WEBVTT - Tech News: Corporations, Crime and Cryptocurrency 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.920 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.360 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio and 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.160 I love all things tech. And this is the tech 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:25.919 news for Thursday, June tenth, two thousand twenty one. Let's 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:30.520 get to it first. Some background. In two thousand nine, 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:34.479 some hackers were able to access databases that were hosting 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:38.880 a social app called rock You, and they got away 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:42.400 with more than thirty million user passwords, which was considered 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:45.960 to be a lot. And those passwords, by the way, 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.279 we're in plain text. In other words, they were unencrypted. 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:52.760 So once the hackers got them, they had, you know, 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:55.800 passwords that were as valid for as long as people 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:59.800 you know failed to change them. Well, now, where it 0:00:59.880 --> 0:01:03.560 is out that a data breach could mean anywhere from 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:06.760 eight point four billion to potentially as many as eighty 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:12.960 two billion passwords have been leaked billion. Now eight point 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:20.200 four billion unique users or unique logins were identified of 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:25.400 this batch, so that's already bad. But multiple passwords belonging 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:27.960 to the same logan could be in that group. So 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:31.000 that's why the eight two billion is on the upper level. 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:35.480 So people are calling it rock You twenty twenty one 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:38.280 in reference to that you know data breach from two 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:41.920 thousand nine. I would like to suggest an alternative, rock 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:45.679 you like a hurricane. But what's actually going on here? 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:51.240 That's a good question. Someone, some hacker has posted a 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:56.520 text file that is one hundred gigabytes in size. That 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:00.200 is huge for a text file, and they've post did 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:04.880 it on various hacker forums. This text file contains billions 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:09.639 of user names and passwords for various sites and services. 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:13.480 All the passwords are between six and twenty characters long. 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:17.360 There's no telling how many of those passwords are currently 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.239 valid versus inactive. In fact, I would not be surprised 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.079 if a lot of those log ins were for services 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.760 that don't even really exist anymore. But generally speaking, it's 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:29.320 a good idea to check to see if you were 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:32.360 potentially affected. One way you can do that is to 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:37.120 search your email address against tools like have I Been Pooned? 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:41.080 But another is to use a password vault program because 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:44.200 a lot of those will monitor news about data breaches 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:48.120 and they will proactively reach out to users and prompt 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:51.800 them to change their passwords at various sites and services. 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.160 It's also by the way, a very good idea to 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:59.480 activate two factor authentication for those services that allow for that. 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.680 If it allows for it, you should probably do it. 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:05.639 These sorts of data breaches are the kind that are 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:09.160 outside of our control as users, so we kind of 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:11.000 have to take steps to protect ourselves. We also have 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.040 to remember every time there's a big data breach like this, 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.880 then those passwords, even if they're not active, even if 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:22.639 they aren't currently associated with those accounts, they go into 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:29.160 an ever increasingly huge dictionary of existing passwords. So if 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:31.680 you're the type of person who creates a password and 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:35.440 then over time cycles back to that password, let's say 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:39.400 that you know you alternate between a few uh, that 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.600 means that if you're part of this breach, then even 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.320 a password you're not using right now but could use 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:48.880 in the future, that could mean that you leave yourself vulnerable. 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:52.240 So again, always a good idea to get like a 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:57.680 password vault program. There's some that will generate very tough 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:00.280 passwords on your behalf and store them for are you 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.280 and you don't have to keep track of all that. Uh, 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:05.560 it is a little bit more of a hassle, I mean, 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:09.240 obviously more than a hassle than just using the single 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:13.480 password for everything. But obviously that is not safe and 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:17.880 it means that everywhere you go you're potentially vulnerable. So 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:21.479 I recommend getting a password vault and using it. There 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:23.840 are a lot of good ones out there, uh so 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:27.680 I recommend researching those and choose one that fits your needs. 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:32.080 And speaking of hackers, the video game developer and publisher 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:36.559 Electronic Arts or e A, got hacked, and I feel 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:38.440 like a lot of people outside of the A don't 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:40.960 have a whole lot of sympathy for the company. But 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:44.960 that's more because there are people with very strong negative 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:48.159 opinions about e A. I think it is a shame. 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.320 I don't like it when any company gets hacked. And apparently, 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.200 in this case, the hackers were able to access some 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:57.880 of e a's internal systems and they gained access to 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:01.040 the source code for certain game as well as access 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:04.800 to other internal tools. Now, according to e A, no 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:09.040 user data was compromised as a result of this breach, 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:12.600 so in theory at least users were not affected by this. 