WEBVTT - Tech News: We're Not Ready for the Metaverse 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.840 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:17.880 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.440 and a love of all things tech. It is time 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:26.960 for the tech News for Thursday, December twenty one, And 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:30.400 before I start this episode, I want to give some 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:33.599 trigger warnings. A few of the news stories I'll be 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:38.360 covering today center around stuff like sexual harassment and abuse, 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:43.360 and these are important stories, but obviously they're also really upsetting. 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:46.120 I mean, I was upset by them, and I'm pretty 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:49.559 sure that will come through while I talk about them 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:51.839 in this episode, but I wanted to let all of 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:54.560 you know about that before we get there. The first 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.760 couple of stories do not cover that, but I didn't 0:00:57.800 --> 0:00:59.920 want it to come out of the blue and surprise you. 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.360 But before any of that, you might remember that earlier 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:07.119 this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook was pushing to get 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:12.040 Apple corporate employees back into the office, citing a need 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:14.160 for the energy that comes with getting a bunch of 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.720 people together in the same space at the same time. Also, 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:22.480 I'm guessing probably trying to justify that incredibly expensive and 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.760 expansive Apple HQ that they built not too long ago, 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:31.560 Like that thing came together just as the pandemic was starting, 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.600 and so Apple has not had a chance to get 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:36.759 as much use out of that as I'm sure they 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:39.920 had anticipated. But you know, and there is something to 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:42.920 be said about in person collaboration. There is value to 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:45.760 being in the same space with people in order to 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:49.480 collaborate and innovate. However, there's also something to be said 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:52.080 for how having a bunch of people who are together 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:54.480 in the same place at the same time can create 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:58.960 an ideal environment for COVID to spread. Now Cook, the CEO, 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:04.840 he evently acknowledged this issue, particularly when the delta variant 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:09.800 first emerged and became very concerning a few months ago, 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:14.480 and so he pushed back Apple's returned to office. In fact, 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.400 that got pushed back a few times right we we 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:22.080 had it established and then pushed back, and most recently 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:27.400 the return date was listed as February one of However, 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:31.120 yesterday Cook sentella memo saying that the return to the 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.200 office has been pushed back and there is no yet 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:38.359 return date that's yet to be determined, So it's indefinite, 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:43.720 but not indefinite necessarily in the sense of, you know, perpetual, 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:48.720 but rather we just don't want to give a date yet. Uh. 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:53.760 With the omicron variant currently spreading like crazy, this is 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:57.600 not a surprise. Cook also announced that every Apple employee, 0:02:57.800 --> 0:03:00.519 not just the corporate ones but ret l as well, 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:04.080 will receive a one thousand dollar bonus that can be 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.960 used for work from home needs. Uh. This isn't just 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:10.320 the right thing to do for employees. It is, but 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:12.720 it's not just that. It's also a really good pr 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:16.320 move considering how Apple is currently in the news regarding 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:20.080 the Apple two movement and lawsuits alleging that the company 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:24.000 established and facilitated a toxic work environment and, according to 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:29.720 one former employee, engaged in retaliatory behavior after she brought 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:33.320 her concerns forward with management. So I guess what I'm 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:35.960 saying is that this was the right call, but it 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.840 does not get the company off the hook for those other, 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:45.320 you know, alleged transgressions. Pat Gelsinger, the CEO of Intel, 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:50.040 says he anticipates the global chip shortage will stretch at 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:54.360 least as far as twenty twenty three. The demand for 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:57.520 chips is still very high and the supply side just 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:00.800 simply can't keep up. That comes not just from the 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:04.880 manufacturing facilities that are hit by issues related to COVID 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.840 or the finishing facilities in places like China which are 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:12.400 also hit by COVID. It's really the entire supply chain. 