WEBVTT - Tech News: Big Tech Gets Bigger

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.

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

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<v Speaker 1>Johnathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio. And

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<v Speaker 1>how the tech are you? And it's time for the

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<v Speaker 1>tech news for February one, twenty twenty two. And I've

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<v Speaker 1>got an update on the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard,

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<v Speaker 1>the video game company. And the update is that the

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<v Speaker 1>United States Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, will review the

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<v Speaker 1>deal to determine if, in fact, the deal would negatively

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<v Speaker 1>impact competition within the video game industry. Microsoft is no

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<v Speaker 1>stranger to antitrust investigations, having been the focus of several

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<v Speaker 1>of them over the last several decades. One thing that

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<v Speaker 1>does make this one a little odd is that apparently

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<v Speaker 1>the US Justice Department will not review the deal, and

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<v Speaker 1>typically you see the d o J work with the

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<v Speaker 1>FTC on these things together. Now, I want to stress

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<v Speaker 1>that it's way too early to conclude what effect this

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<v Speaker 1>investigation will have on the deal. It's possible the FTC

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<v Speaker 1>will just approve the acquisition. It's also possible that it

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<v Speaker 1>might require certain concessions before allowing the deal to go through.

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<v Speaker 1>Part of the deal might look at whether or not

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<v Speaker 1>Microsoft plans to continue releasing Activision Blizzard games for non

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<v Speaker 1>Microsoft platforms, you know, like the Sony PlayStation. Like if

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<v Speaker 1>Microsoft said, yeah, from now on, Call of Duty is

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<v Speaker 1>going to be PC and Xbox exclusive, that could be

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<v Speaker 1>an issue. But in the early statements that I have

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<v Speaker 1>seen around this deal, it seems to me that Microsoft

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<v Speaker 1>is at least indicating that it's not going to shut

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<v Speaker 1>out PlayStation at least not in the near term, so

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<v Speaker 1>that might not be an issue at all. In fact,

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<v Speaker 1>Microsoft will end up owning a former PlayStation mascot should

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<v Speaker 1>this deal go through. I'm talking about crash Bandicoot, which

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<v Speaker 1>at one time was kind of a mascot for the

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<v Speaker 1>Sony PlayStation, and now well that's one of the properties

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<v Speaker 1>owned by Activision Blizzards. So should Microsoft's deal go through,

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<v Speaker 1>crash Bandicoot, the former PlayStation mascot will be a Microsoft property. Anyway,

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<v Speaker 1>we knew that the deal would fall under scrutiny, particularly

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<v Speaker 1>right now because governments around the world are tightening up

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<v Speaker 1>regulations on mergers and acquisitions in business in general, like

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<v Speaker 1>any big company, a lot of governments around the world

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<v Speaker 1>are really looking more closely at proposed mergers and acquisitions,

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<v Speaker 1>but they're definitely doing that big time in the tech sector. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>if I had to make a prediction, I'd say this

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<v Speaker 1>deal squeaks through. I don't foresee any obvious red flags,

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<v Speaker 1>at least not from a regulatory standpoint. I don't think

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<v Speaker 1>it's always great to see consolidation in a market in general.

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<v Speaker 1>I mean, you're you're talking about a decreased number of choices,

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<v Speaker 1>and decreased choice typically does not benefit the end consumer,

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<v Speaker 1>so I don't I'm not a huge fan of it. However,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm not sure there's a real case to be made

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<v Speaker 1>that Microsoft would have an unfair advantage in the industry.

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<v Speaker 1>I mean, Microsoft itself points out quite eagerly that both

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<v Speaker 1>Sony and Tencent would still be larger video game companies,

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<v Speaker 1>at least by revenue. So we'll see if the FTC

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<v Speaker 1>pushes back on this. I would be surprised to see that,

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<v Speaker 1>but stranger things have happened, and obviously I'm not privy

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<v Speaker 1>to all the details of the deal. It could be

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<v Speaker 1>that there's stuff in there I just don't know about.

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<v Speaker 1>That would be an issue. Speaking of Sony and acquisitions,

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<v Speaker 1>the Japanese company is making a purchase of its own.