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:15.520 The company also says it's are A taking steps to 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:18.840 address the issue by changing things up so that the 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:21.880 source code that the hackers access would be useless. In 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.200 other words, that they wouldn't be able to exploit e 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:29.279 A titles because e A is going to change those 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:33.040 titles significantly enough where that source code will be you know, 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.640 a moot thing. Now, unless the source code was for 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:39.080 some pretty minor stuff, I imagine that last bit is 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.880 going to be really challenging to pull off. It's not 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:44.839 as easy as just waving your hand at it. The 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:48.320 hackers claim to have stolen around seven hundred eighty gigabytes 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.400 of data, though so far the hackers have largely just 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:54.880 alluded to what they've stolen. They've shown some screenshots and stuff, 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:58.560 but they haven't actually shared the information itself. They are 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:02.000 advertising the data is being up for sale on various 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:07.960 black market forums, so there's some crime right there. El 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:12.520 Salvador recently announced that the country may soon accept bitcoin 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:16.360 as legal tender and consider it parallel to the Salvadoran dollar, 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:19.080 and in the sense that you know, this would be 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.800 an accepted currency that you could use bitcoin anywhere within 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:26.279 El Salvador and it would be accepted just as the 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:30.440 actual currency of the country would. And the government of 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.520 El Salvador says that this will aid people who are 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.440 from El Salvador but who are living abroad to be 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:40.599 able to send remittances back home. That it will remove 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:43.960 some of the barriers that would exist otherwise when they 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:46.680 want to transfer funds back to people in El Salvador. 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.640 But the International Monetary Fund has expressed concern for this move, 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:55.200 stating that cryptocurrencies in general and bitcoin in particular, represents 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.800 some legal and economic concerns that have yet to be addressed. Uh, 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:01.080 they didn't go into a whole lot of detail on that. 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:03.680 I'm sure there's a lot of different things that we 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:09.040 could easily point to, like the fact that cryptocurrencies frequently 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:13.880 get used in concert with illicit activities, not not exclusively, 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:19.320 but it does have that association unfortunately. And also taxation 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:22.800 becomes an issue, and that brings us to here in 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:26.280 the United States, where the Internal Revenue Service where i 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:31.240 r S, is seeking authority from Congress to oversea operations 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:35.440 that relate to cryptocurrencies. So as it stands, there is 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:38.560 no clear law that gives the i r S authority 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:42.640 to do stuff like collect taxes on gains that are 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:47.360 generated through cryptocurrency transactions. Um and Further, the i r 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.080 S lacks the legal foundation to go after instances of 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:55.720 fraud that involve cryptocurrencies. The decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies is 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:58.120 one of the many features that attract people to it, 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:01.760 and another is that a lot of transactions, while part 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:05.640 of a publicly viewable ledger, are otherwise kind of off 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:08.640 the radar. And it remains to be seen if Congress 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.360 will grant the authority to the I r S in 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:15.240 order to pursue, you know, more responsibility with regard to cryptocurrencies. 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:19.760 And I imagine that this news is affecting the cryptocurrency 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:23.720 market a bit, because everything seems to affect the cryptocurrency 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:26.640 market a bit. I mean, if Elon Musk tweets about 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:30.000 it, it it will really get going. Sticking with politics for 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:33.720 a moment, a group of Democrat politicians in the United 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:37.920 States have proposed a few different pieces of antitrust legislation 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:42.760 that seems to be aimed specifically at really big tech companies, 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:48.080 and particularly the Big Five of Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook, 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:52.280 and Microsoft. While there are draft bills on the matter, 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:54.839 and there are several of them, and they come from 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:58.199 different people and they say slightly different things, you can 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:01.360 kind of boil them all down own to trying to 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:06.400 deal with two main concerns. Concern number one regards companies 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:10.199 that can both operate a marketplace and sell their own 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:14.160 goods and services through that marketplace, along with goods and 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:18.520 services from other companies. So this would include corporations like 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:22.120 Apple and Amazon. Both of them have their own products 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:27.520 listed for sale in market places that they each control, respectively. Right, 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:31.520 So Amazon's got its own shop obviously, and it has 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.280 its own products in that shop side by side with 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:37.559 products from other companies. That's kind of what they're talking about. 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:41.360 That represents a conflict of interest, and it means that 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:46.040 these companies could conceivably promote their own products over those 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:49.160 from other entities. So if you've ever done a search 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:51.640 for a product on Amazon and you notice that the 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:55.239 first few results all seem to be Amazon branded products, 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:58.640 then you get what I'm saying. This is a little 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:02.160 different than stores that have a store brand. Usually in 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:05.880 those stores, you don't see the store brand presented in 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:11.000 a way that obscures or you know, eclipses the other brands. 