WEBVTT - Tech News: Trade Wars and Classic Blunders 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:15.280 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.520 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:21.320 and I love all things tech. And this is the 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:26.800 tech news for Thursday, January seventh, twenty twenty one. And 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:30.280 we are going to pick up with a story that 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:34.680 really got started in twenty and that is the mysterious 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:40.559 disappearance of Jack Ma. And that's a billionaire co founder 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:46.120 of the Chinese company Ali Baba, which is an e commerce, retail, internet, 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:49.839 you name it, tech company. And he made a speech 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:55.680 in October of twenty twenty criticizing industry regulators in China 0:00:56.080 --> 0:01:00.120 as well as the financial industry in that country, and 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:05.640 then regulators went kind of nuclear on the company. The 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:10.160 company had been in preparation of launching its initial public offering, 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:13.720 or i p O when it becomes a publicly traded company, 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:18.120 but regulators canceled the scheduled i p O for Ali Baba, 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:21.240 and then they mandated that the company had to go 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:26.959 through some major restructuring and it is now under antitrust 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:32.199 investigation in China. Ma has not been heard from since 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:36.840 that October speech now he may be laying low in 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:42.959 China to avoid further retaliation. China's Communist Party might be 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:47.440 reeling ma in a bit to restrict him a little more. 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:50.840 He had been enjoying a lot of leniency due to 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:54.080 the importance of his business and how it helped elevate 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:57.840 industry in China in general. But his absence has led 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.320 to a lot of speculation. There are people who wonder 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.120 if he's just laying low like like a lot of 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:08.560 analysts have suspected to potentially more sinister outcomes, like he 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:11.800 might be in custody now. We just don't know. And 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:17.640 this kind of illustrates the difficult situation in China for 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.080 companies in general, not just Chinese ones, but American ones 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:26.000 that are operating within China. The Communist Party has a 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:31.320 delicate balance between the power it wants to retain and 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:35.200 the moves it needs to make in order to build 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:40.959 China's economy and make it an even more powerful world power. 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:45.000 That is something that the Communist Party has been struggling 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:49.760 with for a while, and we have seen multiple instances 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:55.720 of the Communist Party becoming more involved directly with company procedures, 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.800 and it's a general rule of thumb that if you 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:03.480 operate a business, particularly a large one in China, you 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:07.880 are required to have a member of the Communist Party 0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:10.960 on the board of directors. There has to be a 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:16.120 presence of the Communist Party in that company. So while 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:20.040 Ma had enjoyed a great deal of freedom for quite 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.200 some time, that looks like it has at least come 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:27.000 to a temporary end, and we will continue to update 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:31.520 the story as we learn more over the year. Sticking 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.800 with China, there is more to talk about with the 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:38.400 trade war. That's one thing that's been consistent during President 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:43.960 Trump's term in office is that ongoing trade war with China. Recently, 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:49.200 the President signed an executive order that bands transactions with 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:53.640 a group of Chinese apps, among them we Chat Pay 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:56.800 and Ali Pay. And that last one is a digital 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:00.440 wallet app that's part of the Ali Baba Empire, being, 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.040 you know, the company that Jack Ma is associated with. 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.760 So this new executive order is kind of similar to 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:11.960 a previous executive order Trump signed earlier in twenty twenty. 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:15.520 That band deals with the wee chat messaging app as 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:19.880 well as the social media video platform TikTok. Now. The 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.360 order calls for this new band to go into effect 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:27.080 forty five days after it was signed, but that actually 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:31.359 means that the start date would be after the day 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:35.520 that President elect Joe Biden takes office, which is January twenty. 