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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.

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

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Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: And how the tech are you. It's time for the

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Speaker 1: tech news for Thursday, October twenty two. And on Tuesday's

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Speaker 1: news episode, I talked about how Meta was holding its

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Speaker 1: Connect conference that day and that we were likely to

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Speaker 1: hear about the Metaverse and also see the unveiling of

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Speaker 1: a high end VR headset which was previously known as

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Speaker 1: Project Cambria, and sure enough, Zuckerberg in company presented the

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Speaker 1: Meta Quest Pro. Now the company's base VR headsets are

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Speaker 1: called the Meta Quest too, and there are two different

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Speaker 1: models of The base model comes in at three, and

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Speaker 1: then a model that has more memory and storage comes

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Speaker 1: in at four. The Pro leaves both of them in

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Speaker 1: the dust, and we'll have a price tag of one thousand,

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Speaker 1: four hundred dollars. I had said on Tuesday's episode that

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Speaker 1: we were likely to see a much more expensive product,

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Speaker 1: and that is the case. Now the Pro will be

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Speaker 1: available later this month, and the Quest pro seems a

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Speaker 1: bit like Meta is trying to probe the business world

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Speaker 1: to see what works and what doesn't. Much of the

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Speaker 1: wording around the Quest Pro, as well as the price,

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Speaker 1: suggests that Meta is really hoping that businesses will jump

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Speaker 1: on board and start purchasing headsets for employees so that

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Speaker 1: they can attend virtual conference meetings and that kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: There's also an augmented reality element to the headset. The

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Speaker 1: Quest Pro has a couple of outward facing cameras. It

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Speaker 1: also has inward facing cameras, but more on that in

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Speaker 1: a moment, and the outward facing cameras can feed video

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Speaker 1: to the headset, so you can get live video of

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Speaker 1: what's in front of you, So you get this kind

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Speaker 1: of passed through view of the real world. And of

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Speaker 1: course the quest Bro can incorporate digital images into that

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Speaker 1: view of the real world. So it's not exactly as

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Speaker 1: seamless as a pair of a R glasses that have

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Speaker 1: transparent lenses and can display stuff on the lenses, but

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Speaker 1: you know, it's something. So you could have a setup

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Speaker 1: where you throw, say a virtual graphic up on a

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Speaker 1: real wall, so in your view through the screen, it

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Speaker 1: looks like you've thrown a picture up on the wall,

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Speaker 1: and even when you look away and then look back,

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Speaker 1: the graphic will stay where you put it in relation

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Speaker 1: to your actual physical surroundings. Now, we've seen that kind

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Speaker 1: of stuff before with products like the Microsoft hollow lens.

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Speaker 1: As for those inward facing cameras, those are to track

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Speaker 1: eye and facial movements, and Meta was telling how this

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Speaker 1: could let the system capture facial expressions, which could then

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Speaker 1: transfer to the user's virtual avatar, So that way, you know,

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Speaker 1: when that creepy guy in your office winks in real life,

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Speaker 1: his avatar will wink at you and VR. Yeah, okay,

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Speaker 1: I'm being a little dismissive, but actually, from what I've read,

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Speaker 1: the facial expression stuff was kind of neat, though obviously

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Speaker 1: restricted to the upper facial area. There's not a camera

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Speaker 1: pointed at your mouth, so if you stick your tongue

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Speaker 1: out at somebody, it's not going to register. I should

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Speaker 1: also mention eye tracking cameras will likely be used by

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Speaker 1: Meta for analytics, including providing information to advertising partners so

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Speaker 1: that they know which ads are most effective in that

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Speaker 1: kind of thing. So if you were thinking, huh, I

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Speaker 1: don't really like the sound of Meta knowing where my

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Speaker 1: eyes are looking all the time, well, that would mean

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Speaker 1: you're on the same page. That I'm on. The Quest

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Speaker 1: Pro controls are also an update to the ones that

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Speaker 1: you get with the current basic Quest to models. The

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Speaker 1: Quest Pro control ditches the l E ed s that

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Speaker 1: are on top of the Quest two controls. Instead of

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Speaker 1: L E d s, You've got some cameras. Those cameras

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Speaker 1: are meant to help maintain orientation data more effectively, so

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Speaker 1: that way, as you move the control around, those cameras