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:17.120 Shipping has taken a huge hit over the pandemic, with 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:20.719 ports getting backed up and personnel stretched to the limit, 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:25.520 like in order to catch up, we have these other bottlenecks, right, 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.800 So that is the problem is that even if you 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:31.839 solve one part of the issue, there's still the other 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:34.800 parts that are affected and you have to figure out 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.560 how to work around those. So while companies are rushing 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:41.279 to boost their production operations, there are other challenges that 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:43.480 we have to solve before chips can make it from 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.600 the factory to a final product, whether that product is 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:50.880 a computer or a video game or the video game console, 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:53.760 or a smartphone, or or a car or whatever it 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.960 might be. So we should expect to see this have 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:59.839 a ripple effect through the rest of the tech industry 0:04:59.880 --> 0:05:02.400 to continue to do so. Really, because we've already seen this, 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:04.920 Uh that is probably gonna make it a rough year 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:07.839 for a lot of companies and of course millions of people. 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:11.360 Whether they're employees of those companies, or they're dependent upon 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:15.080 those products. It's gonna be tough. Of course, this is 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:19.880 also assuming that, you know, his expectations become reality. Now 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:22.800 I have no reason to doubt his prediction. In fact, 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:26.240 I worry that we're gonna see this issue extend beyond 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:30.000 twenty twenty three unless we come up with some really 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.280 creative solutions to those bottleneck issues. That I was kind 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:36.880 of alluding to. Another piece of Intel News ties into 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:39.520 a topic that has been picking up momentum this year, 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.000 that of the metaverse. Now once again, the metaverse is 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:46.680 this vague notion of a digital world. It might be 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:50.520 one that could overlay or otherwise interface with our real world, 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.360 where people will be able to engage in activities that 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:57.280 normally we would associate with, you know, an actual physical space. 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:01.040 So that could include everything from at ending a concert 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.960 virtually to meeting in a conference room with a bunch 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:09.440 of other people's avatars, to touring a foreign city or 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:13.080 perhaps touring a fictional city in a virtual environment. There's 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:16.600 no single implementation of the metaverse as of yet. It's 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:20.160 just kind of this notion of the future of computing 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:24.839 and an online interaction. In some ideations, it's a virtual 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:27.560 world that people visit using some sort of tech like 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:31.480 a computer or a smartphone, or most often a VR 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:35.520 setup of some kind. In other ideations, it involves not 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:39.240 virtual reality, but a R or augmented reality, in which 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:41.839 we see a digital overlay on top of the world 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:44.880 around us that enhances our experience in some way, or 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:48.920 at least it's meant to enhance our experience anyway. It's 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:51.839 hard to talk about the metaverse in firm terms because 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:56.279 we don't really have it yet. However, intels Rajah Kaduri, 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:59.800 who is a senior VP of the Accelerated Computing Systems 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:04.160 and Graphics Group, posted an editorial suggesting that any realization 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:07.520 of an actual metaverse will require a whole lot more 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:10.680 than what we have at our disposal right now. I'm 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:15.120 reminded of that classic sequence from the acclaimed film Back 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:18.000 to the Future Too, in which we hear Rafe data 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:21.960 Anger say to Marty McFly, those boards don't work on water, 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:28.280 and then Jester Whitey Nogura says, unless you got power. Well, 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:30.400 it's it's the power that we need for the metaverse 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:33.720 to work. According to Kunduri, he estimates that a metaverse 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:36.840 as we generally imagine it to be would require us 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:39.800 to have capabilities that are around a thousand times more 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:43.400 powerful than what we have at our our disposal today. 