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:38.920 So it remains to be seen if this new band 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:42.640 actually has any impact. It could be that Biden reverses 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:46.000 it or just doesn't enforce it. And the TikTok and 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:49.240 we chat stories are also still playing out the ones 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:52.400 from earlier in twenty like that was over the summer 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:55.960 of the U S government had been pushing very hard 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.440 for an American company to take over the operations of 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:05.080 TikTok from TikTok's parent company, Bite Dance, which is in China, 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:09.560 but that hasn't actually happened yet. Oracle and Walmart were 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:13.039 set to take over some, but not all, of the 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:16.680 stock in TikTok. It would give them quite a bit 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:19.960 of influence over TikTok, but not necessarily full control of 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:24.600 the company. However, that process stalled out in November twenty twenty, 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:28.320 largely because the US government failed to do anything to 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:32.760 enforce the executive order. But then I guess the US 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:36.200 government has had a lot on its mind lately. One 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:39.560 thing that did happen that relates back to this trade 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:43.480 war is that the New York Stock Exchange announced that, 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:47.800 in accordance with a Trump executive order, it will delist 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:53.400 three Chinese telecommunications companies from the Stock Exchange starting on 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:58.120 January eleven, two thousand twenty one. And those three companies 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:03.479 are China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom. Now I 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:07.800 need to kind of hedge this a bit because at 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.920 the time of this recording, that's what the New York 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:15.080 Stock Exchange says it's going to do. However, last week, 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:20.400 the last week of December twenty twenty, that same entity, 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:23.039 the New York Stock Exchange, said they were going to 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:27.080 bar those three companies. Then they reversed course and said, 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:29.800 you know what, we thought it over and no, we're 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:33.400 not going to bar them. And now they say, you 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.880 know what, we are going to bar them after all. 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:39.719 So by the time you hear this, things might have changed. 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:44.760 And if you listened to Tuesday's episode of Tech Stuff, 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.200 you heard me talk about how a UK judge denied 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:52.320 a US request to extradite Julian Assange to stand trial 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:57.800 for multiple charges, including a computer intrusion charge and several 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.960 allegations in an indict men charges them, not allegations that 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:05.920 are related to the US Espionage Act of nineteen seventeen. 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:10.360 Julian Assange, in case you don't know, is often credited 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:15.240 as the founder and leader of Wiki Leaks, the organization 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:22.160 dedicated to publishing leaked reports from companies and governments. Usually 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:26.400 it's stuff that people don't want other folks to see. 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:33.760 And Assange had sought asylum at the Ecuador embassy in London, 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:39.920 but the embassy revoked his asylum privileges and UK officials 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:45.240 arrested him. And they arrested him because he had jumped 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:49.080 bail for a charge that stemmed out of a two 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:53.680 thousand twelve case from Sweden. Will the judge who denied 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:59.280 that extradition claim, has also denied Assange's request for bail 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.640 as the court awaits a U S appeal. The US 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:06.000 has two weeks to file an appeal since the judge 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:10.520 had denied the extradition request, and the reasoning behind this 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:13.720 denial of bail is that the judge has declared that 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:18.320 Assange represents a flight risk and considering the fact that 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:22.720 the reason why he got arrested by UK officials is 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:26.560 that he had previously jumped bail and sought asylum at 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:30.000 the Ecuador embassy. I guess you could say there's some 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:33.720 good reason for that logic. And while we're on the 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:38.679 subject of legal issues, do you know those terms of 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:42.560 service that come along with pretty much everything you sign 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:45.720 up for these days? You know, I'm talking about the 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:49.360 ones that are like twenty pages long and hardly anyone 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:53.320 ever bothers to read them. Some people do, but most 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.120 of us, and I include myself in this group, we 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:59.439 just kind of scroll all the way down past them 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:01.240 so that we can get to the next page and 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:03.920 sign up for whatever it is we're interested in. Well, 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:09.760 a court in Massachusetts recently told Uber that Uber cannot 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:13.240 rely on its own approach with terms of service to 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:19.400 force a case that involves discrimination into arbitration. So here's 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:25.079 what happened. And Uber user named Christopher Cauters filed this case. 