WEBVTT - Tech News: Facebook Gets Meta 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.520 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:17.079 joth In Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:21.000 Radio and I love all things tech. It is time 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:26.799 for the tech news for Tuesday, November two, twenty one, 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:29.400 and we're gonna start off with some old news because 0:00:29.480 --> 0:00:34.040 didn't do a news episode last Thursday. And as predicted Facebook, 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:38.320 the company has changed its name to Meta, which is 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.360 pretty much in line with what The Verge predicted a 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:44.360 couple of weeks ago. Meta in this case is a 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:48.120 reference to the concept of a metaverse, which in turn 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:51.560 we typically envision as being an implementation of such things 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:56.560 as virtual reality and augmented reality, and a persistent online 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:59.760 virtual world where you can behave as if it were 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:02.800 the real world. You can, you know, do things like shopping, 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:07.480 you can have entertainment. Essentially, you have this online, persistent 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:12.000 world that in some ways mirrors the real one, except 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:15.440 of course you're not burdened by reality. Right, So in 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:18.600 the metaverse, you might have an entire social structure that 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:22.160 exists inside this virtual world, and you might have some 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:24.920 elements of that environment spill out into the real world 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.679 through stuff like augmented reality technology. So in a way, 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.640 it's an extension of the concept of social networks, only 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:35.560 they become even more immersive. Anyway, I'm sure you're all 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:39.479 aware of the name change by now. There's very little 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:41.920 chance that I'm telling you this for the first time. 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:44.960 Of course, Meta is still going to face a lot 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:48.440 of questions from political leaders around the world. A name 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:51.600 change is not magically going to make all the critics 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.880 who want to split the company up say, oh, well, 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.160 Facebook's gone now. I mean, Facebook the platform is still there, 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:00.880 but Facebook the company's gone. We're not, and I don't 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:03.400 think that's going to happen. And I suspect as leaders 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.280 get their heads wrapped around what a metaverse actually is 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:09.640 and how it would enable a company like you know, 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:13.880 former Facebook now Meta to track even more information about people. 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:17.240 There's going to be more questions, or at least I 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:21.280 hope there will be. NBC News reports that an internal 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:25.800 blog post at what was then Facebook and now as Meta. 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:29.200 This is just going to be tiresome anyway, It revealed 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:33.280 that the company was actively pursuing opportunities to market to kids, 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.360 kids as young as six years old. In fact, the 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:40.600 blog post identified five different age groups that the company 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:44.840 was you know, kind of delineating as targets. They had 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:48.400 the six to nine age group, ten to twelve, thirteen 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:52.720 to fifteen, sixteen to seventeen, and then everybody else. And 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:55.880 I should add that this blog post specifically mentioned stuff 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:58.880 like making sure the company protected the security and privacy 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:01.440 of users, So at least there's that like this was 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.960 an internal blog post, it wasn't outward facing. The fact 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:08.040 that they even mentioned that we need to do this 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:12.360 in a responsible way is at least somewhat comforting, I guess, 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:14.480 But I would say this is more grist for the 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:18.600 mill when it comes to scrutinizing this enormous company and 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:23.280 it's various strategies involving user experiences and more importantly, how 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:28.160 the company generates revenue based on user behaviors and how 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:31.600 much data they are collecting from users. Now, as I 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:34.760 mentioned last week, the Facebook platform itself has seen a 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:38.680 decline in use among younger folks, and so this is 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:41.600 likely part of the company's overall strategy to find ways 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:45.800 to attract new users, not necessarily to the Facebook platform, 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:47.800 although I'm sure that's part of it. But you know 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:53.040 to the company's services. Overall, Facebook reps defended the blog post. 