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Speaker 1: can help track motion and translate that into the virtual

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Speaker 1: world more accurately. And you know that makes sense to

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Speaker 1: me anyway. There's some other elements to the Quest pros

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Speaker 1: a little bit heavier than the Quest too. It has

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Speaker 1: an adjustable plastic band to cling to your noggin. I

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Speaker 1: think there's like a little wheel that you twist to

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Speaker 1: tighten or loosen the band. The battery life is reportedly

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Speaker 1: a little puny, has maybe one or two hours of

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Speaker 1: use before you have to recharge, so that in my

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Speaker 1: mind makes it a questionable piece of equipment for business use.

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Speaker 1: I mean, after one meeting you would need to recharge

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Speaker 1: the headset and it takes like two hours to recharge it,

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Speaker 1: so not really efficient if you've got a lot of

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Speaker 1: meetings in your day unless you've got I don't know

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Speaker 1: five of the darn things next to you. Zuckerberg himself

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Speaker 1: has said the VR headsets won't really reach maturity until

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Speaker 1: we're up to version four or five, and that kind

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Speaker 1: of tracks for me. So Meta is likely testing out

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Speaker 1: lots of different features to see which ones are going

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Speaker 1: to be popular and which ones largely go unused, and

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Speaker 1: that will direct Meta toward future development. Right, you can

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Speaker 1: ditch the seldomly used features if no one's using them,

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Speaker 1: there's no reason to include them. That in turn can

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Speaker 1: help reduce the cost of production of the hardware, and

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Speaker 1: then you can also refine the stuff that people are

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Speaker 1: actually using make sure that it's the best it can be.

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Speaker 1: This also tells me that if you are interested in VR,

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Speaker 1: I would recommend skipping the Quest pro unless for some

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Speaker 1: reason it seems to solve a problem you have that

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Speaker 1: the Quest two doesn't, or heck, I recommend getting out

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Speaker 1: of the Meta ecosystem entirely and look for a different

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Speaker 1: VR headset. There are a lot on the market, and

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Speaker 1: many of them already have features similar to what Meta

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Speaker 1: is putting into the Quest Pro, so you know, do

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Speaker 1: your research shop around. It is obvious that the the

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Speaker 1: QUEST line is the the dominant one in the VR

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Speaker 1: field right now, so you know, you might feel like

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Speaker 1: you need to stick to it, but don't go overboard

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Speaker 1: and by the newest thing just because it's the newest thing.

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Speaker 1: If it turns out that it doesn't have features that

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Speaker 1: really matter to you, then all you're doing is just

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Speaker 1: throwing money away. So you know, just throwing that out there.

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Speaker 1: Bena had a few other announcements on top of the

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Speaker 1: Quest pro At connect for example, the company talked about

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Speaker 1: seeking partnerships with other companies, as well as securing licensing

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Speaker 1: deals with media conglomerates in an effort to build out

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Speaker 1: the Metaverse, which obviously is still going to be a

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Speaker 1: long term kind of project. Meta and Microsoft announced stay

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Speaker 1: cooperative effort that brings Microsoft products so just Microsoft three

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Speaker 1: formerly known as Microsoft Office, into the VR landscape. I'm

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Speaker 1: not really sold on bringing productivity software into VR personally.

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Speaker 1: I just have a hard time imagining VR adding value,

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Speaker 1: you know, like improving productivity or effectiveness for those kinds

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Speaker 1: of office applications. I can see it for presentations maybe,

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Speaker 1: but for just general productivity, it just it doesn't click

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Speaker 1: with me. Also, I have never ever thought, you know,

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Speaker 1: what would make my job better if I had to

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Speaker 1: wear a VR headset in order to do it, because

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Speaker 1: that just sounds awkward and uncomfortable to me. Anyway. Meta

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Speaker 1: also announced that avatars in its Horizon platforms are no

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Speaker 1: longer going to be floating torsos. Nope, Lieutenant Dan will

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Speaker 1: have magic legs, y'all, or rather, the avatars will have legs. Now,

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Speaker 1: I don't really care about virtual legs one way or

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Speaker 1: the other unless I can set my avatar to silly

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Speaker 1: walk mode, Alam Monty Python. If I can do that

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Speaker 1: so that whenever I move around the virtual space, my

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Speaker 1: legs are going all higgle the big ldy, then I'm

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Speaker 1: on board. One thing that Meta expressly did not talk

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Speaker 1: about at the Connect conference is an ongoing Only Fans

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Speaker 1: bribery scandal with some Meta executives. All right, let me

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Speaker 1: break this down in case you don't know what it is.