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:28.000 And Cauders is blind and he has a guide dog, 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.760 and on at least three occasions when he was using 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:35.760 Uber to hail a ride, he was denied by drivers 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:39.160 to get into the car because he had a dog. 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:43.760 And the lawsuit states he's being discriminated against and Originally 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.000 Uber pushed back on Deskin. He put they pushed it 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:50.360 to go into arbitration, and they had two big arguments. 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:56.640 One is that Uber drivers aren't employees of Uber. This 0:09:56.840 --> 0:10:01.880 was the whole crux of the Proposition twenty two argument 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:05.680 out in California. The goal to make sure that these 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:09.560 drivers are thought of as contract workers not as full 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:13.280 time employees. That relieves Uber of a lot of accountability 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:17.679 and responsibility with them being contract workers. And the second 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:20.559 big argument Uber was making was that Cauters had agreed 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:23.480 to the terms of service. But here's the thing. To 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:27.800 sign up for Uber, Cauters never had to agree to 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:31.520 any terms of service. There were links to the terms 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:34.520 of service, and they were mentioned on a couple of pages, 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.360 but there was never a requirement that he actually visit 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:40.960 a page that had the terms of service on it. 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:44.040 There was never a box he had to click to 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:47.360 say I agree to these terms of service. So the 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:51.720 court has ruled that Uber cannot hold Cauters accountable for 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.720 a contract that he never signed. Now, this does not 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:59.440 mean that Cauters will necessarily win his case in the future, 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:02.640 but it does mean Uber cannot get out of going 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:06.079 to court over the matter, and it might serve as 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:08.960 a lesson for other services out there to make sure 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:13.520 that when they presented terms of service that there is 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:17.640 a way of tracking that people have actually read it 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:21.000 or at least agreed to it. That's why you see 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:25.160 that little box typically in the bottom that says agree 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:29.360 before you can go any further in the process. It 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:33.920 relieves those companies of that burden of responsibility. They can say, hey, 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.679 you agreed to those terms. Here's the proof. Uber did 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:40.000 not have that in this case, and that's where the 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:42.920 problem lies. There's a lot more to be said about 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:46.360 terms of service in general and how enforceable they are 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:50.000 and how legally binding they are. There are a lot 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:54.920 of terms of service out there that are questionably legal, 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.120 but that's a matter for a full episode of tech 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:01.720 stuff that I'll probably tackle future. I have a lot 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:04.760 more news to cover, but before we get into any more, 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:15.480 let's take a quick break. Well, we're at the beginning 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:20.000 of twenty one and next week we see the official 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:24.640 kickoff of c e S one. Now. C e S 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:29.320 is the big consumer electronics showcase. It's a industry trade 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:33.199 show and companies from all over the world would typically 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:37.800 gather in Las Vegas, Nevada for a week in January 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:41.240 in order to show off what they have to offer 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:44.400 for the following year. And you have all these different 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.400 industry professionals come to c e S. There are of 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:51.960 course the media people like me who go to cover everything, 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:56.160 but there are buyers, retailers, all sorts of folks going 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:58.120 to see what sort of things are going to be 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:03.439 on offer that year, to get customers excited and engaged 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:07.400 so that they go and spend all their money buying electronics. Well, 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:12.080 this year, with the pandemic, it's going all virtual. This 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.560 was a decision that the the organization that throws c 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:19.440 e S had made back in and I think it 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:23.240 was the right call. Will likely have lots of stories 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:27.319 to talk about next week as the show actually unfolds. 