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:46.840 And that's not just computing power, it's also storage and 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:50.360 networking infrastructure and things like that in order to support 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:55.000 a full metaverse. As Chaim Gardenberg of The Verge points out, 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:59.480 that seems to track because Gartenberg mentions that Horizon Worlds, 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:04.800 which Facebook's um no, I'm sorry Meta, because that's the 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:09.120 new company name. Meta's VR environment is called Horizon Worlds, 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:13.360 and it can only hold at max twenty people in 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:18.240 a virtual environment for a pretty rudimentary interactive experience. And 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:20.800 I mean in a pandemic world, being around twenty people 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.200 might feel like a lot. But that is not a 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:26.440 full metaverse, not by a long stretch. So I think 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:29.680 Duris post is a great example of critical thinking. It's 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.319 an illustration that just because we seem to have some 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.320 pieces of the metaverse puzzle in a pretty good place, 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:38.800 it doesn't mean that all of the pieces are in 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:40.760 that same place, and we won't be able to complete 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:43.360 the picture until they're all ready to go. And that 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:45.840 might be a while. I guess you could argue that 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:48.880 it's good for companies like Meta Slash Facebook to get 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.240 ahead of all that, But then I'm still skeptical that 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.520 the metaverse will ever be more than a curiosity for 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:56.920 the small percentage of people who can both afford the 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:59.920 equipment to participate in it and who have the interest 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.200 to actually do it. The rest of us, I don't know. 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.840 I'm not sure we're going to go all ready Player 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:09.360 one or snow crash or anything like that in the 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:14.400 near future. All Right, well, we're gonna have a whole 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:17.360 bunch more stories after we take this break, and that's 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.160 when we're gonna get into the trigger warning section. But 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:31.320 before we get to that, let's hear these messages. Okay, So, 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:33.920 just before the break, I was talking about the metaverse 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:37.400 and meta and while we're on that subject, I want 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.040 to talk about an article written by Tanya Bessu and 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:42.920 published in the M I T Technology Review. It as 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:48.439 the title, the metaverse has a groping problem. Already that's 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:52.440 simultaneously a sad thing to see, and arguably this makes 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:56.079 it even more sad. It's not at all surprising now 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:58.439 for all the women who are listening to this podcast, 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.679 I'm gonna say some stuff that's so obvious that I'm 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:03.959 sure you could just skip ahead because you all know this, 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:08.280 you experience it. But for everyone else who is unaware, 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:14.120 Women have been disproportionately targeted with abuse since okay, well, 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:17.200 if we're talking big picture, pretty much ever. But it's 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:23.040 definitely been that way online since the beginning of online interactions, 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:27.120 whether it's harassment on Twitter or something like a group 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:30.520 of abusers who are trying to docks women or something 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:34.240 in between. Women face this kind of of abuse pretty 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.760 much every day that they're online. To some extent. Now, honestly, 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:41.240 I don't know how they manage, but anyway. Bassu writes 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:44.880 that on November twenty six, one beta tester reported that 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:49.320 she had been groped virtually and Meta's Horizon Worlds, and 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:54.280 she also says that Meta's internal review found quote that 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:57.560 the beta tester should have used a tool called safe 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:01.760 zone end quote and saves own is quote a protective 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:05.880 bubble that users can activate when feeling threatened end quote. Now, 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:10.080 assuming this is not a mischaracterization of what that internal 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:14.160 review specifically said, I just want to say that is 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:17.520 really gross. Meta. I mean, really gross, because to me, 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:20.360 that sounds like the internal review is saying, oh, hey, 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:22.960 you got groped, Well, that's your fault because you should 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:27.520 have activated this feature. And that's not how it is, y'all. 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.000 Is the it's not the user's fault. It's the fault 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:34.160 of the person who did the groping. Right, they're the 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.800 ones who violated someone else. It's not the fault of 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.240 the person who didn't activate a feature they may or 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:42.120 may not have known about. It's the fault of the 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:45.840 person who actually did the terrible thing. So again, assuming 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:50.080 that Bessue wasn't misrepresenting the internal report, uh, and I 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:52.679 have no reason to believe that she would. I just 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:55.320 want to say, shame on you, Meta for making such 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:59.600 a truly stupid and ugly statement. You can do better 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:03.560 than that, at least I hope you can. Anyway. Nasu 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:06.640 goes on to assert that until companies that are building 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:09.520 out VR environments can find ways to protect people within 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:13.120 those environments, the metaverse will never be a safe place. 