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<v Speaker 1>It is buying Ge Studios. Current gamers probably think of

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<v Speaker 1>Bungee as the studio that's behind the Destiny games, but

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<v Speaker 1>I will always think of Bungee as the game company

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<v Speaker 1>that originally brought us Halo. Bungee handed Halo off to

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<v Speaker 1>Microsoft's three forty three Industries in two thousand seven, so

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<v Speaker 1>Bungee is not involved in Halo anymore. That happened after

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<v Speaker 1>Bungee left the Microsoft fold and became an independent studio.

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<v Speaker 1>Also a fun fact, Bungee originally started developing Halo with

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<v Speaker 1>the Mac platform in mind. It was supposed to be

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<v Speaker 1>a Mac game before it made its way to become

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<v Speaker 1>an Xbox exclusive, at least initially. Anyway, Sony is acquiring

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<v Speaker 1>Bungee for a three point six billion dollars. That's a

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<v Speaker 1>fraction of what the Microsoft Activision Blizzard deal is, but

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<v Speaker 1>then that's to be expected. Bungee is uh, It's not

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<v Speaker 1>a small studio, but it's definitely smaller than Activision Wizard.

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<v Speaker 1>The company has already released a statement saying that future

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<v Speaker 1>Bungee games will continue to be available on multiple platforms, So,

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<v Speaker 1>in other words, this does not appear to be a

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<v Speaker 1>move to make Destiny a PlayStation exclusive franchise, though we're

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<v Speaker 1>probably going to continue to see PlayStation exclusive content for

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<v Speaker 1>the games, and just the game itself will be available

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<v Speaker 1>on multiple platforms. Reportedly, Sonny plans to take a hands

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<v Speaker 1>off approach when it comes to overseeing Bungee and allow

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<v Speaker 1>Bungee to continue to operate as if it were a

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<v Speaker 1>fully independent studio. We might also see some moves to

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<v Speaker 1>adapt Bungee intellectual property into other formats like movies. You know,

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<v Speaker 1>considering the trailer I saw recently for the live action

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<v Speaker 1>Halo project, I think they should just take their time

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<v Speaker 1>on that one. I'm throwing a little shade early today.

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<v Speaker 1>And to round out our trilogy about acquisitions, let's talk

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<v Speaker 1>about Word All now. If you're not familiar with the game,

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<v Speaker 1>it's a simple online word guessing game. So the standard

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<v Speaker 1>version requires players to guess a five letter word, and

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<v Speaker 1>after you submit your guests, you will see which, if

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<v Speaker 1>any of the letters you chose are correct. A letter

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<v Speaker 1>that's highlighted in yellow means that you have guessed a

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<v Speaker 1>correct letter, but it's in the wrong place in the word.

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<v Speaker 1>A letter in green matches that It tells you that

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<v Speaker 1>you matched both the letter and where it appears in

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<v Speaker 1>the word, and that that should be locked into place,

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<v Speaker 1>and you get six guesses before you lose around and

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<v Speaker 1>it's kind of like the old board game Mastermind. I

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<v Speaker 1>don't know how many of you out there have played that.

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<v Speaker 1>It used to be one of my favorites as a kid.

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<v Speaker 1>Very simple to play, um and and interesting to kind

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<v Speaker 1>of develop strategies for it. And I loved it. And uh,

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<v Speaker 1>you're and of course you're using letters instead of little

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<v Speaker 1>pegs Mastermind used pegs had different colors and you would

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<v Speaker 1>try to guess a I think it was a sequence

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<v Speaker 1>of four, if maybe six, I can't remember, but yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>I love that game. Anyway. What helped propel wordle into

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<v Speaker 1>viral popularity is that you can share your results of

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<v Speaker 1>each round on social platforms, and typically those those results

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<v Speaker 1>just show your guests sequences. It doesn't show the actual

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<v Speaker 1>letters you guess, but instead shows solid blocks that represent

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<v Speaker 1>the letters. And so I remember seeing it on Twitter

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<v Speaker 1>several weeks ago and being stopped as to what the

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<v Speaker 1>all the gray, yellow, and green blocks. Men Like you'd

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<v Speaker 1>see one line that was mostly gray, maybe there was

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<v Speaker 1>a yellow or maybe a green block in there, then

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<v Speaker 1>then a couple of other blocks until you got one

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<v Speaker 1>solid row of green. I had no idea what it

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<v Speaker 1>was until I looked further into it. And really that

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<v Speaker 1>was a brilliant little game mechanic because it got a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of folks like me into the game, just saying,

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<v Speaker 1>what the heck are all these blocks that are showing

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<v Speaker 1>up on my Twitter? And now The New York Times

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<v Speaker 1>has purchased that game from its creator, a guy named

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<v Speaker 1>Josh Wardle. Wardle is a software engineer who built the

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<v Speaker 1>game as a gift to his partner who loves word games,

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<v Speaker 1>and the deal is reportedly in the quote low seven

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<v Speaker 1>figures end quote. So we're talking at least a million bucks.

