WEBVTT - Tech News: Chinese Rovers and Musky Rascals 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:15.080 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:18.280 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:20.840 and I love all things tech and it is time 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:26.560 for the tech news for Tuesday, May twenty one. Over 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:30.240 the weekend, China celebrated the successful landing of a rover 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:33.880 on the surface of Mars. That means that as of now, 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:37.320 China and the United States are the only two nations 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:42.680 to have landed rovers successfully on the planet. Other countries 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:46.120 have sent missions to Mars, but these are the only 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:50.120 two countries that have landed rovers that have landed safely. 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:54.920 The rover arrived housed in a lander which used a 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:59.040 parachute and retrorockets to slow its descent through the Martian 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:03.040 atmosphere before touching down on Martian soil. So this is 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:06.720 a different approach from what NASA was using with the 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:10.160 Perseverance Rover and the Curiosity Rover before that, both of 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:14.160 which used a sky crane technique in which the descent 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:17.920 stage of the spacecraft used rockets to kind of hover 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:22.600 over a landing zone and then lower the rovers down 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:27.840 to the surface on cables. The Chinese lander touchdown at 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:31.959 around eight pm Eastern time on Friday, but it was 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:36.920 another hour before China scientists could confirm a successful touchdown. 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.440 This really illustrates just you know, how hard it is 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:44.320 to get a successful landing on Mars. The delay between 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.559 when something happens and when we can know about it 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:51.400 is significant, even if everything is working properly, it's significant. 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:54.440 That's partly because the distance between Earth and Mars is 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:58.000 great enough that it actually takes light or you know, 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:01.920 radio communications, seven role minutes to make the journey from 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:05.400 one point to the other. The rover named you're wrong 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:08.239 after a Chinese got a fire, and I apologize for 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:12.440 my pronunciation. I tried looking it up, but the source 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:17.480 I could find had middling responses from people as to 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:19.760 whether or not it was accurate. So my apologies for 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:23.639 for butchering that anyway, you're wrong. Will rove across Mars 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:27.360 for about three months if all goes well, possibly beyond 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:30.239 that if things go really well. NASA has had a 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:34.760 history of missions lasting well beyond their projected lifespan. The 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.840 rover will use various instruments to look for evidence of 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:42.160 the past existence of life on Mars. In other Chinese 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:45.640 space program news. Back in April, China launched a rocket 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:50.200 carrying a module for China's space station. The country plans 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:53.239 to assemble that station and have it ready for occupation 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:56.680 by the end of next year. The rocket that carried 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:01.840 that module up, unfortunately, had an un controlled return to Earth, 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.280 which caused a lot of concern along the various paths 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:08.880 of potential descent before it ultimately plummeted into the ocean. 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:13.000 But for a while, people along those pathways were a 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:17.200 little worried that perhaps a Chinese rocket might just fallen 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:20.840 and collide with the Earth and cause massive damage. So 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:23.959 while China has a big win with the landing on Mars, 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:26.359 the country also has faced some criticism because of that 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:31.040 rocket issue. You might remember a story from last week 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:34.360 about how Elon Musk, who has been a big supporter 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:39.080 of cryptocurrencies, helped send bitcoin values into a downward spiral 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.680 after announcing that Tesla, the company you know that makes 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:47.839 electric vehicles, would no longer accept the cryptocurrency bitcoin as payment. Now, 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.760 the reasoning behind that decision, according to Musk, was because 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:55.600 of the environmental impact of bitcoin mining. Now I've covered 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:57.840 this in the past, but that is definitely an issue. 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:02.119 Bitcoin mining requires an enormous amount of electricity to run 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:05.560 the powerful computers that rush to solve the guessing game 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:09.960 that ultimately determines which computer gets the next batch of bitcoins. Now, 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.360 some of those computers are getting electricity from renewable energy 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:16.440 sources like wind power, which is you know, good, except 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:19.839 it is taking up electricity that could potentially be going 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:24.360 to other places. However, some bitcoin mining operations are sucking 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:27.640 down juice from power plants that rely on fossil fuels, 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:31.400 so these are helping to contribute toward climate change and 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.480 carbon emissions. For a company that sells electric vehicles, which 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:40.279 depend partly upon at least marketing that you know, electric 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:44.800 vehicles are an environmentally cleaner alternative to gasoline or diesel 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:47.839 powered combustion engines, you know, it wasn't a good look 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:52.200 hard to sell an electric vehicle as being environmentally friendly 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:56.080 if you're also accepting a cryptocurrency that is perceived as 0:04:56.120 --> 0:05:01.160 being environmentally unfriendly musk SA. At the time that Tesla, 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:04.440 the company had no plans to divest itself of its 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:08.479 own bitcoin investment. It had a substantial amount of bitcoin, 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:12.080 but even so, the announcement meant that bitcoin took a 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.320 hit and value after already having a dip earlier in 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:18.719 the year. Then over the weekend, Musk had a Twitter 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:23.920 exchange that some people thought implied that Tesla had divested 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:28.440 itself of its bitcoin, and then the cryptocurrency took another hit. 