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:56.000 They argued that really, any business that interfaces with the 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:59.840 public is always trying to attract new and younger people 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:02.640 all the time. Like, if you get people, you know, 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:05.400 to connect with your product at a young age, you 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.640 might have a customer for life. So in that sense, yeah, 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.160 that that really does make sense. And in fact, Facebook 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:13.040 said the only thing that would be newsworthy is if 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:16.440 the company wasn't doing this. However, I would add it 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:19.599 is a little creepy when you think that as a 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:23.080 kind of preventive measure, Facebook said, an age limit on 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:26.560 who could have a Facebook or an Instagram profile, you know, 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:28.920 you have to be thirteen or older. And that seems 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:32.320 like it's a tacit acknowledgement that the services the company 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:36.280 provides might not be a good fit for younger users. 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.240 And when you take the blog post in concert with 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:42.560 the thousands of other documents that have emerged thanks to 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:46.719 whistleblower Francis Hogan, it all starts to look a little sinister. 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:52.000 So yeah, I guess companies that are you know, in 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:56.599 the business of dealing with you know, the average consumer 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.119 are always looking to find a way of tapping into 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.559 that at a young or age. But um, that doesn't 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:06.680 mean it's always good. I mean I could easily point 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:12.479 to the case of say, cigarette companies using cartoonish mascots 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:15.679 to market their cigarettes and how that is not really 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:19.000 a good thing. But we'll leave it for here. Now 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:23.560 let's talk about data tracking for a second. So Apple 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:27.560 introduced the App Tracking Transparency Policy last year, and this 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:32.000 policy sets firm rules that iOS apps must follow. That is, 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.840 apps that appear on Apple's app stores have to follow 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:40.000 these rules or else Apple won't carry them. So, if 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:44.240 the app is tracking data in any way, it first 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:46.760 has to request user permission to do so and to 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.839 talk about which types of of data it intends to track. 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:54.520 So if a user says no thanks, then the app 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:58.080 is not allowed to track that data. To say that 0:05:58.240 --> 0:06:01.320 some companies were upset about this would be underplaying it. 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:03.400 I mean. Facebook went so far as to take out 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:07.839 a full page newspaper ad arguing against the policy, saying 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:10.800 that you know it would interfere with the Facebook apps 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:13.960 performance and give users the mistaken impression that you know, 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:17.599 Facebook is collecting loads of private information or to monetize 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:22.359 the info which was actually the correct implication because that 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:25.880 is what the company does well. Now. The Financial Times 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:30.000 reports that companies like you know, Meta Slash, Facebook and 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:35.400 Snap and Twitter and YouTube lost nearly ten billion dollars 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:38.920 last year due to this policy, and by lost, I 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:41.720 mean they weren't able to capitalize on user data for 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:45.279 those users who opted out of the data tracking. Snap 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.200 was hit particularly hard, which is not a big surprise 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:52.280 because Snap does not exist outside of the mobile experience. 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:56.880 Right There's no desktop version for Snapchat, so that would 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:00.000 explain how that company was hit particularly hard because there 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:04.200 no other platform for it to depend upon. Uh. Interestingly, 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:07.360 Apple itself has been found to engage in practices that 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:10.280 break its own rules, so you know, I'm not giving 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:12.720 Apple a full pass on this one. I think that 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:15.640 the policy is a good one, but only if everybody 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:19.240 be behaves and everyone follows it, you know, Apple included. 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:22.120 But it does also show a couple of things. And one, 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:27.559 it shows that your data is valuable, so you should 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:31.760 think about treating it as such, that it has value, 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:35.840 and so think about that, you know, take value in it. 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:40.120 There are people who have proposed systems that would require 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:44.160 companies to pay folks directly in order to be able 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:46.720 to use their data. That's how valuable. It is. Not 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.280 that those policies have actually, you know, seen any real traction, 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:55.560 because companies obviously have a strong incentive to resist that, 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:58.720 but it shows how how valuable the data is too. 