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<v Speaker 1>So way to go, Josh Wardle. That is awesome for you. However,

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<v Speaker 1>for fans of the game, well a lot of them

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<v Speaker 1>are a little nervous that eventually The New York Times

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<v Speaker 1>will put Wordle behind a paywall. For the moment, at least,

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<v Speaker 1>the Time says it will keep Wordle free to play,

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<v Speaker 1>but it will be interesting to see if the Wordle

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<v Speaker 1>community continues strong, or if the association of a once

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<v Speaker 1>you know, scrappy little independent game now being owned by

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<v Speaker 1>a media company is going to be enough to turn

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<v Speaker 1>folks off of it. Like, there's some people who are

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<v Speaker 1>who are gonna probably say I'm gonna bounce because I'm

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<v Speaker 1>not interested now that it's you know, a corporate asset.

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<v Speaker 1>But we'll see. I kind of hope that it stays

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<v Speaker 1>free to play and sticks around because I think I

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<v Speaker 1>really like the community that's kind of built up around

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<v Speaker 1>word all um, and I enjoy playing the game. I'm

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<v Speaker 1>I'm decent at it, but then I think most people are,

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<v Speaker 1>so it's kind of a fun bonding experience. All right.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's go back to some antitrust talk. According to the

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<v Speaker 1>Financial Times, several big tech companies, including Google, Amazon, Facebook,

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<v Speaker 1>and Apple are trying a slightly different approach while funding

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<v Speaker 1>lobbyists to try and stave off some of the recent

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<v Speaker 1>trends the U. S. Government has followed regarding you know,

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<v Speaker 1>curbing big tech acquisitions and mergers and policies. So, for example,

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<v Speaker 1>Apple and Google have both been trying to sway lawmakers

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<v Speaker 1>to allow the companies to continue to force app developers

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<v Speaker 1>to use the App store payment systems, something that various

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<v Speaker 1>lawmakers and courts have been pushing back on. The new

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<v Speaker 1>tactic appears to be an attempt at framing these conversations

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<v Speaker 1>as if you regulate big tech companies here in the

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<v Speaker 1>United States, then China wins. Now I'm oversimplifying, but yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>the argument is essentially that the US, you know, if

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<v Speaker 1>it beefs up antitrust regulations, that will give China the

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<v Speaker 1>opportunity to capitalize on the situation. Now, I'm not sure

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<v Speaker 1>how realistic that argument really is. I mean, on the

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<v Speaker 1>one hand, China certainly is big on pouncing on opportunities.

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<v Speaker 1>That much is absolutely true. But on the other hand,

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<v Speaker 1>the current regime in China has also shown that it

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<v Speaker 1>has grown suspicious of big businesses within China and has

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<v Speaker 1>started to restrict companies and push back against them. Potentially,

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<v Speaker 1>that's to make certain that no company accumulates enough influence

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<v Speaker 1>and power to threaten the government's absolute control over the nation.

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<v Speaker 1>Of course, whether or not an argument is logically sound

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<v Speaker 1>doesn't really matter. If the argument just works right, you

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<v Speaker 1>don't have to make a good argument for people to

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<v Speaker 1>believe it. See also all the anti facts and COVID

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<v Speaker 1>denial stuff. So we'll just have to see if lawmakers

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<v Speaker 1>buy into this premise. All right, We're gonna take a

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<v Speaker 1>quick break, but we'll be back with some more news

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<v Speaker 1>after this. Apple CEO Tim Cook's house has disappeared, or rather,

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<v Speaker 1>a blurry digital wall blocks his home in street level

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<v Speaker 1>views in both Apple Maps and Google Maps, so if

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<v Speaker 1>you cruise down his street in Balo Alto, California and

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<v Speaker 1>look at where he lives, you'll just see a big

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<v Speaker 1>blurry mess. Now. Cook has been the target of some

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<v Speaker 1>pretty disturbing stalking activity in recent months, so this is

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<v Speaker 1>likely a move to help avoid future issues along those lines.

