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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with text stuff from how

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Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Be there, everyone, and welcome to

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Speaker 1: tex Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland, and today we're

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Speaker 1: gonna do something a little different. Rather than have a

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Speaker 1: co host on or an interview, I wanted to do

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Speaker 1: an episode where I really responded to listener mail, but

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Speaker 1: I haven't done that in a while, and we have

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Speaker 1: a lot of questions that can be answered within the

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Speaker 1: context of a single episode. So we're actually gonna do

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Speaker 1: a couple of these where I'm going to answer some

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Speaker 1: of these questions. And if you guys ever have questions

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Speaker 1: for me that you would like me to answer, whether

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Speaker 1: it's going to be a full episode or just a

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Speaker 1: quick question that you're curious about, send me those questions.

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Speaker 1: That address that you can send them to is tech

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Speaker 1: Stuff at how stuff works dot com, and I will

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Speaker 1: of course repeat that at the end. So let's get started. Now.

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Speaker 1: A lot of the questions we have here actually come

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Speaker 1: to me through Facebook. The Facebook tech Stuff page is

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Speaker 1: a great community. If you haven't already checked it out,

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Speaker 1: you should go take a look. And so I'm going

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Speaker 1: to respond to some of these. So first is from

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Speaker 1: Simon on Facebook, and Simon wrote smart watches views and opinions?

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Speaker 1: Are they truly a fulfillment of a niche in the market, or,

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Speaker 1: as I have both heard and suspect, are they a

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Speaker 1: product that is looking for a solution? I for one,

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Speaker 1: will never own one, as my day to day life

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Speaker 1: work especially, will never allow something as delicate and expensive

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Speaker 1: as that to be on my wrist. Nobody I know

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Speaker 1: once one either. Well, my answer to you is that

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Speaker 1: smart watches certainly do have an audience out there. I

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Speaker 1: think that the the concept of them being a solution

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Speaker 1: that's looking for a problem is probably fairly accurate. But

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Speaker 1: I felt the same way about tablets, So it's not

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Speaker 1: necessarily a problem solution issue. It may just be one

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Speaker 1: of those things that's an implementation that appeals to people. Now,

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Speaker 1: I say that as someone who owns a smart watch.

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Speaker 1: I own the Pebble smart watch, which, as smart watches go,

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Speaker 1: is is, you know, fairly modest. It doesn't have all

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Speaker 1: the bells and whistles of some of the more recent

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Speaker 1: smart watches, but it does have notifications on it. I

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Speaker 1: can control music playing on my smartphone through my watch.

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Speaker 1: I can accept or deny I call using my watch.

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Speaker 1: It will alert me to anything coming through has a

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Speaker 1: little vibrating motor, so I can feel it on my wrist,

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Speaker 1: which is great. I've reached that point in my life

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Speaker 1: where I no longer notice if my phone is vibrating

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Speaker 1: in my my pocket, and when I don't have my

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Speaker 1: phone in my pocket, I experienced phantom vibrations against my legs.

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Speaker 1: So having a watch where I actually had feel it

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Speaker 1: against my wrist is very helpful. What's more, I don't

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Speaker 1: currently own more than one smart watch, but I have

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Speaker 1: two that are on the way to me, assuming that

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Speaker 1: the projects ever get to the point where they can

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Speaker 1: actually shop. There were a couple of different crowdfunded projects

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Speaker 1: I backed that will eventually result in me getting a

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Speaker 1: new smart watch, assuming that they they are ultimately successful.

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Speaker 1: I have it. I have a lot of faith in them.

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Speaker 1: But the two that I have waiting for me are

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Speaker 1: the Craos Meteor, which is a voice and gest your

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Speaker 1: control smart watch, and the Agent smart watch. Now, the

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Speaker 1: common thread between all of these is that they will

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Speaker 1: work with different operating systems. They pair with a smartphone,

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Speaker 1: but you don't have to have a specific type of

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Speaker 1: smartphone to pair with them. UH and that really appeals

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Speaker 1: to me. I like the idea of having these kinds

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Speaker 1: of technologies that will work with lots of different options,

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Speaker 1: so that way I'm not nailed down to a single

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Speaker 1: one that's gonna come into play a little bit later.

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Speaker 1: And by a little bit later, I mean right now.

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Speaker 1: Because on Twitter a user who I just have the

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Speaker 1: user name and the handle, which is g t r

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Speaker 1: f r K eight seven eight seven, who asked what

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Speaker 1: were my thoughts on the Apple Watch. So I'm recording

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Speaker 1: this the same week that Apple had its big announcement

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Speaker 1: of the new iPhones and the Apple Watch, so the

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Speaker 1: date of this recording is actually the eleventh of September two. Now,

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Speaker 1: I think that some of the elements of the Apple

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Speaker 1: Watch are really really cool. That user interface that they

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Speaker 1: have where you use the dial to navigate through it,

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Speaker 1: that looks like it's very smooth. It's a smart way

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Speaker 1: of going about it. I mean, you don't want to

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Speaker 1: really have a touch screen interface as your primary way

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Speaker 1: of interacting with a smart watch because it's just it's

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Speaker 1: too small of a screen. Just by putting your finger

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Speaker 1: on the screen, you're obscuring so much of it that

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Speaker 1: it's really hard to use no very simple controls like

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Speaker 1: a play or a pause. That's okay, but if you're

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Speaker 1: trying to select between apps, it's a little more problematic.