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:17.080 I imagine it would be a very unwelcome place for women, 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:20.520 in particular, unless those women for some reason want to 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:23.480 be harassed and hounded. The entire time they're on and 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:28.440 news flash, they don't. Maybe it's a maybe it's dangerous 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.199 to pay them all with a blanket statement like that, 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:34.920 or to mix metaphors, but I feel pretty good about it. 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:37.920 So if you've ever played in any like online game 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:41.040 and a player revealed that they happen to be female, 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:44.079 you've likely experienced at least one person being a total 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:47.800 jackass about that. Now, I can only imagine that gets 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:51.440 way worse in virtual environments where you have avatars and stuff. 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:53.720 And before anyone reaches out to me and say, hey, 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:56.520 chill out, it's not real, I just wanna say to you, 0:12:56.920 --> 0:13:01.040 sit down and shut up, because anyone who has even 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:05.480 done the tiniest bit of research into virtual reality can 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:08.960 tell you that the immersion of that experience is convincing 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:12.719 enough to get our brains and bodies to behave as 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:16.080 if it were a real experience. There are doctors who 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.600 use virtual reality to treat people who have phobias because 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:23.040 of virtual representation of a phobia can be an effective 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.960 form of exposure therapy for patients. So if v are 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:31.560 conserved as an effective psychological treatment, it stands to reason 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:37.280 it can also contribute to legit psychological trauma. Anyway, to 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:41.199 all my listeners out there, be good people, whether it's 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:43.960 in the real world or a virtual one. And to 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:47.160 all the companies out there working on metaverse solutions for 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:50.960 goodness sake, operate under the assumption that you're gonna have 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.040 some awful people log into your systems and create ways 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:58.040 to protect the rest of us from those jerks. Staying 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:00.599 on the topic of abuse, and to be clear, I 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:04.080 would much rather cover happier tech news, but here's what 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:09.319 I have. Let's talk about Tesla. Last month, Tesla employee 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:13.600 Jessica Barrazza filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming that 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:17.040 she and other women at the Fremont Tesla factory had 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:23.160 experienced quote nightmarish conditions of rampant sexual harassment end quote, 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:29.240 including being physically assaulted, and that Barazza had issued formal 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.680 complaints and yet received no protection from the company, meaning 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:36.800 Tesla was essentially complicit. And now six more women have 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:41.680 sued Tesla with similar allegations. Those allegations definitely make the 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:46.000 manufacturing facility sound like an absolutely horrifying place for women. 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:50.160 David Lowe, who is serving as the attorney for these employees, 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.600 says that Tesla's corporate culture shouldn't be a surprise because 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:57.360 of how Elon Musk, the company's CEO, has engaged in 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:01.640 misogynistic conduct and language. Low wrote in a press release 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:06.280 that quote Elon Musk tweeting allude comment about women's bodies 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:10.400 or a taunt toward employees who report misconduct reflects an 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:13.600 attitude at the top that enables the pattern of pervasive 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:18.200 sexual harassment and retaliation at the heart of these cases. 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.840 End quote. Now you might also remember that SpaceX, another 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:26.760 Musk enterprise, faces similar allegations from a former employee, an engineer, 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:29.840 who says that the company is hostile toward women employees. 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:32.560 So I recommend reading up on these stories because they 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:36.760 include testimonies from the women involved, and their stories are heartbreaking, 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:41.760 but I think are really important for people to know. Okay, 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:45.200 we will now switch gears away from that really awful 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.920 but important news. The Foreign motor company announced a project 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:51.960 called ford Pro Charging that will help support a fleet 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:56.480 of commercial electric vehicles. The commercial evs will include software 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:59.280 that provides telematics two companies so that they can keep 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.800 track of where their vehicles are uh the charging status, 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:05.000 so they'll know how charge the batteries are at any 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:08.480 given time, and also maintenance indicators. So the idea is 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:12.479 