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:31.000 But one thing that we know for sure already is 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:34.319 that five G is going to play a big part 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:38.079 of the various announcements at this event. It would played 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:41.679 a big part in we expected to be even more 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:45.880 prevalent at one and five G just as a refresher 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:49.920 refers to the next generation of wireless data technologies. And 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:54.240 there is a ton of confusion and misinformation about five 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:58.440 G and largely that's fueled by some misleading marketing claims 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.640 as well as some crazy conspiracy theories that we will 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.800 cover in a minute. Five G comes in a couple 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:09.599 of different flavors depending upon which band of the frequency 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:13.200 spectrum you're talking about. Because five G actually covers three 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:18.880 different general speaking bands of frequencies, you could get, you know, 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:22.920 good data transfer rates that are faster than what we 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:26.160 would typically see with four G, or you might hit 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:30.840 data speeds equivalent to a fiber connection. We're talking super 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:35.680 fast data transfer rates, but that super fast connection depends 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:39.120 upon frequencies that don't have a lot of penetration power, 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:42.520 meaning they can't go through walls very effectively, and they 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:46.320 don't go very far from the source, so you have 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:50.240 to be close to the antennas that are transmitting those 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:52.520 signals in order for you to take advantage of it. 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:57.960 So you're only likely to find that super fast five 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:02.200 G connection and really dense areas where companies can put 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:06.000 up a lot of different five G antennas around the space. 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:10.040 So you might have a little pockets of super fast service, 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:14.680 but it's not likely to extend throughout entire cities, and 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:16.960 it would be very difficult for you to get it 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:19.400 even for your home, unless you were to mount an 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.720 antenna on the outside of your house. It's pointed right 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:26.760 at one of these five G towers. The five G 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:30.840 signals at lower frequencies will still deliver speeds better than 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:34.200 what we've seen with LTE, and those signals will travel 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:38.520 further than the high frequency ones, but we won't see 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:42.080 the results we hear about from marketing materials. It won't 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.480 be you'll be able to download a four K film 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:48.800 in a matter of minutes kind of speed. Anyway, at 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:50.880 c E S, we expect to see a lot of 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:55.240 devices with built in five G capabilities. Samsung is expected 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:58.720 to launch at least one true five G phone while 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.280 c E S is going on, although technically that will 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:04.400 be an event that's running concurrently with c E S 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:08.080 but isn't officially part of c E S. That's something 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:11.680 that we frequently see at CES as well, companies holding 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:16.160 their own little events, sometimes just adjacent to where ce 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:20.280 S is happening. Uh, that's not unusual. It's one way 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:23.000 for companies to try and stand out from all the 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:25.840 other news that's coming out. So we'll cover more of 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:30.000 that next week. Now, longtime Tech stuff listeners know that 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.880 I advocate for critical thinking, and this next story is 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:38.920 an illustration of why that's important. A software engineer named 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.560 Mario Fusco blew the lid off of a really dumb 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:47.400 conspiracy theory involving a diagram of an electric circuit. Now, 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:51.760 according to this diagram, the actual lagabel on the diagram 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:56.120 the circuit was a quote COVID nineteen five g chip 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.680 end quote. So the suggestion was that this was some 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:05.119 sort of nano chip microprocessor that is somehow housed within 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:09.439 a dose of COVID nineteen vaccine, so that if you 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.520 were to go and get the vaccinated against COVID nineteen, 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:16.080 you would be injected with a substance that would include 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:23.080 this microchip, and somehow this microchip would directly interface with 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.680 your brain, with your nervous system, and it would allow 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:30.159 somebody else to control you. And I don't think I 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:32.679 really need to say this to