app might affect the
Speaker 1: mental and physical health of young people who are using it. Now.
Speaker 1: This includes not just the actual content sit on TikTok,
Speaker 1: which is of course user generated, but also how TikTok
Speaker 1: markets its services to children and how TikTok serves up
Speaker 1: recommended content to children. Just like all other social media platforms,
Speaker 1: much of TikTok's success is defined by engagement. So for TikTok,
Speaker 1: that largely translates into how long can we keep people
Speaker 1: on the platform per session, And so the recommendation algorithm,
Speaker 1: which is meant to serve up stuff that's most likely
Speaker 1: to keep you glued to TikTok, is fundamentally important. You
Speaker 1: want that algorithm to successfully serve up stuff that keeps
Speaker 1: people there. Well, if that stuff tends to be harmful,
Speaker 1: well that means that the user is likely going to
Speaker 1: get served up a lot of harmful material repeatedly. So
Speaker 1: we're seeing a more concentrated effort to really look at
Speaker 1: these issues and their effects on users, particularly young users.
Speaker 1: And depending upon the outcome of this investigation, I expect
Speaker 1: we may see several states proposed laws and regulations that
Speaker 1: will restrict how TikTok can serve content to young people,
Speaker 1: which would probably mean they would also require some sort
Speaker 1: of of age verification step where the platform can say, listen,
Speaker 1: we are making sure that anyone who is under a
Speaker 1: certain age will not get access to certain materials. But
Speaker 1: age verification steps, age restrictions, those are always tricky as well,
Speaker 1: and they come along with some other consequences which I'll
Speaker 1: probably talk about in a future episode. Now, y'all, I've
Speaker 1: never been inside a brick and mortar Amazon bookstore, and
Speaker 1: now it sounds like I won't never get that chance.
Speaker 1: The company is closing it's sixty eight Amazon Books, Amazon
Speaker 1: four Star, and Amazon Pop up stores across the United
Speaker 1: States and the United Kingdom. Now, if you weren't aware
Speaker 1: that Amazon operated these kinds of physical stores, well it did,
Speaker 1: and now it's not gonna do that anymore. The Amazon
Speaker 1: four Star Store was a kind of general products store.
Speaker 1: It was called four Star because it's sold stuff that
Speaker 1: had a four star or better rating in the online
Speaker 1: Amazon store. It was also a physical store where Amazon
Speaker 1: sold a lot of Amazon branded products, and it also
Speaker 1: served as a physical location where people could return stuff
Speaker 1: they had bought off Amazon Online, and shutting down those
Speaker 1: stores means you've cut back on those options. The Amazon
Speaker 1: pop up stores were more like small shops set in
Speaker 1: places like shopping malls, and the pop up stores would
Speaker 1: frequently feature a specific subset of products like it would
Speaker 1: be almost themed, and then after a certain amount of time,
Speaker 1: it would change that up. Anyway, all of those are
Speaker 1: shutting down, but Amazon will still operate other physical stores
Speaker 1: like Whole Foods grocery stores aren't going anywhere, uh, and
Speaker 1: the cashier less Amazon Go convenience stores are sticking around.
Speaker 1: Two Over on Reddit, folks are having a heck of
Speaker 1: a time talking about how Amazon's digital store wiped out
Speaker 1: its own brick and border stores, So sad Trombo. Earlier
Speaker 1: this week, I gave an update on unionization efforts among
Speaker 1: Amazon employees. You've got one warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama that
Speaker 1: will be counting union votes later this month in order
Speaker 1: to determine if enough employees there will support a union,
Speaker 1: in which case they will unionize. Then there's the JFK
Speaker 1: eight warehouse in New York that is heading toward a
Speaker 1: vote of its own, And now a second New York
Speaker 1: based location, the Staten Island l d J five Warehouse,
Speaker 1: has requested permission from the National Labor Relations Board a
Speaker 1: gay the n l RB to move forward with their
Speaker 1: own unionization efforts. Now. I mentioned earlier that the activity
Speaker 1: we're seeing in this space could be indicators for a
Speaker 1: growing labor movement in the United States, and this is
Speaker 1: the kind of thing I was talking about. I don't
Speaker 1: have many more details about this recent development just yet.
