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Speaker 1: Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,

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Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio

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Speaker 1: and a lot of all things tech. And it is

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Speaker 1: time for the news for Thursday, February four, twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 1: Let's get to it, and I think our top story

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Speaker 1: should be pretty obvious, and that's that Jeff Bezos is

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Speaker 1: stepping down as CEO of Amazon later this year. The

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Speaker 1: announcement came out on Tuesday, which I think was pretty rude,

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Speaker 1: as I had already recorded and published the news episode

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Speaker 1: for that day by the time the press release came out.

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Speaker 1: Not a lot of consideration there for me. Jeff. This

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Speaker 1: comes after a banner year for Amazon, at least the

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Speaker 1: corporate coffer part of it. While millions of folks were

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Speaker 1: struggling to find out how to work and parent and

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Speaker 1: all that stuff during a pandemic. Amazon passed the one

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Speaker 1: trillion dollar market cap, and it's well in its way

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Speaker 1: to to trillion at this point. Heck, Amazon made one

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Speaker 1: hundred billion dollars in one quarter. That means three months.

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Speaker 1: Bezos will not be leaving the company entirely he'll actually

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Speaker 1: be playing a pretty firm hand with Amazon as the

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Speaker 1: executive chairman of the board of directors. As for his replacement,

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Speaker 1: that will be Andy Jesse, who heads up the Amazon

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Speaker 1: Web Services Division a k a a w S. And

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Speaker 1: while I think most folks probably think of Amazon as

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Speaker 1: an online retail company, you know where you go to

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Speaker 1: buy everything from books to boats, more than half of

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Speaker 1: Amazon's operating income actually comes from a WS. The division

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Speaker 1: is responsible for enormous server farms that provide hosting services

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Speaker 1: for cloud based applications web companies. You might remember a

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Speaker 1: recent news item that AWS booted the social network Parlor

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Speaker 1: or parlay from its servers for failing to moderate content

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Speaker 1: on the platform, which was a violation of Amazon's policies.

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Speaker 1: Jesse will take over for Bezos later this year. According

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Speaker 1: to Bezos, he will quote focus my energies and attention

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Speaker 1: on new products and early initiatives end quote. In addition

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Speaker 1: to that work, Bezos also will spend more time with

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Speaker 1: several of his other companies, such as his private space

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Speaker 1: company Blue Origin, and I guess maybe figuring out what

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Speaker 1: he's gonna do with that more than five billion dollars

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Speaker 1: he has in wealth. Now, based on this reporting, you

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Speaker 1: might think that I envy Jeff Bezos, and you would

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Speaker 1: be right. But he's a business genius and I'm not.

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Speaker 1: So I also understand that I'm just not the type

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Speaker 1: of person to a mass that kind of wealth. Also,

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Speaker 1: as we'll be talking about in a little bit, I

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Speaker 1: probably don't have the stomach to do some of the

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Speaker 1: things that billionaires do in order to become billionaires. And

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Speaker 1: now for a few more Amazon stories, we could think

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Speaker 1: of this as being lost in the Amazon. So next

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Speaker 1: up our plans that Amazon has for a new glass

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Speaker 1: tower high rise building in Arlington, Virginia. This would be

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Speaker 1: part of Amazon's HQ two headquarters project. You might remember

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Speaker 1: that several years ago all of the United States was

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Speaker 1: in a bidding war to become the place for Amazon's headquarters,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of people, myself included, assumed that Amazon

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Speaker 1: was just playing the long game, trying to you know,

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Speaker 1: put some leverage on the choices that were already at

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Speaker 1: the top of its list to get them to give them,

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Speaker 1: you know, much better tax and syntoms and stuff. This

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Speaker 1: is the outcome of that. So the design of this

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Speaker 1: tower calls for it to be three fifty feet or

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Speaker 1: around a hundred six meters tall, and around this tower

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Speaker 1: will be three twenty two story buildings that will also

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Speaker 1: be part of the HQ two campus now. According to

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Speaker 1: a press release, the tower is meant to connect people

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Speaker 1: with nature and have a vertical forest arranged in a

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Speaker 1: couple of spiraling walkways that go from the base all

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Speaker 1: the way to the top of the tower. There will

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Speaker 1: be some public spaces incorporated, though not throughout the whole structure,

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Speaker 1: and Amazon plans to offer public tours of the building,

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Speaker 1: which will be called the Helix. Now. That sounds like

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Speaker 1: a setting in an Assassin's Creed game to me, but

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Speaker 1: Amazon says the inspiration for the design comes from the

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Speaker 1: helix shape found and everything from conk shells to DNA.

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Speaker 1: Inside the space will be a massive meeting area capable

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Speaker 1: of holding people, and there will be an artist in

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Speaker 1: residence program there. And spiraling around that exterior is that

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Speaker 1: green space allowing people to kind of stroll up a

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Speaker 1: wooded spiral walkway. Looks like it might be stairs all

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Speaker 1: the way up, so it might be a little rough

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Speaker 1: if you aren't like used to climbing a lot of steps,

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Speaker 1: and you can go all the way to the tippy top. Apparently,

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Speaker 1: my favorite description of the artist rendering for the helix

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Speaker 1: comes courtesy of Jacob Krastanaki's of The Verge, who calls

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Speaker 1: it a quote glass poop emoji covered in trees end quote. Also,

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Speaker 1: I should point out that as of this recording, this

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Speaker 1: whole thing is just a proposal for Amazon to move forward.