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:14.280 It's side by side, and the idea is that, well, 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:17.960 it's not promoted over these others. It may be cheaper 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:22.200 and thus more attractive. But it's not like the store 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:26.440 is necessarily using tricks to promote one over the other. 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:30.840 The concern here is that through technology, those are tricks 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:34.240 that these companies are using, and it's there's a worry 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:36.800 that creates an unfair market and sets all the other 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:40.520 parties at a disadvantage over the main company. The other 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.840 big concern is about acquisitions. So a lot of these 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:48.480 big tech companies got that big not just through organic growth, 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:52.920 but by gobbling up other companies along the way. Sometimes 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:57.280 these acquisitions lead to less competition in a market, which 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.640 is rarely good news for consumers, and we see this 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:06.439 across numerous industries, from tech hardware to entertainment media and beyond. 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:09.240 The draft bills generally are going to make it more 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:13.960 difficult for a large company to pursue acquisitions. Now all 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:17.400 the stuff is again just in draft form. It could 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:20.920 change significantly before it ever goes to the floor for 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.320 a vote, and of course there's no guarantee that any 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:26.240 of these bills will even get that far, but it 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:30.520 is interesting to see where things are going. Speaking of Amazon, 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:34.400 the company could face a fine in excess of four 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:38.599 hundred twenty five million dollars in the EU for violations 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:41.120 of the g d p R. That's the General Data 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:44.520 Privacy Regulation. The g d p R is a set 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:48.400 of pretty strict rules that dictate how companies can collect 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:52.719 and use information that's generated by citizens of the EU. 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:56.840 And apparently Amazon's approach was not in line with those rules, 0:11:56.880 --> 0:11:59.360 and now the company will have to pay up. I 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.120 recently did a couple of episodes about privacy and how 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:05.760 tech companies collect and use our personal information, so I 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.640 recommend you check out the episodes that published on Monday 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:12.960 and Wednesday to learn more about that. And related to 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:16.920 Amazon is Ring, a company Amazon purchased in two thousand 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:21.240 and eighteen. Ring is famous for its smart doorbells, and 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:24.920 it's also famous for being a part of massive surveillance 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:29.680 systems utilized by police forces around the United States. Ring 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.840 filed a report earlier this year that showed that in 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.760 twenty twenty, the company received more than eighteen hundred legal 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.760 demands to share video footage with various agencies, which was 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.400 more than double than the year before that. But what 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.199 the report does not include is how many users actually 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:52.680 had footage from their Ring systems shared with police. You know, 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:56.760 that's eighteen hundred separate demands. Those demands could have included 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:01.280 more than one video source, and RING didn't really say 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:05.160 how many users had their their footage shared with police. 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:09.559 Privacy advocacy groups and civil rights organizations have long protested 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:13.840 how RING will work with law enforcement, including the fact 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:17.400 that you know, you can have instances in which surveillance 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:20.480 is being shared with police without the police first securing 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.760 a warrant for that information, which does seem to to 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:28.080 tread pretty close to unreasonable search and seizure, which is, 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:32.080 you know, something that we should be protected against by 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:37.120 the Bill of Rights to the Constitution of the United States. Meanwhile, 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.400 over at Google, the company has recently made changes to 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:44.559 down list search results from sites that focus on slander. 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.360 That is, sites that are perpetrating slander. So if you've 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:51.120 ever googled someone's name and you saw some results that 0:13:51.200 --> 0:13:54.160 seem to be targeting that person for whatever reason and 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:57.840 slagging off on them, that's really what we're talking about here. 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:00.280 And some of these sites have been using very as 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:03.520 tactics to kind of game the system and rise up 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:06.920 the page rankings so they dominate the top search results 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:10.000 for the those people, and now Google is going to 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:13.920 actively remove that advantage. They're going to start down listing 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:17.760 or pushing down the results for sites that appear to 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:21.200 be dedicated to dragging other people down. But this is 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.240 a really delicate thing. You know, over in the EU, 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:27.400 there's this concept of the right to be forgotten, and 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.040 that's caused Google a lot of grief. And some folks 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:33.560 point out that if it is easy to get negative 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:37.560 things removed from search results, that could be doing a 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:42.400 public disservice in some cases. So for example, let's say 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:45.480 you've got a high ranking public official and this person 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:49.240 does something truly terrible. It is in the public's best 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:53.400 interest to know about that thing, and having a means 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:57.840 to squelch that kind of information would effectively be suppressing 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.160 the truth. So I am interested to see how this progresses. 