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Speaker 1: Only Fans is a site that lets content creators offer

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Speaker 1: subscriptions to fans so they can subscribe to content. They

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Speaker 1: can also have additional paid content on top of that.

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Speaker 1: Subscription subscriptions can be free, but anyway, it's all meant

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Speaker 1: to allow creators to access fan basis. However, it's primarily

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Speaker 1: known for sex workers and pornography, right, Like, technically it's

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Speaker 1: open to any kind of creator, but that's the kind

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Speaker 1: that have defined the platform, if we really want to

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Speaker 1: be honest about it. And there of others who do

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Speaker 1: make use of the site as well, so I don't

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Speaker 1: mean to discount that, but just like only fans is

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Speaker 1: often equated to pornography anyway, Recently, lawsuits have alleged that

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Speaker 1: only Fans was bribing certain Facebook executives so that these

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Speaker 1: executives would blacklist other pornography sites and give only fans

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Speaker 1: an edge, essentially saying, don't promote anything that's not only fans.

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Speaker 1: So if you can push aside the competition, you've got

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Speaker 1: some smooth sail into profit city, my friend. Anyway. The

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Speaker 1: latest news in this ongoing, admittedly salacious story is that

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Speaker 1: someone did a whoopsie daisy and they failed to redact

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Speaker 1: the names of two Facebook executives and a third Facebook

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Speaker 1: employee who had all previously been referred to as John

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Speaker 1: Doe in the lawsuit. The two executives are Nick Klegg,

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Speaker 1: who is VP of Global Policy at Meta, and Nicola Ndelson,

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Speaker 1: VP of the Global business Team. The third person, Christian Perella,

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Speaker 1: was also named, and Gizmodo has suggested this might refer

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Speaker 1: to a trust and safety director at Facebook. A group

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Speaker 1: of folks in the adult entertainment industry were responsible for

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Speaker 1: bringing the lawsuit against Meta in the first place. They

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Speaker 1: say that the company was essentially shadow banning anyone who

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Speaker 1: was promoting links out to any adult entertainment sites that

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Speaker 1: were not only fans, and apparently as part of the evidence,

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Speaker 1: the prosecution has submitted records of wire transfers that allegedly

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Speaker 1: anyway show money coming from only fans and going into

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Speaker 1: some accounts in the Philippines connected to Meta executives and

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Speaker 1: the son of one Meta executive. Meta the company has

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Speaker 1: filed to dismiss charges against the company itself. Essentially, what

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Speaker 1: Meta reps who are not connected directly to this scandal

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Speaker 1: are saying is at the company has not engaged in

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Speaker 1: any sort of wrongdoing, and any wrongdoing that may or

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Speaker 1: may not have happened did so without the company's direction

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Speaker 1: or knowledge, So please just leave us out of it. TikTok,

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Speaker 1: which has often been cited as an existential threat to

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Speaker 1: meadows future, now is setting its sights on Amazon. Axios

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Speaker 1: reports that TikTok is looking to staff some fulfillment by

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Speaker 1: TikTok shops and that the company plans to build quote

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Speaker 1: international warehousing, customs, clearings, and supply chain systems that support

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Speaker 1: domestic e commerce efforts in the US end quote. Now,

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Speaker 1: to be clear, TikTok already has shops in some other countries,

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Speaker 1: so this really is just new to the United States.