you guys, but that 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:36.879 is impossible and it's dumb. There is no means for 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:41.280 this to magically integrate with anyone's nervous system. There's no 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:46.240 conspiracy to control people through vaccines, and likewise, five gen 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.640 networks have nothing to do with controlling you other than 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:52.520 the fact that it's a communications network which allows for 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:55.119 the transfer of data. So if you do want to 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:59.720 get super lucy goosey, you could talk about how such 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:03.600 a network can facilitate the ability for companies to keep 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:05.879 track of what we're doing when we do it. But 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:10.000 in that case, no one's controlling us. We are voluntarily 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:12.520 giving up information about who we are and what we 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:15.000 do and what we're interested in. We do that just 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:19.280 by carrying our phones wherever we go. That's us being complicit. 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:23.840 There's no need for this kind of conspiracy for folks 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:28.080 to get a look at what we're doing. Moreover, the 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:32.360 FUSCO pointed out that the circuit that was in that picture, 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.240 it was a real circuit, wasn't a COVID nineteen five 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:39.399 g chyp No. That circuit was a drawing of circuit 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:44.560 found in the boss metal zone empty two guitar pedal. 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:47.320 So this is a guitar effects pedal, one that you 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:51.160 would plug into an amplifier in your in your power chain, 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:55.239 so that when you're playing guitar you can really have 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:59.920 all these different effects on it, in this case metal effect, 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:03.280 So you wouldn't be able to control people, but you 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:07.240 might be able to shred on guitar. Moving on, but 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.879 sticking with phones for a bit, we're gonna talk about 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:14.280 Verizon deciding to hold off on shutting down its three 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:17.200 G networks. The Verizon first started rolling out four G 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:21.040 LTE service way back in two thousand twelve, but it 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:25.440 continued to support legacy cellular networks in the three G 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:27.360 range because there were a lot of people who had 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.000 three G phones that would not be compatible with four G. 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:33.840 The company had previously announced plans to shut down those 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:37.480 three G networks by the end of twenty nineteen, but 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:40.880 then Verizon pushed that back to twenty twenty, and now 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:43.720 the company says it's holding off on any plans to 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:47.240 shut down the three G network, probably out of a 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:50.480 concern that a lot of the company's customers are still 0:19:50.520 --> 0:19:54.320 relying on older three G devices that again are not 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:59.600 compatible with later generations of cellular networks. Verizon stopped activating 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:02.359 new three G devices on their network way back in 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:06.679 eighteen and an effort to kind of sunset the technology, 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:09.280 but there must still be a significant number of customers 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:12.840 that are on three G handsets, Otherwise Verizon wouldn't delay 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:17.480 shutting down the network because it costs money to maintain 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:21.000 these networks, and that means that Verizon wants to shut 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:23.560 it down if there's no reason to keep it going, 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:27.280 then you can consolidate and save cash not having to 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:31.320 maintain these older pieces of technology. It's really likely that 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.360 Verizon is going to spend much of its marketing budget 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:38.480 on convincing customers to upgrade two more current handsets this year. 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:42.320 Maybe we'll see some interesting deals in order to create 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:45.880 an incentive for customers to move from one hand set 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:49.920 to another. That might be the case because Verizon stands 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:52.080 to save a lot of money by shutting down that 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:58.679 that old network. Speaking of data and networks, Comcast, the 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:03.480 mega corporation that is, among other things, and internet service provider, 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:08.159 has come under fire from politicians in Massachusetts. Back in 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:13.520 mass again, uh, the company has recently extended their one 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:18.879 point to terabyte data cap to customers in Massachusetts. The 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:21.760 company has similarly done this to customers and lots of 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:24.399 other states, including the one I live in. That data 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:26.800 cap has been a thing for a long time here 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:30.280 in Georgia. And if you go over this data cap, 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:33.600 if you consume more than one point to terabytes of 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:37.679 data in a month, you face overage fees. And the 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:40.800 politicians in Massachusetts objected to that. They said that in 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:44.560 a pandemic where you've got people working from home, it 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:48.280 is far more common for folks to exceed that data cap. 