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Speaker 1: They will need to get clearance from Arlington City government

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Speaker 1: before they can break any ground on the structure. In

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Speaker 1: a previous news update, I talked about how workers at

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Speaker 1: an Amazon warehouse and Bessemer, Alabama, which I just want

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Speaker 1: to call Bessame, was that they were attempting to unionize

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Speaker 1: and if they manage that, they will be the first

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Speaker 1: of Amazon's US based warehouses to do it. The company

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Speaker 1: isn't exactly backing down from this development, however. The Seattle

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Speaker 1: Times reports that Amazon has funded a pr campaign against

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Speaker 1: the unionization efforts that employees are pursuing with the retail,

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Speaker 1: wholesale and department store union. According to the papers sources,

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Speaker 1: Amazon employees have been ordered to attend mandatory meetings in

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Speaker 1: which managers present quote anti union propaganda thinly veiled as

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Speaker 1: factual information end quote. These meetings are pretty small. There

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Speaker 1: are about fifteen employees per meeting and they last about

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Speaker 1: half an hour. While I'm sure the meetings aren't much fun,

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Speaker 1: I also imagine managers must have a pretty tough message

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Speaker 1: to sell. After all, if you work for a company

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Speaker 1: that makes one hundred billion dollars in just three months,

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Speaker 1: I figure you might start asking yourself questions like, Hey,

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Speaker 1: couldn't you afford better compensation and benefits for us? According

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Speaker 1: to the Seattle Times piece, Amazon hasn't had to worry

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Speaker 1: about unions a lot due to the fact that the

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Speaker 1: company pays a little bit better than most competing retail

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Speaker 1: and warehouse based jobs, and to the employee turnover is

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Speaker 1: so high that there aren't a lot of people who

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Speaker 1: are in a position for long enough for any real

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Speaker 1: momentum to build. But the pandemic really change things. Not

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Speaker 1: only did it spur on more consumer activity well a

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Speaker 1: lot more folks buying stuff online, and also more cloud

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Speaker 1: based activity, with more businesses having to move to the

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Speaker 1: cloud to conduct business, but it also brought to light

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Speaker 1: work conditions in these warehouses that included a higher risk

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Speaker 1: of spreading COVID nineteen. In addition, the black Lives Matter

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Speaker 1: movement has played a part. Many of the employees at

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Speaker 1: Amazon's Bessemer where house are black. Employees, will vote on

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Speaker 1: whether to unionize later this month. That voting process actually

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Speaker 1: extends all the way through March, and employees should expect

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Speaker 1: to see a lot more anti union rhetoric from Amazon

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Speaker 1: in the meantime. And we're not quite out of the

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Speaker 1: Amazon yet. The company will pay a settlement of sixty

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Speaker 1: one point seven million dollars over allegations brought against it

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Speaker 1: by the US Federal Trade Commission, or f TC. The

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Speaker 1: reason well, according to the FTC, Amazon didn't pay its

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Speaker 1: Flex delivery driver force the full amount of tips that

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Speaker 1: were received from customers. Flex drivers, by the way, our

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Speaker 1: delivery personnel who pick up shifts on demand to deliver

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Speaker 1: stuff like Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods orders, as well

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Speaker 1: as help with particularly heavy delivery days. And who boy,

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Speaker 1: this thing, I mean, it really makes my blood boil.

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Speaker 1: I'm in a position in which I can afford to

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Speaker 1: tip delivery personnel, and because I did penn upon them

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Speaker 1: so much, and because these workers are in a much

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Speaker 1: more risky position than I am, I feel like tipping

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Speaker 1: is away from me to support them and to thank

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Speaker 1: them for doing a tough and demanding job. So to

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Speaker 1: hear about companies pocketing money from tips from customers, money

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Speaker 1: that customers expect will go to the delivery employee, not

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Speaker 1: you know, the machine that is profiting from that employee's work, Well,

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Speaker 1: that just burns my biscuits, y'all. Now, granted, I'm talking

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Speaker 1: about kind of the situation that we're in right now,

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Speaker 1: but these allegations are actually from before the pandemic. In sixteen,

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Speaker 1: the FTC says that Amazon made a policy change. Drivers

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Speaker 1: had been earning between eighteen to twenty an hour plus tips.

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Speaker 1: Amazon pushed them to a lower hourly rate, and, according

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Speaker 1: to the FTC, quote intentionally failed end quote to tell

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Speaker 1: drivers about the change and then use the tips from

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Speaker 1: customers to pad out the difference between the new lower

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Speaker 1: hourly rate and the old higher hourly rate, the one

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Speaker 1: that people were promised. So, in other words, Amazon, according

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Speaker 1: to the FTC, was using tips to subsidize what had

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Speaker 1: been the promised hourly rate before they changed it, which

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Speaker 1: is pretty dang scummy. Amazon of course, disagrees with the

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Speaker 1: FDC's conclusions, stating that there was never any intentional miscommunication

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Speaker 1: and then the company added quote additional clarity in two

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Speaker 1: thousand nineteen end quote and just to be clear, while

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Speaker 1: I am dunking on Amazon right now. Other companies have

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Speaker 1: similarly used tips to subsidize worker wages in the past.

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Speaker 1: Door Dash did that up to two thousand nineteen, at

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Speaker 1: which point the CEO of the company said that door

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Speaker 1: Dash would stop doing that. Instacart also had a similar

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Speaker 1: approach until the company was called out on it. So

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Speaker 1: if you are someone who tips still have refolks, and

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Speaker 1: if you use delivery folks and you can afford to tip,

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Speaker 1: you probably should be doing that. It's good to also

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Speaker 1: do a bit of research on the various companies to

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Speaker 1: make sure that those tips are actually going to the

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Speaker 1: people who are doing the work, not subsidizing a company's payroll.