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<v Speaker 1>And at first I was thinking, man, must be nice

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<v Speaker 1>to be able to remove yourself from folks just being

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<v Speaker 1>able to look at your stuff. But then I found

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<v Speaker 1>out that actually anyone can submit a report to have

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<v Speaker 1>their home blurred out in maps applications. Both Apple and

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<v Speaker 1>Google have a process for that. So if for any

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<v Speaker 1>reason you would rather folks not have the oportunity to

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<v Speaker 1>be nosy, looky, lose on street view, you can apply

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<v Speaker 1>to have your home blurred out. So I retract my

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<v Speaker 1>snooty statement. Tesla is issuing a recall a software recall

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<v Speaker 1>on more than fifty vehicles manufactured between two thousand and

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<v Speaker 1>sixteen and two thousand twenty two because of a rolling

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<v Speaker 1>stop feature that, frankly, I'm shocked was even a thing

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<v Speaker 1>in the first place. So here's the deal. Tesla incorporated

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<v Speaker 1>a mode and its full self driving beta, which, as

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<v Speaker 1>I always have to point out, is not really full

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<v Speaker 1>self driving mode, even though the company calls it that.

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<v Speaker 1>And this particular little feature was called the assertive mode.

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<v Speaker 1>And one of the things that cars would do while

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<v Speaker 1>in assertive mode is they would not come to a

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<v Speaker 1>complete stop at stop signs under certain conditions. Instead, the

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<v Speaker 1>cars would slow down and then roll through the intersection.

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<v Speaker 1>The company's stress this would only happen if the car

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<v Speaker 1>verified there were no other vehicles or any pedestrians or

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<v Speaker 1>obstacles detected within the intersection before doing it. But even so,

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<v Speaker 1>a rolling stop is, you know, illegal in most states.

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<v Speaker 1>Here in the US, drivers are obligated to come to

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<v Speaker 1>a complete stop at a stop sign, even if it

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<v Speaker 1>seems obvious that there are no cars or pedestrians or

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<v Speaker 1>anything else in the way. It's a basic rule of

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<v Speaker 1>the road. I found it shocking that Tesla would just

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<v Speaker 1>ignore that. I mean, I get the fact that tons

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<v Speaker 1>of human drivers behave that way, but that doesn't make

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<v Speaker 1>it legal or right anyway, Tesla is rolling back the

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<v Speaker 1>software update that allowed cars to be this u assertive.

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<v Speaker 1>We've heard a lot about how hackers have used their

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<v Speaker 1>skills to make money, but you know, more often than not,

0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:39.679
<v Speaker 1>we're talking either about white hat hackers who discover a

0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:43.280
<v Speaker 1>vulnerability and they report it and they claim a juicy

0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:46.600
<v Speaker 1>bug bounty for their efforts, or we talk about hackers

0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:51.120
<v Speaker 1>who target a company with like brutal ransomware. But in

0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:54.199
<v Speaker 1>this case, I'm talking more about good old insider trading.

0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:57.160
<v Speaker 1>And in case you're not familiar with that term, insider

0:13:57.200 --> 0:13:59.880
<v Speaker 1>trading describes the situation in which a person who has

0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:04.240
<v Speaker 1>knowledge inside knowledge about a company's performance acts on that

0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:08.000
<v Speaker 1>knowledge in the stock market before the information goes public. So,

0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:11.040
<v Speaker 1>for example, let's say I was working for Microsoft and

0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:14.439
<v Speaker 1>I heard about the Activision Blizzard deal before it had

0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.240
<v Speaker 1>actually been announced to the public. So I decided to

0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:20.760
<v Speaker 1>buy up some stock and Activision, thinking well, the price

0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:22.920
<v Speaker 1>is going to go up once this news goes live,

0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:25.640
<v Speaker 1>And that's insider trading, and it's a big no no.