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Speaker 1: It's not brand new. There's actually a TikTok shop in

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Speaker 1: the UK though, according to Financial Times, that business has

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Speaker 1: had a bit of a rough start. It's been slow

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Speaker 1: going from what Financial Times reports and from what I gather,

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Speaker 1: one of the strategies, perhaps the main strategy, seems to

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Speaker 1: be relying on influencers to mention products that are covered

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Speaker 1: by the TikTok shop and then drop links so that

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Speaker 1: viewers can go and purchase those products themselves. And so

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Speaker 1: when you're watching a video a TikTok of your favorite

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Speaker 1: uh creator, maybe it's a live stream, they show off

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Speaker 1: some you know, sweet kicks they're wearing, and they drop

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Speaker 1: a link to it, then you can go and purchase

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Speaker 1: them yourself. Uh. This has kind of been a holy

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Speaker 1: grail idea for a really long time. I remember reading

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Speaker 1: about plans to incorporate something similar in television programs years ago,

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Speaker 1: where you would watch a show and you think, oh, wow,

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Speaker 1: I really love that jacket, and you would actually be

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Speaker 1: able to follow a link that links you to that

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Speaker 1: Jackets product page somewhere and you can purchase it. Except

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Speaker 1: I don't think anyone ever found a way to make

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Speaker 1: it really practical and effective. This, by the way, it

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Speaker 1: could potentially call them to question the value of inflo

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Speaker 1: answers and just how influential they can be. If influencers

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Speaker 1: can't convince folks to jump on a bandwagon and by

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Speaker 1: the latest sneakers or whatever, that could call into question

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Speaker 1: their value to businesses. If the only brand influencers are

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Speaker 1: really good at promoting is their own personal brand. Yes,

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Speaker 1: this is why I'm glad I'm not an influencer. I

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Speaker 1: have no illusions about the extent of my influence, y'all. Also,

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Speaker 1: just was that TikTok? Maybe they did figure out the

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Speaker 1: secret sauce to make this all all work, so it's

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Speaker 1: entirely possible. I'll have to eat my words in the

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Speaker 1: future as some kid a fifth my Age makes serious

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Speaker 1: bank as they convinced viewers to go out and buy

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Speaker 1: I don't know, our fidget spinner is still a thing.

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Speaker 1: Hang on, I need to go outside and yell at

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Speaker 1: a passing cloud. While I do that, Let's take a

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Speaker 1: quick break. Oh okay, that'll show that cloud. Now we're back.

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Speaker 1: Reuters reports that the US Federal Communications Commission, also known

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Speaker 1: as the f c C, is planning a ban on

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Speaker 1: all Huawei and Zte telecommunications equipment, so, in other words,

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Speaker 1: companies will not be allowed to buy any equipment. Companies

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Speaker 1: in the United States will not be allowed to buy

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Speaker 1: any equipment from Huawei or z Te Telecommunications, and this

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Speaker 1: is out of concern for national security. This surprised me

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Speaker 1: because I thought that had already happened, which just goes

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Speaker 1: to show I haven't been paying enough attention. Essentially, this

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Speaker 1: boils down to the fact that these telecommunications companies are

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Speaker 1: based out of China, and the Chinese government is known

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Speaker 1: to take a very keen interest in businesses operating in

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Speaker 1: the country. The government is essentially the Chinese Communist Party,

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Speaker 1: and there's this concern that telecommunications equipment that originate from

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Speaker 1: China might have things in it that would allow the

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Speaker 1: Chinese to more easily spy on communications within the United States. UH.

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Speaker 1: This planned ban fits in with this larger strategy to

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Speaker 1: ban exports of high end technology like advanced semiconductors to

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Speaker 1: China and semiconductor production equipment. So that ban was already

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Speaker 1: in place here in the United States, and now we're

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Speaker 1: looking at imports, not just exports. However, one company is

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Speaker 1: getting a one year exemption to that export ban, and

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Speaker 1: that would be Samsung. The U s government has granted

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Speaker 1: Samsung a year's relief from this ban, which will allow

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Speaker 1: Samsung to send advanced chip making equipment to its manufacturing

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Speaker 1: facilities that are based in China. That's according to the

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Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal, So I guess it's all on who

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Speaker 1: you know you know. Starting in early Sony and Honda

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Speaker 1: will be selling the electric vehicles that the two companies

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Speaker 1: have been collaborating on. This will bring the new vehicles

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Speaker 1: to the US market before anywhere else, which surprised me.

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Speaker 1: I thought for sure they would go on sale in

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Speaker 1: Japan first, but no. It seems as though the US

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Speaker 1: market is shifting toward favoring e VS faster than some

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Speaker 1: other markets, and Honda is obviously driving unintended the development

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Speaker 1: of the vehicle stuff, while Sony is focusing on things

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Speaker 1: like sensors, software, and entertainment. The two companies formed a

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Speaker 1: venture called Sony Honda Mobility, and the company plans to

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Speaker 1: accept pre orders beginning in twenty five. I'm really curious

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Speaker 1: to see these cars once they roll off the assembly line.