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Speaker 1: I think they really nailed it. However, the physical design

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Speaker 1: of the watch, the actual way the watch looks, doesn't

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Speaker 1: do a whole lot for me. I don't find it

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Speaker 1: really appealing. I love the idea that has swapp dorble bands,

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Speaker 1: so you can change those out depending upon what sort

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Speaker 1: of look you're going for. I think that's great. I

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Speaker 1: love that idea of customization. I'm not a fashionable guy.

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Speaker 1: Anyone who knows me will tell you as much. But

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Speaker 1: the idea of being able to use the same watch

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Speaker 1: in different contexts by swapping out the bands is appealing. Also.

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Speaker 1: I think there's some other cool things like the Apple

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Speaker 1: pay system, which is that wireless payment method. It works

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Speaker 1: with the Apple Watch as well. You can use the

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Speaker 1: watch to help pay for things, and the way that

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Speaker 1: they've implemented security is interesting. You have to enter a

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Speaker 1: pin in order to make the first payment, so you've

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Speaker 1: got your watch on you enter the pin that authorized

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Speaker 1: the watch it to make the payment. But from that

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Speaker 1: point forward, the watch will continue to allow you to

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Speaker 1: make payments until contact is broken between the watch and

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Speaker 1: your skin. So if you take the watch off, it

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Speaker 1: will no longer be able to pay for things, which

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Speaker 1: makes it much more secure as long as someone doesn't

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Speaker 1: chop off your arm. So word to the wise. Um

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Speaker 1: other things that I think are cool. The health tracking

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Speaker 1: technology is pretty neat. It's not the only smart watch

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Speaker 1: to do that, but it's always cool to see that. Uh,

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Speaker 1: the fact that it's required to do you have to

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Speaker 1: have either an iPhone five or later to pair with it.

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Speaker 1: That's the part I ball cat And it's because it

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Speaker 1: you have to be in the iOS system in order

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Speaker 1: for this watch to work. And if you're already invested

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Speaker 1: in that system, that's great. There's no necessarily, that's not

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Speaker 1: necessarily a problem. You can just jump on and grab

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Speaker 1: one if you've got the money to do it. But

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Speaker 1: if you are not in that Apple ecosystem, then suddenly

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Speaker 1: this watch gets really super expensive instead of just expensive.

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Speaker 1: The watch is about three dollars. Now, as far as

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Speaker 1: watches go, that's really not that crazy expensive. You have

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Speaker 1: regular non smart watches that are fashioned watches that will

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Speaker 1: be three or four times that amount of money. I

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Speaker 1: don't own any of those because I don't spend that

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Speaker 1: kind of crazy money on accessories, but is not outside

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Speaker 1: the realm of expectation for a really nice watch. However,

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Speaker 1: if you are not inside that Apple ecosystem already, you

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Speaker 1: also have to go out and buy an iPhone, So

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Speaker 1: that's at minimum around two hundred bucks plus the monthly

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Speaker 1: iPhone bill, so that starts to get to be a

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Speaker 1: really expensive watch. Again, if you're already invested in the

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Speaker 1: Apple space, then you can kind of separate the smart

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Speaker 1: watch from the purchase of the iPhone because you already

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Speaker 1: have one same sort of thing with other smart watches.

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Speaker 1: If you already have a smart phone, then a smart

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Speaker 1: watch can sort of look at like its own individual purchase.

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Speaker 1: But if you're not in that ecosystem, you have to

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Speaker 1: take all of those costs into account, and that's where

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Speaker 1: it gets really expensive. And that's one of the reasons

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Speaker 1: why I don't like being locked down into it. So

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Speaker 1: those are my thoughts on that. Moving on, Catherine, who

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Speaker 1: works in our office, actually asked me what I thought

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Speaker 1: of the iPhone six, so she has to listen to

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Speaker 1: this episode to find out. I wouldn't tell her in

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Speaker 1: the office. I think it's a strong device. It looks

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Speaker 1: like it's a nice evolution of the the form. It

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Speaker 1: doesn't look like it's spectacularly different. You know. The larger

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Speaker 1: screen space is nice. If you really want to go

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Speaker 1: super crazy with the iPhone six plus, you can, and

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Speaker 1: you need that extra space. That looks to me like

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Speaker 1: it's a little larger than what I would be comfortable carrying.

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Speaker 1: But the iPhone six in general looks really nice. It's

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Speaker 1: it's thinner than previous generations, which is nice. Uh, and

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Speaker 1: it has that camera. I love the iPhone cameras. I

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Speaker 1: don't own one. My wife phone's an iPhone and the

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Speaker 1: picture she takes are gorgeous, and it's for two main reasons. One,

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Speaker 1: the technology and software in the iPhone are fantastic as

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Speaker 1: far as the picture taking quality goes. And to she's

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Speaker 1: a good photographer. Um My pictures never look as good

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Speaker 1: for the reverse of those same two reasons. So if

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Speaker 1: you get the iPhone six plus, I think the optical

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Speaker 1: image stabilizer is awesome. I love that. It's not the

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Speaker 1: only smartphone in the world to have one of those,

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Speaker 1: by the way, but an optical image stabilizer is different

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Speaker 1: from a digital image stabilizer. It actually can physically move

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Speaker 1: within the framework of the phone itself and help cancel

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Speaker 1: out jitter and movements so that you get clearer pictures.