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:32.039 So at the height of its value this year, a 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:35.640 single bitcoin was valued at around sixty five thousand bucks. 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:39.160 As I write this, the value is closer to forty 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:43.000 three thousand dollars. Now, don't get me wrong, forty thousand 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:45.039 bucks is a lot of money, and if you got 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:48.839 in on the bitcoin train at the very beginning, you're 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.600 still looking at a pretty amazing return on your investment, 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:55.760 just less than what it was a couple of weeks ago. 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:58.680 But this does mean that bitcoin's value has dropped more 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:03.120 than twenty thousand dollars per bitcoin in the span of 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:06.359 a few weeks, and that kind of volatility shows that 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:11.160 bitcoin can be a very dangerous investment. It's definitely not 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:15.039 a good currency as it stands right now, like you 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:18.240 wouldn't really be able to use this to make purchases 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:21.559 in any effective way. It also indicates that Elon Musk 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:25.080 has way too much influence when, even if he didn't 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.640 mean to, his tweets can send a commodity's value into 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:33.479 a sharp decline. On Monday, Musk clarified that the company 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:37.240 Tesla had not divested itself of bitcoin. But as I 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:41.119 record this, the currency hasn't seen much of a recovery. 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:44.320 So what is going on here? Well, if I were 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:48.000 to give an armchair analysis, and let me start this 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:51.200 by saying I am, by no means an expert in 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.960 these matters, I would say that what's probably happening is 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:58.400 you've got a sizeable group of bitcoin investors who probably 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:02.760 hold a relatively all percentage of bitcoin collectively. We're not 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:06.680 talking about the whales who owned enormous amounts of bitcoin. 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:09.760 But they see must tweet something, and they perceive the 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:13.880 possibility of bitcoin's value dropping, so they rush off to 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:17.840 sell off their bitcoin assets to you know, minimize the 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:20.680 amount of loss they might experience, and that in turn 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:24.680 actually causes the dip to go lower. The dip becomes 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:27.720 something of a self fulfilling prophecy. Because so much of 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:32.240 Bitcoin's value is based in perception and speculation, you could 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:35.440 argue that the real people at fault here are those 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:39.000 investors who panicked in response to something that Musk tweeted, 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:43.800 and not Musk himself. But however you assign the responsibility, 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:47.160 the outcome is pretty much the same. Now, will Bitcoin 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:51.120 recover Probably, I'm guessing it will at some point, but 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.200 I would be foolish to predict how low the value 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:58.000 will go when it does turn around. Some people think 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:00.920 we're still in a bowl market, which means that will 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:03.520 see the value go up. Others think we have entered 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:05.680 a bear market and that the value is going to 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:08.120 continue to go down. There doesn't seem to be any 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:10.680 sort of agreement on that, and far be it from 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:12.840 me to be able to make any kind of pronouncement. 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:16.360 Sentiment could change quickly enough to make any guess. I 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:20.960 could hazard a total whiff. Anyway, this is a continuation 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:24.640 of my series that I'm calling Jonathan is Old, and 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:29.440 he thinks cryptocurrencies are inherently unstable investments, and more importantly, 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:33.960 they're very lousy currencies. Plus, the proof of work style 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:39.079 cryptocurrencies are just incredibly wasteful. Proof of steak has its 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:41.240 own problems. Again, I'm gonna have to do a full 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:45.000 episode about these in the future. In mergers and acquisitions news. 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:47.280 It looks like a T and T is planning to 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:51.520 spin off Warner Media, which will then merge with Discovery Communications. 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:55.920 Now I find the story particularly interesting since once upon 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:59.960 a time I worked for Discovery Communications how Stuff We're 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:03.240 x the company that I started at when I started 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:06.400 tech Stuff, Uh, that was part of a private company 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:08.920 called the Convex Group way back in the day. So 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:11.600 this was two thousand seven was when I joined How 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:16.000 Stuff Works. Discovery acquired Convex and thus How Stuff Works 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:19.079 the following year two thousand eight. A few years after that, 0:09:19.360 --> 0:09:22.360 Discovery sold off how Stuff Works to a different company 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.840 called Blue Cora. Then Blue Cora sold us to another company, 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:29.440 which took on the name System One. System one spun 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:32.120 off the podcast arm of How Stuff Works as a 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:36.680 separate podcast media company, which was then acquired by iHeart Media. 