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:03.760 I do think it's important to knock down the trolls, 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:07.320 who are, you know, slagging off people in bad faith, 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:11.120 usually as a way of either harming those people or 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:14.600 profiting off of this, versus the cases where you have 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:19.720 actual journalists who are attempting to document misbehavior. The Verge 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.680 reports that Facebook is working on a smart watch that, 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:27.000 should things go as planned, will debut next summer. The 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:30.560 smart watch will have a display that incorporates two cameras, 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:33.400 and that display will be detachable from the watch band. 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.840 One of the two cameras will be forward facing, and 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:40.200 users will rely on that one to make video calls 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:43.800 and the like. The second cameras rear facing, and thus 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:46.640 it's really only useful if you detach the smart watch 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:50.480 display from the band, Otherwise you're just taking very dark 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:54.280 pictures and videos of your wrist I imagine anyway, the 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:57.640 rear facing camera will have a ten a DP resolution. 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:01.840 Facebook is already reportedly working with other companies to develop 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.240 tech that could house the smart watch display. Like you 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:09.760 could plug the smart watch into other types of stuff, 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:13.760 like maybe a backpack. Or imagine a robot that can 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:16.360 accept this little smart watch in a in a slot 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:18.560 in the robot and then it uses that smart watch 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:22.400 to power some functions. I might just be dreaming here, anyway. 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.200 The watch might also include a heart rate sensor, as 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.840 well as other sensors. That, of course, has raised questions 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:32.920 from people and organizations that are concerned about privacy because 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.760 Facebook has well, let's just say it's known for being 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.760 pretty darn hungry when it comes to personal information, and 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:44.160 so if you've got yet another device feeding data points 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.840 to Facebook, that's even more juicy information that the company 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:51.440 can use to sell to advertisers and whatnot. But a 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:54.520 year is a really long time in the tech industry, 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:56.920 so we'll have to wait and see if this watch 0:16:56.920 --> 0:17:00.720 ever really comes out. If it doesn't, it will have 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:03.960 been a very expensive lesson for Facebook, because the company 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:08.880 has reportedly invested around a billion dollars in this endeavor already. 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.440 And finally, Liz Hameron, the c v P of xboxes 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:16.480 Gaming Experience and Platforms, laid out future plans to games 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:20.600 Radar with regard to where Xbox is going next. Hameron 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:23.679 says that the company will continue to develop new consoles 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:27.440 and hardware, so that's not going away, but we shouldn't 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.679 expect anything new for a while because the series X 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:34.200 console is still a very young one. Also, I would 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.639 like to propose that the name of whatever follows should 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:42.000 be the next box, so I'll take my check, thank you. 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:46.560 Beyond that, however, it appears that you know, Microsoft is 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.920 really focusing on creating a way for gamers to access 0:17:50.000 --> 0:17:54.200 the company's services. That includes partnerships with various smart TV 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:58.320 manufacturers so that future televisions have a version of Xbox 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.160 Game Pass just built right into them. So that means 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:04.240 all you would need is a compatible controller to connect 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:07.160 to your TV, and then you could stream games from 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:08.960 the cloud to your TV and you don't need a 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:13.600 console at all. There's also talk of standalone games streaming devices, 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.679 you know, kind of the little gaming sticks that you 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:19.480 could plug right into a smart TV, possibly like through 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:23.480 an HDMI connector, and then you link that device to 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.479 your WiFi network at home and you stream games through that. 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.280 So if your television doesn't come with Xbox Game Pass 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.760 built into it, you could use this method to do it. 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:36.240 In other words, Microsoft's really exploring ways to reach beyond 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:39.480 the consoles themselves to let players get access to games 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:42.359 content through the cloud. And this is really interesting to 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.520 me because not that long ago Microsoft was really pushing 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:49.040 consoles as being sort of a a nexus for cloud 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:52.080 based services. You would buy a console, and then that 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:55.680 console would be your gaming rig. It would be your 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.439 your set top device where you could watch YouTube or 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:02.840 Netflix or Hulu or whatever. Plus it could interact with 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:07.280 live television broadcasts and cable. And now Microsoft is sort 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:09.720 of taking an opposite approach, at least when it comes 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:13.240 to the games themselves. Again, the company is not abandoning 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:16.400 hardware or consoles or anything like that, and I'm sure 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:20.160 that future consoles will continue to support that nexus approach 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.200 to services, but this does show a change in strategy. 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:25.400 I like to think of it as the Netflix approach, 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:29.520 where your goal is to get your service on every 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:34.119 possible platform you can, and you extend your reach that way. 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:38.320 And that wraps up the news for Thursday, June two 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:42.240 thousand twenty one. I hope you're all doing well and 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:51.280 I'll talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff is 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.440 an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from my 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:58.160 Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:01.919 or wherever you listen to your favorite It's only