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Speaker 1: Let's move over to Google. For the first time, Google

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Speaker 1: revealed how much revenue it generated through its cloud services business.

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Speaker 1: The division brought in thirteen point oh six billion dollars

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty. However, it also reported an operating loss

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Speaker 1: of five point six one billion dollars, so it costs

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Speaker 1: more than they made that those losses don't indicate a

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Speaker 1: floundering business. Rather Google has been pouring a lot of

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Speaker 1: money into expanding its cloud services division, including hiring on

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Speaker 1: more sales personnel. As I mentioned earlier, cloud services are

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Speaker 1: a big business. I mean, they represent more than half

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Speaker 1: of Amazon's revenue for twenty twenty, and Google is pressure

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Speaker 1: to diversify as its chief source of revenue is through

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Speaker 1: online advertising. That's a sector that was hit very hard

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty as companies across various industries began to

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Speaker 1: scale back marketing efforts during the pandemic. I'm sure we'll

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Speaker 1: see a lot more about Google being a cloud services

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Speaker 1: company moving forward. And rounding out this first segment of

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Speaker 1: our news episode is the story of India issuing a

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Speaker 1: warning to Twitter. Now, the heart of the matter is

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Speaker 1: the issue of ongoing protests among farmers in India. That

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Speaker 1: whole political situation is incredibly complicated, and I am no

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Speaker 1: expert on Indian politics or agricultural policies, but basically, if

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Speaker 1: I'm interpreting it correctly, I believe the main concern is

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Speaker 1: that a trio of farm acts that were passed by

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Speaker 1: the Indian government in September twenty twenty might set the

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Speaker 1: stage for big corporations to dominate the farming into street

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Speaker 1: in India and muscle out all the independent farmers. That

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Speaker 1: appears to be the interpretation now. While the majority Indian

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Speaker 1: government has kind of dismissed such concerns, calling this misinformation

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Speaker 1: or a misunderstanding, members of the opposition have voiced concerns

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Speaker 1: and farmers in India have organized some pretty massive and

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Speaker 1: sometimes violent protests. Part of the government's response to the

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Speaker 1: protests has been to pressure Twitter to block high profile

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Speaker 1: accounts in India that support the protests, as well as

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Speaker 1: you know, restrict certain hashtags that allow people to easily

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Speaker 1: share online ideas about protests. Initially, Twitter did block requested profiles,

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Speaker 1: but then a few hours later they lifted the ban,

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Speaker 1: and the Indian government says that Twitter is acting like

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Speaker 1: some sort of social arbiter that's acting like it's above

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Speaker 1: the law, and so India is threatening legal action against Twitter.

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Speaker 1: Some internet advocacy groups are pushing back against the Indian government,

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Speaker 1: such as Rahman Chimah, who works for the advocacy group

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Speaker 1: Access Now. Chima says that the Indian government needs to

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Speaker 1: explain how their actions against Twitter are not a violation

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Speaker 1: of India's own constitution. This is a very big story

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Speaker 1: that is very much still playing out right now, and

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Speaker 1: I'm sure I will be following up on this again

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Speaker 1: in the future. Well, that wraps up our first round

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Speaker 1: of news. When we come back, we'll talk a little

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Speaker 1: bit about some other stuff, including an update on the

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Speaker 1: good old solar Winds hack. But first let's take a

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Speaker 1: quick break. We're back, and as I said before the break,

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Speaker 1: we're going to start this segment with some updates on

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Speaker 1: the solar wind hack. Now, as a quick refresher, solar

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Speaker 1: wind is a software vendor that makes products for big

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Speaker 1: companies and government agencies. The software is mostly geared around

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Speaker 1: stuff like I T resource management, monitoring network systems. Hackers,

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Speaker 1: likely backed by Russia, compromised a software product called Orion

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Speaker 1: and inserted some malware that allowed the hackers to get

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Speaker 1: access to compromise systems, that is, you know, the customers

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Speaker 1: using Orian software. So when solar Winds pushed out updates

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Speaker 1: to Orion and customers installed those updates, the malware essentially

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Speaker 1: went along for the ride. Now we've heard that security

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Speaker 1: analysts have identified three previously undisclosed vulnerabilities in solar Winds products.

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Speaker 1: Two of those are also in Orion and one is

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Speaker 1: in a separate piece of software. These vulnerabilities could allow

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Speaker 1: hackers to get access to secured credentials in networks or worse,

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Speaker 1: and Solar Winds has already addressed the vulnerabilities. They have

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Speaker 1: patched them out, and they've issued a patch. They've sent

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Speaker 1: it out, which means that analysts are suggesting that network

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Speaker 1: administrators install these patch is right away. Of course, this

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Speaker 1: gets to the really insidious nature of the supply chain hack,

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Speaker 1: as Shannon Morrise pointed out when she was on the

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Speaker 1: show earlier this week, because you're you're talking about an

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Speaker 1: attack that takes advantage of a trusted partner that ends

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Speaker 1: up undermining the trust. So now the analysts are saying, hey,

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Speaker 1: you know that thing you did that burns you, well,

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Speaker 1: you kind of want to do it again because this

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Speaker 1: will solve some problems. But you know a lot of

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Speaker 1: people have been burned already. It's a scary thing. In

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Speaker 1: the USA USA section of our news, Bloomberg reports that

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Speaker 1: the United States has dropped off the top ten list

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Speaker 1: of the Bloomberg Innovation Index, which quote analyzes dozens of

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Speaker 1: criteria using seven equally weighted metrics, including research and development, spending,

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Speaker 1: manufacturing capability, and concentration of high tech public companies end quote.