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:40.000 So I've been in the same career path this entire time, 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.319 the same you know, like job path. However, the names 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:46.120 at the top of the organ charts kept changing. But 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:50.000 that wild ride is nothing compared to the various properties 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:55.400 that are under Warner Media that includes HBO, Cinemax, Warner Brothers, 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:59.160 and much much more. A T and T appears to 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:02.120 be moving away from the vertical strategy in which a 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:06.200 single company serves as the delivery system that is a 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:11.280 telecommunications style company, uh and content generation or you know, 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:15.400 like a studio. This is what we see with other companies, though, 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:18.320 I mean, like NBC Universal is owned by Comcast, and 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:21.040 that's like a unified approach, so it is interesting to 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.360 see a T and T split off from that. The 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:26.400 announcement came as a surprise not just to folks like myself, 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:30.000 but apparently it also surprised Warner Media CEO Jason Keeler. 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:34.720 The Verge reports that Keiler is negotiating his departure from 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:37.720 Warner Media. He became CEO of the company in April 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:40.400 of last year, so he served as leader for just 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:43.360 over a year now, and according to sources who spoke 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:45.520 with The New York Times, he was kept in the 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:49.800 dark about the decision to merge with Discovery. The announcement 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:53.840 makes it sound as though Discovery CEO David Zaslov is 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.560 going to oversee this new merged entity, which would mean that, 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:01.480 you know, Keiler's role would largely have become redundant. Anyway, 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:04.480 most estimations say the merger will take more than a 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.360 year to complete, so we're looking at twenty two before 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:12.160 this all settles in. What this means for the media 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:16.480 landscape in general is a big open question. It'll be 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:20.160 interesting to see how things shift around. Uh. I know 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:23.880 that Discovery has got to be really interested in this. 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:28.480 They were looking for digital solutions when they purchased How 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.280 Stuff Works. I mean, that was a big reason why 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:33.960 they purchased the company back in the day, and I 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.520 get the feeling that they never quite nailed it. So 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:40.440 I'm wondering if this is another approach to not just 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:46.040 adding an enormous amount of of you know, capability to 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:50.439 the company, because Warner Media is huge, but also get 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:57.360 that digital delivery system tightly integrated into Discoveries practices. Moving on, So, 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.400 one of the stories that's been developing in tech is 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:04.120 that Bill and Melinda Gates are divorcing and that this 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:06.480 process has been going on for a while now that 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.400 you know, at least since two thousand nineteen. And I 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:12.600 wasn't initially going to report on any of this because 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:16.280 while Bill Gates is an important person in tech, you know, 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:19.439 he was the co founder of Microsoft and served as 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:21.840 the CEO for many years and then was chairman of 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:23.880 the board for years more and still on the Board 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:27.880 of Directors up until but I figured the personal struggles 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:31.240 of a married couple making the decision to end their 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:34.480 marriage wasn't something I should cover in a tech podcast. 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:39.320 But the plot has considerably thickened as more details have 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:44.320 emerged during this process. For one, Bill Gates apparently pursued 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:48.280 a romantic relationship with the Microsoft employee back in two 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:52.120 thousand and just in case you're curious, Bill and Melinda 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:58.280 Gates married in n Beyond the extra marital affair aspect 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:01.840 of this is the huge issue of a man who 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:06.160 had been serving as CEO until January two thousand and 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:09.000 who remained on as chairman of the Board of Directors 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:14.600 for Microsoft while simultaneously pursuing a relationship with a Microsoft employee. 