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:01.920 This shows these apps are tracking you in tons of 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:04.480 different ways, and those ways might relate back to the 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:07.560 way the app functions, So there could be some legit 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:10.840 arguments that the data tracking is necessary in order for 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:13.400 you to have full functionality of the app. But this 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:18.080 also reminds us that our phones are constantly data gathering machines. 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:20.560 Sin since we pretty much take them everywhere we go, 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:24.080 it means we're always being tracked, and the stuff we 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:26.560 do is being tracked. The stuff we look up on 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:30.120 our phones is being tracked. Just good to remember, you know. 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:35.360 Fun times Up in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest in 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:37.800 the United States, there's a bit of a brew haha 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:42.040 going on regarding Google and its use of water near 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.560 the city of the Dowells. That's two words, It's the 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:48.959 and dows d A L L. E. S. Actually had 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.920 to look up how to say that so I wouldn't 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:56.360 get the pronunciation wrong. Google has data centers in the 0:08:56.440 --> 0:09:00.280 Dowells on a site of an old aluminum smelting facility 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.760 that closed down years ago, like in the eighties, uh, 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:06.400 and they built data centers there, and the company plans 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:09.760 to build a couple more of those massive data centers. Well, 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:11.679 you know, buildings that are filled with computers that are 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:14.320 running all the time get pretty hot and you have 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.360 to keep computers from overheating or else stuff breaks down. 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:21.040 So as part of this plan, Google negotiated with the 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.200 city council of the Dolls and they got a new 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.880 deal when it comes to water rights. You know, Google 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:31.640 uses water to pull heat away from these computers and 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.640 then through a heat exchanger, cools the heated water back 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:38.199 down and can recirculate it through the system in order 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:40.240 to keep things at a good operating temperature. Although it 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.199 does mean that they have to occasionally bring in more water, 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.080 so it's like a water cooled BC, only on an 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:49.200 epic scale. Anyway, this would mean Google would have to 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:52.559 collect more water from the area, and it's an area 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:55.360 that's also been hit with droughts in the recent past, 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.400 so this has led some residents to become a bit 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.880 concerned over the matter, and making it worse is that 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.720 the amount of water that Google wants is a secret. 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:10.160 According to the City of the Dolls, Google's request constitutes 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:12.640 a trade secret, and so the city is not allowed 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:16.160 to share the information with residents. So the city council knows, 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:20.040 but they can't tell. According to other entities in Oregon, 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:22.640 the use of water is a matter of public interest 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:27.600 and that supersedes any trade secret. Moreover, those people who 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.760 are concerned have pointed out that Google doesn't provide information 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.480 about how much water it needs because the city has 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:36.400 an information. They know how much water Google needs, and 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.559 that means that the city is refusing to share information 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:43.400 with the citizens of the city. The newspaper the Oregonians 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:46.560 sued to get access to that information, and a judge 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:50.839 sided with the newspaper, But now the city has countersued 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:54.760 the newspaper in order to keep the information secret. Meanwhile, 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:57.199 there's a vote coming up on the matter, and a 0:10:57.320 --> 0:10:59.760 vote that's really only open to the city council members, 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:02.880 not the public, and there's no chance that this particular 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:06.920 legal matter will be resolved before the vote happens. So things, 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:09.679 as you might imagine, are a little bit tense up 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:13.000 in the dolls. The city council says that Google's plan 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:16.720 will actually mean the more water will be provided to 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:20.080 the city, because Google will be contributing nearly thirty million 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.440 dollars to expand water services for the area. But the 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:26.640 secrecy around how much water the company needs seems to 0:11:26.640 --> 0:11:30.040 be feeding into a general distrust of Google and the 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:32.800 city council, at least according to a piece I read 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:36.840 on Oregon Live dot com. We've got some more stories 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:38.960 to cover, but before we get to that, let's take 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:48.760 a quick break. Before the break, I was talking about 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.400 Google and Oregon. I've got another Google story here, which 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:55.199 involves a