Speaker 1: The n l RB has not yet confirmed whether or
Speaker 1: not it has approved the request that the the Staten
Speaker 1: Island group made, at least not as of the recording
Speaker 1: of this episode. Fitbit has had to recall more than
Speaker 1: one and a half million ionic smart watches after numerous
Speaker 1: users reported being burned by the battery overheating in the device.
Speaker 1: The smart watch does all the stuff we've come to
Speaker 1: expect from smart watches. It tracks activity, can be used
Speaker 1: to monitor sleep patterns, tells the time, but apparently a
Speaker 1: problem with the lithium ion batteries has led to massive
Speaker 1: overheating issues with some watches. More than one people have
Speaker 1: reported experiencing burn injuries, and two of those have been
Speaker 1: third degree burns, which are incredibly serious. You're talking about
Speaker 1: massive tissue damage with that. And we've seen similar problems
Speaker 1: with lithium ion batteries in the past. When there's a
Speaker 1: manufacturing error or when a battery gets damaged, there is
Speaker 1: a chance for a short circuit. That's when the flow
Speaker 1: of electrons bypasses the normal circuit route and there's a
Speaker 1: more direct path between the anode and the cathode and
Speaker 1: the battery, and so the electrochemical reactions just speed up,
Speaker 1: and the battery heats up, pressure builds up inside the battery,
Speaker 1: and then you end up with a fire or sometimes
Speaker 1: an explosion. That's what happened with the Samsung Galaxy Notes
Speaker 1: seven several years ago. This is also why airlines tell
Speaker 1: you not to put anything with a lithium ion battery
Speaker 1: in your check luggage, because if a battery overheats in
Speaker 1: the plane's cargo, it can cause a serious fire that
Speaker 1: can become a huge risk before anyone is even aware
Speaker 1: of it. Now, that's not to say that all lithium
Speaker 1: ion batteries are just a fire waiting to happen. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've got a ton of different devices that have lithium
Speaker 1: ion batteries. None of them have ever caught fire. What
Speaker 1: this does mean is that when there are these men
Speaker 1: facturing errors, we have to take them seriously. As for Fitbit,
Speaker 1: it is offering a two refund for people who purchased
Speaker 1: the watches, as well as a discount code for a
Speaker 1: future Fitbit device. In news that initially made me say, ha,
Speaker 1: we've learned that Epic Games, the company behind the massively
Speaker 1: popular game Fortnite, has acquired band Camp. Now, if you're
Speaker 1: not familiar with band Camp, it's a site that serves
Speaker 1: as the platform mainly for independent musicians, letting them sell
Speaker 1: their music to fans through an online store and to
Speaker 1: have an online community for their fandom. And it's pretty great.
Speaker 1: And I've picked up a lot of music through band Camp,
Speaker 1: through bands that I like that you know they aren't
Speaker 1: signed to any labels. Also bought some commentary tracks for films.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that's how I picked up a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of red letter media commentary tracks for different movies.
Speaker 1: So at first I was wondering what the heck is
Speaker 1: going on here? I mean, why is why is Epic
Speaker 1: buying it? Well, Epic has said that band cap will
Speaker 1: fulfill an quote important role in Epics vision to build
Speaker 1: out a creator marketplace ecosystem for content, technology, games, art, music,
Speaker 1: and more. End quote, and that also came as news
Speaker 1: to me. I usually think of Epic as that company
Speaker 1: that makes these incredible license agreements with highly recognizable intellectual property.
Speaker 1: Also that you can do stuff like that flossing dance
Speaker 1: as Darth Vader in Fortnite or whatever. I don't think
Speaker 1: of Epic as a company that's championing independent creators and
Speaker 1: making sure that they get compensated for their work. I
Speaker 1: don't That's not what I think of when I think
Speaker 1: of Epic. Uh. And the parties didn't divulge the details
Speaker 1: around the deal, so we don't know how much it
Speaker 1: was for. We don't know how much Epic shelled out,
Speaker 1: And I'm not sure how I would feel about this
Speaker 1: if I were a musician currently depending upon band cap
Speaker 1: to sell stuff to fans and stay connected with them,
Speaker 1: and I order if perhaps this was also a step
Speaker 1: towards Epic Games making its own metaverse related moves, and
Speaker 1: I guess we're just gonna have to wait and see.