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:18.080 Even if Bill Gates had been single, that would have 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:21.920 been an enormous problem. The Board of Directors initiated a 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.920 probe after receiving a letter from an employee who stated 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:27.720 that Gates had sought an intimate relationship with her in 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.800 two thousand and that the relationship that resulted had lasted 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:35.640 several years. Bill Gates resigned from the board of Directors 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:40.240 in twenty before that investigation was concluded. It was also 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:42.960 only three months after he had been re elected to 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:47.439 the Board of directors. Now, I'm not here to speculate 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:50.439 on things, but according to various sources, at least six 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:53.520 current or former and Microsoft employees have said that his 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:57.600 actions in the workplace made them uncomfortable and that language 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:01.079 is open to a lot of interpretation. But again, I'm 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:03.840 not going to, you know, speculate as to what that 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:06.640 might actually mean. I feel like that's a disservice to 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:12.800 all parties involved. Another element to this sordid proceeding is 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.560 that Bill Gates had met with Jeffrey Epstein at least 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:19.640 as early as two thousand eleven and as late as 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:23.320 two thousand eleven was three years after Epstein had already 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:27.400 been found or had pled guilty to charges for soliciting 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:31.840 an underage girl, which is truly horrifying, and of course, 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:36.320 Epstein would later be linked to sex trafficking operations and 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:41.760 trafficking of underage girls, and Gates's meetings with Epstein reportedly 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:45.440 contributed to Melinda Gates's decision to seek a divorce from 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:50.120 from Bill. The whole thing paints a very ugly picture 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:53.560 that is still unfolding as I recorded this, and it 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:59.320 appears to have had large consequences regarding Gates's association with Microsoft. Now, 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:03.040 I say a pears because Bill Gates as representatives have 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:08.040 issued numerous denials regarding the various speculations and allegations linking 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:11.440 Bill Gates to Epstein, as well as allegations that Gates 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:16.360 created an uncomfortable atmosphere for Microsoft employees. So this story 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:21.400 I'm sure will continue. It doesn't look good, um and 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:28.160 I'm certainly more inclined to believe the accusers. But at 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:30.720 the same time, you know, obviously you want to try 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:36.000 and maintain objectivity as best as possible. Um. So, yeah, 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:40.480 complicated issue and a terrible, terrible story. We have a 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:43.200 couple of Apple stories to cover today as well. One 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:47.360 is that Apple and Amazon Music have both announced services 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.880 that would allow subscribers to their music services to listen 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:55.560 to lossless audio for no extra cost. So that means 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:59.120 we should quickly go over what lossless even means. When 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:01.480 it comes to digital audio. There are a few ways 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:07.360 to go about encoding data. Some encoding formats are lossy formats. 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:11.240 This helps keep file sizes down. Essentially you are losing 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:15.320 some of the data associated with that sound file. Raw 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:19.040 sound files get pretty big, which you know, until recently, 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:23.560 meant that streaming them was a nonstarter just because most 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:27.320 people didn't have the broadband throughput that you would need 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:31.040 to be able to do that effectively. They were also 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:33.960 so large that they would take up a ton of 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:36.440 storage space if you were trying to save them to 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:40.120 a device or something. So there are sound formats that 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:43.480 can serve file size by getting rid of some of 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:46.760 that data in an effort to compress the file sizes. 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:50.960 These are lossy formats, and the process means that depending 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:53.560 on what hardware you're using to listen to the music, 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:56.560 you might be able to tell the difference between lossy 0:16:56.760 --> 0:17:01.440 versions and the lossless version. The goal of lossy versions 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:05.920 is to only eliminate data that, in theory at least 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:11.000 doesn't affect the listening experience of the audio file. In practice, 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:15.720 it can affect it. So generally speaking, lossless just means 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:18.000 you get a better quality of audio, but you do 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.919 have to have the right kind of equipment to listen 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:24.960 to it, or else it won't pick up on that well. 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:27.760 Apple Music subscribers will be able to listen to more 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:33.000 than seventy five million songs in lossless audio and Amazon Music, 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.480 as I mentioned as doing something similar, Apple also announced 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:40.280 spatial audio support, which sounds a lot to me like 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:43.880 bin arl or three D audio. Essentially, it's a way 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:46.720 for producers to create sound mixes that make it sound 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:49.880 as if audio is coming at you from specific directions 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.560 around you, assuming again that you're listening on appropriate hardware. 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.960 So let's talk about that hardware thing. Apple says that 0:17:57.040 --> 0:18:00.119 if subscribers want to listen to the top tier of 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:03.879 loss less audio, so the best of the best, you 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:07.720 would need to have a USB digital to analog converter 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:13.000 to thus convert the signal properly before feeding that to 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:17.359 a pair of wired headphones. Now, such a converter would 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:19.720 be an external gadget that you would have to plug 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:23.480 into whatever device you're using to access Apple Music. But 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:27.560 this also means that Apple's own air Pods, AirPods Max, 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.919 and air Pods Pro gadgets won't support this level of 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:35.639 lossless audio playback, at least not wirelessly. These devices typically 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:39.320 pair with an iPhone over Bluetooth A a C codec 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:43.280 that does not support this lossless audio format, So you 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:47.359 can technically listen to lossless audio on an iPhone, but 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:49.760 you will need to connect the iPhone to some sort 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.560 of external USB digital to analog converter, and then use 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:55.840 a different pair of wired headphones to be able to 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.400 experience it. That being said, nine to five Mac reports 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:04.200 that air Pods Max will support high resolution lossless audio 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:08.520 if you're using them as wired headphones, not wireless ones. 