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Speaker 1: South Korea is at the top of the list, taking

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Speaker 1: the title away from Germany, which has fallen to fourth place.

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Speaker 1: In places two and three, you've got Singapore in Switzerland respectively. Now, granted,

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Speaker 1: this is one index. This is one way of looking

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Speaker 1: at innovation, and it's from one media outlet. So depending

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Speaker 1: upon your point of view, you either think, yeah, this

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Speaker 1: is right on the money, or you might think this

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Speaker 1: is a load of ludicrous, meaningless analysis. Somewhere in that

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Speaker 1: is the truth, and I can't tell you where it is.

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Speaker 1: I'm just reporting it. So before anyone writes to me,

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Speaker 1: just remember I'm the messenger here. But another news Bibo

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Speaker 1: is coming back in some form. Do you remember Bibo?

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Speaker 1: You might not. Uh. It was really popular in the

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Speaker 1: UK and in a few other places. It came out

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Speaker 1: of the United States, but it didn't get a whole

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Speaker 1: lot of traction here compared to some other places. Bibo

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Speaker 1: was a social network site founded by a husband and

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Speaker 1: wife team of Michael and show Chee Birch in two

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Speaker 1: thousand five in San Francisco, California, and it had the

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Speaker 1: motto blog early blog often you know Bibo. The profiles

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Speaker 1: were kind of modular in nature. You had a module

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Speaker 1: where you could add friends. You had one that would

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Speaker 1: let you receive and send messages with those friends. But

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Speaker 1: you can also switch things up. You could put in

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Speaker 1: modules to include photos or videos and other stuff. It

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Speaker 1: was like a more customizable Facebook or MySpace page. Bibo

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Speaker 1: also allowed users to link their social accounts from other

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Speaker 1: services to Bibo, so that Bibo would become a type

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Speaker 1: of aggregator. So if Bibo were around today in that form,

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Speaker 1: imagine that instead of having to find out what your

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Speaker 1: buddy Susan is doing on Instagram and then over on

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Speaker 1: Twitter and so on, you would just go to Susan's

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Speaker 1: Bibo page. Then you could see all of her activities

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Speaker 1: aggregated there, assuming that Susan had set up a profile

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Speaker 1: that way, of course. And it was a pretty nifty

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Speaker 1: little site, but a O L must have thought it

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Speaker 1: was super duper nifty, as a O L shelled out

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Speaker 1: eight hundred fifty million dollars to acquire it in two

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Speaker 1: thousand eight. This, by the way, has often been cited

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Speaker 1: as one of the worst acquisitions of all time, not

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Speaker 1: because Bibo wasn't good, but because A o L didn't

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Speaker 1: really have any idea of what to do with it

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Speaker 1: and they spent way too much money on it. The

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Speaker 1: CEO who was responsible for that decision wasn't around for

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Speaker 1: very long, and the Bibo acquisition is one of the

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Speaker 1: reasons for their hasty departure. But A O L would

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Speaker 1: unload Bibo in for ten million dollars, which really doesn't

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Speaker 1: make that hundred fifty million dollar acquisition look pretty dumb

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Speaker 1: in you know, retrospect. But a couple of years after that,

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Speaker 1: the company that bought Bibo from A O L itself

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Speaker 1: had to file for bankruptcy, and that husband and wife

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Speaker 1: team who started at all were able to acquire Bibo

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Speaker 1: for one million dollars, so they sold it for fifty million.

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Speaker 1: They bought it back for one million. Talk about a

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Speaker 1: short sell. That's amazing. Now, they tried to switch things

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Speaker 1: up again. They changed it into more of an e

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Speaker 1: sports streaming service. But then Amazon comes along, and Amazon

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Speaker 1: owns Twitch, and Amazon says, hey, we want that technology,

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Speaker 1: so they purchased the tech of Bibo for twenty five

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Speaker 1: million dollars. So now you've got this husband and wife

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Speaker 1: team who were able to sell at least the technology

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Speaker 1: of their company for a big profit twice well. While

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Speaker 1: the tech went to Amazon, the couple retained the rights

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Speaker 1: to the name Bibo, and now we know that Bibo

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Speaker 1: is on the way back. Michael Burch says it will

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Speaker 1: be a live social networking tool which will tell you

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Speaker 1: which of your friends are currently online and allow for

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Speaker 1: more real time interactions between people, as opposed to the

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Speaker 1: more asynchronous approach of things like Facebook. Michael Birch has

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Speaker 1: said he's the only one coding the project right now,

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Speaker 1: which is both cool and bonkers. He hopes to start

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Speaker 1: sending out invites to a select group of people to

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Speaker 1: test it out by the end of the month, with

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Speaker 1: a full launch that would follow later in if things

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Speaker 1: are going well. So can Bibo make it in a

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Speaker 1: world dominated by Facebook? Or is it just doomed to

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Speaker 1: be a curiosity? I really hope it can make it,

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Speaker 1: assuming Birch is able to do some really important stuff

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Speaker 1: like make sure he can protect user data and all

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Speaker 1: that kind of thing. But who knows, maybe he'll get

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Speaker 1: a chance to sell Bibo for a third time. Our

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Speaker 1: next story is about gravitational wave detectors. Now gravity is

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Speaker 1: one of the four fundamental forces of our universe, the

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Speaker 1: four that we know about anyway, the other three being