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Speaker 1: So that's a nice addition. I think it's if someone's

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Speaker 1: looking to move from an earlier generation of iPhone to

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Speaker 1: the six, uh, I think there's enough reasons to do it,

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Speaker 1: assuming that you are not having to pay like some

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Speaker 1: crazy cancelation fee that then I might say, you know,

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Speaker 1: wait until the next one. That's the nice thing about

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Speaker 1: these iPhone generations is that if you skip a generation

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Speaker 1: for the most part, after the four or so, it's

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Speaker 1: not that big a deal. Um, It's it's you know,

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Speaker 1: it was the earlier iPhones where the different generations were

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Speaker 1: uh larger gaps were between those generations, like the technologically speaking,

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Speaker 1: that's when you really wanted to upgrade year over year.

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Speaker 1: If you had the money these days, I would say wait.

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Speaker 1: And you know, if so, if you had an iPhone

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Speaker 1: five and it's gonna be another year before your contract

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Speaker 1: is up, I don't think there's anything specific that would

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Speaker 1: require you to move to the iPhone six unless you

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Speaker 1: wanted the Apple pay uh wireless payment stuff. And I'll

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Speaker 1: talk about that. In a second, we have someone who

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Speaker 1: asked us about that. So moving on to the next one.

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Speaker 1: Ryan on Twitter said, the iPhone goes big. Is that

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Speaker 1: a bold move or is it too late to the party.

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Speaker 1: So here's the interesting thing I think about this strategy.

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Speaker 1: You see some companies come out with a line of

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Speaker 1: products where they're trying to hit all the possible iterations

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Speaker 1: of that product at once. So you'll see tablets come

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Speaker 1: mount in multiple sizes. That way, the consumer can decide

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Speaker 1: which size fits best in his or her lifestyle and

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Speaker 1: they'll go after that. One. Apple goes about this the

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Speaker 1: opposite way. Apple will come out with a single size,

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Speaker 1: tell you this is what you want, and then consumers

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Speaker 1: go after it. And then after they've gotten that that

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Speaker 1: consumer base, over the years, they've started to introduce different

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Speaker 1: form factors. So that's where you get things like the

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Speaker 1: iPad many and now they can attract new people to

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Speaker 1: buy the iPad as well as folks who already own

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Speaker 1: an iPad going out and buying the new form factor.

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Speaker 1: And it works really well for Apple. So they're taking

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Speaker 1: kind of the opposite approach of the other companies that

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Speaker 1: let everything become available at once and it's worked for Apple,

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Speaker 1: so I think, Uh, I don't think they're too late

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Speaker 1: to the party. I think that this is just in

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Speaker 1: line with Apple strategy. Whether or not the iPhone six

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Speaker 1: will plus the iPhone six plus will ever be considered

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Speaker 1: a great phone, I don't know. It's like I said,

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Speaker 1: it's a little large for me. I don't think it

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Speaker 1: would be a very comfortable fit for for me on

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Speaker 1: a day to day basis. However, I do like a

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Speaker 1: lot of the features in it, so it'll like I think,

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Speaker 1: it will depend upon the user experience for the individual person.

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Speaker 1: Next we have Michael from Facebook who said, uh, do

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Speaker 1: I know why Apple would stay with an eight megapixel

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Speaker 1: camera on the iPhone six? So why why would Apple

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Speaker 1: do that? Why wouldn't they upgrade? Uh? And the answer

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Speaker 1: I have is that the images that the iPhone takes

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Speaker 1: tend to be really good already, and megapixels don't matter

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Speaker 1: as much as you might think they do. Megapixels are

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Speaker 1: important if you are going to be blowing an image

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Speaker 1: up to a much greater size than what you would

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Speaker 1: typically have on your phone or maybe even a desktop computer.

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Speaker 1: So if you plan on displaying an image on a

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Speaker 1: big screen, television, or you're going to be printing out

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Speaker 1: a poster sized image of something, you want to have

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Speaker 1: a camera that packs in a to megapixels because then

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Speaker 1: your resolution is going to be higher and you won't

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Speaker 1: have these artifacts that you would see in a lower

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Speaker 1: resolution photograph show up in that representation. But if you're

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Speaker 1: not doing that, if you're sharing images mostly on phones

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Speaker 1: or on social networks, things that are not going to

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Speaker 1: be typically larger than your average computer monitor screen, you

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Speaker 1: really don't need to upgrade those megapixels that much. That's

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Speaker 1: not really that important. Uh, it doesn't help the quality

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Speaker 1: of the image. It just helps the resolution. So other

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Speaker 1: things that are really important, our color representation and brightness

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Speaker 1: and contrasts, those kind of things which have nothing to