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:11.760 That takes a little wind out of the sales of 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:15.080 this announcement. But on the flip side, both Apple and 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:18.560 Amazon are putting a lot of pressure on Spotify, which 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:21.639 is also beginning to offer lossless audio. But Spotify is 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:24.040 doing it at a premium subscription, so you have to 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.680 actually pay extra to get that access. Apple and Amazon 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:30.880 using lossless audio as a free upgrade is a kind 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:33.840 of a big kick in the teeth to Spotify. Now. 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:36.160 I'm just sitting off to the side over here. I'm 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:38.639 just eating my popcorn and watching this whole you know. 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:43.639 Shake it Loose, also related to Apple Parley or Parlor 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:46.520 if you prefer, is once again available on the Apple 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:49.679 app Store. Parlor, for those who do not know, is 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:53.440 a social media platform that positions itself as a champion 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:57.199 of free speech, but funding for the service, leadership for 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:00.800 the service, all these things that are a key to 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:04.440 the service being in operation come from sources that are 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:11.080 either the right wing political appointees or or politicians, or 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:15.040 they're coming from people who have funded right wing political efforts, 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:19.520 and Parlor's user base skewed pretty hard toward the right 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:24.560 wing of the political spectrum and certainly was dipping pretty 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:29.280 hard into extremism. The platform saw itself ousted from Google 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:32.520 and Apple app stores, as well as from Amazon Web 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:37.679 Services UH and their hosting system after the January sixth 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:43.320 assault on the US Capitol, and the company repeatedly failed 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:46.920 to moderate content that included hate speech and calls for violence. 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:50.840 Mark Meckler, who was an interim CEO who stepped in 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:54.320 to replace a former CEO who got fired from Parlor, 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.400 is now leaving the company to be replaced by George Farmer, 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:00.960 who since March has been the chief operating officer for 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:05.080 the company and previously who was a candidate for the 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:09.280 Brexit party over in the UK. To get back into 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:12.159 the app store, Parlor had to update its app and 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:16.199 content moderation policies, and it looks like there will effectively 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:20.840 be a different flavor of Parlor on iOS. iOS users 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:25.080 will see a more paired down version of the content 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:28.040 of the app, material that would violate the terms that 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:30.360 Parlor has had to agree to in order to come 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:33.879 back to Apple's App Store. All that content has to 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:37.400 be hidden away from iOS users. Those who are on 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:41.480 the web based version or who have sideloaded the Android 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:45.560 app on their devices would see everything, not just the 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:50.360 stuff that iOS would allow. Sideloading is the process of 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:55.520 adding an app outside of an authorized app store. Apple 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:59.480 does not allow for this. You cannot sideload apps on 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:04.800 a not out of the box Apple device without altering it. Google, however, 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:09.840 does allow for sideloading apps. It advises against it, but says, 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:12.879 if you want to, you can load apps that we 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:16.560 will not carry in our app store, but we kind 0:22:16.560 --> 0:22:19.080 of disavow ourselves of what might happen to you if 0:22:19.119 --> 0:22:22.040 you do it. So, while Parlor is still not in 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:26.119 the Google Play Store officially, Android users can sideload it 0:22:26.200 --> 0:22:30.800 onto their devices. Parlor had a spike of popularity in 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:33.320 the fall of twenty twenty, but it was kind of 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:36.920 in decline even before it started getting banned from app 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:40.080 stores and hosting services. I'm not sure what it's numbers 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:44.000 look like now, but from what I understand, uh, it's 0:22:44.040 --> 0:22:47.280 you know, not nearly as popular as it was leading 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:53.359 into the election. Stuff of and that's it for the 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:58.199 tech news for Tuesday one. We'll be back later this 0:22:58.280 --> 0:23:01.400 week with more news updates, as well as other episodes 0:23:01.440 --> 0:23:04.080 of tech Stuff. If you have suggestions for topics I 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:06.920 should cover on tech Stuff, reach out to me let 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:08.919 me know what those are. The best way to do 0:23:08.960 --> 0:23:12.520 that is on Twitter. Our handle is tech stuff H 0:23:12.640 --> 0:23:16.160 s W and I'll talk to you again really soon. 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:23.800 Y tex Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. For 0:23:23.920 --> 0:23:26.880 more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart 0:23:26.960 --> 0:23:30.120 Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:30.879 favorite shows.