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Speaker 1: I think seeing competition in the e V field is great.

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Speaker 1: Competition tends to drive innovation and hopefully lead to a

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Speaker 1: whole range of electric vehicles at different price points, because

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Speaker 1: that's going to be absolutely key if we actually want

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Speaker 1: to migrate toward electric vehicles. Uh, if we don't fix

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Speaker 1: the issue with them being really expensive, that disenfranchises anyone

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Speaker 1: below a certain income level, and that really is unacceptable. Okay.

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Speaker 1: Earlier on in this episode, I talked about Microsoft partnering

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Speaker 1: with Meta to bring Microsoft products to the Metaverse, or

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Speaker 1: at least a virtual spaces. But that's not all the

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Speaker 1: Microsoft related news I have for y'all. Another is that

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Speaker 1: the company is arguing in the UK that Sony influenced

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Speaker 1: that country's competition regulator regarding microsoft planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

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Speaker 1: The UK regulator said that the acquisition could hurt competition

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Speaker 1: in the video games industry and thus merited a more

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Speaker 1: thorough investigation, which could slow things down for Microsoft and

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Speaker 1: potentially even derail the deal. Microsoft reps say that Sony

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Speaker 1: essentially pulled a worm tongue. They whispered misleading things into

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Speaker 1: the ear of THEATIN. I'm sorry, I mean I'm in

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Speaker 1: the UK Competition and Markets Authority or CMA. It sounds

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Speaker 1: like the Microsoft team feels Sony is trying to scuttle

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Speaker 1: the acquisition, even though Microsoft has said very nicely that

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Speaker 1: Sony can still totally compete in the market even if

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Speaker 1: the acquisition takes place, and we should just be satisfied

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Speaker 1: with that claim, or the very least that the c

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Speaker 1: m A accepted Sony's complaints without spending the time needed

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Speaker 1: to evaluate whether those complaints hadn't merit. My favorite bit

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Speaker 1: of Microsoft's complaint is that quote the referral decision incorrectly

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Speaker 1: relies on self serving statements by Sony which significantly exaggerate

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Speaker 1: the importance of call of duty. In the quote, that's

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Speaker 1: a sick burn to call of duty. I am not

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Speaker 1: going to lead to the defense of either Microsoft or

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Speaker 1: Sony here, because I think defending multibillion dollar conglomerates to

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Speaker 1: be completely unnecessary. I do think that consolidation of the

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Speaker 1: video games industry into you know, fewer and fewer massive

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Speaker 1: entities along with a few dozen smaller players is in

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Speaker 1: general not great. It all comes back to that competition thing.

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Speaker 1: I hate seeing reductions in competition, so I have some

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Speaker 1: issues on that realm. I don't know that it gets

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Speaker 1: to the point of being anti competitive of in that

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Speaker 1: sense though. Finally, numerous sites are now reporting that soldiers

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Speaker 1: have given Microsoft's augmented Reality hollow lens headsets a big

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Speaker 1: old negative review after testing them in various scenarios. Soldiers

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Speaker 1: have said the headsets impair performance in many ways, arguing

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Speaker 1: that they don't work well enough and can cause issues

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Speaker 1: like nausea and headaches, which obviously you don't want ever

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Speaker 1: let alone when you're in the field. Soldiers are saying

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Speaker 1: that the tech is not helping them complete missions and

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Speaker 1: so is ultimately a net detriment. Someone so far as

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Speaker 1: to claim that the hollow lens would lead to soldiers

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Speaker 1: getting killed, pointing out that the headsets emit light, which

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Speaker 1: could give up a soldier's position to the enemy. Not great. Now,

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Speaker 1: there were some positive things in there, but overall it

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Speaker 1: seems like Microsoft's got some work to do. That's it

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Speaker 1: for this episode. If you have suggestions that you would

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Speaker 1: like me to cover, reach out to me easiest ways

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Speaker 1: on Twitter with a handle tech Stuff hs W and

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Speaker 1: I'll talk to you again really soon. Tex Stuff is

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Speaker 1: an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.