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Speaker 1: do with the number of megapixels involved. It has everything

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Speaker 1: to do with the sensors in the camera itself. So

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Speaker 1: I think they're fine unless we get into a world

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Speaker 1: where everyone wants to view their images on their eight

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Speaker 1: inch television at home, and if you have one of those,

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Speaker 1: invite me over, then I don't think it's gonna be

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Speaker 1: a big deal. So I think that's why they didn't

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Speaker 1: bother with upgrading it, because it's not really you know,

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Speaker 1: I guess you could upgraded it just so that you

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Speaker 1: would have the the ad copy to say now it

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Speaker 1: has a twelve megapixel or sixteen megapixel camera in it,

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Speaker 1: but it's just not necessary. We've got more listener mail

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Speaker 1: coming up in just a second, but let's take a

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Speaker 1: quick break to thank our sponsor, Audible dot com. I

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Speaker 1: And if you're looking for a recommendation, I can't think

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Speaker 1: of anyone better than Neil Game and one of my

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Speaker 1: favorite authors and one of my favorite readers. His voice

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Speaker 1: is mesmerizing, really pulls you into the story, and I

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Speaker 1: really recommend his book The Ocean at the End of

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Speaker 1: the Lane. It's a phenomenal book, really spell binding, so

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Speaker 1: go check that out. Audible podcast dot Com Slash tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: Next from Reuben on Facebook and full Disclosure. I know

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Speaker 1: Reuben personally, He's a great guy, he says. Seeing as

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Speaker 1: the new iPhone is the talk of the town, I'd

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Speaker 1: love to hear about Apple Pay and security concerns. With

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Speaker 1: the recent celebrity nude hackings via Apple accounts, do we

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Speaker 1: want to keep all of our financials there too? This

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Speaker 1: is a great question how secure is this payment process?

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Speaker 1: So first we have to understand exactly what's going on

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Speaker 1: with this Apple uh system, and it's a little tricky

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Speaker 1: because we don't know all the details. What Apple has

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Speaker 1: said is that they are not storing credit card information

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Speaker 1: on their servers. So this means that if hackers target

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Speaker 1: Apple servers and try to steal information, they're not going

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Speaker 1: to get user credit cards as part of that. Also,

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Speaker 1: when you make a purchase with Apple Pay, it's doing

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Speaker 1: so with a one time security code that's dynamically generated

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Speaker 1: based upon your actual credit card number. That one time

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Speaker 1: security code is what is transferred to the vendor. This

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Speaker 1: means that the vendor, the person that you're buying stuff from,

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Speaker 1: never gets your credit card number. They just get that

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Speaker 1: security code, and then that represents the sale the you're

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Speaker 1: you are transferring funds to this vendor for whatever it

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Speaker 1: is you're buying. So that the nice thing about that

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Speaker 1: is if some target, some hacker targets a a system

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Speaker 1: like a home depot or or target, both of which

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Speaker 1: have been hit by hackers recently and had credit card

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Speaker 1: information stolen, um, then you don't have to worry about

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Speaker 1: your credit card getting compromised. All they're going to get

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Speaker 1: is a security code that has no other connection to

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Speaker 1: your credit card that they are able to see. Now,

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Speaker 1: the question remains, how are these payments actually processed, because

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Speaker 1: ultimately something has to link that security code that is

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Speaker 1: generated by your phone to your credit card, otherwise no

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Speaker 1: one would know who to charge when you were purchasing something. Uh. Now,

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Speaker 1: Apple has said that all the information stored on a

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Speaker 1: chip encrypted on a chip in the phone itself, so

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Speaker 1: again it's not going to Apple servers. So what I

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Speaker 1: suspect is happening is that the credit card company in question,

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Speaker 1: for example, Visa, has the formula to generate the one

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Speaker 1: time codes based on the credit card number and can

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Speaker 1: reverse that process so that it under it knows who

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Speaker 1: bought what when? So when the vendor has processed the

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Speaker 1: payment for whatever it is that you wanted to buy,

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Speaker 1: that security code is then processed by Visa, which can

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Speaker 1: run it backwards through the encryption process that created the

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Speaker 1: security code in the first place to find out who

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Speaker 1: it was that made that purchase and and charge the

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Speaker 1: appropriate card. That's the guess, because Apple has not, to

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Speaker 1: my knowledge, actually said this is the way this is

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Speaker 1: working in the background. But if that's true, then the

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Speaker 1: only real target for hackers to aim at our credit

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Speaker 1: card companies, which are pretty good at fending off attacks.

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Speaker 1: And ultimately, you know that's you have to have your

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Speaker 1: trust go somewhere so it If this is true, then

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Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about people targeting Apple and

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Speaker 1: getting your credit card information. Other stuff that stored on

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Speaker 1: Apple servers may still be vulnerable, but your credit card

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Speaker 1: information will not be among it. So great, correct question, Ruben,

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much. Now we are done with the Apple stuff.