Speaker 1: Elsewhere in the gaming world, the streaming service Netflix is
Speaker 1: planning an acquisition of a finish game company as in
Speaker 1: a game company out of Finland. It's called Next Games,
Speaker 1: and this company developed a mobile puzzle RPG style game
Speaker 1: based on the Netflix property Stranger Things. So Netflix has
Speaker 1: been making a few moves into the gaming space. They
Speaker 1: established a division called Netflix Games last year. If you
Speaker 1: are a Netflix subscriber, you can actually use an app
Speaker 1: to download mobile games that are carried by Netflix Games.
Speaker 1: You can play them without ads or in app purchases.
Speaker 1: It's part of your subscription, So there are those benefits.
Speaker 1: Like if you've ever played a lot of mobile games,
Speaker 1: you know most of them typically have a lot of
Speaker 1: ads or in app purchase items, So this is one
Speaker 1: way to experience mobile games that don't have that. Of course,
Speaker 1: you're limited to whatever Netflix Games is actually carrying. I
Speaker 1: have to look into Netflix Games further at some point,
Speaker 1: maybe do a full episode, because I'm currently not sure
Speaker 1: how popular the services or how many Netflix users are
Speaker 1: even aware it exists. Um, I've heard about it, I've
Speaker 1: never used it, but then to be fair, I also
Speaker 1: very rarely use Netflix these days. It's almost like I'm
Speaker 1: just paying to have it. Uh, Once in a blue
Speaker 1: moon I watched something on it, But I'm rapidly approaching
Speaker 1: that point where I'm asking myself, do I need to
Speaker 1: maintain my Netflix subscription? Maybe the games is the thing
Speaker 1: that will make me say, yeah, no, I should keep it.
Speaker 1: We'll have to see. We have some more news items
Speaker 1: that we're going to go through after we take this
Speaker 1: quick break. Not that long ago, I did an episode
Speaker 1: about the semiconductor business in Taiwan and has specifically looked
Speaker 1: at the company t S m C, and I mentioned
Speaker 1: how Taiwan has a peculiar relationship with mainland China. Short
Speaker 1: version is that the former Chinese government prior to or so,
Speaker 1: that's the Chinese government that was ousted by the Chinese
Speaker 1: Communist Party, which is currently controlling China. Well, that that
Speaker 1: former political party, our governing body, fled to Taiwan and
Speaker 1: took that over nearly a century ago, and now there's
Speaker 1: this uneasy tension between Taiwan and mainland China. Um, you'll
Speaker 1: often hear to China's or you'll hear like a unified China.
Speaker 1: You hear a lot of rhetoric around that. But um,
Speaker 1: the the character of a unified China completely depends upon
Speaker 1: which party you're talking to, because it's very different from
Speaker 1: the mainland perspective than from the Taiwan perspective, and part
Speaker 1: of that tension emerges as acts of industrial espionage, and
Speaker 1: the Taiwanese government is looking to pass some laws to
Speaker 1: protect the semiconductor industry from Chinese spies. The law would
Speaker 1: impose a punishment for people who leak trade secrets to
Speaker 1: China or to other foreign enemy forces, and that punishment
Speaker 1: could be a prison sentence of up to twelve years.
Speaker 1: The government is also looking to pass laws that would
Speaker 1: make it harder for China to lure away engineering talent
Speaker 1: from Taiwan. So far, these regulations are not yet law.