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:51.800 And considering the difficult financial situation a lot of people 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:54.720 are finding themselves in, you know, people have lower incomes, 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:57.760 are already struggling to be able to meet the cost 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:01.520 of broadband. This is the worse time to have that 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:05.000 kind of policy in place. And the politicians further argued 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:09.719 that according to Comcast executives themselves, the company had no 0:22:09.800 --> 0:22:13.679 trouble meeting the increased demands of service during the pandemic. 0:22:14.160 --> 0:22:17.639 So they said, you've already argued that the data cap 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:21.600 is not necessary. If there's a greater demand and you're 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:25.560 meeting it, then why is the data cap there. Is 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:28.320 it just there to demand more money? And if so, 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:32.439 that's not super cool. So Comcast is currently on the 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:36.000 defensive in Massachusetts. We'll have to see how that shakes out. 0:22:36.240 --> 0:22:38.640 I don't expect my own data cap to go anywhere 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:43.000 anytime soon. And to round out this bit of news, 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:48.760 Vota Phone has a subsidiary in Italy called Ho Mobile, 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:52.960 and it confirmed. Ho Mobile confirmed that it was the 0:22:53.000 --> 0:22:57.840 target of a severe data breach that compromised the consumer 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:00.880 data and the company is now offer to swap out 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:04.040 the SIM cards in the phones of all those who 0:23:04.080 --> 0:23:06.760 are affected by the data breach, and that would be 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:12.080 two point five million handsets. According to zd net, people 0:23:12.200 --> 0:23:16.600 first begin to learn about this breach in late They 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:20.840 didn't notice it by looking at the data centers for 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:23.560 Home Mobile. No one at Home Mobile, as far as 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:26.000 I can tell, was aware that this was going on. 0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:29.440 The thing that tipped people off was that someone noticed 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:33.119 that the company's internal data was up for sale on 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:37.160 the dark web. Yikes. Well, we have a few more 0:23:37.240 --> 0:23:40.280 news stories that we want to close out this day with, 0:23:40.760 --> 0:23:52.600 but first let's take another quick break. We're back, and 0:23:52.720 --> 0:23:56.000 our first story is that David Recording, best known for 0:23:56.080 --> 0:23:59.359 his work in open source and open Eye d Technologies, 0:24:00.040 --> 0:24:03.800 will be the White House Director of Technology under President 0:24:03.840 --> 0:24:08.760 elect Joe Biden's administration, and Recorded is wicked smart. He 0:24:08.840 --> 0:24:11.879 received an award for his work and open source and 0:24:11.920 --> 0:24:16.080 became the youngest recipient of that award in that awards history, 0:24:16.520 --> 0:24:20.159 and he has led many initiatives over the years. Open Source, 0:24:20.200 --> 0:24:23.240 for those who do not know, is a philosophy of 0:24:23.359 --> 0:24:27.760 design where the source code for whatever it is you're 0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:31.920 building is open for other people to see. They can 0:24:31.960 --> 0:24:35.840 take it, they can manipulate it, they can make their 0:24:35.880 --> 0:24:39.360 own versions of it, they can help add to it, 0:24:39.440 --> 0:24:41.960 they can help improve it and test it. The idea 0:24:42.040 --> 0:24:45.360 being that if you have an open source project, then 0:24:45.440 --> 0:24:50.280 the entire world can be your collaborator. And this is 0:24:50.320 --> 0:24:54.280 a different philosophy from the way a lot of companies 0:24:54.440 --> 0:24:58.479 developed their software because with a lot of companies they 0:24:58.480 --> 0:25:02.040 go a proprietary approach is by nature a closed garden. 0:25:02.160 --> 0:25:05.560 They don't want their competitors seeing what they're doing. But 0:25:05.640 --> 0:25:09.399 that means that those projects can only be as good 0:25:09.440 --> 0:25:12.440 as the people who have been hired by that company, 0:25:12.440 --> 0:25:17.720 whereas an open source project has the benefit of being 0:25:17.840 --> 0:25:23.280 open to everybody. I'm oversimplifying. There are different types of 0:25:23.280 --> 0:25:26.520 open source, but the idea being that with this approach, 0:25:26.800 --> 0:25:29.080 you're getting the best ideas no matter where they happen 0:25:29.160 --> 0:25:31.760 to be. You don't have to worry about having the 0:25:31.840 --> 0:25:34.720 smartest person in the room. You have the smartest people 0:25:34.720 --> 0:25:39.359 in the world who can all potentially contribute anyway. Recording 0:25:39.480 --> 0:25:44.080 worked extensively with Facebook on open source initiatives. There he 0:25:44.160 --> 0:25:47.439 was a software engineer with Facebook. He has also served 0:25:47.480 --> 0:25:51.720 as an advisor and technical officer in various government positions. 0:25:51.760 --> 0:25:55.520 Before I recommend checking out one of his talks. There 0:25:55.520 --> 0:25:58.560 are a lot of them on YouTube, but be warned 0:25:58.600 --> 0:26:00.840 if you're not, you know, fair really well versed in 0:26:00.960 --> 0:26:04.080 open source technology in general, a lot of it might 0:26:04.200 --> 0:26:06.439 go right over your head. I mean it went right 0:26:06.480 --> 0:26:09.000 over my head. And I've written and talked about this 0:26:09.040 --> 0:26:12.560 stuff a lot, but Recording is the real deal when 0:26:12.600 --> 0:26:15.159 it comes to expertise in this area. And he has 0:26:15.200 --> 0:26:18.639 said that the United States and the world face enormous 0:26:18.720 --> 0:26:22.720 challenges from the pandemic to cybersecurity threats and beyond, but 0:26:22.880 --> 0:26:25.640