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Speaker 1: the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, and the

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Speaker 1: electromagnetic force. The force of gravity is the attraction between

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Speaker 1: two objects that have mass or energy. The magnitude of

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Speaker 1: that attractive force depends upon the relative mass and proximity

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Speaker 1: of the two objects. The bigger they are and the

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Speaker 1: closer they are together, the stronger the attraction of gravity

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Speaker 1: is between them, and it is the weakest of the

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Speaker 1: fundamental forces. There are gravitational waves moving through the universe

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Speaker 1: all the time, but detecting them on Earth is hard

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Speaker 1: because they are very weak, and we're talking about waves

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Speaker 1: that measure about Adam's nucleus in amplitude, So measuring that

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Speaker 1: is hard, and it falls into a realm of quantum

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Speaker 1: physics that gets real whibbly wobbly. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle plays

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Speaker 1: a role. I think I'm not really sure that was

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Speaker 1: an uncertainty joke. It it actually does play a part.

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Speaker 1: So the uncertainty principle tells us that for certain sets

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Speaker 1: of measurements, we can't know everything. For example, the classic

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Speaker 1: one is a particle's momentum and its position. The more

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Speaker 1: we know about one of those, the less we can

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Speaker 1: know about the other. So the more we know about

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Speaker 1: its position, the less we know about its momentum, and

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Speaker 1: vice versa. Now, because of this fundamental quantum effect that

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Speaker 1: I frankly do not really understand, there is a sort

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Speaker 1: of background noise that gravitational waves can get lost in.

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Speaker 1: So it's only when a wave has enough oo finite

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Speaker 1: that we can differentiate the wave from sort of background

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Speaker 1: quantum static. But physicists now say they've developed a method

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Speaker 1: that is six times more sensitive to gravitational waves while

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Speaker 1: still obeying the uncertainty principle. The method sacrifices the measure

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Speaker 1: of brightness of lasers in order to get a more

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Speaker 1: precise measurement than the researchers say, Well, the brightness of

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Speaker 1: the lasers is kind of not important to us at all,

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Speaker 1: so it's okay for us to sacrifice that. Now, I'm

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Speaker 1: going to be straight with you, All of this goes

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Speaker 1: way over my head. I just love that scientists can

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Speaker 1: look at fundamental limitations of our universe, you know, stuff

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Speaker 1: you cannot escape, and they figure out to do of

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Speaker 1: an approach that works within those limitations, which is really cool,

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Speaker 1: and all of this will be put to use so

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Speaker 1: that extremely smart people can learn more about how our

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Speaker 1: universe works. And I can't wait to learn more myself,

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Speaker 1: probably learning that I am incapable of understanding anything, but

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Speaker 1: I can tell it's really neat And moving from the

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Speaker 1: cosmological to the extremely terrestrial, TikTok announced that it has

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Speaker 1: a new warning message to put in front of videos

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Speaker 1: that could contain misinformation. Now, obviously, misinformation has been a

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Speaker 1: big topic of discussion recently, from the U S Election

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Speaker 1: to the pandemic. We've seen people make use of online

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Speaker 1: platforms to spread lies and misleading information that can have

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Speaker 1: devastating consequences. And likewise, we've seen companies like Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Google react to this in different ways and at

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Speaker 1: different speeds. They haven't necessarily been quick to action. Now,

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Speaker 1: TikTok will include a warning message saying caution video flagged

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Speaker 1: for unverified content. These are for videos that contain information

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Speaker 1: that has not been verified by fact checkers who work

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Speaker 1: for TikTok. So if a fact checker watches a video

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Speaker 1: that contains information and that fact checker is not able

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Speaker 1: to verify the information, they can flag it and this

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Speaker 1: warning will appear before that video. Now, what we don't

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Speaker 1: know is how many people TikTok employees to be fact checkers,

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Speaker 1: or how many videos they look at in an average day,

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Speaker 1: or what percentage uh those videos represent if you compare

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Speaker 1: it against all videos uploaded to TikTok. I mean, my

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Speaker 1: guess is that they're going to be focusing on videos

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Speaker 1: that have tags that are part of sensitive topics. You know,

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Speaker 1: like if there's a tag that indicates it something about

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Speaker 1: an election or or COVID or something like that, that

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Speaker 1: that's going to be the video that gets tagged in

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Speaker 1: order for a fact checker to watch it. Because when

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Speaker 1: your app has more than eight hundred million users, you

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Speaker 1: just can't keep up with everything. Besides, most of the

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Speaker 1: stuff on TikTok doesn't really merit fact checking. You don't

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Speaker 1: really need to watch the video to see if someone's

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Speaker 1: doing that flossing dance properly or any of the other

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Speaker 1: you know, seven dances that are done on TikTok. I

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Speaker 1: I don't have TikTok. I'm throwing a lot of shade

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Speaker 1: for an old man. I'm just yelling at clouds here.