Speaker 1: The parliament in Taiwan will have to pass them before
Speaker 1: that will happen, and Taiwan's adversarial relationship with mainland China
Speaker 1: is one of many reasons as to why there's been
Speaker 1: such a strong push around the world to develop new
Speaker 1: semiconductor fabrication facilities because it helps mitigate risks. Part of
Speaker 1: it was because of issues with COVID impacting the supply chain,
Speaker 1: but another part is that should China ever take any
Speaker 1: serious action to try and absorb tai on, it would
Speaker 1: have a massive ripple effect through the semiconductor industry and
Speaker 1: tech as in general. Apple co founder Steve Wozniak is
Speaker 1: one of several people behind a company called Privateer, and
Speaker 1: the mission for that company is to set up a
Speaker 1: system that will identify track and catalog objects in space,
Speaker 1: so satellites and stuff, but also space junk, and then
Speaker 1: make that information available to companies and countries that are
Speaker 1: intending to launch satellites and other spacecraft into Earth orbit.
Speaker 1: Space junk stands as a real threat in space. Even
Speaker 1: tiny objects can cause massive damage because you have to remember,
Speaker 1: though they might be small, they're traveling super fast. And
Speaker 1: as we launch more stuff into orbit, then things get
Speaker 1: more and more crowded, and accidents like collisions can create
Speaker 1: a lot more space junk. Stuff can break apart and
Speaker 1: just create kind of like a shotgun pellet approach, except
Speaker 1: these are shotgun pellets that are traveling at thousands of
Speaker 1: miles per hour. And then there's the various military tests
Speaker 1: we've seen in which countries like China have used land
Speaker 1: based weapons systems to target orbiting satellites and destroy them,
Speaker 1: thus potentially creating a lot more space junk in orbit.
Speaker 1: So Privateers goal is to get a better picture of
Speaker 1: what's actually going on up there, What where are these pieces,
Speaker 1: how many are there, how fast are they traveling, what
Speaker 1: orbits are they in? And potentially that will allow us
Speaker 1: to spot problems early on and avoid them when we
Speaker 1: need to send missions out into space. Now, the company
Speaker 1: ultimately hopes to launch some satellites of its own in
Speaker 1: the future for the purposes of spotting and tracking space junk.
Speaker 1: And yes, I do recognize the irony of putting more
Speaker 1: stuff up into space so that you can figure out
Speaker 1: how much stuff is in space, But these satellites would
Speaker 1: in theory, be able to identify very small pieces of
Speaker 1: space junk, like on the order of ten centimeters or smaller.
Speaker 1: Uh So it could be incredibly valuable. In fact, having
Speaker 1: the information would be incredibly valuable. It would be great
Speaker 1: if we could find a way to clean up space junk.
Speaker 1: There have been some different proposals, and in fact I've
Speaker 1: seen some titles that seem to suggest that that's what
Speaker 1: Privateer was doing, But really Privateer is more about we
Speaker 1: can't even think about cleaning stuff up until we know
Speaker 1: how much stuff is there and you know where it's at,
Speaker 1: And it's hard to argue against that. You know there's
Speaker 1: a longstanding joke. In fact, you could argue it's not
Speaker 1: a joke that if you roll up on a Mickey
Speaker 1: D's and you ask for an ice cream, you're just
Speaker 1: going to be told that the machines are broken. And yeah,
Speaker 1: McDonald's soft serve ice cream machines have a reputation for
Speaker 1: being really finicky, uh, And that inspired a couple of
Speaker 1: technologists named Melissa Nelson and Jeremy O'Sullivan to co found
Speaker 1: a company called Kitch k Y T c H. And
Speaker 1: Kitch subsequently created a phone sized electronic device that can
Speaker 1: connect to these ice cream machines that mcdot don olds uses,
Speaker 1: and so the device can actually read error codes on
Speaker 1: the machines and send messages to franchise owners and they
Speaker 1: can access those messages via an app or by a
Speaker 1: web portal, and then they can get notified when something
Speaker 1: is is not working properly so that they can get
Speaker 1: it fixed very quickly and minimize machine downtime, which has
Speaker 1: a positive impact on customer experience as well as on
Speaker 1: you know, restaurant revenue. Well, apparently corporate McDonald's didn't like