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Speaker 1: If all of you are sick of Apple, don't worry

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Speaker 1: the rest of the episode. No more Apple, I think

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Speaker 1: if I might mention it in passing, but there are

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Speaker 1: no more questions as far as I know, So next

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Speaker 1: is from Cody on Facebook who said is the government

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Speaker 1: keeping us from getting jet packs? Which I assume was

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Speaker 1: a facetious question, but I'm going to answer it seriously

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Speaker 1: because I think when we all talk about the future,

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Speaker 1: the question where's my jet pack? Is never far from

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Speaker 1: our minds. So two things are really keeping us from

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Speaker 1: getting working jet packs, And one is the technology building

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Speaker 1: a jet pack that works efficiently and safely, so in

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Speaker 1: other words, you won't have to refuel it every couple

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Speaker 1: of minutes and it won't set you on fire. These

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Speaker 1: are two big important things that any good jet pack

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Speaker 1: needs to be able to do. The other would be

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Speaker 1: government regulation. So assuming that we get to a point

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Speaker 1: where a consumer jet pack is in fact a possibility,

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Speaker 1: that some company has created one and is selling them

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Speaker 1: to people, I'm sure we would see the government get

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Speaker 1: involved and start to put regulations on here. You would

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Speaker 1: probably be required to have some sort of pilot's license,

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Speaker 1: assuming they would even allow such a product to be

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Speaker 1: legal in the US in the first place. Uh. The

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Speaker 1: reason for this is because you're essentially turning human beings

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Speaker 1: into projectiles, and for the safety of both the person

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Speaker 1: using the jet pack and everybody and everything around them,

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Speaker 1: there would have to be regulation. I can't imagine a

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Speaker 1: world where such a thing hits the market and the

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Speaker 1: government doesn't immediately react. Uh, the f a A alone

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Speaker 1: would get involved. So I don't think the government is

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Speaker 1: currently keeping us from getting jet packs, but it might

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Speaker 1: in the future, assuming that the technology ever evolves to

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Speaker 1: the point where it could be a practicality. So good question.

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Speaker 1: Next from Himanshu on Facebook. When we have watches from

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Speaker 1: Citizen the Eco drive with extremely long battery life, why

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Speaker 1: can't the same be replicated in mobiles? Instead of competing

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Speaker 1: like juveniles on trivial features like screen size thickness, why

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Speaker 1: can't mobile firms come up with battery enhancement solution or

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Speaker 1: maybe even replacement was say solar panels or piece of

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Speaker 1: electric sensors, ETCETERA great question. So, battery technology has been

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Speaker 1: a real problem of thorn in the side of engineers

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Speaker 1: for years. It's one of those things that is a

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Speaker 1: source of frustration. It illustrates that Moore's law is very

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Speaker 1: effective at predicting how powerful a computer processor will be

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Speaker 1: over time, that every two years you'll essentially double the

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Speaker 1: power of the computer processor. But there's no correlative for

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Speaker 1: batteries and the reasons that batteries rely on physical properties

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Speaker 1: as in the actual laws of physics and chemistry, batteries

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Speaker 1: produce electricity through chemical reactions, so we're limited by the

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Speaker 1: physics of those chemical reactions. You know, you're not gonna

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Speaker 1: get more electrons from this same chemical reaction than you

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Speaker 1: did two years ago. Uh. You can tweak little things

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Speaker 1: like the actual chemicals involved, but that's a difficult thing

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Speaker 1: as well. You have to figure out all sorts of

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Speaker 1: factors like how much do the chemicals cost, how dense

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Speaker 1: are they, how heavy are they? Uh? Are they safe?

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Speaker 1: Could it be a hazard if the chemicals if the

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Speaker 1: battery were breached. All of these things play apart in considerations,

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Speaker 1: and ultimately you're just going to see incremental improvement. You're

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Speaker 1: not going to see a huge leap. Now there aren't

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Speaker 1: people working on some incredible technologies that could potentially boost

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Speaker 1: battery efficiency quite a bit, but these are all sort

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Speaker 1: of long shots at the moment. We don't know if

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Speaker 1: they're going to pan out into a kind of technology

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Speaker 1: that will become affordable enough to be part of consumer tech.

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Speaker 1: As far as relying on something like solar panels or

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Speaker 1: piece of electric elements. It's not really realistic for most

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Speaker 1: types of electronics because they don't produce enough electricity to

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Speaker 1: run or recharge those electronics in a reasonable amount of time.

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Speaker 1: The surface area alone for solar panels that you would

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Speaker 1: need to run something like a smartphone. I'm not talking

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Speaker 1: about charging it, I mean actually running it full blast,

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Speaker 1: like you're scrolling around and checking out the internet. Uh,

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Speaker 1: you would need so many solar panels that would just

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Speaker 1: make the technology unwieldy. And also you would be reliant

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Speaker 1: upon having a good, uh good access to sunlight, which

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Speaker 1: not all of us have. So the it's it's a

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Speaker 1: real issue, you know, power is a real issue for

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Speaker 1: electronics in the future. And that's why you see a

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Speaker 1: lot of these improvements going towards the efficiency of the

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Speaker 1: electronics themselves, because, as it turns out, it's more realistic

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Speaker 1: for us to improve the efficiency of the electronics, that is,

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Speaker 1: for us to boost the battery power. Moving on down on,

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Speaker 1: Facebook says what are the advantages of curved surfaces? Alright,

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Speaker 1: So with phones, I don't think there is one. I

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Speaker 1: think really the most the biggest advantage is that it

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Speaker 1: lets a a manufacturer set their product apart from other products.