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Speaker 1: I apologize However, one thing I hope the fact checkers

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Speaker 1: can determine is exactly when the weller men will come

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Speaker 1: to bring us sugar and tea and rum, because I've

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Speaker 1: been waiting and that guy has not shown up. And

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Speaker 1: before we go to another break, I've got an update

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Speaker 1: on the ongoing battle between Epic Games and Apple. Now,

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Speaker 1: in case you didn't know, Epic Games makes, among other things,

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Speaker 1: the game Fortnite, which I kind of just referenced, and

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Speaker 1: Fortnite used to be available on iOS platforms like the

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Speaker 1: iPhone and iPad, and it's also available on tons of

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00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:06,640
Speaker 1: other platforms. But Epic was not really happy with Apple's

434
00:27:06,680 --> 00:27:10,639
Speaker 1: policy of taking a thirty cut off of all in

435
00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:14,160
Speaker 1: app purchases made on apps that are on the the

436
00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:18,359
Speaker 1: Apple products the Apple platforms. When I say all in

437
00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 1: app purchases, that's with an asterisk because it actually depends

438
00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:25,480
Speaker 1: upon the nature of the purchase. But if it's an

439
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:28,280
Speaker 1: in app purchase for something that makes a change to

440
00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:31,400
Speaker 1: the app itself, like a cosmetic change or anything like that,

441
00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:36,240
Speaker 1: Apple gets cut. Well. Epic wasn't too keen on the

442
00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:40,880
Speaker 1: idea of Apple taking money from Epics sales. They didn't

443
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:44,320
Speaker 1: know how they could you know, get the full amount

444
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:48,280
Speaker 1: of those purchases. And they weren't really keen on the

445
00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:52,240
Speaker 1: idea either of hiking purchases hiking the price up for

446
00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:55,160
Speaker 1: iPhone users because they figured that would be a loss

447
00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:57,160
Speaker 1: in revenue. So they found kind of a cheeky work

448
00:27:57,200 --> 00:28:00,480
Speaker 1: around and they allowed users to buy in app purchases,

449
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:03,800
Speaker 1: but they were able to do it outside the app itself,

450
00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:09,040
Speaker 1: thus sidestepping Apple, and Apple said dirty pool old man

451
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:12,200
Speaker 1: and kicked Fortnite off the app store, and they moved

452
00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:15,320
Speaker 1: to do more than that, including preventing Epic from doing

453
00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:19,400
Speaker 1: any other work within iOS, which was bad news not

454
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:23,400
Speaker 1: just for Epic but many other game developers because one

455
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:27,080
Speaker 1: of the other things that Epic overseas is the Unreal Engine,

456
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:29,840
Speaker 1: which is a game engine used by lots of different

457
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:33,399
Speaker 1: game companies to build their games within Now, with the

458
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:36,000
Speaker 1: ban in place, Epic wouldn't be able to update the

459
00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:38,920
Speaker 1: iOS version of Unreal, and there would be a big

460
00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:42,120
Speaker 1: ripple effect. Any game that relied on Unreal would be

461
00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 1: affected anyway. What followed were various lawsuits and the latest

462
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:50,320
Speaker 1: development is that a judge has ordered that Apple CEO

463
00:28:50,560 --> 00:28:54,920
Speaker 1: Tim Cook has to attend a seven hour deposition related

464
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:59,720
Speaker 1: to epics case against Apple. Now, in Apple's favor is

465
00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:02,720
Speaker 1: the act that the company has an established policy that

466
00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:06,000
Speaker 1: developers agreed to if they want to make products for

467
00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:10,640
Speaker 1: Apple platforms. But Apple is also one of the US

468
00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:15,640
Speaker 1: companies frequently scrutinized for anti competitive practices, and Epic might

469
00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:17,880
Speaker 1: try to make the case that because Apple does not

470
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:21,440
Speaker 1: allow users to download apps anywhere other than on the

471
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:25,760
Speaker 1: official app store, they're running what is essentially a monopoly

472
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:29,920
Speaker 1: because you can't go outside Apple to get an app

473
00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:34,240
Speaker 1: to run on your iOS device. So the deposition gives

474
00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:36,880
Speaker 1: EPICS legal team the chance to kind of fish around

475
00:29:36,880 --> 00:29:39,080
Speaker 1: a bit to see if they can find any pathway

476
00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:43,240
Speaker 1: that would be likely to illegal victory. This is still

477
00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:45,880
Speaker 1: a pretty early step in the whole litigation process, and

478
00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:49,200
Speaker 1: we've got a long way to go, So before we

479
00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:52,960
Speaker 1: try and go down that path, let's take another quick

480
00:29:53,080 --> 00:30:03,720
Speaker 1: break and we're back. You know, when I was looking

481
00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:06,719
Speaker 1: at news items to include in today's episode, one that

482
00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 1: caught my eye was from Science Daily and it had

483
00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 1: the headline quote load reducing backpack powers electronics by harvesting

484
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:18,480
Speaker 1: energy from walking end quote, which is neat and it

485
00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:21,360
Speaker 1: really is neat. I'm not throwing shade on this. I

486
00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:25,040
Speaker 1: think it's really cool. I mean the design reduces the

487
00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:27,600
Speaker 1: amount of strain a person will feel while carrying a

488
00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:31,400
Speaker 1: packed backpack, and it has the ability to send some

489
00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:34,000
Speaker 1: power to various bits of electronic gear. It could be

490
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:39,280
Speaker 1: really useful for everyone from hikers to soldiers. So how

491
00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:43,160
Speaker 1: does it manage this? Well, first, let's consider the load

492
00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:47,080
Speaker 1: bearing part. So imagine that the part of the backpack

493
00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:51,960
Speaker 1: that's actually against your back is more like a track,

494
00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:55,360
Speaker 1: kind of like a rail track, and the backpack itself

495
00:30:55,920 --> 00:30:58,240
Speaker 1: is able to move up and down a little bit

496
00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:01,840
Speaker 1: on this track. So the container part of the backpack

497
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:05,440
Speaker 1: is sort of like a train on a rail system,

498
00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:09,000
Speaker 1: and it's held in place with elastic like connectors, so

499
00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:12,400
Speaker 1: they act like shock absorbers. So the backpack can move

500
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:16,280
Speaker 1: up and down against this track, but it's very gentle

501
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:18,480
Speaker 1: in the way it moves, and it's sort of like

502
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:21,880
Speaker 1: a steadicam where if you've ever used a steadicam or

503
00:31:21,920 --> 00:31:25,200
Speaker 1: seen one used, you can move around and the camera

504
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:28,520
Speaker 1: is able to maintain its relative position over a fixed point.