Speaker 1: this very much at all, and in twenty twenty, the
Speaker 1: company sent franchise owners messages that they were to remove
Speaker 1: the kitchen devices from their ice cream machines because altering
Speaker 1: the machines violated warranties. And it also, according to the message,
Speaker 1: intercepted confidential information. Now I don't know about you, but
Speaker 1: I'm really curious what the heck kind of confidential information
Speaker 1: and ice cream machine is actually generating or transmitting. I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess it has to be related to the Cold War, right,
Speaker 1: because ice cream no Cold War, get it. Anyway, The
Speaker 1: Kitch co founders say that the emails included defamatory statements
Speaker 1: in them, and in fact McDonald's was trying to force
Speaker 1: franchise owners to hold off for a future ice cream
Speaker 1: machine from the same company that so far as seen
Speaker 1: limited deployment, but it does incorporate technologies that appear to
Speaker 1: have been copied from Kitches products. So essentially they're saying,
Speaker 1: not only are you, you know, destroying our business, you
Speaker 1: are infringing on our intellectual property you have, you have
Speaker 1: copied it, and you're you're muscling us out. That's what
Speaker 1: Kitch has been saying. So Kitch has subsequently filed lawsuits
Speaker 1: against Taylor, which is the company that makes the ice
Speaker 1: cream machines and McDonald's itself. According to a Wired article
Speaker 1: on the subject, during the discovery period of the lawsuit
Speaker 1: against Taylor, Kitch learned that the most that most of
Speaker 1: the opposition was coming straight from McDonald's, not from Taylor,
Speaker 1: but from corporate McDonald's itself. The article is well worth
Speaker 1: a read. It is titled ice cream machine hackers sue
Speaker 1: McDonald's for nine hundred million dollars. That is a heck
Speaker 1: of a headline. And finally, speaking of headlines, Business Insider
Speaker 1: reports that wings Stop, the restaurant known for chicken wings,
Speaker 1: has filed a quote trademark to sell chicken wings in
Speaker 1: the metaverse. End quote that their headline was just about
Speaker 1: enough to make me want to walk into the woods
Speaker 1: just live there. But anyway, Wingstop is not the only
Speaker 1: restaurant going through these steps. McDonald's has done it too,
Speaker 1: which leads one to wonder if ice cream machines are
Speaker 1: gonna work better in the metaverse anyway. It sounds like
Speaker 1: these trademarks include downloadable virtual goods, so presumably stuff like
Speaker 1: virtual Big Max and virtual wings I guess, or maybe
Speaker 1: virtual clothing that has logos on it. I don't know,
Speaker 1: and also it's supposed to cover things like n f
Speaker 1: t s that represent digital assets. Seriously, y'all, I cannot
Speaker 1: with this nonsense. It is making me feel like I
Speaker 1: have stepped into a parody of the real world. Anyway,
Speaker 1: there may also be ways to order, you know, real
Speaker 1: world food while you're in the metaverse, so I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe in the future, when you want to use a
Speaker 1: delivery service to order a big Mac or Wings or something,
Speaker 1: you first have to put on VR goggles and navigate
Speaker 1: to the closest virtual restaurant or something. I hate all
Speaker 1: of this. Of course, a lot of these moves could
Speaker 1: just be hail Mary passes that the various companies are
Speaker 1: throwing all in an effort so that they don't get
Speaker 1: left behind in this crazy rush towards the metaverse, and
Speaker 1: those moves might prove to be unnecessary or misguided in
Speaker 1: the future, like it might turn out like, oh, none
Speaker 1: of is actually applicable, or maybe they'll turn out that
Speaker 1: these were really acts of genius and they have huge
Speaker 1: payoffs down the line. I honestly can't tell anymore. And
Speaker 1: that's the news. So if you have suggestions for topics
Speaker 1: I should cover in future episodes of tech Stuff, preferably
Speaker 1: topics that do not drive me closer to the brink
Speaker 1: of insanity. Please reach out to me on Twitter. The
Speaker 1: handle for the show is tech Stuff hs W and
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you again really soon. Tech Stuff is
Speaker 1: an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from my
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.