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Speaker 1: It looks different from everything else, and therefore it gets

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Speaker 1: a lot of attention. But practically, I don't think there's

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Speaker 1: a whole lot of advantages to using a curved phone.

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Speaker 1: For example, Uh, there's some curve phones that have said

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Speaker 1: that it creates sort of a panoramic view if you're

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Speaker 1: if you're watching a movie and landscape. I think such

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Speaker 1: a thing has got to be negligible. I can't imagine

433
00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:17,240
Speaker 1: it being a real game changer. For something like a television,

434
00:24:17,359 --> 00:24:19,879
Speaker 1: A curve surface might actually be a little useful. It

435
00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:24,160
Speaker 1: might help increase the view ability from angles like off

436
00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:27,440
Speaker 1: to the side of the TV. I have a television

437
00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:30,239
Speaker 1: in my living room that's visible from the kitchen, but

438
00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:33,159
Speaker 1: because it's a flat screen TV, and because the kitchen

439
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:37,399
Speaker 1: is almost uh ninety degrees away from the viewing area

440
00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:40,879
Speaker 1: of the screen, it's not a great view. A curve

441
00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:42,639
Speaker 1: surface would give me a little bit better view of

442
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:45,919
Speaker 1: what was going on, at least on the right side

443
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:49,440
Speaker 1: of my television in in my case, so I could

444
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:52,320
Speaker 1: see that being a big benefit. But ultimately, I think

445
00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:55,080
Speaker 1: flexible displays are where it's at. I think curve displays

446
00:24:55,119 --> 00:24:58,560
Speaker 1: are a stepping stone towards flexible displays, where we'll be

447
00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:01,679
Speaker 1: able to actually fold old or roll up displays or

448
00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:05,119
Speaker 1: create really interesting form factors that can mold to different

449
00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:08,800
Speaker 1: shapes and sizes so that you know, we we can

450
00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:12,440
Speaker 1: suddenly turn all sorts of different things into a display.

451
00:25:12,480 --> 00:25:15,240
Speaker 1: So I think the curved UH services are just really

452
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:18,120
Speaker 1: a step toward that. Next we have this one from

453
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:21,520
Speaker 1: Donovan from Facebook who says, what do you guys think

454
00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:24,880
Speaker 1: might be the next great technological breakthrough? And he gives

455
00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:28,640
Speaker 1: some examples of previous ones like telescopes, cell phones, radio,

456
00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:32,120
Speaker 1: and so I think there are a lot of different

457
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:36,800
Speaker 1: potential technologies that could become the huge breakthrough of the future.

458
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:42,000
Speaker 1: Part of this is a little difficult to gauge simply

459
00:25:42,040 --> 00:25:46,800
Speaker 1: because a lot of technologies in reality evolve over time.

460
00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:50,439
Speaker 1: If you listen to our episode about the Mythology of

461
00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:53,639
Speaker 1: Area fifty one that are recorded with Ben Bolan, you

462
00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:57,080
Speaker 1: heard me talk about how most technology, most inventions are

463
00:25:57,080 --> 00:26:00,560
Speaker 1: in fact the product of years and years and years

464
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:04,720
Speaker 1: of work UH from various people. When ultimately you have

465
00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:07,880
Speaker 1: an inventor put a bunch of work in and pull

466
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:11,000
Speaker 1: a bunch of ideas together to create something that then

467
00:26:11,119 --> 00:26:14,399
Speaker 1: changes the world. But it's way more complicated than just

468
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:17,280
Speaker 1: saying this guy had a brilliant idea and then made

469
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:21,720
Speaker 1: this awesome thing. And that being said, the technologies I

470
00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:26,200
Speaker 1: think that are probably the super sci fi technologies of

471
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:28,920
Speaker 1: the future that could really shake things up. I mean,

472
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:33,160
Speaker 1: you've got the Internet of Things. That's a growing field

473
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:36,600
Speaker 1: right now. Whether or not that ever matures into something

474
00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:40,840
Speaker 1: truly transformational remains to be seen. But the idea is

475
00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:44,760
Speaker 1: is really really compelling. The idea of all these different

476
00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:48,280
Speaker 1: sensors and actuators and computers and even robots that are

477
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:52,679
Speaker 1: on the micro scale, tiny tiny things all over the

478
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:56,840
Speaker 1: place that are detecting different changes in the environment, including

479
00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:00,720
Speaker 1: our interactions with the environment, and then send in commands

480
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 1: so that the environment responds to those changes in ways

481
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:07,000
Speaker 1: that will benefit us. That's a great idea. I mean,

482
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:11,560
Speaker 1: imagine that you are walking into your house and your

483
00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:15,080
Speaker 1: house is reacting to your presence by doing everything from

484
00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:18,440
Speaker 1: setting the temperature to your favorite level of comfort, something

485
00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:22,239
Speaker 1: that the nest thermostatic can already do, to turning on

486
00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:24,480
Speaker 1: music that you really like when you get home after