505
00:31:29,200 --> 00:31:32,440
Speaker 1: The system reduces the amount of strain the where would feel,

506
00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:35,800
Speaker 1: and according to the researchers, it makes loads feel about

507
00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:40,479
Speaker 1: twenty lighter than what they really are. Now. As for

508
00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:46,040
Speaker 1: the energy harvesting part, that comes courtesy of triboelectric nanogenerators

509
00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:50,640
Speaker 1: or t e n G devices. Now, essentially these change

510
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:55,160
Speaker 1: kinetic energy into electrical energy, which isn't that unusual. I mean,

511
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:59,960
Speaker 1: think of something like a dynamo which mechanically rotates magnets

512
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:03,640
Speaker 1: to induce current to flow through a conductor. The researchers

513
00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:07,920
Speaker 1: include Jeong Lin, Wong Ching and others, and they've been

514
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:11,240
Speaker 1: working on this for a while. They've got a working prototype,

515
00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:13,880
Speaker 1: but there's no telling if we will ever see a

516
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:18,720
Speaker 1: consumer product using this technology. However, it's still really interesting stuff.

517
00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:22,160
Speaker 1: One news item I missed out in Tuesday's episode is

518
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:24,640
Speaker 1: that Iron Man is trying to save the world again.

519
00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:27,280
Speaker 1: That's a really dumb way for me to say that.

520
00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:30,280
Speaker 1: Robert Downey Jr. Who you know isn't Iron Man but

521
00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:34,480
Speaker 1: who is one cool dude, launched a venture fund with

522
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:39,120
Speaker 1: the intent to provide investments into sustainability startup companies. Now,

523
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:43,080
Speaker 1: this is an extension of the Footprint Coalition that Robert

524
00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:46,160
Speaker 1: Downey Jr. Launched a couple of years ago, and it's

525
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:50,160
Speaker 1: classified as a rolling fund, which was a new term

526
00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:53,400
Speaker 1: to me, but it's actually pretty simple to understand. These

527
00:32:53,440 --> 00:32:57,080
Speaker 1: funds raise money on a quarterly basis and they invest

528
00:32:57,160 --> 00:32:59,280
Speaker 1: it as they go, which is why they are called

529
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:02,600
Speaker 1: rolling funds. This one will allow for up to two

530
00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:05,960
Speaker 1: thousand investors at a commitment of five thousand dollars per quarter.

531
00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:09,800
Speaker 1: Now a twenty grand commitment for a year is still

532
00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:13,080
Speaker 1: a huge deal, but it's a much lower threshold than

533
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:16,400
Speaker 1: most investment organizations which are working in the hundreds of

534
00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:20,320
Speaker 1: thousands or millions of dollars. Our DJ has said that

535
00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:23,920
Speaker 1: it opens up the fund to quote real people end

536
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 1: quote and that and this is my favorite quote. It's

537
00:33:27,120 --> 00:33:30,160
Speaker 1: a little bit more slam Dance than sun Dance. I

538
00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:32,760
Speaker 1: kind of dig it. The plan is for the fund

539
00:33:32,800 --> 00:33:35,840
Speaker 1: to invest in ten companies, with six of those companies

540
00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:39,120
Speaker 1: being in early stages of startup and the other four

541
00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:42,840
Speaker 1: in later stages of startup, and woven with the investments

542
00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:46,640
Speaker 1: will be a sort of narrative building element, a media

543
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:49,840
Speaker 1: savvy element there really aims to bring more attention to

544
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:53,240
Speaker 1: sustainability and ways that people can participate to make it

545
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:57,120
Speaker 1: a collaborative effort. Which sounds pretty neat. I like this

546
00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:00,600
Speaker 1: idea of bringing the power to the people. I think

547
00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:05,840
Speaker 1: that's cool. Next up, Gearbox Software, known for games like

548
00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:09,960
Speaker 1: the Borderlands franchise, has a new owner. The Embracer Group,

549
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:13,440
Speaker 1: which owns several other game companies like th HQ. Nordic

550
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:18,240
Speaker 1: has acquired Gearbox for the princely sum of one point

551
00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:22,120
Speaker 1: three billion dollars. Actually it's more like one point three

552
00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:26,000
Speaker 1: seven eight billions, almost one point four now. According to

553
00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:31,120
Speaker 1: Gearbox Software founder and CEO Randy Pitchford, who I think

554
00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:35,120
Speaker 1: it's safe to say is a controversial figure, operations won't

555
00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:38,839
Speaker 1: really change at the company of Gearbox. There are still

556
00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:42,799
Speaker 1: plans on further Borderlands games being developed in partnership would

557
00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:45,680
Speaker 1: take two take two as a company that publishes the

558
00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:50,359
Speaker 1: Borderlands games that Gearbox develops. So now Borderlands and other

559
00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:54,200
Speaker 1: games like Duke Nukem and Homeland will join stuff that

560
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:58,000
Speaker 1: Embracer already owns, like the Saints Row franchise, or Dead

561
00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:02,080
Speaker 1: Island or Time Splitters even and Pitchford says that this

562
00:35:02,160 --> 00:35:04,719
Speaker 1: really means that Gearbox will be able to expand and