0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:28.680
<v Speaker 1>I would be in huge trouble if folks discovered I

0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:30.880
<v Speaker 1>had done that, or even if I had just given

0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:33.760
<v Speaker 1>a stock tip to someone I know so that they

0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:36.960
<v Speaker 1>could do it for me by proxy or whatever. Well,

0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:39.400
<v Speaker 1>a group of hackers, allegedly including the head of a

0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:45.320
<v Speaker 1>Russian cybersecurity firm, managed to intercept reports various publicly traded

0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:48.240
<v Speaker 1>companies had been filing with the u S Securities and

0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:53.280
<v Speaker 1>Exchange Commission or SEC. Now, investors always pay close attention

0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:57.200
<v Speaker 1>to these reports, which companies file quarterly. If a company

0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:00.400
<v Speaker 1>posts incredible quarterly results, it could lead to a big

0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:05.359
<v Speaker 1>jump in stock prices. So these hackers were intercepting reports

0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:09.040
<v Speaker 1>and scouring them before the SEC would make them public,

0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:11.560
<v Speaker 1>and then they would move to make stock trades in

0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:15.440
<v Speaker 1>advance of the report's becoming public information, and they made

0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:17.840
<v Speaker 1>money this way. The SEC said that the trades were

0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:20.520
<v Speaker 1>so on point that it would be a trillion to

0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:24.120
<v Speaker 1>one chance to manage to make all those advantageous trades

0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:28.560
<v Speaker 1>without insider information. Anyway, the group targeted two companies that

0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:32.240
<v Speaker 1>serve as sort of a liaison between publicly traded companies

0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:34.720
<v Speaker 1>and the SEC, which is pretty smart. They didn't have

0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:37.880
<v Speaker 1>to touch SEC itself, and they didn't have to target

0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:41.080
<v Speaker 1>each individual company. They went with, you know, kind of

0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:45.760
<v Speaker 1>a sort of a sorting company in a way. It's

0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.600
<v Speaker 1>it's a coming that files on behalf of others. Uh.

0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.280
<v Speaker 1>They're like three big ones in the US that do that,

0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:54.320
<v Speaker 1>and they targeted two of them. I'm not sure what's

0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:56.520
<v Speaker 1>going on with the hackers right now, but since the

0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.160
<v Speaker 1>SEC is aware of the scheme, I imagine this particular

0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:02.480
<v Speaker 1>well has dried up for them. But yeah, I I

0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:06.320
<v Speaker 1>don't know how. You know what the stats is, whether

0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:08.480
<v Speaker 1>they're walking free or not. They did make off with

0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:11.080
<v Speaker 1>more than eighty million dollars in the process. That's a

0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:14.800
<v Speaker 1>big yaza uh oh. You know. We talked about PlayStation earlier.

0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:19.120
<v Speaker 1>In additional PlayStation news, Discord, the messaging platform most associated

0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:21.560
<v Speaker 1>with gaming, is rolling out support to the PlayStation family

0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:24.560
<v Speaker 1>of consoles right now. This comes several months after the

0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:27.920
<v Speaker 1>initial announcement that Discord would be coming to PlayStation consoles.

0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:30.680
<v Speaker 1>So PS four and PS five owners with a Discord

0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:34.520
<v Speaker 1>account can connect that account to their consoles and then

0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:37.240
<v Speaker 1>those players activities on their PlayStation will show up and

0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:41.960
<v Speaker 1>discord um Discords a very handy communication system, again largely

0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:47.640
<v Speaker 1>associated with games, So welcome PlayStation players to Discord. You know,

0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:51.400
<v Speaker 1>usually I advocate for harmony. But when the Harmony of

0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:54.080
<v Speaker 1>the C's, a cruise ship in the Royal Caribbean line,

0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:58.680
<v Speaker 1>sailed into the hazard zone for a SpaceX launch, it

0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:01.120
<v Speaker 1>was pretty hard to be on harmon east side. This

0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:04.080
<v Speaker 1>happened just this past Sunday when a scheduled Falcon nine

0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:07.440
<v Speaker 1>launch had to be scrapped when this giant cruise ship

0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:11.320
<v Speaker 1>moved into the launch vehicles downrange hazard zone. Now, the

0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:14.680
<v Speaker 1>launches take place at Cape Canaveral and the nearby Port

0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:18.679
<v Speaker 1>Canaveral is a popular departure port for various cruise ships.