worker petition that's aimed at convincing both Google 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.320 and Amazon to back out of a deal that the 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.920 companies have made with is Real. The deal is called 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:05.480 Project Nimbus, and as you might suspect with that name, 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:10.280 it involves cloud computing centers. The workers who are leading 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:15.400 the petition are two Jewish Google employees, and they're worried 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:19.720 that the cloud computing tech quote allows for further surveillance 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:25.199 of an unlawful data collection on Palestinians and facilitates expansion 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:29.920 of Israel's illegal settlements on the Palestinian land end quote, 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:32.679 and the two say that more than one thousand employees 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:35.840 have signed a petition, though the petition itself allows employees 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:38.839 to remain anonymous, and all but three have done so, 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:42.319 so it's obviously hard to verify. According to the Jewish 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:46.480 Telegraphic Agency, the cloud computing contract has clauses in it 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.800 that are meant to prevent Amazon and Google from pulling 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:51.760 out of the deal, even if they're under the threat 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:55.319 of boycott, so it's questionable whether the petition will make 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:59.240 any headway, though it does bring more attention to the project. 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:05.200 Last week, I talked about how Hurts, the rental car company, 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:11.040 had signed a deal with Tesla to buy one hundred 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:14.920 thousand Tesla vehicles by the end of next year. Well 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.760 Elon Musk then went out and tweeted that the ink 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:19.840 has not even been put to paper yet, that no 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:23.800 contract has been signed, which, hey, you know, woopsie, because 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:27.199 you know, the initial news about that deal pushed Tesla 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:30.640 stock value up more than ten percent, like around twelve 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.880 percent actually, so that means if you had Tesla stock, 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:37.400 you potentially could have seen your wealth increase pretty dramatically 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.640 before Musk revealed that the deal hadn't actually been done yet, 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:44.600 which you know, elon Musk and the stock market, there 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:48.040 are all these stories that don't paint Musk in a 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:52.040 very good light in the way he communicates things. Um. 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:55.040 But then, to be fair, if the contract wasn't signed 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:57.840 and someone claimed that it was, it's not really on 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:01.480 Musk's shoulders this time. But yeah, stock markets are fun, 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:03.360 and by fun I mean we all play pretend and 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:06.559 hoping you make money. A Hurts, by the way, is 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:09.040 still communicating as though this has been a done deal 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:11.840 for some time. In fact, the company had told the 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:15.520 BBC that Hurts is already receiving deliveries of Tesla vehicles, 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:19.200 so that's kind of weird, right. Hurts was directly asked 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:21.560 by the BBC if the contract was in fact signed, 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:23.920 and a rep said, oh, we don't comment on business 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:29.400 dealings to the press. Yeah, okay. Tesla is also opening 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:31.960 up a program in the Netherlands that will help people 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.600 with e vs UH for the first time evs, by 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:38.400 the way, electric vehicles for the first time. Tesla is 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:43.080 opening up ten supercharger locations in the Netherlands to people 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:45.880 who are driving any type of electric vehicle not just 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:49.880 Tesla vehicles. Previously, you needed to be driving a Tesla 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:53.440 in order to make use of the supercharger stations. Now 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:56.520 anyone in the Netherlands with an electric vehicle can establish 0:14:56.600 --> 0:15:00.080 an account with Tesla through the company's mobile app uh A, 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:04.120 establish a payment method in the app, and they use 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:07.920 a selection called charge your Non Tesla, which will then 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:12.080 give them directions to a participating supercharger station and they 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:14.800 pay through the app. There are a few other steps 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:18.320 for non Tesla drivers. The supercharger stations were made to 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.160 be compatible with Tesla vehicles, and with a Tesla car, 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:23.800 it's essentially plug in play. You plug it in, it 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.320 does everything on its own. It automatically shuts off when 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:30.680 it's done charging. But for non Tesla evs, users will 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:33.600 actually have to indicate in the app when the charging 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:36.960 station should begin charging the car and when it should stop. 