487
00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:27,120
Speaker 1: a hard day. Maybe it's even picking up on your

488
00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:30,000
Speaker 1: health signs to figure out what kind of mood you're

489
00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:32,919
Speaker 1: you're in, so that the music is exactly what you

490
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:34,920
Speaker 1: would want the one day when you come home, it

491
00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:37,119
Speaker 1: might be something really soothing, and another day, when you

492
00:27:37,119 --> 00:27:38,959
Speaker 1: come home and you're ready to get all jazzed up,

493
00:27:39,359 --> 00:27:42,760
Speaker 1: it might be much more fast paced music. These are

494
00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:45,359
Speaker 1: the sort of basic ideas that the Internet of Things

495
00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:48,720
Speaker 1: would love to be able to do, or at least

496
00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:50,760
Speaker 1: the people developing it would love the Internet of Things

497
00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:52,919
Speaker 1: to be able to do this sort of stuff. And

498
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:55,320
Speaker 1: it's certainly still in the future if it's going to

499
00:27:55,359 --> 00:27:57,320
Speaker 1: happen at all. This is not the way the technology

500
00:27:57,359 --> 00:28:00,000
Speaker 1: works right now, but I see that as a transformation.

501
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:04,719
Speaker 1: One another one is workable fusion. Now, nuclear power plants

502
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:07,360
Speaker 1: depend upon fission right now. Fission, of course, is when

503
00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:11,399
Speaker 1: an atom is split into two smaller atoms. Fusion is

504
00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:14,680
Speaker 1: when you fuse two atoms together, making a heavier element

505
00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:19,800
Speaker 1: in the process, and both methods produce energy. But fusion

506
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:22,040
Speaker 1: is one of those things that we've really been working

507
00:28:22,119 --> 00:28:24,080
Speaker 1: on for a long time to try and figure out

508
00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:26,800
Speaker 1: a way of getting more energy out of that reaction

509
00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:29,800
Speaker 1: than it requires to put into it. So in other words,

510
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:34,000
Speaker 1: we confuse stuff now, but usually it requires us to

511
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:37,240
Speaker 1: expend more energy than we're going to get out of

512
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:40,400
Speaker 1: the process, so it's a losing proposition. Now, there have

513
00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:45,239
Speaker 1: been some really promising results in recent experiments where it

514
00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:49,680
Speaker 1: looks like we could, at least in theory, have a

515
00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:52,720
Speaker 1: few incidents where we get more energy out than we're

516
00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:55,440
Speaker 1: pouring in. Now, the next step is to make it

517
00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:58,480
Speaker 1: sustainable so that it's a reaction we can do over

518
00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:01,400
Speaker 1: and over again, it's not just a one off. And

519
00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:05,320
Speaker 1: this could be a new way of generating lots of electricity,

520
00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:08,880
Speaker 1: which would be fantastic. It would be a revolution in

521
00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:11,880
Speaker 1: the way we generate electricity, so it can really change

522
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:14,400
Speaker 1: the world. And then there are some other ideas like

523
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:19,000
Speaker 1: quantum computers, the idea of using quantum bits or cubits

524
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:22,080
Speaker 1: to do computing. Again, this is not for all types

525
00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:25,400
Speaker 1: of computing. It's for very specific applications. But this would

526
00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:30,800
Speaker 1: completely change cryptography, so we would have to rethink the

527
00:29:30,800 --> 00:29:33,880
Speaker 1: way we do security. We would have to come up

528
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:39,000
Speaker 1: maybe using quantum cryptography to make sure things are secure um.

529
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:41,760
Speaker 1: So that's certainly something that we have to keep an

530
00:29:41,760 --> 00:29:43,920
Speaker 1: eye on whether or not we can ever make quantum

531
00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:48,480
Speaker 1: computers stable enough to be reliable is another question, because

532
00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:51,840
Speaker 1: anyone who studied anything about quantum physics knows the closer

533
00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:54,880
Speaker 1: you look at it, the more likely it'll all fall apart.

534
00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:59,880
Speaker 1: And finally, my last one is self reconfigurable modular robots.

535
00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:04,520
Speaker 1: I love these things. So think of a robot that's

536
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:08,880
Speaker 1: made up of lots of other smaller robots, not necessarily

537
00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:12,320
Speaker 1: human in shape or size. It could be lots of

538
00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:16,680
Speaker 1: different shapes, but these little modules, these individual robots, each

539
00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:19,760
Speaker 1: can act independently of one another, or they can all

540
00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 1: act together and form different shapes and perform different tasks.

541
00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:27,480
Speaker 1: And it all depends upon what the task is. So

542
00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:30,840
Speaker 1: one task might require the robots to make a really long,

543
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:35,360
Speaker 1: skinny shape, and so they'll configure themselves into that formation,

544
00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:37,440
Speaker 1: or another one might require them to form like a

545
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:40,720
Speaker 1: ball and they'll do that. Uh. This sort of work

546
00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:44,360
Speaker 1: could eventually lead to robots that are able to complete

547
00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:50,000
Speaker 1: practically any task by reforming to the right form factor

548
00:30:50,400 --> 00:30:54,040
Speaker 1: that's ideally suited to complete it. And I love that idea.