563
00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:07,680
Speaker 1: hire more talent and develop new games on top of

564
00:35:07,719 --> 00:35:13,600
Speaker 1: continuing popular franchises. The Global Wealth company Morgan Stanley published

565
00:35:13,640 --> 00:35:16,040
Speaker 1: a report that says the United States is likely to

566
00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:21,360
Speaker 1: move away from coal fired power plants by twenty thirty three,

567
00:35:21,600 --> 00:35:25,760
Speaker 1: with most power generation coming from renewable energy sources instead

568
00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:29,160
Speaker 1: of coal. Among those sources, wind would make up the

569
00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:32,080
Speaker 1: largest percentage. Morgan Stanley predicts it will get up to

570
00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:36,000
Speaker 1: as much as of all power sources for the US

571
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:39,840
Speaker 1: by But for all that to work, we're going to

572
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:43,080
Speaker 1: need to see a lot of faster growth in wind

573
00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:47,120
Speaker 1: and solar power infrastructures. And we can't forget the challenge

574
00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:50,560
Speaker 1: of job creation. We need to offset the job losses

575
00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:54,920
Speaker 1: from mining operations, for example, so those jobs will exist,

576
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:58,600
Speaker 1: but we'll also need to invest in training and opportunities

577
00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:00,840
Speaker 1: to make sure people aren't left him That's one of

578
00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:06,799
Speaker 1: the biggest concerns about moving away from fossil fuels. I mean, yes,

579
00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:10,560
Speaker 1: you've got the fossil fuel companies that lobby like crazy

580
00:36:10,600 --> 00:36:12,680
Speaker 1: and pour a lot of money into politics in order

581
00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:16,399
Speaker 1: to try and shape policy. But you also have very

582
00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:21,000
Speaker 1: real people who have jobs in those industries, and unless

583
00:36:21,040 --> 00:36:25,440
Speaker 1: we give them a way to segue into a new career,

584
00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:29,919
Speaker 1: they get left behind and that is. That's a tough

585
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:34,319
Speaker 1: thing to really wrap your head around. And finally, in

586
00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:38,520
Speaker 1: the rumors that just will not die department, we've got

587
00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:42,680
Speaker 1: Apple cars, and I think the two things people predict

588
00:36:42,719 --> 00:36:46,200
Speaker 1: Apple will eventually get around to making will be a

589
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:49,640
Speaker 1: car and a television. And as it stands, Apple has

590
00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:53,799
Speaker 1: partnered with other companies to incorporate some Apple technology into

591
00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:58,400
Speaker 1: stuff like car infotainment systems, but we haven't actually seen

592
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:03,120
Speaker 1: a real, honest to goodness Apple mobile yet. Well. A

593
00:37:03,160 --> 00:37:06,400
Speaker 1: recent report states that Apple is investing around three point

594
00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:11,120
Speaker 1: six billion dollars in Kia Motors as quote part of

595
00:37:11,160 --> 00:37:16,000
Speaker 1: a planned manufacturing partnership between the two companies end quote. Now,

596
00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:19,120
Speaker 1: that could mean that Apple might rely on Kia's manufacturing

597
00:37:19,120 --> 00:37:22,000
Speaker 1: facility here in Georgia to build what I can only

598
00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:25,839
Speaker 1: assume will eventually be called the I Car. Even if

599
00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:28,719
Speaker 1: all of this is on track and we are going

600
00:37:28,760 --> 00:37:31,759
Speaker 1: to get an Apple branded car, we're gonna have to

601
00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:33,759
Speaker 1: wait a few years to see a car roll off

602
00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:38,040
Speaker 1: the production line. So don't you know, hold your breath

603
00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:42,239
Speaker 1: for it. We're talking probably at the earliest my guests

604
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:47,839
Speaker 1: would be probably closer to but it would be kind

605
00:37:47,880 --> 00:37:50,560
Speaker 1: of interesting for Tim Cook to be on a stage

606
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:52,680
Speaker 1: at a keynote and say one more thing and then

607
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:55,080
Speaker 1: you see the Apple car and then he gets it

608
00:37:55,120 --> 00:37:57,839
Speaker 1: and drives off. That would be a pretty cool mic

609
00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:02,080
Speaker 1: drop moment. And that set for this episode of tech

610
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:05,719
Speaker 1: Stuff and the news of the week. Make sure you

611
00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:08,400
Speaker 1: check out our other episodes of tech Stuff because I

612
00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:12,400
Speaker 1: do episodes on Mondays and Wednesdays where I cover specific

613
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:15,080
Speaker 1: topics in depth, and then on Friday's we get to

614
00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:18,640
Speaker 1: listen to a classic episode from the archives. I've got

615
00:38:18,640 --> 00:38:21,920
Speaker 1: more than episodes. Chances are you have not heard all

616
00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:24,759
Speaker 1: of them, and most of them are worth listening to.

617
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:27,759
Speaker 1: I admit in a couple of them my puns get

618
00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:30,840
Speaker 1: out of hand. If you have any suggestions for future

619
00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:33,879
Speaker 1: topics I should cover in episodes of tech Stuff, let

620
00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:36,080
Speaker 1: me know. The best way to reach me is over

621
00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:38,800
Speaker 1: on Twitter. The handle for the show is text Stuff

622
00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:43,319
Speaker 1: H S W and I'll talk to you again really soon.

623
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:51,359
Speaker 1: Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. For more

624
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:54,840
Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,

625
00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:58,120
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

626
00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:00,600
Speaker 1: Eight