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:41.320 It will also cost non Tesla drivers a bit more 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.760 to do it than Tesla owners will have to pay. Now, 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:46.960 will we see the same sort of program rolled out 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:49.720 in the United States. In order for that to happen, 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:53.280 we would need some special adapters because here in the States, 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:57.840 Tesla has proprietary connectors that means no other EV company 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:01.360 makes a port that fits the Tesla a charging system, 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:03.600 but the company has indicated that this is the way 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:06.160 of the future. So I suspect we'll see Tesla offering 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:08.720 up adapters, you know, for a fee, of course, so 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:10.800 that EV drivers in the US will be able to 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:15.320 take advantage of supercharger locations whenever the company chooses to 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:18.600 make that available, and that will be a good thing 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:23.560 because it will extend the driving range of electric vehicles effectively, 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:26.560 like you don't have to search around for a charging 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:28.520 station if you have an app that tells you where 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:31.680 the next one is, that's really useful. Back in two 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:35.320 thousand sixteen, Dell, the computer company that was made famous 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:39.120 in my childhood with the marketing phrase dude, you're getting 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:42.840 a Dell, merged with a company that's called e m C. 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:46.680 And as a result of that merger, the virtualization and 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:51.400 cloud computing company vm ware essentially came along for the ride, 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:55.560 with Dell gaining more than eight percent ownership of vm ware. 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:58.080 But over the last few years, Dell has begun to 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:00.920 spin off some of its acquired properties, mostly in an 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:04.320 effort to manage debt. Vm Where is the latest of 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:07.760 those spinoffs, and now Dell has divested itself of its 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:11.280 more than ownership of vm Ware, and vm Ware is 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:17.800 an independent company. Vm Ware's CEO UM released a statement 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.720 that says, quote as a standalone company, we now have 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:24.959 the flexibility to partner even more deeply with all cloud 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.880 and on premises infrastructure companies to create a better foundation 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:32.160 that drives results for our customers. Today's move will strengthen 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:35.359 our mission to be the Switzerland of the cloud computing 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:41.720 industry end quote which cool. Last month I talked about 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:45.720 how US telecom companies are to remove Huahwei equipment from 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:49.520 their networks, which is a directive from the United States government. 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:53.240 Last Friday, that effort began in earnest as the FCC 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:57.960 launched a reimbursement program. This will allow telecom companies to 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:01.960 seek financial assistance to actually make this happen, because it's 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:05.800 a pretty tricky thing to do, particularly if you want 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:09.080 to avoid interruptions in service when you've got a network 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.480 with all these pieces that are working together. Removing pieces 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:15.000 after they're all integrated is not the easiest thing in 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:19.199 the world to do. However, once these companies get a check, well, 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:23.040 the timers starts for them, because the rules state that 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.800 the companies that receive financial assistance have a year to 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:30.880 remove network components once those checks come in. These are 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:33.800 networks components supplied by Huawei as well as a second 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:39.239 Chinese company called Zte corp Or Corporation. And you might wonder, well, 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:41.359 why is this even happening in the first place, And 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:45.159 it's largely concerned about national security. China has been responsible 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:49.280 for and home to many surveillance and espionage efforts against 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:53.240 other nations, particularly the United States, and it's pretty well 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.680 known that China's government funds hacker groups to target US 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:01.480 based businesses and institutions. And so the thinking goes, it 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:05.200 might not be a great idea to rely upon critical 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:09.080 network infrastructure that came out of China. As you know, 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.719 it's it's possible that Chinese companies have built in ways 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:18.160 in which these companies could perform espionage duties on behalf 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:22.000 of the Chinese government. Um And I should add that 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.080 the companies deny that this would be the case, But then, 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.640 considering the amount of influence China's government has on Chinese companies, 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:33.400 it could be a little difficult to accept that claim. 