that the system will empower companies to operate electric vehicles effectively, 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:15.360 which is a good move considering the general trend towards 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:19.320 migrating to e vs in favor of those rather than 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:22.840 internal combustion engine vehicles, and having the ability to track 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:26.560 individual vehicle performance as well as overall fleet performance is 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:31.040 likely to create opportunities for innovation. For example, tracking charging 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:33.160 trends can help a company come up with strategies that 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.720 save in charging costs, which affects the bottom line, or 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:40.880 tracking maintenance trends might alert a company if a particular 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:44.720 type of electric vehicle is more or less reliable than 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:48.480 other ones just based on the trends. These are things 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.560 that ultimately down the line over time, can save an 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:56.640 enormous amount of money. So pretty cool news in that regard. Yesterday, 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:58.760 read It announced it was making a move toward taking 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:01.520 the company public, filing an S one with the United 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:05.720 States Security and Exchange Commission, or SEC. So this is 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:08.360 when a private company moves to become a publicly traded 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:11.119 company on the stock market. It's just one step of 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:13.439 many that a company has to go through. It's not 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:15.920 exactly an unexpected move. A lot of people have been 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:19.000 predicting this, but I'm sure it is sending shock waves 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:22.040 through Reddit itself because I'm guessing there are redditors who 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:25.680 are worrying that a publicly traded version of Reddit will 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:30.600 mean a more lockdown regulated Reddit. I don't necessarily think 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:33.240 that's a bad thing, at least in many cases, because 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:37.960 Reddit can also become a pretty brutal and abusive place. Um. 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:40.439 But in other cases you might say, well, this is 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:45.159 potentially a restriction on users being able to speak freely, 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:49.640 which you know that that has its own problems too, 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:54.280 So I get it. But considering some of the conversations 0:17:54.280 --> 0:18:00.000 I've seen on Reddit and their tone and the language used, Uh, 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:03.680 it's an uphill battle. I think for some of those 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:06.320 users to argue that it's a bad thing, but I 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:08.680 get it, and we don't even know yet, right, it's 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:13.200 just a general fear. I think Roku received some very 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:16.200 bad news in the United States. The US International Trade 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:19.520 Commission or i t C has ruled against Roku in 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:24.200 a patent infringement case. A company called Universal Electronics Incorporated 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:26.639 brought the case against Roku, saying that the company was 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:30.159 infringing on I think six different patents, and the I 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:35.159 t C agreed with u EI. That's the Universal Electronics Incorporated. 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:39.359 And now I t C has barred the importation and 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:43.080 sale of those Roku products. That band will take effect 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:46.200 on January nine, twenty two, at which point merchants in 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:49.320 the US will no longer be allowed to import and 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:53.720 sell those Roku devices to American citizens, and Roku's stock 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:58.320 price dropped twelve percent following the news. Finally, the streaming 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:00.840 video game market is getting a bit more crowded. Twitch 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:03.440 is the dominant player in that space, with YouTube and 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.560 Facebook also vying to carve out massive slices of the market. 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:09.520 But now TikTok is waiting into the field, launching a 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:13.560 desktop streaming platform called TikTok Live Studio. It allows users 0:19:13.600 --> 0:19:17.320 to stream out video gameplay and other desktop applications across TikTok, 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:19.439 though for the moment, it appears to be in a 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:22.600 limited rollout for testing and it's not always accessible on 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:25.480 TikTok itself. Not sure if this will graduate to a 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:27.920 full feature for all TikTok users, but I could see 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.359 the company wanting to tap into its young user base 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:33.600 to pull some focus away from Twitch in particular, and 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:36.359 that's it. If you have suggestions for topics I should 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:38.600 cover in future episodes of tech Stuff, please reach out 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:40.919 to me. The handle for the show is tech Stuff 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:45.440 H s W and I'll talk to you again really soon. 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:53.240 Tech Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. For more 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:56.720 podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.000 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.