549
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:56,320
Speaker 1: Whether or not that ever makes it into consumer tech

550
00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:58,800
Speaker 1: is another question. Entirely. We might just see that in

551
00:30:58,880 --> 00:31:04,680
Speaker 1: things like automation for manufacturing processes, which is great. One

552
00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:07,960
Speaker 1: of the big problems with automation is that if you

553
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:10,920
Speaker 1: change your product, then you have to change the system

554
00:31:11,160 --> 00:31:13,680
Speaker 1: to react to that product, because otherwise it's going to

555
00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:16,800
Speaker 1: be going through the motions for something totally different that

556
00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:19,640
Speaker 1: it was not, you know, that was designed to do specifically,

557
00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:22,080
Speaker 1: you have to redesign the system to work with a

558
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:25,960
Speaker 1: new product. If you have a a robot system that

559
00:31:26,040 --> 00:31:29,440
Speaker 1: can redesign itself on the fly, then you don't have

560
00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:31,120
Speaker 1: to worry about that. It saves a lot of time,

561
00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 1: it saves a lot of money. It means that product

562
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:36,400
Speaker 1: prices come down as a result, so it could really

563
00:31:36,440 --> 00:31:39,720
Speaker 1: transform the world. So great question, Thanks so much for it.

564
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:44,800
Speaker 1: And finally from Kyle on Facebook. Why have tablets taken off? Now?

565
00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:46,640
Speaker 1: I remember them coming out a while back and I

566
00:31:46,640 --> 00:31:50,800
Speaker 1: thought they had potential but then faded away. So okay,

567
00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:55,560
Speaker 1: uh I lied. I have to mention Apple. Apples the reason, guys.

568
00:31:55,600 --> 00:31:59,240
Speaker 1: Apple is the reason why tablets have become popular. Apple

569
00:31:59,280 --> 00:32:03,280
Speaker 1: did the same thing with smartphones. They created a smartphone

570
00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:08,640
Speaker 1: that really appealed to a specific section of the consumer market.

571
00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:14,280
Speaker 1: Before the iPhone, smartphones were really just held by executives

572
00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:19,920
Speaker 1: and bleeding edge early adopters. Otherwise, no one had a smartphone,

573
00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 1: they all had cell phones. Uh. But the iPhone created

574
00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:26,920
Speaker 1: a user interface and an experience that was really compelling,

575
00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:29,480
Speaker 1: and that's what brought people over, and that's what led

576
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:33,440
Speaker 1: to things like Android and other competitors starting to come

577
00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:36,640
Speaker 1: out with different user interfaces that also added to that.

578
00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:39,880
Speaker 1: The same thing is true with tablets. There were tablets

579
00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:42,560
Speaker 1: before the iPad. We've done episodes about this, about how

580
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:44,720
Speaker 1: many different tablets there were. I think we did one

581
00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:47,800
Speaker 1: that was just on the history of Windows tablets, which

582
00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:51,400
Speaker 1: go back well before the iPad ever came out. But

583
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:54,240
Speaker 1: it was Apple that created again that user experience that

584
00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:58,360
Speaker 1: was really compelling, and that is what in fact drove

585
00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:02,960
Speaker 1: tablet sales. Allowed other developers to come out with competing

586
00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:07,840
Speaker 1: products that were also compelling. So I don't own an iPad.

587
00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:10,440
Speaker 1: I own I own an Android tablet, which I'll talk

588
00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:15,880
Speaker 1: about in another episode. So uh, I think, I think,

589
00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:18,400
Speaker 1: really that's that's the end of that story. That's just

590
00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:21,440
Speaker 1: where it goes, is that without Apple, we probably would

591
00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:23,800
Speaker 1: be in the same place where tablets just would be

592
00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:28,600
Speaker 1: a very niche market and most of us wouldn't own one. Well,

593
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:31,680
Speaker 1: that wraps it up for this episode of listener Mail.

594
00:33:31,800 --> 00:33:34,800
Speaker 1: I hope you guys have enjoyed it. Again if you

595
00:33:34,840 --> 00:33:37,560
Speaker 1: have any questions for me, whether it's a short form

596
00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:40,000
Speaker 1: question that I can answer in a format like this,

597
00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:42,840
Speaker 1: or it's something that you would like a treatment with

598
00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:46,440
Speaker 1: a full episode from beginning middle to end. It's all

599
00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:49,920
Speaker 1: about how a technology works, or a company or personality

600
00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:52,440
Speaker 1: in tech, or just a concept you want to have

601
00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:56,040
Speaker 1: explained thoroughly. Let me know, send me a message my

602
00:33:56,160 --> 00:33:59,520
Speaker 1: email is text up at how stuff works dot com,

603
00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:02,480
Speaker 1: or brought me a line on Facebook, Twitter or Tumbler.

604
00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:05,560
Speaker 1: The handle it all three is tech stuff hs W,

605
00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:09,040
Speaker 1: and I will talk to you again answering your questions.

606
00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:15,280
Speaker 1: Really since for more on this and thousands of other topics.

607
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:26,560
Speaker 1: Does it has staff works dot Com