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:35.680 We've got a few more stories, but we're gonna take 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:45.159 one more break and we'll be right back. Okay, we 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:47.800 left off in China. Let's go back to China, because 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:51.679 that's where Yahoo has called it quits. And some of 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:54.000 you might even be surprised that Yahoo is still a thing, 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:57.680 because that company had its own dramatic rise and fall 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:05.200 and sort of was scavenged from the wreckage. But yeah, 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:08.440 it was operating in China. But over the years, in fact, 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:11.600 since like two thousand thirteen or so, Yeahoo had been 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:16.200 shutting down services in that country, and now it has 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:19.560 ended all operations in China, stating that the move is 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:24.159 quote in recognition of the increasingly challenging business and legal 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:28.119 environment end quote, which is a very polite way of 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:32.240 saying that it's incredibly hard to do business in China 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:35.920 for many reasons, especially in the tech industry, and most 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:39.760 of the reasons get pretty ugly when you start digging down. 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:44.160 For example, China's government has been passing legislation that puts 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:48.040 tight restrictions on tech companies and limiting their services dramatically. 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:52.520 Many of these regulations restrict how and when Chinese citizens 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:57.000 can access tech services. China's government states it's cracking down 0:20:57.000 --> 0:21:00.359 on practices that could tend towards monopolistic control of a 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:03.679 particular industry or field. And I can get behind the 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:07.119 idea that we should not allow monopolies to happen, but 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:09.840 in the case of China, it's hard not to view 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:13.240 the government itself as wanting to hold monopolistic control of 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:16.359 pretty much everything, at least as far as what citizens 0:21:16.400 --> 0:21:19.080 can access. So in other words, I guess there's not 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:23.000 really any good guys here. And while China has an 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:28.160 enormous population and thus a potentially huge market, these increased 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:31.440 regulations and restrictions have convinced more than a few companies 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:35.719 to abandon operations in China as it has started to 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:39.000 get to be more trouble than what it's worth, which 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:42.199 is mind blowing, right. You think about more than a 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:46.280 billion people live there and for that to be more 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:49.000 trouble than what it's worth and to pull out, that's 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:51.480 a lot of trouble, y'all, because that's a lot of 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:55.680 money left on the table. Gamers who love hedgehogs might 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:59.560 be excited to learn that Sega, the Japanese video game 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:02.879 company famous for Sonic in the Hedgehog, announced it was 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:08.399 forming a strategic alliance with Microsoft by leveraging Microsoft's Azure program. 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:12.320 So Azure is a cloud computing service and it's typically 0:22:12.440 --> 0:22:16.439 used to develop and manage apps. Sega's plan is to 0:22:16.520 --> 0:22:19.280 form a new process when it comes to game development. 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:23.119 Sega has an initiative called super Game and this is 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:26.080 part of it. It's really an incredible effort to overhaul 0:22:26.280 --> 0:22:29.399 how the company i dates and develops games and to 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:33.080 tap into the potential of five G connectivity. So there's 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:36.320 been the tendency toward cloud gaming over the last couple 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:39.360 of years, and what was at first a really jan 0:22:39.440 --> 0:22:44.080 Kee experiences gradually evolved and Sega is banking on the 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:47.879 gaming of the future to be largely mobile and connected, 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:51.439 and so the company is leaning on a cloud based 0:22:51.560 --> 0:22:57.000 service like Azure, which makes sense. The website nicaia Asia 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:02.119 reports that Nintendo will produce twenty fewer Nintendo Switch consoles 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:07.440 for fiscal year one than was originally predicted. And for Nintendo, 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:12.960 the fiscal year ends in March, so March. Of the 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:16.760 reason for the decline isn't due to decreased demand, but 0:23:16.960 --> 0:23:21.120 rather to the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage. The original plan 0:23:21.240 --> 0:23:23.880 was for Nintendo to produce as many as thirty million 0:23:23.960 --> 0:23:26.879 Switch consoles, but the final number will be closer to 0:23:26.920 --> 0:23:31.040 twenty four million. And this is a pretty tough story. 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:34.000 I mean, the company has seen declining sales of the Switch, 0:23:34.640 --> 0:23:37.320 but the demand for the console is still super high. 0:23:37.359 --> 0:23:39.720 So that means the reason for the decline in sales 0:23:40.200 --> 0:23:44.240 is largely issues with production. If the company could just 0:23:44.400 --> 0:23:47.520 ramp up production, those sales numbers would likely be going 0:23:47.560 --> 0:23:50.679 in the opposite direction. This is a strong example of 0:23:50.720 --> 0:23:54.320 how supply chain issues can have huge impacts on company performance, 0:23:54.600 --> 0:23:57.400 not just for video game consoles, but for everything from 0:23:57.640 --> 0:24:04.320 computers to graphics cards to cars. In News of the Obvious, 0:24:04.680 --> 0:24:09.640 the Squid cryptocurrency, supposedly tying into the popular Squid game 0:24:09.760 --> 0:24:14.359 TV series from Korea has turned out to be a scam. Now, 0:24:14.440 --> 0:24:17.840