0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:24.320
<v Speaker 1>Before every launch at Cape Canaveral, pilots and mariners you know,

0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:28.520
<v Speaker 1>people flying planes and people piloting boats, they are supposed

0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:31.399
<v Speaker 1>to check for notices UH notices to airmen in the

0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:33.760
<v Speaker 1>case of pilots, and notices to mariners for the case

0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:37.280
<v Speaker 1>of you know, boat people to make note of hazard

0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:41.280
<v Speaker 1>zones during specific dates and then avoid those zones. Now,

0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:44.760
<v Speaker 1>the SpaceX launch scrub meant that the payload and Italian

0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:47.600
<v Speaker 1>weather satellite would be delayed for the fourth time in

0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:51.320
<v Speaker 1>a row because the planned launches for Thursday, Friday and

0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:55.639
<v Speaker 1>Saturday all fell through due to bad weather. Fortunately, SpaceX

0:17:55.640 --> 0:17:59.320
<v Speaker 1>was able to hold a successful launch yesterday, that is Monday,

0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:03.280
<v Speaker 1>and delivered payload. No telling yet what if any repercussions

0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:05.720
<v Speaker 1>Royal Caribbean will face for its ship moving into the

0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:08.399
<v Speaker 1>hazard zone. I imagine that at the very least the

0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:10.320
<v Speaker 1>captain of that vessel is going to have a rough

0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.080
<v Speaker 1>time of it in the near future. And finally, some

0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.479
<v Speaker 1>engineers at the University of Maryland outfitted a drone with

0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:20.760
<v Speaker 1>wings modeled after the air screw as designed by Leonardo

0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:24.320
<v Speaker 1>da Vinci. The drone is called the Crimson Spin and

0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:28.159
<v Speaker 1>it has four propellers in that aerial screw shape. So

0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:31.040
<v Speaker 1>da Vinci proposed the aerial screw as a one person

0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:33.960
<v Speaker 1>flying vehicle, but it was really more of a thought

0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:37.040
<v Speaker 1>exercise about lift and the shape you would need in

0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:39.760
<v Speaker 1>order to generate lift. That was never something that actually

0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:43.080
<v Speaker 1>took flight, and there has been debate about whether or

0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:47.480
<v Speaker 1>not you could achieve flight using that design. The engineering team,

0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:50.920
<v Speaker 1>using modern day materials and a basic quad copter, proved

0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:54.400
<v Speaker 1>that it in fact does work. They submitted their findings

0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:57.960
<v Speaker 1>that the Transformative Vertical Flight twenty two conference, which I

0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:01.280
<v Speaker 1>did not realize was a thing, and while their demonstration

0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:04.679
<v Speaker 1>used a small quad Copter drone. They suspect that you

0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:07.760
<v Speaker 1>could actually scale this up to work on a human

0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:11.440
<v Speaker 1>sized aircraft if you so desired. Now, this is all

0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:15.840
<v Speaker 1>thanks to our modern access to rigid, lightweight materials. Da

0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:18.119
<v Speaker 1>Vinci would have had to rely on stuff like leather

0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.600
<v Speaker 1>and wood and rope, and these materials are are too

0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:26.240
<v Speaker 1>dense and too heavy for craft to generate enough lift

0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.360
<v Speaker 1>to counteract its weight. But with stuff like aluminum and plastics,

0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.159
<v Speaker 1>it's a different story. It's not exactly going to lead

0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:35.720
<v Speaker 1>us to a new approach to aircraft design, but I

0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:37.720
<v Speaker 1>think it's pretty awesome that we can say Da Vinci

0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:41.120
<v Speaker 1>was really onto something. Here and there is your tech

0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:44.399
<v Speaker 1>news for Tuesday, February one, twenty twenty two. If you

0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:46.760
<v Speaker 1>have suggestions for topics I actually cover on tech Stuff,

0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:49.359
<v Speaker 1>reach out to me on Twitter. The handle for the

0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:52.800
<v Speaker 1>show is text Stuff hs W, and I'll talk to

0:19:52.840 --> 0:20:01.160
<v Speaker 1>you again really soon. Tech Stuff is an I Heart

0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:05.000
<v Speaker 1>Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit

0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:08.119
<v Speaker 1>the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:09.520
<v Speaker 1>listen to your favorite shows.